Now let's open to the Gospel according to John chapter 15. And we're going to read the first 11 verses this morning. We covered the first six verses last week, but they flow so beautifully into the last five verses. John 15, 1. I am the true vine, and My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit, He takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him, he bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up. And they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you. Abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, so that My joy may be in you, that your joy may be made full. thus far the reading of God's holy word this morning. Lord, I pray you'll speak to us, that you will teach us this morning by your Spirit, that this word you have given us will come to us in power, that we will be transformed by it, and that you will make us more effective witnesses of your goodness, your grace, and your glory. Well, we continue this morning in Jesus' Upper Room Discourse. His last words to the 11 disciples before He was taken into custody and then to be crucified the next morning. Jesus told His disciples, we've seen, that He would be leaving them soon. But He promised them that He would come to them again and receive them to Himself. That where He was going, they would be also. And He promised them that in response to His request, His Father would provide them with another Helper, another Helper from Heaven, the Spirit of Truth. And that when His Spirit came to them, He would give them understanding of all that Jesus had taught them. And He would empower them to accomplish the mission to which He had called them. So we began to see by the illustration of the vine, the vine dresser, and the branches that Jesus taught his disciples of the significance of the union of every true believer with him. What it is that marks that union. What are the signs one has been joined to Christ. And Jesus is showing us the difference between true and false disciples here. Remember, the Old Testament Scripture had pictured Israel as a vine, but she was not a fruitful vine. She was a fruitless vine, and she would soon be permanently cut off. But Israel pointed to Christ, the true vine. And all those who abide in Him bring forth fruit. And abiding in Him, abiding in His love, is the message He is giving to His disciples and to us this morning. This fruit that he's talking about is fruit that is of Him. It's the fruit of Christ's own character within His people. Jesus said that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, the vine dresser takes away and throws into the fire. A mere profession of Christ, we've seen, without fruit, even if it's accompanied by regular attendance at church meetings and worship services, is going to be exposed and the false professor is going to be cut off. No, one can't lose eternal life in Christ once it's been given. Those branches who are cut off are people who never genuinely believed, who were never born again. But the fruit we've seen, of which Christ speaks, is the fruit of a transformed life, a new person in Christ. The fruits of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, patience, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. These are the fruits of the Spirit. And this fruit is the evidence that one is a new person in Christ. Such a person has cast off the old self and now walks in the newness of this new life in Christ. And the fruits of the Spirit now begin to flow from him. But even once one has been eternally joined to Christ and has begun to bear fruit, there still remains work to be done. Every true branch must be pruned so that it bears more fruit. Only when we become fully conformed to the image of Christ will we no longer have the need for pruning. Pruning is God's way of helping us to grow as fruit bearers, to become more conformed to Christ, to become more useful in His kingdom. His pruning is part of His sanctifying grace. Now, you notice Jesus said in verse 3, you are already clean because of the word I've spoke to you. He'd said that earlier to them in chapter 13. And his point is that before one can become fruit-bearing, he first must be made clean. He must be cleansed of the guilt of his sin and brought into union with the risen, ascended, and exalted Christ. So he says in verse four, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you unless you abide in me. I mean, think about it. If you cut a branch off of a grapevine, you can't expect it to bear any grapes. Same thing is true with our abiding in Christ and bearing fruits of the Spirit. Now, abiding in Christ isn't something we can just go do. It's a work that God must do in us first. Our abiding in Him can only follow His bringing us into a living union with Christ. And that's a work of His sovereign grace. But once Christ has, by His Spirit and by His Word, caused a man to be born again, His call to us is to abide in Him. He's called you, that's why you're here. Now He says, abide in Me, remain in Me, live in Me. Continuous dependence on Him, continuous drinking of the life that is in Him, is the essential prerequisite of spiritual fruitfulness. Now on the other hand, the more we wander from Him, the more we neglect the means of sanctifying grace that He has made available to us, the less fruit we're going to produce. Look at verse 5, Jesus said, He who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit. But apart from Me, you can do nothing. So the more one abides in Christ, in His Word, by prayer and the worship of Him, in obedience to His commands, the more fruit he will bear. Isn't it interesting that obedience to Christ's commands will cause us to bear fruit? But that's really his primary lesson here this morning. And this is also his promise. But on the other hand, apart from Him, we can do nothing. If we separate ourselves from Christ, if we remain apart from Him, even for a time, we're going to bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God. Because folks, apart from Him, we have nothing good in us. So if a man is to bear fruit, he must be joined to the vine, and this can only occur by an act of God's sovereign grace. And again, God didn't begin this work in us just to leave it unfinished. The whole process of a Christian life is being sanctified and growing in conformity to Christ. And He supplies us with the power and the means to do this. He supplies us with the power and the means to be fruit bearers. And He said this, look at verse 6. Here's the warning. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is thrown away as a branch and dries up as they gather them. And they gather them and cast them into the fire and they are burned. This is a severe warning. If anyone doesn't abide in Him, this is what happens. Now none of the people who have been given by the Father to the Son are ever dried up. No, all that the Father gives me, Jesus said, will come to me. And all of those I will raise up on the last day. So once one has been born again, joined into a union with Christ, that union is eternal. It can never be broken. But on the other hand, there are many who make professions of faith, who give an outward appearance of faith, but who fail to yield any fruit. And Jesus said, Matthew 7, 19, Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Now we come to verse 7. Here Jesus harkens back to a promise that He had made back in chapter 14, verses 12 through 14. Now, if you look at 12 through 14 in chapter 14, here's what Jesus said there. He said, "...Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also, and greater works than these he will do, because I go to the Father. Whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it." Now he says, If you abide in me and my words in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. John chapter 15, verse 7. If you abide in me. Now he's talked about that. That is to drink from the well that is Christ. And it means to stay close to Him. But then he says, if my words abide in you, Ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Now, if my words abide in you, this means that the words of Christ, His teachings, have been taken not only into one's mind, but into one's heart. They have become the rule of one's life. It means that Christ's words are the words that one lives by. And for this to be the case, one has to first believe His words. with all one's heart. You're not going to live by His words if you don't believe them. Only once one believes will he then begin to live by those words. Now we sometimes see people who profess to be Christians, who profess to be of Christ, in Christ, but who will support beliefs and practices that are plainly contrary to His Word. That's the dynamic we see today in people who will attend church services but do not denounce and even support practices such as abortion and sodomy and chemical and surgical castration of children which God has condemned. One who supports practices that are contrary to the Word of God doesn't have the Word of Christ abiding in them. He may have heard it, he may have an intellectual belief in it, but he hasn't taken it into his heart and has begun to live by it. So, on the other hand, all those who do abide in him, and in whom His words abide. Jesus extends this promise. Ask whatever you wish, whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. Here Jesus repeats words He'd spoken earlier in chapter 14. So what's He saying here? Did He really say, whatever I want, I can just ask and it will be done? Did I just name it and claim it? No, that's not what He's saying at all. Don't miss the two important qualifiers here. If you abide in Me and My words in you, if we are truly abiding in Him and His Word in us, our desires will not be for that which gratifies our flesh. for that which gives us comfort, pleasure. Those who truly abide in Him and in whom His words abide, desire what Christ desires. They will only ask for that which Christ approves and seeks. They will only ask for that which glorifies Him and His Father. They will pray as He prayed, not My will, but Thine be done. That's what it is to pray in Jesus' name. So Jesus was saying that His people will desire not riches or honors or anything that the flesh desires, but that vital water of the Holy Spirit that enables us to bear fruit. So, one writer says, we may say that the petitions of true disciples are echoes of Christ's words. That our prayers, that the prayers of true disciples are echoes of Christ's own words. As He is spoken, so they speak. Their prayer is a fragment of His teaching. It's transformed then into a petition so that it will be heard. And so, it's those who abide in Him and in whom His Word abides who are the fruitful branches. Again, folks, this is all about becoming conformed to the image of Christ. That is our mission right now. Sharing the gospel and becoming conformed to the image of Christ. That's why He saved us. That's why He has called us to Himself. And Jesus is telling us here that this fruit bearing is not some irrelevant thing or not something that pertains only to us. The fruit we bear glorifies the Father. Do you want to give glory to God? Bear fruit. And the fruit that we bear proves one is a true disciple of Christ. That's what Jesus says here in verse 8. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Is the bearing of fruit evidence that you are a true disciple of Christ? Absolutely. We should have the heads going up and down because this is what Jesus is saying to us. And as I said, he's saying that to expect fruit bearing from a man who doesn't abide in Christ is to expect that a branch that's been cut off the vine to bring forth grapes. It's not possible. Fruit-bearing is the evidence, the proof, that one is now in union with Christ. When we bear the fruit of Christ in the world, we reflect the glory of God. And the bearing of fruit brings glory to the Father, and so the question for us The question for every one of us, do you want yours to be a life that brings glory to God? Do you want God to look upon your life, what you've done today, what you'll do tomorrow, and be glorified by it? Do you really desire to bring glory to God in your life? Is that preeminent for you? To glorify God in all you think, say, and do? Because if you do, our Lord tells us here what it is that brings glory to Him and to His Father. It is the bearing of fruit. Not my words. The Savior's words. The bearing of the fruits of the Spirit of which Paul wrote. In other words, a Christ-like character. None of us came into the world this way, by the way. No, it's only by the work of Christ in us that this kind of transformation takes place. And yes, there are other kinds of fruit in the world, other things that advance the kingdom of God. Some are called as evangelists, to call people to Christ. Others are called to disciple those who have been brought to Him. But all true disciples, of Christ are called to be living witnesses, people whose lives honor Christ by their living according to his commands. And it's not always easy. Sometimes it's very difficult. Sometimes we end up standing in opposition to the whole world. But this is his calling. And he says, look, if you obey me, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. You will bear fruit. Colossians 3.12, we read earlier. And here's what he wants. If you want to know what are his commands to us, here's what he says through the apostle. Colossians 3.12. So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, bearing with one another, forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. And beyond all these things, put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Let the peace of Christ Rule in your hearts to which indeed you were called in one body and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell richly within you. That's what it is to have His word abiding in us, to have His word dwelling richly within us. In living in this manner that our Lord has commanded, we glorify Him, we prove we're His people. Again, the question comes down to a simple one. Do you want to bring glory to the Father and the Son and to the Holy Spirit? And we must never think that we've ever arrived at such a place in this life where we never need pruning. Pruning's coming, folks. It's always coming. Because that's how God works, to sanctify us. He's exhorted His disciples to abide in Him, to have His Word abiding in them. And now in verse 9, He exhorts them to abide in His love. Now this is a new statement He's making here. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Now you abide in my love. Jesus taught that the Father loves Him. Why? The Father loves me because I always do what the Father wills. In that, He speaks of Himself in His human nature. In His incarnate state, Jesus did what no other man ever did. He always did the will of His Father. Always did the will of His Father, even in His human state. And chapter 13, verse 1, this whole discourse kind of began where the apostle tells us that Jesus, knowing that His hour was now upon Him, that He loved those who were His, that He loved them to the end. So as the Father had loved Him, He says, I've also loved you. And the measure of Jesus' love for His disciples is the love of His Father for Him. That's the love of God for the second person of the Trinity, and then it's the love of the second person of the Trinity for these men. And now he says, I want you to abide in that love. Greatest love there is, the love that's existed within the Godhead from all eternity, and which continued into Jesus' incarnation, and which will continue into all eternity. And in Christ, the love of God is brought to men, and He would now suffer and lay down His life for them. That's His love for them. The love that the Father has for Him, He has for the disciples. It's a pure, wholehearted, personal, and enduring love. His love for His disciples, try to drink this in, was a true reflection of the Father's love for the Son, which Jesus said in His prayer, chapter 17, verse 24, had been from before the foundation of the world. And then in 1726, Jesus prayed, I've made your name known to them so that the love with which you loved me may be in them and I in them. Look, this love is a self-sacrificial giving of oneself without regard to the worthiness of the one loved and without regard to any benefit to oneself. It's wholly a love of giving of oneself. And this declaration of his love for them is an instruction. Abide in my love. Abide in my love once and for all eternity. Remain in my love. Live in that love. Let my love be your motivation in all you think, say, and do. Let my love be the prime motivator in your hearts. So how does one do this? How does one abide in the love of Christ? Well, the Lord answers this question for us. His answer is the same as that which proves our love for Him. Obedience to Him. Obedience, that's a word we try to shove off to the side sometimes. Obedience to Him. That's what He says. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love. Doesn't look like there are any qualifiers here. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love. You know, Jesus had already raised this theme now four times in this same discourse. He's been talking about love, joy, and peace all the way through those first three of the fruits of the Spirit we see in Galatians 5. So this idea of love is obviously very important to him. And he never said, you will honor me by devising your own ways of serving me. He didn't say that. He didn't say you'll honor me by inventing your own ways of worshiping me. Or that your love for me is demonstrated in doing whatever you think is best for me and for my church. Look at chapter 14 again, verse 15. me, You will keep My commandments. Look down to verse 21. He who has My commands and keeps them is the one who loves Me. Two verses later, verse 23. If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come and make Our abode with him. Now Jesus says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. Do you see a theme here? And do you really desire to abide in his love? Is that your greatest desire? To abide in his love? To be like him? Obedience to his commands is the only right response of the believer to the love that God has shown us in Christ. And again, it's God who initiates this love relationship with His people. We love because He first loved us. And He calls us to respond to His love, I'm going to say it again, with obedience. With obedience to what He has commanded us. All those who have been cleansed of the stain of sin are new creations in Christ and are now being conformed to the image of Christ. And that transformation means we're now called to live in obedience to His commands and to therefore bear fruit and abide in His love. There's the whole package. And what are His commands? Are they difficult to find? Not really. They're set forth throughout Scripture, from the Garden of Eden to Mount Sinai, to the words of the prophets, to a man wearing a garment of camel's hair and a leather belt. to the very words of God incarnate set forth in the Gospels. And we've got a whole four chapters here of Him speaking continuously, telling us what He desires to see in us. And all of that which is written in the New Testament under the inspiration of whom? The other Helper, God the Holy Spirit. And notice, here Jesus equates keeping His commandments with abiding in His love. And He promises, when you do these things, you will be fruitful. His love is what should move us to obedience. And our obedience is the evidence of our love for Him. R.C. Sproul. Wrote this, we are moved to obey Christ by a heart that is filled with gratitude for the way He plucked us out of the fallen world and poured out His love on us. R.C. could say so much in just a few words. So in this way, through his love for us, the believer's love for him, the believer's drawn closer to Christ. Believer abides in him and his love, Jesus says. As the fathers love me, I will love you. This is an echo of the father's love for the son. Now, we live in a world where many flat out disregard and disobey the word of God. Outside of the church, the Word of God carries very little weight for many. Yet there are many who disobey and disregard the Word of God and yet actually believe they're disciples of Christ. This is particularly evident in our culture. The areas of sexual sin, but look the same error applies to all sin. All sin is equally offensive to God. The way of the world and the tendency of fallen unregenerate men is to pick out the commands of God they don't like or that are inconvenient to their lives or to their desires for wealth and pleasure, and to either cut them out of the Word of God or seek to justify them or explain them away. But Jesus calls us to obedience to Him. And He has repeatedly and plainly told us, and I'll say it again, if you want to abide in His love, keep His commandments. And he says to us this morning, if you abide in my love, obeying my commands, my love will surround you in everything you do. It's not like obedience to Christ is without great benefit and great blessing. On verse 11, Jesus then concludes this portion of the discourse. These things I have spoken to you, so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full." Now, He had given them His peace, remember? Now He said, He's spoken these words to them, that He's going to prepare a place for them, that He's going to send His Spirit to them, that their eyes would be opened to a true knowledge of Him, that He would one day return for them. And He's spoken to them of the abiding love that both He and His Father have for them, so that their joy may be made full. This should make us joyous, folks. This should make us joyous, and that His joy may be in them. Three themes, as I just mentioned, of this Upper Room Discourse, love, peace, and joy. Those first three of the fruits of the Spirits that Paul lists. And they can only be produced, by the way, by the Spirit of Christ. They're only found in those who are joined to Him, who are abiding in Him, who are abiding in His love. And he says, I've spoken all these things I've been speaking to you so that my joy may be in you. What's the nature of Christ's joy? Could He be joyful even in difficult circumstances? What does Hebrews 12.2 say to us? It tells us that on the cross, as He's dying, having been brutally beaten in a way we can't even imagine, because of the joy set before Him, He endured that cross, despite the shame, because He was looking. His eyes were fixed on the joy set ahead. For men, there is a joy in Christ that's known only to those who are in Christ, who have been brought into this eternal union with Him, and who are now fully trusting in Him. You see, if you have doubts, you will have a diminishing of joy. The joy is by the assurance that you have in Him. Why are we joyful when we sing songs of praise to our Lord? Because we know who He is. Because we know what He has done. Because we know that all that He has spoken will come to pass. Because we believe in Him. Because we trust in Him. That's why we're joyful. We're singing of great, great blessing that will last for all eternity. Our experience of this union and this joy grows as we grow in Him. And God has given us the means by which we do grow in Him. Means of His sanctifying grace, His Word, His Spirit, His indwelling presence in those He has called to Himself. We spend time with Him, our joy grows. We spend time with Him, we grow. We become more like Christ because this Word has a transforming power. that nothing else has. Sadly, the world cannot know this joy. You know, in this life, people may experience a worldly kind of joy, perhaps at a party, or what appears to be a kind of joy if you ever look into a football stadium when the home team scores a touchdown. That's not the joy that's the fruit of the Spirit. It's a worldly kind of joy. The joy that's of the Spirit is a joy that flows from the knowledge of the love of God for us, and of His sovereign grace, and of the blessings that He has bestowed, and of the assurance that we have through our eternal union with the risen and exalted Christ. We will be with Him in glory forever. And this is a spiritual joy. It's based on our assurance of our eternal peace with God. It's a joy of which He has caused in us. It's a joy which we can have even in our most difficult times, as Christ did. Because Christ's joy, like His peace, is not dependent on our circumstances. It's ours regardless of suffering or hardships or trials. Paul's was an example for us, Philippians 2.17. But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering, upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. Paul had a joy in Christ, and this is a man who was beaten numerous times, shipwrecked, they stoned him. And in it all, He had the joy of Christ because He was abiding in Him, abiding in His love. And the knowledge of what He has done for us and of this assurance should evoke joy in us because of who God is, because of His indwelling presence in us. And nothing should or can bring us greater assurance or greater joy than abiding in Him. And so when we read Jesus' words that we just read in chapter 14, verse 21, His words in His prayer in chapter 17, verse 20, we have assurance that the words of blessing that He spoke that night were meant not only for the 11 remaining disciples, but also for all who would follow them in faith, who would be brought supernaturally into union with the risen Christ. But joy can be destroyed. How? What does sin do but destroy our joy in Christ? By separating ourselves from Christ. You separate yourself from Christ, you lose His peace, you lose His joy. If we drift from Him, His joy in us will evaporate. Hear the repentant words of King David in Psalm 51. And David had sinned grievously. He committed adultery, And then he sent Bathsheba's husband to the front lines where he would be killed. Two terrible sins, adultery and murder. And then he came to repentance. He saw the wickedness of his sin in Psalm 51 11. He prays this, Do not cast me away from your presence, and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and sustain me with a willing spirit. So scripture says to us, Hebrews 2 1, For this reason, we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it. He's talking about abiding in His Word here. Hebrews 3.14, For we have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm until the end. While it is said, Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as when they provoked me in the wilderness. Now it's certainly true that once a man has been joined into union with Christ, that union is eternal. If he's been truly saved, he remains saved forever. And yet, John reminds us that some who were thought to be truly joined to Christ, in fact, turned out not to be. They went out from us, for they were not really of us. Those who leave, who come in and go, are not really of us, John said. So while God preserves His people to the end, calls on us to pursue our own sanctification through availing ourselves of all the means of grace that He has provided for us. His Word, the fellowship of the body, His Spirit, prayer, time in worship. And Christ sums up that lifelong pursuit by these words, abide in me. And that's His call and His command to us this morning. Well, Father, thank You that You've spoken to us in Your Son. Thank You that You've given us Your Spirit that we might hear You and understand You. Lord, I pray that all who hear this Word this morning have heard You and not me. I pray that it is Your Spirit who is even now bringing this Word to our hearts in power. I pray that it is Your Spirit who is transforming us by this glorious Word. In Christ's name, Amen.