If you want to follow along, we're going to be in the first couple of verses of John chapter 15 again. We're going to be looking at verses 1 through 11 today. John 15 verse 1, Jesus says, I am the true vine, and my Father is a vinedresser. Last week we talked about the significance of Jesus saying, I am the true vine. And even the significance of Jesus saying, I am. These statements where Jesus says, I am. He's claiming to be God because this is a name that God gave himself in Exodus. All the way back in Exodus, God named himself, I am, the eternal God. So right here in this passage, God is speaking. God is speaking to us. He's sitting here in front of these disciples, He's speaking to them, and He's speaking to us through His Word, the Word that He wrote through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And when God speaks, we've got to pay attention. We have to listen. The reason that God wrote this, the reason that God wrote this whole book is a way of reconciliation for sinners to be made right with Him. It's a way for sinners to know God, to be made right with God. I read part of this book a while ago called Man's Ruin. That's the name of the book. And it's a book that exposits Romans 1. most of the verses, but it's the name of the book is based on Romans chapter 1 verse 24 and 25 which says, Therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. So mankind, humankind has ruined God's creation. We've ruined it. And we continue to ruin it over and over again, generation after generation. And we've seen how, as an example, marriage in the last few years has just been destroyed. What marriage is, what marriage means, the truth about it, the beauty of it has all just been destroyed. And that's man's fault. Man has ruined everything. But God, who's rich in mercy and rich in love, wrote a book for us. He wrote His Word down, and He wrote this book so that we can have everything we ever need, or will ever need, to be made right with Him. That's the purpose of this book. That's the purpose that Jesus is speaking here. This book, the Gospel, the Good News, it's all fundamentally based on God's love for us. We've talked about that quite a bit in the last few chapters, that it's all about God's love for us, what He does for us. And not just God's love for the saints, but God's love for everyone. That He gives them a chance. He gives them a chance of redemption through the gospel, and it's offered to everyone. It's based on God's love for us. But this passage specifically, especially the upper room, is based on these promises, these truths that Jesus promised to us. And it's all God's love. So today we'll see one of the ways that God loves us in these verses, and it's by pruning us or disciplining us. He did it to Jonah. He did it to Jacob. He did it to Noah. He did it later in the New Testament with Paul and Peter. He disciplined them. He pruned them. That's one of the ways that God loves us. But we see this discipline especially in the nation of Israel, don't we? We talked about this last week, that time after time, God is sending them prophets. He's sending them punishments. He's sending them encouragements. He's doing everything he can to try to get these guys to obey him. But time after time, prophet after prophet, they continue to disobey. Verse two, in John chapter 15, we talked about that last week quite a bit, that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. So this nation of Israel didn't obey and they were cut off. Romans 11 verse 20 tells us that they were broken off because of their unbelief. That's Israel. Israel was broken off. And we believe that in these verses, John chapter 15, when Jesus says, I am the true vine, God, Jesus is setting up a new covenant. He's setting up a new covenant with a new people. And he's emphasizing that here by saying, I am the true vine. He compared this metaphor of the vine, this illustration of the vine, with Israel, who believed that they were the true vine, but they were the false vine. And there's a warning in that. There's a warning in thinking that you are a person of God and you have no salvation. You're trusting in the wrong things. The Israelites, they held fast to their law. They love this law, they love this metaphor of being the true vine, and they missed it. They were trusting in the wrong thing, they loved the wrong thing, and they got cut off for that. So there's a warning in that. It's what we talked about last week. There's a new law, there's new life in this law, and that's what Jesus is emphasizing in these verses, by saying, I am the true vine. So we have to abide in Christ. That's what we'll see today. We have to be faithful to Christ. So let's just read. We'll read John 15, verses 1-11. It says, I am the true vine. My Father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. Neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I 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, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full. Let's pray. Father, I ask for Your blessing during this message, Lord. I ask for Your favor. I ask that I would be clear in the things that I'm saying and that You would speak through me. Lord, use me to encourage these saints. I pray that we would draw nearer to you, that we would abide in you. In Jesus' name, amen. So what does it mean to abide in Christ? This word, abide, occurs ten times in these eleven verses. Ten times. That's how you know that it's important. When Jesus says it over and over and over again. The word, abide, just the word, abide, means to live in. To live within. So when you hear someone If you go to someone's house, sometimes you'll go into their house and they'll say, welcome to my humble abode. This word abide is the verb form of that word abode. An abode is something that someone lives in. It's their house. So when you abide in something, you're living in it. So what does this mean for Christians? What does it mean for Christians to abide in Christ? Remember last week when I said that there's a distinction? There's a distinction between those who bear fruit and those who do not bear fruit. Look at verse 2. The branches that do not bear fruit are in Christ. Those who are in me but do not bear fruit will be cut off. But those who abide in me, those are the ones that bear fruit. Look at verse 4. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine. So the branches that abide in Christ are the ones that bear fruit. What does that mean? What does that mean to abide in Christ? Well, these branches that abide in Christ are the true Christians. They're not the false Christians. They're the true Christians. And what that means is to be consistently, faithfully living a life that is in Christ. Consistently. Faithfully. It's a life that's exemplified by unwavering, unchanging, inexhaustible faithfulness to Christ. That's what it means to abide in Christ. There's two things that make a life exemplified by abiding in Christ. Two different things. The first thing that it means to abide in Christ, to live in Christ, is to be faithful. Faithful. Every day, seeking, praying, and growing. A branch that bears fruit is a branch that grows. 1 Peter 1.3 says, His divine power is granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. How? Through the knowledge of Him. It's through the knowledge of God that we can know all things that pertain to life and godliness. A person that abides in Christ is a person that grows in their knowledge and love and seeks to grow in the knowledge and love of Christ. If you are a Christian and you're not actively seeking to grow in the knowledge of Christ, you're not actively seeking to grow in your love for Christ, you need to repent of that. You have to seek to grow, to grow in your knowledge of Him. That's how we obtain this godliness in 1 Peter, this abiding in Christ. Everything, everything that pertains to life and godliness is right at your fingertips. It's right here. You have to seek it. A mark of an unbeliever, someone who's not abiding in Christ, is they don't seek to grow in Christ. They don't seek to grow in the knowledge of Him. Those who don't abide in Christ are not seeking to grow in their love of Christ. Seek Him. We're told to seek Him while He may be found. The second thing that it means to abide in Christ, and this is really what I think Jesus is getting at, is to be continually faithful for your whole life. To have a life that is permanently, endlessly devoted to Christ. Matthew 24 verse 13 tells us, the one who endures to the end will be saved. Endurance, that's what it means to abide in Christ. You can't live faithful to Christ for a time and then fall away and go back to your sin and go back to leaving God because then you prove that you were never a Christian in the first place. We have to endure to the end, all the way to the end. Our entire focus of our lives, the center of our life has to be Christ. Paul tells us he desires to know nothing, nothing except Christ and Him crucified. That's what it means to abide in Christ. It's a person that devotes their life to Him, to striving for Him, to grow in Him. John 14, verse 23, we read it a few weeks ago that if we abide in Christ, He will come and make His home in us. We're striving to be near Christ. James 4 verse 8 tells us that draw near to God and He will draw near to you. So God will draw near to us if we abide in Him. Look at verse 2, John 15. Every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Last week we were in the same passage in John 15. We were in the same couple of verses I said that I was going to split it up into two parts. And I actually took verses 1 through 11 last week and wrote a whole sermon on the whole passage, and it was way too much, and that's why I ended up splitting it up. So last week we talked about the curse of not bearing fruit. The curse of not abiding in Christ, and that curse is that you will be cut off. That's the consequence for not abiding in Christ. We're going to look at the blessing. The blessing that comes with abiding in Christ. The blessing that you obtain when you live a life that is fully devoted to Christ. We talked about last week the illustration of the vines, the illustration and the metaphor of the vine dresser. Jesus is the vine. The Father is the vine dresser. And we are the branches. That's what this metaphor is. So the father is the vine dresser, he's the farmer, right? We see that in verse one. My father is the vine dresser, that's the farmer. And the purpose of the farmer is to make the plants bear as much fruit as possible. That's what he's doing. He's trying to make the plants bear as much fruit as possible, every farmer. He does this by pruning, that's what we read here. The father does this by cutting off the bad branches, but also pruning the good branches. So what is pruning? What is pruning in the real world? What is pruning? Pruning is basically when you have a plant, and you find the branches, or you have a healthy plant, and you cut off all the bad parts. You cut off all the little twigs, the dead parts, the dead buds on the plant. And the purpose of that is so that the plant can grow back stronger. It can have new growth. It can have fuller growth. And you have to cut off the bad parts so that they stop sucking the life out of the good parts. Because the branches that don't bear fruit, they're still sucking the life out of the plant. They're taking resources, they're taking sunlight. But that doesn't sound like a blessing, does it? To be pruned by God. To be cut by God. It doesn't sound like a blessing. Remember, this is a blessing. This is a blessing that comes with abiding in Christ, and living a life for Christ. How is it a blessing to be cut by God? To be trimmed? That doesn't sound fun, does it? Remember what the Father uses to cut these plants? It's a knife. He uses a knife. They didn't have pruning scissors like we do today, but they had knives. So what's the knife? What is the Lord using to cut us? Look at verse three. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. That verse seems a little weird, right? Already you are clean. Other translations of this verse say already you are pruned because of the word that I have spoken to you. It's the word. It's the word that God uses to cut us to the heart. To prune us. We read in Hebrews 4 that the word of the Lord is sharper than any two-edged sword. The knife that the Lord uses is the word. And you have to abide in Christ, you have to be in Christ, so that the Father can use his word to cut you. That still doesn't sound like a blessing though, does it? To be cut by the Lord. What is he cutting? What is he cutting out of our lives? The dead parts? What is that? It's sin. The purpose of pruning. The reason for the pruning is to cut sin out of your life, to get the sin out of there. And we often think of pruning as a trial, right? You read this and you say, oh, it's a trial. The Lord is going to use a trial to cut the sin out of my life. He's not using a trial. He's using his word. Often, pruning comes through trials. It's true. But the trial is not the pruning. It's the Word that cuts you. It's the Word that cuts you to your heart. It's the Word that the Lord uses to get to your heart. The trial is what the Lord uses to get you to go to His Word. We have to go to His Word. It's always coming back to the Word. Have you ever met a Christian that is in a constant trial? It seems like they can't get out of their trial. They're just, maybe it's one big long trial, or maybe it's a bunch of little trials, but they just, they're constantly in a trial. They're always in some kind of hardship. Their life is just, it's difficult. Why is that? Why is it that some Christians are just constantly in a trial? They're constantly in a hardship. I read a book this week about pruning. It was a short book, but I wanted to learn specifically how you prune a plant, what the purpose of it is, and stuff like that. And there's two basic ways to prune a plant in real life. Not in the metaphor, but in real life. There's two ways to prune a plant. The first way is that small bushes and small flowers like this. You cut all the life, at the end of the season, you cut all the life off the plant so that in winter it doesn't die because it'll rot. So you cut all the green parts off of it all the way till it's like a bunch of twigs on the ground. It doesn't even look like a flower anymore. It doesn't even look like a bush. Some plants thrive on that. You cut it all the way down and then it can grow back fuller the next year. But there's a second way that you prune. And this is how you prune trees and vines. Because you can't cut a tree all the way down to the ground. It's not going to grow back. You can't cut a vine all the way off, because it's not going to grow back the next year full enough to bear fruit. So what you have to do is identify the branches. You have to find the branches that bear fruit on a tree or a vine. And there's dead parts on that branches. There's twigs. There's pieces that are maybe diseased. And you've got to cut those pieces off, because it'll infect the rest of the branch. And they're sucking the life out of the branch. so that it can grow new, so that it can have new life, stronger life. That's the purpose of it. But something I found interesting in this book that I read is, if you start to prune a branch, right, you got a tree and you start cutting dead parts off of it, and Within a few weeks, it's supposed to be growing new life, but it doesn't start growing new life. It just keeps dying. You cut some of it off, and you thought it was healthy, but you cut some of it off, and it just starts dying. You cut some more off, and it starts dying. What you're supposed to do in that situation is keep cutting it. You keep trimming it. You keep trimming it until either the whole branch is gone, or until there's some life. So, to bring this back to the metaphor, If our Heavenly Father takes His knife, which is His Word, and He puts you in a trial and He begins to cut you, He begins to cut sin out of your life, attempting to get you to have new growth, to have new life, and you don't have new growth, you don't turn to His Word. You don't begin to draw near to Him. You don't give up the sin. You don't respond correctly to the pruning. What is He going to do? He's going to keep cutting. He's gonna keep cutting you. And he's gonna keep cutting until either he cuts down until there's a little bit of life left and you have no choice but to turn back to him and turn to his word and praise the Lord for that, or he's gonna keep cutting until the whole branch is gone. What happens then? Then you prove that you were never a branch in the first place. You prove that you never abided in him in the first place. You're a dead branch. James 1 verse 2 says, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. We're supposed to be joyful in our trials. The trial is supposed to lead us back to the Lord. But how can I have joy in a trial? It's so hard. What's the secret to this joy? The secret to the joy is the Word. Simply that. The Word has the power to cut us, that's what the Lord uses to cut the sin out of our lives, but the Word also has the power to heal us. Maybe you're still asking yourself, how is this a blessing? I still don't get it. How is being pruned, how is being disciplined and put into trials a blessing? Those of us who are Christians know what blessing this is. We know how how this is the best thing that can happen to you as a Christian, is to be pruned, to get the sin cut out of your life. Every time we're pruned as Christians, we're brought closer to Christ. We're brought closer to Christ in two ways. We're brought closer to Christ in our relationship with Him, as in, we love Him more, we're happier in our Christian walks, we're joyful in Him, but more importantly, we're brought closer to the picture of Christ. When the sin is cut out of your life, you look more like Christ. Your life looks more like Christ's. We become more holy. As God cuts the sin out of our lives, we become more holy, we become more like the temple, and we're told that we are the temples of God, and God will dwell in us. That's what Christians want. That's the blessing of being pruned, is looking more like Christ, living more like Christ. Look at verse 8, John chapter 15, verse 8. By this, my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. That's the purpose of pruning. That's the purpose of getting sin cut out of your life and turning back to the Word. That the Father will be glorified in your life. Do you want that? Do you want the Father to be glorified in your life? Do you want the Father to have glory in the pruning that He has done on you? This is how it happens. This is how we bear fruit. This is the goal of a Christian life. This is the race that we run. Hebrews 9 verse 24 says, do you not know that in a race all runners run, but only one receives a prize? So run that you may obtain it. We're supposed to run the race of the Christian life to the glory of God. We're not supposed to jog. We're not supposed to nonchalantly walk down the racetrack. We're supposed to run. run to the goal. And that goal is glorifying the Father. We're supposed to strive for the prize. One that receives the prize. Our prize is to glorify the Father. And here, at the end of our lives, well done, good and faithful servant. This is a blessing. This is a blessing of abiding in Christ. This is a blessing from the Lord. The blessing is that we bear fruit. And when you bear fruit, you grow closer to Christ. And when you grow closer to Christ, you glorify the Father. And true Christians want this. True Christians desire this. We want the sin cut out of our lives. Just like a healthy branch, that you trim it, you prune it, and it grows back stronger, when the Lord prunes us and He puts us into trials, we're supposed to grow back stronger. That's why it's so sad. when you see a Christian that doesn't respond to pruning correctly. They're put in a trial and they whine and they complain and they talk about how difficult their trial is, and they're not responding to it correctly. They're supposed to turn to the Lord. They don't have joy and peace in their Christian walk. Look at John 15. 10-11. 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 that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be full." That's supposed to be the result of the pruning, the result of glorifying the Father. Notice there's two statements in v. 11. v. 11 says, these things I have spoken to you, first, that My joy may be in you, and second, that your joy may be full. Jesus says that my joy may be in you. We read about Jesus' peace, right? At the end of John chapter 14 that he said, my peace I give to you. I don't think that's what Jesus is saying here. He's saying my joy will be in you. As in, Jesus is gonna look at our lives and he's gonna be joyous in our lives. He's gonna look at your life and he's gonna be happy in the work that his father has done. It makes our Lord and our Savior happy to see sinners saved, to see sinners love His Father, to see sinners glorify His Father. Jesus told us over and over again, in just this passage of the Upper Room, He told us over and over again that His will is to do the Father's will. And it makes our Savior happy to see that we are doing His will. That's what He wants. Let's turn to Hebrews. Hebrews 12 verses 1 and 2 says, Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross. He endured the cross because He knew that there was joy coming. He knew that there was joy beyond the trial. He knew that there was joy awaiting Him in saving sinners. It makes Him happy to see sinners saved. How beautiful is that? How beautiful is that? Do you want to make Jesus happy? Do you want Jesus to look at your life and not be disappointed? not be saddened by the sin that you are wallowing in, but to look at your life and to be happy in the life that His Father has pruned. For any of us who are truly Christians, emphatically yes, of course I want my life to make Jesus happy. The second statement in John chapter 15, verse 11, is this. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full." That your joy may be full. It was less than a chapter ago that we talked about Jesus' peace that he gives us, right? And even before that, he said, you love my Father, and my Father will love you. So now we have, in a row, love, joy, and peace. What does that sound like? What does love, joy, peace sound like? Sounds like Galatians 5 to me. Galatians 5, is the fruit that Jesus is talking about. All the fruit in this verse. He's talking about fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, fruit, bear fruit, bear fruit. What is this fruit? Well, he tells us in Galatians 5, the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Notice something about the fruit of the Spirit. That it's all in attitude. They're all attitudes. Of course, there's actions that correlate to the attitudes, right? When you love someone, you do stuff for them. When you're self-controlled, when you're selfless, you don't lash out. But all these are fundamentally attitudes. But tell me this, if the Lord is pruning you, He's actively taking his knife, which is his word, and he's cutting the sin out of your life. He's trying to get you to produce these fruits, these fruit of the Spirit. What's gonna happen if you resist the pruning? What's gonna happen if you don't turn to love, joy, and peace? He's just gonna keep cutting. He's just gonna keep cutting. He's gonna keep cutting until the whole branch is off, or he's gonna keep cutting until you have no choice but to turn to him, and that is not pleasant. That is not a blessing from the Lord. What am I trying to say? I'm trying to say, do not resist the pruning of the Lord. That's the command here. Do not resist the pruning of the Lord. Do not resist the discipline of the Lord. Turn to his word. Resisting the pruning of the Lord only leads to hardship. This pruning, this pruning is supposed to be a blessing, not a curse. Hebrews 12 says, for the Lord disciplines the ones He loves. He chastises every son whom He receives. It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom a father does not discipline? If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons. You are His children. He loves you, and that is why He prunes you. The trials, the hardships, all the discipline in our life, it's only supposed to make us produce fruit. It's only supposed to turn us back to his word. And we should desire this joy that the Lord gives. We should desire that Jesus find joy in us. Those of us who are Christians know what it's like to have the Lord be pleased with you. that you know the Lord looks at you and He's pleased with you and He's happy with you. He finds joy in your life. That's what it means to abide in the Lord. We see this word abide all throughout this passage, and that's what it means. Most of us, maybe not all of us, but most of us have some kind of trial going on in our lives. At every point, there's some kind of trial in your life. There's hardship in this world. There's difficulties in this world because of sin. It's our fault. But praise the Lord if you are in a trial. Praise the Lord because he loves you, and that is why he is doing this. Run to his word. Run to abide in Christ, that you may have his joy, you may have his peace, you may have his love. There's nothing that gives us relief in this world from our trials except from the Lord. Let's end on this note. Last week I talked a lot about the fear, the fear of not abiding in Christ, the fear of only being in Christ, thinking you are abiding in Christ, and yet you will be cut off. And it's true that if you see yourself backsliding, if you see that you are not bearing fruit, you should not be comfortable in that. And you should fear, you should fear that you are not bearing fruit. But I have this encouragement now. Those who are in Christ, those who abide in Christ, I have this encouragement for you. That if you're concerned about your faith, if you are fearing for your faith, you need not be fearful. Because if you are among the elect, and this fear causes you to run to the Lord, the fear causes you to turn to His Word, the fear causes you to stick closer to Christ, then you need not fear. If the fear leads you to seek Him, if the fear leads you to abide in Him, don't fear. 1 John 4, 18. This is the joy of the Lord, is 1 John 4, 18, which says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, for fear has to do with punishment. And whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because He first loved us. That's the joy of the Lord. There is no fear in love. And if you are being pruned, and if the Lord is trying to cut the sin out of your life, you do not need to fear Him. You need to have joy in Him. Amen. Father, I thank You for this passage. I thank You for this this message and the words that Jesus spoke to us. I pray that you apply it to our lives. I pray that you draw near to us as we try to draw near to you. I pray that our lives would glorify you, that Jesus will look at us and find joy in our lives. I pray this in your son's name, amen.