I appreciate the words of that song that reminds us that we were not just spiritually sick, but spiritually dead. And so what we needed was not just renewal and reformation, but resurrection and transformation. And our Lord has supplied that for those of us who name the name of Christ and know Him as Lord and Savior. Thank you, Corey. I'd like to dismiss the kids for children's shirts. For the rest of you, if you would turn to John chapter 15, we continue our series in the Gospel of John. John chapter 15. It's an illustration that is used by our Lord. We should be familiar with, those of us that have, those of you that have grown up in the valley. John chapter 15. and verse one, Jesus says, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. Here's one of the more famous passages in the Gospel of John where Jesus declares himself to be the true vine. It is, as I said in the call to worship, the last of the seven I am's. In the gospel of John, in chapter 6, he declared himself to be the bread of life. In chapter 8, the light of the world. In chapter 10, he's the gate for the sheep. Also in chapter 10, he calls himself the good shepherd. In chapter 11, he is the resurrection and the life. In chapter 14, he is the way, the truth, and the life. And now here, in John chapter 15, the seventh saying, I am the true vine. The seven I am sayings in the gospel of John, not including where Jesus says in John chapter 8, before Abraham was, I am. Examples and illustrations and metaphors on the vine and the grapevine were plentiful in Jesus' day. Living in an agrarian society, of course, you would expect that. But for the background to this vine imagery in John 15, what we need to do is not look at competing literature in the day of Christ, but look back to the Old Testament, because we find that the Gospel of John refers to the Old Testament on several occasions, and so his image comes from the Old Testament. And I would like you to follow along with me, so we're going to turn to three Old Testament passages. The first one is Isaiah chapter 5. If you would turn with me there to Isaiah chapter 5. We're going to see that the illustration metaphor of the vine is used in the Old Testament on several occasions. We're just going to take a sampling of that. Isaiah chapter 5 and verse 1. I will sing for the one I love a song about his vineyard. My loved one had a vineyard on a fertile hillside. He dug it up and cleared it of stones and planted it with the choicest vines. He built a watchtower in it and cut out a winepress as well. Then he looked for a crop of good grapes, but it yielded only bad fruit. Verse 3, Now you dwellers in Jerusalem and men of Judah, judge between me and my vineyard. What more could have been done for my vineyard than I have done for it? When I looked for good grapes, why did it yield only bad? Now I will tell you what I am going to do to my vineyard. I will take away its hedge, and it will be destroyed. I will break down its wall, and it will be trampled. I will make it a wasteland, neither pruned nor cultivated, and briars and thorns will grow there. I will command the clouds not to rain on it. The vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are the garden of His delight. And He looked for justice, but saw bloodshed for righteousness, but heard cries of distress." If you know the book of Isaiah, Here is a picture of the vineyard, and we are told here that Israel is the vineyard, and more specifically, the people of Judah are the garden of His delight. It was planted by God. God is the owner. He came and He looks for a good crop. He looks for good grapes, but He yields only bad fruit in verses 2, 4, and 7. And so He looks for justice and righteousness, but He sees only bloodshed and cries of distress, we're told. And so because of that, he will take away his heads of protection and it will be trampled upon. This is a description of the coming doom on the nation of Judah at the hands of the Babylonians, something that will happen years later. The Babylonian captivity and the siege of Jerusalem, which begins in 605 B.C., goes all the way to 586 B.C., and then starts the Babylonian captivity lasting 70 years. I want you to turn to Jeremiah chapter 2. Jeremiah chapter 2 and verse 21. I had planted you like a choice vine of sound and reliable stock. How then did you turn against me into a corrupt wild vine? Although you wash yourselves with soda and use an abundance of soap, the stain of your guilt is still before me, declares the Sovereign Lord." God, once again, is pictured as the owner of the vineyard, and he planted a choice vine. The people of Judah are the vine, but then it turned corrupt. And we find out in the context of Jeremiah 2 that their corruption was in idolatry. They went after other gods and worshipped other gods. And so the guilt of idolatry had stained them to the point where they could not wash themselves of it. Their guilt and the stain of their guilt was constantly with them. And finally I'd like you to turn to Hosea. This is the first minor prophet. Hosea chapter 10 and verse 1. Israel was a spreading vine. He brought forth fruit for himself. As his fruit increased, he built more altars. As his land prospered, he adorned his sacred stones. Their heart is deceitful, and now they must bear their guilt. The Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. You know your Israelite history. You know that the people that came out of the land of Egypt to occupy the Holy Land, part of the reason to do that was the fulfillment of the promise, of course, made to Abraham, but also because of the people living in the land, the Canaanite practices that were utterly repulsive in the eyes of God. God was bringing in His people into the land to expel the foreigners, or those living in the land, out of the land. We are told in the book of Leviticus, and now we see that the people of God have adopted the same practices as the Canaanites, the ones that they were supposed to move out of the area. And so their sin is widespread, but specifically it centers around idolatry. Something that God has outlined, of course, that it was forbidden to do. And so they get involved in idolatry, and so now the Lord will demolish their altars and destroy their sacred stones. As they say in verse 2, they use their fruitfulness to only build more altars. They had prospered, they had gained in wealth, and they used that wealth to build more altars. And so these passages in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Hosea are just a sample of what the Old Testament teaches regarding the vine and the vineyard. Israel is more often than not pictured as the vine, and usually in terms of its failure to produce good fruit. And because of its failure to produce good fruit, it incurs the wrath and the judgment of God. That's the picture that we find in the Old Testament. The vineyard is the house of Israel, the nation of Israel, and later on, of course, the people of Judah. They fail to produce good fruit. God, the owner of the vineyard, comes then. Because there is no fruit, he comes and he incurs his wrath and judgment on the people. Now turn back to John 15, because it is against this background of the Old Testament that we find John chapter 15, where Jesus declares himself to be the true vine. He says he is the true vine. It's not Israel, it's Jesus. And so we don't have to worry about whether or not Jesus will fail. Will Jesus fail to produce a good crop? Will he fail to bring forth good fruit? Will he fail and rebel against the Father? Well, Jesus comes to this world as the true vine. He lives a righteous life. He fulfills all righteousness. And he declares himself here to be the vine. God the Father is still the owner. We don't have to worry about Jesus incurring the wrath and judgment of the Father on himself as the true vine. In John chapter 15, look at the activity of the Father. What I want to do this morning is spend the rest of our time, now that you have the background to this vine, because we'll come back to this a little later. There are two activities that God the Father gets involved in as the owner of the vineyard. And this is spelled out for us in verse 2. John 15 and verse 2. The Father cuts off, says, every branch in me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. So two activities of God the Father as owner of the vineyard. He goes and he cuts off the branches that don't produce fruit. And then his second activity is that he prunes the branches that do produce fruit so that they will become even more fruitful. Two activities. And what we want to do is to look at these in more detail. So first, who or what are these branches that are being cut off? What do they represent? You know, there are people who read this passage, and you may be one of them. You've read John 15 because it's a very popular passage. The Gospel of John is a very popular book. And you may have already concluded a picture in your mind's eye as to what this means. There's a popular understanding of this that says that the branches that get cut off represent the deeds of people, their life. And so the picture is this, that a person comes to the end of their life, they face the judgment of God, or they face God the Father, and God takes a look at their life, and He says, Let me scrutinize your life, and he gathers up all of the junk in your life and sets it aside, he cuts it off, puts it aside, and he burns it, sort of as a means of purifying you, so that all of your misdeeds and abuse gets burned up, so that you can walk through. There's people who will hold to that view. They sort of look at John 15 and they tie it into 1 Corinthians chapter 3 in order to do this. The problem with that view, besides the fact that it's wrong, is that it hasn't read John 15 carefully. Because I want you to look at verse 6. Here's the major problem with that view. Verse 6 says, If anyone does not remain in me, He is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire, and burned. The branches, you can see clearly, do not represent fruit. What do they represent? It says, if anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. It's not referring to fruit. It's referring to the person who bears no fruit. It is the person that gets cut off, thrown away, he withers, and then is later thrown into the fire. We're not talking about deeds here or misdeeds. We're talking about a person or people who do not bear fruit. I think you can see that. It's pretty clear. So now there's another very important question that we need to ask, and that is, if the person who, and by the way, if we're talking about people who are cut off and then burned, that's got to be an illustration of God's judgment. Remember our texts in the Old Testament, right? They incurred the judgment of God, and so the figure of being cut off, being burned, you incur the wrath and judgment of God. And so clearly what's being shown here is that those who bear no fruit are those who are cut off and suffer eternal punishment. That is what John 15 teaches. This is what Jesus is teaching in John chapter 15. So now, the important question is this. What does it mean to be fruitful? Because if you bear no fruit, You incur the wrath and judgment of God. John 15. So what does it mean to be fruitful? The bearing of fruit has various shades of meaning in the Bible. It can refer to real fruit, right? Eating the real fruit. Or it can stand for prosperity. It can stand for the multiplying of family. You remember God's word to Adam and Eve in Genesis 1? Be fruitful and increase in number. Fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis 1 verse 28. Fruit can mean the results of the Spirit's work as in the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians chapter 5, which has to do with Christian character. The clues of what it means to bear fruit is found right in John 15. It's found right here in this chapter. And so let's take a look at what it means to bear fruit. Look at verse 10. John 15 and verse 10. Jesus says, if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. Here, obedience to Jesus is a mark of fruitfulness. And look at verse 11, I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. So he's talking about the characteristics of those who are remaining in Christ, those who are attached to him. And one of the marks of those who are attaching themselves to him is that they obey. And in verse 11, I've told you this so that my joy may be in you, that your joy may be And so one of the marks of those who remain in Christ is the joy of Christ resident in their lives directly tied into obedience. And so it has to do with joyful obedience. Part of the fruitfulness of a believer in Christ is that he is marked by joyful obedience. And all of that is applied now specifically to verse 12. My command is this, Jesus says, love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. So generally speaking, when we talk about the fruitfulness of life, we're talking about general obedience, joyful obedience to Christ. and specifically Jesus brings up love for one another now that shouldn't surprise any of us that he talks about obedience and love and even joyful obedience and love that shouldn't surprise any of us because he's already told this to us if you remember John chapter 10 my sheep hear my voice I know them and what do they do? they follow me My sheep hear my voice, I know them, they follow me. One of the characteristics of a sheep of Jesus Christ is that they follow Jesus. They listen to his words, they hear his words, and then they respond in obedience. What is a mark of a disciple that Jesus has told them in John chapter 13? How will the world know that they are his disciples? when they have love for one another. So another mark that Jesus has already brought up in John chapter 13 is love. So we see obedience, John chapter 10. We see love, John chapter 13. And so a distinguishing mark of a disciple of Christ, of a believer in Christ, is that he responds to Christ with joyful obedience and love for one another. These same two aspects, by the way, are all over the place in the first epistle of John. Okay, so those who are cut off by the Father, thrown away, and burned are those who are not marked by obedience, joy, and love for one another. And those who are on the path of destruction, I'll tell you what Let me describe this person for you, okay? The person, this person who bears no fruit, may come to a church service such as this. And they may sit through the service such as you are doing right now. And they may be giving me eye contact like many of you are doing now. But I'll tell you what a big difference is. They are bored out of their minds! They are bored! They're just tolerating this time. They just can't wait for the service to be over. They just can't wait for the guy on the pulpit, the guy on the platform to say, let's pray. Amen. They just can't wait for the service to be over. They have no desire, no deep interest in the words of Christ. Why? It's because they have no interest in following His words. Why? Because they bear no fruit. It's absent in their lives. See? And so you'll find that that person may come to the services, may sit in the pew, but as they are enduring and tolerating of service, they just can't wait for the service to be over. They think the guy up there is just droning on and on and on, and when will he stop? That's a mark of someone without fruit. And furthermore, they will find that anything that they do for Christ is not only boring, but is a drudgery. In fact, the habits and duties and rigors of the Christian life as a whole is drudgery and a burden. And they look at Christianity as just a life of rules to be followed and obeyed, and who wants that kind of life? Who wants to discipline themselves? Who wants to be faithful in the services Sunday after Sunday? Who wants to do that? Who wants to waste their life doing that? You see, a person who is without truth, this is how they think. There is no fruit of obedience and joy. Remember what the Apostle John said later that he records in his first epistle, 1 John 5.3. This is what he says. This is love for God. To obey his commands and his commands are not burdensome. His commands are not burdensome. So it goes without saying that those who don't bear fruit, they don't love God, they don't obey His commands. In fact, they find His commands to be burdensome. And the same can be said, folks, about loving one another. If loving one another is a fruit of a Christian, then someone without this fruit will be spiteful and vindictive. and vengeful, and bitter, and unforgiving. They will be impatient, easily offended, and they will keep a record of wrongs. You can expect a person who has no fruit of loving one another to live like that. Now if I have just described your life where you have had no interest in what the Bible has to say you have had no interest in hearing the words of Christ where it has always seemed to be a drudgery and a burden and if joy and love for one another is absent and I have just described your life this is what you must do you must become a Christian that's what you must do you must become a Christian. Because you can't produce this fruit on your own, no matter how many services you attend. No matter how many Bible studies you fill your week with, you cannot manufacture and produce fruit in your life. You can't drum it up on your own, you can't sit at home and try to strategize all of this out and make plans on how you're going to do all of these things. You can't do it. The reason is because God gives us the Holy Spirit to produce this fruit in our lives. If I have just described your life and you are without this fruit, it is because you don't have the Holy Spirit in your life. And you don't have the Holy Spirit in your life because you haven't trusted in Jesus for salvation. Because the moment you do, the moment you call upon Jesus and say, Lord, I can't live this way. I don't want to live this way. I want to live for you. Come and save me from my sins. That's what he does. He forgives us. He gives us his righteousness. And then he gives the Holy Spirit who comes up, takes residence in our life and begins to produce fruit. And so we find ourselves with an interest in Christ. We find ourselves interested in the things of the Lord. We find ourselves wanting to know more about what Jesus has said so that we can put them into practice. We find ourselves with a love for each other that's growing and getting deeper. Why is that? It's because the Holy Spirit is active in your life Producing fruit he has been given to set us apart more and more away from our sins and more and more Toward the kind of life that God would have us live and that is a fruit-bearing life And so that's what you need to do if I have just described your life You are without Christ you need him in your life so that you can have the Holy Spirit bearing fruit and And so I would encourage you that you not delay, don't put it off any longer. You find out how a person becomes a Christian. I would love to be able to share that with you. Okay. That's the first activity of the Father. Let's look at the second activity. The second activity, we're told in John chapter 15 verse 2, it says, He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit, He prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. The purpose of the Father's pruning here is more fruitfulness. As a believer in Jesus Christ, We are to be ever increasing in obedience, in joyful obedience, in love for one another. We are to be growing in our interest in the scriptures. We are to be deepening in our understanding of what God has said so that we can go out and obey. And we are deepening in our love for each other. The longer you are a Christian, the deeper your love ought to be for a believer in Christ. I want you to listen to what the Apostle Paul says when he tells the Colossians Church in chapter 1 verse 10. He says this, and we pray this, in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and may please him in every way, bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God. He's talking to believers, Paul is, in the church at Colossae, and he's telling them that they need to be bearing fruit in every good work, and they need to be growing, expanding, growing in their knowledge of God. And so this is something that never stops. If you are a believer in Christ, it never stops. You never come to the place where you say, I think I've done enough. I think I've obeyed enough and now I can stop. The longer you are in Christ, the more increasing of the fruit there should be. Listen to what the Apostle Paul tells the Philippian church in chapter 1 and verse 9. He says this, And this is my prayer, that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless until the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. And so to the Christians at Philippi, he says that their love ought to abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight. So this is to be increasing in the Philippian church. Now let me ask you this. God the Father prunes you and me who are believers in Christ so that we bear more fruit. We're told in Colossians chapter 1 and also in Philippians chapter 1, where Paul mentions this as well, that love needs to be abounding more and more, that fruit needs to be increasing in you and me. How does this take place? How does this happen? How do we grow in our production? How do we grow in the bearing of fruit? How do I grow in my interest in the Scriptures? How do I grow in my joyful obedience to Christ? Whereas once I thought maybe it was sort of a drudgery, now it's a delight. How do I grow in this? I already gave the answer to you. Colossians chapter 1, listen to the first words of the Apostle Paul. Paul says, and we pray this, and we pray this. He says in Philippians chapter 1, and this is my prayer. So both times he's talking about fruit, both times he's talking about growing more and more in love, it is in the context of his prayer for the Colossian church, for the Philippian Church. How do we grow in our fruitfulness? Well, among other things, folks, we become more fruitful when we are on our knees praying, asking God to expand and increase our love for each other. Asking God, Lord, help me develop in me a continuing increase of a hunger and a thirst for your word so that I come to the place where I can never get enough and help me to grow in this so that when I'm sitting in the pew I am sitting on the edge of my seat and I can't wait for the word to be open so that I can drink in what you have Help me to come to that place. And when I am at home, help me to look forward to the time when there's a quiet moment that I can sit and leave the TV off and grab my Bible and open it up and drink in the Scriptures. Lord, give that to me, so that I might grow in obedience and increase in fruitfulness. Folks, this is the prayer that you ought to be praying for yourself, for your spouse, for your children, for your parents, for your missionaries, for your church members. That we grow in fruitfulness. That's what Paul does in Colossians and Philippians. And this is what you and I have got to do. And so besides all the lists that we make for our prayer list, remember to pray for these things. Make it a matter of prayer. Pray for the work of the Spirit in your life and in the life of others that they would grow and increase in bearing fruit. Now, why would we want to do this? Why do we want to become more fruitful as a church? Is it so that we can make a name for ourselves? Is it so that we can just have a better quality of life? Is it so that we can really be known in this community as a fruit-bearing congregation? John chapter 15 tells us why we do this. I want you to look. John chapter 15, verse 8. Ready? Here it is. This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. Here's proof, folks. The worship doesn't stop at noon. When you walk out of these doors, your life needs to be to the Father's glory. Worship is 24-7. We are constantly bringing glory to God, not only by the songs that we sing and the attention that we pay to God's Word during a service like this, but in the way that we live our lives, because as we increase in bearing fruit, all of this is to the Father's glory. Let's pray. Father, may you be pleased with us as we strive to live not for ourselves, but for your Son. You tell us that those who honor the Son honor you, and so we know that you are lifted up and glorified as we live for Him, as we imitate His life, as we separate ourselves from sin and separate ourselves more and more toward obedience through the power and enablement of the Holy Spirit that you give. Thank you, Lord, for This congregation, my prayer is the same as the Apostle Paul. Lord, that you would increase our fruitfulness. That we would grow in our love for each other. That bitterness and envy and jealousy would be put aside. And that we would grow in our love for each other. That there would be an increasing desire to know your word. That it wouldn't become old hat and just an old routine. That there would be an increasing zeal and a thirst to know what you have said in your word. Lord, we want this to mark this congregation gathered together this Sunday morning. Because we know that when we do so, you get the praise. All of the fingers are pointed at you. You get the glory for how we conduct our lives. And that's our aim and goal and desire. And so Lord, please, would you continue your work of transformation and do so through the power of the Holy Spirit that you give. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen.