Listening No.7 The Secret of a Fruitful Life

Let's turn to God's Word, the 15th chapter of John's Gospel. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. Let's read together those verses.

We should go down to the 17th, but we'll stop at the 8th, and I invite you to read the 9th through to the 17th later on today, and perhaps reflect on some of the lessons that we've reminded ourselves of as an attempt is made to expound the first eight verses. So John 15, verses 1 to 8, if you've got the NIV, then read it through with me. I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener.

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. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you.

No branch can bear fruit by itself, it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine, you are the branches.

If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit. Apart from me, you can do nothing. 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 burnt. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father's glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

Well, we come back to this theme of listening to Jesus. The greatest problem, it seems to me, as I try to reflect what I believe the Spirit of God wants to be said this morning, is not so much to be a Christian as to give evidence of the fact that you are a Christian. There is a sense in which being in Christ has little to do with you in the first instance.

I mean by that that we are, by some mysterious, inexplicable call of God, brought into a living relationship with himself. His grace is utterly irresistible. Why he called me, I will never know.

That he has called me, I am always assured. My position in Christ is such that it makes me unmovable. I mean by that our Lord Jesus has guaranteed that those for whom he has died will one day be with him in the Father's house.

Once in him, in him forever. But the problem is not just being in Christ, which has so much to do with the sovereign call of God. It is abiding in Christ, giving evidence of the fact that you do belong to him.

And that's where human initiative and effort comes in. That's why in this 15th chapter of John's Gospel, on at least 15 occasions, you find employed the word abide, abide in Christ. And the implication of what is here is well summed up by A.W. Tozer when he says, you can be as holy as you want to be.

There is in British secular society a group known as the aristocracy. You become a member of the aristocracy as a result of a fluke of birth. By and large you are born into it.

And there's very little that you and I could ever do to get into that category unless that chance of birth had come to pass in our experience. There is an aristocracy of the spirit. It has got nothing to do with your mother or your father, your sister, your brother, your wife or your husband.

It has everything to do with your self-determination to be the sort of man, to be the sort of woman that God wants you to be. If you want to be holy, you can be holy. If you want to be powerful in Christ, you can be powerful in Christ.

These things are left to human initiative. That's why our beloved Lord, when he's leaving the room where he's kept the Passover meal with the disciples, starts on that peripatetic, that journey from the room to the Garden of Gethsemane. And as he does so, he continues his ministry.

For what you have here in this marvelous 15th chapter of John's Gospel is our beloved Lord still teaching that little entourage of 11 true disciples and setting up for them what he wants them to be. There's never a parent who doesn't want, a good parent who doesn't want the best for her child, her son, her daughter. Have you ever thought how in the Old Testament, in the book of Genesis, you've got Jacob indicating what he wants for Joseph.

Jacob is on his deathbed and he's already got intimation that Joseph is an outstanding son. And in the 22nd verse of Genesis chapter 49, verse 22 of Genesis 49, you read, Joseph is a fruitful vine, a fruitful vine near a spring whose branches climb over a wall. That's a picture of spiritual prosperity.

There is a sense in which Joseph can stand for Israel, the people of God. And when you go to the book of Psalms, you find in the 80th chapter that our Lord looks upon Israel as a vine. Verse 8 of Psalm 80, you brought a vine out of Egypt.

You drove out the nations and planted it. You cleared the ground for it and it took root and filled the land. The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.

It sent out its boughs to the sea. It shoots as far as the river. Metaphor, yes, of course.

Poetry, yes. But poetry and metaphor in the Old Testament harness a kernel of literal truth. What God wanted for Joseph and the descendants of Joseph, what he wanted for Abraham and Abraham's descendants, was for the nation that was born as a result of these descendants to become the greatest nation on the earth.

The potential was remarkable. In the days of the Maccabees, that's the intertestamental period of which you've got little history, therefore in the Bible, placed on the coinage in those days was the national emblem of Israel, which happened to be a vine. The idea of millennial bliss in Israel in the Old Testament was every man having his own tract of land, having his own vineyard and sitting under his own vines.

And here's our beloved Lord, don't you see? He's got these eleven true disciples and he's walking with them on the cobbled streets of Jerusalem, out down the gate towards the Kidron Valley and ultimately to the Garden of Gethsemane. And on the way, he passes the temple. Now there's a certain amount of light, although it's night because, well, it's full moon, it's Passover time.

And as he passes the temple gates, emblazoned there is the national symbol of religious Israel, the vine. And Jesus stops and he says to these fellows, I am the vine, you are the branches. All that Israel was supposed to be in the Old Testament times and never became is now encapsulated, fulfilled in the ministry of Jesus.

Israel was destined to be God's own peculiar people. She failed time and time and time again until a cry was heard in Bethlehem of a young babe who, when he matured, fulfilled the purposes of God. And he says, I am the vine.

And he speaks to this handful of men who've been with him for a few years. And he says, you're the branches. And he goes on to say, my father is the gardener.

What does the Lord Jesus want of his church? What does Father God want of you and me? You see, so important is this in the conviction of our Lord, that though he's moving as a man to the gallows, he's more concerned about the spiritual well-being of this group of men who are following him than what he is about what lies in store for himself in the matter of just a few hours or less. He tells us that he wants us. For incidentally, here he's speaking to the church.

Let me just sidetrack for a moment so you get the implication, the full implication of these verses. There are three categories of people in our world. You may say there are two.

There are not. There are three. The first category is the unbeliever.

Now, that category is not featured at all in these verses. Judas has been excommunicated. He's left.

All you have here is the Lord Jesus and his early congregation of eleven men. Now, congregations split into two. There are fruitful Christians and there are fruitless Christians.

And what our Lord is dealing with here is Father's concern for Christian people to be as fruitful as our beloved Lord has been fruitful. Now remember, he says, I am the vine. He walks past the temple.

He's now moving down the slopes of the Kidron Valley. Away on the hillside there will be fires that are burning. You see, this is the time when the grapes have been harvested.

And the wood of the vine is good for absolutely nothing apart from burning. You couldn't even use it for the fuel for sacrifices. The thing about the vine is it lives just to produce fruit.

There is no other use at all for the vine apart from producing fruit. This is the reason why our beloved Lord, when he comes into the world, he's got very little concern about his own personal comfort. I mean, there never was a man for others like the Lord Jesus, was there? In a sense, he owned nothing.

Though he was helped by some who loaned him and sponsored him. Some womenfolk who were constantly alongside him, meeting his needs. But the fact of the matter is that when our Lord died on the cross, he got nothing to live, nothing to leave in terms of material provision.

The only thing our Lord had was the fruit of his life. The only thing the vine can do for humanity is to produce the fruit of the grape. Jesus is the selfless man.

And he speaks as Israel should have spoken. For Israel was destined by God to bless the world. Israel fails.

And the nation of Israel is depicted almost like those bonfires that are burning as our Lord goes down into Gethsemane's garden. Useless. Not achieving anything in the purposes of the Lord.

Now the Savior says, I am the true vine. If you disciples are to be branches, then you will live lives that are fruitful in similar fashion to the life that I have lived has been fruitful. Verse 4, remain in me and I will remain in you.

In other words, our Lord is inviting the disciples, that bunch of eleven men who have been with him now for some hours as he's been teaching them, after having washed their feet. He's suggesting that the purposes of God, which obviously have not been fulfilled in national Israel, are now being transferred to them. This is truly remarkable.

How often do I, from this pulpit, teach you about the significance of the church? You see, in the economy of God, the church is the most powerful entity, organism, that there is in the world today. For what reason? Well, the very ministry which our Lord Jesus Christ came on earth to establish is continued by the church. I am the true vine.

You are the branches. To the degree you are to be successful, will be by the measure in which you abide in me and continue to do the work that I have done. Look at the latter part of verse 4. No branch can bear fruit by itself.

It must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. And on to verse 5. I am the vine.

You are the branches. What is our Lord saying here? The sap that goes through the main stem of the vine is the same sap as goes out into the branches. And the branch of the vine is a replica of the main trunk.

Did you know that? It's weaker. It is not capable of bearing as much fruit. But nonetheless, the branch is a miniature of the vine.

And what our Lord is saying here is, disciples are a miniature of Him. I am the vine. You are the branches.

The vine exists to bring forth fruit. Christians exist to promote Christianity. Christians are born to bring into this world by their lives and by their example other Christians.

You see, at the end of what I call this short, uncertain earthly life and pilgrimage, the thing that's going to be weighed most is not your achievements at the human, secular level, though they could be quite honourable, but the thing that's going to be of greatest import is how you lived your life as a vine, as a branch of the vine. To what degree were you fruitful for Him? To what degree did you bless the world by your testimony and make an impact upon it? Not necessarily by preaching, in one sense that's the easiest job, but by living. You see, the greatest difficulty is not being a Christian, being brought into the kingdom.

That's by the sovereign decree of God, as I've already argued. The greatest challenge is to give so much proof of your Christianity that if Christianity was an illegal religion in England, there would be enough evidence to convict you. Now is there? Why was our Lord's vine so fruitful? Look at the first verse.

My father is the gardener. We've just moved house. I'm going to write a book on how your marriage can survive as you move house.

I will write it under a pseudonym, by someone who failed. Well, the garden we have inherited needs a lot of cutting back. I think potentially it's good.

But it does need secateurs. It does need the expertise of my wife to direct the process of returning it to what originally it was, a well-kept garden. My father, says our beloved Lord, is the gardener or the husbandman.

He tends the vine. After all, our beloved Savior, he knew something of the Father's paternal care, didn't he? It was as a result of the Father indicating to Joseph that he didn't divorce Mary, and therefore our Lord was brought into a normal home life. It was as a result of the providential care of the Father that our Lord, when a babe was taken to Egypt.

It was as a result of the paternal care of the Father that our Lord's early life was nourished. And at the age of 28 or 29, he's prepared to move on into the public ministry, having been baptized by the Holy Spirit. My father is the gardener.

What does a gardener do? Well, a gardener expects fruit. A gardener encourages fruit. A gardener exploits the potential of the land that is under his control.

And that's what the Father wants to do for you and me. He wants to cut back into our lives so that as a result of the cutting back, he will enhance growth. It is the Father's wish for you and me to be successful as Christians.

This is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples. How do you cope with the disciplines of God? You see, there are times when Father will take the knife. There are times when Father will take the spray.

He doesn't want the vine to go to seed. He doesn't want the vine to become degenerate. You see, there was never more heartbreak in the emotions of God than when Israel, ethnic Israel of old, became degenerate.

He said of her, I planted a vine in the Holy Land. Now look at her. And you know, invariably, when you read of Israel as a vine in the Old Testament, with the exception of the reference I gave you from Psalm 80 and the prophetic reference in Joseph's own character, whenever you read of a vine referring to Israel, it's always its degenerate state.

And the heart of God, it seems, was broken by the disobedience of the children of Abraham. Oh, my friend, don't you see that as far as the church is concerned, viewed as a vine, God does not want His church degenerate. God does not want His church going to leaf.

God does not want His church dying because it's not been pruned back, because no spray has been applied. He wants all the things that would infest the church and stop the growth to be treated so that the church shall be a mighty branch of the vine which traces its life back to the stem, to Jesus Himself. If we are in Christ, we are a new creation.

When we are at the moment of being born into Christ Jesus, it is God who takes the initiative. But don't you understand the heartbeat of Scripture now? The maintenance of that position, the business of abiding, is left to you. It really is.

This is not Arminianism that I'm teaching over against the Calvinism to which I'm often recognized as being a convert. What I am saying is this, that God in His sovereignty brings us into the kingdom, but when we are in the kingdom, He gives us the ability to become as fruitful as we wish to be. And God's concern as the husbandman, as the gardener, is to apply those cuts and to bring the spray into our lives as a result of which we shall be fruitful.

If you look under some leaves, you'll find the little insects and bugs that will devour a plant. And the spray is necessary. Those of you who are into horticulture far more than I am will know even in the tending of your tomato plants, you can't leave them to themselves.

There's not only rampant, irregular growth of which they are capable, but also the disease, the problems that are based in nature. They have to fight, and you help them so to do. And so here in the third verse, the comment is made, you're already clean.

Yes, you have responded to my message because of the word that I have spoken to you, but you need constantly to remain in me. Why? Because that state of cleanliness is something that always has to be attended to. So, how do you remain a fruitful Christian? Or how do you become a fruitful Christian? Well, by doing one of the things that you're doing already this morning.

And that is by looking into the word of God, constantly being fed on his word. Sometimes the way we preach, it causes hurt. Now, if that is the case, provided that's not always the aim of the pulpit, because one should not just hurt, one should console, one should destroy, and one should construct.

But if you're affected by ministry, then thank God for it. Don't of necessity be mad with the preacher. It could well be that God is using his words to become the secateurs, to cut back into your life, and to take out those things that are wretched, so that as a result there shall be more fruit.

When you come around the table of the Lord, and you take bread and wine, one of the benefits of doing that is for you to work out the relationship you have with God at that particular point, over against all that has happened in the past week, and to get things right that are wrong. In other words, to let the husbandman raise up the branch that stems from the vine, and look underneath, and examine the leaves, and if there happens to be some growth that is irregular, some disease, some blight that is affecting, to cut it off. This is what the old Puritans would have called the means of grace.

Coming around the word of God, around the table of the Lord, taking time, as our hymn indicated that we sang earlier, taking time to be holy, spending moments yourself before the Lord in prayer, occasions when you cut back on your TV viewing agenda, and on other things that may be honorable or less honorable, and substituting the occupations in which you would have engaged with something that would be spiritually more beneficial. Now you see the point? You just cannot duck my logic. You can either agree to this and work on it, or you can reject it.

The one thing you cannot do is deny the fact of Scripture, that you are to abide in the Lord Jesus. You see, what it does sound as though I need to apply some effort. You're dead right.

You do need to apply effort. The life to which we are called is a life of discipline. You see, there used to be a teaching which I think actually was rampant in the United Kingdom in the 1950s, possibly as a result of the crusade mentality, which seemed to suggest that becoming a Christian was just believing in Jesus.

Now there is a sense in which that is right, don't misunderstand me, but it does not go far enough. Becoming a Christian is not just believing in Jesus, it's receiving the fullness of the Holy Spirit, it's having your life placed at the disposal of the Holy Ghost so that as a result of you handing over the control, things become to be different, are seen to be different within your personality. Not just believing, but doing.

Now it's not the doing that saves you, but it is the doing that indicates the reality of the decision that has been made. Let's go back and I'll bring this exhortation to a conclusion in a moment. Let's go back to those bonfires, shall we? Here they are on the valleys skirting the brook Kidron.

And I said that those bonfires were made up of the wood from the vine which really had no use. I repeat, the only value a vine has is the grapes, the fruit that it produces. Now, don't you remember how the Apostle Paul speaks in a similar fashion, though he doesn't use the analogy of the vine.

He talks about the last day, and he talks about judgment, and he talks about you and I as Christian people that one day as we come before the Lord, we shall be judged for what we have done. He uses the analogy of a building site, actually, to some degree at any rate. He says of our Lord Jesus, I'm referring to 1 Corinthians 3, if any man builds on this foundation, using gold, silver, costly stones, wood, hay, and straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the day will bring it to light.

It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burnt up, he will suffer loss.

He himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames. Now, I should have started my reading just a little earlier, because our Lord says that not only can one... No, I did get it in the 12th verse. Not only can one use such substantial building material as gold and silver and costly stones, but one has the opportunity, the choice of using wood, hay, or straw.

What does he mean? Well, he's talking about the quality of life, the things that you and I engage in as Christian people. When the day of judgment comes, there will be some Christians who will be saved, but they have nothing to offer at all. Wood, stone, stubble, these things which have no value, the wood, the hay, the straw, which are consumed by the fire.

Now, go back to those fires by the side of the brook Kidron, and these fires, you remember, I told you, were started, and they were fueled by the branches from the vine, which is no longer of any use at all. Here you've got a parallel. You see, our Lord is not saying that if Father does not tend you and you become fruitful, then you won't be a Christian.

He's teaching the 11. They are all believers. What he is saying to them is you have the potentiality for fruitfulness, or you have the potentiality for fruitlessness.

You are in the kingdom. Now the choice is yours. I am the vine, the true.

I abided in Father. The Father, he was related to me in the same way as Father has been alongside me. So Father, by the power of the Holy Spirit, is in you and wants to bless you and use you.

I am the true vine. My Father is the gardener. I am the true vine.

You are the branches. You know, the tragedy of Israel, ethnic Israel of Old Testament times, was that she was always, as I indicated, a degenerate vine. Campbell Morgan, I think, went too far.

When he said that our Lord Jesus here excommunicated Israel, when he said, I am the vine, and he points to the disciples and said, you are the branches. I believe before the return of Christ, Israel will be grafted back into the vine. But my friend, until that time, you and I as Christian people have a responsibility to so abide in Christ that our lives shall be fruitful in a way that those ancient Hebrews never brought fruit to the Lord who planted them as a nation in the Middle East.

Let's pray. Father, so many of us here could be far more than what we actually are in the kingdom of God. We want to repent from the pulpit, alongside each pew, to every occupant.

Lord, we want you to have full sway in our lives. Deepen our root. Check the grafting in of our lives to the stem of the vine.

Help us to know something of the nourishments of the Christ and of his Spirit. Cut back that which causes fruitlessness. And as a result, may there be fruit.

So that we shall live for your honor and for your glory and give evidence to this needy world that our lives are lives through which Jesus works out his purposes. Attractive, fruitful, worthwhile. In his name, amen.

There's a song that we learned some years ago at the tab, You are the Vine, We are the Branches. It's coming up on the overhead projectors. We're going to hear the first verse and chorus song and then please join in on verse two.

Those of you who sit on the extreme left and right of the church, then you have words handed to you. We'll stand after the first verse and the refrain have been sung. You are the vine.

We are the branches. Keep us abiding in you. You are the vine.

We are the branches. Keep us abiding in you. For we know fruitless will our efforts be.

In the vine we must remain to bring a harvest that will last eternally. You are the vine. We are the branches.

Keep us abiding in you. You are the vine. We are the branches.

Keep us abiding in you. Then we'll grow in your love. Then we'll grow in your name.

That the world will surely know that you have power to hear and to say. You are the vine. We are the branches.

Keep us abiding in you. You are the vine. We are the branches.

Keep us abiding in you. Christ our Lord, we give to you your commands. We'll obey for your love has won our hearts.

And we long to glorify your precious name.