 The title of our sermon this morning is the urgent necessity of a fruitful abiding. The urgent necessity of a fruitful abiding. And this is part two in this text. Last week, we looked at this paragraph, John 15, verses one through eight. That's the paragraph that we are examining now together, studying now together as we work verse by verse through the gospel of John. We came to verse one in this paragraph and spent our time last Sunday on I am the true vine. There's just so much packed into these verses and we don't want to rush that. We want to take our time through this passage. It has so much to inform our understanding of the Christian life. And so we want to carefully walk through this and understand what the Lord is saying here. As we come to John chapter 15 verse one, again the setting, it's Thursday night. Thursday night in Jerusalem, the last week of the Lord's earthly ministry and the Lord is walking with his disciples toward the garden of Gethsemane. He's about to be betrayed. Just a few short hours from now, he's going to be betrayed in the garden. He's going to be arrested. He's gonna go through mock trials, absurd trials. He's going to be scourged. He's going to be crucified and he's going to die. Delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge of God and taken by lawless hands crucified and put to death. Now, prior to departing from his disciples by means of the cross, the Lord leaves his disciples with parting instruction, parting words, parting exhortations in this section of John's gospel called the farewell discourse, the farewell discourse. Having described for them, to them, the gracious gifts that would be theirs through their union with him in John 14. Now in John 15, the Lord Jesus Christ turns his attention to their responsibility in that union, their responsibilities as described here in John 15. Now last Lord's day, we summarized that responsibility in a premise statement drawn from our text and I wanna remind us of that statement. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian. In fact, it is their highest priority to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. Now that's a mouthful, but I wanna, as we walk through the text, we're gonna unpack that statement, unpack the importance of that and what the Lord is saying here. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. In order to communicate that, in John chapter 15, verses one through eight, the master teacher uses a beautiful word picture here in allegory. This is the basis of the Christian life. He begins in verse one, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. As we started working through this text last week, we began looking at the three participants in our allegory, right? The three subjects, if you will, of this picture. In verses one and two, we looked at who is involved. The three subjects are the vine, the vine dresser and the branches. And we began last week by looking at Jesus Christ as the true vine. The Lord's statement again in verse one, I am the true vine is loaded with significance. We need to understand what that's saying and then apply those theological truths, those redemptive historical truths. We need to apply those to our Christian life, all right? The first thing that that statement communicated last week was the Lord's statement there, I am the true vine, communicates the deity of Christ, reaching back into the Old Testament, right? Specifically to Exodus chapter three into the suffering servant songs of Isaiah, the Lord Jesus Christ by saying I, I am the true vine is claiming for himself deity. He is the word who is with God and the word who is God and the word became flesh and dwelt among us, that's important. It's important for us to understand that. John chapter eight, verse 24, he reminds us that if you do not believe, Jesus Christ says, if you do not believe that I am, you will die in your sins. The Trinity, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, three persons, one God is a salvific doctrine. If you do not believe the Trinity, you go to hell when you die, very important. Secondly, I am the true vine from verse one communicates a fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes in Christ. God in redemptive history is moving along. He is progressing toward an end goal, so to speak. And the Lord Jesus Christ fulfills, in a sense, Israel in this statement. Listen, this has an important application for us and I don't want us to miss it. To most professing Christians and most professing churches, even in our church, maybe some of you sitting in this room this morning, there are those who believe that fruitfulness in the Christian life isn't necessary. There are some who live like fruit for God is unimportant. They make excuses for the lack of fruit by saying, you know, I got saved past tense, right? I got saved at some point in the past and yet they are fruitless today and will rest in their supposed salvation by looking at some past experience. Simply not what the Bible teaches. Please listen, okay? Make the connection with me. The Old Testament frequently refers to God's people as a covenant people, as God's vine or God's vineyard. And we looked at several of those texts last week. The purpose of God's vine or the purpose of God's vineyard is to bear fruit for the vine dresser. Do you see? Now those Old Testament texts that talk about Israel as the vine, also emphasize Israel's failure to produce fruit for the vine dresser, which results in those texts and the judgment of God on his people. Now in great contrast to Israel's failure, Jesus Christ comes along and says, I am the true vine. In other words, in order to bring about the fruit that God, the vine dresser desires, Jesus Christ fulfills where Israel fails. Do you see? He is the true vine. Now, here's where the application, the connection comes in. By God's grace, by the graciousness, the grace and mercy of God, everyone who is truly in Christ through repentant faith in him will, by God's grace, will produce the fruit that God expects. It's not just in the New Testament that God just disregards now fruit altogether. He says, you know what? Fruit's not important. Just believe in me. Everything's gonna work out fine. Now God is working in in redemptive history to produce the fruit that he expects as a part of the New Covenant. Those who are in Christ through repentant faith will produce the fruit that God intends. This is the grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness. Do you see? The grace of God that teaches us to deny ungodliness. It's the grace of God that has redeemed us from every lawless need whereby he has purified for himself his own special people, what? Zealous for what? Good works. Zealous to produce fruit. Do you see? That's the purpose of God's grace at work in us. In other words, the grace of God that brings salvation, the grace of God that brings salvation is the same powerful, wonder-working grace at work in a genuine believer to produce fruit. And that is a promise of God in the New Covenant. He says, God says, I will put my spirit within you and I will cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. Now that doesn't sound optional, does it? It's because it's not. It's not, it's guaranteed. It's guaranteed by God in the New Covenant. It was purchased by Christ at the cross. This is a fulfillment of God's redemptive purposes in Christ. And now all of us who are in Christ by faith in him, repentant faith, we will produce fruit to the glory of God. So, what more does it mean that Jesus Christ then is the true vine? It means that by God's grace, because of God's grace, there is no such thing as a persistent and unrepentant, fruitless Christian. Now think about that for a moment. It means that because of God's grace, because of the nature of grace, our understanding of grace, the Bible's teaching on grace, because of God's grace, there is no such thing as a persistently fruitless and unrepentant Christian. There's no such thing in the Bible like that. So you have to ask yourself, right? It begs the question. It begs the question. Am I producing fruit to the glory of God? What does your life look like? Am I producing fruit for the glory of God? Now thirdly, regarding his statement in verse one, I am the true vine, we looked at how that statement communicates that Christ is the Christian's life-giving source. That fruit is not produced by you at the end of the day. You labor and you strive and you exercise yourself toward godliness. You labor for fruit, but at the end of all your laboring, at the end of all your striving is the power of God's spirit in you, producing that fruit through you. At the end of the day, you'll stand before God and you can't say, look at God, look at all the good things that I did. Look at all the fruit that I produced, right? The believer can't say that. It is because of God's spirit in you that you do anything. And apart from him, how much can you do? Nothing. You can do nothing. It's entirely produced in you by the spirit of God. Lord Jesus Christ said that he is the resurrection and the life and the Christian cannot bear good fruit unless he abides in the true vine. All this to say is that God is looking for fruit, amen? God is looking for fruit. You must be in him. You must be united to Christ through repentant faith in order to produce it. If, if you're sitting here this morning and you've never turned to Christ, you've never turned from your sin to put your faith and trust in him, then you are fruitless. Even the good that you think you do is nothing more than a rag and the judgment you'll be cast out and cast into the fire as a worthless branch. God is looking for fruit. That was our first statement. In verse one, I, the Lord says, I am the true vine. Let's look at the next statement. My father is the vine dresser. In verse one, my father is the vine dresser. Now the God the father here, God the father is the vine dresser. Also the gardener. You can think about him as the divine gardener, the divine husband man. He's the one who lovingly, carefully tends to his vine, carefully lovingly tends to the branches. He's the hardworking farmer. Like Paul talks about in first Timothy chapter two or second Timothy chapter two, the hardworking farmer that cultivates the soil, right? Checking the condition of the branches. Does he do all that? Does the vine dresser do all that because he likes to look at the leaves? No, if you remember from Matthew chapter 21, the Lord is walking along the road. He sees a fig tree, right? The fig tree has beautiful leaves all over it, but when the Lord comes up and finds out that it has no fruit, he curses it, right? He curses it. Let no fruit grow on you ever again. Look at John chapter 15 and drop down to verse 16. Look at verse 16. The Lord says in verse 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and what? Bear fruit. The purpose for which he appointed them was to go and bear fruit. Notice those two verbs, go and bear fruit. He is looking for fruit and he says that your fruit should remain. Now, like the picture of Jesus Christ as the true vine, meditating on the picture of God the Father as the vine dresser communicates much to us. The picture is worth a thousand words, right? So think about that picture of God the Father as the vine dresser. One, he's the owner of the vineyard. He's the owner of the vineyard. In Psalm 100 verse three, using another word, picture. The Bible reads, know that the Lord, he is God. It is he who has made us, not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep of his pasture. In other words, we are accountable to him and dependent upon him for fruitfulness. He is the owner of the vineyard. Secondly, it communicates his loving care for the vineyard. His loving care for the vineyard. It's his vineyard, right? His prized possession. He is the one who tends to the vineyard. Think about it. God doesn't delegate it out. He doesn't send it out to an underling. God the Father is the vine dresser. He tends to the vineyard. He cleans the branches. Prunes the branches, nourishes the branches. He sees to it. God the Father sees to it and has given much to see to it that every branch in him produces the fruit that he intends. He does everything that must be done. It's his loving care for the vineyard. Third, it communicates his watchful eye over the branches. His watchful eye, he sees our state. He knows our condition. There's nothing that will escape his gaze, right? He is looking at you, looking at me. He knows our heart. He sees every secret thought and he is looking for fruit. You can't hide from the vine dresser. Not only can you not hide from the vine dresser, but you can't fool the vine dresser. You can't fool the vine dresser with empty, heartless, ritualistic religion. Write a bunch of checklists of dos and don'ts. You can't fool the vine dresser. He wants fruit from the heart out of love for the Lord Jesus Christ. We're to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength all the time and we're to produce fruit for him in accord with that love for him. He is watchful over the branches. Fourth, it communicates his unwavering faithfulness. Notice that every branch in him that bears fruit. Every single one that bears fruit he prunes for the purpose that it might produce more fruit. Every single branch in him that does not bear fruit, all of them, everyone he takes away, he sees to it that his fruitful branches never perish. They just keep producing more fruit. They never perish. In John 10, 28, he gives the true branches eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall anyone snatch them out of his hand. So the true vine, the vine dresser, and then the last participant or the subject of our allegory are the branches. Verse one, I am the true vine. My father is the vine dresser. Thirdly, in verse two, every branch. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. In this allegory, in this word picture, the branches here, the branches are those who profess to be followers of the Lord Jesus Christ. The branches are professing Christians. Now there are two types of professing Christians here. Two types of followers. There are fruitful followers and there are fruitless followers. Fruitful followers and fruitless followers. Those followers of Christ that bear fruit and those followers of Christ who do not bear fruit. Those professing Christians who say I believe and then those who are true believers, do you see? Now in verse two, both of those branches, the fruitful and the fruitless in verse two are said to be in me, right? In Christ. What does that mean, right? What does that mean? Every branch in me. Those are fruitful branches and unfruitful or fruitless branches said to be here in him. Now let's take a look at what it doesn't mean first, all right? It does not mean that both the fruitful branches and the fruitless branches are eternally saved. It does not mean that. You cannot presuppose from this text that you can be fruitless and eternally saved. It's teaching precisely the opposite. The fruitless branches obviously face the judgment and wrath of God. Look at verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, right? And by not abiding in him, you are fruitless. He is cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather those fruitless branches and throw them into the fire and they are burned, right? It does not mean that both fruitful and fruitless are eternally saved. Secondly, it does not mean that branches truly attached to the vine in genuine union with Christ, it does not mean that they can lose their salvation. It doesn't mean they can lose their salvation. Can someone be born again and be eternally lost? Can someone be united to Christ through genuine repentant faith in him and then be condemned eternally? No, turn with me to John chapter six. A few pages back to the left, John chapter six. It's not talking about that. There's just too much scripture that addresses that particular issue. For that one who is genuinely, truly attached to the vine, they will not lose that vital connection. John chapter six, and look down beginning at verse 37, verse 37. Here the Lord says, all, every one of them, all, everyone that the Father gives me will come to me. Now this is the doctrine of effectual calling or effective, efficacious grace, irresistible grace. If you think of Calvinistic teaching, biblical teaching, all that the Father gives me will come to me. You say, well, there are many people who reject. Yes, until they don't. Israel was stiff-necked until it wasn't. Every single one, all that the Father gives me, everyone given by the Father to the Son will come to Christ. It is effectual grace, efficacious grace. And he says at the end of verse 37, and the one who comes to me, I will by no means cast out, not one of them. Not one of them will be cast out. Verse 38, for I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me. Now this is the will of the Father who sent me in verse 39, that of all he has given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it up at the last day. Of all those that come to Christ, of all those that the Father gives Christ, none of them, not a one, will be lost. Verse 40, and this is the will of him who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son and believes, genuine saving faith and believes in him, may have everlasting life, and I will, the Lord says, I will raise him up at the last day. The Lord teaches here, John chapter six, among many other texts, the Lord teaches the security of the believer in the strongest possible terms. John says that he loved his own who were in the world and he loved them ace telos into the end, into the ages. He loved them to the end. So if genuine believers in him can't lose their salvation, then who are those fruitless branches in him, so to speak, that will be thrown into the fire and burned? Well, keep reading in John chapter six, drop down to verse 61. John chapter six, verse 61. Here, John writes, when Jesus knew in himself, that's a reference to his omniscience, right? When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, what did he just call them? Called them disciples. When Jesus knew in himself that his disciples complained about this, he said to them, does this offend you? He'd given them a very hard teaching. Verse 62, well, what then, if you should see the Son of man ascend where he was before, it's the spirit who gives life, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and they are life, verse 64. But there are some of you, now he's speaking verse 61, he's speaking to his disciples, people that are following him. In verse 64 of those following him, he says, there are some of you who do not believe. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe and who would betray him. Verse 65, and he said, therefore I've said to you, that no one can come to me unless it has been granted to him by my father. Again, the doctrine of effectual calling, doctrine of regeneration. Verse 66, what was the result of this teaching? From that time, many of his quote unquote disciples went back and walked with him no more. So Jesus said to the 12 in verse 67, do you also wanna go away? Simon Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also, we have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the son of the living God. Now when Peter made that pronouncement in Matthew chapter 16, what was Jesus' response to Peter? Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, right? Who revealed it to him? My father, the vine dresser, the one who grants, the one who draws, that one who works effective grace to drag sinners to himself. Here, Simon Peter answered him with that confession. We know that is because of God, the grace of God to him. And Jesus answered them in verse 70 and said, did I not choose you the 12 and yet one of you is a devil? He spoke of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, for it was he who would betray him being one of the 12. So now if you look at John chapter six, verses 68 to 71, you see two types of disciples, those who are truly in him and those who are truly not in him, right? You see two disciples specifically who are representative of fruitful and fruitless branches. You see Peter and you see Judas. Now if you think about their lives too, right? Peter was pruned, wasn't he? Pruned pretty severely multiple times in the New Testament, but Peter bore much fruit. The Bible clearly teaches, the Bible clearly teaches that God has chosen for himself a people. He has given those people to the son and the son keeps them infallibly forever. Bible clearly teaches that. However, the Bible also clearly teaches that many falsely profess to believe in him and have nothing more than a superficial attachment to him. And because they aren't genuinely in him and aren't genuinely producing fruit, those people will be eternally lost. So there are believers who are not genuine believers. You will know them by their fruit. There's a sense in which Judas was in him as a branch for a period of time, right? He followed the Lord around, he was a part of the 12. But Judas was fruitless and Judas was eventually cut off, withered and burned. The difference between the two, the difference between true and false is abiding and fruit bearing, abiding in the vine and fruit bearing. And none of this is new to us, right? As we work verse by verse through the Gospel of John, we've seen this distinction throughout the Gospel. Scripture is full of this distinction, true and false, true and false. It's a tragic reality that we see over and over again. Now as we think about the vine dresser and we think about this reality of the branches, true and false branches, here's something else that you can think about. As we work through our text, we're gonna get there to address it, but I want you to let it simmer when you're thinking as we move through the text. Here in John 15, the Lord is speaking to his 11 apostles. Judas is already out the door, right? Judas departed into the night to go and to betray the Lord. He's speaking to genuinely saved men. In chapter 15, verse three, he says to them, you're already clean because of the word which I've spoken to you. Lord Jesus Christ is essentially saying they're saved men. So why does the Lord then, in addressing genuine true fruit bearing branches who cannot lose their salvation, why does the Lord then address them and command them to abide and then warn them that if they do not abide and bear fruit, they will be cast out and burned. I want you to think about that. I want you to think about how that applies to your Christian life. Lord is speaking to the 11 with him who are genuine branches in the vine. We're gonna discuss that as we work through the text. And someone might say, you know what? I thought that those who truly come to him, he will by no means cast out. That's what the Bible says. That's what the Bible clearly teaches. We'll discuss the answer to that interpretive question when we get there, when we get to the part where he talks about abiding in verse four. But all this now, all this begs the question again, what kind of branch are you? What kind of branch are you? Which one of the two are you? There is no middle branch. It is one or the other. You are fruitful branch abiding in the vine or you are fruitless. Now the Christian, the genuine Christian can go through periods of time in their life where they have spells of fruitlessness. But what is the genuine response of the genuine Christian with respect to fruitlessness? They repent and they put their faith in Christ and they produce fruit to the glory of God. You're one of the two. This is life and death. Life and death, eternity, heaven or hell. Take stock of your fruitfulness. Are you a fruitful branch? If you're following along on your notes, this brings us to point number two. We've taken a look at our allegory at who is involved. We've got the true vine, the vine dresser and the branches. Next on your notes, verses two and three, what is expected? What is expected? What is expected of the branches? Verse two. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Now the emphasis on fruit, if you look at verses two and three there, the emphasis on fruit doesn't end with verse two. Fruit is emphasized again in verse four, emphasized in verse five, emphasized conceptually in verses six and seven. You see the concept there, right? It's mentioned explicitly again in verse eight and then again down in verse 16. So it doesn't take a rocket surgeon, right? To figure out what the Lord's concern is here. What is the Lord concerned about in this passage? Fruit, fruit, good answer. Fruit, all right? Fruitfulness is essential. In fact, the object of all three, the object of all three of our participants in the allegory, the object of all three is that the branches would bear fruit. Now think about that for a moment. God the Father's object is that the branches would bear fruit. God the Son's concern here is that the branches would bear fruit. It needs to be the preeminent concern of the branches that they bear fruit, all right? The emphasis on fruit. And in this passage and in many other passages in scripture, it points to the fact that bearing fruit is, as one commentator put it, God's primary creative and redemptive purpose. Lord's priority for his disciples is that they would bear fruit and glorify God. That takes us back to our premise statement again, doesn't it? It is the urgent necessity of every branch, every professing Christian. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. If you don't bear fruit, if you don't bear fruit, you give evidence that you are not a true branch connected to the vine. Fairly simple, right? Fairly simple. And if you don't bear fruit, then your end is to be cut off and burned. That's what the Bible says. A simple reading of the New Testament bears this out to be undeniably true. If you find yourself right now as you sit there arguing with this in your mind, it is clear throughout the scriptures. Let's just take a look at one book in the New Testament. Turn with me to Matthew. Matthew, just a simple read through the Bible bears this out to be undeniably true. God's primary creative and redemptive purpose is that the branches in him would bear fruit to his glory. Look at Matthew chapter three and drop down with me to verse seven. Matthew chapter three. Beginning in verse seven, Matthew writes this, but when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he, John the Baptist said to them, brood of vipers, who warns you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance. As some people when you're witnessing, if you evangelize, which you're a fruitful branch, you do, when you're talking to people about the gospel, it's often that people just think of repentance as nothing more than asking forgiveness, right? Just sort of saying, I'm sorry, please forgive me and that's the extent. No, here there are fruits that are worthy of repentance. There are fruits that befit repentance and you're to bear fruits worthy of repentance. He says in verse nine, don't think to say to yourselves, we have Abraham as our father. For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones. Even now, verse 10, the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree, which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I indeed baptize you with water under repentance, but he who is coming after me is a mightier than I, who's that? Lord Jesus Christ, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry, he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. His winnowing fan is in his hand and he will thoroughly clean out his threshing floor. You know, the winnowing and threshing, all dealing with fruit, right? Grain, fruitfulness. He's gonna gather the wheat, those fruitful branches into the barn and he's gonna burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire. Flip the pages to the right and look at Matthew chapter seven. Matthew chapter seven. This is the undeniable teaching of the Bible. Matthew chapter seven, look down at verse 15. Verse 15, the Lord says, beware of false prophets who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits. And then he presents an axiom, something that is undeniably true. Do men gather grapes from thorn bushes or figs from thistles? Even so, every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. Well, look at a moment at what fruit is here. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and is thrown into the fire. Notice the same language, right? Associated with bad fruit is the judgment of God, judgment of God. That's why this is so serious. Therefore, by their fruits, you will know them. All that fruit is produced to the glory of God, the glory of God. That's why it's so serious. Attached to fruitlessness is the judgment of God. For you and I, that's serious. This is heaven or hell, life and death. Flip the page and go with me to Matthew chapter 12. Now, Matthew chapter 12 and look down at verse 33. Matthew chapter 12, verse 33. Words of our Lord again, verse 33, either make the tree good and its fruit good or else make the tree bad and its fruit bad for a tree is known by its fruit. Brute of vipers, how can you being evil speak good things? In other words, it's impossible. For out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks as a good man, out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things or good fruit. And an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things or evil fruit. Verse 36, but I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give an account of it in the day of judgment. For by your words, you will be justified and by your words, you will be condemned. Flip the page and look at Matthew chapter 13 and drop down to verse 23. After teaching on the parable of the sower, which we won't go into this morning, he says this in verse 23, but he who receives seed on the good ground is he who hears the word and understands it, who indeed bears fruit and produces some 100 fold, some 60, some 30. In the parable of the sower, you have three fruitless expressions, if you will, of the eventuality of the seed landing on bad soil and you have one fruitful soil, one fruitful branch, so to speak, that bears good fruit, verse 23, some, 100, some 60, some 30. In other words, again, looking at fruit. Flip the page to Matthew 21. Matthew 21 and look there in chapter 21 at verse 33. Lord tells the parable, verse 33, there was a certain landowner who planted a vineyard instead of hedge around it, dug a wine press in it and built a tower. He leased it to vine dressers and went into a far country. Now when the vintage time drew near, he sent to the vine dressers that they might receive its fruit and the vine dressers took his servants, beat one, killed one, stoned another. Again, he sent other servants more than the fruit. What is he sending servants for? Fruit, fruit, the fruit that is owed to God and God alone. Again, he sent out other servants, verse 36, more than the first and they did likewise to them. Last of all, he sent his son to them saying, they will respect my son, but when the vine dressers saw the son, they said amongst themselves, this is the heir, come let us kill him and seize his inheritance. So they took him, cast him out of the vineyard and killed him. Therefore, when the owner of the vineyard comes, what will he do to those wicked vine dressers? They said to him, he will destroy those wicked men miserably and leases vineyard to other vine dressers who will render to him the fruits in their seasons. Jesus said to them, have you never read in the scriptures, the stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it is marvelous in our eyes. Therefore, I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken, but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. It's unmistakable, right? This is just one book of the Bible, but this is throughout the scriptures, right? There is such an emphasis on the fruit bearing of one who is in Christ, of one who will bring glory to God. It is the urgent necessity of every branch. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. The Bible essentially refers to fruitlessness or fruitfulness in three different categories. These are categories of fruitfulness in the Christian life. Now write these down. They even wanna put them in the margins of your Bible, all right, and consider them carefully. There are essentially three categories of fruitfulness in the Christian life. The first one is this, it's the fruit of character, character. Fruits of the Spirit, we see in Galatians chapter five, right? Listen to verse 22 from Galatians chapter five. But the fruit of the Spirit, it's the fruit of the indwelling Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit indwelling the believer produces fruit in the life of a believer and here's this fruit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such there is no law. And those who are Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. And if we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. He's saying abide, walk, abide in the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another and being one another. Turn with me to 2nd Peter, 2nd Peter. I want you to look at this text with me. Hebrews James Peter, 2nd Peter. And look at chapter one, beginning in verse two, the fruit of godly character. 2nd Peter chapter one, verse two. Peter writes, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. As his divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. You know that reminds me of John 14 and those blessed promises of the Lord to his disciples in John 14, right? He has given us all things that pertain to life and godliness. Everything that we need to produce this fruit that he's speaking about here, right? To produce the fruit of godly character. He's given us everything that we need. And he's given that to us through the knowledge of him, the Lord Jesus Christ, who called us by glory and virtue by which we have been, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, exceedingly great and precious. That through those promises, you may be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, but also now for this very reason. Think about it with me, brother, sister, listen. Everything that we've been given in Christ, all these exceedingly precious promises, everything that we need has been given to us in him. And so for this reason, for this reason, giving all diligence, everything you've got, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge, self-control. See all these character, these godly character fruits in the life of the believer. To knowledge, verse six, self-control. To self-control, perseverance. To perseverance, godliness. To godliness, brotherly kindness. And to brotherly kindness, love. For if these things are yours and abound to much more fruit, right? You will neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. What does the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ lead to? Leads to fruit, leads to fruit. For he who lacks these things, verse nine, is short-sighted even to blindness and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his old sins. Therefore, brethren, be even more diligent to make your call and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never stumble. For so an entrance will be supplied to you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, the fruit of godly character. Second, there's the fruit that shows up in your Christian conduct. Character and conduct. Fruitful character leads to fruitful conduct. Knowledge of Christ leads to transformation. These are life transformation. Ephesians chapter two, beginning in verse eight, Paul says this, for by grace you've been saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. Four, he says in verse 10, which many today, just stop reading at verse nine. Four, we are his workmanship created with a purpose. Created in Christ Jesus with a purpose. For good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Good fruit, the New Testament, in terms of conduct, often referred to as good works, good works, good works. Titus chapter three, verse eight, Paul says this is a faithful saying, and these things I want you to affirm constantly. How often should we affirm them? Constantly. Somebody will say, yeah, I'm glad for being a church here for YVN. We talk about obedience all the time, fruitfulness all the time, good works all the, why? Because Paul says to do these things constantly, we're to affirm with one another constantly, that those who have believed in God should be careful to maintain good, why should we be careful to maintain good works? Because a fruitless branch is cut off and is withered and is burned, that's why. Because if you are a fruitless branch, you will be cut off, you will be withered and you will die. You will be burned, eternal torment, that's hell. Why should we be careful to maintain fruitfulness? Because a fruitless branch is cut off, it is withered and it is burned. Be careful to maintain fruitfulness in the Christian life. Paul says these things are good and profitable to men. You think about Christian conduct, right? Character, inward character, godly character, and that reflects in conduct, loving your brothers, loving your brothers, exhorting your brothers, showing up on time to be an encouragement to your brothers, showing up on time to be an encouragement to your brothers, discipling someone, hosting fellowships in your house, right, giving, giving, exhorting the brothers, serving in the church, finding a need, meeting a need, serving a need, all those many ways in which fruitful Christian conduct will be seen in your life, to the glory of God, to the glory of God. Now the end or fruit of godly character, I want you to think about this, make the connection. The end or the fruit of godly character, the end or fruit of good conduct is the third type of fruit and that's converts. Character, conduct, and converts, making disciples, making disciples, making disciples. Some plant, some water, God gives the increase. Back in John chapter 15, I want you to think with me about our context in John chapter 15, think about our context. The Lord Jesus Christ walking with his disciples now in the eve of his death, he knows what they're about to face, he knows they're gonna suffer tremendous persecution, fierce persecution, great difficulty, and the Lord is departing from them, right? He's departing from them, he's leaving them so to speak on their own, they're not on their own, because the Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm not gonna leave you as orphans, I'm gonna pray to Father, he's gonna send the Holy Spirit, I myself will come to you, both me and my Father will make our abode with you, we will dwell with you, I give my peace to you, the Lord gives them precious promises, right? But he's leaving them, he's departing from them, they're gonna face tremendous difficulty and think with me in that context, what is the Lord's concern, his primary concern for them as he departs from them. This is it, that his disciples, these men, would persevere in the faith, persevere in the ministry that they have been saved to. They have been saved for a purpose, to bear fruit. They're to bear fruit in the ministry that they've been saved to, that's preaching the gospel. They have been saved to be a witness for the Lord Jesus Christ, to produce certainly in themselves Godly character, certainly Godly conduct, but here, their purpose to preach the gospel converts, to produce fruit, that the fruit of the gospel and going forward would produce fruit through them. He's concerned for the work of the ministry here and that ministry we continue in his absence. His emphasis in this entire discourse is to prepare them for gospel ministry. John chapter 15, again down in verse 16, you did not choose me, but I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit. He says that to every one of us who are in Christ. He says that to every one of us who are in Christ. Listen, you didn't choose me, I chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain. Whatever you ask the Father in my name, he may give to you. What fruit, what fruit is he looking for here? He's looking for the fruit of disciples. Disciples, the commission is great, right? Go there for and make disciples of all the nations. Often, professing Christians have no problem affirming the first two. Have you talked to many of them? You sit there and you explain that from the Bible. They can see it, they'll come to an affirmation of the first two, fruits of character, fruits of Godly conduct. They have trouble with the third. But this is part of being fruitful as a branch that is abiding in the vine. Let me ask you, is evangelism, is evangelism a command in scripture? Yes, it is. Are we commanded as abiding fruitful branches in the vine? Are we commanded to make disciples? Yes, we are. He who says I know him, he who says I know him and does not keep his commandments as a liar. So are you lying against your profession through your persistent disobedience and being fruitful for the Lord in the Great Commission, in evangelizing, in making disciples? What happens to that branch who is unfruitful in evangelism? What happens to the branch? It's cut off, cast off and burned. It withers and dies. It is revealed as not a true branch abiding in the vine. Peter says of the Jews in 1 Peter chapter two, he says of the Jews that they stumble being disobedient to the word to which they were also appointed. But in the true vine, Peter says, you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, his own special people, so that you may bear fruit in evangelism, so that you may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. If you are persistently disobedient in evangelism, if you are persistently disobedient in evangelism and you do not repent, then you are a fruitless branch. How will the Lord bear the fruit that he intends through a closed mouth? You must repent and bear fruits worthy of repentance. Fruitless branches are cut off. They are withered and they are thrown into the fire. Matthew chapter 10 verse 27, the Lord says, whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the light and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops and do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. Do you fear God enough to go out and produce the fruit that God intends? Fruit of godly character, godly conduct, but fruit in evangelism, fruit in disciple making are not two sparrows sold for a copper coin, the Lord says, and not one of them falls to the ground apart from your father's will. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore. You are of more value than many sparrows. Therefore whoever confesses me before men, him I will also confess before my father who is in heaven, listen, but whoever denies me before men, him I will also deny before my father who is in heaven. All you have to do to deny Christ is to keep your mouth shut. It is the urgent necessity of every professing Christian, every branch, it is the urgent necessity. In fact, their highest priority must be to glorify God by bearing increasing fruit in union with Christ through a prayerful abiding in him. Fruit is so important, so necessary that the father himself attends to two great works to ensure it. The father does two great works here to ensure that the believer produces fruit. One, and we find this two functions of the vine dresser in verse two, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, the father takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, the father prunes that it may bear more fruit. He cuts away the lifeless and he cultivates the living. You see, cuts away the lifeless, cultivates the living. One pastor said that he destroys and he disciplines. He destroys and he disciplines. If you consider that, right, the Lord cutting away and the Lord pruning and how difficult often the pruning is and how difficult the cutting away is and we see followers, presupposed, supposed followers of Christ fall away. The Lord here is preparing his disciples and preparing you and I for defection from the inside and suffering, persecution from the outside. There will be defection from among us and there will be suffering and persecution that comes from without. First thing that the Lord does in verse two, one of these two functions or two works of the vine dresser is he takes away fruitless branches. Every branch in me, verse two that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Notice first that no fruitless branch is exempt. Every fruitless branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. It's a reference to God's judgment in the Old Testament. If you remember Ezekiel chapter 15, God says of Old Testament Israel, they are a fruitless vine. What more could I have done for my vineyard that I haven't already done for them? And all they've brought forth is bad fruit, sour grapes. And God says I'm going to judge them. In Ezekiel 15, he's going to cast them into the fire where they will be burned. The parable of the sower in Matthew 13. These various passages in scripture here takes away. There's some who would interpret that to be lifting up. It just, it doesn't fit in the context. That word, he means takes away. In the context of verse six, he means thrown into the fire and burned. It means cutting off and destroying. This is the judgment of God. He says in verse six, if anyone does not abide in me, he's cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and they throw them into the fire and they're burned. And we've already established that a genuine branch can't lose their salvation, right? They can't lose their salvation. They're preserved by the vine and they're preserved by the vine dresser. However, these that are cast away are not true branches of the vine. First John chapter two, verse 19, John says they went out from us, but they were not of us. For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that they might be made manifest that none of them were of us. That's what's being spoken of here. Do you see? Turn with me to Hebrews chapter six, Hebrews chapter six. You know, if you think about it, just sometimes little simple illustrations, little simple analogies can help you think through it clearly. You know, if you had a man who gave everything to start a business, right? He sets out to start a business, pours blood, sweat and tears, every lick of money, every lick of resources that he's got, he pours everything into this business and this business is gonna produce widgets, right? It's gonna produce widgets. So the man does everything possible for him to do for this business, this widget making business to be successful. It gives them the best manual for making widgets that they can have. Hires these employees, all these employees come into the factory. They've got the best manual. They've got the best helps. They've got the best equipment, the best factory. They've got the best materials. They've got the best motivation. They've got everything. It's a wonderful environment for this widget making company and the owner comes one day. The owner comes and he walks through the front doors of the widget making factory and he says, you know, the first guy that he walks up to, how many widgets have you guys made? Hey guys, well, you know, let me show you our break room. Our break room is the greatest. We have a big flat screen TV in there. We've got a full functioning kitchen. Look at all the food we've got in the refrigerator. This is a great break room. We relax in here. Look at the couches. They're so comfortable. But where are the widgets? Have you seen our assembly line? Our assembly line is state of the art. It's the best assembly line in the business. There's not an assembly line out there that's better than our assembly line. Yeah, but where are the widgets? Have you seen this beautiful building? This is the most beautiful building ever constructed for a widget factory. We've got the best building of any widget factory in the world. But where are the widgets? Do you see? He's come looking for fruit. We can, you can come to church. We've got a great church. We got a great church. You know, I love singing the hymns. I love being there with the brothers and the sisters and you should come to our small groups. I mean, it's a nice time, small groups. We love our small groups. Where are the disciples? Where's the fruit? Where's the fruit? Hebrews chapter six, look at verse one. Therefore, leaving the discussion of the elementary principles of Christ, let us go on now to perfection, not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God and of doctrine of baptisms, of laying out of hands, of resurrection of the dead and of eternal judgment. All this we will do if God permits. For it is impossible for those who are once enlightened and have tasted the heavenly gift and have become partakers of the Holy Spirit and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come. If they fall away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves the Son of God and put him to an open shame. In other words, to that one who set out and now is a fruitless branch, they've been a part of a church like this. They've been amongst the people of God and they've determined that they're going to go their own way. They've determined that they're going to persist in their fruitlessness. It is impossible to renew them again to repentance since they crucify again for themselves and the Son of God and put him to an open shame. Verse seven, for the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed whose end it is to be burned. But beloved, he says, verse nine, listen, we're confident of better things concerning you. Yes, things that accompany salvation that we speak in this manner. Now why is he confident about them? We're confident, he says, of better things concerning you. Why? Verse 10, for God is not unjust to forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name in that you have minister to the saints and do minister. And we desire that each one of you show the same diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end that you do not become sluggish but imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. His confidence concerning them was the fruit of the work that they were doing for him. He had confidence of better things because he saw their labor. And then he challenges them. Listen, in spite of the severe persecution that's coming on you, the severe suffering that you're going through don't become sluggish but you imitate those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. And we see brothers and sisters around here, right? Who go through tremendous difficulty, tremendous trial and yet through all those tremendous trials they just remain faithful. We've been through trials in this church, haven't we? We've been through difficulty and there are many of you here who through all that trial, all that difficulty just remained faithful. We're to imitate those. We're to continue. We're not to grow sluggish. We're to show diligence to the full assurance of hope until the end. He takes away fruitless branches. If it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected. Near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned. The vine dresser takes away fruitless branches. Secondly, he prunes with a purpose. He prunes with a purpose. Back in John 15, the second half of verse two there, every branch that bears fruit, he prunes with a purpose so that it may bear more fruit. Again, notice every branch. No fruit bearing branch is exempt. This is the vine dresser's loving discipline. If you remember Hebrews 12, we don't have time to go there. He prunes, he disciplines those whom he loves. It is painful for a time, but it yields the fruit of righteousness. In those whom are being disciplined brings them to a closer abiding to the vine dresser. Pruning in Hebrews chapter 12 happens as a result of persecution. Happens as a result of persecution. And it happens as a result of persecution that comes from sharing the gospel. You look at verse three in Hebrews chapter 12, sharing the gospel. Chapter 11, those who by faith endured tortures being sawn in two, those whom the world was not worthy, comes through persecution. But often happens through suffering, difficulty. You will be pruned if you're a faithful fruit bearing branch that shares the gospel. You think about this this way. You've seen, heard stories, read stories about children of a king, right? And the children, maybe the child of the king one day is going to inherit the throne. And so that royal child, so to speak, goes through more difficulty, more adversity, more disciplined training in order to prepare him for his kingly office. One commentator said this. In this world, royal children have to undergo extra training and discipline with other children, which other children escape in order to fit them for their high destiny. It is the same for the children of the king of kings. Throughout your life, he is training you for what awaits you and chiseling you into the image of Christ. Sometimes the chiseling process is painful and the discipline irksome, but then scripture reminds us the Lord disciplines those whom he loves. The heavenly vine dresser who takes away fruitless branches and then prunes with a purpose, all with the object of fruitfulness for his own glory, fruitfulness for his own glory. Your life depends upon abiding in the vine. Your life depends upon it. There are no true Christians without fruit. Fruitfulness is an infallible mark of a genuine Christian. If you think about it, without fruit, if you don't produce fruit in your Christian life, then by your fruitlessness, you call into question the very testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ as the true vine. He is the true vine and every branch that abides in him will produce fruit to the glory of God the Father. You know, most professing Christians think of salvation as a point in time, right? And justifiably so, the Bible speaks of that. You were saved, you were converted, you were justified. The Bible speaks of that. And you ask the question when you're talking to somebody, how'd you get saved, right? How'd you get saved? I think about it in the past tense. However, most professing Christians do not understand the Bible's teaching of salvation as a continuation, as a continuum. When we say that someone will be saved, maybe he'll get saved. We're thinking of a lost person, right? The Bible also, not just as the Bible addressed salvation as being something that happened at a point in time, you were converted, you were justified, right? The Bible also refers to salvation as a continuum. You were saved, you are being saved, and you will be saved. The Bible uses all of those terms. You must persevere in fruitfulness to be saved. He who endures to the end will be saved. We can't simply look at those texts and think that because I had some experience in the past, I'm justified, and think that that has no consequence whatsoever for the life that we're now living for the Lord. He says here, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he has cast out. It is withered and it is burned. He says, he who endures to the end will be saved. He is calling us here to abiding fruitfulness and it is a life and death matter, extremely urgent, extremely important. You must persevere in fruitfulness. So how do you do that? Well, you do that by abiding in the vine. You can't do it in your own strength. You won't do it in your own strength. You have to abide in the true vine. More on that next week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, Lord, we praise you and we thank you that you have done everything for the vine, everything for the branches. You have given us every blessing that we need to be fruitful for your glory. I pray, God, by your spirit, instruct us now. Renew our minds, open our hearts, help us to understand how we depend upon you to be fruitful in the Christian life now. Let us depend upon you or it causes by your spirit to produce fruit for your glory. Help us to be fruitful, abiding branches for your glory, God. Help us as a church to be a fruitful church, a fruitful and godly character, fruitful and godly conduct and fruitful in the great commission, evangelism and making disciples for your namesake. We don't want to be fruitless branches. Lord, help us, those true branches that are here today, my brothers and sisters, Lord, that have slipped into sluggishness or apathy with respect to fruitfulness and pursuing fruitfulness in the Christian life, I pray, God, that you will bring them to repentance. You will convict them over their sin. They will see the seriousness of this command, this concern, they will turn from fruitlessness to fruitfulness for your glory. Those here today, Lord, who are not saved, they are fruitless, they've been fruitless, but I pray that you would convict them over their condition, cause them, Lord, by your grace and mercy to them, to fear you and to fear the fire and they would turn from their fruitlessness to abide in the true vine and be fruitful, glorifying branches in you. For your glory, for your namesake, Lord, help us, Lord, we need you in Jesus' name, amen.