I have three particular things on my mind
and heart at this time.
And I've been trying very hard this weekend
to speak briefly and have succeeded wonderfully well,
by my standards at least.
And I surely must do so this morning,
so I must be very quick about two
of the matters.
And then the third will be the message,
really.
I do want, again, to thank you for
the privilege of being here with you, Maggie.
And I have always felt deeply grateful for
the privilege of these conferences at the Cedars.
We do find that the Lord arranges our
lives so that they fall in very pleasant
places.
And we certainly have found one of these
pleasant places here at the Cedars.
And lovely things and things that one doesn't
really hope will ever happen do happen.
Maggie and I drove down from Illinois this
time because we have another assignment tomorrow.
We're given the privilege of going to William
Jewell College in Missouri and appraising the library
of Charles Haddon Spurgeon, which Midwestern Baptist in
Kansas City desires to buy and has asked
me to help them with that.
Now, never in all my life did I
think I could get the handle with my
own hands the private library of Charles Spurgeon.
But that falls as my delightful task this
week.
So we do thank the Lord for all
the lovely things.
Oh, occasionally there is a hard blow.
And someone thinks they're doing God's service by
giving us a nasty crack.
But nonetheless, the Lord is gracious and merciful.
And we delight in the things that he
brings across our path.
Now, the first time I spoke at this
particular weekend conference, I raised an issue which
I knew would alarm and trouble many of
you.
And probably at least half of those who've
said anything to me at all have said
they're having a problem with God hating the
unrepentant sinner.
I'm glad that's troubled you.
I've let it set for a couple of
days in the hopes that it would trouble
you even more deeply.
But I think the sum of the problem
that people have, and this has been put
to me a number of times, is a
very direct question.
Are you saying that God hates unrepentant sinners
or unrepentant believer?
Now, just think about that.
Does that definitely, does that not definitely prove
how far from the truth we have fallen?
What under God's sun is an unrepentant believer?
How could anyone have such a ridiculous notion?
Did not our brother Claude speak to this
very powerfully yesterday when he quoted our Savior?
Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and
you do not do what I say?
Did he not say, repent, for the kingdom
of God is at hand?
How, then, can you be a believer and
an unrepentant person?
And did he not also ask, or command
rather, if you love me, keep my commandment.
It simply is no such thing as an
unrepentant believer.
But remember, please, that both repentance and faith
refer not to singular actions, but to ongoing
activity.
One is not a Christian because they repented
and believed.
We live repentantly, and we live believingly.
Having started to repent, I spend my life
in repentance.
Having started to believe, I spend my life
believing.
What does it matter that I had a
moment of repentance or a moment of faith?
That gains nothing.
It has no meaning or consequence.
If you doubt it, read the book of
Hebrews on your knees.
But remember also that it is from the
Lord's perspective that we're speaking.
We're talking about God hating the unrepentant sinner.
Do you remember that early on in his
relationship with Peter, our Lord said, I've got
a new name for you, Simon, the rock.
I mean, Peter was Simon, and Peter, the
rock.
Now, was Peter a rock when Christ named
him Simon?
My word, no.
It was a long time becoming what he
was named.
Our Lord treated him not as he was,
but as he was going to become.
When we say the Lord hates the unrepentant
sinner, he's not referring to that lost and
wayward child of yours who's living in rebellion,
but has been the subject of his mother's
and dad's prayers.
And God is at work within him.
And maybe it's still seven years down the
line, but that child is going to come
to repentance and faith.
God is loving that child who he is
bringing to himself.
Don't let us lose sight of that.
We're talking about God hating the unrepentant sinner,
that person who goes through their life in
refusing to repent and believe.
And with God, as I urge you to
realize, to stop saying to people, God loves
you just the way you are.
God loves them in their repentance and in
their faith.
And he wants them to change.
He's not willing that they should perish.
And we need to be warning them, you
cannot go on in your unrepentance and your
unbelief.
You must turn from your sin and yourself
to Jesus Christ.
And use words that will help them instead
of words that will encourage them in the
wrong direction.
But I need say no more about that.
But I do hope, though, with all my
heart that you get serious about your Bible.
God intended you should.
And if you're going to have any further
trouble with the matter, do what I've urged
others to do.
Get your concordance out.
Look up every single reference to God's love
and God's hatred.
And you will discover the truth.
And God will govern your thinking and your
conduct hereafter.
Now, that was the first thing I just
needed to add a word to.
The second thing is, I've been sort of
wishing for a fifth opportunity to preach this
weekend.
And that's not, of course, sensible or reasonable.
And I really haven't expected it.
But I have felt that none of us
have dealt with the most classic passage on
the subject of remedial judgments.
And while I need not go into it
this morning, I must call it to your
attention and urge each of you to set
aside several hours, sometime soon, to carefully work
your way through the passage.
I'm simply going to draw it to your
attention and help you to get a sense
of how to pursue it with care.
So I'm making reference now to the prophet
Isaiah.
And I'm urging you to turn just for
a moment.
As I said, I'm not going to open
it up with any detail.
But I just want to help you to
capture a sense of how to proceed in
the study and in the prayerful assimilation of
this passage.
So Isaiah 63, and it actually covers from
verse 7 through the end of the chapter
and on into 64.
So we're dealing with more than a chapter
and a half here.
This is actually a lament.
I'll just read a small portion of it
and pinpoint things you need to face squarely.
I pick it up at verse 7.
So Isaiah 63 at verse 7.
I make mention of the loving kindnesses of
the Lord, the praises of the Lord, according
to all that the Lord has granted us,
and the great goodness toward the house of
Israel, which he has granted them according to
his compassion and according to the multitude of
his loving kindnesses.
For he said, surely they are my people,
sons, who will not deal falsely.
So he became their Savior.
In all their affliction, he was afflicted.
And the angel of his presence saved them.
In his love and in his mercy, he
redeemed them.
And he lifted them and he carried them
all the days of old.
But they rebelled and grieved
his Holy Spirit.
Therefore, he turned himself to become their enemy.
He fought against them.
Lay hold of that.
Understand that these remedial judgments come from the
heart of a God who is broken by
the misconduct, by the stubbornness, by the rebellion
of his people.
He selected them.
He said, surely these are my sons.
Oh, oh, I must be able to count
on them.
They're the very ones I have chosen.
I have loved them, not because of any
excellencies in them, not because of their size
or consequence.
But I have loved them because I have
loved them.
And surely I can depend upon them.
But no, they rebelled, they grieved his Holy
Spirit.
So he turned himself and became their enemy.
He fought against them.
What could depict the remedial judgment more effectively
than that?
A remedial judgment is a time when God
has turned himself against his own beloved.
And I want to ask you, I want
to give it to you even as an
assignment in the hope that you will take
it as that.
Prayerfully work your way through each line of
the passage I have outlined.
63, verse 7, through the end of 64,
you will see statement after statement after statement.
Meditate on these statements.
Let them become part and parcel of who
you are.
Look at the line in verse 15.
Where are thy zeal and thy mighty deeds?
The stirrings of thy heart and thy compassion
are restrained toward me.
Or 17, why, O Lord, dost thou cause
us to stray from thy way and harden
our hearts from fearing thee?
Let this passage become a vital part of
who you are in all the days to
come.
And recognize deeply that these remedial judgments come
from the heart of a God who is
deeply grieved and injured by the conduct of
his own people.
And let me pray that, indeed, this passage
will touch us.
O God, don't let these dear brothers and
sisters treat this passage in a cavalier fashion.
Don't let them neglect it any longer.
Bring it to them with great power in
the days immediately before us.
Deeply prick and affect their hearts and their
lives.
Move them so greatly by your broken heart
that they will weep for the churches of
the land who have redoubt and grieved your
Holy Spirit.
Make of us a body of people who
will care about the very things you care
about, who will see every situation as you
see it, who will feel what you feel,
and who will respond in ways appropriate.
Grant us this grace, we plead, in the
dear name of Jesus.
And now my text for my final opportunity
of ministry to you.
The Gospel of John, chapter 15.
The question was asked last evening.
Are there New Testament passages that deal with
these matters of remedial judgment?
Well, yes, there are.
They don't necessarily look the same.
The truth is couched in different language and
in some instances, there's a thrust that's somewhat
distinct even from some of the Old Testament
passages.
But I want to read the first eight
verses of the Gospel of John, where once
again, the Father's heart is so clearly unfolded.
And the sorting out of the fruitful and
the unfruitful is clearly presented.
And where the remedial work of God is
carried on in the form of pruning in
this particular passage.
So let us with great care read verses
1 through 8 of John 15.
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
it that it may bear more fruit.
You are already clean because of the word
which I have spoken to you.
Abide in me, and I in you.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine, so neither
can you.
Unless you abide in me.
I am the vine.
You are the branches.
He who abides in me and I in
him, he bears much fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in me, he's
thrown away as a branch and dries up.
And they gather them, and they cast them
into the fire, and they are burned.
If you abide in me, and my words
abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and
it shall be done for you by this.
Is my father glorified that you bear much
fruit and so prove to be my disciple?
Now, it's important before we approach the actual
wording of the passage that we understand the
timing of this particular matter.
This is obviously John 15.
That follows 14 and 13.
It precedes 17.
We must understand that this is our Lord's
final discourse.
So these words are spoken just almost immediately
before.
He's going out into the garden, and Judas
coming with the religious leader and the soldier
and taking our Lord captive and dragging him
into the city and subjecting him to the
mock trial and the great and awful abuse
that he suffered on our behalf.
But we must also have clearly in mind
that these words are not addressed to the
12, but to the 11, for one has
already left.
Judas had slipped out and went to make
the final arrangements for the betrayal of Christ.
We can't possibly get the correct interpretation of
this passage unless we realize that Judas is
God.
The theme itself is one of the most
frequently reoccurring themes in all of the New
Testament, the theme of fruit.
I want to take a few moments to
give you just a brief rundown of some
of what our New Testament teach us concerning
the subject of fruit.
Many of you will immediately recognize the words
that I quote.
Therefore, bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
Words spoken by whom?
John.
They're recorded both in Matthew chapter 3, verse
8, and in Luke chapter 3.
Therefore, bring forth fruit in keeping with repentance.
For someone to claim that they are repentant
and yet not to produce the fruits of
repentance is merely to set themselves forth as
a hypocrite.
We don't live in doubt, either concerning ourselves
or others, in regard to the matter of
repentance.
If a person says they have repented, then
we simply observe, do we see the fruit
of repentance?
And if there is no fruit, then there
is no root.
If there is no repentance, there will be
no fruit.
And if there is no fruit, there has
been no repentance.
It's that simple.
Those who repent bring forth fruit that is
in keeping with or that is appropriate to
repentance.
But John also, in the same passages in
Matthew and in Luke, also said the ax
is already laid to the root of the
tree.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear good
fruit is cut down and thrown into the
fire.
Matthew 3.10, Luke 3.10. So fruit,
in keeping with repentance, and the ax, the
gospel ax, already laid at the tree at
its very roots to cut down that which
does not bear fruit.
But now referring to our Lord himself.
Listen to these words from Matthew chapter 7,
verses 15 to 21.
Beware of false prophets who come to you
in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.
You will know them by their fruits.
Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor
figs from thistles are there.
Even so, every good tree bears good fruit,
but the rotten tree bears bad fruit.
A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor
can a rotten tree produce good fruit.
Every tree that does not bear good fruit
is cut down and thrown into the fire.
So then, you will know them by their
fruit.
Not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord,
will enter the kingdom of heaven but he
who does the will of my Father in
heaven.
As I said, Matthew 7, 15 to 21,
you find as well the parallel in Luke
chapter 6, verses 43 to 44.
So whether or not a person is truly
a servant of God is readily ascertained, our
Lord makes it clear, by their fruit.
If their fruit is rotten, you know that
they are a bad tree.
Now, I ask you to be sure to
understand that the message of John 15 was
to 11 and not to 12, because there
was a rotten tree in the band.
That rotten tree did produce bad fruit.
And you can think immediately of some of
Judas' bad fruit.
When that woman took that costly ointment and
was pouring out her soul's affection on Jesus
in that lavish way, the reaction of Judas
immediately proved he had rotten fruit.
Now, we're not told a great deal about
the man and his other activities, but we
understand, don't we, that he did have his
hand in the purse.
There's many questions, but what there was, a
bad tree, his rotten fruit, in the person
of Jesus, right in the midst of that
small band of 12.
And we're not taken by surprise, when in
our churches today, it becomes quite apparent that
there are bad trees producing rotten trees.
But always, you see, we can recognize the
validity or the falsity of one's claim to
faith on the basis of the fruit that
they produce.
Let me draw your attention now to Matthew,
chapter 12, at verse 33, where our Lord
says, either make the tree good and its
fruit good, or make the tree rotten and
its fruit rotten, for the tree is known
by its fruit.
And just because somebody claims to be a
Christian, and yet demonstrates nothing but rotten fruit,
why should I accept their claim to Christianity?
Why should I not do just what my
Lord says here?
If somebody says they're a true believer, and
yet they produce nothing but rotten fruit, why
should I not label them as a rotten
tree?
Make the tree good.
Make the tree evil.
Understand the situation.
We're not called upon to be forever judging
one another, but we are fruit inspectors.
And we must watch and see whether a
person is bearing fruit that is appropriate to
or in keeping with repentance.
While our heart's desire is not to be
censorious, how do we help people if we
do not discern where they're at?
And many a person who desperately needs help
right in the church is regarded as a
good tree, even when their fruit proves that
they are a bad tree.
We must ask God to give us such
sensitivity, such discerning spirits, that we are able
to identify the good and the bad, and
to render that help that is appropriate, that
the Holy Spirit of God would enable us
to give if we were truly caring and
discerning.
But let me draw your attention as well
to Matthew chapter 13, a passage beginning
really in verse 3 and running through verse
8, and then picked up again by our
Saviour in verse 18 and running on through
23.
The parable of the seed.
And we're not going to go into the
details of the parable.
They're well known to us.
But I do want to call your attention
to these words.
Other seed fell on the good soil, and
it yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some
sixty, and some thirty.
Now, that helps us to understand that this
matter of observing the fruit, of being fruit
inspectors, is not a matter of regarding a
tree as a bad tree because there's only
thirtyfold increase.
And not commending another because there's a hundredfold
increase.
No, the great issue is not what degree
of increase is there.
It's acceptable if it's a hundred.
It's acceptable if it's sixty.
It's acceptable if it's thirty.
The problem is that tree that produces bad
fruit.
So please, please, please, don't be analyzing either
yourself or one another on the basis of
the quantity of the fruit.
The quality.
Is it true fruit?
Is it good?
And of course, that parable is dealt with
in Mark and Luke as well.
But again, in Matthew 13, another passage dealing
with the subject of fruit.
Starting at verse 24, running to verse 30.
Gather up the tares and bind them in
bundles to burn them.
Gather the wheat into my barn.
You remember the circumstances, don't you?
A field was sown with good seed.
But then by night, an enemy came and
sowed tares in the same field.
And so the question comes up.
Should we go out there into the field
and root up the tares and get rid
of them and our saviors and suck them,
let them grow up together.
And at the time of the harvest, then
you gather the tares into bundles and throw
them in the fire.
And you gather the wheat and bring it
into the fire.
And again, you see a real caution now
about this matter of fruit.
It's not our task to be trying to
root out of the assembly in the blind
stupidity those that are there.
They're there.
Some force the church by their conduct to
deal with that.
Their sins are so flagrant.
And vicious and contrary to the will and
purpose of God that we deal with that.
But we understand, don't we, that throughout our
lifetime in the church, there are those we
can care.
And our great concern is not in poking
around in the lives of others, but in
being certain that our own lives are bearing
those fruits in keeping with repentance.
So our Lord is giving us a balance
in these various perspectives that he provides on
the subject of fruit.
And I call to your mind as well,
Matthew 21.
I'm reading just a single verse 19.
Seeing a lone fig tree by the road,
he came to it and he found nothing
on it except leaves only.
And he said to it, no longer shall
there ever be any fruit on you.
And at once, the fig tree withered.
So many a tree is left standing.
Many a tree produces leaves for years and
no fruit.
And the Lord does not deal with it
promptly.
But there are occasions when he does single
out a fruitless tree and places his curse
upon it.
We must all understand in this whole area
of remedial and final judgments that God does
often let something go on for a considerable
period.
I have reminded you on former occasions of
the temple in Jerusalem.
I've pinpointed to some of you the obvious
fact that while we do not know the
precise year in which our Savior was crucified,
we reckon it to be somewhere between the
year 33 and 35.
And just for ease, we'll say he was
crucified in the year 35.
Not at all insisting on the accuracy of
that date, but just to aid you in
your thinking.
He had already placed his curse upon the
temple in Jerusalem.
He had said concerning that temple, your house
is left unto you desolate.
They continued their traditions and their forms in
that temple.
So if I'm anywhere near correct in saying
the curse was placed upon them in the
year 35, that means that they continued as
they were for 35 years when God himself
never came anywhere near that temple.
And yet he left it standing during that
35-year period.
And then, just as he promised, an alien
horde invaded the city of Jerusalem and so
totally destroyed the temple that there was not
one single stone left standing upon another.
But there's many a life that is fruitless,
that is left to go on for 35
years.
And many a church that God has forever
abandoned, that is allowed to go on pretending
to be something it is not and never
can be.
But our great concern is our own heart
and life.
Am I bearing fruit that is in keeping
with repentance?
Is my church bearing fruit that is pleasing
unto God?
There are other passages.
I'll not give detail.
I could mention Matthew 21, verses 33 to
43, the parable of the vineyard and the
wicked tenant farmers.
I could mention John 12, verse 24.
Unless a grain of wheat falls into the
earth and dies, it remains by itself alone.
But if it dies, it bears much fruit.
And some here who have long desired to
be fruitful are not yet true fruit-bearing
Christians, because you've never died.
You're stopped.
But when that grain in the earth lies
bearing and begins to rot away, but the
life within that seed suddenly springs forth and
the vine begins to appear.
And in the course of God's time, the
fruit.
I could mention also the Gospel
of John, chapter 15, verse 16.
You did not choose me, but I chose
you.
And I appointed you that you should go
and bear fruit and that your fruit should
remain.
That whatever you ask of the Father in
my name, he may give it to you.
But let me add just one other reference
before coming again to John 15.
I was reminded of this passage recently in
a phone conversation with a dear pastor.
I'm referring at the moment to Luke 13,
and in particular, verses 6 to 9.
This pastor had talked to me perhaps a
year or so ago.
And he had told me that on the
staff of the church, there was a man
who was creating a great deal of tension
and conflict in the church.
But indeed, he had tried to work with
this man for several years, and it just
never seemed to improve.
It was always this tail bearing and this
working underneath the seams, stirring things up and
creating trouble.
And when he talked to me somewhat more
than a year ago, he said, I've tried
desperately to avoid this, but I'm at that
point where I've got to deal with this
man.
I'm afraid I'm going to have to fire
him, but I don't want to.
I want to see him change.
I want to see him become fruitful.
So as he was praying about it, and
praying about it, and praying about it, suddenly
one morning he woke up and he had
in his mind the parable of the vineyard
where the owner of the vineyard had arrived.
And he said, this vineyard is, or no,
this tree, rather, is producing no fruit.
I want you to cut that thing down
and get rid of it.
And the keeper of the orchard said, give
me another year.
Let me dig around it.
Let me fertilize it.
Let me give it special attention and see
if indeed it can't be turned around.
And the pastor had said to me, this
is what the Lord put into my heart.
Give this man another year.
Give him everything you've got.
Give him hours of your time every week.
Do everything in your power to help him
to become a tree bearing fruit.
Then he called me about three weeks ago.
And he said, the year is up.
And the problems are not resolved.
Oh, I hate this.
Oh, I wish it weren't so.
But I got to fire him.
But I don't want to.
I said, don't be hasty.
Then he called me back in about 10
days.
He said he had come to that point
where he said, I've got to fire the
man on Monday.
It's just dragged on and on.
I got to do it.
Then he said, I woke up on Sunday
morning.
And all I could think about was Jericho,
marching around the walls of Jericho for seven
days.
And at first, he couldn't relate.
No, no, Lord, why do I have that
in my mind?
And he felt the Lord saying to him,
gather some of your choicest, godliest men.
Meet early every morning for several morning.
And devote a couple of hours every morning
to praying about this man and this situation.
So all right, Lord, that's what you want.
That's what you get.
So for seven days, a little band of
men prayed diligently.
But nothing seemed to happen.
And he kept saying to himself, I got
to fire him and let the Lord deal
with this.
But I don't want to, first, because I
don't want to do this to him.
I long for him to bear fruit.
But secondly, I know also it'll split the
church.
And on the seventh day, the man in
question, very troubled and very nervous, asked the
pastor, what are these special prayer meetings about?
The pastor refused to tell him what they'd
been praying about.
The man came back in a little bit.
And he said, I'm going to resign.
I don't belong here.
I've been just a troublemaker.
And I'm going to leave.
And he did, quietly, peacefully, learning to do
things God's way.
But now let's come back to John 15.
We've gotten some sense of the issue of
fruit as our Lord has held it in
front of us.
In verses 1 to 3 of John 15,
we have five very significant facts laid out
for us.
Number one, I am the true vine.
Now, there are lots of others pretending to
be true vine.
But there is only one true vine.
And that is our Lord Jesus Christ.
Most of our world doesn't like dogmatic people.
But some issues are so straightforward, so pure
and simple that there's simply nothing to be
nice about.
There is one true vine.
There are not even any other candidates for
it.
This is the ground upon which we stand.
Christ and Christ alone is the true vine.
The second fact that is so obvious here,
my father is the vine dresser.
This is his vineyard.
These are his vines.
He is the one who has everything at
stake.
It is his investment that either produces as
it ought or goes sour.
Now, toward the end of the passage, we'll
see the reward for the vine dresser.
But let's get those facts firm.
Christ is the true vine.
The Father is the vine dresser.
Fact number three, every branch in me that
does not bear fruit, he takes it away.
Now, there's judgment.
Fact number four, every branch that bears fruit,
he prunes it that it may bear more
fruit.
Now, there's judgment again.
Did you ever watch a pruner at work?
I wouldn't want to be one because I
don't have what it takes to do it
right.
I don't know the essentials of pruning.
But there are very important essentials involved, and
take it as a given.
If you are part of the true vine,
you are in for pruning.
Not once in a lifetime, but every single
season.
No exception.
It keeps coming and coming and coming and
coming.
And if you say to yourself when you're
65, well, I expect I'm just about done
with the pruning process.
You'll discover when you're 84 that the Lord
is still there with the clippers working on
your life.
And fact number five, you are already clean
because of the word that I have spoken
to you of.
Now, how does that fit in?
Well, if you're a bit on the careless
side, you may say to yourself, what he
means is the pruning for that season has
already been accomplished.
But no, that's not what he's referring to.
I remind you of what I pointed out
already, that Judas had already left.
He could not have said, you are already
clean through the word which I have spoken
to you if Judas were there, because the
word had not cleaned Judas.
Now, here's a terribly urgent matter.
What did Peter hear that Judas didn't?
What did John see by way of signs
and miracles that Judas did not?
Well, if there is anything beyond the transfiguration,
we're not told about it.
My impression is that whatever Christ taught, Judas
heard.
Whatever Christ did, Judas saw.
But he was not clean as a result
of what he saw and heard.
The cleansing here refers to justification.
As the word of God is proclaimed, and
the believing heart is hearing it, the justifying
work of God is taking place.
These 11, despite any number of faults that
come to our attention concerning them later, are
already clean by the word which Christ has
spoken to them.
They have been justified.
The word of God has produced this cleansing
in their hearts and lives.
But sanctification is still far from complete.
And the part of what is happening in
the pruning process is in the area of
sanctification.
But for a moment, turn back, if you
will, to chapter 13.
And let me draw to your attention what
occurred at the Feast of the Passover.
So 13.1. Now, before the Feast of
the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his hour had
come, that he should depart out of the
world to the Father, having loved his own
who were in the world, he loved them
to the end.
And during the supper, the devil already put
into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son
of Simon, to betray him.
Jesus, knowing that the Father had given all
things into his hands and that he had
come forth from God and was going back
to God, rose from the supper and laid
aside his garments and, taking a towel, girded
himself about.
Then he poured water into the basin, and
he began to wash the disciples' feet and
to wipe them with the towel with which
he was girded.
And so he came to Simon Peter.
And he said to him, Lord, do you
intend to wash my feet?
And Jesus answered and said to him, what
I do you do not realize now, but
you will understand hereafter.
And Peter said to him, never shall you
wash my feet.
And Jesus answered, if I do not wash
you, you have no part with me.
And Simon Peter said, Lord, not my feet
only, but also my hands and my head.
And Jesus said to him, he who has
faith, needs only to wash his feet that
is completely clean and you are clean, but
not all of you.
For he knew the one who was betraying
him.
For this reason, he said, you are not
all clean.
Now, it would appear to me that Peter,
while justified, is not yet thoroughly converted.
Did not our Lord have to say to
him, when Peter insisted that if everybody else
betrayed him, he would still be loyal?
Our Lord said to him, Peter, when you
are converted, strengthen the brethren.
You see, this work of salvation is not
something accomplished in an instant.
It is indeed the gracious work of the
Spirit of God that moves from step to
step to step.
These men are justified.
But you see, Peter was still full of
himself.
That's why when our Lord asked the question,
who do people say that I am?
And some said, Elijah.
Some said, one of the prophets.
And Peter spoke up, thou art the Christ,
the son of the living God.
And then, when Jesus began to talk about
his death, his suffering, Peter rebuked him and
said, shut up, don't talk that way.
We don't like all that negativism.
And our Lord said, get behind me, Satan.
You don't have your mind set on the
things that are of God, but the things
of the world.
And then he called the group around with
Peter and with the disciples.
And he said to them, if any man
would be my disciple, let him deny himself,
take up his cloth, and follow me.
Then he went on to ask, what if
a man gained the whole world and lose
his own soul?
Or what shall one give in exchange for
his soul?
And then, if any man is ashamed of
me and of my word, then I will
be ashamed of him.
And was it not shame and fear for
himself that caused Peter to deny Christ with
cursing?
The word of God was doing its precious
work in Peter's heart.
But there was still Peter who needed to
come to death, the death of self, who
needed to take up the cloth and follow
Peter.
Some of you may be right in that
position.
The word has been doing a wonderful work
in your heart and life.
You sense yourself as having been justified.
But the righteousness of Christ is truly credited
to your account.
If you may have yet to come to
that point, will you deny yourself, take up
your cloth, and follow him?
You will bear fruit, not the kind of
fruit that remains, not the kind of fruit
that brings glory to God, until you have
reached that point of true conversion where self
is dead and Christ victoriously alive in you.
So five facts laid out here for our
careful contemplation.
Then two particular instructions are given and clarified
in verses four and five.
The first instruction, abide in me.
The second instruction, live so that I can
abide in you.
This is a dual matter.
I must abide in Christ.
Christ must abide in me.
In verse four, these precious words are added.
As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself
unless it abides in the vine, neither can
you unless you abide in me.
You see, we have too many among us
who think that all of this hangs on
one single moment of faith, one point of
decision when they accept Christ, one tiny prayer
they lift to the heavens and ask God
to forgive their sin.
But no, this is a matter of abiding
in Christ.
And in order to abide in Christ, you've
got daily to do precisely what the apostle
Paul insisted we do, reckon yourselves to be
dead indeed onto sin and alive unto God.
Every day of my life, I have got
to take it as a fact that I
am dead indeed to sin.
That's the negative part.
It's necessary, but I must include the positive
part.
Not only am I dead to sin, but
alive to God.
And today, I live like a man fully
alive in Christ Jesus.
I abide in Christ day in, day out,
month after month, year after year.
So what is the significance of having abided
in Christ for a day when I was
nine years of age?
How much fruit is produced by momentary association
with the vine?
Abide in Christ, that's the first of these
precious instructions.
The second, as I pointed out, I must
abide in you.
And verse five gives us some help in
this.
Let me read it again.
I am the vine, you are the branches.
He who abides in me and I in
him, he bears much fruit.
For apart from me, you can do nothing.
So it is not only my task to
consider myself dead to sin and alive unto
God, it is my task to see that
nothing ever remains in my life that makes
it impossible for the Lord to abide in
me.
I've got to keep short accounts.
I've got to deal with sin.
That's why I said earlier how absurd it
is to be talking about an unrepentant believer.
No, indeed, there is no such creature.
Day in, day out, the believer is longing
not only to abide in Christ, but that
Christ might abide in him.
And therefore, he's quick and careful to see
that nothing whatsoever occurs or remains in the
life that makes it impossible for Christ to
be in him.
Oh, that we may all lay hold of
that truth and live it out all our
days with all the joy and the excitement
that's involved of being part of the one
true living life.
But then also, in verse six, there's a
warning issued.
So we have five facts stated, two instructions
given, and a warning heard.
If anyone does not abide in me, he
is thrown away as a branch, and he
dries up, and they gather them and cast
them into the fire, and they are burned.
I began my work life earlier than many
do today.
I met at about eight years of age.
I was hired by a farmer in the
Schenectady, New York region to work in the
field, and one of the early tasks that
was given to me was to learn to
drive the tractor.
And when I learned to drive the tractor,
a large stone bolt was hooked up behind
the tractor, and I took a little crew
of boys and went out into the orchard,
and we piled on the stone bolt hundreds
and thousands of branches that had been cut
off from the tree.
They had been cut off during the winter
season.
They had been drying during the early spring,
and then we gathered them together, and we
made this huge pile, and then for days,
these branches burned.
There's a warning in verse six.
None of us has gone beyond the point
where we must carefully ask, does this warning
in any way apply to me?
If anyone does not abide in me, he's
thrown away as a branch and dries up,
and they gather them, and they cast them
into the fire, and they are burned.
And all around us, there are countless people
in the church and outside the church that
need to be warned.
There's no fruit in your life, and one
of these days, you're gonna be cut off
and laid out to dry and gathered and
burned.
And do you really want that to be
the end of it all?
Are you willing to be cast into the
fire and burned?
Do you not see the urgency, the necessity
of bearing fruit?
And you can't bear fruit unless you abide
in the vine, and the vine abides in
you.
Why don't we get serious about pleading with
men and women to do the real and
the necessary thing instead of some silly little
notion of getting them to say a prayer?
I'm not against praying, but I think it
awfully foolish to suppose that a moment utterance
of a prayer is the equivalent of abiding
in the vine, and the vine abiding in
you.
But in addition to the warning, this is
a lovely passage, really, because there's an incentive
added.
Look at verse seven, at this beautiful incentive.
If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, ask whatever you wish and
it shall be done for you.
Have you been wondering why your prayers are
not answered?
Have you been wondering about your church, why
the prayer meeting is such a silly little
thing, so powerless, so foolish?
You want to see some true answers to
prayer.
Well, our Lord gives it to us as
a wonderful incentive.
Abide in me, have my words abide in
you.
You discover, then, you're on praying ground.
You discover, then, indeed, that the Lord is
both anxious to listen to your prayers and
to grant for you precisely what it is
that you need.
But then also, beyond the warning and the
incentive, we have the results carefully pinpointed in
verse eight.
By this is my Father glorified, that you
bear much fruit and so prove to be
my disciples two splendid results.
The purpose of our existence finds fulfillment.
By this is my Father glorified.
What we could not possibly do on our
own, what would be absolutely and totally senseless
to think might happen in any other way,
by abiding in the vine and the vine
abiding in us, we bring forth much fruit.
And it's that abundance of fruit in the
life that glorifies God.
And many of you have longed for a
protracted season to glorify your great God and
say yes, and understand that it is in
producing much fruit that he is glorified, and
it is through abiding in him and he
in you that that much fruit is born.
But in addition to this wondrous prospect of
glorifying our Father with much fruit, we are
also clearly told here that it's by this
abundance of fruit that we prove ourselves to
be his disciples.
I wouldn't care to have to go around
claiming to be a disciple of Christ.
I much prefer that the fruit of my
life bear evidence that I am truly a
disciple of the Lord Jesus.
But now let's think of the pruning process.
If there'll never be any fruit for my
life, I will be cut off, cast aside,
allowed to dry, and in time be thrown
into the fire.
But if we have fruit-bearing potential, then
pruning is going to occur.
Maggie and I lived for a number of
years in California, Central California, Fresno, California.
Soon after we moved there, one of the
men in our church came to us one
day and said, I would like to plant
some grapevines in your yard.
Well, that sounded like a good idea.
We'd never had grapevines.
We were pleased at the prospect.
And at first, you know, they looked pretty
doubtful.
But after a while, I mean, they began
to flourish.
And just about the time they were really
looking great, he came around and he said,
time to prune them.
Well, what do you want to do that
for?
They're just now looking good.
Oh, they've got to be pruned.
Well, all right, go ahead.
And when he got through, we looked with
horror.
I mean, well, boy, well, that's the end
of those.
This pruning process, you know, just about the
time we like to look to ourselves spiritually,
the Lord comes along with the pruning shears.
And there are not many of us that
say, go to it, Lord.
Nothing I like better than being chopped up.
But what we discovered after that first round
was that by that careful pruning, we did
get an abundance of fruit.
Maggie and I made raisins.
We had so many grapes.
Think we've still got some of them after
25 years.
Now, pruning is not pleasant to the vine.