Grace Covenant Church Pottstown
Sunday, October 16
  • Holy Forever
  • Holy, Holy, Holy!

      • Philippians 2:5–11ESV

  • All Glory

      • Romans 6:1–4ESV

      • Ephesians 1:7ESV

  • Jesus at the Center

      • John 15:1–5ESV

  • Show Us Christ

      • Mark 14:22–25ESV

  • Be Thou My Vision
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    John 15:1–5 (ESV)
    1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. 2 Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. 3 Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. 4 Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. 5 I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.
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    These are the words of our Lord Jesus just before his departure from the world. We reckon the words of dying men to be worth storing, and especially of such a matchless man as our Lord and Master. It may be said of him, “you kept the best wine until now;” for, in this chapter, and in that which follows, we have some of the choicest, deepest, and richest words that the Master ever uttered.
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    Our calling as Christians is the highest calling there is, and
    the idea of being productive is not the invention of capitalism, it is the mandate of Christ. R.C. Sproul
    He saves us in our futility and calls us to be fruitful.
    He makes it clear that if He were to leave us to ourselves, we would be completely impotent.
    We would produce nothing worthwhile, because, as our Lord says in this passage,
    “without Me you can do nothing” (v. 5).
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    1. Our text mentions two characters who are in some respects exceedingly alike; they are both branches, they are both branches in the vine: “Every branch in me.”
    How much alike persons may be apparently, who in God’s sight stand at opposite poles of character!
    John (The Work of the Vinedresser)
    2. The Work of the Vinedresser
    Keep in mind that this metaphor is based on the production of grapes through the cultivation of grapevines.
    To make the vineyard rich in its productivity, the husbandman went along the rows of vines, and
    when he saw branches that were producing no fruit but were taking sap and strength away from the vine, he cut them off.
    1. Then the husbandman gathered those dead sticks and threw them in the fire to get rid of them
    2. But the ones that were bearing fruit he cut back, clipped, and pruned so that their fruit would increase.
    Isn’t that a wonderful metaphor for the Christian life?
    3. Once we’re converted, God does not say: “I have now put My stamp of approval on you, so ‘Let go and let God.’ I’ll take care of the rest of your life.
    You don’t have to worry about anything.” No, He loves us so much that He cleanses us. In other words, He chastens us. He brings his hand on us heavily from time to time. That is part of the process we must go through to be made pure
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    4. Can a man who yields no fruit of righteousness really be a Christian?
    Yet they were in Christ in some sense or other; that is to say, the two characters were equally considered to be Christians;
    their names were enrolled in the same church register;
    in the common judgment of men they were equally Christian; according to their own profession, they were so; in many other respects,
    They were both in Christ his disciples, as soldiers professedly fighting under his banner, as his servants.
    There will often be found two who publicly pray alike, have an equal gift in prayer—and what is worse,
    preach with equal earnestness and zeal, to all appearance,
    who have family devotions
    and yet for all this,
    the end of the one shall be to be cast away as a branch to be burned, while the end of the other shall be to bring forth fruit unto perfection, with everlasting life as the reward.
    We tend to think that no one can be in the vine unless he or she is truly converted. That is true—if being in the vine represents being in a state of salvation. However, it may have reference to being in the visible church.
    A person can have a relationship with Christ that is merely external.
    I believe this was the kind of relationship Jesus had in mind in His parable of the sower, when
    He spoke of the seed that fell on the rock. It sprouted up quickly but soon withered.
    Jesus said this seed represented “those who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away” (Luke 8:13).
    Such people may seem to be truly saved, but they are not in Christ and ultimately fall away.
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    5. There is a distinction between the branches—the great and serious difference. The first branch brought forth no fruit; the second branch bore some fruit.
    Matthew 7:16–20 (ESV)
    16 You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? 17 So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. 18 A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Thus you will recognize them by their fruits.
    John (Saved to Be Fruitful)
    This is the fruit of a changed life, a changed character, a character that is strengthened and nurtured by the source of holiness, Christ Himself
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    6. We have no right to judge the motives and thoughts of others, except so far as they may be clearly discoverable by their actions and words.
    The interior we must leave with God, but the exterior we may judge, and must judge. There is a sense in which we are not to judge men; but there is another sense in which we need to constantly exercise his judgment upon men.
    7. “By their fruits ye shall know them,” is our Lord’s own method of sacred criticism.
    If you would judge men and judge yourselves, this is the one test—“by their fruit.”
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    Will you now search yourselves, to see whether you have any fruit?
    That you may be helped in such an investigation,
    Galatians 5:22–23 (ESV)
    22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.
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    Do I love God’s poor?
    Do I love the persecuted church and despised ones?
    What about our love for the souls of unsaved?
    Can I sit still and be satisfied with being saved while my neighbors are being damned by thousands?
    Are your eyes ever wet with tears for those who resist the gospel?
    Do the terrors of the Lord never get hold upon thee, when i think of men plunging themselves into utter destruction in hell?
    1 John 4:20 (NIV)
    20 Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.
    Do you have this fruit? for if not, “every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away
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    8. The absence of positive fruit was that which condemned the lost.
    “Every tree,” says John, “that does not bear fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire.” He does not say, “Every tree that bears bitter fruit, or sour grapes,” but “Every tree that brings forth no fruit.” Fruitless professors, tremble!
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    9. The weighty business of self-examination
    There are many ways in which the Lord takes away barren branches.
    These were respectable people; these were people like you, decent, good people, who attended a place of worship, and put money in the offering, and were very moral, but still they had not grace in their souls.
    They had nominal Christianity, but not the fruit of the Spirit; and what was done with them?
    “Lord, can’t you do something less severe? How sad to see these branches cut off!” “No,” he says, “if they don’t bear fruit, they must be taken away.”
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    What is done with that which is taken away?
    10. The fruit-bearing branches are not perfect.
    If they were perfect, they would not need pruning; but the fact is there is much of original inbred sin remaining in the best of God’s people, so that whenever the sap within them is strong for the production of fruit, there is a tendency for that strength to turn into evil, and instead of good fruit evil is produced.
    It is the strength of the tree, and the richness of the sap which makes the branch produce too much wood, so that it needs pruning. The gardener desires to see that strength in clusters, but alas! instead it runs into wood.
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    The pruning is the lot of all the fruitful saints.
    You may escape it if you are not fruitful, you will be cut off, you will not be pruned, but all the fruit-bearing saints must feel the knife.
    C. H. Spurgeon
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    Observe Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had not those patriarchs their trials?
    Moses and David, Jeremiah and Daniel, who among those escaped? Though they honoured their Master much, who escaped without the pruning knife?
    And if you come to the saints of the New Testament, surely the flame was seven times hotter with regard to them than with regard to the elder brethren.
    How does the Lord prune his people, then? It is generally said by affliction; I question if that could be proved as it stands; it needs explanation.
    It is generally thought that our trials and troubles purge us: I am not sure of that, they certainly are lost upon some.
    Our Lord tells us what it is that prunes us.
    John 15:3 (NIV)
    3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you.
    It is the word that prunes the Christian, it is the truth that purges him, the Scripture, made living and powerful by the Holy Spirit, effectually cleanses the Christian
    The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, Vol. XIII (A Sharp Knife for the Vine-Branches (No. 774))
    The object of this pruning is never condemnatory. God does not purge his children to penalize us for our sin; he chastises, but he cannot punish those for whom Jesus Christ has been already punished.
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    The real reason is that more fruit may be produced.
    which I understand to mean more in quantity.
    A good man, who feels the power of the word pruning him of this and that superfluity
    sets to work, in the power of the Holy Ghost, to do more for Jesus.
    Before he was afflicted he did not know now to be patient. He learns it at last—a hard lesson.
    Before he was poor he did not know how to be humble, but he learns that.
    Before the word came with power he did not know how to pray with his fellows, or to speak to sinners, or lay himself out for usefulness; but the more he is pruned, the more he serves his Lord.
    More fruit in variety too, may be intended.
    One tree can only produce one kind of fruit usually,
    but the Lord’s people can produce many.
    as we have already seen; and the more they are pruned the more they will produce. There will be all kinds of fruits, both new and old, which they will lay up for their beloved.
    There will be more fruit in quality too.
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    The man may not pray more, but he will pray more earnestly;
    he may not preach more sermons, but he will preach them more thoroughly from his heart,
    it may be that he will not be more in communion with God as to time, but it will be a closer communion;
    he will give himself more thoroughly into communion with God; and put your heart more into all you do.
    This is the result of the pruning which our heavenly Father gives; and if such be the result, the Lord keep on pruning, for what greater blessing can a man have than to produce much fruit for God?
    Oh, if on bended knee we might seek but one favour, methinks we would not ask the wisdom which Solomon craved; we would petition for this, that we might bring forth much fruit, that so we might be Christ’s disciples.
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    To conclude
    It is a mercy to the believer that it is pruning with him and not cutting off!
    Let the knife be very sharp, let the word throw as into the great deeps, till we almost despair; yet, thank God, we are not cast into hell!
    Our prayer should be, “Lord, let thy word cut deep into me.
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    In the next place, it would be well to think how gently the pruning has been done with the most of us up till now, compared with our barrenness.
    I wonder the Lord has not cut us about much more. He who has a deep-seated disease requires sharp medicine; and when the sore runs deep, the doctor must cut deep too.
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    “In me, in me, in me.”
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    Faithful are the wounds of such a friend as Jesus. If he has wounded any of you, it is not to drive you from him, but to make you cling the closer to him.
    C.H. Spurgeon
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    Heavenly Father, teach me how to abide in Christ and He in me. Teach me to live my life as You would have me to live, in total dependence upon You (which is the life of Christ being lived through me), so that I may produce the good fruit in my life that is honouring to You. This I ask in Jesus' name, AMEN.
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    Source: https://prayer.knowing-jesus.com/John/15
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    1 Spurgeon, C. H. (1867). A Sharp Knife for the Vine-Branches. In The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons (Vol. 13, p. 554). Passmore & Alabaster.
    The one tool that a vinedresser needs is a knife. 1
    1 MacLaren, A. (2009). Expositions of Holy Scripture: John 15–21 (p. 4). Logos Bible Software.
Grace Covenant Church Pottstown
gracecovchurch@gmail.com
610 454 7049
http://www.gcc-pa.org
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