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Before we turn to scripture. 
I just want to mention something that happened this past week 
Jenny Neal's mother passed away So I wanted to make sure that 
we remember that I'll pray for the family Kind of the rationale 
for singing that particular hymn. She now sees the king of glory 
in all of his grace So let us pray Our gracious God and Holy 
Father, we know that precious in the sight of our God is the 
death of your holy ones. And Lord, we know that it's a 
great blessing and a boon for us to pass from this present 
evil age into the presence of the King of glory. Just pray 
for your blessing upon Jenny and upon her father and her family 
at this time. We pray that though they grieve, 
would not grieve like the world, that their sorrow would not be 
that of despair, that they would know that pain for sure, but 
they would know the joy. that she is in the presence of 
the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. I pray 
for your blessing upon the extended family that you'd watch over 
each one of them, encourage them at this difficult time, and we 
pray through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Well, you can turn 
with me in your Bibles to the book of John, John chapter 15, 
as we move our way through the gospel according to John. John 15, I'll read verses 1 to 
8, and then our focus this morning will be most likely just on verses 
1 to 4. I promise you we will get through 
the end of this section, and I will show you the practicality 
of abiding in Christ. But there are some things that 
I think are very important in the first few verses of John 
15. Again, as we ask the question, who is the true vine, we've tried 
to answer He fulfills all that old covenant Israel failed to 
do. And then if we ask, who are the people of God? It's not the 
ethnic Jews. It is rather the church of the 
Lord Jesus Christ. The Israel of God are those who 
believe the gospel. They are sons of Abraham, according 
to the apostle in Galatians 3. There's another question I think 
is assumed or at least somewhat drives from a modern rather contemporary 
application of verse 2 I want to deal with as well. So I'll 
just read the section and then we'll get to it. Beginning in 
verse 1, 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. 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, 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 bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone 
does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered, 
and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they 
are burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you 
will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By 
this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. So 
you will be my disciples. Amen. Well, let us pray our blessed 
God and Holy Father We thank you for this beautiful day. Certainly. 
We see your power your wisdom your goodness manifested in the 
created order We see the same perfections revealed and in Providence 
we see that in redemption as well specifically your grace 
your mercy your loving-kindness to hell-deserving sinners We 
thank you for the gospel of our salvation. We thank you that 
the Lord Jesus is in fact the true vine, that we are united 
to him by grace through faith in him, and we rejoice in your 
mercy to us. We ask that you would guide us 
now by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit, that you 
would cause us to reflect upon passages like these, and may 
they inform us much concerning the mission of our Savior. and 
as well the blessedness of being found in him. We ask that you 
would save sinners and sanctify the saints and forgive us all 
for all of our sins now. And we pray through Jesus Christ 
the Lord. Amen. Well, we are in the upper room 
discourse, Jesus' last discourse before he dies and is raised 
and then ascends on high and participates in what we call 
the current session of our blessed Savior. So notice specifically 
in 14.1, He wants to encourage his disciples, let not your heart 
be troubled. You believe in God, believe also 
in me. He continues that specific emphasis here in chapter 15 as 
well. He wants to show them the relationship 
between the branches and the vine. They abide in him. He abides 
in them. And this again, to steady, to 
encourage, and to help them. as they face the various troubles 
they're going to face. He's going to deal with the world's 
hatred against them in this particular chapter. He wants to encourage 
them. He wants to steady them. He wants 
to help them and enable them and prepare them to carry out 
the greater works that he speaks of in 14 too. Most assuredly, 
I say to you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he 
will do also. And greater works than these, 
he will do because I go to my father. So as a result of the 
ascension on high, the giving of the Holy Spirit in accordance 
with Joel 2, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ will do those 
greater works, not in competition with the Savior, but as an extension 
of the Savior's power from the right hand of God Almighty. Well, 
as we come to this particular passage, we're dealing with the 
vine, the vinedresser, and the branches, which I think is pretty 
simple to understand. The vine, the true vine, is our 
Lord Jesus Christ, the vinedresser is his father, and then the branches 
are those who are connected to him. So I want to look first 
at the explanation of the metaphor that Jesus uses in verses 1 to 
4, and then secondly, the exhortation to the disciples in verses 5 
to 8. Now there is some overlap, certainly. It's not the case that 5 to 8 
isn't connected to 1 to 4, but I think 1 to 4 gives us the explanation 
of what he is doing, and again presents us with an answer to 
who are the people of God. So we'll look at the explanation 
of the metaphor under three heads. First, the identification of 
the parties, verse 1. Secondly, the function of the 
vine dresser in verse 2. And then thirdly, the description 
of the branches in verses 3 and 4. But with reference to the 
identification of the parties in verse 1, Jesus says very clearly, 
I am the true vine. We took the last two weeks to 
show that that was language applied by Yahweh to the nation of Israel. And just as Adam was created 
by God and then put into a covenant of works, So was Israel. And what Adam forfeit by his 
transgression and rebellion, so does Israel. So Christ is 
the last Adam, and Christ is the true Israel. And all those 
who by grace believe in him are called the Israel of God. It's 
not ethnic Jews. It is rather the church of our 
Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not by race. It's 
by grace, and the people of God in the New Covenant are called 
the Israel of God. In fact, the Apostle in Galatians 
3 tells us who truly is a child of Abraham. Remember in that 
discourse in John 8, the Jews said, we're the sons of Abraham, 
and Jesus rebuked them. If you were the sons of Abraham, 
you wouldn't be trying to kill me. In Romans 9, 16, the Apostle 
says, not all Israel is Israel. In other words, amongst old covenant 
Israel, you had the remnant or the true people of God within. 
And so, Paul in Galatians 3 says, For you are all sons of God through 
faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized 
into Christ have put on Christ. There's neither Jew nor Greek, 
there's neither slave nor free, there's neither male nor female, 
for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, 
then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise. 
So an ethnic Jew today that rejects Jesus as the Messiah is not a 
son of Abraham. But an ethnic Gentile, who by 
God's grace confesses faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah of 
Israel, is in fact a son of Abraham. It is very clear. And so we need 
to understand that this passage is diametrically opposed from 
what we call in ecclesiastical or theological settings, dispensationalism, 
and what we refer to in the political realm as Zionism, which is basically 
Jewish supremacy. So we then have Jesus identify 
his father as the vine dresser. Notice in verse 1, I am the true 
vine and my father is the vine dresser. Just like we saw last 
time when we looked at Isaiah chapter 5. Yahweh comes to the 
nation of Israel, who is his vineyard, and Yahweh looks for 
fruit. And because there's no fruit, 
he promises judgment upon them. In Matthew chapter 21, when Jesus 
is teaching, Jesus uses the same sort of a language or application. He points to Old Covenant Israel, 
and then he basically shows us a history of Israel in the spaces 
of verses 33 to about 46, and it culminates with him saying, 
therefore, the kingdom of God is being taken from you, and 
it's going to be given to a nation that is bearing the fruits consistent 
of it. And that nation is the church. 
It is the people of our blessed Savior. The blessedness of this 
in verse 1, as well, again, this is going to get real practical, 
especially when we come to the exhortation of the disciples. 
Notice that it says, and my father is the vine dresser. Why does 
the father in Old Covenant Israel come to the vineyard? To make 
sure there's fruit. What does God do now as the vine 
dresser in this New Covenant arena? He makes sure that we 
produce fruit. And as one commentator says, 
now to cultivate something is to devote one's interest to it. So practically, the fact that 
the Father is the vine dresser, that He has a vested interest 
in pruning us, a vested interest in, you know, paring off our 
rough edges and getting rid of our sins and our wretchedness, 
that's an encouragement. That's a blessing. We're in this 
together, to use an old COVID reference, but us with our blessed 
God. We abide in Jesus. The Father 
is the vinedresser. Jesus gives us another helper, 
the Holy Spirit. So we have that blessed union 
with our triune God through faith in our Lord Jesus, wherein the 
Father is cultivating. He's a vine dresser. He's about 
our progress in grace and growth. He's about our advancement. He's 
about our holiness. He's about our moving forward 
in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit. 
Now, in terms of the theology involved, before we proceed, 
Jesus is the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. The 
Lord Jesus, as the Israel of God, is such according to his 
humanity, his mediatorial function. Not as the divine word, though 
not divorced from the divine word, but as Thomas says, there 
are two natures in Christ, the divine and the human. Because 
of his human nature, he is like us and is less than the Father. 
Because of his divine nature, he is like God and above us. 
Thus, he is the true vine insofar as he is the head of the church, 
the man Christ Jesus. So that's the identification 
of the parties. Verse 1, true vine, Jesus. Verse 
1, true vine dresser, the Father. And of course the branches are 
the people of God, to which we now turn. The function of the 
vine dresser. Notice in verse 2. This is where 
we're gonna get a little sidetracked this morning. Again, pick up 
the question, who are the people of God? Notice in 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. I wanna deal, I actually don't 
want to deal, but I think it's necessary because of our context, 
because of exposure. because of the internet, and 
because there's no shortage of misapplication of this particular 
section relative to what we call paedo-baptism. Now, for those 
of you who haven't heard that term, paedo simply means infant 
or baby. It's the practice outside of 
a Baptist context where paedos, namely infants or babies, are 
baptized. Typically, they're sprinkled, 
and they are welcomed into the new covenant. Well, in the last 
little while, this particular scheme of paedo-baptism has utilized 
John 15 in their search for a theology. It's a practice that's always 
been in search of a theology. Now, it's interesting because 
Cyril of Alexandria in the 5th century mentions nothing about 
paedo-baptism when he comments on John 15. Thomas in the 13th 
century mentions nothing about paedo-baptism when he comments 
in the 13th century. Again, I think it's a recent 
development. I think it's sort of a new kid 
on the block. I'm not a historical theologian. 
I don't have the particulars or the facts or the data. But 
I know that it's used by federal vision. I know that they employ 
this and Romans 11, the grafting of the branches into the olive 
tree, which we see there. I just want to try to disavow 
the notion that this teaches what Paedobaptists teach. Again, 
I think it's relatively recent use of this passage, and I think 
there's an unjustified assumption that is forced into the text, 
namely, that there are externally connected branches in the New 
Covenant. that there are externally connected 
branches in the New Covenant. They have to maintain that because 
when you baptize a paedo, you are basically saying that that 
paedo is now a part of the Covenant. And if you ask the question, 
the only possible answer could ever be the New Covenant. Why? Because the old has been fulfilled 
by our Lord Jesus. We see the blessedness of the 
superiority of the new covenant in Hebrews 8. It's a better covenant 
founded on better promises that affords a better hope. So what 
we find then is this idea that we've got to bring in some old 
covenant-ish stuff into this new covenant setting. So again, 
if you're not thoroughly confused, just stick with me. You'll probably 
be screaming for mercy in about 10 minutes. So the unjustified 
assumption that the New Covenant has externally connected branches. And I want to turn you to Jeremiah 
31. It's going to come up a couple of times. By the way, this isn't 
the only passage that Credo Baptists, that means believer Baptists, 
used to justify their covenant theology. But it's certainly 
a very strong one in terms of what I'm going to argue for this 
morning. Notice in Jeremiah 31, specifically at verse 31, you 
have a promise of the new covenant from an old covenant prophet. 
And there are certain things that you need to observe in this 
promise of the new covenant that comes through an old covenant 
prophet. Notice in 31, behold, the days 
are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with 
the house of Israel, with the house of Judah. And then notice 
the negative statement, not according to the covenant that I made with 
their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead 
them out of the land of Egypt. There's something different about 
the new covenant that God is going to make. He announces it 
through Jeremiah. And we ought to expect that when 
Christ comes, fulfills the obligations placed upon him, ushers in that 
new covenant blessing and situation. We ought to expect some discontinuity 
with the old covenant. Why? Because the old covenant 
prophet announced discontinuity with the new covenant. So notice, 
not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers. 
That doesn't mean it's completely, you know, brand new, there's 
no connection whatsoever. That's not the argument. There 
is some discontinuity that we need to observe. Not according 
to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that 
I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt. 
Now here's the first discontinuity, which they broke. My covenant which they broke. That's heavy in paedo-baptist 
theology. You've got a paedo or a baby 
or an infant baptized into the covenant. And at some point, 
if they don't own a profession of faith in Jesus, if they don't 
carry on to the very end with Jesus, what's the argument? They broke the covenant. But 
wait a minute, the new covenant says you can't break me. If you're 
in the new covenant, it's not like the one that God made previously 
at Sinai and then ratified or renewed at Moab. It's one that 
you cannot break. Then notice, he goes on, though 
I was a husband to them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant 
that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says 
the Lord. Now these are essential features that have to obtain 
in the New Covenant. They're there in the Old Covenant, 
brethren. David knew all this. David enjoyed all this. So did, 
you know, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They weren't essential 
features of Old Covenant religion. It was not the case that every 
one that was a good and faithful Old Covenant member had this 
experiential salvation with God. Notice what we see, but this 
is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after 
those days, says the Lord. I will put my law in their minds 
and write it on their hearts. I will be their God and they 
shall be my people. No more shall every man teach 
his neighbor and every man his brother saying, know the Lord. 
For they all shall know me from the least of them to the greatest 
of them, says the Lord. For I will forgive their iniquity 
and their sin. I will remember no more. That's descriptive of 
the new covenant community. So the admission of pedos to 
the baptistry admits something that is abnormal. We have no 
sure inclination to believe that all these things are true of 
them. Now, conversely, we don't know that they're not true of 
them. But who is the sign and the seal for? It is for those 
who profess faith in Jesus, for those who have repented of their 
sins. You see that pattern laid down in the book of Acts. They 
believed and were baptized. They believed, they were baptized. 
They believed, they were baptized, over and over and again. Why? 
Because it's consistent with an old covenant announcement 
of new covenant blessing, Jeremiah 31, and our Lord's insistence 
in the Great Commission. Go, therefore, make disciples 
of all the nations, baptize those disciples, and then teach those 
disciples. The argument is not that children 
can't be saved. That's not the argument. The 
argument is that to willy-nilly include our infants into the 
new covenant seems to proceed along the same lines as dispensationalism. Not race, necessarily, but familial 
connection. But as we've seen, it's not salvation 
by race, but by grace. It's not salvation by connection 
to believing parents. It's salvation by grace. And 
so the paedo-baptist with John 15 has a playground, as it were. Well, there's these branches 
that are not fruitful, and then they're cut off. The same thing 
obtains in Romans chapter 11. So, back to the argument. I would 
suggest that the general interpretation of this text The general interpretation 
of verse 2, every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes 
away and every branch that bears more fruit he prunes that it 
may bear more fruit. I would suggest the general on 
the face of it interpretation is simple. There are those who 
fake being Christians. They make a profession of faith, 
But they're fake. They're not legit. They're not 
real. They're not born again. When 
they come to James chapter 2, they're found wanting. Because 
remember, the faith that justifies is faith alone. It is the instrument, 
the alone instrument of justification. But it doesn't remain alone, 
but it's always accompanied by all other saving graces and is 
no dead faith. So there's those who fake it. 
They profess for a time. They make a show. They make a 
signification. They come to the church. They 
do their thing. They get a Bible. But it's not really true. I would 
suggest that general interpretation is all over the Bible, the parable 
of the soils, Matthew chapter 13. There's different types of 
ways that people receive the word. Some receive it and say, 
I don't want that, it's wicked, it's horrible, I don't want it. 
Others make a show for a time. The cares of the world, the anxieties, 
the difficulties that come, choke it out. There's others that receive 
it and they produce good growth. So I think the general interpretation 
of the text is very simple, that those who fake it are not real, 
and God is going to cast them away. Again, Matthew 13, look 
at John 8, 31. John 8, 31, then Jesus said to 
those Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word, you 
are my disciples indeed. I guess we could finagle paedo-baptism 
out of that, but I don't think so. Hebrews 3, verses 14 to 19, 
why doesn't Israel find blessing? Because they went into the land 
without faith. Hebrews 6 and Hebrews 10, those 
are the apostasy passages. And again, to read infant baptism 
into that as the justification for infant baptism is to try 
to construct an external connection to the vine that the New Testament 
or New Covenant rather knows nothing of. As well, you've got 
1 John 2.19, they went out from us, but they were not of us. 
For if they were of us, they would have continued with us. 
But they went out that they might be exposed. Notice that John 
doesn't lament, we shouldn't have baptized them when they 
were babies. No, the problem is, is they faked it. They professed 
faith, they reneged on that, and they weren't converted. Not 
a hint of paedobaptism. I would suggest then the specific 
interpretation of this text in its context. You've got general, 
there's fakes that will profess to be real. They're not, so the 
father casts them away on the day of judgment. But specifically 
in this context, you've got the relationship between old covenant 
apostates and the true vine. That's what he's talking about. 
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. I would 
suggest that we understand this primarily with reference to what 
Cyril says. By the branch that is separated 
from fellowship with Christ by being cut off by the Father, 
I think he means the people of the Jews who are not capable 
of bearing good fruit. It's not a paedo-baptism text. 
It's an Old Covenant apostate relation to the New Covenant 
true vine text, and I would suggest Romans 11 is the same. The Paedo-Baptists, 
instead of seeing rightly Old Covenant apostates relative to 
the New Covenant Messiah, create a third category. That within 
the New Covenant, you've got two subsets. You've got the branches 
that produce and then the branches that don't produce. That's not 
the categories that John or Jesus is dealing with here in John. 
And it's certainly not what Paul's dealing with in Romans. It's 
not dealing with a subset. You've got the New Covenant. 
And in the New Covenant, you've got believing parents. And then 
you have, you're not sure whether they're believing or not, but 
they're baptized. They're part of the covenant, externally connected 
to the true faith. That's not Paul's point. I realize 
that's not a death knell to paedo-baptism, but it isn't Paul's point. What 
we find here is the general reference that there are fakes who aren't 
the real deal. They'll be cut off by God. but 
as well in the context, Jesus as the true vine. Remember, why 
does he say true vine? He is contrasting himself with 
the false vine, Old Covenant Israel. We've seen that. Old Covenant apostates announced 
in 111 in John's gospel, he comes to his own, his own do not receive 
him. The connection made or rather 
contrast made by Jesus, he's the true vine. Connection, vine, 
but contrast, he's the true one. And then as we look through our 
New Testament last week, we saw that what Jesus does here when 
he uses true is to distinguish himself from the deformed or 
spoiled vine, which is the Jewish people. As well, we saw the illustration, 
Matthew 21, 33 to 46. Therefore, I say to you, the 
kingdom is being taken from you and it's given to a nation bearing 
the fruits consistent with it. Why do we think that God's going 
to take the kingdom back from the church and re-hand it over 
to ethnic Jews? Because our eschatology drives us that way, and our eschatology, 
unfortunately, is incorrect at that point. It is a backward 
movement in redemptive history. And then if we create further 
sorts of groups within the New Covenant, we're trying to bring 
Old Covenant stuff into the New Covenant. Now, you may not, this 
may be as clear as mud for you, but it's crystal clear in my 
mind, and that's all that matters. I'm kidding. That's a joke. Please 
don't put that on Twitter and denigrate me and all that sort 
of a thing. But I think we need to appreciate that paedo-baptism, 
in the words of Gary Crampton, I think he's right. It's a practice 
in search of a theology. Do you think that the early fathers 
baptized infants because of the Abrahamic covenant? No, they 
did not. That was a Reformation gift to 
the church in terms of trying to justify paedo-baptism. Do you think that the reformers, 
again, I didn't have extensive time to do great historical research, 
but I'm guessing that the reformers didn't see necessarily that John 
15 and Romans 11 were the linchpin arguments with reference to paedo-baptism 
because it talks about the branches externally connected to the vine. 
That's a recent innovation. Why? Because we've got to justify 
the practice of including our infants in the new covenant. 
Brethren, as Baptists, bring them to church. Shlep them dutifully 
each and every Sunday morning and evening to the house of God. 
If it's a gospel preaching church, you are putting them in the right 
place. As well, open the Bibles with them each and every day. 
Catechize them. sing with them, pray for them, 
point them to the Savior King. I'm not suggesting they're heathen 
and they're wretched and we just cut them off, but to suggest 
that they're somehow participants in the new covenant based on 
their parentage flies against everything we know. Grace through 
faith in Jesus Christ. Why create a third category? Why try to botch up the New Covenant 
by putting in a feature of the Old Covenant that God remediates 
with the New Covenant? Don't you want to be in a covenant 
that you can't break? Don't you want to be in a covenant 
that you can't dissolve? Don't you want to be in a covenant 
wherein we learn that he who begins a good work in us will 
complete it unto the day of Christ? Don't you want to be in the covenant 
where Paul says there's nothing, height, depth, nothing, nor any 
created thing that shall ever separate us from the love of 
God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord? So if you think that 
not sprinkling your paydos is somehow detrimental to their 
soul, I would suggest you need to get a good dose of John 15 
in your head and the general overarching theme that we find 
in the New Covenant. People fake it. They come in 
for a time. They buy study Bibles. They listen 
to R.C. Sproul. They put pencils in their 
pockets. 25 years ago, they had a cassette 
tape of Albert N. Martin in their pocket. They 
look like the real deal. Do you know what? They're fakes! Irrespective of paedo-baptism. Irrespective of creating a tertian 
quid, a third thing. In John 15 and in Romans 11, 
the obvious, and again, maybe not, the obvious application 
is we've got apostate, old covenant, ethnic Israel. How do they relate 
to the true vine? Well, in John 15, they're being 
cut off. Again, we saw that last week, 
the buildup to the Olivet Discourse. Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24 
is the grand indictment. They're going to be cut off. 
That's what Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 promised for those 
who are unfaithful and broke the covenant with God that they 
swore at the base of Sinai, all that Yahweh has commanded, we 
will obey. Brethren, this is the Bible. 
It's a consistent book. It's foolproof in the sense that 
we don't have to create categories to justify a practice. And again, 
the argument isn't treat your children like little heathen 
baboons and have nothing to do with them. Shlep them to church, 
read them scripture, teach them the catechism, point them to 
the Savior. You can do all that without having 
sprinkled them. And you need to find warrant 
for sprinkling them, which, again, it's an argument largely built 
on implication. And I've got to suggest, and 
I know this is going to sound mean-spirited, but OK, it's bad 
implication. It's faulty. I'm all for good 
and necessary consequences. I live by that. That's a great 
way to interpret Scripture, what is explicitly laid down or what 
can be deduced by good and necessary inferences or consequences. We 
construct much of the doctrine of the Trinity on that whole 
concept of good and necessary consequences. We don't have a 
verse that says, in this divine and infinite being, there are 
three subsistences, the Father, the Word, or Son, and the Holy 
Spirit, each having the same substance, and power, and eternity, 
or each having the whole divine essence. But it's built from 
good passages in scripture. When we ask the question, who's 
Jesus talking about in verse 2? Well, he's talking about apostate 
Israel. It's not an old covenant Israel. 
He comes to his own and his own receive him not. They had the 
scriptures. They had the announcement. They 
knew. Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at 
my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. They 
had Isaiah 9, 6, and 7. They had Micah 5, 2, whose goings 
forth are from of old, even from everlasting. They had the Psalter. They had the testimony of Moses. They had it all, brethren. And 
then he comes to them, and what do they do? As Paul tells us 
in 1 Corinthians, they crucified the Lord of glory. So when we 
look at the question and we ask the question, what's he talking 
about in verse 2? He's talking about the apostate, 
you know, nation of Israel that he's condemning. But as well, 
just to add further confirmation to the general interpretation 
of the text, Remember who's sitting there or was sitting there just 
a little while ago? Judas Iscariot, that covenant-breaking 
wretch that sold our blessed Savior for 30 pieces of silver. So there is the general-ness 
of it. You fake it, you're gonna be 
cast away by God. And may I say right here, don't 
fake it. There's every reason why you 
and I should come to the Lord Jesus Christ. In the language 
of the bride, she says, because he's altogether lovely and chief 
among 10,000. That language can sound a bit 
effeminate to, you know, the masculine rugged men among us, 
altogether lovely. It's talking about the spiritual 
realm and the fact that he brings to us the forgiveness of sins. that he brings to us a righteousness, 
clothes us so that we can stand in the presence of God. Imagine 
getting a wedding invitation. The king, well, let's not use. 
Let's say the king and queen of a fictional wonderful place 
invite you to come to their wedding reception. But you just have 
jeans with holes. And you know that when you get 
to the door, they're going to say, nah, no bueno for you. You're out. What if somebody 
in his graciousness and in his kindness gave you the best suit 
of clothes ever so that you can appear in the presence of the 
king and the queen? That's precisely the language of the wedding feast 
in Matthew's gospel. You need to be clothed. You need 
to be ready. You need to meet the God who's 
absolutely, positively holy, whose eye is too pure to approve 
any evil. How do we gain that? We're cleansed 
in his blood and clothed in his righteousness. This is why the 
bride says, altogether lovely, chief among 10,000, the one in 
whom is my salvation, the one in whom is my redemption, the 
one in whom is my reconciliation, the one in whom is all, My all 
in all, my standing with God. So don't fake it. Don't pretend. You don't go in your backyard, 
cut the apples off of an apple tree and tie oranges to it and 
say, look at my orange tree. There's no reason to fake. There's every reason to come, 
every reason to believe, every reason to go to Him whose will 
is to do the will of the Father who sent Him, and that to secure 
the salvation of sinners. So there are fakes. Judas was 
one of them. Jesus announces it in John 13, 
and now he's gone. He's one of those branches that 
did not bear fruit, so God takes away. But then notice the pruning 
of the living branches in verse 2b. Every branch in me that does 
not bear fruit, that means there's no saving faith. That's the relation. No faith, no fruit. No faith, 
no fruit. You can fake the fruit. You can 
tie oranges to an apple tree, but it ain't real. And anybody 
who reflects for a moment realizes it ain't real. Lots of modern 
applications to that in our degenerate culture presently. It ain't real. You got a beard. It ain't real. The bottom line is, there is 
that every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes 
away. But notice, in every branch that 
bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. This morning I was thinking about 
this text, and I remembered when I preached it. I think I went 
through John in probably 2000, thereabouts. And I was still fresh on having 
moved here from California, which was in 1997. This isn't a history 
lesson, by the way, but there's an illustration here. We had 
a house that we lived in when we were in Southern California. 
It was a rental. And I say that with such derogatoriness. It was a rental. It just was. 
We used to go to laundromat and everything. Man, we were just, 
you know. Anyways, in the backyard were 
a whole host of rosebushes. And they were quite untamed. 
I mean, they were a sore sight. So of course, probably at the 
behest of my beloved, I went out there to prune the rosebushes. Now, when I say prune rosebushes, 
what's the image that typically suggests itself to you? For me, 
it's a middle-aged woman. with a sundress and a big bonnet 
with snippers. She's got snippers, and she's 
snipping away the dead growth on her rose bushes so that it 
can promote new growth. Now, let me tell you, that was 
not me. I had access to a chainsaw and 
went out there and went hog wild. There was nothing bonnet-y about 
it. There were no snippers involved. 
There might have been pain and suffering from all the debris 
that was flying around. Probably didn't wear goggles, 
hats. Come on, who needs that? God 
prunes his people that way, usually with snippers, in an indiscernible 
way. They come to church. They read 
their Bibles. They pray. And lo and behold, 
they get more like Jesus. He does that, doesn't he? You've 
got to admit, at times he takes the chainsaw out. Not violently, 
not with misdeeds in mind, but some of us got some thorns and 
some growth that needs some paring away. See, the fact that the 
father is the vine dresser and he loves us means that he's going 
to prune us. That pruning doesn't always feel 
good, but that pruning is necessary. Now I'm speaking like a botanist. 
You got to get rid of the dead wood, the dead growth, got to 
get rid of all the stuff that gets in the way of the transfer 
of the sap from the vine to the branch. And sometimes in our 
lives, that means affliction. It means hardship. It means suffering 
and agony. I wish it didn't. Again, the 
calmly or calm ideal of the snippers and the bonnet is far more interesting 
to me than the chainsaw. You see, our father's about our 
good. Our father's about our conformity unto his son. Our 
father's about paring away the dead so that life and vibrancy 
and goodness and all things conducive to his glory will flow. You see, 
that's the end game in verse eight. What's the end game? When you do good works, everybody 
on Facebook is going to praise you. I think that's how Christians 
operate to some degree today, unfortunately. If you do good 
works, then everybody's going to know you're a real apple on 
an apple tree. If you do good works, then the 
church that you're a part of might give you an award because 
you're so wonderful. Look at Jesus' end game in verse 
8. By this, my father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. When he says, so you will be 
my disciples, we'll get to that theology. He's not talking about 
be fruitful and be my disciples. You are fruitful because you 
are my disciples. You're rightly connected to the 
vine. through faith in me. So we've got the blessedness 
in the particular passage of the removal of the dead branches, 
every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, 
but the promise of the pruning of the living branches. And every 
branch that bears fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit. 
We've used Judas for the former, apostate Israel for the former. Think about a new covenant illustration 
of the latter. Remember when Peter denies Jesus 
after denying that he's going to deny him? And doing so, he 
kind of throws all his buddies on him. You know, everybody else 
may deny you, Lord, but not me. All these degenerate slobs, they 
may deny, but not me. He denies that he's going to 
deny Jesus. So what happens? He denies Jesus. Couldn't imagine that coming 
after the Lord announced it prophetically and said that it was going to 
happen. Remember when Jesus walks out, and Peter sees him, and 
then Peter weeps bitterly? I heard a sermon many, many, 
many years ago, and the fellow explained the look of Jesus. 
Did Jesus mean mug him? I can't believe you denied him. He just looked at him. He looked 
at him, and Peter wept bitterly. You see, Peter needed some pruning. 
But he wasn't converted. Sometimes converted people can 
do some kind of miserable, well, some very miserable things. The 
snippers came out. Jesus didn't wield a chainsaw 
at him. Jesus looked at him. It was a 
snipper. What happens? That's enough to 
convict Peter. He goes out and he weeps bitterly. 
Peter stands up on the day of Pentecost as the first among 
equals to proclaim Christ and Him crucified and Him resurrected 
and that we've entered into the Joel prophetic phase of the Spirit. Peter needed pruning. We all need pruning. God, in his grace, prunes. So we've got the true vine, which 
is our Lord Jesus. We've got the vine dresser, which 
is our Father. We've got the specific purpose 
to cut off apostate Israel, Old Covenant Israel, to cut off anybody 
who fakes it, but as well to prune the living branches such 
that they may be more and more conformed unto the image of his 
beloved son. And I think that's a good place 
to stop. We'll pick up the next section, God willing, in two 
weeks. Again, just so I can re-confuse everybody, we won't cover the 
same ground, but I want to show you the exhortation to the disciples. And I think 3 and 4 fit there 
as well, because 3 is similar to something Jesus already said 
in 13 in terms of their status before Him. They've been regenerated 
by the presence and the power of the Holy Spirit. That means 
they believe the gospel. They've heard His words. They are saved by grace through 
faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and now thus begins or continues 
the sanctification process wherein they abide in Him and He abides 
in them. As I've mentioned, the endgame 
isn't their parading through the streets as the wonderful 
doers of God's works, but the fact that God is glorified in 
the works of His people. So I want to end with two quick 
applications. First, if you've not believed 
the gospel, believe the gospel. It's a very simple application 
in the text. Who are the branches? Those who 
are connected to Jesus by faith. Those who look to Him. And when 
you look to Him, it means you're looking away from yourself. See, 
it's kind of always in us to try to fix things. Well, I can 
be better. I can do more. I can try harder. I can engage in some reform. 
I can stop going here. I can stop going there. I can 
stop doing that. And then I'll be okay. No, you 
won't. The only way to be okay, spiritually 
speaking, is to look outside of yourself to the Lord of Glory, 
to Jesus. Think back to John 3 when Jesus 
says, just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, 
so must the Son of Man be lifted up. When that brazen serpent 
was lifted in the wilderness, the argument was not, suck the 
venom out of your wound, drag yourself to the base of that 
bronze serpent, kiss it, fawn over it, and then you will be 
saved. No. It's very simple. I got bit. What's the remedy? Look and live. Well, wait a minute. Don't I 
have to do anything? Look and live. I don't have to drag myself. 
Look and live. I don't have to suck the venom. Pretty simple. We call it the 
simple gospel. Good news. Christ lived, Christ 
died, Christ was raised again, so that everyone who looks to 
Christ in faith will have everlasting life. That's good news to unbelievers. The second thought is on sanctification 
for the believer. Brethren, the chainsaw smarts. 
No training for the present is pleasant, according to the apostle 
in Hebrews chapter 12, but what happens? It yields the peaceable 
fruit of righteousness. Don't balk at God's chastening. Don't balk at the way God deals 
with his people. I hope you parents are training 
your children that way. When I discipline you, it's because 
I love you. When I discipline you, it's because 
I care for you. When I discipline you, it's because 
I don't want you to go astray. so that when you exercise the 
discipline and they lose their ever-loving minds and they say, 
oh, it's because you hate me, it's because you despise me, 
you're right there with the wagging finger saying, no, son, no, daughter, 
I do it because I love you. Brethren, never miss that with 
our God and Father. Sometimes the lessons, the pairing, 
the pruning process, can, at least humanly speaking, feel 
a bit much. But that is to suggest, or rather 
call into question, I'm preaching to myself here, you can all go 
to sleep, the infinite wisdom of God most high. For, whom he foreknew, these 
he predestined to be conformed to the image of his son. How 
does the son, according to his humanity, learn obedience? through suffering, through heartache. Listen to the prophet. He was 
a man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. 
He was stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. The Lord was pleased 
to bruise him. Brethren, is it going to be any 
different for us? As Jesus continues in this upper 
room, he says, if the world hates me, They're gonna hate you, too. Do you ever get that? You're 
looking at the news, you're hearing about the reports, and, wow, 
I can't believe that Christian people are being treated so poorly. 
Really? You can't believe that? Christ 
was treated so poorly. If we're gonna be like Him, that's 
gonna invite the same enmity and aggression and oppression 
and persecution from the enemies of Jesus. So for unbelievers, 
look to the Lord Jesus and believe. For believers, thank God most 
high that he wants to cultivate, that he's in the business of 
pruning, and that he wants to keep that vital connection open 
wherein the sap flows from the vine to the branches to promote 
and produce and to sustain good growth so that we may honor our 
great God. Well, let us pray. Our Father 
in heaven, we thank you for your word. We thank you for what we 
see to be just a gracious and a wonderful Father, a blessed 
and a glorious Lord Jesus, and a wonderful Holy Spirit. Yet 
not three gods, one God, one glorious being who exists eternally 
as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We praise you for your mercy. 
We praise you for your glory. We praise you for the fact that 
you are in the business of saving sinners. to sanctify them and 
to prune them and to promote in them growth so that you may 
be glorified. I pray that you would go with 
each one of us now, that you would watch over us, that you 
would keep us and protect us and bless us. And we ask in the 
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, amen.