He is the vinedresser — John 15

0:00 Just one other announcement if I may that... King is coming. He's coming. He's coming. The king is coming.

0:18 I know that we have an election coming. The king is coming. He's not gonna be the king when he gets here. He's already the king and he's coming. He was king when he came the first time.

0:35 Where is he that is born the king of the Jews? You know that story. The king is coming back. The bridegroom cometh first because the bride belongs to the bridegroom. As said John the Baptist.

0:52 So we're gonna go meet him in the air. Those who know him as savior, he's gonna capture right off the planet. He's still a king even though he's the bridegroom. He's both. John's gospel, please.

1:17 One thing about being deaf, one thing, and I apologize, I really do. It's tough to get old. Don't do it if you don't have to. If you have to that's different. If you don't have to don't but I realized when I once I put them in that now I can hear but it's so loud that when I talk soft, people can't hear me.

1:46 So I have... And people are getting closer saying what? Well, before I wore them I could yell most of the time so I could hear myself. People could hear me now I can't. So I have no idea if you can hear me or not.

1:57 That's the truth. I see a thumbs up. He controls it, right? I don't have to raise my voice at all. I don't have to elevate it.

2:07 Just let it go. Where's prayer meeting at this week? It's always been at the throne. It's always, always been at the throne of grace. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need.

2:34 All prayer meetings are at the throne of grace. Doesn't matter where on the planet. Matters to you if you're gonna attend. I've been zooming with you once a month. That's fun.

2:51 Remind me of a one time I was in China and they were where I was at the Lord's supper with some Chinese who were attending an unregistered gathering. Lady was laying on a cot. She was old and feeble. There was one little, like, 30 watt light bulb so that nobody could see the light from the street if they looked up to the second story. And we were knee to knee on these little bamboo...

3:25 I don't know. They felt like steps, but they were made for Chinese. They were considerably smaller than us, so we didn't really fit on them. But nevertheless, and it was such a small circle, but we were knee to knee. That's how close we were to fellowship.

3:41 There's no COVID back then That we know of. There probably was. We just didn't know it. Where are you going to meet next week for the Lord's Supper? Some place different.

3:56 Why? So they can't catch us. We meet some place different every week so the authorities can't find out and catch us and arrest us for gathering, showing the lord's death. I'm sure that's not your reason that you don't know where permitting is. Nevertheless, there are those who gather to the Lord wherever he gathers them for safety purposes.

4:45 Many of you know what that means, some of you might not know. And I did something yesterday I have never done before. Most of my life I've been able to resist any brother I meet on a Saturday who knows I'm speaking on Sunday and inquires as to what the topic is. Fifty years I've never gave somebody the answer. Never.

5:11 You have to come to find out. No. You can't preempt. You know, you gotta come. You gotta arrive.

5:18 You gotta. And I'm very thankful for the Westlake team who puts together these onto the website so fast. It's like same day you get it up there. That is great work and I appreciate it. I don't always believe that it should be, but...

5:40 Because I believe in here and now. Spirit of God designs for somebody to be here then they're here. I know there's always good reasons why somebody can't be here. That's legitimate. Last night I told somebody what I was speaking about today.

5:58 Somebody really pushed me. Come on, give me one thing, one thing you're gonna speak on. Just tell me one thing, one verse, one passage. So I did. And you know what?

6:11 A person's not here today. He might come in late, I don't know. See, that's what happens. I get suckered and they've given them something. And then they go home and decide I don't need that.

6:30 I don't want that portion of scripture screamed at me. Right? Go ahead. Guess who it is. No.

6:38 Don't get... I will give you no hint as to who it is. As I see others arriving, still not... He's still not here. Anyway, I gave him two verses.

6:52 These are the two verses. John 15 verse one and verse two. And this isn't a cleanup situation. I said that not with regards to a message that has to deal with everything that's gone before, you know, with Eric and Chris and Christian and Bob, you know, and Ray. I mean, all the speakers you've had in the past five or six weeks.

7:19 No. This isn't that. Alright? So don't misunderstand. But we will pray and ask God's help.

7:28 Father, we thank you for your word. We sit here now having a desire to follow hard after the example given to us by the apostles that we should continue steadfastly in the doctrine. And so we open your word to hear. We know that you've given it because it's good for us. You can feed us, nourish us, you can comfort us, you can convict us, exhort us, instruct us.

8:03 Whatever it may be, Lord, for each of us, you... We're thankful you know each of our need. And overall, as a group of Christians gathering here at Westlake on this Hilliard Avenue, we pray that you would speak to us as a part of a testimony, a lampstand that you have here in this area for the the glory of your son, the lord Jesus Christ. And we therefore commit our time into your hands in his precious name. Amen.

8:41 I am that. Christ that. The best gospel just to have Jesus Christ just drop down in front of you and say, this is who I am. It's the best gospel. 21 chapters, roughly thirty days of Christ's life, not consecutive, of course.

8:58 Thirty days in the life of Christ. And in those thirty days, these wonderful declarations, I am. So it's just, if you ever want, and a lot of people don't want that type of relationship with Christ. They'd rather have him in the back where they keep him under wraps. But Jesus Christ is Jesus Christ.

9:14 You're not gonna just fold him up and put him someplace. Like he belongs to you. I know that he's your savior, but it's not like he belongs to you. You belong to him. He says, I am.

9:32 This, I'm bread of life, resurrection of life. I'm the light of the world. I'm the way, the truth, the life. I'm the good shepherd. And then John 15.

9:44 I'm the true vine. You're the branches. My father is the gardener. And so we have this declaration from Jesus Christ that is historical not only because he said it then but because the Jews have already always have god used a garden and a vineyard to speak to them about life. Alright?

10:14 So it's it's not out of the ordinary. It's it's kind of shocking in this context. He's already ended the lord's supper. That supper's over. Right?

10:26 That Supper's over. He's transitioning from the upper room. Leaving that upper room and walking perhaps during this conversation. Maybe not. A lot of disagreement on the sequence of events.

10:44 I'm okay with disagreement. None of us were there. We can ask him when we get there. He's on his way to the Garden Of Gethsemane. We know that.

10:54 We know that. Where he prays John 17, hard really to put in place. But John 18 starts with he crosses the Brookhedrin and goes into the garden. And then all that other capture and pretend stuff that the Romans and the Caiaphas are gonna do. But so this is a conversation as after the bread and after the cup and probably after the feet washing and we're not quite sure exactly what setting, when did they sing the hymn, had they sung the hymn yet and all this is going on but here is the truth that Christ suddenly confronts his disciples with.

11:30 His disciples. Judas has already been excused. Alright? He's already out. Out of the equation.

11:40 He's off to do that which the son of perdition is going to do. And Jesus looks at his disciples or walking with him. I can't tell you exactly which I would like to but I can't just as I'm the true vine. My father, he's the gardener. Your branches.

11:58 Okay, that sounds good. And then these two horrifying details. The gardener got a sharp tool in his hands. He cuts off every branch that bears no fruit. Ouch.

12:16 Ouch. You know how many people have written about that verse? He cuts off branches that bear no fruit. Why? Well because we're in the business of making everybody feel secure.

12:32 That's our business. Have you wanted any of morning feeling insecure then it's my job to make you feel secure. I can do that with scripture but it's the spirit of god's job to make you feel secure. It's his fruit. The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace.

13:00 You know, if you feel insecure, then it's you've got an issue with him. So, we've had a numerous writers, theologians, experts in every type of imaginable understanding of scripture and scripture principles and words and Greek words and languages there is to tell you what these verses mean. He cuts off branches with no fruit. Impossible, you can't lose your salvation. If the branch is connected to the vine then it's connected.

13:33 It's connected. So maybe we should use the Romans passage about grafting it in. So can it be regrafted? Can I be born again again? All the little fears that that palpitations of the soul whenever we're confronted with the reality that this is serious business this following Christ.

13:56 You 11 people, I'm gonna use you to turn the world upside down. You're gonna give it to a generation who are gonna give it to a generation, who are gonna give it to a generation with the same purpose. I'm gonna build a church. I'm gonna turn the world upside down with the glorious gospel of the blessed god. I need everybody to stay close.

14:15 I need everybody to follow. I can't have part time Christians. I need every branch bearing fruit. You don't bear fruit, you're cut off. Not by the lord, by the gardener.

14:40 He's got branches that bear no fruit. I'm cutting them off. Oh, we lost our salvation. See, because we all we do is worry about our salvation. Listen, Jesus Christ saved you.

14:54 You belong to him. Have you been born? You've been born once. That's why you're in this room. Right?

15:02 Can you be born a second time? No. It's the same spiritually. If you've been born spiritually, really born spiritually, I don't mean agree with what my dad said, you young people. I don't mean agree with what my mother taught me.

15:17 Praying next to my bed every night after I said my good night prayers. I don't mean that. I mean, genuinely, you personally have been born again. The spirit of God did a work in you to reveal to you who Christ is and who you are in relation to Christ. And when you realize that great gulf that we're never going to fix Christ said, come on, I got a plan.

15:41 I build a bridge with a cross from you to me. And so you get born again. It's the work of the spirit. It's not the work of the flesh, not the will of man. You're not born by blood.

15:56 You're born by the spirit of God. Go into work. John describes that in his first chapter. So we read this verse and it has to mean something that it doesn't say. No, it says, my father cuts off every branch that doesn't bear fruit.

16:09 It can't mean that. That's what it means. That's what it means. Telling Jesus Christ he didn't know what he was talking about? He misspoke.

16:24 Couldn't you have said that a better way, Lord? In a way, I'm a little bit more gentler. You know, because you don't really wanna chase people away or make people worry. You don't know Jesus Christ if you think that. All she wants to do is make you feel peaceful.

16:45 Woah, Amos said in the sixth chapter. Woe to those who are complacent and those who feel secure. Because we'll do anything to make ourselves feel good. We'll have activities change the mood. We'll have substance change the mood.

17:07 Food changes the mood. We have all these addictive personality disorders that we can implement in order to change how we feel. Why do you think they call it getting high? Because people feel low without it. So, ingest a substance.

17:26 Take something that will make me feel higher. Why? Because we're low. Yeah, we get that. God gets that.

17:39 Solomon was the one who said, I've seen the bird neck God has put on a human race in his book of Ecclesiastes. It's the work of God to come into our lives and to produce a type of soul satisfying joy and peace that can't be disturbed by the things of the world. It can only be disturbed by the selfish, willful, deliberate going against God's purposes. Every branch that bears no fruit, He cuts off. Can you just see the branches when the gardener shows up?

18:32 Nope. Nope. No. My wife, how do you know so fast? Like, just know.

18:36 No. No. No. Now you're a Christian and the God's walking in the garden every morning. And what do you call it, quiet time?

18:45 It's cutting time. He's gonna water, but he's got the tool out and he's cutting branches off. Off. What branches? Branches are connected to Christ.

18:58 How can that happen? I know. I know. We're not past that yet. We'll get to it.

19:01 Just relax. Take a a take a couple deep breaths. Alright? Don't. It's not a fire drill.

19:09 Alright. So in this analogy you got the gardener going through your heart every day looking for fruit. He sees no fruit, he cuts you off. You think the branch ever said, oh I promise tomorrow I'll have some. I need another hour.

19:26 Come back at noon. I'll have something. How about all these beautiful leaves I got? Look at all these leaves on this branch. It's beautiful.

19:37 It's a beautiful plant. No fruit. Cut off. Yeah. That's what Jesus Christ said to his 11 disciples.

19:53 Every branch that doesn't bear fruit, he cuts off. Tough, tough, tough passage. I admit that it's tough. I don't really want to soften it. It's the strength of Jesus Christ talking.

20:10 I don't want to explain eternal security for those who feel like, well, I've been cut off and so I've lost my salvation, so there's no sense. I'm just going to be doom and gloom until I die. But think about the people in Matthew seven. Real quick, scary passage, another scary part. He's talking about fruit there too.

20:30 By your fruit, by their fruit you'll know them. Every good tree that bears good fruit you know. Every tree that doesn't bear good fruit you know. You can easily identify that's not an apple tree. Why are you trying to sell me that tree?

20:41 It's not an apple tree, there's no apples on it. That kind of mentality, it's in that context that Christ says, not everyone who says to me Lord, Lord will be saved. There'll be many who will say, but Lord we prophesied in your name. We did this in your name. And see these are branches saying, I got a lot of fruit.

21:01 And Jesus Christ said, you have no fruit. I never knew you, depart from it. Branches insisting that they're fruitful. You're not fruitful. We don't have the right as a branch to declare our fruit.

21:20 I'm a fruitful Christian. No way that that sharp object will ever come and cut me because I bear fruit. It says no fruit, I got some fruit, I got a little fruit. I got potential. I got, yeah, we use those terms because we like to moderate and mediate relationships.

21:42 You cannot mediate a relationship for another Christian. That's the king. There's one mediator between God and man. It's the man Christ Jesus. You notice in his verse that he prunes branches that have fruit.

22:14 I don't want to hurt their feelings, but I do got to remove some things. No. Same tool. Cut, branch gone, trim. So more fruit, same vine, same tool, same gardener.

22:30 It's his work. Not our work, not the elders work. Don't say the elders do that. This is the relationship that you have with Jesus Christ. Whether...

22:42 And you don't get a choice here. You don't get a choice to say, you know I like all the I am's but I don't like this one where I'm the branch. And he, the almighty one is the gardener because I'm fearful that someday he's going to stumble upon the fact that I haven't been and am not at this present moment a very fruitful Christian. And if I was pressed to give anybody any evidence of fruit it would be man made or historical perspective. Nothing really today that God would discover that's the fruit It's the work of the spirit of God to produce fruit in us.

23:38 And again, I I I don't I don't say this to frighten anybody. I really don't. You know me though. If you ask me for a message and I actually worked this message in my mind after listening to the message and thought this is the obvious next step. We have to talk about fruit.

24:02 Genuine fruit. And not that you recognize it in each other. This isn't the branches celebrating the branches. This isn't the branches saying that branch doesn't have any fruit, get rid of them. This is the gardener, the father.

24:18 Christ is the vine. He's taking care of his son. Now, let me suggest you, and I say simply suggest, cuts off might not be the best translation. Why do I say that? Well, because there's other times in the New Testament where that word is used, where it's not cut off.

24:44 I just suggest that. In this context it makes sense. But why would that be worse than pruning? Then why are these two words different? The word prune is different than the word cut off.

24:54 Yes, although the root words are the same. But there's a different understanding. So you know, I've told you before I use a Greek dictionary where you take a New Testament word and then they give you examples in other writings. Non Christian writers of that age use that word in their writings that had this meaning in context. And so you have the benefit of well how did Plato use that word?

25:20 It's a Greek word by the way. How did Plato use that word? Plato used it. What do you mean? And so you have the ability to go and look at, well, there might be a little bit cut off.

25:34 Yeah, it's translated cut off in a number of places. But I want to tell you about it. In one place, it's translated as suspends. Now I read that and I think suspends? Woah, that's much better.

25:55 Because you know what, when I look out and I consider my own life and I see other Christians suffering, walking hard past, really complaining a lot of times that their life with Christ has really dried up and they're not really close, They don't feel his presence and they don't have the joy and they want back all the good stuff that they had at the moment they were saved. It just seems like where is he? I haven't had real contact, real genuine contact with Jesus Christ for years perhaps. And I don't know why. I'm gonna go off to church and let the elders be responsible to make me feel good.

26:31 So I'm gonna write in, can we talk about this? Yeah, so yeah, we'll talk about it so you can feel good. Listen, I like the word suspends here. It's a preference, I'm honest about it. But I see Christians being suspended from the branch.

26:50 I see that. I know that experience myself. To have a time in my life where, what did you say your name was? Like I don't even know him. I'm distant, I feel distant.

27:04 I'm admitting I feel distant and I realized well that's because the Gardner suspended me. Have you ever been suspended from anything? Driver's license, school, anything? I don't wanna go back that far to high school years, but so suddenly you can't enjoy the privileges that you once had because something's wrong, something's not right. This better describes John's epistle to me.

27:30 If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us. Well, why would we need all that experience if we're saved? Because every day we are in a position where we are estranged, if I can borrow that word from marriage settings. It's strange. We're distant.

27:48 We're separate. Something has come between us in our relationship. There's some issue. It could be the smallest thing but it's we're insistent about it that I'm not. No, it's gonna be my, I'm settled.

28:02 And God says, hold, hold, hold, you're suspended. See that to me makes more sense. That we live in an age, a church age where most Christians have had the relationship temporarily suspended. There's no life being transferred from the branch to the or from the vine to the branch because you're suspended. You're suspended.

28:29 Why? I'll tell you why. You don't confess your sin, you don't deal well with sin. I come and tell you about your five husbands, you want to talk about worship. No deflecting here.

28:43 We're talking about your five husbands. No, our fathers worship. What's the connection? We're great in it. You're feeling convicted by sin?

28:55 I'm gonna sing my favorite song. You feel the Lord pressing you down about a matter in your life that he wants to correct, then what do we do? Where's my favorite verse on eternal security? Let me call the elder. Can you come over and pastor me?

29:10 I need a pastoral visit because I don't feel good. You've been suspended. And it's the father's job to do it. You don't suspend yourself. You think you do.

29:22 I can walk away. No, no, and no. It's the gardener's right to suspend. That's his job. I don't know why my iPad keeps turning off.

29:36 It's a spiritual sign I'm supposed to hurry up. I don't know. If you allow that possibility that the word should be suspended instead of cut off, I think you'll understand your relationship a lot better with Christ. And then you won't start questioning, do I need to be born again again? Or I lost my salvation, dad.

29:59 No. You've been suspended. The complacency comes when you know you're suspended, you know your contact's not genuine. Your contact with Christ is not genuine. It's based on, I'll memorize another chapter.

30:13 Because you think in the scriptures you have eternal life, Jesus Christ told them. You think in the scriptures there's life. There's no life in the scriptures. It's a book, a copy of what God has said. And Jesus went on to say, And you will not come to me for life.

30:31 You've got to come to me. It's always going to be that way. It's always going to be about coming to Christ. Whether you've already come once and surrendered to him, every day is a matter of coming to Christ. Meeting him where he wants to be met, not where you decide you have five minutes for him.

30:48 Can I just put in a tape, listen to it while I'm driving to get gas? Try it if you like. You'll be suspended eventually. In my opinion. You don't budget him.

31:27 We're not going to deal with Pilate. We're not going to deal with the Tower Of Siloam. Although we understand the questions behind it. Verse one, Luke 13. There were present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices.

31:44 Historical account. It happened. It's in most history books. You can read about it. It's mentioned that these people came to Christ and said, what's up?

31:55 How do you feel about what Pilate did? Put right in a political conversation. You've been in one recently? Been forced to talk about politics recently? Past week, some significant events that might have happened with the nine up there on, what do they call it, the Supreme Court?

32:11 They have no idea about the Supreme Court, do they? They have no idea about the one who sits above all. They will. Maybe some of them do. Nevertheless, they thrust Christ right in the middle of a political conversation he didn't want.

32:27 Listen to his answer. You think you think John 15 is harsh? Listen to this answer. Jesus answered, you think those Galileans were worse sinners than other Galileans because they suffered this way? Nope.

32:38 Unless you repent, you'll also perish. Where's the compassion? They were victims. They're our brother Jews captured by the Romans, made a spectacle, made victimized by Pilate who has the power of life and death over this province. And you don't want to say anything except unless we repent, we're going to likewise perish?

33:02 That's not a very adequate answer. Certainly not a John three sixteen answer. Where's the love? No. Repent or you'll likewise perish.

33:14 Woah, hold on. What do you actually mean by that? Your life can be over this fast. Gone. You think they thought they were gonna die?

33:28 They knew they were at risk behavior because they were fighting against Roman tax. Pretty common. Next example. Verse four. Or how about those 18 people who fell, who died when the Tyre of Siloam fell?

33:43 You think they were more guilty than all the other righteous Jews living in Jerusalem? Nope. Unless you repent, you also pray. These people were just going about their day. They might have been there doing ceremonial cleansing.

33:55 Nobody really knows, but they all died in hens. You think there were? No, unless you repent. Where's the compassion for these innocent victims killed tragically by a... It's an act of God.

34:05 I mean, was God judging them? Why was this man born blind? Did he sin or his parents? We always have that. Why do bad things happen to supposedly good people?

34:14 Well, answer is because there are no good people. There are no good people. We know that. There's no none good. There's none good except Jesus Christ.

34:24 None of us to this day have yet experienced what we deserve. What we deserve is the lake of fire, and we're not there yet. Anyway, this is the parable. This is the one I came after. Jesus then told him a parable, and you have to understand Christ's purpose for telling it, what he's trying to infer.

35:09 Why should it waste the soil? Sir, the man replied, leave it alone for one more year. I'll dig around it and fertilize. If it bears fruit next year, fine. If not, we'll cut it down then.

35:29 In the upper room, one thing Jesus said that we know from Luke to Peter, Satan has this desired you to expose you as a phony, but I prayed for you. I prayed for you. You see, we have Jesus Christ who intercedes. Here's the owner of the vineyard saying, it's my vineyard, my tree, three years, interesting three years, roughly three years into Christ Life public ministry at this point. I've been coming for three years looking for fruit on one little fig tree in my vineyard.

36:04 I got great grapes, but the fig tree's here. And now I realize after three years no figs, so cut it down because you know what this, the roots take up water. It robs the nutrients from the soil for what the grapes should get. It's contaminating the whole vineyard. Cut it down, get rid of it.

36:20 And what's the great intercessor say? No. I'll dig it. I'll take. You're going to intercede for the fruitless by digging, getting dung with your hands and putting it on the roots.

37:23 Yeah. That's the Jesus Christ you know. How many of us are still connected because he not only died years later, when totally not connected, totally deserving of being suspended, he says, wait, let me do more. I'll do more. I'll dig and I'll fertilize.

38:01 And if there were only more Christians who smelt like dung, that it was evidence that Christ is working in their life, having dung because they were about to be suspended in fact, Instead, Christ interceded on their behalf. And the church would be much more aromatic. It would smell much better. Our fellowship would genuinely be sweet because we would have a sense that Christ is working in our midst. And that's, I think, what we want.

38:36 I think I could be wrong. And you like Luke 13 more than you like John 15, I know that. I know I do. I like having confidence and one who says, hold it, don't cut it down yet. I'm gonna go back to work and get the roots, get to the roots, get to the roots.

39:44 Keep us well connected, we pray. Keep us alert, Lord, when we're drifting. Keep us mindful that it's the fruit of your spirit, the fruit of your relate... Of our relationship that it brings you the most honor. And so, Lord, we commit each one into your hands.

40:01 Pray for any here that really has not been born again yet. And today, Lord, now would be the day of salvation for him. Strengthen us, we pray, with almighty by the power of your spirit and dismiss us in your power. We ask into the purposes you have for each one of us. We pray in Christ's name.

40:22 Amen.