The Way the Lord Prunes His Disciples

Well, the Lord willing, we're going to be looking in John chapter 15 here this morning, and we're praying for God's blessing on this morning in John 15. Verse 1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Verse 1, I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth not fruit he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. This morning I want to speak to you on the subject of Christ the vine, but I also want to give some examples this morning of Christ and how he, I guess we can say he was his work of pruning. The Father's work of pruning, but he even used Christ as he was dealing with the disciples. To prune those disciples. And so we saw this morning a beautiful illustration, Christ the vine, and we see that the believers are the branches. Christ says he is the true vine. He is the living vine. He's the true vine. He's his Father. The Heavenly Father is the husbandman. He's the farmer. He's the vine dresser. He's the one that tends that vine. And the fruit that the branches bear symbolize, I think it's pretty clear that they symbolize, spiritually speaking, the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. They symbolize the fruit that we cannot produce, but that God alone can produce in our lives through the working of the Holy Spirit in us.

Jesus Christ came to earth. He died and rose again for our sins, as we well know. I remember something that Jesus said in John. 12, if you'll turn back over there in just a few pages. John chapter 12, verse 24. John 12, 24, Jesus said, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, Except a corn or a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. It bringeth. It bringeth forth much fruit. We see here that Jesus, even as he says these things, is preparing for his own death. He's preparing for his own cross that he must go to. But this principle certainly is true for us as well. For in the next verse, he says, he that loveth his life shall lose it. But he and he, I'm sorry, and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. Jesus says in verse 27, Now is my soul troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour? Save me from this death? He says, but for this cause came I unto this hour. And so he prays for the Father to glorify his name through his own obedience to the plan for his atonement on that cross. It was necessary if we were to be saved. We were to be saved that Jesus would die for our sins. And because he died for our sins, we live through him.

I mentioned, I believe in this, I made mention of a man my brother asked us to pray for. Buddy Bass is a man that's attended their church some, and he's unsaved. He doesn't know the Lord, but he's trying to figure out how he can, in so many words, live. He's trying to figure out how he can live. He's trying to figure out how he can live. He's trying to figure out how he can live. He's trying to become a Christian without just humbling himself, you know, and receiving the free gift. And even as Christians, sometimes we try to figure out how we can live this Christian life in our own strength, don't we? But we see here that Christ is divine. We are the branches. And without him, we can do nothing. We cannot bear fruit. We cannot do anything. We cannot do absolutely nothing. The life-giving flow comes through the vine, right? The enabling of the Holy Spirit is only to those who are in Christ. Only that sap, that life-giving flow that comes through the vine is only possible by connection to the vine. It's not possible that a branch is going to produce something in itself, but only through its connection to Christ. That vine. Christ is our life. And the Father is the one who brings pruning in our lives so that we can be fruitful and so that the life of Christ will be seen in us, right?

Now, this word purgeth in verse 2. Look in verse 2 with me. He says in verse number 2, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it. That it may bring forth more fruit. Well, Jesus made clear that we would be known by our fruit, right? We will be known. Jesus, we have become disciples that we might be fruit-bearing, right? Sometimes it's, the scripture talks about 30-fold, some 60-fold, 100-fold. The degree of the fruit will vary from Christian to Christian, but there's no excuse that it shouldn't be. It shouldn't be abundant, as the Lord says, even in this passage. The Lord has saved us so that we might bear much fruit, in verse 8. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. But the word purgeth back in verse number 2, it says that the Father is the one that purgeth. Purgeth. He purges. It speaks of making something clean. By the process of pruning, it keeps the vine, it keeps the branches free of disease. You know, a vine dresser needs to come along and prune certain suckers or certain branches, certain shoots off, so that there will not, there'll be good airflow, there'll be good sunlight that gets to the vine. And it will not, it will not produce a mold or disease on the plant. And so that tending is very, a very important process for health. It's a very, a very important process for the health of the vine.

I actually, in preparation for this message, I was, I was looking at, it's a really helpful video. There was a vine dresser out, I think it was in California. Yes, it was in California. But he went through a whole process of pruning. A whole in-depth talk about this passage as he was, as he was walking people through a tour of his vineyard and was showing just how, as he was, as he was referring to these passages, he was showing each thing as he went along and how that process worked. It was very intriguing to see that.

And he's, he was saying also the word in verse three, he brought this out. In that little walkthrough that he did, the word in verse three is a, well, it's, it's a noun, but it's from the same root as the verb purgeth in verse two. In fact, in verse three, it says here, now are, now ye are clean through the word, which I have spoken unto you. So what Jesus is making a parallel here and saying, well, he's already told us that he didn't speak his own words, but he spoke the words the father gave him, right? Really the words that I speak unto you, their spirit and their life, but they're the words the father has given me to say to you.

I, I always do what the father wants me to do and say what he wants me to say. And so through the word, there was this purging or pruning or cleaning that would prevent, that would correct thinking and prevent disease in the branches that would, optimize fruitfulness in the branches through, through this pruning and through the work of the, the vine dresser, the, the, the main trunk of the vine.

And this is particularly interesting to me because we planted grapevines in our yard last spring before, you know, when they were still dormant, we planted them a couple of grapevines. And this year I had to look up how to prune, properly prune the grapevine. You don't do a whole lot of pruning that for that second season, but you have to do a little bit and you're establishing what they call the trunk, which is the main part of the vine that comes up out of the ground. You're trying to pick a straight, stronger portion of the vine and you get rid of some of the excess on the sides. And that's going to establish the main trunk that's going to come up. And then you're going to have canes that come off of that, off of that main trunk. And that's also part of the vine that's going to come up. And that's also part of the vine. The vine is, is defined as that, that trunk, as well as the canes.

And then off of the canes, you have the shoots or the branches that is where the fruit is going to be produced each year is off of the branches. And so the branches or the shoots is what we are. We're coming off of that vine, but we need to be pruned.

There's a, the, the, the vine dresser knows how many leaves, how much of the branch needs to be there. Some of it needs to be taken away because it's not going to help fruit production. And yet there has to be a certain amount for that process of photosynthesis to work and all of the, you know, the, the sugars to be developed in the, in the grapes.

Well, we don't want the, the, we don't want to despise the chastening even of the Lord in our lives because he knows exactly what's needed to be done. And so we need to be pruned. In our lives so that neither will fruit production be hampered or disease form in our lives, because if disease forms, if we are not what we ought to be, and we, and there's, you know, some root of bitterness that springs up, it can also spread to others around us and damage them and, and, and harm them as well. And so we see that, that necessary. For us to hear what God is saying to us in his word, because it's the word that prunes. It's the word that, that through which the Lord cleans us and makes us what we ought to be. The word of God is our hope. The word of God is, it brings us our help in every need that we have. We read the scripture. It's sharper than any two edged sword. And it's through that word that the father purges us so that we will bring forth much fruit.

Down in verse seven, he says, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what she will, and it shall be done unto you. What is the evidence that God's word is abiding in us? Well, even down in verse 10, if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, right? Think of it this way. We're, we're in Christ. We are in his love. This is not some contract that we're under. This is a loving and living relationship that we have with the one who died for us and now lives through us. And as we read here, if we abide in him and his words abide in us, we can ask what we will. If we are living in obedience to, if we are, listening to God's word and we're saying, amen, yes, I need that word. I need that pruning. We can pray and know that God hears those prayers. We can pray according to his will as we, his words abiding in us and we're abiding in him. We ask what we will and it shall be done unto us. There is no, if we're abiding in, in God's word, fruit is the inevitable result, right? If we're abiding and we're, we're depending on God's word and, and the pruning work that the father is wanting to do in our lives. And we're not resisting the, the chastening and resisting the dealings and, and, and rearing up under the trials that he sends, then we can trust that there is fruit coming. Verse four says the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine. No more can ye accept ye abide in me.

I think prayer is an evidence of that abiding, isn't it? The prayer is an evidence that we are in the word because what is our Christian life anyway? We talked about it recently with the steps, step-by-step walk we have with the Lord. First of all, are we hearing from God? Are we hearing what he's saying to us? Are we taking his word by faith? Are we, are we just hearing it and it's going in one ear and out the other? Are we hearing, being convicted, being corrected? Are we hearing what he's saying to us? Are we taking his word by faith? Are we, being instructed and being built up in the faith as he speaks to us? And then also the prayer being the, in our private closet, right? Talking with the Lord, both in petitions we give to him as well as in praises that we offer up to his name in our private closet. And it, and, and the, and the Lord said, if we meet with our father that sees in secret, then he will give us the word of God. He will reward us openly. What is the, what is that? That's a fruitful life. If, if God's blessing is upon our life, there will be fruit upon our vine and we, upon our branch.

When thou prayest, enter into thy closet. And it says that thy father, if you pray in secret, the father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly. But without having that vital connection, which is simple faith, we, we, we could never even be a branch in the first place. We could never even, there's, we could never bear fruit without the vine dresser doing the pruning work in our lives. But by abiding in the vine, we are, we are continuing in what? We are continuing in his love. We are, everything that is not lovely in our lives must be pruned, right? Everything that doesn't reflect the life of Christ must be, must be pruned out of our lives. We are, we are continuing in his love. Any dead wood has got to be pruned off so that there can be fruitfulness and the love of Christ can flow through us and Christ can be seen in our lives.

Thank God that I know I'm a believer because, but he chastens me so that I will bear that fruit. Um, and he loves me. He, the Lord loveth those that he chastens. If, if we're without chastisement, then we're not even true branches to begin with. We're not even true branches to begin with. We're not even true branches to begin with. Are we? We're not even in Christ to begin with. No chastening seems to be joyous. Paul will tell us over in Hebrews, but grievous for the present moment. Nevertheless, afterward, what does it, what does it produce? It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them that are exercised by that chastening.

If God didn't love us, he wouldn't purge us. Through cleansing. Remember we sing that song, Oh, rejoice in the Lord. He makes no mistake, but it goes, one of the lines in there says through purging more fruit, I will bear through purging more fruit.

We must remember that even the most difficult things that God brings in our lives is for what it's not, it's not for his own pleasure in the, in a sense, like maybe we, we would chase in a child. I wish they would just behave themselves. He's not just correcting behavior, but he's doing it for our profit, for our holiness. He's doing it for our fruitfulness. Certainly as parents, we should strive to be like the heavenly father because we want our children to be like Christ, right? Especially of course, if they're Christians to begin with, and then if not, we want them to be like the heavenly father. So we're not just to come to see and know Christ personally, but he chastens us for our profit that we might be partakers of his holiness. It yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness when we are exercised by that chastening by faith.

When we see how Jesus spoke to his own disciples and they gave him plenty of opportunities to correct them. They're thinking on many occasions was not as it should be. There were things that needed to be pruned out. And we, I know we're talking about Jesus speaking to them, but once again, what was the word? It was the word the father gave him to speak to them. He, he said, I must always be about my father's business. Jesus Christ had not yet died on the cross, but he was going to die. He, he was born to die. In fact, look over in Mark chapter eight with me on that note in Mark chapter eight, we see that Jesus had told his disciples what death he must die. He spoke about the fact that he must, he must die for sin. He must go to the cross. And in Mark eight, verse 31, it's here that, that we read, he began to teach them that the son of God, man must suffer many things and be rejected of the elders and of the chief priests and scribes and be killed. And after three days rise again, he told them what was going to happen. And he spake that saying openly and Peter took him and began to rebuke him.

But when he had turned about and looked on his disciples, he rebuked Peter saying, get thee behind me, Satan, for thou savors, not the things that be of God, but the things that be of me. Amen. Peter, I know you're wheat. I know you're a branch in the vine, but you have a problem here. And the problem is, and it's going to produce more problems if it's not dealt with, is an unsubmissive will to the will of God. You are more, you're living by sight in this thing and you're, and you have a plan, but it's not my plans. I have a plan and you're bucking the plan that God has. And so you need to go ahead and let go of that plan that you have and let me have my way. Let the father have his way. I know you say you love me and you're not, don't, no, you're not going to the cross, Lord. No, you're not going to die. Yes, I am. This is what's going to happen. And you need to get your thinking straight about it. You have an unsubmissive, an unyielded will here in this matter. So sometimes the Lord comes to us in chastening because we have something in our desire that's not his desire. And we might be rather obstinate about it and stubborn about that thing that we are, we are thinking.

Sometimes we're like Martha. Look over in Luke 10 verse 41. The Lord has had to speak to Martha, not, not because he didn't love her, but because he did love her just as he loves us. And he addresses needs in our lives. And in Luke 10, 41, we read this. And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha. He said it twice. He really had to get her attention here. Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things, but one thing is needful and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. And as he speaks to her, he says, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, Martha, in these words, he's not forgetting the good that she had done. It was not a problem that she was preparing the meal and doing all the work. That was not the problem once again, but the problem was she was complaining. She was cumbered with all this serving. She would, she had gotten in herself in such a tizzy that she was not even thinking about God in her service. She was thinking. Anxiously and even enviously of her sister, Mary. And this was her sin. All she could think about was Mary was not in there helping her. And, you know, if, if, if we try to offer something to God with a complaining or a jealous heart, that's not the fruit he's looking for. That's not the fruit that he wants to see in our lives. That's not the fruit that he wants to see in our lives.

That's not the fruit that he wants to see in our lives. And so she needed to pause and ask God to put gladness back in her heart. She needed to get still and sit at his feet. God wants us to be established and strengthened and settled. I know Brother P prayed, I believe it, prayed something or said something along those lines in the Sunday, when we were over practicing for choir just a little bit ago, and that we would be settled. We would be struck. We would be established that we would be not in a tizzy in our lives as Christians. Uh, there's a lot of things that could keep us stirred up. You know, well, look at this. That's not fair. This is not fair that no, we must serve God with a heart that's resting in him. He is the strength of our heart. He is the strength of our minds. And Martha needed to, to get still and put aside these anxious thoughts. The Bible commands us. We might say, I have good reason to be worried. I have good reason to be anxious. No, we never have a good enough reason to be anxious because the Bible says, be careful for nothing, nothing. And, and, and so this is what the Lord was dealing with this, this through the word. Remember when he came to the two on the road to Emmaus and through the word, he said, I have good reason to be worried. The word that he spoke to them, he began to rebuke them and say, you're slow of heart to believe what the prophets have spoken. You've forgotten and you need to be reminded.

Oh, there's so many things that need to be pruned off of our lives so that we can be fruitful because the only thing that needs to remain is Christ in our lives. The Lord puts us through a number, in a number of different situations to bring out those needs, doesn't he? And to show us our needs so that he can address those needs and to purge us of those problems, deficiencies in our lives. Look in Matthew 18, the Lord spoke to his disciples once again here in Matthew 18 and verse number one, Matthew 18, verse number one, he said, at the same time came the disciples unto Jesus saying, who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven? And Jesus called a little child unto him and set him in the midst of them and said, verily I say, I say unto you, except ye be converted and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. Whosoever therefore shall humble himself as this little child, the same is greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoso shall receive one such little child in my name. Receiveth me over and over and over again. The Lord used these illustrations to show that without me, you cannot bear fruit without me.

And without the purging work of the father, you are going to grow the fruits of pride and jealousy and envy. You're going to grow these, you can grow these things in your life of disease. That's going to affect others. We see there was a spirit of contention and, and, and sinful comparison and pride among them. And the Lord said, this has got to be cut out. This has got to be pruned. This has got to go because it is going to keep you from being what you ought to be. I bring this little child in the midst here to show you a picture of the humility that you need to exhibit as my disciples. A humble little child. And sometimes our Lord does put people, even people in our lives, doesn't he? Illustrations in our lives that are more powerful than even if we heard a sermon, perhaps at that moment in time, maybe the Lord brings back things, the things of scripture we've read and we've heard. And we have, we have had a, uh, we have, we have said something we ought not to say corrupting speech. No corrupt, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. Uh, but sometimes that, you know, what is corruption is, it's, it's, it's breeding foul odor and disease and all this kind of thing. That's not what kind of speech we should have.

We should have edifying speech, right? Uh, what's, we should think on good thoughts like the Lord wants us to think on, not, not be filled with this prideful comparison and this, this jockeying, for position among the disciples that we see going on. Remember, um, it was, it was actually over in John 21 in verse 23, uh, John 21 in verse 23, we read that, uh, that Peter is speaking to the Lord because the saying it, there has been this talk that John would outlive the other disciples. The other apostles. And Peter asked about this very matter in John 21, 23, then went this saying abroad among the brethren that, that, that, that disciple John should not die. Yet Jesus said not unto him, he shall not die. But if I will that he tarry till I come, what is that to thee? In other words, worry about, not worry, but consider the Lord. Not to even concerned yourself with your own life, don't get your eyes on everyone else and compare yourself to other people. Because you can become very jealous. When you do that, you could become, you could even, you could go to the other extreme and think, well, look at me, I'm better than somebody else. But am I going to die and he's going to live?

Are you really going to let him live, Lord? And we're going to die. Well, how are we going to die? Why is he going to, why are you going to leave him here and not us? That kind of thinking. We might look at someone else and say, well, I envy their financial situation, or I pity their financial, or I envy the help they have, or I wish I had the family they had, or I wish I possessed the things they possessed, or all these kinds of thoughts can come in and they can breed disease. Pride will cause us to compare ourselves with others, but the Lord rebuked that. He said, no, no. That's the wrong way to think. What does that matter to you? You walk with me, and I read something this week, and I probably will mess up the statement, but it was something along the lines of time. It kind of went along the lines of what I said recently about we don't know how many grains of sand are in the top of the hourglass, right? But time is that only thing that we can spend without knowing how much we have left to spend. We don't know how much more of it we have to spend, so let's not waste the time worrying about others. Let's just live every day for God's glory as He gives us the breath and the strength.

In Mark 6, and we must draw to a conclusion here, but in Mark 6, He also said something to them important as well. In Mark 6, verse 47, in Mark 6, verse 47, it's there that we read, and when even was come, the ship was in the midst of the sea, and He alone on the land, and He saw them toiling and rowing, for the wind was contrary unto them. And about the fourth watch of the night, He cometh unto them, walking upon the sea, and would have passed by them. But when they saw Him walking upon the sea, they supposed it had been a spirit, and cried out, for they all saw, and were troubled. And immediately He talked with them, and saith unto them, Be of good cheer, it is I, be not afraid. And He went unto them, or up unto them into the ship, beyond measure, and wondered, for they considered not the miracle of the loaves, for their heart was hardened.

So what do we have here? Fear. Fear. That's got to be pruned out too, doesn't it? An unyielded will, fear, pride, envy and jealousy, complaining. It's all got to go.

And the Father knows just how and when to bring the words to us that we need to hear in the circumstances in combination with the circumstances and the trials that He sends in our lives. To purge us, that we might bear more fruit. Our responsibility is to not despise the chastening of the Lord, to hear what the Spirit is saying, to hear what God is talking to us about in our lives, and to respond well to the pruning. Remember, He prunes us that we may bear more fruit. He prunes us that we might bear more fruit. He prunes us that we might bear more fruit. much fruit. And he's pleased by that fruit, but also the world around us, sinners lost in their sins are benefited when they can look at our lives and see Christ. Think about how much shame has been brought to the name of the Lord by the bad things that are in the lives of Christians, um, things that are, are, are inhibiting the production of fruit, but may God help us to like the disciples to hear what, what the word is being said that is being said to us about our specific needs in our lives. And as we respond with humility and submission to God's will, we will bear fruit and we will be honored by the Lord. Let's pray.