Dying to Sin Means Living with Christ

I'll get you to turn to John chapter 15 for me, please. We are wrapping up our series this morning on the battle against sin. It's our fifth and our final instalment. And over the past few weeks, we've looked at the commandments that we are given several times throughout scripture that we are to die to sin in order to live for Christ. And we looked at what that means, this dying to sin so that we may have the life of Christ.

What that looks like in life on a day-to-day basis. We looked at sin, what it does, that it is there to kill, to steal, to destroy all that is good that God has made. We also looked at who our great healer is in this process of redemption and restoration, and that is the Holy Spirit, the third person in the trinity. The Holy Spirit who loves holiness, who is consumed with holiness, who desires holiness for us, who is powerful and sovereign and is able to work that in our lives in powerful and sometimes mysterious ways. And then finally last week, we looked at how it is that we can break from bad habits.

Sin that has been entrenched in us. How to break away from those things, replacing it with good habits, replacing it with new affections of our hearts. To love God. To love Christ and to have the power of sin broken in our lives. We saw those four little cycles or steps in habits.

Can anyone dare guess what they were? Two c's and two r's. Firstly, cue, craving, response and reward. Cue, craving, response and reward. And those are processes that any habit is formed on.

Conversely, you can say to break a bad habit, you make the cue invisible. You avoid the craving. You don't give in to the response and then you mitigate that reward or the false bad reward of it. So these are good habits, good things for us to keep in mind. And now this morning as we finish up our series, I'm going to share with you a talk entitled, dying to sin means abiding in Christ.

And so we're going to look at John chapter 15 verses one through to eight. Let's turn to John 15 verse one. Jesus says to his disciples, I am the true vine and my father is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit.

For apart from me, you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this, my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

So far, our reading. Here in John 15, we find Jesus giving an allegory of a gardener who looks after a vine and that vine produces little sprouts of branches. In the context, we find Jesus giving lengthy bits of teaching to his disciples as he faces the cross. The next day, he is going to be arrested and he is going to be crucified.

This takes place at the Passover meal that the Jews were celebrating at this time. And we'll see this morning that as Jesus comforted his disciples with these words ahead of what was going to happen, he has something very significant to say about the process of what it means to be his disciples. And I want to reflect with you on three things that Jesus says in these eight verses. Firstly, Jesus says that he is the vine that accomplishes the will of God. As Jesus and his disciples are sitting and probably eating some lamb or some bread in the Passover meal, he probably also has a jug of wine or a glass of wine near him as he is talking about these things at the Passover meal.

And Jesus begins an allegory of a vineyard. On the night before he goes to the cross, Jesus says to them, I am the true vine and my father, the vinedresser. Why does Jesus look at his disciples and tell them, I am the true vine? Well, for the Jewish disciples listening, this would have registered something in their minds. It would have called back a memory.

It was a metaphor, a vine, a metaphor that the Old Testament used to talk about the people of Israel. In the Old Testament, God's people, Israel, are referred to as being a grapevine. In Psalm 80 verses eight and nine, the Psalm writer says to God, you brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it in the promised land. You, O God, cleared the ground for it.

It took deep root and filled the land. According to the Old Testament, Israel is like a replanted vine in new soil, the promised land. God has taken Israel out of Egypt and planted them in a flourishing landscape. But then, many years later, in Isaiah 5, we see what happens to this vine. Isaiah 5 verse 7, the vineyard of the Lord Almighty is the house of Israel.

The men of Judah are the garden of his delight and he, God, looked for justice but saw bloodshed. For righteousness, but heard cries of distress. In other words, the vine has gone wild. God says that they had good soil. God says that they had good water.

They had protection from beasts. But when they needed to bear good grapes, they produced sour grapes. The prophet Hosea after Isaiah laments that Israel, as they grew as a vine, so they also grew in their pride. As they realised they were planted in good soil, they looked at the soil and they looked at the environment and they looked at their safety and they became proud. And Hosea 10 verse one says this, Israel is a luxuriant vine, healthy vine that yields its fruit.

But the more his fruit increased, the more altars he built. As Israel's prosperity increases, so does their idolatry. So does their rebellion against God and moving away from him. They depart from God who is the one who planted them in the first place. And so now in John 15, Jesus says to his disciples, I am the true vine.

The word true here doesn't simply mean that he is a genuine vine. The word, like we can use it in English, the word true can be used to refer to faithful. Just like you can say of a husband, he was faithful or true to his wife. So Jesus is the faithful vine. Jesus is the vine, in other words, of true obedience.

What Jesus is saying here is none other than he is the true Israel. He is the true son that Israel were meant to be. The keeper of Abraham's blessings. The facilitator, as the priest to the nations. God says in Exodus 19 verse six that you are to be a nation of priests.

Through you, the blessing will come to the nations. He is the fulfilment. Jesus Christ is the fulfilment of all God intended Israel to be. And in Christ is found a better covenant. The prophet Jeremiah speaks of this new covenant, this new era.

He says that under this new covenant, God's law will be written on his people's hearts. That they won't have to remind one another, trust in the Lord, believe in God. Everyone will know God. Everyone will do what God wants, that the law of God will be so close to them, it is written on their hearts. And Jesus says, in the foreshadowing of what is to come the next day, that he would be showing that he really is God's true and faithful son.

That he is the obedient Israel and therefore the true vine. Where Israel failed, Jesus will succeed. And for us, when we hear that Jesus is the true vine, it gives us great hope. It should. Because he is saying that he is the true obedient Israel fulfilling the old covenants' requirements of complete and perfect obedience to the law.

Where Israel needed to be the world's priests, the representatives, the nation through whom God's blessing would come, Israel failed. But Christ is succeeding. Where Israel failed to desire God, Jesus loves God fully. Where Israel was fickle and they harboured wandering hearts, Jesus remained steadfast. Jesus' faithfulness, in other words, not ours, is our hope.

His obedience, not mine, is the reason why God will rescue me. Jesus says, I am the true vine and I will accomplish the will of God for you. But he has far more to say than that because he goes on. The allegory isn't finished yet. Jesus has something to say about his disciples and what does he say about them?

What are they? They are the branches. They are branches, in fact, that will be pruned. The vine, the true vine has little sprouts and these sprouts are branches that will bear fruit. And when Jesus says this, he is likely sitting next, imagine, to a jug of wine.

Right? The immediate connection and with the context that they're in is saying that you are grapefruit. No, no, not grapefruit because that's a different type of fruit. They are fruit that is grapes. And probably more specifically wine grapes.

But as they are enjoying this wine, they realise that this wine doesn't just happen. This wine has been cultivated. It has been grown. It's been produced to be enjoyed. I've told this story before on my trip to Israel ten years ago.

Going by a farmer and I don't think he was doing it in any way to show off or to, you know, be something to be ogled at by a bunch of Americans and Australians. There was a man growing a bunch of vines, grapevines. And it was fascinating to see how he does it because they are growing it in the traditional Mediterranean way, the Middle Eastern way rather of growing grapes across the ground like it would have naturally happened. Sprawling grapevine that just runs across the ground and the amazing thing to have stopped and seen is how the farmer would have to go under every bunch of grapes were starting to sprout and they would put a little rock under each grape so that it would be lifted up off the ground. So that it wouldn't get mould or it wouldn't get bugs or it wouldn't whatever.

It was protected. But imagine the time to go to each little sprouting bud to lift it up off the ground. This is the idea of what Jesus is talking about here, about these little branches and its relationship, their relationship with the vinedresser. He is a good gardener, carefully inspecting each and every disciple. And we are those disciples.

If we call ourselves followers of Jesus, he says, God the Father will do a work on us. Now what is that work? Well, Jesus says in verse two that the vinedresser will prune the branches that are connected to the vine. And here you see that there are two categories of branches used. There are branches that never bear fruit and that there are branches that do bear fruit.

Now what are being referred to here? Well, they are both so-called followers of Christ. They are both connected to Christ. But there are only some that are genuine followers and then there are some who are followers in name only. Those who are followers in name only connected to Christ by title alone, they are false branches.

They will be removed, Jesus says. But the true Christian is the branch who will produce the fruit of faith. These branches can't help it, but because of their connection, they will bear fruit. They have no choice in the matter. Since they are connected to the life-giving vine, they will bear life.

Yet the vinedresser wants to make them even more fruitful. Did you notice that? It's not a pruning so that they will bear fruit. No. They will bear more fruit.

In the original language here, the word prune is literally the word for clean. They, the same word that is being used here. We translate it into prune assuming that that is what is being talked about here. God, in other words, can say, is cleaning the branches so that it will produce more fruit. But then, Jesus cleverly plays on the words here because in verse three, he says to his disciples, but you are already, what?

Clean. Now, wisely, our English translators pick up that this is not the same prune word as being talked about for the branches. This is cleaning of something deep. This is the soul cleaning that needs to happen for disciples. And Jesus says to his disciples, you are clean.

Why? Because of the word I have spoken to you already. And so we get the sense that Jesus is using the word clean in a different way than the word to prune. Why does Jesus say this? Well, Jesus is saying and has been sharing with his disciples all along a message, a word.

And what is that word? It is the gospel. It is the gospel that he is the Messiah, that he is the promised one who was meant to come to the world. And although the disciples don't yet understand how this cleansing will take place, they soon will. It'll only be a matter of days and they will.

And in that understanding, they will be granted even the fruit to believe. And through that faith, through that word and that message being proclaimed to them so they may know it, through that they are cleansed. Disciples, therefore, are already clean because they are already branches in the vine. But what Jesus is saying is that even while we as Christians, as forgiven and washed people, washed by his blood shed for us, we will need continual work to strengthen us in that faith. And we will need that again and again.

God the Father, God will need to come and refine that what he has started in us. He will drum into us again and again and again the might and the power of the gospel message. We will need to see God reverse the chaos of sin in our lives, but he will do that as a gentle vine keeper. And listen how Jesus goes on with this pruning. He shares that this happens not just once.

This is a continual process. It's not just one chop here and then, okay, the job is done. It's a continual process. God will continue his work on us for a very long time. And I think that that pruning is also connected to this word that is being shared.

We must, as Christians, keep coming back to the gospel. It is our only salvation. It is our only hope. The message of Jesus Christ and him crucified. That is part of the pruning.

We must know it. We must put our trust in it. We must find strength and draw from that. We must be reminded again and again of the gospel because this is the reality for us. The gospel not only saves us and makes us clean, it draws us into the new covenant that Jesus was initiating.

The life that Jesus was giving as the vine. And so the gospel cleanses not just once, but continually. The gospel keeps us rooted in the vine. So there is this once-off cleansing through the saving work of Jesus, but then there is this habitual cleansing also that is going on. And that's what we've been focusing on, this battle against sin.

Now friends, if you sense this morning, the hand of God on you in pruning. If you see that coming in the coming weeks, the pruning of God that will happen in you, see it in its true light. It is the work of a patient, faithful, careful, and disciplined gardener. In his careful work on us, God may take things away from us. He may take things away from us physically. In all reality, he might allow us to be infected by coronavirus next week, next month.

Our father may make things hard and yet this is what we have to remember. There is a sovereign, good, and holy hand behind it all. There can be hundreds of things that God is wanting us to learn in our times of pruning. And I will never be able to tell you exactly what it is that God is trying to teach you. Only you by prayer, by reflection, will know what God is doing.

And sometimes we don't even know in that time. But know and believe that God is growing something in you. God is trimming away so that there may be more fruit in you. No plant loves being pruned. There's been studies done on the reactions of plants being cut.

Apparently even when you cut grass, that smell of cut grass, that is stress hormone. They don't like being trimmed. But we know what happens to pruned plants, don't we? They grow back stronger. They need pruning from time to time.

Overall, it is for their good. It's an act of faith, however, that sees hardship as God's hand. We don't always want to see it that way. Sometimes we want to sulk. Sometimes we want to complain.

Sometimes we're making plans to get out of this bit of pruning. But a mature Christian gets patient in those situations and they pray. And they say, God, show me what I have to learn here. Charles Spurgeon once said famously, I have learned to kiss the wave that throws me against the rock of ages. What that means is that the terrifying unstoppable waves that pummel us in life, Spurgeon grew to understand this being a beautiful and a wonderful thing because it brings me back to God even if it must do so violently.

I have learned to kiss the wave that crashes me back onto the rock of ages. And so finally, we must ask the question, what's the result of this pruning? What will happen exactly in his disciples? Well, God produces godly lives. They are the fruitful outcomes of our lives that bring glory to God.

Jesus says the gardener prunes the vines or the branches so that they will be more fruitful. The fruit that Jesus talks about here is what He was already. The obedient Son of God. As obedient Son of God, the true and genuine vine, so will the branches be. As the true vine is the pinnacle of obedience, so are those that will sprout from this vine.

And so the vinedresser will prune these branches in order to produce the fruit of obedience. But then Jesus makes this emphasised point and you cannot miss it when you read this passage. He wants us to hear this. These branches must remain in the vine. There are no alternatives.

They must remain in the vine. Abide in me. Abide in me. Jesus keeps repeating. The NIV translates that as remain in me.

That's what to abide means, to remain, to live. And the point Jesus is making is that his disciples, disciples cannot remain faithful to God unless they are engrafted into the life-giving vine. If Jesus is the true obedient Israel, the people of God, then we need to be connected to Him in order to be that nation. Just like a branch can't continue being green and lively when it's not connected to a tree, Jesus says, remain in me. If you remain in me, then I will remain in you.

Live in me and my life-giving power will remain in you. What Jesus the true vine offers is the energy and the desire to obey God. It's nothing less than that. In our battle against sin, therefore, we must remember that true victory over every sin, this horrible thing that steals, that kills, that destroys, victory over sin is only found in Jesus because He is the life-giving vine. He is the one that is obedient.

In Him is the power to overcome. If we remain in Him, we can't help but be filled with Him. And so His obedience becomes our obedience. His joy becomes our joy. His works become our works.

And that again gives us so much comfort because it means that we will never ever be alone in this Christian life. A branch can only be as effective as the vine. We can only be as fruitful as the vine enables us to be. It means that we cannot bear a fruit that the vine itself would not produce. That is a huge statement.

We cannot produce something that the vine doesn't want us to produce. It is possible for us to be less fruitful, but it is not possible for us to bear bad fruit. That's an incredible statement. But even then, if we become less fruitful, we have the promise of a God who is concerned about making us actively more fruitful. Then finally, Jesus gives us a warning as well.

And some people may say that they are Christians for all sorts of reasons other than true reasons. They might say, I am connected to the vine because I am from a certain culture. I am connected to the vine because I belong to a certain family. But Jesus says, they aren't true branches. Jesus calls them dry branches.

Branches that cannot, will not bear fruit. And we know what happens to dry branches, don't we? We've been in the back garden every now and then. We've taken the palm fronds that have fallen from the trees that are brown and dry. We know that they get chucked onto a trailer and taken to the tip or they get chucked onto a bonfire.

Dry branches are useless. If you realise this morning that you are a dry, lifeless, fruitless branch. If you know that you live a life more like the world than like the obedient true Son of God, repent and believe that Jesus Christ is the good vine and that you can be connected to Him. In Him, you will find life. In Him, you'll find joy and lasting peace.

Be comforted this morning that you can be cleansed by the good news Jesus so loved you that He came for you. That He took your place. That He bore your sin, your guilt, your shame. And He absorbed the absolutely fair punishment of God that you deserved. But then also that His obedience becomes your obedience.

His righteousness, your righteousness. His life, your life. For all of us as we set our minds to Easter, as we start journeying over the coming weeks towards Easter, we prepare our hearts to fall again at the cross. Be reminded that we must entrust ourselves to God, the good gardener, to prune us and to cleanse us as He sees fit. If we get sick in the coming weeks, trust that there is something our God is doing.

That it is for our good somehow and that it is for His glory. And so we say, Lord, if I need a bit of pruning, do it good and proper. Cut clean and cut quick. Remove what is dead in me so that I may grow in you. Lord, I am yours to maintain.

I am yours to maintain, Lord, and maintain me graciously. And so friend, friend, this is what our God will do. In fact, He cannot help Himself. He cannot help Himself but grow you. This is how Jesus finishes verse eight.

By this, my Father is glorified. By this work, my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. God's glory is at stake in this therefore, and He doesn't give up His glory to anyone less than who He is. He doesn't share that glory with anyone. And if His glory is at stake, oh friends, then we know He will do whatever is necessary in our lives to bring us to a place that will reflect His glory.

That is a comfort that we can take wherever we go. Let's allow Him to accomplish that in us. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank You that You are our good, gracious, competent, patient, vinedresser. We pray, Lord, that You will accomplish in us what is necessary for us to be sanctified, to be pruned of all that is dead and dying.

All that hinders the bountiful fruit that You would see Your people have. Lord, we thank You that we can entrust our lives to You and we know, Lord, that You are patient, sometimes more patient than we are. And we feel our wandering hearts and in moments of contrite repentance, Lord, we say how long must we wrestle with these bodies of death? How long must we continue wrestling with these sins? Lord, today You tell us I am busy and I will not finish in you what I know is not necessary.

I will not finish until I see in you reflected my glory. God, we pray that You will continue that work in us. Thank You that You are so faithful to us, that You are compassionate to us and merciful. And we just pray, Lord, that You will do in us what is necessary. We entrust ourselves to You again.

And finally, Father, if there are any of us here that knows we have not received Jesus Christ as our saviour, that we are not engrafted into the true vine that gives life and obedience to God. Lord, may we know where we can find life. I pray that they will bow their knee. That they will give their hearts even this morning to You, and that they will change their thinking and their actions in light of these great truths. Father, I pray a blessing of protection over all of us as we see this health threat more and more as we hear it on the news, as we perhaps become even intimidated by it.

Lord, I pray that You will give us comfort and grace to remember that nothing that happens to us and in us is outside of Your control. Nothing that happens to us is unexpected and is without a way of being redeemed. Father, we thank You for this truth. We pray that it will comfort us. In Jesus' name. Amen.