Please turn to John 15.
Before we apply our indispensable principle of all Bible study, I want to share a verse with you that describes my heart this morning. It has many times described my heart, but I do not remember a time when my heart felt more like this passage.
It is in Psalm 45. It is verse 1, but the first part of verse 2 takes off and tells where I will be heading.
My heart overfloweth with a goodly matter;
I speak the things which I have made touching the king:
My tongue is the pen of a ready writer.
Thou art fairer than the children of men.
And from there, we are just going to praise Him. But I feel that this morning so much: my heart is overflowing with a good theme, and my text is addressed to the King. I am ready to speak.
I am going to ask you, please, to apply with me that indispensable principle of all Bible study: total reliance upon the Holy Spirit. Though you know this, I will tell you again. We do not enter God’s presence when we bow our heads. We have already been in the presence of the Lord. We are this moment in the presence of the Lord. As we sang, we acknowledged that presence; when we bow, we acknowledge it again. So I am asking you to acknowledge His presence with me and commit our time unto Him. Let us pray.
Our Father, we do thank You that You are the One who has filled our hearts with a good thing. Thou art fairer than the sons of men, and we pray that Thy fairness might be seen this morning; that we might meditate again upon the beauty of the Lord, the wonder of our Savior, and the grace that brought us into intimate union with Him.
We thank You that the Holy Spirit is present to unveil the Lord to our hearts. We would ask Thee to take the veil away. Give us eyes that we might behold the Lord. We thank You that You are already doing it, and You are going to continue to do it, because we ask it in the precious and all-prevailing name of our Lord Jesus. Amen.
John 15. Let me just get before your hearts again, very briefly, the truths we have been considering. We will not review, especially since it is on tape and I guess you can borrow those tapes in here, or get the tapes, or whatever. So I will just get it again before your hearts.
We have been meditating on some precious truths from John 15. These are some of the last words our Lord Jesus spoke the day before He died. People listen to last words, final things. What are you going to say just before you leave?
As our Lord addressed His precious children, He unburdened Himself of some of the great truths that were on His heart—truths He had come from heaven to reveal: how to live, how to grow, and how to produce fruit that remains and brings glory to God. Those were the things that were on His heart.
In our little look at the precious things here, the first night we addressed that great statement in verse 1: “I am the true vine.” Our Lord Jesus is the true vine. I suggested it probably includes at least these two things:
He is the source of life. There is no life center in us; there is only life in Him. He is the true life.
The other thing it means is that everything God created—the vine in the natural creation—is a picture. He is the divine original of that. That is just the shadow. A vine is just a picture; it is just an illustration. Behind that, when God created it, He intended, “This will picture Me in this way.”
Basically, we reduced it to this: the vine is the environment of the branch. The vine is the sufficiency; it is the element; it is the everything for the branch. We talked about how the Lord is the Christian’s environment, His very element.
Last night, we looked together at the second truth: What does it mean to abide in Christ in order to produce fruit? Abiding is the essential condition for all fruit-bearing. There is no exception to that.
Although we did not nail down—and I promised you we would today—the how: How can I abide? We did hint at the two characteristics that are always present in the truth of abiding.
Proverbs says, “He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool.” Well, do not get discouraged, because Psalm 107 says fools cried, and the Lord delivered them. So praise God, we can cry to the Lord.
Abiding in the vine not only means the distrust of self—“without Me ye can do nothing”—but it is also a partaking of the life of the vine. It is a partaking of the divine life: Christ Himself.
That brings us this morning to another wonderful topic, and may God grace us. Verse 1 again: “My Father is the husbandman.” What does it mean that He prunes the fruitful branch? That is what we want to look at today.
I will read a few selected verses. You follow them all in your Bible.
I am the true vine, and My Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh it away:
And every branch that beareth fruit, He cleanseth it, that it may bear more fruit.
Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.
Verse 6:
If a man abide not in Me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered;
And they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.
If ye abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; and so shall ye be My disciples.
And then one other verse, verse 16:
Ye did not choose Me, but I chose you, and appointed you, that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should abide:
That whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He may give it to you.
Let me suggest the lines that I will follow this morning, and sort of help you to see where I am going, for those that enjoy logical connection. I want to look at three things this morning:
We will end up again by looking at fruit, because the way He prunes the branches is the secret—the key—to how to abide.
All right, chapter 15, verse 1: “I am the true vine; My Father is the husbandman.” I want to focus on that second phrase: “My Father is the husbandman.” My Father is the vine-dresser.
I did a little research on the job, the ministry, of the vine-dresser. I not only had that personal interview with a real live vine-dresser, but I went to the public library and did some research on pruning, vineyards, vine-dressers, and so on.
He has a lot to do. I was amazed at how much a husbandman has to do. It is his job to ingraft the branches. It is his job to guard and protect the thing as it grows—to watch out for insects and mildew and all kinds of enemies: weather, animals, and all that kind of thing. It is the vine-dresser’s job to dung the plant. Has God ever dunged you? It is very precious when it is over; it is not exactly precious at the time. It is the vine-dresser’s job to prune the plant.
Now, John 15 does not get into all of those responsibilities. In fact, it only mentions two. Though the vine-dresser does many things more than are mentioned here, God wants us to see these two.
His ministry is to rid the vine of the dead wood. That is one part of His ministry: “Every branch in Me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away.” We are going to focus on the second part: to prune the fruitful branch.
I am quite sure, if you have studied this passage, that the branches which are cut off have struck you as a provocative section. You stop there and say, “Well now, what are those branches?” There are so many commentaries, and everybody has his own view on that kind of thing.
I am not going to straighten you out on that. But I am just calling attention to the fact that they are in the vine. Are they cut off? Can I lose my salvation? Can I be in the vine, cut off, and end up in the fire? I am not going to settle the Arminian-Calvinistic debate.
But here is a principle of Bible study that not only applies to this verse, but to all Bible study—especially parables. When you come to a story or an allegory, find out the main point that God the Holy Spirit is making.
When you come to a chapter like this, He is not talking about eternal destiny. He is not talking about heaven and hell. He is talking about abiding and fruit-bearing—fruit-bearing through abiding. When you get the main truth that the Holy Spirit is talking about, then take the facts of the allegory and tie them into the main truth.
I do not know the full answer to the branches cut off. I think I know a little bit. But I know, by principle, it means this: any branch that does not abide in Him is worthless as far as fruit-bearing is concerned. That teaches that much. You have to admit that. It at least teaches that much.
The idea of being cut off, bound in bundles, and burned is a wonderful picture of worthlessness. I will go that far. I think that is at least one thing it means.
Here is another suggestion: apply the same principle to the dead branches that you apply to the fruit-bearing branches. Here is what I mean. If God prunes a fruitful branch in your life, you would not say, “I am done. He cut me off—boom—I am done. That is the end.” You would say, “Well, no, I have a few other branches, you know. Maybe He is going to work on a couple of other branches.”
But we look at the first part—He cuts off the dry branches—and we say, “Oh, that poor guy, he is done.” He might have other branches. I have an idea that maybe we all have both kinds of branches. God cuts off those and prunes these.
I am not so sure that every Christian is one branch, and then whatever happens, it is gone. I think that we are in the vine and we are branched out. Every Christian has branches, and the body is branched out all over the place. I have an idea that every Christian has branches that are cut off, bound in bundles, and burned up. That will find its final manifestation at the judgment seat of Christ.
Some would suggest that perhaps it is the sin unto death—that Christians are actually taken home. I do not know all about that. But for our discussion this morning, let me suggest a double ministry of the husbandman: He cuts off the dead wood, and He prunes the fruitful branch.
By dead wood, I mean whatever is not abiding in Him. “Without Me ye can do nothing.” Anything that comes from Ed Miller, anything that comes from flesh, anything that comes from self—I do not care what it looks like—it is dead wood. It has got to go.
The Bible uses a word that describes all of that: chastening. Do not confuse chastening and pruning. It is not the same thing. Chastening is God dealing with the dead wood. Chastening is God dealing with self. Chastening is when I am not abiding in Christ and I am doing it in my own energy, my own strength. That has got to go; that will go. God is going to cut that off.
We have all seen those branches. Hebrews 12:5-6 says that those whom He loves, He chastens, and He chastens every son whom He receives. That verse teaches this: as sure as God loves you, you will be chastened. Everybody is going to have that. As sure as they are loved, as sure as they are sons, they are going to be chastened.
Hosea 2:15 says, “I will give her the valley of Achor for a door of hope.” How do you like that verse? A valley of trouble as a door of hope. That is God chastening. That is God dealing with the dead wood.
Lamentations 3:33 says, “For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve the children of men.” Every time God chastens, He does the absolute minimum necessary in your life or mine to bring us to the place where we can produce fruit.
Chastening is one side, but we are not going to look at that. I want us to look at the other side: pruning. God prunes the fruitful branches.
Psalm 119:75 says, “In faithfulness Thou hast afflicted me.” We look back at the times He chastened us, and we praise God that He cut off that limb, cut off that leaf, dealt with that lumber, in order that we might have true fruit.
But now, this other part: if any branch bears fruit—implied, fruit that comes from Christ—if anyone abides in such a way that they produce fruit, He says, “Sometimes I have to cut that off.” What is that all about?
Pruning is not chastening. What happens in the crucible? What happens at the potter’s wheel? What happens as the sparks fly upward? What happens in the smelter’s furnace? That is chastening. That is different. It needs to be studied, but not this morning.
The amazing thing is that pruning has to do with those who are doing well—those who are abiding in the vine. They are seeing Jesus. They are distrusting self. They are growing in the Lord by the Spirit of God.
Pruning is for the victorious. Pruning is for the overcomer. Pruning is for those who triumph in Christ Jesus every day. What is it? What does He do? How do we understand what this is?
Before we talk about the how of pruning, let me say a word about verse 1 again: “My Father is the husbandman.” I call attention to that statement because it is gripping with comfort for my heart, and I hope for yours too.
I went to the library to do some research on the secular side of this whole idea of pruning. I found this wonderful book on pruning. Oh, it was a wonderful book. But I opened the first page and I wanted to go home, because the first page started with a picture. On the top, it said, “Pruning Instruments.”
Knives—all kinds of knives: curved knives, big knives, little knives; scissors, big scissors, little scissors; loppers, two-handed scissors. There were saws, axes, hatchets, hoes, a mattock, hooks, shovels. I went, “Oh, I do not want to be pruned.” I saw the first page, and I thought, “Oh, Lord—pruning!”
Then I came back and opened the Scriptures. I read that first verse: “My Father is the husbandman.” My heart thrilled that those tools were not in your hand.
The pruner had better know what he is doing. I was amazed to read about pruning. A lot of damage can be done by mispruning. A plant can be dwarfed forever if it is mispruned. Fruit trees can be set back twenty years if they are mispruned.
Timing is so important. If the tree is dormant, you prune it one way; if the sap is flowing, you prune it another way. Sometimes it is total amputation: cut it off. Other times, it is just thinning out, heading back, and pulling off the suckers.
I read a chapter on pruning roots. They dig in the soil and cut away some of the roots. It is all part of pruning. There is a way to prune saplings and a way to prune older trees. Sometimes nothing is cut off; sometimes it is just cut, not cut off, to let the spray in. Sometimes it is a round cut; sometimes it is an elliptical cut.
I am not pretending I learned how to prune by reading that book. But after my trip to the library, I came back with my heart rejoicing: My Father is the husbandman. He knows when to prune. He knows how to prune. He knows where to cut. He knows when to cut. He knows how deep to cut.
I will tell you one thing: I would not feel safe if the shears were in my hand. If God said, “All right, Ed Miller, I am going to give you the scissors. Now you cut off everything superfluous in your life,” that is not going to work, because I love my lumber and leaves too much. I am going to be so gentle with me. I am too stupid to know what has to go.
I love you, but I am glad that God has not given the pruning shears to the church. He has kept the pruning shears in His own hand.
I love, “I am the true vine,” but I also love, “My Father is the husbandman.” Whatever pruning is—and we will look at it—whatever it is, it is from His hand. You can feel safe when you are being pruned. Only God knows how to prune.
This idea of pruning in order to bring forth fruit: What is the end toward which the husbandman moves as He prunes the vine? What is the goal in His heart? Where is He heading as He goes after the vine and prunes the vine?
John just says: fruit, more fruit, much fruit, remaining fruit—fruit that abides and brings God glory. Fruit. What is fruit?
It depends on who you talk to. Christians have their own ideas about everything. You get with one group of Christians, and they say, “Fruit? Are you bearing fruit?” and they register, “Am I leading souls to Jesus?” That is true—evangelism, soul-winning, bringing people to Christ.
I did a little word study, and it was interesting. Sixty-seven times in the New Testament the word fruit is used—never once for bringing souls to Jesus. Just throw that out there.
What is fruit? Some say, “Well, Galatians 5—that is easy. Galatians 5 tells us what fruit is.” Galatians 5:22 speaks of the fruit of the Spirit:
Love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.
Some say, “Well, you know, it includes that, but it is not really that. It is works, because a tree is known by its fruit. By their fruit ye shall know them—their behavior, their actions, what they do, their works.”
What is fruit? Is it soul-winning? Is it the fruit of the Spirit? Is that why He prunes us? Is it behavior? Is it our probity, our carriage as we walk, our conversation in the world? Is it all of that?
I am suggesting it is far more wonderful than that. Let me state it right out so we do not play games, and then try to develop it. It is not only here in John, but later in the epistles as they begin to unfold this.
If the vine is Christ, and if the life is the Holy Spirit—Christ in terms of the life of God—what do you think the fruit is? Listen to Galatians 4:19:
My little children, of whom I am again in travail until Christ be formed in you.
The fruit is Christ. “Until Christ be formed in you.” As the husbandman looks at the vine, He says, “That is good, but it is not Christ—not yet. That is good, but it is not Jesus.” He puts you back.
One of the things I learned from my great neighbor, my vineyard keeper—I got frightened when I saw pruning. I saw the results of pruning. That thing looked like a tomato plant standing up; everything was cut off. But he patted the vine on the bottom and said, “Look how fat that bar is.”
The branches were getting thin, but the bottom was getting fat. He said, “I am going to get a good harvest. Look at that.” That is pruning, man: cut you back to the vine, cut you back to the vine.
Let me take you back, if you will bear with me, to science a little bit. God created this organic world all as a picture. He created every living thing to depend upon its environment—whether it is a bug, a fish, a bird, an animal, a plant, or man. Everything depends upon its environment.
But the scientists say it is not only the organism and the environment; there is something else that needs to be studied. God has written it in nature. It is not just the organism and the environment, but the scientist also looks at the heredity, the genetics, of the organism.
In fact, in our society there is a great battle raging among psychologists concerning the behavior of people. What affects them more: their environment or their heredity? Is it their genetics? That whole thing is raging.
There is no question that in all of life, every living thing God has ever made—and you can look at my grandson if you do not believe it—the image of the parent is stamped upon the child.
All life tends toward one end, and that is to be conformed to its parents. That is where life is moving. That is what it is all about. Every living thing that ever came into the world was compelled to stamp its life, its image, upon its offspring. That is how God made it.
I was amazed to read that when life begins, even to the most trained scientific eye, it all looks the same. That little blob of protoplasm, looking like the white of an egg—transparent, just jelly—made up of hydrogen and nitrogen and all of that mystery called life.
When it first forms, at the beginning, under the most powerful microscope, they cannot tell whether it is going to be a carrot, a mushroom, an oak, an elephant, a turtle, or a man. At the beginning, it is just there.
But inside that protoplasm, God has put a seed. God has put a stamp. Amazingly, bird life goes toward the birds, turtle life goes toward the turtles, bug life goes toward the bugs, and mushroom life goes toward the mushroom.
It is sort of like what God said in the beginning: everything will bring forth after its kind. God has written that in nature. God has put that in nature.
I call attention to that because we just sort of read these things, la la la. People get all upset about the first part of 1 John 3:9. Forget the first part of 1 John 3:9; look at the second part.
Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because His seed abideth in him;
And he cannot sin, because he is begotten of God.
Do you see the reason? His seed—His sperma, His seed—God’s seed remains in him. We talk about receiving the Lord and getting life. When you receive the Lord, God’s seed is put in you. You have been stamped with the image of God.
The image of God has a name: Jesus. You have been stamped. He is the image of God, and all life will bring forth after its kind. We get so fearful: “Am I going to be conformed to Christ?” Yes, you are. You know why? Because you have the seed of God in you.
Life produces life. Bird life produces birds, feathers, and beaks. Lily life produces lilies. You have God’s life. You do not have to concern yourself another moment, from now until you go to heaven, about whether you will be conformed to Christ. You will indeed.
Life moves and develops. That is what the vine-dresser is about. He knows that life is in there, and He is waiting for that life to become manifest in His Son.
Brothers and sisters in Christ, you are born of God. You are born from above. You are begotten of God. You are God’s workmanship. His seed is in you. That is what it means that you are being changed from one degree of glory to another, being conformed to the image of Him who is in you.
As I abide in Jesus, as you abide in Christ, the life begins to flow and we begin to change—until Christ is formed, Christ is grown to maturity, and someday He will stand in you as this great cluster: Christ in full stature in your life. Glory!
Christian life is not chasing after a few gifts, not struggling to be holy. It is not some army that God sends out to win the world. Christian life is abiding in Jesus Christ so that the Holy Spirit can work in me and produce Christ in my life, Christ in your life. Precious truth.
Now, what does the husbandman lop off, then? If I abide in Christ and He brings fruit, then what is there to prune? That looks good. That is Christ. Leave it alone. Husbandman, let me teach You how to do Your work.
May God teach us. Why would God cut off His own fruit in order to have fruit? What is the fruit that He cuts off?
You see, the end toward which the husbandman moves is to see His Son, to see Christ. Of course, He chastens those who are not abiding. All those tools, by the way, on page one are for chastening. There is only one tool for pruning, and I will show you what that is.
When I abide in Christ and trust the Lord, God begins to work in my heart. Have you noticed, as you go on in the Lord, that you love more than you used to love? Love is a wonderful thing. It is not Christ.
Have you noticed that you are more patient than you used to be? Sometimes. Patience is a wonderful thing. It is not Christ.
As you are growing in the Lord, you pray, “Lord, please send help. Help me. I need help.” Does He send help? He does, every time. That is fruit. That is fruit from abiding in Christ. He sends help. But that is different from, “I am your help.”
After a while, He is not going to send help anymore, because He wants you to know, “I am your help.” You begin to see Christ, and He lops off those things that are not Him. They are good; they are blessings. He is lopping off the blessings.
You say, “Lord, give me strength.” Does He give you strength? He gives you strength. But that is not the same thing as, “Christ is my strength.” You pray for a song in the night. Did He give it to you? Sure He did. God gives you a song in the night, but that is not the same thing as, “Christ is my strength and my song; He has become my salvation.”
As you go on in the Lord, all those wonderful things God gives as fruit, He must later lop off so that you will know the sufficiency of Christ. He gives deliverance, but He is the Deliverer. Greater than deliverance is the One who delivers. Greater than healing is the One who heals. Greater than any gift is the Giver, the Bestower of the gift.
As you go on in the Lord, sometimes you get confused. You say, “Lord, I do not understand. You said if anyone lack wisdom, let him ask, and God will give it. So I did, and I got wisdom. Now You lop it all off.” He says, “I know, My child, because I am made unto you wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.”
“Lord, give me peace.” He says, “All right, I will give you peace—peace that passes understanding. Enjoy it.” Clip, clip, clip. Because He is our peace.
Oh, I tell you, you do not have peace, but you have it in Christ Jesus. You do not have righteousness until you have it in Him, or health, or strength, or deliverance, or any other thing.
Praise God for His blessings. I could not say this everywhere, but I could say it here, I trust. Praise God for His blessings. But His blessings are only suckers—suckers preparing you for the real fruit. He is going to nip those in the bud. He is going to clip them off. He has to clip them off.
Contrary to the library book and page one that scared the life out of me, pruning is not scary. In fact, it is fun.
Let me mention the pruning scissors that God uses, and we will get ready to wrap all this up. Did you notice, as you read this, that there are verses where you say, “What in the world? He just threw that in the middle. It does not seem to belong.”
Like verse 3: “Already ye are clean because of the word which I have spoken unto you.” Verse 7: “If My words abide in you.” What is all this? What has the Word to do with pruning?
I am suggesting that the only tool God will ever use to prune His fruit from your life is this: He prunes you by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
This Word is a two-edged sword, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing soul and spirit. You begin to study the Word. Here is pruning: you study the Bible to see the Lord.
I remember the day God pruned me. I had certain blessings in my life, and He revealed Christ as the end of the law to everyone that believes. I could almost hear the limbs hit the floor. My life was changed.
Do you know how you are changed? By seeing Him. “Ye are clean because of the word.” That is His scissors. Every time you see Christ in the Word, something goes off, and you get more and more like Christ.
I love pruning. I was scared when I saw it. Now, what is pruning? It is seeing Christ in the Word of God. Every revelation of Christ liberates you and sets you free.
I remember when I saw Him as the Mediator of the new covenant. Half my prayer life went out the window. When you see Him, you are changed, and these things drop off. What drops off? All those things that are from Him, but not Him—because He wants you to have fruit, more fruit, abiding fruit.
The men of God, the elders in this church, labor in love until Christ be formed in you. That is what it is all about. Pruning is glorious.
One final point. This idea of fruit—I told you it is so easy. Just do not trust yourself. Trust the Lord, drink from Him, receive His life, let Him work in your life, cut off the dead wood, and prune the blessings until finally it is just Him.
Fruit is redemptive. You know, the last thing in the world an apple tree wants is apples. What in the world is an apple tree going to do with apples? What is a grapevine going to do with grapes? A grapevine probably hates the grapes—I do not mean that. Fruit is for somebody else. It is not for the plant. The plant produces for somebody else. It is not for them at all. It is redemptive.
I think one reason God chose grapes, the grapevine, to show fruit is because it contains in it a corporate picture. You do not go to a grocery store saying, “Let me show you this grape.” You are not impressed with one grape. It is the cluster of grapes together.
When the grapes are mashed together to become jelly and jam, you see, that is the local church. They are put together and become wine for the community. That is the testimony. That is the glory of the vine. That is the reputation of the vine. And it is for others.
You know, according to my good botany book, the purpose of fruit is this: the seed is in the fruit. The fruit is the womb of the seed. It is the future of the plant. It is the next generation. It is reproduction. It is evangelism. It is soul-winning.
When is the fruit ripe? The answer is: when the seed is ready. That is when it is ripe. That is why the vine-dresser is so anxious that you produce not just a blessing, but that when Christ is there, you are full of seed, full of life. Everywhere you go, you drop life. You drop life. Reproduction—that is evangelism.
Do you know why it is so foolish to fake it, to fake fruit, to be plastic, to be imitation, to play a game? Because fake fruit does not have the seed. Fake fruit does not have the life.
You play your game; you try to impress one another. But the goal of it all is that His seed is in you, and His seed will grow. You do not have to worry about growing. You do not have to worry about fruit-bearing. You do not have to worry about being conformed to Christ. His seed is in you.
Drink Jesus. Enjoy Jesus. Draw from that life. Live that life. Christ will be produced in you.
Understand: when God comes into your life to cut off that wood, nothing goes that is not gain to lose and loss to keep. Everything that goes needs to go.
Do not be too surprised when you say, “I had been praying for strength, and He just does not give it anymore. I look for help, and where was the help?” Do not get confused. God is pruning you so that you might come to know Him who is your help, who is your strength, who is your patience, who is your song. It is Him.
You begin to live in Him, and you are going to bless everybody that comes into your shadow. They are going to touch your life, and they are going to touch fruit. Fruit is life.
Do not play games. Do not imitate. Do not be a hypocrite. Do not fake fruit. Plastic fruit is nothing; it is not fruit. I do not even want to eat a seedless grape. It does not exist. It is not real.
Fruit has seed. Seed is life. Life is Christ Jesus.
I have discharged the burden that is on my heart to share with you. Christ is the vine. The Holy Spirit is the life. The manifestation of Christ is the fruit. God working in our hearts.
Let us pray. Father, thank You for Your wonderful Word. We pray that You might make these things so real in our lives, as our sister suggested, so that we can feel it. We ask in Jesus’ name. Amen.