Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 774
Delivered on Lord’s-day Morning, OCTOBER 6, 1867, by, the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington.
“Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.”- John 15:2.
THESE are the words of Jesus. Unto YOU that believe He is precious, and every word that He speaks is precious for His sake. You will be sure, then, to give every syllable its weight and to let each word fall upon your soul as coming directly from His lips. These are the words of our Lord Jesus just before His departure from the world. We reckon the words of dying men to be worth keeping, and especially of such a matchless Man as our Lord and Master.
It may be said of Him, “You have kept the best wine until now,” for in this chapter and in that which follows we have some of the choicest, deepest, and richest words that the Master ever uttered. You will endeavor, then, to hear Him speaking as upon the verge of Gethsemane. You will listen to these sentences as coming to you associated with the groans and bloody sweat of His agony.
These are words, moreover, about us, and therefore to be received by us with profound attention. The most of us who are here, are in Christ, some one way or another. The majority of us profess to be Christians. The text, then, is directed to us. When Jesus speaks about anything, it is weighty and demands our ear. But when He speaks about ourselves to ourselves, we must give Him the heart as well as the ear, and give most earnest heed to the things which He speaks to us, lest by any means we let them slip. We may have to regret one day that we did not listen to His voice in love, for we may have to hear it when we must listen to it, when the tones have become those of judgment, and Jesus the Judge shall say unto us, “I know you not,” even though we shall venture to plead that we ate and drank in His Presence, and that He taught in our streets.
Having, then, your solemn attention, we will read the text again: “Every branch in Me that bears not fruit He takes away: and every branch that bears fruit, He purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The text suggests self-examination. It conveys instruction, and invites meditation.
I. In the first place, it SUGGESTS SELF-EXAMINATION. I hear in these solemn words the tones of His voice of whom Malachi said, “Who may abide the day of His coming? And who shall stand when He appears? For He is like a refiner’s fire, and like fullers’ soap.” I discern in these two heart-searching sentences, the voice of Him of whom John said, “His fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly purge His floor, and gather His wheat into the garner. But He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Truly the Lord’s “fire is in Zion, and His furnace in Jerusalem.” Happy shall that man be who can bear to be thrust into the flames and to be covered with the hot coals of the burning Truths of God here taught! But he shall be found reprobate who cannot bear the trial.
1. Observe that our text mentions two characters who are in some respects exceedingly alike. They are both branches, they are both branches in the Vine: “Every branch in Me.” How much alike persons may apparently be, who, in God’s sight stand at opposite poles of character! Both the persons described in the text were in Christ: in Christ in different senses, it is obvious, because the first persons were not so in Christ as to bring forth fruit, consequently, as fruit is that by which we are to judge a man, they were not in Christ effectually, graciously, influentially, or so as to receive the fruit-creating sap.
If they had brought forth fruit, their fruitfulness would have been a sign that they were in Christ savingly. Who will venture to say that a man who yields no fruit of righteousness can be really a Christian? Yet they were in Christ in some sense or other, that is to say, the two characters were equally esteemed to be Christians. Their names were enrolled in the same Church register—in the common judgment of men they were equally Christian. According to their own profession
they were so. In many other respects which we need not now catalog, they were both in Christ as His avowed disciples— as soldiers professedly fighting under His banner—as servants wearing His livery.
These two persons were probably equally sound in their doctrinal views. They held the same precious Truths of God. If they heard falsehood, they were equally earnest to denounce it. When they listened to the Gospel they received it with joy, and so received it as to be willing to assist in the spread of it—and even to make sacrifices for its extension. These persons were equally attentive to ordinances. How often has it happened that two persons of widely different states before the Lord have been baptized at the same hour, in the same water, into the same name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit! And they have then broken bread together with equal apparent fervency, and with equal professions of enjoyment and devotion!