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  CLEANSED BY THE KNIFE
  by Fred Tomlinson
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Summary: This sermon delves into the concept of being cleansed by God,
using the analogy of a vine and its branches to illustrate the process
of purification and growth in the Christian life. It emphasizes the
importance of abiding in God, allowing Him to prune and cleanse us for
the purpose of bearing much fruit for His glory. The speaker highlights
the need for God's interference in our lives, guiding us through
challenges and transformations to fulfill His greater purpose, even when
we may not fully understand His ways.

Topics: "Cleansing by God", "Abiding in Christ"
Scripture References: John 15:1, Romans 8:28, 2 Corinthians 4:10, Psalm 51:10, Colossians 1:10, John 15:2, Hebrews 12:6, Philippians 1:6, Ephesians 2:10

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the concept of being cleansed by God, using the
analogy of a vine and its branches to illustrate the process of
purification and growth in the Christian life. It emphasizes the
importance of abiding in God, allowing Him to prune and cleanse us for
the purpose of bearing much fruit for His glory. The speaker highlights
the need for God's interference in our lives, guiding us through
challenges and transformations to fulfill His greater purpose, even when
we may not fully understand His ways.

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CONTENT
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It's lovely to be together and I'd like you to open your Bibles with me
to the book of John's Gospel and we'll read a few verses there in just a
few minutes. So clearly not every one of you have been with me in the
earlier sessions but if I could make a connection with two of the
earlier sessions before I go forward so a couple of weeks ago I titled
the message Cleansed by Blood and we talked about the redemption that
makes our acceptance by God and our fellowship with God a possibility.
In another session following that I talked about being cleansed by water
and we talked of the ongoing, the continuing need for the quickened word
of God to be our nourishment and at the same time it is the cleansing
word of God to us.

Today I'd like to talk about being cleansed by the knife and frankly I
pondered that title and I frankly was tempted to soften it but it is as
the Lord gave it to me and it's as the Lord put it in Scripture so I
must let it stand and I believe that what we'll look at for a little
while in this session is something that is perhaps little really
understood, I mean truly understood and yet at the same time is hugely
important as a topic and as an experience. Jesus in his gracious word
uses a visual aid for the people who are standing listening to him which
would be very vivid to them because he was talking about a vine and the
hearers who were around him were very familiar with vines and vineyards
it was somehow part or not far away from their everyday life and so I'd
like to read to you a few verses from John chapter 15 where Jesus is
talking about the vine. John chapter 15 for those of you who are turning
there and I'm reading from verse 1, Jesus speaking He said, 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 now you are clean through
the word which I have spoken unto you abide in me and I in you as the
branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine no more
can ye except ye abide in me I am the vine, you are the branches he that
abideth in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit for
without me you can do nothing if a man abide not in me he is cast forth
as a branch and is withered and men gather them and cast them into the
fire and they are burned if you abide in me and my words abide in you
you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you herein is my
father glorified that you bear much fruit so shall you be my disciples
Amen The Old Testament has quite a bit to say about vines and I'm not
going to try and talk about all those references right now but it's safe
to say that frequently in the Old Testament the vine symbolises the
people of God perhaps the most significant passage in the Old Testament
along this line is found in Isaiah chapter 5 where the reference is to
the house of Israel and in fact it goes on to speak there of God's grace
and loving care for that people and yet here they are, they've turned
out to be producing wild grapes and as a result of that God threatens
that he's going to destroy them and to do it he would use the Assyrian
army now here in the New Testament we've got Jesus speaking and he says
I am the true vine the fact is what he's saying is that he is the root
and he is the trunk of the vine, we are the branches you know the most
notable feature of the vine is its purpose its purpose is not its
primary purpose that we're thinking about the purpose that we're looking
at today is that which is its sole purpose in other words it has no
other purpose for existing and that purpose is that it be a fruit
bearing tree this and this alone is God's timeless purpose for his
people in the earth so this is true for you and for me as we are
gathered today each of us exist as a branch with this sole purpose of
bringing forth fruit and nothing else in our lives or around the
activities of our lives must in any way eclipse this we're talking about
God's primary concern for you God's primary concern for me the Apostle
Paul writing to the Romans he calls it fruit unto God which is a
wonderful expression that's in chapter 7 of Romans and the fourth verse
and before we go any further let's just consider perhaps how we should
understand even this idea of bringing fruit unto God what we know, I
know it very clearly in my heart and I reckon that very likely everyone
listening to me knows it in their heart as well and it's this, that we
have nothing and we can produce nothing that is worthy of God I have
nothing in myself, I can't somehow produce anything at all that would be
worthy of God John chapter 15 here aids us in this because as we've
noticed from the reading Jesus says we are the branches let me just
insert a word there just to emphasise the point we are but branches,
that's what we are we are but branches who are privileged by the grace
of God and by the miracle of redemption to be enabled to drink in to
ourselves the holy sap of the vine and then holding its fruit in our
lives and as it were to use a modern word, showcasing it or displaying
it or making it manifest, making manifest the sacred fruit which is the
product of our abiding in Him and this in-drinking of what I call the
holy sap and then in turn offering that back in our worship to God so
returning it to Him from whom it came fruit unto God, it's entirely of
Him any part or role we have in this that I refer to as the process is
entirely God's grace to each and every one of us without exception and
this is wonderfully true this fruit that we are talking about at this
moment let's be sure we know what we are thinking about this is not
measured by the number of converts that each of us have been able to
make in the course of our lives this fruit is not measured by what we
perceive to be perhaps in our foolishness our successful ministry,
something we've created by our ministry something that's come into
existence by our ministerial activities again I say it would be in our
foolishness that we would think that but nevertheless human minds do
think those kinds of things this fruit is not measured by your musical
talent or any talent that we have for that matter which we feel is being
engaged in the work of God this fruit that Jesus is having us think
about here on this occasion is the golden cluster of His authentic life
it's the cluster or the product of the holy sap which is producing in
human lives which have been redeemed by His blood and now by His Holy
Spirit He is enabling that authentic Christ life to be manifested in us
the Apostle Paul puts it so wonderfully in 2 Corinthians chapter 4 and
there's a wonderful broader context but I'm breaking into the passage
here he says in verse 10 of 2 Corinthians 4 always bearing about in the
body the dying of the Lord Jesus that or if you like in order that the
life of Jesus might be manifest in our body and then he goes on almost
in a sense to reinforce or highlight what he's just said for we which
live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake that the life also
of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh how much more boldly
can the Apostle declare such a wonderful and magnificent truth he said
I'm talking about your bodies, you, the real you the person that you are
right now, this body that you live in and then in the second verse I
just read to you again I'm suggesting just to make it really clear he
said I'm talking about your mortal flesh not in some sort of mystical
vague sense but he said right here in this body in which I live the life
of Jesus is to be made manifest it's to be presented there this beloved
is the fruit that God is looking for in each and every one of our lives
the very best thing that I can offer to God is the product of his
gracious redeeming work and now the enabling of his Holy Spirit who
abides in our inner being manifesting the life also of Jesus without
digressing more than just half a step away from this that I'm saying
it's interesting reading in Paul's writings to see how he uses the
various titles of the Lord Jesus Christ with variations, you will have
noted them in your reading without going into that and I'd like to but
without going into it right now let me just point out that when he uses
the word Jesus as he does in this passage he's talking about the life
that God lived in the person that we call Jesus he's talking about the
soul life that was demonstrated and manifested in a real man but he was
truly God incarnated but it was being lived out it was being expressed
in the terms of flesh in other words it's one thing to read if we only
had the opening verse of the whole Bible in the beginning God well we
say that sounds wonderful and we want to know a lot more about him and
then God might talk about his omniscience and his omnipresence and his
great qualities and features but when God became a man we saw this
eternal holy God manifesting himself in what we would call human terms
that is through human flesh we were enabled to relate to God in a way
that we could not possibly relate to God otherwise now Jesus came for
more than that but that is what he did in the course of his life he
showed us what the God life looks like being expressed through a mortal
body and Paul is saying here the same is true for you in your mortal
body this same life of Jesus is to me made manifest now once again in
talking about the vine and the branches the fact is that except the
branch abides in the vine this fruit is impossible even in the natural
the grapes are impossible unless that branch is connected and is part of
the vine root itself and this is equally true and you know even the wood
as it were of the branch is of no value and to endorse this I am not
turning there but you could read back in the book of Ezekiel in chapter
15 I think the first five verses speak about this that the wood of the
vine is useless you can't make anything out of it there is nothing you
can do with it it is utterly useless it has no value it is just zero it
is good only to be burned Jesus said in verse 6 here and on he is saying
that without him we can do nothing at all that is in verse 5 for without
me you can do nothing isn't this important for us to really appreciate
we can give a sort of nonchalant sort of nod to some of these statements
but you know it is truly important that we realise that you may be very
very intelligent you may have some high and lofty role in life and wow
people with your accomplishments or creations or whatever it is but in
this realm before holy God I have nothing to offer him nothing at all
anything I have at all came from him uniquely and has been imparted to
me and that is his grace and this is being reinforced here as we think
about these things relative to the vine that in and of ourselves we
can't produce this life without me you can do nothing it is a common and
huge mistake that detached branches try to live and express the
Christian life that is a huge mistake we are never told in the
scriptures to try and be like Jesus the Bible doesn't tell me that it is
not left for my effort in fact there is a great illustration again to
digress way back in the Levitical priesthood the priests had to take
their garments of glory off before they entered more closely to the
Lord's presence and they had to bathe themselves they had to put on
linen clothes and the scripture specifically says so there would be no
sweat because God will not have sweat he will not have man glorying in
his presence and we need to recognize that I can of my own self do
nothing I cannot live the Christian life apart from him but when he
speaks here about abiding in the vine this is an incredible truth that
is being opened up for us he is talking about a union listen to this a
union of spirits John says on one occasion he that is joined to the Lord
is one spirit we are talking here about a branch in the vine we are
talking about a mingling of the two abiding in it is Christ in you you
will notice how the apostle Paul he really gets this in a big way and he
is the one who talks about Christ in you the hope of glory Christ being
in us if any man have not the spirit of Christ he is none of his and
then at the same time as we go on watching his readings we see him using
the words in Christ Christ in you in Christ as a matter of fact for your
interest the phrase in Christ is used by the apostle Paul no fewer than
75 times in the letters that he wrote in Christ we have our own spirits
and our own minds on fire as well this great truth this is not trying to
live the Christian life it is not being religious it is not going to
church and doing our best no not at all it is having the very life of
God via this holy sack that we are so privileged to drink into our
spirits all quickened by the spirit of God Christ liveth in me says the
apostle can you say that today? Amen this word abide includes this and
so much more I think we could say it also includes the idea that this
merging this union, life is to be maintained it has got to be ongoing
this is not an experience that we had 10 years ago or a prayer that we
prayed 8 years ago or whatever it is this is speaking about a moment by
moment union that is being maintained Amen now then we read there in
this passage in the second verse let me reread the second verse of our
chapter every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and
every branch that beareth fruit he purges it that it may bring forth
more fruit this is the word that can be understood and translated
cleansing he cleanses he cleanses the vine and he cleanses the
development of what we saw some minutes ago as being the overall purpose
of God that we should be fruit bearing well he we are told here is
engaged in cleansing it's an ongoing thing in so far as we abide in him
and we allow him to have his way there is a cleansing process that goes
on and the process is going on for the express purpose of increasing the
fruit that we are able to return to God in thanksgiving and to glorify
his name and what Jesus tells us in this important passage and he's
telling these here is that know all about vines and all about vineyards
and all about grapes and all about wine and all about husband men who
take care of it all Jesus is saying here that he is referring to that is
so necessary is done with the husband man's knife of course more
specifically his reference here is to his father so it's with the
father's knife and pausing right there should give to each one of us a
sense of great peace whereas we've started with this almost frightening
title of being cleansed by the knife could sound very frightening but
the important thing is who's holding the knife and it's our heavenly
father who's holding it as it were as we shall see I trust as we go
forward because the question is how should we understand this knife
factor that Jesus has chosen to introduce I've never heard anyone say
never read it I don't make a habit of reading a lot of books I've got a
number of books here that I've gathered over many years now but I'm not
a great book reader I read this book that I'm looking at here mostly by
far and I don't go listening to everybody and their uncle on YouTube and
it's so important but I'm doing it on purpose for a minute it is
important that we discover where there are teachers who are able to
teach us God and lead us into a deeper union with him when you've found
someone or they have found you or God has led you to someone seize that
moment you've heard me talk about my earlier experience that I shared
with so we're not going to like a smorgasbord we're dipping in a bit
here and a bit there and a bit somewhere else that's very much the way
it works for so many people who profess to be Christians today and you
end up with a mind that's completely confused on so many issues when you
sense you've found someone through whom the Spirit of God but I remember
being away I took some time off I'd become an elder in the church in
England at this time I was privileged maybe it was inappropriate I don't
know but I was brought into the eldership of a very significant work of
God at age 29 that's pretty young to be an elder but I can remember
during that period and being so blessed by the ministry I'd been exposed
to one of the principal speakers said to me on one occasion he said Fred
you sit in these meetings like blotting paper because most younger
people don't even know what blotting paper is and I won't stop to tell
you to share something from the scriptures from time to time I remember
being away and I stayed in a we call it a caravan a house trailer that
belonged to my uncle and his wife in North Wales and I was there for
this one purpose I needed to hear God because I felt Lord I don't want
to be I don't want to reveal your truth to me I'm not saying these
things nor did I think at that time in terms of well I need to be
exceptional not at all I just needed to know that I had the true word of
God in me I didn't know the expression cut and paste back then I don't
think it existed actually it's common today as many of you know I picked
up on the words of the apostle when he speaks of John the Baptist he
said he was the voice of one crying in the wilderness he wasn't an echo
he was original God had given him something to say and he was saying it
I'd like to believe that your passion and your heart is as mine when you
preach to someone a lot and then you get a chance to speak or say
something even without trying to pick up things that have been said this
is difficult because you're preaching the same truth but as that one man
who I'm thinking of said to me on one occasion he said Fred in the end
we've only got one thing to say the word can come through the uniqueness
of who you are so then back to this text with this question how should I
understand the knife that is spoken of here what I was saying I've never
heard anyone say this at any point in my life but I believe that the
knife is God's interference in your life never heard anyone say that
before it's God's interference God and you will know that this is true
I'm sure God has a reputation for interfering in our lives he interferes
with our status quo I've preached before on the Jesus who overturns
tables well he does that he's done that in my life and he continues to
do it in my life after all isn't this what the husbandman does he
interferes in the life and the existence of the vine I mean I thought to
myself this is a wild stretch of my imagination but what if the branches
of the vine could speak to the husbandman and what's that he's got in
his hand isn't that a sharp knife yes it is hey what's he doing what's
happening he starts to cut away at the bark cut away at the branch what
are they thinking at that point do the branches talk excuse me for being
so foolish what's going on with the farmer he's radical he's a spiritual
stump we have vines this is the raspberry capital of Canada this town
where we live we see the vines we see what the farmers do to the vines
once they've finished bearing their fruit you know this is happening in
your life I don't know whether you're as aware of it as you should be I
hope that the spirit of God is able to highlight this to you that what
is happening to you I don't know what's going on you don't really know
what's going on in my life except you know a lot more about me than I
know about you but I can tell you if you are a man or a woman of God if
you've been integrated into the great vine you've tasted of this holy
sacred step rest assured that God has started something in your life
that he is intent upon completing when we're in his presence in this
world he's operating by his spirit and he's interfering with my thoughts
he's interfering with my priorities he's interfering with my values he's
overturning tables not because he just loves throwing everybody's tables
down or he just wants to mess everybody's life up no, we're told this
he's doing it for this express reason he's cutting away everything that
needs to be removed in order that there becomes more fruit in and around
your life that's what's going on I think ever so many of us miss this
because we're just so busy with life and we don't realise it I want to
encourage you to wake up receive that as it comes in good spirit but we
need to wake up to a plan and a purpose this can be illustrated from
various people in the Bible the man that comes to my mind quite readily
is Joseph in the Old Testament and you know the story of Joseph I'm sure
but do you remember as a young guy he seemed to be his father's pet and
frankly I think when I first see Joseph if I didn't know any more I
think this man is what today would be called a spoiled brat and that's
certainly the way the brothers thought about him do you remember the
story let me just drop down quickly do you remember the Midianite
traders who came by do you remember the pit into which he was thrown and
then he was sold to the Midianite traders and they just took him away
the brothers saying you'll remember Potiphar's wife you'll remember the
story you then will remember the prison he was taken to prison you'll
remember also the baker that he met in the prison you'll remember the
cup bearer that he met in the prison you'll remember the dreams that
these men had and you'll remember how Joseph interpreted them and then
he really got let down there was a deal and the cup bearer got afraid
and he forgot about him for the most part anyway but the point that I'm
making to the best of our reckoning Joseph spent 12 years in prison and
God was engineering every aspect of it and he knew it not he didn't know
he thought what a mess I've made of my life and so on and he's talking
to me or feeling exactly that today what a fool I've been to do that to
go there to not do something else whatever it happens to be but the fact
is if God has chosen you his eye never deviates from you his heart is
towards you he loves you with a passion and he's got a plan the fact of
the matter is although Joseph was completely ignorant of what the plan
was behind the scenes he knew what was going on on the stage where he
lived his life but he didn't know that God was in control of everything
and the fact of the matter is God needed to deal with Joseph and only
God knew how to do that only God knows how to deal with me and how to
deal with you and he knew where he wanted to get Joseph God had a
standing plan for his life and God needed to work in him the fact has
just been slightly more specific he needed to be in Egypt that was a
long way from where he'd started out he needed to be in Egypt for God's
purpose to find its fulfilment and he needed to have a good reputation
in Egypt in order for him to be selected for what he was selected for
and God engineered the circumstances he got him to Egypt he got him into
a mess as it were but the fact is in the end that really was the key to
him becoming the second only to Pharaoh in Egypt wonderful he became a
saviour to his family and there's a tremendous parallel that I can find
to a greater than Joseph in that Amen but you know God is always beyond
he's beyond what I'm thinking about him he's beyond what I'm even
thinking about myself his plan and purpose for my life is more than I
could come up with and if I tried to come up with anything I'd mess
everything up in the process you know we've got some wonderful
scriptures in our Bible we've got Romans 8, 28 you know that verse don't
you moreover you know what we're basically looking at is that God is
ordaining everything to come to fulfil his purpose in the end and I'd
like to just give you my sort of very unconventional translation of
Romans 8, 28 and we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God to them who are called according to his purpose here's my
unconventional translation things fall apart and come to nothing so that
his greater purpose can be realised that's what's happening this is what
the pruning is all about and it's it's God he needs we can say well look
the I'm trying to think how to put this really but you know his pruning
is not just dealing with dead wood this is the point that I want to make
his pruning deals with good wood his pruning has to do with living
branches his pruning has to do with branches that are born good fruit
last year but this is how God thinks but in the new fruit that he
intends to produce there has to be a new beginning or to put it another
way his work his work always is the product of resurrection the new life
and this makes no sense to the natural man because in the natural mind
you know we have some success well that was great we'll build on that
we'll develop this success and take it to another level but the self
life the flesh life must be continuously brought to death in order for
the resurrection life to have its way and to produce that which God
intends to produce in each one of our lives that's what it's all about I
know John Harrison listening to me knows exactly who I'm speaking about
there was a woman who was in our church in Liverpool years ago and she
wrote a song which we thought was magnificent and it was about the cross
of the Lord Jesus and she talks about Jesus thy cross is sweet to me a
gift unspeakably great and she goes on I won't quote all of the hymn but
the cross operating in our lives and she says here where all earthly
hopes do cease the new creation springs this beloved is the way of God
so this isn't a call to despair because you know we've messed up it's
certainly not producing a sense that we need to be afraid of what God's
going to do but he has that fruitfulness in his heart and he knows what
needs to be cut away he knows how to cut it away he knows when the right
time is for those changes to be made in our lives and you know this is
this is the this is God's way we tend to think to ourselves this is the
way we've always thought and God if he was going to respond to that he'd
probably say well that's the problem friend you just keep doing what's
been good in the past but I'm wanting to do a new thing I'm wanting to
open up new doors new spheres of experience of God and of expression of
his inward life and of ministry that will glorify his name he knows
exactly what's happening in each one of our lives Amen you know I think
to myself where would I be today had God not interrupted my plans you
know perhaps perhaps your life perhaps you're well on in life and
everything's neat and tidy and you feel you know it's all good you know
how glad I am that God overturned those things and is working to will
and to do of his good pleasure and you know I mentioned this earlier but
I'm getting close to 80 and by his grace and in spite of me he's kept
the best wine to the end of the feast that's his reputation actually and
I wonder if today dear beloved whether you are ready to just bow down
before God and and say Lord interrupt my plans my niece in orderly life
I give myself to you thank you for not letting me have my way in
everything you knew best mine be the glory perhaps however you might
word your expression to God basically was saying Lord don't just wash my
feet not even my hands and my head wash my heart wash every part of me
cleanse me Lord Keith Green put it well in one line of a song he wrote
years ago wash me anew in the wine of your blood he'll introduce his
word which will further cleanse us in a different way he'll introduce
his handling of our lives and his pruning of our lives which will
cleanse us in yet other ways but his heart towards us always is to
cleanse us liberate us wash us and cause us to bear not just fruit not
just more fruit but much fruit for his name's sake and for his glory
Amen and apart from you being notified it also gives us a sense of
community in this odd situation in which we are that there are others
who are identifying themselves with us and maybe you have a comment you
want to leave there are those who do that and we're certainly grateful
for those who pray for us and for those who support us and if you want
the messages in a podcast form so God bless you in Jesus' name I pray
Amen

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/ouE9a8K1FXE.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/fred-tomlinson/cleansed-by-the-knife/
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