I'm going to ask you to take
your Bibles and turn with me to the Gospel according to John
chapter 15. John chapter 15. The scripture declares in verse
1 of John 15, I am the true vine, and my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he taketh away. I want to stop before I go any
farther and explain something concerning that verse. If a branch
has eternally been placed in the Lord Jesus Christ, a believer,
that believer is always in Christ. A branch truly placed by God
is not removed. But every branch that claims
to be in me, that beareth not fruit, the fruit of God's Spirit,
he taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now ye are clean through the
word which I have spoken unto you. Now here's the verse that
I'd like to deal with this morning. 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." Now that exhortation,
abide in me and I in you, is more than a word that means just
try to continue, try to stay, try to be consistent. But it
is a word of promise. It is an exhortation of the surety
that are abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ, and I'll tell you
this two or three times, I'm sure, in this message. How does
a man abide in Christ? By faith. By faith. Before I finish here, I'm going
to tell you how he got there, and how he's kept there, and
how you know he's there. By faith. that abiding in Christ
is not accomplished by man's works or man's will, but it is
a state of security that is the result of Christ's eternal power in redemption, in regeneration,
and in eternal security. Faithful is he that calleth you,
who shall also do it. If the Lord commands me to abide
in Him, He's going to have to abide me, because I don't have
the power to. What He's saying is this, I want
you to do willingly as I command, and I'll keep you. I want to
give you an example of this command. Abide in me. Look at Ezekiel
16.6. Ezekiel 16.6. This is about the setting forth of a young child
that was born The Lord speaking to Israel,
to spiritual Israel, was telling them, this is how you were born. Now listen to this, Ezekiel 16,
6. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thine
own blood, and that's where every child of God's promise is found. He said, I know you. I saw you
before the foundation of the world in me, you were given to
me in electing grace. I saw you in the fall, I saw
you in your continued walk. I know thee, I know you. When
I passed by thee and saw thee polluted in thine own blood,
and I said unto thee when thou wast in thy blood, now you listen
to this suggestion. I want you to look at this invitation. I said unto thee, when thou wast
in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou
wast in thy blood, live. And you know what happens to
a vessel of God's mercy when the Lord Jesus Christ says unto
him, live. You know what happens? They live. When he said to Matthew, when
Matthew was sitting at the table of custom, taking taxes, collecting
taxes, you know, making his living, taking advantage of people, he
walked up to Matthew and what did he say? Follow me. Matthew got up and followed. Followed the Lord Jesus Christ. I love this passage. Back in
John, but look, hold your place there in John 14, but just turn
over to John 20. I love this. This is such a beautiful
scripture setting forth. It's what I'm saying. When He
says, Abide in Me, and I in you. As I said, that's not a suggestion. John 20, 26, 28, After eight
days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.
Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst
and said, Peace be unto you. Now, remember Thomas was there
not too long before, after the Lord had left, and other disciples
told him the Lord was here. You weren't what the Lord was. He's risen. And Thomas said,
I'll tell you this, I, unless I put my hand in His side, put
my finger in those holes in His hands and feet, I will not believe. Then saith he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy
hand, and thrust it into my side. And listen to this. This is not
a suggestion that he's about to tell him. This is a command. And a command whereby power went
from the Lord. He said to Thomas, And be not
faithless, but believing. And do you want to know how I
know that with that word, power went forth to that unbelieving
man? And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. You think that power to believe
came from Thomas? The Lord said back in John 15,
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. You say, well I'm believing today
because I've been believing for a long time and I hear the Word
of God I can continue to believe not unless He gives you faith
right now to believe. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. We do not have the ability to
believe unless the Lord grants us faith. Did the Lord command
to believe? Yes. Did the ones hearing the command
do what He commanded them to do? Yes! Why did they believe? Because they wanted to. But here's the key. Why did they
want to? Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. My friend, If we're here this
morning hearing the gospel of God's free grace and believing
Him, it is by the grace of God that we're here again believing. Is it necessary to hear the gospel? Yes! Faith cometh by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. Now let me throw something out
here. The Scriptures are filled with
warnings to believers. Now you listen to what I'm saying.
Scripture is full of warnings to believers against drawing
back, against unbelief, against neglect
of God's Word. I want you to listen to this.
I'll read it to you. Hebrews 3.12. Take heed, brethren. Now this is Hebrews 12. Apostle
Paul, I believe, wrote this. Now who is he talking to? He's
talking to believers. He doesn't call unbelievers brethren. Brethren or not, we don't call
unbelievers brethren either. Take heed, brethren. lest there
be in you an heart of unbelief in departing from the living
God." Now you say, now, hmm. True believers never depart,
finally, from the true and living God. How do you know? 1 Peter
1.5, we are kept by the power of God through faith, ready to
be revealed in the last time. So how are we kept? We're kept
by the power of God. Can a believer ever fall away?
No. No, sir. How do you know? God
said it. A believer cannot, he cannot, he's kept. God chose
him, Christ redeemed him, the Spirit of God called him out,
and he's kept by the power of God. So what did Paul mean when
he said, take heed brethren, lest there be in you? The Lord
has said, abide in me. And somebody will read that scripture.
Take heed, brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief
in departing from the living God." Somebody else said, you're
departing from the living God. What does that mean? The Scripture sets forth that
there is, and I'm going to show you a couple of Scriptures here,
a departure. That because of unbelief renders
God's Word, God's presence, God's mercy, to be to our understanding
as a closed door, as a departure. Now I'm going to turn to John
21, 1-3. John 21, 1-3. Paul is saying,
take heed brethren, lest there be in you an evil heart of unbelief. Now I'm going to show you something.
this evil heart of unbelief. It happened to the Lord's apostles. John chapter 21, verse 1 to 3. After these things, Jesus showed
himself again to the disciples at the Sea of Tiberias, and on
this wise showed he himself. There were together Simon Peter,
Thomas Caldidimus, Nathanael of Galilee, the others of Zebedee,
and two other of his disciples. And Simon Peter said unto them,
I go a fishing. And they say unto him, We also
go with thee. They went forth and entered into
a ship immediately, and that night they caught nothing." You
remember when we studied that not too long ago? That word,
go, right there. I looked it up. Let me tell you,
it's the same word when the Lord asked His disciples. When those
left, they wouldn't hear Him anymore because it was a hard
saying. When He said, No man can come
to Me except it were given unto him of My Father, And they said,
I can't hear that no more. I can't go along with that sovereign
grace stuff. And they departed. And the Lord
turned to His disciples and He said, will you go away too? Will
you leave? Will you leave me? And Peter
said, where can we go? You have the words of eternal
life. When Peter said, I go a fishing, look it up. It's what he said. I quit. I quit. I'm done. I'm going back to what
I used to do. And but for the grace of God
and the power of God, he would have. He would have. Take heed, brethren, lest there
be in you an evil heart of unbelief. The Bride in Song of Solomon,
we've read this so many times, but I'm telling you, this is
so relevant to all of us. I'll read this to you, Psalm
5, 2 to 6. I sleep, but my heart waketh. It's the voice of my beloved
that knocketh, saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove,
my undefiled, for my head's filled with dew, and my lock's with
the drops of the night. And listen to the excuses. Listen to the excuses of an evil
heart of unbelief. I put off my coat. How shall
I put it on? I've washed my feet. How shall
I defile them? I've just got too much stuff
to do. I'm just too busy. My beloved
put in his hand by the hole of the door. My bowels were moved
for him. I rose up to open to my beloved and my hands dropped
with my fingers with sweet-smelling myrrh upon the handles of the
lock. I opened to my beloved, but he did the best thing in
the world that he ever could for us. Because of an evil heart
of unbelief, he had withdrawn himself and he was gone. Now
buddy, for a believer, you talk about wake up somebody. Now you
listen. I'm telling you. He knows how
to wake us up. And he will. And here's what
the bride said. My soul failed when he spake. She thought back what he'd said,
open to me. And she said, I've just got too
much going on. I sought him and I could not
find him. I called him but he gave me no
answer. The Lord said, abide in me. A believer is the only creature
convinced of his security in Christ. A believer is the only
creature sure of being called by God, he believes
Him, he believes Him. But I'll tell you what he did,
he does, he gives diligence to make his calling and election
sure. Somebody said, well, if you're
convinced, if you're convinced, why is it I'm telling you that
a believer is the one that knows something about that evil heart
of unbelief? He knows something about it.
An unbeliever has no... It doesn't matter. Listen to Paul, 2nd Corinthians. 2nd Corinthians chapter 5. One
verse, 2nd Corinthians... I'm sorry, 13, 5. 2nd Corinthians
13, 5. He says, examine yourselves whether
you be in the faith. Prove your own selves. Know you
not your own selves, how that Christ Jesus is in you, except
ye be reprobates? Examine yourself. A believer
knows something about that. The Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians
9, 24. He says, know you not that they
which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the prize.
You get a bunch of guys, any of them that ever ran track,
you know, going to run a race. There's only going to be one
winner. Everybody's going to run to win
the prize. So run that you may obtain. Every
man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. He
trains, he trains. I was running track and every
day we'd go out and I'd run. I ran cross country, I ran open
quarter, I ran the mile relay. We'd train, we'd train. Go out there and run, run, run,
run, run, run, run, run. Do weights. Put ankle weights
on your ankles, you know, and run with them. When you take
them off, it feels like you're the Flash. You know, you just
don't even have feet anymore. Every man that strive it for
the mastery is tempering all things. Now they do it, they
do it to obtain a corruptible crown. These athletes. but we an incorruptible. And
Paul says, so therefore, so run. I therefore, so run. Not as uncertainly,
So fight I, not as one that beateth the air." He said, I'm not like
a boxer out there shadow boxing like I don't have anything else
to do, not worried about it. He said, I keep under my body
and bring it into subjection, lest that by any means when I
have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway. I wish I could tell you how many
times I've stood in this pulpit and this thought go through my
mind. Do I truly believe what I'm preaching? Have you ever thought that? Do I truly believe what I'm hearing? A believer is in a constant battle
with himself. He's not indifferent to the flesh. I can tell you that. He battles
against that flesh. So, for a regenerated sinner,
he lives. He lives knowing whom he has
believed, whom he's trusted. He's persuaded that he's able
to keep that which is committed unto him. What is it? himself,
he's committed himself unto the Lord by faith against that day,
that day of judgment. And while he's convinced, he's
living, all the while he's examining himself, he's listening to God's
Word. You're sitting here listening
to exactly what the Lord is saying and a believer is examining himself. Is this what I believe? Is this
the Christ I trust? Is this the one I love? Is this
the one I've committed myself to? And while He's constantly
doing that, He's committing again, afresh, coming again. He that cometh. He that cometh
unto me. Let me tell you, you that believe. Let me tell you what an unbeliever,
or an unbeliever places his trust. He thinks back. He thinks back. Well, I gave him my heart back,
you know, or I did this back. Let me tell you where a believer
is right now. Today is the day of salvation.
Lord, if I've never believed until today, help me right now
to start. Lord, save me right now. What
if the Lord never saved you until today? Thanks be unto God that
He put you under the sound of the gospel and saved you today. Somebody said, well, I sure wouldn't
want to admit that I was never saved before today. That's just
pride. That's all. What difference does it make?
What difference does it make? Today is the day. Committing
the keeping of His soul to Him in well-doing, that is not looking
to yourself, but looking to Him as unto a faithful Creator. always
desiring to enter in at the straight gate, Christ the narrow door.
For wide is the gate, Matthew 7, verse 13, and broad is the
way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be that go in
thereat. If Christ is the narrow gate,
if Christ is the narrow gate, what does that mean? That means
that Christ is my salvation, He redeemed me, He saved me,
He's keeping me. Christ is my door. What part do I have in it? None! None! None! Enter in at the straight gate,
the narrow door. It's Christ and Christ only. No other way. There's no room
for my works or your works. There's no room. No room. God's
not going to accept it. This is my beloved Son, whom
I am well pleased. You hear Him. But wide is the
gate and broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many
there be that go in thereout. What does that mean? If it's
anything else except Christ only, and it must be at the exclusion
of any of your works. You try to add your work to it,
and I'm telling you right now, friend, that's the broad way
many there be that go in. A believer abides in Him. Kept. Kept. Puts no confidence
whatsoever in His flesh. The branch cannot bear fruit
of itself. In closing, I'm going to give
you just a few reasons why I must abide in Him. I must abide in
Him. Almighty God is not going to
accept me apart from Him. He's not going to accept me in
anything that I did. So I'm telling you right now,
if you've done anything that you're trusting in right now,
let me tell you, The Lord is not going to accept it. You can
stand before Him and say, you know, I've prophesied in your
name. I've cast out devils in your
name. I did many wonderful works in your name. And I'm going to
tell you what He's going to say. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity. I never knew you. Let me tell you who He's going
to accept. He's going to accept His Son and all that He put in Him. That's
who God's going to accept. I must abide in Him. And here's the reason. There
is a holy God that I cannot please. But Christ did. In Adam, every
man, woman, what did we do? Let me tell you what we did.
We disobeyed God. When Adam disobeyed God, Let
me tell you how many of us were in Adam. All of us. Where do you think we came from?
We came out of Adam's loins. When Adam disobeyed God, I did
too, you did too. We all disobeyed God. So therefore, we're done. in ourselves. We're done. When
Adam sinned by one man's disobedience, many, how many? All have sinned. All were made sinners, unrighteous. Only in Christ can it be said,
I do always those things that please Him. That's the only one
that please God. This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. Hear Him. Why must I abide in
Him? There is a holy law that I cannot
keep. We looked last Wednesday, talked
about the law of God. A believer loves the law of God.
I love God's law. It is the expression of Himself.
The problem is I can't keep it. I can't keep it. Love the Lord
thy God with all your heart, with all your mind, all your
soul. And not one of us has ever done that. Nobody has. Listen to the law. Keep the Sabbath. Keep it holy. Ain't nobody ever
done that. Don't envy. Don't steal. Oh, I've never stolen
anything. Oh, really? How about time from
God that demands absolute obedience to Him, absolute thoughts, absolute
intents? Thievery goes a lot deeper than
me going into 7-Eleven. and picking up a pack of gum.
Stealing anything. Romans 7.18, this is what the
Apostle Paul says concerning a law that I can't keep. I know
that in me, that is in my flesh, there dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me, but how to perform that which
is good. What is that? Keeping God's law.
Obeying God. Can I say it like that? Obey
God. I find not. But concerning Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ, Matthew 5.17. I'll read this to you. Matthew 5.17. Think not that
I am come to destroy the law. or the prophets, I am not come
to destroy but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot, one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law till all be fulfilled." There is not one point. And I'll tell you this, Almighty
God knows all of them. All the points. All the I's and
all the T's. And the Lord says, not one of
them is going to be unfulfilled. There's a holy law that demands
obedience or death. And I can't do it. I came forth
a loser. Thirdly, why must I be found
in Him? There's a righteousness that I must have to be accepted
by God and I cannot produce it. When I came forth from my mother's
womb, speaking lies of sinner or rebel against God, everything
that I've ever done or said has produced one thing. Filthy racks. All of our righteousnesses, all
of our righteousnesses, I read the Scriptures every day. I pray without ceasing. I'm so faithful. I try to listen
to at least three messages a day. I come to all the services. I
love God. Filthy rags. Why? Because it was tainted with me. From the sole of my foot, crown
of my head, there's no soundness. With wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores, they've not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified
with ointment. I am an unclean thing, and I
cannot produce anything but unclean things. That's all I can do. But listen to me. He, as the
federal head of his people, made flesh A man, the man, Christ
Jesus, earned by His works as a man. He earned, He produced
a righteousness that God accepted. God accepted a man's righteousness. And Almighty God said concerning
the man, Christ Jesus, You come sit here by my right
hand, till I make all your enemies your footstool. Well done, well
done. One man, please God, one man,
THE man, Christ Jesus. Do we need to be found in Him?
Do we need to be accepted in Him? That righteousness that
he earned is the righteousness that is imputed to all that God
gives faith to believe. Why must I be found in Him? Because
I'm a sinner and I can't put away sin. How are you going to get it out of
you? It's you. It's you. How are you going to
remove it? The Apostle Paul in Romans chapter
7, we read so often, he said, I delight in the law of God after
the inward man, but I see another law in my members, warring against
the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin, which is in my members. How are you going to get it out?
How are you going to remove it? You know, O wretched man that I am, who shall
deliver me from the body of this death? I must be found in Him
because I cannot put away sin. Sin is what I am. Therefore, I am an impotent. I have no power to do anything
about it. I have no... But Christ, by the
indescribable grace and power of God, now listen to this, He
was made sin. What I am by nature, I can't
get rid of it. It's me. It's me. How am I going
to get rid of it? Almighty God did something that
I can't even explain. Christ, for His... He has made Him to be sin for
us, His people. That's who He said He died for.
He who knew no sin was made sin. And God dealt with him. Why did
he die? Because he was made sin. And
he who knew no sin, made sin. God Almighty poured out His wrath
and judgment on him. And what I deserve, He bore. And God put it away. Now you want to know what will
wash away sin? You want to know what will wash
away sin? Not my faith. My faith won't do it. Not my
faith. Water won't do it. Good works
won't do it. My desire won't do it. The Scripture
says in Revelation chapter 1, John on the Isle of Patmos writing
under the inspiration of God's Spirit penned these words. Revelation
1, verse 4 and 5, John, to the seven churches which are in Asia,
grace be unto you and peace from Him which is, which was, which
is to come, and from the seven spirits which are before His
throne, and from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness,
the first begotten of the dead, the Prince of the kings of the
earth, unto Him that loved us and washed us from our sins in
His own blood. By faith, we believe that. We
believe it. And we look to no other. I must abide in Him because there's
a judgment that I can't endure. I'm going to stand before God
and you are too. We're all sitting here this morning on Sunday morning
and we're all sitting here. more surely than we're really
sitting here, we're going to stand before God in the judgment. Write that down. It's more sure. It's possible that we're all
sitting here, but it's surely we're going to stand before God.
And the scripture says in Revelation chapter 20, this is what's going
to happen. John said, I saw a great white
throne and Him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and
the heaven fled away. There was found no place for
them. What do you mean? No place to hide. I saw the dead,
small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened.
Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead
were judged out of those things which were written in the books
according to their works. Oh, God deliver me from opening
up the books of my works. And I know what you're going
to find. You know better than I. And the sea gave up the dead
which were in it. The death and hell delivered
up the dead which were in them. They were all judged according,
every man according to their works. And death and hell were
cast into the lake of fire. And this is the second death.
And whosoever was not found written in the book of life, which was
written before the foundation of the world, was cast into the
lake of fire. Am I in that book? Well, let me ask you this. Have
you cast your very soul upon the mercy of God in Christ and
find no confidence in your flesh? And all of your works that you
previously trusted in, are they, as Paul the Apostle said, are
they dumb? I walked down the aisle I trusted that I walked down
the aisle. Paul said, that's dumb. I trusted that I gave my
heart to Jesus. That's what I'm trusting in.
I gave my heart to Jesus. That's dumb. A man or woman casts themselves
upon the mercy of God, but they put no confidence in themselves.
And they say, I am what I am by the grace of God. And lastly,
I must abide in Him. because there is an eternal death
for all without Him that I can't escape. 1 John 5 verse 12 says,
He that hath the Son hath life. Do I have Him? Do I have Him? If I have Him,
then God put me in Him. And I believe, if I'm in Him,
I believe that God put me in Him before the foundation of
the world. I believe He chose me in Him. Why? Because it pleased
Him to do so. I'm not here to argue with God.
Well, I don't think that's fair. Chosen before the foundation
of the world, we should be holy and without Him. Do I have Him
by faith? If I do, then I believe Him. That's a miracle of God's grace
that I believe Him, that I believe Him, that I could look away from
myself. How do I have the Son? He that hath the Son. How do
I have Him? He has me. Only a believer understands
what I'm saying. He has me. Jacob wrestling with that man. Jacob, the man Christ Himself
told him, said, let me go. And Jacob said, not unless you
bless me. How was Jacob hanging on? The
Lord had him. He that hath not the Son hath
not life. Here's the Scripture we started
with, and I'm going to close. John 15. 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'm the vine, you're the branches,
he that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth
much fruit, for without me you can do nothing." A believer says,
Lord, keep me in you. A believer that prays that God
keep him in him is in him. Because only the Lord could give
him a heart to pray that. May the Lord bless the word to
our hearts for Christ's sake. Amen.