Alright, brethren, John chapter
15. Lord Jesus here is strengthening, instructing, and comforting His
apostles. He's giving His precious promises
to His people. And the point of everything that
He says here is this. This is the point of everything
He's saying. Verse 4, He says, Abide in Me. This is the point of everything
He's saying, Abide in Me. And here's why. He says at the end of verse 5,
For without me ye can do nothing. The Lord begins this parable
by setting our affection where we must abide. It's where we
must abide. He said in verse 1, I am the
true vine, And my Father is the husbandman. The Lord Jesus Christ
is the true vine. He said, I am the true vine.
This is one of those many great I am's. And Lord willing, when
we get to the end of the, or later on in the book, I want
to go back through those I am's. And I want you to be reminded
of those. He is the great I am. He is God
our Savior. God in human flesh. That's who's
speaking here. He's the Lord. He's the Savior
of His people. And He declares here, I am the
true vine. The vine is the life of its true
branches. The vine is the life of its true
branches. It's from the vine that all life
and all nourishment is ministered into the branches, making the
branches bear fruit. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
true vine. He is the one from whom life
and nourishment is ministered to His people so that we increase
with the increase of God. He's our righteousness, He's
our life, He's our salvation, He's our all. And God our Father
is the husbandman of His vineyard. He rules the vineyard. It's His
vineyard. It's His vineyard. The vineyard,
the church, belongs to God the Father. He's the head of it. He's the one who purposed all
the salvation of His people. He is the vine planter and He's
the vine dresser. God the Father planted the true
vine. He chose Christ His Son. He's
the true vine, He chose the choice vine, the vine of renown, and
He planted Him. He sent Him forth according to
His covenant into this world to do what God demanded. To give God perfect obedience. Perfect obedience. Because not
any of the people He saves ever could or ever would. So He sent
His Son, He sent Him to save His people, His true branches,
and do it by manifesting the righteousness of God. We see
the righteousness of God, what God requires of you on Calvary's
cross. He requires you to bear all the
sin of your people so that you alone are the guilty one. and
do so with perfect faith toward God, perfect love toward God,
perfect love to your brethren and perfect faith to your brethren.
That's all God requires of you. So if you want to come to God
by yourself and trust your works, that's what God requires. That's
what God requires. Take all the sin of your brethren and bear God's hail. In essence,
be willing to go to hell for your brethren. That's what Christ did on Calvary's
cross. And that's what it required to
satisfy God's justice. That's what he accomplished by
his death. And this gospel that he preaches that he was preaching
that night, that he continues to preach to his people. This
is how he's going to bring us to the obedience of faith. The
obedience of faith is this, is trusting Christ's obedience only. Only. You say, well, is that
obedience? Yes, it is. That's the obedience
only God can work, to trust Christ only. Trust Him only. And this is the vine the Father
promised to plant. He said in Jeremiah 23, 5, Behold,
the days come, saith the Lord, I will raise unto David a righteous
branch. That's what he means by righteous,
the righteous vine. Christ said, I am that true vine. And a king shall reign and prosper
and shall execute judgment and justice in the earth. In his
days, Judah shall be saved and Israel shall dwell safely. And
this is his name whereby he shall be called the Lord our righteousness."
That's what Christ is saying when he says, I'm the true vine.
I'm the true vine. And God his Father is the husbandman
who cares for his branches, his people, that he's united to Christ
the vine. He cares for his people. So next,
the Lord declares what the father does as the husbandman of his
vineyard. He said in verse 2, 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, the disciples that night,
the apostles, were very, very troubled. They were very troubled. They were very weak and they
were very troubled. Their faith was very small. The
Lord was saying to them repeatedly, believe me, believe me, believe
me. This verse has been preached
so as to terrify the Lord's true saints, his true branches. It's
been preached to terrify them. Some preach it so as to turn
the believer entirely to himself and leave him attempting to bear
fruit. That's how you listen to a lot
of folks preach on this. And it's like, did you not hear
any of what he said? Because I'm left thinking, I
got to bear fruit. I'm going to have to produce
some fruit. But the Lord Jesus is declaring
this to make His children, His true branches, depend upon and
joy in the Lord alone. That's the purpose. Look down
at verse 11. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. That's why he's speaking. That's
why he's speaking. So here's the joy. Who does the
Lord declare does this work? Who does he declare that does
this work? Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, he, the husbandman, God the Father, taketh away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. They had just witnessed Judas
Iscariot depart from Christ. He left them. And yet they, these
Lord's true disciples, His true apostles, abode. They remain
with Christ. They were still with Him. Judas Iscariot wasn't troubled.
He was not troubled. He was going after money. He
was going to get the 30 pieces of silver, and all he had to
do to get that was betray the Lord. He was not troubled at
all. And yet, those who abode with
Christ were suffering great trouble of spirit. They were greatly
cast down, and they were going to suffer much more tribulation
in this world, much more. The Lord Jesus declares what
God the Father, the husband of His vineyard, was doing, both
to Judas Iscariot and to them. what he does in his vineyard
to this day. Every branch in me that beareth
not fruit, God the Father, the husbandman, taketh away, and
every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring
forth more fruit. Now the point here is not that
God shall take away any of his elect children. That's not the
point that our Lord's making. Nobody that the Father chose,
for whom Christ died, who was born of Him, shall ever be taken
away from our Lord. Verse 16, He said, You've not
chosen Me, but I've chosen you, and ordained you that you shall
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit shall remain.
That whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in My name, He
may give it you. The point here is to declare
that it is God the Father, the husbandman of his vineyard, who
does this work. That's who does the work. To
the true apostles, Judas appeared to bear fruit. They didn't suspect Judas to
be the betrayer. They suspected themselves. They weren't looking at somebody
else as the betrayer. They thought they would be the
betrayer. They were saying, Lord, is it
I? Remember that? When they were
saying, Lord, is it I? Child of God, when you hear this
word, if you have the Spirit in you, and you've been made
to see something of what you are, I know what you think when
you read that verse. Lord, is it I? Can you say about yourself that
if the Lord took you away, you wouldn't be surprised? If you can't, you're self-righteous.
Because God's people say, that wouldn't surprise me. There's not a thing in this book
that God forbids that I haven't committed. There's not a thing
in this book that God commands that I've done in the righteousness
God requires. Can you say that? Can you say
that? God's people can. And God's people
read a verse like this and say, Lord is it I? If you took me
away, but for your grace, but for Christ's blood, if you took
me away, you'd be just. I see my sin. You'd be just. We have sinned. That's what all
God's people say. We just heard it read. We have
sinned. But the Lord's lifting a great
burden off His true people. What a burden! What a burden! He's lifting it off His people.
Declaring that God the Father is the husbandman and He's caring
constantly for His vineyard. God the Father knows the true
branches that are His, and He knows the branches that are in
the vine by a profession only who bear no fruit. He knows this. The disciples didn't. He takes away the branches that
bear no fruit. He does. He does. And when those who believe Him
suffer, just like these apostles were suffering, He teaches us, it's the Father purging you. Because we start pining, Lord,
have you taken your Spirit from me? Have you left me? Have you
ever prayed that? Have you ever prayed that? Some people never prayed that.
Some people never have known that. Those that don't bear fruit
don't know nothing about it. Part of the fruit bearing that
He makes us bear is to confess that in us dwells no good thing. Does that leave anything out?
To say, in my flesh dwells no good thing. Is anything left
out of that? Is there any good in that? None! He teaches us when we're suffering. And this is what He makes you
know. He said when the spirits come, you'll know that I'm in
you and you're in me. I'm in the Father, you're in
me, and I'm in you. And you'll know this. And He's
going to make His child know what He's doing and why you're
suffering. Because He's purging you. Because
you needed purged. You needed to be purged. You're
sinful and you got defilement and you were sinning and you
needed to be purged. You ever seen a grapevine? I went to Napa Valley and those
grapevines get all kind of blights on them and they get all kind
of fungus on them and they just get diseased. And they wash those
plants, they wash the branches. And that's what the Lord's teaching
us. The Father's purging, He's pruning, He's chastening His
true branches who bear fruit, so that they shall bring forth
more fruit. Look with me over Matthew 13.
Matthew 13. You be sure, when the Lord says
you're going to know them by their fruit, you be sure you
go read who the Lord's talking about. Matthew 13, look at verse 24. Another parable put he forth
to them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened to a man
which sowed good seed in his field. But while men slept, his
enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But
when the blade was sprung up, it brought forth fruit, then
appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder,
that's the husbandman. That's picturing God the Father.
They came and they said to Him, Sir, didst not thou sow good
seed in thy field? It's His field. From whence then
hath it tears? He said to them, An enemy hath
done this. The servant said to Him, Wilt
thou then that we go and gather them up? Listen to what the husbandman
who owned the field and owned the whole estate, listen to what
he said. No. lest while you gather up the
tares, you load up also the wheat with them." I'm just going to
be honest with you. There are some people I think
that are tares. And there are some people I think that are
wheat. And I've been wrong about the wheat and wrong about the
tares. And I don't know. Let both grow together until
the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I
will say to the reapers, gather you together first the tares
and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into
my barn. Do you know what a burden was
lifted off of God's apostles when they heard this? Do you
know what a burden was lifted off of them to say, God the Father
is the husband, He's the one that's taking away the branches
that bear no fruit and purging those that do so they bring forth
more fruit. There's very few in number with
Him. Think about this. I know the
Lord had called some others, there was a few, but it's still
a small congregation that the Lord had at that time. And there's
multitudes all around them who profess to believe God. And they
were a whole lot more impressive than this little band of fishermen
was. Mighty buildings, established and been worshipped in the same
way for thousands of years and more impressive than them. Do you know? And here's the thing,
God the Father is going to unite a bunch more with them. And so
is the devil. Because God's going to permit
it. Why? to teach those that are
his that he's the husband and he's taking care of his vineyard.
And we're not. because Christ declares, ìI am
the true vine, and my Father is the husband.î This is Isaiah
27.2. If you can turn there, youíd
probably like to see this. Isaiah 27.2. Hereís what Heís
teaching. This is the comfort right here.
ìIn that day, sing ye unto her a vineyard of red wine. I, the
Lord, do keep it. I will water it every moment,
lest any hurt it. I will keep it night and day.î
Fury is not in me. Who would set the brows and thorns
against me in battle? I would go through them. I would
burn them together. Or let him take hold of my strength,
that he may make peace with me, and he shall make peace with
me. He shall cause them that come of Jacob to take root, and
Israel shall blossom and bud and fill the face of the world
with fruit. That's the work of the husbandman.
That's the work of the husband. And the true branches, here's
the thing about the true branches, they have to yet be purged. They've
got to yet be cleansed. You know why we know that? Because
we know by His grace that we're yet sinners. We are sinners. But this Word is to strengthen
the true branches. This is to strengthen the true
branches. This is to strengthen them to
believe that God our Father and His Son and cast all our care
on Him and trust Him. And trust Him to mortify our
own sinful flesh. Because that is what He is doing
through the purging. Through the purging. Because
he looks on the heart, he doesn't look on the outward appearance.
Seizures right now. Now, that's terror to Judas. That's a terror to Judas. Because Judas... Judas... did everything He did to simply
be seen of men. But that's great comfort to those
who are the true branches, that He knows the heart. That's great
comfort. Because the Lord declared, verse
7, if you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you shall
ask what you will and it shall be done unto you. That's the
fruit He produces. That's the fruity producer. You
want what God wants. You will what God wills. And
when we see Him removing branches, and when we see Him putting a
heavy hand on us and purging us personally, chastening us, and we start crying,
Lord, is it I? Am I cast away? Lord, will you keep me? And you don't only pray that.
You pray, Lord, will you keep my brethren? Don't let my brethren
be a branch that you cast away. Go with the Psalm 80. This was the
cry of the true branches when God did this work in Israel.
This is the cry of every true branch and the true vine. This
is the fruit of the Lord. This is our Father's purpose
in purging us right here. This is it. To bring you to cry
this right here. Here's the purpose. Why has God
put His hand on you? Why is He doing it? Here's the
purpose. This is one of the purposes. Really, it's the chief purpose.
Psalm 80, verse 14. Here's what they cried. This
was when he had taken the hedge off the vineyard and he was letting
the vine, the branches be devoured. And here's what the true branches
prayed. Return, we beseech thee, O God
of hosts. Look down from heaven and behold
and visit this vine and the vineyard which thy right hand hath planted
and the branch that thou madest strong for thyself. It's burned
with fire. It's cut down. They perish at
the rebuke of thy countenance. Let thy hand be upon the man
of thy right hand." They're saying, Father, our Husband, put your
hand upon Christ Divine, the man of your right hand, upon
the Son of Man whom thou madest strong for thyself, so will not
we go back from thee. Quicken us, and we will call
upon thy name, Turn us again! Turn us again! Lord, turn us
again! Please don't stop! Turn us again! Oh, Lord God of hosts, cause
thy face to shine, and we shall be saved. That's what it's about. It's not about the vine straining
real hard to see if he can produce some fruit, because that ain't
fruit. That ain't fruit. That's a rotten blossom. Fruit
is going to God and knowing, you're all I got. You're all
I have. In me is nothing good. He's all we have. And that's
comfort to know that God the Father is the husband of His
vineyard because He knows those that are His, He chose them in
His Son, He redeemed us by His Son, and He united us to Christ
divine by His Spirit, and He's going to make us fruitful. And
so when we're suffering, all things come to men alike. And
when you're suffering, and when Job's friends come to you and
sit down and just stare at you with malice in their heart waiting
on you to fall, You know it's your Father's loving,
chastening hand that's done it to you. Abraham had two sons, Ishmael
and Isaac. Two sons. One of them, Ishmael,
was the work of Abraham's wisdom and ingenuity and his works. The other one, Isaac, was entirely
born of the Spirit of God. Which one did God say Abraham
offered to me? The one that was of God. And
God won't receive any fruit you produce. Not any. Not any. Ask Cain. So here's the main
point of this parable. Abide in Christ because without
Him we can do nothing. Verse 3, immediately he speaks
some good news to his saints. Now you are clean through the
word which I have spoken to you. Before, when Judas was present,
he said you are clean, but not all. Because he knew. But now he says, without any
reservation, you are clean. How? Through the word which I
have spoken to you. Those born of the Spirit are
clean through the Word Christ has spoken to us. The washing
of water by the Word. Clean. The washing of regeneration
through the Spirit. Clean. We didn't do anything
to do it. We didn't make it happen. Clean. He's not making us more holy.
He's not growing us more and more to become more and more
holy. You're clean. He's growing you
in that state of holiness. Now that's the difference between
the gospel I've preached to you for 15 years and the false gospel
that I do not believe in any regard. You're clean. Every whit. The thief on the
cross didn't know a thing. He had not had time to put any
sin away. He had not had time to do a thing.
He was a guilty criminal hanging on a cross. And he said, Lord,
that's what he knew. Lord, remember me when you come
into your kingdom. He was clean. He was clean. But due to our sin, our triune
God continues to purge us, to clean and prune His branches
through the Word He speaks to us. It's called the renewing
of the Holy Ghost by the Word. He keeps on doing it. The apostles
were troubled. They were full of unbelief. They
were full of doubts. They were full of fears. And
full of sins that we just don't even see, just like we are. Sins you're not even conscious
of. Sins you don't even know you've
committed. The ones we know we've committed are heavy enough. If
God showed us the ones we haven't committed, the things that He
commands us to do that we have not done, we wouldn't be able
to stand it. Peter was overly confident. He
was so proud. He was so proud. And this really
is just self-confidence, self-righteousness, pride. He said, these all may
forsake you, but I will not forsake you. And they all said this.
A proud look and a haughty spirit in the plowing of the wicked
is sin. Who's the wicked? You! And me! And everybody God saves! Not
a one of us are not the wicked. He said, if you being wicked
know how to give good gifts to your children, shall not your
heavenly Father? Who is He speaking to? Those
that were clean, that He had made clean. A hearty spirit, a proud look,
a hearty spirit of plowing is sent. Plowing? I don't know if
there's anybody here that's ever plowed. Some of you probably
have. But everybody's cut their grass. How many times have you
ever cut your grass and stepped back and looked at your grass
and thought, man those are some straight lines. Hell, that's what that deserves.
Hell. You know why? That's boasting
in something we did. Well, that's not that bad. You
meet God boasting in your little straight lines in your yard,
see. What did he mean by that? The plowing of the wicked is
sin. What I'm getting at is there's
much pruning that has to be done to make you and me see that's
how sinful we are. Oh, that God would not let us
to think more of ourselves than we are and not let us think more
of what we are in Christ, less than what we are in Christ. That's
what I pray. Don't let us think more of what
we are in ourselves and don't let us think less of what we
are in Christ. But we got to be pruned. We got
to be pruned. By the Word Christ spoke, God
the Father purged His apostles right then. Now He had already
cleansed them, but He's pruning them. This is just a little example
of it, but that's what He's doing. By the Word He's speaking to
them, He's pruning them, He's cleansing them, He's purging
them of this unbelief and telling them, you abide in Me, you cannot
do anything without Me. This is the word He speaks by
which He makes us abide in Him. Verse 4. Abide in Me and I in
you. What does that mean? What does
it mean to abide in Christ? Stay in Him. That's what it means.
Remain in Him. Don't go anywhere else. Don't
depart from Christ. Continue in Christ. Wait upon
Christ. Look nowhere but to Christ alone
by faith. Now how do the branches begin
to abide in the vine? Have you ever seen a branch just
make itself be in a vine? What do the branches do? They
grow out of the vine. And the vine gives all the sap
into the branch. Well, how did the apostles begin
abiding in Christ and Christ in them? He said, ìAbide in me
and I in you.î I canít make myself abide in Him. I sure canít make
Him abide in me. How is that going to happen?
How do you continue? Christ spoke the word about in
me and I in you. And you abode in him because
he abode in you. He said of the false prophets,
they shall not profit this people at all. Is that what he said? And some man will say, well,
that guy, he's a false prophet, he's preaching a false gospel.
I could sit under him for anything, but I saved under him. Somebody's lying. Either God
or you. One of the two. Christ sends
the gospel. He sends the truth of the Word
through the preaching of the Word. And by His Spirit, He speaks
into the heart, and He says, Abide in Me. Later, He's going
to tell His apostles, Receive ye the Holy Ghost! How'd they do that? He said, He spoke, the Word said,
the Word spoke the Word, Receive ye the Holy Ghost. And He filled
them. Like the wind, it'd be like you're
standing out here and saying, Receive that wind that's blowing. You can't tell where it's coming
and where it's going. How are you going to receive it? It's
going to blow on you. That's how they received it.
Brethren, when our Lord speaks and says about me and I and you,
this precepts are promised by the power of His voice. Our Lord's
everlasting covenant is, I will make an everlasting covenant
with them. I will not turn away from them
to do them good, but I will put my fear in their hearts and they
shall not depart from me. I will rejoice over them to do
them good. I will plant them in this land
assuredly with my whole heart and with my whole soul. Where's
your will in that? He said, I will, I will, I will.
So all who hear Him declare, When He says to you, ìAbide in
Me, and I in you,î you abide in Him, and you remain in Him,
and you look to none but Him for life and for all because
He abides in you. Well, what does the branch do
to produce fruit? Verse 4, ìAs the branch cannot
bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more
can you except you abide in Me.î The vine gives all the nourishment
to the branch, produces the fruit in a branch. And he said, 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. Our Lord is teaching us to look
to Him alone. You can't look two places at
once. The true branches and the true
vine derive all from the vine. Without Christ, we can do nothing. That means we need Him for everything. Life, faith, love, joy, faithfulness,
mortification of our sinful lusts, patience, endurance, hope, repentance,
godly sorrow for our sin, prayer, worship, spiritual praise. All
fruitfulness comes from Christ. For me is thy fruit found. In
a vine or a fruit tree, the branches are different sizes, they bear
different amounts of fruit, and the fruit that Christ promises
is not fully produced all at once, nor is it in equal degree
in the branches. Yet according to the measure
of grace that He imparts, Christ our vine shall keep us abiding
in Him, and He shall produce fruit in every believer united
to Him. Now purging is painful. Purging
is painful. I purged a crawfish. That's not
a pleasant process. Purging is painful. But why does
He purge us? He cleanses us because sin makes
us dirty and defiled. But every true believer shall
abide in Him and shall patiently endure the chastening because
this too is the fruit of Him. It's the fruit of Him. The branches which grow from
the Pharisees, from the bad tree, bring forth fruit just like the
bad tree, produced by the bad seed, the false gospel of man's
glory. It produces confidence in self.
They are their own vine. They are their own rain. They
are their own son. They are their own husband. They are their own
fruit producer. So they boast with confidence
in their fruit. And one branch compares himself
to another branch and boasts himself more fruitful than the
other branch. But in nature, when a branch
bears fruit, you know what it does? It hangs down lower. It hangs down lower. In fact, that
word, take it away, my Father shall take it away, that word
means lift up. Now I know He will take away
those that don't bear fruit, but it also means He lifts up. And that's what He does. He lifts
up His people. Because true fruit is going to
bring you down. It's going to bring you down.
The fruit of the Spirit makes us see our inability. and makes
us see all as of Christ. And so grace humbles his child
and makes us more dependent upon Christ so that we glory only
in the Lord. It's humility and it's utter
dependence upon Christ. That's the essence of all true
fruit. That means... We just need mercy. When you
see that, know that, you'll be merciful. The branch that has its little
clusters of grapes, it doesn't look at the branch loaded down
and say, well, I'm not a branch in the vine because I don't have
that amount of grapes. Nor does the fruitful look upon
the branch with its little cluster and conclude, well, that's not
a branch like me. The fruit of the Spirit makes
us sustain other better. But they're just so sinful, they're
just so hard. Paul said, I am the chief of
sinners. I am the chief of sinners. I just love to hear somebody
stand here and say, I am the chief of sinners. Committed every
sin and I'm not, I'm not, I won't back up from that. And I'm not
making a boast and I'm not saying it's excusable because it's not.
If God does not save this sinner, I won't be saved. I won't be
saved. But I know there was a time I
didn't think that. I know there was a time I didn't believe that. This is what fruit makes you
want to do. It makes you be grateful for the measure of grace He has
imparted in you and the measure of grace He has imparted in your
brethren, no matter how sinful. desiring for you and them to
not increase with your increase, but to increase with the increase
of God, that He gets all the glory. Nor should one branch
think less of another when God's pruning one of His branches. And if we do, that's a sure indication
we need pruning, and if we're His, you can guarantee we will
be. I'm standing here as proof of
that. But when the Holy Ghost has brought
the soul into this sweet and separable union with the Lord
Jesus, there is a constant life, a constant receiving out of His
fullness. And by God the Holy Ghost continually
exercising our senses and showing us our sin, our sin, our total
inability. Without me you can do nothing. and revealing to us the Redeemer's
fullness. He keeps you constantly living
upon Him. We can't have two wisdoms. We
can't have ours in Christ. We can't have ours in another
man's or another man's in Christ. We've got to only have Christ's
wisdom. So lastly, hear this final word.
If a man abides not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and
is withered. Anybody that thinks they can
produce something, put away their sin, produce some fruit in themselves
or have or whatever, that's not fruit he produces. Men will gather them and they'll
cast them into the fire and they'll burn. They will be cast out and
they will be gathered up by men. Usually in false religion or
just in the world. But at last burned up in fire,
in hell. If you abide in me and my words
abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done
to you. Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so
shall you be my disciples. Now true believers hear his word.
And we call upon Him, and we cast all our care on Him, and
we ask Him, Lord, will You make me abide in You? Will You make
me fruitful? And you know why you do that?
You know why you do that? You know why you don't see yourself
as more than you ought to? Because He abides in you. And
when you're fearful and you see your sin, what makes you hate
it? What makes you low? Are you tired
of yourself? I'm tired of me. I know there's
some that say, I'm tired of you too, Clay. All right, I'll trust
you to the husband. But I'm tired of me. I'm tired
of my sin. I'm sick of it. It seems like
if I try not to sin, all I can think about is sinful things.
Why? I'm trying to produce the fruit.
But when you're sitting and you're hearing the gospel preached and
your affection is set on Him by His Spirit, you don't even
think about yourself. You don't even regard yourself.
What's that? That's treating yourself like
you're dead. I'm telling you, when you read
Colossians 3, and Paul said, set your affection on things
above, for you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ.
When he gets down and says, and therefore mortify the flesh,
it would be better translated, and thereby mortify the flesh. Because that's the only way you're
going to do it. Is having your affection set on Him. If I set
my affection on you, I'm going to exalt myself over you. You
set your affection on me, you're going to do the same thing. Because
I'm going to disappoint you and you're going to disappoint me.
We have disappointed each other many times, haven't we? Are we
being honest? Isn't that so? My children have
been to your house when they were little, your children have
been to mine. Children come home telling everything they saw and
heard. By His Word, we know Christ is
our only righteousness by which God accepts us. And by His Word,
we know it's Christ who sanctified us by His Spirit, not we ourselves. And we depend upon Him to keep
us separated and living on Him. And by His Word, we know it's
Christ who redeemed us and set us free to cast all our care
on Him. And we believe that Christ is our life, and we utterly depend
upon Him for all. And this is His sure promise.
So shall you be. my disciples." That's what he
produces. There's no maybes about it. John
said, 1 John 2.24, and he's just quoting what our Lord said. 1
John 2.24, Let that therefore abide in you which you have heard
from the beginning. And if that which you have heard
from the beginning shall remain in you, ye also shall continue
in the Son and in the Father. And this is the promise that
He has promised us, even eternal life. These things I have written
unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing
which you have received of Him abideth in you, and you need
not that any man teach you, but as the same anointing teacheth
you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it
hath taught you, you shall abide in Him. You shall. And now, little children, abide
in Him, that when He shall appear we may have confidence and not
be ashamed before Him at His coming. How did Paul say that was going
to come to pass? I want to be found in Him, not
having my own righteousness. I want to have nothing but His.
That's the true fruit, to trust it all into His hands. Amen.