Good evening, our first hymn
will be 110, Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed. Alas, and Did My Savior Bleed.
110. The lesson did my Savior plead,
And did my Sovereign die. He vowed that sacred head for
such a worm as I. Was it for crimes that I have
done, he groaned upon the tree. Amazing pity, grace unknown,
and love beyond degree. Well might the sun in darkness
hide, and shut his glories in. When Christ the mighty maker
died, for man the creature sinned. The drops of grief can ne'er
repay the debt of love I owe. Dear Lord, I give myself away,
tis all that I can do. Thank you. I'm gonna read from Colossians
chapter two. Colossians two, and we're gonna
pick up in verse 18 and read into the first four verses of
chapter three. Colossians 2.18. Let no man beguile
you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,
intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed
up by his fleshly mind, and not holding the head, from which
all the body, by joints and bands, having nourishment ministered,
and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God. Wherefore,
if ye be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world, why,
as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances,
touch not, taste not, handle not, which are all to perish
with the using, after the commandments and doctrines of men, which things
have indeed a show of wisdom, and will worship, and humility,
and neglecting of the body, but not in any honor to the satisfying
of the flesh. If ye then be risen with Christ,
seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right
hand of God. Set your affection on things
above, not on things on the earth, for ye are dead, and your life
is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life,
shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Our gracious Lord, we thank you
for your grace, for your mercy to your people and your everlasting
love which you had for us before the foundation of the world.
You loved us and you chose us and put us in Christ for our
care and our keeping. And Lord, we are so thankful
for that. We see our unworthiness and we
know ourselves to be sinners. We know ourselves to be fools
in this flesh and think and do foolishly in this flesh. And
yet, Lord, you still love us and care for us. You've redeemed
us and provided everything that we need in Christ. And Lord,
we think of our brethren. Our hearts are heavy for Scott
and for Johnny. Lord, we ask that you would strengthen
the mind of our brother. We thank you. We admire his courage
and the strength that you have given to him to make the decision
to remove the foot. Lord, we ask that you would continue
to strengthen his heart, strengthen his mind, strengthen his body,
make him fit and strong and able for this and the challenges that
come with it. But Lord, bless him. Bless him
in it and Indeed, give him health and strengthen him. And Lord,
bless Johnny, encourage her heart, strengthen her mind, and help
her to be someone that Scott can lean on when he is down and
troubled. And give her someone that she
can lean on too, Lord. Let her lean on the Lord Jesus
Christ. And Lord, help us to be a help
to her and to remember her. and to do for her whatever we
can just to encourage her and Scott both. And Lord, we do pray
that you would give him a safe and speedy recovery, that he
could exit this hospital sooner rather than later and go through
rehab and learn what he needs to learn to be able to get back
to living independently and doing what he needs to do. Lord, help
him in that. Give him wisdom and strength
in it. And Lord, we pray for this body here. Lord, we see
just how precious every member of your body is to you. How much
it means to you, each one of us, Lord. We're not easily forgotten. We're not forgotten at all. And
Lord, we ask that you would be merciful and gracious to us,
help us, protect us in the storms that are coming on us over our
houses and in our neighborhoods. Lord, protect us, protect our
children, keep them safe and well, and cause them to look
to you, to cry out to you, and to trust you, Lord, and that
you would protect and provide for them as well, that you would
sanctify them, Lord, and bless them and give them a hope and
a faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, you know all things, things
in our hearts, things in our minds that we haven't even said.
But Lord, we know that you do all things well and we pray that
you would bless your people, bless this work, and thank you
for brethren and the fellowship of brethren near and far. It's
in Christ's name we pray and give thanks. Amen. Our second hymn will be 463. All that thrills my soul. 463. Who can cheer the heart like
Jesus by His presence all divine? True and tender, pure and precious,
O how blessed to call Him mine! All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand In
my blessed Lord I see Above Christ so freely given,
grace of God beyond degree. Mercy higher than the heaven,
deeper than the deepest sea. ? All that thrills my soul is Jesus
? ? He is more than life to me ? ? And the fairest of 10,000
? ? In my blessed Lord I see ? ?
What a wonderful redemption ? Never can a mortal know How my cinderella
crimson Can be whiter than the snow All that thrills my soul is Jesus
He is more than life to me And the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see. Every need His hands supplying,
every good in Him I see. On His strength divine relying,
He is all in all to me. All that thrills my soul is Jesus,
He is more than life to me. and the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see by the crystal flowing river with the
ransom I will sing And forever and forever, praise and glorify
the King. All that thrills my soul is Jesus,
He is more than life to me. and the fairest of ten thousand
in my blessed Lord I see. Thank you. We haven't sang that
too much because I didn't really have good music for it. But now
we do. Thank you. thirsty today. Alright, brethren,
returning to John chapter 15. John 15, our text is verse 5. Now in this passage, our Lord
is speaking of our vital union to Him. And vital means living. It means that Being separated
from Him, being apart from Him, we cannot live. We cannot live. It would be as a limb being separated
from our body. It cannot live unless it's attached
to the body. And that's really what it is
for us. Without Christ, we cannot live. We have no life apart from Him. And therefore, we can't even
produce any spiritual fruit. not before, and certainly not
if we're not connected to them. And so that even tells us that
even our faith It has to be of the Lord. It has to be given
by the Lord our God, otherwise we don't have faith, we have
no spiritual fruit. God must act upon us first and
give us that life, connect us to Christ, give us life in Him,
and then all the fruits follow. Now let's read our text in verse
5. He says, I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth
in me, he that remaineth in me, or endureth in me, and I in him,
the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can
do nothing." Now from this verse we'll have three points. First
we'll see our place in Christ. We're learning our place in Christ. God is teaching us our place
in Christ. And our Lord is teaching us our
vital union. That's our second. He's teaching
us our vital union to Christ. And third, we'll look at our
fruitfulness in the Lord Jesus Christ. So our place. Our Lord begins here in our text
saying, I'm the vine, ye are the branches. So our Lord is
teaching us our place. He's teaching us our need of
Christ. He's teaching us our life, that
we only have life in Him. Now, the religion of man The
religion of man, which we know, we're familiar with it because
that's what we all were in at one time. We were all in the
religion of man. And the scriptures describe it
as the flesh. It's the flesh. Having a fleshly
mind. Having a fleshly religion. Having fleshy or fleshly ideas
of what it is that pleases God and what I can do to enter God's
presence. Man's God can do nothing. That's the problem with man's
religion. God can do nothing except man give him permission
and allow him to do something for him. That's the God, the
false God, the idol God of man. He can do nothing for the sinner
unless the sinner allows him to do it. And that, they say,
is their free will. That's the free will of man. God can do nothing except you
first give him permission. And that's no God. That's no
God. All the gods of men are but fleshly
idols. Some are carved from stone, some
are carved from wood, some are draped over with gold, some are
carved from, well they're all carved from the imagination of
man. And they can do nothing for you.
And they speak of their free will as though their free will
is God. And that's not true. The scriptures
say that is a lie. There's only one true and living
God. The scriptures don't speak of
God waiting for man to give himself life, to know that he needs God,
and to cry out for God, and allow God to do something for him.
God does exactly what he pleases. This is what the scriptures say.
God doeth according to His will. Not your will, not my will, he
does according to his will in the army of heaven and among
the inhabitants of the earth. Not just in heaven, he does his
will among the inhabitants of the earth. That means he's not
dependent on what anybody allows him or permits him to do. And
none can stay his hand. You think of This has probably
happened to you. I know when I was younger, if
I touched something that I wasn't supposed to touch, I got smacked. I got smacked and embarrassed
and told, who told you you could touch that? You didn't ask my
permission to do that. That's what it's saying. None
can stay his hand. Who's going to smack God's hand
and tell him, what do you think you're doing? You can't do that
to me. None can say to him, what doest
thou? That's from Daniel 435. So the
religion of man, which talks about his free will and what
he allows God to do or not do, is a lie. It's a fleshly lie. Now man is going to do what he
wants to do. Man is going to do what he wants
to do, or at least he's going to try to do it. He's going to
be frustrated most of the time because most of the things we
want to do or think should be done get destroyed. altered or
changed in some way if they even come to pass at all. That's our will. Our will is
frustrated. God's will, never. So man is
going to do what he wants to do, exactly what he wants to
do, and it's always sin and rebellion against the true and living God
unless God does something for him graciously to turn him from
it. The scriptures say that without
faith it is impossible to please God. Whatsoever is not of faith
is sin. Even if you take something, something
as good as a man providing for his family, laboring to provide
for his family, the scriptures say that is sin if it's not done
in faith, if you're not of the Lord. It's also sin. That's why it says, that even
the plowing of the wicked is sin. Preparing a field and planting
a field to provide for your family if it's not done in faith is
sin. We sin all the time. That's why
our brother this Sunday when he pointed out in 1 Corinthians
15 verse 3 that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures. And I thought that was a blessed,
a sweet blessed thing to point out that Christ died for our
sins and not the way we see ourselves as sinners or the things we think
are sins, but the things that the scriptures, God in the scriptures
says, you're a sinner. The things that you don't even
know or admit to. Christ died for those if you're his. We need
the grace of God. And so, man's gonna do what he
wants to do if left to himself, but if God be gracious, that's
when we're turned. That's when a sinner is turned
to faith in the true and living God. Turn over to Romans 9. I
wanna show us this. We'll look at this together.
Romans 9, and we're gonna pick up in verse 15, and work our
way down to 23, so I'm gonna have some comments here. The
Lord is teaching us our place in Christ, that we need him. and we must be found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're going to be made to know
our place, that we're not God. We're not telling God what to
do or giving God permission to save us or not. God's going to
do what God's going to do, and you that are sinners saved by
grace, you are thankful to God for His omnipotent, sovereign,
almighty, glorious grace in Christ. Verse 15, For he saith to Moses,
I will have compassion. I will, not your free will, I'm
going to do what I want to do. I'm going to have mercy on whom
I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will
have compassion. You see, all men and women are
deserving of God's judgment. Every one of us is deserving
of the eternal wrath of God. By our sins, by our works and
actions, by our thoughts, our doings, we have earned the wrath
of God, the just wrath of God. But there are some to whom God
will be gracious, to whom God will be merciful, to whom God
will be compassionate, and He's not waiting around for them to
ask Him. He's working all things to bring
them to himself, to draw them to the Lord Jesus Christ. And
they will cry out. They will ask him. We will. We're made to cry out and ask
the Lord for mercy and to help us, to save us. But it's all
the gracious working of the Lord drawing us sweetly to the Lord
Jesus Christ. So that God turns his people
from their way of death Christ. He brings us to Christ. He makes
us to know that we are lost and He finds us. He gets us lost
and He finds us. That's the grace of God in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 16, so then it's not of
him that willeth. There goes man's free will right
down the drain. It's not of you that wills. or
wants. You don't want this. I don't
want this by nature. This isn't my choice. Sure, I'll
worship a God, a false God, a stump of a God, an idol God, a God
of my imagination, but not the true and living God. That is
only a work of the true and living God for that sinner, being gracious
and merciful to them. So it's not of him that willeth,
nor of him that runneth, meaning it's not by our works, not by
my spending, not by my laboring and my doing and my sacrifices. It's not by my running, but of
God that showeth mercy. Now here in this passage the
Lord gives us an example of Pharaoh and Pharaoh of the Egyptians,
the ruler of the Egyptians where the Jews were slaves at that
time, Pharaoh was left to his own self and Pharaoh was just
like all of us by nature dead in trespasses and sins. And the Lord, we see what the
Lord did is He didn't show Pharaoh grace. He didn't show mercy to
Pharaoh or compassion to Pharaoh to turn him. He let him go on
in his wicked ways. He lets him do what is in his
wicked heart to do. Why? Because God was accomplishing
a gracious, merciful work for his children. See that? So he was letting Pharaoh do
what he would do, but it was for the purpose of being gracious
and merciful, compassionate to the people of his choosing. For
the people of his choosing, verse 17 and 18, for the scripture
saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose have I raised
thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that my name
might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath
God mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. And so God left Pharaoh to his
own devices and because of his sin, God hardened him further
in that in order to do a glorious work for the salvation, the deliverance to be compassionate and merciful
for his people. Verse 19, here's the natural
man's response. Thou wilt then say unto me, why
doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? So here we see man, by nature,
judges God. Now he's going to tell God, that's
not right. You can't do that. How can you dare to now judge
me when I can't even resist your will? But again, He's forgetting
that we've all earned eternal death. Anyone who goes to hell is perfectly
right and fit for hell and for destruction. And so we see there
in this question, this is why Man's religion is so appealing
to the dead because they all just immediately, the natural
man lumps him or herself right in with the wicked. They immediately
think, well God doesn't love me and I'm cut off. They immediately just assume
that they're cut off. They're hearing the truth maybe
for the first time, but they assume God doesn't have a gracious
and merciful purpose in bringing them the truth and showing them
the truth the same way we had to hear it and learn of the truth. And so rather than cry out to
God for mercy, wait a minute, you mean God is sovereign? You
mean God does as he pleases and he's the one that I have to do
with? He's the one that I have to face?
Why don't they cry out? Why don't they fall on their
face and cry out to God for mercy? Lord, have mercy on me. Save
me. I deserve your wrath and judgment.
Have mercy on me. But they don't do that. But those
that do, it's because God is gracious and merciful to them,
to turn them from that. Nay, but, O man, who art thou?
This is what Paul is given to respond with. Who art thou that
replies against God? Who are you to judge God? Shall
the thing formed say to him that formed it, why hast thou made
me thus? Hath not the potter power over
the clay of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and
another unto dishonor? All right, brother, you're fixing
up your barn. You have a plan for it. And you're
doing it exactly as you want to do it. And you'll make any
adjustments you want to make, anything you feel you have to
make, you'll do it. And you'll figure it out, because
it's yours to do with it however you want. And that's the same
thing Paul's saying here. The potter takes that clay as
much as he wants or as little, and he makes it exactly as he
wants to make it. And who are we to tell him that
he can't do it? And he says, verse 22 and 23,
what if God willing to show his wrath and to make his power known
endured with much long suffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to
destruction, and that he might make known the riches of his
glory on the vessels of mercy, which he had a fore prepared
unto glory. And so this is exactly why we
need the grace of God. This is exactly why we need the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is exactly why the true
and living God sent the Son in the likeness of this flesh, yet
without sin. and he came and fulfilled all
righteousness and gave his life to put away our sin. We need
this grace because without it we would never come to Christ. We would just do what we want
to do doing our own wicked works and doing what we wanted to do.
except for God. If God alone turns us, then we'll
be turned. Otherwise, we won't be. We won't
be turned. We need Christ, because by Him
we live. And without Him, the Lord is
teaching us, you can't live. You can't live. And religion,
the religion of the flesh, sees Jesus as a little token, peace.
He's just a little good luck charm, or He has a little part,
but He's not everything. And as soon as they have Jesus
and they go through the gate, they run past Him and they're
off doing their own thing. And they forget how quickly they
forget about the true and living God and Savior. So I took you
to Romans 9 because the Lord is giving us a right understanding
of our place before God and our place in Christ. He's the vine. We're the branches. We are connected
to Him. We must be connected to Him because
without Him we have no place before God. If we're left to
ourselves then we shall suffer the same fate as the vessels
of wrath fitted to destruction." Now I looked that word up and
that word fitted for destruction means completely perfected for
destruction. They have earned that. They've
earned that destruction. That's what the Lord is saying
to us, that men and women have earned their destruction. But if we are one of the vessels
of mercy, aforeprepared, that word, beforeprepared, or aforeprepared
means made ready beforehand. You've been made ready by the
grace of God in sending the Lord Jesus Christ. Even before that,
when He chose you in Christ, you were prepared before Him
by the grace of your God. He says, I am the vine, ye are
the branches. So the reason for the connection
that we have with Christ is that God would be gracious to us and
give us life in Him. He put us in Him because God
would be merciful and compassionate to you. not because you chose
Him or asked Him to save you, not because you ran and worked
hard for it, but because He would be merciful and compassionate
to you in spite of what we are as sinners in our nature. And
so we follow Him. And those who follow Christ,
it's because they are the vessels of mercy. We're not the vessels
of mercy because we cried out for Christ. We cry out for Christ
and ask him and seek him because we are the vessels of mercy.
And so we're the branches connected to the vine, which is Christ
because of the grace of God. And he delivers us from spiritual
death. And we were spiritually dead
in Adam. We were dead in Adam because of our fall in Adam. But our being the vessels of
mercy, God went back further than the fall. That didn't trip
him up, or that's not when he decided to do it. He did it before
the foundation of the world. He tells his children, this is
in Jeremiah 31.3, I'll read it for you. He tells us, I have
loved thee with an everlasting love. I have loved thee with
an everlasting love, therefore with loving kindness have I drawn
thee. And that's the same word that
Christ tells the disciples in John 6 when he says, No man cometh
to the Son except the Father draw him. And God draws you whom
he loves with an everlasting love. And another thing about
that everlasting love, that's how the love of the Father for
the Son is described. In John 17, back in John, so
let's go back to John. But in John 17, verse 24, in
the high priestly prayer of our Savior, He said, Father, I will
that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I
am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me, for
thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. God, the Father,
has an everlasting love for the Son, and our God tells us, I
have loved thee with an everlasting love. And so the Father loves
the Son, and because the Father loves his people, he chose us
in Christ. He committed us to the care of
Christ. He gave us everything so that
our salvation is guaranteed in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the shorty. He's the substitute. He's the mediator. He's the one
upon whom our salvation rests wholly, completely, not on you,
not on your decision, not on your works, not on your sin,
not because of the foolish things you do, not because of the good
things you do, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ alone. 100% it all rests on Him. So it says in Ephesians 1, 4
through 6, we're familiar with it, but a lot of the so-called
church reads it and yet they don't see what we see. They still
see that it's speaking of every man, including the vessels of
wrath fitted for destruction. They think that's what's being
said here, but we know this is speaking of the vessels of mercy.
those to whom God will be compassionate and merciful to in Christ. That
according as God hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
Him in love, in that everlasting love. having predestinated us
unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved."
We are made accepted by the grace of God in Christ. Therefore Christ
the Savior came to the earth to redeem the vessels of mercy
which were given to him by the Father who had fallen in Adam
and became just like the children of wrath. fitted to destruction,
just like the children of wrath, even as others, but are made
vessels of mercy, are prepared beforehand to be vessels of mercy
by the grace of God and Christ before the foundation of the
world. Everything, your place, is in Christ. And we're the sinners,
we don't bring anything to the table, God brings it all. He
gives it all in the Lord Jesus Christ. So if we're children
of God, our place is in Christ. I am the vine, ye are the branches. And God put us there in eternity
past, before we as his children had done any good or bad, or
any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election
might stand, not of works, but of God that calleth. Romans 9,
11. All right, now our second point,
the Lord speaks of our vital union to him. Let's go back to
verse five, John 15, five. These will be a little briefer. Christ says, I am the vine, ye
are the branches, he that abideth in me and I in him. He's speaking of a vital living
union with Christ. Just like if you break a branch
off at home of a tree, And you throw it on the ground, that
branch is dead. It's not going to live any longer. It must be
connected, rooted to the vine. And so, this is our God's love
for us. And this is our need of Him.
This is at the heart of our union to Him. He loves us. He lives
and exists apart from us, but He loves us. He chose us. He's willing to bring us unto
Himself as His bride, as His body. We don't generate life
in ourselves. We need God to generate it, and
that's exactly what He does. 1 Corinthians 15.45, and so it's
written, the first man Adam was made a living soul. The last
atom was made a quickening, life-giving spirit. in whom we all fell and became
dead sinners, spiritually dead, and the last Adam, the Lord Jesus
Christ, who quickens his people, who gives life, who does not
fail, who doesn't wait for you to give him permission, he accomplishes
your salvation and redemption. So the Lord put us in Christ
and he accomplished that that redemption in His death. And
we read in Romans 6, 5, these are verses speaking of our union
to Christ, our oneness with the Lord Jesus Christ. If we have
been planted together in the likeness of His death, we shall
be also in the likeness of His resurrection. God put us in Christ
so that when He went to the cross, we didn't help Him, but we were
in Him. He carried us. He carried the
burden that we bring. He carried us in himself, bearing
our sin before the Father, and he obtained eternal redemption.
And we died with him. We were crucified with Christ. So that we died to the law, we
died to the inheritance of the children of wrath, yet in Adam.
We don't have any part in Adam anymore, the first Adam. All
our part, all our life, all our existence is in the last Adam. He is our inheritance. He is
our standing before God. That's why Paul, when we read
in Colossians 2 and 3, says forget about those things. Forget about
that fleshly religion, touch not, taste not, handle not, which
all is passing away. It's all passing away. That's
not your hope. Your hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to
Him. where he's seated in heavenly
places. That's your life. That's your life. That's your
salvation. Let him be your joy. Rejoice in him. He's our all. And so we're joined to Christ,
and we are given his spirit as a down payment for our inheritance.
To let you know that's your home with the Lord your God, with
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's yours forever. You have
it. You have it. It doesn't matter
what you feel like. doesn't mean you that believe and have no
other righteousness but the Lord Jesus Christ you have everything
so we live in and by him and that's how we grow and the Lord
is the one who grows us and he nurtures us that the thing I
was thinking of as an illustration for this is it's not connected
to me so much but you know I like to garden and I planted seeds
I had these little seedlings that grow and I prepared the
soil. I didn't just use hard clay soil
from the backyard. I mixed it with peat moss and
perlite to fluff it up and make it good soil. And then I made
little holes according to the packet that said a quarter inch
or an eighth of an inch or half an inch and I put those seeds
down there and I covered them gently and I watered them gently
with a light rain. I didn't pour it in. I put little
holes in the bottle cap and Gently put it in there and after they
sprout, I put them under, on heat mats, you know, so they'd
be the right temperature. I put them under lights and then
as they grew up, at a certain point, I added a little bit of
fertilizer and then a couple weeks later, more fertilizer
and I watched them grow and they got to about six, seven inches
and now I put them outside. They might get ripped up by a
tornado, but that's where I put them, there. That's the tenderness
and the care that I give to help things grow and to be successful
and bring forth fruit. Well, how much more the Lord
in whom we are connected as part of his body. You take care for
your body by the things you put in your body to care for that
body. Well, the Lord cares for his
body and that's what we see in the scriptures. Go over to Ephesians
4. Let's look at a few of these.
Ephesians 4 and look at verse 15 and 16. Building on that illustration
of the seedlings there. Ephesians 4, 15, but speaking
the truth in love, may grow up into him, into Christ, in all
things which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body
fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth,
according to the effectual working in the measure of every part,
maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. And I was thinking of that word,
every joint supplieth. Like all those steps that I took
to raise those seedlings up and to get them ready to be planted
outside, your Lord has taken great care to supply you who
are His body. Every joint supplieth there at
the beginning of verse 16 there through the preaching of the
gospel. He gives you His Holy Spirit. He preaches the gospel
to you. He sends you a pastor. He puts you in the fellowship
of a church, of a body. He's given you the ordinances. He's given you the scriptures. He's given you all these things.
These are all joints, right? They're all joints through which
the Lord supplies and nourishes every member of the church. his
body. That's what he's saying to you
there. He's providing fully for you. Now turn the page to Ephesians
5 verse 30, verse 30 through 32. For we are members of his body,
of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave
his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and
they too shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery, but
I speak concerning Christ and the Church." in terms of Christ. First of all, marriage is a beautiful
thing. It's beautiful. A husband and
a wife who love each other, it's wonderful. It's joyful. It's
a beautiful thing. And that's precious right there. But Paul is saying, I'm speaking
of Christ and the church, so that we would see, just as you
men, you lay down your lives for your wife, and you sacrifice
for your wife, and you provide for her, to help her to live,
and for your children, and her together there, but this is a
mystery, speaking of Christ and the church. Christ left the Father. and was made like unto us, weak
just like us in the flesh. And he redeemed, he purchased
his bride who was bound in sin and in darkness and in death.
He shed his blood to redeem us, to purchase us, to put away our
sin, to make full satisfaction and give us life in himself. so that now we have life within
him and we're one flesh with the Lord. We're one flesh with
him and that's what what he's saying to us there that Christ
did this for us. Our marriages are pictures of
Christ and his bride. are not as perfect or not the
same way, but it's a picture, it's a type of Christ who loves
his bride. And so Christ said in John 17,
23, I in them and thou in me. that they may be made perfect
in one, and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them as thou hast loved me." And so, we see the
grace of our God. Our abiding in Christ, our continuing
in Christ is all by, because of the love of our God for us,
and putting us in Christ himself. And so, we only live abiding
in him. He's everything to us. He's everything
to us. We live in being connected to
Him. Now, this life of Christ is manifest
in us. The fruitfulness is born in us
who are members of Christ. Let's look at the whole verse
now, John 15, 5. I am the vine, ye are the branches, he that
abideth in me. who continueth and endureth in
me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without
me ye can do nothing. The same bringeth forth. So the
life of Christ is manifested. It's going to manifest that we
are the Lord's. It's not going to remain in darkness
and hidden from others. It's going to manifest. We're
going to bear fruit. Just like you can tell, right,
I have fruit trees in my yard, but you don't know necessarily
what those fruit trees are until you see them start to set that
fruit. And then that fruit comes to
form and you know exactly what kind of tree that is because
you see the fruit of that tree. And so how do we bear fruit?
He gives us His Spirit. He dwells in our hearts by faith.
He gives us the spirit because the fruit is not of this flesh.
The fruit can't be, and we can make counterfeit fruit to a degree,
but the true fruit, the living fruit is set and brought forth
by the spirit. That's why Paul called it the
fruit. of the Spirit. It's the fruit of the Spirit
and so He makes you to hunger and thirst for righteousness
and you shall be filled. You shall be filled. He makes
you to call upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you are saved. He
gives you faith whereby you believe Christ and trust Him and you
shall not be ashamed. Paul said being filled with the
fruits of righteousness. which are by Jesus Christ unto
the glory and praise of God. And so, we do bear fruit. We do manifest fruit. Love. joy, faith, peace, goodness,
right? Which is that true desire to
benefit your brethren and do things because you will. You
just want to do what's good for them. You want to be a help and
a comfort to them. And that's given to you and only
brought forth in and by Christ. We don't bring it forth. He brings
it forth in us. And so we're made to seek Him
forth. We are made to seek Him. When
you desire to be fruitful and to bring forth fruit, you're
going to pray to the Lord. And if you're praying to the
Lord, it's because He will. He purposes to do it. He's bringing
that prayer to you. He's giving you that desire in
your heart, and you seek Him for it. And we seek Him for it,
and we're gonna know that we're seeking Him for it, because He
says, without me, you can do nothing. So, in other words,
we're learning our place in Christ. We're learning that He's everything,
that we're nothing apart from Him. And He's gonna make us,
He's gonna bring us to see, Lord, I need help me. Help me, I'm
not doing what I think I should do. I'm not doing what, I'm not
seeing what I would see. And you never will, but he gives
that desire, but he's gonna make you to know, I haven't even been
seeking you for it. I think I'm gonna go do this
or that, and then we fall on our face, because the Lord's
showing you, without me, you can do nothing. What you're going
to do is find things to be to glory in. But I'm going to teach
you that my grace is sufficient and that your all is going to
be found in me. And so we're taught, we're trained,
we're kept, we're corrected. We are blessed and comforted
all in and by the Lord Jesus Christ. We welcome the Spirit
by His grace and power. He tells us in closing that these
words are joyful words. Verse 11 These things have I
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you. and that your
joy might be full. And so without Christ, we can
do nothing, but I can do all things through Christ, which
strengthens me. I pray the Lord, bless that word
to your hearts, brethren. Amen. Let's close in prayer. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. We thank you for your peace,
your mercy. And the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord,
teach us these things. Teach us our abiding in Christ. Teach us your fruitfulness that
you bring forth in your people. Lord, help us. You know that
we're nothing apart from you, Lord, and we're learning it. We need your help and your grace
every hour to keep us. Lord, help us indeed to be helpers
of one another's joy in Christ. to speak things edifying and
comforting to our brethren, to be a help to them. Lord, we pray
that you bless this word to your people, teach them. Lord, carry it without you, we
labor in vain. But Lord, if you will be pleased
to bless this word, then your will shall be accomplished in
all things. And we pray that it is for the
good of your people, for the comfort of your vessels of mercy,
and to teach them and turn them from darkness and death and things
that just are not true. It's in Christ's name we pray
and give thanks. Amen. Our closing hymn is 255, Blessed
Assurance. 255. Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine. Oh, what a foretaste of glory
divine. Heir of salvation, purchase of
God. Born of His Spirit, washed in
His blood. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. This is my story, this is my
song. Praising my Savior all the day
long. Perfect submission, perfect delight. Visions of rapture now burst
on my sight. Angels descending bring from
above echoes of mercy, whispers of love. This is my story, this
is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. This is my
story, this is my song, praising my Savior all the day long. Perfect submission, all is at
rest, I in my Saviour am happy and blessed, Watching and waiting,
looking above, Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. This is my story. This is my song. Praising my
Savior all the day long. Thank you.