Good to be with you this evening.
Chuck and Patty are in Todd's Road in Lexington. I think Brother
Angus is preaching there, and very thankful for that. They
told me Sunday they were going, and I was excited that they were
going to be hearing the gospel, and that's good. I miss them.
I miss them, but I'm glad that they're hearing the gospel tonight
there. I do pray God will be with us,
and I pray he'll be with them and others. Pray for me, even
as I preach. You know, Spurgeon had such a
large congregation that many of the men were giving up their
tickets. They had to have tickets to get
in. And he gave those tickets, some of the members of that church
that had been there, he gave their place. But those that gave
their place, they were in the back room praying for him. And I do ask that you would lift
me up before God and pray that God would give me the message
for you. And be as selfish as you want
in that. Pray for me, for you. that God would preach, that I
would be able to preach the gospel to you tonight. Do not neglect to pray for those
churches without pastors, those who do not have pastors. I do
pray God would call men to the ministry. Pray God would allow his gospel
to be heard. Isn't that something? Our Lord
told those Pharisees it's not given, He told His disciples,
He said, it's given unto you to understand the mysteries,
but unto them it is not given. Why is the Gospel not being widely
understood and believed? Listen, because it's not given. Men don't want it, but that's
not the core reason, is it? The core reason is that God withholds
it. It's precious. The Gospel's precious. It's not
to be cast before swine. It's precious. And God has this
precious Gospel for His people. To us it's precious. Why? Because Christ is precious, isn't
He? The Gospel's precious because the Gospel speaks of Christ.
And to us who believe, Peter said to you, He's precious. And I do pray that God would
send men to preach His precious gospel and that He would allow
men to hear His precious gospel and believe it. So as I'm preaching,
please pray for me. If you take your Bibles and turn
with me to John 15. John chapter 15 my text will
be found in verse 4 The title of this message our
abiding union our abiding Union Let's begin our reading in verse
1. We'll read to verse 4. It says I am the true vine My
father is the husband Every branch in me that beareth not fruit
is taken away. And every branch that beareth
fruit, he purgeth it, that it bring forth more fruit. Now, you are clean. You are clean. Through the word
which I have spoken unto you, abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself except it abide in the vine, No more can you except
you abide in me." Our abiding union. Now, the greatest blessing
that the believer possesses is our union with Christ. No other blessing that you can
ever receive in all of your life can amount to this. This is the
most vital. It is the most necessary. It
is the most beautiful and blessed condition of every believer in
Christ, that we are one with Christ. And our Lord uses this
illustration of the vine and a branch. He said, I'm the true
vine. That is, the Father is the husbandman. He was chosen. He was planted
of the Father. And by birth, as a man, he became
the representative of all his people. He came in the flesh
to represent all that the Father chose. And from him stems all
life. Now we know this, John tells
us this, that in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. And all things were made by Him. Not anything that was made was
made without Him. Why? Because in Him was life.
Life stems from Christ. All life flows from Christ. Nobody has any physical life
without Him. He says those that are in Him
that don't bear fruit, they get burned, they get cast off. What
is He talking about? Because all life stems from Him.
But this matter of abiding in Him, that has only to do with
one group of people, that is the elect, God's people, those
that believe in Christ, born of the Spirit. And because of
His work, because of the work of Christ, offering His blood
and righteousness, His obedience, This is a beautiful picture as
the nurturant sap comes from the vine out toward the branches. So does spiritual life come from
Christ toward us who are His branches. Salvation comes from Him and
it comes by virtue of our union with Him. And the mark of our
union, what is the evidence of this union? If all spiritual
life and blessed union come from Him, then what's the evidence
that I'm in Christ? It is simply this, believing
and trusting Christ. Faith in Christ is the evidence.
It's the mark of the Spirit. He says, 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 much
fruit. Now, are you clean through the word that I have spoken to
you? Now, this idea of vines and branches, we're not farmers
here. Some of you, you dabble in it. Joanne, you dabbled in some farming,
didn't you? Yeah, y'all dabbled in some farming, but you wouldn't
say you're a farmer. But that's, these people had a common thing,
so when they heard this, they quickly understood what he meant. If you have a good vine, yet
some of those branches are barren, what do you do? You cut those
off and you throw them away. They're useless. And you take
those that are fruitful and you purge them. You don't destroy
them. You don't kill them off. You cut them. You trim them.
So why? What's the purpose? That they
bring forth fruit. And so it is spiritually, all
who are in union with Christ, what is the common theme? That
everyone who is in union and abides in Christ will bring forth
spiritual fruit. And this spiritual fruit is not
what the world supposes. It's not merely morality or religious
piety. It's not just a spiritual feeling. These fruits, these are fruits
of the flesh. Anybody can do that. You got
that? Anybody can be moral. If they're determined to do it,
anybody can be moral. Anybody can follow religious
ceremonies and rituals. But here the Lord intends that
the fruit is the fruit of the Spirit, which is mentioned in
Galatians, faith, hope, love, these three. are the graces,
the fruit of the Spirit, temperance, meekness. All of these are fruits
of the Holy Spirit. And all who abide in Christ, those who believe and depend
upon Christ for all their life and spiritual fruit, for their
acceptance with God, We are in union with Christ. He said, I'm
the vine and you are the branches. Who? Whosoever abides in me. Whosoever abides in Christ, all
who abide in him. And notice what he said, those
who abide in him, you're clean. What a wonderful thought, what
a wonderful blessing. If you are in union with Christ,
now you're clean, not by your merits, but by the word of His
power. By the word that's spoken unto
you. You are clean. You're clean. So here's our joy and our peace. of every branch that is in union
with Christ. We're clean. And that Word that
He speaks is what? The Gospel. Through the Gospel
we learn this. Through the Gospel we know this.
The Word is His Gospel. He speaks to our hearts. And
that Gospel of His perfect salvation speaks to us. And it says, because
of my perfect salvation, you're clean. You're clean. The Word
of grace and power that pierced our hearts, exposed our sins,
and gave us a new nature. We were dead, and then God in
grace gave us life by virtue of union with Christ. And the
Word which testifies of His perfect offering and His spotless righteousness
is for all who believe on Him. All who have in power of the
Holy Spirit fled to Christ He by His grace has effectually
put us into union. Now I know this, I was in union
before the world began. That's what Paul says in 2 Thessalonians.
He said, We are bound always to give thanks for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. through sanctification of the
Spirit and belief of the truth, whereunto He called you by our
Gospel." There's the experimental union. Now I was in union with
Him in eternity. I was in union with Him when
He came into this world, which He died for me. We were in union with Christ.
know the reality and necessity of this union, that apart from
Him, I can do nothing. I was in union with Him when
He came in this world, but there was a time where I experienced
that union, and that's simply when the Lord came to me and
I had believed on Him. He gave me that faith. And now, we are absolutely dependent
upon Him for all our life, strength, our comfort. We're now dependent
upon them. The moment that God gave us faith
is at that moment we begin to receive the sap of this Bible.
The life from this Bible. And ever since that moment we
have needed Him. Not just once, but a continual
need. A perpetual need. So believer,
let us who are in Christ, chosen in union with Christ, redeemed
by union with Christ, let us now hear the word or command
of our Lord in verse 4. Listen to what He says to you
that are in Him. He says this to you and me. Abide
in Me. Abide in Me. Continually, daily, constantly,
perpetually abide in me. The benefit is what? An I in
you. Now you know the power of that
statement. Abide in me. Now what power do
we have to do that? I'm in you. I'm in you. I abide in you. He says, abide
in me. Now I want, by the grace of God,
to see three things concerning this command this evening. Three
things. First of all, this commandment
supposes something. It supposes something has already
taken place. And what is that? That you already
abide in Him. He's telling you to continue
to abide in Him. And if you must continue, you
obviously must be in Him. So it supposes that you already
are abiding in Him. Secondly, what does this require? For us to abide in Him, what
does it require? It requires a constant, steady
stream of faith, of looking to Christ. And thirdly, I want us
to see the safety and security of this abiding. Our safety and
security. First of all, what does this
suppose? Well, we suppose that by, he
is speaking only to believers here. I like, in chapter 13,
before he begins this discord, it says, Jesus went out from
there. In other words, He's not talking to lost people. He is talking to His disciples.
He is specifically having an intimate conversation with them. So it is, first of all, obvious
that the ones He is commanding are already abiding in Him. In other words, this is not an
invitation to union. He's not inviting you to abide
in Him. It's already the presupposition
that you are in Him. You already are. And what is
the command to someone who is abiding in Him? What does He
tell you? Keep on abiding. Abide and keep
on abiding in Me. And I in you. This union is a gift, isn't it? It's a gift of God's grace. If
you are in Christ, it is a gift of grace. And so, are you in
Christ? Are you in Christ? And all who
have been born again of the Spirit of God, you have been grafted
in by the grace and power of God. That's the source of your
abiding union. God Someone reminded me of a
message I preached a long time ago. All of God. It's all of
God. Your elections of God. Your redemptions
of God. Your callings of God. Your keepings
of God. Your salvation. Your forgiveness.
Your pardon. Your peace. Your comfort. All
of God. All of God. God gives it. He
gives it by grace. If you're born again, you're
in Christ. It supposes that we have been
made to see our need of Him. You that are in Him, do you see
your need of Him? The work of the Holy Ghost is
to reveal to us the vanity of self, of religious self, of moral
self, The vanity of ourselves to make
ourselves acceptable with God. So then it's God's work to make
us to feel our weakness. Weakness, our inability to perform
any acceptable work for the salvation of our souls. So we are brought
as poor and needy, helpless sinners to look to Christ alone. This is the initial grace that
comes. The initial union that we experience
by grace of divine power, we flee to Christ. Did you flee
to Christ? Have you fled to Christ? Now
listen, if you've not, flee to Him! If God by grace gives you
the power and will and desire, flee to Him! Go! He's not a deficient refuge.
He's very capable to save the worst among us. Bleed to Him. By the divine power we did. And
just as in proportion, as we were made aware of our need,
made aware of our nothingness, we prize and trust Him. It's always proportional. Your
need and your love for Christ are always proportionate. How much you need Him determines
how much you love Him. Well, how do I know that? Remember
what He did to that Pharisee? That woman was a prostitute,
came into the house of that Pharisee, and she was behind Him weeping. And He said if He knew what kind
of woman that was, He wouldn't let her touch Him. And he said,
Simon, I've got something to say to you. And you remember
what he said? He said, this woman loveth much. Why? Because she's forgiven much. And whosoever loveth little is
because he's forgiven little. You see the proportion? Our need
of Christ. How much do you need Christ? You that are in union with Christ,
how much do you depend upon Him? If God by grace would show us
our need of Him, then it's proportional our love would grow, seeing that
He can meet every need. He can meet every need. Therefore, you who are abiding
in Christ, the more we see and feel our need of Christ, the
more we will see our need to continually abide in Him. The more we know of Christ, the
more we see of His person, the more we see of His great work,
we would cling more tenaciously to Him. This is why we need to hear the
Gospel constantly. We need to hear of His person. Why? Because if we hear of His
person, the glories of His person, the glories of His work, what
does that expose? That exposes my great need. Need of Him. So in proportion
to see our need, we cleave more to Him. Do you abide in Christ? Do you long to trust Him more? Do you long
to love Him more? In order for that to happen,
you have to see your need of Him. You have to see your need. You know, the Apostle prayed
for the Church of Ephesus. He said, Lord, give them wisdom
and revelation and knowledge of Christ. Why? Because my knowledge
is insufficient. I need to know more of it. You
know what? That's what Paul said. Can you
imagine that? Paul said, that I may know him. In Philippians, he said, that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection. Believer, how little do we know
of Christ? Really, how little do we know? In a vast ocean,
our knowledge is like a thimble. You take a thimble and put it
in the ocean, the thimble's full, but we've not yet begun to understand
the greatness of His person, the greatness of His work. But
if we're to know more of Him, Surely it must come by the gospel. We're to know our need of Christ
alone, that he alone can supply it the more we would abide in
faith trusting him. The less we would depend on ourselves.
How much does the branch depend upon the Bible? How much? It owes everything
to the vine. Do you see how much you owe to
Christ? You owe everything to Him. If you have any union with
Him at all, it's because of Him. He said, I'm the vine, and the
vine supplies the need to the branches. Listen, according to
His riches. How much grace do you need? How much mercy do you need? How
much strength do you need? How much forgiveness do you need?
Do you realize that when Christ gives you, He gives you out of
His abundance. He doesn't give you out of His
poverty. If you ask me for money, you're
asking out of my poverty. I'll go to my bank account, but
it won't be very much. But I, listen, when he goes to
his account, it's infinite. This vine has more than you could
ever imagine that you had need of. How often do we come to him dry
and cold and dead? And I think of that, I thought
of it this week, that word our Lord said, he said, If your child
asks of you a fish, would you give him a scorpion? A bread,
would you give him a stone? You suppose that you're a better
parent, a better father than my father? To give, listen to this, the Holy
Spirit to them that ask of you. When you have the Holy Spirit,
what else do you need? What else do you need? If you suffered hunger in this
body and starved to death, but had the Spirit, and you died, you would see that
it was not near, not anything. You suffered nothing. Why? Because you had the Spirit. You're
in union with Divine. You're in union with the divine.
We are dependent upon Him, upon His obedience. For my righteousness,
I'm dependent upon His obedience. For my atonement of sin, I am
dependent upon His blood. How dependent? Totally, absolutely
dependent. I contribute nothing to this,
as the branch contributes nothing to the to the fruit. It doesn't. It doesn't contribute anything.
It's a channel by which the vine produces fruit. That's all it
is. It's just a channel. The fruit hangs off of the branch,
but it doesn't do anything to bear it. It comes from the vine. It comes from the vine. And all of you believe on him. You never stop looking to Him. Do you? You never stop believing on Him. You never stop learning of Him
or feeling your need. You know, when I first felt my
need, that wasn't it, right? It wasn't over. Imagine if you
had the vine and the branch comes out and the very first grape
that pops off of it He says, all right, that's enough. I'm
handling it all by myself now. What would happen? Take that
vine, you put it off with that one little grape on it. You put
it over there by itself. It and the grape will die. He
said, except you abide in me continually, you'll die. You to believe. Isn't that true
of you? I can't have any life, much less
fruit, except I abide in Him. And listen to this, I never desire
to abide alone. Do you? Do you want to be by
yourself? And so we come to Him with all
of our burdens, all our guilt and shame. Why? Because He alone
bore our sins in His own body. That's why I come to Him. We
come to Him with all of our cares. Why? Because the scripture says
cast all your cares on Him. He careth for you. He said I
loved you with an everlasting love. Underneath are the everlasting
arms. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee." We come to Him with all of our
sorrows, both sorrows of soul and sorrows of flesh, for He
alone can wipe away all our tears and turn our mourning into gladness.
He alone. You see how where all this comes
from? It comes from the vine to the branch. It flows from
Him to us. We come to Him. with all of our
enemies. How many enemies? You have enemies,
friends. Satan is a real enemy. Don't
think that he is dormant. He is very active, doing exactly
what God tells him to do. That's what he's doing. Remember,
our Lord overcame him. The world is our enemy. Don't
think this world is a friend to you. or a friend of this gospel. The world is not a friend to
this gospel. Never has and it never will. But the worst enemy is sitting
right there with you, the flesh. So to abide in him is then to
what? Take all of our cares, all of our enemies, all of our
foes, all of our troubles, and where? Bring it to him. Bring
it to him. Because all our help comes from
him. And we are totally dependent
upon him. Totally dependent upon him. When? Well, when is the branch dependent
upon the vine? Always. So when he said abide
in me, he is talking about a continual perpetual abiding. After He's
given you grace to be in union with Him, it is our constant
necessity to be in union with Him. It is our constant desire
to never be apart from Him. And I do pray the Holy Ghost
would give us and teach us our need of Christ. Isn't this why
you keep returning? What if you didn't have any needs?
What if everything was just so nice and wonderful? Would you
ever turn to Him? Would you ever come to Him for
your needs? No, our trials are so that we
would continue to abide in Him. Continue to look to Him and have
fellowship and communion with Him. Peter says, we are living stones
built upon the foundation, the rock, Jesus Christ. I like the way you put two stones
on one another. They're all built on the same
foundation, but then they're touching one another. See, we're
living stones built on the same foundation, and what? We are
benefits to one another. By abiding in Christ, we are
also abiding together. You're just as much in Him as
I am. We have the same union, the same
life, the same dependency. We have all become followers
of Him and live in love with one another. Now secondly, so
it supposes what? You already have union. What
does He say? Then continue. to receive from me everything
you need. Secondly, what does this require
for us to abide in Him? Now you're saying, abide in me?
What does that require of me? Our initial union was in no way
dependent or merited by our works or our strength. This abiding
in Him is not by your strength or your determination. to abide
in Him. He said, abide in Me, listen
to where the strength comes from, and I in you. Now the only hope
of you ever continuing to abide in Him is this, He's in you. He's in you. The power to abide
in Christ comes from Christ. My science may be quasi, so just
take this for a grain of salt. I thought it was pretty interesting.
You know, when somebody says when the trees in autumn, that
the leaves don't fall, they're pushed. The tree pushes them
out. Well, they're useless to the
tree now. They're burdensome, so he pushes them out. Listen
to this. Our union with Christ is dependent
upon him. are being attached to Him and
continuing to be attached to Him in union with Christ. It's
all in the vine. It's the power's not in us. It's
in Him. So what does it require? It requires
the same thing that we began this union, faith. Faith in Him. Do you realize that you were in
union with Him before you ever knew you were in union with Him?
Is this a wonderful thought? That God before the foundation
of the world put you in union with him. But of God, the scripture
says, are you in Christ Jesus? Who put you there? God did. In eternity, he puts you there.
Then when Christ came, what were you? You were in union with Christ
when he came and lived his righteous life. the sinner's debt and rose
again and is seated at the right hand of the God. Listen, you
and I were in union with him. I like what he says to Timothy.
He says in 2nd Timothy 1 verse 9, he said, Who hath saved you,
then what? Called you. Which was first?
He saved you. Then what? He called you. Not
with just any calling, it was an effectual calling, a powerful
calling. Listen, according to his own
purpose, not according to your works. None of that was according
to your works. Your union was never according
to your works. And the maintaining of this union is never according
to your works. That's a good news for a person
who knows their zeal. For somebody who knows who they
really are, that's good news. He said, but according to his
own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ before
the world began, but now he's made manifest. Now he's brought
to light this revelation that we are in union with him. So now that you're in Christ
by the will and power of God through faith, by the preaching
of the gospel, And so what does it require from us to continue
this? It requires continual faith. So as never to depart from Him.
To abide in Him requires faith. Where does that come from? Again, it's all of God, isn't
it? The faith that we have is of
God. By grace, you are saved through
faith. And that faith Not of yourself. It, faith, is a gift of God and
not of work. It requires faith. And yet this
faith is something that comes not from you, but from the vine. Comes from the vine. So by faith we have left off
our looking to ourselves. We've done this through the hearing
of the gospel, the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so if you have true faith,
I have this question, will it go away? If God has given you
faith, do you suppose that one day it'll go away? Now listen,
if it was not given of God, yeah, it'll go away. Won't last long.
Won't last long. There are many people make professions
of faith. Those are easy, aren't they?
Anybody can profess anything. People today are professing that
they're dogs and cats. They profess to do anything.
Doesn't make them one, but they can profess it. They can just
say it. If they say I'm a Christian,
that doesn't make me one. What is the evidence that my
faith is genuine? It continues. It always abides
and trusts Him. You remember when the Lord was
fed that 5,000, right? He fed the 5,000. And the preacher
had one message that John said. It was one message. He had 10,000
people. Imagine that. I imagine the disciples
were pretty excited. Don't you? Man, that was just
12 a minute ago. Now we're 10,000. Oh, we got
a good start now. He preaches one gospel and every
one of them leaves. The 12 he started with are more. He had more than 12 when he started
that, but in the end, he only had 12. And the Lord turns around
to them and says, will you go away also? Listen to what the branch says.
When the vine asks you, Will you go away? What does the branch
say? To whom shall we go? Where are
we going to go? You have the words of eternal
life. We believe that thou art the Christ, the Son of God. And
you have the words of eternal life. When troubles come, they will. When trials come, they do. What is the answer of the branch
to the vine in trouble? When he says, abide in me, what
is your answer? Where else am I going to go? I got no place else to go. All
my hope is in you. All my hope is in you. So what is the, when we know
that the requirement is faith, Where does this come from? It
comes from a constant necessity of considering Christ. Considering
Him. Fixing our minds and our hearts
upon the vine. Looking continually by faith
and considering Him. Considering our union with Him.
Considering His command to abide in Him. Abide in Me! You that
abide in Me, abide in Me! What does it require? requires
faith that I'll give you. And so what do you do? You consider
him. You know it requires faith, but if left to yourselves, you
couldn't do it. So what do you do? Consider him. First of all,
consider his person. Who is he? Who's the one you're
trusting in? We know this, that he is the
Son of God. God, manifest in the flesh. Consider the merits of Christ. Why? This is the only way I'm
able to be in union with Him, is His merits. The merit of His
righteousness. How righteous is His righteousness? How perfect was His offering?
I tell you, I feel guilt sometimes. I feel condemned within myself
so many times. And what's the remedy? It's to
consider that his death was sufficient for the guilt of my sin. He bore
my sin in his own body and God said that's enough. It's finished. Consider his merits, his blood, Think of that offering at Pentecost.
Remember at Pentecost, they had the offering of the leaven bread. They would take the leaven bread,
right? What's that picture of? That's
a picture of us. Leaven is pictured as seen in
scripture. And then what they would do is they'd present this
bread, and then they would take seven sacrifices. The priest would offer sacrifices. What a picture of our Lord Jesus
Christ and His offering for our sins. Think on His tender mercies. Think how He found you. Consider
how He found you. Where did He find you? He found us polluted in our own
blood, left to die. and in grace and compassion,
he came to us and gave us both life and faith, put us into union
with himself, and now supplies our every need. Well, how do
we know these considerations? Only by the gospel. Only by the
continual preaching of the gospel. Do we need these things? We need
to hear these things. Why? Because these things stir
faith in us. They constantly are necessary.
And so as the gospel is produced from Christ, where does it go?
It goes out to the branch. As we consider Him, where's that
coming from? That's a gift of the Spirit, isn't it? You can't
consider Him without Him. Yet I do. I consider Him, don't
you? I think on Him. I see my necessity. And by this
He is constantly feeding us. If you seldom hear the Gospel
or seldom read His Word, then you'll seldom think about Him.
Isn't that true? When we absence ourselves from
the Gospel, what are we doing? We are absencing our mind from
Him. Why would you do that? when He's
what you need. We have trouble, we have difficulty,
and then you say, well, I'm not going to go hear Him. What? What? That's foolish, isn't it? Since
all the supply of grace and comfort come from Him. We need to constantly hear Him. And by this, we constantly desire
Him. So as we hear of Him, what does
this move us to do? It causes us to bring all of
our constant sorrows to Him, our needs, and we present them
before Him. I think of Hezekiah, how he laid
out those letters before the Lord. He couldn't defeat that
army. He couldn't do anything. He was totally trapped. And what
did he do? He just took those letters and
put them out before the Lord and said, I can't believe it.
Why? He's dependent upon the Bible,
isn't He? He's dependent upon the Bible to take care of His
needs. Well, that's what we do every
day as believers. And what does this require? Faith,
doesn't it? Why do you take things to Christ? Because you trust He's the only
one that can give you the answer. He's the only one that can help
you. Otherwise, you'd be taking it to everybody else. And I love
you. And I trust you on a lot of things,
but I can't trust you with my soul. You can't take care of
that, neither can I take care of yours. What? I'm dependent
on the vine. I'm the vine. You're the branches. Abide in me. How do we abide? We abide by faith. And thirdly, I want you to see
then, if you abide in him, how safe are you? In this environment, I imagine
people don't feel safe, physically safe. But really, if you are
in Christ, I want you to know that you are completely safe. Safe. How safe are you? You are as
safe as Noah was in the ark. Any possibility of the water
getting in? Any possibility of it overflowing? Any possibility
of the boat capsizing? Any possibility He ain't gonna
make this out alive? No. He was safe. You that are
in Christ, you're just as safe. You're as safe as the manslayer
who went to the city of refuge. Remember those cities of refuge?
God said if you accidentally slayed a man, that you would
run to this city, and if you abide in that city, you're safe.
As long as you stay where? In the city. There's a provision,
though. If the high priest dies, you're
allowed to go out. And guess what? My high priest has died.
I'm allowed to go anywhere now. I'm safe. Safe, free from the
law and condemnation. Safe as the Hebrew children in
the fire. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
in that fire. Remember who was with them? Christ was walking
about in them. When they got out, you couldn't
even smell smoke on their clothes. They were that safe. Daniel in
the lion's den. How safe was he? No matter how
hungry the lions were, he was safe. Why? The Lord was with
him. But listen to this. You're more
safe than that. You're more safe than that. Satan cannot destroy you. Sin
cannot mar you. No weapon of man shall prosper
against you. Even the holy justice and law
of God cannot condemn you. Why? Because the blood of Christ
has redeemed us from all our sins. Therefore, You are in Christ. Nothing can separate you from
Him. How do I know that? Go to Romans
8. Romans 8. I think one of the
most beautiful passages of Scripture concerning the sure confidence
for the believer. Romans 8. What shall we say then,
if God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God to lay? Listen, it's God that justifies. Who is he that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. Yea, rather is risen again, who
is even at the right hand of God, who maketh intercession
for us. Who shall separate us then from the love of Christ?
Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or
nakedness, or peril, or sore? Listen, it's written. This is
sure. It's written. For thy sake we
are killed all the day long. We are counted as sheep for the
slaughter. No. In all things. We are more than
conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither
life, nor death, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers,
nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth,
nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the
love of God that is in Christ Jesus." So when Christ says,
abide in me, this is a sure bet. Why? Because it is by the power
of God that you do abide in Him. And if you continue to abide,
it is by the power of God that you continue to abide. And what
does he promise? He says this, that no one is
going to separate you from Him. No one shall separate you from
Him. Why? Because all things are working
together for your good. All things. Are you in Christ? Then you should
be the most happy person in the entire world. We should be. I know the flesh weighs us down
like a rotting corpse about our neck, but we should be happy
as the man who abides in Christ. For God has ordained that all
things work together for his good. Happy as the man who's
in Christ. because all of his sins are blotted out. Happy is
the man who is in Christ, for he has eternal life and heaven. Matter of fact, Christ says it
is your father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Now
why is that? Because you abide in him. And I like this. He said this,
Whosoever liveth and abideth in me shall bring forth much
fruit." Whosoever abided, that word abided is continued. Whosoever
is continually abiding in me, guess what's going to happen?
They shall bring forth much fruit. Is that a question? Who determines how much fruit
gets out there? The branch or the vine? The vine. So if the branch is dependent
on the vine, guess what comes? Fruit. What fruit? Faith. More abiding
faith. Faith. Abiding by faith, but
yet more faith. More love. More grace. Do you abide in hymn? I passed
out that hymn earlier today. Listen to this. In the Beloved, accepted am I. Risen, ascended,
and seated on high. Saved from all sin through His
infinite grace. With the redeemed ones accorded
a place. In the Beloved, how safe my retreat. In the Beloved, accounted complete. Who can condemn me? In Him I
am free, Savior and Keeper forever is He. In the Beloved I went
to the tree, there in His person by faith I may see. Infinite
wrath rolling over His head, infinite grace, for He died in
my stead. How happy then is a man who abides
in Christ? Abide in me. It's not an invitation. It supposes that you've already
been in me. How do we get there? By electing
grace, redeeming grace, calling grace. That's how we got in union
with Christ, but how do we stay in union with Christ? By the
same power that called me, the same power that keeps me. Abide
in me. What does it require? It requires
faith. Faith. Where does that come from? It
comes from the divine. And the more I know my need of
Him, the more I believe and trust in Him. And then how safe are you if
you're in Christ? Listen, how safe is the throne of Christ?
How safe is it? Is there any way it could be
removed? Could anyone usurp the authority
of the risen King? Anyone? That's how safe I am. My salvation
is as sure as His throne. No one can remove me from Him.
And to tell you the truth, I don't want to go anywhere else. Do
you? He said, I'm the vine. All this comes from me. You're
the branches. What do you do? Branch just receives
it, and then what? It produces fruit. Who gets the glory for all this?
Tell me. In this message tonight, did
you get any glory? I'm thankful to abide in Him.
I'm thankful to have faith. I'm thankful. But I know this.
Every bit of it comes from the line. Every bit of it. All the
glory belongs to God. All of it. I know this. If you're in Him,
you know that's true. You know that to be true. Salvation's
of the Lord. May God keep us. always looking
and receiving from Christ divine. Let's stand and be dismissed
in prayer. Terrence, just dismiss his brother,
please. Our Holy Father in heaven, we Thank you for this message
that we got to hear this evening, and Lord, we thank you that the
gospel gives you all the glory for you alone have earned all
of this. And Lord, we pray that you would
give us faith to look to you. Let us not fear what man can
do unto us, but give us faith to look to you for all things
Lord, teach us to not trust in this world, or to know this world,
or the riches of this world. But Lord, just cause us to look
to You, and to You alone, and to find our joy in You, and our
happiness in You. And You are a great Savior. And all we need is found in You. And we're so thankful for this
gospel. We're thankful for the men that you raised to preach
this gospel and declare it, Lord. And we ask, Lord, that you would
keep feeding us, keep feeding your sheep in this place. And, Lord, preserve us and keep
us, I pray. Forgive us of our sins. And be with those that
aren't with us tonight, Lord, and pray for them and keep them. And, Lord, we thank you. We give
thanks and Lord's progress to have thankful hearts for us.
We're so prone to murmur and complain, and what a shame that
is when we have to increase our faith in Christ's name.