Alright, if you take your Bibles
now and turn back with me to John chapter 15. John chapter
15, titled this message, Abiding in Christ. Abiding in Christ. Our Lord, you remember, He is
speaking to His disciples, He's speaking to His people. Those that are saved, remember
Judas, who was a pretender among them, was not in this Discourse
he was gone out and all that was left were his disciples And
this is his word to them in verse 15 chapter chapter 15 verse 1
I am the true vine and My father is the husbandman every branch
in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away and Every branch
that beareth fruit he purges it that it may bring forth more
fruit Now, you are clean through the word which I have spoken
unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear
fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you
except you abide in me. And one of the greatest privileges
of every one of us who are believers in Christ is this fact of our
union with Christ. Our union with Christ. That we
are one with Him. One with Him. And Jesus here
likens this union. He uses an allegory. He uses
a picture. This idea of the vine and the
branches. You can see it. You can visualize
a vine. And out of that vine stems branches. And these branches have grapes
on them. This is the picture he has given
it to us. Jesus said this, I am the true
vine. He's speaking of himself in his
lowly capacity. He who is the son of righteousness,
the bright and morning star, compares himself to a vine. A lowly vine. But he says this,
I'm not a wild vine. I am the true vine. The true
vine. And my father is the husbandman. In other words, he's saying,
look, I was planted of God. And he's speaking about his incarnation. He was one with God, always was
with God and is God. And yet he says he was planted
of his father, chosen and planted of the father so that he should
be the source of all life for his elect people. This is why
he came into the world. He came to save his people from
their sins. Very specific mission he was
given. And this vine, a vine has a very
specific thing it grows, doesn't it? It doesn't have, it doesn't
grow oranges. It doesn't grow grapes. It grows
grapes. It has a purpose. And Christ
the vine, he has a purpose to give life to his people. And
because of the work of Jesus Christ, the offering in blood,
the righteousness of Christ, out of Him flows the sap of salvation
and spiritual life to all His branches. Now the branches are
simply His people. You and me who believe in Him.
We are the branches. He tells us that in verse 5,
I am the vine and you are the branches. How clear is this? This, and what is then the mark,
the evidence of this union? It is simply this, the fruit.
That's how you know a branch is in the vine. If the branch
is by itself, Jesus said it can't produce fruit. Isn't that just
obvious? Take a branch, you throw it over there and you wait for
some fruit, you're not going to get it. It's got to be in the vine.
And so Christ says if you're to bear any fruit, you have to
be in me. And if we are in Christ, we are
going to bear fruit. And what is this fruit? It is
the fruit of the Spirit. Every branch that beareth not
fruit is taken away. Every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. This idea of
vine and branches, we don't grow vineyards. Joanne, y'all tried
to grow gardens, Sometimes it didn't turn out well. But these
people knew something about this and so it was very common illustration. Now if you've got a good vine
and yet some of the branches are barren, what do you do with
them? You cut them off. They're no good. They cumber
the vine. But if you've got a branch that
bears fruit, what do you do? You purge it. You take off the
little dead leaves so it can produce more fruit. He trims it. He purges it. Not as to kill the vine, not
as to kill the branch, but rather that it bring forth more fruit.
And so it is with all who are in union with Christ. This is
common. We bear fruit. Now this fruit,
again, is not what religion calls fruit. Now, religion looks at
men's fruit and they say, well, we like the fruit of morality.
You see a man that's moral, and he's walking, well, they say,
well, that's the fruit of the Spirit. Or they say he's
got religious piety. He's out feeding the hungry.
None of these things are bad. But that's not a sign. Any son
of Adam can do those things. Any son of Adam can live morally.
Any son of Adam can feed the hungry. Any son of Adam can have
religious piety. But that's not the fruit he's
speaking of. This is the fruit of the Spirit. And all who abide
in Christ, those who believe and depend only upon Christ,
they will bear fruit that is acceptable unto God. Here is our joy and peace. Listen to this. You that are
in Christ. Verse three is amazing. He said,
Now you are clean. Through the word that I have
spoken to you. You get that everyone who is in union with Christ,
this is what he says to you. You are clean. You are clean. This is not, hey,
if you do this, you'll be clean. No, you are clean by the power
of the word that I have spoken unto you. You are clean every
wit. Isn't that what he said in that
illustration in John 13, when he wiped the disciples' feet,
he cleaned their feet. And Jesus said, look, you are
clean every wit. and save only need to wash your
feet. Why? Because we still live in this
world. We still have this body of sin. We need constant forgiveness
and cleansing. But He said, look, you're clean
every wit. This Word is the Gospel that He speaks to us into our
hearts by the Spirit. This Word is a Word of grace
and power. You know, our Word just don't
have much power. They just don't. Our Word has
no power whatsoever. But His Word has power and grace. When He commands something, it
happens. When He said, You are clean,
friend, you are clean through the Word that I've spoken unto
you. The Gospel and the Spirit applies
this Word. And what does this Word testify
of? It testifies of Him. This Word
of God that we have in our hands Peter said this is, this word
is eternal. All flesh is grass and goodness
of man is a flower of grass. Grass withered, the flower faded,
but the word of the Lord endures forever. It's an eternal word. And he said, this word that we
have spoken unto you is the gospel. The gospel, it testifies of the
perfect and spotless offering of Jesus Christ And in power of the Holy Spirit,
we have fled to Christ. And grace has effectually put
us into union with Christ. Now listen, you were in Christ
before the world began. But of God are you in Christ
Jesus. God put you in Christ Jesus before
the world began. But I'll tell you this, I didn't
know anything about it until it happened to me experimentally,
until the Spirit of God Quickened me. I had no clue Go to 2nd Thessalonians and see
this 2nd Thessalonians chapter 2 and
look at verse 13 It says but you we are bound
to give thanks always to God for you brethren beloved of the
Lord Why are we given? Thanks always? What's the purpose
of our Thanksgiving? I? Because God has from the beginning
chosen you to salvation. Isn't that something to be thankful
for? You that are saved, God chose you to that purpose, that
you should be saved. And this is the means through
sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth. That's
always the means, the spirit of God. This salvation comes
to us through the spirit. And what's the evidence of that
is this, belief of the truth. That word, it comes in power,
it comes by the spirit, and the spirit applies it, and that union
is made real. Real. Where into he called you, how? What's the means? By our gospel
to obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus, Christ. Therefore,
we who are in union with Christ, we know the reality of it. And
listen, I know the necessity of it. I know that I must abide
in him. I must have him. And of myself,
I can do nothing. This is what a branch knows.
A branch knows that it has to abide in him. And we know this,
that all the supplies of grace come to us by this union. Listen, if you're not in union
with Christ, you have no supply of God's grace. Now we're talking
about the way men view this word grace. You go to another religion,
they'll talk about grace all day with you. But the problem
is, we don't have the same definition of that word. These men believe
grace is some ethereal thing that just surrounds men and that
men can tap into it at any time they want to. God wants to be
gracious and all they got to do is tap into it. No. Grace is something that God specifically
gives and supplies. This vine, this illustration
of the vine, that sap doesn't go anywhere but to the branches. That sap is the grace of God.
It comes to the branches. And so all the grace of God and
divine supply of grace comes through this union. And therefore we are absolutely,
completely dependent upon Jesus Christ for everything. For everything. For all our spiritual life and
strength and comfort. And listen, I'm not dependent
on Him just one time. I am constantly daily depending
upon Him to supply the grace. I know this, yesterday He forgave
me of my sins. You know what I need today? I
need Him to forgive me of my sins. I need that grace constantly
to flow to me through him daily, constantly. And so believers,
we are in union with Christ. We were chosen to this union.
Christ redeemed us by this union. We now, by the power and grace
of God, are made to know our union. And then let us hear the
word of Christ to us who are in union. Now, listen. I am speaking
to believers because this is who Christ is speaking to. He
is speaking to believers. You who are outside of Christ,
you can't have anything to do with Him. You can't. This is
for those who are in union with Him. Listen to what He says. You who are in union, listen
to Him. In verse 4, Abide in Me. Listen to His command. Abide
in Me. Now this phrase here has the
idea of constantly, daily abiding. Now I've got three things about
this command of our Lord that I want every believer to see, every believer to consider. First of all, what does this
command suppose? It supposes something. He says
abide in me. There are some suppositions here
about this command. And secondly, I want us to see
what is required then for us to abide. He commands us to abide. What then is required of us that
we should continually abide? And thirdly, I want us to see
the security of those who do abide in Him. Those who heed
this command of our Lord, there is a sense of great security
in this. First of all, what does our Lord
suppose here? First of all, I want you to see,
He supposes that you're already in Him. How can you continually
abide in Him unless you're already in Him? You can't. Abide in Me! Well, if you're
not already abiding in Him, how can you continually abide in
Him? So he is supposing here that
all he's speaking to are already in Him. Except you have true
and living faith in Christ, which is a gift of the grace of God,
you cannot abide in Him. You cannot obey this unless you
are in Him. So then the question is, first
of all, what is without this? Are you in Christ? Are you in Christ? The evidence of that is simply
this, do you believe? On the son of God. Do you believe
solely upon Christ? And listen, you are in him. And he is in you. You are abiding
in Him. And so this command is given
to all who are born again of the Holy Spirit. Now, it also
supposes this, that we who are in Him must of necessity continue
in Him so as to receive all that we need. You that are in Christ,
Why does He continually, why does He give us this commandment
to continually abide in Him? Because we still have much need
of Him. We know our need of Him. We are
made to feel our need. Now the work of the Holy Ghost
then is to reveal to us the vanity of our false religion The work
of the Spirit was to strip us of every weapon and objection,
of our self-righteousness, to strip us of all of our labors
and merits. Isn't that what He did? When
the Spirit came to you, He stripped us of these things. And so then, it's God's work
to make us feel the weakness of our flesh. The inability of our flesh to
perform any acceptable work. So we are brought as poor and
needy and helpless sinners to look to Jesus Christ alone for
our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption. We are brought
to see our need of Him. And when we are brought to see
our need in Him, we are also, we see this, that He is able
to supply everything we need. everything we need We are made aware of our need
and our absolute nothingness and Then and then only did we
see him as a great prize We then alone saw him as all our enjoyment
and trusted in Christ alone remember that illustration that Lord's
at that Pharisee Simon's house and That prostitute comes in,
you know, Simon's looking down on her. And the Lord speaks of
this woman's love. He said, now, you had two debtors,
right? One owed 50 cents and one owed
50 million, whatever that pence, I don't know what a pence is.
Just know it was a great difference. And he said, well, he frankly
forgave them both. Now, which do you suppose would
love him more? And he said, well, you know,
the one that you forgave most, he said, that's what that's right.
And he said that in Luke seven, he said, Wherefore, I say unto
you, the sins of this woman, which are many are forgiven. You see, she had a great need,
didn't she? Her need was greater than that of Simon's. He had
few sins in His own eyes. He had few sins to forgive. But
this woman had many sins. And notice the result. For she
loved much, to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. Therefore we, who are abiding
in Christ, the more we feel our need of Christ, the more we will
see The more we see our need, the more we constantly know that
He alone can supply what we need. We need to constantly be in union
with Him. The more we know of Jesus Christ,
the more we see of His person, the more we see of His great
work, the more we are made to cling to Him. Believer, how much do you know
of Christ? How much do you know of him? You know, the apostle, he prayed
for that church of Ephesus that they that the spirit of wisdom
and revelation and knowledge should be given to them. Peter, Paul himself said that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection, the fellowship
of his sufferings. You know, the more I learn of
Christ, the more I realize how little I know of Him. I know all there is that I need
to know, but the depth of what I know is very shallow. It's
very shallow. But if we were to know more of
Him, surely we would make more use of Him. So then the more we know of our
need, The more we know that Christ alone as divine can supply it.
The more we would abide in Him by faith, not depending on men
or the world or self, but only upon Him. Not just to supply our spiritual
needs, but our earthly needs. He said, My God shall supply
all your needs. according to His riches and glory
by Jesus Christ. The more we know of Him, the
result will always be the same. The more we will come to Him,
the more we'll depend upon Him as divine. How did you first come to Him?
You came as lowly sinners. How do you come to Him now? As
lowly sinners seeking mercy and grace. And I know this, the more
we grow in this abiding in Christ, the more we know of our dependence
upon him. The more we depend upon him.
But all who believe on him, listen, we never stop coming. We never
stop coming to him. We never stop believing. We never
stop trusting. We never stop learning of Him
and feeling our need. And listen, we never stop experiencing
His ability to provide what we need. Whatever the branch needs
to produce fruit, where does it come from? It comes from the
vine. And we who are the branches recognize
this. We realize this. So when Christ
says, Abide in Me, He's supposing that you that abide in him will
constantly and more depend upon him. To supply all the spiritual
growth you need. But a branch that what happens
if a branch is removed, it's dead. It can't do nothing of
itself. The true branches of Christ,
after we have been given life and faith, we never desire to
abide alone. Isn't that true? When he says
abide in me, what do you say? Yes. That's what I need. I need to
constantly abide in you. We don't ever desire to be separated
from it. We desire only to continually
abide so that he alone can supply all we need. And so what then
do we who are abiding do? We come to him for everything. Branches, do you have any burdens
too heavy to bear? He says, abide in me. Bring your
burdens to me. Any cares, you branches? He says,
abide in Me. Come to Me, and I will supply
all that you need. Cast all your care upon Me, because
I care for you. We as branches, have we any sorrows? Sorrows of soul, sorrows of the
flesh? Listen, the supply of grace and
mercy and power can only come from the vine. Abide in me. Come to me. We come to him with all of our
enemies. You got any enemies? Oh, friend, you surrounded by
him. You know, the greatest one is sitting right in your seat.
The greatest enemy you have is yourself. Need help with that. Abide in me. Who can conquer
your foes but Christ? Have you tried to conquer yourself?
How's that working out? You try to chain this flesh,
what does it do? Breaks out. See, we abide in
him because we need constantly to have our foes defeated. We come to Him with all our sorrows,
with all our sins. Have you any sins? How about, can you count the
sins that we have had since we came into this place? Pride,
arrogancy, our lukewarm hearts. Can you
count it? What do you do? Abide in me. Why? Because He is the one that
cleanses us from all our sins. I like that what John says. He
says, But if we walk in the light as he in the light, we have fellowship
one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth
us. You know, he cleansed me yesterday.
You know what he's doing today? He's cleansing me today. You know what he's going to do
tomorrow? He's going to cleanse me tomorrow. Why? Because I abide in the vine. And that forgiveness flows from
the vine to the branch. Constantly. Constantly. May the Holy Spirit teach us
then our need of constantly abiding. And we come to him. We who are
abiding in Christ, we have fellowship, we have communion with him. And
we depend totally upon him. This is what is supposed by this
abiding. Is that he's going to supply
the needs of the branch. and the branch is totally dependent
upon the vine. That's supposed, that's just
so, isn't it? And so the second thing is, what
does it require then for us to abide in him? If we're to obey
this command, what does it require? Now our union, both initial union
and continual union with Christ, we recognize is in no way dependent
upon our merits. You're in the vine. Why are you there? What's the
root cause of you being in the vine? Why is someone else not
in the vine? And you are. We do not boast in anything we
have done to put us in the vine. We know this, of God are you
in Christ Jesus. It is an act of free and sovereign
grace that we are in Christ. And we have no room to boast
whatsoever, whatsoever. We abide in him by the grace
of God. It was by divine election that
we were put into Christ. And so as Christ came into this
world, he was our representative man. You know, you see a vine,
it comes out of the ground. And it has no branches to begin
with, but the branches are in it. The DNA of it is already in the
seed. And it's going to come out, but
it's already there. Same with us, when Christ came
into this world, where were we? We were not born yet, we were
not in this world yet, but yet we were in Him. As He as our representative came,
He lived a righteous life. He died a death so as to redeem
us. And we were in Him when He died. We were in Him also when He rose
again. And yet now the Holy Spirit has
come. We've experienced this union.
You know, I like that passage in 2 Timothy 9. It says, God hath saved us. And then what did He do? Called
us. See the order? You were in the
vine and saved. And then in grace, he called
you. He called you. What kind of calling? It was an effectual calling,
a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
his purpose in grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before
the world began, but now is made manifest. by the appearing of
our Savior Jesus Christ who has abolished death and is manifest
by this he had brought to life and immortality to light through
the gospel and so now you who are in Christ
by the power and grace of God through faith the question is
what does it require of us to continue to abide in him the
same thing that God used to experimentally put us in Him, which is this,
faith, faith. This is the requirement of continually
abiding in Him, is this simply continually believing on Him,
believing Him. It requires continual faith and
love so as to never depart from Him. You remember that time where
the Lord fed the 5,000. I just can't imagine the excitement
of the disciples. They just were so few. And all
of a sudden he feeds 5,000. They're falling across the water. They come over there and they
confess him to be king. You know. Disciples said, man,
we've got a following now. This is great. Imagine if 5,000
people showed up here at one day. All right. You think, wow,
that'd be awesome, we'd love to have 5,000 people come. But just as fast as they came,
they left just as fast. After they heard the gospel,
they left. And there they are, they're all
alone again, and Jesus asked them this question, will you
go away also? What was their answer? Lord, to whom shall we go? When you ask a branch, will you
go away from the vine? The branch will say. Where else
am I going to go? There's only life in the vine.
There's only hope in the vine. The branch will desire to go
nowhere else. And so it is with us. We desire not to go anywhere
But with Christ, why? Because all true faith has this
mark. True faith always continues. If your faith is a gift of God. It has this mark, it will always
abide in Christ. It will always continue to believe. Look at what listen, what Paul
said in Colossians, he said, if you continue the faith grounded
and settled, And be not moved away from the hope of the gospel
which you have heard, and which was preached to every creature
under heaven, whereby I and Paul is a ministry. He said, look,
this is the mark of true faith if you continue. How do you know
that you're in the vine? Well, the branch will always
continue to be in the vine. That's how you know that your
faith is genuine. It will not depart from Christ. So then believer, would you continually
abide in him? The answer of our heart is this.
Where else am I going to go? Peter said this. He said, Lord,
to whom shall we go? Thou has the words of eternal
life. And we are sure that thou art
the Christ, the son of the living God. Our Lord's question moved His
disciples to think then on His person, on His Word, didn't it?
When He said, Will you go away also? That moved them to think
of Him, to consider Him. And so as our Lord commands us,
Abide in Me, and I ask the question, Will you go away? What does that
do? I'm not going to go away. Well,
tell me why? Why would you not go away from
Christ? Well then to think about that you have to consider Him,
you have to think on Him. And so when we are tempted to
look away from Him, and you are, you and I are always going to
be tempted to look away from Him, to look to something else. And when we are, we look to the
world, to self, Anything that would tempt us away from him
or move us from the simplicity of the gospel that is in Christ
Let us then fix our minds. I on the vine Fix our mind on
him These are some things to consider
when you are tempted away from the vine listen to this Consider
his person Have you considered his person
That this One who is divine is God. Is God manifest in the flesh? That God condescended to become
a man. In the beginning was the Word
and the Word was with God. And the Word was God. And the
Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. Consider His deity. Consider His humanity. And in
doing so, you consider this. He was a representative. Why
did he become a man? What was the purpose of God being
a man? If God just became a man and
just walked among us, that's not anything. But he was more
than just a man. He was a representative man.
Consider that you that are abiding in him. He was your representative
man. Think of His eternal free grace
that put you in Christ, made Him your representative. Consider
that. Consider the free grace of God to put you in Christ. Think on His merits of His blood
and righteousness. Think of these. I like the illustration,
I was thinking of it, of Pentecost. You know, they take that loaf
of bread and they put the leaven in. You remember leaven is a
picture of sin. They take this leavened bread
and they offer it unto the Lord. And God accepts it. Now, you
would ask, What in the world is that? That's us! We are the
leavened bread! And as our High Priest offers
us up to God, He accepts Him! But remember, that on the day
of Pentecost, that loaf did not go by itself. They also had to
offer seven perfect lambs. You see why the loaf is now accepted? Because those lambs were offered.
Blood was shed. So why are you Now acceptable
to God. Consider that. How can a sinner
be made acceptable to God? Only by the death and the blood
of Jesus Christ can a sinner be made acceptable. Sin must
be punished. It was. Your sin was punished. All of it. All of it was paid. The justice of God was completely
satisfied with the offering and blood of your Savior. Consider
that as you're tempted to go away from Him. Think of His mercy. How merciful
is Christ? I'll tell you what, we got a
very small view of mercy. I mean, our illustrations of
mercy, even if we could put them in there, It's just light compared
to the mercy of Christ. Why? Because His mercy is eternal. Scripture says His mercy endureth
forever. Consider that. Why? Because I'll tell you this, I
stand in need of mercy a lot. I stand in need of mercy a lot.
Consider His tender mercy. I like that picture of the infant
who was who was a bastard. He said, your mom was a Hittite,
just heathens, your parents were heathens. And you know what,
you were a bastard and nobody wanted you and they threw you
out to die in the wilderness. He said, but when I passed by,
it was a time of love. And he said, when nobody else
would pity you, I pitied you. You got that? Nobody else could
pity us. We deserve what we got. But he
did. And he washed that child and
he robed that child. What a picture of what he did
for us. Think on his tender mercy. As you are commanded to continue
in faith and love, consider his mercy, consider his work, consider
his deed, consider his humanity, consider his pity and compassion. And let me ask you this, how
in the world are you going to think on him? How shall you be
moved to constantly abide in him and never desire to depart? Here's the means by which you
consider him. What we're doing right now. Preaching the gospel,
reading the word of God. How often do we read the word
of God? I'll tell you this, we want answers. We've got a lot
of questions. We spend some time. Maybe we
spend a lot of time in prayer asking questions. How often do
we read the word of God to find the answer? You can't consider him unless
you consider him as he is described himself. Otherwise, we're just
using our imagination to consider him. Everything I've said of
Him to this day, you can find in the Word of God. I don't dare
give you anything that I don't know is in this book. This is
how we consider Him, is to hear His Word, to trust His Word. If you seldom hear the Gospel
or seldom read the Word, listen, you won't think on Him. You won't
be able to understand or feel your need of him. But the more
we hear and the more we read of his word. What do we desire? We desire him. When I read of
him, I desire him. I want him. This is the means
that the spirit of God used so that we should obey his command
to continually abide and trust it is to hear his word. And lastly,
What is required of us is this. To come to him. If you are to
abide in him, you must constantly come to him. You must come to
him. You must cast your sorrows and
troubles and cares and set them upon him. All your struggles
and all your desires. You must find in him. And listen, when we come to Him,
you should expect something. How often do you come to Him
and then just do not believe His promises? I'm not talking
about these wackos who name it and claim it garbage. But listen,
when you come to Him and you ask Him, you can expect something
from Him. Just as a branch can expect something
from the vine in order to bear that fruit. Now the will of God
is that you and I bear fruit. So if we are to bear fruit, we
should expect something from the vine. Listen what you should expect.
You should expect to receive all that he promised. All that he promised. If you
find a promise in here that belongs to God's people, you should expect
to receive it. How about this? Forgiveness. How often do we ask forgiveness
and then, because we don't feel forgiven, we don't suppose he
did it? Scripture says if we confess
our sins, you listen, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. Eternal life. You and I who are in Christ should
expect to receive eternal life. We should expect it. only because
he promised it. Now listen, you ask for a new
car, you shouldn't expect it. You might get it, you might,
I don't know, but you shouldn't expect it. That's not a promise. I'll tell you this, if you starve
to death, is God's promises disannulled? You die of thirst somewhere in
a desert, is God's promises disannulled? God never promised us tomorrow. Today. And we have today. But tomorrow, not promised that. We are promised this, that all
who abide in Christ. All who abide in Christ. Have
all the promises of mercy and grace and love, and that's another
thing, love. You should expect his love. You
know what? He gave it. When did he love
you? Did he love you only after you
came to Christ? No. I have loved thee with an
everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness
have I drawn thee. You see, you should expect his
love. When? Always. Isn't that amazing that
he always loved you? Isn't that something? I tell
you what, I don't I don't always love myself. I know this. He does. He does. So you should expect these things.
And the last thing I want to talk about is security. You that
are in the vine, I want you to know this. If God has put you
in Christ, no man will take you out. Christ says for us to abide in
Him and that's a command for us to do and we do believe, we
desire to believe, we want to continually abide in Him. But
who's really keeping who? Is the branch holding on, is
the branch keeping the vine up or the vine keeping the branch
up? Who's supporting who here? Go to Romans chapter 8. Read
it with me again because it's a very comforting thing. You
that are in Christ. Let's read verse 33. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemneth? It
is Christ that died. Yea, rather, is risen again,
who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession
for us. And then the question comes,
because there's no charge, if there's no charge, how can there
be any condemnation? You can't condemn somebody unless
you can charge them. Well, you can't charge me, therefore
you can't condemn me. Christ died for all my sins and
right now He's ever living to make intercession for me as I
live through this life. As I go through this life, He
is daily interceding for us. And here's the result of this.
Look at this. The question comes, who then
shall separate us from the love of Christ? What about tribulation? Distress? No. What about persecution or famine?
Peril? Nakedness or sort? As it is written,
for thy sake we are killed all the day long and accounted as
sheep for the slaughter. That's what it appears to be,
isn't it? That's written. I tell you what,
it feels like that. No. No. What's it? No. That's how it
seems to be. No. In all these things we are
more than conquerors through Him that loved us. For I am persuaded. Now this is a branch clinging
totally to the vine. I am persuaded. Are you persuaded? He said, I'm persuaded that neither
death, nor life, 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. You that abide in Christ,
listen to me, nothing can take you out of Him. Any branch that's
plucked from Him is simply this. They're just pretenders. They're
just pretenders. Anybody that confesses to abide
in him and goes away. Judas was one of those, wasn't
he? He professed. Matter of fact, they trusted
him above everybody else. They gave him the bag. Didn't
they give him the money? In their eyes, he was above reproach.
But you know this. He did not abide in the vine. It was just pretender. Every
true believer will always continue to abide in the vine, they will
abide in his love, they will abide in his word. And no man
could take us from him. This is the safety and security
I have. I don't know if you notice this,
but it's all dependent on him. every part of this. Pray God bless this to you. Let's
stand