Chapter 15, a text that we found
in verse 4. Our Lord here, about to leave
this world, about to accomplish the redemption of His people,
speaking to His disciples here, encourages them, directs them
in this Exhortation, verse four. Abide in me. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
of itself, except it abide in the mind, no more can you. except you abide in me." Our
Lord here is speaking of the union that exists between His
people and Himself. The greatest privilege that every
believer possesses, the greatest honor that every believer, upon
every believer is bestowed is this matter of union with Christ. He is the head and we are His
body. We are in union, we are one with
Him. one with Him. Inseparable union. The Lord here likens our union
to that of a vine and the branches. He said this in verse 1, I am
not just any vine, I am the true vine. true vine, and my father
is the husbandman." What is he saying here? I am the only source
of salvation in life. I am the true vine. He said, my father is the husbandman. In other words, he was appointed
by the Father and planted in his humanity as the true vine
and only source of salvation. He is the true vine. the source
of life for all his elect people. And because of the work, because
of the work of Jesus Christ, because of his offering of his
blood, because of the righteousness he has obtained by his own obedience,
The very sap of our salvation now flows from Him to all the
branches of His elect people. All His elect branches. That's
how it works. It's a simple illustration that
the mind is the one that produces all of the nourishment for every
branch. And you cut off a branch, you
know this, that the branch can do nothing. A branch would die,
except it be in the mind of Jesus saying, look, because you abide
in me, because of our union, I supply all the need of my people,
all the need of the branches. What is the mark of our union
with Christ? How should we know we are in
union with Christ? Jesus said this, you bear fruit. The mark of everyone who is in
union with Christ is the fruit of the Spirit. Look at verse
2, he says, every branch in me that beareth not fruit is taken
away. And every branch that beareth
fruit be purgative, that it may bring forth more fruit." This
was common knowledge concerning branches and vines. We're not all farmers here. We
know very little farming, especially about vineyards, vines. But in
this day, this was common understanding, what Jesus was saying. They knew
this very intimately. If you have a good vine, and
yet there are branches in this vine that are dead, what do you
do with them? If they're fruitless branches,
you cut them off and you put them away and you burn them.
That's all they're good for. But the ones that yield fruit,
what do you do? You purge them. You trim them
back. You take off their dead leaves.
You take off anything that would drain from their strength. And you do it, it's not to kill
them, but rather to bring forth more fruit. Now listen, so it
is with our union in Christ. Our union with Jesus Christ,
we all have this in common. We bear fruit. Now, not as the
world thinks. When they think of bearing fruit,
they're talking about morality. They think, well, if you're just
moral, that's the fruit of the evidence of your salvation, of
your union with Christ. If you're religiously pious,
if you've joined a church, if you've been baptized, if you've
eaten the Lord's Supper, then you are in union with Christ.
No, that is not evidence of your union. That is not the fruit
He is talking about. All of those things can, anybody
can do those things. Any dead son of Adam can produce
this outward fruit of the flesh. That's not the fruit, that's
not the mark. What is this fruit? It's the
fruit of the Spirit, love. Love for Christ, love for God,
love for His Word, love for His people, love for His Church. Joy. Joy in the things of God. Not the things of the world,
but the things of Christ. Peace, meekness, temperance,
faith. Faith is the true evidence. It is the first fruits of the
Spirit. It's faith. So all who abide in Christ are
those who believe on Christ and depend wholly on Him. Just as a branch would depend
wholly on the vine for everything to produce its fruit, even so
do we who are in union with Christ. We depend on Him for every grace. Do you believe this morning?
Where does that faith come from? It comes from the vine. It's a gift of the vine. Now why is it that you believe
unto this day? Why have you believed a while? You have believed a
long time. Who is it that has sustained
this faith that you have and kept you in the faith this long? It is the vine. All that faith
and love and grace does not flow from yourself or your own strength. How many times have you determined
to do away with sin and yet what have you found? That you are
not capable. Every time you've determined
to believe, what have you found? No strength at all to believe. I am much like that man who said,
I believe. Lord, help thou my unbelief. We abide in Christ. We believe
and depend wholly upon him for life. And the fruit that is acceptable
to God But I tell you, there are some who are only pretenders
to abide in Him. Jesus told us that at the very
beginning. He said, every branch that bears not fruit is taken
away. There are many that pretend to abide in Him. But I know this,
the Father will take them. They're not truly in union with
Him. They'll eventually go away. But here is our joy and peace.
He says this, verse 3, now you are clean through the Word I've
spoken unto you. You're clean through the Word
I've spoken unto you. The Word is the Gospel. The Gospel Word
that the Holy Spirit has taken in power. That Word of grace
that pierced our hearts, exposed our sin. That Word which testified of His perfect
offering. of His spotless righteousness
and all who come to Him by faith. And what happened when that Word
came to you? The Spirit of God in power caused you to flee to
Him. You found nothing in yourself and
you found everything in Him. So then, in an effectual, powerful
way, he put us in unity. He put us in union with Him. Now listen, we were in union
with Him before the world began. We were in union with Him when
He came into this world and died for our sins. We were in union
with Him when He rose again from the dead. But I'll tell you,
we did not experience this union until He came to us and grafted
our souls into the true bond. by faith is the evidence of this
union. Do you believe on the Son of
God alone? Do you produce the fruit of love,
joy, and peace, and meekness that stems only from the vine
and not from yourselves? Therefore, we are in union with
Him. We know the reality and the necessity
of this union. Don't you know the reality of
this union and necessity of it? Don't you know that? That except you abide in Him,
you'll die. See, everyone that's in union
with Him knows this. We know this experimentally,
that if outside of Him, we can do nothing of our salvage. I cannot believe, I cannot love,
I cannot serve, I cannot be accepted outside of this bind. I must
be in Him. No amount of labor or religious
effort could ever put me in union with Him. This is the work of
God. And what Jesus said, this is
the work of God that you believe on Him. It's by God's grace we
are put into union and made partakers of the divine nature. We know we are absolutely dependent
upon Christ for all our spiritual life, strength and comfort. Now listen, and we know it's
not just once. Isn't that right? Do you need Him just once? Do you need to abide in Him just
for a moment, and then you can go on your own, in your own strength,
in your own power now? That's how religion does it,
say, well, if you just make this decision, then you can be in
Christ, and then you can go on and elevate to a higher plane,
sanctifying yourselves, becoming more holy by your obedience.
No. No, in myself, I can do nothing. I can't have
none of the fruit, except I abide, and not just once, but continually
abide. So then, this morning, it is
vital that you understand, are you in Christ? Are you in union with Him? Because this text is not talking
to anyone outside of union with Him. Jesus said to those, abide
in Me. And if you are in Christ, I want
you to hear the direction and exhortation of our Master, of
the Vine. The Vine tells us this. I know
you abide in Me. You're clean. He said, I know
you're clean. Yet you must still abide in me. Continually, perpetually abide
in me. Now I want us to see by the grace
and power of God three things about abiding in Christ. What
does this suppose? First of all, what is he supposing
about this? Secondly, what is required? If we are to abide in Christ,
then we must know what is required so that we should continue to
abide. And thirdly, I want you to see
the safety of abiding in Christ. Safety. So first of all, what
does this suppose? When Jesus said, abide in me,
what did he mean? What is this supposing? Well, first of all, it supposes
that you're already in me. If I say, stay in this room,
I'm already supposing you're in the room, alright? Jesus has
already told him, I know you're in me, yet I am telling you,
continue to abide in me. He's supposing they're already
abiding. Now, except you have a true and living faith in Christ,
which is the gift of God's grace, you cannot abide. Abiding Christ is something God
must do for you. It is not something you can do
for yourself. We cannot abide in Christ by
our own strength. Are you in Christ? All who have been born again
of the Holy Spirit, you are in Christ. You have been engrafted
by the power of God and personally experienced the grace of God
and are in union with Christ. Now, how do you know that? How do
you suppose you're in Christ? Well, the first thing that the
Holy Spirit does to us who are in Christ is He makes us feel
our need of Christ. Why do you suppose that there
are not thousands hearing this message? Or hearing the gospel
at all? Isn't it a good message? I'm
talking about acceptance with God. I'm talking about eternal
life. Perfect righteousness that you
can't get yourself. It's a glorious message. It's
a glorious... and it's free. That's something
that men always think they want is something free. You want to
get men to spend money and tell them it's free? Spend a hundred
million dollars on something that's free? No, this is nothing
like that. This is something that God has
provided, that God has purchased. It is something that is absolutely,
completely free. And the only way you can have
it is you put something with it. Come and buy wine and milk with
what? Without money and without price. Why do you labor for that
which is not bread? Why do you labor for that which
doesn't satisfy you? You work so hard and you get
nothing from it. Why? Come and hear me live. Incline unto me and live. This
is free. And yet, why do men not want
it? They don't have the need for
it. They don't want it because they don't need it. And until God gives you a need,
you'll never come. I want to be the best preacher.
But if it were possible that I could be the best, that would
not do it. That would not allure you to
Christ. It is only by the power of God
you'll ever know your need. It is the work of the Spirit
of God to expose our sin, to show us the vanity of our
false, fleshly religion, to strip us of every weapon and objection. How many objections did you have?
Well, that sounds good. And God has to strip you of every
but, every yet, every objection. Well, I just don't like that.
Well, you won't until God strips you of it. And when God strips you of it,
you'll have nowhere else to go. I am so thankful that I've got
nowhere else to go. We are brought as poor and needy
and helpless sinners to look to Jesus alone as all our wisdom, all our righteousness, all our sanctification, and all
our redemption. Now you who are in Christ, did
you stop needing Him? Have you stopped needing Him?
No, just as the branch continually needs the vine, even so do we
need to continually abide in Him. And listen, don't you know
that your love and your faith are only as proportional to your
need? Isn't that what our Lord said
to that Simon, that Pharisee? He came to Simon's house and
the Lord saved this Pharisee, this self-righteous man, he was
a moral man, he was a good man by all outward accounts, and
yet the Lord saved him from his self-righteousness. And then
comes in that prostitute who's sitting there weeping at his
feet, washing his feet with her tears, and drying them with her
hair. And Simon's offended at this. And the Lord puts forth that
parable about the two debtors, one owed 50 and one owed 500
pence, and he frankly forgave them both. And he asked Simon,
he said, which of them will love him more? The one who was forgiven much
or little? And Simon said, well, the one
who's forgiven much. He said, you rightly judge. He said, this
woman, this woman had a great need. And you know what? Her
love is great. Because if you don't
have a need to abide in Christ, you don't abide in Him. But believer, we have a need.
And the only way we are moved more to abide in Christ is to
see more of our need. Isn't that what He does to us?
By purging us? By pruning us? By the afflictions
and trials of this life? To show us our need. Why? So that we would abide in
Him. And so then the more you know
of Jesus Christ, the more you see of his person, the more you
see of his great work, the more that we are made to know him,
we will in proportion be moved to claim him by faith. Believer, do you desire more
faith? I know you have faith. You're already abiding in Him. Do you desire to more abide in
Him? I do. Then how could we do this? How could we do this? This is only by knowing Him.
By knowing Him. How much do you know Christ? Have you said and thought about
how much you know? Just list the things, not just,
I know you have them in your head, there's things that we
have in our head, but how much of that is really in our heart?
How much did that knowledge move our heart to abide in you? How much do we know of you? You
know, Paul said this, that I may know you. I tell you, nobody knew Christ
like Paul. Now we know Christ in the spiritual
sense like Paul, but we've never saw him face to face. We've never
heard his voice. We weren't taught by him in the
desert. We weren't physically. in his
presence, like Paul was. And yet, what did Paul say? He said, I don't know him. I don't know him fully. I want
to know him. I want to know him. And that was his prayer for the
church of Ephesus. He said that the spirit and wisdom and revelation, that
you might have the spirit and wisdom and revelation and the
knowledge of Christ. But we're to know him more. If we were to know him more,
surely we would use him more. Surely we would avail ourselves
to his grace and power more. So then the more we need and
the more we know that Jesus Christ can supply our need, listen,
the more tightly we will cling And the more we cling to him,
the more true this verse rings in our ears. My God shall supply all my needs.
All my needs. Believer, how did you first come to him? Do you remember
how you first came? powerful and blind and naked. Isn't that how we are continually
putting away all self-righteousness and pinning completely on evil? The true branches of Christ,
after we have been given life, we never desire to abide anywhere
else. Our Lord knew this. When He said
this, abide in me, He supposed that you were already abiding
in Him, yet He exhorted you to continue. Now, how should you
do this? By knowledge of Him, by knowledge
of your need. by looking continually and perpetually
to Him, constantly trusting in Him. We come with all our burdens,
all our guilt, all our shame, and what did He do? He took it
away. Now then, when you come today with
your burden and your guilt and your shame, what does He do? It's a perpetual thing. It's
a constant thing. When you come with your sin,
what does he do? John says he is faithful and
just to forgive us all our sin. When you come burdened with all
your foes, all the world is set against you, what has He done
for you in the past? Has He not removed your enemies?
Has He not defeated every single one of them? What shall He do
when you come today with all your enemies? He'll do the same
as He did before. He'll rid you of all your enemies.
I love that picture of Hezekiah, how he laid that letter before
the Lord. That army was out there, and they were locking him. They
were about to siege him. There was no physical way for
them to win. And he took that letter, and
he laid it out before the Lord. And the Lord said, don't worry
about it. The battle's not yours. He said, I'll send him back the
same way he came with his head tucked between his tail. And
the next day, he was gone. Why? Hezekiah had a bad abode in Christ, a trusted Christ,
dependent on Christ. Our Lord supposes that we would
all who are in Christ should continue. Now, what does this
require? Our union with Christ requires
and is not dependent upon us in any way. So when I say, what
does it require for you to continue to abide in Christ, I'm not saying
that any of our merits put us in Christ, nor any of our merits
keep us in Christ. Scripture says, but of God are
you in Christ Jesus. We were in Christ Jesus from
the world before the world began. We were in Christ Jesus when
he died and rose again. And listen, we were in Christ
Jesus experimentally when the Holy Spirit came. Notice what
Paul said to Timothy. He said, who have saved us and
then what? Caused us. called us with a holy, effectual
calling, not according to our works, but according to His purpose
and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but now, made manifest by the appearing of our Savior
Jesus Christ, with abolished death and brought life and immortality,
listening to light through the gospel. And so now you are in Christ
Jesus by the will and power of God. Therefore, let us set all
our hearts to never depart from him. That's what he's saying here. Never let your heart look
to anyone else. When He says, Abide in Me, that's
what He's saying. I want you to keep your eyes
completely fixed and dependent upon Me. I tell you, faith is the evidence
of our salvation. But what's the evidence of true
faith? How do you know your faith is genuine? Here it is. True
faith always abides in Christ. It never leaves. Judas professed that faith. What
happened? He left. Well, that's how we
know. Demons profess to have true faith,
but having loved this present world, he left. John says they
went out from us because they were not of us. If they were
of us, they would have no doubt what? Abide in Christ. They no
doubt would have continued with us. And John at the very end
of that chapter says the same words of Jesus. He says, abide
in him. And so then, to abide in Him,
it is required of us that we continually believe Him. Continually trust Him. Continually depend upon Him. when those 5,000 left, he asked
his disciples. The Lord knows his people. He
knew from the beginning, John said he knew from the beginning
who were his and who were not. He said this, will you go away
also? And what did Peter say? He said,
what every true believer, Lord, will do shall be done. You're the mind. Where else were
the branches to go? You have the Word of eternal
life. You're the Christ. You're the Son of God. We're
not going anywhere. So what does it require to abide
in Christ? To never leave. To always believe
in Christ. Paul said this, if you continue
the faith rooted and grounded and settled and be not moved
away. That's how you know you're in union with Him. You never
leave. and his desire of every believer never to leave, to abide
in him, to fix our minds, our hearts, our souls completely
and perfectly in him. Well, how do we do this? What things has God given us
so that we should be moved to abide in him? What moves you to cling tenaciously You know, to think on Him. To think on Him. How often do
you think of Him? How often do we meditate on Him? We meditate on our problems.
We meditate on ourselves. We meditate on our situation.
And that doesn't bring us peace, does it? It only stirs water, it becomes
very unclear as to how we're going to get out of our trouble. But if you would stop and think on Him, the One you are in union
with, because whatever He is and has belongs to you. He's God. Once you get this, I am one with
God. Therefore, whatever God is, He
communicates to us. How can that be, seeing we are
sinners? Because He's also man. This is
how He may communicate with us. The Father planted the vine in
humanity so that the branches might be in union within. Think on His blood. Think on
His righteousness. What His blood accomplished on
our behalf. Justification. Sanctification. Redemption. Atonement. Forgiveness
of sins. Not just forgiveness, but He
took our sins from us and He threw them behind His back. never
to be seen again. Consider how sovereign He is. That all your trouble you're
dealing with is His will that you deal with, that you're in it. And
that would be very miserable if you didn't think on His love.
If you were to think of him as a sovereign tyrant, he would
not be pleasant. But he is not. He is a sovereign
father, always perpetually caring for you. Well, now, then, how
should you think of him? How is it possible for us to
think of these things except you, what, hear his word? You're not
going to come up with this stuff on your own. How much have you
forgotten about this book? Go on your own. Go in the wilderness
and try to meditate on it. You'll forget. You'll forget. That's why Paul said, it is safe
for me to tell you the same things over and over again. Why? So
that you may think on Him. And the more you think on Him,
the more tightly you abide in Him. You're clean to Him. How about communion with him?
How often do you commune with him? This struck my heart so
hard, it pierced my soul. How much praying do we do and
yet not commune with him? We throw up prayers as afterthoughts. Lord, do this. Lord, please do
this. And we move on. All the while never spending
one minute with him. Is there anything better than
to shut out the world, sit at his feet, If we neglect to do this, I tell
you this, we'll be looking at something else besides evil. These are things he has given
us so that we might exercise this faith, this love, this joy,
this peace of abiding in him. And lastly, I want you to see
this. How safe are you in Christ? If you are abiding in Christ,
how safe are you? There are many who are professing
to abide on Christ that are not safe at all. Our Lord says, He
said in this verse, He said, those that ever branch that beareth
not fruit, they're going to be taken away. Anybody that does
not continue in the faith, that does not continually and perpetually
abide in Him and see the need of Him, they will be taken away.
Not you. You will be pruned. You will
be dressed. God will afflict our souls, God
will afflict our bodies, but remember this, our bodies and
our souls belong to Him. So how safe are you? Well, how
safe was Noah in the ark? How safe was Daniel in the lion's
den? How safe were the Hebrew children
in the fire? I tell you this, you are more safe than they are. Why,
eventually their bodies died. We're talking about a spiritual
safety. God says this in Deuteronomy 33. He says, there is none like
unto the God of Jeshua. who rideth upon the heaven in
thy heaven, and the excellency on the sky. The eternal God is
thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he
shall thrust out the enemy from before thee, and shall say, destroy
them. Israel then shall dwell in safety. The fountain of Jacob shall be
upon the land of corn and wine. Also, his heaven shall drop down
due to happy art thou, O Israel, who is like unto thee, O people
saved by the Lord, thy shield and thy help, who is the sword
of thy excellency. And thine enemy shall be found
liars unto thee, and thou shalt tread upon their high places. Jesus said, I give unto you eternal
life, and no man shall look you out of my hand.
Listen, I, by the grace and power of God, do abide in Christ. What's the mark? The fruit is
the mark. Faith in Christ. Love of Christ.
Having a need of Christ. Finding my supply in Him. That's
my evidence of my union with Christ. I want to abide in Him.
Not just now, but forever. I want to abide in Him. How do you do this? think
of me, hear me, commune with me. And the more
we know of our union with Him, the more we know of our safety. The only way to get me from Him
is to take Him from me. Now, how safe is that? It's safe.
May God bless those who are in union with Him. Talk with those people. Bye.