I invite you to put a marker
there this morning in this text I read to you in John chapter
15. This will be the last of five
messages that I brought to you on the subject of sanctification.
I hope that they have been more than just a doctrine to you. I hope that they have been more
than just looking at something and trying to tell or hear some
new thing like they did there on Mars Hill when Paul preached
to them. But this thing of sanctification
is a work of the triune God. I've tried to emphasize that
from the very beginning. This is the work of God. There's
not a work in the whole work of salvation that you can perform
of yourself. This whole salvation is of the
Lord. All those whom God saved are
going to learn this lesson, I'm telling you. It's of the Lord. It's of the Lord. And it's the
work of the triune God, each person of the Godhead being attributed
with a certain aspect of the work, and yet all of the work
being one because the triune God is one. The work itself is
described in three ways. It means to be set apart for
divine use. Like he set apart the candlestick
in the tabernacle. It was just a candlestick, John.
It was elaborate. It had things on it. It was unique
in a way. But in another way, it was a
candlestick, just like candlesticks in many other places. But God
said, this one's mine. This one's mine. has significance
as it pertains to me. This one I'm going to set apart
for divine service and divine use, and it's to be considered
holy. You don't treat this candlestick
like the one in your house. This one is used for a specific
cause and reason, and you're to consider it holy because I've
set it apart. And then sanctification also
means to be declared holy. Now this is a legal term. This
is the legal sense in which you're sanctified. We're sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. What's that mean? That means
He hath declared you through the divine court of God to be
justified, to be innocent of all charges, to be sanctified,
to be holy, considered holy from this day forward. Holy as an
act of God's law. Not going to be changed. Not
going to be altered. Based on the merits of the Lord
Jesus Christ and His sacrificial offering, He declares us sanctified
once for all. Once for all. In Romans chapter
1 and verse 4, Paul said Jesus of Nazareth was declared to be
the Son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness. That
is, He's declared. He was in His being the Christ
of God. He always was. He was the eternal
Son of God from the very beginning. And He was the Christ by God's
divine appointment. But He was declared to be the
Son of God with power according to the Spirit of holiness by
the resurrection from the dead. And also, and by the same way
over in Romans chapter 4 verse 25, by that same resurrection,
He declares all that were in Him justified because He was
delivered for our offenses and raised again for our justification. You see what I'm saying? And
then thirdly, this work of sanctification means to be a partaker of holiness. A partaker. Now listen to this. This is over in II Peter chapter
1. Peter said, according as His divine power hath given to us
all things that pertain unto light and godliness, through
the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue. Verse 4. whereby are given unto
us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might
be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust." What's that mean? What's that
mean? It means that God the Holy Spirit
washes us through regeneration and renews our minds and hearts.
what that means. We become partakers. This is
the first fruit of our inheritance given to us by the Spirit of
God. And this third work is the work we've been looking at and,
figuratively speaking, I tried to set this before you and it's
threefold revelation as it's revealed in the Scriptures, Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit. But I'm looking at this work
in all of these messages that I brought to you, I'm looking
at this work in its final end. I'm looking at this verse as
it affects us. I'm looking at this verse as
it's established by the Holy Spirit of God. And so we stand
like a house. I've set forth this thing of
sanctification like a four-sided object, and we stood on the legal
side of it, and we looked at it from its legal standpoint.
And from a legal standpoint, I cannot serve God apart from
my acceptance in Christ. I look outside myself to Him,
and there's my acceptance. There's the right and privilege
that I have, been bought for me, legally established, a son
of God. And then I looked at it from
the psychological point of view. I stepped over here on this side
and looked at it. And all that big word means is
how does it work. And we looked at it to see how
it worked, how it establishes these motivations and how it
establishes these principles within us. And we looked to Christ
and looked to that everlasting election of God and all of these
things. They're created in your heart.
motives, true motives of gratitude and love. Where is the man who
is just a man, a sinner, separated from God forever, but chosen
of God? And in time, you know, when we
talk about the Holy Spirit coming, He says over in the book of Galatians,
because you were sons, because you are sons, how did we get
to be sons? God the Father chose us. God
the Son came down and accomplished that redemption, accomplished
that adoption. And now because you're sons,
He said, I'm going to send forth my Holy Spirit to you. And the
effect of that is going to be you're going to cry, Abba, Father.
Abba, Father. We're going to cry out as a son. He washes us through regeneration
and renewing of the mind and heart. And we look at these things,
and we look at them from the psychological standpoint, and
when we look at them from the power aspect of this thing, John,
I can't create these things. I can't. We're just fooling ourselves.
We used to go down to church, and we'd stand up and make vows
to do this and do that, and make these private promises to God,
if you'll do this, I'll do that, and all this stuff. You ain't
going to do nothing, because you can't. You can't produce
anything. Did you know that? You can't
do it. Every now and then, God will
withdraw His presence from you. Not that He's taking Himself
away from you forever, but He just stands there silent. You
don't know He's there. And boy, here you are. You can't
pray. You can't read. You can't do
anything. Fly off the handle at the least
little thing. You can't produce these things.
These things are of God. And when you look at this thing
of sanctification, from the aspect of its power. Altogether, a gift
of God's grace. Altogether, it's God that worketh
in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. By grace
are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It
is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. For
we are His. His creation. We're His workmanship. created in Christ Jesus unto
good work which God ordained. And you're going to walk in them
if you're a believer. Yeah, you will. They're God. And so when you look at it from
the power aspect, it's all of God. Now, what's that do? That
keeps you from boasting and being puffed up. That means you serve
God in humility. And that means you can be sympathetic
to others who don't have this spirit. Because without it, you'd
be just like they are. It's the work of God. And it's
the work of God that brings us out of darkness. It brings us
out of ignorance. It brings us out of the depths,
out of death and the coldness and lethargy and out of rebellion
and emptiness into the kingdom of light and peace and joy and
rest and fellowship. What I want you to see this morning
is the means whereby this glorious work is accomplished. Now, what
are these means? Well, primarily, I'm just going
to talk to you this morning about faith. Faith, that's the means. And most of you here that have
listened even a little bit to what I've said over the years,
are convinced that Jesus is the Christ. I don't see, actually,
as many scriptures as I read to you every week, I don't see
how anybody can walk out of here and say, that man don't know
what he's talking about. You have to know, at least up here,
that Jesus is the Christ. I've piled evidence up until
I buried you with it. Jesus is the Christ. And most
of you here, you at least know that in your head. And that God
the Son as he was declared in the scripture to do, came into
this flesh as a man, as a representative man, as a substitutionary man,
and obeyed that law in every jot and tittle. He was made subject
to our weaknesses. He become a man. I don't know
that I've ever gotten a full grasp of that. He become a man,
just like I'm a man, and he's subject to it. Johnny got hungry.
He didn't eat for so long, he got hungry. He got thirsty. He
cried on the cross, I thirst. He was subject to hurt. Men cast things back at him in
their teeth. He was hurt. Ain't you hurt? Somebody comes up and just out
of the blue, bam. So was he. So was he. He wept. I can't fathom that. the eternal God in the person
of a man weakly. I tell you, once you learn who
He is, you'll just sit back in awe sometimes of things that's
written of Him, like back in the song. David, he was so in
awe. Everybody else was fussing around
here about temples and tabernacles and all in ceremonies and all
that. David said, He thinketh on me. Huh? He was in awe of that, that God
thought on him. Huh? All of these things, subject
to shame and humiliation and subject to death. You know, they
took him and hid him when he was just so many years old, they
took him and went down into Egypt. You know why? So he wouldn't
die. He was subject to death. tempted in all points like as
we are yet without sin. He died for our sins, Paul said,
according to the Scriptures, and was buried and raised again
on the third day according to the Scriptures. And then for
forty days he lingered on this earth giving infallible proofs
and evidences that he was indeed this Jesus of Nazareth raised
from the dead. and declared by the power of
God through the Spirit of holiness to be the Christ. He's the Christ. And then they stood out there
on a little hill. And they watched Him go over and step up on a
cloud and be carried right off into glory. They watched Him
ascend to His Father. And they just stood there looking.
That's what I've been doing. And the angel said, why stand
you here gazing? That same Jesus that you saw
go away is coming again in like manner. He'll step right on the
cloud and come right back down on this earth. But this time
He's coming in glory. He's coming in glory. But now hear me. None of these
things are of any significance to you and me unless we believe. Is that too hard? They're not of any significance
to you and I unless we believe. Did you know every benefit associated
with Christ and God declared in the Scriptures is to believers? I challenge you, find me one
in there that's not. There are no benefits, no mercies,
no consolation given to men in a universal sense. That's what
religion declares. They declare God got this big
shaker up there and he's put all these benefits and spices
into it and works of Christ and eternal life and all that and
he's just shaking it out on the world and anybody who wants to
pick it up can have it. That's not it. That's not it. There are no benefits, no mercies,
no consolation given to men in a universal sense. Everything
in this great eternal work of God is promised to believers. I dare you, get in there and
find me something. Find me something in there. John 3.16, what about
that preacher? Doesn't that talk about him loving
the world? Well, let's see. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son. Is that all that verse? Is that
all that says? Uh-uh. Well, let's read the rest
of it. That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. Whosoever believeth. John 3.18,
he talks about, he said, I didn't come to judge the world, I come
to save it. Now listen to this, John 3.18.
He that believeth not is condemned already. I don't have to come
here. I didn't have to become a man,
condescend in humility and take upon myself human flesh to condemn
this world that's already condemned. Because he that hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God, he's condemned already. He's condemned already. John
3, 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. He
that believeth not the Son shall not see life. He's not going
to see it. Unbelievers will never, never
partake of these benefits. Only believers can have these
things. He shall not see life, but the
wrath of God abideth on him. Abraham. What about him? Abraham
believed God. Ain't that what it said? And
it's charged to him for righteousness. Accounted to him for righteousness.
But it wasn't imputed to him apart from faith. And it wasn't
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. But for
ours also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe. Ain't that what that says? I can't find any promise, any
benefit, any rest, any peace, any comfort, or any consolation
apart from individual faith. And especially in sanctification. That's where man likes to glory,
ain't it? I've been going to church for 30 years. Surely that
accounts for something. No. No, it don't. I've always given 10%. Well,
you need a Dewey button or something, but it doesn't account for anything
with God. Faith is what sets the man in
a position. Now listen to me. It sets the
man in the position to receive what God has purposed and Christ
has accomplished. Faith. It's the conduit. Just
think of it like this big conduit, this great big old pipeline. There's nothing outside of it.
It comes through this, everything. All of these fruits and all of
these graces and all of this stuff that comes, it all comes
through faith. All comes through faith. That's
the first and that's the great gift of God, faith. And through
this faith, the believer receives everything. He receives everything. I don't know anywhere else in
the Bible where this is taught any clearer than it is right
here in John chapter 15. If you'll turn with me over there,
in verse 1, he said, I am the vine, and my father is the husbandman. You know what a husbandman is.
He's a farmer. He's a gardener. That's what
he is. He's a husbandman. He arranged the garden. He laid
it out. It's his purpose to put it there. Genesis 2, verse 8, it said,
the Lord planted a garden east of Eden. The Lord did that, John,
and He put in it what He wanted in it. That's what He put in
the garden. And as in this garden was a man who could not bear
fruit. He couldn't do it. He fell. He
didn't produce any fruit. He was there. He had all the
appearance of it. He looked like a branch. He stood
there as a branch, but he couldn't produce any fruit. He fell. He
fell. But in that garden was also a
true vine. And the fruitless man was taken
and grafted into the vine. Now, ain't that what happened
in a garden? That's what our Lord's teaching him. I'm the
vine. Wasn't for me, there wouldn't be a garden. Garden would have
ended way back yonder. But my father planted this garden,
and he has a purpose. And the purpose is all together
in the vine. I'm the vine. You see what I'm
saying? I'm the vine. Verse 2. 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
remember what this parable's about. This parable's teaching
faith. That's what it teaches. So when he says, every branch
in me that beareth not fruit, he's not talking about the possibility
of a believer falling back to perdition. That's not what this
verse is teaching. But what he's teaching in this
verse is that if a man be in me by profession, if a man be
in me in appearance, the same way Adam was back in that garden.
He appeared to be a branch, but it didn't last long. And then
he withered and fell off the tree. Talking about professing believers. He's there in profession only.
He's there by outward evidence like branches on the fruit trees
that look healthy and look alive, but they soon wither and die.
Or else they don't bring forth fruit and God cuts them off.
And God Himself who is the husband man, He removes these fruitless
branches and He gathers them up And His servants burn them. They throw them in the fire.
Now listen to this, Hebrews 10.38. There are two things taught here. Professing,
professing believers. Men who say, I believe. But they
don't produce any fruit. God is going to cut you off.
He is going to cut you. You better quit the pretense.
You better stop it. You better reconsider. You better
think this thing through. You better not stand up and play
games with God. God will cut you off. That's
what this will teach you. Listen to this, Hebrews 10.38,
Now the just shall live by faith, but if any man draw back, my
soul shall have no pleasure in him. But, I love that but, boy. We are not of them who draw back
unto perdition. We're not of them. but of them
that believe to the saving of the soul. Beloved, saying, I
believe, and believing are two different things. There are lots
of folks who stood up over here and said, I believe. I believe.
But they're not moved. They're not changed. There's
no fruit. There's no fruit of the Spirit.
There's no love in their heart. There's no compassion in their
words. There's no reaching out. There's
no fellowship. There's no sympathy with fallen
men. There's no prayer to God to convert
lost sinners. There's no fruit. No fruit. Fruitless branches are just branches
only in appearance. Believing is a divine work. And
it's an inward work. And it's a powerful work. and
it's an irresistible work. To be grafted into the vine means
that the vine has to be cut. It has to be severed. You don't
take a branch, any of you, most of you in here, you have gardens
and trees and things, I don't know if you've ever tried to
graft anything, but you can't take Scott's tape over there
and stick a branch on a tree and tape it and it'll grow. That
ain't how it works. You got to take a knife and you
got to cut the tree. You got to get past the outward
shell. You got to get past that outward
thing that you look at with these eyes. You got to get in there
where the substance is. Now that's what he's talking
about here. Taking natural branches off the wild olive tree, the
branch has to be cut too. He got to be severed from that
old tree. He got to be severed from the
root. He's got to be severed The axe,
ain't that what John the Baptist said? He said, I'm come to preach.
And lay the axe to the root. Cut it down. Saber the branch. The only chance that branch has
is God the husband man takes that branch and cuts into that
vine. And then he shapes and cuts that
limb. And he sticks it down in there
where the substance is. And it begins to draw life. Life
flows into it. The iron has to be cut. That
branch has to be severed and grafted in. And what makes this
thing of sanctification so difficult to understand, it's one of these
things that can only be discovered by experience. That's the only
way you can know it. I stand up here and talk from
now on about it, and you go home scratching your head, what did
he say? I know he said some things, I know he read some things, but
what did he say? You won't know until God raises you from the
dead. Then you'll know what I'm saying. This thing of sanctification
is a work done in us and evidenced by us. This knowledge revealed
in us is not just abstract facts and doctrines, but it's experiential
knowledge. It's a knowledge that moves.
It's a knowledge that becomes part of you. What the believer
knows, he knows in the heart. I used to love to listen to Scott
Richardson preach because he just hammered on this point of
the heart. It's the heart. What you know,
you got to know in the heart. And what the believer knows about
sin makes him mourn. He's not a math professor when
he talks about sin. He doesn't stand up here and
say, now wait a minute, over here in chapter 11, verse 2,
it says this, and John Gill said that, and this man said that. That's not what he knows about
sin. What the believer knows about
sin makes him mourn. He just mourns. He mourns. He despises it. It makes him
to despise sin. mourns over it, and it makes
him sympathetic to others who still have it. We're sinners. So when you flare
up and say things at me, not to me, but at me, and sometimes
you do, I know it, I've got to be sympathetic with you because
I've got the same sin in me you've got in you. What the believer knows about
righteousness makes him love it, makes him desire it, shuts him up to it, makes him long for it, and makes
him to rest in that righteousness of Christ that God has imputed
to him. What he knows about justification
causes him to rejoice in it, to rest in it, and to be grateful
for it. It's not just a doctrine to Him.
It's rest for His soul. Turn with me to John chapter
6. What are you saying, preacher? I'm saying that this knowledge
is living knowledge. That's what I'm saying. I touched
on this last week over in 2 Corinthians 5. Paul talked about a knowledge
rightly judged or rightly understood in the heart. And it was a knowledge
of those who were dead but now alive. The man who was dead but
is now alive, he understands what that life was for. It was
to cause him to serve the Christ who raised him from the dead.
Now, the guy that's dead that professes life, he's still dead.
He's still dead. And he don't understand anything.
This is a knowledge that only those risen from the dead can
understand. Now, watch this here in John
chapter 6. He's conversing to religious folks here. Just take
this word Jew and apply it to all the religions of the world
who don't know Christ. Here's what he tells them. He
said, I'm the bread of life. Verse 49, your fathers ate manna
in the wilderness and are dead. This is the bread which cometh
down from heaven that a man may eat thereof and not die. I'm
the living bread. which came down from heaven.
If any man eat of this bread, he'll live forever. And the bread
that I will give is my flesh, which I'll give for the life
of the world. And the Jews began to strive among themselves, began
to argue. And now they knew better than
this. But they started to say, how
can a man eat his flesh? Huh? And then his disciples got
to thinking about it. And they said, I think those
Jews got a point. And they left him, too. And then a little later on in
that chapter, he turned to the 12, and he said, you going to
go, too? What did they tell him? Here's what separates a professing
Christian from the true believer. They said, where are we going
to go? Thou hast the words of life. Ain't that what he said?
Believers understand that. Thou hast the words of life."
Where are we going to go? Here's what I want you to see
down in verse 63. The Lord said, it is the Spirit. Now that's
a little s. See that? That's different from
the Holy Spirit. He's talking now about the living,
quickening, life-giving Word. This knowledge of God, this understanding
of God, this understanding of faith. It's the Spirit that quickeneth. The flesh profiteth nothing. Now, over in 1 Corinthians chapter
2, when he's talking about this thing of revelation and this
thing of spiritual knowledge, in verse 11, He said, what man
knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man that's in him?
There's that little s again. Even so, the things of God knoweth
no man but the Spirit of God. Now, we're not beasts who live
out our days by just instinct like a beagle dog hunts rabbits
or a foxhound chases foxes or a horse runs or a bird flies.
We don't just live by just instinct, we're rational creatures. We
have a mind. We're able to reason. We're above
all the other creatures of the earth in this aspect. We hear
things. We read things. We conceive things.
We're able to understand things. We're not just beasts. But this
reasoning and this comprehension, this thinking cannot go beyond
the nature of man. He understands everything about
a man, but he don't understand anything at all about God. And
he can't. Just like no other man, John,
can know what's on your heart unless you tell him. Huh? Well, you're not going to know
what's on God's heart either until He lets you know. That's
the only way you can know. This reasoning and this comprehension,
this thinking cannot go beyond the reach of natural men. I don't
have a clue how God reasons, how God thinks, how God comprehends. The only way for me to know that
is for Him to reveal that to me. Eternal life is to have that
Holy Spirit of God imparted to you and in you a new creation,
new life, new motive, new abilities, new freedom. Old things, he said,
are passed away and behold, all things have become new. That's
back there in 2 Corinthians again. After he tells them that this
living man understands this death and this resurrection and he
understands what it's about to serve the living God, then he
goes on to say, behold, all things are created new. These old things
are passed away. These old things, they're gone
and there's some new things. This hearing of faith is not
the old man figuring things out. It's not simply instructing this
old flesh. It's a quickening. It's a coming
into union with Christ by the Holy Spirit of God. And he tells
them, he said, it's the Spirit that quickeneth the flesh, profiteth
nothing. Huh? It's a whole new man in
you. A whole new man. The flesh profiteth nothing,
not smart flesh, male flesh, strong flesh, religious flesh.
It don't matter what kind of flesh it is. It's got no profit
in it toward these things. And then he tells them in John
6, 63, the words, he said, that I speak unto you, they are spirit
and they are light. Gospel doctrine is understood
in the heart. It says, with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness. With the heart. The heart's moved. The heart sympathizes. The heart
loves. The heart rearranges. Old Noah heard. He was talking
about faith there in Hebrews chapter 11. It said, Noah, being
warned of God, he heard what God sent. Where'd he hear God
at in his head? He didn't go over there in the
shade, lay down scratching his head and say, well, it never
rains. No, no, no, no, no. He heard
in the heart, and he went to work the next day on the ark.
He started preparing an ark. He was moved, it said, in fear,
because he heard. Isaac and Jacob believed and
lived out their days wandering around in a strange land. Joseph
believed and gave commandment to those who followed him. He
said, now there's going to come a time God's going to come down
and deliver you in about 400 years. He said, I'm going to
give you commandment right now. When the Lord comes down, pack
up my bones and take them with you. I don't want to rest here. I want to rest in Canaan. Moses believed and said he esteemed
the reproach of Christ's greater riches than the treasures of
Egypt. He packed up his bags and left. He was raised in Pharaoh's
house, heir to everything in Egypt. He said, I'd rather bear
the reproach of Christ than have it all. Joshua believed, took
his inheritance from the inhabitants of the land, and Daniel believed
entered into the den of lions. The Hebrew children believed
and was not careful how they answered the great king. Said,
we're not careful how we answer you. We're going to tell you
what we know to be so. And there's the furnace being
heated seven times hotter than, huh? We're not even going to
be careful. Oh, don't say that. You'll offend
them. He said, we don't care whether you get offended or not.
Here's the way it is. I'll throw you in the fire. Throw
me. Throw me. Faith is not of human manufacturing. It's of God. It's the gift of
God, not of works. Faith is not of the flesh, not
of man. But it is in man. That's the
point I'm trying to get across to you. It is in man. God's not going to believe for
you, John. You're going to have to believe. God's not going to
repent for you. You have to repent. God is not
going to serve for you. You are going to serve. You are
going to bow. Turn with me to the book of Philippians. Paul opens his letter to the
Philippians, the same as he does in the rest of his New Testament
epistles. He gives thanks to God the Father and to the Son,
Jesus Christ. And he acknowledges their fellowship
in the Gospel. Evidences of the Spirit of God
bringing forth the fruit of life in them. Here's what I want you
to see. Verse 6. Now this is a man who
stood up and said in the book of Galatians, he said, when it
pleased God, he said, you know what I was before. You know that
I stood out there while Stephen preached in the power of God's
Spirit, and I stood out there and held the coats of the men
who stoned him. You know what I was. You know who I am. But when it pleased God, who
separated me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace
to reveal His Son in me, that I might be able to preach Him
to you." He said, I quit conferring with flesh and blood. I didn't
feel a need to go down there and address the apostles. I didn't feel a need to do anything.
God gave me this. He revealed Himself in me. He
separated me to be an apostle and a preacher to the Gentiles.
And now he's preaching to these folks over here years later over
here in Philippians. Look down here in verse 6. All
these things that he opened up and told to them from the beginning.
Now listen to what he says here. Being confident of this very
thing that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform
it unto the day of Jesus Christ. That's my hope. My hope is not
based on What you do and what I do is based on what God does. What God does. In chapter 2,
he tells them in detail how the gospel operates. It operates
through the mind and understanding of Christ. And it works in us,
causing us to imitate that same attitude, that same spirit, that
same conduct that he has. And with the mind of Christ and
this understanding of faith, verse 12, Philippians chapter
2, He tells them, work out your own salvation now in fear and
trembling. For it's God that worketh in
you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Huh? You work, but not really. For it's God that worketh in
you. You believe, but you can't. But you will if God works in
you. Huh? Can you believe? Can you believe that you're a
son of God? Can you believe that? If you
can, it's because God worketh in you. Can you rest in that? Are you moved by that? Does that
move you that God Almighty has set you apart for His glory? You moved by that? That God chose
you for no reason in you, strictly, purely by His grace to raise
up a trophy for His glory? You believe that, then it's God
that worketh in you. Otherwise, you couldn't do it.
You couldn't do it. And I tell you this, when you
truly believe that, everything in your life gonna revolve around
it. It'll just change. Right now, it revolves around
you. I seen this thing about the moon
on TV. They speculating that the moon
Eventually, it's just going to fly off into space. I forget
how much they say it every year. It just keeps going a little
farther away, a little farther away, a little farther away.
God put the moon up there for a purpose. When the purpose fulfilled,
the moon gone. So is the earth, so is the sun,
so are the planets, so is the universe. Until then, it ain't
going nowhere. This whole thing is about God.
It's about God's glory. But brethren, when I say to you,
believe, and God commands you to believe, He means for you
to believe. He's not going to believe for you. You're going
to believe. And in believing, you're going to learn this. It's
God that worked in you. Huh? There's no other way you
can believe. There's no other way you can...
And the evidence of it is that your whole life has changed.
If your life hasn't changed, you don't have faith of God.
You just got head-knocked. That true branch, when God slit
that vine and took that branch and stuck it in there where the
substance is, the substance flowed into the vine. And it brought
forth fruit. And every branch that didn't
have fruit, God cut it off. Because it wasn't stuck down
in the substance. Faith lays hold of the substance
because it's of God. And it produces faith. Produces
faith. Don't start this thing being
fruit inspectors. Don't start running around here,
I'll tell you what, I just don't like how that guy acts. I don't
think he could be a blue. Don't do that. Don't do that.
I'll tell you, I've been around fruit trees all my life and every
branch don't have the same amount of fruit on it. Some branches
just almost break off from fruit and some just has a single pear
or a single apple or something. Don't try to be fruit inspectors.
I'm going to try to do that. But I'm going to tell you this,
there ain't going to be any fruit apart from God. Apart from God.