Abiding in Christ

All right before we get started I do want
to make one comment last time I was up here a few weeks ago
Right as I said a man at the end my wife’s alarm went off
on her phone if you know anything about my wife if you didn’t recognize
it it was the theme to the Muppets and That’s what she has for all
her alarms. So Katie, did you turn it off?
Thank you. Just want to make sure. All right, let’s pray. Holy God, we thank you for the
opportunity to come before you today to offer ourselves to you
in worship, to give thanks to you. continue to do for us and
that You will do for us. We pray that we would be Your
faithful servants, that we learn today that we hear Your Word,
that we abide in it, that we learn from it, and most importantly
that we apply it to our lives, Lord. We thank You for all You’ve
done, O wonderful, gracious, and holy God. In Jesus’ name
we pray, amen. Okay, our scripture for today
is John 15, 1-11. I’ll give you a moment to find
that, and then I’ll just frame up a couple of points here. I’m
going to, we’ll read the passage, it’s a little bit long, so we’ll
read the passage, and I wanted to set the context a little bit
for the sermon today, give some background. Then we’ll read it
again, because I really want to make sure it sticks, and then
we’ll get into the passage itself. So, let’s go ahead and read from
John 15, verses 1 through 11. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does
not bear fruit, He takes away. And every branch that does bear
fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you
are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide
in me, and I in you. As a branch cannot bear fruit
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me, you
can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me,
he is thrown away like a branch and withers. And the branches
are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide
in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and
it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my
love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to
you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.
So, first question, why this book, why this chapter and these
verses? God has put this topic on my heart for many months now.
After reading much and listening to a variety of sermons and teachings
on the subject, I would have to say that I’ve become consumed
with knowing more about abiding in Christ. This topic has been
a very challenging thing for me as a man, a father, and a
husband. I was able to see how much I had been missing out on
being closer to God. This was due to a variety of
reasons. Principally, it was because of the cares of this
world, but mostly because I’m a big, dumb man. Bent towards knowledge and intellectualism,
I often minimized or even ignored the key element of prayer at
times during my Christian walk. I know many of you can relate.
For me, this was like an epiphany, an eye-opening experience in
learning what abiding is and why it is critical for all believers.
The central focus in this parable is regarding the people of God
abiding in Christ through the Holy Spirit to grow in Christ’s
likeness and to bear much fruit, thereby enabling our joy to be
full. Abiding is the key to our joy in this life as we commune
with Christ and are transformed more into his likeness during
our pilgrimage here on earth. Today we’ll answer the following
questions. Why was it so vital for our Lord to give this message
to the disciples and to us just before his crucifixion? And second,
why is abiding so critical for us? And third, what does it mean
to abide? And fourth, finally, what must
we do to abide? Abiding is vital and even critical
to our life as a believer. It really is impossible for a
Christian to not abide in Christ, to at least some degree. Once
sealed with the Holy Spirit at the time of salvation, the abiding
begins. The abiding is different among
true believers in degree, but not in kind. It all comes down
to how close you are to God in real terms. This abiding is part
of the process of sanctification. This is the process of growing
in Christ that is enabled, guided, and supported by the Holy Spirit,
that is sealed in us at salvation. This lifelong process enables
us to be transformed more and more into the likeness of Christ
in thought, word, and deed. Martin Lloyd-Jones said, So just a little bit of background
here on this passage. Set the table, this is a parable,
and so of course we don’t want to go beyond appropriate interpretive
boundaries by sticking to the core elements of the story. And
Jesus was relating a simple story to illustrate this spiritual
lesson. And a parable uses comparison or illustration that helps make
it stick in our minds. In this case, the comparison
involves a vine and compares to God, Christ, the Holy Spirit,
and believers. In chapter 14, just before this
passage, after the dismissal of Judas, Jesus tells the disciples
that He is the way, the truth, and the life. He also promises
the Holy Spirit. Jesus then gives the parable
of the vine in chapter 15. Remember that Jesus is conveying
a massive amount of teaching and doctrine after the Last Supper.
late in the evening, up until the point where he’s arrested
in the garden. Christ knew he had but little time to talk intimately
with the disciples. There’s little doubt in my mind
that he conveyed much of this prior to this moment, but you
can see there’s almost an element of desperation and desire to
ensure he tells them all things before he is crucified. And this
to me was Christ showing his human side as well as his real
love and concern for the disciples and what was about to fall upon
them and himself. Now let’s take a moment to look
at the word abide. In the Greek, it’s mino. What
does it mean in this context? Well, it’s used 10 times in this
passage, so it’s clearly of importance. Suggested synonyms can include
to continue, to dwell in, to endure, to be present. and to
remain. This sort of gives us that forensic,
physical perspective of staying put. But there’s also the spiritual
view of this, which adds additional depth and texture in showing
us abiding, and showing how abiding is inside of us as well, not
just outside. In Romans 8.10, we understand
that the Spirit is in believers. In 1 Corinthians 3.16, we see
that the Spirit of God dwells in believers. In 2 Corinthians
6.16 we are told that we are the new temple of the living
God. And in Galatians 2.20 we see that Christ lives in us.
The spiritual reality of the Spirit abiding in us gives us
true ability to remain, to be present, to dwell, to endure,
to be present beyond just the physical. The spiritual indwelling
assures us and it ensures that true believers are sealed by
the Holy Spirit and saved for all of eternity. Now, the vine. Let’s take a moment to look at
the vine. It’s a common illustration throughout the Word, and I was
taken aback by some of these comparisons. It’s definitely
very present in the Old Testament and the New Testament. The vine
is referenced in many good books, including Mothers and Wives.
Ezekiel 1910, your mother was like a vine in your vineyard,
planted by the waters. It was fruitful and full of branches
because of abundant waters. Also in Psalm 128, three and
four, your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house,
your children like olive plants around your table. Behold, for
thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. It was often
used to refer in reference to whether she was faithful as a
true vine or a degenerate, wild vine that turned from the Lord.
Moses speaks of Israel in Deuteronomy 32, 32, and 33. For their vine
is the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their
grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters bitter. Their
wine is the venom of serpents and the deadly poison of cobras.
Vines can grow wild and degenerate, get off path, stop bearing fruit,
and be withered. We see in Jeremiah 2.21, they
were the noble true vine. Yet I planted you a choice vine,
holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate
and become a wild vine? It showed how Israel strayed
from the Lord. But in John 15, Jesus show us how His people
stay on track by abiding in Him. We see here how we are to remain
connected to Christ, to live, to thrive, and to have that eternal
life and salvation. One final point with respect
to the theology around this passage. There are two primary views on
how you interpret the branches here. The first view sees all
branches as believers and the branches to be burned are the
bad works done by believers. The second view sees the non-fruit-bearing
branches as unbelievers. Perhaps they pose, pretend, but
don’t realize they are tares amongst the wheat, but they were
never truly saved. I take this second view. This
also seems to be the most preferred view among preachers, teachers,
and theologians from the Reformation through today. Under the second
view, if one does not truly abide and does not bear any fruit,
they are not saved or sealed by the Holy Spirit. The Word
is clear that the wheat and the tares must coexist until Christ’s
return. We can see unproductive branches
in the same manner. I can understand the argument
of the other view, but believe this one is more faithful to
the context of this passage. And we’ll talk a little bit more
about this as we get into the verses here that we’re going
to look at. So now, just one more time, let’s read John 15,
1 through 11. I am the true vine, and my Father
is the vinedresser. Every branch in me that does
not bear fruit, he takes away. And every branch that does bear
fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you
are clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Abide in
me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit
by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless
you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me, and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you
can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me,
he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches
are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. If you abide
in me, my words abide in you. Ask whatever you wish, and it
shall be done for you. By this my Father is glorified,
that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my
love. If you keep my commandments,
you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commandments
and abide in his love. These things I have spoken to
you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full.
Okay, so let’s start reading through and reviewing each of
these passages. Chapter 15, verse 1. I am the true vine, and my
father is the vinedresser. Obviously, we’re told that the
father, he tends to the vine. He seeks to make it as productive
as possible. The son is the vine, the very
source of the sap or the Holy Spirit that provides life for
the branches. The father is the vine. planting,
pruning, and tending of the vines in a vineyard. The goal is to
optimize the quality and abundance of fruit on each and every branch.
Verse 2, every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes
away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it
may bear more fruit. The fruit-bearing branches are
the true believers. Those that do not bear any fruit
are not true abiding branches. The vinedresser will prune these
unfruitful branches and take them away. Those that bear fruit,
much or little, are pruned by the vinedresser that they may
bear even more fruit. The vine dresser constantly trims
the shoots from the fruit bearing branches so that all the sap
is concentrated on their fruit bearing. The vine sends nutrients
from the root of the plant to the branches by the sap, which
then thrive and bear this additional fruit. The branches exist only
because of the vine. They bear what the vine provides.
These bearing branches are his people. Only those who are truly
part of the vine will bear fruit approved by God. necessary, even
on strong branches, to improve their productivity and to bear
more fruit. The Father prunes us to purify
and sanctify by the circumstances of our lives in which He places
us. Pruning is the perfecting process
for us to bear more fruit in Him. Verse 3, you are clean because
of the word that I have spoken to you.” Jesus is speaking to
His disciples at this point after Judas is left. The disciples
have received the word and they are saved. Earlier Jesus says
in 13.9-11 that not all are clean or saved. This was spoken while
Judas was still with them. In the Bible, clean often is
used to indicate the state of righteousness. The disciples
were believers, having accepted Christ’s gospel according to
the full counsel of his teaching and preaching of his word. The
word of Christ, or the gospel, was the instrument of cleaning,
along with regeneration, making them and us pure and consecrated
by his imputation of righteousness to us. Verse 4, Abide in me,
and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it
abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. In
verses 1 and 2, we just saw the roles in the parable, how they
were defined, as well as what occurs to those who do not bear
fruit. In verse 3, those who are truly in the vine are those
that are saved, or those that are not clean. Here in verse
4, we’re told that we cannot bear any fruit on our own apart
from the vine. And as we reviewed, abide here
means to remain, settle in, stay put, or be present. As indicated,
this speaks to the physical, but it also speaks to the spiritual
aspect of staying, remaining, being present, or settling in
continuously with the Holy Spirit. Abiding is only possible with
the Holy Spirit that dwells in each and every believer and enables
us to do what we cannot do without Him. The sap of the vine only
flows if we abide. While we are sealed upon faith
and regeneration, we need to not hinder the work of the Holy
Spirit in ourselves or others through disobedience. Abiding
is to work with the Holy Spirit in our sanctification. Bearing fruit here is for true
believers. The fruit is that which was ordained by God for
each of His people. There are those that do many
works, but that doesn’t mean that all their works have been
ordained by God. Ephesians 2.10, For we are His
worship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared
beforehand, that we should walk in them. 1 John 2.17, and all
is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the
will of God abides forever. Abiding is a reciprocating activity.
The Spirit initiates it in us. Even here, as in all that we
do, we respond with the assistance of the Holy Spirit. Abiding is
the only true way we can bear fruit in service or works God
has ordained. And this is also true in manifesting
the fruit of the Spirit. It is important to note that
we bear fruit, we don’t produce it. Producing indicates some
action on the part of the branch. as if it has some innate ability
in and of itself. Bearing makes it clear that the
fruit comes forth solely by the will and effort of the vine and
the work of the sap. Verse five. I am the vine, you
are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in
him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you
can do nothing.” Here we see verse 4 again said in a different
way to emphasize the only way that we can bear fruit is to
abide in Him. The nature of man is unfruitful and destitute of
everything good and so cannot please God. This is why only
fruit borne via Christ and the Holy Spirit is true fruit. Verse
six, if anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like
a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown
into the fire, and burned. We cannot bear godly fruit without
him. Any fruit produced by a branch without Christ is not true fruit
and will be pruned by the Father. These branches will be burned
in God’s good time. Remember that the parable is
focused on branches bearing fruit. Abiding is only possible for
true believers, so unbelievers would have unproductive branches.
All true believers with the Holy Spirit sealing them would produce
some fruit of some kind. Romans 11.20 tells us that the
branches were broken off for their unbelief. So the breaking
off of branches here of unbelievers aligns with the view presented.
The fruitless branches that are cut off are useless and so burned.
Great caution is to be shown in any kind of assessment of
the branches or their fruit. We must strive to guide and teach
the Word fully, but only God knows the true state of anyone’s
salvation. Of course, we must apply reason and discipline based
on our fallible selves, with total dependence upon the Holy
Spirit, to keep us from making mistakes or judging inappropriately.
This should engender a spirit of grace and passion to reach
those unfruitful branches or tares, especially if they’re
among us. This is why we must always proclaim the Gospel in
all things. We must graciously and humbly seek to give all the
truth and allow the Spirit to work in them. We must remember
to not assume that everyone has heard the true Gospel. Verse
seven, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever
you wish and it will be done for you. This makes clear that
Christ’s word is key and that it will drive you to the truth
in Christ. The word is the gospel that he proclaimed. As we abide
and are sanctified, our desires and our requests change from
worldly and selfish to the requests and desires of God. We are transformed
with Christ’s thoughts and words and all things in the process
of abiding and bearing fruit. We are lovingly driven and drawn
closer to Christ, and resulting in much less of us and much more
of Christ. This does not mean that God will
grant what you wish that isn’t in accordance with His will and
timing. Our requests become aligned with His requests. Verse 8, By
this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and
so prove, my disciples. bearing fruit, and proving to
be His disciples, glorifies God. We can’t bear God-ordained fruit
unless we are His. Verse 9, as the Father has loved
me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. The Father
loves Christ, Christ loves us, and we return that love to God. The love of Christ is a vast,
deep, wide, immeasurable love that is the knowledge of man
and can never be fully comprehended. We see this reinforced in Romans
7, 4 through 6. I’ll give you a moment. This
is a good passage to follow along with. Romans 7, 4 through 6.
Romans 7, 4 through 6. Likewise, my brothers, you also
have died to the law through the body of Christ, so that you
may belong to another, to Him who has been raised from the
dead, in order that we may bear fruit for God. For while we were
living in the flesh, our sinful passions were housed by the law.
We are at work in our members to bear fruit for death. now
we are released from the law, having died to that which held
us captive, so that we serve in the new way of the Spirit,
and not in the old way of the written code.” So, to me, I see
two types of fruit here. One that leads to death for ourselves,
and one unto life after salvation that’s for God. Verse 10, “‘If
you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as
I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. Jesus
made this same point in John 14, 21 when He was speaking to
His disciples. Whoever has My commandments and
keeps them, he it is who loves Me. And he who loves Me will
be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself
to him. This obedient love should be
the home and the abiding place of the believer’s soul. Obeying
the Word, as we’re told in verse 7, and Christ’s commandments
as here in verse 10, you will abide in His love, just as Christ
did with the Father. The Holy Spirit, sealed in us
and growing in us, helps us to learn, apply, and obey. We obey
out of love, gratitude, and thankfulness, not legalism, as if we could
gain any merit from it. Verse 11, these things I have
said, my joy in you, and that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be full.” This is why Jesus tells us these things
about abiding. Abiding is the means by which we can have His
joy. This joy comes from Christ through the Spirit. We are freed
from guilt. This joy drives away the dread
and anxiety in our hearts. It gives us that calm cheerfulness.
It is not fleeting. It wells up within us and spills
over so that others can see. The key point in understanding
our relationship with Christ is to truly grasp that we abide
entirely by God’s grace and the work of the Holy Spirit. God
initiates it, and the Spirit enables our response, as indicated
to us in Philippians 2.13, for it is God who works in you, both
to will and to work for His good pleasure. This process of sanctification,
or growing in Christ’s likeness by the Holy Spirit, is where
the abiding occurs each and every day. So from this parable, I’ve
noted three principal parts that we’ve learned. First, we have
no power of doing good except that which comes from Christ.
Second, we are rooted in Him, pruned by the Father to bear
more fruit. Third, we are fed, supplied, supported, and protected
by the Holy Spirit. We must have the seed of the
vine implanted in us, sealing of the Holy Spirit through regeneration
in order to bear fruit for God. God wants us to bear more fruit.
As branches, we can seek no strength anywhere else but the vine or
in Christ. This discipline, these tests
and trials bring us as his sons and daughters closer to him.
The Father uses affliction to make us more responsive to his
word, making us more sensitive to the truth of scripture. Here
are a few supporting scriptures I pulled to affirm the command
and benefits to abiding. Psalm 91, 1, and 2 illustrates
God’s protection. He who dwells in the shelter
of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I
will say to the Lord, my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom
I trust. Here, obviously, we see God’s
lovingly provides protection, security, and cover for his people.
In 1 John 2, we hear of the good servant. And now, little children,
abide in him, so that when he appears, we may have confidence
and not shrink from him in shame at his coming. If we abide, we
will be pleasing to him, obeying, praying, knowing, and serving,
so we will have no fear at his return. Let’s review what hinders
and enables abiding in us. What hinders it? I top this off.
My topic on this is pride. My heading on this is pride and
arrogance. First, what hinders abiding? Of course, if you’re
unsaved, you can’t truly abide. If you’re unsaved, you’re unregenerated.
And the rest of these, assuming that you’re saved, you can still
be selfish, narcissistic, self-confident, self-dependent, and content.
I think these are all very much true of ourselves today, especially
for believers. We can all fall under this trap
of this pride and arrogance trap hindering our abiding in Christ.
And what are some of the things that enable abiding? It all starts
with humility. First, we’re saved, must be saved,
and sealed by the Holy Spirit. But As we abide, we become more
God-focused, more God-honoring, more God-serving, become more
honest, more pure. And you see the exact opposite
of what we saw and what hinders abiding in Christ. So, focusing
and abiding in Christ will increase these things in us and others. Remember that believers vary
by degree depending on where they are in the process of sanctification
and their abiding. We must remember that we need
to recognize that we are no longer to gratify the flesh. We are
to be led by the Spirit. If we understand, believe, and
apply, then the Holy Spirit can aid us to increasingly abide
in Christ. I’m going to pause here because
I’d like us to turn to Galatians 5, Galatians 5, 16 through 26. This kind of puts meat on the
bone here for what we’re talking about. Galatians 5, 16-26. Here we hear Paul speaking to
us. and the desires of the spirit
are against the flesh. For these are opposed to each
other, to keep you from doing the thing you want to do. But
if you are led by the spirit, you are not under the law. Now
the works of the flesh are evident. Sexual immorality, impurity,
sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits
of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness,
orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before,
that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom
of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience,
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against
such things there is no law, and those who belong to Christ
Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.
If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the
Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another or envying
one another. Clearly, believers are to have nothing to do with
the works of the flesh described in 19 through 21. Those who practice
such things will not inherit the kingdom or abide in Christ.
We all still sin, but to do these things, to practice them, to
continue in them, is not possible for true Christians. As indicated
earlier, as we abide and increase, we will manifest more and more
fruit, as indicated in verses 22 and 23, the fruit of the Spirit.
Verse 24 tells us what those in Christ have done. They’ve
crucified sin. They’ve mortified it. They’ve
repented of it. They’ve turned from it. In verse
26, this speaks to spiritual pride. Do not become conceited,
provoking, or envying. There is no elevation or hierarchy
among God’s people. I don’t know how long ago it
was I finally realized this, but when we get to heaven, we’ll
realize God only has children. Standing next to Spurgeon, or
standing next to Calvin, or whoever your Christian you know, spirit
animal is, whoever you look up to, they’ll be there on the same
level with you. There is no elevation or hierarchy.
We must walk and abide in humility, seeing others as better than
ourselves. So let’s take a few minutes to
talk about applying what we’ve learned. First thing we have
to, in applying is that we have to admit that we have not obeyed
the command to abide as we should or that we must as we must. We’ve
not obeyed or understood what it means to abide. God commands
us for our benefit in His glory. We must abide in Him through
the work of the Holy Spirit. This is what we are called and
commanded to do. Surely this lack of abiding is
obvious in the church today. I’m speaking of those churches
that proclaim Christ and yet are lukewarm. They are filled
with content cultural believers. It’s my firm belief that most
of these believers live this way out of ignorance and laziness,
and I preach to myself. Ignorance of the Holy Spirit,
lazy with respect to not studying, praying, and applying, or serving
due to comfort and materialism. So, how do we abide? We must
fight. We must fight against comfort,
against materialism, against material goods. We must fight
against cynicism and cold indifference. We must fight against all that
the world and Satan are producing and trying to divert us from
God and focusing on God and abiding in God. All of these things undermine
God, the Word, Christ, the Spirit, and the Church. For us not to
abide is not God failing us, it’s us failing God. So what
do we do? I couldn’t think of a good term,
but creating a virtual closet, a place people go into their
prayer closet, people have quiet times and everything. I think
that’s the key here, is that you want to have some place you
can go without any of the world’s diversion. I think it’s a good
idea to be separated until you’re disciplined enough to do this
with other things around, but you need to protect this at all
costs and keep to it each and every day, eliminate those distractions
and the busyness of the day-to-day. Most of it’s going to be in our
head, but we don’t want to have any distractions, no headphones,
no music, no visual conversions. I was raised to study with a
TV on. Not recommended. So I say that
as preaching to myself. But find this place that you
can protect and hold for yourself, so that as you grow in your ability
to abide with God, that you can take that to other places. In
the car, at work, before meetings. All the places in the world where
this stuff occurs, we need to be praying unceasingly. But we
need to develop that ability. It doesn’t just come overnight
and Satan attacks that at every possible moment and turn. Key
elements to achieving this, the three things are the word, prayer,
and the spirit. In the word, to abide in Christ
is to be immersed in scripture. We must read it, study it, ingest
it, and digest it. The word really needs to become
part of us. It even needs to become part of our very DNA.
Prayer. How many times have we heard,
I’ve been guilty of this to myself, do your things, take your actions
the American way. Go out there and take care of
yourself. If all else fails, then we’ll go to prayer. Prayer
needs to be first among all things, not the last. And it should be
something we’re doing consistently and continually so that it’s
not even something to think about going last. This is something
that’s become very personal and understood to the depth of my
bones over the last couple of months. As we do this, we are
praying unceasingly and we’re doing it in an ongoing manner.
We become selfless and become much more God-focused. We become
transformed in our focus and our desires and our requests.
With the Spirit, it becomes the very lubricant that helps us
to abide. Praying more and more, and I know there’s prayer warriors
out there, as you pray more and more, it becomes easier to pray. At first it’s very difficult,
and Satan will try to break you from that, divert you, keep you
from doing that. But I would encourage you to
move forward on that. Charles Spurgeon said it well,
if you want that splendid power in prayer, you must remain in
loving, living, lasting, conscious, practical, and abiding union
with Lord Jesus Christ. The third is the Spirit. Remember
that the Spirit wraps around and enables everything that we
do for God. Don’t exasperate the Spirit. Recognize that you
cannot do this by yourself. And do not get ahead of the Spirit,
as we just saw about spiritual pride. Stay within the guidance
of the Spirit. Many examples to this. My wife
related one where, if anybody knows my wife, she’s a very godly
woman. I’m very fortunate to have her
in my life. I don’t know what I could possibly
have done for God to give me her. But she made a good point
about this with respect to not getting ahead of the spirit,
where There was a time several years ago when we had 10 kids,
we were watching, she was watching many other kids in our family
in the neighborhood, and yet she still took on the position
to be a board member at the charter school here in town where some
of our kids were attending. And she did some good things
there, but now looking back on it, she feels like that was where
she was getting ahead of the spirit, doing something she thought that
was good, that was helpful, but it may not have been what God
wanted for her at that time. So, lots of good examples you
could run through this, talking to good, godly people about this
as you get into these things before you act, and waiting on
the Spirit to make it clear to you. Third, the mortification
of sin. God is holy. God is pure. Again,
don’t be caught in the view that you can be sinning and not repenting
and still have the spirit flowing in you and being close to God.
The spirit cannot abide with that sin. God is holy. We must
purge sin. We must repent of our sin. We
must do whatever it takes to communion with God. I always
think of the old, I know I’m old, but the old days we had
the landline and the cord. If that line gets cut you’re
not talking, you’re not communicating. And I see that now as if I allow
sin to be in my life and not repent of it, not mortify it,
how am I supposed to reconnect? I need to get rid of that so
that I can be reconnected to God and abide in Him. As you
do this, and as you stay closer to the Spirit, you will begin
to see your mind, your heart, your desires, your actions, and
your behaviors transformed. You’ll become more focused on
God. Things that I thought were okay five years ago, two years
ago. I can’t imagine doing those things now or being involved
in those things. What’s the impact for us if we do these things
for God? We’ll see an increased manifestation
of the greater fruit of the Spirit. We’ll see an increased manifestation
of service and works approved by God and prepared for you.
And we’ll see an increased manifestation of unceasing meditative prayer.
And we’ll see an increased manifestation of diligent study, digestion,
and application of the word. And finally, an increased manifestation
of passion for our fellow believers and for the unsaved. Our continuing
internal state is one of repentance towards God, faith towards Christ,
and holiness in life and content. Martin Lloyd-Jones, now the word
abiding makes people become sentimental. They think abiding as something
passive and clinging, but to abide in Christ is to do what
he tells you positively and to pray without ceasing. Abiding
is a tremendously active thing. So, in conclusion, I just want
to wrap up by covering, we began by indicating we would answer
four key questions. The first, which was why was it so vital
for our Lord to give this message to the disciples and us just
before His crucifixion? It was essential for the disciples
and for us to understand how they are to abide in Christ after
He was gone in our lives, and that the Helper would be coming
and guiding them after Pentecost. They had Christ with them up
to that point, and then they were going to lose Christ. So
I believe it was critical for the Lord to explain how that
transition was going to occur. Second question, why is abiding
so critical for us? Well, we cannot grow and become
more like Christ without abiding. You’re fooling yourself if you
think you can. And why is it critical? Think about the astonishing
privilege that we have in communing and being led by our Holy God.
He condescends and wants to interact, commune, relate, to guide you
in every moment of your life. Do we really understand that
and what that means for us? The third question, what does
it mean to abide? It means pursuing the Holy God
and remaining in Him as He commands. It means that we give ourselves
wholly over to God as His children. And it means we mortify all sin
that offends our perfectly holy God. It means we prove that we
love Him more than anything or anyone else. Question number
four, what must we do to abide? Know your God by His Word. Much
of the apostasy we see today is because people don’t know
who God is. They certainly don’t know who He is by His word. They’ve
created a false God, a fake God that is not the true God of the
Bible. pray in the Spirit unceasingly to maintain communion. Yes, pray
unceasingly. I know that’s hard. I’ve read
many things about this. How can we do that? Well, I have
found when you’re at a point of real need and you have something
going on in your life that really makes you wonder about tomorrow,
let alone today. It becomes very easy to pray unceasingly to God
and to be thankful for everything, even what you’ve just lost. So
I would say pray that God would bring you into those trials and
tests and tribulations because it’s far more important that
you become dependent on Him and understand that as opposed to
keeping whatever it is you had before that kept you away from
Him. And we need to see ourselves rightly before God in all humility,
that we are sinful. Our gracious God has given us
a way into salvation despite what we deserve. And manifesting
the fruit of the spirit is always a hard one for me to understand
because you often think of posing. I’m just going to be nice. I’m
going to say the right things. But that’s fake. That’s false. And as you become closer to God,
you do see these things happening almost against my best efforts
to work the other way. So I would highly encourage you
that. for that. Bear fruit in works and service
prepared by God. Of course, as you become closer
to God, He will open up more opportunities. I’ve noticed that
in my own life, I’ve noticed it in my wife and my children,
that as you become closer to Him, these opportunities to reach
out and help other people, He opens the doors for them. You
don’t have to chase them. And finally, what must we do
to abide? Repent and mortify all sin. He calls us to be holy. We cannot do it on our own, but
we do have the Holy Spirit to help us get closer to Him all
these days of our lives. Andrew Murray says, a soul filled
with large thoughts of the vine will be a strong branch and will
abide confidently in Him. Be much occupied with Jesus and
believe much in Him as the true vine. The Father that loves his
people calls us to obey and commune with him. On the day of Christ’s
return and the great white throne judgment, I pray that we would
all hear from him. Well done, my good and faithful
servant. For those who are not yet believers, while you cannot
abide in God’s endless love until you repent, have faith, and are
saved, becoming one of His imperfect children, you can hear His call
today. You can hear His calling you
to salvation in Christ. The Spirit of the Living God
will fill you and seal you as His for all eternity. If you
have any questions about the gift of salvation or simply would
like to talk more about it, please reach out to any of us. This
is why His people are here, to worship Him and proclaim Him.
Let’s pray.