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As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except the divide in the vine, no more can give ye abide in me. I am the vine, dear. The branches either divide us in me, and I am him. The same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. If Amanda bites not in me, he is can't force of the branch. And his wizard and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you.
You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciple. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue thee in my love. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in My love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments. And if I am his love, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Dear my friends, if you do whatsoever I command you, henceforth I call you as servants, for the servant knows not what is Lord to us. But I have called you friends for all things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And ordained you that you should go forth, go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever you shall ask for the Father in my name, he may give it to you.
I think it would be helpful just to back up a little bit and reiterate some comments we made in connection with the context of this chapter. We refer to these chapters as a whole as the Upper Room ministry, but all of it was not given in the Upper Room, as we mentioned the other day.
The break comes at the end of the 14th chapter where He says, Arise, let us go. Hence the ministry that He gives them in the upper room in the 13th and 14th chapter sets them in relationship with Himself, but not in relationship with Himself. In the way that He had been with them as they had walked with Him during His public ministry, He was now setting them in relationship with Himself as the man in glory.
Anticipating the work of Calvary and then his return to the Father, someone said one time that Christianity could be summed up in one word, Christ. But that needs explanation because the disciples knew Christ here in this world. But it tells us henceforth know we know man after the flesh. Though we knew Christ after the flesh, henceforth know we him no more. We've been brought into relationship now with Christ in glory.
We linked to him our head by the Spirit of God, which was given on the day of Pentecost.
But now in these chapters that follow the 15th and 16th chapter, he's going to set them in relationship to the with the fact that they are still here in this world. Because as we have been reminded, brethren, we are still here and we've enjoyed these meetings together. But I often think of this little expression at the end of a conference in the end of the 14th chapter. Arise, let us go, hands. We're going to have to leave this place. We've enjoyed the presence of the Lord collectively.
We've enjoyed a little forecast of heaven. We've had the word before us and Christ before us, but we're going to have to arise and go. Hence now, if the Lord leaves us here, we're going to have to go back to the everyday operation of life. Some are going to go to school, some are going to go to work, Some are going to go back to their homes and neighborhoods in which they operate. And So what he wants now is not just the fact, the realization that there's a day coming when we're going to reflect fully the glories of Christ.
But he wants something of that reflection in our lives now. And so as they leave the upper room and go back out into the world, the first thing he brings before them is fruit bearing. Fruit bearing is not preaching. It's not what we say. It might be what we say does bear fruit. I create the fruit of the lips, and the sacrifice of praise is fruit, and so on. But this fruit is really the expression of price in our lives.
And as we leave this place, brethren, may there be an exercise with us that we would be continuing the enjoyment of the Person of Christ and occupied with himself, that there might be that expression of Christ in our lives to those around us in the world in which we operate.
00:05:09
So in chapter 14, it's the Father South. It's heaven.
In chapter 15, it's the vine and the Earth.
And so it brings us back, as Jim just said, and the context of it is on earth and life on earth. And the disciples were going to continue to go on when the Lord Jesus himself had gone back to the Father's house, but he wanted them to be fruit bearers. And just also notice, it's interesting, he doesn't say you're the fruit, but you're the branch, and the branch is what bears the fruit. And so the life is that which needs to be a branch in the vine.
In order to be able to for the vine to produce its fruit. And so it's well for us to be nourished by the vine by the Lord in our lives so that God may produce fruit through that for himself. As Jim just said, it's, it's the manner, it's the character of life that's particularly he's bringing before them and he's saying you have to abide in me, the vine in order for.
That branch and those leaves to end up bearing fruit for myself.
The the person that said that, uh.
Christianity is Christ is right, uh, because as he says here, I'm the true vine. Israel was the vine, not the true vine. He failed. Israel failed. So who is the vine? What is the vine? The vine is Christ and we're branches in that vine to, to reproduce the fruit which he produced when he was here to reproduce that now in the vine.
In him.
But Christianity and Judaism are far apart. Far apart indeed. And the Judaism has failed completely. And anything, of course, entrusted to man has failed.
But, uh, divine is Christ. The fruit is the reproduction of Christ in each of our lives. That's what he wants to see.
And he says fruit and more fruit.
In the second verse further down, it says much fruit in the fifth verse, so there's increase of production.
If we can abide in the virus.
Think of what it meant to the Father as he looked down and saw that Blessed One producing.
That which was pleasing to the father and everything he said and everything he did, everything was perfection. Now he says I I want to see that repeated over and over again in each one of us.
It's a solemn thing, isn't it, to realize that really all that this world is going to see of Christ is what is reflected in your life and mine, in the life of the believer and especially brethren in a day when they've closed the pages of God's Word, they've turned their back on the light of the Word, what is the world going to see of Christ? I say it's what's reproduced in your life and mind where epistles known and read of all men. And so as we leave here, it's easy to be a Christian in circumstances like this, easy to enjoy the Lord.
And these are wonderful times to strengthen us and build us up, very necessary times. But to be exercised as we leave this place and to go back. They're going to be something that the world is going to see of Christ when they see us at work or at school tomorrow, when they see us in the neighborhood, Is there going to be something reflected of Christ in our lives that's fruit for God's glory?
Very interesting thing about fruit.
Fruit does not make a noise.
And so as they people look upon you and me, it's not a matter of how well we speak, but it's how well we live.
00:10:01
Verse two He says, Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh, and away I.
Believe in its context here the Lord was speaking to the disciples and Judas is an example of what she's speaking about here. Judas was one who had the association with the Lord Jesus. He had been identified as the disciple of the Lord, but there was no fruit in Judas because he did not have a living connection with the vine. And so you might say here in the chapter 13, I believe it is he's he's removed.
He goes out and that we see no more of him as as part of the vine. And so it can be in this room there can be a person who.
Is here professing to be a Christian and so on, but you're not in the vine unless you are you're not a branch in the vine unless you are livingly connected through faith in the Lord Jesus you're saved. We use the expression to in order to be a true branch in the vine and if not, God often allows those things to be separated. Maybe not just when the end of life comes and the great white throne judgment comes but.
Very often when there isn't reality, after a while a person says, I'm not interested in that stuff anymore. And as it were, they're separated. They go out just as Judas went out and for Judas he went out and it was night. And souls can go out from the presence of the Lord Jesus and it's night for that soul and it's heading toward an eternal darkness. What a solemn thing if there is somebody here that.
Umm, outwardly you've been brought up among the Lord's people and you have been exposed to the Lord Jesus through his word and through his people, through true branches in the vine. But.
I think in the in verse two it's real, but in verse six it's false. That's Judas Iscariot in verse 6, not verse two. Umm, he's in, in verse six of a man, abide not in Me keeps cast forth as a branch and is withered, and men gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. And that's one that's not saved at all. But in verse 2.
There's one that that that's a very good illustration in first Corinthians 11 That the Lord took some away because they weren't bearing any fruit and they were really profaning the the the Lord's Supper in a way I've connected verse 2 with what it says in first John five. There is a sin unto death. That is the sin unto death is really, if I can put it this way, the removing of the ambassador. I'll use the illustration that sometimes been used. But if we send an ambassador to Washington DC.
To represent Canada and that ambassador acts in a way that is not in keeping with the image that we as Canadians want to portray to the American people. We reserve the right after remonstrating with him to recall him, to recall him back to Canada because he's acting in a way that is not in keeping with what we want to portray in the United States. And the sin unto death is really the recalling of the ambassador, That is if I act in a way as a true believer.
That is dishonouring to the Lord. The Lord may allow circumstances because he wants fruit, and so he may allow circumstances in my life to speak to me. But if I don't listen, if I go on and I continue to dishonor the Lord here in this world, and I don't represent Christ in the way that I ought, then that he may recall me, he may Take Me Home. And so again in Corinth for this cause, many are weak and sickly among you and many sleep. So I, I, I would suggest too that in in verse two, it's a real brand.
He takes the branch away, but it's not a branch he burns in the sixth verse. It's uh, every man, umm, if a man abide not in me, not a branch here. And it the, the, the one in the second verse, he takes it away, but the one in the sixth verse he burns it. Would you I agree. Thank you. You know, if if you looked at Peter and you looked at Judas Iscariot.
00:15:24
Would you be able to discern who is real and who was not? I mean, Peter, he cursed. He, he, he did some terrible things. He was real though, and he was used mightily later. But Judas was never real. But Peter, there were some circumstances allowed in Peter's life and Peter took heed to those circumstances. And there was a pruning process that later on brought out fruit. And so that's the difference between one who may be taken away. They don't, they don't, uh, they don't listen to what the Lord says. They're not exercised by the pruning that the Lord allows through circumstances in their life.
Thank God Peter listened and there was restoration and Peter did bring forth much fruit for the Lord's glory. And I would like to just say that sometimes difficult circumstances in our lives, trials and difficulties are allowed for that purpose. I'm not sure who it was, but somebody mentioned earlier in these meetings how in the 9th chapter when they brought the blind man to the Lord, they said, who has sinned, this man or his parents? And isn't that our natural reaction? We see some St. going through trial, somebody going through a difficulty.
So there must be sin in their lives. The Lord is speaking to them. Well, the Lord is speaking to all of us and as individuals and collectively. But I believe there are various reasons, brethren, why the Lord allows trials and difficulties in our lives. Sometimes it might be because there's some sin in our lives. Sometimes it's to prepare us for something. Sometimes it's so we can be a help to others who are going through the same trial. But sometimes I believe it is simply.
To prune away those things that hinder fruit in our lives. The husbandman goes out, the farmer goes out, and he takes those snips or those cutters and he prunes. I remember one time we had some trees in our backyard when I was growing up. The man came in, hired by my father, and he pruned those trees so far back. My mother and I thought those trees would never produce again. But you know, it wasn't very long until those trees came out.
And there were leaves and fruit on those trees like there'd never been before. He knew what he was doing. He knew just how much to cut and how much not to cut and where to cut and how to cut and not to cut. Now our father knows, the husbandman knows how much we need in our lives to prim away that which is hindering fruit. And so that's what we have in this chapter. He takes away those things that are going to hinder fruit in our lives.
And if that doesn't work, he may call us home, take us away out of this life, and call us home.
You mentioned Peter and Judith, uh, the Old Testament, you have the example of King Saul and King David. They both said I have sinned, but one was real and the other wasn't. But.
Just like to amplify a little more of brother Jim said I we had an orchard and it looked very healthy to me. And there was a man that was retired and had a lot of experience pruning. So I called him on the phone and asked him if he could come out and take care of the orchard. He said he could. So I was wasn't there when he came and he was just about done as I drove by. I thought he misunderstood me.
Look on my face to see this orchard just in disaster. And so I very patiently took me there and he did cut one tree down. But he said that when decay starts, he says that has to be stopped. He said that is a real difficulty with the trees. And so to think and in our Christian life that there can be those.
Parts of decay that are not going to bring any fruit. And the husbandman here isn't an idol husband money. He may have to cut pretty deep sometimes. And we feel that deep cut. And the man that had worked on the apple trees, he made a very interesting statement. He said, you know, if he if that tree could talk when I was pruning it and say you're killing me, you're killing me. And sometimes we feel that.
00:20:12
That's sting as the Lord deals with us that.
Oh, the fruit that came shortly afterward. It was just a delight to go out in the orchard after everything been cleared away and picked the fruit. It was delicious. The father's hand will never 'cause his child a needless tear. I don't like it, but we need it. It's interesting that it's a vine here, isn't it? Because other plants have other uses. When we visit in the tropics, we're glad for trees because.
Not only can you get coconuts and figs and bananas or whatever off trees to eat fruit, but they're good for shade. You can cut a tree down and use it for wood if you need heat. There's many uses for a tree, but there's not many uses for a vine beyond bearing fruit. And I wonder if that isn't perhaps one reason why he uses the figure here not of a tree. We we've learned some lessons from trees here, and I don't want to discredit that, but it is a vine here because if a vine doesn't bear fruit, what do you do with it? You get rid of it. It's no good for shade.
Is no good for much else. You get rid of it. And so he likens it to a vine here because brethren, what he really wants from our lives is fruit. He wants the expression of Christ in our lives. But I'd like to ask a question not really quite, but to get some comment on this expression. Abide in me. You know, we we pass over these little expressions, but they're so practical and maybe there's someone here and saying, well, how do we abide in Christ? What does that really mean?
Maybe we could have some expressions on the practicality of leaving these meetings and abiding in Christ.
Communion.
Communion, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, that's intelligence. But.
To abide in Him is to walk in fellowship with Him.
I think it includes to the sense of confidence or dependence. We can enjoy fellowship or communion with someone you might say is an equal 1 with the other, and there's a lot of that in the conference and private conversations. But with the Lord Jesus, that communion is included with a sense of dependence upon himself, and that dependence has confidence in it. He's pruning.
The that is the Father's pruning their needs to retain in us, not a sense of why are you doing this to me, but a sense of dependence and confidence that he knows best. If he's going to do this, it's with the purpose of good umm, for our blessing. I think also there's a sense in it of.
Our life flows from himself. That's also part of the abiding he his life has to be lived out in us in that communion has to include the sense of living by him not being able to live without it. You know, sometimes we think well, I at times we forget and we think well, I in our hearts and at least practically, we live without the Lord Jesus, but to abide in him requires us to.
Live by Him, live by that which He supplies to us in order to go. For me to live is Christ. To live. I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me.
Always abiding in the vine.
So we live by him, but he also lives in US. And that's part of the abiding. It's, it's not only our place in him, but the flowing of his life. He, he lives in us as well. That's what you have in verses 4:00 and 5:00.
Abide in me and I in you.
Has abide in me and I and you abide in me is in in fellowship for themselves, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself.
Accept and abide in the vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me, and I am Him the same bringeth forth much fruit for the notices last expression. Without me you can do nothing, but you can do nothing.
00:25:03
You cannot take a step.
We cannot have a thought, we cannot utter a word without him. And that's.
And then then there's the the unbeliever. The verse six is the one that's not real. But without me you can do nothing. That is such a such an important verse. How many times that that's just the opposite of of.
The humanism that is being pumped on our young people in school and so on, you can do anything to set your mind to it and so on. You can do nothing without him, nothing without him. That's just the opposite of humanism, isn't it? Christianity.
But we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. I'd like to just say on a practical note too, there are two things that the Lord brings before the disciples over and over again in connection with abiding in him. And they're in this chapter in in the first few verses. And one is the word of God and prayer. I thought of it when Don was Speaking of dependence, because prayer is the expression of dependence and confidence. And so he says, ye are clean through the word. The first thing he brought before them in the upper room was the necessity of feet washing.
Which is the way that communion with Himself in glory was going to be maintained. There are those things that come into our lives that hinder our communion. But he says there's the privilege of coming to the Word and having your feet washed and having those things that dullly affections and chill the soul removed from day-to-day. This is part of abiding in him. Are we going to walk in communion with the Lord? We must open the Word of God every day and let the Word of God have its cleansing effect. Let the Word of God bring Christ before us.
Because as we've often been reminded, wherever we read, the subject is always the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then he speaks of reminds them in verse seven of asking, and several times in these chapters he brings before them.
The privilege they're going to have of coming to the Father in prayer in his name, He wasn't going to be with them in the way that they he had been when he was with them. They came directly to Him. If their hearts were burdened, they had a request or a need, why they could come directly and speak to the Lord. He said, you're not going to be able to do that anymore, but you're going to have an even more wonderful privilege and that's coming directly to the Father in my name. And so I believe these things are all part of the practical application of abiding in Him and the other thing He brings before them over and over again.
Is the Spirit of God. This was the power for their walk through this world and their link with their, uh, risen head, their glorified head, the Lord Jesus at the right hand of God. So brethren, we have all the resources that we need.
To abide in him. It's not something that he exhorts us to do and then says try to find out the formula yourself or try to do it on your own strength or with your own devices.
Now we have all things that pertain unto life and godliness.
In first John 5 verse 14, this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything, according to His will heareth us, and if we know that He hear us whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions.
That we desired of him. Well, that's verse seven of our chapter. If you abide in me how you were going on in fellowship with him, and then my words abide in you. We get his mind, his thoughts. We're we're going on with him. We're walking hand in hand with him down the road and we're going over the word of God in our souls. You shall ask what you will, what you will, but you will what he wills you will what he wants.
Now you can ask intelligently, and you'll know that it'll be answered according to his will.
That was exactly the way the Lord himself walked through this world, that not my will of time. And so it was the Father's will that directed him and every every instance. And in the retrospect, it should be our desire that it's his will that directs us in every instance. That's probably what verse seven really is, isn't it? Yes, I want to say this for the young people. There's a verse in the Old Testament in the new as well.
00:30:00
I am a companion of all them that fear thee. Don't ask for a companion because you think you love her or him, because there are things about them that please you and so on. If they don't fear him, don't do it. Don't do it. Don't have anything to do with those that are evil. Companionships corrupt good manners. We were talking about that between meetings.
Make friends with those that love the Lord that want his will. Make them your companions and maybe your wife or your husband later on. But that's that's so important. Nothing can ruin your life more. Young person is evil companionships. It's terrible.
It says in verse 8 here in Is my father glorified? That she very much fears.
Good to notice that.
Fruit comes through the branches.
It isn't just the vine here.
But the actual fruit that is born is born through the branches. In other words, put it another way, the Lord Jesus says I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave us me to do. And he personally was used of God for an infinite amount of fruit that results from it. But here when he's talking here God is going to produce fruit and with through the branch.
It's not as if we are not important in that sense, but here where it's people involved, God says I'm going to produce fruit, not without the branch. In other words, it's not as if the branch there would be no fruit if the sense presented here if there were branches.
And so we God says, I will glorify myself through that fruit that's produced through those branches. And so our lives, as the Lord Jesus presents it here, are to be that which brings glory to God. He is to be glorified in our lives.
And it is to his glory that he would take such as ourselves and say, well, I can use that. I can make a branch out of that in my vine and that branch can be a fruit bearer for me and I will bring honor to myself in it. It's a joy to see it, but it's also a a real sense of responsibility to be a a branch pruned and me for the masters use.
I remember when I was a young man, I was.
I went to the airport to pick up an Egyptian brother.
And, uh, when I was.
When I was with him, I thought I was with the Lord.
I thought I was with the Lord that he was so like him. And I have an answering machine at, at home and, uh, burn these a message to me. And, uh, there's one message I haven't erased. I, I, I like to play it back and play it back. I brought her some grapes.
And she said, I have never tasted such grapes as these. They were just delicious. And she went gone and she went on and on and on. Finally cut it off. And but I haven't raised that. I just enjoyed that so much. And isn't it when you get in the presence, like when I got in the presence of this Egyptian brother, I thought I was in the presence of the Lord himself?
Do we?
Convey that kind of thing or not. Fruit is something too, that is produced unconsciously in our lives. It's not that we go out and try to produce fruit. There will be fruit in the measure in which we abide in himself. I often think of Moses when he came out from the presence of the Lord on the mount. He had to veil his face because his face shone. But it says he wished not that his face shone. It was the unconscious reflection.
Of being in the presence of God on the mount. And so I believe there will be the unconscious reflection of Christ in our lives. That is fruit for his glory in the measure in which we are in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
The measure in which we walk in communion with Him, then others are going to see something of Christ in our lives. I I think we quoted it earlier, but let me just read the verse in Second Corinthians chapter 4.
00:35:10
It's helpful in this new translation.
2nd Corinthians chapter 4, The last verse of the chapter, verse 18. But we all with open face, beholding us in a glass, the glory of the Lord, are perhaps better rendered.
Looking on, the glory of the Lord with unveiled face are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. What this verse is simply saying again is that in the measure in which we're occupied with Christ and walking with Him, in that measure the glories of Christ will be reflected in US.
Or can we say produced in us by the Spirit is another way of saying it. In Galatians chapter 5, yes, we can work. License 5 says we can work. And if it's us separated from the vine, it'll be a work of the flesh and it'll have a terrible result. No fruit for God in it at all. But if the vine is, if the branch is connected properly to the vine and receiving, you might say.
The SAP from the vine, then the Spirit of God produces the fruit, which is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, and so on, which are reflections, as have been used of the person of the Lord Jesus, seen in US, produced in us. So I already said unconsciously, because we don't produce it.
It's the work of the Spirit of God which produces the fruit that is seen by others as Christ in our life. Just a little illustration by the dawn of one in John's Gospel who I believe learned the left that lesson. If we were to go back to Luke, we would find that when the Lord came to the house at Bethany, that is Mary and Martha and Lazarus, we find there that Martha was cumbered about with much serving.
And the Lord told her, Thou art careful and troubled about many things. Because as you say, if we serve the Lord without being in communion or abiding in the vine, it simply becomes activity. It may be good activity, but it simply becomes activity. And not only that, it becomes burdensome and cumbersome. But we find that when the Lord came to that home for the last time before he went to the cross.
In the 12Th chapter of John, it simply says that Martha served because I would suggest that between the 10th of Luke and the 12Th of John, Martha learned the lesson that her sister had already learned.
And that was that joy in service and fruit as a result springs from sitting in the presence of the Lord Jesus. We don't want to give the impression that activity is wrong or that service for Christ is wrong. But if it is, I say simply, without abiding in Him, it's just activity. And so when the Lord came to the home that time in John 12, he didn't rebuke Martha for her service.
It was, I believe, service in in communion with himself. She learned to sit at his feet in the 11Th chapter. She had been at his feet in her sorrow on the in the connection with the death of her brother.
And so I think it's beautiful, brother. And if we can learn that lesson, service is good, what we say and do is good, but it's not, as we said, fruit necessarily fruit, but I believe there will be fruit as a result of it.
If it springs from abiding in his presence, being at his feet. And don't ever substitute time in the presence of the Lord Jesus in prayer and with your Bible. Don't ever substitute those times for service for Christ, as important as that service may seem. I want to read from Galatians 5 that Don referred to.
Galatians 5.
And notice the difference in verse 19. It says now the works of the flesh, the works of the flesh are manifest. Which are these adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, simulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envying, murders, drunkenness, revelings and such like of the which I tell you before as I have also told you in time past.
00:40:02
That they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. Now notice the contrast. It doesn't say, as we often quote, the fruits of the Spirit. It doesn't say that it says, but the fruit of the Spirit in contrast with the works of the flesh. The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law. I like to think it's a nine flavored fruit.
I like to think of those grapes that Laverne was talking about.
Everything TA made it taste just like she'd never tasted any grapes like that it every one of these traits was there and you get in the presence of like this brother that I picked up at the airport. You get into the presence of one that that just is reproducing that 9 flavored fruit by the Spirit of God. Then you say I've been in the presence of the Lord.
In the case of the disciples, when they were mistreating them, it says they took note that they had been with Jesus.
That's wonderful. They demonstrated exactly where they had spent their time. And you know, every time we open our mouth, every time we take a step, every action that we do probably demonstrates what we've been doing with our time.
There's an interesting thing about, uh, Samsung and Delilah and the seven green widths. And he said to her, if you bind me with those seven green width that have not been dried, and I shall be as another man.
And you know, that made sense to Delilah because it represented the spirit of independence that if if Samsung was going to yield to the spirit of independence. And how is that? I want to explain that if you take 37 green widths, you have to cut them loose from their source of supply and so.
They're cut, but they're not to be dried and so.
The spirit of independence, if we will take on that spirit of independence, what is going to happen? Why those Wiz are going to dry our roots are going to we're not going to be connected to the vine and and launch out in the spirit of independence and the activity that comes from the spirit of independence ends up absolutely unfruitful because there's nothing for the Lord in that.
But Samson being a Nazarite when he's bound with those seven green lists, why he just snapped them?
Most like there was nothing to it, and so the Lord was still with him, and the spirit of independence couldn't find him. But let us shun that spirit of independence, of coming loose from the vine, because eventually it's going to go from green to brown and be nothing.
Would it be correct to say that truth bearing is not necessarily the results that are produced by our lives? I mean, you just think of the life of the Lord.
One of the followers denied him, never betrayed him, and the rest were so heavy blood and it seemed like there was nothing left. When the Lord does, you know?
The Christian may see very little truth in his life, but it's not the results that have produced is depression, it's a result of it's walking with the Lord that will produce fruit. I believe, regardless of whether we see results here in this life or not.
But we leave that with the Lord some they walk and so look what I've done for the Lord. I've LED thousands to Christ and yet they don't walk through they don't strive lawfully. Let's put the claim the word of God, you know, but we can't always judge how fruit bearing by the results that we seek and.
Only God can judge the results.
And we should never try to judge the results of what we do or what anyone else does either. It's before.
00:45:00
He's able to, your brother is able to stand here and God is going to, is able to make him stand. And so it's God that does the judgment and that's what it says here, uh, hearing is my father glorified?
I'd like to have you go back to Galatians 5 and read three more verses and tell us what that means.
The fruit of the Spirit is Lovejoy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law, and they that are Christ have crucified the flesh without the next verse, the 25th verse, OK with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.
Let us not be desirous of Vainglory provoking one another.
Ending one another. So how do you do that if you live in this spirit? What does that mean to walk in the spirit?
You're under under the control of the Spirit of God, isn't it?
Attacking our chapter, the next verses and verses 9 and 10.
Brings out love. It brings love into the this message, this conversation with the disciples and he said, loved you.
As the father of Smith, what a wonderful don't wanna pass over that. The thought that we have seen and enjoyed how much the father loves the son. And here the son is saying to us, I love you that way.
I have just as much love for you as the Father has his love for me. And then in the next verse he says I abide in my Father's love. There's no interruption in my enjoyment of the Father's love for me. Why? Because I keep his commandments. That's why I can abide in the enjoyment of my Father's love because I keep his commandments. It's practice here. It's the practical thing that's being brought before them.
How can I and you enjoy the love of the Lord Jesus that He has for us?
How can we abide in it? By obedience.
Verses 9 and 10 we're talking about. And so I'm without practical daily obedience. The Lord, does he love me any of the last? No, He doesn't, not one bit less. But can I enjoy that love in my daily life without obedience? No. The Lord Jesus never had an interruption in the enjoyment of His Father's love.
Because He always did those things which pleased the Father.
We lose much in our daily lives, in our souls of the love of the Lord Jesus if we are not obedient.
But it's by obedience, and in the next verse it brings in the results of obedience and the enjoy. And that love that is we abide in is is joy. And so then the joy comes in. That's the result of it.
You find a Christian that's really a happy Christian, well then they're an obedient 1. They're an obedient one. Uh, disobedient believer is an unhappy person.
There's, there's a verse, it's the last verse of chapter 14 and I'll read it now verse 31. But that the world may know that I love the Father and as the Father gave me commandments, Even so I do rise, let us go. Hence the sister said to me once, how many times does it speak in the Scriptures of his love for the Father? How I said many times.
Father's love for him many times.
But it's only one time, and it's this verse that the world may know that I love the Father.
And as the Father gave me commandment, Even so I do rise. Let us go ahead. His love for the Father was proven in His obedience. That's what you're saying. And the same is true of us in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. Obedience is the proof of abiding in His love when we walk in obedience.
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Faith and salvation go together, with obedience and happiness go together.
I suppose it's very heavily demonstrated in everyone's family.
An obedient child is much loved by the parents. An obedient child is a happy child. And you just could look around and disobedient one is just the opposite. It's true in God's family too. But he still loved, isn't He? That's right, that's right.
The disobedient child, if it's a true parent, they love that child, but the enjoyment of that love between them is is hindered.
Is lost by the disobedience and only by the restoration of a a relationship in which obedience rules can the love of the parent be enjoyed by the child, and the child can enjoy the love of the parent.
This was to be the new motive in Christianity, wasn't it? In contrast to the Old Testament where who through fear of death where their whole lifetime subject to *******. Why did a man keep the law? Why did the priests and the Levites offer the sacrifices according to the way God had set it out? Because they knew if they didn't, there were very stiff penalties. They knew what happened to Nadab and a Bayou. They knew what happened to one who touched the mount at the giving of the law.
And so the motive was generally fear. I'm not saying there weren't those in the Old Testament whose hearts didn't respond, there certainly were. But generally the motive was not a motive of law, but it was a motive of fear. But what he's telling his own in these chapters, and he brings it up a number of times, is that there's a new commandment in Christianity. And that commandment has to do with the motive of love and brother. And I believe in the measure in which you and I enjoy, first of all, the love of the Father for the Son and the Son for the father.
In that measure, it will produce that love in your soul and mind that will be then the motivation in connection with our relationships one to another, keeping his word, walking and abiding in him. I like to connect 3 verses in this connection. Don quoted 1 so we won't turn back to it. But in the end of John three, it says that the father loves the son. I I think that's tremendous statement just to stop and meditate on the love of the father for the son and we've had many expressions.
Concerning that which we won't repeat, then the verse that our brother Dawn pointed out that the, uh, as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. And so the love that the Lord Jesus has for his own is the very same love. It's no less love, as has been said, than the love of the Father for the Son. But notice what it says in verse 12 to complete this thought. This is my commandment, that ye love one another. But he doesn't stop there.
As I have loved you.
Rather, think about that the love that is to be displayed amongst the people of God in a practical way, that is to be manifested in a practical way, is no less love than the Father has for the Son and the Son has for his own. What is the standard that that the Lord Jesus sets before his own as to loving one another? I say it's no less standard than that same love of the Father for the Son.
And the son for his own.
The standard is Christ always, This chapter anticipates.
The family of God which is brought out in Christianity, it hasn't yet been revealed to them, so it's not explicitly stated here until after the Lord Jesus rose from the dead. But then it's my Father, and your Father, my God and your God and.
The love that flows between us as.
Is enjoyed in the relationship of being brothers and sisters in the same family.
The father loves the son, the son loves the father. We are brought into the family so that we can enjoy the relationship of love that is appropriate in the character of that family. And so in the family, it's already been mentioned in our individual families, there is that special relationship between us that governs, or can I say brings out what's in our hearts.
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Toward one another. Oh, that's my child, that's my grandson, that's my whatever in in a family relationship. It's a special thing. And so God has chosen to have a family and brought us into the family and the desire of the father, if you will, is that in the family love might flow unhinderedly and it will be so when we are in heaven in his presence. It he says it says he shall rest in his love.
In other words, the God our Father is, is that we're just going to sit down to the table with us.
As a family together and kind of just in my thinking kind of just relax no work more need to be done, but just to relax and enjoy his family and allowing the law between every member of it to flow. So as Jim mentioned, particularly in the third one that the large several times brings out in John's ministry brothers if you don't love each other.
There's something wrong. I mean, there, that's evidence. That's an indication. Are you in the same family?
Would you say, brother Don, that that's when love is at its fullest?
Expression resting in his love.
It's the end. It's the end of the end. He brought me into his banqueting house and his banner over me was.
It's interesting, isn't it, that he doesn't tell the disciples to try to maintain their love for himself or the Father. He tells them to continue in his love and to abide in the Father's love. Because I believe that is the way that our affections are deepened. And I say that because maybe there's someone here. And you say, well, we talked about this, but boy, my heart sure doesn't go out to the person of Christ or to the Father the way it ought to be. My love is so feeble.
And how do I awaken that love? How does that love deepen? Well, I've often said that when you read through the book of the Song of Solomon, you find that the bride.
What deepens her affection and appreciation of the bridegroom is is occupation with himself and the more she goes over the qualities and the glories of the bridegroom and the more she understands.
Not so much her love for him, but his love for her. Why, at the end of it, she says he's altogether lovely. He's mine. Nothing about her being his, that's true, but he's mine. And she's just so enamored, and her heart is just so overflowing with himself. Why? Because she tried to generate a response within herself. No, because of occupation with the bridegroom. And So what he's teaching the disciples here and for you and for me today is that.
To abide in His love.
To have our appreciation of that love deepen will then deepen our response so that our hearts go out more to Him. And in the measure in which that happens, then our hearts are going to go out more to one another. And what is it that is to characterize the Christian company on earth in the absence of the Lord Jesus? By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples. How if ye have loved one to another?
And that's not just in our hearts. That has to be practically manifested. If we just say we love one another, but there's no practical manifestation of it, is the world gonna see that? The world doesn't read what's in our hearts. They can only read our actions and our words and our interaction one with another. But as the world looks on, brother, they are to see that we are followers of Christ, that we belong to the Lord Jesus, because there is.
Practical love expressed.
In our interactions, one with another. And brethren, if that is not so, then it ought to humble us and put us in the dust before the Lord. I think, Jim, you just answered the question I asked. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Umm 525 that's walking in the Spirit. What you're saying We live with the Spirit, Let us walk in the Spirit.
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Brother Climb I I thought of it when you ask the question, and I appreciated what Chuck said. I thought of an illustration in Deuteronomy.
Maybe since you brought it up again, we can just go back to that for a moment in the end of Deuteronomy.
Deuteronomy chapter 33.
Is in connection with the blessing of Asher, but I think there's very something very instructive in connection with fruit and walking in the spirit. I'll read verse 24 and 25 of Deuteronomy chapter 33 and of Asher. He said let Asher be blessed with children.
Let him be acceptable to his brethren, and let him dip his foot in oil. Thy shoes shall be iron and brass, and as thy day, so shall thy strength be. Now we often have this little motto on our wall, as by days so shall thy strength be. And I have that on my wall, and I appreciate it. But I think it's very instructive to see what precedes this statement. First of all, he says of Asher, let him be blessed with children. I believe that would suggest fruit bearing, and I believe that every believer here in this room.
Really down deep has a desire to bear fruit for God's glory. There's really that desire there if you truly are a branch, if you truly belong to the Lord Jesus. And so the first thing he mentions in connection with Asher.
Is fruit bearing? But then there's something else. Let him be acceptable to his brother. Now, I've often said, particularly to those who are younger, if you wanna serve your brethren, you've gotta do it in a way that's acceptable to them. And I believe if we have a desire to bear fruit, that the Lord can give us that grace to do things in a way that we can do it in fellowship with our brethren. You know, I'm just gonna digress here a moment to make a very practical statement. You know, we don't have to step outside.
Of the assembly or the fellowship of our brethren to serve the Lord and bear fruit. Sometimes I think there's been that feeling that things are too narrow and we need to broaden out. And sometimes we have to, to reach out to souls and so on. We have to do things in a way that maybe aren't quite acceptable to our brother. Let of Asher, let him be acceptable to his brethren. Now let's notice this and let him dip his foot in oil. Now oil in Scripture almost invariably is a type of the Spirit of God.
The foot speaks of our walk, and I believe this corresponds with what we've had in Galatians, a walk in the power of the Spirit. Do you want to bear fruit? Do you want to serve the Lord in fellowship with your brethren? You must dip your foot in oil. You must be exercised to walk in the power of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the power for our lives down here in the absence of Christ who has returned to glory.
And so we have the power to walk for his glory. And then it says, thy shoe shall be as brass. That's endurance. Because the Christian path is a race of endurance. Let us run with endurance, the race that is set before it. And then iron. That's power. You want power for your pathway. You've got to dip your foot in oil. There's only one way to have power in our pathway. There's only one way to endure lap after lap after lap of the race.
To dip your foot in oil, and then as thy day, so shall thy strength be. We talked about we can do nothing without Christ, and we can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth us. You want power, you want strength for the day. You talk about strength for the day. And that's true. But again, you must dip your foot in oil. You must walk in the power of the Spirit. So I think this is very instructive. We walk in the Spirit, We have the privilege of walking in the Spirit, bearing fruit in fellowship with our brethren, having endurance and power for our pathway. But it all comes from dipping our foot in oil.
That's just the opposite of being wishy washy.
And you got iron and brass in your walk that it should be firm good, not just wishy washy like there's so many call wishy washyness love. That may not be true love at all. Love is obedience to His word.
I'm just saying Amen to what you said.
We spoke of joy, which he brings out here, and I'd just like to say this, that joy is a little different than happiness.
Hap the The world can be happy. The unregenerate man can be happy when things go well. He gets the promotion at work. He wanted to be happy with that. Gets good grades at the end of the year. They're happy with that. Gets the raise and pay he wanted. Gets the loan for the new house he wanted. Gets the new car he wanted. He's happy. But that happiness is only skin deep. It's only surface deep. It's only on the surface.
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But the joy that the Christian has in abiding in the vine and walking in obedience is the joy of which it says your joy. No man taketh from you. And it's a joy, as we've often said, that doesn't depend on our circumstances. We often refer to the Lord Jesus in his pathway as the man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And that's certainly true. But when we turn, I think it's to Luke 10, we read of an occasion.
And I think perhaps it's the only occasion that we read of an occasion there where the Lord Jesus, it says he rejoiced in spirit.
And it's interesting when you read the context, because it was at a very difficult time in the life of the Lord Jesus. He looked around at the cities he came to bless. He looked around at the nation that he loved and wanted to draw to himself as a hen gathereth, her brood under her wing, and they wouldn't have him. As a result, he had to pronounce woe and judgment on those cities, but he rejoiced in spirit. You say, how could he do it at such a time?
You say, why is it the only time in the life of the Lord that He rejoiced in spirit? Well, it says there, Even so far, therefore, so it seemed good in my sight. Perfect submission to the Father's will brought a perfect joy and delight even at a difficult time. And so, brethren, the joy of the Lord in our souls is a joy that is can be appreciated and experienced, not because of circumstances, but it does depend on two things.
Our submission to His will and the enjoyment of Himself in our souls. And if we leave here with will submissive forever He allows in our lives. And if we leave here with the enjoyment of the person of Christ in our souls, we can go back even to difficult circumstances with a joy. Paul had lots of difficulties. It wasn't that he was callous to them. He shed many tears, says he served the Lord with many tears.
But he said, sorrowful, yet always rejoicing. There was an inward joy that nothing could touch. I want to read that, that verse that you referred us to. It's Luke 1021 a little. It's a little fuller than what you quoted in that hour. Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank the old Father Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent.
And has revealed them unto babes. Even so, father, for so it seemed. Good in thy sake, how good that is. Who are the babes there, Brother Jack?
Well, you tell us, what do you get out of that? I feel like I classify.
Put in contrast with the wise and prudent, right? Right. Exactly.
The Lord too, it says he committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. I believe that's another thing that's going to give us joy and peace in the circumstances of life, whether it's his pruning in our lives, whether it's his chastening, whether it's his preparation, whatever it might be. And I often think of Paul and Silas when they were in prison and they prayed and sang praises at midnight was a difficult trial, but I often think why were they able to do that? Well, I wonder if they didn't think of the verse in the 119th Psalm that says.
At midnight will I arise and sing praises unto thee because of thy righteous judgments. They realize that what God had allowed in their life was right. And brethren, if we realize that whatever is allowed in our life is right from the hand of a loving Father and a loving Lord, it will help us to rise and sing praises at midnight. It will give us the joy of the Lord in our souls.
Even in difficult problems and even at times where we don't understand what the Lord is doing, I remember standing up to take the funeral of a young man and there was a room full of young people who all had the one question, why?
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And I stood up and I I said at the beginning of that funeral, I know that this question is on the minds of many here and I don't have the answer as to why. But I said, even if we knew the answer, why without submission?
To the Father's will, we still wouldn't have joy and peace in this circumstance. What's really going to bring us joy and peace in the circumstances of life is not always to have the answer, but to submit. And no, what He is doing is right in our lives.
The most?
Occasion in the Lord's life, and the apostle Paul says move for the joy.
That was said that before I endured across the.
No other period in his life was like that. That joy that was set before him was to be back with the Father. You're the Father's will.
Events of Earth do not move his throne.
But when he looks at his own, these events move his heart.
How much, how much fruit did Jeremiah see in his life?
The weeping, weeping process and he.
Could wish he'd never been born, but not the Lord Jesus.
He came to die.
I was thinking too, as we're going over some of this, that seems like I recall brother Harry Hayhoe on a tape.
Saying that, this chapter brings out fullness of joy through answered prayer. Am I remembering that correctly?
The the sense between the individual soul.
And the soul's living God.
Communion.
Someone said the.
To take all of our circumstances from God is what gives us peace.
He is our chief circumstance.
Even so, Father, or so it seemed good in my sight.
We see this modern world, the United States has what, 23 or 27 satellites up there? Global positioning, That's nothing.
You and I have an omnipresent, omniscient God as our Father.
And he sees every detail and circumstance of earth.
One brother said God is doing.
Everything he can, all the time, for every man, all things considered.
And he loves and he loves you.
Let's look at a verse I've referred to often in Second Chronicles 16/9.
For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself strong in behalf of them, whose heart is perfect towards him.
Stop.
One brother said.
God is just looking for someone he can use.
For a particular thing he once done.
And it's only by communion that we're going to find what that is and be available.
That preparation of the heart.
Really important.
For this spring I said I have pruned it for him and I thought to preserve a couple of lateral this way and that. When I got done I did think I had killed it but.
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You know, I went back a few weeks later and here's some sprouts were here and there and.
And then a few weeks later I see this. Beautiful to see.
But the the fruitfulness he wants in your life and mine.
It comes from looking up to him who has everything.
Under control and everything.
We look at our dear brethren and some of these Muslim countries seeking to reach out with the gospel, knowing it could well be their life.
And yet they're reaching out.
We are going to meet in the cloud.
You're kind of talking about the pruning process.
Pruning process doesn't feel very good, but he loves this. He prunes us, doesn't he? And he the fruitfulness that reciprocal.
Thing that goes on between God and the soul.
If something comes before the soul and say, well Lord, should I do this?
Or shouldn't I?
How? How is he to be glorified? Are there things in which he would be dishonored then?
Walk carefully, wait on him.
The things will clear up.
Make it clear and, and, and the Lord will grant assurance in the pathway. Enjoy. You know what a what a wonderful thing if there's that waiting on him. And if you doubt his love, look at the cross. Greater love hath no man than this, than a man lay down his life for his friend. And if you doubt his love in some circumstance, be like the children of Israel when they came to merit, they threw the tree into the water. You see, I can't see how the Lord is dealing in his love with me.
But just look at the cross. Can you doubt his love there?
This section we're through now time is up, but this section ends in verse 17. These things I command you that you love one another period that summarizes these first 17 verses.
The 1:32.