Bearing Fruit - Part 5 — Keith Daniel

A Wife's Witness and the Sacredness of Spiritual Fruit

I said something to God, from my heart, as I looked at my wife again, I said, Oh God, I'd be willing to start right now and go through everything again. Start now, God. Just that I could have heard Jenny say these words to me.

No one knows you like your wife, sir.

Has she ever seen Jesus in you?

That the person who knows you better than anyone else on earth is your wife. To say those words to you is probably the most sacred moment you'll ever know, apart from salvation. And I treasure those words.

I treasure them. The greatest preacher that ever lived, they say, was Charles Spurgeon. I don't like this handle people give preachers, you know. They call him the prince of all preachers. No one has ever called that, but Spurgeon, the prince of all preachers.

Charles Spurgeon and the Suffering Behind Greatness

The only man that ever lived from the time of Paul to this day was Spurgeon that they gave that title to. But you know, when I read his sermons, I knew it's true. This was the greatest preacher that ever lived, don't doubt it.

But what shook me about Spurgeon was when I read his life and I began to go into documents about his life. And all the suffering, all the pain, the storms. It was like unbelievable what that man just had to endure and endure.

And it seemed to get worse and worse and worse. You know what Spurgeon said in his old age, the greatest preacher that ever lived. Listen carefully, preachers. In case you want to know where greatness comes from, in God and man's eyes.

Spurgeon only once stood up and in the pulpit only once he said these words. And I think this present generation of preachers needs to hear it. In case you think God's making a mistake in your life preacher of what's going on.

Spurgeon said if it wasn't for the fires, if it wasn't for the trials, if it wasn't for the storms, if it wasn't for the sufferings. Be poverty stricken in the pulpit of God. I would be poor in the hand of God.

Job's Refining Fire and Coming Forth as Gold

Do you want to argue with God preacher? If that's what the greatest preacher that ever lived said. Joel, the godliest man alive on earth, even the devil couldn't argue. Everything came on him. At some point he said these words.

He was the first in the entire Bible to grasp what fires what God allows not to prove a point to the devil. You think that's all it was at stake? No. The devil was going to face far more rebuke than seeing Job not curse God.

Because God knew the principle of the fires, this holy man would come out more holy. Job grasped and said when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold from the fire. Spurgeon saw that at the end of his life and knew why God allowed it and tolerated Satan's attacks through the most evil people.

Who tried to destroy Spurgeon as no other preacher on earth's history has ever been tried to destroy.

Kept out of the pulpits even of America.

God's Purging Process Produces More Fruit

Every branch in me that bareth not fruit, he taketh away. And every branch that bareth fruit, he purgeth it. Trust me. Trust me, the purging is cruel, but it will bring forth more. The fruit God wants, not what you and I look at.

Not what you think is needed in your life. What God knows, trust Him. He wants it and He's going to get it. If you allow Him to have His way, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now verse 3 says, ye are clean through the word.

I love that. I wish I could preach the whole sermon to you in that verse, but I dare not say another word about that verse. Which I have spoken unto you. Verse 4, the most vital verse in the whole Bible for Christians.

Abiding in Christ Through Trials

Once you're saved, there is no more important statement from God's heart to man once he's born again than this verse. Listen carefully, there's nothing that means more to God or you than what you're about to hear Christ say once you're saved.

Abide in me. Do you? And I in you. As the branch cannot bare fruit of itself. Do you know what God's saying here? While the fires come, brother, sister, there's one thing God requires of you. Abide in Him and you will survive.

You won't come out bitter and twisted as people who don't abide in Him. If you don't abide in Christ, the fires, no matter what fires come on you from the devil, God can't turn it on the devil and make this for his glory.

You'll come out bitter, twisted and angry with God. I don't doubt that. Have you seen how many Christians are angry with God? Only one reason, they didn't do the most vital thing there is. Trust God while you're abiding in Him.

The one thing you can do and you must do. For no matter what the devil brings on you or man brings upon you to bring more of Christ out of you. Always. The one thing God wants is abide in me and I in you.

As the branch cannot bare fruit of itself. It cannot bare fruit of itself except it 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 in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit.

The Warning of Fruitlessness and the Promise of Answered Prayer

Trust Him. He can't lie. Just do this one thing, boy. Abide in God. No matter what comes, abide in Him. He that abideth in me, I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me ye can do nothing.

If a man abide not in me, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as the bronze is withered. Men gather them, cast them into the fire. They are burned. I don't know what that verse means. I have no argument with the Calvinist.

I have no argument with the Wesleyan Arminiust. In my limitations I don't know, so I don't preach. All I say this though. Jesus said it. I leave it between you and Him, sir. You tell God what He means.

If, but don't expect anything further from me. If a man abide not in me, and he is cast forth as a bronze withered. Men gather them, cast them into the fire. They are burned. If ye abide in me, my words abide in you.

Ye shall ask what ye will. It shall be done unto you. Here is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit. Is He glorified in your life? The fires brought what God wanted them to. The only reason He tolerated Satan's attacks on you, men's attacks on you, tribulation, persecution, suffering.

But if you come out like the devil wanted, because you didn't abide. What does it mean, abide in Him? Oh, John wrote this about what Jesus was saying. Word perfect, He was quoting Christ. Now listen to John expounding, preaching in one John.

Walking as Christ Walked

The first letter of John. He tells you, He speaks about His abiding, but suddenly He is not just quoting word perfect of Christ. He said abiding in Him. He says in chapter 2, one John 2, verse 6, He that sayeth He abideth in Him, ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.

Oh my, you say you do the one thing that matters when you get right with God. You say you do the one thing Jesus says you have to do, for tragedy not to be written upon you, no matter what your doctrinal preferences about explaining those verses.

If you do the one thing that matters, that God says, that Christ says matters, no matter what comes on you, that fruit will come. If you say it, you do it.