The Dynamic Duo of Abiding

Kongsvinger Lutheran Church

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the Gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern

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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins and salvation by grace through faith alone.

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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.

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John, chapter 15, verses 1 through 8. Jesus said, I am the true vine, my

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Father is the vinedresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit

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He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

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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.

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I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is who bears much fruit.

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For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers.

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And the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and are burned. If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.

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By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.

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This is the gospel of the Lord. Think with me for a second about a few of the great dynamic duos of our time.

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Two things that go together always. I would point out first and foremost the thing

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I discovered as far as an amazing dynamic duo all the way when I was a little tyke, peanut butter and jelly.

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Of course I'm going to date myself here. Another fantastic dynamic duo, the captain and Tennille.

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And then of course, always, the two that are thought to go together are Batman and Robin.

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Now, the reason I'm saying this, I want you to think about this. What our Lord said in our gospel text, and specifically what

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John writes in our epistle text, point out an amazing dynamic duo that must go together in order for us to continue to abide in Christ.

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And abiding is the big deal, because as Christ says, the one who doesn't abide in him is like a branch that is not fruitful, and dies, and the

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Father comes and clips that thing off. And so we don't want that happening with us.

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Now in order to help us better frame this, I would consider a text outside of our epistle text in 1

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Timothy 4, verses 15 and 16. The Apostle Paul writing to young Pastor Timothy says this,

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Be diligent in these matters, give yourself wholly to them so that everyone may see your progress. Watch your life and your doctrine closely.

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Life and doctrine closely. Persevere in them, plural.

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Because if you do, you will save both yourself and your hearers. And I have to say this, that there are parts of the visible church today that do not heed these words regarding this amazing and important dynamic duo.

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They will choose one or the other or neither. They end up breaking the tension.

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Have you ever spoken with a Christian who says these words, Doctrine doesn't matter.

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Doctrine only divides. That's head knowledge. And we love from the heart.

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It really doesn't matter what somebody believes. What matters is what they do.

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You see, that's like taking peanut butter and separating it from jelly. That's not a sandwich. I don't care who you are.

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You can't have either doctrine or life. The two must stay together.

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And so with that, let's return to our epistle reading in 1

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John 4. And for the first 11 verses, I'm going to be reading from my translation so that you don't figure out what you think, what's he reading from.

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And the reason for it again is because I think by putting it in a less polished format, it will help us a little bit.

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Here's what John writes. And remember the context. The church there in Ephesus had been torn apart by the

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Sorinthianites. The Sorinthianites believed Platonic philosophy and therefore denied that Jesus is the

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Christ in human flesh because that doesn't fit with Plato's philosophy. And they had literally torn the church apart.

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There were a whole group of them that literally left the church following after this fellow's false doctrine.

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And so building then on what we've been talking about for the past few weeks, John writes then to us

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Christians, Beloved. What a great word. Beloved. Isn't that a fascinating word?

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We sang about it, and I was a little disappointed with Roger that he didn't put in the hand claps. But it's a little bit of an inside joke.

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If you know that song, there's a part where you... Never mind. All right. But the idea is that beloved is who we are in Christ.

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That is an amazing thing. Consider that word. Don't let it just roll past you.

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You are in Christ, as we will hear later in this text, that we don't love God...

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We didn't love Him first. We love because He first loved us. And so we are beloved in Christ.

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And here's an imperative then in the Greek. Do not believe. And an imperative, it's really strong.

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It's like a red flashing light. Big, bold letters. All caps, underlines.

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Don't believe every spirit. But test.

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Test the spirits. If they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world.

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Now, on a first reading, this might seem a little confusing. Test the spirits. How am

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I supposed to do that? Well, let's get out the ghost hunters. We'll get our EMF reader, and we'll start working the crowd here, and we'll see if anyone has a bad spirit.

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Yeah, it's not going to work. That's not how we do this. And so test every spirit is a way of saying test every teacher.

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Test everybody who's coming to you bringing teaching or doctrine. If you think of it this way, when the

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Titanic sank, they said how many souls were lost? In the same way, we think about it this way.

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Test every spirit. Test somebody's soul. How do you test someone's soul is the important question, and we'll get to that in a minute.

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And so, in noting this, there's this expectation. This expectation, we are going to test these things.

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And note, the Cyrenthian Knights, important note here, they were following a philosophical teacher.

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They were not known for being a charismatic sect. They were not a group that believed that they were receiving direct revelation from God.

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Instead, they were following a man who claimed that philosophy was the reason for rejecting that Jesus was the

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Christ. And so yet the warning here, it's fascinating, classifies the Cyrenthian Knights, Cyrenthius himself, as a false prophet, as false prophets.

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Now consider this for a second. Many false prophets have gone out into the world. When we think of a prophet, we think of somebody who gets direct revelation.

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That's a very narrow sense. And you're going to note in this text that it's using a definition for prophet that is a lot wider.

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Because Cyrenthius wasn't claiming direct revelation from God. Instead, he was claiming, he was teaching something contrary to the written word of God, contrary to the apostolic doctrine.

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So when you see the word prophet in Scripture, you have to ask yourself, is it discussing prophecy in a wide sense or a narrow sense?

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In the narrow sense, it's a person claiming direct revelation. In the wide sense, it would apply to all teachers in the church.

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So in the wide sense, you can say all pastors are prophets.

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And you kind of have to put it in air quotes. And the reason why is this, is because I actually am coming to you today to bring you words from God.

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Where did I get these words? Is the next question. Well, God doesn't talk to me in here, nor does he speak in my ears or talk to me in my head.

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God speaks to me through the written word. Same with you. So if I am teaching something contrary to the written word of God, in the wide sense, then

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I would be a false prophet. And so now you're starting to understand how to test the spirits, how to test the prophets, all of the prophets, whether in the narrow or the wide sense.

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And so that's important for us to keep this in mind. Verse two. So in this, then you know the spirit of God.

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Every spirit who knows the word confesses

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Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. That's the key to unlocking this.

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So we're supposed to imperative. Test all the spirits. Not all the spirits are from God. We're talking about everybody who's teaching.

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How then are you to test? Because I can't see your soul. I can't see your spirit. But the thing

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I can do is test your words. The Greek word for confess is

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Hama. Legato Hama. Same Legato to say.

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So the person who says the same thing as scripture is from God.

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The person who says words that are different. They have a different confession.

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They're not from God. Now you'll note in our order of service. Sunday after Sunday after Sunday.

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What's the first thing we do? Once the sermon is finished. We rise and we confess our faith in one of the major three creeds.

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Apostles Creed, Nicean Creed. Once a year we pull out the Athanasian Creed and that comes after the sermon.

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Why do we do this? The reason why we do this is in fulfillment of this command here in 1st

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John 4 to test all the spirits, which means you constantly need to be testing what

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I am saying. If what I said from the pulpit is different than what you confess in the creed, you know that what

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I have said is not from God. Does that make sense? So if I were to stand here in the pulpit and say, listen, we live in the 21st century.

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Why on earth should we believe that silly myth that God created the world in six days?

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You'd sit there and go, hmm. You see, and then as soon as I said that and I was done with that sermon, we would stand up and we would say,

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I believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and earth. One of these things is not like the other.

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One is saying the same thing as Scripture. The other is saying something contrary.

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And so this is what's going on then in this text. We are, again, to test the spirits.

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How do we test? The spirit who confesses, who says the same thing, that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, this is from God.

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Every spirit that does not confess, homologeo, say the same thing. And here's the fun part in the

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Greek. Every spirit that does not confess the Jesus, that's what the Greek says.

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It doesn't say just Jesus. The spirit, every spirit that does not confess the

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Jesus is not from God. But this is the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming and is now in the world.

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Consider these words in verse 3 then very carefully. By putting the emphasis, by saying the one that does not confess the

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Jesus, that opens it up to a little bit of a broader interpretation. So the one who says to you,

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Jesus really didn't rise from the grave, that's not the Jesus. The one who says, the

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Jesus really isn't God in human flesh, that's not the Jesus. This person who says,

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Jesus really wasn't born of the Virgin Mary, that's not the Jesus. That's a different Jesus altogether.

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And note then what the words say. Every spirit that does not confess, say the same thing regarding the

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Jesus, is not only not from God, this is the Antichrist, which you have heard is now coming and is already in the world.

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Now when we think about the Antichrist, we think about the last guy, the man of lawlessness, who exalts himself above everything that is called

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God, and puts himself in the very temple of God at the top of the heap. The whole world bows down and worships him.

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John is saying that everybody who presents themselves in the church as a teacher, prophet in the wide sense, who does not confess the

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Christ, is already doing the man of lawlessness' work here in the church.

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And we are to be on our guard. So, you though, verse 4, you are from God, little children.

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Comforting words. Beloved little children. And you have overcome them, the little

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Antichrist, because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. They are from the world, which is the reason why, by the way, they don't say the same thing as Scripture.

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They don't confess the Jesus. They are from the world. Therefore, what they speak is from the world. And unfortunately for this, the world listens to them.

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And so you'll note that the emphasis in the opening part of chapter 4 then is on the doctrine.

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But John doesn't leave off with only the doctrine. We talked about the dynamic duo. So important to note.

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Notice the emphasis on the words, the doctrine, the confession. They are from the world. They speak from the world.

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The world listens to them. We are from God. The one who knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

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By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So, beloved, let us love one another.

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And there's our song. But note, he's changed the topic, but not really, because doctrine and life go together.

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If you confess the Jesus, you truly believe in him, that will result in you doing something different than what the world does.

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The world is all about me. The world is all about what I can get from it.

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Or as the bumper sticker says, the one who dies with the most toys wins. Right?

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Have you seen that? It's a horrible bumper sticker, but that's kind of the way the world works. But Scripture says because you are in Christ, because you confess the

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Jesus, that this results in a radical change in you. And that change is wrought by the

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Holy Spirit. You are regenerated, brought back to life from the dead spiritually, and now you begin to bear fruit because you are abiding in Christ.

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The one who abides in him, think of that abiding as doctrine, will bear much fruit, Jesus says, and that fruit is our good works.

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So the two must stay together. So beloved, here's that word again, let us love one another because the love is from God and all who love have been born of God and know

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God. The one who does not love does not know

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God because God is love. So note that within this chapter, two totally different tests, two totally different streams.

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It's Batman and Robin, peanut butter and jelly, the Captain and Tennille, doctrine and life.

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You have sound doctrine, but you don't love your neighbor? You're not a Christian. I'm sorry.

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You say you're a Christian, but you believe in a different Jesus? You're not a Christian. You're something different.

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And we are admonished by this text to constantly test, test the doctrine, test the life.

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You don't love. You hate. You will not pray for your enemies. You will not love them.

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You don't even love the people in church. We've got a problem. Scripture here clearly says you're not from God and you don't even know him.

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How can you say that you're a Christian without love for each other?

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And that's the whole point. Something's gone wrong with the doctrine. Then, if you believe in a

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Jesus that does not require you to love one another, you're not believing in the

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Jesus. So, in this, the love of God was revealed to us that God sent his only begotten

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Son into the world so that we might live through him.

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In this, the love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his

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Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. And John here is picking up on some of the same themes that the

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Apostle Paul writes about in the book of Romans. That God demonstrates his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, while we were enemies of God, Christ died for our sins.

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And if while we were enemies, Christ died for our sins, then you'll note that everything begins with Christ.

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Everything begins with God. It's not that we loved. It's that God loved us. And because he loved us, we now love him, and now we love each other.

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If that's not what you think Christianity is about, then I have to ask the question, what

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Jesus are you believing in? Who is this Jesus that you believe in that would not admonish you to love because you are loved?

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The two must go together. You think of Jesus' parable of that fellow who owed the bazillion dollars to a king who upon being forgiven that debt, a debt there was no way he could repay, went out and grabbed a servant of his and practically choked him to death over about a month's wages that he owed him and put him in prison.

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You see, we love because we are loved, and that's John's point. So in this, the love of God is revealed.

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God sent his only begotten Son into the world in order that we might live through him. This is the love, not that we have loved

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God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins. Beloved, if God loved us in this way, and he has, then we ought to love one another.

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And it's an important kind of word here in the Greek. We ought to love. The Greek word has a fascinating sense to it.

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It's the Greek word that is used for when somebody owes another person a debt, to be indebted to someone in a financial sense, or to be under obligation to meet certain or social moral expectations.

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And so John literally is saying, if God loved us in this way and he has, then we ought, we actually owe a debt to each other to love one another.

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The therefore of the gospel. And so then think about our gospel text. Think about our gospel text in John chapter 15.

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In light of this idea of the dynamic dual, doctrine and life, and see how it works then with what

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Jesus says. John chapter 15, verse 1. Jesus said, I am the true vine.

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My father is the vine dresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

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And every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes. The person who says,

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I believe in Jesus and does not love, is that very branch.

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They say they confess Christ, but they persist in hatred towards their neighbor and persist in making a practice of sin and persist in thinking about things the way the world does and making it all about themselves.

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That is a fellow that does not bear any good fruit despite confessing

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Jesus. Be very careful. And Jesus says this, already you are clean.

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The Father prunes those, by the way, who do bear fruit. I'll just make a little bit of a note here.

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The pruning part, painful. That's all I need to say. It's really painful.

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And if you feel like God's pruning you, just been there, done that, and He continues to do so.

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We thank God for His pruning so that we would bear even more fruit. And Jesus says, already then you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you.

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So 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.

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And so this talks then about both doctrine and life. You cannot abide in Christ while denying what

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Scripture says about who Jesus is. You cannot abide in Christ and believe in a different Jesus than the one revealed in Scripture.

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It's impossible. The doctrine is what gets you in to the vine, if you would, in the first place.

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And if you're truly believing in the true Jesus, you're going to bear good fruit because Jesus is bearing that fruit through you.

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Notice who's in the driver's seat when it comes to bearing fruit. He is, not you.

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So 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.

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From apart from me you can do... Important word. Nothing. Nothing.

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Apart from Jesus you can do nothing. It doesn't say apart from Jesus you can do a few things. Apart from Jesus you can do a handful of things.

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Apart from him you can do nothing. And this makes perfect sense. He is our God. Did you create yourself?

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Does he create the air that you breathe? The wood that makes the pews that you're sitting on?

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Is there anything in your life that you can taste, see, touch, or smell that does not have its origin in Christ?

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There isn't a single thing that is. Apart from me you could do nothing. If it weren't for me, you wouldn't even exist.

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You exist because of me. You continue to exist because of me. Apart from me you can do nothing,

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Jesus says. If anyone does not abide in me, he's thrown away like a branch and it withers.

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And the branches are gathered and thrown into the fire and they are burned. That is a thinly veiled reference to hell.

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If you abide in me, and here are the words, and my words abide in you.

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If you abide in me and my words abide in you.

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Which words? All of the words of Scripture.

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All of them. They all point to Jesus, by the way. Do you remember a few weeks ago we read the text regarding the transfiguration of our

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Lord? I want you to consider this for a second. A lot of pastors, and I've even made this point myself, put the emphasis on the fact that Moses was there representing the

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Torah. Elijah was there representing the prophets. But remember the third group.

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Three of the apostles were there representing the apostles. All of the representative groups of the entire

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Scripture were there. Moses, Elijah, and the apostles.

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Torah, prophets, apostles. And they all heard the voice, and the voice said,

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This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him. All representative groups from the whole

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Scriptures. It's all about Christ. Abide in Him. You do not abide in Jesus if you don't believe who

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He claims to be. You don't abide in Jesus at all if you've made a Jesus of your own making.

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You don't abide in Him at all if you think that somehow the forgiveness of sins means that you can go about and mistreat each other and tear them down and live for yourself.

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That's not the same Jesus. And Jesus gives a very stern warning. The sternest you can get.

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You who want to abide in Me who do not bear good fruit, the Father is going to clip you off and throw you into hell.

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This is not a feel -good text. But this is exactly what Jesus is saying.

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Which causes us all to get on our knees and ask the important question.

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Lord Jesus, where are the ways in which I have not believed who You are and have acted contrary to what

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Your Word expressly teaches as far as how I am to love those around me?

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Brothers, sisters in Christ, even my pagan neighbors. And Lord, have mercy on me and forgive me.

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Oftentimes think the pruning part is coming to recognize just how far short we fall daily in loving

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God, believing Him, and loving our neighbors. So if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish,

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Jesus says, and it will be done for you. And the reason why it will be is because when Christ's words abide in you, you will not ask things of God according to the way the world thinks.

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You will ask for things from God according to the way Christ thinks and according to His will.

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So this is, by this my Father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples.

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Listen to that in verse 8. How is God the Father glorified? By our good works.

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That's how He's glorified. Read the writings of the ancient church fathers. Read the writings of the ancient

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Romans when Christianity was just getting started. And what over and over again do you see regarding the

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Roman world's reaction to the Christians? We don't know what to make of them, one

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Roman author said. Each and every one of them acts as if they do not have a homeland here on this earth, as if they're just sojourning through.

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When cursed, they bless. When beaten and mistreated, they pray for their enemies.

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They will not forsake Jesus, and despite the fact that their confession will lead to them being killed for their faith, they gladly lay down their lives rather than to deny

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Jesus. And they love each other.

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They do not engage in sexual promiscuity. They don't do all the things that our world does.

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There's something different about that group. You think of the world that we live in today.

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The world that we live in today teaches us to hate our enemies, to defeat them, to crush them, to mock them, to tear them down.

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People who disagree with us report them to Facebook so they'll be blocked. Ban them from Twitter.

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Get them fired from their jobs. This is what the world teaches us to do, and it's happening in spades.

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Christ says this, love one another. Pray for those who persecute you.

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By this, the Father is glorified, which begs the question, how much glory has my life brought to Christ and to the

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Father? How about yours? I understand this is law, but that's what this text is preaching.

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That's what Jesus is saying. So let us again repent of our short -sightedness.

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Repent of believing like the world believes and thinking the way the world thinks and behaving in a selfish and satanic manner.

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And let us again be forgiven. Let us again hear those words from John that says that we love because He first loved us.

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And Christ has laid down His life so that we may be forgiven because of His great love for us.

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And therefore, through the cross, not only securing for us a right standing with God, but leaving us an example that we are to follow, taking up our cross and following Him.

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Doctrine and life. It's even better than peanut butter and jelly, even more beautiful than Captain and Tennille, and even more powerful than Batman and Robin.

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In the name of Jesus, amen. 470th

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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.

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