The Gospel of John. Jesus, the True Vine (2)

First Baptist Church Leominster

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Our New Testament reading this morning is 1st John, chapter 3, 1st

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John, chapter 3. See what kind of love the

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Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God, and so we are.

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The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know Him. Beloved, we are

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God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared, but we know that when

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He appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is. And everyone who thus hopes in Him purifies himself as he is pure.

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Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness. Sin is lawlessness.

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You know that He appeared in order to take away sins, and in Him there is no sin.

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No one who abides in Him keeps on sinning. No one who keeps on sinning has either seen

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Him or known Him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as He is righteous.

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Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning.

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The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in Him, and He cannot keep on sinning, because He has been born of God.

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By this it is evident who are the children of God and who are the children of the devil. Whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother.

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For this is the message that you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. We should not be like Cain, who was of the evil one and murdered his brother.

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And why did he murder him? Because his own deeds were evil and his brother's righteous. Do not be surprised, brothers, that the world hates you.

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We know that we have passed out of death into life because we love the brothers. Whoever does not love abides in death.

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Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.

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By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers.

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But if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does

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God's love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk, but in deed and truth.

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By this we shall know that we are of the truth and reassure our heart before him, for whenever our heart condemns us,

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God is greater than our heart and he knows everything. Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God, and whatever we ask we receive from him because we keep his commandments and do what pleases him.

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And this is his commandment, that we believe in the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love one another just as he commanded us.

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Whoever keeps his commandments abides in God and God in him, and by this we know that he abides in us by the spirit whom he has given us.

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Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this passage.

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We just thank you for the great grace that you have given to us, the fact that you call us your children, that in eternity past you determined that we would be adopted into your family, that you would redeem us, that you would protect us, that you would safeguard us for our inheritance.

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Lord, we have such tremendous blessings in Christ Jesus, but we pray,

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Lord, that our lives would be consistent with our position. Help us, Lord, to fight against sin.

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Help us to put to death the deeds of the body. Help us, Lord, to think in a manner that is biblical.

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Help us to think in a manner that is pleasing to you. We pray, Lord, that we would hate sin and that we would follow after righteousness.

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Help us to follow the pattern that Jesus Christ set. We pray, Lord, that our cry would be, not my will, but your will be done.

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And Lord, as we open up your word and as Lars is about to preach to us, we pray that we would be undistracted.

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We pray that we would be focused on what the word has to say. We pray, Lord, that we would be open and that we would receive this truth, that we would apply it to our lives, and that we would live it every day.

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Help us, Lord, to be obedient children. Help us to love you with all our hearts.

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Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name. Amen. Well, let's turn in our

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Bibles to John 15, please. This is a little different.

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For the last 10 weeks, we've been speaking to all but empty sanctuary. There might be four or five people here that are able to be with us every

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Lord's Day. It's good to see you folks here. And we welcome the rest of our folks who are at home tuning in now, should be coming in live at this point.

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And we're glad that we have this avenue to be able to communicate with you at this time.

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I also received an email note this morning from our friend, Pastor Andrew in Kenya.

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Our church was able to buy him a laptop last year to help him minister, and he indicated that he was going to have himself and his wife, sister

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Rose, and his three children, and the orphans all gathered around a screen this morning.

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And perhaps it's early evening there in Kenya. And so they're tuning in also.

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So welcome, folks. All right. John 15.

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And this is where we left off 10 weeks ago. At the beginning of our hiatus in meeting together on Lord's Day.

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These words of our Lord were spoken to his disciples on the last night he was with them just before his arrest and crucifixion.

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He speaks affectionately to them and intimately with them. These are important words, his last words.

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And so they express concisely major teachings, and they are a summary of important foundational principles.

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These are important words of the master to his servants, but more, as we see in this passage, they are the words of the friend to his friends.

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He regards his disciples as his friends. The Lord Jesus asserted to his disciples that he was the source of life, even a fruitful life.

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He taught his followers of the blessings of abiding in him and the consequences of failing to do so.

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And so we considered John 15, 1 through 8. We want to read that again to bring us up to speed.

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Jesus declared, I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser.

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Each branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit.

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You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, and neither can you unless you abide in me.

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I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing.

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If anyone does not abide in me, he is cast out as a branch and they gather them and throw them in the fire and they are burned.

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If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.

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By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples.

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Again we gave attention to these first eight verses of this chapter in which we read of the close and intimate relationship of the disciples to their

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Savior, verses one through four. We're going to review what we had to say about these verses before we move onward.

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First the Lord Jesus declared that he was the true vine and that adjective is important, he is the true vine.

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This is suggestive of a false vine or a vine that failed to provide spiritual life to its members.

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Our Lord was comparing and contrasting himself with the physical nation of Israel which by intimation he declared to be a false vine,

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I am the true vine he declared. The vine of course is a common metaphor for the nation of Israel found in the

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Old Testament and in each of those passages where that is found and I listed some of them in a footnote.

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The metaphors used for the nation displayed its corruption as a corrupt vine, failure to produce what

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God had desired and designed for his people. It also illustrated that the nation was under the judgment of God and that Israel warranted his wrath upon it.

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Israel had been a vine that had failed to give life to its branches but in contrast to Israel of the

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Old Testament as a corrupt and unfruitful vine Jesus declared I am the true vine.

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This is one of the major teachings of this passage, it should be attended to. As one wrote,

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Donald Carson, very good commentator of John's Gospel, perhaps the best available. This title describes the quality of the true vine, how

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Jesus accomplished everything the Israel vine was unable to do. He thrives and bears fruit.

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The qualification of true is intended to contrast forcefully Jesus with Israel.

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Jesus is the fulfillment of the Israel vine and the one who completes his mission.

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The Gospel of John has already taken great care to describe how Jesus fulfills and replaces the old covenant persons and institutions of the temple.

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Israel, chapter 2, sacred places and mountains, chapter 4,

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Moses, chapter 5, and the Jewish feasts, chapter 6. As the true vine,

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Jesus also supersedes Israel as the center and source of God's people.

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The places, that is the land, Jerusalem, temple, altar, and the people,

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Israel, Jewish bloodlines, priestly heritage, have been fulfilled and replaced by the one person,

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Jesus Christ. If people understood this, took this to heart, it would change a lot of their eschatology, their understanding of the end times.

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Or as another put it, under the image of the vine, Israel gives way to Jesus. He is set forth as the replacement of the true

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Israel. Here's another explanation of Jesus as the true Israel. This pericope, and that just speaks about an episode, a narrative episode, and this pericope goes from verse 1 through 17.

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This pericope magnifies the incarnational ministry of Jesus, moving him from his tabernacling presence as a human, like us, to his role as the embodiment of Israel.

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Just as he bore our flesh and entered into the sinful condition of humanity, so also did he bear the embarrassing condition and record of Israel, a vine that had been uprooted, thrown to the ground, stripped of its fruit, and consumed by fire, and enter into the sinful and failed state of Israel.

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But in distinction from our individual existence, Jesus fulfilled to perfection the role of Israel.

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Jesus restored Israel, becoming the mediator that Israel was always intended to be in him.

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And thus, Jesus is the true Israel. All the old covenant places and people have been fulfilled and replaced by one person,

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Jesus Christ. Every other vine, including the rich heritage of Israel, is declared bankrupt and counterfeit in contrast to the true vine of God.

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In fact, Jesus had always been the intended and true vine, just as the farmer who had been planting and tending his vineyard had always been the father.

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And so we have an Old Testament, of course, display and foretelling of the coming of the true vine, and we find that realized in the coming of the

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Lord Jesus. Now after our Lord declared himself to be the true vine, in verse 1, he went further to declare, my father is the vinedresser.

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God the Father superintends all that's accomplished through Jesus Christ. It was in the

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Father's purpose and work that Christ, the true vine, replaced the corrupt vine of Israel that had failed to bring forth its fruit in season unto him.

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And there are numerous places in the Gospels that speak of this, of course. The fruitless ground, the fruitless nation of Israel.

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Our Lord then declared in verse 2 that the ones who abide in him bring forth fruit unto God. Again, the metaphor of him being the true vine.

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Jesus said, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.

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Now here the Lord Jesus is describing the work of his father as the vinedresser, the husbandman.

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The father is the one who assures that true branches are in vital connection with his vine, the

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Lord Jesus, and that they are bearing fruit. All true branches of this true vine will bear fruit.

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What is meant by fruit? Actually, the meaning of fruit is not specifically mentioned here in this passage, but we can understand that fruit should be understood as fruits of righteousness, perhaps the fruit of the

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Holy Spirit that God, of course, works within his people. And so we may assume that our

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Lord was speaking of his disciples becoming faithful and joyful followers of him through whom he would expand his kingdom in the world.

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They would bring forth fruit. Jesus said of the work of his father, the vinedresser, every branch in me that does not bear fruit, he takes away.

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Not only do the fruitful branches need God's attention, but so do those branches that do not bear fruit.

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God the Father takes them away. Judas Iscariot could be counted as one of these branches, and perhaps we could argue the

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Jewish leaders as well and all those who rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Only fruit -bearing branches are allowed to be in Christ.

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But not only does the Father remove unfruitful branches, but he prunes the branches so that they may become more productive fruit -bearers.

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We read that every branch that bears fruit, he prunes that it may bear more fruit. This speaks of the ongoing work of sanctification that the

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Father affects in the lives of our Lord's disciples. He is at work in us. Pruning, of course, is not a necessarily pleasant process, but being cut and trimmed by the

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Father is necessary for fruit -bearing branches.

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And I think what's true of individuals is also true of churches, and we could very easily understand that taking place in the world today.

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The Lord is pruning us, as it were, preparing us so that we can bring forth more fruit,

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Lord willing. But then the Lord Jesus declared to his disciples, they're standing before him, in verse 3, we read, you are already clean because of the word which

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I have spoken to you. And here clean speaks of the disciples having salvation and being in a vital living relationship with the

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Lord. It had already occurred, they were clean. It indicates they were living branches in him who had received and were receiving spiritual life through him, and that they were already bearing fruit.

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What had brought about this blessed condition of these branches? Jesus said, you're already clean because of the word which

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I have spoken to you. The word that Jesus had spoken to them had resulted in them having become clean.

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His word had brought them to saving faith, which was the instrument that God used to cleanse them from the guilt and pollution of sin.

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Faith is the instrument that God uses. It's not some work that you and I perform.

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It is the instrument that God uses in order to cleanse people of their sin. His word accomplished in them this work of saving grace.

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It was their faith in his word which he used to cleanse them from their sin. It's all a work of God.

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Here it's attributed to the work of God the Father. I came across the words of John Owen on faith as the instrument that God uses to purify from sin.

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Now, John Owen is probably the most difficult Puritan to read and understand. He was very worded, but after John Owen got finished saying something, everything that could be said was said.

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And he wrote this regarding faith as the instrument that God uses.

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Faith is the instrumental cause of our purification, purifying their hearts by faith,

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Acts 15 .9. The two unfailing evidences of sincere faith are that within it purifies the heart, that's within us, and without, in other words, in the way we live outside of our hearts, it worketh by love.

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These are the touchstones whereon faith may, yea, ought to be tried. In other words, this is how you test whether you have true saving faith or not.

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We purify our souls and obey the truth of the Spirit, 1 Peter 1 .22. That is, by believing, which is our original obedience unto the truth, and hereby our souls are purified.

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Unbelievers, unclean, are the same, for they have nothing in them whereby they might instrumentally be cleansed.

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And we are purified by faith because, and then he lists four reasons, first, faith itself is the principal grace whereby our nature is restored into the image of God and so freed from our original defilement, referring to Adam's sin.

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Adam's sin was one of unbelief, wasn't it? And so our faith in Christ reverses that.

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Second, it's by faith on our part whereby we receive the purifying virtue and influences of the blood of Christ, whereof we have before discoursed, in other words, he had talked about it earlier.

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Faith is the grace whereby we constantly adhere and cleave unto Christ. And if the woman who touched his garment in faith obtained virtue from him to heal her issue of blood, shall not those who cleave unto him continually derive virtue from him for the healing of their spiritual defilements?

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There's a good application. And third, it is by the working of faith principally whereby those lusts and corruptions which are defiling are mortified, in other words, put to death, subdued and gradually wrought out of our minds.

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All actual defilements spring from the remainders of defiling lusts and their deprived working in us.

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How faith worketh to the correcting and subduing of them by deriving supplies of the spirit and grace to that end from Jesus Christ as being the means of abiding in them, where on alone those supplies depend, and is also by the acting of all other graces which are contrary to the polluting lusts of the flesh and destructive of them, is surely declared, and we must not too far enlarge upon these things.

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He thought he was speaking briefly. And then fourthly, faith takes in all the motives which are proposed unto us to stir us up unto our utmost endeavors and diligence in the use of all means and ways for the preventing of defilements of sin and for the cleansing of our minds and consciences from the relics of dead works.

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And these motives, which are great and many, may be reduced unto two heads. First, a participation of the excellent promises of God at the present, faith of course brings us in connection to those promises.

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The consideration here brings a singular enforcement on the souls of believers to endeavor after universal purity and holiness, and two, the future enjoyment of God in glory, where unto we cannot attain without being purified from sin.

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Now these motives, which are the springs of our duty in this matter, are received and made efficacious by faith only.

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And so faith is the instrument that God uses to purify us, to cleanse us, pardon us of sin, and purify us from sin as well.

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Well Jesus then gave instruction in verse four, abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.

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The word abide may be simply translated as remain or dwell, remain in me.

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It may also carry the idea of staying or continuing to live or dwell in him, abide in me.

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How is this done? Well to abide in Jesus is to be continually connected to him in faith and fellowship.

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It is to continue in faith in him, relying upon him for our life, looking to him as the source and the strength of our life in him.

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How is this abiding in Christ done? Well the scriptures declare it through faith in Christ and through faith and obedience to his word, the holy scriptures, through faith and obedience.

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John 5 .38, but you do not have his word abiding in you because whom he sent him you do not believe.

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They didn't have faith. John 6 .56, he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me.

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And of course he was talking about faith. John 8 .31, Jesus said to those

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Jews who believed him, if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed.

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And here the idea is continuing in his word. You prove yourself to be true Christians, true disciples.

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And so after our Lord addressed himself as the true vine in verses 1 through 4, he then proceeded to describe the fruitful life of the one who abides in him.

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And this is what we have in verses 5 through 8. And again we dealt with this in some detail ten weeks ago.

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Jesus declared to his disciples these words, I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit for without me you can do nothing.

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If anyone does not abide in me he is cast out as a branch and is withered. They gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.

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If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you will ask whatever you desire and it shall be done for you.

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

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So with Christ a Christian can do much, he bears much fruit. Apart from Christ even a believer can do nothing.

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Jesus said without me you can do nothing. This is the conclusion as one wrote.

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An application of the whole parable of Jesus being the true vine. Apart from Christ even a believer can do nothing.

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We bear no fruit that is good and acceptable to God for we are unable to do anything good.

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And as Christians we of course need to learn that lesson don't we? And this is learned most of the time by young Christians early in the faith.

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But we tend to forget it as time goes on too. We tend to think ourselves all too capable don't we?

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Through our experience and through our knowledge but we are in need of Christ each and every day.

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Without me you can do nothing. Here we see that everything we are as Christians, everything we attempt as Christians, all things that we accomplish as Christians is due to Christ working in and through us.

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We're always to acknowledge and we're always to pray. Lord unless you guide me and help me in this

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I'm gonna mess it up. I need your strength and I'm now trusting you to do for me and in me that which pleases you.

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Because without you I am incapable of doing your will. That ought to be the prayer of every one of us every day probably multiple times every day.

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The Lord then gave this warning in verse 6. If anyone does not abide in me he's cast out as a branch and is withered and they gather them and throw them into the fire and they are burned.

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Now every true Christian abides in Christ. Those who do not and are cast out are no true branches of the vine.

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If one thinks or claims to be a true branch but bears no fruit that comes forth in every true branch it's cut off and put into the burn pile.

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This does not depict a true Christian becoming lost or unsaved for that is not possible for the one who is saved by the grace of God in Christ.

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Rather what our Lord's words do here they serve as a warning to the professing

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Christian who's not a true Christian. It's a Christian in name only whose life does not bear evidence of having been converted and becoming a disciple a follower of Christ.

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But on the other hand our Lord promised his people in verse 7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you you will ask what you desire and it shall be done for you.

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And here in this context asking what we desire is not a you know free grocery list that you devise that you want but rather it's the desire to bring forth fruit in one's life.

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He abundantly grants this request of his people those who abide in him. This should be our greatest desire our greatest longing and we may be assured that he will answer this concern this prayer.

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And then the first portion of the portion of this passage verses 1 through 8 concludes with verse 8 by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit so you will be my disciples.

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Only true disciples are true Christians they show forth that they are Christ's disciples by bearing fruit of righteousness that Christ produces in them through their abiding attachment to him and God is greatly glorified by the fruit that he produces in the lives of his people.

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What is meant by glorifying God? You know there are some words and phrases that we use rather frequently but perhaps we don't think through what we're saying.

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What is meant by glorifying God? Well it's not adding to God something that he presently is without.

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We cannot add glory to God and that's not what glorifying God is.

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But rather glorifying God is our displaying before others who our God truly is and what he's truly like leading them hopefully to acknowledge and believe in him as we do that's what it is to glorify

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God. Now again 10 weeks ago we had ceased here in our consideration of this passage but actually this theme of Jesus as the true vine continues through verse 17.

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This is the larger pericope and so now let's read verses 9 through 17 the continuation of this parable.

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Jesus said as the father loved me I have also loved you abide in my love.

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If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

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These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full.

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This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this and to lay down one's life for his friends.

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You are my friends if you do whatever I command you. No longer do

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I call you servants for a servant does not know what his master is doing but I have called you friends for all things that I have heard from my father

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I have made known to you. You did not choose me but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should remain that whatever you ask the father in my name he may give you these things

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I command you that you love one another. We're not going to be able to address everything here today

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I can see that quite clearly. In verses 9 and 10 we first read the love that Jesus has for his disciples and of our response to that love.

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Jesus declared his love for his disciples was comparatively the same as the love that God the father loved his son.

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Now you think about that can you can you fathom the love of God the father for his son that's the same love the son has for you if you're a

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Christian that is incredible to contemplate. As the father loved me

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I also have loved you are we capable of grasping the wonder of that declaration?

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When I was reflecting on this and considering this I said how am I going to express that appropriately?

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How am I going to convey this to you know to impact us to its significance and its greatness?

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J .C. Ryle wrote of this the remarkable statement seems intended to show the depth and magnitude of our lord's love to his people.

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We can form no adequate idea of the love of the father towards the son. The feeling of one eternal person in the trinity to another person is a high thing into which we cannot enter.

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Yet even such is the love of Christ toward those who believe in him a vast wide deep immeasurable love that passes knowledge and can never be fully comprehended by man.

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We've already considered in John's gospel the father's love for his son John 3 35 the father loves the son has given all things into his hand.

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John 5 20 for the father loves the son shows him all things that he himself does and he'll show him greater works than these that you may marvel and later we'll read of our lord's words in his prayer to his father

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I and them you and me that they may be made perfect in one that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them as you love me

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God the father loves you as a Christian in the same way he loves his son father

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I desire that they also whom you gave me may be with me where I am that they may behold my glory that you've given me for you love me before the foundation of the world the lord

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Jesus loves his people in the same manner and to the same degree the father loves his son the love of the father for his son is an everlasting love in its duration the love of the father for his son is infinite love in its degree and Jesus declared that his love for you if you're a

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Christian is the same as his father's love for him Jesus said as the father loved me

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I also have loved you that's a comparative statement earlier we read of the love of Jesus for his own

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John 13 1 now before the feast of the Passover when Jesus knew his hour has come to depart out of the world of the father having loved his own who were in the world he loved them to the end in his human nature

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Jesus came to love his own as he met them and grew to know them over the course of his life but in his divine nature

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Jesus loved his own from eternity it was the same love his father had for them which is an eternal love

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God had told Jeremiah the Lord has appeared of old to me saying yes I've loved you with an everlasting love therefore with loving kindness

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I've drawn you the reason God drew you to salvation in Jesus Christ through his instrument of faith is because he loved you with an everlasting love an eternal love he had you on his heart in eternity and so in his divine nature the son had love everlasting love for his people and the father sent him into the world to save them save his people if you have salvation or if God has elected you to receive salvation one day there was never a time when

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God did not love you even when you were in your sin he had pity upon you he had compassion on you and purpose to save you from your sin for he loved you with an everlasting and infinite love let's just consider for a few moments this love of God and first let's recognize the principal object of God's love what does

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God love the most and the answer of course is

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God loves himself the most that may sound strange but it's a reality consider the words of John Gill in his body divinity on the love of God the principal object of the love of God is himself self -love is in all intelligent beings nor is it discommendable every one of us love ourselves and that itself is not sinful it's only when you elevate your love for yourself above love for God or love for others you are to love others as you love yourself it's a part of being an intelligent person that you love yourself you desire what's best for you don't you every human being desires that that itself is not sinful it is the abuse of love as he described when it's not carried to a criminal excess and to the neglect of others none are obligated to love others more than themselves but as themselves

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God first and chiefly loves himself and hence he's made himself that is his glory the ultimate end of all he does in nature providence and grace and his happiness lies in contemplating himself his nature and perfections in that love complacency in other words a satisfaction and delight he has in himself nor needs he nor can he have anything outside of himself that can add to his essential happiness because he's eternally blessed as it were the three divine persons in the godhead mutually love each other the father loves the son and the spirit the son loves the father and the spirit and the spirit loves the father and the son

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God loves himself as the principal object of his love that may sound strange but it's a reality there's no defect that is a positive quality on the part of God but in addition

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God loves all that he has created because his works are a reflection of who he is and what he's like here again are

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Gill's words all that God has made as the object of his love all the works of creation when he had made them he looked over them and saw that they were good very good he was well pleased and delighted with them yea he is said to rejoice in his works he upholds all creatures in their beings and he's the preserver of all both men and beasts and is good to all and his tender mercies are over all his works and particularly rational creatures human beings are the objects of his care his love and delight that doesn't mean of course he overlooks sin in fact this aggravates man's sin and guilt doesn't it

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God has been so loving to you but look what you've done with that people will be condemned to greater degrees because of their neglect and rejection of the love of God but God has a special covenantal love for his elect the people he is purposed to save by his grace because they're better more lovely than anybody else that's certainly not the case but because they're in Christ and because God the

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Father loves his son he loves those who are in his son and it's this love that he has loved you if you're a

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Christian or one day you become a Christian he's loved you with an everlasting love again as Gil wrote he bears a special love to elect men in Christ which is called his great love

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Ephesians 2 for whom he's chosen and blessed with all spiritual blessings in him which love is distinguishing and discriminating how is this love for his people demonstrated well

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God has thoughts of blessing them from eternity he desired a remarkable big way in which he could be just and yet justify his elect before him forgiving them of all their sins he had thoughts and intentions of blessing them from eternity he desired and purposed their ultimate and everlasting well -being he would obtain for them pardon of their sins bestowing his peace upon them and filling their hearts with joy and gladness for all the experience from him and before him from the beginning he purposed their salvation that is before creation through history he directed his providence toward the end of sending them a

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Savior even a king who would deliver them and govern them in peace and righteousness he loved them and sending his son to assume their nature and gain their salvation he loved them in suffering and dying on their behalf in order to redeem them and at some time predetermined in eternity he awakened them to their need and taught them the way of faith in Jesus Christ imparting grace to them to repent of their sins and believe on his son whereby he saved them he forgave them adopted them sanctified them glorified them by his grace because he loved them with an everlasting love and this is why the

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Apostle could write in the context of Romans 8 what then shall we say to these things if God is for us in other words if God loved us who can be against us he who did not spare his own son but delivered him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things for I am persuaded that neither death nor life or angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor debt or any other created thing shall be able to separate us from what the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our

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Lord and that love of God and Christ Jesus is only experienced and enjoyed by his disciples by his vines that bear forth fruit that are vitally connected to him through faith and so God purposed to do all this for you if you're one of his own and the

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Lord purpose to do all that was necessary to secure your salvation because he has declared in the passage before us as the father loved me

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I also have loved you well after this declaration of Jesus which we can't even fathom if you're one of his own the

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Lord Jesus purpose to do all that was necessary to secure your salvation again because it was declared here he then gave this command to them in verse 9b abide in my love and the

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New King James version that's the second portion of a single sentence there's a semicolon I think in the

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ESV it has a separate sentence it really is a separate command abide in my love this could be translated remain in my love this is the same

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Greek word meno which simply means I abide I remain

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I dwell we've already encountered this Greek word seven times in what we've already considered this morning

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John 15 1 and following and then it's here in verse 9 and it's used twice more in verse 10 it's a word that is repeatedly used by our

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Lord Jesus and this idea of abiding in Christ and abiding in his love is a major theme in this portion of Scripture this closing discourse of our

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Lord with his disciples Edward clink who is a wrote a good commentary on John's gospel he's a professor of a new testament

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I think out of Biola University in Southern California he wrote these words the term has become a technical term he's talking about the term meno

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Greek word for abide the term has become a technical term in the gospel though its meaning and function is fully established in this pericope

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Wallace he's a Greek scholar suggests that the aorist imperative aorist is the tense we have past present future aorist is a

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Greek tense speaking about the certainty of a matter and the mood of the verb is a command it's an imperative aorist imperative is a constantive that's how we should understand the nature of the verb it's a solemn command abide in my love and it stresses the urgency of the act it says if the author says make this your top priority abide in his love this command serves to introduce the primary category by which the

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Christian relates and communes with God this is the foundational manner of Christian existence it is the nature of salvation it is what the church has long described and defined by several theological terms perhaps primarily union with Christ abide in me he said earlier here he says abide in my love verse 4 he said abide in me verse 9 abide in my love and so the idea that our

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Savior was conveyed is that we should always be mindful appreciative and enjoy this love that he has for us his love for us is to be a reality that is always with us in our very being oftentimes we can reduce

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Christianity just to a set of principles and rules that's not how we live the

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Christian life it means that we are to always be mindful of his love for us and that knowledge ought to always comfort us inspire us motivate us and strengthen us in our resolve to live in his presence and live in obedience to him the love of God and Christ for you should be at the foremost in your thinking in your heart how does one obey this command abide in my love that's a good question to answer isn't it and the answer is in the next verse we read in verse 10 if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love just I have kept just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love we should not think that abiding in his love is some link to a mystical experience that we feel to remain in his love is seen an experience in the presence of obedience to him he had declared to his disciples earlier if you love me keep my commandments and here we understand that obedience to him is the way in which we may abide in the realization and enjoyment of his love

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I guarantee you those who claim to be

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Christian and maybe they are and truly Christian but they're not abiding in obedience to Christ they're not going to enjoy and experience the love of God in Christ they go hand in hand a disobedient

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Christian is one who is going to feel rather estranged from God love and obedience are two themes that are emphasized by our

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Lord in his departing discourse to his disciples Christian obedience is not simply conforming to a law code even if that law code is found in the

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Bible a lot of people do that they read the Bible they look for instruction principles commands and then they seek to follow it but it's as though Christ were removed from their thinking and that's not good and so there are many professing

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Christians who live a moral life that may reflect that law code found in the

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Bible it may reflect the righteousness of the law but their obedience is not motivated by love for Christ or directed as obedience to Christ to abide in his love is seen an experience in a conscience conscious obedience to Jesus Christ as Lord is critically important and basic to every one of us when we read that we thought well that's true you know

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I know that's right now it's important that we do not change the order of this love and obedience first there must be an awareness and belief in his love for us and then our obedience flows from that knowledge enabling us to know more clearly and fully that love again

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I want to quote Edward Klang who nailed this two aspects of these pillars and he's talking about love and obedience two aspects of these pillars need to be further explained first we must care be careful not to reverse the order of love and obedience that is obedience springs from love and as a response to love not the reverse this pericope has been intentional to make

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God the cause and the disciple the effect God is the source and the disciples are the passive recipients but also the active respondents we respond reversing the order makes the disciple the active agent and the one to whom

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God responds and this is not so for God demonstrated and initiated his love for us while we were still sinners it's never that we obey in order to receive

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God's love but rather we obey because we have received God's love we obey because God is love and our obedience returns to him what is rightfully his and shared with us in Christ who exemplified love and obedience to the

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Father on our behalf very important because we all tend to be little legalist don't we and think that somehow because we've been faithful or obedient for a while that somehow

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God's gonna love us more and that's just not biblical it's not true the fact is there's nothing that you can do to gain or increase

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God's love for you nothing that love he has for you in Christ is already infinite degree in degree and eternal in duration how are you going to increase that or diminish it there's nothing you can do therefore either to increase or diminish his love for you but there's much in every way of obedience that you might better comprehend and experience his love this is contingent on your obedience to him

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Jesus Christ exemplifies for us how we are to live he was obedient to his father we are obedient to the

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Lord Jesus as he kept his father's commandments and thereby always abode in his father's love so we are to keep the commandments of the

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Lord Jesus and thereby abide in the love of the Lord Jesus for us all of our good works are to be done due to our love for the

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Lord Jesus through whom we may experience and enjoy the love of God the Father well after having considered the love that Jesus has for his disciples in our response to that love we next read in verses 11 through 17

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Jesus directs his disciples to love one another in the same way that he had loved them the

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Lord first declared his motivation for having spoken to them about these matters verse 11 reads these things

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I've spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full he had early spoke of my my my love and he had spoken of my peace and now he adds his third grace he adds my joy let's be mindful again of the setting in which our

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Lord Jesus expressed these words to his disciples he was even then being betrayed by Judas Judas was meeting with the

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Jewish leaders as he was speaking but Jesus desired even at this difficult time knowing what was coming upon them he desired to have his disciples experience the full joy that he himself enjoyed this joy would be in the knowledge and wonderful accomplishment of his mission to save his people by his death on the cross on their behalf this is what gave him his joy this joy of Jesus is what flows from him having accomplished his mission as one wrote the joy of Jesus is the joy that arises from the sense of a finished work he accomplished he was accomplishing that night that next day on the cross what had been on his heart from eternity certainly all of his earthly life when he came to understand it it was our

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Lord's confident assurance of what he was about to successfully achieve that brought him great joy and this joy is what strengthened him to endure the cruel cross that was just before him we read of this in Hebrews 12 therefore we also since we're surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses talking about all those people of faith in Hebrews 11 let us lay aside every weight the sin which so easily ensnares us let us run with endurance the grace set before us looking on to Jesus see again the center focuses on our

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Savior the author and finisher of our faith he's gone on before as he blazed the trail for us and then here it is who for the joy that was set before him and it's expressed here in John 15 the joy that I have might be in you the joy set before him not the cross the cross was something he endured but it was his joy of what he would accomplish through that cross that sustained him and strengthened him to endure that cross despising the shame and I sat down at the right hand of the throne of God well

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I could go off on a number of things I got to stick to it here because of the time and what we've got before us this is a thought breeder boy it generates all kinds of ideas here but got to be disciplined similarly when our joy is full due to our contemplation of what he secured for us and what is set before us we too should be filled with joy the

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Christian life is not as a typical worldling thanks a life of dull boring ritualistic morbid existence those

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Christians don't have any fun that was my opinion of Christianity before I was converted that's not the case at all if we're thinking rightly and abiding in the love of God in Christ for us even as we're ordering our lives and obedience to him the certain prospect of what lies before us should instill within us a sense of joy even the fullness of joy think of our brother

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Bob McDonald what he's enjoying right now and that lies before you and before me and it ought to motivate us it ought to be before us not just our life going to the next two few months which may be difficult or next handful of years

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I don't know that the Lord's going to give us a recovery back to normal whatever that is I don't see any humility any brokenness on the part of our nation

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I don't know but we shouldn't be looking at these things but rather we ought to be looking what

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God has secured for us and promised us in Christ and this ought to be the basis of and the encouragement to our joy and the

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Lord would have our joy be full then our Lord's command in verse 12 this is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you he talked about commandments plural now he talks about he narrows it down to one commandment love one another as I have loved you and what he's thinking about here is that disciples ought to be willing to lay down their lives for one another his death is in mine and that's clear from the context here and he said by this all will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another because this is a supernatural thing to see that the genuine true love of God that we should have and display before one another rather than pushing ourselves forward it's me and mine first and foremost and you know damn everybody and everything else no that's not

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Christian is it we desire we really desire what is good not just for other

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Christians but for everybody don't we God has it has a general benevolent spirit for his creation and we ought to have a genuine desire for the for the well -being of all people but especially the household of God verses 13 and 14 make it clear that this love for one another should be sacrificial in nature greater love is no one than this and to lay down his life for his friends you are my friends if you do whatever

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I command you by definition a friend is a disciple is a Christian every

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Christian is a friend of Jesus Christ and regard God regard Christ regards you as such as a

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Christian there's an intimacy that is developed in this New Testament age that before they didn't experience it wasn't all that common

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Abraham's called a friend of God Moses is referred to as a friend of God now every

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Christian is a friend of Jesus Christ and this has implications and really we don't have time

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I'm just going to summarize here and then we'll close but the Lord Jesus sets down basically three characteristics of friends of Christ first friends of Jesus love others as Christ loved them and then secondly friends of Jesus Christ are ones who obey him and thirdly

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Jesus Christ reveals the will and purpose of God to his friends the distinguishing characteristic of friendship in this passage is that his disciples had come to understand what

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God the Father was doing to his son Jesus Christ and they were entering in it no longer

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I call you servants a servant doesn't know what his master's doing master tells a servant go do this do that he does it but he doesn't have a clue what the desires and delights of his master are what his goals are but the master who has a friend shares with him his desires his aspirations his goals and a friend helps him and encourages him and perhaps joins him in that endeavor and that's what we do as disciples we're friends of Christ because we understand what he's doing in the world and the idea of fruit bearing again is that we're joining with Christ and with one another in bringing about what he desires to accomplish in this world this is what it is to be a friend of God to be a friend of Jesus Christ and that's why it's so important for us to as Christians to make a clear and full study of biblical doctrine and teaching that's why

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I was emphasizing this whole matter last few weeks of understanding the unveiling of God through history so that we can understand what

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God is doing through history so that we could become participatory in that enabled by the

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Holy Spirit and the Word of God to bring that about that his kingdom would be realized in this world as it's realized in heaven and this is what it is to be a growing disciple of Jesus Christ may the

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Lord help each of us may the Lord help our church to so become disciples in this manner amen let's pray thank you father for your word before us we pray you'd help us to be responsive and obedient to our

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Lord's commands help us our God to enjoy this wonderful love that you have for us the same love that the father had for you our

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Lord Jesus from eternity help us our Lord also manifest this love for one another that we would desire and work toward one another's well -being and we pray that you would fill us with this joy our