True Vine/ Abiding In Jesus

Good morning, and it is a pleasure to be here a Little plug about David Vaughn our the missionary in France.

He is uh, he's been over there 24 or 5 years something like that he left

He lives in Henry County, Georgia, that's where he Originated and so he was a

English speaker with a drawl and so And so he left there to go to France learn the

French language Eventually met his wife who is from South Africa, and so they've been in France now for 20 -something years

They they are on there. They're in their third church that they have planted and And and they're planning to plant one more church in France, so they have just set up a

Reformed Baptist Network in France with several other reformed pastors and churches up there

So it's a very I mean is he has had a very fruitful field up there, and we're so thankful for David Pray for him

He's getting older and so with age comes health issues

And so but he's still I mean he's got his hand to the wheel so anyway

So just pray pray for David if you would If you're not familiar We're from McDonough actually and if you're not familiar with McDonough as you go south out of Atlanta Toward Macon McDonough is right at where all the traffic jam starts so So that's like that's a good that's a good place to look to start

So First like I said, it's a very big privilege to be here pastor

Deacons Congregation so I'd like to start by praying

Father I thank you so much for your kingdom and you said that you would plant your church you would build your church and The gates of hell would not prevail against it and your church is planted on the creed that came from Peter thou art the

Christ the son of the Living God as it is a truth that Has existed all the way since Christ was born

Lived died and was resurrected and ascended to heaven I Thank you.

Oh Lord that we are now brought into that kingdom through Christ Jesus and By his blood and by the faith in him that was a gift of God For us that we would have this faith even why were me why were we made a part of this?

We don't know but it's by grace. We've been saved through faith I Thank you

Lord for this church, and I pray that you bless it for your glory in Christ's name.

Amen I noticed when I first walked into the room that the clock is at Quarter till 12, and so I guess

I can preach as long as I want to Anyway, it'll never get to 12 o 'clock

Our text this morning is from John 15 1 through 11

John 15 1 through 11. I want to begin though by Reading the first line of that of that first verse

He said I am the vine and so I am the true vine.

I'm sorry Why did he start this like that? I am the true vine well logic makes us go back and ask why did he say like that and Was there an untrue vine or a false vine?

And so the answer is yes And for that I'd like to go back to the

Old Testament to a text from Isaiah 5 Looking back to the

Old Testament types. The vine was was That title was given to the

Lord's chosen people Israel Who were redeemed out of Egypt and out of their physical bondage and who were given the good law of God at Sinai?

That law was good It was it was for their good and it was for the Lord's glory that they would live according to that law

The law was good for them because it would keep them It was their life

Moses said this word is your life and it's not just for them.

But for us this word is our life It tells us about first about God who we have to worship and it tells us the way we're to worship

But it tells us about ourselves too and our sin all the way from Adam and Eve on This world and us we have we we are fallen creatures

Apart from Christ. We still would be but this world and all this in it sits in the lap of the evil one scripture says and so But this is what we were were redeemed from We're so thankful any of you who don't know that redemption and don't know that conversion

State of being I invite you today to look into this word to see what it says about you, but also about the

Invitation we we heard in Sunday school the general Invitation and then the specific calling of people to come to God through Christ The types there were a lot of types in the

Old Testament Like there was the rock that produced water there was the

Passover that was the the blood that was of the lamb that was smeared on the doorpost and Lentil of all the houses that the death angel would not come into that home and sure enough

All the the firstborn of all the people of Egypt the firstborn died

But Israel was excluded if they had that blood on the doorpost and lentil of the houses

Abraham and Isaac That picture of Abraham about to sacrifice

Isaac But the but God provided a ram caught in the thicket one of my favorite verses is in Romans 8 32 for God who did not withhold his only son

But gave a gave him up for us all how will he not also give us?

everything So God didn't withhold his son

Abraham was enabled to help to withhold Isaac from that death and Being and Israel finally being brought into the land of promise and that's our future

Hope that we have John 15

We must remember is a parable is written as a parable given to the

Jews really of His day that they would understand

What Isaiah 5 was saying I? Want to read a few verses from the first seven verses from Isaiah 5 if you want to turn there beneficial

Isaiah 5 This is I'm reading from the ESV English Standard Version Let me sing for my beloved

My love song converted concerning his vineyard My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill

He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines

He built a watchtower in the midst of it and hewed out a wine vat in it and he looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes and Now Oh inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah judged between me and my vineyard

What more? Was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it

When I look for it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes? And now

I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard I will remove its hedge and it shall be devoured.

I will break down its wall and it shall be trampled down I will make it a waste

It shall not be pruned or hoed and briars and thorns shall grow up I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it

The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel and the men of Judah are his pleasant

Planted planting and he looked for justice, but behold bloodshed for righteousness but behold an outcry following following these verses

There are six woes pronounced in Isaiah 5 and those six woes were

Statements of what why? The nation of Israel was producing wild grapes and they were just they were right out in front

Why the Lord was angry? for his vineyard and said that he would tear down its walls and Let the let everything that was damaging come in and song of Solomon matter of fact the beloved said to the loved he said

Watch out for the little foxes for the little foxes who will spoil my vineyard and those little foxes are maybe we would think of insignificant sins but there are no insignificant sins and Israel during their time of In in what he was talking about here was

Engaged in not just insignificant sins, but very blatant sins

Idolatry being just one of them We're Blessed that Martin Lord Jones who was a preacher from Wales and then in London He preached a series of sermons and these sermons he titled a nation under wrath and was talking about the nation the the nation of Israel and In this in these sermons he titled these woes

He titled these woes materialism pleasure mania the cart rope moral perversion humanism sin in high places and Then the end of that little section against the law and against God I Want to give you just a just a one like the first sentence

Summary of what Martin Lord Jones said about materialism

This is the woe Woe to those who join house -to -house who add field to field

Until there is no more room and you are made to dwell alone in the midst of the land

Jones said that who that that this is all about the materialism not only of Old Testament Israel, but of the

Israel in Jesus time And if you look around now, we see it in our nation now it's the state of man in a fallen state and the

Jews that he was referring to the Jews that he was talking about were the unregenerate maybe believers in God But not followers of God and they were not regenerate had they been regenerate

They would have seen in scripture The rules that God wanted us to live by and the good law that God wanted us to live by But they didn't

How could that as Jesus said Nick said to Nicodemus? you can't even see the kingdom of God unless you're born again, or unless you're regenerate and So these

Jews did not see that The second woe he titled pleasure mania

Martin Lloyd -jones titled pleasure mania and this is the woe in verse 11

Woe to those who rise early in the morning that they may run after strong drink who tarry late into the evening as wine inflames them and The scripture goes on to describe those who

Rise early in the morning and there was no end to their pleasure Sorry to say you can see that in Solomon's early life

He was he was a He was a you could say a pleasure maniac And if you can read what happened to him or what what course of life he took

There were three there were three Laws for the king or three commands for the king.

He must not accumulate horses from Egypt He could not accumulate much wealth and he could not have many wives

Well, if you see all those three commands that Solomon knew He knew about this because it was

Old Testament rules for him well, he had He he sent to Egypt and had so many horses.

I don't have the text but he had stables for all of his horses He had wealth

I think 666 talents of gold a year that he brought in from other nations of the world and he had many many wives and the reason why there was a command not to Accumulate wives is that because they would turn his heart away from God and that's exactly what happened

And because of that he built high places and he built temples to these gods that his wives

Would worship well He built temples so that his wives would have a place to worship and the people of Israel were

Corrupted too and they would go to these temples It's a seductive thing sin is the third woe

He titled Jones titled the cart rope Woe to those who draw iniquity with cords of falsehood who draw sin as with a cart rope

Well, you can sort of read between the lines We sin with a high hand

We we sin presumptuously unless the

Spirit of God unless we listen to the restraint of the

Spirit of God and not harden our hearts and our consciences against him and So otherwise we would draw sin with a cart rope just like them

All of these are written for our benefit We know that for our reproof and correction and so we do well to pay attention the fourth woe is

He titled moral perversion Woe to those who call evil good and good evil who put darkness for light and light for darkness

Who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter? We can justify almost anything our in our

Because of our remaining sin because of our indwelling sin We can do it

That's why we got to be watchful over our hearts That's why we've got to go to this word and and let this word guide us and hide the word in my heart

How can a man young man keep his way pure But hiding his word in my heart so that he might not sin against you now

I'm mixing up some scriptures there, but that's why so that we won't sin against him the the fear of the

Lord is a is a is a seldom used phrase in churches today but the fear of the

Lord is beginning is the beginning of wisdom and the beginning of Understanding and if we understand ourselves and our proclivity the our remaining sin we must understand what the fear of the

Lord is and the fear of the Lord is His great mercy on us by saving us from those sins

But the but the topper is that those same sins that he has saved us from he put the guilt on his own son

Christ Jesus and what a marvel that is what a

We can't Grasp it That God would do that while we were yet sinners

Christ died for the ungodly Christ died for us And so we have to remember that and that fact alone

Will bring the fear of the Lord his glory and his bigness to us Got a friend who said he's humongous

That's a good phrase. Can't top it. I don't think when the early church was formed and they would get together it said and the awe of God fell on them all and the fear of the

Lord and the awe of him is a parallel thought the next woe in verse 21 is

He caught he titled humanism Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes and shrewd in their own sight

And we see this around us. I mean in Trying to think on the fly here.

I think it was 1996 Alexander Solzhenitsyn who was

He was an intellectual from the Soviet Union But because of he was intellectual and he wrote books and articles and things

The Soviets put him in the gulags put him in the labor camps over there for writing things that had the truth and for being critical of the

Soviet Union for the Soviet atheistic system and so he spent years in the gulag and Once they just couldn't stop him because his his writing kept seeping out

They exiled him and he came to America and he lived in Vermont while he was living in America, he got he gave a lecture at Harvard University and In that lecture,

I mean if you listen to it or read it It would you know be a 30 minute long or so lecture, but in this he basically he said

The reason that the Soviet Union is falling and they were falling then and they were

So many people were alcoholics Humanism was running rampant, but he said the reason is that they have forgotten

God Man was the center of everything Which is humanism's that's what humanism says man is the center of all things

That this is a another little aside in the early years in the early years of the

United States Boston was called the hub the hub of intellectuality the hub of The the sciences and the arts and it was all what man had accomplished and even

Because of that it was called the hub like the hub of the world

And it was man -centered and not God -centered and you know what Harvard has become now if you read the news

It has a name All of most of these prints I mean most of these

Ivy League colleges were created to spread the gospel to train preachers

But now I don't think any of them have that as a primary goal Maybe none of them humanism, it's one of those things that pride is lodged in our hearts where we think and We're we're controlling people we like to control things and so pride is in us

So much that we can't even detect it a lot of the times we have to be on guard

We think we have to have the last word. We think we know better than this word Like I said earlier we can justify things because I'm the

I'm the man I'm the one I'm the captain of my soul and then the next woe is the sin in high places this is verse 22 woe to those who are heroes at drinking wine and Valiant men in mixing strong drink who acquit the guilty for a bribe and Deprive the innocent of his right

These are just the judges and lawyers who who acquit the guilty for a bribe justice judges and lawyers corporate owners all of those men of power the men that go to Davos and stuff to basically rule the world

They want to rule the world and if they had their way they would and expel

Jesus even today Because if you know anything about the

Soviet system, they didn't want Christianity anywhere around Because Christianity gave men and women the ability to think free

For freedom not just from sin but of self did

Christ set us free and that's why the Soviets and Communism and even socialism is all about today

It's not about God, but it's about us and then he wrote

He gave one more lecture against law and against God in Verse 24 therefore as the fire devour that devour at the stubble and the flame consummate the chaff so their roots shall be as rottenness and their blossoms shall go up as dust because they have cast away the

Law of the Lord of hosts and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel That's Isaiah 5 24 and so this

Showed the characteristic of this vineyard and this vine in Old Testament Israel We do well

This is the Word of God To warn us and to cause us to remember

So now I would like to begin on a little bit forward

He said what more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it.

That's a really good question Because he had given he had delivered them from Egypt.

He had given them his law. He had done everything For them, but they had ceremonial obedience

They didn't have heart obedience They had all the form of religion without the power

The question for us is has God done everything that we need has

God been lacking in In us that we wouldn't worship and live for him rightly

He hadn't left anything out. He's given us his this word

I Appreciate the solos on your wall here because he has given a scripture.

He has given us faith He has given us grace He has given us

Christ and he has done all for his glory that we might live for his glory

And This is this is why this is why we're here first catechism. What's the chief end of man?

Go ahead to glorify God and to enjoy forever and so this is this is the

This is the full life You could say this is the happy life

And we won't fail To find that joy and happiness in this world if we live by the book first Peter 1 3 through 4 tells us

His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness

Through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence

By which he is granted to us his precious and very great promises

So that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature

Having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire

He's given us everything and here we are talking about it and talking about him and what a privilege it is

We were praying this morning coming up about nations that don't have this privilege of meeting together

Nations peoples that don't even have the the Bible in their own language

That's why I'm David Vaughn's in France because France is a dark place

But by God's grace and mercy Light is coming light is there it might be sparse, but it's there and like living it will

None of our works are in vain Amen so now

I'd like to start With the that was the introduction our main text is in John 15 1 through 11

Jesus said I am the true vine and my father is the vine dresser Every branch in me that does not bear fruit

He takes away and every branch that does bear fruit. He prunes that it may bear

That it may bear more fruit Already you are clean because of the word that I've spoken to you

Abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine

Neither can you unless you abide in me? I am the vine you are the branches

Whoever in but whoever abides in me and I in him he it is that bears much fruit

For apart from me you can do nothing If anyone does not abide in me

He is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burn

If you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you by this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples as The father has loved me.

So I have loved you Abide in my love if you keep my commandments you will abide in my love

Just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love These things

I have spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full

I'm going to continue to more verses in verse 16 and 17 He says you did not choose me

But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide

So that whatever you ask my father in my name, he may give it to you These things

I command you so that you will love one another I'm gonna go through these verse by verse

Excuse me, Jesus said

I am the true vine Jesus used this same introduction

In a lot of other places using those two words. I am

I am the true vine He said I am the Good Shepherd. I am the bread of life.

I am the way the truth and the life I Am the resurrection and the life

I am the light of the world and Then speaking to the

Jews in a debate. He said before Abraham was I am

And they took up stones to stone him in this phrase.

I am Jesus is declaring his identity as God himself He's Hebrews 1

Sates at the Son of the Son He is the radiance of the glory of God and the exact imprint of his nature and he

Upholds the universe by the word of his power So if we're branches

We're connected to the vine And we're intimately sap sharing

Lee connected to Jesus Christ and to the Lord God That's why abiding in the vine is so necessary.

It's vital to us Because we would wither if we weren't connected to the vine

Jesus Christ and the Lord the Lord God the

New Testament antitype Is Jesus Christ the true vine?

Old Testament Israel did not receive the promise But those who are in Jesus Christ have we are children of promise

We will be give you be partakers of the inheritance with Jesus Galatians 3 22 through 29.

I'm gonna be going over scriptures if you want to turn there if I hear flipping I'll wait

Galatians 3 23 Now before faith came we were held captive under the law imprisoned until the coming faith would be revealed

So then the law was our guardian until Christ came In order that we might be justified by faith

But now that faith has come We're no longer under a guardian for in Christ Jesus.

You are all sons of God through faith For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ There is neither

Jew nor Greek. There's neither slave nor free There's neither male and female

For you are all one in Jesus Christ And if you are Christ, then you are

Abraham's offspring heirs according to promise And I'm bringing these scriptures in so that we'll see how important Abiding in him is abiding in Christ abiding in the vine

In verse 2 Jesus says every branch

That does bear fruit the father or he the father prunes that it may bear more fruit.

I know If we're human we have felt

Pruning in our lives pruning is afflictions of various kinds

Pruning is hard things that we've had to go through in his providential dealings with his people

God will purify and sanctify us by the circumstances of life Sometimes it seems like he hides his face from us

Do we when we pray Oh Lord, do you even hear me? I mean you can read through the

Psalms and you can see me and David and Asaph and different ones.

Do you hear me? We just read a Psalm last week at our church by Heman Heman yeah

Heman And and he was he the whole Psalm 89 was a it was like a funeral dirge

Except for three places where Heman prayed and He even though God's face was hidden from him.

He remembered That God was his covenant his sovereign

Lord with sovereign grace and sovereign love Steadfast love he remembered

But that was the Spirit of God in him We who have the Spirit of God Must remember those things and listen to the

Spirit as he prompts us to look to Christ Sometimes he'll hide his face from us to cause us to ask ourselves why and We can in humility ask him why why have you hidden your face?

Why do I feel so? let down so discouraged even so depressed and Depression can come on the best of us.

There's been Godly men and women over time who have fell in depression

Spurgeon was depressed much of his life And and others

I'm not going to go through but depression is I mean living in this life and being under the chastening and The correcting and the pruning of God If it lasts a long time

It can it can really work on our minds and our heads and our hearts Not only our bodies

Trial is is often the instrument by which he makes Christians more holy

By trial he wins us from the world and he draws us to Christ He exposes our sin and weakness to his weaknesses to us

And he humbles us Which we all need he exposes our heart to ourselves and he drives us to the

Bible and to prayer By prayer we can submit we can submit to his pruning with contentment and joy

Remember Paul with the thorn in his flesh. He asked to be delivered three times

God said to him my grace is sufficient and then afterwards he is he said

Paul said I've learned Contentment and all things that pertain to me. I've learned contentment

But it's through those trials that we can learn contentment and contentment another place that said godliness with contentment is great gain and Contentment is one of those

Attributes that when we develop it the world becomes so much less important and The things of the world the passing away things of the world the temporary things of the world

Become far less important to us we can by prayer and By the word we can remember that God has done this

God is sovereign even in our afflictions even in the pruning even in the hard hard things

Pray for the folks out there I'm talking about that out there.

Okay, pray first for Christians out there Who don't have access to the to the

Bible or to the full Bible who are going through so many things But they've heard the word

They've been taught the word and that even in their hardest afflictions and some of those are

I mean They can be put in jail if they're found with the scripture if they're gathering like this in somebody's house

But that they would find contentment in that that they would find joy in that Because blessed are you if you suffer for righteousness sake?

We aren't there But that's not saying that would we couldn't get there

So while we have the chance while it's today Prepare yourselves build up your holy faith in the word meditate on and memorize scripture

So that if we're deprived of it, we still have that stored up in our heart

Jesus said to Peter before washing his feet what I am doing you do not understand now but afterward you will understand and this is the this is typical of all afflictions we don't

Hindsight sometimes we can see it But in foresight a lot we we don't know the mind of God and all these things.

We just know we're suffering We're hurting but we don't normally know why

Why did God bring this on me? But we do know him and he gives us our peace when that happens

And we have the promise Afterward we will understand

We are being pruned in our sanctification we are being pruned verse 3

Oh, it's time had moved. That's good verse 3

Already you're clean because of the word that I've spoken to you Matthew Henry wrote of this the

Word of Christ is spoken to them The Word of Christ is powerful the

Word of Christ Changes us when we believe it when we're brought into Fellowship with the

Lord through the Word of God were changed and So when he said the

Word of God that I have spoken to you Matthew Henry wrote the Word of Christ is spoken to them

There's a cleansing virtue in that word it cleanses as fire cleanses gold from its dross

What does he want us to be pure gold without dross How much more for us by the

Holy Spirit acting through the word in our minds and hearts to bring cleansing and Sanctification and that's what sanctification is where we're separated

Sanctification is separation separation from the world Separated from any dross that's in us

That's what sanctification is simply We're separated from the world we're separated from the world we're separated to God Hebrews 4 12 for the

Word of God is Living and active and sharper than any two -edged sword piercing to the division of soul and spirit of joints and marrow and Discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart and no creature is hidden from his sight

But all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give an account

If we really want to know him Let this word have its free course in you to expose our we need to see ourselves as we really really are and If we need to be exposed the the rottenness that's still in us the the remaining sin that's still in us so that we can

Run toward God run toward Christ run toward the Holy Spirit for teaching and for sanctification

Seek him Seek him with all your heart Our hearts are the target of the

Word of God and when hit our true nature is exposed first to him and then to us

So that we might be godly sorrowful godly sorrowful

Godly so yeah, we might be godly sorrowful and Repent of our sins we can never think of hiding ourselves

From the eyes of God that are standing before him serve to bring conviction of sin and the fear of the

Lord verse 4 Jesus said abiding me and I in you

Abiding in Christ is the main theme in this whole section of Scripture in John 8 31

He says if you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples The first letter of John has much to teach us about abiding in him all worthy of our study

Just go through the John 1 first John 1 and you'll see it's all about abiding in him and abiding in knowledge

Okay abiding is our coming close to him our being our

Communion with him our fellowship with him. It's Becoming part of him one of Paul's Great themes in his letters is us being in Christ and this is a union when a husband marries his wife

Paul gives us the the Picture in In Ephesians 5 6 5 about Why husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her that he might?

sanctify her and So that's who we are It's just like a marriage of a husband and a wife is

Christ and his church His church right here, and there's a union this an inseparable union

Okay, but it's a union. I was talking to your pastor the other day and we were talking about the death of your dear wife, and it's like there's a

This is the scripture says we're to become one flesh and this one flesh

Connection or communion when a spouse dies It's like an arm or a leg being ripped off And it's like I have experienced that my wife is still with me, and I'm still with her

But one of us I know is going to probably precede the other But when it happens there's pain that we

Few of us can imagine Pastor the same sap that's in the vine feeds the branches and if the source of food is cut off from the vine the branch withers

This is the principle for the believers life source in abiding in Christ Joined to Jesus Christ by faith and united in this mysterious union with him

We can stand walk endure and run the Christian race Those are words from J.

C. Ryle We're not left to ourselves and our own strength our root is now in Christ Our root is now in Christ and the root of Christ is in God and the

Holy Spirit and in the word and Jesus is the word made flesh for us

We must nourish the root and our primary duty intact is in tapping into that source is to use every means of grace

That the husbandman has provided We see in the

Old Testament Israel that they did not use that Because he provided everything they needed and they didn't use it

But we have we have the means of grace all around us and all over us

We've been given Bibles. We've been given preaching and teaching. We've been given radios we can turn it on listen or televisions or sermon audio or whatever and we can listen and We can take it in Get near and near to Christ Gladly is a means gladly submit to God's work of conforming us to him meditate on the word and Submit to his precepts and authority.

This is not legalism Then I'm teaching here. It's not gaining anything

From God by our own efforts by our own wills But this is how to live

This is how to get how to how to abide in him and stay close to him

We live in a world where if we're not swimming Okay, if we're not

If we're not seeking him, this world will take us downstream and we have our opponents the world the flesh and the devil and They're against us.

We're in this mortal battle all of our lives And we do well to remember that because it's we have to be on guard

Jesus said that Paul said that be on guard be watchful

I've got a paper here that I'm gonna give

I guess Benjamin and it's called the Excuse me.

The slow miracle of the Lord's Day and This is this is important for you to remember

It's God that set up This Lord's Day It's God that set up the church and he said right from creation or right from the giving of the law

Remember the Lord's Day to keep remember the Sabbath to keep the day. Holy It's a creation ordinance that God gave us the

Sabbath on the Sabbath he rested and so we have this Lord's Day as our

Primary means of grace for learning for hearing the preaching of the word for correction for Fellowship being together

Because we need each other We need each other for accountability, we need each other to see each other's lives lived out to the glory of God and If one brother is not living out to the glory of God Another brother is there to help him or to cut it or to call to his attention

Hey brother, is something happening? Hey sister is something happening, you know, and so we have this wonderful means of grace

We come to hear the word God's intention This is the first line of that slow miracle

God's intention is to bless his people through the conscious constant and conscientious

Observation of the Lord's Day week after week and year after year Believers are sanctified through a lifetime of Sabbath observance in Other words, the

Sabbath is designed to work slowly quietly seemingly imperceptibly in Reorienting believers appetites heavenward.

It is not a quick fix Nor is it necessarily a spiritual high?

It is an outward and ordinary ordinance part of the steady and healthy diet of the means of grace

Prepare Saturday evening prepare yourself for Sunday morning Go to bed early so you don't get here late

There's a lot of different ways of doing that if you need gas get it

Saturday night Make sure your tanks full enough to get to church if you have to work

Yeah, that's that's one of those oxes in the ditch kind of a thing But uh, but if you don't have to work

Plan on being here if it's a communion Sunday, especially prepare your hearts for having this communion with the

Lord of Coming to his table and by observing this with him as a participation

But it shows that yes, I am his I have been bought with his blood

I am one of his Children, I've won him. He's my elder brother.

I'm his brother or a sister and So that's what the Lord's Day and the communion table is about.

I don't want Jesus then said whoever abides in me and I am here he it is that bears much fruit for apart from me

He can do nothing abiding is is a spiritual set of heart and mind

It doesn't just happen But we go there in our in in in our hearts

Submission to him and in our hearts hunger for him Thomas Chalmers wrote a sermon preached this sermon in the late 1800s

It's called the expulsive power of a new Affection and that's what regeneration is about it changes our appetites

Check your regeneration If you if you don't have these new appetites,

I hate what I used to do I'm not who I was but I'm not who

I will be But put those things off put them behind us That's a teaching put off the old man and put on the new man verse 6

If anyone does not abide in me He is thrown away like a branch and withers and the branches are gathered thrown into the fire and burned

Remember John 15 is a parable and Jesus is primarily talking to the

Old Testament Church Who were not generated who were not regenerated?

but were Following the forms following the law thinking that the law would get them access to heaven and pleasing to God and that in them they would

Have eternal life, but it's not in those scriptures alone. It's through faith in Jesus Christ He gave them his son

But they did not believe him when he came and they didn't believe him when he was promised his own received him not

Verse 7 and 8 if you abide in me and my words abide in you ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you

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

There's power in prayer There's bit there's if we if we ask in conformity to his will he will do it.

He promised It might be slow in coming but it will come it might be healing of heart

But it will come we might Even have to go through physical death to get there, but it will come

Imagine the martyrs Okay, there was a lot of martyrs in the 15th 16th century

For holding the Word of God for holding Jesus Christ and their convictions about about coming by him only coming to him only by faith and not through the church's ordinances and some of them were put to death and They didn't they

Probably didn't really know it was coming until it got closer and closer and closer

But by God's grace in them and his strength in them they were willing

They were willing to do it some even walked in their own power to the stake and and did it

Joyfully because they were counted worthy To go on to persecution for the sake of their

Lord We aren't there But but we do live in a corrupted world

That were like I said earlier always bombarded with temptations and different things

There's power in prayer This is one. This is a verse that has

Thrilled to me. It's in Psalm 25 14 says the friendship and There's a there's a alternate reading of friendship, which is the secret counsel

The secret counsel of the Lord is for those who fear him and he makes known to them his covenant

Okay, this is a this is a special Food for the believer

That he gives us His secret counsel and he makes known to us his covenant and that's assurance

For us that come what may we can always have this assurance that God is there with us and not only with us by the

Holy Spirit in us and So we don't have to fear That fear not little flock

The little flock ours is a little flock to fear not little flock for I'm about to give you the kingdom and so we are

Kingdom people like I said earlier. We're forward -looking people Just like Jesus endured what he had to endure by looking forward

Okay, he learned obedience for the joy set before him So can we the joy set before him was purchasing his church for himself

The joy set before us is to be with him forever free free from our sin

You know, I'm so tired of dragging around me and and and and myself and my sin

My temptations that keep coming same ones seems I'll be free from all that will be free from Everything that might oppress us and from sin and from sorrow and all the rest

This is this is all new Sometimes we forget who we are

You know that that if God is for us who can be against us God has already sent

Christ to pay for our sins And so nothing can separate us from him and nothing king

Nothing can can convict us of sin anymore because Jesus Christ is paid verses 9 and 10

These are wonderful words as the father has loved me. So have

I loved you Abide in my love if you keep my commandments You will abide in my love just as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love

This is abiding connected to loving There's a direct link between our holiness and our happiness or joy

This is such a profound promise which we can never fully grasp But we have the

Holy Spirit We have him Communicating these things to us

Took to our hearts to our minds to our souls All are are wrapped up in Christ in God And we have the

Father's love Jesus talked about that in John 17 that we are loved

Just like Christ is loved by the father. We're loved by the father You know, that's one of those things

I can't get my mind around But we will One day when we see him

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases and steadfast love is his covenant love

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases his mercies never come to an end

They are new every morning Great is your faithfulness? The Lord is my portion says my soul

Therefore I will hope in him. The Lord is good. It the Lord is quietly

Excuse me It is good to though the Lord is good to those who wait for him to the soul who seeks him

It is good that one should wait quietly for the sad for the salvation of the Lord We don't have to yell and scream to get his attention

Just wait quietly Believe what he says and come and he will not cast us out verse 11

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

We're we experience that joy now a lot of times. It's not lasting the hubbub of life and and Children Their their

Disobedience or whatever might rob us of that joy for a while. We have to deal with the things of life

But we have that to go back to we have an anchor for the soul To go back to and to remember the steadfast love

Never ceases we have redemption

Freedom From our bondage of sin and from our Egypt We have freedom from that bondage to serve the

Lord with open hearts and minds Let's pray

Father in the name of our Lord Christ, we Thank you for your word

Lord, I pray that you by your spirit would fill us with Joy in believing and in believing your word you would cause us to tremble at your word for its truth and holiness and power and authority

Help us to not overlook it but Lord to eat it

To have it in our hearts and in our minds and engrafted in us

Lord So that we'll never get enough of it Lord, I bless you for this word has been preached and for the scriptures that have been read

The Word of God is true Lord and good and the flower falls

The grass withers and the flower falls off, but this word of the

Lord lasts forever Amen, okay.