What is... ABIDE?

Morning, this is true to love so glad that you could join us. Thank you for watching. If you don't mind we would love appreciate if you would share the video if you would give us the heart we want to Use the algorithms the methods that Facebook Has that we can reach more people that we can share the gospel of Jesus Christ.

So we appreciate your participation and help as we try to do that. We're so thankful to to be able to Spend time together to look at God's Word to learn more about him to love him more to love each other more.

And we're just we're overjoyed. We're thankful For the Lord and and what he's doing what's going on? I'm a Dan again so thankful that Dan is Committing to be with me on Saturday mornings to look at eschatology to look at in times in things Also to look at other terms and ideas and thoughts From the scriptures so we can see them and understand them biblically and see how God wants us to apply them to our lives.

So I'm thankful for Dan and what he's doing Dan, thank you. I appreciate you and your family. How you're helping me?

That's my pleasure.

Um this morning we're going to look at what is abide and I want to go ahead and share this the reason or the Where we're coming up with these terms and and ideas from. I want to give credit to where credit is due.

My pastor pastor Tommy Hullett. You'll see him on on the network page. Sometimes if you can read this, this is a little workbook that he is putting together. He's he's completed some of it. He said it's still a work in progress and he's still working on the rest of it, but it's called multiply and it's a discipleship Program that he is he's putting together.

He's writing and he is also taking us through and and I'm getting these these terms from his workbook and we're kind of following his outline as we do that. And Where he gets his information is? Really interesting.

I was telling Dan last night that it's there there may be some works out there that I'm familiar with.

But um.

What Tom pastor Tommy is doing is something that is just Logically makes sense and and why it's not been done over and over and over again I'm not sure and why I'm not seeing it. But what pastor Tommy is doing is He's taking the Great Commission Matthew chapter 28 and And most of us are if we've been a Christian if we've been in church for any amount of time we've heard Of a great mission.

We we've heard Matthew 28 before Where Jesus says all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth Go therefore and preach the gospel make disciples baptized and teach them all that I've commanded you and We can't take away anything from his full statement there everything has a purpose has a meaning and Is important from the top to the bottom where he says all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

We can't take that out. We've got to remember that. And that plays that that first part plays a huge role in in eschatology and how we understand in times and then This this latter part teach them all that I've commanded you.

Well, that's what pastor Tommy has done. He's taken that Command from Christ and he says well what has Christ commanded us and he's putting together this discipleship program So that we can go through and understand what Christ has commanded us to do.

We've looked at we've looked at repentance. We've looked at believe and this morning. We're going to look at abide. What is abide? Do you then do you have a quick definition Some some similar words, I know when you look up the Greek word, sometimes it'll give you words that Mean the same.

Can you give us a quick definition of what abide is before we jump in to the scriptures?

But has the idea of living somewhere now, it's it's not the idea of living somewhere where you're. Well, I live in this house. I live in this apartment. I'm gonna move no week two weeks down the road or next month or six months or four years from now it's got the idea of putting down roots of Attaching yourself to a place of setting up shop somewhere and not planning on moving.

In this context, it's got the idea of connecting yourself to Christ so it's got an idea of an attachment to an to an area or a thing or in this case a source of spiritual power, which would be. He says my audio is not working.

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Yeah, and as Dan and I were talking about last night Abide has a deeper connotation a deeper meaning. Than then what that what we may initially think of abide. To me when I hear the word abide I want to think that we are.

As Dan said Living living somewhere. Say like in a house where you just you're. You're fluid from from room to room. You're you're kind of dwelling there. You're living there but in this context Abide has this deeper meaning as Dan was trying to explain of an attachment.

Of taking a root and remaining we're Connectivity that's that's there. So we want to dive into that that Connection that attachment that abide has in scripture. To start off where pastor Tommy wanted us to start off here in his workbook.

He wanted to remind us of the gospel if you look in John chapter 6 where Tommy first takes us. The question is asked what must we do to accomplish that? Accomplish the deeds of God that God requires. He gets that from the net Bible and we learned that when it comes to the gospel when it comes to salvation and What what we do our part in salvation?

We learn from scripture that we we have no part in salvation. We have no part in in coming to Christ it's all of God and then moving beyond that. Doing the works of God. He takes us to Hebrews chapter 13 verses 20 through 21 and that reads now the God of peace.

Who brought up who brought up from the dead the great shepherd of the sheep the blood of the eternal covenant even Jesus our Lord equip you in and every good thing to do his will working in us. That which is pleasing in his sight through Jesus Christ to whom be the glory forever and ever and amen.

So the questions he asked is Exactly. Where does the power to do as will come from the answer Jesus? By what means does God give us this power through the blood of the eternal covenant and who is? The the power the work is Through Jesus by God.

It's it's all of him so that he can get the credit so he can get the glory. And Paul kind of reiterates this the same idea from Philippians chapter 2 verse 13 when he says it is God Who is at work in you both to will and to work for his good pleasure?

And so we want to give credit to God. We want to look to him for what he is doing in our life, so When it comes to this command to abide in Christ, we want to remember our reliance on God To complete this task.

This work that he has called us to do. So the text that we're going to be in this morning and Like normal Dan is going to help us walk through These passages is John chapter 15. So if you have your Bible if you want to look in John chapter 15 with us.

We're going to walk through the chapter and typically When you're looking at a bad and and what it means and how to apply it You you typically just look at verses 1 through 11. But as Dan and I were talking last night and as he was showing me It's such a wonderful thing to continue on to the rest of the chapter and how the rest of the chapter Adds to the theme of this idea of abide and helps us to understand it in a deeper and greater way.

So Let's take it a section at a time. I want to read the section and then we'll go verse by verse this first section. Jesus is the vine. Followers are the branches verses 1 through 8 and and Dan kind of titled this where is your hope?

So let me read this. 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 bears fruit he prunes it and it may bear more fruit.

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. So neither can you unless you abide in me?

I am divine and you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him he bears much fruit for apart from me. You can do nothing if anyone does not abide in me. He is thrown away as a branch and it dries up and they gather them and they cast them into the fire and they are Burned if you abide in me and my words abiding you ask whatever you wish and it shall be done for you by this.

By this is my father glorified that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. So I want to turn over to you Dana if you want to walk us through these verses and I'll Interject every now and then.

Sure.

This section gives us a wonderful picture of what it looks like to be a part of Christ as a believer as a church. It goes right off and says I am the true vine if you know anything about vines or plants.

There is one main section that grows up out of the ground. From there, you know, it'd be a trunk on a tree or a main vine going across a Grapevine. So if you think of a grapevine or if you're down south think of kudzu that stuff is everywhere.

There's one part that hits the ground the rest of it goes up and there's branches that go all over the place. The only place that hits the nutrients that hits the the source of life where everything comes from is The part that hits the ground that is considered the vine the rest of it are considered branches.

So when he says I am the vine he's making a statement that he is the one that touches the ground. He is the one that where the nutrients the the good stuff that makes you grow that's He is where he cut where it comes from.

And it says a next phrase and my father is the vine dresser. My father is the gardener. He's the one who takes care of of the vine. He take does what he needs to with the branches to make sure that everything grows properly.

Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away. There's a sense here where It it seems that he's talking about church folks. There are those who approach Christ. Who?

Who.

Claim to be in him that will either produce fruit or not produce fruit. There are some that belong on the vine that produce fruit and we see later on in verse 16 that he chose those certain ones in order to produce fruit.

So there are ones that Christ that he gives them strength they produce fruit because of that fruit. They are kept on on the vine but there are those who Who are in some sort of relationship to Christ who do not produce fruit.

They don't have the fruit of the Spirit coming from him and what it means is that they're not actually utilizing The power of life that comes from the vine that comes from Jesus himself and because they don't That they don't bear fruit it says Does not bear fruit he takes away.

And that fruit notice is fruit. As John the Baptist said that you need to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins and for and do works in keeping with repentance. As we turn away from our sin as believers.

We don't just turn away from our sin. We turn towards Christ and righteousness so we do Good works as a result as a response to the salvation that we find those who Show up at church every Sunday who go about living their life, however, they want to throughout the week.

Those who approach God in a false way those who are false Professors who have no actual change who do not actually have the life of Christ flowing through them. Will one day be broken off. It's not like there's no Sham you can't hide behind.

What you believe is fruit if it's not fruit if it's a thorn. It's gonna be proven to be a thorn and he pruned or he he takes that away. But at the same time look at this it says and every branch that bear.

And he and every branch that bears fruit. He prunes it so that it may bear more fruit. So as we see God going through His vine he'll cut off branches that produce no fruit but he'll also go to the ones that do and There's if there's a section of the branch that's not good.

They say a section of this branch isn't producing fruit. He'll cut it off. He'll get the bad parts out of there. So that way more of that life-giving power from the vine can get into the branch and they can produce more fruit.

I don't know if you've dealt with apple trees. Apple trees, especially what may be a little late in the season this year, but early in the season or even after the harvest. If you go into the apple trees, you find the ones that didn't produce fruit the previous year.

The ones that didn't produce fruit at that time you you cut them off you make you trim it up. So that way the next season when it Produces fruit again All of the nutrients all of the sap all of the stuff that that comes from the soil that gets up to the fruit Is able to produce more fruit and your tree has bigger brighter.

Colored apples same thing with with grapes if you take off the ones that aren't producing anything. More of those nutrients. I don't go to growing fruitless leaves and branches they go to growing.

Fruit, yeah.

And then he kind of connects this to the point that he's talking about. You are already clean. Because of the word which I have spoken you not being clean. Sounds kind of funny coming up in the in the talk about vines and branches.

He's got this idea of vines and branches, but now he's talking about being clean. So he's introducing the spiritual concept that he's meaning to show. By giving us the the metaphor of the vines and the branches.

It's about people. It's about doing away with sin either primarily through salvation.

Or.

Through the pruning of of the the branches. He's saying that they are already clean. They are in him Because of the word which he has spoken to them. Those words are all of Christ's teachings obviously, but if you go back into chapter 14, it gives you a summary.

You see him. You've seen the father. You trust in God. You trust in Christ. Hebrews 1 3 tells us that Christ is the exact imprint of the father. That's what he means. If you've seen me, you've seen the father.

I.

Don't know if you've ever seen a stamp where somebody will they used to actually go in and carve out Little pieces and make a relief and then when you took that and stamped it down the exact picture of Whatever the stamp was would end up on the paper.

That is what Jesus is getting out there that when you see Jesus you were seeing the exact imprint of God the Father that is in heaven because they they. They have the same deity the same Same holiness same glory.

They're distinct in their persons. But they are all through all three father son and Holy Spirit are God they are Perfect. They are holy. And yet one God so when he's saying you've seen me you've seen the father.

He's saying if you've seen Me, you know what the father looks like because just like a stamp. I'm the exact imprint of the father who's in heaven.

I.

Think and we'll dive more into that. It's interesting that we dive more into that later on in this chapter because as Jesus commands us to abide in him he also He also talks about he abiding in us and then he talks about how he about is abiding with the father.

It makes that same comparison. I want to interject two things before we move on from verses 1 2 I think it's important to Emphasize the the characters in this story the the vine you have the vine and you have the the vine dresser and you have the branches and and it's gonna it's gonna come out more and it's gonna help us to.

It's gonna help paint the bigger picture and help us to understand it. But if we remember the characters of the story you get you've got the true vine Which Dan described and you've got the vine dresser the gardener, which is God and and you have the branches with which is God's people and so I just wanted to re-emphasize that the the players the characters in this story and And as Dan was talking about the vine and what it looks like physically the comment that I made to him last night was you know when when we look at a tree and And we behold its majesty and we look at you know, how beautiful a tree is.

That's exactly what we say. That's a that's a beautiful tree. You know, we don't say Look, look at those beautiful branches. We speak of the tree as a whole and I think that idea kind of develops as as the chapter moves on.

That it's not about the branches, but it's about the it's about the tree as a whole and then ultimately it's about the one who.

Is.

Gardening or tending to the to the tree or the or the vine. And then in in verse 2 I think this is one of those verses that.

Ultimately.

It's gonna take Meeting Christ and say what did you exactly mean here? to fully understand his His intention. And I wanted to throw this out at you and I think you actually Hinted on this when we talked earlier.

You brought the verse up out of Matthew. But when he says every branch in me that does not bear fruit Could Jesus be? Because I think his primary audience in his ministry was the the Jewish people. And and you did bring out Matthew chapter 3 Verse 10.

And the axe is already laid at the root of the trees. Every tree therefore that does not bear good fruit is cut down and Thrown into the fire. And and earlier than that in Matthew Jesus speaks of The tree no longer existing but yet he is the fulfillment of the root of Jesse.

You know, it's it's coming from the same source, but but that tree is is cut down and And he is now he's sprouting up and and this new tree is growing. And so could could Jesus be speaking of?

Israel here. Yeah, I think that that's absolutely part of it. He's talking to to Jewish people. He's in his context. He's talking to a a very religious community. Everybody there knows the temple. They all know the sacrifices are just supposed to give they're all no in on.

It's basically as if the whole Imagine America and everyone claims that they're a Christian. Yeah, that's the way you had with Israel back then. So what he's trying to say is you who have who approach God?

You have to approach God through Jesus Christ. You have to be attached to the vine if you say that, you know God in heaven and Yet you don't believe in what he says if you don't attach yourself to the vine.

Which is a weird way of putting it because branches don't attach themselves, but we'll get to that later. If you're not attached to the vine if you're not producing fruit. If all you have is your national identity your physical lineage to Abraham.

You don't have what it takes because you're not connected to the source of life. So fruit is is an evidence of.

Which tree you're connected to. Right, right. Absolutely. Yeah. Sorry. Sorry to interject there. I'll let you know.

Yes.

In verse 4 he says abide in me and I in you as the branch cannot bear fruit of Itself unless that abides in the vine. So neither can you unless you abide in me? I have several apple trees out back if I were to take one of my apple trees that grows fruit and take one of the branches that has Nine ten twelve apples on it and cut that branch off and throw it out in the yard.

It's not going to produce any more fruit. It's done. Because it's no longer connected to the tree itself. If I were to take a grapevine and find one with big old clusters of grapes on it and cut that and get it off of the the Sticks and whatever is holding it up and throw it out in the yard.

It's not going to produce any more fruit. Because it's done being connected to to the vine. In the same way he's saying if you are not connected to Christ if you're not abiding if you're not living if you haven't set up shop in.

Trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ if that's not your only hope in life and death. Then you are not going to produce fruit because there's there's no power of change outside of the gospel of Christ.

There's no way that we can have Actual righteousness. One of the reasons being is as it says in Hebrews without faith. It is impossible to please God without Christ. It is impossible for us to have righteousness in and of ourselves because our righteousness comes from him.

So if our righteousness is going to come from God for goodness is going to come from God. It's going to come from being attached to the one who has righteousness and goodness in himself. Because we can't produce that on our own.

He's getting the idea of reliance upon God. So if we're going to be cleansed, I'm gonna be cleansed through the words of Christ His promise his actions that he's going to just to cut a few short chapters later.

He's gonna undertake to die on the cross for sins to lay in the grave to conquer death to raise up and be in heaven ascended in heaven. If we're going to produce fruit or have anything good in us. It's gonna be because Christ has placed it there not because we have no roots to grab those good nutrients.

And nitrates and whatever else from the soil. Ourselves, that's all on the work of God. He he says it again I am the vine you were the branches. He who abides in me and I in him. He bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.

It goes back to that passage in Hebrews, I just quoted. Without faith, it is impossible to please God without Christ. It is impossible to please God. We have nothing good in and of ourselves all of our righteousness comes from Christ.

I've heard somebody call it an alien righteousness. It's almost like we have Beam it's beamed into us. I don't think that's what they meant by alien. But that's just what pops into my head when I when I hear that it's something that doesn't originate with us.

It's something that we gained from Christ.

I think it's interesting the language that he uses here. Maybe not. Maybe that's not the right term, but. It's like there's there's no middle ground. If you if you abide in him, here's the result. The result is you bear much fruit.

And then if you do not abide in him you can do nothing. I mean that's that's.

You know.

We talked about being in one trying to avoid being in one ditch or another being extremist trying to take the middle road here but in Jesus's words here. I mean this is this is pretty definite. This is.

This is pretty extreme. If you have if you abide in him if you are attached remain rooted in him. Then you will bear much fruit and you say you will bear fruit. He said you will bear much fruit and then just the opposite if you were not abiding.

You are not attached you if you're not in him. He says you can do Nothing, not not even one little iota of something. You can't do anything. Right. I think that's a Very important thing for us to remember.

That there's this distinction and and I think the same thing is true. Anything that has to do with salvation. You know you you can't almost get into heaven. You're either in Christ. You're either in him and and you were accepted By God through Jesus Christ.

Or you're not in him and you will die in your sins and be punished for your sins receive the wrath of God because you're Not in Christ. It's either one or the other and and Jesus follows follows through with that idea here in this this idea of bearing fruit.

In him we bear much fruit apart from him. There's nothing that we can do. I think that's so important for us to remember.

Yeah, have you ever heard of the the doctrine of carnal Christianity? Yeah. Yeah. This is speaking directly to that. That is a terrible doctrine. Yeah, if you're unfamiliar with it What basically what it says is that you In order to be saved you have to accept Christ as your Savior.

You have to believe that on the cross for sins and then they rose from the grave and then your sins are forgiven. But at that point you can choose To live your life. However, you want to you can be a carnal Christian living in the flesh, but your sins are still forgiven.

And then if you want to know a better way to live your life. You can obey the commands of Christ and you can grow in the fruit of the Spirit. But you don't have to do that in order to have salvation. This passage right here says otherwise.

It says that if you do not produce fruit if you do not have Christ as Lord if you do not See that not only to the forgiveness of sins, but the killing of sins in your life. Yeah, then you have every Reason to I'd say worry or at least examine yourself hard against Christ.

Scriptures the promise of the gospel. What that means to you because he says you will produce fruit and you don't produce fruit because you are producing fruit. But because that fruit is produced in you.

Yeah, so if you don't have that fruit produced in you. It means that you are not connected to the vine Who gives life and causes fruit to be produced who has the Father in heaven who is orchestrating things?

To make sure that you are pruned and made right in order to produce fruit and he's not here yet, but the Holy Spirit is also given in order to Help us produce fruit if that's not a reality. Then we produce no fruit, even though we go to church all the time or do whatever we say that we've been baptized.

Hundred other things where we say we're a Christian. Yeah, if we don't produce fruit, we're lopped off dried up and thrown in the fire. Yeah, so. Yeah, so Carnal Christianity is not a thing. It's just a lie Carnal and throwing Really as Hebrew says trampling on the blood of the Covenant.

By which you were set apart you say that you're a part of Christ. But you have no fruit. You are Saying that there's no power to change your life in the gospel and that's just blasphemous.

Sorry, I.

Get worked up when I hear that kind of stuff. I know I brought it up. I still heard. So, where were we.

Verse six, I believe.

Verse six Yeah, if anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away as a branch and dries up. They're gathered and they are burned. I guess I went ahead and talked about that one before I read it. Kind of all hit at the same time.

But on the other side In verse 7 if you abide in me in my words abiding you there's that idea of words and cleansing. It's it's salvation coming through the words of Christ to us. Ask whatever you wish and It will be done for you.

Now some people think Okay, I'm being a Christian. I'm producing some fruit. So I get to ask God whatever I want and now he's gonna do it for me real careful what he says. If you abide in me and my words abide in you.

The words of Christ are always perfect always pure always true. When we speak from those words, we'll be praying according to the will of God, right? So we pray according to the will of God. We're on the right track.

We're producing fruit when we ask God. We ask God to Do something for us we're asking in accordance to what God wants to do already and he will he will give us those things and The reason is found in verse 8.

My father is glorified by this that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. It was good that you brought up the distinction of the characters earlier, it's the only one who actually does any acting.

Active acting.

Is.

The father I mean, obviously the the son is divine is providing nutrients and providing a Spiritual growth for those who are his branches, but the father is the vine dresser. He is the one who's. He's the the human actor so to speak in this metaphor.

He's also the only one there with a mouth and teeth and a stomach in in this metaphor he's the one who can eat. Yeah, the branches do not produce fruit in order to eat the fruit. The father the vine dresser is producing fruit in order to Eat the fruit or to be glorified as it says in verse 8 by the fruit.

Yeah, what is the purpose of? Abiding in Christ is To produce fruit to glorify God in heaven now. We know from the book of Galatians the fruit of the Spirit is love joy. Peace long-suffering patience kindness faith.

There's other ones I'm sure it's early. Those things being produced in us are a reflection of God's character. So when we produce fruit as Believers when we are more loving more kind more faithful more patient as those things are produced in us We glorify God by reflecting his character back to him.

We glorify the father who has worked to produce that fruit in us by sending his son To the cross to die to provide us life that life that produces fruit in us. And it says to improve to be my disciples and it this whole idea of if we produce fruit Will be pruned and cared for by the vine dresser if we did not produce fruit.

We prove to not be a part a true Branch on the vine and we're cut off and thrown away this whole metaphor is speaking to the the plain statement in the New Testament that we should work out our own salvation in fear and trembling and the way that we do that is by each and every day ensuring that we are Believing in the gospel we look to Christ as the author and finisher of our faith.

That's where we rest. That's where we abide. That's where we live. Um, there's some ideas out there that okay, I've become a Christian I believe the gospel now I need to move on and go deeper and I'm going to you know Forget about the gospel for a second and go try to learn these principles for my life in order for me to be better.

That's completely backwards. The principles that we learn don't stem from anywhere else except for the gospel as we grow in Christianity as we Produce the fruits. We don't produce the fruits by going out and trying to be a fruit we produce fruits by Remaining in Christ because without Christ we don't produce fruit.

That's that whole idea of abiding. So as he gives us this contrast between those branches that are broken off and burned and those who produce fruit. The difference is where they're connected where they're Settled so as we as Christians make a confession of faith as we believe the most important thing we can do moving forward is to remember that our identity our being or.

Hope our.

Whole connection to reality flows through The gospel. It flows through Jesus Christ. We don't approach any part of the world apart from him because apart from him we cannot produce fruit. Part from him we have no life because he's the only source of life.

So when it speaks of of abiding, it's that sort of living. Is that sort of? Being attached to the source of being rooted and grounded of being immovably linked to Christ.

I.

Think that kind of. Brings the whole idea together. Maybe it was somewhere to something to talk about. Right, right.

As we wrap up this first section There may be some folks who just joined us. I want to to read Restate the definition that we're working with when it comes to abide. It's more than just this concept of dwelling dwelling in the same place that Jesus is.

I kind of get the idea of the picture in my mind of this this Eastern Guru type Situation where you have you have the monk and then you have the student sitting at his feet and we're kind of we're abiding in his teaching where we're sitting at his feet and we're we're, you know, basking in his presence or Kind of a just a close connection With with the teacher with the guru but abide here is more than just this this close Proximity to the teacher abide as this idea of as Dan has said several times Which I'm glad because it helps us to understand what a bond means it has this idea of being attached Rooted remaining and being attached.