Branch Life - John 15 - Sermon 4 of 5 — Roy Hession

Sing our chorus, I know he's mine, this friend so dear, he lives in me, he's ever near. Will you turn this morning for our further study in branch life to the epistle of John this time. First epistle of John chapter 4 and verse 7 verse 7 Beloved let us love one another for love is of God and everyone that love it is born of God and knoweth God.

He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love and this was manifested the love of God toward us because that God sent his only begotten son into the world that we might live through him here in his love not that we love God but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins.

God's Love as the Foundation for Loving One Another

Beloved if God so loved us we ought also to love one another. No man has seen God at any time if we love one another God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us. Hereby know we that we dwell in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit and we have seen and do testify that the father sent the son to be the saviour of the world.

Whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the son of God God dwelleth in him and he in God and we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God and God in him.

Herein is our love made perfect that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is so are we in this world. There is no fear in love but perfect love casts it out fear because fear hath torment.

He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him most versions other versions and the authorized omit the word him and I think they're probably right. I think the original manuscript didn't have the word him.

It's real message is we love others because he first loved us. It's not a closed circuit between us and God he loves us we love him back. It's a three-point circuit. He loves us we love the other fellow and the divine current goes back.

It's a three-point circuit. We love only because we've first been loved by God. If a man say I love God and hate his brother he is a liar but he that love is not his brother whom he hath seen how can he love God whom he hath not seen.

And this commandment have we from him that he who loveth God love his brother also. And then when you turn back to John 15 up to now we have been concluding our reading of the parable of the vine and the branches at verse 8.

But let's read the next few verses. Jesus goes on to say verse 9 as the father have loved me so have I loved you continue ye and the word continue is really abide is the same word abide in my love. If you keep my commandments you shall abide in my love even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love.

These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and your joy might be full. This is my commandment that ye love one another as I have loved you. This morning the aspect of things I want us to think about is the relationship of the branch to its fellow branches.

Usually we concentrate probably rightly on the relationship of the branch to the vine. That's the source of everything but that is to be followed as a natural consequence of a happy loving right relationship of one branch to its fellow branches.

Abiding in Christ as a Promise with a Condition

As we've been gone been going through these studies in branch life we've been building up have we not a picture of what this word abiding, remaining, dwelling in him as a branch in the vine means. And before we get into this subject I want to stay just for a moment on that.

I wanted to look again at verse 4 which for me I long misunderstood. In fact it didn't mean if I was honest very much to me. It was lovely word it was quoted it was on calendars it was on texts on the wall.

But frankly I'm not sure that I understood what it really meant as plain English let alone its spiritual meaning. I wonder what you make of it. Abide in me and I in you. Now the first phrase is obvious it's a command an injunction to us to abide or dwell or remain in him.

But what is the second? An I in you. Is that a command to him or to us? And I've come to see that that last part is the most important part. I promise to abide in you if you will abide in me. It's a promise to which a condition is attached.

I will abide myself in you if you will abide in me. And as you abide in me then I do indeed live again my life in you and it's my life expressed through you which produces the fruit. I trust that helps a little in understanding that verse.

A promise to which a condition is attached. He will abide in me. What does that mean? All I need if I abide dwell continue remain in him. And I believe our present study this morning may add to the picture of what it means for us to abide in Jesus as a branch in the vine.

Three New Testament Pictures of Union with Christ

Earlier on the first study I suggested that there were three figures in the New Testament by which our relationship to Jesus is pictured. One is the figure of the head and body, Christ the head, we the body.

Consistently used in the New Testament especially in Paul's epistles. But that picture speaks of us as the body as a corporate us. We are not the body we're just one of many members of that body which in turn is united to Christ the head.

So it's a corporate picture. And then the second figure is the figure of the bridegroom and the bride. Christ is the bridegroom, the church is the bride. You might think that this pictures our personal relationship to Jesus.

But not usually is it spoken of as something personal, it's something corporate. The bride is not usually spoken of as an individual Christian. But the church, the company of the Redeemed, they are the bride and Jesus is their bridegroom.

When however you come to this picture of the vine of the branches you might well say well now this really is a picture of my personal relationship to him, just me and him. Of course other people have to have the same personal relationship but it would seem to be personal.

But actually it's not exclusively personal at all. It's almost as corporate a picture as the other two because Jesus did not say I am the vine and thou art the branch. He says I am the vine and ye are the branches.

It's still something corporate as well of course as something very individual. What we've got here is the picture of one vine and many branches. Which means that you and I do not only have a relationship personal with Jesus the vine but we cannot but have a relationship with our fellow branches who are united to the same vine.

And you know our relationship to our fellow branches. I think really as I read the New Testament is almost as perhaps actually as important as our relationship to the vine. The two relationships go together.

They cannot be separated. If I'm united to Christ the living vine whether I appreciate it or not, I am united to the other branches too. And I need to have a right and proper relationship to them as I have a right and proper relationship to Jesus.

I'm sorry about that. You can't help it. Whether you like old so-and-so or not, he's a fellow branch in the same vine. And you're going to spend eternity together with him. You better learn to love him right now.

Revival and the Pain of Drawing Near to Christ

And this is a thing that the Holy Spirit holds us to. As the spokes to change the imagery, get nearer the hub, of necessity they get nearer to one another. If a little insect is walking on a spoke towards the hub and there's another one, there's quite a distance at first between them.

No problem in relationships. And you know by that very fact they're not very near the hub. But as they get nearer to the hub, they get nearer to one another and their wings clash. Hey, I want to be the first.

And this question of relationships becomes really important as you get hungry to get nearer to Jesus. I would suggest revival is the last 5 of the way. 95 of the way you have no problems much in relationships.

Oh well, you'll never quite avoid difficulties, but it isn't all that acute. For years it wasn't very acute with me. I imagined I smiled at everybody and everybody smiled back at me. I was getting on fine with the Lord, but as the Lord began to deal with me and show me there was a not only the holy place, but the holy of holies.

This matter of relationships became acute. And the last 5 of the way, it's the big battle. And it's that last 5 of the way which brings revival. And you can't make it into the holiest without doing something about that insect on the other spoke.

It's that relationship of branch to branch which ultimately becomes so acute sometimes almost painful. So here we have the relationship of one branch to another, both of them united to Christ. Well what is the relationship of the branch to his fellow branches to be?

Well Jesus said, this is my commandment that you love one another as I loved you. You've been loved, you didn't deserve it. Love the other man in the same way as I've loved you. Forgive him as I've forgiven you.

Be gracious unto him as I've been gracious to you. Be merciful unto him as you've received mercy. It's to be a relationship of mutual love, one to another, amongst the branches. Now strangely, this loving one another is the way to abide in the vine.

I say strangely because you would have thought, and we've even inferred as much in what we've said before, that love is one of the fruits of abiding in Christ the vine. It's the first fruit, the all-inclusive one mentioned in Galatians 5.

The fruit of the Spirit is love. And yet these passages, which we're going to look at in a moment, tell us not only is it the fruit, but it's the fruit of abiding, but as I say strangely, it's the way to abide.

Look at those verses in John 15 which we read just now, verses 9 to 12. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Abide ye in my love. Stay, remain, dwell in the enjoyment of my love for you. If you keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.

Leaving out verse 11, I think the argument really goes straight on to 12. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I've loved you. Do you see the blessed chain? I've loved you, remain in my love for you.

And how do you remain or abide in my love for you? By keeping my commandments. And what is his commandment? That you love one another. I've loved you, you love the other fellow. And that here is said to be the way to abide.

I say, how do you abide in his love? By keeping his commandments. And what are his commandments? That you love one another. Now this same, to me quite unusual argument, is the message of 1 John 4, which we read.

Will you turn over to 1 John 4, the epistle of John, chapter 4, verse 16. And halfway through that verse, God is love, and he that dwelleth in love, dwelleth in God, and God in him. It says first of all, that God is love.

And most of us interpret it, I think, that God is love for me. Wonderful thing, you should love a man like me. And it does mean that, of course. But the whole setting of that passage, surely is to say that God is love for the other fellow.

For you, yes, but for him equally. He knows how difficult that person is, how wrong they may be, and perhaps how badly they've treated you. But he loves them just the same. In his sight there's no difference for all sin, both you and him, and come short of the glory of God.

And all sinners have been loved by him, and for all sinners God gave his Son. God is love for that other fellow. And if you dwell in love for that other fellow, you're dwelling in God, who is love for that other fellow.

And that in turn means, as you dwell in God, God dwells in you. And him in you is the producing cause of all the fruit. And strangely the fruit is even more love. I know it's not all that logical, but there are some writers in Scripture who are more logical than others, and some a little less.

And John is one of those that don't necessarily obey the normal rules of logic. And truth cannot always be contained in formulas. It's a great word. God is love, and he that abides in love, abides in God, and God in him.

And I say again, the context is always the other man here, in this particular passage. Let us love one another, for God is love for the other man, as you abide in love, dwell in love, and add that attitude to him.

You are dwelling or abiding in the vine, and the vine abides in you, and there comes yet more abundant fruit. Now this phrase, God is love, comes twice in this passage in 1 John 4. It comes first in verse 8, God is love, and also in verse 16.

In verse 16, which you just looked at, it's stated in a positive context. But in verse 7 and 8, it's in a negative context. Look at it. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

But he that loveth not, knoweth not God. Why? For God is love. It can be said, the world is simply to be divided into two classes, those that love and those that hate. I know it's usually the lost and the saved, but here's another division for us to think about.

Those that love, and those that hate, are not all saved, love, sadly. And I include myself in this. And if you don't love the other fellow, your relationship with the one who does, is altogether God. You may think there's no controversy between you and God, but there may be one, and it's all with regard to one other person, which you don't agree with him about.

He knows his faults, and he's working on him, as he's working on you. He loves him, but you don't. You resent him. You're critical. You're cold. You've reacted toward him, and therefore our relationship with the vine is wrong.

But as I get to that place of dwelling and love for that brother, the vine dwells in me. I dwell in the vine, and the vine dwells in me. And usually truth is approached via the negative. Every preacher of the gospel knows he doesn't begin as a rule with a positive, it begins with a negative.

All have sinned, and it leads on to the positiveness of salvation, so with every other blessing and aspect in the Christian life, this negative attitude. What a great terrible thing the fall of man was.

So many things have to be traced back there. How much man has lost when he fell through disobedience there, and involved his whole race in it. And one of the things that we've lost in the fall, is the capacity to love.

Naturally, apart from grace, we are loveless people. Naturally, I know I'm a loveless man. I don't naturally love. Not only have we lost the capacity to love, but we've acquired alas, the tendency to hate.

Or we'll love those that love us. Anybody can do that. We love those that flatter us, that think well of us, and treat us right. But if they treat us wrong, we don't love them at all. And if the truth were known, if it doesn't love, it's hate.

And when that is so, we are not remaining, abiding in the vine. And we become withered branches, because not abiding in him, he is not abiding as he in the fullness he wants to, in us. And that in turn means that we become a withered branch, such as we were looking at yesterday.

And that passage in John 15 tells us what men do with withered branches. They take them away, and they burn them. Now we're not to take every point in that parable as having symbolic meaning. And I don't think the fire to which that fruitless branch is consigned, is to be taken as symbolic of eternal loss of health.

It's just saying what happens normally on an earthly level to a branch like that. Showing how disappointing it is to the husband. And how little use he has for it, or rather how little use he can make of it.

And he lays it aside and consigns it there. This is not meant to suggest to us that those who by faith have been united to Christ the living vine, are ever going to be separated from that living vine.

We're there by grace. Our position in Christ is not dependent on our behavior even. We never got there by good behavior. It was grace that reached us. By faith we got there, not by works. And if it's of grace, it's no more of works afterwards.

It's grace that's put us there. But, whereas that initial tie is going to abide, we lose so much else when we're not abiding in the vine. We become withered, fruitless, defeated, and real and truly. That withered branch, which we can become, may in actual daily experience be a little different from a man who's only been a phony all the time.

Who's.

Never, in spite of his outward profession, been united to the living vine. I know those who had.

Got away from the Lord and their lives have been more shameful after than before. And yet, just because they were not remaining, abiding in him, they became the withered branches and really and truly.

Was there a lot of difference that men could see? Oh, I know there is that initial tie. But because, although they've been united to Christ, they have not been abiding, they become branches that are bringing no fruit and had to be laid aside, put on the shelf.

This is the matter of your daily personal experience, not of your eternal salvation. And all because you've been hating and not loving. He that dwells in love abides in God, God in him. But he that love is not, no, is not God.

At least not at the moment, no matter what experience he had way back. Someone may say, you know, but I don't think I hate anybody. Well, hate in the New Testament is simply the opposite of love. There's nothing in between love and hate.

And if I'm not loving that man, God says you're hating him. You know, when there's a little trouble between brethren, and there is sometimes, perhaps the most searching thing, one who's seeking to counsel us, who are at variance, can say is, Roy, do you love so-and-so?

You might say, have you anything against him? I wouldn't find it difficult to answer that. Are you really one? I might not find that very difficult. But if you asked me when I'm in trouble like that, do I love that man?

I'd have a hard time saying yes. And if I'm not loving him, God says you're hating him. Now we've been, we're given a very complete definition of love in the famous chapter 1 Corinthians 13. And if we see what love is, then the opposite of what love is, is hate.

1 Corinthians 13 verse 4. Love suffereth long, and is kind. But if I'm not long-suffering and patient toward that other person, but am unkind to him, then it's hate. And he that hated his brother is a murderer.

He's not abiding in the vine anything but. He that, it goes on to say that love envieth not, that is not, is not jealous. But if on the other hand, deep down I am jealous of that other person, and the high esteem that others have of him or her, and the place he's given, and the good things that come his way that don't come mine.

I may not always express it, but I feel it. And what you feel you do ultimately express. Of course you don't say I am jealous, you just criticize him. And if you're always criticizing somebody, the chances are you're jealous.

And that's the opposite of love, and the opposite of love is hate. It might even be someone in your own family, husband or wife. I know overall you say you love him or her. But when you have that attitude, when I have it, I have to confess I'm hating them.

That's how God views it. Goes on to say love vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up, and therefore doesn't make the other person feel small. But when I am vaunting up myself, and really showing off, I'm going to see what a chap I am, and am puffed up with the result that the other man is made to feel small, I'm not loving that man, I'm hating him.

I'm not dwelling in love at all. Therefore God, to that extent, is not dwelling in me. And I very, very soon become a withered branch, which God can make no use of. Goes on to say love doth not behave itself unseemly.

You know, love's very courteous thing. Someone has said, courtesy is love in little things. But when, dear one, you are rude to another person, even the matter about which you're rude is a matter of high doctrine.

You know, we get the idea, if the altercation is due to doctrine, and the other one's a little erroneous, that excuses everything. It excuses nothing. It never excuses. Failure in love. That man who may be erroneous is still loved.

A man for whom Christ died. But I'm not loving him as God loves him. I'm behaving unseemly towards him. Do you know, Christians speak to one another with rudeness. Sometimes believers will talk to one another in which ordinary gentlemen of the world wouldn't.

Especially when it's to do with doctrine, or church. I want to tell you, you see, the flesh thought is going to have a hard time when you've got saved. Oh my goodness, I've been doing what I will with this man, acting as he likes.

Now he's got saved. I've got to take a back seat. And then one day there's a matter of a discussion about the church, and what's right, and whether the minister's preaching the right truth or something.

And the flesh says, oh, there's a chance for me yet. And here he comes. And I want to tell you, I've not been a minister. I've been a tramp preacher, an itinerant preacher all my life, ever since 1936.

Was saved in 26, then in a bank, and then later was allowed by the Lord to go around. But oh, I've sat with pastors. I've heard what they go through, seen their tears. I want to tell you this, the flesh in the service of God is something God hates.

It's the most appalling thing. And the people who are expressing the flesh are so often completely blind to it, they sometimes even think they do God's service. Actually, they're not. It's something of self that's at stake, really.

It purports to be some other thing. It's an opinion or a position. But then, of course, those who suffer at the hands of such react in a way which is just as carnal as those who inflict the hurt. And when we do, we're not loving that man.

We're hating him. It goes on to say, love seeketh not her own, is not selfish. But when we are, and we're not considering the other man, that's not loving him. It's hating him. We're not dwelling in love.

We're not dwelling in God, and God is not dwelling in us. It's hatred. Again, it goes on to say, love is not easily provoked. Love can take it, because it loves that person. But when you are easily provoked, and resentful, and made bitter, and critical, you're not loving that man or woman.

You're hating them. Love thinketh no evil, that is, doesn't keep account of evil. And you know, it's very easy to have a little tally about husband or wife. The theory is, again, it goes down, and we are taking account of evil.

Love doesn't do that. Love politely tolerates it. But when I don't, I'm hating. And so we could go on with even further descriptions of love. And in the light of that, we see what hate is. But listen, there is one who does love those that don't love him.

God's Unchanging Love and the Call to Repentance

There is one who does love those that treat him ill, that thwart his desires. And who, by their self-exhortation, are really and virtually taking his place. He loves them. There's a love which doesn't alter, when it alteration finds.

Oh, it's an honest love, it seeks to deal with such, but it loves. And that is God. God is love for those that don't love him. And so is his son. As the Church of England prayer book says, someone, one of the colleagues, he hated nothing that he has made.

No matter how they behave, there's still love. He's still intent on their restoration. He's still, they're still the ones for whom God gave his son. And if I can abide in him, I will share that love. But strangely, it doesn't really say that if I abide in him, I will have that love.

Strangely, it says, if I will dwell in love, I will dwell in God, and God will dwell in me. As I say, this is a sort of reverse way of putting it, but that's how it says. And of course, it arises the question to me, how do I abide in love?

For in that way, I'm going to abide in God. And then he's going to abide in me. And blessed fruit is going to come. That's what it says. He that dwelleth in love. And how in the world do I dwell in love?

To this one and that one, and to all sorts of people that are close to me or not so close. Quite obviously, you can't begin to abide in love until you repent of the unloved, and that in detail, and that with regard to specific people.

And if he's shown you there's someone you haven't been loving, and he regards it as hate, you can't then say, all right, I'm going to try and love them with God's help. No, no. The first thing we've got to do is to call it hate and confess it to that blessed vine that was wounded for us as hate.

As sin. And may I suggest that when you pray, you don't pray in silence. You pray aloud. Let yourself hear yourself using that word hate. By the way, if you have to put it right with them, whether it's right even to confess hate, I'm not sure to them.

Because it's a bit of a shock, I've found it, when someone says, brother, I've been hating you. Well, I deserve it, I'm sure. Perhaps you better say, I haven't been loving you. But before God, you call it hate.

Don't let yourself off, and know that's what it really is. Got to go back to the vine wounded for you, and make confession, and call it what it is. He's been talking to you about it, if you only knew, for a long time.

And you've got to say, oh God, you're right, and I'm wrong. Are they so much better than you? Have you not acted in the same way to others? Is it not putting yourself on a pedestal that you don't do that sort of things, haven't you?

You wait till someone has to repent toward you, and you'll find that it has not been a case of you smiling at everybody, and everybody smiling back at you. They've had battles over you, even as you had battles over somebody else.

And if the branches are to love one another as the fathers loved them, it cannot but be that there must be the primacy of going to the Jesus divine in penitence. We are human. Though positionally we've been taken out of the old Adam, the remnants of that Adamic nature is still there.

Though we're finding another source of life in Christ. And there are times when it will express itself, maybe, all right, it's provided for, in that fountain open for sin and uncleanness. Go there with it.

And if it means doing it many times a day, then go many times a day until the devil gets tired of trying to provoke you. Says, who in the world's been telling that fella about this power in the blood?

I thought he'd be out of action for a week. He's out of action for no longer than it takes him to get to the cross of Jesus. And as you go more than once, you'll find he may show you something more fundamental that's causing it.

Maybe you're resentful or critical. He may say you're jealous, or something deeper even. Yes, the Lord knows how to really get to the bottom of things. You leave it to him. You just obey what light he gives you, and he'll give you a bit more light.

And it's wonderful in fellowship meetings to hear people share, beautiful experience, what grace has shown them. Well, this is the way I've gone, even in our team. We're only loving one another because of the blood of Jesus.

And because we do know there's a place where sins are washed away. And we know it's easy to get there. That's the thing on which the whole conference is built. We've been working together for 30 years, but not without penitence.

And I praise God for what's come from our dear vines of love for one another. Only because we have seen and called certain things hate, and been washed. And that is the first initial step of dwelling in love, which is the way to dwell in God.

Then I think it means that I begin to move out in love, not only in penitence, that's first, then in love toward that person. Very often not in word only, but in deed. You know when Jesus healed people, the man with the withered hand, he said, stretch out your hand.

The paralytic, take up thy bed and walk. What he said, do the thing I'm telling you to do, which you know you can't do, but do it in the strength I give you now. Begin to move out in love. Dwell in love.

Take that other attitude. It may be not only in word, but in deed. Some caring for that man. And the result will be, you'll be dwelling in God, who is love for that man, and God in you. And there'll be more.

It's rather like a cistern in our in our homes. And you know that our taps aren't normally fed to the mains. The mains go into the cistern, and then you draw off water from the cistern. And as you draw off water, you can hear in the loft, the new water coming in.

There'll be no new water coming in, until you start drawing out. And as I begin, feeling I've got so little of love to give, but I begin. As I begin, more comes in. I've got more to pass on. Then more comes in, more comes in.

He has dwelling in love. You don't have to wait until great gushing emotion, to do that sweet thing for that brother. John says, do it in deed, not in word. If you see your brother have need, and you shut up your bowels of compassion towards him, how dwelleth the love of God in you, in all sorts of ways.

We minister one another in love. And oh, I praise God how much one has seen it. That very often the person who's doing it is largely unconscious. But how expressive of love are the things that are done.

It isn't in word, it's in deed. See, God's like that. If you want to dwell in him, you must be willing to move out, having repented, if that is necessary. May not always be, you had a terrible violent reaction.

But as you move out, he moves in, and more comes in. God is able, we read, to make all grace abound toward you, that you, having all sufficiency in all things, may abound to every good work. Grace only abounds towards you, as you begin to abound to others.

Dwelling in love, I dwell in God. Of course, one of the things that we shall, may, very often happens when you begin to move in love, is to perhaps ask his forgiveness. No one wants to put down a formula that such and such a thing, they've got to say such and such a thing to the other person.

God will guide. And sometimes, however, he does guide. And I think, when you ask another's forgiveness, that's about the most loving thing you've ever done. He's so touched, and he knows, you love him.