The Impossibility of the Christian Life, Part 4 — Paul Washer

Abiding in Christ: The Vine and the Branches

Let's open our Bibles one last time to John chapter 15, beginning in verse 1.

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 so that 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 the vine, 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 dries up, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also 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 so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.

This is my commandment, that you love one another just as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.

Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Father, we come before you in the name of your Son for this last meeting together. Lord, we need your help, that your truth may go forward and your people might be edified.

Lord, direct everything in this last meeting. Direct our words, our thoughts, Lord. Lead us in the way that you would have us go. That we would not only begin to understand this passage, but that its application to our life would be a reality, a growing reality.

Lord, we know so many things and so few of them are applied. Lord, help us not to be hearers of the Word, but also doers of the Word and be truly blessed. Lord, for those who are here that may not know you, that even in this text they might see their great need for a Savior.

Lord, I ask all of this in Jesus' name. Amen. In the last sermon before I began to preach, I gave you a summary of all the things that we had been studying. I see little need to do that in this evening session, because it should be still warm in your mind, the full summary of what we've gone through.

Actually, the notes that I've been preaching from were the first sermon I was supposed to preach on Friday night. It's just that it's all kind of been extended. I have six more sermons, but I don't think that we will get to all of them this evening.

The Christian Life Is Impossible Apart from Christ

We've been talking about the impossibility of the Christian life. That is not a cliche. It's not a hyperbole. The Christian life is an absolute impossibility, apart from abiding in Christ and drawing spiritual life and strength from Him.

In the Christian life, Christ and the Gospel are not one element. They are the element. Christ is everything. When the Christian doctrine and the Gospel is truly proclaimed, as it ought to be proclaimed, and men reject it, what they need to know is that they are not rejecting a religion.

They are not rejecting certain principles. They are rejecting a person. If you're here today and you're apathetic toward Christianity, maybe you're here out of coercion, manipulation. Maybe you have to because your parents still have authority over you.

You're here. You abide by those rules, but your heart is not here at all. Know this, you are not rejecting a religion. You are not rejecting a set of principles. Now, to do that is very, very dangerous, because ones who set aside the law of God, the law of Moses, were to be put away.

But I want you to know what you're doing. You are apathetic towards the one person that God loves more than all of creation combined, His Son. When you reject Christianity, know this, you are rejecting the One for whom the entire world was created.

Know this also, that God will deal harshly with you for your arrogance against His Son. Know this, that maybe in your humanism, maybe in your youth, maybe in your foolishness, you've set your heart as stone against God, and none of what I'm saying causes you to tremble.

Like a young man once said, I'm not afraid to stand before God. I'll face Him and my fate. And the old preacher told him, young man, you will melt before God like a tiny wax figurine before a blast furnace.

Your proud heart demonstrates nothing more than your own stupidity. Creation testifies against you, and you yourself know that the very God you are rejecting is the One before whom you will stand. So I want you to know that when I deal with these texts, there are two groups of people here tonight.

There are people who are here because they love Christ and in loving Christ, they are seriously concerned for pleasing Him and for growing in holiness. There are others here who care not for holiness.

And the reason why they do not care for holiness is because they simply do not care for Christ. And that is a very, very dangerous place to be. Now, we're going to begin. We've gone through several pages of notes and we've seen a lot of things, but now we're going to turn our attention to something that is extremely important.

As we look at our text, we see something that ten different times in this short text, there's a word that appears. It's the word abide. And I have said over and over that the only way that the Christian can be fruitful in the Christian life is to abide in Christ.

Now, if I tell you this, it's very important I explain to you what that means. You know, preachers are famous for telling people what to do and then not telling them how to do it. I remember one time as a young Christian, this man, he preached for something like an hour and a half on the necessity to walk in the Spirit.

And it was a fabulous sermon. And it proved to my young heart that I needed to walk in the Spirit. The only problem is he never told us what that meant. So I went up to him after the service, not intending to wrangle.

I was happy with what I heard. I thought it was very edifying. I just thought I'm a very immature Christian. I don't have a clue what it means to walk in the Spirit. So, sir, I went before him and I said, sir, wow, that was just wonderful.

I see that in the Scriptures. I need to walk in the Spirit. But, sir, I don't know what that means. That man became very put out with me. He said every manner of thing, but he never told me what it meant to walk in the Spirit.

And I walked away as the young Christian saying, that man just told us to do something that he himself does not know how to do. And therefore, he just told us to do something that he himself is not practicing.

And so we always want to be careful whenever we're exhorting people to do a certain thing, to actually be able to explain to them what it means. And so I have told you that the only way you can be fruitful in the Christian life is to abide in Christ.

Now, what does that mean? Now, first of all, the word abide is not that complex in Greek. It means to remain, to abide, to stay. Now, when we bring in the metaphor of a branch, you can see that a branch must be connected vitally to a vine in order for that branch to continue with life and even bear fruit.

So somehow you and I must be vitally connected with Christ. Now, herein lies two sides of the coin. And it's often the case in Christianity. We have two sides of the coin. One is positional and the other is our actual experience.

Now, I want to say positionally, first of all, what I was explaining in the last session. If you are truly a Christian, and I don't say that lightly, because most people in America who call themselves Christian are not Christian.

And some of you who call yourselves Christians are possibly not Christians. It's very important to understand. Let me put it this way. If you consider yourself a carnal Christian, you're lost. You're just lost.

Do Christians sin? Yes. Can Christians fall into grievous sin? Absolutely. Can Christians live a continuously carnal lifestyle without fruit? Absolutely not. And so if you are a true believer, you are vitally connected to Christ.

He is the vine. You are a branch. He is the head. You are the body. We have many metaphors like that to indicate this unique position we now have with Christ. Another is the Bible talks oftentimes in spheres, locatively.

For example, you're in the sphere of Adam or you're in the sphere of Christ. You're in the sphere of condemnation. You're in the sphere of justification. You are in the sphere of the flesh. You are in the sphere of the Spirit.

So if you're genuinely a Christian, you are a branch and you're vitally connected. But here's what we need to understand. This position that we have does not lead us ever in the New Testament to being passive.

But it always promotes a zealous application of this truth. A desire for this truth to be worked out in our life. To become manifest. And let me use a word that many people are afraid of. To be experienced.

That it's an actual reality. One of the men that was so very key in my discipleship until today, uses a word all the time that always brings me back to center. And he'll say this, Yes, Paul, but is it a reality in your life?

When he listens to a sermon, he'll say there was reality there. And that's kind of what we're talking about. Not just a theological supposition or theological or propositional truth, but is it a growing reality?

Is it the experience of your life? Do you experience fruit bearing? Do you experience communion with Christ? You can quote all my favorite creeds, but that does not guarantee that you experience the truths that are found there.

Now, as a Christian, we are united with Christ, but in the Christian life, sanctification is progressive. I think you all would agree with that. It's progressive. Well, let me explain what that means.

When you think of progressive sanctification, you probably think that as you grow in your Christian life, you become more holy, more holy, more holy. That's true. That's true. But a lot of times we leave things out of that formula that ought to be included.

For example, repentance. Did you know repentance is subject to sanctification? There's a sense in which I repented unto salvation, but I am growing in repentance. Did you know that? I'm growing and saving repentance.

I repent more now. I see more sin now. You see, I'm growing in faith. My faith is subject to sanctification. There was a time when I believed unto salvation, but that faith has become subject to sanctification over the last 30 years.

It's deeper. It's stronger. It's the same way. A new believer immediately starts bearing fruit. Really? And many times, the first few months of our life, we see abundant amount of fruit. But we ought to be growing in our fruit bearing.

A believer, the moment that they believe, they enter into communion with Christ and they experience that. The love of God is shed abroad in their heart. But as they grow in Christ, this initial experience of the love of God, of the indwelling of the Spirit, it ought to increase.

It ought to become more mature. And that doesn't mean that they go from experience to experience or this greater manifestation to greater manifestation. But it's referring to reality. Every one of these things that happen to us at salvation, they become a deeper reality.

And they begin to manifest themselves in a greater way in our life. Now, I'm going to take a definition from D .A. Carson. I'm going to quote him a few different times throughout the teaching that we're going to do tonight, because he says some things that are absolutely marvelous.

D .A. Carson is a well-known New Testament scholar and he's been very helpful to almost every minister who cares about the Word of God. But he defines abiding in this way. He says, the imagery of the vine is stretched a little when the branches are given the responsibility to remain in the vine.

Now, if you notice, he says, I am the vine, you are the branches. But then he goes outside of this metaphor and he tells us that we need to do something to continue abiding. You know, branches just kind of sit there, don't they?

But there is something that we must do. And basically, we must cultivate this relationship which we have. Now, he says this, the point is clear. Continuous dependence upon the vine. Constant reliance upon him.

Persistent spiritual imbibing. What does imbibing mean? It means to drink, to absorb. Continuous, persistent, spiritual imbibing of his life. This is the indispensable and essential action, condition, or ingredient of spiritual fruitfulness.

Dependence on God Through Trials

Now, up to this point, do you realize what I've been doing? I've been building up to this moment. I've been trying to show you that you cannot do anything apart from the life and power of Christ. I've also talked a great deal about the providence of God.

How God in His providence will send trials our way. Difficulties, things we cannot overcome. Obstacles that we ourselves cannot endure. Now, why does He do this? Is it because He hates us? Absolutely not.

All these strong winds are designed to convince you and I, you and me, that we simply cannot. In the Christian Manifesto, which is, of course, the Sermon on the Mount, the first virtue that is given us is this.

Blessed are the poor in spirit. Blessed are those who live in a profound dependence upon God. What is the most God-honoring thing that we can do? To live in a profound dependence upon God. What is the most dishonoring thing that Israel ever did?

Independence. Is that not true? The most dishonoring thing that Israel did under the Old Covenant was independence. We don't need you. We can do this on our own. Do you realize that almost every saving activity of God does not begin until first He empties men of all hope of saving themselves?

Whether it's Israel in Egypt. Whether it's Joseph in a prison. Whether it's Gideon against the Midianites. What is He constantly doing? He's constantly emptying us of ourselves, of self-confidence, of self-reliance.

Why? So that we will live in absolute or full dependence upon Him. Can you see how vital this is? Now, you may be thinking to yourself, Brother Paul, just go on. No, I can't. It was like I used the example two nights ago.

It was necessary that Peter fall. Why? He made that self-reliant, independent, John Wayne type of declaration there in the supper, in the Passover. Though all deny you, I will not. He had to fall. It was necessary that Satan sift him and that he fall.

Why? To rid him of that. That I will deny you. Look at this. That great Peter, the rock, denies Christ before a little servant girl. It was necessary. Great. Some of the old preachers used to say, Christ spent three years emptying the disciples so that he could fill them in a second on the Day of Pentacles.

I mean, God can fill you like that. The emptying part is problematic. And so he's constantly doing this, constantly sending things our way to empty us. But to cause us to cling to Him. To cling to Him.

Abiding Through the Word of God

Now, there are three aspects of abiding, because I've just told you, you need to cling to Christ. You need to lay aside self-reliance and independence, and you need to cling to Christ. But now you're probably saying, if you're a thinker, OK, but again, how do you do that?

Well, there are three aspects to this. And I'm going to take part of D .A. Carson's definition and use it within these three aspects. First of all, abiding in Christ is through continuous dependence on His Word.

Constant submission to His Word. Persistent spiritual imbibing of His Word. Now, look in verse 7, chapter 15, verse 7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you. Now, look at verse 10. 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.

Now, you know the old song that says, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey. Well, that might sound kind of trite, but let me just share with you something.

Trust and obey, there's no other way to be happy in Jesus. I'm sorry. I know that you live in a culture where you can go into every Christian bookstore and find 1 ,000 books on 10 steps to do this. I'm sorry.

Quick fixes here and there. Microwave Christianity. Instantaneous this and that. No, my friend, you have been given a book, which I dare say most of us despise. You say, I don't despise it. Let me share with you something.

Have you ever been a street preacher? You know there's something worse than the crowd turning around and all of them getting really mad at you? You know what's worse than that? They neglect you altogether.

You're standing there preaching and they all walk by you for hours like you're not even there. There was a time in my life when I actually thought I was invisible. No, the worst thing you can do to me to despise me is neglect that I'm not even worth arguing with.

Now do you see the neglect of God's Word? You see, we're always wondering, where is the power? Or you see a man or a woman who seems to be fruit-bearing and full of power and zeal and you want to find their secret.

The problem is there is no secret and when they give you the answer, you're not going to like it. What is it? I have no wisdom or understanding of my own. I do not know how to walk from the bedroom to the bathroom apart from the Word of God.

This world is a minefield full of danger. I have no telepathic ability to discern where all the mines are hidden, but I have a map. I do not know how to discern the things of God, but I have been given truth in Scripture.

I'm sorry, my dear friend, if you were waiting to find out something that would really just be brand new to you about how to abide in Jesus. I'm sorry. But it is this first and foremost. He has given you His Word.

And again, I go back to old John Bunyan. They said of him, if you cut his veins, he would bleed the Bible. The old story that's been told in several different ways about stone face, about supposedly a man who would come and visit a town and be a blessing to the town, and he would have a face like the face that was carved into a natural formation on a stone and everyone waited for that person.

And one time a little boy was born and he kept hearing the story about one day someone would come to save the town. And he kept looking at that stone and looking at that stone and looking at that stone until at the end of his life, he realized he had become that face and he was the one who had helped the town.

It is just us going into the Word, going into the Word, going into the Word, going into the Word, not even seeking to be transformed by the Word, just recognizing the importance of the Word and living in the Word.

And eventually, without us even knowing it, we begin to take on its characteristics. Do you see that? Let me give you an example, a rather vulgar, trite, common example. Let's say that you come to me and you have a big spot on your forehead that's just a bloody mass.

And you say to me, Brother Paul, I've been to every doctor in the world. No one can figure out why I have this. Could you please try to pray to the Lord that He would give you wisdom with regard to why I have this on my forehead?

And I say, well, I'm no doctor, but sure, I'll pray about it. But I decide one day to be even practical and I decide to follow you around for 24 hours. And I notice that at one o 'clock in the morning, the clock strikes one and you get up out of bed and you hit your forehead against a brick wall one time and go back to bed.

And then I watch, it's two o 'clock. You get up precisely at two o 'clock when the bell strikes and you hit your forehead twice on a stone wall and go back to bed. And I notice as you go through the day, every turn of the hour, you hit your head against a wall that many times.

At the end of 24 hours, I come to you and I say this, look, I'm no doctor, but I think I've figured out your problem. If you will stop banging your head against a brick wall every time the clock strikes the hour, I think your head will heal.

You say, that's absurd. I say the same thing to you. You neglect the Scriptures. I'm sorry. And then, do you know what evangelicalism has done in America? It has conformed itself to your flesh. If I've heard it one time, I've heard it a thousand times.

People and teachers and pastors and supposedly educators in Christianity saying we don't live in a culture anymore where people can even pay attention for five minutes, so we've got to give them little sound bites with regard to Christianity.

You know what we've done? We're the first group of Christians who believe the Bible, the first group in history that no longer believe that our culture is to conform itself to the Book. We're now trying to conform Christianity to culture.

I say if our culture has become too dumb to read for half an hour, that in the church, we do not give in to that, but we start teaching people how to think and how to read and how to meditate, to turn off televisions, to turn off vain conversations and to get into the Book.

Christianity, Culture, and the Renewal of the Mind

Let me share with you something about Western culture. I want to be very careful here, but I just want to make a few observations that may help you understand you. You know, everyone says Western culture this, Western culture that.

We shouldn't try to take Western culture and apply it to other cultures. Let me share with you something about Western culture. Western culture has to do with the Americas and also Western Europe. I guess you're all familiar with that.

Western culture. Prior to the advent of Christianity, Western culture meant we were a bunch of tribal people living in Northern Europe, running around naked, painting ourselves blue and eating one another.

That's Western culture. So what changed Western culture? The advent of Christianity. Yeah. And because of Christianity, we stopped worshiping twigs and streams and crickets and hatchets and horns. We came to understand the living God and we came to understand creation and light of that living God.

Our culture began to change. The very height of literature and art and music and everything in Europe owes itself to the advent of Christianity coming in and changing a group of blue-painted barbarians.

That's what Christianity did. But now, because we have rejected Christianity, we have rejected the God of Christianity, we're becoming cannibalistic barbarians once again. Oh yes, we can do all kinds of things with computers and technology.

We are fabulous in IT. But we're becoming immoral beasts. Now, the point that I'm trying to make is this. You want some quick fix. The quick fix is this. Spend your life renewing your mind in the Word of God.

Cling to the Word of God as though your very life depends on it, because, sir, I can assure you it does. Put it this way. D .A. Carson writes this. If you remain in me is equivalent to doing all that Jesus commands.

And I love this. Such words must so lodge in the disciple's mind and heart that conformity to Christ, obedience to Christ, is the most natural thing in the world. And see, you can't get there apart from the Word.

Let me read that again. Such words, that's the teachings of Christ, must so lodge in the disciple's mind and heart that conformity to Christ, obedience to Christ, is the most natural thing in the world.

Now, how's that going to happen? Now, let's go back to something I greatly love. The law of God. The books of wisdom. And what do we see over and over? What should the king do in Deuteronomy? He should write out all the words of this law.

Why? To work on his penmanship? Absolutely not. That those words might be firmly lodged in his heart and mind. It's an interesting thing when you go to the Bible and do this kind of study. How do you study the Bible according to the Bible?

And do you know you will actually find only a few references to study? Did you know that? Do you know what the great portion is? Memorization and meditation. Lodging the Word of God in your heart. As one old preacher I know who I dearly love says, folks, this isn't rocket surgery.

It means rocket science or brain surgery, but he combines the two things. He goes, this isn't rocket surgery. It's simple. You take the Word of God and you read it and you read it and you read it and you read it and you study it.

And if you don't understand it, you don't care, you keep working on it because your life depends upon it. As I said the other night, some of you who would say, well, I'm not a reader. Yeah, but if your company offered you a job paying twice or three times what you're now making, but you have a 600 page manual to memorize, I guarantee you'd stay up night and day to memorize that.

Your wife would be with you pouring you coffee and encouraging you because she wants a new bedroom set. Your children would go, hip, hip, hooray, dad! Go, dad! Go, dad! And we would do something like that for something as pathetic as money.

To buy silly clothes with important designers' names on them. What a pathetic people. And yet, we'll let eternity escape right through our hands and not even move a finger. Now, what does this look like?

I want to read you some texts that have been very helpful for me. But now I want you to listen to these texts as though you've never heard them before. That's often very helpful. I know of one old pastor that every three years, he would change his Bible.

He would spend three years going through his entire Bible and writing notes, filling the pages with notes and notes and notes, and then he would take that Bible and put it on the shelf and get a new Bible because he wanted to hear the Word afresh again without his notes.

He wanted God to speak to him afresh. Now, listen to this as though you've never heard it before. Because right now, you probably treat it like a cliché. A meaningless piece of New Testament poetry. But I want you to listen to it as though you had to take it seriously.

Now, this is the Incarnate God speaking. Jesus Christ. But He answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. There's a sense in which I know you believe this.

There's a sense in which you don't believe this at all. He's saying every aspect of your life is to be governed, fueled, conformed, empowered by the Word of God. Let me ask you a question. Those of you who are married, how much time have you spent studying marriage in the Scriptures?

I mean, it's the most important relationship you have on this earth. Are you doing what it says here? That your marriage, you're seeking that it be conformed to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God?

Now, marriage is tough enough when you do know what God's Word says. How much more difficult is it when you don't even know what God's Word says? Sometimes I'll ask music directors. You know, I'll go to a church and it's got a big music program and all this, and I'll ask them this one question.

You're the worship leader. Yes. Have you studied worship beginning in the book of Genesis chapter 1 all the way through the book of Revelation? Well, no. Well, then how do you know that what you're doing is pleasing to God?

How can you know? The sad thing is now they say, well, it doesn't even matter. It's just basically left up to what you feel like. No, it's not. No, it's not. The way you dress. And I know I sound now like a 1950's fundamentalist preacher, don't I?

But let me ask you a question. The way you dress. Have you gone to Scripture to ask God, what am I supposed to do? The way you talk. Your relationships. What you participate in and don't participate in.

I mean, look what he says. You do not live on bread alone, but you live on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. You know what the Puritan genius was? Now, I don't agree with the Puritans on absolutely everything.

They're men. But you know what their genius was? They honestly sought to conform every aspect of their life to the Word of God. Now, like all of us men, they failed in some areas. They went too far or not far enough in some areas.

But they're one of the few peoples that ever walked on this planet that said every aspect of life must be conformed to the written Word of God. We don't believe that. As a matter of fact, we live in a culture now where it's just sort of believe in an undefined Jesus and then do whatever is right in your own eyes.

No, my dear friend, listen. You see, you don't fear. And you do trust in yourself.

You prove it every day.

By just walking according to what you think is right. Don't do that. Abiding in Christ is asking, Lord, I am in a fallen world. There is a sense in which even though I have been regenerated, I still have fallen members of my body, even a fallen mind.

I live in a fallen world. I'm behind enemy lines. Wisdom was not born with me. It will not die with me. I must take this book. Again, I go back to Pilgrim's Progress. It's the book. The book that guided him.

Listen to this text. He tells Joshua, only be strong and very courageous. Be careful to do according to all the law which Moses, my servant, commanded you. Do not turn from it to the right or to the left.

Do you know the average evangelical doesn't know enough of the law to determine whether he's even turned from it or not. We talk about obedience, but before obedience can come, there must be knowledge.

And there's such a neglect of the Word of God that we don't even know when we're walking in disobedience. That's why we can do horrendous things within the context of the so-called local church and not even be convicted about it.

We don't even know what the will of God is. So that you may have success wherever you go. This book of the law. Now, let's just take this literally for a moment. Not absurdly, but literally. This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night.

Okay, let me ask you a question. Does your 10 minute quiet time fulfill this command? I mean, people boast because I have my quiet time. Well, describe it to me. Well, you know, 15 minutes in the Word.

15 minutes in prayer. Well, I applaud you for whatever attempt you're making, but don't pat yourself on the back. He's saying this Word, it shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it.

For then you will make your way prosperous and then you will succeed. Now, this is not to be interpreted in the context of televangelists. It's not talking about then you will prosper financially. It means then you will prosper in the will of your God and be a useful servant to Him.

That's what being fruitful means. So abiding in Christ is to take this gift of His teaching and learning to follow it. Now, as we see here in verse 12, this is my commandment that you love one another just as I have loved you.

Now, let me say a few things. I want to draw a balance here. I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. I want to explain this. The end of everything that has to do with God's commands is this.