Any service towards God not directed by the Spirit is worthless. For some few of us, abiding in Christ will be a mystical experience which is beyond words to express. Now suppose that he has a friend of a strong and lovely and loving nature, who rescues him from his degraded situation. This is the case our Lord describes here: "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and they gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." From aggello; a messenger; especially an 'angel'; by implication, a pastor. THE LIFE OF JESUS' CHOSEN PEOPLE ( John 15:11-17 ), 15:11-17 "I have spoken these things to you that my joy might be in you, and that your joy might be complete. Abide in Me, and I in you. Persecution came to the Christians because they put Christ first. The disciples accordingly, having received this grace in Christ, were called into a like path with Him, the epistle here below of Christ who is above. The accent of personal inner conviction is one of the most unmistakable in the world. The Master thereon warns them of that hour, even then come in spirit, when His rejection should prove their dispersion deserted, yet not alone, "because the Father is with me." He that is constant in the exercise of faith in Christ and love to him, that lives upon his promises and is led by his Spirit, bringeth forth much fruit, he is very serviceable to God's glory, and his own account in the great day. Of Christian faith,? That I just tell them that if they want to be saved, they can go through that door and talk and pray with a pastor. And this can become worthless expenditures of energy, unless God is behind it and God is guiding it and God is directing it. for Moses wrote of Christ: in truth, there was no divine persuasion as to either. He placed the cherubim in the midst of the inner house, and the wings of the cherubim were spread out, so that the wing of the one was touching the one wall, and the wing of the other cherub was touching the other wall. Now Caesar worship was not imposed on the world; it actually arose from the people themselves. Consistently earned 5-star reviews, shipped orders on time, and replied quickly to messages, Looks like you already have an account! He has an eye upon all the branches, and prunes them, and watches over them, that nothing hurt them. The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. "If I had not done among them" not now His words only, but works "if I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they had not had sin: but now have they both seen and hated both me and my Father." The fact we have noticed, the administrative position of the Spirit, is thus owing to the work He has voluntarily undertaken for the Father and the Son, though, of course, as a question of His own glory, He is equally to be adored with the Father and the Son, and is always comprehended in God as such. "I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. It is as wood, hay, and stubble that will burn when the day of judgment comes. 48Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. And so, every daddy's heart is touched, you know. THE WORLD'S HATRED ( John 15:18-21 continued). And persecution that comes for being a bore or brash, or whatever, there's no reward or special benefits for that. If a man will be ignorant, let him be ignorant, and show his unbelief by such an assertion, if he will. And the little boy dies, you know, with a smile on his face. Under Add your personalization, the text box will tell you what the seller needs to know. (c) Prayer must say: "Thy will be done." Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and beneath their wings was the form of human hands. I refer to this for the purpose of showing, that the revelation of Christ has brought in not merely a total change in the consciousness of eternal life and salvation when the work was done, as well as the overthrow of all distinctions between Jew and Gentile, which we find, of course, in the epistles but, besides that practically, has 'brought in a power of producing fruit that could not be before, a mutual love peculiar to Christians, and a rejection and hatred from the world beyond all that had been. Abstracted from the merit of Christ, we can do nothing towards our justification; and from the Spirit of Christ nothing towards our sanctification. marg. I have called you friends because I have made known to you everything that I heard from my Father. Many a man tells men to love each other, when his whole life is a demonstration that that is the last thing he does himself. kago, from kai ego) is unusual. $2.51, $5.01 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." In this passage there is much about abiding in Christ. There the Holy Ghost is both a teacher and helper. The second is the witness which men must bear to Christ. You are my friends, if you do what I command you. Now He's beginning to talk about the fruit. But when One who is more than man comes into the world, the dignity of the person sinned against, the love and light revealed in His person, all bear on the estimate of sin; and the consequence is, there could be no such character of sin till Christ was manifested, though, of course, heart and nature are the same. And then, I'm going to present to Him my solutions that I want Him to work out for me. In a mere man it would be sin; in Him it was perfection. "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit;" for fruit was what God looked for, not merely acts or obligations, but bearing fruit: "Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away; and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit." The Roman government hated the Christians because it regarded them as disloyal citizens. Where Scripture speaks of union with Christ, or, again, of life in Him, you never have such a thought as a member of Christ cut off, or one that had eternal life losing it. In the book of Acts we read, "And as many as were ordained to eternal life believed" ( Acts 13:48 ). You cannot sit down and say, "Now, this is what I'm going to do for God this year. When he had done this, he received a certificate to say that he done it. Here it is the Jews insist He ought by their law to die, because He made Himself the Son of God. While we are united to him by a living faith, from the nature of the case, strength flows from him to us, and we receive help as we need. Again, the conviction of righteousness is equally remarkable. God Said I Will Send Them Without Wings So No one Suspects They Are Angels Sign Dog Sign Distressed Wood Wall Hanging Pet Lover Gift Rescue He never did settle down as a citizen of the world community, but was an alien. Christian faith is essentially believing on Him that we have not seen: believing, "we walk by faith, not by sight." OM double G. [2.] The rejected Christ is accepted and glorified in the highest seat above, which condemns the world and proves there is no righteousness in it or man; but more than this, the world shall see Him no more. The very contrary. The fatal consequences of forsaking Christ (John 15:6; John 15:6): If any man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch. He spoke, that in Him they might have peace, as in the world they should have tribulation. The charge stuck, and it is little wonder that the mob looked on the Christians with loathing. Take the early part of the gospel, where the gift of Jesus in divine love, the sending Him into the world not to judge, but to save, makes known what God is to a lost world. It may be a conditional statement. The Holy Ghost, "when he is come," (not "whom the Father will send," but) "whom I will send from the Father." As the eternal Son of the Father, of course He was ever loved of the Father; as laying down His life (John 10:1-42), He was therefore loved of His Father; but, besides, in all His earthly path, He kept His Father's commandments, and abode in His love. "But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. The tree snake will make its nest and lay eggs there. So their wings were touching each other in the center of the house. Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone. Our global marketplace is a vibrant community of real people connecting over special goods. Verse John 15:4. John 15:9-10). (Ver. However the differences between them make dispensational theologians conclude that the church only superficially fulfills Israel. 11 And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: Read full chapter. 5) They felt natural sadness at the thought of His departure. A voice came to him, Get up, Peter, kill and eat! But Peter said, By no means, Lord, for I have never eaten anything unholy and unclean.read more.Again a voice came to him a second time, What God has cleansed, no longer consider unholy.. She had trained for opera and had a voice I'm sure that came close to Enrico Caruso's as far as volume. And finally, he said, "I will send my only son; surely they will honor him." The wingspan of the cherubim was twenty cubits; the wing of one, of five cubits, touched the wall of the house, and its other wing, of five cubits, touched the wing of the other cherub. It is not merely that He could not own anything short of Christ as a means of salvation, because this is always true; and never was any one brought to God at any time since the world began save by Christ, however scanty the testimony or partial the knowledge of Him. But that is precisely what the Christians would not do. The first ground is, that the only righteousness now is in Christ gone to be with the Father. We should do this not because failure to do so will result in our losing the life of God that we possess. 2 Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. 6 If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. By so doing, he showed that he was a loyal citizen of Rome. Blessed of God at all times it would surely be; and he that valued Christ's words would never slight those that witnessed of Christ before He came. Because of this, God in his wisdom said, I will send them prophets and apostles, some of whom they will kill and Psalm 147:9 tells us that God is concerned for all His creation, including the animals He created: He provides food for the cattle and for the young ravens when they call.. Wow! Thus the reality of God's work in the soul proves itself, so to speak, by continual looking and clinging to Christ. Much confusion has resulted from failing to recognize that Jesus spoke of "abiding" in two senses. That you love one another, as [He said,] I have loved you ( John 15:12 ). Because that is an experience of the spirit, deeper than the level of the emotions. "When the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: and ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning." He washes them.Now, in Israel many of the grapes that are grown are grown actually on the ground. The meaning is, that He shall not speak of His own authority, as if He had nothing to do with the Father and the Son. But all these things will they do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him that sent me ( John 15:21 ). I don't accept that!Jesus said, "Your Father knows what you have need of before you ever ask Him." (15% off), Sale Price $28.54 And so, I've given Him directions and He's not following my directions." What I gather from this is, that those who had even used the Lord's prayer, as the disciples had done up to this time, did not know what it was to ask the Father in the Lord's name. Then the cherubim lifted up their wings with the wheels beside them, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. The more knowledge a man has and the more privileges he enjoys, the greater the responsibility laid upon him. He was called Aristides the Just; and yet he was banished. Rome brought peace and prosperity. Here is a twofold testimony that of the disciples who had seen Christ and heard His words. There is always this opposition between the Father and the world, proved by His person in the world. Like flying birds so the Lord of hosts will protect Jerusalem.He will protect and deliver it;He will pass over and rescue it. So long as he continued in that fine home and that fine presence he was safe. And I will abide in you-ye shall receive every help and influence from me that your souls can require, in order to preserve and save them to eternal life. And they become irrational. I say "professed," because it is to me evident that He does not contemplate in His view those exclusively who really had life everlasting. They are burned; this follows of course, but it is here added very emphatically, and makes the threatening very terrible. So, "I am the vine, you are the branches. As the apostle says, even if we had known Christ after the flesh, "henceforth know we him no more." A violent end comes, though to God's glory. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets that were before you" ( Matthew 5:11-12 ). As for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man; all four had the face of a lion on the right and the face of a bull on the left, and all four had the face of an eagle. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full ( John 15:10-11 ). KNOWLEDGE AND RESPONSIBILITY ( John 15:22-25 ), 15:22-25 "If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty of sin. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. "This cup is the new covenant in my blood." Abide in me, and I in you. And they were touched with emotions. It was one who had come out from the world, and had followed Christ. To leave out either is to strip Christianity of half its value. They may seem to cleave to the words of Moses, but it is mere human tenacity, not divine faith: else the words of Christ would be welcome above all. It was not merely that He was born of a woman, born under the law, but, as He says here, "Even as I have kept my Father's commandments." The first blessing was, Be fruitful; and it is still a great blessing. (Verse 24) There was a full testimony, as we have seen already, in John 8:1-59; John 9:1-41. (Verse 20). The Bible says, "It would have been better for them to have never heard than to have heard and turned away." to send out literally or figuratively. 2 Thessalonians 2:11 in When he sees and believes in the Son, there is for him a sure way through the wilderness, and also a bright way in the word of God. It was not difficult to spread abroad the report that the Love Feast was an orgy of sexual indulgence, of which the kiss of peace was the symbol and the sign. as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine, no more can ye, except ye abide in me; which strongly expresses the necessity of abiding in Christ by fresh repeated acts of faith: and it is easy to observe, that when believers depart from Christ, though it be but partially, and for a time, for they cannot finally and totally depart from him, in what a poor, withered, fruitless condition they are, both in their frames and duties. It also agrees with the personal use of in Matthew 16:23, and the use of alone in the next clause. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained." Let us take a human analogy. (His words in John 8:1-59, His works in John 9:1-41); but the manifestation of His words and of His works only brought out man thoroughly hating the Father and the Son. That is, the beginning of His earthly ministry.Well, we got one chapter tonight. The Spirit here judges things at the roots, dealing with things according to their reality in God's sight, into which the believer enters. There can be no effective Christian witness without this inner conviction which comes from personal intimacy with Christ. It is as if Jesus said: "You think that because you belong to the nation of Israel you are a branch of the true vine of God. The disciples had now been three years under Christ's instruction; and now you are clean. How our communion with Christ is maintained--by prayer: You shall ask what you will, and it shall be done to you. That we would have that kind of self-sacrificing, understanding, forgiving love for each other. 7) It is the Comforter coming. Not "He shall." And in this parable, He speaks of the lord who had a vineyard. In John 14:26, it was said, "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you." It is not the destruction of this place or that. These people get all hung up on eternal security and all. The great cleansing power of the Word. Now this is the first time the gospels mention anything about the joy of Jesus Christ. Be it observed, that from verse 6 He develops the relationship of the disciples with His Father, having manifested the Father's name to those who were the Father's, and given them the words which the Father gave Him, and spoken as He did now that they might have His joy fulfilled in them. The former of the two answers seems preferable, as keeping closer to the parable. We'd better get rid of Him." All analogies are imperfect but we must work with the ideas which we possess. Christians were indeed persecuted because of the name of Christ. And surely it ought to be so, and we would not desire it to be otherwise. There was an abandonment, not only for Himself, but for them, of all connection with nature, or the world, even in their religion. Lgende: Administrateurs, Les Brigades du Tigre, Les retraits de la Brigade, 726829 message(s) 35337 sujet(s) 30093 membre(s) Lutilisateur enregistr le plus rcent est jocer, Quand on a un tlviseur avec TNT intgre, Quand on a un tlviseur et un adaptateur TNT, Technique et technologie de la tlvision par cble, Rglement du forum et conseils d'utilisation. (15% off), Sale Price $14.40 When we pray we must first realize that we never know better than God. Note, Those that abide in Christ as their heart's delight shall have, through Christ, their heart's desire. When you lie down among the sheepfolds,You are like the wings of a dove covered with silver,And its pinions with glistening gold. The vine had actually become the symbol of the nation of Israel. Such were the causes of hatred in the early days. Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone. I mean, there's no value to you. As our Lord Himself said (in John 4:1-54), "Salvation is of the Jews:" this place of privilege and promise made their actual condition so much the guiltier. Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the, Because they have transgressed My covenant. Because I've dealt with these problems so long, I've got it all figured out how it could come to pass. From apo and stello; set apart, i.e. And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say,Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.. What absorption in His Father's will! "I am the vine, the true. It included all kinds of peoples and all kinds of countries within it. I pray the Lord that even these suggestions may be blessed of God in stirring up fresh desire to study, and weigh, and pray over these precious gospels. The moment He said, "I am he," without lifting a finger, or even audibly expressing a desire, they fell to the ground. (Compare also Philippians 4:6-13) It is only so that there is the certainty of the answer, at least, of what we ask being done. I've chosen you." John 8:31-32; John 15:10). If it were not possible, why would Jesus even bring up then the prospect? 9) It is all a question of the Father's government and the disciples' responsibility; not of a people having to do with a governor nationally, as Jehovah was to Israel, but of Christ's disciples in relation with the Father, according to the revelation of Himself in Christ. For thus says the Lord:Behold, one will fly swiftly like an eagleAnd spread out his wings against Moab. What is His commandment? To take the simplest example, the holiday-maker might be praying for sunshine while the farmer is praying for rain. (ii) They were said to be cannibals. It is presumption for a man in this life to count himself a child of God! Fill out the requested information. The vine is a spreading plant, and Christ will be known as salvation to the ends of the earth. It is dangerous to practise a higher standard than the standard of the world. As I have kept my Father's commandments, so I abide in his love.". When in reality, Jesus said, "You haven't chosen me, I have chosen you." Now, it is interesting that in so much of our evangelism, we are emphasizing that a person choose Jesus Christ. "That your Father may," not shall, "your Father may give it to you." If these things are in Scripture, (and deny them who dares?) See under John 14:20. Verse John 15:4. I. I am at total disagreement with those persons who say that you've got to give detailed instructions for God or He doesn't know how to answer your prayer.One minister has written in a book that he was praying for God to give him a bicycle. Now, with that as a background, the vineyard, the nation Israel having failed. [1.] Jesus here speaks of His joy, but it is interesting that He speaks of His joy just before He's coming to the cross. The consequence is, that wherever there is this ignorance of the Father and the Son, there is inveterate hostility against such as are joyful in the communion of the Father and the Son. It was an enemy of the Father and of them, but an enemy overcome of Him. Who could say, "It is finished," except Jesus in John? Piety then, manifested in good works, in love, and self-denial, is as natural, as easy, as unconstrained. 'We are in "that day" now. There are three elements in Christian witness. I also heard the sound of their wings like the sound of abundant waters as they went, like the voice of the Almighty, a sound of tumult like the sound of an army camp; whenever they stood still, they dropped their wings. Now, I have here a reference to another verse that Paul declared in Philippians 4:13 ,"For I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Yet these you may eat among all the winged insects which walk on all fours: those which have above their feet jointed legs with which to jump on the earth. "When he is come, he will convince the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: of sin, [not when they begin to believe in me, but] because they believe not in me." And so, now God is giving to you that privilege, the church, that it might become now God's vineyard and bring forth fruit unto Him. Matthew 24:31 And he shall Joseph charges himself with the body too; and Nicodemus, who came first by night is here by day, honoured by association with Jesus crucified, of whom he had been ashamed once, spite of the miracles He was doing. And certainly, Dwight Moody was one of the greatest evangelists that God has brought along in the American history. God has chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, bringing Him forth this fruit that He desires. Their faith was not based upon an emotional appeal or an emotional moment, but was based upon facts of God's Word, and the faith was established in the fact of God's Word. THE VINE AND THE BRANCHES ( John 15:1-10 continued). If it is, Jesus meant that the disciples and He should commit themselves to abiding in one another. You say, "Well, then it would be better if I had never heard." I am grafted into the vine; I become a part of it, I begin to take nourishment from Him. You cannot bring forth any worthwhile fruit unto God apart from that indwelling power of Jesus Christ. It was not we who chose God, but God who, in his grace, approached us with a call and an offer made out of his love.