Abide in Him

I'd like you to turn just to one passage in the book of John, John chapter 15, John chapter 15. This is a passage that has been coming before me recently and I want to share it with you. In fact, this passage a number of years ago at a time in my life that was a little bit difficult was a strong encouragement to me about abiding in Christ.

I would like to share with you what I learned a few years ago from this passage and actually largely what I learned came to me through a biography of Hudson Taylor, the missionary of the last two centuries ago I guess now it is, to China. And this passage deeply impacted his life and I would like to share with you how what he learned impacted me. But let's read it first.

John 15 and verse 1. I am the true vine, the Lord Jesus said, and my father is the husbandman. Now just to set the context, the Lord Jesus, this teaching is part of the upper room ministry of Christ. The Lord Jesus has washed their feet and he has taught them about how the Holy Spirit is going to come and give them strength and teaching as they live in this world without the physical presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

They've been in the upper room listening to the teaching of Christ and that teaching has a wealth for us because of course we don't have the physical presence of the Lord, but all of those things that the Lord Jesus taught his disciples have come down to us and how we live in 2011 for the Lord. And so he's taught them in this conclusion of the upper room, but now he's left the upper room. He's walking along the way and maybe he's passing by some vineyards and he starts to use this parable and he says, in what we have read here, I am the true vine, my father is the husband.

He's teaching us that as we live in this world we might be tempted at times to be like monks and to go secluded off on our own to meditate with Christ, but that's not God's plan for his people and how we're to live. Of course we have our times of seclusion with the Lord, like it was in the upper room as they relaxed with him there and listened to his teaching, but now they're walking. They're walking along the pathway, showing us that communing with Christ is also intended to be done in the daily hustle of life.

Through its difficulties, through its trials, we walk with the Lord Jesus along the way. We abide in Christ. Let's take a look what he says further about these vines.

He says, verse 2, every branch in me that beareth not fruit he takes away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Here's the key.

Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. So the Lord Jesus says he's the vine.

His father is the one who takes care of the vine, and we have been grafted in. We have been brought into the vine so that the life of the vine, the life of the Lord Jesus, is flowing out into us, the branches, as we abide in Christ. Look what he says in verse 5. I am the vine, you are the branches.

He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit. For without me you can do nothing. We all want to live fruitful lives for the Lord Jesus Christ, but how will we do it? How will we have the strength? Have you ever met a Christian who is busily serving the Lord? I've sometimes been to an assembly and listened to the announcements, and an active assembly with outreach works here and there, and all the saints involved in various ministries, and you say, how? How do they get the strength to do this? What I want to show you from this passage that there is only one adequate source of strength, and it is abiding in Christ.

That's how we bear fruit, this verse says. So if I may put it this way, to meditate frequently and deeply and biblically on the Lord Jesus Christ is the only way to ensure an adequate supply of strength. Catch that again.

We were hearing about this last night, and so it's for this reason that I want to begin this conference with this same tone. Brother Smith reminded us of the food that we should eat, the Lord Jesus Christ, and I believe that that's what this passage teaches us. That only by meditating on the Lord Jesus Christ, some people will say in the busyness of life, if we're tired we need to take a break.

Sometimes that's true, the Lord Jesus did say, come apart and rest a while, but the bulk of the biblical teaching on how we get strength to serve the Lord amidst our trials and our busyness is found in this passage. To meditate frequently, not just once in a while. To meditate deeply, not just on the surface, but to go deep into the food of the Word of God and to think of the Lord Jesus and to meditate biblically on the Lord Jesus Christ will give us our strength.

That's what he says here, then we'll bear fruit for without me you can do nothing. Verse six, 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. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you.

Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciples. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.

So we abide in him, we abide in his love, and then notice something else about fruit-bearing. He begins to speak about our love for one another, perhaps we'll take that up in another session, but go down to verse 16, this verse on fruit-bearing. The Lord says you have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit and that your fruit should remain.

So I want you to think about the Lord Jesus as the vine and abiding in Christ. Now this theme in Scripture has a very long and a rich history. See in the Old Testament, Israel was often viewed as God's vine.

When God brought Israel to their nation, their new country, he told them that he would be giving them a land of vineyards. But actually that wasn't the most important thing. As he planted that nation in a land of vineyards, they became the vine.

The vine from which God was going to receive fruit. And so all through the Scriptures, Psalm 80, the Lord speaks about he brought his vine out of Egypt. Isaiah 5, the Lord says my beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.

And he talks about how he protected it with a wall. And it talks about how he put choice vines in it and there was a wine fat in it. And he prepared that vineyard so that it could produce grapes.

But he laments and he says to the people of that day, there was only wild grapes. As it says in Jeremiah 2, the vine that was supposed to produce fruit for the glory of God became degenerate and a wild vine. And so in Ezekiel 19, the imagery is continued and the Lord says I'm going to pluck up my vine.

I'm going to cast it down to the ground. And again in Hosea 10 and verse 1, God laments and he says my people Israel, they're a luxuriant vine, only interested in themselves and bringing no fruit to God, only fruit to idols. So all through the Old Testament, we have this image that Israel was the vine but they didn't produce the fruit that God wanted.

So what was God gonna do? Well I've already told you Ezekiel said he's gonna pluck up the vine and you might say well he's gonna pluck up the vine and plant a new vine. And that's partially true but not completely. Because what we learn here in John chapter 15 when the Lord Jesus says, I am the true vine, is not just that he plucked up the vine of Israel and planted a new vine, us.

No, God himself became the vine. And we're not the vine, he's the vine. And God planted that vine, the Lord Jesus, in this world.

And he grafted us into himself. And by doing that, fruitfulness is guaranteed. Because the Lord Jesus as the true vine has no possibility of not being able to produce fruit.

And as we abide in him, we will produce fruit as well. You know it's very interesting to trace through the scriptures the fruitfulness of Christ. I'll give you a little meditation of this.

Our brother was talking about food, about the Lord Jesus. I can't talk to you about abiding in Christ and tell us how to do this. The best way is just to show you what it means to look at the Lord Jesus.

There's so many passages that speak about the fruitfulness of Christ. Think of Psalm 1 and there we think of the fruitfulness of his life. He's like the tree planted by streams of waters.

Leaf will not wither. Whatsoever he does prospers. The fruitfulness of his life.

How did that fruitfulness come? Verse 1 says he didn't walk in the way of the ungodly. Verse 2 says he meditated in the law of God. And so verse 3 flows naturally.

The fruitfulness of Christ's life never withering. And God the Father looked down and he saw his son the fruitful vine. The second reference to the fruitfulness of the Lord Jesus is not the fruitfulness of his life but the fruitfulness of his death.

Remember what he said in John 12? The corn of wheat that would fall into the ground and would die and it would bring forth much fruit. And the Lord Jesus, the Almighty God, became that little corn of wheat so simple, so small in a body and he's planted and he dies. But from that comes a rich harvest.

The fruitfulness not now of his life but of his death. And then you come to Isaiah chapter 11 and verse 1 and we have the fruitfulness of his future kingdom where we read these words that there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the future kingdom is described where he'll bring righteousness and goodness to his people.

And we have the fruitfulness of his future kingdom. Past and future. But you know you can also trace the Lord Jesus, these examples of the Lord Jesus from the realm of biology and botany, they go further because you can trace the growth of Christ, can't you? We think of him as the vine but go back to the beginning and Isaiah 53 tells us that he's the tender plant.

And it takes us to those years in this world where he was planted in a barren earth, the root out of a dry ground, and the reason why he grew up before his father had nothing to do with his environment, it was a barren dry ground, but he was the root. He was the tender plant, the meekness and the gentleness of Christ. But he goes beyond being the tender plant and as I have read already in Isaiah 11 he becomes the branch.

The branch that grows up out of the roots of Jesse and David. And so the kingdom is growing, not now a tender plant but a branch. And we've already noticed that he has the wisdom to judge his people and the poor.

God is always interested in the poor and in Isaiah 11 he's able to bring justice to the downtrodden and to the poor. But not only is he a branch, we've already read it in Psalm 1, he becomes the tree. He's growing up further.

The tender plant has become the branch and now he's the tree and you can take it further in Ezekiel chapter 34 we read these words, I will provide for them renowned plantations or a plant of renown. And the tender plant has become the branch, has become the tree and now he's the plant of renown, universally acknowledged, the branch. When you think of him as the branch, he's many times in Scripture mentioned the branch.

I'll just leave this with you. I'm not going to develop these things. I'm giving these scriptures with you so that you can take them and and research them yourself and abide in Christ by meditating on him and you will grow strong for your service in the Lord.

But you know we read in Isaiah, in Isaiah chapter, sorry in Jeremiah chapter 23 we read these words, behold the days are coming declares the Lord that I will raise up for David a righteous branch and he will reign as king. And we have the branch that is the king. Then in Zechariah chapter 3 in verse 8 we have these words, behold my servant the branch.

And so the branch is not just the king that will reign, he's the servant that followed his heavenly father in every step. And then in Zechariah chapter 6 in verse 12 we read these words, behold the man whose name is the branch. We have the man, the mighty God who became man and walked before his heavenly father.

And then in Isaiah chapter 4 in verse 2 we have these words, in that day the branch of Jehovah shall be beautiful and glorious. And so we have the branch the king, the branch the servant, the branch the man, and the branch Jehovah the Lord the Son of God. And of course you know where that relates, it's the Lord Jesus in all of his titles and his offices as presented in Matthew and Mark and Luke and John as the king and the servant and the man and the branch.

I present these things to you to remind us that our Lord Jesus is the fruitful branch. When the Lord Jesus said I am the true vine, all the imagery that has come into that in the Lord Jesus God has made a great planting and by joining us up to him and allowing us to abide in Christ, God has guaranteed that we can have fruitful lives. So what is a fruitful life? We all want to bear fruit for God.

What is it? A lot of people think well bearing fruit for God is seeing people saved. And that may be a small part of it but bearing fruit for God is is much larger than that. You see when you think of a vine producing grapes or any plant producing fruit, it produces whatever it was designed to produce.

Apples, apple trees produce apples. Vines produce grapes. And you know when God planted us in Christ and put his Spirit within us, he wants to just produce likeness to himself.

That's what it is. We have the Lord Jesus. We have the Spirit within and fruitfulness is just being like him.

And so the fruit of the Spirit is called love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, meekness, faith, self-control. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. That's him.

The fruit of the Spirit is Jesus and so he wants to produce Christ in us. And sometimes that means that we share Christ with others and Christ is produced in others. But whatever the vine wants to produce that is fruitfulness and God desires it for my life and for yours.

He speaks in this passage here about unfruitful branches and about fruitful branches. Now I know there has been debate about this. I don't have time in my brief time here to go into this but my understanding of this passage is that the unfruitful branches, some people will say the unfruitful branches are our genuine Christians that are just not bearing fruit.

And so they'll translate this not that the Lord Jesus takes them away but that he lifts them up. I don't believe that that's the right understanding of this, although some people view it that way, because he talks about the unfruitful branches taken away, verse 2, then the fruitful branches being purged. And then from verses 3 down to verse 5 he describes the fruitful branches and and how it is that we are purged and cleansed by abiding in Christ and him taking care of us.

Then starting in verse 6 he talks about the unfruitful branches and the result of them is not that they're lifted so that they can become fruitful but that they are taken away. Because you see, brothers and sisters, every believer bears fruit. Every believer.

God has seen to it that when he put you into Christ he has determined that you will bear fruit. It is the unbelievers that have no fruit to God and God will take them away. Now somebody will say, why does he say then every branch in me? Now it doesn't matter how you interpret this passage, there are complicating factors.

So I'm only going to present you my side. If you want to research the other side you you do that. There's different thoughts on this.

I don't have time to go into it. But I take it that the Lord Jesus is taking a person on the ground of their profession. They say that they belong to Christ but they don't genuinely.

There are branch in me but there is no fruit and so they are going to be taken away. And ultimately, like the Lord Jesus often taught in his parables, the true and the false will be separated and it will eventually become clear. But for our purposes today we are believers in Christ.

We are the fruitful branches and we have a faithful vine dresser. And I like what David Gooding says about this passage. He says, you know, our faithful vine dresser, he is easily pleased.

One grape is enough. Remember what it says in the book of Hebrews, God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love. And as we are graft into Christ, he produces fruit and every single act of obedience, every single time I behave like the Lord Jesus, God looks down with joy and he says there's some fruit.

But although he is easily pleased, he is not easily satisfied. And that's why he's always pruning us and encouraging and exhorting us to abide in him so that we can bear more fruit. He's not easily satisfied, he wants more.

So how then do we abide in Christ? I would suggest to you that this is not just a positional thing, it's not an automatic thing that every Christian automatically abides in Christ. The reason I say that is that it's a commandment. The Lord Jesus says abide in me.

This is this is something that requires a response on our part. We have been joined to Christ but we need to meditate deeply and frequently and biblically to abide in him. It is not automatic but it is equally not optional.

This is something that every Christian, God has determined in some degree they will abide in Christ and then he produces the fruit. It's the example of the vine. The vine is fruitful because the vine is the Lord Jesus.

And as we abide in him, as we meditate on his fullness, fruit will be produced. What this tells us is that we can't do it on ourselves, on our own. We do it by abiding in him.

We cannot live, we cannot think, we cannot act independently of our Lord. As it says in verse 5, without me you can do nothing. Nothing.

This helps me understand why the works, the good works of unbelievers are not acceptable to God. Because the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God. And so an unbeliever does their good works but not out of a relationship of faith to God and so it cannot please him.

As it says in Romans 14, whatsoever is not of faith is sin. But not only does that apply to non-believers, it applies to me. Because there's times as a Christian that I can try and do things for God but I do it on my own.

Not out of dependence or faith upon him. And the Bible says that it is sin. It's not pleasing to the Lord.

You see, it's when I abide in Christ. When I am not acting or living or thinking independently. I don't live my own life, I allow his life to live through me.

I don't act on my own, I come to him for grace and strength. I don't think my own thoughts. Sometimes we say that, you know, I have my own thought on this.

But we're not allowed to have our own thought. We're told in Corinthians to bring all things into the captive obedience, all thoughts into the captive obedience of Christ. We're not allowed to think our own thoughts.

As Christians, we cannot think independently or live independently or act independently. Not that we're passive but our part is just to realize and acquiesce and to go along with the vine dresser is doing. Not to strive, to try, to fret, but just to allow the fruitful life of the vine to flow through into our barren branches.

Hudson Taylor, at a particular time in his life, I would encourage you to read his biography, Growth of a Work and Growth of a Soul. He talks about this at a particular time in his ministry when there were many threats from without, from the Chinese people attacking, and even within the missions. The missionaries were were fighting at Yangzhou and Qingjiang.

And Hudson Taylor was burdened. He was trying to follow God and he was working at it so hard and he was he was burdened down. Have you ever been there? I was there seven or eight years ago and it was that teaching of this passage and his life, Hudson Taylor, that brought this to me.

And he read a letter from Mr. McCarthy about a book called Christ is All and here is what was written. I'm gonna read to you from this. Very, very powerful.

He said regarding the way of holiness that this striving and effort and longing and hoping for better days to come is not the true way of happiness and holiness or usefulness. Better, no doubt, far better than our poor attainments, but not the best way after all. And then he said the Lord Jesus received, His holiness begun.

He said the Lord Jesus cherished, His holiness advancing. But he said the Lord Jesus counted upon as never absent would be holiness complete. He said a channel is now formed by which Christ's fullness and plenteousness flows down.

A barren branch becomes part of the whole fruitful stem. He said abiding, not striving or struggling, looking off unto Him, trusting Him for present power, trusting Him to subdue all inward corruption, resting in the love of an Almighty Savior and in the conscious joy of a complete salvation. Hudson Taylor wrote, I feel as though the first dawning of a glorious day has risen upon me.

How then can my faith increase? Only by thinking of all that Jesus is and of all that He is for us. His life, His death, His work, He Himself has revealed to us in His Word to be the subject of our constant thoughts. Not a striving to have faith, but a looking off to the faithful one seems all we need.

And a few days later, Hudson Taylor wrote, as I read those words, I saw it all and I looked to Jesus and oh how the joy flowed. A few days later, he wrote these words to another missionary. He said, I am so happy now.

Here I feel is the secret. Not asking how I am to get out of the vine, sap into myself, but to remember that Jesus is the vine, the root, the stem, the soil, the branches, the twigs, the leaves, the flowers, the fruit, all indeed. He is the soil, the sunshine, the air, and the rain, more than we can ask, think, or desire.

Then he said these words, let us not then try to get anything out of Him, but rejoice in being ourselves in Him, one with Him and consequently one with all His fullness. To meditate frequently, deeply, and biblically on the Lord Jesus, to realize all that He is. That is how we abide in Christ and get our strength.

When I first went into the Lord's work, 10, 11 years ago, a brother, Mr. Paisley, wrote me a letter saying this very thing I regret, that I didn't heed it right at the beginning. This is what he said. He said, always guide your hearers to the one glorious person, exalting His grace from eternity to eternity.

The path of His feet, the grace of His lips, the touch of His hand, the wonder of His heart of love, the dignity of His personality, the obedience of His supreme sacrifice, the silence of His suffering and the glory of His exaltation. Brothers and sisters, it is all about the Lord Jesus. We meditate on Him.

There's so many other things we can think of, but they will never give us strength. To abide in Him is all we need. This passage shows us God is all.

He's the vine that brings our nourishment. He's the vine dresser that enhances our fruitfulness. He's the lover, He loved us, who wants it all to happen.

And He is the one who chose us, as we read down in verse 16, to be one with the vine. We don't need to fret and to stress and to work, although we often do. We need to abide in Christ and to let His life flow through us, to relax in Him and to let His strength fill us.

The fruit may not be what we had expected, but it will be beautiful and good, because it will be what He wants. Hudson Taylor traced in his life two results, and I leave these with you, in relation to the busyness of life and in relation to the trials of life. His work was busy.

Some would say he needed a break. He discovered that God's answer was to abide in Christ. And he said to Mr. Judd one day, he said, God has made me a new man.

I have not got to make myself a branch. The Lord Jesus tells me I am a branch. I am part of Him.

I just need to believe it and act upon it. And Mr. Judd said, before he had been a toiling servant, now he was a joyous one, resting in Jesus now, letting him do the work which makes all the difference. He got up earlier to spend time in the Word of God, meditating in prayer, and his soul was fed and the living streams flowed out.

But then came a time of trial, a difficult time. I don't know how you handle trials. Maybe there are believers with trials here today.

I know for myself, I think our frustration in trials is often based on a difference between our expectations and what God is allowing in our lives. We think it should be different, and maybe ultimately it will be, or maybe it won't. Maybe God is going to change us to accept and rejoice in the trial.

But for now, He's leading us through these shadows, this valley. Here's what Hudson Taylor said. There was an uprising, he said, what shall I say? Father, glorify thy name.

Though the flesh is weak and trembles, Jesus is our strength. And what we cannot do or bear, He can both do and bear in us. We are not our own.

And to his mother, he said, things are not as I would wish, but if God wills and orders them so, I may well be content. Mine is to obey. His is to direct.

And there I am fully satisfied. Brothers and sisters, Hudson Taylor discovered it. In a little way, the Lord allowed me to discover it, and I think there are probably dozens of believers here, and you have discovered it as well.

I leave it with you as an encouragement. Abide in Christ. Meditate frequently, deeply, and biblically on the Lord Jesus, the fruitful vine, and you will have the fruit that He desires.

Don't fret. Just let His strength and His life flow through you. There's so many scriptures that show us this.

Mary at the feet of Jesus, communing. Psalm 125 and 5, they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, never moved. Psalm 16 and 8, I have set the Lord always before me, I shall not be moved.

When the Lord is there, we are steadied. Psalm 62 and 2, He only is my rock and my salvation. He is my defense.

Let us muse upon the Lord Jesus, and as J. I. Packer says, turn our musings and meditations into prayers of worship and adoration, and we will find that the strength of the fruitful vine will flow through to us as we abide in Him.