So you're there in John chapter 15, John chapter 15,
and let's read verse number four.
Christ says these words abide in me and I in you,
the title for the sermon tonight is abide in Christ,
abide in Christ.
And so the Lord wants us to be close to him.
He wants us to be in fellowship with him.
And by doing so, he will abide with us as well.
Now, what does it mean to abide in Christ?
A lot of people have taken this chapter
and these verses to teach about salvation,
that either you have to do the works to be saved,
or if you don't do the works well enough,
then you can lose your salvation.
They have the idea that if you don't continue
to abide in Christ, therefore you've lost your salvation,
something along those lines.
Now, let me just, what we'll do,
we'll look at verse number 10.
We'll start with verse number 10,
because I want it to be very clear for you
what does it mean to abide in Christ.
Look at verse number 10.
Christ says these words.
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.
So how does Christ abide with the Father?
By keeping the commandments of the Father.
How do we abide with Christ?
By keeping the commandments that Christ has given us.
Okay, so abiding with Christ
is all about keeping the commandments.
In fact, I've got six points for you tonight, I believe.
Yeah, six points for us.
And point number one, brethren,
is abiding Christ by keeping his commandments.
Abide in Christ by keeping his commandments.
Now, that should immediately tell you, as a church,
that knows the gospel well,
that John 15 is not a means of salvation,
because no man is saved by keeping the commandments.
No man is able to keep the commandments.
So it's very clear this is not about salvation.
To abide with Christ is all about
being in fellowship with Christ.
You know, we can break our fellowship
when we break his commandments.
What is sin?
Sin is a transgression of the law.
When you sin against the Lord,
you are now in darkness,
and God who is light that has no darkness in him at all
cannot be in fellowship with you and I,
which is why we need to go to the Lord and confess our sins
and to be brought back in fellowship with our Lord God.
So abiding with Christ, brethren,
is keeping his commandments.
If you want to maintain a fellowship,
a close walk with Jesus Christ and Christ with you,
you must do his commandments.
You must do what is asked of you
in accordance to his word.
So I want to start there with verse number 10, very clear.
So you don't get confused.
It's clear that abiding with Christ,
abiding in his love, is keeping the commandments.
Now let's go back to verse number one.
John 15, verse number one.
Christ says these words,
I am the true vine, and my father is the husband's man.
So Christ is going to give a parable now
of what he means to abide with Christ.
He says he's the vine, the father is the husband,
and all the garden, if you want to put it that way.
Verse number two, every branch in me
that beareth not fruit, he taketh away.
And every branch that beareth fruit,
he purgeeth it, that he may bring forth more fruit.
So in this parable, you and I are the branches,
and Christ is the vine.
And the Lord is looking to purge us as these branches
in order to bring forth fruit.
But you notice, if you don't bring forth fruit,
he taketh away that branch.
And that's where people get confused.
Oh man, if you don't keep the commandments,
then you can lose your salvation.
This is not about losing your salvation.
Salvation is eternal life.
Salvation is everlasting life.
If you could lose salvation,
then he was never everlasting to begin with.
But I want to prove to you in the next verse,
so this has nothing to do with salvation.
Because in verse number three it says,
now ye are clean through the word
which I have spoken unto you.
He's speaking to his disciples.
Don't forget, the timing of these teachings
is shortly before he's arrested and taken
and crucified on the cross.
This is him.
He's just finished the Last Supper.
We're still in that intermediate period
before he gets arrested.
And he says to his disciples,
now ye are clean.
And I've taught on this before,
this idea of now ye are clean.
Where does that come from?
Well, if you keep your finger there
and just come back two chapters,
John chapter 13 in verse number 10,
this is the story when Christ came to wash
his disciples' feet.
Remember that story?
He came to wash his disciples' feet
and Peter says, no, Lord,
you know you're not gonna wash my feet.
Well, it says in John 13 verse 10,
Jesus saith unto him,
he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet
and is clean every week.
Look at this.
And ye are clean, but not all.
For he knew who should betray him.
Therefore said he, ye are not all clean.
So Christ says to his disciples,
ye are clean, but not all.
And the one that's not clean
is the one that would betray him, Judas Iscariot.
So what is it saying about 11 of his apostles?
That they're all clean, they're all saved,
they just need to wash their feet.
And as I used last time when we went through chapter 13,
it's an illustration of the need to maintain fellowship
in our walk with the Lord, the need to maintain clean feet,
to stay close to the Lord.
And of course, Christ is now expanding on this teaching.
If we abide with him, we can be fruitful.
But he says we're already clean.
You don't have to become fruitful to be clean.
No, you are already clean.
And now he wants you to bring forth fruits.
Come back with me to John 15.
John 15, verse number four.
Then he says, 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 accept ye abide in me.
Reverend, we cannot be fruitful unless we abide in Christ.
We can do nothing of ourselves for the Lord God
unless we abide in Christ.
And again, speaking of fellowship with Christ,
we need to maintain that fellowship.
We need to maintain a clear conscience, you know,
a good standing in our spiritual walk with Jesus Christ
in order to be fruitful.
Then he says in verse number five, I am the vine.
Ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me and I in him,
the same bring forth much fruit,
and without me ye can do nothing.
So, brethren, I've got point number two for you.
Point number two.
Point number one was abide in Christ
by keeping his commandments.
Point number two is abide in Christ to be fruitful.
In order for you to be a fruitful Christian,
you must abide in Christ.
Now, as we keep going through this chapter,
I'm going to explain to you what it means to be fruitful,
though many of you I'm sure already know.
But some people teach the fruitfulness
are you keeping the commandments.
You know, if you're keeping the commandments,
you're keeping the laws of God,
you're living a holy life, you're being fruitful.
Now, I do believe you can take the application if you want.
You can apply that in a, yes, I believe you can apply that,
but that would be a secondary understanding.
Okay, what does it mean to be fruitful?
Well, it cannot be keeping the commandments,
at least as a primary application.
It cannot be, because, let's read it again.
He says in verse number five,
I am the vine, ye are the branches.
He that abideth in me, and I in him,
so you gotta abide in him first, okay?
And then he says, whoops,
the same bring forth much fruits,
and without me ye can do nothing.
So the fruit cannot be keeping the commandments
because you've already kept the commandments
as you abide in Christ.
As you keep his commandments and do his will,
now you are able to bring forth fruits.
So you see, keeping the commandments
and bringing forth fruits are separate ideas, okay?
And I will look at that in a moment,
but point number two, brethren,
is abiding Christ to be fruitful.
Then he says in verse number 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.
And this is where people get the idea,
so you can lose your salvation.
You know, you're gonna be gathered
if you don't abide in Christ,
you're gonna be thrown into the fire,
they'll say that's hell fire, and you lost your salvation,
and you're damned for all eternity.
Again, Christ already told him you're all clean, okay?
So we need to understand now, is this a serious concern?
Of course it is, but it's a parable, okay?
Any person, any gardener that's trying to bring forth
much fruits or create a beautiful garden,
look, if they've got branches on a tree
that's bringing forth no fruits,
you know, they've tried to improve it,
they've tried to fix it,
but it just continues to bring nothing,
you know, no beautiful flowers, no beautiful fruits,
then any gardener's gonna cut down that branch
and toss it away, okay?
And when you've got a whole bunch of branches
that you end up lighting a fire,
because it's useless, it's not profitable to you.
Why do you want branches
that are utilizing the fertility of the soil,
hey, the Lord would rather want branches
that aren't being fruitful.
The challenge for you tonight, brethren,
is you need to be fruitful.
Are you fruitful for the Lord Jesus Christ?
So the parable is a casting of the fire.
But yes, this is speaking about Christians.
You know, Christians can get to a point in their life
where they are so unfruitful
that you're just better off being cast away.
And I'm not talking about losing your salvation.
I'm just saying that you've lost your effectiveness
to be fruitful for Jesus.
If you can, please, keep your finger there
and come with me to Romans chapter three.
Keep your finger there
and come with me to Romans chapter three.
And again, just to address the stupid teaching
that this is saying you can lose your salvation
if you don't keep the commandments.
Well, the Bible says in Galatians 3.11,
but that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God.
It is evident for the just shall live by faith.
It is evidence.
Evident means evidence.
It's so obvious that nobody can be justified
by keeping the law.
And yet people who turn to John 15 and say,
you've got to keep it or you lose your salvation.
You don't get saved or something like that.
No, it's evident the just shall live by faith.
You're there in Romans three.
Look at Romans three, verse 20.
Therefore, by the deeds of the law,
there shall no flesh be justified in his sights.
For by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Brethren, no person, no flesh is justified
by the deeds of the law.
Keeping the commandments does not save anybody.
But look, it's not that the law is useless
because it says there,
for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
When you understand the laws of God, you understand,
boy, I'm a sinner and I need a savior.
Or as a Christian, wow,
I know how to live a life that pleases the Lord.
Drop down to verse number 28.
It says, therefore we conclude
that a man is justified by faith.
Look at this, without the deeds of the law.
Without the deeds of the law is what the Bible says.
No law, no commandments can cause any man,
any flesh to be saved.
I mean, we can just go on and on.
There are so many passages.
I'll just read one more to you.
Hebrews 7, 18.
For there is verily a disannowing of the commandments
going before the weakness and unprofitableness thereof.
Why are we saying, look,
there's a disannowment of the commandments.
It says for the law, in verse number 19,
for the law made nothing perfect.
Nobody was made perfect by the law.
For the law made nothing perfect,
but the bringing in of a better hope did,
by the way, that's Jesus,
by the witch we draw nigh unto God.
How do we draw nigh unto God?
By Jesus, not by the laws,
not by keeping the commandments.
Keeping the commandments gets nobody saved.
And you all know that already, okay?
You all know that already.
That's just milk of God's word.
But isn't it strange how so many churches
and so many so-called Christians believe John 15
is teaching that you can lose your salvation
or that you've got to keep the commandments to be saved.
Don't be deceived.
And I look at the church tonight
and I know nobody here will be deceived.
But it's still a warning, you know?
And make sure, you know, we understand John 15.
We want to be in fellowship with the Lord.
We teach to keep the commandments.
I'm teaching you right now, keep the commandments
so you abide with Christ.
So you stay close to Him in fellowship.
Can you come with me?
You can say that in John 13, or 15, sorry, John 15.
But come with me, where can I get you to turn?
Turn with me to Luke 14.
Come with me to Luke 14.
Luke 14.
Luke 14, verse 33, please.
Luke 14, verse 33.
So this is a scary thought
that if we as Christians are unfruitful,
that we can be cast away.
And again, I'm not saying you can lose your salvation.
I'm not saying that at all, okay?
But you can get to a point where you're so unfruitful,
where God has worked in you, God has labored, okay?
And you just say, no, Lord, I just refuse to be fruitful.
I refuse to do anything for you, Lord.
I refuse to keep your commandments.
And I just want to live my own life and find,
you can do that.
You can do that and you'll still die and go to heaven.
Okay, but you get to a point where you're just bringing
forth no fruits.
And the same teaching gets taught here in Luke 14,
verse 33, just in a different way.
In fact, actually, before we read it,
let me read to you from John five to give you the context.
So it's the same teaching.
John 5, 13 says, ye, Christ has been to his disciples,
ye are the salt of the earth.
But if the salt have lost his savor,
wherewith shall it be salted?
Reverend, you are the salt of the earth.
Christ is asking the question,
what if you lose your saltiness?
How are you going to regain that flavor?
See, once salt has lost its saltiness, it's lost it.
It continues, it is henceforth good for nothing,
but to be cast out, the same language used for the branches
that are unfruitful, but to be cast out
and to be trodden under foot of men.
Can we get to the point as Christians,
where we're just so unprofitable,
you just might as well just be being stepped upon by man.
And by the way, that's gonna happen.
If you become so unfruitful, so unsalty for the Lord,
that, you know what, the Lord will just allow you
to be trodden by the power of man.
And instead of the Lord upholding you,
giving you a victorious life,
empowering you to be a great Christian,
yeah, you're just gonna be caught up in the world.
Okay, you're gonna face consequences
that the Lord never intended in your life.
Luke 14, 33, just so you see the same teaching there.
So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh
not all that he have, he cannot be my disciple.
Now I wanna stop there.
I wanted to give you the context of that
because Christ is teaching here what?
How to be a disciple.
Is he teaching how to be saved?
No, he's teaching how to be a disciple.
And of course, for the apostles in this time,
they did literally forsake all, okay, to follow Christ,
at least for those three years
that Christ was walking the earth.
But look what he says in verse number 34.
Salt is good, but if the salt have lost his savour,
wherewith shall it be seasoned?
It is neither fit for the land, nor yet for the dunghill,
but men cast it out, here they have ears,
to hear, let him hear.
Church, you, here they have ears, okay, to hear, let him hear.
The Lord wants you to hear this.
Loud and clear, that you can lose your saltiness.
You can lose your savour,
or as a branch going back to John 15,
you can be unprofitable, bringing forth no fruits,
that all you're worthy for on this earth, brethren,
is to be just cast out and trodden under the foot of man,
or cast out and burnt in the fire.
Okay, nothing to do with hell fire there.
And we know that as Christians,
I'm sure we've all experienced it.
I'm sure we've all had a time in our life,
maybe several times in our life,
that we've backslidden.
That's the language, right, we use, backslidden.
In fact, every time you sin, you backslide, right?
Because you're walking with the Lord,
and then you sin against the Lord,
and you've, man, back in that place once again.
I've gone backwards once again.
We've all backslidden, and that's part of life.
You can't avoid it because of this flesh, unfortunately.
We can reduce how much we backslide, 100%,
by abiding in Christ, but we all backslide.
But you can get to a point where you backslide so much,
there's no way of getting back.
There's no way for you to reestablish yourself
in fellowship and fruitfulness to the Lord God.
Again, nothing to do with losing your salvation.
I'm not gonna say that anymore, okay?
We're talking about our fellowship with him,
and Christ using us to be fruitful.
In fact, I'm gonna read to you very quickly
from the book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah chapter eight, verse number four.
I want you to notice these words.
The Lord God is speaking about his people,
the southern kingdom of Judah,
before they were taken into captivity by the Babylonians.
He says in Jeremiah eight, four.
Moreover, thou shall say unto them,
so God is telling Jeremiah,
this is what we're gonna say to Judah.
Thus saith the Lord, shall they fall and not arise?
And turn away and not return?
God's asking the question,
are you gonna fall and not get back up?
Normally when we mess up, we sin against the Lord,
or we get far, yeah, we fall.
And what we teach in this church,
when you fall, you get back up again.
Seven times, right?
Get back up, get back up, continue serving the Lord.
But he's asking the question to Judah,
have you fallen and you don't arise again?
Have you left and not returned?
Then he says these words in verse number five.
Why then is this people of Jerusalem
slidden back, or backsliding,
slidden back by a perpetual backsliding?
They hold fast deceit and they refuse to return.
Perpetual backsliding.
He says in verse number six,
I hearkened and heard, but they spake not a right.
No man repented him of his wickedness,
saying, what have I done?
Everyone turned to his course
as the horse rushed off into the battle.
He says these people did not repent.
These people just continued on their way of wickedness.
And God says you're perpetual backsliders.
It's not like you've just backslid
and then you got yourself right with God.
Something that is perpetual means it never ends.
You know, I think of it like a,
you know, I think of backsliding as a,
like a slippery slide.
You're not gonna go down a slippery slide
unless you sit on it.
Sometimes you might sit on that slippery slide
and go, it's tempting to go down.
It's tempting to backslide.
And you might backslide,
you might go down the slide and slide yourself down.
Sometimes when I take the kids to parks
and the little ones,
they don't like to just slide down,
they like to climb back up.
And some slides are like that, right?
They're not so steep that you can actually climb back up.
You know, that's a picture of you going far from the Lord
and then, you know,
getting yourself back in fellowship with the Lord.
And you know, that should be the process for us.
You know, if we fall, we get back up again.
If we break fellowship,
we reunite that fellowship with the Lord once again.
But you can get to a point where you back,
perpetual backslide, perpetual backsliding.
This is no longer going down a slide.
This is literally falling off a cliff, okay?
Yeah, you can get back on the slide,
but if you slide so far from the Lord, okay,
you become so unfruitful.
God has tried and tried and tried to work with you
and you just refuse and you just walk in your own ways.
Perpetual backsliding.
You've lost your savior.
You know, you're better off just to be broken off
and cast into the fire, as it were.
And look, again, you're going to die and still go to heaven
because going to heaven is based
on the finished work of Christ.
It's not based on your efforts.
But you're gonna have a difficult life.
You're gonna be trodden by man.
You're not necessarily gonna have God
come into your defense all the time, right?
I mean, if you're refusing to abide with Christ,
then how can you hope for his protection
during difficulties?
The fire represents challenges and difficulties.
Doing that without the Lord.
I mean, I just wonder,
why would even God sustain your life?
You know, he may very well cut your life short
because you're doing nothing for him.
So let this be a warning.
You know, if you've got ears, right?
He that have ears to hear, let him hear.
This is important.
We can't think that you can just continue
going far from the Lord.
You might enter into a period of perpetual backsliding.
Back to John 15, please.
John 15.
So my third point for you, brethren, is
abide in Christ to prevent backsliding.
That's my third point.
Abide in Christ to prevent backsliding.
Verse number seven gives us our fourth point.
Look at these wonderful words.
Christ says, if ye abide in me,
what does it mean to abide in Christ again?
Keeping his commandments, doing what he wants, right?
If ye abide in me and my words abide in you,
isn't that interesting?
As you keep the commandments,
he also wants us to be in his word, reading his word.
How do you know what his commandments are?
How do you know what God wants you to do
unless you're picking up his words and reading it?
And my words abide in you, look at this,
ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you.
You, wow, what a promise.
Brethren, do you need more answered prayers in your life?
How about you abide with Christ?
How about you keep his commandments
and ye shall ask what ye will?
You say, hold on, doesn't God give us what he wills?
Yes, the more you abide with Christ,
the more you know his word,
the more you keep his commandments,
the more aligned your will will be with the will of Christ.
And you go to God in prayer in that manner
with your will aligned with God's will
and you ask, yes, it will be answered.
Yes, it will be given to you
because it's not just your will, it's the Lord's will.
What a promise.
Point number four is abiding Christ
to improve your prayer life.
Do you need more answered prayers?
Do you feel as though God is not listening?
Well, abide with him.
Open his word, spend time with him.
Find 10 minutes, 15 minutes every day in the morning.
The first words out of your mouth in the morning,
thank you, Lord, for this new day you've given me.
Open his word, open a hymn.
If you need some hymnals, take a hymnal.
We've got some extra ones down here.
Okay, take him home, sing some praises to the Lord.
Start your day with him
and it'll improve your prayer life.
Verse number eight, I don't have much more to say on that,
but verse number eight.
Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit.
So shall ye be my disciples.
Once again, discipling, being a disciple
and being saved are two different concepts, okay?
A disciple is someone that is disciplined.
That's where the word comes from.
You're disciplining yourself after Christ.
And we should be in that way,
following up the steps of Christ,
has given us such a wonderful example.
And again, Christ keeps talking about bearing much fruit.
We'll talk about that in a moment,
what that fruit looks like
as we keep going through this chapter.
He says in verse number nine,
as the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you.
Continue ye in my love.
If ye keep my commandments,
this is where we've got verse number 10,
the definition there,
ye shall abide in my love,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love.
Now look at verse number 11, so wonderful.
These things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you
and that your joy might be full.
Reverend, point number five,
abide in Christ for fullness of joy.
Abide in Christ for fullness of joy.
How's your life?
Is it full of joy?
Are you rejoicing?
Were you rejoicing today in Jesus Christ?
Were you rejoicing in the day that he's given you,
in what you've been able to accomplish,
your productivity today?
Have you rejoiced in Jesus Christ?
It's not always easy to rejoice, I know that.
And I'm a human being too,
I know that hardships come and sorrows and hurt.
But you understand that
in order for you to find the joy,
in fact, it's the joy of the Lord,
it says that my joy might remain in you.
You know, I know we don't know,
we're not always joyful,
I know life is not always wonderful in our point of view,
but you see, it's the joy of Jesus.
He gives it to you, it remains in you,
so your joy might be full.
Remember, I know we might rejoice when our,
I've used sporting teams for a while,
but you know, if our sporting team wins,
woo-hoo, yeah, that was fun, that was joyful.
Yeah, but it doesn't abide forever,
because your sporting team's gonna lose next week, okay?
Or they won the championship this year,
they're gonna lose it next year.
You know, that joy,
the joy that the world gives is short-lived,
but the joy that God gives,
the joy that Christ lives, is forever.
And really, that's where we need to find joy in our life,
even if everything else in our life is falling apart.
We find it in Christ.
But how can you find that joy in Christ
if you don't abide with Him?
If you don't spend time with Him?
If you don't keep His commandments?
See, abide in Christ for fullness of joy.
Keep your finger there, and come with me to 1 John.
As I've been sharing with you, we're going through John,
and then we're gonna go through 1 John, 2 John, 3 John,
Revelation, I just want to ground this in your hearts,
because you'll notice that as John writes his other books,
it all builds one on top of another, okay?
And the books can clarify certain things
that he speaks about there.
And in 1 John 1, 1 John 1, verse number 3,
I just want to prove it another way,
that this has nothing to do with how to get saved, okay?
Let's just prove it another way.
1 John 1, verse number 3, it says,
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you,
that ye also may have fellowship with us,
and truly our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son, Jesus Christ.
So what is 1 John about?
It's about fellowshiping with God,
fellowshiping with the Father, fellowshiping with the Son,
fellowshiping with other believers, actually.
But then he says in verse number 4,
and these things write we unto you,
that your joy may be full.
So again, is John 15 about how to get saved?
No, it's about fellowship, okay?
It's about abiding with Christ is being in fellowship,
being a close walk of Jesus Christ.
And brethren, by doing so, your joy will be full,
because you're in fellowship,
not just with the Lord, but with the Father.
Point number 5 was abiding Christ for fullness of joy.
Come back with me to John 15, John 15, verse number 12.
John 15 and verse number 12.
You know, I'm just thinking about, before I keep breathing,
I'm just thinking, you know,
I really want to have a happy life.
I really, I do.
Like, I'd rather just, I really want to enjoy life.
Like, I know there's persecution and tribulation,
and in fact, Christ is going to talk about persecution
in a moment, okay?
But you know what?
Even in the face of persecution, we can have great joy.
In fact, we're commanded to rejoice,
because great is our treasure in heaven,
when we're persecuted for the name of Christ.
And I like to be happy.
I really, and you know, people say,
oh, you're always smiling when you're preaching.
Yeah, because I'm happy.
Is that a crime?
Is that, you know, I enjoy serving the Lord.
I enjoy being in church.
I enjoy teaching God's people the Word.
I love your feedback.
You know, whether you agree with me 100% or not,
it doesn't matter to me.
I enjoy talking to you about the things of the Lord.
You know, I love my family.
I love my wife, my children,
and I see my children getting older in life,
and I feel like I'm missing out.
It was years ago and so quickly,
but life has been full of joy,
the closer I am to the Lord.
And I've just found myself in my experience.
You know, as a pastor, it's a bit different now.
But before I was a pastor, yeah,
there were times when I was far from the Lord,
maybe not picking up my Bible as much as I should,
not soul-willing as much as I should,
not caring about church as much as I should.
And I found my joy just dropping.
Or you start to look for joy in other places.
Friendships, or I mentioned sporting teams,
or some hobby, you know, something.
I've never really looked for joy in the clubbing scene
or the drinking scene or anything like that.
I've never really gone that way.
But just, I've seen other things
that are not necessarily evil or wicked,
but there's some element of joy,
but it's just an earthly joy.
And I just, every time it's just an earthly joy,
it disappears like that.
It's not sustainable.
But the joy of Christ is always sustainable.
You can be happy 24-7,
all the days of your life in Christ Jesus,
but you gotta abide with Him.
You gotta abide with Him.
Sorry, John 15, John 15, verse number 12.
Then he says this, this is my commandments.
So we already saw that to abide with Christ,
we have to keep His commandments.
Now Christ has given us another one here.
This is my commandments,
that you love one another as I have loved you.
Wow.
This is the commandment.
And it's a beautiful commandment, but it's a hard one.
You know, when you look around this church,
I guess it's easier for me with my family.
But when I look around this church,
can I truly say I love you?
Say, look, can I say that I love you?
I do love you, I do.
But can I truly say that I love you
as much as Christ loves me?
That's a hard question.
I don't know.
I mean, it's the commandment.
It's what we're supposed to do.
It's a love that cannot come from man.
It must come from the Lord.
A love that God gives you.
It's like the joy.
You know, that joy that is sustainable
is a joy that comes from Jesus.
In order to love our brothers and sisters in the Lord,
that love must come from Jesus.
This is His commandments.
That you love one another as I have loved you.
Look at verse number 13.
Greater love hath no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends.
Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.
I feel like putting another point that I didn't plan.
Oh, let me point number six right here.
Abide in Christ to be his friend.
That was not in my notes,
but I just saw it there again.
Ye are my friends if ye are my friends.
Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command you.
Do you wanna be a friend to Jesus?
Do you want Jesus to look down and say,
boy, whatever your name is, that is my friend.
That is my friend.
Not just my son, not just my delivered son, you know?
Not just my servant, but my friend.
Well, you gotta keep his commandments.
And the commandment that he just gave
is to love one another as Christ have loved you.
Now, one thing that I have taught this church
over the years is that, you know,
even if you could hypothetically
keep the Old Testament commandments,
even if you could,
it still would not have been enough to save you.
Okay?
Because one thing you learn is when Christ walked this earth,
he lifted the bar even higher.
The commandments were there not as a means to be saved,
the commandments and the law was there as a means
to show you a sinner in need of a savior.
And when it comes to the Old Testament teaching,
it's kind of there,
I've already kind of covered this in a previous chapter,
I don't remember which one.
But in the Old Testament, the teaching was this,
love thy neighbor as thyself.
Love your neighbor, love your brothers
like the way you would like to be loved.
And that's a high standard.
That's a good standard.
You know, if you can achieve that,
you're doing really well, it's a commandment.
But when Christ comes in the New Testament,
he says, well, love one another as I have loved you.
Isn't that a much higher standard?
You know, a standard where Christ
would be willing to give his life for you.
Well, that's the kind of love
that God wants us to have to one another.
So it's a very high standard.
You can see many times in Christ's book,
you know, like, for example,
we see in the Old Testament,
they shall not commit adultery,
and then Christ comes, well,
if you've looked upon a woman with lust in your heart,
you know, you've committed adultery in your heart.
The standard is always, whoa.
I mean, it's good, the Old Testament commandments are good,
don't get me wrong, but again,
hypothetically, if you could keep them really,
the standard of perfection,
the standard of righteousness
is much higher than what we realize.
Look at verse number 15.
And actually, let me give you point number seven,
which was my point number six in my notes.
But abide in Christ by loving one another.
You know what, that makes God happy.
When you and I love each other,
when we love each other,
when we care for each other,
when we serve each other,
when we edify each other,
when we encourage one another.
Brethren, that pleases God.
You think it pleases God when we criticize one another?
When we attack one another?
When we ignore one another?
When we hate one another?
When you go home and you complain about that brother
or that sister or that child?
You think God, you think that pleases God?
Point number seven,
abide in Christ by loving one another.
What a commandment, that's a huge commandment.
And love one another as Christ has loved you.
Can you do it?
I'll be honest with you, very hard for me.
Very hard.
Only by the help of our Lord God is it possible
to love one another as Christ has loved us.
Verse number 15, verse number 15.
Look at this, henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth,
but I have called you friends,
for all things that I have heard of my Father
I have made known unto you.
Christ says, you're my friend.
I mean, we know we're servants,
other passages of the Bible talk about us
as being servants to our Lord God.
Nothing wrong with being a servant,
but a servant doesn't necessarily know
the vision of his master.
The servant just does what the master asks,
but a friend knows exactly the vision.
The friend knows the reasons,
the friend knows the direction,
the friend knows the purpose of everything
there is to know of that friend
that he has.
Christ has come and has revealed everything to us
in his word.
Like the Bible's not this book of just cryptic information
and you just gotta dig, dig in deep
to really figure out what God wants.
No, it's all plainly laid out for us.
With the help of the Holy Ghost,
we can understand truly everything
that God has to teach us.
And by the way, this is why I'm never gonna charge you
to learn at this church.
I'm never going to have the deep doctrines, guys,
Friday nights, $10 each if you wanna come.
You can really know the deep things of God
if you come, $10 each, $10 per head
to come and hear some great teaching.
Or go to some Bible college
and pay thousands of dollars
to get some deeper understanding.
No, no, what does Christ say?
He says there in verse number,
at the end of verse number 15,
from the middle of verse number 15,
but I have called your friends
for all things that I have heard of my Father
have I made known unto you.
But in everything, anything I know of the Bible,
I'm gonna teach it to you.
I'm not holding secrets.
I'm not trying to hide certain things
or this is just something for me to know.
I'm not gonna reveal it to anybody
unless you pay me 10 bucks or 100 bucks per head.
No, a friend will teach
and tell you everything there is to know.
You have any questions about the Bible
or my personal beliefs on certain things, I'll tell you.
And if I don't know, I'll tell you that I don't know.
I don't know everything in the Bible,
but I'll tell you everything that I do know
because that's what a friend does.
Okay, if some pastor's telling you,
hey, you wanna know the deep things of the Bible,
but you gotta pay a thousand dollars
to go to this Bible college course,
that pastor is not your friend
because he's hiding things from you.
Why do you have to pay money to learn the Bible?
God has given it to us freely.
He's given us the liberty to understand his words
through his Holy Spirit.
Be careful about paying money to know the Bible.
You don't have to give a cent to be in this church, honestly.
I mean, I teach on tithing,
but at the end of the day,
I don't keep track of whether you're tithing or not.
You can come here.
You don't wanna put anything down.
It's between you and the Lord, whatever.
Everything I teach is,
and anything any man teaches behind this booklet
is freely available to all.
In fact, we put it on YouTube
and go out on the internet freely to everybody.
That's what a friend does.
I forgot where I'm up to.
Verse number 16.
You have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you.
Ah, Calvinism.
There's the Calvinists.
There it is.
See, you did not choose Christ.
Is this about salvation?
Really determined.
No, it cannot be about salvation
because Christ is teaching us to keep his commandments.
Is this saying that Christ has chosen us to be saved?
No, let's read it again.
You have not chosen me,
but I have chosen you and ordained you.
Ordained us to what?
What has he chosen us for?
That ye should go and bring forth fruits
and that your fruit should remain
and that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name,
he may give it to you.
What have you been chosen for?
Now that you are saved,
now that you are clean,
what have you been chosen for?
What have you been ordained unto?
That you should go and bring forth fruits.
So that's keeping the commandments.
No, if you wanna keep the commandments,
you don't have to go anywhere.
To go means you have to get out somewhere
and bring forth fruits.
You need to leave the comforts of where you are
and walk outside and go somewhere
to bring that fruit forth.
You guys know what I'm talking about.
I'm talking about soul winning.
That's what the fruit is.
Soul winning.
As it says in Mark 16, 15, the words of Jesus,
go ye into all the world
and preach the gospel to every creature.
Go.
Look, there's a lot of things that we can do at church.
We can sing in praises, we can learn the word,
we can serve one another,
and all those things are wonderful.
And we can serve Jesus in our homes.
There's only one thing you can do
that requires you to go,
leave your comfort zone,
leave your church building, leave your home.
That's to win souls.
To preach the gospel to every creature.
Point number two, going back to point number two,
was abiding Christ to be fruitful.
Now you know what it's talking about.
Let's change it a little bit up.
Abiding Christ to win souls.
That's what it means to be fruitful.
Abiding Christ to win souls.
You're not going to win souls
if you're not walking with the Lord.
You're going out in your own strength.
You're going out with your own words.
You're not going to win souls unto Christ.
Let me encourage you before you go soul winning,
and I know we do, we do this a lot,
but just spend a time in prayer.
Say, Lord, please go with us.
Lord, please forgive us for our sins.
Lord, please utilize us.
Lord, please will your Holy Spirit
give us the ability to speak boldly,
the gospel message.
Go before us and touch the hearts of the people
that we're going to talk to.
Please guide our steps to not get caught up
with someone that is rejecting you.
Guide our steps to someone that is ready
and receptive to hear your word.
When we go out and we go and be fruitful,
we need to do it by the power of Jesus Christ.
What I like about verse number 16,
you have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
So we've chosen to be what?
We're chosen to be soul winners.
You're ordained to be soul winners.
All of us, not just a pastor,
not just some deacon or some evangelist,
all of us are ordained to this.
He says, and that your fruits should remain.
Praise God, you get someone saved, guess what?
They're going to remain.
They get everlasting life as well, okay?
Those people that you get saved,
they too are going to go to heaven.
They can't lose their salvation.
The fruit remains.
I'm gonna quickly read to you from 2 Corinthians 5.18.
2 Corinthians 5.18, it says,
and all things are of God
who have reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ,
and I love these words,
and have given to us the ministry of reconciliation.
You've been given that ministry.
You've been ordained to this ministry,
the ministry of reconciliation,
the ministry to reconcile man to God.
That's your job.
To wit or to witness that God was in Christ
reconciling the world unto himself,
not imputing their trespasses unto them,
and have committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
Brethren, you've been chosen, you've been ordained,
so have I to preach the gospel.
That's what it means to be fruitful.
But you can only be fruitful if you abide in Christ.
Say, pastor, I wanna go soul winning, what do I do?
Abide in Christ, start there.
Keep his commandments.
Be close to the Lord, okay?
And not only that, at the end of verse 16, look at this,
and whatsoever you shall ask of my Father in my name,
he may give it you.
It's talking about winning souls.
Say, I wanna win souls.
Lord, you pray, you go to the Lord.
Say, Lord, I don't feel comfortable soul winning,
I've never done it before,
or I haven't done it in a long time,
but I want to win souls,
and the Father will give you those souls.
That's an answered prayer.
Do you think that's the will of the Father,
to see souls saved?
Don't you think that's a prayer
that he's going to answer for you?
But you've got to abide in him.
You've got to abide in Christ.
Verse number 17, John 15, 17.
These things I command you, that you love one another.
If the world hates you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love his own,
but because you're not of the world,
but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hate of you.
Okay, let's stop there for a minute.
Does the world just hate every Christian,
every saved person?
It can sound that way if you read it like that,
but again, I wanted to say at the end of verse number 19,
but I have chosen you, what was the chosen part?
What were we chosen for?
What were we ordained for to be saved?
No, to bring forth fruits.
But I have chosen you,
so those that are bringing forth fruits,
therefore the world hate of you.
You see, the world hates soul winners.
The world hates those that openly speak
and preach of Jesus Christ.
You can be saved and go through the world
and the world can love you if you hide yourself.
Go, well, I'm saved, but I don't wanna face persecution.
I'm gonna act like the world.
I'm gonna be like the world.
Yeah, be careful.
You could perpetually backslide.
Be careful.
You could become so unfruitful and lose your saltiness
where you're no longer profitable for God,
but the world's not gonna hate that Christian
if you just stay quiet.
I mean, they won't even know, right?
You live life, you go to work, you do all that.
Nobody knows,
but I'm sure many of you know
that as soon as you speak of Jesus,
in fact, it doesn't take much.
As soon as they find out
that you're going to church on a Sunday
or you cult members going on a Wednesday night,
you're crazy cult members,
then you start facing a bit of that pressure,
a bit of that persecution,
but you're still not gonna face as much
until you actually speak of Christ and preach his gospel.
When you shine the light, when you taste very salty,
that's when the world really starts to hate you.
So yeah, look, if you wanna fly under the radar,
well, you can.
Be saved and fly under the radar.
You can just stop abiding with Christ.
You can remain silent about your faith.
You'll fly under the radar,
but you're gonna regret it when you get to heaven.
You're not gonna have much to show Jesus.
God wants to see fruitfulness.
God wants to see the love, the service
toward the brothers and sisters in the Lord.
So let's, you know, he's died for us.
He's given us so much.
He's promised us so much.
We need to do more for the Lord.
We need to do more.
Verse number 20.
Remember the word that I said unto you.
The servant is not greater than his Lord.
If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also.
I like that.
If they have kept my saying,
so as we go to the world, we preach the gospel.
If they kept the saying of Jesus,
then they'll keep yours also.
Again, showing us that we can't go soul winning
with our own words.
We need to go with the words of Jesus.
And if they receive the words of Jesus,
they're going to receive your words.
This is why when we go, we open the Bible.
We show them the verses.
We quote the verses so they can hear the word.
So then faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the word of God.
We know those passages.
You know, we can't go soul winning
with our own strength and with our own words.
We give them God's words.
That's going to help their faith be increased.
And as you give them God's word,
then you can explain in your own words
what that is speaking about.
You see, we go with God's words,
and then we give our words.
But you go with your words by yourself,
they're not going to receive you.
They're not going to get saved.
We must use the Bible as we go and win souls.
And by the way, don't forget what he said
that in verse number 20,
the servant is not greater than his Lord
if they have persecuted me,
they will also persecute you.
But again, you can fly under the radar,
because it says in 2 Timothy 3.12,
yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus
shall suffer persecution.
See, a Christian,
in order for a Christian to receive persecution,
they must live godly in Christ Jesus.
They must be someone that is open about their faith.
Then the persecution comes.
Are you greater than your Lord?
You say, Lord, I just want to go through life easy.
No persecution.
I'll fly under the radar.
I won't speak of you.
I just want peace.
I don't want any issues.
If you're like that,
then what you're saying is I'm greater than my Lord.
I deserve better than my Lord.
I don't deserve persecution.
Jesus did, but not me.
No, brethren, it should not be like that.
In fact, even when persecution comes,
we're very sore that Christ wants our joy to be full.
Yes, when the persecution comes, we can rejoice.
Yes, if you abide with Christ,
you will find your heart rejoicing
when people speak bad of you,
when people treat you badly,
when you go soul-willing and they swear at your face.
You'll actually enjoy it.
You'll be like, yes, the flesh won't like it,
but the new man will be rejoicing.
Treasures in heaven, praise God.
Gotta humble that pride sometimes.
Good.
I'm glad someone said something nasty to me.
Maybe I was becoming a little prideful.
Maybe I need to taste a little bit
of the suffering of Christ.
Verse number 21.
But all these things they will do unto you
for my name's sake,
because they know not him that sent me.
If I had not come and spoken unto them,
they had not had sin,
but now they have no cloak for their sin.
Verse number 22 can be a little bit confusing,
but what he's saying is, look,
if they've not heard the gospel,
if they've not heard the news,
then they haven't sinned
in the sense that they have not rejected Christ, is what.
You'll soon see that as we keep going for this.
In fact, even in the next chapter,
he expands on this idea.
It's not saying that if they don't hear the gospel,
they're sinless and they can go to heaven
or something like that.
I've heard that crazy teaching.
I've heard the crazy teaching.
Like people ask, so what about somebody
in the middle of Africa,
some tribe that's never heard the gospel?
What if they never heard it?
Then they've never sinned,
so they go to heaven automatically.
Then aren't we just damning people
by giving people the gospel?
It's like, what?
But Christ, what it's like the sin there is
that they've not rejected Christ yet, okay?
But when you do give them the gospel
and they say, yeah, that's not for me.
I don't believe it.
I don't believe God will sacrifice his son
or something like that.
Well, now they're actually sinning against the Lord.
They're sinning against the gospel.
Verse number 23.
He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
That's Judaism, by the way.
Look, when you look at all the religions of the world,
like, okay, if you want my honest beliefs,
I believe that every religion that is not faith alone
or Christ alone is a religion that hates Jesus
because they all say it's by works.
Okay, then you hate what he did for you, the free gift.
You can't accept it.
You hate what Christ has done.
But give them a little bit of credit,
which I, you know, generally speaking,
most religions accept some type of Jesus.
We know it's another Jesus,
but you know, they don't hate Jesus necessarily,
you know, like we think.
But when it comes to Judaism, they actually hate Jesus.
They believe Jesus was a con man.
They believe he was anti-Jewish or something.
Like, well, yeah, he was anti-Pharisee,
Phariseedical Judaism.
Yes, he was, of course he was.
And they hate him.
They believe he's burning in excrement or something, right?
In hell right now, burning in feces right now,
something like that, they teach.
They hate Jesus.
So if they hate Jesus,
he that hateth me, hateth my father also.
The Jews hate God, okay?
They don't just worship God ignorantly,
knowing of another, they hate God.
It's a religion of hatred toward God.
If they hate the son, they hate the father.
But as I said to you, I believe all religions hate Jesus.
You know, unless it's a religion that we teach,
salvation by grace through faith alone,
on the finished work of Christ.
Verse number 24.
Christ says, if I had not done among them the works
which none other man did, they had not sinned.
So it says, look, I've done these works in front of them.
They should have accepted me.
Okay, but they didn't, so they've sinned.
It says, but now have they both seen and hated
both me and my father.
How horrible would it be to live in the time of Christ,
seeing the great miracles that he's done,
and say, no, I reject that.
Wow.
He did the works of the father, he did great things,
what a great man Jesus was.
I mean, if his speech did not convince you,
how could Jesus' works not convince you?
It says they hated him, both him and his father.
Verse number 25.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled
that is written in their law.
They hated me without a cause.
But when the comforter is come,
that's the Holy Spirit once again,
whom I will send unto you from the father,
even the spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the father,
he shall testify of me.
All right, Christ is again teaching us of the Trinity.
You know, he's going, he'll be bringing back
the comforter to his people.
The comforter, the Holy Spirit will testify of Christ.
By the way, you can't get anybody saved
without the Holy Spirit either.
The Holy Spirit is doing a work
as you preach the gospel to a lost soul.
We must ask the Holy Spirit to work,
you know, in that person's life.
You know, if you're a silent partner,
and somebody's given the gospel,
can you please pray that the Holy Spirit
will touch the heart of that person?
Will make it receptive to the planting
of the seed of God's word?
We need the comforter, we need the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is which testifies of me, of Jesus, he said.
And this is where we end in verse number 27.
And ye also shall bear witness.
That's what Christ was teaching the whole time.
He wants us to be fruitful.
Now he explains it finally in verse number 27
exactly what he means.
And ye also shall bear witness, sorry,
because ye have been with me from the beginning.
Reverend, really the ultimate point of all this is that
in order to be fruitful, you must abide in Christ.
And that fruitfulness is not just being a good Christian,
which is important,
but it's primarily about winning souls.
It's primarily about being a witness of Jesus.
And he's given us the comforter,
he's given us the Holy Spirit to help us.
The Holy Spirit is not gonna get someone saved on his own.
He needs us to be that witness.
And we're not gonna get someone saved on our own
unless we have the Holy Spirit.
And we're not gonna get someone saved
unless we use the words of God.
We need that trifecta.
We need the words of God, we need the Holy Spirit,
and we need a human being
that will bear witness to another human being.
That's what it means to be fruitful.
And look, we've gone soul winning here in Queensland.
I just encourage you, WA is coming up, think about it.
I know it's four days off work.
Maybe you had other plans and that's all fine as well.
Maybe you don't have the days off.
It's okay.
I'm trying to make it easy by making sure
that you're not too much out of pocket
if you do get out of pocket.
But if you can join us and be a witness in WA
on the other side of Australia,
please join us at the end of May if you're able to do so.
All right, brethren.
Point number two was abiding Christ to be faithful
or abiding Christ to be a soul winner.
And don't forget Proverbs 11 30,
the fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
And here that win of souls is wise.
The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life.
In conclusion, let me give you those six points,
seven points actually that I,
well, number one was abiding Christ
by keeping his commandments.
Number two, abide in Christ to be fruitful
to be a soul winner.
Point number three was abide in Christ
to prevent backsliding.
Point number four was abide in Christ
to improve your prayer life.
Point number five was abide in Christ
for fullness of joy.
Point number six was abide in Christ
to be a friend to Jesus.
And point number seven is abide in Christ
by loving one another.
Okay, let's pray.