ABIDING IN CHRIST
(John 15:1-16.)
INTRODUCTION. -- These are wonderful words. There is marvelous music in them. There is also inexhaustible meaning in them.
I. What is it to Abide in Jesus?
To abide in Jesus is to be in the same relation to Jesus as a living fruit-bearing branch to the vine.
No one is abiding in Christ that is not drawing his life constantly from Him. When a branch abides in a vine, its buds, blossoms and fruit are all the product of the vine, the life of the vine in the branch. So when we abide in Christ, all our thoughts, feelings and choices are the result of the life of Christ in us. They are His thoughts, His feelings, His choices, not ours. Jesus is willing to thus live His life out in us, and this is abiding in Jesus. Galatians 2:20.
II. How to Abide in Jesus.
How do we go about it practically, to thus abide in Jesus?
1. Renounce our own self life. We cannot live our own life and abide in Jesus at the same time. It is either our own life in us or His in us.
2. We must also look to Him and expect Him and trust Him to actually impart His life to us.
3. To abide in Christ we must feed upon His words. v.7.
4. To abide in Christ we must obey His words. John 15:9-10.
5. To abide in Christ we must spend much time in prayer. John 14:12-14.
III. Results of Abiding in Jesus.
1. Much fruit. John 15:5. Our fruitfulness does not depend upon what we are naturally. It depends upon the life of Christ in us. There will be fruit in our own lives. Galatians 5:22. There will be fruit in others. v.16.
