Father, I am weak, but Thou art strong. That's my confidence and hope tonight, that You are sufficient. And Your all-sufficiency is great and enough to make up my insufficiencies. And in the end, Lord, it is not a man we want to hear. It is you, crucified, resurrected, glorified Lord. You've called me, you've given me this task tonight, and I'm amazed that you would be so gracious You've not only saved me from my sin, but then You've given me the grace and privilege to preach Your Word, to encourage my brothers here, and to preach to men who will become my brothers. And I want to thank You for this grace. And I rejoice that You are a gracious God who takes the weak and the innoble, to confound the wise and the strong. Lord, would you do something here tonight that's beyond the normal? It's not that we need sensationalism. It's not that we need signs and wonders. We believe you. We know where we are. We know that we're living an abnormal form of Christianity, and we need reviving. We need You to visit us, to send Your Spirit and pour Himself out upon us, Lord. Help us to be real with ourselves. You know the reality about us. It's we ourselves that need to know that reality. Grant it. Grant it, I pray. In Jesus' name. Amen. The text, I pray the Lord be pleased to once again speak to us. It's the Gospel of John chapter 15. Verses 1-10. I'm going to focus actually on verses 4 and 5, but we're going to read the whole text. I want to speak as we continue in our series, Desperate Dependency, Living by Grace, on the theme, How to Abide in Christ. Part 1. How to abide in Christ. I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine dresser. Every branch in me does not bear fruit, He lifts up. And every branch that bears fruit, He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in me and I in him bears much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch, and is withered, and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified. that you bear much fruit, so you will be my disciples. As the Father loved me, I also have loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. We've established the case that Jesus is preparing His disciples for His soon departure. That departure would be within hours when Judas gives Him the kiss of death, the kiss of betrayal. They will all forsake Him. Peter will deny Him. He will be mocked, scourged, beaten, wrongly tried and prosecuted and eventually crucified. And He's preparing them not just for His death and burial, but for His return to heaven. Things are going to change after tonight. They'll never be as it had been those last three years. His desire is for them to believe, not just know, for He is certainly informing them, but He wants them to believe that things are going to be better for them even though He will not be there bodily. And we addressed that last night as to why that probably wasn't what they wanted to hear. And we can relate to that. He was going to send the Holy Spirit, the other Comforter, Helper and Companion, who just like Him would be with them, lead them, guide them. It would be through the Holy Spirit they would continue to interact with our Lord Jesus as we do today. The parable is simply our Lord's way of illustrating the life of the Spirit working in them. The fruit-producing life is Christ. They are the branches, and He tells them, Abide in Me. He's really telling them, as we heard this morning, to continue, to continue in communion with Him. Just because you can't see Me anymore doesn't mean our communion ends. It will intensify. It will take on a different dimension, and it will be just as rich. And because He wasn't going to be bodily with them, they could no longer see, hear Him. It didn't mean He wasn't going to be there. And that's true for us, right now. We cannot see Him. There is no voice from heaven, no bright light, saying, this is my beloved Son. But He is here nonetheless. You know, when I say this, I watch people. I want to see the reaction on their faces and usually it's the same. Nothing's different. It's a fact we've assumed and believe that yes, He is here. But it doesn't move us. It doesn't empower us. It doesn't encourage us. Why? Well, we're going to find out why in just a few moments. He would be right there with them in person of the Holy Spirit. He's right here with us in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is among us. And I was sitting there listening to you sing. The days of Elijah. There's no God like Jehovah. And I was thinking. I actually broke out in laughter. In joyful laughter. Father, this must be pleasing you much. You are here receiving this offering of praise and your heart is thrilled by these, your children, your sons, as they adore you and sing. The father was pleased. He heard it. Just as you could hear your neighbor sing, he heard each one of your voices. And together in symphonic beauty, they blended into one voice that delighted your father's heart. Amazing truth. Why? Because He's not somewhere up yonder beyond the blue. He's right here amongst us. And that's what Jesus is trying to convey in this word of God. He's saying to His disciples, stay with me, remain with me, continue in me just as you have these last three years. Don't let my physical absence distract you. Keep looking to me, following with me, fellowshipping, seeking my counsel. Don't stop interacting with me just because you can't see me. I will not leave you nor forsake you. I will now be able to be with each of you through my invisible but the ever-present Spirit. So the word abide is not as much about where you live or hang out as it is about the word continue. Continue. Continue to deal with Jesus, listen, as if He were physically visible. I don't know if you caught Mark this afternoon in the exhortation before our lunch. He talked about the presence of Christ, that Christ being here. And did you watch him? He repeatedly gave us a gesture like, right here. Right here. Now, the question is, was Christ right here? Or was He over Here. Or was he back there? The issue that Mark wanted you to see, and I've not talked to him about this, but I know. He wanted you to understand that the renewed mind deals with Christ as He being present right here. Not over there, out yonder. Here. And that's what this word abide means. You keep interacting with me, brethren, as if I am walking the road with you. As I have these last three years. Now, the question is how do you do that, right? That's the question. How do you do that? How do you abide and let Christ abide in you? And I must confess that I, for years, sought the answer. It was the plaguing question of my heart. Even after being in the ministry for years, I searched for this answer. I tried to abide. I struggled to abide. I fought to abide. And at times, I experienced what it meant to abide. And there were seasons of great joy, but, unfortunately, they were never lasting for me. They were always interrupted, cut short, or somehow lost to me. To continually, consistently abide always eluded me. And I discovered that one of my problems was I didn't want to be weaned off the flesh. Meaning the physical. I wanted to feel something. I grew up in a church that emphasized the emotional. It emphasized the sensational. I grew up learning that God was a God to be experienced. And I often wondered after God saved me and I came out of that, why, Lord, did You let me grow up in that? Well, You could have let me grow up in a church like Providence Chapel. They believe that God is a God to be experienced. You could let me grow up in Grace Community Church in San Antonio. They believe that God is a God to be experienced. But I learned something I would not have learned at Providence Chapel and at Grace Community Church that I did in my home church. I did learn that God was a God to be experienced and I'll never deny that. The Bible bears witness to that fact. But I also learned, listen carefully, that not every experience is God. Not every experience is God. And that so impacted me that that's what I was seeking. Experiences. We'll talk tomorrow. My prayer life, I was so disappointed in because I thought it should be a mount of transfiguration every time I took my knees. I was looking for the physical. I finally learned that was my problem. And so, how do you abide in Christ? And the answer can be summarized in a simple statement. One word, one word. Trust. We abide in Christ by faith. Now, quickly, I have to ask you this question. Come on, and be honest. Are you just a little bit disappointed with my answer? Come on. Aren't you? Just a little bit. Just a little bit. I mean, I already knew that, Brother Michael. I already got that. I know that. I'm looking for the lost key that I haven't been able to find. I'm looking for the secret. I'm looking for the formula so that my Christian walk will be revolutionized and I won't have to live in mundane, ordinary, routine experience. I've already trusted in Christ. I know the just shall live by faith. Certainly there's got to be a little bit more to that. Because I have faith. Well, don't be disappointed. Be glad. Be glad that's the answer. Otherwise, you'd have no chance ever. No chance ever to abide in Christ. You can't abide without Christ. Wow. That's what I began to learn. I couldn't even abide without Christ. Notice he did say, apart from me, without me you can do nothing. And as we said last night, it's a conjunction of two words, no thing, and no thing must even include abiding. I can only abide in Him by faith. So let me propose this. Let me demonstrate what faith does in order for us to abide in Jesus. Tomorrow morning is going to be the catalyst, I pray. I keep pushing this thing off. I keep tantalizing you and saying, wait till the next session, wait till the next session, and I'm probably cutting myself off at the knees because it's going to be so anticlimactic. Let me demonstrate what faith does in order for us to abide in Jesus. I want to show us how we exercise faith so that we can abide in our Savior and He abide in us. Faith manifests itself in abiding in Christ as A confident resting. A confident come. Now up to this point I've used a word, it's in the title of this series, desperate dependency. And I have established, I hope sufficiently, that you never truly depend until you're first desperate. I told a story to some of the guys here this afternoon. My wife and I prayed for our sons before they were born. And we prayed for their salvation. And we believed that they would be saved. It was not biblical faith. It was simply a presumption upon God that He would save our children. But now they're late teens. Actually, my oldest son was 20 and he's not converted yet. Joseph, my youngest son, 18, not converted yet. And they're not showing any signs of God's dealing in their life. And when I realized that God was not dealing with them, I remembered Romans chapter 1. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness and ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. And you know how that wrath is revealed? By God withdrawing. Abandoning sinner to Himself. Letting you have what you want, a life without Jesus. It's the worst judgment God can pronounce. That's what hell is. Hell is the final Answer to your cry. Leave me alone, God. And because God is good, He lets you alone. It may seem like a harsh statement, but it's the fact. God is always good in all that He does. All that God does is good because He's good. A man or a woman will never know the loving saving grace of Jesus Christ unless God intervenes in their life. And how does He intervene? He brings you to the awareness of who He is. He makes you to know that you are not Him. And that He is the standard. I remember witnessing to a young man week after week And he said, okay, what do I gotta do to be saved? And I said, there's nothing for you to do to be saved. And that frustrated him all the more. He was an ambitious, professional young man. He'd ask me the next week, what do I gotta do? Man, there's nothing you can do. You just gotta believe, you gotta rest, you gotta trust. Next week, what do you got to do? What do I got to do? I got so tired of it, I said, OK, here's what you got to do. You got to be as good as God. There you are. That's what you've got to do. If you want to go to heaven, be safe. You've got to be as perfect and as good as God. And immediately his face drained of its blood, turned pale. He literally turned pale on me because he realized it. He was lost and doomed because he could never be that good. And neither can you or I. Even though we're Christians and saved here, we're still not that good. And we will never be that good in and of ourselves. The goodness that we have, the righteousness that's been given to us, is not ours. It's not our Christian entity, our religiosity. It's not our achievement by our behavior, or the modification of our lifestyle. No! It is the gift of God! God makes you righteous. He declares you so. And then He begins to bring you into conformity to what He's already pronounced true about you. And it's the work of God. And I've been talking about desperate dependency. That you'll never truly depend upon God until you're desperate. And so, I realized my boys were not desperate and God was not involved in their lives. He was not intervening. And it panicked me and I began to pray with desperation. Desperate. I had to have God. He was my only help. He was my only hope for my sons. I had to get a hold of God. And once I got a hold of Him, I would not turn loose until I got what I wanted. You say, man, that's an amazing testimony of prayer. No, it isn't! It's a testimony of a man panicked, fearful, and scared! That's what I want you to hear me tonight. Why are we not more panicked? Why are we not more fearful for the souls of our children, our family, our mothers, our dads, our friends? Why are we not fearful of what awaits them? Because if we would, we'd be desperate, and if we were desperate, we would depend. But now, I've shifted on you. I'm not using desperate dependency. Now I'm telling you that faith will manifest itself as an abiding in Christ with this confident resting or confident calm. Look at the vine. Look at the parable. The branch rests in the vine, therefore you're to rest in Christ. If you're to abide in Christ, you've got to learn how to rest in Him. Now what do I mean rest in Him? Well, I do not mean an apathetic or unconcerned attitude about spiritual things. That's not what I mean. nor am I implying there's nothing for us to do. Resting does not mean laziness or there is no human responsibility. That's not what we mean by this word resting. The work we are to do first and primarily is to look away from ourselves and to look to Christ for all the resources necessary for us to do the work He called us to do. Do you remember the day after Jesus performed the miracle of the feeding of the 5,000? He gets in the boat and they cross the sea. And the multitudes follow along the shoreline and there they are when He gets there. And they're so excited. They found a program better than Meals on Wheels. They want this man to be the king. Maybe they won't have to labor for their daily bread anymore. He'll just feed them. What a paradise that will be. And he says don't labor for food that perishes. Well, what is the work that we're to do? He said the work of God is this. Believe upon Him whom God has sent. There's your duty. There's your task. There's your work. Believe. And that means a confident call or resting in Him. It means that I so put my trust in Jesus that I do not trust myself, myself, me to perform for Christ. Now this was difficult for me, guys, because I am a performance-oriented guy. I thought I could, by my own hand, get myself good enough that God would then forgive me. I am a performance-oriented. That's the way my flesh is oriented. I'm the elder brother kind of flesh. I'm going to be the one that's going to try his best to follow all the rules and regulations so that one day the Father looks at me and says, boy, I'm so proud of you. But that's not Christianity. That's not why Jesus died. It's not about how you can perform for God. It's how much you can trust God to keep His promises to you. That's it. How much will you rest and rely and repose, recline on His promises because He is the only promise keeper. Remember the promise keeper movement? Some of you are too young to remember. about 20-25 years ago or so, maybe a little longer, had these big rallies and people were making these promises to God to be good husbands, good fathers, and good Christians. It was a bunch of foolishness. All we can do is break our promises. There's only one promise keeper there's ever been, and it's God. And that's what abiding means. I'm so trusting in Jesus. Rather, I look to the Savior to be to me all that I need not trying to be something for Him. I'm confidently resting in the fact that He willed to be to me all He has said. So abiding is not this anxious, fretting, fearful. It's rather this calm repose that Jesus will be there for you supplying what you need to be faithful to Him. It's a confidence that allows your heart to remain at peace no matter the circumstances. I remember when Victoria was born. What a traumatic day. We had no idea that she was Down Syndrome. And when she was born, I immediately knew something was wrong. Immediately I had been at the birth of my two sons. I knew enough to know he doesn't look right. Something's not right. Immediately they whisked the baby behind these curtains and we don't hear a cry, a whimper or nothing. All the nurses feverishly leave Karen and run behind the curtain and they're in there for five or so minutes and then they rush out of the room with her and there's my wife just giving birth, just laying there. Nobody's attending to her. She wasn't breathing. And I remember sinking on my knees beside my wife, and I began to pray, shall not the judge of all the earth do right? That was the verse that came to me. Lord, you're good if you keep, let us keep her, but you're equally good if you take her. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And from that moment on, a peace lifted us. So much so that we discovered weeks later from someone in our church that worked at the hospital how the nurses commented on Karen and I's demeanor and the calmness. They said it was unbelievable. Well, it was not unbelievable. It was simply out of this world. It was not us. That's what we're looking at here. This is the motivation that leads to reclining on Him. You do not worry that you're not able to do what He wants because you know you can't. This is it, guys. When are we going to finally give up and say, I can't do this. I can't live the Christian life. That's not a trite saying. It's a living reality to me. I can't do this. And that leads to reclining, trusting Him to give you the required strength and the power. So first of all, I want you to see the branch doesn't struggle to abide. What branch or vine or tree or flower do you know that every sunrise struggles within itself and worries whether or not it will remain in the vine? Of course not. And neither are we to struggle to abide in Jesus. If you're struggling to abide, then my friend, you're not confident in Jesus and you're not abiding. That's what I learned. All of my struggle to abide was proving that I didn't trust Jesus. I trusted me. That's why I was struggling. Striving. There's no work to hang on to Jesus. Because Jesus is hanging on to us, literally. We have misinterpreted our responsibility to abide to mean we must work, we must struggle and fret to abide. We think we've got to perform great spiritual feats. That we must be trying more, sacrificing further, striving harder. In fact, some of you have already started to think this way after the last two sessions. You've already begun to think, okay, I've got to step up my routine. I need to get up a little earlier and start having my devotions. Be more consistent. You see, this is the way we think. Be exposed, brother. Look at yourself. Listen to your heart. No wonder you can't abide. You're still trusting you to pull this thing off. And you can't. It's just not possible. It's the very opposite of abiding. Jesus always expressed It this way, that fruitfulness is a way of rest. Listen to what He said in Matthew 11, 28. Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me for I am gentle and lowly in heart and you will find rest for your souls for my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Listen to me, my dear lost friend who's striving by goodness to merit His smile. It's impossible. You're on a fool's errand. Vanity. You'll never accomplish it. If Paul the Apostle, better known in his prior days as Saul of Tarsus, if that man could not do it, none of us could do it. And he couldn't. Come to Christ. For 26 years I tried to be a Christian. Convinced myself I was. I had an experience at the age of five, very dramatic experience. I always said that's when I was converted, but my life wasn't changed. So was I converted? Are you still listening or have I lost you? Was I converted if my life was not changed? No. I wasn't a new creation in Christ Jesus. Old things hadn't passed away. New things hadn't become new. And so for those 26 years I labored, even entering the ministry, thinking this has got to do it. This is what will do it. And I grew so tired of trying to be the real thing. And I've discovered that it's much easier to be the real thing than to try to be. It's so much easier now. Why? Because I have the life of Christ in me. If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, out of his heart shall flow rivers, not a river, plural, abundance, rivers of living water. This is not only a problem for the Christian, but it's also for many of you here tonight who are unbelievers. How many of you are not yet converted and you're trying to follow Christ, struggling over this very point? You think to be a Christian means doing something, achieving something. Very difficult. You see it as a very miserable life. You really do. You think this is not fun. But yet, this is what's required if I'm going to have any assurance when I die I go to heaven. So, this is the route I've got to go. But this is not enjoyable. I don't like this. I'd rather be somewhere else tonight. Sitting out here in a hot muggy evening listening to a guy babble. Why? But yet I will do this because I think it might just help me. with God, you're depriving yourself enjoyment in order to live the Christian life. That's the same problem the Jews had. The religious Jews. They wanted to be saved. They wanted to be assured that they were pleasing to God. But instead of answering our Lord's call to come to Him and rest, they struggled seeking to establish their own righteousness. My friends, stop it. Just stop it. It will lead nowhere but one place. Eternal separation from God. And you will have spent your life in vanity. Haven't you said to yourself, man, I can't do this thing. I can't live this Christian life. I'll never be able to do what God requires. Well, my dear friend, you have been right at least once in your life. You are right. You can't. That's why Christ has come and said that the only way that you can is to put your complete trust in Him and let Him live His life through you. Christ who is our life, says the Apostle. It's not about striving, struggling, fighting, trying and failing. No. He tells you to lean on Him. Rest on His ability. He will be to you all you need. Not only will He forgive you of your sins, but He will supply you a power and a supply not native to you. Just as the vine supplies life to the branch, He will supply His life to you. And so the problem of most of Christendom, at least in America and many other places, that we've transported our theological garbage, is that we're trying to be Christians without Jesus. No wonder we're not so like Jesus. We're trying to imitate Christ as an impersonator, imitates a celebrity. We're trying to perform for Jesus rather than depend upon Him. to shift now, really, I want us to focus on faith for a few moments. And one of the ways I want to do that this evening is through the life of a man we probably all here know, or most of us would know, the much used missionary to China, the contemporary to Charles Spurgeon and George Mueller. His name was Hudson Taylor. He said that for years he did not understand what it meant to abide in Jesus, even after he's a missionary in China. He'd been there for a few years. And in a letter to his sister, he wrote, and I want you to listen, it's lengthy, but it's worth the effort to listen. He said, my mind has been greatly exercised for six or eight months past, feeling the need personally and for our mission of more holiness, life, power in our souls. How many would say, man, that's me. I'm feeling the need personally for more holiness, more life, more power in my soul. But personal need stood first and was the greatest. In other words, not just for the mission, he said my personal need was far greater than even the mission. In other words, he felt his need far keener than even the need of the church there. I felt the ingratitude, the danger, the sin of not living nearer to God. I prayed, agonized, fasted. How many of you have fasted lately to try to get closer to God? Strove, made resolutions, read the Word more diligently, sought more time for retirement and meditation, but all was without effect. Friends, that too is a fool's errand. Every day, almost every hour, the consciousness of sin oppressed me. I knew that if I could only abide in Christ, all would be well, but I could not. Now, this is a Christian. I began the day with prayer, determined not to take my eyes from Him for a moment, but pressure of duties, sometimes very trying, constant interruptions, apt to be so wearing, often caused me to forget Him. Then one's nerves get so fretted in this climate that temptations to irritability, hard thoughts, and sometimes unkind words are all the more difficult to control. Wow! Man, I think he's read my diary. Instead of growing stronger, I seem to be getting weaker and to have less power against sin. And no wonder! For faith and even hope were getting low. I hated myself. I hated my sin. And yet I gained no strength against it. I felt I was a child of God. His spirit in my heart would cry, in spite of all, Abba Father! But to rise to my privileges as a child, I was utterly powerless. I thought that holiness, practical holiness, was to be gradually attained by a diligent use of the means of grace. Are you listening? Hudson Taylor thought, all I need to do is to be diligent about the use of the means of grace. And how many times have we heard that proclaimed? How many times have we told ourselves that? And it doesn't work. That's not what abiding in Christ means. That's not what faith in Him is. I felt there was nothing I so much desired in this world, nothing I so much needed. But so far from in any measure attaining it, the more I pursued and strove after it, the more it eluded my grasp. till hope itself almost died out. And I begin to think that perhaps to make heaven the sweeter, to make heaven the sweeter, God would not give it down here. And some of you have already come to a similar conclusion. You think, well, this is the best He gets now. Maybe it's just not meant to be that way. Maybe it's just the select few in church history that God does those. You know He's sovereign anyway. It's not for me. But heaven will be sweeter all the more That's what he thought. I do not think. I was striving to attain it in my own strength. I knew I was powerless. I told the Lord so. And I asked Him to give me help and strength. Oh, wow. In other words, hearing what I'm saying to you this evening, you've already concluded, OK, OK, I got it. I just need to ask Jesus to help me. I've just got to ask Him to help me. And I've got to believe that He would and that He will uphold me. But that didn't work for Hudson Taylor. Any would-be Hudson-Taylors here? You think you know God like Hudson-Taylor knew God? It didn't work for Hudson-Taylor, and he knew God. How's it gonna work for you? But on looking back in the evening, alas, there was but sin and failure to confess and mourn before God. A friend of Hudson Taylor, who was experiencing the very same frustration that Taylor was experiencing, wrote Taylor a letter describing his discovery. The information literally changed Taylor's life, and he continues in his letter to his sister describing his new insight. I know this is lengthy. It's challenging. It's getting late. We've had such a wonderful meal, but grab your powers of attention and listen closely. When my agony of soul was at its height." In other words, he's now desperate. He's failed so much now that he knows there's no resource in him. That's what desperation means, right? Amen. When my agony of soul was at its height, a sentence in a letter from dear McCarthy, John McCarthy was the man's name, was used to remove the scales from my eyes and the Spirit of God revealed the truth of our oneness with Jesus. Union with Christ, in other words, as I have never known it before. Brother John and I were talking today. This is the most neglected Christian doctrine, and it's the most important of all doctrines, our union with Christ. There is no justification, regeneration, sanctification, and one day glorification without our union in Christ. And yet, it's the least taught doctrine. When was the last time you heard a series of messages on being united to Christ? Not just in His death, but in His life and resurrection. And here Hudson Taylor says, I never knew it before. It's not that he didn't know it. You know he had to know it. But that day, it became so real to him as if he had never known it before. McCarthy, who had been much exercised by the same sense of failure, but saw the light before I did, wrote, and I quote to you from memory, quote, but how to get faith strengthened. Are you listening? Say amen if you're listening. Okay, good. How to get more faith? How to get faith strengthened? Are you listening? Not by striving after faith. Say it a little louder, brother. That's it? Striving after faith, but he phrased it differently. By resting on the faithful one. Now I told someone today, this is such technical language. Jesus is being technical. That's the reason for the illustration. That I fear that some of you are not going to get it because we're treading in waters that are usually deeper than we're used to treading. You need to right now pray, Lord, open my understanding. I know I'm united in Christ. I know by faith we've been brought into union with You. I know that in Christ, I have been crucified. And in Christ, I've been resurrected. But Lord, I don't know its reality. I understand it theologically, but it's not impacting me. It's not empowering me. It's not motivating me. It's not holding me up. Pray right now. that the eyes of your understanding would be opened just like Hudson Taylor. God is not a respecter of persons. You're His son too. Same blood shed for you as was for Hudson Taylor. Not by striving after faith, but by resting on the faithful one. As I read it, I saw it all. I saw it. And here's what he writes. You've got to hear this. If we believe not, He abideth faithful. Do you know what that means? It's not even really dependent upon your faith in Christ. It's about His faithfulness. It's not about how much faith you have or how weak your faith is. Jesus has already dealt with the quantity of faith issue a long time ago. If you have faith the size of a grain of mustard seed, it doesn't take much. It's not the issue of how much faith you have. It's who the faith is looking unto. If we believe not, he abided faithful. I looked to Jesus and saw, and when I saw, oh, how joy flowed that He had said, I will never leave you. Ah, there is rest. I thought I have striven in vain to rest in Him. I'll strive no more, for He has not promised, for He has not promised to abide with me, never to leave me, never to fail me. I'm not reading that correctly. I'll strive no more, for has He not, has He not promised to abide with me, never to leave me, never to fail me. And dearie, that's what He called His sister, He never will. Now there it is. That is abiding by faith in Christ. It's to look unto Him for all things. It isn't a feeling. It isn't a feeling. It's an attitude. Just like repentance is an attitude, faith is an attitude of complete confidence in Christ. And I'm concerned for some of you. that you think you've got to work and strive and fight to abide. And for others, I'm concerned that you think you've got to have some kind of feeling. I've been pushing feelings this weekend. I know what you think. I know. This is not my first rodeo. I've been around a while. I know when I preach on this, discussions spin off. I know we want to talk about gifts and supernatural and mystical things, and you are missing it a hundred miles if that's what you think I've been talking about. It's none of these things. It's nothing more than continually depending on, constantly looking to Christ, resting in Him for all you need. But in addition to that, it's resting in Him for all that you are to give to Him. What do you have to give to Him? Where is the wherewithal to give to Him? From Him. It's like a son going to his dad at dad's birthday. Dad, can I borrow $10 so I can buy you a gift? What do we have to give him? Nothing but what he's first given to us. If you feel that you do not love him as you should, well then, listen to me. Don't try to increase your love. Don't fall into that trap. You've done that. Did it work? No. Don't try to increase your love. Rather, fly to Jesus. Fly to Jesus and there give Him your love, poor heart, and trust Him for more love. That's abiding. It's a whole new paradigm, isn't it? It's a whole new paradigm. It's a new way of thinking. It's, by the way, biblical. It's the New Testament mind. Is your faith little this evening? Do not do what you've always done, and that's try to increase your faith, straining to believe God more. No! Look and think upon your dear Redeemer. Think of all He is and all that He's promised. Look at His life, look at His death, His triumph over the grave, His ascension. Do not strive to have faith. Simply look to the author and the finisher of our faith. Did you hear what the writer of Hebrews said? Jesus is the author. and the finisher of your faith. Which means it's not your faith. It's His faith deposited within you and He is writing your story of faith. And He's not done. He's not writing Hudson Taylor's story of faith in you, or George Mueller's story of faith in you. He's writing your story, and it's His faith. He's the author, the developer, and the sustainer of your faith, sir. He'll take care of your faith as you look to Him. Look away from yourself. Quit concentrating on what you don't have. Quit concentrating on the failures. No. Fly to Christ and be liberated tonight. Be set free. This is the victory He purchased for us. I labored under that for 26 years and then even after my conversion, the old and the real was still playing until God showed me that all of my striving would only end in the same place. Failure, failure, failure. And then one day God showed me He was enough. Why? Why note something else here before we end? That the branch, listen carefully, the branch only receives what the vine gives. Now this is powerful. I'm the vine, you're the branches. The branches get what they get only from the vine. This is the faith, I think, at its height and at its best. Here's the thing about faith that we just simply don't understand. Faith rests or is content in all that the Father gives and is content with what He does not give. We've not learned the last part. Because we don't understand faith. We think faith would mean then miracles, supernatural power all the time, Everybody I witness to will get saved. We think in those kinds of terms. But faith rests its content not only in what He gives, but in what He doesn't give. There was one nagging question that had been my problem for all the years of walking with Jesus. And it was the power question. The power question. As you can tell, I believe that there is an anointing. There are unction, the degrees of anointing of the Spirit. I don't understand all of that. I just believe that. I believe Jesus said, if you being evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him? I don't believe that I can contain all there is of the Holy Spirit. He's infinite, and so I think there's more of His influence in my life to experience. But I always thought in the terms of power. Why am I not seeing more miracles? Why am I not seeing more prayers answered? Things accomplished. And I wrongly thought that if I was abiding, I would see those things happen. God would display His power more. But true faith doesn't work that way, friends. Are you listening? True faith rejoices in God's supply, however much it is. It believes that He will keep His promise and give what He said He would. It does not doubt Him. It is so confident in Him. But if it does not receive what it desires, it rejoices. It truly rejoices. Why? One reason, it's content with God. Faith is content in God. This is where most of our Reformed friends have so missed it. and it's exactly the same place our charismatic friends have so missed it. Most Reformed Christians don't believe in miracles at all and therefore they never ask for them and then think they have great faith to be content to live without them. They're content to not see God's power manifested and therefore their faith is biblical. On the other hand, the charismatic thinks he should get a miracle every time he asks. To him, great faith means the miraculous and the supernatural. But Jesus is saying, listen to Jesus, in this illustration, the vine, the branch, the branch gets what is given to it and expects nothing different. It gets what it needs. I have a saying that I preach to myself. If I don't have it today, I don't need it today. It has so liberated me. Because I know my God is good. And if I needed it today, I'd have it today. But since I didn't get it today, I didn't really need it today. Because He promised to meet my needs. All of my needs. All of my needs. I don't want to make this about us. But when we were transitioning away from the pastorate into itinerant ministry, we knew that that meant no regular income, no health insurance, no place to live, because we lived in the parsonage. But we knew this was what God wanted. And I was preaching in the state of Texas a few weeks before my last Sunday. in my church. And unbeknownst to me, they had a business meeting and they voted, the church voted to extend my salary and all benefits and we could live in the Parsons for one year to help us transition into this ministry. What a blessing. Now it's the fall of the year. December is coming quickly. And my wife asked me one day, she said, sweetheart, what are we going to do when Oak Grove is no longer our resource? And I said to her, well, sweetheart, Oak Grove's never been our resource. It's been God all along, and if He won't use Oak Grove, He'll find some other resource. But what she didn't know, I had the same question myself. I was just trying to act brave. And I remember that fall, a few weeks later, after trying, trying to elevate my faith, trying to raise my faith to a certain level that I can believe God to financially keep us and meet our needs. The Lord convicted me and showed me my heart that I wasn't abiding. Wasn't abiding. He said to me that that spirit is the same spirit of the Pharisee. It's self-righteous. I'm looking at my faith and I'm leaving it up to me to somehow ratchet it up, jerk it up to an appropriate level. And when God sees that level of faith, then He'll provide my needs. Because He'll see my faith. Because that's all He responds to, right? Without faith, it's impossible to please God. So if I can get my faith to a certain level, God will see it, He'll be pleased, and He'll take care of us. And that is self-righteousness. Who am I to think that I could raise my faith, that I have such power to increase my faith to certain levels that God is now obligated to me? Do you see the sin that was in that? The wickedness? And the Lord showed that to me. Here's the application. If you need a miracle tonight, and it's in the vine's will for you to have one, you'll have one. You'll have one if you trust the vine for all you need. If you don't need a miracle, you'll not get one, and you ought to be able to rejoice with great contentment because you trust the vine for all you need. You don't worry for one reason. Why? You're abiding. You're trusting to get only what you need, and you're so confident in Him, that you trust He will not fail. Now, some of you are thinking people and you've already come to the conclusion that that sounds like fatalism. Que sera, sera. Whatever will be, will be. No, it's not fatalism. Listen closely. The reason it isn't fatalism is because if it were God's will to display His power and grant you a great deliverance, but you did not ask in faith, you will not receive it. Don't forget the words, you have not because you do not ask. This is not fatalism, but a deep-seated confidence that God's will is best, and that His will is your will, that is faith at its best. This is the Everest of faith. And I want to bring this time to a conclusion. Your faith has to have a cornerstone. And that cornerstone has to not be you at all. Nothing about you. The cornerstone has to be in the character of God. What is it about God's character that your faith will rest upon? That He's too good to be unkind. As Spurgeon said, too wise to make a mistake. If you cannot trace His hand, you can trust His heart. Beloved, abiding in the vine is coming to that point where you believe it's a reality. That He is too good to be unkind to you. That you can trust Him. You can learn to be content in whatever state you are. Rich or poor. Healthy or sick. Successful or failed. You can trust Him. That is the cornerstone of our faith. It's in the character of God. And so, our faith does not look at ourselves at all. It looks away to Him that He is faithful. Listen to me. I'm going to be honest and tell you I've lied before. I've lied. And yet, you've trusted me to come here and speak. You've exercised some faith in me. And I have lied. I am capable of doing that. And yet, you've trusted me How come we can't trust and rest in One who cannot lie? How wicked is our unbelief that one who cannot lie cannot be trusted and will trust a man who really can't be trusted because he's capable of telling a lie. Do you see your own sin tonight? Do you see why you're not abiding in the vine? It's not because He has failed you. It's because you don't understand what He can do and what He will do, what He's promised to do for you. You're trying to do it for Him. And He never asked that of you. He never. He asked you simply, this is the work I want you to do. Believe on Me whom God has sent. Trust Me. Trust Me. Trust Me even for your faith. for I'm the author and the finisher of it. How do you abide in Christ? You abide by looking away from self, moving from desperate dependency to a confident calm because you know God is good. God is good. Amen. Amen. This has been an exercise of human weakness. I confess it to you. I know it. I have not felt the power that I often feel. But Lord, it's been an exercise. You're my witness of preaching by grace through faith. Because I know you're with me. You promised You'd never leave me nor forsake me. You promised. You promised You would help me. And I thank You for it. Help my brothers now to deal with Your Word. Give them understanding. Whatever has to take place here, we're looking to You to do it. We can't. But we give You our hearts. And we pray for grace that we might obey You. In Jesus' name, Amen.