Gooding, David: 8 - The Upper Room Ministry

We were considering in our last session the Father's husbandry of the vine, and considering what he does both to those branches that don't bear fruit and to those branches that do. And in particular, we were observing that if a believer bears fruit as a fruitful branch, then God is not necessarily content with that, good as it is in itself, but he will prune the branch so that it shall bear even more fruit. The pruning that God uses is sometimes what you might call discipline of one kind and another. A vine keeper uses a knife, and a knife cuts. Sometimes the experiences God, uh, allows to come into our lives are, uh, sorrowful experience, bitter and cutting. They are, we are assured, aimed at this end, that we should bear more fruit. But then verse three informs us, it is not only discipline of that sort that God uses. He uses the words of Christ. Christ says to his apostles, already ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. And as we apply him ourselves to his word and allow him to apply his word to us, this process goes on continually, cutting away the unwanted wood, the superfluous leaves, so to speak, those things about our personalities and characters that, while they might make a good show, are not necessarily the lasting fruits of the spirit. And so, uh, producing, uh, and channeling God's power within us into this objective of true, genuine spiritual character. Now let us move on to the next major lesson in the series that our Lord, uh, has to teach us, namely the relation of a branch to the vine. We're thinking now in particular of verses four and five of chapter fifteen of the gospel. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, so neither can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same beareth much fruit, for apart from me ye can do nothing. The logic of the lesson is simplicity itself. It is quite evident that a branch is not the source of its own life-giving power. All that a branch can do is to rest in the vine. It cannot have an independent life or function. Without the vine, it can literally do nothing. The logic of it is easy to see. The difficulty is when we come to put this into practice. And it is difficult in the first place because sin has produced in us a certain perversity. It has produced and bred within us a certain spirit of independence of God. And therefore, we constantly fall back into that attitude of heart where we feel that we are somehow independent units. We are like the retail shopkeeper whose own responsibility it is to run the shop. True enough, he has to get his supplies from the wholesaler, but nevertheless, the wholesaler is not ultimately responsible for what goes on in his shop. He's the ultimate responsibility, he has the ultimate responsibility, and therefore he carries the burden of it. And secondly, the reason is that this idea of Christ being in us was not a something that was available even to Adam in his unfallen state. This is something bigger than what you find in creation. Just like we are born into this world and we grow up increasingly becoming independent of our parents, and in some sense it is the ideal of physical life and the development of our personalities that sh- we should become independent personalities. And yet subsequently, for most people at any rate, there comes a higher form of life when two independent personalities in some sense merge in marriage. So in salvation, it is a higher form of life than the independence that we had in natural creation. It is that we become joined to Christ, he in us and we in him. Not that our personality is lost, but that we are in some sense merged, the one in the other. And it is difficult for us to remember this and to get used to living this way round. The early Christians found it a bit difficult. And you'll find, for instance, that Paul the Apostle is constantly talking about this need for us as Christians to remain, to abide in the vine. If we would be holy in a practical sense, if we would develop Christian character and strength, we must learn to abide in Christ. Listen, for instance, instance to Saint Paul talking to the Colossians in his chapter two of his letter to that church, and verses six and seven: As therefore ye receive Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, rooted and builded up in him, and established in your faith, even as ye were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. Or again, in his chapter one, in verses, in verse twenty two, he tells us that it is God's purpose to present us holy and without blemish and unreprovable before him. That the practical and necessary condition for that is as follows: if so be that you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel which he heard. For the only practical thing that can present a man holy and without blemish and produce in him a genuine Christian character is Christ, is the gospel. Nor is it merely a mystical thing that you cannot quite put into words. Abiding in Christ will mean, in practical terms, abiding in his word, abiding in the faith. If I allow myself to be moved away from the hope of the gospel into all sorts of curious heresies and newfangled notions. They may be very entertaining, they may seem marvelously novel, uh, but one thing is certain, they will not sanctify me. There is only one thing that can really sanctify and build up a genuine, practical Christian character, that is abiding in Christ, that will mean abiding in his word, abiding in the faith, and above all, abiding in his love. As I say, the logic of it is easy to understand. It's the practice that is difficult. If I'm called upon to love somebody who is difficult, who crosses my personality, who provokes me, who frustrates me. It is so easy in the end to forget, isn't it? That actually I haven't the power to do it, even though I know right well it is my duty to love that man and to be patient and to to- and tolerant and seek his good. I haven't the strength to do it. And not even after I have become a Christian and I have received the gift of forgiveness and salvation and know Christ as a savior, I still, I within myself have still not the power to do it. Very frequently I get betrayed into attempting to do it, and the resultant failure in the end builds up a tremendous frustration. Saint Paul found that very difficult, he didn't he? And he records his, um, experience in chapter seven of his famous letter to the Romans. He says, you know, oh, I am a wretch. Uh, the thing I wouldn't do is the very thing I go and do, and the thing I want to do, that is the thing I don't do. And he further explains, it's not that I disagree with the law of God. With my mind, I approve the law of God, and indeed with my emotions, I delight in the law of God. And putting mind and intellect together with his emotions, he then added the power of his will. The thing I would do, I will to do. So he is summing up a human personality, its intellect, its emotions, its will, and all those things aligned behind the determination to do the will of God, and then he still has to confess, oh, wretched man that I am, the very thing I want to do, I don't do, and sin seems to get the upper hand, and I get frustrated. It is a bitter practical lesson to learn, and perhaps it takes us years to learn it. We have to keep on relearning it, that that is the fact. We cannot do, we cannot produce the kind of behavior that God asks of us. But it is a very happy step when we come to see that, that it is, as a matter of fact, true, as Christ says it, without me you can do nothing. Not without me you would only be a fifty percenter, or without me you would only be a thirty percenter, but without me you can do nothing, and we better face it first rather than last, and determine to develop this attitude of heart that learns to rest on Christ every moment of the day. I suspect some of us remember the struggles we had before we became Christians. We knew in our heads, perhaps, that the death of Christ and his sacrifice was one hundred percent sufficient. We had heard his cry from the cross, it is finished. And how difficult we found it to rest on that finished work. The feeling surges through us that there's something that I must do. We find it very difficult to lean back, so to speak, and trust Christ. I wonder if you've ever watched somebody trying to learn to swim. It is a very painful thing to watch them, uh, particularly when you can swim yourself. You wonder, now, how ever was it that once I wasn't able to swim? Seems so natural to swim. And you watch this poor creature, now he's going to, he's going to swim. He's nearly drowned thousands of times, but now he's going to swim, and you can see from the start he never will do it. He's all screwed up, he's determined that he's not going to sink, and the very fact that he's afraid to trust himself to the water means that his efforts to hold himself up are the very efforts that put him down under. How difficult it is to learn that somehow in relaxing and daring to trust yourself to the water, the water will have sufficient power to keep you up. We had to learn that when we first came to Christ, to learn to rest on the finished work of Christ. And if conscience would keep niggling at us and say, but how am I sure? I don't feel sure. We had to learn to recognize our feelings as liars and imposters, and to learn to rest on the word of God. And so it is for the developing of a Christian character. To discover, yes, it is true that without Christ I can do nothing, and then to learn to rest in the knowledge that if I rest in him, he can do everything. I can do all things through Christ that strengtheneth me, said Paul, commenting on this kind of situation. Moreover, let us learn finally in this connection that however many times we have been victorious in the Christian life through resting on Christ and, so to speak, tapping his resources, we shall never get to the position where we no longer need to depend on him. Though it is a common temptation that when I feel I have been successful so far in mounting this temptation and living as a Christian ought to live, suddenly I get it in my head that now I'm well away and can manage it all right. That is a sure recipe for coming a cropper the next time. We must learn it till it is part of our second nature. Without Christ, we can do nothing. Now let's move on to the next lesson in connection with the vine and the branches, which is found in verses six to eight of the chapter. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and so shall ye be my disciples. This section has to do with the consequences, one, of not abiding in Christ, and two, of abiding in him. Well, first of all, the consequences of not abiding in Christ. Now, these verses have proved to many people very difficult verses, very frightening verses to some. They have felt that when our Lord talks of a branch being cast forth and burned, he is threatening them that if they do not behave as Christians, God might eventually reject them and they be lost in the lake of fire forever. We should therefore notice, uh, as accurately as we can, what this verse is saying, how carefully Christ worded this verse when he spoke it. We are, to start with, not talking of salvation, are we? We are talking about the development of Christian character. We are not talking of a believer as a child of God in the family of God. We are talking about a believer as a branch in the vine for the purposes of the development of Christian character. So our Lord says, if a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered, and they gather them and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. Will you first notice that the man himself takes the initiative? If a man abide not in me. It's he that removes himself. If a man abide not in me, before he is then cast out as a branch. It isn't the question of a man, uh, uh, failing in his Christian duty and God taking the initiative and throwing him out. This is to be understood at the practical level. What happens if, if as a believer, I don't take care day by day, in a practical sense, to remain in fellowship with Christ and live my way independently? Well, already I am failing to abide in the branch. Not a question of Christ throwing me out, but of my failure, in a practical sense, to abide in him. What will happen then? Notice how carefully Christ words himself. He is cast forth as a branch. That is, take the metaphor, take the illustration, take the analogy. Now, qua branch in a vine, not please qua child in a family, but as a branch in a vine he is cast forth. It follows, doesn't it, that if in a practical sense I don't maintain a daily fellowship with Christ, then to use the analogy, so far as fruit bearing goes, then am I cast forth as a branch. I've not maintained what is vital, you'll see. I am impeding the flow of Christ's grace and strength into me, and as a branch, I am cast forth. And then notice what happens. Branches cast forth out of a vine, they wither, of course. It is the automatic result. If I don't keep close to Christ, I shall wither. Even though I have forgiveness, even though I am certain of my mansion in the Father's house. Yet in day-to-day living, if I do not keep near to Christ, I shall wither. I have no resources in myself. I am like a branch out of a vine. And then notice, it doesn't say that God takes these withered branches and casts them into the fire. The verb is an impersonal they gather them. Who are the they? Well, men in general, of course. If in my daily life as a believer I do not maintain practical fellowship and communion with Christ, I become withered, I become dried up, and then in show- instead of showing the graces of a Christian character, um, I merely show a shrivel kind of personality in which the flesh predominates. And as far as men are concerned, even men of the world, they have no time for it. A man who professes to be a Christian and may indeed be a Christian basically, but that is not producing genuine Christian behavior, the world has no time for it. They can see through it. It's useless. They burn it. You should hear them in their conversations discussing so and so who's, who's a member of the church, and uh, he makes such a big profession every Sunday going along with his Bible in his hand and this, that, and the other. But you should see him in his factory, uh, uh, when somebody annoys him or crosses his path. They have no, no time for it. They burn them up with their very justified criticism. The other side of the story is what are the practical results of abiding in Christ. If you abide in me, what does it mean in practical terms? Well, it means, of course, this union, this spiritual union with the living Lord. But it is a thing that can be put into words. It is a matter of abiding in his word and finding out what he wants me to do. A son in the family, strapping seventeen-year-old with the oodles of go and fizz and everything else, if he wants to maintain a close relationship for his father and the two get on as friends together, well, he might well be advised to spend time listening to what his father would like done. I would like the grass cut boy next Saturday morning, uh, and what is the use of professing to love Father a lot if you're not prepared to find out what pleases him, what can help Mother, what he'd like you to do, and generally cooperating? And abiding in Christ is not just a woolly kind of experience in one's emotions that in the end can't be put into words. It is a question of abiding in the words of Christ and then intelligently carrying them out. But if we do that, we are encouraged to ask whatever we will, and it shall be done unto us. Now, admittedly, it is possible to read the Greek in two ways here again. It shall be done unto you, or it shall be done for you. It seems to me that in this context we are much more concerned with the first of those expressions, done unto you. We are branches in the vine, but of course not wooden branches in a literal vine. We may be wooden, but not that wooden. Our Lord is talking about a, a spiritual vine, after all. A wooden branch of a literal vine just rests i- in the main trunk and thus brings forth its fruit. But we, after all, are human beings with personalities, and we can speed the process by cooperating with God. And where we sense a need in ourselves, we need something done to us, so to speak. We can cooperate with God and ask for this to be done using our intelligence and our awareness in the process of getting the work done on ourselves that we need doing. Have I sensed, for instance, in the weeks gone by that in a certain situation I react this wrong way round and find it difficult not to react that wrong way round? Well, I'm not just to be passive and say, I suppose, uh, this, uh, bad reaction will go away one of these. No, I am encouraged, having discovered in the Word of God that this is not how I am supposed to react, and have discovered in myself a certain weakness, perhaps a bit of a knot in the wood that isn't allowing the juice to come through or something. I can cooperate with the Father in asking, and he will do it. In other words, I can take my weakness to the Lord and ask him to deal with it. The thing is done quicker that way, isn't it? You shall ask what you will, but please let us observe it in the context. This verse is no, uh, encouragement to me to think that if one morning I decide I need a Rolls-Royce, and I will least I would like one, perhaps I don't need one, but I should like a Rolls-Royce, and I've only got a Mini, uh, that I can ask for this and I shall get it. Sure enough, if a Rolls-Royce would be what I really needed, I might get it. But, uh, this is in context, isn't it, of the development of Christian character, and we are assured that if we bring our intelligence to bear in cooperation with God, according to his holy word, that God will honor that promise. However high and lofty his demands seem to be upon me, and however weak I may seem, eh, in the fulfilling of them, yet am I encouraged that if I persist in asking, he will persist in his work, and he will do what I require of him to do. And he adds that this is the process by which his Father is glorified, that we bear much fruit. And so he says, you shall be my disciples. Did you say, but I suppose I thought, I s- I thought we were his disciples already. So in a sense we were. The very first time we learned anything from him, we were his learners, his disciples. But now notice what our Lord is saying, that it is this that makes a real thoroughgoing disciple. In all walks of life, in learning languages, in art appreciation, you will find people that at the beginning are caught up in the flush of excitement. Oh yes, they would love to learn a language. What is it, Spanish or Russian? How lovely to be able to go on a holiday and be able to speak to the natives. Yes, they'll join up. And then they find, like the schoolboy who went to school in the morning and in the afternoon said, mommy, I don't need to go again, we like went this morning. Thinking he had learned all there was to learn in one morning, folks begin to lose their enthusiasm, don't they? Uh, they didn't find that they had learned every lesson at once, and therefore they get a bit dis- disappointed and start leaving off. No, says Christ, if you want a really thorough going disciple, it's a matter of this constant application. It's going to be a lesson of a whole of a lifetime, abiding in his word, discovering the next thing to be achieved and to be conquered, asking intelligently that it shall be done to us, thus, uh, producing fruit and in this way demonstrating ourselves to be genuine learners, to be disciples indeed.