Redling, Jim: Studies In Gospel Of John-31 ~ John 14:30-15:4

We're looking forward to a good time this evening as well. Let's go into the Word of God, into the fifth, uh, 14th chapter of the Gospel of John once again, and look at this great portion of God's Word. You know, this portion is one that speaks to all of our heart, I'm sure, as we think of the fourteenth chapter, as the Lord Jesus Christ starts out in that first verse, let not your heart be troubled, ye believe in God, believe also in me. And then he goes on, in my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you. No wonder he says down in the sixth verse, Jesus said unto them, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. He said he told the truth. He said, I'd tell you if there wasn't a place in heaven for you. He's one of truth, and we know it's the truth that God has allowed his son to prepare a place there for us. We can't go into the presence of God without the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm glad that I'm saved and I'm on my way to heaven. And tonight, if you're not, we just hope that you will be before the service is over. Let's start with the twenty eighth and thirty verse tonight. Hereafter, I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and has nothing in me. Now, you know, this is a great portion of God's word, and you think of the prince of this world, and I believe he's referring to Satan here, the prince and the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, the one who is ruling even in the affairs of men tonight, and God allows him to go so far and no far, uh, further. We realize that he is limited in what he can do, but he's still the god of this world. And beloved, he is gone into everyone's life, but he never got into the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. Although God allowed Satan to take the Lord Jesus Christ when he is into the wilderness and tempt him for forty days and forty nights, and when the Lord Jesus Christ was at the weakest point of his life, the Lord Jesus Christ defeated Satan. Always remember that he didn't defeat Satan in the strongest part of his life, but at his weakest point of life is when he defeated. Now, I'm thankful for that. That shows me how strong my Savior is. Isn't that great? He's that strong that he can conquer this mighty one that gives every one of us such a fit. Now, I realize it's not Satan himself, but the messengers that he sends to buffet us, for Satan is not omnipresent. He's not everywhere at once. He is only one place at a time. We don't want to give him more than what he deserves. He would like people to think that he's on everybody's back, but I have news for you, as I probably have said before, I'll say again tonight, he probably has never tempted you himself. Probably no one in this room has ever been tempted by Satan himself. Even Paul the Apostle did not say Satan tempted him. He said a messenger of Satan buffeted him. Satan is limited in what he can do. That's why even when we notice the Lord Jesus Christ, uh, when he was betrayed by Judas, and if we had time, we'd look at that portion, but I just want to refresh your memory about the scene there when the Lord Jesus Christ washed the disciples' feet and even Judas's feet. Remember, he said the one that would betray him would betray him after he had given him the sauce, and he dipped his hand in the dish with Judas, and he gave him the sauce, that bitterness, and Judas took it. And after he had taken that, Satan entered into Judas. The devil did not allow Judas to betray the Lord. We can't give that to Judas. Judas allowed Satan to overtake him, but Satan would let him do the job. Satan said, this is one job I'm gonna do myself, and he entered into Judas to betray the Lord Jesus Christ. He wanted to see the Son of God crucified, and Satan never had anything to do with Christ. He couldn't get in any ways into the life of Christ, even though he was weak when he transported him from the desert floor, even to the pinnacle of the temple, and that's exactly what Satan had to do. He had to carry the Lord Jesus Christ because he was so weak after fasting for forty days and forty nights that Satan literally had to carry him, transport him to the pinnacle of the temple. That's how weak he was. He says, cast thyself down. God will give care for you. And he told him not to tempt the Lord God. He didn't get the Lord Jesus Christ to bow down to him. When he was hungry, he told him to make bread to eat. He would not bow to the temptation of Satan. And beloved, we're thankful that we have a savior like this, that Satan had no part in the Lord Jesus Christ. But in your life and my life, the influence of Satan and his ministry of the demons that possess and even come into our lives and trick us up and make us discouraged. It's not Satan, but remember, it's one of his messengers that he has sent to do the job. I probably just had a private. You're probably more spiritual than I am. Maybe you had a sergeant or a lieutenant, how spiritual you are to deal with you, but I think all Satan has to do to me is just send a little private, say, give Jim a rough time, and I have a rough time. Not much more than that it would take. But beloved, he is great as far as we're concerned, but our savior, he defeated this great one, the prince and the power of the air, that spirit that worketh in the children of disobedience, he defeated him when he was the weakest. Haven't we a strong Savior? Now, beloved, as we look at this, notice what it says, hereafter I will not talk much with you. He's not going to talk much with them because he's going to be led away. Judas is going to have Satan enter him. Judas is going to be overtaken by Satan. Now Judas is captured by Satan, and Satan takes over the life of Judas and betrays him. I think that Judas's eyes were really opened up when he saw the Lord Jesus Christ there on trial, and when his heart was touched after he kissed him. How close can we get to heaven, beloved, and still go to hell? You can kiss the door to heaven, and you can end up in a lake of fire. That's what Judas will be. He kissed the Lord Jesus Christ, but Judas himself is going to be in the pit, the place prepared for the devil and his angel. The reason is Judas thought so much of money that he sold his soul, he sold his being to Satan for thirty pieces of silver, and when he got it, it burned his hand. And no doubt he was so convicted of the sin when he came to himself. Now, beloved, this is what we have to be careful of as even Christians, that we're not taken over even in such a fault, that such a thing we get our eyes off the Lord Jesus Christ, that we're so tempted to grab for silver and for gold. And I don't know of a time when it's so much energy put by Satan in material things that it is today, and we have to be very careful that we're not swallowed up in the things of this life. Satan has touched the lives of many individuals because of wealth or trying to get wealth or fame and fortune, trying to get something of this life. But beloved, it doesn't abide, and that's what you find in the fifteenth chapter, and I hope to get into that fifteenth chapter tonight when we abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will have everything for us, but this life isn't worth very much. You can lose your health and lose your wealth in a hurry. I many times think of that scripture where the Lord Jesus Christ talks about the woman that spent all on the physician. And beloved, you can spend all in a hurry on the physicians today if you get sick. You can work yourself until you get sick, and then you lose it all anyway. What good did it work do to work that hard? It's a wonderful thing to see that the Lord Jesus Christ himself put first things first. He put his Father in the first place. He was abiding in his Father. He wanted to go to his Father, even as we read that twenty eighth verse this morning. It says, ye have heard n- how I said unto you, I go away and come again unto you. If ye love me, ye would rejoice because I said, I go unto the Father, for my Father is greater than I. The Lord Jesus Christ was out of his territory, you might say, as far as the presence of God and the Holy Spirit of God. Of course, the Holy Spirit of God was on the Lord Jesus Christ and with the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't want to separate that, or the Father, either one. But beloved, when he came down to this earth, he was used to having all the angels of heaven fall down and worship him. They fell down and worship him, and that's why you've come after the resurrection, even in the first chapter of the book of Hebrews, God tells the angels of heaven to worship the Lord Jesus Christ. Was there ever a time that they didn't worship him? Beloved, it was that time when he became lower than the angels. You never worship something lower than yourself. And we notice that the Lord Jesus Christ became sin for us. The one who hated sin, the one who wanted to do away with sin. Now he had been down in this environment of sin for thirty three and a half years. Now he was longing to go back to heaven to be with his father. He was looking forward to that, but there was only one way he could go to his father, was through Calvary. He had to go through Calvary. He had to see the one that he was with for these three and a half years, Judas, one of his disciples, betray him with a kiss. He had to see the one that he loved. He loved Judas. And beloved, I believe that Judas could have been saved at the last moment instead of going to the tree and hanging himself if he would have gone to Calvary and said, Jesus, I'm sorry. I think the Lord Jesus Christ would have put out his hands and said, thy sins be forgiven thee, go and sin no more. But beloved, he was so touched by Satan that he could not repent of his sin. He thought it was too great that he had betrayed the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to the priest where he thought he would maybe get forgiveness. But beloved, there's not forgiveness in a priest's hand unless it's the great priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. He went to the temple where you would think he would have gotten forgiveness, but there was no forgiveness for Judas at the temple, for they looked at the money that he threw down in the temple instead of saying, yes, Judas is forgiven of his sins, for he has returned his money because he repented of his sin. He turned from his sin. He turned and gave back what he got for selling the Lord Jesus. He never spent a penny of it. It was all there, right back into the treasury, and they bought the potter's field to bury the Lord Jesus Christ, but God was ahead of them. He said, you're not going to put my son in a c- cemetery where there's going to be just common graves. He's going to be buried with the rich, though he was born in a stable, though he had his birth among animals. And sometimes we say God sure made a mistake there, but I think if we read our Bibles correctly, we will find out that God didn't even make a mistake in the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, for he represents the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. And beloved, if you ever want to find where a lamb's born, you have to go to the barnyard. The lamb, from the beginning of his birth, he was born in a stable where the lambs and the sheep and all the other animals were. That's where he was born. Shouldn't he have been born there? He was known as the Lamb of God. From his birth right to his death until his coming, he's known as the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world. It's a great savior that we have, and God is so wonderful to show us this in the Lord Jesus Christ. But you know, as you look at the Lord Jesus, he's longing to see his father. Now he's been among these people that are so fickle. When I think of myself, and I think of others as well, we're such a fickle bunch of people, aren't we? We, we're, we're not very good Christians at all, are we? The little hardship we have, the first thing we start to do is complain. I, I tell you, last night my heart went out when I looked over the television and watched the news of all those people in Lebanon suffering. The people over in Iran suffering. The war-torn nation, seeing these little children that have been born under a gun and the shots of a gun. Beloved, aren't we lucky people? We're such a fortunate people, every one of us. I wonder how many complaints you hear in their streets over there. I think you'd hear a lot more complaints in our streets than you hear over there. They have to stand in line for food. They have to stand in line for water. No toilet facilities that we take just for, for just a normal thing. Beloved, and I thought of that last night, and, and I had to check the tears. Maybe I shouldn't have. And I said, oh, Jim, how fortunate you are. And I said to Tina and Margaret, I said, oh, how fortunate we are. I said, thank God that we live in America. Listen, anytime you get tired of America, go to one of these other countries. I think all they need to do when somebody complains about our great country is just leave the United States for a few days. I want to thank God for America. You can drive from one coast to the other coast and never get stopped unless it's for speeding or breaking some kind of a driving law. You can go, and nobody will stop and say, let me see your passport. I think most of us don't even know what a passport. You know what it is, but I doubt that many. How many do have a passport? Let me see the hand. A few, very few. You don't get by with that overseas, beloved. Oh, what is it like to be suffering, and yet we don't know what it is to suffer like the rest of the world. We are millionaires, the poorest person here tonight, you're a millionaire when compared to the poverty of the rest of the world. And beloved, how we gripe and groan and moan. But beloved, as you look at the word of God, we see the Lord Jesus Christ seeing this kind of people, the hatred for the Jew against the Arab, the hatred of even as he meets that woman at the well, and she says the Jews don't have any dealings with the Samaritans. Oh, she didn't know who she was talking to, but she knew this, that the Jews never talked to a Samaritan. Why wouldn't they talk to a Samaritan? Because, beloved, a Samaritan was a half-breed. A half-breed was a half Gentile and a half Jew. But when they came in and took over Samaria, that the government came in and they took the Jews to their land, and then they sent some of the other people from their land into Samaria, and then they had to intermingle to try to do away with even the Jewish religion and the race, and they came up with the Samaritan, a half-breed, and a true Jew wouldn't look at a Samaritan, wouldn't want to have any dealings with him because he was a half-breed. The Lord Jesus Christ looked at that half-breed woman, half Jew and half Gentile, that Samaritan. He loved her. Beloved, all his life he saw the hatred of men. Beloved, the hatred stops when you find Jesus Christ, and the hatred will stop over in Israel, and even in that little country of Israel where there's Muslims and where there's Jewish. The hatred will stop when the two religions come together and meet the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life. But there will be no peace until they see that he is the Messiah, the sent one of God to this. Thanks be to God that we have one that can break down the middle wall of petition. Oh, it's a wonderful thing when you're together with Jew and Gentile alike at the same Lord's table breaking bread, and a Jew will get up and give thanks, and an Arab will get up and give thanks, and another Gentile will get up and give thanks, and they're all together in one, and it's only one common thing that they have is Jesus Christ. And beloved, many of us wouldn't have much common place here tonight if it wasn't for our Savior. And that's the only reason you're here tonight, is not because of me, but because of the Lord Jesus Christ, or because somebody wanted you to hear about the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's our common bond, and if we lose that, we lose everything. And that's why, oh, Satan would love us to do away with our Savior. But you know, the Lord Jesus Christ was looking forward to his Father. Oh, I've been down here on earth, I'm looking forward to going home. Beloved, it's a wonderful thing when you're so homesick for Jesus that you say, even so, come, Lord Jesus. It's a wonderful thing to look at the things that we're going to get in heaven, the mansion that he's preparing for us, and we're going to be there with him because he has got something specially for me. But beloved, there's some that are never going to make it because they haven't trusted the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it a wonderful thing to trust the Savior? Notice what he goes on to say in that next verse. Notice what he goes on to say in that next verse. But that the world may know that I love the Father. Now notice this word. And as the Father gave me commandment, even so I do. Arise, let us go hence. And beloved, the next two chapters, the Lord Jesus Christ is on the way to the Garden of Gethsemane, where he's going to pray. He's washed the disciples' feet. He's given them the instruction. He's told them of the thing that's going to happen, and in the sixteenth chapter, he goes even into more detail, how they're going to suffer persecution, how they're going to be killed. He wants them to know what's going to be before them, and as I said this morning, the Lord Jesus Christ does not want his people to be caught unawares, but he wants them to realize what is before them. Notice what he says, arise, let us go. But before he says that, you notice what he says, but that the world may know that I love the Father. He wanted everybody to know he loved his Father. Isn't it a wonderful thing when a son or a daughter loves their father and mother? That's the way it should be, you know? We're a family. I always like to think of an assembly as just a big family, a happy family, together sharing the things of God's word, blessing each other, just gathering together and just having a talk. I was startled the other day when I heard somebody tell me, they said, you know, that they were talking to some young people, and this young person said to this other young person, you know, my dad never talks to me unless he's yelling at me. I couldn't believe my ears. Another young person said, well, I, that's all I know about my dad too, or he'll tell me to go get the paper for him. My dad never communicates with me. If the head of the house is not communicating with the rest of the house, how can that house stand? Beloved, I was shocked as I heard the report that many of the young people then got together and said, you know, it's the same thing in our home. I couldn't believe it. Now, you think I'm talking about kids that don't have Christian parents. Beloved, these were kids from a Christian school. I couldn't believe that dads didn't talk to their daughters and didn't talk to their sons. One of the greatest days that I have is driving my daughter to school when I'm home, and I get to talk to her, just get to talk. It's a wonderful thing just to talk, to find out what's going on. I can't wait till she gets home from school and to hear her tell me the interesting things that she's done at school. Beloved, it's a wonderful thing to communicate. It's got to be a two-way street, and this is what we need today, communication with one another to break down these walls of barrier. Jesus Christ wanted to talk to his father. He was the son. He said, I want the world to know I love my father. Isn't it a wonderful thing when a child says, Dad, publicly, I love you. Sometimes the football players and the baseball players that are on television, they'll say, I love you, mom. Love you, mom. Be nice once in a while if they'd say, Dad, I love you too, wouldn't it? They always call out mom. But beloved, you know the world is in such a gear tonight that we don't love one another like we should, but the law should break down when we come to Christ. We should love one another with a tender love. We should be so interested in each other's life that we know what's going on in each other. We're interested. We're interested in what our wife does during the day. We're interested in what the husband does during his day. And we could sit as a family instead of watching the television, the devil box. We have communication. Beloved, how much communication do you have in your home? How much time is it for fellowship with one another, bringing yourselves together to just sit down and talk without hearing some blaring television of some program? You see, this is the instrument of Satan, and the reason people aren't being converted today is because of television. I used to see many boys and girls during my Bible schools in the summer come to Jesus Christ, but I want to tell you the same thing that Owen had to tell a congregation not long ago. He said it's getting less and less of the children professing to be saved. Why? Is our preaching any different? No, I think I'm preaching harder today than I ever have in my life. But why aren't they coming to Christ? Because they're been watching television so much is they think when you talk about Jesus Christ dying on the cross, it's just like one of those little, uh, cartoons that they see. It's just a make-believe story, and everything we hear, we think it's not the truth. It's just make-believe. And they think it's just another make-believe story. Well, it was interesting, yeah, that Jesus Christ died. They don't believe it, that it's the truth. It's because they've been fed so many make-believe stories, they think this is just another Santa Claus story, like they've been told about Santa Claus. It's just another story that people tell their kids, and they're not interested in committing their life to it because they don't believe it, because they think it's just like one of those television stories. And beloved, even as we notice on the news, nothing aware shocks us anymore, as even ABC tried to shock America not long ago, tried to make them think of what it would be like for an atomic blast to come to this planet Earth and what it would mean to us who are remaining here on the Earth. What would it mean? Did it disturb the American people? They thought, surely, after they spent all that money on that film and sent it throughout America, that no doubt they would have a lot of demonstrations in Washington, that they'd have a lot of people walking with their placards once again, like they did during the Vietnam War, that they would start an uprising to make the people get on the way of getting rid of the nuclear bomb and nuclear war that's before us. But, beloved, it didn't do one thing. You know why? People don't care. Oh, a few are marching, and a few are crying out, but they thought there would be a great response, but there was no movement. Why? Because people's hearts are hard, because every night on our television, when we watch the news, we are seeing men shot in cold blood murder, and we think nothing of it. We say, oh my, look at that fella, and we see him stagger and drop. We notice this, and it doesn't even faze us. We're not fazed by these things anymore. It's because our hearts have been hardened by the things of this world, and the things are rushing on quickly to the end, and yet people don't realize how close we are. But the Lord Jesus Christ wanted the world to know, I love the Father, and he wants each one of us to say to the world, I love the Lord Jesus Christ, and I love the Father who sent the Lord Jesus Christ. He wants us to stand up and be counted, though we might be laughed at, though we might be persecuted. Beloved, what difference does it make? Because the next chapter is what it's all about. For notice what it starts out in that first verse. I am the vine, and my Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purges it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Beloved, the secret of the Christian life is fruit bearing. The fruit bearing of a Christian life. Every one of us that are saved, we should be producing fruit. Now, I know the Word of God tells us not to judge one another, but beloved, we're sure good fruit inspectors, and we can judge by the fruit that a person is producing. And if your life is producing the fruits, and uh, you really get this into the sixteenth chapter, I should have really preached to the sixteenth chapter because I really like to get into it. But anyway, the sixteenth chapter really brings out why the Holy Spirit of God was sent, to convict of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. Beloved, fruit bearing. He comes to convict of sin, the sin even of a believer's life, of righteousness and of judgment. It's fruit bearing, what we find in this chapter. Notice what he brings up. Every branch of me that beareth not, uh, fruit he taketh away. Beloved, there's a lot of people that have never experienced the true birth. There are branches that have never been grafted, and he just takes them away. He takes them away to the burning. They have never been born again. Those that are producing fruit are the real ones who have trusted Jesus Christ, and he gives them eternal life through trusting him. He gives them life for everlasting. It's going to be forever. And beloved, they produce fruit, and the Lord God of heaven, the Father, he prunes the branch. The other day I had one of my neighbors that's a restaurant owner. I've got a grapevine that my wife's aunt gave us, and every year I've added, and he told me when I planted it, he said, now cut some of it off. Well, I just planted the thing. I didn't want to cut anything off. He says it'll never produce, and that was two years ago. Well, he was right that year, the first year I had it, it produced some, but the first thing I knew, by the middle of the summer, the grapes just withered on, and it was no grapes at all. They were nice, big, juicy grapes. I couldn't wait till they got ripe, and all of a sudden they just shriveled up to nothing. Last year it happened the same thing. He says, well, he says, didn't I tell you to prune it? I knew what the scripture said about pruning. I don't know anything about pruning, but he did. He came over there, and, uh, he's from Greece. He's a, a good Greek brother over there, and he came over with the she- shear and just pruned that thing, and I looked and I thought, is he never going to stop cutting my, my, uh, my, uh, uh, uh, grapevine? Is it going to be finished before he gets through? It looks like he's going to take everything away. And then he told me to take the rest, and he said, now plant these, and he said, some will grow. I don't know if they will or not, but I'm taking his word. I'm going to try it. I try to put it in dirt like he told me to, trying to find out. I don't know much about farming. Don't come up and tell me afterwards how to do it, because I still won't know how to do it. You just come and do it for me, and then they'll grow. But, you know, he pruned that thing. He said, now you watch. Well, beloved, the reason I trust him is last year I went over to his house, and his grapevine was just loaded down. It looked like the children of Israel had been there with their grapevine run a promised land, with all the grapes that he had, and I'm sure a lot of the people in his restaurant got some of those nice grapes that he had on his vine. They were just loaded down with grapes, and I'm looking forward to seeing some grapes on mine this time and hope they don't wither away. But, you know, he pruned it. But, beloved, it was fruit there. Now he said, if nothing was on it, you might as well cut it away. You might as well do away with it. Beloved, if there isn't fruit in our life, we might as well check up to see if we've ever been grafted in, if we've ever been born into the family of God. And I'm afraid that we notice that some people have never been grafted in to the true vine, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. For notice what it says in the third verse, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Now notice what it says, now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. He has given him the word. He's given him the word of God, and he's spoken to his followers that they might know what he's saying, what he's talking about. He says, I have, you're clean through the word. Beloved, when we read this word, when we study this word, we get clean through it. Isn't it a wonderful thing to take the word of God and just let it clean our minds and our thoughts and even the intent of the heart. When we read his word, but if we don't read his word, we're not going to get clean. Just like the farmer told the man one day, his servant, he says, go on out, fill this basket full of water. And he went out to the pump, and he filled that basket, and of course the basket had holes in it, and he filled it up, and he came back, he says, have you filled the basket full? He says, sir, every time I fill that thing up, he said, the water runs right back out. And the master picked up the bucket, and he looked at it, he said, yeah, but it's a lot cleaner. Our minds like to be, be like that basket, just like a sieve, that it just goes through, but your mind is a lot cleaner as you let the Word of God go through it. But if you never let the Word of God in it, beloved, you have a lot of rubbish in your mind that you need to get rid of. All of the things that you've seen during the day. That's like washing our feet when we come to the Word of God and letting them clean us up, clean us up, clean our minds up. And I always like to take the Word of God just before I go to bed and to read something in the word of God. Now, I know some people like to read early in the morning, and if you're that temperament, fine. But I always like to close the day by reading the word of God to find out what God has to say. Put that last thought in my mind, something about God instead of about business. How about you businessmen that have so many problems today? I feel sorry for you. You have multitudes of problems, much weight on you, businessmen. But how about instead of going to bed thinking about what you're going to do tomorrow, how about just taking God's word and just reading a chapter or two and let God speak to you, and let God speak to you, just say, oh Lord, speak to me tonight before I go to bed. Fill my thoughts and think of the chapter as you're laying there trying to go to sleep. And then, beloved, as you think about these things, Satan's not going to let you stay awake very long. If you have trouble sleeping, just read the Bible or pray. It always works. The devil doesn't want to hear his saints pray, so he'll put you to sleep some way, he has to chloroform you some other way, but you go to sleep. He don't want you to read the Bible, and he doesn't want you to pray. The fastest way, instead of taking those sleeping pills, now if you're on it by doctors, I'm not trying to be a doctor, but if, uh, you're not, leave the sleeping pill and take the gospel and read that and meditate upon that, and Satan will be so upset that he'll send one of his servants down there to put you to sleep if he has to knock you in the head with a tube of four, so you won't read the Word of God and meditate on it. That's how much he hates it. But beloved, the thing is, is we don't get washed through the Word. Jesus Christ has given us his Word to put in our hearts. Notice in the fourth verse, and again, I'm going too slow tonight. Abide in me, and I in you, as a branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in a vine. No more can ye except ye abide in me. Beloved, are we abiding in the Lord Jesus Christ? Or are we just putting up with Christ? Could I say that again? Are we abiding in Christ, or are we just putting up with Christ? Are we bored to death with our Savior? You might say, what a terrible thing to say. Well, beloved, it seems that way. It seems that our Christianity hasn't gotten very deep, does it, in our life. It seems like we put up with the Lord Jesus Christ, and sometimes during our daily activities, he gets in the way because we compromise the stand that we should take for him, and we feel uncomfortable. The best way not to be tempted is don't go to the places to be tempted, to stay out of there. You didn't find Daniel at the drinking party they had to send for him. Beloved, if you're tempted to drink, the best thing is not to go to the drinking party. We notice that God has given a remedy for us. As he says even in his word of God. Let's turn to First Corinthians, the tenth chapter and the uh thirteenth verse, and this I will close with. Notice what it says, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer ye to be tempted above that ye are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape, that ye may be able to bear it. The temptation is there, beloved, but he's going to give you a way of escape because you're part of the vine. He is the vine, and we are the branches, and we get our resources from the vine. We get our resources from the Lord Jesus Christ, but we'll never get it unless we abide in him, unless we are centering our life around the Lord Jesus Christ, unless we see that he has accomplished everything for us. Beloved, we don't have a bit of work to do ourselves. All we have to do is abide. All we have to do is just take and listen to what he has done for us. Enjoy what he has possessed for us. He has given us eternal life. We don't have to do one thing for eternal life, but to accept the gift that he gives to us and to abide in his love. And so many times we try to do more that the Lord Jesus Christ has already done for us. Well, I didn't get through with the message, but I've got one minute to close, and I've got my brother to give a hymn, and if he gets up here right away, we'll be out pretty close on time. But it's a wonderful thing to know this, beloved. The Lord Jesus Christ loves us, and he prunes those vines that produce the fruit. Never get discouraged when he prunes you. When you think you're doing something for God, and it seems like all of a sudden he just starts to chop away at you. The reason he's doing it, he wants more fruit, and we do too. Let's abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. There were hundred sixty one, two hundred sixty one, First and last sentence. When we walk with the Lord in the light of his word, what a glory he sheds on our way. While we do his good will, he abides with us still, and we also will trust and obey. Trust and away, for there's no other way to be happy in season, but we trust and away. Let these fellows in dreams, we will live as we see, for we walk by this high is the way. What we said we will do, where we stand we will go. Care and fear only, come and obey. Come and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in this world, but to trust and obey. That was your final word of prayer. If there's anyone here that can come tonight, I'll be glad to speak to you after your service. Father, we're just thankful for the Lord Jesus. We're thankful that he cleansed us from all sin, and that he's given us the privilege to reproduce truth. Well, Father, only the living ones can produce truth. The dead ones have no life, and we're so thankful that the Lord Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life, and we get life from him. May we all abide in the Lord Jesus Christ. We're thankful that Father already told us these great truths in his word. We just pray that this week that we might just think of the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ that draws on us. Oh Father, we're looking forward to him coming for his own, and we even say, do not even so come, Lord Jesus, but might be if so he does not say. Oh, may they turn at life over to the Lord Jesus Christ this night. We ask in thy son's precious and worthy name. Amen.