Abiding in Christ' 2
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But the blessed Spirit works by MEANS. What are those means?
1. One means that he employs to bring about and keep alive this abiding in Christ is faith. It is through faith that, in the first instance, we have vital union with Christ; and it is through faith that we have communion with him. And the stronger the faith is, the more communion with his blessed Majesty there is. Now, the blessed Spirit after he is pleased, in the first instance, to raise up faith, waters his own grace in the soul, draws it forth into living act and exercise, and thus fixes that faith upon, and makes it center in Jesus. Wherever faith is thus blessedly raised up and drawn forth, union is revived, and communion blessedly experienced.
2. The blessed Spirit makes use of the word of life. It is through the word that the soul in the first instance is cleansed. "Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." (John 15:3.) It is by the word that the soul is begotten again unto eternal life. It is too by the word applied to the heart that the blessed Spirit from time to time keeps alive communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it not so in vital experience? Some passage of Scripture drops into the soul, some promise comes warm into the heart, and as it comes, it makes way for itself. It enters the heart, breaks down the feelings, melts the soul, and draws forth living faith to flow unto and center alone in the "altogether lovely one."
There are many times and seasons when the word of God is to us a dead letter; we see and feel no sweetness in it. But there are other times, through mercy, when the word of God is made sweet and precious to us; when we can say, with the prophet of old, "Your words were found, and I ate them; and your word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart." (Jer. 15:16.) It was so in the case of David. He says, they are "more to be desired than gold, yes, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb." (Psalm 19:10.) When this is felt, the sure effect is to bring the soul into communion with the Lord Jesus, who is the true word of God, and makes use of the written word to draw us near unto himself.
3. The blessed Spirit is pleased to make use also of prayer; raising up a spirit of grace and supplications, and interceding for us and in us "with groanings which cannot be uttered;" stirring us up, enabling us to pour out our heart at the footstool, and giving us power and inward strength whereby we plead with God, and wrestle with him as Jacob did of old, "I will not let you go, except you bless me." As the blessed Spirit is pleased to raise up these pantings and longings within, he strengthens faith in the heart, and there is a flowing forth of love to the Lord, whereby he is embraced in the arms of the tenderest affection.
4. The blessed Spirit sometimes also sheds abroad love; and love is a sweet seal of union and communion.
5. And lastly, not to mention others, the Spirit sometimes makes use of conversation with the Lord's family. "Then those who feared the Lord spoke often one to another." (Mal. 3:16.) And as the disciples found in journeying to Emmaus, "Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the Scriptures?" (Luke 24:32.)
And thus the blessed Spirit, in these various ways, maintains and keeps alive communion with the Lord Jesus Christ.
"Abide in me." The Lord did not use these words as though there were any power in the creature to abide in him. But he was pleased to use them that they might be blessed to his people when the Holy Spirit applied them to the heart; for, he adds, "And I in you." The one is the key to the other. If we abide in Christ, Christ abides in us. It is by Christ abiding in us, that we are enabled to abide in him.
But how does Christ abide in us? By his Spirit. It is by his Spirit, he makes the bodies of his saints his temple; it is by his Spirit, that he comes and dwells in them. Though it is instrumentally by faith, as we read, "that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith," yet it is through the communication of his Spirit to the soul, and the visits of his most gracious presence. Thus he bids us, encourages us, and influences us to abide in him by his abiding in us.
But his abiding in a child of God may be known by certain EFFECTS following. If he abides in you, he makes and keeps your conscience tender. It is sin that separates between you and him. Therefore, the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that he may abide in you and make you abide in him, makes and keeps your conscience tender in his fear. And this keeps you from those sins which separate between you and him.
He may be known, then, to abide in you by the secret checks he gives you when temptation comes before your eyes, and you are all but gone; as one of old said, "My feet were almost gone; my steps had well-near slipped." (Psalm. 73:2.) He is pleased to give a secret internal check and admonition; so that your cry is, "How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?" (Gen. 39:9.) And if you go astray and turn from the Lord to your idols, as to our shame and sorrow we often do, he proves that he still abides in you by not giving you up to a reprobate mind, not allowing you to harden your heart against him; but by his reproofs, admonitions, and secret checks in your conscience—by the very lashings and scourgings which he inflicts upon you as a father upon his child, and his secret pleadings with you in the court of conscience—by all these things he makes it manifest that he still abides in you.
Now these two things are the grand vital points that all Christians should seek to be established in. The first is, Is he a believer in Christ? Has the blessed Spirit made Christ known to his soul? Has he embraced Jesus in the arms of living faith? The second point which he should seek to have established in his soul is—Does he abide in Christ? This he may know by having some testimony that Christ abides in him, and produces the fruits that flow out of this inward abiding. If Christ abides in him, his heart will not be like the nether millstone. He cannot rush greedily into sin; he will not love the world, and the things of time and sense; he cannot happily love idols, or do those things which ungodly professors do without one check or pang.
Jesus in the soul is a guest that will make himself known; yes, abiding there, he is King therein. He is Ruler in Zion, and when he comes into the heart, he comes as King. Being therefore, its rightful Sovereign, he sways the faculties of the soul, and makes it obedient to his scepter; for "your people shall be willing in the day of your power;" (Psalm. 110:3.) "O Lord our God, other lords have ruled us,
but we worship you alone." (Isa. 26:13.)
O search your hearts. God enable us in mercy to do so, and see whether we have any testimony that we abide in Christ, by knowing and feeling that Christ abides in us, and, depend upon it, if Christ abides in us, there will be some marks and fruits flowing out of that abiding; there will be some outward as well as inward evidences that we are of another spirit from those dead in sins or dead in profession. There will be humility, sincerity, godly simplicity, and filial fear; deadness to the world, separation from evil, lowly thoughts of ourselves, brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, and tenderness of conscience; a fleeing from all things here below to make our sweet abode in the bosom of a risen Lord. Can we find these things going on in our souls? If not, we may call ourselves believers, or Christians, or children of God, but we have little evidence that we are worthy of the name.
II. But we pass on, as time is waning, to consider what are the FRUITS of thus abiding in Christ? "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me." Have you ever seen in the winter, the gardener pruning a vine? What a heap of branches lie at the foot of the tree after the keen knife has severed them. Will they ever bear fruit again? Is not this their destiny—to be swept into the ash-heap? And though I know that professors of religion never had that vital union with Christ, which the branches had with the vine from which the pruning knife had severed them; yet the Lord says, "Every branch in me that bears not fruit, he takes away." (John 15:2.) There was not a vital union, I know; but there was an apparent union. Those whom the husbandman takes away, bore no fruit; they are gathered up, and their "end is to be burned." (Heb. 6:8.) But on the other hand, wherever the branch is left in the vine, it bears fruit; the object of the gardener is, that it should bear more fruit, and he prunes it for that very purpose.
But what is the SOURCE of all the fruitfulness in the branch? Is it in self? No, not in self, that we well know. It is the sap that flows out of the stem into the branch that makes the branch fruitful. It is so in nature; and the Lord has declared it is so with the true branches of the only true vine. "As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abides in the vine; no more can you, except you abide in me." The only way we can bring forth fruit to God's honor and glory, is by abiding in the vine.
And is it not God's chief purpose in dealing with the souls of his people to bring forth fruit in them? "Herein is my Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so shall you be my disciples." (verse 8.) What are all God's chastenings, corrections, rebukes, and sharp trials for? Are they not that we may bring forth fruit to his honor and glory? But only in the same proportion as we abide in Christ can we bring forth fruit. May God enable us to see whether we bring forth any!
Observe these two things. If you do not abide in Christ, you bring forth no fruit; if you do abide in Christ, you are bringing forth fruit. But what is the fruit that a branch brings forth by abiding in the Vine? Is it all external fruit? External fruit is good. "By their works you shall know them." But there is internal fruit brought forth by the Spirit in the court of conscience, as well as external fruit brought forth in the life and conversation. For instance,
1. There is the fruit of HUMILITY. Is not that a precious fruit? "Be clothed with humility." (1 Pet. 5:5.) But we cannot bring forth the fruit of humility, real humility, except we have a vital union and communion with the Man of Sorrows. And if we know anything of union and communion with the Man of Sorrows, the bleeding Lamb of God, there will be a transfusion of his humility into our souls. "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus." (Phil. 2:5.) As we are led to look to Christ, believe in Christ, and our heart's affections are attracted and drawn forth to Christ, humility will flow into the soul, in the same way as the sap flows out of the stem into the branches.
2. There will also be sincerity and GODLY SIMPLICITY. What is my heart by nature but "a heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked?" (Jer. 17:9.) Can there be then any sincerity in the heart by nature? No spiritual sincerity— there may be natural sincerity; but that is no fruit of the Spirit. To be sincere Godwards; sincere in all we do, think, or speak in his name; to have a single eye to his glory; to have the simplicity of a little child before his gracious Majesty—where shall I go? where shall I look to find this precious grace of the Spirit? Oh, how I see continually, and that more and more, how men are led by base motives! Oh, how many men professing godliness, ministers and hearers, do I see led by ambition, pride, self-interest, or covetousness! How little do I see—I may say, how little do I feel in myself—of that singleness of eye to God's glory which is such a precious fruit of the Spirit in the soul!
3. GODLY FEAR, reverence of the great name of Jehovah; a conscience made and kept tender by him, a sight and sense of evil, and a fleeing from it—is not this another precious fruit that is brought forth in the heart through abiding in Christ?
4. FAITH in his blessed name, love towards his glorious Person, hope in his blood and righteousness; patience under trials, afflictions, temptations, and all the painful things that we have to grapple with in this valley of tears; perseverance to the end, amid a thousand inward conflicts and many outward foes—are not these, too, inward fruits of the Spirit brought about through abiding in Christ by living faith?
5. Prayerfulness, watchfulness, self-denial; brokenness of heart, contrition of spirit, sorrow for sin; mourning over our weak and wayward heart; panting and longing after his manifested presence; crucifixion of self in all its varied shapes and forms—are not these, too, inward fruits and graces that are brought forth by abiding in Christ?
Where these inward fruits are, there will be outward fruits; inward fruits first, outward fruits next; inward fruits before God, outward fruits before man. If we abide in Christ; if we have union and communion with him; if we live unto and live upon him, and he abide in us, we cannot have these choice blessings, and be like professors buried in carnality and covetousness. There will be, there must be, marks, outward marks, whereby we shall be, we must be, distinguished from them.
But all these fruits, whether inward or outward, spring from one source—union and communion with the lowly Lamb of God. Be this never forgotten. It is not my doing this, or my doing that—I may do a thousand things, and yet all spring from base motives, because they spring from selfish motives. But if the Lord is pleased to lead me, as a poor, ruined wretch, as a guilty, needy sinner, to the footstool of mercy, and there opens up to my heart and conscience the love and blood of the Lamb, gives me union to Jesus, and maintain communion with him—every grace and fruit of the Spirit will be found in me, just in the same way as the strength of the stem is made manifest by the strength of the branch, and the strength of the branch is maintained by its abiding in the stem.
You may be tried, some of you, that you bear so little fruit. You look into your own heart, and see little or no fruit there; you look to your lives, and see little or no fruit there. But perhaps you are mistaken (and we are apt to be mistaken) as to the way whereby fruit is to be brought forth. You read, you pray, you strive, you do your best; and yet you always fail; and you will fail to the end. And a blessed thing it is to fail; for all these failures are meant to bring you into a fleeing away from self-righteousness in all its shapes and forms to a cleaving to the Son of God—to have no faith, no hope, no humility, no patience in yourselves; but that the Lord may work in us to will and to do according to his own good pleasure, and bring forth those things which are well-pleasing in his sight. And this is the only way whereby we can bring forth divine fruit. The Apostle declares expressly, that we are divorced from our first husband, the law, and married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. And there is no other way whereby fruit can be brought forth for our good, and God's glory.
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