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Lord’s Day 46, 2010

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I was glad when they said to me, “Let us go to the house of the Lord.”

Paradoxes

O Changeless God,

Under the conviction of thy Spirit, I learn that
the more I do, the worse I am,
   the more I know, the less I know,
   the more holiness I have, the more sinful I am,
   the more I love, the more there is to love.
      O wretched man that I am!
O Lord,
   I have a wild heart,
      and cannot stand before thee;
I am like a bird before a man.
How little I love thy truth and ways!
I neglect prayer,
   by thinking I have prayed enough and earnestly,
   by knowing thou hast saved my soul.
Of all hypocrites, grant that I may not be
      an evangelical hypocrite,
   who sins more safely because grace abounds,
   who tells his lusts that Christ’s blood
      cleanseth them,
   who reasons that God cannot cast him into hell,
      for he is saved,
   who loves evangelical preaching, churches,
      Christians, but lives unholy.
My mind is a bucket without a bottom,
   with no spiritual understanding,
   no desire for the Lord’s Day,
   ever learning but never reaching the truth,
   always at the gospel-well but never holding water.
My conscience is without conviction or contrition,
   with nothing to repent of.
My will is without power of decision or resolution.
My heart without affection, and full of leaks.
My memory has no retention,
   so I forget easily the lessons learned,
   and the truths seep away.
Give me a broken heart that yet carries home
   the water of grace.

—The Valley of Vision, Arthur Bennett, editor (Banner of Truth Trust, 2002).

John 15:7–11

If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. 9 Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. 10 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. 11 These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.”

   There is a wide difference between believers and believers. In some things they are all alike. All feel their sins; all trust in Christ; all repent and strive to be holy. All have grace, and faith, and new hearts. But they differ widely in the degree of their attainments. Some are far happier and holier Christians than others, and have far more influence on the world.
   Now what are the inducements which the Lord Jesus holds out to His people, to make them aim at eminent holiness? This is a question which ought to be deeply interesting to every pious mind. Who would not like to be a singularly useful and happy servant of Christ? The passage before us throws light on the subject in three ways.
   In the first place, our Lord declares, “If ye abide in Me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” This is a distinct promise of power and success in prayer. And what does it turn upon? We must “abide in Christ,” and Christ’s “words must abide in us.”
   To abide in Christ means to keep up a habit of constant close communion with Him,—to be always leaning on Him, resting on Him, pouring out our hearts to Him, and using Him as our Fountain of life and strength, as our chief Companion and best Friend.—To have His words abiding in us, is to keep His sayings and precepts continually before our memories and minds, and to make them the guide of our actions and the rule of our daily conduct and behavior.
   Christians of this stamp, we are told, shall not pray in vain. Whatever they ask they shall obtain, so long as they ask things according to God’s mind. No work shall be found too hard, and no difficulty insurmountable. Asking they shall receive, and seeking they shall find. Such men were Martin Luther, the German Reformer, and our own martyr, Bishop Latimer. Such a man was St. John Knox, of whom Queen Mary said, that she feared his prayers more than an army of twenty thousand men. It is written in a certain place, “The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” (James v. 16.)
   Now, why is there so little power of prayer like this in our own time? Simply because there is so little close communion with Christ, and so little strict conformity to His will. Men do not “abide in Christ,” and therefore pray in vain. Christ’s words do not abide in them, as their standard of practice, and therefore their prayers seem not to be heard. They ask and receive not, because they ask amiss. Let this lesson sink down into our hearts. He that would have answers to his prayers, must carefully remember Christ’s directions. We must keep up intimate friendship with the great Advocate in heaven, if our petitions are to prosper.
   In the second place, our Lord declares, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” The meaning of this promise seems to be, that fruitfulness in Christian practice will not only bring glory to God, but will supply the best evidence to our own hearts that we are real disciples of Christ.
   Assurance of our own interest in Christ, and our consequent eternal safety, is one of the highest privileges in religion. To be always doubting and fearing is miserable work. Nothing is worse than suspense in any matter of importance, and above all in the matter of our souls. He that would know one of the best receipts for obtaining assurance, should diligently study Christ’s words now before us. Let him strive to bear much fruit in his life, his habits, his temper, his words, and his works. So doing he shall feel the “witness of the Spirit” in his heart, and give abundant proof that he is a living branch of the true Vine. He shall find inward evidence in his own soul that he is a child of God, and shall supply the world with outward evidence that cannot be disputed. He shall leave no room for doubt that he is a disciple.
   Would we know why so many professing Christians have little comfort in their religion, and go fearing and doubting along the road to heaven? The question receives a solution in the saying of our Lord we are now considering. Men are content with a little Christianity, and a little fruit of the Spirit, and do not labor to be holy in all of life. They must not wonder if they enjoy little peace, feel little hope, and leave behind them little evidence. The fault lies with themselves. God has linked together holiness and happiness; and what God has joined together we must not think to put asunder.
   In the third place, our Lord declares, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love.” The meaning of this promise is near akin to that of the preceding one. The man who makes conscience of diligently observing Christ’s precepts, is the man who shall continually enjoy a sense of Christ’s love in his soul.
   Of course we must not misunderstand our Lord’s words when He speaks of “keeping His commandments.” There is a sense in which no one can keep them. Our best works are imperfect and defective, and when we have done our best we may well cry, “God be merciful to me a sinner.” Yet we must not run into the other extreme, and give way to the lazy idea that we can do nothing at all. By the grace of God we may make Christ’s laws our rule of life, and show daily that we desire to please Him. So doing, our gracious Master will give us a constant sense of His favor, and make us feel His face smiling on us, like the sun shining on a fine day. “The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” (Ps. xxi. 14.)
   Lessons like these may be legal to some, and bring down much blame on those who advocate them. Such is the narrow-mindedness of human nature, that few can look on more than one side of truth! Let the servant of Christ call no man his master. Let him hold on his way, and never be ashamed of diligence, fruitfulness, and jealous watchfulness, in his obedience to Christ’s commands. These things are perfectly consistent with salvation by grace and justification by faith, whatever any one may say to the contrary.
   Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. The Christian who is careful over his words and tempers and works, will generally be the most happy Christian. “Joy and peace in believing” will never accompany an inconsistent life. It is not for nothing that our Lord concludes the passage: “These things have l spoken unto you, that your joy might be full.”

—J. C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels (Baker Books, 2007) [Westminster (PB) | Amazon (HC)].

A	udio Sermons Albert Mohler Alistair Begg Bret Capranica David Legge David Strain John MacArthur John Piper Mark Loughridge Mark Dever Michael Beasley Paul Lamey Paul W Martin Phil Johnson Phillip M Way RC Sproul Steve Weaver Thabiti Abyabwile

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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