If My Words Abide in You

I appreciate what Mr. Beyer was going over as far as the the sermonette here today. And as I mentioned earlier there in announcements, a study of the Bible is something all of us...

He says, let's see, starting in verse 53, Jesus said, Verily I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and you drink his blood, then you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and who drink my blood have eternal life.

And I will raise you up from the last day, for my flesh is true food, my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me and I in them.

Just as the living Father sent me and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. See, he goes through a whole section here. Actually, there's even a lot more that I'm not even going to try to read here now, because what I want to focus on is what it says starting in verse 60, because as Jesus said these very powerful words, as he made statements that in some ways seem a little bizarre. What is he talking about? Eating my flesh, drinking my blood. He said that, you know, the disciples, we don't know what he's talking about. Many of the disciples heard it in verse 60 and said, this teaching is very difficult. Who can accept it? Jesus being aware of what they were thinking or complaining about, he said, well, does this offend you? Is the difficulty of what I'm saying go right over your head? Of course, in many ways it was. It was going right over their head. They weren't understanding what he was implicating, what he was stating, because it was yet to be enacted. It was yet to be brought into being. It was yet to be the sacrifice having been given and the symbols of red and wine or the emblems that we use that represent the sacrifice of Christ, they were yet to be fully revealed. But he goes on in verse 62, what if you were to see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before? He says, you think that's bad? You think that's bad that I'm telling you to eat my flesh and drink my blood? What if I am going to just disappear into the sky? What if I'm going to ascend to heaven? How's that going to make you feel? He says in verse 63, it is the spirit that gives life and the flesh is useless or prophets nothing. The words that I have spoken to you, they are spirit and they are life. What Jesus had to say is what causes us to know that we can have eternal life, that we can live in the family of God with God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord for all eternity. And yet what he points out there is that, you know, what he said was extremely important. What he said was very significant. And when we tie this together with what we read last week or the week before here in John 15, because I want to tie this together, because in John 15 he's also talking about abiding in me. He says in verse 4, abide in me and I will abide in you because in verse 5, I'm the vine and you're the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit because of course apart from me you can do nothing. He was saying that I have all the answers. I know how to live life. I know what the purpose of life is. I know what your destiny is. I know what God holds out before you. I know what it is to live forever because he'd always existed. And of course he was always going to exist into the future. And yet in this physical form he said, you know, I want you to focus on my words in verse 7. I'd like for us to, you know, to focus on this verse today if you abide in me.

And if my words abide in you, if you abide in me, if I know that that connection is there and your, my words, abide in you, then ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.

That type of relationship with Jesus Christ is what every one of us want. It's what every one of us have, I believe, at least to a degree. I think that's something we can grow in.

We come to church services, we meet together, we talk to each other, we try to encourage each other.

Ultimately, the church has a great benefit in our lives and in our growth as Christians. And yet, ultimately, you know, what's really going to cause us to grow is for the words of Jesus Christ to be in our mind, in our heart, in our lives. That's what he tells us here. If my words abide in you, then you can commune with the Father. You can ask Him whatever you need. He will help you. He will provide you the help that you need. And that, of course, is what all of us want. We want help. We need help. And so, I'm saying, how can Christ's words abide in us?

How do Christ's words abide in people and in England if they don't even have a Bible? I mean, you would think that would be one of the places where they probably have Bibles, you know, maybe in certain parts of Africa they probably don't have, or in other parts of the world. In China, I doubt, you know, all that many people have, proportionately, Bibles. Even access, perhaps. But see, you know, if we study the Word of God, and that's how, of course, the words of Jesus are going to be a part of our life. And so, I want to encourage us to study the Bible. Now, again, I know you do, but I'm encouraging you to do that in whatever way I'm not going to tell you how to do it, because there's billions of ways of doing it.

But I can encourage you to do it, to be consistent with, you know, a part of your day of drinking in of the words of Jesus. The words that actually are, we're told that we should not just read them, but we should enjoy them. We should delight in them. Psalm 119 tells us this. I know all of us have read this before. Psalm 119 is a beautiful Psalm, lengthy Psalm, and yet one that reveals a great deal about God's law. And yet it says in verse 97, Oh, how love I thy law. That's what David was saying. How love I thy law. It is my meditation all day long. Now, from some of David's actions, it didn't look like he was thinking about it all the time because, you know, he went astray. He would not always obey. But in his heart, you can see he loved what God had given him. He loved what God had made available to him, his understanding, his position and role as king in Israel. He understood that. And down in verse 103, he says, How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth. Now, honey's pretty sweet. It tastes pretty strong as far as a sweet taste.

And yet, do the words of God have that amount of impact on us? Whenever we study the words of God, because you have to admit that a lot of things in the Bible are kind of difficult to understand. I mean, if we don't have the background for it. I mean, there are many, many things I read today. I certainly don't know. You know, Mr. Beyer was making quite a guesstimate there saying that I'm going to tell him what some of the stuff in Revelation, I don't have any idea what some of the stuff in Revelation is about. I do know that it's a vision that God gave to John, and that it is a revealing from Jesus Christ. And so I would imagine he would be able to help you and me to understand whatever it is he's conveying there. But of course, how often do we read that? Well, I don't know. I mean, I try to read it occasionally, but I don't always read it. I certainly do like what you find in chapter 4 and chapter 5 about the throne of God, about Christ in chapter 1 being at the right hand of the Father. I love those type of descriptions because they make a deep impact on my being able to just talk to God. In verse 105 it says, your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.

But not only should it be something that we hunger for, we yearn for, we want to read, we want to study, but we know that it gives us the direction that we're supposed to go. And so, you know, that is, I think, in many ways, very exciting. You see in the New Testament a number of things about the way that we could look at the Bible.

Again, I know that I'm preaching to the choir here as far as, you know, do you believe you ought to be studying the Bible? But I hope that this can be a reminder to, you know, to see the value, to know that if the words of Jesus Christ abide in us, then that enhances our relationship with God to the point to where we're able to gain insight and understanding of spiritual things.

If we completely ignore the Bible, I think we're going to limit ourselves. We're going to limit our understanding, because there are things I read through, you know, I'm fascinated to even read information about the life of Jesus, especially even the younger life of Jesus, which we don't have hardly any biblical record to go on. I like to just read stuff that would kind of piece that together to make as much sense as possible, because that is, I think, an important part of our growth and our development.

In 2 Timothy chapter 3, you know, all of us are familiar with what Paul told Timothy. He told Timothy, as you start out in your ministry, you know, you need to build on the foundation you already have, because your mother and your grandmother have taught you the Holy Scriptures. They've taught you! And at that point, I would assume it was the Old Testament he was talking about.

That's what they have. That's what they were able to use. 2 Timothy chapter 3. And of course, it tells us here in 2 Timothy 3, and as Timothy was wanting to be a good servant, he says in verse 14 of chapter 3, as for you, continuing what you have learned and firmly believed, knowing from whom you've learned it and how from childhood you've known the sacred writings. You've known the Holy Scriptures, those Holy Scriptures that are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ. See, we have hope. We have hope because of Jesus Christ.

We have hope because of our relationship with God the Father and Jesus Christ, and that's enhanced through the words of God. He goes on in verse 15 from childhood you've known these Holy Scriptures because in verse 16 all Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, for doctrine.

That's where we get the whatever doctrines we teach in the Church of God. We teach that because we see that this is what's in the Bible. This is what we read. This is what we can see. We enjoy the Sabbath because, you know, the Sabbath is clearly defined not only in the old but in the New Testament. It's what Jesus did, and so we have a lot to go on there, but it says the Scriptures point out to us they're profitable for doctrine.

For reproof. Now that reproof, you know, it seems pretty similar to correction to me. It says reproof and for correction. Those two often run together probably to some of you who are more linguistic than I. You understand a bigger variation there.

reproof seems to indicate convicting us of sin, convicting us of error, and correction being more of maybe restoring us to an upright. I mean, we've been turned over, we've been cast down. We can be restored if we're corrected by the Word of God. And then finally for instruction in righteousness, training and guiding us in our lives so that in verse 17, the man of God, everyone who belongs to God may be proficient and equipped for every good work. See, this was instruction that Paul gave Timothy so that he would be firmly grounded in the Word of God.

And even in Luke 24, if we look back to see what Jesus told his disciples, and this of course was after his resurrection, it was as he interacted with them from the grave, or beyond the grave, I should say, because he had already been resurrected in Luke 24. And of course, Luke 24 is a marvelous chapter because it speaks to the impact that Jesus Christ is able to have on our lives.

Because as these men walked to Amos, as they walked to Amos, they didn't know who it was that was walking with them. He just appeared, and he talked to them, and he acted like he didn't know what was going on, and they were baffled. They were baffled by the fact that, you know, you don't have any idea what's been happening. Do you know what, you know, they killed the one called Jesus. You don't even know about that. Of course, he just played along with them and continued to, you know, listen to them.

But it says in verse 25, he said to them, Oh, how foolish you are, how slow of heart to believe what the prophets have declared. Was it not necessary that the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into His glory? This was a part of the plan. This was a part of the plan that the Father and the Son were going to carry out. They were going to allow this sacrifice to occur, so all of us don't have to shed our own blood for our own sins.

But He says in verse 27, beginning then with Moses and with all the prophets, He interpreted to them the things about Himself in all the Scriptures.

You know, that was important information. What Jesus went through, and I'm going to go through a little bit just kind of a summary of sections of the Bible here in a little while. But what Jesus went through was what we read in the writings of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms.

He pointed out the things that were pointing to Him, pointing to the fact that He would come, pointing to the fact how it would all come about. What all would be fulfilled. Because as you see over in verse 44, He says, these are my words that I spoke to you while I was with you, that everything written about me in the law of Moses and in the prophets and in the Psalms or the writings must be fulfilled. And so He said and in essence verified the sections of the Old Testament that we're familiar with, the law and the prophets and the writings. You know, those are all sections that at times we should read. Now I know trying to read the big book, I guess this would really be a big book, trying to see. Yeah, looks like I've got a thousand pages here. So trying to read a thousand page book, that's kind of almost over my head most of the time. Again, some of you, you know, probably easily do that. That's not easy for me to do, but it's something I love to do. It's something I'm excited to do because of what I'm telling you about. Jesus said, you know, if my words abide in you, well then you can have a relationship with the Father that is extraordinary. And so I think we certainly want to try to make that come to pass. And yet as Jesus pointed out, verse 45, He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures. See, He opened their understanding. He gave them insight into how it was that it was described. You could read Psalm 22 and make it say whatever you think it says. I'm sure He explained to them how some of that alluded to what I just went through.

I'm sure prior to that, you know, many people read that and they have no clue what it was talking about. Thought it had to do something with whatever David was going through back at that time.

And yet, and of course it appears to allude to that in some ways, and yet what Jesus said was, you know, this is referring to how I've been betrayed. This is referring to how I've been cast aside. This is referring to how I've been brutally crucified. This is referring to, you know, my sacrifice just a few days ago. But He opened their mind to understand the Scriptures. And of course, He wanted them to understand it. And so that's important, you know, for all of us. We all know that, you know, the king of Israel was directed, at least that's what we read in Deuteronomy 17, that the king was to have a proper foundation. Deuteronomy 17, this is actually instruction that was given even before the king was ever appointed. He saw was the first king of Israel. I don't know how much he read the Bible.

I don't know how much he dwelt on. What it is, that's important. It appears that David may have, and again, I think Solomon had to at least for a little while, but he ignored much of it. But here in Deuteronomy 17 in verse 18, when he had taken the throne of his kingdom, or when he has taken that throne, this is again looking into the future, he shall have a copy of this law written for him in the presence of Levitical priests, or he shall write his own copy of the law. That'd be even better. That'd be better for me. If I were to sit down and just copy it, write it out, I would remember more. And I think, you know, I don't know what type of Bible study you do. I don't know what type of, you know, process helps you the most. But whatever it is, use it. Use it, whatever it is. If it's memorizing the Bible, memorizing certain sections, writing out certain sections. I know dealing with our correspondence course of the past, that was one of the ways, I think, that in many ways words of the Bible were ingrained in people's minds because we were told or asked to write out some of it or answer questions directly. Or, you know, many of us probably had at that time reams of paper in a notebook. Or we were writing out whatever, you know, the Scripture said or whatever the question was and what it's clear that the Scripture says the answer is whatever it is. This is what the king was asked to do. This was a part of his preparation.

And it shall remain in verse 19 with him and he shall read it all the days of his life.

Well, we haven't come to the end of our life yet. And some of us are closer than others of us. Some of you are only 20. Some of us are 60. We've got a lot further to go, or some have a lot further to go than others. But here the king was supposed to not only write out this copy of the law or habit written for him. It was to remain with him. He was to read it all the day of his life. And then it says why? So that he will learn to fear the Lord is God. He would have a proper respect for God and he would diligently observe the words of the law and the statutes.

See, whenever the words of God are a part of our life, whenever they're a part of our study, whenever they're a part of our discussions or a part of our, you know, our daily, I guess our daily food, it ought to be a spiritual food that we are, you know, we get up and we eat something. And I'm pretty sure most of us do. Fairly soon I get up and drink coffee pretty quickly. But here it's talking about the benefit to the king and the benefit to us of feeding on the words of God. Because in essence, you know, what it caused him to do is to remember a right type of fear of God, a right type of respect for God, but also to, you know, then obey or observe the words of the law. And in a sense, this was affirming him to be the secondary ruler. This was really, this was the plan. This was how it was designed. This was set up for him not to think, I'm in charge. I'm the one everyone answers to. I have all the answers. He was set up to be the secondary ruler because the real ruler would be revealed in the Word of God. The real ruler is revealed in the Word of God. And so if he recognized that he was under the guidance of God, he was under the direction and dictates of God, well, then he was going to get a much life better chance, higher probability of doing a good job because he was, you know, certainly fulfilling a part of the responsibility by yielding to a study of the Word of God. And so I certainly think that that would clearly be an indication that all of us should not forget or we should not neglect the value of the words of God abiding in us. In Hebrews 4, another verse that I know you're familiar with. Hebrews 4 verse 12 says that the Word of God is far more valuable.

It's far more significant. It's far more important. It's far more meaningful than I even would believe. Here in Hebrews 4 and verse 12, it says the Word of God is a lie. The Word of God is living and active, and it's a lie of sharp than any two-edged sword. Now I'm sure some of you have some type of knife or sword. It may be very sharp. I was looking the other day, I've got a one knife I keep in my car for protection. Usually to open candy wrappers and peanut wrappers and stuff. I keep it in my car and I was noticing this thing wouldn't cut hot butter. This is actually a blade that could be sharpened. There should be sharpened in the blow sharp when I first got it, but it's kind of gotten dull over the years that I've not sharpened it. It's something that it really works very, very well. Of course, you see, if you ever try to skin animals, a sharp knife works much better. A dull knife doesn't work hardly at all. It is pretty well useless. And yet, amazingly, you know, this description, if we find in verse 12, is the word of God. It's a lie. It's living and it's active. It's sharper than any two-edged sword. No matter how sharp we might get our knife, word of God is able, as it goes on, piercing until it divides soul from spirit, joint from marrow. It is able to judge the thoughts and intents of the heart. That's amazing. That's amazing that the word of God is so powerful that it is able to show us, if we're open to reading and open to asking, it's able to show us things that in otherwise ways we would never, ever know about ourselves, about our lives, about our relationship with God, about our emotions, about our reactions, about, you know, all of the description here that you could give to judging the thoughts and intents of the heart. Now that's quite piercing. That's quite insightful, I would think, that it's discussing or pointing out, and it says, before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one whom we must render in account. The word of God is powerful. It's truly, truly powerful.

And of course, we find that as well whenever you read about information about the gospel.

You know, all of us are preaching, as we do our Bible seminars, we're preaching a gospel of the kingdom of God. And of course, that gospel is about Jesus Christ as the king of the kingdom, and it's about His announcement of the coming kingdom that we're all preparing for. We're studying for right now. I guess, you know, the bar may yet be in the future. We're studying for it, and I encourage you to study for it, because, you know, we want to appreciate the words of God and the power that is in those words. See, whenever we preach a gospel of the kingdom of God, a gospel of a relationship with God that people need, you know, is the most important part of that, the fact that Tom is talking? That's not the important part. Certainly, it's not the important part that I might talk or anybody else might talk. Power is in the Word of God. The power is in the fact that the Word of God convicts and then transforms. And of course, the gospel of the kingdom is a powerful gospel, but it's a gospel that transforms people's lives to become Christians, to become motivated towards something that you can't even see.

Motivated toward a future that is clearly described in Revelation. Mr. Byer read that on the way up here. No, surely not. Maybe you listen to it. Now, I guess you could do that. That's what I need. I need to get some type of a Bible transcription where you can just listen, because I spend enough time just driving around. That would be a good way to do it. That's a very good way to do it. But whatever way you use, we want to be appreciative of the power that's available to us and of the value of the books that we carry around and that we are, I think in many ways, familiar. Most of you know the Bible is broken down, and I guess there are different ways you could do it, but commonly broken down into seven different divisions.

Have you been studying any one of those particularly lately? I would think we ought to have. And I don't know exactly, because I know this would vary for everybody, and it varies for my wife and myself. I mean, she can read something and get something out of it that I didn't get at all.

And of course, if I try to explain it exactly like I see it, then that doesn't always work either, because maybe that way of explaining it just doesn't click with her. But then maybe she reads something else and learns something similar to that. So there are a lot of different ways of learning, and yet the different sections of the Bible need to be familiar to us. Now Jesus, as we pointed out there in Luke 24, Jesus mentioned the law, which is primarily the first five books of the Bible, the Torah, and Genesis and Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, four books that are very, I think in many ways, commonly accepted as far as religious individuals. But that's where we read Deuteronomy 18 or 17 about the king writing a copy of the law. That was to be a basis for his rulership, a basis for his responsibilities as he was to be administering them. And of course, when you read through the remainder of those books, you see the history, the history of man, but the history of the patriarchs, the history of Abraham, and then ultimately Israel and Moses. And you find a lot of the historical background that's there that again we can hear about and in some cases. And I know that the church puts out literature. We put out new things every month or every other month, at least we're putting out information that's biblically related. It's biblically, you know, if you try to keep up on everything that is available, you find yourself kind of confused. I find myself, I can't keep up with everything available. I can read John. You know, I can read a section of the Bible that not only makes sense, but that uplifts me. And so it's not a matter that everybody has to do it exactly the same way. Mike was mentioning studying, you know, going back and studying some about Joseph or going through the section there, which would be later Genesis whenever Joseph was his encounters in Egypt are described. And yet, you know, the law is something we should be familiar with. You have the section of the prophets, which includes, you know, the books of Kings and the books of Samuel and Kings and Chronicles. Those are all considered former prophets because those are mostly historical.

And then the books, you know, of the others, the other prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, and all of the minor prophets. You know, those books, they all fall into a category of what we would call the prophets, some former and some latter. And so again, you know, I can read some of those and not have any idea what I'm talking, you know, what I'm reading. They can be kind of confusing. Now there are certain sections of them that are very clear to me. Other parts of them are very unclear. I'm trying to figure out who's talking to whom. And yet, as we study that more, or as we maybe get a little more background information, then we learn what the setting is and how this is being, you know, what can be learned from this, and that becomes beneficial. And certainly the writings, the Psalms, that's what Jesus said, the section called the Psalms, makes up, you know, several of the poetic books that we find in the Old Testament. And certainly those books are quite different in composition. They're quite different in the way that they express things. And yet, they're a great cause for inspiration, a great cause for, I think, learning and understanding. When you read Job or you read Ecclesiastes or you read Proverbs, Proverbs clearly, a book that highlights many wisdom statements that were compiled for us.

You know, the writings ought to be a section that at times, you know, and I know as I think more than any as I study the Psalms, I gain more insight into understanding the benefits that God provides. The encouragement that God provides, the mercy that God extends, than from maybe any other section of the Bible. Then in the Old Testament, you know, the books can be divided into the Gospels, you know, which all of us are familiar with. We read them. We should read them. I would recommend you read one. You can read all four if you want. I recommend you read one between now and the Passover. That's simple enough to do. That's relatively easy. And yet it does give us, and of course, I think the study of the Gospels, you know, you have many of your Bibles probably have the words that Jesus directly spoke in red. You know, there's a reason why that's written that way, or at least, you know, biblical, you know, people who have compiled that have seen that, well, you know, maybe these ought to stand out. Maybe these are more important than the rest. And I would certainly say, yeah, they are. You know, they are, although I believe Christ inspired the entirety of the Bible. And so the entire Bible could be viewed in a similar way, but clearly the words of Jesus, the words He spoke, the parables He gave, the miracles that were recorded, you know, whenever we read, if it's John 11 and where Jesus simply says, Father, I know, I know that you always hear me. That's important to remember. He knew that. We probably know that, and yet we made out that at times. And so it's important for us to be reminded of that. And, of course, He goes ahead to say, Well, Father, I know that you hear me, but because of those of these standing around here, I'm saying this so that they will believe that you have sent me.

And, you know, the words of Jesus, and even as we read in John what He said that the disciples found very hard to understand, you know, those are very, very important words. The book of Acts describes, you know, the history of the New Testament church, the beginning, and then the initial history that we have recorded there. Again, we can, you know, you can read that. It's relatively easy to read as far as the history. And then you've got an entire section of epistles, either from Paul or from Peter or John. Now, you've got a whole section there, either written directly to a congregation of the church or to the church in general or to a minister in general. So those are, you know, instructive letters that were written there in order to give direction as far as doctrine and guidance to the church. And then finally, you've got a really wacko book there at the end of the Bible. Many people feel the book of Revelation is just completely in understandable. And I think as far as many things in there, they're clearly very difficult to understand. And yet, when you put it together with what we see written in the book of Daniel and how it leads up to what the book of Revelation is revealing, and we know that, well, no, it's not some crazy book that John was hallucinating while he was writing down, but he was directly writing down a description of a vision that was from Jesus Christ.

That points out what's going to happen between now and his return, and then after his return, what we have to look forward to, what we have to be excited about, what is in the very near future, as far as we can tell, you know, the world is coming apart at the seams, and we are watching. We are watching what's happening. We are unfortunately tied into it since we live here.

And yet, you know, there is a good outcome. There's a wonderful outcome. There is a return of Jesus Christ. There's establishment of the kingdom of God. There's ultimately a new heaven and a new earth that is described and we sang about in Revelation 21. See, those sections of the Bible, and again, I'm sure that all of you are familiar with all of that, those sections of the Bible, we don't always read different sections of those, but those are all sections that we can become familiar with. But my encouragement to you is simply, you know, whatever pattern of Bible study works best for you. Use it because of what we read here in John 15.

Because what John says, and we again want to keep this in mind, and we'll close with this verse here in John 15, because what John recorded that Jesus said in verse 7, if you abide in me and if my words abide in you, and of course, if we're going to study, if we're going to be consistent, if we're persistent, like I said, we've got a thousand-page book that we can become thoroughly familiar with, that we can receive benefit from, that we can receive encouragement from, and be uplifted by.

If the words of God, the words that Jesus spoke but the words that he inspired to be compiled as a part of the Bible, if those words abide in us, then we can ask what we wish, and we know that it will be done for us. That relationship with God, that closeness to God, that connection with God is what we all want. A connection with Jesus Christ as our Lord is what we want and what we need. So I encourage you, as we prepare for the Passover, as we look toward the Passover season that will be here in a short period of time, to allow the words of God to abide in you.