Surrender to the Lord (Luke 6:46)
As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus is not a god. He is the Lord God, coequal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But what exactly does it mean to call Jesus your “Lord”? The term “lord” is not as familiar to those of us who live under a representative form of government. In other times and places, a “lord” was someone who had total rule over others. The Biblical term means much the same thing. To call Jesus “Lord” is to acknowledge His right to rule. If you call Jesus your Lord, then He should have total rule over your life. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, but the question that remains to be answered is, is He truly your Lord?
In Luke 6:46, Jesus said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” It is possible to call Jesus your “Lord” and yet not be in obedience to Him. He could be your Lord in name only if you are not surrendered to his Lordship in your life.
There is a direct connection between victorious Christian living and the Lordship of Christ. As long as we are following the desires of our flesh, we will continue to live in defeat to sin. As long as you are living for yourself, you will be frustrated and dissatisfied. To enjoy the victory over sin that Jesus has won for us and find peace and fulfillment in Christ, we must live surrendered to His rule in our lives.
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- Apr 7, 2024Surrender to the Lord (Luke 6:46)
Surrender to the Lord (Luke 6:46)As Christians, we believe that Jesus Christ is Lord. Jesus is not a god. He is the Lord God, coequal with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit. But what exactly does it mean to call Jesus your “Lord”? The term “lord” is not as familiar to those of us who live under a representative form of government. In other times and places, a “lord” was someone who had total rule over others. The Biblical term means much the same thing. To call Jesus “Lord” is to acknowledge His right to rule. If you call Jesus your Lord, then He should have total rule over your life. He is the Lord Jesus Christ, but the question that remains to be answered is, is He truly your Lord?In Luke 6:46, Jesus said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” It is possible to call Jesus your “Lord” and yet not be in obedience to Him. He could be your Lord in name only if you are not surrendered to his Lordship in your life.There is a direct connection between victorious Christian living and the Lordship of Christ. As long as we are following the desires of our flesh, we will continue to live in defeat to sin. As long as you are living for yourself, you will be frustrated and dissatisfied. To enjoy the victory over sin that Jesus has won for us and find peace and fulfillment in Christ, we must live surrendered to His rule in our lives.
- Mar 31, 2024“O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?” (I Corinthians 15)
“O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory?” (I Corinthians 15)For all of human history, people have been obsessed with cheating death. There is something in our consciences put there by God that lets us know that death is not a good thing. Death came to creation as a result of man’s sin. Sin causes all our problems, and the greatest problem it causes is death. Is there a solution to our sin problem and, therefore, a solution to the problem of death? Despite all of our scientific advancements and attempts to avoid death, the fact remains that each of us will die.What, then, is to be done? Is there no hope? There is hope, but it is not found in us. Hope is found in the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ solved our sin problem when he “became sin for us” and “died for us.” He paid the penalty for our sin so that we could be delivered from death. But the gospel message also includes the fact that Jesus rose again. The resurrection proves that Jesus is the conqueror of sin and death. Death has been “swallowed up in victory,” and now God offers to give victory over sin to all who will place their faith in Jesus Christ.God does not want us to live in defeat to sin. He wants us to live in victory, and He freely “giveth us the victory through Lord Jesus Christ.” Through faith in Jesus, you can be saved from your sins and receive eternal life. And as a Christian, you can live in victory over sin and death “through our Lord Jesus Christ.” On this Resurrection Sunday, let us praise the Lord who gives us victory in Jesus!
- Mar 24, 2024Sin Is The Problem (Romans 3:23)
Sin Is The Problem (Romans 3:23)It has been said that the first step in solving any problem is acknowledging that there is one. You must then properly define the problem to be able to correctly solve it. There is no shortage of problems in our lives, but all of them can be traced back to one big problem. That big problem is sin.What is sin? Sin is any failure to live up to God’s standard. Who is a sinner? Everyone is a sinner. That means that everyone has a big problem because sin ruins everything.When God created the world, He declared that it was good, but then sin happened and all of creation was affected. We have sickness, pain, despair, death, and all other forms of unpleasant and undesirable suffering because of sin.Until we see that our problems in life are ultimately sin problems in one way or another, we will never be able to solve them. But when we accept that sin is the root cause of all our problems, then we can solve it properly.How do we solve our sin problem? The answer is, “With the gospel.” The gospel is the solution that God gave to the problem of sin. By grace through faith in Jesus’ death on the cross for our sin and resurrection, we are saved from sin. That means we are rescued from the punishment of sin which is eternal death in hell. It also means that after we are saved, we are released from the power of sin. Because of what Jesus did for us, we can live holy and righteous lives. Sin is the problem. The gospel is the solution.
- Mar 17, 2024What You Really Need (Revelation 3:18)
What You Really Need (Revelation 3:18)We live in one of the wealthiest countries in the most affluent times in history. Even the poorest American Christians live better off than most of the world. The material things we enjoy are undoubtedly a blessing from God. But just because we enjoy material blessings does not necessarily mean that God is pleased with our spiritual condition.The church at Laodicea made the mistake of thinking that because they were wealthy, then they had everything they needed. They were materialistic because they made money, or the lack of it, the standard by which they judged the rightness or wrongness of anything. They thought their wealth was proof of their spiritual health. They did not know that they were in a miserable state. They had plenty of money, but they were spiritually destitute. They had the nicest clothes, but they were spiritually exposed. Their physical vision might have been 20/20, but they were spiritually blind.God’s counsel in Revelation 3:18 is to make God the source of your satisfaction and find everything that you need in Him. You need faith in God, Christ’s righteousness, and the Holy Spirit to correct your spiritual vision. You do not need more money, better clothes, or better health. What you really need is God.
- Mar 3, 2024The Joy of Abiding (John 15:9-14)
The Joy of Abiding (John 15:9-14)Abiding in Christ means having continual, close fellowship with Him because we recognize that He is our only source of spiritual life. Without Him, we can do nothing. When we abide in Christ, He works in and through us to produce godly fruit. God the Father purges and prunes us so that we become more and more fruitful. The result of that fruitfulness is a life that glorifies God as we live as disciples of Christ ought to live.If the branches never enjoyed any benefit from abiding fruitfulness, then it would still be best for us to abide in Christ. But God, in His mercy and grace, gives a wonderful promise to the branches that abide. He promises that those who follow these instructions would have lives that are filled with joy.Galatians 5:22 says, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace…” The first fruit of the Spirit is love, followed by joy. The same pattern is found in John 15:9-14. When we walk closely with Christ, we abide in His love. As we learn to love Him more, we obey His commandments more, including His command to love on another. The result of loving God as we should and loving others as we should is a life filled with joy.Everyone craves joy, whether they realize it or not. The search for pleasure, happiness and fulfillment is really a search for joy, and that is only found in an abiding relationship with Christ. It is vain to look for joy anywhere else, because Jesus, the Vine, is the only source. God produces in us the fruit of the Sprit that is, among other things, love and joy.
- Feb 25, 2024The Glory Of Abiding (John 15:8)
The Glory Of Abiding (John 15:8)Have you ever tasted a delicious grape or some other piece of fruit that was especially tasty? Chances are that if you have, you didn’t burst out in praise for a branch that the fruit grew on. You might have declared how much you like the variety of fruit, complimented the person who selected it, or commended the farm that it came from, but you probably gave very little thought to the last component in the process that produced the fruit, the branch. The branches get little praise because they have done little to deserve any praise.This raises an important question: one that our entire life hinges on. Who should get the praise for any good thing that comes from our lives? In the illustration of the vine and the branches, Jesus has made it clear that when we abide in Him through close, consistent fellowship, we will bear spiritual fruit because His life will be flowing through us and working in us to produce godly actions and attitudes. In John 15:8, Jesus states, “Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples.” Jesus is the vine, and the Father is the Husbandman. The Father is the one who prunes and purges to make the branches best able to bear good fruit. So logically, the one who should get the final credit for the quality and quantity of the fruit should be the Father.God should get all the praise for any good in our lives. We have nothing good to offer apart from God. We will accomplish nothing good without God. Only when our lives are filled with good fruit and giving God the glory He deserves are we living as faithful disciples of Jesus.
- Feb 18, 2024Abiding Through Prayer And Bible Reading (John 15:7)
Abiding Through Prayer And Bible Reading (John 15:7)We have learned that abiding in Christ means remaining in close, consistent fellowship with Him. It is living in complete dependence on Him for all things at all times because you realize that apart from Him, you can do nothing, and you are a branch that will wither and come to a wasted end.But what does abiding look like in practice? What actions and behaviors demonstrate an attitude of dependence on Christ? John 15:7 is Jesus’ answer to such a question. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Abiding in Christ looks like a healthy intake of God’s word and continual prayerfulness.Could reading your Bible and praying be that important, or is emphasizing those spiritual disciplines a form of legalism? While it is possible to read your Bible and pray legalistically, it is not legalistic to acknowledge that Jesus said a person who is abiding in him will have His words abiding in them, and they will be praying.Abiding in Christ is expressed and maintained by a constant intake of the word of God and continual prayerfulness. If you believe you are dependent on Christ, then you will go to His word, the source of spiritual nourishment, regularly. If you believe that you can do nothing without Him, you will often go to Him in prayer “to find grace to help in time of need. If you are not reading your Bible and praying, you are wandering from the Vine, and you will wither.
- Feb 11, 2024The Barren Branches (John 15:6)
The Barren Branches (John 15:6)In John 15:2, Jesus said the Father would remove the unfruitful branches from the Vine. The unfruitful branch is the Christian who does not live as a dependent on Jesus and who is not walking in consistent, close fellowship. That Christian is still saved, but there is a loss of fellowship and fruitfulness. They are a barren branch.John 15:6 gives us more insight into the fate of barren branches. First, there is a wandering. This separation results from our choice to break fellowship with Christ and live independently. We are not “walk[ing] in the light, as he is in the light,” and we do not “have fellowship one with another.” (1 John 1:7)Withering is the natural result when the branch is separated from the Vine. The life-giving sap of the Vine no longer flows into the branch, so it loses its moisture and becomes dry and fragile, like “the chaff which the wind driveth away.” (Psalm 1:4)The final result will be a branch that is wasted. It will be gathered with all the other debris and burnt with the rest of the rubbish. Jesus is not warning of death in hell. He is warning of a worthless end. As Paul said, “If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.” (1 Corinthians 3:15)This verse is a warning to every Christian. You must choose to abide in Christ. If you do not, your life will be unfruitful, dry, and fragile. The longer you refuse to abide in Christ, the more of your life you are wasting. Don’t be a barren branch. Abide in Christ, and His life will flow through you into fruitfulness.
- Feb 4, 2024The Produce of Abiding (John 15:5)
The Produce of Abiding (John 15:5)“I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” (John 15:5)When a person trusts Christ as their Savior, he is placed in Christ, and Christ dwells in them so that His eternal life flows into and through us. Our eternal destiny is secure because of our position in Christ, but how His life manifests itself in our lives depends on our choices. We have to maintain a constant awareness of our total dependency on Christ.When you are “abiding” in Christ with consistent, close fellowship, Jesus promises that we will bring “forth much fruit.” Your life will overflow with actions and attitudes that God produces in and through you. This will not be a result of your works but of God’s working in your life.If you are not abiding in Christ, then the opposite will be true. Jesus said, “For without me ye can do nothing.” Nothing good and beneficial, that is. A dead branch only produces rot, disease, and trash that you must pick up from your yard and dispose of. This is what our life is like when we are trusting in our flesh instead of living in dependence on Christ: a dead, worthless branch.Abiding in Christ ensures that our Christian life is vibrant and fulfilling. Not every Christian experiences that kind of life, but every Christian can experience it if they will live in consistent, close fellowship with Christ.
- Jan 28, 2024Abide in Me (John 15:4)
Abide in Me (John 15:4)
In John 15:4, Jesus said, “Abide in me.” Those words form the only command found in the entire lesson on the vine and branches. Jesus is the vine, and we are the branches, meaning that Jesus is our only source of spiritual life, and we are totally dependent on Him. For Christ’s life to flow through us unhindered, we must maintain our vital connection to Him, purposely living in total dependence on Him. When we do, Jesus reassures us that He will abide in us. His life will be in us and flow through us.
We must abide in Him. That is the one command he gave and the one responsibility we have in the relationship. Everything that comes from our lives will be Jesus working in and through us to produce the fruit He wants to see.
Too often, Christians try to live independently of Christ. They attempt to reform themselves instead of letting God conform them into Christ’s image. They perform religious rituals instead of allowing the Holy Spirit to produce His fruit in them. They depend on their willpower and discipline to change their behavior more than they depend on Christ to strengthen and enable them.
The result of not abiding in Christ is frustration and failure. Jesus reiterated this fact when he said, “ As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me.” We cannot succeed in anything that truly matters unless we abide in Christ.
- Jan 21, 2024The Pruning Shears of Scripture (John 15:3)
The Pruning Shears of Scripture (John 15:3)
As the Heavenly Husbandman tends His vineyard, He frequently prunes the branches. The process involves discarding the unfruitful branches and trimming the fruitful branches so they can bear more fruit in the future. In John 15:3, Jesus said, “Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.” The Bible is the Father’s tool to prune and purge the branches.
To prune a vine, a vinedresser has to come close and put the pruning shears in contact with the branches. Force is then applied, and cuts are made. For God’s word to do this kind of pruning work in us, there must be regular contact with the Bible. The healthy branch understands the need for pruning and submits to it, but the unfruitful branch fears the pruning and avoids it.
A proper relationship to God’s word is essential, then, to abiding in Christ. If His words do not abide in you, then you are not abiding in Him. (John 15:7) If His words are abiding in you, then they will have a sanctifying effect on your life. God uses His word to show us sinful attitudes and actions and selfish thoughts and desires so that we might remove them through repentance and confession. No other tool can accomplish what the Bible does. No writings of man, no self-help seminary, and no secular TED Talks will do what God’s word can do for you. It is a hammer that chips away the rough edges of our hard hearts. It is a sword that cuts clean to our innermost being, even revealing motives and thoughts we might not have acknowledged were there.
- Jan 14, 2024The Pruning of the Branches (John 15:2)
The Pruning of the Branches (John 15:2)
Every good farmer and gardener knows that to get maximum yield from plants, you have to weed and prune. A field, garden, orchard, or vineyard that is left to itself will grow wild, and the harvest will suffer. It is especially true for plants like grape vines that regular pruning is necessary. The dead wood must be trimmed away, and the fruitless branches must be cut off. Without pruning, the fruitless branches would take water and nutrients away from the fruitful ones, and the dead branches would invite disease and rot that could infect the otherwise healthy parts of the plant.
Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches,” and God the Father is the sovereign husbandman of this spiritual vineyard. As an all-wise farmer, God the Father employs the same techniques on the branches of the true Vine as an earthly farmer does on a grapevine. God’s will is for our lives to be more and more fruitful, and for that to happen, providential pruning is necessary.
God’s pruning comes in two forms. John 15:2 says, “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” When God prunes, the fruitless parts are removed, and the fruitful parts are trimmed to enable even greater fruitfulness. Cutting, amputating, and trimming are violent processes, but they are necessary for the health of the vine and its branches. Though God’s work in our lives may often be uncomfortable in the moment, it is necessary, and it is worth it to let God prune us so that we can live a more fruitful life.
- Jan 7, 2024Abiding in Christ (John 15:1-5)
Abiding in Christ (John 15:1-5)Our home is built on a piece of land that was left untouched for generations. When we purchased it, it was a tangle of pine trees, hardwoods, and lots of vines. There were vines everywhere, and most of them were undesirable. To pull them all out of the trees would have been impossible without damaging the trees themselves, and spraying them with herbicide would have cost a fortune. Instead, I have employed a simple but effective solution. I cut the vines off at the ground and over time, the vine branches in the tops of the trees will wither and fall to the ground. This is remarkably effective because the vine branches are incapable of sustaining themselves. The branches cannot live without their vital connection to the vine.As simple as this may sound, it has profound implications in the spiritual world. In John 15:5, Jesus said, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” Just as a branch cannot exist without the vine, we are completely dependent on Christ for everything. For that reason, it is of vital importance that we stay connected with Christ by “abiding” in Him. He’s not just our main source of spiritual life. He is our only source. If we distance ourselves from Him, we will become dry, fragile, and fruitless. Our life will be a drudgery, not a delight. But if we abide in Him, we will enjoy the blessings of His life flowing through us, resulting in a fruitfulness that brings joy to us and glory to Him.
- Dec 31, 2023The Doctrine Of The Atonement (I Peter 1:19)
The Doctrine Of The Atonement (I Peter 1:19)There are so many aspects of the Christmas story that serve to illustrate Christ's purpose in coming to earth. For instance, Jesus is the Good Shepherd and the Lamb of God. It is fitting then that he was born in a stable and laid in a manger and that the shepherds were the first to receive the news of his birth.But the imagery of a lamb goes much deeper than just illustrating the humility of Christ's birth. It goes back to the garden when God first sacrificed an animal to make a covering to replace man's self-righteous attempt to hide his guilt and shame with fig leaves. It continues through the Passover story when the Jews sacrificed a spotless lamb and painted their doorposts with its blood so the death angel would pass over their homes, and they would be saved. It culminates with Jesus shedding His blood on the cross to atone for our sins.The basic meaning of the word translated "atonement" is a covering. It describes how our sins are pardoned by God, "hidden" in a sense. Our English word conveys the idea of how we have been restored to a right relationship with God. "At-one-ment" is the literal meaning of the word. Jesus was the perfect sacrifice and made atonement for our sins once and for all on the cross of Calvary. It is through Him that we enter into a relationship with God, and it is through Him that that relationship remains right. Our sins are covered, and we are redeemed by "the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot:" (1 Peter 1:19)
- Dec 3, 2023Challenges to Sanctification (2 Timothy 2:19-21)
Challenges to Sanctification (2 Timothy 2:19-21)
