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If My Words Abide in You

April 30, 2006

       John 15:7

If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you will and it shall be done for you.

What is the most urgent need in the church of the Western world today?

That's the question that Don Carson poses at the beginning of his new book, A Call to Spiritual Reformation.

It's a good question to pose.

Spiritual self-examination should be going on in our church continually, not just when the Scripture asks us to examine ourselves before taking communion.

Let’s examine some Scripture which use the word “examine”.

So get out your Bibles and we will do a little sword drill.

Hold them up.

Ready.

There are only four verses.

First one to find the Scripture stand up.

Number 1 – Psalm 26:2 (first person to find it stand up and read the verse).

The New King James version puts it this way: /“//Examine me, O Lord, and prove me; Try my mind and heart.”/

This verse in the book of Psalms has David pleading with God to examine his heart and try his mind.

He wanted to be proven worthy to stand before God’s people and proclaim His wondrous works (v. 7).

In verse 11 he says he wanted to walk in integrity before the congregation.

Number 2 – Lamentations 3:40.

(first person to find it stand up and read it) /“Let us search out and examine our ways and turn back to the LORD”   /Jeremiah wrote Lamentations shortly after Judah’s conflict with Babylon and its takeover by Nebuchadnezzar.

With this memory vivid in the prophet’s mind, he states that self-examination is for the purpose of turning back to God.

In Revelation 2:5, Jesus exhorts the loveless church at Ephesus to turn back to godly living or else.

Ready for number three?

The first one to find 1 Corinthians 11:28-29, stand up and read them.

This is the passage often read at communion.

We examine ourselves so we do not “drink” judgment on ourselves.

Verse 31 reminds us that if we judge ourselves, we will not be judged by God.

Okay, last one.

Galatians 6:4 – stand up and read it as soon as you find it.

/“But let each one examine his own work, and then he will have rejoicing ….” /I began this little diversion with the question, “what is the most urgent need of the church in the western world today?

The four sword drill passages will help us examine this topic as well as our key verse from John 15:7 – abide in me.

Ask yourself these four questions -

Question 1.

Is the most urgent need in the church today need for purity in sexual matters in a culture obsessed with sex at almost every turn?

I

Number 2 - Is it integrity and generosity in the financial arena where the "raw worship of Mammon has become so bold, so outrageous, so pervasive in the Western world during the last ten years that many of us are willing to do almost anything--including sacrificing our children--provided we can buy more"?

Number 3 - Is the most urgent need more evangelism and church growth?

Careful studies show that perhaps 4% of those who make decisions at major crusades are persevering with Christ five years later, and the increase of church attendance is accompanied by no increase in holiness.

A startling statistic!

Or, Number 4,  is the most urgent need disciplined, biblical thinking and strong biblical scholarship, when many students and faculty in seminaries and colleges and universities have an extraordinarily shallow knowledge of God, in spite of all their academic work?

Carson, in “A Call to Spiritual Reformation”,  does not belittle any of these needs, but says, "There is a sense in which these urgent needs are merely symptomatic of a far more serious lack.

The one thing we most urgently need in Western Christendom is a deeper knowledge of God.

We need to know God better".

Prayer is one of the foundational steps in knowing God--"spiritual, persistent, biblically-minded prayer."

Turn to Isaiah 43:10 with me.

No, it’s not another sword drill, but I will ask someone to read when you have it.

(pick someone and have them read the passage.

After it’s  been read) What are  we chosen for?

“/You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am He” /We are plucked out of this world by God to know God.

Do you know Him? Really know Him?

Not just believe in Him.

As I’ve said before, even the demons believe in Him, so mere belief doesn’t get us very far.

Jesus said “if you know me, you know the Father.

No one knew the Father better than Jesus.

Jesus told us to “follow Him” – to know God as He knew God/ /

Don Carson thinks that we have become so good at other things that we have forgotten how to pray. .

Several years ago at a North American seminary, fifty students planning to go into ministry were interviewed for their suitability.

Only three of the fifty could testify to regular quiet times of reading the Bible and devoting themselves to prayer.

We assume that our pastors and missionaries are the models--we would be shocked, I am afraid.

J.I. Packer wrote about his own pilgrimage in his book entitled “My Path of Prayer” and commented, "I believe that prayer is the measure of the man, spiritually, in a way that nothing else is, so that how we pray is as important a question as we can ever face" .

Carson's aim in his book is to see our prayer life transformed and, through that, our knowledge of God deepened.

He realizes that the main reforming power is the Word of God, and so he designs his book as a meditation on the prayers of Paul.

There is good Biblical reason for praying as Paul prayed.

It's the same Biblical reason that I have chosen this  sermon on prayer to be based on John 15:7.

Jesus said to his disciples,

/If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it shall be done for you./

The text has two halves, one for this Sunday and one for next Sunday.

The first half is, "If you abide in me and my words abide in you."

And the second half is, "ask whatever you will, and it shall be done for you."

The first half is the condition for the second half.

There is an "if - then" connection.

This “if – then” principle is seen throughout Scripture.

Let’s do another sword drill.

We are going to be looking at three verses this time, all of which have the IF – THEN conditionality.

OK Swords up!

First one to find it read 2 Chronicles 7:14.

I love this “if-then” scripture.

I love being called “My people  who are called by my name”.

And I love the affirmation that if I clean up my act, God will bless me.

Mind you, I also believe God is God and He will bless whom He will bless.

Next! Swords up.

This “if-then” is the first mentioned of the “if-then” principle in the Bible.

Ready:

Genesis 18:/26//    “If I find in Sodom fifty righteous ….then

I will spare all”/

This is followed by the first mention of negotiations as Abraham bargains with God for the perverse cities of Sodom and Gommorah.

If I find 45?

What about 30?

How about 20? 10?

Let’s look at one more example of the if-then principle.

This one is in the New Testament.

Revelation 22:18-19.

First person to find it, stand up and read it!

Although the word “then” may not appear in your version, it is still a powerful warning.

(/And I solemnly declare to everyone who hears the prophetic words of this book: If anyone adds anything to what is written here, God will add to that person the plagues described in this book.

\\ And if anyone removes any of the words of this prophetic book, God will remove that person's share in the tree of life and in the holy city that are described in this book.)