Scripture: "He that abideth in Me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit."—JOHN xv. 5.
        In this parable we see what the new life is, which the Lord promised His disciples for the work of the Holy Spirit. It clearly mirrors the life of faith.

        1. "Not fruit," "more fruit," "much fruit," "fruit that abides" (vs. 2, 8, 16): The one object of the life of faith is to bear much fruit to the glory of God the Father.

        2. Cleansing: v. 2. The indispensable cleansing through the Word that is sharper than a two-edged sword.

        3. "Abide in Me": Intimate, continuous fellowship.

        4. "I in you": Divine indwelling through the Spirit.

        5. "Apart from Me ye can do nothing": Complete impotence, deep humility, constant dependence.

        6. "My words abide in you," "If ye keep My commandments ye shall abide in My love," "Ye are My friends, if ye do the things I command you": Indispensable obedience.

        7. "If My words abide in you, ye shall ask whatsoever ye will": Limitless confidence of faith.

        8. "It shall be done unto you": Powerful answer to prayer.

        9. "Even as the Father hath loved Me, I also have loved you; abide ye in My love": Life through faith in Him that loved Me.

        10. "These things have I spoken unto you that My joy may be in you and that your joy may be fulfilled": Joy full and abiding.

        11. "This is My commandment, that ye love one another, even as I have loved you": The new commandment kept through the power of Christs love in our hearts.

        12. "I appointed you that your fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He will give it you": The all-prevailing Name of Christ.

        This is the life Christ makes possible for us and works in us through the Holy Spirit. This is the life so sadly wanting in the Church and yet so indispensable. This is the life assured to childlike faith and obedience.

Scripture: "I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved" (Psalm 16:8).
        This is the way to live. With God always before us, we shall have the noblest companionship, the holiest example, the sweetest consolation, and the mightiest influence. This must be a resolute act of the mind. "I have set," and it must be maintained as a set and settled thing. Always to have an eye to the LORDs eye and an ear for the LORDs voice--this is the right state for the godly man. His God is near him, filling the horizon of his vision, leading the way of his life, and furnishing the theme of his meditation. What vanities we should avoid, what sins we should overcome, what virtues we should exhibit, what joys we should experience if we did indeed set the LORD always before us! Why not?

        This is the way to be safe. The LORD being ever in our minds, we come to feel safety and certainty because of His being so near. He is at our right hand to guide and aid us; and hence we are not moved by fear, nor force, nor fraud, nor fickleness. When God stands at a mans right hand, that man is himself sure to stand. Come on, then, ye foemen of the truth! Rush against me like a furious tempest, if ye will. God upholds me. God abides with me. Whom shall I fear?

Scripture: “Thou art all fair, my love.”(Song of Solomon 4:7)
        The Lords admiration of his Church is very wonderful, and his description of her beauty is very glowing. She is not merely fair, but “all fair.” He views her in himself, washed in his sin-atoning blood and clothed in his meritorious righteousness, and he considers her to be full of comeliness and beauty. No wonder that such is the case, since it is but his own perfect excellency that he admires; for the holiness, glory, and perfection of his Church are his own glorious garments on the back of his own well-beloved spouse. She is not simply pure, or well-proportioned; she is positively lovely and fair! She has actual merit! Her deformities of sin are removed; but more, she has through her Lord obtained a meritorious righteousness by which an actual beauty is conferred upon her. Believers have a positive righteousness given to them when they become “accepted in the beloved” (Eph. 1:6). Nor is the Church barely lovely, she is superlatively so. Her Lord styles her “Thou fairest among women.” She has a real worth and excellence which cannot be rivalled by all the nobility and royalty of the world. If Jesus could exchange his elect bride for all the queens and empresses of earth, or even for the angels in heaven, he would not, for he puts her first and foremost—“fairest among women.” Like the moon she far outshines the stars. Nor is this an opinion which he is ashamed of, for he invites all men to hear it. He sets a “behold” before it, a special note of exclamation, inviting and arresting attention. “Behold, thou art fair, my love; behold, thou art fair” (Song of Sol. 4:1). His opinion he publishes abroad even now, and one day from the throne of his glory he will avow the truth of it before the assembled universe. “Come, ye blessed of my Father” (Matt. 25:34), will be his solemn affirmation of the loveliness of his elect.

Scripture: “Behold, all is vanity.”(Ecclesiastes 1:14)
        Nothing can satisfy the entire man but the Lords love and the Lords own self. Saints have tried to anchor in other roadsteads, but they have been driven out of such fatal refuges. Solomon, the wisest of men, was permitted to make experiments for us all, and to do for us what we must not dare to do for ourselves. Here is his testimony in his own words: “So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me. And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour. Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.” “Vanity of vanities, all is vanity.” What! the whole of it vanity? O favoured monarch, is there nothing in all thy wealth? Nothing in that wide dominion reaching from the river even to the sea? Nothing in Palmyras glorious palaces? Nothing in the house of the forest of Lebanon? In all thy music and dancing, and wine and luxury, is there nothing? “Nothing,” he says, “but weariness of spirit.” This was his verdict when he had trodden the whole round of pleasure. To embrace our Lord Jesus, to dwell in his love, and be fully assured of union with him—this is all in all. Dear reader, you need not try other forms of life in order to see whether they are better than the Christians: if you roam the world around, you will see no sights like a sight of the Saviours face; if you could have all the comforts of life, if you lost your Saviour, you would be wretched; but if you win Christ, then should you rot in a dungeon, you would find it a paradise; should you live in obscurity, or die with famine, you will yet be satisfied with favour and full of the goodness of the Lord.

Scripture: "Perfect through suffering" (Heb. 2:10).
        Steel is iron plus fire. Soil is rock, plus heat, or glacier crushing. Linen is flax plus the bath that cleans, the comb that separates, and the flail that pounds, and the shuttle that weaves. Human character must have a plus attached to it. The world does not forget great characters. But great characters are not made of luxuries, they are made by suffering.

        I heard of a mother who brought into her home as a companion to her own son, a crippled boy who was also a hunchback. She had warned her boy to be very careful in his relations to him, and not to touch the sensitive part of his life but go right on playing with him as if he were an ordinary boy. She listened to her son as they were playing; and after a few minutes he said to his companion: "Do you know what you have got on your back?" The little hunchback was embarrassed, and he hesitated a moment. The boy said: "It is the box in which your wings are; and some day God is going to cut it open, and then you will fly away and be an angel."

        Some day, God is going to reveal the fact to every Christian, that the very principles they now rebel against, have been the instruments which He used in perfecting their characters and moulding them into perfection, polished stones for His great building yonder. --Cortland Myers

        Suffering is a wonderful fertilizer to the roots of character. The great object of this life is character. This is the only thing we can carry with us into eternity. . . . To gain the most of it and the best of it is the object of probation. --Austin Phelps

        "By the thorn road and no other is the mount of vision won."

References: Matt 12:38-40 Isa 55:11 Ex 5:3 Matt 26:61 Mark 16:17-18,20 Further Study: Matt 12:38-42 Jonah 1:17-2:10
As they followed Jesus, the Jews continually manifested the leaven of unbelief. They were seeking a sign. They said to Him, ‘What sign will you show us?’. Jesus said the only sign He would give them was the ‘sign of Jonah’. This sign represents the three days and three nights. It is the sign of Passover, Unleavened Bread, and the sheaf of firstfruits. The sign of Jonah encapsulates the entire three day process by which Jesus joins us to Himself. In a prophetic symbol, this is the same three day journey which the Israelites were to make, to sacrifice in the wilderness. The sign of Jonah is the cross that is preached to us and brings us to the firstfruits of our sonship. We’ll recall that Jesus spoke about destroying the temple and raising it in three days. The disciples remembered this after He had risen from the dead and they believed. Accordingly, they became messengers of this very same word and signs followed them. When signs follow the word they manifest life to those who believe, obey and mix that word with faith. This kind of sign carries the substance and life of the word proclaimed. We receive and obey the word, not because of the signs following, but because the word is the bread of eternal life. When we mix the word with faith, we co-operate with that word. In so doing, it will bring forth the zoe life of God and accomplish its work. This word produces faith and continues to bring forth new life. In this way, living bread is multiplied to eternal life. This is the message preached and all signs follow this word of life.

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References Further Study Eph 3:19 Isa 9:6 Eph 1 Heb 9:14 Col 1:19 Eph 4:13 Eph 1:23 Rom 15:29
When Paul spoke of ‘all the fullness of God’, he was referring to the fellowship of Yahweh. In this fellowship of Yahweh is the fullness of all fatherhood, sonship, and sanctification. God the Father laid down the fatherhood life of Yahweh to God the Son, to be revealed as a multitude of sons through Him. This is the true meaning of fatherhood. When fatherhood life is laid down, it produces sons. The Father has not laid down His identity as the Father. He has laid down His capacity to foreknow and name many sons. Within the one life of Yahweh is the potential for a multitude of sons. The Son is the express image of this life, so that when offering is made, there is multiplication. We are sons of the Father, co-heirs of the life of new creation because He has multiplied this life to us by offering. In the council of Elohim, the fullness of the fatherhood of Yahweh is revealed in God the Father. It is sanctified to Him in the covenant so that He can be the expression all fatherhood. The fullness of the sonship of Yahweh has been revealed in God the Son. It was the Father’s good pleasure, or desire, ‘for all the fullness to dwell in Him’. And likewise, the fullness of sanctification has been revealed in the Holy Spirit. He is the Helper custodian of all sanctification. In this way, the fullness of Yahweh is brought forward and expressed in the council of Elohim. This is the meaning of offering ‘through Eternal Spirit’. Eternal Spirit is the capacity of Yahweh, by which each person of the Godhead makes offering to bring forth new creation. The Holy Spirit has taken up the capacity of Eternal Spirit as the Helper of the life and offering of each.

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References Further Study 2Co 9:10 Mat 6:19 Isa 55 Ecc 11:1, 6 Isa 55:10 Mat 6:33
The peace offering is the end of the season. And the minimum supply for the next season is your seed for sowing. Grace and the miracle of offering will not be effective if a man offers everything, so that he has no seed for sowing. Paul wrote to the Corinthians that ‘He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will supply and multiply your seed for sowing and increase the harvest of your righteousness’. Grace is the multiplying factor, but this grace is inactive without seed for sowing. For a person in business, this seed will be working capital. Without this working capital, they will have no provision or ability to go forward and sow into the next season. Let us be clear that maintaining sufficient working capital does not mean that we accrue riches where thieves break in and steal, and moth and rust destroy. Accruing riches is the evidence of anxiety and the need for control. Hence Jesus said, ‘Do not store up’. There is no scriptural foundation to set aside money for ‘a rainy day’. Nevertheless, anyone who has the faith and grace to generate an economy of offering will need to have sufficient working capital. Every prudent businessperson will need to sector up their business so that, at the very minimum, they have something for the next financial year, or the next season. This takes a lot of wisdom and discretion. No one can tell you how much is appropriate, and how much is just the evidence of anxiety. Every person needs to be fully accountable for their own stewardship. Every man must know his conscience before God.

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References Further Study Mat 10:40 Isa 28:11 1Co 2 1Co 1:21 2Co 10:10 1Co 2:1 Act 14:17 Amo 3:3 Rev 3:6, 13, 22 Rev 2:7, 11, 17, 29
When Jesus Christ sends men and women as messengers, they are sent in the same way, and for the same reason, that He was sent. They are sent to proclaim the Scriptures so that we will have fellowship. If we receive those whom Christ sends, we receive Him. If we receive Him, we receive the capacity to fellowship in the covenant. It is the humility of God that relies on the stammering lips of weak messengers to proclaim His word. He is well-pleased, through the foolishness of the message preached, to save those who believe. He has not chosen those with powerful ‘bodily presence’. A messenger is not coming with volumes of information, with superiority of speech and persuasive words of wisdom. He is coming in weakness, fear and trembling, to minister grace and establish fellowship. That is the evidence of a genuine messenger. How will the body of Christ come together in the end of the age? The Lord is most certainly sending messengers to proclaim the word of present truth. He never leaves Himself without witness. There is no foundation for unity while everybody believes different things. The prophet Amos posed the question, ‘Can two walk together, unless they are agreed?’ This agreement will never be found through compromise. The foundation of the word is not the lowest common denominator. The word is the revelation of the everlasting covenant. The Scriptures are the sum of all truth. The foundation upon which the church is built is the revelation of present truth. In every age and generation of the church, it is incumbent upon us to know what the Lord is saying. ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’

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