![]() The Lord Jesus does not say, “Without me ye can do nothing, but, if ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall do all spiritual and gracious things.” He does not now speak of what they should themselves be enabled to do, but of what should be done unto them: “it shall be done unto you.” He says not, “Strength shall be given you sufficient for all those holy doings of which you are incapable apart from me.” That would have been true enough, and it is the truth which we looked for here but our most wise Lord improves upon all parallelisms of speech, and improves upon all expectancies of heart, and says something better still. But the text does not run as we should have expected it to rim. Observe that our Lord had been warning us that, severed from him, we can do nothing, and, therefore, we might naturally have expected that he would now show us how we can do all spiritual acts. Jesus says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” WHAT IS THIS SPECIAL BLESSING? Let us read the verse again. ![]() Oh, that the anointing of the Holy Spirit which abideth on us may now make this subject very profitable to us! First, what is this special blessing? “Ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” Secondly, how is this special blessing obtained? “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you.” Then, thirdly, why is it obtained in this way? There must be a reason for the conditions laid down as needful to obtaining the promised power in prayer. I call your earnest attention to our text, begging you to consider with me three questions. How glowingly do his old acquaintances exclaim, “Yea, he is altogether lovely”! Oh, that we may continue to grow up into him in all things who is our head, that we thus may prize him more and more! Not that he improves in himself, for he is perfect but that as we increase in our knowledge of him, we appreciate more thoroughly his matchless excellences. Truly he is a blessed Christ to one who is but a month old in grace but these babes can hardly tell what a precious Jesus he is to those whose acquaintance with him covers well-nigh half a century! Jesus, in the esteem of abiding believers, grows sweeter and dearer, fairer and more lovely, day by day. Jesus says, “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” You have to live with Christ to know him, and the longer you live with him the more will you admire and adore him yes, and the more will you receive from him, even grace for grace. Every believer should be an abider, but many have hardly earned the name as yet. There are these degrees of attainment among believers, and the Saviour here incites us to reach a high position by mentioning a certain privilege which is not for all who say that they are in Christ, but for those only who are abiders in him. ![]() Infancy is beset with many evils from which manhood is exempt: it is the same in the spiritual as in the natural world. As you abide in Christ you shall have firmer confidence, richer joy, greater stability, more communion with Jesus, and greater delight in the Lord your God. As your hymn puts it-“It is better on before.” You shall have happier views of heavenly things as you climb the hill of spiritual experience. You that are young beginners in the divine life may be cheered to know that there is something better still for you: you have not yet received the full recompense of your faith. “The truth shall make you free.” One bond after another snaps, and we are free indeed. ![]() The emancipating power of that truth is also gradually perceived and enjoyed. Perseverance in grace is an educational process by which we learn the truth fully. See how our Lord states this when he speaks to the believing Jews in the eighth chapter of this gospel, at the thirty-first and thirty-second verses:- “Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” We do not know all the truth at once: we learn it by abiding in Jesus. Coining unto Christ, we are saved by a true union with him but it is by abiding in that union that we further receive the purity, the joy, the power, the blessedness, which are stored up in him for his people. THE gifts of grace are not enjoyed all at once by believers. “If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.” - John xv.
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