The fifth commandment that is given to us in chapter 15:4, and it says to us, if I can read it again, chapter 15 And verse four, you know that the vine and the branches has come there, that wonderful metaphor. And then he says in verse four to abide in me and I in you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself accept it abide in the vine, no more, can you, you abide in me, and he goes in seven. And He said in verse seven, If you abide in Me and My words abide in you, you should ask what you will and so forth. How amazing is it? This command to abide in Christ. What does it mean to be in Christ?

Second Corinthians 5:17 therefore, if any man be in Christ, I think somebody told me it was 48 times in the epistles of Paul, where that truth is taught, we are in Christ. We are connected to him. We're joined to him in the same way that a branch is joined to the vine. We have been joined. It's a once for all transaction, to be connected, but it is a day-by-day exercise to be abiding in Christ. You see, once there's a transaction that can't be repeated, can't be done again. You can't go out to your garden and take a branch and pull it out today and put it into tomorrow and pull it out the next day and put it in the next. It just can't be done. It doesn't have spirits happen spiritually, and it doesn't happen practically. So, I asked you where does a branch come from?

It comes from the vine. Of course, the apostle Paul tells us of being grafted in and that we have been grafted in. But a branch comes from a tree, from the trunk, from a large, large branch and spontaneously in the spring this wonderful principles springs and out of the seemingly dead branches or, or big trunk. out of it comes this green little shoot as if it came out of nowhere, and it's the same color as it was last year. It was the same flavor the fruit the flowers, the fragrance, everything was the same because the life of the of the vine was put into every branch. He says abide in me. So there is a once for all transaction where I have been put in Christ, we are reminded that were baptized into the body of Christ. And that baptism unites me to the Lord Jesus, to the Father, to the Holy Spirit in an indestructible way. It can't be undone it can't be changed.

And so we are reminded in this beautiful metaphor that it's possible for us to be united to Christ but not enjoying communion with Christ. It's very simple. If you go to botany, you'll understand if you have a plant, flowering plant in your yard and you want a duplicate of it. Well, what do you do? You put the branch down near the ground, you put a rock on top of it, you water it, let it be warmed, and what happens? It begins to grow itself. It sends down roots because it's on the ground. What can happen? Well after maybe a year or six months or whatever, you can cut that branch off from the mother plant and you have a new plant. That is independence. That principle manifests itself in your garden and in mine because that branch becomes independent of the mother plant. And when you cut it off, it doesn't dry up, it doesn't die. It was set down its own roots, and it is independent.

That principle in some respects, matches us as well. We have been united to Christ in a bond of unity that cannot be broken. It will not be broken from his standpoint. But there are many times when we think we can do it without Christ. And so, he wants us to abide in Christ. What is a branch? We have it every day. You go to the restaurant, and you order a drink, cold drink and you put a straw in it. A branch is nothing more than a straw. It's between the vine and the fruit. That’s the picture that is the drawing that we have for this metaphor which the Lord Jesus Christ explains What is communion? Communion is drawing and enjoying and appreciating and appropriating and applying all the blessings, that God is given us. There's a sucking mechanism in that branch. That is united to the vine. And the vine provides all the nutrients in order that the branch can produce the fruit of the vine.

It’s not the fruit of the branch. The branch is nothing more than just a straw. And that straw has the capacity of communicating in your case and in mine the drink that the straw is in. And you suck on it. What is the sucking mechanism in our lives? It's a desire for Christ's likeness. The fruit of the Spirit is loving joy peace, long suffering, gentleness and so forth. The fruit of righteousness, we are reminded over and over again. That everything that's necessary for Christ's likeness moves through the branch and produces fruit, fruit that remains. Much fruit. And that fruit is the production of the nutrients from the vine. And so, it is called not the fruit of the branch but the fruit of the vine. Were just a straw apart from last week, the straw can do nothing. Tell your straw to jump into the glass and start squirting that stuff out that you want to enjoy. It can't happen.

The Lord Jesus says abide in me. Take that straw out of the water out of the juice and suck on it. All you get is air. It must be united to the source of the nutrients. And so we have been united to Christ in a bond of unity that can never be broken. But to keep union we can find ourselves trying to do it in our own strength independent of Christ. Satan's primary goal is to challenge your faith and my faith to live and serve independent of Christ. Way back in the Garden of Eden, independence. Eve's independence of Adam. For the Lord Jesus Christ in the wilderness, Jesus Christ in dependence of his father, for us, independence of Christ, Satan's attack will always be in that way. And so we have to abide in the Lord Jesus Christ because He's the source. He is the supply of everything we need for Christ's likeness and for service to serve as he served, and there's satisfaction. There's glory to the vinedresser and to the wine Because the fruit remains, and the fruit glorifies the vinedresser.