Transcript

023 - Ye Even As I · True Vine

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Speaker 1: Chapter twenty two. Ye, even as I from the True
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Speaker 1: Vine by Andrew Murray. This Lirivok's recording is in the
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Speaker 1: public domain recording by Phil Snyder. Ye even as I,
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Speaker 1: if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love,
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Speaker 1: Even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide
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Speaker 1: in his love John fifteen ten. We have had occasion
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Speaker 1: more than once to speak of the perfect similarity of
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Speaker 1: the vine and the branch in nature, and therefore in aim.
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Speaker 1: Here Christ speaks no longer in a parable but tells
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Speaker 1: us plainly out of how his own life is the
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Speaker 1: exact model of ours. He had said that it is
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Speaker 1: alone by obedience we can abide in his love. He
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Speaker 1: now tells us this was the way in which he
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Speaker 1: abode in the Father's love. As the vine, so the branch.
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Speaker 1: His life and strength and joy had been in the
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Speaker 1: love of the Father. It was only by obedience he
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Speaker 1: abode in it. We may find our life and strength
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Speaker 1: and joy in his love all the day, But it
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Speaker 1: is only by an obedience like his we can abide
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Speaker 1: in it. Perfect conformity to the vine is one of
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Speaker 1: the most precious of the lessons of the branch. It
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Speaker 1: was by obedience, Christ as vine honored the Father as husbandman.
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Speaker 1: It is by obedience the believer as branch honors Christ
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Speaker 1: as vine. Obey and abide. That was the law of
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Speaker 1: Christ's life, as much as it is to be that
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Speaker 1: of ours. He was made like us in all things
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Speaker 1: that we might be like him. In all things. He
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Speaker 1: opened up a path in which we may walk. Even
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Speaker 1: as he walked. He took our human nature to teach
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Speaker 1: us how to wear it and show us how obedience,
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Speaker 1: as it is the first duty of the creature, is
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Speaker 1: the only way to abide in the favor of God
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Speaker 1: and to enter into his glory. And now he comes
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Speaker 1: to instruct an courage us and asks us to keep
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Speaker 1: his commandments, even as he kept his father's commandments and
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Speaker 1: abides in his love. The divine fitness of this connection
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Speaker 1: between obeying and abiding, between God's commandments and his love
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Speaker 1: is easily seen. God's will is the very center of
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Speaker 1: his divine perfection, as revealed in his commandments. It opens
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Speaker 1: up the way for the creature to grow into the
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Speaker 1: likeness of the Creator. In accepting and doing his will,
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Speaker 1: I rise into fellowship with him. Therefore, it was that
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Speaker 1: the son, when coming into the world, spoke, I come
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Speaker 1: to do thy will, O God. This was the place,
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Speaker 1: and this would be the blessedness of the creature. This
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Speaker 1: was what he had lost in the fall. This was
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Speaker 1: what Christ came to restore. This is what as the
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Speaker 1: heavenly Vine, he asks of us, and imparts to us that,
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Speaker 1: even as he, by keeping his father's commandments, abode in
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Speaker 1: his love, we should keep his commandments and abide in
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Speaker 1: his love. Ye, even as I the branch cannot bear fruit,
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Speaker 1: except as it has exactly the same life as the vine.
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Speaker 1: Our life is to be the exact counterpart of Christ's life.
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Speaker 1: It can be just in such measure as we believe
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Speaker 1: in him as the vine imparting himself and his life
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Speaker 1: to his branches. Ye, even as I the Vine says,
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Speaker 1: one law, one nature, one fruit, do let us take
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Speaker 1: from our Lord the lesson of obedience as the secret
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Speaker 1: of abiding. Let us confess that simple, implicit, universal obedience
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Speaker 1: has taken too little the place it should have. Christ
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Speaker 1: died for us as enemies when we were disobedient, He
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Speaker 1: took us up into his love. Now that we are
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Speaker 1: in him, his word is obey and abide. Ye, even
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Speaker 1: as I let us give ourselves to a willing and
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Speaker 1: loving obedience. He will keep us abiding in his love. Ye,
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Speaker 1: even as I O, my blessed Vine, who make us
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Speaker 1: the branch in everything, partake of thy life and likeness.
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Speaker 1: In this too, I am to be like THEE as
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Speaker 1: thy life in thy Father's love. Through obedience, so mine
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Speaker 1: in thy love. Savior, help me that obedience may indeed
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Speaker 1: be the link between THEE and me. End of Chapter
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Speaker 1: twenty two.