“Whosoever…shall call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved…” (Rom. 10:13)

 

 Isn’t that a wonderful promise in the word? But please don’t stop there. There’s more: 

 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’, shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt 7:21). 

 That’s another promise in the bible as well. There’s a bunch of them. 

 So ‘doing’ the ‘will of God’ is involved here? Hmmm…I wonder how so? 

 Well, for starters, God’s will is for us to be ‘sanctified’ according to 1 Thess. 4:3. That’s another word for being made pure or holy. God kind of has a thing about this, being ‘holy’. Go figure. Peter talked about that some in his first letter. (1:15-16). Paul addresses this as well in 2 Cor. 7:1 suggesting we should be mindful of continuing to remove anything and everything that is not holy or of God and do so in the fear of God. And have you ever given much thought to Heb. 12:14 that says “without”…this holiness or sanctification, that “no one will see the Lord”? 

 Then there are those words John left us in his first epistle (not the gospel) where he exhorts us to ‘not love the world or the things in the world’. (1 John 1:15). He describes all that is ‘in the world’ as being tied in with the ‘lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life’.(16). Interesting, those are the three areas that Adam and Eve failed in when they were tempted by the serpent back in Gen. 3, but Jesus overcame them there when He was tested in the wilderness. It’s the same areas of temptation that you and I, or anyone who ‘calls on the name of the Lord’ will face to see if we will truly follow and obey God. 

 So John continues on with this promise: “the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he…who does the will of God abides forever.” (17) 

 Excuse me, but ‘who’ does he suggest will abide or live ‘forever’?...those who ….what? 

 I understand that some of you may begin to sense being a bit ‘confused’ with all this given you were taught that ‘all you need to do is call on the name of the Lord, and you will be saved’. But as I said earlier…that’s a great verse, but don’t stop there. God’s word is not given to us to ‘confuse’ us, rather to cleanse and heal us. (Eph. 5:26; Ps. 107:20). Satan is the ‘author of confusion’ and he is quite the master in leading folks astray with ‘other gospels’ and such. That’s a ‘thing’ as well, and has been ever since…well…ever since he twisted God’s word back in the garden and led Eve astray. (Gen. 3:1-5). Paul warned it could happen to us as well…in the ‘same way’. (2 Cor. 11:2-4). It’s good to come and examine scripture, as much as we can. If you ‘camp out’ on just one or two passages and bank on them alone, you will run into come challenges…just like those folks Jesus told us about in Matt. 7:21-23. 

 But…you ‘called on the name of the Lord’. Was that ‘not enough’? Hey…that’s a great start but again, as I said…don’t stop there. He also bids us to turn or ‘repent’…and ‘follow Him’. That is kind of a theme throughout the four gospels. We are to become His ‘followers’ and ‘do what He says’. (Heb. 5:9). That is what His ‘sheep’ do- they ‘hear His voice, He knows them, and they follow Him’. (John 10:27) 

 And it will become quite evident as to who those ‘sheep’ really are. Paul identifies them as the ‘children of God’ and makes it clear: they are ‘led by God’s Spirit’. (Rom. 8:14). And when I say ‘evident’, I mean that it will be clear to all who the true followers are ,and as to those who only ‘honor Him with their lips/mouths’; but their hearts and actions say something else (Tit. 1:16). 

 It’s not ‘rocket science’; it has more to do with fruit inspection, according to Jesus. (Matt. 7:17-20; John 13:35) 

 So is there really a way to know…I mean, really know, if we are walking in the Spirit and being led by God? That is a fair question and a good one as well, since we are encouraged to examine ourselves of this very thing- (2 Cor. 13:5). Take Gal. 5:16 for a moment- IF…we are walking in the Spirit (another way of saying ‘abiding in Him’), look what it says we will NOT….be doing: “fulfilling the lust of the flesh nature” (which is sinful). IF there is any question as to what that even looks like, keep reading because Paul uses the word ‘evident’ as well in vs. 19 going on to give a rather exhaustive list of those ‘evident deeds or works’ of the flesh nature. 

 He mentions in that same paragraph two interesting statements that should be noted or highlighted in your bibles. There is that other ‘promise’ that anyone who continues to live like or practice those things…will NOT inherit the kingdom of God. (21). Then he adds on a qualifier to describe those who truly ‘belong to Christ’ in that they have ‘put to death’ or ‘crucified’ all those sinful, fleshly passions and desires. (24). That is a good thing to not only know, but to ‘do’ (Rom. 8:13) because it is through that old nature that Satan and/or demons are able to work in and through our lives to ‘steal, kill, and destroy’. (Eph.2:1-3;John 10:10) 

 I don’t know about you, but the more all these ‘pieces’ of God’s word come to light, the more this ‘picture’ of what salvation and trusting Jesus and obeying God really means starts sounding more important. I would even use the word ‘serious’. IF Jesus really is the ‘only way’ out, as He claims to be (John 14:6) and most of us profess to believe, then there just may be more to this ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ than what we were taught. Abiding in Him is beginning to sound like something more than just an option for ‘super-saints’, does it not? 

 How about we finish up today looking over John 15:1-8. I would encourage you to grab a notepad and lets’ just jot down some key points that may jump off those pages at us in regards to what ‘abiding in Jesus’ may look like, or involve. Go ahead and get a fresh sheet of paper and write up top ‘Abiding in Christ – John 15:1-8’. The reason I feel compelled to have you do things like this is to show you how the Holy Spirit wants to be your teacher. (1 John 2:26-27). He’s the one who leads us in to ‘all truth’. (John 16:12-13). And please remember, all I am doing here is presenting plenty of verses you may or may not have seen before that you might want to give more thought to. We need not be afraid of His word, ok? 

 So as you read through those first 8 verses in John 15, just jot down an relevant points that kind of ‘light up’ or ‘jump off the page’ at you. I did the same and next to some of those points, some other verses came to mind as well and I jotted those down next to them. You can never have enough word to bring more clarity to this picture God wants to reveal to us. ;-) 

 - fruitless branches are removed or cut away 

-branches that do bear fruit are ‘pruned’ so they may bear more fruit. 

-we are cleansed or made clean by His word (Eph.5:26, along with His blood- 1 john 1:7) 

-Jesus is the vine and we are the branches (IF, we are rooted in Him- Col. 2:6-7; Eph. 3:17) 

- He flat out tells us to ‘Abide in Him’ (vs. 4) We will produce no ‘fruit’ IF we fail to abide in Him. 

-Those who abide in Him will bear ‘much fruit’ (and it will remain (vs 16) 

-without Him, we can do nothing! (5) 

 We continue to see that word ‘if’ which tells me abiding is not ‘automatic’. The very word ‘abide’ means to ‘continue’ or ‘remain’ which implies we need to be conscious of following Him. Just because you ‘called on the name of the Lord does not mean you ‘continue on’, does it? I mean, He even asked some folks in Luke 6:46 why they kept calling Him ‘Lord’ yet would not do the things He said. 

 -IF we are not abiding in Him, they are ‘cast out as a branch and is withered’. Branches that are not rooted or attached to a tree or vine no longer have any source of life flowing in to them. Ever seen a big branch break off from a living tree in a storm and as it lies there on the ground the next day…and days after…what happens to it? Yeah…look what Jesus says there in vs. 6. “It withers”. Then He adds: “they gather them” and do what? And has it ever dawned on you to ask just who is ‘they’? 

 Now check out vs 7. That seems to be an impressive promise right there, does it not? I remember ‘back in the day’ where verses like that would get posted on my fridge or mirror and I was convinced if I just ‘believed hard enough’, they would come to pass. I guess I missed all those other ‘qualifying conditions’. But gosh, how nice would that be if such promises actually ‘worked’. 

 -and look at vs. 8…bearing much fruit is how we ‘glorify the Father’ and how we ‘show we are His disciples’. 

 Fruit seems to matter to God, does it not? (Luke 13:6-9). It really does not matter how tall the tree is or how think the trunk is or how many branches of shiny lush leaves it has on it; nor does it matter how long that tree may have been ‘planted in the house of the Lord’. (Ps. 92:13-15). If there is no fruit, the tree gets cut down. And Jesus does not mince words here. He says that if we are not abiding in Him, then no fruit is being produced. Period. That sounds important to me, does it not sound important to you? I mean, as in important enough to press in and study this out more. Fruit matters. Without it, that ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ will not end well for us. I mean, look at those church folks in Matt. 25:10-13 and all the ‘calling on the name of the Lord’ they did there. They had the word (lamps). It does not sound like that door was opened for them to go in, does it? 

 I wonder how many people were banging on the door of Noah’s ark when the floods came. And for some peculiar reason, Jesus likens His return as looking like those days. (Matt. 24:38-39). 

 To abide in Christ is to be ‘in Christ’, or ‘in the ark’. Seems we might want to be sure we are doing more than just ‘calling’ or ‘working harder to be better’ or staying busy ‘serving the Lord’ with much activity. Are we truly abiding in Him? (1 John 2:3-6; 3:6)