John 16. John 16. Look at verse 6 and verse 20. Verse 6, our Lord
said, Because I've said these things unto you, sorrow hath
filled your heart. And verse 20, He said, You shall
be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy." And
Peter, I really meant to read 1 Peter, and Peter spoke of joy
unspeakable, full of glory. Go back and read 1 Peter for
yourself if you want a lesson. Now, humanly speaking, naturally
speaking, You cannot really joy and rejoice in something without
sorrow. Everything is taken for granted
until it's taken from you. Isn't that right? It's just so. Our children, we
give them everything that they could ask for and need and want
all the days of their life, and they take it every bit of it
for granted until they go out someday. It's just so with them. It's us. You see, you can only
appreciate recovery when you've experienced loss. You may have
something that's dear to you and you take it for granted. It's there for the longest time.
You just take it for granted and then you lose it. What if you find it? I'll never
take that for granted again. You can't really appreciate riches
until you've been poor. Right? What about if you were
rich and then lost it all? My grandparents lost two homes. The first during the Depression.
He lost his job, lost his home, lost everything. Every dime they
had, they lost it all. And then the Lord gave it back
and they built up everything. They had a little farm in Tecumseh,
Georgia, just a nice little farm, a few acres and all that, burned
to the ground. No insurance. And the thing I remember about
my grandfather is he never took anything for granted. Tommy never threw anything away.
He fixed everything and he kept everything. You appreciate it
after loss. Health. Good health. You take
it for granted all your life until you get sick. Don't you?
Anybody? Everybody. It's just so. Rest. You don't know anything about
real rest until you can't sleep for a while. When you're a teenager, they
have to wake you up at noon. You'd just sleep your life away,
wouldn't you? Why? You don't have to go to
work. You don't have to earn money.
You don't have to turn the electric, the heat on. Mom and dad will
do that. But when you get older, sleep
is a precious thing. Rest is a precious thing. You
don't really appreciate love and faithfulness and friendship
until somebody betrays you. And then you really appreciate
somebody faithful. You really do. As painful and sorrowful as these
things are, it causes pain and sorrow, joy is much greater. Our Lord said this, He said,
You shall be sorrowful over many things. You shall be sorrowful.
But your sorrow shall be turned into joy. It doesn't say turn
to joy. Turn into joy. Meaning, there's
not going to be any more sorrow. It's all turned into joy. You're
going to look back at your sorrow and rejoice that you had the
sorrow. You follow me? You're going to look back and
say, I'm so glad I went through that. Turned into joy. Anybody catch that? It's significant. You know, the prodigal left home,
and do you know what grief that caused his father and mother? When that prodigal left, they
didn't hear from him for the longest time. My brother ran
away from home when he was 16 years old, and my parents didn't
hear from him for too long. They didn't know if he was alive
or dead. Can you imagine? Can you imagine? Can you imagine
if Andrew ran away at 15 and he didn't hear from him for two
months? How would you be? Would you be sleeping at night? That prodigal ran off. He didn't
care about his father. He didn't care about his mother.
You know what he cared about? Himself. The world. Stephen? One day, he came home. All that sorrow, gone. Forgotten. Rejoice him. Rejoice him. In this world, you shall have
tribulation. Be of good cheer. It's going to turn into joy.
Our Lord said, these things, verse 6, these things have I
said unto you, and your sorrow hath filled your heart. What
did He say unto them? We've already looked at this, but He keeps
telling us these things. I keep telling you. I keep reminding
you what He said. That's my job. What He said to
them was in chapter 13. He said, one of you is going
to betray me. And it's so. Is somebody in this room right
here, one of these days, going to leave Christ, depart from
the living God, and leave your brethren? When you leave, you
leave your brethren. You say, I don't need them either. I don't
need Christ. Is somebody in this room going to do that? Some have. How does that make
you feel? Sorrow? Does it? Sorrow? You know, and you, every one
of the true to self Lord is His eye. And every one of them were
sorrowful in thinking, Thomas was thinking, oh Lord, don't
let James, I love James, don't let James leave. You know it
so much. It's not Matthew, it's going
to be me, if anybody, it's not Matthew. Right? Every one of them were full of
sorrow. One of you is going to betray me, he said. filled their hearts with sorrow.
Then he said, Denial. One of you is going to deny me,
Peter. Simon, he named him Simon. You know, Simon was bragging
on what he, Simon, Simon, Simon, Simon, son of Jonas, son of Jonas. Before the sun comes up, you're
going to deny me three times. What about you? What about me? We're going to do something or
say something or not say something or do something that denies the
Lord three times before the sun comes up tomorrow. Yes, we are.
Does that fill you with sorrow? What's wrong with me? Does it
fill you with sorrow? It ought to. What's wrong with
me? How could I deny my Lord? He said, all of you are going
to be scattered to your own, didn't he? Verse 32, every one
of you, every one of you is going to turn to your own, going to
go your own way, going back to your house and forget me. Anybody ever done that? Well, how does that make you
feel? It fills your heart with sorrow. My, my. You know, Isaiah 53 says
that. It says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We've all turned to our own way. Back to our own. Our own. And the next verse says, and
this ought to fill your heart with sadness and joy. And the Lord laid on him. The
indicative is on. You left, he didn't. You're unfaithful, he can't be. You deny him, he can't deny you. Now why would you deny somebody
that will not die? How could you do that? That's why that public... Get this... My heart, my heart,
my heart. What's wrong with me? How could
he that loved me and gave himself for me give myself to everything? What's wrong with you, Gomer? Gotta fill our hearts with sadness.
Sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow. Blessed are they
that mourn. You can't mourn doctrine. You mourn over your own sinfulness.
Depravity. I believe in depravity. I'll
tell you what I believe. I'm depraved. He said, you're going to be persecuted.
You're going to be hated and persecuted. That's proof. That's
proof that you're mine. He said they hated me and persecuted
me. It's going to be proof that they hate you. If they loved
me, they'd love you. But they don't love me. They
don't love what I said. And they're not going to love
you. And they're not going to listen to you either. Now, nobody wants to be persecuted.
Nobody wants to be hated. Nobody wants to be disliked by
their neighbors and family and all that. Nobody. Everybody wants
to be liked. Everybody. Nobody wants enemies,
do they? But our Lord said this, rejoice. Didn't He? They did that to the
prophets. David was bringing back David.
There's not a kinder, gentler, more loving, sweet man on earth.
David. Don't you love David? The Lord
loved David. David loved the Lord. David came
back. The ark The ark was gone and
it was coming back into Jerusalem. The ark. And David was so thankful
and so grateful. And David was jumping and dancing
before the ark. The Lord hadn't left us. The Lord hadn't left us without
the word about the gospel. He's come back. The gospel's
come back. Maybe the Lord brought David
back. He was so happy. And he looked up. He came home.
He came home. And his wife. despised him. You're a hypocrite. Just killed him. Just slew him. Honey, I know I'm a sinner. Honey, I know I'm just a son
of Adam. Honey, I know I'm a sinner. But God, this is all my hope,
all my plea. Honey, The blind man, in John 9, the
blind man, the Lord healed him. He'd been blind all his life,
and the Lord opened his eyes. And he told everybody about it.
He was telling everybody about it. He went to his friends and
his family. He went home and said, I can
see. And they kicked him out of church. They kicked him out. I don't
believe that. So our Lord said you'll be persecuted
and hated, but it's proof of the truth. You know what that
does, persecution? People that hate the truth, you
know what it makes you appreciate? You know what it makes you grateful
for? That you love the truth. And you know what people that
persecute you and hate you and want nothing to do with you and
make you appreciate? People that love you. That's when our Lord said, you
love one another. You love one another because everybody out
there is going to hate you. And they wish you were dead. The Lord said, you're going to
have sorrow. You're going to have loneliness.
Our Lord said, I'm leaving you. I'm leaving you. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ was
everything to them. He really was. He was their life,
their heart, their soul, their father, their mother, their brother.
Christ was all in all. He really was. He was their life.
They depended on Him. They looked to Him. They called
on Him. They loved Him. They loved Him. They loved the Lord Jesus. They
really did. It wasn't a show. They really
did. And Christ said, I'm leaving you. I believe in you. It killed him. Sorrow filled
him. Does the thought of Jesus Christ
leaving you, what does that do to you? It ought to, shouldn't
it? All of them, he said to all of them, he should have left
them a long time before that. He said, if I've been so long
time with you, how long must I sit with you? Didn't he? The thought of the Lord Jesus
Christ leaving them just filled their hearts. Scripture says,
filled their exceedingly sorrowful over that. Lord, please don't
leave. You know what loneliness, you're going to have to feel,
and all of God's people have felt it. You're going to have
to feel it sometime that the Lord's left you. Yes, sir. Because then when He
utters those words, go tell my disciples and Peter, you'll dive
in the ocean. You will not get to him fast
enough. You will not get to this pew fast enough. You can't appreciate
his coming to you and coming back to you and keep bringing
you back unless you go through a time
of Do you think His mercy is a clean gun? Do you think He's left you? The
Song of Solomon. Don't turn there. I was going
to have you turn. The Shulamite maiden. Remember, she fell asleep.
Remember? She fell asleep. The Lord came
and knocked on the door. That's to His bride, the church. Okay? And He put His hand in
the door. You see, there was no knob on
that door. He's going to make her feel shame
because she forgot about him. She was so taken up with the
world and the things of it and family and friends and their
responsibilities. She forgot and she fell asleep.
She didn't. And he came and she said, Don't
wake me. Don't wake me. I'm too comfortable. Okay. Okay. I'm done. And days for days, she said,
she went around, she said, I sought him. I couldn't find him. I didn't
find him. How many times have you prayed
and you got nothing? How many times have you read
the scriptures, you get nothing? How many times have you heard
the gospel And people all around you are enjoying and rejoicing,
and you get nothing. You see, when you get something,
it'll make you appreciate getting nothing. You with me? When you get a crumb, We've heard
mercy all our lives, haven't we? We've heard of God's unbelievable
love to us all our lives. We've heard of grace, grace,
grace, grace. Yeah, I believe sovereign grace.
Do you? Do you know how amazing it is?
Do you know how amazing it is that God keeps giving? Keeps
drawing, keeps pulling, keeps calling, keeps preaching to you?
Do you know how amazing that is? Can you see it? How many times? OK, that's a
good sermon. You know what the Lord ought
to do, John? You know what the Lord ought
to do to us? Bind him hand and foot. I know. He's too faithful. He's too loving. He's too kind. And we're none
of those things. We're none of those things. Amazing grace. Wouldn't a God
we've never seen that high except from our heart at the top of
our lungs. Amazing grace. Amazing grace. You know, there was a time that
none of these men cared for the Lord Jesus Christ. None of them.
Didn't care a thing about Him. None of them were seeking Him.
They were all lost. They were out in ships. Fishing, making
money, tax collector, none of them cared anything whether or
not Jesus Christ lived or died. They didn't care anything about
it. But he cared for them. And he came to them. And he chose
them. He could have chosen anybody.
His election, amazing grace of what? He came to them. and chose them and said, now,
I've loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving
kindness, I've drawn you to myself. I've come for you. I've come
to die, live and die for you. Give you life. You were dead.
I've come to give you life. You're mine. You're mine. You're
mine. You're my beloved. It was a time when I didn't care
whether Jesus Christ was alive or not. This whole world is full
of people that don't care if he lived or died. Is it nothing
to you? Every time I hear a car go by,
we're sitting in here, we're sitting in here by the grace
of God. Every time I hear that, you know, you hear that guy,
Stephen, that guy in that truck or whatever, that was me. That was me one day. Stop my wild career. Stop! Sit! Like an old wild curd dog. Sit!
He spoke peace to me. Now listen. You're mine. Stop my wild career. Here the
two shall you come, no further. Is it nothing to you all that
pass by? No, it's nothing. Behold and see if there's any
sorrow Like unto my sorrow, Christ said. The world says, I don't
care. That's what the world said. Those
that don't come worship God are saying, I don't care. I did that. The Lord came to Nazareth where
he grew up. Now, let's talk about joy. Okay. Now, I want you to forget all
this. I hope you were somewhat sorrowful. I hope this, if it
didn't fill your heart with sorrow, I hope you got a little bit of
sorrow. Because the gospel doesn't mean a thing to you if you're
not. You know that? If you don't fit all of those
things I described, the gospel won't mean anything to you. Because
here's the gospel. Our Lord came to Nazareth where
He grew up and nobody cared for Him, did they? Listen, He came to Nazareth and
this is what He preached. He said, the Lord has sent me,
God has sent me good tiding to the meek, sent me to bind up
the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captive. We're
not captive, we're free. You know, freedom. from the law. It doesn't mean a thing unless
you've been under the law. He said, I've come to proclaim liberty
to the captains over the prison to them that are bound. Turn Barabbas loose. Turn him
loose. A ransom's been found. Did you Barabbas holler or what?
He said, the Lord hath come to sent me to proclaim the acceptable
year of the Lord. The Lord is accepting all applications for mercy. Everybody
that applies for mercy gets it. Man, if you need mercy, that's
a good sign. He said, the day of vengeance is of our God to
comfort all that mourn. to point unto them that morning's
iron, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for morning, the
garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness. Our Lord said in our text, He
said, Your sorrow shall be turned into joy. You know, sorrow's
good. It's a good thing. The Lord sends
sorrow. He said, in the world you have
tribulation, sorrow, you'll be rejected, you'll deny men. Somebody's
going to betray men. If you don't, it'll be by my
grace. And I'm going to leave you alone for a while. And he
said, but it's going to be turned into joy. Sorrow is good, but
joy is better, isn't it? Wouldn't you rather be joyful?
You want to hear some joy? and gladness. You know, the joy
of the Lord is our strength. Sin and sorrow weakens us, but
the joy of the Lord is our strength, gives us peace, joy in the Lord. Now, I want you to notice that
all the sorrow that the Lord said they would have was concerning
Him. You understand what I'm saying?
It was all about Him. Them and Him. Their denial of
Him. Him leaving them. They're turning
their own way from Him, you see. That's the only people who are
going to be sorry. It's all about Him. Christ is all to you. Now
here's joy. If Christ is all to you, if the
Gospel brings you joy, this is really going to be joy. It's called unspeakable, Joyce,
but I'm going to try to speak on it. I'm going to try to tell
you things we haven't really experienced yet, just a little
bit. I love this. The Lord gives this illustration
of a woman in travail and birth. Is he the wisest? He is wisdom. This is it. This sums it all
up, okay? He said in verse 21, a woman
when she's in travail has sorrow. Now, our Lord said to the woman in
the garden, you remember this? You know when all this trouble
started with sin? Well, a woman. It all started
with her. How do you think she felt when
she knew what she'd brought upon herself, her husband, and everybody? How do you think she felt? She walked out of that garden
and a few years later saw her son laying on the ground in a
pool of blood. She said, I did this. Didn't she? You know she did. And our Lord came walking in
the pool of blood. And He spoke to her. And here's
what He said to the woman. He said, I'm going to greatly
multiply your sorrow in conception. You're going to sorrow trying
to have a child and can't. And then when you have one, you're
going to sorrow in having it. And you're going to sorrow in
losing it. I'm going to greatly multiply
your sorrow in bringing forth children. Stay with me now. I expect somebody to holler. Sheep, when you travail, He says,
it's going to be great sorrow. Great sorrow. Well, our Lord, our Lord in great love and mercy,
the woman's seed came. He's called a man of sorrows.
What a name for the Son of God who came. Why? Because here's
a woman He loves. It's in great sorrow. And he
came. Now listen to Isaiah 53, listen
to it. It says in Isaiah 53, He was wounded for our transmission.
He was bruised for our iniquity. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. And with His stripes, we're healed. The Son of Man, the seed of woman,
the Lord Jesus Christ came, and He said of this woman, as soon
as she's delivered of child, She travails. When her hour has
come, our Lord said on His heading to the cross, He said, My hour
has come. This is my hour. And He said, I'm exceedingly
sorrowful, didn't He? Even unto death. Didn't He? I'm
exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death. They were sleeping. He's
sweating blood. But He loved them. He's not going
to leave them or lose one of them. And that's how he's going
to save them. But as soon as that woman, who's
in great sorrow, is delivered, she remembereth no more the anguish
for joy that a man is born into the world. It says in Isaiah
53, 10, 11, he shall see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Scripture says in Hebrews 12,
for the joy set before him endured the cross, despised the shame. Any sorrow like his sorrow? No.
Any joy like his? No. What he endured for his people
gave him great joy to make us his people. He prevailed in the
birth. That's who this is talking about.
You know that? He's talking about himself, John.
Talking about Christ and Him crucified. That's who he's talking
about. You know, when a woman can't
have a child, it's tough. It's sorrowful. We know, don't we, men? Five
years. We finally thought, we're not
ever going to have a child. When we got the news, will you
ever forget that day, Mindy? Never. We still talk about it. You're pregnant. We still talk
about it. And then that baby, Dr. Hammond,
that baby. I never get over that. Never
get over that. All that sorrow, five years gone
with it. You know, a woman can have a
miscarriage. You're waiting for a child, and you finally get pregnant. And then the Lord takes it. That's
who takes it. It's not a miscarriage. The Lord took it. Is that sorrow
or what? Some in here, that is sorrowful.
Two young ladies, one was here for years, had a miscarriage. Before she ever had any children,
had a miscarriage. Had a couple of miscarriages. Another young
lady in another church had a miscarriage. They were so sorrowful. So sorrowful. But you know what? The Lord gave
them a child. And you know what? That sorrow,
that deep, deep sorrow of that miscarried child, when they put
that live child in her hand, joy unspeakable. But do you know
what's even going to be greater than that? Is the Lord in mercy took that
child, took him all the way to glory, that miscarried child,
and if you know the Lord, you're going to see that child again.
You're going to walk up and say, it's me. And you're going to thank God
for the rest of your days that He took you. That sire is going
to be turned to joy. And the child will never be taken
from you in the Lord's good. What about an abortion? That's bad, isn't it? How could
a woman kill her unborn child? That's not natural. That's without
natural affection. Animals don't do that. How? Because men are evil. Maybe somebody
did that. And then the Lord had mercy on
you. And the Lord had grace on you. And revealed Himself to
you and had mercy upon you. You're going to be in glory and
you're going to see that child that you didn't want. Isn't the Lord good? My, my, my, my, amazing grace. Isn't it amazing grace? Amazing. You know, when a woman's in travail,
Mindy was in labor for 24 hours. I remember coming to her, and
why are babies only born at 2 a.m.? ? 3 a.m. Why not noon, after one hour,
and the sun's shining, the birds are singing, no pain? Because
of Genesis 3. Because the Lord said so. Because
then you're going to appreciate that child when he comes. All
that pain, all that sorrow, it's going to be gone. And then you'll
see a child. I remember coming to Mindy 23
hours later. The doctor said, it won't be long now. I said,
how long? He said, about an hour. I said, honey, it's only going
to be an hour. She said, only an hour. I said,
go ahead and cut my head off. I can't go another hour. And
how long we go through? Our Lord, do you know what it
was like for our Lord to live on this planet for one month?
Do you know what it was like for him who was holy and harmless
and undefiled and separate from sinners to live in this cesspool?
Every day, day in and out, he heard everything people were
thinking and saying and hatred and malice and envy and wickedness
and filth and injustice and killing and hate. That's all this world's
about. And yet He came into this world
to deliver people just like that. Such were some of you, but God. For the Lord Jesus Christ to
prevail as He did for thirty-three years. That's like an eternity.
And then go to Calvary's truth. For Him to be forsaken of God
for one minute. Just the thought of being forsaken
by the Father He loved. Made Him sweat blood. Do you understand what our Lord
prevailed in to do for us? No, we don't. And we sing these
hymns over top of everybody. And you know, this is a picture
of Christ being formed in His people too. Oh, what a picture
of Christ and Him crucified for the joy of sitting before Him.
This is a picture of us, of Christ being formed in us, a new birth,
a woman. All of God's people are female.
They're his bride, they're his wife, all of them, all of them. Second man, second Adam. We're
the second Eve, without sin. A woman, every child of God. is the Lamb's wife, the Lamb's
bride. And when the seed is sown, when the Word is sown by our
Husband, when He comes to us and puts His Word in us, the
first thing is sorrow fills our hearts. First thing, sorrow. Over sin, over ourselves, over
the world. And then we travail, don't we?
Then there's travail. Thank God. Tribulation, trials,
travail. There's a battle. There's a battle
within us. There's a warfare within us.
There's two people struggling. Like Rebecca said, why am I thus?
Why is this going on? The Lord said, there's two people
in you. One I love and the other I hate. And they're going to
battle inside of you. And so there's a battle. There's
a warfare. There's a struggle within us.
And then we live. 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 years in this sinful world. Sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow. Sorrow. Psalm 13 says, How long? Lord, how much longer? Read that tonight. Read Psalm
13. Spurgeon said, you go from sighing,
to suing, to singing. He said, you go from pining,
to praying, to praising. How long, how long, how long?
And it ends with, it wasn't long at all. Go with me to Isaiah 35
and I'll close. Isaiah 35 and I'll close with
you. How long? A woman, as soon as she's delivered,
As soon as she's delivered, joy. And nothing else is remembered.
They don't remember any pain, any sorrow. It's gone. All sorrow's
gone. As soon as she's delivered. You
know, we're not delivered yet. Are we? We're still in this flesh,
John. Paul said, it's not as though
I'd already attained. I'm not perfect yet, he said. I'm not
there yet, he said. So this is what I'm going to
do. But as soon as she's delivered, as soon as the Lord calls us
home, in a moment, in a twinkly of an eye, everything changes. All things become brand new.
Everything. And it says in Isaiah 35, 10, the ransom of the Lord
shall return. and come to Zion with songs and
everlasting joy upon their heads. And they shall obtain joy and
gladness and sorrow and sigh and shall flee away." We're not going to remember a
thing. Not going to remember a thing.
But you know what we're going to remember? Here's what we're
going to remember. I was a great sinner, and he's a great Savior.
No guilt, no remembrance, no regrets, none of that. It's gone. John, it's gone. It's gone. Put away by the sacrifice of
Christ. He said, I'll remember no more,
and bless God, we won't either. And there's going to be such
joy and gladness, and it's never going to end. Now, what's it
all about? Jesus Christ. He did it. He did it all. Okay. John, do
you come please?