Bottom-bottom in the waterway,
Sure as thy boots shall lay, If I am cloudy day, Then I am
holy day. Understand what thou singest? I hope. I know. I believe you. I believe you mean that when
you sing it. I love thy kingdom, Lord, the
house of thine abode, thy church. For her my tears shall fall.
We're talking about people. I'm not talking about a building.
It's just wood, hay, and stubble right here. I'm talking about
people. For her, for them, my tears shall
fall. To her my cares and toils be
given. Beyond my highest joy, I prize
her heavenly ways, her sweet communion, solemn vows, her hymns
of love and praise. as thy truth shall last, to Zion,
that is the church, shall be given the brightest glories earth
can yield, and brighter bliss in heaven." And that is part of the subject tonight,
John chapter 15, this love and joy. in loving God's people. I'm sure this message will help
if the Holy Spirit is pleased to use it, but not unless. And I do want these Wednesday
night messages to be a help to you, something for you to go
on. John 15, look at verse 8. You
remember us leaving off here. Herein is my Father glorified
that you bear much fruit. And this is what believers want.
Believers want God to be glorified. Right? That's the main reason we come
here. When we come into this building,
I know we all have troubles, we all have trials and problems,
and we'd like to get a little comfort, we'd like to get a little
help for our problems, but that's not the chief reason we meet
here. The number one reason we meet here is we come here to
praise our God, not to think about and pine over our problems,
because our blessings far outweigh our problems. So we come here
to glorify our God. And he says here that God is
glorified in us bearing much fruit. Are you with me? Stay with me now. It's going
to help you. I've learned something in studying this. We preach,
we, yeah, we all, we're in this thing together. We preached this
thing before. It's been several years ago. seven or eight years ago, but
I've really learned something in studying them. This is brand
new to me. But he says here, God is glorified
in us bearing much fruit. Bearing much fruit, he said,
you'll be my disciples if you do. So shall you be my disciples
if you bear fruit. All right, verse 9, he says,
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. As the Father hath loved me.
God Almighty loved, loves, loved his Son, because his Son was
lovely. Wasn't it? Isn't it? God loved
his Son as a man while he was here. God loved his He's called his well-beloved.
His only begotten well-beloved son. And you know how I like
to remind us of how God spoke from heaven twice. Couldn't contain
himself, Joe. Just like you looking at that
grandson or your son, you know, beaming with love and proud of
him. And you just want to tell somebody
about it, even if it's Nancy. Brag on him. Well, God's son's
worth bragging on. And God did. Out loud from heaven,
he said, Now, this is my beloved son. I'm well pleased. He's lovely. He's altogether lovely, the scripture
says. Christ loved his father. You
love those boys, don't you? Young men. They love you. That makes them that much more
lovely to you, doesn't it, Joe? Because they love you. God, Christ
loved his father, loved him dearly, served him with every ounce of
his being. That would make you love him. If all he wanted to do was please
you, how much more would you love him? Christ loved to do
his father's will. That's what he said. He said,
my meat and my drink. He said, I live to do my father's
will. Do you reckon God is proud of
him? Oh, he loved him. Christ loved
other people as himself. All right? Now, Christ said,
the Father is glorified if we bear much fruit. He said, so
shall you be my disciple. He said, as the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. Now we come far short of the
glory that Christ gave to his Father, don't we? Henry, we come
far short of loving Christ as Christ loved God, don't we? Far
short. Yet, he says, as God loved me,
I love you. That's hard to grasp, isn't it? But it's true. But I do love
Christ. Do you? I know you're hesitant to sit
there and say it because you realize how weak it is and how
poor your love is, but think about Peter. Peter had just in that cussed,
cursed, swore to a little girl. A little girl came up to him
and he was ashamed to own Christ. A little girl. And he was embarrassed
and shamed and afraid and a coward and cussed and done. I don't
even know that man. And then when Christ called him
to account, called him to himself, said, Now, Peter, do you love
me? What did he say? What did he say? I'm not sure. I don't know. So what did he
say? down. You love Christ your part
now like you ought to but do you love OK. He loves you. He loves you. My love to Christ. Want to do is we'll. I want to
do is we'll don't you. Don't you stay If you don't, you're not one
of his disciples. Do you want to? All right. Christ loves you. I want to love his people as
myself. I want to love these people as
Christ loved me. And I do love these people. Don't you? Do you, Sherry? Christ loves you. You're one
of his disciples. And the next fruit will follow.
All right? Christ is talking about two things
here in these verses. Love, and you know what the second
one is, if you've read through it? I'll give you a hint. What's the first two fruits of
the Spirit in Galatians 5.2? Come on. Galatians 5. The fruit
of the Spirit is love. What's the second one? Joy. Love. Joy. Everybody in here, here's
your lesson for Sunday. Learn Galatians 5.22. And come
back, you will be tested. Love, joy. It's no coincidence
that Christ deals with these two things in succession right
here. And that's what Paul wrote about
in Galatians 5.22. Love and joy. This is the subject
Christ deals with. He talks about this love. And
then he says joy will follow. Love to God, love to Christ,
love to others. So shall you be my disciple,
and the next fruit will flow from thee." Joy. You love God,
his person, his work, his word. You love God's word, you'll have
joy from it. You love Christ, you love his
gospel, you'll have joy from it. You love others, you love
God's people, you'll get joy from them. Now this thing of love is a real
key. As a real key, the scriptures deal with this thing of love
an awful lot, don't they? How many times have we seen Christ
say this just in these couple of chapters here? This is my
commandment. Often, right? Many times. The whole epistle, first epistle
of John, I've never counted it, but how many times does he talk
about love? That seems to be the theme of
it, doesn't it? Love. Now if we hear this, if you and
I hear this message, we might just learn something. We might
find some real joy. Joy in believing and joy in loving. All right, let's look at these
verses very carefully. All right, verse nine again.
He says, As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. How did God love Christ? He loved
him specifically. I mean, specially. He loved him
specially and specifically, particularly. He loved him particularly. It's
a particular love, special love. So is Christ's love for us. On
down here, he said in verse 16, you've not chosen me, I chose
you. You see, Joe, Christ had to, I'll
call on somebody else, Joe. You just, like I say all the
time, you're just there. I'm right-handed, you know, so
I speak to the right side mostly. Talk to you people over here
a little bit. Where am I? This thing of
love. How did Christ love us? He chose us. We didn't choose
him. We're talking about particularly,
particular, electing, special love. There's nothing lovely
about us. He set his love on us, didn't
he? He made himself, he provoked
himself to love us. That's not the way God loved
Christ. Christ deserved that love. But there was a sense in which
Christ was his chosen. Isaiah 42 says that. God loved Christ And we'll love
Christ unchangeably, everlastingly. Love never fails. Love never
quits. God never quit, and they will
never quit loving his son. Neither will Christ ever quit
loving his people. As the Father loved me, so I
love you. All right, read on. He says,
continue in my love. Continue in my love. Stan, there's another one of
those things that he sounds like he's giving us something to do,
doesn't he? Well, in a sense, he is. Continue in my love. In other words, continue to remember
what I just said. My love for you. Remember. You get to feeling bad about
yourself. Christ never feels bad about you. You love that verse over in 1
Timothy, don't you, John, that he cannot deny himself? 2 Timothy. He abided faithful. If we deny
him, he cannot deny himself. And as he is, so are we. Grieving? Yes. How can I say it? Like a father
is grieved over a disobedient child, yes. But make him quit
loving us or lessen his love for us? Never. Continue to remember that. You'll
get joy from it. Remember that. Continue to love
others as I have loved you, and real joy will flow. Turn over
to 1 John chapter 3 with me. 1 John chapter 3, we're going
to read several verses of Scripture. 1 John 3, and I promise to get
you out of here very shortly. 1 John 3, as I said, this whole book is
full of this subject. Now listen to this as you're
turning to 1 John 3. There is a special manifestation
of Christ's love for you, if you love the brethren. There is assurance of Christ's
love for you, if you love the brethren. Look at 1 John 3, verse
14. We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. That's the reason I asked you
if you could say from your heart that you love these people. If
you hesitate, if you don't know. But if you can say from the heart,
yes, I love Nancy Parsh, I love Jeanette Barrier, I love Amy
Popp. I do. I really do. Not like often,
but I do. I really, sincerely do. We know
we've passed from death unto life. Read on. Verse 16, Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, we ought
to lay down our lives for the brethren. Verse 18 through 21,
My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue,
but in deed and in truth. And hereby we know that we are
of the truth. Did you get that? I said there's
an assurance of Christ's love for you if you love the brethren. That's what he just said there.
He said, My little children, let us not love in word, neither
in tongue, but in deed and truth. Hereby we know we are of the
truth and shall assure or persuade our own hearts before him. Read
on. If our heart condemns us, God is greater than our heart.
He knows all things. Beloved, if our heart condemns
us not, then have we confidence toward God. If I can say from
the heart, I love this man. And I have some confidence toward
God that God's done shed abroad his love in my heart. And as I said before, that it
must be of God because we're so poles apart in personalities
and upbringing and so forth, right? Some of us ages apart. Yet, if you can say that you
desire more than anything else to be here on a, whenever the
people meet, a Wednesday night, even a Saturday night, to meet
with God's people, and you don't have to fake it, and you're not
doing it out of duty, you're sure of your heart. God did something
for me. He's done something for me. Like
I said before, Joe, there you are. If I can love being around
an old, square, fuddy-daddy like you, and he's saying, yeah, if
I can like to be around a young punk like you, God's done something. Right? A young, smart-aleck,
whippersnapper like me, God must have done something for us, buddy.
To bind the hearts of two that are so different. and yet making
us more and more alike every day. Right? This is a God that's
working in us. All right, read on. Look at verse,
chapter 4. Look at chapter 4, verses 7,
and let's just keep reading. Chapter 4, verse 7. Beloved,
let us love one another. Love is of God. Everyone that
loveth is born of God. Talking about loving the brethren.
and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God. God is love. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten
Son into the world, that we might live through him. Herein is love. Now here's the definition of
love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. Sovereign, electing, love, and
sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sin, dying, bleeding,
satisfying love, saving love. There is love. Beloved, if God
so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Read on. No man had seen God at any time.
If we love one another, God dwelt in us. and his love is perfected
in us. Hereby know we that we dwell
in him, and he in us, because he has given unto us the spirit."
What spirit? The fruit of the spirit, which
is love. See how important it is that
we know this? Look at verse 20 and 21. If a man says, I love
God and hates his brother, he is a liar. Now, we all get mad
at each other. You get mad at me, and you've
got a right to be at time. Sometimes you don't have a right
to be at time. And I get mad at you, and I have a right to
be at time. And sometimes I don't have a right to be at time. But
it's just you. You get mad at him, don't you?
And you get mad at her, don't you? And sometimes you have a
right to. But you love one another. That
doesn't mean you're going to quit and stop and leave. No,
you'd love one another. He's a liar, he that hates his
brother. What's hate? He that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen. How can we love God whom he hath
not seen? This commandment have we from
God that he who loveth God loveth his brother also. Read on. Whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. And every one
that loveth him that begat Loveth him also that is begotten of
him." I love my brothers and sisters,
my earthly brothers and sisters, and so you do you, don't you?
I love my father and I love my father's children the same way
spiritually. By this we know, look at verse
2, by this we know that we love the children of God when we love
God and keep his commandment. All right, back to the text.
And John 15. John 15. Just by this we know
that we love the brethren. And we're born of God if we keep
his commandment. In verse 10, this is what Christ
said. And John was standing or sitting
right here when Christ said this, and that's the reason John wrote
what he wrote. He learned well, didn't he, Henry? He just repeated
what Christ said. Christ said, if you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Now, John, he's not talking about
that I'll only love you if you walk right. That's not what he's
saying there. His commandment here and keeping
his commandments is a general attitude and tenor
of life. Well, nobody can keep his commandments
perfectly, can they? His love is not conditioned on
our obedience. He's talking about abiding in
his love or feeling his love or special presence and assurance
of his love. Read on. Even as I've kept my
Father's commandments and abide in his love, These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full." This is my commandment, that you love one another. All
right? You keep my commandments. And
then he says, This is my commandment. You remember when they came to
Christ and said, What's the greatest of all the law? And he said,
All the law is fulfilled in one word. Didn't it? Didn't it? It's all fulfilled
in one word, love. This is my commandment. This, that you love one another
as I have loved you. And he said, my joy will remain
in you, and your joy might be full. My joy, he says, look at
verse eleven. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you." Do you know that Christ
rejoices in his people? Just as he, just as he grieves
over, Steve, you grieve over your children when they're Sure
you do. You joy over them when they're
obedient? Sure you do. So does Christ. So does Christ. My joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. That your joy might be full.
All right, let me try to just sum all this up. make it plain
for you. I hope you're getting something here. Love and joy. Love to God, love
to God's people. Love to God, there's joy that
comes from it. Love to God's people, there's
joy that comes from it. Joy is according to faith. If you believe Christ, you'll
have joy. If you believe the gospel, you'll
have joy. If your hope is in Christ, you'll
have joy. You'll enjoy and rejoice in the
Lord. OK? If you believe Christ, you'll
have joy. If you love Christ, you'll have
joy. All right, now look, think about
this. If you look to yourself and not to Christ, you won't
have any joy. Will you? If you look at yourself
and not to Christ, you won't have any joy. If you look to
Christ, you'll have joy. All right, if you just look only
on things of yourself, and not others, you won't have
any joy. But if you look on the things
of others, you'll have joy. Are you with me? You look to
Christ, you'll get joy. You look on the things of others,
you'll get joy. You look to yourself, you won't
have any joy. You look on the things of yourself,
you won't have any joy. You'll be a miserable person.
Let me illustrate this. You don't have much joy when
you only love yourself. And chances are no one else will
love you either. If you only love and pay attention
to yourself, Ain't nobody else going to love you or pay attention
to you much either. You'll be self-centered. And the converse of that, Rick,
is to be Christ-centered. Faith is Christ-centered. There's
joy. If it's self-centered, there's
no joy. Right? All right? Conduct. If it's self-centered, no joy. centered on others as real joy.
This is a spiritual principle. If you love others, I mean, if
you show it, you're going to find joy. And I guarantee you, they'll love you in return. Guarantee
it. Unless they're just a monster. God's people aren't
monsters. Greater love, he said, look at
verse 13, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay
down his life for his friends. The scripture says of Christ
in Hebrews 12, John, it says, who for the joy set before him
endured the cross. Greater love? He showed it, didn't
he? He showed it. And he said, this
is my commandment. You love others like I love you. lay down your life. But he got
joy from doing that, John. He got joy from it. Since he despised the shame,
didn't think anything about the shame because he loved these
people so much. Loved me. If he can love me, who am infinitely
beneath him, surely I can love somebody just like me or better. And he said, look at verse fourteen,
he says, You're my friends if you do whatever I command you.
You're my friend. Now read on. Henceforth I call
you not servants, but for the servant knoweth not what his
Lord doeth. Oh, he's revealed unto us the mystery of his will.
I've called you friends. For all things that I've heard
of my Father I've made known unto you. Oh, what we've had
revealed unto us here, huh? Where's his brain? You've not
chosen me. I've chosen you. This ain't no
free will Baptist church. This is a God's will Baptist
church. And he said, I've chosen you
and ordained you that you should go and bring forth fruit. This
is what it's all about. He said, this is why I chose
you. Not to keep you out of hell, but to bring forth fruit. How
did he start this whole thing out? Herein is my Father glorified.
Remember what I asked? You want to glorify God, don't
you? All right. He keeps pounding this, doesn't
he? Love one another. All right, we need to quit thinking about
ourselves and start thinking on things of others, and we'll
find joy. Was it Christ that said it's
truly more blessed to give than to receive? Have you ever experienced
that just a little bit? Think what it'd be like, think
what the blessing you'd give if you did a lot of it. Huh? It's truly more blessed. We're
the ones, you know, when you truly give something out of love,
not duty, not a Christmas gift. But give something because you
want to, to show your love. Aren't you, don't you, aren't
you blessed? You're more blessed than the
one you gave it to, really. Do you remember Philippians 2 where
it said Christ became a servant? Let this mind be in you. And
God highly exalted him. If we would think of others rather
than ourselves, we would forget our troubles. That's how Christ
went to the cross. In the garden, he was sweating
blood, thinking about being made sin. But then he prayed. Then Rick, he prayed and said,
My will is that they be with me where I am. So I'm going to
Calvary. I'm going to see. And he set
his face toward the cross. drive the spikes. I've got to
save John. If we think on things of others,
we forget about our trouble. Everybody's got trouble. Everybody's
got trouble. Everybody in here's got trouble.
If you were without troubles, you'd be bastards. Here's a man who says, oh, I
work so hard. I work so hard. I work all day
long, every day, rarely a moment's rest. If he'd think about his
wife, his troubles would start lessening. Here she is at home, perhaps,
or maybe even on the job, too, but has to come home. Here she
is at home, two, three, four kids screaming. The pressure unending, the work
unending, never a moment's rest. You know the old saying, a woman's
work's never done. Now, if your women are gloating,
don't. You think of that widow whose all her children are gone,
who wishes that there was a crying baby around the house, who wishes
she had somebody to cook for because she don't want to cook
for herself. food just doesn't taste quite the same. Or that widow can think on the
woman who's never had a child, and no family, or no husband. Now, every one of us can think
of something else, someone else. If you've never had a child,
Scripture said, blessed art is the one who never had a child,
because think of the unspeakable heartbreak of losing one. You don't have to experience
that heartache. You think of somebody else's
trouble. Are you alone? You feel alone? You don't know loneliness. Take your family to Mexico. Think of Werner Gruber down there in
Mexico. You can get on the phone and find
an English-speaking voice. That's one of the things Betty
said was such a trauma to her for the first ten years of her
life. You know, she couldn't just call Sister so-and-so up. Alone, an alien. An alien. Are you sick? Are you sick? You're not bed-fast though, are
you? Find somebody that's bed-fast and go visit them. And you'll
be surprised how much better you'll feel. You know what? Right, Joe? You'll be surprised how much
better you'll feel. You find somebody that's sitting
there and weighs about 80 or 90 pounds dying of cancer. You'd
be surprised just how well you are. Are you miserable? I thought of this. Maybe it's no wonder because
of the company we keep ourselves. If we only spend time with ourselves
and we're miserable, no wonder, bad company. Right? Got problems, somebody else has
got them worse. Find somebody with worse problems. Think on them. Visit them. Do
something for them. Your problems will... They won't
vanish, but you sure won't be thinking about them. And you'll find joy. Did Christ
have problems? A man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief from his youth, but lonely, afflicted. There's nothing compares to it. search and see if there be any
sorrow like unto my sorrow wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me."
He said, look high and low and see if you can find anybody that
hath been treated like I have. Yet he said, for the joy that
set before him. He rejoiced with joy unspeakable. All right, Christ said that your
joy might be full of love for one another. Don't have any joy? No wonder you're with miserable
company. Change company. Evil communications
corrupt good manners. You've been communicating with
yourself. He's an evil fellow. Find somebody worth communicating
with. Spend some time with somebody
to edify you. And we might just learn from
experience the joy of loving the brethren, giving ourselves. We might just learn this joy.
I needed this. I need this. I need this. And whatever I need, I know you
need. And let's learn. Let's not be hearers of the word
and doers only, deceiving ourselves. All right? How many times do
you say that in just a few verses? This is my command now. That
my joy might be in you. Let me joy in you. Let me joy
in you, chillens, in doing what I've taught you. Do like Dad
does. And that your joy might be full. You know, we're going to be the
blessed ones. will be the blessed one. Christ knows what he's talking
about. For lack of a better way of putting
it, he said this, he's true. He said, if you'll do what I
say, your joy will be full. Try it. Prove him. Jeanette Mary,
prove him. Go say, all right, Lord, I'm
going to do what you say. I'm going to prove you. I want
fullness of joy. All right, let's stand. Our Heavenly Father instilled this in us, this lesson,
teach us over and over again, this one lesson, that we never
learn anything Let us learn this, to look to you and therefore
find joy and peace by believing, and to look on the things of
others and thereby experience joy. Lord, teach us, please. We are
selfish, everyone in here. must admit and must confess this
horrible sin of selfishness, self-love. So, O Lord, let us
turn from self. Let us love others as ourselves,
we pray. Let us prove the sincerity of
our love and thereby find joy, fullness of joy. O Lord, we pray in Christ's name,
grant it. Amen.