I turned back to John chapter
15 that we read. It's been a few weeks since we've
studied here in the Gospel of John, but I hope to continue
in it and finish what we've started. It's been a long interval, I
know. But So I'm going to refresh your
memory of a few things I think that are necessary in leading
up to this message. Now, our Lord had been talking,
and I don't know if you were here or not for the message on
the true vine, but our Lord had been talking about himself being
the true vine and his father being the husbandman, or that
is, the vine dresser. the one who engrafted divine
or sent divine, planted divine. You know, Christ is the vine,
God the Father is the vine, the husbandman who sent the vine,
who planted that seed, that holy thing, in that woman's womb and
caused him to grow up as a root out of dry ground. And we're
called the branches. God's people, or believers, are
called the branches, and that means that we're the offshoots
of the vine, we come from him, in him we live and move and have
our very being, we're the branches. And he talked much in the first
eight verses here that we covered, he talked much about fruit, fruit
of the vine and fruit of the branches also, the branches bear
fruit. And he says here, let's pick
it up here in verse two. Now, he says every branch in
me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away. In other words,
no fruit. That means you have no root,
no fruit, no root. You bear no fruit, bear no resemblance
to the Lord Jesus Christ, then there's no root of the matter
in you. You're not grounded and settled in the truth. You don't
have that saving interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. No fruit,
just dead branches. But remember this. He's talking
about fruit that comes from the branches, that's on the branches.
Remember this and mark it well. And he says this over and over
again. Look at verse 4. He says, Abide in me, and I in
you, as the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide
in the vine. No more can you. Except you abide
in me. We cannot do anything apart from
the spirit of our Lord Jesus Christ. Nothing. We can do nothing. I want to show you a verse of
Scripture in Hosea, the book of Hosea. I was showing this
to one of the brothers a while ago. Hosea chapter 14, the last
chapter in the book of Hosea. I'll give you a minute to find
it. But Christ said there in verse
5 of John 15, he said, you remember this. You're just a branch. And all of your fruit, all of
your all grace, all talents, all strength, all will, all faith,
everything comes as a result of your connection with the vine,
with the Lord Jesus Christ. I said this before, many people
mistake The grace of God or the preventing or the restraining
grace of God for personal holiness. Many people think that what they
have is a personal holiness when in fact it's a restraining grace
of God keeping them from doing certain things and any goodness
that anybody performs at any time is the constraining grace
of God in that person's life the Holy Spirit working. Well,
look at this in Hosea chapter fourteen, this is this is wonderful.
This is exactly what the Lord is talking about. Christ said,
without me, you can do nothing without the vine, your dead branches
and all of your fruit has its beginnings as the sap comes from
the vine into the branches. Look at verse eight with me.
He says Ephraim. Now, Ephraim has long been a
or throughout the scriptures as a as a type of the church. Ephraim shall say, What have
I to do any more with idols? I have heard him, and observed
him." And we say the same thing when God Uh, opens our eyes to
see the beauty of the Lord Jesus Christ and give us faith in him.
We say, what have we to do anymore with this old religion that we
were once involved in and all these old, uh, uh, other Jesus's
and other gospels and idols. I've heard him. I've heard his
voice and I've seen him. I've observed him. Look at it. He says, I'm like a green fir
tree. This is Christ talking. I'm like
a green fir tree, you know, fir tree. They grow high up in the
mountains. They're able to withstand tremendous
forces of nature and storms and weather. And they grow high up
where no other trees can grow. The fir tree is a mighty, mighty
evergreen tree. And that's what Christ is saying.
I'm as the green fir tree. And from me, are you looking
at it? From me is thy fruit found. from me. I believe that's exactly
what our Lord is saying over here in John 15, that all of
your fruit comes from me. Christ is the source of all true
goodness and holiness. If there's any holiness throughout
the universe, anywhere to be found, it comes from the source
of it all. Christ, you know, that man, that
lawyer, was it that came up to tempt our Lord? He said, good
master. Or was it the rich young ruler? I forget. Good master.
And Christ said, well, wait a minute. You've got no right to call me
good or anybody else good, because there's none good but God. Now,
if you call me good, you're calling me God, aren't you? And I was
just joking around with one of our ladies this morning. I said,
how are you doing? She said, I'm doing good. I said,
well, wait a minute. Scripture says none that doeth good. Yeah,
there's one. There's one that doeth good.
He did good from the start, from the beginning, from birth. And
he's God. There's none good, but God, and
there's no goodness in you, Terry Kendler, anybody else, apart
from what comes from the vine, comes from Christ to you and
through you from the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, he says back here
in the text in verse eight, he says this, look at it, it's important.
Now, he says, herein, that is, in abiding in Christ, his words
abiding in you and bearing fruit, herein, Is my father glorified? That you bear much fruit. So shall you be my disciples,
you bear much fruit, so shall you be my disciple. I gave this
illustration just like an artist who paints a picture. He is glorified
in the beauty that's shown on that canvas. And the composer
of music, he is glorified in a beautiful melody that he composes
and the Lord God of heaven is glorified in making a people
just like Christ. I wrote this down in the back
of my Bible many years ago. Salvation, I believe Brother
Barnard quoted this. He said salvation is reproducing
the character of the Lord Jesus Christ in a human being. It takes totally the work of
God, because it's such an impossible work to take a worm and turn
him into a son of God, to take a filthy, wicked and vile creature
and transform him, turn him from his wicked ways and make him
like unto the son of God. We can't do it of ourselves.
It's the work of God, and God is glorified therein in that
work. God is glorified in us being
like Christ, divine. Yeah, he is. He's the vinedresser,
and he's glorified in his wisdom and his strength and his ability
to grow fruit. The vinedresser. If his orchards
are barren, well, people will mock him, right? But his people
bear much fruit. That's what he's saying there.
Herein is my Father glorified that you bear much fruit, so
shall you be my disciple. Because we are his workmanship.
We are his workmanship. Created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. We quote that Ephesians 2 8 quite
often and don't go on to verse 9 or verse 10. We are created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk therein.
And this is how God glorifies. It's what the passage is saying
here. But remember. That fruit does not come of ourselves. We
don't just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up and. We
don't just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up and.
We don't just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up and. We
don't just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up and.
We don't just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up
and. We don't just up and. We don't
just up and. We don't just up and. We don't just up and. We
don't just up and. We No, it comes from the fact within us
that life giving the Holy Spirit within us that Christ promised
to send to his people that they would bear much fruit. Now, I
want you to notice with me the fruit here that Christ is talking
about is not necessarily outward fruit. He's not necessarily talking
about outward fruit, because fruit, really, on a tree, an
apple. Fruit is really just the byproduct
of a good tree. In other words, the fruit doesn't
determine, the fruit doesn't make the tree a good tree. Tree
produces fruit, and that's our connection with Christ, and fruit,
or outward fruit, is just the byproduct of what's within, of
what's within. Christ in me. The Scripture says,
now it's no more I that liveth, but Christ in me. The things that I do, I do by
the faith of the Son of God. The life that I live now, I live
by the faith of the Son of God. It's no more I that do it, but
Christ in me. And it's the byproducts of what's
within. It's just the outward, the natural
manifestation of the spiritual manifestation. Now listen. Let
me give you two reasons. Bear with me here. I'm building
up some arguments here. There's two reasons why you cannot
trust outward fruit. Two reasons why you need to beware
of looking too much at fruit. And we're talking about fruit
in the life of a believer. But there's two reasons you need
to be aware of and be careful concerning this. First of all,
outward works can be a source of deception. Outward works can
be a great source of deception. Many people, many people do works
of religion, benevolent works in the name of religion, in the
name of Jesus. They said Christ himself said
some people want to come to him in that great day of the judgment
and say, we've done this, we've done that in the name of Jesus.
And he said, you've worked works of iniquity in the name of religion. It looked good to me and. But
God looks where? On the heart, on the heart, so
it's deceptive. The heart is deceitful above
all things, desperately wicked, and really many so-called good
works are dead works of religion, dead self-righteous works, because
they come from fleshly motives and vain personal motives. So firstly, that's the reason
you can't really trust fruit. It can't totally depend upon
outward deeds to determine. Secondly, not only is outward,
can outward fruit be a source of deception, but it also can
be a source of discouragement to the believer, to the weak
believer. You don't see much fruit, do
you? You really don't acknowledge any fruit in yourself, do you? Do you? Come on. You see any
goodness in you at all? Do you see where you've made
one step of progress in your life, even if you've Uh, known
Christ, 10, 15 years. You don't feel like you feel
like you've gone backward if anything. So that can be a great
source of discouragement by trying to look, find fruit. You think
you're barren. You think you're better. And
a believer may despair of himself in that way. So you can't trust
fruit in that respect. That's the reason this fruit
that he's talking about is inward, inward fruit. And it's going
to be interesting to you, I want you, it's interesting to know
that these three, this fruit that he's talking about, he says
three things are the first three fruit mentioned in Galatians
5.22, the fruit of the spirit, love, joy, peace. This is exactly what the Lord
Jesus Christ is talking about. And if you'll notice back there
in Galatians 5 sometime, 5.22, all of those fruit, singular,
all of those fruit are inward, first of all, inward
principles. They manifest themselves outwardly,
but chiefly, foremost, where they start is on the inside,
on the inside. And this fruit, this fruit, this
man, Tim James once said this, he said, Any so-called good work
that an unregenerate can counterfeit and good work. That makes sense. Any so-called
quote good work that an unregenerate man, a man who doesn't know Christ,
doesn't know God, play in religion, whatever, or just an outwardly
moral person, that they can do it, that's not considered good
works in God's eyes. No, it isn't. There were two
classes of people that the Lord I've talked about one time for
the GM mentioned. One class of people, he said,
said under them. Blessed are you? Because when
I was hungry, you fed me when I was naked, you clothed me and
so forth. And I said, when did we do this? We don't remember.
He said, as much as you've done it to the least of these, my
brother, you've done it under me. They weren't Henry. That didn't
acknowledge it. Are we ever done anything worth
noticing after we've done all that's required of us? We're
still unprofitable servants. And the true child of God never
acknowledges that he's done anything worthy of notice or any good
work. But the other people, those other
people that Christ, he said, you didn't do these things. He
said, we didn't know or we'd have done it. Well, they pleaded ignorance,
too. But. You see, fruit. Fruit in a man,
a woman or a boy or a girl bearing fruit. or resemblance to the
Lord Jesus Christ, let me refer to it as that. Fruit is primarily,
listen to me now, if you don't hear anything else I say, listen
to this. Fruit, fruit of the Spirit, is
primarily Christ-likeness, Christ-like affection, affections, attitudes,
principles within. That's what fruit is, that's
where it starts. Within dispositions. Dispositions,
grace works, works, it does manifest itself. But remember, remember,
it all comes from the vine. We still don't produce this.
We can't. We try, don't we? We try so hard to be this way
or that way or not be this way or not be that way. We can't
do it, except he enables us, right? Except he keeps us from
this or makes us do that. It's all in his And it's all,
and listen to this, here's one sure mark of the connection. I'm going to get to the text
here in a minute. One sure mark of a connection to the vine,
and that fruit is, that sap is running through the veins. One
sure mark is that that person attributes all that they are,
all that they have. all that they have ever done
or ever will do to the vine. Totally. Completely. And this
is Christ-likeness. This is what I'm talking about.
This is what Christ himself did. He attributed everything he did,
even, to the Father. He glorified the Father. And
if you be like Christ, you'll glorify Christ. Listen. Listen to this. Christ said this.
Listen to these quotes of Christ himself. Not only is he our substitute,
first of all, he's our supreme example. And Christ said this
about himself, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he
seeth the Father do. See, he came to what? Glorify
the Father. What is our mission on earth?
To glorify the Son, honor the Son. So we don't attribute anything
to ourselves, but all honor and glory goes to the Son, right?
The Son said this, my doctrine is not mine. But him that sent
me to come in the name of the Father, I came to tell you what
he has to say. Although Christ the Son thought
it not proper to be equal with God, he could have come down
here, couldn't he? And claimed all authority and
all honor and said, you listen to me. But in the name of the
Father, in the honor of the Father, as an example to us also, he
didn't speak of himself. That's what he said. I've not
spoken of myself. Although everything bears witness
of the Son, everything, this hymn book, his story, it all
bears witness of the Son, but Christ came and didn't come to
bear witness of himself even, he said. But the Father. He said, I don't speak of myself,
but I speak of the Father, which sent me. It says, He gave me
commandment, what I should say, and that's what I'm going to
say. I'm true to the Father. True to the Father. Listen to
this. He said this, the words that I speak unto you, I speak
not of myself, but the Father that dwelleth in me. The Father
and the Son and the Holy Spirit got together and eternity passed
and wrote a book. We have it before and every word
in it must be fulfilled. You remember how many times Christ
said he did the word says he did this in order that the scriptures
might be fulfilled. And Christ came down here to
reveal, to fulfill The word of the father. The word of the father. It's almost like he was reading,
he is the book. He has the master copy within
himself. And he was reading every page,
walking through this world in his life. Speaking every word
that was to be spoken. Doing every deed that was to
be done. Accomplishing that effectual work that was to be accomplished.
That covenant with the father they made together. So you see,
A true, like Christ himself, a true child of God attributes
all of his fruit, even the faith that we have. We're not even
going to be able to stand before God and say, I believe on Jesus. That's what people like to plead
now, don't they? They make faith a work, don't they? That's the
gift of God. Even faith is the grace of God,
right? We don't produce that. Try it.
Try it. Produce one ounce of faith, one
mustard seed of faith. Can't do it, can you? Comes from
above. Comes from above. And the true
child of God attributes all his fruit, his faith, his works to
the Father, to the Son, to who is the source. To who is the
source. Let me read you this. Arthur
Pink wrote this down. He just descriptors what it is.
The child of God says, not I, but the grace of God within me.
And saints are filled, this is what Philippians says, filled
with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ. It is Christ's joy, it is his
peace unto us, the meekness and gentleness of Christ, he gives
it. Paul said this, Paul who perhaps bore more fruit than
any believer, any disciple that's ever walked upon this earth.
Paul said these things. I'll not dare speak of any of
those things which Christ has not wrought in me. I'm not going
to dare speak of anything that I've done, but only what Christ
has done. Christ liveth in me. I can do
all things through Christ which strengthens me. And this and
this only, when a believer recognizes this, when an unbeliever recognizes
this, recognizes that all, everything that God has for us is in Christ. That's when Christ will be all.
That's when Christ becomes all and in all. Now look down here
at verse 9 with me in the text. Now listen there, this is the
first fruits of what Christ is talking about. I'll be brief.
The first fruit, look at verse 9. Now Christ had just said,
here's how the Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit. This
is how you'll be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me."
Love. Galatians 5.22. Fruit of the
Spirit. Love. Joy. Peace. Love. First fruit. The first fruit. Love is the first fruit of the
Holy Spirit. And this is the principal product
from the vine to the branches. Love. The love of God as shown
to us in Christ. He says, As the Father hath loved
me. And so have I loved you. Now continue in my love. How did the Father love Christ?
How? He says, as the Father hath loved
me, that's how I love you. Now continue in this love. How did the Father love Christ?
First of all, he loved him everlastingly. He loved him with an everlasting
love from the beginning. His affection was set on. And
God set his affection on us. Christ set his affection on us
from the foundation of the world. Yeah, he did. He loved the people
freely, freely. The Father loved Christ specially
and particularly. Exalted one chosen from among
the people. Loved him dearly, particularly. Sped his love on him. And that's
us. Election? Election is proof of the love
of God. He doesn't deny it. He doesn't compromise it. Oh,
it magnifies the love of God. that God would love anybody is
a miracle, a marvelous mystery. But God had to do it particularly. He had to set His love and affection
upon us because there's nothing in us to deserve that love, is
there? It had to be unconditional love. There's nothing in us to
merit that love. And God loved the Son unchangeably. He'll never stop loving Him.
Never. You won't ever stop loving that
boy, will you, Deborah? Never. You love him to the end. That's
what Christ said, wasn't it, over in John 13? That's what
he said. Having loved his own, he loved
them to the end. And he said, the Father loves
me to the bitter end. And even so, I've loved you.
Now look at this. He says, continue in my love. Continue you in my
love. Now listen. He's not talking
here so much about our love to him. that we ought to love Him,
ought to keep loving Him. You ought to love the Lord. Well,
you ought to, yes. But we don't love Him, really. We don't love
Him in and of ourselves. We love Him only because He first
loved us. Because He shed abroad in our
hearts the love of God. Because He did it. What little
love we have for Him is so fluctuating and insane. What little love
we have for Him, He gave it. And He has to nurture it. He
has to cause it to grow. He's not talking so much about
our love for Him He has love for us. Now, listen, that's what
we talked about this morning, this spirit of adoption that
a believer has in Christ, the spirit of adoption, feeling that
God is really his Father, a blessed privilege and a blessing, a blessed
privilege. And Christ is saying here, continue
in this assurance and this understanding of my love for you. Now, understand,
remember now. This is Christ talking to his
intimate disciple. You just pretend that Christ
is sitting down talking to you. There's unregenerate people in
here, I know that. But a believer, a child of God, is believing,
trusting in Christ. You just feel like he's talking
to you right now. I cannot say, in all due honesty, that the
love of God is upon every individual in here. The Bible doesn't teach
that. The love of God is in Christ.
If you're outside of Christ, the wrath of God abides on you
right now. That's what the Scripture says. But to God's people, Christ
is talking to them personally. And He says, now this is your
hope. Henry Sowell. I pick on you, Henry. You're
always on the second row. If you don't want me to call
your name, go back there. But Henry, this is good news, though. You ought to rejoice, Henry.
Christ is talking to you personally. And he says, I love you. I love you. The Father has loved me and will
love me always, love me to the end. And he's loved me with an
everlasting love and particular love and a special love and affection.
He says, that's just exactly how I love you. I'll love you
to the end. I don't care what you do, old
boy. I don't care. He said, I love you. Just like a loving parent will
love that child, no matter if they're in prison or in the White
House. They'll love that child, never
give... He said, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. Now he
says, you continue in that. You get good hope and good assurance
and good comfort from that. And it is a source of assurance. It is. To never doubt his love
for us. This is the reason we can't trust
our love for him anymore. Our love is so fluctuating. One
day we think we do, and the next day we don't. Peter said, he
said, you decide the case. Peter, do you love me? Yes. And
you can say from the heart, yes I do. But so much, so often,
unlike love. They don't trust that. You know,
you love me. And anything in me, any goodness
in me, any love in me, you gave it to me. You ought to know,
I don't trust my heart, it's deceitful, desperately wicked. Lord, you know, you decide the
case. I'm looking to you, depending
upon you. I'm depending on your love for me, not my love for
you. And that's what Christ is telling
us here. Never doubt his love for us,
just like that loving parent. Look at verse 10 with me. Now,
he says, and I've got to hurry. If you keep my commandments,
here's some special instructions now, believer. This is close. Now listen, this is meat here.
This is strong meat. I've been really enjoying looking
into this, this way. Verse 10. He says, If you keep
my commandments, you shall abide in my love. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Now we saw over there in chapter
14, are here in chapter 14, verse 21. Do you remember that message
on a personal manifestation of Christ, a greater manifestation?
I don't know if you do or not, but Christ said in verse 21,
He said, He that hath my commandments, or word, and keepeth it, cherishes
it, takes it to heart, believes it, acts upon it, loves it, follows
Clings to it. He's the one who loves me. Just
like a little child. Just like my daughter. She cherishes
every word her daddy says to her. Yes, she does. Tries to
act like her daddy. Tries to talk like him. Walk
like him. Do the things that he does. Proves
that she loves me. That's what he's saying here.
He that loveth me, and he says this. There's a personal, a very
intimate thing that will happen to this person. He that loves
me, looks to me, depends upon me, trusts me, Christ that is,
honors the Son, he'll be loved by my Father. And I'll love him,
and will manifest myself to him." Did you hear that? He said, I'll
manifest myself to him. What have we met here before?
That's what you pray. That's what I pray. That's what
we pray. That's what we want. Every time
we're met together, what do we want? We want the presence of
God. We want the presence of the Holy Spirit to come down
here and just take the things of Christ and show them unto
us. We really, truly want Him to meet with us or else we've
met in vain. We might as well have not been
here. Go through the motions, sing the songs, hear a few words. If he doesn't speak to us, we'll
go out of here the way we came in. But we need something new,
don't we? Not something fresh. Mercy, grace,
new. We need new manna this morning. Yesterday's manna stinks. It's
red worms already. We've forgotten it already. It's
old. We've lost the taste of it, the
sweetness of it. We need it now. No. And Christ
is that. He said, I'm the man. I'm the
bread which cometh down from heaven. I'm the bread. And this
is what he's saying here. A special manifestation of his
person. Now listen to me. Listen to me
carefully. I said this is strong meat for
the believer. He's talking about a special
manifestation of Christ's person. Are you interested? I believe
you are. He's talking about real fellowship with the Father. And he says this is somewhat
conditioned on obedience. Don't go out there calling me
a legalist. No, I'm just talking, saying
what the Word is saying right here. I'm not talking about salvation. No, not at all. I'm not talking about that at
all. I'm talking about a communion.
That's a big difference. Talk about communion. I'm talking
about a feeling, the spirit bearing witness with our spirit that
we're His. And it has something to do with His fellowship, His
communion with the Father. Yes, it does. Our assurance of
love, our joy, our peace. Just like I gave this illustration
before. Just like a rebellious child.
If you have a child and that child is constantly in rebellion
to you, It just provokes you to anger. The child doesn't pay
any attention to what you say, wants nothing to do with you.
You won't have much to do with him either, will you? Huh? What
does the scripture say? Your sins have separated you
between you and your God. Your sins, your iniquities have
hid his face from you. David, David now, he lost that
special presence of the Lord because of that iniquity he fell
He was in it for nine months, too, believer. Take heart. Nine
months before he repented of that. But he lost that special
fellowship, that special presence. That's what he said in Psalm
51. He said, Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation. You can't lose your salvation. No, you can't lose it. It's in
Christ. It's sure. It's solid, it's sealed
in Christ. But you can sure lose the assurance
of it, can't you? You can sure lose the joy of
it, can't you? Yeah, you can. This is what I've
been talking about lately. You can sure go through times
when you think, I'm not saved. You don't lose your salvation.
It's in Christ. But you can sure lose this close
fellowship and communion that tells you that you're a child
of God. This joy. And Christ said this, look at
it. He said, if you keep my commandment and abide, that is his word,
his precepts, his instruction, what are his commandments? You
know what his commandments are. Just read the scriptures. Whatever
he said, his mother said this, good advice. Whatever he says,
do it. Got no argument over that, do
you? What does he say? You know, when he when he started
his earthly ministry, wouldn't go all the way through. Whatever,
go all the way through. His precepts, his word, his instruction,
and they're not advice. He doesn't give advice. The king
doesn't give advice. King doesn't do any inviting.
King makes commands, doesn't he? Huh? He's the Lord. He's the king of kings. He doesn't
give advice. Uh-uh. He gives commands. He says, do it. With the command
though, and this gets right back to where we started, with the
command comes the power. With the command comes the will.
Yeah, it does. Thy people shall be made willing
in the day of thy power. But he said, if you keep my commandments,
my precepts, my word, my instruction, you shall abide in my love. Now, believer, this is what I'm talking
about. I know this is what If you're
a believer, if you love Christ, if you're following and seeking
Christ, you want to know more of Him. Like Paul said, to win
Christ and be found in Him, to know Him and the power of His
resurrection. If this is the desire of your heart, don't you
want a special revelation of His love to you? Don't you want
that? Well, sure you do. You want to know He loves you,
and you want to love Him more. Well, this is what he's talking
about here. It ought to interest all of us. It sure should. He said, If ye keep my commandment,
ye shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in his love. Now listen, we can never be perfectly
obedient. Never. Can't even come close. A man one time told me that,
that he was perfectly obedient to God. It just sent shivers
up my spine. We can never be perfectly obedient
to God. Why? We're a rebel. All we like
sheep have gone our own way, gone astray, haven't we? To each
his own. Yeah, we are. We're constantly
in rebellion, and we constantly need reprimanding, like that
boy. He constantly needs chasing him,
doesn't he? Yeah, he does. Yeah, you do,
Andrew. Yeah, you do. And that's us.
We're his children, all right, but we're rebels. Here we are. We're prodigals all the time.
But there needs to be a childlike attitude and willingness and
submission. This is what I'm talking about.
This is where I started inwardly. Inwardly, it needs to be that
fruit or that attitude or that spirit of submission. Roberta,
I'll pick on you now. You don't you don't do the things
you you ought to do. You don't serve him. You don't
love him like you ought to. You're not what you ought to
be, are you? But you want to be, don't you?
There you are. You want to be. That's childlike. And anybody that doesn't have
any desire to be like Christ, not following Him, doesn't care,
doesn't care about His Word, doesn't care about His Gospel,
it's obvious they don't abide in Him, right? His Word doesn't
abide in them. And this was what Christ, chiefly, this is that
great characteristic of our Lord, He delighted to do the will of
His Father. We don't have the ability, but God really and truly,
he gives us the will. Yes, he does. I just quoted it.
Thy people shall be made willing on the day of thy power. If you're
a child of God, you're willing. You're willing, first of all
and foremost, to submit to his righteousness, which is Jesus
Christ. To subject yourself to his way of salvation and his
way alone and esteem all your works All your righteousness
is filthy rags that you might submit to him, to his righteousness,
to Christ. Trust him and him alone. And
then it manifests itself in so many other ways. Let me hurry. I promise I wouldn't keep you
long. Look at verse 11. He says now, and you could go,
we could go so deep into that verse 10 there. It stays so long
there, but I want to get through this. He says, though, these
things. These things I have spoken unto
you that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. Now, he's talking about a double,
a twofold joy. Do you remember back in chapter
fourteen, verse twenty-seven, he talked about a peace, twofold
peace? He said, my peace I give unto you. Peace I leave with
you, and in my peace I give unto you." Well, here he's talking
about a twofold joy. Now, he says, my joy. Now, let
me turn real fast over to John 17. John 17, verse 13. He says this over here in John
17, 13. He says, Now, Father, he's praying
to the Father, I come to thee, and these things I speak in the
world, that they might have my joy fulfilled. in themselves. My joy, what is
he talking about here? Well, do you remember Hebrews
12, verse 1 and 2? Looking unto Jesus, the author
and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before
him endured the cross, despised the shame. What was that joy?
in creating a people, in giving birth to people, to a spiritual
people, in saving a people that the Father had given. That was
the joy. That was what was on Christ's mind the day He was
born. That was His joy that consumed Him from the day He walked upon
this earth. His joy was to bring a children,
bring a people to the Father, all of them. That was the joy,
and it's fulfilled in you. Yeah, it is. It's fulfilled in
you. That's what he said. I've spoken
these things. I've told you everything. That's what he said over in chapter
14. I'm going to prepare a place
for you. I'm the way, the truth, and I've done everything that
needs to be done for you. I saved you. Now rejoice about
it. This joy, what I set out to do,
my joy in doing all this for you, it's fulfilled. You're God's
sheep. You're God's people. And now
I'm telling you about it. He said, I'm telling you about
it, and my joy is in you, and that your joy might be fulfilled,
be full, this twofold joy. Secondly, the joy of Christ was
fulfilled. I don't know if you follow me
here or not, but secondly, our joy, this joy that we have This
joy we have, this thrill that we have in knowing
what he did for us, this joy that we have, the psalmist says,
in thy presence is fullness of joy. If you've ever experienced
a touch of it, just a taste of it, some have, some haven't. And God's presence is in his
gospel, preaching of his gospel, the reading of his words, even
prayer. He can be with you always, but to experience, to understand,
to feel, to have him revealed to you in an intimate way, if
you've ever experienced just a little bit of it. Joy unspeakable. Joy unspeakable. Have you ever
literally, I don't go much for feelings, this sounds charismatic,
but have you ever literally got a thrill and a chill from hearing
the gospel preached? Huh? Of course you have. That's
Christ meeting with you. Bearing witness with your spirit
that you're His. And there's nothing like it.
Nothing this world has to offer like it. like the gospel, his
presence with us. If you want fellowship with him,
unbroken joy, unbroken, look over at 1 John with me, 1 John,
chapter 1, and I'll be brief. 1 John, chapter 1, look at this.
The grounds of Christian joy, the grounds of a believer's joy,
is not in himself. No, it is not. It's not in himself,
it's in Christ. But there's a measure, listen
to this, listen to this quote. Quote it is from Arthur Payne.
The measure in which we enter into that joy is determined by
our daily walk with him. Listen, I'll quote it again.
The grounds of a believer's joy are not in himself, but in Christ
and him alone. That's where you rejoice, that's
who you look at, that's who you rejoice in. But the measure in
which we enter into this joy is determined by our daily communion
with him. That's exactly what Christ is
saying there. He abided in me, my love. Ina
walked with God, didn't he? And look here at 1 John chapter
1 verse 3. That which we've seen and heard
declare we unto you that you also may have fellowship with
us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things we write unto you, that your joy might be full, full
of joy. How? In what way? Fellowship
with the Father and with His Son. How do you do that? Around
the gospel, things of the gospel, things of His Word. These are
means that God has used to To manifest himself, to speak
to his people. This is how he speaks. This is
how he holds your hand. God holds his people's hands.
Yeah, he does. Through the word, through the
preaching. Prayer. Prayer is how you talk to him.
It's how you communicate with him. Yeah, it is. And these things,
Paul, John said there, we write unto you that your joy might
be full. I'm going to turn back to the
text in John 15. These things Christ said, I've
spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you, and that your
joy might be full. Now, this is my commandment,
that you love one another, that you love one another as I have
loved you. Now, this is the third phrase,
love, joy, peace. Peace which comes from this love
of the brethren. This peace which naturally flows
between the brethren. Peace with God. Based upon the
love of Christ. God has made peace by the blood
of his cross. The sacrifice of his body upon
that cross. He made peace. Broken down this enmity between
us and God. Made peace by virtue of what
he's done. Because the Father loved him
and he loved the Father and made that sacrifice for him. He made
peace. And this peace that we enjoy
among one another. that we were talking about in
the study, that article that we read, we forbear and we forgive. In other words, we're at peace
with one another. Otherwise, we'd be tearing each
other's hair out. There's some things you do I don't like, and
there's probably a whole lot of things I do you don't like.
But we're at peace. Why? We love one another. We love one another. Why do we
love one another? Because he first loved us, and he put that
love in us. Rick, how in the world? How in
the world can anybody love you? That's the way you feel, isn't
it? You feel so unloved. Yeah, he's all the time telling
me I'm a Williams. Well, I got a lot of Williams
in me. Well, I got a lot of mayhem in me. That's bad, believe me. I'm going to tell him I said
that. It's bad, really. It really is. How can anybody love us? It's
the work of God in the Holy Spirit. bringing his people together
in love, love for one another. That's his commandment. If you
love me, Stanley Anderson, if I love you, we must be brothers
in Christ. That's all there is to it. That's
all there is to it. This is how the world will know
you're my disciples, Christ said, if you love one another, have
love one to another. And all this will This will be
shared abroad in the home, peace in the marriage, peace in the
home, peace in the church. One big happy family. And love
is all the fulfilling of this. First of all, the love of God. That's where it starts. God's
love and deciding, determining to have a people and giving them
to Christ. Christ's love for God and going
to the cross. to bear those people's iniquities
and sins, take them away, and His love for us, and doing that
for us. And He gives it to us, and it
manifests itself to one another. But he said, this is how, that's
how my Father's glorified. It's Him. Glorified in His fruit. Love, joy, peace. And Paul goes on to mention the
rest of it there in Relations 5. Look and read it sometime.
I hope it's been. Staying with me now dismisses.