Please have your Bibles and open them to the Gospel of John and stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Our text for this morning is from John chapter 15 as we are continuing our study in this wonderful Gospel and this marvelous chapter. And this morning, I want us to see the relationship between obedience, love, and joy from John 15, verses 9 through 11. John 15. verses 9 to 11. Since there's only three verses, if you have your Bible, even if it's a different version, that's okay. Let's all read it out together. Ready? Begin. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. Amen. Please be seated. I don't know about you, but I'm sure you have been analyzing and assessing what's going on in our culture. Basically, the manifestations of the rebellion and lawlessness that you see in our culture is an expression of what is really in our hearts, in the sinful man. It's only by the grace of God and the law of God that suppresses these evil and vile expressions. Where do these expressions come from? It comes from the self, the ego, the corrupt self. And the first manifestation of that corrupt self is selfishness. If the selfish person doesn't get what he wants, then he expresses in attitudes, words, and actions of rebellion. And it tries to thwart off any external law or rules that has been placed there for his good and the good of others. And you see that very early on when you raise children or if you're grandparents, you've been seeing it long enough. As adorable as they are, watch what they do when they don't get what they want. Watch what they do. And behind that, if you're really analytical, if you're very observant, then you even get to see the motivations and the motive They may not even sense it, but you sense it because they do what they do because they have a very high view of themselves and a very low view of others. That's why they talk about, this is my right. I have every right to do this. So if I'm angry and upset that I don't have the kind of stuff that other people may have, I'm going to just go right in there and take it. You see that in the little children in their playground and when they play with themselves? Absolutely. But when they do that, they're violating their own principle, the law, the conscience that God has written in their hearts, the principle of fairness. Because if you try to do the same thing and say, well, I'm going to invade your house and take your stuff. They say, oh, no, no, no, you can't do that. Soon as you assert your power and authority, they say, no, that's not fair. That's not right. It's against the law. It's the same lawless people that violate their own conscience, their own standard to do what they know is wrong, but they justify it as right. That is the hypocrisy, the duplicity, the inconsistency of the fallen man. That's the fallen man's condition. You see it at every stage of life. Just because some people are mild-mannered and sophisticated and they manipulate the system with their intellect and they make it look like it's a legit thing, do not fall for it. They have the same heart, the same inclination. And what is it all about? It is an all affront, a rebellion, an assault and rejection of the great God himself who is the moral law giver. It is an exercise of one's will and rebellion against God. No wonder scripture says, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. God is not neutral about this. He is angry at the sinful man that reject him. The law is good, Apostle Paul says, because it reflects the character of God, the holiness of God, the righteousness of God. The goodness and the fairness of God is demonstrated in the law. There's nothing wrong with the law of God. The fact that sinful man rejects that law tells you how prideful and arrogant and self-authoring he really is. And add to that great depravity The fact that when he does it himself, he breaks this law, he is quickly justifying it, rationalizing it. He always has an excuse. Well, in my case, it's different. In your case, the law applies. But in my case, in this case, it's different. That is the sinful, corrupt rationalization. This is the corrupt thinking of man. And so, what did God do for us? He gave us His Son, the demonstration of the perfect obedience, perfect submission. Now, we're not talking about God the Son before His incarnation, the second person of the Holy Trinity. There is no need for obedience before the incarnation, but in the incarnation, there is. and it is a voluntary, joyful, and surrender and submission to the Father's will. This is what we see in the entire life and times, from the early childhood to the cross of Jesus and through his glorious ascension, we see his perfect submission to the law of God, perfect submission to the Father's will. What was Christ's motivation? What do we conclude about the motivation of the sinful man, why he is so lawless, why he is rebellious? It's his pride. He has a high view of himself and low view of others, obviously. In a moral seesaw of his conscience, he is king, he is God. Therefore, everybody else has to submit to Him. What about Jesus Christ? Jesus is emptied of His own personal prerogatives, and He fully submits to the Father. He is the most humble. So we see the beauty and the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's why we want to know Him and learn of Him. We want to copy Him, not the people of the world. Every individual who is lawless chooses lawlessness. No, they're not victims of some other situations and circumstances. No, they choose it. It is an active exercise of the volitional choices that they make of their pride. It's the manifestation expression. It's like how people flaunt their so-called talents, beauty, wealth, and fame. sinful man always flaunts his inner pride. There is no care or concern for the other. So what dominates is radical selfishness and lust of self that seeks to be satisfied. That's the problem with us. We have powerful lusts. And then there is the inner self that says that we deserve to have these lusts satisfied. So we don't care about the law. we're going to get whatever we want. That is the corruption of the depravity of the sinful self. So when it is not satisfied, then outbursts of rage often follows. The norms, the social norms of being neighborly, being kind, yielding to others, all those things go out the door. So as good parents, you try to teach your children obedience, good manners. Think about other people, Johnny. We teach them. And so the result is the fruit of order, of stability, and of peace, harmonious relationships. Mom and dad always said, Johnny, if you keep picking on other people, if you keep taking away their toys, they're not gonna like you. Johnny says, oh, I want my friends to like me. Well, they're not going to like you if you keep hitting them and taking away their things. If you just bully everybody, they're not going to like you. Oh, I want I want other people to like me. Well, then you have to stop doing that. See the motivation. for a little child to stop doing evil and start doing good. Rather, you should share. You have too many things. You should go share with others. And you see that kid that's lonely? See that kid that is hurt? Go over there and comfort him. Good parents have to teach our children to do things and learn things that are contrary to their sinful nature. That's called discipline. We all need that. Our Heavenly Father is the perfect Father. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the master teacher that the Father sent, the only God that we're ever gonna see. And the Lord Jesus is teaching his disciples. He's teaching us. He's teaching us that his law is good. He's teaching us that the way to be in perfect joy and perfect bliss and enjoy the perfect peace is really the way of obedience. the disciplining, the submission. And the motivation of that is love, because we want to be in the best relationship with our Lord who loves us, right? We want to reciprocate that love. We don't want to just like receive that love and say, well, thank you, Jesus, for dying for my sin. Now I'm going to do my own thing. That's an oxymoron. That is not a possibility. That person is not a Christian. He's not thinking as a Christian. He's thinking just like his unregenerate, unconverted, depraved self. And so the Lord is teaching his disciples what it means to obey and what that looks like and how it's related to the motivation of love and what are the fruits of love and what are the fruits of obedience. And you'll see that love is really a fruit of abiding in the Lord. It's really submitting to Him. It is just submission of our will to His perfect will. It's recognition of His greatness and our unworthiness. And so we want to be with Jesus. Love and joy just flow from this. Have you noticed that among the nine representations of the fruit of the Spirit that begins in Galatians chapter 5 verse 22 and 23, the first is love, joy, and peace. Interestingly enough, in the previous passage Jesus said, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, but do I give to you. He says my peace. That's a personal pronoun. This is very different than so-called the cessation of conflict and warfare that people call peace in the world. That's not the kind of peace that Jesus gives. This is a deep-seated eternal wellness and goodness that exists between the sinner who's been forgiven and a holy God. No longer as a guilty before a judge, but now as an adopted child before a loving father. This is what gives us the confidence and inner peace. This is what makes us sleep well at night. This is what makes us get up in the morning with that overjoyed attitude and optimism and say, thank you, Lord, for another day. There's something that is right in our relationship. That's because the Lord gave us his peace. Now here, Jesus talks about his joy. Again, mentions it twice. This is one of the wonderful fruits of the manifestation of the Christian life. And so there's a lot of application of value in this passage. I want you to see there's only one, really, an imperative, a command. And that's the command that we have already seen before. It's in verse nine. Just as the Father has loved me, I have also loved you. Here's the command. Abide in my love. We already got that command before. Abide, abide, abide in me. And so the same command continues us. Now, therefore, we get the sense, this is the same lesson that Jesus taught, but with different illustrations and different emphases. Exactly, exactly. Just as you have to teach your children the same lesson multiple times in different ways, our Lord, who's the master teacher, is now teaching his disciples, and therefore us as well, this important lesson of what it means to abide in Him in different ways. There is a certain limitation to a metaphor from nature, like vine and the branches. Why? Because those are vivid things that helps us to understand the reality of human relationships and our relationship with our God. Those are relational dynamics, those are metaphors that vividly crystallizes what it means for us to have fellowship with God. What it means for us to obey the Lord and have a lasting relationship with Him. And the result of the branch abiding in the vine are luscious fruit. The result of us abiding in His love, same thing, luscious fruit, but this time it's the fruit of the Spirit. And so this is why the Lord mentions love and a joy here. And it's all related to what? Obedience. He mentioned this before in chapter 14. Whoever has my commands and keeps them or obeys them, he is the one who loves me. There's a direct relationship between obedience, taking the Lord's command seriously enough to put it into action, to submit to His Word, rather than insisting on doing our own thing, our own way, and our own method, and our own timing, but doing it the way that the Lord commands us, the more we do that, there's gonna be the greater benefit. That benefit is not just shared by the individual, as we will see. It is shared by all. So, as the master teacher that he is, he's teaching the same lesson, these important principles, to the students who need to learn. Repetition with variation reinforces important lessons, and that's what the Lord is doing here. We just saw in verse 7, if you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish. This is the basis of prayer, by the way. I mean, if you abide in the Lord and His Word abiding in you, you are an obedient, Spirit-filled disciple. You are going to pray and ask everything according to His will. And you're going to pray that His will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Not, give me what I want, Lord. You're going to say, Lord, please don't give me what I want. Give me what you want me to have. That's a very different attitude for a Spirit-filled disciple. So in this passage, the Lord Jesus encourages his disciples to abide in his love. That's another way of saying, here, I'm going to show you, I'm going to give you a motivation to obey me. And the motivation is this, I love you so much, so perfectly, that I have given everything for you. Just don't forget that. Keep reminding yourself of that. Revel in this truth, in this relationship that I have established for you. This is what our Lord is saying. That's what it means to abide in His love. Of course, there's only one perfect example of that love. No human being can teach us this. We can only learn it from the perfect God-man. And that perfect love of Jesus is really exemplary of His love that He shares with the Father, and the perfect obedience of the Son toward the Father. So we're going to see three important truths regarding what it means to abide in the Lord's love, and how we can experience the joy, and as the Greek word says, into its fullest. It's the word for fulfillment, fulfill, complete, that's the answer, but completion, of course, is the goal toward which the fullness expresses, not partially, not almost, but complete, full. We're going to see three lessons from the greatest lover, God. And we must say the greatest lovers here because it's the Father and the Son. And you want to know how God loves himself within the dynamic of the triune Godhead. That's why we study theology, because it will really broaden our perspective and sharpen our focus and help us to understand, this is the love of God. This is the love of God. So we're going to learn about the greatest love from the greatest lovers and possessors of the greatest joy. God possesses perfect joy. And He has all of His joy on tap, ready to dispense to all who would come to Him and to have a relationship with Him. The Lord's going to teach us three ways how we can abide in His love and to experience, and we pray, continually experience this great joy. And when we do, we manifest His glory all around us. That's why a Christian can never be pessimistic. He serves the God of perfect love and perfect joy, which he has a fellowship with. So ready? Let's see the mandate in verse nine, the mandate. Remember I said that there's only one imperative here, and that's the same one that we've seen previously. Abide. Abide. But before that mandate comes, which is at the very end of this verse, what we have in the first part is this Greek word that's translated as just as. Just as. You know what just as is? It's like you see this word here, you click copy and you paste right there and say, oh, that's just as that one. It's copy and paste, copy and paste. You understand just as. The Lord's going to teach us how to identify his perfect love for the disciples. That's us. When you see the model, then you will see the original agape. Take a look at verse nine. You see, just as the Father has loved me. Ah, there you go. First, we have to know that's the perfect love. How does the Father love the Son? Perfectly. How does the Father love the Son? Partially? Sometimes? No. Continuously. How does the Father love the Son? so that the son will be somewhat filled? No, he will be perfectly satisfied. That is the picture of perfect love that Jesus experienced throughout all of eternity. Not only that, because the nature of God and his love toward the son doesn't change, even in the incarnation, even though Jesus took on a form of a servant, a slave, even though he had to learn obedience, the Father continues to love the Son perfectly, continuously, completely, in a deeply satisfying way. That's the model that we must first understand and say, oh wait, wait a minute. If that's the way the Father loves the Son, Jesus is saying this is the very way that I love you. Oftentimes we question, does God love me? Does God care for me at all? And the Lord Jesus points us to his ultimate sacrifice and saying, now ask that question once again, my child. This is my demonstration of love for you. The father says, my child, I've demonstrated my greatest love for you in the perfect way that I love my son, the only begotten one. When I gave him up for you, so that your sin will be dealt with, so that you can have eternal and perfect fellowship with me, so that your joy will be as perfect as my joy is perfect. Now, I ask that question once again, and ask if I love you. Sometimes in our weakness, we make a lot of sins and blunders. Instead of questioning our own fallenness, our own sinfulness, and our own poor obedience, poor love, poor fellowship, we question whether God loves us. But God has given us incontrovertible demonstration of his great love. And notice this love is agape, it's not sappy, sentimental love. The cross is not sappy or sentimental. It is a perfect expression of sacrifice. Always seeking the greatest good for the other without concern for the self. This is how God loved his son. This is how the son loves his disciples. That's us. Not sentimental, not sappy, not with romanticism, not idealism, but the perfect expression of complete giving of himself for the good of the other without the concern for himself. Agape is intelligent love. It's, well, I've fallen in love. It's a mystery of love. No, it's not. That's not agape. It's intelligent. It's purposeful. Oh, I've helplessly fallen in love. No, sorry, that's not the love of God. God knew exactly what he was doing when he decided to love perfectly this way. And the strong expression of self-sacrifice in the service of the other, it was always other-oriented, other-oriented, because that's the way Jesus loves all of his disciples. That's what he tells his disciples. And do you see your name written there? when he says, I have also loved you. Put your name there, John. This is how I have also loved you. The Father has loved me perfectly, completely, continuously, satisfyingly. This is how I have loved you, John. Don't you know? That's what the Lord Jesus is teaching us. Perfect. Complete, continuous. Now, let's look at the mandate, the command, abide in my love. Abide in my love. And that's marvelously attractive. If anybody says, look, I'm showing you all my card, I'm showing you everything. I'm devoted to you, I love you. would you please reciprocate just a little bit and tell me that you feel the same way, or even remotely close to the same way? The first thing that you experience as the beloved is a sense of humbleness, you know, like, wow, I feel marvelous, like, who am I that you would love me so? Now, if you're prideful, arrogant, saying, finally you saw my worth, You know, I'm worthy of all of your attention. As a matter of fact, I get that all the time from lots of people and you're no special. Then you're kind of a prideful, stuck up kind of person, right? This is how you have a high view of yourself. But if you say, how can anyone love me? And somebody does love me. Wow. I feel very humbled by that. And so you're thankful. Thank you. Now, if you feel the same way, then you reciprocate and say, you know, I have similar feelings, maybe not as strong as yours, but I have very similar feelings as you do. And I do thank you for your expression of love and commitment to me. And I will also extend my level of commitment to you. Now, what did we just talk about? Love is always expressed because it's expressed to the other person. In the reciprocation, there's always a commitment. Always. Love that is not reciprocated with loyal commitment is really not understood as love. Now take a look at our culture. How committed Forget about unbelievers in our culture. Let's talk about the church. How committed are professing evangelical Bible-believing Christians to the glory of God and the cause of Christ? Do you have a very high view of the evangelical church in saying, man, evangelical church is passionately committed to the glory of God and the cause of Christ in the world. This is who we are. We're committed lovers of God. If you say that, please forgive me, but I would have to differ with you, disagree with you without being disagreeable. And without being arrogant, I would have to say, I'm afraid that you're not looking at the evangelical church very carefully. I have reasons to disagree with you. I do not see it that way. As a matter of fact, I see that the shallow commitment that we see that among so-called professing evangelical Christianity tells me that we have not abided in the love of Jesus, we have not appreciated his love, we have not dwelled upon his perfect love, and we have not been moved very much by it. And therefore, it is not the love of Christ that is deficient, it is we. We. We are deficient. And the only proper response of that is a deep, reflective turning, a repentance from that, and a humble request before the Lord, asking Him to give us a passionate heart to properly reciprocate His perfect love for us. This is His command, abide in my love. Should not the disciple say, yes, Lord? Yes, Lord. But I am weak. Help me. I know you love me perfectly, but my love for you is imperfect. I confess to you. I know that it's imperfect. I can tell in my affections. I can tell in my time a lot. I can tell in the choices that I make. I can tell in the courses that I take. I can tell in my relationship. I can tell. my witness that is not as passionate. Now you go back to what Jesus said in verse 7. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Keep asking the Lord that you seek his glory. Keep telling him from a heart of a genuine passion for his name, his glory, his purpose, and watch God change your heart and giving you a greater passion to dwell and to appreciate and reciprocate his perfect love. And you will grow as a mature, but also a joyful, delightful Christian, and very fruitful one as well. Now that the Lord has given us the mandate which flows from the agape love of the Godhead, Secondly, I want us to see the model of Jesus's obedience. This is what the Lord teaches his disciples. We don't have to go too far to see Okay, okay. How do we abide in the love of the Lord? Okay, we have to obey. That's how we spell L-O-V-E. It's O-B-E-Y. All right. What models do we have? Who obeyed God this way, and how can we do the same? Well, we don't have to go very far. Verse 10 answers that question. Here's the conditional. If you keep my commandments, okay, and you here is to all the disciples, and notice it's his commandments, All right? Are there more than one? Of course. You want to know. Well, the commandments of God are His commandments. Do we obey them kind of slavishly, grudgingly, dragging our heels? And when somebody else reminds us and saying, hey, you're being legalistic, leave me alone. I know what the Bible says. You don't have to tell me that I have to obey. And do you kind of have this rebellious sense of like, I don't want to hear that. It's wrong when professing believers say, I want to abide in the love of the Lord, I love Jesus, I want to serve Him, I want to seek His glory, and at the same time, there's a grudging sense regarding the commandments of the Lord. It's just burdensome. Jesus said, my yoke is not burdensome. My yoke is easy. and it's light, you'll find rest for your souls. But so many professing Christians don't find that to be the truth because they falsely interpret what Jesus said. He said, learn of me. They don't want to learn of him. They look at these commandments and external regulations heavily upon their shoulders. Do, don't, do, don't, do, don't, listen, listen, listen. They say, oh, it's just burdensome. Well, that's not of the Lord. If you learn of Him, then you see Jesus' motivation for obeying the Father's command was amazing. It's because He loved the Father. And so the conditional helps us. because it begins with the if clause, it helps us to look for the then clause. So in your mind, supply the then, and you'll have the logic of the conditional. Notice the Lord Jesus says that without our own submission to his word and to his will, which is obedience to his commands, it is not possible for us to abide in his love. How do you express your love for the Lord? O-B-E-Y. Oh, but you don't want to obey. It's just burdensome. It's grudging. It seems legalistic. Well, then you're not, you don't understand your Savior. You don't understand the good that He intends for you, the fruitfulness that He intends for you. It is the questioning of the character of your Savior rather than loving and trusting your Savior. Where's the flaw? The flaw is in what you think Jesus is or God is. It's flaw in your theology, in your knowledge and belief system of who God really is. It's a major flaw. And you'll find people like that. They've been just steeped into legalism, steeped into regulation, steeped in a church like that where everybody's somber, you know, you have to do it because it's the commandment of God. And they've never had a really a delightful model. a church leader, a parent, or a teacher who say, I love the Lord. I wish I can obey the Lord perfectly, but because I'm sinful, I'm weak, but I'm so thankful that he knows this and he helps me. I love the Lord. Let me tell you what he did for me. Let me tell you who he is in my life. Let me tell you about my Jesus. Now that's somebody who understands the character of his God, his Savior. Somebody who just sees, oh, I want to do this. These are my dreams and ambitions and life goals, but God's commandments, man, they always get in the way. It's going to be very burdensome. What does that tell you? Hey, you love yourself too much. What does that tell you? You're not in the right relationship with the Lord. Either you're unregenerate and you have no heart for the Lord, or right now, you're not in a right relationship with the Lord. Other things preoccupy your heart more than the Lord. So which is it? Every day people express their rebellion, insubordination, and self-authoring pride. Every day. You see it all around you. But the disciples must express his or her loyalty, submission, and self-effacing humility in order to abide in Christ's love and grow in his love. because you see his love as even greater, greater than you. You just disappear in light of the greatness of him. And you just feel so joyful in that. Here's the then clause. The word then is not there, but logically this is the then clause. The protasis, if you keep my commandments. Here's the apodosis, then you will abide in my love. Notice only those who submit to Christ's commandments will know that they are abiding in his law. They're the only ones who have the assurance. In the previous chapter, we learned that those who has his commandments, his commandments are so precious, they keep them. He is the one who loves him. John 14, 21. We immediately see that the Lord's command to the disciples to submit to his word, his commands, derived from the way he responded to the Father's will. And he continues to respond to the Father's will. Now we see another just as. in the Greek here, kathos, this is the second just ask. This is the copy and paste work, right? Of the Lord Jesus' method of abiding in love. His submission was no slavish legalism. His submission to the Father was never forced. But voluntary love out of, voluntary submission out of love. Apostle Paul writes in Romans 15 3, for even Christ did not please himself. If anyone has a right to bring pleasure to himself, it's God. But even Christ, God the Son, did not do that. He emptied himself of all of that so that he could submit to the Father's will. Paul says that Jesus' submission to the Father's will by withholding something that he desired, And we call that discipline, the discipline of saying no to the self so that we can say yes to God. Then we understand that what the self wants is not good, but we do understand that what God wants for us is the best. Now you have the right understanding of who God is and his character. He will never command you to do something that will harm you. And we know this because our God is a loving God. Our Lord will never command us and put so much burden on us and say, oh, I want to do this, but I have to. I have to. When will this responsibility ever stop? You know, I have to do this because I'm a Christian. That is not the right attitude of a disciple. But if you keep saying no to yourself so you can say yes to God, now you understand you're choosing the right thing. This must be our attitude because agape love is the end goal of obedience. Obedience will ultimately lead. And that's why love is the goal, not the process of obeying. Romans 13, 10 says, love does not work evil against a neighbor. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. What is His commandments? The law, His law. What is the end goal? To get us to be loving people, just like God is. You know, when we say, okay, God's command says, thou shalt not, but I want to, I really want to. But in order for me to grow in love, I need to say no to that. I have to agree with God's command. This is bad for me. I keep thinking that this is good for me, but it's not. So I say, self? No. Now to God, I say, Lord? I say, yes. So I won't. Scripture says, love does not work evil against a neighbor. If you're plotting evil, plotting harm, wishing ill, There's evil in your heart. There's sinful, selfish pride in your heart that says, oh, if I were God, if I had the power, I would do this. I would exact justice. I would use that power to punish those people. And so that I can exalt myself over them, gloat over them. Now, we may not even say that, but that's exactly what our heart means. But you don't plot that if you love somebody. If you seek their greatest good. Therefore, love is the fulfillment of the law. The law says, do no harm to your neighbor. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not murder. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not bear false witness. Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. I can't do all these things that I want to do because I have to. That is not the motivation. The motivation is, you know, I really want my neighbor. my coworker, yes, even my enemy, doesn't even like me, who hates me, who's pursuing me, even them, to come to understand the forgiving grace of God, so that they could experience the greatness of the love of God that I have. Now, the purpose of the law is fulfilled. Scripture doesn't teach that love is a substitute for the law. Scripture teaches it's a fulfillment of the law. It's the end goal, it's the completion. And that just like the word, English word, it's full and it's filled. It's completed. It seeks to please and honor the very one who gave us the law. Love is intelligent. You understand why God gave you that command. You understand why Christ is commanding you not to do that, but to do this. You understand the heart of the lawgiver and you understand his motivation is to better you because he loves you. He wants you to be a lovely Christian. And so in the process of practicing love, you become lovely as a specimen. You honor the lawgiver, you understand the essence of the law, which reflects his holy, beautiful character. And you see that he really wants to bless us through the law. Now you understand that whatever Christ commands you to do should never be burdensome to you, but you should seek to understand it. It's like, wow, Lord, thank you for giving me this. This is exactly where I need to grow. And when I submit to you in this, not only am I expressing, this is my way of expressing I love you. I say no to the self and yes to you, Lord. I want to please you. I understand your holy and perfect character, your perfect will expressed through your command. You want my greatest good. And that's why you died. to put an end to the law and all its requirements, and the wages of my own rebellion against your law is death. You took it in my place. I understand what you have done for me, and I understand why you are commanding me, and my motivation is now to please you, to honor you, and to enjoy this fellowship with you through my expression of love, which is obedience. That comes from a transformed heart and a growing discipleship. Notice what Jesus says, I have kept my father's commandments. He said that right after he told us of the if-then clause, and then he says just as. So copy and paste that. the second just ask, just ask. Study how the Lord Jesus kept the Father's commandments. Ask yourself, was he grudging? Did he consider it a tremendous burden that he can't bear, that he doesn't want to do it? He's kicking and screaming. Well, he said, well, he did wrestle greatly at the Garden of Gethsemane. Yes, that's how difficult this was. But what does the scripture testify? First of all, I want you to see that the Greek is emphatic. It has the emphatic pronoun ego in the forward position, as well as the perfect tense of the verb placed in the final position for emphasis. So the Greek literally reads, I myself, the commandment of my father, have kept. That sounds like really awkward English translation. Almost sounds like Master Yoda from Star Wars. commandments of my Father, I myself have kept." Now you can do this in the Greek language for additional emphasis. Jesus is not, alright, using bad English. He is using good Greek. Apostle John is writing this, putting the words in the lips of our Lord Jesus, inspired by the Holy Spirit, into the Greek language so that we can really appreciate the nuances of it. Wow. This portrays the methodology of the Lord's instruction to the disciples. It was never a tyrannical charge at all. So now let's learn something. Yes, we need to sometimes tell a subordinate, that will be our children, or if you are a business owner, if you are in a working relationship, you will have subordinates. You need to put a charge on them. You must do this, you must not do this. If you do this, then these consequences will happen. But if you do this, then these benefits will happen. Okay, we talk like this all the time. If you have subordinates, right? But you cannot be a draconian, tyrannical figure by saying, if you don't do this exactly the way I want, then you're done. Wow. Where's the love in that? Where's the respect in that? Where's hope in that? There's none. There's none. And so that is not a very good condition for a good relationship. However, the content of what you have to say must be accurately conveyed. And the way you do that is to express this in terms of love and benefit for the self. Now you have to do this. You understand, because if you don't, these bad things will happen to you. And I don't want those things happen to you. But if you, if you do it this way, then these good things will happen to you. And I do want you to be successful. I do want these good things to happen to you. Now, you have to pass this test and you have to study really hard and prepare for it. You can't be slack, can't be lazy. But if you do all that, you will do really well on the test. And I really want you to succeed. That's very different than, hey, if you mess up on the test, you're done. I'm cutting you out of my will. That is not a good way to maintain a good relationship. So notice how this is presented. The methodology of the Lord's instruction to the disciples comes from his example of how he kept the Father's commandments. Cut and paste that, Christian. Previously, Jesus said in chapter eight, verse 29, he who has sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. Look at that. He has not left me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to him. Look at the reciprocal relationship in the father and the son. Father is telling the son, son, this must happen. In order for me to redeem these sinners, I have to deal with their sin, for I am holy and righteous and just, and I cannot look away from sin. The holy law and the standards of the universe that flow from my character as the divine judge and the law giver must be satisfied. Therefore, somebody must pay for those sins. And I want you to pay for those sins." And the son says, Father, please let me go and take upon myself humanity, a human body with a human nature, so that I might live out your perfect law that they can't, and they didn't, and that I may pay for the ultimate penalty for their sin against the infinite God, because I can do that through my sacrifice. They can't, because they're sinners, and if they die, they're paying for their own sin. But I, who will have no sin and perfect obedience, I can take their place. Please let me do that. You see the love between the father and the son? The father doesn't push his son and be a tyrannical father and say, you have to do this. I know you don't want to, but you have to. I'm forcing you so that I can demonstrate to the world that I am just and holy. At the same time, loving. You know what corrupt theological minds have said? They said, that's cosmic child abuse. You know, which father would force his son to go do that? This is not a good God. This is an evil God who's abusing his son. That is a warped and corrupt mind. That's the mind of Satan, the slanderer. But it is not. When the son says, please, Father, I will go. Let me do it. I volunteer. I love you, and I want to share your perfect desire to redeem these sinners in the world by being involved, I will go. So Jesus can say, the Father sent me, but he say, I lay down my life on my own accord, because it's the same. This is what the Father desires, what the Son desires, and the Son volunteered. And look at the relationship, he who sent me is with me. The father loves the son. He has not left me alone. The father did not abandon his son. For I always do the things that are pleasing to him. The son delights in bringing glory to the father. Jesus is not saying anything about Himself that is boastful, but this is an expression of the worthiness of the Father in His eyes and the joy of His obedience. He knows that His perfect obedience will bring delight and joy to His Father's heart. Therefore, He is so glad to do it. That's the motivation of the Son. Do you see the Son's perfect love for the Father manifested in His loving submission to the Father's will and for the Father's glory? And because of this, Jesus says he abides in his love, the Lord's obedience to the Father's will. Now he's saying this as the incarnate Son of God, right? Incarnate man, and not as the second person of the Holy Trinity, because before the incarnation, there's no need for obedience. They're in perfect accord, in perfect fellowship. Obedience is only necessary after the incarnation, because now, as the servant of Yahweh, As the seed of the woman, the second Adam, Jesus is now representative of humanity. He's man under the submission of God's authority. The writer of Hebrews highlights this learning process of obedience in Hebrews 5 verse 8. He says, although he was a son, he learned obedience from the things which he suffered. Ultimate obedience, of course, is His voluntary submission to the Father's will by suffering and dying on the cross for the sins of the world, so that God may be glorified as His loving purpose for redemption of undeserved sinners is fulfilled, as they are forgiven, as they're sanctified and prepared for glory, and when they enter into eternal fellowship with Him. That is the model and the method and the mandate of the Lord Jesus Christ. Take a look at His model, His methodology, and see if you and I can learn something from that. Copy and paste. Just ask. Just ask. Now that we've seen the mandate that flows from the agape love of the Godhead, a model of the Son's obedience to the Father as the grounds for our obedience to the Lord, and thirdly and finally, the wonderful fruit and the joy and the motivation of sharing in this matchless joy, the motivation of matchless joy. Verse 11. these things i have spoken to you the lord jesus explains the reasoning for the teaching which he began with the allegory of the vine and the branches and the vineyard farmer the portrayal of the imagery The practical instruction and the purposeful incentives are all directed toward the rich blessings for the disciples. Remember I said that love is always focused on the benefit of the other? Here it is. Here's the purpose-result clause with the Greek particle. Why did Jesus teach all this? Take a long period to repetitively teach with the allegorical metaphor, with the illustration, practical instruction, and now the great incentive? Here it is, so that my joy may be in you. Joy is the secret sauce of the Christian life. It is the energy and the power source that motivates him to live each and every day, face the future as bleak as it may be. It's the inner power of joy that moves forward. Without Christian joy, you'll become very, shall we say, lethargic. You'll become very slow, dull, unmotivated, losing focus. But with joy, this will perpetuate the energy. This is the perpetual motion, energy machine within, if you will. So the Lord wants his believers, his disciples, to have this joy in them. Not from the outside, changing circumstances or happenstance so they can be happy. No, this is joy. This is beyond that. This eclipses any circumstance. We see that the Lord's great joy was to bring glory to the Father. That's what the scriptures testify. That's what Jesus said. What did he say? His food is to do what? To the Father's will. In John chapter four. Oh, my food is to do the Father. Oh, he must already have eaten. Where'd he get the food? No, he says my food is to do the Father's will. Jesus was so committed and consumed to bring delight to the Father. That's how much Jesus loves God the Father. And the Father loves him. There's great joy. Hebrews chapter 12 verse 2, passage that we know very well. Author of Hebrews says, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame. There was joy set before him. The believer's joy is not in circumstances or even other people, not even within himself is the joy, but his relationship with Christ. Christ is the source of all of his joy. That's why Paul would write to the Philippians And in Philippians 4.4, it says, Rejoice in the Lord always. You can't just rejoice always. That's not possible. But in the Lord, you can. Rejoice in the Lord always, he says. Again, I will say rejoice. So the very substance of the believer's joy is his relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ, whose perfect love and matchless joy are the result of the believer's abiding relationship. So, his willing submission to the Lord because he understands, he's growing an understanding of the Lord's love for him. That bears the first fruit of love, reciprocation. And then outflows another fruit of joy. And notice what Jesus says, and that your joy may be complete. That same word as I said, the word complete in LSB, word fulfilled in other versions, that's the term. It means the fullness. So the first three manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5.22 is love, joy, and then peace. And then you can read the rest, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and so on and so forth. A joyless Christian, therefore, is an oxymoron. There is no such thing as a joyless Christian. You have misnamed some religious person. Or you have sliced, you have just seen a small portion of a believer's life when he is not filled with the joy. It's one or the other. A dull, insipid, restless, discontented expressions are all either of a religious unbeliever because he is basically a legalist. No matter how much of this stuff that he tries to do on his own, he gets no effect, no benefit. He keeps hearing, if you love God, you will be joyful. If you do this, you will be content. If you give that up, you will be happy. But he tries and he tries and he never gets there. Why? Because there's no right relationship with the Lord. He thinks it's a whole bunch of lists of do's and don'ts because they're good things and they're right things to do. Because as a Christian, it's our responsibility and duty, right? That will not yield joy. So somebody needs to tell him, look, you can never find joy in the Lord through that. You have to maintain a right relationship with the Lord. But what about a believer whose life is not in a right relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ? He genuinely believes and trusts in the Lord. He knows that the Lord Jesus died for his sins. He has experienced the first installment of the weight of sin being lifted, the gift of the Holy Spirit in his life. He has begun to experience the growth, a great appetite for the Word of God, the fellowship with the saints, the worship of the Lord. He has made a commitment to live for Jesus, and then somewhere down the line he starts living on his own strength and he now experiences a kind of insipid, dull, and powerless life. What's going on? Where's all the promise? Well, remember when David sinned regarding the events surrounding Bathsheba? Was he happy? Joyful? He was miserable. miserable. You know, when you are conscious of great sin, and the Holy Spirit uses the pangs of your conscience to remind you, set an alarm clock in your soul, alarm bell, and saying, something's wrong. Turn this off. Deal with this. And you say, oh, no, no. You know, it's okay. It's okay. It'll go away. Do you have joy during that time? Absolutely not. Absolutely not. Now, you may want to manufacture artificial joy by, you know, you can watch a lot of comedy, I guess, and ha ha ha laugh. But afterwards, as you walk away, the pain in the conscience is still there, and you're even more empty. And the vacuum is even greater. And you say, okay, well, I'm gonna go try to do some altruistic things or make me feel better. Maybe at the moment, but when you come back, it's still empty. There's something still going on. None of the external things that you do will make your inner soul rejoice. What needs to be put back? A right relationship. that you have lost with the Lord. That needs to be put back. And how do you do that? By humbling yourself and going before Him and asking the Lord. Asking the Lord. Is He your Heavenly Father or not? If He is your Heavenly Father, and you being evil and wicked, you know that when your children ask you for basic things, you know how to give good things to your children. If He's your Heavenly Father, you know that He'll give you the best. When you say, Father, I've messed this up. You know what I've done, and I'm ashamed. But thank you that you have given me your Son to cover my shame, and I desperately need your cleansing power. And I really miss the joy I once had when I was walking right with you. And I'm not walking right with you right now. Please restore the joy of your salvation in my life that I may be in a right relationship with you once again. Please, Father. That's what David prayed. He wrote Psalm 51 after he sinned against Bathsheba and in verse 12 it says, Restore to me the joy of your salvation and sustain me with a willing spirit. It takes a recognition of your sin and dose of humility to be honest and open and cling to the Lord. Remember, if you abide in Him and His Word abide in you, whatever you ask, He will grant it to you. You think your Heavenly Father wants you to restore a right relationship with Him or not? Okay, you know He does. But not on your terms, but on the terms that He has said. Only He can restore that joy to you when He restores your heart. Not according to your works, your circumstances, but according to a right relationship with His Son. Why did you walk away in the first place? This is where we find ourselves again and again. And when you do that, that's when the joy leaves. See, joy is a fruit of a right relationship with the Lord. Don't try to manufacture it, all right? No amount of money-making, no amount of entertainment, no amount of diversions, no amount of travel, food, fun, relationships, no amount will fill that joy. But this is where a lot of Christians waste their time. Instead of coming back, like Mary and Joseph had to after they realized, oh, we left Jesus. They thought that Jesus left them, but no, they left the Lord. So they had to go back and get him. He said, did you not know that I had to be in my father's house? That's usually where the Lord has always been, been He's always there, sovereign, lifted up, exalted as our great shepherd, our great friend, our great Savior. Our Heavenly Father has always been our loving Father to we who have walked away like a prodigal. Don't blame God for the lacking of joy. Take a look at your life and see where have I just deviated? from abiding in Jesus Christ? When did I start believing that these other things, these other activities, these other people will bring me joy when I know that they wouldn't? What do I need to do now to come back to that? The Lord wants us to be filled with this supernatural joy, and this is a fruit of abiding in his love and his relationship Remember when Peter was boasting about his loyalty to the very end, actually betrayed the Lord three times? And when the Lord's word was fulfilled, scripture says, Peter remembered the word which Jesus had said. This is Matthew 26, 75. Before the rooster crows, Jesus said, you will deny me three times. And he went out and cried bitterly. He wept bitterly. There's a realization that his word has always been true. And we're much weaker than we have thought. But because of our pride, we had a very high view of ourselves and said, no, that's not going to happen to me. It can happen to any of us. And often does. Or you say, well, Peter wasn't filled with the Holy Spirit. That has never happened to Peter afterwards. I mean, that may be true. But Peter was a believer. He loved Jesus. But what did the Lord have to teach him? You know, when push comes to shove, we love ourselves even more. But the Lord knows that and He still loves us. Will we still abide in Him? Will we still trust Him? Peter had to learn that through bitter tears. But after that, after that, He became a mighty warrior for Christ. John wrote his first epistle to strengthen believers, to give them a basis for testing false teachers and false Christianity, posing as the genuine thing. In the opening salvo, 1 John 1, verse 3, he said, The fullness of joy, the complete joy, is never completed until it is shared. That's why it is corporate. corporate. Here John copies and pastes the Lord Jesus' words, that our joy may be made complete. That's exactly what Jesus said. He taught his disciples this so that they will be full and filled, completed in the joy, because he wants to share this joy that he shared with the Father throughout his entire eternal existence. He wants to share this, this great fruit and the joy of the fellowship and as David wrote in psalm 16 11 you make known to me the path of life in your presence is fullness of joy in your right hand there are pleasures forever that's the expression of an old testament saint like David how much more the joy of the lord in salvation to the fuller degree for the new covenant believer who knows and experiences this great love of the lord and so Since we have been taught by the Lord corporately, as the Lord corporately teaches this, it should be shared by all the disciples. This is a wonderful thing. Abiding in Christ as believers, we exercise our own wills to voluntarily submit to the Lord's command out of loving response of loyalty to him in light of his great sacrificial love for us then the acts of obedience yields the wonderful fruit of love which is the expression of obedience and we continue to stay there in the great love of Jesus in our acts of obedience, then joy and super abundant joy inexpressible flows into the heart and the experience of the believer. That's why Christians are always joyful, cheerful, optimistic, future oriented, looking forward to eternal glories, never gets jaded or cynical or gives up This is the reason why we love to hang out with people who are filled with the joy of the Lord's salvation. And that's infectious. Be that kind of a Christian, and then you don't have to convince your children that serving the Lord is a good thing. They know the good. And live that out in your workplace, and your coworkers will ask you, Why aren't you worried about the coming layoff? Why aren't you upset about that very unjust edict from the CEO? Why aren't you complaining about the harsh conditions? Why aren't you demanding? Why are you always content and joyful? It's not about your job, is it? It's about your relationship with the Lord. What an opportunity to live out your faith because you have an abiding relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's give thanks to God who loves us and who wants us to experience the fullness of joy, even in this side of this incursed earth. Let's give him praise. Father, thank you for giving us the very secret sauce of the Christian walk We didn't know that submission to your perfect will will help us to understand your character and your amazing love toward us. We didn't see that abiding in your love will have an overabundant fruitfulness in our hearts of inner joy that you bring to us to a right relationship with you. And we didn't see how such a life could impact everybody around us, but we see it in the Lord Jesus Christ, how you were motivated by the love of the Father in your obedience and how you faced the cross even with joy of knowing that your sacrifice will bring all of us into submission to the Father's will and to be worshipers of the Father in spirit and in truth. And so help us to know this and learn this and grow in our relationship with you and abiding in love and experiencing your amazing joy. And we ask it not so that we would be ultimately the beneficiaries, but that you would be glorified in us. In Jesus name, Amen.