I invite you to turn with me to John chapter 15, verses one through 11. This is the third week that we have been in this section, and I can assure you this is the last time that we will be in this particular section of John chapter 15. It will indeed be time to move on, maybe go a little faster, who knows. Need to get out of my Puritan mindset perhaps. I think it was said of John Carroll, he took 20 years to preach the book of Job, So fear not, I won't even be close to that. But John chapter 15, we'll be reading verses one through 11. Hear now God's holy word. I am the true vine, and my father is the vine dresser. Every branch of mine that does not bear fruit, he takes away, and every branch that does not bear fruit, he prunes. that it may bear more fruit. Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. Abide in me and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers. The branches are gathered, thrown into the fire and burned. If you abide in me and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. By this my father is glorified that you bear much fruit and so proved to be my disciples. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I've kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Thus far, the reading of God's holy word. Well, we have been looking at our relationship with God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. in these verses from John chapter 15. And we've seen that Jesus uses the vine metaphor to teach us about our relationship with one another. Jesus is the true vine. We are the branches and the father is the vine dresser. And so far in our study, we have focused primarily on how Jesus and the father relate to us. And today I want to relate or to look at how we relate to Jesus and the Father. What is our role in that relationship? And we do have a role in that relationship because it is a relationship. It is a personal relationship. And a personal relationship is mutual. It's not one-sided. As the saying goes, it takes two to tango. It takes two to have a real healthy relationship. And also, a personal relationship is dynamic. It's not mechanical. We don't relate to God in the way someone might relate to a computer or a vending machine. With a machine, we put in the right code or put in the right change and presto, we get what we were looking for and we go on our merry way. But our relationship with God is not like that at all. It is a personal loving one, like a marriage or like a parent-child relationship. It's a mutual loving relationship. And that means we have a personal role to play in our relationship with Jesus and the Father. But what is that role? Well, in verse four, Jesus says, abide in me. Abide in me. That word abide is an imperative. It's a command. Jesus is not suggesting that we abide in him or saying that would be a good thing if you want to do that. No, he's commanding us to abide in him. And the word abide means to remain, to continue, to stay. And so, of course, Jesus here is not talking about how we enter into a relationship with him. He's talking to his disciples who are already in a relationship with him. In fact, they are already clean. They are true disciples. He's talking to people who have been regenerated by the Holy Spirit and who will not lose their salvation. In John 6, we learn that no one can come to Jesus unless the Father draws him. And every person that the Father draws to Jesus will come to Jesus and they will be saved. Jesus will raise them up on the last day. In John 10, we learn that no one will snatch us out of the Father's hand. The Father and Jesus are one. and they will preserve us to the very end. And so we will, if we are in Christ, we will not lose our salvation because God will preserve us. And yet this does not in the least take away our need to remain or to abide or to stay in Christ. God's sovereign role in our salvation does not take away or diminish in the least our need to come to Jesus and to remain in him. Indeed, it's precisely because God has drawn us and poured his spirit out upon us and changed us that we're able to come and are able to remain in Jesus. But we do need to remain. God needs to preserve us and we need to persevere. It's not either or, but it's both and. We are both active in that sense in our salvation. We both have a role to play. Obviously, it's not the same role, but we do have a role, and one aspect of our role in our relationship, our saving relationship with God, is, according to verse four, to remain in Christ. That same role is also described in terms of love in verse nine. Jesus says, abide in my love. Again, this is a command, not a suggestion or something that will be good to do if you want to. But you need to abide in my love. You need to remain in it. But again, notice that we don't love Jesus in order for him to accept us or to get him to love us back. Jesus already loves us. That's why he says abide or remain. We love him because he first loved us. So Jesus is not saying here, earn my love, or I will only love you if you first love me. No, he says remain in my love. And how has Jesus loved you? Well, here we see something absolutely incredible. Mind-blowing if you really think about it, because this is what he says, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you. As the father has loved me, so have I loved you. Jesus loves you in the same way that the father loves his son, Jesus. Now, to help put this in proper perspective, consider the following scenario. I want to tell you that my friend, John, loves you. Now, what kind of love does John have for you? Well, what kind of love would it be if I said this? John loves you like I love my guitar. I like my guitar, but it's not that great. John loves you. What if I said this? John loves you like I love my dog. Now, I don't actually have a dog, but just go with me here for a minute. John loves you like I love my dog. Probably better than my guitar, but it could be better, couldn't it? Okay, let me say this. John loves you like I love my best friend. That would be even a greater love, wouldn't it? Or John loves you like I love my son, even greater. What kind of love did Jesus have for you? Well, Jesus loves you like the Father loves Jesus. Think about that. What kind of love is that like? That's the very definition of love, by the way. God is love, and he loves his one and only Son with a perfect, complete love, with a true love. And that's the kind of love that Jesus has for you and me. And he wants us, he commands us to remain in that love. And he wants you to remain in it precisely because he loves you with a great love, because he wants the best for you. He wants you to prosper and to flourish forever and ever. He wants you to have peace and life and life abundantly. Or as he says in verse 11, he wants your joy to be full. And the way for that to happen, as we shall see, is to abide in him and to abide in his love. That's the only way that your joy will be full. So then the question is, of course, how do we do that? How do we abide in Jesus? Well, we remain in Jesus by believing in him, by believing his word, by being faithful, by loving him, And how do we love him? We love him by keeping his commandments. In verse seven, Jesus connects abiding in him with his words abiding in us. Well, what does that mean? Well, the answer actually is really found in the Old Testament. In Deuteronomy 6, Moses told Israel that they were to put the words of God on their heart. And then they were to teach them diligently to their children and to talk about them all the time and to live by them. And in Proverbs, Solomon really says the same thing to his son. And in a negative way, he says, or he urges his son to not forsake his teaching and to not let it escape from his sight. But in a positive way, Solomon tells his son to hold fast to his words, to keep them within his heart. hold fast, to place the words of God on our hearts. That's what Jesus is saying here, but he's saying that his words are to be on our hearts. He's saying that we are to embrace his teachings so that it really becomes a part of us. It shapes who we are and what we do. In verse 10, Jesus connects abiding in his love with keeping his commandments. If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love. So that's how you abide, is by keeping his commandments, by being faithful, trust and obey. And so remaining in Jesus' love involves and is conditioned upon keeping his commandments. If, if you do this, you will abide. Now, does that seem troubling to you, this conditional statement, that we need to keep God's commandments in order to abide in his love? Now, it shouldn't be, but I think our instinctive reactions say, wait a minute, is that the gospel? But we need to remember that we're talking about a personal relationship. And for personal relationships to remain intact and for them to be healthy and for them to grow, both parties need to love one another. I mean, think of a marriage. If both spouses are loving and faithful, it will be a healthy growing relationship. But it only takes one party to ruin that relationship. If one spouse is wicked, if one spouse is unfaithful or abandons their relationship and just deserts the relationship, then for all intents and purposes, the relationship is ruined. It takes two to have a healthy, growing relationship. It takes two to tango. And so if we are going to remain in a loving relationship with Jesus, we do need to love him in return. We need to love him too. We need to be faithful to him and keep his commandments. You know, this is how it was in the Old Testament. As we read in Deuteronomy chapter seven, the Lord says through Moses that he loved Israel, delivered her from bondage, is going to bring her into the promised land, a land flowing of milk and honey. And then the Lord says that He will love and bless them if they keep his covenant by loving and obeying his commandments. He loves them first, they are to love him in return, and in response to that, even more and greater love. Exodus 20 verse six says that God shows steadfast love to those who love him and keep his commandments. Psalm 103 verse 13 says that God shows compassion to those who fear him. And this is, by the way, also how Jesus relates to the Father. And Jesus, of course, is the true Israel. In fact, Jesus makes himself the pattern we are to follow. Just as he has kept his Father's commandments and abides in his Father's love, so we are to keep Jesus' commandments and we will then abide in his love. Again, we are in a loving, personal relationship with Jesus. And we maintain and strengthen our relationship with him by reciprocating the love that he has shown to us. We love Jesus by keeping his commandments. And so we will remain in his love if we keep his commandments. You know, another way of looking at the matter is to consider the alternative. What if we don't love Jesus in return? What if we spurn His love and reject Him? What if we turn our back on Him and just abandon the relationship? What happens then? What if only one is tangoing or dancing? Well, as we saw last week, and as we see in verse six, we will be cast out. We won't experience blessing, cursing will be our experience. We won't experience love, but wrath. I mean, what else would you expect if you forsake the relationship? Do you expect Christ then to lead you to glory with him, even though you despise him and want nothing to do with him? You think that's what's gonna happen? No, of course it won't. Jesus will give you exactly what you want. And you will indeed have nothing to do with him or his kingdom. You know, James says that God promises to give the crown of life, not to those who hate him, but to those who love him. It's the same thing that Jesus is saying here. But again, this might seem kind of overwhelming to us. I mean, really, we got to love? I mean, what if I mess up? What if I don't love him so well? What if I don't always love Jesus? And well, in fact, I know I don't. So what happens then? Am I in trouble if I messed up? Will Jesus then no longer love me? Will I be cursed? Now when we think that way, I think it just goes to show that we are still infected with the satanic lies about God. Because God is not out there waiting and ready to pounce on his children if and when they sin or mess up, just as ready to cast them out of the family of God if they mess up. God is not out to get you. He's not some angry, hot-tempered God who is impossible to please and just waiting and ready to kick somebody out as soon as they mess up. No, when we begin to think that way, we need to remember who God is and the nature of our relationship with him. Our God is a God of unfailing love. He is faithful and full of grace and mercy. He delights to forgive the inequity of his people when they can come and confess their sins. He's like the father of the prodigal son. He breaks out the fatted calf when his people return in repentance and faith. They rejoice in heaven. God is not like a hard task master who is impossible to please, not at all. And moreover, God is our God and we are his people. We are in a saving, covenantal, redemptive relationship with God in Christ. And so yes, we are sinners, but God in Christ has come and redeemed us. He has loved us and saved us. And he has loved us so that we might love him in return. Paul says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works. He has created us in Christ Jesus that we might love him in return. And even more than that, we aren't servants in God's household, we are his children. He has adopted us into his family. We are his special treasure, the apple of his eye. He is our loving father and Christ is our elder brother. And so the context of our relationship is not between a master and a slave, the context of our relationship is one of grace and mercy and salvation and family and love. We always need to think in those terms, which is why abiding in his love is not an impossible task or heavy burden to bear. This is something we were saved to do. This is something we now want to do. Indeed, that we love to do. But again, we don't love Christ perfectly, at least this side of glory. None of us will. And we will all have our moments and we will have our struggles, our failings, our sin. Peter certainly did, didn't he? He denied the Lord publicly three times. But Peter wasn't lying, though, when he said, after he had denied the Lord three times, he wasn't lying to Jesus when he said this, yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Yes, Lord, you know that I love you. Peter was a sinner, but he loved the Lord Jesus. And so our love is not perfect, and it may falter at times. But we love Jesus truly and sincerely, if we do. And Jesus knows that. He delights in that and rejoices in you and loves you. And keep in mind, again, that when we do stumble and falter and sin, we aren't kicked out of God's family. It's not the way it works. We're a family, a redemptive saving family. Our father loves us. He sent his son after all, while we were yet sinners to save us from our sin. We are justified and sanctified in Christ. And yes, when we do sin as his children, he is displeased, but that doesn't mean he stops loving us. He's a God of unfailing, steadfast love. He rebukes, he chastens us. And we, in love to our Father, we confess our sins and our Father forgives us and cleanses us from all unrighteousness. I write these things so that you may not sin, but if you do sin, if anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. It was the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but for the sins of the world. So we need to abide in Christ, abide in his love by being faithful, by loving him and keeping his commands. And as we do so, we will experience some wonderful blessings. I want to simply mention two this morning. And one is this, answered prayer. Answer prayer. In verse seven, Jesus says that if you abide in him and his words abide in you, then ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Again, our relationship with God is a personal one. It's not mechanical. It's not a matter of saying the right prayer, or performing the right ritual, or going through the motions in worship, and then presto, God's going to bless you, or give you what you want, or give you what you ask. Our relationship with God doesn't work that way. Although we tend to think in those kind of magical terms. In the year 2000, you might remember this, a book called The Prayer of Jabez was published, and published to great success. It was an international bestseller and sold over nine million copies. But the book encouraged you to say the same prayer, which was found in the Old Testament, in a relatively obscure prayer by Jabez, and the book encouraged you to say that prayer verbatim, on a daily basis for 30 days, and if you commit yourself to doing that, then at the end of the 30 days, you will notice significant positive blessings in your life. Well, that is treating your relationship with God in a very mechanical way. It's treating God like a vending machine. You put in the right code, the right change, and presto, you get blessings in your life. But God doesn't answer prayer so long as we say the right thing in the right amount of times. Answered prayer is related to the kind of relationship you have with the personal God. Are we walking with God? Are we being faithful? Or are we turning our back on God and running the other way? That's gonna affect our relationship with God, how we respond and relate to him. David said that if he cherished iniquity in his heart, then the Lord would not hear or answer his prayer. Peter tells husbands to treat their wives with respect and to treat them well so that their prayers may not be hindered. How you relate to your spouse is going to affect how you relate to God and how God relates to you, because it's a relationship. James says that the prayer of a righteous person, a righteous person is powerful and effective. So when we walk with the Lord, when we trust and obey, that's when we receive answered prayers, when we abide in him and his words abide in us. And of course, when we do that, we're gonna ask a right, aren't we? And we're gonna ask according to his will. So that's one benefit of abiding in Christ is answer prayer, but another benefit is joy. In verse 11, Jesus says, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be full. Jesus commands us and talks about our relationship with him and commands us to abide in him because he wants us to have his joy which is perfect, or fullness of joy. And joy here really is quite similar to the word peace. It encompasses salvation in its entirety, really. In John 14, verse 27, Jesus said that he will give his peace to his disciples. And now here, he says that he wants his joy to be in them. And the joy that Jesus is talking about is the joy that only the Messiah or the Christ can bring and give to people when he brings salvation and peace. And here we learn that Jesus didn't come to make us slaves. He didn't come to be a kill joy or to make life miserable for us. He came to save us from all misery, from all slavery and death, and to give us true joy, peace, and life. In Hebrews 12, verse two, it says there that Jesus, who for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross. Jesus has endured the cross, and so he's now on the other side of glory. He has entered into the joy that was set before him, and it is his joy. And he gives his joy, to all those who abide in him. And he gives you his joy so that your joy may be full. We don't have full joy in the fullest sense in this life. You know, if there's anything in your life that dampens your joy, or makes your life miserable in any way, or brings your joy to an end, then your joy is not full. It's not perfect joy. but the joy that Jesus gives is indeed perfect. It is the fullness of joy. But you do need to remain in Christ to receive and possess that which he himself has and enjoys even right now because he's on the other side of it. That's why he says, and he wants you to share and possess that same joy. That's why he says in verse 11, these things I've spoken to you that my joy may be in you and your joy may be full. Jesus wants us to experience full joy, and he doesn't want you to be ignorant or deceived about these things. And so he commands you, abide in him, abide in his love, because if you don't, you won't experience the fullness of joy. Well, Christianity is a relationship. We have a personal loving relationship with the Lord Jesus. And Jesus loves us in the same way the Father loves him. And we ought to love him in return. We need to abide in his love. And we do that by loving him and keeping his commandments. So abide in Jesus so that your joy might be full. You know, perhaps really the best way for me to conclude this sermon is simply to quote the fourth stanza of a very well-known hymn, Jesus Loves Me. You know what the fourth one says? Jesus loves me. He will stay close beside me all the way. If I love him when I die, he will take me home on high. Let us pray. Lord, our God, we thank you that you have loved us and that you will preserve and keep us. Lord, help us to hear and to understand your words to us, to abide in you, to abide in your love. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.