I change, he changes not. The Christ can never die. His love, not mine, the rest in place. His truth, not mine, the time. Well, I'm turning to the book of John and John chapter 15 and verse 11. John chapter 15 and verse 11. These things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. And the topic of my discussion is the Savior's joy and ours. Verse 11 is the conclusion of the great parable of the vine and its branches. And in verse 11, the Savior looks back and declares his purpose from the parable He says, these things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you. The parable proper is ended around verse eight. But it is as if the thoughts of it still linger in our Savior's mind and thoughts of love for us are continuing to fill his heart. He would go to Gethsemane in under an hour. where his deep agony would begin. He would sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. The Savior would be assailed by the enemy again, and the punishment laid upon him for the sins of all his brothers and sisters. It would begin to break his heart." So it was in a garden that we witness the horrifying first onset of human corruption and disobedience. And so it was in a garden that redemption would issue forth from Gethsemane to Gabbatha and to Calvary. And the divine son, one man, would accomplish what Adam could not. the defeat of Satan, and the recovery of mankind. But for this hour, the Savior is with his disciples. And so to summarize the parable of the vine, this could be a dozen sermons in themselves, but I want to focus on the joy that the Lord would have in us. And so to summarize the parable of the vine, the parable of the vine is one of the great expositions of the doctrine of union with Christ. It's a beautiful doctrine. And the main thoughts of the parable, there are many, but four of the main thoughts of the parable include this, that union with Christ is the source of all good. that abiding in him would result in actual living expression of that union fruit as a matter of living experience, that the living experience would be expressed effortlessly and spiritually as in the fruit of the spirit and the spiritual fruits of obedience, and that forth that abiding union in him if his words abide in us, would result in that prayer would be answered with great blessing and power. I have three heads for tonight. One is we'll discuss Christ's love to us in the setting of this. Secondly, our responsibility to realize his love to us. And thirdly, a look at the Savior's joy and ours. Firstly, Christ's love toward us. Look at verse nine. He says, as the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you. Continue ye in my love. Continue ye in my love. This continue is the same Greek word as abide in the same passage. So abide in my love. Continue in my love. Remain in my love. Do you notice the big distinction? Our Savior did not command us to keep our love burning towards him in our hearts. but to remain in His love toward us. The command and the loving desire of our Lord Jesus Christ and the promise of joy is not in maintaining our loving attitude toward Him, but in remaining in the sweet and sacred and stable atmosphere of His love toward us. What a mysterious and profound command of love. Again, it's an unnatural command, not something that we usually say. But he's the Lord, full of grace and truth. And he knew. There among his disciples, he knew the strength of his love. His love is everlasting. His love was so great for them that he was about to lay down his life. His love was so great and is still so great that his love produces in its object love. His love generates love in the object of his affection. We love him. Because He loved us. 1 John 4, verse 19. And how about Jeremiah 31, verse 3? The Lord hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with lovingkindness I have drawn thee. Think of the light of the moon. It's a reflective light, isn't it? The moon is not generating light on its own. But its light is dependent upon remaining in the light of the sun. And its light waxes and wanes depending on whether the world gets in its way. Now, that's a feeble example, I know, because there is a difference between us and the moon, and that is that the big difference is the moon cannot choose to avoid the shadow of the world. Its revolution around the planet is constant, and sometimes it's cut off from the light of the sun. But we can decide between worldly pursuits and holy pursuits, and that brings me to my second head. our responsibility to realize Christ's love. Well, let's look at verse 9 again. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. And here comes a command of sorts. Continue ye in my love. So, in issuing a bit of a command Our Lord Jesus Christ is saying that the continuance in his love is a thing that in a measure he's giving us power to affect. Our Savior tells his disciples that they have a measure of responsibility in abiding in his love. His love will never end. for us. His love is immeasurable and there is no stopping it. But, in a measure, our Savior gives us some form of responsibility when he says, abide in my love. Although it is his affection to us of which this text primarily speaks, It appears that we can so modify or regulate the flow of that divine love to our hearts that it becomes our duty to participate in the continuance of Christ's love to us. And then, to give us clear guidance through his own example, look what he says in verse 10. If you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my father's commandments and abide in his love. It is the obedient spirit of true discipleship that cherishes and attracts the continuing flow and increase of Christ's love. And this, the Savior adds, was even the secret to his own abiding in his father's love. So the parable tells us that abiding in Christ was a condition of bearing fruit. And now, in verse 10, he tells us the converse, which is also true, that bearing fruit, or keeping of the commandments, is a condition of abiding in Christ's love. Now, keeping has a very, very important meaning in the Greek. And I think it's important because it really gives you the difference between keeping of commandments that is hollow in surface and keeping of the commandments that stems forth from our love. So the word means something like to guard or to watch or to regard and there's a sense of pleasure in the word there's a sense of admiration in the word you see and so it is the inner delight the inner delight of obedience to the Lord that comes with being close to the It is the obedience that comes from love to Lord Jesus Christ. This is what he's looking for. Christians must never keep the commandments out of fear of punishment or out of hope for a personal gain. We are past that kind of thunder and smoke of Mount Sinai. We are under the grace of the Lord. The law cannot condemn us who are in Christ, and nor should the keeping of the commandments be the legal obedience of a Pharisee whose heart was stony cold for Christ. This type of Pharisaical obedience produces fruit, but they look pretty on the outside, but on the inside they're mealy and hollow and full of worms. my brothers and sisters, we trust Him. We delight in our Lord Jesus Christ. And therefore we delight in obeying Him. So our obedience is the expression of our love to Him. And now we learn, how do we learn of His commandments? Well, we read our Bibles regularly. prayerfully and slowly. And I was once told by a brother that his wife had decided to read the Bible in a month. And I gave up all argument because I don't have the unction, the holy unction to be able to comprehend the entire Bible in a month. It is an operation of the Holy Spirit that must help you with understanding the Word. And so if it needs be that you hang on a verse that has touched your heart for a week or more, so be it. Let the Lord's love and communion be with you in that way, without constraints. Well, when we receive the Lord's commands that way, prayerfully, slowly, and in the spirit, we can receive these commands as a loving voice. And these voices don't seem to us like a finger saying, thou shalt not, or do this, or don't do that. But now when we read his commandments, They come from the best of fathers. And this father says, my child, don't go there for your own good or that is dangerous. I would not have you suffer. These are why these commandments are here. They are all out of love and they're all meant to foster and increase our joy. There is a world of difference between knowing about Christ and knowing Christ. If we take time to know him, then we will find ourselves in that continuing, abiding flow of love that he has for us. But in broad strokes, what does it mean practically? It means keeping commandments in general involves this. It means separating our hearts from sin. It means weaning ourselves off dependence on earthly pleasures. And it means breaking of idols to which we run for comfort and temporary joy before we run to God. So many of the commandments are encapsulated in these foundational concepts. But to go to Christ frequently, to spend more time with him than you do with the world, we will find ourselves able to tap in to that reservoir of love that he has for us. If we begin there and we keep watch we keep watch with that sense of pleasure and admiration, then it'll protect that clear path to abiding in His love. But let's look at the Savior's joy and ours. The Lord takes these thoughts and then he tells us that he does all these things for one purpose, essentially. Again in verse 11, these things have I spoken unto you that my joy might remain in you and that your joy might be full. So he tells us this for the purpose of increasing the joy in us, which is itself a token of his love. namely that our hearts may be filled with a perfect and perennial joy, a drop, a drop of the fountain of his own. Was our Lord, some ask, was our Lord and precious Savior, Jesus Christ, really a joyful man? Was he not the man of sorrows? Was he not the one who was acquainted with grief? Was he not the one who was mistaken for the weeping prophet Jeremiah? Was he the one who was also full of joy? Well, yes, of course he was. He was perfectly obedient, and therefore he was the perfectly obedient example of rejoice in the Lord always, Philippians 4.4. And therefore, the fact that he had the countenance at times of a man of sorrows means, must mean, that in his perfect obedience he had also long planned to teach us something about ourselves, something that would encourage us that may not have joy all the time outwardly showing. Something he taught us, wants to teach us, that encourages us and gives us hope. And that is that deep joy, deep joy for God, can be found even in the presence of a surface sorrow. For his beloved brethren and sisters who are afflicted, who are in pain, who are downcast, who are burdened, the Savior reminds us in his own example that joy is still ours, even when we're doing business in deep waters. Well, what are the sources of such joy then? What were the sources of the calm man of sorrows? Well, his joy sprang from within. The world's joy is drawn from without. His came from union with the Father. The world's largely depends on ignoring God. His joy needed no fuel from a world of physical senses. And so his joy was independent of all the presence and absence of such appetites. The world's joy needs the constant contributions of outward good, thumbs up, hearts. And when these are cut off, the worldly joy droops and dies. His joy was the consciousness that his father's divine pleasure ever rested on him. But the world's joy needs the pleasure of fickle man to depend on. His joy never depended on outward circumstances. And so he was never a slave to time and circumstance. While his joy filled his soul to the brim, he was acquainted with grief. And so let us not be surprised if the same strange surface contradiction is felt in us when we are afflicted. But our Savior would have our sorrows to stay on our surface. And in the depths of our souls, he would have us have a joy which still sheds its light over the whole of our lives. It is more Christ-like to have inexpressibly deep joy with a surface sorrow than it is to have a shallow laughter masking a deep, hurtful sorrow. Our deep joy, abiding in the love of Christ, the world can never take away. This is deeper than our surface sorrows, and the world can never take it away. In a half an hour, or under an hour, our Savior would be in Gethsemane, and we also have our crosses to bear. But as we abide in his love, these crosses will be easier to bear. C.H. Spurgeon once said this, and I'll issue it as a little bit of a challenge in the coming weeks. This is what he said. I think I could prove if there was time that all The doctrines have a tendency, when properly understood and received, to foster Christian joy. Shall we put that to the test? So I'll let you do that in private study and contemplation, but perhaps I can begin. Let's begin with the doctrine of atonement. The Lord Jesus Christ truly loves us, and that we may confidently believe. Well, he said so in verse nine, as the father hath loved me, so I have loved you from his precious holy lips. He went to lengths to assure us of his love in verse nine, He spoke those words on the solemn night of his agony. But he spoke those words and that they would be immortalized in the inspired word of God for us. And yet, can we not say to him, I know you love us? You don't have to say it from your lips because you have assured us in your wounds Our Lord went to the cross of Calvary shortly after this, and he did so out of love for us. He became a man for love to us. He suffered shame for love to us. He was nailed on the cross for love to us, and he atoned for our sins for the love he had to us. He loves us. And this can be a great source of joy to think of that. And let it be something you can contemplate and give you fresh supplies of joy. His love is immeasurable for us. Well, I'll leave you with that challenge from Pastor Spurgeon to look over some of the other doctrines. But there is joy in all of them, every one. Let's close our thinking with the last hymn, hymn number 893. 893. Lord, dismiss us with Thy blessing. Fill our hearts with joy and peace. Let us teach Thy love-possessing, triumphing, redeeming grace. Oh, refresh us. Refresh us. Traveling through this new land.