We'll begin our reading with the last two verses of chapter 14,
and then we'll go through verse 11 of chapter 15.
So John 14, starting at verse 30,
and to John chapter 15, we'll end at verse 11.
You can follow along in whatever English translation you have.
I like to read from the King James,
but then I'll make sure to exposit using, I think, more of the ESV as well
so that you can make sure to find where we are.
I think it's really good for us to hear this same Greek text
and a lot of different English translations.
So if you please follow along, and as I read this, remember,
this is God's inspired, inerrant, infallible, clear, and sufficient word.
It's God's very own word for you, His people.
If you believe that, you belong to God through Jesus Christ.
And when we're done with the reading, I'll say,
this is the word of the Lord, and you respond, thanks be to God.
John chapter 14, verse 30.
Hereafter I will not talk much with you,
for the Prince of this world cometh,
and hath nothing in me.
But that the world may know that I love the Father,
and as the Father gave me commandment, so I do.
Arise, let us go hence.
15.1
Verse 3.
Now you are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you.
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.
Verse 5.
I am the vine.
You are the branches.
He that abides in me, and I in him,
the same brings forth much fruit.
For without me you can do nothing.
If a man abide not in me,
he is cast forth as a branch and is withered.
And men gather them and cast them into the fire,
and they are burned.
If you abide in me and my word abides in you,
you shall ask what you will,
and it shall be done unto you.
Herein is my Father glorified,
that you bear much fruit.
So shall you be my disciples.
As the Father has loved me,
so I have loved you.
Continue in my love.
If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love,
even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and I abide in his love.
These things I have spoken unto you,
that my joy may remain in you,
and that your joy may be full.
This is the word of the Lord.
Thanks be to God indeed.
You may be seated.
The Bible says that the grass withers,
and the flower fades,
but it's the word of the Lord that endures forever.
Would you pray with me?
Father, may your word,
may Jesus Christ,
the true vine,
abide richly in your people.
Teach us what it means to abide in our Lord Jesus Christ.
For your glory today we ask.
Amen.
Well, beloved congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ,
how can you have joy in the battle?
Is it possible to go through the trenches of warfare
and still have joy?
And if so, how?
In 1895, a missionary from Ireland to India named Amy Carmichael.
She traveled on a ship, arrived in India.
The first 40 years of being a missionary there,
she never went back to visit family or relatives,
never went home.
20 years before she ended her ministry there,
she had fallen into an uncovered pit,
and she fell so badly that it hurt her back,
and she had to become bedridden.
So the next 20 years of ministry,
she was laid up in a bed in India.
She saw the spiritual battle,
the wickedness, the violence all around her.
And yet she knew,
even being bedridden and in chronic pain,
she knew a deeper joy,
even deeper than the battle that she had to endure.
Listen to what she wrote.
What prodigal waste it appears
to see scattered on the floor
the bright green leaves
and the bare stem bleeding
in a hundred places from the sharp knife.
But with a tried and trusted vine dresser,
there is not a random stroke in it all.
Listen to this.
Nothing cut away,
which it would not have been
a loss to keep or gain to lose.
There's a deep battle we live in.
Amy Carmichael testifies,
there is a deeper joy.
In this wonderful little passage of John 15,
Jesus tells His disciples,
Satan is coming.
Abide in Me.
My Father will prune you.
Abide in Me.
Apart from Me,
you can do nothing.
Abide in Me.
Jesus tells us the purpose
for this teaching.
Look at verse 11.
These things I have spoken to you.
Why?
That My joy may be in you
and that your joy may be full.
That's where this ends up.
That's verse 11.
Let's walk through the verses
between the end of 14
to arrive at that point
and see how this promise
of our Lord Jesus
is trustworthy.
How can you have His joy,
His deep joy,
even in the battle?
I got eight points to get us there.
Number one,
you and I were born
into a spiritual battle.
We were entering this world
in the midst of a war
that's already going on
long before we were part of it
and that will continue to go on
until the Lord returns.
And the moment you are born
into this world,
there is one person
who has more of a claim on you
than anyone else.
More than your parents
have a claim on you,
more than your country
can claim you,
and it's Satan himself.
You are claimed.
Born into this world
that's at war,
you are claimed by Satan.
Look at chapter 14,
verse 30.
There in the upper room,
Jesus tells His disciples,
I will no longer
talk much more with you
for the ruler
of this world
is coming.
We get a description
of what this will look like
in a couple chapters.
It's chapter 18,
verse 3,
that says,
there will be a band of soldiers,
officers from the chief priests
and Pharisees,
and they will show up
in the garden
where Jesus and His disciples
are with lanterns
and torches
and weapons.
The disciples know
there's going to be
a confrontation.
Peter has his sword
ready to go.
However,
when the darkness
of the ruler of this world,
when Satan himself
through those men
encounter Christ
and his disciples,
the spiritual weight
of this war,
it makes all those
brave disciples
who are speaking
these bold words
just hours prior
in the upper room
flee.
That's the weight
of Satan
coming to fight Christ.
Ephesians 6,
verse 12,
confirms this.
We battle
not against
flesh and blood,
but against the rulers,
against the authorities,
against the cosmic powers
over this present darkness,
against the spiritual forces
of evil
in the heavenly places.
So before you
have any business
understanding
the joy
that a person
can have
in the midst
of a spiritual battle,
you need to
understand the reality
you're born into.
There is a great battle
over your life.
And unless you belong
to the kingdom of Christ,
Satan has a claim
on you.
Satan
has you
under his rule.
He is the ruler
of this world.
That's what Jesus
calls him.
Unless you are
ransomed out of that.
Because of Adam's sin,
the whole world
is under the curse
and under the dominion
of the devil
in this present evil age.
Satan has a claim
on anyone
who is still under Adam.
But notice what Jesus says
in verse 30.
Chapter 14,
verse 30.
He has no claim
on me.
Jesus was born
of Virgin Mary.
He did not inherit
sin from Adam.
Jesus is the only one
who was born
not being claimed
by the ruler
of this world.
He could have lost that
with one sin,
one false inclination
of his heart.
But Jesus,
at the end
of his ministry,
before he marches
to the cross,
he can say,
Satan still
has no claim
on me.
Is that good news
for you?
No one takes
the life
of the Son of God,
Jesus preached.
He lays it down
willingly
for his sheep.
We saw
in John chapter 12,
verse 31,
that when the Son of Man
will be lifted up,
that's a reference
to him being put
on the cross.
Jesus said,
the ruler
of this world
will be cast out.
That same reference,
the ruler
of this world,
the ruler
of this world.
Christ knows
exactly how
he will defeat
the ruler
of this world,
and it will take
him being lifted up.
We're going to see
in the next chapter,
John 16,
verse 11,
that when Christ
ascends to his
Father's right hand,
the ruler
of this world
will be judged
and condemned.
That's good news
if you belong
to Christ.
That means you,
you are in Christ.
You are not under
the dominion
of the ruler
of this world
any longer.
You're not under
the sin of Adam's curse.
You have been united
to Christ.
And Satan
has no claim
on those
who belong
to Christ.
When you are united
to Christ,
then and only then
can you have joy
in your battle
against sin,
Satan,
worldliness,
and wolves.
There is joy
for those united
to Christ,
even in the worst,
most ugly parts
of this battle
we see here on earth.
Does Satan
have a claim
on you?
Or do you belong
to Christ?
Because if Christ
has a claim
on you,
Satan cannot
touch you.
number two,
the mission
of King Jesus
was to love
the Father
perfectly
as a man
so that you
can share
in the joy
of God's love.
The love between
Father, Son,
and Spirit.
That's a love
that bubbles over
into fullness
of joy.
God wants that
for you,
but it's only possible
if King Jesus
takes on that mission
to love the Father
perfectly
as a man,
as your second
and final
representative head,
the new Adam.
Notice what Jesus said.
This is so cool
when I learn this.
In 1430,
he says,
the ruler of this world
is coming.
Satan is coming.
Jesus says,
he has no claim on me.
I do not obey him.
I'm not enslaved
to the ruler
of this world.
Look at verse 30 still.
I do
as the Father
has commanded me
so that the world
may know
that I love
the Father.
Then he says,
rise.
Let us go up
from here.
So you've got to
picture this scene.
They're in this upper room
in Jerusalem.
Most likely,
the place where they're at
is near the east side
of the temple.
So as you come out,
you look
and you see the entrance
to the temple.
Remember how it faces east?
So those taken into captivity
pray facing back
looking at that entrance
as if they could,
wishing they could be
back in the Holy of Holies
with God.
And as they come out,
they don't go toward
the temple,
they go away.
They go to the Garden
of Gethsemane.
The Garden of Gethsemane,
it sits at the base
of the Mount of Olives.
So if you hear those two,
it's really the same place.
It just depends
how high up you're going.
We read in John 18,
1 through 3
that there was a garden
which he and his disciples
entered.
And this is where
the encounter happens.
Judas,
who betrayed him,
also knew the place
for Jesus often met there
with his disciples.
So Jesus just said,
the ruler of this world
is coming.
Now he tells his disciples,
rise up,
let us go.
Sinclair Ferguson
helped me understand
that that term,
rise up,
let us go,
is a military term.
Ferguson wrote,
he's not talking
only about a physical departure
from the upper room
to the garden.
This is a spiritual
call to arms.
Up and at them
is what Jesus is saying.
Since the enemy is coming,
let us go and meet him.
Jesus calls his disciples
to follow him
out of the light
of that upper room
where they broke bread,
they drank the vine,
the fruit of the vine,
to march out,
glance at the temple,
and go meet the enemy
in the darkness
on his own terms,
on enemy territory.
It's an away game.
I'm not sure if it's because
they had just had the bread
and drank the wine
or if it's because
they saw looking at the temple
what was called the,
make sure I get it right,
it's called the temple vine
and it was this golden piece
of artwork
that formed the arch.
You know,
as you're approaching
the temple grounds
and people would make vows
and they would promise
things to God
and then they would attach
their promise like,
God, if you help me
with have a good harvest,
I'll give you a bunch of grapes
and they would then
take those grapes
and attach them
to this golden archway
in the temple.
So either with that
within their eyesight
or because they just
celebrated the Passover
and that was the flavor
left in their mouth
was the fruit of the vine.
King Jesus is ready for war.
He knows exactly
what this war requires
and this is number three.
The mission of King Jesus
was to become,
look at 15.1,
the true vine
so that you could bear fruit
for his father.
Now Jesus could have said,
I am the true lamb of God.
That would have been true.
We know that's who he was.
But a lamb is slaughtered.
A lamb is an image of death
and defeat and sacrifice.
A penal substitutionary sacrifice.
And in this moment,
going out to meet
the ruler of the world,
he doesn't want them
thinking about him
as the sacrifice.
He wants them to know
I am the true vine.
It's an image of joy
and abundance
and victory and life.
The enemy will come
and plunder the goods
of a nation.
But I am the true vine.
Verse 1 of 15,
he says,
I am the true vine
and my father
is the vine dresser.
We just heard
from Isaiah 5
how God gave
the nation of Israel
every loving care
that they could ever hope for
and yet they bore
sour fruit,
sour grapes.
That's not the only place
we get this image of Israel
as God's vineyard.
Another place is Psalm 80.
In verse 8,
Psalm 80 says,
you brought a vine
out of Egypt.
You drove out the nations
and planted it.
You cleared the ground
for it.
But Israel did not bear
the fruit.
So Jesus says,
I am the true vine.
I am the fulfillment
of all that God
has always promised
for His people.
It's only in me
and it's only through me
that God's people
can do that exact purpose
for which He brought them
into existence.
Psalm 80 goes on to say
that the vine of God
would take deep root
and it would fill the land
and the mountains
would be covered
with its shade
and the mighty cedars
with its branches.
And it sent out
its branches to the sea
and it shoots to the river.
It's the image
of this vine
sending branches out
until God's entire dominion
is filled
to the very borders
all around.
That never happened
with national Israel.
Jesus says,
I am the true vine.
I am the one
who will fulfill Isaiah 5.
I'm the one
who will fulfill Psalm 80.
And I will do it
through you.
In chapter 15, verse 2,
Jesus says,
Every branch in me
that does not bear fruit,
He takes away.
And every branch
that does bear fruit,
He prunes
that it may bear
more fruit.
If you had a vineyard
in ancient Israel,
the owner of the vineyard
himself would be
very careful.
He would not want
to let anyone
destroy the vine.
So he personally
would go through
and clip and trim
just right.
And then his children
or other servants
would follow along.
And their job
was to pick up
everything he trimmed,
leave it in a pile,
give it a week,
now it's dry,
and you set fire to it
and you're done
with what was keeping
the vine from being
as productive
as it could have been.
And that's the image
Jesus is recalling
for his disciples now.
It's Christ's fruit
inside of his people
that brings glory to God.
And that's why Satan
wants to battle
so much
against the fruitfulness
of God's people.
Satan does not want
God to get glory.
Satan wants to injure
the glory of God
as if that were possible.
Satan does not want you
to bear the fruit
of Christ in your life
because that would
bring glory to God.
That's exactly
what Jesus says.
That's why
God the Father
is the vine dresser.
It brings him glory
to see you
bearing fruit,
even if that means
trimming away
and pruning you.
A pastor in the 1800s,
Westcott,
he said,
when God is the vine dresser,
everything is removed
from the branch
that diverts
the productive power
of the vine
to bear fruit.
By cutting away
what hinders our growth,
God makes us
more like his son,
more fruitful
to serve him
and to bring him
more glory.
See,
the triune God,
Father,
Son,
and Spirit
uses the pruning,
even uses the battle
that we're in
to bring God glory.
The fruit of the Spirit
is God's purpose
for your life.
That's the purpose
of your life,
your sanctification.
But it's the righteousness
of the Son
that is the source
of God's fruit
in your life.
It is the pruning
of the Father
that is the means
he uses
to increase
your fruitfulness.
And that's how
the Holy Spirit
carries out
the purpose of God
in bearing fruit,
the fruit of Christ's
righteousness
slowly,
gradually,
increasingly
in our lives
in a way that brings
zero glory to you
and all the glory
to God.
Number four,
Christ justifies you
by your union
to Christ,
not by the fruit
of your life.
See, we're only two
verses into chapter 15
and Jesus already
has to bring this
important correction
to where their minds
might be going.
They're just like you
and I,
our flesh wants to creep in,
but look at what Jesus
says in verse 3.
Already you are clean.
How?
How are you clean already?
Because of the word
that I have spoken
to you.
Now,
he's talking about
being clean.
That's a different metaphor
than bearing fruit.
These disciples
would have just
walked down
the upper room,
stepped onto
the dusty roads again,
walking into the darkness.
From their perspective,
their feet
would have been
very clean
until they just now
started following Jesus
one more time
to do battle
in the darkness.
You know why their feet
would have been clean,
right?
What did Jesus do
in the upper room?
He got down.
He washed the dirt
off of their feet
and took it onto
his own body
as a servant
and he dried them
and he wore their dirt
on himself.
That's why he can tell them,
you are already clean.
I cleaned you.
And as he's doing that,
he taught them.
What he taught Peter
was in chapter 13,
verse 8,
unless I wash you,
you have no share
with me.
What makes you clean
is if Jesus Christ himself
washed you clean,
then and only then
can you have
a share in him.
Jesus takes your dirt
and he puts it
on himself.
You are justified
by faith
upon one condition.
It's Christ's work,
not your own.
You are sanctified,
preserved,
and finally saved
into the age to come
by his washing you,
not by your own fruit.
Romans 8, 32 says that
he spared not his own son,
but delivered him up
for us all.
How then,
how shall he not
also freely give us
all things?
It's God himself
who gave his son
to bear your sin,
to make you clean.
Of course he will preserve you
to the very end.
How could he not?
And Jesus says,
you are already clean
by my word,
by my finished work.
He taught them
in John chapter 14,
verse 20.
You are in me
as I am in the Father.
And the Father
is in you.
You are with God.
You are united to God
through Christ.
That's the ministry
of the Spirit.
You are united
with me already.
My righteousness
covers you already.
You can have joy
in the battle.
And when the remaining
flesh of your own sin
deceives you
into feeling that
you are meriting
more of God's favor
for yourself,
remember this is
the same God
who delivered up
his own son freely.
He freely gives you
all things.
The promise of God's
rich grace
is only for you
who receive it freely.
Not by adding your good works
or your fruit to it.
You receive
his righteousness
freely.
You can pray
in the words of
Milton Vincent
the gospel poem
in saving God
you also have justified me
accounting me righteous
by your own decree
declaring me guiltless
of all of my sin
and bringing your wrath
against me
to an end.
This wrath
Christ appeased
in full brunt
on the tree
when in bearing
my sin
he endured it
for me.
Christ justifies you
by your union to him
not by the fruit
that he bears
in your life.
Number five
abide in Christ
because apart from him
you can do
nothing.
You can have joy
in this battle
if you abide in Christ.
You can have joy
in this battle
when you are
not relying on yourself
to bear the good fruit
because that will
result in frustration
there will be no joy.
But Jesus says
in verse four
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.
What does it mean
to abide
when Jesus uses
this word here
starting in verse four?
To abide means
to live in Christ.
It means to dwell
in Christ.
It means to conduct
your life
in accordance
with Christ.
If you don't
abide in Christ
you are choosing
to instead
abide in this world
under the domain
of the evil ruler.
you are choosing
instead the eternal fire
along with your true master
who is the devil.
That's what Jesus says
in verse six
if anyone does not
abide in me
he is thrown away
like a branch
and withers
and the branches
are gathered
thrown into the fire
and burned.
If you abide in Christ
he will bear
his fruit in you.
You're attached to him.
It's the sap of the vine
that finds life
and blossoms
and bears fruit
in the branches.
But if you're
not attached to Christ
that's how
that's how despairing
your life should be.
You have only death.
You are dried up.
You will wither away.
You have nothing good
coming from inside
of yourself.
But he says
in me
you will bear much fruit.
It's the fruit
of the Holy Spirit.
And abide
is such a perfect word
to describe
our union to Christ
and how it is
that the Spirit
bears fruit
because abiding
on one hand
is relaxed.
It's resting.
It's not laboring.
But it's also
not passive.
It's not rebellious.
You are abiding.
You are living.
You're resting
in Christ.
This is a hard thing
for us to understand
but I think it's
the key to sanctification.
If you're in this battle
against the remaining flesh
the sin in your body
because the fruit
of the Spirit
according to 2 Corinthians
it includes self-control.
How can it be
the fruit of the Spirit
but it's also self-control?
Who's doing the work here?
Well,
you could not have
self-control
if you're apart from Christ.
You can't.
Our curse from Adam
and the remaining flesh
it's so twisted
and broken.
But the Spirit
is that source
that allows you
to then practice
that fruit of the Spirit
of self-control.
Jerry Bridges
helped me with this.
He said,
think about sin.
It's not that final act.
It's not even,
really that's not
where the battle
is won or lost.
Take it way,
way back to the source.
What's really going on
in your soul,
in your heart,
in your mind.
Jerry Bridges wrote
that the mind
is like a mental garden
of unlawful thoughts.
And when a thought
pops into your mind
you haven't sinned,
that just shows you
you're in the middle
of a battle
in this world.
We always will be
fighting sin
until our last breath.
He says,
our sinful actions
are savored in
your mind
long before they are
tasted in reality.
Your thought life
is your first
line of defense
in the battle
for self-control.
When you have
these thoughts,
abide in Christ.
When your mind
and your remaining sin
wants to indulge
in the fallen curse
of the world,
the ruler of this world
no longer has
dominion over you.
Abide in Christ.
Think of His goodness.
Think of His loveliness.
Think of His righteousness.
Think of His perfect love
for His Father.
Think of His coming
judgment.
Think of the fire.
Think of those branches
thrown into the fire.
And then how Christ
Himself was put
into the fire
in your place.
Think about that
and pray for the fruit
of the Spirit
in your life.
Pray for God
to give you
the self-control
that you and I,
we don't have it.
We need it to give
a free gift
that God will put
in us instead.
And then we can pray
like Amy Carmichael again.
She said,
Rid me,
good Lord
of every diverting thing.
Cut it off.
Strip it away.
May I be in you instead.
Abide in Christ.
John Owen said,
Be killing sin,
lest sin be killing you.
Number six,
As you abide in Christ,
His word abides in you
and transforms you
for God's glory.
Verse seven says,
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 prove
to be
my disciples.
One pastor commented
on a very hard life
he lived
and he was a man
who also wrote
some of the most
beautiful hymns
we have
named Horatius Bonar,
Scottish pastor
in the 1800s.
Looking back
on his own life
he said,
The road to the kingdom
is not pleasant
or comfortable
as many dream.
The end is glory,
honor, and peace
but the way
includes battle,
thorns in the flesh,
sackcloth,
and a cross.
But this is the way
that bears much fruit.
See,
God is glorified
when you bear fruit
in keeping with repentance.
God is glorified
when the Father
prunes you
and you see
even more
the Spirit
working the righteousness
of Christ
into your life
through that.
God is glorified
when His preserving grace
proves to you
and to the world
that you are
a true disciple
of Christ.
And God is glorified
when you pass
through the fire
and Christ held you
all the way through it
and you come out
on the other side
even more refined
when the dross
has been burnt away.
Martin Luther
was a man
who suffered
much in his life.
He was exiled.
He had to live
in a different country.
He had to be in hiding
and disguised.
And he said,
where the battle rages,
there the loyalty
of a soldier
is proved.
The one who saved you
initially
will preserve you
to the end.
We have this promise
in Ephesians 2.7
that in the ages
to come
He might show
the exceeding riches
of His grace
in His kindness
toward us
through Jesus Christ.
You are saved
for God's glory alone.
God will sanctify you
for God's glory
alone in your life.
God will preserve you
for His glory alone.
Do not let your heart
be troubled
in this battle.
Instead, rejoice.
You are being saved.
You are being prepared
for heaven.
You are being pruned
and refined
for God's glory.
You can have joy
in this battle.
Number seven,
as you abide in Christ,
He works His loving
obedience into you.
He's telling His disciples
this as a promise.
As you abide in Me,
you will bear much fruit.
But what is this fruit
that He's talking about?
I believe these verses
9 and 10,
they show us
He's talking about
divine love.
This fruit that He's talking about,
like the sap
going through a vineyard
through the tree,
it's the sap
that is sourced
by God Himself,
Father, Son, and Spirit,
running through the vine.
It's the love of God,
an otherworldly,
heavenly love.
And that love
pushes itself out
through the branches,
and it transforms
those branches.
the ones that were
withering on their own.
His love pushes through,
and it makes them green,
and it makes them flower,
and it makes the fruit
start to grow
and mature.
It's the only way
that we can not bear
sour grapes.
Israel tried it.
They tried it
with the external law.
If that's all you have,
you will drive yourself mad.
But if it's the love of God
working itself
into your life,
you know,
like the vine and the branches,
it's that simple.
You simply will bear
the fruit of His love
in your life.
Notice the logic here
in verses 9 and 10.
He says,
the Father loved the Son.
How did the Father
show His love to His Son?
Well, He gave Him
a good moral law.
That's the very next thing
He says.
The moral law
on the Son
was a good thing.
It was the loving rule
of His Father
that was the guide
for Christ
in His life
on this earth.
Christ could have joy,
perfect joy,
a fullness of joy,
while keeping
the moral law
of His Father.
And then Jesus says
in verse 9,
in that same way,
does the Son
love the disciples?
And He calls
the law
that the Father
gave Him,
He now calls it
His law
for His disciples.
You see how simple
but how powerful this is?
That's how Christ
loves you.
His moral law,
the same law
He already fulfilled.
He shows you
the Father's love
by saying,
these are my commandments.
I'm the king
over my kingdom.
You obey me now.
You don't obey
to earn your favor
of God
or to escape the rash
by your own merits.
You obey my moral law
because you love me.
It's my good law.
I'm a good shepherd
and it's for you
who belong to me
as my sheep.
In verse 10,
He uses a phrase here.
He says,
just as I have kept the law.
When Jesus refers
to Himself
fulfilling this covenant
of works,
putting Himself
under the law
of God perfectly,
He says in the past tense,
I have kept it perfectly.
And now for us,
the verb is different.
It's a continual,
active,
abiding type
of keeping.
None of us
would be able to get
to the end of our lives
and say what Christ says,
that I have kept
God's law perfectly.
But we can say,
I learned throughout this life
to abide in Christ
and to let His good law
teach me
what it means
to be keeping,
actively keeping,
actively repenting,
actively relying on Him
because He is the one
who kept it perfectly.
number eight.
In the midst of this battle,
our Lord Jesus Christ
gives you joy
through His word.
The people of Israel
did not want
to keep God's law.
They had no joy,
no delight
in trying to please
their Lord
and walking with Him.
Jesus says,
that's what will change.
If you belong to me,
you're grafted into me.
It'll be my love
and my joy in you.
It'll change your desires.
Look at what He says
in verse 11.
These things I have spoken to you.
Everything He's taught
up to this point.
Why?
So that my joy
may be in you
and your joy
may be full.
God wants you
to be full
of the joy.
And what joy is it?
It's the joy of the Son.
That's what He wants you
to be full of.
You can have joy
in this battle
if it's the joy
of the Son
put into you.
It's the love
that exists
between Father and Son
bound by the Spirit.
It's applied to you.
That can be your own joy
in the battle.
Amy Carmichael,
for the last time here,
she said,
thank God
for the battle verses
in the Bible.
We go into the unknown
every day of our lives
to be a battlefield
outwardly.
And it's also
the unseen part
of my life,
my spirit.
It's often where
the sternest battlefield
is happening.
But the Lord,
your God,
goes before you
and He shall fight
for you.
Satan is coming.
Abide in me.
You can have joy
even under extreme pressure
and attacks
by the enemy.
My Father
is pruning you.
I know for a fact
some of you right now
are going through
a season of painful
pruning.
Abide in Christ.
Abide in me,
He says,
and I will put
my joy inside of you.
You don't have it
on your own.
Abide in His joy.
He says,
apart from me,
you can do nothing.
You look at your life
and you want to bear
more of His fruit.
You desire that.
Abide in Christ.
He will bear that fruit
for His Father's glory.
We have a great verse
in Hebrews 12
that tells us
what was the joy
of the Son
because He says,
it will be my joy
in you.
What was the joy
of the Son?
Hebrews 12, 2.
It was for the joy
that was set before Him
that Jesus Christ
endured the cross,
despising the shame.
And Jesus Christ
is seated at the right hand
of the throne of God
for the joy set before Him
to make you His own.
That is the joy of Christ
that He wants to put in you.
It's the joy
that you get to belong to Him.
That's the joy
that should fill our hearts.
How can the promise
for my soul
help me in the battle
against my flesh?
It's the joy
of being united to Christ.
That was His joy
to endure the cross
so that you could be His,
so that you could belong to Him.
So how do you abide in Christ?
That same verse,
Hebrews 12, 2,
tells us to look upon Him,
the founder and perfecter
of your faith.
As you abide in our Lord Jesus Christ,
He puts His joy in you
even in the deepest trenches
of spiritual battle
and He is the one
who makes your joy full.
You be full with the joy
of the Lord.
Let's pray.
Father, we praise You
for the loving righteousness
of Christ.
We praise You
that He is the source
of our love and our joy.
And we ask, Lord,
as empty vessels
to fill us
with that good wine.
Fill us with Christ's
love and joy.
May we drink deeply of Him
and be full of Your love.
For Your glory we ask.
For Christ's sake.
Amen.