Let's turn to John 14. And let's go to the Lord before we
begin. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for bringing us here. Lord, we ask You to settle our
hearts and clear our minds and help us to focus on Your Word
now. Teach us in our heart. Keep us
looking, beholding Christ. Make this Word life to us. Make
us see Him and behold Him. And make us truly obey everything
that You're teaching us here. Lord, we thank You in Christ's
name. Amen. Now, our Lord in this passage,
He's promising. You know, the disciples are very
troubled, they're just full of unbelief, and He's promising
them that as they obey Him, He will send the Holy Spirit and
assure them and comfort them and keep them knowing they are
in the love of God and that they're His and He'll keep them assured
of this. And that's what He's teaching
us. And I want to read this to you now, and let's see this.
He says, verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments, and
I will pray the Father Notice how it starts with a conjunction.
He says, If you love me, keep my commandments, and I will pray
the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He
may abide with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the
world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth
Him, but you know Him, for He dwelleth with you. Right then,
He dwelled with them then, and He says, and He shall be in you.
I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you, yet a little
while, and the world seeth me no more. But you see me, because
I live, ye shall live also. At that day you shall know that
I am in the Father, and my Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. And he that loveth
me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will
manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him, not Iscariot,
he said, Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself unto
us, and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, if a man loved me, He will keep my words, and my Father
will love Him, and we will come unto Him and make our bow with
Him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my words, my sayings, and the word which you hear is not
mine, but the Father which sent me. We're not going to look at
this verse by verse. We're going to focus on this
promise the Lord's making and we'll see this repeated in the
next several passages over and over because the Lord keeps saying
this very similar and just a little different shade throughout the
next several passages. But this is what He's promising.
He's promising His apostles and each of His saints and you and
me sitting here today who are His. He's promising that as we
obey Christ's commandments, He, by the Holy Spirit, will keep
us comforted and keep us assured in our hearts that we are His
and loved of Him. That's what he promised. Read
it again. Verse 15, If you love me, keep my commandments. And
I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another comforter,
that he may abide with you forever. Even the Spirit of truth, whom
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth
him, but you know him, for he dwelleth with you, and shall
be in you. Verse 18, he says, I will not
leave you comfortless. I will come to you. He says there
at the end of verse 19, because I live, you shall live also.
And at that day, you see, he's sending the Spirit, but he's
saying through obedience and trust in the Lord, he's saying,
in that day, you shall know, I'm going to make you assured
of this, you shall know that I'm in the Father and you in
me and I in you. He says in verse 21, He that
hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me,
and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father. And I will
love him and will manifest myself to him. Verse 23, Jesus answered
and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and
my Father will love him, and we will come unto him and make
our abode with him. I want you to look over at 1
John chapter 3. John was there, John's writing
the gospel here, but John's first epistle is dealing with this
over and over. And in 1 John 3, here's how John summed up
what our Lord is teaching. Our Lord said, He's talking about
if a man hates his brother, he's a murderer, and He says, verse
16, 1 John 3, 16, Hereby perceive we the love of God, because He
laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives
for the brethren. But whoso hath this world's good, and seeth
his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from
him, how dwelleth the love of God in him? My little children,
let us not love in word, neither in tongue, but in deed and truth. Now watch this. And hereby we
know that we are of the truth, and shall assure our hearts before
him. You see that will assure our
heart. I'll tell you what this is saying here. He says, For
if our heart condemn us, God's greater than our heart knoweth
all things. Beloved, if our heart condemn
us not, then have we confidence toward God. This is what the
Lord's promising his apostles and us through the Spirit. Watch,
and this is his commandment, that we should believe on the
name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as he gave
us commandment. And he that keepeth his commandments
dwelleth in him, and he in him. And hereby we know that he abideth
in us by the Spirit which he hath given us." Now, there's
a common mistake that's taught with this. Our Lord is not teaching
you to look to your obedience to try to find assurance. You
do that and you will not have assurance. You will not. He's
teaching us as we obey the commandments of the Lord, the Spirit of God
will assure you in your heart. that you're in Him, and He's
in you, and you're His. I can show you this. You remember
whenever the Lord told Abraham to offer up his son Isaac, his
only son who He loved. And by God's grace, by the Spirit
of God, Abraham did it. And he really did it. In his
heart, He slew his son, Isaac. He obeyed the Lord. He slew his
only son, Isaac, that day in his heart. But just before he
actually killed Isaac, the Lord appeared and He said, Lay not
thy hand on the lad, neither do thou anything unto him. For
now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld
thy son, thine only son, from me. Did God not know Abraham
feared Him? He put the fear in his heart.
He created the new heart he had. Of course God knew he feared
him. God was manifesting to Abraham in Abraham's heart, I know you
fear me Abraham. And he was making Abraham know,
you really believe me Abraham. That's what Christ is saying
to us. That's what John is repeating Christ said in his epistle. If
you love the Lord, if you obey the Lord, the Lord will make
you know in your heart that you're His. And He will assure you in
your heart. and give you confidence in your
heart that you're His. That's why it's, happy are you
if you obey Him, because He makes you know. If you walk in a light,
you have fellowship, one with another, with Christ, and His
blood cleanses you from all sin, and you know you have Him. And listen to this now, and the
assurance and the comfort He gives you, He is making you see
Christ more and making you see how complete you are in Christ
and how fully He is all your salvation and all your righteousness. Whenever, after God did that,
after the Lord did that with Abraham, He showed him a ram
caught in a thicket to take the place of Isaac. And this is the
picture. Whenever the Lord, when you've
obeyed the voice of the Lord and He makes you know by His
Spirit you're His. He does it by showing you more
of Christ, that substitute who took the place of His people
and put away our sin forever. And when you see Him and He makes
you, the assurance and the confidence is not in what we've done. It's
what He has done and what He promises He shall do. After that,
the Lord appeared to him a second time and He said, By Myself I've
sworn, Abraham, because you have done this thing. What did he
do? He obeyed the Lord. Because you've done this thing,
and it's not withheld thy son, thy only son, in blessing I will
bless you. And in multiplying I will multiply
thy seed as the stars of the heaven. And thy seed shall possess
the gate of his enemies, and thy seed shall all the nations
of the earth be blessed, because thou hast obeyed my voice. Thou hast obeyed my voice." He
gave him assurance of what he had done for him, he gave him
assurance of what he would do for him, and all that assurance
was in the promised seed, Christ Jesus the Lord. And this is what
our Lord is teaching us. If you love me, keep my commandments,
and I will send the Comforter, and He will assure you that the
Father is in me, and you're in Christ, and Christ is in you.
And He will keep you confident that He's all your salvation.
He's all your salvation. And John said, and the opposite
of that is, is if we don't obey Him, He's going to see to it
our heart condemns us and convicts us. But we'll see that too. Now,
let's go back here to John 14 and let's look at, let's just
start here at the top. Our Lord says, if you love me,
keep my commandments. This itself is the Lord's command
to each and every one that's born of Him. Now, no sinner loves
the Lord by nature. We hate Him by nature. You do,
I did, we all hated Him by nature. That's the heart, the sin nature
that's in us. We only love and obey the Lord
when we're born again of God. John said, love is of God. We're
not talking about here about love between a man and a woman
and friends and neighbors. We're talking about the love
God puts in the heart. Real love. Love that never, never
ends because the Spirit of God dwells with you forever. Loves
of God and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. You are born of God, you know
God, you know Him. The difference between law, between
legalism and true obedience to the Lord, the difference between
the two is Love for Christ in heart. That's the difference.
It's the motive. God sees not as man sees. He
does not look on merely the outward appearance. God's looking on
the heart. And the motive, why you do what
you do, is what God's looking on. Is it out of love? God seeth not as man seeth. Now, when we love Christ by His
grace, we want to obey Him. You want to obey the Lord. You
want to obey Him. It's the desire of your heart
to please Him. You willingly want to obey Him. It's not a
chore to you to want to obey Him. You want to. And it makes
His commandments to be not grievous to you at all. It's joy. You want to obey the Lord. And
you don't want to displease Him whatsoever. You don't want to
disobey Him. That's what he puts there. When
you love somebody, you want to please them. It's just that simple.
And you're willing to obey them. And so when we're born of God,
this command of our Lord is personal. Now get this, it's personal. It's from the Lord to each one
born of His Spirit. He said, if you love me, keep
my commandments. Peter had said that he loved
the Lord. And he had said he loved the
Lord more than all the other apostles in another place, that's what
he said. And the Lord said, Peter, you're going to deny me three
times. And he said, no, I won't. I mean, he flat out said, that
saying to Christ's face, Lord, I don't believe that. What is
that? Lord, I don't believe that. And
the Lord said, yes, you will, Peter. And so then after he did
it, The Lord came to him to restore him, and he said, Simon, son
of Jonas, you know the five points of Calvinism. That's not what
he said. Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou
me? You love me? And three times
he asked him that. Do you love me? And he saw John walking up behind
him. And he said, Lord, and what shall
this man do? And Jesus said to him, if I will,
if I will, that he tarry till I come, if I let him live till
I return a second time, what is that to thee? Follow thou
me. Follow thou me. He said, if you
love me. We can't love for each other.
He's saying, if you loved me. The Spirit of God said through
Paul, let every man prove his own work, so shall he have rejoicing
in himself. That is within his own heart.
That's what our Christ is promising here. You'll have rejoicing,
you'll have confidence in your own heart, and not in another.
Not what you constrain males to do, or somebody constrains
you to do, or whatever. And it is a certainty that all
who are born of God love the Lord and keep His commandments.
This is a certainty. He said there in verse 21, ìHe
that hath My commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth
Me.î He said in verse 23, ìIf a man love Me, he will keep My
words. He that loveth Me not keepeth
not My sayings. The word which you hear is not
Mine, it is the Fatherís which sent Me.î What are our Lord's
commandments? What are our Lord's commandments
to His believing children? Listen carefully. Everything
He says in this book. Everything. Is there anything
in this book you take out? Anything in this Word that you
would remove and say, well, I just don't like that. God's people
There's nothing in this book that's for the harm of His people.
It's all for our good. Every bit of it. And everything
our Lord commanded us when He walked this earth is for the
good of His people. Everything. Everything. John summed it all up, and this
is it. He said this is His commandment,
that we believe on the name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love
one another as He gave His commandment. That's the sum of everything
our Lord taught when He walked this earth. The Lord had just
commanded them to not let their heart be troubled. That's a command.
Don't let your heart be troubled. Believe Me, He said. Look back
up there at verse, John 14, 1. Let not your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in Me. He said, If you love Me,
keep this commandment. Don't be troubled. Believe Me.
In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so,
I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you unto myself that where I am, there you may be also." Again,
we saw last time, he said, believe me or else believe me for the
work's sake. Faith in Christ and love for
Christ are united. They're inseparable. They're
the fruit of the Spirit and true obedience to our Lord is going
to be by believing Him. And without believing Him, there
is no true obedience. Now men can do a lot of things
outwardly that looks like obedience, but if it's not from the motive
of love in the heart and it's not with Christ being the object
of our faith and trust in Him, it is not obedience. I don't
care how Perfect it looks outwardly. It's not. It's only through faith
in Christ as our substitute, knowing He's the only righteousness
that we have, that He is all our wisdom and all our sanctification,
all our redemption, our eternal life, our salvation. It's knowing
He is everything to us. That's what faith believes. He
is all. Everything's in His hand. I trust
Him that He purged my sin, that He fulfilled the law on my behalf.
He's all in all. I trust Him. That's what faith
believes. And so everything faith is doing
in love to Him is with Him as the object for Him. For Him. You know, the Scripture says we fulfill
the law. Paul said we establish the law
through faith. And everybody wants to stop there
and bring the law back in and say, see, you're still under
the law at Sinai. And you read on the next chapter and Paul
said, just like Abraham did by believing on Christ. Christ was
his surety. And so Christ was his righteousness,
and so by God giving him faith, he believed the Lord, and the
Lord imputed the righteousness of Christ to him. That was all
his righteousness. And that was long, long, long
before the law was given at Sinai. Christ is all our righteousness.
If I'm going to the law, nothing wrong with the law. The law is
holy, just, and good, but we don't really even learn the spirit
of the law except by Christ and by the Spirit working in our
heart. He's left us the example to follow. You know, read the
Sermon on the Mount. He's telling us, brethren, that
He's the fulfillment of the law. That's what He came to do. And
He's teaching us the spirit of the law. It's not just not being angry outwardly is if you have
anger in your heart, we've committed murder. I mean, it's not just
killing outwardly. If you had anger in your heart without a
cause, it's murder. To look upon a woman with lust
in the heart is adultery. And he's telling us this thing
is But He fulfilled it for His people,
and He is the righteousness of His people. But if we go back,
or any of these commands that our Lord gives, if we are trying
to obey Him with a mercenary spirit, that is, trying to find
acceptance with God, and justify ourselves, and trying to get
rewards from God, and indebt God to us, that's not love and
that's not faith. That's works. That's works. Love is created of the Spirit
in the heart when we behold this, not that we loved God, but that
He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our
sin. That's when love enters in. When
you see, it wasn't because of anything in us. It was because
of God's love toward us, His people. You remember the rich
young ruler. Our Lord said, if you love me,
keep my commandments. The rich young ruler came to
our Lord. He came to Christ and he said, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? The Lord told him, keep the commandments. And he said, well, I've kept
them from my youth up. And I don't doubt that he had. If that wasn't the Apostle Paul,
he was just like the Apostle Paul. Paul said his touching
the law, blameless. You wouldn't have found anything
to accuse him of. And our Lord said, when he heard that, he
said, you lack one thing. He said, sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor
and you'll have treasure in heaven and come follow me. That was the Lord's command.
And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful because he was
very rich. Now let me ask you this. I know
the answer to this. You that know Christ, you that
have the love of God in your heart, if Christ was standing
right here today, and you know Him, and you have His love in
your heart, you know Him. You believe He's all your salvation.
He's the unsearchable riches God's given to you. You know
Him. And He said to you, sell everything you have, give it
to the poor, and follow Me. You'll have treasure in Heaven.
Don't worry about it. I'm going to provide for you. Come on,
follow Me. You wouldn't have a problem selling everything
you've got and following Him. Why? What's the difference between
you that love Him and the rich young ruler? You love Him. He
put love in your heart. That's the difference. The rich
young ruler didn't have that. He loved his riches. He was covetous. Yes, he was covetous. That wasn't
his main problem. His main problem was he didn't
love the Lord. He didn't love the Lord. The love of Christ creates in
the new heart a willingness to confess Him
because He commands us to, not only to part with everything,
not only to not love this world. He says, don't love it. He says,
He makes you stop trusting that your riches is your salvation. He gave it. He can take it away.
He's your life. And so he makes you generous. He makes his people generous
givers. He makes you willing to part
with everything you have, because that's not my life. The filthiest
thing on the planet is money, and men just love it. And it's
the filthiest thing there is. You ought to try to go broke
serving the Lord. Try to go broke serving Him.
Try to give everything you've got away serving the Lord for
the good of His people. If you can do that in faith and
love, do it. And you won't go broke. You just
won't. He'll provide for you. But you
won't, here's the thing, you'll have everything you need because
you've got Christ and by His Spirit you'll know you have Him. And what you gave away is not,
that wouldn't make you happy anyway. He is. He is. But here's something else He
tells us. Confess Him before men. And that means even when
it means you're going to be persecuted by people you dearly love. Look
over at Matthew 10.32. This is his commandment. Why
is it that people will claim they believe the gospel of Christ,
but then they will not say that Arminianism, free will religion
is false? Why won't they do that? Because
Mama believes that. And really and truthfully, they
believe it. That's what the Lord is saying.
Listen to this. Matthew 10.32. Whosoever therefore shall confess
Me before Me and Him will I confess also before My Father which is
in heaven. This is His commandment. Confess
Him in believers baptism. Follow Him. Join with His people.
But whosoever shall deny Me before Me and Him will I also deny before
My Father which is in heaven. Think not that I came to send
peace on the earth. I came not to send peace but
a sword. I came to set a man at variance against his father,
and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law
against her mother-in-law, and a man's foes shall be they of
his own household. But he that loveth father and
mother more than me is not worthy of me." If we don't love Christ enough
to confess Christ, even if it means being persecuted, we don't
really love Him. He that loveth father and mother
more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or
daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh
not his cross, that's the suffering you're going to bear from the
world and loved ones. He that taketh not his cross
and father me, he's not worthy of me. That's the Lord's commandment.
That's His commandment. Here's another commandment. The
Lord hath just commanded them not on... That's all under the
heading of believing on Him. Believe on Him, part with this
world and love Him, and follow Him, and confess Him, unite with
His people, no matter what it costs you, no matter what you
have to suffer, and continue with His people. And if you love
Him, you will. And here's the second thing.
He just commanded them to love one another. Now look back up
there in verse John 13, 34. He said, a new commandment I
give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. First John 5.1, he said, whosoever
believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and everyone
that loveth him that begat loveth him also that's forgotten of
him. Brothers, sisters, Mothers, father, well, all in the family.
The Lord commanded them to love one another. What's that involve? It's going to involve washing
one another's feet. He just told them this back there
in John 13, 13. He said, you call me master and
Lord, you say, well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and master,
have washed your feet, if God came down here and laid down
his life unto the bloody death of the cross and went into the
grave. That's what was pictured of him bowing down to their stinking
dirty feet and washing them. They said, you also ought to
wash one another's feet. For I've given you an example
that you should do as I've done to you. Now if we love Christ
and we're going to obey Him, our Lord tells us, do not sin.
He says, do not sin. This is how This is how He put
it. If your right eye offends you,
pluck it out. If your right hand offends you, cut it off. Cut
it off. That means sin is that much of
an enemy. It's that drastic to strive to
not sin. Love constrains us to strive
against sin. That's so of all God's people.
That's so of your brother who you see has sinned. That's so
of him. Don't forget that. That's his
heart. I'll tell you how you'll know that. Do you see your own
sin? Are you liking that or are you
hating that? Are you wanting God to save you
from that? Are you wanting God to put that away from you? Have
you ever fell down at Christ's feet and pleaded with Christ,
Lord, would you please give me the spirit to overcome this?
I don't want to sin against you. I want to be faithful to you.
If you have, then you know your brother, when he sins, that's
his heart too. That's his heart too. Now, none of God's saints are
going to keep Christ's commandments as we would. Paul said that plainly. The things I would, I don't do.
And if you're happy, if you're happy with how you obey the Lord,
that's a dangerous place to be. Paul said, I don't. He said,
I'm the least of all the saints. He said, I am the chief of sinners. That's not just talk, brethren.
For God's people, that's a fact. You know that. You know it. You
hate it. It's not excusing you. You hate
it, but you know it so. We do sin, but the Lord will
not take the Spirit from His child. He said there, the Spirit
will be with you. He will be in you and He will
be with you. He chose His people by grace. He laid down His life
and justified His people. He sent the Spirit to His people.
He's not taking the Spirit from His child. When Peter denied
Him and they all left with Peter, He didn't take the Spirit from
them. He prayed for him that his faith fell not. I know people
don't think the apostles were born of the Spirit. Yes, they
were. He said, He dwells with you, you know Him, and He shall
be with you. He just poured the Spirit out
in more abundant manifestation on the day of Pentecost. But
He said you must be born again of the Spirit of God. Everybody
that's ever been saved has been born of the Spirit. But He's
not taking that Spirit from His people. But the Spirit will make
us know in our heart we've sinned against God. He sure will. He said, if our heart condemns
us, God's greater than our heart. He knows all things. Men will
take that and say, well, if your heart condemns you, that's not
the half of it. God knows more than that and
scares the fire out of people. Christ knew Peter was going to
deny Him. He told Him. He knew it. He knew it. And when
Peter did it, the Lord looked at him and Peter's heart condemned
him. That's why his heart condemned him. The Lord looked at him.
And when you disobey Him, the Spirit is going to make you know
it in your heart. It's going to make you know it
in your heart. And because the Lord promised,
who I love I chasten. He doesn't love everybody. He
said, who I love I chasten. And He will. He may let you go
a while. He may let you get good and tangled
up to show you what you are. But He will chasten His child
and bring you out of it. And when you see your brother
suffer and going through something, don't get on your soapbox and
start condemning him. Christ said don't do that. So
if we love Him, we'll obey Him. He said don't do that. Be thankful. Because what's happening is,
who I love, I chasten. And He's going to correct it.
He will correct it. And you won't mortify your flesh
and put away any sin until the Lord works that in you. It just
won't happen. It just won't happen. And opposite to the joy that
we have from obedience, when He chastens us and our heart
condemns us, it's not joyful. There is no joy to it at all. It's not supposed to be. You
know, when a child is obeying their parents and they're in
the love of their father, Everything's happy and joyful because they
know they're doing what's well-pleasing in His sight, and if they love
their Father, that's what they want to do. But when you displease
your Father, you don't stop being in the love of your Father, but
you know when your Father's displeased, and that hurts. That's what the
chastening really is. It's knowing I've offended the
Lord who loved me and laid down His life for me. I've taken to
myself the sin that Christ bore in His body on the tree to save
me from me. And that's what hurts you. They'll
look upon me whom they've pierced and mourn for me as one mourns
for his own son, the Lord said. And that's what hurts you in
your heart. But when Peter denied the Lord and the Lord looked
at him and his heart smote him, what happened after that? The
Lord still went to him, didn't He? And three times, Peter, do
you love Me? And what did Peter say? Lord,
You know. You know. If your heart condemns
you, God's greater than your heart. He knows. He knows all
things. The Lord knew everything. He
knew what was needful for Peter, and He knew how to restore Peter,
and He knows the same about you and me. And Peter was brought
to the place. He said, Now Peter, you've been
disposed. You're going to love me more
than all these. Do you now? Do you? Do you love me more than
these other apostles do? And Peter just said, Lord, you
know. You know I love you. When we sin, He commands us to
come to Him and confess our sins to Him, so we go to Him and we
confess our sins to Him as He commanded. When He works this
in your heart, you go to Him and pour your heart, Lord, against
Thee and Thee only have I sinned. This has just been evil that
I've done in Your sight. Create in me a clean heart. Wash
me. Restore the joy of Your salvation
to me. And so, that's what Christ does
as the advocate. He cleanses us, He makes intercession
for us and He cleanses you and He restores that joy in your
heart so that once again you believe Him, believe Him like
you did and even better than you did before. And you have
a new heart, you love Him more and you want to please Him more. It's just all brand new. But
as He's doing all that, as He's working all that, what are we
to do? If you're not the one at the
moment that's fallen, you're to wash one another's feet. That's
what he said. That means we're to speak the
gospel of Christ to a stumbling brother. That means we're to
bear one another's burdens. That means we're to be merciful
and restore them. Just think about this. Look at what Christ
was doing that night with his apostles. Look what they were
doing and look what he was doing. They were denying Him. They were
doubting Him. They were questioning Him. They
were flat out not believing Him. And what was He doing? He not
only literally washed their feet, that's what He was doing in everything
He was speaking to them. They're sitting there not believing
a word he's saying, questioning him about how do we know and
how are we going to receive the Spirit and the world's not going
to receive the Spirit. And he just kept telling them the truth
and kept encouraging them and kept comforting them in their
heart and teaching them. That's what's going to save His
people is the gospel of Christ. That's what's going to restore.
That's what's going to correct. If you were saved by somebody
threatening you and coercing you to believe Christ, you hadn't
been saved. But if you saw Christ and you saw yourself hanging
on that tree and saw that's what you deserve because you are the
sinner and He made you fall on your face before Him and say,
if He does not save me, I'm not saved. That's the love He puts
in the heart. That's the faith He puts in the
heart, seeing Him and bearing what you deserve. And so just
like He loved us and washed us when we didn't love Him, when
we hated Him, That's how we're to wash one another's feet and
love one another. It's easy to love somebody that
loves you. It's easy to love somebody that's being kind and
benevolent and sweet to you. It's hard to love somebody that's
being mean and hard on you. Love's not a feeling. Love's
not this wishy-washy mess of, you know, I just don't feel like
I once did. Love is loving whether you feel
it or not. Love is loving them and staying
with your brethren and pointing them to Christ, whether they're
treating you like you're the best thing since sliced bread
or they're treating you like you're a puddle of mud. hearing His love, not that we
love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son, the propitiation
for our sin. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. Just look at how He loved them
that night. He said, Because I live, you shall live also. Believe me, that's what He's
telling them. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is
not greater than his Lord, neither he that sent greater than he
that sent him. If you know these things, Happy are you if you
do them? That's what he said. This whole
world is trying. I just want to be happy. I just want to be
happy. You know, that's the end all be all. I just want to be
happy. If you want to be happy, believe Christ and obey Him. Because the happiness is not
from just the act of obeying Him and believing Him, although
that's pleasant. The happiness is the Spirit will
bear witness in your heart. You are His. And you know that
because you know you wouldn't be believing Him and loving your
brethren but for His Spirit. And He keeps you knowing. It
keeps you seeing Christ more and more and more. And if you
don't, if you disobey Him, you have His assurance. Christ said,
the Spirit shall dwell with you. He will correct you. And He will
keep you looking to Him. That's just so. All right, brethren. Father, thank You for this Word.
We ask You to bless it to our hearts. Make us look to Christ
that we might see and we might obey You. Make us do this personally
ourselves. We trust You, Lord. Trust You
to make each of Your people stand and ask You to work this in our
hearts. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.