If you would, open your Bibles
again to John 15. I have an inexhaustible subject,
the love of God. I've entitled the message, The
Love of God's Family. It is such a comforting truth
to know Christ loves His people. He says several times in this
passage, 10 verses we'll look at this morning. I love you. I love my people. He said in
verse 9, as I have loved, or so have I loved you. In verse
12, he says, as I have loved you. I love my people. In verse
13, he tells us his love for his people is a great love. In verse 14, he tells his people
are his friends. He loves his friends. love and
his friendship for his people by laying down his life for them.
There's no doubt Christ loves his people. And that comforts
our heart. And what I want us to look at
this morning is the love that's seen in the family of God. Love
in God's family, just like love in your families, begins at the
top down. Now what I want us to look at
this morning is the love of the Father, Love of the Son and love
of the redeemed. Now, like I say, love begins
at the top and goes down. In verse 9, our Lord says, As
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. It goes from
the top down. In verse 12, He said, This is
my commandment. You love one another as I have
loved you. You see, it just goes from the
top down. So it starts at the top. Look at the love of the
Father for the Son. Now, all of the Father's love
is directed at, is felt for, his son. Verse 9, As the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you. Now, you continue in my
love. Our Savior says, I loved you
as the Father loves me. Well, how does the Father love
the Son? Completely, doesn't he? Completely and perfectly,
the Father loves the Son. The father's love the son eternally.
Our Lord says, I abide in my father's love. He abides in his
love because he's been eternally in his love. There's just always
been. And there's no doubt the father
loves the son. The father spoke audibly from
heaven. And he didn't just say, this
is my son. This is my beloved son. My beloved son. The son of my love. and whom
I'm well pleased." You hear him. He didn't say that about anybody
else but the Son. There's no doubt the Father loves
the Son. And we love people who are like
us, don't we? That's why we typically tend
to love our families more, because they're like us. But you know
when the Father loves the Son, He loves Himself. Because the
Father and the Son So when the father loves his son, he loves
himself because the son is the only one like the father. They're
one. And when he loves the son, he
loves himself. And Christ is the only one worthy
of the father's love. The Lord Jesus Christ was perfectly
obedient to his father's law. He was perfectly obedient to
his father's will, even unto death. So Christ is worthy to
be loved. Look at verse 10. 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. Our Lord
Jesus was obedient in all things, and his righteousness, his obedience,
it draws the love of the Holy Father to him. His righteousness
and his obedience And the father loves the son so much, he delights
in his son. He has joy in his son. Every
parent here understands this. We delight in our children when
they're obedient, especially when they don't know we're looking
and they're obedient. Oh, we just have such delight
and joy in that. Look in verse 11. The father
had so much delight in his son. The son is the joy of the father.
Verse 11. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full." Look back at Proverbs chapter 8. Here's a good commentary
on this joy. Our Lord says, my joy. Part of
Christ's joy was knowing this, that he was the delight of his
Father, that he pleased his Father and he was the delight of his
Father. In Proverbs 8, verse 22, this is our Lord speaking. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up
from everlasting, from the beginning, wherever the earth was. When
there was no depths, I was brought forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was I brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, or the fields, or the highest part of the dust
When he prepared the heavens, I was there. When he set a compass
upon the face of the dead, when he established the clouds above,
when he strengthened the fountains of the deep, when he gave to
the sea his decree that the water should not pass his commandment,
when he appointed the foundations of the earth, then I was by him
as one brought up with him, and I was daily his delight, rejoicing
always before Him. I was daily His delight. That
word delight is pleasure. I was daily His pleasure. Rejoicing
before Him. That word rejoicing means such
joy that it makes you laugh. He's the delight of His Father.
Now you might say, well now this is speaking of before creation.
Well that's true. That's speaking of before creation.
But Christ never changes. He's eternal. God never changes.
He's always been the joy of His Father. The father loved his
son the same in eternity as he did when he walked this earth
as a man, and the same as he does now. His love is eternal
and perfect for his son. Then look back in our text, John
15, verse 13. The father loved the son because
the son glorified the father. There's a good reason for the
father to love the son. Verse 13, greater love hath no
man than this. that a man lay down his life
for his friends. When Christ laid down his life for his friends,
he laid down his life for his elect. You know, he glorified
the Father. He glorified the Father's will.
When Christ died, he glorified every attribute of the Father.
Glorified in that glory that had been seen in a way that had
never been seen before. He glorified his Father. Over
in John 17, he speaks about this glory. In John 17 verse 1, these words fake Jesus and lifted
up his eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come. Glorify
thy son that thy son also may glorify thee. And that's exactly
what he did. In verse 4 he said, I have glorified
thee on the earth. I finished the work which thou
gavest me to do. And the father loves the son
because he glorified the father. That's the love of the Father
for the Son. Secondly, there's the love of Christ for his people.
Remember, love in the family of God, it flows from the top
down. As the Father loves Christ, that's
how the same love, the same kind of love, the same way Christ
loves his people. Verse 9, As the Father hath loved
me, so have I loved you. Christ loves his people with
the exact same love that the Father has for the Son. Well,
how did the Father love Christ? Well, we just looked at it. The
Father loves the Son completely. Perfectly. That's how Christ
loves his people. Completely. The love of Christ
for his people can't get any greater. It's complete. Look in Ephesians chapter 3.
His love is so full, so complete, you can't even measure it. Ephesians 3 verse 17. This is Paul's prayer. That Christ
may dwell in your hearts by faith. That ye, being rooted and grounded
in love, may be able to comprehend with all saints what is the breadth
and the length and the depth and the height, and to know the
love of Christ which passes knowledge. that ye may be filled with all
the fullness of God." Now you can get a hold of that. I pray
I can get a hold of that. This is the love. If you believe
Christ, this is the love that Christ loves you. A love that
passes knowledge. Mm-mm-mm. What love? Does that
love mean something? Yes, it does. I'll show you that.
And I'll show you what this love means in just a moment. I want
to get ahead of myself. How did the Father love the Son?
Completely. How does the Father love the
Son? Eternally. And that's the same way the Son
loves His people. Eternally. I've loved Thee with
an everlasting love. There's never been a time, Christ
said, I didn't love my people. That's why of loving kindness
have I drawn you. Because I loved you eternally.
Well, how does the father love the son? Father and the son are
one. When the father loves the son,
he loves himself, because they're one. That's the way the son loves
his people, because they're one. And when the son loves his people,
when Christ loves his people, he loves himself. Look in Ephesians
chapter 5, see if I can't make good on that. Jane and I were
driving down the road, And I was thinking about my message and
thinking about this point and I asked her, does this make sense?
See if I can't make good on this. Christ loves his people. He loves
himself. Ephesians 5 verse 28. So ought
men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his
wife loveth himself loveth himself. For no man ever yet hateth his
own flesh, but he nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the
Lord the church." Now, when Paul says, "...so up men to love their
wives as their own bodies, he that loveth his wife loveth himself,"
he's talking about us husbands. But, you know, he's also talking
about the love of Christ for his people. Look at verse 32. This is a great mystery. But
I speak concerning Christ in the church. When Christ loves
His people, He loves Himself. He loves Himself because in His
unspeakable love, He made us part of His body. He made us
one with Him. And back in our text, John 15,
verse 10, Christ loves His people the same way the Father loves
Him because they're obedient. 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." Now, you
know, if you listen to free will preachers, and they talk about
verses like this, don't listen to them. You'll lose any assurance
you have of salvation if you listen to them. They'll tell
you, well, if you keep his commandments, God will love you. I don't keep God's commandments,
do you? I mean, you know, the commandments they're talking
about, you've got to keep the laws, you've got to tie, you've got to do this,
you've got to do this, you've got to observe the Christian staff and
all these things. I don't keep those commandments. So that means
God doesn't love me, and I can't be saved because I don't keep
His commandments. There's no assurance in that. There's no
assurance that I've got to earn God's love. There's no assurance
in that. But I'm telling you, there is
assurance in the obedience of Christ. A believer doesn't have
to try to keep the law, because Christ, our representative, already
kept the law. We've already kept the law in
him. My obedience is the obedience
of Christ. And when the Father sees me,
he sees his Son. He sees the obedience and the
righteousness of Christ. In Christ, I was perfectly obedient. Now I'll tell you how I'm going
to abide in the Father's love, and how I'm going to abide in
the love of the Son, because Christ kept, He was obedient,
He kept His Father's commandments. That's how I'm going to abide
in the Father's love, through the obedience of Christ. And
then Christ loves His people, the same way the Father loves
Him. The Father has joy in His Son. Christ has joy in His people,
because He loves them. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full." Look at Hebrews chapter 12. Christ has joy in the salvation
of His people. He finds joy in them, in His
work for us. Hebrews 12 verse 2. Looking unto the author and finisher
of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured
the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God." Now, you think of the suffering our
Savior endured from cradle to grave. You think of His sufferings,
really, from before the cradle, from the womb to the grave. He
humbled Himself to take on Him a body of human flesh. He humbled
himself to the limitations of human flesh. Him who has no limits,
limited himself to a body, a human body of flesh. He humbled himself
to live under his own law and be obedient to his own law, to
be under all the requirements of the law. He humbled his holy
self. to live in a world of sin and
rebellion and hatred of him. He lived in this sewer surrounded
by sin. How that grieved his holy nature. He endured that mock trial. He
endured the scourging. He endured the mocking of both
the Jews and the Romans, both Jew and Gentile. The whole world
hated him. He endured that. He endured on
that lacerated beaten back, carrying that cross to the place of his
slaughter. He endured, willingly endured,
having nails driven through his hands and his feet, nails big
enough to hold his body to the cross. He endured the humiliation
of suffering in that middle cross between two thieves, clearly
being numbered with the transgressors. And he endured something we can
never understand, not completely. He endured being made sin for
his people. He endured bearing the curse,
being made a curse for his people. He endured the father forsaking
him for him because he was made sin. He endured all of God's
justice and wrath against the sin that was laid on him. And
the Prince of Life endured giving up the ghost and dying. Now why? Why would he do any of that?
Because that suffering was nothing compared to the joy he found
in saving his people from their sins. He can only have that much
joy if he has an unmeasurable love for his people. He loved
his people. And with joy, he suffered everything
it took to save them, to redeem their souls. And there can be
no doubt, no doubt that Christ loves his people. Just like there's
no doubt the Father loves the Son, there is absolutely no doubt
Christ loves his people. Look at verse 13 back in our
text. Our Lord removed all doubt, greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." Now, the
only reason you would die for someone is if you love them. If you love them. Our Lord loved his people with
a great love. If you die for someone, no one
can doubt your love for them. They say, oh, that was a great
love. And the reason they know that
is because you gave them the greatest gift you could ever
give, the gift of your life. You gave your life so they could
live. Now that's what Christ has done for his people. He voluntarily
laid down his life so that his people could live. He freely
gave his life and died the death his people deserved so they could
live, have eternal life. I'm going to give you an illustration,
I think illustrates this well, how great of a gift the death
of Christ is for his people. I have in my notes here, I started
out in my notes, just to show you how full of myself I am.
If Janet committed some horrible crime that was worthy of death,
I'd be willing to die for her. That's true. But it's much more
likely I would commit a crime worthy of death. Such a horrible
crime is worthy of death. And if I did that, Janet loves
me. I know she loves me. And she
would want to die in my place. She would want to die so that
I could live. But you know the law wouldn't
let her do that. And you know why the law wouldn't
let her do that? Because if I committed a crime that was worthy of death,
I'm guilty. If Janet would die for me, the
law would say the innocent died and the guilty lived. Isn't that
right? So the law would not let her die for me. Justice must
be served. The guilty must die. So while
you'd say, well, that's a great love. Janet really loves Frank.
She's willing to die for him, that he could live. Brethren, the death of Christ
is far greater, far greater than that illustration I just gave
you. Because the law was satisfied by the death of Christ. When
Christ died, the innocent did not die, and the guilty lived.
No sir, the guilty died. Now somehow, in a way we cannot
understand how this happened. The father made his son guilty
of the sin of his people, and the father killed his son for
that sin in absolute justice. When Christ died, justice was
served, the guilty died, and the innocent lived. Somehow,
in a way we can never understand the hows and wherefores of how
God did this. And let me tell you this, I don't
have to understand how God did this to love it. I don't have
to understand how God did this to rest in it and find joy in
it. I don't understand how God created the earth either, but
I sure do like it. I don't have to understand. Somehow,
in a way we can never understand, the Father made His people, His
elect, He made them innocent. He made them the righteousness
of God in Christ. The obedience of Christ became
theirs and the innocent lived. The innocent went free. What
a gift. Can you think of a greater gift
than Christ being made sin and dying to satisfy justice for
you, there's no doubt Christ loves His people. Not only did
He die for them, He satisfied justice for them by becoming
guilty for them and putting their sin away under His blood. What
a gift. That's a gift that can only be
given in immeasurable love. And this goes further, this verse
13 goes further than this, that a man laid down his Here's another
miracle of God's grace. Our Lord says, I'm going to lay
down my life for my friends. For my friends. Were you born into this world
a friend of God? Or were you born with a nature
that was the enemy of God? Which is it? God's elect were
not born into this. Let me give you the answer to
that question in case you don't know. We're not born in this
world on friendly terms with God. We are born with a nature
that's enmity against him. We hated God. We said, I'll not
have this man reign over me. We said, I'm not going to bow
to him. I don't like that. And we rejected him at every
turn. But even at that time, Christ was our friend, the friend
of sinners. Look back at Romans chapter 5.
We looked at this to open up the service, and I thought, isn't
it going to do us any harm to read this twice? Even at that
time, Christ was the great friend of sinners. He died for us while
we were still his enemy. This friendship began as a one-sided
friendship. Romans 5, verse 6. For when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die." This righteous man, he's a man who's strictly
righteous in himself. He's strict on others. He's strict
on himself. He never does anything wrong,
and he makes others feel awful bad when they do. This guy's
a jerk. Nobody's going to die for that
fella. But, per venture, for a good man, some would even dare
to die, but none of us are good. So God didn't die for us because
we were good, per se, but God. commended his love toward us,
and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Christ died
for his friends. Now, we weren't his friends when
we were born, but the Holy Spirit comes. Christ died for us. The
Spirit takes that blood of the sacrifice of Christ and he sprinkles
it in our heart. He gives us a new heart. And
now we're God's friends. Oh, he's our best friend. My
best friend. Well, who are these elect? Who
are the friends that Christ died for? And when I ask that question,
this is what I really want to know. Am I one of them? Am I one of his friends that
he died for? Well, look back in our text, John 15. I can tell
you who the friends of God are. The friends of Christ. The friends
of Christ, first of all, obey his commandment. Look at verse
14. You're my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command
you." Well, what's the commandment? Well, the commandment's not the
law. Not the Levitical law, not the Mosaic law, not the ceremonial
law. The commandment that Christ refers
to here is his commandment to quit your works and to rest in
him. It's his commandment to come
to him, to rely on him, to rely on him to save you lock, stock,
and barrel. If you're his friend, you obey
that commandment. Second of all, the friends of
Christ know what Christ is doing. The friends of Christ know what
God's doing. Look at verse 15. Henceforth
I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth. But I have called you friends, for all things I
have heard of my Father I have made known unto you. Now the
friends of Christ, they know what God's doing. They know what
God's doing in saving His people. Now I don't know what God's doing
in all the events of history. The events that are going on
in time right now, I don't know what God's purpose in all those
events are. I don't have any idea. But I
do know what God's doing. I know what God's doing. He's
saving his people from their sins. He's calling them out to
the preaching of the gospel. I know that. I do know what God
was doing. As the Lord Jesus Christ walked
this earth as a man. I do know what He was doing.
The way He's reconciling the world to Himself. I know that.
He showed that. He showed that to every one of
His people. I do know what was going on at Calvary. I do know
what God was doing at Calvary. He was saving His people through
the sacrifice of His Son. He wasn't trying. He was saving. I know that. I do know what God's
doing through the preaching of the Gospel today. He's saving
as many as are ordained to eternal life. He's feeding his sheep
through the preaching of the gospel. So they'll grow in grace
and knowledge of Christ. I know that. But how do I know
all that? Because the Lord shows all of
his people that. Through his word. And he shows you that because
you're his friend. Every believer is the friend
of God. Just like Abraham was a friend
of God. You know, we read that and think, wow, Abraham is a
friend of God. I'd like to be Abraham. And you
believe you are. You are the friend of God. In
Genesis 18, our Lord Jesus Christ in the pre-incarnate appearance
came to Abraham. And he told Abraham what he's
getting ready to do. He's going to go down there to
Sodom and Gomorrah and he told Abraham what I'm going to do.
And the Lord said, I'm not going to hide this thing that I do
from Abraham. Why didn't he hide it from him? Because Abraham
was his friend. And you who believe God, you're
just as much the friend of God as Abraham was. God showed you
the exact same thing that he showed Abraham. He showed Abraham
the day of Christ. He showed Abraham what Christ
accomplished in his death on Calvary's tree. The death of
a substitute. Abraham saw it in picture. That
day he sacrificed that ram instead of his son Isaac. Abraham saw
the day of Christ. He saw in picture what that meant. That God's people, his elect,
were going to live through the death of a substitute. He saw
that in type. And you see it in God's Word.
You see the day of Christ in God's Word. You see what he's
accomplished. And you're glad. You're glad. Because you're the friend of
Christ. And then verse 16, Christ loved his people so much He chose
them to be His. He says, you've not chosen me,
but I've chosen you. Now the only explanation, the
only explanation for how God could choose me is love. The only explanation. There's
nothing in me to cause Him to do it. The only explanation is
love. Our nature is dead. Our nature
can only produce dead things. Look at the rest of this, verse
16. I've ordained, I've chosen, I've ordained you, that you should
go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever you shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you. Our nature's dead. It can only
produce dead things. So Christ chose his people to
give them life, so that they bear fruit through union with
him. That's the union we looked at last Sunday. Our nature is
the nature of this world. The nature of this world is dead
and dying and condemned eternal death. That's the same nature
we're born with, the nature of the world. But Christ chose his
people out of the world so that they'd have union and eternal
life with him. Verse 19. He said, if you're
of the world, the world will love his own. But you're not
of the world. Now, why are you not of the world?
Because I've chosen you out of the world. Thank God for His
electing love. That's the love of the Son for
His people. Third, I want us to look at the love of the children,
the love of the redeemed. Now, the children, we get our
love from Christ, as He loved us with that same love, that
same kind of love, that same type of love. That's how we love
one another. Isn't that what He says in verse
12? This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. Now, we can't love
perfectly like our Lord does, but we can reflect His love,
just like the moon reflects the light of the sun. We can reflect
the love of Christ, His love for us. The moon, it can't produce
any light. We can't produce this love either,
can we? But we sure can reflect it, His love for us. That's the
way we're to love one another, as Christ loved us. And just
like the Son showed his love by his obedience to the Father,
we show our love to Christ and our love to our brethren by obedience
to the Savior. In verse 9 he says, If the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you. Now continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye
shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments
and abide in his love. Now the commandment, every child
of God, look in 1 John chapter 3. The commandment. Every child
of God obeys. I don't care where you find them.
I don't care what country they're from, what language they speak,
what generation that they lived in. Every child of God obeys
the same commandment, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. 1 John
3, verse 23. And this is his commandment.
He talked over there in John 15, if you obey my commandment.
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. Every believer obeys the commandment
to come to Christ and to rely on Him for all of our salvation.
And if I'm relying on Christ for all of my salvation, I know
He is my righteousness. And I'm not looking to add anything
to that by what I do, because Christ is my righteousness. If
I believe Christ and I come to Him, then I know my sin is paid
for under the blood of Christ. And I'm not looking to add anything
of my own to that blood payment. That blood payment of Christ
is enough. Not only is Christ enough, not
only is Christ all I need, Christ is all I want if I've obeyed
His commandment to believe on Him. Salvation, it's all on Christ. It all depends upon Him. And that is, I love that. I'm
so thankful for that because I believe him. Are you the friend
of God? Are you a friend of God? Friendship
is proved by obedience and by trust. You trust your friends. If you have a true friend, you
trust them. Friends of God are obedient to
the gospel and they trust Christ completely. Back in our text,
we just read that our Lord commands us to continue in His love and
to abide in His love. What is it to continue in His
love? What is it to abide in His love? 1 John 3, 24. 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. We know that because
we keep his commandments. Well, to abide in Christ's love
is to continue to believe him. I believed him, but I keep believing
him. Abiding in his love, continuing
to believe him, it's not doubting him. It's not doubting his love.
Has he quit loving me? It's not doubting his love. It's
not doubting his ability to save and keep, but to keep trusting
him, just like you did the very first moment you saw him. You
keep trusting him. You abide in the love of Christ
by continuing to rely on Him and never thinking, I've grown
so big. I've grown so much that I can
do this on my own. Truly growing in grace is to
continue to rely on Him. I know this. I know this better
today than I did how many years ago. I need Christ more than
I ever did. I know this better than I ever
knew it without Him. I can do nothing. To abide in
Christ is to continue in prayer about everything. You know, we
sometimes get to, I think we get this in our mind, maybe you're
not like me, but I think about small things. Oh, I want to trouble
the Lord with all these things. He's got so many things to do.
That's foolish. There is no matter, no matter,
too small Bring before the Lord in prayer. Think about it. What smallest matter can you
do on your own? It's not one. To continue in his love, to abide
in his love is to continue trusting him and coming before him in
prayer with all things. And you know, children of God,
they love Christ and they have the joy of Christ in them, the
joy of Christ, His joy, because love produces joy. In verse 11,
back in our text, John 15, these things have I spoken unto you,
that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. See, everybody wants to have
joy in their lives, don't they? Everybody wants, I just, if I
could just be happy. If you want joy and true happiness,
I can tell you where to find it. Be obedient and look to Christ.
Be obedient and trust Christ. Be obedient and look to Him.
Christ had the perfect joy of obedience to His Father. Well,
that obedience is ours in Christ. If you want His joy, the joy
of His obedience, look to Him. Trust Him. And if you want joy
in your life, you're going to have to be obedient and believe
Christ. Look to Him. Trust Him. And you're
going to have to be obedient to love your brethren as Christ
loved us. You cannot have joy any other
way than through obedience and obedience to the Lord and loving
his people. Verse 12, this is my commandment, that you love
one another as I've loved you. Now, loving our brethren must
be important. In this conversation, our Lord
commanded, this tells you something about our nature. We've got to
be commanded to love one another. Even believer, he's talking believers
here. We've got to be commanded to
love one another three times. There's no commandment repeated
more in the New Testament than love your brethren. Love one
another. Well, how did the Lord love his people? I'm going to
know how I'm supposed to love you. I need to know how the Lord loved me,
right? How did the Lord love his people? With the self-sacrificing
love. He laid aside his glory for a
time. It took on him the form of a
server. Well, then there's no matter that's beneath me to do
to serve you. If I'm going to imitate his love,
you know, some job needs done and we think, well, I'm better
than that. You know, I'm not going to do that job for those people. Aren't
you thankful the Lord didn't think that way? There was no
job too low that he did not go do it for his people. There's
no service too low for us to do for our brethren. If we're
going to love one another as Christ loved us. Our Lord loved His
people with the self-sacrificing love. That's how we're to love
one another, by sacrificing. Our Lord gave His life, gave
His life for His people. Now the Lord Jesus Christ is
our hero. He's our hero. If someone risked
their life to save someone else, Even if they don't lose their
life in saving, if they just risk their life to save someone
else, we give them the Medal of Honor. You know, if a soldier
does that, they get the Congressional Medal of Honor. They're a hero.
The Lord Jesus Christ is our hero. He gave his life that we
might live. And you know what we do? We imitate
our heroes. I thought of an illustration
about this, about how we imitate sports heroes and stuff. I've
got a better one for you. A few months ago, I was standing
here at the back door, talking to one of our men here. We were
standing, talking, and his young son was standing beside him.
And we were standing next to one another, talking. And I just
happened to look down, and I noticed this boy standing next to his
dad, without moving his head. The dad's standing there like
this, left foot, this little friend's standing like this,
pumping, and he hits him. You know what that boy did? That
left foot just slid that boy. You know what he was doing? He was imitating his hero. Brethren, imitate our hero by
loving one another. Love one another. Our Lord sees
his people through eyes of love. He sees us as we are. He sees us as He's made us. He sees us as obedient. He sees
us as righteous. See your brethren through eyes
of love. See your brethren as righteous. Don't see their sins
and their faults. Love covers a multitude of sins.
See one another as they are, as Christ has made them, as righteous
and obedient. Love one another like the Lord
loves us. When the Lord loves us, he loves
himself. He loves his own body. If you
love your brethren, all you're doing is loving your own self,
your own body. You're part of the same body.
We have the same head and the same Savior, part of the same
body. And you always love the ones that are most like you.
Love your family, the family of God. loves his people, so he had joy
in his people. Has joy. Find your joy in your
brethren. Find joy in your brothers and
your sisters. Our Lord loves his people, so
he chose them. Choose your brethren. Choose
to be with them. Seek them out and arrange to
be with them and do one another's things with one another. Choose
your brethren. And our Lord loved his people,
so he made us his friends. We didn't come that way, but
he made us. He made us his friends. You can't
help but be his friend if he's revealed himself to you. Make
your brethren your friend. Just prove yourself a friend
to them like the Lord did to you. And this question always
comes up. What if they're not a friend
back? What if they are? What if they desert me? The disciples
deserted our Lord, and He loved them to the end. Well, what if
they lie about me? We read there in Galatians, these
fellows, what if they lie about me? What do they believe lies
about me? They lie about our Lord, and He bore it patiently,
silently, didn't He? What if they're mean to me? Our
Lord was beaten and tortured and killed, and He bore it silently. for the joy that he found in
seeing those people that he loved redeemed. What if they persecute
me, pick on me? Our Lord loved at the end. Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou my people? Isn't that what he said? Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou
me? God made Saul his friend. Lastly, love one another as Christ
loved us. Remember this. The world hates
Christ and the world hates his people. Then love one another. We need the love of our brethren. You just don't know what they've
gone through. As a matter of fact, you probably
do know what they've gone through today. You don't know what they've
gone through. Cut them some slack and love
them. We're behind enemy territory. We're in a hostile territory. Help one another out by loving
one another. Reflect the love of the Savior
to your brethren. Of all the graces, love is the
greatest. Of all the fruit of the Spirit,
it all depends on this fruit, the fruit of love. If we love,
we'll have faith. You believe those that you love.
If we love, we'll trust Christ. You trust those that you love.
If we love, if we have true love, you'll be kind and generous and
tender-hearted because you're tender-hearted towards those
that you love. You feel for them and you love being generous to
those that you love. If we love one another, we'll
have joy in believing because there's joy in being obedient
to the gospel and being obedient to His command to love one another.
The commandments of our Savior are not grievous. They're a joy. Love is the greatest of all the
graces. Faith gives way to sight. Hope will give way to reality
and possessions. But love's eternal. And if we
love Christ, and by His grace are enabled to show that love
to our brethren, it's because Christ loved us first. We'll
go back to where we started. It comes from the top down, doesn't
it? It started with the love of the Lord. Aren't you thankful? Thankful for His love. Alright,
let's bow in prayer. Our Father, how thankful we are
for the love of God, for the love of our Savior. It goes beyond our comprehension,
but we know we're not worthy. In and of ourselves, we are not
worthy. But You love the people. And
you made us your own. You made us righteous in your
righteousness. You made us obedient in your
obedience. You made us accepted in the beloved,
in your work, and took joy in redeeming sinful men and women,
boys and girls, like we are. Father, we stand amazed, amazed
in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene and wonder wonder how
he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean, but how thankful we
are for your love. And Father, we pray that you
give us the obedience to show our love one for another, to
help one another, to carry one another's burdens and support
and be a blessing to one another as you loved us. grateful and
thankful heart. Father, how thankful we are for
your mercy and your grace and your love. We give thanks in
that name which is above every name, the name of the one who
loved us and washed us in his own blood, the name of our Lord
Jesus Christ.