Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to John chapter 15 and reading
for our text verses 12 through to 14. Our friendship with the Lord. Verse 12. This is my commandment,
that ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Verses 12 to 14 of John chapter
15. The relationship that the Lord
has with his people is described in many ways in scripture. One time the Lord says, you call
me Master and Lord, and you say, well, for so I am. Then he says, in prophecy, in
Isaiah, that the Redeemer shall come to Zion. Our Lord is known
as the Redeemer. In His name of Jesus, He shall
save His people from their sins. He is the Savior. We think of the beautiful chapter
in John, chapter 10, of our Lord saying that I am the good shepherd. Another title of the Lord is
the shepherd. The Lord says, David is my shepherd,
I shall not want. But in our text, he is set forth
as a friend. We read in Proverbs that a friend
there is that sticketh closer than a brother. And in our text
it sets forth what this friendship is between the Lord and his people. Now a friend is one where there
is a mutual bond of affection. It usually is exclusive. It is one that doesn't involve
a sexual relationship or a family connection relationship. It is
a mutual bond of a friendship. We know, of course, with our
Lord and His people, there is relationships that we might say
is a family relationship. The Lord also known as the Bridegroom,
His Church as the Bride. And the great privilege, of course,
is with those of us that are married, we can say that our
closest friend, our best friend on earth, is our husband or is
our wife. And that's a great blessing.
It's very vital in a marriage bond that we are the best of
friends. In the scriptures we read three
times concerning Abraham, that he was a friend of God. The Church of God in Chronicles
puts the Lord in remembrance of it and says that the promised
land, the land of Canaan, was given unto Abraham, thy friend,
forever. But it's not just the church
laying claim to being the friend of God or Abraham being the friend
of God, because we have in the prophecy of Isaiah, in Isaiah
41, in verse 8, but thou, Israel, art my servant, Jacob, whom I
have chosen, the seed of Abraham, my friend." And the Lord is claiming
and laying claim that Abraham was indeed his friend. If we go to the epistle of James,
then we have another reference to Abraham as the friend of God. The scripture was fulfilled which
saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for
righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. And, of course, this is what
Martin Luther struggled with James. Because in Romans we have
very clearly that a man is justified by faith, not by works. But really in Romans, and here
in James, it's clearly set forth that works is vital as a fruit. And so we read from verse 21,
Was not Abraham our father justified by works? This is in James 2,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar. No, he didn't
just stay at home and say, I believe that God would raise up Isaac
if I offered him up, but not go and offer him up. But when
he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar, seest thou how
faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect. It is in this context that we
have Abraham set forth and called as the friend of God. And James
says further, you see then how that by works a man is justified
and not by faith only. And we have it then in our text. And I want to look with the Lord's
help at three points. Firstly, the friendship instigated,
that is started. We read in scripture that he
that hath friends must show himself friendly. And there's usually
an instigator of a friendship. And here, the instigator is God,
is the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to look at that point
first. The second is the friendship
established. And this is specifically seen
in verse 14 of our text. Ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever
I command you. And then I want to look at, lastly,
the friendship that is then enjoined. So a friendship instigated or
started, the friendship established, and then the friendship enjoyed. But firstly, the establishing
or instigating, sorry, of it. Verse 13 of our text, greater
love had no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. And we are reminded in this that
God is the instigator of the friendship that he has with his
people. He has chosen them in Christ
before the foundation of the world. He has placed their names
in the Lamb's Book of Life. The Father gave to the Son a
people, thine they were and thou gavest They're me. They were
a people that were a chosen people. And that is all evidenced by
the first promises then that are given, the lengthening out
of man's life, the promised seed that should bruise the serpent's
head, and our Lord coming to this world, the taking upon himself
an indissolvable union between flesh and spirit of man, the
seed of Abraham. Remember that is emphasized in
scripture, that he did not take on him the seed of angels, but
the seed of Abraham. And when we come to the line
in Matthew 1, those three sets of 14 generations begin with
Abraham and with God calling him. And it was established then
through the seed of Abraham, through the nation of Israel,
the Hebrews. And so the instigation of a friendship
begins really from eternity, And it is the Lord that has done
it in then coming in love to His people and love to His Father
to lay down His life, a ransom for His people. And our Lord
is very clear in our text that this is really the greatest evidence
or greatest witness of a friendship that can ever be. Greater love
had no man than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. And we don't just take the time
of the Lord laying down his life at Calvary, I have power to lay
it down, I have power to take it again, this commandment have
I received from my Father, but we trace it right back, right
back to His coming, right back to the time that He spent upon
earth, enduring the contradiction of sinners against Himself, We
trace it right back through all of the types and all of the shadows,
all pointing to His coming, as if every one of them was stamped
on it. This is done in friendship, as
a token of friendship to those chosen in me, those given me
of the Father, those that shall in due time be really manifested
and brought into a friendship relationship. It's important
for us to look at that, look at the context here with the
verses that are brought together and who it is that begins with
a friendship with his people. It begins with God, the beautiful
word, he which hath begun a good work in you, will perform it
unto the day of Jesus Christ, only stands if it is God that
has begun, that has actually instigated it. You read, I pass
by thee when thou wast in thy blood, and when thou wast in
thy blood, I bid thee live. So then it comes to another part
of the beginning of God. And that is not just the evidence
of friendship in our Lord coming and suffering, bleeding and dying,
but it is evidenced in beginning a work of grace, beginning with
a sinner. I give unto them, said our Lord,
eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of mine hand. But let's think of it with the
case of the disciples here. How did it begin with them? How
did they become? friends of Jesus of Nazareth. Will our Lord pass by them when
they are at the receipt of custom? Follow me, he says. When they
were fishing, when they were manning their nets, follow me.
I will make you fishers of men. It is the Lord that passes by
them, that instigates it, that brings it about right from the
start. And it's very important for us
to to realize that, because by nature we are dead in trespasses
and sins. We have no capability spiritually
to respond to the word of God. The law of God is spiritual in
that God uses it to spiritually make alive a people that were
dead. And the application of that law,
it must be the God that made the ear, opens the ear. He that
hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. And without that hearing ear,
without that opened ear, nothing is heard at all. We are but as
one dead. It is the Lord that gives life. He began with creating our first
parents from the dust of the ground, He breathed into their
nostrils the breath of life, and so it must be spiritually.
The natural man receiveth not the things of God, neither can
he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The whole foundation of the friendship
with our Lord is that He is the one that has passed by a sinner
and bid him live. and that he has appointed that
one to be his friend. He has begun it. He has taken
those steps to bring about a relationship between himself and his people
that he suffered for, redeemed for, redeemed and died for on
Calvary's tree. His desire is that they might
have a relationship with him. It is not just that we are to
take from the Lord a salvation and take from Him a place in
heaven and forgiveness of sins and say, well, that's a nice
gift, but I don't want anything to do with you. We can have someone
on earth. They can give us riches. They
might give us a house. They give us many things. But
we say, well, you have your life, I have mine. I'm going to enjoy
it with my family, but I'm not going to have anything to do
with you. That is not what is set forth in the Word. We have
our first parents were made to have a relationship with the
Lord. They did. They walked with Him. He walked with them in the cool
of the day. Before they sinned, they had
that relationship with the Lord. But that was broken at the fall.
That was severed. And we are now under the curse
and under the wrath of God. Perhaps I'm wrong in saying that.
Man himself was not cursed. The ground was cursed. Satan
was cursed. But we are feeling the effects
of the curse. But it is the Lord himself that
shall bear that curse for us. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things that are written in the law to do them. break
the law, we are under the curse in that sense. And so the Lord instigates by
giving grace, by grace you are saved through faith and that
not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. And that friendship
then is first instigated and known. Our calling makes known
our election, It makes known what is in our text, that great
love, God commendeth, we read in another place, his love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And here, greater love hath no
man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Let's put it in this way. And
everyone that is brought to know that the Lord Jesus Christ has
laid down his life for them, they know from the scripture
that he is their friend. We might think we do not have,
and we may not have, many friends here below. By nature, our friend
has been the world and the things of the world. We're told very
clearly that whosoever shall be a friend of the world is an
enemy of God. Know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? That is where we are by nature. We do have friends, but those
friends are of the world, and they are those that hate God
and are enmity with God. and that is the position where
we are in, and where we have been in, and are in by nature,
and we go towards and we get friends around us that have light
mind, and that we can have fellowship and communion with, and that
is how we are by nature. But when the Lord instigates
a friendship and begins a friendship between us and Him, then there
will be a change of friends. There'll be those who will no
longer want to walk with us, and we don't want to walk with
them. And we will want to walk with the Lord, and He will give
us those fruits and effects that we read of here that shall really
establish that friendship, that it really is eternal friendship. We need not
mourn that we have lost friends in the world if we have gained
a heavenly friend. And where we realize that as
a token of that friendship, he has laid down his life for us. What a solemn thing it is if
this morning, if we are still in friendship with the world,
we love the world, the things of it, the ways of it, the music
of it, that we still have those that we count our friends who
are swearing, cursing, who hate our God and hate His name. The
Lord was very clear, you cannot serve God and mammon. It's a very hard thing sometimes,
when there is a separation between friends. Our souls are worth
much, much more than our bodies, and our friendship with the Lord,
than those that hate the Lord. And really, this is a real test
of where our allegiance lies where we really are. Sometimes,
you know, you might have two people, and you say, oh, I'm
a friend with that one, and I'm a friend with that one. And it
seems to work as long as you are separate, as long as you
meet them each independently. But if you then meet where you've
got both of these that you thought you were friends, then there
is a very interesting dynamic offered. Sometimes you might
find the person that you thought was your friend doesn't even
want to talk to you. Not while they've got that other
person present. And you realize that it is a
divided loyalty. And I wonder how that would be with
us concerning the Lord. If we are fronted, Well, sometimes
we might be just, say, with the Lord's people. Another time we
might just be those of the world and seem to get on well. But
if you bring the two together, where will our loyalty be? Where will we gravitate to? On
whose side will we go? Where will we walk with? Those are times when it is really
So, you know, Joshua, he said, in the midst of Israel, as for
me and my house, we will serve the Lord. When the spies came
back from Canaan and there was 10 of them that brought an evil
report and two that wrote a good report, there was a choice that
had to be made of which one the rest of Israel would follow,
the 10 or the two. And they followed the 10. They rebelled against the Lord.
There could not be neutral ground. There were situations where a
choice had to be made. Come ye out from among them,
touch not the unclean thing, I will receive you, ye shall
be my sons and daughters. And it applies the same with
a friendship as well. We need to really ask ourselves
where is our loyalty and where is our friend? Do we still love
the world and the things of it? Or do we love the Lord? We read with the disciples being
let go when they were persecuted and brought before the council.
Being let go, they went unto their own company. They knew
who. their friends were. You know,
it is said, against our Lord Jesus Christ, this man receiveth
sinners, and eateth and drinketh with them, is a friend of publicans
and sinners. That was cast at him. But the
Lord wasn't ashamed to go amongst those that were derided from
the world, despised by the world, those that he knew. were those
for whom he had suffered, bled and died. May we always remember
this, those that the Lord Jesus Christ instigates a friendship
with had at first an enmity with him, a hatred to him. Sometimes in life we've had the
same, where we've had an enmity or
hatred, or perhaps one that has been a bully against us, and
yet it's been changed, and we've ended up being friends. But by
nature we are not the friend of God, but enmity with God and
hatred with God. That's why I insist that it is
God that begins and instigates that friendship. But if it's
instigated by God, it will then also be established. It will not just remain on one
side. And so I want to look at our
second point, the friendship established. In Matthew 22, our Lord was asked,
of what was the summary of the law. And he gives that. He was asked, Master, which is
the great commandment in the law? Verse 37, Our Lord said
unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart,
with all thy soul, with all thy mind. This is the first and great
commandment and the second is like unto it thou shalt love
thy neighbour as thyself on these two commandments hang all the
law and the prophets. And in our text we have the Lord
so clearly saying ye are my friends if ye do whatsoever I command
you. I want to be clear at the beginning
this is not as saying, well, here is an opportunity to be
my friend. If you do this, you can. If you
don't, you won't. It's up to you whether you do
or not. This is your choice. The way it's put is, think of
the first part of this chapter And the Lord is speaking of himself
as the vine, his people as the branches, and bringing forth
fruit. And he says, if a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth. And herein is my Father glorified,
that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. Now would
we say, well, here is, this is how we can become a disciple,
by bearing much fruit. But our Lord is saying, from
me is thy fruit found. It's only by abiding in Christ
that that fruit is seen and comes out. There these fruits are,
and there they are seen. So the evidence of being part
of Christ as a true vine is fruitfulness. The evidence of being a friend
of God is that by the grace of God, the Lord beginning with
us in conversion, in the new birth, is that there will be
those fruits. And it will be of love one to
another as I have loved you. Because our Lord, and this is
why we read these three verses, because verse 14 says, yeah,
my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you, and you say, well,
what have you? commanded, what is commanded,
and that is in verse 13. Greater love had no man, no,
verse 12, sorry. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. And so it's a love
unto the brethren. John, he takes it up, we know
that we've passed from death unto life because we love the
brethren. Because God has put in our hearts
a love to his brethren, his children. How can a man say he loved God
when he doesn't love his brother that he has seen? If a man loved
God, did he love his brother that he has seen also? Where there is a real call by
grace, there will invariably be fruits. There must be fruits. When Barnabas had heard of the
calling of those up at Antioch, he went and he saw the grace
of God and was glad. What did he see? How can you
see the grace of God? You see it by the fruits, by
their fruits you shall know them. And this fruit is here as a love,
a love to the Lord, a love to his brethren. So there's a lot
that is bound up with that. If we are to keep the Lord's
commandments, the Lord has given us an ear, hasn't he? And when
the Lord gives eternal life, he opens the ear, gives a hearing
ear, he gives a willingness to obey my people, shall be willing
in the day of my power, and This love then that the Lord gives,
it is actually worked out in the lives of his people in various
ways. And the scripture is very clear
on that. Our Lord teaches this right through. We perhaps only just look at
a few of the verses where he enlarges on that love, that effect
that will be had by grace. In Matthew 5 we have in verse
22, But I say unto you, that whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of
the judgment, and whosoever shall say to his brother Raker shall
be in danger of the counsel, but whosoever shall say thou
fool shall be in danger of hell-fire. Therefore, if thou bring thy
gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother
hath wrought against thee, leave there thy gift before the altar,
go thy way, first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come
and offer thy gift." An extension of that love to the brethren. We think of what our Lord said
about Whosoever shall give a cup of cold water in the name of
his disciple, for the Lord's sake, they shall not lose their
reward. That giving even of a small thing,
because that person belongs to the Lord. There's a love for
the Lord's sake. We think of how it was with Ruth
and Naomi, how she claimed to Naomi that where thou goest,
I will go. Where thou diest, I will die. There will I be buried. Thy people
shall be my people. Thy God, my God. There was a
real knitting and real union. You see the fruit of the friendship
there on earth between Ruth and Naomi bearing reflection of what
the Lord had or would do for her. We think of the Lord's direction
in Matthew 18. If thy brother sins against thee,
then tell him his fault between him and thee alone. If he doesn't hear it, then you
bring another witness along. But love covereth a multitude
of sins. And it is practical forgiveness
as well. Peter said to our Lord, How many
times shall my brother sin against me, and turn again and say, I
repent, and I forgive him? Till seven times? The Lord says,
no, till 70 times seven. Well, you would forget, wouldn't
you, by that number of times. But this is the practical way
of the love of fulfilling this commandment. This is my commandment
that you love one another as I have loved you. So we can then
draw in verse 13. Lay down his life for his friends. The people of God are to do that
one another. The things that we had planned,
the things that we had to do to lay down that life to help
the brethren, to be with them, to minister to them, to help
them in their times of need, there's a very practical outworking
of the love of God and this mark of friendship. Here, my friends,
if you do whatsoever I command you, I wouldn't want to restrict
it to just a narrow compass in this. For the whole Word of God,
it shows the commandment of God. But when we think of the great
gifts or those that are spoken of in 1 Corinthians and chapter
13, have there that greatest gift,
at the end of that chapter, now abideth faith, hope, charity,
these three, but the greatest of these is charity, a practical
love, an outworking of love, the same as the Lord, the eternal
love, I have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore
with love and kindness have I drawn thee, And it was with that everlasting
love that all of what the Lord has done in coming, in suffering,
in bleeding, all of these things flow out from that. And where
we are willing to do what the Lord bids us to do, and we do
it in love. If ye are my friends, if ye do
whatsoever I command you, this is my commandment, that ye love
one another, as I have loved you. The world speaks of love
often in a very cheap and loose and a flippant way, but we should
never go along that track or turn away from it as a token. It is a blessed thing to have
the love of God shed abroad in the heart by the Holy Ghost. And it's a blessed thing to feel
a real love to the brethren in the Lord. Sometimes very, very
strongly in the Lord. And where that then brings forth
fruits as well. But the blessed thing here is
that this is establishing a friendship, not just between brethren, not
just between God's people, but with the Lord himself. That there
is a oneness with the Lord. You know, a friend likes to get
together, they like to speak together, they like to have time
together. And so there will be those times in prayer, times
in the house of God, times in his word, times of communion,
times of fellowship, one with another, with the people of God
and with the Lord. May we view that relationship
with the Lord as a friend is a very precious and blessed relationship. So I want to look then at our
last point, which is the friendship enjoyed. If we have a friend on earth,
we're not always going back establishing that friendship, are we? We enjoy it, and every time that
we are together, that friendship is strengthened. In some cases,
sometimes, there's been a strain between a brother. I remember one saying, he said,
I'm not going to be your friend anymore. I said, well, that's
all right. I said, because I'm not going to let you go. I'm
still going to be your friend. So you can do what you like,
but I'm still going to be your friend. And now we're still very
good friends. Sometimes it is that when a friend
refuses to be unfriended, that's a good thing. And there is the
benefits, those things that flow forth. In Proverbs 17, 17, we
read that a friend loveth at all times. And that's a blessed
thing when we think of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we think of
what I've just said as an illustration how many times we might get angry
with the Lord and say we're not going to be a friend anymore.
You're acting toward me as an enemy, but the Lord says you
can sever it, but I'm not severing it. I'm your friend. Jesus Christ,
the same yesterday, and today, and forever, an everlasting friend,
a heavenly friend, unchangeable friend, a friend that actually
assures us of his love, as in this passage here, greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friend.
And as often as we remember in the Lord's Supper, we remember
his death, his sufferings, his bloodshed, he is assuring us
of his friendship and love. I wonder how often we've thought
of that. When we've looked at the Lord's Supper, he's not just
remembering his sufferings, we are remembering this token of
his friendship of us. Not an enemy, but a friend. We
mentioned before of that which was cast at our Lord, this man. He's a friend of publicans and
sinners. That which was spoken in a derided
way, you look at how we are to enjoy that as sinners. And the
more we go on and feel our sinnership, Feel what we do to the Lord,
feel how, what an unfaithful friend, how we're not keeping
our side the friendship, and yet be reminded of this, he is
a friend of sinners. May we never forget that. We
will always be sinners. What a strange friendship, as
it were. One side, perfect, pure, Holy,
the eternal God, on the other side a sinner, prone to sin,
prone to wander, prone to go away from God, prone to try the
friendship to its absolute limits. And yet this friendship was started
by a God who already knew what we were, and started it when
we were enemies and hatred to the Lord. What a difference that is. A faithful friend. Faithful are
the wounds of a friend, we read in Proverbs. And then we read
in Hebrews 12, that the Lord chastens every son whom he receiveth. How many times have we looked
at chastening, correction, warning, as being that of a friend? Know
there are those that will see us do something wrong, or see
us turning on a wrong track and wrong way, they won't say anything
to us. They go behind our back. They go behind someone else and
look at what he's doing. But a friend, they come alongside
and they say, no, you shouldn't be doing this. You should not
be walking that way or saying those things. You might hurt,
but they are faithful wounds. And there's friendship in it.
A friend that will never leave his people. Hebrews 13, he has
said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Those are beautiful
words of the Lord concerning his dear people. And in his intercessory
prayer in a couple of chapters on John 17, Father, I will that
they whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they
may behold my glory. a friendship that is enjoyed
here below by faith and in the situation we are here, to be
enjoyed in heaven, to have the Lord there, to be with Him forever,
and it is the Lord that is instigating that as well. He is choosing
out these things, He is doing these things as a friend. There's a beautiful relationship,
isn't it? In Song of Solomon, we have the
spouse that is speaking of the Lord and of him as her friend
in the fifth chapter. And she was asked, what is thy
beloved more than another beloved? Are thou fairest among women?
What is thy beloved more than another beloved that thou dost
so charge us? She had said, I charge you, O
daughters of Jerusalem, if ye find my beloved, that ye tell
him that I am sick of love. And then she gives a description,
going through as if each of his parts, his head, his eyes, his
cheeks, his hands, his legs, describing all of the aspects
of her beloved. His mouth is most sweet, yea,
he is altogether lovely. And she finishes with this, this
is my beloved and this is my friend, O daughters of Jerusalem. There's a thing if we can point
out to sinners round, the Lord Jesus Christ, in all his beauty
and all he has done and what all he is, and say, this is my
friend. This is he that I walk with,
who has befriended me, to whom I can go to in time of need.
Remember the Lord told the parable of one that went to his friend
at midnight and say, lend me loaves, I've got someone come.
and he said that he wouldn't give him, he wouldn't rise. The
Lord said, yes, he wouldn't rise because he is his friend, but
because of his importunity, he would rise, because he kept asking
and asking. But our Lord does give us a friend,
and we should be reminded of that, that he not only is our
friend, but he has given us these illustrations to go to him as
our friend. We quoted that regarding Abraham,
where the church press is saying that Abraham was the Lord's friend,
but then the Lord says and owns it as well. May we be helped
to be bold in that, to go to the Lord as our friend. So thou
hast wrought all our works in us. I am what I am by the grace
of God. I once was at enmity with thee,
I once hated thee, and thou hast wrought in me to make me thy
friend. And the friendship is established,
and now I'm in this need, this need spiritually, providentially,
now I'm feeling my poverty, my sinnership, my need. Thou art
an all-powerful, almighty friend, my heavenly friend, help me. What earthly friend, if he had
all power and might and ability to help another friend, would
withhold it from him in need? The Lord is that friend to help
us in our time of need. There is a friendship that is
to be enjoyed, the same as we have it one with another on earth,
a friendship with the Lord that is to be enjoyed. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. Greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends. If ye do whatsoever,
I command you. May the Lord add his blessing. Amen.