If you turn back on your Bibles
with me to John Chapter 15. Last week we began looking at
these glorious words and we looked at the truth that the Lord declares
here. And as I said earlier, it's a
picture of union and communion and the fruit that flows from
union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And no doubt the fruit bearing
troubles the hearts of many people. But one of the things that is
pictured here in this description of fruit bearing is a vine. And
one of the wonderful characteristics of a vine is that it cannot support
itself. It needs a wall to cling on,
a trellis to cling on to whatever, and the more fruitful it is,
the more it needs to cling. And people look at external fruit,
and last week I wanted us to see that the fruit is actually
internal. And those who think they bear
most fruit and can see the external evidences of that fruit, are
they that bear the least. Because if you can see it, and
you can be confident in it, then you're no longer leaning. And
I reminded us last week that the Lord Jesus Christ is a vine
and he lent upon his father. And within maybe an hour or so
of these words being spoken, he was going to be in the Garden
of Gethsemane. And he was going to be leaning
in the most desperate way upon his father, as the father gave
him a cup, and in that cup were the sins of all of God's chosen,
elect people. And he looked in that cup. We
live with sin like fish swim in the sea or birds fly in the
air. We're so accustomed to it and
so used to it that it matters little to us. Often, far less
than it ought. And even the convictions of sin
that come are so soon and often dissipated, not so with our holy,
holy God almighty. He saw the sin and it broke his
heart, and he pleaded with his father. So the fruit is not the fruit
that the religious world speaks of, and it doesn't come in a
way that the religious world or the natural man thinks of. The drooping branches And the
needy vine is the one that bears the fruit. And the more needy
you are, the more fruit that is produced as a result of this
husbandman pruning us. Pruning never seems pleasant
at the time, but afterwards it brings forth the peaceable fruit
of righteousness, that we are left with the peaceful fruit
of clinging to the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and
having none of our own. But here we come to this verse
in chapter 15 verse 9 and as I said it has three remarkable
phrases in it. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And I
want to look at the first two of those in this opening time
and then we'll look at the last of them towards the end. But
as I said to some friends last night, we are way out of our
depth here and failure is written over all that man tries to do
to talk about the love of God. You might know that old hymn,
Could we with ink the ocean fill? And were the skies of parchment
made? were every stalk on earth a quill,
and every one a scribe by trade. To write the love of God above
would drain the ocean dry, nor could the scroll contain the
whole, though stretched from sky to sky. We're in deep waters,
brothers and sisters, but these are sweet waters. We're in deep
pastures, but these are the very wonderful and green pastures
of our Word. Every time I feel that we have
to talk about the love of God, we have to correct the notions
that people have in this world of the love of God. There are multitudes in this
world who speak much of the love of God who have no notion whatsoever
of the God of love. God is love and God also is light. He is holiness and God also is
spirit. And we need to be reminded of the wonder of love. The wonder
of this love, for this God to love us, is the most remarkable
thing, isn't it? Because there's nothing lovely
in us by nature. There's nothing lovely in us
by nature. We have to go back again and
again and again into the scriptures to see the wonder of God's love
contrasted with the holiness of who God is and the absolute
justice of who God must be. and the sinlessness of God and
the sinfulness of man. The notion that God loves everyone
reduces God's love down to just nothing, basically, does it?
If God loves everyone exactly the same, and this God that we're speaking
of here is casting people into hell as we speak, then what does
his love have to do with salvation? What does it have to do with
it? The love here needs to be pictured in light of what was
going to happen that night when he sweat great chops of blood.
He saw sin in a way that we have never seen sin. And on the cross
of Calvary the next morning he was nailed there naked between
heaven and earth, covered in the excrement of men and covered.
in the curses of those who walked by and drenched in his blood
from head to foot, as a holy God poured out his infinite wrath
upon his Son. And Psalm 110 says, He will not
leave my soul in hell. And those hours on the cross
and in his death, the Lord Jesus Christ suffered hell. In His infiniteness He did. He
did all that Almighty God could do, with strength enough and
none to spare. We keep forgetting, don't we,
that the God of the New Testament and the God of the Old Testament
are all exactly the same God. And this God who loves us is
the same God who destroyed a whole world populated with millions
or billions of people and saved just eight of them. And he looked
down from heaven and he saw that every thought of all of those
people, Noah included, every thought and every imagination
of his heart was only evil and that continually and God poured
out his wrath on them. This is the same God. This Lord
Jesus Christ is that same God who destroyed a superpower and
buried Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea. This is the very
same God that destroyed 600,000 of the Israelites on the way
through those 40 years of wandering and killed them in vast numbers
because of their wickedness and their rebellion against him.
This is the same God that is pouring out his judgement upon
this world as we sit here and speak. Romans 1 makes it really
clear what's going on in this world, doesn't it? I want us
to have a contrast. I want us to appreciate the love
of God. Unless we see what happened in
the garden, unless we see what God the Father did to His Son,
unless we see something of the sinfulness of our sin, we won't
see the measure or the treasure of His love. It says in verse
18 of Romans 1, it says, For the wrath of God is revealed
right now from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men who hold down, who suppress the truth of who God is, suppress
the truth of the gospel in unrighteousness. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them, for God has showed it to them. They are not ignorant. and they
are not innocent. We spend a lot of time hearing
people talking about, this person has such a good heart. Well,
God looked at that heart and he said it's deceitfully wicked
and beyond cure. And these people can look into
the hearts of another person and say, I'm pleased that people
aren't as evil as they could be, but I'm most, most thankful
to God Almighty that he restrains the evil in us and in this world
that we might be sitting here this morning in what appears
to be relative peace. God showed it to them, for the
invisible things for him from the creation of the world are
clearly seen. So they clearly see it. According
to God they clearly see it. Anyone who says they don't is
just lying. God is true. Let God be true
in every man and liar. Being understood. by the things that are made,
even his eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse.
Because that when they knew God, they glorified him not as God,
neither were thankful, but became vain in their imaginations. Where did we get all the images
from? that pollute this world and particularly pollute this
religious world, all their crosses and all their icons and all of
their statues and all, out of the imaginations of people. That's
where images come from. And their foolish hearts was
darkened, professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image
made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed
beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them
up. This is the judgment of God upon
this world, isn't it? God leaving you to yourself. allowing you to walk your own
path. God gave them up to uncleanness
through lusts of their own hearts to dishonour their own bodies
between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie. They changed the gospel, they
changed the reality of who the Lord Jesus Christ really is,
who is the truth, into a lie. The Jesus of this modern world
and the Jesus of modern religion is a lie. According to God it's
a lie. and worshipped and served the
creature. That's exactly what natural man
is doing all the time. More than the Creator who is
blessed forever. Amen. For this cause God gave
them up. God gave them up. God gave them
over unto vile affections Even their women did change the natural
use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the
men, leaving the natural use of woman burned in their lust
toward one another, men with men working that which is unseemly,
receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which
was right. Even as they did not retain God
in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind. That's the world we live in,
brothers and sisters. That is the world that's under
the judgment of God. If you are going to be amazed
at the love of God, you need to be amazed. equally amazed at the holiness
of God and the faithfulness of God and the justice of God. And also we need to be extraordinarily
amazed at the fact that even though God has given them over,
he has said to every one of them, you will go this far and no further. He restrains them. If you're
going to sing, I stand amazed in the presence of Jesus the
Nazarene, and wonder how he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. God has to make you a sinner.
God has to make you a sinner. So here we are, our Lord, in
this upper room, speaking to the eleven. Judas has gone out,
so these are words written to the written to the elect of God. The love of God is in Christ
Jesus our Lord. Anyone who is not in Christ Jesus
our Lord has no reason to expect that God loves them one little
tiny bit. He is benevolent over all of
his creation and merciful in remarkable ways. And he sends
his Son on the just and the unjust. He sends rain on the just and
the unjust. What's it mean for the just? Thankfulness to God. Another breath and another time
to live for His glory in this world. What does it mean for
the unjust? Surely it cannot. but mean greater
condemnation because of the extraordinary bounty that he pours out providentially
upon this world. I want us to love him. I want
us to rejoice in his love, but the more I see what I am and
the more I see what my race is and the more I am caused to wonder
at the glory of his love, on this night of nights, this man
of sorrows and acquainted with grief, These men who represent
his church, and he comes with words of comfort. He says, don't
let your hearts be troubled. Believe in me. Everything I'm
doing has a purpose, an aim, an end, a goal. I go to prepare a place for you,
a place of love and peace and communion. This faith will be
swallowed up and hope will be gone. What remains? What is the emotion of the new
creation? Love and adoration for our Saviour. How comforting is love? Some of you are in love and some
of you have been in love and I trust that you all find love.
But isn't it wonderful? It is a wonderful, wonderful
emotion, isn't it? One of the glorious things about
love is that it takes us almost completely out of ourselves and
causes us to be focused on another. That our thoughts are captivated
by that other and we love to speak about them, we love to
think about them, we love to do good for them, we love what
is good and what is right and what is precious for them and
what is best for them. To be loved by God. To be loved by God when all the
world turns against you. To be loved by God when the circumstances
of your life are tough. To be loved by God and to know
this love that passes understanding. to abide in his love. So let's
look at these three extraordinary statements. It said, as the Father
has loved me, and the word as and the word so are the same
word in the original, and so you could read it, just as the
Father has loved me, just as I have loved you, continue ye
in my love. Even as the Father has loved
me, even as I have loved you, It means in the self-same way. In the self-same way that the
Father has loved me, that self-same way I have loved you. So the
foundation of this love is the intra-trinitarian love, the love
between the Father and the Son. In the beginning was the Word.
Before there was anything else in this whole group, in the beginning
was the Word. communion and the word was God
the picture 11 times or more it's used in these short verses
here abide it means to remain to dwell to stay to endure What
a glorious, glorious few words from our Saviour, and what a
night for them to be said. He poured out his heart, he poured
out his soul under death, but here the Lord Jesus Christ pours
out his heart and words of love to his own come out. When the
storms of sin and Satan flood in upon them, that these disciples
and we who believe their word might find comfort and sweet. These are sweet words of promise. The first thing I want to say
is that I pray that the Lord might grant us the grace to glorify
Him in believing the words of Him. How do you honour someone
who you love and who is your friend? You believe their words,
don't you? You respect what they say. You
reverence what they say. He says, come. Our Lord keeps
saying to us. He says, come. The end of the
scriptures says, come. The Spirit and the bride say,
come. That's what love says, doesn't
it? Love says, come. Love always
is saying, come and have fellowship with me. Come and be in my company
so I can rejoice just like the Shulamite in Song of Solomon. Don't you awaken, my love, while
he's resting here in my arms. Let me rejoice. May we just believe. Your warrant for believing is
his command to believe. Don't you love the fact that
he commands belief? What is your warrant for coming
again and again to this fountain? This is a fountain open for sin
and uncleanness, isn't it? This is a fountain open for the
comfort of God's people. His command, come, come unto
me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. I love what Augustine said a
long time ago, Lord, command what you will and grant what
you command. I love that. May this fruit, this fruit of
love in its abundance come forth as his life of abiding in us
flows. As the Father has loved me. Is there any possible reason
for doubting anything we ever read in the scriptures? Doubting
the Father's love for the Son? What's he say at his baptism?
This is my beloved Son. This is my beloved Son. At his transfiguration. This is my beloved Son. Hear
Him. When speaking of His love to
His Chosen Bride, He first takes us to the union and communion
of God the Father and God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.
The fountainhead of all love and all grace is in Him. His love is eternal. His love is everlasting. His love is the delight in the
Holy The father loved the son. Was
the son worthy of that love? Everything about the son generated
love in the father. And everything about the father
generated love from the son. He's all together lovely, isn't
he? God is love, not just God that
God loves. God is love, 1 John 4, 8. God is light, 1 John 1, 5. And God is Spirit. And the Son is love. And the
Son is light. He's the light of the world.
And the Son is revealed by the blessed Holy Spirit. What love
there was for the Father to the sun. He loved him. He loved him
infinitely and eternally before this creation, didn't he? It's
hard for us to wrestle with our tiny, finite, sinful brains to
try and comprehend what it was like for them, those three glorious
members of the Godhead, to be in union and communion with one
another. They didn't need anything. There was nothing lacking in
God that caused him to create. He created because he willed
to create. And we'll see in Deuteronomy
7 a bit later on because he loves. The source of love is in himself. He loved the sun before his creation. He loved everything about the
sun. He loved all of the attributes of the sun. He loved the glory
of his holiness. He loved everything about the
Son. He loved the Son in His incarnation. He loved the Son. The angels
sang for joy as the Son of God spoke this creation into existence. What a wonder it was as God saw
this creation. He loved his son in this creation. The body thou hast prepared me. He loved his humanity. He loved the union. He loved
the people that the Father gave him before the foundation. What
love there was. There was a bond of love and
holiness. There was no sin to pollute it.
There was no evil. There was no Satan to pollute
it. What bond of love. And the son took that bride to
himself. What love, what love was there. This is the love that he's talking
about here, isn't it? And the son, the son came into
this world and was sent into this world, not to make God able
to love this world, but because he already loved his people in
this world. He loved them from all eternity. He loved him in his humanity. He loved him in his union with
himself, bone of his bone and flesh of his flesh. He loved
him for his obedience. He loved him for his faith. Everything
that the Lord Jesus Christ did caused the Father to smile with
delight and love upon every word that he said, every thought that
he had, everything that he ever did was perfect in holiness. His obedience, His faithfulness. What does He continually pray? Father, glorify Your name. Father, You get glory for Yourself
out of everything that You're doing in me and through me. He
loved His truth. He loved His righteousness. He
loved His reigning rule over all things. Don't you love what
the Shulamite said? He's altogether lovely. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's altogether lovely. We cannot magnify Him too much. We cannot give Him too much glory. We cannot give him too much honour. Even our words just seem pathetic
compared to how glorious he is. He's full of grace and truth.
There was between them this eternal, indestructible, essential union
in the beginning God. That's where this love comes
from. as the Father has loved me. The Father, John 3.35, the
Father loved, just listen to some of his descriptions. I mean,
the Father loveth the Son and has given all things into His
hands, John 3.35. The Father is seeking worshipers,
and they're gonna worship Him in spirit and in truth. The Father
works and the Son works the same work. The Father loves the Son
and He shows Him all things. The Father raises the dead and
the Son raises the dead. The Father puts all judgment
into the hands of the Son. And if you honour the Father,
you have to honour the Son. Anyone who talks about God and
doesn't talk about the Lord Jesus Christ at the same time and the
glory that is due him, He loved his life. Turn with
me to John chapter 5 and we'll just read some of these verses
because it's just glorious. The union and the way the son
speaks in such adoration of his father. We might start in verse 20. For the Father loveth the Son,
and showeth him all things that he that himself doeth. And he
will show him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raises up the
dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth, gives
life to whom he will. For the Father judges no man
but has committed all judgment unto the Son, that all men should
honor the Son even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which has sent him. Verily,
verily, truly, truly, amen, amen. I say unto you, he that heareth
my word and believeth on him that sent me hath in their possession everlasting
life. When did everlasting life begin? People think that it starts when
you make some decision and goes on into the future. That's not
everlasting life. Everlasting life has no beginning.
Unless God has a beginning. It has no beginning. Everlasting
life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from
death unto life. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead, the dead in sin,
shall hear the voice of the Son of God. What power there is in
the voice of the Son of God? May he be the one who speaks
to us. The Father, John chapter six,
gave a people into his Son. All that the Father, John 6,
verse 36, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Did he give them in love? Were
they received in love? Were those wedding engagements,
actions, transactions before all time, were they done in love?
Had to be. As the father hath loved me. As the father hath loved me.
The father loves the son, someone who is worthy of his love. as
one in whom his soul delighteth. So have I loved you, even so
in the self same way. Behold my servant, Isaiah 42,
verse 1, whom I uphold, mine elect in whom my soul delighteth. He delights in him. Let's turn
with me to Deuteronomy chapter 7. It's such a significant verse
of scripture, such a delightful verse of scripture. Deuteronomy
chapter 7 verses 6 and 8. He speaks of the elect, the true
Israel amongst Israel. He says, and holy people unto the Lord. The Lord thy God hath chosen
thee to be a special people unto himself. above all people that are on
the face of the earth. The Lord did not set his love
upon you, nor choose you because you were more in number than
any people, for you were the fewest of all people. But because
the Lord loved you, and because he would keep the oath, the covenant
that he had sworn unto your fathers, has the Lord brought you out
with a mighty hand. Everywhere God's love is spoken
of is always spoken of with an effect. He loved us and, again
and again, he loved us and washed us in his blood from our sins. Divine election flows from God's
love. We just read it there. And he
says in John 15, you didn't choose me. You didn't choose me. There's
absolutely nothing in us by nature. Our hearts are at enmity against
God. God chose us. All the attributes are joined
as one in our God and so is His love. His love is holy love.
His love is just love. His love is sovereign love. His
love is faithful love. His love is wise. It's immutable.
His love is pure. His love is wholehearted. His
love is deep. His love is personal. So have
I loved you. His love is intelligent, enduring,
eternal. You just add all the attributes
of God, all the adjectives that you can, and put them in front
of that. That's how the Father loved the Son, and that's how
the Son loves us. It's unchangeable, and it's communicated
love. You who love, love to communicate
your love, don't you? I love to see her and I love
to know that she's enjoying herself. But I love to talk her, but in
a couple of days time, I'll hold her in my arms again. That'll
be a different thing altogether, isn't it? We love him because,
you can finish the verse, he first loved us. We love him in
all his attributes, in all his words, in all his works. I am
the true vine, he says. All truth flows through this
vine, giving life and fruit to the branches. Love for him, his
people, his word, his glory, his salvation, his cross. He's going to the Father, having
borne our sins in his own body on the tree. And he's now in
his Father's presence. If you loved me, you'd rejoice.
You'd rejoice that I'm going back to my Father's presence.
you would rejoice. And now he sends the blessed
Holy Spirit to take these things of the Lord Jesus Christ, even
as I have loved you. The true vine, the true husbandman,
all true spiritual life is just in this one vine. The true vine
rested on the rock of his father's love and rested on the fact that
his father's purpose was for the glory of his holy name and
for the good of all of his people. And he lived for the glory of
his father and his truth. The branches do likewise. His
love looked at the object of his love and all love does. And
all the branches do in exactly the same way. They lean. They
lean. They lean upon his breast. They lean upon his love and his
love sustains them. They rest in his bosom and they're
carried in his arm. His love comes before our love. His love accompanies our love.
His love follows our love. His love creates more love to
Him in our hearts. His love is the basis of His
eternal covenant engagements. For us who are believers, how
does the Father love the Son? as one with himself, as the one
chosen to be his servant and be his witness and to be loved
of him. The father loves his son because
he's his child. Oh, what manner of love the father
has bestowed on us that we should be called the children of God.
The Father loves the Son because He's the rightful heir of all
things. The Father loves the Son and shows Him all things
and He loves His people in the same way. The Father loves the
Son because He's glorified in Him. The Son loves us because
He gets glory in our salvation and in our communion with Him.
The Father loves the Son as one who In Christ we are worthy of the
love of God Almighty, and from this love flows all his acts
of grace and mercy toward his bride. Greater love, verse 13,
John 15, hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life
for his friends. In the time of love he comes
and reveals love to us, unimaginable. Too hard to get a hold of, but
not too hard just to simply rest in and believe, like a vine resting
on a rock, bearing fruit. May the Lord bless his words
to our hearts. Let's have a break, thank you.