I just want to look at one verse
today in John Chapter 14 and we'll just look at it briefly.
But I want us to be reminded of the flow of the Lord Jesus'
message to these apostles of his and to us. Because he says,
If you love me, keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father and he shall give you another
comforter that he may abide with you forever. The and joins these
two thoughts together. And so I love the glorious description
of the Blessed Holy Spirit. He is the comforter, the comforter,
another comforter, one just like me. He has been the comforter
of these people, these men, for three and a half years. In all
the circumstances of their lives, He provided. In all the circumstances
of their life, He protected them. In every situation where they
were in trouble, the Lord stepped in and intervened, and He sent
them out. And they proclaimed the Lord
Jesus Christ, and they came back rejoicing. I came back rejoicing
over the fact that the demons submit to them in the name of
the Lord Jesus Christ and he immediately turned round to them
and said, that's not what you ought to be rejoicing in. that
your names are written in heaven. You rejoice in who I am and who
my Father is and who the Blessed Holy Spirit is and who you are
in me from before the foundation of the world. That's the place
of our rejoicing. We fix our eyes on Him who is
the author and the finisher of faith. The blessings are sweet
and the blessings come, but because that's embedded in this remarkable
statement of our Lord Jesus Christ. In the original it says, If you
love me, the commands of me you will keep. There are a couple of things
that need to be said just on the surface of this sentence.
One is, the if implies that there are many, many people who don't
love the Lord Jesus Christ. The second one I want you to
see, if you love me the commands of me you will keep, is the glorious
comfort that the Comforter will bring that God's children are
in an eternal covenant of grace with God and everything that
they are required to do comes from God Almighty who must supply
it. And He supplies it all in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Because if you're like me, immediately
when you read a sentence like that, I wonder whether I do love
Him. And when it comes to the commandments of God, have I kept
them? Well, let's just look on at this. In the Lord Jesus Christ, all
the promises of God are yea and amen. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
all of what God requires in terms of perfect holiness and perfect
obedience to the law of God and perfect satisfaction of the wrath
of God for every single sin of every one of God's elect They
are bone of his bones. He is the head and we are the
body. What the head suffered, the body suffered as well, which
is why Paul says, I'm crucified with Christ. Because that's what the comforter
is going to do. And so before we get caught up
in too much of looking at ourselves, we need to be reminded of the
glories of the covenant of grace. And the glories of the revelation
of the character of God in that covenant. If, let's just look
at these words briefly, if not all men love the Lord Jesus Christ,
not all men love God, Men are very happy to love a God of their
own construction and making, a God who does their bidding.
Men love to love a God who loves everyone and died for everyone
and wants everyone to be saved. Men love a God who allows them
to be on the throne of their lives and on the throne of this
universe. But men by nature hate God. We mustn't think that people
are wandering around in a blissful state of neutrality. Men hate
God. Listen to what the Lord says
in the next chapter of John, chapter 15, verse 18. If the
world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. They hated the Lord Jesus Christ. If you were of the world, if
your origin was in this world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you. Remember the word that I said
unto you. The servant is not greater than
his lord. If they have persecuted me, they
will persecute you. If they have kept my saying,
they will keep yours also. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they have not had sin, but now they have no cloak
for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my
Father also. People hate him without a cause. There is no cause for the hatred
of humanity in the Lord Jesus Christ. The cause of all the
hatred is in man, and especially in man exposed, and particularly
and especially in religious people exposed. Turn with me to Luke
chapter four, and I want you to see that this if conveys a
challenge to us about those who truly love the Lord Jesus Christ
or not. And you know the story well,
and we've quoted it often, but the Lord Jesus Christ returned
in the power of the Spirit, verse 14 of Luke chapter 4, into Galilee
and there went out a fame of him throughout all the region
round about and he taught in their synagogues being glorified
of all. So he was teaching and people
were glorifying him in it. And he came to Nazareth where
he had been brought up and as his custom was he went into the
synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read. And there was delivered unto
him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book
he found the place where it was written. This is his description
of his ministry. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me. because he hath anointed me to
preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captive, the recovering of sight
to the blind, and to set at liberty them that are bruised. and to preach the acceptable
year of the Lord, it's the year of Jubilee. And he closed the
book and gave it again to the minister and sat down. And the
eyes of all them that were in the synagogue were fastened on
him. And he began to say unto them, this day, what a remarkable
statement, this day, this is this scripture fulfilled in your
ears. It was written over 700 years
beforehand. And all, listen to what these people, these people
not only had him preaching around there, but they'd had him living
there for probably the best part of 30 years. They had living
in their town the only holy person who has ever walked on this earth. Never a thought, never a thought
in his innermost being that was dishonouring to God. Never an
action that wasn't glorifying his Father and loving those people. And he'd come not only there, but
he'd come to preach in the synagogue. This was in church. They wondered, and all bearing
witness, and wondered at the gracious words. They acknowledged
that these were gracious words. What had they ever done to deserve
God to come to them? It's an act of grace which proceeded
out of his mouth. And then they said, They started
looking at the things of this world and looking at him in his
flesh, and they said, Is this not Joseph's son? And he said
unto them, You will surely say unto me this proverb, Physician,
heal thyself, and whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum,
do also here in thy country. And he said, Verily I say unto
you, No prophet is accepted in his own country, but I tell you
of a truth, Many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah,
when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, when great
famine was throughout the land. But unto none of them was Elias
sent, save unto Sarepta, a city of Sidon, unto a woman that was
a widow. A Gentile widow. God saved. And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elisha the prophet, and none of them was cleansed,
saving Naaman the Syrian. Isn't it remarkable? He's just
quoting two Old Testament passages of scripture about the sovereign
grace of God. Naaman was a Syrian. Both of
these people were Gentiles. Now these people had known him
for 30 years. They'd heard about the marvellous
works that he'd done around here. They'd heard him preach and they'd
declared that these are wonderful words and these are gracious
words. They'd heard him make the most remarkable statement,
the scriptures are fulfilled in your sight. Listen to what
they say. all in the church when I heard
these things were filled with wrath. Do you see my point? People are
happy to love a God of their own construction, a God of their
own making, a God who for these Jews was going to reward them
for their goodness and set them upon the thrones of this world
in the most remarkable way. They rose up and thrust him out
of the city. In the city if you look on Google
Maps you'll see that Nazareth has this huge cliff. This just
wasn't a little hill they were throwing him down. They were
throwing him down an enormous cliff. The purpose was to completely
destroy him and remove him from their sight. and led him under
the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they
might cast him down headlong. And don't you love the absolute
sovereignty of our great God and Saviour? But he passing through
the midst of them went his way. He didn't say a single word to
them, asking them to change their minds and be kinder to him. He
did as he did in John chapter six and in many other places.
He just walked away. And he says to his servants,
leave them alone. What a terrible judgment on Nazareth. If you turn to Matthew 11 at
some stage in your leisure, you'll see that they are today worse
off than Sodom and Gomorrah, they and Capernaum and others.
And so the if, going back to our text in John 14.15, if you
love me, if you love me, keep my commandments. If you love
me, The love of God for His people
is reciprocated in Him causing them to love Him. We love Him. Why? Because He first loved us. And we love Him in all of His
attributes and we love His Word and we love His being and we
love His people. This love is a rare love. This
love is a precious love. This love is a divine love from
above. If you love me. That famous chapter
that's read so often in all sorts of situations in 1 Corinthians
13. I love how our translators have
used the word charity for love. Because charity implies Love
in action. Charity. This love, verse 4, it's a great
description of the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's turn for want of
time, go to 1 Corinthians 13, verse 4. Charity suffereth long,
and is kind. Charity envies not. Charity baunteth
not itself, is not puffed up. It does not behave unseemly,
it seeketh not her own, is not easily provoked, it thinketh
no evil. It rejoices not in iniquity,
but rejoices in the truth. It beareth all things, it believeth
all things, it hopeth all things, it endureth all things. Charity
never dies. faileth. Love never faileth. And you could insert the word
the Lord Jesus Christ there for charity in that chapter and you'll
do no harm to the scriptures at all. The Lord Jesus Christ
never faileth. Never faileth. He bears all things. He bears the fact that for those
of us who do love Him, we're embarrassed so often to declare
it, because we know that in this flesh our love is mixed up with
so much self-love. If you love me, as I said earlier
in John chapter 11, Mary and Martha appealed to the fact that
they knew that the Lord loved Lazarus, the one whom thou lovest
is sick. To go back to the business of
keeping commandments, if their appeal was on the basis of Lazarus's
obedience and Lazarus's acts, they would have said, the one who loves you is sick. But note the appeal of these
women. They appeal to the Lord Jesus
Christ on the basis of grace, not on the basis of what they
have done, but on the basis of what the Lord has done for them. The end of the commandments is
love. The end of the commandments,
the goal of the commandments is love. In Mark chapter 12 the
Lord is dealing with some religious people and he says in Mark chapter
12, and one of the scribes came,
verse 28, and heard them reasoning together and perceiving that
he had answered them well asked, Which is the first commandment
of all? And Jesus answered him, The first of all commandments
is, Hear, O Israel, the Lord. Our God is one Lord, and thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy
soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. This is the first commandment. And the second is like, namely
this, that thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. There is
none other commandment greater than these. And the great example, of course,
of love is the Lord Jesus Christ laying down his life. The people who in their nature
as Adam's children had no love for him whatsoever. No love for
him. He has the power to lay down
his life and take it up again. It's interesting in John chapter
12, he says this is a commandment. He has received commandment from
his father and his commandment is life everlasting. But in John
chapter 13 he says, verse 34, A new commandment I give unto
you, that you love one another. We looked at that some weeks
ago, but it's new in so many ways, isn't it? It's new in the
power that operates in the hearts of God's people. It's new, it's
the love that comes from the new creation, it's the love that
is generated by the union of these people with the Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, God who is love. It's interesting when you think
about the Lord said greater works than these shall you do and if
you ask anything in my name I will do it. You think of what happened
to these apostles. It's extraordinary when you read
the other gospel accounts. You find that on the way and
in that supper they were having debates amongst themselves, weren't
they? They were having a debate amongst themselves about who
is the greatest. Is there any love in that? Do
you feel loved when someone exalts themselves above you and seeks
a place of prominence above you? You don't, do you? That's exactly
what they were squabbling as he was preparing to wash their
feet and go to the cross. They were squabbling about who
is the greatest. James and John were wondering who is going to
sit on your right and left hand. They even conspired to get their
mother to come to the Lord Jesus Christ and ask a favour of him
so that they could have the seats of promise. Was there any love?
Was there any love for other people in those actions? When
Peter boldly declared in the upper room, he said, Judas is
gone. He says, I know. I know these
other 10, Lord. I know what's in their hearts.
I know how weak and fickle they are, but I'm going to death with
you. Was there any love in those statements? And after the resurrection and
after the Spirit came, you have those glorious descriptions in
the book of Acts of the glory of the fellowship that they had
one with another. And they had all things in common
and no one held any possessions to himself. Whatever I have of
mine is yours, you're welcome to it, you're free. They had engendered in their
hearts by a sovereign hand of God Almighty and the power of
the Blessed Holy Spirit, they had a love for each other. They
had the most amazing love for each other. And it wasn't a weak
and fickle love, wasn't it? It was a love that caused Paul
to stand before Peter and rebuke him to his face in front of some
other people. And Peter turns around and says that Paul's description
of this, written for all men to see for the rest of time,
Paul is writing scripture. much scripture as the Psalms
and Proverbs. Why don't you turn with me to
1 John and we'll spend a little bit of time looking at these
commands of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what is the purpose of it?
And I want to remind you of what the scriptures say, that faith
worketh by love. Faith works by love. But you listen to these words
from John. that which was from the beginning,
1 John 1 verse 1, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled
the word of life. For the life was manifested,
and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that
eternal life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto
us. That which we have seen and heard
declare we unto you, that you may also have fellowship with
us. and truly our fellowship is with
the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. These things we write
unto you that your joy may be full. Does the Gospel come to
you as joy? Does the fellowship around the
Gospel come But when they come back from
America, just ask them. Just ask them. And we'll have John Reeves come
here and Kevin come in a few months' time. And there is a
bond between the children of God. And we can attest to these
things that your joy may be full. This then is the message which
we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and
in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship
with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light,
as he is in the light, We have fellowship one with another and
the blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin. And if we say we have no sin,
and the word sin there is a noun, it's describing what you are
by nature, We deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us if we confess our sins, and to confess is to
say the same as God. He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say we have not sinned, and there the word sin is a verb,
if you haven't done it, We make him a liar, and his word is not
in us. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that you sin not, and if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father. That second sentence I just read,
and, can be translated when, and it is in other parts of this
book. When any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the righteous. See, to love the Lord Jesus Christ
is to love him as he is revealed in these scriptures. Is there
a single attribute of God that you find offensive in any way? God's children love all of him. We love all of him altogether. We'd love to love him and feel
the adoration of him and our adoration for him so much more,
but we love him. We love him as he is, and to
love him as he is is to love what he says. It's to love him. Let the word of God dwell in
you richly. Let it be rich in you. And the one place and the one
way that we can demonstrate our love for him is in the fellowship of believers. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ and everyone that loveth him
that begat. He is the one that causes the
new birth. You'll only love him when you're
born again. You'll only truly love him through
the new creation that he works in our hearts. You love him, you're going to
love, loveth him also that is forgotten of him. By this we know that we love
the children of God, when we love God and keep his commandments. If you love me, you shall keep
my commandments. How do I want to be loved by
you? I want to be loved. And I want love in return. I
do. And I pray that you do as well.
It's such a basic heart desire of all humanity. How do you love
me as a brother in Christ? Tell me how amazing my Saviour
is. Tell me all about Him yet again. Tell me that even in the trials
you're suffering, He is an absolute sovereign God and He is working
all things for the good of those who love Him. Tell me again what
happened on the cross. Tell me again. of an eternal
union with the Lord Jesus Christ that took him, brought him to
this earth, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world,
caused him to come here and don human flesh. and live the life
that I must live before God in perfect holiness to his law and
perfect obedience and love to his father. Tell me he did it
again. Tell me the old, old story. Tell me slowly. Tell me again. Tell me that on the cross of
Calvary, he bore my sins in his own body on the tree. Tell me
about the fact that in union with Him I've been risen with
Him. Tell me that even though I can't see it and I can't understand
it, He says that I'm seated with Him in heavenly places right
now. Tell me again that He's left His people here but He hasn't
left them alone. Tell me that He's with us and
He's in us and He's amongst us and He's left us here for just
a time and He's coming back to take us to Himself and to be
with Him forever. Tell me that salvation is all
of sovereign grace and nothing of works at all. That God loves
me as he loves his son, because I'm in his son. Tell me the gospel
again. I'm going out into this world
like you are and we'll get our heads kicked in and we'll get
knocked down by a million different circumstances and we'll have
like all of humanity has had. We'll have times when we feel
like we're walking on a mountaintop and then in a heartbeat we're
down in a valley despairing. I just need to hear the gospel
again, brothers and sisters. I need to hear the gospel. John chapter three, and we'll
see what this commandment is. This is the commandment. The commandments are extraordinary, but this summarizes
all of the commandments of God for his children. He says, He calls us, Beloved,
if our heart condemneth not, then we have confidence toward
God. Only the Gospel will cause our
hearts and our guilty consciences to be set free because the Lord
Jesus Christ has done it all and the Fathers accepted Him.
We have confidence before God and whatsoever we ask, we receive
of Him because we keep His commandments and do those things which are
pleasing in His sight. What a remarkable description
of the children of God. And this is his commandment,
that we should believe on the name of his Son, Jesus Christ,
and love one another as he has given us commandments. And he
that keepeth his commandments dwelleth in him, Where does the power to keep
the commandments, where does the power to love God come from? It comes from Him living in us
and dwelling in us and being with us. You're not alone, brothers
and sisters, in Christ. You can't be alone. Nothing can
separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
our Lord. He that keepeth his commandments
to believe, to love,