May the Lord be pleased to bless
us this morning as we consider his word. Let's turn to the Gospel
of John chapter 15 and we'll read verse 16. John's Gospel
chapter 15 and reading verse 16. Ye have not chosen me but
I have chosen you and ordained you that ye 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." These words were part of that
address that the Lord Jesus gave to his disciples on that Passover
night in the upper room remembering that Judas Iscariot had gone
out to the high priest to come and so they could come and catch
Jesus in order that he might be taken and now there were these
11 disciples with Jesus and he was speaking to them so many
wonderful and glorious truths as we can read from the end of
the 13th up to the end of this 16th chapter. And so the Lord
brings to his disciples attention so many great and important truths
and directs them very specially to the fact that their life depends
on his life. It was the life that they had
received And it is therefore why the Lord speaks so clearly
about the importance that they were part of the vine. And they were indeed grafted
into that vine. And if they were not in that
vine, then they would not be a partaker of it. And so he tells
them, so clearly I am the vine and ye are the branches. He that
abides in me and I in him the same bringeth forth much fruit
for without me ye can do nothing." Now we need to remember of course
that this was very near to the end of the life of the Lord Jesus. Very soon he would be taken from
them and they would not hear his voice in the same way again. And yet there were these great
and glorious truths for them to remember. and to take hold
of. So they may realize then that
there is that need to abide in Christ and also that abiding
in Christ there will be this outcome of bringing forth much
fruit and then to remember that without Him they could do nothing. They were to realize that they
had no strength and no ability in and of themselves. They had
to learn and be taught that their utter dependency was upon Christ,
and to know that they could do all things through Him. And so
the Lord Jesus brings these points to their attention, and it is
important for us to realise that the significance is that although
it was so relevant to the disciples, the words are still relevant
today to the Church of God. that are relevant to you and
to me. And so we should be thankful
for it. And the Lord Jesus again points
them to the importance that He is glorified, His Father is glorified. We must never lose sight of that.
Sometimes we tend to, sometimes we find we're very self-centered
and we look to ourselves. But the Lord speaks to these
disciples and he tells them this, if you abide in me and my words
abide in you, you should ask what you will and it shall be
done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified
that ye bear much fruit. Well, it is an important consideration
that we are fruitful in the things of God. And if we are abiding
in Christ, if we are part of the vine, then the result must
be that we shall and will be fruitful in these things. So he then goes on to tell us
of his great love. As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love. And surely this really is the
great and important and positive evidence of the life of God in
our souls, that we know something of the love of Christ toward
us. We must know something of Christ's
love toward us. Because if we do not, the truth
is that we shall never love Christ. And if there is no love, then
really there will be no point, no purpose in going to glory,
because there will be Christ. And if we do not love Christ,
and if He does not love us, then there will be no purpose in being
found in heaven with the Lord forever and ever. And the Apostle John again he directs
us to the importance of these words and he speaks to us indeed
in his first epistle and he tells us this, he says Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us. Well, how important for us to
realise that. Not that we loved God, but that
He loved us. And how true that is. We would
never love God without God loving us. We would never be drawn to
the Saviour unless We knew something of His love toward us. And so
this word is indeed so important. So have I loved you, continue
ye in my love. It's an evidence then of eternal
life. And we need to have these evidences
in our lives of eternal life. And this really is central the
love of Christ is rich and free, set on his own eternally. And this love was so great, as
the Lord tells his disciples, greater love hath no man unless
that a man lay down his life for his friends. For his friends. Remember in the Song of Solomon,
the bride of Christ, she says with regard to her beloved, when
she describes him and she says, this is my friend. Now, if Christ has shown to us
his love to our hearts, surely it is because he is our friend. And what a faith that is. And
so he says, This is my commandment that ye love one another as I
have loved you. And greater love hath no man
than this that a man lay down his life for his friends." He
describes who his friends are. He says, You are my friends,
if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not
servants, for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. I have
called you friends, for all things I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you." There is that intimacy between friends,
and there is that intimacy between the Church of God and our Saviour,
the Lord Jesus Christ. And the thing that he calls us
friends, to be the friend of God, is a wonderful and glorious
blessing. And so he comes and tells us,
henceforth I call you not servants, for the servant knoweth not what
his Lord doeth, but I have called you friends. For all things that
I have heard of my Father, I have made known unto you. And so having
set this scene really before the disciples, he now encourages
them again. And he says, ye have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you. There was, of course, the evidence
in one sense, of course, that they had chosen the Lord. And
may it be that we may choose the Lord. Remember what Joshua
said in his day. Choose you this day whom you
will serve. As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord. There is, as it were, a natural
choosing of the Lord. But we choose Him because He
chose us. He didn't choose us because we
chose Him. We choose Him because He chose
us. And that is so very clearly set
before us in the Word of God. And it is, again, a consolation
and a blessing to us. Now remember again, these disciples
were soon to be deprived of their Saviour, of their Master, the
Lord Jesus Christ who was going to leave them. And to remember
then such words as this would have been a strength and a comfort
to them. Because although these words
have of course a general application to the whole Church of God, they
had a specific reference to the Apostles, And also they have
a specific reference, therefore, to those who preach the Gospel,
as well as to the whole Church of God. And it is an encouragement
and a help and a strength to those who preach the Gospel,
as well as it must have been to these apostles to hear such
words as this, You have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and
ordained you. It was the Lord who had done
this. And remember they come from different
walks of life. There were some educated, there
were some uneducated. The Lord had chosen a variety
of men to serve Him. And it is a good picture that
we have to know that we have a God who chooses various people
to serve Him. And again, in a similar way,
of course, we are all in truth His servants. We all are to serve
Him in our little way. We should not think that we are
exempt. We should not think, well, of course, I needn't be
concerned about such a word as this today. It doesn't really
have any reference to me. Of course it has a reference
to all the Church of God. and to be encouraged then that
the Lord has spoken such words as this. You have not chosen
me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. And of course this
wasn't any new theory that has suddenly been developed and suddenly
been brought forth. It was the truth which we can
read of really throughout the Word of God. And it is a very
humbling and yet a very important and a very blessed truth. Go
back to those days of Moses, when Moses wrote to Israel again. In similar circumstances, he
was to be taken from Israel. He was coming right down to the
end of his life. And he therefore spoke, and it
was recorded, a great long discourse of the many things and many blessings
that the Lord had granted to Israel. and the things which
they had received and the way that they were to walk in. And
in Deuteronomy 7 we read this in the 6th verse, For thou art
an holy people unto the Lord thy God. The Lord thy God hath
chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all people
that are upon the face of the earth. That was true with regard
to Israel of old, and it is true of course to the whole Church
of God. It is an amazing wonder that
the Lord should indeed cause us to be a holy people unto the
Lord. And that's very important for
us to think upon, that we are a holy people. and the Lord thy
God has chosen thee to be a special people unto himself above all
people that are upon the face of the earth and then Moses qualifies
it he says 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 and the fewest of all people but because the Lord loved
you and because he would keep the oath which he had sworn unto
your fathers hath the Lord brought you out with a mighty hand and
redeemed you out of the house of bondman from the hand of Pharaoh
king of Egypt know therefore that the Lord thy God he is God
the faithful God which keepeth covenant and mercy with them
that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations. So Israel would never have been
able to vaunt their own ability. They would never have been able
to be pleased with themselves. They would always have to recognize
that it was God who blessed them. It was God who set his love upon
them. It was God who had separated
them as a special and a peculiar people. It's a great and glorious
truth to consider. And so it was not something new
that Lord Jesus was speaking to them. No, it was just a continuing
the truth, the fulfillment of those words which the Lord has
spoken so very clearly through Moses and indeed through the
prophets and we can think that even in the days of Nehemiah
and again perhaps Israel in the days of Nehemiah needed to be
reminded of the situation they were in. Remember of course they
left the the ways of God, they departed from the ways of God
and they've been carried away into Babylon and now for the
grace of God the Lord had brought them back. And he just, Nehemiah,
reminds them of the truth with regards to their inheritance
and those who had gone before. And he tells us in the 9th chapter,
he says Thou, even Thou, art Lord alone. Thou hast made heaven,
the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all
things that are therein, the seas and all that is therein,
and Thou hast preserved them all. And the host of heaven worshipeth
Thee. Thou art the Lord, the God who
didst choose Abram and brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees
and gave us him the name of Abraham. The Lord chose Abraham. There were many people in Ur
in those days and the Lord chose Abraham. He was singled out and it was him that the Lord
used to really found the people of Israel. the Lord singled out
Abraham. And in no less way really, the
Lord singles out his people today. He speaks of Jacob and in these
terms, he found him in a desert land, in the waste-hounding wilderness. He led him about He instructed
him, he kept him as the apple of his eye. Jacob didn't find
the Lord. The Lord found him and then Jacob
found the Lord. No doubt we need to ponder these
things, look into our own little lives and to think that the Lord
came to us. The Lord found us. The Lord called
us because the Lord chose us. So the Lord led Jacob about. So the Lord led Abraham about.
You know they were led, weren't they, in ways that they wouldn't
have chosen for themselves. No, they were very difficult
times they often had to pass through. And the Lord today He
chooses his people and he leads them and directs them. He chose
those apostles. They didn't have an easy life
today. Now they may have thought when they first followed the
Lord it was wonderful. They were able to observe his deliverances
and the miracles that he performed. But they were to face difficult
times. And in those difficult times
they would have needed the support of the Word of God and the support
of the Word of God to them really none less than this you have
not chosen me but I have chosen you and surely they would have
been able to hold on to that they would have been able to
latch on to that they would have been able to come and remind
the Lord in the midst of a difficult path that it was the Lord who
had chosen them The Lord had called them. The Lord it was
who was with them. The Lord it was who loved them.
All these things you see, we find direction in their hearts
to the truth of God's Word. Now you and I will need God's
Word to encourage us that we may find a foundation toward
us as we travel on through our life on this earth. It's not
a word which is out of context. It's not a word which is irrelevant.
It's a word which is recorded for the encouragement of not
only the disciples but for the Church of God down through the
ages. And so today may we be encouraged
to know that such a word has a reference directly to us. Yes,
we've not chosen the Lord, but He has chosen us. What a wonderful
blessing to know that God has chosen. And therefore, if God
has chosen us, we can be sure that the Lord will be gracious
to us and He will go with us and direct us and will not leave
us, neither forsake us. When Isaiah was called by God
to write his prophecy. In the 56th chapter he wrote
this. He says, For thus saith the Lord
unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbath and choose the things
that please me and take hold of my covenant. You see we might
think from a verse like that that all the strength and ability
resided in what we could do and what we could say. But this is
just an example of the evidence the Lord gives to us that it
may sometimes appear that it is our choice, the same as it
might have appeared when Joshua called those people to choose
that day. It may appear that we have a
choice like this, and in one sense it is true. But it's only
true because the Lord has chosen us. See, we would never choose
God ourselves, because we would never find any attraction in
God ourselves. And we would never realise we
had a need of God ourselves, unless the Lord it is that comes
and directs and blesses us and draws us to Himself. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. How important it is to have a
word like that that we can rely upon and come to the Lord with
and bring it to the Lord. And when the Paul wrote to the
Corinthians, you know, he knew his own situation, didn't he? He knew what he'd been. He knew
how bad he'd been. and therefore he is able to write
to the Corinthians and they were doing many wrong things and many
things which were not in accordance with God's word but he wrote
to them in the first chapter and tells us this for ye see
your calling brethren how that not many wise men are to the
flesh we are wise The Lord calls us and we follow the Lord. We
are wise spiritually, but not many wise men are to the flesh.
Not many mighty, not many noble are called, but God has chosen
who? The foolish things of the world. And to confound the wise, and
God has chosen the weak things of the world, to confound the
things which are mighty and base things of the world, and things
which are despised hath God chosen, and yea, and things which are
not, to bring to nought the things that are. He gives us the reason
for that, that no flesh should glory in His presence. Yes, you won't be able to glory
in what you and I have done. You know, Goliath in his day,
he was glorying in his own strength, wasn't he? He thought he could
conquer Israel by his own strength. One man. And we see how easily
he was brought down by just a single stone thrown from a sling. And it brought him right down
and David was able to go and cut off his head. Now, David
himself, the Lord raised up. The Lord chose David, didn't
he? Where was he? Looking after the sheep. Yes,
Samuel came to anoint one of Jesse's sons to be king. Where was David? Well, they thought
he wasn't important enough. He was looking after the sheep. Oh, Samuel said, is this all? Is there none other? No one else? Oh, there is one. He's looking after the sheep.
Call him. Call him. He was the one the
Lord had chosen. But God had chosen the foolish
things of the world. So perhaps we might be encouraged
because we will feel I think sometimes we are foolish. I don't think you'll be able
to think well I never make any mistakes. Sometimes you'll make
foolish mistakes. So be encouraged. God has chosen such. The furthest
things of the world. And weak. You may not feel sometimes
to be as strong as you want to be. The Lord makes us realise
we are weak so that we know our strength is in the Lord, it's
not in ourselves. You see that brings honour and
glory to God. Don't forget that. God has chosen
the weak things of the world to confound the things of the
Almighty and base things. Again, sometimes we have to realise
we are base, we are sinners, we are great sinners. You may
say, can ever God dwell here? Is there any hope for me? God has chosen you. Now when
that word comes to us as encouragement, we may feel far off, base, weak,
sinful, despised perhaps, and things which are not, not
to be counted, things that are not, well remember, that no flesh
or glory in his presence, but of him are ye in Christ Jesus. These who are chosen. You have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you. But of Him are ye in Christ
Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness,
and sanctification, and redemption. And according as it is written,
He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. The whole aim, you
see, the gospel, the whole purpose of the plan of God's salvation
is to bring glory and honor to himself not to ourselves, not
to ourselves and so how important we see a word like this is you
have not chosen me but I have chosen you so that we give God
the praise we give God the thanks we honor and glorify his great
and holy name because he has seen fit to call us sinners of
the earth out of darkness into his glorious light that we might
be those who he has indeed redeemed. Redeemed with his precious blood. Well the Apostle Paul he wrote
many letters as we know and as we think of the Apostle's letter
to the Ephesians In the beginning of that epistle as he addresses
them he says, Blessed be God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ. There was a purpose, wasn't there,
in his writing these letters and he brings it to the people's
attention to praise and honour and glorify God. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ according as
He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that
we should be holy and without blame before Him in love Again,
he directs us to a very clear, important truth that we were
chosen before the foundation of the earth. And that is something
which is beyond our understanding, isn't it? You and I can't comprehend
such great truths as this. It's very humbling, is it not,
to think the Lord should have called us and chosen us in eternity
past. according, you see, as he has
chosen us. And the result will be as it
was in the Apostle's life and his testimony, through his desire
and to praise his God, blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, that means
that we will receive every blessing that we need spiritually in this
life, which will take us through this life into that eternal life
to be with Jesus, according as He has chosen us in Him. We are only chosen in Christ,
because we are only those whom Christ has died for. those whom
he has given his life for, those who he shed his blood for, before
the foundation of the world, that we should be again holy. Remember, the Lord Jesus speaks
the same words when he wrote this epistle, this gospel, John
wrote the gospel and recorded what the Lord said, according
as he has chosen us in him, before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame, before Him in love. In love, you see. Well, do we
love the Lord Jesus Christ because of His love toward us? You have
not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. As I said, it has a specific
reference to the apostles, a specific reference to the servants of
God, And again, it will be a place of encouragement as we look back
in our lives. We may come sometimes to crossroads
in our lives, to think, well, is this true? Am I in my right
place? You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you. The Lord it is who has ordained
us. It's not we ourselves. So let's
be encouraged by that. And then to the Church of God
the Lord has ordained us. Every person, He's chosen us,
He's ordained us to live our life in this world. We are His
witnesses, you and me are His witnesses, day by day, amongst
those we live with, amongst those we work with, amongst those we're
at school with, whatever the situation. You see, God has ordained
us to walk a path to honour and to glorify His great and holy
name. And it is an ordained path, and
that path is that we should go and bring forth fruit, and that
our fruit should remain. It's not a path which is going
to be a barren path. It's not going to be a path where
there's no fruit. You see, if the Lord has truly
chosen us, the purpose is that we should go and bring forth
fruit. It's not like, you remember, the parable the Lord Jesus gave
of those who were given the talents. One ten talents, and one five
talents, and one two talents, and one one talent. He just went
and buried it in the ground. My friends, the Lord chooses
us and when He chooses us He gives us a talent. What gives
us talents, we are to use them for His honour and glory. We
are to try with them. We are not to bury them. The
Lord gives us these blessings and therefore we are to be fruitful
in the things of God and to be concerned. that we are fruitful. You see, earlier in this same
chapter, the Lord Jesus tells us, every branch in me. Now, every branch in me, and
if we are a branch in this heavenly vine, He says, every branch in
me that beareth not fruit, He taketh away. And every branch
that beareth fruit, he purges it, that it may bring forth more
fruit. We are told is by our fruit we
shall be known. It's the fruit that is observed,
is seen in our lives, which brings honour and glory to God. If we're fruitless, there's no
evidence that we are. the children of God, there is
no evidence that we are chosen. But if we are chosen, we will
be then that fruit which comes forth and is indeed for the honour
and glory of God. Many of you will know that recently
we've been going through the Galatians on a Friday evening
and we've been going through a few weeks ago and for that
which is spoken to us about the fruit. He speaks about the works
of the flesh and then he changes the style and says, but the fruit
of the spirit. He gives that list. We just read
the list, we don't comment on it. The list is love, joy, peace,
long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
and may our Christ have crucified the flesh with the affections
and lusts. There is a very useful and really
a very comprehensive list of the fruits of the Spirit. And
if you and I are therefore amongst those who the Lord has chosen
The evidence of that choosing will be shown in the fruits of
the Spirit which are displayed in our lives. There must be the evidence of
it. There must be the displaying of those things, so that they
are seen because they are for the honour and glory of God. And so, just reading them again, fruit of the Spirit is love.
You see, the love of God to us will respond, our heart love
to Him and to the Church of God, and with that love to do His
will and to follow His commands. Joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance, and may our Christ have crucified
the flesh with the affections and lusts. Well, it's an important
consideration, isn't it? As we look into our hearts to
see, we want to know, I'm sure, again and again, that we are
those who are the chosen of God. And the evidence is here, set
before us in these words. And it really is summed up in
that final clause They that are Christ have crucified the flesh. That means we are not flesh pleasers,
but we are God pleasers. We are not flesh pleasers, we
are God pleasers. We are the chosen of God, that
will be the outcome, that will be the result. And therefore
may we indeed be concerned that this is so. We know that we love
God because he first loved us. And the little letter to Titus
that Paul writes, again we follow the words there that the Lord
indicts Paul to write and he says, he explains our situation. He says, for we ourselves also
were sometimes, again foolish, Disobedient, deceiving, serving
divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and
hating one another. Not dissimilar is it to the words
in Ephesians. But after that the kindness and
love of God our Saviour toward man appeared, not by works of
righteousness which we have done, But according to His mercy, He
saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which He showed us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord,
that being justified by His grace, we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. Heirs of God, of eternal life. You have not chosen me but I
have chosen you and ordained you that ye should bring forth
fruit and that your fruit should remain. That means it's not just
a passing phase. That means it's not just that
we change our lives if you like for a few weeks. The effect of
this work of grace in our hearts is that this fruit remains as
an evidence that we are those who are chosen of God. Well,
what a favour it is then, today, if we have the evidence that
we are chosen of God and that we are doing that which is in
accordance with God's will and God's purpose for His glory. Again, just returning to the
prophecy of Isaiah, for a truth with regard to the Glory that
is required of us in our little lives to show forth His praise. This people have I formed for
myself, they shall show forth my praise. How important this
people, the people that the Lord has chosen. This people, they
are formed for Himself. And what will they do? They will
show forth His praise. No, they will show forth His
praise in the evidence of fruitfulness, which is not of the flesh, which
is of the Spirit. And they desire to honour and
glorify their Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. And surely it will
come down to this, to recognise what the Saviour has done for
them. Yes, His great work, His great love, You know the words
here spoken by the Lord to his disciples. They were yet to see
the fulfilment of his great and glorious love to them. When he
passed through Gethsemane to the Judgement Hall and came to
Calvary and died there in order to atone for their sins. Yes, greater love hath no man
than this that a man lay down his life for his friends. There was the fulfilment then
of these words that the Lord Jesus was speaking here. And he says also that whatsoever
you shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. How relevant that is for us to
remember. We are accepted in the Beloved.
It's as we come to our God in prayer through the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's for his sake our prayers
are heard. It's not for our sake. It is
so important as we approach unto our Father in Heaven. It's through
the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the only way. We must come
in this way and present our prayers for Jesus Christ's sake. Now again that will seem an irrelevance
until you and I know how important it is because of Christ's love
toward us. because of what he's done in
fulfilling all the law demanded and keeping it and making it
honourable and dying to atone for our sins so for all things
I have heard of my father I have made known unto you you shall
ask of the father in my name and he may give it you Well,
I believe as the Spirit of God may convince us of these great
truths, that the Lord is himself who has chosen us. He has not
chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you. You should
go forth as not a standing still, as not a sitting still, as a
going forth, going to him without the camp, bearing his reproach. that ye should go and bring forth
fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever ye should
ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. Amen.