Let's turn to God's Word and
I want to turn to that portion that we read in the 15th chapter
of the Gospel according to St. John and reading again from verse
12. Before we do that, thank you,
let me read the second hymn. In fact the passage I've just
declared in John 15 at verse 12 follows immediately
after what the Lord says concerning himself being the true vine.
And of course this is the theme that runs through this lovely
hymn of Top Ladies. 939 Jesus, immutably the same,
thou true and living vine, around thy all-supporting stem, My feeble
arms I twine. I can do nothing without good.
My strength is wholly thine. Withered and barren should I
be if severed from the vine. Quickened by thee and kept alive,
I'd flourish and bear fruits. My life I from thy sap derive,
my vigor from thy roots. each moment watered by thy care
and fenced with power divine, fruit to eternal life would bear
the feeblest branch of thine. As I was saying, let us turn
to John 15 and read again from 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. 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. 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 ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another. Now the words that I really want
to center your attention on for a while are those that we have
in verses 12 and 13 verses 12 and 13. As I was saying
previously, in the opening 11 verses, Christ speaks of himself
as the vine, one of those I am passages, part of that revelation
that we have in Jesus of Nazareth of him who is the great I am. that I am." Here we see him then
as Jehovah and he declares in the opening words of the chapter,
I am the true vine. And then he goes on to speak
of the father as a husbandman and those who are in him as being
fruitful branches. And so the imagery that we have
here, the vine and the branch, he sets before us the great truth
of union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are
reminded quite clearly of the vital importance of fruit. Fruit is the evidence that there
is a real union with the Lord Jesus. He says in verse 8, Herein is
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye
be my disciples. Fruitfulness is the mark of discipleship. And the fruit, of course, is
that which is spoken of in Galatians chapter 5, verse 22 and verse
23, where we read of the fruit of the Spirit. And amongst that fruit we have
mention of love, and we have mention of joy. These things
are also mentioned here. We have in verse 11 the fruit
of joy. Christ says, These things have
I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that
your joy might be full. It is Christ who is the believer's
joy, the great object of their faith, the source of all their
rejoicing. And he speaks of it as fullness,
fullness of joy, that your joy might be full. And if we just
think for a little while of what that joy is and what the real
source of that joy is, there is joy, of course, in the eternal
covenant. When we read of that covenant
back in the Old Testament, we have it many times. We see, for
example, there in the 32nd chapter in the book of the prophet Jeremiah,
words that we've referred to on previous occasions. There
in Jeremiah 32, 40, I will make an everlasting covenant with
them, says God, that I will not turn away from them to do them
good. that I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall
not depart from me. Yea, I will rejoice over them
to do them good, says God. I will rejoice over them to do
them good. God rejoices in His people in
the covenants and that is also the source of their rejoicing.
They rejoice in Him as their covenant God. And then we're
told, are we not, that there is joy in heaven when sinners
are converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Joy in the presence of
the angels of God over everyone that believes. And there is joy,
of course, when those who were once dead in trespasses and sins
are made to conform to the Lord Jesus Christ. What does John
say? John, the human author of this
gospel, of course, also writes those three epistles, and there
in that third epistle he says, I have no greater joy than to
hear that my children walk in love. Oh, the beloved apostle
could rejoice when he saw those who were the children of God,
those who were real believers, walking in love. It was the source
of much joy to the fruit of joy then. But then when we come to
the words that I said I wanted to take up for a text, it is
more particularly the fruit of love. And that's the theme, the
fruit of love, or we might say the command to love, that we
have here in verses 13, or rather verses 12 and 13. 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. And in many ways, of course,
I'm sure we're aware of the fact that love is the greatest of
all those fruits of the blessed Spirit of God. We have it there
in the 13th chapter of 1 Corinthians. I did wonder whether we might
have read those 13 verses this morning as well as reading this
particular chapter where our text is found. And of course
we have the word charity there. It's really the word love. I
suppose the reason why it's rendered in that way in an unauthorized
version is probably because there are some three words that we
have in the Greek language that have the meaning of love. There's
the word eros, which speaks of physical or sexual love. It doesn't
mean lust, it does mean love. There's the word philo, which
speaks of brotherly love. and then there is the word agape
which speaks of the divine love and I imagine that the translators
use the word charity there in that 13th chapter because throughout
it is that greatest of all the loves that we could ever know,
divine love, that is being spoken of. And what does Paul say at
the end of the chapter? Now by the faith, hope, chariton,
these three, but the greatest of these is chariton. Oh, it is the greatest thing.
The greatest of all, the greatest is all the fruits of the blessed
Spirit of God. And what is the antipathy of
that divine love? Well, it's what the Lord goes
on to speak of in the following verses here. Verse 17 following,
he speaks of the world's hatred over against the love of God. These things I command you that
you love one another. If the world hates you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world,
the world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you, the antipathy of that divine love. But coming now to the words that
I announce as a text, verses 12 and 13, this command to love,
this fruit of love. 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 friend.
Two things. A few things I said before us
here concerning the Lord Jesus, we have his commandments, his
precepts, but then he goes on also to speak of himself as a
pattern, because he is that one who lays down his life for his
friends in verse 13. So different to the Pharisees,
they might say, but they do not. What the Lord says, the Lord
does. He lives in accordance with his
own holy precepts. And so, first of all, I want
us to consider what is being said here with regards to this
particular precept. Now, we have it also back in
chapter 14, verse 15, "'If ye love me,' says Christ, If you
love me, keep my commandments. And again, what we have here
in verse 12 of this 15th chapter is repeated at verse 17. These things I command you, that
you love one another. This is the great precept of
the Gospel. And I think of the Gospel Standard
Articles and you're familiar I'm sure with the opening words
that we have there in Article 16. We believe that the believers'
rule of conduct is the Gospel and not the law. It doesn't mean that believers
are not under commandment, under authority, under precinct. that what we attend to are principally
those commandments of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says, a
new commandment I give you, that ye love one another. We read that back in chapter
13 and verse 34. It's a new commandment in a sense,
and yet, is it really a new commandment? Is it not also the old commandment? We think about John, writes of
the commandment there in the second chapter of his first general
epistle. Look at the language that we
have there in that second chapter at verse 7. Brethren, I write no new commandment
unto you, but an old commandment. which he had from the beginning.
The Old Commandment is the word which I have heard from the beginning.
Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true
in him and in you, because the darkness is past, and the true
light now shineth. And that true light, that fullness
of the revelation of God, comes of course in the Lord Jesus Christ,
who comes to fulfill all the commandments of God's holy law. All that new commandment. And
we're told that that commandment is love. And what does the Apostle
say? Romans 13.10, Love is the fulfilling
of the law. You'll be daring in that 13th
chapter verses 9 and 10 of Romans We have mention of the second
table of the law and then Paul goes on to make that statement.
Love is the fulfilling of the law. But it's not only the fulfilling
of the law, it is also the end of the law. 1 Timothy 1.5 Now
the end of the commandment, we're told, is charity out of a pure
heart. and of a good conscience and
of faith on faith, charity, love, divine love out of a pure heart. That is the end of the commandment.
And then it is demonstrated in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself. He gives a precept, but he is
also the great pattern of what it means to love. Now, Again,
when we think of the Old Commandments, when we think of the Law, remember
how Christ himself speaks of those two tables of the Law. As we have it written there in
the 22nd chapter of the Gospel according to Matthew, Matthew chapter 22, And verse
35, one of them we're told, which was a lawyer. This would be a
Pharisee who was threatened to be an expert in the law of God.
They prided themselves, of course, on obeying the laws of God and
they had a high regard for those laws and they surrounded those
laws by all their rules and regulations and all their traditions and
they, as I said previously, they simply finished up swamping the
law, destroying the law in a sense. But here is one reckoned to be
an expert. And he comes and he speaks with
the Lord Jesus. One of them, which was a lawyer,
asked him a question, tempting him and saying, Master, which
is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy
soul and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it. they shall love thy neighbor
as thyself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and the prophets." And the second table, of course,
is that one that demands love to our fellow men. The first
table speaks of commandments that have to do with our duties
before God. And the second table adduces
one to the other. And that's again how it's stated
in Leviticus 19, verse 18, they shall love thy neighbor as thyself. I am the Lord. And so Christ is not contradicting
the Old Testament law. Oh yes, he is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. He does not come
to destroy the law, but to fulfill it. And what does He say here
in the text? Love one another. Love one another as I have loved
you. That's His commandment. That's His commandment. We're
to love one another as the Lord Jesus Christ loves each of us,
if we're those who are truly in Him. And you see this mutual
loving is as mutual as the abiding. Christ says abide in me and I
in you. We abide in him, he abides in
us. Again he says here at verse 5,
he that abideth in me and I in him. Verse 7, If ye abide in
me, and my word abide in you. There's a mutuality with regards
to the abiding. We're in Him, He's in us. And
so too with regards to disloving. And He always has the priority,
the first place. We love Him because He first
loved us. says John again writing in that
first general epistle. And what does he go on to say?
If a man say, I love God and hate of his brother, he is a
liar. For he that loveth not his brother
whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?
Now there is a tremendous emphasis here then on this love. This is the commandment of the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is my commandment, that
ye love one another as I have loved you. Now, it's true here
that he is addressing his disciples in particular. But of course the whole church
is built upon that foundation of the apostles and prophets,
Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone. And so what
he is saying doesn't just apply to those first disciples of the
Lord, the apostles, it applies to everyone who is a believer
in Christ. What I sound to you, I sound
to all, he says. It belongs to every child of
God. And John, in his writings, is
constantly emphasizing this particular theme again, in terms of that
first epistle. Look at the language that we
have there in chapter 3 and verse 11. This is the message, says
John. This is the message that you
heard from the beginning, that we should love one another. Again, verse 23, this is his
commandment, that we should believe on the name of his Son Jesus
Christ and love one another, as he gave us commandment. The wonderful thing is that this
is a commandment from which we can deduce something, from which
we can draw an assurance. What does he say back in verse 14 of this third
chapter of his first epistle? We know that we have passed from
death unto life because we love the brethren. We know that we
have passed from death unto life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
abideth in death. Or we believe in the communion
of saints. That's part, is it not, of the ancient creed, the
Apostles' Creed? We believe in the communion of
saints. We love the brethren. But you know, there's a sense
in which We can even have communion with those who have gone before
us. I don't know if you find that. Sometimes when one is reading
some of those old books, those Puritan works, and you read of
the experiences of those gracious men, for example, you read the
life of a man like John Bunyan, grace abounding to the chief
of sinners, do you not feel a drawing to the man? Do you not feel a
real union to the man? Because he's experiencing some
maybe some small measure only, but it answers to ours, and it's
so reassuring when we know that we love these people. Why? Because
they're in the secret, they're in the Lord Jesus Christ. All
the importance in of this love. And now it's emphasized constantly,
it's the commandment of the Lord Jesus Christ, it's a gospel precept. So not surprisingly, it's that
that we find being emphasized by all the apostles, not just
John, also Paul. Look at what he says here, Romans
12, 10. Be kindly affectioned one to another with brotherly
love in honor preferring one another. Oh, what a standard
it is that we have then under these gospel precepts. We are
to prefer others before ourselves. Again, he says in Ephesians 4
and verse 2, forbearing one another in love. How we have to learn
to be patient one with the other. And the wonderful thing with
gospel precepts is that the motivation to obedience lies in the gospel. It's not legality, you see. We
don't keep laws in order to gain favour with gods, that's the
mind of the legalist. He thinks that he can do something
to earn the blessings of God. That's law. But what is gospel? Well, look at the language that
Paul uses at the end of Ephesians chapter 4. He says there at verse 32, Be
ye kind one to another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, even as
God for Christ's sake hath forgotten you. Be ye therefore followers
of God as their children, he continues in chapter 5, and walk
in love, as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself
for us, and offering the sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour. And then he tells us the things
that we are to avoid, fornication, uncleanness, covetousness, Let
it not be once named among you, as becometh saints, neither filthiness,
nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but
rather giving of thanks. But see the motivation. We forgive.
We forgive even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven. We walk in
love, as Christ also hath loved us. The motivation is always
found in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's because we love Him. If
you love me, he says, keep my commandments. So, we have this
clear statement, this clear commandment given by the Lord Jesus here
in the 12th verse. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. And the motivation
is in Christ. And so what does he go on to
say? In verse 13, he sets himself before us really as the pattern.
Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. That's the very thing that the
Lord Jesus was about to do. All he must need is go away.
If he goes not away, the Comforter will not come. But what is it
for him to go away? He must be obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. He loves his friends, but who
are these friends? Well, by nature, in a state of
alienation, sinners. Remember the language that we
have in Romans 5, verse 7. Scarcely put a righteous man
will one die, yet put a venture For a good man some would even
dare to die, God commendeth his life toward us. In that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. While we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Who are the friends of the Lord
Jesus Christ? Is he not himself the friend
of publicans and of sinners? what the legal Pharisees were
constantly charging him of. Matthew 11, 19, a friend of publicans
and sinners. Those publicans, they were in
the employ of the Romans, of course. They were tax gatherers
on behalf of the occupying forces of Rome. They were much hated
and despised by the people. And yet, the Lord would minister
to these sinners. Again, Luke 15. We told Andrew
and Neron to him, all the publicans and sinners, for to hear him. And the Pharisees and scribes
murmured, saying, This man receiveth sinners, and eateth with them. Now what is it for the Lord Jesus
Christ to have such a love for sinners? What did that involve? Well, it meant he had to exercise
a self-denying love. Oh, it was a self-denying love.
Paul says, you know, the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that
though he were rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that
ye through his poverty might be made rich. There is the remarkable
love of the Christ because the Christ is none other than the
Son of God. Peter's confession there at Caesarea
Philippi, in Matthew 16, thou art the Christ. But more than
that, thou art the Son of the living God. All the richness
that belong to Him. He is God and He is never anything
less than God. What self-denying love, who,
being in the form of God, says Paul writing to the Philippians,
being in the form of God, he thought it not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took upon him
the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men,
and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He is
in the very form of God, because he is God. He thinks he's not
robbery, he's not something he has to grasp after. He is equal
to the Father. The eternal son of the eternal
Father, God of God. Very God. Of very God, but makes
himself of no reputation. And takes upon him that form
of a servant, he becomes the servant of God in the covenant,
does he not? And he willingly comes to do
the will of the Father. To obey all the commandments
of the Father in order to the salvation of sinners. It's a
self-denying love that we see in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
so, furthermore, it is a self-sacrificing love. And that's what we have
here. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life For his friends he lays
down his very life." Well, what does he say? Previously
here, you know the words that we have back in chapter 10, where
he speaks of himself as the good shepherd. And the good shepherd,
what does he do? He gives us his life for the
sheep. Well, no one is able to take
that life. His life was given. It was a voluntary sacrifice
on his part. Men could not take his life.
What does he say there, verse 17 in chapter 10? Therefore doth
my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take
it again. No one take it from me, but I
lay it down of myself. I have power or authority to
lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment
have I received of my Father. although he were rich. You know,
he makes himself so poor and he will do all that is necessary
in the way of humiliation in order to the salvation of his
people. He loves the father. Oh, he loves
the father. This is why it must be about
his father's business. This is why he must do the will
of him who has sent him. He must do these things. His
motivation is clearly the love that he bears towards his father. This commandment, have I received
of my father, and if we love someone we want to do their bidding.
And this is what the Lord does. But it's not just that great
love that He bears towards the Father. It's also that love that
He bears towards all those who were given to Him by the Father.
In that covenant, that eternal covenant, there were the people
given to Him. Behold I, He says, and the children,
which God hath given Me, and He loves them as well. Here in
chapter 13 and verse 1 we are reminded of that truth. His last
celebration of the Passover where he institutes the Holy Supper
of the Lord. Before the Feast of the Passover,
when Jesus knew that his hour was come, that he should depart
out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were
in the world. He loves them. unto the ends. Oh, he loves unto the uttermost.
His love will terminate in his death, and that death a death
for their salvation. This is the Lord Jesus Christ,
his self-sacrificing love. And again, it's John, isn't it?
There in 1 John chapter 3 and verse 16. Interesting, you know. You go through the Bible, chapter
3, verse 16, time and again, when we see that combination,
chapter 3, verse 16, we find most significant text. Now I'll
leave you to discover that. But we have it there in the first
epistle of John. I'll give you a clue. I mean,
of course, we have it here in John 3, 16, in the Gospel. But there are other parts, certainly
in the New Testament, that you can you can look to. For example,
some of Paul's epistles. But 1 John 3.16, Hereby perceive
we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us, and
we ought also to lay down our lives for the brethren. Oh, there's the pattern, you
see. We perceive the love of God where in Christ laying down
His life for us. He died. He died as a substitute. He died bearing the punishment
that was due to His people. They were the sinners. They were
deserving of the wrath of God and He so readily, so willingly,
so voluntarily died as their substitute in their room and
in their stead. And what do we perceive here?
This is the love of God. And John says, we ought also
to lay down our lives for the brethren. It's the same really
as what Paul is saying, I've referred already to Philippians
2. But what does he say previous
to those tremendous statements concerning Christ? He says, let
this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus, who being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, made himself of no reputation and so forth. It's a great passage
Philippians 2, it's a wonderful passage with regards to the doctrine
of Christ, his person, his work, and yet it is such a practical
context. What is the apostle teaching? The importance of lowliness of
mind, of humility, and that's surely bound up with the way
in which we will love one another and desire to serve one another. Oh, let this mind be in you,
which was also in Christ Jesus. You see, to be the friend of
God, the friend of Christ, is to know Him, to know His mind, to understand
His will, to obey His commandments. and by that obedience to manifest
the reality of our love towards Him. Again, I quote the language of John, there in
his first epistle, chapter 4 and verse 7, Beloved, let us love
one another, for love is of God, and He that And everyone that
loveth is born of God and knoweth God, he says. There is the evidence
that we have a saving knowledge of God. We cannot escape these
things. We have to examine ourselves
in the light of these things. Greater loveth no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do whatsoever I command
you. Henceforth I call you not servants, for the servants knoweth
not what his Lord doeth, but have called you friends. For
all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known
unto you." All the friendship then of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The great love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The love of God to the
Saviour Himself, is the pattern of the Saviour's love to His
people. That's what we see here. Speaking of Christ as our pattern. But think of that! It was the
love of God to Himself that was the pattern, and is the pattern,
of His love to His people. Doesn't He say that in verse
9, "...as the Father hath loved me." So have I loved you. Continue ye in my love as the
Father hath loved me." How did the Father love the Son? It's a remarkable statement that
we have in this ninth verse. God is love, John says, twice
in his first epistle. God is love. Now, We might say
that love is an attribute of God. There are attributes in
God, characteristics. He's holy, righteous, just. But in a sense love is more than
just an attribute of God. Love is the very essence of God.
When John says God is love, God is love in himself without reference
to anything outside of himself. What is the relationship between
the persons in the Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Ghost? There's a
mutuality of love between them. How could we ever begin to understand
the love of the Father to his eternal Son? And yet what does
the Lord say? As the Father hath loved me,
so have I loved you. The wonder of that love that
the Lord bears toward those sinners who are so undeserving and so
hell-deserving. He loves them like the Father
loves Him. But then He goes on to say that
the love of the Saviour to them, the love of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the Eternal Son of God to His people, is to be the pattern
of their love to each other. That's what we have here in the
text. This is my commandment That ye
love one another as I have loved you. As I have loved you. Now, that little word as doesn't
mean equality. We can't love as Christ loves. But it does mean similarity.
Oh friends, that's what we're to desire. That we might know
what it is for that love of God to be shed abroad in our hearts. Now it searches us. Sometimes
one comes to the Word of God and you wonder, have I ever known
anything of real saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ? Do
I bear the marks of one who is in Christ by saving faith, united
to Him, communing with Him? That's how far short our lives
fall. Oh, the Lord have mercy and yet
come and visit us and shed abroad that great love in our hearts
that we might delight to do his will, that we might love his
precepts as much as we love his promises. The promises are exceeding,
they're great, they're precious. Wonderful encouragement to us.
Let us not be partial in the word of God. Oh, let us love
the precepts. This is my commandment, he says,
that ye love one another. As I have loved you, greater
love hath no man than this, that the man lay down his life for
his friends. And the Lord bless these words
to us.