Would you turn, if you're not
there still, back to John chapter 14? I want to bring a message
entitled, If You Love Me. I guess the reason I want to
bring a message of that title is because when the Lord asks
a question, if you love me, I can't help but think I want to. I really want to love you, but
I'm not sure. And so there's this significant
concern I have about my own love for the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm
confident in His own love for the Father and for His people,
but I'm not so confident in my own self. So this is a sermon
for me. It's a sermon for me. My great
desire, my desire is to please the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, if you love me, keep
my commandments. And I know that his commandments
are not grievous. They're not heavy. It's a joy
to depend upon him for all grace, to do what he says. And you know,
when you love somebody, you want to please them. As a child, I
remember wanting to make my mom happy, and I remember the disappointment
I felt if I thought I didn't make her happy. I think that's
true of most of us. You want to please your parents,
but there's just something that hurts when the one that you admire
and love gives you that look that you failed to do what they
wanted you to do. And it's a disappointment. But that's not the disappointment
I'm talking about. I'm talking about that desire
to please the one you love because you love them. Now, as I say,
this is a sermon for me. So I hope that you can get something
out of it. because I figure if it's something
for me, perhaps you also need it as well. The first thing I
realize is that in order for me to love the Lord Jesus Christ,
He is going to have to give me that grace. He's going to have
to give me that grace. And so, this sermon is an expression
of my own great need, a need for God's grace. And then also,
in this very chapter that we read, he says in verse 13, whatsoever
you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may
be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask anything in
my name, I will do it. And then immediately in verse
15, he says, if you love me, keep my commandments. So the
first thing I want to do is I want to understand what those commandments
are. I want the grace to do them. And I find that here he's telling
us, the Lord Jesus is telling us, if you ask, if you ask whatever
you ask in my name, I will do it. And so we see here that the
Lord Jesus is ready and able to fulfill our prayer requests. which we make to Him, and He
wants to. And so my prayer request is, Lord, give me this love.
Give me this love. And at the same time, I realized
that we grow in love. We don't just go from no love
to fully on loving Christ. But I realized that love is something
we grow in, just like it is with our own relationships with our
parents, or our children, or our wife, and so on. The longer
you're with somebody, the more you tend to love them. and you
depend upon them. So that is true, that we grow
in love, but I also realize that this disappointment in myself
makes me groan, because I don't love as I ought to love. But there's something about love
that I think is antithetical to the world. The world teaches
us to go and get all that you want. But it turns out that that
desire, that pursuit, that ambition to get for myself leaves us empty,
it leaves us unsatisfied, it leaves us unrestful, with no
peace. And here's the thing you learn
about love, especially when you see it in the Lord Jesus Christ,
is that love brings joy to the one who loves. And for us to
love, we have to give. And to give means that we don't
seek our own way, but we seek the benefit, the good of the
one we love. So here's what we learn about
love. It's not what you do to get something, but it's what
you do to give that is love. And it's that love of giving
that actually causes you the greatest rest and joy in the
experience of it. And so, when the Lord Jesus Christ
talks about his own love, he talks about himself giving, and
he says, we'll look at those verses in a minute, but Therefore,
I want my life not to be lived for myself. I don't want to live
for myself. I don't find any satisfaction
in living my life for myself. But I do find joy in being able
to do something, however small, because that's really all you
can do. For someone else that I love, I love to see whatever
you do delight that person. And that gives me a measure of
joy. So the principle is there, just
like it is with your parents when you were younger. You remember,
I'm sure, have some faint memory at least of of the joy on your
mom, or your dad's, or your brother, or your sister, or your wife,
or whoever it was, your school teacher that you wanted to please,
and they felt joy because of whatever you did for them. That's
what the Lord is talking about here. The joy that He felt in
giving Himself. For the joy that was set before
Him, He endured the cross. And so I know that love gives
and I want my life not to be lived for myself. There's a text
of scripture that says, let him that stole steal no more, but
rather labor that he might have to give to him that has need.
And so this describes the before and after of faith in Christ. That if a person comes to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and they see God in him, they see
this one who is so humble and so selfless and giving and seeking
the salvation and the eternal inheritance and blessing of his
people, that they themselves also then want to labor in order
that they might have something to give. They used to steal.
Now they're concerned with giving. Christ didn't take away. He restored
what He didn't take away. And so I want also to do that.
I want to labor to give to the Lord's people because that's
what He wants. That's what pleases Him. Now
all of this really is just following the Lord Jesus Christ as he has
told us over and over. And also we see in this that
the Lord Jesus Christ has such a desire for his people. Such a desire for his people
that he considers himself incomplete without them. I can't understand,
it's beyond comprehension, how that the one who is God, who
is self-sufficient in everything, has taken to himself a people
and their nature and their obligations, and therefore he has, of his
own will, made them part of himself to the extent that he's incomplete
without them. In Ephesians 1 verse 22, it says
here that He has put all things under His feet. God the Father
has put all things under Christ's feet and gave Him to be the head
over all things to the church. The church are the believers,
which is His body. The church, those who believe
on Christ, are His own body. Notice the fullness of Him that
filleth all in all." How can that be? He fills all things
and yet His fullness is His people. Now those are just some preliminary
things about this question or this statement of Christ, if
you love me. Now this chapter is full of comfort
and it's also looking forward in this chapter He talks to his
apostles, his people, but not to them only. He talks also to
all who would believe on him, all those he had been given by
the Father to give eternal life to them and to bring them to
himself. He speaks to them all in this
chapter. And you hear the tenderness and the intimacy with which the
Lord Jesus Christ delivers this message of comfort to them. And so he, He says in verse 18, for example,
I will not leave you comfortless. What he's talking about here
is the fact that he's going to the cross. His disciples were
troubled at that prospect that he would leave them. They wouldn't
be able to follow him. He would be taken from them for
a time. And even though it would only
be for a time, there was uncertainty. They didn't know how long. They
didn't know where he was going. They just didn't understand.
But they were most troubled because there would be a separation between
them and their Lord. You see, that's the comfort the
Lord is bringing here. That's why His words are so comforting.
Because He says, I will not leave you comfortless. And He doesn't
just mean without comfort. He means as orphans. When a father
dies, his children are left fatherless. And that's what He's saying here.
I'm not going to leave you fatherless as orphans. I will come to you,
he says in the next phrase, I will come to you. Now he's talking
about him coming, not physically again, although he would come
after the resurrection, he would appear to them, but then he would
go to heaven in his body. But he's talking bigger than
that. He's talking about coming to them in a way that he had
not yet been with them, which would be that Christ would dwell
in them. Christ himself would dwell in
his people. And that's, again, beyond our
understanding to really comprehend, but we believe it, don't we?
Christ liveth in me, the song says. And the apostle Paul says,
Christ in you, the hope of glory. He also said, the life that I
now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me. And this life, he says,
that I live is not mine, it's Christ's life in me, it's Christ
in me. I live, he said, but not I, Christ
liveth in me. And so the Lord is talking about
this, I will come to you, I will come to you. So how much more
intimate is that then? Then they had the Lord when they
were with him bodily, John laid on his bosom, the Lord Jesus
Christ would be in John. he would be in Peter. And they
would know all that he said, they would understand it. They
would be able to remember it. And the comfort of him being
with them would be much more intimate because he would be
in them. And not just them, but all of his people. And so you
can see the tenderness and the intimacy and the comfort in his
words here. There's something greater coming. And that greater thing coming
is that Christ will be in you. And even though He's going to
be separated from you, He's preparing a place for you with the Father,
and then He will bring you to Himself. He's preparing you for
that place, and He's preparing that place for you. And He's
going to do that at the cross. He's going to bring reconciliation
between you and God. He's going to, by His own death
on the cross, reconcile His people to God. He's going to bring them
the just for the unjust. He would die the just for the
unjust to bring us to God. That's how He prepares us, and
that's how He prepares the place. The angels in glory would see
the Lord Jesus Christ as the great shepherd of the sheep,
going after and seeking and finding and bringing his sheep into his
fold. And he would say to them, rejoice
with me. I have found my sheep which was
lost. And all of heaven would join
in the rejoicing. because He's preparing the place
for us. Heaven's rejoicing over those
Christ identified and named as His people. He's preparing the
place and He's preparing us for that place to make us holy and
without fault and blameless in love before the Father Himself.
To give us the Spirit of His Son in our hearts so we could
cry, Abba, my Father, my father, and so he's preparing us, and
he's preparing the place. According to the will of God,
inherit the kingdom that was prepared for you by my father
before the foundation of the world, and that's the kingdom.
His father's kingdom is his kingdom, it's our kingdom, given to us. All these things are contained
in this little chapter here. But I want to focus on these
words of the Lord Jesus Christ here, where he talks to them
about his relationship to his father, first of all. And then
I want to talk about his relationship, our relationship to him, and
his to us, and how this causes us to believe on him and to love
him. All right, so first of all, let's
talk about this relationship scene in verse 10. Philip said,
after Thomas said, we don't know where you're going, how can we
know the way? And the Lord Jesus said, I am the way, I am the
truth, I am the life. He's the summation of everything.
You've been with me, you know the way. I told you I would go
to the cross to bring you to God. You know the way. You know
me. I'm the way. You know the truth. I have to be crucified. That's
the way. I am going to be crucified. That's
the truth. And my death, my obedience unto
death, would be your reconciliation, it would be your righteousness,
make you holy, bring you to God, and allow you to enter into the
presence of God through my own blood. That's the way, that's
the truth, and this is the life. Christ is life, and his life
to us is because of his righteousness. Because he did this, because
he is the way and the truth, and because he gives us his spirit,
then he comes to live in us, and he is our life. It's beyond
our comprehension, and yet it's understandable. And so these
two things seem to be at odds, but we can just continually take
this in that the Lord Jesus Christ is everything to us. And he's
everything in our salvation. He's everything in this time. He's everything in eternity.
He's the worship of our heart and spirit. He's the love of
our heart and he's all these things to us. He's the one we
believe. He's everything. And he is all that God is to
us. He is. And it's wonderful. And then Philip asks this in
verse 9, verse 8, Lord, show us the Father and it sufficeth
us. If you said that you're the way, the truth, and the life,
and you're leaving us, then, since you're leaving us, show
us the Father, and it'll be okay. No, Philip, no. You don't understand
something so fundamentally important to the way, the truth, the life,
and your comfort, your relationship to God. He goes on in verse 9,
he says, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou
not known me, Philip? He that has seen me has seen
the Father. And how sayest thou then, show
us the Father? And notice the next verse. Believest
thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words
that I speak to you I speak not of myself, but the Father that
dwelleth in me, he doeth the works. Wow. And the next verse, believe me
that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe
me for the very work's sake. I don't know how to say it, this
union between the Father and the Son, where the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Son is in the Father, and the Father is in the Son. This is a mystery, isn't it?
This is a mystery. But there's things about this
that are clear from what the Lord says, even in these verses. And I want to point that out
to us. Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me, The words that I speak unto you, I speak not of myself,
but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." Alright,
so there's two things there at least. Words and works. Whatever the Lord Jesus says,
it's the Father's words. Whatever his doctrine is, it's
the Father's doctrine. And whatever the Lord Jesus does,
it's the Father's works. It's the Father speaking in His
Son. It's the Father speaking by His
Son. It's the Father speaking of His
Son. It's the Father speaking His
Son. And it's the Father's will that
He's doing. He came to finish that work that
He gave Him to do. So everything the Lord Jesus
Christ did, it was His Father's work. His Father worked through
His Son. He worked in His Son. He worked
by His Son. He accomplished all of His work
by His Son. And you can see that's the Father
in the Son. And then the Lord Jesus said,
and I am in the Father. Now, we know that God the Father
is above all, and yet He says here, I'm in the Father. So what
we find is that whatever God the Father is speaking, whatever
His will is, whatever His word is, whatever His work is, it
is about His Son. Because the Son is in the Father.
The Father not only speaks through His Son and in His Son and speaks
of His Son and speaks His Son, but whatever God the Father has
willed, whatever His work is, whatever His doctrine is, it
is His Son. And that to me says so much,
doesn't it? That the Lord, the God of glory,
the God the Father, He communicates to us in His Son. He does the
work that He would have done by His Son. And all that is in
the heart of His Son is in His heart, because His Son is in
the Father. And all of the will that is the
Son is the will of the Father, because the Son is in the Father.
And all of the people that belong to the Son, they are the people
of the Father. They were given to the Son by
the Father, and the Son has brought them back to the Father. And
as the Father has delivered up His Son to death and did not
spare Him, So the Lord Jesus Christ gave himself for us in
love in order that he might bring us to God. The son is in the
father and the father is in the son. Do you see this? They're
one, and they're not only one in the will, and in the words,
the doctrine, and the works, but they're one in nature. Whatever
God is, the Son is, whatever God is, the Father is. And this
relationship, and this nature, and this will, and this word,
and this work is an eternal God, the eternal God. And this is
what the Son is. And so when he tells Philip this,
Philip, don't you know if you've seen me, you've seen the Father?
So that God only makes Himself known in His Son. And when He
makes Himself known, He makes known the Father and the Son. And the Son makes known the Father
to us when He makes Himself known. And so that Philip had the full
revelation of the Father in the Son, because he saw the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here we have this, the two
first persons of the Trinity given here. And so he says in
this same chapter, he says in verse 16, notice this, I will
pray the Father and He shall give you another Comforter."
Here we have the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, and He's called
the Spirit of Truth. But we know He's the Spirit of
the Father, and He's the Spirit of the Son. And here we see another
union, a union between the Holy Spirit and the Son, between the
Holy Spirit and the Father, and now we have this Trinity, this
union, and in this union there are three, and yet these three
are one. And so what a magnificent plain declaration, this chapter
is, of the Trinity of our God and our Father, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit. He's going to give
the Spirit of His Father, the Spirit of Truth, and this is
what He's going to give, and this will be Christ dwelling
in us. We should meditate on these things,
shouldn't we? We should ask him, as he says
here, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. Well,
no, no, he didn't mean I need a new truck. No, that's not what
he's talking about. No, in my name means because
of who I am. And considering who he is and
all that he is in his person and in his will and in his work,
we would never want to ask anything that's not according to his nature
or his character or his will or his doctrine or his work.
Of course not. That would be, I mean, can I
go out and sin? Can I ask him? Of course not. We don't have
to ask those questions that are senseless But we can ask the
Father, we can ask the Son, to give us this understanding. Because
we know that's His will. That His children understand.
The Father teaches them. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
Master. He is the Teacher. And the Spirit of God teaches
them. So what is He saying to us? Ask. Lord, I don't understand. Or I understand, I think a little
bit. teach me from your word, give me your word, teach me yourself
and your will and your words and your works. And so that we
see that here. And there's one other thing I
want to mention here, very important, very important, is that when
the father is said to be in the son and the son is in the father,
there's something here also in this unity that's so important.
And that's this. that the son seeks only his father's
will, speaks only his father's words, and does only his father's
works for only his father's people. And in doing this, the son seeks
to glorify only the father. On the other hand, the father
seeks to glorify his son. And so he seeks, he sends his
son to save his people who are given to his son. And because
they are His and His sons, and He's going to glorify His son,
He's going to glorify His son in their salvation. And blessing
them and giving them life eternal. And everything with that, to
enable them to know Him. And to know their relationship
to Him as His own children and the brethren of Christ. He's
going to conform his people into the image of his dear son, you
see. That's the father because the
son is in the father and the father in the son. But notice
this. Look back at chapter 12. In John
chapter 12. You see these things, it's like,
oh, I can see this now. Look at John 8 first. Look at
John chapter 8 before we begin at John 12. And I want you to
see this in verse 28. He says in verse 28, because
they didn't understand that he spoke to them of the Father,
verse 27. Verse 28, he said, then said Jesus to them, when
you have lifted up the Son of Man, now he's talking about himself,
clearly. He's the Son of Man, and lifting
up means the cross. When you've crucified me, then
shall you know that I am. That I'm he, but it means I am. And that I do nothing of myself,
but as my father has taught me, I speak these things. You see
how he attributes everything to his father? Why? Because the
father is in the son. In the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, we hear and see the Father. Amazing. Look at verse 29. And He that sent me, what are
you doing? I was sent. Who sent you? My
Father. What are you saying? I'm saying
my Father's words that He gave to me. What are you doing? I'm
doing my Father's work. Why are you doing it? For my
Father's glory. And who are you doing it for? For my Father's
people, you see. He that sent me is with me. The Father has not left me alone.
Notice, for I do always those things that please Him. You see,
what was His heart set on doing? The Father's will. Why? Because He loved His Father.
His Father was in Him. Now, turn to chapter 12. John
chapter 12. You see this, the Son is in the
Father, the Father is in the Son, and this way too. Look at
verse... 23, John 12, 23, and Jesus answers
them saying, the hour has come that the Son of Man should be
glorified. What do you mean? Well, verse
24 says, verily, verily I say to you, except a corn of wheat
fall into the ground and die, it abides alone, but if it die,
it brings forth much fruit. How would Christ be glorified?
Dying and bringing forth fruit. What is the fruit? His people.
Verse 25, he that loveth his life shall lose it. That's the
opposite of love, by the way. To love yourself, to love your
life, you're going to lose it. And he that hates his life in
this world shall keep it to life eternal. He's talking about himself.
If any man serve me, let him follow me in this way. And where
I am, there shall also my servant be. If any man serve me, notice,
him will my father honor. Notice how he's constantly bringing
his father into everything here. My father will honor the one
that serves me, because the son is in the father. The father's
mind is to glorify his son, just like the mind of the son is to
glorify his father. Verse 27, now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? Father,
save me from this hour, but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." You
see, that was the son's will, his desire, his life, everything
he did from eternity to everlasting ages. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from
heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. What does he mean? He's going
to lift up his son. He's going to exalt his son.
And in exalting his son, he's going to glorify himself in his
son. And that's the way the Father
glorifies himself. Look at chapter 13. Chapter 13,
verse 31. He says, the Lord Jesus, with
his disciples all around him, Judas now having left, therefore
when he was gone out, Judas, Jesus said, now is the Son of
Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. There you have it. If God be glorified in him, God
shall also glorify him in himself. and shall straightway glorify
Him." You see? God the Father is going to glorify
His Son. When the Son is glorified, then
God will be glorified in Him. And if God is glorified in Him,
then God will glorify Him in Himself, and then He will straightway
glorify Him. You see this relationship? Isn't
it wonderful to contemplate? Look at John 17. The glory of
the Father is seen in the Son, and the pursuit, and the will,
and the work, and the life laid down of the Son, and the rising
again from the dead, and the bringing His people to glory
is going to bring glory to His Father. John 17, verse 1. These words spake Jesus, and
lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said, Father, The hours come
for His death, obviously, and all that followed, the victory.
Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee. There
you have it. This mutual glorifying of the
Father, the Son, and the Son, the Father. And then He says
in verse 5, And now, O Father, Glorify thou me, how? With thine
own self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was. Isn't that amazing? Amazing. That's all I can say about that
verse in John 14, verse 10 and 11. I am in the Father, the Father
is in me. The words that I speak to you,
I speak not of myself, but the Father that dwells in me, he
doeth the works. The other thing here I want to
look at, and with you just briefly here now, it says in verse 19,
he says, Yet a little while, and the world seeth me no more,
because all they could see, all the world could see of Christ
is the visual. They couldn't see Him in spirit
because they didn't have the Spirit of God. So they didn't
know Him, they didn't believe on Him. So he says, yet a little
while and the world seeth me no more, but you see me. You
see, their knowledge of him was not dependent upon their physical
contact. Because I live, you shall live
also. That's union. That's union of
Christ with his people. Because I live, my life is your
life, you shall live also. Isn't that amazing? He who is
the life is my life. His life is my life. Because
he lives, because he's going to rise from the dead, then we
shall live also. Look at verse 20, at that day,
now this is after the Lord Jesus Christ is glorified and he sends
his spirit so that we have him dwelling in us, at that day you
shall know that I am in my Father and you in me and I in you. This
is union. We're in Christ. We talk about
that all the time. He's our representative. He's
our substitute. He stands before God as us, with
us. And all that He does is us doing
it in Him. And it's received by God from
Him as from us. And when we come to God, we don't
come bringing anything of ourselves, but bringing only what Christ
has brought by faith. We come to Him, to God, by Him
who offered Himself to God. So, we're coming in the Lord
Jesus Christ. We're in Him. And He's going
to be in us by His Spirit. Christ dwelleth in me. I live,
but the life that I live is not me. It's Christ that lives in
me. and I am in my Father, because we'll see then, plainly by the
Spirit of God, that everything the Father does is for His Son,
and everything the Son does is for His Father, and the salvation
of His people is the grand purpose of God for glorifying His Son,
and He's accomplished that work, and in that salvation, Christ
is greatly glorified, and we see the Father in Him, and His
humility, and His grace, and His wisdom, and His righteousness,
and His justice, in his faithfulness to his people and his power to
save us from every sin. And so he says in verse 21, he
that hath my commandments and keepeth them is he that loveth
me. And this was actually following
verse 15. He says, if you love me, keep
my commandments. And that's what I want to spend
the rest of our time on here now. If you love me, keep my
commandments. Because this is a difficult thing,
isn't it? For us. For me, I should say.
If you love me. You see, There's something that
we must always remember when the Lord tells us, what was the
first commandment that the Lord gave them in John chapter 14?
What was the first commandment in John 14 that he gave them?
You believe in God, believe also in me. Right? Wasn't that the
first thing he told them? Believe also in me. And with that command, he's revealing
to them that in trusting Christ, we're not trusting a man only. We're trusting the one who is
our mediator and who is both God and man. God manifests in
the flesh. There's one mediator between
God and men. It's the man, Christ Jesus. So
we're trusting Christ. To trust in a man, Jeremiah 17.5,
is to be a fool. Cursed is the one who trusteth
in man, Jeremiah 17.5. But blessed is the man who trusts
in the Lord. To trust in any other than God
is to be an idolater. And so the Lord Jesus tells us
here, You believe in God, believe also in me. God has given the
Lord Jesus his son as our mediator. We can trust him, our redeemer,
our surety, our substitute, our representative, the one who saves
us, our savior. Trust him. That's the first command,
isn't it? Isn't it? That's what he said
to do. Don't let your heart be troubled.
You believe in God, believe also in me. Faith in Christ for the
troubled heart. Faith in Christ. The only way
you can keep God's commandments is to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's his commandment. He said,
this is the work of God that you believe on him whom he has
sent. John 6, 29. That's the work. That's God's work given to us
to do. They wanted to, the Jews throughout their wilderness sojourn
failed to believe. That's why they died in the wilderness. It says in Psalm 78, we went
over this a couple of, three weeks ago. They trusted not in
God and they believed not in His salvation. Or maybe it's
they believed not in God or trusted not in His salvation. That was
the accusation God made of them. They wouldn't believe Him. And
that's why in Hebrews 3 it says, therefore they died in the wilderness
because of unbelief. And here the Lord Jesus Christ
says, believe. Believe me. This is the work
of God that you believe on him whom he has sent. Do you want
to keep that commandment? Do you find it difficult? Yes
and yes and no. Because, you see, we're kind
of a A paradox, aren't we? The good
that I would, I do not. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. The law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, sold under sin. You see, there's this warfare
going on. If you love me, keep my commitment.
Lord, there's no one I love more, I think. And so I'm confused,
because I don't know my own self. Lord, you look. You be my all. And so we come to him and ask
him to do for us all that confuses us about ourselves. We don't
know ourselves and we wonder if we know him. I'm talking personally
here. Sometimes that's the way it is.
But the Lord says, believe me. Look to me. I'm the way. I'm
the truth. I'm the life. God over all, salvation
of my people. So that's the first thing we
see here is that his commandment includes this first and foremost
is to look to him, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I want
to take you to a few scriptures about this now, because it's
important that we have this clearly in our mind. And first one to
go to would be 1 John, Chapter 3, 1 John chapter 3. And I want
to look at this in verse 22. He says, in verse 22, he's talking
about asking again. He says, 1 John 3, 22. Whatsoever we ask, we receive
of him, because we keep his commandments and do those things that are
pleasing in his sight. Again, I mean, I read that, and
I know it's true, but I wonder, is it true of me? We keep his
commandments. Notice the next verse. And this
is his commandment. I'm glad he told us. That we
should believe on the name of his son, Jesus Christ, and love
one another as he gave his commandment. And we say, if you're like me,
well, I can keep the first one, but I don't know about the second
one. But the problem is, is we can't keep those, can we, except
for grace. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians chapter
2. I want you to see this wonderful
revelation of how this is going to happen. How in the world can
I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ since faith is not native to
me. It's a foreign thing. He says
in Ephesians chapter 2, When we were children of wrath, when
we were dead in our sins, verse four, but God who is rich in
mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins has quickened us together with Christ, by grace
are you saved, and has raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus that in the ages
to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness
toward us through Christ Jesus. That's love. Verse 8, for by
grace are you saved. God's grace, not yours. By grace
are you saved through faith. In other words, when you are
saved by the Lord, he gives you faith to look to Christ. And that, that faith, is not
of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works. So hence, because we're saved
by grace through faith, then if we believe, then we've been
saved. Not of works, lest any man should boast, your faith
didn't come because of your works. For we are His workmanship. You see? Is God interested in
His work? Is He glorified in His work?
Is His work eternal? Is His work accomplish His will? Yes, yes, yes. We are His work. He created us in Christ Jesus
unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should
walk in them. All right, so from 1 John 3, we see that to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and to love one another is his commandment. And here that we believe on him
through his grace. As a result of His salvation,
we are the objects of His work. We are His work, and therefore
we believe. God is at work in you both to
will and to do of His good pleasure. That's the reason we can believe.
It's grace, grace, grace. That's why in 1 John 3, 22, whatsoever
we ask, we receive of Him. Lord, give me faith. Give me
faith and give me love. And yet we have to grow in both
faith and love. Look at 1 Thessalonians, the
book of 1 Thessalonians. And in chapter 3, we'll look
at chapter 3 first. He says in chapter 3, verse 12,
the Lord, this is 1 Thessalonians 3.12, the Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another, and toward all, even
as we toward you." I skipped the italics because they were
added. The Lord make you to increase and abound. You see that? The
apostle knows that love and faith are both the work of God's grace. And so also the growth of love
and faith. Lord, make them abound. And so
he prays this way. The Lord make you to increase
and abound in love one toward another and toward all, even
as we toward you. He's telling us this is the Lord's
work and it's his gift. Look at chapter four, 1 Thessalonians
chapter four. He says, verse 1, furthermore
then, we beseech you, brethren, and exhort you by the Lord Jesus
that as you have received of us how you ought to walk and
to please God so you would abound more and more. Verse 10. First Thessalonians 4 verse 10,
and indeed you do it toward all the brethren which are in all
Macedonia, but we beseech you brethren that you increase more
and more. And in verse 9, what he's talking
about was as touching brotherly love, you need not that I write
to you for you yourselves are taught of God to love one another.
And he says in verse 10, indeed you do it all. You do it toward
all the brethren which are in Macedonia, and we beseech you,
brethren, that you increase more and more." So you can see here,
love is given, love is God's work too, of His grace, and it
is increased by the Lord Himself, and we're to love one another
and to grow in that. In Luke chapter 17 and verse
5, Luke 17, I'll just read this
briefly to you. I want to say a lot about love,
but I've run out of time, so I'm going to have to pick that
up next time. But in Luke 17, 5, he says this, the apostles
said to the Lord, increase our faith. Increase our faith. Faith is a gift, and the increase
of it is a gift. And so the Lord tells them, If
you had faith as a grain of mustard seed, you might say to this sycamine
tree, be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in
the sea, and it should obey you. And so he goes on and talks about,
well, Which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will
say to him by and by, when he's come from the field, go and sit
down to meet? And will not rather say to him, make ready wherewith
I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten
and drunken, and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? So the way
with servants is, the master doesn't say, now you sit down,
and I'll serve you. No, the master tells the servant,
you serve me. Verse nine. Does he thank the
servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trust
not. In other words, no. So likewise,
here's verse 10, when you shall have done all those things which
are commanded you, say this, we are unprofitable servants. We have done that which was our
duty to do. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Lord, increase our faith. All right, say this, you are
an unprofitable servant. I am an unprofitable servant.
I'm a great sinner, nothing at all. Everything I do is unprofitable. The Lord doesn't need it. It's
my privilege to do it for him. And to believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ doesn't benefit him. To love one another doesn't benefit
him, but it does, it is the fruit of his work in us. It's the fruit
of the spirit, and we'll get to that next time. I want to
stop today so that we don't wear you out with these things. There's much to say about love,
and I'll try to get to that. Let's pray. Father, we pray,
Lord, that Lord Jesus Christ has promised that if we ask anything
in His name, He will do it. Now, we don't presume in ourselves
to be fit in any way to make this request that He's speaking
of. In fact, we find in ourselves
every lack and every reason why we should be rejected entirely.
But because He said it, and because He is the way, and we don't make
our own way, because all grace is in Him, and He gives faith
and love to His people, and He saves sinners, therefore we come
to Him on His word, and we ask, Lord, to give us Your Spirit,
that we might truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that we
might truly love Him by loving His people. And so doing might
bear fruit to God. We can't produce what is God's
work, but we know that you can do it. It's the fruit of your
spirit. Lord, we ask, produce this in us. We don't want to
live our lives for ourselves, We don't want to pursue our own
happiness. We want to pursue the glory of
the Lord Jesus Christ and God in Him. What a wonderful Savior
that He would save such sinners as I am. And Lord, we pray that
He would magnify His mercy and grace and glorify Himself as
our dear brother Brad prayed. Find a way in all of your wisdom
and justice and righteousness and truth and grace to save us
and make us trophies to the praise of the glory of your grace. In
Christ's name we pray. Amen.