John 15, this was one of those
mornings that I was unsure of which message to bring at which
time. Preaching, teaching, still it's
difficult to know the difference. We're always teaching, always
declaring the Word of God. But we're going to look at this
because I believe John 15. I believe the Lord was either
seated or at least walking in the garden teaching His disciples. This is to His disciples. And
I look around and most everybody in here professes to be so. Remember, who is speaking? The Lord is speaking. The Lord
Jesus Christ. And he's speaking to his disciple. To whom? He's speaking to his
disciples. Everything he's saying. He's
saying to his chosen, called, born again, believing, following,
loving disciple. They love him. They're all ashamed
of their love to him. Peter will be very ashamed just
very shortly. But he did love him, didn't he?
Why? That's exactly right. Because the Lord loved them. I can say I love him, can't you?
You don't say it very often because you're ashamed of it. But you
can say it when the Lord asks you. He's speaking to his disciples
and the subject he's speaking of is love. His love. Father's love. and their love
to him and one another. That's the subject, okay? Let's
look at it. Verse 9. He says, As the Father
hath loved me, so have I loved you. That's hard to believe, isn't
it? You know how much God loves you,
son? He's lovely. He's worth loving.
He's worth it. He's altogether lovely. How could
he love me? How? But he does, he said, in
the same way, to the same extent, to the same affection, in the same duration, before
the world began. It'll never end. I love this
thought, there's nothing I can do, God's people, there's nothing
I can do to make God stop loving them. That prodigal son came home and
the father, well, he couldn't get to him fast enough. That
is astounding. Astounding. So he said, continuing my love, I venture to say that what I
just said to you was worth driving here for today. His love. His love. Keep remembrance. Keep yourselves under the love,
under the gospel. Or else you'll be full of misery. Verse 10. If you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments,
and abide in His love. These things have I spoken unto
you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might
be full. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. As I have loved you. Greater loveth no man than this,
that a man lay down his life for his friend. Now, our Lord
said this several times. Look at verse 15. If you love
me, keep my commandments. Verse 21. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. Verse 23. Jesus answered
and said, if a man loved me, he'll keep my words, and my Father
will love him. We will come unto him, make our
abode with him. He that loveth me not keepeth
not my sayings. The word which you hear is not
mine, but the Father's that sent me. Now the subject is love,
and love that keeps the Lord's commandments. And our Lord said,
this is proof. This is proof. I hope you'll
read the article by Spurgeon. It's outstanding. When I put that in there and
was reading this, I was grieved thinking about some that might,
maybe not in here, but other places that might not like that
article. It's grieved me thinking about
that. Our Lord said this five or six
times, didn't He? It's like the Lord said. How could I explain
away or try to interpret? It's what he said. It's what
he said. He said in verse 10, he said,
I've kept my father's commandments and abide in his love, didn't
he? He proved his love to the father, didn't he? The Lord,
and the Lord was well pleased for His righteousness sake. God,
who never spoke out loud, because His Son was so loving and so
obedient to Him. God, may I say this, just gushing
with love to His Son, said, this is my beloved Son, and whom I'm
well pleased. This is our Lord, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as the second Adam, our covenant head, You know, that's
a doctrinal term, it's an old, well, it's a Bible term. Covenant
head, second Adam. Does everyone understand? Does
everyone understand that God deals with all human beings in
two people, Adam and Christ? Do you understand that? In Adam all die. Nobody in Adam,
no son of Adam can please God. They're all together. None good. No, not one. And one single son
of Adam by name. Not one. Do you understand that? In Christ, all may laugh. In Christ, God loves them. God's pleased with them. God
accepts them. They're God's sons. Every one
of them. Do you understand that? And it's
nothing that any of those sons did, it's what these sons did. You understand that? This is
the nature, the essence, the sum and substance of the gospel,
the good news. If you know you're a sinner,
you just want to say, right, yay, yay, and amen. All the promises of God, where
are they? In Christ, because of what He did. God said to the
Son, the Covenant, you go do this for them, I'll accept them.
I'll receive them all on your behalf, for your sake. Christ
said, I will. Did He? He did. And so God does. And Christ said, I will. No wise
guess to me. Because of what Christ did. God
is well pleased. And so, Christ He kept the Father's
commandments, his law. Our Lord lived under the law.
Don't ever say anything bad about God's law. Christ lived by the
law. He put himself, he bound himself
under God's law. There's nothing wrong with God's
law. What's wrong is us, okay? The law is a reflection of who
God is, his character, his ways. Paul wrote a great deal about
that in the Romans. He said, not the law, but the
weakness of the flesh. He said, weakness of the flesh.
David said this, Psalm 119, verse 97. Oh, how I love thy law. What
law is he talking about? What law is David talking about?
All of it. Not just the Ten Commandments. All of it. He said, I meditate
in it. It's my meditation day and night.
He meant that. He meant that. Do you love God's
Word? All of it? Do you read it? Are they words of life? Do you?
You read it not to have life. You know why you read it and
love it? Because you do have life. David said that. David meant it. But David said
that in prophecy. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that.
Unlike anybody ever said it, our Lord said, Oh, how I love
That law. So he came. This is my meditation
day and night. He had to, John. Like Joshua. The Lord told Joshua, you're
going to keep the law for these people. You're going to lead
them in the promised land, Joshua. You've got to know the law. They
don't. They can't keep. Joshua, you're going to lead
God's people in the promised land. Joshua's name is Jesus. The Lord Jesus Christ. So our
Lord put himself under the law, he was bound by it in an oath,
in a covenant, and sealed it with his blood. Can I say that
one more time? His oath, his covenant, his blood. And that ought to support you
in the overwhelming flood. When all around your soul gives
way, he then is all your hope and all your stay on Christ the
solid rock. All of salvation was built on
this oath, this covenant, and sealed in Christ's blood, ordered
and sure. Our Lord put himself under the
law, bound by it. Why? In love to the Father. Oh,
I love that law. In love to his people who are
under the curse of it. Condemned by it, under the bondage
of it. That's the next message. Under
a burden because of it. Our Lord in love. He did this
in love. It wasn't legal. Our Lord didn't
keep the law legally. Nobody can. Nobody does. Love is the fulfillment
of love. Our Lord said that. Love to God. Love to my neighbor. So he kept the law. He fulfilled
the law. He delivered his people from
the law and he did it all in love. And so he says to us, if
you love me. What's wrong with that? Keep
my commandment. Our Lord Jesus Christ does not
take us back to Sinai. Aren't you glad? Oh, no. He climbed Sinai himself. He went right up into the presence
of God and said, I've kept your law perfectly. God said, I'm
well pleased. Our Lord is our substitute, our
covenant head. But he says to us, if you love
me, you'll keep my commandments, plural. Right? Spurgeon wisely said, Who, reading
the scriptures, can possibly come up with that Christ never
gave his people anything to do? It's not... Is he telling these disciples,
do this and you'll be my disciples? Do this, you'll be my children.
Oh no, they already are. Do this out of love to the Father,
out of love to the Son, out of love to one another. Okay? What's
he telling them to do? It's all good. You're going to
read with me in a moment. Don't hang your head. I don't
want to look up, you're hanging your head, okay? I want you to
listen to me. I want you to listen to me. There
are two men in every child of God. You understand me? I didn't say
it, God did. Romans 7, go over Romans 7. This
will tell us better than I can. Romans 7, alright? There are
two men in every single born-again child of God. Two men. There's an old man. He's a rebel.
He's sinful. He's hateful. He hates the law. He doesn't want to be under any
dominion, any rules, any regulations, any law. He hates it. He's a
wild-assist cult. All he wants to do is run to
mischief, to sin. That's all that old man. He's
still in you. He's still in us. Warring against
another man. There's a new man. There's a
born again man. A new creature created in the
image of Jesus Christ. Do you understand me? That's
the one who's sitting here listening to me and rejoicing in Jesus
Christ. The old man wouldn't be. The
old man doesn't want to be here. You don't want him here either.
He ruins everything. Our Lord said, if you love me,
you'll keep my commandments. Our problem is our sinfulness.
And we all think, I can't, I don't, I've come far short, but now
listen now, there's a new man that doesn't come up short anywhere. There's a new man, he's obedient,
an obedient child, created in the image of Christ, he's holy.
As Christ is, so is he. You say, I don't understand.
Yes, you do. Yeah, you do. There's a new man who keeps God's
law, who's holy, who's righteous, who's just like Jesus Christ.
Let me read that to you. In Romans 7, verse 12. The law is holy. The commandment's
holy and just and good, isn't it? It sure is. Was then that
which is good made death unto me? God forbids. The problem's
not the law. but sin, that it might appear
sin. The law, God sends the law, we
see how we've broken it in every jot and tittle. There was a time
when you were in religion or dead in sin in religion, dead
in sin in religion, that you thought you actually kept the
Ten Commandments. Right? Paul did. Paul did. He said concerning the righteousness
of the law, he said, I'm blameless. And then Christ came and Paul
said, I died. I realized, and my heart sunk,
my head sunk, my whole being, I died. I realized I haven't
kept one. Verse 13. But sin, that it might
appear a sin working death in me by that which is good, the
law. That sin by the law might become exceeding sinful. See,
it's against God. It's against holiness. It's against
righteousness. It's against goodness. We know
the law is spiritual. I'm carnal. He's talking about
that old man. I'm flesh. My flesh can't do anything but
sin, He said. That which I do, verse 15. Can you enter into these verses?
That which I do, what I do, that's not what I want to do. What I
think, what I say, what I would, what I want to do, I don't do
it. What I hate, that's what I do.
If then I do that, which I would not, I consent under the law
that's good. Meaning there's a law written
in your heart, that God put this law in your heart convicting
you. Verse 17, now it's no more I
that do it, it's sin, it's old man, it's indwelling sin that's
never in this life going to go away. Don't you wish it would? But
no, if it did, you couldn't live here. You'd be ready for heaven
if you didn't have the sin that you couldn't stand and live with
the rest of us sinners. You understand? Our Lord, this
is why our Lord came down holy, righteous, just in every way,
and everything around Him, He heard thoughts, He was vexed. Man of sorrows! What made him
so sorrowful? Sin! Vexed! His righteous soul,
vexed! All he heard and saw. Why did
he do it? Why did he come here? For us. Well, read on. He says now, verse
17, it's no more I that do it but sin. Now I know, Paul said,
that in me, that is, now listen, in my flesh. My old man. Me. The one that was born the
first time. This firstborn. Like Esau. Right? Like Cain. That's what
he is. That's what he's like. And he
can't live. God hates him and so do I. Right? dwelleth in no good thing, and
the will is present with me, how to perform that which is
good I find not, the good I would I do not, the evil which I would
not, that I do not. If I do that, I would not, it's
no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me, but I find
a law, I find a law, verse 21, that when I would do good, evil
is present with me. That's this old man. I delight
in the law of God, though. after the inward man. You see,
I see another law in my members. A new man. Do you? I've said this so many times.
You know, there was a time where you did not have any struggle
with sin. The world wasn't a problem. This
inward, indwelling sin wasn't sin at all. It's your joy. You love yourself. You just love
yourself. And so, then when God puts this
new creature in it, then the battle begins. And that new man
hates in yourself. Hates the old man. There's no
love between these two. Love and hate. It wasn't there
for a while. Why? When did it begin? When God put His love, this loving
principle for Him, for the truth, reigning, ruling principle that
God puts in His children, the love of God shed abroad in the
heart of every believer who loves God. I do. You do, don't you? You
love the God of the Bible. I'm talking about the God of
the Bible, don't you? You know how few people love the God of
the Bible? You just tell people who God is, that God is God,
not trying to be God. He is God, doing as He will with
whom He will. And you watch the vain stuff
every day. Like a woman told my wife, I hate your God. Well,
you hate the God then. That's the only God there is.
But you love Him, don't you? Why? Why? and you may have been in religion
before, you hated this guy. I'm going to give him a heart racing.
But God said, that boy is going to love me. Why? Because I love him. Why? Because I did. Sovereign love. Sovereign mercy. Now, I'm flattered you're having
fun. God puts this new creature in
there. He's created in the image of Christ. He's like Christ.
He's a Christ-like man. He's a new creature. Old things
pass away, old things come to. Got new love, new joy, new people,
new family. New heart, new mind. Yes, he
does. The old man's still there. But
look at our text, John 15. He says it, now look at this,
verse 11. He said, now these things have I spoken unto you
that my joy might remain in you. Like I said, I don't want anybody
hanging their head. I want you lifting up your head.
Lift up the head. Our Lord said, these things have
I spoken unto you, not that it might convict you and bring you
down. Yes, chasten, we need chastening.
We need exhort, we need approve, rebuke, correct, instruct, all
the time. With whom the Lord loves. He
chastens. If it chastens you and convicts
you, He ought to give you joy. Who the Lord loves. He doesn't
do that to the world. The world's not convicted of
sin. Go back to chapter 11. Look,
this is where he began saying these things. See, these things. I'm sorry, chapter 13. He said,
these things have I spoken unto you that your joy might remain
in you and be full. These things. Look at verse 10,
John 13, verse 10. He said, he that is washed, he
did not save to wash his feet. He's clean everywhere, and you're
clean. Not all of you, but you're clean. He said to his people,
how? How do they claim? Over in chapter
15, he says, you claim through the Word. I said, well, good,
yeah. You claim. He's claiming because he said
so. He's a high priest, John. You come to him as a leper from
head to toe, can't find anything. He says, claim. You come to me. Why did you come to him? For
washing. You don't wash yourself? You
don't wash yourself? You come to Him who, when you
take a bath, do you clean, do you wash yourself? You say, yeah.
No, you don't. It's soap and water that cleans
you. If it wasn't soap and water, you'd scrub all you would. Right? It's the soap, it's the water.
Christ is like fuller soap. Water of His Word. Christ is
the water of life. Ten, he said, you clean every
wick. That's what Peter remembers. He said, wash me all over. He
says, I have. You just can't see it. Can't tell who will. Verse 33. Chapter 13, verse 33. It says, little children. These
were grown men. All of them. I think most of
them were older than him. I believe every one of them was
older than him. He's the youngest. You know why I think that? Because
the elder will serve the younger. But every one of them he called
little children. Grown men, but every single one of them felt
like a little child. A baby. And Jesus Christ was
their all. He's their father. He's their
mother. He's their captain. He's their
everything. These grown men felt like little
children. And they were so glad. That's
why Patrick Thomas said, show us a father, Philip. Show us a father, Philip. Have I been so long time with
you? Don't you know? I've fathered you. I've mothered you. I've cared for you. Verse 34,
and he said, a new commandment I give unto you, that ye love
one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. Keeps telling us that, doesn't
it? Look at chapter 14. It says,
these things have I spoken unto you My joy might remain in you. Chapter 14, verse 1, let not
your heart be troubled. So much troubles us, doesn't
it? You believe in God. We do, don't we? Don't you, Pablo?
You believe in God. We believe in Christ. He is God.
You believe that, don't you? The world doesn't believe that. You know, God runs this world.
You believe that, don't you? Then let not your heart be troubled. He said, in my Father's house
are many mansions. If it were not so, I wouldn't
have told you. I would have told you. The Lord doesn't give false
hope. Do you receive what He said?
Do you want a place with Him in glory? Do you want to be there?
He wouldn't tell you that. He wouldn't promise that to anyone
that comes there. He wouldn't tell you that if
He didn't mean it. If there wasn't a place for you,
He wouldn't tell you. That's what He said. Surely I
don't belong. Well, you wouldn't have heard
this if you didn't. You wouldn't rejoice in it if you didn't. He said, I'll go, prepare a place
for you. You know where he went to prepare
this place for us, don't you? Huh? You know how few people
do. You know how few people know
or care what he meant by that? That he went to the cross? He
went to Sinai, and he went to the cross, and he went to the
mercy seat and poured out his blood. You know, a few people
know or care what that means. I go to prepare a place for you.
And all those who know and need what he did for them, who depended
on everything he did for them, he said, if I go, I will come
again and receive you to my sin. I'm coming for you. I'm going
to take you back. The glory with them. These things have I spoken unto
you. Does that fill you full of joy? These things. That's what he
said. Look at verse 27. Peace I leave with you. God's
not angry with you. God's not angry with His people.
Do you hear me? Does God frown upon His people?
Yes. Does God hide his fate? Oh, yes. My dad did. Oh, I remember and I hated it.
I hated it. And I knew why. I knew why. Didn't you? Didn't you hate that?
Get on your dad's, say, bad side, but you can't ever really do
that. He just, he's not happy with
you. But God's not angry with you. Wrath of God's not going to come
down on you. Why? Because it came down on Jesus
Christ. He drank that cup of wrath dry. There is no wrath,
no condemnation to them that are in Christ. Does that give
you joy? Does it make you go want to sin? Oh, no. It makes you sick of
sin. How could I? Peace, my peace I give unto you.
Verse, I gotta go, oh my. Chapter 15, verse 10, he says,
if you keep my commandments, you abide in my love. Now, let's
go down through here. Even as I've kept my Father's
commandments and abide in His love. Now these things have I
spoken unto you. That my joy might remain in you.
That I've kept the commandments for you. And that your joy might
be full. Now this is my commandment. He
sums this up by saying, and he's going to keep saying this, this
is my commandment. It's all fulfilled here, it's
all contained here, that you love one another as I have loved
you. Do you want to keep that? This is my commandment. As I've
loved the Father, the Father loves me. I love you. And remember he said his commandments
are not grievous. And they all are vital and they
flow from a principle of love. Now I want you to turn with me
to Ephesians. You love Ephesians, don't you? Everybody love Ephesians? Ephesians 1, Ephesians 2. You like Ephesians 4, 5, 6, do
you? Ephesians 1, verse 4, look at
this. Ephesians 1, verse 4, "...according
as He has chosen us in Christ before the foundations of the
world, that we should be holy, without blame, before Him, in
love." He did it in love. He did it in love to us. That's
why He did it. And He did it that we might love
Him. The people that love Him. And the people that love one
another. He chose us. He did it in love to us. And
He, born again in Him, that we might love Him and love one another.
People in love with God and with one another. Chapter 4. Go over
there. Chapter 4. And I've entitled
this whole message, His Loving Commandments. Our Lord never
gives advice, does He? Commandments. Chapter four, now
here are his loving commandments. He gives us many things to do. All right, he says, some, verse
19, have past feeling, given themselves over unto the civilized,
that's loose living, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
You haven't learned Christ like that. Oh, no. If so be you've heard him and
taught by him the truth as it is in Jesus, that you put off
concerning the form of conversation, the old man, which is corrupt
according to deceitful love. Be renewed in the spirit of your
mind. Put on the new man, which is after God, after God created
in righteousness and true holiness. Wherefore, putting away lying,
here's something to do, quit lying. Speak every man the truth with
his neighbor, remembers one another. Be ye angry, sin not. Don't you
want to be done with wrath and malice and anger? Well, then
stop. Verse 27, don't give place to
the devil. Let him that stole steal no more. Let him labor, working with his
hand, that which is good. Why? To give to those that need. Verse 29, let no corrupt communication
proceed. That which is good, the use of
edified, it may minister grace unto the hearer. Grieve not the
Holy Spirit of God, whereby you're sealed under the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, wrath, anger,
clamor, evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. It's not advice, commandment. Be ye kind, one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. Oh, I want to do that. I hope Wednesday night's message
is going to be on the friends of Jesus Christ. He said, I call you friends.
Our Lord was a friend that stick it closer than a brother. I want
to be a friend like that. Be kind one to another, tenderhearted,
forgiving one another. How? As God For Christ's sake,
I have forgiven you. Did you read the book? Two things
about love. Two principal things. One, it
gives. Gives. How did our Lord love
us? He gave himself for us. Greater love hath no end. He
laid down his life. He gave his all. Love seeks to
bestow the best it has on the object of its perfection. Christ
gave himself. Love has gives and love forgives. That comes up Jesus Christ in
it. That sums up his love for us. Be followers of God, verse 1
of chapter 5, as dear children. Walk in love as Christ also has
loved us and given himself for us, an offering, a sacrifice
to God, a sweet-smelling savor. Chapter 6, verse 1. Children,
obey your parents. See that? Chapter 5, verse 22. Wives, submit yourselves unto
your husbands. Verse 25. Husbands, love your
wives, as Christ loved the children. Are those commandments? Are they
grievous? The thing that grieves us is
that we don't keep it like we want to. I do love my wife, by
the grace of God. I do. Not like I want to. Not like I ought to. But I do
love her. I love you. Do you love me? I
think you do. I know you do. It shows. It's proven. You've proved the
sincerity of your love. Where'd that come from? We're
all so different. We come from different backgrounds.
We come from different parents, and we're just all so different.
Old Brother Henry Sowell, are you
listening to me, Bertie? Man, I loved that old man, didn't
you? I mean, didn't you love Brother Henry Steven? Oh, my. He and I are about as different
as daylight and dark. He's from Corn Valley, a one-room
schoolhouse, and I'm from the big city. Ashley, somebody. Man, I fell
in love with him and him with me and we were bosom buddies
to the day he died. That's of the Lord. He's nobody
I'd rather be with. In fact, my first five or six
years I spent down at Henry's gas station around his potbelly
stomach. I didn't want to be anywhere but with him. We talked
about the gospel. He was my buddy, my friend from
then on. That's of the Lord. There was
a time that he's square. He's not cool. I'm cool. Yeah, right. Now I'm ashamed of that myself. Still am. So he says, servants,
be obedient to your masters. These are commands, loving commands. Are they good for us? Are they
a good testimony to our God? Are they proof of our love to
Him, proof of our love to Christ, proof of our love to His commandments?
Are His commandments grievous? Can you find one thing you don't
like that you think, this is hard bondage, loving my wife? Don't answer. If you're still together, there
must be love there. If you love man, keep my commandment. This commandment's not for us.
And we do it. We do it. There's a new man that
does. He loves it. And that new man
mourns that he doesn't do it perfectly. And you know this
fruit, what's the first fruit of the Spirit in Galatians 5?
Love. All of those fruits that make
up fruit, there's not one missing in a true child of God. They
all make fruit, the fruit of the Spirit. It's His Word. The
first one is love. The greatest of these is love. The greatest proof is love. And they all grow. All those
fruits grow. Can you grow in love? All through the scriptures. This
is what our Lord said, love one another like I love you. Peter
said, see that you love one another with a pure heart, fervently,
do it actively. Show your love in that. He said,
provoke one another to love. I love that. Paul said, provoke
one another. Make them love you. We provoke people in every single
way, don't we? To hate us was time to provoke
them to love you. I tried that one time, a fella
didn't like me, it's obvious, and I thought, I'm gonna make
him love me. Well, it didn't work. That's what he tells us. All right.