If you would, go with me to the
book of John tonight. Go back to John chapter 15. My subject is love and hatred. Love and hatred. Go back to John
chapter 15. And really, without any introduction,
I want to jump into the passage of Scripture here that is before
us. Great message tonight. The Lord
willing, we'll cover from verses 17 through the end of the chapter,
and I present to you four things. Number one, our Lord issues this
word of instruction to us to love one another. Notice what
He says here in John chapter 15 and verse 17, these things
I command you that ye love one another. The Lord Jesus, the
great teacher, that righteous prophet who was sent by the Father
into this world to teach the truth to his people. He has said
before his disciples that several vital things that they needed
to understand and we need to understand that led him to say
this, these things, the things that I've just stated for you,
I give them to you in order that you would love one another. In other words, the reason he
said these things is to bring them to this. As they faced a group of people that would
greatly oppose them. That is, the world, all the world,
the religious world and the secular world. They're in opposition
to these men. They're in opposition to the
gospel. And our Lord has given them several things in order
to get them to understand They need to love one another. These
sayings would benefit them in that way. Well, what has he said
to them that would lead them to follow this command to love
one another? Number one, he has said to them,
all of God's people are branches of the same vine. Go back to verse one. He said,
I'm the true vine. My father is the husbandman.
every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh away." And
later he says in verse 5, he says, I am the vine, you're the
branches. I'm the vine, you're the branches.
Here's the reason these men are encouraged to love one another
and here's the reason we're encouraged and instructed to love one another. We're all branches of the exact
same vine. It isn't like we come from a
different, each of us from a different source, or from a different life. We all come from Christ Jesus. We all come from the Lord Himself. We all have our life from Him. We have physical life from Him,
certainly, but we have spiritual life from Christ Jesus. He said,
I'm the way, I'm the truth, I'm the life. Do you have the life
of God in you? Do I have the life of God in
me? We got it from the same source. That's what he's saying. I'm
the vine. You're the branches. Do you have
the sap of grace in you? Well, you got grace exactly where
I got grace. He got grace from the vine. You
see, all that we are in the Lord Jesus, we are due to Him, and
due to our association with Him, and due to our union with Him. We're joined to Him. We were joined to Him in the
everlasting covenant of grace. We were put in Him. We're united
to Christ Jesus in the union that only God could bring about.
He's the head, we're the body. Indeed, we're different parts
of the body of Christ Jesus, but we're all members of one
body. Therefore, let the body love
one another. This is our Lord's argument.
I'm the vine, you're the branches. You're all united to me, and
being united to me, you're united to each other. That's right. You're united to
each other. And therefore, to a degree, we
need each other. To a degree, we lean on one another. To a degree, we fellowship with
one another. I know we don't get our life
from each other. We get our life from the Lord
Jesus. We don't get grace from each other. We get grace from
Him. But we do get Fellowship from
each other. We get words of encouragement
from each other. We're all members of the same
body. We're all branches of the same vine. I'm one body. I have one head
and one body. My body works together. One part
of my body may be more vital to my body than other parts. I gotta have my heart. I gotta
have my brain. And there's some parts of my
body I could do without if I had to. But I'm one body, and my
body, it functions best when all parts are doing what they're
supposed to do. Well, we're one body in Christ
Jesus. He being the head, we're all
parts of one body. The body functions best when
we each do our part, which is to love each other, be supportive
of each other, give words of encouragement to each other,
So this is what the Lord is saying. This is my command to you. Love one another. The reason
I've said the things to you that I have said is to draw you nearer
together. These men are going to go out
and face the opposition of the world. The secular world and
the religious world. They've got to be knit together.
They've got to be one body. They've got to learn to lean
on one another. Divisiveness among the branches
of a vine wouldn't be good. But branches of a vine aren't
divisive. They're all laboring to bring
forth fruit in the natural world. And we should all labor together. Labor side by side. This has
never been and never will be a one-man operation. This is the ministry God has
given us. And we're all responsible for
getting the gospel of Christ Jesus out. We stand together. We labor together. We love together. We love each other. because we're
all branches of the same vine. We all exist because of our association
with the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the reason you're saved.
It's the reason I'm saved. It's the reason I'm justified.
All the things that we have... In union with our Lord Jesus
Christ, we have in common with each other. Am I one of God's
elect? Yes. So are you. Am I one of
the redeemed ones? Yes. So are you. Am I one of
the regenerated ones? So are you. Am I one of those
preserved by the power of God? So are you. Am I one of those
who will be glorified in heaven? Yes. So are you. So love one
another. We have so many things in common. This is why divisiveness in the
body of Christ Jesus is so awful. Because we're all branches of
the same vine. Then watch this. Here's the second
thing. Here's another reason He gives us Another reason we
should love one another is because he has said, we all bear the
same sort of fruit. We all bear the same sort of
fruit. And we already know that from Galatians chapter five,
it's the fruit of the spirit. Now, we don't all bear fruit
equally, do we? No, we don't all bear fruit equally. But we all bear fruit. Love, joy, peace, long-suffering,
goodness. We all bear fruit of the Spirit. But not all to the same degree. But all bear fruit because we
all have the same Spirit. It's the Spirit of God. The Spirit
who is called the promise of the Father. The Lord Jesus said,
after He died and arose and after He went back to glory, He said,
I'll send you the promise of the Father. And the Spirit that
indwells me, the Spirit who quickened me, the Spirit who instructed
me, the Spirit who bears witness with my spirit that I'm a child
of God, that same Spirit is the Spirit who indwells every believer
here and every believer throughout the world. This is our union
with one another. It isn't that you've been born
again by one Spirit and I've been born again by another Spirit.
There are lots of false spirits throughout the world, but one
Holy Spirit who indwells all of God's people individually. Individually. So in bearing fruit, we have
no reason to boast because really it's not our fruit. It's the
fruit of the Spirit. So therefore, if I want to love
more, if I want to love the Lord more, if I want to love you more,
I ask God, give me more love. If I want more peace in this
world that seems to be anything but at peace, anything but peaceful,
I ask the Lord to give me peace. If I want joy, joy. There are people that I've known
through life, they give me the impression they don't have any
joy. Joy isn't laughing and giggling
all the time. That's not joy. Anybody can fake
that. I'm talking about joy in the
soul. I'm talking about rejoicing in the Lord. I'm talking about
joyful in the grace of God given to you in Christ Jesus before
the world began. I'm talking about a joy the world
can't give you and the world can't take away. I'm talking
about a joy that's in your heart even when you may be on your
sickbed. And you may feel awful. You may
have a raging fever. You may be in pain. You may have
some kind of disease that's absolutely horrible. But you can still in
the midst of that have joy. Joy in knowing who the Savior
is. Joy in knowing you're found in
Him. Joy in having all of your sins
forgiven. Joy in knowing that you're righteous
in Christ Jesus who is the Lord your righteousness. A joy in
knowing that no matter what path it is that life is leading you
down, it's the Lord's way for you. Joy. Love, joy, peace, longsuffering. Do you want these things? Do
you long for these things? Ask the Spirit of God. Because
let me tell you something, you can't muster these things up.
You can't just make up your mind, well, I'm going to be a joyful
person from now on. Won't work. I am going to be
content. I have made up my mind, I'm going
to be a contented person. You make up your mind all you
want. It's the fruit of the Spirit. So you ask God. And the reason we should love
each other is for this reason. Whatever fruit we bear, and I'm
looking to the faces of people, I observe the fruit of the Spirit
in you. And as I do, I know all of God's
people bear the same sort of fruit from the Spirit. And then
here's something else, thirdly. Here's another motivation for
us to love one another. We're all equally loved by Christ
Jesus and loved by the Father. This is what he says, look at
verse nine. As the Father hath loved me, so I have loved you. Continue ye in my love. We're
loved by the Lord, equally. He doesn't love you any more
than He loves me, and He doesn't love me any more than He loves
you. There are no degrees to the love of God. Having loved His own which are
in the world, the Scripture says, He loved them to the end. You men and women, Married, fell
in love, and you said to each other, I love you with all my
heart. Whatever that is, I don't know
exactly what that means. I love you with all my heart.
Well, we thought we did, but that love grows. That love grows,
it matures through the years. But our God has loved us with
all of his heart forever. And that love, it doesn't grow. It can't grow. It can't grow. He can't love us anymore now
than he loved us way back in eternity before he ever created
the world. He said to Jeremiah, I've loved
you with an everlasting love, therefore in love have I drawn
you. In loving kindness, I've drawn
you. He can't love you any more than He's always loved you. And
the greatest evidence of His love, for God so loved the world
of His elect, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. How
much did God love us? He loved us with all of His heart. He always has. And He gave us
the darling of His heart, His only begotten Son. No wonder John says over in 1
John, here in His love, not that we love God, but that He loved
us and gave His Son to be the propitiation for our sins, the
satisfaction of divine justice. We're equally loved by the Father
and the Son. And as the Father loves the Son
of God, that's how He loves us. In other words, there's no measurement
of this love. There's no way you can measure
it. But He loves all of His children exactly the same. He has no favorites. Unless we just want to say this,
we're all His favorites. We're all His favorites. Now since our Lord has such a
strong affection for us, It's only right that we have a strong
affection for each other. And may that love increase. We've
been drawn together with a mutual love for the Savior. And may
our love for one another grow. And then here's another motivation
for us to love one another. Remember this, he said this,
he laid down his life for us. Look at verse 13. Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.
What happened at Calvary? The Lord Jesus laid down his
life for his friends. We were all redeemed at the same
time. We were all reconciled to God
at the same time. We were all justified at the
same time. Now I know we experience grace
and we come to an understanding of our justification, of our
being made righteous through the imputed righteousness of
Jesus Christ. We become aware of that at different
times. but we were all justified at
the same time. We're justified by His blood,
by His blood. We're a blood bought people. It costs the same price for God
to redeem me as it did for Him to redeem you. Let us therefore love one another.
Note the language of verse 13. Greater love hath no man than
this, that a man lay down his life for his friends." It wasn't
taken from him. He laid it down. He laid it down. He was a voluntary sacrifice. Those soldiers who arrested our
Savior, And those who laid him on that cross beam, on the cross,
the cross is laying down on the ground, those who laid him, they
never met a more agreeable subject to deal with. Stretch out your arms, he did.
Don't you know others who were crucified, not going to do it.
and just take two, hold that arm down while I drive his spike
in. But our Lord Jesus, he laid down
his life. I just read from Isaiah 53, he's
led as a lamb to the slaughter, as a sheep before his shearers
is done, so open not his mouth. That lamb going to the slaughter,
He didn't know where he was going. That's the reason there's no
resistance. Here's my owner leading me along, and I've been following
him. The lamb's been following him
all his life. I don't know how a lamb thinks, but I suppose
the lamb thinks, well, he's leading me down this path, I'm going
with him, because he takes good care of me. and the lamb doesn't
know it, he's going to die. He's going to meet his death.
But our Lord Jesus knew. He knew where the road would
end. He knew the wrath of God that he'd face. He knew something
about the weight of the guilt of all of his people that'd be
laid upon his head. He knew what he was facing, and
yet he set his face like a flame. Absolute determination. And He laid down His life for
us. Laid it down. And He said in John 10, I have
the power to lay it down. No man takes it from me. No man
can kill God the Son. No man could ever take His life.
He is life. By those soldiers who crucified
Him, He gave them the strength and the ability to do that. And
the voices that cursed Him, He gave them the ability to even
do that. He could have silenced the whole
crowd. He could have stopped the mockery.
But He didn't because He's a willing sacrifice. He gave Himself. The scripture
says in Galatians 1, who gave himself for our sins, that he
might deliver us from this present evil world according to the will
of God. He gave himself. Husbands, love
your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself for it. He gave himself. First Timothy
2.6, who gave himself a ransom for all. He gave himself. Here's the motivation to love
one another. The Savior bought us. He bought us. And He didn't have
to suffer any more to save you than He did me. He had to suffer
unto death. He didn't have to shed any more
blood to save you than He did to save me. He shed His blood
to His death. Listen, we're the family of God.
We're joined to our elder brother by sovereign grace. We're joined
to each other by electing love and saving grace. Therefore, love one another. And isn't it, and I need to make
this point before I move on. Isn't it kind of a, I don't know,
humbling, I suppose we should say, that he has to tell us to
love one another. Isn't that rather humbling? Yes, this is a command. That
you love one another. You'd think it would come naturally.
After all, branches attached to the same vine. Body parts
attached, part of the same body joined to the same head. Sinners
saved by the same grace, sinners bought with the same blood, but
it's a commandment to be obeyed, a virtue to be sought after,
a fruit that we desire to bear by the power and grace of the
Holy Spirit. You know, there are some of God's
people who have who are easy to love. Some of God's people, we find
it to be a little more difficult to love them. Maybe it's personal,
usually it's personalities that clash. I find a lot of divisiveness
is due to personalities. Some are sweet and nice. Others
in the Kingdom of God, believe it or not, are difficult and
ornery. You ever met any of them? Maybe you're looking at one.
I hope I'm not. But I'll tell you this, love
them anyway. I'll tell you what love will do. It covers a multitude
of transgressions. I was talking to somebody just
the other day. They don't come to our church. And within a matter of five minutes,
they had criticized five people who are brethren and sisters
in Christ. It bothers me. In fact, it's
something that I've becoming more aware of. Because, yeah,
we all have faults, right? There's none of us here that
don't have faults. But your kids have faults, too. And when you're
talking to somebody, you don't immediately begin to tell them,
well, let me tell you about my kid driving me crazy. No. You cover for your kids.
You cover for those that you love. You don't hang your dirty
laundry out for everybody to see. That's what I'm saying.
Love one another. Secondly, boy, I've got to go
quickly here. The Lord tells us to expect the world's hatred.
This is 18 to 21. If the world hates you, you know
it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, he
says, look at verse 19, if you were of the world, the world
would love its own. Why does the world have difficulty
with you? Why does the world oppose you?
I'll tell you, it's because of our gospel and our association
with the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, we don't want people to
be opposed to us because of an offensiveness about us individually. We don't want to be hard to get
along with. But it's when we take a stand
for the gospel, when we stand bravely and courageously
for salvation by grace, that's when the world will be in opposition
to you. And they'll hate you. But the
Savior says, and he's speaking to men, they're gonna experience
the hatred of the world. Now, true, the world, the religious
world was gonna go after the Savior. But after he died and
arose and went back to glory, then the world started coming
after them. That's when the religious world
decided to stone Stephen. That's when Herod flexed his
muscles and said, let's see how things go when I kill James. These men were going to experience
the hatred of a world that hates Christ Jesus, they hate sovereign
grace, they hate the gospel. And our Lord is preparing them
for this. He says in verse 20, remember
the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than
his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they'll
persecute you. If they have kept my saying on
the other hand, they'll keep yours. If they believe me, they'll
believe you because you're going to be preaching about me. But
he says this in verse 21, But all these things will they do
unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me." He says, this is why they're going to hate you. They
don't know God. They don't know God. Oh, they'll
speak about God. They may even bow their heads
and say, we're praying to God. But he said, they're going to
mistreat you just like they persecute me because they don't know my
Father. They don't know God. And then he says this. Let me
move on real quick. He says in the third place, the
Lord Jesus, He was hated without a cause. Look at verse 22. This
is vital. He said, if I had not come and
spoken unto them, who's the them? The religious world. That's who
persecuted these men and went after our Savior. If I had not
come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. What does that
mean? You mean they wouldn't have had
any sin whatsoever? They were born in sin. All men
are sinners. but they would not have sinned
to the degree that they had. But now, he says, they have no
cloak for their sin. You know what that means? No
excuse. No excuse. Now, they were already sinners.
But our Lord Jesus, he came into the world and these men observed
him. They saw the miracles. They heard
his teachings. They even said, never a man speak
like this man. They heard his doctrine. Well,
he doesn't teach like the scribes. He teaches with authority. He's
a different prophet. They witnessed all the miraculous
things that he did. And they heard his preaching.
He's preaching. They heard him say, concerning Zacchaeus, today salvation's
come to this man's house. They heard him say, the son of
man has come to seek and to save that which was lost. They knew
what he was saying and they despised him. They had more opportunities
to hear the Lord Jesus and view Him and witness His miracles
over and over again. They're exposed to the light,
but they despise the light. And I'll tell you, I don't believe
in degrees of heaven. That's heresy. Because if we
go to heaven, we go by the merits of Christ Jesus. We go by the
grace of God. There are no degrees of heaven.
But I do believe there are degrees of hell. And somehow or another,
God's gonna make it more sorrowful for people who have had opportunity
after opportunity of hearing His glorious gospel. And they
just shut their eyes and closed their ears and said, I'm not
going to believe this. You set yourself up for the just
vengeance of God. Our Lord says, he that hateth
me, hateth my father also. And then he says, if I had not
done among them the works which none other man did, they'd not
had sin, not to this degree. But now they both seen and hated
both me and my father. They hate me and they hate the
one who sent me. They're without excuse. However, though this hatred of
Christ Jesus led to them killing Him, crucifying Him. Watch this
next statement. But this comes to pass that the
word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. It's
written in the book. They hated Me without a cause. There was no reason for them
to hate Christ Jesus. But their hatred of Him actually
worked to fulfill God's redemptive purpose. Because they hated Him
so much, they said, we're going to crucify Him. What shall we
do with Jesus of Nazareth? Who shall I release to you, Pilate
said? Barabbas or Jesus? Release Barabbas. What shall I do with Jesus? who
is called the Christ, crucify, crucify. And their hatred led
to them crucifying the Son of God, thus fulfilling the will
of God. And then lastly, last two verses. He gives encouragement to these
men because another advocate was coming, another comforter,
verse 26 and 27. But when the comforter is come,
whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of
truth, which proceeded from the Father, he shall testify of me,
and ye shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the
beginning. The Spirit of God is coming from
the Father. He'll testify. He'll testify
to you of Me." And He did. He came and the Spirit
of God taught them even as He teaches us about Christ Jesus. What is the ministry of the Spirit
of God to the people of God? I know He quickened us. I know
He gave us life. But is it not His very reason
for coming to us, to bring us to Christ Jesus, to bring us
to rest our souls in His care and to see that He's the only
Savior of sinners. That's the ministry of the Spirit
of God. I've had people make this accusation against me, you
don't preach enough about the ministry of the Spirit of God.
That's His ministry according to the Scriptures, according
to the Word of God. He'll show Christ that He'll
speak of me. And here's the kind of preaching
that the Spirit of God uses. The preaching of Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. That's what He'll use. He's not
going to use anything else. That's the reason we stick with
the old message. That's why we walk the same old
paths. And we ask God to keep it ever
fresh before us. Well, let's sing a closing song.