Welcome to our program. Now,
today I'm going to be preaching from the book of John, chapter
15. The title of the message is,
The Friends of Christ. The Friends of Christ. Now, what
a statement. What a thing to think about.
Could it be said of me, or of you, or of anyone, that we are
truly friends of Christ? Now, you may think of yourself
as a friend of Christ. I may think of myself as one. But how can we know for sure?
You know, God called Abraham the friend of God. And that's
an amazing statement, isn't it? My friend, to have God, God Almighty,
the creator of this universe, and in the person of Christ,
the Son of God, who created this world, to be called his friend.
Lazarus was his friend. Could I be his friend? He said
in verse 14, speaking to his disciples in the upper room,
just prior to his going to Gethsemane, his prayer, his arrest, his suffering
under death, he told them, he says, you are my friends. But he added something to it
here. He says, you are my friends. If you do whatsoever, I command
you. Now, what does that mean? Well,
I want you to look back at verse 9 of John 15. That's where I'm
going to begin. But he starts here, he'd been
speaking of himself as the true vine. He said, I'm the true vine,
you're the branches. Christ is the life-giving vine.
He's the Savior. He's the Redeemer. He's the sin-bearer
and sin-offering of his people. He's the Lord of life, the Lord
of the living. And here he says in verse 9,
As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. continue
ye in my love." Now there's no description that we could give
adequately to adequately describe the love that exists between
the father and the son. The father testified of his love
for the son in so many ways. He said, this is my beloved son
in whom I am well pleased, hear ye him. The connection between
the Father, the first person of the Trinity, and the Son,
the second person of the Trinity, is something that is so high
above our understandings we can't even describe it. But we know
it's so. The Father loved the Son so much
that He delivered Him from that which He suffered for His people,
in that He raised Him from the dead, seated Him at the right
hand of the Father, But Christ here says, as the Father loved
me, so have I loved you. Now he has love for his people.
And who's he talking to? He's talking to his disciples
here. He's talking here to the ones who had followed him as
he had called them and he kept them together. But my friend
Christ loves his sheep. He said that in John chapter
10. Now how do you know he loves his sheep? He said, because the
good shepherd, referring to himself, gives his life for the sheep.
And he says down here in verse 13 of John 15, greater love hath
no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Now Christ died for his friends. Now you think about that. That's
who he's talking about. Who are his friends? Those for
whom he died. Why did he have to die for his
friends? because Christ is called the friend of sinners. Paul said
at this point, he said, this is a faithful saying and worthy
of all acceptation that Christ came into the world to save sinners,
of whom I am chief. The Bible says when it was revealed
to Joseph that Mary was going to have a son, he told Joseph,
he says, his name shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his
people from their sins, not that he might save them, not that
he's going to try to save them, but he shall save his people
from their sins. And his name shall be called
Emmanuel, which being interpreted as God with us. Not only does
he love his people enough to go to the cross and die for their
sins, but he's able to do it because he's God and man in one
person. So who are his friends? All for
whom he died. Somebody said, well, that's everybody.
Oh, no. He said, like we read in verse
14, you are my friend if you do whatever I command you. Now,
everybody without exception doesn't do whatever he commands. Man
by nature will not do what he commands, even his friends. He
must make them his friends. He draws them with his love.
He died for their sins. All who are his friends were
born in sin, spiritually dead. And they cannot save themselves,
but God gave them to him, the Father gave them to him before
the foundation of the world. And he said this in John 6, 37,
he said, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. That is, they'll do whatever
I command, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast
out. He said, This is the Father's
will which sent me. Of all that he hath given me,
I should lose nothing, but raise it up again at the last day.
I'm going to tell you something about Christ and his friends.
Because of him, because of his shed blood and his imputed righteousness,
Because of his redemptive work on the cross, none of his friends
will perish. None of them will. And that's
a comforting thought. You say, well, am I his friend?
Well, do you want to be his friend? He said here in verse 9, as the
Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Now, this is godly
love. This is not just mere weak human
love. For example, many of you, have
had loved ones, whom you loved dearly, who have suffered and
died in different ways. And if you could have, if you
had the power and the wisdom and the knowledge and the foresight
to stop that process, you would have, wouldn't you? Because you
love them. Many of you may have had young children who have died
in accidents or for diseases. Oh, don't you know that if you
had the power the power to keep that loved one here, that little
baby, that little child, or that teenager, if you'd had the power
to keep them here with you in this life, if you could have
taken their place, you would have done it, wouldn't you? That's
the kind of love that you have for your loved ones, your family.
And this is what he's saying here, greater love hath no man
than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. Well,
my friend, Your love was inadequate, wasn't it, to stop death, the
death of a friend, the death of a loved one. But Christ's
love is not inadequate. His love is the most powerful
love in the universe. His love, He has the power to
foresee every obstacle and remove it, and to provide every means
to making sure that His friends, His loved ones, come unto glory. You see, sin, they're sinners.
But that's an obstacle that His love removes. How? By the sacrifice
of Himself on the cross of Calvary. He took the sins of His friends
upon Himself. And He suffered under the penalty
of death, under the justice of God, for the sins of His friends
laid upon Him. He Himself knew no sin. He himself
had no sin, did no sin. There was no sin within him. He was the perfect, sinless sacrifice. He was innocent in that sin,
perfectly holy and righteous, never had an evil thought, never
had an evil motive, never said an evil word. He always did the
will of his Father. And at his lowest point on the
cross of Calvary, He never had a sinful thought, a vengeful
thought. He said, Father, forgive them,
they know not what they do. Think about that. This is the
glory of Christ. So when he went to the cross,
he went there because he loved his friends. Sinners, the friend
of sinners. You remember the Pharisees. came
to his disciples and they charged the Lord saying, your master
eateth with publicans and sinners, the worst kind of people. Well,
my friend, they're his friends. He's the friend of sinners. And
he laid down his life to remove the sins of his friends. His
love was so powerful and so intense that he went to the cross to
remove that obstacle. And not only that, not only did
he die for their sins under the justice of God and redeem them
by his precious blood, but in his obedience unto death on the
cross, he worked out a perfect righteousness whereby God the
Father could be just and justify the ungodly, his friends. And
he provided them with the best robe, just like the prodigal
son. When he came home to the father, the father saw him and
ran out to meet him and fell on his neck and kissed him. And
he gave him the ring, that signet ring, which signifies his sonship. And then he gave him the best
robe. He said, put the best robe on him. And that robe is a type
of the perfect righteousness of Christ that's put around his
friends. to entitle them to the whole
inheritance of grace and glory. And then he sends his Spirit
into the world in time under the preaching of the good news
of the gospel of God's grace. And the Spirit gives them life
and enters into their hearts, and you know what? Then they
become his friends. And this is what he's saying.
He says, As the Father loved me, so have I loved you. What
love? Greater love hath no man. John said in 1 John chapter 3,
Beloved, behold, what manner of love that we ungodly, wretched,
rebel sinners should be called the sons of God. The world won't
know us. Well, how can we be called because
our because Christ the friend of sinners laid down his life
And he says continue in my love now. How do we continue in his
love? What is his love? He said in 1st John 4 10 Here
in his love Not that you love me But that God he loved you
and sent his son to be the propitiation for your sins now who are the
you there? Who's he talking about his friends? That's who he's
talking about. And he says, you continue in
that love. Now, how do we continue in that
love? We continue in that love by continually looking to Christ
for our salvation. We never look away from him.
We never look within. To find holiness and righteousness
and power and goodness within ourselves, we look to Christ.
That's what it is to continue in his love. We continue following
Him, submitting to Him, resting in Him. We find our peace in
Him, our assurance in Him, our hope in Him. We embrace Him. We worship Him. We pray to Him. We pray to the Father through
the Son. We have a great high priest, Jesus Christ, who has
passed through into the heavens, and therefore we come boldly
to the throne of grace. to find help and mercy in time
of need. You see, that's what it is to
continue in his love. Don't take your eyes off Christ.
Run the race of grace, the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 12, but
run it looking unto Jesus as the author and the completer,
the finisher of your faith. Don't look to your faith, look
to Christ by faith. That's continuing in his love.
He says in verse 10, now listen to this very carefully. He says,
if you keep my commandments, you shall abide in my love. Now,
there he tells you specifically what it is to abide in his love.
It is to keep his commandments. And he says, even as I have kept
my Father's commandments and abide in his love. Now, somebody
looks at that and you say, well, see there, I've got to keep the
Ten Commandments in order to abide in his love. That's what
he did. Yes, he did. Now, let me tell
you something. That is not what this verse means.
And if it does mean that, you and I and all of us are most
miserable. If the only way that I can abide
in his love and be his friend is to keep the Ten Commandments
perfectly, then I'm in trouble and you are too, even if you
don't admit it. We're all sinners. We all come
short of the glory of God. So what does this mean when he
says, if you keep my commandments? Now, literally, it would be like
this. If you do what I tell you to
do, you will abide in my love, and he says, even as I have done
what my father told me to do, and I abide in his love. Well,
what did the father tell him to do? What did the father tell
the son to do? Well, the Father, in the everlasting
covenant of grace made before time, chose a people and gave
them to the Son. And He put all of the responsibility
of their salvation and eternal well-being upon the Son. And
He directed and commanded the Son to keep the law for them
in order to save them. He said, you must suffer under
the penalty of divine justice. And you must keep the law perfectly.
You must fulfill all the righteousness of the law in order to redeem
them. That's what the father told the
son to do. He was made of a woman, the scripture
says, made under law. In other words, the burden of
the law, the law of God, to love God perfectly, love your neighbors
yourself, the burden of the law of God was placed squarely upon
the shoulders of the son, and the father commanded the son
to keep the law in order to bring forth a righteousness that would
answer the demands of his law and justice." And so he says,
I did what the father told me to do. Now, what did the son
tell his people to do, his friends to do? Did he ever Did he ever
tell his friends, now, in order to be saved, you must keep the
law. Did he ever say that? Absolutely
not. Somebody said, well, he told
the rich young man that. That's not what he told the rich
young man. He told the rich young man this. If you're going to
be saved by your law keeping, you've got to keep it all. And
you haven't done it. And the rich young man went away
sorrowful. He never told any of his people, his disciples,
his friends, he never told any sinner that in order to be saved
and to abide in his love, you must keep the law and fulfill
righteousness in order to be saved. He spoke against that. He told his people, he said,
you must have a righteousness that exceeds the righteousness
of the scribes and the Pharisees or you will in no case enter
into the kingdom of heaven. He told his people, he said,
come unto me All ye that are heavy laden, laboring or heavy
laden, and I'll give you rest." You see, he told his people to
believe in him, to repent of ever thinking that salvation
was conditioned on their law keeping, to turn against the
way of self-righteousness and religious pride, the way of the
Pharisees and the scribes, the way of human religion. which
brings salvation based upon man's efforts and man's will. He said,
you bow to him. He said, I came into the world
to establish righteousness, receive it from me. So that's what he's
talking about. He says, if you keep my commandments,
you shall abide in my love. Well, what are his commandments
to his friends? Come unto me, all you that labor
and are heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Believe on me, and
thou shalt be saved. You see that? It's salvation
by God's grace through faith. Well, somebody said, well, aren't
we to try to keep His commandments, to love God perfectly, and to
love our neighbors as ourselves? Yes, we are. But not in order
to be saved. Not in order to be made holy.
We're to look to Christ for that. You see that? He says in verse
11, these things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain
in you, and that your joy might be full. Well, what is his joy? You know, the Bible says in Hebrews
chapter 12, when it talks about us running the race of grace,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, it
says, who for the joy that was set before him endured much suffering. Why did Christ endure the humiliation
of the incarnation, the humiliation of walking among sinners, the
humiliation of the suffering and dying on the cross? Why did
He endure that? It was because there was a joy
that was set before Him. What was that joy? Well, that
joy was the glory of His Father. Oh, what joy it is. You see,
the Bible says, In him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily, and ye are complete in him. It pleased the Father that
in him should all fullness dwell. You see, the glory of the triune
Godhead is in the Son of God incarnate as he redeems his people. His Father was glorified in every
attribute of His character and nature by Christ on the cross,
redeeming His people and justifying them by His righteousness. And
that was signified when He raised Him from the dead on the third
day and He ascended on high 40 days later to sit down and was
seated at the right hand of the Father to make intercession for
us. Secondly, it was his own exaltation. It was promised to
him. Now, as God, he was already all-sovereign,
Lord of glory, but as God's man, it was promised to him that he
would be given a name which is above every name, that at his
name every knee should bow and every tongue should confess that
Jesus is Lord, Lord of Lord and King of King. That speaks of
Christ in his exaltation. And thirdly, It was the salvation
of his friends. The salvation of his people.
That was the joy set before him. He told, in his high priestly
prayer in John 17, he said, Father, the hours come, glorify thou
me with the glory that I had with thee before the world began.
He said, glorify thou me, that I may give eternal life to as
many as thou hast given me. Who? His friends. My friend,
there's not going to be one sinner who ends up in hell for whom
Christ lived, died, was buried, and arose again the third day.
Now why is that? Because he loves his friends.
And he's not going to let them go to hell. He died for them.
He paid their debt. Their debt's paid. They don't
owe a debt to God's law and justice. Christ, the friend of sinners,
paid their debt. They have a righteousness, and
the law of God cannot condemn them. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can condemn them? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again and is seated at the right hand of the Father,
making intercession for them. Who can separate us from the
love of God in Christ? Who could separate Christ from
His friends? If you read that in Romans chapter
8, nothing. If you're His friend, nothing
can separate you from Him. Nothing, not even you. My friend,
if you were left to your own, you'd leave. If you are saved,
if you are his friend, if you were left to your own, you'd
leave him. But he won't let you, because he's your friend. He
says in verse 11, these things have, or verse 12, well, verse
11, he says, that your joy might be full. Now you think about
these truths, doesn't it? If you know him, and if you're
his friend, doesn't it well up joy within your soul? It does
mine. Oh, what peace. The kingdom of
heaven is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. What joy there is in Christ. Rejoice in the Lord, Paul said.
Again, I say rejoice. Joy in the Lord. My friend, if
all of my salvation is upon His shoulders and He handled it all
and He's my friend, there's reason for joy and the fullness of joy. And he says in verse 12, this
is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.
Now, if he's your friend and you're his friend, you'll love
his friend. That's not in order to be saved.
Again, think back what I said. He said, if you keep my commandments.
It's not keeping the commandments in order to be saved. He denied
that. He forbade sinners to do that.
But he says, I'm commanding you, love one another as I have loved
you. We're to love his children. We're to love our brethren in
the faith unconditionally with much forbearance, not because
they earn love from us, but because we're all sinners and we all
are recipients of undeserved mercy and grace and love from
Christ. And again, he says, verse 13,
greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his
life for his friends. In the history of the church,
there have been many dear friends of ours, of us who know Christ,
we who know Christ. In the history of the church,
there have been many dear friends who laid down their lives for
the cause of Christ and the gospel for the church. I can think about
the prophets of old. who had the word of God, but
were killed, many of them. I can think about Stephen, who
stood in Jerusalem and preached the glory of God's grace in Christ,
and he was stoned. One of his friends, who hadn't
become his friend yet, stood there and held the coats of them
who threw the rocks. Saul of Tarsus. Later on, Paul
was made his friend. Some of our friends we haven't
met yet, who have gone on to be with Christ in glory. But
they're still our friends because they're his friends. He said
it in verse 14, you're my friends if you do whatever I command
you. You see, that if there is not a condition that you and
I must meet in order to be his friend. That if there is an evidence
of one who is his friend. If you do what he tells you to
do, come unto me, he said, all you that labor and are heavy
laden, I'll give you rest. He said in verse 15. He says,
henceforth I call you not servant, 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. Now when he says he's not called
you servants, what he's saying there is we're not legal slaves
bound to a harsh taskmaster. But we're bond slaves of Christ,
willing, loving bond slaves. A bond slave is one who serves
his master because he loves him. He no longer owes a debt to his
master's law. The debt's been fulfilled, the
law's been satisfied, and he's a willing, loving bond slave.
He's more of a friend. And Christ said, you're my friend.
That legal slave, that poor slave, he didn't know what his master
was doing, but he said, I've revealed to you all things that
the Father is doing in the salvation of sinners and the deliverance
of his church. And then he says, You have not
chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you that you
should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever you shall ask of my Father in my name, he may
give it to you. These things I command you, that
you love one another. And what he's saying there is,
you didn't choose me, My friend, salvation is not conditioned
on our choosing God, but upon His choosing us. He's the God
of election. We choose Him because He first
chose us. And He said, not only did I choose
you, but I ordained you, that you should go forth and bring
forth much fruit, not only in yourselves, but in the preaching
of the gospel. There's more of God's friends,
more of Christ's friends to be called into the kingdom, more
of His sheep. And He said, I'm going to keep
you. I'll keep you. And whatever you ask in my Father's
name, I'll give you." And he says, I command you that you
love one another, his friends. Well, I hope that's been helpful
to your understanding of Scripture. And if you'd like to get a copy
of this message, listen to the announcer as he gives you the
details. The title of the message is, The Friends of Christ. I
hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's
Word.