Alright, let's take our Bibles
now and turn to John 15. We're going to be looking at
verses 9-14. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue
ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, Ye
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. Greater love hath
no man than this. that a man lay down his life
for his friends. You are my friends if you do
whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the 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." And our last lesson We talked about the
vine, the true vine. In God's garden, he planted a
vine. That vine is typical in this
parable presented by our Lord of Christ. He's the true vine, and that's
what he's telling them, the vine in which was contained all that
God purposed to produce in this world. The vine in which all
the fullness of the Godhead would abide. All knowledge, all wisdom,
all mercy, all godliness, the very glory of God in him, in
this vine. And the husband man, he said,
the father is the husband man. He's the one who planted the
vine. He grafts in the branches. He cuts the vine. He cuts the
branches. He attaches the one to the other. If there's a union made, it's
made by the husband man. If there's a connection made
between you and this vine, a life-giving union established between you
and this vine, it's the work of the husband man. Very simple
pictures. He causes these two to become
one. And he makes much of this throughout
the book of John, this union, this oneness of Christ and the
believer. And everything that's in the
vine by this holy grafting, it now flows to the branches. And
this grafting he's talking about is not only a grafting of purpose
and not only a grafting of nature as God come down and robed Himself
in human flesh, but it's a grafting in a faith It's a grafting in
a faith. And as it flows into the branch,
that branch begins to bud and then flower and then bring forth
fruit unto God. And that's what he tells us.
The husband man grafts us in. And being grafted in, we receive
life from the vine and produce fruit. It's a picture of faith. Now, we were united to Christ
in the purpose of God before the world began. We were united
to Him by great and precious promises, by pictures. And then we were united to Him
in His incarnation, and we're united to Him by faith and by
regeneration. Listen to this here in Galatians
4. But when the fullness of the
time was come, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that
we might receive the adoption of sons. Purposely, personally,
and permanently, He'd become one with His beloved. One. God looks on Him and looks on
us. He looks on us and looks on Him. That's hard to get hold of, isn't
it? And now He must go to the cross.
His work's not finished. He appeared in this world. He
walked with His disciples. He told His disciples, preached
to them, taught them the things of God. And now He's preparing
them for the cross. I must go to the cross. Sin must
be paid for. Justice must be satisfied. And
having satisfied that justice, having manifested true righteousness,
He must then ascend to the Father. where all He has accomplished
might bring forth all that it was purposed to bring forth.
Listen to this over in Ephesians 4, verse 8. Wherefore, He saith,
when He ascended up on high, He led captivity captive, and
gave gifts unto men. Now this is talking about our
Lord's ascension. This is the picture here. This
is what He's talking to His disciples about. He must go to the cross.
He must die. But He looks past those things
to comfort His disciples. There's nothing comforting about
death. He looks past that death to that justification of God
that will raise Him from the dead, and He'll ascend unto the
Father. And having ascended there, He's
going to send them gifts. He's going to send them the gift
of His Holy Spirit. And it speaks of the Lord's ascension
from Olivet into heaven. And he speaks in a kind of a
pictorial language of the high priest going under that veil
with the blood and incense to make atonement for the people.
He led captivity captive. And by his life and death as
our great substitute, he vanquished every foe, lined them up on a
rope the way the old conquerors did, and led captivity captive. He conquered all of his enemies.
And by His own blood and righteousness, which was and is a sweet savor
to God, He is able now to give gifts to men, accepted of the
Father, given a name above every name, highly favored, decorated
with honor. He now gives the blessings and
favors of God as was never before received. He baptized at His
ascension to the Father. He sent His Spirit in such a
fashion as to baptize the whole visible church all at one time. Never, never in the history of
the world was the Spirit of God given like it was given after
His ascension to the Father. He poured out His Spirit just
like Joel said He would. And they prophesied. All of them
spoke in tongues. poured out His Spirit upon the
whole visible church all at one time. Seated in power and glory,
He says, all power now is given unto me in heaven and earth.
I paid for it. I bought it. I bought the right.
The crown is on my head. Now listen to me. David was king.
He was king when that prophet came in and anointed him with
oil. He wasn't seated yet, but he
was king. He was king. This is God's king. He was king
when he was in exile and Saul tried to kill him. He was king.
He was God's king. He just wasn't seated yet. But
there come a time when David ascended to the throne and the
crown was laid on his head. That's what he's talking about
here. This antitype of David, Christ. He will ascend to the
throne. The crown will be laid on His
head. And He can rightfully do with His own what He will. He
can do all things. He's the King of glory. All power,
He said, given unto Me in heaven and earth. Now you go preach
the gospel. And I tell you, if that's not
so, there's no point in preaching. Not be gospel. Be gospel is contrary
to everything about a man. Paul said, if my gospel is after
man, Then I'm wasting my time. I'm wasting my time. It's not
after man. It finds nothing in man. It condemns
everything in man, this gospel. And if all power is not given
unto Him, why do we preach? But it is given unto Him, and
therefore we can preach. He gives gifts to men. It says
He gave some apostles divinely inspired writers of Scripture,
confirmed of God by signs and wonders. And he gave some prophets,
like John on the Isle of Patmos, showing us these wonderful things
that must, he said, come to pass. They must come to pass. And he
gave some evangelists. An evangelist is nothing more
than a traveling missionary. That's what he is. Everywhere
God opens a door, he goes and he preaches. Paul told Timothy,
who was a pastor. He told him, he said, do the
work of an evangelist. And then he gave some pastor
teachers, watching over local assemblies, watching for your
souls, feeding the sheep of Christ with the pure milk of God's Word. These gifts are divine gifts,
precious gifts, glorious gifts, and they're blessed of God, used
of God, and effectual to the saving of men's souls. Explain
that. Explain to me how a man can stand
up here and declare words, and God can create in you a new man,
a new creation. You can't explain it, neither
can I, but I just know it so. And that's what I mean when I
say these things are effectual to the saving of men's souls.
How can a man stand up here and talk? Talk. Teach you doctrine. Teach you things. declare things
unto you of God and feed your soul. How can that be? How can the presence of God be
felt by a man speaking? How can that come to be? I don't
know. I just know it's so. I just know
it's so. They're divine gifts. They're
precious gifts, glorious gifts, blessed of God, used of God,
and effectual to the saving of men's souls. And we're grafted
in by the preaching of the Gospel and the power of God's Holy Spirit
and the drawing of the everlasting Father who rules over the very
providence that brings us and arranges things and puts us where
we need to be. Our Lord Himself preached. A
simple parable. Just a simple parable. I dare
say a ten-year-old could have understood this parable that
he preached. Preached it to these doctors and these Pharisees,
these doctors of the law. Sent forth the gospel of God's
sovereign grace. And they laughed it to scorn.
They charged him with blasphemy. And they set it aside. And our
Lord bowed His head. And He said, I thank Thee, Father,
Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent and revealed them unto me. Who arranges these
things? God does. God does. This works all together the work
of God. He's the husbandman. Christ is
the vine. We're the branches grafted in
by the purpose and pleasure of God. Go through Ephesians chapter
1 and look on there how many times he says, according to the
good pleasure of His will. I tell you, we better find out
what pleases God, not what pleases us, and go do what pleases God. But here's what I want you to
see. All of this work, all of this purpose, all of this sending,
all of this revealing, all of this work, all of these gifts,
all of this ascension, all of these things is a work of love. Isn't that what He's telling
them? He's going to comfort their hearts
because He's going to go to the cross and they're going to see
things unexpected. They're not expecting Him to
go down there and die. They're expecting Him to ascend
to a literal throne, rule over Israel. Here's what's going to comfort
their heart in that day. Sovereign, eternal, unchangeable,
irresistible love. Love. See, the love of God is
not an infatuation created in time. It's not something brought
on by circumstance and chance. The love of God is not an emotional
experience brought about by something He sees in us. We do something
and then God loves. The love of God is not a temporary
feeling that must be fueled by the affections and reactions
of its objects. That's not the love of God. We don't have that love in us. That's why we don't perceive
it. The only way we can perceive that love is for somebody to
stand and declare to us where that love is and then look at
it. And when you look at it and he
reveals it to you, you see it. There it is. There it is. I ain't
got it. But there it is. I want it. I
want it. The Scriptures say this, God
is love. It didn't say He's a God of love.
It says God is love. He is love. I John 4, verse 8,
He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love." Love being
an attribute of God, the very essence of His character. When
I'm talking about God's attributes, I'm talking about what defines
Him as God, what makes up His character. And he said here that God is
love. And love being an attribute of God, the very essence of His
character, it must be in harmony with the rest of His character.
Does that make sense? God's not altogether love. He's
also just. He's also righteous. He's also
holy. He's also merciful. So this love
has to be a just love. It has to be a righteous love.
That justice must be a loving justice, must be a loving mercy. All of His attributes, to me,
that's what holiness is. When we talk about God being
holy, it's the harmony of all of His attributes together. That's
what it is in His character. It's sovereign love. God's sovereign.
There's no question about that. God's sovereign. I love that
old hymn that Moose Park sings. Plays that little instrument
and sings this song like nobody else. Hail sovereign love that
first began the scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail matchless, free,
eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. Sovereign love. It's a righteous love, a gracious
love. It's long-suffering and kind.
It's just. It's holy. It's immutable. Unchangeable. The love of God never changes.
It never has, it never will. Why? Because God is love and
God is unchangeable. Listen to what James said. He
said, Every good and perfect gift cometh
down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness.
Does He give us the gift of love? Yes, absolutely. There's no variableness
in it. There's bearableness in us, but
not in His love. His love never changes. We change. We change like the wind. One
day we're on, one day we're off. One day we're up, one day we're
down. But His love is just like this. It never changes. God is
just. Listen to me for just a minute. Is there anything that you can
do about God's justice? Can you change it? There's nothing
you can do about it. You may not like it. You may
not approve of it. But there's nothing you can do
about it. You can't resist it. You're going to stand before
it. Oh yeah, everybody in here is going to stand before this
justice. We're going to stand before the just God. That justice
is not going to change. That justice will either be satisfied
in Christ, or you'll stand before Him and satisfy it yourself.
One way or the other, you're going to stand before the just
God. There's nothing I can do about it. Nothing I can do to
change it. Nothing that can be done now
or in eternity. You cannot resist the just demands
of God. God's omnipotent. The Bible said
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. That means He doesn't have anybody
that can defeat Him. He does everything He wills to
do. Can you do anything about it?
No. I can't do anything about it.
Devils can't do nothing about it. All the men gathered together
can't do anything about it. All their anger and all their
frustration and all these things put together, the best they could
do was exactly what He determined before to be done. He's omnipotent. There's nothing you can do about
it. Man says, come, let's break their bands asunder. Let's cast
their cords from us. It says, he that is in heaven
should laugh. He'll laugh. God is righteous. David said, the Lord is righteous
in all of His ways and holy in all of His works. True and righteous
are His judgments. Where's the man or devil in hell
who can bring any evidence of unrighteousness with God? You
can't do anything about it, can you? Now listen, I'm going to
go from a negative to a positive. God is love. Can you do anything
about it? Huh? You can't frustrate that
love. You can't frustrate that love.
And if He is love, then His love is everlasting, unchangeable,
sovereign, just, and righteous. Does that make sense? God's love. You know how God commends His
love to us? While we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. Do you know where they were commanded
to go first to preach the gospel? One of the fellows brought this
out up in Ashland, or up in Danville. I thought it was so good. He
said they were commanded first to go to Jerusalem. Well, that's
the outfit that nailed him to the cross, wasn't it? Wasn't that the ones who drove
the nails in his hands in Jerusalem? Wasn't that the ones who lined
him up and laughed at him, put the crown of thorns down on his
head? It didn't have anything to do with this lot. Go to Jerusalem
first. Go there first. Why? Because that's the chief of sinners.
He'll save Paul, the Pharisee. He'll save him. If he'll save
him, he'll save you. If his self-righteous rebellion
didn't cancel out or resist the love of God, what you've done
is not going to. And I said all that to say this,
John 15, verse 9, hath loved me, so have I loved you." Can you let your mind just wander
back into eternity? Go back past the giving of the
law and past all those things, I know sometimes Old Testament
just seems like reading a foreign language and go back past the
fall and all those questions we have about the fall and back
past creation and past the fall of the angels and past all that
until you get back in old eternity and there's just the Father and
the Son and the Holy Spirit. Perfect love. Nothing there to
No roadblocks. Nothing there. Pure harmony. No foul. No sin. It's just those three in perfect
union, perfect harmony together. Now listen to what he's telling
you. As the Father has loved me, that's how I love you. That's
how I love you. I tell you, if you can get a
hold of that, when that doctor comes in shaking his head, you'll
be all right. You'll be all right. The lowest
day, the lowest day that you have will be your highest day
if you can get a hold of this. Blessed of the Father, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world.
That's before all them falls, isn't it? That's before all these
separations. That's before all these things
that brings us down and causes doubt in us. Blessed of the Father, according
as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy without blame, now listen, before Him
in love. To be in the beloved is to be
before Him in love, always, ever, without end, loved of God. As
the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Nothing changed Him. Not to fall. Not our sins of nature and practice
and will. None of those. It didn't change
His love for you. Not one iota. Not one iota. Because this love appropriated
the means to save you in spite of who you are. In spite of it. God commendeth His love for us.
into while we were yet sinners. And if Christ died for us while
yet sinners, Paul's argument then is how much more? How much
more? Now that he's been raised, now
that he's bore your sins in his own body on the tree, now that
God has commended his love while you were sinners, how much more
now being reconciled? How much purer now that love
that you're reconciled and he's seated at the right hand of God?
now that you had knowledge of that love and what that love
manifested. If everything in our past and in
our nature and in our hearts did not change His everlasting
love for us, it just served as a backdrop to show the glory
of His love. That's all it did. Love never failing. That's what
the Scripture said. Never. Never fail. You see, that's my problem with
universal redemption and those who preach it. That love faileth. That's that problem with that
universal love that men and women talk about. It fails. His love
made no difference. If He loved all men equally,
all men alike, then those in hell, His love made no difference.
The Scripture said love never faileth. It cannot fail. It cannot fail because it's willing
to give all. All. It says it suffereth long
and is kind. It doesn't envy. It's not puffed
up. It does not behave itself unseemly. It does not speak of its own.
It's not easily provoked. It does not speculate on the
evil of others. does not rejoice in iniquity,
but in truth. And it bears all things, and
believes all things, and hopes all things, and endures all things,
because it cannot fail. It cannot fail. Somebody said this, the love
of God is the purposeful doing for us what we could not do and
would not do for ourselves. Lord Jesus Christ, being in the
form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made
himself. Made himself. He thought it not
robbery to be equal with God in love, didn't he? But made
himself of no reputation. That's what that love does. That's
what that love does. And this mind and heart of love
moves men to obedience. He says this in verse 10, John
15, 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. He kept his father's commandments. And here's the key to understanding
that law. It's the very first commandment.
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, soul,
mind, and strength." If a man can do that, he'll not break
another commandment. But if he breaks that first one,
he's guilty of the whole law, because the whole law hangs on
that. So this obedience of which God approved in Christ was loving
obedience, willing obedience. It loved God. Everything He did,
He did because He loved the Father. He loved righteousness. Ain't
that what it says in Hebrew? He loved righteousness and hated
iniquity. Therefore, God gave him a name
above every name. It's all about love. Love's the
fulfilling of the law. Now, when he tells us about those
commandments, what he's telling you is the commandment of faith.
That faith sees that loving, willing obedience of Christ that
took that law and honored it and exalted it as high as it
can go. And in obedience to faith, we
see that, receive that, and rejoice in that. That's what it means
to keep His commandments. It's impossible to please God
apart from faith. Impossible. Impossible. God give us an understanding
of these things and some knowledge of that love. He said, herein
is love. Not that you love God, but that
He loved you and sent His Son to be a propitiation. for our
scene.