The Gospel of John chapter 14,
and I want to read verse 15, then skip down to verse 21 through
verse 24. The Gospel of John chapter 14
and verse 15. If you love me, keep my commandments. Verse 21. He that has my commandments
and keeps them, he it is that loves me. And he that loves me
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him and will
manifest myself to him. Judas said unto him, not his
caret, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself unto us
and not unto the world? Jesus answered and said unto
him, If a man love me, He will keep my words, and my Father
will love Him, and we will come unto Him and make our abode with
Him. He that loves me not keeps not
my word, my sayings, my commandments. And the word which you hear is
not mine, but the Father's which sent me." The title of my message
this morning, Love for Christ. The test of Christianity. Love
for Christ. the test of Christianity. The
Lord Jesus makes this statement four times here in these verses
that I read unto you. Verse 15, He said, If you love
me, if you love me. And then verse 21, He says, He
that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loves
me. And he that loves me. And then
again in verse 23, If a man love me, he will keep my words. Now, this is something I think
this world needs to really mark down. No man is a Christian who
does not love the Lord Jesus Christ. That's impossible. This is the true test of what
it is to be a Christian, is love for Christ. And everyone who
truly loves Christ is a Christian. Christianity is this, love for
Jesus Christ. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
returns, which He will soon, to this earth, a distinction
will be made in these two classes of people. He's coming and He'll
find those who love His appearance. They'll go be with Him forever,
forever with the Lord. And the other class will be accursed. Those who love not the Lord Jesus
Christ will be accursed. We have these two classes of
people living in this world. Those who love Christ and those
who don't. Those who are truly Christians
and those who aren't. Those who love Him, they love
His person. They love His divine person. They love Him as God. That commandment
that says, Share, O Israel, I, the Lord thy God, am one God.
You shall love me with all your heart, all your mind, all your
strength. all your soul. You know that's
Jesus Christ. They love Him as a divine person. He is God. What did Thomas say? My Lord and my God. They love Jesus Christ as a divine
person. They love Him in His humanity. Simon, son of Barjona, lovest
thou me? Lord, you know all things. You
know that I love thee. Have you ever found, brothers
and sisters, anybody, any human being that is so perfected, so
perfect in his humanity? His divinity and humanity are
joined together in one person. And we love him, don't we? We
love him in his divinity and we love him in his humanity. One man said he is possessed.
of every quality which commands and excites our esteem and our
love. We love this man, Christ Jesus. Those who love Him, love Him
as a mediator between themselves and God. Clarence made mention
this morning of the King. We love Christ as King. We need
a King to reign over us. We love Him as King. We love
Him as Prophet. We need a prophet to teach us.
We're so ignorant and unlearned and out of the way. He's our
prophet to teach us. We love Him as our faithful and
merciful High Priest, maintaining our cause on the right hand of
God. When you see Him seated there
at the right hand of God, don't you love Him? Not just for what
He's doing there, but for who He is. He's a faithful and merciful
High Priest over the house of God. He ever lives above for
me to intercede, His all-redeeming love, His precious blood to plead. He's the mediator between us
and God, and we love Him. Those who love Him, love Him
as their example. I have given you an example that
you should do as I have done. Do as I have done. There's a
passage in regards to King David that His people, His nation loved
Him so much. They said as they watched Him,
everything He did pleased the people. They longed to be just
like King David. And that's the way the believer
is. They love Christ as an example. He left us an example that we
should follow His steps. They love His holiness and they
love His grace. They love His justice as well
as His mercy. They love His laws as well as
His promises. They love His yoke that He lays
upon their shoulders as well as the crown that He's promised
to put on their heads. They love His house. They love
His ways. They love His word. They love
His people. Why? Because they love Him. This
is the test of Christianity. Those who love Me. That's the test of Christianity.
You know, sometimes you can love a person, but there's certain
things about them you don't like. I'm convinced my wife loves me,
but I'm convinced also there's things about me that she wish
I would change. But you know, it's not that way
with Christ. Love Him and you love everything about Him. You
love Him and you love everything you know about Him and everything
you can find out about Him. You love Him and all His attributes. and all His ways, and His people,
and His Word, and His worship, and His service, because you
love Him. This is the test of true Christianity,
love for Christ. If you love Me. That's a test of Christianity.
It may not, other things, no doubt, go with that, no doubt
go with that. But here's the test. Do you love
the Lord Jesus Christ? That's my first point. My second
point is this. We have here a true test of love
for Christ. It's not just saying, but there's
a true test if our love for Christ is true. In verse 21, look at
it again. He that hath my commandments
and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me. He that hath my sayings,
He says they're in the other verse. He that hath my words,
he said in the other verse. He that hath my commandments,
my words, my sayings, and keepeth them, it's that person who loves
the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what does it mean to keep
his sayings? What does it mean to have his
words? Well, it means more than just to have a Bible, doesn't
it? Almost everybody has a Bible. It means more than just to be
acquainted with the general knowledge that the Bible gives. It means
more than having a few pet doctrines. What does it mean? It means to
have His word in you. To have His commandments in you. Thy word have I hid in my heart. That's what it means. It means
to have His words in your mind and in your heart. Let the words
of Christ dwell in you richly and all wisdom in you, in you. It's to have His Word abiding
in you. You know when we're barned again,
what does the Bible tell us that we're barned of? The Word. The Word. And then as we read,
as we meditate, as we grow in grace and knowledge, His Word
gets in our hearts. My word in you, My commandments
in you. How do we keep His words? How
do we keep His commandments and His sayings? Let me say it like
this. How do we keep His promises?
He's given us precious promises. How do we keep His promises?
By believing them. We believe His promises. In the
most trying circumstances that you can imagine, we believe His
promises. and therefore we keep His Word.
The Bible says that Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through
unbelief. Why did Paul say he staggered
not? Well, God had given him a promise that I'm going to give
you a son by Sarah. Abraham was 100 years old. Sarah
was 90. Can he have a son? Can Sarah
have a son who is past age, past bearing? And yet he staggered
not at the promise of God, but being fully persuaded that what
God had promised, he was able to perform. Therefore, he kept
his promises. He kept God's promises. The three
Hebrew children were ready to be thrown in the fire, and listen
to what they said. This is the way his word is kept. If it be so, O King, Our God
whom we serve is able to deliver us from your fiery furnace. And He will deliver us out of
your hand, O King, but if He doesn't, be it known that we
will not serve your gods and worship the golden image that
you set up." God is able to deliver us. They took Him at His promise
and therefore they kept His Word. How do we keep His warnings?
Some of the sayings of Christ is not only promises, but they're
warning. By serious consideration and
avoiding those things which he warns us about. By avoiding sin
and the things which he warns us about. Thy word have I hid
in my heart that I might not sin against thee." What was David
saying? You've warned me about sin. Therefore I've hid your word
in my heart that I may take heed to my ways. How do we keep his
precepts? We have precepts. We have this
word that rules our lifestyle. We conform our lives to His precepts,
don't we? Listen to this. When He tells
us the kind of disposition, when He tells us the kind of character
that we're to have in this world, and by grace we begin to conform
to that, then we've kept His Word. When He says, Be not conformed
to this world, but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind.
And when He says, Come out from among them, and be ye separate,
and touch not the unclean thing. Or when He says, Be ye kind and
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's
sake has forgiven you. Or when He says, Put off the
old man which is corrupt, and put on the new man which after
God is created in righteousness and true holiness. What are these
things? These are precepts. These are
His sayings. His commandments. And what do
we do with those? We keep them. How do we keep
them? Well, we keep them this way.
By His grace we seek to conform our lives to His Word. He that hath my Word and keepeth
it. Now somebody is going to be feeling
real bad about this time. Somebody is going to say, Bruce,
man, how I struggle. So do I. So do I. So does every child of God. Paul
said, I pressed, didn't he? He didn't say I've arrived. He
didn't say I keep everything, I do everything perfectly. I
leave behind all my failures. And I look ahead and I press
towards the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. It's the pressing that involves
keeping His Word. It's an amazing thing in the
17th chapter when the Lord Jesus was praying to His Father concerning
His weak, stumbling disciples. Remember what He said, Father,
I have given them Your Word and they have kept it. They've kept
it. I'm sure if you had told Peter
and John and James, have you guys perfectly kept His Word,
their face would turn red. But they had. They had. That was their aim. That was
their goal. To take His Word and follow Him
and transform their lives unto His will. Obedience to His command. Here's a good test. Here's a
good test if you have His commandments and keeping them. Would you be
willing to hold any opposing opinion to what Jesus Christ
has said? If you knew that He had opinion
that His Word was contrary to your opinion, what would you
do? You'd throw away your opinion. Well, Joe and I went to church
one time. We were talking about election and God's purpose and
predestination. And boy, it stirred such a mess
in that little congregation. It got so difficult. And one of the elders got up
and read Romans chapter 8. And he read down through verses
28. and made some kind of a little comment and picked back up at
verse 31. He left out those He predestinated. He also conformed to the image
of His Son. And those He predestinated, He
called and He justified and He glorified. He left all of that
out. And here I am thinking to myself,
would you take this pair of scissors and cut that from your Bible?
That's what the Holy Ghost said. That's what the Spirit of Christ
said. And I asked you this morning, brothers and sisters, is there
any verse of Scripture that you, if you had the liberty to, would
take with a pair of scissors and cut it out? Do you not tremble
at His sayings, His Word? If you love Him, you do. This
is the test of true Christianity. If you love Me, keep My sayings. And I tell you another thing
too, we'd never add anything to it, would we? While we tremble
to think we'd add anything to His commandments. Would you make
a habit of doing something the Lord strictly and plainly forbids
you to do in His Word? Do you seek to fashion the whole
of your life, the choices you make, your judgments, with reference
to the words of Christ? All Christians love Christ. And the true test of their Christianity
is this. They keep His commandments. They keep His sayings, His Word. Do we keep them perfectly? Absolutely
not. But I tell you, there's a heart
there to do it. And we long for the day that
we'll never sin again. And sin won't be involved with
our obedience to our Master. Do all the saints love the Lord
the same? No. They don't have the same
measure of love. Some love Him more. They love
Him more because of what they've experienced with Him. He that's
forgiven much, He loves much. They love according to their
faith and knowledge and experience, don't they? But they all love
Him. And the true test that they love Him, they keep His Word. He that loveth Me not, Boy, love
is common to all the saints of God, but it's peculiar to them. Only they love Jesus Christ. Because verse 24 says, And he
that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings. The world is full
of such folks. Do you know it? They're full
of such folks. They say and do not. They say, Oh, yes, we know, but
they don't do. And how did James say it? Be
ye doers of the Word, and not hearers only. Here's what J.C. Ryle said about this passage.
He said, Obedience is the true test of love to Christ, and not
just knowledge, and not just talk, and certainly not just
hearers, but doers. He that hath my commandments,
and doeth them. When the Lord Jesus finished
that great sermon on the mount and gave us all of those gracious
words of instructions to live by a life that you cannot possibly
live unless you are born again and obtain grace and mercy of
the Lord to live. And then when he finished that
sermon here is what he said, He that heareth these sayings
of mine and keepeth them. I liken him to a wise man who
built his house upon the rock. When the rains came down, and
the floods came up, and the winds began to blow and beat upon that
house, it did not fall, because it was founded upon a rock. So we have love for Christ. That's
the true test of humanity, of Christianity. We have a true
test of love. He that loveth me keepeth my
commandments. Thirdly, let's consider then
the power of love. My goodness, no other motive
here is given. No other motive is given. If
there's other motives, there is. You have to go other places.
But here, the one single motive He gives for keeping these commandments,
His sayings, is love. He that hath my commandments,
and keepeth them, He does so because He loves me. He keeps my word because He loves
me. The Bible says a prophet, speaking
of Christ, shall the Lord your God raise up among you, Him shall
you hear, listen to this, in all things whatsoever He says
to you. You hear Him in everything. Listen now, what would motivate
a person to seek to hear everything He says? What would motivate
a person to regulate his entire life by someone else's sayings? After a while, you know what
I tell you to do? Butt out of my business, man.
You ain't tell me what to do. You ain't that smart anyway.
What would motivate a man to do everything this man says for
you to do? To abstain from things that displease
him. to form your character according
to His will. What would motivate a man to
do that? One thing. Because you love Him.
Ain't that amazing? The power of love? I tell you,
self-righteousness won't do it. Legalism won't do it. Threats
won't do it. Slavish fear won't do it. But
I tell you something that will. Love. Love will do it. He that loveth me keeps My Word. That's His aim. That's His goal. That's His end in this lifetime. Obedience to Him whom He loves. I tell you, there's nothing,
I'm just convinced of this as I grow older, that there's nothing,
there is no principle, within or without, that's more powerful
than love. It just won't fail with it. It
just won't fail. I barely suspect that these two
people down here, Sir and Brad, We'll live together till death
separates us. You know why? Love. Love. You know why we can't be separated
from Jesus Christ? Love. You know why He hanged
on the cross and groaned and endured the darkness and the
judgment of God for us? Greater love hath no man than
this. Love. Love. You take an old drunk
and no sorry slot that stole and connived and defrauded people,
hated people and was hateful and the Lord saves him and makes
him such a kind and tender and faithful man. And people look
at him and they say, my goodness, if the Lord can save that fellow,
He can save anybody. And what is it that motivates
that fellow? The Lord Jesus Christ loved me and gave Himself for
me. That's what Paul said, didn't
he? That's what Paul said. The very God of peace sanctify
you wholly. And I pray God your whole spirit
and your soul and your whole body be preserved blameless unto
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what would motivate
a man just to give up his whole body and his whole soul and his
spirit to follow Jesus Christ according to His Word? J. Kurros, C-U-R-C-U-L-R-O-S-S,
Kurros. He wrote a little track on the
secret of consecration. Listen to what he says about
this. Possessed by this love, the love of Christ, I yield myself
wholly and joyfully to Him. My hands are His, redeemed by
Him, sacred to Him, and cannot do unholy work. My feet are His
and cannot go on unholy errands. My ears are His and cannot listen
to unholy words. My eyes are His and cannot look
upon unholy deeds. My tongue is His and cannot utter
unholy speeches. My mind is His and cannot think
unholy thoughts. My heart is His and cannot cherish
unholy feelings and desires. My whole being is His, redeemed
by Him, sacred to Him, and is surrendered to His will." Isn't
that wonderful? Isn't that wonderful? The power of love. The power
of love. Simon, son of Jonas, do you love
me? Lord, you know I love you. Then
feed my sheep. Feed my sheep. Feed my lambs. If you love me, feed my lambs. What is it that makes the commandments
of God and the keeping of them not grievous? When my dad used
to get up on Sunday morning, I just quit arguing because I
knew I was going to church. But boy, I'd sit there in church
and my body was there, but my mind was everywhere else. I was
off riding horses, fishing on the river and everything else.
It grieved me to death to sit and hear anybody read, to sit
and hear anybody pray. It just grieved me to death.
What is it that keeps the commandments of God from being grievous to
us? Love. Love. The power of love. Fourthly and
lastly is this, the peculiar privileges of those who so love
the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 21 again, He that hath
my commandments and keeps them, he it is that loves me and he
that loves me shall be loved of my Father. And I will love
him and will manifest myself to him. And he says this in verse
23, If a man love me, he will keep my words, and my Father
will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him." Oh, what privileges! What privileges! That God will
love him, Christ will love him, and manifest himself, and come
and live with him in your heart, in your house. Pink said this, Arthur Pink said
this, he said, there's three different senses. in which Christians
may be considered as objects of the loving favor of the Father
and of the Son of God. First, he said, as persons elected
in sovereign grace to eternal life. Why did he elect them? Why did he choose them? Because
he loved them. Secondly, as persons actually united to Christ by
believing. He called you to himself. Why
did he call you? Because he loved you. And thirdly,
Pink said, as persons transformed by the sanctifying work of the
Holy Spirit, and it is in this last sense that Christ is speaking
of here. What can this mean when he says
the Father will love him? What can this mean but a deeper
and abiding sense of the Father's favor and the Father's love? Who wouldn't want more of that? for God to make me more deeply
aware, as only He can do, that He is my Heavenly Father. Oh, my soul, I lived twenty-something
years without a knowledge of God being my Father. The Sovereign,
Eternal God, my Father, for Him to make me know that, for Him
to make me know that He is merciful to me and forgives my sins, that
He watches over me, me, that He provides for me, that He works
all things for my good, that He will at last receive me unto
His house, to have a deep-abided sense of such love. Oh, who wouldn't
want that? He that keepeth my commandments,
my Father will love him. My Father will make him know
that he loves Him. Have you ever doubted the Father's
love? Oh, yes. Oh, yes. for Jesus Christ to manifest
Himself to our spirit by His Word, to manifest His own personal
dying for our soul, to make known by His Spirit His kindness, His
goodness, His mercy, to give one a true and abiding sense
that you are truly mine and I am yours for all eternity. Who would not want that? Who
would not want that? Nothing can separate you from
Me. I would say that such a manifestation
of Himself through His Word by Spirit would pretty much dispel
all doubt, wouldn't you? I'd say that would pretty much
dispel all doubt for the Lord Jesus to manifest Himself. What would it mean for you this
morning that maybe you've been full of doubts, maybe you've
been tried sore, for Jesus Christ to make His self known to you,
not physically, spiritually to your soul, and make you know,
listen, I'm yours, listen, you're mine. Wouldn't that pretty much
remove all doubt? Wouldn't that dispel a lot of
the darkness of our minds and souls? Wouldn't that take away
the loneliness and sorrow of one's heart? There'd be no more
mourning, the hiding of His face, and the loss of His presence.
We will come unto Him and make our abode with Him. Then we can say with the fullest
of assurance and a humility and quiet confidence, I am my Beloved's. and my Beloved is mine. I am
my Beloved's and His desire is toward me." What support and what comfort
such a manifestation of Christ's love and His presence gives,
especially in the time of trials. Even those deep and prolonged
trials that no human sympathy can enter into. I used to get
upset with people because they couldn't enter into what I was
suffering until I finally realized they can't. They're suffering
soul, heart trials, family trials, trials at work, trials in their
mind, doubts and fears that people cannot enter into. But He can. And you know one reason He can?
Because He experienced them Himself, didn't He? And now He can sympathize. And when He takes this healing
balm, this medicine for our sick and troubled soul, oh, He can
heal us. And I tell you how He heals us,
by His Word, by His presence. We will come unto you. We will
manifest our love. We will make our abode with you. Here's what old Newton said about
it. We sang this sometime. content with beholding His face. That's what he's talking about
here. My all to His pleasure resigned. No changes of season or place
would make any change in my mind. While blessed with a sense of
His love, a palace, a toy would appear. All prisons would palaces
prove if Jesus would dwell with me. for His presence, His love
manifested to your soul. Oh, that's wonderful, isn't it?
That's wonderful. Do you know who that's for? That's not for those who are
at ease in Zion. That's not for those who aren't
vigilant and diligent. That's for those who are keeping
His commandments. Those who are diligently following
His ways. And while they're suffering,
and tried, and weak, He comes to them and strengthens them
with Himself and fills them with joy with His presence. I made mention just a minute
ago about the three Hebrew children refusing to bow. We will not
commit idolatry against our Lord. We love Him. We are not going
to bow to your image, they said. He threw them in the furnace.
And King Nebuchadnezzar said, Did we not cast three men bound
in the midst of that fire? They said, Yes, O King, true
O King. And the king said, Lo, I see
four men, and they're loosed, walking in the midst of the fire,
and they have no herd on them. And the fourth one, he has the
form of the Son of God. Who was that in the midst walking
with them? The same one here who said, I
will love you, and I'll manifest myself to you. And I'll come
to you with my Father, and we'll make our abode with you. May God bless this message. Let
us pray.