Let us turn in the sacred scriptures to the Gospel of John, chapter 13, beginning with verse 27. This is after the first Lord's Supper. And after the sup, Satan entered into him, that is Judas. Then said Jesus unto him, Thou doest do quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that we have need of against the feast, or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out, and it was night. Therefore, when he was gone out, Jesus said, now is the Son of Man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me, and as I said unto the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come, so now I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither I go thou canst not follow me now, but thou shalt follow me afterwards. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow till thou hast denied me thrice." Reflection, beloved, is thinking back, looking back on the past with the purpose to profit us as we go forward. That's what tonight's service is all about. That's the continual message, really, of God to His Church throughout all history. Remember the past, but not in order to despair, but in order to benefit from our remembrance of things gone by, specifically for us tonight, the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, His suffering and His death, and being the Lord's Day, His resurrection. This morning we remembered our Lord, all that he suffered for us. We partook by faith of the symbols of his broken body, the things that remind us of his shed blood, that perfect sacrifice on which we rely so entirely, not only for forgiveness, but also for ongoing grace, moment by moment, day after day. And so our Lord after Judas departed from the room after declaring how that now particularly in his sufferings, that he would be glorified and that his father would be glorified by the things that he suffered. Then he instructs his disciples for three significant chapters. in their life going forward after the Lord's Supper. In a certain sense we could say this chapter and the other chapters are really the first reflection message ever given by the Lord Jesus himself after the very first Lord's Supper. And tonight we're going to focus our attention on just one thing that he gave them, one command that he entrusted with them and with the whole of his church throughout the ages. And so our text tonight is John 13, the verses 33 through 35. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. ye shall seek me. And as I said unto the Jews, whither I go ye cannot come. So now I say to you, a new commandment I give you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. Our theme tonight is love as I have loved. First of all, a new tender address of love. Secondly, a new commandment of love. And finally, a new testimony of love. Judas, as we just heard, was gone. Only the Lord Jesus seemed to know why. He spoke of the glory that his father would give him and which he in turn would give to the Trinity. Something of that glory would be given to those who follow him when they enter into that glory for which he prayed in John 17. But now Jesus, after instructing and encouraging his soon-to-be-abandoned disciples, he turns to them with a commandment. A commandment that would become the hallmark of the Christian church from that time forward. So much so that many years later the Apostle John in his epistles would continue to be instructing, writing extensively about this commandment in his letters. But we may ask ourselves, well, didn't Jesus already teach this commandment in, for example, Matthew 5, in the Sermon on the Mount, that we are to love God above all, and that we are to love our neighbor as ourselves, and even to love our enemies? Hadn't that already been instructed? So in what sense is this a new command? Well, that's going to be the first thing we consider after we consider his unique address to his disciples. He begins introducing this command by saying, little children. Our Lord had already taught in previous chapters in the Gospels that except we become like little children, have the faith of a child, we are not going to enter into the kingdom of heaven. But never had Jesus addressed his disciples with this title, little children. In fact, it is the only instance in the New Testament where Jesus uses this address. And I can only imagine that after the heaviness, if I could put it that way, of Judas's presence now departing from him, that with the outpouring of the Holy Spirit ever upon him, Jesus now turns his attention from Judas to the eleven and As it were, he must have felt something of what was going through their mind. He knew their thoughts. He knew that he dreaded the thought of him leaving them for any length of time. And after having seen him for three years, day by day, seeing how really how little they understood, even at this point in their journey, spiritually. And so, in one sense, we can almost imagine the Lord Jesus' heart, as it were, breaking over them. More than anyone else, he knew how much they depended on him, how much that without the outpouring of the Spirit that would happen at Pentecost, they were still weak men, both in their understanding and with regard to courage. these men would be little wiser and little more knowledgeable than ever they had been. And in fact, that's really the same with us, isn't it? Without the ongoing ministry of the Holy Spirit, without our Lord teaching us through his Spirit and word, we're really no different either. We will never come to the knowledge of him saving me, the knowledge of truth saving the little children. Why does he say this, boys and girls? Why does he call these grown men little children? Well, in the first place, he had begotten them. These were people that he called out of their, we would say, their former life and brought them into the kingdom of God. There sat one at the receipt of custom, the tax collector, follow me. And he was never the same after that moment. There were others in the fishing ships called from their calling, but also called from their life. And now a new life had begun. They had been ordinary, everyday Israelites, living each day to put food on the table, to take care of their families and so on. And we think in this Reflection Night, well, who were we? Who were you and who was I when the Lord came into our life? Where did he find us? Or maybe you're still the same person that you ever were, that you're really not any different than you've ever been. maybe still living for days off or for weekends or for holidays or for retirement, punching the clock at work, marking time, chasing dreams. Not only where he found them, what were they when he found them? Well, it's hard to say. We do know that the religion of that day, as it was taught by the religious leaders, was very sad and quite depressing. If you do well, if you conform to all of the strict standards of God and men, then maybe you would have favor with God. But now they have walked with Jesus. And as we said, the one counting money now instead of collecting taxes. He is witnessing the Messiah multiplying loaves and fish. Another who used to catch fish now receives the power of God to cast out demons from people's lives and seeing people forgiven and their lives changed before his very eyes. Are you the same young person? tonight that you've ever been. Are you the same child? Are you the same adult? You used to live in a world of friends and acquaintances and paychecks and living for those entertaining moments and purchases and camaraderie. But since Jesus Christ and his blessed spirit comes into our lives, then it's as though a whole new world of living opens up before our very eyes, before our minds. You've heard about all those things before, but now they become very real. And very important, sin isn't just a word, it isn't just breaking a commandment, it is grieving the Lord. And now you understand as never before, and you wish, and you think back, and you wish that things were different, that things were not the same as they once were. It's interesting. I'm hearing myself say this just yesterday. We were talking with the children through the computer all over in their places, and I was showing them pictures from our past, when I was a little boy, my siblings with me, and then reading old letters. and just seeing how I used to think and the world in which I used to live, and a letter which just seems to be on the cusp of that change of mind. You could almost see the first glimmers of awakening. And I didn't even know my mother had that letter, but she did. Do you know those things, too, where the world begins to change, where the things that were no problem before, where the places you used to go, the things you and your friends did, the stuff that you so valued and you worked so hard to get are somehow now not so important? That now there's another world that means so much more. There's another friend who you long to please who lives above. You can't understand how you didn't see it before. And now it's so hard. How can my parents not see it? How can my friends not see it? It seems so obvious now, but you come to realize that they don't see it any more clearly than you used to see it. Little children, he said. So there's the first thing. Where he found them, what he found them, they were newborn But he not only beget them, but as a father caring for his children, the Lord Jesus had kept them. We heard that verse in the forum this morning. It's such a beautiful verse every time again. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him. And so the Lord Jesus' eyes were upon his disciples, each step of the way, also in their failures. Satan, for example, had desired to sift Peter as wheat, but the Lord prayed for him. And you know, he still looks upon us. Those eyes are still gazing clearly upon us. And that tenderness, that protection, that intercession for us, that continues to this day. Little children. And they were but little. They had a lot to learn. And I'm sure you feel that way too, don't you? I do. I look around at my bookshelves and I think, it'll take me 10 lifetimes to learn ounces of information from all these sources and from the Word of God. What do we know that compares to what we could have known? if we had applied ourselves the way we should. Little children, he said to them, these were the same disciples who just at the time when he was showing them the First Lord's Supper, explaining to them, this is my body, this is my blood, just moments, just hours before the actual thing, what are they doing? Quarreling. About what? Who should be the greatest? Little children. Aren't we sometimes foolish? We look back in our lives, what were we fighting about that for? Why was that such a big thing? Why did I make such a mountain about this or that? In the grand scheme of things, we're little children too. And here they were called by Jesus himself to conquer the world with the gospel. And they had so much to learn. Little perhaps, but he says to them, fear not. little flock. He says to them, let not your heart be troubled. He says to them, you believe in God, believe also in me. You see how the Lord just so beautifully reaches down into the tender spots in our congregation, in our church family. He says, I know you're fearful. I know maybe you don't know what we should know, but don't be afraid. Don't be fearful. Believe also in me." And finally, little children, because he would only be with them a little while. You know, when we're growing up in mom and dad's house, maybe as you're getting older, boys and girls, young people, you're kind of starting to think now, when I get older, and this and then that, and you start making plans and what you think the Lord would have you to do in your life, and you picture the time when you might be getting married and leaving mom and dad's home and living with someone, but right now you're under your parents' roof. They're still kind of watching over, they like to give you privileges, they want to give you freedoms and responsibilities, but you know, they're watching. They want to make sure you can handle them, that you're going to use those privileges wisely. I think sometimes, young people, you think that your parents sit up at night wondering how to put new restrictions on you. But that's not the case. Your parents would love to give you more and more responsibility and freedom. But you need to demonstrate it, that you're ready to use those privileges wisely. And then your parents will be happy. glad to see you growing and maturing in such ways. Well, Jesus is no different. He knew that in a little while He would not be with them, not as He was before, that He would be gone. And yet, He would not be gone. He would return and deal with them in a very different way. He would be with them through the Holy Spirit. He would be with them in the Word of God. And he, of course, would return in the last day. And that's how he deals with us. We would love to walk with the Lord Jesus day by day, but he deals with us in a way of growing us, living not by sight and not by feelings and not by the frames of heart that we so want to have, like little children. But He trains us up in the school of faith to walk with Him in darkness as well as in light, to trust in His Word even when it hurts. Little children. Boys and girls, what have we seen so far? Well, we've seen a new name. Little children. It was a tender name. It was a name that showed He cared for them and a name that showed that He realized maybe more than they did how much they still needed him. And that name, beloved, belongs to us too. And let's receive that fatherly, compassionate name out of the love with which it's given. But then he follows that new name with a new commandment, a brand new commandment. commandment of love. He says, A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. We know, as we just said, that Jesus had taught them to love their enemies, those that hate them, to pray for them, and those that despitefully use them. I have loved you. We know that in the world we live in today there are all kinds of meanings associated with the word love. Infatuation is meant for some people, that's what they think love is, being captivated by someone's presence. Physical relations. outside of marriage, that by some is called love. Attention even between people of the same gender is called love. And yet none of these, not even the love of husband and wife, are what Jesus is talking about here. As I have loved you, The only way we can understand this command, obviously, is by first considering, well, if we are to love as He loved, well then, how does He love? And this is familiar territory to you all, but worthy of reminiscence. How does He love us? First of all, His is a one-sided, sovereign love. To put it another way, His is a love that is directed solely by His will. In other words, He's simply determined to love. And this by itself is incredibly critical for us if we are going in this hour of reflection to consider this new command for ourselves. Why? When we consider love in the sense that God loves, we can readily see that His love is not in the least dependent upon the worthiness of the person being loved. If that were the case, He would love no one outside of Himself. Now, when we love, If a person is hostile, if a person is strange, if a person is even temporarily unkind to us, how quickly we consider withholding our love, withdrawing our love. We tend to love people that we like. We tend to love people we admire. We tend to love people who treat us nicely. But God's love, as we heard this morning, the ungodly, sinners, enemies. God's love to us, thankfully, has nothing to do with us. In a sense, it's not on account of us. And it's nothing that we've earned or received because of anything in us. His love is actually from eternity. Its origin was in his own will and good pleasure. He loved us simply because he chose to love us. We have never been, we never are now, nor will we ever be worthy of the love of God. So when Jesus commands us to love one another as I have loved you, We need to keep this very thing foremost in our mind. We are not to love because the object of our love is deserving of it. But rather, this kind of love emanates from us purposing to love for His sake. If we may do that by the grace of God, we can actually love the most unlovable of people. It means we should never hold love because someone does something we didn't like, or because someone has offended us. In real life terms, it means we don't use the silent treatment, we don't turn the cold shoulder to them, or anything like that. when they offend us or upset us. No unloving gestures, no unloving words or manner, withdrawing our love as we so often can do to get a point across, to make sure the person understands that we're not happy. There's a book that my wife and I often give to couples who are in trouble, if it seems appropriate. And the premise of the book is very simple, and it's profoundly written. And that is we are never dependent on our spouse to be holy. That is not to say that we can't make it much more difficult for our spouse to be holy by the manner in which we conduct ourselves. But that does not mean that we cannot be the most godly of spouses regardless of how our spouse is to us. And that book is replete with scriptural references to prove the point. That, in the first place, is what it means to love as he loved. We can see throughout the Gospels. We can see throughout Bible history. We can see throughout church history. One example after another, his people are unworthy. They have forfeited every ounce of that love. They never earned a stitch of it, and nevertheless, his love because it came from himself, emanating from his purposing to do so from all eternity. Now, having said that, that same love is therefore not an emotion only. It's not a feeling. It is not something that comes and goes according to how we feel. But it should be a purposeful commitment based on our will with God's help. It means we need grace to speak the truth in love as necessary. It means to confront sin in a loving manner. It means to do everything, as we're going to hear in a moment, for good purpose. So we are not to love. because others are worthy of it, but because it pleases the Lord and because it resembles the love that he shows to us. That's in the first place. In the second place, it's not only a sovereign choice of the will, but it is also God doing what is truly best for us. You know the love of God. is an unrelenting love. It is a love which pursues us and pursues us for our good no matter what. So we often experience difficulties, we often experience trials, but you know deep down as a believer God is pursuing holiness in us and he's not going to stop until he achieves it. And so the duration of afflictions, the depth of afflictions, the joys that bring us to repentance, the goodness of the Lord which does, it is all measured, it is all calculated, it is all timed in order to make us holy. And even though as believers we can be so out of sorts when things don't go our way, when God is working more prominently in our hearts, we know deep down this is my Father's will. And this is for my good. His love, the Lord Jesus' love, is always according to truth and for what is truly best for us. So we may think, and it's a very common thing even among Christians, to think that love is pleasing the other person. Well, that may be so sometimes. But sometimes it's not necessarily best for them. I remember a friend one time saying, God is not in the first place interested in our happiness. He is interested in our holiness. And the two can be together. But if the one has to be put aside, it's not going to be our holiness. And God loves us so much, He sees to it that we will be corrected when we need to. That all these kinds of things are meant to refine us, not destroy us, to build us up, not to cut us down. And we may not always see His kind fatherly hand in what He's doing, but it's there. even as He promised. So, when Jesus commands us to love as He has loved, it means we are to love always looking for the other's true best. And what is the true best but that which is conducive, which contributes to their spiritual good, to creating an atmosphere around them that helps holiness along. We can't make people holy, we can't sanctify people ourselves, but we ought to do everything we can to remove every barrier we can to that goal. So we're not just studying ways to please others. We're studying ways that others would excel, that their eternal welfare would be the first thing that we're concerned about. And again, saying no might be the most loving thing we could say in certain circumstances. And this is a love, if we're going to be interested in the eternal welfare of somebody, this love is going to stick to the word. This love is going to be channeled in scriptural channels. It's going to be following the very things that God values and not be off in some world of our own. And this is hard in a day like today when compromising principles are everywhere and keeping peace at all expense. We can't afford to do that. We can't afford to have a love that doesn't doggedly pursue the eternal gain of others. How would we feel if we came to the end of our beloved's life and we've done nothing for their soul and we see them descend into the abyss? And we know maybe we've provided for them and we've pampered them and we've pleased them, but we've done no good to them concerning a tremendous eternity to come. We would, I hope, feel awful. Well, why wait for that moment? God's love is not only a sovereign love, it's not only for our very best good, but his love, and this is really hard to emulate, but his love is a constant love. It is a love that never, ever fluctuates. Now, that's not to say that our experience of his love as believers doesn't fluctuate all the time. But that does not mean that he withdraws his love or he loves us more or loves us less. That's not true. His love is constant. It is never waning, never waxing. It's always a love that perseveres. Now, the Lord very kindly at times withdraws a sense of his love, because he never wants us to become comfortable in sin. So he says, for example, in Isaiah, it's not my hand that is shortened, that it cannot save. It's not my ear that is heavy, that it cannot hear. It is your sins that have hid my face from you. So when we feel this distance from the Lord, when we feel perhaps nothing of the love of God to our hearts, that's a good time to ask ourselves why. What is it that I'm doing that is placing barriers in the way. Now that's not to say that there are not times that can't be directly ascribed to our sin, that the Lord is testing us, the Lord is trying us, the Lord is drawing out our desires after Him. That may be too. But nevertheless, when it comes to our fulfilling this commandment, That means whether we are frustrated, whether we are disappointed, whether we are upset, whether our desires and wishes are fulfilled or not fulfilled, that our idolatrous will was not appeased sufficiently, this command of our Lord to love us, he did steady, unrelenting. And that is a wonderful love. It is a powerful love. A person can reject that love, a person can fight against that love, but what a beautiful reflection of the Lord. So let us maintain by the grace of God this love within us, regardless of the circumstances. Not just expressing it when we're pleased. but is expressing it at all times, because it honors the Lord. Fourthly, when Jesus says, love as I have loved you, that was an eminently sacrificial love. There is no love like His love. That was the entire focus of the Lord's Supper, remembering His incredible sacrificial love. We could put it this way, He could not have given more than He gave. He gave His life. He gave His blood. He gave His soul. He gave His back to the smiters in order, out of love, to save us. Philippians 2, 7 and 8, he made himself of no reputation, took upon him the form of a servant, was made unto the likeness of men, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Even more succinctly, the Apostle Paul would capture in one sentence both his sacrifice and our duty in light of it. Ephesians 5, 2, the Apostle says, walk in love as Christ also hath loved us and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savor. Love, he says, walk in the same love, which means for the good of someone's soul, for their eternal and temporal welfare with relationship to God, they should be willing to die, to die, to see another person gained for eternity. That's exactly what Ephesians 5 talks about, how husbands love your wives as Christ loved a church and gave himself for it that he may wash her in his blood and by his word. So it's that kind of love. So often our love tends to be selfish, even though we could hide it under a hundred layers of facade. We're often looking for a return on our love. So often it's not for the purpose that he loved to purge us from sin. There's this beautiful text also illustrating this, even as Christ also loved the church, gave himself for it. That means, in simple terms, we don't spare any expense, even to ourselves. Emotionally, temporally, spare no expense. for the other's best. He gave everything to purge us from our sins. He counted not His own life dear to Him in order to bring life and holiness to others and into our lives. So ought we to love others. Well, a new commandment. It should be evident to all of us that apart from the grace of God this isn't happening. If we don't even love our own souls, if we're not even willing to lift a finger, as it were, for our own spiritual welfare, you will never even begin to love another person. And you may feel so close to someone, you may live 50, 60, 70 years with your spouse, but you've never loved them. You've never loved them, not one minute, if you've never loved them this way. This is Christ's command to the people of God, to love as I have loved. Every Sunday, ten commandments. If I only would have thought of it every Sunday, eleven. This is a new commandment, and it is the sum of them all. as I have loved." And so, you can see again that just as Christ was the center of the blessings we consider this morning, so Christ is the center tonight of this command. That we need to go to Him, just for starters, for just the heart to do this. We need to go to Him to understand as we've just been talking about, the breadth of this command, the selflessness of this command, the intensity and the constancy of this command. But we need His grace for forgiveness for the millionth time, not loving as He loved, but loving as we love. and then to be able to return to Him and to return to Him and to cling to Him, to have that love poured out in our soul by the Spirit, through the Word, so that once again we may seek to keep this new commandment. And we want to keep it. Why? Because He so loved us. He's asking nothing of us that he is not only willing to do himself, but he's asking nothing of us that he's not willing to give to those who ask him. And so yes, this is a weighty love. It doesn't depend on other people, whether they're good or bad. It is determined to see others become as good as they can be, knowing that we can't make them good, but we're going to do everything we can to bring whatever means we can to help them. And that love stays in the boundaries of God's word. It stays constant. It's not afraid of sacrifices. It's not afraid of crucifying our flesh. And I would submit to you how different our lives would be, how different this world would be, if more of this love were evident. And that's not to say that we don't see examples of it all over. In different ones' lives here in this very sanctuary we do, and we are thankful to the Lord. But I think we can all see that this is a weighty commandment, a broad commandment. a commandment that needs to reign in our hearts. If you happen to notice the psalter we just sang, the ending line was not that God confers His blessing and then we dwell in unity. We dwell in unity and upon that the blessing rests. Anyone who works for a reputable company knows that the company is very interested in its workers helping to maintain and even to promote the company image, particularly so if your position in the company is interacting with your clients, with your customers. The company wants to make sure you make a favorable, a positive impression. That might mean wearing a certain outfit. It might mean special training, dealing with people. Whatever it takes to enhance the public image and reputation of the company. Well, if that's true of the world, of those who are living for dollars and cents, it certainly ought to be true, and far more true, that we should be careful to promote the name and the cause of God, of the God we hope to serve, of the God we hope to live with for eternity, of the God we hope to represent and reflect in this world, and that's exactly where Jesus comes down with his new commandment, by this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. So not only is this command a hallmark of the New Testament church, but the reason for it is so in line with everything we've ever known about God's purposes in redemption and sanctification. He saves us. Well, let's start at the beginning. He created us. He saves us. He sanctifies us for His glory. He says, by this love shall not just the church people, not just your neighbors, not just people who know you well. All men will know. Know what? That you are my disciples if he have love one to another. He is interested, Jesus says, that others should know this. that others should know that we are his, he says, my disciples, not just any disciples. If you are followers of me, then follow me. If you're going to reflect me, this is the way I would have you to do it. Walk in love, the very love wherewith I have loved you. Be toward others. as I have been toward you." I think it is a very sad thing to meet people who speak glowingly of their personal experiences with God or who speak glowingly of their religious beliefs or of their church, who show little more than contempt, suspicion, coldness toward other Christians, and particularly toward other Christians who are not like them. Is that what being a disciple of Jesus means? Is that how he loved? Is that how he went from leper to publican to harlot with that attitude? Certainly not. It means we should be staunchly defending what we call the truth while not being careful to live out that truth in our daily lives. No, he says. Jesus says this love is the mark of discipleship. I wish we had a whole other hour or so we could walk through that description of the love that's given to us in 1 Corinthians 13. But just remember this, Paul prefaces his description by saying, though I speak with the tongue of men and angels, though I have the gift of prophecy, understand all mysteries, knowledge, even if I had all faith so that I could move mountains, bestow all my goods to feed the poor, give my very body to be burned, if I have not charity, He says, I'm little more than sounding brass or a tinkling cymbal. I am nothing and it profits me nothing. I think many of us would be thrilled to have the very things he just discounted. All that knowledge, faith to move mountains, gifts, a galore. bestowing our bodies to be burned for the Lord, giving everything away, we would think, surely that's a saint. He says if that love is missing, we're absolutely nowhere. We've not gotten out of the beginnings. In a much more concise place, John, as he always does, puts it so simple. 1 John 3.14, we know, we know that we have passed from death unto life. How? Because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abides in darkness. 1 John 4.20, if a man say I love God, and hates his brother, he's a liar. For he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?" The Lord Jesus lived this command. He loved the absolutely unlovable, the outcasts, the worst of society, and he continues to do so. You're looking at one of them. You're maybe one of them yourself. Paul says, the chief of sinners, with all the reverence I can muster, God specializes in taking the deplorable, the write-offs, the people we would have overlooked long ago as any candidate for salvation, and he picks those. If you ever want a lovely treatise on that reality, Bunyan's Jerusalem Center Save can't be beat. Such a moving description of the incredible sovereign love of God that bypasses those who think they're worthy and takes those who gave up any hope. Jesus lived this life, the perfect image-bearer of his father. Careful was Jesus to portray his father's love, his father's character, in precisely the clearest light before the world. Others, in his day, previous to his day, had distorted the image of his father, had besmirched it. Satan's always trying to do that. The religious leaders of the day had done that, but Jesus taught, but more importantly he lived, to his very dying moment, this love. And he did so as a perfect representation of his Father's love. Are you afraid to come to God? Are you fearful of not being received, coming to God in Christ for salvation? You have nothing to fear. but fear itself. This is the love wherewith he loves sinners. This is the love that makes the text this morning possible and certain. While we were yet sinners, God reconciling us to himself by the death of his Son. And so we, when God renews our image, to reflect his image, when by the grace of God he pours his love into our lives, transforming them. Of course, this is part of that image-bearing. This is what we want to do. We want to reach out with the very same love wherewith he loved us to others. And this love, James warns us, is a substantive love. It's not just words, but it's very deeds. It's, as we said before, going for the best good of other people. This is the love that Christ shows us and through us shows others. Now, if we do not have even the beginning semblance of this love, The implications are obvious. We are not his disciples. Again, disciple means one who follows. The whole way of teaching in New Testament times was the rabbinic model where you didn't just sit in a classroom, learn some lessons and go home. You lived with the teacher. You walked with the teacher. You slept beside the teacher. You modeled the teacher day by day. And Jesus is saying, be my disciple. Walk as I walked. Love as I loved. The Apostle Paul gives us just a glimpse of that in his own life. 2 Corinthians 12, 15, he wrote, I will very gladly spend and be spent for you. Though, the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. When he was working with the Corinthian church, he poured himself out. He wouldn't take a nickel from them because he didn't want anyone to say, well, it's just for money that Paul does all this. He worked himself to the bone for their spiritual gain. And yet, it appears from his writings that the more he labored, the more honest he was with them, the more he went for their spiritual good, the more they rejected him. And that's going to happen in our lives. Loving the way Jesus loved doesn't mean we're going to be treated any better than he was. There's going to be pushback. Not all men have faith, says Paul. But that's not the point. We don't love in order to see results. We love to honor him, to follow him, to reflect him. And the results are with the Lord, to do as it pleases him. And again, I am deeply grateful, and I should have been more expressive of that gratitude last week in our examination sermon, our purgatory sermon. There are evidences of this kind of love all throughout this church family. You just have to get around. It's not showy. It doesn't appear like in the bulletin, but it's there. young people, office bearers, hours upon hours, reaching out in selfless love to help. But let us press on. Let us lean hard upon Him for the grace to love this way, to show everyone with whom we have contact, thanking God when we have this love, going to Christ when we are not having this love, when we are guilty of sinning against this love, that our lives could be like John the Baptist. Jesus said he was a burning and a shining light. Wouldn't that be wonderful? to represent, especially in the world we're living in today, to reflect this kind of love in this kind of world. Elsewhere, in Matthew 5.16, Jesus says, Let our light so shine among men that they may see our good works and do what? Glorify us? No, and glorify our Father who is in heaven. Now in closing, if you're sitting here tonight as an unbeliever, it's high time. It's high time to discontinue selfishness, a love that may seem to go beyond yourself in deeds of kindness, in deeds of generosity, but ultimately never gets to this, never reaches into souls, never puts itself out to the maximum for the eternal gain of sinners and the glory of the Lord. And we don't want to love this way, the world's way, our way, the rest of our lives. We can't do that. We must have the grace of God. to love this way. We must reflect him. We cannot continue a life where the love that we have is kind of this sugar-coated placebo. We'll be of little good to other people, maybe temporarily for a while, but that's about all. So love your unbelieving friend. for that love, Lord, that I may know it and that I may show it." And, beloved church family, we glorify the Lord the most by believing in His Son. When the Jewish people came to Jesus, What is the work of God that we should do? Jesus immediately answered, this is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent. So that's the first thing. The greatest honor you can give to God is honoring his son by believing in him. But the second greatest honor that you can give to the Lord is to live a life toward others that reflects his beloved son. And you can see how the two go together. How leaning upon the Son of God for our own sake, for our soul's sake, that we may begin to glorify Him. But then out of that connection with Christ flows the fruits of this love right here. Beloved, let us love one another. It says, John, for love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. So as we go forth from this Lord's Supper, Lord's Day, let us purpose, by the grace of God, to seek and to exercise this love, to love in such a way one another. I close with these words, again from John, herein is love, not that we love God. but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, John continues, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another. Amen.