Would you turn with me in the scriptures to the gospel of John and chapter 15, the gospel of John and chapter 15. We'll be looking this morning at verses 12 through 17 of this portion of God's word is found on your pew Bible and on page 902, John 15, verses 12 through 17. Let's stand together as we read God's word. Jesus says these things to his people. This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends. If you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants for the servant does not know what his master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father. I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask the father in my name, he may give it to you. These things I command you so that you will love one another. Thus far, the word of God. Let us pray. Lord, we are those who are slow to believe all the things that you have taught us in your word. We are needy and weak people, and we need help even to understand. So, Lord, would you come with your Holy Spirit's power and open our eyes that we would grasp your truth, see how it applies to us, and live in view of what you teach. Draw near to us, O Lord, and grant to us ears that hear. For we pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. Please be seated. Throughout Jesus's sermon on this last night with his disciples, one constant theme keeps coming back. It's like a thematic melody of a movie or a musical, and it's the concept of love. Now, Jesus had spoken previously about the priority of love in two ways. First, he's stressed the necessity of God's people loving one another. And then secondly, he's laid before us the proof that we love him, our obedience. You remember, he said, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. Now, of course, these two aspects of love shouldn't surprise us. For how did Jesus summarize the whole duty of man in the Ten Commandments? We summarize it in terms of love, that we must have a preeminent love for God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and we must love our neighbor as ourselves flowing from our love for God. Love, then, embodies the entire law. Well, since love is so vitally important, the Master Teacher comes back to that concept of love and He calls us to it again, reminding us not only of the fact that we must love, but putting before us the model of that love. And this time, Jesus also attaches to this call to love friendship and the idea of His electing grace unto fruit-bearing. was we reflect on love's priority and its implications. I want you to see three things with me in the Scriptures, three things this morning. First of all, we see love mandated and love modeled. Love mandated and love modeled. You notice it there in verses 12 and 13. Look at the text again. This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Now, Jesus' words here are simply a restatement of the new commandment He gave in chapter 13 at the opening of this sermon. Remember how He said, A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, so also you are to love one another. Yet, Jesus comes back to this theme to make us understand that love can never slip into the background. Our thoughts of love, our practice of love cannot be neglected because we're imitating the God who is love. We're called to walk in love, to pursue love, to speak the truth in love. Besides, if we don't love, no matter how much we know or we think we know or what gifts we possess, we are nothing and we gain nothing. Loveless living is just a loud, irritating noise. Paul reminds us in First Corinthians 13. So Jesus lays out to us the necessity of our love. He says, love one another. And yet, as we ponder that command, Don't forget its connection to the previous context. Jesus has exhorted us to abide in His love. And how did He tell us we are to abide in His love? Well, we abide by obeying His commandments. But first and foremost among those commandments that Jesus gives us is to love one another. So Jesus is telling you in essence here, don't say you love me and that you know me and you live for me. without persisting in loving one another. And I know your hearts well enough to recognize this is going to be a struggle for you. This is something you're going to need to hear again and again, because your tendency will be to put yourself first, to be consumed with your own interest. But that is not faithfulness unto me. If you love me, if you stick close to me, your affection for me needs to be evidenced by loving the brethren. Indeed, even if you think you already possess love for the brethren. You need to have a love that abounds still more and more. Well, we need to ask again, dear people, are we demonstrating a devotion to Jesus Christ by our love to one another? Do we fervently love from the heart? Above all, are we remembering to love one another? Remember, this is not a suggestion. If you happen to like that fellow believer, if you have common interests with that particular person and your personalities just coalesce, well, then engage in showing that person love. But don't trouble yourself with the prickly people. the people that most avoid, those who are hard to love, you don't need to worry about that. No, Jesus is calling you here to a consistent, comprehensive love for all the people of God. That's an overwhelming command. Well, how are we to engage in this kind of persistent love? How do we do it? What's our model for it? Well, note the standard given. Love one another as I have loved you. And how did Jesus love? Verse 13, greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. Now this idea of self-sacrificial death was often discussed in the ancient world as the ultimate display of friendship. And don't we see the same thing in our own culture? Many war memorials have John 15, 13 attached to them, extolling those who have given up their life for their country or in the defense of their fellow soldiers. And while those soldiers are rightly honored for their sacrifice, you must understand Jesus' sacrifice stands alone as the incomprehensible display of love. You see, the Son of God was in no way subject to death. He had glory with the Father before the world began. He was the eternal, immortal, omnipotent God. Nothing and no one had power over Him, certainly not death. And yet the exalted Lord of glory was pleased to take flesh, to be found in appearance as a man. And for what purpose? chiefly to be man's representative. But man's representative in what? In death. Jesus took flesh to die for us. The Mighty Maker put on flesh and blood that He would give Himself for our redemption. There is surely no greater love than this. Indeed, look at those Jesus saves by means of His sacrifice. He didn't face dereliction on the cross, apprehension and agony to redeem a basically good people with only small blemishes, inconsequential sins, No, he offered his life for those who were hostile to God. He gave himself for a people with depraved minds, darkened hearts and disobedient wills. In no way were we a lovely bride to rescue. As you think about that image of a wedding and how it depicts the husband, the Lord Jesus, coming to the bride to rescue, if the doors were to open and we were at a wedding, how the bride's eyes would light up and the groom's eyes would light up as he looks at her and sees how beautiful she is coming down the aisle. Well, that wasn't the case with our husband looking at us. We weren't beautiful. We were corrupt in every part, and yet he came to seek us, to spill his blood for us. When view of this love that truly surpasses knowledge, not only are we to marvel over the love of Jesus, to stand amazed, we're actually to trace his footsteps, to follow the love that Jesus gave. We must give ourselves in an ongoing fashion to self-sacrificing love. That is, just as Jesus' love for us isn't sporadic, our love for one another can't be sporadic. There can't just be isolated displays of affection. No believer is to be neglected by us. No one is to be viewed in the body too defective to love. We have to pursue one another with an active, self-denying affection. And of course, to do that, I hope you understand that you are in desperate need of the Holy Spirit for beloved natively. Every single one of us is a self-centered person. We're prone to criticisms and suspicions, to jealousy and favoritism. We hold grudges. We lack forbearance. And yet these deeds of the flesh must be put off. And the only way we can put them off is by the Spirit. It is by the Spirit that we crucify the sins of the flesh. Further, only the Holy Spirit can produce in you the fruit of the Spirit. And what's chief among the fruit of the Spirit? The fruit of the Spirit is? Love. If you are to love, you need the Spirit. Well, dear believer, knowing your natural propensity to pride, your selfishness to an eye that can easily despise other people, are you begging the Lord to give you a fervent love for God's people? Are you asking Him to produce in you a love that doesn't fail, that keeps demonstrating patience, kindness, forbearance, compassion? And when your love begins to slip, when you grow weary and well-doing, when self-sacrifice becomes hard for you, do you look again to Jesus Christ? Do you see him who was beaten, bruised and bloodied for you? Do you see him hanging on a cursed tree for you? Do you see him walking into the abyss of God's wrath out of love for you? Do you see him facing damnation willingly for you? That, beloved, is to compel you to love one another. Jesus is saying, behold my standard and then engage yourself in loving like I have loved. Oh, may we hear again the call to love And may we follow Jesus's footsteps in doing it. But then secondly, I want you to see with me not just love mandated and modeled, but now love and friendship. Love and friendship. Having just described his own love for his friends, giving his life for them, Jesus calls us again to love him. Only now he couches it in terms of friendship. Verse 14, you see it. You are my friends. If you do what I command you. Now, Jesus is not saying obedience, which flows from a heart of love, makes you His friend. That would mean your love to Jesus comes before His love to you. It would mean that you have to measure up to God's standard before He could ever love you. I tell you, that concept is completely foreign to the scriptures. John will remind us in his first epistle, we love God because he first loved us. Paul will tell us how we were enemies, spiritually dead, disobedient and foolish. Nevertheless, God who is rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, He made us alive together with Christ. God demonstrates His own love to us in this, that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So in no way does our obedience to Jesus initiate our friendship with Jesus. Rather, what Jesus is saying here is, obedience characterizes Jesus' friends. Obedience characterizes Jesus' friends. Well, how do we know we are those who truly love Jesus, who have been redeemed with His precious blood? We strive to obey the voice of the lover of our souls. Because to us who have been redeemed, the commandments of Christ are not burdensome. Doing what Jesus tells us to do is not drudgery to the sinner saved by grace. We delight to follow Him who gave Himself for us. Is that how you see it? Can you say with a psalmist, lead me in the path of your commandments, for I delight in it. I love your commandments above gold, above fine gold. My tongue will sing of your word, for all your commandments are right. You see, Jesus' commands are not the overly scrupulous rules of a hard master. They are loving precepts full of wisdom for our good. And if we despise what he tells us, we're rejecting his friendship. Think of that in terms of David, whom you know well, and his great sin with Bathsheba and murder of Uriah. Do you know what the Lord said to David after those great sins? He said, You despise me. You despise me. Look at all the grace I had shown you, and is this how you're going to treat me? Beloved, how much more, how much more would we despise the Lord if we sin against the marvel of His grace? No, we haven't been seated as a king on a throne over Israel. 3,000 years ago. We've been seated with the King of heaven in heaven. We've been raised up to Him. How then can we continue to walk in sin if we've been delivered from it? What has sin done for you but bring you misery, shame and death? Grace hasn't been given you to go sow your wild oats and live for your pleasure. Grace instructs you to deny ungodliness and worldly desires and to live sensibly, righteously and godly. Was that what you're seeking to do because you love Him who first loved you? And yes, my brethren, yes, you fail. You fail in obeying Jesus. But when you fail, do you then come again to the Lord Jesus Christ and plead for His repentance, plead for repenting grace? That's what David did. He repented. He sought the Lord when he recognized, I despise you with my actions and I don't want to do that. I want to live for your honor. Is that what you do? And yet while obedience characterizes those who are Jesus' friends, how is it that we are treated differently than mere servants? You see, every servant is called to obey his master, and servitude is not equivalent to friendship. So in what way has our relationship with Jesus been raised above that of a mere servant? Well, Jesus explains it in verse 15. He says, No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing. But I have called you friends for all that I have heard from my father I have made known to you." Now, before this statement here in John 15, two people in the Bible have been called a friend of God, Abraham and Moses. Now, this elevation to the status of a friend didn't negate the role of a servant. Both Abraham and Moses were called the Lord's servants. And what does God expect from his servants? Obedience. The Lord told Abraham, I am God Almighty. Walk before me and be blameless. He told Moses, despite all Moses' objections, I will send you to Pharaoh, that you may bring out my people, the children of Israel, from Egypt. And the role wasn't optional. There was no way Moses could get out of it. Nevertheless, while the condition of obedience remained, what was unique about the Lord's relationship with Abraham and Moses? It was that God made known His mind, His purposes to these men. For instance, before the revelation of Sodom's certain doom, God said to Abraham, or he said to himself about Abraham, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? For I have literally known him. That is, I have set my love upon him, I'm in a relationship of intimacy with him, and I'm going to reveal my plans to him. Likewise, we are told in Exodus 33.11 that the Lord used to speak to Moses face to face as a man speaks to his friend. God gave Moses the law. God received the prayers of Moses and had communion with him. God told Moses his plan. Well, that closeness of friendship is now evidence to Jesus' disciples. Unlike mere servants who hear the word and must obey, But they don't have any idea of the why. Jesus lets his disciples enter into his confidence. That is, he tells us the Father's heart. He relates all that the Father has planned. We're given access to the Father's motives and the Father's purposes. And how has this access come? It's come through the mediation of Jesus Christ. He is our great and final prophet to teach us the will of God. He is the revelation of the Father. So while these struggling disciples will forget things that Jesus says, and they're going to be confused even on this night, He also assures them the Holy Spirit will be given to you to lead you into all truth, to remind you of what I've told you, And yet, brethren, is that guidance, is that companionship with Jesus unique to just these 11 disciples? Do they only get the purposes of God? Well, no. We are revealed the purposes of God in the Scriptures. So Paul can say in 1 Corinthians 2, as those indwelt by the Holy Spirit, we have the mind of Christ. Jesus's purposes, what he expects, the wonders of God's salvation, the demands God makes upon us, they are all made known to us. We would be in confusion and darkness if the Holy Spirit didn't bring to us the mind of Christ. But do you see the great blessing in knowing the Lord Jesus? You're brought into close communion with the King of kings and Lord of lords. You're given His promises. You're informed of God's plan. You're instructed in the mighty works of God. Without Christ's friendship seeking you, you would truly have no capacity to know God. But Jesus has disclosed His heart to you. He has made you a confidant. not of equal standing, of course. You remain a servant under authority, but you are given the privilege of understanding. Praise God for such grace. Praise him that he welcomes us into his company and reveals himself to us. Praise him that he treats us like we're family. Our elder brother makes known the plans of the father to us because we are the sons of God. further praise him that this intimacy goes both ways. Not only does a friend receive full disclosure, a friend can convey his concerns. As those in close relationship with Jesus, we are all the more emboldened to make the secrets of our heart known to Christ. We don't need to hesitate to call out to our heavenly friend in our time of trouble, because Jesus is the friend who sticks closer than a brother. And we can be assured that Jesus will never cast us off. He hasn't brought us into His circle of friendship only to banish us later. He keeps revealing to us the wonders of our God. Such intimacy with Christ should compel us to even greater love for Him, to deeper levels of obedience. How can we turn against this One who has opened up His heart to us? How can we betray His love by pursuing our sin. May the knowledge that Jesus has made us friends lead us to deeper expressions of faithfulness. Love has been mandated and modeled. There's a relationship between love and friendship. And then finally, I want you to see with me love and election, love and election being so privileged. to be called the friends of Jesus, the recipient of God's revelation, that might lead one to puff himself up. But that balloon of pride is immediately punctured as Jesus reminds these men why they have intimacy with Him. They haven't become Jesus' friends because of their intelligence, their worldly standing, even their native respectability. They weren't, by the way, very respectable. Tax collectors, fishermen, zealot. Jesus reminds them, you did not choose me. I chose you. With these words, Jesus is at least looking back to some three years before when he broke the ordinary master-disciple protocol by selecting men to follow him. You see, the custom in Judaism was for a disciple to find a rabbi he wanted to follow and seek him out. But these men didn't seek Jesus out. Jesus sought them. Jesus chose them. And of course, their election to the office of apostle was only part of His choosing. He called these eleven men to new life. He changed their hearts. He saved them. The same could be said of the Apostle Paul, for instance. Paul didn't set out to seek Jesus. No, Paul was actually on his way to have Christians in prison and killed when grace found him and knocked him down with the brilliant light of Jesus Christ. Paul hated the name of Jesus, but Jesus rescued him. Christ's grace erupted into his heart and gave him new life. But I tell you, this morning, that sovereign initiative, that sovereign grace isn't just for these disciples or the apostles as a whole. Paul, using the same word Jesus does here in Ephesians 1 says, the Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. In love we were predestined unto the adoption of sons. Not a one of us who have a relationship with Jesus have one, Because we have overcome our own sinful tendencies and found the truth. No, the truth found us. We were blind to the gospel. We were under the dominion of sin. Satan held us in slavish chains. But the light of Christ burst into our dungeon, broke our shackles and set us free. By grace we've been saved through faith, and this is not of our own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works. What mercy! You have been shown, dear believer, that Christ's grace snatched you from the shackles of death. That Christ's grace overcame your stubborn sinfulness and set His love upon you, giving you a new heart. That should move you to rejoicing. It should thrill your soul because you don't deserve to be an intimate friend with the King of Heaven. You don't warrant the love of a flawless Savior. But that love has been graced to you. Now, of course, some of you may wonder, well, is the love of Jesus really mine? How do I know if I'm the chosen child of the Redeemer? Well, Jesus would not have you search for some kind of special stamp, you know, a tattoo somewhere. This one belongs to Christ. Jesus simply tells you, repent and believe. Trust in me, the one who lays down his life for needy sinners, look to me. who gives you a substitutionary death to redeem you, a life-giving resurrection that you might be declared righteous. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And if you believe, you will soon discover that it wasn't you who took the scales off of your eyes. Jesus opened your heart. Jesus appointed you to life. The glory is all His. And yet as much as we would delight in the doctrine of election, I want you to understand that Jesus's electing love has a purpose. Jesus's electing love has a purpose. Verse 16, you see it. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. When Jesus chose and appointed these apostles to his service, it was not so they would flounder. Only one would fail to bear fruit. Judas, precisely because his heart was never changed. Indeed, it was sovereignly decreed that Judas would be the traitor. Jesus said very early on that one of you is a devil. Jesus knew. But for the rest, the other 11 whose hearts were awakened, Jesus appointed them to fruit bearing. The Bible knows no such creature as a Christian elected in Christ before the world began, who does not bear fruit. Listen to these various texts, Ephesians 1, 4. The Father chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world. For what purpose? That we should be holy and blameless before him. Romans 8, 29, For those God foreknew, he also predestined. For what purpose? To be conformed to the image of his Son. Ephesians 2, 10, For we are God's workmanship, created in Christ Jesus. For what purpose? For good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. You could then say that every believer has been set apart to bear fruit, fruit that lasts. Now for these eleven men, fruit at last may even refer to their evangelistic efforts. They will preach the gospel, and their preaching will bear fruit. And believers who come to Christ through their ministry will actually endure. But the overall point is, fruit bearing is normative for the believer. Since we abide in the vine, the Lord Jesus, we cannot help but bear fruit. That's simply what spiritually alive people do. And as fruit-bearing believers, we have the assurance for the third time in this sermon that whatever you ask the Father in my name, He may give it to you. Your prayers will be answered. Do you need strength to put off what inhibits your growth? Do you need nourishment to increase your knowledge of God? Do you need help to abound with love, overflow with joy, to be calmed with the peace of Christ? Well, the Father is pleased to grant such things, because you have been chosen and set apart, not to wither and die, but to blossom spiritually. And in view of Jesus' purpose in choosing us, fruit bearing, He reasserts one more time the foundational command of the section. Verse 17, He says, These things I command you so that you will love one another. Jesus has made known his great love to us, his sacrifice for us, his friendship with us and his election of us, not so we would be idle, self indulgent people. He has demonstrated the depth of his love to call us to love. John says it this way in 1 John 4, 10 and 11, and this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us and gave himself or God sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. You have been chosen unto fruit bearing, particularly the duty to love. Well, my friends, then do you love? Do you show a living attachment to Jesus by loving and loving and loving more? What can an unfathomably loved sinner do but love in return? May we evidence that we are the children of God because we walk in the love of our Savior. Let's pray together. Lord, our God, we thank you for your great love for us, love which we did nothing to deserve, love which we did not initiate, but love shown to us lavishly in the person and work of Jesus Christ. May that understanding of his love drive us to be a people who love. Lord, we pray for your spirit's help, that we might put to death the obstacles to love and that we might find your people altogether lovely as those cleansed by Christ and granted the gift of righteousness. Grow us in grace, for we pray it in the name of Jesus, our Savior and all of God's people said, Amen.