Address—G.H. Hayhoe
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I'd like to turn tonight to the 14th chapter of John's Gospel. Just like to read a few verses in the 14th and also in the 15th. John chapter 14, the first verse. Let not your heart be troubled. He believed in God. Believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you and if I go and prepare a place for you.
I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also. The 21St verse. He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, He it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him. Judas saith unto him not Iscariot. Lord, how is it that thou wilt manifest thyself?
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.
Then the 27th verse, peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you not as the world give us, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
In the 15th chapter. In the seventh verse.
If He abide in Me, and my words abide in you, He shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit, so shall ye be my disciples. 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 ye 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. He 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. Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
And ordained you that ye should go and.
Bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, and that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in My name, He will give it. He may give it you.
Well, in these verses that we have read tonight was just particularly on my heart of how they bring before us that the Lord Jesus makes his home to be our home. He would have us to enjoy his presence. He would have us to enjoy his peace, His love. And as we trace through these verses, we'll see those things that are given to us to presently enjoy. It's the most wonderful thing that we can possibly have upon earth to realize the place of.
That we have been brought into as we sang in our little hymn. We can never forget the cost. We're redeemed with the precious blood of Christ when we think of how much he loved us. We were talking a little bit today of the wonders of God's creation. We think of this vast creation and as men get more powerful telescopes, they just learn more of the wonders of God's creation. But that only makes it more wonderful to me to think that God.
Would pick out this universe in which we live, this planet, I should say, in which we live. And it tells us in the 8th chapter of Proverbs that when he formed this world, his delights were with the sons of man. That he was rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of man. How wonderful it is when we stop to think that out of this whole vast universe, with all various.
And all that there is that God should have picked out this one particular planet in which to display His purposes and His ways, to reveal His heart and to bring us into a place of association with Himself. Surely this ought to touch our hearts. And more than this, it ought to create a response in our hearts, because how could we enjoy these things?
Without feeling a response in our hearts to all that he has done.
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The Lord had just told His own about how He was going to the cross. He counted upon them, feeling this and realizing too, perhaps, that they were going to lose the one whom they loved. He was going to be taken away from them. He knew their hearts would be troubled. And too, when we think of this world in which we live, and we look out and see the condition of it, and we know that it rejected our precious Savior.
Why? Surely our hearts would be troubled if we didn't know these precious things.
Things that he reveals to us.
People of the world, as the scripture says, their hearts are failing them for fear and looking after the things that are coming. They see the collapse of everything that they once considered stable in the earth. But isn't it very blessed for us to realize that we can go on, as a little hymn says, through scenes of strife and desert life, we tread in peace our way, that we can go on in a world full of uncertainty and perplexity.
Where men's hearts are failing them and we can have the enjoyment of these precious things in our souls. We're the only people on earth that have a right to be happy. And we have every right to be happy because we can enjoy these things presently by the Spirit. And when the Lord Jesus comes, then we'll be there where we can enjoy all these things that we talk about and sing about in their fullness without hindrance above.
We will not have a different new life when we get home to glory. We already possess the life that is suited to heaven.
When we enter heaven, I believe that everyone of us will feel at once. Instinctively we'll say this is home. It'll just be the very place where our natures belong, because we already have the divine nature.
So when we enter there, we'll be at home. But you know here there are hindrances. And as someone has put it, part of the energy of the Spirit of God here in this world is helping us in two things. It tells us that the flesh lusteth against the Spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these are contrary, the one to the other, so that ye cannot do the things that ye would, and much of the energy of the Spirit now in US.
Is to help us to keep the flesh in check. Then too, there's another thing that says in Romans 8, the Spirit helpeth our infirmities. And so we find that the Spirit of God helps us. Perhaps someone is sitting in this meeting tonight with a bad headache or some physical thing. And you know what bothers us a certain amount? We're not fully free to just enjoy these things without hindrance. But brethren, it'll be the same Spirit.
New life that we now possess, but there'll be no hindrance there. He'll never have to help us to overcome the flesh, because we won't have the flesh there. He'll never have to help our infirmities. We won't have any infirmities, but He'll be able to do His blessed work that He wants to do with us even now. To shed abroad the love of God in our hearts, to bring our souls into the enjoyment of all those things that are ours.
He shall lead you into all truth.
For he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you. So as I say, the disciples hearts might well have been sad, might well have been troubled. But the Lord said, in my father's house are many mansions that could be translated, many abodes. I believe the reason the Lord spoke in this way was because in the millennial temple, as it's described to us in the end of Ezekiel.
There were places.
Spoken of as abodes for the priests. And in the Millennial Temple, the priests will dwell right within the confines of the temple and enjoy a place of nearness there. And I believe that the disciples were really looking for the Kingdom. They knew the Lord Jesus was their true Messiah. They expected him, as we read, to set up the Kingdom at that time.
They said to him, Wilt thou at this time?
Restore the Kingdom to Israel.
They also said in the 24th of Luke, wilt thou at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel? That was what they were looking for. And as they thought of their loved one, the Lord Jesus being taken from them by their hearts were troubled and sad. But he said, and I think this is so precious, he said in my Father's house are many abodes. If it were not so, I would have told you, isn't that a.
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Expression. If it were not so, I would have told you, perhaps we could put it this way, that the Lord was really saying to them, I wouldn't have called upon you to walk with me in a path of rejection if I didn't have something better than what you had anticipated. They had anticipated the earthly thing, and the Lord hadn't yet revealed to them the heavenly thing. Indeed, we don't have it fully revealed until we come to the Epistles.
There were intimations of it, but not the full revelation of it. But he said I wouldn't have called you to walk in a difficult path following me in my rejection if I didn't have something better for you than what you would expected. And brethren, He does have something better for us than our highest expectations. And if the path may seem difficult by the end of it is bright and glorious. It's all wonderful that if we haven't entered into.
Very much of it now, by the only surprise, if I can put it that way, that heaven will bring, is not a new person, we know him here, but a fuller revelation of himself, a fuller enjoyment of himself, perhaps I should say, than what we can enjoy down here. So he tells them, I go to prepare a place for you.
And then he says and if I go and prepare a place for it.
I will come again.
His going into heaven in manhood prepared the place, because the the children of Israel were not able to reap the harvest until a sheaf of first fruits had been waved before the Lord. And when the sheaf of firstfruits was waved before the Lord, it was accepted for them were told, and then they could have the harvest. And so the Lord Jesus entered as the firstfruits as we read.
1St Corinthians 15 Christ the first fruits afterwards, they that are Christ at his coming. And so when he entered there Baleno was the assurance that the whole harvest is going to be gathered in and at his coming this will take place. So he said that he was going to prepare the place. His entering heaven in manhood prepared the place, and now we're just waiting for this moment.
At where I am there ye may be also. There's no description here given of the place is there, but just that we're going to be with him. And so I like to think of it in this verse that we might say that he's revealing to them my home that is as we sing sometimes his home made ours. What a blessed thing, that place where the precious Savior.
Was from all eternity is going to be given to us to enjoy, and we'll be in the Father's house to enjoy all that's in His heart. He came down that we might know He dwells in the bosom of the Father, but He wanted us to know and enjoy that too. And so here we have in this first part, my home, His home opened to us and for us to share it in company.
With himself, the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it.
Now when we come to the 21St verse, the Lord reveals to them something that they could enjoy in the present.
That is.
He says in this 21St verse, He that hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me, and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself unto him. And then if you notice in the end of the 23rd verse it says, And we will come unto him and make our abode with him.
It's very interesting that in the original the word translated mansions in the second verse is the same word translated or abode with him in the 23rd verse.
The thought is that we're going to be in those many abodes. We're going to be in a place of nearness there in the Father's house. But the Lord was saying to his disciples, I want you to enjoy my presence down here. And so he tells them that if they would walk in obedience, that that would be their portion before the day of His coming. We're going to be in those many abodes above.
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He said, if you walk in the path of obedience, I'll come and make my abode with you. Oh, how precious that is for our hearts to think that not only the Son himself, but we will come. And that is we can enjoy the Father's love. We can enjoy the love of the heart of the Lord Jesus here in this world now, and we enjoy that in the path of obedience. So perhaps we could say in this part.
In these verses, it's that he's saying you can enjoy my presence, you're going to enjoy my home, but before you get there, you can enjoy my presence. And if I might just say here in passing, there should be two ways in which we can particularly enjoy His presence. I believe those are brought to us in the last chapter of Matthew.
The Lord appointed a mountain where he would meet with his disciples. He told them where that would be, and they must put forth the energy to go to that particular mountain. And when they did, it says the Lord Jesus was there, and when they saw him, they worshiped him.
Well, you know, to enjoy the Lord's presence collectively requires some energy to come out tonight to enjoy the meeting required some energy. When we come on Lord's Day morning, when the Lord is in the midst, why we have to leave our homes, we have to come down and gather around himself. Well, how the precious thing it is to enjoy the Lord's presence collectively.
It says where two or three are gathered together.
In my name there am I in the midst of them. Is it worth putting forth the energy? Was it worth the disciples putting forward the energy? Didn't the Lord say, I'll never leave thee nor forsake thee? Could they not have said, Well, spiritually we can enjoy his presence at any time, but it required energy. And so we might sit at home and say, can I enjoy the Lord's presence at home? But in order to enjoy his presence.
Collectively, it does require an exercise listening, if I could say it this way to his directions to be where he would have them with himself in the midst. And then when they saw him, they worshiped him. Wasn't the perfect group, you know, because it says some doubted and you know, let me come together. If we look at one another, why it's not a perfect group, but we don't come for that. We come to be.
Found the Lord Jesus.
But then when that happy little gathering came to its end, why then as they were about to disperse, he said, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world or the age. And so is that little company dispersed. They could enjoy His presence as they walked out individually. You can enjoy the Lord's presence in your automobile. You can enjoy the Lord's presence in your home. So there are those.
Two ways, but it's the path of obedience. The Lord said Judas asked the question. That is Judas, not Iscariot.
He said, how could this be? How would he manifest himself to his own and not to the world? He said you want to know Judas well, by walking in obedience to me, you will enjoy my love and my presence. Oh, how precious this is to faith. So we have his home brought before us, His presence brought before us as something that we can presently enjoy.
In the path of obedience.
Then in the 27th verse.
He says.
Peace I leave with you, My peace I give unto you not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
We know the world's peace is always consequent on pleasant conditions.
When everything is agreeable and nice, they say, oh, this is a peaceful situation.
When there isn't any particular trouble, it's bothering them. They say, oh, I'm just at peace now, but their peace is dependent upon circumstances. But brethren, what about the pathway of the Lord Jesus? Oh, he had a path through this word.
World as the Man of Sorrows, rejection on every hand, misunderstood by his disciples with the cross before him. Why surely as the Lord Jesus walked through this world, it was not an easy path. Why they took up stones to cast at him. They suggested that he leave because Herod would get him. The path of the Lord Jesus was a difficult path, but he said, My peace I give unto you.
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He walked in the constant enjoyment of his father's presence and company.
And so he could he could say, my peace. What a blessed thing this is. I believe that this is what it means when it says and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The peace of God is the peace in which God himself dwells. Have often said, do you think God was disturbed by anything that happened in this world today?
OK, now you say he knew everything beforehand and he's in control of everything. Well, he invites us to have that same peace, not peace with God. That's knowing Christ as our Savior is to have peace with God. But my peace, the peace of knowing that God is in control of everything. And that's the peace in which the Lord Jesus walked. And he said, my peace I give unto you.
Makes me think of the little story that I heard of a child that was on board deck.
And I was rather on a ship, and her father was the captain, and she had gone down into the room below, and she was resting in bed and asleep, and her mother was in the room with her. And the terrible storm came up, and the boat began to toss about, and she wakened up. And of course she knew as she was tossing about there that it was a bad storm. And she just asked one question.
She said mother is daddy at the helm, and her mother said, Oh yes, dear. And she turned back and went to sleep. Well, that's perhaps a little illustration. His peace is a peace that we can enjoy. When everything seems the very opposite to peace. It's the knowledge of who's in control. My peace I give unto you. The world doesn't know anything about that.
The world only knows things that they can bring about themselves, but for us.
To be able to walk, it's a peace that passes all understanding and it says shall keep or shall Garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. We need a Garrison on our hearts and minds, don't we? The devil's busy trying to disturb our minds and occupy our hearts with other things, but we need a Garrison, and the Garrison is to know.
That he's in control by peace I give unto you.
Now, when we come to this 15th chapter and the.
I'd like to start at the ninth verse here.
Has the Father hath loved me so? Have I loved you, continue ye in my love? Well, this is a well known verse to many of us I'm sure, but it still is a precious verse even although we know it well. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you. Continue ye in my love.
That is, we are entitled to be in the enjoyment, the constant enjoyment.
Of His unchanging love. Failure in our lives never changes His love.
I always have enjoyed that in Malachi chapter 3.
Where Malachi is writing to the people of God in those days of Israel's history, when there was such decline, God had brought back a remnant from the captivity and brought them back to their land. He had miraculously undertaken for them. The temple had been built and the sacrifices had been resumed, and God had been very good. And when they came back.
They rejoiced.
That God had turned the heart of the king of Assyria to be kindly and favorable to them.
But you know, they didn't continue in the enjoyment of all these things. And when you read in the book of Malachi, God has to remind them over and over again of how they had forgotten Him and how they hadn't recognized his claims. But in the opening chapter, it tells us the burden of the word of the Lord by Malachi.
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I have loved you, saith the Lord.
Now you might have expected that if they had been going on well, but here it was at a period of real decline when the Lord was so grieved about many things that were going on. And yet how precious, how assuring those words, I have loved you, says the Lord. And they said, we're in. Well, he said, I love Jacob and I hated Israel.
Well, what kind of a person was Jacob?
If you've read his history very carefully, you know what kind of a person he was. Deceiving His poor old father, stealing the birthright from his brother, Lying to his brother. Also many things in Jacob's history that weren't what they should be. Had the Lord's love changed toward Jacob? Oh no, there was an unchanging love.
A love that continued in spite of everything.
It was a sovereign love. Sometimes I've thought of the two boys. It seemed that Esau was a nicer person than Jacob was. But the Lord said I love Jacob. I might just comment when it says I hated, uh, I hated Esau. That was not written while Esau was alive. Uh, the book of Malachi was written hundreds of years.
After Esau had died, you could never say.
While a person is living, the Lord hates you. But if a man dies in his sins and has spurned God's love, he will not be the object of his love in a lost eternity. What a solemn portion to be cast out from the presence of God, away from His goodness and His love for all eternity.
But I say it's a wonderful thing. When you think of this in connection with God's people, it doesn't mean that He was pleased with their condition. They were called upon to repent, but they were also reminded that His love toward them was unchanging. And indeed, I believe when we have failed, what really draws us back is to realize that He loves us in spite of all that has taken place. He wants us to come and own it.
He wants us to be restored, but his love is not changed. It's ever the same. Indeed, it's because he loves us that he calls us back. It's because he loves us that he chastens us. It says as many as I love, I rebuke and chasten scripture says even of parents he that.
Hateth is he that withholdeth a rod, Hateth his child, but he that loveth him chasteneth every times.
It's His love that even deals with us. So His love is unchanging love. So we can take this precious verse, thinking of the Father's love to His Son. Now that's the extent of His love. So have I loved you? Would you have a doubt of the Father's love to the Son? Then you don't need to have a doubt. How about His love to you if you're one of His children? Because it's as the Father loves the Son.
So have I.
Loved you.
But do we always enjoy this love? Alas, we don't. So it says in the 10th verse.
If ye keep my commandments, He shall abide in my love, even as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love.
This connects also with the seventh verse where we read my words and my commandments.
There is some difference between His words. There is from His sayings and then His commandments. But I like to thank, brethren, that his words and His sayings all have the power of a command where love is operative in our hearts.
You know when David said, oh, that someone would go, oh, that I had a drink of the water from the well at best?
Him that was only a saying. It wasn't a command, but those men who went and fetched that water for him loved David so much that they were willing to risk their own lives just to do something that expressed their love to David. And so when you and I read the word of God, we might say, well, there's some things I know we have to do, but I think there's some things that.
That we can be a little arbitrary about.
But I believe that when love is really operative in our hearts, then everything that he wants us to do has the power of a command over our hearts.
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When Saul of Tarsus was saved on the road to Emmaus, a road to Damascus, rather he said to the Lord, What wilt thou have me to do? The Lord's answer was, Go into Damascus, and it shall be told thee what thou?
Must do. Why did he say it must do? Well, if you really want to please me, then there's a constraint on the heart. I must do it. We talk that way often when someone that we love has asked us to do something. Someone very important has asked us to do something. I always say I must do that. We don't mean that we're under a threat about it, but.
Love makes us talk that way.
And so when Saul of Tarsus had a desire, then he says, well, you must do it. So I believe this is an important thing.
And I might say this too, that we often might say, well, I don't enjoy his love like I should. Why is it? Well, I believe that's why the 10th verse follows the 9th. I actually believe we should read the two verses together.
And that is, His love is an unchanging love, but the enjoyment of His love depends upon a state of soul.
We know that in a home, the parent loves the disobedient child.
But the one who really enjoys his parents love is the one who walks in obedience. And so very often a child at his rebellious will probably be saying, well, my father is showing favoritism, or my father doesn't love me as much as he loves the rest. And yet his father's heart is just burning with love toward him. But the child is willful and can't enjoy the love. And sometimes there's a hindrance, brethren.
If I can put it this way, we could repeat the ninth verse over and over again to ourselves, but if we're walking in a path of disobedience and self will, we will not enjoy his love, even though his love hasn't changed. So the Lord is saying here about if ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love. The Lord Jesus, as he walked here in this world, he always walked in the enjoyment in the.
Sunshine of His Father's love because He always walked in the path of obedience. Do you think there was ever a doubt in the mind of the Lord Jesus about the Father's love to Him? Never, because He was always in the path of obedience. When we get out of the path of obedience, the devil tries to put doubts in our minds. He gets us to think, well, if the Lord loves me, why did he allow this to happen to me? You see how he comes in? He tries to raise those doubts.
In our mind, but He wants us to walk in the enjoyment of that love which is in the path of obedience.
And then that little expression, my commandments, my commandments. Sometimes you're doing something and someone who is questioning it might say, who told you to do that?
And you mentioned a very important person, perhaps as a child, say my father told me to do that. Or in business, you mentioned the name of your superior. He told me to do it. Well, it's settled. And so if you and I are doing something and someone questions, why do you do it? Why? Just think, who was it asked me to do it? Who was it? Who is it that asked me to remember him in his death?
The Savior.
Who died for me at the cross? Who was it that asked me to walk in separation from the world? It's the Savior who went to Calvary's cross, that he might have me as one of those who are separated unto himself. And so when we stop to question about some matter, should I do this or should I not? Let's say to ourselves, Who asked me to do this?
Who was it? Why it's my precious savior.
The one with whom I'm going to spend eternity. So we have my love and my commandments.
Then we come to this 11TH verse. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
To me this is a very remarkable expression. My joy might remain in you because I only remember 1 instance in the whole of the pathway of the Lord Jesus where we read about Him rejoicing.
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And that is that I believe in the 10th chapter of Luke. And when he was rejected by the nation, the very ones he had come to bless had rejected him, he said.
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. That's the only occasion where it says in that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit.
Why? What a lesson that is to my soul. The Lord Jesus had come. He fully revealed all that was in the Father's heart and He had been rejected. Has there been something that's been a desire in your heart and it doesn't seem to have been accomplished. It just seems that you are disappointed and frustrated. You say how can I be happy? That was one thing I wanted and it didn't seem to come to pass. Was think of the Savior. There He was.
The One who had come in perfect love and grace were not perfect. We fail often, but He always did His Father's will, and yet He was rejected. How could He at that moment rejoice in Spirit? Because He took all his circumstances from the hand of God his Father. And so the joy in His pathway was the joy of doing His Father's will. Is there any happier path is?
When we read in Galatians, it says let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. I believe that simply means like this, when we're doing the work that the Lord wants us to do, and we can be happy because we're doing what he wants us to do.
Isn't there a pleasure in doing something for someone you love and knowing that that's what you?
You what they want you to do, we all know what it is to.
Go to a lot of effort to get a nice gift for someone that we love, and someone says, you're going to a lot of trouble. Oh, do you know who this is for? And so we're finding joy. Others might criticize how does my telling us we're wasting time, but we're thinking of the person for whom we're doing it. And So what is my joy? Does it mean a good job? Does it mean pleasant surroundings? Does it mean that everybody's acting nicely toward us?
No, the Lord wasn't always. He said, Reproach hath broken my heart. I am full of heaviness. He felt the rejection. He felt the misunderstanding of his disciples. He felt the rejection of the nation. What was his joy? I say again, brethren, the joy of doing his Father's will.
And that's the deepest joy in our pathway here. It's the joy that we can have to go on from day-to-day in the sense of doing his father's, our father's will.
And so I say about the Levites, they were given a service to do. And so as they did that service, maybe others might be doing something that seemed more important, but they could say, well, that's the service that's been given me to do. I'm doing it for the Lord. There is a joy. I say, may we know something of this? It says that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.
So we can have that joy, and many of us have seen dear Christians who have had difficult lives, who have had to face a lot of hardships, but they had a real joy. And I believe the joy was the sense in their souls that what they were doing was what God wanted them to do.
If we're moved to goat with what others say and think, we won't know that joy. We must have it as a secret between our souls and the Lord. I believe that's what it means in Revelation chapter 2, writing to those in Sardis rather in Pergamos, it says, And I will give him a whitestone, and in the stone a new name, written, which no man knoweth, saving he that receiveth it.
Pergamos was the time when the church and the world came together. That's what we see so much of today, the church and the world coming together, but the one who was living pleasing to the Lord. The Lord said you'll have in your soul a secret sense of my approval. And that is what I say again, that's what gives real joy in the soul, that your joy might be full.
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And then there the 12TH verse says, This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.
When we're enjoying this love in our own souls, when we're walking in the path of obedience, then the heart goes out in desire for the blessing of others.
Almost every time we read about enjoying his love, then we read something about loving one another. I like to think of it sort of like filling a cup, and when you get the cup to the point of overflowing, then it goes out beyond the limits of the cup. And so you and I can have our cup filled, but I believe if our cup has been filled, then it's going to reach out to others.
You know, the Lord's love was a love that came from himself and that is being who He was. He was God the Son. Why? He was really loved in its source.
In First Epistle of John.
And the 4th chapter, it says we love him because he first loved us. In the new translation, the word Him is omitted. Perhaps you wondered why it just says we love because he first loved us. But I believe, brethren, that the point is that we have the capacity to love no matter whether there's a response or not.
The Lord Jesus loved whether there was a response or not.
He kept on loving, and so we love because we see something in another that's lovable. But God loves because that He is love in its source. And you and I possess that nature. Let's not think about whether that brother is lovable or whether that sister is lovable, but rather has God-given me the capacity to love as He loves? Well, I believe that we love because He first loved us.
We have, so to speak, and enjoyed a love that wasn't toward us because of anything in ourselves, but because of what it is in itself. God is love, and so He has given you an eye that capacity. And so instead of looking for something in another, how marvelous that we love in the same way that we have the capacity now because He loved us.
Then we have in the.
14th verse Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants, but friends, for the servant 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 received of my Father I have made known unto you.
Well, isn't this a very precious expression too? He are my friends.
Many of us know that little hymn so well, what a friend we have in Jesus, and I'm sure we all rejoice at the wonderful truth of it, that we have such a friend in the Lord Jesus.
I don't know hardly any friend on earth that you can tell everything to and feel perfectly at ease. But you know there is a friend to whom we can tell everything. A friend who will love us in spite of everything, who will never change no matter what we tell him.
There are very few to whom you can really pour out your heart, but he is a friend that you can do it to. But this verse tells us of something still more wonderful than that. It's a very blessing.
I say to know that we have a friend in Jesus, but I think it's far more wonderful to me to know that he calls me his friend.
For me to say the Lord is my friend is indeed a marvelous thing. But to think that the one who created the vast universe, the one who upholds all things by the word of his power, looks down into this little hall here tonight and sees every one of his own who's sitting here and says, these are my friends.
What a blessed thing, how wonderful it is to walk down the street in Vancouver and to think that the one who is up there in glory, who died for us, looks down and says that's, that's one of my friends walking along the street there. And he tells us that he hasn't called us servants, but friends. And all things that he has received of his father he has made known unto us.
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There are great statesman in the United States and in this world. There are clever businessmen, there are men in colleges and so on that have gigantic intellects. But who is in the secret of God? The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him. Have often said the Christian is the only person who has an intelligent outlook on what's going on in the world.
Read all the articles that come out in the newspaper. Do they know?
Know what's coming. Do they know what it's all about and why things are in such a mixed up state? They're trying to find all kinds of solutions. But you and I who know the Lord is our Savior, we know what's coming. We have understanding of the times when we see the nation of Israel back in their land. It's no surprise to us. God told about that hundreds and hundreds of years ago.
When they decided to have the European Common.
Market a great statesman thought that they had really made a marvelous milestone in history. But man of God knew that was going to take place long before and we see the breakdown of society. You hear them crying. What's the matter with our society. But this precious book tells us how when men give up God, God gives up man. We find in Romans chapter one that when they didn't like to retain God in their nights, God gave them up.
In the three parts of their being, if you read it carefully, He gave them up body, soul, and spirit. He gave them up to dishonor their bodies. He gave them up to vile affections, and He gave them up to all kinds of false religion that got hold of those lambs. And it's happening right here in this favored country because men give up God. Who is it that understands these things?
The secret of the Lord is with eminent fear Him.
He said, I've called you my friends. You don't need to be taken by surprise. I've given you my book and I've told you what's coming, and you can just look out and see these things unfold before your eyes. And more than that, when they do look up, your redemption draws nigh. For us, they're just a sign of the near coming of our precious savior as we read in second Peter, it says.
That about seeing.
These things, he said.
That I'll just read it. I can't just quote it exactly. Second Peter, chapter 1.
Second Peter, chapter 1.
Verse 19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy. Where unto ye do well, that ye take heed as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn and the day star, or the morning star arise in your hearts. So he said, we have prophecy. As we see this dark place, we have a light.
And we have the Morning Star rising in our hearts. That is, as we see things getting darker, we know that the day is soon going to dawn when the Lord Jesus, as the Son of righteousness, has His rightful place. And this causes the Morning Star to rise in our hearts. So may we enjoy this precious portion, my friends.
All things that I have heard of my father, I have made known unto you.
And then this other expression, my father, how blessed this is for us.
It says I have heard of my Father. And when the Lord Jesus rose from the dead, he sent Mary back with a message to his disciples. I ascend unto my Father and your Father, and to my God and your God. That is, He brought his own into that relationship that we not only know the Savior.
But as the Lord Jesus said, I believe it's in the next chapter, the Father.
Father himself loveth you so that we not only know the precious Savior who came down here, but the Father has been revealed. We had last night because ye are sons, God has sent forth the spirit of his Son into your hearts crying ABBA. Father, we can enjoy this relationship and so he's telling us here in the end of this 15th verse. I have heard of my.
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Father I have made known unto you.
In the 17th chapter the Lord says just notice that verse.
The ninth verse of the 17th chapter. I pray for them. I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me, For they are thine.
You remember that in what is commonly called the Lord's Prayer, the Lord taught his disciples to pray thy Kingdom come.
But when we come to the 17th of John, the Lord has been rejected as Israel's king. The Kingdom has been postponed.
And I believe the force of that verse in the 17th chapter is that the Lord is not asking now for the kingdoms of this world. He's asking for his own. The time is going to come, as we read in the second Psalm, when the Father will say to the Son, ask of me, and I will give thee the heathen for thine inheritance in the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. It all belongs to him. The kingdoms of this world are going to become the kingdoms of our Lord. And.
Is Christ, but what is he asking for now? If he asked for the kingdoms of this world, why they'd become his. But the Father's time hasn't come. And so he says, I'm not asking for the kingdoms now, I'm asking for my own. And I like to connect this, brethren with that verse in Thessalonians that says the Lord direct your hearts and into the love of God.
And into the patient, waiting for Christ. The new translation is.
Because the patience of the Christ in our trials, we often get impatient. As we see the world getting darker, we get impatient. And perhaps he's telling us here that the Lord Jesus is waiting in patience. The reason he hasn't come yet is because he's waiting till the whole company of his own to form his bride have been gathered. And then he's going to give that shout and he's going to call.
To be with himself. And he said, I waited for you. I want you to be patient and wait while I complete my work in grace. Have a heart full of love, desiring the blessing of others, full of love in return for his love. But let's be patient, brethren, in the midst of it all, as we wait. That time when he descends from heaven with a shout when the moment comes.
And the last soul is saved. Why there won't be any more?
Delay. He'll come in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. The brother said to me one time, he said I'd like to be preaching the gospel. When the last soul is saved, the Lord would just come in a moment and the seats would be empty of those who knew the Lord as their Savior president. That's what we're waiting for. And so he says, my father, how beautiful we can enjoy this relationship.
My Father and your father, my God.
Endure God. And then just in the 16th verse, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you.
It's another thing that is very lovely to my choice, my choice. I was saying a few moments ago that we could walk down the street and think that.
We could be in the enjoyment of the fact that he's looking down and saying my friend, but you know, as I am in a crowd of people sometimes at an airport or someplace, which is a big crowd, it often touches my heart to think.
Why? I don't know why he chose me.
He looked down upon this world and I wasn't certainly superior to a lot of other people. It wasn't because of that. But you know, I have heard young people when they were chosen to do some particular honorable work at school or perhaps in their place of employment, he said. I was chosen to do this. And they feel quite pleased that they were particularly chosen. But isn't this more marvelous still?
That out of the vast number of humanities.
The Lord said, I want that person and I want that person and I want that person. He said you didn't choose me, I chose you. So all of this vast number of humanity, we can say I'm one whom he chose. I think that's what Paul was thinking about when he wrote to the Thessalonians, when he said, knowing brethren, beloved, your election of God.
Because as soon as they got saved, all their friends rejected them in person.
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He said, well, I've got something wonderful to tell you. God has chosen you.
Sure, it's true your friends don't want you because you've turned to the Lord from idols, but he said I want you to enjoy this. God has chosen you, so my choice. How blessed. And then last of all.
It says that she should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, and that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, He may give it to you. So last of all, we have my name, and as we go about in this world, His name is placed upon us. That's actually the meaning of baptism.
It tells us.
Galatians, chapter 3 As many of you as were baptized unto Christ have put on Christ. Now that is, the name of Christ is placed upon us in baptism, and we in this world are those who bear His name. Now of course, every saved person in one sense bears his name, but the scriptural way by which that name is placed upon us is in baptism.
So a man doesn't become a sophomore soldier by.
Wearing a uniform, of course, he becomes a soldier by being brought into the army, and we become a child of God by faith in Christ Jesus, but we have the privilege in this world of bearing his name.
Isn't it lovely that when anyone asks us?
Who we are and what is our affiliation that we can say I belong to Christ, I'm gathered to the name of the Lord Jesus. What is your object in life? Well, the apostle Paul could speak of his object in life as being Christ. Where did he get his strength? I can do all things through Christ, which strengthens me. Who is his example, he said.
That this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.
As we read in Colossians, in Christianity, Christ is everything. So his name. Are we satisfied just to know that we bear his name? It's the only name for salvation. It's the only name for a gathering center. It's the only name of the one who is to be our example. It's our object. Why, I say again, dear friends, Christ is everything for us. What a privilege to go through.
This world bearing that worthy name by which ye are called well, may the Lord grant that these little things you hear about people saying what we need is to have a sense of identity. Well, when you're saved, you really have a sense of identity. Hear people about finding themselves. Well, I found myself a lost Sinner, but the Lord found me and he brought me into all these things where I can say his home is mine, His peace is mine. He wants me to.
Enjoy His presence, He wants me to enjoy His love. He wants me to know that when I do things, it's His word. He wants me to have His joy. He wants me to know I'm His choice. He wants me to know that God is my Father. His Father is my Father, and He wants me to know I have the privilege of bearing His name. How blessed we are. May our hearts respond more. May there be more fruit in our lives for His glory and praise in response to what He's done for us.