If Anyone Loves Me He Will Keep My Word

before I pray let me tell you where we Lord willing are going in the preaching this summer today and next week we'll finish John 14 on 17th I will tackle the topic of homosexuality and the so called homosexual marriage on the 24th will be a guest preacher Edie help me Stetzer this what happens when you're 66 don't laugh it's coming and Stetzer in 1st Peter 2 and and then I'm excited that we'll do a 9 week summer series on 2nd Timothy him we'll call it to him be glory forever and ever unashamed of Christ and ready to suffer and I'll do five of those Lord willing and then we'll draw in some other pastors for the other 4 when I'm on vacation summer is for seeing and savoring and showing Jesus Christ and so wherever you go on vacation or at home or in your travels don't fail to keep your eyes open for him and to gather with God's people in corporate worship the point of today's text is that though Jesus has gone away into heaven he has not gone away but is with us and will never leave us and never forsake us so let's pray that we would experience this promise father in Bucharest and in Geneva and in Hamburg that came true and for me there is no place you can go during the summer or winter or fall or spring no place on earth or in space where Jesus Christ is not manifestly present to his people and how I thank you for the manifestations of yourself Jesus and ask that you would stand forth now from your word and be stir yourself by your spirit so that each one of your own would know that they are the home of Jesus Christ and if any is unbelieving make this sound so good they could no longer resist the truth I pray this in Jesus name Amen I serve a risen Savior he's in the world today I know that he is living whatever men may say I see his hand of mercy I hear his voice of cheer and just the time I need him he's always here he lives he lives Christ Jesus lives today he walks with me and talks with me along life's narrow way he lives he lives salvation to impart you asked me how I know he lives finish it when my prayer is that at the end of this message that song will sing it that song will be more true more sweet and that the experience of the presence of the Living Christ in your life will be palpably unmistakably authentically real that's my prayer this text verses 15 to 24 was spoken by Jesus as you know maybe 12 hours maybe 10 hours before the most important event in the history of the world just hours before the greatest act that has ever been or will ever been performed of love namely the death of the Son of God on behalf of sinners so that whoever believes would have all their sins forgiven and would be accepted as righteous in God's sight and would be adopted into gods family and would inherit infallibly everlasting joy in his presence these words are in that shadow and you must hear them that way hear those gospel words blood-bought words don't abstract them out dangling somewhere other than Gethsemane Jesus said I will lay down my life for my sheep and here are 11 of these sheep now and us and these sheep are very confused they need a lot of encouragement because they know because he has said so he's leaving and that's not what they signed up for and this text is the word of Christ to frightened and confused and fearful disciples who want to understand well what what's the deal when you're gone like he is right where do where is it so it's to you and my oh my what encouragement is here breathtaking things are promised to you in this text so ask the Lord in your heart right now to give you ears to hear and eyes to see the stunning things that are promised to you concerning what's going to be true about you in relation to him when he's gone it's amazing I have two introductory observations and then two other questions to answer so here's the first introductory observation as Jesus makes these promises in this text to his own he makes very clear two or three times that what he's offering you he's not offering the world what you are going to experience if you believe these promises the world cannot experience and he makes it explicit and I want us to feel this is for us this isn't just thrown out on the world this is coming to people and we'll see who those people are so let me show you this verses 16 and 17 I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you you see how it's dividing the world this is for you verse 19 yet a little while and the world will see me no more but you will see me cut in the world right in half here verse 22 Judas not Iscariot not the betrayer said to him Lord how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world so three times he makes clear I'm giving you something special this is for you it's not for them this is personal this is intimate this is reciprocal this is a relationship the world cannot see it cannot know it will not taste it no this Christian you do not just have things that the world can experience you have something absolutely unique that's observation number one number two introductory observation those who do receive these gifts these promises this love are not called Christians generically they're not called believers they are people it says who love Jesus you can't miss this it said four times it is the main theme that he wants to hammer home what he's about to give us that's special to us and precious for us and intimate for us that the world doesn't know can't taste doesn't receive doesn't experience is given to people who love him verse 15 if you love me you will keep my Commandments and I will I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever that's what you get if you love me verse 21 whoever has my Commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me and I and he who loves me will be loved by my father this is not a love he has for the world it's personal intimate relation affectionate committed love from the father only for those who love Jesus only verse 23 jesus answered him if anyone loves me he'll keep my word and my father will love him John 3:16 is still in the book that's not the point here for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life true and oh there's so much more for you than just an offer scattered across the world so much more needed again verse 23 if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him in response to his love for Jesus know you're well taught church you know from Romans 5:8 God shows his love for us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Oh so the love of God precedes my love for Jesus I'm still a sinner and he dies too to rescue me and enable me to love Jesus that's still in the book and John thinks that way first John 4:19 not that we loved him that he loved us or we love because He first loved us just not the point in this text don't lose your blessing by thinking that's the point that's the only reason any of you is saved he loved you he pursued you like the Hound of heaven tracked you down overcame your rebellion drew you to himself gave you faith covered your sins by his blood now what that's what this text is about now you love him and because you love him he's got another love for you oh how sweet how precious how personal how intimate how unique in the universe is the love of God for those who love Jesus that's the read verses 21 and 23 again just so you see this is not my word this is the word of Jesus whoever had this is verse 21 whoever has my Commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and nobody else gets that kind of love but those who love Jesus or verse 23 if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him so can we handle this you got it you got a mind typical enough and big enough for this the only reason anybody loves Jesus is because they were first loved by God got that Romans 5:8 1st John 4:19 and when you love Jesus Almighty God comes to you with something more for his heart and that's what I want you to enjoy it's the key to obedience it's the key to worship it's the key to life it's the key to assurance it's the key to hope it's the key to marriage it's the key to parenting it's the key to overcoming sin to know him like this not just as the object of generic global love now those are my two introductory observations namely that he explicitly says what I have for you the world can't know what I have for you the world can't receive it can't experience and what I have for you is for those who love my son or Jesus those who love me now two more questions to answer what does it mean to love Jesus because you you need to be asking right now Wow that means if I love him there's something really really really amazing for me and I don't want to miss it so do I and to answer that question if no what is it well what does it mean to love Jesus and the second question is what are you promised if you do in this text let's take those one at a time what does it mean to love Jesus 4 times in this text he says if you love me you'll keep my Commandments or my word so let's read those verse 15 if you love me you will keep my Commandments verse 21 whoever has my Commandments and keeps them he it is who loves me verse 23 if anyone loves me he will keep my word verse 24 reverse whoever does not love me does not keep my words now what can we infer from that well we can infer something very clear and very important namely loving Jesus is not obeying Jesus but the source of obeying Jesus obeying Jesus and doing what he commands and keeping his word is not love for Jesus it comes from love for Jesus it's the result of loving Jesus not the same as loving Jesus let's just read it again verse 15 if you love me the result will be you'll keep my Commandments they're not the same or verse 23 if anyone loves me the result would be to keep my word this is massively important because how many people read these texts and flip the switch immediately to turn love into a list of things to do sad and tragic it's a killer in the Christian life if you if you think love is that deadly kills churches kills people kills families see love is doing what a tragic marriage that would be and some marriages are like that when all the heart is gone so what is love for Jesus Jesus has no defects right no I'll agree with that Jesus has no defects Jesus has no flaws or faults or demerit so we cannot and we dare not love him the way God loves us I don't deserve anything the judgment from God and he loves me in spite of my sin we don't love Jesus in spite of anything but because of everything that he yes Jesus is entirely deserving of our love in its most intense form Jesus is entirely a worthy of being loved Jesus is perfectly lovely how do you love somebody like you don't love him graciously like I got used I gotta stir up some grace here because Jesus it's isn't beautiful isn't good no no no go there that's blasphemy you don't love Jesus the way he loves you which means that love for Jesus is a response to his beauty and his greatness and his glory it's not a response to his need or his weakness or his flaws like God's is for us which means that loving Jesus is pleasurable if desiring its its desiring him because he's infinitely desirable its admiring him because he's infinitely admirable its treasuring him because he's infinitely valuable its enjoying him because he's infinitely enjoyable and it's being satisfied in him because he's infinitely satisfying that's what loving Jesus means it's a reflex of new birth once you had a soul whose taste buds found him bland or even bitter then you were born again and you licked the gospel and for the first time it caused a high what was that you saw him you tasted and saw that the Lord was good that's new birth you must be born again to see to taste this Jesus you can't love Jesus if you're not born again because you'll taste bad he won't be beautiful he won't we lovely won't be satisfying he won't be attractive he won't he just he'll just be duty like you're supposed to I don't really I don't wanna go to hell and you say that not to go to hell you supposed to believe on him and I don't find anything beautiful or attractive or satisfying and enjoyable but I'm gonna say some right words it's not love in short loving Jesus is not a matter of doing excellent things it's a matter of delighting in an excellent Savior doing excellent things Jesus says flows from delighting in an excellent Savior now two confirmations from the Gospel of John that were on the right track all right so I'm arguing that loving Jesus is an affair of the heart by which you enjoy him because you see how enjoyable his and you treasure him because you see how valuable he is and you're satisfied in him because you see how satisfying his his glory his goodness his beauty his truth are satisfying to your soul come to me eat drink be satisfied that's what I'm saying love for Jesus is before there's any doing at all if you love me you will do if you love me you'll do the doing is later fruit it's called fruit not root my question is that just sounds so wonderfully Christian hedonistic that I must be reading my views in here okay I'm just scared to death of doing that this is God's Word I'm not so I'm always alright looks really good loving what I'm seeing confirmations John help me here's two of them the word love in the Gospel of John is used this way more than once I'll give you a few examples John 3:19 people loved darkness rather than light was that mean they wanted him and he liked it they preferred it protected them from conviction so to love there is feel does not keep me in the dark I love the dark don't like like it shows roaches in my life so love the word love I got power means crave desire want prefer desire here's another one John 12:43 they loved the glory of man rather than the glory of God does that mean they wanted it they longed for it to crave human praise food feels so good to be admired and it was so strong they couldn't believe in Jesus we are controlled by what we love this way here's another one John 3:35 this time very positive the Father loves the Son and has given all things into how does the father love the son not the way he loves us jesus never sinned he didn't he did for he's been loved from all eternity in the infinite energy of the Trinity we get a little glimpse of this anywhere in the New Testament yes we do baptism Transfiguration this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased now let yourself be God for a minute you got infinite energy and you just said over your son well pleasing that's not small that's infinite power and energy this is mother and I love him infinitely he pleases me I want him forever at my side finishing his work same thing at the Transfiguration this is my son hear him so those three instances just show that the word love means without any fanfare craving delighting enjoying wanting preferring not some kind of gracious condescension to love the son in spite of his flaws or us loving Jesus in some dutiful noble way by which we rise above his inadequacies and treat him well either he is satisfying to our soul or we don't love him esteem admire enjoy treasure standing trembling happy aw that's what he just loves my first confirmation confirmation number two that we're on the right track namely what might Jesus have in mind when he says if you love me you keep my Commandments what Commandments now of course if you're just reading this kind of in the air you think of love the Sermon on the Mount full of Commandments and well let's just stay with John and ask John I'm gonna read you from front to back and look for Commandments that's what I did just want to see what you might have in mind here here and if you go through the first time asking where are the moral behavior Commandments in the Gospel of John like you know wash your disciples feet wash your neighbor's feet okay that's one doing to others as as I have done to you tonight do also to each other that's that's one love the great the new commandment chapter 13 verse 35 love one another as I have loved you that's pretty practical Peter at the end feed my sheep feed my sheep feed my sheep that's three that's it whoa really yeah try it however if you read it again and you ask a different question like okay now we're going to look for all the commandments not just the moral behavior Commandments okay all Commandments in John it's fine find this receive me 112 follow me 143 get up crippled man 5:8 rise from the dead Lazarus 1143 believe in the light 12:36 believe in God 14:1 believe me 14 11 abide in me for 15 for ask whatever you wish 15 7 abide in my love 15 9 receive the holy spirit 20 22 and they're everywhere oh yes if you if you keep that other things gonna follow but for dominant the dominant demand demand the dominant demand is received me believe me trust me follow me feed on me rest in me abide in me receive my spirit ask for help rise from the dead start walking crippled man all these commands are commands for us to receive him know him more amazing if you love me you will keep my Commandments now how's that a confirmation of where we've been on love is that a confirmation if the commands are overwhelmingly received me believe me ask of me abide in me it makes perfect sense doesn't it to say if you love me you'll do that if you desire me and delight in me as a treasure then you'll receive me when I offer you myself as a treasure that's to come in receive me believe me accept me you'll obey that command if you love him I want you and he says I'm yours how okay good love / disobedience to the command receive me believe me but first there was a delight first it was the satisfaction first there was the awakening to His infinite value and we're treasuring him and now we're hearing him say huh take me feed on me abide in me let's sap from me flow through you those are all commandments that what else would you do if you want him if you love him so if you're born again so that you treasure Jesus above everything and he says receive me take me have me as your treasure you'll do it you'll obey if you're born again so that you consider him supremely and wonderfully trustworthy and he says trust me you'll do it because that's what you cherish about him if you're born again and you want to spend time with him and he says abide in me you'll do it you look back you keep his word but it all hangs on has he become your treasure and you're trustworthy Savior and you're home where you want to abide if he hasn't then those commands will be unappealing to you and you won't go there so that's my two confirmations that we're on the right track and so I take my stand here and I say when Jesus said if you love me you'll keep my words and all these blessings that we're now about to talk about all these gifts all this love is going to be yours what he means is if you treasure me if you delight in me if you enjoy me if you're satisfied in me if you rest in me if you're attracted to me you get the special thing now of course you can see can't you that Christianity has to be supernatural because you do not have the power to like Jesus tonight you have the power to do stuff right do stuff you come to church did that you go home and not look at porn not watch a dirty movie and you could do stuff but you can't flip a switch right now I'm sane I enjoy him I'm satisfied in him I'm attracted to him I love spending time with them more than anybody else you can't make that happen that is called the new birth and when you're embattled which you are and I am it's called sanctification rise and we fall in our delights right some days he's everything in other days what's wrong with me I must be drifting the way God have mercy he does last question that question was what does it mean to love Jesus now the last question is and if you do what does he promise you in this text the sum of what he promises you is that the Father the Holy Spirit and Jesus himself will come to you and reveal themselves to you and love you and help you and comfort you and never leave you a manifestation of the Living Christ that nobody else can have it doesn't love Jesus and such you all want isn't it I don't want my life to be a logical inference from Bible statements right Oh Bible says this obvious infer I do this that's really a sad way to live the Christian life you want a manifestation of the reality of the risen Christ is he real is he here can I have an experience with him that's more than a logical inference from doctrines yes you can and that's what the rest of this is about verse 16 let's just what I want to do is just walk through the verses don't have any clicker system systematized way of putting them together this time I just I just want to go bullet bullet bullet and let the way Jesus says it penetrate your heart that's what I hope the Holy Spirit will do as we go verse by verse to say what is he gonna give me if I love him verse 16 I will ask the Father and He will give you another helper to be with you forever when he calls him another helper he means he's not me I'm the helper now and I'm asking the father so it's not the father father's gonna send him it's not me so it's the Holy Spirit verse 26 says it flat out right the helper the holy spirit called the helper here he's called the Holy Spirit in verse 26 so the first thing is that he's going to sin God the Holy Spirit into your life when he returns to heaven which he did so when you love Jesus you experience the fullness of the Holy Spirit verse 17 even the Spirit of Truth and I is defining the Spirit as the Spirit of Truth even the Spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him you know him for he dwells with you and will be in you so the helper who comes the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth which I think means that the primary way he does his helping is by opening your eyes to see the glories and the truths of Jesus if you don't see Jesus as beautiful ask the Holy Spirit to do that for you because that's his main job he came into the world to glorify Jesus and he glorifies Jesus by being the spirit truth I am the truth so he opens your eyes to see the truth all of us in this room have eyes that are closing and opening all the time that's why Paul prays for the eyes of the Christian heart in Ephesians 1:17 he prays that the Christians eyes be opened like okay your eyes can start to go shut which means TV is looking really attractive Jesus is not money is looking really attractive Jesus is not marriage is looking really attractive Jesus is not success in job is looking really attractive in Jesus what's happening your eyes are starting to shut and Paul prays oh God a spirit of wisdom it of Revelation open their eyes let them see truth truth spirit you're a spirit of truth and when you see what's really there you don't need any inferences anymore it's just beautiful this this has contours it must be beautiful I will conclude it's beautiful nobody functions that way if you see beauty and your eyes are open you feel love for beauty if your eyes are not open it's boring verse let me see one more word about our seventeen the world doesn't know him you know him for he dwells with you will be in you I think that means in my presence right now you're enjoying an experience of the Spirit through my ministry and it's going to be different because I'm gonna come by the spirit as the risen Christ verse 18 I will not leave you as orphans I will come to you that's sweet I'm comedians what orphans need they need food and they need protection and they need guidance I'm not gonna leave you without anything I'm gonna come and whatever an orphan needs I'm I'm gonna make sure you have with you verse 19 yet a little while and the world will see me no more but you will see me because I live you will also live so in three days I'm gonna rise from the dead and I am NOT going to start my ministry over again I'm not going to appear to any of those world of people I'm gonna appear to you after the resurrection he didn't embark on a new earthly ministry he simply prepared his own for his departure you see me I'm gonna give you some assurance many infallible proofs I'm gonna give them to you and then you're gonna put into words what you have seen so that others can enjoy your assurance from then on verse 20 in that day you will no no no no the surance you will know that I'm in the father and you and me and I in you so when they see him and experience him and put their hands in his side fall down before him and eat fish with him they're gonna know this has all been true everything he said was true he's one with the Father we're one with him he's one with us we know and Wow what came over us assured apostles verse 21 second half of the verse and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him I think this is the best of all the father has a special close family love for those who love Jesus not it's not John 3:16 this is love for a bride love her friend love for a child love for an intimate that's better and what that love causes Jesus to do is manifest himself to them that's what I want more than anything in this life and ultimately in the life to come I want to know open the eyes of my heart Lord open the eyes of my heart I want to see you there are people who criticize that song like world to see Jesus stuff he's in heaven well yeah I know that everybody knows that it's this I'm gonna manifest myself to you I'd love to just talk about Bucharest and Geneva and Homburg and and just any little stress of your life if if it's in the hardest times of your life you go to him there are manifestations of himself that you get when you go there starving for his help and satisfied in him he will show you things about himself you won't get on the summary days verse 23 in answer to Judas not the betrayers question why not to the world Lord what weren't you gonna do all this for the world why just us and he doesn't answer him he just repeats himself because he doesn't have anything else to say besides this if anyone loves me in other words that's the door the world had that they'd have it and preach the gospel to the whole world if anyone loves me he keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him make our home with him this is good that word for home use one other time in the gospel you know where you wouldn't know where chapter two of this chapter I go to prepare a place for you in my father's house are many same word what's the implication in my father's house are many of these homes it's only only these two places this word is used in any home as many dwellings in verse 23 I will come to him and the father will come and we will make our home with him my paraphrase you love Jesus you get heaven this is about as good as it can get I'm preparing this thing for you in heaven and you know what it is it's me and my father you gonna dwell in us and with us and be satisfied there will be your son will be your moon you know what if you love me here we're gonna do that right that's nice so we conclude Bethlehem loved delighting Jesus treasure Jesus be satisfied in Jesus abide in Jesus let your joy overflow in the keeping of all of his word and touching other people's lives and if you do here's what you get the Father the Son and the Holy Spirit will come to you they will be a helper the Holy Spirit in particular will help you comfort you you won't be an orphan you'll be protected you'll be provided for and you will be guided a special love will come to you I will love you the father says and Jesus says I'll manifest myself to you and we together will make you our home now heaven on earth let's pray so father in heaven I ask that when someone asks us so you say you serve a living Savior you say he's in the world today you say you can see his hand and hear his voice you say he's alive how do you know I pray that without any artificial 'ti we would be able to answer and know because he's in my heart he's made me his home he has manifested himself to me through his word in the gospel I have beheld his glory and he has comforted me inexplicably in times of great trial he has come through for me he has never forsaken me I know

Channel: Desiring God

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Keywords: Desiring God, John Piper, God, Jesus Christ, Christianity, Christian Hedonism

Id: 8jlUe8iIv_A

Length: 50min 44sec (3044 seconds)

Published: Wed Jun 15 2016