In his sermon, Scott Brown explores the profound connection between love and obedience to God's commandments, as highlighted in John 14:15-22. Brown focuses on the concept that true love for God is demonstrated through obedience to His commands. He emphasizes that love and obedience are inseparable, as one cannot exist without the other. The sermon delves into the role of the Holy Spirit, who aids believers in keeping God's commandments, ensuring that love is manifested through obedience. Brown references the Upper Room Discourse, noting its rich promises and teachings on the Trinity and the church's mission. He draws parallels between Jesus' teachings and the Old Testament laws, specifically noting how Jesus often quoted Deuteronomy to emphasize continuity and the importance of the law. Brown outlines how the commandments are not burdensome but are expressions of love, meant to guide believers in their faith journey. He also discusses the importance of understanding and interpreting God's laws correctly, recognizing their role in revealing sin, instructing love, and ultimately transforming believers into the image of Christ. The sermon concludes by encouraging believers to live out their faith through belief in God, performing good works, and obeying His commandments, all driven by love.

Please open your Bibles to John 14. Find verse 15. I'm gonna read all the way to verse 22. I intended to handle this whole section. I'm gonna focus in on one theme in this section.

I determined this morning just to handle these matters of the relationship between keeping God's commandments and love. I plan to leave the teaching on the Holy Spirit for next week. I had intended hope to really particularly speak of how one is led by the Holy Spirit and to speak in some detail, particularly to young people who are trying to figure out what they need to do next. That was what I intended to do today. Wait for next week and I'll have my eye on you who are trying to figure out what you need to do for your life, for your marriage, who to marry, what to do, and how the Holy Spirit fits into all that.

So that's next week. I'm sorry I'm only going to really preach on one verse today. That is actually repeated throughout the section I want you to look for two words in what I read commandments and love that's going to be the focus of everything I say verse 15 if you love me keep my commandments and I will pray the Father and he will give you another Helper, that he may abide with you forever. The Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you as orphans, I will come to you. A little while longer and the world will see me no more, but you will see me. Because I live, you will live also. At that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me.

And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." Judas not asgariate said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and not to the world? Jesus answered and said to him, If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him. He who does not love me does not keep my words and the word which you hear is not mine but the Father's who sent me." Let's pray. Lord you've instructed us in so many wonderful things here about how we would be able to keep the commandments by the power of your Holy Spirit and how you would manifest yourself through the obedience of your children. These are such important things, Lord, and we praise you for laying them before us to cleanse our thinking about life and law and obedience and the work of the Holy Spirit.

Lord, we pray that you would take all these things and instruct this congregation beautifully today through your Word. Amen. Please be seated. So as you know we're in the upper room discourse. It stretches from chapter 13 to 17.

Jesus is delivering His final words to his disciples and he's describing what kind of disciples he's sending into the world, he's describing what kind of church, what kind of glorious church he's establishing and what actually congregations ought to be characterized by and How the people operate with one another and in all of life that's all contained in this upper room discourse It really is a remarkable Section here's one Fact of its remarkable nature The promises this section is full of promises. I counted 14 promises in these seven verses alone You see the doctrine of the Trinity when we get to the next verse and verse 16 the whole doctrine of the Trinity is wrapped up there. It's just capsulized and really manifested the relationship between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. All three are mentioned in that one verse. I can't wait until we get to verse 16 next week.

Notice the constant care of Jesus Christ toward his people. He cares for his people. He calls one alongside to help forever. And he's our comforter. And he's our advocate.

And he leads us. And he teaches us. He convicts us of sin. There's so much of God's care in this passage of Scripture. And by the time we arrive at verse 15 here in chapter 14, Jesus has already told them many things about the kind of men, the kind of church that He is sending out into the world.

And it's very relevant to us. Here's how relevant it is to us. There are two massively important reasons this is a critical text for us. First of all, we're a local church which ought to be designed after the beautiful design of God that Jesus Christ has explained here. We want to be a church like this, full of the Holy Spirit, all of us so aware of the ever present nature of the Comforter, this person who lives within us.

There's a person living within the Saints, not a force, not an it, but a person. And, But secondly, we're getting ready to send 19 people to Turkey to plant a church and And our prayers as we go through this should just be Simultaneously prayers for the church in Turkey that is that we pray is going to be established there. This is the kind of church Jesus Christ desires for the world. So I want to do a little bit of review just to catch us up. It's been a bit since we've been in this section.

In chapter 13, we established that there were four marks of that church. First, it was a church where people serve each other. They pick up a towel and they wash one another's feet, that kind of church. And then, that's a humble church, but then it's a church where his glory dwells. Jesus says, now the Son of Man is glorified and God is glorified in him and we learn that that glory is transferred to his children It's the place the church is the place where God's glory Dwells it's the most important thing in the church is to glorify God not yourself and then thirdly it's a church marked by love Jesus said the new commandment I give to you that you love one another as I have loved you that you also love one another the purpose of everything in heaven and earth is love I'll get to more about that later.

It connects directly to the commandments of God. And then preservation. It's a church where God preserves His children. The Lord Jesus instructs His disciples on His preserving power. This is such a...I think it's so helpful.

Jesus predicts that Peter is going to betray him. He's going to deny him three times, and then he says, but you'll follow me afterward. In other words, he's going to preserve him. He's going to carry him through. He's going to fall, but God's going to carry him Praise God for that Does that ever happen to you?

He's still carrying you What a blessing So God created us really as a needy people, and all these things bear witness to this. You know, we know this is true. We need air, we need water, we need food, we need help outside ourselves, but we need two really particular things that are in this text. We need the laws of God to teach us and define us and show us the way which we should go, and we need the Spirit of God to lead us and help us and to continue that work of instruction. So the focus of the Upper Room discourse is the explanation of the person and work of the Holy Spirit through the church as God manifests His glory through the church in their obedience to the commandments of God in a nutshell.

When you get to chapter 14, right out of the gate you get this promise of heaven, in my father's house are many dwelling place. Then he tells how to get to heaven in verses 5 through 7, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but by me. So you have the promise of heaven and then the way to get to heaven, but the whole rest of John 14 is how you live before you get to heaven. How do you, what are you going to do with your life from now until the time that you are taken up to be with the Lord forever?

And that really begins in verse 8. And the first thing you do is you believe. You believe in the Father, you believe in Jesus. Philip asked Jesus a question and Jesus says, believe me that I'm in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Believe, that's how you spend your time between now and the time that you get to heaven and then do the works he promises that you'll do greater works do the works do the greater works I believe these are our greater in quantity and scope and reach These are these kind of greater works.

And he...don't get locked on on just miracles here. I mean, he's speaking of, I believe, of the expansion of the church, the spread of the gospel to every tongue and tribe and nation, and billions of people doing the works of Jesus manifesting the the glory of Jesus as they keep the commandments of God and they speak the truth of God in the world it's this explosion of the glory of God through the church greater works and then and then thirdly keep the commandments well we're gonna we're gonna really sink in on that one this whole time Keep the commandments if you love me Keep my commandments verse 15 Love and obedience can't be separated. Don't separate them in your mind. Now, notice the phrase, there's a condition. There's like a relational reality.

If you love me, and then there's a command, keep my commandments. So that's what you have. If there's no obedience, there's no love. If there's no love, there's no obedience. Now, drop your eyes down to verse 21.

He continues to say this same thing in a slightly different way. He who has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father. Oh, that's one of those promises right there, one of the 14, he who loves me will be loved by my Father. And I will love him and manifest myself to him.

That's another promise. He will love you and he will manifest himself. It's a promise. And then verse 22, Judas iscariot, Judas not iscariot, not iscariot, Judas not iscariot. It's like, Judas iscariot, not iscariot said to him, Lord, how is it that you will manifest yourself to us and Not to the world and then Jesus answers in verse 23 Jesus answered and said to him.

Oh There's another promise if anyone loves me he will keep my word and my father will love him and we will come to him and make our home with him." Verse 24, he who does not love me does not keep my words and the words which you hear is not mine but the fathers who sent me. Now John the Apostle, the writer of the gospel of John and the writer of 1st 2nd and 3rd John, he emphasizes this in his writings and I want to show you how he does it in his epistle in 1st John chapter 2 verses 3 through 5 John says by this we know him we know that we know him okay if you want to know if you know Him. That's the idea. By this we know that we know Him if we keep His commandments. He who says, I know Him and does not keep His commandments is a liar And the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word truly the love of God is perfected in him By this we know that we are in him He who says he abides in him ought himself also to walk just as he walked in Chapter 5 of 1st John verses 2 and 3 he says a very similar thing by this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep His commandments.

The two are connected. Loving the children of God is connected with loving the commandments of God. If you're not loving the children of God It's because you're not loving the commandments of God. That's what John is saying there He says for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments and his commandments are not burdensome This is the love of God that we keep His commandments. You know, the commandments of God, you know, obedience to the law is kind of fallen on hard times in our culture.

But it never fell on hard times in the Gospel of John or the writings of John. And His commandments are not burdensome. And then in 2 John, verse 1, chapter 1, verse 6, this is love That we walk according to his commandments This is the commandment which you have heard from the beginning that you should walk in it. So Jesus is explaining here through John how revealing it is when people don't love God. What happens when people don't love God?

What's the source? They don't love His commandments and therefore they don't love God. If you hate the commandments of God, it shows you who you are. You're not a Christian. If you hate the commandments of God, it's one way to tell whether you're a Christian.

Do I hate the commandments of God? You know, there's nothing more thrilling than to realize that you love God. Nothing sweeter to the soul than to realize that you love the commands of God. You read them and they're amazing to you. Like David when he said, oh how I love your law, it's my meditation all the day.

Or the Apostle Paul, he said, I delight in the law of God and the inner man. You know, deep within, when he reads the law, like his inner man is rolling with joy Because he delights in it Love without obedience is an empty lie and obedience without love is hypocritical drudgery and God is wonderfully tied obedience and love and intimacy and comfort of the Holy Spirit altogether they're a package They're either all together or they are not at all Obedience and love With love comes obedience which fosters intimacy which is manifested in the comfort of the Holy Spirit If you take obedience out of the picture you lose the reality of the picture if you take love out of the picture you lose the intimacy Love and obedience are all tied together. Don't don't try to get one without the other don't look for comfort if you're not obedient You won't be obedient unless you love. This is the way it's tied together here in the Gospel of John. Now, this is very common in the Bible.

You have these things that seem like they're the opposite, but they're not opposite. They're sweetly compliant to one another. That's language out of the Baptist Confession on the law. But there are lots of things that you can't separate. Now, people talk about, talk as if law and grace are separate categories that if you have law you can't have grace as if they're mutually exclusive John is addressing this now in James God calls us to faith and works and they're not mutually exclusive.

They're interdependent in Ephesians 415 God calls us to truth and love They're both there, but they both operate the same way while they are they are they are different They are complementary throughout the Bible God calls it calls us to take action That's human responsibility And it also any in the Bible also declares divine sovereignty right alongside of human responsibility sometime in the same verse And Jesus is making it clear that you can't separate love and obedience and law-keeping Your love for God is proven by your obedience to God and you cannot separate love for God from obedience. Here's an illustration. You cannot separate love from obedience any more than you can separate the divine and the human natures of Jesus Christ in one person. The Bible actually is a...in one way it's the simplest thing that even every child can understand, but there's some real complexity to it. And we're in that complexity.

Let's make it really simple. There are 613 laws in the Old Testament. There are over a thousand laws in the New Testament. People say, well, the Old Testament was about law, but the New Testament is about love. No, no, no, no, no, no.

Very, very confused statement. All of these laws, the 613 laws in the Old Testament and the over 1, 000 laws in the New Testament are summed up in 10 commandments. And then Jesus took those 10 commandments and He summed them up in two commandments, love God and love your neighbor. But they're all summed up in one word, one four-letter word, love, L-O-V-E. So it's simple in many ways.

God Gives us a way to understand his laws and what they're really all about They all they they are all summed up in that one single word love So let's don't be confused about the commandments Now let's talk about this is a definition of a Christian Verse 21 verse 23 verse 24 makes us very clear that salvation doesn't just simply come from a profession, it must include a profession and a trust in Jesus Christ as the law keeper who kept all the laws for you. But in John 15, 10, John keeps talking about this. He says, if you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that my joy may remain in you and that your joy may be full." This is a definition of a Christian. In John 17 verse 6 we'll get to this sometime.

We might be in the upper-room discourse for a while. I have manifested your name to the men whom you have given me out of the world. They were yours You gave them to me and they have kept your word in 1st John 4 verse 19 John writes and this Commandment or verse 21 and this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother Also John 1st John 5 3. This is the love of God that we keep his commandments So the keeping of the commandments is actually evidence that you're abiding in Jesus and that's why Jesus said that in John 8 verse 31 He said to those who had believed if you abide in my word you are my disciples indeed and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free." Later on, Jesus is going to say to Peter, if you love me, Feed my sheep. So love for God is manifested in obedience to God.

That's the whole thing. Well, here's a question. The commands of God can be scary. Are there any commands that you're trying to ignore? You just wish it wasn't there.

You'd really like to kind of just jump right over those verses. And they scare you because they might change your life. Here's a hermeneutical principle. If it means what it seems that it means and you don't want to obey it, it won't mean what it really means. In other words, the problem is you just don't want to obey it.

You know, it's funny, you see this in the writings of, well, they're called feminist Christians. I'm not sure what that is, but when the feminists write about the family life codes in the Bible, like, you know, women should be keepers at home. They come up with all these convoluted things, but the truth is they just don't want to believe that's true. They just don't want to do that. That's the problem, because it's as plain as day, like the wart on your nose.

But you can try to ignore it all you want, but it's you can't exegetically wipe it away without writing a 15, 000 page paper But the words are actually very clear So use the problem is usually we don't want to obey something. We don't really have that many exegetical issues. We have questions that we have to answer and sometimes that can be difficult. You know, I was reading commentators on this and you know the commentators of course connect this with the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Charles Simeon said, it pleased God to unite man's happiness with his duty.

Your happiness is united with your duty, so don't be afraid of duty. Duty is good. It can't save your soul, but it can do good to everything about you. Matthew Henry said, we must not expect comfort except in the way of duty. So there's this sequence, the love comes before the obedience, and the obedience cannot be sustained without the love.

Okay? Now, here's another thing we need to recognize. People often think of the law of Moses as a bad thing. Oh, it's so harsh. Well, as it turns out, Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy right here in this text.

And this is Jesus's consistent pattern. It's misinterpreting the Word of God to say that the the New Testament Christian has nothing to do with the laws of the Old Testament including the Mosaic law. This is not a biblical proposition. Here Jesus is quoting Moses when he says what he says here, if you love me, keep my commandments. He says this in the second commandment section in Deuteronomy chapter 5.

You know, it starts out, you shall not make for yourself a carved image. Well, toward the end of that commandment, he says, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love me and keep my commandments. Jesus is quoting Deuteronomy 5 verse 10. Jesus does not reject the law of God of Moses by any means. He's also quoting Deuteronomy 7, 9.

He says, therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with who? With those who love him and keep his commandments and then verse 11 He says therefore you shall keep the commandments the statutes and the judgments which I command you today To observe them in Deuteronomy 10 verses 12 to 13 we find that exact same phrase nearly that Jesus is quoting. He says, and now Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you? But to fear the Lord your God and walk in his ways and to love him and serve the Lord your God with all your heart with all your soul and to keep the commandments of the Lord and his statutes which I command you today for your good." So I think we should just be very clear. Jesus is quoting Moses.

And He's really quoting Moses' description of this thrilling thing that happens when you begin to love God and you love His commandments. They're so good, they're so helpful to you. Some of them are scary and you're gonna have to be reconciled to that, but in Luke chapter 6, 46, Jesus says that obedience to his commands and doing them is equivalent to building your house on a rock. Now notice another thing. Did you notice this?

It says Jesus calls the commandments my commandments. He's quoting Moses and he says my commandments. Now none of the other biblical authors like Moses say these are my commandments. They say they're God's commandments Jesus is saying they're my commandments okay what Moses wrote in the law are composed of Jesus commandments they are his commandments he he calls them my commandments now every word of the Old Testament is a word from Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God.

Jesus wrote the entire Old Testament. He wrote the law, the prophets, and the poetry. He wrote it all. Jesus Christ is the author of every law of the Old Testament. Jesus here calls them my commandments.

They're mine. Don't be confused. Moses is not a bad guy. In Deuteronomy we learn that there is coming, Moses says, a prophet like me. Jesus is a prophet like Moses.

So he's quoting. Now let me just, I don't want us to miss this point, But Deuteronomy actually happens to be a book that Jesus loved and he quoted it, he quoted it all the time. Jesus loved the book of Deuteronomy. Let me give you some examples. When The devil tempted Christ for 40 days, it's recorded in Matthew chapter 4.

Jesus rejected the temptation to turn, you know, the stones into bread, and he quotes Deuteronomy 8.3, man shall not live by bread alone." Jesus then rejected the temptation to jump off the temple and make a big spectacle in the temple area and he quotes Deuteronomy 6 16, you shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted him at Massa and then when Jesus rejected the temptation of Satan to worship him and bow down to him he quotes Deuteronomy 6 13 you shall fear the Lord your God and Serve him When Jesus is teaching about family life, where does He go? He goes to Deuteronomy. He goes to Deuteronomy 5 16 and He quotes that text and uses it to explain how human traditions wage war against the family and these human traditions cause people to violate the law of God, particularly taking care of your parents and giving out, using your money whatever way you want instead of taking care of your parents. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 5.16. When teaching about oaths in Matthew 5 verse 33, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 23 verse 22.

When teaching about how hard it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven in Matthew 19, 18 through 20, Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 5, 16 through 20 to prove it. When teaching about genuine love for God in Mark 12, 28 through 34 Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 through 6 when teaching about the resurrection in Matthew 22 verses 23 to 33 Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 25 5 through 12 and now here in John 14 Jesus is teaching his disciples about the relationship between love and obedience and he quotes multiple commands Of Moses that God communicated and he says those are my commands. Those are mine. So, if you love Jesus, you'll love the commands. I think that's the point that he's making.

Now, there are lots of questions about this, right? You know, how do you, how should you interpret the laws of God? How should we think about them? I'm gonna give you different questions that need to be asked in interpreting the Old Testament law of God. Are you ready?

I'll send these to you if you want them. Let me know. What does this law reveal about the heart, the character, and the nature of God? Every law of God was written by God, penned by Jesus Christ. They all reflect the nature and the character of God when you read a law that really upsets you just ask how does this How does this what does this teach me about God?

Second what kind of law is it? Is it a ceremonial law is it a food law that passed away like the eating of shellfish? You know Peter in the New Testament makes it really clear that those laws passed away. Those are called ceremonial laws. Are they civil or civil laws, judicial laws, that governed the state of Israel?

The confession that we hold in this church maintains that those laws were meant for Israel and but they are interpreted according to their general equity. They teach us something about God or are they moral laws? These are perpetual laws of God. Thirdly, who is given the responsibility to carry out the law? When you read the law of God, what you'll find is that sometimes it's the individual that carries out that law, sometimes it's the family, like in the law of the Sabbath, God lays that on families to observe and make sure it is observed.

And then some are given to the state, like capital punishment is always given to the state, never to the individual, and never to the church, ever. It's given to the state. You'll find that in Deuteronomy, and that's why it's given to the state in the laws of the United States of America. We got those laws from the Bible. It's not right to go kill people individually.

The state might do it, put it in their hands. Fourth, how is it fulfilled in Christ? Jesus Christ sums up and fills up and fulfills every law. When the Bible says Jesus fulfilled the law, it means that he summed it up he just gave a perfect representation of it in its fullness and then Fifthly, how does it explain love because every every law of God is a law of love Six how does it reveal sin? This is one of the most helpful Aspects of law it shows you that you're a sinner.

Seventh, what is the applicability of that law? Like, what are you supposed to do about it? Eighth, what happens when the law is ignored in your family or ignored in your church or ignored in your government or in society. Ninth, how will this law be used of the Lord to transform me and change me into the image of Jesus Christ? Because it's a law of Christ, Jesus says, that's my law.

So those are questions you should ask when you read the law. Now, if you read a law and it sounds unjust, you know I preached through Deuteronomy about eight years ago, something like that, and I remember reading some of these laws I'm thinking are these is this loving is this just and the people in our church you know we're wondering how is this a loving law well here here here are a few things I think here's I want to just suggest these to you if I'm uncomfortable with the law of God it's either because first of all I don't understand it completely second I don't want to obey it or incorporate it into my thinking. Third, I don't know God as well as I ought to know him. Because I kind of have a system of morality that's my own. I got it from my culture, I got it from my parents, I got it from my own corrupt, you know, fallen heart.

And so I'm not thinking rightly. And when I look at justice, I don't know what justice is God is a god of justice. He's a god of truth and he's without injustice And if you think that any of God's laws are unjust Here's my recommendation. You should ask yourself, how did I get to be so unjust? How did I get to think so differently than God?

Because all of God's laws are justice. If you think they're not just, there's something wrong with you, not God. So God gives us, you know, his law to instruct us what love looks like, who he is, and in his ways. So here's, let me go a little bit deeper on this. It's very important that we talk about the law using the right language.

Like, you know, when I was 26 years old, I think I... Or 27 years old, I preached a sermon and I stood in front of my church in California and I said the Old Testament is about law and the New Testament is about love. I said that to my church. And it took me a few years to figure out that I wasn't talking right. I wasn't talking the way the Bible talks.

And I ended up coming to the conclusion, whatever my view of the law is, I just want to talk the way Jesus talked about it. I want to talk the way Paul talked about it. I want to talk the way Jeremiah and Isaiah and Solomon and David talked about it. So whatever whatever view the law is I at least want to just use those words So I'll take you through some of those. Well Jesus said, don't think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets.

I did not come to destroy but to fulfill, to embody. And he said, for surely I say to you, till heaven and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from the law till all is fulfilled. Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches men so shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven but whoever does and teaches them he shall be called great in the kingdom of Heaven in Hebrews 1 9 we learned that Jesus loved righteousness and hated he hated Lawlessness in other words he hated Being without the law He loved the law He hated lawlessness. The Apostle Paul said in Romans 7 22, for I delight in the law of God according to the inward man You know Paul believed that the law was good to Timothy he wrote but we know that the law is good. Ah But if one uses it lawfully, It's easy to use the law unlawfully.

That's a real problem for all of us Paul believed that only The the carnal Do not subject themselves to the law of God Paul said in Romans 8 7 because the carnal mind is enmity against God For it is not subject to the law of God nor can it be The carnal mind does not want to be subject to the law of God If you read a law of God and you don't want to be subject to it, look to your carnality. That's what Paul is teaching. Timothy, who's the pastor of the church in Ephesus in Turkey. In Galatians chapter 321, Paul teaches us that the law is not against the promises of God. We've been redeemed from every lawless deed, says Titus 2.11.

So now we could go on and on, but you know, John says, if you love me, keep my commandments. And he says many things like this. He says in 1 John 3, 4, whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. You don't want to be in the lawlessness crowd. If you're in the lawlessness crowd, the antinomian crowd, the anomia, the no-law crowd, you're in the lawless crowd.

Be careful. David, oh how I love your law. David, Psalm 19, 7, the law that is law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The statutes of the Lord are right rejoicing in the Rejoicing the heart the commandment of the Lord is pure enlightening the eyes The fear of the Lord is clean enduring forever The judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether More to be desired are they than gold yea than much fine gold Sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb Well, I'll stop here, but we could talk about Solomon, we could talk about Moses, we could talk about the prophets, we could talk about this for a long time, but I think you get the idea.

Here's the idea. We should conform our talking about the law of God to the way that Jesus and his mouthpieces talk about the law of God. Lay that down as a principle. Love the law of God. Don't resist it.

Now, in this passage, and we'll get to this maybe in more detail next time, We learn that God manifests Himself through obedience and love by the power of the Holy Spirit. The work of the Holy Spirit is to come alongside you and help you obey so that the glory of God would be manifested in the world. People think about the Holy Spirit as something, oh you know what should I do in this moment? No, the Holy Spirit primarily has been given to us to help us to obey God. Get that really clear.

Charismania has ruined the way that we think about the Holy Spirit. We hope to delve into this, you know, in days to come. But these commands are external testimonies that explain love, and we need an external testimony of the law to show us our sin, and we need an Internal person of the Holy Spirit to help us to obey the laws of God Don't follow your heart The law is so good it shows us our depravity but it shows us our need for the righteousness of Jesus Christ. The good thing about the law is that it might not make us feel very good all the time, but it always drives us to Jesus Christ, the only righteous law keeper. Jesus Christ never broke a single law in the Bible.

And oh my, we've broken so many laws, You know, by noon every day. But Jesus Christ is our law keeper and God had mercy on sinners who could not keep the law. And He gave a law keeper. And that law keeper, When you believe in Him, He imputes His law-keeping. He imputes His obedience to you.

He imputes His righteousness. He clothes you with the robes of righteousness. And that's the gospel of Jesus Christ. None of us can keep the law. We shouldn't ever think that we can, but the love of Jesus Christ is demonstrated in the substitutionary atoning sacrifice of Christ.

If you believe that Jesus imputed his obedience to you, you can be happy because you're free And you have a righteousness that's not of your own. It's not from your own law keeping. Your law keeping is just a manifestation of your love. And there's nothing more thrilling than to love someone. Or to love something.

And that's what God does in the heart. He takes a heart of stone and he gives you a heart of flesh and you begin to love something. And you say like David, oh how I love your law. It's my meditation all the day. And you say, you would be saying, I could not live without the law of God and all Of its truth about love.

I need to learn to love. I Have a corrupt vision of justice. I have a corrupt understanding of love. I have a corrupt understanding of truth, and so I need an external testimony. And that's the law of God communicated from Genesis to Revelation.

And this is why the Apostle Peter said, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And as you're saved, your salvation will be marked by love and you'll want to do the commandments and you'll want to do them better every day and you'll realize that you fall short every day but you know that you have a Savior who's come alongside you to help you He's given you an advocate that He might help you. So, how do you live until you get to heaven? First, in chapter 14, believe in the Father and believe in Jesus. Second, do the works.

Go and do the works, the greater works. Do them all over the world. Do as many as you can in your lifetime. Thirdly, keep the commandments and show who you love and do it do it for love and manifest his glory through the keeping of his law that's what Jesus says right here in John 14 would you pray with me Lord Lord we thank you for the beauty of your word how it's all tied together You've given us such a rich experience with truth and love and faith and works and love and obedience and keeping the commandments and delight, all these things you've given to us, Lord. And I pray that you would make us a church like that.

That we would be a church like Jesus was presenting to the world through his apostles. Help us, Lord, to follow the instruction that we've received here today. Amen.