HOW TO LOVE GOD
John 14:15-26
OBEDIENCE
V:15 "If you love me, you will obey what I command."
A. The definition of
love; keep God's commands.
1.The Lord said,
I would rather have obedience than sacrifice.
Hosea 6:6
2. God is love. Rom 10:15
3. Everything
good is a result of God's love.
B. To know what God
commands, you must study His Word.
1. Reading the
Bible to know the Word is not enough.
2. Reading the
Bible to be obedient to the Word is the objective.
C. Love is not a
feeling, but an action.
1. Our love for
God causes us to be unselfish toward one another.
2. Our love is
shown by what we do unselfishly for others.
3. Love causes us
to consider the will of God first.
4. God so loved
the world that He gave us His Son as a sacrifice for
our sins.
THE COUNSELOR
V:16. " And I
will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you
forever."
A. While Jesus was on
earth, He was the Counselor for His disciples.
1. The word
"Counselor" is the Greek word "paraklecton" which means
advocate
or defender.
a. The work of
the Holy Spirit is to "call one to us", call one to aid us, pray or
implore.
b. The Holy
Spirit is applying the work of God to the hearts of men.
2. The Holy
Spirit can cause your enemy to be your help.
a. He can
cause strangers to come to your rescue.
b. The Holy
Spirit takes our groans and turns them into prayers before the Father.
Rom 8:26
B. While Jesus was on
earth in the flesh, He was with a few disciples.
1. The Holy
Spirit is present in the flesh of all believers.
2. Jesus in the
flesh, operated in just a small area, less than the size of Texas .
3. The Holy Spirit operates in the hearts
of believers around the world.
C. The Holy Spirit
empowers the Church to do the work of the Lord.
1. The Holy
Spirit is our teacher of the Word.
2. The Holy Spirit
causes us to remember the Word of God.
D. Jesus is our
advocate at the right hand of the Father.
1. The Holy
Spirit is our advocate here on earth.
2. The Holy
Spirit guides our understanding of God's Word.
V:17. " The
Spirit of truth, The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor
knows him. But you
know him, for he lives with you and will be in you."
A. There are two
types of people in the world.
1. Believers and
none believers.
2. Those with
the Word of Truth and those without the Word.
3. Those with the
Holy Spirit and those without the Holy Spirit.
4. Those destine
for heaven and those destine for hell.
B. Before the
foundation of the world, God selected those who He would call out of the
world. Isa 43:1,
1 Peter 1:2
1. No one can
come to Jesus unless he is drawn by the Father.
John 6:44
2. God causes us
to believe in Him.
3. We were born
in sin with the nature of sin.
a. We were
not capable on our own of believing in Jesus.
b. There is
none righteous, no not one.
c. God
caused our minds to turn toward Him.
4. The instant
we accepted Christ as our personal Savior, the nature of sin was
replaced with
the nature of Jesus, prepared to grow in the Spirit.
a. Anyone
in Christ is a new creation.
b. Jesus is
that new creation in us.
V:18. " I will
not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
A. Jesus expressed
His love for his disciples as a mother loves her children.
1. Even though
Jesus was going to the cross to die for the sins of the world, he would
continue to live in His disciples, as
they meditated on His Word.
2. Jesus said, I
will never leave you or forsake you.
3. Jesus is
present with us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
B. Jesus ascended
back into heaven to be at the right hand of the Father.
1. He sent the Holy
Spirit to His disciples to be their comforter.
2. The Holy
Spirit is our constant reminder of the Word.
C. Jesus will return
again to receive His Church to Himself.
1. The reason
Jesus came down from heaven was to die on
the cross as the
atonement for
the sins of the world.
2. Those He
redeemed are part of His Church.
a. Upon the
confession of faith, the Church is built.
b. Our faith
comes by hearing and our hearing by the Word of God.
3. Christ loves His
Church.
THE JUST LIVE BY FAITH
V:19. " Before
long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I
live, you also will live."
A. In the flesh,
everyone who came in contact with Jesus could see Him.
1. Seeing Jesus
and knowing Jesus are two different things.
2. They that
worship him must worship Him in spirit and truth.
3. Now that Jesus
is in heaven, only those who are spiritual can see Him.
4. The just live
by faith and not by sight.
a. We must
trust God to do what we can't do for ourselves.
b. God has
more in store for us than we can know or even concieve.
5. Faith is the
work of the Holy Spirit in us.
B. If we abide in the
Word of Jesus, He will abide in us.
John 17:14-17
1. God gives us
spiritual sight to see by faith His vision of our lives and our
purpose for
being here. Rom 10:17
2. Jesus is the
resurrection and the life.
3. It is the understanding
of the Word through the power of the Holy Spirit that
cleanses us. John 15:3
V:20. " On that
day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am
in you."
A. Jesus and the
Father are one.
1. Once we see
Jesus in the Spirit, we will see the Father.
2. We should see
Jesus as being obedient to the Father.
3. Jesus said
that those that the Father gave Him would not be lost.
B. We cannot be lost
from Jesus.
1. Jesus is
omnipresence as the Father is omnipresence.
2. There is no
where we can go to get away from the Father.
3. We will come
to a point in our spiritual walk to know that we are in Jesus.
LOVE IS OBEDIENCE
V:21. " Whoever
has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me
will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to
him."
A. Jesus gave us the
benefits of being obedient to His commands.
1. He gave us the
opportunity of knowing Him.
2. He gave us a
new life in Him.
3. He gave us the
opportunity to love Him more than anyone or anything else.
4. All we have to
do to show our love for Him is to be obedient to
His commands.
5. By loving Jesus,
we also love the Father.
B. God's Love not
only includes our eternal life but also our needs on earth.
1. Jesus said if
we live according to God's will, we can ask what we want and it
will be done
for us.
2. God is
concerned about our welfare.
a. Jesus said
that He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.
b. Jesus'
love covers our every concern.
C. God shows His love
to us through His creation.
1. Each day, He shows us His glory when
the sun rises and air around us is
refreshed.
2. God
informs us that if He provides for the birds who neither plant or
toil, plan or worry, He
certainly will provide for us.
V:22. " Then
Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, "But, Lord, why do you intend to show
yourself to us and not to the world?"
A. Good question?
1. God has revealed
Himself to all believers through His Word.
2. The world can
not receive Him, nor will they ever know Him.
3. The world does
not seek to know Jesus.
4. Jesus said Ask
and it will be given to you, Seek and you shall find, Knock
and the door
will be opened.
a. The world
is not given this information because it is foolish to them.
b. The world
knows only what it can see.
c. Believers
know what the Spirit reveals.
d. Believers
know the will of God. Nonbelievers do not have this insight.
B. God's ways are not
our ways, and His thoughts are not our thoughts.
1. We will never
know the mind of God.
2. But what we
do know is, God makes all things work for the good of those
who love
Him.
V:23. " Jesus
replied, "If anyone loves me, he will obey my teaching. My Father will
love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him."
A. The love of God
means obedience to His teaching.
1. Obedience
activates the promises of God.
2. When we live
our lives out of obedience, the love of God covers us.
B. Our eternal life
is secured through our faith in God's Word.
1. God comes to us
because of our obedience.
2. God promises a
home with Him because of our obedience.
LOVE IS NOT A FEELING
V:24. " He who
does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are
not my own; they
belong to the Father who sent me."
A. Those without the
Word of Truth don't know what love is.
1. We have been
taught by the world that love is a feeling.
2. Therefore we
go through life looking for this special feeling.
3. On the night
time soap opera, "The Bachelor", one man is
seeking love
among many women.
a. His
feelings are messed up because he is around too many women.
b. It will be
difficult for him to find love, because he is allowing
his
feelings to direct him.
c. Love is
not found in a kiss or casual conversation.
b. Love is
found in proven devotion and dedication to one another.
c. Love will
be found in one who loves the Word of God and practices
the Word
in their lives.
B. God does not
define love in feelings or emotions, but in obedience to His Word.
1. Love is what
we are willing to unselfishly sacrifice for the Father because
of His
unselfish sacrifice of His Son.
2. Our greatest
sacrifice is to give up ourselves and take on the mission of Christ.
3. We may not
feel like doing something, but if God said it, love demands it.
SUPERNATUAL KNOWLEDGE
V:25-26. "All
this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Counselor, the Holy
Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind
you of everything I
have said to you."
A. These two verses
present the triune God.
1. Jesus, The
Son is speaking.
2. In verse 26,
He speaks of the work of the Father and the work of the
Holy Spirit.
B. The Father, the
Son and the Holy Spirit are three persons in one God.
1. The Father,
The Son and the Holy Spirit work in unity.
2. The Father,
The Son and the Holy Spirit work together to
redeem God's
Elect.
3. The Father
sent Jesus the Son with the Word to die on the cross
to satisfy
His demand for justice for the sins of the World.
4. The Father
sent the Holy Spirit to teach us, His redeemed,
the Word of
Jesus.
a. The Holy
Spirit is our advocate on earth.
b. The Holy
Spirit is our Counselor.
c. The Holy
Spirit is our comforter.
b. The Holy
Spirit is the teacher of the Word.
c. The Holy
Spirit is the one who reminds us of God's Word.
C. The text says that
the Holy Spirit will teach us "all things".
1. Certainly, the
Holy Spirit will teach us God's Word.
2. There are some
"things", some situations, some temptations that
are not
specified in the Word of Truth that will happen to us
living on earth.
a. The Holy
Spirit will teach us how to handle these "things"
according
to the Word.
b. We do not
know all the devices of the Devil, but the Holy Spirit
will
teach us how to recognize them and how to handle them.
3. There are some
things about God that we do not know, that the Holy
Spirit will
teach us in God's time.
LOVE GOD THROUGH OBEDIENCE TO HIS WORD
Rev. M. Mitchell, Asst Pastor of GMBC
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