Sermons from the Gospel of John

THE DELIGHT OF OBEDIENCE

JOHN 14:21-24

December 3, 1995

Do you love Jesus? Ask this question to most anyone you know and you will receive a positive response. Why, it would almost seem to be un-American to not love Jesus! It would smack of heathenism to dare deny a love for Jesus!

Yet, when the dust settles and the truth is made known, how many people genuinely love Jesus Christ? How many even have a clue as to what love of Christ really means?

This is what confronts us as we read through John's Gospel. Over and over we come face-to-face with both genuine and spurious love of Christ. We see this in the multitudes who claimed to love Him, but fell away from Him at the demands of the gospel. We see individuals who cast all aside in favor of a true love for Jesus Christ, a love that would declare them to be true followers of the Lord.

If love is merely something which we can claim to have without any further responsibility, then we can grant that most people love Jesus Christ. But if love carries with it responsibilities and obligations, then we must admit that many who would claim to love Christ in fact do not.

I cannot even begin to tell you how many times throughout my 41 years that I have heard others and joined in singing, "O, How I Love Jesus." Perhaps I've joined on a hundred to two hundred occasions with congregations of different shapes and sizes in singing this great old testimony hymn. Unfortunately, many who sang with me were liars! In fact, there were a number of years that I sang this hymn and I was nothing but a liar! For you see, unless our love for Christ has content--the content of an obedient life--then it is vain and worthless.

Within this text we have the simplest and clearest sign of a genuine believer. He loves Christ and shows this by his obedience. The fact is, you cannot love Christ without obeying Him; nor can you truly obey Him unless you love Him.

The delight of obedience verifies genuineness in our relationship to Jesus Christ. We must examine our profession in light of this passage in God's Word. Do we honestly love Jesus Christ? If we say, "Yes," then do we demonstrate this love by obedience to Christ?

I. A Practice that Proves

The Bible does not leave any room for empty professions. Jesus Himself, in the Sermon on the Mount, made the startling statement that, "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven; but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven" (Matt. 7:21). The living God is not impressed by our many claims to religion or Christian profession. What matters is a true content of heart and life! Yes, many claim to love Christ and know Him, but the Word of God clearly distinguishes between that which is genuine and that which is spurious. Real love for Christ will be proven by the practice of obedience.

1. Commandments embraced (He who has My commandments)

We could translate this, "The one having my commandments," which shows that Jesus is speaking of more than simply someone who has a Bible in his hand. Since the possession of a scroll of Scripture was rare in the 1st century, it is obvious that Jesus does not mean you have physical access to His commands by this statement. Instead, He refers to one who has come into intimate contact with the revealed will of God. It is one who has heard what Christ has demanded, embraced it, drunk deeply of it, and now it is the whole focus of his life.

The verb used (has) is in the present tense. He is showing that this is a continual relationship to the commands of Christ. The question we must ask is, "What are the commandments to which Jesus refers?"

Already, in John 14:15, Jesus has stated, "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." Now he restates the same in forceful, promising words. These commandments must refer to the revelation of Christ given to His disciples. It begins with the Old Testament law, which we call the Ten Commandments. It continues in the glorious clarification of these commandments in the Sermon on the Mount. It is includes those demands of Christ which we read throughout the four Gospels. And, it includes that word He gave through his chosen apostles, which we have in the New Testament epistles.

"Pastor, you've just given me the whole Bible to be responsible for!" Indeed, that Word of the living God to us is now our obligation as His followers. It is not ours to pick and choose what sounds good to us for our obedience and to scrap the rest. There is within the bosom of the child of God a whole new attitude toward the commands, precepts, promises, and statutes of God's Word. Now it becomes our delight, rather than a dreaded obligation.

"If you love Me," there's the condition, "you will keep My commandments," which shows that obedience naturally follows our genuine love for Christ. Consider Psalm 119 which pictures the progress of a faithful follower of the living God.

Thou hast ordained Thy precepts, that we should keep them diligently (v. 4).

I have rejoiced in the way of Thy testimonies, as much as in all riches. I will meditate on Thy precepts, and regard Thy ways. I shall delight in Thy statutes; I shall not forget Thy word (vv. 14-16).

Thy testimonies also are my delight: they are my counselors (v. 24).

Make me walk in the path of Thy commandments, for I delight in it (v. 35).

And do not take the word of truth utterly out of my mouth, for I wait for Thine ordinances. So I will keep Thy law continually, forever and ever (vv. 43-44).

And I shall delight in Thy commandments, which I love. And I shall lift up my hands to Thy commandments, which I love: and I will meditate on Thy statutes (vv. 47-48).

The Lord is my portion; I have promised to keep Thy words (v. 57).

If Thy law had not been my delight, then I would have perished in my affliction. I will never forget Thy precepts, for by them Thou hast revived me (vv. 92-93).

O how I love Thy law! It is my meditation all the day (v. 97).

How sweet are Thy words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth! (v. 103)

The Apostle John captures this truth so clearly in his first epistle. "By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. for this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome" (I Jn. 5:2-3). His commandments are not burdensome! What a statement! My friend, if you are repulsed by the idea of God demanding anything of you; if you have no clear sense of obligation within your heart to obey what God has commanded; if you have no delight for God's commands, then you are still in your sins! Something marvelous happens to a person when he is born again. That old nature that was repulsed by God's commands or that viewed them in only a legalistic way, now finds them to be the very words of life. Now those words are sweet to the taste, honey in the mouth, words to meditate upon and walk in the divine way.

Do you have His commandments? Are they now your very own? Do you view the Bible in a completely different way, as the very Word of God to you? J. C. Ryle comments, "Passive impressions which do not lead to action gradually deaden and paralyse the heart. Living and doing are the only real evidence of grace. Where the Holy Spirit is there will always be a holy life" (Expository Thoughts on John's Gospel, p. 191).

2. Consistency exercised (and keeps them)

The commandments of our Lord are not meant to just adorn our walls! It is only in the keeping of those commandments that the believer finds blessing and proves genuineness. "He who has My commandments and keeps them," our Lord says, "he it is who loves Me." Again, the verb used is a present tense verb, that's why I make this point that consistency will be exercised in our obedience.

The question we struggle with is 'how much obedience is enough obedience'? Yet that need not bother us. The real question is 'do we have a true heart for obedience'? Do we delight in the commands of God? Do we have within us a constant longing, an unceasing urge to obey the Lord? Ernie Reisinger, in his book Lord and Christ: the Implications of Lordship for Faith and Life, expresses clearly the breadth of obedience in the child of God. "True faith embraces Christ in whatever ways the Scriptures hold Him out to poor sinners" (p. 45).

Do you recall that story of King Saul after the battle with the Amalekites? Through the prophet Samuel, God had told Saul to utterly destroy the Amalekites. No one, nor anything of the Amalekites was to survive as part of God's judgment upon those ruthless people. But Saul decided to take matters in his own hands and saved some of the best of the livestock, precious metals, and other luxuries, as well as sparing King Agag. When confronted by Samuel, Saul acted as though he spared the livestock to sacrifice to the Lord and the precious metals to give as an offering to God. Yet that was not the command of God! The heart of Saul, unbelieving and wretched, was exposed by his acts of disobedience. Those immortal words of the prophet shot as an arrow into his heart.

Has the Lord as much delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. (I Sam. 15:22-23)

Saul followed the impulse of his heart--one that did not know the living God. A true believer may fail in his obedience, but he will not fail in his heart to obey. It will be the practice of his life.

3. Conclusion expressed (he it is who loves Me)

In case you are looking for middle ground in our Lord's description of a true believer, you need not keep searching. It is not there! He draws a firm, broad line between the true and the spurious. Those who truly obey Him are the ones who love Him. Those who do not genuinely love Christ can be identified by their lack of obedience to the words of Christ (v. 24).

There is a great assurance in this text. When the whole import of your life is to love and obey Jesus Christ, then it is clear that you are one who has been born again! When your idea of Christianity is one of a casual, part-time relationship--one that fits into your schedule on your own terms--then you need to take heed. You have been exposed as one who does not truly love Christ and therefore, you are lost in your sin.

Again, we find our Lord using another present tense verb, which shows that the kind of love He refers to is not temporary, nor situational, nor casual. It is a forceful, passionate, whole-hearted love for Jesus Christ. To love Christ means that one's whole lifestyle is affected. His schedule reflects his love for Christ. His relationships reflect his love for Christ. His conversation reflects his love for Christ. His leisure time reflects his love for Christ. His family life reflects his love for Christ. His whole purpose in life reflects his love for Christ. Everything is changed in a person's life by a genuine love for Jesus Christ!

Jonathan Edwards wrote, "Saving faith implies in its nature divine love...Our love to God enables us to overcome the difficulties that attend keeping God's commands; which shows that love is the main thing in saving faith, the life and power of it, by which it produces great effects" (quoted by John Piper in Future Grace, p. 161).

I have been reading an autobiography from our church library by John Patton, a 19th century missionary to the New Hebrides Islands, modern Vanuatu, between the Fiji Islands and Australia. The inhabitants of the particular island on which he worked, Tanna, were cannibals. For many years they had exercised their cannibalistic ways with fiendish delight. If one tribe warred against another, those who fell victim in battle were cooked and eaten. When a man died or was killed, his wives would be strangled to death so that they could join him in the afterlife. It was this kind of setting in which the young John Patton came to New Hebrides with his bride and young son. Shortly after arriving, his wife and newborn son died. He faced these ruthless cannibals alone, often in danger and threat of life. They lied to him. They tried to deceive him. Some claimed to worship the Lord in order to get things from Patton or to wrong him or to find a way to harm him. But one thing that gave him a clear indication of genuineness in the lives of those who professed faith in Christ was their faithful obedience. And it was an obedience even in the face of opposition and persecution that proved real saving faith! When a native, with as bare understanding as you can imagine, gave himself to obedience to Jesus Christ, John Patton knew that the gospel had indeed taken root in the heart and a true love for Christ had been born.

Perhaps John's summary in I John 2:3-5a of what Christ taught in our text will help us to see it clearly:

And by this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. The one who says, "I have come to know Him," and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; but whoever keeps His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected.

II. A Consequence that Validates

When a person truly loves Christ, his love will be evident by his obedience to Christ. But our Lord goes on to show that there are also certain consequences of that genuine love which will validate one's profession as being true.

1. Recipient of divine love (he who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him)

We do not even question the love of God. We know that one of the chief attributes of God is His love. Yet what our Lord refers to is more of a special love, a love that is directed specifically, powerfully, forcefully toward the believer. It is a love that comforts us in need. It is a love that secures and assures us in times of fear and doubt. It is a love that provides for us. It is a love that transcends all of the attitudes of this world to give us peace in whatever circumstance we are in.

The Apostle Paul said, "The love of Christ controls me." Scholars debate whether he meant his love for Christ or Christ's love for Paul. Personally, I think both are in view within this passage. When Paul realized the depth and magnitude of the love of the Father and the Son toward him, it radically affected everything in his life. It is in this same context that he declares that anyone who is in Christ is a new creation with the old things passing away and all becoming new. It is that divine love communicated to our hearts that keeps us moving on in obedience and faithfulness to our Lord.

We may be so familiar with the love of God for us that we have lost sight of what this infers. The Almighty has no need for us. There is nothing within His Divine Being that cries out for our supply. The Word of God tells us that He is a mighty Sovereign, the Mighty One, one who is Omnipotent. He rules and reigns! The vastness of the heavens cannot contain Him! All of the wealth of this world, if laid before Him as an offering would not increase His might nor worth at all. He is totally without need, for He alone is God! Yet, this same God--the Father and the Son expressed in this text--personally loves us. He has an affection for us, poor, miserable creatures that can do nothing for Him. He cares for us so that He bids us to cast all of our anxieties upon Him. He comforts us so that He calls us to take His yoke upon ourselves and allow Him to bear the weight of our burdens. He loves us, not with a fickle, changing love, but with an everlasting love--one that is the same yesterday, today, and forever, even as His holy character.

It is this consciousness of the love of God for His own that gave inspiration to George Matheson in the great hymn, "O Love That Will Not Let Me Go."

O love that will not let me go,

I rest my weary soul in Thee;

I give Thee back the life I owe,

That in Thine ocean depths its flow

May richer, fuller be.

And, too, we see this in Samuel Trevor Francis' hymn, "O the Deep, Deep Love of Jesus."

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Vast, unmeasured, boundless, free!

Rolling as a mighty ocean

In its fullness over me,

Underneath me, all around me,

Is the current of Thy love;

Leading onward, leading homeward

To my glorious rest above.

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

Love of every love the best;

'Tis an ocean vast of blessing,

'Tis a haven sweet of rest,

O the deep, deep love of Jesus,

'Tis a heav'n of heav'ns to me;

And it lifts me up to glory,

For it lifts me up to Thee.

2. Recipient of divine experience (and will disclose Myself to him)

Judas, also known as Thaddeus as distinguished from Judas Iscariot, remonstrates with our Lord over this matter of disclosing Himself specifically to the disciples. He could not understand how the Lord would single them out for this divine disclosure and not grant the same to the whole world. Rather than giving a direct answer to that question, our Lord refocused Judas right back on the subject at hand: the glorious consequences of a true love for Christ, a love that ushers forth in obedience. When that love for Christ is genuine, the Lord Himself will disclose Himself to us!

This reminds us that the Christian life is not merely theory nor merely academic. It is experiential! This disclosure is a word that means to 'manifest or to make visible'. Did this mean that every true believer would have a visible disclosure of Christ so that he would see Him in the flesh? There were a small number of early believers that actually saw Christ visibly. The rest knew Him just as intimately, though, because of this revelation He is speaking of . It is the experience of knowing the living God!

Do you hear the heart-cry of the Apostle Paul in his testimonial passage of Philippians 3 as he exclaims, "That I may know Him...!" We know Him both through the revelation of God's Word and the communication of the Spirit. The Word speaks clearly of Who He is and What He is about in our lives. The Holy Spirit then reveals the Son in personal, real terms; not different from the Scripture, but based upon the Scripture. We commune with our Lord. We actually call upon Him and He hears. He shows us His love. He gives us His strength and power. He opens our eyes to see more of the depths of His love and care.

Too often people have the idea that Christianity is an impersonal religion. You simply need to profess to believe what the Bible teaches, get attached to a church, then plod through life. But that is not the revelation of God's Word! Christianity is lively! Jesus comes to give us life and that in all its fullness! Again, I quote from John's first epistle (1:1-3):

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we beheld and our hands handled, concerning the Word of Life--and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us--what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, that you also may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

Do you know the personal experience of a relationship to Jesus Christ? That is the glorious consequence of a genuine love for Christ.

3. Recipient of divine presence (We will come to him, and make Our abode with him)

But our Lord presses this wonderful consequence even deeper. It is enough that Jesus and the Father love us and communicate this love to us personally. It is even grander that He discloses Himself to us so that our relationship to Him is not with an impersonal deity but the personal, experiential knowledge of Him. Now He states the incredible, that this same living God comes to us individually and indwells us!

Jesus uses the same Word that He already used in 14:2, 'dwelling places', to point out that we, as true believers, have become the dwelling place of the living God! This is not a word to describe the nomadic dwellings of typical Palestinians of that day. No, this instead, is a word that describes a permanent dwelling. He comes to indwell us as believers and we are never without Him for all eternity!

This is why Jesus declared, "In that day you shall know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you" (14:20). And why later the Apostle Paul could write, "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you...?" (I Cor. 6:19). And later could say, "Christ in you, the hope of glory!" (Col. 1:27).

Christian friend, you are indwelled by the Lord Himself by the Holy Spirit who is in you! Can you be discouraged in life knowing that the Lord Himself lives within? Can you dare to be lax in your walk with Christ, knowing that He dwells within? Can you play with sin and ignore the commands of God while recognizing that your are a habitation of the Spirit of God? Can you be fearful and worried while realizing that the living Lord has come to make His abode in you? Charles Ross puts it beautifully, "None shall dwell with God in heaven, with whom God does not first dwell on earth" (The Inner Sanctuary, p. 102).

When your love for Christ is genuine, it will show forth in obedience to Him. And the wonderful consequences of a real salvation will begin to be evident in your life: you are a recipient of divine love which He communicates to you; you have the personal experience of a relationship to the Lord; you are indwelled by the Holy Spirit who strengthens you by the divine presence.

III. A Diagnosis that Warns (He who does not love Me does not keep My words)

We cannot leave this passage without a quick glance at the final warning it holds. Not everyone loves Christ, which is evident in this world. The sad thing is that some who profess to know Christ do not show any signs of obeying Him. Jesus diagnoses the problem: "He who does not love Me does not keep My words." It is not a secret. Hear what our Lord says. If you do not obey Him it is because you do not love Him. Oh, we try to excuse rank disobedience by some quirk we are going through or a phase of life or our family. But He gives no room for waffling. True love means true obedience.

Conclusion

Where does this find you? When you honestly look over your life, is your heart bent on obedience to Christ? Do you delight in doing His will? My friend, without this desire and practice of obedience, then you are exposed as one without Christ.

But there is hope! There is a refuge from the storm of God's wrath, which all of us deserve. It is found by coming to faith in Christ and His atoning death for you. There is the place of loving Christ: faith in Him. And it is there you will find the whole direction of your life transformed so that from now on, you will follow Him.

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