Our nature, as a result of the fall, unfortunately is not to be friends of Christ. Notice what Romans says: "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." ROM 8:6-7.

Our text says, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you," JOH 15:14. Carnal minds are set on things below. If carnality and carnal thinking characterize us , we are not the friends of Jesus because God's Word says the carnal mind is enmity against God.

The obedience of our heart is the thing which determine either our enmity toward the Lord or our friendship with the Lord.

Webster's Dictionary says that a friend is one who desires to entertain another's pleasure. If we are at enmity with the Lord, we will not have a desire to entertain His pleasure.

It is our mental disposition, our attitude through obedience, that we have towards our Creator, our Redeemer, which determines whether we are His friend or His enemy.

What an awesome thing it is to think of being an enemy of the Creator of heaven and earth, and that our hearts are in enmity against Him. How did that enmity first come to be? It was by not doing what He commanded. God is so pleased with an attitude of total surrender to His will.

The purpose of God's creation is that man would serve Him and be a representative of His character. If we are at enmity with God, it is because we are not representing Him by reflecting His character. If we are to be His friend, we must entertain His pleasure, i.e., "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

Webster also says a friend is one who holds another in high esteem, respect, and affection; a friend is one whose happiness and prosperity you desire to promote. Jesus says, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

What greater treasure could a human being have than to be told by Jesus Christ that you are His friend? What does that mean? It means that I desire to entertain His pleasure because He is my friend. That means He holds me in esteem and has a desire for my affection. It means that He will promote my happiness and prosperity.

Does that mean He will promote it in a way of serving the flesh and fleshly desires? No. He will promote my happiness when I come under the authority and command of His Word, when I come into His service.

Who has ever deserved the name of Friend more than the Lord Jesus Christ? He came to reconcile us unto God by the price of His own blood! What could any Friend do more to prove His desire to entertain our pleasures than for Him to give His own life's blood so we would become reconciled to the Creator of heaven and earth? What greater Friend could we have?

Consider also His condescension through this friendship. In ROM 5:8 we read, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Imagine Jesus dying for someone who is demonstrating their enmity and his carnal mind against Him.

While we were yet sinners, while we were yet in enmity against God, Christ demonstrated His friendship. He demonstrated that desire to promote our prosperity by dying for us. In other words, while we were yet in rebellion against Him, Jesus showed such friendship to the point of death, for our sakes.

As a true friend we see how our lovely Savior’s friendship is described in PRO 17:17, "A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity." We are predestined to be conformed to that blessed image of Christ! cf., ROM 8:29.

If we are to follow Christ's example by being a friend "at all times," then we must show friendship even to those who demonstrate hatred toward us. Why? In so doing we heap coals of fire, coals of burning love, upon their head for the purpose of melting that hatred and rebellion. Love is a most vehement flame; many waters cannot quench it, see SON 8:6-7. Showing friendship is for the purpose of winning them with love.

Consider the adversity the Lord Jesus went through to heap those coals of love upon the heads of His friends for the purpose of bringing them into friendship and submission.

As we see our text in its context, we will see that keeping His commandments is contained in the law of love. We will see that the example set by the Lord Jesus Christ is that to which we must be conformed.

Now to see the context in which we find our text, we read in JOH 15:14, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." Now to see the specific command to which Jesus refers, we read in JOH 15:17, "These things I command you, that ye love one another."

In other words, we must become conformed to the image, which Jesus has revealed unto us. Does that mean we love one another only when they love us? No. It means we demonstrate the Spirit of Christ in our love to those who show us bitterness and hatred; this might win them into a spirit of repentance and into the unity of the Spirit.

King Solomon gave us a very important guideline to illustrate true love for one another. It doesn't mean that we love only those who are perfect and are revealing their love for us.

In PRO 17:9 King Solomon says, "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." How often do you and I have to look in the mirror of God's Word and see how guilty we are in this matter?

When we violate this blessed principle, we experience the truth of PRO 18:19, "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle." When we have violated this principle and offended a brother, now we find how hard it is to win him back. We have stirred contention.

The Lord Jesus is saying in our text, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." His Word commands us not to repeat a matter. We should cover that transgression; we should not repeat the matter because by so doing we may cause disunity and separate friends.

By repeating a matter, and we could cause such contentions which make it impossible to win back the brother for "their contentions are like the bars of a castle," and Satan loves contention. One way Satan gets contentions started is by repeating a matter. If we violate godly principles in repeating a matter, we may soon be in short supply of friends.

We see this in PRO 18:24, "A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother." What does it mean to "shew himself friendly"? It means that if a brother has offended, we cover it. We don't blare and spread it to the world. It means we must go back to the definition of a friend; a friend is one who desires to entertain another's pleasure; a friend is one who holds another in high esteem, respect, and affection.

A friend is one whose happiness and prosperity we desire to promote. We are violating this principle of friendship when we tell or repeat a private matter or something evil about a friend. When we violate this principle, we not only run the risk of losing our friend of whom we spoke, but we have violated what Jesus says in JOH 15:14, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

This Friend that sticketh closer than a brother condescends so low as to plead with us to love one another by showing His love for us.

Notice how low He condescends to you and I. He tells us what He has done to demonstrate His love so that we may do likewise to one another. See this in JOH 15:8--10. "Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love."

The glory of His Father is Jesus' first concern. Jesus then asks us to stop and analyze what He has done for us; now the sacrifices we have to make for our brethren are comparatively so small.

We must understand what a sacrifice Christ made for us. He also gives us the example when He followed His Father's commandment. What was that commandment? "No man taketh it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father," JOH 10:18.

The Lord Jesus Christ laid down His life; He shed His life's blood for the appeasement of the Father's wrath and the propitiation of our sins. You and I have deliberately, knowing, and willfully inflamed the wrath of God the Father by our rebellion and our sin.

Jesus came with His life's blood to quench that fire of God's wrath upon our sin. He shows and tells us that as He has kept His Father's commandments, so we must keep His commandments.

These commandments are the commandments of love, i.e., loving Him above all, and our neighbor as ourselves as we see from JOH 15:12.

I want you to see the meaning of the text! "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." This verse precedes our text; this is the context in which He says, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you," JOH 15:14. This is meant to teach us that if our brother transgresses against us, we should be willing to use our life's blood to quench that wrath rather than reveal the matter in an effort to show the world how wrong our brother is.

You see, the Lord Jesus Christ didn't come to show us how wrong we were; He came to quench the wrath of the Father with His own blood. He says, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." We cover the matter. How? We cover it with love.

Again Jesus condescends to tell of His love not only to excite our love toward Himself, but also to illustrate the love He commands us to show for each other. That is His purpose in showing us His love; not only to excite us to love Him because He showed us such love, but He also gave us His example to be followed.

"Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends," JOH 15:13. Then comes the words of our text in verse 14, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." He has come and kept the command of His Father, and He has laid down His life for His people. Now he wants us to love His friends, i.e., our brothers, love one another, with that same love wherein He has loved us.

Even if one of your brothers sins against you, you must respond with love as the Lord Jesus loved you. Are we prepared to obey Christ, and shelter that sin or do we go out to see if we can destroy that brother? Our answer is vitally important. Our text says, "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

Oh, beloved friends, how often we have to confess that we have come so short of showing that self-denying love to one another.

It must bring us to the mercy seat, to confess before the Lord, that we may have carelessly spoken evil of our brother even though it may not have been with the intention of hurting him. It could have been just a loose tongue, gossip, instead of covering that sin. The Lord Jesus Christ used His blood to cover our sins.

JAM 3:8-10 says, "But the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. Therewith bless we God, even the Father; and therewith curse we men, which are made after the similitude of God. Out of the same mouth proceedeth blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not so to be." That is not keeping the commandment of love.

When we become loose tongued, speaking of Jesus' friends for whom the Father has given His Son and the Son has given His life's blood, these things ought not to be, my brethren.

So often we violate God's clear commandment of love which we find in PRO 17:9, "He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends." Do you see that world of iniquity? Our tongues set on fire the whole course of nature, ye they kindle the fires of hell, cf., JAM 3:5-6.

If we have violated this principle, our Lord demands gospel obedience. He rejoices to see us repent, i.e., that we return unto our Lord with remorse and beg His pardon.

We are fallen creatures; we have all violated these principles, but the Lord wants to see us repent. LUK 15:7 tells us, "I say unto you, that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth, more than over ninety and nine just persons, which need no repentance."

How do we repent? When we forsake our sin and, by God’s grace, exercise a change of attitude in our hearts toward our brother. At that time we become more forgiving. We see their weaknesses and faults, but we go to him when he is alone. We speak to him in a way that heaps coals of love upon his head. We try to win him and convince him to come away from that fault rather than blare it to the world.

It is the Lord's greatest delight when we repent. When we become renewed in the spirit of our mind, cf., EPH 4:23-27, our whole desire is to do whatever we can to help our brother.

When someone comes to us to tell us what we have done wrong, we should not become defensive, but instead inquire what, when, how so we might correct it. If we become defensive, we end up with contentions. We lose a brother. Remember what Proverbs says:. "A brother offended is harder to be won than a strong city: and their contentions are like the bars of a castle," PRO 18:19.

Our lovely Savior's joy is in seeing our joy fulfilled in loving one another with that same self-sacrificial love which He showed in giving Himself for us.

It is one of the most blessed occurrences when brothers dwell in unity and love. It is based on the self-sacrificial love demonstrated by our Savior. If we are able to walk in His footsteps, we must first sacrifice that ugly monster, "I." We must follow the example of the Lord Jesus.

JOH 15:11-12 says, "These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." Do you realize that the angels in heaven rejoice over one repenting sinner who comes to a change of attitude, desiring to show love for his fellow man and seeking to walk in the footsteps of the Lord Jesus Christ? Our "joy might be full" in so doing.

Christ's joy is fulfilled in fulfilling our joy, and none is as blessed, as when brothers dwell together in unity. This brings joy in heaven and in the heart of the Lord Jesus Christ.

JOH 15:12 says, "This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you." What does He mean when He says, "as I have loved you"? It is with the same self-sacrificing spirit; He didn't come to rail on His disciples about their shortcomings, or Peter's cursing and swearing, denying he knew his Lord.

When He came out of the grave, He told Mary to go tell His disciples and Peter. How did He bring Peter back to Him with a repenting spirit? It was with the tone of love in His voice; He did not come with railing accusations. He did not come to Peter with any accusations of his guilt.

What will convict a man of his sin more than to respond with love?

I had a neighbor who did everything he could to hurt me. When his cattle got out and into the neighbor’s grain, I went down and told him.

His first response was disbelief. He said, "You're setting me up." But after he went down, got the cattle out of the neighbor’s grain, and fixed his fence, he came to me and said, "Ralph, I want you to know, I would never have done this for you. I have done everything I could to hurt you, and you turned around and did a neighborly thing."

From that day on he was the best neighbor I ever had. I didn't win him by railing on him, telling all things he had done to me. I won him by an act of love.

Jesus said, "...love one another, as I have loved you." How was that? He appeased the wrath of the Father with His blood to cover my sin. What an eternal wonder! He gave His life's blood to cover my sin before the Father to appease His wrath.

Now what should I do to cover my neighbor’s sin? What price can I put on that?

When we have faith to see the coals of fire our Saviour pours upon our head, it will melt all our rebellion against His commandments of love. It should also melt our rebellion and hate against our brother and neighbor.

Then we will find that the joy of our Saviour in seeing the love we have for one another will be mutual—friendship has its mutual delights—friend’s value each other. What should I do for the pleasure and delight of my lovely Savior? I must follow His example. Now I should be able to cover my neighbor’s sin.

The Lord says in ISA 62:4-5, "Thou shalt no more be termed Forsaken; neither shall thy land any more be termed Desolate: but thou shalt be called Hephzibah, and thy land Beulah: for the LORD delighteth in thee, and thy land shall be married. For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee."

Can you imagine how the Lord Jesus Christ rejoices when He sees how His bride has made herself ready, clothed in white remnant, the perfect righteousness of Christ.

It is the imputed and imparted righteousness of Christ. The righteousness of Christ becomes ours when we start walking in the footsteps of Christ. He rejoices over this. It is so beautiful that His joy might be filled and that our joy might also be full.

The Lord rejoices over His bride, "...and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee." We want our friend to be able to rejoice over us.

This is the delight our Saviour has in His bride when His bride's delight is in keeping His law of love. When it is our joy to keep His law of love, then He can rejoice over us.

In PSA 119:172-174 we read, "My tongue shall speak of thy word: for all thy commandments are righteousness. Let thine hand help me; for I have chosen thy precepts. I have longed for thy salvation, O LORD; and thy law is my delight." To do the will of our Savior, to do the pleasure of our friends, becomes our greatest delight. We can have no greater delight than to know He delights in us.

ISA 62:5, "... so shall thy God rejoice over thee." There is nothing that can convey a greater delight in the soul than to know that the Lord is delighting in you. It becomes our chief delight to do that which is pleasing to the Lord. He will delight in us much more than we can be delighted in Him.

As in our prayer life, when there is true friendship there is frequent communion one with another, which delights the Lord very much. Where there is true love, there is communication and communion. You cannot let months go by and never talk to someone you truly love. In fact, if my beloved is not with me, I find a great desire to talk to her several times a day.

So it is with our lovely, heavenly Bridegroom! He loves to hear our voice in prayer. In our prayer life it becomes our desire and pleasure to be in communion with our Lord.

The Lord is most delighted when we have fellowship one with another, when our hearts can come together to speak of the things of the Lord. We see this in MAL 3:16, "Then they that feared the LORD spake often one to another [Do you suppose they spoke about their business, their dollars? No, the Lord hearkened; they were speaking about the Lord]: and the LORD hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the LORD, and that thought upon his name."

They were speaking of the wonders of God and the wonderful God they served. They were speaking of the wonders and love they had for their Lord, and the Lord was so delighted that He listened, heard, and wrote a book of remembrance. When there is true fellowship and true love one for another, then there is true communion around the things of the Lord.

That book of remembrance will also have all the prayers of His saints recorded in it. Yes, the book of remembrance that comes before the Lord will have a record of all the fellowship and communion between His saints, and it will also have a record of the communion between our Lord and us.

We can see this in REV 5:8, "And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odors, which are the prayers of saints." Here we see the book being opened; those prayers which have come before God are the incense that comes up to heaven, and they are all in that book of remembrance. Those prayers are the sweet smelling savor of the Lord. This is true friendship. It is in our prayer life and in our fellowship with God's people.

See what the Lord says about that day when the book of remembrance shall be opened. MAL 3:16 told us about the book being written, and now MAL 3:17 says, "And they shall be mine, saith the LORD of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him."

Now take notice of the words of our text: "Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you." The Lord is referring to those who serve Him from a motive of true Godly fear, who spoke often one to another about the Lord, and those who delighted to visit about His name.

It is those who serve the Lord with whom He has delight. Do you know what it means to serve the Lord? It means that your whole heart and soul are totally dissolved in His will. It means that you have no rebellion; it is broken.

"Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not," MAL 3:18. Who are the righteous? Who are the wicked? They will be divided by those who do His will and those who do not; those who keep His commandments and love to do His will, and those who do not.

The day of judgment will not be a day of matching experiences and knowing one is saved because he had this or that experience.

There is only one experience that will have any value in the day of judgment; it is if we have experienced what it is to have our rebellion broken and our will brought into total surrender to the Lord. Then we are able to serve Him and cover our brother's sin. It is to be able to show that we love one another with the same love that our Saviour loved us. That will be the dividing point between the sheep and the goats.

Yet our Saviour says in JOH 15:15, "Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known unto you." Notice that in one verse it says there is a difference between those who serve and those who do not serve, but here He says He will not call us servants. What is the difference? It is the attitude with which we serve.

The attitude of a friend is one who wants to do His will because "I love Him," and it is my desire to do what promotes His pleasure. A servant does the orders of his master, a friend does the will of his friend. The Lord Jesus is telling us we are not a servant to Him, we are His friend. He has told us the will of the Father, and we obey because it is His will. We do not serve Him under compulsion or with a slavish servitude. The motive with which we serve the Lord is being a friend and doing that in which He delights.

This does not tell us that we are not to serve Him, but it tells us with what attitude we are to serve Him. We see this in JOH 15:9-10. "As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love." How did He keep His Father's commandments? It was from a motive of love.

The Lord Jesus Christ could have rendered perfect obedience, strictly to the letter of the law, yet the Father would have had no delight in it if it were done grudgingly. We are to keep His commandments even as Jesus kept His Father's commandments. "I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart," PSA 40:8. That is how we are to keep His commandments, not out of servitude as a servant with slavish fear.

We are to keep His commandments as a friend and with a motive of doing what is pleasing to Him because we love Him.

Herein we see how precious the condescension of Christ is in the attitude with which He kept His Father's commandments; that was wherein the Father was so glorified. We see this in PHI 2:6-8. Notice is this passage how He humbled Himself, and see the condescension of our Savior!: "Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross."

The Son of God committed no robbery to be perfectly equal with the Father, yet He "...made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant."

When we are true friends of the Lord Jesus Christ, we become His brother; we serve Him because we love Him and have a desire to please Him. Notice that He humbled Himself; that is the beginning of doing what is pleasing to the Lord. Our hearts must be humble, serving the Lord because it is our pleasure to do so.

When we can come into that self-sacrificial spirit where we can love even as Christ loved us, we are able to sacrifice ourselves for our friends. Then we become the friend of Jesus. Outside of that we are His enemies; we have a carnal mind. It is so important that we understand that.

Remember our lovely Saviour in the Garden of Gethsemane? In LUK 22:41-44 we read, "And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down, and prayed, Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly [After receiving such additional strength it was all used to intensify the urgency of His prayer]: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground."

In such agony He prayed so intensely, "Saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me," but He was still in total surrender to the will of the Father, "nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." LUK 22:42.

Remember our lovely Saviour being scorned and mocked in Pilate's hall? He humbled Himself and allowed them to mock Him. Voluntarily He stepped into the wrath of the Father and took on this shame. Despising the shame He endured the cross. Why? Our sins were placed upon His head.

MAT 27:28-31 says, "And they stripped him, and put on him a scarlet robe. And when they had platted a crown of thorns [when God placed the judgment and curse upon Adam, the earth brought forth briars and thorns. Those thorns are the symbol of sin and the curse of the broken law.] they put it upon his head, and a reed in his right hand: and they bowed the knee before him, and mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews! And they spit upon him, and took the reed, and smote him on the head. And after that they had mocked him, they took the robe off from him, and put his own raiment on him, and led him away [for what?] to crucify him."

Can you see our lovely Saviour hanging on the cross praying for sinners? "Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots," LUK 23:34. If you claim a portion in the blood of Christ, it was you who hung Him upon the cross.

If we understand what our lovely Saviour was saying when He said, "Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you," JOH 15:13-14, then we would understand how important our attitude of obedience is toward one another. Then our hearts will be inflamed with love for one another. Why? His commandment is to love one another even as He has loved us. That is the measure of love we must have for each other.

Christ Do you have any consolation in the atonement of Christ? Do you claim to have that Spirit of Christ, that mental disposition of Christ?

PHI 2:1-5 says, "If there be therefore any consolation in Chirst, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus."

Christian liberty is so often misunderstood. Christian liberty is to be delivered from the confusion and curse of the broken law. It is to come to where we love one another with the same love that the Lord Jesus Christ has loved us.

See what God's Word says in GAL 5:13-14, "For, brethren, ye have been called unto liberty; only use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh, but by love serve one another. For all the law is fulfilled in one word, even in this; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another. This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."

If you have the Spirit of Christ, the mental disposition of Christ, you will love one another; then you cannot do those things that you would otherwise do. You cannot go out to bite and devour others, trying to destroy them.

If we are true friends of Jesus, we will love what He loves, and we will hate what He hates. What Jesus seeks, we will seek; what Jesus shuns, we will shun.

True friendship is but one heart in two bodies; if we truly have love for each other, we have one heart and one attitude and one desire. Our harps will be in tune, the strings of our harps will be in perfect harmony as we stand on that sea of glass to sing the songs of redemption. We will be redeemed from all iniquity, i.e., from all bitterness and injustice to our neighbor!

So many people are so mixed up; they want to be redeemed from hell, but they have no desire to be redeemed from iniquity. Oh that we might be able to sing the song of redemption, being redeemed from all iniquity.

True friendship is what we see as we read REV 15:2-3. "And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints."

Notice that on this sea there is not a ripple; no confusion, no contention or harshness, there is perfect love one for another.

What is this mark he speaks of? It is the mark spoken of in EZE 9:4, "And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof."

The mark of the beast spoken of here is having the spirit of the beast, i.e., that our delight is in the things of this life, and if so, then you are still at enmity against God. That is the mark of the beast

One gains victory over the mark of the beast when the enmity against God is replaced with the Spirit of Christ who mourns over the abominations that come over the earth. The mark of the beast is the delight in things of this world. That is the enmity against God. Moses had the victory over the chariots and horsemen of Egypt, which is the symbol of the world and the power of sin.

So wherein is our lovely Saviour most delighted? His sole object is His Father's glory!

JOH 15:7-14 says, "If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit [The fruit of love and repentance are the object spoken of here.]; so shall ye be my disciples. As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full. This is my commandment [What is our Savior’s highest commandment?], That ye love one another, as I have loved you. Greater love hath no man than this: that a man lay down his life for his friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever I command you."

We find our love for Jesus sorts us out from the world as we see in the following verses. JOH 15:17-20 says, "These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also."

See! You are not going to have the love of the world. The love is among those who love God. They are the friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are the ones with whom we can have fellowship because the fellowship of this world is enmity against God. Amen.