In this sermon, the speaker describes a powerful encounter with Jesus carrying the burden of sin. As the speaker approached a person carrying a heavy burden, he realized it was Jesus and felt overwhelmed by compassion, love, and mercy emanating from Jesus' eyes. Jesus revealed that he was carrying the speaker's personal sin, not the sin of the whole world. This revelation deeply impacted the speaker, leading him to repent and acknowledge the magnitude of his own sin. The speaker urges the congregation to have a similar encounter with Jesus and recognize the destructive power of sin in their lives.

Let's read from John 15 and verse 8, verse 9. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now, remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. We'll end reading there. Now, before I speak about this passage, O Lord, be with us now. Touch our hearts through your Holy Spirit and speak to us. May heavenly mysteries be revealed to us. Work, O God, that each one's life will be changed, that each one will be spiritually more deep than before. That each one will go deeper than before and that you will be visible and seen in each one's life. Amen. In these days, across the whole world, people remember the death of our Lord. His death on the cross. Now, I've spoken about the death of our Lord. I wonder what it means to you, whether it leaves you totally untouched and moved. One man of God said, that if the passion and the death of our Lord leaves you unmoved, it leaves you cold, then you've got a heart of steel and a heart of stone. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. And if you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. What can we say then about this mystery? In this passage, Jesus reveals to us how much the Father loved His Son, Jesus Christ. And then the Lord Jesus also reveals to us how much He loves you and how much He loves us. This morning, as I took my Bible and I read it, as I read these words, they really penetrated to the depths of my heart. And I had to stop there and I had to ponder over this and look at this and I said, Lord, is this possible? He said, as the Father has loved me, referring to Himself, the Lord Jesus. So I have loved you. Just imagine how the Father has loved Jesus. In the same way, exactly the same way, Jesus has loved you. These are mysterious and profound words, which will never fathom for all eternity. It is inexpressible, it surpasses human language. Just imagine the very depth of this matter. Sometimes one comes across spiritual truths out of the Bible pertaining to the gospel where you are dumbfounded, where you say, I can only remain silent now. If I were to say anything about this, I'd only spoil it, I'd sin. I just need to be silent and stand in awe of this truth of God. These words, which we have just read, takes us and brings us into the depths of God's character. In His divinity. It takes us into the depths of God's divinity, into God. And that's why it's inexpressible. We cannot reach to its height, neither to its depth, nor to its width. It's something where we are just touching the hem of the garment. Concerning Him who was so loved by His Heavenly Father. From eternity already, the Father loved His Son. And we cannot explain or express that love. The profound love which they had for each other, the absolute unity that they had with each other. And then He says, that very same love that the Father has loved me with, His only begotten Son, with that very same love, I have loved you. And He loved His disciples with that love, and He loves you, and He loves you and me with that love. Well, if you have a heart of stone, or a heart of steel, then something like this will leave you cold. But if that secret, if that mystery has been revealed to you, your heart will melt, even if you've been an enemy of God. And you'll cry out, you'll say, oh God, how is it possible that you can love me, such a sinner, so defiled, so full of sin, in such opposition to you, how is it possible that you could love me in such a way? And I can only say, wherever you might be, if this mystery, if this truth is revealed to you, it will change your life. If you've been heading towards the West, you turn around and you'll head towards the East. And that which you hated, you'll love, and that which you love, you'll hate. Such a deep love, such a pure love. And it is complete, it is full, it's not half. It's eternal. It is perfect. That is the love which God the Father has for His only Son. And Jesus said, it's with that very same love with which the Father has loved me, that I love you. And as I've said, that this matter is inexpressible. Where God loved the world so much that He gave His only begotten Son, that He would be killed for your sake, for my sake. His love toward His Son is very, very, very great. But His love toward you, how great must that be, that He was prepared to sacrifice Jesus for you. And how great must the love of Jesus be, that He was prepared to die for you, when you were still His enemy. If you see that love and don't repent, then you must be demon-possessed. You must be the seat of the devil. And you are hell-bound. There's nothing else that can help you. Do you hear what I'm saying? And take it to heart. And if this love doesn't touch you, you shouldn't leave this hall and go and have a meal. But you should bow down in dust and ashes and cry to God that He will have mercy on you and grant you the grace that you repent once and for all. Because you shut yourself to that great love. And if you don't feel and aren't stirred by it, then think of your sins and repent. You must be bewitched by the devil and possessed by the devil if this doesn't shake you to the core. You know the story of that person there in Central Africa. He was on his way to the service. It was on a plane. And there in the distance, he saw somebody as small as an ant. But it was as if he was carrying the whole world on his shoulders. And as he was drawing closer, he thought, my, is it possible that one person can carry such a tremendous burden? And so he continued walking, getting closer, and that person was also walking in his direction. And as they were drawing closer to each other, they were almost face to face, he wondered, he thought, my, I wonder who is this person who is carrying such a great burden. But because of this great burden, he failed to recognize who the person was underneath that burden. And so he went down almost as if he was kneeling. And as he was kneeling, he thought, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my, my And as he looked at this person and their eyes met, he saw compassion, love, and mercy coming from those eyes as he had never seen before in his life. And he said, that must be our Lord and Master, the Lord Jesus. And he said, O Lord, you are carrying the sin of the whole world. And indeed, Jesus has taken upon himself the sin of the whole world as the Lamb of God. And he said, O Lord, is it so much? Is it such a great burden to carry the sin of the whole world? And then Jesus said, No, what you see is not me carrying the sin of the whole world. But I'm carrying your sin, and that which you see at the moment is your sin that I'm busy carrying. And that man was cut and pierced to his heart, and the Lord disappeared from before his eyes. And he said, No, what you see is not me carrying the sin of the whole world, but I'm carrying your sin, and that which you see at the moment is your sin that I'm busy carrying. He ran as fast as his feet could carry him to the service. And he got there, wet with perspiration, perspiration streaming from down him. And he stood before the congregation, and he wept like a baby, and he said, Brethren, I've seen the Lord carrying my sin. He said, I thought he was carrying the sin of the world. In the meantime, it was my sin. And he said, I saw the evil of my sin, the greatness, and how terrible my sin is. As he met with Christ, who carried his sin, have you already met with Jesus carrying your sin? Love for sin will come to an end when you have had a meeting such as that with the Lord, because that is what's busy destroying many Christians. They love sin so much so that they run after the world. Jesus doesn't hide his love from us. He reveals it to us. And according to this passage, he tells us about it. And he says, I haven't treated you as servants. You are not my servants. You are my friends. He said, I have shared all this with you as my friends, not treating you as my servants. You would be my servants. I wouldn't have revealed these things to you, but you are my friends. But I don't remember one of the disciples or apostles ever saying, I'm a friend of Jesus or he's my friend. They always said, I am his servant. We don't dare say we are his friends. If we know what we are and how we failed and how we sinned, we just magnify him and exalt him. And the more we exalt him, the less we become in our own eyes. And we don't call ourselves his friends. We are his servants that haven't deserved a word of thanks for anything good. And that's one of the points, when you hear those, you are not my servants, you are my friends that you shut your mouth. He can say that. But you and I are not worthy of saying something like that. But one can only cry out and say, Oh God, may I never be a betrayer. May I never betray you, but may I remain true and faithful to you till the very end. And it doesn't stop there. It doesn't stop, doesn't end there where he says, as the father has loved me, so have I loved you. He says, now, as I have loved you, you should love one another. And he loved them to the end. He's not like many Christians today who turn to the Lord and they go about testifying how they love the Lord Jesus for maybe a year or two years, but five years afterwards, you see them going back to the world and turning their backs upon the Lord. And treading on their foot, their testimony and what they say and their promises and their vows. That's heartbreaking. If you see that in a Christian's life, that they trample on their foot, that which they stood for, that which they testified in the past. His disciples turned their backs upon him. They fled from him. They left him in the lurch. They denied him. And yet, nevertheless, Jesus still loved them right till the end. Amen. But your love so easily comes to an end. Just when a person hasn't greeted you. Or maybe they haven't visited you. Maybe you say, well, they spoke evil of me. And then your love comes to an end. But Jesus' love wasn't like that. With what are you busy? If Jesus' love was in you, you would love to the very end, just as he loved. And he demonstrated his love to us by dying for us on the cross, by shedding his blood for us. In what are you demonstrating your love for him? He didn't hide his love. He revealed it by his bleeding heart. How do you reveal your love to him? He didn't hide his love. He revealed it by his blood. How do you reveal your love to him? He didn't hide his love. He revealed it by his blood. He revealed it by his blood. How do you reveal your love to him? He didn't hide his love. He revealed it by his blood. How do you reveal your love to him? He didn't hide his love. He demonstrated his love to us, but when the water and the blood streamed from his rib inside, And we could see that when the water and the blood streamed from his rib inside, but in what manner do you show and do you demonstrate your love for the Lord Jesus? And Jesus himself says here, if you obey me, obey my commands, you will remain in my love just as I have obeyed my father's commands and remain in his love. That is how we show that we love him. Jesus says, if you love him, you'll keep his commandments. John the disciple, the apostle says exactly the same. We keep his commandments because we love him. And what do we say? What does the modern Christian say? We are free. We didn't need to keep his commandments. We can do what we like. Liars they are. If you love him, you will remain in his love just as I have obeyed my father's commandments. That is how we show that we love him. Jesus says, if you love him, you'll keep his commandments. John the disciple says exactly the same. We can do what we like. And if you love Jesus, you will love God's children. You will love them with a deep sincere love. John says, we know by this that we have come out of death and we've entered into life by this, that we love God's children. We love the brethren. During the era of the time of the Roman Empire, the Romans would say the following of the Christians. The Romans had a saying about the Christians. See how they love each other. The heathen, the pagans, the Romans, when they would look at the Christians, they had this saying. Just see how much they love each other. Brethren, you know where you come from. You're different areas. Do the people around you see that? Can they say, just look and see how much the brethren love each other? Now if a person hasn't yet got converted, even finds fault with God himself, how much more not with the Christians? They'll mock, they'll find fault. The day you get converted, you will love God's children. You'll seek them out and you will love them with an unhypocritical love. Something that you don't just make up and try and show, but it's not really there. And John says, we know that we have come out of death into life. Because we love the brethren. That is the proof. And if you don't love the brethren, you are a liar. Despite your hypocrisy that you say you love God. The Bible says there is no such thing that you love God and don't love your brethren. That is the proof that you love God. Because you love the brethren. Now check your heart. Do you love them? Do you love them with the love that is divine? And Jesus says, just as the Father loved me, so do I love them. Do you love them? Look at the face of the truth. And don't mock with your hypocrisy, with your criticism, with your mockery. And say you love them. You don't know where you come from and where you're going. John said, we know that we have passed from death to life. Because we have loved our brothers. Anyone who does not love remains in death. And anyone who hates his brother is a murderer. And you know that no murderer has eternal life. So now examine your life and see, do you have that love that Jesus has for us towards the brethren? If not, you don't know where you're coming from, you don't know where you're going to. And you're a liar if you say you're a Christian. When we repent, our lives are transformed completely. And even our friends change. Those we would despise beforehand and criticize and find fault with and mock, we'd be drawn strongly towards them with an irresistible love. If you're a Christian, there is no hypocrisy in that love. And if you've got eyes to see in any discernment, you'll easily be able to discern whether it's just an hypocritical love or whether it is true love, such as that with which God has loved us with. And then in verse 9, Jesus says, Remain in my love. And verse 10, keep my commands. And he also says in the same chapter, in verse 6, remain in me. We need to remain in the Lord Jesus, not just come and be there temporarily as a visitor, maybe be in him and then out of him, but we need to remain constantly in him. In abiding, in keeping his commandments. Now we don't have time to have a look at his commands in detail. Maybe in these days we'll touch upon some of those. But you need to take God's word and read it when you wake up, when you go to sleep, during the day, and find out what does God, what does the Lord Jesus command you. But now I'll just touch on one of those commands, and that is this one, that you should love each other. You can go and read in 1 Corinthians chapter 13, what it says there about love. We are known by that, that we have passed from death to life, if we love God and if we love the brethren with that love. And that is how this chain links up. The father loves his son, and the son loves us. And now we love him, and we love God's children. Is this circle perfect in your life? Not just any old love. Some ministers that are not sane in their head, they say we will even marry homosexuals and lesbians, because it's an act of love. It's more than just family love. It's God's divine love, with which he loved his son, and his son loved us so much that he gave his life for us. Are you prepared to live the same way? Do you have that love, that you will give your life for your fellow man, for the Christians? No, you criticize them, you find fault with them. And you call yourself a Christian? You shouldn't call yourself by that name. That's not Christ. That's the devil. That's satanic. Call yourself after the one whose nature you've got, the devil. Stop playing Christianity. Stop playing Christianity. Stop it. Be a real Christian. Prove it by your life. Otherwise, you're damned and tombed. Not only on the other side of the grave, but right here, already. Let me read it once again. As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love. Just as I have obeyed my Father's commands and remain in His love. And He loved us so much that He gave His life for us. If you love your Christ or your brother with that same love, you'll give your life for Him. The next man who hears you speaking, you talking, does he get the impression that you are giving your life for that one? Laying your life down for that one? If you love your brother with that same love, you'll give your life for him. If you love your brother with that same love, you'll give your life for him. Now if your life hasn't been like that which Christ has said yet, you now know what you ought to do. Let me close with this word. John 15, verse 6. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Let me repeat it so that you really hear it properly. If anyone does not remain in me, if you remain in him, you remain in his love. If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers. Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. Those are words from the Lord's mouth. Blessed is the one who hears those words, who keeps them and puts them into practice.