Turn to John chapter 7, the title of the message, The World
Hates Jesus Christ and Here is Why. Our Lord tells us in this portion
of scripture why the world hates As unpleasant as truth is on
the flesh, we still tell it when we find
it. We live in a fallen, depraved
world. That's so. That's the truth.
We live in a world that hates God. We have God's Word on it. That's not my opinion. That's
God's Word. We live in a world of darkness.
Spiritual darkness. God is not known in this world. He's known in the heart of His
people, but not in this world. And even among the most learned,
there's still darkness. It is written in Matthew 6, 23,
But if thine eye be evil, Thine eye of understanding. If thine
eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. Your whole
understanding is full of darkness. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness. That sounds like a paradox, doesn't
it? Dark light. If therefore the light that is
in thee be darkness. How great Immeasurable is that darkness. And the greatest darkness in
this world is religious darkness. Ignorance of God. To believe
that you're saved when you're lost. To believe that God is
this when He's that. That's darkness. That's darkness. Now after these things, Jesus
walked in Galilee, for he would not walk in Judea, because the
Jews sought to kill him. Right there is the evidence of
human depravity. When I read that, I thought,
here we are in 2023, and no one ever stops to think, why are
we shooting each other? Why are we killing each other?
Well, you know, why do you want to go to war and kill this one
and kill that one? It's our nature. It's the nature
of the beast is what it is. They wanted to kill him. They
sought opportunity to kill him. After he fed 5,000. And after
he told them that he's the bread that cometh down from heaven,
he's the true bread sent down from heaven. After he told them
of the will of the Father, and how that he would lose nothing,
and how he would raise them up at the last day, those who ate
his flesh and drank his blood. He said, I'll raise them up at
the last day. And after that, he walked in
Galilee. He walked openly, freely. He
did not walk around scaring. He walked in Galilee, he said,
because the Jews wanted to kill him here in Jerusalem. He walked
around in Galilee doing his father's will. He still had work to do
there. He was not afraid of him. When
it says here that he would not walk in Judea, he was not afraid
of him. It was not his time. You notice
he said, it's not my time. He had a work to do. He had a
job and a title to fulfill, right to the very period at the end
of a sentence. And he was doing it. And it was not his time to
go to the cross. Not yet. See, they were going
to kill him. They would have stoned him, if they could have.
But it was not his time to die, and it was not his way to die.
You see, he's on God's timetable. His life is purposed of God.
Every step that he took was divinely ordered of God. Every word he
spoke was the word of God. He never wasted time, not even
a second. The Lord Jesus Christ never wasted
it. Time was precious to Him. It was always taken up doing
the will of His Father, always. And here's something else. He
did not purposely put Himself in harm's way to prove anything, to prove anything. Satan tried
to get him to do so to prove he's a son of God. Jump down
off this temple here, this mountain, jump down off of it. It's written,
he's given his angels charge over thee. If you're the son
of God, jump. That's tempting God. That's not
trusting God. We don't tempt God. I'm not going
to go stand in the middle of the road and say, well, that
truck will go around me. No, it'll go over you. It ain't
going around you. If you're going to tempt God,
you're going to find yourself in trouble. He never tempted
his father. Never. Paul was let down in a
basket one time to escape being killed. But when it came time
to suffer, You see, there's a time and a place for everything. Time
and a purpose, it says in Ecclesiastes, for everything under heaven.
There's a time and a purpose for everything in my life and
your life. Absolutely everything. Whatever's happening today, it's
time for it. And there's a purpose in it. And when it's time for us to
take a stand, we take a stand. If we have to suffer, we suffer.
If we have to die, we die. but we don't purposely put ourselves
in harm's way. Now there was a feast, it says
there was a feast of tabernacles, a Jewish feast, it was a Jewish
feast, called a Jewish feast because it was going to be done
away with. This is just temporary, this is just a picture of Christ.
But all the males were required to go there every time this happened,
once a year, they were required to go to these feasts. It was
required. And this will be interesting
as we go along. And his brethren therefore said
to him, depart hence and go into Judea, that thy disciples also
may see the works that thou doest. Some of his relatives, cousins,
according to the flesh, so they thought, you know, it may be
some of his brothers from Joseph and Mary it may be but it was
relatives for the most part it was relatives and some of his
relatives Which believe not? Urged him to go up to this feast
and show off his powers They wanted to show off They wanted
him to go up there and show off his power Demonstrate it demonstrate
your power show you give us a sign. That's what they were still looking
for Christ is not a showpiece He's not a circus act. That's
exactly what they was looking for, the circus act. They wanted
everyone to know that he was their relative. That's what they
wanted. You know, if you can't be the
popular person, you want to stand beside him so you get a little
shine. And that's what they wanted. This is our cousin. That's what
they wanted. They wanted to stand there beside
him and get a little bit of that glory, you know, family glory. That's what they wanted. And
he wanted everyone to know that he's their relative, but they
were not concerned at all about his safety. They knew the Jews
wanted to kill him. They knew that. But our Lord
says in verse four, he, you know, our Lord being God, he knows
all things. He knows their heart. He knows
their motive. He knows what's going on in their
heart. And we'll see this as we go along
here. They said to him in verse four, for there is no man, evidently
they knew something about man, but there's no man that doeth
anything in secret. And he himself seeketh to be
known openly. If thou do these things, show
thyself to the world. Now's a good time to show off. No man hides his glory. No man
hides his glory. Man is a show-off. He is. Man
invented the scoring system or he's not going to play. That's
why he wants to keep score. No son of Adam does anything
in secret. That's what they're saying. They even recognize that. Men
and women go to great lengths to gain honor. The Pharisees
liked to pray in public and be seen of men. That's what our
Lord exposed. He said, hey, they make long
prayers. They want to be seen of men.
It doesn't matter if God's around or not, but they just want to
crowd around. And the Lord knew this. What
they didn't realize is that He did not come to make Himself
a reputation. He came to save. As it says there
in Philippians 2, 5, let this mind be in you, which was also
in Christ Jesus. He thought not robbery to be
equal with God, but made himself of no reputation. The only person
that has ever existed on this earth that had a reputation,
he made nothing out of it. He didn't use it to his advantage. And you know it's a jab here.
There's a hidden jab here. He said, if. If you do these
things, if shooting at his ego, which he didn't have, he didn't have an ego. Self-glory is one of the hardest
things to resist. This is one of the hardest things
to resist. It borders on self-worship. Self-glory borders on self-worship.
Getting the attention that belongs to God. And here's why they wanted
him to go, for neither did his brethren believe in him. They
didn't believe him to be the Son of God. They didn't believe
him to be the Son of God. Those relatives of his, they
didn't believe in him. They saw his life, they saw him
grow up, but it made no difference to them. They didn't believe
he's the Son of God because they saw a child, they saw a teenager,
they saw a person in the flesh. And his life was perfect. Can
you imagine what they saw? And yet they didn't believe in
him. They didn't believe him to be the son of God, and that's why
they wanted to go up and do more signs, more wonders. Salvation,
listen, salvation does not run through family bloodlines. It's
by grace. It's by grace. It doesn't run
through family bloodlines. Being Abraham's seed gives no
advantage if you're not Christ's seed. He says in Luke 8, 21, and the
Lord answered and said unto them, my mother and my brethren are
these which hear the word of God and do it. They are my mothers
and my brothers. You remember when they came to
the Lord, they said, your mother and your brothers are standing outside. He said,
no, these are my brothers and my brothers, my sisters, the
ones who do the will of God. That's my family. He said, that's
my family. You're my family. You who believe,
we who believe, we are family. We are the real family. And it says in verse 6, we see
His time and their time. Then Jesus said to them, My time
is not yet come. He's on a timetable. God created time for a reason. Christ is on that timetable.
That timetable is His. And He says, My time is not yet
come. His time to publicly display His power as God to do the miracles
that he did, that time wasn't yet. Not yet. His time to really
confront those religious leaders was not yet. Not yet. That time is coming. There's
a time on it. I remember telling my dad, one
time we was talking about dying. I said, the very second that
God has for my time and your time, when it comes, it's over. It doesn't matter how healthy
you are. You can die healthy, you can die sick, but you're
going to die. There's a time to be born, and
what? Time to die. And he said, my time has not
yet come. Each step he took had a timetable. It had a time to it. Whether
it was to keep a jot or a tittle, whether it was to confront a
Pharisee, whether it was talk to that rich young ruler, here
when he fed the 5,000 and all that led up to that message,
it was a time. Boy, if we could just see God's
time, if we could see God's timetable, My soul, it's in his hands. David said, my times are in your
hands. My times. My time to be glorified. He said in John 17, Father, the
hour is come. Here it is. Glorify thy son,
that thy son may glorify thee. When his time came to suffer
and die and to redeem the whole elect of God, he did so. He accomplished. But your time is always ready.
Your time is always ready. You're always ready to be glorified. You're always ready to be honored.
Just any time you feel like bragging on me, go ahead. I'll give you
a half hour to quit. Your time's always ready to be honored. But he didn't do it. He was right
there all that time. He wasn't trying to honor himself.
He was honoring his father. Now listen, in verse seven, the
world cannot hate you. The world cannot hate you. The
world loves its own. A rattlesnake will take care
of its own. The ones he's talking to were
of the world. That's why they sought the praise
of men. They were of the world. They
were going up there for not his glory, their glory. This is my relative. He says, you are of the world. You are the children of the world. That's why peer pressure gets
to you. Children of the world. You're the servants of the world.
You serve the world. You serve the flesh. You serve
its interests. You see, this is why the world
hates the gospel. This is not a popular message. It's not a popular message. Truth
is hard on the flesh, isn't it? You're the servants of the world,
you're the children of the world, your interest is in the world,
and the world would love its own. But me, This is the truth. But me, it hateth continually. Me, it hateth. The world hates
Jesus Christ. You'd be hard-pressed to find
and ask anyone if they hate Jesus Christ, and they'd say, no, I
don't hate him. The Lord said, he that is not
with me is against me. He that gathers not with me scatters
abroad. This is a powerful statement.
Hate is a, hate is a, that's a tough word, buddy. That's a
tough word. But he says the world hateth
me. Especially the religious world.
Jesus Christ, superstar, they don't hate. Jesus Christ on the
throne, they hate. Jesus Christ, The miracle worker,
they love. Jesus Christ, the sovereign, they hate. Jesus Christ trying
to save everyone, they love. Jesus Christ sovereignly saving
whom He will, they hate. When He exercises His sovereign
right, Jesus Christ giving, they love. Jesus Christ taking, hey,
the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. When Job said that,
he's speaking of Jesus Christ. He said, me the world hateth. And here's the reasons why. Because
I testify of it. I tell it the truth. I tell it
the truth. That the works thereof are evil. Because of the testimony our
Lord bears against the world, the world hates him, his gospel. People hate anything negative
said about him. Don't we? Just let somebody say
negative something. Let someone say something negative about
you today and see if it upsets you. It will me. It does every
time. Until I have to sit down and
think about it, and I thought, he's right. Our first response is usually,
usually our first response is, we get upset. But here's the
first point in this, the reason why the world hates me, that
I testify that its works are evil. You see, God looks at the
heart. God looks at the motive. Why
we do what we do. He looks at the heart. Its fruit
is evil. Here's something that's just
100% true. A bad tree cannot produce good
fruit. That's what he's saying. A bad
tree absolutely cannot bear good fruit. It can't do it. Secondly, the world hates Jesus
Christ because he has come and exposed the evil and hypocrisy
of the heart. I want to read you this out of
John 15, verses 18 through 25. He's speaking now to his disciples. He was speaking here to his relatives
that didn't believe in him. They didn't believe him to be
the Son of God. They wanted him to go up and show off, get some
of that glory, and show some signs. It was just a circus,
nothing more than a circus to them. But now listen, if the
world hate you, You know it hated me before it
hated you. If you were of the world, the
world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, as you see, his disciples, his true disciples are not of
the world. But I have chosen you out of
the world. Therefore, the world hateth you. If this country could, it would
get rid of the gospel. It'd keep all the other garbage
that's going on, but it'd get rid of the truth. 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. But all these things will they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come, I had not come and spoken unto them.
The truth is what he's talking about. They had not had sin,
but now they have no covering, no cloak for their sin. I told
them the truth. I exposed their hypocrisy. That
was... Brother, if I'm a hypocrite,
Lord, show me. I want the faith that I had to
be genuine, the repentance to be genuine. I don't want to be
fooled. I don't want to be fooled. If my faith is not real, give
me real faith. He said, if I hadn't come and
told him the truth, they wouldn't have had no sin. They'd be ignorant
of it. But I told him the truth. The truth preached here every
week. I've told you the truth. He says, they have no covering
for their sin. He that hates me hates my father also. You
can't hate one without the other. If I had not done among them
the works, the miracles that they saw, raising the dead, the
blind to see, the deaf to hear, the lame to walk, if I had not
done among them the miracles which none other man did, they
had had no sin for rejecting me. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my father. He came on the scene. They saw
his miracles, they heard the truth, the truth spoke to them,
and they hated him for it. And he said, you can't hate me
without hating my father, because we're one. We are one. When this
comes to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that's written
in their law, they hated me without a cause. That's the world. That's the world. It's an unpopular
message. If you want to be the most unpopular
person in the room, Just go into a room full of liars and tell
the truth. You'll be the most unpopular
person there. And that's what he did. He came
in the room and spoke the truth. It made him mad. He made him
mad. And thirdly, darkness cannot
bear the exposure of light. It can't bear the exposure of
light. The world cannot bear a real conviction of sin. He
says that they'll not come to the light in John 3.20, they'll
not come to the light lest their deeds should be reproved. That's
why they won't come to me. That's why. Darkness cannot bear
the exposure of light. Then fourthly, whatever the world
pretends to, they cannot stand the testimony of being sinners. They can't do it. They can't
bear that testimony. When Paul spoke to Felix, he
spoke to him of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and temperance,
temperance. And Felix trembled, but he sent
Paul away. He knew what it cost him. He
knew what it cost him to confess Christ, the Christ that Paul
preached, the message Paul preached. He knew what it cost him. He
looked at what he had. He looked at his position. He
looked at all his friends, his whole life flashed before him. And Christ was not enough. He
was not enough to drop all that and go after him. Like that rich
young ruler, Christ said, Sell all that you have. Now, when we read that, apply
it to ourselves. Total commitment to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Sell all that you have and come
follow me. He may not have had to sell a
thing. He just had to be willing to. He wasn't willing to. He
wouldn't waste sorrowful because he was very rich. And the Lord
exposed the covetousness of his heart. And the Lord in verse 8, listen,
the Lord sends them away. He says, Go ye up to this feast. I go not up yet unto this feast,
for my time is not yet full. You see, his time had to be fulfilled. Everything had to have fullness
to it. My time is not yet full come. When I read this verse, I thought
of what Moses said in Exodus 33, 15. Moses and Moses said
unto the Lord, if thy presence go not with me, carry us not
up hence. If you don't go with me, I ain't
going. I don't want to go. I don't want to go where Jesus
Christ is not. I don't want to go. He went not
with them for they were not, listen, they were not his company.
They were not His company, and He was not going to let them
use Him. Be very careful where and with
whom you go to worship with. Christ may not be there. Be extremely
careful. He's not in all the services
going on this morning. Where two or three are gathered
together in My name, they're a mind amiss. Where they're lying
on Him, He's not there. He sent them up without Him.
They were not His company. And when he has said these words
unto them, he abode still in Galilee. He stayed and he let
them go because he never departs from his purpose. He has a purpose. He's fulfilling right there and
he's going to do it and then he'll go. But when his brethren
were gone up, his relatives were gone up. Then when he also up
to the feast, not openly, not because he's afraid, but as it
were in secret, let me read to you what Henry
wrote on this. Henry wrote this, the general method of travel
in those days, especially at festival seasons, was to form
a caravan and travel with many people. If the famous Galilean
had gone with this crowd to Jerusalem, it would have been sensational
and contrary to his purpose. He chose rather to go in secret
and avoid the publicity. We must keep in mind the Lord's
purpose was not notoriety, fame, and a following of opportunists,
but to follow the divine timetable in revealing Himself as the Lamb
of God, the Redeemer of sinners, and to accomplish that which
was written of Him in the volume of the book. That's why He didn't
go with them. He's on His timetable. He didn't
go up for notoriety. He didn't go up to get a following.
It wasn't a circus show. He's redeeming a people. He's
keeping the law. He's producing a righteousness.
That's what he's doing. And he never got sidetracked,
never. And what a contrast to hear in
seeking the Lord. Then the Jews sought him at the
feast and said, where is he? That's a good question, isn't
it? Where is he at in the preaching today? Henry has a good message
on this verse. Verse 11, where is he, is the
name of the title in Sermon Audio. I listened to it the other day.
It's outstanding. Where is he? He tells us where
he is in his word, but I'm not going to get into it. You go
listen to it. It's a blessing. And then listen,
verse 12. Where Christ is, there's always
controversy, because truth being among a bunch of liars will always
cause controversy. And there was much murmuring
among the people concerning him. Some said, he's a good man. No,
I tell you what, he's better than a good man. He's more than
a good man. He's the God man. That's what that rich young ruler
said, a good master. He said, there's nothing good
but God. If I'm not God, I'm not good. Don't call me good
if I'm not God. Others said, no, he deceived
the people. Do you see why salvation comes
by revelation? You can't figure this out. God has to reveal it
to you. How be it no man spoke openly
of him will fear of the Jews. They didn't speak openly of him. And I thought of this verse and
I pray God he'd not let us be cowards. When we have the opportunity,
speak openly of Him. Proverbs 29, 25, the fear of
man bringeth a snare. It bringeth a snare. You'll shut
up when you ought to speak up. But whoso putteth his trust in
the Lord shall be safe. Speak up. You'll be all right.
You'll be safe. The world hates Jesus Christ,
and here is why. I testify of it. I tell it the
truth. And I thank God that God sent
a preacher one day and told me the truth. I don't know what,
I don't know what it's going to be like in heaven. I don't
know as far exceeds anything we can comprehend. I know that
Christ is there. I know that the first person
we want to see and worship and be around is Jesus Christ. But
I do think that one of the things that I would like to do, and
I'm talking in the flesh now, is thank my pastor, telling me
the truth. Thank you, Henry, for all those
years. Telling me the truth. That's
the only way you're going to know God, that you shall know
the truth, and the truth shall set you free. Nothing else will.
All right.