so so Let's turn our hymn notes to
hymn number 347, about what these hands have done. Lord, what these hands
have done and save His guilty soul. The Rock is falling, precious
Lord, and make my spirit whole. I am the hope, my Savior, and
He's the strength of sin. can give me peace with Thee. O God, I fail or do, can give
me peace with Thee. But all my prayers or sighs or
tears, And He's His friend, I'll say,
My God, I will never die, And He'll be peace with me. I'm loved in Thee, O God, I'm
mine, O Lord, to Thee. And in Thee I'll bestow my blessing,
and set my spirit free. Oh, say can you see by the dawn's
early light What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's No father would take mine, no
dinner what he'll do, no strings laid back for dizzy wine. ? And bear me safely through ?
? I am the Lord, my Savior ? ? And His is my concern ? ? I am the
Lord, O Lamb of God ? ? And His is my concern ? I praise the God of grace, I
trust His love and mind. He calls me His title and mine,
My God, my joy, my life. My Lord, O my Savior, in Jesus'
name I'm sinning. Thy blood, O Lamb of God, can
give me peace within. Welcome, each one, and we're
Grateful to the Lord for bringing us this far through the week
and blessing us in the midst of what seems like a world almost
out of control. And I think it is as far as man's
concerned, but I know it's not as far as God is concerned. I just sometimes think about
how much danger, how much problems, how many things the Lord delivers
us through in a day's time and we don't even have any idea of
them or any recognition or thanks to Him for doing it. Those who, like we just sang,
have to be saved by grace. It's the grace of God in the
Lord Jesus. We want to pray, continue to
pray tonight for Claire Heller. I haven't heard anything today,
so I'm not giving any new information. I'm sure she's still critical. So let's be sure and pray for
her. And less asked me to ask you
to pray for him. And others that are sick and. Have various problems of life.
We're just. But you needy people. I told
somebody last week that I viewed the church is like that. In where the Samaritan took the
man that was left for dead by the side of the road. It says
he took him to an inn, and he said, I'll pay you anything that's
necessary to keep him. So the church is like the inn. It's a hospital for sinners.
And we're all just that. Let's pray tonight. Our Father, in the name of our
Lord Jesus Christ, we bow in your presence. We know it is a great privilege
and blessing. To be able to call you our father. And to be a joint heir with the
Lord Jesus Christ, your blessed son. We know nothing like we ought
to. We know only what you have been
pleased to reveal to us. Teach us. and show us by the
Holy Scriptures, by the Holy Spirit working in our hearts
and our minds. But we thank you that you've
been pleased to reveal yourself, the true and the living God,
the God of all grace and comfort, the God of salvation. a God who
is a just God and a Savior. And we praise you for all you
do and all you have been pleased to do for us. And we praise you
for what you're doing in this world at this present time. We don't have understanding as
to every detail We don't know the ins and outs, as we say,
of your purpose, but we're thankful that you made it a purpose of
grace for your people, a purpose that you ordained from old eternity
and that will redound to your glory, worlds without end. We thank you that it will be
a purpose that saves all your people and that none of them
shall be lost. None of them shall be left or
forgotten, but all shall be brought through everything to yourself. We pray for these that have been
on our hearts for some time. We pray for Claire. That you
might be pleased in your great power. And your great mercy. To raise her up and. Restore
her to health if it's pleasing in thy sight. And that you would
comfort her family and give them strength in this time. Give wisdom
to those who minister her and skill to be in their hands and
minds. We pray for those that are sick. We pray for less tonight that
you might be pleased to help him. We pray for each one, Lord,
especially that is lost. All of your sheep who you've
not yet called, we ask that you might be pleased in our day to
call some of those sheep out. Bless, Lord, each one according
to your own will and out of the bounties of your grace be in
our midst tonight and help us to rightly divide the word of
truth that everything might be according to your will and according
to your glorious word, and for your glory and honor alone. We pray and thank you in the
name of Christ. Amen. Hymn number 613, most secure is no one ever. And you're now crowned as a Savior,
on your throne, O my Almighty. In His home, the home deep and
purest, In His holy courts they flourish, From all evil who faithfully
swears Him, In His holy courts He bears him. We were blind for
that shall ever, Our God on His throne exalted, But to Him His
face He showeth, And our sorrows no need nor will. Let our Father, who art in heaven,
bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Forgive them before we take it,
punish the old and their forsaken. Which one godly, or most lowly,
could preserve thee? Turn tonight to the book of John,
to the gospel of John. John chapter 15. I'll begin reading
a portion at verse 12. John 15, 12. This is my 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 you do
whatsoever I command you. 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. Ye have not chosen me, But I
have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring
forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatsoever
ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. If he were of the world,
the world would love his own. But because you 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. But all these things which they
do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me. If I had not come and spoken
unto them, they had not had sin, but now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me hateth my father
also." I entitled this message Two worlds
that collide. Two worlds that collide. You see, the words of our Lord
here were spoken to a particular group. They were spoken to His people. to these that he describes in
this text as his friends. They are spoken commands to believers. And they are distinguished here
so plainly in this text. They are distinguished by Christ
as being not of this world. Not of this world. And the word is cosmos. And it is translated all throughout
the New Testament as the word world. But it is also translated
as the word world in many different ways and situations. But such passages as these, and
as this one, and there are many that are like them, they show
the error of the view of most of professing Christianity. They show that view of religion,
of the world, to not be correct. They say, and they use one verse
of scripture to supposedly stand up their doctrine. The Bible says in John 3.16 that
God so loves the world. But Christ here commands his
disciples a number of times, he commands them to love one
another. And I thought about it this morning.
Why would he command us to love one another? Well, it's not really
natural to us. We're all so selfish. But he commands us to love one
another, and this practice This particular text shows it. He shows it. He says, love one
another because this is the only real love we'll ever experience
from men on this earth. While Christ was here, in this
flesh, he as a man loved his people. But now that he has ascended
back into heaven, the only people who know anything about real
love, which as he mentions here, as he has loved us, the only
ones who know anything about real love and who love one another
is his friends. It's the people of God. Verse 17 of chapter 15, he gives this command and says,
these things I command you that ye love one another. And immediately the next statement
is this. If the world hate you, ye know
that it hated me before it hated you. Now these words, they make a
distinction and prove the foolishness of universalism and of universal
love. There's a distinction here. As
he speaks to these friends, as he speaks to his people, there's
a distinction here between the world and you. That's what it says here in verse
18. If the world, That's two separate
groups. And he says if the world hate
you, evidently the world as we have it here is going to hate
the people of God. Why? The reason for this, he says,
You know that it hated me before it hated you. In other words, they hate the
people of God because they hate God. There's no way that a person
can hate the true God and love one of his people. It's just
not ever happened. When he writes here, he's showing
that they have been separated from the world, and this is one
of the reasons why the world hates them, that God does not
regard them in the same way that he regards the world. They hate him. They hate the
people of God because they hate the living and true God. Hold your place here and turn
back over to Psalm 115. The psalmist writes, not unto
us, O Lord, not unto us, but unto thy name give glory for
thy mercy and for thy truth's sake. This is what the people
of God say. Not unto us, don't glorify us,
but to thy name give glory for thy mercy and for thy truth's
sake. Now listen to the next verse.
Wherefore should the heathen say, where is now their God? In other words, wherefore should
the world say, where is now their God? But our God He's not the same God. Our God. And the reason why they
hate us is that we make distinction of our God. We distinguish Him
giving Him all the glory, not man. We distinguish Him for giving
mercy to us. We distinguish Him as the God
of truth. and we distinguish Him as the
Sovereign. But our God is in the heavens,
He hath done whatsoever He hath pleased. In these days when you begin
to talk about The Lord being the first cause of all of the
virus or whatever is going on. Man, you can see just the dislike
for that come into their eyes. You can hear the tone of their
voice. If they don't say something,
they won't say anything. Because what we're saying is
our God is in the heavens. and He hath done and is doing
whatsoever He hath pleased. And we give glory, all the glory
to Him for His name's sake. We give Him all the glory because
He's shown mercy to us. We've given Him all the glory
because His Word is the truth. You see, the clearest evidence
that the world hates God is that when God came
in human flesh, when he came and became a man, they demonstrated
that hatred toward him and they slew him and hanged him on a
cross. And he's no longer here. But he's still alive, and he's
still the God who does whatever he will in heaven and earth,
and none can stay his hand. And it says here in verse 19,
if you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hateth you." You see, the world hates divine
sovereignty, especially when it's exercised in divine election. You can go and preach just about
any kind of a message. and even make reference to God
being sovereign over all things. You can talk about God who has
power over all things as long as you do not distinguish God
as the one who exercises that sovereignty in his choice of
people out of Adam's race to save. And that's why men don't preach
election. But Christ says in verse 16,
He says, You have not chosen Me. You see, God's people are taught
and brought to know that it was not their choice of Christ that
secured their salvation, but it was His choice of them that
secured it. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you and ordained you that you should go forth
Go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain,
that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he
may give it unto you. These things I command you, that
ye love one another." They hate God in that He exercises His
sovereign choice in salvation. in that he has chosen a people
out of the world, that he has chosen those who believe on him
out of the world, he has distinguished them, and they hate grace because
there's no reason for him to have chosen us. They don't see any difference. Do you know why? Because there's
only one. One of the world is as apt to
be like these that are not of the world and they like them
in any given circumstance or situation and show themselves
to be that they were of this world, out of this world chosen. except one. They look and they say, there's
no reason why you should be any different or why God should have
chosen you. There's no reason that you do
anything different than any of the rest of us, and they're right
to a certain degree. But he has brought his people
to believe the truth. To know the truth as it is in
Christ Jesus. To know of his sovereignty. To know of his electing grace. To know of his cleansing blood. To know the things that make
for salvation. that is the salvation which is
of the Lord. And so whether it doesn't matter
whether it is the irreligious part of the world or those who live riotously or
live in immorality And they hate us because we cannot and will
not condone what they're doing. We will not say it's right. We
will not say it's of the time, whether it's the irreligious
world or whether it's the false religious world. If it's the world, this world,
they will hate the Lord's people. You see God's elect have been
chosen and have been delivered by Christ from this world and
all his judgments against it. Look over in Galatians chapter
1 verse 3 Grace be to you and peace
from God the Father and from our Lord Jesus Christ who gave
himself for our sins that he might deliver us from this present
evil world. That's what delivers. us from
this present evil world. That's what separates us. According to the will of God
and our Father. Now, you're going to run into
real problems if you try to say John 3.16, the word world there
means every person in the world. when Christ's death is said to
deliver some from this present evil world. But all through the scriptures, you find that the world has hated
the people of God. The world's enmity against those
in Christ and those who follow Christ is because those whom
Christ blesses, the world curses. And those that are what we might
say are the favorites or the heirs of heaven, they've never
been. the darlings of this world. Ever since that first division
came, wherein God distinguished those
two groups, those two worlds, and he says, one of you is the
seed of the woman. and the other the seed of the
serpent. That's why the Pharisees, when
Christ was here on the earth, Christ looked at them and said,
you are of your father, the devil. But all through history, all
through the world history from the Garden
Fall all the way through, all the time these two worlds are
being distinguished. Why? Why did Cain hate Abel? Well, the Bible says because
his works were righteous. Why did Esau hate Jacob? Because Jacob received the blessing. Contrary to nature, contrary
to the way it was back then as we say, Jacob received the blessing. Why did Joseph's brethren hate
him? Because his father loved him. Why did Saul hate David? Because the Bible says the Lord
was with him. Why did Ishmael hate Isaac? Because Isaac was the child of
promise, the son of the free woman. And that's the way it
is all the way through. Why did Ahab hate Micaiah? because he had the prophecy of
the Lord. The world hates God's elect because
of our doctrine, our gospel, because it's the gospel of God,
because it's the gospel of Christ, Because it's the gospel of the
cross. Because it's not a word. Because it's the gospel of grace. Because it's the gospel of God's
word. It came from God. And it's not of this world. not of this world. Turn over
to John chapter 17. And listen to our Lord as He speaks
in this high priestly intercessory prayer, beginning in verse 6. As he prays to the Father, he
says, I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest
me out of the world. Thine they were, and thou gavest
them me, and they have kept thy word. Now they have known that
all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee. For I have
given unto them the words which thou gavest me, and they have
received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee,
and they have believed that thou didst send me. I pray for them,
I pray not for the world." Someone said, If Christ had died
for everybody in the world, he would also intercede for everyone. I pray not for the world, I pray
for them. But for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine, and all mine are thine, and thine
are mine, and I am glorified in them. And now I am no more
in the world, but these are in the world. You know that the world there
means the earth. He said, I'm not on earth anymore,
but they're still on earth. And I come to thee, Holy Father,
keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that
they may be one as we are. While I was with them in the
world, I kept them in thy name, And those that thou gavest me
I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition,
that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to thee, and these
things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled
in themselves. I have given them thy word, and the world hath hated them,
because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest
take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil. They are not of the world, even
as I am not of the world. Christ said, I'm not in the world
any longer. I'm not on earth. But they're still in the earth. But even
though they're in the earth, they are not of this world. just
like I am not of this world. Look over at 1 John. 1 John chapter 2 and verse 15. John writes, Love not the world,
Neither the things that are in the world." Evidently, world means more than
just things, because he differentiates there. The things of the world. But love not the world. If any
man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh, The lust of the eyes, the pride of life,
is not of the Father, but is of the world, and the world passeth
away, and the lust thereof. But he
that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Look at chapter 4, 1 John. Verse 1, John writes, Beloved,
believe not every spirit, but try the spirits, whether they
are of God, because many false prophets are gone out into the
world. Hereby know ye the Spirit of
God, every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in
the flesh is of God, and every spirit that confesses not that
Jesus Christ is come in the flesh, is not of God. And this is that
spirit of Antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should
come, and even now it already is in the world. You are of God,
little children, and have overcome them, because greater is He that
is in you than he that is in the world. They are of the world,
therefore they speak of the world, and the world heareth them. But we are of God. He that knoweth
God heareth us. He that is not of God heareth
not us. Hereby we know Hereby know we
the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. Beloved, let us love
one another. That's amazing to me. Because
what he's saying here is, and in all these places is, don't
expect any love from the world, any approval, any comfort, but rather love one another. For love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God. He that loveth not
knoweth not God, for God is love. And in this was the love of God
toward us manifested toward us because God sent his only begotten
son in the world that we might live through him. Herein is love, not that we love
God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation
for our sins. Beloved, if God so loved us,
we ought also to love one another. And then chapter 5 and verse
19 of 1 John. Verse 19 he says, And we know
that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in
wickedness. I don't see but two groups there.
that world that is in God, of God, and that world that lies
in wickedness. And we know that the Son of God
is come and has given us an understanding that we may know Him that is
true, and we are in Him that is true, even in His Son, Jesus
Christ, This is the true God and eternal life. Little children,
keep yourselves from idols. There is that new creation, that
world, in the Lord Jesus Christ. So when you come back to John
3.16. In light of everything we've
read, and in light of much more that the
Bible says, there are these two worlds, the
world in God, in Christ, That new creation. And then there's
that world. That lies in wickedness. And that's why I say. These two
worlds collide. Every day. On every issue in
every place. So he says, for that reason especially, he commands us to love one another. To make sure that we demonstrate
love for one another, for those who, like ourselves, are not
of this world. We don't have the same gospel.
We don't have the same Savior. We don't have the same God. That's
why He says, keep yourselves from idols. The world He speaks of in John
3, 16 and says, for God so loved the world that He gave His only
begotten Son that whosoever should believe in Him should not perish
but have everlasting life. All of those things looked at
in scripture point to God's people. To the world of His elect. They are loved by Him. They believe
in Him. And they have eternal life. And
they will never perish. the world of his sheep, which
Christ gave his life for. So let us love one another, because if we're God's people,
truly, we won't be loved by everybody
else, or anybody else. I've seen what appear to be the
tightest bonds of physical and natural love, parents for children,
children for parents, husbands for wives. I've seen one of a group be distinguished
by the gospel that they are not of this world. And the love goes away. And you know who will love them? The others who are not of this
world. And they'll love them for Christ's
sake. And they'll love them as Christ,
not to the degree That Christ loves them. But in this same
manner, without any loveliness being in them. There's two worlds. Until Christ
comes again, they're going to be colliding. Those who are of
this world, those who are not of this world, but are of another
world. We pray, Father, tonight that
you would teach us. We're thankful that you cause
us to know what to expect, although it often shocks us and surprises
us and concerns us. but the world will hate your
people just like they hated you. They'll hate you, hate us for
your sayings as they hated you for your sayings. May we give thanks for your mercy
to us, praise for your glorious choice of us
unto salvation, and for enabling us to believe
the truth. Give us grace whereby we might
love one another as you commanded us. We thank
you for your people that you redeemed by your blood. We thank
you for every One you've chosen and redeemed
out of every kindred, tribe, tongue, and nation. They're precious in your sight.
Precious in our sight. We thank you and we pray for
each one in the name of Christ. Amen. Okay.