Let's go to the book of John,
the Gospel of John, the 15th chapter. And then I think we
will go to the book of Romans, the 3rd chapter. The Gospel of
John, 15th chapter, 25th verse. Jesus said, but this cometh to
pass. This hatred that the world has
for me. This comes to pass. that the
Word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. This
comes to pass because it was predicted and it was written
in the Old Testament that this was going to happen. This comes
to pass. They hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. Now let's go to Romans chapter
3. And here we will find just the
opposite of humanity's feelings toward God. And here we will
find God's feelings toward human beings. Romans 3, verse 23 and 24, For all have
sinned. How many? All. And all have come
short of the glory of God. Now watch it. Being justified
without a cause. Your King James Version says
freely. The Greek word is the same word that is used in John
15. They hated me without a cause. Here in Romans, it says we have
been justified by the Lord God of heaven without a cause. In other words, there was no
cause in you. that caused God to justify you. There was no
cause in Jesus Christ for men to hate Him. Everybody getting
my drift here. I want this to really sink in.
There ought to be some shouting in this place today if we really
get it. Being justified without a cause
by His grace. Sometimes Paul doesn't know what
words to use about this Good News Gospel about how sinners
are saved. So he says, you've been justified
without a cause by unmerited favor. Well, he just said that.
That's twice he said the same thing in just a few words. You've
been justified without a cause. You're not nearly as good as
you think you are. There was nothing in you that moved God
toward you. Without a cause. I know some
of you are going, there had to be some reason. Let me read it
again. Without a cause. By His unmerited
favor. How could such a thing happen?
Well, it's through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. They hated me without a cause.
Let's look at that first. How can that be? This has to be the real thing.
This has to be pure hate. Hate without any mixture of good. Hate without any mixture of rightness
or righteousness. Just pure hate. There was no
cause, Jesus said, in me for them to hate me. And yet the
Scripture, the Old Testament predicted That He would come
unto His own and His own would not receive Him. That the light
came into the world and the world refused the light. They hated
Him without a cause. One so lovable. One so pure as
the Savior. How can it be that He was hated
so much? It would seem that one is one
who is so altogether lovely that it would be far more difficult
to hate him than to love him. Let me say it again. It would
seem that it would be difficult to hate one that was so lovely. It would be more difficult to
hate him than to love him. But none are so blind as those
who cannot see. It would seem almost impossible
not to have affection for Him. And yet, as lovely as He was,
no being that has ever lived on this earth has so quickly
met up with hatred. He had no sooner been born in
Bethlehem than persecution and suffering began. From His birth
to the cross and cruel Crucifixion. He was hated. He had no sooner
entered the world than Herod would slaughter infants by the
thousands trying to get to this baby Jesus to kill him. You see,
it's always been this way. The great plot and ploy of Satan
and humanity is to wipe from the pages of history that name
that is above every name, the name of Jesus Christ. It would
seem that the whole world was in league against him. And all
men sought to destroy him. This hatred for Christ showed
itself in so many ways. Once he said, Abraham rejoiced
to see my day and was glad. Father Abraham in the Old Testament
looked down through the years of time and saw a coming Messiah,
a Savior, a Redeemer. and rejoiced to see His day.
And by faith, He received that message. And the Bible said when
Jesus said that, they took up stones to stone Him. Another occasion, they took Him
to a cliff and would have thrown Him over the cliff. But for His
deity, He walked out of their presence. They slandered him. They said, he's a drunken man.
He's a wine bidder, a friend of publicans and sinners. Oh,
they were right about that. They looked at him with suspicion
because he ate with publicans and sinners. He chummed with
them. He sat down at the table and had dinner with them with
unwashed hands of all things. Not just unwashed hands in the
sense that we wash our hands, but he didn't go through the
Pharisees' long ceremony. of religious hand-washing. And
they looked down on him. Jesus wasn't a religious man.
No. In fact, he had to start his
own church. At other times, they held their hatred in check. And
only... You know, there's other people
that think of themselves. Jesus never thought of himself.
Often in the Scriptures you find contemplating but not speaking
out loud how they hated Him. They thought among themselves,
like, who does this man think he is? And look at this guy. He eats with publicans and sinners.
The ultimate hate, though, shows itself at the cross. After conspiring
to put Him to death, their hatred is consummated and they nail
Him to the tree. and wag their heads like crazy
people going by the cross. If you can rebuild the temple
in three days, come down off the cross and save yourself. He was despised and rejected
of men. And I guess the natural question
this morning would be, why? Let's just defend the Savior
a little bit. Not that He needs defending,
but to show you they hated Him without a cause. Maybe it was jealousy. But why
would they be jealous of Him? You may be jealous because I
drive a Hummer. I don't know. You might be. I don't know. No preacher should
drive a Hummer. You may be jealous about that.
You may be. I really don't give a rip, but
you may be. But there was nothing to be jealous
of. with regard to Christ. He was a lowly peasant of Galilee. He wore the garb of peasants. You wouldn't have found J.C.
Pinay written on his suits. He was a peasant. My goodness,
he had no rank or title. He was homeless. He said, the
birds of the air have their nests. The foxes have their holes. But
the Son of Man has no place to lay His head. So, they couldn't
have been jealous of Him. They couldn't have hated Him
out of jealousy. He didn't rule over them. He
wasn't some religious dictator. He wasn't a marshal or a governor
or a reverend or a pope. He made of Himself no reputation. He never made Wall Street Journal.
When the woman who was about to be stoned for committing adultery
was brought to Him, He said, neither do I condemn thee. Go
and sin no more. They hated Him without a cause.
Sometimes we dislike people because people we dislike are proud.
There are some people we would like a whole lot more if they
didn't have so much starch in them. It just sticks out of them. They'll walk and talk. They're
proud of themselves. One of the old Puritans said,
when we see a fox tail sticking out of a hole, we naturally expect
the fox to be there. When you see pride sticking out
of folks, you can expect them to be proud and haughty. But
Jesus wasn't proud or haughty. There was no pride in the Savior.
If there was pride in the Savior, why did He touch the leper who
was unclean? He didn't even have to touch
the leper. He could have just spoke to the leper, but he touched
the leper. There was no pride in him. He
would sit down by the publican who was the greatest of sinners
in those days. He would speak to the harlot.
They hated him without a cause. Others we don't like to be around
because they're angry people. They're snappish and miserable.
There was something like this. There was nothing like this about
this Savior. When he was reviled, he reviled
not again, the Scripture said. There are other people who are
selfish. You've probably taken people
to lunch, or you've gone out to lunch with people who say,
you know what, I left my wallet at home. How convenient it is. But you
know, after five or six times, I catch on. But Jesus didn't
have a particle of self-centeredness in Him. He saved others. Even His enemy said that. He
saved others Himself. He did not save. Yes, that's
my Lord. That's my Savior. That's my Redeemer.
There are others who are hard to like because they're hypocrites. But with Jesus, He was without
variableness or shadow of turning. He was no hypocrite. He was the
real thing. They hated Him without a cause. That's what I'm trying
to show you. Sometimes people hate us because
of our mission. They don't like our mission or
our message. But Jesus' mission and message
was a wonderful one. Jesus came to explain the mysteries
of the Old Testament. You know, in the Old Testament,
you find the sacrificial lamb. You know, the lamb that was to
be shut up for 10 days or 14 days and to be washed. It was
to be a male lamb. And you had to make sure that
it was without spot or blemish or any such thing. And then that
male lamb was slaughtered and the Israelis put the blood on
the two sides of the door lintel. And when the death angel came
over and saw the blood passed over them, Jesus said, I am the
sacrificial lamb. I am the substitute. That was
a mystery. I am the lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Remember the story of the scapegoat?
The high priest took two goats. One they killed, took the blood.
and sprinkled it on the mercy seat. The priest confessed the
sins of the people and then a fit man led that goat out of the
camp further and further away until finally you can neither
see the man or the goat. Jesus said, I'm the scapegoat. I not only shed my blood for
you, but I took your sins out of sight. That's what Jesus said. That's the glory of it. The brazen
serpent. The ark. He's all of those things. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. Why would you hate Him? Why was
He hated? He came to take my sins and grief
upon Himself to carry my sorrows. Should I hate the man who loved
me more than I love myself? His mission ought to cause us
to sin, not hate. Not hate Him. The gospel ought
to cause you to sing. When you leave here today, you
ought to leave here singing. Because it's good news, glad
tidings. Man is a hater of the Savior.
If you're here without Christ, you hate Him. There is no neutral
ground. God invaded history. God came down in time. My goodness,
how we're missing it here around December the 25th. We got a red
man in a jumpsuit or some kind of long bearded guy that's running
around with a bag of gifts. We totally missed it. God has
come to earth. Are you excited about that? I'm
excited about that. He came to earth. And if I'm going to talk about
sin, you know, I don't spend too much time talking about adultery
here. I don't have to tell you Christians
adultery is wrong. You know that. I don't talk about
fornications too much or murder. I don't even talk about sodomy
too much, except during this time of same-sex marriage. But
I'll tell you this, I don't talk about wars and bloodshed and
cruelties and rebellions and that sort of thing too much. If I'm going to tell you of man's
sin, it would be this, deicide. What that means is when God came
down here, we murdered Him. Now let's talk about sin. In
comparison to adultery, murdering the God-man, now we're talking
about sin. Say, well, you know, Pastor,
I just don't believe man is totally depraved. You're out of your
head. You are totally out of your head. Where's Miss Pamp? You're in
denial. You slew the Savior. Now we're
talking about sin. If man is so good, what is the
God-man doing on the middle cross? If man could be saved any other
way, what is the God-man doing on the cross? Tell me about the
reason for the cross. And tell me who put Him there.
Put God to death. This is the essence of all sin.
When the old Puritan said, Man outdid himself when he crucified
the Savior. Now, enough of that. I want you
to think about this a little bit. God has loved us. God has loved us. And He has loved us without a
cause. Now we're talking about grace.
Oh, this is grace. I told the first crowd, I'm going
to tell you, I preached this much better last night to myself.
And when I got to preaching, I got to walking. I enjoyed church
so much all by myself last night. I can preach good by myself. See, the truth is when I bring
this message of God's free and sovereign grace, I enter into
it too. I'm as happy as many of you are
right now. If I had wings, I would fly. I'm floating. You know what I mean. Unless
you're the frozen chosen, you know what I mean. Being justified without a cause. Why would God love me? If you've
got an answer for that, you're going to hell. Because there
is no reason found in you for God to love you or me. See, now this is where the rubber
meets the road. This is where most churches,
you're not going to hear this. They're going to tell you there
was some reason in you. There was some cause in you.
God saw something in you. But the Bible says just the opposite.
In Psalm 14, God got out of His big telescope. He is looking
for a good man and woman. Just one. That's all. Just one. And the Bible says, God said,
don't see a one. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There is none good. There's none
that has sought after Me. Their throat is an open supplicant. The poison of Asp is under their
tongue. You see, we're loved without a cause. You're not saved
because Grandpa was. You know, my grandchildren have
to be saved themselves. And Grandpa Dan said, you must
be born again. And you can't be born yourself
again. You see, the truth is this. It's not my pedigree. It's not what church you belong
to or where you go. It was without a cause. If I
were you, I wouldn't stand before God on the Day of Judgment and
say I was a Baptist, a Catholic, a Methodist, or Presbyterian.
Because that isn't going to cut it. I was the babe in the open
field in the book of Ezekiel. I was laying out there in the
open field. My mother was a heathen and my father was a heathen. And gave birth to a heathen.
Didn't even cut my navel. They laid me out there in the
field. I was a babe without strength. Bloody and ugly and dirty. Left
to the wiles of this world. And then God came walking. God
came by, and it was a time of love, and He looked upon that
little helpless, bloody creature that I was and said, live! He loved me and clothed me. Without
a cause, I'm loved. You say, that doesn't make any
sense. I know, that's because we're
all crazy. That's why it doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense. Unmerited favor! I was Gomer,
cheating on the lover of my soul, unfaithful and whoring around
with this world. And He tracked me. He sent His
servant after me and followed me in my whoring and in my lewdness
and in my lostness. And when I got in trouble, His
servant was there to protect me and provide for me so I wouldn't
die. Because there was a point in
time when He and I were going to meet up. No wonder in the
book of Hosea. Hosea closes that book by saying,
God has said, I will love them freely. I will love them without
a cause. This is a picture of God's love.
Hosea and Gomer. I was sinking deep in sin, far
from the peaceful shore. But with tender hands, He lifted
me. From shades of night to planes
of light, oh praise His name, He lifted me. But it wasn't because
of anything good in me. He found me in the miry clay.
He set me on the rock. And He established my goings. I was in the dark cellar of my
own choices. You say, well, Pastor, it sounds
like you don't believe man is responsible. I believe man is
responsible. But the problem is, as responsible
as he is, He's a slave to His own will and His own nature.
Yes, He's accountable. Accountable to turn and look
to God, but He will not until God turns Him. You've got to
be turned by the turner. When I was in that cellar of
darkness and blackness and no hope and no way of escape, He
cast a ray of light in there. He cast a ray of light into that
dark cellar. For the first time in my life,
I saw there's spiders and snakes and rats in this cellar. I'm
a hater of God. He turned the lights on. You
ever had the lights turned on? I'll tell you this, until the
lights come on, you don't need a Savior. You don't think you
do. But brother, when the lights come on, you begin to beg for
mercy. Yeah. I don't want God to give me what
I deserve. There's snakes down here. in this cellar of my heart. See, I was hiding in the bushes
like Adam and Eve. I was hiding like Adam and Eve. I'd made myself fig leaf aprons.
I was goody two-shoes. I was a preacher's kid. That's
me. That's me. I'm hiding from God in the Baptist church every
Sunday morning. Sunday night, Wednesday night,
visitation on Tuesday. But in my cellar there are snakes. Until Jesus came hiding in the
bushes with my fifth lease aprons. And then God came walking and
sought me out. Kid, where art thou? See, I wasn't hiding in the bushes
saying the sinner's prayer. I wasn't hiding in the bushes
thinking, oh, I'd love to come to Jesus. I was hiding. I mean, who else could Adam and
Eve been hiding from? The animals? Who were they hiding
from? Who else would have known that
naked? The dog? What did he say, Eve? He said,
you're naked. God came walking and found Adam
and Eve. He made a difference when there
was none. That's what I'm saying. I was on the dung hill of sin.
A tumble bug. A worthless piece of dung. And
God found me. And you know what? There was
a lot of tumble bugs on that dung hill. He picked up this
one and said, I want this one. Passed by that one. Wait a minute! Wait a minute! Both the same
dung bugs? Yeah. Both the same? Look the like? Act the same?
Yeah. But without cause in the dung
bug, he picked one. I don't like that. I don't like
that. I think God ought to give everybody
a chance. You're so funny. How come you've been using crack
for 25 years? How come? How come you've been
using heroin? How come some of you have been
hiding in church all this time? You're still not saved. Still not saved. Just hiding. Tumble bug. If there's ever going
to be a difference, God's going to have to make it. It's true. You folks who are in here who
think you're better than somebody else because you made your decision
for Jesus, let me tell you, you're still a tumble bug. A lost one. It is not your will. God did
not look down from heaven and say, well, there's Johnny. And
look at Johnny. He's decided, he's 55 now, and
he's decided he's not going to use heroin anymore. He's going
to come out from under the bridge and out of the hood and give
his heart to Jesus. I don't think so. I'll tell you,
when you come out from under the bridge, when God comes and
gets you, you're going to stay under the bridge until God comes
and gets you. But when God comes and gets you, you're coming to
Jesus Christ. Who has made you to differ from
another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now,
if thou didst receive it, why dost thou glory as if thou didst
not receive it? You say, preacher, are you saying
God doesn't have to save me? Exactly. God doesn't owe you anything
but hell. And anything short of that is mercy and grace. See, I'm making it tough this
morning because, you see, I made the Wall Street Journal. And
we made Crane's Magazine. And what the temptation becomes
is to water this thing down. Now you're floating with the
big shots. Now you're getting a lot of publicity, so you kind
of water it down. I'm not going to water it down.
That's why, just get me in the newspaper more and you're going
to hear, you're going to have sermons on Sunday like you've
never heard. It'll put fire in me. Because my greatest fear
is that we get to thinking we are something besides the tumble
bugs. That we haven't been saved by grace alone, through the blood
of Jesus Christ. And yes, I believe in election
and predestination. Yes! It's true. God elected His
people before the foundation of the world. Ephesians 1, 4,
"...according as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation
of the world." And you were not a registered voter when He elected
you. So, I love this part. Without
a cause, He redeemed us. He didn't just sweep our sin
under the rug. He actually redeemed us. And
let me tell you folks who don't believe in particular redemption,
let me just tell you this. If He didn't actually redeem
us, who's going to redeem us? To redeem means to buy out, to
purchase off of and out of the slave market of sin. It means
to pay the price, to lay the price down, to pay it in full. 2,000 years ago, I was purchased, bought
and paid for in full. Isn't that something? Isn't that
something? That's a good start though, isn't
it? He paid for all of my sins. Hang on to your seats now. All
you folks that believe salvation is by something you did, hold
on to your seats now. Listen, saints. He paid for sins that
you haven't even committed yet. What did that man just say? Let
me say it again. He paid for sins that you haven't
even committed yet. Say, how could that be? Because
you haven't got there yet and haven't committed them. That
doesn't mean they're not paid for. Say, well, I'm not planning
on committing any more sin. I know you're not planning on
it. If you're a child of God, you're not planning on it. But
just in case, wouldn't it be a good thing that He paid for
your future sins too? I mean, do you expect that maybe
tomorrow you're going to have a perfect day? That's where the word mistake
came from. People don't say, I sinned anymore.
I think I made a mistake. Yeah, He redeemed me. He paid
the debt in full. Some of you, Listen, little child
of God. Stop reliving your life. Stop reliving it. I'm talking
about the bad parts. Stop. Stop. I did this, and I
did that, and I did this, and I've done that. Yes, and so have
I, and so have 200, 300 other people here. Let me tell you
this. They're all paid for. Is that good news? God doesn't want you... You know,
the Lord keeps reminding me. Let me tell you, friend, the
Lord doesn't remember your sins. Well, the Lord knows everything.
I know that. Don't get into that discussion with me. It's silly.
The Lord just wants you to know that your sins are gone. Don't
fret about them. They're all paid for. Somebody
say hallelujah for me. Alright, good. Just wanted to
know that some of you were getting it. But it gets gooder. Not only
was I redeemed, not only that, and redeemed without a cost,
I mean, He just loved me. Piece of dung that I was, worm
that I was, maggot that I was, He loved me without a cost. There
was nothing in me. Oh, my friend, this is wonderful. You see, I'm a justified sinner. Being justified without a cause
by His unmerited favor. Redeemed by His blood. That's
how He did it. I'm justified. Kylie, were you pardoned? You
received a what? Commutation. It's not the same
thing as justification. In fact, This justification is
something that no judge, no governor, no president can do. Only God
can justify the sinner. It's a legal term. I've already
forgot the word that Cooper told me this morning when you get
your things wiped out. Expunged! You get a hold of one
of these. Expunged! It's not like expunged. They never were there. They're
gone, but where are they gone? They're gone, gone, gone, gone.
Buried in the deepest sea. Yes, that's good enough for me.
I shall live eternally, praise God. My sins are gone. Removed
as far as the east is from the west. Your sins will be searched
for, but they will not be found. And when Satan, old sleuth foot,
comes before the court of heaven and accuses you, God says, didn't
see it, don't remember it. Not there. That means it's gone. It's not on the records. Somebody
said it's under the blood. It's not under the blood. It's
gone. If you could lift up the blood, you wouldn't find your
sins. I can't even explain it to you. But last night, I had
a good time with it. I got up twice from my desk.
I'm justified. Just as if I never sinned. It's
more than that. Think about it. A joint error
with Jesus Christ. Quit living down there in fear
and regret. Listen, the devil has enough
on all of us. You know why Paul gave us Romans
8? Because he knew between our conscience and slew-foot, the
devil, we were going to be accused. That's why He said, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies
us. What other court are you going
to take the charge of sin to? You can't get above God. And
if God has justified us, if God has said we're not guilty, we're
not guilty, folks. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is Christ that died. Well,
wait a minute. See, your sins were paid for,
and three days and three nights, heaven waited in suspense to
see if it was accepted. You know, you need a receipt.
And God gave the receipt when He said, Come up hither. And
up from the grave He arose. And the second receipt is, He
said, Sit here at My right hand. You're accepted. The payment
is accepted. The preacher is running around
here trying to get people to accept the blood of Jesus Christ.
The blood of Jesus Christ was not offered to you. It was offered
to God. And God accepted it. And the
payment has been made in full. This is what God says to you.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt have been saved.
He justified us. All of this with no cost. All
of us here today We just could think about it. I pray like this. Lord, just come down in our church
in such a way and let the saints receive what is the greatness
of His power to us who believe. Let the saints enter in to God
has saved you. Where they sing, oh, how marvelous! Oh, how wonderful is the Savior's
love to me! where the saints are in a state
of absolute wonderment. Alas, and did my Savior bleed? And did my Sovereign die? Would
He devote that sacred head for such a worm as I? Oh, at the
cross, at the cross where I first saw the light and the burden
of my heart rolled away. Oh, my sin not in part, but the
whole is nailed to His cross, and I beg no more. It is well,
it is well with my soul. There is a fountain filled with
blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath that
flood lose all their guilty stains. They don't have to be acting
silly now. I'll tell you, you ever get drunk with the Spirit
of God, you act silly too? Not really silly, just kind of
lightheaded. Some of you know how crazy you
get when you get drunk, right? Sometimes drunk people just get
so happy. And God's people look like prunes.
I'm telling you the greatest story ever told. Some of you ladies watch those
slop operas. I mean, soap operas. And Johnny runs off with Susie,
who is the wife of Uncle Bill. And you're sitting there watching
that crazy. What happened? Susie ran off with Bill, she
died. And then I tell the story about
the man who came from glory. Some of you have gone to see
the movie, Lincoln, and I understand it's great. But let me tell you,
Lincoln can't compare to Jesus Christ. Lincoln came from the
little log cabin up to the great White House. But I want to tell
you about one who came from the White House down to the log cabin
because he so loved poor things. Emmanuel. All right.