Alright brethren, let's go back
now to John chapter 15. The Lord says here in verse 18,
If the world hate you, you know that it hated me before it hated
you. The Lord declares that His people
shall be hated by the world. And he is particularly speaking
of the religious world. He says down in verse 25, But
this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that
is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
He speaks particularly there of the scribes and Pharisees,
the religious world. Now there is no doubt that the
irreligious world will persecute God's people. But there's no
greater hatred toward God's people, toward Christ and His people,
than the religious world who preaches another Jesus that's
not another. Religion without Christ is hard,
it's stoic, it's stern, it's unmerciful, it's unforgiving.
And the Lord said, verily I say unto you, that the publicans
and the harlots go into the kingdom before you. That's what He said
to the Pharisees. This hatred is one reason the
Lord has spent this last night, before He goes to the cross,
speaking to His disciples and to us, declaring to His people
what He shall do for us, what He shall continue to do for us,
to keep us believing Him and loving one another. And this
is why we will need to love one another. Now the very things
that Christ declared that He has and shall do to save His
people, up to this point, and He'll declare as we go further
in John, the very things Christ declared that He has and shall
do to keep His people believing Him and loving one another, this
is the power of God. that the religious world for
which they hate Christ and for which they hate his people. This
is the power they deny and it is the very hatred. It stirs
up the enmity of their heart when we declare these things
that Christ shall do. Now I want to review a little
bit to point some of this out. I told somebody yesterday I'd
like to go back and preach from John 13 all the way back up to
this point, but let me give you just a little bit of it. Our
Lord Jesus began this night after Judas, well Judas was still there,
but He began this night by washing the disciples' feet. Bowed down
and washed their feet. And He made this statement when
He did this, He told Peter, those I've washed in my blood, those
I've justified, they're clean everywhere. They're clean, they're
perfect, just what we saw this morning. But He's declaring that
your feet will become defiled. And you'll need your brethren
to wash your feet. And so he says, wash one another's
feet. Now he showed us by bowing down and actually washing the
disciples' feet. Then he declared what he was
showing us when he said in chapter 13, verse 34, a new commandment
I give unto you, that you love one another as I have loved you,
that you also love one another. That's what he was declaring
when he said, wash one another's feet. love one another as I have
loved you. The religious world that hates
Christ only understands that in the letter. They only understand
that in the letter. And here's what they understand.
The religious world examines others how they are loving. They're constantly focused on
how others are loving. But when Christ abides in us
and we worship Him in spirit, He's going to keep us examining
our own selves. He's going to come to you and
speak to you personally, and here's going to be his question
to you. He's going to bring you to ask yourself, am I loving
my brethren as Christ loved me? He's going to bring us to ask
our personally ourselves, am I washing my brother's feet when
they offend me? as Christ washes mine when I
offend Him." Now, the Lord showed us how we're
to do so. He told Peter, Peter would deny
Him. Now that happened in direct connection with the hatred of
the world hating Christ. Peter's denial was in direct
connection with the world hating Christ. Peter denied the Lord
because he feared the hatred of men who hated Christ. That's
why he denied Him. And sometimes you who believe
are going to deny the Lord for fear of this world. Have you ever done it? I've done
it. The religious world without Christ
only knows the letter of the Word and worships in the letter
of the Word. Our Lord said, if any man deny
Me, him will I deny before My Father. So let me pull that Word
out. That's it for you, Peter. You
denied Him. It's over for you. You can't be a believer. You
denied Him three times and you left. And you didn't just leave
yourself, you took all the apostles with you and led them to leave
the Lord. But the Lord shows us what worshipping
God in newness of spirit is, what love is, how to wash one
another's feet. The Lord loved Peter. So immediately
when He said that there in John 14, Verse 1, immediately when he
told Peter this, he said, let not your heart be troubled. Let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. I'm going to prepare a place
for you, Peter. That's what he told him. And
if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive
you to myself where I am. There you may be also. And when
our Lord arose, He went to Peter and he did just that. He restored
him and received him to himself. And you know what he asked Peter
when he came to restore him? Peter, have you repented enough? Peter, do you love me? That's all he asked him. He said,
Lord, you know all things. You know I love you. He said,
now go feed my lambs with what you've learned through this fall.
Go feed them and teach them what I've taught you by you falling
miserably, denying me, sinning so against me in vile unbelief,
and yet I restored you. Now go tell them what you learned." Thomas and Philip were in unbelief.
They said, we don't know where you're going. We don't know the
way. Philip said, show us the Father.
It will suffice. If you just show us the Father,
then we'll believe you. Now the God-hating world worships
in the letter. They know the scripture that
says if any man believes not on Christ, he's none of His.
Well, that was just blatant unbelief. Christ loved them. He washed
their feet by declaring the gospel to them. He said, I'm the way,
the truth, and the life. He sent me, if you've seen me,
you've seen the Father. He's telling them, you believe
in God, believe also in Me. And then He said this, now listen,
I'm just going to give you sort of the overview of what He's
saying in the whole portion. But right after that, He told
them, the works I'm doing, the Father's working them in Me.
And then He said, and I'm going to the Father, and I'm going
to send another Comforter to you, to comfort you. And I and
my Father are going to come to you, and just like the Father
is working in me and causing me to do and will of His good
pleasure, I'm going to work in you and keep you doing my good
pleasure. When you fall in your unbelief,
when you deny me, when you sin, I'm going to bring these things
to your remembrance. I'm going to turn you to me,
show you how I've made you every wick clean, and I'm going to
wash your feet through the Spirit, and I'm going to keep you believing
me and continuing in my love. That's how you worship in newness
of spirit. And that's what we declare to
one another to remind one another. He said in John 14, 26, the Spirit
when He comes, He'll bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever
I said to you. And here's what He's telling
them. Peace I leave with you. Peace I give unto you. Not as
the world gives. I'm not loving you like the world
loves. I'm not loving you like the religious world loves. The
religious world would have put you under the yoke of bondage
and put you on church watch, treated you awful. I'm giving
you peace. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. There's no discipline like forgiveness.
There's no discipline like beholding Christ, having completed His
people and made us perfect in Christ to break our heart and
make us follow Him. Now the world hasn't experienced
this power of God, but the believer has. So as he continues, now
you'll fall in your unbelief and you'll do You deny Him, you
do these things from time to time, but our Lord is going to
keep you worshiping Him in newness of spirit. It's not going to
be idyllic. The church is not the ideal that
young believers start out thinking it's going to be. Your life's
not going to be that, and you soon find that out. And the church
is not that way. Your relationships are not going
to be that way. Young preachers get called to
the ministry and they find out real soon it ain't the ideal
that they had in their mind it was going to be. They soon find
out their fellow pastors they love are sinners and offend them. And they offend them. But this
is why the Lord is teaching us this. You're going to offend
and you're going to be offended. And if we love like the world
loves, you'll do what the Lord does,
what the worldly church does. We need Christ keeping us because
we need each other. And this is what the Lord is
going to keep working by His power and His grace. And the
Lord put all this together, all of this He had been teaching,
when He said this, I am the vine and my Father is the husband
and you are the branches. Christ is the good tree who brings forth good fruit.
his converts and his people are going to be like him. And the
evil tree, the Pharisees, their converts are going to be just
like them. He assures us it's so because he says, without me
you can do nothing. But the world who hates Christ
and his disciples are described by Paul when he said, if a man
thinks himself something when he is nothing, Christ said, without me you can
do nothing. Paul said, and a man thinks himself something. When
he is nothing and he can do nothing, he deceives himself. They take the offense out of
the cross only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross
of Christ. And they put a heavy hand on
sinners to coerce them to do what they think they ought to
do so they can glory in what they forced them to do. And they're
not doing what God tells us to do when they do that. They're judges of Christ's law
of faith and love, but being a judge and speaking evil of
your brother is not being a doer. It's saying God's rule of His
law of faith to trust Christ, that's not a good law. Saying
His rule to love one another when they fall and they need
you to wash their feet, that's not a good law. They're putting
themselves in the judgment seat where Christ is and saying, we
know better. We can do this better. And James
said there's just one lawgiver. He's able to save and he's able
to destroy. Who are thou that judges another? Speaks evil of you, brother.
So that's how the world is going to go and that's how they're
going to keep going in their religion. You will do things
the world will do, but God's going to keep you. He's going
to correct you. I took pictures out here when we worked on the
flower beds and put out the mulch to send to Brother Laxman and
Sister Devika. And if you looked at those pictures
and just looked at those pictures, you'd say, man, y'all didn't
get much done. Because there's a whole lot of standing around
and a whole lot of talking and a whole lot of just having fun.
But if you had shot of the whole day, you'd see everything we
got done. And a believer's life is not
snapshots. A believer's life is the whole
of his life. And the whole of his life is
going to be determined when he draws that last breath if Christ
has kept him trusting the Lord until the end. And that's what
He's going to do for His people. And so our Lord again in chapter
15, verse 12 and 13, He says, This is My commandment, He says
it again, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater
love hath no man than this, than that he lay down his life for
his friend. Christ laid down His life for His friends, His
people. And when He did it, we hated Him with everything in
us. He didn't do it because we were loving Him. He did it when
we hated Him. That's the kind of love He's
talking about. He bore our shameful sin and
our curse and He made us the righteousness of God in Him so
that God says now of His people, who shall lay anything to the
charge of mine elect is God that justifieth. And Christ makes His child know
this in spirit. And He says, now you are My friends.
I have made known unto you this Gospel of My Father. Now you,
My friend, love your brethren who are My friends, just like
I have loved you. Love your brethren as I have
loved you. Even as He loved them that very
night. Look how He loved them that very night. Knowing their
heart, knowing what they were going to do, knowing all... He
knew. All that list of the sins of
the flesh we just read, that was in their heart. And He knew
it. That's all that was in their flesh. That's all their flesh
was. And He knew it. And He loved them. And He taught them the gospel
again. And that's how He washed their feet. And that's how He
loves us. And now he says, all these commands
I have spoken to you so that you love one another. Now, then
he tells us that why we need to love one another is, not only
are you going to be offended from within by your brethren,
this religious world and this irreligious world, everybody
without Christ is going to hate us. And we need each other. Sheep have to flock together.
And sheep need a shepherd. And we need each other. to have
His Gospel and to have Him. Now look at verse 18. He says,
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated
you. If you were of the world, the
world would love His own. But because you're not of the
world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. He just told us, He just got
through telling us the reason you're going to continue abiding
in Me and you're going to bear fruit, and you're going to continue
to the end, and I'm going to convert others through you that
are going to be first fruits that I'm going to convert through
your gospel." The reason he assured us of that, he said, you've not
chosen me, but I've chosen you. And I ordained you, I predestinated
you, that you should go forth and bring forth fruit, and your
fruit shall remain, that whatsoever you shall ask in the Father,
the Father in my name, He may give it to you. And now He tells
us, because of that very electing grace, because of that very predestinating
grace, the world is going to hate you. The world is going
to hate you. The world did not hate Christ
for doing good works. They did not. The world is not
going to hate you for doing them good. You ever had anybody hate
you for doing them good? The world is not going to hate
you for doing them good. They hated Christ when He said,
I know my sheep and you are not my sheep. I and my Father are
one and we save and keep the sheep. That is when they hated
Him. That is when they hated Him. They picked up stones and
He said, What good work are you stoning me for? And they said,
For a good work we stone thee not, but for blasphemy, because
that thou being a man, makest thyself God. The world hates
that God is God, especially the religious world. They hate that
God is God, that the triune God manifests in the man Christ Jesus,
that He is God, our Savior, absolutely sovereign. The world hates this. The world hates that God chose
whom He would and passed by whom He would. The world hates that
the successful Redeemer came and laid down His life for His
sheep and accomplished our redemption and made us absolutely righteous
and perfect so that God will never again charge His people
with sin. The world hates that message.
You can't tell a sinner that, they say. That's the message
they hate. That's the only message God's
going to bless to turn us from our sin and turn us to Him. And
by our sin, I include in that what God includes in that our
foul, obnoxious, horrendous self-righteousness of thinking we're doing something
that's going to make us accepted of God. The world hates us because we
declare it's the Spirit that makes us be born again, and the
Spirit that keeps us abiding in Christ, and the Spirit that
keeps His people loving one another, so that when brethren fall, we
trust Christ, and believe Christ, and really manifest that we believe
God's sovereign. That He's working in the hearts
of His people. We preach the Word manifest, and we believe
He's doing it through the Gospel of Christ. And we manifest we
really have no confidence in our flesh by not turning to our
flesh again and trying to make people do what we think they
ought to do. We can't do anything of ourselves. And the world hates that message
when you say, I am what I am by the grace of God. The world
hates that message. Little lordly man is offended.
Because God didn't consult with his will. And God don't receive
his works. He's offended. Offended that
not only Christ is the author of our faith, but he's the finisher.
Man wants to try to say he's the author of his faith, and
he started out in faith by himself, but he isn't accepting Jesus.
And if he can't do it that way, he at least wants to get in on
the back end and say, well, now I had to do something to keep
myself holy and make myself holy. This always ends up being the
case with Pharisees. I've seen it and it's always
the case. The Pharisees rejected Christ
and chose the works of Moses, their own works. That always
ends up being the case. The world always rejects the
gospel in favor of their works, always. But Christ makes His
child know it's the same sovereign electing, predestinating, redeeming
grace that is your security. The very thing the world hates
is your security. God the Father choosing you and
keeping you in the blood and righteousness of Christ because
of what He's done for you, that's your security. He's predestinated
the end from the beginning and that's your security. Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, our Lord said, you've not chosen me, I've
chosen you. I've ordained you. You shall
go forth and bring forth fruit. Now secondly, we'll suffer the
world's hatred because Christ suffered it. You're gonna suffer
it because Christ suffered it. Verse 20, he says, remember the
word that I said to you, the servant's not greater than his
Lord. If they've persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they've kept my saying, they will keep yours also. If we're
gonna be witnesses of the man of sorrows acquainted with grief,
our Lord's gonna seek to it. We're gonna be men of sorrows
acquainted with grief. If we're going to bear witness
of Him, it's one of the ways He's going to make us value Christ's
suffering for us and what He did on our behalf. One of the
ways. Every man of the world that the
sinless God-man encountered hated Him. Think about that. Everybody
He encountered hated Him. Everybody. And if they didn't do it outwardly,
they were doing it in their heart and He knew their heart. Everybody. And he never stopped doing good
to people in this world. Even them that weren't his. Can
we actually, would we dare think we're righteous? They came with rocks in their
hands, they brought that woman caught in adultery, and they're
ready to stone that woman to death. That would be the equivalent
When Joe broke his leg the other day, and I guarantee you anybody
standing around that wasn't a parent of Joe, if there's anybody standing
around that saw it, in their heart, this is what they're thinking.
Well, if they took better care of him, that wouldn't have happened.
You know what the mother was doing, or the father, whichever
one was with him? They were having compassion on
that child with their hearts breaking because that child was
hurt, because they love him. It's a difference in law and
grace. Difference in law and grace. They came with those rocks in
their hands. Here's this woman caught in adultery who needs,
she needs to be saved from this. And they're ready to kill her.
They're ready to stone her to death. Why? This is what the
letter of the law says. What do you say? What do you
say, you who are God and gave the law? That's not what they
were thinking. And then by the end of that chapter,
after he preached the gospel to them, they were ready to take
those same stones and stone him. Holy men! Holy men! Christ said they are
going to do the exact same thing to you. Cain killed Abel because
Abel came in the blood of a lamb and that was his only righteousness.
He wasn't looking to himself for one thing, he was trusting
Christ alone. And God received him and accepted
him. And that made Cain angry and
he killed his brother because of it. I bet you Cain looked
at Abel and thought, how could God accept that man? I'm a much
better man than he is. Look at my farm, look at my plants,
look at everything I've grown. Cain, Abel's got a few little
old sheep over there. Look at what I do for mom and
daddy. Look at what I do. Look at how well I manage my
affairs. And look at Abel! And he accepted him? When I get
him out in the field, I show him I don't accept him. And it
killed him. And I don't doubt that Abel was
in that field trying to tell Cain, Cain, I'm not any better
than you. have favor on me because of anything
in me. I am a wretched, vile, puddle
of puke. I'm a sinner. Never done one
good thing. Never thought one good thing.
Everything in my flesh is sin. God did this by grace. And that
just sounded to Cain like, so you're saying you're better than
I am. And killed him. But he says, if they kept my
word, they'll keep yours also. Christ says, my sheep are my
voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And if they kept my
word, they're going to keep yours also. John quoted this. Here's how the Spirit gave him
the word to put it. He said in 1 John 4, 4, you are of God,
little children, and have overcome them because, here's the reason,
greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. They
are of the world, therefore, They speak they of the world.
If you notice there's a difference in the world's gospel and the
gospel of grace. They're speaking of the world.
And so the world hears them. There's a different hearing of
the world, just like there's a different speaking of the world.
They hear what the world speaks, what they preach. He said, We
are of God, and he that knoweth God heareth us, he that is not
of God heareth not us, and hereby know we the Spirit of truth and
the Spirit of error. God's children can't endure a
false message that gives sinners room to glory and robs God of
His glory. We can't hear the message that
makes our God and Savior's blood common, that makes it ineffectual,
that says there's some sense in which He died for everybody.
No, there isn't. We can't hear the message that's going to turn
sinners from Christ to their own works and make them end up
finding something in themselves to put a little confidence in.
We can't stand that message. I want to be laid low in the
dust when I hear the gospel. Don't you? I want to be reminded
there's nothing in me whereby I can put any confidence. It's
all Christ. It's all Christ. These things
I'm preaching to you, these aren't practical things to the world.
They don't hear this as practical. What I'm telling you is the most
practical thing there is. Now, the world who hates Christ
also hates God the Father, because Christ strips away their disguise. They hate the Father too. Not
just Christ, they hate God the Father. He said, verse 21, But
all these things they'll do to you for My name's sake, because
they know not Him that sent Me. Verse 23 says, He that hateth
Me hates My Father also. I was standing one time and there
was a Jewish lady and a Catholic lady. And they were talking.
And I was just standing right behind them and overheard them.
And the Jewish lady said, we don't believe Jesus is Messiah. And the Catholic lady said, well,
we do. And the Jewish lady said, we believe it's a necessity to
keep the law in order to be saved. And the Catholic lady said, we
do too. And they concluded, well, we're not that different. Our Lord said, the person that
doesn't believe Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, is God, hates the
Father too. He's Antichrist. And the fact
of the matter was, they were the same. Because they were both
trying to come to God by their words. I said, but Christ is
God. And we're only saved by His righteousness
alone. And they both turned on me. Now I want you to think of the
irony of this statement. All these things they will do
for my name's sake because they know not Him that sent me." Now
think about this. They hate God the Father who
is love. That's who He is. He is love. And He manifests His love by
sending His only Son to lay down His life for sinners who hated
Him. if they knew Him, if they knew
Him who sent Christ, that He is love, and that He sent Christ
because He is love, and He sent Him manifesting His love to save
a bunch of God-hating rebels just simply because He would,
because He loved them. That's where God makes you fall
at His feet and say, thank you, Lord, when He makes you see you're
the God-hating rebel. Till we've been the God-hating
rebel, we don't even know Him. Till we realize everything about
our flesh hated God. All that fine, wonderful religious
works we were doing and thinking, boy, God's pleased with me now.
That was enmity against God. We wouldn't bow to Christ alone. Men hate the Father and they
hate Christ because by God the Father choosing and sending His
Son in love and His love being all in Christ to save His people
from our sin. And Him declaring, unless you
eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life, you have no
righteousness whatsoever, except I'm your righteousness. That's
what Christ was saying to them. That totally strips away man's
religious disguise. The Lord said, verse 22, if I
had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. If
I had not come and preached this to them, but now they have no
cloak for their sin and no excuse, no disguise, no excuse. Verse
24, if I had not done among them the works which none other man
did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father. What is the disguise of self-made
religion? It's their very best religious
works. It's their very best religious
work. It's why you can't be comfortable around religious folks. Some
of you grew up here and you've never been in those kinds of
churches. You can't be comfortable in them.
You can't be comfortable around those people because they're
always watching you. And if you mess up, they're going
to let you know you messed up. You come in and hear the message
of grace preached where the message is declared that every single
body, everybody God saves is a sinner. There's no difference. And your very best religious
deeds you've ever done in themselves are filthy rags. That meant something
to a Jew to hear that. You know that? Because in their
law, you couldn't even sleep with a woman if she's on her
menstrual cycle. in the bed with her. And to tell them their very
best religious works were menstrual cloths? That's a pretty defiled thing.
That's what he's saying. Until we realize Christ, if he
He works works in His people and they're still covered in
sin because of our sin nature, but they come to God holy and
perfect and righteous only in Christ's righteousness. He's
only ever receiving us in Christ, that's it. But the moment we
stop looking to Christ and thanking Him and knowing He's the only
one that keeps saving us and keeps saving us and keeps purging
us and keeps pruning us and keeping us in His righteousness, the
moment we start looking to ourselves, We're clinging to filthy rags. And that's what man hates. That's
what man hates. I'm telling you, just stand up
and declare it. You'll find out that's what men
hate. Men don't hate. God's people don't hate to be
told we're sinners. We are. We're not trying to get
one over on one another. There ain't nothing I've ever
done anything whatsoever. But you know what God's people
also do? They don't want to, when they find that out, they
don't want to use it to try to hurt the brethren more. And when
you have been broken in your heart, you don't want to hurt
them more either. Can you imagine somebody coming to Job after
his leg was broke and start whipping him? Well, it's all your fault. Why'd you go down the slide like
that? Greater love hath no man than
this, and a man laid down his life for his friend. Christ did
the works no other man ever did. Not me, not you, not anybody
that He ever saved. We never did the works He did.
Those are the works by which we're saved, not works we do.
Men don't hate that you preach good works. The world over is
preaching good works, but they're not preaching Christ. I'm preaching
good works to you this morning, if you can hear it. But the world don't hear it.
The world's preaching the good works, and the world hears them.
But they're making you think it's your good works. The self-righteous, self-sanctifying
religious world hears exactly what Christ declares. that all
their righteousnesses, not to mention their sins, but all their
righteousnesses are filthy. Christ alone is the righteousness
that exceeds the scribes and pharisees. I have heard modern
day scribes and pharisees say, when Christ said I didn't come
to destroy the law, I came to fulfill it and accept your righteousness,
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, you can
in no wise enter the kingdom of heaven. I have heard modern
day scribes and pharisees say, that means you better try harder. That's not what that means. And
if you believe that's what that means, you missed it. He turned right around and said,
your sin's in your heart. There's a brother that's got
it all against you. He's the elder brother. You need to leave
off serving and go to him. Go to him. God the Father's love is in Christ
alone. That night, all these things
Christ promises to work in His people, to keep us abiding in
Him, that's the very power the God-hating religious world denies.
They don't believe He's alive and working in His people. You
can see it by their acts. They taught themselves, they
made themselves be born again, they partly somehow by their
works make themselves righteous and or holy. And so man-made
religion denies Christ's authority as the one lawgiver who's able
to save and destroy. How hateful is the world against
Christ? Now, we need to know, he said,
if they hated me, they're going to hate you. How hateful is the
world against Christ? Look to the cross. Religion did
that. Vain religion did that. Calling
on God, crying glory to God, let's get this imposter out of
here. Man-made religion did that. And the Lord says, now you can
expect the same. Hatred from the world shall be
the lot of all who declare, no flesh shall glory in his presence. But of God are you in Christ,
who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness, and sanctification
and redemption, so that he that glories will glory only in the
Lord. You preach that and the world
will hate you. Now, Christ fulfilled the world
even by the hatred He bore from the world. Look here at verse
25. I'm almost done. He said, This
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law, They hated Me without a cause. Even the hatred men
that He bore for men was Him fulfilling the Law and the Prophets
for His people. Now God's children don't want
to give the world a cause to hate us, but here's the truth
of it. There was no cause in Christ
to hate Christ. None. And they called Him a wine-bibber,
a gluttonous man, even a devil. And you can mark it down. they
will say you are the reason they reject you and your gospel. You
can mark it down. That's what they will do. But
believer, here's our comfort. To the opposite extreme that
the world hated Christ without a cause, the word means freely,
so God the Father and His Son loved His people without a cause
in us. We were hating Him without a cause. And yet while we hated
Him without a cause, God our Father and His Son loved us without
a cause in us. That's right. That's right. He walked this earth without
any sin and there was no cause for men to hate Him. And there was no cause in us,
no righteousness in us, nothing good in us for which cause for
Him to love us. And yet He did. There was no
cause in Him for men to nail Him to that tree. No cause in
Him. He's sinless. The only sinless
man that ever walked this earth. No cause in anybody to nail Him
to that tree. And there was no cause in us
for Him to permit them to nail Him to that tree so He could
justify us from the exact same sin and make us righteous. That's
love. Freely. No cause for men to reject
the gospel that only declares the glory of God. And there was
no cause in us for Him to send us this gospel and quicken us
in our heart and make us believe Him and delight in it. No cause. So when you're hated, remember
this. Believe Christ. We were in this
terrible place one time, and everybody yacking at one another,
and it was always the other person's fault. A preacher came down and
he said, do y'all believe God's sovereign or not? Well, yeah,
we do. He said, well, act like it. You
believe he's ruling in the hearts of your brethren? Well, yeah.
Well, act like it. What do you want us to do? Love
one another. That's what Christ is saying.
Don't cease declaring the gospel of Christ to one another that
Christ alone is the salvation of His people. He's the power
unto salvation and He'll keep His redeemed and He'll call out
all His people through the gospel. There was this old believer.
He had a dog and every time there was a full moon, man, that dog
would just go out and just bark, bark, bark, bark, bark at that
full moon all night long. Couldn't get any sleep long as
there was a full moon. However many days they lasted,
that dog was out there every night barking, barking, barking,
barking. The old dog died, and the moon kept shining. That moon
is a picture of Christ's church getting all our light from the
sun of righteousness. One day all the dogs are going
to die, and the church is going to still be shining in the light
of Christ. Keep trusting him and don't stop trusting him.
Amen.