Now if you would, go back with
me to John again tonight, John chapter 15. And I'm actually
gonna go back to the verse and to a statement that I worked
on to some degree last Wednesday night, John 15, 25. John 15,
25. Here the Savior is speaking and he says, This cometh to pass that the
word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. It's
written in the Old Testament. They hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. Here's my subject. Why was Jesus
hated? Why was Jesus hated? It is a documented fact that
the Lord Jesus God's only begotten son. That one who's the only
savior of sinners. That one who is the sacrifice
for sin. The one God gave. The one God
sent into this world. The one who's equal with God
in every way. The one who is from everlasting
to everlasting God. The one who laid his glory aside
as it were and he came down here to this earth he took upon himself
the form of a servant. And he lived in perfection before
the eyes of God and before the eyes of men. And yet he was hated. Why did people hate Jesus? There never lived in this world
a man like Jesus of Nazareth. He was absolutely above reproach. He was absolutely above evil. He loved God with all of his
heart, mind, soul, and strength. And he loved his neighbor as
himself. And he loved his own people to
this degree. He laid down his life for us. There was never a man like him.
They spoke of the Lord Jesus and said, never a man spake like
this man. And we could say never a man
conducted himself like this man. He even asked the people, he
said, which of you convinced me of sin? That's what he said
to them back in John chapter eight. Which of you can convince
me of sin? Do you have any evidence against
me? That's what he was saying. Do
you have any evidence that I've done wrong? Have I ever lied
to anybody? Have I ever stolen anything?
Have I ever instructed you in anything that wasn't consistent
with God's Word? Have I ever done anything to
any of you that was negative, that was bad for you? Has there
ever been anybody who came to me and they were ill, and they
wanted me to heal them? Has there ever been anybody that
came to me in bad shape and I didn't send them away? Every went whole? Was there ever a leper who came
to me and I didn't make him absolutely clean? Was there ever a dead
person to whom I walked up to their grave or to their tomb
or to their beer when they were being carried to the graveyard?
Has there ever been one who was crossing paths with me that I
didn't raise him from the dead? Which of you convinces me of
sins? Have I ever done anything wrong?
That's what he said. If you've got any evidence against
me, if you've got any proof against me, bring it forth. That's what
he said. And nobody could do that. You
remember when our Lord stood before Pilate in John chapter
18, and at the beginning of chapter 19, three times, three times,
this is what that man said. I find no fault in him. I find
no fault in him. I've examined him, I've questioned
him. Everything that he says seems
to be consistent with the things that have happened. Do you have
any evidence against him? He said, bring it forth. Now
we know that Annas, the high priest, And the cheap priests,
they paid people to come and lie on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they said, oh, he's a winebibber. Prove it. They said, he's a winebibber. Okay, where's your evidence?
You got any witnesses? Ever saw me drunk? They said,
he's a gluttonous man. Prove it. Our Lord Jesus told
the lie. He was absolutely perfect in
his words, in his deeds, in his attitude, in his motives, absolutely
perfect. The scripture says in Isaiah
chapter 53, there in one and two, when Isaiah said, Lord,
who hath believed, I report, and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed, he says he shall grow up before him as a tender
plant. He shall grow up before Him. Before who? Before God. He grew up before God. And His
entire life was, as it were, under the microscope of God's
absolute holiness. Everything about Him was closely
scrutinized. And you know, if there was any
fault in Jesus of Nazareth, God would have seen it. Because God
doesn't miss anything. In fact, if we face him at the
judgment, if he finds any fault in us, he can't receive us. He can't welcome us into heaven.
We must be perfect. We must be holy. We must be righteous
to be accepted. And our Lord Jesus had to be
holy, righteous, and perfect to be accepted as well. Because
God has the very highest standard. His standard is perfection. And everything that Jesus of
Nazareth did, God the Father was always watching. Always watching. Let me ask you, through this
day, under the microscope of God who
is absolutely holy, how do you think your life has been today?
You just kind of shake your head, don't you? If you don't do it
literally, you do it within, you say, oh boy. And yet, God does not charge
you with any sin. Isn't that amazing? And we know we've sinned numerous
times. In fact, though we know we have
committed many sins, we don't even begin to commence to get
started to knowing them all. But He does. and He has already
put them on our scapegoat, the Lord Jesus, who bore them away
into a land uninhabited. So all of our sins, though they
be many, just in this one day, they're not put to our account,
because they've already been taken care of. Christ has already
been punished for them. But as we think about our lives,
we fall short. That's what it says in Romans
3, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You see, the glory of God, that's
the target. That's what we aim at. That's
what we want. That's what perfection is, the
glory of God. And we all fall short of the
glory of God. But that's what He demands. But
our Lord Jesus, He didn't fall short. That's the thing. He didn't come up short. Everything He did was for the
glory of the Father. He said, I always do those things
that please God. When Mary and Joseph, they sought
for him in Jerusalem when he was just 12 years old. They came
and they found him in the temple, talking with the doctors and
the lawyers, questions being asked, he giving answers, hey,
where have you been? He said, I must be about my father's
business. And he always was. The Father was always on His
mind and always on His heart. The Father's will. He said in
Hebrews 10, Lo, I come to do Thy will, O God. That's why He
came. And He always sought to do God's
will. He always did God's will. How
often is the will of God on your mind? Get up in the morning and say,
I want to do the will of God today. A good bit of the time,
if we'd answer honestly, the will of God isn't even on our
minds. Right? I don't think I'm speaking
out of turn here. I think that's true of all of
us. We go about our lives and then every once in a while say,
I ain't even thought about the Lord lately. What's the matter
with me? Well, I'll tell you what's the
matter with you. You're a sinner. That's what's the matter with
you. But the Father was always on the mind and on the heart
of Christ Jesus. He was absolutely impeccable. And he had to be. You say, what
do you mean by impeccable? Without fault. Without fault. He had to be, as Joe read for
us, he had to be holy. Harmless, undefiled, separate
from sinners, made higher in the heavens. And I'll tell you
what, he was not only, get this, because I'm going to invent a
word here. He was not only undefiled, he
was undefilable. That's vital. He was not only undefiled, He
was not only unpolluted, He was unpollutable. He was undefilable. And I'll tell you two reasons
that's got to be true. Number one, because He's God.
God cannot be defiled. God cannot become filthy. God
cannot be polluted. with sin, God's pure, God's holy. The only way our Lord Jesus could
become defilable was to cease to be God, to cease to be God. You know, the Bible talks about
how that nothing is impossible with God. Well, generally speaking,
that is true. But I tell you what is impossible
with God, He cannot do anything that is contrary to His holy
character. He can't do it. That means He
can't possibly sin. He cannot be a party to sin. He cannot be involved with sin. And He can't be polluted with
sin. Why, He's the Holy One of Israel. That's what the Scripture says.
He's the Holy One. He never ceased to be who He
is. As you read in the Old Testament
about the sacrifices of Israel that they were to bring
to the brazen altar, that which you consistently read is this. They had to be without spot and
without blemish. And there's a verse of scripture
that's found in Leviticus chapter 22 and verse 21, which simply
says this about the sacrifices, about every sacrifice. It shall
be perfect to be accepted. And it gives a list of things
that God says, don't bring animals in this kind of condition. Mamed,
broken, scurvy, having scabs or ulcers, blind. God says, don't bring them to
me. Those are unacceptable. He said, if you're gonna bring
something to me, to offer to me, let it be perfect. It's got to be perfect to be
accepted. And if it isn't perfect, I'm
not going to accept it. I'm not going to accept it. What
was the reason for that? Here's the reason. And I'll tell
you right there in Leviticus chapter 22, the Lord said, whether
you bring me something herd or from the flock. In other words,
a bullock from the herd or if it's from the flock, a goat or
a sheep or birds or whatever. It had to be absolutely without
spotting, without blemishing. And here's the reason, because
all of those, they direct the attention of the worshiper to
the Son of God who's coming. And He's going to be without
spot and without blemish. And that's the reason in the
New Testament we read so many times of our Lord's true character,
of His holiness, of His uprightness, of His perfection. He could not
be sinful and save sinners. He couldn't. Well-meaning preachers have made this statement. In
fact, we were talking about this a little bit yesterday, I think,
as some of the men, as we rode back from breakfast. There's
some men that I fully respect who've made this statement, that
Jesus Christ was made by imputation the greatest sinner who ever
lived. And there's some men who've made
that statement that I love. I love them and I love their
ministry. And I hear what they're saying
by imputation. And indeed, all of the sins of
all of God's people were charged to the account of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And I believe that. But the Bible
never says he was a sinner. Not in reality and not even by
imputation. That name is never given to the
Immaculate Son of God. He could not be a sinner and
save us. One sinner cannot save other
sinners. He had to be without spot. and without blame. And he was,
and we read in 1 Peter 1 of his blamelessness, this Lamb of God. You see, Christ couldn't be defiled
by sin for two reasons. Number one, he's God. God can't
be defiled with sin. And number two, he can't be defiled
with sin and be our Savior. This is what the offerings of
the Old Testament all had in common, without spot, without
blemish. You see, if our Lord Jesus had
been stained with sin, His offering to God would not be a sweet-smelling
savor. How could it be a sweet-smelling
savor if it was a polluted, a polluted sacrifice. And if God's standard,
think about this, if God's standard, was that every offering be without
spot and without blemish. Oh, how much greater must be
the standard of the great sin bearer and savior of sinners. Oh, how much more the standard
applies to him. He's got to be above sin. Oh, they were charged to him.
They were laid on him and made to meet on him. And I can't comprehend
that. I can't. But I know that all
the while, as He bore our sin in His own body on the tree,
He remained before God, that innocent Lamb, worthy, worthy to bear the load and endure the
sorrow and the wrath of the cross of Calvary. on the behalf of
his people. Our Lord Jesus was perfect. He
was always well-pleasing to the Father. I gave you several things. He was well-pleasing to the Father
as the Son. The Father said at his baptism,
this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well-pleased. He said it
is transfiguration. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. He is well pleased
with him as the son. He is well pleased with him as
the servant. Behold the servant of God. God
was well pleased with his service. He was well pleasing to God as
the savior of his people. He is well pleasing to God as
the sin offering for his people. And he was well-pleasing to God
as the substitute of his people. Behold, the only truly perfect
man who ever lived, and yet he was hated. And the scripture
says here in our text, without a cause. And I'm gonna work on
that expression, without a cause, next week. I'll just tell you
this, it means freely, It's often translated that way in the New
Testament, without a good reason. He said, they hated me without
a good reason. But they did hate him. They did
hate him. And I got to thinking, why did
they hate him? Why did they hate Jesus of Nazareth?
And as I, thought back over Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, and thinking
about the words of our Savior, I found one time when he gives
the reason. Why did they hate Jesus? Why
did men hate Jesus? The Lord Jesus gives the answer.
Go back to John chapter seven. Go back to John chapter seven.
He gives the answer. Remember, he has stated in John
15, they hated me without a cause. And here in John chapter 7, he
tells us the reason why ungodly religious men hated him. Begin in verse 1 quickly. After
these things, John 7, 1, Jesus walked in Galilee. He didn't
go into Judea. For he would not walk in Jewry
in Jerusalem, in Judea, in that area, because the Jews sought
to kill him, and it wasn't his time to die. He'll die on schedule. He'll die on God's timetable.
Look at verse two. Now the Jews' feast of tabernacles
was at hand. Here's a glaring, glaring condemnation. the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles. You know who instituted that
feast? God. It's God's Feast of Tabernacles.
It was when they were to remember and commemorate their wilderness
journeys when they lived in tabernacles, that is, they lived in tents,
and God provided for them all along the way. But now it was
just the Jews' Feast of Tabernacles because it wasn't a time of worship. It wasn't a time of reflecting
upon the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, the Feast of Tabernacles
was given that men might remember that as they lived in tabernacles
or in tents, so God's own Son would come into the world and
live in a tent like this. See, that's what it means there
in John chapter 1. where it says, and the word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. And the word dwelt is literally
tabernacled. He tabernacled in the flesh and
that feast of the tabernacles was again one that pointed to
the Lord Jesus. But they didn't think about that.
It was just another empty ritual that they went through. Look at verse three, now watch
the unbelief of his brethren. His brethren therefore, his brothers,
his half brothers. His brethren therefore said unto
him, Why don't you depart here and go into Judea, that your
disciples also may see the works that thou doest. They didn't
believe him, as the scripture will say. For there's no man
that doeth anything in secret, and he himself seeketh to be
known openly. If thou do these things, why
don't you show yourself to the world? And then John tells us
by the leadership of the Spirit, for neither did his brethren
believe him. You talk growing up with the
Savior? Here was the perfect man in the
family. Boy, I bet you they was mad at
him all the time. They didn't believe him. They could never blame anything
on him. We was growing up, I had a brother
and sister. There's always somebody to blame something on. But Mary
and Joseph knew better. You can't blame anything on Jesus. He's the Son of God. He's perfect. His brothers didn't believe him.
They didn't have any confidence in him as the Savior. That shows
you right there, faith's gotta be a gift of God. If there was anybody who ever
looked at the life of a person and said, wow, this man is different
from anybody else, it'd be his own family. but his own family
didn't believe him apart from sovereign grace, and they didn't
believe on him till after his resurrection. Read on, verse
six. Then Jesus said unto them, my
time is not yet come, but your time is always ready. Now watch
it. The world cannot hate you, but
me it hateth, and here's the reason. Right, here's the reason.
Why did they hate Jesus? But me it hateth, and here's
the reason. because I testify of it, that
its works are evil. That's why they hate him. Now,
in the context, and you always keep everything in the context,
by world, he means the religious world, which his brethren were
very much a part of. After all, they're all going
to the Feast of Tabernacles. They're a part of the religious
world. but the religious world hated
him. And here's the reason they hated
him, because he testified of it. He had something to say about
the religious world. He said, it's all evil. That's
what he said. That's why they hated him. because
he put his finger right on the pulse, right on the heartbeat,
right on the real issue. Their religion and all the works
of their religion was evil. And they said, we hate you for
that. That old saying, two things you
don't want to talk about in public, politics and religion. You'll get a fuss if you got
very many people around. But especially religion, just
best just not say anything, because you're going to make somebody
mad. That's the way most people view that. And I'm sure there's
a lot of truth in that. But our Lord Jesus, he didn't
keep his mouth shut. He didn't avoid controversy.
We're studying right now in Matthew chapter 23 in our Sunday school
classes. Eight times he pronounced a woe.
Scribes, Pharisees, you're a bunch of hypocrites. You're just plot
acting. That's all you're doing. You're
play acting. There's no heart worship in your religiosity. There's no devotion to God. There's
no reverence. He just exposed them for what
they were. He exposed the hypocrisy of it. He exposed the shallowness of
it. He exposed the phoniness of it. You see, these people thought
salvation was merited, salvation was earned by works, and he taught
otherwise. He stressed repentance toward
God. He stressed faith, things that
they didn't know anything about. He stressed mercy. They didn't
know anything about mercy. All they knew was we're living
by the law. living by the law. He exposed the leaders of their
religion, he exposed their customs, and he refused to go along with
them. The customs of the elders, washing
of hands before you eat, and someone might say, How would
that have hurt anything? He could have soothed some feelings
and maybe kind of patched things up, you know, with those religious
leaders if he had said, well, yeah, brother, told his disciples,
let's just go ahead and wash our hands in a ceremonial way.
No, he's not going to do that because those men, the religious
men, this is what they taught. That's part of your salvation
right there. Sorry, Lord, Jesus would have
nothing to do with it. He exposed them over and over
again. He said, you don't know me and
you don't know my father. And they hated him for it. They
hated him for it. Oh, he knew how they felt about
the Sabbath day. The Sabbath day was a day of
rest. And that Sabbath day pointed
to himself. And he knew those men observed
the Sabbath day having no real thoughts about God and no thoughts
about him. So he went ahead and healed a
man on the Sabbath day and made sure they knew about it too. Knowing it would offend them.
And they hated him for it. And he preached the gospel. He
preached the necessity of the new birth. You see, the world loves religion,
and the world as a whole will be, it'll tolerate just about
every kind of religion you can imagine, except the gospel of
God's grace. And that's too big a pill for
them to swallow, because the gospel puts all men on the same
level. The gospel puts all men in the
hands of a sovereign God to do with as he pleases. The gospel
makes salvation to be the work of God alone. The gospel strips
men of all pride, honor, and distinction, and leaves us utterly
helpless before God, destitute of any good, and fully dependent
upon his mercy. The gospel puts the crown upon
the head of Jehovah. It puts the crown upon the head
of our sovereign Christ, who redeemed his people. And I'll
give you this, and I want you to go back to John 15. I'll give
you this and I'll quit. If we preach the same gospel, here's what's gonna happen. If
we preach the same message of the Lord Jesus Christ, here's
what's going to happen. Look back in John chapter 15
verses 18 and 19. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. Because if you are of the
world, if you are of the religious world, if you are of these Judaizers
out here, who keep the law and order to be saved, if you are
of the world, they love you. Do this, do that, be baptized
to be right with God. Be baptized and wash your sins
away. The world will love you. Walk the aisle at some big crusade
and make a decision. The religious world will love
you. But because you're not of this
religious world, you're different. Your thoughts are different.
Your gospel's different. Your doctrine's different. I've
chosen you out of the world. That's why the world hates you. The sovereign churches, churches
that stand for the gospel of God's grace, they're different
from all other religious establishments. And it doesn't matter what town
they're in, somebody says, oh, you go to that church? Yeah, I go to that church. And
here's what happens, they hate us. You just get ready now. If you take a stand for the gospel
of God's sovereign grace, the religious world, it'll hate you. But it hated the Savior first.
And the reason they hated the Savior was because he condemned
it. He condemned it. But I tell you,
we've got to condemn false religion. Deadly. Deadly. Thank God we have a true Savior. Fairest Lord Jesus is the final
hymn tonight, number 50. Fairest Lord Jesus. He's perfect.