together, starting in verse 12
to the end of the chapter. This is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no
one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.
You are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer
do I call you servants for the servant does not know what the
master is doing, but I have called you friends for all that I have
heard from my father I've made known to you. You did not choose
me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear
fruit and that your fruit should abide so that whatever you ask
in the Father, excuse me, whatever you ask the Father in my name,
he may give it to you. These things I command you so
that you will love one another. If the world hates you, know
that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the
world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are
not of the world, But because you are not of the world, but
I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I have said to you, a servant is not
greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will
also persecute you. If they kept my word, they would
also keep yours. But all these things they will
do to you on the account of my name, because they do not know
him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken
to them, they would have not been guilty of sin. But now they
have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my father
also. If I had not done among them
the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.
But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the
word that is written in their law must be fulfilled. They hated
me without a cause. But when the Helper comes, whom
I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of Truth, who proceeds
from the Father, He will bear witness about me, and you also
will bear witness about me, because you have been with me from the
beginning." Now, I'm not going to tackle all of that today,
but it's important for that to be in our ears and our minds
as we continue in this gospel. Now we've seen thus far in chapter
14 and 15 that there's an intimacy with Christ. Intimacy with Christ. We in our world today have a
real hard time explaining and understanding intimacy. We think
intimacy has to do with physical love. We think intimacy has to
do with proximity. We think intimacy has to do with
how we feel, how we get along, how we enjoy life, the depth
of a conversation, et cetera. But when it comes to what the
spiritual reality of intimacy is, it is that Christ has given
his life for his people. That is what true love really
is. God is love and God's love is
manifest in one way that he has given his son for the sake of
his elect so that they would become the righteousness of God.
And there is no other lesser intimacy. There is no other understanding
of intimacy. There is no other than understanding
or definition of love throughout all the cosmos. Now I know all
of us, we can say, well I love pizza, or I love the Braves,
or I love cold weather, or I love dogs, or I love my wife, or I
love my kids, or I love the Lord, and so do I love my wife as much
as I love pizza? Do I love cold weather as much
as I love Jesus? You see how extremely bizarre
our language is when it is culturally dictated. Biblically dictated,
I don't have the authority to come in and say, OK, this is
what love means. Now, let me apply what I believe
love is to God. And that's what the world does.
That's what the world does. And here in this text, we see
Jesus bringing the idea of the cosmos, the world into the dialogue
again. And we must understand that here
he's not talking about the created world. He's not talking about
every single person without exception in the earth. He's talking about
the totality of those religious leaders who find righteousness
in themselves. And in doing so, they're guilty
of sin, you see. The context here will unfold
a little bit clearer. But if we have intimacy with
Christ, we've learned we have intimacy with Christ in these
ways. Christ's love for us is in his
giving of himself for us. The imagery there of him taking
off his clothes and doing that, which was illegal for a Hebrew
slave to even do, which is to wash the feet of another man.
But he did it. And He did it as a picture of
the redemption that He would provide and the redemption that
He would absolutely establish by shedding His blood on the
cross. by dying and by being raised from the dead. Jesus is
showing that His intimacy and intimacy with Him, it is required
that He wash us. It is required that He satisfy
God's wrath for us. It is required that He comes
as the one who is our propitiation. He is our justification. He is,
as Paul would say in 1 Corinthians 1, our sanctification. It is only in Christ that we
are set apart for God. As the father has given us to
the son and now the son has done all the work to satisfy and fulfill
the perfection of the law, not in his earthly obedience, but
in the pureness of his essence. He is what the law was a shadow
of Jesus Christ, the righteous. We see that in Romans three,
the law is not something else. The law is just as important
as the showbread and the Holy of Holies. It points to the one
who was to come Jesus Christ. So we have intimacy with Christ
because Christ washed us with his blood. He gave himself for
us. We have intimacy with Christ.
And this is review because we have been given faith to believe
in the finished work of Christ. So we have intimacy because God
has granted faith for us to see. And once we see, we cannot unsee. See? We cannot unsee, we cannot turn
away our eyes that we now have beheld the glory of God face
to face in the person of Christ, then to turn away and not see
him anymore. We cannot unsee. Because we have
intimacy with Christ. And because we have faith, because
Christ has given himself for us, we have intimacy with Christ
in prayer that we can ask not just the Father as we see today,
but as Jesus said in John 14, you can ask of me anything related
to what I've commanded you, related to what I have promised you,
related to the will of the Father for you. And it is done. Now,
what's the context there? Love one another. As I have laid my life down for
you, as I wash your feet in a way that is inappropriate in our
day, I ask you to be humbled in that way and love one another
in that way, because if you do not love one another, no one
will love you. And we see how that comes out
today, right? No one will love you. I love
you. And that's all that matters. And because I love you, I command
you, my sheep, to love one another. You have intimacy with Christ
when we love one another. We have intimacy with Christ
through praying to Him. We have intimacy with Christ
through the giving of the Holy Spirit. Now I know we will like
to talk spatially. We like to talk about the volume
of God and where he sits and how he feels. And that is some
weird thing that myopic eisegesis, what does that mean? That means
blinded, really weird focused, unable to see the whole because
we're focusing on the dot. We're looking at things the way
we want to see them. People say, well, the Spirit
of God fills us. God fills us all. I'm half full
with God. No, it's not about that. If we
are either in God or we are not in God. We are baptized into
Christ or we are separated from Christ. There is no somewhat
or almost or just about or halfway full. These images, this picture
is teaching theological principles that are absolute. Not in space
and time, but in relationship. We are filled with God, the Holy
Spirit, not because he indwells the DNA of my of my cardiovascular
system. He's not filling the capillaries
of my of my pulmonary system. He's not inside my blood vessels. I am in him. He is in me. And
there's nothing that can separate us. Nothing that can separate
us from the fullness of the Lord. Nothing that can separate us
from any of these things. But there is a sense in which
Paul, as he prays to the Ephesian church in chapter 3, I pray that
you may be filled with all the fullness of God. And the fullness
of God is established. Have you ever been full emotionally?
You ever been fooled? You ever seen something, heard
something, experienced something, and the emotions behind that
make you just feel like, this is just great. There's a euphoria.
That's not what's being discussed. That's not what theologically
is being taught by the Apostle Paul. As a matter of fact, it erases
all the feelings and all of the all of the the idea of experience. It erases all of these awesome
euphoric things. And it solidifies the reality
that we are full of God because of the finished work of Jesus,
who in his fullness is the fullness of God so that we are found in
him. I know I'm talking a little fast,
but this is all review. I want to get back to where we're
going today, because it's all one thought. It's all one teaching. And so we're full of the Spirit.
He has given His Spirit to us. He indwells us because God is
omnipresent. God is with His people and we
are with Him and we are counted in Christ. And nothing can separate
us from Christ. Nothing. Not even our sin, beloved. Romans 8. I don't know what week
I preached that, but go back and find it if you want to see
it. Nothing can separate you from God except God, and God
will not undo the work of Christ for those he loves. So we have
intimacy with prayer, intimacy with the Spirit, intimacy with
the blood of Christ, intimacy with love for one another, and
then we have intimacy in that we have the peace of Christ.
This is review. We have intimacy that we have
the love of Christ. We have intimacy with Christ.
Therefore, we have the joy of Christ. And now we see last week
we have intimacy with Christ that we are the friends of Christ.
When we love one another, we are friends of Christ. It's not
a condition of our justification. It's not a condition of our eternal
life. If you love me, then I'll save
you. If you're my friend, then I'll redeem you. That's not the
way it works. Because I have loved you, because I have redeemed
you, because you belong to me, I command you to love me. I command you to be my friend,
and I command you to do this through the love that you have
for one another. And it's going to be difficult, but I have promised
you the spirit that will help you in this journey. And it will
never be perfect, but it will be. Let's see. So at the end of the day, our
confidence, our assurance is always in the finished work of
Jesus, never in the working of Jesus in us, ever. Let me say
that again. As Dr. Queller prayed, Jesus
paid it all. We are not working to a final
salvation. This final salvation has been
secured in Jesus Christ. And beloved, there are many of
There are many who have a kinship with us in doctrines that do
not have a kinship with us in the gospel, because they would
call you to do more than what you're doing to prove you are
God's people. And when you can't and you won't,
your hope is gone. We have intimacy with Christ
and that the Father, the Father, what is he doing? is pruning
his people. We have intimacy with Christ
in the picture of him being the vine, the whole of the vine,
and we are the fruit of that vine. And the fruit that he produces
in us is believing in that truth that our life comes from being
connected to him. That everything that we are is
his work. Everything that we will become
is his promise. Glorification is his promise
to us. We have intimacy with Jesus because
he left and went to the father. We have intimacy with Jesus. Because he suffered and we, too,
shall suffer, and that's where we are today. You love one another. We're not you're not my slaves,
but we are the slaves of Christ, are we not? We're not bound as
slaves of righteousness. Yes. But yet we're not like the
slaves of the first century, we're not like slaves in a worldly
sense. When does the master lay his life down for the slave?
That the slave may be free indeed. This is the picture of what Christ
did. And we see in verse 16 of this
text, chapter 15, verse 16, you did not choose me. Now I've had people argue that
with me. No, no, no, Pastor, you know what? You're just reading
into the Bible what it doesn't say. Okay. You did not choose me, but I
chose you and I appointed you that you should go and bear fruit
and that your fruit should abide so that your prayer is effectual. That's what he's saying there.
And I command these things to you that you would love one another.
This is the point of me teaching you all of this. that you will
see my love, and the power of my love, and the promise of my
love, and the perfection of my love, and the perpetuity of my love,
and there's a five-point outline for anybody who wants to take
homiletics in the future, so that you would love one another. This is a promise. I've written
these things. Well, no, no, no, no. They chose
to follow Jesus. Andrew did this, then he went
and got this guy, and this guy kept nothing. Behold, In Israelite
indeed, in which there is no guile. How do you know me? He says to Jesus. Because as
you were sitting under the fig tree, I saw you. Truly you are
the Son of God. You marvel because I said I saw
you. You will see the Son of Man. You will see heaven opened
up and angels ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. You've seen
nothing yet. You think that's amazing? Wait until I show you
the Father. And He's the one that asks. Show
us the Father that we may be at peace. If you've seen me,
you've seen the father. Once you see, you cannot unsee.
But it is necessary that the church grasp the reality of sovereign
grace, that we understand that that the atoning work of Jesus
Christ is the crux of God's redemptive revelation, that Jesus redeemed
his people full. Without anything else left to
be added. And he did it because God has
chosen his own. He's chosen his own. Friends, unconditional election,
as we like to call it, is the work of Christ. It is the means,
the ends, the power, all of it. The decree of God as he has established
redemption before he created the world. It was for the purpose
of redeeming his people out of the world. And God has done that and completed
the work as God rested. As we see the picture of creation,
he created all the world and then he rested. It's nothing
but a shadow of redemption. That everything God does with
his power is good, and when he is finished, he is finished,
he does not have to keep it good. He does not have to worry about
the creation that he made maintaining its goodness. Think about it. Jesus, why does John, this gospel
writer here, use an allusion to Genesis 1? In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was God and the Word was with God
and the Word became flesh and dwelled among us and we have
seen his glory. The fullness of all that God
is, we see. This is what John is saying.
Why does he go there? Because he understands that everything
that has ever been made is for the purpose of revealing the
types, or revealing the truth of the types and the shadows
of redemption in Jesus. You exist that God may, through
your existence, reveal redemption. Beloved. And we need to love each other.
Because we live in a world that is directly opposed to the things
that I just said. To however long I've been ranting
there in that introduction. And the world that Jesus is discussing
is the same world that we will see when we're done today. Who are the people he's talking
to here in this context? His eleven. Remember, Judas has
already gone to do what he was destined to do. What he wanted
to do. What he could not wait to do.
And that was get paid for turning Jesus in. Because he wanted a
piece of property and he bought it. And he hanged himself on
it. The world hates you, verse 18.
Know that it has hated me before it hated you. Now, who hated Jesus? The Pharisees, the Sadducees,
the Sanhedrin. Let's just say if today were
the time when Jesus would come, who would hate Jesus would be
the denominational leaders of evangelical churches. Not the cults, not even Rome. It'd be Southern Baptists and
Methodists and Lutherans and Presbyterians and Reformed Baptists.
It'd be all these heads of state, all these religious workers who
have all something to say but never say anything because they've
laid down the authority of Christ's Word for their own glory. And
it's been that way since the beginning of time when Adam and
Eve were tempted in the garden and it's not going to change
until the Christ comes back and sets all things under His feet. And they sit there already. The world hates the disciples
of Christ and the world in view are the religious leaders who
are supposedly holding and guarding the oracles of God for the sake
of salvation. Yet they hate Christ. And that's important to understand. Because what Jesus is saying
here in the context of the world is a whole lot different, though
it is inclusive, of what Jesus says in John 3 with Nicodemus,
according to the world. Because when Nicodemus was listening
to Jesus, For God loved the world in this
way, that He gave His only Son, the only one that He had, that
the believing ones would not perish, but will have eternal
life. That's what he says. That's John 3.16 in the literal
translation. What is the world there? The
totality of human depravity. Everyone but the Jews. That's
what the world was for Nicodemus. What is the world here? It includes
that. But moreover, it includes the
context of the world where those who hate Jesus are the world. Jesus loves His elect of all
nations, not just Israel. Paul would say that those who
are true Israel are those who are in Christ, not those who
are out of the lineage of Abraham. I think that's what got one of
my sermons knocked off the internet last week or the week before. Those types of statements. You are not of the world when
you're in Christ because the world hates Christ. Now John
says something like this later in his first epistle, doesn't
he? Chapter 2, verse 15 through 17. He says, do not love the
world. The world's way, the world's
wisdom, the world's system, the world's pleasures, the world's
joys, the world's material, the world's plans, the world's hope.
Do not love the world or the things of the world for the things
of the world are not of God but are of the world and these things
are passing away. What are they? He lists them there in a parenthetical. He says the lust of the eyes,
that's the things that we want, that we see, that we wish we
could have. The lust of the flesh, the things that we just are driven
to do and partake in and to long for. The material possessions
of the world, the esteem, I want to be somebody, I want to be
something, I want my name to be known. You know what it is to be famous?
It's to be a nobody. Special. I'm serious. You're worthless, nothing, waste
of air when you're famous because you are nothing special. Everybody
knows everything about you and you are worthless. You have no
individuality. You see what I'm saying? But
that's the drive. We want to be everything. We
want to be famous. We want to be known. You know what? You're known in
a hundred years. You're nothing even if you were famous. Nobody
remembers you. Nobody remembers me. This life,
Solomon says, is but a vapor. They used to do it a lot in the
larger auditoriums. You know, go, and then we're
gone. That's grand effect in a large space, a larger space. The world The pride of life,
look at me, look at what I've accomplished, look at what I've
done, look at what I have, yes! And you know what scripture says?
It's passing away. So you know what you're bragging
about? I'm a garbage man and I'm garbage myself and I live
there all myself. That's it! And we're dancing a little jig
going, look at me, I'm a piece of garbage and I'm worthless.
But I'm everything, that's what John is referring to. Because
if we're not in Christ, we're a wasted life. Now see, this
is difficult. Because in Christ, we have value. Let's just take this off the
table. We take the Bible and we close it, and we pretend like
we're not Christians for just a moment, and we just speak to
the level of life. Just life. And I'm gonna be a
motivational speaker for just a few minutes. How could I lie
to you to make you feel better about yourself? Could I encourage
you that you are something? Worth something? Without Christ,
without the Bible now. Should have had a mask on Halloween
or something. What could I tell you that would be true when you
know who you are? When you know the desires of
your heart and flesh that are against the natural desires of
the world around us. We know, no matter what we believe
in the context of scripture, we know it's wrong to steal something
from someone else. We know that it's wrong to fabricate
the truth. We know that it's wrong to hurt
someone else's body. We know that it's wrong to lie
and to steal and to kill and to rebel against good laws. We know that it's wrong. It has
nothing to do with Jesus. We just closed the book on that.
We can all agree. Every person in the world except
those sitting on death row with extreme problems who have killed
massive amounts of people, everybody would agree. These are things
that are good. So let's take all that off the
table and let's just say, am I perfect in every way? Do I
like the way I look? Do I like the way I speak? Do
I like the way I sound? Do I like the plan of my life?
Do I like the place that I have? Do I like the people that are
around me? Am I content? Am I at peace? Am I at joy? Is
my family great? Are my children doing great?
Or is there a greater desire to have more and do more and
be more, you see? So even if we take Christianity off the
table, I cannot lie to you and say, you are awesome and perfect. Nobody believes that about themselves.
And the ones that do, we call them what? Not our friends. Arrogant. Full of themselves. Prideful. And the thing is, when
they look in the mirror, they speak the truth to their own
souls. I'm not saying life isn't precious, and I'm not saying
that all of humanity is not precious. I'm saying in the context of
what we understand in the world, even if someone does a great
amount of good, it's all going to come to an end. It's over.
It's over. And even the greatest good, I'm
looking forward to the day, I pray in my lifetime, that we can eradicate
the cancer cell. I am going to breakdance on Main
Street. Seriously, I have breakdanced
in a long time. I was probably 15 last time I did that, but
I'm gonna breakdance on Main Street, Claxton, if they cure
cancer. But then what's next? What's
next? Cure cancer? Then something else
comes along. What are they going to call that? Breakdance disease? I don't know. Something else
is coming. Something else will kill us.
Something else will come along. So we haven't been liberated
from any season of death. We've not been liberated from
any problems. We've not been liberated from
anything. We've just exchanged one for another. One season of drought
for a season of flooding. We couldn't live, we have no
water, we have no crops, now we're drowning. And in the middle
of all that transition, we see the hope and the light of it
all. And that's where the world sits, right there, wishing that
every day could be right there in that little tiny apex of transition
when we think it's perfect, like this weather. Like this weather. But when we have the grand understanding
that we have the joy of Christ, and the peace of Christ, and
the love of Christ, and the life of Christ, and the spirit of
Christ, and the hope of Christ, this is where we are. Not because
of where the world is, but because of what Christ has done for us.
So, back here, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me
before it hated you. Here, Jesus is saying the very
ones who claim to be the people of God have hated me. Why? Because
they lived in that little tiny transition period. They were
powerful. They were respected. Since I
was a teenager, people have come to me for Bible answers. I'm
not exaggerating that. What do you think about this?
Why? Because I carried a Bible everywhere. I was that guy. Didn't have phones. They were
all connected to the wall with cords, young people. back then. There was no cell phone or mobile
phone. My dad did have a mobile phone
in the 80s, but it was a rotary phone mounted to the bottom of
his, with a radio in it. No lie. And you could talk to
the man on the moon like this easier than you could on the
phone. But I mean, you just, people would come, what does
the Bible say? What does the Bible say? What does the Bible say? And I've always loved Scripture.
I've always loved to know the truth of Scripture. And it's
interesting because even today people ask me questions. What's the point? The world hates
what I tell them. And a lot of religious people
will ask questions and they won't like what the Bible says concerning
these answers, and then they will hate me. Is that my problem? Is it your problem when you stand
on the gospel of grace, of sovereign grace, of free grace, and the
world thinks you're weird, strange, out of sorts? It's not your problem. Because
they hate Jesus. But see, what's interesting is
that the Greeks of this day loved the gospel. by and large loved
the gospel. The Jews of that day hated the
gospel because they knew what they knew and they were settled
in their hearts about who they were. They had studied the Bible,
they knew the Bible, and the very people who were the esteemed
spiritual leaders of the day, they had gained a lot. They had gained a lot. And there's
something weird that happens in the heart of man's flesh when
you're 16, 17 years old and a lot of adults come to you for counsel
and you don't have a clue how to help them. But they just want
to know, maybe this kid that studies the Bible might know
something to help them. And you try, and the only thing
you know to do is to read something that you read. And that's the
greatest way of counseling people. There's something inside of me
during that time that I begin to think after a few years, you
know what, I might be really important. I might know some things that
the average person doesn't know. I might be extremely intelligent.
And you know what God did with that? Chopped my head off, rolled
it down a bowling alley and got a strike. And a couple of turkey
runs later, for those of you who bowl, he put me in my place. And now I can't remember what
I was talking about, much less what I learned yesterday. You
see? Praise be to God. But imagine
being the leader of an entire nation of people, spiritually
speaking. Imagine what it would be like
to walk out into a group of a million people and they weep because
you're standing there. And even the ones who don't weep,
they're extremely nervous that you have the key to life. And that was the glory of the
Pharisees. That's the glory of the Vatican. That's the glory
of the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the glory of, you name
it. And the reason the world hates
you is because it hates Jesus. And if you were in the world,
if you were of the world, look at verse 19, the world would love
you as its own. And see, that's sort of my story.
I'm going to give you a little more of my story here. I was always loved when
I went somewhere new. Because the people hear me preach
for an hour, and then it would establish their entire viewpoint
of who I was. And they're like, man, we've
got to have this guy on our team. He's preaching truth. And if
social media had been around at that time, it had been spitting
fire, or whatever, or boom, or whatever little modicon, or what
have you, that goes along with that. And then when they get
to know me, like a week later, they hate my guts. My last pastorate, before moving
back here, one of the gentlemen there, my first Sunday, approached
me down the aisle during my prayer and closing, and I opened my
eyes, and I'm like, man, I haven't given an altar call in 15 years.
What's happening here? I mean, you know, what's going on? He
says, we want you to be our pastor. And at that moment, this man
didn't even know my last name. He heard me preach Hebrews 1, which
is all about the glory of God and revelation of the Son. He
is the living word and all things that God has ever taught us about
anything concerning himself and redemption is all revealed through
Jesus Christ. And the prophets and the apostles and all the
Old Testament reveals this. And then it goes on, Christ is
greater than everything. And I said, you don't know me. You
like the way I preach, but you won't want me to shepherd you. And by the Lord's mercy, that
man's heart was changed and we became very close and he's with
the Lord now. But that is how the world looks at what they
esteem as, that's incredible. That sounded incredible. That
smelled incredible. That tasted incredible. That's
incredible. We want it as a part of our life.
We want it as a part of our team. But then when the real and the
true get down and dirty, what happens? The world doesn't want
it. The religious world of the United
States of America, the evangelical world of this country does not
want the gospel. It does not love the Lord Jesus. Evidenced by the way they speak
from the pulpit, evidenced by what they do in the context of
the assembly, and so on and so forth. And most of all, how they
reject the grace of God. By grace you have been saved,
beloved. By grace you have been saved. Your salvation, as we
talked yesterday, some of us, your testimony ought to start
that God's mercy is my hope. You see? When have you heard
that? You don't hear it from me. But
if you love the Jesus of the world's religion, then they would
love you. They would embrace you. And it
doesn't take long to figure out where I stand on things, does
it? I mean, many of you throughout the last seven, eight years together,
you have come to a place where, you know, you used to have extremely
good, close, intimate friends in the faith. And then as you
begin to articulate the gospel clearly, it's like you just started
speaking some language they don't understand. And next thing you
know, your spiritual buddies are now your spiritual enemies. For we who are filled with the
Spirit of God, for we who are saved and redeemed by the blood
of Christ, we, even though we grieve, hold fast on the position
of truth. We do not, as the Jesus' teaching
of the soils and the seeds, we do not forsake the gospel to
maintain fellowship with the world's church. So what I want
you to see here is that Jesus is specifically talking about
religious, godly, Bible-toting, teaching people of who these
people used to be and now they're not. And that's why they don't
love you because they don't love me. And you don't go back to
them because I've bought you. They don't love you, so quit
trying to make them love you. You just love each other. Now
is it starting to come together? And I know it's going to be hard,
but I'm going to give you power by my Spirit to do this which
I'm commanding you to do. And when you don't do it perfectly,
it's okay because I've already purchased you. Your love for
one another and your love for me does not correlate with your
hope of eternity. I am your hope of eternity. I
have washed you. I have humiliated myself and
sacrificed my life for you. So all these things will work
out in time. And even if you die, you live. Intimacy with Christ ultimately
and always something that's absolutely and let me tell you this church,
we will experience suffering a lot more than we will experience
peace. For those of you who don't follow Wednesday nights, please
go listen to Trey's introduction to the Beatitudes and especially
pay attention to meekness and peace and how he illustrated
that. It's on the church website. It's
a very perfect text to partner with this one. You are not of the world. You're
not of the world. I knew I wouldn't get very far
with this. And because you're not of the
world, the world doesn't love you. The world would love you,
but you're not of it, so it doesn't love you. This isn't the wicked.
Look at this now. What we would call debauchery
and slanderous and wicked and evil and sadistic and sensual
sin. Jesus isn't saying, you know
what, all the drug dealers and pimps and all these people, they're
going to hate you. Because believe it or not, I
haven't found that to be the case. And I've had guns pulled on me,
and I've had knives pulled on me, and I've been threatened
by large groups of men who are a lot stronger than me, and I
have been scared to death, but by the mercy of God, when I reach
in the back of my back, and they think I'm pulling a gun, and
I pull out a Bible, many times they just sort of walk off. And
one day, they're probably gonna take my life. That's okay, I'm
not scared to die. I don't want to right now, but
if I do, it's all game. It's all game. But the scariest
I've ever been has been in deacons meetings. The most horrifying threat to
my physical family, physical threat to my family is leaders
in a particular church some years ago who threatened to hurt my
children if I didn't leave. Because I exposited the scripture
and they didn't like it. It's crazy. It's going to be
our mothers and fathers and brothers and sisters and family members
and neighbors, our childhood pastor. These are the ones who
will reprobate people above and beyond the wicked people of the
world who can't get their life right. You can't go to heaven
if your life is right. You can't be saved if your life
is right. If you are holy and your life
is good, you are going to hell. Because Christ paid for the sins
of sinners, not righteous people. We've already gone through that,
chapter 6, chapter 8, chapter 10, chapter 11. We see what Jesus
calls, He calls Judaism Satan worship. He says you worship
Satan, you worship the enemy, you worship the devil. Judaism
is not a Christian nation without Jesus. Judaism is a worship of
Lucifer. In evangelicalism and Romanism
and all these things, they're following suit, hand over fist,
diving head first into abominable, destructive, damnable error and
forsaking the glory of God in the person of Christ and they're
rejecting the grace of God, sacrificing Christ again to public shame
and holding Him to contempt. Hebrews 4. Hebrews 6. You're not of the world. Why? I chose you out of the world.
So you don't get yourself together and get out of the world. We're
not putting the world away. We're not coming to a place,
you know what, I just really don't like this world anymore. Because
you know what religious people can't do? Now listen, really
heartbroken, dog-eared, isn't that what they call that when
you mess up a book? Yeah, dog-eared, you know. These people, they
have a lot of time sometimes at the bottom to look up and
go, man, I am broken, I need Jesus. And they find a Jesus
that's being offered to them, and it's being offered to them
through the evangelical world in which we live, that's a Jesus
that says, I'm here if you'll just accept me. And that's a
lie. If you came to faith through
those means, you have no confidence in your eternal life. I'm gonna say that to you again,
Grace Truth. If you have assurance that you made a decision that
affected your eternal life, you don't have confident assurance
according to Scripture. You are in deep trouble. You must have
confident assurance that Christ is your righteousness. People don't come to the end
of their rope and say, you know what, I'm done with the world. You know who
never says I'm done with the world is religious people, self-righteous
people, legalists, decisionists. Bible-toting, deacon-wearing,
serving, loving, kind, generous, helpful, awesome, rock star people
who the community would go down if they weren't here. These people don't love the Christ
because in their eyes their righteousness is sufficient for them. Their
religion is sufficient. Their working out their salvation
is sufficient. All these things are sufficient
and they're not going to love. Why do you think Jesus only had
11 disciples? He had thousands until John 6. Thousands. They stayed up all
night long. You ever stayed up all night
when the new iPad came out? When the new Marvel movie opened
up, you know, midnight, you get in the line, you camp out. We've
all done something like that, you know. And if it ain't that,
it's the new shotgun at Dunham's or whatever. Bass Pro. Remember in high school, it was
the new Nikes, you know. Basketball players, I got to
go, I got to go. I'm going to stand in line to get Nikes. They only got about
700 pair. Well, they ain't 600 people in Claxton, so you're
going to be all right. Got to get one. These people stayed
up all night, they walked hundreds of miles following Jesus, listening
to him teach, and they listen to him teach and they see him
feed thousands, five to 10,000 people, feed them, feed them,
feed them, feed them. And they stay up all night walking around
the sea, walking up and down the mountains, looking for him.
Where did he go? Where did he go? Where did he go? So they decide God brings
a storm to bring boats to the shore so that they can get to
Capernaum, so they can come over there so they can hear these
words. And I'm a paraphrase this. I rebuke you. I condemn you. Jesus says this to the masses.
They call him teacher. I condemn you and I rebuke you
that you're laboring for food that'll kill you. Do not labor
for the food that perishes. Labor for the bread that endures
to eternal life. Then he says, I am the bread. Eat of me. My
blood is the wine. Drink of it. And if you do not,
you will die. And the Jews and the leaders
there and every single person, man, woman, and child walked
away. Then he turns to the 12 and says,
y'all gonna go too? Peter says, no! Where shall we
go for you have the words of eternal life? Yet Judas held
tight, didn't he? Because that money bag was giving
him some sciatica. He wasn't giving it up. He held
tight. He hated Jesus. But he loved
to work for Jesus. He loved what Jesus brought him
and what Jesus gave him. He loved the prestige, even though
it was sort of a little bit triggering, a little bit of animosity, a
little bit of hostility. He enjoyed the spotlight. I was
just a fisherman. Now I'm in the middle of a mess. You know, 2,000 years from now,
I bet we could put this on something called a TV and make money off
of it. Jerry Springer. Talk shows. People love to see a good fight. Jesus chose us out of the world. That's how we're not in the world,
beloved. That's how you are set free from the world's clutches.
That's how you're set free from religion. That's how you're set
free from self-righteousness. That's how you're set free because
Christ chose you out of the world. The Spirit of God opened your
eyes to hear and see that which you could not see otherwise. Such says every spiritual cult
of the day. Beloved, here's a news flash.
You know what the cult was of first century Palestine? The
Way. And that's what they called Christians.
They were a cult, and they were hated. So if the religious of
Jesus' day called His people a cult, do you not think that
the religious of our day are going to call His people a cult?
Now, this isn't proof of anything, and it's certainly not an argument.
I'm just showing you how much the world hates us. I chose you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. Because you are my sheep and
I grabbed you out and I transferred you. Remember Colossians 1? I
snatched you out of the domain of darkness and I transferred
you to the light of my kingdom because I've done this work.
The world hates you and it's going to hate you and it's going
to continue to hate you because it hates me and I have chosen
you. I have grabbed you. I have pulled
you. I've saved you. I have sacrificed myself for
you. I have washed you. I have loved you. I've given
you my peace and my joy and my hope and my love and my intimacy. I am your life. Verse 20, remember what I said
to you just a minute ago, it was hours and hours and hours
and weeks for us, but remember what I said to you, a slave is
not greater than his master. But yet I call you friends because
I'm telling you what the Master is telling you. I'm helping you
understand why we do what we do and where we're going and
what I've been sent to do. You understand the love of God.
I'm not just telling you that I bought you and now you're going
to love me. I'm showing you that I purchased
you because of my love for you. And the Father has shown you
His love through me. And now you know Him because
you know me. If they hate the master, they're
going to hate the slave. But if they kept my word, they
will also keep yours. This is big. This is a sermon
in that by itself, not contextually in the sense that there's an
argument there. But remember, there aren't didactics here. Jesus isn't saying now theologically
this and that. That's what the apostles did.
Jesus, this is a narrative. Sometimes we have to impose the
meaning, or the meaning is there in context, but we have to expand
a little bit of application here. If they kept my word, they will
keep yours also. So we know there that he's talking
about the religious. He's talking about the Jews.
He's talking about those who say they know God. Not the people
who never heard the scripture. Not the Corinthians. The Jews. They persecuted me,
they will persecute you. It wasn't the Gentiles that persecuted
Jesus, it was the Jews. If they kept my word, they would
also keep yours. So as we teach the truth, those who are truly
the sheep of Christ will do what, John 10? Hear His voice and they
will agree with us. They will agree. It's not academic. I don't really care what John
Owen had to say about justification. I'll be honest with you, because
I know what Paul taught about justification and I know what
Jesus taught about justification. Do I get excited sometimes when
I read other people? Yes, just like sometimes you
might get excited in my stupid little stories. Oh, that's so
funny, or that's really moving, or that's just ridiculous and
I don't understand. Keep moving, Tippins. They don't keep my word because
if they kept my word, they'd keep your word. That means that
they would keep it. You give it to them and they would hold
it and they would say, yes, this is my word too. Get that picture
in your head. First time I went to Louisiana,
not Louisiana, first time I went to Las Vegas. I was thinking
New Orleans. It probably happened there too,
but I was 14. So first time I went to Las Vegas in a professional
sense. It was a conference there and
I'm there and I'm like, this is awesome. You know, big lights,
big bands, magicians. It's like, okay, if we just had
a Bible conference, I'd be in, I'd be in heaven. You know, how
ironic. You leave the protection of the
four walls of where you are and you walk in the street and handbills
galore. You know what a handbill is?
It's a track, not for Jesus. And they're inviting you to do
all sorts of things. You come here and you gamble, we'll give
you free food, free stay, free drinks, free everything, up to
$10,000 if you gamble. I'm going, what the world? What
do I gotta do, put a quarter in there and spend some around
to get free food? I'm about to get me a $2 buffet
for the rest of the week. And you go into that place, that's
not what they mean. You go buy $5,000 worth of chips, they'll
let you eat for free as they take them from you. So they're,
that's what that means. And you walk back out and go,
that's not gonna work, so let's go find a show. But everywhere
you go, there's somebody handing you stuff. Well, there was one
particular group of men that were standing six deep on one
of the sidewalks, and I could not go on the other side because
it was under construction, as all big cities are. And I go
over, I try to go around them, but they walk out and flank, and hand me this paper and I
can see from the paper that it's pornographic. There's some kind of service
that you can call up because prostitution is legal there.
And I'm going, no thank you. So what do they do? Slap me on
my chest and move their hand away. What do I do? Litter. Most people would not litter.
I won't even touch it. I did not keep it. And with disdain, I did not keep
it. And then I realized I could put
my forearm out and I could slap their papers and all their papers
would go on the ground. And that really got them aggravated.
Didn't care. And I was justified in that.
I didn't have to be forced to hear this stuff. Now, flip it. I have my Bible. I'm teaching
my God. I'm teaching redemption. and
the truth of Jesus Christ comes and someone hands it to me and
I'll just karate chop it to the floor. This is what it means
to not keep the word of Christ. I'm not listening to that, I'm
having nothing to do with that. I find it really ironic that
most of people who believe in sovereign grace, who believe
the gospel, are overly compassionate toward a close kinship with some
evangelicals who don't believe the gospel to the point where
they're just confused or they're just a little bit off or maybe
they just haven't studied enough, but they say, we're lost. Jesus says they're lost. Get
that church. Why does this happen? Nothing's
going to change it. Beloved, our mission as the body
of Christ is not to change these particulars. Our mission is to
hold fast to the words of Christ, who is our hope and our everlasting
righteousness. That's our mission. Verse 21,
all these things they will do to you on account of my name,
because they do not know Him who sent me. They do not know
Him who sent me. Jesus says they're lost. When we get to John 17, which
is not going to be long, and Jesus begins to pray. He says, John 17, when Jesus
had spoken these words, He lifted up His eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that the Son
may glorify You. Why? You see that. since you
have given Him all authority over all flesh, to give eternal
life to all whom you have given Him." So we see in a nutshell
there, that one sentence, everything that I've been teaching you for
the last few weeks, for the last few years. And this is eternal life that
they know you, the one and only true God and Jesus Christ whom
you have sent. So in that prayer, Jesus recapitulates
the teachings that He gives the disciples that He has given them
eternal life, thus they live. And all the particulars of how
that works and why, because He chose them out of the world and
that's why people hate them because they are the elect of God. People
don't hate religious people, but people hate Jesus when they
don't belong to Jesus. And they can hang out with Jesus
people, and they can do work with Jesus people, and they can
fund Jesus work through Jesus people, but they ultimately hate
Jesus people. And that's the picture of Judas,
and that's the picture of the Pharisees, and that's the picture
of most self-righteous professing believers of our day. They will do all these things
because they do not know the Father. But yet people will argue, well
I know God, I got a relationship with Jesus. You do not. You cannot
have a relationship with Jesus apart from His Word and what's
proclaimed about Him. And then look at what He says
there. Jesus proves that, verses 22-25. He proves what I just
said. He says to them, if I had not spoken My Word to them, they
would not have been guilty of sin. Now that doesn't mean they're
not sinners and guilty of sin in a judicial sense. That means
they would not be guilty of the sin that I am saying and speaking
of, their hatred of me, their hatred of my father, and their
hatred of my people. They're guilty of that sin and
that sin is unbelief. They're guilty because they have
heard. That doesn't mean that if you've
never heard that you're not guilty. But in this particular sense,
these self-righteous, these religious people, not only have they heard,
but they have heard and they have littered the Word of God.
They have littered the truth of Christ on the ground. They
have taken it and seen with disdain that they hated the Jesus that
was in that Word, and they wadded it up and threw it away, and
they slapped the handbills of righteousness out of the hands
of God's people at every giving moment that they have opportunity.
Jesus says, My word they have refused, so they have no excuse
for their sin. Whoever hates Me hates My Father
also. Then He gives another statement
of condition. If I had not done among them the works that no
one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. Not only have
they rejected My word, but they've rejected My works. Jesus in John
4 says that the Father is working until now, I am working. The
Father's work is the Son's work. And Judah is so bold to say that
Jesus led the Israelites out of Egypt and brought destruction
on Sodom and Gomorrah. The Son of God, the God of heaven,
the Creator of all things. And now they've rejected my word
because they hate the Father. And they hate the Father because
they hate me. And they hate me because they hate my word. And
they hate you because they hate my word. They hate me. And I've
not only taught them the truth that they would not receive,
but I have shown them the power of God and they would not receive. They would not receive. But now
that they've seen and they hated both me and my father, they are
guilty. And why are they guilty? Verse
25. Verse 25. The word that is written
in their law. Must be fulfilled. Must be fulfilled. Psalm 35. They will hate him. They will
hate him. Beloved, we don't hate him because
he didn't hate us. And when we get to the end of
it all, we know that we don't hate Him because He's given us
life. He's given us eyes to see Him
for who He really is. And we love Him because He first
loved us. And in this we rejoice. And the Spirit comes, the help
of verse 26, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit
of truth, of my word, the spirit of my teaching, the spirit of
my witness who comes from the Father. He will bear witness
about me. You who have the spirit, when
you hear someone speak of Christ, you know it is true because the
Spirit of God gives you understanding of what is true and you can discriminate
error. And then you will bear witness
about me because you have been with me from the beginning. And that'll be part of our sermon
for next week. Let's pray. We thank you, Father, for the
everlasting hope and love that we have in Jesus Christ.