These verses, Brother Darrell
read, are from the lips of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they're
spoken in the context here in John 15. They're spoken in the
context of His teaching His disciples to love one another. And yet in these 10 verses, We
have the words hate, hated, and hateth eight times. It's three times in verse 18. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. Then in the end of verse 19,
But I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world
hateth you. Then twice in verse 23, He that
hateth me, hateth my father also. Then the end of verse 24, But
now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. And the
eighth time is at the end of verse 25. They hated me without
a cause. Why does the world hate Jesus? It's a good question. You do
know it's inappropriate to speak his name in public nowadays. Why does the world hate Jesus?
That's my subject. And the thing that has troubled
me through the years is that it's not the secular world that
hates Him so. They don't mind hearing a little
about Jesus. They don't know much about Him.
They don't claim to love Him anyhow, but they have no They don't get upset. But it's the religious world
who claims to believe in Him, belong to Him, and love Him. Why do they hate Him? They won't say they hate Jesus.
They'll say they love Him. But the Jesus they love is the
one they've created in their mind. A Jesus that won't offend anyone.
A Jesus that is non-discriminate. A Jesus that no one can fall
out with. That's the Jesus they love. And yet the Jesus of this Bible,
the son of God, as he really is, was constantly in conflict
with religious people. He didn't have any problem with
the drunks and prostitutes and all that crowd. Religious people. People that were so good that
God owed them so much. That's who he had trouble with. And he says here in verse 25,
they have no reason. They hated me without a cause. Pontius Pilate said, remember,
I find no fault in him. And he speaks the truth for everybody. There is no fault to be found
in Him. There is no sin in Him. He is
holy, harmless, separate from sinners. Now we've all given Him plenty
of reason to hate us. But He has never given any man
cause to hate Him. And yet He's hated. Why? That little phrase, without a
cause. They hated me without a cause. It is spoken prophetically
of Christ four times in the Psalms. And I'll just give them to you.
Or at least Psalm 35, 19. Let not them that are mine enemies
wrongfully rejoice over me, neither let them wink with the
eye that hate me without a cause. Psalm 69, 4, they that hate me
without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head. Psalm
109, 3, they compass me about also with words of hatred and
fought against me without a cause. Psalm 119, 161, princes have
persecuted me without a cause. Why does the
world hate Jesus without a cause? No cause. Well, I'm going to
give you three or four things. First, because of His divine sovereignty. Because He is God in the flesh. Emmanuel, God with us. He's the creator. He's the savior. He's sovereign. People hate him
because of his right to do as he pleases and the authority and the power
to do it without anyone's permission.
People hate that. They sure do. the religious world
around us and confessedly, admittedly, we've all been affected by it. And most of us at one time were part of it, which says this, don't give us
a Jesus that don't need our permission.
before he does anything in our life. And people are being taught that
today. He's a gentleman. He'll knock gently at your heart's
door. Would you please not turn him
away? No. If you're one of his chosen
ones, he tells these, I've chosen you. If you're one of His chosen ones,
He'll turn your world upside down. He'll disrupt everything in your
life. He'll crush you. He'll break
your heart. Not because He delights in doing
that, but because that's the only way you'll have it. And He leaves us hopeless. before we'll have anything to
do with Him and be honest with Him. In other words, in our fallen
nature, we rebel. And if you can get along without
Christ, you will. If you can do without Him, you
will. That's your will. Your proud,
stubborn will. And people call it free will. The Bible says that by nature
we're bound by sin and by Satan. Not free at all. Until and unless Christ delivers
you from the power of darkness and translates you into the kingdom
of his dear son. Today's religious world holds
on to a little Jesus idol that's under our thumb. He can only do what we let him. That's not who he is. God is just backwards. You can
only do what He lets you do. His dominion is an everlasting
dominion. His kingdom is from generation
to generation. He's never been anything that
He's not now, and He'll never be anything except what He is
now. He's God from eternity to eternity. No one has made him anything
more or less than he is and has always been. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. Aren't you an inhabitant of the
earth? That's God's word saying there's nothing to you. All the inhabitants of the earth
are reputed as nothing. He doeth according to his will
in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth.
None can stay his hand or stop his hand or say unto him, what
doest thou? What are you doing? He hath His way in the whirlwind
and in the storm. He hath done whatsoever He hath
pleased. He worketh all things after the
counsel of His own will. You say, is that the only kind
of verses you know? Well, there's so many of them,
I don't know them all. It's all about Him and His authority,
His power, His will, His doing. They're not yours and mine. The Jesus of this Bible, He's
not locked in a cage, dependent on you to let Him out, to do what you'd like Him to
do. Oh, no. Oh, no. The scriptures all say throughout
that He does what He'd like to do. And folks hate him for that. They hate a Jesus that's not
in their control. Secondly, why does the world
hate Jesus? The religious world, I'm talking about. His discriminating election.
Now that's a bad word. There's many, many pulpits in
this country. You will not hear that word election in 40 years. But God's Word is full of it.
And people hate Him because of it. And they have to explain
away that He loved Jacob and hated Esau. They have to explain that away. And did he love Jacob and hate
Esau before they were born? You say, I don't like that. You're in the majority. God's Word says it. And they
say, well, that's just not fair. We don't believe in a God that's
not fair. They don't see the exceeding
sinfulness of sin. and our condition because of
it. May I say if God hated everybody,
he'd be fair. If he loved no one, he'd be fair. He's more than fair. But he don't
love or hate anyone on the basis of what we are, but on what he
is. over in the Gospel of Luke chapter
4. You need to go read that. I'm not going to turn to it now. The Bible said he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up. It was his hometown. That's where
Joseph and Mary lived and where he had been brought up. And then
it said as his custom was. He went into the synagogue on
the Sabbath day. These were Jews and they assembled
on the Sabbath day, Saturday. He went in there and he was called
on to read. And he read from Isaiah 61. The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor, and he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach
deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the
blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the
acceptable year of the Lord." The acceptable year of the Lord
was when Christ came. And he handed the minister back
the book and he sat down. And if he hadn't said any more,
everything would have been fine. But then he said, this I've just
read you. He's talking about me. This day is this scripture fulfilled. I am the Messiah. That's what
he was saying. Boy, they began to look at one
another, what? We know him. Is this not Joseph's son? And then he went on to preach
on election of all times. And he said, you've read in the
Old Testament about that awful famine back there when Elijah
prayed because the country was eat up with idolatry. And it
did not rain for three and a half years. He said there were many widows
in Israel, widows with no means of support. And bread got so scarce, there
were many widows in Israel starving to death. But Elijah, the prophet of God,
was not sent to any of them. But he was sent to one widow,
the city of Sirepta, the city of Sidon, a Gentile. And you all know that story.
You can read it in 1 Kings 17, how that her meal barrel was
never empty, plumbed to the end of the famine. That was election. God chose
one that this crowd would never have chosen. And then he kept on. In the days
of Elisha the prophet, there were many lepers in Israel, in
your beloved Israel. And Elisha was sent to none save One Naaman, a Syrian. We talked about him last Sunday.
He wasn't an Israelite. He was a Syrian. Captain of the
Syrian army. Bitter enemy to the nation of
Israel. And God sent His prophet to that
leper. And there were many lepers in
Israel. That was election. That was God's
right. Sovereign election. And if you'll read there in Luke
4, what did those people do at the synagogue at Nazareth? Did they say, praise God, we've
never heard such a wonderful message on election. And they
begin to shout and jump benches, throw songbooks. No, no. The
Bible said they They was bloody, they got angry, they got wroth.
They was gritting their teeth and said, we're not putting up
with this. That's what they still say today. And they took him out of the
synagogue, took him up on the hill and was going to push him
off the cliff and kill him. But it wasn't his time. He passed
through the middle of them and they didn't even see him and
he went his way. Why does the religious world
hate Jesus, the Jesus of this Bible? His sovereign election, divine
election. Another one. Why does the religious
world hate Jesus? They think he makes poor choices. Now, at that sermon there in
Luke 4, They thought that widow of Zarephath was a poor choice. There's plenty of good, godly
women that are widows here in Israel. And lots of them starved to death
because God never sent his prophet to them. And then there's that Naaman
who said enough about him. That buzzard with leprosy, he
ought to die. But God sent His prophet. Poor choices. And then there's
Saul of Tarsus. Acts chapter 9. Mean a man has
ever lived. Persecuted God's people, killing
God's people, and loved it. Thought he was doing God a favor. What an awful feller. He ought
to go to hell for all the hurt he caused Christ's sheep, God's
people. But the Lord went after him on
the road to Damascus. He wasn't looking for the shepherd.
The shepherd came looking for him. And then what about that
Zacchaeus in Jericho? He is the top man of the IRS. Who likes that kind of fella?
He's the chief tax collector. Lowdown scoundrel. He collected
taxes for the Romans from the Jews. Even his own people hated
him. But the Lord Jesus didn't. Came
along to where he was up that tree, and he knew he's up there.
And he stopped. Said, come on down, bud. I'm
going to your house today. I'll abide at your house today.
That means I'm going to stay. Of the town of Jericho, if they
could have voted for one man to go to hell, it would have
been Zacchaeus, the chief tax collector. But they couldn't
vote. Christ came through and chose
him. Why do people hate Jesus? He
makes poor choices. And then there was that blind
Bartimaeus sitting by the highway side begging. He was helpless. He was hopeless. He couldn't
do anything. He couldn't, he couldn't contribute
to society. He, he was no good to anybody. He was basically worthless. And
he hears that Jesus is passing by and there's a multitude following
him and all around him, listening to Christ speak. And this fellow begins to holler
out, Jesus, thou son of David, he knew who he was, have mercy
on me. And some of the real religious
fellas, I mean ones that knows all about how everything's supposed
to be, went over there and said, hey,
cool it, buddy. Just keep your mouth shut. He
don't have time for the likes of you. We're trying to hear
what he's saying. Just be quiet. And the Bible
says that when they did that, He didn't take their advice.
He cried, Damor, Jesus, thou son of David, have mercy on me. And the Lord stopped and said,
go call that man. And he opened his eyes. He's really the only one there
that wasn't blind spiritually. Rest of them was blind as a bat.
They didn't see who Jesus was or why he was here. But he demonstrated
right there to that sinner man. And they thought, what? He makes
poor choices. He makes poor choices. Another thing, why does the religious
world hate Jesus? He violated the law of Moses. Why, he healed people on the
Sabbath day. How awful is that? Jesus said man was not made for
the Sabbath, the Sabbath was made for man. But oh no, the Sabbath day is
a God almost. We've got a crowd in our area
that's big on that Sabbath day. And it is Saturday. Some have
been accused, Baptists, of changing the Sabbath from Saturday to
Sunday. No, we haven't changed the Sabbath.
It's Saturday. But it's fulfilled. It's done. It was an Old Testament type
of the believer's rest. And our rest is not in a day.
It's in a person. Christ our Sabbath is sacrificed
for us. Our rest is in Him. I was in a barber chair one time
years ago. I'm getting off track, but it's okay. I was sitting
in a barber chair years ago getting my grooming. And this barber happened to be
one of them. He knew I was trapped. I could
have thrown that sheet up and got up and left, I guess. I didn't. And he was calm. They got their
act together. And he said, what gives you the
right to ignore the Fourth Commandment? I knew what he was talking about. I said, well, that's easy. I'm
like Gene, I like easy questions. I'm not a natural Israelite. I'm not a Jew. That was given back there to
them. It was not given to Egypt. It was not given to Syria. It was not given to Moab. It
was given to Israel. That's easy. And we don't worship
on the Sabbath because that was a type and I told you that. We
worship on the Lord's Day, the first day of the week. And that's
when the apostles of the New Testament assembled on the Lord's
Day, on the first day of the week. Now you find Jesus and
you find Paul in the synagogues on the Sabbath day, because that's
when the Jews would be assembled. That's when they could talk to
them, preach to them. But New Testament believers in
Christ assembled on the Lord's Day, the day of the resurrection. the day of Pentecost, the first
day of the week. So, oh, violated the law of Moses. Your disciples, now they went
sneaking up to him and said, hey, hate to be critical, but your disciples don't wash
their hands before they eat. We've noticed that. How awful is that? What did Jesus do? He said, well,
I'll tend to that bit. No. He said, look, buddy. Well, I'll move on. There's the woman caught in adultery.
We caught her in the very act. He let her go. He forgave her. Moses in the
law said to stone her. What do you say? And he could
have said, no. Moses and the Law said to stone
both of them. Where is he at? He might have been one of them. And he forgave her. He forgave
her. And then Matthew 24, they showed
him one day the beautiful buildings of the temple. Oh, they were
so proud. Called Herod's Temple. It was
the second temple. It was built back in the days
of Haggai in there in Zechariah and all, but Nehemiah, Ezra. But that was just after the captivity,
and the Israelites were very poor, and they didn't have all
the gold and jewels that Solomon's temple was decked out with, so
it was just an ordinary frame building. God had told them back
there, Nehemiah, go up in the mountain, cut wood, build it,
you know. The beauty is not in the Precious
stones and jewels and gold and silver. But the desire of all
ages shall come. He'll walk in this temple. I'm
talking about the Lord Jesus Christ. But now in Jesus' time,
Herod, the king, mock king. He wasn't really much of a king.
They were under Roman rule. But they allowed the Jews to
have their mock king and his name was Herod. And Herod had
spent a lot of money beautifying this temple. And these people
are proud of it. Oh, and they're showing Jesus
the beautiful buildings of this temple. Instead of him saying,
yeah, that's something all right. I've never seen anything like
it. No, no. He said, well, you guys think
this is so great. I've got a little news for you. before this generation passes
away. Within the next 40 years, there will not be one rock left
on top of another. He was referring to the judgment
upon Jerusalem in 70 A.D. It was less than 40 years away. It was that generation. And I hear these ignoramus so-called
prophecy preachers Even today, the Bible said this generation
is not possible. I'm talking about our generation.
It's been a lot of generations since then. Jesus said this generation,
the one He's talking to. So He was talking about a destruction.
He was talking about the destruction of that temple. He told them,
He said, this thing y'all are so proud of, it's history. It's
history. And boy, they thought that was
so cruel. That was so rude, so disrespectful, and they hated Him for it. And if the Lord Jesus should
walk into this religious age in which we live and hear them
brag to Him like they do to you about how much better their outfit
is than yours, His response to them would cause
them to hate him. And they already do. They already
do. One more, they said, wow, where
have we been? One more and I'm through. He
said, they said, he made the light of our heritage. We be Abraham's seed. Boy, they
were proud of that. They were really proud of that.
And he said, yeah, I know you are after the flesh, biologically, but not in the spirit, not in
the faith of Abraham. And he said, if you were Abraham's
seed, you'd believe me. He did. And yet you're wanting to kill
me." And when he told them that, they
took up stones to stone him. Now admittedly this morning,
our generation is more discreet. We've learned how to be full
of the devil and act like we're full of Jesus. We're more discreet. But the religious world still
hates the Jesus of this Bible. It was the religious world in
the book of Acts that beat the apostles and threw them in jail. You know what it was all about?
They said, we do not want to hear that name anymore. Jesus Christ. He did not fit. That's why they crucified him.
He don't fit today. People don't want him. Now, this
wouldn't be complete if I didn't follow that question. Why does
the world hate Jesus? With another question. And here
it is. Why do I love him? Why do I love
him? Well, it's for the very same
reasons. He didn't need my permission
to invade my world. And thank God he did it anyway. I wasn't looking for him. He
came looking for me. And to encourage your feeble
heart this morning, if you're really looking for Him, it's
because He's really looking for you. If you really want to love Him,
it's because He really loves you. If hell is your lot, you'll never
have any real interest in Him. But I pray you're interested
in Him. But He came to me when I had no desire to come
to Him. And I love Him coming to me. I love Him for that. Then He loved me when I didn't
love Him. He chose me before I chose Him. or else I'd never have chosen
him. I love him for that. Excuse me from this business
of give Jesus a chance. He don't need a chance. He's
God. And then I love him because he
does, in the world's, really this world's language, I love
him because he does make poor choices. There were so many others, good
people, honest people, honorable people, but he chose me. I love him for that. He wasn't at all interested in
the beautiful image I tried to build of myself. He opened my eyes. and said to me, you're nothing. It's not the world's estimate
of me. It's not my own estimate of me. It's not outward appearance. He changed my heart. He brought me to love what I
once hated and to hate what I once loved. And I love him for that. Like the Israelites who said,
we be Abraham's seed. See, we're all we need to be
before God without Jesus. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. And I can say the same. I was
born in a Christian home. Grew up in church. Never can
remember a time we didn't go to church. Was taught to believe
the Bible. Was taught right from wrong.
But not until Christ came into my heart did I even care. He made the difference. And now
I care. And I love Him for that. I love
Him for that. The religious world hates Him.
for the very things I love him for. Isn't that amazing? Amen.