Okay, turn with me then to the
second half of John's Gospel and chapter 15 and I've given
this message the title, Chosen to be Different, Chosen to be
Different. We're going to be looking at
verses 16 to 27. Can you understand salvation what what the gospel
is about well in a sense it's very very simple but in another
sense it's the most profound thing so that Paul writes in
Romans chapter 11 verse 33 oh the depth of the riches both
of the wisdom and knowledge of God how unsearchable are his
judgments and his ways past finding out we cannot plumb the depths
of them Who can understand these things? You cannot stand up in
a debate in the flesh with others and debate somebody into the
kingdom of God because his ways are past finding out. There are
things that are hidden from us that we will never understand.
Paul writes elsewhere, great is the mystery of godliness.
Great is that mystery. Who can understand God and his
purposes? Who can? Nobody can, but in the
Word of God, in the Scriptures, He's revealed enough of His purposes. He's revealed enough for His
people to know what His purposes are. And the reason is because
it's a cause of great assurance and comfort to us when we know
the truth of God and the purposes of God. Great comfort and assurance. The very thing that most religious
people think is the most dreadful doctrine, that doctrine of sovereign
choice, of election, when you hear what the Word of God says
to the child of God what a comfort that word is. Look at the verses
that we read earlier in Ephesians and the first chapter. Of course
there are so many passages that we could turn to but just look
at the first few verses of Ephesians chapter 1 where Paul writes that
he's an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God He didn't
decide, it's by the will of God, not the will of Paul that he's
an apostle. The will of Paul was exactly the opposite, but
the will of God was that he would be an apostle. And he's writing
to the saints, the set apart ones, passively set apart. They were set apart by God, which
are at Ephesus. And to the faithful in Christ
Jesus, grace be to you and peace from God our Father. These are
the fruits, grace and peace from God our Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ. And here's an outflowing of praise. "'Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world.'" See, it's not
hidden, is it? He's not hidden away somewhere deep in what he
was writing, he's right up front, right here. Chosen in him before
the foundation of the world for a reason that we should be holy
and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according
to the good pleasure of his will, his will. to the praise of the
glory of His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the
Beloved. And so he goes on, and go down
to chapter 2 and verse 10, because we can see why he did this. It's
revealed to us why he did this. For we are His, God's workmanship. His people are God's workmanship,
created in Christ Jesus for a reason. unto good works which God hath
before ordained that we should walk in them. God has before
ordained that we should walk in them. This is a cause of praise,
praise and comfort that God is a God of grace and that it's
his purposes that fulfill his will. And it's for a purpose
unto good works. And the purpose of those good
works is that we should bear fruit. Because a few verses earlier
in John 15, Jesus says to his disciples, Herein is my Father
glorified, that you bear much fruit. So shall ye be my disciples. We're told by Paul to adorn the
doctrine of our God and Savior in all things in the fruit that
we bear in this life. So how does this occur? How is
it possible? Well, the first half of chapter
15 is teaching us that it is all based on what we've just
been singing in that last hymn, union with Christ. It's the union
of His people with Him. that makes everything he is count
for them in the reckoning of the justice of God. And he says
it's such a strong and vital union that it's like a vine,
the root stock and the branches that grow from it. Those branches
only bear fruit so long as they're in the vine, so long as that
sap is flowing from the root stock to the branches and so
it is with the Spirit of God. As we're in Christ, who is the
true vine, the true root stock, by His Spirit, that spiritual
life flows into His people. And through that, fruit is born. The fruit which has as its root
the fruit of love. That love is, that's the greatest
of the gifts, says Paul in 1 Corinthians 13. All the others will fade
away. All the others, faith, hope,
love, faith and hope will go because when we're in heaven
we won't need faith and hope because we will be there. But
love endures. That's why love is the greatest
gift. It's the foundational fruit from which all other fruit springs. And all of that fruit, we have
it listed in Galatians 5, 22, love, joy, peace, patience, self-control,
long-suffering, all of these things, selflessness, selflessness,
others first, esteeming others more highly than myself, all
of that fruit which flows from that, against such there is no
law. He who has loved has fulfilled
the law, says the scripture again and again. And we come to that
point where in verse 14 and 15, Jesus tells his people, his disciples,
and this is spoken to the apostles, to those first disciples, to
the 12, well, the 11 at this stage, because Judas has gone
out. He's speaking it to them, but it's for all of his people
in all time. And he says, you are my friends.
Those who are sinners and by nature under the wrath of the
eternal God, the just condemnation of the eternal God, called friends. Friends, like Abraham, the friend
of God. Like Moses, who spoke with God
face to face as a man speaks with his friend. Friends of God. Friends of Christ, and thus friends
of God. And what's the badge of that friendship? It's in verse
14. Ye are my friends, if ye do whatsoever
I command you. Its trust and obedience to our
Lord Jesus Christ is the mark of that friendship. But how does
it start? What is the cause? What are the
results of it? He's speaking to them the night
before he goes to the cross. There are dreadful things that
are going to happen. Even then, they're going to flee,
they're going to be scattered, the sheep are going to be scattered.
Peter, with all of his bravado of how he would never, all the
others can do that, but he would never, was told before the cock
crows, you will deny me three times. But don't let your heart
be troubled. Don't let your heart be troubled.
Believe in God. Believe also in me. I go to prepare a place
for you. So he's preparing them for what
was to happen. He was preparing them for his
going away. They weren't going to be with
him physically anymore, but he's told them, it's good for you
that I go away. If I don't go away, the spirit,
the comforter will not come, but I'm going to send him to
you. And through him, you will have my presence with you always.
And so he says to little groups like ours, we're more than two
or three, remember? I know we're not many, but we're
more than two or three. But where two or three are gathered in
my name, by his Spirit's presence, there he is in the midst. A group
here, a group there in the world, all around this globe, groups
of believers who love the Lord Jesus Christ, who believe his
gospel, who gather together for the honor of his name, to worship
him, to seek his will, to do his will. have the assurance
of His Spirit with them. It's His promise through His
Word. So I want to see in this passage more comfort. Comfort in the purposes of God.
Comfort not to be alarmed by the response of the world. And
then finally, the comfort of the Spirit. So first of all,
the purposes of God. He wants us to see these things.
You know, here they are, a fearful group. He's told them he's going
away. Dreadful things are going to happen. They can hardly believe
what's going to happen. Even though he's told them again
and again the weakness of the flesh, they couldn't understand
and they couldn't believe it. But it's about to happen. Within
the next few hours, it's about to happen. They're going to be
scattered. They're going to be in a state of great anguish.
He's preparing them for what is to happen. And he's preparing
all of his people. through all time, through all
the persecution of doubts and all sorts of other opposition.
He's preparing them and encouraging them. The purposes of God then,
first of all. These things are not left to
chance. These things are not just the
chance outworkings of fate. These are purposed by God. Look
in verse 16, he says this. Very, very clear statement. You
have not chosen me but I have chosen you and ordained you that
you should go and bring forth fruit." This friendship that
we have with our Lord Jesus Christ and with God through him, its
beginning was one-sided. It wasn't that we sort of gradually
came so that we started to think, hey, this God is a good, no,
not at all, we were the enemies of the living God. But in sovereign
grace, he initiated that friendship. He initiated it, a one-sided
beginning. You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. And then down in verse 19. If
you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because
you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the
world. Why are you not of the world if you're his believing
people? It's because God in sovereign grace has chosen you out of the
world. And He's put a new spirit in you, and He's given you a
new mindset, and a new philosophy of life. I don't like using that
word, but I can't think of a better one. A new approach, a new thought. He's given you a glimpse into
heaven. He's revealed the mystery of His grace in the gospel of
His grace. It's all purposed, all initiated
by Him. God chose his people before the
beginning of time. We read that in Ephesians 1 and
verse 4. Before the foundation of the
world, outside of time in eternity, these things were settled. He
chose his people. He talks, the Scriptures talk,
about elect people. They talk about elect angels,
an elect nation. The epistles of John talk about
the elect lady, meaning the church. The lady is a picture of the
church. The elect lady. We read of elect churches. In
the Scriptures, God chose Abel and not Cain. God chose Noah
and his family, and not the rest of the world, for he left them
to destruction in the flood, to just condemnation for their
sin. He chose Abraham and his immediate
family, his wife and his nephew. He chose them, when the rest
of his family were all idolaters, and he took them out of that
idolatrous false god situation. Twins, Jacob and Esau, He chose
Jacob, but He didn't choose Esau. He passed by Esau. He chose Israel,
that nation. Why? Because they were the biggest
and best? No. They were the least. They were
the most pathetic. They were scorned by the nations
all around them, but He chose them. The Scriptures teach election. Look at Romans 9. I hardly need
to refer you to these verses, but Romans 9 Verse 11, you don't
need to turn to them, you can just listen. For the children
not yet being born, neither having done any good or evil, that the
purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works but
of him that calleth, it was said unto her, the elder, that is
Esau, shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. and we could go on reading down
that passage but for the sake of time we won't. Over in chapter
11 verses 5 to 7, even so then at this present time also there
is a remnant according to the election of grace, the election
of grace. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise grace is no more grace.
But if it be of works, then is it no more grace. Otherwise work
is no more work. What then? Israel hath not obtained
that which he seeketh for, but the election hath obtained it. And the rest were blinded. There
are those who claim that the Bible doesn't teach election.
And they're not just a few. The vast majority of the so-called
Christian world doesn't believe in election. It says that the
scriptures do not teach it. Well, that's deliberate blindness
or else stupidity, because the scriptures couldn't be clearer.
God is a God of sovereign grace, and he purposes these things.
Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, purposed by God. And it's an unconditional purpose.
Unconditional. Look up, well you don't need
to look these up, but I can read them out to you. 2 Timothy chapter
1 and verse 9. He talks about God who has saved
us and called us with an holy calling, not according to our
works. Unconditional. not dependent
on anything that we might do or decide unconditionally, not
according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace,
which was given us in Christ Jesus when? Before the world
began, before the beginning of time. and it's a specific distinguishing
grace. Unconditional, not based on the
works of those that he chooses, but it is distinguishing. It
is particular. In 2 Thessalonians chapter 2
and verse 13, Paul says there, We are bound to give thanks to
God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, for God hath from
the beginning chosen you unto salvation. That election is unto
salvation. It's a a choosing out that they
might be saved unto salvation through sanctification, setting
apart by the Spirit of God, that quickening of the Spirit of God,
and belief of the truth for everyone. Everyone of those who He chose
in Christ before the foundation of the world must come to believe
Him. They must come and believe, and
He makes them willing in the day of His power, and they do
come and believe. This is just what Peter says
in his first epistle and the second verse of that epistle.
He talks to people who are the people of God who he says because
they're the people of God they are elect according to the foreknowledge,
according to the predestination of God, the Father. through sanctification
of the Spirit, setting apart of the Spirit, unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. This purpose of
God, this choosing, is a particular redemption choice. He chooses
a specific people. Before the beginning of time,
Christ comes in time and stands in their place and does everything
for them that is needed for them to be right with God. And the
Spirit comes and makes them alive and quickens them. And it's all
accomplished because God performs all of His will. Isaiah 46 says
this, Isaiah 46 verse 9, I am God. and there is none like me declaring
the end from the beginning before it started he knows what happens
at the end because he ordains it and from ancient times the
things that are not yet done we saw that when we were studying
the book of Daniel how much he said and how much it came true
how perfectly it came true and history records it the end from
the beginning from ancient times the things that are not yet done
saying my council shall stand and I will do all my pleasure
how often you determine to do something and you fail in your
determination to do it we fail every day to do the things that
we plan to do that's the mark of our lives is failure to do
the things that we plan to do but not God Not God. I will do
all my pleasure. I have spoken it. I will also
bring it to pass. I have purposed it. I will also
do it. And as we've been looking at
the early chapters of Isaiah, we got up to chapter 12. when
we left off it for a week or two just a couple of weeks ago,
and we've seen there how God in providence manages the whole
of world history for the purpose of saving His people. So that
all these great nations of the ancient world rise up and accomplish
His purposes that He might call out and preserve the people of
His choice. He performs all of His will.
If He's chosen, if He's spoken, He will accomplish it. This is
the comfort. Dreadful things are about to
happen, but I have chosen you, says God to His people. And if
I have chosen you, I will perform it. Nothing will stop it. Nothing
can stand in the way of it. Satan Huffs and puffs and does
whatever he does, but everything he does is on a leash that God
holds. And that leash is just as long
as God allows it to be for His purposes. He rules in all things. He performed it in His will.
He performed it in Christ. It had to be in Christ. All of
this had to be done in Christ. It wasn't possible to save a
people, to choose to save a people, without Christ coming and being
their substitute, and standing in their place. He had to come,
for when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth
His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, in our place,
under the law, and we in Him, united with Him. that he might
redeem, that he might buy back those who are under the law.
That's his people. That he might pay the price.
And the price? Perfect righteousness. The price?
The shed blood of the precious Son of God. That precious blood
of Christ that redeems and pays the price of divine justice.
That those who are sinners might be counted righteous because
that debt has been cancelled. That debt has been paid. and
it's through regeneration. He does it through regeneration
because we believe there are people out there in this world
around us now who are just like everybody else with no thought
of God But who knows? God knows those that are His.
He knows them. And through regeneration, sanctification
of the Spirit, setting apart of the Spirit, making alive of
the Spirit, and by belief of the truth, that's what we read,
2 Thessalonians 2.13, through sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth, through those things He brings those
individuals, each one. Like, like, quarrying the stones
for the temple out of the quarry and bringing them one at a time
to all fit into that perfect building because his church is
the temple of the living God. Don't you know, says Paul, that
you are the temple of the living God if you're his people, living
stones fitted together, quarried out by him in eternity? You say,
I don't know whether I'm amongst these people. Well, what are
the marks of the elect of God? You have not chosen me, but I
have chosen you. Here are some marks. He said
this to people, one of whom would deny him three times before the
morning came. Not because they're great, not
because of their great prowess and because of their great ability
to do things beyond other people. No, because of his sovereign
grace, his sovereign grace. But these are some marks of the
people of God, of the elect of God. They hear the true gospel,
they hear it, and they believe it. They hear the true gospel,
not a man-made gospel, they hear the gospel of this book, and
they believe it. They hear the gospel of sovereign
grace, and of particular redemption, and they believe it. And they
say, I don't understand it, but this is what God says, and this
is the way God saves to the uttermost His people. And I believe that. I don't know why I do. The Spirit
of God gives the ability, but they believe it. Paul, writing
to the Thessalonians in his first epistle, says about when he first
came to them, preaching the gospel, and he says what manner of entry
we had. Do you know, sometimes a message
of the gospel comes to people who do not believe it. And it's
as if the battlements are there and the portcullis is down and
the armory's on the walls and nothing, nothing, nothing is
going to break down that hard exterior, that hard opposition
to the gospel of grace. But Paul said when he came to
these Thessalonians, The castle doors were wide open, what manner
of entry we had to you. He preached the word and like
that lady on the riverbanks at Philippi, Lydia, the seller of
purple, Paul just preached and the Holy Spirit opened the doors
of her heart and she received it, she believed it, she heard
it and believed it. And those who are his elect follow
Christ. He says, follow me. He said to
the disciples when he picked them out. He didn't ask them
to decide for him. He chose them. And he said, follow
me. And they followed him. And his
people follow him. And they find that which the
world finds an onerous burden and a terribly heavy yoke, they
find it an easy yoke. A yoke is the yoke of, you know,
like the piece of wood that keeps the oxen together pulling the
plow when there's a pair of oxen and they need to be together
and he says it's like that. You take the yoke with Christ
and it's an easy yoke and a light burden because he speaks sweet
words of life. It's not onerous to follow him
and to be committed to him. Oh, the commitment of the one
who sees the things of Christ. You want to follow him. I want
to follow Him. Like that Shulamite and her beloved
in the Song of Solomon. You want to follow Him. You want
to be committed to Him. It's, as somebody said, this
is stronger than a marriage, the strongest marriage commitment
than this is much stronger, the commitment of the child of God
to the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's another mark. Here's
another mark. The elect of God, they repent
and are converted They repent. He says, Paul, to those Thessalonians
about the manner of entry and what was one of the marks of
it? How they turned to God. They turned around from idols,
from their idols of false religion, from their idols of their own
goodness and their own works. They turned to God from idols
to serve the living and true God. They turn from this world's
idols, of its false view of how things came to be, and of how
things are going to be, and of what is right and what is wrong,
and they turn from those idols of false religion, and of false
ideas, to the living God. And they're converted, and they're
transformed in their minds. And they have a different mindset
and think differently to those around. And there are all sorts
of people around that you still get on with, you come across
them in everyday life. But you know, you don't think
the same way. There's a new mindset, repent and be converted. And
then, these people who are the elect of God, they praise and
worship Him. They praise Him. They say, O
the depth of the riches, O the depth of the riches, both of
the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out. They praise and worship Him.
Do you know, the true people of God don't just go to church
a certain number of times during the week. Not at all. You worship
God in your heart. You worship God in your attitude
of life, in your walk through this life, in the workplace,
wherever you are. You worship God in spirit and
in truth. For if a person doesn't worship
God in the depths of their heart, they never ever worship Him truly
when they come together into a formal service or a place of
worship. Not at all. And they love the
brethren. these people who have been chosen
by Christ you have not chosen me but I have chosen you I have
chosen you out of the world I have chosen you these people love
their brethren they love their fellow believers look at verse
17 these things I command you says Christ that you love one
another this is this is his commandment that you love one another love
one another and then they wait These people are waiting, this
elect of God, these people are waiting for his promise of glory. For he promises to his people,
I go to prepare a place for you, but I'll come again to take you
to be with me where I am. And there you will be with me
forever, in eternity. And we're waiting. The people
of God, the elect of God, are waiting for him to fulfill that
promise to his people. to come and take us to be with
Him. God the Father chose a people
to save. Christ the Son came and paid
the price of that salvation. The Holy Spirit made alive those
who were dead in trespasses and sins, and those people made willing
in the day of His power There was a day when the things of
God were a hateful, dreadful, ridiculous thing, and then the
light shined. The light of the knowledge of
the glory of God shined into the heart of His people, and
they believed Him. They believed Him. I'm not saying
that you should be able to remember a specific day, not at all. Don't
get me wrong in that, but it is true. You don't know how,
but He turns you. from where you were, to believe
Him, to trust Him, to love your brethren, to wait for His promise.
So God did all of these things so that, as we read right at
the start of the service, the psalmist says this, the psalmist
says this in Psalm 65 and verse 4, blessed is the man whom you
choose. blessed is that person whom God
choose, this is the word of God that says this you know contrary
to the gospels that you've all heard from time to time from
different false prophets contrary to that the word of God says
blessed is the man whom you choose and cause to approach not that
God has done everything and now he can do nothing else it's all
down to you and you must choose for him and you must come to
him otherwise he'll leave no he says God chooses, God causes
to approach and dwell in his courts, not visit his courts
occasionally, dwell in his courts. In your mind, in your spirit,
to dwell in the courts of the living God and be satisfied with
the goodness of his house. What is his house? In the Old
Testament it's that physical temple. And what is it adorned
with? It's adorned with all of the
symbology of the gospel, of his grace, of his sovereign grace.
That gospel is there in every aspect of that temple. And that's
satisfying to the true people of God. In his church, which
is his temple, which is his house now, in that temple now of his
church, of these living stones, what adorns that temple is the
gospel of his grace. And this is what his people are
satisfied with, the goodness of his house, the goodness of
his house, that he saved his people. And then secondly, and
we'll be a bit quicker with the last two points, This is encouragement,
but then there's a, don't be surprised. Don't be surprised. Be ready for what's going to
happen. Whilst you're in this life, whilst you're in this world,
don't be surprised if certain things come. You know in managing
projects and running businesses, we often like to say to our clients,
the thing that we want to achieve is no surprises. We don't, and
especially no shocks either. We don't want you to get any
shocks. You thought it was going to be delivered next Tuesday
and it now isn't going to be delivered until two months on
Tuesday. That's, oh shock, shock, oh that's
causing me all sorts of problems. No surprises. And so Jesus is
saying to his disciples, let's not be surprised about this.
John writes in his epistle John 1 John 3 13 he says this marvel
not my brethren don't be amazed my brethren if the world hate
you if the world hate you don't be surprised about this Jesus
says to them here verse 18 if the world hate you rather what
it should have been translated as is when the world hate you
you know that it hated me before it hated you you may say is sounding
a bit paranoid, as if the whole world is against you and your
religion. And they seem incredibly tolerant towards us, and they
let us meet in this school hall, and so long as we don't disturb
them, they won't disturb us. And you can extend that idea
to your workplace, and you say, well, people get on with you
reasonably well. Yes, you just wait for the moment When the
opportunity arises, when you have to say, God is a God of
sovereign choice. God is a God of sovereign choice. It is not me who's the God of
my life. It is not me who decides about
eternity. It is God. That's not fact, but
that's the word of God, and that's what God's word says. And that
being the case, to the law and to the testimony, if they speak
not according to this word, there is no light in them, and I cannot
follow that darkness. I must follow the light that
is being given, that God is a God of sovereign grace, who has,
has, to the uttermost, saved the people that he chose in Christ
from before the beginning of time. And you preach that gospel,
and you witness that gospel, and I guarantee you the sweetest
most tolerant work colleague or neighbor or whoever they may
be will suddenly hate you for that doctrine. They may show
it in all sorts of different ways. It may be it may be sidelining. It may be ostracizing you, it
may be avoiding you, but they will hate that doctrine. Because
the world he talks about here, although it's the unbelieving
world, but I'm sure the emphasis is on the religious world. It's
the world of religion because it was the world of religion
that opposed Christ so much in his ministry. They opposed him,
the Pharisees, the scribes, their vehemence against the Son of
God. was in a league of its own in its severity and so he says
don't be surprised man-made religion has its roots in the Tower of
Babel it has its roots right at the very start in Cain This
DIY salvation, if I could call it that, do-it-yourself salvation,
it's all down to you. This message that says God has
done everything he can and now it's over to you. Will you decide
for him? Have you sung that chorus in
years gone by? I have decided to follow Jesus.
No turning back, no turning back. Many of us have done. What does
the word of God say? You have not chosen me. I have
chosen you and ordained you that you should go and bring forth
fruit. I have chosen you out of the world. You didn't decide
to come out of the world. You did not save yourself by
your decision to come out of the world. I have chosen you.
This false religion grows out of Satan's question to Eve in
Genesis 3. You know, it's right, right at
the, he's the father of lies. Has God really said? Is this
really what God has said? And that's at the root of this
false gospel. Oh, let's dress it up. I saw
a piece in Don's bulletin this morning about which version of
the Bible and he says he's often being asked and he always gives
the same answer, this one, this one, the King James Version with
all of its these and thous and eths and ests and all the rest
of it which can be a little bit clumsy for us with our modern
speech to read at times but it still remains the best version
in our modern English, the reason being because of what it's based
upon, it's based upon the received texts And the more modern ones,
to try and make it easier, if you get his bulletin, you read
what Don says. It's because people don't like the doctrine, and
so they want to invent their own doctrine, and they want to
adjust and change it. They hate the truth of the Gospel
revealed in the Bible. And so you know, even versions
that we used to think are okay, you know where they change the
in of Christ, the faithfulness of Christ to faith in Christ,
making it your work and not His work? You see, the response of
the religious world is to hate this Gospel. They hate the truth
of the Gospel revealed in the Bible, the true Gospel, and they
rebel against it. All religion hated Christ. All
of it did. All religion hates the gospel
of Christ. Verse 25 says this, that the word might be fulfilled
that is written in their law. It's written in Psalm 69 and
verse 4. They are more than the hairs
of my head that hate me without a cause. They hated him without... Why? He did nothing but good.
But they hated him with venom. He who did miracles like no other
man had ever done. Remember, he gave, he created
eyes for a man born without eyes, without physical eyes, he created
eyes out of mud. He, from the dust of the ground,
did that. He did miracles which no other
man ever did, and yet they hated him without a cause, with venom.
Why did they do it? Because he claimed deity, he
claimed to be God. He who looked like a man, an
ordinary man, claimed to be God. And he told them that though
they thought that they had swallowed the map as far as God was concerned,
that they didn't know God. He told them that. Verse 21,
he says, He told them many times, they didn't know God. You think
you do, but you don't. He exposed their sin and their hypocrisy. Religion is full of hypocrisy.
Do you remember when they brought the woman caught in adultery
into the presence of Jesus and threw her down in the midst of
them? and they said right here it is what are you going to do
about it and he knelt down and he wrote with his finger on the
ground and we can speculate about what he wrote could have been
several things I'm inclined to think he wrote bits of the law
of God and it was like right he who is without sin as judged
by this let him cast the first stone let him do that he exposed
their hypocrisy and they couldn't answer him and they hated him
for it and he proclaimed absolute sovereignty absolute sovereignty. He proclaimed election. He proclaimed
that there were many widows in Israel in the time of the famine
of Elijah's day. But Elijah was sent to that Gentile
woman, that Gentile widow. And he said there were many lepers
in Israel in Elisha's day. Many lepers, many worthy causes
for the miracle of the prophet of God. But not to one of them
was he sent, but he was sent in sovereign grace to Naaman,
the Syrian, that military leader in Syria. To him was he sent.
He proclaimed to them sovereign grace, and they hated him. And
as Jesus said in one of the parables, their response was this, we will
not have this man to rule over us. And he preached, Christ preached,
redemption and righteousness and salvation in and through
himself alone, with no help from them, with no contribution from
them at all. And man in his natural state
hates that. He's too proud to accept that. He wants to have some part in
it, but he preached in him alone. And he freely forgave sins, like
that woman. He freely forgave her sins, but
he wouldn't accept their self-righteous works. So expect nothing better
today from the religious world around us. Remember, he says
in verse 20, the word that I said unto you, the servant is not
greater than his Lord. You know, we're not greater than
Him. We're not going to escape what came to Him. If they have
persecuted me, they will also persecute you for this same truth. For the natural man cannot see
these things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to him.
Neither can he know them. This hatred, this hatred may
be expressed in opposition which is physical at times in history.
It's been absolutely dreadful, violent, spiteful, financial,
even, political, I think that's something that the true gospel,
you know, we're living in an age where the Tower of Babel
is so much being built again that you can be anything, free
to be anything you want, apart from believe this gospel. Now
you're not free to believe this gospel because this gospel is
exclusive. It's like it was in the days
of the Americans' great opposition to communism. You know, the hallmark
of democracy was freedom and you could be free to do anything
you wanted except this one thing. You couldn't be free to be a
communist because it was fundamentally inconsistent with that free society. And so it is. In a similar way,
you can believe, you're free to believe anything you want,
but you mustn't believe the gospel of sovereign grace and particular
redemption because it's too exclusive. You mustn't bring your children
up to believe it. You mustn't teach them it. You mustn't do
this. Opposition of that nature. It's hatred that's dismissive,
it's sidelining, it's ignoring, it's petty-minded, and it's all
prompted by that belief in the truth of sovereign grace and
particular redemption. So here, as we close, words of
comfort. Verse 17, love one another, says
Christ to his disciples. Support and encourage one another.
And then verse 26, and with this we'll close, When the Comforter
is come, the Holy Spirit, whom I will send to you from the Father,
even the Spirit of truth which proceeds from the Father, he
shall testify of me, and ye also shall bear witness, because you
have been with me from the beginning." Take comfort. Christ sends his
Holy Spirit. to encourage his people in what
we believe. And that spirit comes, and as
Romans 8, 16 says, he bears witness with the spirit of the people
of God that they are the children of God. That presence with us,
the comforter that we have with us through these days that seem
so dark, so devoid of the gospel of grace, but they're all in
the sovereign purposes of God. And he will accomplish all that
he has said he will accomplish.