You're turning to John 15. Let
me remind you that everything we read in John 13-18, everything
in these chapters took place on the evening before our Lord
Jesus laid down his life as our substitute upon the curse tree. Everything in these chapters
is of immense importance. They are the final words and
deeds of our Redeemer, the things with which he would leave our
hearts impressed as he goes to suffer and die in our room instead. In chapter 13, he took a towel
and a bowl of water, knelt down, and washed his disciples' because they were dirty and hot
and it would be so refreshing to have them washed. Oh, what an example he left for
us and said, now I've shown you how to live with each other,
you walk in my steps. Humble yourselves and serve one
another because you love one another. Do that for one another
which is needful, consoling, and refreshing. In chapter 14,
the Lord Jesus begins this chapter with a remarkable statement. Remember, he has just said in
the 13th chapter, he told Peter, he said, before the sun rises
in the morning, you're going to deny me three times. Peter,
of course, said, no, that's not going to happen. And the Lord
said, yep, Peter, you're going to deny me. Satan's going to
sift you as wheat. And then as if to assure him
that though he would behave miserably, though he would fall horribly,
though he would sin grievously, as if to assure him In spite
of all these things, no harm shall befall you. He says, let
not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also
in me. He said, Peter, in the teeth
of your sin, believe me, trust me. All is always well with all
who trust me, even in their most abject circumstances and most
abject behavior. And then he gives us instruction
in that 14th chapter and all of chapter 16 about the blessed
work and office of God the Holy Spirit. He tells us in the 14th
chapter and throughout the 16th chapter that when he, the Holy
Spirit, is come, when he is come because he is sent of the Father
as the prophet said he would be, when Messiah has come, when
the Son of David has ascended to his throne, And those prophecies
were fulfilled when the Lord Jesus, being crucified, risen
again, and ascended up into glory, was made to take his seat upon
the throne of grace, upon the mercy seat, as our substitute,
when the Father gave him power over all flesh. He said, now,
as a result of my finished work, as a result of my accepted sacrifice,
because I am enthroned as King, I'm going to pray for my Father.
to send you another comforter. I'm going to be taken from you
in my physical presence, but it's good for you that I be taken
from you. I'm going to give you something
better than my physical presence. I'm going to give you the comforter. What a word to describe God the
Holy Spirit. The comforter. Oh, but He's our
reprover. Yes, our comforter. But he's
our corrector, yes, our comforter. But he's our teacher, yes, our
comforter. Our comforter. How does he comfort? When he comes to redeemed sinners. When he comes to God's elect,
being sent of the Father, because of the finished work of the Son,
he takes the things of Christ and graciously effectually shows
them to us. If He will show you the Son of
God, you'll never be the same. And
showing the things of Christ to us, He comforts us continually
in this world. I've been praying as I prepared
this message, O Spirit of God, take these things of Christ and
graciously show them to chosen sinners this day for the glory
of Christ. Then in chapter 15, the Lord
Jesus gives us this marvelous declaration of himself being
the true vine and all believers being branches in him, the vine. graft into Him, joined to Him,
united to Him, one with Him, drawing life from Him, cared
for continually by God the Father who takes care of His vineyard. And thus He assures us of our
absolute security in Him. And then in chapter 17, we read
of our Savior's great high priestly prayer for us. where he intercedes
to the Father, asking him to sanctify us, to keep us, to keep
us from the evil one, asking him to teach us that he loves
us, even as he loves the Son. and asking Him that we may be
with Him where He is, that we may behold His glory, that the
whole world may know that He loves us as He loves His Son. In the 18th chapter, we have
John's account of our Lord's rest in the garden. Remember
how he spoke to those soldiers? He said, Whom seek ye? They said,
Jesus of Nazareth. And he said, All right, here
I am. If you seek me, let these go their way. And thus he deals
with God's holy law. That injustice seeks us as criminals,
as felons, as those deserving death. And the Lord Jesus stands
in our stead. And he says, here I am. Take
me. But you can't have me and my
people. Let these go their way. And so
he sets the captive free. Now, let's look at chapter 15,
beginning at verse 17. John chapter 15, verse 17. There
are many, many important things, tremendous things, needful things
our Lord teaches us in this last paragraph of John 15. Let me
call your attention to just a few as we go through these verses.
First, the Lord Jesus says, these things I commend you, all these
things that I taught you, all my doctrine, my declaration concerning
the vine and the branches, my word to you concerning your abiding
in my love and my love abiding with you, this word I've spoken
to you concerning you being called my friend. and me dealing with
you as friends, not just as servants, and me laying down my life for
you. These things I command you to
this end, that you love one another." Three times on this night before
he died, the Lord Jesus says to his disciples, love one another. Our Lord Jesus knew that while
we live in this world, We will live in a world of constant hostility,
opposition, hatred, and persecution from men. And we need to stick
together. Love one another. Love one another. I was talking to a dear friend
just yesterday, urging him to cherish the fellowship God's
given in the place where he has put him. Cherish it. Nurture
it. Because you see, As we are bound
together and walk together in the unity of the Spirit, we are
strong in the hands of our God. And by His working in us and
through us, there's nothing we can't do. But when we're splintered and
divided, There's nothing we can do. We're more useless than wet
sagebrush. We can't do anything with it.
It's useless. Cherish one another. Nurture
love for one another. Be careful not to offend. Be careful not to cause division. The sad fact is, and I've been
pastoring for Thirty-four years. I've had a little bit of experience
in this. I've preached to a lot of people. I see lots of things
go on. The sad fact is, divisions are
seldom healed. Tell me, when did you ever have
a serious falling out with a friend? I'm not talking about across
word, you have those. Misunderstandings, that's what
I'm talking about. When did you ever have a serious division
with a friend that was healed? I've never experienced it. Have
you? It may be covered up. It may
be suppressed. You may learn to live with it
and get along all right, but it's not healed. It's not in
human nature to do so. So cherish, cherish one another. Then our Savior speaks to us
again and tells us that we live in a world that hates us. Beginning in verse 18, going
down to the 21st verse, He tells us that as long as we live in
this world, as long as we live in this world, we will be hated
by the world. Well, who does he mean by the
world? Everybody outside him. Religious world, moral world,
secular world, political world, social world, business world,
family world, everybody outside him. He does not say that while
we're in this world we're going to be ignored. He says, hate
it. He doesn't say we will not be
treated, or we will be treated with indifference. He says, hate
it. He doesn't tell us that we will
merely be laughed at and mocked. He says, hate it. If the world hate you, you know
that it hated me before it hated you. Just as Cain hated Abel,
just as Esau hated Jacob, just as Ishmael hated Isaac, just
as the serpent hates the woman So while we live in this world,
God's people are a hated, despised, marked people. Now I'm not talking
to you about somebody who has a self-pitying persecution complex. The fact is the world's hatred
should be of no concern to you and me. It should not cause us
to even get our dander up. It should not cause us to be
in the least degree affected. The Lord Jesus is here simply
telling us, my sons and daughters, this is the way it is. Live with
it. This is the way it is. Why, you
may ask. The world hates you. Because
you're not of the world. Because you belong to him whom
the world hates. Men do not hate their gods. They do not hate the God that
they call Jehovah. They do not hate the God they
call Jesus. But they hate the living and
true God revealed in the person and work of his darling son in
this book. They hate God as He is. You know that it hated me before
it hated you. Verse 19. If you were of the
world, the world would love His own. But you're not of the world. We were born in this world. We
did live in this world. We did love this world. We were,
like all others of the world, children of wrath, even as others,
cherishing the world, living for this world, and nothing else
but for this world. That's all. For everything we
could get for me. And that's how all men by nature
lived. Qualify that any way you want
to. You can try to lessen that statement any way you want to.
But I'm telling you that every man, every woman, every son,
every daughter, every mother, every father, every grandmother,
every grandfather in this world, outside Christ, lives totally
for himself. Totally for himself. All their
behavior toward those who are near them is because they're
near them. Let something come up to divide
them, find out. They live totally for themselves.
No exceptions. No exceptions. That's how we
lived. But God has translated us into
the kingdom of his darling son. Planted our hearts in another
world. And while we live in this world,
we're no longer of the world. How come? But I have chosen you
out of the world. He says, this is why you're not
of the world. I've chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hates you. The believer's very existence,
the fact that we live by faith in Christ, the gospel message
that we believe condemns the world. And that stirs up hatred
like you cannot imagine. What was it that caused Cain
to hate his brother? What on earth did Abel do? What
did he do? You ever ask? What did he do?
Nothing. He was accepted. His sacrifice was accepted. And
he was accepted in the sacrifice, just as you and I are accepted
in the sacrifice, Jesus Christ the Lord. And because Cain would
not have that sacrifice, but insisted on a sacrifice of his
own producing, and insisted that God must accept him as he comes
to God. And God said no. And so Cain
was furious with Abel. And that's all there was to it.
That's all there was to it. And that's all there is to it
now. Verse 20. Remember the word that I had
said unto you? He said in verse 16 of chapter
13, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying,
they'll keep yours also. We are infinitely less than our
master, so we needn't expect to be treated any differently.
Those who have heard his words will hear our words. Those who
have kept his sayings will keep our sayings. That's just all
there is to it. Those who believe the gospel
fell from his lips will believe the gospel falls from my lips
and yours. Those who keep the message that fell from his lips
will keep the message that falls from my lips if the message is
the same and from yours. He says in verse 21, but all
these things will they do to you. Now watch this. Because you live so good. No. Because your character is a reproach
to them. Hardly. Because you behave in
a manner that makes them feel guilty. No. No. Because you're so holy and they're
so sinful. No. Because they look at you
and they envy the peace and the life and the joy that you have
and they want that so bad. No. No. All these things were they doing
to you for my name's sake. Because of your avowed, confessed
faith in me. Because of the gospel you believe. Because of the gospel of God's
free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ, our Redeemer and our
Substitute. Trusting Him alone as Savior
and Lord. Acknowledging that we are nothing
but sin. He's all our righteousness. We
are nothing but condemnation. He's all our salvation. We are
nothing but hell-bent, hell-deserving, ruined, doomed, damned sinners
without Him. And there's not one thing we
can do to change it. But bless me God, He changed
everything. We are accepted in Him. They know not him that sent me. This is the reason, because they
don't know God. They don't know God. But that
shouldn't be any problem to us. That shouldn't be any cause of hesitation, any cause of concern,
any cause of confusion, any cause of shame, any cause of fear. but rather it is cause for great
joy. Listen to this. Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, not theirs is, for theirs
is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven. for so persecuted the prophets
which were before you." Now, here in verse 22, John 15. Beginning here, the Son of God
gives us some plain instructions about sin. Now, these next few
verses are matters of great confusion to a lot of people because they
read them out of context. They are crystal clear when you
understand them in the context in which they're given. There's
no reason for confusion here. Verse 22, the Lord Jesus says
to his disciples, if I had not come and spoken unto them. Now,
let me look here. If I hadn't come and spoken to
those priests and those scribes and those Pharisees and those
Sadducees and those Herodians and those Jews who despised me
and rejected me and insisted that I be crucified upon that
cursed tree to which I'm going. If I hadn't come and had spoken
to them plainly, if I had spoken to them, they had not had sin. You mean it was his preaching
to them that made them sinners? No. No, they were born sinners
just like you, just like me. It was his preaching to them
that caused them to sin. No, no. Sin is what men do all
the time, everywhere. Well, what's he talking about?
He's saying they would not have been guilty of this sin, of transgressing
the light which I have given them, for which now they are
completely cast off. Read Romans chapter 11. For this
cause, God cast off that nation. Blindness in part has happened
to that nation. No, He didn't cast off all the
Jews. He has His elect among the Jews,
the Gentiles, black, white, every race, every nation, every kindred,
every tribe, and every tongue. But as a nation, He cast them
aside, and they are held in this day, even to this day, in utter
darkness. They can't see because they don't
have any eyes with which to see. And they're without excuse. Because
when they had the light, the Lord Jesus came and he opened
the scriptures. You remember in Luke 4? He opened
the scriptures. He said, this day is this prophecy
fulfilled in your ears. Look here, boys. I'm the one
he's talking about. He told them plainly, I am the
son of God. He told them plainly, He is the
Christ. They said, if thou be the Christ,
tell us plainly. He said, how much plainer can it be? I am
the Christ. I'm the one they're talking about.
And they despised Him. They refused to believe Him.
They refused to trust Him. Therefore, they have this sin
for which they are everlastingly condemned. Did you hear that? Those to whom greater light is
given. shall be judged according to
the measure of that light forever if they refuse to believe and
walk in the light. This is what that means. For
you who perish and fall into hell from one of those pews on
which you are sitting right here. The greatest damnation of hell
shall be reserved for you. And you've got no excuse. You've
got no excuse. Verse 23. The Lord Jesus says, He that hateth
me, hateth my Father. Now we live in this wonderful
day of multicultural idiocy. Please tell the world I said
that. I can't get to everybody. And we want to accept everything
about everybody because we're so sugar sweet and hypocritical
and deceitful. Folks tell us these days that
they may not worship Jesus as we do, but they love the Lord
and the followers of God so that we now embrace as Christianity
anything that happens to be slightly religious and doesn't cuss when
the name Jesus is mentioned. Let me tell you something. Nobody
worships God except they who worship God in the person of
God's Son, Jesus Christ. And if you refuse to worship
God's only Son, Jesus Christ, who is himself God, the second
person of the Holy Trinity, you hate God, and your hatred of
God is manifest in your hatred of his Son. That's what it is. He that hates the Father hates
me also. Verse 24. If I had not done among
them the works which no other man did. What works? Well, nothing spectacular. He caused blind men to see, caused
deaf men to hear. He didn't fake it, he did it. He caused the dumb to speak. He caused the lame to walk. He caused the sick of palsy to
stand up and walk. He caused the dead to live and
caused it in such a way that it could not be refuted in exact
accordance with what this book said Messiah would do. So there's
no reputation. It can't be disputed. All you
can do is argue you won't believe it. That's all you can do. Now
let me ask you. Has he so spoken to you by his
word, and so convinced you by his works, that he is indeed
the Son of God, the Savior of the world? So, Brother Don, I
wouldn't question that for a minute. Well, if you go to hell, you
don't have any excuse. You don't have any excuse. Now,
we see man's sin everywhere. Television, newspapers, radio,
every day, all the time, all the time. Full of incest, pedophilia,
adultery, rape, murder, sodomy. Constantly repeated. Terrorism
over the world. The shedding of blood without
even thinking about it. This utter, utter, horrid sin. But those things that cause us
to, when we hear them, we cry out in our hearts for somebody
to establish law and justice and order. We're disgusted. But those things. Those things
are utterly meaningless when compared to this. Look at verse
25. Here is humanity in the highest
pinnacle of depravity, in the lowest depths of corruption. But this cometh to pass, that
the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law, They
hated me without a cause." When we think of sin, let us always think of sin in
light of God's darling hanging upon the cursed tree, and men, their hands dripping with his
blood, throwing a hellish party, laughing as if they were watching
a comedian entertain them, because they hated me without
a cause. They hated me without a cause. They hated me without a cause. Three times in the book of God
our Savior says that. We read it in Psalm 35 verse
19 where the Lord Jesus speaks in the person of his servant
David. by the pen of David, by divine inspiration, as the psalmist
speaks of our suffering Redeemer, and he says, they hated me without
a cause. In Psalm 69, in verse 4, where
he describes his suffering and death, even before it took place,
hundreds of years before it took place, as he's hanging upon the
cursed tree, the Lord Jesus says, they hated me without a cause. And now, as he stands here, he
said to his disciples, The hour has come. I must, by my suffering
and death, glorify my Father, and my Father shall glorify me.
He said, now let me tell you what the Psalms meant. Let me
tell you what the Scriptures meant. Let me tell you what the
law meant. This has come to pass, that it
might be fulfilled as it is written in their law. They hated me without
a cause. And there's much more here than
I can even think about expounding. Let me just call your attention
to four or five things, and I'll wrap this up. First, let me remind
you, there's never been a man so hated as the God-man, our
Lord Jesus Christ. From the time he entered into
this world until the day that he was nailed to the curse tree,
the Son of God was the constant unceasing object of man's cruel
hatred from all ranks." Notice that word, they. They. I get so sick of hearing
folks say, they say. Nobody's doing that anymore.
They're doing this. They dress like this. This is
what they do. They nailed the Lamb of God to
the curse tree. I don't give a flip what they
think or they do. I ain't following they. Not happening. Not happening. This refers to
all who refuse to believe our Savior. Though they had no cause
to do so, they hated him. No human being was ever so lovely
and lovable as him, of whom the scripture says, yea, he is altogether
lovely. And yet no human being was ever
so hated. As soon as he was born, Herod,
because of envy and hatred for him, because of envy and hatred
for him. Well, Herod didn't even know
him. Nobody knew what John the Baptist said about him. And he
knew what the prophet said he was going to do. And for envy
and hatred of him, he attempted to murder him. And the way he
did it was by the slaughter of hundreds of baby boys born at
the time he was born. All the days of his life he was
despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. Man's hatred for the Savior was and is displayed
in a lot of ways. It's sometimes displayed in overt
deeds, as when they took him to the brow of the hill and would
have cast him headlong. off the cliff, or when they took
up stones again to stone him because he declared himself to
be God. And other times, and more often,
this hatred is seen not in overt acts of that kind, but in slanderous
words, misrepresentations that are deliberate. I'm not talking
about misrepresentations that are unintended. I'm talking about
misrepresentations that are known and deliberate. They looked at
him and they said, Look at him. He's sipping a little wine with
his meal. He's a drunk. Look at him. You always see him
sitting down at the table eating with folks. He's a glutton. Look
at him. Other times, they looked at him
with looks of contempt. He sat down with publicans and
sinners. You know the look. You know the
look. I can't tell you. Sometimes I bite my tongue, sometimes
I don't. Folks will say to me, I don't want to be seen there.
People might think. Let them think what they want
to. I'm telling you the truth. I'm 55 years Yeah, fifty-five
years old. I'm just old enough. I've got
a place. I just don't care what they think about me. Just don't
care. I'm not interested in impressing
them. He must be one of them. Go ahead
and think what you want to. I don't care. I don't care. I'm
not interested. Well, don't you think we ought
to avoid people thinking things like that? Try it. I've tried
it all my life. You ain't going to change what
men do. You ain't going to change it. Sometimes they silently thought. But he heard their thoughts.
Because he's God. He took that woman and said,
Thy sins be forgiven thee. And they said, He's blasphemer.
Listen, that man cursed God. Listen to him blaspheme God.
Who does he think he is? The hatred was always there,
even when they tried to take him. Remember it was in John
chapter 7, on the feast day, they were going to take him up
to Jerusalem and put a crown on his head and make him their
king. Oh, they must really love him. Let's see. No. They wanted
to make him their king, sitting on that little peanut thrown
over in Jerusalem, so they could be boss of the whole world and
they could profit by it. Those same folks who wanted to
take him by force and make him a king just a little while later
said, Crucify him! Crucify him! We will not have
this man to reign over us. They who hated him were all men
of every rank from every quarter in society, the rich and the
poor, The learned and the ignorant, the powerful and the powerless,
the governor and the slave, the prince and the pauper, the man,
the woman, the old, the young, all turned tongues down on Him. The religious, the irreligious,
the moral, the immoral, the respected, the irrespectable or disrespectable,
all hated Him. All of them. Here is one man,
the only man, who ever walked among men in perfect love. Oh, everybody responds favorably
to love. Oh, no, they don't. Oh, no, they
don't. He walked in perfect love, didn't
he, Larry? Didn't he? Perfect love. The only man who
never did anything for men except what was good for them. The only
man. The only man who was always good
and hated by everybody. Oh, they admired his eloquence,
and they liked to eat loaves of fish. Frequently they would
have fallen prostrate before him and worshiped him, and did,
because of the wondrous deeds he performed. And yet they all
conspired together to put him to death, nailing him to the
curse tree and loving it. Oh, how they taunted him. He
said he's the Son of God, let's see if God will have him. He saved others, himself he cannot
save. Wait, wait, wait! Come down from
the cross if thou be the Christ, the Son of God. Thou that buildest
the temple in three days, let's see who you are. See who you
are. Now anyone who bothers to read
history, let alone this book, knows that the Lord Jesus Christ
was the object of man's cruel hatred. But why? Why? Why did they hate him? He says three times, they hated
me without a cause. There is nothing that can be,
nothing that ever has been pointed to in the life of our Redeemer
as a matter of historic fact that was ever even questionable. objectionable, much less a reason
for hatred. Now, let me tell you something
about modern history. You young people, listen up.
When I say young, I'm talking about everybody younger than
me and everybody older than me. Listen up. Listen up. Ignore
the idiots who rewrite history. Just ignore them. Their whole
purpose appears to be to get you to have the idea that everybody
has always approved of ungodliness. And so we have folks in Hollywood
who make movies about Jesus and religion. Please, if you have
to see some of the nonsense out of Hollywood, anything but that,
don't even go see it. Don't even go see it. Well, he
and Mary Magdalene had this thing going. Or he and John had this
thing going. Never has there been anything
pointed to in history, not even a hint of anything, that suggested
that he was anything except perfect in his character, in his conduct,
all the days of his life, without a flaw. Nothing to indicate anything
except tenderness, compassion, gentleness. We seek to avoid mistreating
anyone. But every one of you got reasons
to hate me. Every human being's got reason
to hate me. Not him. Not him. Oh, why did they hate
him? Was it because he did good? People,
you know, self-righteous religious folks, they'll tell you now,
if you try to live right, people will hate you because you live
right. I don't know anybody who will object to you telling them
the truth rather than lying to them. I've never met that fellow.
I don't know anybody who will object to you not stealing his
wife and keeping to your own. I've never met that fellow. I
don't know anybody who would ever object to you not stealing
from him, but rather treating his property as his property.
Have you ever met anybody? Please tell me, have you ever
met anybody who would object to those things? Well, that kind
of puts the lie to religion, doesn't it? It puts the lie to
that notion. Why did they hate him? Because
they hate God. They hated him because of the
gospel he proclaimed. Not because of the law he exemplified,
honored, and obeyed, but because of the gospel he proclaimed.
Do you remember in Luke chapter 4, you can read these things
later, our Lord gave the Jews an example. He's sitting in the
synagogue, read from Isaiah 61, said, This day is the scripture
fulfilled in your ears. And he said, Now I recognize,
you don't pay attention to me, because the scripture plainly
teaches the prophet is not without honor except in his own country
and among his own kin. Let me tell you what God did.
God passed by the whole nation of you Jews. All our fathers
and mothers. There were many, many widows
in Israel. And God passed them by and sent
his prophet down to a Gentile widow and took care of her. Let
me tell you something else. There were lots of lepers in
Israel. Lots of lepers among our people.
And God passed them by and sent his prophet. down to one of our
nation's most hated enemies, Naaman, and healed him of his
leprosy. That's how God always works.
He has mercy on whom He will have mercy. And He has compassion
on whom He will have compassion. And whom He will, He heartens.
And they said, we won't have that. And they took him and started
shoving him toward the cliff and said, we'll kill him right
there, burn him! And I love it. And Jesus, passing
out of their midst, went down to Capernaum to preach somebody
else. He who is God won't be taken by their hands. Why did
they hate him? He preached God-sovereign and
man-sinful. and declared plainly that God
despised their righteousness and despised their religion and
behind their cloak of religious hypocrisy. They were doing nothing
but covering up dead men's bones in the sepulcher of their heart,
which is filth and sin and corruption. And they said, let's kill him.
Let's kill him. We won't have this. We won't
have this. Why did they hate him? Because
he said, I am came down from heaven, Moses
spoke of me. I'm the water of life. If you
have life, you've got to eat this bread, drink this water.
You've got to have it by faith in me. Only by faith in me. And they said, we won't have
this. We won't have this. He said, you're not Abraham's
seed. I said, we are too. We were born of our father Abraham.
Don't you tell us that. We know who we are. He said,
you're the devil's seed. You're the devil's aid. And they
hated him. They hated him. The Lord Jesus
declared salvation to be altogether God's option, by God's grace,
through faith in Him and in Him alone, and says this is God's
gift. It's the Spirit that quickeneth
the flesh, profiteth nothing. And they hated him. They hated
him. Without a cause. Now, let me
tell you how God saves sinners. Darvin, I hated him without a
cause, because my carnal heart is enmity against God. You who
believe not your unbelief is proof positive that you hate
him. Read the book of God. That's God's word for unbelief,
hate. Hate. You won't bow to Him because
you hate Him. No other reason, because you hate Him. And if ever God has mercy on
you, it will be without a cause. He said, I will heal their backsliding. I will love them. That word, Doug, without a cause. Without a cause. We are all transgressors. We've broken God's law. But we
are justified, what did the book say? Freely by His blood through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Justified freely by His
grace without a cause. Without a cause. Anybody out
there thirsty? Let him come and drink from the
river of the water of life. And I will give to him that is
a thirst to drink freely. The pastor don't have to do something.
Oh, no, you do it and you missed it. But I've got to. No, but
no. Freely, freely. Are you thirsty? Drink Christ's tea freely. And God, who spared not His own
Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with
Him also, without a cause, freely give us all things? Oh, God, blessed Spirit of God, come
this day without a cause, and calls chosen redeemed sinners
to drink of the water of life and live. Amen.