and he was such a blessing to
me for so many years and we're going to attempt to have a worship
service this morning. He is in a continual worship
service. I have entitled this message
from Verse seven, why the world hates Jesus Christ. Verse seven, the world cannot
hate you, but me, it hateth because I testify of it, that the works
thereof are evil. Why the world hates Jesus Christ. Well, who is meant by the world? That's a reasonable question.
Who is meant by the world that hates Jesus Christ? Well, I'm
going to answer this from the words of the Lord. The world
are they whom he has not chosen, and they who he refuses to pray
for. And let me show you that in the
scripture. John chapter 15, these are his words, not mine. John chapter 15, verse 18, if the world hate you,
You know that it hated me before it hated you. 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. Therefore, the world hated you. So the world represents everyone
who he did not choose his words, not mine. Look in John chapter
17, verse nine. I pray for them. I pray not for
the world, but for them. which thou hast given me, for
they are thine." Now words cannot be plainer. These are the words
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he says regarding this world,
they hate me because I testify of it. that the works thereof
are evil. He also said in John chapter
15 in quotation from the Psalms, they hated me without a cause. They hated me freely. They hated
me because that is what they wanted to do. Now, let me remind
you is where I'm going to try to consider
why the world hates Christ. We're reading from the Word of
God, and it is God breathed. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God, exhaled by God. Every word is said just as he
would have it said. The way he speaks is the best
way to speak under every circumstance. And here is what the Lord Jesus
Christ, the true and faithful witness said to his unbelieving
brethren. These were his siblings, his
brothers and sisters. We considered that some last
week, the Lord's brothers and sisters, they didn't get it.
They grew up with the Lord Jesus Christ and saw no glory in him. They saw no excellency in his
person. They didn't believe him. They
didn't believe him. And he says to them, in verse
seven, the world cannot hate you, but me it hateth because
I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Now, have you
and I, this is the question I want to ask myself. I want you to
ask yourself this question. I know that the Lord would give
me the grace to preach this message the way it ought to be preached.
and give me and you hearing ears with regard to what he says. Have you and I ever hated Jesus
Christ? Have you and I ever hated I'm not trying to shock or be
sensational. I'm praying that we will be enabled
to deal with this honestly. Have you and I ever hated the
Lord Jesus Christ? Now, before we give an answer,
the Bible says we have. The Bible says we have. You say,
well, I'm not conscious of hating him. Well, the Bible says you
have. The Bible says I have. Hold your finger there and turn
with me to Exodus chapter 20. Now this is the commandment with
regard to idolatry, the second of the 10 commandments, verse
four, Exodus chapter 20, verse four. Thou shalt not make unto
thee any graven image, or any likeness of anything that's in
heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in
the water under the sea. Thou shalt not bow thyself to
them and serve them, for I, the Lord thy God, am a jealous God."
I hope we don't miss that. He's intolerant of competition.
He doesn't negotiate about this. I am a jealous God. Visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children under the third and fourth generation
of them that what? What? Hate me. What is the reason for idolatry?
We've all been guilty of it. What is the reason for idolatry? Well, it's hating the Lord as
he is and bringing him down into our likeness. That's why men
make idols. They hate God as he is. They don't like this and they
try to make a God in their own image and likeness. One, they
can feel comfortable with, a man-made concept of God. Now, when Paul gave the litany
of the sins of the Gentiles, he uses this description in Romans
1.30 concerning the Gentile world, they are haters of God. Romans chapter 8 verse 7 Paul
said the carnal mind that is the mind you and I were born
with even before we had any consciousness the carnal mind is enmity against
God it is enmity it is hostility it is hatred toward the living
God. Opposed to God, I ask again,
have you and I ever hated God? We may think, I've never been
conscious of hating God. If that's the case, either it's
because we haven't given it any thought, and that's very We've
just never thought about it. Or the God we believe is a God
we feel comfortable with. The God we've created. The God
that will not violate our autonomous free will. The God that we have
some control over. Now, that God that we don't hate
is the God that Barnard called the God nobody's mad at. Nobody's
mad at that God. They're fine with him. Problem
is that God does not exist. That is the figment of man's
depraved imagination. When men first hear who God is,
and that is, you know, you're not really going to find out anything about your own sinful
nature and your hatred of who God is by nature. Now, when God
saves you, you love him. You love him. You love him as
he is. You love him as he's revealed
in his word. You love God. And we know that all things work
together for good to them that love God. Every believer loves
God. It's not just talk. They love
the Lord Jesus Christ. They delight in But when a man before he has
heard the gospel, he probably doesn't realize he has any hatred
toward God. But when he hears the truth concerning
God's character, that's when this comes out. When he hears
that he has mercy on whom he will have mercy on whom he will,
he hardens the responsible or the response of the natural man
is that's not fair. That's what we think. That's
not fair. In my personal experience, I
generally want to avoid talking about my personal experience.
Anytime I do is probably too much, but let me give my personal
experience. I was not conscious of not loving
God until I was confronted with the fact from the scriptures
that God had elected a people and I might not be one of them. I didn't like that. I didn't
think it was fair. And the fact of the matter is
it let me know that salvation was altogether out of my hands.
There's nothing I could do to save myself. And that made me
resent the Lord. That made me Hate him. Now, when
he saved me, I loved him for what I had once hated him for.
I see that my only hope of salvation is him doing something for me.
And I glory in that now, but then I didn't. Then I didn't. And that's when I realized I
was in trouble because this is who God is. And this is what
the Bible teaches. And I wasn't lined up with it.
And I resented the Lord, and I was angry with the Lord, and
I felt like this was wrong. And all of a sudden, it occurred
to me for the first time, you've been guilty of hating God. Because that is who he is. I'm not gonna apologize for that.
Who he is is glorious. The problem's not with him. The
problem is with me. And it wasn't until then that
I asked the Lord for mercy, because I didn't have anything else to
plead. I'm in trouble. Would you be pleased to have
mercy on me? You see, if you've never hated
him, You've never loved him. Now, I'm not asking you to look
back into your experience and see, well, I remember when I
first saw I hated the Lord. I'm not asking you to do that
right now, but I am saying this. When you love him, you love him
for who he is. You love his character. You love
his attributes. You love his way of saving. He's
God over all, blessed forever. That's how you see him. Now go
back to John chapter seven. After these things, Jesus walked
in Galilee for he would not walk in Jewry because the Jews sought
to kill him. Now this began in John chapter five. Verse 16, and therefore did the
Jews persecute Jesus and sought to slay him because he had done
these things on the Sabbath day. Now that's in the fourth commandment. Remember the Sabbath day to keep
it holy. And the Lord heals this man on
the Sabbath day. Paralytic for 38 years, he said,
rise, take up your bed and walk. He did it. And he was walking
on the Sabbath day. This is the Sabbath day. This
is not right. He is showing no regard for the
Sabbath day. Now the Jews had a book at this
time called the Talmud. And in it they had all kinds
of different directions about different laws in the Bible.
And they expanded them. And they had 39 laws just with
regard to the Sabbath day. And they had made a work out
of not working. Let me repeat that. They made
a work out of not working. You can't do that on the Sabbath
day. And they were basing their hope of being saved on them doing
these things. And the Lord was just being completely
dismissive of this. He's saying our religion doesn't
count. He's not paying any respect to our religion. They had no
understanding of the Sabbath day, but they thought they did.
And they wanted to kill the Lord. He's saying our religion doesn't
even count. Our religion doesn't even count.
He's showing no respect to our religion. They sought to slay
him. That's how angry they were. That is you and I by nature. Now, if you don't see this, believe
it anyway. It's what the word of God teaches. May God enable us to do that.
I mean, so I just can't see that about believe it. It's true. That's what you and I are by
nature. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. It's not subject to the law of
God. Neither indeed can be. David said, behold, I was shapen
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. That's where
I was born, born bad. Born with no love to the living
God. And the great proof of that is
the cross. When men were allowed to do what
they wanted to do, you know, the scripture says in Luke 23,
25, Pilate delivered Jesus to their will. And what was their will? Crucify
him. Somebody says, I wouldn't have
done that. Yeah, you would. Yeah, you would. Well, I wasn't even
there. Yeah, but you would have if you
were. That's the issue. You know, this really when it
comes right down to it, this is the most hated doctrine in the
scripture, man's wickedness, his hatred of the living God. They sought to slay him. They
hated Jesus Christ. Now, let's go on reading in chapter
7. Verse two, now the Jews' feast
of the tabernacles was at hand. I love the way John calls it
the Jews' feast. It was ordained by God, but they
had totally destroyed the meaning of it. And John calls it the
Jews' feast. The Jews' feast of tabernacle was at hand. His
brethren, his siblings, Therefore said unto him, Depart hence,
and go into Judea, that thy disciples also may see the works that thou
doest. For there's no man that doeth anything in secret, and
he himself seeketh to be known openly. If thou, if thou do these
things, show thyself to the world." Now, on the surface, maybe what
they're saying makes sense. Show yourself, prove yourself.
No man does anything in secret. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. You know, in Matthew chapter
6, when the Lord talks of works of charity, works of devotion,
and works of self-denial. And don't think they're not important.
Almsgiving, prayer, fasting, works of charity. Oh, I want to have works of charity,
don't you? Works of devotion, praying, works of Self-denial,
fasting. He said, don't do it to be seen
of men. As soon as somebody finds out
you've done this, you've got your reward. You've got your
recognition. All their works they do to be
seen of men. There better be works done in
secret or you're not real. I'm not real. Your father, which seeth in secret
shall reward thee openly. They said, no man does anything
secret. Yeah, they do. Yeah, they do. Every believer
does. They're not seeking the recognition
of men. Oh, the Lord is the only one who counts. You believe that?
What if everybody's against you but him? It's okay, isn't it?
What if everybody's for you but him? You're in trouble. Yes,
men do things in secret, but they didn't understand who the
Lord was. You see, you won't really, and
I won't really understand sin until I see who he is. Somebody says, I just can't see
this, what you're saying. It's because you haven't seen
him. If you see him, you'll see this. And you'll see it clearly
about yourself. I'm not talking about somebody
else. I'm talking about yourself. You'll see this clearly about yourself. Verse five, for neither did his
brethren believe in him. Then Jesus said unto them, my
time is not yet come. But your time is always ready.
The world cannot hate you, but me it hateth. And here's why,
because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. Now, everybody in this room knows
there's such a thing as good and evil. You know that, don't
you? There is such a thing as good
and And the reason that's true is because God is. That's why. If there's no God,
who's to say what's right and what's wrong? If there's no God,
who's not to say, hey, survival of the fittest. You know, you
can do whatever you have to do to promote yourself and to get
what you want. If there's no God, you can say
that. But if God is. There is good, there is evil,
there is right, there is wrong, there are moral absolutes because
God is. Now, all of us would agree that
corporate greed is evil, that organized crime is evil, that
sexual sin, fornication and adultery is evil. Stealing and lying is
evil. Covetousness, greed is evil. Extortion, manipulation is evil. The world believes these things
are evil. But when the Lord says, I testify
of it, that the works thereof are evil, he makes no distinction
between the good works and the bad works. I testify of it that
the works thereof, that covers everything. I testify of it. This is the
Lord's testimony. This isn't some red face fundamentalist
preacher screaming at people. This is the Lord's testimony.
I testify of it that the works thereof, all the works are Now
I can't possibly understand this if I don't have some understanding
of sin. In Romans chapter 3 verse 22, there's no difference. There's no difference for all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Now, sin is coming short of God's
glory. Have you ever done anything that
measured up to the standards of God's glory? One thing, take
your best gift, your best prayer. Would you want that to stand
before God in judgment? Not me. Listen to this scripture. Proverbs 21, 4. A high look. and a proud heart and the plowing of the wicked
is in. From that high look and that
proud heart That even makes the act of plowing. Maybe you're
plowing a field that seems to be a pretty wholesome thing to
do. Maybe you're plowing a field in order to grow food to feed
the poor. That's a good thing. But the
scripture says the plowing of the wicked is sin. That says that everything a wicked
man does is sin because it's him doing it. And that's what
makes it sin. Doesn't matter what the action
is. That's what makes it sin. Every deed done by a wicked man
is evil because he is evil. And that's what the Lord says.
This is the Lord's testimony. He says, I testify of it. that
the works thereof are evil." Now, somebody might be thinking,
how did this happen? I mean, that's a grim look, saying
even when he plows, it's sin in God's sight. I mean, isn't
that kind of severe? How did this happen? What's going
on here? Well, the Lord said to Adam in the Garden of Eden,
He created him upright. The wise man said in Ecclesiastes,
lo, I know this, that God created man upright. Man sought out many
inventions. God created Adam upright. He
didn't have a sinful nature. And God said to him, in the day
you eat thereof. Notice he didn't say if you eat.
He said in the day you eat thereof. I think of what he said to Peter,
Peter said, if he didn't say, if, if you deny me, when you
hear the car, he says, you'll deny me. You'll deny me. In the day you eat thereof, thou
shalt surely die. And we know that he didn't die
physically on that day. His soul didn't die. He was still
alive. He still had thoughts. His blood was still pumping.
His lungs were heaving. But he died spiritually that
very day. And I think the great illustration
of that is after he ate of the fruit. Notice
the fall didn't take place till he ate, because God said to him,
in the day you eat thereof. The fall didn't really take place
when Eve ate, it took place when Adam ate. Adam's the representative
of all men. You and I are in him. Eve was
in him, he's the representative. In the day you eat thereof, you
shall surely die. Well, he died. And I think it's
so telling. Before the fall, guess what?
They were naked. It wasn't an issue. It didn't
create any sinful thoughts, any sin. It wasn't an issue. Why? Because he wasn't a sinner. He
had a perfect mind, a perfect heart. It wasn't an issue. But all of a sudden, when their
eyes are open, it becomes an issue. And they knew they were
naked and they hid from God and tried to cover their nakedness
with their own works. They were spiritually dead. The carnal mind is enmity against
God. Genesis chapter six, verse five,
this is God's testimony. God saw the wickedness of man. That it was great in the earth
and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was
only evil continually. When God looks in the heart of
any natural man, that is all he sees, only evil continually. The Lord testifies by this that
you and I are evil. Born in this world that way,
inherently evil, intrinsically evil, completely evil, incurably
evil, comprehensively evil, essentially evil. That is why our righteousnesses
are called in the scripture. filthy rags. Our religion is nothing more
than an extension of our wickedness. What this means is everything
about me is sinful. What I am by nature, everything
about me is sinful. Like David said, in sin, my mother
conceived me. I was born that way. Shapen in
iniquity, the wicked are estranged from the womb. The scripture
says they go about as soon as they be born speaking lies. Now, if I don't. See who Christ is. I do not see this about myself
right now. It's only seeing who he is that
creates this. When Peter saw the Lord finally
for who he was in Luke chapter five, you know what Peter said? Depart from me Lord. He didn't have any sense of entitlement.
Lord, you don't want to have anything to do with me. I'm a sinful man. That's what Peter saw when he
saw the Lord. Now, if you don't see the Lord,
this is just going to be negative. You're going to think, why is
he being this way? I mean, give us something more
uplifting. But if you see the Lord. You, like Peter, see yourself
to be a sinful man, full of sin. There isn't any part of you that
is not full of sin. You really believe that there's
not a human being alive that you can look down your nose at
and stand in judgment of them because you know that you are
full of sin. You have no claims on God. You
are full of sin. Did you know that this is a distinctly
Christian doctrine? What I'm talking about right
now. This isn't in other religions. This is a distinctly Christian
doctrine. There is no understanding of
the gospel apart from this truth. This is why only the gospel teaches
that salvation really is by grace. The only way somebody can be
saved like this is if salvation is all of grace. By grace are
you saved. Amen? By grace are you saved. Through faith in that, not of
yourselves. It's the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. I can do nothing to save myself.
I'm in the hands of a sovereign God who could save me or pass
me by. And now instead of getting mad,
I say, Lord, save me. I loved it when Rick read that
passage of scripture from Matthew chapter eight, because that is
how a sinner comes to Christ. Lord, if you will. You can make me clean. I can't make myself clean. You can, if you will, because
you are the Lord. And this is what is known as
the teaching of the total depravity and inability of man. And like I said, this is the
most hated doctrine, really. If you believe it, You rejoice
that God elected a people. You rejoice that Christ effectually
accomplished salvation for everybody he died for. You rejoice in God's
invincible, irresistible grace and your only desire is to persevere
all the way to the end looking to Christ only. Believe this about yourself.
Whether you feel it or not, whether you see it or not, it's what
God says. And faith is believing what God
says. Don't look to see how acutely
you see it. Believe what God says. Verse six, then Jesus said unto
them, his unbelieving brethren, my time is not yet come. Now
that's the time of the cross. That's the reason the world was
created. That's the reason he became incarnate. That's the
reason he came and walked in this flesh to go to the cross. You see, his life will not do
me any good unless he died. When he's talking about his time,
he's talking about his death, his coming into the world to
die. That's why he came. He said,
Father, what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour,
for this cause came I into this hour. He came to die. It wouldn't do him any good if
he lived a perfect life and went back to heaven, but he came to
die. You see, if he didn't die, he couldn't be raised from the
dead. And his resurrection is where all of our salvation is.
His resurrection means God is satisfied with what he did. And
God is satisfied with me. God looks me over with the spotlight
of his holiness and says, I'm satisfied because of what Christ
did. God is satisfied. That's the gospel. He came to die on a cross. That's
what he's speaking of. This is God's eternal purpose. Him being delivered by the determinate
counsel and for knowledge of God. That's strong language,
isn't it? You have taken, doesn't get you
off the hook. You have taken and with wicked
hands have crucified and slain. You're not only Seeing that the Lord gives testimony
that all of our works are evil, this is also a testimony of the
goodness of God that he'd save people like this. God so loved the world that he
gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him. should not perish, but have everlasting
life. I don't care how bad I am. I
don't care how bad you are. God is rich in mercy and rich
in grace. And he delights in mercy. He delights to save sinners by
his grace. Anybody who comes to him, I don't
care who you are. Anybody who comes, he will not
cast out. In 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21,
we read these words, and this is what I want to close with. For He hath made Him to be sin,
what we are. At the thought of this, sweat
great drops of blood and gave us him in his garden because
he understands sin, we don't, he does. For he hath made him to be sin
for us who knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. that person who believes what
the Lord said, that all of his works, his works. I love what Spurgeon said. I'm
not real sure if I can tell the difference between my good works
and bad works. And the only thing I can do is throw them all overboard
and go into the heaven on the plank of free grace. Amen. Amen. Everybody that sees themselves
this way is somebody that Christ died for and someone who has
the very righteousness of God as their personal righteousness. Amen. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you. For revealing to us that we are. Sinful men and women. And revealing
to us that your gospel saves sinful. Men and women. Lord, we thank you for your gospel.
It's so glorious. Lord, those who see no glory
in this message, we pray that you would give them eyes to see
that they may rejoice in the gospel of your son. Meet with
us once again tonight, according to your will. In Christ's name
we pray. Amen.