Open—C. Hendricks, L. Smith, Ruga
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The way we're out of the night. But children of day, the change that once bound us by Jesus, our rhythm were strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven 234.
Clouds rain with that raining crimes up from.
Killing.
Our gratitude thus far. I have a bright face down drunk Runtime.
Missed my jealous of all the spring, of all the rain.
Yes, around the Blade.
Before our great way in her hands, please.
Lord and our Hammer, the heart of the world.
Let's turn to one again. Turn again to John 15.
We didn't finish the chapter.
We looked at that part of it that presents Christ to us, the Father. He's the vine and we're the branches. Father's the husband then, and he wants. He was so delighted in the Lord Jesus when he was here, the only one that never did His own will, always the will of his Father that He wants to produce during this dispensation of His grace.
Uh, the same kind of people as she, Lord the Lord Jesus.
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But, uh, the first part of the chapter we've had before us and it ends in verse 17, these things I command you that you love one another. And, uh, we know we've gone through that so nicely, but then there's a complete break at this point. And, uh, that's what I want to take up shortly right now, verse 18. If the world hates 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're not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hated you.
Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for My name's sake, because they know not Him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin. But now they have no quote for their sin.
He that hateth me, hateth my father also. If I had not done among them the works which none other men did, they had not had sin. But now have they both seen and hated both me and my father. But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
But when the Comforter has come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, He shall testify of me, and He also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.
But I just want to call your attention to John 17, which is very similar. The first part of John 15 has us in view, us being his own, and the same is true in John 17 and in John 17.
Verse 15 He ends this section. I pray not that thou shouldest take them, them being us who who believe on him out of the world.
I pray not that Thou should stake them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them through Thy truth.
Thy word is truth.
As thou hast sent me into the world, Even so have I also sent them into the world.
I should have I should have begun this section. Pardon me with verse umm 13. That's where I wanted to start. The end of the first section is now come I to thee. And these things I speak in the world that they, that's us might have my joy fulfilled in themselves. Now here's the new section. I have given them by word, and the world hath hated them because they are not of the world.
Even as I'm not of the world, I pray not that Thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldst keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. This is so important, especially for young people, that we realize that we've been dwelling upon our blessings and how the Lord the Father was delighting in His beloved Son when here and now we're here to represent Him.
We're here to present, uh, so that the Father can see more of Jesus, more of Jesus, the one who was the perfect servant, the one who always did his will. But these sections of John 15 and 17 deal with the.
The hatred of this world through which we're passing wonderful to be occupied with the family of God which we were occupied with and how we have the joy that he had and it's ended. Going back to verse 50, chapter 15 and 17 these things I command you that you love one another. That's what ought to characterize those who are his those that have his nature and life and.
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In dwelt of the same spirit that filled him.
To love one another. But then we're in an enemy's land and we must realize that we're not of this world.
Verse 18 This should not come by surprise if the world hates you.
Why does it hate us? Because it hates him. And the more we are like he is, the more hatred we will have come our way. Because the world does not want him.
We know what they did to him, We celebrate the Lord's Supper on Lord's Day, and we dwelt upon the treatment that this wicked world through which we're passing gave to him. We should not expect any difference.
If the world hates you.
Ye know that it hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you're not of the world, I have chosen you out of the world. Therefore the world hated you. You see, and you seem to see the same break in the Lord's Prayer to the Father in John 17.
The delight that he has in his own, and then the hatred that the world bestows upon us. Verse 20.
I'm not gonna be up here very long. I just wanna bring before us.
The other side of the coin, if you will, one side is the joy, the peace, the happiness that we have, the delight that we give to the Father, the love that we share among ourselves and all, all the believers who are his own. That's the one side.
But then the other side is the hatred of this world.
A world that does not love us, it hates us because it does not love him, it hates him.
I've chosen you out of the world, he says. Because, and therefore the world hates you.
If we're really true to him, to the calling that is ours, that he's called us out of this world. If we're really true to him and all the things that dazzle the man of the world and that makes him delight in it and all the entertainment and all that.
We don't go for that.
We, we belong to another world. He's called us out of this world to another world. Any man be in Christ. He's a new creation, a new creature.
All things have passed away. All things have become new. It belongs to a world that hates Christ. Let's never forget that. And the more we take part in it, the more we get advanced in it, the more we get our name is printed in headlines in the newspaper, or whatever we've achieved down here in this world, that's not our world.
That's not our world. We belong to another world altogether. We belong to to that one that they cast out. We will not have this man to reign over us. That's what they said. Let's never forget that. Let's keep ourselves separate from those who are of this world. I don't mean so separate that we never witnessed to them, though. I don't mean that at all.
But the the more faithful we are in our witness that we do belong to a world that is different.
A A world that has Christ as the head and he has called us out of this world to another one. A world that will never pass away. A world that will be for all eternity. We're looking at that in our readings, where we belong to what is really ours. Shame on us, shame on me. The more I want to be.
Accepted by this world that hated the despised him.
Young people, remember the word that I said to you. This is the Lord speaking.
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The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
You know, the natural tendency of our natural hearts is to be accepted by our fellow, our fellow classmates.
Fellow workers that we work with and so on, we want their acceptance.
And he says to us, remember.
The word that I said to you, servant, is not greater than his Lord. If they've persecuted me, we know what they did to him.
Oh, there were crowds that followed him and so on, but the religious leaders, especially those that are that are looked upon in this world down here and.
Our.
Our umm, admirer.
They hated him.
Servant is not greater than his Lord. Remember that if they persecuted me.
They will also persecute you if that happens to you. I remember when I was in college, I got saved as a freshman and I was in the electrical engineering course and I got a chance to to take a, a chosen class and I made the mistake of taking a religious course. While I didn't know much, just a babe in Christ, but I was very jealous for the Lord and witnessing for the Lord.
And I was in this religious class, the, the, the professor was an unbeliever. He would scoff at what I believe and so on. And so the rest of the class laughed me down. The time I take a stand for the Lord, one said, And I, I always refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord Jesus Christ. I always give him that title. Don't give him that title, they said. The more they told me not to, the more I did it.
I was in an enemy's land and I realized it. They had religion. Religion makes man feel good. It makes him feel that he's made some contribution that exalts himself. And that's the worst thing that we can do to exalt ourselves.
The greatest sin that we have, that we commit.
Starting right here is pride. Pride.
And that's that's what the humanism of the world's religion is is promoting all the time.
Right. And when they turn their back upon you, young person, if you're faithful to the Lord, and they may laugh at you, and they may make jokes of you and so on.
You don't want their approval. You want his approval. You want a witness for him. You want to stand for him. You want to turn your back upon this wicked world through which we're passing.
If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying, they will keep yours also. I remember I went to A to a.
Bible reading. It wasn't really a Bible reading. It was an opinion meeting is what it was. What do you think this verse means? So what do you think it means? What do you think it means? What do you think it means? If finally it got around to me and I said what does it mean?
Not to me, but what does it mean? What is it saying?
And that's the kind of thing they call a Bible study. What does it mean to me?
Couldn't care less what it means to you. What does it mean? What's the teaching from it?
And they didn't like that.
All these things will they do unto you. Remember this young person.
All these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. They don't know Him, they don't know the Father.
And they don't know the Holy Spirit either. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I'd not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin.
But now the one who is the truth, we saw that in the 14th chapter, he said I am the way, the truth and the life, he said to Pilate. I came into this world of bear witness to the truth. And Pilate, who was a politician, he shrugged his shoulders and probably said what's true? There's nothing, no such thing as truth. Everything is negotiable.
Absolute truth. There is no such thing. They were talking to him.
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And the more you stand for that, for this.
It at your workplace it's school college, and the higher you go in the universities the worse it gets. Those are in the top seats are the ones that mock and hate the Lord Jesus.
Generally speaking, occasionally there is an exception.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sinned. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also. When the Lord came, who was the truth when he came, That was the ultimate test.
As to where you stand and where the world stands and so on, that was the ultimate test.
And it manifested.
That they now have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me, hateth my father also. Like father, like son. He came to reveal the Father, and the Father was so delighted as the husbandmen, as we had before us earlier in chapter 15. These I want more and more of my son. He wants to see your, His Son, and you and me.
He wants to see that.
And to hate him is to hate his father.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they not have sinned. His works proved who he was.
That blind man in John 9, while hearing is a marvelous thing that you didn't, you know not from whence he is, and yet he have opened mine eyes since the world began. No one that was born blind was made to see.
His eyes became open. We had that beautifully brought out.
The end of John 9.
If I had not done among them the works which none other man did, they'd not had sinned. But now have they both seen and hated.
Both me and my father.
Man, essentially good man, is essentially rotten. God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the absolute proof of this was when the one who was all together good and righteous and just and true was hated and despised, cast out. If you belong to him, be true to him. Don't seek the applause of this world.
Now they were both hated and seen, both me and my father. That's what they'll do to you. That's what they did, what they'll do to me. I experienced that in that religious course.
But this cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written in their law. They hated me without a cause.
No 'cause.
Nothing but goodness done by him.
And then he he ends up this chapter with when the comforter has come, Holy Spirit, whom I will send unto you from the Father, You now have the Comforter of the Holy Spirit that he has man once he was here and and you have all the power and you have the new light and your sins are forgiven. And you know God is your Father and you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior and you're in dwell of the Holy Spirit who will give you the power.
The faithfulness to witness for him in a world that hates him.
When the Comforter has come whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of Me. He shall testify of me. That's what your responsibility is, not to promote religion, but to testify of Him.
And he also shall bear witness.
Because you have been with me.
From the beginning, we will not have that privilege. Once we get to heaven, they will all be the Lord's there. It won't be the enemy there anymore. But we have the the privilege of witnessing for him now, right now, in a world that cast him out and that hated him, despised him, doesn't want him.
You have a chance to witness for him.
As the Lord give you grace to do so.
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To Genesis 49.
Umm.
Verse.
22.
Joseph is a fruitful bow, even a fruitful bow by a well whose branches run over the wall.
The Archers have sorely grieved him and shot at him and hated him.
This is the verse I was thinking of, but his bow abode in strength.
And the arms of his hands were made strong.
By the hands of the mighty God of Jacob.
From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel.
I suppose there's some boys here that are fascinated sometimes by bow and arrows. And if you boys shot a bow and arrow.
Well, sometimes those first few times, maybe Dad helps you.
And I think that's the picture we get in this first.
You can imagine a little fellow with Dad behind him.
Dad's hands are helping those arms steady in that hole.
Pulling it back.
And it goes well at least somewhere near the target.
But this says.
The arms of his hands.
Were made strong by the hands of the mighty God.
Then it says from thence is the shepherd.
Stone of Israel.
We've had before us in these meetings about the Shepherd.
About Communion.
And I couldn't help but think of this picture here.
And, uh, I'd like to turn to Psalm 40.
Communion.
Requires.
Listening.
You and I live in a world where.
There has probably never been so much stimuli coming at us, whether it's Internet or TV or radio.
Or.
Home, whatever they are. Or laptops.
There's every kind of stimuli coming at us, and the fact is we have a living God.
Wants to get our ear.
And it's almost hard to speak to people because they're constantly.
Distracted.
In many, many different ways.
But the word of God tells us in the fullness of time, God sent forth his Son.
Born of a woman Well, here in Psalm 40.
Verse six it says sacrifice and offering. Now it's not desire.
My nearest as.
Are opened.
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The margin says Dig.
Burnt offering and sin offering, hast thou not required? Then said I lo, I come.
In the volume of the book it is written of me. I delight to do thy will, O my God.
This shepherd.
This stone of Israel.
How'd it come about?
In an eternity past, the eternal Son ever dwelling in the bosom of the Father.
What's this, nine years?
Astounding.
Son.
Look forward.
This creation.
Man upon us we learned in Proverbs 8. My delights were with the sons of men.
Oh, the eternal Son. His ears were digged. I'll.
Take the place of a servant.
We've had those verses before us.
A servant to bring Jacob to him again.
Oh, what marvellous dependence.
Then let's look at Isaiah.
Chapter.
50.
Inverse.
4.
This is.
Prophetic of the Lord Jesus.
The Lord God has given me the tongue of the learned that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
He wakened this morning. By morning he wakeneth my ear to hear.
As they're learning.
We read in the gospels and rising up a great while before day.
He went out.
Solitary place parade.
This is the dependent man.
In your world and mine.
We have to kind of conjecture.
Because we can hardly grasp.
What it is for the eternal Son to dwell in the bosom of the Father?
The communion is instantaneous.
If I were to.
Conjecture a little and say here's this dependent man in prayer, son.
Today.
As you approach a certain city and send your disciples.
You're not going to receive you.
This next verse.
Today.
They're going to.
Smite your back.
We were forego to Psalm 129. What'd it say? They ploughed upon my back.
They made long their furrows.
In the Garden of Gethsemane.
All these things were weighed in communion with the father.
Morning. By morning, those ears were opened.
Daily constant communion.
Dependence.
Obedience.
Verse six I gave my back to the smiters and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair.
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I hid not my face from shame.
When they say.
Art thou the Son of God?
Or, you know, when you speak for the chief priests, what need have we any more of witnesses? The servants might, and they spit in his face.
This Blessed One, who is your object and mine.
All of this is measured.
In constant communion.
You never see Jesus.
Any time in his life.
The serenity of the bosom he dwelt in.
This constant portion.
Let's look at Exodus 21.
We are quite familiar with this I think.
About the servant.
The Hebrew Servant.
Verse two. If thou buy Hebrew servant six years, he shall serve, and in the seventh year he shall go out free for nothing.
Think I'll skip ahead, but because we're familiar with the portion.
But well, verse four. And if his master have given him a wife, and she have borne him son or daughters, sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall become be her masters, and shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my children, I will not go out free. Then his master shall bring him unto the judges. He shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post, and his master shall bore his ear through within all.
And he shall serve him forever.
Here's another instance.
Of the ear.
In a past eternity, a near day.
Father and son equal.
But he takes the position of servant. We learned it in Philippians 2, made in the likeness of men. He goes down those steps as well and.
How far is it?
In this portion we get a figure of the death of the cross.
The ear bore through his love for you and I So great, he says. I will not go out free. That holy man had every right to go back to heaven. Muhammad thought that's what he did, and Judas died on the cross.
That's apostasy.
Jesus died on the cross.
This figure of the ear bored through with it all.
He's a servant forever because he loves you. He loves me.
Could we make an application? We've looked very briefly at the object of our faith.
You and I.
Have to learn.
What it is to have communion with the father?
And seek to walk by faith. It's all he ever knew.
I so enjoyed hearing the prayer of Brother Eric Smith years ago.
As he broke the bread.
And he mentioned.
If it be possible.
Let this cup pass from me.
He made this expression.
Thy holy soul.
Withdrew from the very thought of being made sin.
Tone contrary to him.
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But he had his ear poured through.
For you and I.
You and I need to learn that.
While he's the object.
Here in Isaiah 50.
Will you let him be an example?
Morning by morning.
Waking up my ear to hear is the lure. That's commune.
That's instruction for the day.
Take a look at us as a company gathered.
To the precious name.
Of this blessed object, the Lord Jesus Christ.
We are thankful as we look at the work going on in Malawi.
Some other works. I have this question in my own mind.
Who's being raised up?
To fill the ranks.
Who's going?
To a people unreached.
You dear young people.
Let the truth so fill your heart.
That it becomes your joy.
To spread it.
To realize there's precious souls here or there. There's a company over there that don't even have the word of God. Still two or three thousand people groups without a Bible.
Are you devoting yourself to?
Listen every morning.
You know if your only goal is to become prosperous in this world.
I don't know.
Whether that call will be yours?
You read if someone like Hudson Taylor eating oatmeal.
Have a little more to give to the work of the Lord, and he's only like 16 or so.
What do you see in a life like that?
Self denial.
We live in a world of such constant entertainment and fun and partying.
The things of God are serious.
I'm not saying he doesn't want you to.
Have a little fun, play a few sports.
But when this object fills your soul.
The one whose ears were deep, that were awakened every morning.
And at last, bored through with an all.
And say I'm going to see him soon.
You know, every parent in this room, I believe they, they just love to enter heaven and say my children are here with me.
That's victory.
There's going to be people like Eric Smith that never had any children.
And he's going to have children there with him.
There's a wonderful, endless day coming.
Well.
I couldn't help but think of Peter.
Energy and zeal, and that happens when we're young.
And they're coming right up. And is he praying at the Garden of Gethsemane? He's sleeping.
And when we come, they come to take Jesus.
Does he help? Dig in here.
Does he help a year to be open? No, he wax one off.
And the Lord Jesus says suffer thus far.
And he touches that ear, and it's restored.
Well, may our ears be opened.
That our service be acceptable. What a wonderful thing if we have grace as believers.
To be a delight to his heart every day.
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We'll fail at it.
But it's the right thing to seek, and it's only possible to waken.
Mourning by morning.
Present to continue on with the subject that our brother Chuck had before us about the hatred of the world. We don't get a passage in the first Samuel.
There are two things that are very real in this world.
One is the love of Christ and the other is the hatred of the world. It's real. You know why did.
They dislike Simon Peter.
Because he was an association with Jesus of Nazareth. I also was with Jesus of Nazareth and they didn't like Peter because of that.
Fathers know that we're in any way identified with the Lord Jesus Christ. They also will not like you. Now. The world will hate you because you're not of the world. And you see this exemplified in First Samuel.
Chapter 16.
And.
Uh.
The end of verse 13.
And the Spirit of the Lord came upon David, verse 14. But the Spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and the evil spirit from the Lord troubled him.
Why did Saul Hey David, What did David ever do cancel He he did him well.
He, he fought the fill was fine, delivered the nation when everyone else was afraid. He played the harpist all, didn't he? And yet so I scarcely knew him and hated him. A little further on, David tells Jonathan, You know, there's only a step between me and death.
He would tell me, wouldn't he? He said no. But yeah, I can hardly believe that his father would hate David without anything.
That's what the Lord Jesus Christ Himself had to say. They hated me without a cause.
At this point in David's life, he could say, what have I done, Jonathan? If I've done anything wrong, you take your sword and slay me yourself.
Later on, David couldn't say that because he had grievously sinned, but at this point of David's life, he was walking with the Lord and he could say words like that. Such was his confidence in Jonathan. But sure enough, it came to pass that when Jonathan sought to defend uh, his friend David White, his own father would cast a javelin at Jonathan to slam against the wall.
Then he knew that was true.
You know.
We see hatred today, don't we, Brevan? Uh.
Those who hate one another, that's our natural estate. Hateful and hating one another according to Romans one. But uh, we even see it directed towards the people who.
Or in any way identified with the Messiah, the Lord Jesus, the Jewish people.
In the 12Th chapter of Revelation, we see that Satan primarily has his animosity towards the manchild, but that manchild is born and caught up to heaven. And at the end of the chapter you see that he directs his hatred then towards the remnant of her seed. I realize that it points forward to another day when there will be a godly remnant raised up. But today these Arab factions which are, uh, honest with one another, they're united in their hatred towards the Jewish people because they're in any way.
Identified with the man child who came into this world, our Savior.
Now the Lord had said, If the world hate me, will hate you.
We should be prepared, brethren, to face the animosity and the hatred of this world.
We can perhaps hide our candle under a bushel or under a bed and, uh, not let our light shine for the Lord.
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But is he not worthy?
You know, as the lion of the tribe of Judah, he's the all powerful one. He has all power. He can do anything. But as the lamb, he's the worthy one. He's worthy of our homage breads and look what he's done for us. What have we done for him? Humbles us when we think how little we do for the Lord, you know, yet he's done everything for us.
Uh, I believe that's what caused Peter to go out and we bitterly because he realized I really love the Lord, but I denied him three times. The Lord doesn't reject this. Does he breath in?
He privately restored Peter and then publicly in the 21St chapter of John before his brethren. Don't we thank God for restoring grace? That He didn't give up on us the first time we failed Him? Lord is so gracious with us, He bears with us.
Those of us who are parents, that gives us an example, doesn't it, as to how we ought to bring up our children, and we gracious and kind towards our children.
Remember for a personal illustration, but mostly I probably don't know my parents.
But they were in the meeting. Grandparents were in the meeting.
And.
My dad wasn't a great student of the Word, but one came one thing came through with his life. He loved the Lord.
And parents.
Not so much. What you tell your children is how you live before your children. That's where your children see. They know if you're real or if you're just faking it.
And uh, have you reeled before the Lord? You love the Lord, Your children are going to follow you in the path of the Lord.
This is just going on with the vain show. Our children detect that too. We can perhaps fool our brethren, but we can't fool our children.
Umm, but the Lord is so worthy. The world may hate us, but as I said, the other thing that is true is this. The love of Christ that every remains the same. Let us never doubt the love of Christ for us in anything we do. That's what gives us confidence. The fact that well maybe my brethren don't understand me, but the Lord understands and He loves us.
Uh, we had a scripted this morning in John 15, uh.
You love one another even as I have loved you. Our brother Jim emphasized that even as I have loved you, you know, there's a brother in the meeting and they said, boy, he's a hard 1 to get along with. You ever pray to the Lord? Lord, help me to love that brother as you love me. It's quite a prayer, isn't it, to love our brethren even as the Lord loves us.
It's possible, It's possible.
Uh, we should love one another with that intense love, brethren, because the world certainly does not love us. If you follow with the Lord, you're not going to get any encouragement from the world. But we've had three days of.
Happy fellowship and the Word of God brought before us to remind us that these things are are real, that the world will hate us and we'll display that hatred, and increasingly so as the coming of the Lord draws near. May we be drawn the rather closer to the side of the one from the so early our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two.
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