Open—C. Hendricks
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The way we're not of the night, but children of day, The change that once bound us by Jesus are riven Were strangers on earth. Our home is in heaven 234.
Dangerous.
To a live track lands waste our journey lies through.
Blood together.
Yeah.
Great winners they please.
The weakest of Saints more than proverb.
Lord chains us to me.
Let's turn to turn again to John 15.
We didn't finish the chapter.
We looked at that part of it.
That presents Christ to us.
Father, he's the vine and we're the branches. Father's the husband men 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 the same kind of.
People as the Lord Jesus.
00:05:01
But.
The first part of the chapter we've had before us, and it ends in verse 17. These things I command you, that ye love one another.
And we know we've gone through that so nicely, but then there's a complete break at this point.
And that's what I want to take up shortly right now, verse 18, 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 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 cloak 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 ye 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 has 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 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 thy 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 should 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 Father was delighting in His beloved Son when here and now we're here to represent Him.
We're here to present 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.
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Those who are his, those that have his nature and life.
And 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.
They 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, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world.
Hated you. You see Him, You seen this. You 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 going to be up here very long.
Just want to bring before us.
The other side of the coin, if you will, the 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, then all the things that dazzle the the 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 belong to another world.
He's called us out of this world to another world. If any man be in Christ, he's a new creation, a new creature.
All things were passed away. All things have become new. They belong 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 names 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 witness 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 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 and 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've persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
You know the natural tendency of our natural hearts is to be accepted by 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 admire.
They hated him.
Servant is not greater than his Lord. Remember that if they have 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 zealous for the Lord, and witnessing for the Lord.
And I was in this religious class. The professor was an unbeliever. He would scoff at what I believed and so on. And so the rest of the class laughed me down. Every time I take a stand for the Lord, one said, And I always refer to the Lord Jesus Christ as Lord Jesus Christ. I always gave 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 promoting all the time.
Pride. And when they turned 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.
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.
That they persecuted me. They will also persecute you. If they have kept my saying they will keep the results. So 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? You know, what do you think it means? What do you think it means? What do you think it means? It finally 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?
They couldn't careless 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 to bear witness to the truth. And Pilate, who was a politician, he shrugged his shoulders and probably said what's truth? There's no such thing, no such thing as truth. Everything's 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 that in the top seats are the ones that mock and hate the Lord Jesus.
Generally speaking, occasionally there's an exception.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had sin. But now they have no cloak for their sin. He that hateth me hated 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 husbandman, as we had before us earlier in Chapter 15. He says I want more and more of my son. He wants to see you and his son in 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.
Had not had sin. His works proved who he was.
That blind man in John 9. Why herein is a marvelous thing that you know not from whence he is, and yet he has 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 had not had sin. 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 altogether 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 are both hated and seen, both me and my father. That's what they'll do to you. That's what they do, 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 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 life, 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?
Tellers others.
Of him, not religion.
And ye also shall bear witness.
Because you have been with me.
From the beginning.
Will not have that privilege once we get to heaven. They'll 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 cashed him out and that hated him, despised him, doesn't want him.
You have a chance to witness for him.
And the Lord give you grace to do so.