WWUTT 962 The World Will Hate You?

Jesus said to his disciples, When the world hates you, know that it has hated me first.

Not if the world hates you, when the world hates you. Because we're not of the world. We're of the kingdom of God when we understand the text.

This is When We Understand the Text, a daily study of God's Word that we may be filled with the knowledge of His will.

For questions and comments, send us an email to whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. We come back to our study of the Gospel of John, chapter 15, is where we've been for the last couple of weeks or so.

I'll start reading in verse 18 and go through to the end of the chapter. Jesus said to his disciples,

If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I said to you, A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours.

But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me.

If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin.

Whoever hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin.

But now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in their law must be fulfilled.

They hated me without a cause. But when the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the

Father, the Spirit of truth, who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness about me.

And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning.

We have so many great passages that come out of this upper room discourse between Jesus and his disciples before he is arrested and taken to the cross.

This is the longest discourse in John's Gospel. It goes from chapter 13 to chapter 17 and is really the longest discourse of Jesus that we have in all four

Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or John. John, of course, focuses more on Jesus' teaching than on Jesus' miracles.

But these words that we have from this upper room discourse are just beautiful. And any particular section, or even like a verse or two, you could take and turn into like an entire sermon series.

You could write books upon books about the things that Jesus is sharing with his disciples in the teaching that he is giving to them.

And this particular section we're looking at today is no exception. Verse 18, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it has hated you.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you're not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.

As I've said to my own congregation, and I've shared on this broadcast before, you don't even have to say you're a

Christian for the world to hate you. You don't have to say you're a Jesus follower. You don't have to say you go to church regularly.

You don't even have to preach the Gospel to somebody for them to hate you. You just have to desire to live a life of godliness, and they'll hate you just for that.

The Bible says so. 2 Peter 3 .12, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted, while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

Peter says in 1 Peter 4, starting in verse 3, for the time that is past suffices for doing what the

Gentiles want to do, living in sensuality, passions, drunkenness, orgies, drinking parties, and lawless idolatry.

With respect to this, they are surprised when you do not join them in the same flood of debauchery, and they malign you.

But they will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead. The world is going to make fun of you simply because you don't act like them, because you're not jumping into the same sins that they're jumping into.

Or another way to say this is you're not getting into bed with the world. James 4,

James says, don't you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

If you are a friend of the world, you're an enemy of God. But if you're a friend of God, which is who we all are in Christ Jesus, we're friends of God, then you're going to be an enemy to the world.

And the world will hate you simply because you won't sin with them, nor will you applaud or endorse their sin.

It's not about being tolerant anymore. I mean, that didn't even last very long. I don't even think that was a decade long.

People pushing that whole political talking point, the whole PC thing, will just be tolerant of one another.

Now it's, no, you have to give a full -on endorsement. Nancy Pelosi, just a couple of weeks ago, the

Speaker of the House, she is third in line for President of the United States. Donald Trump, Mike Pence, Nancy Pelosi.

And just a couple of weeks ago, she said that tolerance is a condescending word. So if you say, well,

I'm just trying to be tolerant, no, that's considered condescending. You have to pick a side. You've got to either be on the side of the world or you have to be on the side of God.

Now, of course, that's not the line in the sand the way that Nancy Pelosi defines it, but that's basically what it comes down to.

You are either going to be of worldliness or godliness. And they want you to pick a side so they know, are you on our side or are we supposed to hate you?

That's why they want you to choose, so they can know how to invest their emotions.

Am I going to welcome you as a friend or am I going to hate you as my enemy simply because you will not endorse my sin?

The Bible says this is what we're going to be hated for, simply because we're pursuing godliness. The world will hate us for this.

And the way that we behave, the things that we do, is going to be strange to the world.

In fact, it's becoming so strange to the world, it's now shocking whenever we do something that is in line with what

Scripture says. It used to not be this way. It wasn't even that long ago, 20 years ago, the nominal

Christianity that filled the American landscape, people still had a general sense of what

Christian behavior kind of looks like. But now, just for praying for the president, people think that's outrageous.

Surely, by now you've heard the story of Donald Trump making a surprise appearance in David Platt's church, just this past Sunday, just a couple of days ago.

He came in wanting to be prayed for, and so David Platt did, brought Donald Trump out on stage.

Of course, this is a mega church. This is a gigantic church. But anyway, brought Donald Trump out on stage and prayed a prayer for him.

It was a wonderful prayer, evangelistic prayer. The gospel was in there, prayed for wisdom for the president and the response to this has been outrageous, as though how dare a pastor ever do such a thing?

Pastors have been doing this ever since there was a president of the United States. As long as there's been a

POTUS, there has been a pastor praying for wisdom for the president. There was an article that was written in The Atlantic about the public outrage against the fact that David Platt would pray so favorably for the president that God would bless him and grant him repentance and that he would come to salvation and forgiveness and that he would have wisdom in the way that he leads this country.

These are some of the things David Platt prayed for. People were outraged over this. So here was the article in The Atlantic.

This gal, Emma Green, she says the following. This is about midway through the article.

What's remarkable about this prayer is not that it happened, but that it shows how thoroughly the

Trump era has opened the way for cynicism and outrage over even mundane, predictable Christian behavior.

Within the world of evangelicalism, David Platt does not roll with the hardcore

Trump supporters. His prayer was studiously neutral, clear of boosterism and partisanship.

While Trump has certainly amplified divisions among evangelicals over race, gender, and the rightful relationship between Christianity and politics, the choice to pray for a person in leadership is not a meaningful symbol of evangelicalism's transformation under the 45th president.

It just shows how polarized everything has become and how venomous the public has become toward Christianity.

That doing something that is just basic in Christian practice has now become outrageous to the public.

We have said to us in 1 Timothy 2, starting in verse 1.

First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for all people, for kings and all who are in high positions, that we may lead a peaceful and quiet life, godly and dignified in every way.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved from all walks of life, from the president to the vagabonds.

This is good, and it is pleasing in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and man, the man

Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.

And so we have this decree that an apostle has made to the church of God that we should pray for all people.

And incidentally, when Paul said this, he was hearkening back to something that was said to the children of Israel in the book of Jeremiah, to pray for the welfare of their captors, because if it goes well for their captors, they will prosper and benefit also.

And so that would be the case for us. We pray for the welfare of our captors, in the sense that we are exiles in this world.

We are not of this world. We're of the kingdom of God. And so as strangers and exiles and aliens to this world, we would conduct ourselves in such a way that we would be a testament to the kingdom that we belong to.

We would also pray for the welfare of our captors, so that we might have an opportunity to go out and share the gospel through these rights that have been afforded to us in whatever country that we live in.

You might have an opportunity to share the gospel where you are because your nation has given you certain rights to be able to do that.

We should pray for those things and defend those rights so that we can continue to share the gospel and do so without fear that the government is going to come down upon us.

A person like Nancy Pelosi saying tolerance is not even enough, that's a condescending word.

You have to pick a side. I think that's the direction our country is going. It might be a few decades away, but eventually these freedoms that we've been afforded now are going to be gone from us.

And this might happen worldwide, not just in the United States of America, but these freedoms gradually being eroded away, taken away from us, from being able to preach the gospel without fear that our government is going to persecute us for that.

But the world is going to hate us, and gradually this hate is getting deeper and deeper over even simple mundane things that most ordinary

Americans would have thought as typical Christian behavior, and now even that is becoming offensive to the world.

I mean, it has been the entire time. Those who are not of Christ but are of the world, they hate anything that has to do with godliness, but now it's just becoming all the more blatant.

Lines are becoming more defined, and you have to pick this side or this side. So I know whether to love you or hate you.

Jesus says, if the world hates you, know that it hated me before it hated you.

The reason why the world hates you is because I chose you out of it. You are chosen by me.

You're not of them. You are of the kingdom of God in Christ Jesus if you are a follower of Christ.

As we talked about yesterday, this is God's choosing. He chose you. He decreed from before the foundation of the world that you should be holy and blameless before him.

Ephesians 1 states that plainly. And so if God has decreed it, you can't reverse it.

And praise God for that because you and your sinfulness absolutely would not have gone along with God's decree.

You were dead in your sins and your trespasses in which you once walked. According to Romans 3, you weren't even seeking after God.

He sought after you because he decreed from before the foundation of the world that he would make you his son or his daughter.

By hearing the gospel of Jesus Christ. By repenting of your sin and becoming a follower of his.

Being justified by faith in Christ alone. God decreed this from before the foundation of the world and put all things in place so that it would happen because he decreed for it to happen.

Isaiah 14 .27, for the Lord of hosts has purposed and who will annul it?

His hand is stretched out and who will turn it back? You will never know the extent, at least this side of heaven, you will never truly know just how separated from God you were when you were dead in your sins and your trespasses.

Why is that? Why is it that you won't ever know this side of heaven, just how far from God you were before he intervened and brought you to him through faith in Jesus Christ?

The reason why you won't know that is because God is infinite. He is infinitely good. And you and your finiteness cannot search the depths of God.

Paul says that at the end of Romans chapter 11. Who can fathom? Who can search his depths?

Who can understand the knowledge that he possesses? None of us can fathom that.

So because he is infinite, he is infinitely good. He is infinitely glorious. He is infinitely gracious and merciful because that is

God. You won't ever really understand this side of heaven, just how far from him you were.

The more you are growing in sanctification, the more aware of that fact you are becoming.

You are realizing more and more just how awful sin is and how disgusting you were when you were walking in that way.

Because as you're growing in the knowledge of God, he's becoming bigger and bigger to you. He is becoming all the more glorious, all the more fantastic.

The more that we see God revealed to us in his word, the more glorious he becomes.

And the smaller we realize we actually are. And yet God is so merciful and gracious that he considered us, even while we were yet sinners.

Romans 5, 8. Can't quote this verse enough. God demonstrated his love for us in that while we were yet sinners,

Christ died for us. And so we come to the knowledge of God through his word.

We come to know what his will is through his word. And it's in following that will and desiring godliness and holiness, growing in these things, not aligning ourselves with the world, but aligning ourselves according to the will of God.

It's in doing this, the world is going to hate us. The world hates you because it hated me, Jesus said.

If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world.

Therefore, the world hates you. 1 John 4.

I want to start in verse one, just because it's such an important passage. Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God.

For many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this, you know, the spirit of God, every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God.

And every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you heard was coming and now is in the world already.

Little children, you are from God and have overcome them. For he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.

They are from the world. Therefore, they speak from the world and the world listens to them.

We, John says, speaking of himself and other apostles, those who carry the apostolic ministry, he says we are from God.

Whoever knows God listens to us. Whoever is not from God does not listen to us.

By this, we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error. So whoever is listening to sound doctrine, the true word of God as delivered by his prophets and apostles in the

Old and New Testament, the 66 books that we have that make up canon, the Bible, whoever listens to this word, understands sound doctrine, walks in it, producing godliness in their lives.

Because as Paul says to Timothy, that this is the truth that accords with godliness.

That means that when we are following in the gospel, it is producing in us godly living.

When a person believes in sound doctrine, producing godliness, it is because they listen to the true word, that which was delivered from the prophets and the apostles.

But those who do not listen to the true word will not be growing in godliness.

And the reason why they don't listen to the true word is because they are of the world and not of God.

Once again, 1 John 4, 6, we are from God. Whoever knows God listens to us.

Whoever is not from God does not listen to us. By this we know the spirit of truth and the spirit of error.

And we'll continue talking about this a little bit more tomorrow as well. We've just looked at John 15 verses 18 and 19, but we'll continue on with this section where Jesus says that if the world had loved you, it would be because you were of the world.

But because the world hates you, it's because I've chosen you out of the world.

Therefore, my brothers and sisters in the Lord, we must live as though we are of the kingdom of God and not of this world.

If you know that Christ has chosen you and you are a follower of Jesus, you've been called to holiness.

And that means you're not going to look like, you're not going to behave and be interested in the same things that the world is interested in.

We are kingdom people. Now, we shouldn't be snide and arrogant about this.

It's not like this is cause for a segregation to such a degree that we think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think.

Rather, we understand that we were children of wrath like the rest of mankind, which Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2.

We were dead in our sins and our trespasses, just like everyone else in the world is dead in their sins and their trespasses.

It is only by the mercy and grace of God that we've been raised from death to life. And so we must not think so highly of ourselves.

We must go out into the world with the gospel, knowing it is because of the gospel we were saved out of this.

And it's only by the power of the gospel that somebody else will be saved. And this is the work of God, not our works.

So we've got nothing to boast about. Do not look down on the world because the world hates you.

Instead, as Peter also says in his letter, 1 Peter 4, 12, Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.

But rejoice insofar as you share Christ's sufferings, that you may also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed.

If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you.

Reading verse 19, Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good.

It was God's will that you would be called out of darkness into his marvelous light. Therefore, it's

God's will that you would suffer, even at the hands of those who hate you because you have been called out from the world.

This is God's will, so you must put your faith in him and continue to give a hope for the answer that lies within you.

But do this with gentleness and respect. 1 Peter 3, 15, also from Peter's letter.

Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the goodness that you have shown to us in Jesus Christ, our savior.

What we deserve for our rebellion and our sin was judgment and wrath, but you showed us mercy and love through your son,

Jesus Christ. We are so undeserving, and you are so giving. So in light of the mercies that you have shown to us, help us to live as living sacrifices in this world, holy and pleasing to the

Lord, this is our spiritual act of worship. And let us not be too proud, looking down on others, thinking that we're better than them, for we, like the rest of the world, we're children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.

It is only by your mercy that we didn't fall in that state, but have become kingdom people of God.

So help us to have a compassion on the people who are around us, to take the gospel to them that they may hear and believe, and so turn from their sin and be saved.

In the meantime, keep us also from being intimidated by this world or enticed by this world.

Nothing that the world says to us would make us want to leave the promises that have been given to us in Christ, and nothing that the world has to offer us would entice us to some sort of a better deal.

We already have the best thing of all, and that is fellowship with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray. Amen. For more about our ministry, visit us online at www .utt

.com Thank you.