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If you will, at this time, take your copy of the scriptures and turn with me to the gospel of John chapter 15, and we will consider verses 10 through 27. The gospel of John chapter 15, verses 18 through 27, and this is message number 95 in this wonderful, glorious gospel.
Join me as I pray for us. Our God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, Lord, Master, Kyrios, we ask that as we come before you in this time, this time as we devote ourselves to your word, to the teachings of the apostles, for that you will, by the power of your Holy Spirit that has proceeded from both Father and the Son, that indwells those who are Christian, minister to us, use this to conform us to the image of Jesus Christ.
Lord, we pray and know that you will do this very thing. And in doing so, Lord, that you will remove me. Lord, that no one is here to see me. They're here to hear from you. And Lord, I pray that you grant that prayer to them today.
In Christ's name, amen. Now, I hate to tell you this, but this is our last Lord's Day in John chapter 15. Was joking last week, and Jake said, when you said message number 94, he said, I was thinking you was meant in the gospel of John chapter 15, right?
We've been in chapter 15 for a while. And if I'm honest, I'm somewhat sad. I really enjoy this chapter. This has been one of the most eye-opening chapters in John's gospel, in my opinion. And in our context today, Judas, one of the 12 disciples, has left to betray Jesus while Jesus and the other 11 disciples are walking to the garden of Gethsemane.
And we'll see that, I don't know how long, maybe a couple months, in John chapter 17, where Jesus prays the high priestly prayer. Jesus, in the other gospels, he's sweating great drops of blood. He's asking for this cup to pass from him.
This is gonna be a glorious time that we're going to be walking into in the future. Just wanna give you hope and light at the end of the tunnel because today is kind of dark, right? We're leaving John chapter 15.
And it's been glorious to me. Another way to the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus walks by him and his disciples and don't know how far away they are from the temple, but they walk by the temple. And Jesus points out the fact that there is on the temple a vine that's covered in gold that represents Israel as the vine.
And Jesus makes mention that he is the vine. He is the true vine. He is what Israel was pointing to. And we walk through scriptures that show that Jesus is the true Israel, but that Jesus is the vine, and that you and I are his branches.
And Jesus tells us as branches that we are to abide in him and bear fruit. If a branch does not abide in the vine, if a vine has a branch that doesn't bear fruit, the vinedresser, who Jesus tells us is his father, removes it.
And so you and I are to bear fruit. We are to abide in Jesus. This word abide means to remain. But what it teaches here, as we saw in 1 John, that abiding in Jesus is believing in the name of Jesus because abiding is to keep his commandments.
And his commandments are to believe in the name of Jesus Christ and to love one another. So if you wanna know if you are abiding, ask yourself that question. Are you believing in the name of Jesus Christ?
And are you loving your brothers and sisters in Christ? Because if you are, my dear friends, there's hope for you. There's joy, there's celebration because you are abiding in Christ, you are remaining.
And the fruit that we are to bear as branches, first of all, is the fruit of righteousness. Do you have the righteousness of Jesus Christ, which comes by faith in Jesus Christ, which checks off the box for number one, right?
Believing in the name of the son. This is how God counts to us in passing because we're looking back at what Christ has done. He debits to us the righteousness of Jesus Christ. And for those that are righteous in Christ, we are to bear the fruit of repentance, right?
As Paul Walsh would say, repentance is not a flu shot. It's not something that you did past tense. It's something that you're doing. It's ongoing, right? We're still living in the flesh. We're still sinners.
We still mess up. Or am I the only one, right? I know I'm not the only one. I know some of you cats, right? I know, I hang out with y 'all, right? I'm not the only one. And so our lives should be a trajectory.
It should be pointing to Christ and his righteousness, but also us repenting, showing our submission to our master. And then we're ought to bear the fruits of the spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, so on and so forth.
And then when you get to second Peter, it names off some more, talks about the fruit of knowledge that we are to know Christ. One of the fruits that a Christian is to bear is to know Christ. As we'll see in John chapter 17, verse three, Jesus says, now this is eternal life, that they may know you.
He's praying to the father. He says, that eternal life is to know you, the father, and the son in whom you have sent. We're to know him. We're to know information about Christ. He said, well, how do I get this information?
It's in the word of God.
We're to know him. We're to know his word. And last week we saw how those that are in Christ were slaves of Jesus. Were slaves of Jesus. Us loving one another with the same kind of love that the father has loved the son, Jesus, and Jesus has loved us with, that this was a command.
That we're not only just to love one another, but we were to love one another with the same capacity, the same love that the father loved the son with, an unmeasurable greatness of love, and the kind of love that Jesus has loved us with, which is a sacrificial love.
Do you realize how much a sacrifice it was for the father to send his son to live the life that you and I could not live, and to take the punishment that we deserve? Isaiah tells us in chapter 53, that it pleased the Lord to crush him.
How much love. That's a love we cannot fathom. And Jesus willingly taken upon himself the punishment that we deserve. That our love for one another should be sacrificial. John chapter 15, verse 13, Jesus says this, greater love has no one than this, that someone lays down his life for his friends.
Jesus goes, he says that, then he goes and he lays down his life for his friends. Those that are his. And that's the call that we're called to. And I mentioned last week, we may never get the opportunity to lay down our lives for one another.
But we do, present tense right now, have the opportunity to live for one another. But you cannot live for those in the body of Christ if you're not with the body of Christ. God has given to us the church, where I can, those who believe in Jesus can collectively gather and love one another and I mentioned how the church is a gift given to us by God.
And that the church is the bride of Christ. And my dear friends, the one thing you do not wanna do when you pass away is to face God, having abused the bride of Christ. You walk up and put your hands on my bride, I tell you what, you're gonna have to see, you're gonna see some repentance down the road, but in that moment, you're gonna see wrath and anger.
My dear friends, let us not take light, the bride of Christ, which we are a part of if we abide in Christ, if we are bearing fruit. We saw that the slave of Jesus is the friend of Jesus. You imagine that?
We didn't see that in American slavery, right? We saw the horrificness of what slavery looks like, the worst form of slavery. But slavery in the context of scripture was not like that. For the most part, a master, a slave owner, if their slave was trustworthy, they would befriend their slave.
And they spent more time with their slave that they befriended than they would their own family. They would know everything there was to know about the master, so on and so forth. And we spoke about how it was the greater that had to befriend the lesser because the lesser could not befriend the greater.
A slave cannot befriend their master, but the master could befriend their slave. We saw that, that's what Christ has done. That's what God has done. God the greater has befriended us the lesser in sending his son, Jesus Christ.
Tell you what, if that doesn't give you chill bumps, you have no pulse. He has done what we could not do. We could not ascend to heaven. God condescended to us. He descended, he condescended. And lastly, we saw that slaves are chosen by God.
We saw that no one would willingly enter into slavery. No one would willingly choose to become a slave. And how a slave doesn't choose their master, but the master chooses their slaves. And how we were chosen by God in eternity past to be redeemed from being slaves of the devil to being slaves of Jesus Christ.
From a slavery of bondage to a slavery of freedom. 2 Corinthians 3, verse 17 says this, Paul speaking, now the spirit, excuse me, now the Lord is the spirit. And where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
There's freedom. That although we are slaves of Christ, Christ is our friend and we have freedom. Our theme for this Lord's day is the expectation of persecution. The expectation of persecution. And this is my proposition.
If we abide in Christ and bear fruit as Jesus has commanded us, we will in some fashion face persecution. In some fashion, we will face persecution. I jokingly mentioned about that in the business meeting this morning.
But in some fashion, we will face persecution. Join me as I read for us our text, John chapter 15, verses 18 through 27. This is Jesus speaking. He says, verse 18, 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 keep yours. But all these things that 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 be guilty of sin. But now they have no excuse. 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.
Now they have seen and hated both me and my father. But the word that is written in the law must be fulfilled. They hated me without 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. In our outline today, we're going to see that Jesus has laid out for, he has laid out the blueprints for the disciples ministry.
Jesus tells them that they're going to be persecuted, that they're going to be hated, and that they're going to bear witness. So point number one, persecution, point number two, hatred, and point number three, witnesses.
Persecution, hatred, witnesses. And as we transition, this blueprint that Jesus has laid out for his disciples is the same blueprint that is laid out for you and I. Same thing, same thing. The only difference is in the interpretation.
The direct interpretation versus the indirect interpretation by which we draw application. The direct interpretation, he is speaking to his disciples. The indirect interpretation, he's speaking to you as well.
What he has said to them applies to us. If we cannot apply that to us, then everything that Jesus has spoken to his disciples, it's up for grabs. We can pick and choose. We can pick and choose. Well, I like that he says that he loved his disciples.
I don't like that he's saying that his disciples are going to be persecuted. So I'm going to say that, okay, what he said here, he loves his disciples, that's me, yo, that's me. Oh, my disciples are going to be persecuted.
No, that's not me. We cannot pick and choose. We as Christians should have an expectation of our own persecution. I say that again. We as Christians should have an expectation of our own persecution. By the grace of God, persecution, hatred, and being witnesses for Christ comes in many different forms.
Me and Red like to stand outside on the street corners and preach the gospel. There's other ways of witnessing besides doing what me and Red does, but you are called a witness. It's like there's other forms of persecution.
Persecution isn't always having your head chopped off or hung on a cross or being sent out on a frozen lake barefooted. I think I'd rather the first two than the latter. My, amen. That has happened in church history.
There's many different forms of persecution. However, no one gets off scot-free. No one gets off scot-free. If we are abiding in Jesus by believing in the name of Jesus and loving one another to bear fruit, it should go without saying that we will be hated.
We will be, because this is what's called godly living. Anyone in here desire to live a godly life?
Come on, we got any takers?
Anyone desire to live a godly life? 2 Timothy 3, verse 12 says this, "'Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life "'in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.'". Not may be persecuted, will be persecuted. It's guaranteed.
If you desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus, you will be persecuted. You say, well, I haven't seen any persecution. Are you living a godly life in Christ Jesus? This is not for me to tell you. No matter your eschatological view, this is your end time view, no matter your eschatological view, we have to leave room for persecution, hatred, and witnessing, or else everything's up for grab if we don't.
Everything is up for grab.
We can pick and choose.
And as we see in the book of Acts, excuse me, as we see in the book of Acts, it was the witness of the disciples that caused the hatred, which brought about the persecution. The order is upside down. We're seeing persecution, hatred, and witnessing, but it was the witness that brought the hatred that brought the persecution.
If they had not bore witness, they would have not been hated. Therefore, they would not have been persecuted. You see that? Point number one, persecution. This is taken from our chapter, verses 18 through 21, but let's just look at verse 18 real quick.
Jesus begins by saying, "'If the world hates you, "'know that it has hated me before it hated you.'". Notice he starts with if. There's other ifs in this chapter as well, which I think should be translated since, and could be translated since, when you get into the Greek.
But I believe he starts it off like this, because this paragraph, because not everyone who says they belong to Christ actually live for Christ. Have y 'all met people like that? Could you be people like that?
I was a people like that. Not everyone who says they belong to Christ lives for Christ. Jesus says this in Matthew 7, verse 21. He says, "'Not everyone who says to me, "'Lord, Lord,'' this is kurios, kurios, kurios, "'Master, Master, "'not everyone that calls him Lord and Master,'' this is what he's saying, "'will enter the kingdom of heaven.
"'Not everyone that acknowledges himself as a slave "'in him, his master, "'will enter into the kingdom of heaven. "'But only the ones who does the will of my Father, "'who is in heaven. "'Only those who do the will of the Father "'will enter into heaven.'".
And you ask, well, what is that will? Believe, love, and bear fruit. Believe in the name of Jesus. Love your brothers and sisters in Christ. Where do you do that at?
At church.
And guess what happens when you come to church and you submit yourself to the word of God,.
The Father prunes you,.
He's comforting you,.
He's conforming you to the image of Christ,.
To bear fruit, to be loving,.
To be joyful, to be patient.
You're practicing these fruits of the Spirit.
Where at?
This is what he has given to us. Jesus has been commanding his disciples.
To do these very things.
And since the commandment is love,.
And if you love,.
You will bear fruit.
You will be pruned. You will sit under the word of God. Those who are baptized will partake in the Lord's supper, and the Father, who is the wine dresser, will conform us to the image of his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is what we call the ordinary means of grace. It's a gracious thing for God to conform us to Jesus Christ. And by keeping his commandments, which is to abide in him and to love Jesus, to believe in Jesus and to love one another and bear fruit, guess what?
We will be hated, which calls us persecution. And Jesus tells them that the world has hated him first. And the reason why the world has hated him, in our context, the world here, speaking of the religious Jews, the Jewish world, is because Jesus testified about them, that their works were evil.
Turn with me to John chapter seven. John chapter seven. We're gonna look at verse seven. Jesus is speaking to those who do not believe in him. He's speaking to religious Jews who do not believe in him.
He says this, the world cannot hate you. Speaking of the world that they are a part of. This religious system, it cannot hate you, but it hates me because I testify about it, that its works are evil. Hatred comes from testifying about the world, that its works are evil.
And in verses 19 through 20, Jesus will pick up on this master and slave and election language. As we saw last week, and in verse 21, he will speak about the persecution that will take place. Look with me at verses 19 through 20.
Jesus says, if you were of the world, so if you were a part of this system, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen 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. For if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep your words. Now this statement is pretty much self-explanatory.
Christians are born into this world, slaves of sin and slaves of the devil. However, through the message of the gospel, God frees us from serving the world, from serving the flesh and from serving the devil.
And he does so because he chose us out of the world. We touched on this last week, election. Election is where God the father chose those who would be saved through the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
He said, we need to do that in eternity past. God the father chose who the son will come into the world in time to die for. And as we proclaim this message, the Holy Spirit will apply what Jesus did for them on that cross to those whom the father chose.
The doctrine of election. Slaves do not choose their master. The master chooses their slaves. The messenger and the message of the gospel is what God uses to remove you from this world. You were a slave of the devil.
If you're a Christian today, you are a slave of the devil. If you're not a Christian, you are present tense as we speak a slave of the devil. There's only one way to be set free. It's the gospel, the gospel.
It's the means, it's the means of another. Look at verse 19 again. If you were of the world,.
The world will 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. The evil world hates the chosen of God. How does he call us out of the world? By the means of another, the gospel work of another.
Now that you are no longer a part of this world, the world hates you. Now that you are no longer a follower of the devil, the prince and the power of the air, carrying out the desires of your mind with your body, everything that you're thinking of, your body is carrying out.
No longer, now that you're no longer doing that, the world hates you and the devil hates you. It hates you. And in verse 20, it tells us the result of this hate. Look at verse 20. Remember that the world, excuse me, remember the word that I said to you, a servant is not greater than his master.
If they persecute at me, they will, notice that will, definite, also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. Turn with me to Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. We're gonna read verses 16 through 18.
Paul says this in verse 16 of Romans chapter six. Do you not know that if you, present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves to the one you obey, either sin, which leads to death or obedience, which leads to righteousness.
But thanks be to God that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of the teaching to which you were committed. And had I been set free from sin and have become slaves of righteousness.
Paul here is echoing what Jesus has been teaching in John chapter 15. John chapter 15, Jesus ain't playing.
Oh, you believe in me?
Abide in me, bear fruit. Oh, you say you will believe in me.
And you're not doing these things?
Father, snip, removed from the vine. You're just a member of a church. He ain't playing. Ladies and gentlemen, God is holy, holy, holy. And he ain't playing. He ain't playing. He's jealous.
He's jealous.
He's not playing. We better pay attention. We better listen. Those that keep the commandments of Jesus are slaves of Jesus and he is our master and he is our friend. Again, look back at verse 14 of this chapter.
Jesus says, you are my friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you servants. This word here, servant, it should be translated slave. He says, no longer are you my slaves for a slave does not know what the master is doing.
But I have called you friends. For all that I have heard from my father, I have made known to you.
You did not choose me.
You see that? Speaking to his disciples. Speaking to you. But I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide. So that whenever you ask my father in my name, he will give to you these things I have commanded you so that you will love one another.
He's not playing. You say you believe in him, you better listen. He's not playing. You cannot believe in Jesus without loving your brothers and sisters in Christ. And we do that collectively as the church.
He's not playing. However, those that do not keep the commandments of Christ are slaves of the devil. And your master lords it over you. He lords it over you. He's not your friend. He's not a friend that sticks closer than a brother.
He lords it over you. He rules over you. The disciples were told that they would be persecuted because he, Jesus, was persecuted. Meaning that they will testify about the world and how its works are evil.
Their master is about to be nailed hands and feet to a Roman cross. And Jesus is reminding them that they too will be persecuted and may even face death. Turn with me, if you will, to Matthew chapter 24.
Matthew chapter 24. I'm gonna read for you verses nine through 13. His disciples have just asked him a question because he had mentioned that all everything, this whole system that they are viewing in Jerusalem, the temple and everything that's arrayed there, it's going to fall.
And they just asked him a question, when will these things be? And this is part of his answer. He says, then they will deliver you up to tribulation. And they will put you to death. And you will be hated by all nations for my sake.
And many will fall away and betray one another and hate one another. And many false prophets will arise and lead many astray. And because of lawlessness will increase, the love of many will grow cold.
But the one who endures will be saved. The one who abides, who remains, who believes in Jesus Christ and loves their brothers and sisters as themselves will remain. Jesus is speaking to his disciples and you can read back into church history and see that they were persecuted and put to death.
But indirectly, he's speaking to us too. It might not be us being put to death, but it might be us being put to death. When you become a Christian, you are saying that God is your all and in all. And wherever he goes, I will follow.
Wherever he takes me, I will go. It's Christ or nothing. It's Christ or chaos. Those who abide, those who believe, those who love are those that bear fruit. The persecution of Christians was and is horrific.
We see this when we read the book of Acts and when we look back into church history. Even today, millions of Christians, look it up, millions of Christians are dying for their faith. Millions of Christians are dying for their faith.
I mentioned earlier about the ice, right? Making people walk out barefooted on ice. That really happened. A group of Christians, there was a lake that had frozen over. They made a walk out on ice. And the story goes that one of them could not take it.
I don't know about you, I got tender feet. That's like the worst thing that you could do to me is to make me do something like that. I probably couldn't walk on this floor barefooted. That's my wife. Like, I don't walk anywhere barefoot.
My feet are tender. They made a walk out on ice barefooted. One of them gave it up. He says, that's it, I renounce Christ. He comes walking off of the ice. Next thing you know, one of the men who made him walk on the ice took his shoes off and took his place.
Took his place. He saw hundreds of people willing to be on the ice for the cause of Christ. And I pray that don't ever happen to me. If you say crucifixion or walk on ice barefooted, I'm choosing the cross every time.
But we should expect persecution. However, we should also, when we read this verse, we also see that some will keep the word, some kept the word of Christ and some would keep the word of his disciples.
The word here, keep, is to believe, to believe. The disciples are evidence of this and as well as other people that during the ministry of Jesus, people believed. And in the book of Acts and in church history attest to this, that people were saved by keeping, by believing the word proclaimed by the disciples.
And you too, those of you who are Christians who are here today, you are evidence of someone's fruitful ministry. Someone who proclaimed to you the gospel and you kept their word, you believed that word, you believed the gospel.
Disciples of Jesus today, you and I should expect persecution, yes. But we should also expect people to keep, to believe as we proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said, I've never had anyone believe.
Do you preach?
Do you witness to people? Do you tell people about Christ? I can tell you how you will not have fruit, by zipping it. We're to bear fruit. Being a witness is a command of God. And if we love him, we will keep his commandments.
Now, just because we're not seeing persecution in America, doesn't mean persecution isn't happening in America. I definitely believe that we as individuals experience small scales of persecution. However, the church just went through a time of persecution.
When our government tells the church that they cannot gather to meet, my dear friends, that is persecution. That's the world reaching out, showing its hatred for God's people. You say, well, it wasn't just God's people.
Well, sometimes the hate for the church can interrupt other people's lives as well. Listen, if God says, do not forsake the gathering of the assembled, doesn't matter what anyone else does, we're not to forsake the gathering of the assembled.
We're not. I don't care if people are falling over dead. We're not to forsake the gathering of the assembled. For someone to say that we have to do that, that's persecution. They're making you not keep the commandment of God.
You cannot show the fruits of the spirit to those whom you say that you love if you're not gathering. Cannot do it. So anytime that we're told we cannot gather, that's persecution against the church. And the world's hate for us can touch other people.
Secular businesses can close down because of the world's hate for the church. And we saw through this, a purge take place in the church. Right? How many people do you know that was a part of a church that's no longer a part of a church because of this purge?
Oh, I can just do church on the couch, watch it live stream. No, you can't display the fruits of the spirit. You can't love them. You can't abide in Christ by doing so. In verse 21, we will see that they do this because they do not know God.
Look at verse 21 of our chapter, if I get there. Jesus says, but all these things, some of these persecutions, they will do to you on account of my name because they do not know him who sent me. Now, everyone knows that God exists.
Amen? However, the rejection of Jesus, by the rejection of Jesus, through the rejection of Jesus, however you want to state that, they show that they don't know him personally. You can know God exists and not know God personally.
You can only know God personally through Jesus Christ. That goes for the Jew as well as the Gentile. To know the father is to know the son. Point number two. Well, to know the father is to know the son and to know the father is to be a slave of Jesus and you to be the friend of Jesus.
Point number two, hatred. It'll start to pick up speed in that now. Hatred is taken from verses 22 through 25, but let's begin by reading 22 through 23. Jesus says in verse 22, if I had not come and spoke 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. The religious Jews with their tedious law-keeping did not see themselves as sinners. My dear friends, Christ came to save sinners, right? I just preached that a couple of days ago.
Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners. He did not come for the righteous, but to call sinners to repentance. Through their tedious law-keeping, they did not see themselves as sinners, so they would not submit to Christ.
Nor did some of the common Jews. They did not know they were sinners because they had the sacrificial system. And in the sacrificial system, they had priests who presided over them, sometimes daily and monthly and yearly, offering up animal sacrifices that would cover up their sins.
And I would argue that when Jesus was baptized, he done so to fulfill all righteousness, meaning that at that moment, he had already lived the life that they could not live. He had already kept the covenant.
And therefore, because that is true, from that moment until 70 AD, that law system, that covenant began to fade away. It began to disappear. And beginning with the ministry of Jesus, the Jews should have turned from trusting in Moses.
They should have turned from trusting in the law and began to trust in Christ. Moses even told them.
He said,.
Warn his coming like me from among you. And when he does, listen to him. Put your trust in him.
That's what that means.
Trust him.
And yet we see in the book of John,.
Oh, we have Moses.
We have Moses.
My dear friend, you have nothing.
He kept Moses.
It's coming to an end.
We are to look to him.
Moses warned them.
We have already seen in Romans chapter nine that their pursuit of the law, in their pursuit of the law, they did not pursue it by faith. And therefore they were condemned. They did not keep the law, looking to God, looking to this Messiah figure who was to come in faith.
They pursued the law as if it depended upon their own righteousness, upon their own law keeping. Remember what Paul said in Galatians. Galatians chapter two, verse 21. Our first Lord's day here is what I preached.
Paul said, I do not nullify. This word here, nullify means to do away with, to put it away,.
To put it on the back burner.
I do not nullify the grace of God for if righteousness, meaning law keeping, if law keeping were through the law, if righteousness, me being right with God was through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
We're not saved by keeping the law. And in Galatians three, and in Romans nine, Paul tells us that the law was only until Christ and that Christ was the end of the law concerning righteousness. The gospel of John has been about believing in Jesus Christ, believing and loving.
That's what the whole law comes down to, about believing and loving. And if you do not believe in Christ, you paint the father. Turn back a couple, a few chapters to John chapter eight. John chapter eight, look at verse 43.
Jesus here, he is speaking. He is speaking with those who reject him. He came as he says, I am the light of the world. He says, I am God. Those who do not follow me walk in darkness. Verse 43, Jesus says, why do you not understand what I say?
It is because you cannot bear to hear my words. You are of your father, the devil. He's speaking to the religious Jews who claim to know God. He says, your father is the devil. You guys are just a den of snakes.
You're sons of the serpent. And your will is to do your father's desire for he was a murderer from the beginning. And he does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character for he is a liar and the father of lies.
But because I tell you the truth, you do not believe me. Which one of you convinced me of sin? If I tell you the truth, why do you not believe me? Whoever is of God, listen, whoever is of God, hears the words of God.
The reason why you do not hear them is because you're not of God. That goes for those religious Jews and it goes for you too if you do not hear the word of God. Your father is the devil. So Jeff, that's hard.
I get it. You don't think I haven't been sweating over this text? Turn with me to 1 John chapter two.
Jesus isn't playing.
When I warned y 'all last week that this section of scripture was gonna be tough. Look at verses 22 and 23. John, the same author of the gospel says, who is the liar? Remember, Jesus mentioned to them that the devil is the liar and he's the father of lies.
Says who is the liar but he who denies that Jesus is the Christ. This is the antichrist. He who denies the father and the son. No one who denies the son has the father and whoever confesses the son also has the father also.
I'll go back to our chapter verse 24. Jesus says, if I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin. But now that they have seen and hated both me and my father, this Greek word here for works is ergon.
Point that out because this is not talking about miraculous signs. I've heard this preached 10 times and all 10 times they spoke about it being the miraculous signs that Jesus performed throughout this gospel.
Every time in the gospel where it talks about Jesus doing a sign, it called it a sign. It never used the word works. It never called it a miracle. It used the word sign. I believe that Jesus is talking about his act of obedience.
The work here is his act of obedience. Him keeping the law. Here's why, the word ergon means to toil as an effort or an occupation. By implication, it is an act or a deed. It's something that you do. It means to labor in working.
It has that understanding of keeping the law. Ergon, keeping the law, you're doing something. This is the same word used in Ephesians when it says that we are not saved, meaning by works of the law. Ephesians 2, verses eight and nine says this, for by grace you have been saved through faith.
How are you saved? Faith, pistis. By grace you have been saved through faith. And this, the faith here, is not of your own doing. The grace and faith that saves you is not of your own doing. It is the gift of God.
Right here, speaking of means. It's not a result of works. Ergon, it's not a result of your labor. It's not a result of you doing something. You're saved by grace through faith, and it is the gift of God.
It is not a result of works so that no one may boast. The works that no one else could do, meaning keep the covenant. He says he'd done what no one else did. He kept the covenant. He lived the life that you and I could not live, because we're sinners.
And if he had not kept the covenant, meaning that he had not lived that life, he had not put it into the old covenant system, they would not be guilty of sin, at least have the knowledge of sin. Judaism as a house of cards came falling down in 70 AD.
What they had as a way to keep the law, they no longer have. They had to make up something else. This is what's called rabbinical Judaism. It's not the same. No longer do they have a sacrificial system.
Everything that they had as a system came falling down. But now that he has kept the covenant, they hate him, therefore they hate his father. Look at verse 25. But the word that was written in the law must be fulfilled.
They hated me without cause. Now this is taken from Psalm 69 verse four. I'm just gonna read it real quick. Psalm 69 verse four, which is a messianic Psalm. And Jesus here is quoting it, and he's referring it to those Jews of his time, his brothers, his own brothers, according to the flesh.
Verse four of Psalm 69 says, more in number than the hairs of my head. This was David speaking. Christ applies it to himself, because this is a messianic Psalm. More in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without cause.
They hated him without a cause. He did nothing wrong. He did not break the law. He kept the law. Why? Why did they hate him? Remember John chapter seven, verse seven, because he testified about their works, that they were evil.
And when you and I are hated, it's because we will testify about its works. And why would we do that? Because we were chosen by God. Look back at verse 19 of our text. Towards the end, it says, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Chose us for what? To testify to the world that its works are evil. And in our last message, I pointed out that we're going to see how this refers to us in our lives. And that's where point number three takes us.
Point number three, we see verses 26 to 27. And I want to remind you as I read this, remember the direct and indirect interpretation. Verse 26 and 27. But when the helper comes, he will send to you from the father, the spirit of truth, who proceeds from the father, he will bear witness about me.
So you have the spirit is going to bear witness to them about him, verse 27. And you also will bear witness because you have been with me from the beginning. Remember direct and indirect interpretation.
Jesus is speaking to his disciples. Ladies and gentlemen, are you disciples of Jesus? Are you followers of Jesus Christ? Are you his? He's speaking to you. Just like the disciples then when the Holy Spirit teaches us about Christ.
First John tells us he's our teacher. We are to go out and teach others about Christ. That's what we're supposed to do. When the Holy Spirit teaches us, we are to teach others, just like the disciples did.
And in order to anticipate persecution, we must be hated for our witness. We make it simple. No proclamation equals no hatred. No hatred equals no persecution.
So I say that again.
No proclamation equals no hatred. You don't want to be hated. Don't proclaim Christ. It's that simple. No proclamation equals no hatred. No hatred equals no persecution. And that means that you, and that means we, you and I are to testify.
We want to anticipate persecution, which we should. We are to testify about the world and how its works are evil. You say, well, how do I do that? Well, there is no gospel. There is no good news outside of the bad news.
The world around us has to know that they have broken God's law. God's law, it should be used as a mirror. You don't use God's law to say, oh, I'm checking off the box. I'm doing so good.
Look how good I'm doing.
I'm going to go to heaven for keeping this law. No, you should look at that law and say,.
Oh, I'm sinful, I'm sinful.
And then you should show other people, look how sinful you are. You broke God's law.
You're a liar.
You're a thief.
You're an adulterer.
You're a murderer.
You have broken God's law. And because you have broken God's law, God is going to judge you as a criminal. And he's going to sentence you to hell. We have to warn people about their evil deeds, but not just leave it at that.
And then we tell people, but God, God sent his son and he kept the covenant. He kept the law. He lived the life that we could not live. And after he lived the life that we could not live, he took the punishment that we deserve for breaking his law on that cross.
He was buried.
And on the third day, he rose again,.
Proving that he was who he said that he was, and that is God. He is God.
He says that he is the light of the world, that whoever follows him will not walk in darkness. In order to not walk in darkness is to follow Jesus Christ. And we are to proclaim this to our world that we're in, that his deeds are evil by using the law of God as the first use of the law, and then giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Yes, you screwed up, but guess what God has done for us?
He sent his son.
And then through that message, we pray that as we preach the Holy Spirit, we'll apply the purpose, and that he will remove them from this world as well. To witness is a command that we are to keep. Do you love Jesus?
If you do, you will keep his commandments.
Do you know Jesus?
If you do, are you keeping his commandments? We are available to anyone who wants to talk after the service. If you need anything from us, please come and talk with us. Right now, we're going to go through to a special time that we don't get to do often, but we have done quite a bit, right?
I want to ask Jake to come up here. Most of you probably don't know this, but Jake is in seminary. And Jake, through his seminary, I have been, he's under a mentorship. And so a part of him being in the seminary under this mentorship, Jake is to do ministerial work.
And today, Jake's daughter is going to be baptized. And what better way to begin a ministerial work than for him to baptize his daughter?