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Book: John
 Print ( PC Only )
John 15:18
I. "If the world hate you."
A. Jesus had earlier said to His disciples, "In this world you
will have tribulation." Jn. 16:33
1. Satan is in control of the world, he is called the god
of this age, and Satan hates God.
2. Because you are of God, Satan hates you.
3. He hates righteousness, and all that is good.
4. Satan desires to destroy God, as God's child, he would
like to destroy you.
B. Why would the world hate you?
1. Because you are not of this world.
a. There is something perverse in human nature
that seeks to pick on or bully the who is
different.
b. We see it manifested in little children on the
playground.
c. If there is someone who is timid or weak or a
misfit, the children will often pick on them
unmercifully.
d. I can remember children calling others four
eyes who had to wear glasses.
e. You are a misfit in this world, at least I hope
you are.
f. If you are comfortable or feel at home in this
world I think that you should carefully examine
your relationship with the Lord.
g. Jesus said, I am not of this world, and later
as He was praying He said, "I have given them
Your word and the world hated them because they
are not of this world even as I am not of this
world.
h. We read of Lot, whose righteous spirit was
vexed by the way people were living around him.
2. Because they identify you with Jesus, and they hate
Jesus.
C. Why did they hate Jesus?
1. Because of the things that He said to them.
a. He exposed their hypocrisy.
b. He took the mask off of their sin.
c. He condemned the things they loved, the earthly
sensual things.
d. He declared the path to true happiness was
through self denial, not self indulgence.
2. Because they really hated the Father.
a. "He that hates Me, hates My Father also."
b. "They hate both Me and My Father."
c. A heart or life that is in league with Satan is
at war with God.
d. Jesus represented the Father both in the words
He said, and in the works He did.
e. In giving to them the words of the Father, and
doing among them the works of the Father, it
stirred up their ungodly wrath against Him.
3. Prior to the coming of Jesus, they might have pleaded
innocent by reason of ignorance.
4. Now that they have heard the word of God, and have seen
the work of God, there is no more excuse for their
ungodly life styles.
5. Exposed as sinners, and rank hypocrites, they hate the
light that has exposed them, and they seek to
extinguish the light.
6. Hence their endeavor on many occasions to kill Jesus.
7. Now you are standing before them in Jesus' stead, and
you declare to them the word of God and you manifest to
them the work of God and as they hated Him they will
also hate you. As they sought to destroy Him they will
seek also to destroy you.
II. "If you were of this world, the world would love its own."
A. If you will approve the ungodly speech, and actions of the
wicked they will love you, you will be hailed as a wonderful
person.
1. If you consent and go along to the parties where they
are boozing it up, and sexually stimulating one
another, you will be welcomed.
2. If you will laugh at their filthy jokes, and their
suggestive innuendoes, and share a few of your own, you
will be accepted and loved.
a. James said, "You adulterers and adulteresses,
know ye not that friendship with the world is
enmity with God? And whoever is a friend of the
world, is an enemy of God."
b. You must choose between being a friend of the
world, or the friend of God.
B. I was thinking of how the world loves a fight.
1. The public will pay millions of dollars to see two men
get into a small ring and seek to pound the other into
senselessness.
2. Men breed and train dogs to fight in a bull pit.
3. Men breed cocks to tear other cocks to shreds.
4. You may be at an exciting point in a game and
a fight breaks out among the spectators, and all of the
attention is immediately diverted to the fight in the
stands.
5. Jesus came speaking peace and they hated Him.
6. If you are a brawler the world will love you, but if
you seek to break up a fight, the world will jeer you.
III. "Because I have chosen you out of this world."
A. Earlier in the same chapter Jesus had said to them, "You have
not chosen Me, but I have chosen you and ordained that you
should be My disciples."
1. Now He is declaring that He has chosen them out of this
world.
2. Peter said that He has called us out of darkness into
His marvelous light.
3. I am not to love the world or the things that are in
the world, for he that has the love of the world in his
heart has not the love of the Father. He has chosen me
out of this world.
4. The Psalmist said, "He has taken me out of the horrible
pit, out of the miry clay, and has established my
goings."
B. I am so glad that He has chosen me out of this world.
1. I have found that the closer I walk to Jesus, the more
I hate the world.
2. Living in this world has almost become unbearable, and
if it were not for the other Christians and the
Christian influence in the world, it would be
unbearable.
3. Some corrupted evil soul stole a car right out of the
parking lot today as the mother was delivering her
small child to their class.
4. Lawlessness grows daily, and the government which is
supposed to fight against evil only aids and abets it
with new laws to protect the guilty.
5. This past week our state legislature which is supposed
to represent us, voted special rights for s
and s, saying that you cannot
discriminate against them in housing or jobs. This law
was signed by our governor who cowardly bowed to the
pressure of the strong community who have
been seeking these special privileges for many years.
I favor equal rights, but special rights is idiocy. So
much for elected officials. And so much for this
corrupt world.
IV. "The Servant is not greater than his Lord."
A. I think in the realm of prayer how so many people think that
they can get by successfully without it, when our Lord saw such
a great need for it in His own personal life.
1. To me, one of the greatest arguments for the necessity
for prayer is that Jesus prayed.
2. The servant is not greater than His Lord.
B. This of course was said in context of that attitude that the
world had toward Him of hatred.
1. If they hated Him your Lord, they will hate you, His
servant.
2. If the world would not listen to Him, they will not
listen to you.
3. Then why should we even waste our time an energy trying
to reach the world.
4. For even as there were those in His days who were sick
of the world and thirsting for something better, so are
there those today waiting to hear the message of God's
love and better life for them, if they will but just
call upon Him.
5. But how can they call upon Him of whom they have never
heard? And how can they hear unless someone tells
them?
C. Jesus was not successful in turning the world system to
righteousness and neither will we be, the servant is not
greater than his Lord.
1. If the world rejected Him, it will reject you.
2. If the world hated Him the world will hate you.
3. If the world persecuted Him the world will persecute
you.
4. If the world kept My saying, they will keep yours.
a. Some have a difficulty here thinking that this
is perhaps contradictory.
b. Jesus said, "If they kept My saying." Obviously
they did not keep His sayings, for the
crucified Him and they will not keep your
sayings either. They will not heed your words
anymore than heeded the words of Jesus.
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