Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Tuesday, September 28,

Doxology Praise God, from whom all blessings flow; Praise Him, all creatures here below; Praise Him above, ye heavenly host; Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.— Amen.

Memory Verse Phil 2:5, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus.”

John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production

Reason #1: Verse 18, Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer!

John 15:18b, The “then” statement:

GINOSKO – Pres., Act., Ind. or Imper., 2 nd P., P. “Come to know, recognize, or perceive.” As Imper. = “Be very certain, or remember.”

“Keep on understanding this point of doctrine and retain it.”

MISEO Perf., Act., Ind., 3 rd P. S. = “It has hated and continues to hate.”

Those of Satan’s Cosmic System hated Jesus Christ in the past with the result that He and the believer are hated today.

John 15:18, “If the world (Satan’s Cosmic System) hates you all (and it does), then you all keep on knowing (remembering), that it (Satan’s Cosmic System) has hated and still hates Me before (it hated) you all.”

Mat 10:22, “You will be hated by all because of My name.”

Mat 24:9, “Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name.”

John 7:7, “The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it, that its deeds are evil.”

Luke 6:22, “Blessed are you when men hate you, and ostracize you, and insult you, and scorn your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man.”

Comparing Mat 5:10-12 with 43-48, even though we are hated, we are to love our neighbor.

Principles:

1. Christ was the target in the Angelic Conflict before the Church Age began. It hated Christ from Genesis 3:15 until His resurrection, ascension and session.

2. Now Christ is gone and every believer is still on the earth in the intensified stage of the Angelic Conflict, and we are targets as well.

There never will be a time when you are not a target of cosmic hatred.

3. This targeting occurs directly in the form of gossip, maligning, slander, ostracization, etc., or even physical attacks.

Yet it also occurs indirectly as part of Satan’s propaganda machine of bombardment of cosmic viewpoint.

4. The positive believer is a target for intense hatred and it is not just people hating you, it is a system that hates you; a type of thought.

5. That system includes religionism, legalism, one worldism, utopianism, etc., and it despises you.

6. The first reason the Cosmic System hates the positive believer is because it hates Christ and we are related to Him.

a. You are a “son / child of God”. Mat 5:9; Luke 20:36; John 1:1-13; Rom 8:14, 16, 19, 21; Gal 3:26; Phil 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2, 10

Gal 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”

1 John 3:10, “By this the children of God and the children of the devil are obvious: anyone who does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor the one who does not love his brother.”

b. You are “in Christ”. Rom 6:11; 8:1; 12:5; 1 Cor 1:30; 2 Cor 5:17-19; Gal 3:28

1 Cor 1:30, “But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctifi- cation, and redemption.”

7. Jesus prepared the disciples for their hostile reception by the world, as we too are prepared.

Grace Fellowship Church Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Tape # Obstructions to Divine Good Production, Part 2 KOSMOS Hatred, Part 2 Upper Room Discourse, Part 421 John 15:18; Mat 5:10-12; 43-48; 10:22; Luke 6:22 Grace Fellowship Church Tuesday, September 28, 2010 Tape # Obstructions to Divine Good Production, Part 2 KOSMOS Hatred, Part 2 Upper Room Discourse, Part 421 John 15:18; Mat 5:10-12; 43-48; 10:22; Luke 6:22 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2010