Grace Fellowship Church Pastor/Teacher Jim Rickard Sunday, October 24,
John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer!
John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World! John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World!
John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World! Reason #3: “The servant is not greater than his Lord,” therefore we too will have persecutions! John 15:18-21 Obstructions to Divine Good Production: Reason #1: Satan’s Cosmic System hates the believer! Reason #2: We are not of this world-Election out from the World! Reason #3: “The servant is not greater than his Lord,” therefore we too will have persecutions!
Reason #3: Verse 20, Persecution
The parable of servants and son persecuted in Luke 20:9-18 elucidates our passage.
Principles: 1. The world responds to God’s messengers of the Church Age as it responded to Christ Himself, John 15:21.
2. We should not expect a lost world, with motives that are corrupt and ungodly, to gladly embrace Christ or Christian beliefs and standards.
3. Those of the Cosmic System are not only unable to see the light, but are also hostile and resentful to any hint that their ways lie under the judgment of God.
4. In the warning, our Lord never tells us to fight back or right the wrongs of the Cosmos.
5. Yet, Christians who live by Christ’s teachings, and share the message of Christ, stand against the world. Eph 6:10-18
6. On the other hand, those who imagine that the Gospel will one day usher in utopia, fail to realize that humanity lingers in a dark world of illusion and sin.
7. It is sometimes hard to grasp the reason for the open hostility of the world to Christians who seek to live by and who openly affirm God’s standards.
7. It is sometimes hard to grasp the reason for the open hostility of the world to Christians who seek to live by and who openly affirm God’s standards. Jesus gives us two reasons: Luke 20:19-20
a. “They do not know the One (God the Father) who sent Me”, John 15:21.
b. In His incarnation, Jesus revealed righteousness and thus rebuked sin, John 15:22.
8. “If they kept My Word” Some of those in the Cosmic System will accept the Gospel of Christ, yet most will not.
Of those that do not, it suggests they lack an adequate concept of God, His grace and love.
9. With a distorted view of God, the world has no way to correctly judge the messengers of God or the message.
10. The problem is not simply conceptual; it is moral too. In Jesus’ incarnation and through His Word the world has been given a clear vision of righteousness.
11. Measured against the standard of Jesus’ perfect life and Word, every excuse and false pride is stripped away, and the world stands guilty before God, Rev 21:11-15.
12. It is that guilt, (that they consciously know and try to run away from), that makes the world so hostile toward Christ and Christians.
13. It is the moral message implicit in the name of Christ, along with the deficiency of not being able to comprehend the grace and love of God, which convicts the sinner and arouses hatred from them.
14. That moral message, coupled with His grace and love, exposes every human being as guilty of sin and in need of a savior.
It is that which people do not want to face; so instead they are antagonistic towards its message and messengers, Luke 20:19-20.
Grace Offering
Grace Fellowship Church Sunday, October 24, 2010 Tape # Obstructions to Divine Good Production, Part 11 Persecution, Part 2 Upper Room Discourse, Part 430 John 15:20; 16:33; Mat 5:10-12; 10:24-25; 2 Cor 4:7-10 James H. Rickard Bible Ministries 2010