If you'll turn in your copy of God's Word to John chapter 15. John chapter 15 verses 17 through 25. The title of this message is Hated by the World. Hated by the World. beginning in verse 17. These things I command you, so that you will love one another. 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, 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 pretext, no excuse, no pretext 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." Many of you, and myself included, are familiar with Pilgrim's Progress. I read that book at least once every year. Many of you have read it. We've done studies on it. I remind you of a scene. I want to read a couple of clips out of that scene. I won't belabor the point too long, but after Christian leaves the interpreter's house, After he goes to the Palace Beautiful, you see that is the church, he goes out into the world, if you will. That's the imagery that's being presented. He's had these things revealed to him, he's been ministered to, he's had communion, and now it's Monday morning and he's off into the world. That's his journey. Well, then this is what is pictured. He meets one by the name of Apollyon, and they engage in battle. Welcome to Christianity. The battle starts as soon as we exit the building, if you will. Now, in this battle, a Christian is facing the world, and he realizes something. He has no armor on his back. So to turn and run from the opposition is sure defeat because he'll just be hit in the back. So he presses forward because that's where the armor is, is on the front side. He meets Apollyon and the battle commences. Christian tells him, he tells Apollyon, your service is hard and your wages no one can live on because your wages only lead to death. Apollyon tells him, look dude, he didn't say dude, but look dude, many have left my service and found it was hard to walk the way you're going and they returned to me after a short time of hardship. He'd come into the church, he'd get on this path, oh it's hard, this is difficult, and he'd go back to the world. That's what's pictured. Christian says to Apollyon, well here's the difference. I love my new master. I love his service. I love his wages, I love his servants, I love his government, I love his company, and I love his country better than yours, right? Apollyon says, that he will not lose his subjects lightly, but since Christian complains about the service and the wages, be content and go back with me what our country will afford. I do here promise to give it to you." If you just come back to the world, Apollyon says, I promise to give you what I can. That's the battle. Polyaun tells Christian, he's like, by the way, dude, you're a failure. You've been a bad servant. Polyaun goes on to say this about the Lord, and this is the part I want you to hear. Polyaun says this about the Lord, quote, I hate his person, I hate his laws, and I hate his people. So the devil, the world, represented here in this story by John Bunyan, he says, look, I hate God. I hate everything about Christ and I hate all of his followers. So they then engage in a battle. It said of this battle, quote, "'In this combat no man can imagine, unless he had seen and heard as I did, what yelling and hideous roaring Apollyon made all the time of the fight. He spoke like a dragon, and on the other side what sighs and groans burst from Christian's heart.'" You know when the battle came to an end? when Christian took out a two-edged sword and pierced him. He used the Word of God to win the battle that day. This imagery of the world of Apollyon and the devil, this imagery is literally what we face daily as Christians. This world is not my home anymore. We don't fit. There's not a welcoming here. The Lord of Glory gives you a simple, straightforward truth. The world at large out there, the world, make no mistake about it, it's not my words, it's Jesus' words. He says, the world hates God. The world hates Jesus. And the world hates you. Problem already surfacing right now. How is it that you're so accepted in the world? And you say, I don't see the tension. If there's no tension in your Christianity in that world, there's some questions that need to be asked about your Christianity. The thesis for this message is simple. A true disciple of Christ must necessarily separate from the world. And as a result, he will experience opposition. So what's gonna happen? All right, our text, verse 17 is where we shall begin. Point number one, the purpose of Jesus's words. Now if you look there in verse 17, these things I command, Christ is the one that's commanding them, the 11 that are there at the farewell discourse, and he's commanding them in 17 to love one another. But let me remind you briefly of the words spoken thus far. If you remember back in verse 3 of this chapter, John 15 verse 3, and in verse 3 he said, already you are clean. purified because of the word that I have spoken to you." Jesus' spoken word in the life of a disciple purifies, cleanses. Maybe like in Ephesians, the husband is to wash his wife in the water of the word. You want your wife to be pure and godly? Then you're going to have to invest the word in her. Because why? There's a purifying force, if you will, purifying power to the word of God. Jesus' words have the effect of purifying us. What do you think we're here today? I need some purifying. I need some cleansing. I'm not sinless. I'm not perfect. I need a word from God. I've been out there all week and there's a lot of corruption out there and some of it gets in me. I need to come to church that the word of God would be spoken to cleanse me and remind me who I am and whose I am. By the way, it's coming in John 17, 17. Sanctify them by the truth. Thy word, that's King James, thy word is truth. I don't want to belabor it, but I'll say it again. Why do you think I keep telling you to memorize scripture? Why do you think we do scripture readings every Sunday, every Wednesday, every night of Easter? Why are we doing this? It's the only way you can be purified. You can't get pure outside of contact and relationship with the Word of God. Do you church believe this is the most valuable thing you can invest in in all of your life? Then stop playing with the world. Stop it. It's going to corrupt you. You want to be holy? You want to be godly? You'll have to be here. It's the only way. Verse 11, the words he spoke in verse 11, he said, these things I spoke to you. Why? That my joy, that joy, my joy would be in you. And that your joy, it'd be full. Look, I hope you will be persecuted by the world because of an overflow of joy out of your heart. There's a great difference between persecution for joy and persecution because you're a jerk. We don't need any more jerk Christians. We need joy-filled believers who are persecuted just because they love Christ. And then our verse 17, these words he has spoken here in John 15, 17. And he says so in this verse that these words he's speaking have a purpose. And the purpose is that you would love one another. You remember in John 15.10, same chapter, if you keep my commandments, you'll abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in His love. John 15.12, this is my commandment, that you love one another. How are we going to do that? Just like Christ loved us. These are the words, the farewell discourse to the disciples. Application is clear and simple. You should read the Word of God every day. Every day, read God's Word. Get up, open the book, and get something true that you can meditate upon. You should do it for your own purity. You should do it for your own joy. You should do it to stir your love for the brethren. God's word causes me to love you more. Second point of application, you should regularly put yourself in a position to hear the Word of God taught and preached for your own purity, your own joy, and the necessity of being stirred to love your brothers. Everything in the world will be absolutely canceled when it comes to time for the preaching of God's Word because that's what I need. That's the priority. A picture of the world, this is verses 18 and 19 and verse 23, pulling it up and putting it up with verses 18 and 19. You see the text there and here's what you're going to find and we must deal with it just briefly a little bit, is this word hate. Meseo is the Greek verb for hate. Now this is interesting because a lot of people call the Apostle John the Apostle of Love. You ever heard that term, he's the Apostle of Love? Well, it is interesting to me that the word hate is used 40 times in the New Testament. And over half of those are used by the Apostle of Love. I find that interesting, and I find it interesting that out of the over 20 times John uses it, he uses it 7 times in our passage. If you have the word hate 7 times in one passage, I think you ought to at least make a comment about it. I think that would be good exposition to deal with a main verb that keeps being repeated 7 times. Now, let me give you a definition because there's these wacko, pathetic preachers out there somewhere, not naming any names, but they say something like this. When you come to Romans and it says, Jacob have I loved and Esau have I loved less. Okay, let me get a definition of the word before we use this phrase loved less. The word to hate means to have a strong aversion to, to detest. Let me give it to you another way. It connotes not only antipathy toward certain actions, but also a permanent and deep-seated human hostility toward other people or even the deity. What are we saying here? The world is in active 100% opposition to God. and to Christ and to you. Why are you saying this? Because it's what Jesus is telling them. This is the world's position. We hate God. We hate Jesus and we hate his followers. We hate the church. That's what Jesus says is the world's position. Now pray tell me this. Churches spend their whole life trying to get the world to feel welcome in here. Now, exactly how are we going to pull that off? How am I going to make a world who hates God welcome in a church who loves God? Without conversion, the lost man should never be comfortable in the house of God. God is exalted, Christ is proclaimed, and the church is beautiful, and the lost guy is supposed to be happy? No, it's everything he hates. Unless conversion hits his heart, he'll never love what you love, he'll never worship what you worship, and he'll never honor what you honor. There must be a heart change. Now, in our text, verses 18 and 19 and 23, questions. Who is it that is doing the hating? I just want to be clear. I don't want to be confusing. Who's doing the hating? The world is doing the hating. Now, we'll pause again. Sometimes when you hear the word hate, you think it means a guy picked up a billy club and beat you over the head with it. He hated him. He's this violent external force. Don't get confused between that and the disposition of one's heart. There is behemoth hatred from the world, from their heart, even if they never strike you, spit upon you, or throw you in jail. But in their heart, they're like, I can't stand you. And I can't stand your God. And I can't stand your gospel. And I don't know where you get off being so righteous. That in their heart is the evidence of hatred. Now, again, because people want to use this word cosmos, world, to mean every individual out there, again, here, it doesn't mean that. The world is not every person on the globe, but the world is made up in this context of those who are outside of Christ. I'm not a part of the world. The world hates God. I'm not a part of the world that hates God. I've been called out of that world, and I've been given a new location, a new identity. The world here is made up of those rejecting the gospel. They're in rebellion to the gospel. Make no mistake about it. No matter if they smile or give you the courtesy laugh, they hate your God, they hate your Savior, and they hate the church. Why, verse 19, why do they hate? Why is that? They hate because, get this, this is so basic, they hate because you will not join them. You won't be on the same page with them. You won't get along and harmonize with them. And so by your abstaining from their actions, it bothers their conscience and your actions irritate them. Because you won't condone what they're doing. So the cause of this hatred is a not joining of them. And, we could say it this way, they hate because your godly actions are an exposure to their evil deeds. When you won't participate and you say, that is sin, oh now their evil has been brought forward and they hate you for bringing it up. As Jesus said in John chapter seven, verse seven, the world hates me because I testify to it that their works are evil. Now, who is it that the world hates? Verse 23, you'll see it there in your text, hates me, hates my father also. By implications of the whole text, obviously Christians who follow Christ. So, who is it the world hates? The world hates God, the world hates Jesus, the world hates you, the follower of Christ. I just don't know why everybody just can't get along with me. It's an impossibility. I don't know why everybody at work doesn't like me. They can't like you if they're of the world in the sense that you can be in harmony. I don't understand why more people won't do stuff with me. They don't want to be with you because when you live out Christianity, it's an exposure of their own evil heart and they don't want it. They would much rather be with somebody like them. Give me a godless pastor, the world says, and we'll be happy with him. We'll fill the church to the magnitude if the preacher doesn't bring any conviction in his preaching or in his living. And they're happy to have it so. Who does the world love? The opposite question. If they hate, do they love? Who do they love? Well, verse 19, the world loves its own. The world loves people who dress like them. The world loves people that talk like them. The world loves people who buy the same things they buy. The world loves those who put priorities on what they deem as important. and those who make them feel good in their depravity. That's who the world loves. If you can make a sinner feel good in their sin, they will love you. All those years, I used to go to the Honky Tonk Woman. It's closed down now. I had a lot of friends down there, in a sense, friends, if you will. He's like, who did they love? They loved each other. This is a weird thing. You go in there, everybody buys each other a beer, they spot each other in the back, somebody dies, they take up food, they love each other. They love their own. Now they put up with me, but they didn't love me. And you say the right words, we went from friendly to fight real quick because there's an exposure in the room. They love their own. Now, under application, I'll say it slowly, the list could be longer. I'm not talking about putting your head in a guillotine. I'm not talking about being burned at the stake. I'm not talking about being drowned in the Danube River. I'm talking about what you and I deal with every week if you live out Christianity. I'm not going to give you a fairytale world in the past where people were literally being martyred. There's some today in our world, but I'm talking about the world you live in. I'm talking about the world I live in, Azel, Texas, if you will. How is it that we experience hatred in Azel, Texas? What provokes people to hate you? Now, this is a whole sermon in and of itself, and I certainly don't have time to pursue it, but if you'll turn in your Bible to 1 Peter. I just want to read it, I'm going to try to just read it and move on, because if I stay here, we'll be here all day. But in 1 Peter 4, I do want to remind you of this, and I want to make one application of what provokes people to hate the Christian. 1 Peter 4, verse 1, since therefore Christ suffered in the flesh, arm yourself with the same way of thinking. For whoever has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin. Interpretation. The more you die to the flesh, the less that sin will reign in your life. Verse 2, so as to live for the rest of the time in the flesh, no longer for human passions, but for the will of God. Is everybody listening? The rest of the time you have on this earth, live it for the will of God and not for human passions. Verse 3, for the time that has passed, everything previous to this point, it's been sufficient. The time that has passed is sufficient for doing what the Gentiles want to do. Then he says, this is what they want to do. This is what the world wants to do. They want to live in sensuality. Have you seen that? World insensuality, anybody? Okay. Passions, passions for the flesh, passions for the self. You ever watch TV in your life? You've seen, you ever gone outside, right? Then, not only that, drunkenness. You don't have to look far for that, do you? Orgies, drinking parties. You want the Greek word for drinking parties? A social gathering where wine is served. Look it up in any lexicon. A social gathering and they have wine, have an occasional drink. That's what Gentiles do. That's what pagan worldly people do. Lawless idolatry. Now watch verse four. This is the point. With respect to this, that list, They are surprised. How come you won't join me? Why won't you join with me? I don't understand. Why won't you participate in the same flood of debauchery? Then look what the text says. Because you won't join and participate and be like them, they malign you. He's thinking Jeff's so heavenly minded he's no earthly good. He thinks he's better than everybody else. That's what they say. Because you won't participate and join in their debauchery, you've become a testimony against their ungodliness and they malign you. And I assure you, when you leave the room, they talk behind your back. and they gossip, and they slander, and they say stuff like, oh, he's a winebibber and he hangs out with drunkards. What do they say about Christ, right? They say things like that because the Christian life is an exposure to their wickedness. Here's how it happens on the real scale of Azel, Texas. You don't join the conversation at work. You start talking about this, and you won't participate in the conversation. They know you don't. They see you walk away. They see you unwilling to engage, and they're like, what, you don't want to talk with us? Not about that. What do you mean, you don't think that's funny? I don't think it's funny at all. What you just said is not funny, it's wicked. When you won't participate at the water cooler, you're set to the side. Or here's one, they play music in your store and you say something about the music. Dude, you'll be raked over the coals. Look, I listened to one country song and I got drunk three times, learned how to dance and fell down and lost my girlfriend in my truck in the same song. Look, I'm not listening. Now we're offended. Not joining them in their parties. Here's one, this makes the world so stinking mad. They say, man we've got this hobby, we want you to come run this race, we want you to ride this event, we want you to do this thing. I'm not going because I'll be at church. I go to the store, I'm at Sandy Beach, Saturday morning, winds blowing 40 miles an hour. I go in the store, I get me a drink of water, Johnny knows I have to go to the bathroom. I go to the bathroom, I come back out and the guy says, you riding far? No, the winds blowing so hard I'm just trying to make a go at it and I'm going home. He says, well tomorrow's Sunday and you can get a good ride in. Sir, let me understand something. There ain't going to be no riding on Sunday because that's the Lord's Day, and on the Lord's Day you're supposed to go to church and worship God. Now he don't like me. Why not? Because the testimony was in a contradiction to his heart, and he knew he's not giving God the glory that he's supposed to get. Now there's anger and offense. Here you go. Putting church before hobbies, before worldly priorities makes people mad. Here's one. Be a clueless Christian. You ever been in this conversation? Hey, did you see that movie? I didn't know it was a movie. So-and-so's in it. Who's that? You don't know who that is? No. Do you know who Ebed Melech is? What are you talking about? We're in two different worlds, and they're offended because you don't know the latest thing about the latest movie, the weather. This has become offensive. Is anybody else in this world? You say, did you know there's a storm coming? No. My son goes to church Wednesday night. He got late for work, so he's going to stop at another church. He stops at another church, and nobody shows up on a Wednesday night. Nobody's there. Baptist church. He calls the guy that goes to church. He says, where's everybody at? And my son, my son's dumber than a box of rocks when it comes to information out in the world. He says, why did you cancel? He says, there's a tornado that might come. You've got to see Caleb. Caleb's funny, man. He's just drop dead straightforward. He's like, it might come? He said, do you think your house is better than God's house? Somehow you're going to be safe there? Well, people shouldn't get out. He's like, where am I going to go? What's wrong with you people? He said, you don't know there's a tornado out there? And Caleb's like, I have no idea what's out there. I'm in church and the parking lot's empty. People are mad because you won't keep up with the weather. Try this one. I'm not looking and worried about the stupid weather on my phone because the last time I read Psalm 107, my God was in control of the weather. How many times, he was like, it's going to rain, it's going to rain, and we get not one drop. Trust God instead of your stupid phone. Oh, now people are offended. That's what happens. Politics. What's the lotto prize this week? I have no earthly idea. What's the latest score of the game? I didn't even know they played. Who cares? But when you won't participate, we'll be clueless. The social media, news, sitcoms, current fashions, world music, all these things bring about hatred. If you want to amp it up a bit, speak the gospel. Talk about Christ, glory and good theology. Be happy about the sermon you heard. Talk to people about it. Pass out gospel tracts and pray for people to be converted. When you live that out, find out then if you have any opposition. God says to me and my family, my family back home, I never experienced persecution. I'm like, are you a Christian? How do you not get some kind of tension if you live out Christianity? How is that possible to live in this world and speak for Christ and not have some type of opposition? Alright, number three, persecution of believers, verse 20, verse 21. He says, Truly, truly, it's in John 13, 16, when he says, remember, you can go back two chapters, John 13, 16, truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Luke 6, 40, a disciple is not above his teacher. Everyone, when he's fully trained, will be like his teacher. Or you can remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10 and Mark 13. Same type of thought. And then John later in 1 John reminds us of this. I've heard a lot of you say it. We've all experienced it and I know what we mean by it. But be reminded of what the Bible says. 1 John 3.13 says, do not be surprised. I can't believe they don't like me." Don't be surprised that the world doesn't embrace you when you live out Christianity. Be surprised when the world loves you. Then we've got a problem. But don't be surprised, John says, brothers, that the world hates you. Don't be surprised. Here's what you need to be concerned about. Does the world love you? If the world loves you, I know from this text the reason is, is because you're one of their own. But they do not love the Christian. You say, how can you say that? I'm not. Jesus is saying that. Now, what's the reason? You remember? You're not greater than your master. They hated him, they'll hate you. What's the reason that we're hated? Verse 21. There's only one reference given here, and it's very clear. We are hated on account of His name, which represents everything He is. You don't hate me because I'm me. They hate me because I'm reflecting the character of His name and of His being. So the hatred is not really towards me, no more than it was towards Moses. It's really ultimately against God. Christians reflect the name when they follow Christ, and true persecution comes to the believer solely because of reflecting Christ. I'll say it again, I've already said it. Have hatred come because of an overflow of joy, not of an overflow of being a jerk. Look, there's street preachers out there, not just to pick on street preachers, but there's people out there that do stuff and glory that they made people mad by their actions of being a jerk. That's not bragging rights. Not at all. No more than it is on your job or in your family. Make sure that whatever hatred comes to you is an overflow of a heart full of joy because of love for Christ. If you're persecuted for that, then that's just biblical. If you're persecuted for being a jerk, that's on you. I've done both by the way, I know the difference. Sometimes I irritate people, I don't understand. Now recognize in verse 20, look at the second part where the if statements are. In verse 20, if they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. I won't bore you with Greek grammar, but let me give you the take on this verse as I think it should be taken. I'm going to repeat the verse and I'm going to put some things in parentheses. This is what he's saying. If they persecuted me, parentheses, and many of them did. They will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, parentheses, and some of them did, they will obey yours also. I don't want this verse to be understood as a canceling out. The world hates you and they'll never listen to anything you teach. That's true of some out there. But there are some in the world who will end up not hating Christ. There are some in the world who will end up obeying the teaching of Christ. Even though there's opposition, that does not mean stop living this thing out because the day will come that some will embrace it and they'll thank you for it. Response. This is where it gets a little tricky for self-righteous Americans. That's all of us. Christians have a very hard time with this. Very difficult for us to swallow because we're American. When somebody hates me, what am I supposed to do? How do I respond to the guy who cusses me out? How do I respond to the guy like John Speed that spit in his face? How do you respond to somebody when they spit in your face? I was there when he spit in his face. How do you respond to that? How do you respond when the world does what it does to you because of Christianity? What are we supposed to do? Well, let me just tell you what the Bible says. That'll be helpful. Matthew 5.43, and Jesus says, you've heard that it said you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy? But this is what I'm telling you. Love your enemy and pray for those who persecute you. Luke 6.27, but I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you. Stop trying to get even and learn how to do good. It's like putting burning coals on their head, I suppose. or Luke 6.35. Love your enemies, do good, lend, just keep giving and don't expect anything in return. And you know what? Your reward will be great. You'll be sons of the Most High for He is kind He is kind to who? To the ungrateful and to the evil. That's how He is. That's how we are to be. This worldly opposition has what effect upon us? It causes us to respond with more love, more goodness, and more genuineness because we want them to see the love of Christ. Dear church, you should not be shocked that your family, friends, and acquaintances persecute you with words, actions, and insinuations. You cannot represent the name of Christ without forming some opposition. Be encouraged though, some will hear and be changed. Never lose sight of how you must continually respond to the hatred of the world. Last point, penetration of the light, verse 22, verse 24 through 25 reminds you, this is a strong word with a great climax for us. The life of Christ, verse 22, the words of Christ expose the sin of the world, right? The words of Christ expose their sin. Verse 24, the works of Christ expose the sin of the world. Words and works, both exposing the sinfulness of the world. They have a phrase in here, and the phrase is, if Christ wouldn't have spoke or done, they would not have been guilty of sin. What does this phrase mean? That they would have no sin. Is it a phrase that would imply that they would remain sinlessly perfect? I think not. So what does this phrase mean? If Christ did not speak and work right before their very eyes, their sin would not have been magnified to the highest of degrees. His words and his actions magnified this great sin of unbelief. brought it right out that nobody has any excuse for what they're doing. Christ has made it clear. Now, you can turn in your Bibles if you like. I want you to see how this works. Those who are exposed to the greatest light, this is a dangerous sermon, those who are exposed to the greatest light have the greatest responsibility. Matthew chapter 11 verse 20. Think about this. This is a dangerous place to be today. In Matthew 11, 20, he says, quote, he began to denounce the cities where most of his mighty works had been done. Why did he do that? Because they didn't repent. woe to you Chorazin, woe to you Bethsaida, for if the mighty works done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I tell you, here's the phrase, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for Tyre and Sidon than for you." There's going to be a lesser judgment on them back here than there is on those people hearing and seeing Christ before their very eyes. He says, and you, Capernaum, will you be exalted to heaven? You will be brought down to hell, to Hades. For if the mighty works done in you, if I'd have done these same works at Sodom, It would have remained until this day. But I tell you, it's going to be more tolerable on the Day of Judgment for Sodom than for you. A lesser judgment for Sodom, who had these things happen in their life, than for those who hear the very words of Christ and see the very actions of Christ. Greater light, greater responsibility. Also, Luke 11 31, just one more passage, Luke 11 31. The queen of Sheba, the queen of the south, will rise up at the judgment. Get this picture. She rises up at the judgment with the men of this generation, and she condemns them. For she came from the ends of the earth, traveled all the way across to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, someone, not something, someone greater than Solomon is here. Now we're getting into my wheelhouse. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment. Think it through. Here's all these Pharisees and all these Jews. Those pagan, God-hating Ninevites are going to come up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it. Why? They repented when Jonah preached and he didn't like them. Someone greater than Jonah is standing right before you and you won't repent. Tyre, Sidon, Sodom, the Queen of Sheba, and the Ninevites have a better response to truth than these people in Jesus' day. Now, you can take this position and say, man, those people are wicked. You can say that because they are. You can say, man, I can't believe they wouldn't respond to Jesus. You can take that. But be reminded of this. Jesus spoke orally. When oral words are spoken, you can mishear them and you can forget them. And you can misapply them and you can misjudge them. But you have it written down on pages in your own language. And you won't repent and believe Christ. Nineveh, Sodom, Chorazin are going to get off lighter in judgment than you because you reject the ever-living Word of God written in your own language. Church, don't kid yourself that you get a pass because you believed in Christ. We're accountable for not obeying the things that God's Word has given us. These people had the pure preaching and works of Jesus right before their eyes. Now, one other thing, and we'll close out, but the ESV and many other translations use the word excuse in this text, and you'll see that somewhere, if you can find it. It's in the end of verse 22. They have no excuse for their sin. Now, excuses are like noses on people's faces. Everybody's got one. I just want to make note of this because The Greek word is much stronger than excuse. And this is the place where the King James gets it right. They have no cloak for their sin. You can't cover it up. The English word would be pretext. Something said in defense of an action, actual motive or reason, a valid thing here, a falsely alleged motive. A pretext as defined by Webster's Dictionary. A purpose or motive, alleged or in appearance, assumed in order to cloak the real intention and the state of affairs. Let me give you an example. Everybody can follow this. Webster's example. She went back to her friend's house on the pretext that she had forgotten her purse. Oh, I've forgotten my purse. That's her pretext. But the motive of her heart was to have an affair. You want it in another way. He said, the doctor told me to drink a glass of wine every day for my heart's health as a pretext to cover up his addiction to alcohol. It's a stronger word than excuse. These people, because of the words of Christ and the works of Christ, have no pretext to cover up their motive. Their motive is exposed. They hate God, they hate Christ, and they hate His church. And we conclude, they had no foundation and they still don't. Psalm 35, 19, let not those rejoice over me who are wrongfully my foes and let not those who wink the eye who hate me without cause. And more specifically, Psalm 69, 4, more in number than the hairs of my head are those who hate me without a cause. Mighty are those who would destroy me, those who attack me with lies." I love it. What I did not steal, must I now restore? Jesus is saying, I've done no wrong. I don't have to make something right. All their accusations are false. They have no foundation for what they've said about me. Christ made the truth clear in His preaching and in His life. You cannot pretend to say you don't know the truth. You can't do it. In this room, you can't say, I don't know the gospel. You can't say, well, I never heard. You have heard. It's been thundered from this pulpit for 22 years and you're still unrepentant, still unwilling to believe, still unwilling to submit yourself to the Lord and His church. You have no excuse and you have no pretext. You've seen great light and it's been written down in the pages of scripture. To hate Christ is to reject Him, to refuse to submit to His clear word and to go your own way. Pilgrim's progress for closing, since we started with Pilgrim, I suppose we should end with him, in a different scene. And this scene is the scene of Vanity Fair. Vanity Fair is the world. I know you're putting up your Bibles, you've got important places to go, but you've gone to all those places all week and they didn't profit you none anyways. So just hang on, because you need this. It's not closing like I've got nothing better to do. I wrote this down because you need it. You need to hear and understand this. They go into Vanity Fair. You might have missed it, but they said the fair has existed over 5,000 years. He was a young creationist, right? Younger. So, I put it's existed for over 6,000 years. They're open for business every day. In Vanity Fair, they sell all types of merchandise. You know what they sell? Houses, lands, trades, places, honors, preferments, titles, countries, kingdoms, lusts, pleasures. They have delights of all sorts. They have whores, they have bods, wives, husbands, children, masters, servants, lives, blood, bodies, souls, silver, gold, pearls, precious stones, and whatnot. You can also find there thefts, murders, adulteries, false swears, and that of blood red color. It's all there every day, and they're open for business every day. God forbid now they're open on the Sabbath day, the Lord's day, as a direct mockery to the day that is supposed to be holy unto the Lord. Three things that ought to happen to you and me. Three things in this world we live in. Here's what ought to be happening to us all the time. First, faithful and Christian walk into Vanity Fair. Just walk into the world. You know what happens? They don't wear the same type of clothing. What's wrong with these people? They won't wear their skin-tight yoga pants. No, you don't know. They won't dress like me. They don't care to look like me. Second, their speech, it's like they're speaking the language of Canaan. They're always talking about God and the gospel and church. They don't know what they're talking about. They don't know what language they're speaking. Third, they have no interest in what the world is interested in. Chancellor Lee says, what will you buy? We buy truth. Result, faithful was executed as a martyr because he wouldn't be a part of the world. Christian escapes and the story goes on. Somehow, in some way, not legalism, not saying you gotta wear a suit and tie to something or whatever. No, that's not the agenda. But does your dress and your words and your life look just like the world? Or is there something that sets you apart in some way? Do you spend your time trying to blend into the world, to be accepted by the world, to be loved by the world? I just want everybody to love me. No, you don't. You'll end up in hell. Jesus clearly states that those who are with him will be hated. The world only loves its own. Remember, the world is going to hell. You don't want to be accepted by them. I'm not popular. Praise God. Be Elijah, all alone for God. They didn't invite me to this, they didn't invite me to that. Praise God, I wasn't going anyway. You do not want to maintain acceptance with those who hate your God. Repent, come out from amongst them. The narrow path is still the best path, and it's the only path that leads to eternal life. Dear Christian, do you feel pressure? Do you feel rejection? Do you hear the world's mockings? Do you experience isolation? Are you invited to certain gatherings? Does your own family avoid you? Does the world curse you? Be encouraged. Jesus said that's the way of Christianity. This is the good path. Walk on it. As the prophet Jeremiah stated in Jeremiah 6.16, thus says the Lord, stand by the roads. Look, ask, where's the ancient path? Where the good way is, walk in it. Promise, walk in it. What are you going to find? Rest for your soul. Rest for your soul. But they said, I ain't going to do it. I'm going to go and do what I want to do. I think some people in Jeremiah were Americans. It's like with Christ. They hated me without a cause. So it will be true of you as you walk the narrow path for the glory of God and the good of your own soul. I'm not preaching that you ought to go out and try to make the world hate you. I did not say that. I did not even imply that. I'm saying to you from the text that if you'll live biblical Christianity, opposition will take care of itself. A joy-filled heart that loves Christ, lived out there, will experience some tension. But if you go out there and live all week and the world loves you, you need to get on your knees and say, God, have I ever been saved? Do I have a new heart? Do I have a right spirit? Why does the world love me? You need to examine your salvation before the Lord and see whether or not He's truly redeemed you, because all those who follow Him will be hated by the world.