Well, you can turn with me in your Bibles to the gospel of John, John chapter 15, as we continue our exposition of the fourth gospel. Our focus this morning will be verses 21 to 25. We're in a section in the upper room where Jesus is encouraging his disciples by way of instructing them that there's going to be hardship, there's gonna be suffering, there's gonna be difficulty that faces them. So, of course, Christ wants them to be fit and ready and prepared to go about that task. So he wants them to understand that when he ascends on high, when he leads captivity captive, when he's enthroned at the right hand of the Father, they're going to go out and seek to turn the world upside down for Him. There will be those that receive His message, but there will also be a lot that reject that message. So Jesus here, as a kind master, as a wonderful Savior, wants to let His disciples know that there will be trouble in this world. So beginning in chapter 15 at verse 18, I'll read to chapter 16 at verse 4. If the world hates you, you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the world would love its own. Yet 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 also. "'All these things they will do to you for my name's sake, "'because they do not know Him who sent me. "'If I had not come and spoken to them, "'they would have no sin, "'but now they have no excuse for their sin.'" He who hates me hates my father also. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my father. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law. They hated me without a cause. But when the Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from the beginning. These things I have spoken to you, that you should not be made to stumble. They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God's service. And these things they will do to you, because they have not known the Father nor me. But these things I have told you, that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. And these things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you." Amen. Well, let us pray. Our gracious God and Holy Father, we thank you for our Lord Jesus Christ, the one you sent into this world, sinners to save. We thank you for His life, death, resurrection, and for that teaching ministry, and for these words recorded in the Upper Room Discourse. We know that He gives us that information necessary for faithful service in this present evil age. And we know of a truth from our Bibles, from the history of the church, from Christ's ministry himself, that there is persecution, that there is oppression, that the God-haters seek to reject those who come in his most blessed name. So Lord, encourage us now, stabilize us, strengthen us as Jesus intends that we may not be made to stumble, but trusting in his word, knowing the presence and power of his Holy Spirit, May we live in a manner that is consistent with what we find in Holy Scripture, in a generation that has given over in many ways to such lawlessness. We ask now that you would forgive us, cleanse us from all sin and unrighteousness, guide us again by your Spirit, and cause us to take every word or every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. And for any and all who've come here this morning that are dead in their trespasses and sins, we pray that you would awaken them, We pray that you would convict them of their sin and show them the glory of Jesus Christ as the one in whom there is salvation. And we pray in his name, amen. Well, as I said, we're in a particular unit that begins in chapter 15 at verse 18 and continues to chapter 16 and verse four. So up to this point, Jesus has primarily referred to the disciples and their relationship to God. From this point on, however, from 15, 18 to the end of the Upper Room Discourse, it's the disciples and their relationship to the world. And here specifically, the world will hate you. And the rationale is very simple, because it hated Christ. If they hate the master, they're going to hate the servant. And that is precisely what we saw last week. So we saw the world's opposition to believers in verses 18 to 19. We looked at the believer's likeness to Christ in verses 20 and 21. We actually didn't make it to verse 21, so we'll pick up there in just a moment. But then we'll notice in the final section the world's greater liability before God in verses 22 to 25. Just a bit of foreshadowing when he says that if they had not, I'm sorry, if they had not come, or if I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. He's not denouncing the doctrine of total depravity. He is not suggesting that there is no such thing as total inability. There's a specific context reference that is going on here. He's not saying that apart from his coming, no man would have ever been guilty. So hopefully we'll clear that up in just a moment. But let's pick back up at the believer's likeness to Christ. Remember the principle in verse 20. 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." So this master-servant solidarity would indicate that if the master is hated and if the master is persecuted, they're certainly going to come after the servant. Never forget that. If you rightly represent the Lord Jesus Christ in an age that is in opposition to Him, there's going to be trouble. As the Apostle puts it in 2 Timothy 3, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. It's an inevitability. It is going to happen. That connection or union with Christ the Master means that for the servant, there is likely going to be persecution or opposition of some sort. Then he says in verse 20, if they kept my word, they will keep yours also. It's not all bleak. It's not all doom and gloom. It's not all rejection, resistance and opposition and persecution. There will be those to the apostles here that will respond in faith. Those recipients of God's grace, those ones that Christ chose out of the world, those ones by the Spirit renewed or regenerated, those ones given the graces of faith and repentance, they're going to receive the Word, just as they receive my Word. So again, we cannot only focus on the persecution, or on the oppression, or on the hardship, or on the difficulty, because then we're going to tuck tail and run. And Christ doesn't want His church to do that. He promises to build it and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. He says very specifically in chapter 16 at verse 1, these things I have spoken to you that you should not be made to stumble. Too much fear, too much trepidation, too much thought about this idea of oppression and persecution can sideline the soldiers of Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ doesn't want his soldiers sidelined. He doesn't want them to stumble. He doesn't want them to be fearful. He wants them to man up. He wants them to be courageous. He wants them to emphasize the truth of God's holy word, and he wants to take that word to the uttermost parts of the earth. So he's not here trying to discourage his witnesses. He's rather trying to encourage them by telling them what is inevitable in terms of their union with the master. As the master goes, so goes the servant. If they hated the master, they're going to hate you. But take heed, there's going to be those out there, namely a great multitude from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation that will receive your word. Just as they've kept my word, they're going to keep your word as well. So the principle in verse 20, the implication, persecution, but reception on the part of God's elect. And then that brings us then to his conclusion in this part of this subsection. Notice in verse 21, but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake, because they do not know him who sent me. So the reason for persecution is obvious and it's clear. He says, for my sake. Just like in that beatitude, blessed are you when you are persecuted for my sake, in Matthew chapter 5. We see it in Matthew 10, 22. We see it in Matthew 24, verse 9. We see it in 1 Peter chapter 4. There is this suffering that the rationale is precisely because of Jesus Christ. The emphasis here is on the basic problem of mankind, and that is his rejection of Christ. This is not isolated in John's gospel. In fact, turn back to John 3, specifically at verse 36, where we see one of those statements that is very strong in a categorical way. We're gonna see that as well as we proceed in our particular context, but notice in John 3, 36. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life. It is a present possession. If you believe the Son, you have everlasting life. There is nothing that can separate you from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. The apostle writes to the Philippians. We're gonna look at this tonight. I'm confident that he who began this good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ. So back to 336, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life. And he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. Notice Jesus doesn't pull any punches. He doesn't there, and he's not going to in our particular context. He speaks in very stark contrasts. You either have everlasting life or the wrath of God abides on you. There's no third option, there's no tertian quid, there's no third thing that one can have. Well, I'm not for Christ, but I'm not really a slave of the devil, so I'm kind of in this no-man's land. No, you either have everlasting life by God's grace alone, through faith in Jesus Christ alone, or the wrath of God abides on you. And remember Jesus' teaching in Matthew chapter 12, he who is not with me is what? He's kind of against me? No, he's against me. He who is not with me is against me. And Jesus is just standing in the tradition of the prophetic testimony and witness. Remember Elijah at Mount Carmel when he throws down the gauntlet to the false prophets of Baal? He says to Israel, How long will you halt between two opinions? If Yahweh is God, serve him. If Baal is God, serve him. In other words, you need to fish or cut bait. You can't have a little Yahweh and a little bit of Baal. It's either all God or no God. It's either all Christ or no Christ. It's either everlasting life or the wrath of God. And so Jesus makes that very clear to the disciples here in Matthew 15 at verse 21. but all these things they will do to you for my name's sake." Confessing faith in our Lord Jesus Christ means that the servant will suffer like the master. The servant will be targeted like the master. If they hated Christ, they're gonna hate his servants. If they despised Christ, they're gonna despise the servants. If they impose violence upon the master, they're gonna do that to the servants as well. But then notice the source So the reason is my name's saved. But if we push down a little bit or drill down a little bit further, Jesus gives us the source. Notice what he says in the remainder of verse 21. And then the rest of this subsection, he's going to explain that in more detail. So basically in verses 22 to 25, we get further explanation or amplification of what he says here at the end of verse 21. Notice, because they do not know him who sent me. because they do not know him who sent me." Now, brethren, if you're thinking properly in this particular context, you will know where the application lies. John announces it in the prologue in John 1 11. He came to his own, but his own received him not. The first observation that we need to make relative to this statement in verse 21b is that it is an indictment of the Jewish religious leaders in particular. It is an indictment of the Jewish religious leaders in particular. Notice what he says, because they do not know him who sent me. It was a rejection of the Messiah. Consider the Jews in Yahweh. Now we know from the Old Testament that we have the Jews in Yahweh. They loved, they espoused faith and confidence and trust, not always perfectly, not always blessedly, not always consistently, but they prided themselves on the knowledge of Yahweh. This was everything for the Jews in Old Covenant religion. You see, Yahweh promised the sending of a Messiah. That Messiah had now come, and instead of receiving the Messiah, instead of believing on the Messiah, instead of bowing to the Messiah and confessing the Messiah, they reject the Messiah. So what does Jesus interpret that as meaning? Notice, because they do not know him, who sent me? This is a huge indictment on the part of our blessed Savior relative to the religious leaders in Israel in this first century. And to see that he's speaking again, contextually, in particularly about the religious leaders in Judaism, notice what we see in verses 21 and 23, or I'm sorry, verse 23. He who hates me hates my father also. Again, brethren, we don't talk that way. We mentioned this yesterday in our study in the book by Scott Swain, Trinity and Introduction. We very much soft pedal differences in religions. In other words, we think that because the Jews and because the Muslims and because the Christians are all monotheistic, we have something in common. Not according to Jesus, What does Jesus say? If you reject the one sent by the one sending, then you hate the one sending. That's what he says, brethren. That's not, you know, butler crackpot knucklehead going off on some crazed tangent. We need to be like the Savior, not running around with bullhorns, telling everybody to stop hating God, but to understand theologically. I'm not talking politically, I'm talking about theologically. If you don't confess faith in our Lord Jesus Christ, whatever you may think of your spirituality, whatever you think of your religiosity, if you don't own Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, according to Jesus, the Lord and Savior, you hate God. Notice the context as well, specifically in 16.2. They will put you out of the synagogues. If you've ever asked the question, what is Jesus talking about? He's talking about the book of Acts. He's talking about his immediate disciples. He's talking about these apostolic men that are sitting and supping with him, that he is encouraging, that he is strengthening, that he is enlightening, that he is going to send into the world to turn it upside down for himself. They're gonna put you out of the synagogues, but then notice, he's not talking about heathen. He's not talking about the atheists. He's not talking about the pagans. Notice, yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God's service. This will be religious obligation on his part to take the people of Jesus Christ, to cast them out of the synagogue, and to vote for the death penalty when it serves their purposes. Remember Stephen standing before the Sanhedrin? What do they do? They gnash at him with their teeth. They plug their ears such that they wouldn't have to hear his blasphemies and heresies. They cast him out of what should have been the holy city, and they take up stones to throw at him and kill him. Jesus is talking in particular about the unbelieving religious leaders of the Jews. It is a specific condemnation by Christ of that generation to whom Yahweh sent the Messiah, and He came to His own and His own received Him not. But this ain't the first time in our Lord's ministry. Turn back to John 8. John chapter 8 at verse 37. This ought not to be surprising to us in this context of John 15. But notice in John 8, verse 37, I know that you are Abraham's descendants, again, by the flesh, physically descended from him, but you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. Now, we're all very familiar with the story of Jesus of Nazareth. We're all very familiar with the gospel We're all hopefully as familiar with the doctrine of total depravity and the wretchedness and the evil of men. And when we come to passages like this, I think there's times where we just sort of glide over, yeah, we know all that. But again, I think it's helpful to take a moment and to stop and to say, why did they want to kill him? What had he done? Well, he was a bank robber. No. He was a murderer. No. He didn't keep his lawn cut. No. He didn't pay his taxes. Well, incidentally, that's what they would falsely charge him with, because if you want the civil state involved, you just block up that tax payment system. He was wholly harmless and undefiled. He went about doing good. He healed people. He fed people. He gave eyes or sight to the blind. He raised people from the dead. Why did they hate him? Because they hated the one who sent him. All the while, professing in a deceptive manner, oh, our allegiance is to Yahweh of Israel. See, in John 15, Jesus is saying, if you reject the Messiah that Yahweh sent, you have no allegiance to Yahweh of Israel. In fact, you actually hate Him. You despise Him, and you disdain Him. But back to our text. But you seek to kill me because my word has no place in you. I speak what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have seen with your Father. They answered and said to him, Abraham is our father. Jesus said to them, if you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. But now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth, which I heard from God. Abraham did not do this. You do the deeds of your father. Then they said to him, we were not born of fornication. We have one fathered God. If God were your father, you would love me. For I proceeded forth and came from God, nor have I come of myself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Because you are not able to listen to my word. You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it. "'Because I tell the truth, you do not believe me. "'Which of you convicts me of sin? "'And if I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? "'He who is of God hears God's words, "'therefore you do not hear because you are not of God.'" So back to our text, the indictment of the Jewish leaders in particular is what he's speaking there in verse 21b. So the reason why they hate and persecute you disciples is for my name's sake. But the source of that enmity, the source of that contempt, the origin of that detestation, it's because they don't know the Father. Notice as well, there is a description here of false religions in general. I think the specific application is the first century Judaism, but we could extrapolate that to 21st century Judaism. We could extrapolate that to 21st century Islam. We could extrapolate that or apply it to Jehovah's Witnesses, to Mormons, to dumb Protestants. We can see that a rejection of the Christ of God as spelled out in Scripture. Now brethren, I'm not suggesting that just being able to say the name Jesus gets you in with the Father. Notice that Jesus again is emphasizing his relation to the Father. There are so many instances in John's Gospel where Jesus refers to himself as the one sent by the Father. He refers to the Father as the one who sent him. These temporal missions reflect something of the eternal processions. And if we don't understand who God is, namely Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we have not the true God. We have erected, as Turin says, an idol in its place. So we need to understand what Scripture says concerning our blessed Savior. Brethren, there are a whole host of things that Christians pour their energies into, and not all bad things to be sure, but if we poured our energies into a sound Christology, a sound Trinitarian theology, not Augustine or Aquinas or Owen or, you know, some of the fathers in the church being able to explain all the particular details involved, but can we confess there is but one only, the living and true God? And in the Godhead, there are three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Same in substance, equal in power and glory. Those two catechism questions from Westminster's catechism, shorter catechism, that is great theology that we must have. And when I say dumb Protestants, I'm not trying to be insulting. There are dumb Protestants that do not teach the doctrine of the Trinity. They have not taught the people of God how to think concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, emphasizing the unity of the divine nature, the Trinity of persons in that divine nature. Listen to John, not this same John, but elsewhere in his literature. He says, whoever denies the Son does not have the Father either. He who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 1 John 2, 23. That's specifically what Jesus says in verse 21. But all these things they will do to you for my name's sake. There's the reason. Because, here's the sorcerer origin, they do not know him who sent me. They don't have God, the true and living God. I would suggest, thirdly, just by way of application, we may not get to verses 22 to 25 this morning, but this is characteristic of all anti-Christian persecution. And here I think of the state or the government. Now brethren, lest anyone go out and blog today that Butler this and Butler that, I affirm the presence of government in principle. God instituted it. Christ speaking his wisdom in Proverbs 8 says, buy me king's reign. Paul, in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit in Romans 13 says, let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from God. So in principle, absolutely positively. Anarchy is wrong. God instituted government. But in practice? Brethren, at what point do we wake up and smell the coffee and realize that you mean they're not actually out for our good? They're not actually out to try to make us whole and healthy and well? They're not actually trying to protect us? Do you think that perhaps there's a non-Christian bias or animus in the hearts of those in high places? Again, listen to your Bibles. Listen to David in Psalm 2. Why do the nations rage and the people plot a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His anointed saying, let us break their bonds in pieces and cast away their courts from us. I try to say it often. I'll say it one more time. If you ever doubt government opposition to Christianity, come to a prayer meeting. Or ask, and I can forward you Voice of the Martyrs. Better you come to a prayer meeting. Good that the people of God pray together. We see it all over the world. Yes, Muslims attack Christians. Yes, there's countries where Roman Catholics attack Protestants, probably countries where that's vice versa. There's a lot of mayhem out there. Do you know what's a constant and recurring theme that we see? Government opposition to Yahweh and his anointed. The kings of the earth set themselves. The rulers take counsel together. They say, we don't want this one and we don't want his son to reign over us. We want to reign and rule. And it's reflected in their legislation. It's reflected in abortion laws. It's reflected in euthanasia laws. It's reflected in the perversion that is openly promoted all throughout the land. Why is it that this is somehow provocative to suggest? The nations rage, the kings despise, the rulers of this present evil age have raised their fist to Yahweh and his Christ, and they target the people of God. You may find brethren that living godly in Christ Jesus will invite more persecution and more opposition from your own government than it will from your neighbor who happens to be a Muslim. Brethren, these are difficult days. not a prophet, son of a prophet, but if you have eyes to see, what we're seeing is very disconcerting. When I can buy fentanyl or crack cocaine easier than I can buy raw milk, at some point I've got to ask the question, how is the government protecting me? How are they serving me? How are they helping me? Brethren, the fourth observation from this brief statement of our Savior when He says, because they do not know Him who sent me, is simply this, the necessity of Christian Trinitarianism. We see the enemy, we see it unbelieving Jews in that first century context, and into the 21st, if they continue to reject Jesus, continue to despise the Son of Man, it reflects that they despise Yahweh Himself. We see it in Muslims, we see it in Jehovah's Witnesses, we see it in Mormons, we see it in dumb Protestants, we see it in the government that relentlessly seems to be opposed. So that's the negative, that's the bad with reference to 21b. But what's the positive implication? The positive implication is know the doctrine of the Trinity. If you don't understand or have the Son, you don't understand or have the Father. Without the Son, there is no Father. It doesn't matter if you're monotheistic. It doesn't matter if you're religious. It doesn't matter if you're spiritual. It doesn't matter if you have prayer beads. It doesn't matter if you go through motions. It doesn't matter if you go to orthodox churches. It doesn't matter if you subscribe an orthodox confession. If you don't own Jesus Christ as the Bible sets him forth, as the divine word, who became flesh for us, who lived in our place, who died in our place, and was raised again, such that all who believe in him can have everlasting life. If you don't have that Jesus, you don't have God. And so in order to have that Jesus, we need to be men and women of the book. We need to read the scripture. We need to listen to the prophets. We need to listen to Moses. We need to listen to Jesus and his apostles. We need the Psalms of David. We need that instruction concerning the nature of our blessed Savior and the reality that He is the divine Son. And this wasn't hidden in the Old Testament from these people. What does David tell us in Psalm 110.1? Yahweh said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool. Well, the scriptures of the Old Testament never promised that Messiah would be divine. Really? What creature sits at the right hand of the Most High God to exercise universal, absolute sovereign dominion? No creature, except the Divine Son, who assumed our humanity into Himself. not into himself in some weird way, assumed our humanity. He took upon himself our flesh. What about Isaiah the prophet? Comes up a lot at Christmas time in chapter nine. What do we learn of Jesus in that passage? He's eternal. He's mighty God. He's everlasting Father. He's Prince of Peace. Brethren, there isn't enough sufficient data in the Old Testament to evoke the expectation of a divine Messiah. And of course, the best presentation of that was the coming of the Messiah. The fact that He is in their midst, the fact that He has done works among them, the fact that He has taught them. In fact, let's move through this now to see. So that summarizes the believer's likeness to Christ, verses 20 to 21. Third part in this subsection is verses 22 to 25. The world's greater liability before God. The world's greater liability before God. Notice first the declaration in verse 22a. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. Now, I want to qualify this to make sure we all understand Jesus is not saying that these are sinless, guiltless, perfect people. Jesus is not upbraiding the Old Testament's emphasis on total depravity and total inability. No, there's something else going on here. I would suggest there's a general sense or a general idea, and it's simply this. Increased revelation from God promotes increased liability before God. In other words, the more that God tells you, the more you're responsible for the things that he has told you. So if you're not a believer and you come to church, I commend you, you should continue to come to church, but realize that you've got a lot of responsibility based on the things that you've heard. Ryle makes the observation, to see light and not use it, to possess knowledge and yet not turn it to account, to be able to say, I know, and yet not to say, I believe, will place us at the lowest place on Christ's left hand in the day of judgment. And this principle is elsewhere in the gospel records. In Luke chapter 12, specifically at verses 47 and 48, Jesus teaches that the servant who knew his master's will and didn't do it will get more stripes than him who didn't know the master's will. But interestingly, the one who didn't know the master's will still gets stripes. Why? Because he's a sinner that deserves stripes for his sin. But that is a principle that I think is generally applied. That's what I think Jesus is highlighting, again, generally in verse 22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But the specific implication or the specific interpretation in this context is very clear. It is the sin of unbelief in the rejection of the Messiah. That's John Gill. Thomas, before him, says the same thing. We should say that our Lord is not speaking here of just any sin, but of the sin of disbelief. That is, they do not believe in Christ. He came to his own as Messiah from Yahweh, his own there being Old Covenant Israel, and his own Old Covenant Israel received him not. So when he says what he says in verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. He's not saying they're sinless, guiltless, righteous embodiments of perfect law-keeping. No, it's the rejection of the Messiah. the revelation of Jesus in the incarnation, which we'll see in just a moment, that was everything. That was glorious. And again, notice, it is very specifically conditioned. Synagogues, verse two. Notice in verse 25, that was 16, but notice in 1525. But this happened that the word might be fulfilled, which is written what? In their law. There is the particular enemy that Christ is addressing with the apostles, that enemy that looms large in the book of Acts. Certainly Paul ends up before pagan magistrates in the latter half of the book of Acts, but how did he get there? It wasn't the pagan magistrates that initiated those arrests. It was the unbelieving Jews. It was the Sanhedrin that turned him over. It was them that put him to that place where he had to give defense before those pagan magistrates. So Jesus is not saying, these are perfect righteous people. No, He's saying, when I came and I assumed humanity and I dwelt among them and I demonstrate the glory of God Most High and they reject it, they resist it, they forsake it and they're going to crucify me in a day or so. They hate my father. That's what he draws out here. That's the point. Notice again, verse 22. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. That brings us to this explanation. Verses 22 to 25. Notice, it is a rejection of Christ's word, the rejection of Christ's Father, the rejection of Christ's works, and the fulfillment of Christ's words. All of this confirms and validates what he's saying. Now, brethren, just to tone this down a little bit. We need to understand, again, theologically, I'm not advocating that we firebomb a Muslim neighborhood because they don't confess faith in Jesus as the Messiah of God. That's not my point. My point is that the Christian church needs to think righteously and biblically concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. Why do you think the early church hammered out the doctrine of the Trinity? Why do you think the early church had to deal with the doctrine of Christ? Probably because unbelieving Jews were challenging them at every step of the way. The heathen and the pagan and the philosopher, they were all challenging them at every step of the way. You imagine being in the first few centuries in the post-Christ resurrection and confessing another king, even Jesus. Confessing that he's God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the Father, through whom all things were made? Do you think that everybody around, unbelieving Jews, Muslims a bit later, and the pagans and the philosophers all said, oh yeah, yippee, that's great? No. Our brothers and our sisters died for this confession. Our brothers and our sisters died on the doctrine of the Trinity. Our brothers and our sisters died for this confession of faith in Jesus Christ as the one sent by the Father, who has the same substance as the Father, that everyone who believes on him should have everlasting life. Brethren, this is crucial, that we understand, not perhaps again like Augustine understood, but the way that we are capable, the way that we are able, the application of a little brain power to scripture and some helpful things, so that we have at least a basic rudimentary understanding of the one true and living God, who exists eternally as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with no subjugation between the Father and the Son in theology. with no, you know, relations of authority between Father and Son in theology. In economy or salvation, the Son, according to His humanity, as mediator of the New Covenant, willingly submits Himself to the Father. We don't map that in the creaturely realm or the redemptive realm onto who God is. And that is a mistake that is being duplicated all throughout the world. That's why I say dumb Protestants. Notice the rejection of Christ's word. Verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them. He underscores his word in two ways. First, him, the living word, if I had not come. The fact that the Son assumed flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. That right there, in His assumption of our humanity, in His public ministry, in the incarnation, that exacerbated or increased or greatly affected the guilt of these men that had been waiting on Messiah from Yahweh, and yet when He comes, they know Him not. When he comes, they receive him not. When he comes, they ultimately crucify him. So he speaks concerning himself. Notice verse 22, if I had not come and his word and spoken to them, he emphasizes that word all throughout. In fact, that again is encouraged by John in his prologue for us to pay attention. No one has seen God at any time, but the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has declared Him, John 1, 18. That's one of the grand purposes for Messiah's coming. Yes, to live. Yes, to die. Yes, to rise. What is He teaching us? He's teaching us true doctrine. He's teaching us who God is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. See, if these men hadn't had the revelation of Christ in the incarnation and through his word, if these men had not seen the works that Jesus had done, they're still guilty of a whole host of sins, transgression against the Ten Commandments. but not this particular sin of rejecting the Messiah sent by the Father for their delivery from sin and evil and rebellion. This is what he's speaking about in the context. Notice this translates to a rejection of the Father. So verse 22, if I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin. But now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates me hates my Father also. He's telling the disciples, let's not dance around this. Let's not try to pretend that they're just a subset or a different religious body. You know, all roads sort of ultimately lead to Rome. No, if they hate me, they hate my father. It's pretty simple. Just as simple as it is, if they hate the disciple or the servant, they're going to hate the master. This is kind of an inextricable link here. You hate the servant because you hate the master. You hate the master because the father who sent him. And this is the language that Jesus employs. He's not a pluralist. He's not an all-roads-lead-to-heaven sort of a man. He is very exclusive. We see that in John 14, 6. No one comes to the Father except through me. This is the thing that is challenged today, just constantly. Well, not just today. It's been challenged throughout the history of the world, but it's certainly emphasized by the Savior here. Thomas says, since the Son and the Father are one in essence, truth and goodness, and since all knowledge of anyone is through the truth which is in him, whoever loves the Son loves the Father also, and whoever knows the one knows the other also, and whoever hates the Son hates the Father also. See, this isn't, you know, really deep and hard. I just can't get it. It's pretty simple. You hate Jesus, you hate the Father. You hate Jesus, you're going to hate the disciples. You hate the disciples, you're probably gonna persecute them. You persecute them, you're putting yourself into this body of people that have stood in rebellion against Yahweh and His Christ from the very beginning. Then notice the rejection of Christ's works, verse 24. If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin. Again, they wouldn't be further liable for this rejection of Messiah. But now they have seen and also hated both me and my Father. This isn't an isolated space. Did Jesus, again, say that these people hate him? Brethren, do you think it was just not a lot of love that evoked from them the day later, away with him, away with him, crucify him? Do you not see that that's hate, despise, enmity, anger, viciousness? He's basically telling us the way it's gonna be, just like he does in John 8. You're of your father, the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer and a liar from the beginning. And the way that you're treating Jesus indicates that this is true of you. You are connected to the devil, not to Yahweh. Now, Jesus reiterates that here with reference to his word and with reference to his works. Various times and in various places throughout John's gospel, he engages in signs and wonders. And you say, well, the prophets did that. Prophets did amazing things. Elisha, great things. We see Elijah. We see prophets doing miraculous things and Moses himself. But the difference is, is that Moses and Elisha and Elijah never by their word claim to be the son of God by nature. See, the works accompanied the words. All of that is presented to his contemporaries. All of that is an argument as to why they should believe in him, receive him, and thus know in joyous ways the father who sent him. They reject his word, they reject his works, and as a result, finally, they fulfill their own scripture. Notice in verse 25, but this happened that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, they hated me without a cause. This is what we call a conflation, several texts brought together for one purpose. If you look at these three in the Psalter, Psalm 35, 19, Psalm 69, 4, and Psalm 109, verses 3 to 5, you will see how our Lord invokes that. But I think he does it practically here to underscore two things. One, the sovereignty of God. That's not a throwaway for Calvinists. Well, you know, you guys get backed into a corner, you just say sovereignty of God. It's a comfort for the disciples hearing that they're going to reject and resist, the others are going to reject and resist the Messiah. It's going to end in his brutal crucifixion on the cross. It's indicative that they hate the father who sent the son. But this didn't catch God unaware. This is not a surprise in the divine agenda. This isn't a curve ball along the way that now Jesus has to sort of respond to and react to. This is what the Psalter already testified. This is what the prophetic word already declared. You're looking for a suffering servant vis-a-vis the prophet Isaiah chapter 53. You're looking for a sufferer in the Psalter. Yeah, David had problems. David had a life of adversity. But there are things that transcend David's problems in this altar that can only be applicable to our blessed Savior. Jesus is the subject of the Psalms. So he wants to underscore for these disciples the sovereignty of God. And in so doing, secondly, he wants to encourage them. When you go out into this world and they hate you, when you go out into this world and they throw you out of synagogues, when you go out into this world and they spit on you, when you go out into this world and they imprison you, when you go out into this world and they ultimately want to crucify and kill you likewise, understand that this is indeed the will of my Father. Brethren, that provides encouragement to the Saint of Christ. We do what we do because Christ is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. And if you think that's inappropriate language, according to the will of the Father, that's 1 Peter chapter 4. And trust your soul to a faithful creator. It is His will that the people of God go through what they go through, because that's what the Savior went through. If He learned obedience through suffering, according to Hebrews 5.8, the many sons that He takes to glory are going to learn it the same way. And so this is calculated to encourage them, God's got this, He's in control, none of this is haphazard, and it's to encourage them to depart from this upper room with fire in their hearts, with a desire to proclaim Christ, His word, His works, and His glory to the then-known world, to the salvation of a great multitude. And I just want to end on those two notes. First, encouragement with reference to the disciples. The disciple is to remember This is what he does. Notice in verse 20, remember the word that I said to you. The apostle, or not the apostle, but the writer Jude says the same thing. Remember the word spoken by our Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles. We need to remember, which assumes that we at least at one point knew it. In other words, the way of encouragement for the people of God is a heart filled with the word of God. What do we draw off of when that opposition comes? What do we draw off of in the gulag? What is it that feeds and sustains our souls when we're cut off from the corporate means of grace, when we're cut off from our phones and we don't have our Bibles? What is it, by word I've hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against you? There needs to be a wealth of data treasured up in our hearts that we remember the Word of God to His people. The disciple as well is to rejoice. We touched on this a bit last week, invoking the principle in Acts 5. The disciples are beaten. They leave from that place rejoicing because they had been counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. These men weren't dour, sad-looking, brooding, you know, brutes or ogres. They had the joy of the Lord in their hearts. We're going to see that in Philippians tonight, when Paul writes that when I remember you and I think about you, my heart is flooded with joy. He's in a prison. He's in a prison. That only comes by the knowledge that he had of the Philippians, the system of God's sovereign grace in saving those Philippians, and a mind that was able to traverse the present sufferings and cast it where it belonged upon the glory of a good God. I would suggest as well, the disciple is to stand fast and persevere. Therefore, do not fear them. Verse one, these things I have spoken to you, chapter 16, that you should not be made to stumble. Brethren, if you are not well-versed in your understanding of Holy Scripture, and I get that this sounds lectury. I get that this sounds third grade teachery. I get that. I'm sorry. I don't know how to not get that or not do that. But brethren, we've got to know the Scriptures. We've got to know the doctrine of the Trinity. If we don't know this God, the true and living God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, if we don't know Jesus, who Jesus is, we don't have the Father. It's just that simple. But we need to be able to stand fast and persevere. And the disciple is to know true theology. Listen to Cyril of Alexandria. He says, all who think they should dishonor the Son admittedly hate the Father, not as though they were sinning against another nature, but because they are raging against the very dignity of the nature of divinity. He says elsewhere, there is no doubt then that sin against the Son is proof of ignorance of God the Father. I think he's accurately reflecting what Jesus teaches here in John 15. And for any and all who are not believers, may I just tell you, you know, you're part and parcel now of what we see in the Bible as the world. John 1.10 tells us there's three uses of the world. Jesus was in the world. That means planet Earth. He says that the world was made by Jesus. That means the entirety of the things that are made. And then he says that the world did not know him. So unbelievers in the Bible are looked at as being the world. But the wonderful thing about that, I know it's not probably intuitively wonderful, wait a minute, God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. In Christ, God, according to Paul in 2 Corinthians, is reconciling the world to himself. So my point is that there's hope. If you're an unbeliever, there is hope. The hope is to believe on Jesus, to look to the Son, the Son who came down from heaven for us men and for our salvation, who lived, who died, who was raised again, so that all who look to him in faith will have everlasting life. So instead of saying, well, I'm stuck in this world situation, I'm stuck, come to Jesus, believe on Jesus, look to Jesus, listen to Jesus in John chapter 3. Just as Moses lifted the serpent, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that everyone who looks to him in faith will have everlasting life. So people of God, let us learn, let us understand, let us be transformed by the renewing of our mind so that we're not conformed to this world. If unbeliever, you are conformed to this world, you're stuck in the thick of it, then flee to the Lord Jesus Christ, because everyone who comes to Him, He will not cast out. And everyone who comes to Him knows Him and the Father who sent Him. Well, let us pray. Our God, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the clarity of our Lord's instruction. We pray that you would give us that mind of Christ that we would function in a manner that is consistent with his encouragements here in the upper room discourse. Bless our brothers and our sisters in the persecuted church. Bless our brothers and sisters in the last hour that we prayed for, we read of, and so many others that we know nothing of, God, that they are known by you. May you bless and encourage them, help them to persevere in the midst of these trials, and and difficulties and persecutions. And Lord, may you, in a gracious way, lay your hand upon our children, our young people. Give them a steadfast faith in our blessed Savior, that they may be able to withstand whatever may come our way. And we ask in Jesus' name, amen.