Final Discourse

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Final Discourse

John 15:22-25

22 If [ei me] I had [erchomai] not [ei me] come [erchomai] and [kai] spoken [laleo] unto them [autos] , they had [echo] not [ou] had [echo] sin [hamartia] : but [de] now [nun] they have [echo] no [ou] cloke [prophasis] for [peri] their [autos] sin [hamartia] .
23 He that hateth [miseo] me [eme] hateth [miseo] my [mou] Father [pater] also [kai] .
24 If [ei me] I had [poieo] not [ei me] done [poieo] among [en] them [autos] the works [ergon] which [hos] none [oudeis] other man [allos] did [poieo] , they had [echo] not [ou] had [echo] sin [hamartia] : but [de] now [nun] have they [horao] both [kai] seen [horao] and [kai] hated [miseo] both [kai] me [eme] and [kai] my [mou] Father [pater] .
25 But [alla] this cometh to pass, that [hina] the word [logos] might be fulfilled [pleroo] that is written [grapho] in [en] their [autos] law [nomos] , [hoti] They hated [miseo] me [me] without a cause [dorean] . KJV-Interlinear

22 'If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 'He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 'If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would not have sin; but now they have both seen and hated Me and My Father as well. 25 'But they have done this in order that the word may be fulfilled that is written in their Law, 'They hated Me without a cause.' NASB

I'll repeat the opening paragraph from the other day. Cain hated Abel, because Abel's works were righteous. Esau hated Jacob because of the blessing. Joseph's brothers hated him because his father loved him. Saul hated David because the Lord was with him. Ahab hated Micaiah because of his prophecies. All of these people could have enjoyed the good graces of God, but they chose against God. Their choices rendered them not the things they desired, and so such are the causeless causes of the world's hatred.

And so Jesus quotes Psa. 69:4, demonstrating that all hatred toward God, Christ, His Word, and consequently all believers, has no basis or justifiable cause. Anything which is good can't be hated. That should go without saying. Anything which is bad should be rejected, and that should be obvious as well.

But when people embrace the worldliness which we defined a couple of days ago, then the obvious gets all turned upside down. Like the dogs which go back to their own vomit, so is the world (those who reject God either partially or totally). Good foods are desirable, but that which has been consumed and then regurgitated is not desirable. But there again anyone (and this includes both you and me - everyone), then anyone who rejects God and does not comply completely with His Word, falls within the category of worldly.

To get out of that class, we need to learn Gods Word, and get into fellowship, and move forward in our spiritual lives. And by involving ourselves in a daily study of His Word we do just that. We extricate ourselves (or rather God does it for us) out of that mire we call the world.

The world hates God, and doctrine, and believers for no reason. The world tries to define its own way through life and that attempt fails. The world gets frustrated, then angry, then lashes out at anything that is close by. It is the jungle setting which we have defined before and within that jungle there are no favorites, no winners. All are losers. The jungle of life swallows up anyone who depends on it.

We, as believers, depend on God and doctrine and our spirituals lives in contrast.

The world sees no fault in what it does. People without doctrine can justify anything they do. Look at many of these third world countries. Look at how people are treated around the world, especially those under some form of religious government. Look at history and the witch burning and the heresy trials. Most for political convenience or to control populations through fear.

Look at current social clubs, the gossip, the maligning, the judging, the office politics and so forth. These are all sins in which those committing them feel they are doing nothing wrong, but are justified in doing them.

If Bible doctrine were not available, then people would justify anything and everything, and there would be no system of morals condemning their wrong actions or thoughts. But .....

There is Gods Word. There is Christ's work on the Cross, and therefore people have 'no excuse.' So again, why does evil hate God? Because it cannot get away with its own design for life. No excuse.

There is a standard, an absolute standard from which nothing can escape.

In our daily lives we all have our little quirks and compromises with respect to how we justify various things we do, and things which are not in sync with Gods Word. We justify various forms of sin in our lives. We rationalize, 'As long as it doesn't hurt anyone, then it is ok.' Amongst other rationales.

We can't have it our way. A way which inevitably involves a sin of some type, and all sin is based in arrogance which drives the soul in the direction of degeneracy or the deterioration of the moral fabric of society. This results in gangs, in liberal thinking, in bias, in unfair practices, and leads to frustration, and hate, and then violence, and on and on and on.

All sin is interconnected and it all leads to destruction. So the little idea that, 'it doesn't hurt anyone' is a false statement, a lie of which its own deception of innocence will lead the person to big trouble in life.

Our ultimate target is God the Father, the target of absolute perfection. We can try to define our own path to Him. That is what all religion attempts. After all, 'it doesn't hurt anything!' But God defined a plan for history, and that plan excluded all of mans designs for his own destiny, a destiny in which God is a convenience.

God designed a plan which states that there is but one path to Him, and that path must go through Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is God. Jesus Christ did all of the work to install this path to God. Man was not involved in His work. Even the punishment inflicted on Christ during the six trials, during the pounding of the nails, during the hanging on the Cross had nothing to do with His Work (suffering). God the Father executed judgment upon Christ during those three hours of supernatural darkness. And God alone bore our sins upon Himself. Man had no part in it.

So to hate the plan, to hate the path, Jesus Christ, to hate (reject, ignore, rationalize away) His Word, is the same as hating the Father. You cannot accept the Father and reject His policy. That is arrogance stating that you know of a better policy (yours), which possibly God just overlooked.

History has recorded the scriptures. History has recorded the First Advent. History gives mankind no excuse for not knowing the truth of life and the means for bettering ones own life.