The weakness of man as the basis for satan’s rule; John 15:18

Title: The weakness of man as the basis for satan’s rule; John 15:18

 

John 15:18 "If the world hates you [and it does], you know that it has hated Me before it hated you.

 

The key words are the actions of hate and persecution.

 

The hatred and persecution arise from the world. This is not the physical earth. It refers to an organized system that hates Jesus Christ.

 

 “world” - ko,smoj[kosmos] = an organized system of thought, institutions, and people that has been developed by the creature genius of satan.

 

 “hates” - mise,w[miseo; present active indicative] = malicious and unjustifiable feelings towards another, to despise, or to detest. It is the opposite of love.

 

This hatred will not end until human history ends.

 

Jesus then gives encouragement in entreating us to not take such hatred personal, “you know it has hated Me before it hated you.”

 

 “you know” - ginw,skw[ginosko; present active indicative] = to learn to know or to come to know that the world system has hated Christ first.

 

Coming to know will come from your continued exposure to the world. It’s funny to remember when you first became born again and saved and you had this overwhelming desire to tell everyone about the gospel of Jesus Christ. You probably first went to your family and friends with excitement and zealousness and told them about faith alone in Christ alone and that it wasn’t about works. You saw clearly for the first time. You were outside of the slave market of sin for the first time and you could look back in and there stood your loved ones, enslaved to death but with the door wide open. How could you not be overcome with a desire to tell them how to walk out and experience your freedom?

 

And then came the shock; they didn’t want to come out and they thought you were crazy. [around the room at Christmas, imagine you’re a slave in a certain world … the Lord’s invitation to the wedding supper] You thought you were going to lead hundreds out like Moses leading Israel through the desert but you came to the realization that no one wanted to follow. That was one of your first real looks at the world system. It is a system of deceit and lies that has organizations that propagandize those thoughts and millions of people who believe those thoughts and will defend them violently.

 

You also come to know [ginosko] that the world hates you from the word of God. This section in John alone would be enough, but it is frequently taught in the epistles as well.

 

I again want to remind you of the condition of fallen man:

Jesus Christ created the earth (John 1:3) and He gave control of it to mankind (GEN 1:28) and man lost control of it to satan after the fall (GEN 3:7).

 

GEN 3:7

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings.

 

Before the fall they had all the wisdom and power and innocence to make any attempt by satan to get control futile. But after the fall they are so weak that they can’t even bare their own nakedness. They felt exposed, unprotected, and frail and anyone in that condition can be easily ruled. And the human race has been ruled ever since.

 

Sin, evil, weakness, arrogance, ignorance, and spiritual death (all of which fall under “nakedness”) are the basis for satan’s rule.

 

Example from parts of an opinion piece from a mechanical engineer who got a master’s degree from Stanford U in 2008 and took a green job in a solar panel company:

 

[begin article]

If the industry was fundamentally unproductive [couldn’t compete with coal, hydro, oil or natural gas], so were my colleagues and I. We were wasting a tragic amount of time, talent--and other people's money [time, talent, treasure]--making a far inferior form of power when we could have been creating real advances in other, legitimate kinds of energy.

Just as disturbing was what these “jobs” did to people’s spirits. Every high-ranking person in solar or wind must eventually figure out, as I did, that he cannot compete in the market, that his competitive advantages are government subsidies and forced limitations on competitors.

 

I wish I could say people work in Green energy because they sincerely believe in catastrophic global warming. But most also reject nuclear power, the only scalable form of CO₂-free energy, hating it as a competitor while celebrating Fukushima for creating anti-nuclear sentiment. “Nuclear is dead!” proclaimed my boss at a staff meeting just days after the disaster. “This will be good for us!” he continued, in the wake of 20,000 deaths, not one caused by nuclear radiation.

He was right--we needed disasters to compete.

I remember researching catastrophic global warming claims extensively, then sharing evidence against such a threat with the director of engineering, a very intelligent man. I expected either a scientific counter-argument or excitement at the prospect that we do not face an unprecedented climate disaster and the unprecedented economic disaster of a carbon cap. Instead, he responded that our company would be better off if catastrophic global warming were imminent.He wanted it to be true, because it would help us. Our company could not survive on merit, so our interests were aligned with destruction.

This is the kind of polluted cultural environment some of our nation’s most talented engineers are developing in--because the government is creating every incentive to bring it about.

[end]

 

How do people learn to think like this when it seems so obviously wrong and dangerous? Fallen man is naked, exposed, unprotected, and frail and in that state he can be ruled by those who wish to take everything from him.
 

The awareness of our fallen, naked condition is the basis for satan’s rule. We need to be covered and we need to be ruled by someone who wants to give all to us as opposed to taking all from us and Jesus Christ, the light of the world, has given both.

 

It is important not to get discouraged at the world’s rejection of the truth and to keep heralding the truth as an ambassador for Christ.

 

This is only accomplished if we stop looking at the flesh (OSN or nakedness) of man and become occupied with the Lord Jesus Christ. [back 2 slides]

 

Now the information of the cosmic system hits you all day on your smart phone, your social networking, google searches, the 247 news cycle, 400 cable channels, etc. When I grew up we had a house phone (rotary and no caller ID or voicemail), 3 channels (1 fuzzy one), and a newspaper.

 

2 Cor 5:16 Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh; even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know Him thus no longer.

 

Knowing Christ from the vantage of our own flesh and nakedness we were afraid of Him, yet now [after salvation and consistent doctrinal intake] we know Him very differently.

 

GEN 3:10

And he said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself."

 

2 Cor 5:17 Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away [slavery to the cosmos]; behold, new things have come [slavery to Christ].

 

2 Cor 5:18 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation,

 

2 Cor 5:19 namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.

 

2 Cor 5:20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were entreating through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

 

2 Cor 5:21 He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

 

1 Sam 8:6

But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to the Lord.

 

Samuel is given the same comfort that we are given in John 15:18 when the Lord states that it hated Him first.

 

1 Sam 8:7

And the Lord said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.

 

Therefore, hatred emanates from fear and fear emanates from nakedness, but the solution is God’s love.

 

For the religious leaders to accept Jesus Christ was to lose their power and that continued money train that was rolling through the temple. For your friends or family they have to accept that they are hopeless, helpless sinners who need a Savior and that their pursuits in life have always been wrong.

 

The unbeliever fears losing his status, reputation, cosmic wisdom, power, wealth, pleasures when ironically these things that they possess are temporary and worthless.

 

Every time he says no to the gospel message he becomes blinder and more deceived and he adds to the cosmic lie.

 

ISA 44:6 "Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel And his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: 'I am the first and I am the last, And there is no God besides Me.

 

ISA 44:7 'And who is like Me? Let him proclaim and declare it; Yes, let him recount it to Me in order, From the time that I established the ancient nation. And let them declare to them the things that are coming [all prophecy fulfilled literally] And the events that are going to take place.

 

ISA 44:8 'Do not tremble and do not be afraid [opposite of cosmic control]; Have I not long since announced it to you and declared it [unconditional covenants]? And you are My witnesses. Is there any God besides Me, Or is there any other Rock? I know of none.'"

 

Now He switches to mankind’s refusal to be clothed with Christ:

 

ISA 44:9 Those who fashion a graven image are all of them futile, and their precious things are of no profit; even their own witnesses [those who worship the idols] fail to see or know, so that they will be put to shame.

 

ISA 44:10 Who has fashioned a god or cast an idol to no profit?

 

ISA 44:11 Behold, all his companions will be put to shame, for the craftsmen themselves are mere men. Let them all assemble themselves, let them stand up, let them tremble, let them together be put to shame.

 

They who ought to know that they are made by God, become makers of gods themselves. What an absurdity!

 

And no wonder, the ruler of the cosmos knows he is made by God and wants to be God. How does the absurdity of that escape the mind of a creature genius?

 

ISA 44:12 The man shapes iron into a cutting tool, and does his work over the coals, fashioning it with hammers, and working it with his strong arm. He also gets hungry and his strength fails; he drinks no water and becomes weary.

The iron, the coals, the strong arm, and the food and water that he needs are all provided to him by the God of verses 6-8.

 

ISA 44:13 Another shapes wood, he extends a measuring line; he outlines it with red chalk. He works it with planes, and outlines it with a compass, and makes it like the form of a man, like the beauty of man, so that it may sit in a house.

 

ISA 44:14 Surely he cuts cedars for himself, and takes a cypress or an oak, and raises it for himself among the trees of the forest. He plants a fir, and the rain [God provides] makes it grow.

 

ISA 44:15 Then it becomes something for a man to burn, so he takes one of them and warms himself [his exposure makes him frail and weak but God provides the trees and the fire]; he also makes a fire to bake bread. He also makes a god and worships it; he makes it a graven image, and falls down before it.

 

ISA 44:16 Half of it he burns in the fire; over this half he eats meat as he roasts a roast, and is satisfied. He also warms himself and says, "Aha! I am warm, I have seen the fire."

 

ISA 44:17 But the rest of it he makes into a god, his graven image. He falls down before it and worships; he also prays to it and says, "Deliver me, for thou art my god."

 

The simple but clear irony resonates as a remarkable absurdity.

 

God provides the wood and with half of it the man satisfies his needs and with the other half he makes an idol and calls it the maker of all things.

 

How can a God who makes wood be made out of wood that is carved by a tool and an arm that He also makes? Naked, fallen man enveloped in the cosmic system buys it completely. And God goes retroactively from the idol to the man to the tool to the wood to the seed and then to the rain for that seed. Idols can’t be made without God providing the rain!

 

ISA 44:18 They do not know, nor do they understand, for He has smeared over their eyes so that they cannot see and their hearts so that they cannot comprehend.

 

When God presents Himself to an unbeliever and he says no, how could the eyes of his soul get clearer? To say no to God is to believe something else, which is a lie. Each time this happens, the faith in the lie adds another layer of smear [plaster a wall] over the eye.

 

REV 3:17

'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked,

 

REV 3:18

I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire, that you may become rich, and white garments, that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness may not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes, that you may see.

 

ISA 44:19 And no one recalls, nor is there knowledge or understanding to say, "I have burned half of it in the fire, and also have baked bread over its coals. I roast meat and eat it. Then I make the rest of it into an abomination, I fall down before a block of wood!"

 

The wood serves me and I fall down before it to serve it, BRILLIANT!

 

ISA 44:20 He feeds on ashes; a deceived heart [his own heart - where it all begins] has turned him aside. And he cannot deliver himself, nor say, "Is there not a lie in my right hand?"

 

Feeding on ashes, HOS 12:1 says that the northern kingdom fed on the wind, meaning they chased that which was frivolous, meaningless, and without substance. There is no difference today in the pursuit of self’s pleasures in the cosmos to the exclusion of God’s system. All of it will eventually be burned up, but before that time it will end up tasting like ashes in the mouths who make idols in this world.

 

The heart is first wrong and then the understanding and then the whole lifestyle and conduct are turned from the truth of God.

 

The right hand is the instrument of action. With it the fashioner of idols makes the tools, plants the seed, cuts the wood, etc. but the sinner cannot save himself. He is hopeless to do so. The idol he fabricates is a lie as are all idols today or in any age.

 

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

 

How do we know the love of God so as to overcome our nakedness? This isn’t the love that the pre-incarnate Lord and the perfect couple experienced before the fall, which was a personal love based on perfection. This is agapan love.

 

1 John 4:9 By this the love of God was manifested in us, that God has sent His only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through Him.

 

1 John 4:10 In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.

 

Agapan love: A mental attitude of impersonal, unconditional love from mature virtue that recognizes the value of an object, producing a self-sacrificial preference and regard for its benefit even if hated. It is without sin and is not motivated by any affection or attraction.