Welcome to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. We're glad you've joined us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heitzig exists to connect you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times through verse-by-verse teaching of His Word. That's why we make messages like this one today available to you and others on air and online. Before we kick off today's teaching, we want to let you know that you can stay in the know about what's happening at Connect with Skip Heitzig when you sign up for email updates. When you do, you'll also receive Skip's weekly devotional email to inspire you with God's Word each week. So sign up today at connectwithskip.com.
That's connectwithskip.com. Now let's get into today's teaching with Pastor Skip Heitzig. He addresses his demon hordes to influence policy and ideology and thinking of the unbelieving world toward the Christian that you and I are sort of caught in the crossfire, but there's a real battle going on. Some of you have heard of Michael Medved. Michael Medved is a reviewer of media, principally movies in the past. He was a movie critic. You would give his assessment. He's very fair.
He's conservative. He's a Jewish fellow, but I think he's very fair even toward Christians. He told a story on his radio show about what happened some years back when the movie The Last Temptation of Christ was released. Remember that film? It was really a slanderous film against Jesus. As far as just a piece of work, a piece of art, it was a mediocre film at best. It didn't deserve any good ratings at all.
It was poorly done. Another film critic confided in Michael Medved during that time and said, Mike, we need to give this film high ratings because, he said, we all need to stand together against these Christians. Isn't that quite a statement? We all need to stand together against these Christians. In other words, they had an agenda that goes along exactly with what Jesus said would be the agenda. We've got to stand against these Christians and it's because these Christians stand for Christ.
I have to add this. If you're not really serious about following Jesus, if it's to you, just I come Sunday mornings, I listen to something and I do whatever I want to do, this probably won't affect you at all. Satan doesn't need to hassle you.
He's got you right where he wants you. You're neutralized. But if you are the serious follower of Christ and you surrender your life to him, you can expect to some degree this is going to happen.
The family dog wants to flush the family cat down the toilet. Now, some of you might be thinking, wait a minute. Jesus keeps saying these people hate God. They hate God. They hate God. I mean, this isn't Hollywood Jesus is living in.
He's in Jerusalem, right? Aren't these religious people? Aren't these people who are very devout and sincere religiously and yet Jesus says they hate God? Well, think about it. If God only sent one solution for sin, which was Jesus, if they reject Jesus, they're rejecting God, which is one of the themes of the Gospel of John.
Am I right? All the way through the Gospel of John, we see that happening. The enemies are rounding the wagons to figure out some way to get a hold of Christ and arrest him and see him killed. And the real showdown, I would say, comes in John chapter 8. And at that showdown, listen to what Jesus said.
This is John chapter 8. He said, You neither know me nor my father. If you had known me, you would have known my father also. 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 you're trying to kill me. And then he says, I am from above, you are from beneath. I am not of this world, you are of this world. You know what he's saying? This world system is from the pit of hell controlled by Satan and I am from above and you're trying to kill me. So here's the point.
It's a hard pill to swallow. If a person rejects Christ, I don't care how outwardly, zealously religious they may be. They might be an ardent atheist.
They might be a sincere religionist. If they reject Christ, they reject God. And Jesus places them in that category of being a God-hater. The world hates you. The world hates you because the world hates God.
Now look with me at 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. 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 have also hated both me and my father. You know, before Jesus came, I suppose that anyone could claim a relative goodness, a relative righteousness, a self-righteousness. You see, people could say, well, I keep these laws and I'm very religiously devoted and sincere. I keep this and I keep that and I do this and I do that.
And so I'm okay and I'm certainly much better than many other people who don't do these things. But then Jesus came and set the bar really high. He was perfection incarnate.
He was God's only Son, God's only Savior, God's only solution, and His perfection showed all of mankind, even theirs, utter sinfulness. There's a story of a chief in Africa, an African chief who visited a mission station. And when he was at the mission station, he had never seen a mirror before. He's from some of the back tribes in Africa.
But he was at a mission station. A relationship was developing between the missionaries and this African chief. And as the African chief was waiting outside one of the huts, on a tree was a mirror. And so the old chief walked up to it and looked at his reflection and he could see the hideous paint on his face and some of the evil icons that were inscribed on the face and the mud matted in the hair. And he took one look at it and he jumped back in horror. And he said to the missionary, who's that horrible man living inside the tree?
The missionary had to explain, there's not a horrible man living inside the tree. You've just seen your own face. Chief would not believe it. That is not me.
That is not my reflection. He wouldn't believe it until the chief could actually take the mirror with his own hand and move it around and see indeed it was his reflection. Then the chief wanted to buy the mirror.
Missionary said, not interested in selling it. Basically the chief begged him. Missionary conceded, sold him the mirror, and the chief holding the mirror said, never again will this thing be able to make those faces of me. He threw it down and broke it into little pieces.
He did not want who he was seen any longer. It showed him the truth. Jesus came and in his perfect righteousness showed the utter sinfulness of mankind. And all mankind could do is get rid of that guy. Get rid of Jesus.
Because Jesus came and showed them the perfect standard of righteousness. It's sort of like if you're in a movie theater and you grow accustomed to the dark and you walk outside and now your eye is accustomed to the dark. It's so bright you go, oh, get rid of that light. I've got to turn off that light. The Bible says men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
It shows them up. Look at verse 19. I'll take you to the third statement. The world hates you. The world hates you because the world hates God. The world hates you because you have defected from the world. Verse 19 says, if you were 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.
Get the message? You don't do what the world does any longer. You don't live like the world lives any longer. You have decided I'm going to follow Christ. Jesus said effectively, salvation is I've chosen you out of the world. Which on a practical basis means you have defected saying to them, I don't want to live this way any longer.
I'm not really a part of what you're into any longer. I'm following this Jesus from now on. And because you're not of them any longer, being chosen out of them, the world hates you because you have defected. Paul wrote to Timothy and said all those who live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. If you live godly, you'll suffer persecution.
And here's why. Whenever you leave the ranks of the world, you don't party anymore, you don't live like that anymore, you don't do that stuff anymore, often times the world will misinterpret that as you having a superiority complex. Who do you think you are? You think you're better than us now? Oh, you go to church now and you pray now. They will misinterpret your following of Christ as having a superiority complex because you're not walking like they're walking.
Did you know that the guy who invented the umbrella, his name was Jonas Hanaway, the first time he sported his umbrella in the rain, people threw rocks at him. They didn't like anybody being different than they were, having something better than they had. So they sought to do away with him. You've left the rank and file of the world. You don't live like that any longer.
You have defected. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig Weekend Edition. Before we return to Skip's teaching, we want to tell you about this month's resource titled The Holy Spirit Then and Now, which comes with two books by Chuck Smith. The Book of Acts commentary will help you understand how the Holy Spirit worked in the early church and Power, a biblical balance on the person and work of the Holy Spirit, will help you see how he works in you. You'll be inspired as you discover that the same spirit who worked in Paul, Peter and the early church is active and involved in your life today. We'll send you the Holy Spirit then and now as our thanks for your gift of fifty dollars or more to reach people with God's love through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your copy when you give. Now let's get back to Skip for more of today's teaching. Down in South Carolina, Myrtle Beach.
True story. Every year there's a church in Myrtle Beach that puts three crosses out in front of the church on church property. Now what they do, they do it a Good Friday and they have three crosses, a big one in the center, two smaller ones on the sides and they wrap the crosses in black cloth for Good Friday. They take it off and they put a white cloth on it for Easter.
They've done it for years. Recently, the Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce wrote the church a letter saying, you got to take down the crosses. We've gotten a lot of letters about these crosses. And the letter explained, now if you take the crosses inside the church, nobody will care. But as long as you have them on display outside the church where everybody can see them, the letter said they are offensive to this community. Now I can't prove it, but I would just guarantee you the ACLU is behind that one.
I just guarantee it. Separation of church and state, you can't have it so anybody can see it. Place it inside the church, no problem. Place it outside the church, it's offensive. You know what?
They're right. The Bible says the cross, the message of the cross is an offense to those who are what? Perishing.
People who are dying, perishing eternally on their way to hell will look at the cross because it reminds them of the perfect righteousness of Christ, the perfection of His being, and the fact that He died for our sins. And that brings great consternation. You've defected.
They will misinterpret that as you being superior over them. And with Jesus, they try to get rid of them. Fourth and finally, we close with this. The world hates you, number one. The world hates you because it hates God, that's number two. The world hates you because you've defected from it, and number four, the world hates you, but there's good news. Now I wanted to leave this for last because in a message like this, typically you don't go, what a great uplifting message today. The world hates me. So you're wondering, is there any consolation at all in any of this?
Yes, there is. There's three things that are really good. Number one, you're in good company.
Did you know that? When you're hated for the sake of Christ, you stand with Christ. Verse 18, they hated you, it's because they hated me.
You're in good company. You identify with Jesus. In fact, I would even say if you're hounded and hassled because you're a Christian, it proves you are a Christian.
It demonstrates that you are a believer because you're willing to suffer for His name, whether it just means you're marginalized or scolded, or people laugh at your bumper sticker, whatever it might be. This is what Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and say, All manner of evil against you falsely for My name's sake, rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets which were before you.
So think of that. When you're persecuted, you stand with Moses who was hounded and hassled by Pharaoh. When people hate you because you live godly, you stand in the ranks of Isaiah the prophet who was sawn in two, or Jeremiah the prophet who was thrown in a well, a dungeon, or Elijah the prophet who was hounded by Jezebel and Ahab, and you stand with Jesus Christ Himself. So number one, you're in good company. The world hates you, but there's good news. You're in good company. Number two, you have a good resource.
You have a good resource. Look at verse 25. But this happened, Jesus said. This happened, all of this hatred, all of this animosity. This happened that the word might be fulfilled, which is written in their law, They hated Me without a cause.
What's He doing? He's going back into the Old Testament. Here's Psalm 69, Psalm 35 and Psalm 69, where David said, They hated me without a cause. And Jesus takes that verse from His ancestor, David, brings it all the way to the present time and says, Now, what I want you to know is all of this hatred was predicted. This is simply a fulfillment of what God predicted would happen through the prophets and through David. Now, I don't know about you, but it brings me great comfort when I know that God knew about my situation before I was getting into it, especially if it's a bad situation. I go, Oh, no, God says, Shh, it's okay. It's predicted. I knew all about it.
I'm in control. The resource of the scripture gives you that kind of perspective and comfort because it shows you God knew all about it from the beginning. Do you know that this is exactly how the early church comforted themselves when they were in persecution? Acts chapter four, a law was brought forth. You can't preach the gospel in the city of Jerusalem any longer or you'll be arrested.
Well, they did it anyway. The apostles did it, and they got hounded and hassled, and they were getting arrested. So they got together, and this is how they prayed. This is Acts four. Lord, your God, you made heaven, earth, the sea, and everything in it, who by the mouth of your servant David said, Why do the nations rage? And the people plot a vain thing. The people gather together with their rulers against the Lord and against his anointed, and they continue. Truly Herod, Pontius Pilate, the people, and this city have gathered together against us and against Christ.
In other words, the Bible predicted the very hot water we're now experiencing, and that brought them comfort because of the resource. So you're in good company. You have a good resource, the scripture. Get to know it. Get to read it.
Get to understand it. And here's the third good thing. There's a good chance some will believe. There's a good chance some will believe. Okay, the world hates you, but some like yourself will be chosen out of the world, will believe because of your witness. I close with this verse, verse 20. Remember the word that I said to you.
A servant is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you. If they kept my word, they will keep yours also. See, there's a chance. There's an if.
A little word, but it's big in our context. If they listen to me, they'll listen to you. There's a chance, though the majority of the world wants nothing to do with the authentic gospel message, there's a chance that some will believe, and we live for those few. It's what gets us up in the morning. It's what keeps us sowing the seed of the gospel, knowing that some of it's going to take root.
And I got to tell you something. The joy of a few coming to believe outweighs the majority who say no to it. You're in good company.
You have a good resource, and there's a good chance that some will believe. And to me, that is consolation. How thankful I am that Jesus gave to them the truth, the balance. You're my friends.
Delighted to call you my friends, but as my friends, you got to know that I've got enemies, and my enemies hate my friends. Welcome to discipleship. I want to close with reading to you something. You know that one of the greatest statements ever was made by Peter, right? When Jesus said, Well, who do you say that I am?
Remember what Peter said? He said, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Oftentimes, churches will use that statement before they'll baptize anyone. They want to hear that confession verbally out of a candidate for baptism's mouth, where the person will say, I believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.
Now let me read to you an explanation of that that was written. When you said Jesus was the Son of God, you declared, I am not an atheist who says God doesn't exist. I am not an agnostic who says, I don't know if God exists. When you said you believe that Jesus is the Son of the living God, you were declaring, I am not an idolater that worships images of wood, stone, or gold. I don't worship my dead ancestors, as in Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, and Shintoism.
I am not a nature worshiper like the Hindus. I am not a fire worshiper like the Zoroastrians. When you said you believed that Jesus was the Son of the living God, you declared, I am no polytheist who says there are many gods. When you said you believed Jesus to be the Son of God, you were saying you were not a pantheist that says God is all. That you were not a deist that thinks God created the world and never involved Himself in its problems. That you're not a uniformist who believes that all things continue as they were from the beginning.
That you're not a modernist who denies the virgin birth. When you said you believed Jesus was Christ, you declared, I am not an unbelieving Jewish person who denies Jesus as the Messiah. I am not a futurist who yet looks for a Messiah. I am not a theosophist who follows the Baha'i or the Mohammedan cults that thinks Jesus is only one of God's many witnesses. When you said you believed in Jesus, you were saying your faith was in Him, not Buddha, not Confucius, not Mohammed, or anyone else. When you said I believe, you said I accept the scriptures because faith in Jesus is the direct result of the testimony of the Bible. When you said I believe, you were declaring yours was a personal faith.
It wasn't inherited, it wasn't forced on you, but it was fully and personally confessed. In other words, you drew a line in the sand, you declared that everyone outside of Jesus Christ was wrong, and you declared to the world that unless they turn from their sins and receive Christ as Savior, they will be condemned, and this usually doesn't go down real well. That sums up everything Jesus just said. If you truly believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God, and all that that implies, that won't go down really well. If on the other hand you say everybody's the same, all roads lead to God, yada, yada, yada, you'll have everyone love you. Let me end just by saying this.
I would rather have God as my friend and the world, all of the world as my enemy, than everybody in the world as my friend and God as my enemy. We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember that when you give $50 or more to help reach more people with the gospel through Connect with Skip Heitzig, we'll send you the Holy Spirit then and now, featuring two books by Chuck Smith to help you understand how God's Spirit worked in the early church and how He's active in you today. To request your copy, call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. For more from Skip, be sure to download the Connect with Skip Heitzig app, where you can access messages and more content right at your fingertips. We'll see you next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig weekend edition. Make a connection Make a connection At the foot of the cross Cast your burdens on His word Make a connection A connection Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
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