John 15:17-23, “These things I command you, that ye love one another. If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not had sin: but now they have no cloke for their sin. He that hateth me hateth my Father also.”
Jesus told us that the world cannot really hate us; but rather, they hate Him. The reason why is because Jesus testifies against the world, exposing their evil works. Where did Jesus testify against the world's sins? Remember that Jesus' name is called: 'THE WORD OF GOD' (Revelation 19:13). John 1:1-3 and 14 tells us that Jesus is the Word of God incarnate (i.e., in the flesh). John 7:6-7, “Then Jesus said unto them, My time is not yet come: but your time is alway ready. The world cannot hate you; but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil.” Jesus is the Living Word; the Holy Bible is the Written Word.
We read in Psalms 138:1-2, “I will praise thee with my whole heart: before the gods will I sing praise unto thee. I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.” This is one of my favorite Bible passages because it reinforces the integrity of God. The old adage is true: A man is only as good as his word. If a man's breaks his promises then he is not trustworthy as a man. If a man is unwilling to forgive others then his name is tarnished and his character flawed. That is why to an honorable man his word means everything.
That is why to God His Word means everything! That is why we read in Proverbs 30:5-6, “Every word of God is pure: he is a shield unto them that put their trust in him. Add thou not unto his words, lest he reprove thee, and thou be found a liar.” God is a stickler about exactness in His Words. God said what He meant and He meant what He said in the Bible (John 14:2). Jesus said in Matthew 4:4 and Luke 4:4 (which He quoted from Deuteronomy 8:3) that we need “every word of God” to live by. That is why I make a big fuss over which Bible we use, because right doctrine matters.
Sadly, my worst enemies in life have been religious people. It was religious people who talked my former wife into cutting my throat and divorcing me. It was religious people who continue to condemn, shun, and ostracize me from attending church because I am divorced. Pastor Jeff Redlin will not allow me to attend Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College (PCC). He despises me for being divorced and hoping to remarry, which I confided to him in July of 2021. I pray and wish that Jeff Redlin's wife would abandon and divorce him, and then some hypocritical pastor crap on him and forbid him from coming to church, so he can feel how rejection hurts. That ungodly hypocrite gets paid a 6-digit underserved salary, but he knows absolutely nothing of the love of God. Shame on the PCC camp for their woeful lack of love for individual people!
I can walk into any bar or casino in Pensacola, but I am prohibited from attending PCC's Campus Church. Isn't that tragic? That is how far from God today's religious hypocrites have strayed. No wonder the country is going to ruin! No wonder church attendance is at an all time low. Campus Church is full of PCC students who have to be there, members of the cult. God's condemnation is upon the cult at PCC for preaching another gospel of Lordship Salvation. As I said, my harshest rejection, criticisms and enemies have been pastors and religious people. They will answer to God for the evils which they have done (Ecclesiastes 12:14). I am at the place where I don't trust pastors any more, and neither should you. They are mostly evil nowadays. Most pastors are false prophets, greedy, abusive, arrogant and bullies.
Jesus foretold us that pastors would become lying fools. 2nd Timothy 4:2-4, “Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” I have only met a small handful of pastors in my life whom I would truly consider men of God. Pastor Jack Hyles (1926-2001) was one of them, who genuinely loved and cared about sinners.
The Bible says in 2nd Timothy 3:12 that you WILL be persecuted for your faith if you are living godly in Christ Jesus. 2nd Timothy 3:12, “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Now if you hide your light under a bushel like Lot did in Sodom in the Old Testament, then you won't be persecuted; but if you live a life of obedience to God, letting your light shine for Jesus, then you will be mocked, persecuted, prosecuted and maybe even martyred by the heathen world.
I used to work as a truck mechanic for a few years while attending Hyles-Anderson College. I went to school by day and worked afternoons. I got off work 30 minutes after midnight. I had to be up again at 6 am to drive 40 mils from Chicago to Crownpoint, Indiana to go to Bible college. I endured and did that schedule for eight years to earn my degree in Pastoral Theology.
