-Transcript-
00:36 Amen. Welcome to the program. Good to have you here today. Today we are talking about something so many people struggle with. Loving the praise of men more than the praise of God.
00:50 Loving the praise of men more than the praise of God. You say, Brother Clark, this is Christian Radio. I love God. I’m listening to this program. Why on earth would I love the praise of men?
01:01 I love the praise of the Lord more. Or, hey, you know what? There’s a lot of pressure in society today to tone it down, to be socially correct, to be popular, to receive that promotion, to not get fired, to, you know, be part of the group, to be cool, to be involved in what other people are involved in.
01:22 And what we see here today, we see it happening in the Bible so clearly. John 12: 42- 43 explain it.
01:33 Nevertheless, among the chief rulers, also many believed on him, that’s Jesus. But because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue.
01:45 For they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Well, first, we want to give this verse context. We never want to take a verse out of context. The context of John 12 here, Jesus Christ.
01:59 And John 11, as risen Lazarus from the dead, amen. And in John 12, he is back in Bethany. He’s eating with Lazarus. This is when Mary anoints his feet with that very expensive oil.
02:14 He goes in, rides the young donkey, goes in and preaches to the disciples and the Pharisees about him being the light. He talks about how now is the time to believe, amen.
02:34 He speaks of, what he does is of the Father. They are one of the same, amen. And how God actually speaks at that time out loud. And the people think it’s thunder or an angel speaking. And yet it was God.
02:49 And he’s saying, look, God’s not speaking out loud to me for my sake, because he was one with God. God always heard his prayers. He was very close with God. He was doing it for their sake, amen.
02:59 And if you kind of can, you know, add up all these things, let’s say, compound, but just add them up, amen, that the Lord Jesus Christ healed many people, performed many miracles right there in front of these very Pharisees, right?
03:14 He healed the blind and he healed the sick. And of course, he healed on the Sabbath, which really got them wound up. The Pharisees and scribes didn’t like him because they felt like he was violating the law.
03:25 But he did that. He spoke boldly, you know, in that time, as I understand it, it was very much a reciting of, of the scriptures. So the scribes and the Pharisees were more like interpreters of the scriptures or keepers of the scriptures.
03:36 They were just reciting it. You know, it was just the word of God says this, this, and this, right? Well, Jesus spoke with authority. He said, this is the time that has come now that you read in here about the Messiah.
03:54 Here I am. You know, Jesus spoke with authority. It was very unusual. It was very shocking. And I think that some people would say, oh, well, they probably thought he was just nuts, but he was so brilliant.
04:04 So he was so brilliant and he was so forgiving and loving. He was so radical. He was so kind. And by the way, he is all of these things. He’s still alive. I’m saying at that time he was too, but he’s still that way.
04:17 And he can be that way with you. If you’ll accept him in your heart. And if you have, and maybe you’ve gone a little far off from him, he’ll, he’ll take you back in a heartbeat. Amen.
04:28 Oh, he’ll leave the 99 and go after that one. Amen. If you’ll just go ahead and accept that sweet gift of his love. Amen. And his, his, his affection for you. And the Bible says that he, he desires none to be lost, none to none to go to hell, but all to be saved, all to come to repentance and, and, and, and to the knowledge of who he is.
04:49 And so we see in, in John 12, this, this collection of all these things happening of, of his, his brilliance of, of his healing, of, of his prophecy of his tying in the word and explaining it.
05:00 All of these, him raising Lazarus, which many of the Jews has seen, they see all these things and then we see John 12:42-43. You know, some of the Pharisees there, they were dying to kill him because they were worried that they would lose, um, their, their territory basically.
05:14 And, you know, when I did a message not long ago for our little church here, and I was studying, I wanted to get deeper into why Jesus was so adverse to the Pharisees. Like what did the Pharisees and scribes do that made him so much more angry with them than say, just the sinner.
05:32 Right. And, uh, someone that was just living in sin. And, uh, through that process, I realized the idea they were adding to God’s word. Uh, they were corrupting God’s word.
05:46 They were supposed to be the keepers of God’s word. And there, there was a lot of reasons and justification for it, of course. And another thing that I learned is, um, one reason why they were so threatened by Jesus.
06:06 And I learned this through a commentator was that they, they were afraid they would lose their, their standing with the Roman authorities. Uh, basically, basically that the Jewish state would be no more if everyone went and followed Jesus, that would basically be it.
06:12 But that’s actually in, uh, the book of John there. I believe it’s in book 12, uh, in chapter 12. They actually, that’s actually written there. So I was reading a commentator, but then I found it in the Bible.
06:21 Imagine that. So, um, we realized that they felt threatened by Jesus, that they, that they would lose their power and their control. And, and here we have this interesting scenario where there is people that nevertheless, you know, nevertheless, they were threatened by this man.
06:33 They can’t, he’s audacious. They can’t believe it. Uh, all their friends want to kill him. Nevertheless, among the chief rulers, many believed on him. Many believed on him.
06:39 They believed, okay, this is the Christ, but because of the Pharisees, they did not confess him less. They should be put out of the synagogue. What does it mean to be put out of the synagogue?
06:49 That means they would lose their place, uh, politically or religiously speaking their power, their status. They’d be put out. Now think about this. You know, what does the Bible tell us to do?
06:59 What does Jesus in this very chapter tell us to do to die to ourselves and to live for him? So basically if we’re going to live for ourselves, we’ll be in the company of ourselves in heaven or hell.
07:10 But if we live for Jesus and we die to ourself, we’ll be in the company of him with heaven, right? Well, they don’t want to lose that company on earth. So they’re not willing to be put out of the synagogue less.
07:28 They should be put out of synagogue. Basically, if they were to say, I believe on Jesus, they’d face real, real consequences. And then here is the kicker verse 43 for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
07:41 That is a very powerful verse for they love the praise of men more than the praise of God. Can I ask you today? Is that you? Do you love the praise of men more than the praise of God?
07:52 Do you know somebody like that, that they love the praise of men more than the praise of God? It’s systemic in society today. Look at any modern day politician and 99.9% of them love the praise of men more than the praise of God.
08:04 Amen. And it’s hard, not just politicians. It’s hard for anybody. Can you imagine being a college professor at a liberal university and you have a choice to make? You could be the biggest outcast on campus by saying, I believe everything in the word of God is true.
08:16 You can be the biggest outcast and be totally hated or, uh, and I’m not talking about a Christian college. I’m talking about, even though most of these colleges at one point were Christian, but I’m saying one of these major liberal universities.
08:28 Okay. And be right with God, or you could love the praise of God. Praise of men and be real high up on that campus and, and real, real valued and not put out of the synagogues, but it’s so to speak, not put out of, out of the clubs and organizations and pay raises and so forth.
08:44 And you, you have to suppress your, your faith in God. Amen. Maybe it’s not on a college campus. Maybe it’s in a factory. Maybe it’s an assembly line. Maybe it’s around people that are telling crass jokes. Maybe it’s in a corporation.
08:52 Maybe it’s in a laboratory. Uh, maybe it’s on a sports field. Maybe it’s in a nursing home. Maybe it’s in your own home. Do we love the praise of men more than the praise of God?
09:07 These conflict because when we live for God, inherently we go against sin and sin is all in the world and sin, the darkness will not comprehend the light and the darkness hates the light.
09:23 So when we love God, when we love the praise of men more than the praise of God, then we can’t really show our love for God because those conflict. What does it lead to? It, it leads to you having to make a choice.
09:38 The underlying message here is that sacrificing is part of love to win the heart of one. You have to be willing to lose the hearts of many. You understand that here today, you want to win the heart of the Lord.
09:48 And by the way, you can win his favor by being faithful, by being obedient, by, by following his commands. Jesus says, if you love me, you keep my commandments. Amen. Uh, God himself, you know, says, uh, this is my son. Listen to him.
10:02 I’m on the Mount of transfiguration and goes on and on. So if we do those things, right, if we love the one, right, many will say they want nothing to do with you. Do you have to count that cost? Amen.
10:13 And you have to realize that men will not praise you. You will not be popular. You will not. Matter of fact, if you’re really popular, you need to check how you’re living. Amen.
10:23 Because popularity, the crowd, the masses almost always goes against what Jesus Christ was about. Amen. And we live for Christ. When we give our lives, our lives to Christ, it’s a sacrifice.
10:34 I’m preaching this fully understanding the sacrifices that have come in my life because of my stance on the word of God and preaching the word of God and giving my life to Christ.
10:43 And you name an area of my life and I will say, God knows. And God helped me to say it. There have been sacrifices made, big sacrifices made. And there are people that I don’t talk to family.
10:55 I don’t talk to, uh, friends, quote unquote, that I no longer have, uh, go down the list jobs. I probably didn’t get, uh, you know, anything else. You name it. Amen. It’s a sacrifice.
11:06 If you love the one, many will hate you. Amen. But it’s worth it. And now I want you to think of why it’s worth it. What did Jesus Christ do? He gave his life for you and for me. He sacrificed.
11:20 It was his sacrificial love on the cross that gave us the opportunity to be saved. Amen. To go to heaven, to be in eternity with him. It was that sacrificial love. It pleased, the father that he was bruised for our iniquities by his stripes.
11:31 We are healed. Amen. I’m paraphrasing Isaiah here. We have to understand the cost that Christ paid on the cross. It was a, he didn’t want to do it in, in that very book of John.
11:46 He says, uh, chapter 12, I believe he said, you know, it now is my time. Don’t want to do this. Of course he doesn’t want to do it. Nevertheless, it’s why he was sent to earth. Amen.
11:57 Cause he was from the beginning, but he was sent to earth for this, for this reason. And so we look at Christ and, and Christ, Christ is our model. We say Jesus Christ sacrificially died for us.
12:06 How then should we love the praise of men more than God? That should be a shame on us. Amen. If there is something, maybe it’s a little thing in your life that you’ve been struggling with about just giving it to God or, or becoming more Godly.
12:20 Why don’t you give it to him today? Amen. Hey, maybe there’s this little thing going on, you know, maybe it’s, I’m doing everything I can, but I just can’t stop dot, dot, dot. And I won’t fill in the blank.
12:36 You know what it is. And God knows what it is. And that’s all that matters. And let me tell you this, give it to God. You know, that little thing that maybe is keeping you from selling out to God, just sell out to him today. Amen.
12:53 It’ll be worth it. You’ll have that heavenly reward. These earthly rewards don’t matter. These things that you’re sacrificing, by the way, there, what are they going to be?
12:47 You know, they’re going to be in hell or they’re gonna be rotted up. There’s nothing worth keeping anyways. Amen. God knows what’s good for us. And he’ll give us what’s good for us.
13:03 And he tells us in his word that many love the praise of men more than the praise of God. I, I want the praise of God on my life. Now, if I’m broken down and I’ve got problems here, there and everywhere, but God himself says, Hey, amen. This one serving me. Amen.
13:13 Enter in to your joy. Amen. When you’re done, you finish your race. Amen. Your rewards plenty. If God says, well, well done now, good and faithful servant, it’s all worth it. And I say that earnestly having suffered for the Lord, I’ll continue as long as I can. And my suffering relatively is what there are people in China that they get arrested for having, having a Bible. Amen.
13:32 There are people around the world that are persecuted for their faith. There are people in Haiti. Oh my goodness. They were kidnapped. They were trying to help kids in an orphanage and they kidnapped.
13:42 And it was very bad conditions and on and on. There are people that are martyred and killed for their faith. And yet we love the praise of men. Let’s check ourselves and let’s get right with God before it’s eternally too late.
13:52 Let’s give it to God. Let’s give him the glory and praise that he is due. And we will have peace like we’ve never had before. My Bible promises me that, and I can promise to you that we’ll have.
14:02 We’ll have perfect peace where we put our mind on Christ and we live for him openly being a witness for him and a shining light for him.
14:09 Thank you so much for listening. I’ll talk to you all soon. Take care. God bless. Amen.