Romans chapter 12, and we'll
be looking at verse 14 this morning. Romans chapter 12 and verse 14. The title of the message is,
The Believer's Response to Persecution. The Believer's Response to Persecution. As we've been studying through
this chapter, the underlying theme of the Apostle Paul is
this, that because of the mercies of God, because of the grace
of God in sovereign election, because of the grace of God in
perfect redemption, because of the grace of God in the power
of the Holy Spirit that has quickened us to life and faith in Christ,
because of the mercies of God, What is our response to the mercies
of God? It is to present your bodies
as a living, perpetual, continual sacrifice to God. It is not just our minds. It is not just our hearts, but
rather it is this body that we are to present to Christ. So
many present their minds and hearts. They say, oh, my mind
and heart is with Christ, but my body belongs to me. No. Everything belongs to you. Nothing
of that belongs to Christ. If it's just your heart and mind,
no. Christ said, I own all of it.
Isn't that right? Praise God. I'm glad He owns
it all. I'm glad He bought it all. And
all to Him I owe. It's just our reasonable service,
isn't it? It's our reasonable service. He said, "...be not
conformed to this world, but transformed by the renewing of
our minds, which renewing is the Holy Spirit, is the work
of the Spirit of God in us." Our minds were renewed at our
new birth, but they're also continually being renewed by the Spirit of
God to look to Christ and not be conformed to this world. And we know this, that the Apostle
said that every one of us as believers, we are part of one
body, aren't we? Part of one body. And this one
body has many different functions. So it is in the church that every
one of us have different gifts, different callings of the grace
of God by which the church functions. Some are preachers. Some are
pastors. Some are teachers. Some are exhorters. Some are
givers. Whatever it is that God has given
you in the function of the church, what are we to be doing, believers?
We are to be exercising those gifts. Those gifts and graces
of God. And how? And what is the motive
of our... What is the attitude, rather,
of our exercise? Do we exercise these gifts as
a drudgery, as grievous? No. Paul said, let love be without
hypocrisy. Your love to God, your love to
the brethren. We're not acting here. We're
not acting. This is not pretend. We love
God because He first loved us. We love Christ because He died
for us. We love the Spirit of God because
He teaches us and keeps us. And we love the brethren. We love the brethren. That's
the motivation of all of our exercise. Be kindly affectionate
one to another. In brotherly love, an honor preferring
one another. Not slothful in this business,
but always making haste. Making haste in love. I like to call that preemptive
love. Just do it beforehand. Love,
when fervent in spirit, as unto the Lord, serving the Lord, rejoicing
in our hope which is Christ, patient in our tribulation, being
continuing in prayer, giving to the necessity of the saints,
and here it is, bless them which persecute you. And this is the
first thing I want us to see this morning is persecution. Every believer in Christ understands
and knows we all suffer persecution. We all do. Not one of us. Even our Lord was persecuted. Therefore, none of us are ever
going to escape persecution in this world. Persecution. Now, according to the opinion
of religion, when a man becomes a believer, his persecution should
go away. And that's what they think. That's
what religion teaches. If you just had enough faith,
you'd be healthy, happy, and wealthy. Isn't that what it is?
If you just believed enough, then that's what God wants for
you. That's what you'll get. Many believe that God's will
is for us to receive all the pleasures and benefits this life
has to offer. But that's far from the truth.
That's not true. A person who becomes a believer in Christ,
we have peace with God. But I tell you this, we don't
have peace with this world. We don't have peace with the
devil. We don't have peace even in our
flesh. When we were lost, we were at
peace. We were at peace with the world.
Now, that doesn't say we didn't have troubles, we didn't have
difficulties or anything like that. But we weren't concerned about
eternal matters then, were we? And in Psalm 73, you know, he
said, there's no bands in their death. Isn't that right? They
don't have any concern about... Believer, do you have concerns
about death? You know you do. You know you are troubled about
many things concerning death, concerning your sorrows in this
world, because you know something of spiritual matters. But then
we were not troubled with these sins or difficulties. But the day a man is freed by
Jesus Christ, freed from his guilt of sin, the power of sin,
and one day he'll be free from the presence of sin, And this
is because God has made something new. God has created in us a
new heart, a new nature. And once that takes place, then
begins true persecution. True persecution. And in these
three areas, every believer in Christ is persecuted. We have
a new heart. And the first area of persecution
is very personal. It's the persecution of our flesh.
Every believer suffers the persecution of his natural man. When we believed in Christ, it
is then that a spiritual warfare began. We were born of the Spirit
of God, given a new nature which is holy. The Scripture says that
we are created after God in true holiness. True holiness. And as a result of this new creation,
this warfare begins with our flesh. We that are believers
in Christ are persecuted daily by doubts and fears, by our conscience. as a result of our past sins
and even our present sins. We are daily put to the test
by our flesh, and yet every believer, every
believer longs for mastery over this flesh. We do. Why? Because you have a new nature.
This new nature now rules in your heart. Therefore the scripture says
put not your trust in princes in man nor the son of man You
know what happens when a believer is freed by the grace of God.
He no longer trusts himself He no longer puts any trust in his
flesh. No no trust in man All of our trust is in God There's
no help Here is there there's no help in here. There's no help
out there The only help for us is God the only hope for us is
Christ And so then believer you are
constantly persecuted your constant warfare, so let us fight We're to fight against this flesh
and Fight putting trust in ourself. That's what the flesh wants you
to do, isn't it? To trust yourself. We must fight against that thing,
that flesh that persecutes us. How many times, believer, have
you felt the presence of God as though you could take on the
world? Now, that's a wonderful... I know that's good when we feel
that when God gives us His presence so much so we stand so boldly
We think that we could go out and preach the gospel and millions
would come. We feel as we could take on the
world and all the hosts of hell. Sins, persuasions over us seem
to be passed and we're able to stand in our own strength. What
then is the temptation? What is the persecution? Trust
yourself. That's a temptation when we have
those high moments. But we always must be aware of
this, the flesh is no way getting better. He found that to be so. Is your
flesh getting any better? No. Paul said, ìIn my flesh dwelleth
no good thing, O wretched man that I am.î who shall deliver
me from the body of this death." Now, that letter was close to
the end of his life. This is what we find to be true,
that we are wretched in this flesh, and in us dwells no good
thing, therefore we are daily, constantly persecuted by this
flesh. Is that not right? We are. The
second enemy is like unto that the devil. The devil, we are
persecuted by the enemy of our souls. Satan is a roaring lion
walking about, seeking whom he may devour. Let us never underestimate
this foe. Never to fall for his lie. One
of the greatest tricks that he performed is to make men believe
he doesn't exist. To make himself to be nothing
more than a myth. No, friend, he's real. He's real. But we must understand He is
defeated. He is defeated. He is cast out
of every believer's heart so as not to be our master. He is
bound by the cross of Christ so as to never be able to accuse
our souls or destroy us before the Father or remove us from
the hand of Christ. And see now that the power by
which He accused us has been dealt with at the cross. When
our Savior died and suffered the wrath of God for our sins,
there is nothing therefore He can accuse us of anymore. Why? Our sins are gone. There's
nothing to accuse. There's nothing by which He may
lay hold of us. You remember it says in Revelation
chapter 10, it says that, "...Now is salvation come, and strength,
and the kingdom of God, and the power of Christ. For the accuser
of the brethren is cast down, which accused them day and night
before the Lord." He is cast down. But this does not mean he will
not try to accuse you. It doesn't mean that he'll leave
you alone. The Apostle says this, that we
should take the shield of faith, wherewith you shall be able to
quench the fiery darts of who? The wicked one. Now, none of
these darts will stick before God. None of His accusations
will prevail against God, prevail to God. But surely do they not
often prevail against us? Child of God, we must recognize
that our battle is not with flesh and blood." Isn't that the mistake
of false religion? They think that if they chain
their body, somehow they can stop their soul from sinning. They used to mutilate their bodies
and try to keep them from sin, but that was never the way. We are spiritual, our spiritual
enemy. Satan knows that he cannot pluck
us from our Father's hand, but he longs to use you to bring
reproach upon God. Isn't that what his desire is?
To bring reproach upon the things of God. you know him being the highest
created being at that time the highest of the angels you realize
what it is that that cause pride as well in his heart he said
i shall be exalted above the stars you know that it you and
me to understand that man should be exalted above him caused him
such pride and rage. And he was cast down. But dear
friend, we have no cause to fear him. Although he roars like a
lion, his teeth have been removed. I got a little dog and sometimes
she sniffs at Audrey and it kind of startles her, but I think
she only has one tooth. She'll gum you to death, but
that's about it. Friends, Satan's teeth have been
removed. And make no mistake, outside
of Christ, we are no match for him. We cannot in our own strength
faith such a foe and his persecution, his rage against us, unless we
have the protection of Christ. Remember, Judas betrayed the
Lord. I tell you this, Peter denied
him too. Now what was the difference?
Satan hath desired to sift thee as wheat, Peter, but what? I have prayed for thee, that
thy faith fail not. So what is it about this persecution
of Satan? Friends, we are persecuted by
him. Constantly does his darts fling
at our heart to try to accuse us. But what is our hope? Christ
is our hope. Christ is our protection. Christ
hath prayed for us. Christ hath interceded for us. And so often by his attacks,
he causes us to question God, question God's love. If God loves
me, then why is my life so messed up? Why? If God loves me, then
why am I in such pain? These are whispers. These are
whispers of the enemy. Make no mistake about it. These
are spiritual accusations against God and against His promise. If you're a Christian, how could
you do such things as you do? Anybody got experience in this?
This is the trouble of every believer. This is the persecution
we all face. We all face this. And so then we must take the
shield of faith in order to quench these things. The shield of faith
quenches the darts. Faith in what? In Christ. In Christ. You remember that
high priest Joshua and Zechariah? He stood before God in those
filthy rags, nothing to say. He was guilty. And there Satan stood at his
right hand to accuse him. But before he made one accusation,
you remember, the Lord Jesus Christ rebuked him. Is this not
a brand pluck from the burning? Take the robe and put it on him.
Take the crown and put it on his head. And the Lord stood
by to make sure it happened. This is our hope against such
a foe. We have nothing to say, do we?
You have anything to justify yourself concerning your sin?
No. Christ is my advocate. Christ
is my righteousness. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again. Whoever liveth at the right hand
of God to make intercession for us. Now those are some persecutions
we all face. The flesh and the devil. Now in this text, This specific
persecution is talking about another persecution that every
believer faces. The world. This is talking about
our interaction with all the people around us. The world. The world will persecute you. The world will persecute you. This world is no friend to believers. This world, rather, is a pawn
of Satan. Remember our Lord called those
Pharisees, what did He say? You are of your father, the devil,
and the lust of your father you will do. Now, you want to know
what the world is going to do? They're going to do what their
father does. They're going to live like their
Father. They're going to live like Him. This world, its system,
and its religion, because they're Father of the devil, they are
set against Christ, and they are set against you. Everything
and everyone in this world have their weapons drawn, their fists
clenched against the gospel of Christ and God's free grace,
and all who are set to defend it. let us in believers understand
that we're never going to be friends of the world that is
something i know that is it goes against our nature we think if
we can just befriend them enough that will be free we're gonna
talk about how we have to interact with these people that the world
we we should I'm not saying that this is by no means telling us
to be a monk living in some solitude somewhere. Because we do have
to interact with these people. Why? Because God's elect are
still among these people. We must preach the gospel to
every creature. We must. So we must interact
with these. So Christ has done... He said,
I didn't come to take you out of the world, but that I'm going
to keep you in the world. So this world, we should never
think that this world is going to come around. They're never
going to come around. They're at enmity against God. Our Lord said this to us, love
you one another. That's His commandment to us.
If the world hates you, know this, it hated me before it hated
you. And if you were of the world,
guess what? The world loved you. But because you're not of the
world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the
world hates you. Remember the word I've spake unto you, the
servant is not greater than his lord. If they have persecuted
me, they will also persecute you. If they've kept my saying,
they'll keep yours. But all these things will they
do for my name's sake. This is the religious world.
The world will hate you, but the religious world, they'll
do it for his name's sake. They'll kill you and say it was
for God. Because they know not the Father
which sent me. And if I had not spoken to them,
they had not sinned. But now they have no cloak for
their sin. He that hateth me, hateth the
Father also. Now see, the world hates Christ
because of what? Because of His gospel. They hated His gospel. Now, if
Jesus would have shut up and just healed them and fed them,
they would have loved Him. But because His Gospel exposes sin,
they hated it. They hated the Gospel. They hated
Him. They hated Him, really, without
a cause! A man just tells you the truth.
Why should you hate a man that just tells you the truth? That's
what he said. He said, I just told you the
truth. Why do you hate me and seek to kill me? They hated him
without a cause. And they will hate you without
a cause too. They hate you without a true
reason to hate you. Why? Because believers, we're
not sent into the world to kill or to destroy or even try to
change the government or its system. And yet, we're the most
hated. Love you one another. Now, why
would anybody hate you for that? Why would we hate for telling
men the truth about their sin and about righteousness and justification? Yet they do. They hate us. Jesus says, I have chosen you
out of the world. Men hate that message, don't
they? I have chosen you out of the world. That salvation is
not of free will or works, but of grace. And when you preach
that, and you should, you should hold fast to that gospel. And when you do, you will be
persecuted. They will hate you. When we preach
the gospel of God's sovereignty to the lost men, their sin, And
hopeless estate is exposed, and because they would rather believe
a lie than the truth, they'll persecute you. Jesus warns His
disciples that this religious world would throw them out and
say they did God a service. Therefore, we as believers not
only understand this in theory. This is not just a theory for
us, is it? This is real. This is real. Go tell your family the gospel. Tell them, tell your family who
worship in a free will works religion church that their God
is not God. And see if you get invited over
for dinner. See if Christmas is cheerful. See if there's any
peace in the home. There won't be any peace. They
will hate you. They will persecute you. And
you know what they'll think? It's for God. We're doing this
for God. I do remember a sweet elderly
couple in our family, Uncle Warren and Hazel. Sweet elderly people
never said a cross word to me in my life and I remember we
were just married or dating, I don't know Cheryl, we were
young. We were eating dinner, and I
mentioned the Gospel. I started talking. We were talking
about the Scriptures, and so I proceeded to tell how wondrous
the sovereign election of God was and how great the redemption
of Christ was, and I thought they were believers. I thought
they loved this Gospel. I didn't know any different.
That's the only time that man ever said one crossword to me,
and I could see the hatred in his eyes. And I was, I just was dumbfounded.
I didn't, he started throwing out things to me and I didn't,
I wasn't expecting an argument. And all my wise, Cheryl's grandfather
was so wise. All he did was quote scripture.
He said, what do you do with this scripture? It's not of him
that willeth or him that runneth, but God that showeth mercy. As
many as received him, to them gave he the right to be called
the sons of God, which were born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. What do you do with that? And
he shut the man up. But I've never seen more hatred
from a man than I saw that night. You tell your family and see
if you have any joy and peace in this holiday season. No, you
won't. Why? They hate it. They hate
it. We shall have tribulation, Jesus told us. We'll have peace
in our hearts, but not in this world. Not in this world. What then are we to do with such
persecution? How are we to respond? Again,
I remember the foolishness of my own heart in responding in
anger. That's not how believers are
to respond. What does our text say? Bless them which persecute Bless and curse not. We're children of God. We preach
the gospel to others. We understand where they're coming
from. Why? And you hath he quickened who
were dead. Trespasses. who walked according to the course
of this world according to the prince the power of the air the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience by grace you were saved now when they persecute you what
are you to do? Bless them. Bless them. How? By continually telling them
the truth. By continually preaching this
same gospel. By standing fast, we blessed
Him. Isn't that how we were blessed?
When we were lost, isn't that how God used? He used His people
to preach to us the truth. And how did they preach it? In
anger or love? In duty or out of compassion? This is how we're to interact
with our persecutors. Is this not how our Lord interacted
with His persecutors? As they were nailing His hands
to the cross, what did He say? Father, forgive them. They know
not what they did. Isn't that how we are to treat
the lost? In compassion, mercy, not in
condescending looks. As though we have something,
obtained something of our own merits. No, we were lost and
God saved us. We can only do this as we look
to the cross. You can only bless them that
persecute you as you look to the cross and see what Christ
did for you. For God commendeth His love toward
us. When? After we were saved? After we were made holy? He commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners. Christ died for the
ungodly. Died for us. Dear child of God,
God that commended His love, does He not still commend His
love to us? See then His example for us,
as He loved us even when we were unlovable. So then we should
love men, even when they're unlovable. What is the purpose of this?
Why are we to exhibit such love? Because so much more love was
exhibited to us than we could ever give to anyone else. Our Lord says this in Matthew
5, 44. He says, I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them
that curse you. Do good to them that hate you.
Pray for them that despitefully use you and persecute you. Any
clearer can that be? Can you think of any words that
are more clear than what He just said? Are you persecuted by the
world? What do you do? Bless them. Bless
them. Do good to them that despitefully
use you and persecute you on purpose. As they are on purpose
doing evil to you, you should on purpose do good to them. Why? That you may be the children
of your Father which is in heaven, that you might display who you
really are. You see, our goodness to others
does not make us children of God, but because we are children
of God, this is what children of God do. They do as their Father. The world does as their Father.
What do we do? We do as our Father. For He maketh the sun to rise
on the evil and the good, and sendeth His rain on the just
and the unjust. Listen, if we love those that love us, how
much different are we than the world? Are we any different at
all? No. But if we love them that hate
us, we are only exemplifying the character of our Savior. So what is it to bless our enemies?
First of all, to bless them is to pray for their blessing. That's
what it is. for their blessings. When they curse you, ask God
to pour out on them blessings, especially salvation. Is that
not what we're praying for? Is this not the greatest blessing
that men could have? Bless them! How? Pray that God
would save them. This should be the longing of
every believer's heart. We should pray Pray down the blessings of God
upon their heart that He would give them peace. Is this world
at peace? Is a man lost at peace? No, he's
constantly troubled. Constantly. Never finding a safe
harbor. Never finding rest. Would that
not be the most blessed... Isn't that what happened to you?
Isn't that the most blessed thing that ever happened to you? When
God gave you rest. when you've pulled into the harbor
of grace and you've found shelter, you've found refuge in Christ. Rest in peace. Pray for these
things. Joy that comes only by the Holy
Spirit. And we as believers are, as Paul
says in Ephesians 5, he said, Be ye therefore followers of
God as dear children. We as believers may love those who persecute us. And we do this not by accepting
their sin, but rather exposing it. Isn't that love? Which is better? Is it love to
cover sin? Or is it love to expose it? It's
love to expose it. Your doctor, if you had cancer,
and your doctor says, well, I just love him too much to tell him.
Well, that's foolish. Especially foolish if there's
a remedy. So I'm telling you of your sin, but I'm also telling
you of a remedy. That's love. That's what it is
to bless them that curse you. To do good to them that despitefully
use you is to show them Christ. to point them to the Son of God,
the only hope. And so then, how are we to do
this? Fervently. Continually. Bless them. Now listen, I know this, we're
persecuted by the world, but sometimes believers are even
persecuted by each other. I've seen this and it's very
sad in the church. Some men want the preeminence.
Some men want the... So they have to put someone down
in order to get themselves up, lift themselves up. This is horrible
in the church of God. But it happens. And even if it
happens among us, what are we to do? Bless them that curse you. Pray for them. Love them. Forgive them. How? Even as God. For Christ's sake. Forgave you. How freely did you forgive you? Well, that's how freely you're
to forgive your brother. May God give us such hearts to
bless them that curse us. We are persecuted. The flesh
persecutes us. Satan does. But in this scripture
it is really the world and even some brethren who persecute us.
And the Word is clear. Unmistakable. Bless them that
curse you. May God give us such grace and
love to do it, even as we are instructed by the mercies of
God.