All right, Matthew chapter 5.
Title of our lesson this morning is Blessed are the persecuted.
Our text begins in verse 10. The Lord says, Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely for my name's sake. Now, this is the last beatitude,
and it's probably the one that is the most contrary to our flesh. The Lord says blessed are the
persecuted. He doesn't say blessed are those
who are in the majority crowd. Blessed are those everybody gets
along with, everybody says nice things about. He says blessed
are the persecuted. He doesn't say a person is blessed
when everybody you know is always saying nice things about you.
He says that his people are blessed when men revile us and say all
manner of evil falsely. Let's make sure it's falsely
that they say all manner of evil about us. Now, remember, the
Lord's not telling us how to be saved in the Beatitudes. In
the Beatitudes, the Lord is telling us what he makes all of his people
when he saves them. So just like we don't have to
produce poverty of spirit, we don't have to produce a spirit
that mourns over our sin, we don't have to produce meekness,
we don't have to produce this persecution either. Don't feel
like the Lord's telling us that we've got to go out and get people
to persecute us. And if you want somebody to persecute
you, I can tell you how to do it. Just act self-righteous and
holier than thou. Act like you're better than them
and just act like you've got the moral superiority to correct
every little thing you see they're doing wrong. I promise you they'll
persecute you. I promise you that they'll hate
you. But the believer is not supposed to act like that at
all. We're not supposed to go around trying to bring this persecution
upon ourselves. Because remember what we studied
last time in verse eight or verse nine, blessed are the peacemakers
for they shall be called the children of God. Verse 9 is describing
the exact same people being described in verse 10. Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake. It's describing the same
person because these Beatitudes describe every believer. Now
a peacemaker, you know a peacemaker doesn't go around picking fights
with people, picking religious and doctrinal fights with people.
He's a peacemaker. Nobody is one to Christ by arguing
them into heaven. I see these people on the internet,
they like to argue, you know, back and forth. And I hope since
they're doing it kind of facelessly, you know, and typing it out that
they only say these things because they're not face to face with
somebody. But the ugly things that they say and the ugly way
they say things to one another, arguing these points of doctrine.
Like if I can just get somebody to see how stupid they are that
they disagree with me and understand this point of doctrine, they'll
be saved. No, they won't. God saves his people through
the foolishness of preaching, not by believing an individual
point of doctrine, but by believing Christ. If we believe Christ,
the doctrine is going to fall right into place. So if we're
going to be persecuted, let's just be sure it's not because
we act like a jerk and we deserve to be hated and deserve to be
persecuted. Let's be sure if we're being punished for crimes,
it's not crimes we committed, we don't deserve this punishment.
The Lord says, blessed are those, not just who are persecuted,
but persecuted for righteousness sake, for righteousness sake. Now, what righteousness is the
Lord talking about here? Is it a righteousness that being
persecuted because it's self-righteous? No, it's his righteousness. It's the only righteousness that
there is. In verse 11, the Lord says, The blessed are the people
who are persecuted for my namesake, my namesake, because his name
declares his righteousness. The righteousness he's talking
about here is the righteousness that the Lord Jesus earned as
a man under the law. We obey the law perfectly. It's
the only righteousness of his people. It's his righteousness
imputed to them and his righteousness imparted to them, put in them
in the new birth. Look back over at Romans chapter
one. And this is the righteousness
we preach. This righteousness is the point
of the gospel. Romans one verse 15. Paul says, so as much as in me
is, I'm ready to preach the gospel to you that are at Rome also.
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, For it is the power
of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and also to the Greek. For therein, in this gospel,
the gospel of Christ, is the righteousness of God revealed
from faith to faith. As it's written, the just shall
live by faith. So this righteousness declared
in the gospel, the righteousness of Christ, is the righteousness
every believer believes. that every believer, I don't
care where you find them, they hang their soul upon this righteousness. It's the righteousness of Christ
that's revealed in the gospel without any of their works being
added to it. And the world, the flesh, hates
that righteousness. The world hates the righteousness
of Christ. Now the world's not going to
persecute you for living a moral good life. The world's not going
to persecute you and hate you for being an honest and kind
person, being a good husband, a good wife, a good neighbor.
The world won't have anything against you. The world won't
hate you for doing good works. They won't hate you for feeding
the poor. They won't hate you for sheltering the homeless and
giving to battered women's causes and orphanages and so forth.
The world persecutes us for righteousness sake. because of the gospel that
we preach declares that men cannot produce any righteousness at
all by our works. Men hate us when we tell them
the truth of the gospel, that Christ's righteousness, His obedience
is the only obedience that we have. Nobody will even hate you
for saying that this world is a cesspool of iniquity and it's
going to hell in a handbasket. Nobody will persecute you for
that. Nobody will hate us even for saying that men are sinners.
And we ought not sin as much as we do. That's a true statement. I mean, we can't stop it, but
we ought not sin as much as we do. The world won't even hate
us for saying that all men are sinners. People who come to a
religious service, they won't hate you for saying you're a
sinner that needs a savior. Here's why they'll hate us. When
we say the fact that you're a sinner means this. You've got to define
what you mean. The fact that you're a sinner
means this. You can't save yourself. You can't do anything to make
yourself more savable. You can't do anything to make
yourself righteous because your best deeds. Scripture says your
righteousness is the very best things that you do. But damn
you to hell. They're filthy rags. They're
rags completely defiled with sin. They're not going to cover
your sin. They'll just add to it and God
will never accept it. The only righteousness God will
accept is the righteousness of Christ. And it's all Christ without
us adding anything to it. And if you would be saved, you've
got to bow to him. You've got to bow to Christ.
You've got to submit yourself to the righteousness of Christ.
And here's how you submit yourself to the righteousness of Christ.
You quit going about trying to establish your own by your own
works. You got to submit that bowing
to Christ. Well, you tell folks that now
you got to fight on your hands because you took away their glory.
You took away their glory and salvation and you made them helpless
and hopeless. You put them on the same plane
as the heartless out on the street. you made them completely dependent
upon God's grace. If you would be saved, since
you can't save yourself, you can't do anything to add to your
righteousness, you've got to beg God for mercy. And all the
flesh hates that. The flesh hates to have to beg. But that's the only way salvation
is possible. Look over Galatians chapter two.
The apostle wrote a whole book, a whole epistle to tell us That
very fact, that salvation is by faith, without our works.
Galatians 2 verse 21. It's not by the law, it's not
through the law, it's through faith. Paul says, I do not frustrate
the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. If righteousness could come by
you and me keeping the law, Christ died in vain. There's no reason
for God to put his son to death. That's how serious this matter
is. Luke chapter three, verse 10. For as many as are of the
works of the law, they're under the curse. For it's written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. If you offend in one point,
you're guilty of all. But that no man is justified
by the law in the sight of God, it's evident. For the just shall
live by faith, not by their works, by faith. Look down at verse
22 of Galatians chapter three. But the scripture hath concluded
all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might
be given to them that believe, that believe. Now, you preach
this message to God's people. And the believer is going to
love that message. That's my hope. That's why I
love having no hope, no other option but Christ. The believer
loves that message, but the world's going to hate it. And they're
going to persecute anybody that loves what they hate. The world
will hate us when we tell them you can't be saved under a false
gospel. God will never use a lie to save
anybody. Well, now you've got a fight
on your hands, you tell them that. because you've taken their
hope away. Now, it was a false hope. But
when you take it away, you're going to make them mad. Oh, they're
going to hate you for it. The world hates hearing this
truth that the only gospel God uses to save sinners is the gospel
of the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. I tell you why they hate
it, because this is what that means. That I am dependent on
God to send the gospel to me. I'm depending on him to send
it to me. And I'm dependent upon him to
give me faith to believe it. I can't just be saved my own
way. I'm dependent on God to do it all. Now, you preach that
message to God's people, they'll love you for it. They love that
message, but the world hates that message. And they'll persecute
anybody that loves what they hate. Those who preach and believe
the gospel, they will be persecuted. for Christ's sake, for the gospel
sake. Like I said a minute ago, I want to stress this. Let's
be sure that when we're persecuted, when we're hated, when people
revile us and say all manner of evil falsely against us, let's
be sure it's for Christ's sake, not because we're hard to get
along with. If we faithfully declare that Christ's righteousness
is the only righteousness we have, that our works and our
morality I can't add to it. Believers will love that message.
They'll be saved by it. They'll be blessed by it. They'll
love you for the message saved. But the world naturally hates
that message because it's contrary to the flesh. And they'll hate
you for preaching it. They'll hate you for believing
it. The message of Christ offends the flesh. That's why the flesh
hates it. The message of the gospel offends
the pride. of the flesh. When we declare that I'm nothing
but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, that paints an ugly picture
of me, doesn't it? It's an accurate picture, but
it's an ugly picture. Well, that takes away all my
pride. The flesh hates the gospel because the gospel offends the
strength of the flesh. You know, we want us to think
we're so strong and so self-sufficient But the gospel says we're dead.
I mean, not just that we're weak, we're dead. I'm incapable of
believing Christ unless God gives me faith. I cannot come to Christ
unless the spirit draws me to him. That offends my strength. The gospel offends the religiousness
of the flesh, takes away all hope in false religion, It makes
it in Christ alone. The flesh hates that message
and they'll persecute anybody that believes it. And they'll
revile you. They'll say all kinds of things
about you that are not true. They'll say, why? You don't believe
that stuff, do you? You don't believe that election
stuff, do you? Well, naturally I don't. But by God's grace I
do. They'll say, well, if you believe
that, you don't care anything about holy living. You think
people just go out there and sin all they want. When the opposite
is true, it's not true. The gospel never gives us an
excuse for sin. If we think the gospel gives,
gives me, if I think the gospel gives me excuse to sin, I said,
well, it doesn't matter. You know, Christ paid for that
sin. And I've not heard the gospel. The gospel teaches us be ye wholesome.
as your father, which is an Ebenezer. And they'll say, well, if you
can't earn your own righteousness, then you don't care anything
about good works. When the opposite's true, what
does the scripture teach us? To be careful to maintain good
works. Now, the difference in that is
the motive for them. One is done in a mercenary attitude,
trying to earn something from God, and the other is done out
of love and thanksgiving. And then they'll say this, this
is one you hear all the time. Why? You believe babies go to
hell. How horrible are you believing
babies go to hell? And you know the exact opposite
is true. I don't know anybody that knows
the Lord thinks that. Matter of fact, electing grace
is the only way, the only way a baby can go to hell. That's
right. Those people in free will say,
well, you've got to make a decision. You've got to have enough good
works to, you know, create your own righteousness. Well, baby
never was able to do any of that stuff, were they? Then how can
they go to heaven? The only way a baby can go to
heaven, a baby who's stillborn, a baby who comes into this earth
life born and takes one breath and dies. I have a daughter who works as
a NICU nurse, neonatal intensive care. What a horrible, horrible day. Those nurses had one of those
babies die. They're so sad. And she said,
my only, my only hope is that baby is in the presence of the
Lord. But how can that baby go be with
the Lord? The same way I can. Almighty God chose me and sent
his son to die for me, to redeem me. to wash me from all of my
sin and make me righteous without any of my works whatsoever. Same way that baby can go to
heaven. And then they'll say this, why? You believe this election
stuff? Then you believe that a person
wants to be saved and they're going to go to hell anyway. They're
going to go, they want to be saved, but God didn't choose
them. And God, they want to be saved. God just won't let them.
And they're going to go to hell anyway. That's a lie. Nothing could be
further from the truth. The only reason any son of Adam
wants to be saved on God's terms is God elected him and he has
done a work of grace in their heart. Anybody that wants to
be saved on God's terms is already saved. You know why they want
to be saved on God's terms? God gave them a new heart, a
new nature, a new person. Everybody who wants to be saved
on God's terms will. Everybody who comes to Christ
begging for mercy is going to have it. I defy you. Find one example in scripture
where that's not true. The fact of the matter is, you
know why they came begging to Christ and begging for forgiveness?
The Spirit drew them to Christ in the first place. That's the
only reason that they did. Now, you who believe, you love
that message, but the flesh hates it. This world is going to persecute
anybody who dares to preach that boldly and clearly. And if I
don't get some persecution, if I don't get some hatred for Christ's
sake and for righteousness sake, then I'm not preaching the gospel
clearly enough. That's so. Because the goal of
this persecution, the goal of this ridicule, they ridicule
you, persecute you, trying to get you to turn your back on
grace, to quit preaching and quit believing this message that
offends them so much. I'll tell you another place where
every believer suffers this persecution. It comes from inside of us. You
don't have to go looking for it. It comes from inside us,
from are man of the flesh. That old man, that flesh will
always war against the new man. God saves one of his people.
That flesh is unchanged. That flesh is still contrary
to God. That flesh still will not submit
to God. And that old man is going to
do everything that he can do to bring me back under captivity
to the law. That's persecution. Oh, it's
miserable. And no matter where you go, you
can't get away from that persecution, can you? Because you carry this
dead carcass around with you everywhere you go. And if my
preaching does not offend the flesh and cause people to be
uncomfortable, I'm not preaching the gospel clearly enough. Now,
I don't want you to go home uncomfortable all the time and thinking, you
know, The preacher made me doubt my salvation this morning. I
doubt salvation by grace. That's not the kind of uncomfortable
I'm talking about. I'm talking about the flesh becoming uncomfortable
because the flesh is constantly looking for a way to earn a righteousness. Self-righteousness will pop its
ugly head up at the most unlikely times because he's always trying
to earn a righteousness. And when the gospel is preached
clearly, The flesh is slain. When the gospel is preached clearly,
all hope of self-righteousness is taken away and the flesh becomes
uncomfortable. And the believer loves it. That's good that the flesh becomes
uncomfortable. Because you know what happens
when the flesh becomes more uncomfortable like that? The new man leans
more on Christ. The new man trusts Christ even
more. Now the flesh will hate it, but
the new man loves it. And that new man, he, only the
new man can love being reminded. The new man loves being reminded
that because that makes him look to Christ. That makes him see
that all of his hope is in Christ. And the Lord said, this person
who suffers this kind of persecution, who suffers this evil speech
against them, that person, is blessed. The person suffering
the civil war inside of them between the old man and the new
man, that person's blessed. The person who's suffering persecution
from his own flesh, that person's blessed because that civil war
is the evidence of life. That civil war is the evidence
God saved you. Before God saved you, you didn't
have that civil war, did you? Oh, you were Not only were you
comfortable with sin, you're comfortable with your own righteousness.
You're comfortable with your own works. But once God saved
you, you became uncomfortable with it. That warfare started. That person's blessed because
that's the evidence of spiritual life. In closing, I want to give
you four other ways that those who are persecuted for righteousness
sake, persecuted for Christ's sake, they're blessed. They're
supremely happy. Number one is this. The Lord
said, those who are persecuted are blessed because theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Look at Romans chapter 14. Theirs
is the kingdom of heaven, and only theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Because this kingdom has to do
with righteousness, with Christ's righteousness. Romans 14 verse
17. For the kingdom of God is not
meat and drink. It's not works, what you do,
what you don't do, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy
Ghost. For he that in these things serve
with Christ is acceptable to God and approved of men. The only people who are in the
kingdom of God, the only people who are saved are people who
have been made righteous by Christ. Not your own deeds, all in Christ.
Those people are in the kingdom of heaven. I secondly, look back
in our text, Matthew chapter five, the persecuted are blessed
because it's the persecuted who have a great reward. Verse 12,
our Lord says, rejoice and be exceeding glad for great is your
reward in heaven for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were
before you. Now, what is this great reward
in heaven? Well, it's not a reward of works.
It's not you, you know, did so many good works and you get more
crowns or bigger mansion than somebody else. It's a reward
of grace. Doesn't have to be. If we're
saved by grace, we're kept by grace, preserved by grace, called
by grace, then everything about salvation is by grace, isn't
it? Then this reward has to be the reward of grace, not works.
And I tell you what the reward of grace is. It's being made
just like Christ. To be with David and finally
be satisfied. I'm satisfied. I've got the reward. I woke in the likeness of Christ
the Savior. This reward is being able to
be with Christ. There's nothing between us. You who believe, you see now,
don't you? If it's through a glass, darkly, dimly. If it don't seem
as clear as we want to, one day we will. This reward of grace is to be
able to worship Him perfectly. How I love times when we can
gather together and worship the Lord. It's never perfectly. The reward of grace is the day
when it will be. no distractions, no sinful thoughts, not having
that old man rear his ugly head of self-righteousness anymore,
but to worship Him face to face. And we say those words, and we
believe them, don't we? We have no idea what we're saying. We just have no idea the glory
of that. And there's no comparing the
glory of heaven to our suffering here on earth. There's no comparing
it. Our suffering on earth is temporary. Righteousness is eternal. Being
with Christ forever is eternal. Look at 2 Corinthians chapter
4. We can call our afflictions on this earth light afflictions. They don't feel light to and
you're going through them, do they? I want to show you in the message
This morning, Lord willing, they're hard, but we can call them our
light afflictions only when we compare them to the eternal weight
of glory. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 15. For all things are for your sakes
that the abundant grace might through the thanksgiving of many
were down to the glory of God, for which cause we faint not.
But though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed
day by day for our light affliction. which is but for a moment, worketh
for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory. While
we look not at the things which are seen, but the things which
are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Our light affliction on this
earth is only light when we compare it to glory. And then thirdly,
the persecuted are blessed. Because if you're persecuted,
you're in good company. The world that persecutes you
persecuted the apostles and the prophets before them. They persecuted
and reviled the Lord, the apostles and the prophets. Well, where
are they now? Well, you know where the Lord
is. He's risen, isn't he? He's got a right hand of the majesty
on high. I'd sure like to join him someday, wouldn't you? The
persecuted for righteousness sake will. Look at Acts chapter
five. You know the story of the early
church and those Jews did everything they could to stamp out this
message of Christ. They persecuted them, they threw
those who believed it, those who preached it in jail, they
beat them, they stoned them. They did everything they could
to make them quit preaching this. And this has gone on for a while
and then Gamaliel had something to say to them. He's one of them,
but he had something to say to them in Acts 5 verse 38. He said, now I say unto you,
refrain from these men and let them alone. For if this counsel
or this work be of men, it'll come to naught. It'll fade away
quickly. But if it be of God, you can't overthrow it. Less
happily, you'd be found even to fight against God. And to
him they agreed. Now, they agreed, but then look
what they did. And when they called the apostles
and had beaten them, and commanded they should not speak in the
name of Jesus, then they let him go. And they departed from
the presence of the council rejoicing that they were counted worthy
to suffer shame for his name. And the persecution didn't accomplish
its end. And daily in the temple and in
every house, they ceased not to preach Jesus Christ. They
rejoiced to be identified with Christ even if it meant suffering
for His sake. They rejoiced to be counted worthy
to suffer for Christ's sake. That must mean they were preaching
the gospel clearly. They counted it a joy. And then
last, 1 Peter chapter 4. The persecuted are blessed because
they're partakers of Christ's suffering. And if we're partakers
of His suffering, we'd be partakers of His glory. 1 Peter 4 verse
12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened to you, but rejoice inasmuch as you're
partakers of Christ's suffering, that when his glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. If you be
reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you, you're blessed,
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their
part, he's evil spoken of, but on your part, He's glorified. But let none of you suffer as
a murderer or a thief or an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's
matters. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, if he suffer
for Christ's sake, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify
God on this behalf. Let him glorify God that he is
counted worthy to suffer for Christ's sake. Because if we
suffer for his sake, take part in his suffering, take part in
his All right, well, the Lord bless them.