This verse describes a very strong
test of faith. The hardest thing in the world
for a sinner to do is nothing. You always remember that. We
want to do something to please God. We want to do something
to make up for our evil. We want to do something to get
even. We want to do something, do something, do something. And
the gospel word, the gospel message is look at Christ and what he
did. And stand still and watch him
save you. He will save you, our text says.
And that's in every sense of the word. And the Lord will test
this over and over. When the Lord gives faith, if
you have faith in God's Son, if you're a believer by his grace,
Where he gives faith, he tests it. We see it all through the
scripture, we've experienced it. And we might as well anticipate
it. You reckon? Expect it. Anticipate it, look
for it in the things that happen to you rather than immediately
looking to the flesh or woe is me. Look for it. Look for tests, look for trials. And by his grace, may we pass
the test. May we endure the trial in a
godly and Christ honoring way. Almost no one does. Almost no one. And that's among
believers now. No one does that doesn't have
faith. Pass a test of faith if you don't
have any faith. We're talking about believers. I'll say it again, as I've said
many times, God is the one who keeps the books. Just one set
of books. And you don't get to see them,
you don't get any say in them. It's God's books and he balances
perfectly every time. A good way to find out if you
really believe that is for God to bring a situation. It's called
evil in our text because that could mean any bad thing that
happens to you. And that encompasses a lot. It
could be a word of slander from somebody. It could be the breaking
of a trust. It could be a slight committed
against you by a friend or harm committed against you by an enemy.
It could be many different things. Whatever it is, trust the Lord
to make it right. It's right for you to be tried
and whatever the result of that trial is, it'll be right because
it's the Lord. Pretty simple, isn't it? Now
go try it. Give it a shot. Try shutting
up, try doing nothing. And not just doing nothing here,
but in here. He makes all things beautiful
in his time. There are no exclusions to that.
Turn with me to Romans 12, 17. We'll talk specifically about
being wronged or slighted or harmed or hurt. And then we'll see this principle
apply to many, many situations. Romans 12, 17, recompense to
no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. Just be yourself, just be an
open book. What difference does it make?
Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place to wrath.
For it is written, vengeance is mine. Do it because God said,
do it because it's not your business. We think it's our business to
control our little world. No, God controls it. And we're
about it. We're about His will in it. Vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Did he not say, if
you discourage, if you set a stumbling block, if you harm one of my
little ones, it'd be better for you to tie a millstone around
your neck and cast yourself into the sea. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger,
feed him. Feed him, do what you would do
with a friend. If he thirsts, give him a drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. And
that's not bad fire, that's good fire. When you wet somebody,
when you... We know what that means because
we've experienced it. There's a lot of controversy
about what that means. You heap coals of fire, that means you
Somebody said that that means you give them coals so that they
can keep their fire. It doesn't sound like that, does
it? But we know what that means. An enemy doesn't know what to
even do about that when kindness is returned for evil. Be not overcome of
evil. Don't be overcome. And the only
way to do that is to look to Him, to trust Him, to know who He is, to know what
He did for you. If He did that for you, what's
He not gonna do for you? But overcome evil with good. Now we lose sight over and over
again of something that we should just never lose sight of, and
that is that Christ sits on the throne. I love that scripture
where in Proverbs 16, 33, the lot is cast into the lap, but
the whole disposing thereof is of the Lord. Somebody rolls a
pair of dice, and what comes up is of the Lord,
The consequences of what comes up is of the Lord. All of the
ramifications of it are of the Lord. The whole disposing thereof
is of the Lord. And I love that verse of scripture
because it reminds me who's on the throne. And that even how
minutely each detail of this world's business is determined
by him. King David was, very wrongly
and violently treated by his son Absalom. But the Lord defeated
the counsel of Ahitophel, the very good and wise counsel of
Ahitophel, in order to balance the books. There are examples of this all
through the word of God. And this principle applies to
all bad things that happen to anyone. The disciples were on
a ship in a storm. And I love this passage of scripture.
As you well know, I refer to it often. When that storm was
over and the seas are calm as glass, the Lord Jesus said, why
don't you have any faith? And they said, who in the world
is this we're dealing with? But even the winds and the seas
obey his will. Those are things that needed
to be said on both parts. And the God man used a storm
so that those words were not just talk. If he had asked them, just teaching
them verbally and said, do you think that I can calm the storm?
They probably would have thought about it. And some of the things
that they saw and said, yeah, I believe you could even calm
the storm. That's not the way the Lord teaches,
not all of it. They lived it. And believers
live it. Your faith is not just you looking
into a glass and seeing an image there and then walking away and
forgetting about it. It's your life, it's experience. It was truth experienced on that
ship. They experienced who it was they
were dealing with, and they experienced the fact that they really didn't
have any faith without the grace of the Lord, without his giving it to them. He caused them to experience
those things that were said. And that's what God is doing
when you suffer a wrong or any evil, you say you have faith,
well, let's find out. That's what it's all about, let's
find out. Whether you do, it's really easy to say that. It's really easy to say that.
But when the Lord causes you to experience faith, you're gonna
find out you probably don't have a whole lot. But you know what
that's gonna do? It's gonna cause you to look
to him and say, by his grace, I understand a little better
who I'm dealing with. What manner of man is this? Once
you've experienced faith and you see the weakness of your
faith, but it has one object, one author, one finisher. That's what faith does. It looks
to Christ. whether it's weak or strong. It's going to be a whole lot
more pleasant for you if you have strong faith. But you're not going to be any
more saved than if you had weak little faith. The disciples didn't
have much. The Lord reminded them of that
over and over. We may very well find that. We
may find that out too. But you're going to find it out.
It's not just going to be what you think or what you say. You're
going to find out. That's the way the Lord teaches
us. And always remember when God tests you, it's not so he
can find out if you have any faith, it's so you can find out
if you have any faith. You need to know that, he already
does. Our text doesn't mean that we
let people walk all over us. These questions always come up,
that there's never wrongs that we need to set right in this
world. I do have a family to consider. And if somebody hurts
them, I'm not gonna make them think that they can ever do it
again. You can use your imagination
as to how I'm gonna react. But the last thing in their mind
is, the last thing they're ever gonna wanna do again is hurt
my family, okay? We're not talking about that.
We're talking about getting even, hurting somebody because they
hurt you. And if we do that, we're wrong,
even if we're right. Always remember that too now.
You say, well, I was the one that was, the verse doesn't say
that. In fact, it really does. It says that you were the one
that was wrong. Evil was done to you. Still not right to take
matters into your own hands. Still not right. to take what's
God. He said, revenge is mine. It's not your prerogative. It's not your business. And isn't
that comforting? I know people that have spent
most of their life getting revenge on people. They're eating up
with it. I'm thankful I don't have the
energy for that. I'm glad. The verse doesn't say whether
or not you're justified in getting even. It doesn't qualify its
message based on who's right or wrong, other than the assumption
even that you're wrong, which is the case in which you think
you might be most justified to do something, but it still says
it's wrong. to recompense evil for evil.
Remember that when the time comes, when you start thinking, well,
I'm right in this, but it doesn't make any difference. It doesn't
make any difference. When our Lord Jesus Christ was
reviled, he reviled not again. That's a divine characteristic. And what a marvel of God's grace
that we might even once in a lifetime, every now and then, actually be like Him in that. God help us to be like you in
this and in all things. Now let's don't miss the powerful
beauty of the latter part of this verse. He will save you. He's been saving you since long
before you were ever born. What makes you think He's gonna
let you go now? What right in this world do you
have to believe that He would let you go now, that He would
let you be harmed? When you think it's just so important
to get revenge, it's just all you can think about is getting
even. When you are ready to forfeit a friendship over some vain conflict
or to get the flesh involved when you think you've suffered
a wrong or a loss of some kind, consider that the master has
numbered every hair on your head and not one of them falls to
the ground without you. He knows how many you have. He
manages even that. He has and shall save us in every
way that a person can be saved all the time every moment of
every day He will not suffer the psalmist
said he will not suffer that foot to be moved He that keepeth thee will not
slumber So may our prayer and our solemn
resolve and all things be in What he also said in that song,
I will lift up my eyes into the hills from which cometh my help. It's not gonna come from in here.
It's not gonna come from in here. I'm gonna lift up my eyes to
where my help comes from. My help cometh from the Lord
who made heaven and earth. May the Lord teach us in our
hearts profoundly who He is and what He's done
for us. Because if we know that, we'll
know this. Amen.