Alright, brethren, let's turn
to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10. Well, I just don't understand
why they are treating us that way. I just don't know what makes
them be so cruel to my brother and my sister in Christ. Why can't they just believe the
gospel? Why don't they just believe? Have you ever made those kinds
of statements? Those are the kinds of things that believers
sometimes say when we're persecuted, when we're treated cruelly, when
our name is slandered, when our sovereign Savior is rejected.
But I want to show you from the Scripture here why you and I
ought never be surprised about any of these sorts of treatments
that we get from men in this world. Whenever we're slandered,
when we're reproached, or when we're persecuted in this life
for the name of Christ Jesus, we should never be surprised.
Because the Lord Jesus said in Matthew 10.34, Think not that
I have come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace,
but a sword. In the context, the Master is
sending out His disciples to serve Him in preaching the Gospel.
And He's telling them what they can expect, what they should
expect from men as they go forth. And He's looking beyond just
their present mission that they were sent on. He was looking
towards when they went out into all the world preaching the gospel.
And so this passage applies to us right here today. Every believer
called of God is a servant of God. And we're standing for Christ
and we're bearing witness of Christ in this world. And this
passage tells us exactly what we can expect in this world. But these words of our Redeemer
are to warn and instruct us as well as to encourage and comfort
us. He says, think not that I am
come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword." You know, many think that Christ came to send peace
on earth. Many think that the believer
is going to have temporal peace, and he's going to have wealth,
and he's going to have health, and all of these things. But
Christ said, think not. Don't think that. Think not that
I came to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but
a sword. I want to show you first of all
the peace our Savior did come. to give. And then secondly, the
peace He did not come to give, this sword and these different
kinds of suffering we can expect. And then thirdly, what our Savior
tells us to do as we suffer. Now first of all, our Savior
did come to give peace. He did come, but you notice there
in the text that He distinguishes the peace that He came to give.
He says there, think not that I came to send peace on earth. He didn't come to send peace
on earth. Not peace on earth. In fact, He came to send a sword.
It's a sword. But Christ does give peace. He
does give peace. Christ came to give His people
peace with God. Peace with God. Look at Romans
5. Romans chapter 5. This is the peace Christ came
to give. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1 says, Therefore, being
justified. By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope
of the glory of God. Look down at verse 6. God the
Father gave His people to Christ, but when Christ came to this
earth, we were enemies to Christ. Verse 6 says, when we were yet
without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die. Somebody would
die for a righteous man, yet peradventure for a good man some
would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we
were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being
reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. You see, He made
peace with God for His people. Colossians 1.20 says, And having
made peace through the blood of His cross by Him to reconcile
all things to Himself, by Him, I say, whether they're things
in heaven or things in hell, earth, and you that were sometime
alienated, and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now
hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to
present you holy and without blame, unreprovable in his sight."
Christ took our place and he took our sin. Everybody's, not
everybody's, but everybody that the Father gave to him, he took
our place and he took our sin. He took our stripes and he took
our death. He took our curse and He took
the commandment away from us. And Christ made peace with God
and reconciled us to God through the blood of His cross. And Christ
came to give His people peace in our hearts and our conscience.
Even though He did this, we were still, it says of us, the way
of peace, have they not known? And that was us. You sitting
here now who believe, we didn't know the way of peace. And Ephesians
2 says, and He came and preached peace to you which were far off
and to them that were nigh. And the Holy Spirit gave us a
new heart and sprinkled our conscience with the blood of Christ and
showed us our sin and showed us that Christ put away our sin.
And He filled us with the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace,
longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, and faith. And the peace of God
that passes all understanding began to fill our hearts and
our minds through Christ Jesus. And the peace of God began to
rule in our hearts. And the God of all hope filled
us with all joy and peace in believing. And we began to abound
in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. And therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. We believed
on Him. We were drawn by Him to believe
on Him. So we confessed Him in believers'
baptism. We were willing to bear whatever
for His name. We confessed Him and united with
our brethren in His church. Because that's what else He came
to do. He came to give us peace with our brethren, with one another.
By His grace, we began to see what a great gift He had given
us in sending us somebody to preach the gospel to us. And
we began to say how beautiful are the feet of them that preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things to
come. We began to love our brethren
that sacrificed sacrificially so that we could have that gospel.
And so we began endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit
in the bond of peace. Because we saw what God had given
us, something very, very rare, a body of brethren where peace
exists. And together with our brethren,
we began following righteousness and faith and charity and peace
with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart. That's what
we started doing. And our Savior said, Now these
things I have spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace. This is what we have because
of Him. He says, In me you have peace. But He told us, In the
world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have
overcome the world, He said. So every believer here knows
this peace. We know He came to give peace.
And we've got this peace. If we're a true believer, we've
got this peace. We've got peace with God. We've
got peace in our conscience. Our sins are purged. We have
no guilt before God. Our hearts have been sprinkled
so that we have affection and love for Him. We're constrained
by His love. And we have peace with our brethren.
We have something very rare and precious in this world. But in
this world, there's something different. In this world, there's
a sword. He sent a sword. That's the second
thing we see. Secondly, the Savior tells the
believers what we shall suffer. He says He didn't come to send
peace, but a sword. Now, He's telling us beforehand
what we must suffer. He's showing us the great extremes
that we shall suffer as believers in this world. And by doing that,
He's showing us this is what every true believer who stands
for Christ and who speaks the truth about Christ, this is what
his true sheep are going to suffer, right here. But by showing this
beforehand, He not only shows us what shall come to be so that
we're not surprised when it comes about, but He shows us to where
when it starts happening to us, we can rejoice because We're
His sheep. We're His. That's why this is
happening to us. Because we're His. We're His. It's a confirmation of our faith.
Alright, let's go back to verse 16. Christ tells believers what
we are and what those around us are. Verse 16, He says, Behold,
I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Now brethren, all of us together,
every believer here together, we're a flock of sheep. That's
what we are. But all around us, all through
the day that we go through, we're surrounded by a pack of wolves. That's what we're surrounded
by. Now you just picture a flock of sheep in the midst of a pack
of ravenous wolves. The unregenerate man is described
as a wolf, and he's really worse than a wolf, because the unregenerate
man preys upon his own kind. The new nature that's created
of God within a believer is opposite to the wolf. A sheep doesn't
attack a wolf, and God's people aren't looking to attack anybody. We're not looking to attack the
unregenerate men. We want to see them brought to
faith in Christ. We want to see them saved. We're
not wanting to fight them and attack them. But because we got
these two different natures, we're going to be at warfare
with one another. So we don't get along. We don't
get along. Brethren, we're sheep. Does that
frighten you that we're sheep in the midst of wolves? But Christ
is our shepherd. We wouldn't be here in the midst
of wolves if it wasn't that Christ our Shepherd sent us forth. And
because He sent us forth, He will protect His sheep. Look
at John 10. John 10. He will protect His
sheep. He says in John 10 and verse
14, I am the Good Shepherd, and I know my sheep, and am known
of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even
so know I the Father, and I lay down my life for the sheep. And
other sheep I have, he says, which are not of this fold, them
also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice, and there shall
be one foal and one shepherd." Look at verse 27. My sheep hear
my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. And I give unto
them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any
man pluck them out of My hand. My Father which gave them Me
is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of
My Father's hand." This is whose care we're under. He's our shepherd. Well, back in our text, our Savior
tells us now, where are we going to expect this rejection? Well,
first he tells us we're going to expect it from all kinds of
men in all different kinds of offices, some which we probably
wouldn't expect. Verse 17, he says, Beware of
men, for they will deliver you up to the councils, and they
will scourge you in their synagogues, and you shall be brought before
governors and kings for my sake for a testimony against them
and the Gentiles. Councils and synagogues means
religious folks. Religious folks. The Sanhedrin,
the Council of Elders, the Chief Priests, these were men who claimed
to be worshiping God. They claimed to be waiting on
the Messiah to come. They claimed to be in agreement
with everybody else around them that was worshiping God. They
had some minor differences, but they could work through those
things. But then this one comes declaring he's Christ. And he
comes declaring he's not come to send temporal peace. He's
not come to set up a temporal kingdom. His kingdom is a spiritual
kingdom. His kingdom is not of this world.
And he began to tell them what they are. Sinners. And he came to save them from
their sins. And they didn't like that. They
didn't like that at all. These were self-righteous, free
will, works, religionists, and they nailed him to a tree. They
nailed him to a tree. The same kinds of men scourged
Paul five times while he went forth preaching the gospel. He said, they'll deliver you
up to civil leaders, kings, and governors. They took our Savior,
The chief priests and the elders, they took him in and they brought
him before their council. And they tried to find fault
with him. And they raised some trumped
up charges on him. Then they took him to Pontius
Pilate. And then for Pontius Pilate, they took him to Herod.
And then Herod took him back to Pontius Pilate. And Pontius
Pilate said, I don't want him. He said, he's done nothing wrong.
give Him back to the Jews. And they said, we want Barabbas.
We want a criminal. What do you want to do with Christ?
Crucify Him. Crucify Him. This is who we're
going to be rejected by, brethren. In our day, we can expect to
be rejected and to be persecuted by false preachers and free will
works religion. Why? Because what we're preaching
don't even resemble what they're preaching. It's as much a different
God as a stump is a different God. They may not scourge us physically. They have in the past. They may
not in our day. They will again. but they'll
scourge us with their tongue, and they'll scourge us with their
slander, and all of those things. And the Lord said, they shall
put you out of the synagogues, yea, the time cometh that whosoever
killeth you will think that he doeth God's service. Satan's
best servants are those that pretend to be fighting against
him. Isaiah 66 verse 5 says this,
Hear the word of the Lord, ye that tremble at his word. Your
brethren that hated you, that cast you out for My name's sake,
said, Let the Lord be glorified, but He shall appear to your joy,
and they shall be ashamed. That's God speaking. That's what
He said. And that's how they cast you out. They cast us out
saying, Let the Lord be glorified. We're doing this to glorify the
Lord. And the Lord said, I'm going to appear to your joy,
but they're going to be ashamed. They're going to be ashamed.
Look at verse 21 in our text. Our Savior says we must expect
rejection even from our dearest loved ones. Verse 21. And the
brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father,
the child, and the children shall rise up against their parents
and cause them to be put to death. Verse 35. For I am come to set
a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against
her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and
a man's foes shall be they of his own household. This is love
which, according to nature, is the strongest love there is.
Father to children, parents to children, brother to brother,
children to parents. But you know what? As strong
as that love is, it's still not as strong as enmity against God. It's not as strong. You see how
strong sin reigns over us? You see how strong sin reigns
over a natural man? Well, our shepherd tells us we
must expect to be hated of all men. Look down at verse 22. He
says, and you shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. He says, you shall be. This is
not a maybe. He says, you shall be. And He
says, hated of all men. There may be varying degrees.
Some may appear very kind outwardly. You may never detect any hatred
in them at all. But you can rest assured, every
unregenerate sinner hates the believer. Hates the believer. If not with their hand, with
a weapon, and not with their tongue, they do in their heart.
They do in their heart. And here's why. For my namesake. Christ said, for my namesake. Now, if we give others reason
to hate us, if we're doing things that cause them to hate us, that's
not what the Lord's talking about right here. That's not what He's
talking about. What He's talking about right
here when He says, for my namesake, He means for standing for the
truth. for telling men the truth, for
standing with Christ and His people. That's what he's talking
about here. He's talking about that when
men start talking about a spark of goodness in them, and they
start talking about their decision, and they start talking about
their will, and their works, and what they did, and how it
was them plus God that did something, and we say, no, believers are
totally ruined in sin. We died in Adam. We're spiritually
dead in Adam. Our Lord said, in John 7, His
own family, His own immediate family, Joseph and Mary's cousins
and what have you, His own immediate family, they didn't believe Him.
They didn't believe Him. They despised Him. They hated
Him. And He said here in verse 7, He told them this, The world
cannot hate you. And the world couldn't hate them,
because they were of the world. He said, the world cannot hate
you, but me it hateth, because I testify of it, that the works
thereof are evil. He said, that's why they hate
me. Because I tell them the truth. I tell them the truth. You tell
them unconditional election. You say God saves because He
sovereignly chose whom He would. He has mercy on whom He will
have mercy and on whom He will He hardens. He chose who He would
save. And He gave them to His Son before
the foundation of the world. And you tell folks that, folks
get angry. That was the first message the
Lord Jesus Christ preached. And they tried to take Him up
to a hill and throw Him off the brow of a hill. when you preach
limited atonement and you say Christ made atonement for all
those given to Him of the Father. That's who He made atonement
for. Particular redemption, that's who He shed His blood for, that's
who He justified, that's who He made atonement for. And we
say that, brethren, because the blood of Christ shall never be
counted a miscarriage. What our Savior did shall never
be in vain. And if we say Christ died for
all men, and some men are in hell, then we're saying the blood
of Christ accomplished nothing. And the blood of Christ means
more to a believer than that. It's the blood by which we've
been saved. When you preach irresistible grace and you tell men, we can't
make ourselves born again. We can't by our will come to
God. We can't by our wisdom find out
God. Our hearts set against God. We
hate God by nature. And men will say, I don't hate
God. I've always loved God. That's too long then. Because
we didn't come into this world loving God. No man is able to resist the
work of Christ. When you tell them that, when
you tell them no man can resist the Spirit of God, you tell them
the Scripture says, thy people shall be willing in the day of
thy power. When Christ showed His power
to bind a strong man and He cast out devils out of men, instead
of rejoicing that the Savior had come, they said, He's doing
that by devil. He's got a devil himself. When
you tell men that believers persevere, that they persevere in faith,
they persevere under the sound of the gospel, they persevere
with brethren because God preserves them and He keeps them because
He that has begun a good work in you will perform it until
the day of Jesus Christ. You offend them because, well,
my daddy, he made a decision for Christ 20 years ago, but
he's not in a church anywhere, and he's somewhere else most
of the time. But what's saved always saved.
And you say, no, perseverance of the saints means God's going
to keep them, and they're going to keep on delighting in the
gospel. They're going to keep on serving Him. It's not enough
for a believer just to have his name on a church roll. He wants
to be where Christ is and be where his people are and hear
Christ declared. And you tell me in these things,
and I can't tell you how many times I've heard this, men will
hear it and they'll hear the truth preached and they'll say,
well, if I believe that, my grandmother's in hell. Well, maybe she is. Maybe it's time to be thinking
about where you're going to be. We're talking about the truth
here now, standing for the truth. This is the reason we're going
to suffer. It's because the gospel sword, the gospel we preach,
it draws a line in the earth. It draws a line. And this gospel,
Christ forces men to take sides. He forces men to take sides.
He doesn't allow a man to remain neutral. When you hear this gospel,
he forces a man to bow or to stiffen his neck in rebellion.
He forces a man to confess love or to confess his enmity against
God. He causes a man to confess he
believes Christ or goes on rejecting Christ, saying, I won't have
Him. And therefore, whether men are in religion, whether they're
in civil government, whether they're members of the same family,
the gospel divides all men. Amen. Some on the side of Christ
with his sheep and some others on the side with Satan and his
wolves. The gospel does this. But now get this, this division
is not the fault of Christ and it's not the fault of his gospel.
Not at all. It's not the fault of his sheep.
It's the fault of those who will not bow to Christ. That's whose
fault it is. All natural men are enmity against
God. And you who are now quicken,
you know that's true. Because we were enemies in our
minds by wicked words. We hated God. We hated God. Look at Romans 8. in verse 6. I want you to see, I know some
of you sitting here are suffering, you have loved ones, you desire
to, you would love for them to know the gospel, and you have,
you're suffering for other reasons, being persecuted and slandered
and what have you, and I want you to be comforted. I want you
to see why it is. Why it is. Our Savior said it
would be this way. Romans 8, 6. For to be carnally minded is
death. That's whatever man is as he's
born into this world. You know what he thinks about?
He thinks about dead things in this world. That's all he thinks
about. Carnally minded, to be carnally minded is death. But
to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That's what it is. That's what
the carnal nature, the carnal nature we're going is enmity. Enmity means hatred. Hatred. enmity against God, for it's
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be. It
can't bow to God's Word. It won't bow. It's not subject
to the Word of God and can't be. So then they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. But you're not in the flesh but
in the Spirit. If so, be that the Spirit of
God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he's none of His. Do you see how the line's just
drawn? You're either on one side or
you're on the other. You see this? And another reason men
despise Christ and despise His people is because the faith of
those that believe condemns those that don't believe. And therefore,
the unbeliever is enmity against the believer. They don't want
to be around you because you believe Christ and you stand
for Christ and you stand with His people and they don't stand
for anything and can't do it. And it condemns them. And they
hate it. They hate it. Our Lord said, if I had not done
among them the works which none other man did, they had not had
sin. But now have they both seen and
hated both me and my Father. Because they saw somebody who
never did the kind of works he did. They saw somebody who was
perfect. They saw somebody who was righteous.
They saw somebody who, and by seeing him, he condemned them.
And so they hated him. They hated him. Also, the gospel,
just like a sword, it cuts an unbeliever to the heart. It cuts
them to the heart. Stephen preached the gospel before
his enemies, and he's declaring it. And the Scripture says, and
when they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and
they gnashed on him with their teeth. This is why sinners act the way
they do when they hear the gospel. And when you stand for Christ,
this is why they do it. Now brethren, Christ has told
us truthfully here the very worst things that can happen to us
in His service. He told us truthfully what...
He's not hidden anything from us. He said this is what you
can expect. This is what's going to happen.
So He's telling us, now you count the cost. He's saying you be
truthful with yourself. Truthful with yourself. This
is what it costs to serve Him. cost to serve Him. All that will
live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. We must,
through much tribulation, enter into the kingdom of God. But
believer, look at how awful these sufferings are. Look over at
Romans 8 just a minute. Romans 8. I want you to look
at how awful these sufferings are. Think of how terrible these
sufferings are. Romans 8. You see how horrible and how
horrible and how horrible these sufferings are. Now in the opposite
direction, look at this, verse 18. For I reckon that the sufferings
of this present time are not even worthy to be compared with
the glory which shall be revealed in us. You see that? So the next
time you're thinking about how bad It is. And thinking about
how horrible this is and how hard this is and how difficult
this is and these sufferings, you just think, to the opposite
extreme, these things aren't even worthy of comparison to
have the glory that will be revealed in us. Alright, let's look thirdly. Christ tells us what to do in
the face of this suffering. In the face of this suffering.
Back at Matthew 10 and verse 16. He says, be ye therefore, he says, be, let me get my place,
hold on one second. He says, be ye therefore wise
as serpents and harmless as doves. You know snakes usually see trouble
before trouble sees them, a snake does. And a snake's watching,
he's watching for trouble and he tries to avoid trouble. So
believer, be watchful. Be watchful. I'm not saying looking
for sin in people and trying to nitpick people. I'm saying
be watchful. You've had your senses exercised
to discern between good and evil. Be watchful so that you can discern
trouble. And when you see trouble, avoid
it. We're not looking for a fight. So avoid it. Now, don't avoid
it because you're a coward. And don't avoid it Took to to
compromise and don't avoid it because you intimidate it But
don't don't court persecution and don't be obnoxious and don't
be arrogant. Don't be out of order and out
of place at all times It's another thing about snakes you ever noticed
at all times. They seem to be right near a
place of safety If you start trying to kill one of them, they're
gone that quick that quick well Christ is our refuge. He's our
refuge. Be always, have your heart always
set on Him. And that way when danger comes,
or persecution comes, or slander comes, you're strong in the faith. And you can flee into Him and
be edified by Him. And in Scripture speaks of the
deaf adder, it's a snake, a deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear
which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never
so wisely. So be extra careful what you
hear. Be extra careful what you hear.
There are few men faithful to preach the truth of Christ in
this world. There are some. But they're few
in comparison to how many creatures there are in this world. Very
few. Very few. And be mild and meek
and harmless as a dove. As a dove. I don't guess there's
another creature as harmless as a dove. It's just harmless.
The word means simple. It means simple. Without gall. Don't be passionate and proud. You know, when somebody starts
speaking something, you hear things, and this one did that,
and this other one did that thing, and those passions come up, boiling
up in you, and you're proud, and you're going to... Not that. Not that. Be without gall. Not only do not hurt, but have
no ill will toward anybody. Seek to be helpers, not harmful.
This is what the Scriptures say. Brethren, be not children in
understanding. Howbeit in malice be ye children,
but in understanding be men. Be wise as serpents in understanding,
and be like doves in malice." Children in malice. Abstain from
all appearance of evil. And then our Savior says to us
in verse 24, don't expect to be treated better than our Savior.
Don't expect to be treated better than our Savior. Verse 24, the
disciple is not above his master, nor the servant above his Lord.
It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master and
the servant as his Lord. If they've called the master
of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of
his household? If we follow Christ, if we're following our master,
We will, to some degree, suffer these things He suffered. And
He suffered every one of these things. All these things that
He's telling us we're going to suffer, He suffered them. He
suffered them. He was slandered and rejected
by those among whom He ministered. All of these groups of men rejected
Him. Religious leaders and civil leaders, they rejected Him. And
then his own house, they rejected him. He came to his own and the
children of Israel, they received him not. And then those just
in the immediate house, they didn't receive him either. They
kept saying to him, let me read that to you. Where did I say
that was? Matthew 7. Let me read that to you if I
can find it. I can't find it. But anyway,
he came to them and they said to him, they said to him, go
up to Jerusalem. If you're the Christ, go up there
and make yourself known. Because they wanted to see what
would happen. They didn't believe him either. That's why he said,
the world can't hate you. It can't hate you. You're of
the world, he said. These men hated him and all men
still hate him by nature. The gospel is offensive. And
Paul said if we take the offense out of the gospel, if we tell
a man there's something he can do, and we mingle it with water
so that it can be more palatable to men, and we take the edge
off of it, we bring God down just a little bit and bring man
up just a little bit. Well, you might have a multitude
thronged to hear that message. You may have a multitude that
the treasury's full, and everybody's your friend and loves you, and
everybody's gathering around you to hear that message. But
it's not the Gospel. It's just not the Gospel. It's
either free will or free grace. It's either man's will or God's
sovereign will. It's either works or grace. It's
either Cain worship or it's Abel worship. And they called him Beelzebub.
They called him a glutton. They called him a winebibber.
They called him a sinner. John came and they called him
one thing. Christ came and they called him just the opposite. You pipe children in the marketplace. You pipe to them, they won't
dance. Mourn, they won't mourn. Why? Because they don't want
to hear the truth. They don't want to stand for
the truth. And they won't. They just won't. It's enough
for the disciple that he be as his master and the servant as
his Lord. Since Christ suffered these things, it's enough that
we suffer them. It's enough that we suffer them. I want you to
see something over Philippians chapter 1. Turn to Philippians
chapter 1. Did you know this, brethren?
I want you to see this. Philippians chapter 1 and verse
29. Unto you it is given in the behalf
of Christ not only to believe on Him, but also to suffer for
His sake. It's given to you to do that,
to suffer for His sake. He said in Romans 8, 17, If children,
then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ, if so
be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together. Paul told Timothy, If we suffer,
we shall also reign with him. If we deny him, he also will
deny us. And he got that, Paul got that
from our text. Look back there at Matthew 10
verse 26. Our Savior says, now don't fear
men. Don't fear men. He says, and
remember vengeance is mine. You just speak everything that
you know about Him and hold nothing back. That's it. Look at verse
26. Fear them not therefore, for
there's nothing covered that shall not be revealed. And nothing
here that shall not be known." He's saying, vengeance is mine.
He's saying, don't try to be a muckraker. Don't try to go
and uncover all their sin and uncover everything that you know
about them and slander them. Don't even, don't worry about
it. Leave them alone. It's going
to be revealed. It's going to be revealed. And
He said, and I'll judge righteously. Commit it to Him that judges
righteously. And He says, you just speak the
truth and you speak it clearly. Verse 27, what I tell you in
darkness, that speak you in light. What you hear in the ear, that
preach you up on the housetops. Just declare. You know, we feel
very often, we feel like if we say the truth to somebody, we
feel like They're going to respond in a way that's negative and
it's going to be unpleasant for us. That's what we feel like.
But you know, the Lord might save them. The Lord might just
give them an interest. He might just, from a word that
you speak, just grab them and draw them to hear His word. The goal of our persecutors,
their goal, brethren, is to silence the gospel. That's their goal.
Because a false preacher, he will slander you, he'll slander
a true preacher because he does not want the people who are hearing
him preach, he does not want those people to hear what's bringing
you so much joy and so much comfort because What Christ will do is
He'll reach and He'll grab that one that's His and He'll snatch
them right out of that place and pull them right out of there
and bring them under the sound of the gospel. And there's nothing
anybody can do about it. And so the best thing that the
worldly men can do is slander you and try to discredit you
in some way. So the Savior commands us, you
just speak of Him, speak everything you've heard from Christ and
don't hold anything back. And look again at verse 28, he
says, now don't fear men, fear God. Verse 28, fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul. If
they kill us brethren, this is the worst now, this is the worst
that can happen. If they kill the body, they've
not done anything to us. They really haven't. They really
have not. Would you get mad, ladies, if
somebody was going to really do something mean to you and
they came over to your house and they mopped your floor and
they cleaned your house? Would you say, well, I wish they
hadn't done that to me. They came over and mopped your
floor and cleaned your house? If they kill us, they've taken
off this corrupt, defiled body of death and we enter in in our
soul right into the presence of God. That's a good thing. That's not a bad thing. But look
at this. He says, "...but rather fear
Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell."
That's just... God has power we can't imagine.
Power to destroy both body and soul in hell, and it won't be
a destruction. It'll be an end of being, but
not the end of being, just the end of well-being. It'll be eternal. Eternal. So fear Him. Now look
at this word, and He tells us, I'm going to protect you. Verse
29, Are not two sparrows sowed for a farthing? That means they're
not worth anything. They're sparrows. And He said,
And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. It don't matter if he's being
shot by a duck hunter, It doesn't matter if he just falls dead
or if he gets run over by an 18-wheeler. Whatever it is, he
don't fall to the ground without the Father's consent. A sparrow,
a little sparrow. And look what he said, but the
very hairs of your head are all numbered. You see this? Not only is He protecting you
like He protects the sparrows, He's saying to us, even the hairs
of your head are numbered by Him. That's how carefully He's
looking out for His child. And He says, Fear ye not, therefore,
you are of more value than many sparrows. The same Sovereign
Father who guards the little sparrow, He guards us, brethren. He gave His only begotten Son
for you. For you who know Him, for you
who He's called by His grace, He gave His only begotten Son
for you. And His Son laid down His life
and shed His blood for you. And He says, will He not with
Him freely give us all things? He's given us everything that
matters. Everything that matters. Righteousness,
justification, pardon, atonement. He's given us holiness of heart. Given us life. He's given us
faith. He's given us repentance. He's
given us wisdom and understanding. He's given us enlightenment.
He continues to grow us in grace and knowledge of Him. He's given,
given, given, given, given everything to us. Because of His Son, because
of the blood of His Son, shall He not give you whatever you
need? Sure He will. Sure He will. The very hairs of your head are
numbered. Look at verse 32. Now this is what He says, Now
whosoever therefore shall confess Me before men, him will I confess also before
My Father which is in heaven. And he says, but whosoever shall
deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father
which is in heaven. When the Lord Jesus was serving
His Father to redeem His people, this is what He said. He said,
the Lord God will help me. And He said, therefore shall
I not be confounded. Because He's going to help me,
He said. He said, therefore have I set
my face like a flint. And He says, and I know that
I shall not be confounded. I know it. I know it. Do you have that Spirit in you?
Can we say with Him, I know He's going to help me. I know He's
going to help me. Therefore, I've set my face like
a flint. For I know I shall not be ashamed. I know it. He bore the shame of the cross
for me. He bore the curse of the cross for me. He wasn't ashamed
of trusting His Father. And there He sits now at the
right hand of the Father. The Father honored that trust. The Father took care of Him because
He trusted Him to do so. And there He sits now. And now
if I believe He did that for me, if I believe the Scripture,
if I believe the truth as it's come to me, I won't be ashamed
to confess Him before men. Because I know, I know He's going
to keep me. For the Scripture says, Whosoever
believeth on Him shall not be ashamed. They won't be. They
won't be confounded. It may cost us the reproach of
men to confess Christ in this world, but it'll cost us the
reproach of Christ in eternity for refusing to confess Him. We confess Him in baptism, we
confess Him in witnessing of Him, we confess Him in identifying
with Him. Are you one of Christ? Yes, I
am. And when we do deny Him, because we will, just like Peter
did, His blood blots out that sin too. We have a gracious,
gracious Savior. And then He tells us now to take
up our cross. And this cross is painful, but
we must take it up and we must follow Him. Look at verse 37.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me. I'm going to tell you one thing
that means. One thing I know that means. And I'm sure I'm missing a great
deal in it, but this is one thing I know it means. If a man hears
the gospel declared, and he will not believe that gospel and confess
this is true, and that free will works Messiah's in was false,
he won't do it because his mama was in that, or his daddy was
in that. That's loving them more than
Christ. That's loving them more than
the truth. to say, I won't deny. That's not... You know when Paul
in Philippians 3 said, he said, what things were gained of me,
I count them as loss. He said, I've turned my back
on all of that. That's true repentance. And the
man that says, well, I've come out of that, but now I believe
I was saved by that foolishness. That's not repentance. That's
not repentance. He hadn't renounced the hidden
things of dishonesty yet. And if a man does it for his
loved ones, whoever they are, He loved them more than He loved
Christ. Now listen, He says, And he that loveth son or daughter
more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his
cross... This is going to be tough, isn't
it? These things are tough. Tough to bear. I've got loved
ones that don't believe this Gospel. I've got loved ones that...
They despise it. They despise it. And this is not easy. It's just
not easy. He that taketh not his cross,
and followeth after me, is not worthy of me. This is not saying
we have merit in us to make ourselves worthy of Christ. He's just saying
Christ did take up His cross. And He did go to the cross. And
He did lay down His life. And He did shed His blood for
His brethren. Because He loved righteousness. That's why. Because
He's holy and He loves righteousness. He loves for the Father to be
declared just and the justifier. He loves for sin to be put away
in a just manner. He loves for the law to be upheld
in righteousness. And if you've been called by
His grace and given a holy heart, you love righteousness too. And
you want to see His righteousness declared. And therefore, out
of love for God and love for His brethren, He stood for His
Father and stood for His brethren. And He will too. The believer
will too. And He says, and he that won't
is not worthy of Me. And He says, he that findeth
his life shall lose it. And he that loseth his life for
My sake shall find it. Nothing in this world ought to
turn us from Christ Not the hatred of our relations and not the
love of our relations. Neither one of them. Not the
hatred of them and not the love of them. Neither one of them. Now look back at verse 22. This
is what it says now. He, at the end there, but he
that endureth to the end shall be saved. He that endureth to
the end shall be saved. For we are made partakers of
Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto
the end. We start out, some start out,
and they start running, and boy, they're on fire for the Lord,
and they got this good news, and they rejoice in it, and they
take off running. But there's not much root in
them. It was cast on rocky ground, that seed was, and whenever some
persecution arises because of the word, little by little they're
offended. And they say, well, there's got
to be a better way than this. And they just compromise, and
you can't tell them from the world. You can't tell them from
the world. Or somebody takes off and they
have these grand expectations of what they think, how the church
is going to prosper and flourish and how everything's going to
just bust wide open now that I'm in the middle of it. And they see things not going
to flourish. They're going to slowly increase like leaven increases
when it's put into dough. And they're gonna be increased
by the Spirit of God, not by our might, not by our power.
And there's been many a one who saw that and they said, well,
this is taking too long. What's become of this Jesus?
We don't know what's become of Him. He's up in the mountain.
He ain't come back yet. Oh, let's make us gods to go
before us. Let's make us some idols to go
before us. Let's make us a passion play. That'll impress people. That'll
get people in. And then when we're done, we
sit down to eat, we rise up to play, and we get finished. We
say, now look what we did. This worked a lot better than
if we'd have stuck to that old path. We're sticking to the old
path. Lord help us, we're sticking
with the old path. Blessed is the man that endureth
temptation, for when he's tried, he shall receive the crown of
life which the Lord has promised them that love him. That's what
he's promised us, brethren. He said, you that overcome, he
said, I'll grant for you to sit with me and my kingdom, just
as I have overcome and I sit with my father in his throne,
in his kingdom. So brethren, if He's given you
peace, if He's given you peace, stand with Him. Stand with Him
and know we'll suffer for it. We'll suffer. We'll have dear
loved ones forsake us and we'll have them try to sway us back
by their love for us. Stand with Christ. This is the
cost. And remember, he said, he that
endures to the end shall be saved. I pray the Lord will bless that.
I pray he comforts you with that. And I pray he'll make you to
be rooted and grounded in his love more and more. Stand firm
in him. Amen.