Let us turn once again to Matthew
chapter 5 considering these Beatitudes the opening portion of Christ's
Sermon on the Mount and we come really to the conclusion of the
section when we look this morning at verses 11 and 12 Matthew 5
verses 11 and 12 or rather verses 10 to 12 I should say 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 sake rejoice
and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven for
so persecuted they the prophets which were before you so we're
considering the passage really from verse 10 through 12 And
here we have what we might term a double blessing being pronounced,
a double blessing on the persecuted. It is the last, as I said, of
the Beatitudes. And we read that passage in 1 Chronicles, 1 Chronicles
chapter 17. and the final words of David's
prayer there in that particular chapter. Remember how he is addressing
himself to the Lord his God who had made it plain that he was
not to build the temple that was to be the work of his son
Solomon and David so submissive to the Lord's sovereign will,
and there at the end of that chapter we read those words as
he addresses the Lord God. For thou blessest, O Lord, and
it shall be blessed forever. Thou blessest, O Lord, and it
shall be blessed forever. O the blessing of God, it maketh
rich. and he addeth no sorrow with
it. And as I say here, in the words
that we've read at the end of the Beatitudes, we have this
double blessing. It's interesting, isn't it? It
moves, as it were, from the third person, as the Lord is speaking
in verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. He speaks of they
and of theirs but then he moves to the second person and we see
here quite clearly that this is more specific, more pointed
as he's addressing his own disciples. Blessed are you, he says, when
men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner
of evil against you falsely. for my sake rejoice and be exceeding
glad for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they
the prophets which were before you and so as we come to consider
this portion at the end of the Beatitudes I simply want to speak
of the persecution and then the blessings that are pronounced
upon those who are the persecuted. We have to observe that there
is a certain emphasis as the Lord comes here to the conclusion
of this part of His sermon because He clearly speaks in verse 10
of those who are persecuted. Blessed are they which are persecuted. And then, as he speaks personally
to his disciples, and it's very much the disciples, of course,
that he's addressing, as we see at the beginning of the chapter,
when he was set, when he was seated, this is his posture as
one who is a teacher, a rabbi, when he was seated there in the
mountain, his disciples came unto him, and he opened his mouth
and taught them. And He says to them, Blessed
are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you. It is very much a personal word
that the Lord is addressing. We tend to think of those who
are persecuted as such as find themselves locked away in prisons,
fearing for their lives. We think of the persecuted as
those who eventually have to give their lives. We think of
the witness of the martyrs. That's how we think of such as
are really persecuted. And yet, is it not true that
in our day in many ways persecution is much more subtle? when we
think of all the political correctness that we're confronted with on
every hand and I'm sure we're aware of those who are even in
this land being persecuted today because they will not conform
to the ways of this atheistic and humanistic secular society
in which we're living where there's no regard for the word of God
We were reminded again, weren't we, last Thursday at the prayer
meeting, when Finn mentioned his friend, who is a GP, separated
from his wife, but he has access to his children, he sees his
children, he tries to discipline his children in accordance with
the Word of God, and then he's reported. accused really of child abuse
simply because he seeks to do what is right before God. And
he's in danger therefore of losing any access to his children, but
his own work, his occupation as a general practitioner is
under threat. Such is the day in which we're
living. I remember a few years ago learning
that the woman who manages the Christian bookshop in Southampton,
Mayflower Christian Bookshop, she was shopping and she had
her children with her. and they were misbehaving and
she was correcting them and telling them that, you know, you wait,
you little ones, till I get you back home, you know. She wasn't
going to discipline them there in the street and an off-duty
policeman overheard and followed her, obtained her address and
then reported her. And she was a Sunday school teacher
and then she was under threat that she wouldn't be allowed
to teach children in the Sunday school. Well, isn't this another
form of persecution in our day? We're reminded that all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus are those who are going to suffer
persecution. The words of the Apostle there
to Timothy, to Timothy 3.12, and he prefixes what he says
with that little word, Yah. There's a certain emphasis. There's
something definite about this word. Yea, all that will live
godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Always something
that cannot be avoided. There's a martyrdom. We sang
that hymn just now. 717 and it's a pity really that
one of the verses that Hart includes in that hymn is omitted in Gadsby's
selection. It's a longer hymn than we have
it there in the book but the verse that's omitted I think
is a significant verse because it reminds us what real martyrdom
is. Saints who feel a load of sin
yet come off victorious, suffer martyrdom within, though it seems
less glorious." In that sense, as we wrestle against sin and
against Satan and against the world, is there not an inward
martyrdom that God's people are continually experiencing? The Lord Jesus tells us quite
clearly, "...in the world ye shall have tribulation." But
He says, "...be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." in
the world, this fallen world, there will be trouble for the
people of God. And what the Lord says is echoed
by the apostles, we must through much tribulation enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Or if we're those who are bound
for that kingdom of heaven we're going to be those who will suffer
persecution. And here, of course, we read
of the blessings that God has in store for those persecuted
ones. Rejoice, be exceeding glad, for
great is your reward in heaven, says the Lord here at the beginning
of verse 12. The Lord God is not a debtor
to any man. He will make up to His people
all those things that they feel themselves to be denied. in this
wicked world. This is the lot then of the people
of God. If we are those who have true
faith often think of those words of the Apostle writing to the
Philippians and there at the end of that opening chapter.
Unto you it is given, he says, in the behalf of Christ not only
to believe on him but to suffer for his sake. Oh, if we are granted
that gift of saving faith, we cannot avoid something of the
sufferings that will be the consequence. And it's given on the behalf
of Christ, not only to believe, but also to suffer for his sake. or the souls that would to Jesus
press must fix this firm and sure the tribulation more or
less they must and shall endure. So let us consider something
of the persecutions that the Lord is speaking of that is the
lot of those who are the blessed ones. And first of all a negative Observing, as it were, that Gilite
tradition, that's how Gil comes to comment on the Word of God. If you've ever looked at his
commentary, you'll often come to a verse, and time and again,
he'll tell you what it does not mean, before he comes to the
more positive, where he expands the verse. But I want to begin
with a negative with regards to persecutions, because we need
to remember that troubles, tribulations, These things are not virtuous
in and of themselves. That's certainly true in a sense
when the Lord is chastening us. No chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward it yieldeth
the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them who exercise thereby,
says the Apostle. It's not a joyful thing. but
it's a profitable thing and we have to remember with regards
to the troubles that come that it's possible to suffer a great
deal and yet not to be those who know the salvation of the
Lord man is born to trouble we read
in the book of Job and that's a general statement all men are
born to trouble as the sparks fly upwards there's a certain
curse upon all of creation because of Adam's first sin and so all
who are the natural descendants of Adam are going to know something
of troubles and believers need to be aware
that we can't just conclude that because we're in a situation
where we feel there's persecution or trial or trouble, that we
are always those who are necessarily in the right. How striking are the words of
the Apostle when he speaks there in 1 Corinthians 13, "...though
I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth
me nothing." We're not to make that conclusion then, well we're
suffering therefore we're in the right. therefore we must
be Christians even to give the body to be burned
martyrdom there's no profit in that if we have not that love
of God that true love of God in our hearts and Peter says let none of you
suffer as an evildoer if we're evildoers if we do that that
is wrong there will be the consequence we're not simply to concluding
that because trouble has come we we must be right and yet it is a truth as we have
it in the text that God's people will know something of persecution
if we live godly if we live godly in the Lord Jesus Christ the
believers way of life is really a great offense to the men of
the world aren't believers those who are different we're not to
conform to the ways of the world be not conformed to this world
says the Apostle but be you transformed by the renewing of your mind
that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect
will of God we don't follow the crowd to be those who are prepared
and ready to be such as are different and how striking are the words
of the Lord Jesus when we come to those valedictory discourses
in the Gospel according to Saint John and remember what the Lord
says there in chapter 15 John 15 and verse 18 If the world hates you, he says,
ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love his own. But because you are
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hateth you. Why? We know that the world lies
in wickedness. It lies in the wicked one. and
we're not to love the world, neither the things that are in
the world, because all that is in the world, the lust of the
flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not
of the Father, but is of the world. All believers, then, are
to live a life that is very different to that of the men and women
round about us. We're called to separation. We're called to the pursuit of
holiness, of living. and yet how the Lord speaks of
those you see who will suffer persecution and it will be most
unjust here in verse 11 they shall say all manner of evil
against you falsely he says for my sake or there will be false
accusers and there are those we know it even recently those
who come amongst us and they want to identify with us and
then they find something to find fault with and they begin to
make false accusations against us and it's not to surprise us
this is the the way of the Lord's people and it comes out so many
times here in the scriptures the language of Peter when he
writes there in his first epistle At the end of that second chapter,
there at verse 19, in the following verses, he says, This is thankworthy,
if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully. For what glory is it If when
ye be buffeted for your fault, ye shall take it patiently. But
if when ye do well and suffer for it, ye take it patiently. This is acceptable with God.
For even hereunto were ye caught. Because Christ also suffered
for us, leaving us an example that ye should follow his steps,
who did no sin. Neither was guile found in his
mouth, who when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not. but committed himself to him
that judges righteously." This is the way the Christian is to
conduct himself. People make false accusations.
Well, how many false accusations were made against the Lord Jesus
Christ? And yet, as the Apostle says here, he has left us an
example to follow. He was reviled, he reviled not
again. When suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself. to him that judgeth righteously."
All we are to follow that life, the way of the Lord Jesus. Though
that way of living will be an offense to man. But then further,
the believer's witness, his readiness to bear witness to the Lord Jesus
Christ will also offend man. And it's interesting, isn't it,
what the Lord is saying in these verses, in verses 10 and 11. in verse 10 he says blessed are
you are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake for righteousness
sake and then in verse 11 blessed are you when men shall revile
you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake in one verse it's for righteousness
sake in the next it's for my sake now of course if we're endeavoring
by the grace of God to live that life of righteousness, to walk
in that narrow way, a separated people, a holy people, that's
an offense. But when we think of our witness,
isn't our witness really this, that we look not to anything
of ourselves, we look for our salvation altogether to the Lord
Jesus Christ, we look to His righteousness. He says, for my sake, always
to be those who would, by our good works, glorify our Father
which is in heaven. We would desire to speak, not
of ourselves, but to speak rather of the Lord Jesus Christ and
His righteousness. And doesn't David remind us of
that in the 71st Psalm? He says I will go in the strength
of the Lord God I will make mention of thy righteousness even of
thine only and then again he says my tongue also shall talk
of thy righteousness all the day long this is David in Psalm
71 as an old man always come to the end of his days but still
all his testimony is to the Lord and his righteousness and you
know The great truth of justification by faith alone in Christ alone
is such an offense to the men and women of this world, even
the religious people of this world. When we make much of the
righteousness of Christ, when we speak of Him as that One who
is the Lord, our righteousness, and that all our salvation can
be found only in Him, because of course there's a corollary
to that. If we speak well of Christ and
His righteousness, and look only to that righteousness for our
justification, that blessed truth rediscovered at the time of the
Protestant Reformation. Thank God for what He was able
to accomplish in the soul of a man like Martin Luther who
rediscovered that. But the corollary is that if
we speak only of the righteousness of Christ, we must speak plainly
of man's sin. And men don't like that. They
don't like to be told that they're sinners. Now imagine that they have something
that they can do. Some good thing that they can
accomplish that would in some way or other commend them to
God, if there be a God. How often are we criticized because
we say so much of sin? Isn't that though the mark of
those who are the true servants of the Lord? When we read the
Old Testament prophets, men like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, how they're
having to contend against the false prophets who want to say
those things that are pleasing to the people instead of being
faithful in warning of the judgment of God that's going to fall upon
the nation of Israel because of its sin Jeremiah says the
prophets prophesied falsely and the priests bear rule by their
means and my people love to have it so and what will be the end
thereof What was the end thereof? It was, of course, God's judgment
in the way of the Babylonian captivity. They were taken away
into exile. God judged His people. And it's
not only Jeremiah, as I say, it's true also in the ministry
of a man like Ezekiel. The words of the prophet there,
Ezekiel 13, 10, because, even because they have seduced my
people saying peace and there is no peace that was the false
prophet or they were continually assuring the people peace, peace
God will not permit that the Babylonians should ever overrun
Jerusalem but they were false prophets And Ezekiel, like Jeremiah,
speaks faithful words of that judgment that must come. We are to be those then who,
whilst we would speak well of the Lord Jesus and exalt His
righteousness, we must tell the people plainly of their sins.
And we'll be persecuted for that. There's a woe pronounced of those
who don't speak the truth, who say things that only please the
people. Woe unto you, says the Lord Jesus,
when all men shall speak well of you. Oh, we're to be those
who recognize that these persecutions, these trials, these troubles,
all the tribulations, they are so inevitable woe unto you when
all men shall speak well of you for so did their fathers to the
false prophets says the Lord we are to be faithful then, faithful
in our living, faithful in our witness, faithful in our testimony
to the Lord Jesus Christ even to be those who would be
discriminating That's one of the marks, is it not, of the
true servants of the Lord. If they separate the precious from the
vile, you shall be as my mouth, is what the Lord says to His
servants, the prophets, when they make that separation between
the precious and the vile. or the inevitability then of
the persecution that the Lord is speaking of in these verses. But we need to mark the fact
that really the text speaks of those who are a happy people,
a blessed people. And so turning in the second
place to the blessing, and it is here evidently a two-fold
blessing. it's a blessing for the present
it's a blessing for the for the future it's a blessing in in
this present world it's a blessing in the world to come that the
Lord is speaking of in these verses look at the language that
we have here in verse 10 the Lord doesn't speak in the
future tense he doesn't speak of what shall be but he speaks
of that which is now blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven he says he's not speaking of the future
it's not there shall be the kingdom of heaven but I know something
of the kingdom of heaven here and now that's what the Lord
is saying It's the paradox, isn't it, of the experience of the
believer. As the Lord goes on to say in
the following verses, Blessed are ye when men shall revile
you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. What are you to do? You're to
rejoice. You're to be exceedingly glad. For great is your reward in heaven,
for so persecuted they, the prophets which were before you." There's
something to anticipate, but the anticipation will bring joy
into the heart here and there. That's what the Lord is saying.
Is it not, again, something of the paradox of the experience
of the godly? That strange course that the
Christian must steer as he walks in the narrow way that leads
to life. The Apostle, remember, speaks
of his own experiences there in the sixth chapter of 2nd Corinthians. Those remarkable paradoxes, and
amongst them he says, he's sorrowful yet always rejoicing. That's
the experience of the people of God. Yes, there's a sorrowing,
and yet at the same time a strange rejoicing. Why? Because God's kingdom has been
established in the hearts of these people. They have experienced
something of the grace of God, they know the blessed reign of
that grace, subduing their sins. And is it not significant that
the Beatitudes open and close with the same promise? Verse
3 the first of the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And then when we come
to the last of the Beatitudes, here in verse 10 following, blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs
is the kingdom of heaven. Oh, what a promise is this! They
have the kingdom of heaven here and now. It's a present experience
to them. The Lord Jesus Christ of course
is that one who has come to preach this kingdom. As we see back in chapter 4 and
verse 23 how Jesus went about all Galilee teaching in their
synagogues and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. and healing all manner of sickness
and all manner of disease among the people. And yes, there's
miracles, he's ministering to real physical needs amongst the
multitudes. But the primacy is the preaching
of the Gospel of the Kingdom. As we've said many a time, what
are the miracles? They are but signs. They're confirming
signs. They point us to this man who
is the true Messiah. We know that thou art a teacher
come from God. No man can do those miracles
that thou doest except God be with him. Says Nicodemus to the
Lord. He recognizes that this man has
authority. He is the Lord's servant. Why? He is the Lord's Christ. and
he comes and he preaches this message, this gospel. John is
there, John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ, preparing
the way for him. And then when John's ministry
has come to its conclusion, what do we read? After that John was
put in prison, then came Jesus into Galilee, saying the time
is fulfilled. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repentance and believe the gospel. Oh, what a blessed people are
those who hear this gospel. And this is what we have of course
in these chapters. Seeing the multitudes, the Lord
goes up into the mountain, and when he has said, the disciples
come to him, and he opens his mouth and he's teaching them.
And they're hearing the message and they're receiving the message.
Who is this Gospel for? The poor have the Gospel preached
unto them, it says. The poor have the Gospel preached
unto them. Again, remember how the Lord
opens His ministry after His baptism in the River Jordan,
and then subsequently after the anointing by the Spirit, the
Spirit who has come upon Him without measure, and then he's
led of the Spirit into the wilderness and he returns in the fullness
of the Spirit to Nazareth where he was brought up and that's
his custom was he's in the synagogue there on the Sabbath day and
the minister the minister gives him the book of the prophets
to read and he reads the words of Isaiah chapter 61 we have
the record there in Luke 4 And what does the Lord read? He reads
that passage. And He speaks again of His preaching.
He has anointed me, He says, to preach the gospel to the poor.
He preaches the gospel to the poor and the needy. They receive
the message. He's anointed to that blessed
end. This day, He says, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears. And these blessed ones, you see,
they are such as are receiving that message. They know what
it is to submit to His authority. There are people who are made
willing in the day of His power. Or the whole, they have no need
of the physician, but they that are sick. Christ says, I came
not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Or the Gospel then, it's for
poor sinners it's for poor sinners, it's for
persecuted believers also that is evident, is it not? those
who are seeking after the Lord Jesus
Christ those who are looking to the Lord Jesus Christ Are
they not being taught in their soul's experience? Are they not
being taught by the trials, the troubles, the tribulations, the
afflictions? Why afflictions make us see what
else would escape our sight, how very foul. And dear my will
and God how pure and bright, what a blessed lesson that the
gospel should come to these people. They know some present realities,
these blessed ones. They have a blessing for the
here and now, for this present world in which they're living,
this world that lies in the wicked one, and yet they know the Lord
and they know that grace of God in the Gospel. It's been made
a reality in their soul's experience. But it's a double blessing. It's
not only a blessing for the here and now, there's also a prospect. The gospel has promise of the
life that now is and of that which is to come says the Apostle. It has promise of the life that
now is but also of a life yet to come and I have not seen nor
heard neither hath entered into the hearts of men the things
that God hath prepared for them that love Him. There's a reward. Oh, there's a reward in heaven.
Rejoice, be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. Oh, they are one, you see, with
all the people of God. They are one with those who we
read of in that tremendous catalogue in Hebrews 11. They are in the communion of
saints. That's the true Israel of God. That's the church of
the Lord Jesus Christ. There's a reward. Blessed is
a man, says James, that endureth temptation for when he is tried
he shall receive the crown of life that the Lord will give. to them that trust Him. Or they can identify themselves
with one like Moses. Moses, in many ways, the greatest
of men in the Old Testament Scriptures, of course. All the prophets appeal to Moses,
to the Lord, and to the testimony. If they speak not according to
this word, it is because there's no light in them. What a great
man is Moses here in the Old Testament Scriptures. And these
blessed ones that we're reading of this morning, they're one
with that man. Remember how he appears in that catalog in Hebrews
11, verse 24, by Faith Moses. When he was come to years, refused
to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to
suffer affliction with the people of God and to enjoy the pleasures
of sin for a season, esteeming the reproach of Christ greater
riches than the treasures in Egypt, for he had respect unto
the recompense of the reward." Don't those words answer to what
we read in our text this morning? rejoice and be exceedingly glad
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you or one with all the saints of scripture
even a great man like Moses but more than that more than that
one with the Lord Jesus Christ himself and how he suffered how he was
reproached Now there were many who bore false witness against
Him and yet were told for the joy that was said before Him.
He endured the cross despite the shame and is now set down
on the right hand of the throne of God. All though one with Him. This is true of us. Can we really say in all sincerity
with the psalmist, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? And there
is none upon earth that I desire beside Thee. It's blessing now.
It's blessing then. It's a double blessing. It's
the gospel now in this world, and it's glory in the next. And
remember, those words of that great Scots minister Thomas Boston
how he says grace is glory in the bud and glory is grace in
the full flower you see it's blessings now it's blessings
then it's a double blessing that we have here in the text 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 sake rejoice and be exceeding
glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted
they the prophets which were before you." And I conclude this
morning with other words of the Lord Jesus Here in Matthew 11,
6, when he says, Blessed is he whosoever shall not be offended
in me. Oh, let us not be offended. Let
us not be ashamed of the offense of that cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, but take up our cross daily and follow Him. Amen.