Oh, you can do the phone without
me, right? I think so. Thank you. I'm not saying it's going to
be a festival. Don't pull it. Alright brethren, we're going
to get started. Our text this morning is Romans
12. And we're going to be looking
at verses 19-21. Now, before we jump into the
study, I just want to look back up at what we concluded with from the apostle last time that
we were here in Romans 12. And he gave us an exhortation
regarding our service when persecuted. And it's something that we can
expect this world to give us, to show to us persecution should
we live godly before them. And he said in Romans 12, 17
through 18, He said, recompense to no man
evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. If it be possible, as much as
lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. And so we have
to acknowledge that depending on the age that we're living
in, to varying degrees, from time to time there's worse or
less persecution, but that we all suffer to some degree this
persecution, this unjust treatment of the world. Regardless, he
says, provide things honest in the sight of all men. In other
words, what he's saying is, don't you be the reason to bring evil
upon yourself, right? We, we know that there's things
that we can do. We can open our mouth, we can
use our tongues to say things, we can actively do things that
bring trouble upon us. And he's saying don't do that. In fact, the Apostle Peter spoke
about this over in 1 Peter chapter 4. I'm going to go there and
read a few verses. I won't read all the verses in
its entirety, but in 1 Peter 4.12, he speaks about us suffering
as Christians, as believers and he tells us not to do so as an
evildoer don't suffer for evil yourself he said beloved think
it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you
as though some strange thing happened unto you but rejoice
in as much as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings and then
in verse 14 he says if you be reproached for the name of Christ
happy are ye. Verse 15, but let none of you
suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody
in other men's matters. Because if you do things, you
may justly invite trouble to yourself. Though many of us maybe
never murdered anybody, except maybe in our hearts, a lot of
us have probably gotten involved in other people's business, right,
and then got ourselves into trouble with things by saying things
or doing things in that regard, and so we suffered justly as
a result of that. Wherefore, verse 19, he says,
let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the
keeping of their souls to Him in well-doing as unto a faithful
creative. And so the believer wants to
live peaceably with all men, and so we seek to avoid putting
ourselves in the line of fire, so to speak. And depending on
the age in which you live, that band that you could find yourself
in trouble can increase or shrink a little bit. But there's times
when we find ourselves under trial and under that kind of
tribulation and suffering, albeit unjustly, at the hands of wicked
men. And it's sent to try the patience
and the faith that our God has given us and the hope that we
have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so based on what both the
apostles are saying, Peter and Paul, They're saying, you commit
your way to the Lord. When you suffer persecution and
when you suffer a fiery trial, commit your way to the Lord and
don't seek to take matters into your own hand. Don't walk according
to the flesh. Rather, commit the vengeance,
that justice part, as well as the keeping of your souls to
God. Commit it to the Lord. You leave it with Him. All right,
so with that as our backdrop, I've titled this message, Leave
Vengeance with God. Leave Vengeance with God. Now, as we saw the last time
that we were here, we know that he spoke of serving others when
persecuted, and how that is a spiritual work. Serving others, even in
the midst of persecution, is a spiritual work that the Lord
must work in us. And so is this exhortation as
we come to the final three verses here in Romans 12. The apostle
says in verse 19, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath. For it is written, vengeance
is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Now, I'm going to make
a few comments on this verse in the hopes that it prepares
our hearts to hear the blessing that we'll see at the end of
our study here as we close and wrap it up. And it's meant to
warm our hearts. I'll speak a few things on what
this verse is saying to engage our attention and to hear what
the Lord is saying here. But I want you to stay with me
because there's a sweet view of Christ. here in our text this
morning. So the first thing I want you
to notice is how the apostle speaks to us when he gives us
this word of exhortation to not avenge ourselves. He begins by
saying, dearly beloved, dearly beloved. I think he says that
because he's saying a lot of things that are hard to hear
in the flesh in this passage. These are words to help us and
to encourage us in our service here on the earth, in the midst
of the adversity that we face from this world, in the trial
that it is to labor with one another in love and to be patient
and kind toward one another. He's saying things that are hard
to hear. And so I think he's acknowledging that when he says,
dearly beloved. I know I'm saying things that
are hard for you to hear, my dear brethren, dearly beloved. And so he's speaking to us who
are spiritual. When you read these words that
Paul writes and the other brethren, the men that the Lord has raised
up to pen the scriptures, Let it serve as a marker in your
ear as you're reading it to remember He's speaking to you that are
spiritual, you that are spiritual, you that have the Spirit, that
love the Lord and seek to know Him and to follow His commandments
to love one another. These are hard things for us
to hear if we only hear them in the flesh. And so he's speaking
to you that are spiritual. Actually, turn over to Revelation,
Revelation 13. I've been thinking about this
verse a lot, Revelation 13, verses 9 and 10. And it speaks of a
time when Antichrist is making war with the saints. It says
that, it uses that term in verse 7. Antichrist is making war with
the saints. He says in chapter 13, verse
9 and 10, he says this, if any man have an ear, let him hear. If any man have an ear, let him
hear. He that leadeth into captivity shall go into captivity. He that
killeth with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is
the patience and the faith of the saints. And so what we're
seeing here is that God himself shall take vengeance upon the
enemies of the people of God. And while we wait for the Lord
to work the things out that the Lord has purposed to work out,
it requires patience and faith on our part. There are those
that are determined by God to go into captivity. And there
are those who are determined by God to go to the sword and
many other things. And we are to wait patiently
upon our God as all these things are being put into place and
being worked out here on the earth. And so it's not easy for
us to hear things, even in the midst of persecution and in the
midst of trial and trouble, it's a difficult thing. It's impossible
in the flesh, right, to hear this and to hear what the Lord's
saying in the spirit, except the Lord give it to us. And then
so, Another point to him saying, dearly beloved, is that it's
a reminder to us whose we are, that we who hear this word and
hear what the Lord is saying, we're in the body of Christ. We're in the family of Christ. And it says in Ephesians 5 30
he tells us we are members of his body of his flesh and of
his bones And that's because Christ offered his body All right. He gave his body for his bride
the church and so When he sacrificed himself it was to cleanse his
people of their sins and to make atonement with us before God
so that God's anger and wrath is is no longer a Upon us, it
fell upon Christ as our substitute in our stead. He bore that which
we deserve. In fact, in 2 Corinthians 5.19,
the word tells us that God was in Christ reconciling the world
unto himself, right? Reconciling his people scattered
throughout the world wherever they are, both Jew and Gentile,
for there's one salvation. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. for
all men, right? There's only one salvation provided,
it's Christ. Jew and Gentile, and Christ laid
down his life to reconcile us unto the Father. The Father was
in it, it was his work, and the Son's work, and the Spirit's,
and he purposed to save his people in this manner. And so now he
gathers his people into the body of Christ as a bride adorned
for her husband, right? We're adorned with the grace
and the fruits, his spirit, his righteousness as a bride adorned
for her husband. All right, so we're reminded
in the scriptures often that we've been purchased. We've been
purchased and we are made by his grace members of Christ's
body. And in him, we are recipients
of God's grace. In Christ, we are recipients
of the inheritance which God has given him so that we stand
to inherit the glory of Christ. as his bride, as his body, we're
one with Christ. He's our inheritance. We have
no part in inheritance with the sons and daughters of Adam. God
has delivered us from their inheritance, their condemnation, the wrath
of God, which is coming upon the inhabitants of this world. He's delivered us from that death
and that wrath to come and put us with Christ, in Christ, so
that we stand in him. And therefore, Paul says to us,
ye are bought with a price. Be ye not the servants of men. That's 1 Corinthians 7.23. Be
ye not the servants of men. That is, you're bought with Christ.
You stand in Christ. Don't walk, therefore, after
the flesh. Don't walk in man's ways and
respond to things as men and women of the flesh respond. You abide in Christ. You stand
and you walk in him, right? We're not servants of men to
do what they do. We're servants of Christ in his
body. And so as members of Christ's
body, when he says in Romans 12, 19, dearly beloved, Avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. He's speaking
of those personal attacks that we suffer, right? Whether due
to something we have done ourselves or even living godly and serving
the Lord and trusting him, we still suffer unjustly. Because
we know that there have been times when the church has suffered
unjustly and had things taken from her that were hers and that
she earned rightfully. But the world, in persecution,
took those things and troubled her. Now, the word is, as I said,
personal attacks. He's not talking to governments
that governments should just put up and let people go out
and burn and murder and do whatever they're going to do in the streets
in the name of protesting and things like that. Not at all.
He's not saying that governments should not deal with those things. But you, in personal matters,
be patient. wait upon the Lord and trust
him, seek the Lord's will in these matters. And he's not saying
to the church, look, if there's a distraction from the gospel
that we shouldn't address it as the church, right? If someone
is distracting from the gospel, those things should be addressed
as well. But to you personally, when you're
wronged by the wicked of this world, he says to you and to
me, give place unto wrath. Give place unto wrath. And what
does that mean? Well, it means to put some space
and or a little time between your reaction, what's happened,
and how quickly we respond in kind to what's just been done
to us. He says, give place to wrath. Give yourself time to compose
yourself and to get hold of your tongue or get hold of your actions
that you don't just respond in the flesh and calm down, right? I was thinking of a mother, right? Many of you men, you know, you
go out to work and you come home and your wife, she hands you
the baby immediately because she needs some time. She's given
place to rats. She's had a hard day. Kids have
been crying and testing her and pushing her over the edge sometimes
on days or She's had a fight with someone over the phone or
whatever in the supermarket, and she just needs an opportunity
to decompose. And she's given place to wrath.
And so just like a mother would do that so that she can compose
herself and come back and minister to the family, that she just
needs some space sometimes, right? And so she gives place unto wrath
in that way. So even Rebecca did that with
Jacob. And Esau, right, Esau wanted
to kill Jacob when he took his father's blessing. And under
Rebekah's advice and guidance, right? And so she gave place
to wrath by sending Jacob away. And she sent him to Laban, her
brother, saying, carry with him a few days until thy brother's
wrath, or fury, turned away. And it turned out being about,
what, many years, almost 20 years or something. But you're giving
that place or that space so that your wrath subsides and you can
wait patiently on the Lord. In fact, we pray a lot of times
when we're angry like that. You should pray because you don't
want to just be a servant of man responding in the flesh. You want to serve in Christ's
body to do his will. Now, the text here reveals two
possible general outcomes, I think, of what the Lord's saying here
in the way it's worded here. The first one is pretty obvious.
When he says, give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance
is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. In other words, don't you take
out your vengeance on the wicked. Let the Lord, in his time and
in his manner, he's going to pour out his just fury and wrath
upon the wicked who will suffer justly under his wrath for the
sins that they've committed. And it'll be just, and it'll
be in proper measure. We know that of the Lord. He's
a just and holy God, and he will punish sin in his time according
as it pleases him, because he's working all things according
to the good pleasure of himself. And he's working all things for
our good. There's things that he's doing. And he's using even
the wickedness of man to work his works in the earth. He allows
things to go so far, insofar as it glorifies him and the rest
of man's wrath, he restrains and turns them away from that.
But there's a second possibility here that may result as an outcome
of you giving place to wrath and not taking vengeance yourself. And that's the sweet part I wanted
to get to. to show you Christ in this. Our Lord said in Matthew 5, 39,
he said, I say unto you that ye resist not evil. Don't even seek to prevent it
in that sense. Be righteous. Don't bring it
on yourself. But I mean, he says, don't resist evil. But whoever
shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other
also. And we looked at some of these last time in Matthew 5.
And in verse 44, he says unto us, love your enemies, bless
them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray
for them which despitefully use you and persecute you, right? Because we know in prayer, that's
often where our heart is melted and where the Lord reveals to
us what we have need of hearing in that time of prayer when we're
pouring out our heart. And he tells us even his word
that he'll deal and set things right though he bear long with
us. It may take time as we seek him
continually. He'll make right what needs to
be made right. And then he says in verse 45,
this reason, that ye may be the children of your father, which
is in heaven, for he maketh his son to rise on the evil and on
the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. Now, we're to be honest. Let's
be honest, we're to provide things honest in the sight of all men. And we know this from that verse. We know how that our God bore
long with us in dead letter religion and foolish thoughts and ideas
of God and the wrath that we've had with others and in our own
sin and lusts that we commit and walked in our God. was very
gracious and very kind and very merciful to us and didn't deal
with us as our sins deserved. And so we too walked as children
of wrath and disobedience. Ephesians 2 verses 1 through
3 tells us that plainly, that we were all there in that body
of wrath and sin and iniquity and the children of disobedience. but God, right? But God had mercy
upon us. And so our, our father showed
us immense love and he forgave us of our sins rather than punish
us. He poured out his wrath upon
his own beloved son, his only begotten son. He sent him into
the world to save his people from their sins, right? He did that and he took vengeance. Not upon us, but he took vengeance
upon his only begotten son, right? The vengeance was poured out,
but it wasn't poured out upon us. It was poured out upon our
Lord and Savior. And so what I'm getting at in
this is that it's written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith
the Lord. I'll pour out the vengeance.
Vengeance will be meted out according to justice. And it's either going
to fall upon that sinner themselves in their own works, or that vengeance
falls upon Christ for his people. And he poured out that vengeance
on someone who received that vengeance. It was poured out.
And it's either you, sinner, or it's Christ in your stead. And so we're thankful when we
think of it. concerning our substitution that
vengeance was poured out on him and in my place and in your place. You who have no hope and have
no ability to make right your wrongs. Vengeance was poured
out upon his son, Jesus Christ. It says in Isaiah 53 5, he was
wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him. And with his stripes, we are
healed. Therefore, our Lord says in Romans
1220, if thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give
him drink. For in so doing, thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. because you in your patience
and in faith waiting upon the Lord, not pouring out vengeance,
not taking matters into your own hands, you may find that
your enemy's heart is melted and that they're turned from
their evil intent and brought low in themselves to see their
need of the Savior that you hope in and seek to know Him and be in that body of Christ and
partake of His inheritance. And so, everything will be done,
everything will be set right, everything will be made right
by the Lord. And He'll take vengeance, but
that vengeance, for the sake of the sin and the iniquity,
was laid upon Christ, laid upon Him. And so, that vengeance will
be doled out, but the Lord is saying to us, Hold on a minute,
before you do that, I've found one upon whom my vengeance will
be poured. You don't need to take that vengeance
out on that one. I found another to take their
place, and whom I've poured out my vengeance on them. And so
the Lord says, be ye therefore, this is from Matthew 5.48, be
ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven
is perfect. and our perfection is Christ.
We're not perfect in ourselves. We can't do this. It's Christ
in you, the hope of glory. He's our perfection. And so it's
a spiritual matter and it's to you, you hear it, you that are
spiritual, you that are spiritual, been given the spirit of Christ
to hear this. So I pray that the Lord keep
this word for you in your heart, that it not be stolen away, that
it not be dried up and withered under persecution, or that it
not be choked out by the cares of this world and this life,
but rather that his word be planted in your hearts, that it be found,
that it find good ground by the Lord, that in his time you might
bear, that we might bear fruit unto our God, by the seat of
Christ, some hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold, and
that in that day when it's called upon, when it's needed, that
we would remember his word to us, that we might abide in him,
walk in him rather than in the flesh, right? So I pray that,
not that that day would come, but that when that day comes,
the Lord be gracious and reveal his grace in you. And even in
the midst of the fiery trial, all right, that your faith be
found, as Peter said in 1 Peter 1, that your faith be found in
that trial. So I pray the Lord bless that
word to our hearts to rejoice in walking him with gladness
and joy. So I pray you bless that, amen. All right, brethren, let's close
in prayer. Our gracious Lord, Father, we We thank you for your
word. And we thank you, Lord, that
even in this word, which speaks of vengeance, we may see your
son, Jesus Christ, who took that vengeance, our vengeance, who
took it upon himself and was chastened for us and took our
stripes. And that by his bearing our load
and bearing our punishment, we are made free. that we have life
and light in our Savior Jesus Christ. Lord, help us not to
walk in the flesh, but may we be mindful of this word, especially
in the hour of need, that we would not take matters into our
own hands, but that we would trust you and wait patiently
upon you. For it's in Christ's name that
we pray this, that we beg you for this this word that you help
us Lord to walk and live in the spirit. It's in Christ's name.
We pray. Amen. All right, brethren. So we'll
come back in. Well, we've got a good time. So at 11 o'clock
local will begin.