th th th Hey, Joe. I think I forgot to change the... Yeah, no, I know that. I know you were there. Which one? th th th Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. th th Yeah, some people get sick and
cough, so they say to their nurses. But generally, I can answer people
in the area. I think it's time to thank you,
Mr. Chairman. Yes, yes. I've got
just two badges left. I worked at Cox for two years. That's a sure thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm all over it. We had one service
last week. I was thinking the same thing. All right. we're going to be in Romans 12.
Romans chapter 12, and our text is verses 14 through 18. And our study here, we're continuing
in Romans 12, and this portion of the chapter, it harkens back
to our service, the believer's service, even under times of
duress, even under times when it's hard to show love and hospitality
and to give to others who have need. And that's because it brings
us back to our understanding of what Paul's talking about
here, which is our service, even in times of tribulation, even
in times of hardship, even in times of persecution against
the brethren. And Persecution is actually promised
to believers. It's promised to us. It's not
some will have it in certain times and certain errors, but
all. It's promised to every believer.
And it says in 2 Timothy 3.12, I'll read it. Yea, and all that
will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So Paul tells us, everyone that
is godly, that is, is in Christ and confesses Christ that He
is their righteousness, they will suffer persecution. Now
we may, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's always bodily
harm or physical harm done to us, and it doesn't even necessarily
mean that we'll always recognize that we're being persecuted.
Some people could internalize that and just treat us differently
from that time forward. Maybe they would invite us to
something that now they won't invite us to because they think
that they would enjoy our company in what they were going to do.
So, but all are promised persecution. And so in our present study,
as we go through these verses 14 through 18, I want us to reflect
on that context. Remember the context that Paul
is, is speaking of here when he, when he gives us these, these
encouragements and, and, is laying out for us what it is that believers
do here in service to their Lord and to the brethren and even
those without the kingdom, those who have no hope in Christ. And so the context here, as we
saw the last time, was verse 12, which says, rejoicing in
hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Those are the ingredients that
go into the mix of our service. Being patient in times of tribulation,
being instant in prayer, continuing instant in prayer, and rejoicing
in hope, and we'll look at that hope. as we go through this text
more. So with that understanding, let's
look at verses 14 through 18 together. And I've titled this,
Service When Persecuted. Service When Persecuted. All
right, so that's the context. That's the context that these
acts of love are done in, that we do this service of love in
the midst of tribulation and persecution. All right, so verse
14, Paul encourages the believers saying, bless them that persecute
you, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Well, how is that possible? How is such a thing possible
and how are we honestly expected to bless those and not curse
them when they're persecuting us? Well, when our hearts are
set upon earthly things, when we look at our possessions, what
we've accumulated here in the earth, what we've worked hard
to achieve for ourselves, and our heart is set on those things,
right? This is my stuff. Don't touch
it. This is mine, and this is my
life, and this is my choice, and I'm going to do what I want
to do. When our heart is set on those things, right, fleshly
things, well, it's impossible for us to bless and not curse
when someone takes those things or harms us, our person, or harms
or takes for themselves those things that we've rightly earned
and obtained for ourselves through hard work. And so, in that sense,
it would be impossible to bless and not to curse. And it really
goes back to, well, where's your treasure? Where's your treasure? Is this your treasure? Is this
our kingdom? Is this what the Lord has promised
us, the things of this earth which are passing away? Or has
the Lord promised us eternal life where no man can touch it,
no thief can break in and destroy or take or hurt or harm us there
in the things of heaven, that which is eternal and shall never
fade away But if our hearts set on the things of the earth, oh,
it's impossible to bless and not curse them. And the reality
is, no one wants to be wronged. Even believers don't want to
be wronged or have our rights trampled upon. That's not what
we're looking for. But if our heart is set upon
the flesh, we're not going to bless those that that persecute
us, we're gonna curse them in the flesh. All right, so what
then, how is this possible that we bless those who persecute
us and not curse them? Well, it's a spiritual work.
Salvation is a spiritual work, which means it's a work of God
and not of this flesh. Now, I'm gonna borrow an order
that Paul gets to in verse 15. Let's read verse 15. Well, we're
going to talk a little more about verse 14, but verse 15, he says,
rejoice with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. Now, the reason why I'm showing
you this is there's an order given, right? There's rejoicing,
which precedes weeping. Rejoicing precedes, comes before
weeping, and that's because the Lord, when he saves us, remember
it's a spiritual work, it's a work that Christ does for the sinner. We don't get ourselves saved
as though we're doing something for Christ, as though we're doing
something for God that he then rewards us for. Not at all. That's
not salvation. That's of the flesh. Salvation
is a work of Christ for dead, helpless sinners who cannot save
themselves. All right? And so what I'm getting
at is that he gives us hope and joy and rejoicing in Him. When He comes and saves a sinner
and delivers them from the prison of our sin and the depths of
our own darkness in this flesh, and the fact that we have no
knowledge of God or how to worship Him, being left in the flesh,
we might be good in terms of how others in the world see us,
but before Holy God, who is perfect and righteous, We're sinners. Every one of us is a sinner.
And so when the Savior saves us, he gives us this knowledge
of what he's done for us, that we're undeserving sinners. We
haven't earned his favor. He's done it in spite of us being
sinners. And when we understand that by
his spirit, what he's accomplished in us, we rejoice. We're made
to rejoice and be thankful, knowing I have eternal life. in God my Savior who's done for
me in mercy and in grace that which I did not deserve. Turn
over to Romans 5 and we'll pick up in verse 1 and we'll see this
pattern. We'll see this pattern that the
Lord works for us, which Christ our Savior has accomplished for
us in salvation apart from any works that we ourselves have
done. Verse 1 says, therefore, being
justified. being justified. By faith we
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We know that our justification
was accomplished when Christ sacrificed himself, the Lamb
of God, He went to the cross, bearing the sins of his people,
and laid down his life. He died our death, shedding his
blood to propitiate, to deliver us from the penalty of our sin. His blood was shed, and his blood
covers his people, whereby they are cleansed and delivered from
the wrath of God in Christ, so that in Christ we're righteous. and being righteous, God, therefore,
justifies us, says, yes, indeed, you are righteous by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, Christ then gives us, he
creates that new man in us, and we begin to bear the fruits of
the Spirit, one among which is faith, right? And so by faith,
we have peace with God, by faith, we look to Christ and believe
him and trust him, right? It's the gift of faith that God
gives us whereby we believe Christ and trust him and that peace
that we have with God now is communicated to us by his grace
and mercy, all right? And then he says, verse two,
by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. So the reason
why I bring you here is because that's the foundation of our
rejoicing. We're not rejoicing because we've
done something remarkable, we're rejoicing because our God in
mercy is gracious to us in his son, Jesus Christ. Now, I want
to look at this whole, look at, drop down to verse five there,
in Romans five, verse five, and then we'll come back up to verses
three and four. Five says, and hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost
which is given unto us. All right, so there's two things
there. Our foundation is resting upon what Christ has done for
us, and the fact that he's given us his Holy Spirit, whereby we're
made alive in Christ, we're regenerated spiritually, made alive in Christ,
to behold and believe these things, to receive what Christ has done,
and we have an understanding of him, all right? So there's
our rejoicing. And that's why believers, with
the gift of the Holy Spirit, and having been given by God
this understanding of what He's accomplished in us, that He's
given us life, that's how we're able to bless and not curse those. Because that blessing isn't going
to be a work of the flesh, it's going to be a work of the Spirit.
in us, all right? And so He dwells in us, and dwelling
in us, He grows us in grace. He grows us in this knowledge.
When we first believe, we don't understand all things of what
God has done for us in Christ, but He grows us. That's why we
come and sit under the preaching of the Gospel, because the Spirit
takes those words, and faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. That's how He's pleased to communicate
what he's done to us and feed us and teach us in Christ. All
right, verses three and four shows us now why I'm coming here,
because it ties it to that tribulation and persecution. And not only
so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. All right, and that hope that
we have in Christ is not going to leave us ashamed in the day
of judgment when we stand before God because we're not trusting
in our own works of righteousness, we're trusting Christ's righteousness
and so we won't be found naked as others who don't believe in
Christ and don't trust Him and His righteousness and are trying
to earn a righteousness before God with their own works. So
we won't be ashamed there, okay? Alright, so the Lord, what he's
doing is he's wisely, in wisdom, he's growing us in the gospel,
in faith, he's growing us and he's preparing us for just such
a day. He's preparing his people so
that as we grow in this knowledge of Christ, we go through things
that oppose the revelation that God has given us in his son,
right, that oppose our faith, that oppose our hope, but our
God strengthens us in Christ, right, and he strengthens that
hope and strengthens that faith so that patience is borne up
under that opposition and under those tribulations and those
trying times so that when that day comes of persecution, by
his grace and power, we're able to bear up under it. All right,
if the Lord, we trust that the Lord in that day, depending on
to the measure of persecution that we face, we trust, we have
nothing but to trust Him that He'll give us that grace in that
day to endure the persecution and to bless rather than curse
them who are persecuting us, all right? Now, let's go over
to Matthew 5. Matthew 5. And let's look at verse 43. I wanna look at a few verses
in Matthew 5 because Matthew records our Lord's instruction
and teaching regarding persecution against us. All right, so I believe
Paul's actually drawing Romans 12, 14 from verse 44 here, but
let's pick up in verse 43, Matthew 5, 43. He says, you have heard that
it hath been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine
enemy. I would say those that are persecuting
us would fall into that category of being an enemy. But he says,
I say unto you, love your enemies, bless them that curse you and
do good to them that hate you. pray for them which despitefully
use you and persecute you." All right, so this is exactly what
Paul is speaking of in this same understanding of what our Lord
taught us, and this is only going to be done through the indwelling
of the Holy Spirit. All right, this isn't going to
be done through a workup in our flesh in religion, right? Our flesh can put on a good show
in dead works religion, but this is going to be by the spirit
dwelling in us. And if you notice, both Paul
said it, because our Lord said it, it's prayer. It's continuing
instant in prayer, which the Lord gives us as a soothing ointment,
if you will, whereby the believer is comforted. When we stay in
our flesh, when we think about how we've been wrong, I know
I've done this and I'm certain at least some of you have probably
done this at times, when you start thinking about how you've
been wronged, you can get yourself pretty angry about it and you
can feel the injustice of it and you can see yourself what
you'd really like to say to them or what you'd like to do and
you get angry with that. And that's because we're continuing
in the flesh. But when we begin to pray, that's
where the Lord soothes us and reminds us that this isn't our
inheritance. This isn't our hope. This isn't
our final resting place. And we begin to pray, Lord, not
my will be done, but thy will. And he comforts us in that, right? He communicates that comfort
to us and that hope, and he restores us in a spirit of grace and kindness
so that we're able to walk in love, that we're able to continue
in that spirit, knowing I don't want to go in with my flesh here
now. Lord, help me to remember your
love and grace here. Now our Lord says there in Matthew
5 45 he says that he tells us to do this 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. And so our Lord is revealing
to us that we're called, that this is how our God, our Father,
has treated us. This is how we, He dealt with
us in love and in mercy. And in love and mercy, He revealed
Himself to us, right? It wasn't in wrath and hatred. coming against us but in love
he drew out he drew us out and and revealed Christ to us right
even when we were undeserving even when we walked in the flesh
and were as others children of wrath and disobedience right
that's where we all were when when our God came to us and revealed
himself to us you could see that in Ephesians chapter 2 the first
several verses of chapter two of Ephesians tells us that. All
right, and then he goes on, verse 46, for if ye love them which
love you, what reward have ye? Do not even the publicans the
same? And if you salute your brethren only, what do ye more
than others? Do not even the publicans so?
All right, and so if our God had waited for us to be good
children of God, we'd still be in darkness. We'd still be in
enmity, because that's what the flesh is. It's enmity against
the truth of God. And then our Lord, well this
will be the last verse here in Matthew. 548, he says, be ye
therefore perfect, even as your father, which is in heaven, is
perfect. And that caught my attention.
I don't fully comprehend what our Lord is saying to us there,
but as I thought about it and asked the Lord, what does this
mean? My mind was directed to Christ. who suffered and was
perfected in suffering, right? If you look over at Hebrews,
Hebrews 2, there's two passages in Hebrews that reveal this to
us. In Hebrews 2, verses 9 and 10,
the writer there says, we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with
glory and honor that he, by the grace of God, should taste death
for every man. Every man in Christ, all his
seed, every one of his children he tasted death for, for it became
him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through sufferings." He was perfect through sufferings. I don't fully understand how
the Son of God could be any more perfect, but that's how the Lord
uses the words here in Hebrews. And then in Hebrews 5 verses
8 and 9, We read, though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered. And being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all that obey him. And so that our God works the
salvation for us. Even as he was perfected in his
sufferings and became the author of our salvation, he also finished
our salvation in perfecting us in himself. And in him, we suffer
and have eternal salvation in Christ, okay? So that's how we're
perfect, standing in Christ. It's looking to him and continuing
in him. That's how we're perfect. We're
not perfect in this flesh, all right, at all. We give all the
praise and glory to Christ. All right, so coming back to
our text there in verse 15, Romans 12, 15. All right, he says there, rejoice
with them that do rejoice and weep with them that weep. And so we find that our rejoicing
is founded upon Christ and who we are in Christ and what we've
been given in him. And then rejoicing in Christ,
that's how we feel with our brethren. We're of the same body. And as
those tender relationships are woven together by the love of
Christ dwelling in our hearts by faith. There's that love and
so we do feel what they feel and we are touched when our brethren
are touched. And we continue in the hope of
Christ because of the rejoicing we have founded upon his work
in mercy upon the cross there, which he accomplished for us
and in giving his spirit. Now verse 16 is a warning to
us in the sense that we're to hear and understand the weakness
of our flesh. We're always reminded lest we
should be proud and arrogant and puffed up and think that
we're something when we're nothing. And so the Lord shows us this,
and well, what's the root of our persecution? What's at the
root of our persecution, right? It's because they hate us. They
hate us because of who we are, what we believe and confess,
and whose we are. It's unjust. Persecution against
us is unjust. They don't know us. They don't
know why they hate us except for the fact that we claim to
believe Christ and give him all the glory in salvation. And so
when the world hates us, it's for the sake of Christ. That's
why the apostles and brethren were persecuted, because they
confessed Christ, because they didn't bow down to what the religious
leaders said that they should do or say. and instead they continued
confessing Christ and so they were persecuted and they were
hated for it. So with that in mind, look at
verse 16 here. Paul says, be of the same mind toward one another. Don't see one another in levels
and in distinctions of who's better and who's not, or who
has a higher social status and who doesn't. He said, be of the
same mind toward one another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. What he's saying there is that
if we, if someone comes in, James talks about this in the book
of James, if someone who you recognize is wealthy, and we
think, oh, this person could add to the church and do something
good for the church, and we begin to cater to them and show partiality
to them, and then someone comes in who looks tattered and worn
and doesn't, we think, well, they're probably just poor, and
we treat them differently, As an example, what Paul's getting
at is we're doing the same thing as those who persecute us because
they're different, because they don't align with what we think
they should, who they should be or what they should do or
how they should speak. We treat them differently. We
persecute the poor and we cater to the rich. And so Paul's saying
if that's how you are, how are you any different than how the
world is treating you and persecuting you? Because they see Christians
who believe Christ, who confess that Christ is all in salvation,
we're knocked down in the minds of the world. And they greatly
esteem those who are of this flesh and wealthy and seem to
do well in this world. And so they treat us differently.
They feel like we can add nothing to their society and to their
kingdom, and so we're treated differently from others. And
so Paul's saying, don't be like that. Don't you persecute others
just because of their status or their stature in this life,
all right? And so we should treat all the
same way. And in that sense, go over to
Romans 15, because Paul actually has the same thought and he elaborates
on it a little bit more in Romans 15, and we'll look at verses
five through 11. I'm sorry, five through seven. Romans 15 verse 5, he says, now
the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded. Mind is not what he said, be
of the same mind, be like-minded one toward another according
to Christ. And then here's the relevance
of the gospel, verse six, that ye may with one mind and one
mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. And so what, to round it out
in the context of persecution, he's saying when the church is
persecuted, right, and when the church is persecuted, The will
of God is revealed in us, right? That we believe in spite of what's
coming against us, that we believe that Christ is our all and that
he's returning just as he's promised. The church unites together, right? They come together. And the greatest
thing we can do is continue to lift up the banner of Christ
and to march under his flag, to march under the banner of
Christ proclaiming Him, speaking with one mind and one voice,
the Lord Jesus Christ, and continuing to glorify and edify our Savior. And so that's what we'll do in
the face of persecution. And so that's why we're of one
mind, and we don't get caught up in these fleshly things, all
right? So, oh, and then verse seven
says, wherefore receive ye one another, right? Don't mind high
things, receive ye one another as Christ also received us to
the glory of God. And so we're reminded because
we're all sinners here. None of us is better than the
other. Every one of us is sinners, right? There may be different
sins that we prefer and we might think lighter of certain things
or worse of other things. We're all sinners before God.
We might justify it in our own minds or before others, but every
one of us is a guilty sinner worthy of eternal hell, but it's
because of the grace of God and Jesus Christ that we have hope
and are rejoicing in Him. Now, Paul says back in our text,
verse 17 of chapter 12, Let's wrap it up here. Paul says, even
when you're wrong, don't repay others with evil, not in word
or in deed. He says, recompense to no man
evil for evil. And our Lord said that too, even,
you don't have to go there, but in Matthew 5.39, he said that
ye resist not evil, but whosoever shall smite thee on the right
cheek, turn to him the other also. All right, we're not looking
to provoke or to create greater amount of them perpetrating evil
against us, but don't even resist it. Just trust the Lord and trust
Him in it, because as we don't resist, the Lord may use it to
cause them to realize. I mean, I've read, I guess it
was Fox's Book of Martyrs, where many Christians went and faithfully
and and to to their death trusting and with such fortitude that
even some of the Roman soldiers couldn't deny what they were
seeing that these were not people that they've known these are
people who went there without fear and and we don't you know
right now when we think of it that troubles us and we think
I don't know if I could do that but our trust is that in the
day of grace when we need that kind of grace our God would give
it to us all right and then he says Provide things honest in
the sight of all men, right? Be honest and speak the truth
in love. Verse 18, so that if possible,
as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. And that we shall do, having
the salt of grace in us. And Christ speaks of that being
full of that, that the salt lose not its saltiness, right? That
we be in the Lord and walk in His Spirit, having His Spirit
in us because it's the Holy Spirit that is the salt of grace. He's
the one in whom we walk and trust the Lord and serve our God and
His people and even those without the kingdom of God in the face
of persecution. So it's by His grace that we
hear this word and trust Him and believe Him. All right, so
let's close in prayer and then we'll be dismissed for about
15 minutes. Our gracious Lord, we thank you,
Father, for your grace. We thank you for your word and
your instruction. And Lord, we ask that you would
help us to hear your word by the Spirit in the Spirit of Christ
dwelling in us. that we, Lord, would not walk
in the flesh. We know how weak and corrupt
this flesh is, how sinful we are in the flesh, but Lord, we
trust you, we trust your grace, we trust the blood of Christ,
which cleanses us from all sin. And Lord, we ask that you would
continue to grow us and that we would walk in love even in
the midst of persecution or tribulation, that we would be faithful to
our God and Savior. It's in his name we pray and
give thanks, amen. All right, so we'll take a 15-minute
break. We'll come back at about three,
four minutes after the top of the hour of 11, so 11.04.