online. Our conference is coming
up July 25th, 26th, and 27th. I've had people call and ask me the
times. They didn't get the email, but if you're listening, it's
Friday. We begin at 7 p.m. And then Saturday and Sunday
we both begin at 10 a.m. So 7 p.m. on Friday, and then
Saturday begin at 10 a.m. and in both these occasions we'll
have two preachers, Kevin Thacker and David Edmondson be the men
bringing the messages on those days of Lord willing. So pray
for that. I appreciate all the work that
everybody's put into preparing the building and getting it ready
and getting the list of things for
food and things like that. That's much appreciated. Remember,
the conference is not about food or building. It's good. I'm thankful. I am. I'm really thankful. But
the messages are the vital part. They're the reason why we're
doing this. I want you to hear some other
voices. I like having conferences because
I get to hear some other voices besides mine. I don't like just
hearing mine. I have to listen to this thing
all the time. I'm glad to listen to other men preach the gospel.
So pray for that. Pray for Joanne as she continues
to recover. And Kathy and Annie made it to
their destination. So we're thankful for that. Pray
the Lord be with them and then bring them back to us again. I ask your prayers for me as
I desire to preach this message. I've been wanting to preach this
message for about three weeks. And not been able to, been delivered
to preach other things. But I think the Lord has finally
given me the liberty to preach this, I hope. Pray the night
he will. So I covet your prayers in this.
Any other requests need to be mentioned? Anything else? Hammies, okay. She's back there
in the nursery taking care of her. We'll pray for her. She
said she had a screw loose. So yeah, I thought I'd mention
that to everybody. Tammy's got a screw loose in her knee. So I imagine I got a screwdriver
in the back. Pray for her, and I know that's
painful, and a joke about that, but pray for her healing. Pray for Angela and others. Let's go to God in prayer. Holy Father, we plead for mercy
this evening. Come together again. and yet realize once more we
have no strength in ourselves. All our determination and zeal
amount to nothing without the power of the Holy Spirit to give
us light and understanding and wisdom and grace. Pray for strength tonight to
give me liberty and unction of your spirit I beg you to give me grace to
plainly declare the word and that it would powerfully go into
the minds and hearts of your people by the same spirit. I pray that Christ would be magnified. The reason for these exhortations
we are given is the grace of God in Christ. I pray that we would always be
mindful of that as we go through this text. Lord, I pray that
you would constantly refresh our minds concerning the greatness and
love of our Savior. Be with those that suffer. Strengthen
the sick, the infirmed. Raise them back to health. if
you would be pleased. We pray you will. We plead for
those who are struggling in their minds and their hearts. How many,
Father, are so downcast they can't lift up their heads? Please
help them. I pray, Father, that you would
teach us and instruct us in the things of Christ. Forgive us
our sins. Be with our brethren as I pray
your being with us. I pray the same for every one
of your men wherever they preach. And I ask these things in the
name of our Savior and for His sake. Amen. All right. Romans chapter 12. Romans chapter
12. I don't have this down, but I
feel it necessary. It's been a while since we've
been here. I want to go through down to verse 14, that will be
my text, but I kind of want to give you a reminder of all that
went before so we have a mindset of what the apostle is doing.
Remember in verses 1 through 2 we have the exhortation, we
have the exhortation, the He says, I implore you, I beseech
you by the mercies of God, present your bodies a living sacrifice,
whole and acceptable unto God, which is what? Just your reasonable
service. If we consider the mercies of
God, how He chose us, He redeemed us, He called us, He saved us,
He keeps us, by what? Mercy. And if we consider the
mercy of God, isn't it just reasonable to give ourselves to His service?
It is. Don't be conformed to this world.
That's a temptation, isn't it? To be conformed to the fashion
of the world, the religion of the world. But be transformed,
metamorphosized. How? By the renewing of your
mind. Remember, that's where the battlefield
is. The flesh and the spirit war in the soul, in the heart,
but the mind is where it's realized. And so what do we got to do?
We think this way, we got to constantly set it right side
up. Renew your mind. Why? That you may prove that which
is good, acceptable and perfect will of God. Isn't God's will
perfect? Don't you have to renew your mind about that? It seems
like it's not perfect. Well, you need to renew your
mind about that. It's good. It's acceptable. It's the perfect
will of God. And then he talks about humility.
He says this sacrifice has to be done in humility. For I say
to the grace given to me of every man among you, don't think of
yourself more highly than you ought to think. Think soberly
according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.
Do you have a measure of faith? Well, who dealt that to you?
Do you have any reason to exalt yourself above other brethren
who have weaker faith? No, you don't. Why? Because then he used the analogy
of the body, as a body has many members, So the church, the church
has many members, each one having different functions, different
gifts. I was speaking to someone the
other day and this woman is positive. I'm telling you what, you just
can't find anything negative. And I thought about that and
I thought, what a gift. I'm just, you know, I'll tell
you what, I've become just a cynical, negative person. A glass is always
half empty with me. I don't understand that. I don't
like it. I don't like to feel that way. I have a gift to preach. God gave me a gift. This is what
I'm to be, you doing in my, that God gave me. So I'll preach.
But you know what? That person has a gift that helps
me. encourages me. In other words,
these gifts complement each other. If it's just preaching, if that's
all there is, if there's nothing to encourage me to continue,
then it wouldn't. So God gives gifts to everyone
else, and they work together. They work together, so they're
all important, whatever God has given you to do. And those gifts,
they change, they grow, But whatever God gives you to do, do that
in humility. And then look, do it in love,
verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy. Don't pretend to love
one another. Don't just smile, grin, and bear
it. That's not it. No, we really should love one
another. Isn't that reasonable? Seeing
how much Christ loves you, is that not reasonable to love me?
I'm sure I'm unlovable, but I know this, I was more unlovable than
you. Surely I can love you if Christ
loved me. Surely I can love you and not
have to pretend, not have to grin and bear it. Abhor that
which is evil, cleave with that which is good, be kindly affectionate
one to another, and brotherly love, and honor preferring one
another." Man, we should prefer everybody above ourselves. We
should take each other and exalt each other above ourselves. Aren't
these things reasonable? If you understand grace, then
you understand these things are not outside the pale. They're
not difficult things to ask. Abhor that which is evil and
cleave to that which is good. Is that not reasonable? It is. Don't be slothful in business.
He's talking about in the business of loving, in the business of
serving, in the business of ministering or giving or whatever your gift
is. Don't be lazy in that. Don't put your gift down as to
say, well, I just don't have any. I think that's an excuse,
isn't it? We use that as an excuse. My
gift is not so great, so I guess I just won't use it. Now that's
an excuse to be lazy. Don't. Don't be slothful in that. Fervent in spirit, serving one
another, rejoicing in hope. Remember we got a good hope.
Don't we have a good hope? What is hope? Isn't it confidence?
We have a good confidence. Why? Because God swore to save
me. Isn't that good enough? If God swore to save me, and
Christ saved me, and the Spirit called me, and the Spirit keeps
me, then I've got a good hope. Rejoice in that! And listen, patience and tribulation,
just endurance. Tribulation is coming, so what?
Be patient, wait. Endure. instant in prayer, distributing
the necessity of the saint, giving to hospitality. Now we come to
our text. Now I got there. I had to speed
run through that. But if anybody wants to listen
to any of that, I've got them all. You can go back and re-listen
to all that. But I need to focus on this one
tonight. Bless them that persecute you. I've entitled this, The
Blessing of the Persecuted. The Blessing of the Persecuted.
First of all, I want you to know this, that persecution is part
of our experience here. Now, in modern religion, persecution,
they think that that should be strange. It's strange. They think
that God wants you to be happy, God wants you to be healthy,
God wants you to be wealthy and prosperous, They don't mind telling
you that. And if you ain't wealthy, healthy
and prosperous, it's not God's fault. It's the devil or your
fault. There's a problem with that.
That just ain't so. That just ain't so. It's not the truth. A person who believes in Christ,
we were at peace. Before Christ saved us, we were
at peace with this world. We were living in rebellion and
enjoyed the status quo. That's not saying that lost men
have trouble-free lives, but I tell you what, they act like
it. You read Psalm 73, and Asa was
jealous at the wicked. He said, these people are not
afraid of death. Isn't that something? You've
noticed that? These people aren't afraid of
death. Why? Because they don't believe
there's anything after it. There's no bands in their death. They
shake their fist in the face of God and have no fear whatsoever. They want more and the more they
want, the more they get. They prosper in this world. But
the day that a man's freed by Jesus Christ, he's freed from
the guilt of sin, he's freed from death, he's freed from hell
and justice, he's freed from the power of sin, and one day
he'll be freed from the presence of sin. But when God gave us a new heart,
there's something that started persecution. Bless them which
persecute you. He's saying that it's going to
happen. He's telling you, look, when
you are persecuted, not if, when you are persecuted. Why? Because
persecution is part of the believer's experience in this life. First of all, I think this persecution
is a three-fold persecution. First of all, the flesh persecutes
us, doesn't it? When God saved us, He gave us
a new nature. Paul said, put on the new man,
which is after God created. It wasn't there before. And then,
in power God created, He made a new nature, gave us a new heart.
It's the work of God. It's created in righteousness
and true holiness. And what's the result of this
new creation? What takes place? Warfare. A struggle then ensues within
our very bodies and souls. The flesh lusteth against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh. These are contrary
one to another. So what? You cannot do what you
would. Isn't that frustrating? You found
that to be frustrating? I would read and study. And you know what the flesh would
do? The flesh would not read and study. I would pray, but
the flesh would not. Remember, that's exactly what
Paul said in Romans 7. He said, it's no more I that
do it, but sin that dwells in me, for I know that in me. Now, he clarifies this. That
is in my flesh. Now, what was he talking about?
Flesh. Was he talking about this skin? This body? No, he's talking about the fleshly
nature. That is in my nature, my flesh,
what dwelleth no good thing. For to will is present with me,
but how to perform that which is good I find not. And what
was his conclusion? Oh wretched man that I am. Not that I was, that I am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? So we see that this, that the
flesh is a constant enemy, isn't it? It's a constant enemy. But in our text it says, Bless
them that persecute you. We know this. He's not talking
about blessing your flesh. That's not what he's talking
about. Another enemy is Satan. Satan is a very real foe. He
walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Now
listen, I would not have you ignorant of his power. Don't
be ignorant of his power. Remember what our Lord Jesus
Christ said to Peter. Satan hath desired to sift thee
as what? Wheat. Now listen, there is nothing
easier than throwing some wheat in the air. You don't have to
be very strong to do that, do you? Take some old wheat, grind
it up in your hand and throw it in the air. That's how easily
he could destroy you. What was the difference between
Judas and Peter? They both betrayed him, didn't they? Didn't Peter
betray Him? He did. He denied Him, not just
one time. He denied Him three times in
public and cursed and swore that He didn't know the man. What
was the difference? Here's what He said, But I have
prayed for thee. Now listen, you've got an enemy. He can't accuse you before God,
but He does accuse you before your conscience, doesn't He? The Apostle likens his accusations to fiery
darts. What quenches the fiery darts
of our enemy? Faith in Christ. You see, in
order for an accusation to stick, he would have to fail. See how it quenches it? Because
my salvation is not dependent upon me. If it was, his darts
would stick. But they don't depend upon me.
The shield of faith quenches him because Christ is all my
hope. And he would have to accuse him.
And he can't do that. We have an enemy. Satan is a
strong enemy. When He says, bless them that
persecute you, is He talking about Satan? No. There's another
enemy, a third enemy, and that's the world. Now this is what the
Scripture is talking about. The world. The world, friends,
is our enemy. This is truly what is being referred
to here by the Apostle. Those who despise us, hate us,
and persecute us. This world is a pawn of their master. Satan, our Lord said that, He
said, you are of your father the devil, and listen what you're
going to do, the lust of your father, the lust of your father
you will do it. The lust of your father you will
do. I want you to be aware that this world is against you. I mean, look how obscure we are.
Most people don't know we exist in this world. If they did, they
all would be against you. I want you to understand that
the world is not for you. The world is set against you. How do you know that? Because
they are set against Christ. Our Lord says, these things I
command you, that you love one another. If the world hate you,
know this, it hated me before it hated you. If you are of the world, the
world would love you. Now listen, if you would consent to the gospel
of this present age, they would love you. If you would consent, that their
gospel is just as good as the gospel you believe. Well, they
would embrace you. They would love you. Why? Because that's what the world
does. The world just embraces any old gospel, any old message,
any old Christ will do. When you stand firm against the
gospel of Jesus Christ, listen, they will hate you. But he said
this, remember the word I said to you, the servant is not greater
than his Lord. They have persecuted me, what
are they going to do to you? What do you expect the world
to do to you? They will persecute you. Listen, if they kept my sayings,
they would keep yours. But all these things they will
do unto you for my name's sake. Listen, they're going to persecute
you and they're going to say they're doing it for God. Every martyr that has fallen,
every true believer that has been killed, they did it in the
name of God. Exactly what our Lord said. They'll
say, well, we're doing it for you. He said, if I had not spoken
unto them, they had not sinned, but now they have no cloak for
it. You see, our Lord, when He spoke, He exposed their sin.
Listen to why they're going to persecute you. When you preach
the gospel to them, they're exposed. They're exposed. If this is the gospel, and their
gospel differs from this gospel, then their gospel is false. You
see why they hate you? You exposed them. That's exactly
what our Lord did. They have no cloak. He that hateth
me, hateth my Father also. If I had not done the works among
them that no other man did, they had not sinned. They had not
known it, except I had done these things. But now they have both
seen and hated both me and my Father. This world will hate
you that believe and preach the gospel of God's grace in Christ. If you preach the grace of God,
now there's only two Gospels, aren't there? There's only two
Gospels being preached in this generation, works and grace.
Now you can call it grace, but the moment you add work to it,
it's what? It's works. The moment you add one thing
to it, it becomes works. And it's no more grace. But we
preach what? That salvation is by the grace
of God. That's it. There's no merit in
it, in us. God chose a people for Himself
before the foundation of the world. That's hated. You know that's
hated. I mean, it's plain in Scripture. It's plainly revealed.
But yet they hate it. Why? Because they hate grace. Jesus Christ, when He came into
the world, He actually saved His people. Now is that a horrible
thing to say? He didn't just make salvation
possible for everybody. He actually saved His people.
God raised Him from the dead, that's proof of it. And the Spirit
of God comes to everyone that God gave Christ, and He gives
them life. He gives them faith and they
believe. And everyone that believes are
kept by the power of God under salvation, ready to be revealed
at the last time. Salvation is of the Lord. You
know, the world hates that. If you preach that, listen to
me. If they don't hate you, it's because they don't know you believe
that. Once they know you believe that, you won't have many friends. Have you found that out already?
I found that out. I used to have a lot of friends.
I did. Until I preached the gospel to them. They don't like it. They don't
like it. I remember, I've told this story
before, when Cheryl and I were first married. And we went over
to her grandfather's house, Brother Leroy Hartley. And man, he was
a, faithful man of God. I love him. I think I've learned
more from him than any other man. But I didn't know his family. And his sister and her husband,
Warren and Hazel were their names. And they were just the sweetest
people you'd ever want to meet, man. They're just kind. They
bought our first washer and dryer. They did. You know, I mean, just
kind. Anything we wanted, boy, they
treated us like we were their children. And I remember one
time I'd made mention of a false preacher I'd heard on the radio.
And I said, man, you know, I can't believe that guy believes salvation
is by the free will of man. I didn't know they believed that. And listen to me, that old man's
face turned red. And I won't forget the vein that
started appearing right in the middle of his forehead. If he
could have leapt across that table, he would have. My friends, they're going to
hate you. And they'll do everything they can to persecute you. If
they can't get away from you. Now, they'd love to just get
away from you. But if they can't get away from you, you'll find
that they'll want to persecute you. Why? Because that's what
the Lord said they would do. When the sovereignty of God is
preached, man is exposed. His hopeless estate is exposed. Jesus warns His disciples this
religious war would throw them out of the synagogue. He said
they think they're going to do God a service by killing you. Therefore,
believers are not only to understand that we will be persecuted, but
we should expect it. Bless them that persecute you. He's anticipating the persecution
already. You will be persecuted. And the
more you talk about this, the more persecuted you'll be. He said, in this world you shall
have tribulation. But here's your hope. Here's
your hope when you are persecuted. Our Lord said, He said, I came
not to bring peace but a sword. To set men at variance one against
the other. Husbands against wives, parents
against children, children against parents. That's exactly what happens with
the gospel, isn't it? There's persecution, tribulation. But what's our hope? Look, the
world is our enemy, but who controls the world? Are you persecuted by accident?
You're not, are you? They can't persecute you unless
God decree it. Be of good cheer. I have overcome
the world. I'm ruling it. Don't worry about
it. When they persecute you, don't worry about it. I rule
them. They'll only persecute you as
much as I determine that they persecute you. But again, I don't
want you to be surprised when you are. Now then, here comes the rub. Here comes the rub. What is to be your attitude when
they do persecute you? Bless them. that persecute you. Notice this, not only bless them,
but don't curse them. Is this the natural response
to persecution? I was talking to a man today,
he said, you know, what's the natural response? Now, you don't
get an option. I mean, when somebody smacks
you in the face, do you get a chance to say, hmm, how am I going to
handle this? I think, do I, you know, maybe
I might choose anger. But, you know, I might choose
blessing. No, your first initial response
is this. Curse them that persecute you
and bless them not. That's your first instinct. That
has to be overcome. That has to be overcome. Bless
them which persecute you. Dear child of God, when we preach
the gospel to others, we must understand that we are really
hurting them. It's really painful to them.
What is joyful to you, what is glorious to you, is very painful
to them. Very painful to them. It's offensive. I've often thought of this man,
I've mentioned him several times recently about the man I preached
to in the hospital, and after I preached, he was very sincere
and he realized that, man, his family didn't believe that. And
he said, Preacher, what you said is true, that my family's in
hell, they're dead, and they're in hell. And I said, why would you go?
Don't go with him. Believe. My heart was to bless him. I
didn't intend for that to hurt him. I intended for that to bless
him. I wanted him to believe. And yet, to him, it was very
offensive. And so this matter of blessing
them, listen, this is not to stop us from preaching the gospel.
Listen, preach the word, even though it is offensive to them,
listen, yet it's the only way they're really blessed. It's
the only means by which they can be blessed. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. And so we must preach
the gospel, even though they will persecute
you for it. I remember when I persecuted
people who tried to preach the gospel to me. My poor parents, I feel so much
remorse for what I put them through when I was young. because I did
not want to hear this. I didn't want to be there. I
didn't want to go. And I'm telling you, I put them
through misery. I persecuted them. And so as we are preaching the
Gospel to others and they will persecute us, remember, that's
what we did. Isn't it? And yet someone still
preached the Gospel to us. Aren't you thankful that they
didn't quit? I'm so thankful they didn't stop, that they continued
to desire to bless me even though I persecuted them. So when men
persecute you, have the same heart. Have the same heart. Bless them. Why? Listen, friends, you are the
salt and light of the earth. God doesn't say when you get
mature enough, then you'll be salt and light. No, the moment
you believe you are, without question, the light of the world. I know you don't think you are.
That doesn't mean anything, does it? Does it matter what you think
you are? You are! You are the light of the world!
The reason this world spins is because you're still here. When
that last one believes, it's over. When his last elect soul
is called, this world will be immediately changed. Christ will
come back. So what are you? We're the salt. We preserve this world. Keep
this world spinning. Why? Because there are more elect
out there. And what is the desire of the
church? It is that the elect should come. Who are the elect? Oh, I don't know. Isn't that
wonderful that you don't know? What kind of pride would that
instill in us if we actually knew something? We don't know
anything, do we? The more I preach, I don't know
anything, as I ought to know. Nothing. Dear child of God, Remember,
as they persecute you, the only way you're going to be able to
bless them is to know that's what God did for you. Not only
did those who preached the gospel to us bless us as we persecuted
them, how much more did God love us when we persecuted Him? Paul says this in Romans 5, he
says, For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ
died for the ungodly. Isn't that wonderful He didn't
wait until we got better? I'm so thankful He didn't wait.
He died for us when we were without strength. When we were ungodly. But God commended His love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died. Child of
God, see that God has commended His love toward us even when
we hated him, and this is then the example that we are to follow. Bless them that persecute you. Bless and curse not. God here doesn't tell us just
to tolerate them. He doesn't say, tolerate them
that persecute you. Grin and bear it. No. Actively pursue their good. When they are actively pursuing
your death. When our Lord was crucified,
what did He say about those that nailed Him to the cross? Father,
forgive them. They know not what they do. Don't
you realize that those persecuting you don't really know what they're
doing? They really don't know whether they're persecuting a
child of the living God. They don't know that. So what's our attitude toward
them that persecute you? Is it not to be the same as our
Lord? Bless and curse not. So what
is it to bless them? What does that mean? Well, it
means this. First of all, pray for their
blessing. Ask God to bless them. Bless them with what? Whatever
they need. Whatever they need. Do you know
what they need? I don't know what they need. I know they need Him. Isn't this
what we're to pray for? Their salvation? Pray for their
salvation. Pray that God would come down
in power and show them mercy, just like He showed you mercy.
Pray down blessings upon their heart. Ask the Lord to give them
peace. You realize that they have, you
think that you have no peace. You know, I'm telling you, at
times I feel like I am tossed. I feel like I'm in a storm. I
feel like I'm in a whirlwind. But I have a sure foundation. My God, I have a word of comfort
every time I'm in a storm. I've got a word of comfort that
I can go to. They don't. They have no comfort. They have
no peace. The only time they're happy is
when they're hurting you. And listen, that don't last very
long. I thought about those men that killed John Wycliffe. John Wycliffe was a wonderful
believer. He translated the scriptures into English. And they killed
him. You know, they were so happy
when they killed him. How long did that last? It didn't
last very long, because a few men got so mad at him, again,
they dug up his bones and burned them. They said, we're going to get
him now, boys. Woo! We got him. Dig him up. Burn
him. Throw him out in the sea. We got him now. And then what?
That's gone. Still not happy, are they? How
miserable is a lost man. I know we suffer. We suffer. Believers do. How much more do
they suffer? They have no hope. They have
no life. They have no pardon. They have
no forgiveness. May God give us a heart to pray
for their peace. That they might believe That's what Paul's intending,
that we should pray for their blessing, that God might mercifully
reach down and touch their heart. Wouldn't that be wonderful, to
have someone that hated you believe? Would you not have a more dear
friend if God saved them? You wouldn't, it'd be a very
close friend. Now, I'm going to tell you what
blessing is not. Now we know what blessing is.
It is to pray for their salvation. Their ultimate blessing is that
their sin might be exposed, that they might believe on Christ.
But listen to what it's not. Blessing them has nothing to
do with tolerating their evil works. We do not bless their deeds. We do not condone sin. That's what the world, the church
of the modern day is, isn't it? They say this is love. They just
embrace everybody. You know, when people come in
and you got people that are homosexuals or they're committing adultery
or they, you know, They're in open rebellion and drunkenness
and so forth, and they come in the church and they say, well,
Jesus loves you, it's alright, you can keep doing those things,
it's not really that bad. Is that helping them? Is that
blessing them? No. That's not blessing them. So blessing them has nothing
to do with condoning their sins. Many today call that love when
they try to give the lost comfort and peace when there is no peace. They condone their sin, they
accept it, they embrace it. This is most likely the reason
why they're persecuting you because you don't. Because you won't run with them,
because you won't follow them into the excesses that you once
did. What does that do? It makes them
feel guilty and they don't like it. These believers may love
them, not by accepting their sin, but rather this, exposing
it. When you go to the doctor, do you not want him to expose
the malady? I mean, would you rather him
just be nice and kind to you and just say, oh, it's okay,
don't worry about it? Yeah, there's a big lump right here. Oh, no,
no, don't worry about that. It's okay. Would that be blessing
you? No. It's blessing you to expose
it so that you might get it cured. And this is what the gospel does,
doesn't it? Isn't that what the gospel did
to you? Didn't it expose you? Didn't it strip you? Now, the
preacher didn't have anything to do with it. He doesn't know
what you've done or what you didn't do. That's not our prerogative. We don't do that. I remember
a man coming up and preaching. Man, he preached on the sin of
adultery. Boy, he got down and said how
bad adultery was, how horrible adultery was. And after the service,
Henry Mahan walked up to him and said, man, I'll never do
that again. We don't put out a list of things
to do and don'ts. When God exposes you of your
sin, you'll know this, from the sole of my foot to the top of
my head is nothing but sin. And when God reveals that, you
have a need then, don't you? And when you have a need, where
do you go? Where'd you go? You went to the
only remedy! We preach the only remedy, Christ! And then, can you not say that
was a blessing? To be exposed is not evil, it's a blessing
because that exposure leads me to Christ. And so we preach the
gospel, we do not condone sin, that's not blessing them. We
preach the gospel of Christ and God exposes them and God brings
them to Christ. Now, time's gone but I need this,
I need you to understand this. We are going to be persecuted
by the world. No question about that. But I want you to understand,
in the confines of this text, he is speaking to who? Speaking
to church. I do not want you to be unawares
of this, that God's people do persecute each other. God's people are capable of great
atrocities. And sometimes they persecute
one another. I have seen it where men have
split from one another over non-essential doctrines that have nothing to
do with the salvation of our Lord Jesus Christ. Some men want
preeminence and they try to set themselves above others so they
pick out one specific thing that they believe differently and
then they just go out and call everybody else heretics that
don't believe the exact same. Just an example, eschatology. Some people believe in premillennialism. Now what's that? They believe
that Christ is going to be a tribulation period and Christ is going to
come down and He's going to bring out a batch and then there's
going to be some left and then He's going to save some again
and He's going to come back down and get another batch. I don't
know how many times He does this, but that's the idea, is that
there's going to be several different comings of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, I don't believe that, but okay. You know, I've known great
men who were pre-millennialists, and that's very simplification.
I'm not trying to set up a straw man for pre-millennialism. I'm
not trying to do that. But I don't believe that. I believe
when Christ comes, that's the end. When He comes back, that's
it. Now, am I going to call them
heretics? I don't believe that. No, why would I do that? I remember
I went to a church, and I was at that time wanting to be a
pastor, and They had need of a pastor. So they asked me to
come preach. And so I did. I preached a message.
And man, that church, I mean, the love that they showed me
was tremendous. I mean, they poured over that
message like they haven't heard it in a long time. Their pastor
had died, and they were in need of a pastor. And they said, would
you please come back and preach again? And I did. I made some
a side statement. It wasn't even part of the message
about congregational rule. You know, God sets pastors and
they're in authority over the church and the congregation doesn't
rule the pastor. Whoa, man, their whole demeanor
just changed. And then they started asking
me questions about my eschatology. And they found out I wasn't pre-Millennialist.
And, man, their whole... Basically, we were eating and
they got up and left me. Just sitting there. Would I leave them? No. I'm not angry at them. I don't
call them heretics. But they'll cast you out. And
this will happen among the church. Now when your brethren cast you
out, when your brethren call you a heretic, when your brethren
decide to split from you, what is to be your attitude toward
them? Bless them that persecute you. Bless and, and, very important,
curse not. Don't run around saying, oh,
I love them, but look what they did to me. Look
what they did to me. No. Don't run and tattle and
run tails. That's cursing them. That's like
that Southern phrase, bless her heart. Now, you don't mean it. You mean it as a slight. No,
that's not how it's to be. Really pray for their blessing. Pray for restoration. Pray for unity. Is there anything,
in the church, there's nothing better than unity? When the gospel
is preached and everybody is in agreement with that message
and loves it, it is in union with each other, there's nothing
greater in a church. I'd much rather have unity than
a large church. Unity in a small church than
a large church without unity. I'm telling you, this is going
on even now. There's some men that just can't let go of the
past. They hang on to grudges. Now, is that blessing those that
persecute you? I told you it was a rug. You see how you have to constantly
renew your mind about this? Don't you constantly have to
rethink about this? Because that's not your first
reaction to bless them. And he goes on, and I don't have
time to go through this, I'll just read this with you and kind
of comment a little bit. Look at this. He shows you what
it looks like. Look at this. Rejoice with them
that rejoice. Isn't this the opposite of envy? When those that persecute you
excel, How do you do that? How do you
respond to that? Rejoice with them. If something good happens to
them, thank God for it. And if something evil happens
to them, don't dance. Weep with them that weep. Be
of the same mind one to another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Aren't we to have the same mind
of Christ? What is Christ's mind to you?
When you persecute Him. I tell you, that's when we rebel
against Him. How many times we rebel against
Him a day? And yet, what is His mind? Is
His mind not to forgive? Is it not to love and bless you?
Well, that's to be your mind. And recompense no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. And if possible, live as much
as lieth in you with every ounce of your being. Live peaceably
with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourself. Give place
to wrath. What does that look like? If
somebody in the church steals from you, what are you to do?
Let them have it. That's what giving place to wrath
looks like. Why should we give place to wrath?
Because it doesn't belong to you. Vengeance is mine, saith the
Lord. What do we do when we take anger
and hatred in our hearts? We take something that doesn't
belong to us. God says, vengeance is mine. I'll repay. Are you offended? Take it to him. Hezekiah did. Laid out the letters before the
Lord and said, look, I can't do this. You do it. I don't know. Bless them, Lord. Save them.
Help them. Forgive them. Intercede for them. That's what blessing them is.
Praying for their best benefit. Therefore, if thine enemy hunger,
what do you do? If he thirsts, give him drink.
And notice what you're going to do. Look at this. I thought
this interesting. Look at this. In doing so, you
shall heap coals of fire on your head. Now, I've often thought
like, you know, that was like, if I do this, I'm really going
to get him. You know, if I do this, if he's doing evil to me
and I do real good to him, boy, it's going to make him feel real
bad. That's not what he's saying. He's saying, look, when you do
that, get ready. He's going to persecute you more. Expect more persecution. Don't
expect less. Be not overcome with evil, but
overcome evil with good. God help us. Seeing this is not
the first instinct we have. when persecuted. Bless them that
persecute you. Not only bless outwardly, bless
and what? Curse not. Do good to them that hateful.
Isn't that what our Lord said? Love your enemies. Anybody misunderstand
that? Is that too hard for you to understand?
Is that statement ambiguous? Well, we can find nuances of
what that... No, no. He says exactly what
he means. Love your enemies. Bless them
that persecute you. Do good to them that despitefully
use you and persecute you. And say all manner of evil against
you. What? Falsely. They're lying
about you. What do you do? Our Lord says
love them. and not pretending, but really love them. I often think if the Lord would
give us such a heart for men, for the souls of men, per adventure
He might use us to draw many sons to Himself. Wouldn't that be a shining difference as to how the rest of the world
acts? It would, wouldn't it? God help us do that. I want to
do that. I don't want to be persecuted. I don't want to be persecuted. But I am. I'm going to. They're
going to persecute me. If I preach this long enough,
they're going to hate me. What do I do? I hate them back? Bless them
that persecute you. Bless and curse not. Oh God help us. Let's stand
and be dismissed in prayer. Our Father dismisses with your
own blessings and mercies. I want you to keep our eyes fixed
on Christ set our affection on things above
and not on things of the earth. Help us to love as we're loved.
Help us to forgive as we are forgiven. That we may prove that we are
truly then the children of the living God who has done the same
for us. I ask you to do this in the name
of Christ and for your own glory do this. In His name, Amen.