Go with me to Matthew 5 now. This is the last of the Beatitudes,
the blessings our Lord has pronounced upon His people, you, us, His
disciples. Bless, bless, bless. They all
go together. This is all so foreign, so strange
to this world. The blessing of the poor? Nobody
wants to be poor. He said poor in spirit. Blessed
are they that mourn. How can that be a blessing? To
mourn and be sad? Well, if you mourn over your
sin, you'll be comforted. The meek? No, they say. The proud? They will get things. No. The proud will be brought
down to hell. Those that hunger and thirst
after righteousness, merciful, pure in heart, peacemakers, Blessed
are the peacemakers. And right after that is this
last beatitude. And they all go together. 10,
11, 12 goes together. Let's read it. Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness sake. For theirs is the kingdom
of heaven. Blessed are you when men shall
revile you and persecute you. and shall say all manner of evil
against you, falsely, lying on you, for my sake. Rejoice. I believe he probably smiled
when he said that. Be exceeding glad, for great is your reward
in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you. Persecution? Nobody wants to
be persecuted. Nobody wants to be hated, disliked
by people, cut off and cast out. I don't want that. Christ, we've seen, Christ is
the blessed man who was rich, yet for our sake became poor,
and mourned, a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, meek and
lowly. righteous and merciful, pure
in heart, the peacemaker. Why was the altogether lovely
son of God hated and persecuted? Seems like if men would like
anybody, I'd see why they don't like me. Can't you? I mean, why
they don't like you? You need to be able to say that.
I can see why they don't like me. Maybe you can see why they
don't like me. But the Son of God went about
doing good. No man spake with more grace,
it poured from his lips. No one more merciful, no one
more kind, no one more approachable, nobody. He's the personification
of all these things. He's the epitome of these things.
Why would they hate? The altogether lovely, beautiful,
loving, kind, gracious, merciful, went about doing good. All he
meant was good. They hated him. And they killed him. Why? For righteousness sake. We're going to see what that
means. But our Lord said this, and you read it with me, Matthew
10. He said that if you're one of his disciples, it's going
to happen to you. That's what he said. The prophets,
Daniel, what a fine man. Jeremiah, everybody hated him. Why? Righteousness. Hebrews 11
is the story of it, and you don't have to turn, I'm going to turn,
we're going to read a good bit in 1 Peter, but you know, Harlot
Rahab? Man, the Lord saved her out of
that life, and so you know she went about telling people. You
know, her life was changed. And she was concerned about others. That they'd be in the house where
that scarlet lion was. They didn't listen to her. They
didn't like her. Gideon, Beric, and all that.
And it talks about women. Well, it says they were burned
at the stake, soared. Women were tortured. Women. Others had trials of cruel mockings
and scourgings and bonds and imprisonment. They were stoned.
sawn in two, and slain with a sword, and wandered around in skins
and goat skin. And our Lord says, the world
is not worthy of these people. They wandered around, but they
obtained a good report. God really did do something for
these people. They wouldn't have laid down
their life. And He goes on to say, there's
a great cloud of witnesses around us. Not only those, but the martyrs,
all the apostles, prophets, apostles, all of them. Martyrs. And so our Lord said, you will
too. Look with me at 1 Thessalonians
1. 1 Thessalonians 1. Paul tells
us this is a sure mark that you believe and are telling the truth. Righteousness. 1 Thessalonians
1, look at this, verse 4. He says, I know you're elect,
brethren. Why is that? Our gospel. He always
calls it our gospel, doesn't he? Our gospel. There's another gospel out there.
It's not the gospel. Need I tell you again what men
are saying the gospel is? You know what they're saying.
And it's a lie. Nowhere in this book, nowhere
in this book does it say God loves you. Nowhere. Nowhere in
this book does it say Jesus loves you. Nowhere. Looks like on the
Sermon on the Mount, Tommy, that the Lord, He has this opportunity
with all this multitude of people to tell them how much He loves
them. He didn't. Why? Because He doesn't. And anybody that says so is lying
on God. It's another gospel. It's not
the gospel. What good is the love of God if God loves Adolf
Hitler as much as He does me? What good is the blood of Christ
if he shed it for everybody and somebody goes to hell anyway?
Then it doesn't put away our sins, does it? That's another
gospel. And that's what 99.9% of religion
is saying. God loves you Jesus, died for
you, has a wonderful plan for your life, and it's up to you
to make that decision. It takes completely away from
the glory of God. and lays salvation in the hands
of the sinner. That's another gospel. And we've
got to stand up against that. Yes, we do. Look, it says in verse 5, you
received it in the Holy Ghost and much assurance. Are you sure
that this is the gospel? Are you sure? Every line, Johnny,
every page, every line you read tells us our God-brain. Man does
not. Every line, every page, everything
tells us man is graveyard dead. And so we don't beg dead sinners
to do anything. We beg God to raise dead sinners. This is the truth. And if you
tell people this, they'll hate you for it. Why? It's the truth. Because men don't like the truth. I hate the truth. But he says in verse 6, You became
followers of us and of the Lord, and having received the word
in much affliction. When Paul came to Thessalonica
and preached, Some people believed, but the rest of the people, they
said, these fellows are turning the world upside down. Kill them!
And they had to sneak Paul and Silas out of town, or people
would have killed them. What for? For preaching the God
of the Bible, that they claimed to believe in. For preaching
the Jesus Christ who came. 2 Thessalonians. Look over here.
He writes another letter. to the same people. Remember
Jason? They took him and beat him. Second Thessalonians, these people
suffered persecution. They were right in the middle
of a religious world, but a God-hating world. And so are we. Religion is called satancy. Remember that? Remember that? You know where the enmity started?
You know where it started? In Genesis 3.15, God said, the woman's seed, I'm
going to put enmity between her seed, that's Christ and his people,
and Satan's seed. Wait a minute, preacher, are
you saying that all people are not the sons of God? That's exactly
what, not I'm saying, what God's saying. That God has a people,
Christ has a people, and everybody else is of their father, the
devil. Well, tell people that. I told some Jehovah's Witnesses
that one time. He's not your father, you're of your father
the devil. They looked at me like, what? What? God loves everybody. No he doesn't.
He doesn't love you. You're going around lying on
him. Read on. It says in verse, well,
verse Four, we glory in you and the churches of God for your
patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations
you endure. Verse five, which is a manifest
token, a sure proof of the righteous judgment of God, that you may
be counted worthy of the kingdom of God. Remember reading with
me in Matthew 10 where he said, you go to a house, if they're
worthy, the peace is going to be on. What is it to be worthy?
What is it to be worthy of the gospel? It's to be unworthy.
It's to say, I'm unworthy. I'm a hell deserving, wretched
sinner. Are you telling me that God would
save such a one as I? Maybe so. This is for you. But those who say, no, I'm a
good Christian. I'm good. You know, I'm upright. I'm blameless. This ain't for you. We're leaving.
We have nothing to say to you. You're unworthy of the gospel.
He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repent. And to
make them righteous. So he says, this is an evident,
an evident token of the, of God's blessing. Persecuted for righteousness
sake. Now, our text says, blessed are
they that are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now this
has a two-fold meaning, all right? Listen to it. Say wait a minute,
what is it? It's first a confession of faith
and a profession of faith. It's the gospel, the truth of
God's righteousness, and secondly, it's Christ in you. Christ in you that people will
hate. Alright? If you confess, it's
a confession. It's a confession. It's righteousness.
To be persecuted for it is if you confess and you speak of
God's righteousness to this world. They don't like it. God's righteousness. You ask everybody. And I don't
want to preach. I'm talking to believers here.
May it be the zeal of God's house. You love what I'm saying, I'm
not mad at you. Tell people, ask people, what
is God's chief attribute? Ask people that. Describe God
in one word, that the scripture says of Him more than anything
else. What would describe everything about God? What He does, why
He does it? What one word would describe
that? And 100% of people you run into say love. Then why is
there a hell? You cannot explain hell by the
love of God. You don't send people to agonizing
torment that you love. Do you? Holy. Holy. Holy. Tell them that. God is unchangeably,
unapproachably, in His person, holy, righteous, just, righteous. God is righteous.
His personal righteousness. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. He is of two pure eyes to look
upon Him. He said he charges the angels
with folly. Doesn't it? That's what this
book said. It said he hateth all workers
of iniquity. The God of the Bible, it says
he hateth all workers of iniquity. It says he will by no means clear
the guilty. Every sin will receive a just
recompensable reward. punishment by this righteous
God. And Jesus Christ is called the
righteous. I'm talking about Jesus Christ.
I meant to read in 2 Thessalonians where it said, to you that are
in trouble, listen to this. Read this to your religious family
and friends. Read this. It says, You who are
in trouble, rest with us. When Jesus cried, the Lord Jesus
will be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming
fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God. That's Jesus Christ. He's righteous. He's holy. He's right. Persecution for righteousness'
sake is persecution for confessing and talking and speaking to people
about God's essential attribute and character. He's righteous.
He's holy in all His ways. And then God's righteous demands. You know how righteous, how holy
you have to be to get to heaven? As holy as God. Now we say that
all the time, but it's true. Because if any other righteousness,
if salvation, if going to heaven has anything to do with anything
else, with anything of us, then the scripture says Jesus Christ
died in vain. He came here. He didn't need
to come here. That's how serious it is. It's not just disagreeing on
doctrine. Look at Matthew 5, verse 20.
Look at that. Our Lord brings up righteousness
three times here in the first 20 verses. He said, I say unto
you, accept your righteousness, four times, accept your righteousness,
shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees.
You shall in no case enter the kingdom of God. Meaning, if your
righteousness is just outward, God looks on the heart. Clean
hands, pure heart. Never lifted up his soul under
advantage or sworn deceitfully. And you walk into heaven, God
says, well done. Who can say that? There's not
a just man on the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Romans
3. You know Romans 3. Turn that
real quick. Romans 3. And this is just a
good old-fashioned gospel message you've heard thousands of times.
But you tell people these fundamental truths. You know, there are people,
Southern Baptists call themselves fundamentalists. No, they're
not. We are. These are foundational truths.
If the foundations be destroyed, what shall the... If the foundations
be destroyed, what shall the... righteous do. And we're going to see who's
righteous and what that means. And I'll
just go ahead and tell you, you didn't do it. You had nothing
to do with it. It's Jesus Christ. But Romans
3, it says in verse 10, there's none righteous. No, not one. Twelve. There's none that do
it. They all together become unprofitable. There's none that
do us good. No. Not one. My nature. Not one. You tell people that. You've
heard these songs, country music songs. I think there's good and
some good in everybody. No. That's calling God a liar. Righteousness. You see? God's righteousness. Now look
down at verse 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law, that is, without you keeping it, is clear,
manifested, revealed, witnessed by the law and the prophet. Tell that to the Jehovah's Witnesses. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith, And this is not a misprint. In Christ? Not what it says. Of Christ. The faithfulness of Christ. All of sin, verse 23, comes short
of the glory of God. People, you know, they quote
that all the time. Romans Road. They'll send you
down to Romans Road. But they don't talk much about
righteousness. Being justified freely by His grace doesn't mean
you accepted it. Being justified. The redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Read on. Whom God set forth to
be a bloody sacrifice through faith in His blood to declare
His righteousness. Verse 26. To declare, I say,
at this time, His righteousness. That God might be just and to
justify them which believeth in Jesus. Where's boasting then? Excluded. There's no room for
boasting. Here's what it means to be persecuted
for righteousness. It's to say, it's to believe,
it's to confess, it's to witness that Christ is the righteousness
of God imputed to his people. And it's not by works, it's not
by works of righteousness which we have done. It was according
to God's mercy and grace in Jesus Christ and His righteousness
that He worked out and imputed. God just charged it to us. It's
not that we accepted it. God just charged it. Like the
prodigal son came. It's the robe. It's the wedding
garment. And you don't accept it. It's
put on you. Adam and Eve didn't accept that
skin of that dead lamb. God put it on them. Covered them. The blood was shed for them.
They didn't accept it. God shed it on their behalf. To say otherwise is to say something
you do. You don't do anything. In fact,
if you tell people that everything you've ever done What you do
now, your religion, whatever it may be, what you ever do if
you give your body to be burned, if you give everything away and
you don't give all glory to Jesus Christ for your salvation, it
merits you nothing with God. It means nothing to God. In fact,
it's an abomination to God. Whatever you do that you think
God is pleased with is an abomination to God. I told a neighbor that
one time. She was a philanthropist, a charitable
person, and devout. Her religion, well, somewhat.
And I told her, there's nothing you've ever done that counts
for anything with God. Oh, man. That ended our relationship,
pretty much. To be persecuted for righteous
sake is to call everything that man thinks is good about him
a filthy rag. They'll hate you. Now, we need to say it in love. Now,
I'm preaching right now. But we need to say it in love,
don't we? Paul, I was going to have you turn to Romans 10. Paul
says, Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel
is that they might be saved. They have a zeal for God, they
do. He said, I know, I was just like them. But they're ignorant
of God's righteousness. Didn't He say that? They're ignorant
of the God of the Bible. They don't know the God of the
Bible. He's a consuming fire. Jesus Christ is God. Not just
the Son of God. He's God and He's a consuming
fire. Jesus cried. You read with me,
He said, I didn't come to bring peace, I came to bring a sword.
I started to entitle this message, a gospel that divides families. Well, put that up on your church
bulletin board. We preach that Jesus divides
families. Isn't that what He said? This family is not our true family. Our true family is the kingdom
of God, the people of God. And whoever rejects this is not
going to be in God's kingdom. But God's family will. Every
one of them. Not only a son or a daughter
missing. And they all taught of God. That's
what Christ said. They all taught of God. What
did they taught? God's righteousness. Christ,
our righteousness. Salvations of the Lord. Paul said, Christ is the end
of the law for righteousness, didn't he? Romans 10.4. How significant. We used to have
CB radio, you know, close that. 10.4, good buddy. This is the
10-4 you need to remember. Seriously. Jesus Christ is the end of the
law for righteousness to everyone that believes. End of the law.
He cannot. The law is not our rule of life. We're not going to be judged
by the law. We're not under the law. Tell
that to people. 7th day of death. They'll get
mad at you. They said of Christ. You're trying to... They said
it of Christ. They said it of Paul. They said
you're blaspheming God's law. No, no, no. We're establishing
it. Because the law, it must be perfect. God said it shall
be perfect to be accepted. Not one jot or two to offend
in one point is guilty of what? Why? Because God is that righteous.
When Adam and Eve sinned, they sinned one sin. One sin. They didn't get drunk. They weren't
cussing. They weren't stealing. They weren't
committing adultery. They weren't doing anything.
They just listened to Satan's lie. And Satan said, God said
you'd die, but he didn't really mean that. You're not dead. You have free will. And it plunges this whole race
into it. Persecuted for righteousness.
All right. It's also to be persecuted for
being a new creature. Christ in you is a hope of glory.
Know that. Christ for you. Christ died for
you. And he said, I'm sending the
Holy Spirit. You're going to be led in the
Spirit. And he's called the Spirit of Christ. And he puts the Spirit
of Christ in all of God's people. And they didn't love Jesus Christ.
And they don't love his followers either. Because they're just
like him. They talk like him. They say the same words. They
believe the same things. They're new creatures. They're
righteous. Just like Christ. They're righteous
because of Christ. And they're righteous. It's His
imparted nature. That's what Peter said. They're
partakers of the divine nature. And Christ said, they hated me.
They're going to hate you. Why? Because He said, you're
not of this world. I'm not of this world. And you're
not of this world. That old man is. He'll never
be anything but a son of Adam. A sinful one. But there's a new
man. And he's different. And that's the one they don't
like. Do you hear me? 1 Peter. Go to 1 Peter real quickly.
1 Peter. Scripture talks about God's people
as being godly and those that are not being ungodly. What's
that mean? Well, it's not a certain dress
or way you look. It means you believe God. You
follow God. Your language is of God. You're
interested in God's word, God's truth, God's son, God's gospel,
God's people, God's kingdom. Worldly means that's all you
think about. You hear it? The righteous and the wicked.
The righteous and the wicked, that's what the scripture said.
Didn't he say, I'm sending you out as sheep among what? Wolves. Are they different? Do wolves love sheep? They love
to eat them. Can a sheep and a wolf get along? Can oil and water? Can Christ
and Satan? No. They're different. Light and darkness? He said you're
the light of the world. Darkness hates light. Doesn't
it, Tommy? And the carl hates light, said
light reproves darkness. Sheep among wolves, sweet and
tares, different, different. They hated Christ because he
was different. He was not like them. Old Simon Peter, 1 Peter, old
Simon Peter was once a rough, gruff, cussing, longshoreman,
sailor, And everybody in town liked him. Didn't they? Now, meek, mild,
merciful, gentle, his mouth not full of cursing, full of praise. Christ in his heart, Christ in
his walk, Christ in his talk. He's a new man. And they didn't love Christ. A man worked at a steel mill one time,
and the Lord saved him. And he started witnessing to
the men, telling them what the Lord had done for him. And you
know what they said to him? They said, we liked you better
before the Lord saved you. Wow, and not of this world. If
you're of the world, the world would love its own, but you're
not. You're different. 1 Peter 1, look at this. This is, man, I was going to
go through the whole, I don't have time. But Peter, you know
when he started, 1 Peter 1, you know when he started preaching,
right out of the bat, elect! He couldn't go two verses without
saying, elect! Y'all believe in election? We can't tell the gospel without
talking about God's sovereign election. It's not a doctrine.
It makes God God and man not. Who does the choosing? Who does
the choosing? God. When? After you believe? Before the foundation of the
world. Why? Not because you're good boys
and girls, but because it pleased Him. And nothing in you can cause
Him to choose you. And you have nothing to do with
it. Tell people that. Peter couldn't start right without
saying, Lex! He knew. Teresa, he knew. I was
a constant Savior. I wasn't interested in this Jesus
fella. But buddy, he came by one day
and he called me. So you accept it? Accept it! He overcame me. He's powerful. You don't understand who he is,
do you? He didn't ask me nothing. He
told me. And he talks about the trial
of faith, verse 6, when you greatly rejoice, if need be, you're in
heaviness through manifold temptation. That the trial of your faith,
if you have this faith, what we're talking about, if you believe
this God, if you believe this truth, there's only one. If you
believe this gospel, if you believe this Jesus Christ, there's only
one. The rest of them are counterfeits. Some of them are a little bit
close, but that's not good enough. If you believe the truth of salvation
of the Lord, if you believe it, if you believe it, you've got this precious gift
of faith. It's not of yourself. It's a
gift of God. And you're going to be tried.
That faith is going to be tried. Do you really believe that? You're
going to suffer persecution. People are going to cast you
out. You're going to lose friends. You're going to lose family.
You're going to lose influence. You're going to lose jobs. You're
going to lose this and that. You haven't lost anything. You've
gained. What you've lost, Paul called
it done. He said, you've been born again,
down in verse 25 of the word of the Lord. Or 23, you've been
born again. Not a corruptible seed, but by
the word of God. Now look at chapter 2. Let's
just go through this real quick. In chapter 2, you understand
all of 1 Peter is dealing with suffering for righteousness sake. The whole book. He started out, but you're going
to go through heavy trials. And here's what it is. Chapter
2, verse 9. He says, you're a chosen generation,
a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people to show forth
the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his
marvelous light, which in time past you were not the people
of God, but you're now the people of God." You've obtained mercy. And we know it, don't we? Down
in verse 12, he says, you have your conversation, your life,
honest among the Gentile, whereof they speak against you as evil
doers. that may by your good works,
which they behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. I remember
a man on the railroad. I walked in the room. It was
after the Lord had been dealing with me a while. I walked in
the room. He was talking to some other
fellas. And he said, there's one of them. I said, one of what? He said, one of them Christians. He said it was such a disdain. Well, I'm glad that he thought
I was. When I hired on the railroad, I wasn't. I was right in the midst of it.
Child of wrath, even as I was walking according to the course
of this world. And I can't preach without these
two words. But God. And you, what were you? Dead. But God did it all. Christ. Look at chapter 3. It says in verse 8, be one with compassion one to
another, love as brethren, not rendering, verse 9, evil for
evil. You're called to inherit a blessing. It goes on down to
say, Verse 11, eschew evil, avoid it, do good, seek peace. See,
Peter was there when the Lord was preaching this beatitude. He learned well. The eyes of
the Lord are over the righteous. His ears are opened unto their
prayer. The righteous sin cry. The face
of the Lord is against them that do evil. Down in verse 20, look
at it. No, verse 16. It says, if you
have a good conscience, wherever they speak evil of you as evildoers,
they may be ashamed and falsely accuse your good conversation
and cry. It's better if the will of God be so you suffer for well-doing
than for evildoing. Christ suffered for sin. Chapter
4, I'm sorry. Look at verse 3. Chapter 4. The time past of our lives suffice
to have wrought the will of the Gentile. Walked in lasciviousness,
lust, excess and wine, reveling, banqueting, abominable idolatry,
and they will think it strange if you still don't run with them.
And they won't like you. We liked you better when you
were running with us. Right? That's what it said. Look
at verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial which is to trial you. So some strange
thing happened. Our Lord said it would. It says
down in verse 14. If you be reproached for the
name of Christ, happy. Happy are you. The Spirit of
glory, the Holy Spirit rest upon you. On their part, he is evil
spoken of. On your part, he is glorified.
Let nobody suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, a busybody,
and other beings matter. If any man suffer as a Christian,
let him not be ashamed. Glorify God on this behalf. Chapter 5. Well, let me just
close this out, okay? Go back to our text, Matthew
5. Matthew 5, and I close. Our Lord said this, Blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Theirs is
the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you. Blessed are
you when men shall revile you, persecute you, say all manner
of evil against you falsely, lying on you for My sake. It's all because of Him. They're
lying on Christ. One time our Lord stood up and
said, Who can convince me of one sin? We can't say that. They couldn't, so they had to
make up lies. They did it about him, they'll do it about you.
Verse 12, But rejoice, he said. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad.
Great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. One last scripture. You've got
to look at this. You're going to be glad you did.
2 Peter 3. Go over there. He said, Rejoice. Be glad, exceeding glad. But great is your reward in heaven.
What's a believer's reward? That's right. It doesn't say
rewards. Plural is not in the Bible. S is never on the end of that
word. You understand? Because God's people, their reward
is not heaven, it's not things, it's not... Christ Himself. Here's your reward. Look at it. 2 Peter 3, verse 11. Seeing all these things shall
be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all
holy conversation and godliness? Not worldly, but godly. Looking
for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God. Who's that? Christ. Wherein the heavens shall
be on fire, shall be dissolved, how's that, the brightness of
his coming. And the elements shall melt with
a fervent heat. Nevertheless, we, according to
his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth wherein dwelleth
righteousness." We get to be in a new heaven and a new earth
with the Lord our righteousness. And He's righteous. And we'll
be righteous completely. And everybody around us is righteous.
And there's no sin, no tears, no sorrow, no lies, no pain,
no suffering, no more death. Wherein dwelleth righteous now. If you're righteous, you love
righteousness. You hunger and thirst for it.
which is Christ, which is God. But it's also, you want to be
in a land wherein dwelleth righteousness. You want to be done with this
sin thing. You want it out of you, you want it out of it. And
you want to be with your righteous Lord, with righteous people.
No more sin. Now, the world loves sin. The
world loves its work. Do you? The Lord says you're blessed. Rejoice, be exceedingly glad. He's going to take you out of
this place. And you get to be with Him. That sounds good to me. Okay,
stand up.