Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans
chapter 12. I want to do something a little
different for me this morning. Not usually would I preach at
a meeting like this from these precepts, but I believe I have
a message for you. This is the Word of God, the
same as everything else is the Word of God. So this is important. This is for believers. But you'll
hear the Gospel here, no matter who you are. Romans 12, verse
1, speaking to believers, the Apostle Paul said, I beseech
you therefore, brethren, and here's the motive, by the mercies
of God, by the mercies of God, and here's the command, that
you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto
God, which is your reasonable service. You know, those whole
burnt offerings under the Old Covenant, they were offerings of thanksgiving, offerings
of devotion. They were wholly devoted to the
Lord. And Paul says here, God has separated
us, made us wholly to be a living sacrifice, wholly devoted to
the Lord. And considering what God our
Father and the Lord Jesus has done for us, This is reasonable
service. He says, verse 2, and be not
conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing
of your mind that you may prove, and that word is discern and
test and know, what is that good and acceptable and perfect will
of God. And then in verses 3 through
13, he gives us God's will for us toward our brethren. And then
in verses 14 through 21 is God's will for His people toward our
enemies, toward those who hate Christ, our righteousness, who
hate our gospel, and who hate us because of Christ. Let's read
this together, verse 14. He says, Bless them which persecute
you. Bless and curse not. That's what
I've titled this message, Bless and Curse Not. Rejoice with them
that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep. Be of the same
mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend
to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits. Recompense to no man evil for
evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men, and if it be possible, As much as lieth in
you, live peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. For it is written,
Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if
thine enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be
not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good. Now, when I preach
from a text like this, there's three things that I always want
to do. First of all, I want everyone
to know and understand that it's not by obeying these precepts
that we're made righteous and holy before God. It's not by
our obedience to this we're going to find our acceptance with God
because we've made ourselves righteous and holy. That's not
going to be the case. This is the fruit in those who
Christ has made righteous. This is the fruit in those who
Christ has made holy. And the very simple reason for
these precepts, brethren, is so that when He gives you these
commands toward brethren, It's so that you and I, as brethren
together, never forsake the assembling under the gospel of Christ. It's
so that we don't get our feelings hurt by our brethren and depart
from the gospel. There's nothing that any brother
or sister has ever done to me that, first of all, I haven't
done to Christ, and secondly, that I haven't done to them.
Nothing. And there's nothing, there's
no feelings hurt bad enough by what anybody does to make us
forsake our brethren and forsake this gospel. We need the gospel
of Christ. So that's the first thing is
so that we continue together under the gospel. And then secondly,
he gives us these precepts because Christ told us that we're the
light of the world. You that are born of God are
shining forth as light in this perverse, dark world. And Christ
told us, let your light so shine before men that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven. There's
only one way a man is going to glorify our Father which is in
heaven. That's if God regenerates him
and gives him a new heart. And the only way God's going
to do that is through the preaching of Christ our light. That's the only way. So when
he tells us to let our light shine before men, he's not telling
us to draw attention to ourselves. He's teaching us to preach Christ
the light. And these precepts he gives us
toward those that are enemies, he's telling us don't do anything
that would distract from them being able to hear the gospel.
Don't be a distraction. That's what he's teaching us.
So that's the two-fold meaning here. We're not going to be made
righteous and holy by these things. This is for those who have been
made righteous and holy by Christ. We're doing these things that
we continue to gather unto the gospel and that we are able to
preach the gospel to those that don't know Christ and not be
a distraction to them. The second thing I always want
people to know when I preach from a text like this is that
Christ is the believer's only righteousness in these things.
Our Lord Jesus Christ blessed and cursed not His enemies on
behalf of His people, fulfilling all righteousness in this precept
for us. He's our righteousness in this,
just like He's our righteousness in every other command. And He
not only did it in a positive way, He went to the cross and
paid for our sins for not doing this as we ought. So He's our
righteousness and our holiness in these things. And then the
third thing I want you to know is that children of God, who
God's given a new heart, who walk by faith in Christ, our
motive, our constraint to follow our Lord in these things is Christ's
love for us. That's our motive. It's not a
legal motive. It's not selfish in trying to
make others look at us. simply from the love of Christ
to us that constrains us. Now, that being the case, knowing
that believers are constrained by the love of Christ for us,
we're going to look at Christ and how He fulfilled these things
for us. First of all, consider the persecution
that Christ encountered in this earth from us sinners. Consider
the persecution he encountered as he walked this earth. Verse
14 says, bless them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Every single person our Lord
Jesus Christ encountered on this earth persecuted him. They harassed
him, they troubled him, they mistreated him. Everybody did. Holy God took flesh and dwelt
among God-hating sinners, among whom There's none righteous,
there's none that seeketh after God. The carnal mind's enmity
against God. The carnal mind hates God. And
every spiritually dead sinner that Christ encountered, He knew
their heart. He knew their heart. You and
I go through our day, and we'll encounter some people that don't
know the Lord, and we may think that they like us and are nice
to us. We don't know their heart. Christ
knew their heart. He knew they hated Him. He knew
in their heart they were rejecting Him. He knew it. And yet our
Lord Jesus Christ blessed and cursed not. Now I want you to
remember this. Our Lord Jesus Christ came for
God's elect. He came into this earth to redeem
those that the Father chose in Him before this world was made.
That's who He came for. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. Nobody else. He came for the
sheep. That's who He came for. That's
who He came for. And yet, carnal man, carnal man,
never has been treated any better than the righteous God-man mediator
treated men when He walked this earth. No man, no men have ever been
treated better than Christ treated men when He walked this earth.
He did not curse men. He did good to men. He blessed
men. No enemy ever had any reason
to persecute Christ. No one. You think how you and
I persecuted those that Christ sent to us. When the Lord first
sent the gospel to you, we persecuted those that came. There's not
a one of us in here that initially received the gospel and rejoiced
in what we heard. Not a one of us. And in our hearts, if not in
our actions, if not in our words, in our hearts, we persecuted
those that declared this gospel to us. Most of us did it with our words.
Most of us did it with our actions. But Christ wouldn't take no for
an answer. We cursed, He blessed. We harassed, He blessed. We rejected, He blessed. That's what He did for us. As
the church of our Lord Jesus Christ, He's left us in this
earth to preach the gospel in search of His lost sheep. That's
one of the reasons we're looking for His lost sheep. And we're
going to encounter men that are enemies of this gospel. But just
remember, our glorified Redeemer, He shall call out those He justified. Justice demands it. God will
not pour out judgment on Christ and then pour it out again on
His people. He will call out His people.
He will call them out. And so, however we act toward
our enemy, they should be left feeling that they've never been
treated kinder by anybody they've ever encountered. Never before
by any. Bless them which persecute you.
and curse not. We never know who we come in
contact with in this world who may end up coming into this place.
They may end up coming and find out that they're the elect of
God. I have been in several churches, and I know of several churches
where I've heard this same story. There were believers who worked
at their jobs, and there were men there that worked with them
that were enemies. They hated Christ. The gospel they loved,
and they were enemies. But those believers continued
to be kind to them, and they continued to declare the truth
to them, and they continued to invite them to come hear the
gospel preached. And now, you go in some of those congregations,
and there sits the believer, and there is that one who once
was an enemy sitting right beside him, rejoicing in the gospel
of Christ with him. gave you two brother-in-laws
that I think of right offhand, Jimmy and Tommy. And the Lord
did that for them because somebody was kind to them and kept declaring
the truth to them. And then secondly, think about
our Lord Jesus Christ's condescension. Think about how He condescended
to us who are of low estate. It says here in verse 16, And
I'll say this regarding Christ, he was of the same mind one toward
another, toward everybody he encountered. Christ was not impressed
by high things, but he condescended to men of low estate. Our Lord Jesus is no respecter
of persons. Brother Browning just read it. He's no respecter of persons.
He wasn't impressed with Men's education, he wasn't impressed
with their social standing in this world. He didn't reject
one and receive another because of race, because of being male
or female. He shows no respect of person.
There's nothing about us that made God choose us. Nothing. God's grace is free and it's
irrespective of his people. Those two in the womb were in
the same womb. They had the same father. They
hadn't done neither good nor evil. And that the purpose of
God according to election might stand. Of him that calleth. Not of works, but of him that
calleth. It was said, Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated. Nothing
in us causes God to choose his people. And when our Lord Jesus
walked this earth, you think of how he condescended to us
who are men of low estate. He came down, the mighty God
came down from heaven's glory, rich beyond our comprehension.
He condescended to take flesh like unto his lowly brethren. He came down And he walked this
earth to serve God for us and work out a righteousness because
we couldn't serve God as we ought. And he condescended further when
he went to the cross and bore the sins of his people and was
separated from God in our place. Have you ever thought about this?
When our Lord hung on that cross in those three hours of darkness,
There's never been anybody that ever sank that low. Nobody. God the Father would not turn His face on Him.
His brethren had left. All His enemies hated Him. He
hung there between heaven and earth alone. Alone. And yet He said, this was His
faith, yet I'm not alone. My Father's with me. He was doing
the Father's will. He knew when He satisfied judgment
for His people and honored His Father and honored His law that
God the Father would keep His covenant promise and justify
Him as being who He said He is. And justify Him as being the
righteous servant of God. He condescended for us. Lowly! lowly, lowly. And now from His throne in glory,
He continues to condescend to us in that He sent us the Gospel
in our lowly state. And He called us out. And He
didn't use high and mighty men to do it. He used lowly men to
do it. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter
1. Verse 26, for you see your calling,
brethren, how that not many wise men are of the flesh, not many
mighty, not many noble are called. But God hath chosen the foolish
things of the world to confound the wise. Who are these foolish
things? The cross was a foolish thing
to this world. The preaching of the gospel is
a foolish thing to this world. And you and me that God uses. Send this gospel forth. We're
foolish things to this world. But He did it to confound the
wise. God has chosen the weak things
of the world to confound the things which are mighty, base
things of the world, and things which are despised hath God chosen,
things which are not, to bring to naught things that are. Why? That no flesh should glory in
His presence. You know when you're sitting
in In a congregation, hearing the Gospel preached, and you
begin to truly hear the Gospel preached, and God's preaching
that Word to you in your heart, it's impossible for you to glory
in your flesh. You can't. And that's why He
saves this way. That's why He saves through the
preaching of the Gospel, using nobody to preach it. It's because
when He starts revealing Himself in you, you're not going to be
able to glory in your flesh. He says, it's of him that you
are in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom and righteousness
and sanctification and redemption. It's all of God that we're in
Christ, and it's all of God that Christ is made all to us, so
that he that glories, let him glory in the Lord. This is why
he saves this way. Knowing our lowest state, knowing
how poor and how lowly we are, brethren, we are to be never
Never minding high things. We ought to not be impressed.
We are, and it's such a sad thing, that we're impressed with wealth
and impressed with popularity and fame, but we ought not to
be. Our Redeemer wasn't. Remember
what James said? He said, Brethren, have not the
faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect of persons, He said,
if there come into your assembly a man with a gold ring and goodly
apparel, and there come in a poor man in vile raiment, if we have
respect to that man that wears the rich clothing, and we tell
him, sit here in a good place, and we say to the poor, stand
there, sit under my footstool, we're becoming partial in ourselves. Our Lord's not like that. Aren't
you thankful? He chose the poor of this world
who He made rich in faith. We were poor. We had nothing.
We didn't have God. We didn't have faith. We didn't
have hope. We didn't have anything. He made us rich in the unsearchable
riches of Christ. Let us condescend to men of low
estate. And then thirdly, think of this,
the God of all grace, He didn't recompense evil for evil to His
people. He recompensed grace for grace.
Grace upon grace upon grace. And we didn't show him any grace
or love. He recompensed us grace, grace,
grace. He says there, verse 17, recompense
to no man evil for evil. When a man does something evil
towards you, don't pay him back with the same. That's what he's
saying. That's being conformed to this world. That's exactly
what the world does. He tells us not to be conformed to the
world, be transformed. We've been regenerated. He said,
Provide things honest in the sight of all men, if it be possible. As much as life in you, live
peaceably with all men. Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves,
but rather give place to wrath, for it is written, Vengeance
is mine. I will repay, saith the Lord. Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirsts, give him drink.
For in so doing, you are going to warm him. You are going to
warm him. and give him that needed warmth
that he needs. Be not overcome of evil, but
overcome evil with good. Now in our flesh, brethren, we
are evil. Our Lord Jesus Christ was talking
to his disciples, and he said, if you being evil know how to
give good gifts. In our flesh, we're nothing but
evil. And sadly, as believers, we still do so much that's evil
toward our Redeemer. We did nothing but evil to God
all our days of rebellion and we still do evil to God. But
God has never, now listen to this statement, God has never
once recompensed evil to one of His elect, not one time. We know that all things work
together for good to them that love God, to them who are called
according to His purpose. He always works good to us. We've received of our Lord grace,
grace, grace is all we've received. Rather than recompensing evil,
God provided things honest for us. He sent the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is honesty Himself. He is the truth Himself. He didn't
save us through lies. He sent the truth to us. He sent
the Spirit of truth, who saves in truth. And He saved us in
truth. He saved us in honesty. That's
how He dealt with us. When our Lord walked this earth,
go to 1 Peter 2. When our Lord Jesus, when He
went to the cross, and we railed on Him, and we accused Him of
false charges, and He hung there, we nailed Him to that cursed
tree. Listen to this. 1 Peter 2, look at verse 22. He did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Every charge was false. Everything
that was laid against him was false. But look at this, who
when he was reviled, reviled not again. When he suffered,
he threatened not, but committed himself to him that judgeth righteously. That's our righteousness right
there, brethren. He loved the Father and he loved his brethren.
so that he committed himself to God to do what God said was
just. That's the fulfillment of the
law. That's what he did. Even when he was hanging on that
cross, look at this, "...who his own self bare our sins in
his own body on the tree." Why did he do that? That we now,
being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness. Now watch
that next word. By whose stripes? I have a capital R right there
for righteousness. Because that righteousness is
the one by whose stripes we are healed. We were a sheep going
astray, and now we're returned to the shepherd and bishop of
our soul, because he opened not his mouth. He reviled not again. Peter says there, you know, if
you're buffeted for your faults, But if you be buffeted when you
haven't done anything wrong, that's evil. That's evil. But let's not recompense evil
for evil. That's not what our Lord did.
That's how He made us righteous. That's how He made us perfect
before God. He didn't recompense evil for
evil. You realize, believer, that on the cross, God's already
taken vengeance on us. He's already taken vengeance
on His people on the cross. It says there, Dearly beloved,
avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it
is written, Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
In Isaiah 61, Christ is declaring He's that prophet God promised.
And He said He came to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
the year of Jubilee. He said He came to declare the
day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn. How is
declaring the day of vengeance going to be a comfort to those
that mourn? He declares to us, brethren, that when He took our
sin on the cross, our Lord Jesus Christ answered to God's wrath
for all our sin. And God took vengeance on His
people for our sin because of Christ bearing our sin. And so
now Christ declares to us the acceptable year of the Lord,
the year of Jubilee. That 50th year of Jubilee, everybody
who was a slave was set free. Christ comes and He opens the
prison and sets us free. Everybody who was in debt, all
their debts were wiped clean because Christ answered to vengeance
for us. All our debts are cleared. And
everything was restored. to that person who had lost everything.
He's restored to us above and beyond what we lost in Adam.
He said, I restored that which I took not away. That's what
He's done for us. And here's my point in that,
brethren. Now, there's going to come a day when men outside
of Christ are going to stand before God, and He's going to
take vengeance. But you and I don't know We don't
know, but that person that's being evil toward us, Christ
might have already paid that vengeance. God might have already
taken out vengeance on them in Christ at Calvary. I don't want
to take vengeance out on them. God already did that. That would
be unjust, wouldn't it? Not only because that's God's
place to do, but also because if that's one of God's elect,
I'm doing that to Christ. And He's already paid it. He's
already paid it. So there's our constraint, brethren,
seeing that the evil that I did to God, seeing how God didn't
recompense evil for evil toward me, shall I take vengeance on
my enemy, not knowing if they're God's elect? Therefore, if thine
enemy hunger, feed him. If he thirst, give him drink.
For in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be
not overcome of evil." You know, when we get so proud of how we
put somebody in their place, boy, I really told him, we've
been overcome of evil. There's nothing to be proud about,
is there? We've just been overcome of evil.
That's all that happened. We became conformed to the world. That's all we did. but overcome
evil with good. You think about it, brethren,
we were starving. Christ came and gave us the bread
of heaven, the bread of life. We were thirsting. He came and
gave us the water of life. We were a stranger cast out into
the cold with nothing to wear, no warmth whatsoever. And our gracious Coal Heaver
came to us and He heaped warm coals upon our head and warmed
us and clothed us and robed us in His robe of righteousness. He didn't allow Himself to be
overcome of evil. He overcame our evil with His
good. And that's how we're saved. So
brethren, as we Go to Luke 6. I want you to see
this. As we go through this life now, this is where Paul got this
message, right here, from our Lord Jesus Himself. And I just
want to read this. Let's know what Christ says to
us. Let's try to remember this. Luke 6, 27. He says, I say unto
you which hear, as to you that have spiritual ears, I say unto
you which hear, love your enemies, do good to them which hate you,
Bless them that curse you and pray for them which despitefully
use you. And unto him that smiteth thee
on the one cheek, offer also the other. And him that taketh
away thy cloak, forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every
man that asketh of thee. And of him that taketh away thy
goods, ask them not again. And as you would that men should
do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if you love them
which love you, What thank have you? For sinners also love those
that love them. And if you do good to them which
do good to you, what thank have you? Sinners also do the same. If you lend to them of whom you
hope to receive, what thank have you? Sinners also lend to sinners
to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and
do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again. And your reward
shall be great, and you shall be the children of the Highest. For He is kind unto the unthankful
and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as
your Father also is merciful." You think about it, we can't
add anything to God. He did all that for us, and we're
not going to give anything to God. If you do unrighteousness,
that's not going to hurt God. If we do righteousness, we're
not adding to God. He did nothing hoping for anything
in return. He says, now be like our Father.
I pray God give me grace to do that. I want to be like my Heavenly
Father. I pray He blesses us with that.
Amen. Another blessed message. Thank
the Lord for that. After John the Baptist preached,
our Lord commended him, didn't he? For the people. He commended
the man that he sent to preach the gospel before the people.
confirming him. And Brother Clay does not need
my commendation, but he has it for all it's worth. I thank the Lord for these messages.
What you're hearing isn't a good example of preaching the whole
counsel of God. Someone may say, everyone who
preaches Christ preaches the whole counsel. Well, The whole counsel of God is Christ
our object of faith and Christ our example of faith. We look
to Him for everything, everything He did for us, and we hear what
He said to do for Him and one another. And that's what we're
hearing, from God's glory, for everyone's good, and according
to the Word. I bless God for that preaching.
I've got some other men in here that do the same thing, and I'm
thankful. I'm very thankful. We're blessed. Thank you, Brother
Clark. Thank you. All right, we're going
to sing a hymn that goes perfectly with it, 337. Teach me thy way,
O Lord, thy way. Help me to walk aright. Teach
me thy way. 337. Let's stand as we sing. Teach me thy way, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Thy guiding grace, O Lord, teach
me thy way. Help me to walk upright, more
by faith, less by sight. Lead me with heavenly light,
teach me Thy way. When I am sad at heart, teach
me Thy way. When earthly joys depart, teach
me the way. In hours of loneliness, in times
of dire distress, in failure or success, Teach me thy way. When doubts and fears arise,
teach me thy way. When storms o'erspread the skies,
teach me thy way. Shine through the cloud and rain,
through sorrow, toil, and pain. Make thou my pathway plain, teach
me thy way. Long as my life shall last, Teach
me thy way Where'er my lot be cast Teach me thy way Until the
race is run Until the journey's done Until the crown is won,
teach me thy ways. Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. Paul. Thank you.