I'd like to read to you out of
Romans 12, verses 19-21. 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
doing so, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome
of evil, but overcome evil with good. So I'd like to talk to
you today about kindness to others and along with that, God's vengeance. Now both of these topics will
be mostly in relation to those who are viewed as being outside
of the body of Christ, or ones we might call unregenerate people,
either because their profession of faith is not real or has been
proven to be false, or because they have never professed faith
in the Lord at all. These persons we would call unregenerated
or unconverted. Now, there's a distinction there,
of course, between unregenerated and a reprobate. An unregenerated
person is one who has not professed the Lord yet or may never. If he never does, then he will
be a reprobate. Although he was a reprobate to
begin with, he will prove himself to be a reprobate. So I'd like
to jump right into Paul's context here in Romans 12. The 12th chapter
is where Paul starts to go from doctrinal to practical. And he
even gets a little proverbial. He's exhausted our minds with
this deep doctrine that he's preached to us through eleven
chapters and wonderful, wonderful theological truths found in the
Book of Romans. But then he begins to give us
a little more practical or proverbial teachings. So Romans 12 in particular
deals with first how the Christian views himself, then he begins
to look more to the body of believers, and then finally he goes outside
of the body of Christ in the latter part of the 12th chapter. So beginning with ourselves,
Paul says, we should live spiritually, not after the way of this world,
and we should not think too highly of ourselves. And then later
on, he moves into the body of Christ or the church, and he
says we should be together with one mind, loving and helping
one another as fellow children of God. Paul encourages the Christian
to do what most of us already have a deep desire to do, and
that is to be good brothers and sisters to one another. Remember
that John said, everyone who loves the father loves whoever
has been born of him. That is the spiritual love that
we have. It is not usually a great burden
to be kind to fellow believers. It's less of a burden, but it
can be a greater burden to be kind to those who are found outside
of the body of Christ or people that we term to be unregenerate.
I believe that beginning with verse 17 in Romans 12, Paul begins
to talk about how the Christian is to treat those living in the
world who do not yet or may never share that great tie that binds
the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe this change from inside
the body to outside the body is marked by Paul's use of the
words, all men. He uses it twice, once in verse
17 and then once in verse 18. And I looked at the Greek, there
is actually the two words for all men. A lot of times when
we see all, it's just the one word all. But then sometimes
it's combined with men to say all men. And there's obviously
controversy about those words in other places, especially dealing
with salvation. But I think in the context here,
Paul is moving through the believer first, then the body of Christ,
and then outside the body of Christ. Notice that in verse
16, just prior to verse 17, he says, be of the same mind one
toward another. So again, clearly he's talking
about inside the body of Christ. He does not intend us to be of
the same mind with non-professors of Christ. Paul would never want
that. He never wants us to be of the
same mind with unregenerated men. So moving to all men, I
think he's talking about unregenerated men. Now, so what is the simple
summary of what Paul is saying here? He's saying, be kind to
everyone, even your enemies, and let God be the one to dispense
punishment. So that's the kind of executive
summary of the verses that we read. Now, this is a simple enough
command. The command itself is simple,
but the simplicity of the command doesn't imply ease of compliance. So in a similar way, it was easy
for the Lord Jesus to command men, sin no longer. That's a
simple thing to command. It's not difficult. But it's
extremely difficult, even impossible, for men to comply with that.
So the simplicity of the instruction does not necessarily mean anything
as far as the difficulty that it will be carried out. So it
is right and good to demand the sinlessness of depraved man,
but impossible for him to comply. Likewise, it is easier to command
kindness at all times than actually to comply with that command.
So knowing that he has commanded a difficult thing, kindness in
the place of vengeance, Paul offers additional reasoning to
support his command. and sway the reader by giving
a sound logical argument to his command. So I believe there are
four main responses that we can have to commands that we find
in the Bible. And by commands, I mean commands
that are applicable to us. I'm not talking about the ceremonial
law or anything like that, but I'm talking about when we, for
instance, the command to not forsake assembling together.
That's clearly a command that's meant for today's Christians.
And I think there are four main responses that we can have to
those types of commands. Number one is, I won't do that.
I won't do that. And I won't say much about that,
because obviously that's the incorrect response to have to
a command from the Lord. The second response we can have
is, I need to do that. This is likely the first response
that we would have to anything that we read in the Bible that
was applicable to us. So we, I mean, we wouldn't be
Christians unless we confess that the Bible is the Word of
God, and it being the Word of God, we should definitely agree
with and obey the things found therein. And when I say need
to comply, when I find something and I think I need to comply
with that, it's not for salvation. I mean, like Brother McDaniel
preached this morning, salvation is all of grace, all of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and of course, anything that we do as far as
following commands has nothing to do with our salvation. So
you might phrase this, I need to do that because it is found
in the Bible, and the Bible is my rule of life. So the third
response you might have is, I want to do that. So that's kind of
a step up for my need to do it. So the need to do may elicit
compliance, yet the heart and the mind might not be fully engaged. Generally, for us to want to
do something, we need to have additional reasoning behind it.
If you've ever been around children much, you know that once they
reach a certain age, it's always why. You tell them to do something,
why? They want to know. They want
to engage their hearts. And I think this is what Paul
is doing here is engaging the heart of the believer by giving
them additional reasoning So we know the what now tell us
the why to engage our hearts Going beyond simply admitting
the need for compliance so you might summarize that response
by saying I need to do that because it's in the Bible and I want
to do that because the reason compels me I And number four,
the fourth response that we might have to an instruction is, I
will do that. So, I won't do that, I need to
do that, I want to do that, I will do that. Back in Romans 7, Paul
laments that he wants to do good, yet he does not. And that he
does not want to do evil, but he does evil. The need and even
the desire may be present, but the will to do is not necessarily
in agreement with those. So that's kind of the fourth
response that I see having to a command in the Bible. So if
we are to obey a command, the need must be present, the want
must be present, and the will to do must be present. And of
course, the grace of God must be there to provide those things. We can never follow any righteous
instruction without the Lord causing it. So I said all of
that to say this. Paul gives special attention
to this command. If you go through the rest of
the chapter 12, you'll see that he gives a lot of kind of proverbs.
Do this, do this, do this. And he doesn't necessarily back
all of them up with reasoning, especially the ones that have
to do with the body of Christ. We have the desire to follow
those commands even without the additional reasoning behind them.
But he says, avenge not yourselves, because vengeance is a deep-seated
desire for all depraved men, regenerated and unregenerated
alike. It will take some reasoning to
overcome this desire in order to replace it with the opposite
desire of kindness toward that person. Vengeance is retaliation
for harm received. Vengeance is repayment for wrongs
suffered. Vengeance is vindictive and punitive
in nature. So there is a distinction between
a punitive action and a corrective action. The Lord will pour out
his vengeance upon the reprobate in the day of judgment. His wrath
will not be well intentioned. and it will not be for the purpose
of reforming the reprobate. However, the Lord does correct
and chastise those whom he loves. This treatment has good intentions,
and behind it is love and grace." We remember that all things work
together for the good of the Christian, and that includes
any corrective action from the Lord. However, that is not true
of the reprobate. The reprobate only gets punitive
action, or vengeance. So vengeance has the power, or
the weight of the power of justice, power and wrath behind it, whereas
chastisement is fueled by grace and love. So need I even tell
you that mankind is very vengeful? Vengeance is a powerful emotional
reservoir from which springs many of our reactions, even in
everyday life. It can rear up on a very epic
scale, and it can even lead to world-destroying policies. I'm
sure we all, well, I don't recall the Cold War, but I've read plenty
about it. The United States at the time
enacted a doctrine called Massive Retaliation. Massive Retaliation. And the basic premise was that
the United States would use disproportionate force to any attack. And when
we see this in the light of nuclear weapons, we can recognize that
this is probably the most massive example of human retaliation
that could have possibly ever come, at least to this point.
It could have literally destroyed the world. And vengeance also
exists on a very small scale, though, in our daily lives. And I believe this is the main
thrust of what Paul is talking about here. It's a natural vengeful
desire to curse one who is our enemy, whether out loud or privately. Yet Paul and the Lord Jesus in
the Sermon on the Mount instruct us to bless our enemies, even
aid and help them. This goes against what we naturally
desire to do. We desire for those who deserve
recompense to receive it immediately, even by our own hands. This is
a strong desire, and so instructing us not to affect our own wrath,
Paul gives us reason. This reason is not only to engage
our need to comply with the command, but our want and our will to
comply. So with all practical instruction,
there is a doctrinal foundation. And that is what is presented
to change our minds from one desire to the other. That of
immediate retribution to another desire, immediate kindness in
response. Paul does not want us left asking
why. He desires to engage us with
reasoning and compel us with logic. He's the master of that. He is the master of reasoning
and logic. So the reason we are told not
to take our own vengeance is that vengeance belongs to the
Lord. Give place in the wrath, for
it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord.
Who best to decide the measure of vindication necessary than
the master judge himself? Leaving vengeance to the Lord
is an act of faith on the part of the Christian. The desire
is for immediate vengeance. that can be seen, witnessed,
and felt. To do otherwise is only by the
power of faith. Looking forward to the unseen,
believing the unseen, believing in the Lord requires faith. So
the Lord Jesus said, if a person smites you on the right cheek,
offer him your left. Certainly this goes against our
nature for a number of reasons. Number one, we naturally desire
to avoid harm. It would be more prudent certainly
to run or even strike back in defense if we're struck on the
cheek, but the Lord Jesus said, offer your other cheek. We naturally
desire to be victorious. Inside of all of us is a competitive
nature, whether more in some people, less in others, but none
of us goes into a situation hoping for defeat. We just don't do
that. We don't go into a situation
hoping for defeat. We desire to be victorious. Number
three, we naturally desire not to look weak. If our passiveness
in the face of danger were to goad another into further harming
us, that's not what we want. We want to look strong so that
we face away danger. And number four, we desire fairness
and justice. Whether our idea of fairness
and justice is incorrect or not, especially like a lot of the
world today, at least we have the Bible to guide us, but the
world's idea of fairness and justice is not always right.
Humans like to know that there will be justice and they like
to see it dispensed. So everything within our human
nature tells us not to turn the other cheek, but that nature
should not be our master. if we believe in the Lord's sovereign
purpose in all things we can fight that nature. So recall
with me the interaction between David and Shemi. Shemi cursed
David to his face and threw stones at him publicly. And David's
general wanted to cut off Shemi's head. But David said, quote,
let him curse because the Lord hath said unto him, curse David. So this shows David, the king
of Israel, being passive in the face of personal persecution.
And I think it's important to highlight the fact that personal
persecution is far different than war or any of the other
things that David was involved in. I mean, obviously he waged
wars, he fought, he killed, but those were in the name of Israel,
not in the name of David. This was personal persecution
to David. Paul tells the Christian to let
the Lord dispense judgment, and in doing so he quotes a passage
in Proverbs that has two controversial interpretations. He says, Therefore
if thine enemy hunger feed him, if he thirst give him drink,
for in doing so thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head. By
using the therefore, we know that this statement was in direct
connection to the one preceding it. Not only has he presented
the negative, don't enact your own vengeance, but he has now
given a positive instruction, be kind instead. So don't take
your vengeance, be kind. So Calvin summarizes these two
as follows, quote. This is from his commentary on
Romans. Quote, some by Coles understand the destruction which
returns on the head of the enemy when we show kindness to one
unworthy and deal with him otherwise than he deserves, for in this
manner his guilt is doubled. Others prefer to take this view,
that when he sees himself so kindly treated, his mind is allured
to love us in return. Unquote. So number one, the first
interpretation that Calvin offers here is that Cole's being heaped
represents the Lord's wrath. And the idea here is that by
being kind to the enemy, the enemy's guilt burns brighter.
And he becomes worthy of greater wrath from the Lord in the day
of judgment. The second interpretation offered
is that the coals being heaped represent the process of melting
the enemy into repentance. And this is another quote I'll
read to you from Matthew Poole's commentary on the Bible. Quote,
the metaphor may seem to be taken from founders who melt the hardest
metals by heaping coals of fire upon them. The idea would be
that acts of kindness would melt the soul of the enemy and may
win him to Christ. So those are the two interpretations
offered by most people for this passage. As for me, I think that
Paul has the first interpretation in mind. He is giving the reader
reason to replace personal vengeance with personal kindness. And just
like David, he has the sovereignty of God in mind. He also has in
mind the Lord's final judgment and how each and every sinful
act on the part of the reprobate will have greater judgment at
the Lord's hands. Being intimately familiar with
the Old Testament scriptures, Paul is drawing on phraseology
that he and his readers should be well acquainted with. So the
following five points are a little more detail of why I believe
Paul is using the first interpretation that we discussed. Number one,
this interpretation seems to more readily agree with the immediate
context. The immediate context is that
of giving room to the Lord's vengeance, not melting souls
so that they are kind in return to us or winning them to Christ. The immediate context of that
is the Lord's vengeance, the Lord's wrath. Give room unto
wrath. The second reason is the first
interpretation does not blur the lines between the elect and
the reprobate. This twelfth chapter of Romans
follows the most hated ninth chapter, where we are taught
very clearly the doctrine of double predestination. There
is a reprobate and there is an elect. God has chosen, without
regard to works, to elect some unto damnation and some unto
salvation. He has selected the vessels of
wrath and the vessels of mercy. So having just finished teaching
this, is it too much to ask for the reader to have this in mind,
to have in mind the elect and the reprobate? So if our enemy
is truly a reprobate, not to be confused with unregenerated,
is truly a reprobate, and we are kind to him, will he not
receive judgment in return? Have we not added to his cup
of wrath? I believe that we have, and he
will actually receive a greater dose of vengeance on the day
of judgment. So this gives a compelling argument
for Paul's desire to have us replace immediate vengeance with
immediate kindness, since that kindness will actually have the
result of heaping a greater measure of eternal vengeance on the reprobate,
our true enemy. So what if the enemy that we're
speaking of, this is the temporal enemy in front of us at the time,
what if he is actually a lost sheep or an elected individual?
If any of us knew that about our enemy at the time, wouldn't
we desire to be as kind to him as we could? If we knew that
that person was a reprobate and they were persecuting us or being
unkind to us, wouldn't we desire to be as kind as we could and
return to them? So not only does kindness to the reprobate further
God's plan of vengeance, but kindness to the elect furthers
God's plan of converting them at some point in time, and his
plan of brotherly love toward one another. Number three reason
that I think is the first interpretation. is the idea that heaping burning
coals on someone's head is meant to melt the heart is a metaphor
found outside of the Bible. This is not a metaphor found
inside the Bible. And when in doubt about the meaning
of a word or phrase, I think we should use scripture to interpret
scripture. Some call that the analogy of
faith, the idea that scripture interprets scripture. Phrases
used here can mean the same thing there. So coals of fire are often
associated with the Lord's wrath. One particular telling passage
is Psalms 140, chapter 140, verse 10. Quote, let burning coals
fall upon them. Let them be cast into the fire,
into deep pits, that they rise not up again. So by letting scripture
interpret scripture in this way, I think that to heat burning
coals on an enemy is to magnify the Lord's vengeance toward them.
Number four, we cannot assume that our kindness will be corrective
action toward the reprobate. We can, however, know that our
kindness will be further condemnation to the reprobate because he will
never respond as he should. If our enemies shall be damned,
then our kindness results in punitive action, not corrective
action. Punitive, not corrective. If
the person will never believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, then
we can never have corrective action on them as far as the
heart is concerned. And number five. It is okay and
right to desire vengeance. The caveat is that the vengeance
must be the Lord's, not our own personal vengeance. Paul does
not want us to put off desire for vengeance. If he did, we
would have to cut out all of the imprecatory psalms from the
Bible. Those are the psalms where the
psalmist wishes curses and vengeance upon his enemies. Notice that
in doing so, though, the psalmist never talks about his own vengeance,
his own action. He talks about the Lord, the
Lord giving vengeance, the Lord handing out wrath. This is okay. This is not sinful. Paul does
not wish the Christian to desire only good things come upon all
men, even in judgment. He only wishes to give us reason
to leave vengeance to the Lord and not ourselves. Kindness,
aggravating the predicament of the reparate, plays straight
into this, agreeing not only with our need to be kind, but
also with the psalmist's desire for God to avenge. There's a
necessary distinction between temporal kindness and eternal
vengeance. They can and do coexist. In fact, the distinction between
the temporal kindness and the eternal vengeance helps to reconcile,
I believe, a lot of the difficult passages we find, especially,
for instance, the Sermon on the Mount. The Lord teaches kindness
to everyone in the Sermon on the Mount, and he says, do this
to be like your father. to be perfect like your father.
And I think this distinction between the temporal and the
eternal, kindness and vengeance, helps to answer some of those
difficult passages. The writer of Hebrews observes
that the same gospel was preached to his audience as to all of
the Jews, yet with different effect. And the difference was
the combination of the word with faith. So that's what made the
different effect. Everybody was preached the same
word, but to those who the Holy Spirit gave faith, then it had
different effect on them. So similarly, the desire for
vengeance occupies Christians and non-Christians alike, kind
of like the word going out to all, but we all have the desire
for vengeance. However, in the Christian, if
it's combined with faith, it can produce a different result,
that of kindness toward our enemies. I'd like to really stress that,
that it is the combination of what we desire naturally with
faith that produces the different result. Faith is the conviction
of things not seen. So if the Lord's vengeance cannot
immediately be seen, yet we trust in it and act accordingly, then
it's by faith that we're doing so. This method of vengeance
requires faith, relies on faith, boosts faith, and is impossible
to be personally satisfied with apart from faith. If you don't
have true faith that the Lord will someday enact His vengeance
on your enemy, then you can't be kind in faith to them, and
you will never be satisfied with being kind. You'll always ultimately
want that personal vengeance. So I'll close by saying that
vengeance is not just on a grand scale. I believe that it rears
its head every single day in our lives. This text gives us
great reason to conquer our petty inner depravity and excel in
kindness at all times to all people. I don't think Paul intends
just a feigned kindness either, a fake kindness, because we don't
know whether a person we're dealing with is actually an elect child
of God. And wouldn't we all feel terrible
if we were unkind to one that we later found out was our brother
or sister? So the Holy Spirit's reasoning
through Paul deals with both possibilities with one easy solution,
kindness. And I'll close with this quote. Well, not really a quote, but
I think you've all heard, kill them all, let God sort them out,
right? Well, how about be kind to them
all and let God sort them out? Thank you all for listening.