Luke 6 and for now I just want
to read verses 26. Woe unto you when all men shall
speak well of you for so did their fathers to the false prophets. We read here in this account
of those Christ says are blessed in this whole account in this
chapter, those who are blessed and those who Christ pronounces
some woes on. Christ told us in His word from
His own lips, He came not to send peace, but a sword. That
is, Christ did not come to send prosperity, quietness or rest. but he came to send a sword,
a knife, war, judicial punishment. All kinds today go to be part
of some joyous occasion where people are on top of the world
doing all they can for Jesus. Talking to each other about how
well they have done for Jesus. The problem is Jesus does not
want or need anything from man. He demands submission to Him
in believing Him. He came not to send rest, but
war. War to the soul with that sword
of the Spirit. The sword which is life, it is
effectual. It hacks, and the word is in
this sense of it doing this repeatedly. And it is sharper than any two-edged
sword. What does it do? It penetrates
you to this extent. It says, separation or distribution
of spirit and breath. His word, that is his gospel,
will kill you. And of the joints and marrow,
it says. It, that is this word, is a discerner
of the thoughts and intents of your heart. It will tear you
apart, in other words. If God sends you his word, it
will break you down. It is that pulling down of strongholds
spoke about by Paul in 2 Corinthians in verse 4. And then in verse
5 he says, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth
itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ. while others who have
his word will not be judged as you are, and will wonder why
you have all this commotion going on within your soul. When this
gospel comes to you, this is what those around you will do.
First Peter 4.4 says, wherein they think it strange that ye
run not with them to the same excess of right, speaking evil
of you. It will create enemies of your
own household, Christ tells us. So when we read this scripture,
we must recognize that this blessedness and these woes are separated
specifically because of the name of Christ and for his namesake. It is not because I do one thing
this way and someone else does it another. We are talking about
those who have been given the truth of Jesus Christ by God
and those who have not been given this grace. So this is talking
about when this is done for the son of man's sake, that is for
Jesus Christ the Lord, giving him all the glory. This is not
talking about someone not liking you because you are a complete
bottom side. You can't proclaim God's truth
and do it with the wrong attitude and be wrong. It is about proclaiming
what Jesus Christ has done and Joe, remembering the pit from
whence you were dig. It is not about you coming out
on top of an argument. 1 Peter 2 and 20 asks this question. For what glory is it if, when
you are buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? If
you are buffeted for your faults, what glory is it? You deserve
it is what this is saying. You are getting what you deserve,
so there is no glory in that. Then it goes on in 1 Peter 4.15,
it says, but let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a
thief or as an evildoer or as a busybody in other men's matters.
If this is what you're suffering for and have men and women not
liking you, what is happening should be happening. I have plenty
about myself for people to not like and they would be right
in not liking it because I am corrupt. 1 Peter 3 verses 8 through
12 reads this way, and I'm gonna read this whole passage. Finally
be all of one mind, having compassion one of another. Love as brethren,
be pitiful, be courteous, not rendering evil for evil, or railing
for railing, but contrary wise blessing, knowing that ye are
thereto called that ye should inherit a blessing. For he that
will love life and see good days, this is saying those who want
to love life, and I mean real life, and see good days, you
will do this. Let him refrain his tongue from
evil. Worthless, that means what you
say is blasphemous against God. That is depraved or injurious
words. Then it says, and his lips, that
they speak no guile, that is a trick or bait. Deceit saying
something to make someone do something you want without saying
it outright Some might call this manipulation What are they to
do versus 11 and 12 Let him askew evil and do good let him seek
peace and ensue it Ensue it that means chase after it like you're
chasing someone down We are to seek peace that way For the eyes
of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their
prayers. But the face of the Lord is against
them that do evil. But giving proclamation or testimony
to the gospel of Jesus Christ and him crucified is where blessing
comes from. It may not feel like a blessing
at times when men do what Christ tells us they will do. But God
tells us it is a blessing. So I want to go through a few
things today. What does it mean to be blessed? Some contrast
to being blessed. And what are we told to do when
these blessings come? So what does it mean to be blessed?
Jesus Christ says you are blessed. This is a very blessing given
by God to suffer for His namesake. This is not just talking about
those who preach, although there are those who are out in front.
And it may be they are the first to have men do this to them,
maybe, maybe not. But they will do this to anyone
who stands up for this Christ and anyone just for supporting
those who proclaim this. Christ says this is a blessing.
It may not feel like a blessing at times, like I said, but this
is a blessing. John 15, 18, and 19 says, if the world hate you,
you know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of
the world, the world would love his own. But because you are
not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world,
therefore the world hate of you. All Christ did was tell men and
women the truth. He always told them the truth
and always had the right attitude when telling them. How did they
treat him? They hated him. They lied and
spoke evil of him and they murdered him. So why is it a blessing? Because if it is this Christ
you are proclaiming and this world hates you, then you are
blessed because you are a part of the very Christ you proclaim. Because you are of the household
of faith, this world will hate you. They cannot help but to
hate you and speak evil of you. I know this because I was there
at one time. God's people are no different
than anyone else of this world. As I've already spoken about,
Jesus Christ says this in Matthew 10, 34. Think not that I am come
to send peace on the earth. I am come not to send peace,
but a solace. There was a time when we, before
God brought these blessings on us, we railed against God's people
in some way or the other. We have this flesh and it wants
to, with every fiber of its being, rise up against God. We must
have his gospel continually proclaimed in our ears to knock down those
walls of rebellion against him. As Walter has said, when the
walls crumble, those fleshly walls that are in ruins will
wreak of pride before God and must continually be put down
and ground to powder. You are blessed if Christ is
pleased to send you the gospel like this in grace. But there
are some who this is not true of. We ourselves, we are not
always like this, but it has to be him that does it. But there
are those who will never be brought to this place of blessing. So
some contrast between blessing and woes. Here in this account,
we have some contrasts that are given by our Lord. And there's
big differences in these things as we look at them individually,
but one big difference when looking at them as a whole. You have
those that are blessed, and we are given those traits that you
find in them that are blessed. Then you have the woes pronounced
by our Lord. A woe, grief, deep distress, trouble, or unfortunate
outcome. First, he gives us those who
are poor. This can certainly include those who are poor in
monetary means, but what it is talking about are those who are
poor in spirit. You can be one of the poorest
people in this world, monetarily speaking, but be full of pride. Contrast that to woe unto you
who are rich. Rich in what way? Rich in their
worldly possessions, putting their trust in them. Rich in
their own opinion of God. And rich in the filthy rags righteousness
which they think gains them favor before God. If God truly allows
you to find yourself, as some men say, you will quake in your
boots, knowing that if you die today without Christ, then that
means I'm done for. These are they who are poor in
spirit. There is a stark contrast in
these two things. If you find that you trust in
your faith and are convinced that you have what it is needed
to stand before the thrice holy God, then you have already received
your consolation or that is comfort and you will not find comfort
in that day. Most people want to find a place
that agrees with them. And I'm talking about a place
like this. Agrees with them and how they feel and what they like.
They have itching ears and they find those who like to cater
to them who preach to their itching ears. Christ says, woe to you
if you're rich in this world in your mortal spirit. Next,
he gives us those who hunger. There are plenty of hungry people
in the world when talking about that hunger which is after food
for this body. Many of these know nothing about
or care nothing about the righteousness of God. Christ is telling us
here about those who seek the righteousness of God knowing
they do not have it. We also have those who weep.
These are those who weep for their own wretchedness and their
inability to please God. They weep in knowing unless God
does something for them, they will be gone forever. These will
rejoice and be comforted by God through the gospel by His Holy
Spirit. These are those who cry out with
the Apostle Paul, oh wretched man that I am. Contrast that
to woe to you if you are full. Notice here it says ye shall
hunger. It says ye shall hunger. This
is not talking about physical hunger. This means if you are
full of your own righteousness, having and being satisfied in
your own righteousness which is of this world, When that day
comes, you will suffer want because your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags in God's sight. You will suffer hunger for that
righteousness which is of God in that day because you will
not find any. This is a shall that is sure
to come if it be the case you die full of righteousness of
your own. Now I did not just pull these
out of a hat. This is what Christ is saying in Matthew 5, we read
this same account. And it says in verse 3, blessed
are the poor in spirit. And then in verse 6 it says,
blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after righteousness. So Christ is talking to us about
those who are poor in spirit and those who are not. He is
telling us of those who hunger after righteousness and those
who do not. But then we have the next blessing,
which is a direct contrast to our text. Blessed are you when
men hate you. That is, men will hate you for
declaring the name of Jesus Christ, that his name is above every
name, and to his name every knee will bow. Those who proclaim
his name and those who support them that proclaim his name,
they will be persecuted and they are blessed. Men will separate
from you or separate you from them, either way. They will do
this by not talking to you, not including you in this or that.
Sadly, this happens in all places, although it may not be given
a name or said out loud. Most of the time, it's done behind
their back. That is, those who hate Jesus
Christ will speak evil of those who love and proclaim Jesus Christ. They will talk about them behind
their back. Christ tells us those like them
also did this to the prophets, that is those prophets of God.
They despised and hated them and spoke evil of them also. If this is you, then it says
you are blessed. Then we have this woe to you
when all men speak well of you. It says unto you, who is the
you? Here it is anyone at the time
when all men speak well of you. When all men speak, when speaking
of you, they wish you all the best. They speak of you as excellent. They see no blame in you. They
see you as perfect. There is none perfect but one,
and that is Jesus Christ the Lord. Those who are his are perfect
only in him. Jesus Christ tells us here that
if all men speak well of you, then it is a woe unto you. because
those in times past did the same thing to the false prophets.
That is, they spoke well of the false prophets. In other words,
the ones he was talking to, he told them, your ancestors really
spoke well of those who were false prophets. This is not a
good thing. But if this is true of you, then
our Lord pronounces a woe on you. Christ said they did this
very same thing to those false prophets of old, meaning they
thought the false prophets were perfect, and they spoke of them
in this way. What does this indicate? If all
men speak well of you, you are a false prophet. The world will
praise those who lie on God, while those who proclaim the
truth, that is Jesus Christ the Redeemer, will be hated. They
will be left to themselves because no one will have anything to
do with them. And they will be lied on because of the name of
Jesus Christ. Just like men and women do today,
they clamor after those who lie on God, those false prophets. Those who proclaim God's word,
glorifying God, will be hated. They will not want to be around
you and will tell lies on you and have it out for you, telling
everyone you are evil. That is what you have to look
forward to if you proclaim Jesus Christ and him crucified boldly
and without apology. But these things are temporal.
There will come a day when these things will change. So it says
we are blessed and what does our Lord tell us to do? When
we read these verses where it speaks of those who are blessed,
it does not sound like it is much of a blessing to be in that
state. But if God reveals to you what he is saying in his
word, you will be able to do what Christ tells us to do here
in this passage. What does Christ tell those who
are blessed in this way? Rejoice ye in that day and leap
for joy. What day is he talking about?
The day when you are poor in spirit. Why would this be a blessing? Because it means God is working
on you in grace. To come to that place where you
know you have no power to come to God in and of yourself is
a good place to be because scripture tells us this, Psalms 34 and
18. The Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart and
saith as such as be of a contrite spirit. It says here, the Lord
is nigh. The Lord is near. He is allied
to you. He is your next of kin. That's
what the word means here in this passage for nigh. Those who have
a crushed spirit, he is nigh unto. If you feel good about
yourself, then you have no reason to think God is your kinsman.
Isaiah 66 too reads this way. For all those things have mine
hand made, and all those things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a
conflict spirit, and tremble at my word. The Lord will look
to those who are like this. Why? Because he made them so. It will be those who are not
rich in righteousness, but those who are poor. So poor they know
they have no righteousness before Him. Those who have a crushed
spirit, knowing themselves to be without strength and unable
to save themselves. They who are so poor they cannot
even make a decision for Jesus that would do them any good.
They know it must be Him that saves them fully and completely. The sovereign Lord of all the
earth says this is who he looks to. He takes care of their needs. He does it in this day when he
draws nigh unto them. He says here to rejoice in these
things and be excited about it, if you will. But look to that
one day of his return as well, because Jesus Christ, our righteousness,
is our reward. And he says this, this is nothing
new. What those do today to those
who magnify God is the same thing they did to those in the past.
There is nothing new under the sun. He has also said that this
very thing was done to him. It is him that they hate. If
you leave Christ out of it, they will welcome you with open arms.
They think just mentioning the name of Jesus Christ makes them
a lover of God, but they are proclaiming another Jesus. They
are not proclaiming the sovereign, almighty, merciful God who purposed
all things from the beginning, so their Jesus is in fact nothing. Joy and sorrow are a part of
the believer's existence on this earth. Sorrow that they cannot
serve the Lord as they should, knowing that without the righteousness
of Jesus Christ they will not escape, because they have no
righteousness of their own. They are poor. The poorness they
have is to be totally destitute of God, with no way to close
the gap. But they also have joy knowing
He has done everything needed to secure their salvation, them
being made the righteousness of God in Him. We can because
we have a sure hope in Jesus Christ. We are told we can rejoice
now when God, by his grace, comes to us in wooing us into himself,
him sending us the gospel, breaking us into pieces, into dust. By this grace that he sheds on
his own abundantly, we put down our weapons against him and submit
to him, and we will then be able to look toward that one day.
when we will ultimately and completely be in the kingdom of God with
Jesus Christ, be filled with Jesus Christ, laugh with our
Lord, be with our Lord in glory, ever praising and proclaiming
His name? Jesus Christ, when He was on
this earth, was hated. He is still hated, although those
who might name the name of Jesus think they love Jesus. They do
not love and, in fact, hate the Lord of glory. because they do
not know him. When Christ was here, they loved
him for what he would do for them. But when he began to speak,
then their hatred began to show. John 6.65 says, and he said,
therefore said I unto you that no man can come unto me except
it were given unto him of my father. And then it says from
that, and it has interpolated time in that verse, but it should
be saying, from that saying, many of his disciples went back
and walked no more with him. This is but one example of the
many times when he spoke and people left. There were times
when he spoke, many picked up rocks to kill him. The Lord of
glory and men wanted to chuck rocks at the Lord of glory. It
will be no different for you if you stand for that Christ. Christ himself tells us, whosoever
therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also
before my father, which is in heaven. But whosoever shall deny
me before men, him will I also deny before my father, which
is in heaven. There is no other blessing greater
than to be joined with Jesus Christ. Hold forth that name. Do all men speak well of you?
Amen. Thank you, dear Lord God, for
allowing us to be here. As our brother has proclaimed,
all power, all might comes from you. We have nothing. It must
be you that does all things for us. Open our hearts, mind, and
ears, dear Lord, that we may be filled with words of your
son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Help us to boldly proclaim your
word, dear Lord. All these things we ask in Christ's
name, amen.