1 Thessalonians 5, verses 14 and
15. It says, And we urge you, brothers,
admonish the idle, encourage the faint-hearted, help the weak,
be patient with them all. See that no one repays evil for
evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone. Now, as we get in this text today,
as you'll notice throughout the rest of this letter, we're at
the end, especially through verse 22, there's this long chain of
exhortation. There's this long chain of commands,
there's this long chain of continued, I don't know what the word that
I'm looking for is, things that we should be doing, relational
realities that the church is supposed to see, how we're supposed
to treat each other, How the elders are supposed to treat
the church. How the church is supposed to treat the elder.
How we're supposed to warn each other, encourage each other,
help each other, lift each other up. And this is not new, this
is not a different teaching, this is not something that he
just wanted to tag on the end, but rather it's a culmination
of all that Paul has taught thus far in this letter. And specifically in verse 15
is where we are today. See that no one repays evil,
anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good to one another
and to everyone. In our world today, do we see
that? In our world today, do we even
see the heart of that? Yes, we look around and we see
these pockets of benevolence. We see these pockets of what
the world would call love and affection and care, striving
to be there for the underdog, striving to be there for the
accused, there for those who are persecuted. Friends, I will
suggest this morning that as we've gone in these last 22 weeks
in this letter, We can remember, we need to remember, if we can
remember, just what type of life these Christians were living
in Thessalonica. The people of Thessalonica who
had believed on Christ were not living an easy life in any way. They were not living a life of
leisure. They were not working for themselves, a retirement. They were not given the opportunities
that we have here in this country to actually be concerned with
our own well-being and our own future and our own retirement,
our own children, our own grandchildren and so on. These things are not
offered to these people because the moment their faith in Christ
was made known, their life as they knew it was over. Some of
them, because of the sword, lost their lives. Some of them, because
of being put in prison, lost their lives. Some of them, because
of being accused by their own family members of being a believer
of the way, lost their lives. Some of them lost all that they
had as Rome came in and plundered their property. But as we've
seen, they rejoiced. As we've seen, though, Paul had
to leave Thessalonica after a very short time of ministry there
because his life was in grave danger. And the Thessalonians
and the other apostles thought it best that he just leave rather
than die at that time. So this orphaned church, this
immature church, in the midst of all of this suffering and
all of this persecution, they came to thrive in their joy,
thrive in their ministry, thrive in their love for each other,
thrive in their understanding of the Word of God, thrive in
their expression of the Gospel and proclaiming the good news
of Jesus Christ in the face of persecution. They thrived in
their faith. Yet every moment of their lives,
someone was after them to do evil. Every day that they awoke,
the first thing on their mind was, Glory be to God, Jesus Christ,
who gave me Himself, as we just sang, in Christ alone. Christ
took our place on the cross. Christ paid the penalty of our
judgment. Christ absorbed the wrath of
God so that we would be free from it. I am guaranteeing you
these people woke up every morning with the praise of the glorious
grace of God on their lips. And then the second thought on
their mind, this is speculation, but I can probably guarantee
it, is that they were wondering, is today the day we're going
to die? Why would I say that? Because they were concerned about
those who were dying. It's a major theme in this first
letter. What happens to our brothers who are killed? To our sisters
who are martyred? What's going on with their bodies?
These people, these Gnostics have told us that they cease
to exist. They're going to miss the resurrection because they
didn't make it. And Paul tells them they will
not miss the resurrection. They will not miss the coming
of the Lord. That that was for which they lived and were willing
to die. We'll see them face to face.
And in truth, we know that the Scripture teaches that we, when
we are dead, we are in the presence of the Lord. They were worried
about their state, but yet it did not cause them to stumble
and fall away from Christ. It did not cause them to reject
the gospel and say, you know what, we can have salvation,
but we don't have to be zealous. And it's amazing to me that throughout
all the histories of the world, and so there's only one world
history, but you know what I mean, all the different historical narratives,
all the histories of all the different peoples, the history
of the church is marked with an amazing miracle of saving
faith and the amazing reality of persecution of the saints
of God, who persevere in the midst of pain, who persevere
in the midst of suffering, not because of their will or determination
or zeal or satisfaction and feeling like they love the pain. but
because of the graciousness of God and His power through His
Word and by His Holy Spirit to give us, the body of Christ,
the ability to endure in the face of death. And these Christians,
every day, were concerned about whether or not they would live
for Christ and whether this day might be the day they would die
for Christ. It did not stop their mouths
from proclaiming the Gospel. It did not stop their knees from
hitting the ground and praying. for the lost to come to faith.
It was such a remarkable transformation that all the people of Macedonia,
all the people of Achaia, all the people of this region, they
heard and saw about the Thessalonian church. And that when Paul and
others were hundreds of miles away, they heard stories of great
power in Thessalonica. They heard stories of miracles.
They heard stories of supernatural things. What were those things? There was a people who were pagan
worshippers, who hated the living God, who are now not only living
for Him, preaching of Him, but dying for Him. And there were many, most of
all the people of these days, in all these provinces of Asia
Minor, all over the world during this time, where Christianity
was spreading, most people hated Christians. Why? Because the Scripture teaches
us that we who stand for Christ, we who live for Christ, will
be hated with a measure above normal. Because the world in
its darkness, in its depravity, you and I who once were like
this, hated Christ. And the natural inclination of
humanity especially in the days of the Roman Empire, such as
these Christians, the first response to someone hurting you is what? To hurt them. You're not going
to talk about my mama, the children would say. I don't know if any
of you have ever said that. You ever been in the third grade
and somebody would say, you know what, your mama's so ugly, you
don't even have to put the rest of it in there. You don't talk
about my mama. And what do you want to do? You want to pop them
one. If they're bigger, you have to be cautious about it. Sneak
attack. Gum in the hair during lunch
or something. Take their pencils and break the points on them
right before the test. Vindication is what we want. Vengeance is
the natural outflow of the depravity of our nature. There is nothing
more odd, nothing more unnatural than loving our enemy and serving
them when they hurt us. That is supernatural. In our
flesh, when we see evil, we want evil. We want justice. We want righteousness. And it's
not even for the sake of God and His name. It's for the sake
of, you're not going to cause me pain. I will show you I will
not take it. And we applaud that. Good for
you. Good for you. You be strong.
Don't let anybody step on you. Paul says in Philippians, Have
this mind among you which is yours in Christ Jesus, that being
in the very nature God, he did not take equality with God, something
to be grasped, but rather made himself nothing, a slave, obedient
unto death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God the Father exalted
Christ above all things, and He has the name that is above
all names, so that the name of Jesus every time in heaven and
earth and under the earth shall say, Jesus is Lord. It's counterintuitive. My neighbor
kills my dog? I want vengeance. The rude guy
down the street doesn't wave when I ride by? Who does he think
he is? How rude! That's vengeance. How dare he not wave at me? He
saw my finger through my tinted glass, certainly. The same neighbor you don't recognize
because he's got tinted glass and he don't see you wave either.
You'll see him wave. Pulls out in front of you like,
ah, he needs to go to jail for being so dumb. I mean, you know. Why don't my neighbor cut their
grass? My grass is cut. I sweat and
work and they don't. Look at the neighborhood. It
looks terrible because of this behavior. It's not peaceful, though it
looks like peace signs. I mean, this is a vengeful attitude.
It's an entitlement that somebody ought to be thinking about us
and our problems and our concerns and our image and our ideals
and our situations at all times and how dare they in their laxity
not actually consider what they do in their idleness and how
it affects me. This is a vengeful, vindictive,
retributive mindset. They need to be taught a lesson. They need to be told what's what. They need to be corrected. Now
friends, when someone bangs on your door and says, I'm going
to take your property because you follow Jesus Christ, the
first thing we do is appeal to the laws of our day. It was not
necessarily even legal, but it became legal. And these Christians,
as we see the writer of Hebrews, did not fight back, but willingly
gave up. Why? Because their mission and
their focus and their priorities fighting back would take away
all of that. And I'm not a pacifist, friends. It doesn't suit well to me when
Jesus says, love your enemies. Oh, I can be loving as I take
them out. I love you. I love you. I showed
you. That's not the point. These Christians
in this time were being persecuted with a horrible evil. They were really suffering. And Paul is telling the elder
brothers and the body of Christ to warn the idol. This is what
we went over last week. Warn them. Get to work. Be about
the work of the gospel. Be about the work of the ministry
of the church. Give yourself. Give your time. Don't take a
handout when you can work. Don't confuse the idea that Christ
is coming soon with the time of humanity. Don't sit there
and wait for the skies to open and not be productive in this
life. Genesis 2, as we looked at for two weeks, alluding to
it. The work that we've been given
is part of the giftedness of creation. It's not part of the
curse. The toil of work is part of the
curse. The hardships of work. But work
is what we do. Idleness, we must warn, do not
be idle. Secondly, we learned last week,
We are to encourage the faint-hearted. There are people in this place
who were ready to just throw their hands up. They were ready
to give up. Have we ever felt that way in our lives? I can't
feel good. I can't get any money. I can't find a job. I can't get
peace. I don't love myself. I'm depressed. My marriage is
in trouble. Every time I try to get in the
Bible, I just fall asleep. I don't care anymore. I'm frustrated.
I'm depressed. My friends are mean. My life
is mean. My dog died. My neighbor won't cut their grass.
And the world is coming to an end, isn't it? We've had problems. And if you've not had problems
ever, I'd love to hear your testimony. And so there's always an opportunity
for being faint-hearted. for being one of those that goes,
is this ever going to get any better? What if it doesn't? Then
we must encourage each other. Not, it's alright. You know,
this too shall pass. Yes, right into the next pile. This is like a speed bump or
a pothole. Pothole, pothole, pothole. Yeah,
we're getting past these to go into another one. Sometimes off
a cliff. Sometimes into a fire. Whoo,
I barely made it out of that fire. I'm glad I... Where's that
tornado coming from? It's like an insane macabre video
game, you know? Survive Life, version 1. You make it out of the fire,
you make it through the earthquake, you make it through the tornado, you make
it through the flood, flying sharks, stingrays from the trees. I mean, you know, you can see
it, itself. It's just absurd enough. Faintheartedness is not, it's
going to be okay because things are going to get better. Faintheartedness
is not going to get better. Encouragement says it doesn't
matter because it's great. No matter what turmoil comes
to you, Christ is the King over it all. No matter what pain you
may be experiencing, it is not equal to the pain that Christ
suffered on the cross. And in His suffering, you are
made alive. This light, momentary affliction
prepares us for an eternal weight of glory. Don't look at the world. Don't look at the plans of this
day. Don't look at what is before us. Look at that which we cannot
see. I find it very ironic that many people who claim atheism,
that I've had the opportunity to debate through the years. How is it that you, in your intelligence
they would say, with your logical mind, see nothing and trust wholly
in that which you cannot see? Is it the same way you trust
in that report that comes at the end of every month from your
401k? It's nothing but a report. There's nothing there. You're
just looking at what you think is there. I've got that. Sell
it and give it to me then. You won't get it. It's a stated value of that which
is not in reality. The same thing is true with when
we order a video game on our phone. Well, I need a new pair
of shoes for this task that I'm about to do, so I'm going to
spend three of my journey dollars. It cost you like a dollar for
real. I'm going to buy these artificial
shoes. I'm going to trust in these. I'm going to trust in
my plans that are not even out there and laid out. I'm going
to look at those things which I've decided I'm going to do
with my life and this is where I'm going. I'm the master of
my own destiny. People that don't believe in God trust more in
that which is not evident. And quite honestly, the Bible
teaches that that's an impossibility. That anyone who stands and says
there is no God is a liar from their own mind. They know without
a shadow of a doubt that God is. For all that is made testifies
to His creative power and His divine nature. But observing
the reality of God is not salvific, it is judgment. Just because
we know that God is God and that He is real, does not give us
eternal life. Intimacy with God, knowledge
of God through Jesus Christ gives us eternal life. And that's an encouragement.
As we look to the things that are unseen, because all that
is seen is temporal, You ever had an electronic device
that you take care of very well just stop working? There's no
reason for it to stop working. There's no decay, no water, no
dust, no sand, no damage, no abuse. It just stops working.
Why? Everything is temporal. Everything except that which
God has decreed eternally. Encourage the faint-hearted. Help the weak. Remember last
week, and this is a reminder, I told us that help means to
take hold of, to put hands on. To take hold of those who are
weak in their faith. To take hold of those who are doubting.
To take hold of those who are idolaters and trusting in other
things. To hold to them and not let them
fall prey to these things. To grab and go and embrace and
stay patiently with all of them, even the idle. Patiently with
the downhearted. Encouragement is not, get over
it, grow up. That's not encouragement. And
that may need to be said, but encourage them in even that wisdom
and counsel. And then as we see this text
for today, see that no one repays anyone evil for evil. These who
are hurting, we ought to be patient. The idle, the weak, the downhearted.
And those who do evil are those who hurt others. So there are
others who hurt. We ought to be patient with them.
And those who hurt others, we must be also patient with them. Now, in the absolute context
of this, We need to understand that the patience that we can
have when things are good, when things are bad, and the enemies
of this day, is not something that we can do intrinsically. It's not something that we can
do in our own power. It is something that God does
in us. And one of the ways we're encouraged to be patient is to
actually remember the patience of God with us, as Paul would
teach us in Romans 2. Or do you presume on the riches
of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that
God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? You know what
he's talking about there is that there are many, as he says in
Romans 1, that the judgment of God is going to come on all the
unrighteousness of men. who by their unrighteousness
suppress the truth. For it is clear to them that
God is, but they do not love God, nor do they give Him thanks,
but they suppress the truth by works of unrighteousness, and
therefore God turns them over to a reprobate mind, to do that
which is unnatural. And all sorts of sin is listed
there. Homosexuality, malice, envy, murder, hatred, disobedience
to parents. All sorts of sin is listed in
that reprobate circumstance. But God is patient. God is patient. How many people have you ever
heard the testimony of who forsaked the gospel, rejected the truth,
mocked Jesus Christ, hated the church, lived blatantly in front
of the world as though they were just like Satan incarnate to
prove the point that they were not believing on Christ, but
yet, all the while, God was patient. And when all that was done, sort
of like, This is out of context and it does not relate to the
actual meaning of the text in Luke 15. But just like the prodigal
son, he wasted everything, but the
Father was patient. In the same way, God the Father
is patient that we might be led to repentance. Be patient with
one another because God is patient with us. Contemplate the idea that what
if God, every time we sinned against Him, punished us for
that sin? The first one would be the end of it. Better yet,
the first thought would be the end of it. I would suggest most
of us would make it to about 12 months. Or less. But I don't want to hurt your
feelings. I got five children. Y'all got
seven children. You've got a bunch of children
too. There's a bunch of children. Every parent knows a little sinner
about nine, ten months. They're dry, they're fed, they're
loved, they're pampered, they have everything they want, but
they want that. What? It doesn't matter what
it is, something that's not within their reach. And they scream
for it. You say, no. They fall on the floor. Never move from the seated position.
Just fall for it. Real limber, you know, at that
age. And they cry, cry, cry, and they look up and stop crying,
and you say, no. They fall back down. They don't even know that they're
sinning. They're just sinning. Why? Because
they're sinners. We are sinners. God is patient. I don't know too many two-year-olds
who have professed faith in Christ. You know what, Mom? I was really,
really rude today when I screamed for that sucker. for that dum-dum. Yeah, there's one. We all know
what that looks like. How many little thieves do we have in
here, you know? Or hoarders, or greedy kids. About to fill
their pockets like chipmunks. I saw a few weeks ago, one kid
had three suckers in his mouth. Because his mom took them from
his pocket, so he puts them in his mouth. He's like, well, I'll
eat them all at once then. It's awesome. Patient. And we don't kill our
children. We like to, but we don't. We're patient with them
in the same way we must be patient with those who irritate us, who
cause us to have to change our lives and our schedules, who
burden us in odd times. I mean, when is the schedule
of burden anyway? You know, Thursdays between 1 and 4, burden me all
the time. You know, if somebody calls at
3.59, you've got one minute. Oops! I knew who you were. You shouldn't have said, hey,
Pastor, this is John. Oops! Sorry, you shouldn't have introduced
yourself. Time's up. No, that's the whole idea. We
are patient with people who are hurting. We are patient with
people who hurt others. See, this is a little off for
us. Friends, our relationships, even
when they're tasks, taxed, and the task of being intimate and
forgiving and forbearing. It's hard enough when we really
like each other and when there's good repentance and forgiveness
and forbearing. We're working. Oh, you know what?
I forgive you. I love you. Good. I love you too. Let's work through this.
God is great. Jesus Christ our King. Hurrah.
And we're just moving on. But when someone says, and I
hate you, you know, you hurt me. And they're in the church.
I'm sorry. You know, you smell bad. I don't
like you anymore. You might think that's a little silly and kid-like,
but most of our arguments are kid-like. It all boils down to,
you looked at me, I looked at you, you're sitting on my side
of the seat. You rolled your eyes, I rolled my eyes back. God is patient. What if God,
desiring to show His wrath and to make known His power, has
not only been patient with those who will come to repentance,
Paul also teaches in Romans 9, it's a very aggravating verse.
But what if God, desiring to show His wrath and to make known
His power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared
for destruction? See, unbelievers in the world
at large that hates the church and continues to persecute the
church and lie and bear false witness about the church, I mean,
it's been going on since the days of Christ. It's been going
on even in the shadow of Israel who would become the church. Even in the shadow of Israel,
they were hated. They were in bondage and slavery
and persecuted more than they were ever a free nation. More. Even to this day. And God actually says to the
prophets of the Old Testament, I'm going to send Babylon as
my instrument of correction and rebuke. I'm going to send the
Syrians. to destroy you, but I'll keep
a remnant because I promised I wouldn't let you all be obliterated."
And then yet in the same breath, God says, and then one day I'm
going to bring judgment against these very people that I allowed
to be My hand of judgment on them for their unbelief and the
way they treated you, My people, beloved. And God is patient with us so
that we might come to repentance. And God is even patient with
the wicked who will never come to repentance because He's patient. And He's long-suffering. And
these vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, these are those
who continually and forever and die in the rejection of the gospel.
We don't understand the minute and significant little details
of God's decrees. To say that we can is really
a fool's errand. It's not something that we can
do. We see it for what it is, and we embrace it, and we worship
God in it, and we worship Him because He's got patience with
us. He had patience and He has patience with the reprobate.
And in God's timing, those who we have just said, there's no
way they're going to come to Christ, like Saul of Tarsus,
then becomes the apostle of the apostles. People said that of
Saul. What a wicked man. Here he is
in the Sanhedrin. And against the law. Imagine
this. This is Gaul. Against the law
of the Roman Emperor. Saul approves of the stoning,
judicially. Exercising the death penalty
in another man's kingdom. And he did not die. How wicked
is this man that he would defy not only Christ, but the Emperor
and be willing, and they did nothing. They didn't bring justice
at all. He had Stephen murdered on false
testimony. He's sitting against Moses and
Yahweh and Rome and Jesus. Imagine what the church could
have said during that day. And imagine what it was like
in Damascus when Saul knocked on the door. And so, y'all, I'm
going to join y'all's efforts. Just a minute. It's Saul. I mean, you know. Hide the children. Be quiet. Come on in, Saul, how
are you doing? Get him, boom, and tie him up
and sell him to the bank. I mean, you know what I'm saying?
That's probably the American apostle posse. I mean, that's
how we'd want to do it. Now, we're going to pretend we
receive him. They're going to tie him up. And after about six years, we'll
feed him, take care of him, you know. About six years, we'll
see. Now, they wouldn't even have done that. Friends, if the
Spirit of God had not sent someone ahead and told them and shown
them visions and spoke to them to receive Saul, that he was
now walking in the light of Christ, they would have fought for their
lives and eventually probably either killed them or died in
the process of trying to get away from them. If an evil man like Saul can
be saved, God can save anyone. Did you hear that? What about
Adolf Hitler? Adolf Hitler doesn't touch a
match to Saul of Tarsus. Not a spark. The problem is we've
only got a little bit of a narrative. We don't understand the history.
We don't look at it. We don't learn it. We don't see the history
of how bad the Sanhedrin and the Roman Empire persecuted Christians. Murder is murder. It's a terrible
thing. It's terrible to be selected and isolated as a people. Whether you be Jew or African
or English or Irish. I mean, look at those poor people. And recompense is the natural
order in which we live. It's what we want. And in some
sense, it seems godly. But friends, none of us probably
in this room have ever or will ever have the opportunity to
bring such recompense in our life in a sense of justice, because
quite honestly, nobody in this life has ever hurt us to the
point that we should retaliate with murder. Do you know how many times I've
gotten phone calls in the years of somebody's tires being slashed? Or been told by a buddy, oh man,
you should see my truck. And it's not just a scratch,
it's not just a key, it's like, let me show you what the Grand
Canyon looks like to scale. Replacing tens of thousands of
dollars' worth of quarter panels and Bondo or whatever else you
can do, because somebody was upset with somebody else. I've
seen fights on the West Coast break out between people on the
street over shoe color. And you go to step in and you're
thinking, what do I do here? I've seen fathers go into houses
of daughters to go into houses with a boyfriend who was inappropriate
with their daughters and beat these people up. And as a father, I understand
that. But as a follower of Christ,
I get it, that that's not the way. The natural order of our
depravity is that we want vengeance. And the Bible is teaching us
to be patient. So now our love for each other
abounds with patience and forbearing and gentleness. Ephesians 4,
2, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one
another in love. That's what God does in us. It's
a miracle. It's a display of His manifold
wisdom with a people that cannot in any other way find an affinity
and the ability to walk in righteousness, much less love each other. But
by the power of God, through His Word, and with the close-knit
community of faith that He's created and ordered by His own
decrees, we are able to love each other with a love that is
unfailing. And when we find ourselves unloving,
we are able to forgive and be forgiven. And we're also, not
only internally as the body of Christ, but externally as those
who hurt us in the world. We're able to forgive. We're
able to love. And as we've looked over these
past few years and had specific conversations on Tuesday nights
in the last three or four weeks, we understand that the love of
God is not is not necessarily to be understood about how He
feels toward us, but it's what He does for us. God's love is
seen in this way, that while we were enemies, Christ died
for us. While we were haters of God, Christ made us friends
with God. While we were dead in our sins
in Ephesians 2, God made us alive in Christ. While we were the
world and just like it, while we were gone and hostile and
not seeking after God, God's love is seen in the giving of
the Son, Jesus Christ. So that God loves the world in
this way, that He gave the only Son, so that the love of God
is seen in the giving of the Son. So in the same way, the
love of God in us is supposed to be seen in the giving of our
lives. Those who hurt others were to
be patient with them all. And we are not just to be patient
and say, like we see the martyrs in the apocalypse writing, saying,
oh God, when? When? It's okay to want God to
bring justice. Friends, that is a good thing.
But we should always understand that God brings justice on all
those who deserve it, except us. We deserve it. I deserve the same justice as
an Adolf Hitler. I deserve the same justice as
a mass murderer. I deserve the same justice as
an abortionist. But God's mercy toward me, His
love toward me in Christ Jesus satisfied His wrath and kept
Him righteous. Don't read into that. displayed
the fact that He always is and always will be righteous. That's
Romans 3. Because He took out His vengeance on Jesus Christ
the Son, now we are free. So we are able to love in the
same way. And see that no one... Look at that word there. See
that no one. What does it mean? See to it. It just doesn't mean
ask people. It doesn't just mean, and keep
in mind, he's not just talking to the elders here. He's talking
to the body here. We have a responsibility. When
we see each other repaying evil with evil, we're not just to
say, you know, the Bible says that's good, that's fine. We
are to do that. But we're to see to it that no
one repays evil for evil. It's our task. It's our job. It's like checking the toothbrush.
See if your kids brush their teeth. And then they get smart
and just wet it. Or they clean their room. Where do you go?
Under the bed. Let's see. Did you clean it or sweep it?
There it is. Found it. You missed a spot.
It's all under there. We're deceived to it. Okay, now
you're going to get all that back out. Hey, you're not going to
act this way toward this person. Let me pray with you. Let me
encourage you. You're being weak. Let me strengthen you. You're
being idle in your faith. Let me warn you. See how we can
all be in the same boat at the same time? Don't repay evil. And nobody in here is going,
well, I wouldn't hurt my enemy. Friends, we don't have to hurt
our enemy. If our heart's hurtful toward our enemy, we're a murderer. No one is above this. See that
no one repays anyone evil for evil, but always seek to do good
to one another and to everyone. No one is above this. Being patient
is a model of seeking good. And seeking good has its own
understanding. I mean, Jesus in Matthew chapter
5, listen to the words of Christ. But I say to you, love your enemies. Pray for those who persecute
you. so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven.
For He makes His Son rise on the evil and on the good." He
sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those
who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the heathen
and the tax collector do the same? I added a word, sorry.
And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than
others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must
be holy, as your Father in heaven is holy. It's perfect. Love your enemies? Pray for those
who persecute you? What about ISIS and they're blowing
people up and they're killing people? Well, friends, oh God
in heaven, bring justice upon the earth. Bring justice upon
this wickedness. But Father, in me is the heart
of Christ. Paul would pray to these Thessalonians,
and I've referred to it probably a dozen times out there, that
I love you with all the affection of Christ. And the affection
of Christ is to do that which the Father sent Him to do, which
is to glorify Him be obedient and die for His very enemies
who hated Him and rejected Him and did not seek after Him. But
yet, the Bible teaches that Christ is also the Judge. And He will
return and He will bring recompense. But until that time, our heart
as Christians is for the most vile and the most wicked and
the darkest things that we see as evil in this world, who are
people with individual souls and individual lives. Quit grouping
enemies into the category of their construct. Quit grouping
our enemies into the category of a people group. or a religion,
or a state of ideals. Our enemies are individual people
who one by one will be given the eternal damnation of the
wrath of God's fury if they do not believe on Jesus Christ.
And knowing that we are all worthy of such wrath, we should have
a heart that God would bring repentance to these people. that
our enemies would not be given their just desserts, that those
who hurt us would not get what's coming to them, but that God
would give them what they do not deserve, which is grace and
mercy through Jesus Christ. That is our heart. It is from
that same humanity, that perfect and righteous, holy humanity,
the human nature of Jesus Christ, who cried on the cross, Father,
forgive them. That does not make a good movie.
Imagine Marvel making The Passion. Marvel Comics, superheroes, making
a movie about Jesus. Jesus would be up there on the
cross and about hour 5 and 40 minutes, He's like, everybody
come here, I've got to say something. And He floats up and burns them
all. Like, whoa, go Jesus. I mean, you know, that's what
we want. The Lamb of God is not that way. We are to have passion and compassion
for those who persecute us, that God would bring them to repentance
just like He brought us, that somehow the gospel of Jesus would
permeate their hearts and minds, that as Paul says in Romans 10,
17, that the hearing of the words of Christ would give them ears
to hear and believe. Bless those who persecute you,
Paul would teach. Bless and do not curse them.
Rejoice with those who rejoice. Weep with those who weep. Live
in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty. I don't go there. I don't talk
to those types of people. I'm not going to shop at that
grocery store. Paul says, associate with the
lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. Repay no one for evil,
but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.
If possible, so far as it depends upon you, live peaceably with
all people. Beloved, never avenge yourself,
but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance
is mine. I will repay, says the Lord.
To the contrary, Paul says. How do we love our enemies? How
are we to live out this, where there's not an all-inclusive
thing? How do we seek good for others? He says there in Romans
12, verse 20, If your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty,
give him something to drink. For by doing so, you will heap
burning coals on his head. I had a conversation last week
with a young man. who's having some trouble with
some people, some friends and parents and family. And for about
20 minutes, he kept bringing up the idea that he was just
so frustrated, he wished he could just show them and teach them
how they're treating him was bad, and he was a little scared
about being beat up on the playground, if you will. I said, you know
what you need to do with these people? You need to save up three
dollars And you need to go to him and say, would you meet me
up here at the coffee shop? I need to buy my donut and some
coffee. And he looked at me like I was
nuts. This guy wants to tear my head off. I said, call him
up and say, hey, I want you to meet me at the coffee shop. Not
behind McDonald's. Not in the alley between the
grocery stores. Not at 2 a.m. down in the bottom. Dusty bottoms or whatever it's
called down there. Not on the creek side. Right there. And buy the man
some food. Buy the man something to drink.
Because there's something about serving someone and giving to
someone that takes away that edge. They may never love you.
They may never hate you. This is just something I discovered
psychologically that works. When people would come against
me, instead of having these closed meetings behind closed doors
at 10 o'clock at night in the deacon's meetings, I'd say, let's
just go eat. You know why? You don't eat with
your enemies. You don't pay for their food. You meet them on
the doorstep and you shake their hands, if it's cordial, and you
wish them well, and you go, thank God that's over, I hope I never
see them again. But when we serve someone else, we invite our enemies
into our lives, we show hospitality, we're able to actually not only
show them, the love of Christ, but we're able to experience
the power of the love of Christ in our own lives, that our heart
is softened toward them. Because when we feed someone,
we see their humanity. When they drink, when they're
thirsty, we see that they are really human beings. And we ought
to pity them, love them, be in anguish for them. What was Paul's
response to the Jews? I would give up my entire salvation
if God would save them all. They hurt him badly. They had him beaten, imprisoned,
shipwrecked, left for dead, stoned. And he says, if I could give
my salvation up, if it were up to me, I would suffer eternal
damnation for the sake of their souls. That's a God-sized, supernatural
thing. We are not to seek ill toward
our enemies. And even if they continue to
hate us, with heaps of burning coals on their head, they cannot
complain about our love. But can you imagine what that
feels like to have a coal on your head? Do not be overcome by evil, but
overcome evil with good. Jesus Christ did not curse His
enemies. He got on the cross for them. Jesus Christ did not condemn
His enemies. He became condemnation. See that no one repays evil for
evil, but always seek to do good to one another and to everyone.
See, repaying evil is an attitude and a heart of vengeance. And
for us, most of the time, it's just an attitude inside, I wish
they'd suffer. I wish they knew what I was going
through. I hope they feel this one day. One day they'll know, and then
I'll gloat. You're not going to gloat, you're
going to weep. Because you're going to realize you have not
prayed for God to bring them to repentance and give them the
same joy that you have. But then we'll realize, wow, we should
have done that. We'll have guilt, but God is not going to condemn
us for that, because Christ even took that on the cross. Defamation. It feels good to
Facebook somebody and tell them how you feel, because you can
hide behind the icon. You can type something as though
you're writing something on a piece of toilet paper, and just to
throw it in the commode, you can sit, sin, and turn it off,
and be like, ah, let them stew on that for a minute. Or worse,
we can go out and say things to our friends, and not necessarily
even say who, but everybody knows who. We can talk about sin and
talk about wickedness and talk about the things that we've done
and the stuff that's happened to us, and we can get people
to say, oh, it's okay, it's alright. We get friends in the corner
of our crud, of that corrosiveness. And we're not at joy. We smile,
we gloat, we feel empowered, our heart beats really fast,
and we go to bed feeling like we've done something good, but
then the Word of God comes along and says, don't repay evil with
evil, but seek to do good at all times to all people. We don't libel people. We don't
mail out letters and postcards and get on the telephone. I remember
as a child, they had the party lines. Many times I've seen people
in my family that are way dead and gone now, who was always
up there with the receiver up high like this. And you come
running through and they're like... It's not their conversation.
They've got to hear it. Or when the wind would blow in the branch,
and about two miles away, neighbors were fighting in the backyard,
and everybody's like, shh, shh, shh, listen. Somebody's got a
shovel. That was Jerry Springer before
television, yeah. We could hear, and it didn't stop there. Then
we got to the beauty shop, and we got to the barbershop, and
as a kid, and we'd see, oh, did you hear so-and-so? Yeah, I heard
it too, man. We'd gossip. Gossip is the spirit
of murder in our hearts because we say things, even if true,
about someone else, and it tears them down, and it hurts them,
and it breaks them, and it puts them in a place of death in the
eyes of other people. It's wicked. Christians cannot
gossip with good conscience. And you know what? When we realize
it, we are so convicted that sometimes we need counseling
to come through it. Counsel of the encouragement
of God's Word. We become fainthearted and weak. We don't talk about
our enemies. We don't talk about those who
seem to be enemies that are not even related to our lives. We
don't talk about those who are emperors. We don't speak evil
of anyone. We don't defame and libel politicians. We don't share stuff that is
unbecoming of the Father, and unbecoming of the heart of Christ,
and unbecoming of the cross. Christ will never, even when
He cast the reprobate into the lake of fire, say these worthless,
sorry, awful idiots. He will never say that. He will
quietly exercise the judgment of His righteousness and it will
be good and it will be right. Church, we do not need to be
like the world. Please, hear these words. We
are advocates of evil when we exercise this type of communication. I read it. You read it. We all
read it. We hear it constantly. Turn on
the TV. Turn on the radio. I bet if we
saw a piece of trash blowing down the road and picked it up,
something about Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton will be on
it. A bird sitting on the birdbath. Trump! Trump! I mean, you know,
everybody's talking about it. I think it is ruining the testimony
of the church right now. Not us, but the body of Christ. You know what I'm saying? We
know what is evil. We know what is wrong, we know
what is right, but it doesn't give us the license to defame. Vengeance is also seen in wrongful
and deliberate actions. Well, I'll show them. I'll tell
somebody, I'll do this, I'll do that. I'll cut off the cell
phone. I see a lot of couples get into
that. When the cell phone service is
my name, I'll cut his phone off. Brother loses his job and then
he's a deadbeat. You cut his phone off? I thought
you were in Christ. Well, he's not going to do me
that way. I'm stronger than that. You seem pretty weak to me. That's vengeance. Unforgiveness. Someone comes
to you and sees you and loves you and wants to embrace you
and asks for forgiveness. I don't have time for you. I
don't believe you. I mean, there's a situation right
now in a sister church where that's taken place. We need to
pray for it because they're going to exercise discipline. And the
offended has now become the offender and refusing to do what's right.
Not going to come back to church. Talking about it, being to this.
All these things happen when we're unforgiving in our hearts.
We're not joyful. We're not protecting ourselves.
We're hurting everyone. Protecting ourselves is the first
law of the devil in the harm of everyone. Evil speech, evil
heart, evil bitterness, evil actions. Do not be a part of
this church. We are greater than this. We
are greater because He who is in us is greater than he who
is in the world. We are now the righteousness
of God in Christ Jesus that have the mind of Christ. We exercise
it. That's why we must help each
other, warn each other, encourage each other, strengthen each other,
lay hold to each other, love each other. But we ought to be
doing good. We ought to build each other
up as long as we have the occasion. We ought to encourage each other
as long as it is called today unto works, good works, good
deeds and love. We ought to teach each other,
admonish each other, rebuke and train in righteousness as Paul
would tell Timothy through the Word of God. We ought to lay
down our lives for one another. We ought to hurt and be willing
to be taken advantage of sometimes. I'm not saying we don't set boundaries.
Please, let me hear what I'm saying and don't hear what I'm
not saying. But for the most part, we're so burned because
of all the other issues that we're not even willing to help
those that are desperately in need of our help and time and
efforts and love and affection. Don't let the bad apple over
here keep you from ever taking a bite of the fresh. And even
if so, that bad apple hasn't decayed completely and still
is around. We love them patiently. We don't throw the bad away because
Christ did not throw us away. He threw Himself away. We take the wrong sometimes.
Proverbs 20, 22, Do not say, I will repay evil. Wait for the
Lord and He will deliver you. We ought to be thinking of how
we can live for each other's good together. To do good to
each other. to do good to the body, do good
to our enemies, live to do good to all people, to speak good
of all people, to pray, to worship, to forgive. Why? Because this is what God has
done for you. When we are all deserving of
justice, Christ, became sin, that we might be righteous. So
God's entire nature is to do good for us and toward us. In like manner, church, we need
to be seeking out how we are to do good to each other and
how we are to do good to our enemies. This day we take the Lord's table
to remind us of the good of God. the goodness of God's love, the
goodness of Jesus Christ, the Son, who took the cross, who
took on humanity, who lived righteously with all the temptations of the
flesh and never sinned. And His body was broken so that
we would not be. His blood was shed so that ours
would not pour. And His body and His blood bore
the curse of death and sin that was not His to bear. So that
we would become the righteousness of God and we are the children
of God because of the love with which the Father loves us. So, beloved, it is a wonderful
opportunity, as Paul taught the Corinthian church, to actually
evaluate our hearts and our relationships. First and foremost, in our homes
and in our body of faith. And then in our community and
then with our enemies. I think we need to recognize
that. Jesus watched the feet of His own accuser. Jesus died on the cross for His
own enemies. Jesus calls us and empowers us
to be as He is. And it's difficult. We've got
to test what we think, feel, say, consider. We've got to test
it to see if it is in Christ. If it's not, we can put it to
death. If we're having a hard time, we can get camaraderie
and intimacy with the body to help us in that. But all in all,
as we live striving to be this type of people, God is glorified
in it day after day after day. So let's pray. And after I pray,
Jesse's going to come. Father, we are so humbled. And oftentimes we feel guilty.
But we have no reason to feel guilty because of our failures,
because our guilt is certain. It's an absolute. But Father,
in the Gospel, the good news is that we have no longer any
guilt because Christ has taken on our
guilt. We have no fear because Christ
has substituted in our stay. Lord, help us to look inside
of our lives. And as long as it is up to us,
help us to be at peace with all people. Lord, there are relationships
in our lives, each of us, that we have tried and tried. And
Lord, when we no longer have access to others because of their
unwillingness to be intimate with us, Lord, we must continue
to pray that You would work in them. Lord, help us to pray for
the enemies of our nation the enemies of the cross, the enemies
of our church, the enemies of our neighborhood, the enemies
of our children, the enemies of our own mind, that we would
love them, that we would serve them, that we would do good to
each other, to our communities and to those who hate and persecute
us. And though we may die and they never love us, they will
know that we love them. and your vengeance will come
swiftly and eternally. So we praise You, Father, for
Your glory shown through Your Son, who by Your grace came and
lived among us and died for us. Father, some here this day, some
listening to this message someday, may see now their need for Christ
for their need for forgiveness and that Christ and His work
and His person and the decree of God to send Him is their only
hope that the work of Christ that He did on that cross at
Calvary seals us for life. Father, would You help their
unbelief? Give them strength to see. Give
them a heart to believe. Give them faith. For You are faithful. In Jesus'
name we pray, Amen.