Now, whenever we approach passages
of scripture that show us the encouragements and the commands
of scripture, and I say commands, you know, people argue over whether
or not these are commandments. Well, I can assure you one thing,
these aren't suggestions. Christ didn't look at his people
and say, now, let me give you a few suggestions if you have
a mind to do this or that. What he says is law. Now we're
not under law as far as salvation, as far as attaining righteousness,
and a right relationship with God. We're under grace. And grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. And we're not under the old covenant.
But we're under the law of the new covenant. Christ has given
us commandments, and whenever we come to passages like this,
especially this first verse we're gonna deal with, I'm reminded
of how much I'm in need of God's grace and God's goodness in Christ,
because I cannot attain the perfection of righteousness that I can only
find in Christ Jesus. and yet we're to strive to be
like Him. Not in order to be saved, but
because we already are saved and secure for heaven's glory
through His blood. And not in any legalistic or
mercenary way, but we're to do it because we love Him and we
love one another. All these things, these encouragements.
He says, look at verse 14. He says, bless them which persecute
you, bless and curse not. Now I ask you, is that an easy
thing for you to do? It's not for me. I know I should
do it. You know, I think about all the
time, you know, Christ, when he started the Sermon on the
Mount, when he gave the Beatitudes, one of his characteristics for
those who are blessed, it says in Matthew 5 and verse 10, blessed
are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for
theirs is the kingdom of heaven, that's persecuted over the gospel.
And he says, blessed are you when men shall revile you and
persecute you, shall say all manner of evil against you falsely
for my sake. Now, I've got to tell you, because
he said this, I can see myself as blessed in this way, but the
next line really convicts me. Matthew 5 12, he says rejoice
and be exceeding glad. That's where I have trouble when
somebody curses me or accuses me falsely, I say how can I rejoice
and be exceeding glad? Well I'm to strive to look at
it that way because we know God is in control and Nothing happens
outside of his purview and his predestinating purpose. We know it's for his glory and
it's for our good. So we know these things, but
they're still not easy to do. It's a struggle. And God has
given us the Holy Spirit who inspires us and motivates us,
and he's given us a new spirit, a new heart that causes us to
desire to be like him, even when we realize that we cannot attain
that perfection of righteousness that can only be found in Christ.
And Paul spoke of that in passages like Romans 7, 14 through 25.
He said, I know what I should do. as far as goodness goes. But
he said, how to do that I don't know. And that's our state here
on this earth still in this flesh. We're sinners saved by grace.
We have the Holy Spirit who indwells us, keeps us under conviction,
keeps us looking to Christ and resting in him. and keeps on
inspiring us through the word of God and through the encouragement
of one another to strive to be like him in a way of grace and
gratitude and love. But we still have the flesh that
wars against us. Our lives are a continual warfare
every day. And I've told you, I said, somebody
asked me one time, said, well, when does the warfare let up?
When you take the last breath and go to be with Christ. There
are passages like this. There are basically four heresies
that revolve around people thinking about passages of scripture that
command us to obedience in whatever way. Here, the way says, bless
them which persecute you, bless and curse not. Now, when it says
to bless them, it doesn't mean speak peace to them. It doesn't
mean tell them a lie. doesn't mean that we're all gonna
get together and just be happy about this. To bless them means
to pray for them. It means to forgive them. It
means to tell them the truth, because the only way that they're
going to find salvation is by the power of God in the preaching
of the gospel. Point them to Christ, and that's
the kind of love that we show mankind. That's the kind of brotherly
love when the law is summarized and love God perfectly and love
your neighbors yourself. I don't want to perish in damnation,
do you? Well if I love you as I love
myself, I don't want you to perish either. Now you may curse, somebody
may curse me and say all manner of evil against me, all of that. They may persecute me, but I
know this, if God ever gave, if God ever blessed them with
salvation and gave them a new heart, they'd be friends. We'd be friends. They wouldn't
be persecuting me. They'd be persecuted with me.
We'd be together. But there are basically four
heresies that crop up in false religion around these. And certainly
the first one is any notion of antinomianism. In other words,
that's a person who's against any command. In other words,
they say, well, I'm saved by grace and I don't have to do
anything. I can throw caution to the wind.
I don't have to fight the battle or the warfare. I can just go
on and do whatever the flesh tells me to do, that kind of
thing. Well, you know that's heresy. That's the kind of thing
that man by nature just reasons in his sick mind if you find
anybody who does that. But another heresy that's kind
of popular is when people say, well, you look at this passage
again, look at it. Bless them which persecute you,
bless and curse not. Now that's a struggle. I'm to
do it, you're to do it. And it's a struggle within, but
there are people who say, well, God, the Holy Spirit enables
me to do this perfectly. I was emailing a guy back and
forth who believed that. He says, I can do that perfectly
without any contamination of sin, without any wavering, because
the Holy Spirit enables me to do that perfectly. Well, I don't
see that in the scriptures. Now, The Holy Spirit enables
us to do what? He enables us to do a lot of
things, good things. But the main thing he does is
convict us of our sin continually and turn us to Christ for righteousness,
for salvation continually. And show us how pitiful we are. And I look at commandments like
this and I say, man, I'm such a pitiful person. Another heresy
is this, and just look at Galatians chapter two. A lot of them use
this passage to teach this. But they say that whenever we
enact these commandments, it's not us doing it, it's Christ
himself working in and through us. So it's not me doing it perfectly,
it's Christ through me doing it perfectly. Now, that's a little
convoluted to me, but they use passages like this. Look at Galatians
2, 19. He says, for I through the law am dead to the law that
I might live unto God. I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless,
yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. So it's not I, but Christ
liveth in me. Well, Christ does live within
his people by his spirit and by his word. But there's no scripture
here that spells this out and says, well, now, if you ever
come to a point that you bless them that persecute you and don't
curse them, and you do it perfectly, realize it's not you doing it,
it's Christ. Well, he's the source of all goodness. I know that. I know he's the source of, and
I believe that's what Paul's saying, he's saying, look, look,
what I do to the glory of God, it didn't come from me naturally.
Because I'm nothing but a sinner. And it's the life of Christ,
it's the power of God, my life, God in the new birth gives us,
imparts within us, the resurrection life of Christ. And he's the
so author of it, and he's the finisher of it. But another heresy
is this heresy of what people call this righteous nature, you
know, the two natures, that they say, well, I've got a sinful
nature that can do nothing but sin, but I also have a righteous
nature that can do nothing but righteousness. And they'll speak,
well, when I do this, bless them that persecute me and don't curse
them, that's the actions of the new nature. Well, no, the Bible
just doesn't speak that way. In fact, I had a fellow tell
me one time, he said he has a righteous nature that cannot sin and cannot
be, he called it a divine nature, that cannot sin and cannot be
contaminated. Well, look at Galatians chapter
five when he talks about the warfare of the flesh. He said
the spirit lusteth against the flesh and the flesh against the
spirit so that you what? What's the word, anybody know?
Cannot do that which you would. Somebody said, well, the spirit
keeps us from doing what we want to do in the flesh, and the flesh
keeps us from doing what we want to do in the spirit. Well, there's
a warfare. And I'm not sure how we can get
in there and analyze that thing and theologize it and put it
in doctrinal terms that just kind of snaps it. But I know
this, that having been saved by the grace of God, we are to
follow him. in what he says, we follow his
word. He said in Matthew 5 and verse 44, listen to this, love
your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that
hate you, pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute
you. Now that's something I know in
my mind because he said it that I'm to do. That's something I
know in my heart that I can't do perfectly. I struggle. But that struggle is part of
the grace and power of God. Now, it's not that unbelievers
don't have struggles. They have struggles of the natural
conscience and all of that. But this is a warfare of the
flesh and the spirit that we're involved in. And the way we know
that it's a warfare of the flesh, the spirit against the flesh,
is that the spirit is always throughout all this warfare,
throughout all this struggle, inward struggle, The Spirit will
always cause us to end up finding our peace, our rest, our hope
in Christ and Him alone. Not in ourselves, but in Christ. We'll plead His righteousness,
not our own. And so when we look at these,
you know, our first reaction to those who curse or persecute
us is to seek revenge. You know, get back at them. Well,
And that's works of the flesh. To bless them which persecute
us. Now I understand now, again, let me emphasize, that doesn't
mean we're to say, I'm okay, you're okay. Doesn't mean to
say, well, we're brethren anyway, and I'll speak peace to them,
and all of that, no. It's to stand firm for the truth
and pray for them. Like Christ said, forgive them,
they don't know what they do. Think about Stephen. You know,
after he preached that message and they were throwing stones
at him, he said, Lord, lay this not to their charge. That's the
kind of attitude. And it takes a spirit of God
to bring that kind of attitude in a godly way. Understand also that those who
persecute us and curse us, that they're only doing what comes
naturally. They're deceived by Satan, they're
deceived by their own hearts, but what were we before God saved
us? That's what we were. Deceived
and in unbelief, but we're to follow our Lord. Listen to this,
knowing that they hate the gospel truth, that's what the Bible
says, and that hatred comes in many forms. It doesn't have to
be they grow fangs and horns and attack you. It could be they
ignore you. But in love, we still tell them
the truth and pray for their salvation. Well, look on, now
look at verse 15. He says, rejoice with them that
do rejoice and weep with them that weep. He's talking about
empathy with brethren in the faith, in joy and sorrow. When
something that is positive and good happens to a brother or
sister in Christ, we're not to be envious or jealous. We're
to rejoice with them. as if it happened to us. Isn't
that something? And then when something sorrowful
comes along, we're to sorrow with them as if it happened to
us. In other words, what he's talking about here is don't be
jealous, don't be envious, don't be resentful. When a brother
or sister in Christ has times of sorrow, times of joy, we understand
that God, who is rich in mercy, he saved us eternally by his
grace in Christ our Lord and Savior. We're the recipients
of an eternal goodness that we didn't earn or didn't deserve.
So we're to look at each one, each other, brothers and sisters
in Christ in the same way. Somebody says, well, why didn't
I win that lottery? Why did he win it? I would have
done better with it than him. He'll waste it, you know. I'll
use it for the, you know, that kind of thing. Boy, we've got
all kinds of ways we convince ourselves. But he takes care
of that too. Look at verse 16. He says, 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. Now this means to set our minds
and our hearts on helping one another. loving one another,
brethren in the faith, guides and motivates our attitudes and
actions and affections. Now we are all like-minded in
the gospel. Now that's a given. If we're
saved, if we're brothers and sisters in Christ, we believe
the same gospel. If we don't believe the same
gospel, then we're not brothers or sisters in Christ. You see? So when he says be like-minded
toward another, he's not talking about the gospel there. That's
already been settled. He's talking about in our attitudes
with one another, to love one another, rejoice with one another,
sorrow with one another, help one another. That's what he's
talking about. The gospel binds us together
in the fellowship of faith. See? And so we We look at these
things as our relationships with one another, our daily relationships. And speaking of the harmony in
our relationships, showing equal regard for all of God's children,
not showing preference to one over the other. Not looking at,
you know, it's our natural tendency. Here comes somebody who's maybe
got a better economic station in life, and people have a tendency
to flock towards that one, but somebody comes in who's poor
and needy, people have a tendency to want to stay away. Don't do
that. That's what he's saying. Don't be high-minded. Don't be
self-serving. We're here for the glory of God
and the good of God's people. That's what we're here for. Condescend
the men of low estate. He's not saying play act here
or be a hypocrite. He's saying you look at that
person of low estate who is your brother or sister in Christ as
equal to yourself. Because we're all equally saved.
We're all equally adopted into his family. We're all equally
justified before God. My sins, I need forgiveness.
How about you? I need a righteousness that I
can't produce, how about you? We're in the same boat, that's
what he's saying in this thing. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Don't act like you're always better than somebody else, or
you always know better, or your way is always the best way. You
remember he said give in in those situations. Submit to one another.
Look at verse 17. And this is all about humility,
it's not about faking it. He says in verse, and humility
is a grace. It's one of the gifts of the
Spirit. Humility in the truth. That's why I call this virtues
of humility and truth. Look at verse 17. Recompense
to no man evil for evil. Provide all things of things
honest in the sight of all men. In other words, what he's talking
about here is don't seek personal vengeance. Personal vengeance is sinful.
Now why is that? Well, he says it down here in
verse 19. God says, vengeance is mine,
saith the Lord. Now next week we're gonna get
into some things about government and laws of the land and all
that. He's not denying the responsibility of civil magistrates, and civil
law punishing criminals. That's not personal vengeance.
That's really part of God's vengeance, and we'll look at that next week.
But in other words, he's saying we are not personally to seek
revenge. And we do that, don't we? That's why we have to fight it.
That's why we have to recognize that I'm not just, when I seek
personal vengeance, you know, I've got people who have stood
against me and said, I mean, I've got, they're preachers who've
stood in pulpits and lied about me. And my first thought was,
get them. And that's wrong. That's what
he's saying. I know it's wrong. And I have
to fight that fleshly desire to get personal vengeance. You
know, I think about that, I didn't put this in the lesson, but I
think about that. You remember when David was running
from Saul, and he came, he was encamped on a bank of a river,
and across the river there was a guy, I can't think of the guy's
name, somebody may remember it, that was walking up and down
cursing David. And I think David's general said,
let me take my sword and go over and cut his head off. And David
said, you let him alone. It's of the Lord that he's cursing
me. Think about that. Now David, I'm sure he didn't
like being cursed. He didn't enjoy it. He wasn't
a masochist. But he said, look, he said, don't worry about it.
God's in control of all things. And I'll tell you who's going
to take vengeance on the ungodly in the end. God is. And it won't
be pretty. So understand that. Well, so
he says provide things on us. Tell the truth about God. Tell
the truth about ourselves. Tell the truth about salvation.
It means to do and say right things which glorify God in the
sight of all men, he says there. In other words, Don't seek personal
vengeance, just speak right things. Be honest about things in the
sight of all men. And look at verse 18, if it be
possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all
men. You remember in Matthew five, he said, blessed are the
peacemakers. Now I believe the main way that
that scripture is to be applied is in preaching and witnessing
the gospel of peace. I really do. But it's like over
in Hebrews chapter 12. Look over there just a moment. In Hebrews chapter 12 and verse
14, he says, follow peace with all men and holiness without
which no man shall see the Lord. Now, I believe the context tells
us exactly what he's talking about here. A lot of people say
this, they say, well, we're to live at peace, and of course
they interpret that, says, well, we're to speak peace to everybody. Well, we're not to do that. The
Bible tells us. Listen, there is never a situation
under the heading of love, humility, and peace, which the Lord allows
us or tells us to tell lie. to deny the gospel. Do you understand
that now? There's never a situation where
Christ commands us as his disciples to compromise the gospel in the
name of love or in order to have peace. All right, so understand
that. So when he says follow peace
with all men, he's talking about live in peace as much as you
can, just like he said, if it's possible. There's some people
that will not live in peace with you for whatever reason. Well,
we know that in the gospel. Their people won't have anything
to do with us because we preach the true gospel and it exposes
their false refuges, their false peace. There are others for other
reasons that they just refuse to live in peace with you, husbands
and wives sometimes. And it's wrong, but as much as
it's possible. But here, you know what he's
been talking about over in Hebrews 11, he was talking about those
who suffered here on earth for their testimony of the gospel. And you remember he closes out
Hebrews 11 talking about how many of them were murdered. over this. The world hateth us,
Christ said. We're not at peace with the world.
He said, in the world you have trouble. He said, but be of good
cheer, I've overcome the world. And there's some who lost their
jobs, they lost their homes, all kinds of things here. And
so he puts them in perspective in Hebrews 12. He says, now,
we as believers, are to look at those things as the loving
chastisements of our Heavenly Father. That may be hard to do,
but that's what they are. And it's not necessarily that
God is punishing us, again, for some particular sin. We don't
have the wisdom or the foreknowledge to understand all of that. We
may suffer consequences for specific sins. And we're to look at those
as the chastisements of our father. They're not manifestations of
condemnation to us. But here he's talking about people
who were suffering because of telling the truth. And he talked
about that. He said, these are the chastisements
of our heavenly father. And he says, this chastisement,
this chastening, is burdensome, it hurts, but afterward it yields
the peaceable fruit of righteousness, which is we come out on the other
end by the grace and power of God, looking to Christ, clinging
to Christ even more. And then he says, follow peace
with all men and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord.
Well, what he's saying is, listen, holiness is our separation. You understand that? What separates
us from the world? We're not to blend in with the
world. The world's immorality or the world's false religion,
we're not to blend in with them. We're not to be conformed to
them. And what he's saying, now you live at peace, be at peace
with everybody, but not without holiness, not without maintaining
that which separates you. And what's the main thing that
separates us? Our gospel. What do we tell sinners? How
God saves sinners. And if you go back here to Romans
12, if it be possible, verse 18, as much as lieth in you,
live peaceably with all men. Well, sure. We're not to be brawlers. We're not to be instigators.
We're not to be seditionists, all of that. We're to live at
peace. But we're not to compromise the gospel or compromise the
word of God to have peace. And that's the holiness that
he's talking about, and that's the grace of God. Look at verse 19
of Romans 12. He says, dearly beloved, avenge
not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath. In other words,
don't in your anger seek personal vengeance. He says, for it is
written, this is quoted from the Old Testament in Deuteronomy,
vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord. You see, God,
he sees all things as they are. We can be fooled. We can pervert
justice in areas of relationship, but God can't. He knows the heart. And when he judges, Romans chapter
two tells us, it's always according to truth. He knows the whole
story. We may not know the whole story.
So he says, Vengeance is mine. It belongs to God and we're not
to try to usurp anything that belongs exclusively to God. Verse
20, 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. Now that, feed the hungry. If they're thirsty, give them
water. What does he mean heaping coals
of fire? I believe it's simple. It's simply
doing what we say, kill them with kindness. That's what I
believe he's saying. Now again, don't compromise the
truth, but do good to them. That despitefully use you. And
what he's saying, it may be that the Lord will use that to convict
them and bring them to hear the gospel. Now, That doesn't mean
that people are gonna be saved by looking at what we do. Matthew 5, 16, let your light
so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify
your Father which is in heaven. The light there is not our good
works, the light is that which shines on our works and reveals
them to be what they are by the power and grace of God. The light
is the gospel, the light is Christ. And the good works are not to
draw attention to ourselves, they're to glorify our Father
in heaven. But it just may be that in heaping coals of fire
on his head, in other words, treating that person who hates
us and persecutes us in a way that is contrary to what natural
man wants to do, that the Lord might use it and burn a hole
in their soul and bring them to hear the gospel. And that
Lord might save them. So in verse 20, he says, or verse
21, he says, be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with
good. And that's, that's the bottom
line. Kill them with kindness, by our doing good. And be not
overcome with evil, overcome evil with good. That's the bottom
line in dealing with the enemies of Christ and his church. It
shows us how evil it is for believers, for example, to take up arms
and physically try to conquer like the Crusades. How they took
up arms under that pope, that minister of Satan. That's what
they did. We're never to do that. Paul
said our weapons of our warfare are not carnal. Weapons of our
warfare are spiritual to the pulling down of strongholds,
the imaginations, the thoughts of men. Our battlefield is the
mind and the heart. And that's how we preach. So
we're not, you know, somebody says, well, you remember when
they came to arrest the Lord and Peter picked up that sword
and cut that guy's ear off. Lord picked it up and put it
back on. That's not the way we're to be. Don't draw your sword. If you're gonna draw a sword,
let it be this sword right here, the word of God.