In Matthew chapter 5 and verse
10, it's really interesting to see that this statement of blessing,
as all these beatitudes are, statements of blessing, blessed
are, blessed are, These are qualities, this refers to the standing and
state of a true child of God, the qualities, the spiritual
qualities of character that belong only to true children of God. The ones he's describing here
and the reward of grace given to every true child of God based
upon the merits of Christ. but it's interesting that this
particular be added to blessed look at it verse ten blessed
are they which are persecuted and that certainly sounds like
a contradiction because you know we don't naturally look at persecution
as a blessing that's uh... you know somebody said one time
when they were being persecuted for whatever reason he said what
have I done wrong that's why we look but he says blessed are
they which are persecuted not for doing wrong but for righteousness
sake. For theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. So this persecution is an evidence of being blessed
of God. This persecution is an evidence of being, of possessing
and being a citizen of the kingdom of heaven. And then he goes on
in verse 11, blessed are you when men shall revile you You
know what reviling means. It means they speak evil against
you. When men persecute you in whatever
way, persecution can take many forms now. It can be physical.
Think about the early Christians after, you remember the book
of Acts in chapter 7. Stephen was in Jerusalem and
he preached the gospel. And they killed him, they stoned
him. That was persecution. And just like I prayed, you know,
today, I'll tell you what, we're so privileged. Sometimes we don't
realize that. We don't realize how blessed
we are. We've enjoyed freedom of religion. Listen, it's kind
of like one old fellow said, he said, I may not agree with
you, but I'll fight to the death for your right to believe whatever
you want to believe. And that's the way we ought to
be. Freedom of religion. I want freedom of religion. Because
that is God's providential way of protecting us. But it hasn't
always been so. Who was the first martyr? Anybody
know? Abel. And what was he killed
over? For righteousness sake. Now what
is that? Okay, well hold on. So they persecute you and they'll
say all manner of evil against you. Reviling means they shun you. They say, I don't want to be
around you, that kind of thing. And then say all manner of evil
against you falsely, that's false accusation. You know, Christians
in the early church were often accused of being insurrectionist. And the reason they were, a lot
of times the unbelieving Jews accused them of being insurrectionist
because they wanted Rome to go after them. If they could accuse you of being
a rebel against the Roman Empire and against Caesar, then they
would get you. And you remember that's what
the Herodians were trying to do. In Matthew 22, when they
asked Christ the question, should we pay our taxes? And they showed
him that, and he pulled out that coin, had Caesar's picture on
it, and he said, well, you render unto Caesar that which belongs
to Caesar, but you render unto God that which belongs to God.
You see, we aren't insurrectionists. The only laws that we would be
commanded in the scripture to break are any laws that oppose
the law of God. And that would be, if they called
that insurrection, that's up to them. But if they passed a
law right now that said that outlaw be preaching the gospel,
I'd have to break that law. Somebody asked me one time about
when the Supreme Court did the thing on the homosexual marriage
and all that. I said, well, what if you had
two homosexuals that come in and demanded that I perform their
wedding? I said, well, they can't demand
I perform the wedding. I don't even have to perform
your all's weddings. Did you all know that? There's
no legal binding law that says I've got to do anybody's wedding. And to be honest with you, that's
not part of my job description here. I don't have to hatch you,
match you, or dispatch you. Now, I'll do it for our congregation. I enjoy doing a wedding for two
believers or things like that, and I'll preach the funerals,
but there's no wall that says I have to. I could say, you know,
if I had a couple sitting here and they said, we want you to
marry us, I could say, I'll marry you. If another couple over here
said it, I'd say, I don't have to marry you. I could do that
legally. So understand that, see. But
anyway, but we certainly are thankful that we do have the
liberty and the freedom to preach the gospel without hindrance
from the government. Well, this is the persecution.
They asked a skeptic one time, they said, what do you have against
Christianity? And he said, well, all those
people have a persecution complex. Well, we don't have a persecution
complex. It just comes with the territory. That's what it is. That's what
Christ is saying. Why? Well, it's because the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. He doesn't
know them, he doesn't believe them. It's because the light
of the gospel is a message that the world hates, John 3, 19-20. It's because it exposes the false
refuges of people who do not know and trust Christ for all
salvation. And when it says, blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, now understand,
that's the gospel. This is persecution. that comes
only to true Christians over the testimony of the gospel,
wherein the righteousness of God is revealed as the one and
only way of salvation, the one and only way of reconciliation
with God, the one and only way to eternal life. The gospel of
God's grace. And when we tell people that
this is the one and only way, and there is no other way, and
even go so far as to do what the light does in John 3, 19
through 20, tell them that every other way is actually evil in
the sight of God, what happens? That's when the persecution comes
out. Now, it may be just mental, it may be just social, it may
be physical, but it's still persecution. Now, how do you know that's what
it's about? Well, righteousness sake. He says, for my sake, in
verse 11. And then look at verse 12. He
says, Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward
in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were
before you. That tells you without doubt
what he's talking about. Why did they persecute the prophets? Go back and read the prophets.
Go back, for example, Jeremiah. Now, I mentioned Jeremiah last
week in the peacemaking. And you know, isn't it interesting
that the same ones who are blessed for being peacemakers are the
same ones blessed for being persecuted? Now, this is not talking about
persecution and suffering that's common to everybody. You know,
everybody at some point in their life are either persecuted and
everybody definitely at some point in their life suffers. But this is not the general,
and even believers go through that general kind of persecution
and suffering that's common to all people, but this is specific
here. This is for righteousness sake.
This is for Christ's sake. This is for preaching, testifying,
identifying with, living by the gospel, which exposes the evil
deeds of false religionists. That's why they persecuted Stephen.
That's why Abel was murdered by Cain. Because his works were
righteous and Cain's wasn't. Well, what was it about Abel's
work? He brought the blood of the Lamb. What is it about us? We preach Christ and his righteousness
alone as the only way of salvation. There's no other way. Now, I
don't care what you call yourself. You can call yourself a Hindu
or you can call yourself a Christian. If you're looking for righteousness
any other way but in Christ and Him alone, you're lost. Isn't that right? You don't know
the way. And every deed you do seeking
to establish your own righteousness is rejected by God. It's evil
and it's wicked. It's even idolatry. That's what brings this persecution.
That's why they persecuted the prophets. But I mentioned Jeremiah.
You remember Jeremiah was telling them. He was telling Judah and
Jerusalem that God's gonna send them into captivity. He's punishing
them because of their sins. And they didn't believe him.
Because they just didn't believe they'd done anything bad enough
to deserve that. That's what it is. And that's
what people today, we tell them the wrath of God is coming. It's
coming. And people say, well, I may not
be perfect, but I've never done anything to deserve that. Well,
the Bible says all sinning comes short of the glory of God and
the wages of sin is death. You know, people repeat that
like a robot. What does that mean? That means
the wrath of God's coming. There's only one way of escape.
The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
There's no other way. It's the blood of Christ. It's
the righteousness of Christ imputed. And that's what brings on the
persecution that he's talking about here. Well, Jeremiah, he
preached Christ. You know what his whole message
was. The wrath of God is coming. This nation is going to be destroyed.
We're going into captivity. God's not going to leave us there.
Seventy years later, He's going to deliver us. And for one reason
alone, it's not because your suffering exhausts His wrath.
It's not because you're going to repent and turn around a new
leaf and try to be the best people you can be. It's because God
promised to save a people through one whom he's going to send through
this nation, Jesus Christ the Lord, Jehovah Sig Kinew, the
Lord our righteousness. That's why. And here's what he
told them. He said, your only hope of salvation
and a right relationship with God was to look beyond this nation,
beyond that temple, beyond that priesthood, to Christ and Him
alone. And that's the lesson that God
is teaching that nation, even in their captivity. That's right. And they didn't believe Him.
So what happens? Well, you have a lot of other
false prophets coming along saying, don't listen to Jeremiah. God's
not angry with you, God loves you, smile. Smile, God loves you, huh? My old pastor used to say, could
you imagine if they put that bumper sticker on the back of
the ark while the rains were falling? No, God's angry with
the wicked. God hates all workers of iniquity.
That's his justice now. That's not a temper tantrum.
But these false prophets come and say, don't listen to that
guy. You know, he's just a hell-fire and brimstone guy. He's a burden.
Peace, peace. That's what they said. But there
was no peace. Jerusalem was destroyed, the
temple was destroyed, the people were taken into captivity and
they remained there for 70 years. And what we're telling people
today, there's no hope to be found for any of us except in
Christ. Buddha will not help you. Now let me tell you something
about Buddha. He was persecuted, but not for righteousness sake.
He was persecuted for religion's sake. I used to admire when I was lost,
and there's still things that I do admire about this gentleman
even now, but it has nothing to do with salvation or Christianity,
Mahatma Gandhi. He was a man of peace. He was
a pacifist. He was persecuted, even killed,
but not for righteousness' sake, not for Christ's sake. In fact,
he even said about Christianity, you know what he said about it?
He said, I'd be a Christian if I ever met one. Because all the people who he
ran into who claimed to be Christian didn't fit the bill as far as
what he was reading in the Bible. And that's pretty true. It's
kind of like the guy who said Christianity in America is 3,000
miles wide and one inch deep. It's just a culture kind of thing,
a social kind of thing, you know? But here's the thing about it.
Here's the thing about, what is it to be suffering for righteousness
sake? Now let me say this too. Suffering
for righteousness sake is not suffering just because you're
trying to be a good moral person in an evil society. I had a Sunday
school teacher who, here's the way he taught it. He said, now
you teenagers, you're out at a party and everybody's drinking,
and you refuse to drink. And he said that's suffering
for righteousness sake. Now let me tell you something.
You may be at a party. Everybody may be drinking. And
you may refuse to drink. And they may laugh at you or
make fun of you or they may persecute you. All right. You ought to
be a good person, a moral person. And you may suffer for it. But
that's not what this is talking about. You understand that? There are people who have suffered
and been killed for trying to be Honest, moral people. And we should try to be honest,
moral people. We should stand apart from the
crowd when the crowd goes awry. There's no doubt about that.
But that's not what this is talking about. This is talking about
the gospel. This is talking about salvation.
The peacemakers. They are those who have been
brought by God to be reconciled to Him based on one ground, the
imputed righteousness of Christ. When we say that's the only way,
then comes the persecution. Now, how does the Bible tell
us to look at this? We'll look at verse 12 again.
Rejoice and be exceeding glad. You mean I'm supposed to rejoice
when I'm persecuted? No. The rejoicing here is not
in the persecution itself. We're not masochist. I don't
enjoy when people say things about me that aren't true. I
don't enjoy, certainly wouldn't enjoy if somebody tried to hurt
me physically. I don't even enjoy when people
reject me. I don't enjoy that and I hope
you don't either. That kind of person is just a
rebel, you know, some kind of a miscreant. The rejoicing comes
over what the persecution says about us. Now let me give you
an example of it. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
12 and think about it. It's how
we're to look at this persecution. It's for Christ's sake. It's
for His glory. Why do we say the things that
we do? Why do we take the positions
we take? Well, we do it for the glory
of God. To exalt Christ, we do it for the salvation of sinners.
Look, I could speak peace where there's no peace. What good would
that do? Well, it would make my life easier
here on earth. But that's it. Think about it. Christ said, the world will hate
you. The world will go after you. And it wasn't because of
what he did that they hated him. He said, it's because of what
I've said. I've got scriptures listed in
here where he said, if I had not come and spoken to them,
they would have no cloak for their sin. What he preached exposed
their sins in their religion. And that's why they hated him.
That's why they went after him. If he had just stood up and said,
now all the thieves in Israel are going to hell, or all the
whoremongers, or all the prostitutes, or all the publicans, they wouldn't
have said one thing. They'd have said, amen, preach
it, brother. But when he said, accept your righteousness, exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Whoa, wait
a minute. What are you saying? They're
our spiritual leaders, they're the princes. You remember it
says in 1 Corinthians 2, these are the things, they're not even
the princes, the leaders, spiritual leaders. You mean to tell me
that the high priest of Israel that time his name was kaiaphus
you mean to tell me he's a lost man and his deeds are evil now
come on that's when the hosannas turn to what crucify him that's
the persecution that's that's and that that's
what that's what brings it on do you know that The Holy Spirit
inspired the Apostle Paul to call that kind of suffering a
gift of God. He said in Philippians 1, I think
it's verse 29. I've got it listed here. It's
Philippians 1, verses 27 through 29. And he talks about, not only
is it given unto you to believe, but to suffer on his behalf. Calls it a gift. But look here,
we've been studying through Hebrews 11, and I'm getting ready to go down
in these last verses, not today, but listen to what he says here. In verse 36 of Hebrews 11, and
we'll go over to chapter 12 too. He's talking about believers
in the Old Testament. And he does mention the great
things that God did through them. We're gonna be talking about
one of them today, the battle of Jericho. They say Joshua fit
the battle of Jericho. Joshua didn't fit the battle
of anything. God fought that battle, did you
know that? All Joshua did is he led the
people marching around seven times, banging on pipe hands
and blowing trumpets. But look at verse 36. Now, others,
other believers, had trial of cruel mockings, that's the revilings,
scourgings, that's physical persecution, yea, moreover, of bonds and imprisonment. Now this is over their testimony
of Christ, the gospel. Verse 37, they were stoned. That doesn't mean they smoked
pot. It means they were killed. They
were sawn asunder. I don't really want to describe
that to you because it's just sawn in half. Some people say
that's what happened to Isaiah, the prophet. They were tempted,
that means tested. They were slain with the sword.
They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins. They lost their
homes. They lost their jobs. They were put out as indigents,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented. And I love this. The King James
Version puts it in parentheses in verse 38. But listen to what
it says here. Now understand, this is by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. It says, of whom the world was
not worthy. And that's something, isn't it?
These people that were persecuted and killed, the world hated them. The world wasn't even worthy
of them. And it's because of the glory of God. It's because
of the truth. And he says, they wandered in
deserts and in mountains and in dens and caves of the earth. Verse 39, it says, these all
having obtained a good report, good reputation through faith.
received, not the promise." In other words, they lived in a
time before Christ actually came. They believed the promise. They
had the promise of God in salvation. But what he's talking about is
they did all of this before Christ actually came to the world and
lived and died and was buried and rose again. We live in a
day after that. We look back on it. They looked
forward to it by promise. But they didn't live in the time
when Christ actually came. And then it says in verse 40,
God having provided some better thing for us, that they without
us should not be made perfect. They had the same gospel, the
same righteousness that we have. Abraham was justified the same
way that you who believe are justified, based on the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Read it in Romans 4. We're the recipient of better
things in the sense that we live in a day after the Messiah had
actually come. He's already come. He's already
done his work. So he says in chapter 12, look
at verse one, wherefore, seeing we also are compassed or surrounded
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, these believers who
suffered, these others that he mentioned. Let us lay aside every
weight, every burden, and the sin which does so easily beset
us. What is that sin? I'll tell you what, it's unbelief.
It's doubt. And we all have to deal with
it, even this old preacher up here. I got to deal with it too.
We're in a warfare. Our faith is not yet perfect,
our believing is what I mean. The faith of God is perfect.
But don't you ever get to questioning things, don't you? I do. And
the Bible always leads me, or God always leads me back to the
Bible. And I always come to this conclusion. Well, you know, you
ever sit around and thought, am I crazy? You know, I used to wear a t-shirt
when I was a teenager. It said, just because you're
paranoid does not mean they're not out to get you. Am I crazy or what? And then
we see so few coming to a knowledge of the gospel. And so many being
led astray. And people use that as a, and
listen, there's nothing wrong with being bothered by that.
Because we're human. I want to see millions of people
converted. But me changing God's Word or
standard to get them converted in my mind, that's not going
to do any good. And so that's sin that so easily
besets us. And he says in verse 1, let us
run with patience, endurance, the race that is set before us.
How? Verse 2, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our
faith. who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.
Look at the suffering and the persecution that he endured.
Despising the shame and is set down at the right hand of the
throne of God. Consider him who endured such
a contradiction of sinners against himself. The only sinless person
that ever lived on this earth being persecuted and killed by
sinners. What a contradiction. Somebody said, well, I wish I
was perfect in my character and conduct. I do too, but you know,
if you were, they'd kill you. Like they did our Lord. Lest
you be wearied and faint in your minds. Now look at verse four.
He says, you have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin.
The people to whom the writer of Hebrews is writing, they were
being persecuted. They were being ridiculed. They
were being reviled for their testimony of the gospel. But
he says you haven't been killed yet, that's what that means.
Like some of those in the Old Testament. In verse 5, And have
you forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children? My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord,
nor faint when thou are rebuked of him. Now that's what The suffering
and persecution that the children of God go through is to be viewed
as the chastening of the Lord. Chastening, chastisement. It's not payment for sin. Christ
paid for my sin. Jesus paid it all. Somebody said,
well, he's paying for what he did. Well, not really. I know
what you mean by that a lot of times. We suffer the consequences
a lot of times. We don't suffer the consequences
of every sin, or if we did, we wouldn't be able to hold up our
heads. But we do suffer consequences sometimes. But in a believer's
case, they're not charged with sin, they're not condemned, they're
not under the wrath of God, it's the loving chastisement of our
heavenly Father correcting us. And how does he do that? He drives
us to the word. and drives us to Christ. Now
I'll tell you what, read that whole chapter but jump down here
to verse 11 and then I'll close with that. He says, now no chastening
for the present seemeth to be joyous. While you're going through,
if God is chastising us in a particular way at a particular time, that's
not going to be enjoyable. And to act like it is is fake. And he says, it's grievous. We're
gonna feel bad, we're gonna cry, we're gonna complain. God forgive
us. Isn't that right? Nevertheless,
afterward, when we come out on the other side, it yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby. That means after it's over, It yields the peaceable
fruit of righteousness. Now, what is that? Well, I've
told you before, and I'll stand by this, anytime I go through
a severe trial, and I've been through some, and you all have
too, I never come out of the other side of that feeling good
about me. And how I went through, boy,
you know, boy, wasn't I a prince of a guy going through all that.
Usually, usually I come out of those things feeling pretty embarrassed
and ashamed about old Bill. Yeah. But I'll tell you who I
come out of those things feeling good about. My savior. My Lord. Thanking God even more
that I have a righteousness that equals the demands of his law
and justice. That's that peaceable fruit of
righteousness. It's faith in Christ, the author
and finisher of our faith.