The verses that I want to think
about this evening particularly are found from the 10th through
to the 12th verse of Matthew chapter 5. Let's read them again
together. Blessed are they which are persecuted
for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall
revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against
you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad
for great is your reward in heaven for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. The Lord Jesus Christ has shown
us in this wonderful sermon that he preached on the mountainside
that true blessedness, we may say true happiness, is not to
be gauged by our feelings. Does that surprise us? It ought
not to. I think perhaps as we get older
in life, we do manage to become a little bit more circumspect.
We get to know ourselves a little bit better and we can sometimes
even feel ourselves declining into the depressions that come
on us. And we perhaps have to give ourselves
a talking to and say, you know what, this too will pass. These are small things and yet
our feelings are a real part of our life's experience. The trick is not to lay too much
importance upon them. Whether they be good or whether
they be bad, whether they be happy or whether they be sad,
this too will pass. Martin Luther is credited with
having come up with the little couplet, feelings come and feelings
go. And perhaps you've heard it before. And many feelings come upon us
every day. A little thing happens and we
suddenly realize that what we had thought isn't the case at
all. We've been surprised, we've been
shocked, we've been let down, we've been disappointed. I always
think it's interesting when hardships come into our lives and yet we
don't know about that hardship until sometime after it has occurred. Let me give you an example. Supposing
there was a car crash and somebody was seriously hurt that was very
near and dear to us. But we weren't there when the
message came that this had happened. We were doing something else.
Maybe we were out on a lake and we were fishing and we were catching
the loveliest fish and we were having such a good time. And we don't know but that when
we get back from that good time, this bad news is waiting for
us. And our feelings, they rise and
fall with the knowledge that we have or that which is withheld
from us. We have many feelings. Every
day these feelings come and go and they are prompted and they
are provoked by lots of different things. Somebody at work that's
giving us a hard time. Some telephone call that we've
had. Some issue that we've had with
the devices in our home. Some problem we've had with a
neighbour. Whatever it might be, these things
come into our lives and they become distracting. We've always got to remember
that the devil is keen to distract the Lord's people every opportunity
that he can. And we know ourselves how contradictory
our feelings can be. Some sadnesses that we have will
never leave us. Even when we're happy, that sadness
is still there in the background. And we discover things to be
happy about, even in the midst of our deepest sadnesses. Feelings come and feelings go,
and feelings are deceiving. My warrant is the word of God,
not else is worth believing. Though all my heart should feel
condemned for want of some sweet token, there is one greater than
my heart whose word cannot be broken. The promises that the
Lord has given us, the blessedness that he has declared is the possession
and the inheritance of his people ought to be held tightly. Because whatever this world throws
at us, whatever the challenges are, whatever the difficulties
are, whatever the losses are, he calls you blessed. He calls you blessed if you are
one of his people. True blessedness is not built
on our feelings or even indicated by them. Spiritual mourners are
blessed, says the Lord. They may go around mourning their
spiritual condition, but they're a blessed people because they
have been given a sense of their spiritual need in the midst of
a world that is heading to hell and careless about it. Blessed
people who mourn over their sins. Those who are humble in spirit
are blessed. And we look at those who appear
to be making it good in the world and they're bold and they're
brash and they're achievers and they've got high aspirations
for themselves and for their children and for everyone that
they come into contact with. And the Lord says, blessed are
the humble. And those who hunger after righteousness,
oh, how blessed they are. If you have a desire for peace
with God, If you have a desire to have that comfort in your
soul that only the knowledge of His acceptance can bring,
if you have sought out the Lord Jesus Christ as the only ground
of acceptance and His shed blood as that which gives you peace
in your heart, then you are blessed indeed. Blessed are the pure-hearted. Blessed are those who seek the
honour of God in everything that they say and everything that
they do. Blessed are those who are prepared
even to be hurt, to be deceived, to be set aside in this world,
to be overlooked, if that's what the Lord calls them to. It's
a blessed place to be. Blessed are the peacemakers.
Blessed, blessed are these people. The psalmist says, Psalm 32,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no guile. What a privilege is ours as the
Lord's people, that God himself looks upon us and sees no sin
in our life, that God looks upon us and he sees Christ's holiness. He sees perfect righteousness,
the righteousness which he has bestowed as he has chosen for
the sake of Christ not to impute sin to us. Again, the psalmist
says in 65, blessed is the man whom thou choosest. and causest
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy courts, we shall
be satisfied with the goodness of thy house, even of thy holy
temple. There's lots of people around
about in the town today. We were reflecting on how busy
the street looked at one point earlier today. And the hustle
and the bustle and the going out and the getting and the time
of the year and all the things that cause the busyness of this
world. You and I are so blessed tonight
to be able to come into the quietness of this little place and just
sit in the presence of God, shoulder to shoulder with our brothers
and sisters in Christ. that we may dwell in his courts
and be satisfied with the goodness of his house, even his holy temple. The Lord Jesus Christ is unto
us that which the world seeks after but will never find. Peace
in our time, peace in our day, and all the promises of the eternal
inheritances that he has in store for us. O Lord of hosts, blessed
is the man that trusteth in thee. Blessed is the man and the woman
that trusteth in thee. If the Lord Jesus Christ, brother
and sister, calls you blessed, you are blessed indeed, and you
are best blessed, and you are blessed best. These are the good
gifts of our Lord to his church and to his people. But here in
these verses, we have another dimension to the blessedness
of the Lord's people. And I dare say it's another dimension
altogether because much of what we have read already in this
passage and in our consideration of these Beatitudes has been
a blessedness that comes to those who feel the desires after spiritual
things that have been prompted by God the Holy Spirit Himself
and are in times satisfied with Him. But this is talking more
about that which comes upon us externally, comes from outside
of us. And it's a strange thing that
the Lord Jesus Christ here addresses, because he is talking about persecution. And he says that there is a blessedness
comes to his people through their persecution. Blessed are they
which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. He calls his people blessed
when they are persecuted. Now how contrary to our feelings
is that? Persecution. It opposes persecution. It opposes everything that we
feel to be fair. It opposes everything that we
feel is our right. This is unjust. This is not right. This shouldn't be. Persecution
is the great thing that the world is unhappy about. We've seen
it much in the news recently, how powerful people have taken
advantage and exploited those who were vulnerable. It's cost
men their jobs and their careers, both sides of the Atlantic. We
see it happening. because they've put on those
who were more vulnerable and they've exploited and persecuted
them for their own desires, for their own lusts. And people say,
that's not right, that shouldn't be. There should be protection
against that. And that's the desire of the
world. But there is a persecution that brings a blessedness to
the people of God. If ever something was antagonistic
to the flesh, it's persecution. Yet here's the irony. The Lord
says not only that we are blessed in persecution, but he tells
us to rejoice in persecution. Now that's a strange thing. That
is very difficult for us to understand. We don't half get things wrong
in our perception in this world. The least little incident and
we are praying for the Lord to take it away. And I understand
that, because I'm there too. The least little thing that irks
or irritates, the least little thing that comes into our life
and disturbs the quietness and the peace, and causes us to be
concerned and anxious, we go to the Lord and we say, Lord,
please take this away, please take this away, please fix this
for us. And the Lord says, Blessed are
they who are persecuted. I want you to rejoice in it. I want you to rejoice in that
persecution. I don't want you to be praying
for it to go away. I want you to rejoice in it.
And that is so contrary to the flesh. I want to think about two things
this evening, really, in these thoughts. I want us to think
from this passage, these few verses, about what it means to
be persecuted for righteousness' sake. And then I want to think
about what the Lord says concerning our great reward in heaven. So first of all, blessed are
they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. What does
that mean? Well, let me say immediately
what I think it doesn't mean. I actually think that this has
got very little to do about Christians who are opposed because of their
good works, their righteousnesses. I don't think that it's got anything
to do really with us doing good works and not being given credit
for it, or doing good works and having those good works overthrown
and opposed. On the contrary, good works,
whether they are done by a Christian or not, invariably end up being
praised even by the men and women of this world. Now I think what
we're talking about here is much more significant than that. When
the Lord is speaking about the persecution that his people and
his church come under, because of righteousness sake. It's not
to do with our righteousnesses or our good works. It is much
more to do with that righteousness which is of God. That righteousness
which comes to us from outside. Those who are persecuted for
righteousness sake are persecuted by the enemies of righteousness. We are persecuted by those who
are at enmity with the righteousness that we have, which is not our
own righteousness, for the best of our works we're told are but
filthy rags. This is not our righteousness.
This is not our filthy rags that is being the cause of our persecution. Rather, it is that divine righteousness
that we possess in the Lord Jesus Christ. And that makes this verse
much more meaningful. We are being opposed by those
who are the enemies of God's righteousness. Turn with me in
your Bibles to Acts chapter 13 because I think there's a very
illuminating little incident in the life of the Apostle Paul.
He had begun his first missionary journey. He was with Barnabas
and they had travelled over to Cyprus. And in Acts chapter 13 in verse
4, we read these words. So they,
that is, Paul and Barnabas, or Barnabas and Saul, as we read
of them here, so they being sent forth by the Holy Ghost departed
unto Seleucia, and from thence they sailed to Cyprus. And when
they were at Salamis, they preached the word of God in the synagogues
of the Jews, and they had also John to their minister. And when they had gone through
the isle unto Paphos, they found a certain sorcerer, a false prophet,
a Jew, whose name was Bergesus. which was with the deputy of
the country, Sergius Paulus, a prudent man who called for
Barnabas and Saul and desired to hear the word of God. This man wanted to hear the gospel. He wanted to hear the word of
God from the ministers, from the preachers of the gospel. But Elimas the sorcerer, for
so is his name by interpretation, withstood them, seeking to turn
away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called
Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said,
O fool of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? And now, behold, the hand of
the Lord is upon thee, and thou shalt be blind, not seeing the
sun for a season. And immediately there fell in
him a mist and a darkness, and he went about seeking some to
lead him by the hand. Then the deputy, when he saw
what was done, believed, being astonished at the doctrine of
the Lord, at the gospel. He believed the gospel. It's
lovely to see the way that the Lord overruled in that situation,
but I think it's interesting to read what Saul or Paul said
to this man, Elymas. He said, thou child of the devil,
thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert
the right ways of the Lord? That's what it is to be persecuted
for righteousness' sake. It is to see the perversion of
that which is right, the right ways of the Lord. It is to see
going on around about us. The enemies of all righteousness. There is none righteous, no not
one. There is only God. God's righteousness
is the only righteousness in this world and the devil has
been opposed to that righteousness from the beginning of time and
he has designed, schemed, planned, thwarted, and endeavoured at
all times to pervert the ways of righteousness, which is the
gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And throughout history, from
the Garden of Eden, from the Fall in Eden, the devil and his
demons and his followers have sought to undermine and overthrow
the message of the righteousness of God in this world. And so
what if we take these verses together and consider this as
the righteousness that is being spoken of in Matthew chapter
five? What we see here is that the
Lord is saying, blessed are they who are opposed by such as pervert
the right ways of the Lord, who seek other ways of satisfying
holiness, who preach a satisfaction without the necessity of blood,
who call upon God to receive them on the basis of their good
works, who desire peace with God without faith in the sacrifice
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this is much more meaningful
and much more significant now. Because what we're beginning
to understand is that the persecution that the church is under is not
the persecution for its good works. That's not the righteousness
sake. This is the persecution that
the church is under because it believes and it preaches atonement
by the blood of Jesus Christ alone. Let me be plain about
this. The persecution talked about
here is the opposition to the gospel of free sovereign grace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. It comes from those who preach
a gospel of free will. It comes from those who preach
works righteousness. How does this persecute the gospel? It persecutes the gospel by masquerading
as the truth. It says to the men and women
of this world, come to us and we will show you the way to God. Come to us and we will open the
door of acceptance to God. And this has been the work of
the devil from the time of the Tower of Babel. He has built
edifices to reach up to God that have denied the necessity of
the blood of Jesus Christ and of faith in that blood as the
only way of acceptance. Bloodless satisfaction is that
which Satan hates and it is that which the religions of the world
promote as acceptable to reach God. That's the persecution. The persecution comes against
the church when it finds that the truth that it preaches is
contradicted by the world. that the message that it brings
is diluted, that it is mixed and compromised by making the
gospel a proposition to be accepted or a lifestyle to follow. or a vehicle for charitable good
works, and for making the world a better place. When these principles
are set forth as being the essence and content of the gospel, or
perhaps as an opportunity to entertain and enlarge power and
influence in a community. When these things are set forth
as being the gospel, then the true gospel is persecuted because
it's contradicted and it's marginalised and it's ridiculed and it's set
aside. And everything and anything that
marginalises the true gospel is the world's persecution of
the church for righteousness sake. Now I don't want to understate
the suffering that many who have gone before have actually undergone. Some have been physically persecuted
by this world and by this pseudo church and by Christendom so-called. Martyrs, we've heard about them
from history, as those in Hebrews 11. who had trial of cruel mockings
and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment. They
were stoned, they were sawn asunder, they were tempted, were slain
with the sword, they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins,
being destitute, afflicted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
They wandered in deserts and in mountains and in dens and
caves of the earth. And certainly there have been
those for whom this was their lot in life. Let's put it another
way. The Lord translated them to glory
through these direct and often painful experiences. But there's a broader, more subtle
persecution at work every day, as the devil plots and schemes
ways to hurt the true Church and to oppose the Kingdom of
Christ. It's the ethos of this age. It's the moral permissiveness
that we see all around us. It is the dismantling of the
old paths, the old ways. It's the corruption of young
people's minds. The devil creates an environment
that snares and distracts and confuses the Lord's people. if they are not protected against
it. The Lord himself said, false
Christs and false prophets shall rise and shall show signs and
wonders to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect. And that's why we have to be
safeguarded. That's why the Lord calls us
his little flock. That's why he leads us into the
wilderness. He leads us into places of protection. He guards us and comforts us. I think I've said to you before
that word comfort, it means that he puts a fort around about you,
a comely fort. And that is our protection. And
the Lord needs to protect His people. And I say to you, be
careful. Be careful who you spend time
with. Be careful what you watch. Be
careful what you listen to. Be careful where you go. Be careful
about the kind of lifestyle that you live. Because the devil will
use every opportunity that he can to infiltrate and to exploit
and to abuse and to confuse and compromise. And so the Lord's
people gather to hear the gospel, have a desire for fellowship
with one another, recognize and realize that these opportunities,
this bond that we have together and in the presence of the Lord,
these are the good things. These are the very means that
the Lord uses to protect his people. and to keep them safe. To be under the sound of the
gospel is the best way there is in this world to protect ourselves
from the wiles of the devil, who is like a roaring lion going
around seeking whom he may devour. Of course, we might say You know,
you're rubbing it in a little bit too much here by suggesting
that this Christendom, this movement in the world is really persecution. These are nice people. They're
caring and they're considerate. They're loving. They're serious
minded about their faith. They're committed to their church.
They're passionate. They're dedicated. They're even
informed about their doctrine. But they deny the necessity of
blood atonement for righteousness. They deny justification by faith
in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ. They can't
tell you anything about these things. Their faith, their Christianity,
their following after the ways of their church and denomination
is all about the things that they are doing. And it is not
about the essential truths, the foundation blocks of the doctrine
of Scripture. They impugn God's word. They reject God's sovereignty. They blaspheme the Holy Spirit,
for they deny the exclusivity of his work. They have trodden
underfoot the Son of God and counted the blood of the covenant,
wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing. and hath done despite
unto the Spirit of grace. But here's the thing. Every time
the world, or the church so-called, or Christendom so-called, every
time they do these things, to the heart of the gospel and to
the contradiction of the truth, they actually emphasise God's
redeeming grace and mercy to his people. By pursuing these
other ways, they actually highlight and contrast the exclusiveness
of the only way which is the Lord Jesus Christ. The myriad
of other options that are set before men and women to the persecution
of the truth actually highlight the fact that there is but one
way, and unless we are in it, then we are in the broad way
to destruction. God's mercy to the church, his
grace to his people, as highlighted by all of the other things that
are said and done in the name of religion. They indeed show
how blessed we are to have these truths and this gospel committed
to us. Therefore, the Lord says, rejoice. Therefore, he says, rejoice. The opposition of the world,
the false religion that we see all around about us highlights
the true church's blessings and benefits that they possess in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Second thing I want to mention
to you is this. What is our great reward in heaven? The Lord says, when you're persecuted
for righteousness sake, when the sovereign grace of God is
undermined, when the sovereignty of God himself is denied, when
the gospel is made to be so many other things which scripture
tells us it is not, when we are persecuted under
that ethos and that world religion, What is it that we are to remember? That our reward is great in heaven. That the Lord has a plan and
a people and he is bringing his people into the experience of
all the blessedness that he has for them. That every promise
of God to his church will be fulfilled. Every grace, every
gift, every goodness is ours. And the men and women of this
world will say, well, that is so presumptuous. But we will
have the kingdom of heaven. We will be comforted We will
see God. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
has been telling us in this passage. Blessed are the poor in spirit,
theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are they that mourn,
they shall be comforted. The promises of God, the inheritance
of the elect, these things are ours. And therefore we are to
rejoice in the midst of this world for all that he has promised
to give us and to do for us. Romans 8.32 says, he that spared
not his own son but delivered him up for us all, how shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? This great reward
that the Lord speaks about is great. It is not just a reward,
it is a great reward. It even impressed the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, it's a great reward
for he knows what we are going to enter into. We don't know. We're just going to have to take
the Lord's word for it. But if he says it's great, I'm
happy to anticipate it eagerly. Let me put it this way. Your
reward is going to be great. And my reward is going to be
great. Every child of God is going to
have a great reward. There's no difference in our
rewards. You're not going to have a greater
reward than me. and I'm not going to have a greater
reward than you. Our reward is going to be great. Yours will be great and mine
will be great. And every child of God will know
the fullness of the greatness of the great reward that God
himself will give to each and every one of us. There's no difference
There are no degrees, there are no bands, there are no brackets. You don't do so much and get
up into the next level or up into the level after that. You're
not going to have a brighter crown than the next person or
anything that is diminished because of the troubles that you've had
in your life. No, rejoice and be exceeding
glad. for great is your reward in heaven. Some people might like to think
that they'll be in the top group and that I'll be in the bottom
group, but that's not the way it's going to work at all. Every
believer has every blessing. Every child of God has the fullness
of Christ given to him. Some suffered more, but great
is their reward in heaven. Some worked harder, but great
is their reward in heaven. Some had greater faith, but great
is their reward in heaven. And some came through great trial
and tribulation and temptation and hardship and hurt, and great
will their reward be in heaven. Great will be the reward of everyone. The book of Revelation tells
us with regard to the church, that she will be clothed in fine
linen robes. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses
us from all sin. The perfect righteousness which
he bestows is the righteousness that we will enjoy and experience
and possess for all eternity. We haven't even begun to understand
all of the wonderful things that the Lord has in store for us. I have not seen nor ear heard,
but there are wonderful things and they're just over the horizon.
Some of us will enter into those blessings before others, but
the Lord has promised that our reward when we see his face will
be great and he will receive us to himself and we will enter
into our eternal rest and all that we've ever desired and all
that we've ever sought will be our portion for all eternity. We're blessed when this world
calls us out on these great doctrines because it shows us that this
is the truth. And when we have this truth and
lay hold upon it and see what it has secured for us, how can
we not rejoice that the Lord has been so gracious to us? Rejoice,
brothers and sisters, rejoice, and be exceeding glad, for great
is your reward in heaven. Amen.