Jan. 14, 2018 Vengeance is … Whose? by Pastor Josh Sheldon

Silicon Valley Reformed Baptist Church

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I'll turn please to chapter 12 of Romans with God's help and blessing this morning we will finish this chapter verses 17 through 21 will be the text for the preaching this morning however

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I want to start the reading at verse 1 of chapter 12 and the reason for that is and I think you'll understand this as I've been trying to preach through this ethical part of the book of Romans if you will we're after 11 chapters of doctrine theology he gets to chapter 12 and it's therefore you need to do something about this gospel the what then how do we live how should we behave how should we look part of this epistle and I have endeavored to not simply give you a bunch of to do's to not simply say to you well be better in this way and behave more qualitatively like Christ in this other way and just do it

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I've tried to keep it all together as a holistic picture of what the Christian is to look like if 11 chapters of wonderful doctrine and theology mean anything they mean something in our daily life and here in chapter 12 primarily in our daily life in interacting with each other as brothers and sisters together in the

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Lord Jesus Christ and so with those thoughts in mind as we prepare ourselves for the end of this chapter verses 17 through 21

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I want to start a chap at verse 1 of this chapter and read the whole thing so we keep the picture in mind this overall thrust of what the

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Apostle Paul is driving us towards can't pick and choose we don't want to take it in little bite -sized chunks because it's a single picture of the single person the man or woman who is by faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ beginning at verse 1 I appeal to you therefore brothers by the mercies of God to present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to God which is your spiritual worship do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewal of your mind that by testing you may discern what is the will of God what is good and acceptable and perfect for by the grace given to me

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I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think but to think with sober judgment each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned for as in one body we have many members and the members do not all have the same function so we though many are one body in Christ and individually members of one another having gifts that differ according to the grace given us given to us let us use them if prophecy in proportion to our faith if service in our serving the one who teaches in his teaching the one who exhorts in his exhortation the one who contributes in generosity the one who leads with the zeal the one who does acts of mercy with cheerfulness let love be genuine abhor what is evil hold fast to what is good love one another with brotherly affection outdo one another in showing honor do not be slothful and zeal but be fervent in spirit serve the

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Lord rejoice in hope be patient in tribulation be constant in prayer contribute to the needs of the

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Saints and seek to show hospitality bless those who bless you 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 but associate with the never be wise in your own sight and now the text for this morning beginning here verse 17 repay no one evil for evil but give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all if possible so far as it depends on you live peacefully with all beloved never avenge yourselves but leave it to the wrath of God for it is written vengeance is mine

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I will repay says the Lord to the contrary if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink for by so doing you will heat burning coals on his head do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good now

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I wondered quite a bit why this particular instruction is here at the end of Romans chapter 12 this instruction against us taking vengeance for things

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I mean if you read through Romans there's there doesn't seem to be any hint that anyone there in that first century church in Rome was taking vengeance against someone else

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Paul at the end of the book doesn't name anyone says now you need to instruct Theodosius to stop taking vengeance against Justin or anything like that we don't have anything that would give us a direct context for this particular instruction the persecutions that Nero Nero the

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Emperor would soon initiate they were still a ways off and it seems implausible that Paul is preparing them for that in a prophetic sort of way you know the persecutions are coming you need to prepare now not to take vengeance though that would be true but we don't have that hint there to tell us that that's why he put this in this chapter in this chapter 12 of Romans he writes of unity he likens the church this local fellowship to a body to a physical body to a human body with each part of it doing its function everybody doing their part so that as a human body functions properly when every part of it is doing its part so also the church he writes of humility of mind as the necessary entrance into proper

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Christian fellowship we are told to use our God -given gifts to the benefit of others here in the church last week in verses 9 through 16 we looked at genuine love what it is to have genuine love what it means to abhor to constantly hate what is evil to hate what

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God hates and conversely to love what is good to love what

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God loves and all of a sudden here why is this here this warning against vengeance well you know among the many vestiges that we've inherited because of Adam's sin is this desire this desire for vengeance this need for revenge we want to get even

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I think that's just a part of the fallen human nature part of that nature is what

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Christ is overcome on the cross by the transformation of the Holy Spirit we should no longer be that sort of a person who seeks any kind of vengeance or revenge think of Cain his immediate concern when he heard his punishment for having committed history's first murder his his concern was that people would do what take vengeance upon him not so said

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God if anyone kills Cain vengeance shall be taken upon him sevenfold Cain was worried about vengeance and properly so it would seem almost immediately after that incident with Cain killing

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Abel we have this individual introduced to us named

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Lamech and he makes himself out to be greater than God do you remember that he said if Cain is avenged sevenfold

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I am your man if you will I will be avenged seventy -seven fold he's making himself greater than God at least in his words and he does so how by boasting about how much more vengeance he will take than God has promised what do we have in Romans chapter 12 we can say it as simply as this the

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Apostle Paul to the Christian absolutely forbids this it should never be that the

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Christian is one who would take vengeance against another period it's that easy now

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I could almost say amen let's go have our fellowship meal but there's much more to it than that we need to understand how deep this runs we need to understand how easily it comes from our lips because it comes from our heart that I want to get even

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I want to make you pay the way you made me pay but no no the

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Christian is not an Avenger as much as we may like to be the

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Christian cannot be that vengeance must be left in God's hands vengeance is mine says the

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Lord I will repay you heard how I read it there I put the emphasis on the pronouns vengeance is mine says the

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Lord I will repay and the

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Apostle Paul picks that up and says therefore Christian you not should not must not vengeance must be left in God's hands the matter of obedience it's a matter of faith it's really a matter of humility this chapter opens with do not be conformed to the world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind and here is a rubber meeting the road application of exactly what that means here is a direct abandonment of worldly ways of worldly thinking a repudiation of all that and an immersion into God's ways here in denying the satisfaction let us admit that there's a satisfaction involved in getting even and you brother sister in the

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Lord you the one that Paul calls brethren dear ones Saints all of us cannot be that way do not be conformed to the world that's a very worldly way of thinking and then verse 17 well we had there at the beginning repay no one evil for evil give thought to what is honorable and good in the sight of all it echoes the first half of or excuse me the second half of verse 9 abhor what is evil hold fast what is good do you see the parallel there abhor what is evil don't take vengeance hold fast to what is good give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all and the question has to ring out to us how then do we avoid giving back evil for evil the world cries out to us you need to give back as good as you get how do we avoid giving back evil for evil well part of the answer to that question would go all the way back to verse 9 which

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I read just a moment ago how do we not give back evil for evil well by abhorring what is evil

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I hate it so much that even if it seems to serve and we could do that in quotes if it seems deserved and you and I are not capable of determining what is actually deserved or not only

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God can do so perfectly it's a matter of really hating it so much that no matter what the circumstance is it's not going to issue forth from my lips world says no no no this non -conformed thinking this conforming yourself to the wrong thinking says you need to give back as good as you get you need to stick up for yourself you need to show them just what they did you know there's a boxing match many years ago between a man called

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Thomas Hitman Hearns and Sugar Ray Leonard I think Sugar Ray was one of the greatest fighters since Muhammad Ali himself and at one point

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Hearns has Leonard on the ropes and Sugar Ray he counter -punched and he fought his way out giving back as good as he get and eventually wins the fight he's a counter -puncher giving back as good and eventually better but you see that was a boxing match that was a sporting event but too often that's how we are in our everyday life we want to counter punch somebody puts us on the ropes they hit us with a surprise to front or an insult or something that we take the wrong way and we're gonna fire back we're gonna get ourselves off those ropes and we're gonna do so how by hurting the other one we know the power of the tongue from the book of James we know in the book of Galatians where Paul speaks he doesn't call exactly the tongue we saw about the way we speak to each other as biting and devouring each other that's what we do like a prize fodder like a

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Sugar Ray Leonard who is famous for being able to counter punch and get his way out of the corner off the ropes as we would say what do we do someone hurts our feelings we punch back we use our tongue against them instead of our fists to pummel we take a comment as a slight and we fire back with both barrels and what do we end up doing repaying evil for evil and I think

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Romans chapter 12 would scream back at us and say how can this be how can this be in the church with a brother sister in the

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Lord speaking to another brother sister one for whom Christ also died there's an inherent structure in these verses

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I just want to point it out to you quickly so you can see how important this matter of vengeance is so important to the

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Apostle Paul that really where there's no hint of Romans anybody in the Roman Church there in the first century actually being a vengeful person so important to the general human condition even we who are in Christ that Paul just throws this in here it's not unrelated to all the rest

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I don't think it's just a random brain dump or anything like that it just sort of jumps out at us which is why in this paragraph

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I broke it off of verse 16 last week and I wanted to handle this one by itself so I just want to point out to you it seems to me that if you look at verses 17 and 19 and 21 they all say basically the same thing repay no one evil for evil give thought to what is honorable in the sight of all beloved never avenge yourselves leave it to the wrath of God verse 21 do not become over do not be overcome by evil overcome evil with good what are these three verses saying to us 17 19 21 stop it they're saying don't do that can it be that simple

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Bob Newhart played on TV a psychologist and a few weeks ago

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I was shown a YouTube of one of these scenes where he has a woman come to him with all these problems she has all these funny reactions to life and she does these things that are not helpful to herself and Newhart hears it all and he's getting paid for this advice it's okay

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I have two words for you stop it don't do that anymore vengeance stop it don't do that it's unseemly it's un -christian it's a failure to be transformed is being conformed to this other way of thinking that very early in this chapter

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Paul says don't be conformed that way you're no longer that if you're in Christ you are this by the power of his spirit who transformed your very soul you can't stop it so that's verse 17 19 21 and then sandwiched between verses 18 and 20 is the alternatives if possible live peaceably with all to the contrary verse 20 if you're any was hungry feed him in other words do good we'll talk about these some more as we go on if we think back to the first or that second half of verse 9 abhor what is evil is if we have this deep and abiding hatred for what

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God hates for evil then giving it back to someone no matter how egregious they're offering to us was it won't even enter your transformed mind but instead of letting that even come into your thought process and be even possibly something that you would do rather than that holding fast clinging tenaciously to what is good to what is honorable in the sight of all who is all all cannot mean the world chapter 12 verse 2 makes it clear that their way of thinking cannot be our way of thinking what they see what the world sees as honorable is the

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Leonard like counter puncher the one who makes his opponent pay for his mistakes our definition the church's definition

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Christ's definition couldn't be more different honorable in the sight of all means the church where the

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Word of God rules as the standard of all our faith and practice so what is it to do it is honorable to do what the scripture says what is it to do it is honorable to don't do what the scripture says don't do what

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Newhart said in that skit stop it think carefully do not think of yourself more highly than you ought to think but think of yourself with sober thinking as we went through some weeks ago he says give thought to what is good to repay no one evil for evil don't do that that's not possible give thought to do what is honorable it has the idea of planning ahead when the situation comes up there's going to be a gut reaction to shoot but to shoot back to counter punch the time to resolve and to remove the evil response is not when the need arises it's not when it happens because when it happens what's gonna rise up within us

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I'm gonna make you pay I'm gonna make you pay I'm gonna make you see that you insulted me that you in front of me that you're wrong whatever the case is and we're gonna shoot back with what we got the time to remove the evil response is not then rather than that assume the need will arise and plan for it now imagine opening a missile silo to send a warhead back to a belligerent country and all the codes are input and the door is open and the target is acquired and then just before the general gives the final order a messenger burst through the door and says general you have to stop he says why what's the problem he says well sir there's no missile in the silo you see the time to empty the silo the time to disarm is now because brethren if the weapon is there we'll use it let's admit this if the weapon is there that's what we're going to use we will fail to abhor the evil and when faced with undeserved evil even if it's absolutely undeserved that's what we're gonna shoot back with this doesn't mean that life is always peaceful like one of those scenes in Disney's Bambi where the cute skunks and the hummingbirds are all getting along and they're singing and flying together it isn't always possible to live at peace you read

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Fox's Christian martyrs of the world and see how peaceful men peaceful men of God were treated for nothing more egregious than sticking to the testimony of faith in the

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Lord Jesus Christ I'm reading through that again for the second or third time recently it reads like a modern rendition of Hebrews 11 these men were chained in stocks they were ridiculed their properties were confiscated

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I just read one man's family was forced to stand and watch him be burned and him watch his family as they watch him peace is not always possible but these men did not bring it on themselves except by what except by their faithfulness to Jesus Christ and upon the evil being done to them how did they respond did they curse did they crowd and pray in a precatory prayer quote a song

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Lord do unto them as they've done unto me or anything like that no they said things that could harken back to what

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Jesus said though they said it many different ways father forgive them for they do not know what they're doing one man is the flames engulfed him said

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God saved the king I forget who it was said may God open the eyes of the king convert him they died with Christ's Word flowing from their lips all this to say what who are the

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Saints who is this Hall of Faith that we have in Hebrews chapter 11 men with the spirit like ours who are these men who died in the persecutions of the

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Catholic Church against the Protestants men with the spirit like ours all of which is to say we have in history in the scripture and after the scripture examples that people actually did this or should we say actually did not do this they did what they responded with Christ's Word did not what did not respond with vengeance how are they able to do this

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I think by giving thought to the matter by planning ahead for the matter by studying the scripture and knowing

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God's Word by reading what Jesus read to you from 1st Samuel 24 where David had his chance for vengeance as men reminded him the

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Lord said I will deliver your enemy into your hand you could do with him whatever seems good to you what seemed good to David to do not to harm the

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Lord's anointed not to take revenge does that mean that he easily easily tolerated just said well

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I'm gonna hate the sin and love the sinner no he showed Saul his error but he did not take revenge upon Saul two very different things which one would you say matches to Romans 12 clearly what he actually did had he gone with what his men told him to do which is to take vengeance to take revenge to get even to counterpunch against Saul he would have been on the wrong side of Romans 12 may it never be no he denied vengeance and he did what is good he did what was honorable in the sight of all which was what to say

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Saul I have evidence that your hatred towards me is wrong factually incorrect no you have to plan ahead for this we need to get our transformed mind set and ready for this so when and if this happens

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Oh Lord may it never occur then this is what I'm going to do or say I'm going to follow David's example or greater yet I'm gonna follow

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Jesus's example which we'll talk about in a little bit give thought to it now give thought to it now when collecting your thoughts is a lot easier than when the moments in front of you

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I'm one of those that after an intense conversation even if it's not something that's argumentative with someone

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I'm halfway home and I thunk my forehead with my heel my hand ago oh I should have said or forgot to mention think about it now so that when this person foists evil upon you you're ready to give back what is honorable to give back what is good to show that you abhor what

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God abhors what is evil but love to do what is good give thought to it now verse 19 repeats the whole thing never avenge yourselves leave it to the wrath of God this is faith this is faith to leave it to the wrath of God to believe that God's wrath will be executed as he sees fit which of course is infinitely superior to what we see fit it is written it is mine to avenge

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I will repay says the Lord what does this tell us never it is forbidden transformed minds don't think that way

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Christ lovers abhor evil in all its many disguises we haven't the ability to respond with evil because evil has been removed from our arsenal and it leaves us with what the love of God have been poured into our hearts by the

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Holy Spirit who was given to us what response would that give us when evil comes upon us verse 19 tells us to do what is honorable by vacating the evil response this one makes it a matter of faith does it not leave it to the wrath of God it's written vengeance is mine

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I will repay that comes from Deuteronomy chapter 32 Moses final prayer his song to Israel as they go into the promised land he had to stay behind it says there

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God will avenge himself against those nations that he that God uses to reprimand them his people which eventually did come the basic idea is when

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God restores his people they are not to turn against the nations that God had previously used to judge them

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God sent all kinds of pagan nations against his people as his as God's instrument of judgment against them and upon restoration what are they being told here you shall not avenge yourselves if they went further than I would have them to have gone in bringing my vengeance against you if they went further as happened so many times it is mine to repay not yours the question is do you believe this

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I mean do you really believe this it's a harder question than you might think to leave vengeance to God requires first of all that you believe him to be a knowing and a caring

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God does he know what you've just endured we might say well

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I need to fire back now God doesn't know what I'm doing what happened to me he doesn't know how much it hurt me he doesn't know how much

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I didn't deserve this of course he knows and this is the first article we have to have here

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God does know read the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 & 3 as Jesus Christ dictates these letters to them and there's a repeated theme what does the

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Lord Christ say I know your works I know your tribulations

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I know the church persecutions have come upon you I know your strengths and you've got a few

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I know your weaknesses and you have many I know says the Lord Jesus Christ he does know do we believe that he really does know or is it just an intellectual ascent to a proposition it must be an article of faith it must be something that translates into our daily life

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God does know in the parable that Jesus read

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Jesus promises that God will give justice speedily and that word for justice is often translated as avenge

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God will avenge speedily again we need to ask ourselves do you believe this or is that just an intellectual ascent to a proposition no it must be an article of faith it must be something upon which we rest

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God does know what we've gone through God does know whether we deserved it or not and God will bring it all to a right end he will avenge or bring justice speedily

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I mean if waiting on the Lord means anything at all it has to mean not giving in to our own agendas it has to mean trusting

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God to act as we restrain ourselves from acting they say baby rattlesnakes are more dangerous than adults

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I don't want to test this but what they've read before is that the babies can't regulate the amount of poison so even though they're very small they inject much more poison than the more adult rattlesnakes who can regulate it

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I think that's sort of why we're barred from avenging ourselves I mean some of us most of us

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I think very few of us even have that necessary personality to confront evil to call it what it is when it issues out of others and we fire back and some of us are like those baby snakes striking out wildly and injecting far more poison than the situation could possibly call for and so being unable to regulate the venom that escapes from our lips let us follow the

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Apostles instruction would that not be safer simply this never avenge yourself stop it so what then do we ignore the evil done against us are we to go along blithely as though nothing has happened as though it didn't hurt well thankfully

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God's will for us is in these matters far more practical than that he would have us respond when evil is foisted upon us and here's how here's how first 20 starts it out for us it says to the contrary verse 19 never avenge yourself go up a little bit repay no one for evil for evil verse 20 to the contrary as opposed to that on the other hand do something different do something that doesn't conform to this world do something there's a transformed mind opposed to what you may want to do what does he say feed the hungry enemy give water to the thirsty enemy this one who has done this against you a simple isn't it isn't that very simple what is that that's the

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Good Samaritan all over again the Good Samaritan who saw a Jew who needed help and we know

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Samaritans and Jews they hated each other Jesus's point was that the one who needs help is the neighbor who

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God would have us love as we love ourselves we do no violence to that parable by extending it when your enemy is in need provide it to him as though he were your neighbor in every way that Jesus meant it by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head the meaning of burning coals heaped on a head has been debated for a long time

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I mean is it the fire of judgment I don't think so because if it were the fire judgment if that were the case then it seems to put us uncomfortably close to judging for God something like see

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Lord I put the coals in place now you do your part because I have determined this one deserves your judgment

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I've even read some commentators who liken this thing to this practice in Egypt of giving somebody a burning ember and they kept it was the fire for the house it was like having a pilot light going in your the furnace of your house because timber was so rare there and they would carry it in some device some type of pot on their head and so it was a good thing to do that's a little bit esoteric so I'm not quite sure that's what the

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Apostle means there's no hint that he's going back to some Egyptian practice like that but it's sort of interesting and it does tie to it does lead kind of nicely to what

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I think the Apostle Paul saying which is by doing good you're putting something good upon them and in this case bringing them as it were to shame as they see the difference as they see the contrast between what they did that caused you this harm this evil that they put upon you this thing that you might want to revenge or take vengeance for instead of that seeing the good you do giving them something good and right something useful something that they need would bring shame would bring embarrassment

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I don't think this is what the picture means but you could think of something hot on your head making you sweat with embarrassment with shame as though you can't you can't look this person in the eye anymore because it's just so embarrassing for you listen anybody can return evil for evil now some of us are better at matching it some of us are better counter punchers like Leonard was against Hearns but without judging how good you are returning evil whether the evil you return is as intense as what you get or maybe it's better without even thinking about that just think of this anyone can do that anyone out in the world can fire back with an insult anybody could be sarcastic if they received

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SAR received sarcasm any of us are capable of being hurtful when we're hurt brethren anyone can do that what's special about that some of us are just better at it than others just reach down find that old reserve of pride is not too far away and give back as good as you got their trouble is not just that anybody can do that the trouble is that that comes from a mind that has not been transformed or at least it comes from a mind that for that moment is not heeding the transformation that God has worked in your soul it's to act as though your mind is still completely conformed to the world anybody can be mean and anybody really can be mean in return and how mean can we get just think of the situation where you fire back with sarcasm or something as awful as what you receive and the person just doesn't get it does this ever happen to you and then you just keep ramping it up and ramping up next thing you know you've got a nuclear war on your hands now that's not for us not just the

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Apostle Paul Jesus Christ himself in the Sermon on the Mount Matthew 5 beginning at verse 38 you have heard that it was said an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth but I tell you not to resist an evil person but whoever slaps you on your right cheek turn to him the other also if anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic let him have your cloak also and whoever compels you to go one mile go with him to give to him who asks you and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away is there not congruence between what the

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Lord Jesus Christ gives in the Sermon on the Mount in that part of Matthew chapter 5 the charter for the church from the lips of the

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Lord Jesus Christ is there not congruence between that and what the Apostle Paul is saying to us about vengeance at the end of Romans chapter 12

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Romans 12 ends with do not be overcome by evil overcome evil with good a reiteration of verse 17 giving thought to what is honorable verse 19 leave it to the wrath of God there's another incident with David that I want to talk about we're not gonna go back there and read it would take too long this idea of people in history men with a spirit like all of ours no better no worse than you or me who forwent vengeance there was a time when

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David and his men protected the flocks and the men and the herds of a man named

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Nabal and at one point David's men's were hungry David's men were hungry and he sent a messenger to Nabal he says you know we've protected your men we've protected your flocks we've protected your your your ranch or your whole place and nothing's been missing as long as we've been watching out for you and my men are hungry we just need some food do you remember this incident and Nabal sends back says who's

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David now I'm not gonna give you anything I don't owe you anything get away from me David is furious he tells his men to strap on their swords and he's gonna go make

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Nabal pay for it is he not and he runs across this beautiful intelligent woman

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Nabal's wife Abigail who talks him out of this says no let not my lord shed innocent blood she talks him out of it he unstraps his sword the men stay there we know how this story ends one night

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Abigail came to Nabal behold he was holding a feast in his house this is first Samuel 25 like the feast of a king and Nabal's heart was married within him for he was very drunk so she told him nothing at all until the morning in the morning when the wine had gone out of Nabal his wife told him these things and his heart died within him and he became as a stone and about ten days later the

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Lord struck Nabal and he died that's just one incident in the inspired history of our scripture as we need to ask ourselves do we believe this do we believe that God supernaturally it did in fact avenge himself upon Nabal who so badly treated the

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Lord's anointed he wasn't king yet but he had already been anointed King do you believe that do you believe that God does and has acted in history to bring about this vengeance that Paul says no you don't do it because God holds it as his own charge do you believe that you see we're easy prey to evil especially this kind of evil giving back counter punching being vengeful overcome in verse 21 can also need to be conquered so don't be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good

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I wonder if we realize how low the bar actually is here you know we think of evil that will bring about God's vengeance as the supposedly big stuff

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I mean murder and bribery and corruption and embezzlement and those sorts of things and those are all certainly evil but it's more subtle than that I think the bar is much lower than that the whole context of Romans 12 is interpersonal relationships as I said last week we do a disservice to the point here if we draw these boundaries and say okay this is for the church and this is for the one who's in the world what we have here is this integrated this holistic picture of a

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Christian in their daily life how low is the bar for what we consider evil foisted upon us how low is the bar for Paul says must not proceed back from us

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I want to offer you a couple of common things that are said I'm not going to draw together many illustrations for you to show you what might get this to come out of our lips but imagine somebody says something to you that you don't like a husband who doesn't pay close attention to the wife when she's speaking in return what do we do we keep our eyes buried in a book when he's talking the next time we ignore him and then we look him and say oh were you saying something your wife does something to you and gets it right back boom we're counter punching all the time and what do we say to justify it

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I just want you to see what it's like what does

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Paul say we pay no one evil for evil never avenge yourselves do not be overcome by evil what does it say stop it don't do that as soon as these words are getting ready to come out of our lips

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I just wanted you to see stop that's vengeance you don't have to have gotten punched in the nose for say that some evils happened somebody doesn't have to enter your bank account of your life savings it's much much lower than that and firing back has got the same level how is it justified this evil for evil want you to see what it's like what you're saying is the only way for me to get over this is to make you pay it's revenge it's something what was that Star Trek movie

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I don't even know if this came from Shakespeare where it came from but they say revenge is a dish a dish best served cold how

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Christian does that sound revenge is a dish best served cold can that come from our lips can that emanate from our actions we often proceed under the guise of justice or edification and their covers we hide behind trying to protect ourselves from this penetrating power of God's Word you're here ever hear someone say well

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I'm just saying and then follow something that really ought not to be said it usually introduces something as mean as eventual

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I just want you to see how it felt when you and it's really just a euphemism I want you to suffer as you made me suffer and what does that imply

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I don't think God knows I don't believe he will act that's really what's behind that it's a failure of courage it's a failure of patience is really a failure of faith it's admitting that we've been conquered that we've been vanquished really by evil

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Jesus said in the parable that God will avenge quickly

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Paul says leave it to God's wrath to trust him to know and to act so what slows us down here how can we slow down this response make sure when the silo opens if there's no missile in there

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I think perhaps keeping in mind that when God does act whether in this life or the next he acts in defense of his people but that's secondary to the fact that by avenging evil

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God Almighty acts in defense of himself he vindicates his people as he himself committed himself to doing and when he does that whether we're going to see it now while we're on this earth or see it later when we see

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Jesus as he is that's completely in God's hands maybe that would slow us down to know that God does in fact act and he does so ultimately for his own namesake there's another thought that if we keep this in mind will keep us from giving back evil for evil here's something that might drive

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I just wanted you to see or I'm just saying totally from our value vocabulary and it's this it's simply this every one of us whose faith is in Jesus Christ if you have repented of your sin as you must if you've put your faith and your hope and your trust in the

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Lord Jesus Christ as you must if you are one of those then you know and you have seen and know for fact that God does pour out his vengeance against evil you've seen it if you are a

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Christian your faith is in Jesus you know this every one of us whose faith is in Christ has seen this vengeance of God poured out against evil your evil against my evil the evil of every person in history who

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God chose for salvation by his son Jesus Christ has seen God's vengeance poured out against evil we know the words vengeance is mine

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I will repay to be more than words we know beyond just an intellectual ascent to a proposition that this in time and space is true we know that their promise of God played out in my and your personal history what am

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I speaking of Jesus Christ bore God's wrath when he hung on the cross as evil men imposed evil upon pure goodness of course

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I mean Jesus Christ by that he did not retaliate he did not return evil for evil he did not give back what he was getting he could have called legions of angels to destroy them in a moment yet not even a crossword escaped his lips do you believe in the

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Lord Jesus Christ is your faith in him then you know for sure that you have seen God's vengeance and what vengeance am

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I speaking of the vengeance against your sin the vengeance against my sin our wickedness ascended up as it were up to the

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Almighty our insults were there before his very eyes and what did he give in return how did he recompense us when we gave him back all this evil 2nd

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Corinthians 521 says for our sake he made him that's Jesus to be sin who knew no sin so that in him we might become the righteousness of God so we give

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God evil what does God give back Jesus we give

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God our insults and our blasphemies and what does he give back faith in Christ what happened to God's wrath at our sin to this vengeance eyes is mine to repay

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I will repay says the Lord if you're a Christian you know this because you vengeance against your sin was poured out on the

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Lord Jesus Christ in time and space in your personal history in our collective history as a church you know this to be true does this not help us to be slow in our response when we receive evil to look at words like this vengeance is mine

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I will repay to say yes Lord I know that because you took vengeance against every one of my sins on Jesus you made him to be my sin you put him on the cross as if he had done what

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I had done and you took full vengeance against my sin but they weren't on me they were placed on him so brethren when the

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Apostle Paul says repay no one evil for evil when the Apostle Paul says never avenge yourselves when he says do not be overcome by evil

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I think this is the greatest break that we have on this race car that flies into the fray and wants to give back as good as we get

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God does take vengeance and you've seen it he took vengeance against Jesus for us

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Peter quotes the Prophet Isaiah Jesus himself bore our sins in his body on the tree that we might die to sin and live to righteousness by his wounds you've been healed where is our vengeance it's in the scrap heap it's never to be scavenged back again we are in the position of the servant of Matthew 18 the one forgiven a fortune and let us not be where he went and unable to in our part forgive chump change what if God has said to you or to me

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I'll give you what you gave me just so you see how it feels what if God said to you or to me

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I'm just saying I think this might be what you deserve which we did what if he gave it back to us no he gave us

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Jesus if your faith is in him you have a basis to not avenge yourself because God did just that your sins avenged in Christ if you don't today believe in him

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I tell you this is your warning God will avenge himself for your every misdeed your every insult your every blasphemy your every disrespect of him he will avenge himself but if you're not in Jesus he will avenge himself against you you must turn to him you must flee to his cross and there find forgiveness for your sins you must plead with God to change your heart to transform your soul to give you faith to repent and come to that cross you have no

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Savior no sacrifice upon whom your sins are laid if you don't have Jesus you will answer for yourself for them you will answer forever you will not be annihilated you will be eternally conscious and aware and forever you will be repaid by God for the evil that he received from you vengeance is mine says the

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Lord I will repay the gospel of the

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Lord Jesus Christ is something very different the gospel says that Christ came to save sinners of whom

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I am the chief the gospel says that God to whom we gave only evil returned our evil by sending only good he sent his son that whoever believes in him might not perish but have eternal life so brethren this is

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God's business and I would suggest to us all that we can hold back this returning evil for evil by this simple fact knowing with all my heart mind soul and strength that God did take my evil and returned me good he poured his vengeance upon Jesus Christ and gave me faith to believe that in him my sins were paid and that by repentance for them and faith in Christ and what he did vengeance has been vacated for me amen

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Heavenly Father we do thank you for this day in this time together once again for giving us your word in this powerful book of Romans father and all the truth that it gives us and I pray father we take it to heart that we cannot as Christians be those who are vengeful about anything because you father put your vengeance for our sin upon another so how can we give what we feel to others in that way it would be your people may we more and more follow the ways of the our