WWUTT 1351 Vengeance is Mine, I Will Repay (Romans 12:19)

The scripture tells us, do not take matters into your own hands, but leave it to the wrath of God.

For the Bible says, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.

When we understand the text. This is when we understand the text, studying

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Here once again is Pastor Gabe Hughes. Thank you, Becky. We're back to our study in Romans 12.

We haven't quite finished up this chapter yet. I'm going to read once again the section that goes from verses 14 through 21, and we'll pick up where we left off last week.

The Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Rome, bless those who persecute 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 lowly, never be wise in your own sight, repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all, if possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine,

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 heap burning coals on his head, do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

We have three verses left here in Romans 12, and we'll probably spend today, tomorrow and Wednesday on these three verses, 19, 20 and 21.

Let's look again at verse 19, beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, vengeance is mine,

I will repay, says the Lord. We just started a series in the

Sermon on the Mount yesterday, I did an introduction here at First Baptist Lindale into this series that we're going to be in for the next several months, and you might recall the words of Christ given to us in Matthew chapter five, where he says, starting in verse 43, you have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your father who is in heaven.

If we are children of God, then we will demonstrate as those who fear

God and trust the father, that vengeance is in his hand. It is not for us to judge or condemn or take vengeance out on those who wrong us.

We are to entrust ourselves to God, and he will have the final say. This instruction is also in First Peter chapter two, where Peter said the following of Jesus, First Peter 221,

Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, so that you might follow in his steps.

He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.

When he suffered, he did not threaten, but continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.

Jesus Christ, who is the son of God, who is the creator of all things, and in him all things hold together, as it says in Colossians one and Hebrews one.

Jesus suffered and did not revile those who reviled him.

And so following his example, we're to be the same. The son of God entrusted himself to the father.

We must entrust ourselves to the father as well. All of our situations and all of our circumstances belong to God.

And where you, his child, have been wronged, our father in heaven will make it right.

He who sits enthroned over all of the universe, who is the great and supreme, most high judge, he will do right by us.

Our father in heaven loves us. He will do good. It may not happen on our terms.

It shouldn't happen on our terms. God does not act on our terms, but he does so for the glory of his great name.

So it may not be the way that we want it to happen, but he will do right. And we trust in his word and his ways, for he is making all things new.

Whenever you have been wronged, do not get revenge. That is not for you to do.

Now, that doesn't mean that we don't act justly. Revenge is not justice, though. We are supposed to live in a just and righteous manner, according to the way that God has told us to live.

Micah 6 .8 says, He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the

Lord require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your

God. Now, there is a certain definition that our culture and our society has of justice, and that's not what we read about whenever we come to scripture.

It's not what the world says justice is. It's what God says justice is. What he says is righteous.

What is right, according to God's word, and we are to live this way, and even to defend those who are wrongly treated.

Consider these words in Proverbs 31, starting in verse 8. Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute.

Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.

If someone does unjustly, they should be punished for that. But we go through that in a righteous and right manner, according to what

God has said is to be done, not taking revenge. If it doesn't go the way that we want it to go, if there's nothing within our power and within some legal means that we can bring about the justice that needs to happen, then we need to leave that unto the

Lord. It is not for us as Christians to behave in ways that would otherwise brand us as criminals, unless, of course, that thing that causes us to be seen by the culture as a criminal is obedience unto

God. If we are preaching the gospel, if we are gathering as the church, if we are pursuing godliness and Christ -likeness, and the world hates us for that, well, that's on the world, and they're going to have to answer to God for that.

But we do not take matters into our own hands to bring about what we believe to be the desired end.

We entrust ourselves to him who judges justly. Leviticus 19,

God says in the law to Israel that they are to judge righteously and not to corrupt justice.

In Leviticus 19 .35, you shall do no wrong in judgment, in measures of length or weight or quantity.

You shall have just balances, just weights, a just ephah, and a just hymn.

I am the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, and you shall observe all my statutes and all my rules and do them.

I am the Lord. But let's say we're living in a society and in a culture where justice is not being done.

I think you can say that's your culture, right? If you live in the Western world,

I'm sure if you're hearing my voice, you live in a corrupt culture where justice is not being done.

I'll just give you a very straightforward example of this in terms of abortion that is going on in the world today.

More people died of abortion in 2020 than anything else, even

COVID -19. You take all of the world's ails, everything that kills a human being, and you put it together combined, it still does not total the number of deaths of children killed by abortion at the end of 2020.

This is one of the most murderous movements in the history of mankind.

It is the human rights issue of our time. But of course, that's not what we're talking about.

We're marching in the streets for systemic injustice, which just might exist, but you can't actually point a finger at it and say, well, here's the systemic racism right here.

We're marching against things that seem to be unjust rather than knowing the injustice that is happening right now under our noses, and that's the murder of the unborn.

So do we, seeing that justice is not being done for innocent unborn children who are being slaughtered by the thousands daily, just talk about the

United States of America, 3 ,000 lives slaughtered by abortion every day. We see this happening.

Justice is not being done. So do we take justice into our own hands? No, we can't.

It wouldn't work. The country will just go back to the same bloodshed it was doing before, because an entire nation's heart is darkened to this.

There is one political party that is certainly moving in the direction to see unborn children be slaughtered more and more and to allow men and women to have rampant sexual immorality, sacrificing children to cover up the sexually immoral sins that they cling to.

One political party is moving the culture in that direction more so than the other.

The other political party does very little to stop it. So on the one hand, you've got the

Democrats who love baby murder. They are the party of baby murder. On the other hand, you've got the

Republicans who will take a pro -life platform. You will hear Republicans who will say that they defend life from womb to tomb, right?

But they're not doing much to stop the bloodshed that's happening. There was at one point from 2016 to 2018 that the

Republicans had control of Congress and we had a Republican in the White House and abortion still happened.

Donald Trump loved to pass these executive orders, which is basically like a king's law.

The king has said, and therefore it must be done. And he would pass these executive orders on all kinds of things.

But none of them were to stop funding the Planned Parenthood, the number one abortion provider in the country. None of them were to put an end to abortion.

A lot of these things lip service is paid to, but an end to it never comes. So you have one party that's actively moving in the direction of it.

And the other one is not always courageous enough to take a stand to stop it. They'll do some things.

They'll do some things to kind of slow the slaughter. But they're not doing anything to make it illegal, as murder should be in any nation, in any

God fearing people. And that's exactly why you taking vengeance into your own hands is not going to stop the bloodshed because this entire nation's heart is darkened by the evils that are going on.

This nation loves its sexual immorality. Sadly, even

Donald Trump. I know that Trump has said and done some things that are pro life, but he's pro

LGBTQ. Even he loves sexual immorality. I mean, you know that from his past.

The guy was a casino and strip club owner and posed in Playboy magazine and all this other kind of thing.

So this is a man who has loved sexual immorality and made a career out of it himself.

This nation's heart is dark. It is bowing at an altar of sexual immorality.

So that's why you try to take vengeance into your own hands to stop the bloodshed would never really do anything.

What would end up happening, in fact, is the United States would pass more laws to try to protect the abortion industry.

So Christians trying to take matters into their own hands and enact vengeance to stop the bloodshed would only make the matter worse.

Since this entire nation is corrupt concerning this matter.

Now, I think that we should try to protect the lives of unborn children, and we do that through the proper channels.

We try to do it legally. We volunteer our time. We reach out to women in a crisis pregnancy situation.

You go out to abortion clinics and you share the gospel. You beg with those who are going in there and tell them not to do this thing because they're about to go murder a child and they will stand in judgment before God unless they turn from their sin and put faith in Jesus Christ.

These are some of the things that we do to win souls and save lives.

But then when that person does go into the abortion clinic and gets their abortion and comes back out having just murdered a child, you're not standing outside with a sword or a gun to put that person down and avenge the life of the child that was killed.

Because, hey, Bible says, life for life. Vengeance belongs to God.

Now, if this were a God -fearing nation, if God's law was the law that governed our land, then a person who committed abortion would pay with their life.

That would be a just sentence. But that's not the law that governs our land.

The land has decided that what is right is a woman gets to choose.

And, you know, there are men who are just as guilty of this as the women are. A man has sex with a woman.

She gets pregnant. He tells her, go get an abortion, drives her to the abortion clinic, pays for the abortion.

There is just as much blood on his hands as there is on her hands. And though this nation will not punish the one who murders innocent children, in fact, abortion clinics and doctors and so on and so forth, they can all make a whole lot of money doing this, though this land will not punish people who do abortion.

There is a God in heaven who is on the day of judgment going to give back to every person for what it is that they have done.

Unless they repented of their sin and put faith in Jesus Christ, who died on the cross for our sin, and by faith in him, we are justified before God.

If they do not repent and receive God's merciful gift of grace through his son, then they will pay with their lives forever before an eternal

God, a just God on that day of judgment. And we need to leave it in the hand of God.

It is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, says the

Lord. This quote is taken from Deuteronomy chapter 32. This is the song of Moses that closes the giving of the law to the children of Israel before they are about to take the promised land.

And consider what is said in Deuteronomy 32. We have some wonderful words said here about the righteous judgment of God.

Deuteronomy 32. For the rock, his work is perfect for all his ways are justice.

A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he.

They have dealt corruptly with him. They are no longer his children because they are blemished.

They are a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people?

Is not he your father who created you, who made you and established you?

Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask your father and he will show you the elders and they will tell you.

One of the things that Moses is talking about here is how the children of Israel are going to go in and take the promised land, which

God is giving to them. But then they're going to forget God. And God will enact vengeance and judgment upon them.

So this isn't just talking about a foreign pagan people. Those who are out there who do not know

God, God will have vengeance on them. That's not what Moses is saying. He's talking about the children of Israel who know

God and did not follow him. God will have vengeance upon them.

And in fact, he will give his promises to a nation that is not a nation, a reference to Gentiles who would come and receive the

Lord, which we had references to that earlier in Romans back in chapter 11. Consider Deuteronomy 32, 19.

The Lord saw it and spurned them because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters, that they were worshiping idols and doing various abominations.

That's what's being referenced there. Verse 20. And he said, I will hide my face from them.

I will see what their end will be, for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

They have made me jealous with what is no God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols.

So I will make them jealous with those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.

And the mercy of God has come to us who were not a people, but now we are

God's people in Christ. Consider as we get to verse 34. Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?

Vengeance is mine and recompense for the time when their foot shall slip for the day of their calamity is at hand and their doom comes swiftly.

For the Lord will vindicate his people and have compassion on his servants when he sees that their power is gone and there is none remaining bond or free.

Then he will say, where are their gods? The rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering.

Let them let them rise up and help you. Let them be your protection. See now that I, even

I am he, and there is no God besides me. I kill and I make alive,

I wound and I heal, and there is none that can deliver out of my hand.

For I lift up my hand to heaven and swear as I live forever. If I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand takes hold on judgment,

I will take vengeance on my adversaries and will repay those who hate me.

I will make my arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain and the captives from the long haired heads of the enemy.

Rejoice with him, O heavens, and bow down to him, all gods, for he avenges the blood of his children and takes vengeance on his adversaries.

He repays those who hate him and cleanses his people's land.

And that's the conclusion of the song of Moses there. We as Christians, what we need to understand by this is that God is a righteous judge and he will give back to everyone according to their works.

And that should cause us to live in fear of God, not living in fear of the wrath and judgment of God, because in Christ, the wrath of God has been satisfied.

And so we can live in joy, not not in this this constant fear of like never having pleased

God because we can't please God anyway. Christ has satisfied God and we receive the righteousness of God by faith in Christ.

But we still live in fear, knowing that God is the judge of all. It's that reverend fear, paying homage to he who sits enthroned over all of creation.

He's not a buddy or a pal, but we can know that we are friends of God and not enemies of God because of the fellowship with God that we have in Christ.

So knowing vengeance is mine and God will repay should strike the fear of God in us that we desire to live righteously and not in any way or inclined to anything that we know that God will ultimately judge in the end.

Knowing even that God will have vengeance on his enemies should humble us that we put our trust in him who judges justly.

We were once enemies of God and we would have been under the judgment at the at the final day of judgment if it not had been for the fact that God intervened in our lives and turned us from the way that we were on to destruction.

And he turned us to the path of righteousness, to the place of glory, where we will be with Christ forever in his eternal kingdom.

It is not for us to repay. God will repay, leave it to the wrath of God.

Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for your goodness and and whatever it is that's going on in our lives.

If anybody has wronged us, we're filled with bitterness. We wish that the wrong that had come upon us would come upon them tenfold.

I pray that that would not be the bitterness in our hearts, the chip on our shoulder, the attitude that we have as we walk through life.

But we trust in God. We love our enemies and we pray for those who persecute us.

We hope that the desire of the hearts of our enemies would be to turn from their sin and that they would put faith in Christ instead of walking in these ways of evil to their own destruction.

May we not desire that for anybody, but that they would come to Jesus and live. Thank you for your patience with us, for we were certainly in a time where we were deserving of that judgment.

But in your divine forbearance and patience, you passed over former sins and gave us

Jesus to be the propitiation of our sins. May we walk more in Christ today.

May we love as Jesus has loved us. And we do not revile those who revile us, but we continue entrusting ourselves to our

Father in heaven. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt