Jan. 22, 2017 Afternoon Service - Blessing Our Persecutors by Pastor Josh Sheldon

I was asked during lunch how I was doing with Hosea, which will be our next preaching series here during the afternoon. And I had to confess that with many of the things that have been going on in the last several weeks, I have not been able to bear down on Hosea.

And if I can't tell you in a short paragraph and a few cogent sentences what that book is about, I'm not ready to preach it. And I will not stand here and preach to you a book that I don't feel in my spirit and before God in my conscience.

I'm ready to deliver to you. But Hosea is the next one. And the Psalms that I've been going through are not like a second-class substitute. But I will admit that the Psalms for what we're doing here during the afternoon are a little easier to get my arms around.

And so they take less detailed study than a book as intricate as Hosea. But we will, Lord willing, get to Hosea. That is my intent. With that, we turn this morning to Psalm 4. I didn't note the page in your pew Bible, but that will be our text this morning.

Blessing Our Persecutors and the Question Psalm 4 Answers

Psalm 4, I titled this message, Blessing Our Persecutors. And one of the questions that Psalm 4 answers, among other questions, is how do we respond? Now Jesus, during His high priestly prayer, said, In the world you will have tribulation, but take heart, I have overcome the world.

Paul later says that all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution. Peter tells us that when we're beaten for our faults, that's of no good. Now, of course, I'm paraphrasing. But God bless you, as it were.

God bless you if you're beaten for, if you're punished because of your testimony of Jesus Christ. But it still leaves hanging for us, doesn't it? Don't we all want to have, what do I say? When these people come up and speak against me with derision, speak poorly about my God, what do I actually say to them during this persecution?

We'll talk about what persecution is during this message, a bit of a repeat of what we've said before during the preaching of the Sermon on the Mount, but I think it bears repeating. Psalm 4 answers this for us.

What do we say to our persecutors? What does it mean to bless those who curse you? What does Jesus mean when he says that at the end of the Beatitudes? Psalm 4 helps us to answer that. So let me read to you these eight verses from the Psalm.

It says, How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Selah. But know that the Lord has set apart the godly for himself. And the Lord hears when I call him. Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts on your beds and be silent.

Selah. Offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord. There are many who say, who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound.

In peace I will both lie down and sleep. For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. Psalm 4 offers us a way of blessing our persecutors. A way of bearing up under it by responding in a way that the Bible would commend to us and it truly fulfills all that Jesus says and what Peter says later in his letter we should do when these things come upon us.

Warning the Persecutor and the God Who Hears

The quick answer is, warn them. Give warning to these ones who would come upon us and give us this kind of a trial because of our faith, because of our testimony in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we believe in a God who is thrice holy, Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

Because we believe in the resurrection from the dead, in eternal life. We believe in heaven and hell. We believe Jesus was born of a virgin. We believe these things and therefore these things come upon us from the world that is not just unbelieving of them but violently and aggressively and determinedly opposed to them.

What do we say when these people who outnumber us sometimes and we're intimidated by the numbers of people, sometimes they seem so much smarter than us and we can't defeat their arguments because they're so eloquent, their rhetoric is so fine.

What are we supposed to say? What am I going to do in the face of that? Warn. Give warning to them. I think that's what this psalm would commend to us. There is a God in heaven upon whom we can call anytime we have need.

He hears us and He answers us. So let me bless you with this. You who dare to treat a child of God in this way, let me bless you with this. God does not take your hatred of me lightly. God does not take your hatred of me lightly.

You remember back in 2 Samuel when David sent an emissary to the Ammonite king who had just taken over, the man who had been a prince. His father died and David said, I will send emissaries to them to do some kindness for him.

I believe his name was Haran. Because of the kindness his father did for me. And so he sent his two emissaries and they were horribly mistreated because the young prince's advisor said, No, they're spies.

They've come to spy out the land and to do us harm. So what did they do? They cut off the cloaks of the buttocks, which would be terribly disgraceful for those men, and cut off half their beard. Again, so disgraceful.

And David went and destroyed them for that. Why? Because the way they treated those emissaries was the way they treated David. Who is David? He's a type of Christ. The way you treat Christ's ambassadors is the way you're treating Christ.

And that's the warning we can give. I serve a God I can call upon. I serve a God who hears me, who answers me. I serve a God who does not take this lightly. The martyrs in Revelation 6 .10, they ask how long they must wait before God avenges them.

They're not rebuked for this. God doesn't say, Well, why don't you love your enemies instead of calling upon me to destroy them and work vengeance upon them? That's not at all what it says. They're not rebuked at all.

They're given white robes. They're given clean robes, washed in the blood of Jesus Christ, and they're told gently by a good and loving Father who does not take their martyrdom lightly and has no easy thoughts about the ones who martyred them.

He tells them, wait a little longer. This is the God we call upon. This is the God that you are essentially insulting. David, in the first words of verse one, he asks God to answer him. At the end of the verse, he pleads God would hear him because he is a gracious God.

And in the middle of that verse, what does he do? He remembers for us that God hears him. Answer me when I call. At the end, be gracious. Hear my prayer. In the middle, you have given me relief. You have done this in my life.

You have interposed yourself in history, in my little micro history, but Lord, God has done this. I mentioned before prayer a couple of weeks ago when we opened prayer, the service with Psalm 4. Remember that the Hebrew word for distress is a word that means narrow, constrained, kind of tied up, and relief comes from a word that is the opposite.

It means broad, enlarged, with a freedom of movement. The attacks that he speaks of here, and I think we can all relate to this, they're personal, they're harsh, and they do make us feel tied up in knots.

You get nervous. You can't respond. You don't know how to stand. You don't know if you should put your hand in your pocket or both at your sides or clasp them behind your back. What do we do? I'm all tied up.

I'm constrained. This is a tight little place to be, and I don't know how to come out of it, and David's been there before, and God has given him relief, and I think we can all relate to this also. We've had those times, and when we're in our right minds and we stop and we pray, and we get that relief from God by His Spirit, don't you feel that freedom?

All of a sudden, you can move your arms again, your legs start working, your mind starts working, you're back on Scripture, you're understanding what God has said, and you're able to apply it, and this is sort of the picture we have here.

From all tied up in knots to being on an easy-to-see path, because it's God's Word that defines the path, is it not? A broad path, a level path, and we can just move along. You see, the important thing here is that God's answer meets the need.

Therefore, we come boldly to the throne of grace to find help in our time of need. Listen, if I need a fish, God doesn't give me an automobile. So after he calls on God, on the one God, his thoughts go immediately to his enemies.

Did you notice that? Answer me when I call, that first verse, and immediately in verse two, Oh, men, how long? And he goes on. They take what is honorable. How long will my honor be turned to shame? They take what is honorable.

They characterize it as something shameful. And what comes to mind here, not just thinking of the world out there, which obviously does this, and God knows, and the prophets anticipate this. Isaiah 5 comes to mind.

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to those who put darkness for light and light for darkness. What's the prophet talking about? It's exactly this sort of thing. David's honor, King David's honor being turned into something shameful.

Our testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ so derided by the world. One of the best examples I think of, the most, I shouldn't say best example, but the example that comes most to my mind is our stance against abortion.

Abortion is murder. Abortion is simply murder. It's against God's word to kill the innocent. And all these discussions about whether the fetus is human at this point or that point or the other just make me nuts.

I mean, I'm not a scientist, I'm not a doctor, anything like that, but how could it be anything but human? And how could it be but murder? By God's word, we stand on this truth and therefore are falling into great disrepute in the world.

And the insults and the attacks against us coming in more and more frequently with greater and greater determination and violence. I think this is exactly what Isaiah says with light and darkness, darkness and light, good and evil, evil and good, everything topsy-turvy.

And what David says in the psalm, his honor, an honor given to him by God Almighty turned into something shameful. Not that they turned it into something shameful, but they're talking about the way they spoke against him, the insults he received.

Honor, when you turn my honor to shame, honor is the word kabod, which also means glory. It means weight, as in a person with a weighty presence coming into a room. So how do they do this? Better to ask, how did they try to do this?

What goes on in the psalm, it's their love for vain words and their seeking after lies. How long will you love these things? David asks. How long will you love vain words and seek after lies? Actively, determinately looking for what is obviously, clearly, and according to God's word, not truth.

It's their love for that, their love for the vain words, the empty things. Vain means empty, like the pit Joseph's brother tossed him into. It was empty, there was no water, there was nothing of any use there, there was nothing that could sustain his life in it.

It's the description of plots against the Lord and his anointed in Psalm 2. It describes an effort that is futile, that is useless, that is doomed to failure and yet pursued as it was the best plan on earth.

Where God and his people are lovers of the truth, these detractors love the complete opposite, lies. They love lies. How do we answer? How do we answer such persecution? What do we do when our honor, and what is our honor, what is it we glory in?

It's the cross of Jesus Christ. What is our honor but our faith in Jesus Christ? Him. We represent a person when that is turned to shame or characterized as a shameful or wrong kind of thing. When because of our stand for Jesus Christ we take stands against the world and they say, well, you're the one who's evil.

And we point to the scripture and say, no, this is exactly what the scripture says, just on official reading of it. I guess what David is speaking of here, this turnaround of what is good and treating it that way.

How will we respond? Look at Psalms, verses three to five in our Psalm. Know that the Lord has set apart for himself, him who is godly. The Lord hears when I call to him. Be angry, do not sin, ponder in your own hearts on your beds, and be silent.

Offer right sacrifices, put your trust in the Lord. It's as if he said, do you know who it is I serve? Do you know anything at all about the God who is sealed me by his Holy Spirit? Do you know that this God whom you're insulting has placed me in his son, Jesus?

Think carefully here. Think carefully about what you're doing. I can call upon him and in a moment, should he choose, you would be destroyed. I think it was our brother Steve some time ago when he was preaching up here and he first put this terminology in my mind, though I've always believed it, but I like to hear it so explicitly.

You know, if God stopped thinking about you for a moment, you're done. You're through. That's not just you or me, that's these enemies. Do you know the God I can call upon? He didn't have to send a bolt of lightning and smite you.

He just has to stop thinking about you for a second. This is the God I serve. This is the God who watches over me. 2 Timothy 2 .19 confirms this, but God's firm foundation stands bearing this seal. The Lord knows those who are his.

The Lord knows who you're persecuting. The Lord knows who you've set these insults upon. Matter of fact, he knew you were going to do it before you ever did, but that's a whole different class of our theology, isn't it?

The Lord knows. And this is the first warning. God knows me. I am his child. I was bought by his son. I know David back then when he wrote this couldn't quite say it the way we do, so I'm mixing together his side and our side of the cross, but I think you understand what I'm saying there.

The Lord knows who are his. Ephesians 1 .3 said, is it God Almighty, God the Father, who chose us before the foundation of the world to be in his son when he died for our sins? This is the God who's taking these insults personally.

So God knows me. I'm his child. And what are they saying against him? We're not told exactly. We don't have quotes, but the honor-shame idea helps us. Shame means insult. It means reproach and honor.

Who is our honor? I said it a moment ago. It's Jesus Christ. And what emblem is emblazoned on our shield of faith but his cross? When we prepare ourselves for the day ahead, it is his righteousness that is our breastplate.

It is his truth that is our belt, holding it all together. If tennis shoes are recognized by Nike, the Nike swoosh, our footwear is recognized because it bears the emblem of the gospel of peace. The shame conferred against all this means that they're saying that there's no reality behind the symbol, that David's faith, that our faith, is all in vain.

And I say a reality behind the symbol. I mean that very differently than this morning's preaching, where the reality behind the symbol should have been obedience to the law of God. Here, I'm speaking of a reality behind the symbol, which is Jesus Christ and the salvation that we have in him.

And this is, in our context, to push Psalm 4 forward into our side of the cross. This is the honor that they try to turn to shame, the honor, the glory that we have in our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

God knows me. He's aware of my every breath and yours, so beware, O persecutor. The Lord has set me apart for himself. The Lord hears when I call him. He's relieved me before, and he's promised to answer me again.

His son promised me. Jesus Christ said, anything you ask in my name, in my name, that I will do. Now certainly, when I'm at work, I don't have any chance, really, of being persecuted in that way because we have an employee roster of one.

But I remember, I worked for a large Fortune 500 company, I still remember what it was like. And I bless all of you who have to tolerate this and put up with this and find a godly way to respond to it.

And this is one, that if these are just out and in insults, the Lord hears me when I call him. He's heard me before, he'll hear me again, and his son says I can call upon him in a moment. And if I ask in his name, he will do this.

So take care, lest I ask in Jesus' name, regarding you. Take care. And watch who it is that you're insulting. Be angry, he says. Be angry and do not sin. Ponder in your own hearts, on your beds, and be silent.

He's still blessing them. Literally, he's saying, tremble and do not sin. Tremble before the God who has committed himself to do only good for me. This one that you're insulting. God Almighty has promised only good from him to me.

It might be a hard good to get to, in his good providence, and yet we know it's only good. So we can say, tremble. Tremble before God. Tremble and do not sin. Stop doing this because of the God that you're insulting.

Go to bed where you can do yourself no more harm. Stay quiet there in your bed. Make no more wicked plans. Be silent. Think carefully about what you're doing. Because my defender is a great warrior. And finally, offer right sacrifices and put your trust in the Lord.

He's still speaking to the persecutors. In other words, it is time for you to abandon your life of sin and submit yourselves to God. A sacrifice implies repentance. He says, make sacrifices. A sacrifice accepted means forgiveness has been bestowed.

This is his blessed counsel to his enemies. From our side of the cross, we would say, Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world, is the final and the ultimate sacrifice. Believe in him.

Believe in him. Go to God by faith in his shed blood. This is the right sacrifice, and this is the only right object of trust. So instead of insulting this God who sent his beloved son to die for our sins, instead of that, rather than that, offer right sacrifice, which is none other than faith in his son, Jesus Christ, as the final sacrifice, and put your trust in him.

The God Who Justifies and the Joy of His Face

Detractors must be told that we serve a God who hears, who cares, who answers. He's the God of the universe, and he set me apart for his own, and here is how he cares for me. Romans 8, 31 to 34 says, What then shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

It is God who justifies. Who is it who condemns? Christ Jesus is the one who died, more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. He returns his thoughts to God.

There are many who say, who will show us some good? Lift up the light of your face upon us, O Lord. The question here is not a cynical one. Who will show us some good? It's the prayer of the church answered by their leader, perhaps a Levite.

Who will show us some good? The answer is, the Lord will show us some good. He echoes the Aaronic blessing. The Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face shine upon you, be gracious to you. The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.

Who will show us some good? Again, not the detractors, not in cynicism, the church. Who will show us some good? The answer, the Lord. The Lord God will show good. And with this, he ends with confidence, and so must we.

You have put more joy in my heart than they have when their grain and wine abound. However well-off they seem to be, however rich and materially full they are, however luxurious and easy are their lives, no matter how much it is abounding and they won't acknowledge the God who makes it abound for them, no matter all that, you've put more joy in my heart than that could even come close to.

In peace, I will both lie down and sleep. The confidence we have that God hears our prayers, we stay on our knees, we keep our hands clasped together, which, of course, doesn't mean we have to go into that physical posture, but in our spirit, until we are satisfied that we've emptied ourselves, that we've cast all our cares upon him who cares for us, in peace, lie down and sleep.

For you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety. How do we respond? With a stiff upper lip? With courageous stoicism? No, none of that. Not if it's to be a biblical answer. We needn't be sawn in two, we needn't be burned at the stake in order to be persecuted.

Fox's book of martyrs is a sobering must-read, but God's bar for what is persecution is quite a bit lower. So when you think of how to respond to these insults, remember what it says in Hebrews 10, verse 32, where he talks about the former days when after you were enlightened, you endured a hard struggle with suffering, sometimes being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction and sometimes being partners with those so treated.

For you had compassion on those in prison and you joyfully accepted the plundering of your property since you knew that you yourselves had a better possession and an abiding one. Why do I read all that?

We read that before when we were back in the persecution part of the Sermon on the Mount, the end of the Beatitudes. I read that as well. Because in Fox's book of martyrs, which I just alluded to, the terrible things that happened is not what defined persecution.

Persecution is being publicly exposed to reproach and affliction, to having their goods confiscated. You see, the God we serve, when we call upon him, he cares about that, and this is persecution in his eyes.

Don't think you have to be tied to a stake or cut in half slowly with a saw like Edgar Allen Poe with the pit and the pendulum, as horrible as that would be. Persecution in God's eyes is a different, I don't say lower, a different bar than that.

Persecution is when somebody comes upon you and turns the honor that you have in Jesus Christ and tries to make it shameful. And God Almighty, our Father, sees that that way. As slander is against David's honor or persecution, the derision you endure to your face or behind your back, that is persecution.

When we encounter this, I think Psalm 4 is a refuge for us. It teaches us that when they dare to treat a child of God this way, they are engaging in the most hazardous enterprise imaginable. And we ought to warn them.

I'll just close with a quick comment. There's no suggestion here that after we pray and we've gone through this psalm and we've meditated upon it, that the accusers just go away with their accusations.

What changes as a consequence of prayer, what changes is not the circumstances coming upon us from the outside, but the inner spirit of worship. And so our benefit is if we can lie down and sleep and know that God alone is the one who makes us dwell in safety.

If we're only affirmed and confirmed and strengthened in that, you've been blessed. And in that sense, your persecutors have been answered. It's the inner spirit of the worshiper that is definitely changed by this, whether or not God chooses to smite our persecutors or change them.

And we can also, as we are taught elsewhere, we can pray for them and pray for their salvation. But Psalm 4 also gives us the right and the duty, if you will, to warn them that we serve a great God, a God so great that he sent his only son who died and was buried.

And Lord God, this God that we call upon, raised him up from the dead. Amen.