WWUTT 199 Bless Those Who Persecute You?

Whenever we're persecuted or reviled for our faith, we tend to respond by saying that our rights are being infringed upon.

But have you ever thought that your response should first be to rejoice in God for being persecuted when we understand the text?

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know we don't. When we understand the text promotes sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your host, Pastor Gabe. Thank you, Becky. All right, I can officially say it now. The book

Forty Mormon Beliefs and What the Bible Says is now on the When We Understand the

Text website. So you go to www .utt .com, click on the Bookstore tab at the top middle part of the page, and you'll see it like the second book down on the list.

Pick up a copy. You'll not only learn about what Mormons believe and how to respond to Mormonism with the truth of the scriptures, but a lot of Mormon beliefs are very similar to some things that the

Word of Faith movement believes and the New Apostolic Reformation. Churches in the NAR include

International House of Prayer, Bethel Church, you know, Jesus Culture. Some of those are the

New Apostolic Reformation. And the reason why there are similarities between those charismatic apostolic things and Mormonism is because they both kind of came out of the

Second Great Awakening and what was called Christian Reconstructionism. All of it was birthed out of the same place.

So while there might not be a direct line from Mormonism into Word of Faith and New Apostolic Reformation, a lot of that apostolic revelation is very similar compared to some of the things that Joseph Smith taught.

So anyway, pick up that book Forty Mormon Beliefs and What the Bible Says at our website, www .utt

.com. Let's come to the text, Romans chapter 12. We'll be looking at verses 14 through 21 today and actually pick up in this section next week as well.

So starting in verse 14, 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.

Coming back to verse 14 now, bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse them.

Now a lot of the things that we're going to be reading here in verses 14 through 21 are going to have to do with how we are to respond to the hostility that will come from the rest of the world.

So what we were reading in verses, well, really verses 3 through 13 was how we as the body of Christ should be interacting with one another.

But then in verses 14 through 21, it's going to be how we as the body of Christ can help one another in the midst of persecution that is coming from the world.

So when we read in verse 15, rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep,

I think what's really being said here, although let me say this first, I think that a good principle is being applied whenever we take this verse to mean that we should rejoice together in one another's joys and we should share together in one another's sorrows.

That's fine. That's perfectly fine to read that verse that way because I think that we should be doing that.

But here's what the context really implies, is that when a person shares the gospel with somebody else or another group of people, and there are those who repent and come to believe it and are saved, we can rejoice together with that person because that's a work that not just that individual did, the entire body of Christ, the entire church did that together.

Or when a person is out there sharing the gospel and they're getting beat up by the world, they're getting persecuted because of the gospel that they share, then when they come back defeated, we can mourn with them and also encourage to help build them back up again so that they're receiving the warmth and affection from the body of Christ that they need energized to be able to go back out into the world and share the gospel again.

The church is their support system. We need to rally around each other. I think you can also take this to mean that when a person really has a burden or a desire for another individual, their heart in particular, to come to know the

Lord, we can struggle with them. Our heart is breaking with them, though we might not know that other person as personally, we can still feel the same struggle that our brother or sister in Christ feels about reaching that other person for Christ.

Okay, so that's really the context of verse 15, rejoicing with those who rejoice, weeping with those who weep.

And I think also of what we read in first Corinthians 12, when we were in that chapter last week, first Corinthians 12, 26, if one member suffers, all suffer together.

If one member is honored, all rejoice together. So when, when somebody is being persecuted, the entire body of Christ suffers with that person.

When one person is being honored, or they have an opportunity to share the gospel, and we can all be behind them and rejoice together on those opportunities that they have.

So let's come back to verse 14, because I kind of gave a big, you know, exegesis of verse 15 here and kind of skipped over 14, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

And that is going to be the verse that carries through all of the rest of the verses that come after it all the way through verse 21, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

So when we read repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all.

We're understanding that the ways that we interact with those who mean to persecute us because of this gospel that we believe in, we need to react to those persecutions in a way that is going to give honor.

It's going to show honor to the body of Christ, and it is going to be a testimony to the Lord, our God, that he is our confidence, not an ability to win an argument, not an ability to shout a person down, not an ability to stand on the street and say, my rights are being violated.

But rather we are, uh, we are responding in a way that is bringing honor to the body of Christ and showing honor to the

Lord. Bless those who persecute you, bless Paul says it again and do not curse them.

Don't respond back to them the same way that they are responding to you. A gentle and quiet spirit is the way that we need to respond to those who are persecuting us.

We look at Matthew chapter five in the Beatitudes. Okay. You know, you know the Beatitudes, blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God.

And all of these, what are called the Beatitudes, uh, Charles Spurgeon has said, they're not describing how to be saved.

They're describing the saved. Those who are saved are the poor in spirit and they're blessed by God for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Those who mourn will be comforted. Those who are meek shall inherit the earth.

And that's literal, by the way. Those who are meek in Christ, meaning that they put others needs ahead of their own.

They will inherit the earth. They get to rule the earth when God's kingdom comes to earth.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. They'll be satisfied when they seek after the righteous things of God.

They will find them. Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy, given mercy by God because we were merciful to one another.

As Jesus will then say in Matthew chapter six, the next chapter where he talks about how to pray, he gives us the

Lord's prayer. He says at the end of that prayer, after teaching us how it is that we're supposed to pray, he says, if you forgive others, their trespasses, your heavenly father will also forgive you.

But if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your heavenly father forgive your trespasses.

So we understand that in being merciful to one another, we shall also be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see

God. Those who pursue holiness will get to see the Lord and his holiness.

Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. And the way that I've talked about this one in particular with my congregation,

Matthew five, nine, when we take the gospel of Jesus Christ out to the world, we are being peacemakers because it is the gospel that when a person hears and believes it through the gospel, they have peace with God.

Previously, they were under the wrath of God, John three thirty six. He who has the son has life.

He who does not obey the son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him.

So they are walking around in enmity with God. And then when they hear the gospel, repent of their sins and believe in Christ as Lord who has satisfied the wrath of God, they now have peace with God because they heard the gospel and responded to it.

And so that makes us the carriers of the gospel that makes us peacemakers.

And we've all been called to do this. All of us who are part of the kingdom of God have been called to share the message of God.

And in doing so, we are displaying that we are the sons and daughters of God.

Now, Matthew five, ten, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.

Let me repeat that again. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake by living a life of righteousness, maybe not even by their words, they're being persecuted, but that they would just live a life of righteousness and they would be persecuted for that.

Paul says in second Timothy three, twelve, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.

You probably haven't even had an opportunity yet to get the words of the gospel out of your mouth. And already you're being persecuted because of the life of righteousness that you lead, because you are not willing to bow down to a culture who is saying to you that if a little boy wants to identify as a little girl, then you have to call him a her and go by the pronouns in the feminine name that he, she wants to go by.

It's so confusing. I don't even know how to talk about it. Just in this way,

I mean, you've not even shared the gospel yet, but refusing to bow to the whims of the culture will get you persecuted because you desire to live a life of godliness in Christ Jesus.

So Jesus in Matthew five, 10, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the kingdom of heaven, a kingdom that is imperishable, the kingdom that will reign by the king who conquers and will put all of his enemies under his feet.

If you are in Christ, you are on the winning side and for being persecuted for righteousness sake, you will be given the kingdom of heaven.

Verse 11 blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account, rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

A couple of things I want to I want to note here is that a lot of the accusations that are going to come at us from the world will be false accusations.

Oh, you don't believe that gay marriage is OK. Well, you're an intolerant, hateful bigot.

Not one of those three things could be correct. Well, intolerant might be correct. I would I would go ahead and own that label.

But these are the false accusations that the world is going to make of us. OK, rejoice and be glad.

So that's the first thing I was going to mention. Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

So when we endure persecution, reviling people speaking evil against us, we are going through something that the prophets went through.

We are enduring the same thing as a prophet of God. What an honor that is. But even more so than that, we are sharing in Christ's sufferings.

Jesus calls us his brothers and sisters. And what happens to us is the same as if it would be done to him.

He talks about that in Matthew chapter twenty five. So as we share in this persecution, in the suffering and the apostles rejoiced at the beginning of Acts, you see them rejoicing whenever they were persecuted because they were counted worthy to suffer for the name of God.

And so rejoice in that, rejoice in the fact that you have gotten to suffer for the gospel of God.

For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, Paul says this in second Corinthians one five, as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings.

So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort to you share in his sufferings.

You are also comforted by God in a way that no one in this world can ever be comforted in suffering.

We are comforted by our Lord God because we know that in enduring these things for righteousness sake, ours is the kingdom of heaven.

So in knowing this, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse them.

God, I pray that as we read these things and we apply them and we will continue to study these things as we come back to them next week,

I pray that you would give in our minds and in our hearts a peace about your word so that when we are reviled because of it, we respond peacefully to those who mean to persecute us because of this godliness that we are pursuing in Christ Jesus as spoken about in your word.

Let us continue to come back to these things to train and discipline us in the ways of the

Lord and be an encouragement to one another as we grow in these things together. And we pray this in Jesus name,

Amen. You can find a complete list of videos, books, devotionals, and other resources online at www .tt