Saturday, October 29, 2011

Blessed are you when mankind hates you! Part 2

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

There are several things mentioned here; first – “when men shall revile you”; second - “persecute you”; third – “say all manner of evil against you falsely”; “and for my sake.” Let’s look at these independently of each other.

“when men shall revile you” The word “revile” means – to defame or to taunt – therefore those that try to mark us as hate mongers for believing the truth are actually blessing us; because God said this make us blessed. Let us not forget what they called our Lord Jesus Christ in John 10:20 “And many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him?” but we need to remember what God said in Philippians 1:29 “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;” We are blessed because we are actually suffering in the place of Jesus Christ as He did for us at Calvary. They hate us because of Him and His word or truths. Beloved count it joy when men revile you.

“when men shall persecute you” This is different of sort from verse 10 “which are persecuted for righteousness' sake” because verse 10 deals with doing an act of righteousness and verse 11 deals with just any Christian that suffer persecution for any reason. This also includes verbal persecution.

“when men shall say all manner of evil against you falsely” The word falsely here means - to utter an untruth or attempt to deceive by falsehood – As sovereign grace Baptist we are always spoken of in an untruthful matter and described as evil people because of what we believe in the scriptures. There are not many today who believe any of God’s doctrinal truths anymore; they all fall under the category of those who call the truth a lie and a lie the truth. Beloved we are greatly hated and not just by non-Christians but by actual Christians who follow untrue teachings because we are landmark sovereign grace. The words “all manner” means any hurtful or evil thing uttered. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 4:14 “If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.”

“for my sake.” This is the bottom-line purpose for their persecution and evils against us; it is because of Jesus Christ. It is not that they hate us personally because in the flesh we are all the same but when we believe in Christ, when we believe in
His truths, then they turn against us as they did Him. Our Lord reminds us in Matthew 10:22 “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.” And the Psalmist reminds us in Psalms 44:22 “Yea, for thy sake are we killed all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.” – beloved don’t count it bad when you are persecuted in the name of the Lord but rather a blessing and a joy!!

Saturday, October 22, 2011

Blessed are you when mankind hates you!

Matthew 5:11 “Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.”

The next Beatitude covers several areas but one in general and that is mans hate for the Christian. The Lord uses such words as revile, persecute, evil, and falsely; these are things that mankind loves to do to the Christian, simply because they hate them. Christian such as Baptist and a few others were grossly persecuted by others that called themselves Christians but were not acting as though they were Christians. I am about to get myself in trouble with someone I love very much as I did a couple of weeks ago; but what I am about to say is very provable in history so therefore I can say it with confidence. In what is known as the “dark ages” (that is a period between 500ad – 1700ad) some fifty million Baptist and other Christians were killed by the Roman government, Catholicism, and other that were the product of the reformation period. It was natural for those such as Martin Luther, and many other who left Catholicism who are known as Protestants to hate, revile, and even hurt and kill Christians not associated with them or Catholicism. History will prove out that the early settlers here in America were fleeing from the “Church of England” and other haters of the Baptist and other Christians. Now let me please reiterate this is all very provable if one would simply do an internet search on this subject. I would also recommend one read a book entitled “The Trail of Blood” by J.M. Carroll which is also found on the internet. I understand that Catholicism of today does not seek to kill Baptist and other Christians not associated with them but it is in their past and not denied by the Catholic Hierarchy nor by anyone else that knows Catholic history. I have several Catholic friends and some of my family is Catholic and I love them all but the facts are the facts and history is history.

So today we want to take some time and will most likely we will extend this to another week because it covers such a wide area we simply cannot cover this in just one article. Last week we look at another beatitude “persecuted for righteousness' sake” blessed are them that suffer for doing acts of righteousness but here we see and addition to that which covers a very wide area. This verse basically speaks against those that hate Christians and them that the Lord calls blessed. We sometimes find it hard to understand how we can be blessed when men hate us, but we are because they hated Jesus Christ first and because of that they will hate all other Christians. The world is against us and even in our own Nation today we are most hated by many other Americans. There are many Americans today that would love for the Christians to walk two by two into the sea and disappear. If you are a member of either political party there are those inside of that party that hate and revile you, and would rather you were not a part of their party. Our own government hates us because we disagree with their political laws such as abortion and homosexuality. We are known as “hate mongers” if we disagree with them. But we that are Christians need to “pull up our boot straps” and keep marching forward no matter what is said or done. When we see religions of the world allowed doing things, when it is forbidden for the Christians; please never forgetting it is not you they hate; it is He whom you believe in as your Saviour. You are the only one that they can exercise their frustration on; yes you because to them Jesus Christ is dead. Beloved every time you hear of another Christian being persecuted please remember it is Christ Jesus they truly hate and blessed are you and all other Christians around the world that suffer for the cause of Jesus Christ.
We will continue this verse next week.

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Blessed Are Those Blessed Saint Who Are Persecuted.

Matthew 5:10 "Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

Blessed are they who are persecuted; not for any reason but for “righteousness' sake”. Sometimes Christians are persecuted for unrighteous sake; just because a Christian suffers persecution does not mean that it is righteous persecution. God warned us Christians that the world sets traps for us, “The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.” Psalms 37:12 I do not believe this is littoral but rather a metaphor to show an expression of their malice and hatred toward the Christian. But we cannot over look the expression to be something taken from hell itself. Matthew 13:42 “And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.” This expression shows a couple of thing (a.) the intensity that the lost will persecute the Christian and (b.) how close the lost are to hell and Satan. Let us not for get God shows this closeness in John 8:44 “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” With this being said we as Christians must make ourselves aware that the world has a great desire to harm us and with the intensity that they will use to harm us. But the Christian must also make themselves aware that God promised that we will suffer persecution in this life. 2 Timothy 3:12 “Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.” Now a deeper look at this verse shows us that persecution is immanent for any Christian that does the righteousness of God. Any Christian walking with the Lord in TRUTH will be persecuted; maybe not with death but at the very least you will be hated and despised for the truth you believe and the walk that you walk. However God did warn us through the Apostle Paul “For unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but also to suffer for his sake;” Philippians 1:29 and here in Matthew God tells us that because of this persecution we are blessed and not only blessed but also made us this promise; “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven."

When God says “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." He does not mean that this suffering persecution will get us into heaven but the reward of our persecution will be in heaven. Christians do not suffer persecution just to suffer as a Christian but that God had or has a purpose for the suffering; just as He did with His faithful servant Job, Job did not suffer because he had done something ill toward God but rather because he was such a glorious servant to God that God knew that if he were persecuted he would never curse God. But the glorious thing for Job is (while he may not have understood what God was doing) that he was well rewarded for his suffering both here on earth and in the world to come, and so shall we be also. God never forget His faithful servants and the sacrifices they make on His behalf. While He has promised them He has also promised to reward us for them “…for theirs is the kingdom of heaven." With this all being said I will conclude with this passage of scripture; 2 Thessalonians 1:4 - 7 "So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure: (5.) Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer: (6.) Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you; (7.) And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,"

Saturday, October 8, 2011

Blessed are them who makes peace.

Matthew 5:9 “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.”

We now come to our next beatitude and that is the peacemaker, a peacemaker is one who makes peace with others. There never been any doubt that God is a peacemaker; not with all mankind but with all who will be saved. A peacemaker is one who makes peace with Gods creation; God never commanded that Christians live any other way than peaceful. Romans 12:18 “If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.” People tend to attempt to make Christianity as an un-peaceable religion but it is not; neither un-peaceable or a religion. Christians and mostly Baptist have always tried to live peaceably in this world. Now remember God commanded in Romans 12:18 “If it be possible…” meaning there will be times when it will not be possible. However even with that being said God did command “But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Matthew 5:39 meaning we are to be a longsuffering people also. When we look at all of this from top to bottom and side to side we see that the finality of t all is that we are to be like God a likeness we lost in the fall. When God said He created man in His own image He meant that man was created in His likeness in attributes, not all attributes but many and these are regained by mankind in salvation or in Christ.

We must understand this does not mean that we can make peace with God because man does not have the ability to make peace with God. God makes peace with man only through Christ Jesus. Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:” man lives under the misunderstanding that we can make peace with God. We have nothing with God except through Christ Jesus which is our all and in all with God.

Now being peace does not make us children of God but means we will be called the children of God because we are saved in Jesus Christ not because we are peacemakers. As we look at the worlds religions we see evilness in all of them to a point and some more radical than others as in the Muslim faith. Now some attempt to make the lying point that the Christian faith is just as evil as the religionist but they do not understand what a Christian is; for example I do not consider Catholicism as a Christian faith but rather as a religionist faith. I also do not consider those out of reformation a Christian faith. How can one be considered a Christian faith if they do not have faith in Christ Jesus. But those that do have faith in Christ also are peacemakers and are also called the children of God because none others in this world can be called either; peacemakers or Gods children. Ephesians 5:1 - 2 “Be ye therefore followers of God, as dear children; (2.) And walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us, and hath given himself for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweetsmelling savour.”

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Blessed Are The Pure In Heart.

Matthew 5:8 "Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God."

Our sixth blessing of salvation or our sixth Beatitude is “pure in heart”. A pure heart would be a clean heart which means a heart that has been cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. This is the test of Christianity that most miss; and that is God deals with the heart or as Paul called it the “inward man” in 2 Corinthians 4:16 “For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.” The “inward man” is renewed day by day because it is the spirit of man; that is the same spirit that was killed by the sin of Adam and made alive by the second Adam, Jesus Christ. The heart of a Christian is pure because it cannot ever be dirty again by sin because the blood of Jesus Christ continually cleanses it or as Paul said “renewed day by day” with this being said we can see that all the children of God are the pure in heart and all will see God.

People today as a lot of people of old have a gross misunderstanding of what it takes to satisfy God; they seem to think that we satisfy God with the outward man and outward acts of kindness but this is their biggest mistake, we worship God in spirit and in truth and whatever is in the spirit should be our outward show of work. John 4:24 "God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth." This is the reason we can worship God and one day will see God because our spirits are renewed day by day. Now on the other side of things; those that are still lost will never see God except for their judgment day because their sprits are still dead and unclean. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2:14 “But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” There is no communication between God and the lost man; He does not see them, He does not hear them, He does not help them, and when it is all done and over with they will not see Him in His glory. The Christian is so blessed that it will only be when we are all with Jesus Christ in our new glorified state that we will fully be able to understand what this means.

I think Paul may have summed it up best in Titus 1:15 "Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled." Unto all that are saved all things are pure therefore there are no un-pure thing with the Christian and on the flip side to the un-pure or the lost nothing is pure but rather all is un-pure. Let us not forget from whom our cleansing came from and we can understand why it can never be called unclean again. Acts 10:15 “And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.”

This is why when one shows their righteousness outwardly and not from the heart then you can be assured that they are not saved. Beloved it is not what you do outwardly but what comes from the renewed heart that counts and what is done from the renewed heart will show on the outside but in a very much different way. Matthew 5:16 "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."