Well, good morning to all of you. I want to start by talking, by way of introduction, by talking about King David. And to that end, you can turn in your Bibles to 2 Samuel, chapter 5. 2 Samuel, chapter 5, starting in verse 1. Now, King David is no unfamiliar figure to most, even those with even just a cursory knowledge of the Bible. As many of you I'm sure know, he was first anointed to be king of Israel by Samuel, as recorded in 1 Samuel chapter 16. But it was not until 2 Samuel chapter 5, where I just had you turn, following many hardships, including the king at the time, King Saul, pursuing David for his life, making more than one attempt at taking it, But David is finally made king over Israel. 2 Samuel 5 records the anointing of David as king over Israel. So I'm going to read the first three verses of 2 Samuel chapter 5. Then all the tribes of Israel came to David at Hebron and said, Behold, we are your bone and flesh. In times past, when Saul was king over us, it was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd over my people Israel, and you shall be prince over Israel. So all the elders of Israel came to the king at Hebron, and King David made a covenant with them at Hebron before the Lord, and they anointed David king over Israel. So I've got the picture here that this is describing in Hebron. This is a celebration, an anointing of the king of Israel. The people of Israel, against God's will, had been asking for a king to be judged over them. The reason it was against God's will is because they wanted a king like the other nations. They were rejecting God's will for them. And they wanted to model their own nation after the nations around them. So they are granted this request, but Saul turns out to be a disappointment, the first king. During Saul's reign, David had led successful military campaigns and had gained the favor of the people. And let's not forget that whole matter of David and Goliath. The favor of the people is what provoked King Saul's jealousy of David. And so Saul tried to kill David more than once. And David had demonstrated his integrity by not laying a finger on the Lord's anointed. He spared Saul's life when he had the chance to kill him on more than one occasion. Now the point is, there were things happening in the land of Israel at that time politically. The event of David's anointing, it marked the end of tumultuous times for both David and the kingdom of Israel. So with that scene in mind, turn now to 1 Chronicles 12. 1 Chronicles chapter 12. And go down to verse 23. 1 Chronicles 12 gives us a list of men that were present at this celebration. But these men, rather than bringing gifts or wine, and rather than being dressed in their best clothes, they all brought weapons. For example, look at verse 24. The men of Judah are bearing shield and spear. Verse 36, the tribe of Asher sent seasoned troops ready for battle. The Danites in verse 35 are equipped for battle. Now there's a few other descriptions that point to the unity of purpose that Israel had. For example, the Benjaminites in verse 29, they are called out as the kinsmen of Saul. So the point there is that even the Benjaminites who would be most likely to keep loyalty with Saul, some of them came. As a side note, where there is disunity in Israel, it was in the Benjaminites. It says the majority of the Benjaminites were not there. But some of them did come. And then finally, the half-tribe of Manasseh, in verse 31, were sent there with express orders. They were sent, and this is how it says it in the word, expressly named to make David king. So get the picture. They were sent there and told, you better make sure that David gets anointed king. And so there is unity in the decision to proceed with this anointing. But there's one group that I want to point out. By far one of the smallest groups, the men of Issachar. They are not said to have weapons, but wisdom. Look at verse 32. Of Issachar, men came who had understanding of the times to know what Israel ought to do. Now compare this with 2 Samuel 5 in verse 2. In times past, when Saul was king over Israel, It was you who led out and brought in Israel. And the Lord said to you, you shall be shepherd of my people, Israel, and shall be prince over Israel. I see parallelism here. First Chronicles 12 of Issachar, men came who had understanding of the times. Second Samuel 5, 2. In times past, when Saul was king over us, It was you who let out and brought in Israel. They understand the things that had happened with David. The other parallelism. The second part of First Chronicles 1232 says to know what Israel ought to do. Second Samuel 5 to the second part. And the Lord said, you shall be shepherd of my people Israel. The men of Issachar. were well aware of the times in which they lived, and they understood how to interpret those times in light of the word of God. They had their ears to the ground. They understood the political landscape. They were acquainted with the ways of wisdom as found in God's word, and knew it was right and necessary to make David king. If you look at First Chronicles 12, 23, It says right there, according to the word of the Lord. Now, their numbers perhaps made them less able to defend David from attack, but their wisdom put them there with conviction and unity of purpose. And I don't think it would be a stretch to suspect that they were used to strengthen or possibly even create the unity of purpose that Israel had as a nation to make David king. So brethren, like the men of Issachar, we live in times that must be understood by God's people that we would know what we ought to do. This morning, I intend to start a brief teaching series over the next four weeks, including this week, on church martyrs and the persecution of the church in history. And it's going to be prefaced with this message on what the scriptures have to say about persecution in general. Now this has been prompted by what I have seen in recent years to be a rising threat to the church in our nation. I'm no prophet, but I believe real persecution may be right around the corner for those who faithfully hold to the gospel in our land. So brethren, my vision for this short series was born out of a desire to help us as a congregation to prepare our minds for action, as Peter says in 1 Peter 1 13. My prayer is that it will help you not be fearful of what may come, but rather to have a disposition of excitement and joy at the prospect of being counted worthy to suffer for Christ. We can't stick our heads in the sand. We can't ignore the times. We must understand these things, and some of these things may be hard to talk about, but we must be faithful to do the will of the Father who is in heaven. So by way of introduction, I have a point here titled, Understanding Our Times. So what am I referring to? Why am I so worked up? Before getting into the text this morning, I want to briefly tell you why. I think persecution may not be so far off for us in this country. But first, I want to say what it's not about. This is not about COVID lockdowns. It is not about COVID lockdowns. I believe that is a secondary issue. I may have an opinion about those, but I'm not going to make any claims one way or the other about the imposition of lockdowns due to the novel COVID-19 virus. What has me worried is more serious. And it's really one major thing. How many people, if you feel comfortable raising your hands, how many people have heard the phrase cultural Marxism? Now of the people who've heard of it, how many people feel comfortable explaining what it is to somebody who doesn't know? A more, I was pointed out in something I read just the other day that possibly a more accurate term An accurate scholarly term for this is critical theory. Because of cultural Marxism, that term can be associated with some other things that are completely different, bad still, but completely different, like some neo-Nazi type stuff. And that's kind of the opposite end of the radical problem. And so some people say it's more accurate to call it critical theory. So if you hear critical theory or cultural Marxism, In our day, it's probably referring to the same thing. We may be nearer to persecution in our country than we have ever been because of the ideology of critical theory. So I want to explain what it is as briefly as I can. But to do that, we first have to go back to Karl Marx and classical Marxism. I'm sure you have all heard the name Karl Marx. He was a German intellectual who lived from 1818 to 1883. He interpreted history as a struggle between those who are oppressed, the proletariat, and those who are doing the oppressing, the bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie controlled the means of production, and they exercised oppressive control over the proletariat. And that control is manifested economically in the form of profit. He believed that the reason the proletariat, now listen to this, he believed that the reason that the oppressed group accept their oppression was because of religion. And he believed that he would witness the fall of this oppressive economic system known as capitalism within his lifetime. That this system would be overthrown through most likely violent revolution and that this would lead to an intermediary economic system called socialism, which would eventually be replaced by communism, which is characterized in part by a lack of government and by communally owned goods, no private property, where everyone simply does their duty for the good of society. So it's this roadmap to utopia. However, Karl Marx died in 1888, and he never saw this prophecy fulfilled. And this left his followers wondering why. What happened to the revolution that Karl Marx prophesied of? I don't mean literal prophecy, but he anticipated was going to happen. Well, that brings us to a man named Antonio Gramsci. Antonio Gramsci was an Italian Marxist intellectual who lived from 1891 to 1937. And he came up with this idea of cultural hegemony. One definition of the word hegemony is leadership or predominant influence exercised by one nation over others or one group of people over others. Substitute any noun in for one nation and you've got the idea. The idea of cultural hegemony is that domination or rule in a society is not simply maintained economically. It's maintained through cultural and ideological means. So this allows for a subset of the population, which we call the hegemony, to influence and control the behavior of the rest of society. So the hegemony dictates what is right and what is wrong and what is normal and what is abnormal, what kind of laws we should have, and what kind of behaviors are acceptable. That's cultural hegemony. Fast forward a little bit to The next generation, the Frankfurt School. This was a school of social theory, a school of thought, not a literal school with a building. It was a school of thought of social theory associated with a university in Frankfurt, Germany from the early 20th century. So these are again German philosophers. They fled Nazi Germany and eventually ended up at Columbia University in New York City. The ideas of Gramsci of cultural hegemony were further developed and proliferated in the US by these philosophers through higher education. And it is from them, from the Frankfurt School, that we get concepts such as political correctness and critical race theory. Now fast forward to today. Fast-forward to modern times after decades of this ideology being taught in our higher education institutions and we have a system of Marxism which has replaced the bourgeoisie with the hegemony and the proletariat with the minority so The minority is anybody not in the hegemony This group of people that controls all of society. So the minority may not necessarily be a small group it may actually be a majority. But since they're not in the hegemony, they're called the minority. Women, for example, make up more than 50% of the population, but they're a minority because they're not in the hegemony. You still have an oppressor and an oppressed class, but they've been renamed. Moreover, the means of oppression in this cultural Marxist system has been expanded to include all aspects of society, not just economic. It includes race, culture, religion, and economic prosperity. Who is the hegemony? All people who are white, male, heterosexual, cisgendered. If you haven't heard cisgendered, that means that if you are biologically male, you say you're biologically male. If you're biologically female, you say you're biologically female. If you're biologically male and you identify as female, that's transgender. Similarly, if you're biologically female and you say you're male, you're transgender. So cisgender just means that you identify with your biological sex. So the hegemony is white male, heterosexual, cisgendered, able-bodied, native-born Americans. The reason why Marx didn't see this revolution is because he didn't take his ideas far enough. It was more than just an economic problem. It was a problem rooted in the foundations of society. The hegemony must be overthrown. And the entire cultural economic system must be deconstructed and rebuilt after the vision of a culturally and economically equitable system. Some offshoots of this ideology are critical race theory, intersectionality, and the concept of wokeness If you have been enlightened to the cultural Marxist ideologies, you are woke. Critical race theory starts with the assumption that society is basically racist and provides a set of analytical tools which enable one to see the concealed bigotry everywhere present, but nowhere seen to the unwoke. That is kind of a hard concept to explain in one sentence like that. If you're interested, I can send an article about how that was used at a physical therapy location. And reading through, I think it's not too long, maybe 10 pages. Reading through that helped me understand exactly what that is. But I just, I don't have time because I actually do want to preach. So I don't have time to get way into this stuff. Intersectionality. So that refers to a method of determining your level of oppression according to the characteristics of the hegemonic group. These philosophers love big words. So if you are not white, if you're something like Mexican, heterosexual, cisgendered, and able-bodied male, you are in an oppressed group because you're not white. However, if you are black, trans, female, and a disabled lesbian, you are much more oppressed than the Mexican male who is able-bodied and cisgendered. But if you are white, if you are male, and if you are heterosexual, cisgendered, able-bodied, native-born American, then you are guilty by association, and there is no forgiveness. All you can do is acknowledge your hegemonic power and sit down in dust and ashes with your mouth shut and listen to the non-hegemonic minority groups in society. Now, how does this lead to persecution in the church? Last summer, when we were having all the riots across the country, I came across, I think it was on social media, I couldn't find it again, so I have to recollect it from memory. I came across on social media somewhere, it was like a one-page BLM flyer, and it was a description with pictures of the hegemonic group today. So all the normal things were there, white males, et cetera, et cetera. But I also saw a familiar symbol. I saw a cross. It said that Christianity was a white religion. and therefore implicated it in the sin of hegemonic oppression. There's a website called christianhegemony.org that has this as their stated goal. This website is part of a larger project to help people recognize, analyze, and resist all forms of Christian hegemony, which we define as the everyday, pervasive, deep-seated, and institutionalized dominance of Christian institutions, Christian values, Christian leaders, and Christians as a group. Christianity is in the hegemony. It is therefore guilty of oppressing the minority and must be deconstructed. Now, to oppose this ideology is to be a racist. It's to be homophobic. It's to be transphobic. It's to be a bigot. The most ardent defenders of cultural Marxism will not debate. We do not have rationalism and logic as a common ground here. To debate is to give a platform to a racist, which is tacit approval of that racism. So all opposing views must be silenced or canceled. This is the underlying ideology of BLM. of the movement away from valuing the First Amendment in our country is the underlying ideology of cancel culture and many other things. But I do want to mention a note of caution here. Not everyone who has a BLM sign in their yard is necessarily all in. And they don't necessarily know its connection with this ideology. Not everyone who even argues for something like transgender rights is necessarily a cultural Marxist. Like anything, when an ideology finds its way from higher education into society, it kind of manifests itself on a continuum. On a continuum. There are some who are all in and fully aware, and there are some who are only mildly supportive and completely unaware of the underlying worldview and may even disagree with many of the most serious points. This has come out in the church already. The Southern Baptist Convention has adopted critical race theory as a viable tool for the church. There's ideas floating around that the best biblical interpreters are those not in the hegemony. So if you're white, male, able-bodied, cisgendered, heterosexual, you are less able to interpret biblical truths than somebody outside of the cultural hegemony. Also, the idea that church leadership should be replaced with greater minority representation as opposed to following the commands of scripture as found in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1. This ideology is absolutely antithetical to the Christian worldview. For one, there's no forgiveness. If you're a hegemonic power, there's no forgiveness for you. For another, it adopts a humanistic worldview. It denies biblical anthropology, that we are all basically evil and bent towards sin apart from the grace of God. It denies the problem of sin altogether and capitalizes on the human propensity to blame. You know where we read about that first in the Bible? The woman you put here with me, she gave me the fruit, and I ate. To reject this ideology is not to deny the real problems in society that it seeks to address. There is real racism. That's not loving your neighbor as yourself. There's too many people in prisons in this country. That's a problem. There are real problems of sin that can sometimes trend in subgroups of society. For example, if there's a particular subgroup of men that beat their wives at an extremely high rate, or are more likely to be alcoholics, the Bible deals with it by calling it sin. And you know what? The Bible has a solution for sin, and that's the gospel. The gospel is for sinners. Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick, I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance, our Lord says. The real tragedy with this ideology is not so much that the church might see persecution. The church will be fine because the lamb wins. The problem is that sinners won't think they need the gospel. There's a lot I can't talk about with this ideology because time just won't allow it, but if you do want to understand our times, you need to understand these things. One good place to start is a website called Shenvi Apologetics. Shenvi Apologetics, that's S-H-E-N-V-I, apologetics.com. He is a Christian homeschooling dad. He's a theoretical chemist. He has a PhD in chemistry. Gotta trust those, I don't know if you wanna trust those chemists out there. We've got two sitting here today. And he put together this website that deals with some of these issues. Another place to look is the founder's website. You can check out talks by Vody Bachman or Tom Askell on these issues. It's good to be able to recognize the language of this ideology so that you know what you ought to do with it. So that's basically the reason why I'm concerned about persecution of the Christian church in our day, in our land. Some are more concerned than I am. There's a lot of opposition to it, even outside the church. We have a lot of reason to be hopeful. There's some others, like I heard Paul Washer talking about it. He's very concerned. I feel like he probably has his ears to the ground much better than me. So I don't know what's going to happen. Well, we need to be faithful, and so I want to bring to you the word, show you how we deal with persecution, show you how the Bible says we deal with persecution, and then show you how it's been dealt with in history. So now we'll move on to the doctrine, persecution in the Bible. I'm going to address this under three heads. It's certainty. its source, and our proper response. Persecution is certain. Persecution has a source. And persecution has a proper response. So first, it's certainty. The followers of Christ will be persecuted. It's exemplified by the plain statement of Scripture, by the pervasive examples within Scripture, by the pervasive examples in history, and by its role in our identity as Christians. So those are four sub-points. So the plain statement of Scripture. The point here is that the Bible plainly says that Christ's followers will be persecuted. Christians will be persecuted because the Bible says so. And here we find our text this morning. You can turn, if you want, to 2 Timothy 3, verse 10. 2 Timothy 3, verse 10. I'm going to read through verse 17. This is where we find that wonderful scripture proof that we have in the shorter catechism about the sufficiency of scripture. You, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. Which persecutions I endured, yet from them all the Lord rescued me. And here's the plain statement in verse 12. 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. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you have learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus." And we have that wonderful statement of the inspiration of scripture. All scripture is breathed out by God. and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work." Now, as most of you know, this is a pastoral epistle. It was written by the apostle Paul as a letter of personal exhortation and encouragement to Timothy himself. Timothy was a fellow laborer of Paul. He accompanied him on his second missionary journey. There is an intimate relationship between Paul and Timothy. Paul seemed to have a fatherly, mentor-type role with Timothy. He refers to him as my beloved child in 2 Timothy 1-2. It is this close relationship that is on display in verse 10 and also in verse 15. So going back to verse 10, You have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, my persecutions, and sufferings that happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, and at Lystra. We'll look at those persecutions in more detail later, but he's saying, you have been with me throughout all of this time. And then in verse 15, he says, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation. Paul and Timothy knew each other very well. Since Timothy accompanied Paul on his missionary journeys, he was familiar with the issue of persecution. Paul says this very explicitly in verse 11, that Timothy was aware of Paul's persecutions at Antioch, Iconium, and at Lystra. At Lystra, Paul was stoned at the hands of Jews, that came down to oppose him from Antioch and Iconium. He was dragged outside the city and assumed dead. And I'll read of that account in Acts 14, 19. But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city. And on the next day, he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. Then in 2 Timothy 2.12, we find the plain statement of scripture that Christians will be persecuted. Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. So now you can see something of the context of this statement. Paul was commending Timothy for his faithfulness to the gospel. And he mentions how he was familiar with Paul's persecutions. In verse 12, he makes that plain statement of the certainty of persecution for the Christian. What he's saying is that you remember all those persecutions that happened to me that you know. That's what we should expect. Because all who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. Persecution is a theme throughout this letter and throughout many of Paul's letters. In verse 8 of chapter 1, Paul says, Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me, his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God. In verse 3 of chapter 2, again, he says share in the suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. At the time Paul had written this letter, he had been arrested and already had a hearing. He says in 2 Timothy 4.16, at my first defense, no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them. Paul is expecting death very soon when he wrote 2 Timothy. He says in verses 6 and 7 of chapter 4, for I'm already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. I fought the good fight. I've finished the race. I've kept the faith. Someone pointed out to me something here from Second Timothy recently. Think about that. That's Paul at the end of his ministry. He was deserted, and he was in jail, and he writes a letter to Timothy begging him to come see him. How would many churches judge the success of the Apostle Paul's ministry if that was at the end of his life? He's all washed up. He's thrown in prison. All his friends have abandoned him. Persecution is not glorious. Number two, the pervasive examples within scripture. Persecution is a theme throughout the scriptures. Why did Cain kill Abel? They weren't fighting over toys. Cain was angry that his brother's sacrifice was accepted, and his wasn't. So he killed his brother. What was it that Jezebel did to the prophets in 1 Kings 19? She killed all the prophets with the sword. And this wasn't enough. She then sought Elijah, which led him to say to the Lord, I have been jealous for the Lord, the God of hosts. For the people of Israel have forsaken your covenant, thrown down your altars, and killed your prophets with the sword. And I, even I only, am left. and they seek my life to take it away." Micaiah was imprisoned by the king of Israel for not prophesying good concerning him, and Asa was put in the stocks for rebuking him. Jeremiah was beaten by Hashurah the priest and imprisoned on at least three occasions. And let us not forget the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that our pastor just preached to us, and the fiery furnace from Daniel chapter 3. or of Daniel being thrown into the den of lions. John the Baptist was in prison. The apostles were beaten, flogged, put in jail. Persecution broke out in the early church such that it led to the Christians in Jerusalem being scattered throughout all the regions of Judea and Samaria. They fled their homes. Persecution is a common theme in the letters of Paul. In 2 Corinthians 1.24, we read, five times I received at the hands of the Jews the 40 lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned. Paul refers to himself as a prisoner, an ambassador in chains, or as possessing the chains of imprisonment. And let us not forget that our Lord of glory was beaten, scourged, spit upon, crucified, and killed. And so he tells us in John chapter 15, if the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. But because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Number three, the pervasive examples in history. Persecution is a common occurrence in the history of the church. Since the ascension of our Lord, I don't need to get into the examples this morning. Time does not permit. I see it running out already. That's kind of the point of the next four messages. I will be picking one church martyr or one group of martyrs, and I'll try to tell their story for the next four weeks, including this week. So the pervasive examples in history will be kind of the subject of the afternoon messages for the next month. Number four, its role in our identity as Christians. It is part of our identity as Christians. Matthew chapter five. That's what we read this morning. It starts with some of the most familiar words in all of scripture known as the Beatitudes. The Beatitudes form the introduction to our Lord's longest recorded discourse known as the Sermon on the Mount. where he shows us, among other things, what righteousness looks like. Matthew Henry makes the observation, it is a practical discourse. There is not much of the credenda of Christianity in it, that is the things to be believed, but it is wholly taken up with the agenda, the things to be done. So it says, do this, live like this, not necessarily believe this. So it's different from what Paul and Silas told the Philippian jailer, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Our Lord here gives us instruction in righteousness, clarifying for his audience along the way, the law of God. For example, he says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. What truly I say to you until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, Not a dot will pass from the law until all is accomplished. So the Beatitudes themselves show us the character of a righteous man. Who would rightly be called blessed? They are delivered in the form of, forgive me for saying it like this, self conflicting absurdities, literary paradoxes. The meek, not the conqueror, will inherit the earth. Those who mourn will be comforted. Those who hunger and thirst will be satisfied. It is the characteristic of hunger and thirst that you're not satisfied, but those, exactly those, will be satisfied. So these are opposite of what we would expect, and so that's why I call them literary paradoxes. Have you ever considered which one of the Beatitudes has the most airtime? Well, a cursory glance at the first verses in 3 through 12 make this pretty easy. Matthew 5, 10. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The Beatitudes tell us what a righteous man looks like. The eighth Beatitude tells us what he looks like in a sinful fallen world. He is persecuted. A world full of ungodly, unrighteous, truth suppressors who hate God will persecute those who love God. The first seven beatitudes are things that come from the righteous. The eighth is something that is done to the righteous. But so common is it for the righteous to suffer persecution that it forms part of their defining characteristics. What do we call a person who spends all his time golfing every weekend on the course, maybe taking professional lessons, fine-tuning his skills? We call him a golfer. He does this so much it's part of his identity. A Christian in a world full of God-haters is persecuted. It defines part of who he is. I do want to add a note of caution. Nowhere in scriptures is persecution set up as evidence for faith. Jesus says in John 14 21 whoever has my commandments and keeps them. He it is who loves me and he who loves me will be loved by my father and I will love him and manifest myself to him. And then in John 1 John 5 3 4 this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And then you remember we went through the parable of the sower some time ago. How is it that that good seed is identified by its fruit, by its good works? Obedience is evidence for faith. Persecution is certainly to accompany faith in varying degrees, but it's never set up in the scriptures as evidence. One reason why is that there's people with just political ideologies that are persecuted. It's not like persecution is something unique to Christians. It has happened to other groups of people, too. So certainly it can't be set forward as proof for our faith. Now let's move on to the source of persecution. The source of persecution is, in the first place, human sin in general. The Bible describes man in his natural state as Children of wrath, in Ephesians 2.3, we have a bent towards evil and such a disagreeable disposition towards the things of God that we are described as dead to it. The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned, 1 Corinthians 2.14. This is simply the doctrine of total depravity. But someone may ask, you're simply describing man's inability to respond to the gospel call apart from the grace of God. Yeah, that's true. But man's depravity is more than just deadness to that which is good and spiritual. It is aliveness to that which is evil. Jesus says to the Pharisees in John 8, 44, you are of your father, the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. It is not just that man hates the light. It is that he loves the darkness. It is not just that man is blinded in the darkness and so cannot see the light. It is that he stubbornly shuts his eyes, lest he might see the light. Man in his love for darkness is maliciously ignorant of God. And therefore, though ignorant, he is inexcusable. And I don't mean absolutely ignorant. You can see that in Romans 1. Man is aware that there is a God, even in his sinful state. Why? By the things that have been made. But he is ignorant of the spiritual goodness that flows from God, and he's maliciously ignorant of it. Therefore, the source of persecution is hatred towards God. It will manifest itself in different ways depending on the amount of awareness there is of the gospel, but at its root, it is always hatred towards God. For example, sometimes the Roman Empire would persecute all religions. Anything beside the Roman pagan religion, I believe the Emperor Domitian. wanted to revitalize the pagan Romanistic religion. And so he said, OK, that's the only religion of the state if you practice anything else, whether it's Christianity or something else, we're going to persecute you. So sometimes Christianity would just get kind of mixed in the bag of everything else being persecuted. Other times, it was more specific, such as when Nero blamed the great fire in Rome on the Christians. It was just politically expedient for him to do it. That's not to say that he knew anything about the name of Christ. It was just a convenient group to blame that people didn't really like anyways, and so it was believable. The Christians were just a convenient victim. But according to Paul, even among men such as these, ignorant of the gospel, without the benefit of being entrusted with the oracles of God like the Jews, they still knew God through the things that he made. In such instances, persecution can sometimes simply be a secondary effect of the cause of hating God in general by pagan peoples. But I would argue that where there is more knowledge of scriptures and greater understanding of the gospel, that persecution can be much more pointed, stemming from a hatred of the way. and a hatred of Christ specifically. I'm looking at an old note here. I think I forgot to change because I changed these sermons around a little bit. I'm trying to see what I was trying to get across here. What I'm trying to get across here, it looks like, is that the Jews were the ones who were opposed to the gospel in Acts, throughout the book of Acts. The source of persecution, in general, is hatred towards God as manifested on a spectrum of actions depending on the knowledge of Christ and the gospel present in the environment of persecution. So we talked about the certainty of persecution by looking at the plain statements of scripture. Second Timothy 3.12 says very plainly, indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. It doesn't get much more plain than that. We have seen the pervasive examples of persecution within scripture in the next message in this afternoon. And for the next three weeks, I'll consider some examples within history. And finally, we considered its role as part of our identity as Christians by looking at the last beatitude. which says, blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. We have said that the source of persecution is within human sin in general, hatred towards God and hatred towards Christ specifically. Human depravity means more than just alienation from God, but involves malicious hatred towards God. Mankind is culpable for his ignorance. We have considered that persecution may manifest itself as a secondary cause of hatred towards God, as it was in some of the early Roman Empire's persecution of the Christians. And we have considered that greater knowledge of truth can lead to more pointed kinds of persecution aimed at Christians specifically, out of hatred for Christ specifically. So now I want to talk about, well, what are we supposed to do about it when it comes our way? What's the proper response? Do we run from it? Do we avoid it as much as we can? Or maybe we seek it out. Should we seek it out for the glory of Christ? When it comes our way, how should we behave? And to what end? Time won't permit me to consider all the ways that we ought to respond to it, but Paul does offer Timothy some helpful words in our first passage in 2 Timothy 3. Right after he says, all those who desire to live a godly life will be persecuted. He tells him what he ought to do. But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it, and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. And then he points him to the word of God. So Paul basically tells Timothy, respond to this in two ways. He exhorts him to continue in the faith. to persevere, and he reminds him of God's word. He must abide in the word of Christ, for then we are truly his disciples, John 8, 31. We must not be tossed about as children, carried around by every wind of doctrine, Ephesians 4, 14. And we must not be led away by diverse and strange teachings, Hebrews 13, 9. Rather, we must continue in the faith which we have firmly believed. The persecutors will persecute. Let the Christians believe." Paul points Timothy, secondly, to the word of God. Remember the men of Issachar. How did they know what Israel ought to do? It says right in 2 Samuel 5, 2, for the Lord said that David ought to be shepherd over my people Israel. That's how they knew. They knew through the prophet Samuel that it was the Lord's explicit will to make David king. They went to the word. Similarly, Paul reminds Timothy of the word of God with which he has had acquaintance since childhood. He reminds him of what it does. It reveals the knowledge necessary for salvation. He reminds him from where it came. It is breathed out by God. It is his very word to us and can therefore be trusted. And finally, he reminds him of its uses. It is useful for teaching, for rebuke, for correcting, and for training in righteousness. He tells Timothy, remember your Bible. Remember that you can trust it. Remember that it contains the words of eternal life. And remember that it will not be found lacking for any need you have for it in your ministry, including when you're confronted with persecution. Some points of application. Number one, faithfulness in your Christian walk. What should you do at a time when persecution might be coming? If you've got your ears to the ground and you see on the horizon signs that it might be coming your way, what are some of the things we should do now? Well, just what Paul says, continue in the faith which you have firmly believed. It is all the more important to be faithful in your Christian walk in the face of persecution. Paul's message to the Ephesians seems appropriate here from Ephesians Chapter 6. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. The men of Issachar and the other leaders of Israel who were there at David's anointing were there with weapons because they were afraid that there would be some kind of revolt and resistance to David being anointed king. We do not bring weapons to this battle. Because we do not battle against forces that we can see. These are spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. So we must continue in our faith. Do you have any besetting sins? Deal with them. Do you feel an inexcusable ignorance of the word of God? Learn it. Are you able to explain the gospel on the fly when asked? If somebody asks you, hey, what is the gospel anyway? Can you tell me about it? Would you be able to do it? If not, practice it. And if that means memorizing four or five points to help you walk through it, then do it. Do you need help from fellow Christians on any of these things? Ask for it. We must always be ready to give a defense for the hope that is in us, especially when persecution may be near. Second, what Paul tells the Ephesians, maintain the unity of the spirit. Paul says this to the Ephesians. He wrote this while in prison. I, therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called. with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the spirit and the bond of peace. Is there a brother or sister in Christ in the congregation that you have an issue that you haven't resolved? Resolve it. Are there members in the church that you have not cared to really get to know? You go about your week not thinking about the needs and struggles of the body of Christ. If persecution were to come to us as a congregation, we're gonna need each other. We're gonna need to be reassured that we love one another in the Lord Jesus Christ. In John 15, 12, Christ commands his disciples, this is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. He continues in this discourse, and in verse 18 through 27 of the same chapter, he warns the disciples of the hatred of the world that they will see for following him. And Matthew Henry, commenting on this passage, says this. He had charged them to love one another. And need enough, they had to love one another, for the world would hate them. To be kind to one another, for they would have a great deal of unkindness and ill will from those that are without. Keep peace among yourselves, and this will fortify you against the quarrels of the world. Those that are in the midst of enemies are concerned to hold together. Brethren, if I were to lose my job because of something I said up here, I'm going to need your support. I might need to borrow a couple bucks, too. If our pastor gets put in prison, he's going to need your support. He will need to know that you love him and that his family is loved enough to ensure in his mind that they will be taken care of. If there's ever a time to maintain the spirit of peace and unity, it is in the face of persecution. Third, know the times in which you live. If the things that I spoke of in the introduction to you this morning are completely foreign to you, or even somewhat unfamiliar, you may want to consider familiarizing yourself with it. You've got to understand the dangers so that you can avoid them, so you can recognize them, and so that you know how to respond rightly with humility and love. And finally, I don't want to miss this one. Don't be afraid. A constant in history is that Christians have suffered persecution, even today. But also a constant in the history of redemption is that the lamb wins. Christ is our king. He knows our weaknesses. The church will be fine in the end, and the inheritance that we look forward to cannot be defiled. So take heart, Christians. and do not fear. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, we do thank you that Christ is victor. We thank you that Christ is king. And we thank you for the love of Christ that all the saints enjoy. Lord, what a blessing it is that we can be counted friends of the Lord Jesus Christ. We look to these things, the landscape of our culture and in our weakness, Lord, we worry and we fret and we are afraid sometimes. Strengthen us, Lord. Help us to remain firm in our calling. Help us to be faithful in our devotions. Help us to show the love of Christ to one another and to visitors and to the world and even to those who might persecute us. Help us to have our eyes on the prize, which is the glory of God the Father through the Lord Jesus Christ. That is why we're here. And we thank you, Lord, for your word that you have offered us much to comfort us in times such as these. And we pray in Jesus' name, amen.