Moses began his accusation, saying, Seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity as being brought to this nation by your foresight, we accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. Nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear by your courtesy a few words from us. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He even tried to profane the temple, and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands, commanding his accusers to come to you. By examining him yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. And the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so. Amen. Father, we thank you for your word. And we thank you that every jot and tittle of your word is something that you have ordained for our growth, for our instruction, and something that we ought to rejoice in. And so we pray that You would give us joy this morning as we consider what Your Word has to say about the unfairness that we sometimes experience. And we pray this in Jesus' name. Amen. You may be seated. How do you react when you have been unfairly accused of something? Is it really Get your juices flowing? Get you angry? Does it get you frustrated? Perhaps bitter? Does it get your mind spinning at night on ways that you could get even with this person? We're going to be looking at some unfair accusations that are brought against Paul in this chapter. And it's only going to get worse because in another six years, it's not just going to be the Jews who are accusing Paul, but it's also going to be the Romans. In July, I think it's July, of at least the summer of 64 AD, the Roman historians tell us that Nero burned Rome to the ground and pinned the blame on Christians, and then spread rumors throughout the population that the Christians were cannibals who ate babies, they engaged in incest, they were atheists. I mean, they're just outrageous slanders, and yet they're believed by many people for the next hundred years or so. And it really hurts when people say unfair things about you. And so the question is, how do you react when this happens to you personally? Can you react in the way that Matthew 5 calls us to react? To rejoice exceedingly when people slander you and say all kinds of evil against you. Some people get very agitated emotionally, and if their name is not cleared immediately from this slander, they go into great despondency. And I want to tell you a little story about something that happened to a whole town in England. There is a town on the east coast of England that has the name Robin Hood's Bay, and it was named that because in the 1600s, it was a smuggling town. And they had tunnels carved all throughout that town so that they could escape in different directions if the authorities came by. And by the 1900s, obviously, it wasn't a smuggling town anymore. But in 1928, every person in that little hamlet started receiving letters that were accusing them of all kinds of crimes. like incest, prostitution, even killing baby. I mean, there was all kinds of, and every letter was a little bit different to these people. And you can imagine the kind of anxiety this would bring when they're not only accusing you of this, but making threats as well. to get even for whatever it is that you're doing wrong. Well, nobody in that hamlet knew that everybody else was receiving the same letters, and not knowing quite how to handle this, they all kept silent about it, hoping it would go away. And it didn't. The letters kept coming. So there were a number of people who left town. In fact, there were three ministers in the town's church that left the city because of these accusations. And in 1948, this is 20 years later, okay, this was going on. In 1948, one of the people finally started talking about this and how frustrated they were about these letters that were coming. And the person he was talking to said, well, that happened to me as well. And pretty soon everybody in this little hamlet was talking and telling each other about the horrible fear and frustration and bitterness and desires for revenge that they had to whoever it was that was writing these letters. To this day, I don't think they've ever found who wrote the letters over that period of 20 years. It's a mystery. But that town, I think, stands as an example of the kind of things that can happen to people when you're treated unfairly. It can damage your health. It can damage your reputation, make you leave, make you spiritually burned out. And I think Paul is quite a great counterexample of how to handle such unfair treatment. And let's look, first of all, at the accusers. Verse 1 says, Now, after five days, Ananias the high priest came down with the elders and a certain orator named Tertullus. These gave evidence to the governor against Paul. First one is Ananias. He was kind of the power broker that was pulling the strings behind the Sanhedrin. You can kind of compare him, if you even believe in the Bilderbergers like I do, to one of the big boys there, you know, that kind of pulls the strings in our own government. There was about a third of the Sanhedrin, these would be the Pharisees, the scribes who aligned themselves with the Pharisees, that were not controlled by Ananias. But two-thirds really were. He was the strings behind these rulers. In the last chapter, we saw how he temporarily lost control as the Pharisees began to fight against the Sadducees. But he's back again, and he's only bringing the people with him that he can trust. And Ananias really should not have even been here. It's really unfair that he should be here, because he is a guy that should have been impeached. And interestingly, there were some Jews who tried to impeach him not too long before this chapter. And they were successful enough that he was recalled to Rome to answer for his crimes. But Herod Agrippa, and who knows, maybe some others, stood up for him. He came back. He's still the high priest. And probably, we don't have any historical record on it that I've read anyway, probably he took it out on the people that tried to impeach him. He was an incredibly wicked man. I think most authors would agree he was guilty of treason, and yet it doesn't stop him from accusing Paul of treason. Hypocrisy, OK? Everybody agrees this guy was a murderer, and yet he's got the audacity to call Paul a plague. Here is a guy that does not even believe that the Bible is the inerrant Word of God, and yet he has the bold-faced temerity of saying that Paul is blaspheming the temple. He has lied over and over again over the past years and trying to get even with political opponents. And yet he's in court here saying that he's telling the truth, you know, about Paul. And that can really hurt. I'm sure it was painful for Paul to experience this. I remember the pain that Edwin Meese went through when Ronald Reagan appointed him to be the Attorney General. Maybe you guys, some of you might remember that. The ruthless slander was breathtaking. And the people who brought this slander against him, they were so corrupt, some of them should have been impeached. And you see these things going on. Some of you may remember the way that Judge Robert Bork was slandered. In fact, business as usual by that committee is now referred to as Borking the candidate. Do you remember when Justice Clarence Thomas was being examined by these guys? It was just horrible. You know, accusing him of adultery and all kinds of other things. And some of these guys throwing these false accusations were themselves grossly immoral. It hurts to be unfairly treated like this. But here is what I want to promise you. Sometime in your life, you are going to be unfairly treated. And in fact, as I talk about some of these things that we go through, you may find some of this rising up within you, realizing who has treated you poorly. It's almost guaranteed that this church will at some time be attacked by the Ananiases of our own century. And we need to be prepared to respond in a godly way, to not be bitter. We must not become bitter. And we must not be overcome by evil. If we're prepared ahead of time, realizing, OK, Ananiases will attack us, we can protect our hearts from sin when they are unfair. The next group that is mentioned in verse 1 is the elders. Now, the elders were the aristocratic noblemen who were willing to side with the Sadducees. In fact, they were the ones who kept the Sadducees in power. And it was much to the chagrin of the Pharisaic scribes. Remember, they were only about a third of the, they were in a minority. They used to be a majority, but the Pharisees had gotten to be a minority in the Sanhedrin. And they tried to influence what they could, but there wasn't a lot that they could do. And if you remember, last chapter, The Pharisees fought against Ananias? Well, that's the last time you ever hear about the Pharisees in this book. That's the kind of power that Ananias was able to wield. And so he only brings along with him elders that he's already got in his pocket. Now, they were a group of sycophants. Now, dictionary defines a sycophant as a person who seeks favor by flattering people of wealth or influence. See, these elders, they know the danger of opposing Ananias. And they know the perks that they can have if they go along and play his games. And this happens all the time. It's so easy to sacrifice principle in order to get ahead. And sometimes people sincerely do this thinking, I've got to be in a position where I can be of influence, where I can help. And they think I'm just going to sacrifice a few principles so that I can advance other good principles. It happens all the time. Why do so many congressmen, did so many congressmen and senators vote for the bailouts despite massive outcry from the populace? Very unpopular things. Well, I believe it's because they're beholden to people and probably fear or respect those people a whole lot more than those who could vote them out of office. Why did they vote on this package without it even being read by them? Again, they're beholden to someone. Then the last guy mentioned is Tertullus, who is assumed by commentators to be a Roman lawyer. Now, this prosecutor is not interested in the truth. He's interested in doing his job, getting paid for his job. He's got to win, you know, if he's going to get paid well by these guys. And so he pulls out all the stops in order to be able to win, even if it means lying. And even today, we have zealous prosecutors in American history who have allowed their pride to get in the way. They want to win. And, you know, their reputation is built on how many cases they win. And sometimes they know that what they're doing is not right. And when you're on the receiving end of such false and unfair accusations through such a lawyer, it can hurt. So those are the unfair accusers. you may have a totally, totally different set of accusers who have brought pain into your life. It might be a brother or a sister or a parent who has spanked the wrong child, or it might be an IRS agent or a boss, you know, who has treated you unfairly, or it could be any number of things out there. But how we respond to these people is going to make all the difference in the world. Once we get to the conclusion, I'm going to give you some steps as to how you can overcome bitterness, anxiety, frustration when you've been treated unfairly. But I want to really dig into Paul's life because our tendency as humans is to say, well, okay, that's fine for that, but you just don't know how bad it is for me. And I want to show you that it really was bad for Paul. It really, really was bad. And yet, he did not get overcome by evil. Let's look at the unfair accusations, point number two. And I've divided verses two through six up into two parts. These accusations were unfair, first of all, because of the skillful way in which Tertullus was using words to butter up and to influence Felix. And then secondly, they were unfair because the accusations themselves were just lies, absolute lies. Now, that first one all by itself can be frustrating. Some of you who maybe are not as good with words as other people are can be really frustrated when you know you're right, but you can't win the argument. You know, you're arguing along, you lose the argument not because you're wrong, but because the other person is just one up on you, much better with his words or her words. And everybody else seems to be convinced by their argumentation. Well, if that's the case with you and you're frustrated with the eloquence of others, Proverbs 29.5 is a verse that you can put into your hat. It's a verse that promises that when people flatter, they will eventually get caught in their own net. So let's look at the lying flattery of Felix. First of all, verse 2. When he was called upon, Tertullus began his accusation, saying, Seeing that through you we enjoy great peace and prosperity as being brought to this nation by your foresight. That's a bunch of hooey! It's just ridiculous. I'm sure Paul had to really control himself not to let out a, ha, you know, because this is absolutely outrageous what he is saying here. First of all, they did not enjoy great peace through Felix. Felix had almost lost his job because his terrible policies had led to so many riots and insurrections and anarchy that it was at a height that it had not been at for centuries. This statement is ridiculous. According to Josephus, Felix had crucified countless people. Now, some of them had been insurrections, people who created insurrection, whatever their names are. And yet many of them were innocents who were just bystanders there. His tyranny produced such hatred for Rome amongst the Israelites that there were numerous rebels and assassins who were freely roaming the countryside, and it wasn't even safe to travel any longer. I don't think even Felix believed what Tertullus is saying here. He's trying to butter up Felix. And I think Felix has realized this guy is just a nutcase, OK? Because his buttering up has gone overboard. It's about as crazy as affirming that we're going to give trillions of dollars and balance the budget and cut taxes. It's this kind of nonsense that politicians love to give. OK, second flattery. is that Felix has brought prosperity. Well, that's definitely not true because he's been sucking the country dry with taxes. Now, some people translate it differently, and you'll see in the margin, you can translate it as reforms. But he hasn't brought reforms either. One commentator said this, Jews would be hard-pressed to mention any beneficial reforms that Felix had initiated, unquote. You can think of bribery. Bribery was rampant. It was on the rise. It was not on the decrease. Assassinations had occurred. Properties of political opponents had been confiscated. And tourism, if it even existed, was definitely down during his tenure. This chapter ends with the recall of Felix completely. He never does get back. And it was because of his incompetence. His rule was so terrible that commentators say, and Josephus says, it was his tyranny that took Israel over the edge and finally made them willing to fight Rome and get into that war that destroyed them in 70 AD. And so talking about prosperity or reform is sort of like speaking of a congressional ethics committee, which is an oxymoron. or praising their so-called reforms, which is an abuse of the English language. Verse 2 goes on to say that this prosperity or reform, whichever way you want to translate it, is being brought to this nation by your foresight. Now, that's a very interesting word. If you look it up in a dictionary, the only definition for that word is providence. In fact, New American Standard Bible and five other translations have said it's by your providence. Well, here's a problem. Only God can have providence. Only God has the kind of foresight that he can control all things for your good. Now, governments try to do this, don't they? Socialism is trying to, but any governments that try to engage in providence end up getting into the kind of mess that America has been getting into in our own day. Kistemacher says he uses the word foresight, a theological expression that in its Old Testament context refers to God's care for his people. Isn't that exactly what Obama's being praised for? His wonderful care, you know, in health care and in mortgages and any other things that would be for the welfare of the nation. It's the all benevolent messianic state. So even Jews back then could be liberals. These guys were basically the liberals. The Pharisees were not. They would have considered this statement that Tertullos had given here as absolute blasphemy. Okay? But not the Sadducees and these elders. They knew that in order to keep wealthy, they had to get along with Rome and they had to act like Rome. They acted like a divine state. Okay, going on to verse 3. He says, We accept it always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. This is what a messianic state wants. They want you to accept their control always and in all places and to be thankful about it. Right? This is exactly a perfect definition of tyranny. But only God deserves such complete and total submission. Let me read that again. We accept it. That's your providence. We accept your providence always and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. That is a sign of slavery. And people on our nation have been signing up fast and furiously to get on to this giant slave plantation, and they think that they're signing up for freedom. That's America. He calls him Most Noble Felix. Now, I'm not going to criticize him for saying Most Noble Felix, because it could probably be just an honorary term like we give to a judge, your honor, or something like that. But it is interesting to note that both Josephus and the Roman historian Tacitus say that Felix was anything but noble or good. And then the statement, we are thankful. He knows what Felix wants to hear. Felix wants people to be thankful for his rule. Protest was brutally suppressed. Now, thankfully in America, we can still protest without being brutally suppressed. We don't have to be thankful. I mean, there's some that's happening. I saw somebody going like this in the back. There is some suppression that's happening. We don't know how much longer we're going to have the freedom to protest, which has been a trademark in America for many, many years. But such servile attitudes toward a messianic state are unacceptable for a Christian. Unacceptable. Being law-abiding, yes. Yes, we must be law-abiding citizens, but being sycophants is utterly unworthy of a Christian. Verse 4, nevertheless, not to be tedious to you any further, I beg you to hear by your courtesy a few words from us. Now, he admits he's being tedious. In fact, one commentator says, the irony of the situation is that the complaint against Paul is so flimsy that a lengthy oration of praise must give the charges the appearance of substance. By his own admission, Tertullus has little to say." His compliments of the judge are just as long, if not slightly longer, than his actual accusations. That says a lot. You know, if you don't have a good point to make, you've got to throw in a lot of eloquence. And this is what happens many times out there, many unfair attacks against Christians and their positions have little substance and yet they have the appearance of substance. Why? Because of the rhetoric and the eloquence. One of the things that I try to do when I see an article that seems like an overwhelming critique of creationism or pro-life positions or anything else that the Christians are holding to, is I like to jot down, okay, what's the key argument? And you keep going, going, going down, and you're writing down the key arguments. There are very few actual arguments. It's mostly fluff and rhetoric. It seems like this is a very powerful argument, but once you take the rhetorical flourishes out, there's really not a whole lot there. So my admonition is don't get sucked in by brilliant and entertaining speaking. Look for the substance. Now, just a brief comment. on the last phrase of that introduction, I beg you to hear, by your courtesy, a few words from us. Now, here is the hypocrisy. In the previous chapter, they did not want Paul to be heard. Remember, the high priest said, smack Paul on the mouth. You know, when he started to talk, he didn't want Paul to be heard. But here, they want to be heard. And to me, this sounds very much like the democratic fairness doctrine. where they want it to be fair. It's not fair that Rush Limbaugh only has conservative views on his particular thing or Sean Hannity, you know, on his thing. It doesn't matter that they already own, you know, the The TV stations, the radio, most of them anyway, the magazines and the newspapers, they also want equal time on Rush Hannity. Well, all of those conservative talk shows, right? Okay, this is the kind of hypocrisy that we see all the time. As Ken told me last week, the moment people utter the word unfair in a public forum, watch out. They're either reaching for your pocketbook, or they're trying to take away some of your liberties and your rights. And so that's the preamble. Now, let's take a look at four scary accusations that Tertullus makes against Paul. They're utterly unfounded. But if charges are made enough times, some people will believe them. That's the problem with slander. There's always going to be some people that will believe that slander. OK, verse 5 gives the first three charges. For we have found this man a plague, a creator of dissension among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes. He first of all calls Paul a plague. This was a word that was used in the first century to indicate a very dangerous man who was subversive of the public order. And let me give you one quote from a Roman source so that you can see how this was used. The Emperor Claudius. made a charge against the Jews of Alexandria and he said that if they did not stop their suspicious behavior, he quote, will proceed against them with the utmost severity for fomenting a general plague, that's the same word here, which infests the whole world. And so what's happening here is Paul is being accused of being a very dangerous, subversive person. He's subverting the Roman order. Now, in a sense, I guess you could say it's true because Paul wants Roman humanism replaced with Christianity, right? But in the sense that Tertullus is using it, it is absolutely unfair. This is sort of like being charged as a right-wing extremist. It's not designed to communicate information so that you can look at the information and see who's right and who's wrong. No. This is designed only to poison people against even reading your articles or listening to your speeches. It's name-calling. It's unfair. By the way, this label-calling has been on the rise, on the increase in the last two weeks. Just this past week, I'll give you one example. Just this past week, The university, Regent University in Virginia, was said by the government to be a place that is a hotbed of terrorism. And thankfully, the governor of Virginia, he says, this is ridiculous. And he's trying to investigate who the authors of this government propaganda is. But this is the kind of stuff, if you log on to Christian Anti-Defamation Commission, their website, you're going to see all kinds of slander that's coming from government sources. This is a very deliberate thing that's happening all over this nation. But it's just as unfair as what Tertullos is saying here. Okay, second charge is that Paul is a creator of dissension. Now here's how some others translate it. as a fomenter of risings among all the Jews throughout the world. Now, what's scary about this is that there were indeed some Jews who were revolutionaries, who were trying to overthrow Rome, overthrow Felix. And there was enough of this activity that this could have been a credible accusation he needs to take seriously. It'd be sort of like saying, hey, this guy is a terrorist. and they're taking you to court for being a terrorist that that'd be kind of a scary thing to have that accusation brought against you and how do you defend yourself against that that charge the mere mention of this charge at least in felix's ears means i've got to investigate this he can't just leave this go he's got uh... take it seriously third charges that paul is a ringleader of the fact of the nazarenes now this too was a serious charge because the nazarenes was not a religion that was listed in their book of religions that had been licensed by Rome. Now, what difference would that make? It made a huge difference in court because it was illegal in Rome to be an unlicensed religion. It was called a religio ilicata. If you were not licensed by Rome, you could be in deep trouble. They had to get a license to operate or they were brutally suppressed. Now, there were some Jewish synagogues that did not get licenses, but most by this time had just gone ahead and stopped bucking the system. They've got a license to operate, and those that did not get one operated underground. All the Christian churches operated underground. They did not get a license. Rome, sometimes in some districts, had caught on in six years they would be recognized, oh, Tertullus is right. These guys are a sect. They're not part of Judaism. And from that time on, Christianity would be treated as a religio illicata, in other words, an illegal religion. And they'd be treated as a cult. It's very easy to just read over some of these clauses, but we've got to think about these deeply. To this day, churches struggle with exactly these kinds of accusations in China and Russia and in America, of all places. In China, they accused a group of being a horrible cult. It's just ordinary evangelical Christianity, but just the accusation poisons people's minds toward these people. And so it's the same thing as Tertullo saying that Paul was a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes, you know, horrible cult. All of the issues, all of the problems that we're facing today, you're going to find next. Last charge against Paul is brought in verse 6. He even tried to profane the temple and we seized him and wanted to judge him according to our law. Now, that was a powerful argument because Rome gave the Jews free reign in this area. And I think I've talked about that before, so I won't harp on it a lot. But this was so important to the Jews that somehow they'd gotten Rome to say, OK, you can give the capital penalty, and it'll be out of our jurisdiction. If a Gentile has gone past that middle wall of partition, if anybody defiles the temple, you can go after him. Now, earlier, they had thought that Trophimus, Gentile, that Paul had brought him with him into the temple. He obviously had not been brought there. But this charge has already been refuted. They don't have any witnesses on this. It wasn't authorities who were arresting him. And they certainly were not arresting him to have a trial. The mob who arrested him was trying to kill him right there on the spot. But if Tertullus accused Paul of defiling the temple, instantly he would lose credibility because everybody would know about it. The temple would have to be closed down for eight days for ceremonial purification. So he doesn't bring that charge. Instead, he says, Paul tried to defile the temple. We caught him just in the nick of time. You know, this guy really deserves to have the axe. So it's really not a strong argument. But with a person like Felix, who could be bought off, maybe it was strong enough. Okay, Roman numeral three, Tertullus then buttresses the charges with a little bit of history, a little bit of supporting evidence. He says that the Jews seized Paul in the temple and it was for a trial. Now trying to make this into a, you know, a very lawful police arrest of Paul is nothing short of dishonest. Okay. This was mob action. And then saying they want to judge Paul according to the law is an absolute lie. Can lawyers lie? Absolutely. You bet they can. And lawyers like Tertullis would get away with it. There would be no repercussions that would happen to them. Even if his lie was shown to be a deliberate lie, they would not be prosecuted. It's just one of the problems in the system. If a lawyer knows for sure that he's lying and he's bringing all kinds of false evidence to accuse somebody of some crime, he ought to be prosecuted. That's just one of the problems in the system. Anyway, the problem here, well, let's go on to the next section, verse 7. But the commander Lysias came by and with great violence took him out of our hands. Now, this is a slam against Lysias, the Roman commander in the previous chapter. The implication is, If Paul has violated the temple law, if he has tried to defile the temple, Lysias had no business in taking Paul away. In fact, it was illegal for Lysias to be taking Paul away. Rome itself has given us jurisdiction. Rome has no jurisdiction over this question. That's basically what they are trying to say. A big problem, they're pushing the limits of the law. The law actually was quite specific in concrete if a Gentile crossed over that middle wall a partition you could go after it so they're pushing the limits of the law here they also said it with great violence took him out of our hands that's a lie it was the crowd that was doing the violence and then finally they complain about not having the trial in the location where the crime had occurred verse 8 says commanding his accusers to come to you so they want Him tried in Jerusalem. That's where the crime has occurred. That's where He needs to be tried. Now, of course, you know exactly what they're going to do. They want to kill Him on the way back. And we're going to see that later on in this chapter. That's what they tried to do when He was going to be tried earlier. He was whisked out in the middle of the night. And those 40 who have vowed that they will neither eat nor drink until Paul is killed, how many days later is it? Five days or something like that? It's a little bit longer. They're either really sick or dead or they've broken their vow by now. But anyway, this is... This is what's happening. Tertullus then says there's plenty of support for these accusations. First, they say, hey, you can check out our story with the Roman commander Lysias. It says, by examining him yourself, and commentators point out this cannot, in the majority text, it cannot refer to Paul. It's examining Lysias. By examining him yourself, you may ascertain all these things of which we accuse him. This is a rather bold move because they know if Lysias comes to this court, he's going to contradict everything that they say. But it's probably a good gamble because he's 65 miles away. It's a little bit inconvenient for him to call him here. And they're hoping that Lysias and not Lysias, Felix being the His usual capricious self is going to give a judgment in their favor on the spot. They're just trying to give the illusion of having a strong case, and that may be enough for Felix to put his foot down and make a decision. Then verse 9 says, And the Jews also assented, maintaining that these things were so. They act as false witnesses. Now, can witnesses in court today be unfair? Absolutely, yes, they can. And hopefully you can see why I've titled this sermon, are unfair. Trials usually have some unfairness because one side or the other, many frequently, is lying. And when you're the butt of those unfair tactics, it can really hurt. Now let me end with some suggestions of how you can respond when people treat you unfairly. First, remind yourself that God knows, He understands, and He cares. Romans 8.28 is not just an abstract doctrine, it applies even when people are unfair. You can begin by thanking God. Thank you, Lord, that you're going to bring something good out of this. Spend some time thanking Him for your accusers and thanking Him on all of the circumstances around us. God shows His care by including stories of unfairness in the Bible. This shows that Jesus sympathizes and He empathizes with you. That's why He's included these kinds of stories. It's not just a Paul. It's a Joseph who's sold into slavery in Egypt so unfairly by his brothers. It is a story of a David unfairly being persecuted by Saul. And if those people could triumph, You can too. He gives people we can identify with. Thirdly, pray the Psalms that lament life's unfairness. David had a lot of practice in this area because he was so unfairly dealt with. And those Psalms, when you take them on your list, they can be like medicine to your heart. They really are a great, great tool. God shows you how to pray your sorrows to Him. I'm sure Paul was able to identify with David in these words from Psalm 35 and from Psalm 27. Fierce witnesses rise up. They ask me things I do not know. Do not deliver me to the will of my adversaries, for false witnesses have risen against me, and such as breathe out violence. I would have lost heart unless I had believed that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait on the Lord, be of good courage, and He shall strengthen your heart. Wait, I say, on the Lord." Now, it's really hard to wait on the Lord when you've been unfairly treated. It's really hard. But when you pray the Psalms, what happens, and I can tell you this from personal experience, what happens is you're realigning your thinking rightly, you're realigning your will, you're realigning your emotions in a Godward direction. In fact, God's giving you permission to unleash your emotions. He's giving you a release of those emotions in a way that is healing, and it makes you God-focused rather than circumstance-focused. And what happens then? It raises faith within you. I highly recommend that you pray the Psalms to God on your knees when you've been treated unfairly. Now, I'm going to take points 4 and 5 together. I would urge you not to fret and worry. Now, it's easier said than done, and I've given entire sermons on how to put off those negative emotions of anxiety and worry and bitterness and anger. But you've got to do it. Those negative emotions will tear you up spiritually and will tear you up physically. Let me give you three verses from Psalm 37. Do not fret because of evildoers. Do not fret because of Him who prospers in the way, because of the man who brings wicked schemes to pass. Cease from anger and forsake wrath. Do not fret. It only causes harm." James tells us the wrath of man does not produce the righteousness of God. Psalm 37 says, "...the wrath of man and the fretting of man only causes harm. It will do you no good whatsoever, zero, not a good. It will do you no good to stew continually and be meditating and thinking of all of the ways you've been done in by life and other people. It only causes harm. Now David definitely followed, Paul definitely followed David's advice in the next verses, which Lord willing we're going to look at next time. He gave a defense and it was a very vigorous defense. but he did not allow his anger to get control of him. He did not allow bitterness to enter in. It's very important that you do the same. In May of 2007, a very fascinating report was released. It was done in Britain with government officials. There was, let's see here, 6,081 British civil servants that were studied for 11 years. Well, 10.9 years to be exact. And here's the question that they were being asked over that time. I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly. And they had to rate themselves how strongly they agree or how strongly they disagree with that statement. That's the only thing that they were evaluating. I often have the feeling that I am being treated unfairly. And so they're studied for uh... this uh... eleven years during that period of time there were three hundred and eighty seven subjects that i've either died of a heart attack or had uh... suffered a heart attack but survived it or had severe angina now when they started the studies all of these people were completely clear any symptoms of heart disease no history of heart disease uh... in their lives And this is the variable that they're trying to study. Now, I won't go through all the statistics, but let me just give you some quick numbers here. Those who thought that they had experienced a high degree of injustice in life were 55% more likely to experience a coronary event than those who thought everything was OK. Those who reported moderately that they have been treated unfairly they saw their risk rise by 36%, and those who reported having not very much, just a very low level of being treated unfairly, they were 28% more likely to have heart issues than those who had none. And so, when you add up those three categories, those who had a high level of feeling unfairly treated, moderate and low level, You've got an incredible study that shows the impact of these negative emotions upon our health. It doesn't matter how little or how much you had, there is a significant increase of heart disease in those people. People who had forgiveness, felt okay with life, seemed to avoid the heart problems. And I think to me, it just illustrates Psalm 37, fretting only causes harm. Now, if you find yourself described by that, I suggest you start diligently working on gaining a sense of God's joy, His supernatural joy, His shalom, His peace, His sense of well-being. I'm sure some of you, even as I was preaching through this sermon, have felt that rankling coming inside of you, those feelings of bitterness of how people or life or other things have treated you poorly. And I'm telling you, That is going to negatively affect you spiritually and physically. You've got to put on the supernatural opposite from the Lord. And I'm not saying all heart attacks come from bitterness or negative emotions. I think that'd be going too far. What I'm saying is, if you let those negative emotions keep on, you're likely to be negatively affected spiritually. And physically, that's what Psalm 37 says. It only causes harm. So instead of saying it isn't fair, what I would urge you to do is to start saying, thank you, Lord. I don't know why you're allowing this slander to happen in my life, but I thank you that you're going to bring something good out of these things that are happening to me. You've got to learn to put off the other. In fact, here's what I would encourage you to do. A lot of people don't like to think about hell. I think you ought to think about it daily. Hell is what we deserve. Eternal punishment from God's throne is what every one of us deserves because of our sins. We don't think that way. We think we deserve a whole lot better. It's because we have a faulty view of our human nature. We have a faulty view of our sin. If we looked at our sin the way God sees our sin, we would say, Lord, I deserve hellfire and anything You bring in this life, even the slander that You bring against me and all of the unfair things that have happened to me. These are a mercy from Your hand. Read Lamentations sometime. It is a book of weeping. We're not saying you can't have weeping. But you've got to weep in a godly way. And in Lamentations, he says that the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Great is thy faithfulness. He was experiencing disaster after disaster, but he did not let it make him bitter. He gained perspective by saying, Lord, when I consider hell, and when I consider heaven that You have given to me, and it's just by faith in Jesus Christ that I've been transferred from hell to heaven, Your mercies are new every morning. Great is Your faithfulness. If you begin to have that kind of a perspective, you're going to begin to see healing coming into your life spiritually, and perhaps even physically. Give it to God when you start feeling that bitterness coming in. Begin thanking Him, praising Him, and putting it off because it only does harm. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word. We thank You that Matthew 5 is true when it says that we ought to be able, if we are experiencing Your supernatural grace, to rejoice exceedingly when people slander us and say all kinds of evil against us. Father, may we taste and know of that joy because You have said, so slandered they, persecuted they the prophets of old. We can enter into the same reward that they entered into. Father, I pray that You would give us the perspective that Paul shows in the next verses despite the unfairness with which he was treated. I pray that everyone here Would have such a taste of your glory of your goodness that they would not be overcome by evil But that they would be able to overcome evil with good father we have a hard time being balanced knowing when to fight and when not to But even fighting not with hatred but fighting with a sense of justice Help us father to have the balance by having the mind of Christ And we give to you this morning all of our pains, all of our frustrations. We lay them at the cross of Christ and we thank you that you have designed these things to sanctify us and to be for our good and for the advancement of your kingdom. And so, Father, we want to learn how to rejoice even in the negative things that happen so that our spiritual and even physical lives are transformed from glory to glory and from strength to strength. May you receive the honor and the praise and the glory from the responses that we have given to your word. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.