And I'm going to read from verse 14 to 21, but we're just going to focus our thoughts this morning on verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice. Mourn with those who mourn. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath. For it is written, it is mine to avenge. I will repay, says the Lord. On the contrary, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your precious and holy and inspired, infallible word. We pray, Lord God, that you will please speak to us now through that word. We ask you please to help us to hear what you're saying to us. And we pray that you'll give us the hearts to obey what you're telling us to do. We pray through Jesus Christ, amen. Well, we return this morning after Easter break to our studies in Romans. And we're in chapter 12, where the apostle is speaking about how we are to live out the practical implications of the good news of the gospel that he has proclaimed in the first 11 chapters. And today, we are going to be thinking together about verse 14. where the apostle instructs his readers to have a loving attitude towards those who persecute them. He says, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. And it is a strange coincidence that we should happen to be speaking about this verse just the very Sunday after those dreadful bombings in Sri Lanka. Now this verse deals with something which every Christian must expect at some point in his or her life, which is persecution. And it teaches us that the way in which we respond to that persecution is to be distinctively Christian. We are told to bless those who persecute us. We are to pray for good to come to them rather than for harm to come to them. Now this is in sharp contrast to the way in which many other groups would respond to persecution. Christians, of course, are not the only ones who are persecuted. But the way in which Christians respond should be very different from the way in which most other people respond to persecution. Because most would respond by calling down curses on those who attack them. they would resolve in their hearts that they're going to fight back and bring ruin and devastation upon their attackers. And indeed the world says, stand up for yourself, don't take anything lying down, fight back, give as good as you get. But this first tells us that we should love those who persecute us and pray for them. Now, as we think about this verse, I want to do so under three main headings. The first one, I want us to think about how, as believers, we must expect persecution. Secondly, I want us to think what exactly does Jesus, what exactly does the Apostle mean when he says, bless those who persecute you. And then I want us to think about truths, biblical truths, which will help us to put what is said here into practice. So first of all then, to think about this, that we should expect persecution. Notice he says, bless those who persecute you. He doesn't say, a bit like these safety announcements on the aeroplanes, in the unlikely event of the aeroplane crashing, this is what you should do. He doesn't say in the unlikely event of you being, suffering persecution, this is what you, no, no, bless those who persecute you. And the implication very much is that pretty much every Christian that he's writing to in his church in Rome is going to experience persecution in one form or another. And that is the teaching of Scripture, that those of us who are Christians, we must expect to be persecuted in one way or another. That is indeed what Jesus said, didn't he? When Peter confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God, What did Jesus immediately say to him? Very shortly afterwards, as recorded in Matthew chapter 16, verse 24 and 25, he said, if anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Now what does that mean, to take up your cross? It means you need to carry with you your own means of shameful execution, because that's what the cross was. A means of being put to death in the most horrific public way. Imagine today you might be saying, well, you need to carry around your electric chair with you, or carry around your gallows with you. so that you're ready at any moment for that horrible, shameful execution that you are going to suffer. We must be ready, in other words, to die a cruel and horrible death for the sake of Christ. And he's saying, if you're not prepared to carry your cross, you might as well give up on the idea of being a disciple, because the two go hand in hand. suffering for Jesus and being a disciple go together. If you're not prepared to suffer, you can't be a disciple. But on the other hand, if you are going to be a disciple, you can be sure that there will be suffering. Paul writes something very similar in 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 12. He says, in fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Do you get that? Everyone, not just a few, not just the elite or the unlucky ones, but everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Every true Christian, in other words, because every true Christian will want to live a godly life in Christ Jesus. So every true Christian is going to be persecuted. That is the teaching of Scripture. Now Jesus himself was persecuted even though he lived a perfect life. And even though he had only done what is good to people. Now if Jesus, who is perfect, was persecuted, how much more should we who are sinful expect to be so? It's recorded in Matthew's Gospel chapter 10 verse 24 and 25, Jesus said these words, a student is not above his teacher nor a servant his master. It is enough for the student to be like his teacher and the servant like his master. If the head of the house has been called Beelzebub, how much more the members of his household? You see what he's saying? Look, you can't expect to have a better life than me. If I, you know, if I've been called Beelzebub, which is the chief devil, how much more are you going to be called devils? How much more are you going to be attacked? Now, the reason why we will be persecuted is this world is in the grip of Satan. Jesus described Satan as the prince of this world and Satan of course hates Christ and he hates the Word of Christ and he uses unbelievers who are in his grip in order to attack Christ But Christ is in heaven. So who does the devil go after? Well, he goes after the followers of Christ. Because by attacking the followers of Christ, he's attacking Christ. Jesus said to Saul, didn't he, before he was converted, when he appeared to him on the Damascus Road, he said to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? But he wasn't actually directly attacking Jesus, what he was doing was attacking the followers of Jesus. But by attacking the followers of Jesus, he was attacking Christ. And that's what the devil does. He attacks the followers, he attacks Jesus by attacking the followers of Christ. He uses unbelievers to attack the followers of Jesus. And so Jesus said also in John, as recorded in John 15 verse 18, he said, If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. But as it is, you do not belong to the world. But I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. Remember the words I spoke to you. No servant is greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. They will treat you this way because of my name, because they do not know the one who sent me. So we must expect persecution. Now, that persecution will take various forms. In some parts of the world, And at some points in the history of the church, that persecution has taken the form of direct attack by the state upon Christian believers. And this was the case in, of course, in communist, in Eastern Bloc, in communist Russia and the various other Eastern Bloc countries. And it is still the case, of course it was the case in the early church, with the Roman Empire. And the Roman Emperor, some of the Roman Emperors would round up the Christians and literally throw them to the lions for entertainment. in the amphitheaters. And in our present time there are states that are still in their very nature fiercely opposed to Christians. Think of North Korea. Think of Iran. Think of Saudi Arabia where the state itself is makes life very very difficult indeed for Christians and rounds them up, puts them in prisons and in some cases puts them to death. And the writer of Hebrews talks about this in chapter 10 verse 34 where he says, you sympathized with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions. This is what happens. The state is very hostile and puts prisoners into prison and finds them, takes their possessions and so on. Now in other countries and situations the persecution takes place through lawless elements in those societies attacking Christians. Of course, we've seen examples of that this week in Sri Lanka. We have had examples of that in this country as well. And in places like Egypt, very large numbers of Christians have been killed by gangs. The state officially allows freedom of religion, but many pastors and many true Christians have been killed by lawless people. And this is the same, of course, is true in northern Nigeria and in Pakistan and places like that. Now here in the West, the persecution that we suffer at the moment is more subtle. It may change. We may well find that in due course our own state becomes fiercely and adamantly anti-Christian, at least anti those who stand for the Bible. We can see that happening soon, can't we really? It doesn't seem to be very long in the future that Christian groups which stand up for what the Bible says about that the practice of homosexuality is sinful, and Christian groups which say that the gender you're born with is the gender that you are, whatever you might say about your gender, but that is your gender, Christians who say that are likely probably in the not near distant future to be persecuted by the state. Certainly experience a lot of hostility from elements within society. So that may well happen, but at the moment our job, at the moment the persecution we experience is in general more subtle. It's things like people mocking you, people not wanting to know you, perhaps reaching a ceiling at work that you're not allowed to go beyond a certain position at work because you are known to be Christian or perhaps losing your job or being demoted because you express Christian views. Jesus also warned us that persecution may well come from within the members of our own families. He said, as recorded in Matthew 10 verse 34, do not suppose that I've come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father and a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man's enemies will be the members of his own household. So when you experience family members mocking you for being a Christian or laughing at God, This is a form of persecution and for some people it might be more than just laughter and mocking. I was at a minister's prayer meeting this week and a local pastor said to me that a man from a Muslim family had started attending his church and this man from the Muslim family, he had expressed to his family doubts about Christianity and a member of his family pulled a knife on him. So you know it could be a lot more serious than just people laughing at you. Now sometimes it has to be said it can be the case that even fellow believers can mistreat other believers. It should never happen, but sometimes it does that, sadly, that a believer who's not walking with God, as he should, can turn and attack other true believers. And this may well be because that believer who is not walking with God feels challenged by those believers who are walking with God. And so we see then that in various ways the scriptures warn us and tell us that we will suffer persecution if we are true believers, especially if we are open about what we believe and if we seek to obey Christ without compromising God's standards. Okay, so that's the first thing, we should expect persecution. Now, I want now to think about what this means when the Apostle says, bless those who persecute you. Let me just read again what he says in verse 14. Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Now, the word that's translated here, bless, means literally to speak well. The Greek word, I will give it to you, because it's a word which we have come over to English. The Greek word is eulogio, from which we get our English word eulogy. You know when somebody, you know, says nice words about somebody at a funeral? Well, that's often called the eulogy. Well, that's the word that's used here. Eulogize, if you like, those people who persecute you. What? Eulogize them? Well, that's the sort of word that's being used here. Speak well of them. Now, in what sense? Well, let's think about it. It really, it applies in terms of three directions of speech. First of all, what you say to the person himself who's persecuting you. Secondly, what you say about that person to others. And thirdly, what you say to God about that person. So let's think about those three areas. First of all, what you say to that person. We should answer the unkind words of that person with kind words back. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians chapter 4 and verses 12 and 13, speaking about himself, but clearly this is an example to us. He says, we work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless. When we are persecuted, we endure it. When we are slandered, we answer kindly. So we should speak nicely to those who speak to us in a horrible way and who treat us wrongly. We should put away insults and rudeness and we must make sure that any persecution that we suffer is entirely without foundation or provocation because our speech is without fault. Peter writes in his first letter chapter 3 verse 9, do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult but with blessing because to this you are called that you may inherit a blessing. For whoever would love life and seek see good days must keep his tongue from evil and his lips from deceitful speech. He must turn from evil and do good. He must seek peace and pursue it. Remember how Jesus spoke to those who persecuted him and nailed him to the cross. Peter puts it like this in his first letter, chapter 2, verse 22. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth. When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly. So we must speak to others in a good way, but also we must speak about others in a right way. We must be very careful not to slander or to malign those who do wrong against us. It can be very tempting, can't it, if somebody is horrible to you, to run off to somebody else and tell a tale about the other person, and to somewhat exaggerate what that other person has done to make out that that person is worse than he or she actually is and so damage the reputation of that person. Now, of course, it's not wrong to share honestly with others if you are persecuted. We know that that's what happened when the apostles were threatened and persecuted. They went back and they told their fellow believers what had been said to them. But we must be careful when we do give an account of what others are saying to us, or what others have done to us, we must be careful not to exaggerate. We must be careful to speak the truth about what has been said or done. Our God is a God of truth, and truth must mark our speech about others, even our speech about those who have persecuted us. Now I read earlier in our service, from Titus chapter 3 verses 1 and 2, where the Apostle Paul writes, remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient, to be ready to do whatever is good, to slander no one, to be peaceable and considerate, to show true humility towards all men. We should slander nobody. Not even a persecutor. Do not slander. Let what you say be truthful. Let the account that you give or what has been said be truthful. Again, so easy to make snide remarks, cynical remarks, to say, oh, well, that's the sort of thing they always do, and these sorts of things. we should be very careful about the way that we speak about those who do wrong to us. Again, Peter writes in the second, in his first letter, chapter two, verse one, he says, therefore, rid yourselves of all malice and all deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander of every kind. So we should speak well about others, but most of all we should speak well of others to God. We should pray for good to come to them. And this is made clear by the second half of the verse as well, isn't it? Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. Now cursing is praying that disaster or harm will come upon a person. We're not to do that. Instead we are to pray for good to come upon those who harm us. So we see that our response to persecution is not just that we bear that persecution with sort of grim stoicism. And we sort of just bravely say, well, I'm just going to endure this terrible suffering that I'm experiencing. No. We are rather to go on the counter-offensive by praying for God's blessing to come on those who persecute us. We are to do the most loving thing a person can do, which is to pray for blessing on others, and especially to pray for the salvation of those who mistreat us. Now, in saying this, of course, Paul is, of course, reiterating the teaching of our Lord, as recorded in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 5, verse 43, where he said, you've heard that it was said, love your neighbor and hate your enemy, but I tell you, love your neighbors and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. Luke records very similar words in his gospel, chapter 6, verse 28. Bless those who curse you. Pray for those who mistreat you. And Jesus' teaching is illustrated by an incident which took place, which is recorded in Luke's gospel, chapter 9, verse 52. You might remember the story. They were approaching a Samaritan village. And Jesus sent the disciples on ahead of him to prepare the way for him as he approached this village. And the people wouldn't welcome Jesus. So James and John said, Lord, do you want us to call down fire from heaven to destroy them? And Jesus said to them, Jesus rebuked them. And some manuscripts add that Jesus said, you do not know what kind of spirit you are, for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And, of course, what Jesus told others to do, he did himself. I'm sure we all know that as they were driving the nails into his hands and feet, He prayed, Father, forgive them because they don't know what they're doing. And Stephen, the first Christian martyr, as he was being stoned to death, he fell on his knees and he prayed to God, Lord, do not hold this sin against them. So that's the second thing. We should bless those speak well of those who persecute us. Now then, I want now to, in our last part now, to think about truths which will help us to do this. This is difficult, isn't it? This does not come naturally to want good for people who do wrong to you. Indeed, from a human point of view, it is impossible to do this. How can anyone love the person who hurts him? How can anybody pray for blessing to come upon his persecutor? That's unheard of from a human point of view. But what is impossible with man is possible with God by the power of the Holy Spirit. and through the Word of God. When a person is born again by the power of the Spirit, something happens. He's changed. The scripture says, if any man is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone, the new has come. The heart is renewed. And having had our hearts renewed, we then receive the Word of God into our lives and we allow that Word of God to change the way we think. Then God empowers us and enables us to do what, naturally speaking, we'd be totally unable to do, which is to love our enemies and to pray for God's blessing upon them. Now this really is a practical outworking of what the Apostle spoke about in verse 2, you remember just looking back in verse 2 of this chapter, do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, then you'll be able to test and prove what God's will is, his good, pleasing, and perfect will. So I want us just now to think together about some scriptural truths which will help us to put this into practice. What truths will help us? Well, first of all, we should remember what we once were. Remember, at one time, you yourself were dead in your sins. At one time, you hated God. And if you'd have had an opportunity, you would in all probability have expressed that hatred to God through being hateful towards Christians. You were enslaved by sin, as I was as well. And but for God's work in your life, you would in all probability be just like those who are now persecuting you. Remember those words from Titus 3, verse 3, which we read earlier in our service. At one time, we too were foolish, disobedient, deceived, and enslaved by all kinds of passions and pleasures. We lived in malice and envy, being hated and hating one another. So naturally speaking, you and I are no different from our persecutors. Secondly, remember why you are what you are now. If you are a Christian, if you've been saved, why were you saved? Was it because of any goodness of your own? Was it because of any merit? Was it because you loved God and you were seeking God? No. It was entirely because of God's grace to you. Again, those words in Titus, which we read earlier, going on in verse 4. He says, but when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, He saved us, not because of righteous things we'd done, but because of His mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. How can you look down on somebody who's persecuting you? How can you think of yourself as being morally superior to this other person? Because the only difference between you and him is that you've received undeserved grace. Whereas at this point in time, the other person hasn't. There's nothing inherently superior about you or me or any other Christian. We're all of us. debt us to God's grace and mercy alone. Thirdly, to help us to remember and to help us to deal with persecution, remember who it is that is behind that persecution. The person who is persecuting you has been blinded by Satan. He's a pawn in Satan's hand and is acting as Satan's agent. Your real enemy is not that person who's presenting to you and being horrible to you. Your real enemy is the devil who is using that person as a pawn in his hands. The person who's being horrible to you doesn't realize that he is a pawn of Satan. He doesn't know what he's doing at all. But without his knowing, he's being manipulated by Satan to do these horrible things to you. So remember, your real enemy is the devil. The battle is spiritual, not physical. Paul says in Ephesians 6, verse 12, dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Now, I was reminded before the service somebody was saying to me how she really loves that hymn which says, the battle belongs to the Lord. Well, that is a biblical sentiment. It comes from the scriptures. It's not your battle, it's the Lord's battle. And that's what you need to remember. It is God who is fighting against these principalities and powers. So you don't need to, you know, rise up in anger against this individual, just stand back, let God deal with this matter. Now fourthly, and this was something which came out in the news we had from Sri Lanka, we need to remember the sovereignty of God. Now I said that it is the devil who lies behind persecution, but that even the devil can only do what he does with permission from God. Remember Job. Job was attacked mercilessly by the devil. And he lost all of his family and all of his possessions. And then subsequently he lost his health. But everything that the devil brought upon Job was only brought upon him by the express permission of Almighty God. Without God's permission, the devil would not have been able to do anything to Job. And remember what Jesus said to Pilate. Jesus said to him, as recorded in John's Gospel, chapter 19, verse 11, he said, you would have no power over me if it were not given you from above. Pilate was just about to order the execution of Jesus, but Jesus recognized that The only way that Pilate was able to do that was because God the Father was allowing it to happen. God will only allow it to happen to you what he knows is for your good and for the good of other believers who belong to Christ. Romans 8, 28, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him who've been called according to his purpose. So we should remember the sovereignty of God. And then fifthly, we should remember that it is a privilege to be persecuted. Suffering persecution is a tremendous privilege because God will reward those who suffer persecution. with a better knowledge of him in this life, and in the life to come, a great reward of spiritual treasure. Jesus said, as recorded in Matthew 5 verse 10, blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad because great is your reward in heaven for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you." Remember, the person who's persecuting you is actually in a sense doing you a favor because he is adding to your spiritual reward in heaven. You don't need to feel bitter or angry towards that person. You can be grateful because he's the means of blessing for you. And the sixth thing to remember is this. We need to think about what is gonna happen to our persecutors if they don't get saved. That person who is persecuting you will have to endure torment in hell, which is indescribable. And I say this to anybody here, if you're being horrible to your wife, who's a believer, or horrible to your children who believe this, or to your parents who believe this, and if you're not saved, and if you don't get saved, your time in hell will be terrible. It's going to be bad enough for people in hell who've lived a decent life, who've never done anybody any harm. But what's going to happen to those who attack the Lord's special people? He guards them as the apple of his eye. The Lord will deal with them in the most terrible and strong way. Now, when you remember this, even the most hard-hearted of us, we won't feel anger anymore towards those who are persecuting us. We'll feel sorry for them. We'll be praying for them. Lord, please don't let that happen to him or to her. I think very often the reason why we get angry with those who persecute us is because we forget where they're going. We forget what they're heading for. If we remembered where they're heading, we wouldn't be angry. We'd be crying for them. So we thought then today about this verse. Bless those who persecute you. Bless, do not curse. We've seen how persecution is something that we must expect as Christians. We've thought about what it means to bless, to bless in the sense that you speak well to the person, bless in the sense that you speak well about that person, and bless in the sense that you speak well to God about that person, you pray for that person. And I've tried to give you just now some pointers to help you to do this if you're a Christian. As we go on, as we close, I really just need to ask you to consider yourself, are you really a Christian yourself? And there's two things which would point, which would lead perhaps to question whether you are a Christian. First of all, have you ever actually known anybody be unpleasant to you for the sake of Christ? If you've never experienced any persecution at all for the sake of Christ, or anybody been in any way unkind to you or crude to you, then I would say, are you really a Christian? Or are you perhaps hiding your light under a bushel? Are you perhaps refusing to really be open about your faith? Maybe you need to come out as a Christian and actually declare yourself as a believer. But the other thing I would say is this, if you find it impossible to show love to your enemies, it could be that the reason is because you've not been born again. You've still got that old heart. It may be that you need, actually, to have God transform your heart. So I ask you, have you been born again? Have you been saved? Have you ever seen yourself as a hell-deserving sinner? Have you ever thrown yourself on God's mercy for salvation? If you're in any doubt about that, I would urge you, come to Christ. Ask Him to save you. Ask Him to give you eternal life. Ask Him to make you born again. That you might faithfully serve Him and you might properly love those who persecute you. Could we sing to finish The hymn, God Moves in a Mysterious Way, which occurred to me earlier as we were praying for a situation in Sri Lanka. Number 256, 256.