on today's episode of Standing on the Word. Here he's saying our reward isn't here. We don't have two heavens. This is gonna be the only hell that we'll ever know. Here we'll be mistreated. Here we'll be persecuted. Here it'll be hard. Here we're gonna have to carry a cross. Here it's gonna be the most difficult thing you'll ever imagine. It's not gonna be all rose petals here. But he says there will be. Welcome to Standing in the Gap, Standing on the Word, a verse-by-verse study of the Bible and the powerful truths that are revealed throughout God's Holy Word. I'm your host, Mike Cross. In today's church age, Christians live in a world where they are hated and mocked, and even find themselves alone having been abandoned by their friends and family that do not share with them in their faith in Christ and love for our Lord. Today we'll hear from Josh Tompkins, who is pastor and Bible teacher at West End Baptist Church. As we learn about persecution and all that being persecuted as a believer means for Christchurch, and now from his sermon titled, The Persecuted Life, here's Josh. And these verses that we're looking at are, I've described them as jarring. They're jolting. They'll hit you like a ton of bricks. And they're meant to do that. We're not going to be popular in this world. Jesus doesn't say that. You look at verse 10 with me there before I read it. It says, blessed are the, it doesn't say blessed are the popular. And you see what he's saying there. This is supposed to hit us hard. It's supposed to catch our attention. What he says here in this passage is his followers must be willing to endure persecution in this world. So let's look at that today. We're going to look at, I titled it The Persecuted Life. Maybe that's why there's not a bigger crowd here today. If I had titled this, I told Brandon earlier, if I had titled this The Popular Life, it might have been a more popular sermon. But if you title it The Persecuted Life, this is what we can expect out of life Most people don't want to hear this, but I'm not going to spray perfume on this and make it smell better than what it does. Jesus doesn't, so I won't. So let's look at the persecuted life. Let's stand as we read. I want to read the whole passage starting in verse 1. We'll read to verse 12 as we look at the persecuted life. And again, this is a hard saying. Let's start in verse 1 as Jesus is preaching the Sermon on the Mount. And he says there in verse 1, and seeing the multitudes large crowd he went up into the mountain and when he was set his disciples came unto him and he opened his mouth and he taught them saying and we've you guys have heard these we've preached these blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God. Verse 10, here's where our eye is on today. Verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say, all men are of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. So let's pray together and then we'll study what it means to live the persecuted life. Let's pray together. Father, I know these are hard sayings. At the very outset of your ministry here on earth, you are making it clear what will happen to us if we follow you. And I'm thankful for these hard words. We need these hard words. We need to understand that. We need to count the cost of what it means to follow in your footsteps. So help us to see that. Help us to understand these truths and help us to live out these truths, to prepare ourselves for the way that the world will treat us as your followers. Bless this time. God, please help me as I do my very best to make these truths very plain, very clear, very true. And we ask and we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. You can be seated. I think we all know, I want to start with this today, what it means to sign a terms and conditions agreement. We see that probably in all areas of our life. We understand what that means. You see it, you know it, what the terms and conditions are. I got a definition for those that don't know what terms and conditions are. It is the rules we must agree to before we make a commitment, before we sign on the dotted line. Think of it this way. For those of us who have bought a car, you'll go in there and you'll say, I want this car. They'll take you into the office. They'll lay out the terms and agreement. The terms and conditions will be laid there in front of you on a desk. And usually they're about a stack of conditions that are about that big. And they look at you and say, read through those. We're going to go back here and just, you guys have to look through those conditions. And you and your mean step will sit there and we'll go through it, and usually we don't read them, you know. Nobody has time for that. We want the new car, right? And we'll kind of flip through it, flip through it, flip through it, and we'll sign our names shaking along the line, not really knowing what we're getting ourselves into. It's not just that with a car. It's that with maybe a house. I've never had to buy a house, but I can't imagine. assigning your name to 30 years worth of terms and conditions. I'd be sitting there just holding it, you know. Maybe some of you guys that are younger have never done that. Let me put it to you this way. When you get on your iPhone and you're going to agree to something on iTunes, they send you this terms and conditions. Nobody ever reads those terms and conditions. You scroll up and get to the bottom and say agree. We have no idea what we're agreeing to. We may be agreeing with Him to listen to everything we ever say on our phone, but we don't have time to read it. I agree, you know. So we agree to these terms and conditions. I think we do this when we get married. It may not be in paper form, but God has laid out for us what He expects of us, the conditions of a marriage and of a home. And when you stand up before God and before a crowd of witnesses and you commit yourself to your bride or to your husband, you are agreeing, you are signing on that dotted line. I agree to the conditions of marrying this person. I don't usually tell the bride this, but I usually in the back before I marry somebody, I'll sit down with the groom and I'll look at him and I'll say, this is your last chance. This is it, man. We're getting ready to go up there and make a commitment before God and before this crowd. And this is a lifelong commitment. Do you know what you're getting yourself into? Last chance. Do you really want to do this? And I've never at that moment had a man look at me and say, you know what, I'm out. That would be awkward. I've never had that happen. But you want to give them one last chance. So do you really want to do this? I think kids come with terms and conditions. It may not be on paper, but right before you go to the hospital to have kids, it's like, well, it's too late now, but do you really know what you're getting yourself into? And sometimes with these things, you really don't know what you're getting yourself into. There's hidden fees. There's fine print. It's common for people to hide the bad stuff. Even in marriages, you don't really know what you're getting into until you marry that person. We put on a good face. We smell good. We look good. We comb our hair. Then six months down the line, you wake up and look at the person across from you and say, I didn't know this was going to be how it was going to be. And that's Steph looking at me, not me looking at her. So there's fine print. There's things that are hidden. There's hidden costs that you don't know about. I didn't read the agreement. I didn't know that I was going to have to do this or I was going to have to do that. Usually they put the bad stuff on the back page where nobody ever reads. And it's too late. You don't really know what you're getting into until it's too late. And there's nothing you can do now. That's the way the world is. That's the way the car dealers are and people you're buying your home off of. That's how they are. That's what happens in marriages. You don't really know what you're getting into. All those things are hidden, but Jesus doesn't do that here. And this is what this is. This is the terms and conditions of following him. That's what this passage is. Jesus is telling us on the front end, no hiding, no fine print, nothing on the side that we're going to look at later. Jesus in his very first sermon on the front end of it all, he says, here's what it's going to cost you. Here's what it is. I don't want you to not understand this. You need to know what you're getting yourselves into with Jesus before you commit to Jesus. He makes it very plain and clear. I want you to see the context of this. The first nine verses of this sermon is, here's what you must be like. Here's a Christian. It's like he's painted a portrait for us of what a Christian not ought to be but will be. my followers will be and he lays it out there i don't need to go through all of them but my followers will be it's like he's painting this beautiful portrait of what a christian ought to be and it's my followers will be poor in spirit my followers will be will be mournful my followers will be peacemakers and and merciful and will hunger and thirst for righteousness all these characteristics of of who a christian and what a christian ought to be and then he says now that you are those things Here's how people will treat you. If you're going to follow me, if you're going to be like me, people are going to treat you like they treated me. And he lays it out on the front page. Here's what you can expect from following me. Before you step out, before you go into this, you will be, and he says that, not popular, but persecuted. And that word persecuted, it means you'll be mistreated, you'll be talked about. You'll be misaligned. You'll stick out like a sore thumb. If you're gonna be like Christ, you will be persecuted like Christ was. He's saying this to this large crowd. I said that seeing the multitudes in verse one. Jesus is saying this to mostly undecided people. He's saying this to people that are up in the air, iffy about, am I gonna follow Jesus or am I not? Am I gonna maintain the same life that I've always lived or will I pack my things up and get my family and follow Jesus wherever he goes and do whatever he says? So this crowd is kind of up in the air and Jesus in this verse says, if you follow me, if you step out from the crowd and you decide to go with me, it will cost you. There's a price to pay here. It won't be easy. It won't be cheap. It'll be the exact opposite. It will be difficult and it will be costly. You don't hear this a whole lot in churches today. But Jesus on the front page on the introduction of his sermon says, here's what you can expect. You may lose family. You may lose friends. You may lose jobs. You may lose money. You may lose it all if you follow Him. And why does He do that? He wants us to know this up front right now before we commit, before we sign on the dotted line. He's asking us in this verse, do you really want to do this? Jesus is doing in these verses what I do with a groom before he gets married. Before he walks up here and makes his commitment to this woman for life, I look at him and I say, do you really want to do this? Jesus in these verses is looking at us and saying, do you really want to do this? Do you really want to follow me? Because this is what it's going to be. I'm hiding nothing from you. There's no fine print. There's nothing hidden at all. This is what it means. And it means this for every single one of us. It's not a select few. It's not just for the preachers. It's not just for the missionaries. It's not just for the early church. This is for everybody who follows him. Do you really want to do this? You won't be popular. You may not be liked. The guarantee is you will be persecuted. We must be willing to endure persecution for following Christ. You say, what does that mean? Well, let's look at this. It may be uncomfortable for us to look at this today. It may not be the most popular sermon that I ever preach, but here it is. So I want to help us understand this. I want to help us to be able to decide today. You sitting there in your pew, you may be like this crowd up in the air. Do I really want to follow Christ? Do I really want to go all in? Do I really want to, you know, pack my things up and follow him wherever he goes and whatever he says? You may be sitting there saying, I'm iffy. I want you to decide today, do I really want to follow? So let's look at it. I'm going to give you four points today. I know it's three plus, you know, I'm giving you an extra one. No charge. Let's look at this, the persecuted life. Number one, let me show you the certainty, the certainty of persecution. He guarantees it here. I mean, he's not pulling any punches at all. Up front, telling you how it is. This is the certainty of persecution. You can expect it. Jesus says here, blessed are they which are persecuted. And that word persecuted, I've already said it. It means to harass. It means to mistreat. It means to pursue someone in order to do them harm. I mean, this is somebody chasing you down, trying to hurt you. Jesus says that, blessed are you when you are being chased around and being hurt. And the persecution here in this passage is past tense, which means he says, blessed are you when you've already been persecuted. It's as if it's already happened. You can expect it. You can guarantee it. Jesus is making us a promise here. You will be persecuted. We will not, as followers of Jesus, we will not get out of this world unbruised. You say, well, that's just here, right? This is the only place he says that. No, you're wrong. I mean, you can follow with me here if you want to, but let me give you a few verses of what Jesus has said this in other places. Luke 6, 26. Jesus says, woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you. There's your verse put on a coffee mug, right? Matthew 10, if you want to turn there with me. Matthew 10 is just a few pages over. I want to read you some verses there. Look what Jesus says here. Verse 16, Matthew 10. Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. But beware of men, for they will deliver you up to councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues. And you shall be brought before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the Gentiles. but when they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given unto you in that same hour what you shall speak for it is not ye that speak with the spirit of your father who speaketh in you and brother good look at this brother shall deliver up the brother to death and the father the child and the children shall rise up against their parents and cause them to be put to death and you shall be hated of all men for my names sake But he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Do you see what he's saying there? I mean, we can go on. I don't have to give you much more, but watch what it says in First Thessalonians 3.3. That no man should be moved by these persecutions for yourselves. Know thee that you were appointed unto this. I'll give you another one, Philippians 1.29. For unto you is given in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on him, but to suffer for his sake. You want another one? 2 Timothy 3.12, Yea, and all that will live godly shall suffer persecution. I'll give you one more, Acts 7.52, Which of the prophets, I love this, I'll save this one for last, Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? He's saying there, can you name one that has followed me that hasn't been persecuted? Can you name one? There's not one. It's a rhetorical question. There's not one. You can't name one follower of Christ who has not been persecuted. So this is the certainty of persecution. You will be persecuted. You cannot expect to follow Christ who was crucified and not be persecuted. You can expect Jesus couldn't be more clear here. He never took it back. He never dialed it down it actually got worse you read revelation and christians are being not just mistreated they're being martyred so you can't spin this you can't miss this it will come you say how do we face this how do we face this persecution that will come this mistreatment of christians and the answer is you got two options number one you can escape it and number two you can endure it There's your options. When you are persecuted, when you are mistreated by the world, and this is for us as being Christians, when they treat us this way, we have two options. We can escape it. We can run from it. We can be those people that stand for nothing. We can be those people that never speak up, never act like we follow Christ. We can smile and just go along with the world. We can go into our jobs and people in the workplace have no idea that we're Christians at all. We can never speak up for any evil that's in the world. We can do that. We can escape it all by never saying anything, never doing anything, by just smiling when they take the Lord's name in vain, by just letting everything go. Oh, life is okay. Just escape it all. That's option number one. You can be a coward. You can be afraid. You can be ashamed of Christ. Option number two is you can endure it. You can embrace it. You can say, you know what? I don't stand with the world. I stand with Christ. You can say, you know what? I'm going to brace for the impact. I'm going to dig my heels in, and I'm going to batten down the hatches, and I'm going to hang on for dear life, and I'm just going to hold on to Christ, and we're going to embrace this, and we're going to endure this. I'm going to be like 2 Timothy 2. I'm going to be a good soldier who endures the hardships of war and of life, and I will endure whatever the world wants to throw at me. You have your two options. You can escape it or you can endure it. You can run from it or you can endure the battle and never wave the white flag. Never sound retreat. Never turn and run from this. And I think in those two options, if you're looking at them, how do we endure this? How do we face this? We don't escape it. We embrace it and we endure it and we fight it and we run with Christ and we never bow down. I believe in those two options. Loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ is the only option. And this will be when we decide that. Now I'll move on to the next point because we've got four. We've got to get through these things. If we endure it, it is evidence that we are true believers in Christ. If we run from it, try to escape it and live the easy life, I'll be a Christian and never stand up. You have no assurance that you're His at all. But if you endure the persecution that the world throws at you, you are proving yourself to be on His side. The world doesn't persecute fake Christians. The world will only persecute those who are real and taking a stand. And when I stand with Christ, it is evidence that I'm on His side. There's only two kingdoms, you get that? There's only the world's kingdom, Satan's kingdom, and Christ's kingdom. There's only two sides to this battle, and there's too many Christians today that's trying to play both ends to the middle. I used to pastor a church in Appomattox. They were big on Civil War stuff, and they used to tell a story about this one soldier who'd go out into war, and he wore the colors of both sides. He'd wear gray on the top and blue on the bottom, and he would go out into war, and instead of being neutral, both sides were shooting at him. And that's how a lot of Christians are today. We want to be like the world and have that. And we want to be like Christ and have that. We walk out and we want both sides to be happy with us and both sides to love us and both sides to get along with me. I just want to have an easy life and escape any kind of persecution at all. No, you got to pick a side. Which side are you going to be on? Because if you're on Christ's side, know that the devil's greatest enemy is Christ. And when that target goes from Christ, it's gonna hit me. The closer I am to Christ and the more I am like Christ, the more persecution I will receive like Christ did. The more trouble I'll get myself into. I told Steph the other day, I was having a rough week, I told her, I said, I don't know if I'm doing something right or doing something wrong. I hope it's because I'm so close to Christ that Satan and the world is, I'm getting the blowback from them trying to attack him. It's evidence that you're a follower of Christ. It's a sure sign. It's a badge of honor. I love that. If the world persecutes you, it shows that you belong to Christ. It shows that you're doing something right. So this is the certainty of persecution. It will come if you're following Christ. If you're like Him, if you're following Him, you will face persecution. It may not always be that way. There's seasons where it's peaceful and nobody's saying anything or doing anything. There's times, even in America right now, it's pretty peaceful. They're not persecuting Christians right now, but there's other places of the world where Christians are being martyred and they're being persecuted all the time. So there may be times right now when it's easy, but there's going to be times when you will be persecuted. Some not as bad as others, but we all will face persecution. It's a certainty. You say why? Let me show you the second point. We saw the certainty of persecution, let me show you the cause. You see this here in verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. You see that? There's four, there's reason number one. He gives us two reasons, for righteousness sake, and in verse 11 he says for, down at the bottom of verse 11, for my sake. There's two reasons that he gives, very clear, because we are righteous and because we follow Christ. That's the reason we are persecuted. But I want you to notice, we've read these verses, I want you to see what's not there. Jesus doesn't say that we will be persecuted for being mean. He doesn't say we will be persecuted for being offensive. He doesn't say we'll be persecuted for being unkind. He doesn't say we'll be persecuted for being hateful. Have you ever seen a hateful Christian? That's reasonable. When a hateful Christian gets persecuted, I'm sitting there saying they brought it on themselves. That's on them. He doesn't say being persecuted for being ungracious. He doesn't say being persecuted for being uncrossed like. He doesn't say being persecuted for being obnoxious. I know obnoxious Christians. He doesn't say, get this, look there, blessed are you when, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. He doesn't say for your political cause. We will be persecuted for our political stances. Jesus is clear here, that if we are persecuted because we are obnoxious, it brings no glory to God. If we are persecuted because we are uncross-like, it brings no glory to God. If we are persecuted for our political stances, that I stand with the Republicans, or I stand with the Democrats, or I stand with the Independents, or I stand with those who really don't know anything about anything, and we're just gonna throw it all out there. If you're persecuted for that, you deserve it. That's not the right reason. We don't need help in being persecuted. Don't be hateful. Don't be offensive. Don't be unkind. The reason that we're persecuted is for righteousness. Look what it says. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Cause number one is for righteousness. It's simple. It's holiness. It's purity. It's living a righteous life. We will be persecuted, mistreated, talked about simply for living a righteous life. It's simply living. Living according to God's Word. That's why people will persecute us. If we simply live according to God's Word, people will mistreat us. You know why? Because in this kingdom they don't live according to God's word. So we will stand out as we live according to God's word and follow Christ's principles and have his values and his priorities and his standards. If we over here are living the righteous life, the world will hate us. We're the light shining on their darkness and they want to put out the light. So they persecute simply for living the righteous life. Righteous living to the world is the most obnoxious thing. when we refuse to follow the world's morals when we refuse to laugh at the world's jokes have you ever been around somebody and they tell a joke and they're sitting there just giggling you know just thinks it's the funniest thing in the world and it's offensive and it's rude and you sit there with a straight face that wasn't funny they don't like it he makes him feel bad But when they just take the Lord's name in vain and you look at them like, that's not appropriate. It's not right. They don't like it. If you're just quiet and you just laugh at their jokes, they'll be fine with you. But if you're gonna live right, and you don't laugh at their jokes, you don't have their ethics, you don't have their values, you don't have their priorities, you don't have their morals, the world doesn't even have morals anymore. But if we have morals, And we know right from wrong? And we know black from white? We get it? They will persecute us. You know why Cain killed Abel? Abel never said a word. All he did was do what's right. And his brother killed him. It's a rebuke to the world. There's nothing more irritating, there's nothing more obnoxious, there's nothing more offensive than someone who's living a righteous life. You ever had somebody call you holier than thou? Goody two shoes? You ever had somebody? I mean, that's what they do. That's what the world does. Anytime we try to live a righteous life and have the right standards in our home and we have the mother and the wife and we have the kids and we're trying to keep them in line and do the right things, the first thing that's going to happen is somebody over here is going to look at us and persecute us and mistreat us because we're living how God says to live. it's a righteous life and then then the second reason look at it with me i know you guys just loving this persecution sermon look what it says you gotta look down at verse 11 because it doesn't just say for righteousness sake for living right because there's a lot of people who live right there's a lot of people in big stone that are good people moral people there's even religions that are good and moral some of the most moral people you ever find are mormons But that's not the reason. Look what it says. For my namesake. Verse 11. Shall do all these things to you for my namesake. The real reason is not for our morals, not for our works, not for our goodness. The real reason is we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ. And the world hates him, and Satan hates him, and if the world and Satan hates Jesus, and we're on this side with him, and we're close to him, and we identify with him, and we love him, and we serve him, and we praise him, and we preach him, and proclaim him, then the world and the devil will persecute and hate us. Jesus said, if they hated me, they will hate you. And what they've done to him, they will do to you. That's what you can expect if you lock arms with Jesus and identify with Him. And we do that. We aren't just religious. We are Christ's followers. That's who we are. We wear it proudly, do we not? I don't care if the whole world knows it. I follow the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's not just that we identify with Him. I like this because there's a lot of people that identify with Him. Oh, I'm a Christian. You see that all the time. Oh, I'm a Christian. They put it on their Facebook thing, their religion is Christianity. But it's not just that we identify with Him, because many do. Maybe some of you identify with Christ. You're sitting in here today and you say, I identify with Him, I'm a Christian. But, we don't just identify with Him, we believe what He teaches. When I identify myself with Christ, I believe everything that He said. I believe that He is God in flesh. I believe that He is truly God. I believe that He had a sinless and perfect life. I believe that about Him. I believe that He didn't think a thing wrong. He didn't say a thing wrong. He didn't do a thing that was wrong at all. He lived a perfect life that no man could find any fault with the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that about Him. And that'll make me stand out when I believe what He taught. It's not just that I believe that he lived a sinless life. I believe that he died a sin-bearing death upon a cross, that he who knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be the righteousness of God in him. I believe in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and that's offensive to the world. I believe in a physical, bodily, literal resurrection from the dead that confirms and affirms every word that he said when he was living. I believe in the exclusivity of salvation, that nobody can be saved outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that there's only one way of salvation, that we must put our faith in Him, that we're saved by faith, by grace through faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no other way. You're talking about that getting you some persecution. If you believe those things, the death, burial, and the resurrection of Christ, that He is God, that He lived a perfect life, that He ascended into heaven, that He's alive right now, that He's coming back again one day to judge the wicked, well, that'll make you stand out. I identify with Christ, and I identify and believe what He taught. I believe there's going to be judgment. There's going to be a hell to pay one day. He said it and he will be the one to bring judgment. He's coming back on a white horse and he's coming back to judge the world. I believe that. And I believe this too, that a true Christian will live like Christ. If you identify with him and you believe what he said, oh, you're going to find yourself in trouble. We know what this means. If we identify with Christ, if we believe What he said and what he did, we believe the Bible, it's that simple. We won't gain friends, we won't gather crowds, they will do to us what they did to him. If we follow him, if we act like him, if we preach the way he preached and live the way he wanted us to live and the way he did live, then we will face the same thing he faced. If Jesus were to come back right now and live how he did 2,000 years ago, he would be treated the same way he was 2,000 years ago. And if we're gonna be like Him, they'll treat us like they did. Are you okay with that? I'm gonna dial it down a little. We say, let me, before I count the cost, tell me what they're gonna do to me. Well, these verses tell us what they're gonna do to us. Jesus lays it out. We see here, number one, again, the certainty of persecution, number two, the cause of persecution, and number three, the conditions of persecution. What are they gonna do to us? understand that he gives us three things they're going to do to us two of them are verbal we'll say this one is with the fist the other two are with the tongue the old saying says sticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me i like to say it this way sticks and stones will break my bones and words hurt me worse than sticks and stones words can hurt so bad that's what he says here look what he says i want you to see first the verbal abuse Blessed are they which are pursued for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verse 11, blessed are ye when men shall, there it is, revile you. You see that? That's verbal abuse. They will speak evil about you. That's verbal abuse, they will revile you. That word revile means to insult. It's actually to cast insults. It's not just that the words come out. It's like they come out with fierceness. It's like a sword coming out just to pierce you where it hurts. These words are being cast out of somebody's mouth. spit out of their mouth. They're angry and they're wanting to say evil things about you, vile and vicious words about us. It was that way for Christ. Matthew 12, they called him the devil. The early Christians were called everything in the book. They were called cannibals just for having the Lord suffer. They were called all the most vicious and vile things you could think of. Matthew 27, Jesus is on a cross, it says that they mocked and made fun of him. He was called a drunkard. Vicious things were said about Christ and vicious things will be said about us. They will mock us to our face. They will insult us. They will talk about our character. They will talk about, they will try to ruin our reputation. One of the most valuable things you have is your name. And they will do everything in their power, the world will, to defame you, to defame us, his reputation, my reputation. They will attack our values and our beliefs. They will even attack our salvation. I've had people look at me and say, and you call yourself a Christian. I've had people recently question whether I'm saved or not. I had somebody come back to my office just a week ago, and as they walked out, they said, I question whether that guy, they didn't say it to me, they were just walking back down to my office, and they said, I doubt that guy even has the Holy Spirit. So it wasn't to my face, but it was to the bathroom door back there. That's verbal abuse. They were reviling you. say all kinds of evil things about you that's what they're going to do we see it now may not be to our face but you see how christians are talked about today on the news how they're talked about in universities how they're talked about all all over the place even even in our area christians are talked bad about it's getting worse so that's that's the first one a verbal abuse and then the second thing he says is a personal attack this is this isn't with the mouth this is kind of with fierce Look what it says, blessed are you when men shall revile you and persecute you. There's that word persecute again. Same word, to chase down, to hunt, to do harm. It's like a hunter chasing down his prey. But the world will chase you down to do you harm. This can be bloody, this can be with fists, it can be aggressive. The early Christians faced this. Jesus did too. He was beaten, he was whipped, he was flogged, he was put on a cross, and he was crucified. That's what they did to him. And the early Christians faced the same thing. We can look at Stephen. He was stoned. They took him and cast stones at him until he died. Paul, the same thing, his head was cut off. Paul, you can go and look in, I think it's 2 Corinthians, it says, talks about his shipwrecks, talks about his stonings, talks about his beatings, talks about everything that he did. And you know why Paul got the most of it? I think he was probably closer to Christ than anybody that ever lived. The closer you are to Christ, the more of this you will face. And it wasn't just the aggressiveness, as you said, this ain't happening today, right? It also takes place with our association. You say, what does that mean? The early church, if you became a Christian, let me tell you what you lost. You lost your religion. If you were a Jew or if you were a pagan and you followed some other religion, you had to leave that. And in leaving that, you lost every friend and associate you had along those lines. They weren't going to be your friends anymore. You left the temple, you left the Jewish religion, and you started following Christ. They were done with you. No more festivals, no more celebrations, no more birthday parties, no more family get-togethers. I'm talking family. You lost your religion, and you lost your family. Your mother and father, if you converted to Christianity in that time, would have a funeral for you. I mean, a full funeral. I mean, casket and all. Who was in it? Nobody. They were saying, he's dead to me now. Imagine that. I mean, you lost mom and dad. You lost children. You lost friends. You lost family. I mean, it was bad. Associations were broken apart. Count the cost, right? You would lose jobs. You would lose friends. And it may be the same thing for us today. It may not be aggressive yet here. But across the world, there's more Christians being martyred now than in all of history. The aggressiveness may come here. It may become fists here. But it's not yet. I'll tell you what it is, though. We lose associations all the time. Because we follow Christ, people will break away from us. Because we follow Christ, we will be ostracized. Because we follow Christ, we will be written off. Josh is dead to me now. He won't do what we used to do together. He's dead to me. And it's not because I'm obnoxious. I may be sometimes. It's not because I'm mean. Again, it's not because I'm hateful. It's not because I'm unkind or un-Christ-like. It's just because I live a righteous life and follow Christ that people will say I'm done with it. People will try to run you out of town. People will try to, you better watch out. If you're in your job and you take a stand for Christ and live a righteous life, there's gonna be somebody underneath you or somebody above you that's gonna say, let's get him to lose his job. It'll happen in school. I heard somebody say the other day that if you go to college and the professors that we have today, and if you're a Christian kid who writes a paper about some Christian topic, that you could easily lose your grade and be kicked out of school. Compromise, you know, it's just one paper. Are you going to take a stand for what's right and live for Christ? Or are you going to follow the world and compromise? You could lose family. You could lose friends. If you're going to follow Christ, what this is saying is be prepared to be lonely. I'm going to say this and we'll move on to the next one, but this is the exact reason why we need church. Out there, they will ostracize us. Out there, they will write us off. Out there, they will hate us. Out there, they will mock us. Out there, they will insult us. Out there, they'll try to beat us up. Out there, they'll try to get us to lose our job. We'll lose mother. We'll lose father. We'll lose children. We'll lose brother. We'll lose sister. We're losing all that. You even see in some places that a husband will be converted, and he'll lose his wife. That's not the husband I married. Or vice versa. Wife will get saved, and all of a sudden, the husband's like, I don't want anything to do with her. She's at church all the time. You lose marriages because of these things. Where do I go then? You go to the church, we're all on the same team. This is where my family is. Oh, I want my family to be saved, and I want them to be with me, and I want to be a part of what I have here. But when the world ostracizes us, the church welcomes us. This is our family now. These are our friends now. That's why we call each other brother. We call each other sister. We are a family here. This is my team. We're all in this together. Why are we here together today? Because you love Christ, and I love Christ, and we all gather together to worship Christ. The world hates us. They hate that. Sunday is nothing to them. We gather together as the family of God. That's pretty good. We need that. You got to be real careful. I'm going to say this and I'll move on. When you have a Christian who doesn't need the church, they're too friendly with the world. If your best friends are here in the world and you don't need church, care. Look at the third thing he says they'll do to us and it's similar it's another with a tongue. Women shall revile you, number one, persecute you, number two, and shall say all men are of evil against you falsely for my sake. The first one that reviling is to your face. I've had people say these things to my face. This next one is behind your back. all men are of evil. And it's falsely. It's slander. It's defamation of character. It's behind the back. It's meant to. The whole point in this here is meant to ruin you and to destroy you. And this happens all the time. And this is probably the most hurtful of them all. I'd rather have somebody black my eye than black my reputation. You know what they'll do? They'll attack your integrity. There's a purpose to this. Satan does this. He's the one behind all this. He's a slanderer. He's the accuser of the brother. His name actually means slander. And what he wants to happen is the world to talk about Christians and say, see what they do. And they didn't do it. You hear what they said? And they didn't say it. Do you know this about them? And they're defaming, and they're trying to ruin a reputation. They're trying to ruin somebody who is following Christ and living righteousness and doing the best that he or she can. And it happens to churches. Oh, a church is trying to live right and to glorify and honor Christ, and all of a sudden the world will sit there and say, you know what's going on in that church? And none of it's true. But if Satan can defame the character, the reputation, and the integrity of a Christian or a church, he makes it Not believable. And people's gonna drive by and say, did you hear what happened at that church? Did you hear about that pastor? Oh, I've had that happen a lot. People make things up about you. People put words in your mouth. Did you hear what he said? I had people say that about my sermons. That's one of the reasons we started filming them. We can go back, there's evidence on the tape. Did I say it? Has somebody come to me and say, you said this. I said no such thing. They'll misrepresent you. They'll make false accusations, they'll assign false motives, they'll whisper it to people behind your back, and then they even broadcast it on Facebook. Broadcast it to the world. Let me tell you about them! And it'll hurt. These things hurt. I'm not gonna lie about it. I've been called every name in the book. When I was a basketball player, I was probably the dirtiest, meanest basketball player that's ever been in this area. A lot of people still talk about it. And I remember going into J.J. Kelly's gym and then just fans are saying the worst things about me. I mean, just, I mean, I'm sitting there trying to throw the ball in and there's things just coming on top of me, you know, things I didn't know, I'd never heard of before, names being called. And I thought that's the worst that I could ever hear. Then you become a pastor and it gets worse. I've been called a liar. That's hard to hear, you know, preacher of truth. I've been called a fake. You probably have too. I've been called an unbeliever again without the Holy Spirit numerous times. I've been called a false teacher. I've been called narrow-minded. All the time. Oh, you're too narrow-minded. No, my mind's not narrow enough. People say, you need to broaden your mind so you can see more things. No, you don't. I want my mind to be as narrow as Christ's teaching. I've been called a Hypocrite. Numerous times. I had a guy call one day, call and leave a message on my phone calling me the Antichrist. I've been called a money lover. In it for the money. Yeah, preaching is a get-rich-quick plan. In 30 years, I might be able to afford to supersize my Big Mac. It's funny when people say that to me. Oh, you're just in it for the money, Josh. Have you seen my bank account? I've been called judgmental. I've been told I lack grace. I've been called every name in the book. If it's true, I deserve it. But if it's untrue, it's nothing but people saying evil things against me falsely in the name of profit. I must live my life, you must live your life blameless before God, so that nothing people can say about you is true. I'm not the antichrist. I'm not in it for the money. Why are these things being said? Because I follow Christ. Because I'm trying to live a righteous life. And I'm not going to say they don't hurt, because they do. This may happen to you too. This may have happened to you at some point. And what do we do when it happens? We run to Christ. We run to the one who we want to be like, who we follow, who we love. We run to him and we remember that Romans 8 says this, who shall lay... I do this all the time. When somebody says something about me, when the lady back there who walked out of my office and said, that preacher doesn't even have the Holy Spirit. I opened up my Bible, I turned to Romans chapter eight, and I said, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies, who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea, rather that it is risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who also is making intercession for me right now. So I know that he's the one who's justified me, he's the one who died for me, he's the one who loves me, and I don't care what anybody else will say. That's where we have to be. understand this this comes from satan he's behind this and i'll give you one application we'll move to the final point but let us be careful that we don't become the persecutors of god's people the world will do that to us and say those things about us but we should never join them in talking about each other when we come here It's not words to defame, it's words to defend. Last point, we'll close. I know you guys are usually used to three points, but let's do the extra one. We've seen so far the certainty of persecution, we've seen the cause of persecution, we've seen the conditions of persecution, and now let me show you the compensation. of persecution because now we get to the good stuff in verse 12 because look what he says here's what our response ought to be to persecution to those who's going to attack us both verbally and physically how are we to respond verse 12 says that first word is not and that's first word if i was doing this my first word would be whine and complain That's what I would say there. Isn't that what we do? Whine and complain. It doesn't say that in verse 12 though, does it? He uses exuberant terms here. He says that when this happens to you, when you are verbally and when you are physically abused, when you're ostracized and you lose friends and you lose family, when you may even lose job and money, your response ought to be a glad response. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad. When it happens to you, you ought to be skipping and jumping and whistling as happy as you can be. You say, how is that possible? Paul in prison in Acts 16, singing. Don't dwell on it. Don't lose sleep over it, but be very, very, very, very happy about it. Happy about it. How can we be happy when these things are happening to us? And he says why? Rejoice and be exceedingly. I love that word exceeding. If I were you, I have it in my Bible. I'll bring out a pen and underline. Exceedingly glad. As glad as you can be. Why? Because I'm not hope, my hope isn't in this world. Look what it says. For great, I love that word great, is your reward in heaven. The word great is huge. Great is your prize in heaven. I love that our reward is not here. We don't have heaven here. We don't get two heavens. Jesus didn't get two heavens. When he was here, it was hell on earth for him. They mistreated him and mocked and made fun of and persecuted and sent to the cross to die. And Jesus even said, for the joy that is set before me, I went to the cross. Here he's saying our reward isn't here. We don't have two heavens. This is gonna be the only hell that we'll ever know. Here we'll be mistreated. Here we'll be persecuted. Here it'll be hard. Here we're gonna have to carry a cross. Here it's gonna be the most difficult thing you'll ever imagine. It's not gonna be all rose petals here. But he says there will be a reward in heaven. there will be a reward in heaven for those who are persecuted for those who who paid the price there will be a a reward and get this the worse the persecution you face the greater reward you receive in heaven the worse you have it here the better you'll have it there That's what this is saying is it's not for, I love this, it's not for those who have the biggest churches, it's not for those who had the most followers or are the most popular, but for the ones who are most faithful here in the midst of persecution, they'll have the greater reward there in heaven. Those who served in the hardest places, those who faced the toughest battles, Those who paid the ultimate price, the people that we have never heard of, will have the greatest rewards in heaven. For those who embraced persecution, for those who endured persecution, for those who were called the Antichrist, you may not be loved here, you may not be liked here, you may lose it all here, but your reward in heaven is so great. And the problem with this today is we try to make this place our heaven. We want our reward here. Because you're sitting there right now saying, oh man, that sounds so terrible. I'm going to have a terrible life. It goes completely opposite of what some of those prosperity preachers are preaching. Your blessed life now. No, this is a persecuted life now and a blessed life later. I need to write that book in response to the blessed life now. I need to write the persecuted life now. It might not sell two columns. But that's what He promises us. Not here. Not now. Later. Our hopes are later. We look for later. Here we endure. Here we embrace. Here we hold on tight. Here we cling to Christ. Here we're mistreated. Here we're not liked. Here we're not popular. Here we're talked about. here we're hated here it's hard and i'm thankful for the good days that we have here when we're not mistreated and we're not talked about and when people call and say good things about you not bad i'm thankful for those days but here is not meant to be heaven and he says it also puts us in good company look what it says Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you." It puts us in good company. It says, the same group. I love this because we are surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses. That when we are persecuted and we are talked about, not only is our reward in heaven great, but our company here is great. I'm in the same group, the same category, on the same team, as Moses who left all the riches of Egypt to follow after God. I'm in the same category as Isaiah the prophet who was sown in half to follow after God. I'm rubbing shoulders with Moses and with Isaiah. That's to the team that I'm on. Not only Moses and Isaiah, I'm in the same category with Paul, who was shipwrecked, who was snakebitten, who was beaten, who was flogged, who was stoned, who ultimately had his head cut off in a Roman prison. I'm with Paul. I'm there with him. I'm rubbing shoulders with those guys, with the greats, and they're in heaven right now cheering me on saying, endure! I'm in the same category with the disciples. We know that all the disciples, all the apostles but one was martyred for their faith. Peter was hung and crucified on an upside down cross because he didn't think he was worthy to be on a right side up cross. I'm in the category there with John who was on the island of Patmos for his testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Prison island. I'm in that category with the martyrs throughout church history, with the ones who were burned at the stake, with the ones who were put into... Nero would take Christians and burn them, pour oil on them, burn them, and they were used as lights for his parties. Do you know any of those names? I don't either, but they were rewards great in heaven. There were some that were covered in blood. and they let rabid dogs attack them. There were some that were thrown in sacks and then thrown off cliffs. Do you know those names? But the reward is great in heaven. We all belong to the same team. Do you know who else is in this category? The Lord Jesus Christ, who was crucified, persecuted. That's good company. What he's saying here, it started so bad, and it is. If we follow Christ, he's taken the curse away from us, but he never took the cross from us. It could get ugly, but then he goes to the good. It's glad, it's reward, it's good company, and he says this, why, and I'll close. He wants us to see here, as he's telling us to count the cost, Get this. Here's the bad. I love this. You're going to buy a car. You're going to get married. You're going to have kids. You always do the wait. Right? You always do the wait. So the groom will do back there with me. Let me weigh this out. Do I really want to marry this girl? Let's look at the positives and the negatives, and Jesus here says, okay, the bad is, and I'm closing, the bad is, get this, I'll be persecuted, yeah, I'll be talked about, yeah, I'll be reviled, yeah, I may lose a lot in this world. It's real bad, and I mean, here we go, it's weighing itself down a whole lot. The bad in following Christ is really bad. I'm making you guys wanna run to the altar, right? I mean, it's just, everybody wants to follow Christ today, right? But then over here in that last verse, He tells us that the good far outweighs the bad. Do you see that? That our reward in heaven is so much greater than anything we could have ever had here. That the good of following Christ is so much greater than any bad that we may have to endure. He makes the decision for us that there's only one way to go, follow Christ. count that cost let's let's count it here's what we get and i want you to see this as i close the beatitudes just look at the terms and conditions here watch this with me starting in verse three look at this here's what he says we get you you understand this here's what we'll get i want you to see in your bibles verse three i won't read it all i just want you to see the last part he says here's what you'll get you'll get the kingdom of heaven you see that you'll be comforted you'll inherit the earth you'll be satisfied You'll obtain mercy. You'll see God. You'll be called the children of God. And again, you'll get the kingdom of heaven. Do you see that? You'll get a reward in heaven. He gives us seven or eight rewards there of what we can have. And these are the highest privileges that you could ever imagine. The ultimate blessing of all blessing is to have all these things that in heaven, we're gonna have all these rewards, all these great things. Here it may be bad, we may be sad, we may be persecuted, we may mourn, we may have all kinds of bad things happening, but in heaven it's gonna be so great. So count the cost. Is it worth it for what you'll get in heaven and what you'll lose here? Will you today, in looking at this passage, and I think he's looking at a crowd, decide to follow Christ? Will you today continue to follow Christ? That's the question. Do you still want to follow Jesus if this is what it is? Do you still? Do you want to? The old song says, and I sing it a lot, but I wanna, I have decided to follow Jesus. I have decided, knowing the full terms and conditions, I have still decided. Today, I did it 15 years ago, and I'll do it today. I've still decided I will follow Jesus. No turning back. The old song says, though none go with me, still I will follow though none go with me still I will follow no turning back no turning back the world behind me the cross before me the world behind me I'm done with that the cross before me I'll take up my cross and I'll follow Christ because I have decided to knowing the terms and conditions, knowing what people will say. Somebody watching this right now probably commenting, something bad about me. All I can say is, Jesus, you said it would be so. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is the reward in heaven. And with good company, I have decided I'll follow Jesus. What will you do today? Will you first before whoever you've never followed Jesus before will you today say I will follow Jesus. Today for the first time I'm all in. I've counted the cost I'm with Jesus. I hope you will. And two, if you already decided to follow Jesus years ago, you need to say it today, as we're doing this altar call, this invitation, you need to, as you close your eyes, say, I am re-upping on that commitment. Knowing the full terms and the full conditions, I am still following you. Whatever you decide to do today, know this, it is better to be persecuted with Christ than to be prosperous without him. Let's pray. Father, we thank You for Your Word today, for letting us know the full terms and conditions of what it means to follow You. And Father, as we play an invitation song here, I would ask that You, by the power of Your Holy Spirit, would work in hearts and would convince people of the necessity of following You, of turning to You in faith and believing and being saved, but they would deny themselves and they would take up their cross and they would follow you. May there be someone here today that follows you for the very first time. And for those of us who are Christians, and it's a room full of probably Christians majority, I pray that now as we're praying that all of us are recommitting to living a life following the Lord Jesus Christ. For it's worth it. We ask and pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen. And what a powerful message that was indeed. And now joining with me today in the studio is Pastor Josh Tompkins. Josh, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus gave special mention to blessing the true believers that are persecuted for their faith in Him. Then the sixth chapter of Luke's Gospel records what Jesus meant by persecution, which included being hated, being taunted, and even being abandoned by friends and loved ones. Later in Matthew, Jesus actually tells us to pray for those who persecute us. And the Apostle Paul furthered Jesus' charge to believers to endure persecution when he encouraged that not even persecution could separate us from Christ, and even went as far as to say He took pleasure in being persecuted for Christ's sake. So Josh, explain to our listeners today why they can expect to be persecuted for their faith in Christ and what all this means for them as believers. Well, first of all, why we're going to be persecuted, stated clearly in the sermon, we will be persecuted and it's guaranteed, it's certain for us that we will be. We can expect it as true followers of Christ. We will be persecuted for our faith in Christ, for following him. That's what he said in the passage. He said, for my sake. That's the number one reason that we will be hated in this world is because we identify with the Lord Jesus Christ. And he said clearly that if they hated me, if they persecuted me, they will do that to you. As he left and ascended unto the Father, he left us here, and a target went off of him and onto those who followed him. The next in line was the apostles, and then Paul, and then Timothy, and throughout. So as Christians die, that target goes on to the next generation, and we today have that target on us because we are his people. So we will have persecution the way he faced persecution. We will have hatred the way he faced hatred. We will be talked about the way he was talked about. The closer we identify with Christ and the more holy that we are. That's what that passage says, too, for righteousness sake. So the more righteous we are, the more hated we will be. And that's the crazy thing about the world we live in, is that the most holy people on this planet will be the most hated people on this planet. Jesus was the most holy person to ever live, and he was the most hated. So that's what we can expect in our world today as well. The more holy we are, the more pure we are, the more persecuted we will become. And what does that mean for us as believers today? It means that we will face these things, and we must endure through these things. As Paul said, we will never be separated from the love of Christ. Persecution cannot separate us. Paul even took pleasure in it. And I'll give you this insight. As I was preaching the sermon, I left this out of my notes, but I believe that we can take joy in our persecution because we are promised a great reward in heaven. So the more persecuted we are here, the greater the reward we'll have in heaven. And I believe that when Stephen was being stoned, every stone that hid him was adding reward to him in heaven. And he can rejoice in that. So we can too. Every word that is said about us is adding to our reward in heaven. Every time we are ostracized, we are adding our reward in heaven. So we can endure it, we can face it, we can persevere through it, because we know that nothing can separate us from Christ, and we know that our reward will be great in heaven. Thank you, Josh. And what a blessing it is to be persecuted for Christ's sake in His church, serving His ministry. We love hearing from our listeners and hope to hear from you soon. If you have biblical questions and would like to have them answered, again, log on to our website at www.westendbsg.org and leave them there. And feel free to find us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram by logging in and searching for us using at West End Baptist Church. Thanks for listening. Yeah.