Let's go to Romans chapter 12. And verse nine actually is the covering for the rest of the passage. I'm gonna read through the passage. Remember last time I told you there were 21 tweet-like words here? They come to us as commands. And some are actually imperatives and commands. Some are participles that are taking the place of a command. But what we have are 21 different exhortations, some to Christians, well, all to Christians, but some to how to deal with our fellow Christians, and some how to deal with those in the world, an unbelieving world. Verse 9, let love be without hypocrisy, abhor what is evil, cling to what is good, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love in honor preferring one another, not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord. rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer, distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. And that's what we looked at last time. Now this week, we pick up at verse 14. Bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse. Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinions. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, then feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For so doing, you will heap coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. So, as we go through here, and you might find that verse 20 interesting. There have been a lot of controversies and opinions given over the years on what that means. We will try to take it head on and deal with it. But let's first start in verse 14. Verse 14 is under the heading that we have, How to Live with Unbelievers. Verse 14, Bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse. I'm sorry to say there have been times in history where the persecutors have been those that claim to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Some of our forefathers, some of our particular Baptist forefathers were persecuted in England by those that said that they were Christians and pilgrims, the pilgrim story and such like that. It's just kind of an amazing thing. We should never be the persecutors. Let's make that clear as can be. We should never be the persecutors. Being persecuted is when you know the truth, you believe the truth, and you suffer for the truth. We should not expect lost people, though, to act like a Christian, or think like a Christian, or behave like a Christian. So there have been persecutors. And our human tendency is to want to curse them, and to want to hate them. bless, speak good of them. John Murray says, invoke God's blessing on them. And then we also say, well, you know, there's R.C. Sproul. He had this to say as we talked about the forms. This is habitual. It's a command. R.C. Sproul says, if there's any dimension in which Christians are to transcend the normal behavior patterns of fallen man, It's with respect to how they deal with their enemies, with those who have injured them, to say something good about the one who's persecuted us takes as much grace as any virtue ever did because of our natural human tendency, which is to get even. Sproul says it well, doesn't he? And that's on your outline as you follow along on your outline. Well, how can we do that? How can we bless those that persecute us? How can we bless those that abuse us? Well, one way is found in verse 12. Be continually steadfast in prayer. It takes prayer to do that, it does. We need to look to the Lord, we need to trust in the Lord. Our Lord said this in Matthew chapter five. Matthew 5, 43 and 44, you don't need to turn there, you can just listen. You have heard that it was said, you shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy. But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you. You know, if you have a problem with someone, the best thing that you can do is pray for them. It's hard to pray for someone that mistreats you But it's hard to hate someone that you're praying for. So that becomes really a tremendous antidote to this particular problem. Jesus said, you have heard it said, but I say unto you. Jesus is invoking a higher law and he is a greater authority. But I really want to put it this way. He is not really correcting the Old Testament. That's not what he's doing here. Now, we do see some passages where David especially will talk about, I hate those that that follow worthless idols, for instance. That's a passage that comes to mind. And so we do see that occasionally in the Old Testament. But what we really are looking at, I believe, when we see something like that, is not the fact that we should be hating people. But the truth of the matter is, many times David is speaking from the Lord's perspective. And obviously, the Lord has great love for all human beings that are made in His image. But there also is a holy hatred for those that will follow other devices and cause others to follow other devices. Well, there's forgiveness. There's always forgiveness. But we need to ask for forgiveness there. Well, Jesus is correcting a misinterpretation of the Old Testament, probably by some of the scholars of his day, to the strict Jew. Guess who the enemy was? The Gentiles were the enemy. To the Apostle Paul, the Gentiles were the mission field. And so that kind of helps us understand what we're talking about here. In the Sermon on the Mount, five times Jesus says, you have heard it said, but I say unto you, five times. And the history of the Old Testament, Israel, is a history of war after war after war, of conquering and being conquered, and something that we still haven't learned. Something that we still haven't learned in times of modern warfare is you don't win the hearts and love of people by killing their sons. That's just not the way to go about it. There's a better way. But war is inevitable, and the Bible tells us there will be wars and rumors of wars until the end. And such has been the case in the history of mankind because of sin. You know, that idea that you don't win the hearts of people by killing their sons in warfare is still true today. Rome had that figured out way back when. Because Rome, what they did, and now they were brutal and they were violent, and you go against Rome and you did so at your own peril. But one thing they would do, if you were willing to submit, and you were willing to surrender, they would actually take you under their wing, so to speak, and make you part of the Roman Empire, and you'd have benefits, you'd have peace, and they were a little smarter than some of their day. They formed quite a confederation. But remember, when Paul says what he's talking about here, bless those who persecute you, bless and do not curse, he's not talking about armies, and he's not talking about nations, and we will be, next week when we get into Romans 13, Lord willing, talking about the context of how you and I are to live in a nation, but we're talking right now about how to live in the midst of an unbelieving world. So we're not to hate, and we'll deal a little bit more with that as we come to the close of the message. We have further instructions now toward our brethren. As I was studying the passage this week, I came to realize that really verses 15 and 16 are now Paul going back to talking to Christian to Christian again. You know, as I kind of made that, You know, Paul doesn't always follow our outlines, does he? He's got his own Holy Spirit outline that he follows. So we saw him talking to Christians about Christians in verses nine through 13, throws in about the persecutors, and now, once again, he's talking to Christians. Rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep. Of course, we can do that with lost people also, but primarily, it's a Christian duty, be of the same mind toward one another. We really can't do that. with lost people. We'd have to compromise to do that with lost people, to be of the same mind, to be in total unity. There's things we can unify with and unify about, but certainly it's a whole nother worldview. Be of the same mind towards one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. And that's vital, that is vital. Don't be one, I think of a biblical example of one Nabal who David encountered. And Nabal's own wife had this to say about him. He's such a fool you can't even talk to him. Don't be a napalm. Okay. Don't be a napalm. I think you got it all together. The guy was rich and he had just about everything, but he lost it all in a night. The Lord turned his heart to stone. So, you know, don't be a napalm. Don't be one that people can't even talk to you. You know, because you're so set in your ways and know so much that you're right. Philippians 2.2 says much the same thing, written by Paul. Fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. So you know, even when we disagree, Even when we disagree, and we will disagree with each other sometimes. Yeah, that'll happen. Even when we disagree, we must keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. You know, here at Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, we have three elders. Now, that's a great blessing to have three. You know, the Bible talks about if two walk together, one can lift them up, but a three-chord bind cannot be easily broken, and we found that to be true amongst the three of us. And guess what? Sometimes we have our elders meetings, and sometimes people don't agree with me. Can you imagine? What a thing, you know? But I know Pastor Mike could say the same thing and Pastor Ken could say the same thing too. That's the blessing of three. You see, the blessing of three is sometimes it's two to one, you know. So what do you do when it's two to one? Well, a lot of things you could do, a lot of things you shouldn't do. But when it's two to one, you talk it through in love. in unity because we're bound together. We're bound together with this church and to be here to help you and to serve the Lord. And so sometimes it's two to one and sometimes the one is able to convince the two. And sometimes the one can't convince the two and the two have to convince the one. And sometimes we just say, well, we'll have to deal with this later. We can't really deal with it right now. We'll pray about it, and we'll come back together. It's not urgent. We don't have to decide something today. So we'll do that. Or sometimes it is urgent, and a decision has to be made. And we'll just say, well, the will of the Lord be done. And the one will say, okay, then I agree. We will do what we've said to do. This kind of disagreement is actually good. It's not bad. Because the Bible tells us, don't be wise in your own eyes. Don't be wise in your own opinion. Don't think that you're always right, because you're not. and I'm not always right, and nobody is always right. We wanna be as biblical and sound as we possibly can be, but we have to realize that if we're gonna keep the unity of the Spirit and the bond of peace, if we're going to not set our mind on high things, then sometimes we have to humble ourselves by God's grace. You know, in the context of the world, There are so many things that politically divide us, that morally divide us, so many things that we simply can't agree with. So we can't come to one mind with unbelievers if it's going to cause us to compromise our faith. But we can still respect them, and we still love them, and we still minister to them, and we can still pray for them. Verse 16 is an interesting verse, because it can be translated in different ways. Let me give you three different translations. When you put them all together, you really get a good sense of the Greek. The CB says, consider everyone as equal, and don't think that you're better than anyone else. Instead, associate with people who have no status. We don't have a caste system in America. Thank the Lord for that. But we do have a status problem, where some see themselves as better than others. Associate with people who have no status. Don't think you're so smart. Boy, you talk about a paraphrase. But that's what that one does. The CEV. Be friendly with everyone. Don't be proud and feel that you know more than others. Make friends with ordinary people. The Greek scholar Mounts, you read his translation, but it's very, very similar to the NET and the NASB, very similar. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Do not be wise in your own estimation. So those principles are principles that we can follow, and may God help us to do that. Now I wanna spend the bulk of our time on how to live with unbelievers, part two, because we already had verse 14, and now verses 17 through 21 deal with that. Let me read those verses again. Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men, if it is possible. As much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath. For it's written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him. If he's thirsty, give him a drink. For in so doing, you'll heap coals of fire on his head. Verse 17, there's no place in Christianity for private revenge. Do not repay evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. There's a famous Christian from years past that coined the phrase that it's never right to do wrong in order to do right. Well, that's catchy. And I remembered it for years and years and years. It's never right to do wrong in order to do right. Well, the Bible puts it this way, repay no one evil for evil. And the ESV says it well, repaying no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. The Apostle Paul says it differently in 1 Thessalonians 5.15, see that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good, both for yourselves and for all. And then Luke 6, 29, the Lord says, this is a tough one. To him who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. And remember, Jesus did that. Jesus did that. He took the smiting and the spitting, you know. But really, The Lord's not telling us here not to defend yourself or not to defend your family. That's not really what's being said here. It's an elaboration on something very, very important and on a heart attitude. It's part of the traits of a godly man. And we can see those traits in 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1. And one of those traits that's very, very important is not violent. Not violent. The Old King James says, not a striker. Other translations say other things, but basically it all boils down to not being pugnacious, not looking for a fight, not a brawler, not being quarrelsome, although not quarrelsome is another aspect of the traits of a godly person, we could even say. Certainly not wanting to get into a fight, be it physical or verbal. Luke 6.31. As just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. It's the positive way to live to God's glory. We call it the golden rule, and rightfully so. It's all about our heart. It's all about our attitude. I've told this illustration before, but I'll tell it again, because it's a good one. And you can easily find it on the internet in some various forms, except everybody agrees with the wording, because it's in Matthew Henry's diary. Matthew Henry was robbed one evening on his way home. And he kept a diary. Back in those days, a lot of men kept diaries. That's how we know about the lives of so many godly men, and able to write biographies of them, because they did keep diaries. But this happened to Matthew Henry, walking home, and he was robbed. And he wrote in his diary, Let me be thankful first, because I was never robbed before. And then second, because although they took my purse, they did not take my life. And third, because although they took my all, it wasn't very much. And then last of all, and probably the most poignant one of all, he says, and fourth, because it was I who was robbed, not I who was the robber. Well, there's the attitude that we're talking about. Matthew Henry, the great Bible commentator. I was reading through Matthew Henry a little bit as part of the sermon, And I said, how did this guy do that? He didn't have a whole lot of commentaries to look at, number one. And he's writing commentaries on the entire Bible? He's got six volumes. It comes out into six volumes if it's readable print. And amazing. Well, the Lord helped him, no doubt. And being dead, he still speaks to us in so many ways. Really an excellent man. Very expert in many of the good church fathers, too. Well, as we talk about that, the idea of repay no one evil, such like that, some have gone too far and become pacifists. And they believe that Christians cannot hold a role like being a police officer or a soldier or a law enforcement official because sometimes these people have to use deadly force. They have to use physical force and even deadly force. But I don't want to get ahead of myself, but when we get to Romans 13, we'll see that really the most important role that government has isn't the role that we see government taking most of the time. It just isn't. Romans 13 is going to show us the most important role government has is protecting its citizens. That's the most important role a government has, is to protect its citizens. And a government that won't protect its citizens is really no government at all. And we've seen the folly and how ridiculous it is to defund the police. All you gotta do is see what happened in those cities where they did defund the police. And if there's no police, well, guess what? Evil will reign. And that's not saying that all the people are evil there. But if you don't have anything to hold back the evil, evil will reign. Well, that's ahead of myself, so let's keep on going here. Verse 18. If it is possible, as much as depends on you, Isn't that interesting that he gives two qualifications to this one? If it's possible, as much as it depends on you, live peaceably with all men. And that should be our motto. And of course, it's not always possible. Some people will not allow you to live peaceably with them. But as much as it depends on you, don't be the instigator. Don't be the source of the problem. And if there is a problem, it's always good to thoughtfully consider what my role has been in that problem. But Kelvin gives an interesting quote. I think I put it on your outline. Let me see if I did. I guess I forgot to put it on there. Okay. Oh, it's on there. I'm just not finding it. Okay, so. But here's what it is. Calvin says, whenever necessity requires, fight courageously, for it's impossible that the soldiers of Christ should have perpetual peace with the world whose prince is Satan. No wonder I couldn't find it. I wasn't looking at my outline. I was looking at page one. There you go. Okay, anyway. There it is, and Calvin said it very, very well. The soldier to Christ should have perpetual, how could the soldier to Christ have perpetual peace with the world whose prince is Satan? And then verses 19 through 21. Vengeance is mine, says the Lord, I will repay. And that's where we have to leave vengeance. We have to believe that. We have to believe that there is a God who's going to recompense to each what should be recompensed when the day comes. And so we leave it to Him. This is actually a quote from the Bible. It comes from Leviticus 19.18 and it also comes from Deuteronomy 32.35. Because God is a God of justice. And you know what he's done, because we're made in the image of God, he has woven a desire in us, most people have this desire, for justice in the world. And wrath is God's righteous anger towards sin. So we need to be very, very careful here to make sure that vengeance belongs to Him and we don't take it up ourselves. The Lord says, I'll repay. And we need to believe that. He needs to be our defender. But here's this interesting quote now from the book of Proverbs. And in fact, go ahead and turn there. Keep your finger here, turn there. And do understand it may read a little differently in your Bible. We're talking about a Hebrewism. the book of Proverbs written in Hebrew, so it's Hebrew. Paul is translating it into Greek, or maybe Paul is actually reading the Septuagint, which comes very, very close to this particular passage, Septuagint being the Hebrew Bible in Greek. Proverbs chapter 25, verse 21. And now we're reading it in English, so there you go. Three different languages here. If your enemy is hungry, give him bread to eat. And if he's thirsty, give him water to drink. For so you'll heap coals of fire on his head, and the Lord will reward you. Now, it all makes sense, except coals of fire on his head. I don't know about you, but I don't think I'd enjoy that. And it's a very, it's been translated or actually interpreted in so many different ways. But one of the principles of interpretation is to consider the context. And Paul, I don't think, is saying this. Okay, your enemy is treating you badly. And so you're going to feed him if he's hungry. You give him a drink if he's thirsty. And by doing that, God's gonna get him really good. God's gonna take care of him so bad, you know. I don't think that's the spirit of what we see going on here throughout this entire passage. We don't treat our enemy well so that God will take care of him for us. That's just another spirit of vengeance, isn't it? Vengeance does belong to God and God will take care of these things and he's the one that we need to leave those things in. But no, we should do that out of humility and we should do that out of the fact that he or she is also a human being made in the image of God and is worthy of respect. So what are these coals of fire then? What in the world are we talking about? Keeping them up in fact, keeping them up. Well, Paul knew his Bible well. And of course, he was inspired too. And Paul's the doctor of the church, and so he uses this Old Testament passage in a way that it should be used. So what are the heaps, what are the heaping coals of fire on his head? I don't think it's the picture of doing good so we can get revenge. I think Paul's talking about how we're to act as Christians, and it might just be, I believe, that God will use these actions that we do, that when we're even mistreated and not treated well, then still we're consistent, just as the Lord Jesus Christ was. And it well could be, and it's not always gonna happen, But it well could be that his or her conscience will be pricked. And they'll try to figure out what in the world is with this person. I've treated them evil, they're treating me good, doesn't make any sense. And for some, their conscience will be pricked, just like hot coals. And what a wonderful thing if they would then bow the knee to the Lord Jesus Christ and trust him as the only savior of sinners because of what they saw in one of his disciples. That's what I believe, the heaps of coal. I read a commentator that said this, and it may be right, I only saw it in a couple places, but said that, The ancient Egyptians, what they would do to show contrition is they would put coals of fire on their head, not directly on their head, but on a receptacle on their head. and then walk through the streets. I don't know that that's true, and I'm not sure that's even what the Bible would be talking about. I think we're probably safer to say the issue of conscience is involved here. And everybody has a conscience until they go so far that they don't have a conscience anymore. And some people do that, and it's dangerous. A person without a conscience is a dangerous person. But everybody has a conscience. And it well could be that that will be the opening that God will use to cause the person to go from an evildoer to an inquirer. to know more about God. That's what I think it is. And that actually is the most predominant opinion amongst Reformed theologians there. So, Paul's talking about how we are to act, and then we leave the results of that to God. And that fits the context well. So to sum up, in the battle against evil, Paul prohibits four things. He prohibits cursing, Repaying evil with evil, taking revenge, and then he tells us to overcome evil, be overcomers. And how do we overcome evil? We don't dwell on it. We're playing it over and over in our minds and take a victim mentality. We do that, we lose sleep, we become depressed, we become discouraged. We can become our own worst enemy if we allow ourselves to be overcome with evil. And I'll just give you one little practical thing here that's not in the text, but I think it's true. If it's possible, that's what it says, right? That's what the text says, if it's possible. Well, sometimes one of the best ways to avoid being overcome by evil is to avoid the evil person that is plaguing you. Just avoid them. Don't antagonize them. And sometimes you're getting close quarters and there isn't much you can do, but avoid them if you can. And that will help you to live at peace as much as possible. So regarding enemies, I'll close with this. Christian friend, You are an enemy. You are an enemy of God. You are. You're going your own way, you're going your own path against his ways, an enemy of God. And yet, he gave his life for you, he died for you, he saved you. He made you one of his own. And if God can do that for us, Can't we have a little bit of grace towards those that are his enemies now, and maybe our enemies too, with the hope that they too will come to know the Savior that you and I know, Christian friend. Let's pray. Our Father, we're in a difficult passage today. A lot of things coming at us. Nothing all that surprising, maybe the heaps of coal, but nothing all that surprising. the normal Christian life, how we are to behave in the midst of an unbelieving world. We thank you for your word, which is understandable. We thank you for your word, which can be applied to our hearts. And we pray that the Holy Spirit would apply it to our hearts. Lord, maybe even hearing a message like this will cause us to be tested this very week in these areas. But help us, Father, to bear up, to overcome evil with good. Help us to be those that are Christians and live like Christians, look like Christians, think like Christians. Father, your grace and mercy extends to us. We thank you that you died even for your enemies, for such we were, Father. But now you're our Father. We're in Christ Jesus the Lord, and you love us through him. Father, what great things await those that know you. We weep with those that weep. We do. We rejoice with those that rejoice. That can be hard. Because sometimes when something really good happens to somebody else, we kind of wish it would have happened to us. Oh Lord, let us not be like that. Let us have true biblical sympathy, weeping with those that weep, and rejoicing with those that rejoice. And we would give you thanks. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.