We come this morning to the second application of the question, why do tragedies happen? This Lord's Day, we're going to speak about particular persecution of believers happening in these days. There are a lot of persecutions of believers. But this particular example is probably one of the most troublesome because it is so widely ignored by believers. Now, last Lord's Day, We address the question of why tragedies take place. In our own city, there's an epidemic of gun violence with many murders so far this year. People talk about what we can do to stem the tide, but there are no medium-term solutions. The violence is the result of turning away from God, abandoning the gospel, and the surge of materialism that has eaten up our society. With few fathers to train up the young men, violence is the result. Only a good gospel soaking could ever make a difference and that will take generations to accomplish. The horrible flash floods in Texas have claimed over 100 lives with still 30 or 40 as of this morning missing. There was no warning and the shallow rivers in the region are quickly filled to overflowing, roaring downstream and carrying trees and buildings and vehicles with it as well as animal and human victims. There seems to be no way to predict these floods and spending cuts by Trump and the National Weather Service are not to blame. Some will say that God didn't want this to happen. He was standing by and watching and wouldn't do anything to stop the flooding. This is a form of semi-deism that God isn't really in control of all things but sets the natural systems in motion and watches them as they take charge. But the Bible refutes such nonsense. God works all things after the counsel of His will. God has a reason and purpose for these floods, but that doesn't mean that we know the why of it all at this time. The Bible teaches that God not only made the weather system and processes, but that God controls them also. Many texts bear this truth out. God sends the rain, the floods, the heat of the sun, earthquakes, storms, the wind, eclipses, droughts, and a host of other meteorological events. In these texts, God takes personal responsibility for bringing all these things to pass. Sometimes God explains He does these for the good of mankind. for the crops, water to drink, and trees to use, and fruit to eat. Sometimes God does these things as a warning against man's disobedience and lack of trust in Him. Sometimes God does these things to refute the false gods and testify to His mighty power over all things. Sometimes God sends these things for judgment and wrath against ungodliness. The global flood that destroyed almost all mankind is but one such incident. where God took personal responsibility for bringing it about. God carries out these things, rarely directly but overwhelmingly, by His providence. God is the ultimate cause of all things that exist or take place. The psalmist proclaims that the wind, the floods, the lightnings, the fire, the hail, they all fulfill God's In the book of Job, both Elihu and God Himself give God the credit as the meticulous cause of whirlwinds, cold, rainstorms, etc., and of them all obeying God's commands. God causes these things to come upon us for correction or even judgment. or for the good of his people, or for mercy to all mankind? We may conclude that either God doesn't control anything, or, given the clear teachings of the Scriptures, that He controls everything. If the former, then there is no use in praying to God for help. If the latter, we as Christians have been promised that God works all things together for our good and His glory, and so we have confidence. that no matter how bad these things seem to us, God is in control, and He has a glorious purpose, and we are to trust in His goodness toward us, no matter what circumstances we have to face. Another thing is certain, God brings about the death of His people for our own good. Consider how clearly Paul made this point in 2 Corinthians 5. We groan in our mortal, flawed, corrupt, and dying bodies, earnestly desiring to be clothed by that glorious body that will be like our Lord's body at the last day in the resurrection. Because we believe God's gospel, we are confident and willing to be absent from our bodies. and to be present with the Lord. For a believer's physical death is a shearing away of all that is imperfect because of the fall in our sins, so that we may instantly appear in the presence of our holy God clothed in the perfections of Christ's righteousness laid upon us from the moment when we trusted in Him. Meanwhile, our fallen bodies are resting in the sleep of the grave, awaiting the day of our resurrection by the power of Christ. Thus, death brings the saints instantly into the presence of God and our Savior, Jesus Christ, there to rejoice in glory and await our clothing with our glorified bodies one day soon. What the world views as a tragedy, human death, is to the believer a welcome relief from the griefs and troubles of this broken world. One of the Scriptures inform us precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints, The Lord's people are very beloved to Him, and their death only brings them into His presence with rejoicing. They are liberated from this old body of sin and made ready for the resurrection and clothing that is to come. Because of God's mercy toward us, well may we sing the words of the psalmist. I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. I will pay my vows unto the Lord in the presence of all the people. I am thy servant. Thou hast loosened my bonds. I will offer thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving and will call upon the name of the Lord in the courts of the Lord's house. Now this week, speaking on the dreadful topic of persecution of the Lord's people in real time, it was not a good month for U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee. He is an ardent Zionist, and according to him, there is no Palestine, and there are no Palestinians. And he has supported enthusiastically the Zionist government, the IDF, Benjamin Netanyahu. He even took time out of his busy schedule to go attend Netanyahu's criminal trial to show his support for the Prime Minister. And he has been enthusiastically supporting of the colonialist settlers in their violence against the Palestinians. Now these settlers have engaged in terror and murder against the Palestinians, trying to force them from their homes and fields and olive groves. Why would they do that? To take over their homes and fields and villages where the Palestinians have lived for centuries and convert them into land for Jews. Now these settlers have mobilized along the border of Gaza in order to block and vandalize the food aid vehicles queued up there to try to stop food from entering Gaza to feed the starving people. Mike Huckabee had no problem with any of this until this week, when it blew up in his face. First, the settlers attacked an American citizen who was visiting his family in Palestine, beat him, and shot and killed him. Second, the Israelis attacked an ancient church building in Gaza and killed three parishioners. Netanyahu claimed it was just a mistake, but nobody believes that. Why is that? Because this has happened over and over again during the last two years. And thirdly, the settlers have begun attacks on the town of Teba in Palestine in recent weeks. These Israeli settlers are burning people's homes and set fire to the cemetery, the ancient cemetery there, and blowing up their cars, and shooting people, and destroying olive trees, and grazing their cattle on other people's fields. And this is nothing new. It's been going on for several years now. But this town, Tebe, is the last majority Christian town in all of Palestine. It's been there since before the time of Christ. The town is also called Ephraim. And if you study your scriptures, we read this morning of the Lord Jesus' connection with the town of Ephraim, this being the very town which the settlers are attacking in the present day. In John 11 at verse 45, we read, Then many of the Jews which came to Mary and had seen the things which Jesus did," that is, raising Lazarus from the dead, "...believed on him. But some of them went their ways to the Pharisees and told them what things Jesus had done." Think about that, that they were people who saw a man raised from the grave and they went to snitch to the authorities about this horrible, dangerous thing that Jesus had done. "...Then gathered the chief priests and the Pharisees a council and said, What do we do? For this man doth many miracles, and if we let him thus alone, all men will believe on him, and the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation." And then, skipping to verse 53, "...then from that day forth they took counsel together for to put Jesus to death. Jesus therefore walked no more openly among the Jews, but went thence unto a country near to the wilderness, into a city called Aphraim, and there continued with his disciples." So this is the ancient city, or the ancient town, we would call it, that is now under attack. and is the last majority Christian town in the whole region. Why is this? Because the settlers want the town, want the people's land, they want their homes, their fields, and they want them gone. And so they are carrying on as usual for their sect of people. Now, the Israeli military mostly simply watches and does nothing to stop the violence. Why is that? Because the Israeli government agrees with the settlers. It wants to drive out those Palestinians, whether Christian or Muslim, so they can seize the land free of non-Jewish people. Now, the three local pastors, or priests, or whatever you want to call them, of the Christian churches in Tebe have published a plea for help, which was circulated because of the Internet universally. and widely. I saw a copy of it very shortly after it was published. They're pleading for people, especially Christians, to intercede for them, to stop these assaults against the people there and their churches. At first, sad to say, most Christians in America were either ignorant of this or said nothing about it. Their Christian Zionist beliefs trumped their concern for fellow Christians in Palestine And this has long been a puzzling reality in our country. Stephen Sizer, a Church of England rector at the time, made a very interesting documentary about why it is so that Christians in Palestine can be attacked and Christians in America will say nothing. whereas Christian leaders were outraged overseas in America there were a few Christians who started petitions urging Mike Huckabee to visit Ephraim Teba and take action in support of the Christians there and nothing happened immediately until it turned out that a goodly number of the town's inhabitants are actually American citizens living in an ancient and historic Christian community on purpose. And the confluence of these three factors, one, the beating and murder of an American by the settlers, two, the attack of the church in Gaza that killed three people, and three, the ongoing attacks on Teba, Ephraim, by settlers, where most of the inhabitants are Christian and many are Americans, proved too much for Mike Huckabee, and suddenly yesterday he showed up in town to see the damages there himself. And there are photographs of him shaking the hands of the local pastors and surveying the burn damage to the ancient Church of St. George, which has been there since the 5th century. And his conclusion was this. He announced by the State Department that the settler attacks are, quote, an act of terror, unquote, and demanded harsh consequences for the settlers who did this. Now, his press release made it clear that his concern was for American citizens in Israel who were being terrorized by the Israelis. As we learned last Sunday, all of this violence against believers has been ordained by God, because nothing happens that's not ordained by God. And so people ask the question, but why would God ordain such wickedness against His own people? And if you ask that question, you really haven't been paying much attention to history, have you? Or even to the texts of the Scriptures, because the Scriptures are full of discussions and exhortations regarding how believers are to respond in the face of persecution and so why God would do this in this case we can only speculate that there are a number of good ideas perhaps he is doing it to increase the faith of his people and reliance upon him you know we grow complacent and we think that we're just rocking along just fine under our own steam until persecution comes or trouble or any other such tragedy and then all of a sudden We either react in opposition to God's will or else we come closer to Him and seek His strength and power and plead for His relief. And we should rest ourselves in the knowledge that God is in control and that He will do what is best for His people. Perhaps God wants His people to leave their homes and farms and flee somewhere else. before God's wrath falls on the land, as the prophecies in the Scriptures foretell that it certainly will. It'll be devastating. It'll be horrible. Maybe God is using this to show how wicked and foolish His people in other lands are, to stand by and watch what is happening, and refuse to raise their voices in protest against it. Maybe that purpose has partially succeeded with Mr. Huckabee's turnaround in this particular case. Maybe it is for the purpose of calling out, documenting, and showing how evil our country is that we pay for this evil to continue, even when it's against Christian people. But we need to understand the basis of this evil against the Lord's people in this case. For it is a rebellion against God's judgment against the people of Israel who murdered their Messiah." This is very clear from the Scripture that God judged them when they rejected Messiah. Jesus made this abundantly clear. Because you reject Me and murder Me, you will be overthrown utterly. Remember the parable Jesus told them just before they murdered Him. the parable of the tenants and the landlord and how the landlord had built a farm and put a fence around it and put in a wine press and a threshing floor and a tower and he leased it to the farmers. And then they refused to pay the rent when the time came. In Matthew 21 at verse 35, we read this, The husbandmen, that is, the farmers, took the landlord's servants and beat one and killed another and stoned another. Again, he sent other servants, more than the first, and they did unto them likewise." Now, these are parabolic references to the prophets and the preachers that God had sent to His people Israel. Call them back to obedience to the Lord, that is, the landlord. and they treated them terribly. And the Lord Jesus had spoken of this in other places during His ministry. The violence against God's servants who had warned them. But then verse 37, Last of all, He sent unto them His Son, saying, They will reverence My Son. Here Christ is talking about Himself. And the people that are listening to this parable, they know who he's talking about. He's talking about them rebelling against God. He's talking about them murdering the priests and prophets. He's talking about them about to reject the son of the owner of the land. They will reverence my son. They will reverence my son, but how did they react? Not exactly that way. Verse 38, But when the husbandmen, that is, the farmers, saw the son, they said among themselves, This is the heir. Come, let us kill him, and let us seize all of his inheritance. And they caught him, and cast him out of the vineyard, and slew him." That's what the Lord Jesus is telling them they're about to do to Messiah, to Himself. They're going to try to seize the property from the landlord, keep it for themselves, without having to put up with the presence of the Son. whose property it actually is by inheritance. And that's what's about to happen. And then look at what the application of this is. When the Lord therefore of the vineyard cometh, what will He do unto these farmers? And the crowd says to Jesus, they say to Him, He will miserably destroy those wicked men, and will let out His vineyard unto other husbandmen, which shall render Him the fruits in their seasons, Jesus saith unto them, Did ye never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, the same has become the head of the corner? This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes." That is Christ pointing out from the Old Testament, Psalm 118. that whatever they do to the Son, that is to Himself, it will in no way derail God's purpose for His dear Son, that He should be the head of the corner, the establisher of all righteousness, power, authority, and rule. And it doesn't matter whether they reject Him, God will make Him the cornerstone anyway. And then the Lord Jesus says this, and therefore say unto you, The kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a nation, bringing forth the fruits thereof. And whosoever shall fall on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder." Now, notice the terror of this judgment, which Jesus has foretold will happen to the people of Israel, and especially to their rulers. They will be utterly destroyed. They'll be utterly ground into powder by the judgment for what they have done and by the rule of the Lord Jesus. And all of the thing they thought they were seizing hold of will be taken from them and given to somebody else. Well, I mean, that is so contrary to what they thought. we be the children of Abraham, we be the heirs of the promises, et cetera, et cetera. But no, Jesus is saying, if you murder Messiah, you'll be utterly judged and cast out. And this is a text which people don't really like to consider and come to the consequences of it. Notice strictly the kingdom of God shall be taken away from you. Now, the response of the rulers was not to repent. It was not to bow at Christ's knee. It was not to correct the centuries of murder and rebellion against God's appointed ministers and prophets. What does it say? Verse 45, When the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spoke of them. But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. Now Paul made it also clear in Galatians 3 that Christ is the true seed of Abraham, that seed to whom the promises were made. All through Scripture you see that God's promises to the seed of Abraham get pared down century by century. Only Isaac was a recipient of the promises to the seed and not the Ishmaelites or the Arabs that were also the seed of Abraham. And Abraham had offspring after his wife Sarah had died. You remember, he took wife and had many offspring by them as well, but they weren't in the line of succession as it were. And then when you get to Paul in Galatians 3 verse 16, you read these words. Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not unto seeds, as of many, but as of one, and to thy seed, which is Christ." Here Paul issues the ultimate narrowing down of who the recipients of the promises made to Abraham are to his seed, which is Christ. He's already said that whoever has the faith of Abraham is a child of Abraham. Whoever has the faith of Abraham is a child of Abraham. Only by the faith like Abraham's, faith in Christ, can anyone access the promises that God made to Abraham. All of them are perfectly valid. They're all ready to be fulfilled, but they'll only be fulfilled in Christ and through Christ. So if you're not in Christ, then you don't get to take any of the promises. that were made to Abraham and to his seed. And there has been this narrowing of the promises so that now we see they only accrue to Christ as the promised seed of blessing. How then does anybody, Jews, Gentiles, Arabs, whoever we be, gain the promises of blessing that were made to Abraham? It's not very complicated. Verses 26 to 29, For ye, that is speaking to believers, are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. And as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ, There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Jesus Christ. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise." So if you want to receive the blessings that God promised to Abraham's seed, you have to be in Christ, or you're nobody. or you're nothing or you're not receiving anything. Only those in Christ are Abraham's seed and heirs of the promises through Jesus Christ alone. And this is very important. There is no inheritance outside of the Lord Jesus. There is no blessing outside of the Lord Jesus. Any inheritance that has been promised to the offspring of Abraham is only available exclusively through obedience and submission and being placed inside the Lord Jesus. There is no land, there is no other blessing except in Messiah. How can lost Jews regain their inheritance? by being reconciled to Christ. You remember it says in Zechariah, then they shall look on him whom they have pierced and they shall mourn for him as a man mourns for his son. This is the only way that they can regain their inheritance is by being in Christ, partaking of his inheritance as joint heirs with him, as Paul says in Romans 8. Now, if your eschatology isn't aligned with what Jesus and Paul preached here, then you'll need to realign your eschatology with God's Word. But there's no promises that God made to anybody that aren't fulfilled in the Lord Jesus as Paul has described here. All the promises are found only in our Savior. And once you understand these things, then the horror of what the settlers are doing to believers becomes more obvious. You see, they lost their land because they murdered the son. And to this day, they hate Christ. Let's be clear. The Lord Jesus said, if you don't love me, then you don't love the Father. If you don't have me, you don't have the Father. All the world hates Christ until they've been converted and turned to him for salvation. But what they're saying in all this is we will reverse God's judgment against us for the killing of Jesus and we will seize back what was taken from us by God in judgment. We will sustain our rebellion against Christ and we will show to the world that we thereby contemn God's judgment against us by taking back what God took from us and gave to Christ while we still rebelling against Christ. That's what they're doing. And if you're not clear about that, then your eyes are not open to the reality of the rebellion against Christ. People are always looking for a way around God's wrath and judgment without having to bend the knee to God. And this is the case. that they would now take back Messiah's inheritance unto themselves without gaining it through obedience to Messiah, without submitting to their king, is a most dreadful thing. And put in that light, it is a terrifying thing. that they should attack the Lord's people who gather to worship Jesus and seek to dispossess those people of what the Lord has given them is so very, very dangerous. Remember what Christ said to Saul on the way to Damascus. Why are you persecuting me? Well, he was just persecuting the Lord's people, wasn't he? But Jesus counts it differently. Jesus counts it when you persecute believers, you're persecuting him. You see, they are proclaiming, we will take back what is ours, God be damned, and we will take back what is His people's as well unto ourselves. Which brings us to a final reason for these attacks against the Christians in Tebe. And it is so that those violent men and that government might fall under the particular wrath and judgment which God has proclaimed against all who persecute His people. And this is found throughout the scriptures But consider what Paul said to the Lord's people when they were persecuted in 2 Thessalonians 1. It is so that the wicked might one day be destroyed in God's wrath and power and glory, and that the Lord's people might rejoice in His power. 2 Thessalonians 1, 5-9. Which is a manifest token, that is, their persecution of the righteous judgment of God. that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer. Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel. of our Lord Jesus Christ, who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power." Paul is here describing that the persecution of believers is to the end that God might rain down particular wrath against those people that persecuted His people, and that the Lord's people in all the world might be witnesses to it, might see it, That is what God is setting up for these people who are persecuting believers, unless they repent, unless they submit to Christ. Better than believers talking about the blessings of Abraham upon lost Jews, what we should be doing is warning of the curses that God promised to Abraham, I will curse him that curses thee. And if a person curses Christ, whether they be a Jew or an Arab or an atheist or whatever, then the curses that God promised upon people who cursed Abraham will fall upon them. That's just as much of the promise to Abraham as the blessings were. And in this case, of course, it's focused particularly on those who curse Christ. They will be cursed. That's a promise God made to Abraham. We must rather cry out for repentance and reconciliation to the Lord Jesus for all of these people that are engaged in these acts of persecution and destruction and terror and murder. That's really the only thing we can do if we really love people like that, is to cry out to them to repent, to turn away. Stop persecuting the Lord's people. Stop committing evil acts against Christ through His people. that way they may return to the blessings in Christ. That's the only way they can return to the blessings in Christ is to be reconciled to Christ, to put their trust in Christ, to confess that He is the Messiah that they rejected, that the whole world rejected by and large, so that they might be returned under the blessings that are exclusively found in the Lord Jesus as the promised seed of Abraham. and stop trying to seize the blessings that are found only in Christ by violent acts today. This is the watchword that the Lord's people, especially in American churches, need to take hold of. We ought not to be encouraging, we ought not to be petting, we ought not to be financing or subsidizing people who are trying to seize Christ's inheritance for their own in contempt against Christ and in rebellion against Christ. We ought not to have any part in that. Rather, we ought to be warning and preaching and crying out for them to stop continuing their rebellion. Stop continuing there. Stop resisting. You remember what the cops always say to people. Stop resisting. Stop resisting. They need to stop resisting the reign and rule of Jesus and stop trying to take away His portion, His inheritance, which God has given to Him. Read Hebrews 1 and you'll see that the whole world is the inheritance of Christ by the Father given to Him. Not only these people, but all people who are in rebellion against Christ and seeking to seize that which is not their own, ultimately they are seizing or seeking to seize that which has been promised exclusively to the Lord Jesus by the Father. Only by being in union with Christ can we partake of the blessings which God promised to Abraham's seed. But there is, of course, a great irony in all of this that our salvation and blessing were partly brought about by their rebellion against Christ. You know, they carried out exactly what the Lord Jesus said they would in that parable. They killed the son so they could seize the kingdom, seize the property, seize the land, seize the blessing, seize the inheritance. But what ends up happening is the Lord's people whom He's elected unto redemption and salvation, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, whether they be bond or free, whether they be male or female, those are the people that end up benefiting from the violence and the rebellion that they had against the Lord Jesus. Why? Because they sent Him to His death on the cross. They were the willing hands, but the unknowing hands that crucified our Lord. and made Him a sacrifice, and made Him an offering to save everyone who calls upon Him in faith and truth. And He gives us the faith to call upon Him. And when we call upon Him, we're justified by His blood, and we're made righteous by the imputation of His righteousness, the clothing of His garments of praise, and taking away of the spirit of heaviness And so there is, in the persecution of Christ in particular, a great blessing to the people of God, even though they cursed the seed of Abraham, those whom the Lord has called are entered into the blessings that God promised unto the seed of Abraham, which is Christ. And so around this table, we think of how the Lord Jesus died for us and saved us and how the hatred of men and the rebellion of men and the attempt to overthrow the Lord Jesus, all to be frustrated at Calvary and at the resurrection and at the coming of Christ to the world in judgment one day, and to the destruction of those who are still in rebellion against Him at that time. Oh, let us cry out to these people, as well as the rest, to be reconciled to God, to lay hold of the sacrifice which Christ made, to reject all attempts to seize the inheritance of Christ or the blessings of Christ by going around about some other way of rebellion against Christ, but rather to be in subjection to Christ and to receive the blessing by a proper inheritance through the Lord Jesus. He has saved His people from their sin. Praise God. I'd like to ask Brother Whitney if he'd give thanks for the bread that pictures the body of Christ broken for us. And the Lord Jesus, the night He was betrayed, took the bread and blessed it and broke it and said, Take and eat, this is my body which is broken for you. Do this in remembrance of me. Let's give thanks for the cup that pictures the blood of the Lord Jesus shed to make atonement for our sins. O God, our Father, we rejoice that you have loved us when we were unlovely, that you have loved your people, whether they be Jews or Gentiles, bond or free, or male or female, that you have set your mark upon your people, that you have wrought in our hearts by the Holy Ghost faith to believe and repentance, We thank You that by union with Christ, we have access to all the blessings and promises that were made to Abraham, that made to Abraham's seed, that Your Son is our blessing. And in Him we delight in the blessings that You have bestowed upon Him on account of His love for us, on account of His obedience unto death, even the death of the cross. We thank You that He shed His precious blood to be made an atonement for us to take away our guilt, take away our rebellion and our wickedness, to take away our covetousness and attempt to seize on the things that are exclusively to be Christ's and His people's. We thank You that He has cleansed us of every fault. We have trusted in Him. Help us to lay hold on that blood, to understand the beauty of this cup that pictures the blood of the new covenant which he shed to execute that covenant for the remission of sin. We pray these things in Jesus' name, amen. And the scriptures tell us that after they had supped, he took the cup and he blessed it and he said, drink ye all of it, this cup is the new covenant in my blood for the remission of sin. Do it as often as ye do it in remembrance of me. And the scriptures tell us that as often as we eat this bread and drink this cup, we do preach the Lord's death until He comes. Let's stand and sing number 84 in the Black Book. Look, ye saints, the sight is glorious. See the man of sorrows now. From the fight returned victorious. Every knee to him shall bow. Crown the Savior, angels crown Him. Rich the trophies Jesus brings. in the seat of power and throne him while the vault of heaven rings. Sinners in derision crowned him, mocking thus the Savior's claim. Saints and angels crowd around him, own his title, praise his name, crown him, crown him, crown him, spread abroad the victor's fame. Number 84.