Adrienne Rogers was a motivator, an encourager, and a leader of the faith. He was also passionate about presenting scriptural application to everyday life circumstances, and you'll hear that in today's message.
Now, let's join Adrienne Rogers. Now I want you to take God's Word and find Matthew chapter 5. Would you turn to it? Matthew chapter 5. Many of us believe, I do, that we are living in the receding shadows of the end of the age, and we see signs of the times all about us. One of those signs is the persecution of Christians. So I want to talk to you this morning on this subject, learning to stand for Jesus.
So many Christians are folding up when they ought to be standing up. And one of the things that we need to teach our children, those of us who are settled in the faith, is to teach them to be settled in the faith so they can stand on the solid rock of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now begin reading with me, if you will, in verse 10 of this chapter. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake.
That's an amazing statement in itself. The blessing of being persecuted. 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 say all manner 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. Ye are the salt of the earth, but if the salt have lost its savor, wherewith shall it be salted? It is sinceforth good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under the foot of men. Ye are the light of the world.
A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. What glorious words these are from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Now the point is clear and plain this morning. If you stand up for the Lord Jesus Christ, you're going to be persecuted. Now the Bible says all that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. All and shall. Now there is a way that you can escape persecution.
Would you like to hear what it is? Just don't live godly. All who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. Now you can hobnob and rub shoulders with the people of this world, fail to take a stand, fail to be distinctive, and you perhaps will not suffer persecution. I've done many jobs working my way through school.
One of them is to work in construction as a carpenter's helper. And I worked around some carpenters who were profane men. They loved to tell dirty jokes and they loved to ridicule my faith, especially when they learned I was going to be a preacher. Finally one of those men though turned to me and looked me straight in the eye and said, well, if you're going to be a preacher, be a good one. He said, I once knew a preacher was a good one.
Said he never mentioned religion or politics. Now there's a way that you can just not take a stand for anything and people will call you a quote good preacher. But friend, the persecution that you receive is the thermometer that registers your love and your courage for the Lord Jesus Christ. Now in this passage before us, Jesus Christ is talking about the persecution that every mother's child who loves the Lord Jesus Christ will receive if they stand for him. Let's look for a moment at the reasons, the reasons for this persecution.
The first reason is the life that we show. Look if you will in verse 10, blessed are they which are persecuted. Now watch this for righteousness sake, for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. The world will persecute you if you live a lifestyle of righteousness, if that is the life that you show. Now the root word for persecute is a word which means to divide or to separate. Now a person who is righteous is divided, separated from this world.
So not everybody is going to be persecuted. Friend, listen, you have to earn persecution. You have to earn it.
The way you earn it is to be different. Now, righteousness is already described in this fifth chapter by the Beatitudes. Look at the Beatitudes, be pure in heart, mourn, hunger and thirst after righteousness and all of these things.
Now, if you do these things, the next beatitude is axiomatic. Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake. Now, if you're not righteous, forget it. You're not going to be persecuted, but you see, righteousness divides. That's what the word persecute means. It means to separate, to divide.
First Peter chapter two verse nine. We are a peculiar people. We are different from the world. Our faith is so different. It starts at a different source. It follows a different course.
It ends at a different destination. I heard of a lady who called her husband on the car phone. He was an elderly man.
He'd gone to the grocery store. She said, now Herbert, I just listened to the news and there is a crazy man on the expressway going the wrong way. Be careful.
He said, listen. He said, they're all going the wrong way. If you're Christian, you're going to be like that man in reverse. There is the wide road and the narrow road and it doesn't mean that the narrow road and the wide road are running parallel.
Here is the wide road and the narrow road is going in the opposite direction. When you stop being in collusion with the devil, you will find yourself being in collision with him. Now we are a peculiar people. We're children of light. They're children of darkness. We live by the spirit. They live in sin. We live by faith. They live by sight. We understand them.
They do not understand us. The passage that I just read in verse 13 says we are the salt of the earth. Well, salt stings.
It irritates when it's rubbed into a wound. We're the light of the world. Light reveals, light exposes, and so the world by nature says, get that salt out of here and turn off that light. We're different. It's righteousness.
Now we need to be very careful here. Some may go around saying, well, I am persecuted and you may be, but you're not persecuted for righteousness sake. Jesus said it must be for righteousness and for his name's sake. Put this verse down there in your margin. First Peter chapter four, 14 through 16. If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happier ye for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you. On their part he, that is Jesus, is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified. Let none of you suffer as a murderer or as a thief or as an evil doer or as a busy body in other men's matters.
Busy body. You stick your nose in somebody else's business and you might find a fist at the end of it. Don't suffer as a busy body in other men's matters. Now, look in verse 16. Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God on this behalf. The reason we suffer is for righteousness sake to suffer as a Christian.
You're to be a witness, but you're not called to be a prosecuting attorney. You're to be different, but you're not to be odd. You see, the persecution must be false and it must be for Jesus sake. Now, this word persecution also means to pursue. You see, when you're different, they will pursue you. They'd be watching you like a hawk.
They'd be trying to find some flaw, some difference in you, and when they find it, it'll make them feel better as they condemn you. One time the Bible describes Jesus as going through the wheat fields and he was hungry and it was on the Sabbath day, so he and his disciples plucked some ears of wheat and began to thresh it with their hand and to eat that wheat. It was on the Sabbath day. And there were some Pharisees who said, aha, aha, aha, you have broken the Sabbath.
Well, of course he hadn't, but the funny part of this whole story is what would a bunch of Pharisees doing out in a wheat field anyway? They were following Jesus. They were pursuing Jesus and they'll do the same to you.
When you fly the flag high, they're going to be watching and trying to find something that they can criticize you for. Why are we persecuted? Number one, the life that we show. Number two, the lies that we suffer. Look again in verse 11, blessed are you when men shall revive you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. They will tell lies about you.
They will say things about you that are not true. I remind you that the most righteous person who ever lived obviously was Jesus. And how did they crucify him? With false witnesses. They lied about the Lord Jesus Christ. Now you can expect to be lied about. You can expect your pastor to be lied about. You can expect any child of God to be lied about and they will persecute you for the life you show. They will persecute you for the lies you suffer. That will be the reason that we're persecuted because we're lied on. And then a third reason and the major reason is the Lord we serve. Look again in verse 11, blessed are ye when men shall revive you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely. Now watch the last three words for my sake.
For my sake. The Lord we serve. That's the reason that we are persecuted. Now this world hates Jesus. You say, oh no pastor. No, the world loves Jesus.
Well, let's get it straight. The world has no qualms with the baby Jesus. The merchants are happy for the baby Jesus. You can walk through the mall and you can see the manger scenes and so forth. The world loves the baby Jesus.
Why? Who doesn't love a baby? What a sweet story that is. The little baby Jesus there in the straw in the crib. Merchants love Jesus.
I'll tell you why. Because they are making gazillions on the baby Jesus. The earth of Jesus that we celebrate. The world does not hate the baby Jesus.
No, not at all. And also the world doesn't hate the Jesus who healed the sick. The world does not hate the Jesus who fed the multitudes. The world doesn't hate that Jesus.
As a matter of fact, again, millions of dollars have been raised to help feed the multitudes and to heal the sick. And everybody says that is a good thing. But why does the world hate Jesus?
May I tell you very clearly and plainly? Because Jesus came and himself said so to destroy the works of the devil. Now, Jesus came against liquor and abortion and pornography and pride and racism and hatred. Jesus is against that. And because of that, the world hates Jesus.
Put in your margin. John chapter 15 verses 19 through 22. Jesus said, if ye were of the world, the world would love his own. That is just be worldly and the world will love you. But because ye are not of the world, but I've chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Remember the word that I said unto you, the servant is not greater than his Lord. Do you think you're better than Jesus? Do you think the reason that you're not persecuted is that you're better than Jesus? The servant is not greater than his Lord. If they have persecuted me, they will also persecute you.
If they kept my saying, they will keep yours also. But all these things will they do unto you for my name's sake, because they know not him that sent me. Now, if I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not sinned, but now they have no cloak for the sin.
That's it. Jesus came to condemn sin. Jesus exposed the sin and they hated him and they still hate him. They hate the things that Jesus Christ stands against.
He came to destroy the works of the devil. Why are you persecuted? The life that we show, the lies that we suffer and the Lord that we serve.
It's right there in this passage of scripture. That's why we're going to be persecuted. Now, what is the result of this persecution? Look now in chapter five, Matthew chapter five, verse 11, blessed are ye when men shall revive you and persecute you and say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake.
Now, what are the results of this? Well, first of all, there's going to be personal insults. They're going to revile you. They're going to say some things about you that are not very flattering.
You will find yourself the butt of jokes. Even now, they're dividing America up into the United States of Canada and Jesus land. They look on us who live in the heartland of America as country bumpkins.
We have the title of being the flyover land. Years going from the east coast to the west coast and the west coast back to the east coast, but we are looked down upon. We are reviled. Now folks, it may be personal insult. I've been insulted a good number of times for Jesus.
Secondly, it may be physical intimidation. Look again, it says they will persecute you there in verse 11. There are people right now in prison right now because they have stood against sin, stood up for the unborn. They are persecuted.
They are in prison. Listen, in China, Christians who worship in churches that are not state run face prison and even torture. In Pakistan, if some would refuse to convert to Islam, they would be put to death. There will be the reviling, personal insult. There will be the persecution, physical intimidation, and there will also be social injustice.
Social injustice. They will say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Jesus gave a warning about this. Put this verse down in the margin.
Don't turn to it, but listen to it. Mark 13 verses nine through 13, but take heed to yourselves for they should deliver you up to councils and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten and shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake. For a testimony against them and the gospel must first be published among all nations. But when they shall lead you and deliver you up, take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak. Neither do you premeditate, but whatsoever is given you in that hour that speak ye. For it is not you that speak, but the Holy Ghost. Now the brothers shall betray the brother to death and the father of the son and children shall rise up against their parents and shall cause them to be put to death and ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake. But he that shall endure to the end, the same should be saved. Now this passage of scripture deals with the great tribulation and the horrors of the great tribulation.
But we see four gleams of that today. This injustice is going to come from the religious world. They're going to bring you four councils and synagogues and the religious world will persecute you. Not only will it come from the religious world, it will come from the governmental world. Look in verse nine of this chapter, Mark 13.
He shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake. This world system is loaded against Jesus. The ACLU has said in California, and I quote them, it is our position that teaching that monogamous heterosexual intercourse within a marriage is a traditional American value is an unconstitutional establishment of a religious doctrine in public schools.
That is, if you just teach in a public school that a traditional marriage, a man and a woman is an American value, that is unconstitutional in America. Is that not something? Friend, this persecution is here. It may come from the religious world. It may come from the governmental world. It may come from your own family. It may be domestic persecution. Now again, you have your Bible open to Matthew chapter five, but here in Mark chapter 13 and verse 12, it says, the brothers shall betray the brother to death and the father of the son and children shall rise up against their parents and shall cause them to be put to death. You may be persecuted by those closest to you, family members, and some of you right now are suffering that kind of persecution. Not infrequently am I called upon to counsel with or give advice to people who find this animus in their own families.
They're hating. They're persecuted in their families. The persecution will come from the religious world. It will come from the governmental world. It will come from the domestic world.
That's black print on white paper. Now, finally, what should be our response? We've talked about the reasons and the results. What is our response? How should we respond in these last days to the persecution that is going to get worse and worse and worse?
Number one, we should learn to reign, R-E-I-G-N, reign in life. Look in verse 10. We're back to chapter five, Matthew five.
Look in verse 10. When we are persecuted, God says for ours is the kingdom of heaven. The scripture literally says concerning the persecuted, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. We have a kingdom. We reign with Christ in life, the Bible says.
When these people persecute us, remember who we are. We're children of the kingdom. And because we're children of the kingdom, we should reign in life. There are three levels of life. First of all, there is the hellish level that returns evil for good. Then there is the human level that returns evil for evil and good for good.
Then there's the heavenly level that returns good for evil. Now you're in Matthew chapter five, fast forward to verse 43. Ye have heard that it has been said, thou shalt love thy neighbor and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you. Pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. He's still on the subject of persecution that ye may be the children of your father, which is in heaven.
For he maketh his son to rise upon the evil and on the good and sendeth reign on the just and the unjust. When they persecute us, we're not to try to get even. Here we are up here in the kingdom. Here they are down here in the world and they persecute us. Well, we just say, I'm going to get even with them. Now watch this. What do we do when we get even?
That's what we do when we get even. We leave our status, we leave our position and no longer are we reigning with the Lord Jesus Christ. I read a book one time called Some Dogs I've Known. It was written by an old Methodist preacher, Bob Schuler.
Bob Schuler was in a town one time holding a revival meeting and he was getting some criticism, but he happened to be standing there outside of a restaurant and he saw a strange sight in the road. There was a massive bulldog. You know how they walk like this? Big jaws, big shoulder muscles and he's walking down the street, this old bulldog is, and right behind him was a little feist, a little dog, a little yapping mutt and that dog was yapping at this bulldog's heels and snarling and yapping and barking. The old bulldog just kept on walking. He could have snapped him in two with one bite, but he just kept on walking. Paid no attention to this yapping mutt.
Schuler went back and wrote these words. I did not laugh. I went to my room and said my prayers. I prayed, oh God, whatever that bulldog's got I want. Oh, for the ability to walk with strong tread straight ahead and let them yap and snarl, growl and bark to their heart's content. He then pointed out that we need men whom the acclaim or howling threat of the multitude do not move. Men who walk on amid criticism, condemnation, anathema, cursings, content to know that in their very molding and making there's something, listen to this, so royal as to defend them forever against such mouthing. Men who are too tall for stooping. Men whose ears are too close to heaven to hear the little growls from the throats of the worm like things of earth. That's a good lesson from a bulldog.
They will yap at you. Listen, you reign in life. Don't forget who you are. You're children of the kingdom and not only do you reign in life, you rejoice in the Lord.
Again in verse 12, look at it again. Rejoice, rejoice and be exceeding glad. You rejoice in the Lord.
This word rejoice actually has the idea of leaping and dancing. Don't sit in the corner and feel sorry for yourself. Don't suck your thumb. Why? Think of the company we resemble for so persecuted they, the prophets, which were before you. When I get to heaven, I don't want to meet the apostle Paul and he say, Adrian, wear your scars.
I said, well, I didn't get any scars. I don't want to be ashamed. I want to be a prophet. Don't you want to be a prophet?
They persecuted the prophets. There's a company we resemble. There's a character we reveal that we're living for Jesus. There's a compensation we receive. Great is your reward in heaven.
I learned this thing a long time ago. It pays to serve Jesus. It pays every day.
It pays every step of the way. You know, if I got no other pay except to remind people of Jesus, that would be enough. In the early part of the book of Acts, there were some disciples who were being persecuted and they'd been put in prison. They'd been beaten, but they kept on preaching Jesus. You might as well have told the sun not to shine as to tell these men not to preach Jesus. And the Bible says of those who were persecuting them, that they departed from the presence of the council and the people in the council marveled that they were fishermen, unlearned, now listen to this, and took knowledge of them that they had been with Jesus.
They'd been persecuted, but they reacted in such a way that the people of this world said they are like the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, what do you do when you're persecuted? You reign in light.
Number two, you simply stay true to the Lord Jesus Christ and rejoice in the Lord. And finally, listen, you release love. Love. Love to those who persecute you.
Look again in Matthew chapter five, verse 44. But I say unto you, love your enemies. Bless them that curse you. Do good to them that hate you.
And pray for them, which despitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be the children of your father, which is in heaven. Release love. Release love.
Now, this will be so much easier if you do the first two things. If you will reign in light, understand who you are, then you can release love. And this love is not mere sympathy. It's doing good to them.
Notice what he says. See, God makes it to reign upon the just and the unjust. Don't say, well, I'm going to treat some people nice because they're good people and other people wrong because they persecute me. Be like God and love them. Aren't you glad that God loves sinners?
Where would we be if he didn't love us? These people are blind. They don't have life. They don't understand. As a matter of fact, the Bible says in the last days, those that kill us will think they do God's service. They are applying and they need love and we need to treat them as God has treated us.
Last example, and I'll close this message. There was a preacher. Well, actually it was a deacon. His name was Steven.
My son Steven is named after this man. He was a powerful preacher of the word of God and they could not controvert him. They could not change him. They could not intimidate him. So they stoned him to death. Can you imagine what it would be like to be stoned for death? Well, that's persecution. They stoned him to death. And there was a young man there holding the garments of these who were doing the stoning.
You know, you take off your coat to do something like that. This man was standing there holding the garments. His name was Saul. Later on, he became Paul, the mightiest Christian missionary theologian that the world has ever known. He was changed.
What changed him? The way Steven died. Steven, as he was dying, looked up to heaven and said, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, don't lay this terrible thing, charge this terrible thing to their account.
Lord Jesus, have mercy upon them. Saul never forgot that. When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus, Jesus said, it's hard for you to kick against the ox goad, isn't it? What was goading this man? What was goading him?
What was it that gave him this disquietude? It was the face of a man that shined like an angel who released love when he was persecuted. We are going to be persecuted. Yea, all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. My brothers and my sisters, we need to believe this, but how much more do we need to teach our children to stand up, stand up for Jesus. Ye soldiers of the cross, teach them, show them these are days of golden opportunity to share the Lord Jesus Christ.
Would you say Lord Jesus, because you died for me, help me to live for you and if necessary to die for you and to die with you, may I die to this world before I die physically. Teach me Lord to be different. Don't let the world intimidate me.
Don't let me live by political correctness. Help me to stand tall and not to be afraid. Lord, you've said in nothing are we to be terrified by our adversaries. Jesus suffered for me, for you persecution that we might be saved. He took our sins upon him and died in agony and blood upon the cross and our sin debt has been paid, paid in full. We're not saved because we suffer. We're saved because Jesus suffered. He paid our sin debt and we can receive that as a free gift.
If it's a gift, it must be free. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life. Would you like to receive that gift today?
Would you? Would you like that eternal life? Would you like to know that your sins are forgiven, that Christ is in your heart, that heaven is your home?
Would you like to know it? Do you like to be a real Christian? Let me lead you in a prayer and I want you to pray this prayer after me, but make it your prayer. Dear God, thank you for loving me. Thank you for allowing Jesus to die for me on the cross. Lord Jesus, thank you for shedding your blood to pay my sin debt.
Thank you for going through such agony for me. Now, Lord Jesus, you died to save me and you promised to save me if I would trust you. I do trust you. Come into my heart. Forgive my sin.
Cleanse me. Save me and begin now to make me the person you want me to be and give me the courage to stand up for you. In your name I pray. Amen. If you would like to learn more about how you can know Jesus or deepen your relationship with him, simply click the Discover Jesus link on our website, lwf.org. For a copy of this message or additional resources, visit our online store at lwf.org or call 1-800-274-5683. Thank you.
