Music It's only natural to want to seek revenge or to vindicate ourselves when we feel we've been unfairly wronged. But God's Word teaches something completely different. Today on Truth for Life, we'll learn how it's possible and why it's necessary to rise above our natural inclinations. Alistair Begg is teaching from Genesis chapter 40. He begins, though, with a New Testament reference in the book of Hebrews.
Turn back a couple of pages to Hebrews chapter 11 and the great heroes of the faith, the great picture gallery of those who were following Christ. And as he goes through and identifies different portraits by name, he eventually comes to a more generic statement regarding a great glut of people who had suffered unjustly for Christ. And he says in verse 36 of Hebrews 11, some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned. They were sawn in two.
They were put to death by sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted, and ill-treated. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains and in caves and in holes in the ground. Why?
Because of their commitment to Jesus Christ. Not because they had done bad things, but because they were committed to doing good things. Not because they had brought down upon themselves rightful justice, but that they had brought down upon themselves the bowls of human wrath. Where did we get the idea? Where did we get a Christianity where Jesus does all the dying?
Where did we get a Christianity where Jesus is the only one that bears a cross? A Christianity where Jesus is the only one who wears a crown? I'll tell you what, we didn't get it in the New Testament. you say well I don't know what you're on about frankly because this is a very nice place and I don't see why you should get people agitated like this on a lovely Sunday morning hey if I'm agitated you're getting agitated that's the deal and let me tell you I'm not a prophet nor am I the son of a prophet but I'm going to tell you why we better pay attention to this in this country if you take the environment in which Paul was functioning in the Roman Empire, you know enough about it to understand this, that in the Roman Empire you had a pluralist culture.
Now don't let's get confused by the word. Pluralism is the theory that the ultimate reality of the universe, I'm quoting from my own notes now, consists of a plurality of entities.
Okay?
Okay, pluralism says that truth cannot be and is not in one dogma or in one person or in one entity. Pluralism says it is in multiple entities. Syncretism advances that and says it is in the blending of all of these entities that we come to a discovery of the truth. And in that mindset, there's always room for another God. And so there was in Roman culture.
They had the Pantheon, which was just a big variety of gods. And if somebody showed up and said, you know, I've got another one for you, they'd say, well, I think there's probably a place here. They'd bring a little pedestal and put it up, and they would include it with the rest. A very open culture, very willing to think expensively, very prepared for all kinds of religions.
So isn't it kind of strange that they threw the Christians to the lions? Isn't it kind of strange that Nero used them as Roman candles and drove them into the ground like pegs around a tent, smeared them with pitch and with tar, and set fire to them? How could it be that in such a pluralistic, open, pantheistic culture, you would have such unjustified suffering meted out on Christians?
Now, you've already answered it in your mind, have you not? I think you have. The Roman culture could not and would not tolerate Christianity because Christians were not prepared to add Christ to the pantheon. You see, Christians were and remain unprepared to say, Jesus is just another of the arches. Christians must inevitably say that there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby people are saved, save the name of Jesus of Nazareth, Acts chapter 4.
And as soon as a person said that in the Roman culture, they were taboo.
Well, you say, but that's the Roman culture. That's 2,000 years ago. This is Cleveland. Hey, do you understand that this is a pluralistic culture? Yesterday's plain dealer, the guy, the Roman Catholic priest writing in the column on the inside thing of the religion page, identifies the place as the epitome of a pluralistic culture, acknowledging the fact that we are where they were at the time of Rome That is we have a place for Jesus over here next to Buddha Muhammad Gandhi and a few others If you could just place him over there, and then let's get on with life.
And the Christian says, no, I'm sorry, I can't place him over here. Why not? Because Gandhi will bow at the feet of Jesus and declare him Lord. Buddha will bow at the feet of Jesus and acknowledge that he was the only savior Muhammad and every other human prophet will acknowledge one day that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father therefore I'm sorry I can't do that well says somebody isn't that a very arrogant posture to take isn't that what they say to you at your work who the world you think you are why would you think that you've got it How can you be so arrogant? How can you be so dogmatic?
The answer is, loved ones, if it is true, it isn't arrogant. And if it isn't true, it's just stupidity. You see, we do not press upon our loved ones and our friends Christianity on the basis of its pragmatic benefits. We press and are pressed by the fact of its evidential truthfulness. and if we in a pluralistic culture are going to be prepared to stand for these things believe me we better get ready not to be surprised at the painful trial that comes upon us now please god i'm completely wrong but i firmly believe this in my own heart as i look to the future that evangelical christianity in the form of which we proclaim it with an inerrant Bible, a coming-again Christ, totally divine, totally human, one God in three, three in one, an orthodox biblical Christianity will not be tolerated in the American pluralistic New Age world.
And I'll tell you why. Because pluralists can only tolerate pluralists. They cannot tolerate. Indeed, they are mercilessly intolerant towards those who refuse to subscribe to their agnostic and universal views. And if you doubt that, go on a university campus.
If you doubt that, go on a high school campus. If you doubt that, say it straight in your office or in your factory. And your people will be with you right up until the point that the penny drops, and they understand that what you're saying is, Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the Father except through him. And that phrase, except through him, is anathema in a pluralistic world, whether it is the culture of Rome or the culture of Cleveland. when you watch, as many of you did last summer, the British Open coming from St.
Andrews, Scotland, and you have in your mind that fabulous sight of the royal and ancient clubhouse set back on the left-hand side of the 18th green, the next time you see a picture of that, if you look carefully, if the angle is wide enough, you'll notice that there is a monument a little behind and set off from the Royal and Ancient Clubhouse. And you go stand at that monument, and you will be standing at the memory of those who were sawn in two and bled and died for the truth of the gospel, were the victims of unjust suffering so that I could grow up with the Bible in my own tongue and be able to worship in the freedom of my own land. And that in turn, across the Atlantic Ocean, the same would be true for each of us. Loved ones, it didn't come except at a great cost. and it will not be maintained into subsequent generations except still at great cost.
And that's why I'm so afraid of all the blurring of the edges, of all the dimming of the distinctives, of all the great mass movements. Joseph, I don't deserve to be here. This suffering is unjust, the way that some of us feel. answer, don't be surprised. Secondly, and I'll go quicker.
I spent the longest time on that, but I'll just hit the other three. Secondly, don't throw in the towel. Don't throw in the towel. Joseph, in viewing his circumstances, had every reason, humanly speaking, to say, you know, I think I'll give up. I might as well do what everyone else does.
I don't see that this is working to my benefit. I try to do the right thing for my father, I get thrown in a pit. I try and be nice to my brothers and go and check on them, and they strap me to the back of some mangy camel and ship me off into Egypt. I try and do the right thing there and I get thrown in the jail because of some perverse woman. I really don't deserve this.
I might as well give it a mess. You ever succumb to that temptation? You feel like that? You know, I really don't need to keep this up. I don't think that anybody pays attention to it in any case.
I don't see that I need to keep purity in my marriage. I don't think that I need integrity in my tax returns. I don't think that there's any benefit in this at all. After all, all these rascals around me here, they're doing it all wrong, and they're having a great time. I'm doing it all right, and it's the pits.
Says F.B. Meyer, do right because it is right to do right. And when you determine to do right because it is right to do right then when you misunderstood ill when you are the victim of unjust suffering you won swerve you won sit down you won whine and you won despair And you see that the wonderful thing about Joseph How is it that he is so absent whining? Sure, he'd like to get out. He makes a request to do so.
But he's not a whiner. He's not a moaner and a groaner or a complainer, because he determined to do the right thing. And he said, you know what? I'm going to do the right thing no matter what it costs, no matter where it puts me. Do right, because it is right to do right.
And back in Hebrews chapter 12, as the writer encourages those who were tempted to throw in the towel, tempted to chuck it, he says, listen, let me tell you what the antidote is. The antidote to faint-heartedness and to weariness. consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. You having a bad day, he says? Think of Jesus.
The people maligning you? Think of Christ. You feeling like throwing in the towel, giving it up, losing heart, chucking it? Consider Jesus. After all, verse 4, in your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
You haven't died yet, he says. Could get much worse than it is. What do I do when I face unjust suffering? First of all, don't be surprised. Secondly, don't throw in the towel.
Thirdly, don't take revenge. Don't take revenge. Romans chapter 12 and verse 19 gives the instruction with absolute clarity. You're in the face of unjust suffering. What should you do about it?
Well, he says, verse 17, don't repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it's possible, as far as it depends upon you, live at peace with everyone. And then look at this. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written, it's mine to avenge, I will repay, says the Lord.
On the contrary, how about this? If your enemy he is hungry, feed him. If he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.
In the course of the last little while, in the everyday events of life, one of my children came home and was deeply upset and offended by something that had happened in the school. to the point of tears and heartache and some triviality that loomed larger than Mount Eiger. And the reaction was, well, I think, one, I'll never speak to them again, or two, if I do, I'll just give them a piece of my mind real good, because I've thought of some good replies to this. And so we sat and I said, you know, let me tell you what to do here. Write a note that simply says, I'm sorry about what happened yesterday.
I forgive you. You're my friend. Then sign your name. No way. You weren't there.
You didn't hear it. You should have heard it. You should have seen it. Honey, go your way if you want. That's my suggestion.
The following day, I get a call at the office. Hello? Hey. Uh-huh. I did it.
What? I've already forgotten.
Now I don't. Yeah, I took the note. And what happened?
Well, I was in the bathroom and my friends came in and they were crying. And they said, we're sorry. And I said, what do you do? He said, well, we just hugged each other and just cried for a bit and then it was fantastic. He said, you were right, Dad.
Now, all of our disputes are just grown-up versions of things that happen in children's bathrooms. when you cut to the heart of it. It's all an extension of he said, she said stuff. Marital breakdown is all about that as well. Do you know how much can be cured and prevented by paying attention to this in the face of unjust suffering?
Instead of responding à la Cosmopolitan magazine, instead of responding à la The Mind of the World, respond, Allah, the New Testament. But I shouldn't deserve this. We know. But I didn't do that. We know.
But I shouldn't even be here. I shouldn't have been there. We know. Why don't you send them a present? Don't be crazy.
When Jesus was reviled, he didn't revile in return. When he suffered, He didn't curse them or threaten them. You find the same thing all the way through the Bible.
Now, Amaya in chapter 6 is trying to do a fairly decent job building the wall with God's help. They got opposition from outside, opposition from inside, opposition from inside, outside, backside, frontside. Everybody's tearing him apart.
Now he's the leader. First of all, he's a hero. The next minute, he's a bum. The first year, they idolize you. The second year, they criticize you.
The third year, they ostracize you. And it was all happening within the space of months for Nehemiah. And they send him a letter, an open letter, an unsigned letter, an anonymous letter with multiple exposure. The worst kind.
So what does Nehemiah do? He writes, he says to the guys, he says, listen, nothing like what you say is happening You just making it up out of your heads It the response of a clear conscience It the same thing that you have by Paul in 1 Corinthians 4 They saying all these things about Paul and why he doing what he doing He says listen I don care if I judged by you or by any human court. My conscience is clear. That doesn't make me innocent. But it does mean that I can sleep at night in the awareness of the fact that one day I'm going to be judged by God.
And the thought of being judged by God is a far more significant judgment than what Mr. X or Mrs. X has to say about me. John Knox had it perfectly. John Knox, it was said of Knox in St.
Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh that he feared the face of God so much that he never feared the face of any man, which was good because they used to throw stuff at Knox when he was preaching. Stools and bits of merchandise and everything.
Sorry, you know, like, as it says in 2 Corinthians 11, us. If you take your Bibles and turn to… It's a great, great mistake to spend our lives trying to clear ourselves, trying to justify ourselves, trying to explain our motives and explain this and explain that and get all the scrambled eggs back up into the shells and put them all in a nice form all over again. Forget it. Justice will be served. Do not spend your life trying to clear your name.
It is a wiser course of action to keep on with the task at hand, to trust God, to vindicate in due course. That may be days, weeks, months, years, and maybe not until we get to heaven. but that'll be fine. Last thing, when you face unjust suffering, what do we say? I don't know.
I need to look. Number one, don't be surprised. Number two, don't throw in the towel. Number three, don't take revenge. And finally, number four, don't miss the chance to help others.
When you're on the receiving end of unjust suffering, don't miss the chance to help others. Isn't that the wonderful thing that we find here in Genesis 40 and to which we will return? The interest and the sensitivity of Joseph. Did he have a big problem? Certainly.
Did he have a reason for a grudge? Without question. Could he have spent all of his life consumed with his own little problems? Absolutely. But what does he do?
Verse 6, he notices that these two men are dejected. The reason he notices is because he's looking. And the reason he's looking is because he cares. Not only does he notice that they're dejected, but in verse 7, he cares enough to ask them why they're dejected. And as we'll see next time, he reveals the sensitivity of his heart in the worst of circumstances, in caring for others who are on the seething end of good news and bad news.
We might have forgiven him, actually, if he had said, you know, I've got so much trouble here. I know you had a dream. I know you've got a problem. But hey, you know, man, since the age of 17 and it's been going a decade now, I'm 27 now. You know, I'm sorry.
I just don't have time to deal with this stuff. But he didn't. he didn't. There's no reason for surprise. There's no reason to throw in the towel.
There's no reason for revenge. And there is no reason to miss the chance to help others. Are you in a bind at the moment? Are you in circumstances that known only to you and to God are closing you down like a dungeon and all the advice that you're getting from all around is fight your way out, consider Joseph. Consider these principles.
And do what's right. Because it's right. Always to do right. That is simple and yet powerful and biblical advice from Alistair Begg on Truth for Life. Here at Truth for Life, we are passionate about proclaiming the exclusive claims of Jesus, that salvation is found in him alone.
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tomorrow we'll learn six words that are crucial if we're ever going to be used by God. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life. Where the Learning is for Living.
