Blessed are the Persecuted

Father, we thank you for today and just the opportunity to be here tonight. Lord, we realize that there's so much that we do not understand about you and your kingdom. And yet you've given us your word that explains things to us. And we want to be students of the word. We want to learn about you and we want to know our God. Our prayer, Father, is like the Apostle Paul, that we might know you and the fellowship of your sufferings.

Here's a man who who wrote so much in the New Testament yet was always longing to know you even more. I pray that that would be us. Now, Lord, we would never get enough of you and that we would always be longing to know more of who you are.

And that, Lord, as we get to know you, you rub off on us in such a way it transforms everything that we say and do and think and act. So it is to ask, Lord, that tonight, as we come to understand more of who you are, that you would shape us and mold us into your image, that we might better glorify your precious name.

I pray for the downtrodden this evening, Lord, that you'd encourage them. I pray, Lord, for those who are discouraged, that you'd uplift them. I pray for those who are hurting, that your word would provide some remedy, some comfort for them during this time. And pray that, Lord, we learn to minister to one another even more so as you see the day of your coming drawing near. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Take your Bible and turn with me, if you would, to Matthew chapter 5.

Matthew chapter 5 is commonly called the Sermon on the Mount simply because the Lord went up onto a mount, sat down and began to preach the sermon. In Matthew chapter 8, when he's done preaching, he descends the mount. And so we know that this is a place where our Lord would ascend to teach people the truth about kingdom living.

Where that mount exactly is, no one really knows. There is a traditional place. It's not necessarily the actual place, but people go there and reminisce about what Christ said in Matthew 5, 6, and 7.

It's not so much the place where he said these things. It's the person who said them. It's not necessarily the mountain that's important.

It's the message that Christ gave on that mountain which is so important. And the message he gives is all about learning to live like a child of the king. Have you ever wondered what a child of the king looks like? Well, wonder no more because in Matthew chapter 5, verses 1 to 12, he describes to us the children of the kingdom.

He teaches us what it means to grow up in the kingdom, how to get into the kingdom. He explains to us what it means to live like a child of the king. And so you can easily see someone as a child of the king if they understand the beatitudes in Matthew 5, verses 1 to 12.

You can understand those people who are children of the king because they're merciful. They're meek. They're peacemakers.

They hunger and thirst for righteousness. They are the ones who have mourned over their sin and over the judgment that awaits them so much so that they give their life to Christ. They recognize that they are so poor in spirit.

They have nothing to give toward their salvation. Those are people that Christ describes as those who have come into his kingdom and they're growing in his kingdom. So if you want to know whether or not you're a child of the king, match yourself against what Jesus says.

He says these words in Matthew chapter 5, verse number 3. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn for they and they only shall be comforted.

Blessed are the gentle or the meek for they and they only shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness for they and they only shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful for they and they only shall receive mercy.

Blessed are the pure in heart for only they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons of God. You can imagine what it must have been like for all these people, scores of them, thousands of them on the mountainside listening to the words of Jesus.

He preaches his sermon and he begins with blessedness, happiness, true inner joy and contentment. An inner contentment that's non-affected by circumstances around them because there's an inner joy, there's an inner peace, there's an inner contentment, there's an inner blessedness, a blissfulness about their lives. And so they are sitting there listening to Jesus speak and he begins by talking to them about true blessing.

And the words that he uses are probably contrary to anything they had ever heard simply because Jesus never quotes a rabbi, he never quotes the Mishnah, he just speaks. At the end of the sermon they are astounded because never a man spoke like this man. He spoke differently than everybody else spoke.

And so there would be scores of people that would follow him down the mountain, probably as many as have followed him up the mountain. But when you come to the Beatitudes and you come to the next one, I'm sure it must have caused people to pause because listen to what Jesus says next. Blessed are those who have been persecuted for the sake of righteousness for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad for your reward in heaven is great for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. I'm sure that there were people on the mountain that would scratch their heads, maybe begin to snicker or sneer or even begin to scratch their heads and look to their friend and say this can't be true.

Blessed are the persecuted. How can that possibly be? How can those who are persecuted rejoice and be glad? How can they be exuberant? How can they ever receive a blessing if they are persecuted? But that's what Jesus says as he concludes the first part of a sermon. Verse 10 is the Beatitude; verses 11, 12 are the explanation to the Beatitude.

And so in order for us to understand it, we will go through the same outline that we've gone over the last several weeks and that is we will define the condition persecution. Then we'll describe the consequences of those who are persecuted, detail their characteristics and then determine which course we will follow as a result of what Christ has said. Very simple outline.

We've used it for all the Beatitudes, but let's first of all define the condition. You can define it several ways. You can define it number one personally, number two that which is promised, and number three that which is painful.

And you can add a fourth one that which is purposeful. But this persecution is that which is personal. Listen to what Jesus says.

He says blessed are those. He continues in the same way of the other Beatitudes until he comes to verse 11 and then he personalizes it. He says blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you.

So he wants to personalize the persecution and take it away from that which is generic, the populace, to the individual. And the question will come about how is it the meek person is persecuted? How is it you just said that the peacemakers are called the sons of God, why would peacemakers be persecuted? Are peacemakers really troublemakers? Are peacemakers the ones who cause the most strife? How can that possibly be? How is it that those who hunger and thirst for truth and righteousness, why is it they are persecuted? And those who show mercy, why would they be persecuted? And those in the audience would have to ask that question. Whether or not Jesus paused, I don't know.

Text doesn't tell us. But he repeats it to make sure that you get it. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

And then he reiterates it by saying blessed are you when men insult you, blessed are you when people abuse you. So he wants to double down on the persecution to make sure that you understand it. Because the question would be, are you kidding? How can that possibly be? So Christ makes it very personal.

But the persecution is that which is also promised. It's promised, it's going to come. It's the natural outflow of living like a child of the king.

Listen carefully. If you are not being persecuted, it's because you are reflecting the world, not rebuking the world. It's that simple.

If you're not being persecuted for righteousness’ sake, it's because your lifestyle more reflects the things of the world instead of rebuking the things of the world. You see, if you're a peacemaker, we studied this last week, you're committed to righteousness and truth. Psalm 85, righteousness and truth have kissed each other because they're one in the same.

And so if you're a peacemaker, you are a truth teller. If you're a truth teller, all those who don't want to adhere to truth are going to be upset. They're not going to like that.

They're going to become very, very angry. It would be the apostle Paul who said in 2 Timothy 3:12 that all those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So if you don't want to suffer persecution, live ungodly.

But if you live godly, you shall suffer persecution. Paul tells that to young Timothy so he understands the fact that when you live for Christ, it's going to cost you. It was Moses who chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to choose the passing pleasures of sin.

Moses made a choice. He chose to forego the passing pleasures of sin, that which the world would give him, and he was nixed in line to be the pharaoh. He was educated in the greatest educational system of his day.

He had wealth that had no limit, and yet he chose to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin for a season. The Bible also says in Philippians 1:29 these words, for to you it has been granted for Christ's sake not only to believe in him but to suffer for him. For Christ's sake it has been granted to you.

For the sake of Christ's name, for the sake of who Christ is, it's been granted you not just to believe in his name because we know that belief is a gift and if you believe in God, it's something that God has granted you but also to suffer for his name. That's also a gift that God gives. That's why persecution is promised.

Acts 1:8, when you receive the Spirit of God you will become my witnesses, literally my martyrs. When you receive the Spirit of God you will be martyred for me. And is it not true that all the apostles were martyred in some brutal kind of way? Except for the apostle John, he was exiled to the island of Patmos.

But all the rest were martyred. Church history tells us that Peter was crucified upside down because he wasn't worthy to be crucified right side up like his Lord. Andrew was crucified on an x-shaped cross.

And you go down through church history and you read about these men that everything that was promised to them came true. Because persecution is the promise given to the Son of God, to the child of God. It makes you pause for a moment doesn't it? And ask yourself the question how is it I'm being persecuted? How is it I'm being insulted or abused or am I? Am I just fitting into the fabric of society? Do I fit in so well that my whole Christianity is camouflaged that no one really knows my stand on the truth? Even in your own family, right?

A lot of you have unsaved family members. Some of you have unsaved husbands or wives. Are you just fitting into the framework of the family or are you standing strong on the truth of the gospel and your husband or wife are persecuting you because of your stand on the truth? Your unwillingness to compromise.

See you can avoid persecution by compromise. You can avoid persecution by being tolerant. You can avoid persecution by not saying anything. You can avoid persecution by accepting and affirming all the things of the world and not going against the things of the world.

We so many times just want to fit in and just be silent and just go through life on a bed of ease. Except the Lord said, blessed are you when men persecute you, when they insult you, when they speak all matter of evil against you for my name's sake. Very important.

Jesus also said, I think it's important to note this, that those who are ashamed of me and my words, I will be ashamed of them before my father who is in heaven. He says my words because you can't be ashamed of what God says. Christ says, don't be ashamed of me nor my words, my truth, my gospel.

Don't be ashamed of that because you run the danger of me being ashamed, you being ashamed before my father who is in heaven, which means that the Lord has no part with you. You see, persecution is a great thing. We don't see this great, but it really is.

It's the greatest purifier of the church. Nothing purifies the church greater than persecution. Think about the tribulation, Revelation 6:9 to 11 speaks about those martyrs who have been killed during the tribulation.

And they're asking, how long, Lord? How long, Lord? And the Lord says it will happen until others like you have been killed as well because Christians will be martyred during the tribulation period. We don't face much of that today in our society. We will, but not now.

We don't face being beheaded as those in Revelation 20 will die in the tribulation. They'll have their heads cut off. We don't face that today in America.

And yet, I wonder how we'd fare if those who speak against us would threaten our lives and they could actually carry it out. The early church was a purified church because they really suffered persecution. If you were a Jew and you gave your life to Christ, you were excommunicated from the synagogue.

You were excommunicated from your family. So if you're a Jew in the days of Jesus, to be committed to Christ would be you lose everything. Everything.

So Jesus says in Luke 9, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. And the cross, of course, was a symbol of derision. It was a symbol of pain and suffering.

So Jesus made it very clear that if you want to follow me, do so. But you must deny yourself. Then and only can you take up your cross and be a disciple of mine.

He spoke very clearly. He didn't want anybody to have a mixed message about Christianity. See, the problem in our day is that we've downplayed Christianity.

We've downplayed the gospel. We've diluted the gospel to such an extent that anybody who hears it can believe it. That's why in our churches when we downplay the gospel and we seek to accommodate the unbeliever, the church was never designed to accommodate the believer, to make the church a place where the unbeliever is comfortable.

If an unbeliever walks through our doors, they should be extremely uncomfortable. But isn't it interesting that the church today has changed all that to make the unbeliever so comfortable in our setting they just feel right at home. That's not true Christianity.

That's not what Jesus said. You want the unbeliever to come and feel convicted because they've heard something that goes against their life and they get so mad they never want to come back or they truly repent of their sin and say, right, I need the Lord. That's what you want to see happen.

The worst thing you can do is make the unbeliever feel comfortable in your church. That would not be a church. That would be a whole bunch of people pretending to be churches or pretending to be Christians in a church.

The church was never designed to do that. The church is the pillar and foundation of the truth, 1 Timothy 3, right? And if we don't stand for the truth, who will? So Christ comes out and says, look, if you're going to live like a child of the king, this is the end result. This is where it's leading you.

If you come into my kingdom because you're poor in spirit, if you come into my kingdom because you mourn over your sin, because that's the only way to get in and you demonstrate a meek and gentle spirit, you hunger and thirst for that which is true and righteous. And you're merciful to others because you've shown mercy. At the same time, you desire to have a pure and holy heart that you might get a clear glimpse of the Lord and you seek to make peace with those who are at odds with God.

The only natural result is persecution. That's it. Now look, I didn't make this up.

These are not my words. These are Christ's words. I'm just quoting what Jesus says.

And so we need to understand that persecution, persecution is that which is, number one, personal. Number two, that which is promised. Number three, that which is painful.

Painful. The difference between persecution and punishment is huge. You are punished by good men for doing evil, but you're persecuted by bad men for doing good.

There's a big difference there. And the reason you're persecuted is because of Christ's sake, for righteousness sake. You're not persecuted because you're belligerent.

That would be wrong. You're not persecuted because you're egotistical. That would be wrong.

You're not persecuted for any other reason other than for righteousness sake, because you're acting in accordance with the law of God. Peter says it this way over in 1 Peter chapter 4. He says these words, 1 Peter 4, verse 14, if you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed. Peter picks up on this.

Peter understands it. Was Peter there on the mountainside? How long did it take Peter to get this? If you are reviled for the name of Christ, you are blessed because the spirit of and of God rests on you. That's just an incredible statement.

This is this, make sure that none of you suffers as a murderer, thief, evildoer, or troublesome meddler. That's not being persecuted for righteousness’ sake. He says, but if anyone suffers as a Christian, he is not to be ashamed, but is to glorify God in this name.

Jesus would say it again differently in John 15, verse number 18. He says it this way. If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.

If you were of the world, the world will love its own. So he makes it very clear. If you're of the world, the world loves you.

If you're not of the world, the world hates you. Does the world hate you or love you? Then he says this, but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world because of this, the world hates you. The world hates you because of Christ, because you bear his name.

You're a child of the king and you live like a child of the king. It says, remember the word that I said to you, a slave is not greater than his master. If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

In other words, if they persecuted the sinless son of God, they're certainly going to persecute you because you're not sinless. So Christ makes it very clear to his men on the eve of the crucifixion that don't expect to be loved by the world. You're going to be hated by the world if you stand strong on the truth.

That's why Solomon says, Proverbs 23, buy truth, never sell it. Do all you can to obtain the truth. Once you get it, never compromise it, never let it go, never sell it out.

Don't sell out the truth. Do all you can to obtain it. Once you obtain it, protect it, watch over it because it's priceless, but never compromise it.

But so many times we find ourselves willing to compromise for the sake of keeping the peace. In all reality, you're just pushing off the inevitable. Christ never compromised the truth to keep the peace.

He always spoke the truth because there is no peace without the truth. There just isn't. I think the Prince of Peace knows that really well.

Remember Matthew 13, the parable of the sower and the soil? There was the rocky soil that when they heard the word, they jumped on the Jesus bandwagon. They received the word with joy. They heard a message, they heard the gospel, they received it with joy, and they're like, wow, this is great, until affliction and persecution came.

And because they had no roots, they fell away. They were never truly born again to begin with. They had no firm roots.

They had no foundation. And that's what happens with people when they realize that, man, I want to follow Jesus. I want to live for Jesus.

This is great. I'll give my life to Jesus. He forgives my sin.

That's great. And then all of a sudden, the persecution comes their way, and they're like, oh, I didn't ask for this. I don't want this.

Who bargains for this kind of behavior or treatment? And they fall away. That's a lot of people. That's why persecution is a purifier.

That's why persecution, and this is the fourth point, is not just personal, not just promised, not just painful, but it's purposeful. This is what Peter says. Peter says it this way, 1 Peter chapter 3; sorry, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials, so that the proof of your faith being more precious than gold, which is perishable, even though tested by fire may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

And though you have not seen him, you love him. And though you do not see him now, but believe in him, you greatly rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Again, Peter understands.

And Peter didn't want people who claim to be a follower of Christ to misunderstand Christianity, just like Paul didn't want people to misunderstand Christianity, just like Jesus didn't want them to misunderstand Christianity. But you see, we have stripped our gospel presentation of the bite that it's supposed to have. By watering it down, taking out the law, taking out repentance, taking out the persecution, taking out what it means to be a follower of Christ, just so that we can win someone to Christ.

But what did you really win them to? Just to get them to say a prayer? Or did you really win them to the true Jesus? And Jesus is a consummate evangelist. I mean, if anybody can evangelize the world, it'd be Jesus, right? I mean, he is the gospel. He is the truth.

So whatever he says is gospel truth. He knows how to present what needs to be presented to people so that they might come to follow him. That's why there were so many people who believed him or believed in him, but he never committed himself to them because he knew what was in the heart of man.

You and I, we don't know what's in the heart of man. We don't know. Only the Lord knows.

But here our Lord comes along and says these words because he wants everybody to know that the true blessing, the true blissfulness, the true contentment that comes to those who are children of the King results in persecution from my namesake, but rejoice and be glad, he says. These are the consequences. Let me describe them for you.

A glad heart, a glorious home, and great, great honor. A glad heart. He says rejoice and be glad.

The blessing is on the inner part of a man. It's the heart blessing. It's almost like it's a double blessing.

Blessed are those who have been persecuted and blessed are you when people insult you and you can rejoice and be glad. He's doubling down on the blessing. He's doubling down on the joy.

He's doubling down because people are not going to believe what he says. They're going to like, are you kidding me? Who wants that? And Jesus said, no, the blessing comes this way. Believe me, this is what a true blessing is.

Why? Simply because of a glad heart. Remember in Acts 5:41? I love this. Acts 5:40.

They took his advice and after calling the apostles in, they flogged them and ordered them not to speak in the name of Jesus and then released them. So they went on their way from the presence of the council rejoicing that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for his name. Imagine being flogged.

That's 30 times in the back, nine times on the front with no shirt on, with a whip with bone fragments and glass in it. And they went away rejoicing. It's almost like, man, this is great.

We're suffering for the sake of his name. And they went on and kept preaching the gospel even though they were threatened not to do it anymore. Was there any question about their Christianity? No.

We get told at work, don't do that anymore. And so what do we do? We don't do it anymore. For fear of what? Losing our job.

Not losing your life, losing your job. You can always get another job, right? There's another job next door, other side of the street, someplace else. And so we fear man more than we fear God.

Can't do that. Can't say that anymore. Really? You can tell me what I can and cannot say when it comes to the truth of the gospel? You're going to try to muzzle me? The apostles weren't muzzled.

They were threatened with the edge of their life. And you're not threatened within the edge of your life. Just with the fact that you might lose a job.

I love the illustration that's given by that second century Christian leader, Tertullian, who was approached by a man who said, I have come to Christ, but I do not know what to do. I have a job that I don't think is consistent with what the scriptures teach. What can I do? I must live, to which Tertullian said, must you? You'd rather compromise and keep your life than stand for truth and lose your life.

You see, we so easily just acquiesce to the ways of the world. We don't want to get in trouble. When we say anything bad about us, don't lose your job.

Don't want to offend somebody because I'm speaking the truth. So I don't do anything. We hide ourselves away.

That's not what Christians do. Christians always stand for truth and on the gospel. They're not afraid of what man can do to them.

They fear only God, not man. And so the consequences are a glad heart. I wonder what Joseph would have done.

Joseph was falsely accused, imprisoned, but because he never lost sight of the God of his life, he rose to great power in Egypt. Daniel, threatened with the lion's den, would not worship a false idol, not bow down to anyone but the true God, and was thrown in the lion's den. But behold, he was not eaten.

God protected him. Why? Because of their commitment to never compromise the truth. Would it be that every one of us would be like that? Not just a glad heart, but a glorious home.

Yours is the kingdom of heaven. That's the same thing he says in the first beatitude, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Now he wants to reiterate that.

Now that you're in the kingdom, you're going to be persecuted for the kingdom, but because you are, don't worry, the home is still yours. The glorious home, your final destiny, the promise of God's glorious kingdom, his presence, the place where the king dwells, and then great honor. Look what he says.

Rejoice and be glad, for your reward in heaven is great, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. Great honor, not just a crown, but a company of class. So they persecuted the prophets that were before you.

Remember what it says over in the book of Hebrews, the 11th chapter, as it speaks about the followers of Christ. It helps us understand. It says these words, verse 35 of Hebrews 11, women received back their dead by resurrection.

Others were tortured, not accepting their release, so that they might obtain a better resurrection. And others experienced mockings and scourging, yes, also chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, they were sawn in two, they were tempted, they were put to death with the sword.

And they went about in sheepskins, in goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, ill-treated, men of whom the world was not worthy. But they were worthy of God's kingdom. They just weren't worthy of the world.

Why? The world hated them, wanted nothing to do with them. Could you imagine being sawn in two? That's not with an electric saw. That's with the guys on each side doing this, you know what I'm saying? Very slowly.

That would be very painful. Ask Isaiah, because that's what happened to him. It wasn't a very pretty way to go, a very painful way to go.

But the world was not worthy of them, but God was worthy of them. So what are the characteristics of those people who abuse you? Well, there is a verbal abuse, there is a physical attack, and there is false accusations. First of all, verbally abused.

People insult you, revile you. It's a word that means to cast in the teeth. It's a face-to-face confrontation.

It's what happened with Christ when they reviled him before the Sanhedrin, when they said, prophesy to us, you Christ, who's the one who hit you? If you're a prophet, tell us, what is the name of the person who hit you? And they insulted him, they slapped his face, and they mocked him. And Paul would talk about it in 1 Corinthians chapter 4, when he said these words about what his life was like. 1 Corinthians 4, he said, we are persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed, always caring about in the body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.

For we who live are constantly being delivered over to death for Jesus' sake, so that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So death works in us but life in you. There was a man who took no account of his own life but the life of other people.

There's verbal abuse, insults, reviling, and there's physical attacks, being persecuted. The word yoko, it's a word that means to pursue, to chase down. And that's what happened to early Christians.

They were chased and hunted. In fact, it says in Acts 7 that Stephen was hunted down and stoned. Acts 14, Paul was hunted down and stoned. And Acts 12, Peter. Acts 16, Paul, and Silas were imprisoned because they were chased down, hunted, and thrown to prison. People will go after you, take you down. Acts 7:52, Stephen says, which of the prophets have your fathers not persecuted? Paul says in Romans 8:36, for thy sake we are killed all day long.

So there will be verbal abuse, there will be physical attacks, and there will be false accusations. It says that they will speak all kinds of evil against you falsely. Because of my namesake.

They will not say things to your face, they'll say things to others about you, but they won't be true. Like of our Lord in John 9 when they accused him of being the illegitimate son of a Roman soldier. Or in John chapter 8 when they charged Christ with being a devil when he would cast out devils.

Matthew 11:19, it says of Christ, behold, he is a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax gatherers and sinners. They would falsely accuse him. They could find nothing against him, so they falsely accused him.

Luke 6:26 has these words which probably you should memorize and live according to. It says, beware if all men speak well of you. You ever talk to somebody, say this is a friend of mine, and everybody has something good to say about him.

That's not a good thing to say about anybody. That's an indictment against them. Beware if all men speak well of you.

That means you're not saying anything to upset the apple cart. That means you're not standing on truth. You're not speaking the truth because truth always opposes those who live in error, who want to live in sin.

And they don't want to hear that. They don't want to follow that. So it's important to understand, as Peter says in 1 Peter 4, these words, 1 Peter 4, verse 1, therefore, since Christ has suffered in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same purpose, because he has suffered in the flesh, has ceased from sin.

So as to live the rest of the time in the flesh no longer for the lusts of men, but for the will of God. For the time already passed is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the Gentiles, having pursued a course of sexuality, lust, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them into the same excesses of dissipation, and they malign you.

They malign you. Why? Because you were this way, and now you are no longer that way. You no longer live according to your lusts.

You no longer live engaging in drunken parties. You no longer live the way you used to live. Why? Because Christ is in you.

And because Christ is in you, now they malign you. They speak against you, because you don't run in the same circles you ran before, with the same people you used to run with before. You don't do that.

Why? Because you want to live like a child of the King. You have an audience of one that you want to please, and that is our Lord. So, where do we go from here? Well, number one, you want to live the life that Christ has prescribed.

Will you live that life? Will you live a beatitude kind of life? Paul would say it this way, very simply, for me to live is Christ to die is gain. For me to live is Christ. I'm going to live for Christ. I'm going to live as Christ. I'm going to please Christ.

That's a child of the King. I want to please the King. I want to honor the King. I want to praise His name.

Again, Peter, in 1 Peter chapter 3, said these words, verse 13, who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed. Again, Peter talks about suffering for righteousness, and you are blessed. He says, and do not fear their intimidation, and do not be troubled, but sanctify Christ as Lord in your hearts, always being ready to make a defense to everyone who asks you to give an account for the hope that is in you, yet with gentleness and reverence, and keep a good conscience, so that in the thing in which you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ will be put to shame.

For it is better if God should will it so that you suffer for doing what is right, rather than for doing what is wrong. Peter knows that. The question is, what kind of life will you live? Will you live the life that doesn't compromise the truth? Will you live a life that always stands on the truth? Will you kind of live the life that doesn't laugh with the jokes of the world? Will you stand against those things? You know, so many times we understand what people stand for, but what do you stand against? Does anybody know? That's very, very important.

Will you stand on the truth of the gospel without compromise? Will you live the life of a child of the King? That's the question you've got to ask yourself. Have you been doing that? Will you do that? Number two, will you pay the price of the child of the King? Are you willing to pay the price? John Chrysostom was a godly leader in the fourth century church. He preached strongly against sin, so much so that he offended many church officials.

So he summoned before the emperor. He was threatened with banishment if he did not cease his uncompromising preaching. This was his response.

Sire, you cannot banish me, for the world is my father's house. Then the emperor said, then I will slay you. He said, nay, but you cannot, for my life is hid with Christ and God.

He said, then your treasures will be confiscated, to which John replied, sire, that cannot be either, for my treasures are in heaven, where none can break through and steal. Then I will drive you from man, and you will have no friends left, was the final warning. Well, that you cannot do either, sire, for I have a friend in heaven who has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you.

He was banished, but before he got to his destination, he was killed, he died. But you see, the point is this, the things that he valued most, he could not lose. They could not be taken away.

And therefore, there was nothing the emperor could do to him that would diminish his joy, because he recognized the price. He's willing to pay the price, the cost, because he counted the cost before following Christ. How about you? Will you live the life of the child of the king? Will you pay the price as a child of the king? Then comes the question, will you receive the reward as a child of the king? Because reward is great.

It's a crown of glory. It's a crown which is life, the crown of righteousness, the imperishable crown, the reward that God gives to those who live for him and honor him and are never ashamed of him. This is so important.

In a world of tolerance, that's where we live, where nobody wants to upset the apple cart, nobody wants to say anything that will cause a disruption, whether it's in your family or at work or at school, just want to keep the peace. The child of the king will always live for the king and never compromise the king in public, but will represent him purely and truly and honestly, not in a belligerent way, but in a very kind and honest and truthful way. As John Chrysostom did, Sir, you can't banish me.

This is my father's world. You can't leave me alone. My father will always be with me.

He'll always be there. He had the iron clad assurance, a man who never feared man, but only feared the Lord. That's the kind of people we need.

Why? Because these are the only people who can do what's next. These are people that are the salt of the earth. These are the people that are the light of the world.

You want to be salt and light? Well, to do so, you got to be child of the king. And Christ calls us to make an impact on our environment. And the only way you can do that is to live like a child of the king.

And that's the theme of the Sermon on the Mount. May God give us the grace to accomplish that. Let's pray together.

Lord God, we thank you for tonight, the opportunity that you've given us to study your word. I pray for everyone in the room that you'd strengthen them, encourage them, move them to action to live for the glory of your kingdom. Our prayer, Father, is that we would always stand strong, never compromising the truth, the word of God, never being ashamed of the gospel, never being ashamed of our God, but always, always standing strong, head held high, knowing that our God is the king of all kings, Lord of all lords.

We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.