Title: Bless Our
Enemies
Text: Rom 12: 14-21
Date: November 17,
2019
Place: SGBJ, NJ
Romans 12: 1: I
beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your
bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your
reasonable service.
The whole burnt
offerings were thank offerings wholly devoted to the Lord—God teaches us to
wholly devote ourselves to the Lord as a living sacrifice. And considering what God our Father and his
Son Jesus Christ has done for us this is “reasonable service.”
Romans 12: 2: And be
not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect,
will of God.
Verses 3-13 is God’s will for us toward our fellow brethren. Verses 14-21 is God’s will for us toward our
enemies, who hate our Redeemer and our gospel.
Romans 12: 14: Bless them which persecute you: bless, and
curse not [Bless Your Enemies]. 15: Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep
with them that weep. 16: Be of the same mind one toward another. Mind
not high things, but condescend to men of low estate. Be not wise in your own
conceits. 17: Recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the
sight of all men. 18: If it be possible, as much as lieth in you, live
peaceably with all men. 19: Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will
repay, saith the Lord. 20: Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he
thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of fire on his
head. 21: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
When I preach from a text like this I want to do three
things:
One, I want you to know that doing these things is not
how we are made righteous and holy. No
sinner can make himself righteous or holy.
These things are written for those to whom God has given a new heart. To have a heart to do these things is the
fruit of Christ already making us righteous and holy.
Two, I want you to know that Christ is our perfection in
these things. Christ did these things to
his enemies in perfect righteousness on behalf of his people. Christ took all the sins of his people, for
our not doing these things to our enemies, and paid our debt in full. So before God in Christ every believer has
done these things in perfect righteousness without sin from a perfectly holy
heart. Christ is our Righteousness and
Holiness in these things
Three, I want you to know that as the children of God who
God has given a new heart, who walk by faith in Christ, our motive/constraint is
Christ’s love for us. We should endeavor
to do these things out of love to Christ, not from legal motives. Not to earn a righteousness but because
Christ has earned a righteousness for us and is our righteousness. Not to be made holy but because Christ has
made us holy and is our holiness. Not to
simply impress people with how we treat our enemies but because this is how
Christ treated us when we were his enemies.
You and I have already broken all these precepts. And we will fail many times in the
future. But if we are born of God it
will be our hearts desire to walk in these commands of our Redeemer.
Proposition: Our
constraint to treat our enemies with kindness is remembering how Christ treated
us when we were his enemies.
WE PERSECUTED, CHRIST BLESSED
Romans 12: 14: Bless them which persecute you: bless, and
curse not.
In our sinful flesh, we were the enemies of Christ. Everyone our Lord Jesus encountered on this
earth persecuted him—harassed, troubled, mistreated him. Holy God took flesh dwelt among God-hating
sinners where there is none righteous and none that seeketh after God. Every spiritually dead sinner he encountered
hated him and he knew their hearts. You
and I don’t know men’s hearts. We
encounter some during the day who we think like us. But Christ knew the hearts of all men. He knew the hatred toward him in every heart
he encountered.
Now, remember, Christ
only came into this world to save God’s elect.
No one else. He came to save “as
many as the Father gave to him.” He
said, “I lay down my life for the sheep.”
Christ died for God’s elect and for them alone. He knew those that were his and those that
were not.
Yet, carnal man was
never treated as by any other man as by our righteous GodMan, Mediator. Christ never did anything but good to his
enemies. No enemy ever had cause to
persecute Christ. In verse 15, our text
says, “Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep.” Christ blessed and persecuted not, he
rejoiced with them that rejoiced (wedding in Cana), he wept with them that wept
(Lazarus tomb).
Think how you and I
persecuted those Christ sent to us. Not
a one of us received the gospel at first.
In our hearts, if not in our words and actions, we pushed away those who
preached to us. Doing so we persecuted
Christ. Christ said for as much as you
have done it to one of his people we have done it unto him. But Christ would not take no for an answer
from us. He blessed us though we
persecuted him and his brethren and through his gospel he saved us.
As the church of our
Lord Jesus, he has left us in this earth to preach the gospel in search of his
lost sheep. Our glorified Redeemer shall
call out each and every lost sheep that he redeemed—justice demands it. And he shall only call out those he redeemed. But we do not know who they are.
Therefore, our
enemies should be left thinking, that we treated them better than any man ever
treated them “Bless them which persecute you: bless, and curse not.” We never know, a stranger may come in
this place next week and in time we may find out he is God’s elect. That co-worker or fellow student that is an
enemy now, may end up coming to hear the gospel and proved to be God’s elect.
In several churches, I have seen this. There were believers who had co-workers who
hated the gospel. But those believers
kept being kind and kept giving them the gospel of Christ, they kept coming to
hear the gospel preached. Now, those
co-workers who were once enemies are sitting by their side rejoicing in the
gospel of Christ through faith.
NO RESPECT OF PERSONS
Romans 12: 16: Be
of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things, but condescend to
men of low estate. Be not wise in your own conceits.
Our Lord Jesus Christ was of the same mind toward every
sinner. Christ was not impressed by
“high things, but condescended to men of low estate.”
Brethren, aren’t we thankful Christ condescended to men
of low estate! We were of the lowest estate: no righteousness,
only the curse of the law; no holiness, only a carnal, God-hating heart; without
hope, without Christ, without God in this world.
Yet, the mighty God condescended to be made a man like us,
his lowly brethren. He condescended to take
the body of flesh prepared for him in the womb of a virgin. He condescended to take the form of a servant
to serve God for his people because we couldn’t. He condescended even lower when he bore the
sins of his lowly elect. He condescended
lower when he bore the fierce wrath of God in our place. He condescended lower when he died and was
buried in a tomb.
Now, from his throne in glory—with all power over heaven
and earth—he continues to condescend to our low estate as he uses the unimpressive
and crosses our path with the gospel and regenerates us to life and faith in
him.
1 Corinthians 1: 26: For
ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not
many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27: But God hath chosen the
foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak
things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28: And base
things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea,
and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29: That no flesh
should glory in his presence. 30: But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God
is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:
31: That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the
Lord.
Knowing our low estate, knowing how Christ condescended
to us, as sinners saved by grace we should be the last people on earth to mind
high things—to be impressed by the outward.
Let us condescend to men of low estate.
Let us “Be not wise in our own [conceited estimation of ourselves.]”
James 2: 1: My brethren, have not the faith of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with respect of persons. 2 For if there come unto your assembly a man
with a gold ring, in goodly apparel, and there come in also a poor man in vile
raiment; 3 And ye have respect to him
that weareth the gay clothing, and say unto him, Sit thou here in a good place;
and say to the poor, Stand thou there, or sit here under my footstool: 4: Are
ye not then partial in yourselves, and are become judges of evil thoughts? 5: Hearken,
my beloved brethren, Hath not God chosen the poor of this world rich in faith,
and heirs of the kingdom which he hath promised to them that love him?
NOT EVIL FOR EVIL, GRACE FOR GRACE
Romans 12: 17: Recompense to no man evil for evil.
Provide things honest in the sight of all men. 18: If it be possible, as much
as lieth in you, live peaceably with all men. 19: Dearly beloved, avenge not
yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is
mine; I will repay, saith the Lord. 20: Therefore if thine enemy hunger, feed
him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap coals of
fire on his head. 21: Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.
In our flesh, we are the evil before holy God. Speaking to believers, Christ said, “If ye
then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children” (Lu 11: 13). We did nothing but evil to God all our days
of rebellion. As born-again believers we
still do evil toward our God. But has the
God of all grace ever recompensed evil for evil to his sinful elect? Never!
Even in the things that were painful and caused us to sorrow it was for
our good.
Romans 8: 28: And we
know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who
are the called according to his purpose.
Rather than recompense evil, did God provide things
honest for us? He sent his only begotten
Son who is Honesty and Truth. When
Christ walked this earth, when we did evil, charging him falsely and hanging
him on the cursed tree—“he opened not his mouth.”
1 Peter 2: 22: Who
did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth: 23: Who, when he was reviled,
reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself
to him that judgeth righteously: 24: Who his own self bare our sins in his own
body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto Righteousness: by
whose stripes ye were healed. 25: For ye were as sheep going astray; but are
now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.
Christ said I restored that I took not away! We did evil toward God, he made mercy and
justice meet in harmony for us; we did evil toward Christ, he recompensed grace;
we sinned, God recompensed righteousness to us.
Do you realize, believer, that on the cross, God has
already taken vengeance on us, “Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather
give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay,
saith the Lord.” Christ said through
Isaiah that he came, “To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day
of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn” (Is 61:2). How would declaring the day of vengeance
comfort mourning sinners? It is because
on the cross, God took vengeance on his elect for all our sins against him by
pouring out justice on Christ. There is
coming a day when God shall take vengeance on all who meet him outside of
Christ. But for those Christ represented,
when he was made sin for us, God took vengeance on us in Christ.
Therefore, Christ comes comforting us, declaring to us the
year of jubilee. He sets his redeemed
slaves free. He clears us of all our
debts. He restores to us double over all
we lost in Adam. In the end there will
be no vengeance from God to one for whom Christ died!
Now, seeing the evil I did to God and seeing how God did
not recompense evil for evil toward me, shall I take vengeance on my enemy, not
knowing that they may be one of God’s elect who God already took vengeance on
in Christ? “Therefore if thine enemy
hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink: for in so doing thou shalt heap
coals of fire on his head. Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with
good.”
Beloved, we were starving of righteousness, Christ fed us
the Bread from heaven. We were dying of
thirst, Christ freely gave us the Water of Life. We were strangers out in the bitter cold of
winter, our gracious Coalheaver warmed us with coals of fire. We were overcome of evil, but he overcame our
evil with good.
Our purpose for being in this earth to preach Christ
crucified. These precepts are so that we
do nothing to distract sinners from hearing the gospel. You never know that that one who appears our
enemy, may attend services here next week.
So for each of us who are saved by grace, made righteous by Christ,
and constrained and motivated by Christ’s love to us, listen to Christ our
Redeemer:
Luke 6: 27: But I say
unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, 28: Bless
them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. 29: And unto
him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him
that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. 30: Give to
every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them
not again. 31: And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them
likewise. 32: For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners
also love those that love them. 33: And if ye do good to them which do good to
you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. 34: And if ye lend to
them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend
to sinners, to receive as much again. 35: But love ye your enemies, and do
good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and
ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and
to the evil. 36: Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is
merciful.
Amen!