(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Part of the chapter that I want to focus on there in 2 Timothy chapter 3 is beginning verse number 10 where the Bible reads, But thou hast fully known my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, long-suffering, charity, patience, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra, what persecutions I endured, but out of them all the Lord delivered me, yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, but evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived. And I want to preach this morning about the subject of persecution. The Bible says there in verse 12 that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So there's no doubt here, it's not that they might suffer persecution, some people are going to go, no, no, no, it says all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. So this is a certainty that if you are going to live godly in Christ Jesus, if you haven't been persecuted so far, you will be persecuted. There's no doubt about it. And those who are never persecuted, it is simply because they are not living godly in Christ Jesus because this verse couldn't be any clearer. When we look at a great man of God like the apostle Paul, who did so many great works for the Lord that he was able to say of the other apostles, I labored more abundantly than they all. He preached the word of God all over Asia Minor, all over Greece, even into Rome and into all kinds of cities and areas of that day. And as he did these great works for God, he was constantly being persecuted. He said in verse number 11, persecutions, afflictions, which came unto me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra. He's just listing the places where he ran into opposition, but he says out of them all, the Lord delivered me. Now why did the apostle Paul go through so much persecution? Well he's living godly in Christ Jesus and that just comes with the territory, but also look at the beginning of verse number 10. It says, but thou has fully known my doctrine. You see, Paul didn't hold back. He preached everything that he believed. Those that listened to his preaching, he was able to say to them, you have fully known my doctrine. I mean, you know everything that I believe. You know what I teach. He wasn't hiding anything or concealing anything. He preached everything he believed. He preached it boldly and if you preach the whole counsel of God, you're going to suffer persecution. Go if you would to Acts chapter 7. Acts chapter number 7 and then we're going to go to Galatians 6. Go to Acts 7 and then get your finger there and you can go over to Galatians chapter 6. You see, persecution is part of the Christian life, not just for those who are preachers, but even just those who live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution. This is something that is inevitable. You ought to be prepared for it and not be shocked when it happens. The Bible says, my brethren, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you as though some strange thing happened unto you. As if it's just some... Whoa, I can't believe what's that. There's nothing strange about that. It happens to everybody. It always has and it always will. Look down at Acts chapter 7 verse 51. This is after Stephen has preached this great sermon unto the Jews that have dragged him before the council here and he finishes the sermon with this in chapter 7 verse 51. He's stiff necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears. You do always resist the Holy Ghost. As your fathers did, so do ye. But watch this statement in verse 52. Which of the prophets have not your fathers persecuted? Notice he's saying that they persecuted all of them and they have slain them which showed before of the coming of the just one of whom ye have been now the betrayers and murderers who have received the law by the disposition of angels and have not kept it. So according to Stephen here, all of the prophets had been persecuted. He said, name one who wasn't persecuted. This is something that we should expect. Go to Galatians chapter 6. I'll start reading in verse 11 while you get there, Galatians 6, 11. You see how large a letter I've written unto you with mine own hand. As many as desire to make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. So the Bible's explaining that there are preachers and teachers out there who in order to avoid persecution will change the message a little bit. In this case, they would constrain people to be circumcised just to kind of shut the Jews up and make them happy and so that they'll stop persecuting us. Why don't we just go along on this one minor point? Let's just make a showing of it, just a fair show in the flesh. Let's just show them that we want to get along. What's the big deal? Just get circumcised. Why do they cause them to be circumcised? It said in verse 12, only, only, meaning this is the only reason. They didn't teach that because they thought it was biblical. The only reason that they taught that halfway through verse 12 was lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ. So what the Bible's showing us here is that you can adjust the message just a little bit and avoid persecution, but that's not what Paul did. That's not what men of God throughout the Bible did. They stayed with the correct doctrine in spite of persecution. Look at verse 13. For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. But God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world. I mean the apostle Paul is making it pretty clear that he doesn't care what people think about him. He's saying, you know what? The world can rage against me. The world can gnash on me with their teeth, but I'm crucified to the world and the world's crucified to me. And I'm not one of these preachers that's going to sit there and change the doctrine a little bit just in order to please the wrong crowd, the unbelievers, the false teachers of this world. Go back to chapter 5 verse 11, Galatians chapter 5 verse 11, just one page to the left. And I, brethren, if I yet preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the offense of the cross ceased. Again Paul's saying that if you would just change that one thing about his preaching, he'd be able to avoid a lot of persecution, but he's not going to do it because he's going to preach what's right and be crucified unto the world, have the world crucified unto him and let the chips fall where they may. Go back to Galatians chapter 4, just one page to the left again, verse 28 of Galatians 4. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise, but as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the spirit, even so it is now. Go if you would to John chapter 15. So the Bible's saying, look, thousands of years ago the righteous were persecuted by the unrighteous. The child of the spirit, the child of promise was persecuted by him that was born after the flesh and he said it's the same way today as it was thousands of years ago. And in 2017 it's still the same way. Those who believe in a false gospel, a gospel where they earn their own salvation by the works that they do in the flesh, they will persecute the true believers, those who have a salvation that's based on the Holy Spirit, that's based on faith in Christ, not of works lest any man should boast. Those who are saved by the promise of faith through the spirit are persecuted by those who are the children after the flesh, both referring to the physical Jews that do the persecuting and also spiritually those who are trusting in a works-based salvation. Why? Because they're both relying upon the flesh. That's where their faith is instead of having their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. Go to John 15 verse 18. The Bible reads, if the world hates you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own, but because you are not of the world but I have 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. If they have persecuted me, they might persecute you. Is that what it says? He said they will also persecute you if they have kept my saying, they will keep yours also. So right there the Bible is crystal clear once again that everyone who will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution unless you are greater than Jesus. And there are some preachers out there today and there are some Christians out there today, they think that they're greater than Jesus. Why? Because they think that they can follow Christ and yet not be persecuted. They think they're smarter than him. They think that they can have their cake and eat it too. They think that they can have it both ways. I mean sure Jesus got persecuted and the apostles all got persecuted, but we're smarter, we've got a better way to do it where we know how to get along with both sides. No, no, no, it's just that you're not following Christ. You think you're smarter, you think you're greater than him, but really you're just not following in his steps because if you follow in his steps you know that you're inferior to him. You are not greater than Jesus and if they persecuted him they will persecute you and if they did not keep his saying they're not going to keep your saying either because you're not a greater preacher than him, you're not smarter than him, you don't have a better plan of ministry than him where well no, no, no, I can preach with zero compromise and get along with the mayor and I can get along with the police chief and the fire chief and the governor and the media and I can be loved of the world and I mean isn't it great that I'm actually able to do what Jesus failed to do. I mean that's what these guys are literally doing if you think about it, that's what they think. They think that they can do a better job at evangelizing by avoiding the persecution. I mean if only Jesus would have had you around to explain that to him. If only you could have explained to the apostles how they could get along with everybody and still preach the word of God without compromise. See I don't think that I'm better than Jesus so I just follow the idea that if I preach everything in the Bible I should just expect to be hated of the world, expect to be persecuted because look if they hated Jesus they're going to hate me even more because Jesus was better than me. I have my own problems, you know, I have the reproach of the gospel and then I have my own problems for people to hate me just because of my personality but these guys think they have a better personality than Jesus. And I mean literally they'll go through 10 years, 20 years, 30 years of ministry, no persecution and then they'll point at a preacher who is being persecuted and say oh he just brought it on himself, that's just because he's obnoxious. Well what about Jesus, did he bring it on himself? What about every single prophet who is ever sent to Israel? What about all the apostles? What about every real Christian of the New Testament? What about all who live godly in Christ Jesus? Imagine the ridiculous idea to think that you're going to be a faithful preacher, a faithful servant of God and not go through persecution in light of all these scriptures we're looking at, it's crazy. That's what they think. Go if you would to Mark chapter 10, Mark chapter number 10. You see you can't have it all in this world, life is about trade-offs, life is about priorities, life is about deciding what's important to you and when you decide that you're going to live for the Lord Jesus Christ and when you decide that you're going to serve him and do something great for God, something of eternal value, I don't care whether you're a man, a woman, a boy or a girl, you are going to endure afflictions. You are going to endure tribulations, you're going to endure trials and persecutions that the trying of your faith being much more precious than that of gold, I mean look the Bible goes on and on about it, it's going to happen and so you need to be ready for it, you need to expect it and you need to count the cost of serving Jesus Christ. I mean in 2017 you don't even have to do that much for God before the persecution starts coming, I mean you don't have to do much, literally all you have to do is just start attending this church and you'll start facing opposition. All you have to do is just attend Pastor Jimenez's church or Brother Romero's church or Brother Manley Perry's church, I mean it doesn't take much these days to get you persecuted so if you're not facing any opposition, you're probably really doing nothing. If you've never even been cussed out yet, what are you even doing for the Lord? I'm serious, can't even count how many times I've been called every name under the sun, I could just via email, let alone in person, let alone over the phone, let alone out soul winning, let alone just from Christians, non-Christians, I mean just name the expletive, name the wicked term or the name or the perjorative term, I can type it into my Gmail and just hit search and I've been called it a hundred times. Pick the obscenity, type it in, I've been called it a hundred times. The point is, you don't have to do much, literally I'm hearing about people constantly on a weekly basis, they just start coming to a church, they just get an independent fundamental Baptist church where the pastor is preaching hard against sin and just immediately they're persecuted, immediately family is all over them, friends are attacking, I just heard a story about a young lady, a young adult lady who's living with her parents, she was thrown out of her home. She was literally thrown out of her house for clicking like on a sermon by Pastor Roger Jimenez, they threw her out of the house. I mean because she took a stand, you know it was a red hot sermon where Pastor Jimenez ripping on the sodomites and she liked that sermon, she was literally thrown out of her home, a young adult lady, I mean isn't that just bizarre, that's the day we're living in, not thrown out for being a sodomite, not thrown out for committing wicked sin, but thrown out for loving Bible preaching, but that's normal, that's not strange, that's what happens when you serve the Lord, you're going to face opposite, now not everybody's going to go through things that are that dramatic or extreme necessarily, but you're going to go through persecution, you're going to go through afflictions if you live for the Lord. And if you're sitting there thinking, well I don't want to face any opposition, I don't want to go through any trials, I want to just live a comfortable, smooth, easy life, honestly you're in the wrong place. You know I just said to Brother Perry, we were kind of just talking about the Bible and we were talking about the story with Gideon and the 300 and I told him, I said, well we just had 302 people last Sunday morning, so we got room for two more people to leave and we'll still have 300 great warriors, so anybody who's fearful can leave, hopefully only two people leave, so you still have the 300, you know, like Gideon, right? So the point is, we got two people to spare, the point that I'm making is, you can't just sit there and say, well I want to follow Christ, but I also want to have riches and comfort and wealth and security and everybody to like me and fame and prosperity, you got to choose this day whom you'll serve, you can't serve God and mammon, you got to serve one of the other. Look at Mark chapter 10 verse 29, you'll hear a lot of the prosperity preachers and name it claim it types make reference to this concept found here in Mark chapter 10 verse 29, and Jesus answered and said, verily I say unto you, there is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the gospels, but he shall receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands, but here's the part that's often missed here, with persecutions, because it sounds great there for a minute, wow, everything I sacrificed I'm going to receive a hundredfold, great, where do I sign up? But there's that little phrase that's so easy to read over, but that little phrase is packed with a lot of meaning, with persecutions, he just kind of tucks that in there, oh man, you're going to get, you know, sisters, mothers, children, lands, tell them what else they get, wow, wow, with persecutions, and in the world to come, eternal life, but many that are first shall be last and the last shall be first, flip back to Mark chapter 4, it's a few pages left nearby, we're already in Mark 10, go back to Mark 4 verse 16, it says in the famous parable of the sower, I'm not going to expound the whole parable, but it says in verse 16, these are they which likewise which are sown on stony ground, who when they've heard the word, immediately receive it with gladness, I mean, they're so happy, they're so glad to hear the truth of the gospel, it's good news, but it says they have no root in themselves, and because they have no root in themselves, they endure but for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, immediately they're offended. This is a pretty common group of people right here. People who they hear the good news of the gospel, they hear maybe even some hard preaching and they like it, say wow, this is great, I love learning the Bible, I'm so excited about serving God and doing something big for God, in fact, I'm even ready to roll up my sleeves and get to work for the Lord and do something great for Him, but the Bible says that because they have no root in themselves, when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake, I mean, this is a word to underline or focus in on, immediately, immediately. I mean, does it take long for these people to cave in? No. Usually when persecution and affliction comes, usually people either cave in immediately or they don't cave in at all. Why? Because they either have a root in themselves or they don't, and when you see people who are just immediately offended, they immediately cave in, they immediately quit as soon as the persecution comes, hard times come, afflictions come, just take it to the bank, that person has no root in themselves. There are two kinds of Christians in this world, there are those who have a root in themselves and those who don't, and look, I'm not talking about salvation, these people are saved, you know, I've preached this and expounded this and I'm not going to re-expound all that, you can get my sermon on the parable of the sower if you want to check that out, but these people are saved. I mean, do you actually think that the only people who are saved are the ones that have the root in themselves and endure all the affliction and persecution? Well, if so, then the way is a lot narrower than we thought. I mean, we know it's a narrow way, but it's not that narrow. Whosoever believeth in Him is not going to perish, my friend, they will have eternal life, but many of those people who do receive the Word of God, they do receive the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior, and as many as received Him, to them gave Him power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. They believe on Christ, they're saved, they know for sure they're going to heaven, they've received the Gospel, but does that mean that they want to live a life of suffering? No it doesn't, because many people want to take the free gift, but they don't want to sign up to be a disciple and a laborer for the Lord. I mean, think about it, it's pretty easy to receive a gift, isn't it? And the Bible says that salvation is a gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. The free gift, the Bible calls it in Romans chapter 5, free gift, but receiving a free gift is different than taking up the cross daily, denying self, and following Christ. Those who have the root in themselves, those who are firmly in place, who shall not be moved, who are steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, they're the ones that when the persecution or the afflictions come, they rejoice and they leap for joy, and they shall not be moved. Others will just immediately be offended, well this isn't what I signed up for. My mom's all mad, my dad's all mad, my friends are all mad. My job's mad, you know, my cousins are mad, my uncle's mad, my grandma's mad, you know. My friends are mad, you know, my neighbors are mad, I mean look, so what? What did you expect? But today people do expect to have their cake and eat it too, just to have, look, just think about this one thing, if it were easy, everybody'd be doing it. Why do you think so many Christians are doing nothing? Or why do you think so many preachers are preaching a watered down message? Why do you think so many men and women that are Bible believing, saved Christians are not going out soul winning, they're not standing up for what's right, they're not standing in the gap and being counted, I'll tell you why, because it's hard, and if it were easy, everybody would be doing it, but because it's hard, it's few people that can handle it. That's why when Jesus is handing out free food and preaching a powerful sermon, there's 5,000 men there not counting women and children, but after the persecution has come and Jesus has been arrested and crucified and after the resurrection in the early church in Acts chapter 1, there are 120 people total there. I mean how do you go from tens of thousands of people, I mean if you think about the men, the women, we don't know did they all have their wives and kids with them, how many of them had wives and children, we don't know, but there had to be at least 10,000 people you'd think, right? Probably more like 20,000, how do you go from 20,000 to 120,000? I'll tell you how, you start asking people to actually sacrifice something, start actually asking people to take a stand for something, to do something, and now all of a sudden there's 120 people that are the die hards. I mean look, Jesus was the greatest preacher of all time, John the Baptist was the greatest preacher, you know, that was a human being that was not divine, that was not God in the flesh, these two men did great works for the Lord, right? John the Baptist had a short ministry, but six months of powerful ministry followed up by Jesus Christ for three and a half years, I mean you know they won a lot of people to the Lord in four years of ministry. I mean you know that Peter, James, John, I mean they're full time, they got rid of the fishing business, they did not go fishing, they did not continue collecting the taxes or doing all the other jobs that they did before they started following Christ, they forsook all of that and they're just full time preaching, full time soul winning, and you know these guys were effective, Jesus picked them for a reason, he hand picked them, and we know he was just filled with the Spirit beyond measure, he was God in the flesh, and yet after four years of work, how many people do they have that were the dedicated followers that were ready to suffer and be persecuted and work hard, 120 people that endured all that, out of all the multitudes, right? And then of course those 120 though, they inspired others and they did grow to thousands, but not thousands like the original thousands back in John chapter six that as soon as the preaching gets too hard, they say well this is a hard saying and then they leave. In the book of Acts, they started having thousands of people that all had the root in themselves, but it didn't happen overnight, it took time because the majority of people are going to fall out and get discouraged and immediately become offended. Are you there in Mark chapter four? Go if you would to the book of Psalms, the book of Psalms has a lot to say about persecution, what have we seen so far? We've seen that everyone's going to go through persecution if they're serving the Lord. All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution, we've seen that Paul went through it, he warned us about it, Jesus went through it, he warned us, he gave us these parables, I didn't read this yet, but Matthew 13 21, a parallel passage says, yet hath he not root in himself, but doereth for a while, he doereth for a while when things are good. Doereth is short for endureth, so he endures for a while when things are good, but when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, it says by and by he's offended. And by and by actually means immediately, we don't use that term, but remember the daughter of Herodias said bring me by and by, John Baptist said in a charger, she meant right now, so it's sort of like immediately, they get offended, by and by they're offended. Look at Psalm 7, and I'm going to go through a bunch of scriptures in the book of Psalms here that talk about persecution, and these should show you again that persecution is universal, it's not a strange thing that happened unto you, you're not unique, you're not the only one who's going through it, and I'm just going to ask for a specific raise of hands, I mean if I ask, hey who's endured persecution of some kind, every hand should go up, and those who don't have their hand up, we'd all be thinking somebody's not living godly in Christ Jesus, so I don't want to ask that question, but let me just ask this way though, okay, because this is one, this is one that I could not raise my hand on, I personally could not raise my hand on this one, if I were to just ask the question how many of you just by virtue of coming to Faithful Word Baptist Church have had people get angry with you, tell you off, you know, family members, upset, right, close friends, family members, how many of you have had that happen just by virtue of coming, look around, but you think it's just you, look around, now I couldn't raise my hand on that one, I was just demonstrating how to raise your hand, I can't raise my hand on that one because thank god my parents, they're saved, and they love my preaching, and you know, they made me this way, man, and I thank god my brother and my sisters, they're all saved, they're fundamental Baptists, even I have uncles and aunts and cousins who have encouraged me, my grandma encourages me, so you know, I thank god that, you know, I've gone through my own persecutions, but thank god that hasn't been one of them, I haven't had any close friends or family that has attacked me and been against my preaching and so forth, so I could not slip up my hand on that one, but did you see how many people could, hundreds of people, so what I'm saying is we're living in some strange times where you just show up at a Baptist Church, I mean it's pretty easy to earn those rewards for persecution, you just show up at a Baptist Church, you just sit there and the persecution starts rolling in, and the rewards just keep on coming, you know, because people start lying about you and attacking you and so forth, you know, I know a lot of people at our church, let me ask another question, just for my own curiosity, how many of you here today have been saved for less than five years, you've been saved for less than five years, okay, so look around, again, it's the vast majority of the people that are here that have been saved for less than five years, so that shows people, they're not necessarily coming from a Christian home, they're not coming from like I did when I was raised in an independent Baptist and so forth, so that's why their family is not always going to be on board with, you know, living the Christian life, and especially as our culture degenerates and gets more and more de-Christianized, it makes the real preaching just seem radical to people, I don't believe that I'm a radical preacher at all, I'm just a Bible preacher, not trying to be radical, I read the Bible and I feel like some of the preachers in the Bible are more radical than me, I feel like, you know, I'm a little bit middle of the road, if anything, I'm trying to be balanced, you know, amen, obviously I'm not perfect, but the point is that, you know, today, because our society is getting weirder and weirder, just what would have been considered normal biblical preaching yesterday, today is considered radical, crazy, but see, I look at the liberal church down the street and I think they're crazy, to be honest, the stuff that they're accepting, the stuff that they're tolerating, the stuff that they do, it blows me away, and so I'm just as shocked and horrified by them as they are of me, but look down at your Bible there at Psalm 7-1, I just want to show you how much this theme of persecution comes up in the book of Psalms, because we've already seen it a lot in the New Testament, let's go back to the Old Testament and see it, Psalm 7 verse 1, oh Lord my God, in thee do I put my trust, save me from all them that persecute me and deliver me. Go to Psalm 31 verse 15, Psalm 31, 15, while you're turning there I'll read for you from Psalm 71, for mine enemies speak against me, and they that lay wait for my soul take counsel together, saying God hath forsaken him, persecute and take him, for there's none to deliver him. Oh my God, be not far from me, oh my God, make haste for my help. Look at Psalm 31, 15, my times are in thy hand, deliver me from the hand of mine enemies and from them that persecute me. Go to Psalm 35, while you're turning there, the thing that just came to my mind was Psalm 11, where he talks about how the wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string that they may privily shoot at the upright in heart. The Bible says in Psalm 35 verse 3, draw out also the spear and stop the way against them that persecute me. Say unto my soul, I am thy salvation, let them be confounded and put to shame that seek after my soul, let them be turned back and brought to confusion that divides my heart. Go to Psalm 119, Psalm 119. The Bible says while you're turning there in 142 verse 6, attend unto my cry for I'm brought very low, deliver me from my persecutors for they are stronger than I. 143 verse 3, for the enemy hath persecuted my soul, he hath smitten my life down to the ground, he hath made me to dwell in darkness as those that have been long dead. Look at Psalm 119 verse 84, how many are the days of thy servant? When wilt thou execute judgment on them that persecute me? Look at 157 there, Psalm 119 verse 157, many, many are my persecutors. Now keep in mind the author of this Psalm is a guy who loves the word of God. He's following the word of God, 176 verses talking about his love for the word of God, his desire to please God, his desire to obey the commandments of God. I mean this is a guy who God is using to write this Psalm. Obviously it's all written by the Holy Ghost, amen? Holy men of God spake as they are moved by the Holy Ghost. But here's a guy that's speaking from his perspective as a human being who's writing this Psalm, who loves the word of God, wants to do what's right, wants to live godly in Christ Jesus. This is a good guy, but he says many in verse 157 are my persecutors and mine enemies, yet do I not decline from thy testimonies. Verse 161, princes have persecuted me without a cause, but my heart standeth in awe of thy word. You see, God's word is powerful. We love God's word and the persecutions are a light thing unto us. When we stand in awe of God's word, it's a pretty easy choice to make whom we're going to serve. Go if you would to Matthew chapter number 5. Go to Matthew 5 and also go to Matthew chapter 10. I'm going to show you in both places. Matthew chapter 5 is of course the famous passage from the Sermon on the Mount which says in verse 10, 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 shall 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. Go to Matthew chapter 10. Matthew chapter 10 verse 34. Now persecution is not always going to come from people that are very far from you. Sometimes persecution can come from those that are close to you and that are nearer to you and this is the most painful kind of persecution. This is the worst kind of persecution. In fact, back in the book of Psalms, it talks about how, you know, if it would have been a stranger who persecuted me, he said, then I could have borne it, but it was thou. It was my friend, you know, one who is my equal. And of course it's prophetic of Jesus being betrayed by Judas, one who was close to him that he dipped the sop with, that was his fellow church member, you know, he was right there with him, a friend and so forth. So when persecution comes from family or friends or our fellow church members or from other Baptists or even other Christians will sometimes persecute us, why? Because of the fact that they don't want to endure persecution. So they get on the wrong side and they team up with the world and become the persecutor, unfortunately. But look at Matthew chapter 10, verse number 34, the Bible says, think not that I'm come to send peace on earth. I came not to send peace, but a sword for I am come to set a man at variance against his father and the daughter against her mother and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me. And he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. And he that taketh not his cross and followeth after me is not worthy of me. Those are some pretty strong words out of the mouth of Jesus Christ in Matthew 10. Go to Luke 12, Luke chapter 12. There's nothing ambiguous about this subject in the Bible. There's nothing questionable about this doctrine. The Bible's crystal clear. There will be persecution. It's coming. It's going to come from those that are far. It's going to come from those that are near the, uh, the apostle Paul. I didn't have this in my notes, but I forget exactly which chapter, but in the chapter where he's talking about all the different things that he endured, I want to say first Corinthians four, but I'm not a hundred percent sure where he talks about the, the, the, the, the false brethren he's, he's in peril from, from the heathen. I'm kind of mixing a few chapters actually. Which one is it? Second Corinthians 11 is the one where he talks about how he's in perils among the heathen. And then he talks about being in perils among false brethren, you know, so he's getting it both from the world and he's getting it from the so-called Christians, right? And then I'm also mixing the part that just as I am, you know, the hymn, just as I am where he quotes the, the fightings and fears without, within, something like that. But you know, where he talks about, he's talking about, you know, within and without, we're troubled on all sides. We're going through persecutions. We're in peril. We're going through tribulations. We're going through hard times and he's saying some of it's coming from false brethren. Some of it's coming from the heathen. Some of it's coming from inside. Some of it's coming from outside. Look at Luke chapter 12, verse 51, Luke 12, 51. It says, suppose ye that I'm come, this is Jesus talking, you say, what radical preacher is talking here? This is Jesus talking. Luke 12, verse 51, suppose ye that I'm come to give peace on earth. I tell you nay, but rather division. But what are we here today? Just unity at all costs. This is the teaching, right? Oh, we need to have unity at all costs. But Jesus said, I came to bring division. He didn't say I came to bring unity. Unity can only happen when we all walk by the same rule and mind of the same thing. Unity can only happen when we all rally around the truth and the word of God. We don't have unity by putting aside the truth, putting aside doctrine, putting aside the teachings of the word of God and just holding hands and singing Kumbaya. We have to rally around the truth and the truth divides. That's why Jesus said, I came to bring division. Why did you come, Jesus, to bring division? He said, rather division for from henceforth, verse 52, there shall be five in one house divided three against two and two against three. He said, the father shall be divided against the son, the son against the father, the mother against the daughter, the daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law. It's hard to cause that conflict. And the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, that came pretty naturally. But we see that he came to bring division. Now what's the point of it all? What should be our reaction to persecution? We'll go to Acts chapter eight, if you would. Acts chapter eight. What should be our reaction to this? How do we react? Well, we already saw the scripture that said that we should rejoice and leap for joy for great is our reward in heaven. And I take that quite literally. I don't believe he's exaggerating there. I believe that he literally is saying we should rejoice in persecution. And that's what the apostles did when they were persecuted. They rejoiced in the book of Acts. But we need to also understand that persecution makes us a better person. It makes us a better Christian, and it causes us to do more for the Lord. While you're turning to Acts eight, it says in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, therefore I take pleasure in infirmities. And this is in follow-up to that teaching in 2 Corinthians 11 in the context. So in 2 Corinthians 12, he continues that. He says I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake. For when I'm weak, then am I strong, he says. He said I take pleasure in persecutions, tribulation. Why? That the power of Christ may rest upon me, because his strength is made perfect in weakness. Acts chapter eight, verse one, and Saul was consenting unto his death, and at that time there was a great persecution against the church that was at Jerusalem, and they were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. And devout men carried Stephen to his burial and made great lamentation over him. As for Saul, he made havoc of the church, entering into every house and hailing men and women, committed them to prison. Watch this. Therefore, they that were scattered abroad went everywhere preaching the word. So you see that as a result of this persecution, there's a positive outcome, because up to this point, they were doing most of their preaching just in Jerusalem. And they'd been told by Jesus to go into all the world, but they weren't doing it. They were mainly staying around Judea, so God used this persecution in order to get them scattered abroad so that they could go everywhere preaching the word. Go if you would to Acts chapter 11, Acts chapter number 11. The Bible says in verse 19, now they, which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen, traveled as far as Phoenice and Cyprus and Antioch, preaching the word to none but unto the Jews only. So they're scattered by persecution. They're on the run. The Bible says when they persecute you in the city, flee into another. That's what they're doing. They're being scattered by the persecution, because this is obviously not just a persecution on social media. This is not a persecution of just words. Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never be. These people are actually being arrested. They're being beaten or even killed. So they are leaving town to get away from this persecution. God used that, that they would go everywhere preaching the gospel, but they're still not getting it right, because look what they're doing at the end of verse 19. They're only preaching unto the Jews. Is that what they were told to do? Jesus told them the opposite, and they're just stuck on that. They can't get off that. But look at verse 20. And some of them were men of Cyprus and Cyrene, which when they were come to Antioch, spake unto the Grecians, preaching the Lord Jesus. So these guys have got it right. These Cyrenians and these guys from Cyprus, they're not all hung up on, oh, we got to reach the Jews. We got to just keep reaching these most unreceptive people, even after they rejected it. The hand of the Lord, verse 21, was with them. So these Cyrenians, these guys of Cyprus, they actually start doing what Jesus actually told them to do, by not restricting the gospel to one ethnicity, but to just preach to anybody who will listen, just to preach to anybody who's receptive. And it says the hand of the Lord was with them, and a great number believed and turned unto the Lord. Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem, and they sent forth Barnabas that he should go as far as Antioch, who when he came and had seen the grace of God was glad and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord, for he was a good man and full of the Holy Ghost and of faith, and much people was added unto the Lord. So this never would have happened without the persecution. The persecution stirs things up a little bit. It gets us out of our comfort zone, where we could just get comfortable and complacent, and we're just sort of coasting in the Christian life. And you know, I get that way sometimes. I know you get that way sometimes, where you just kind of get in a little bit of a rut, and you're just kind of coasting, and you're not really zealous, you're not really fired up. You know, you're staying faithful to church, and you're staying faithful to soul winning, but sometimes you just get a little bit complacent, apathetic, you're just kind of dragging your way through, kind of going through the motions, but you know, there's nothing like a little persecution to kind of perk you up a little bit, right? Nothing like a good fight to get you all fired up, and get you excited, and get you zealous, and get you working harder, and going to new places, and doing new exploits. You know, these things are brought about by the Lord, or allowed to happen by the Lord, because they shake us up, they challenge us, they motivate us, and God uses these events so that much people can be added unto the Lord. And in the end, it's worth it. I mean, if we have to go through what the Bible calls a light affliction, all the sufferings we go through in this life are known as light affliction. If we go through the afflictions, and the persecutions, and the troubles, and the trials, that's just but for a moment. And the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. So if we have to go through some pain, and tears, and suffering, and crying, and bad times, and if it gets somebody out of hell, isn't it worth it? I mean, that's eternal suffering that's being avoided there. And so we need to be willing to pay the price. Now some people, they hear this sermon, and they're thinking to themselves, you know, I don't like this kind of preaching. I don't like this. I want to hear my best life now. Give me the portion of the inheritance that falls to me now. You know, I want to hear about how everything's going to be great. I want to be encouraged. I want to be built up. But then there are going to be those who hear this message and say, you know what, I'm ready to pay the price to be used greatly by God. I don't want to be used a little bit. I want to be used a lot. I want to be a Barnabas, you know, where much people can be added to the Lord. I want to be someone that endures afflictions like an apostle Paul delivered out of them all and winning much people under the Lord. That's who I want to be. And you know, there are going to be two kinds of people, the kind with the root in themselves and the shallow Christian that is here today and may even be here next Sunday and may even be here two or three months from now. They're going to endure for a while. But as soon as the persecution and trouble comes, which it will come, not if it comes, when it comes, they're going to be immediately offended and it will separate the men from the boys. Who do you want to be today? Are you the one with the root in yourself or are you the shallow one that's just sort of here temporarily? Just sort of listening to the sermon and enjoying the show. But you don't want to get in the fight. Well, decide who you want to be today because if you want to live godly in Christ Jesus, you shall suffer persecution. Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you so much for your word, Lord. Thank you for all the warnings, but thank you, Lord, for the rewards and the joys and excitement of doing great works for you, Lord, and winning people unto Christ and preaching your word, Lord, and turning people from lives of sin to lives of righteousness also even after they get saved and just preaching the whole counsel of God, Lord. Help every single person in this room to count the cost of serving you. And if there's two people here today that say, well, count me out, well, Lord, send us two more to replace them that have a root in themselves. And Lord, help our church to be a church that is steadfast and unmovable and always abounding in your work. And in Jesus' name we pray, amen. Song number 86 in the garden. Song number 86 in the garden. Song number 86. I come to the garden alone, while the dew is still on the roses, and the voice I hear is calling on my ear, the Son of God discloses, and He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. He speaks and the sound of His voice is so sweet, the birds watch their singing, and the melody that He gave to me within my heart is ringing. And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. I stand in the garden with Him, though the night around me be falling, but He makes me go through the voice of hope, His voice to me is calling. And He walks with me and He talks with me, and He tells me I am His own. And the joy we share as we tarry there, none other has ever known. Amen. You're dismissed.