Tonight we will conclude our study on The Sermon on the Mount. There is still much more that Christ taught in chapter five, but our focus has been primarily focused on the portion that includes “The Beatitudes”.
Last week we looked closely at verse 10, and I would like to connect a final study on verses 11 and 12.
These verses are closely related because all three have to do with a word of caution from Jesus.
That caution is for Christians and what they should know and expect in this world.
Typically we all want to be encouraged with how we live for God, but we should not try to bury our heads in the sand on the reality of the condition of this world.
John 16:33 (NLT)
I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world."
Jesus warns us that we will have many trials and sorrows. We need to be prepared for those trials and sorrows. Not to worry over them, but not to be naïve.
One of our greatest sorrows is when our friends or loved ones come against us for our commitment to Christ.
Text: Matthew 5:10 –12
No one likes to have things said about them that are mean or untrue, but it happens…
Transition:
Listen to these recent national statistics from a well respected magazine called, “Psychology Today” as it tells us about how much truth there is in our culture:
• More people say they have cheated on their marriage partners than on their tax returns.
• More than half say that if their tax returns were audited, they would probably owe the government money.
• About one out of three people admits to deceiving a best friend about something within the last year; 96 percent of them feel guilty about it.
• Nearly 50% predict that if they scratched another car in the parking lot, they would drive away without leaving a note—although the vast majority (89 percent) agree that would be immoral.
Now listen to what the Bible has to say:
Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and is desperately wicked.”
For once - it sounds as if the world agrees with the Bible. The truth is the more man researches man and his nature, the more it is apparent that man needs God.
The Psychologists know this to be true… we should too.
We live in a world that speaks falsehoods and lies.
Oftentimes that will involve you and the people around you. We all would like for the world to be truthful, but…
We find ourselves so easily offended by those who lie about us, persecute us and revile us.
We often expect unsaved people to treat us fairly, with virtues and high morals. But perhaps our problem is that we do not understand the environment we live in.
The fact is we don’t always want the truth. We ask someone how they are doing, and when we get their typical (depressing) response we would have rather not been told the truth.
Transition:
Little white lies we can live with, but it’s the big lies we have trouble with. They come from Satan, himself. The Bible says that Satan is the “father of lies.” It was his lie that got us into trouble in the first place (in the Garden of Eden). And we know that Adam and Eve easily fell for it. Their first mistake was listening to the lie.
As a result (of that first lie) the perfect world of honesty instantly became a memory. And the world has never been the same since. We live in a world that has grown very accustomed to deception and falsehoods.
Well now we know exactly how we feel about lies. Now let’s find out how God feels about lies.
Lies anger God much more so than they do us.
“The LORD hates those who tell lies but is pleased with those who keep their promises” (Prov. 12:22).
“The LORD hates … a lying tongue” (Prov. 6:16–17).
God “destroys liars … [and] hates those who kill and trick others” (Ps. 5:6).
Application:
Our problem is that telling lies only offend us. What I mean is we are only insulted when someone tells a lie about us, or deceives us. We say things like, “How dare you…who do you think you are?”
The problem is we are only offended when we are lied to. Apparently, we are not angered by the sin of lying. God is. When we are lied to we only sense a lack of respect from that person. It is our pride and self respect that is troubled.
Illustration:
(The story of a waitress in Louisville, KY, who forged her tip on my signature.) I was angry all right, but I was angry at the waitress and not the sin of lying. I felt I had taken advantage of by a total stranger. I thought, “Who does that waitress think she is to over-ring my credit card for $10.00?” Immediately I called American Express about what I had found. I wanted American Express to press charges and take vengeance on her. After all, “Who does she think she is?”
My knee jerk response should have been, “God forgive her and set her free from the sin of lying and stealing.”
The point is - We must love the sinner and we should hate the sin of lying. We should detest the sin of lying.
Illustration:
When Sister Marjorie and I first became engaged, I lost a job due to Christian persecution. My boss did not like me working with him and reading my Bible during my lunch break. He began to tell lies about me to his boss and eventually convinced him to have me fired. There was nothing I could do to keep my job.
This is when being a Christian becomes really tough. Serving the Lord will often require us to turn the other cheek. Especially when it comes to those who will “…say all manner of evil against you falsely…” for the sake of Jesus Christ.
Question:
So what are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to handle situations like this?
Jesus gives to us specific instructions:
Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:… (verse 12a)
I trust what Jesus is telling us about “our reward in heaven” will help to soften the blow when someone comes along and lies about you, or treats you unfairly.
What Jesus has waiting for you is far greater than any temporary trial or sorrow. We need to learn how to endure the disappointments of our trials and sorrows. But oftentimes we will become indignant when we are unjustly criticized or accused with lies.
Transition and Illustration:
At a church we were ministering in a few years ago, there was a lady who had a lot of problems with forgiving others with how certain treated her. It seemed that every time I saw her she had a chip on her shoulder. She seldom ever smiled and fellowshipped with other believers. I don’t know that she ever had any of the joy of the Lord. She was always sickly.
I hadn’t realized how serious her problem was until one Sunday morning she came to the altar for prayer.
With the anointing oil in hand, I asked this troubled lady how I could pray for her. Her response sent a cold chill through me. She said, “I want you to pray for me to have more righteous indignation!”
This lady spoke what many people think to them self. They seem to be saying, “I am trying to live my life for the Lord, and what do I get in return? I want to get even with the world for what it is doing to me!”
Folks like this may think they mean well. They may even have been persecuted for being a Christian. But their real problem is that they are not “rejoicing” and/or being “exceedingly glad” about their “reward in heaven”. And yet, that is the combination that Christ is expecting for our lives.
The point is we cannot allow ourselves to become bitter or resentful when we are lied about or deceived. Rather our position must be one of grace and mercy for those who mean us harm and destruction.
The hint we should take is that our lives will be much more blessed if we let go of any ill feelings we may have towards those who want to destroy us with their lies. We can try to defend ourselves all we want to, but we must remember that Christ is our defense.
We are told to be a Christian. What that means is we are to be like Christ. He was/is holy and righteous, and yet He lived and died with the liers.
But listen to what the Prophet Isaiah had to say about Christ in Isaiah 53:9…
And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
What we are going through with all of the liers in the world is nothing new for what Christ already suffered for us. Consider all of the righteousness and holiness of the Savior. And yet, He was able to endure it…so why should we not be able to endure it as well?
Jesus was staunch about being honest. His every word is accurate. His every sentence is truth. No cheating on His tests at school. No altering the figures on the tax forms. Not once did Jesus stretch the truth. Not once did he shade the truth. Not once did he avoid the truth. He simply told the truth.
“No deceit was found in his mouth.”
And if God has his way with us, there won’t be any deceit found in ours. Jesus longs for us to be just like Him. His plan, if you remember, is to shape us into the image of His Son (II Corinthians 3:18).
God seeks not to decrease or minimize our deception but to eliminate our deception.
God is blunt about dishonesty: “No one who is dishonest will live in my house” (Ps. 101:7).
