Well, this morning, we are indeed making progress through the Beatitudes, and strictly speaking, we come to the last Beatitude in Matthew 5 and verse 10, reads as such, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. But it goes on in verses 11 and 12, and so, Next week, God willing, we'll have a look at those verses which are a further elaboration of this last beatitude. It sort of has an appendix attached to it. And verses 11 and 12 are those further thoughts. Now we've seen that as we proceeded through the beatitudes, that we have moved from, more strictly speaking, matters of the soul, towards action, and the difference that you and I, if we're Christians this morning, should be making in the world at large, that there are more finely tuned, a holy heart, poor in spirit, hungering and thirsting after righteousness. Well, it will have an overflow. There will be actions that follow, the words that we speak, things that we do, things that we don't do, things that we do in the way that we do them, that will show that all that we've already been looking at is true of us, that there's a meekness, that we're merciful people, that we are mourning over who we are actually in the sight of God, that we have such poverty of inner life, such poverty of spiritual ambition, and we are forever before God, looking to be filled with his spirit, looking to be enlarged in our affections and our desires for him. Well, the difference then will be, and we saw last time, that we will be peacemakers. And in that most deep and wonderful sense that as we go out with the gospel, the gospel of peace, then we hope to be those who are ambassadors of Christ. And through our testimony and witness, there are those who find Christ and they are brought out of their state of enmity and are now at peace with God. And we ourselves, in who we are, are aiming to be peaceable people, that there's not a war going on, that we're not angry people, that we're not conflicted within, so that what comes out of us, even if we've got words of peace, yet there's something about the tone of us, there's something about the way we're living that kind of belies that. And so we're looking to be peacemakers that are informed, as we saw in James 3, by heavenly wisdom. Peaceable and pure and full are good fruits. But then, We go out with great intentions, great hopes as peacemakers, and the result, well, the result is this, that we're persecuted for righteousness sake. Underline the righteousness sake part, you can be persecuted for all kinds of reasons, which have nothing actually to do with the gospel. But here, the Lord is saying that if it's because of me, If it is because you're peacemaking, you have been pursuing it, me at the heart of it, my message being the substance of it, and regulating your whole attitude, God helping you with peaceableness coming to people, then they will actually react quite negatively, or a lot of people will. They will actually react quite negatively. And so we're told really, in effect, you're not this hot, Do not think we've missed the way here, or let's change the message here, or let's do something here. No, you're actually seeing the very action. As we read in 1 Peter 2, the very reaction that the Lord Jesus himself suffered, he suffered for righteousness' sake. And if we follow in his footsteps, then we suffer for righteousness' sake. And it was said there in 1 Peter 2, that you were called to, that dear friends, you and I were called to. And how often scripture has to say, marvel not, If the world hates you in 1 John, marvel not. Don't think, well, what is this? And Peter in the first letter there later on says, you know, do not think it a strange thing that you enter into these fiery trials. Don't. Happen to the Lord Jesus, because this is what happens. Peacemakers have not gone to create a kind of false peace, brush over the difficulties and just a kind of fudge No, that we say we are in a state of enmity against God, that we do harbor hatred toward Him, that sin has a penalty and is called hell, and we need to be wise to that. Well, the authentic truth, true peacemaking, will very, very often mean that we have persecution. So the title this morning, Matthew 5, verse 10, Living Among Enemies. living among enemies. So my first heading, the results of holiness. The results of holiness. And that's the reaction to the life has lived in all of the Beatitudes. Do what it says there, get nearer and nearer to the heart of what that means and you'll get a reaction. Because something's happened in us, a deep-seated change, that there is something revolutionary within us. And we may be very ordinary people, yes. We may come from very ordinary places and be doing some very ordinary things, yes. But something extraordinary has happened. And the more that what we read in the Beatitudes is now characteristic of us, that there is not a superficiality about this, but there's something really heartfelt. God has done something in the depths of our being. Then there's going to be a difference. Indeed, only those who truly are children of God can manifest that difference. But then there's gonna be reaction that we who have shown our need of God's help, our dependence upon Him, our reliance on His word and on the Holy Spirit for any progress that we might make. Yes, we're being salt and light. Yes, we'll be functioning then very much within the city on the hill that cannot be hidden. There's actually generating light that's giving direction that isn't a sort of false kind of light that's leading you astray. But no, actually, we're commending God. We're advertising him. We're doing the John the Baptist. Behold, behold the Lamb. Oh, yes. But then we will find that we enter into difficulty. We enter into difficulty. That's why we seek God helping us to have the right attitude, be there in a fullness of the Holy Spirit, the life of Christ being manifested in us, suffering for righteousness sake. Then there will be the reaction. John the Baptist, remarkable, Wasn't he? We've sung about him somewhat there and mentioned him just a moment ago. And he was a peacemaker, actually. Think about his extraordinarily powerful preaching. But he was showing, yes, you need to be reconciled to God. You need this baptism for the forgiveness of sin. And then he listened and were being actually prepared, therefore, for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Way was being made straight for him, and all the crooked places were being ironed out, and the valleys were being there filled, and the mountains brought low. People were being prepared. Oh, consider this, when peacemaking actually. Here in Matthew chapter 14, John the Baptist speaking to Herod the Tetrarch about his marital state, and about the fact that he had taken his brother Philip's wife and there we read of him speaking in that situation that Herod had laid hold of John bound him and put him in prison for the sake of Herodias his brother Philip's wife because John had said to him it is not lawful for you to have her and he might well have brought reasons and brought the bible and that man's conscience knew that he had done wrong rather than admit that wrong What do people do? Well, this is often what they do. They suppress their conscience and try and get rid of the voice of conscience. And John the Baptist was the voice of conscience. So if you shut him in prison, then that does it. Well, of course it doesn't really, but at least it gets something of the pain, some of the immediacy away. There's John the Baptist, if you like. And we might smile as we say it, this incredible man with his camel's hair and his leather belt and eating his locusts and wild honey and out in the wilderness and crying out there. But he was, he was showing man his need, forgiveness, repentance, bearing fruit worthy of repentance. And there in his official capacity as a prophet sent by God, he was able to go and even speak to Herod the tetrarch. and our standards that we uphold. We don't disappear. That's being peacemakers and coming into enemy territory and coming quite uncomfortably close to what people are doing, the sins that they're committing. Yes, we maintain ourselves steadfast and immovable in that work. We uphold the commandments, the Ten Commandments. They're all there. intertwined with what we're looking at in the Beatitudes. And that's why the Lord later on goes to speak about the Ten Commandments and the misconceptions and wrong teachings that were in circulation about them. In fact, he makes the commandments bigger and deeper and troubled a lot of people who realize that their righteousness was nothing like what God is looking for. So we have a commission and we believe ourselves under the rule of these commandments. And so we take those things into the world. Now, there are a lot of good people in the world who are not Christians, people who are learning sense of justice. And when injustice is committed, that they are eager to see it righted. Lots and lots of people there. But we go believing actually that ours is the kingdom of heaven, that we belong in a different place, that while we're in this world, we're not of this world. And while we are seeking at our best to do our best, to bring good things to a corrupted and dying culture, we do it fully aware that we look beyond the present circumstances and we look towards heaven. that the kingdom that we are part of and the instructions the King's given to us, such as his commandments and such as the Beatitudes, stretch beyond this world that we're never fully going to see realized our hopes. Our peacemaking is going to be rebuffed. Well, we were there in Belpris again yesterday and some of us were preaching and others of us were there giving out leaflets and being there, which is always encouraging, being there. And well, we can't report back to you good people this morning that things have much changed since the previous month when we went to Belpert, but still mighty, mighty indifference. I would offer the thought that though our preaching and though our efforts be feeble, we would earn. Nevertheless, we were attempting to do some peacemaking and to urge people be reconciled to God, but they're estranged from him yet. Nothing heard in that. But undaunted, there's a date in February we hope to go again. Because we know that's not the end of it. That's not all of it. That's not the smallest part of it. That actually we go as servants of God, and we go if they'll listen or if they won't listen, knowing that there is the hardness of the human heart, why we were once hard of heart too. And we know now that we've received mercy, and it to us now belongs the kingdom of heaven. they can throw what they will and say what they will and pass by as they will and say as often as they like, thank you, I'm fine, I'm all right. We know they're not, but we know also that we are part of the kingdom of heaven and we're living for that. And so we live beyond the rebuffs and we live beyond the enmity, we live beyond that. I think if the Lord Jesus Christ at the first whiff of enmity, of disagreement that his doctrine was producing, decided that was enough. Well, there'd have been no salvation and I wouldn't have very much good news to tell you this morning. So we look to live out our convictions about the power of the gospel, live out our convictions about the help that we receive from God, live out our conviction that actually this world is passing away. but we're passing through it and actually we're citizens of heaven, that our hopes are beyond this world and whether it responds or doesn't, but our hopes are actually set on heaven that we are belonging to, part of the kingdom of heaven. And we have to be careful that as we go out, that we're going out in that sense there, in our workplaces, as we talk to our neighbours, Not with any hypocrisy. Well, all of us are chargeable of that. But yes, no hypocrisy. That as we've seen before, we're pure of heart. What you see is what you get. That you're not living out something here, but living out something there. That your neighbours, your work colleagues, would set up a bit of a different story. But this on Sunday, maybe, but you're something else on Monday. Well, we won't be in the right place there of being persecuted for righteousness sake if we're hypocrites. So sometimes fear can be coming through. We're saying one thing without actually reading from us, huge anxiety and fear. And we would ask ourselves, well, what is that? Sometimes people react negatively to us because there's something lacking in us. And we just don't seem to have life within us. We're dull, inert. And there's something lacking there. And they might think, well, I don't think so much of this kingdom of heaven. It's not doing very much for you. What can it then do for me? And they may have some truth in what they're saying. So we are straightforward and we aim to be honest, pretending that things are better for us than they are. But we still battle with sin. We still read the Beatitudes and it just tells us how much further we've got to go. And yet we have discovered grace and we've discovered mercy. And of this we would speak. Real people living real lives. We haven't kind of lost all the needs that we have in this world. We still need to eat. We still need to drink. We still have to find clothes. We still find the cost of living crisis hasn't sort of exempted us. Although we find the Lord's help and mercy is incredible ways at times. You know, the other times, we are the same sitting in our cold houses and kind of keeping down the gas bill there and trying to sort of do one over on Putin in doing that. So that's real life for us. But we know that we actually do have an effect upon people. They may not always say it. They may not always admit it. And even when they say, I'm all right, thanks out on the streets, that's not really what they mean. That's what first comes to their heads to say. There's an unease there. We make people a little bit uneasy talking about these things, talking about eternity, talking about death, talking about judgment. And there is something of a reaction, something of a startling in the heart, something of an anxiety that is there. And people either harm themselves against it or they ponder it and reflect upon it. And perhaps that is the beginning of conviction of sin. Why, you know, that if we're going about this here with the right attitude, if you like, if we're holy and godly and joyful and manifesting something of the fullness of what it means to be a Christian, people feel under pressure. I may not like to say it, but non-Christian people feel a bit under pressure. Our presence as salts and lights, our presence there, this city on a hill that cannot be hidden. that they might suddenly just begin to check their language a bit, a bit of self-censorship, a bit of self-regulation. And they might even feel that some of the things that they talk about are a bit silly, really, a bit trivial. And they may be shamed out of that, because that's not what we are. We're not interested in what they get up to on a Saturday night. We're not interested in how they spent their weekends. Our hairs stand on end when we hear of those things. they may feel a bit unclean about themselves and feel a little bit shallow and a bit tawdry. And that can be our effect, the results of holiness upon other people, that even if they're not converted, they do actually just moderate their language. You know, sometimes people know who you are, if you're a Christian, somebody's doing some work on your house, say, out comes a word there. Sorry. they're actually quite apologetic. And then maybe they do a bit better after that. And these words don't come because they've suddenly got a bit of a guard on their lips and just putting a bit of a check on themselves there. And they might feel guilt the way that you and I work, that they're trying to do as little as possible. We're trying to do as much as possible. They're looking to see what they can get away with. We're looking to see, well, can we make an extra contribution here? They're fiddling their expenses and trying to get money for nothing. No, no, we're wanting to do an honest day's work. And that all of it there, the results of holiness, can induce in people guilt and shame. And that indeed may even be productive for their conversion. So results of holiness. Let's narrow it down. The reaction of the ungodly. reaction of the ungodly? Well, some yes are won over in the same letter that we read from a moment ago in 1 Peter. Were we to turn to chapter 3, just following on from where our reading took us, And we read this, just reading from verse one, it's speaking to wives, but the principle here could speak to any situation. Wives, likewise, be submissive to your own husbands, that even if some do not obey the word, they, without a word, may be won by the conduct of their wives when they observe your chaste conduct accompanied by fear. Goes on to say, doesn't it, do not let your adornment be merely outward, arranging the hair, wearing gold, putting on fine apparel. Rather, let it be the hidden person of the heart, the incorruptible beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is very precious in the sight of God. Winning people without a word, because there's something seen in us. Yes, it can be positive. Yes, people can be won. We become the aroma of life unto life for them. But as we're saying and majoring on this morning, all the negatives, You know, we're also the aroma of death, unto death for many. And that persecution, persecution, blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. And we've qualified that to say, for righteousness sake. It is that we are actually doing the right thing in the right way in frail, sinful people that we are, that we have captured what the gospel is. We were saying it, believing it, and we're living incredibly in the light of it. And so we find opposition. Of course, the opposition comes in many ways, and we haven't time to detail all those this morning. It might be an individual, it might be somebody at work, it might be your neighbor, it might be a family member, an individual, a particular individual, a little group of individuals that are the problem. But it can be bigger than that. It can be a culture, a society, that there's something now endemically persecuting about the way that that culture works. So at least a big enough part of the culture, what we might call the ruling culture, what the books are about, what the television programs are about, that there is within it a current of opposition and enmity that's being expressed. And it moves on from that, doesn't it, when government embodies that hostility. when a government has enshrined in it principles that are antagonistic to the gospel. We feel for so many people in Islamic countries where the constitution is strongly Islamic and where it comes through and it would render you second class citizen if you are not a Muslim and introduces demeaning of Christians looking down at them relegating them to the worst places to work and denying them their rights and giving them no voice in the courts. That can happen. It happens in countries which have wonderful constitutions, freedom of religion they say and they promise, but it's not what they actually do. And you find that there is more than a few hints from the governments that actually they're all for one particular religion and not for the Christian faith. and that travels down, judiciary is infected by that, and the police in their enforcement of their duties and obligations, they're remiss in that, and they miss out helping Christians, and they're showing a little bit too much favor to those violent fanatics, for instance. So we can see that. Well, then governments, of course, and cultures, of course, can often think that actually they're being very virtuous in cutting down Christian witness, in stopping particular aspects of Christian ethics from being able to play a part in the public square. And this perhaps is one of the changes that we have seen in Western culture, that more and more this antipathy, this antagonism is surfacing. It used to be that as Christians, you and I might have, well, once upon a time, been thought of as actually quite a help, that we were bringing good things, that it was good to have children in Sunday schools. And so parents sent their children in droves to Sunday schools because there was something good to be heard in the church. Well, that began to chill. And then we were just perhaps thought of as odd, a little bit odd that we believe the things that we do. A little bit of a laugh, a little bit of a joke at our expense, but okay, we were allowed to get on with our beliefs there and they could be polite to us at whatever they thought in private, but at least they were tolerant. Not so now. And it's hardened. The attitude is hardened. So that you and I, if we're Christians and functioning as such, are not thought of as odd, but as bad. That you and I are now thought of as bad, positively bad. That because we hold to what scripture says, that necessarily has made us hateful people and people filled with anger. And well, the language gets a bit loose these days and you get accused of all kinds of phobias and things. I still think, you know, phobias were what you might call irrational fears, you know, things you didn't like spiders and that was it, you're out the room or something like that. Whereas now, no, it doesn't mean that anymore. It's a good word. So let's make it work harder. And it's now meant to mean that we're full of hatred, that we're hatred. So actually, if you run away from the spider, you because you really hated that spider, I guess would be the logic of what they're saying. So that's the idea now. And you can be labeled by the culture as having these phobias, phobias against people who are expressing sexuality in the way that they do or thinking actually they haven't really got any kind of set, solid sexuality, but they sort of float around through the day and become this and that. gender fluid. And indeed, there's this whole discipline in academia now called queer theory, which would say, yep, that's right. Everybody can just invent it. And any effort to stop that is wrong. And we therefore, we say that there's such a thing as a man and a woman, and marriage actually is between a man and a woman. There's biology here, which can't be changed, and chromosomes, and things like that, that you can't just sort of pretend don't exist. And that is thought to be a phobia. And so what is preached, what is believed, what is said, is no longer just thought of as a little eccentric, perhaps dangerous, and violent, and cruel, and full of intolerance. And that is where we find ourselves more and more in Western culture. Not everybody, in fact, probably not the majority, but because the most vocal part of culture, those who are on the television screens, those who have the Twitter followers, Hollywood stars and their pronouncements, the important people you see, because they're on board with this and they're up with this narrative against the church, then it carries some force. We must also observe at the moment the ructions within the established church, the Church of England, and the latest pronouncements that have come from this body within there that was due to report on sexuality, and saying that, no, it's okay to bless same-sex couples, and that can be done in church, and some form of words can be found to do that. And others within there say, yeah, that's just the beginning. The direction of travel is towards validating same sex in marriage, that what is available to a man and a woman will be available to a man and a man. And effectively they're saying, just you watch, we're moving and we're going to bring that in. And we might find ourselves, perhaps as our forebears, at the receiving end of what the established church, or at least its hierarchy, would want to impose. And we know of situations actually just recently, not far from us too here in the East Midlands, of challenge to that received wisdom and that growing orthodoxy that a lot of people in the Church of England are not happy and are making their voice felt and heard and are pressing to have this reversed. Well, we do indeed wish these dear friends well in that. But it does have some worrying support, these other views by the main hierarchy, the bishops and the archbishops. And so how often in history, the established church, the official church, has ended up actually becoming part of the persecuting body. And I was just looking at the Twitter feed of, well, she calls herself Mother Case, anyway, in London there, and I'll tell you about it if you need to know later on. all kinds of support for, you know, the inclusive church, all the language there and disappointment that same-sex marriage was not validated by this report, that it was still a long way to go. But the determination is there to reach that sunlit upland that these people are aiming at. So we hear, don't we now, of people being arrested who were praying near to abortion clinics within these buffer zones, one in Birmingham, one there in Bournemouth, a person arrested. seen there and so they were challenged, they weren't saying anything, they didn't have a placard or up or anything, but they were praying. That's it. So we now can see thought crimes are real and live and kicking here in the United Kingdom. We wait to see what the case is when it goes to court and hope that these cases get thrown out as truly frivolous and ridiculous. We know that we see preachers often arrested some trumped up charge, somebody took offense, because they imagine sometimes that's it. They imagine that's what the person said, but they didn't say that. And then it eventually gets kicked out. A lot of open air preachers now record themselves. So if they get a challenge like that, they can then go back to the recording and say, I didn't say anything. I didn't say anything about homosexuality. I didn't say anything about transgenderism and can defend themselves. But the willingness is there on the part of people. to try to get Christians in trouble and to paint them in a false light. Well, we have to be careful that we're not overzealous. We're not overzealous. Some, I fear, some over there preachers are kind of single issue people and pursue their single issue with a rather unholy zeal and vehemence. Well, we're not helped by that. Or rather fanatical come over as rather wild in that. we're looking to be peaceable people. Our peacemaking is coming out of hearts that are at peace with God and not at war with our fellow man. And we're not going to come over linked with that as angry people. Often I see that there is some of that charge that sticks to Christians, that they can be rather angry, rather aggressive in their approach. Well, we don't think that that's the way either. And so sometimes the reaction of the ungodly, well, we might have to listen to something, not everything, but we might have to listen to something. The way that the whole issue is being framed by some of the hierarchy in the Anglican Church is that, you know, we've got a lot to apologize for. We've got this wrong, we've got that wrong, we've got everything wrong. And really that's not the way to proceed with that at all. What happened to God's standards in this? What happened to righteousness? What happened to holiness? It seems that we have to apologize for everything and anything there. If people were upset, then we've got to apologize. Well, they might've been right to be upset that they were challenged in their conscience and they heard something they didn't like because it was the word of God. And we can't apologize for that. Well, my final heading, and we're going to be saying more next week, perhaps a little more of a positive nature, but to finish really on a positive, yes, ours is the kingdom of heaven. So if we're finding all of this, or at least some of this, if we're seeing some of that lived out and you're feeling it at work, or you're catching it from around and about, or stuff on social media is sort of coming out with this, well, if you're grieved over it, but reacting with love and with compassion toward those who are saying all of this, well, be encouraged that yours, that mine is the kingdom of heaven, that we are showing a family likeness here, that the king of this kingdom, he also went this way. And we read, didn't we, there in 1 Peter chapter two of that very thing and his reaction to these things. 1 Peter 2, verses 21 to 23. For to this, remind ourselves again, you were called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example that you should follow his steps, who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth, who when he was reviled, did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to him who judges righteously. And that's the nature of our belief too. We believe in the kingdom of heaven. And that means we believe that actually there is judgment. And one day, all of these persecutors, if they haven't repented, will be judged. Their words, their attitudes, their sneers, their shutting you out of conversation, their enmity toward God, ultimately. And God says, I will deal with it. I'm king of my kingdom, and I will deal with this. And we as his subjects, as his children, have to be confident in that. We believe that. Ours is the kingdom of heaven, and that kingdom does believe in justice. 1 Peter chapter 4, hinted at some of this a moment ago, verse 12, reading on. Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you. But, hear this, rejoice, to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part he is blasphemed, but on your part he is glorified. and that's what belongs to those to whom is the kingdom of heaven. There's a glory resting upon that testimony. Why, it may not feel pleasant, and it isn't. Fiery trial, well, yes, that hurts. That's difficult. And yet, while in the midst of that difficulty, we're showing here that we belong to him, that we're members of his kingdom, that as our king, as he had to proceed through this world, in our own weak and feeble way, that we are also following Him, that there is an authenticity about us and our discipleship, and we can, in the midst of the fiery trials, contend ourselves that all this means, actually, that ours is the kingdom of heaven. So living among enemies, yes, but citizens of heaven also yes, and knowing that ours is the kingdom, that we belong, and that will be made very public on the day that he manifests his glory, when every eye will see him, when people will want mountains to fall on them and rocks to cover them, because of all they have said against him, in that ungodly way. So we should be encouraged even as we feel the weight, perhaps increasing weight, of persecuting zeal in our culture today. Amen.