Well, if you've been with us at these morning services now some few months, you'll know that we have been studying that part of the Bible, God's Word, that we call the Beatitudes, words that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, spoke. perhaps on more than one occasion, and perhaps with variations, but where we've been considering in the Gospel of Matthew, one of the four Gospels, that give an account of his life and his words, and we've reached the end. This is the last sermon on this subject. So we're in verses 11 and 12, actually, of Matthew chapter five. Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you, and were read for. A little bit of variety there from Luke chapter six on a similar occasion. There were some differences when our Lord gave similar teaching. And we can see in that also the same themes coming through. Not all of the themes we've been looking at in Matthew five, but quite a few of those themes and with some extra material as well. We'll come to that in a moment. Technically speaking, verse 10 of Matthew five, is the last of the Beatitudes. Blessed are you are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Verses 11 and 12 are an elaboration on that last Beatitude. And what we've been seeing as we've been going along, we haven't time, have we, to go through every beatitude again, but just really to say that those talk to us, for the most part, about the inward attitude, who we are at heart, and what we should be, and how we find little in ourselves, in and of ourselves, that commends us to God. In fact, we find the opposite. and that we own our need before God. We need his help. We need him to confer upon us a status where we can be in his presence. We have nothing of our own. We're condemned on our own. But we find in him help and strength. And we are then changed within. We have a new nature, a new birth when we come to Christ and we are forgiven our sin, receive the power of the Holy Spirit and new desires. We then begin to want to be merciful to people. We've found mercy from God, he's forgiven us, but it moves us then to forgive other people, to be able to bless our enemies. We've thought about that, thought about purity in our hearts and how that touches on our relationships with each other, that we're bringing something open. We're an open book. We're not manipulating and sort of wheedling and trying to get round people. There's been a change within us, And then we've also thought about ourselves as peacemakers, going out into the world to do good, and the best good that a Christian can do is to speak of the estrangement between us and God, and how through the blood of Christ, through his cross, believing in that, there, God punished sin, and our sin, therefore, can be transferred to him, and we can be free, and we have that message, and we tell that message. What does that message lead to? Well, this we've seen. Persecution, actually. People don't want to hear it. They didn't want to hear it then, and they don't want to hear it now. They didn't want to hear it from the lips of the Lord Jesus, nor from those who followed him. Call them the apostles. No, they beat them and tried to kill them because they didn't like the message that these people were bringing. And they don't like it. Still, so to this very day, that same enmity and hostility against the Bible and against God, the same defiance, that same rebellion we meet with, and well, we're the most obvious and evident representatives of the Lord, and therefore we are the people to be the lightning conductors for that rage, for that innate enmity that is within the human heart that's not yet come to Christ, not yet been born again. Well, we've seen that, uh, what reactions we get that yes, if it's for righteousness sake, or as we sort of see it there in, in Luke chapter six, in that way, that's when we're reviled and cast out, um, for his sake, not for our sake, not because we've come across as angry and sort of shouty people. Well, okay. I know of angry and shouty people. If they stir up opposition against them, well, fair enough. They've perhaps brought that a little bit upon themselves in that way. So not like that. Or by being a bit remote and a bit sort of smug that we are the people who know things around here, kind of our own sort of idea of self-righteousness. Well, that's not going to go down well with people. And if we get some kind of blowback from that, well, in a way, what do we expect? But the fact is that, put those kind of wrong ways of doing things, we're going to think a little bit more about that in a moment, aside, there is always going to be that enmity. If they hated our Lord Jesus Christ, and they sure did because they put him on the cross and despised him and hated him to that extent, then we shouldn't be surprised if they hate us. That no servant is above his master, no disciple above his teacher. If they hated the teacher, if they hated the master, then they'll sure hate the disciples and the followers that come. For if they hated him who was perfect in all he did, in all his manner, all his bearing, in all his interaction, well we can't quite match that in our still ongoing trying to move on in our Christian experience, move from our own sinfulness into holiness. Well, they're going to find reasons, the more, to hate us and to speak of us as evil and exclude us, as it says in Luke 6 there in verse 22. So we might say, well, wait a minute then. Ah, okay, we've had that blessedness, but then when it talks about rejoice, it says it in Luke, and it says it in Matthew, and in fact, in Luke, this whole matter of the men hating us fills up the greater part of the Beatitudes there. It's a very short summary in the first couple of verses, and it quickly moves on to the greater bulk of the Beatitudes as listed there, and it's all about this stuff about men hating us. and excluding us and casting us out and calling our name evil for the Son of Man's sake. And there the same principle is our Lord's words in Luke as in Matthew, well rejoice in that day. In Luke it says leap for joy. Well that's some joy, leap for joy. Well I don't know if you do that very often there, we had a birthday yesterday there that we were celebrating with a friend Oh, when you have big moments like that, do we leap for joy? Well, it seems strange, this language. And then when we say that we're to do that when we are being persecuted, hated, and having our names regarded as evil, you and I might say, how? How can you rejoice and leap for joy when that is happening? How? How is that possible? Is this talking some strange language here? Is it kind of inviting upon us some punishment beating and then in some weirdly masochistic sort of trip that we're on, welcoming it? What is this saying? So we move on to our first heading. Persecution is painful, right? Persecution is painful. And nowhere in scripture does it say that it is not. It is not sort of like some anesthetic that you apply to yourself and deaden all your feelings when you're being insulted, or as when you read in the Bible when actually people were beaten for the sake of the gospel. Well, that was painful. They weren't given some sort of numbing anesthetic, but their body didn't feel it. They were so desensitized when the rod came beating down upon them that, well, they didn't feel it. They felt it. The Apostle Paul, on one occasion, recounts just how many times he was beaten, beaten with rods and beaten with whips and stoned and, well, much else there. And it wasn't as though he didn't feel any of it. You know, you're some sort of iron man, didn't feel any of it. He felt it. He would have felt the wounds on his back he needed when he and Silas were beaten and put in the prison in Philippi. And afterwards, when the jailer was converted and tended to their wounds, they needed tending. And they'd have been very glad to have had that pain relieved. Persecution is painful. And we're not to sort of somehow engineer it that it's brought upon us. We're not to say, well, look, we're going to be able to leap for joy here. Let's bring it on. There's no way in scripture that it says, do that. Don't go out to make it happen. You don't need to. It'll happen to you. Trouble will come looking you and me out if we're doing what we should be doing and living as Christians in this fallen world. No, chastening is pleasant, it says in Hebrews, doesn't it? Hebrews chapter 12, it doesn't seem pleasant at the time. Afterwards, it will yield a fruit of righteousness. It's not pleasant at the time. And the Bible everywhere is clear about that. And that persecution, we looked at that last week, this antagonism against the Christian faith, this unhappiness with it, this chafing against it and wanting to try and push it away and get it out of our system, get it out of our sight, that sort of approach, which then spills over into angry outbursts and efforts to legislate Christians out of existence or parts of the world today. beat them, kill them, put them in prison, have them rendered second-class citizens, and the list could go on. That's the persecution, that expression of that inward rebellion against God. And it's not pleasant to be on the receiving end of it. It is painful. Why is it painful? Well, first of all, we're social animals. We are creatures who like to be in good standing with each other. We don't. Some people seem to enjoy starting arguments and seem to get some perverse pleasure out of kicking off disputes and getting people arguing with each other. Strange people they are. Most, I think, would like actually to get on with people. They'd like to get on with their neighbor. They'd like to get on at work with people. They'd like to get on in college there and be okay with people, not feel that they're excluded or outsiders, because we like to belong, we like to feel part of the in crowd, to feel included, not excluded. That's when church functions at her best, we will smilingly say we are inclusive, we are able then to relate comfortably, with each other, the inclusivity that the world goes all speaking about. There, there are boundary lines and there are things that are approved of God and there are things disapproved of God. And that's in the word of God and we can't make exceptions there or apologize for those things. We're all welcome to come, different backgrounds and different places and starting points and different experiences of life. And then we find that we've got a lot in common because we are under God's blessing and help. We found our way to the cross. We've known the burden of our sin taken away. We found that relief. We find ourselves nodding with each other because of that family likeness. That's very inclusive. Everybody's had that experience. Whoever you are, everybody who has found their way to the Lord, you can sit at the communion table and say, yes, I agree. That was when his body was broken and broken for me, in fact, died on the cross for me. Then we have everything in common there. So in a sense, yes, thank you. We'll take back that word inclusive. We've got our own meaning for that and it works very nicely for us. Yes, because we're social animals and we like to get on at our best there within the life of the local church and relate to each other peaceably and comfortably. Moreover, we like to serve. Yes, we actually want to make a good difference in the world where we are. We actually would quite like to do our neighbor good rather than do them harm. Sin stops us doing the good that we might do, but there's something there, there's something that beats you in the non-Christian's breath that's more noble. and is wanting to make a difference, a good difference in the community, in society, a future career that might actually be a benefit to people. And that's important to us. We take it quite seriously in that way. And when we're robbed of that, when we haven't got a bit of agency, when we can't bear fruit in that way, we feel frustrated. We feel that we're not doing what we're made to do, that we are literally, perhaps, a redundant. that we have something we want to give, something we want to offer, and it's refused. They don't want it. And we feel that. Then beyond it, we also have a sense of justice. And we shouldn't den that, we have a sense of justice. That when people do speak against us, hate us, exclude us, revile us, cast out our name as evil, and as we see it there written in Matthew's gospel, when they revile and persecute and say all kinds of evil against you, falsely. Evil against you and me, falsely. They've made up stories. They've taken out of context what was said. They've willfully misrepresented you and me. Well, that's hard to take. That's very hard to take. Why? Well, even in our fallen state, we still have a sense of justice. What's right? What's wrong? What's fair? What's not fair? And when people lie about you and say, oh, these Christians, or this or that or the other, you're smart under that. You feel that. If they say about you at work that, oh, you're Christians, or you're horrible, you're a hate-filled person, you're a right bigot and a phobic whatever or whatever, list of things there that they trot off. It's almost as though, you know, they've got a off pat, a whole sort of speech that they can give. It hurts. So we're not any of those things actually. We're fallen. We don't get everything right. We sure don't. But we're not those things. And it smarts because we have a sense of justice, what is right and what is wrong. Feel for people in universities, creationists, Well, raise your head above the parapet on that. And you get the full kind of weight of the atheistic scientific community fall about your ears. You get people writing to your university authorities saying this person's not fit to teach their subject. And that happens. And we feel for those who are in a position actually to use their science there for great good. probably worthy of the title of scientist than many of these other fraudsters. And yet they have to suffer those injustices. We feel for those people, feel for pro-life advocates who are screamed at and shouted down and told you're not welcome here and no platforms and all the rest of it. Well, that's unjust. They have something very valid to say that they can't really fool anybody. When you look at the ultrasound there and we've seen some very amazing pictures of the baby in the womb. And you're telling us that's not alive. You're telling us that's not life that's in there. Well, we have to beg to differ on that. And when people try and shut down that message, well, that's an injustice committed there against those people who particularly are busy in that work of preserving the life of the unborn. And we feel it for our children. that when perhaps as parents we, there's plenty of evidence that we're not the people that are much liked around here, that nobody invites you and me to the events and the social life of the community, that we're a bit out on the limb. a little bit odd, a little bit strange in their view, and you don't get the invitations. Children don't feel that, they feel, that's what it is, is it? That you're going to get excluded, you're going to get reviled, you're going to lose opportunities, lose influence even, that you're not going to be liked, people are going to take a fight with you kind of thing, at least verbally, and we feel it for them. Those of us who are parents, we feel it for our children, that something of that is going to come down upon them. And that also is painful. Persecution then is painful. I leave that subject there. Second heading, wrong reactions, right? Wrong reactions. Well, it heaps it on, doesn't it here, that you could feel yourself simmering. They hate us, exclude us, they revile us, they cast out our name as evil. Well, there might be a desire for vengeance there. And that's really where we're kind of one thing and then that happened to us and they cast out our name as evil. And so, well, no. Anger is not the appropriate response. We may feel angry. We may feel offended. We're probably right to feel angry and offended. An injustice is committed. We're not doing well, but we're actually to feel that. It is true. It is an injustice, but our reaction is not to be a reaction of anger. not to take it upon ourselves to denounce the characters of those who are reviling us. We may have some very clear insights into the kind of people that they are. We may have some very strong evidence that really we could bring against them, which would be very condemning of them. We may know things about them, but we can't speak about them, at least publicly in that way, and sort of diagnose them and dissect them. That would be wrong. only God knows the human heart, only he knows the counsels of the heart. But we therefore don't kind of fight back with that sort of reaction and call them all kinds of names in return or diagnose their phobias and their wretchedness and their character, wretched though it may be, we certainly don't curse them and wish them dead. You see, when the The attitudes in Luke carry on. Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. So, yeah, not an angry response, not cursing them and wishing them dead. You could have any amounts of wishing people dead. You just need to go on to the onto social media. I don't much, but there's plenty out there that if you voice a kind of Christian conviction, you get all kinds of stuff thrown back at you. J.K. Rowling's found that. She's not a Christian, but having the temerity to offer a thought about what actually constitutes a woman and the biological realities of that. People like her, where there are posters going up, they should be decapitated. That's a bit strong, don't you think, there? So cursing and wishing people dead, we don't call for the decapitation of some of these noisy atheists and everybody else there who are shouting and screaming. We read a little from 1 Peter last week, just to repeat that again. This is our Lord Jesus Christ. How did he react? Well, this is how he reacted and we're to go and do likewise, 1 Peter. And chapter two, verses 18 and following. Servants, be submissive to your masters with all fear, not only to the good and gentle, but also to the harsh. For this is commendable because of conscience toward God when endures grief, suffering wrongfully. What credit is it if when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God. For to this you are called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps. And a quote from the Old Testament, 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. So there are our marching orders. Neither are we to react with fear, with fear, as though, actually, these people got something to say, or actually, all their threats, they will be able to carry out. Well, I'm glad you report all the talk of decapitating people. They don't seem to have been able to carry that out, for which we're very glad. But even if they're making these threats, well, we won't be afraid of that. We have a God, actually, who He's able, if He will, to protect and guard us, and if not, then He will be with us whatever trials that we face. The apostles hid away for fear of the Jews after the death of Christ, and where seemingly the Pharisees were triumphant, they hid for fear. And we're not to hide for fear. We have to be wise in some of our dealings with the world, but we're not going to be afraid of them and disappear or be silent in the face of them. Or compromise, find ways to actually agree where God has stated very clearly his disagreement, that we don't look to sort of bend the rules, flex scripture to sort of fit in, well, that attitude, that's okay, actually, that behavior, yeah, we can accommodate that. so that scripture ends up actually meaning the opposite of what it actually says here in the book. So we don't compromise like that. So there are some wrong reactions. Final heading, thinking it through. Right, thinking it through. And it is this, that if we believe anything, as Christians, I hope it's this, that we believe in eternity. That we believe that this life is not everything. But that there is, why, the greater part of it, the better part of it, that is beyond this world and beyond death. And that as our Lord Jesus was raised from the dead, we believe we will be raised from the dead. That the worst they can do, actually, in one sense, is to kill the body, but they can't kill the soul. That we would, if we face the ultimate death, If you're a believer, you go to be with the Lord. And the Apostle Paul assures us, actually, that is far better. Whatever is good here on earth, there's something far better, which is to be in his presence. And we believe that, don't we? We actually affirm that. And when we are anxious, we bid our troubled thoughts subside in the light of the resurrection and the belief that this body is not everything. And as you get older, you're very glad to know it's not everything because it's not behaving as it used to behave when you were younger. Enjoy being young, do. It will catch up one day. But no matter, we have a resurrection body, we have heaven, which is actually our home. And this is a temporary time we spend here upon Earth. That's hard for us to get our heads around that. And we think too much of this world, too little of the next, particularly here in the West, where actually we can have a pretty comfy life and good things. We can eat, drink and lifestyle pretty okay for the most part, even with cost of living crisis there. Other parts of the world, not quite so. And they actually seem a bit better at getting that and understanding suffering and being able to fulfill more what we read here about rejoicing and leaping for joy. in it and we might feel a little bit out of our depth as we see them reacting that way and us in a different way, but we are to remember that there is an end point and something of the benefit of that eternal life and being received into heaven transfers to this life and something of the anticipation of what will be then. I tell you this, well done good and faithful servant, is not simply, you know, like a graduation where you get your three seconds or whatever it is there to shake the hand of the Chancellor, then you're off stage, next one's up, the next one's up. I dare say they say well done, but it's done in a moment like that. And I guess it doesn't sort of ring in your ears for the rest of your life. Maybe it does. I don't recall it quite myself. I'm having to nod and bow to Princess Anne on my graduation. I don't know whether she said anything. I think she smiled benignly. Perhaps that was it there. But it's not exactly that I sort of treasure that moment for the rest of my life. But when the Lord Jesus says, well done, good and faithful servant, coming from him, that will mean absolutely everything. You and I will travel into eternity, just sort of kind of weighed with those words there, staggering under the implications of who it was who said it, you know, the own perfect, holy Jesus Christ. That's somebody, and if he says, well done, that's, you're going to remember that. I can tell you that, you are going to remember that, and so will I. And some of the blessedness of that, and the hope of that, and the belief in that, comes spilling over, because God takes those things by His Spirit, He makes them a little bit real to us right here, right now, and even in the midst of when they're excluding you and hating you and saying all kinds of evil falsely against you for his name's sake. Now, that's not to say that we have to always remain silent. Oh, we can interact with people. Paul did. You read in the Book of Acts, he did a lot of interacting with people that wanted him dead. And he wasn't a shrinking violet there. he was really on the front foot when it came to speaking, and speaking a bit of truth to power on occasion. I know it doesn't mean we don't put up with it all, and neither does it mean that we don't proactively contact MPs, write to authorities, complain about the treatment that Christians are receiving in different parts of the world, but also in our own country, and that we can perhaps that way, prayerfully, see there some benefits to come. But Ultimately, that said, the fact still remains. Write all the letters we will, interact all we will. Paul did end up in prison, but found there was grace to meet with him in his prison cell. In the evenings, we're looking at one of his letters, the Apostle Paul to the church in Ephesus, written from a prison cell. My, there was plenty that God was communicating to him in his prison cell. There he is under pretty severe persecution, and yet there is the presence of God, there is help, truth that has been poured into his heart, and then he pours it out in his letters. What letters they are and how glad we are to have them today. So he was rejoicing because somewhere within this, it is a clear indication that you and I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, so many of us struggle with assurance. We struggle to think, are we really Christians? Are we really Christians? And perhaps it is that persecution coming upon us and our finding grace in that persecution. It's one of the greatest tonics to the soul, that it's true. The Lord does draw nearer to us, and he does bring comforts, and it builds our assurance. And when you have assurance, you're a little bit more rejoicing, and there's a little bit more happening in your heart, and well, you do sleep a little bit more. And maybe it's the fact that here it is, that we've been deprived. I'll put it that way, deprived. of persecution, and actually we've missed a means of grace to growing in our assurance and confirmation in the love of Christ. For these grievous trials, 1 Peter 1, show that our faith is genuine. Where, to God? Well, he knows. He knows who's a true believer and who's a false believer. He doesn't need that proving, but we do. And when we come through these kinds of difficulties and persecutions, we're able to see that we are real. We really are real. There is a genuine trust in the Lord that we find in ourselves, that when we search for evidences of belonging to him, well, we find them. And we may be amazed to find them because we thought, I think I'm a fake. And so often we do, we sort of feel we're imposters. We don't get near to the kinds of sufferings of people in other parts of the world, all that the apostles suffered, all the reformers and other great worthies of the past. We feel we're nobodies. We feel we're fakes and imposters. And so when persecution comes, we are a little more assured that we are genuine and that we do have a relationship with law. and that we are entitled properly to think of heaven as our home, and that there are deeper things happening within our souls to assure us of it and confirm us in it. As you like, in the absence of some of the more severe persecution, but you know, what's upcoming may tighten the screw a little bit upon us here in the West, but we're missing opportunities in a sense to be more assured. And so many of the troubles and travails of our souls and these things, luxury items, sometimes in times of peace where we're not under pressure, we're actually missing something in that and that we could be stronger in our faith if we ourselves had gone through trials. People in the past, think of the prophets, I know some of them there, some of our friends, these will all be new names to them, but Elijah, Caia, Amos, Jeremiah, John the Baptist, and the list goes on. And we look at them and we think we don't really belong here, you know. These are amazing men and amazing women there that are in the pages of scripture and we can't really take ourselves sometimes seriously. We think we're just too much compared with them. We're nothing in all of this. Or we play a bit of a mind game that if we do get into some grief with somebody, some Christian comes after us or in our place of work, we encounter difficulty, we start blaming ourselves for it. We think, well, perhaps I shouldn't have said anything. Perhaps I didn't say it particularly well there. Of course, you and I, if we think about it long enough, I'm sure we could have said things better. We always can. Sure, we could have done that a bit more wisely. Sure, we can. But I tell you this, that even if you and I did it with the wisdom of Solomon, they'd still hate you and me. And they'd still come after us for our Christian faith. They wouldn't improve in their attitude toward us. If we smiled, if we brought them a positive attitude, they would still find reasons. They didn't want to believe for why they don't actually much like us for bringing that message to them. And so we shouldn't play the blame game on ourselves. Or when you read of people and, well, sometimes some preachers in the open air, I figure are a little unwise in what they say, but not all of them are. And some of them are set up by people and some of them are accused of saying things they didn't actually say. And that is the name of the game out there. No trouble will always come. looking for you and me, even if we're on our best behavior, even if we're managing our tongue in a most beautiful, calm, tranquil, serene way, that still won't satisfy them. And we should be careful that we don't automatically assume of others or of ourselves that we're in trouble. It must've been our fault. We must've said it wrong or we're not very spiritual. So it just didn't come out right. No, it probably came out pretty well, actually. Okay, enough. And it is simply that people don't like the message. So there's a great reward, isn't there? That we're told there in Matthew 5 verses 11 and 12, that there's a great reward. And we feel that, well, we just don't seem to deserve that. We're not John the Baptist. Nobody's come and decapitated us there. Nobody's come and put us in prison. Great is our reward, it seems so. And it is so unearned, because all God's rewards are unearned. They are just gifts of very generous God. And whoever we are and whatever, slight persecutions and slight sufferings, which we have to say is pretty much where we are in the West at the moment, however small those things, nevertheless, if that is for his name's sake, then he promises a reward. And so we have to get our thinking straight, think this through. And if you want to bring some persecution, well, social media, I've mentioned it, just put your support out there for marriage between a man and a woman, your support for creation, your belief in male and female being a biologically determined thing, and saying that you don't really think Islam is so much a religion of peace, actually, and you'll find the fireworks, your name there will be well and truly gone over and you will find there's quite a bit of hate that will be coming back your way. And there is the fact of it. So we have to keep ourselves in the narrative and remind ourselves continually that actually we are part of all that was happening then in Bible times, that we do belong. We are part of that family. And we will, we will have to endure persecution. You know, I've already probably found that in some mild way. But we have heaven as our home. We keep that in view. That's home. This is a preparation for it. It can seem like everything, can't it? It can seem like it's all going to get right. We're going to get it right here on earth. It's all going to come good. Every part of it, how we have to be vindicated. Every injustice needs to be righted. All the apologies we should get, they should have come. they won't, and it's not going to be like that, and we're going to have to live with that. But then, well, heaven will soon put all of that one side. These will become, as Paul says, light and momentary troubles. These are troubles but for a moment, and there's an exceeding weight of glory that is there awaiting us beyond the grave. And we believe that. The world out there thinks we're mad. No, no, we believe the resurrection actually. We believe there is supernaturalism in the air and we believe that all there focused upon the Lord Jesus Christ and our mortal bodies are going to be clothed with immortality. And we are going to live on in a place of unimaginable excellence, beauty, wonder, work that will be so fulfilling, neighborliness with our other fellow creatures, that will be just perfect. And with the Lord Jesus Christ at the heart of it all. Keep that in view. Ah, and keep the next part in view too. And Luke brings this. He brings the shadow, doesn't he? He introduces the darker theme along with the blessedness. And we find that he pronounces woes. Luke 6, verses 24 to 26, woes. Not in Matthew, but they're here in Luke. Another occasion, something similar. Yeah, but something different as well. Because what's he telling us here? Well, he's telling us that there's a judgment, that there is a judgment. And that woe, just as there is a blessedness, there is a woe. So that people who are on the wrong side of history, and they will be, to use that overworked phrase, they who are rich. Don't think they needed God. Scorn the idea of believing. Thoughts that the world had everything there laid up for them. Relationships. We can have all that we want with that. We can satisfy ourselves there to our heart's content. Whoa. That's it. You had it. And if it didn't come good for you on earth, it won't. That's it. That was your only shot. That was your best shot. And you don't get another one. Because it's telling us there's a hell. That there is that place of darkness. Because there's justice. If there was no justice, there would be no hell. And people are quick to get rid of hell, but actually they're getting rid of justice. They're saying God isn't just. He's not going to punish. He is going to punish. He says it. And when we feel that's an injustice, God agrees a little bit more than us that that's an injustice. And when we feel there should be a punishment for this, He agrees even more. and with greater objectivity, because he knows what justice is, and he knows what fair is, and he knows the human heart and what it's doing, not only against its neighbor, but against him. He knows what an affront it is to his glory and dignity, to his laws, what he has set here in this moral universe that men and women disobey. And so they will have their reward, and there'll be hell. That the more their spite, the more their hatred, the more the woe. Just as the more the blessedness to experience these things and assimilate them and evaluate them correctly, well, the more the woe. And those in some countries there, they're doing pretty well on it. Certain religions seem to get to the top of the tree. Christians are there working in the worst of circumstances, getting short shrift and low pay. Well, those folks now, they better enjoy their moment. they're not going to enjoy hell. It's not going to be a place of fullness, it's a place of emptiness, not a place of richness, but of poverty. And there's no consolation there, no comfort, no joy, nothing to brighten the day, nothing to raise the hopes and expectations. And those who laugh now, Laughter, better sense of it, playfulness, plenty of things in this world that do make us laugh and smile. I think they're intended to do that. But laughing in a scornful sense, laughing at a sermon like this, laughing at the Bible, laughing at the cross, laughing at the resurrection. What a story. Well, that kind of laughter there. it's going to be mourning and weeping afterwards and the more you laughed about these things here the more you're going to mourn and weep when you see actually you're wrong you were on the wrong side of history and I tell you then you're on the wrong side of every future day that stretches out into eternity and we've got to remember that and well woe to you and all men speak well of you so go on Twitter, virtue signal, all your approval. Well, anybody can be a man. Anybody can be a woman. Just, just think yourself there. And anybody can get married to whoever they want and just write your own ticket with that and, uh, and so on and so on. Christ, no, you don't need him. Everybody goes to God. God's just sort of there. If he's there at all, it's all a pretty easy going thing. And we're all going there. Well, men will speak well of you for saying that. You'll get the approval of governors and rulers. Even these days you get, you know, the big companies are signed up with this stuff and they'll love you too. You'll perhaps get a good position, the head of HR in one of these companies. You'll be well-spoken of there, but you won't be in heaven's courts. You won't be well-spoken of there. You won't hear the well done, good and faithful servants. You'll hear depart from me, you cursed from the beginning of the world. Go join the devil and be an everlasting fire. That sounds serious to me. And it is serious. And we as Christians remember that. We remember that. The Lord in first Peter chapter two, remember he commended himself to the Lord, to God who judges righteously. He didn't just think, well, I just got to put up with all this injustice. It's an unfair world. There you are, just put up with it. suck it up as they say out there, you know, that God will judge it, and he's righteous. If he isn't righteous, then there is no punishment, there is no hell, and everything's gone. No, it's there, and the Bible assures us as such, and the resurrection proves as such, and not only is there eternal joy, there is actually eternal woe. And so those who The game goes well for them at the moment. They seem to have the winning hand. They get the approvals, they get the ticks, the followers, the whatever else they get out there. Well, they've got to enjoy their moment because it'll all be gone one day. And as Christians, we believe that too. We believe, yes, that will be justice. And all the insults and revilings and evil speakings against you and me falsely. for his namesake, do have their recompense. And actually, it's going to be pretty heavy. That woe is not a kind of, well, there you are, just say that a bit there. No, it's heavy. Hell is heavy. It's a very serious, serious thing. And none assured is more of its reality and its seriousness than the Lord Jesus himself. So rejoicing when we are persecuted, yes, we are family. We belong to him. The apostles, when they were beaten in Acts 5, they rejoiced because they were counted worthy to suffer for his name. They saw that, they understood it. And there's no reason to doubt, actually, that were we to be suddenly transported into a much more severe persecution situation, that we wouldn't know actually more of the lenience of the Lord and his consolations and his help and his smile upon our soul that that assurance that we so often lack perhaps come in huge doses then, that we will see it was possible, that yes, we can leap for joy. Yes, we can rejoice and rejoice. Ultimately, we're going home to be with God, to heaven. and there will be justice for those who did not believe and who scorned these things. So we finish there, as does this. The Beatitudes are fairly solemn things, aren't they? Rejoicing when we are persecuted seems remote, but perhaps there are discoveries that are out there for us to make as we go on in our earthly pilgrimage. Amen.