{"id":3644,"date":"2016-04-23T09:35:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-23T09:35:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3644"},"modified":"2016-04-23T09:35:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-23T09:35:40","slug":"why-are-we-persecuted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3644","title":{"rendered":"Why Are We Persecuted?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Why Are We Persecuted?<\/strong>
\nMatthew 5: 10-12<\/a>
\nPersecution means to push away.\u00a0 It includes everything from words of rejection to being tortured unto death.
\nMatthew 5: 3<\/a>
\nBy grace, the believer confesses the utter sin he is in the flesh.\u00a0 Those who think they possess some good or some strength or are deserving of God\u2019s favor consider themselves rich and in need of nothing, especially from God.\u00a0 These two spirits are totally opposite and contrary to the other.\u00a0 They shall never have any union.\u00a0 The unbelieving shall always persecute the righteous for Christ\u2019s sake.
\nMatthew 5: 4<\/a>
\nThe believer mourns his sin and finds all his comfort only in Christ Jesus the Lord.\u00a0 The unbeliever considers sin to be merely in his members and not what he is.\u00a0 The believer\u2019s testimony is an aggravation and therefore the unbeliever lashes out.
\nMatthew 5: 5<\/a>
\nThe believer has been made meek toward God.\u00a0 In the inner man, his desire is to no more speak so exceedingly proud, to force his hand, to attempt to have his own way by his own strength, to make excuses for his rebellion.\u00a0 He knows that all things are his in Christ Jesus.\u00a0 The tenor of his disposition is gentleness toward those who oppose themselves.\u00a0 The persecutor is consumed with nothing else but to have his way.\u00a0 To the persecutor meekness is merely an outward show he produces himself: when the preacher is around, when he is in the church house, when he is having a fit of guilt.\u00a0 But his overall tenor in the home, in the work place and in private is one of upbraiding, of persecuting, of speaking evil even though what he says of the believer is false. In his heart he would really like to prove the believer to be a liar.
\nMatthew 5: 6<\/a>
\nThe believer has been given a hunger and a thirst after the LORD our Righteousness and that which rightly honors Christ.\u00a0 Those who persecute have the insatiable appetite for sin, self, and all that is contrary to Christ and his righteousness\u2014the bottom line is \u201cnumber one\u201d.\u00a0 His hunger for this world\u2019s applause is the cause of the revilers upbraiding.
\nMatthew 5: 7<\/a>
\nThe believer has tasted the Lord\u2019s grace and rejoices to show mercy because he knows he depends upon God to keep him in mercy.\u00a0\u00a0 Those who persecute want mercy shown to them when it is convenient but when the truth crosses their way, they become harsh judges in order to have the way they crave.
\nMatthew 5: 8<\/a>
\nThe believer is pure in heart by the work of the Spirit.\u00a0 He sees God in Christ, in his word, in providence and expects to see Christ face to face.\u00a0 Therefore that which most honors Christ is his chief desire.\u00a0 Even in his most mundane decisions in life the pure heart desires to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.\u00a0 The persecutor has a heart which is confused and divisive, a heart full of guile and hypocrisy.\u00a0 He wants to appear righteous before men but his heart is set only on personal gain.\u00a0 Therefore, if self is benefited, the defiled will overturn the pure in heart to have his own way.
\nMatthew 5: 9<\/a>
\nThe believer has been made a peacemaker because God has given him faith to trust Christ to make peace.\u00a0 The persecutor may speak of peace but it is the generic peace made by men.\u00a0 It goes no further than the flesh.\u00a0 He seeks to obtain it by the sword and war and\/or when there is no war he thinks there is peace.\u00a0 Yet, in the unregenerate heart there is no peace, not with God, not with men, and especially not with those who proclaim Christ the Peacemaker.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Clay Curtis.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Why Are We Persecuted? Matthew 5: 10-12 Persecution means to push away.\u00a0 It includes everything from words of rejection to being tortured unto death. Matthew 5: 3 By grace, the believer confesses the utter sin he is in the flesh.\u00a0 Those who think they possess some good or some strength or are deserving of God\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,65,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3644","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-clay-curtis","category-gospel-offence","category-false-religion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3644"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3645,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3644\/revisions\/3645"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3644"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3644"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3644"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}