Do Not Take Vengeance

Amen. Well, if you take your Bibles out and turn to the book of Romans, we are in Romans chapter 12 this morning. Romans chapter 12 last time we looked at how Christians are to love all men By always blessing and doing good and Seeking to be at peace with everyone even though There will be times and there will be people with whom we will not be able to be at peace Either because they will not cease to do evil or because the truth is at stake and we cannot compromise the truth We cannot create an evil piece, a false piece, a piece that furthers sin. We must not do that

And so today as we move on in the book of Romans We look at one of the most important concepts for Christians to grasp, I think especially if we're going to be able to seek peace with all to bless those who are cursing us and That concept is Divine Retribution. We read about it in two different passages in the scripture reading. We said it in the call to worship that God is the God of vengeance Why does the scripture teach us that over and over again? What good thing can we learn from that? And how will that help us to live for God? To be able to resist those who do evil to us Well, it'll help us as we know for certain that God one day will make every wrong right he will restore every loss He will return what was taken He will establish justice in all the world. That's good news Let's pray as we turn to God's word father. We thank you that you are the God of vengeance the God of justice And though we see many acts of evil in this world many that are not right We know one day they will be right Lord help us to understand this word today. Help us not to abuse it Help us to understand it rightly We would humble ourselves before your word that we would walk by faith and not by sight That you would be glorified in our midst. We pray in Jesus name. Amen We're going to begin in verse 17 this morning, but we're really focused on 19 through 21. So here The word of God Repay no one evil for evil Have regard for good things in the sight of all men if it is possible as much as it depends upon you Live peaceably with all men Beloved do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath for it is written Vengeance is mine. I will repay says the Lord Therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him Feast thirsty give him a drink For in so doing you will heap Coles of fire on his head Do not be overcome by evil But overcome evil with good May the Lord establish this word in our hearts this morning well If we are going to understand and correctly apply this text if we are going to not take vengeance as I call it The name of my servant sermon do not take vengeance We're going to have to remember God's justice That's my first point this morning you and I must remember God's justice Look at verse 19 that first word beloved I like it when Paul says that because a lot of times when he says that he's about to give us a difficult word That's the way we do it, right? Beloved I love you. I want you to know that and now Here's something that's a little difficult Um Well, that's the context in which it comes because God loves us He gives us difficult words. He doesn't compromise the truth. He doesn't back down from things He doesn't water it down to us. He wants us to know what we need to know In order to glorify him and enjoy him forever And the difficult word here is do not avenge yourselves Now you say pastor that's an easy word. I totally agree with that. I don't like vengeance I don't want to do that. That's wow. There's anything I have down. It's that I don't take vengeance on people And I don't want anybody to take vengeance on me. Well, let me just uh let me just submit to you that I think if you look a little deeper you'll see that's not true I think we are very good at taking vengeance I think we take vengeance all the time Somebody says something to you and you don't like it and you just say something back to them And you know why you did it or somebody does something to us and you think well, I'm gonna treat him differently for that Or it affects the way that you have an attitude towards that person You and I do this all the time. I think no, we're not out there and I for an eye But then it's not very often that we lose an eye either is it an insult for an insult though and offense for an offense And ignoring for and ignoring oh, yeah You know, suddenly I think we can do that a lot. I I want to challenge you. I think we we do that We go out of our way not to greet somebody because of something they did to us We go out of our way not to help somebody because of Some perceived insult that they did to us And I think we even use scripture at times, right? We'll give the person a verse to make them feel bad or we'll talk to them in such a way that Oh, yes, we're just interested in their sanctification my favorite way is when we get together and we say you know I'm really concerned about so-and-so Let's pray for him and then we spend the next 15 minutes just ripping his reputation to shreds, right? Just saying all the evil things, but you know, it's it's for prayer now. It's you know, I just want to pray for this person No, I think this is something that we do and you know, we've seen this command over and over again now This same kind of command in the book of Romans. I just want to walk back through it in fact in this second half of the chapter 12 Which is the first chapter really where Paul is directly applying all the doctor and then he gave us in the first 11 chapters Look back at verse 14 Bless those who persecute you Bless and do not curse remember I said he repeats it because the gut reaction is the curse You know on the playground your buddy hits you you hit him back. That's that's reaction. That's what we do So he says bless no bless do not curse repay no one evil for evil Paul says in verse 17 have regard for good things in the sight of all men And then our verse beloved do not avenge yourselves and then verse 21 do not be overcome by evil But overcome evil with good Why would Paul say this over and over and over again to these Roman Christians? Well, it must be because this Roman church was really just a bunch of violent, you know borderline Animals, I mean They were so much worse than we are right now. I don't think so at all In fact, I think when you read the content of this letter this most weighty letter of the apostle Paul This must have been a very mature church This must have been a very significant church a sanctified church a good solid group of Christian people And yet over and over and over again don't take vengeance. Don't curse. Don't do evil to people He's saying this to Christians Over and over again, and I think it's precisely because We have a tendency to do this. This is our nature as Calvin said And so to not avenge ourselves Not out of fear while I don't want to do this to that person because he might do something worse to me And that's not the the spirit of this word or to not avenge ourselves because well If I do this to this person there's other people will see me and then they won't think of it Then I'm a good person. You know, we have some vested self-interest. No to not avenge ourselves It's simply because it's the right thing to do To not do evil when someone has done evil back to us I think that is a powerful witness to God because it shows the grace of God in the heart like few things do And it's not that we don't know that it's wrong by nature That's why we say this is an easy command every non-Christian knows it's wrong to take vengeance At the time of Paul Socrates had Written well not written I always say that Socrates had taught against personal vindictiveness Epictetus who lives right after Paul was well known as a Roman philosopher who taught against personal revenge and these were pagan philosophers We know this is true and of course we ask why well beloved do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath This one here is Part of the verse people wonder what does that mean give place to wrath? Well, is it give place to your wrath? You know, let it cool. I just you know, I got to take a few moments. I got to go cool off Is that what he means beloved? Do not avenge yourself give place to wrath give give your son tell some time to get over it Some people say that or give place to wrath give place to the other person's wrath Hey, yes, they're doing equal to you and just endure it give place to their wrath don't Don't return it back to them some say that or some say give place to wrath in the in the place of civil Magistrates give place to the wrath that will come when when the law comes down on them for what they did Well, Paul does talk about that in Romans 13 how the civil magistrate is A servant of God to punish evil doers. He does talk about that and all these things. There's a little bit of truth to it But no, that's really not the point is it give place to wrath Clearly is give place to God's wrath When do you see that? Well, other do not avenge yourself, but rather give place to wrath for we don't have to guess what he means For it is written vengeance is mine I will repay Says the Lord I think this Is the reason why Paul is giving the Romans this is this is the motivation he's giving to them the incentive He's giving to them. This is why you don't take vengeance because God will take vengeance The Bible says this is exactly the way in which Jesus Christ refrained from bringing Wrath in his life First Peter 2.23 says this Jesus when he was reviled and he was Did not revile in return when he suffered. He did not threaten. Listen But he committed himself to him who judges Righteously you see what it says about Christ doesn't say oh he endured all these things and he had no thought towards justice or making them right no He endured these things by committing himself to a judge who would judge righteously Jesus understood that and it was not his time. It was not his place. We know when he first came He came to bring salvation And he does not come to destroy but to save as he says And so our incentive our motivation our power to refrain from vengeance is the sure and certain conviction That God will make things right. I think we've lost that in the modern church today We don't want to talk about that But when we lose that we lose the incentive that we have not to take vengeance To be able to let it go because you know God We'll make it right what a powerful incentive that we have For it is written vengeance is mine. I will repay you know Taking vengeance ourselves here clearly does two evil things First of all it steals from God It's God's prerogative to do this. Do you see that vengeance is mine. It's God's right throw it typically when we take vengeance We are concerned with our rights. Well that person treated me wrongly and he should have treated me better And so I'm gonna just show him how wrong it was by doing the exact same thing back to him and it's for his good You know And that's the way we sort of justified in our heads, right But God says vengeance is mine We're taking from God. We're stealing from God. We're taking his rights when we do that God said he will make it right Therefore it not only steals from God, but it doubts his word We're basically saying I either don't think God can Or I don't think God will I don't think he will. I don't think God cares what happens to me I've had this horrible thing happen to me and God doesn't care And so I'm gonna take wrath myself. Well, that's what we're saying when we act Inventions And there are so many scriptural examples if we read Over and over again in our service that promises that God know God will God will take vengeance God will bring perfect Justice We have the statement in chapter 13 where Paul says that even the civil magistrates even human government is Has been willed by God for that very purpose that there would be justice in this world No, it's not going to be perfect because we're sinners But there is a way in which God has given even sinful man A way to try and write wrongs Several places in the New Testament first Thessalonians 4 says God will Take vengeance on adulterers and Paul is actually warning the Thessalonians against committing adultery because God will take vengeance On those who commit adultery. What a terrible thought that is In Luke chapter 18 we have the parable of the unjust judge. We all remember that right the parable of the unjust judge The woman keeps coming to him saying get justice get literally get vengeance same word get vengeance get justice Avenge me on my enemies and the judge what I don't have time for you And he just gets tired of this woman pestering him so eventually he says I you know I don't fear God or man, but I'm going to do with this woman once just show she lets me alone You know what the point of the story was the next verse Verse 7 this is this is what why Jesus told that story and shall not God avenge his own elect who cry out day and night to him Though he bears long with them I mean, that's the promise of that parable That God will avenge his elect just as this I'm just judge avenge this woman You see the thing that I think That where we we prefer in our own sinfulness when we take vengeance is Justice should matter to us We should be upset when we see evil in this in this world when we see evil things being done and they're not being corrected You know we don't have to watch the news long right to see murder and rape and kidnapping and just horrible monstrous things That are done and we should be incensed at those things And if something like that would happen to you Well, absolutely it should be something that should Cause you to cry out to God That he would write that wrong just as should matter to us And it's good and right for us to make use of those institutions That God has established the police the courts the civil magistrate remember these verses again They're not talking about that You and I it's good for us to use our rights remember Paul stands on his rights when they were going to beat him wrongly and so forth This remember these this whole passage is about our personal relationships So it's not saying don't ever go to court or don't ever you know press charges There are times that where we need to make sure that criminals are brought to justice This isn't talking about that. It's talking about you and I You know, I can't play the the the executioner and my personal relationships that would be wrong But even in all those things even in those things our hope ultimately isn't God our hope has got to be in God Because even in the best court systems the best nations Justice is not perfectly carried out And that's the point if you and I are going to rightly be able and truly from the heart to be able to not take vengeance We have to be able to trust in a God and know he will make this right someday I don't think there's another way in which we can keep this command except by knowing that Because I know some of you have gone through terrible things monstrous sins some of the sins that I mentioned maybe we're committed against you How can you let go how can you forgive how can you not take vengeance

By knowing there's a God who sought who saw every second of it Who hated it more than you hated it And he will absolutely certainly perfectly restore all that was taken from you I don't know how that can be but I know that he will Because he's a God of justice He is the God of vengeance. Listen to the book of Revelation chapter six Couple of passages and just talk about this as as the hope of God's people Verse nine when he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain For the word of God and for the testimony which they held and they cried out with a loud voice saying listen How long oh lord holy and true How long until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth these are sinless saints saying this Sinless Crying out for justice for vengeance Then a white robe was given to each of them and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer until both The number of their fellow servants and their brethren who would be killed as they were was completed There's a reason why injustice happens in this world because this is the time of God's mercy If God brought justice we would all be killed But by the fact that God has mercy means there's going to be injustice that's committed. It's not going to be dealt with for a time But the time is coming revelation says and then when God's justice falls How does the book of Revelation end chapter 18 verse 20 when God brings justice on that great evil city Babylon Rejoice over her oh heaven and you holy apostles and prophets for this is why they're rejoicing For God has avenged you on her they will rejoice you and I will do so as well Revelation chapter 19 after these things I heard a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven saying Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God listen For true and righteous are his judgments because he has judged the great Harlot who corrupted the earth with her Fornication and he has avenged on her the blood of his servants shed by her again. They said hallelujah Her smoke rises up forever and ever and the 24 elders in the four living creatures fell down and they worshipped God who sat on the throne saying Amen hallelujah beloved someday you and I will see perfect justice for every awful unthinkable unspeakable crime We will see it perfectly corrected And we will rejoice This is how we don't take vengeance today Secondly in order to not take personal vengeance. We must practice God's goodness We must practice God's goodness look at verse 20 Therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him something to drink you know Jesus practice this virtue in his life Remember when James and John while they were the disciples were going through Samaria and they We're going to go into this city and the Samaritans would not receive him it said and then James and John you know the sons of thunder Said to Jesus. Do you want us to call it on fire from heaven and wipe out these Samaritans? Remember what Jesus says back to them But he turned and rebuked them and he said you do not know what's manner of spirit you're up Here it is for the son of man did not come to destroy men's lives But to save them And he went to another village. You know all of Christ efforts throughout his life were focused on the gospel of salvation on the ministry of mercy On doing good to those who were doing evil to him on being a blessing to those who were cursing him. Yes He gave difficult words of review sometimes, but sometimes that's what the situation called for If he was going to do good if he was going to be a blessing Jesus Christ Practice this if your enemy is hungry feed him If he is thirsty give him something to drink God showed you and I mercy Not justice That means we should be able to show others mercy God will take care of justice It's our job to call men and women to repent to believe to desire to truly desire the good of them that they would participate in the salvation that you and I have received I think the error of James and John's day well the error of James and John made that day was that they wanted to bring justice to gods Well to gods enemies right the Samaritans like Jonah Jonah had decided who gods enemies were and it was the Ninevites and he didn't want to preach the gospel to them And yet God had a different idea God wanted to save those wicked sinners And when you and I remember that we are saved wicked sinners it might help us To do good to those who do evil to us It was not yet the time there is a time coming when God will rain judgment down But until that happens you and I are to give food and drink to our enemies We are to do good to them. That's what that means to do to meet real needs You know the Old Testament was full of this kind of command the Old Testament said if you see your neighbor If you see your enemies. I'm sorry. If you see your enemies oxen You know loose out in the field What do you do while you call your buddies and you sit down in your lawn chairs and say I can't wait to see something happen to my enemies oxen here No, that's not what you do you return it You stop what you're doing in your return even if they wouldn't return it to you even if they would do that to you don't Allow the evil of others To make you do evil Seek to do good seek to help people that's what pleases God. I think that's what what taking personal vengeance forgets We leave God out of the picture We forget about we're here to glorify God we are here to please God and all we think about is ourselves and our own Gloria and our own justice and so we act But we don't focus on God where where this section this whole section of scripture Begin in chapter 12 with what that you and I are to give these these spiritual sacrifices We're to be present our bodies a living sacrifice our reasonable service That's what we are to do and this is one of the ways we do it by not taking vengeance By not taking vengeance It glorifies God it pleases God by doing good when others do evil to us It glorifies God it pleases God and God promises us Reward listen to Luke chapter six, but love your enemies do good and lend hoping for nothing in return And your reward will be great And you will be sons of the most high for he is kind to the unthankful and to the evil This is how you and I are like God when we do good to those who are doing evil to us Thirdly, we need to allow for God's conviction. We need to allow for God's conviction look at verse 20 again Therefore if your enemy is hungry feed him if he is thirsty give him a drink for in so doing You will heap Coals of fire on his head That's a tough verse, isn't it? What does that mean Paul is simply quoting Proverbs chapter 25 verse 21 and 22 you see the same ethic of the Old Testament In the New Testament, right? They were called to love their enemies too Coals of fire typically was used with reference to judgment and God's wrath That's what reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah these Brimstone and fire from heaven reigned down upon them. That's what James and John wanted to call upon the heads of this American Coles of fire There's a lot of thought about what exactly this is. What does this refer to Heeping calls of fire on their head Well some say well, you know they would put calls of fire on the metal on the Anvil for the blacksmith and that would melt the metal and some say well see This would be sort of like a kind of self-tourment that the person will inflict upon themselves If you do this good to them then it'll be like this calls of fire that will just you know melt them I was like a bring a kind of suffering to them in that way or Some say that This is actually referring to a custom that Was present in ancient Egypt where if a person was really penitent about something He would actually put a pan of hot coals on his heads and walk around the streets saying how sorry He was for what he did some say that Paul was talking about that. I don't necessarily think that that's correct There are other things that it could be

Some say it refers to the future That at God's judgment If you do evil to someone that does I'm sorry if you do good to someone that does evil to you And they continue to do evil in the face of your good you're in their judgment's going to be increased There will be in a sense calls of fire heaped upon them in their torment in hell forever because too much is given much is required to sin against good is even worse than to sin Against evil and absolutely that's true and there's truth in some of these other thoughts, but I think what this refers to Is the conviction that the Holy Spirit brings right? It's a powerful witness of man's evil when we do good to them Because they look at that and they just don't understand it because they know full well what we what they would do back to us If we did to them what they did to us It's just it's against our fallen nature to do good and so it's such a powerful witness It's like heaping calls of fire the conscience the heart It's bringing a powerful source of conviction to them Yes, if they harden themselves against that it's going to be worse for them in the judgment But that's not your incentive. You know I'm doing it myself. Oh, I'm going to do this good thing for them So that when they die and go to hell it's going to be so much worse for them That is the totally foreign to the spirit of this passage, right? And and in the fact that God will judge more severely is God's business We are the truly desire they're good and to truly allow The good that we do to maybe be that thing that God does to convert them Wouldn't you rather than be converted that they would be sorry sincerely sorry for what they did to you Even if it was monstrous that the person would see it that they would be horrified by it that they would hate themselves for what they did That they would cry out to God For forgiveness wouldn't that be better them in a sense persecuting themselves rather than you persecuting them against their wills Them willfully acknowledging agreeing with you And crying out to you against the evil that are crying out to God against their own evils wouldn't that be better? It reminds me of a story Um, and I think I shared part of this with you When I was growing up in Salzburg We had this little store that we would go down to Right at the over by the reservoir area And would run down the hill down to Amy's candy store. We just called it Amy's and My dad would go to Amy's candy store when he was a kid and The way he told me you know she was an older woman then I don't know how old Amy was She was very old and you would go to this door and it was like this store front door But it was on this yellow brick. It was just a house and you'd open the door and the bell would ring and I mean This room was the candy store and then there was like a Some other area with the cooler and some pop that you could buy some pop that you couldn't find anywhere else And then there was a doorway and that was her house and you'd hear her a lot of times They would take her a long time she was really hunched over You know like a big bump on her back and she would come out You know just friendly as kind as old lady and I told you what I did that time with Amy And I knew that there were boys that would go in sometimes and shoplift and it was really easy to do because by the time she came out of the store You could be in and out and do whatever you wanted to But I went in one time with with this idea that I got because we went to Monticello to see Thomas Jefferson's You know home and one of the things you know Thomas Jefferson's on the nickel and You could buy these little nickel rings and it was a ring like I have on my finger But with a nickel on the Outside of the ring and what I thought and of course in my deviousness I got this like the Grinch I thought of this evil thought and I thought it up quick I turned my the ring around in my hand and it looked like I had a nickel sitting on my hand You couldn't see the ring you just saw this nickel and I thought wow that looks like that's I'm holding a nickel But I'm not I have a ring and so immediately I thought well if I put four other nickels on that in my hand It'll look like I'm holding five nickels And I can drop those nickels into somebody's hand and they'll think I just gave them 25 cents, but I've only given them 20 And so I thought immediately Why I'm gonna go do this and I went down to Amy's candy store She had the one sent candy shelf and the two sent candy shelf and the three sent, you know And I got 25 cents worth of candy and I held out my hand and I showed her what looked like five nickels And she put out her kindly old hand And I dropped four nickels into her hand of course she never counted it she put it in the cash register And I walked out of that store thrilled that I just stole five cents of candy From a godly old woman But you know a funny thing happened as I did that I started to think about it. I started to remember it Started to bother me Continued to bother me because I'd go back down there and she was so kind to us all the time and it was just her goodness That finally got to me and one time I ran into the store and I could hear her in the back And I knew it would be a while before she came out and I threw two dollars on the counter and I ran back out of the store And I had to do that because there were hot coals on my head Convicting me Beloved that's what you and I are called to do to people To do good to them That God would use that even if they're doing evil to you and you can do that as you trust God will take care of the evil trust in God's justice Practice God's goodness allow for God's conviction and fourthly and lastly we need to trust in God's Dominion We need to trust in God's dominion here verse 21 Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil With good There's a word in the Greek language it's Nickay But the way the Greek letters are the end looks like a V Looks like like Vickay And of course the Latin word here is the word Victus It's conqueror Do not be conquered by evil but conquer evil with good You know there's only one way that evil can conquer us That is not if it causes us to suffer not if it makes us lose our possessions Not if it hurts our reputation Not if it persecutes us not if it puts us in prison wrongly evil can't beat us in any of those ways In fact in all those things the Bible says we are more than conquerors through him who loved us The only way evil can conquer you is if it Causes you to do evil That's the only way evil can conquer you if the evil of someone else would cause you to do evil back to them Then and only then do you suffer Laws that's what evil seeks to do there there's there's two things going on either we are going to be making others more like us evil By our evil works or we are going to be giving others the opportunity to be more like us good by our good works That God would use that as a conviction in their hearts Words and actions of vengeance have one tendency they seek to turn others evil And that's the very thing you and I are to resist Calvin says when we do evil against evil we carry on war for the devil We've just enlisted in the devil's army We don't realize it We think we've got a really good reason to do that while that person did that to me And I'm gonna do it back to him and he'll probably good learn a good lesson And that's so it's all good and it's okay and no We've given into evil at that point we're doing evil. We're a soldier Satan at that point We lose When we give into doubting God and we do Evil back to evil doers that's when we lose The effect of evil at words and actions is only to make others evil whereas the effect of good words and actions by the grace of God Would make others good And that's what God would use as God pleases we either seek to improve the evil person or we are becoming like him Don't be conquered by someone else's evil Don't be overcome by evil overcome evil the only way evil can be overcome By doing good you know I asked the question earlier in the sermon that Jesus asked and that parable the unjust judge in Luke chapter 18 verse seven six when or verse seven when he says and shall not God avenge his elect to cry out to him day and night though he bear along with them You know what a Christ answer is and verse eight he does answer the question I tell you the truth that he will avenge them speedily But then Jesus says this listen, but nevertheless When the son of man comes Will he really find faith on the earth? Do you hear what the context is there when someone's doing evil to you? Will you trust God enough to not take vengeance and allow him to do so will he really find faith That kind of thing when he comes let's pray father. We thank you That you tell us not to take vengeance. That's how we can be like you and we thank you that we can do so knowing That you will make every wrong right you will do it perfectly And Lord the truth of the matter is if you convert someone who has done monstrous evil to us It's not like that evil has gone unknown or unpaid for It would be the blood of Christ then that would have Born the wrath for that evil it will be judged fully and perfectly in Christ So there's no way for our Suffering to go unnoticed unpaid for you will restore every loss You will bring justice inventions Lord help us to believe that and in the meantime help us to do good To trust in you to do good to really and truly desire good even the good of our enemies that we would see your goodness Give birth to goodness in them help us to be servants of that cause And not soldiers in the devil's army And we pray this in Jesus name