Overcoming Evil with Good (Part 1)

I want to have you turn to the part of the Bible that we call Romans chapter 12. Romans 12, we're gonna continue in our study of this section of Romans. we'll be looking at verse 17 and 18, this morning. Paul, in the 1st 11 chapters of this book has laid out for us the glory, the beauty, and the grace and the forgiveness and the love and the freedom and the power that comes to those who see their bankruptcy, and acknowledge their sin, and who look to Jesus and say, he is the savior, for me.

And he's unfolded all of that in chapters 1 through 11 and then beginning in chapter 12, which is the chapter that we're in, Paul begins to tell us what to do with all of that and how to live our lives and to to flesh out the freedoms and the glories and the forgiveness and the love that we find in the gospel. Is it just me or is there an echo? It's just me, OK, I'm going to hear this sermon twice then. And we've been looking at beautiful ideals that Paul is is laying out for us in Romans 12, and he continues to do that in verse 17 through 21, which is the section that we come to today.

And if you want to give a title to the message in this section of Romans 12 verses 17 through 21, it would be Overcoming evil with good. Overcoming evil with good, and, that's what we'll talk about today, and we'll call this part one of our study of how to overcome evil with good. You see on the screen here a picture of a missionary family. This is Graham Stein and his wife Gladys, and their three children.

They were missionaries from Australia to India. And Graham, I believe he met his wife in India, serving the lepers there. but, Graham spent 34 years of his life, ministering to the lepers and bringing healing to them. He was the director of a leprosy center.

designed to minister healing to those that were suffering from the ravages of this disease. And at the same time, he ministered to their souls and told them how from the Bible to understand their sin problem and their, their need for a Savior and how Jesus was that savior for them. And he was a joyful man and through the truth that he presented and the joy that he exuded in his person. There were many who came to faith in Jesus Christ as a result of his ministry.

But a great sacrifice, he and his family poured themselves into ministering to the outcast and the broken people of India. January 20th of 1999. Graham and his two sons, Philip and Timothy. Philip was 10 years old at the time and, and Timothy was 6.

They were traveling back from a day full of ministry. And they stopped somewhere and spent the night in their station wagon. They just curled up in the back and the three of them and fell asleep. While they were sleeping, a mob of 50 Hindu radicals surrounded their vehicle with axes and torches and other instruments, and ultimately they set that station wagon on fire.

And as Graham and his sons tried to escape, this mob would not allow them to escape from the vehicle, and literally they burned them alive inside their station wagon. The next morning showed the charred remains of Graham and Philip and Timothy, their charred bodies clinging to one another and what was the remnant of the car that was once theirs. The news of that tragedy back in 1999 shocked India. It made headlines throughout the nation of India and around the world.

But what really shocked the people of India was the response of Gladys, Graham's wife and the mother of Philip and Timothy. How would you have responded if this had happened to your husband? And to your boys, what would you think of those men who had done this great evil against the precious members of your family? What would you have thought about your ministry in India?

Where would you want to go? Would you want to get out of India or would you want to stay? What would your attitude be? What's amazing is in virtually every newspaper in India in the days following this tragedy, there were these words from Gladys Steyn.

She said this and the people of India could read this. I have only one message for the people of India. I am not bitter, neither am I angry. But I have one great desire.

that each citizen of this country should establish a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, who gave his life for their sins. Let us burn hatred and spread the flame of Christ's love. There were many who wondered if she would leave India and return to Australia, but she decided to stay and people read in their newspapers across India, India these words. She says, my husband and our children have sacrificed their lives for this nation.

India is my home. I hope to be here and continue to serve the needy. And indeed, she, she did that. Her daughter Esther was 13 years old at the time.

And this was her response. I praise the Lord that He found my Father worthy. To die for him. If you're here today, and you're a teenager, just imagine something awful like that happening to one of your parents and your siblings.

How would you respond? To that, Esther said, I, I praise the Lord that he found my father worthy to die for him. Well, Esther and Gladys stayed in India and served the needy lepers of, of India. And they did so until 2004 when they returned to Australia.

In 2005, Gladys received the fourth highest civilian honor. That the Indian government bestows upon its citizens, recognizing her for her service on behalf of the people of India. guys, we live in a world of brokenness. We live in a world where there are great evils that are being committed.

We ourselves have committed many of those evils, and we have hurt and wounded other people. I know that I have. As a result of the sins that I have committed throughout my life. And there are people around us who sin and do acts of evil, and we are on the receiving end of those evils, and we are hurt and wounded and left scarred, as a result of those evils that are done against us.

How do you respond to the wrongs that are done against you? Maybe there's someone in your life who is disrespecting you. Maybe there's someone who has let you down and disappointed you in some way that has been very hurtful. Maybe there's someone who ought to love you but is failing to love you as they should.

Maybe there's someone who has lashed out at you in a moment of anger and malice and said things and done things extremely hurtful to you. Maybe there's someone doing something as simple right now as giving you the silent treatment. Maybe the person sitting next to you isn't even talking to you right now. Maybe it's your spouse, maybe someone has stolen something from you.

Perhaps your reputation in the eyes of some, or they've actually stolen something that was rightfully yours, or someone maybe has lied to you or lied about you to others. Maybe there's someone who has snubbed you, someone who has betrayed your trust. They did not keep their promise. Maybe in your marriage.

Your spouse has not kept their vows that they made to you on your wedding day, and they have committed adultery or engaged in sexual sin that has cut you to the core. There are some in our church that have been physically abused in their past, have been sexually abused, emotionally abused. Terrible evils have been done against many in our own congregation. We live in a world of brokenness and evil, and there are enormous hurts and scars that we carry with us as a result of that.

And the burning question. is how do we respond to these evils that are done against us? I would submit to you guys that how you respond to wrongs that are done against you is one of the most important issues in your life. If you cannot figure out in this broken world full of sin, and evil around you, how to deal with and respond to wrongs that are done against you, you will never find peace.

You will never have a good marriage. You will never have a good relationship with your children, or with your parents or with others, unless you learn the art of overcoming evil with good. I would also suggest that how you respond to wrongs that are done against you in your life is one of the clearest yardsticks by which you may measure your spiritual maturity. You want to know where you're at in your spiritual journey, how spiritually mature you are.

Ask yourself, how am I? How am I responding to and handling the wrongs that are done against me? Paul's burden in Romans 12:17 to 21 is to help us to handle these wrongs and to respond to them rightly and to actually overcome these wrongs with good. Let me read this passage to you beginning in verse 17 of Romans 12.

Paul says, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God.

For it is written, vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord. But if your enemy is hungry, You feed him. And if he is thirsty, you give him a drink, for in so doing, you will heap burning coals upon his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

This is God's word to us. You'll notice in looking at verse 17 and verse 21, something similar in verse 17, you see the word for evil twice. Never pay back evil for evil. And then at the end of this section, in verse 21, we see the word evil twice again.

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. Paul's burden, essentially is, in this passage, what he's trying to do, he expresses it in verse 21. I'm trying to show you how to not be overcome by evil that is done against you, but to actually overcome those wrongs, to overcome that evil with good. I want you to be an overcomer.

And this council that I offer to you in this text is designed to help you to be a true overcomer over the evils that are done against you. There's going to be 6 or 7 pieces of counsel or ways that Paul is going to teach us in this passage to respond to evils that are done against us. And all we're going to have time to do in verse 17 and 18 is look at 3 of these ways, 3 ways to overcome. evil that is done against you.

3 ways to overcome evil with, with good. The first of these ways is stated in verse 17, and that is, do not retaliate against people with evil for evil. If you're going to be an overcomer of evil in your life from day to day, then you just got to establish this up front. And that is that you will not retaliate against people.

You will not be a vengeful person, and repay people evil for evil. There are basically two evils that are being spoken about. In verse 17, there is the evil that someone does against you, right? And then there's the evil that rises up within you that you are longing to visit upon that person in return for what they have done against you.

You ever experienced that? OK. so there's two evils, the evil someone has done against you, and then the evil that you are feeling in your heart, and you're wanting to deliver back to that person, some comparable evil to repay them. It's almost like in such moments, this is the language, it's commercial language here paying back.

It's almost like when someone does something wrong against us, we feel this urge, almost as if we owe it to them. to give them evil in return. This is natural to the human fallen condition that when someone wrongs us, we want to wrong them in return. But Paul says, notice the all inclusive, all encompassing language here.

Never, never pay back evil for evil to anyone. Els large and small. It could be someone doing a terrible evil against you, that hurts you to the core of your being. Paul would say, don't retaliate with evil for evil.

It could be something as simple as your spouse. disrespecting you and the way they're talking to you right now. And you're like, well, they're disrespecting me, so I'm gonna disrespect them and the way I talk to them. So Paul would say, it doesn't matter what the evil is, how large or small it is, do not ever pay back evil for evil to anyone.

Now this council admittedly. It is radical. It is counterintuitive. It is desperately countercultural.

There's not a lot of people around. outside of Christ, who will be passionately giving you this counsel to not repay evil for evil. In fact, there are plenty of people who would love to counsel you to repay evil for evil, to take revenge, and to get even. Donald Trump, I think last year, spoke in chapel at Liberty University.

Being the great theologian that he is, he was the chapel speaker for, for that particular day, and he counseled the students to get even. He said, I always say don't let people take advantage. Don't let people take advantage. Get even.

And, if nothing else, others will see that, and they're going to say, I'm going to let Jim Smith and Sarah Malone. I'm going to let them alone. Because they're tough customers. That's his counsel.

Get even. To the student body at Liberty University. Believe it or not, there were actually Christians, Christian writers who, in their blogs sought to defend Donald Trump's counsel. As being OK, and it's within the framework of the teaching of the Bible for someone to actually, be able to say what he said, and they equated what he's saying with being tough.

And they said, well, Jesus is tough. And so we're supposed to be tough. equating toughness with taking revenge and getting even with people. I think what he's counseling here is actually indefensible.

and we have no business defending this. Jesus was tough. All right. but guys, let me just say, taking revenge is not tough.

That's easy. Anyone can do that. A 3 year old does that without any training. No one has to teach him how to do that.

A 3 year old naturally gets even and takes revenge and retaliates with evil for evil. It takes no toughness to do that. That's the easy way. True toughness is what Jesus actually did.

In 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 21, it says that he left us an example for us to follow and in verse 23 of First Peter 2, it says, while being reviled, he did not revile in return. And while suffering, he uttered no threats. In fact, what did he do at the cross, but pray a prayer, saying, Father, forgive them. They don't know what they're doing.

So he did not retaliate with evil for evil. Instead, he spoke a blessing. He prayed for forgiveness upon those who were wronging them. And Peter points to Christ's example and says, that's the example that you are to follow.

Later in 1 Peter 3:9, he tells us that we are not to be returning evil for evil or insult for insult, but giving a blessing instead, because that's what Jesus did. That's true toughness. So there may not be a lot of people around you, in our world who would give you this counsel. And your own heart will probably not ever give you this counsel, your heart will always say retaliate with evil for evil.

But you need to not listen to your heart and not listen to the Donald Trump's of this world and listen instead to the voice of God and observe the example of Jesus and make a decision that large or small evils notwithstanding, I will not retaliate with evil for evil. In fact, if I can just say it this way, guys, if, if someone does evil against you, you're morally outraged by that, right? You're hurt by it, you're outraged by it. How dare they do what they have done?

What they have done is terrible. And so what do we do in response? We turn around often and do exactly the thing that we're morally outraged by. Does that make sense?

And we have become just like them. When, when, when someone does evil against you, and you then respond in kind by returning that evil upon them, you do evil against them in return for what they have done against you. You have just given your enemy the ultimate victory. You have become just like them.

Congratulations. There have actually been counseling situations that I've dealt with over the years where you've got two people in conflict and they both view themselves as so different from each other. I am not like that person, and they view this person as down here and they're up here and they're morally outraged by the way this other person is behaving and that's why there's conflict and they go back and forth and it's almost impossible to resolve the dispute. But there have been times where I'm listening to one of them.

And I've said to them, who you remind me of? You remind me of this person. You remind me of this person you're having a conflict with. You're talking just like them.

You are just like them. Which is not what they want to hear at such a moment, but that's what is happening when we allow ourselves to retaliate with evil for evil. There's also another thing that happens when someone does evil against me and then I feel evil rising up within me and then I retaliate evil for evil. I'm allowing that person to become my master.

I'm allowing them to control me, to control who I am and how I behave. I say Jesus is my Lord and my Master, but Jesus says, don't do that. But now I'm not submitting to Jesus. I'm allowing what that other person has done to control me.

I've just in that moment made that person. My master, I'm being controlled by them, and the evil that they have done rather than being controlled by Jesus. Christ is our example. He has moved towards us in love.

That's the songs that we have have sung the theme that we have been celebrating this morning in our worship songs, we were his enemies. And we did many evils against God. In fact, it's our sins that killed him at the cross. And yet Christ moved towards us in love and forgiveness, and he did not retaliate against us with evil for evil.

Instead, he died for us, and He has shown us His grace and His goodness and his mercy, and as recipients of this grace and of this amazing good. We did evil against God and God returned upon our own heads good. And the riches of His grace. Paul would say, now turn around and be that towards others.

Do not retaliate with evil for evil. That's the first way that he identifies to overcome evil with good. A second way to, in your journey towards overcoming evil with good is, let's say it this way, premeditate the doing of right in the sight of all men. Premeditate the doing of right in the sight of all men.

In the New American Standard translation of the Bible, it says respect what is right in the sight of all men. That word respect, the Greek word underneath that is a word that literally means to think beforehand, to prethink, or a word that we use today is premeditate. So Paul is telling us that in the face of wrongs that are done against you, You first of all, choose not to respond with evil for evil. But then he also says, here's what you need to do.

You need to prethink what is right. Now it's interesting that he tells us to prethink or premeditate what is right. It's interesting he points to our minds and he says, I'm going to tell you right now what to do with your brains in the face of wrongs that are done against you. Here's what to do with your mind prethink what is right.

He could have said, don't retaliate with evil for evil, but instead do what is right. He could have said that that would have not been unusual to us at all. But instead, he says, don't do evil in response to evil, but instead, prethink. Think beforehand, premeditate.

Do the right thing. I love the fact that he goes after our minds and our hearts here because what guys, when we are being wronged by other people in any ways that we're wrong, the battle is first fought and first won or lost in our minds, right? in fact, before a word comes out of our mouth in response, or comes out of us in terms of our deeds, the battle has already been either won or lost in the mind. So Paul goes to the mind and says, I want you to be pre-thinking and premeditating the doing of right in the sight of all men in the face of wrongs that are done against you.

One of the things that I've noticed is that there have been times in my life where I've been wronged by someone, and I'm just steaming and I'm fuming over that wrong, and I, I'm, I'm stewing over the wrong and I'm replaying the wrong over and over again in my mind. It may be weeks earlier, or even years earlier, but now someone has done something again that reminds me of that. And I'm, I'm thinking, About the wrong that has been done against me. And so the battle is being lost in my mind.

And then there are times where I, in my mind, am imagining myself responding to that person, and it ain't pretty. It's not a good response. There have been times in the face of wrongs that have been done against me where I found myself in the shower or in the car by myself. pre-thinking a devastating speech that I want to deliver to that person.

Has that ever happened to you? it's happened to Michelle, so, But I, I think most of us do that. And I imagine myself just delivering this speech to this person who's wronged me, and they're listening and they're dumbfounded by the wisdom of what I'm saying. And, and they're just getting lower and lower.

And by the time I'm done, they've collapsed to the ground and they're like, Milton, you are so right. And I am so wrong. And I'm crushed by the awareness of my wrong that you've just enlightened me to. I've imagined that in my mind.

Fortunately, this has not happened for years, and I would only give credit to God's grace, but there have been times in my life where someone has wronged me. And I've imagined myself hurting them, physically hurting them. And my thought is I would never act out on this. But there's some satisfaction that comes and just entertaining the thought of, of that.

And, sometimes we go to places like that, we imagine ourselves just really reaming someone out or we imagine ourselves hurting someone in that way, and our thought is, I would never act out on that. But what, guys, be very, very careful. Be careful with that because what inevitably may happen is that some critical crisis moment shows up in your relationship with that person. And before it, those very words come out of your mouth.

Those deeds come out in your actions, and you're left a few minutes later stunned and devastated by what you've just said and what you have just done. You're stunned, devastated, and surprised when Paul would say, I don't know why you're surprised. You've been premeditating that for weeks now. So don't even go there in your mind, even if you never act out on those thoughts.

If you, when someone does evil against you, and you're going to those places in a vengeful way in your mind, even if it's in your mind alone, what you've done is you've just given that other person the ultimate victory over your mind. You still lose, you've made them the master of your thoughts. Even if you never carry those things out. Paul says, in the face of wrong, don't premeditate, don't be pondering, and, and thinking about the doing or the saying of wrong in response to wrongs that are done against you.

He says, premeditate, prethink what is right in the sight of all men. This word that is translated right is a word that speaks of Morally beautiful, something that is morally beautiful. If you take the idea of virtue and rightness, and combine that with the idea of beauty, that's what this word means. In fact, the adjective form of this word is actually used in Luke 21:5 where the disciples are referring to the beautiful stones of the temple.

And this word is translated beautiful. In Luke 21:5, and so Paul is saying prethink, ponder, meditate on that which is morally good and morally beautiful. Francis Schaeffer, the Christian philosopher, said the church must not only be right. but beautiful.

And this word, this Greek word captures both the idea of rightness, of moral good, with the idea of beauty. Paul says this is what you need to think about. It's like, we're familiar with the idea of premeditated murder. In a case like that, someone has not just killed another person, but the evidence shows that there was forethought that went into that crime, and they went and they purchased a weapon.

They stockpiled weapons, and you look at their Google history. And they've researched things that make it very clear that they've been thinking about this for a while and ultimately it gets executed in their actions. What that is to the crime of murder, Paul is saying when someone does evil against you, you need to be that deliberate. that meditative, in terms of preparing yourself to respond in a right way.

When someone does wrong against you, imagine yourself, do this, guys, I imagine yourself doing right in response to them. Let your imagination get wrapped around that visual of you saying the right thing to them, responding to their wrong with a blessing that you may speak to them, or imagine yourself doing something actively in your actions that is good and beneficial for that person. Think about that. Make preparations for that.

Premeditate the doing of right. Now look at what else he says in verse 17. There's a phrase at the end of this verse that's worth pondering. He says, respect or premeditate what is right in the sight of all men.

This is really interesting. Paul could have said, premeditate what is right. Don't retaliate with evil for evil, but instead premeditate, prethink on what is right, period. And we would have thought, OK, I get that.

He could have said, do not retaliate with evil for evil, but instead premeditate on what is right in the sight of God. And we would have thought, I get that. I understand that. But instead, he says, premeditate what is right in the sight of all men.

So there's a horizontal dimension here. Paul is challenging us in the face of wrongs that are done against us. It could be a wrong done against us by a fellow Christian. it could be a wrong done against us by total nonbelievers who don't know the Lord, and they're sinning against you, maybe even persecuting you for being a Christian.

In one form or another, and they're doing evil, they're doing wrongs against you. And Paul says in such moments, you need to premeditate. The doing of that which is morally good and beautiful, not just in the sight of God, but ponder what is right, even in the sight of the person who is wronging you. John Piper was preaching on this passage, and I was listening to it a couple of weeks ago.

And he said to his congregation, does that bother you? Do what's right in the sight of all men, that he would add that at the end, and he says, that bothers me. But he took his congregation to 2 Corinthians 8:21, where Paul brings both ideas together. And Paul literally, he uses the same language, he says, for we premeditate what is morally good and beautiful, not only in the sight of the Lord, but also in the sight of men.

Paul says, I think about this, I ponder this, when, when somebody does something that is wrong against me, when someone has a belief system that's very different than than believing in Christ and the Christian way, I, I'm asking myself, is there any arena of common ground of what we in our constellation of virtues as Christians believe is morally good and beautiful, that they also believe is morally good and beautiful. Is there anything that we both recognize to be morally beautiful?

And if so, that's what I want to do. One writer says about this phrase in verse 17, he says, this reminds us that the norms of behavior governing Christian conduct are norms that even nonbelievers recognize as worthy.

of approval. Another writer says, although it is imperative that believers take pains to do what is right in God's sight, it also is important that we do as long as it does not violate Christian ethics, what is well thought of by the world. Does that rest easy with, with you? think about some passages in Matthew 5, Jesus says, let your light shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven, assuming that they see your good works and recognize them to be good.

In 1 Peter 2:12, Peter says to Christians, keep your behavior, morally excellent among the Gentiles, amongst those who are not Christians, so that in the thing in which they right now are slandering you as evildoers, they may, on account of your good deeds, as they observe them, glorify God in the day of visitation. Do those things that even they as a nonbeliever will recognize is morally good and beautiful. So that when the day comes that the Spirit of God visits them in mercy, And begins to draw them to himself, that you will actually, their thought of you will actually make their path to faith easier, rather than the Spirit is working in their hearts to draw them to himself and then this person who's being drawn to the Lord then thinks of you.

And your behavior, and you actually are an argument against them believing in Jesus, because maybe you've been unethical or have wronged them or have been foolish.

In some way In 2 Corinthians 4:2, Paul, speaking of himself and his colleagues, he says, we are committing ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. That's a fascinating statement. Paul, Paul is saying, when I, when I'm getting to know someone, they may be a Christian, they may not be a Christian. when I'm interacting with people, I'm interested in their conscience.

Their conscience may be imperfect, it may be deeply flawed. but I want to know what their conscience is. I want to know what they think is right and wrong. And I'm asking myself, where is their overlap between what we as Christians deem to be morally beautiful and what they deem to be morally beautiful, and whatever that common ground is, that's what I want to do.

To commend myself to their conscience. In 2 Timothy 3:7, Paul gives a qualification for elder and says an elder must have a good reputation with those outside. Paul's actually telling Timothy, if you're thinking about bringing an elder on to help lead the church, go talk to his neighbors. You say, well, his neighbors are not even Christians, they're atheists.

Paul would say, I don't care. I, I want to know what they say. About him? Do they speak well of him?

They may say, I hate his faith. I hate his religion. I hate what he says about Jesus. But will they say, but I can, I can say that he's an honest man.

He's a good neighbor. He serves me in any way that he can. Statements like this in 2 Timothy 3:7 and the others we've looked at recognizes that in the Christian constellation of virtues, That there is often overlap between those virtues and even things that are deemed to be virtuous in the eyes of the world amongst people who don't even know Jesus. There are things that we recognize to be morally good and beautiful.

This diagram may may help a little bit. The black circle represents those that That are in darkness, those that do not know the Lord, they, they have not believed in Jesus. The yellow circle represents those of us that have believed in Jesus, and, and it represents just that whole constellation of virtues and values that are held by those who don't know Christ, and that are held by those who Do know Christ. And in a lot of ways, so much of what is believed and esteemed is diametrically opposed.

But the teaching of the New Testament would sustain what I'm about to say here, there is an overlap. There are things that both Christians and non-Christians, for example, deem to be morally good and beautiful. Paul in 1 Timothy 5:9 speaks of the fact that even nonbelievers provide for their own. They have this innate sense that I have a wife and children, and I need to provide for them.

in Matthew 7:11, Jesus says that even nonbelievers, they, they know how to give good gifts to their children. You can watch people who don't know Jesus at all. And there's a lot of virtue that you see emanating from them as they're relating to their children and loving their children and sacrificing for their children. and you can admire the beauty of that, even though they may not be a Christian.

Where did that good come from? It actually came from God. And the grace of God, you see these virtues that are in them. And this is partly a result of the fact that according to passages like Genesis 9:6 that all human beings are created in the image of God.

Every human being, whether they are a Christian or non-Christian, is an image bearer of God, and every human being displays something of the image of God, though in a marred and diminished way as a result of sin. We know from Romans too that every person has something of the law of God written in their heart, and they may not live up to those ideals, but instinctively, they often will recognize things to be morally good and virtuous that we also happen to recognize as Christians to be morally good and virtuous.

Most nonbelievers who are not Christians believe it's wrong to steal, or at least it's wrong to steal from them. They believe it's wrong to lie, or at least it's wrong to lie and be untruthful to them.

It's wrong to murder. They many hold to these ideals. And so yes, we're very different from one another, in some ways, but there is an overlap. And when Paul says premeditate, what is right in the sight of all men, he's calling us to ponder this overlap.

What is it that we as Christians believe is morally beautiful and good? And the person in our life, even the person who's wronging us, What do they believe is morally beautiful and good? Wherever that overlap exists, premeditate that and do that. And keep your behavior morally excellent towards those in your life that are wronging you, toward those in your life that may not even know the Lord in a saving way.

Does that make sense? let's go to the 3rd and final way that we'll look at this morning to be an overcomer of evil with good. And that is do all that you can to be at peace with everyone. Do all that you can to be at peace with everyone.

Paul says, if possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all men. When you are experiencing wrongs that are done against you, you need to be committed to peace. And your thought needs to be, I want to do everything that I can to be at peace with all men, including those that are wronging me. Literally, this reads, If able, or if you have the power in terms of what actually comes out of you.

Be at peace with all men. Grammatically speaking, this is the command, be at peace with all men. That's a command. And we need to feel the weight of that.

There's some Christians that they don't like to be at peace with all men. They, they love conflict. They love the smells and the sounds of battle and warfare. They love passages where Jesus said, I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword, and they just salivate over passages like that.

They relish when there is a lack of peace. But whatever your thinking is and you're leaning is, somewhere you need to insert this value. That Lord, with the grace that you give me, I want to be at peace with all men. I'm going to make that a goal, not my only goal, but I want to make this my goal.

And I want to do what I can do to serve that end. And to help you with that, Paul says this, he says, be at peace with all men, so far as it depends on you. He's saying you can't control the other person's actions. They may never want to be at peace with you.

You may never have peace with them. But may it not be because of you that there is a lack of peace. He says, as far as it depends on you, in terms of anything that actually can come out of you, you be at peace with all men. What he's challenging you to do is not to just do a thing or two.

to try to make peace, but to actually exhaust what is in you in pursuit of peace. This is helpful for us because often when there is a lack of peace in our marriage, or in a relationship with a brother or sister in the church or someone in the workplace, We often will do one or two things in the way of an effort at peace just so the record can show, look at what I've done. I tried. I remember years ago a lady.

pled with her husband to come for counseling for their marriage. And Made a beautiful appeal to him, and the husband ultimately said, OK, I'll come to the church for counseling. And when I announced that to the wife, I said, Hey, good news, your husband heard your appeal, and he's coming for counseling. There was silence on the other end of the line.

And this woman, I will forever give her credit for her honesty. I said to her, What's the matter? And she said, Honestly, Pastor Milton, I was hoping that he would say no. But I wanted the record to show that I tried.

I, I'm so amazed by her honesty because what, we all have that in us, don't we? We, we do enough so that the record will show that we made an effort, but we're not willing to do everything that is at our disposal to pursue peace. you think of Jesus. Was there peace between him and the rebel human race 2000 years ago?

No, there wasn't peace. He comes into this world. He lives amongst us. He lives a perfect life, and he did thousands upon thousands upon thousands of humble deeds of service to mankind.

He healed the sick and he raised the dead, and he gave sight to the blind and hearing to the deaf and speech to the dumb, and he cleansed the lepers, and he did so many good deeds. That the apostle John said, were you to try to write everything that he did, the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. To chronicle his deeds. And guys, if anyone had the right at the end of his life, to say, Father, I have done enough in pursuit of peace.

The world itself cannot contain the record of all that I have done. If anyone had a right to say I've done enough, it was Jesus. And yet kneeling in the Garden of Gethsemane, sweating drops of blood. He heard his father say, After all of that, Jesus, I need one more thing.

I need you to get crucified. I need you to die. And Jesus After all that he had done, Instead of saying I've done enough. No one can fault me for not having done enough.

Jesus said to his father, not my will, but yours be done, Father. I will die. When you read a passage like this in verse 17, as much as lies within you, live at peace with all men, don't groan under the weight of that, like, oh, man, this is another responsibility. Please don't groan.

In fact, take some time to praise God that you are a Christian, and you are at peace with God precisely because someone already lived this out towards you. Jesus already has lived this out towards you, and he died on the cross and received upon his own person, the judgment that you deserve for your sins so that your sins might be forgiven. And what, all the ways maybe right even now, you're feeling convicted over all the ways that you're falling short of this ideal, and how vengeful you've been in your spirit, in your words or in your actions, and the grudges that you've held against people and, and maybe the Lord and you're just, you're, you're feeling convicted, and guilty over that.

First of all, I would say, that's great news.

That's a sign of life. The worst thing that could happen to you is to hear a message like this and feel nothing. If you're feeling nothing, then be very afraid. But if you're feeling convicted and remorse, that's a sign of life.

That's a sign that God's Spirit is working in you. And what, just relish the fact and praise God for the fact that Christ has already exhausted every means to be at peace with you. And that's the whole reason you are saved. And in dying on the cross, he actually died for all the ways throughout your life history that you have failed to live up to the very things we're learning this morning.

He died for all of your vengeful words and actions. Just let me touch on this and we'll close. Paul also adds the phrase, if possible, be at peace with all men. If possible, and he's acknowledging the fact that you may do every good and morally beautiful thing under the sun, and there still may not be peace.

One writer says if the maintenance of peace means the sacrifice of truth and honor, then peace must be abandoned. If someone says, yeah, I want to be at peace with you. If you want to be at peace with me, great. I need you to accept such and such, and what they're asking you to accept or to do is morally wrong, then you have to choose what is right and beautiful and good over peace.

Paul is acknowledging that it is possible that you will not be at peace with some. Jesus did everything beautifully, honorably, ethically, virtuously. And while he won our hearts and the hearts of many to Himself through the cross and through his love, there were many who hated him all the more for the deeds that he did, and who hate him to this day. And so Christ would say, and Paul, who many were saved through his ministry and through the love that he showed to others, as he sought to live at peace with all men, but there were many who hated him and sought to kill him.

And ultimately he did die a martyr's death. So Paul would say it's not always possible, but don't let that be an excuse for you to not make every effort and exhaust everything that lies within you the way Jesus did towards you. To be at peace with all men. Do you want to be an overcomer of evil with good?

Do not repay evil for evil. Premeditate on the doing of right in the sight of all men. And as far as it depends on you, if possible, make every effort to be at peace with all men, including those that have wronged you. Let's pray together.

Lord, I just pray if there's any here today who they don't have a relationship with you. Through Christ that you would Just draw them to yourself. Love them, Lord. They're here for a reason, and I believe that they're precious to you.

And there's a whole life of this amazing love relationship that they could have with you, Jesus, if they would. Humble themselves and acknowledge their bankruptcy and look to You, Jesus and say, you and you alone are the savior for me. And they call out to you. Even where they're seated and embrace you as their savior.

For all of us who have believed in you already and seek to believe in you from day to day, Lord, I pray that you would Just humble us and help us to not be a bitter, angry, vengeful people. I know that in this room, Lord, there is anger, there is bitterness. In some cases, I'm sure years of bitterness and lack of peace. And That's the power of that can only be broken by you, Lord, if you could just work in hearts and look upon each of us with grace and mercy and just choose to, to do a work of breaking the stranglehold of anger and bitterness.

And vengefulness and just show us that there's a better way, a more beautiful way, a way of freedom and a lightness of being that's better than carrying all this stuff around from day to day and this record of wrongs that are done. That's not the way to live. May we choose the freedom that comes. From following the very things that were taught.

to do in this passage. Thank you, Lord, for your word, for how practical it is, help us to live this out. And when we fall short, to soak in your forgiveness that is always there for us. We thank you for the opportunity to give our offerings to you, Lord, receive these funds and do much with them for the glory of Jesus.

We ask all these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,