Fresh Bread

Announcer: You are listening to Fresh Bread, Dr. Harry Reeder's daily devotional from the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals.

Harry Reeder: In Luke chapter 6, we've looked at the distillation of the Beatitudes that Luke records, and now we're looking at the declarations of malediction. What is a mal, meaning bad or evil, a malediction? Well, that's something evil or a curse instead of a blessing.

The Lord has just given the blessings that come to those who are poor in spirit, who are hungry for the Lord's word, who are excluded for the sake of the Lord and mocked and reviled and persecuted for the sake of the Lord. He's just given the weal, or the blessings. Now he's given the woes, or the cursing, for those who stand against the Lord and His people.

This is what He says in Luke chapter 6 and verse 24: "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry. Woe to you who laugh now, for you shall mourn and weep. Woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets."

Can I encourage you to go to Luke chapter 6, take verses 20 through 23 and write out the blessings? Then write out in verses 24 through 26 the cursing, and then connect the dots. Take the blessings and list them. On the other side of the page, list the cursings, and then see how they are connected to each other as antithetical statements.

So here are people that are poor in spirit. He says, "You who are rich." Now, he's not saying that you don't have rich Christians. What he is saying is those who would rather be rich than be a Christian. Well, guess what? You've received your consolation. That's your reward. You better eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow you die and what you own and what you're rejoicing in, well, that's all you've got. And eternity will bring the judgment of sin against those who have embraced the idolatry of riches.

Then he says to those who are full now, and remember up in the blessings those who are hungry, well, those who are full of themselves, full of the world, full of the wisdom of the world, you shall be hungry. There's coming a time you're going to see, likely even before the judgment, you are going to see the emptiness of the wisdom of the world which is folly before the Lord.

Now the world calls the wisdom of God folly, but you're going to find out that it is folly to embrace the wisdom of the world. Woe to you who laugh. Those who go through life with amusement and entertainment as the goal of life and as you embrace rebellion against God, laughing at sin and the sinfulness of sin and joking about rebellion against God, then yet one day is coming when you shall mourn and weep.

And then he says, cursed or woe to you when all people speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. Remember what he said? When people speak evil of you, remember that's what they did to God's prophets. Now he says, when everybody speaks well of you, that's what people did for false prophets and that's what false prophets did for the people.

So what you need to know is as long as you serve Jesus, the truth of the word of God is going to be a scandal. So you have to be ready. They attack Him and His word by attacking you. And that's when you're blessed. Everybody saying good about you? You've compromised something somewhere. Now that doesn't mean we don't have favor in the eyes of the world from time to time.

But if the world in its concert has a concerted statement of well about you by all who observe you, then somewhere you are no longer salt and light because darkness can't stand light and salt burns whenever there's the infestation of sin.

So we've seen the blessings, we've seen the woes, and now I want you to join me tomorrow for another slice of Fresh Bread as He tells us what to do with enemies.

Announcer: The Bible has no shortage of critics who are quick to point out seeming contradictions. Do you have the confidence to engage in such a discussion? Dr. Reeder's series, Is the Bible Reliable?, is our free gift to you. Call 1-800-488-1888.