When Persecution Comes

We are living in the last days of the end times, and it won't be long, friends, when the skies will open, and there'll be a shout, and Christ shall return. He will come for his bride. But first, there'll be a time of testing, purging of the church.

We read in Matthew's Gospel the explanation of the parable of the sower. In Matthew 13, verses 20 and 21, we read of the stony ground hearer, but he that received the seed in stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it, yet hath he not rooted himself, but endureth for a while, for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word, by and by he is offended. This striking passage of scripture, friends, related by our Lord Jesus Christ, tells of the false professor who professes Christ, but who does not possess Christ by saving faith.

The modern church is jam-packed with stony ground hearers, church members, whose testimony is based only on a mental flip for Jesus. They heard a diluted gospel about a God who is all love, and all you have to do to go to heaven is to accept Jesus, and you do this by only believing. Some say you get saved by believing John 3.16. Some say you get saved when you only believe.

But these modern, man-centered tactics of evangelism only attract stony ground hearers who accept Jesus like they would a free stick of chewing gum, and they get all excited about Jesus for a little while until the flavor goes out of their religion. Our text says all is well with this person until tribulation or persecution comes, meaning they were all right calling themselves Christians, so long as it didn't cost them anything personally. They were okay being members of a church and would be happy to stay there, but they cannot and will not stay a Christian if it means arrest or confiscation of their goods or prison or death.

They will only matter for Christ so long as things go well for them. But should persecution come, they will scatter like rats on a sinking ship as long as they can be Christians and still keep their liberty and keep their estates, then all is well. But threaten to take that away from them, threaten their skins, and you'll soon discover they're only standing on the profession of a stony ground.

They have no root that runs deep because they are yet unregenerate individuals who are strangers to work of grace upon the heart by the Spirit of God. Our world governments are growing more and more hostile to true Christianity. They'll tolerate a religion, but they won't tolerate a life that's been transformed by Christ Jesus.

An example of this is the state church in China, which is the Three-Self Church. The communist government will monitor the church services to make sure you never mention repentance or regeneration or anything that refers to the Holy Spirit. You can't hand out tracts.

You can't do evangelism. That's why the real church in China is underground. Chinese believers meet secretly in barns and in houses to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

If they are caught preaching the gospel, they are arrested, their goods confiscated, they're put in prison. Some are put to death for the sake of the gospel. The Chinese believer has counted the cost of following a crucified Christ, but have we? When persecution comes to your country, how will you respond? Will you be willing to lose everything dear to you for the sake of the gospel and Christ Jesus? The early church had to make a choice between saying, Caesar is Lord, or Jesus is Lord.

If you said, Caesar is Lord, they'd let you alone. But if you took a stand for Christ and said, Jesus is Lord, then they'd put you to death. When persecution comes, it will separate the chaff from the wheat, the stony ground hearers from the true believers.

And persecution, friends, for many of us, it's right around the corner. You want to go test it? Go stand on any street corner in America today and preach that homosexuality is a terrible sin in God's sight. Go preach that all fornication is a grievous sin against a holy God.

Go preach that the adulterer and the drunkard will be judged. Go preach that unless you repent, you will surely go to hell. Go preach that if you're not born again, you'll suffer damnation in eternity.

If you do that, it won't be long before our politically correct society has you arrested and put in jail for preaching hate speech. The question is, are you a stony ground hearer? Or will you stand the test of time in persecution? If not, repent before it's too late.