OVERCOMING EVIL


A Sermon On:

Heidelberg Catechism Q/A 43

Romans 6.1-23



PREPARED BY

KEN GEHRELS

PASTOR

CALVIN CHRISTIAN REFORMED CHURCH

NEPEAN, ONTARIO



INTIMIDATION
Intimidation. We have all experienced it at one time or another. Perhaps we have even tried to pull it off on someone at one time or another. It is where one person or a group of people seek, by threat or force or trickery or constant nagging, try to strong-arm another person or group of people to capitulate to their demands.
There is the intimidation of the playground, where the bully takes the toy of the grade 1'er.
There is the intimidation of the workplace where the male supervisor sends across not-so-veiled threats that if his attractive employee wishes to see any future in her job, certain "favours" will be expected from her.
There is the intimidation of war, where an army of one side stands menacingly on the border of its neighbour, demanding certain concessions, or else.

Sometimes these intimidation tactics and threats are very real. The bully will indeed punch the daylights out of the scrawny kid on the playground. The manager will indeed find an excuse to fire his secretary. The army will indeed invade.
Sometimes the tactics are NOT valid. It is all talk with no possibility of real, effective action. The bully knows he would get in deep trouble with the teacher. The manager knows a lawsuit would be just around the corner. So all the talk is merely that - blustery talk, all smoke with no fire.

Perhaps you have faced intimidation of this sort at one time or another. Perhaps not. Whatever the case may be, let me guarantee you that there WILL BE one form of intimidation that you are going to be subjected to if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. I want to expose that intimidation tactic, and show how it is that we can counter it, through the teachings of the scripture and commentary on that teaching as found in the Heidelberg Catechism.

SATAN'S INTIMIDATION STRATEGY
The bully, the intimidator, who is trying to crush us into subservience to him - the one we are called to withstand - is Satan.
His reasoning, his intimidation is basically this -
You are a sinner. You are under the curse which fell on Creation through Adam and Eve. You are depraved through and through. You are spiritually dead, your flesh rotten to the core with sin. You as part of humanity are lost from heaven. You are separated from God. You belong to me!
You are skewed towards evil.
You cannot do any good.
You belong to me!
So don't try to fight it. Just go with the flow. Maybe you can resist for a little while. But it won't last. You are going to fall eventually. So why even try?

Oh, it doesn't always come out this directly. Sometimes it's more:
"Oh come on. Those rules are all stuffy. Don't be so uptight."
OR "You don't have to go the whole way. Just a little bit."
OR "Just once. Just this once. It won't destroy you."
OR, very bluntly, "Come on, come on, come on, come on, come on".

COUNTERING INTIMIDATION
Now, under normal circumstances, Satan will NOT go away. The harassment will continue until eventually we cave in. The only way we will be able to get free from it is if we get free from him, remove ourselves from his presence, or him from our's.

Which doesn't happen very quickly. Because, like it or not, Satan is alive and well on Planet Earth. He will not leave willingly.
So here we are, relatively small people, yes - sinful, stained people, people who do have this mad propensity to transgress the laws of God for life.
And here is this great big, evil spiritual bully refusing to leave.

We need to find some legitimate way to stand up against him.
There are two ways to do that, two connected ways:
  1. Recognizing for ourselves, from the authority of the Word of God, who we are in Jesus Christ, and what that gives to us.
  2. Acting on that recognition in boldness of faith through rebuking the devil, and submitting to Jesus.

RECOGNIZING OUR NEW IDENTITY
Strategy #1.
Recognize that Satan's intimidation tactics are precisely that, intimidation. He has no RIGHT to practice them. He has no absolute claim over us. It is not a foregone conclusion that we must submit to his temptations.
At least.... not if we are believers in Jesus Christ.

Why not? Because in a very real way when Jesus Christ died on the cross and paid the penalty for our sins, releasing us from any further legal indebtedness - we died with him. And when he was able to gasp out the final words on the cross, "IT IS FINISHED", our slavery to sin was truly FINISHED!

All this is the whole point of Romans 6.
In a very real way our sinful tendencies were nailed to the cross along with the body of Jesus Christ. Before Jesus we would be able to toss our hands up in the air and say, "Hey, I can't help it. I'm locked into this terribly sinful body. I just can't shake this sinful tendancy in my mind. It's got a firm grip on me."
Now after his death and resurrection we can no longer say that!
That part of us was put to death. The part of us that was totally and completely enslaved - that is the key word - enslaved to sinful tendencies and the fancies of the devil was cut off and cut out.

Understand that, brothers and sisters. Know who you are in Jesus Christ. Be clear about your identity. For that knowledge and certainty will go a long way to counter the blusterings of the devil. It is as Jesus said in John 8.32 - "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."
-sin does NOT have automatic control of your life
-Satan and his temptations do NOT have some inherent right to continually lurk in your mind and heart. You are NOT forced to entertain them.
As the catechism says, "the evil desires of the flesh ... no longer rule us."

We are not automatically going to end up in a desperate and sinful lifestyle. We are set free from bondage and given the freedom to choose to submit our hearts and minds and bodies to the control and will of Jesus Christ.
As the catechism says, "We may dedicate ourselves as an offering of gratitude to Him."

Understand the message of the gospel:
We don't have to face the powers of evil and darkness alone. We have Christ the Saviour, the Victor on the Cross, on our side. He faced the whole swarming host of hell, and did it alone. He confronted them on their turf, stood up to them.... and WON!

Remember that when you recite the Creed and say:
"....He descended into hell...."
We belong to Christ. And Christ is far stronger than Satan. He has defeated Satan. And he has snatched us from the jaws of death and evil.
Therefore, the times of crisis and the times of temptation in our lives - times which WILL come to all of us - are not times that indicate the end of the road for us.
Difficult experiences do not mean that all our walls are collapsing around us, that we are spinning wildly out of control, or that we are being crushed in demonic hands.
NO - the nail-scarred hands we are in are much stronger hands.

ACTING ON THAT IDENTITY
Which leads us to the second point. We can counter the intimidation tactics of the devil by
a.) rebuking him
and b.) actively resubmitting ourselves to Jesus.

In Luke 11 Jesus speaks of Satan as "the strong man." The only one who can overcome him is the "stronger man." That is Jesus.
And now the authority that Jesus has over the devil is authority which is given to you as a believer. Jesus said, "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you." (Lk 10.19)
That doesn't mean literal snakes or scorpions. Snakes and scorpions are biblical pictures for the forces of evil. Remember, even, the form that Satan took in the Garden of Eden... a snake!

Therefore you may, you can, and you should rebuke him IN THE NAME OF JESUS whenever you recognize his deceptive presence or feel his dark force at work within you. Rebuke him, ("Get behind me Satan" - Mt 16.23).

Go ahead and tell Satan to his face who you are, and whose you are. "Satan, hosts of Evil, I am a child of the King. My sinful past has been crucified with Christ. I am a believer in Jesus. I am his slave, not your's. You have no right to be here. I command you IN THE NAME OF JESUS AND BY THE POWER OF HIS BLOOD to be gone! Depart to the abyss that has been prepared for you."
Don't do this in your own power or strength. Claim, deliberately, forcefully and openly the power and authority of the name and the blood of Jesus!
I'm not talking fancy magic, or hocus pocus. I'm talking the stuff of day-to-day, real, spiritual warfare; life-saving stuff.
Then deliberately turn again towards Jesus, setting your mind your heart on him in full submission to him. That is why Jesus in Luke 11 also warned about one spirit who is cast out only to return later with 7 more evil spirits. If the house out of which he has been cast is not filled with the good and Holy Spirit of God, if it is still spiritually empty, he will move right back in with a vengeance.
Rebuke
Turn
Submit

Do it because of the advantage that you have received from Christ's sacrifice and death on the cross, from his descent into hell!
Do it deliberately!
You know, if there is one thing that stands out in this passage of Romans 6, and its emphasis on our being freed from Satan and brought into the slavery of Jesus Christ, it is the place of the human will. Notice throughout the chapter the number of times that activity on the part of the believer is mentioned or commanded:v.8 we know
v.11 we count ourselves dead to sin
v.12 we do not let sin reign in our mortal bodies
v.13 we do not offer the parts of our body to sin
v.13 we offer ourselves to God
v.13 we offer the parts of our body to him
v.17 we wholeheartedly obey the form of teaching to which we were entrusted.
v.19 offer [command] the parts of your body in slavery to righteousness.
CONCLUSION - "STAND FIRM!"
Which is where we will draw it all to a close. One thing about living with an intimidating bully hanging around the neighbourhood. The last thing you want to do is sit back and grow complacent. Because you know that the moment you do, he will move in. So it is with the Devil.
Yes, the victory is ours in Jesus Christ. He has been crucified, and we with him, so that we may live forever! But the road to final victory is still being travelled. There are still challenges ahead.
There will be times, for all of us, when we will stumble, sometimes quite badly. But it is not the end. We have a Saviour to forgive us and pick us up again; re-empower us, and encourage us to continue to fight the good fight, to hold on to the faith, to stand our ground, and after having done everything, to stand (Eph 6.13).

Remember that truth
And act on it.

In the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit.