Overcoming Evil with Good

SERMON: 2015-04-26--r1215b--overcoming-evil-with-good-part-2 SOURCE DURATION: 00:47:26.000 PROPOSED CUTS: 1 CONFIDENCE: 1.00 APPROVED: false REASON: The recording maintains a continuous flow of sermon material, starting with a review and concluding with pastoral application/amen. No non-sermon content is identified at either edge. ACOUSTIC EVIDENCE: available ACOUSTIC MUSIC INTERVALS: none ACOUSTIC SPEECH OVERLAP: no ACOUSTIC BOUNDARIES APPLIED: none Inline CUT markers identify each proposed audio boundary after the relevant word. --- ORIGINAL TRANSCRIPT WITH PROPOSED CUTS MARKED --- So we were looking last week at the first two or four practical steps Paul gives us here in these concluding verses of Romans chapter 12 to help us live in relational harmony with other people. Very quick review, number one we are to resist the temptation to get even. Verse 17, do not repay anyone evil for evil, be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. Typically evil for evil spirals down into a tit for tat which quickly goes out of control and as we saw last week it poisons our own souls ingesting poison doesn't kill the other person it kills us. The second thing that we looked at and that Paul talks about is we are to realize our relational limitations. Verse 18, if it is possible as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone and the operative words we saw are as far as it depends on you. Because try as we might we are never going to get along with everybody in the world and one of the reasons for that we saw is that because according to the book of Proverbs the world is divided into three groups of people, the wise, the foolish and the evil. The wise you can engage in conversation, the foolish always think they are right they need discipline in order to get beyond their high opinion of themselves and the evil they are the ones who come after you and try to destroy you and the Bible says stay away from them. Must say that engendered a lot of conversations in this community after the service I heard a lot of people talking about this and of course as I said last week the temptation is to try to identify who is foolish and who is wise and it's never me that is a fool. But the reality is there are aspects of that in all of our lives at different times but as Henry Cloud says while there are elements of that in all of our lives some people make a career out of it and so some people are predominantly wise, some people are predominantly foolish and some people are just said to say predominantly evil. Now I've got to say if you are interested in pursuing that further Henry Cloud in his book Necessary Ending spends a whole chapter on the wise, the foolish and the evil. He's also got a shortened version of it on YouTube called the evil, the foolish and the wise if you search for that on YouTube or even if you just search for Henry Cloud it comes up very close to the top it is very much worth your while to look at. That brings us then this morning to a third practical principle that Paul gives us for relational harmony and that is this we are to trust God to vindicate us, we are to trust in God to bring about vindication. Verse 19 do not take revenge my friends but leave room for God's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay says the Lord do not take revenge. Now to take revenge is to of course take matters into your own hands. It's not just returning evil for evil there is an element of vindication and justification involved in taking vengeance if you've ever been in a situation where you have been treated unfairly or where a judgment has gone against you or you've been misrepresented or misunderstood then you will know that one of the fundamental drives of the human heart is that you want vindication you want everybody to know that you're not guilty you want everybody to know your side of the story you want everybody to see it your way and we expend an enormous amount of energy trying to justify our position that is rooted in the image of God where we desire justice and righteousness even unbelievers really have a sense of wanting to see justice even people who don't believe that there is ultimate right and wrong in the world still recognize some things are right and some things are wrong so what vengeance is or what revenge is we take matters into our own hands and let's be honest about this for just a moment with ourselves planning revenge and sometimes carrying it out feels good to the human heart doesn't it I love the little story the lady was at the checkout counter in the grocery store mulling through her purse trying to find her credit card or her checkbook and as the cashier was waiting for her to get this together he noticed that in her purse she was carrying her television remote and that kind of intrigued him and so he says to her do you always carry your TV remote with you when you go to the store and she says no but she said my husband refused to come shopping with me and I figured this was the most evil thing I could do to get even with him legally John Ardberg a preacher who's now stationed out in California and tells the story of a man that he knows who was a recreational baseball umpire and one day as he is traveling along the road at a high rate of speed a policeman pulls him over gives him a ticket he pleads with the policeman this is going to increase my insurance can't you please let me go the policeman won't bend and he says well take it up with a judge when you go to court roll the clock forward it's now spring baseball season the coach or the man driving the car is the umpire and who do you think is the first to step up to bat but the police officer they lock eyes they recognize each other and the policeman says well you know that ticket thing how did that go for you and the umpire says you better just swing at every ball my favorite story of revenge while we're on a roll here with this is the story about George and Mildred some of you've heard me tell this before Mildred was the church gossip she's single lady and she made it her business to stick her nose in everybody else's business and everybody was a little bit afraid of her so here's George he's a new convert and one afternoon he parks his car in front of the only bar in town and Mildred immediately concludes that he's got a drinking problem so this is the story that Mildred begins to spread around it eventually comes back to George's ears well George being the kind of laid-back man that he was he says nothing he just ignored it walked away from her when she challenged him on it but in his heart he schemed a good way to get even because that night or that afternoon he parked his truck in front of her house and he left it there all night long revenge how sweet it is but as we've already seen the problem with revenge is that it starts a cycle I hit you you hit me I hit you harder you hit me harder now my family gets involved your family gets involved your friends get involved my friends get involved and that's how wars start and feuds carry on for a long long time as well it poisons our own souls because you cannot get away from brooding about what that other person has done and so scripture is very very clear when it tells us in the words of our text do not take revenge my friends but leave room for God's wrath for it is written it is mine to avenge I will repay it is mine to avenge I will repay and as you well know foundational to the biblical picture of reality is that God keeps his eye on all the affairs of humankind and the message of scripture from one end to the other is that ultimately God is the judge and as we'll see in a few moments if there is no human agency to step in to see that justice is done God himself will step into the situation because as Paul quotes in Romans 14 11 quoting from the Old Testament book of Isaiah I believe as surely as I live says the Lord every knee will bow before me every tongue will confess to God that is to say every tongue is going to acknowledge that God is God and that his standards are true and in the end of time we'll talk a little more about this later on God is going to judge every nation and every individual and so what he wants from you and me as his children is to trust him to stand out for us and to make sure that justice is done and the primary example of that of course is the Lord Jesus himself and we read in 1 Peter chapter 2 the verses 21 to 23 these words this is addressed to a church that's being persecuted they lived in the Roman Empire at the time of Nero they were viciously persecuted they suffered intensely and Peter says to this you were called because Christ suffered for you leaving you an example that you should follow in his steps he committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth when they hurled their insults at him he did not retaliate when he suffered he made no threats instead he entrusted himself to him who judges justly can we even begin to imagine what injustice Jesus went through I mean you and I when we get into trouble you know we may think we're as righteous as righteous can be and as white as snow but the reality is that almost always there is some element of our own flesh and our own sinfulness that gets involved in controversy wouldn't you agree I mean even if it's 90% the other person's fault on our estimation how quickly aren't there places where where we've crossed the line Jesus never did I mean that's an amazing thing he always loved God the Father he always put other people first he never chose his own well-being and so when he gets tried he gets rejected by the people that he came to save I don't know if you've ever thought about the pain of that he was wrongfully judged by the judicial system of his day out of political expedience I don't know if you've ever found yourself in that kind of situation and then he was rejected by the religious leaders of his day as the stone by builders rejected I mean that's a little bit tough on the system and I've often said and you've heard me say this if I were Jesus hanging on the cross and I could have called down 10,000 angels to to vindicate me I would have had a very difficult time resisting that temptation I suspect you would too but he didn't did he he let it go he didn't threaten he didn't say God's gonna get you for this he didn't say just you wait until the judgment no he allowed himself to be mistreated why because he trusted in God and as we said a couple of weeks ago the resurrection of Jesus was proof positive of God's vindication of his righteousness and that's why he is exalted at the right hand of God the name above every name remember at the end of time all that matters is are you on God's side and is God on your side but getting there and trusting him especially in times of injustice takes a lot of faith and a lot of grace and God says to this Peter says to this you have been called look at who Jesus is you call yourself a follower of Jesus then learn to live the way that he calls you to live now if you think through that a little bit raises a ton and a half of very practical questions does that mean you just let people walk all over here you know Steve was telling us yesterday at the men's thing that on his I think that was you but the bullies on the way girlfriend in grade seven and eight while you were my my point is that there was a bully that came after him every time when he walked what do you do when you get bullied or when your kid gets blind what do you do when in the Middle East these Christian communities get overrun by ISIS and they're going to slaughter every Christian do they and what what does trusting God look like in the practical realities of the injustices that we experience in a world that is on the hands of the evil one I mean is that a very practical question let me give you three very important and I think very profound principles that won't solve it entirely for us but will help us to know what is our responsibility and where does that begin and where does that end number one first thing we need to understand is that every last one of us has a responsibility to exercise personal boundaries we must exercise personal boundaries now a boundary is a barrier that you erect to determine your own space so that you decide who gets in and who gets kept out and boundaries are physical they're emotional and they're spiritual physically you've got your own space your own body your skin is an incredibly important boundary that separates you from everything and everybody around you your emotional boundary is who you let into your heart and who you don't let into your heart you decide the nature of your relationships your spiritual boundary is you determine spiritually who gets to influence you and who does not get to influence you the best way to think of it I think is to think of it in terms of the walls of a city why did in ancient times cities have walls well they had walls to keep the people inside safe and to keep the enemy on the outside now how did people get into cities and out of cities they had gates and the purpose of those gates was to fold to let good people in and out and to get bad people out altogether they're true so here's the important question who decides who controls the gates in the boundaries of your own personal life who is responsible for gatekeeping and the answer of course is it is you and part of our personal responsibility before God is that when it comes to the boundaries of our own lives we are responsible for the gatekeeping that determines who or what gets in or gets out now listen to me really carefully if you will anybody can fall victim to an opposing force doesn't matter how strong the walls of your city are are or how solidly the gates have been constructed if you are confronted by an overwhelming force of the enemy and they are determined to take your city they will breach your walls they will burn your gates and they will raid you is that not true so listen very carefully to what I'm saying next because the reality is that any one of us can be a victim I can be walking along the street somebody will come out of the bushes and stab me or rob me and there may not be anything that I can do about it and innocent people are victims of crimes reasonably regularly but that having been said that having been said how well these walls are constructed and how strong these gates are are a very important determination in how likely I am to become a victim if I live in a bad neighborhood never lock my doors leave the keys in my car parked in front of the store the chances of me being broken into and my car being stolen are much much higher than if I lock my car take my keys home and I lock my house now remember locks are only for honest people are honest thieves as they say if you want to break in you can but they certainly discourage the average thief is that not true so here's the point you and I before God have a responsibility to build boundaries around our lives physically emotionally and spiritually that are as solid and strong as they can be because the stronger our core identity the less likely we are to suffer an invasion by other forces does that make sense you see one of the tragedies of modern day life is that because of the decline in family and the client the decline of integrity in life all the way around we get increasingly a whole generation of kids who do not have strong personal boundaries they do not have a core identity they don't know who they are and they become chameleons if you go from from foster home to foster home and you're going to get thrown out every time you throw hissy fit then you learn to either not care at all and become a total rebel which is what a lot of kids do or you swing the other way and you become so compliant that you are delivering whatever you think other people want you to have you have no personal core and you know what happens to people who have no personal core they become victims again and again because how does a predator choose their victim well it's like a dog who smells your fear predators are experts at reading who you are where your weaknesses lie and then they play on it if you know anything at all about the sex trafficking business the pimps are out looking for girls who have no solid family home girls who have no personal identity girls who want to be famous or who want to be rich and they zero in on those needs till the gates are breached and all of a sudden they're caught up in a whole lifestyle that they had never possibly imagined our responsibility for ourselves and for our children is to build strong personal boundaries so that people cannot willy nilly make victims out of us that having been said here's another thing we need to understand because society is finally catching up to the fact that we have so many victims we've now come to a place I believe in society where victimhood almost get raised to the element of sainthood it used to be that everybody said concerning victims what was your own stupid fault you should have stayed out of trouble isn't that true now we've swung the other way and in many cases it's never supposedly the victims fault it's not that easy because the reality is I am still personally responsible for whatever steps I take that lead me into a particular situation if I'm a young woman and I'm going to a party and I'm getting myself drunk the chances of something bad happening to me are bigger than if I don't go to the party or I don't drink now remember in today's society the blame is always the other way and I make no excuses for predators who prey on helpless people understand that a person is always responsible for their own actions but that said victims sometimes are victims because they've opened the door and as God's people our responsibility is to take responsibility for our own breaches and to say Lord heal me there so that I can be strong and stand before you does that make sense you know some of you heard me tell this story before it's a true story it's powerfully illustrative of the principle of taking personal responsibility parents with their two children were at the beach the older girl was I think maybe seven years old I forget exactly her age her younger brother was three years of age and for some reason the parents had to leave for a short season and they said to the seven-year-old I want you to look after the three-year-old and be very careful that he doesn't go out on the sandbank because when the tide comes up he won't be able to get back and he could drown well you know how it goes with kids she got to playing she got distracted the kid with the other little brother was on the sandbank the tide came in and guess what kid drowned terrible tragedy you can imagine living with that and life going on this young girl when she grew up as a woman lived with a constant state of depression and she went from counselor to counselor to counselor and no matter where she went they all told her the same thing what do you think they told her they told her look you were only seven years old your parents should have never put you in charge which was probably true it wasn't your fault forgive yourself and go on with life so she'd leave every office she tried to forgive herself she tried to tell herself it wasn't her fault and she promptly dove down into depression again and again and again until finally she went to a Christian counselor and this one had the courage to tell her the truth and he said to her listen yes you were young your parents shouldn't have put you in charge but the reality is you disobeyed you did not do what you were supposed to do and you have to take personal responsibility for that choice that you made and he said but here's the good news the good news is that once you can embrace your shortcoming in this area and acknowledge it as your failure you can take it to the cross you can receive forgiveness you can get on with your life and you no longer have to live with the responsibility for it which is exactly what she did and for the first time in her life her depression lifted permanently that's the power of the cross and that's why telling each other oh nothing was ever your fault is not very helpful you know I've had a privilege of walking a lot of people through a lot of really bad places and I will tell you regardless of what has happened to you the Holy Spirit will find out whatever your part in it may have been and it may have only been one percent you cannot take responsibility for the other 99 percent but you've got to take responsibility for the one percent because all that matters is that you know God's forgiveness and his healing power you with me we are each responsible for building our own boundaries but there's a second principle and that is when those boundaries are violated as often they will be it is the responsibility of the authority figures in my life to protect defend support and encourage me it is authority figures in my life who need to protect me don't know if you've ever noticed it but it's very intriguing that when Paul finishes Romans chapter 12 what is the subject that he introduces in Romans chapter 13 you remember you really need to read your Bibles better Romans chapter 13 deals with the subject of governmental authority listen to what he goes on to say Romans 13 1 & 2 everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities for there is no authority except that which God has established and the authorities that exist have been established by God consequently he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves why does Paul bring up the subject of authority immediately upon what he has been telling us at the end of Romans chapter 12 well it's really simple God not only rules the world directly by his own authority and power but he rules the world especially through the through the authorities that he has established beginning with governmental authorities that's why Paul goes on to say at Romans 13 verse 4 concerning the government now he is God's servant to do you good but if you do wrong be afraid for he does not bear the sword for nothing he is God's servant an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer and so if I cannot defend myself and if I cannot maintain the walls around my heart in my life and somebody invades and pushes their way in and I am overcome by that then it is the responsibility of the authorities in my life to look after me and to make sure that justice is exercised that's why we have police that's why we have courts that's why we have parents that's why we have bosses that's why we have people who look that's why children have parents that look we have that responsibility whatever our area of authority is that God is entrusted to us our responsibility is to make sure that we provide space where people are safe where justice is exercised we carry the sword of God against evildoers to make it possible for people to live safely now why do I make a point of that because all you have to do is look at the nations of the world where central governmental authority has gone by the wayside we've all heard about the Arab Spring and how you know the nations of North Africa were supposed to come into this wonderful experience of liberation we bombed a snot out of Gaddafi in Libya and you know we we had that whole revolution in Egypt and in a lot of those countries and what happens what happens when central authority even bad authority gets removed well it's like in Israel in the days of the judges every man does what is right in his own eyes what do you think would happen if we had no stoplights at significant intersections or if people weren't responsible for stopping at a red light there's lots of cultures where you don't stop at a red light the policeman catches you you pay him off and you keep on going we call that graft and corruption but a civilization gets bogged down because what happens in every one of those instances is the people with the greatest amount of money the biggest people with the loudest mouths and the strongest swords or sticks they are the ones who end up dominating and everybody else becomes subject to their control what happens if you have parents who do not stand up for their children when they're fighting and aren't able to arbitrate the difference between right and wrong or you're teaching them to fight for themselves and whoever is the biggest and the strongest and smartest and the most deceitful is going to get away with it and you create a culture that is wrong so the point is this not only are we to submit to authority even though we don't like it or agree with that but in the positions of authority that God has placed us in whether it's at the home or in business or a church or in school you better do your job because you're responsible before God for doing it and doing it well the well-being of the people under you is determined by your ability to do the job that God has entrusted to you are you hearing me you show me a business that is chaos or a church that is chaos or a country that is chaos and it will almost always be a reflection of corruption at some level of leadership and that doesn't mean leadership has to be perfect but the more Christ-like we are in character the safer it becomes for people to be who they are thank you one more point and then we'll be done third principle first principle is you're responsible for your own boundaries don't blame anybody else you take responsibility what you can take responsibility for second responsibility second principle the authority figures in your life are to be there for you in the places where you are violated and they are to see to it that justice gets done for you but number three sometimes authorities fail and when authorities fail our ultimate hope is in God God the Bible says is the God of widows and orphans why is he the God of widows and orphans because widows and orphans historically in biblical cultures are the most vulnerable of the most vulnerable it'll be like single moms today or you know people who live out on the street or people who have nobody to support and courage and stand up for their rights historically those are the children gets sold off into slavery those are the people who get oppressed by those who are powerful and mean and wicked and so when there's nobody there to take up your cause and you are at the mercy of forces greater and stronger than you then God himself will step in biblically and he will provide for you and you might recall the story in Luke chapter 18 the story of the unrighteous judge where this widow is looking for justice the unjust judge doesn't care about her but she goes crying after him everywhere he goes until at last he's been worn down and he says even if I don't care about justice or righteousness or this woman to get her off my case I'm going to hear her case and judge in her favor and then Jesus concludes with this incredibly powerful verse Luke chapter 18 verse 7 and will not God bring about justice for his chosen ones who cry out to him day and night will he keep putting them off and I tell you he will see that they get justice in quickly however when the Son of Man comes will he find faith on the earth you know why he adds that because sometimes it takes a long long time for God to do justice but though the mills of heaven grind slowly they grind surely and one of the most profound teachings of scripture is that when there is nobody there for you when nobody believes you when nobody will fight for you when nobody will stand up for you when everybody thinks it's all your fault God in heaven is keeping track and he wants you to put your trust in him rather than take matters into your own hands which is what Jesus did he trusted in the Father and when the time is right God will judge and he will do that in one of two ways he will do that at the end of history because at the end of history when Jesus has returned all the nations are going to be gathered before God all the books are going to be opened and God will hold everybody accountable for every idle word they've spoken I don't know if we've ever concerned enough about the judgment day to understand that when God applies his yardstick of righteousness and measures us by that were it not for the grace of God in Christ Jesus nobody would stand the snowball's chance in you know where because it is serious business to be measured by the standards of God and so today a judgment for God's people throughout history is a day of hope and a day of encouragement because that is the day when everything that has been hidden is going to be exposed and God himself is going to say well done good and faithful servant and every injustice will be cast into hell and everything hidden will be revealed and the chosen of God will inherit God's eternal kingdom even while those who are not righteous in Christ are going to experience his wrath we're going to wind up just shortly with this but Paul writing to the Thessalonians puts it this way 2nd Thessalonians chapter 1 6 through 9 he says God is just he will pay back trouble to those who trouble you and give relief to you who are troubled and to us as well and he goes on to say this will happen when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven in blazing fire with his powerful angels he will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus they will be punished with everlasting destruction and shut out from the presence of the Lord and from the majesty of his power on the final day God will level the scores and so we hear these stories coming out of the Middle East whole villages being executed Christians having their heads cut off or being shot and killed in the most gruesome fashion and I'm so reminded of that verse in Revelation chapter 6 where the souls of the martyrs are under the altar of God crying out how long can you imagine to cry in these nations how long and the souls are told wait a little longer but just remember the time is coming God's gonna straighten out every crooked thing and everybody that's been on the wrong side of God that hasn't been made righteous through faith in Christ is going to feel the fury of his wrath and they will be excluded from his presence with everlasting destruction you don't hear a lot of preaching about hell these days but I'll tell you hell is reserved for those who have in an evil fashion walked away from God and touched the apple of God's eye and that's been the hope and the encouragement of every suffering Christian throughout the course of history but there's a second way in which God judges it isn't all going to wait until the final day because if God just stands idly by while evil goes from bad to worse it will be only a matter of time before evil runs the whole world and it all falls apart and so God also judges in history and he will allow evil to prosper and he will allow them to shed the blood of his saints as did Nazi Germany as did Soviet Russia as did communist China as did the Khmer Rouge and Cambodia as is ISIS doing in the Middle East today and you know it always amazes me but all of these folks they never think it's gonna catch up to them but it does because even in history there comes a time when God says your time has run its course the cries of the oppressed have reached out to God and God says if I don't stop this this cancer is going to destroy the whole earth and so he steps in and Nazi Germany gets overthrown the Soviet Union communism goes out the window the Khmer Rouge get dragged before court even now there's a trial taking place of a 93 year old former SS soldier from the Auschwitz camp who is being tried on charges of having been instrumental in the deaths of 300,000 people you might have followed the story in the news. Justice might be slow but God's justice grinds surely and that ought to do two things for each one of us number one it ought to make us aware of the importance of walking with God with integrity and obedience it's only in Christ that we're righteous it also means that in those places where our boundaries have been violated where we have been treated so unjustly where there is so much temptation to take matters into our own hands where there's been nobody around to come to our aid and to support us and like the widow we're left to cry out to God our job is to say Lord here is here is my cause here is my plea my hope is in you and whether it takes until the day of eternity or whether we will experience it in history Jesus says if the unrighteous judge hears the cause of the woman how quickly will God answer the cause of the righteous who cry out to him for vindication day by day and how our lives would change if instead of tit for tat instead of being overcome by evil we could overcome evil with good and maybe Lord willing next time when we come back to it we'll look at that in more detail because it isn't enough not to do the negative he wants us to do the positive and if you think this has been hard wait till we get to that and then we'll really need Jesus but thank God he's been made available to us to [PROPOSED CUT 1 START at 00:47:21.240; remove through 00:47:26.000] live the Christian life. Amen. [CUT] [CUT] [PROPOSED CUT 1 END at 00:47:26.000; resume after this marked segment]