Overcoming Evil with Good

Well, I pointed out last week that when God's people refuse to be overcome by evil, but
instead choose to overcome evil with good, they can expect three things to happen.
Number one, we can expect that our opponents, sometimes our enemies, may be won over.
Romans 12, 20, "If your enemy is hungry, feed him.
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink.
In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."
Burning coals there is, you might help him to see to his shame the wickedness of his
actions.
One of the most moving stories in that regard that I've ever heard was quite a number of
decades ago.
A young man, a young boy in communist Romania at the time, his mother had been imprisoned
for the faith, and it was his custom every mother's day or every birthday, I believe,
to give her a special bouquet of flowers to express his appreciation to his mother.
Well, obviously he couldn't do that, and so because his mother had told him to turn the
other cheek and to love his enemies, he gathered those flowers and he went to the police station.
And he gave them to the police chief who had arrested his mother, and he said to him, "It's
my custom on my mother's birthday to give her these flowers, but I cannot reach her
now.
And so I have chosen to give them to you."
Story goes on to relate, the man was powerfully moved by that to the point where that started
the process of changing his own life.
Sometimes our enemies are won over when we show good in the face of evil.
Secondly, what we can expect to happen is we can expect God to bless us in our obedience.
If your enemy is hungry, give him food to eat.
If he is thirsty, give him water to drink.
In doing this, you will eat burning coals on his head.
And then this phrase in Proverbs that Paul leaves out in Romans chapter 12, "And the
Lord will reward you."
As I pointed out last week, Peter mentions the same thing, 1 Peter 3, 9, very clear,
do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult, but with blessing.
Because to this you were called, why?
So that you may inherit a blessing.
God promises a blessing to you and to me if by faith in Jesus we walk obediently and turn
the other cheek.
That brings us this morning then to a third thing that we can expect to happen when we
try to overcome evil with good.
I introduced this in passing last week, but I'll look at it in much more detail this morning.
And that is this, it destroys the power of evil.
And as we're going to see, it destroys the power of evil in ways that you and I might
not anticipate.
But listen again to the words of our text this morning, Romans chapter 16, 19 and 20.
Paul says, "Everyone has heard about your obedience."
Remember, these were pagan converts living in pagan Rome.
He says, "Everyone has heard about your obedience, not just your faith, but your obedience.
So I am full of joy over you, but I want you to be wise about what is good and innocent
about what is evil."
And then verse 20, "The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet."
I believe there's a linkage there.
There's a linkage between your obedience and your innocence towards evil and your commitment
towards right and God's commitment to crushing Satan under our feet.
I want to talk about that with you a bit this morning because it has huge implications for
how Christians stand and fight in the face of encroaching evil.
That we live in a world where there is a great deal of evil should come as no surprise to
any one of us at this point in time.
We know biblically it goes back all the way to the opening chapters of scripture, Genesis
chapter 3 where Adam and Eve sin against God.
They enter into an alliance with the evil one and God pronounces judgment.
And from that day to this, there has been a conflict in the world between the forces
of good and the forces of evil.
God first talks about that very clearly in Genesis 3 15 in what is known as the proto-evangelium,
the first introduction of the gospel.
I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your offspring and hers.
He will crush your head and you will strike his heel.
I will put enmity, that is hatred, battle, conflict, tension.
And from that day to this, this battle, this conflict, this tension has played out I believe
biblically on three different levels.
The first level is the level between God and Satan.
God wants to build a kingdom where everything is structured according to his values.
Satan hates God and wants people to be under his authority.
That is the conflict that is the backdrop to all of history.
But there's a second level to that conflict and that is between Satan and humans.
The serpent hates humanity.
The devil hates people, he especially, just for the record, hates womanhood because womanhood
gives birth to the next generation and the earlier the devil can get at that, the more
his chances are of creating a human race so filled with turmoil and conflict that the
doors are wide open to his evil influence.
But there's a third level and that level is this, the followers of Satan and the followers
of God throughout scripture and throughout biblical history, you have this conflict of
the ages that rages.
Almost always with rare exceptions, the forces of evil are stronger than the forces of God.
But the promise of the scriptures fulfilled in Christ is that the seed of the woman will
one day overcome the seed of the serpent.
And so Genesis chapter four, already you have that conflict between Cain and Abel, the seed
of the woman and the seed of the serpent.
You see that conflict biblically between Israel and Egypt and Israel and the other nations,
Babylonia, particularly in Assyria.
In the New Testament you see that conflict between Jesus and the powers of Satan and
the powers of the religious communities of his day.
And then in the history of the early church, you see that conflict raging powerfully between
the church and pagan Rome.
And in each instance, the power of evil appears to be greater than the power of good.
And the question and the challenge always is, how can good overcome evil when evil is
so powerful and so all pervasive?
In our own day and age, I cannot think of one instance where this battle rages more
clearly than in the conflict between the Western powers and ISIS, the Islamic state, two entirely
different values, two mutually exclusive values, two claims to the kingdom.
Just this past week, ISIS, despite all the forces that are being brought to bear against
them, the air campaign and whatever else, overran the city of Ramadi, chased everybody
out of there, killed hundreds and hundreds of people as they go from door to door, dragging
people out on the street and shooting them in the head or cutting off their hats.
Not only that, but then they captured Palmyra.
Palmyra is a biblical city.
It's called the city of palms.
It has some of the greatest architectural ruins in the world.
And if you have followed the history of ISIS, then you know that they have this thing about
destroying ancient ruins.
And here we stand.
What do we do?
See, there is a battle raging between different values that historically comes to expression
in many different ways.
In our own day and age and in our own culture, I dare say some of that battle rages in terms
of gender identity issues, certainly rages in the areas of same sex marriage.
If you follow the news, Ireland is, I think, the first nation in the world to overwhelmingly
endorse same sex marriage by popular vote.
An Irish baker, fined because he didn't want to make a cake.
It's always about the cakes.
Isn't that interesting?
It's always about the cakes.
But in his situation, he was supposed to make a cake that had Bert and Ernie on it.
That wasn't so bad.
But the slogan said, "Support gay marriage," and he said, "I don't want to do that."
Well, he was just found guilty.
In the United States, the Supreme Court of the U.S. right this very month is holding
hearings to try to decide whether same sex marriage ought to be declared a constitutional
right in all the states of the United States of America.
That judgment, it's up in the air.
Time will tell.
It is expected to swing in favor of that.
If it does, then every pastor or everybody who officiates in that kind of setting will
be criminally liable if they refuse to participate in a same sex marriage.
Now that may or may not be an issue that stirs your crank.
Next of the matter is that in the Western world, there is a rapid rejection of historic
biblical values.
Things that not very many decades ago were considered seen are now considered normal.
You and I, we stand in the middle of all of that.
And then the big question is, what do we do?
How do you fight the encroach of evil?
Because you see, eventually, it's going to come home to roost.
We'll talk about that in a moment.
Well, historically, there are three approaches that God's people have taken as to how to
respond to encroaching evil.
And the time that remains this morning, I'm going to give you two, and then two weeks
hence, Lord willing, we'll pick up on the third.
But as you listen to this, look at your own life and ask yourself the question, which
one of these three things that we're going to be talking about do I feel most comfortable
with in my own life?
And what is the Holy Spirit who indwells me, saying I need to do about where I find myself?
Can we kind of make that deal so that I'm not just talking into the air?
Because the word of God is sharp, living, and active, and it's meant to transform us
from the inside out.
Well, the first approach to encroaching evil is, guess what?
Do nothing.
Live and let live.
In economic terms, laissez-faire.
Leave the economy alone, government, because private business knows best what ought to
be done.
And do nothing is a remarkably attractive option for people, particularly when the bad
things that are happening are happening far away, or if they do not impact me personally.
Do nothing was the philosophy of the United States in World War II until Japan bombed
Pearl Harbor and they had to get involved.
Do nothing is the philosophy of many Canadians in view of what ISIS is doing out in Syria
and Iraq who cares what they're doing.
Let's not get ourselves enmeshed in battles that we cannot win.
And do nothing is how a lot of Christians feel about the culture war in North America.
Let's just throw our arms up in the air and, you know, the world's going to hell in a hand
basket anyway and let's just wait for Jesus to come back and why bother with the mess
that exists.
And this may surprise you, but there is a place for doing nothing because sometimes
when you step into battles that aren't yours, all you do is get bit and you accomplish nothing.
I love the way the book of Proverbs puts it, Proverbs 26 verse 17, "Like one who seizes
a dog by the ears is a passer-by who meddles in a quarrel not his own."
Graphic picture, isn't it?
Can you imagine picking up a dog by the ear?
What do you think is going to happen?
Well, you better have some good gloves on because you've got a fight on your hand and
there are times we ought not to get involved in other people's battles because at the end
of the day they'll just both turn on you and you'll not have accomplished anything.
That said, there are three things I want us to understand about non-engagement.
Number one, biblically speaking, we are our brother's keeper and that is especially true
in a day of global connectivity where almost instantaneously we get the messages, the images
of the atrocities that are happening elsewhere in the world.
Proverbs 3, 27, 28, again filled with biblical wisdom, "Do not withhold good from those who
deserve it when it is in your power to act.
Do not say to your neighbor, 'Come back later, I'll give it tomorrow when you have it with
you now.'"
And this applies not only to neighbors in a general sense, it especially applies, the
Bible says, to the household of faith.
The Bible says do good to everybody but especially to those of the household of faith.
And I don't know about you but when I hear the stories of Christians under ISIS rule
being hounded and persecuted and murdered, my heart goes out to them and I don't know
what I can do about it most of the time but can I remain calloused and say well that's
none of my business because that's way out over there.
Who cares what happens to these people?
Doesn't the Bible say if one member of the body suffers, we all suffer?
Did you know that every five minutes around the world a Christian is being killed for
his faith today?
You know how many that is in the course of a year?
That's a hundred thousand martyrs for the cause of Christ and yes they will get their
reward but you can imagine the horror and the pain of going through that experientially.
So biblically speaking, we are, contrary to what Cain said back in Genesis 4, yes we are
our brother's keeper.
Number two, closely connected to that is God will hold us accountable for what we have
known and how we have acted.
Again the book of Proverbs is just filled with biblical wisdom.
Rescue those being led away to death, hold back those staggering towards slaughter.
If you say but we knew nothing about this, does not he who weighs the heart perceive
it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
Will he not repay each person according to what he has done?
Rescue those being led away to death.
If you are familiar with the pro-life movement you will know that is one of the key verses
that has motivated many Christians around the world to become involved in the cause
of pro-life and it is easy to say well those things are happening behind closed doors,
those things do not happen to affect me but God says or historically the church has talked
not only about the sin of commission but also the sin of omission and if the sin of commission
is the stuff we do that is bad that we ought not to be doing then the sin of omission is
the opposite of that, it is not doing what we ought to be doing when we could be doing
something and you know me well enough to know that I am not simplistic but this is why Christians
formed pregnancy crisis centers for example over the years so that we are not only speaking
words of censure about activities that we believe are unbiblical or anti biblical but
that we are in fact sticking out our hands and doing something positive about the disaster
that surrounds us and that is only one of many things of course there are a lot of causes
that Christians get involved in so biblically speaking we are our neighbors brother, biblically
speaking when we stand before the Lord he is going to say did you know this and what
have you done about it and that can load us down with guilt and that is not my purpose
in laying this on us this morning but we do need to look at life and the world from God's
perspective and later on we are going to talk then for at least a few moments in closing
what does that mean for you or for me what is the Holy Spirit stirring us when we listen
to the news headlines and when we hear of the things that are happening a lot of young
people today getting involved in dealing with the sex trade which is a horrific curse on
women around the world including in our own culture God holds us accountable for what
we know and then of course here is a third factor to take into consideration when we
think it is not my business and why should I get involved and that is this inactivity
allows evil to flourish inactivity allows evil to flourish I suspect we have all heard
this quote from Edmund Burke the Irish statement of several centuries ago the only thing necessary
for the triumph of evil is for good men or women to do nothing Martin Niemoller was a
Lutheran pastor in Nazi Germany who originally supported Hitler in his rise to power over
against the communists and then when he began to understand what Hitler's agenda was and
how he was trying to control the church he together with people like Bonhoeffer and a
few others formed what they call the confessional church a church that stood on its biblical
confession and that opposed the Nazi regime for that he got imprisoned in 1937 in one
of the worst of the concentration camps almost died didn't get released until the allies
released him in 1945 but you may well remember this saying for which he is probably most
remembered today and what it says is this first they came for the socialists and I did
not speak out because I was not a socialist then they came for the trade unionists and
I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist then they came for the Jews and I
did not speak out because I was not a Jew then they came for me and there was no one
left to speak for me sobering sobering words if there's one thing that we can say ought
to be true for God's people we cannot just allow ourselves to go to sleep and say whatever
happens to other people as long as I'm comfortable and it doesn't change my lifestyle I don't
want to get involved I love the way Peter puts it very clearly when Peter 5 8 he says
be self-controlled and alert your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking
for someone to devour Paul writing to the Ephesians talks about Christians awake and
Christ has come to give us light and so if you're a Christian far from just passively
sitting back and saying well you know it's not my business we ought to ask the Holy Spirit
for grace and strength to bear what is out there and then say what if anything do you
want me to do about what is happening non-participation passivity is not an option for God's people
we can just allow ourselves to sleep because while we're sleeping evil is progressing
at an incredible rate and it's progressing at an incredible rate in my judgment in North
America today and there are agendas at work that most of us don't even dream of because
one of the one of the agendas let me just say this about it one of the agendas at work
in the periphery of today's society is nothing short of the destruction and the restructuring
of the family the way that you and I have understood it historically for thousands and
thousands of years and it's being pushed on us and a lot of Christians are saying well
it's not me doesn't affect me I love my wife I love my kids it's going to impact the rest
of life all right that's only the beginning there's a second opposing tactic that God's
people address because not everybody's passive and that is this the opposite reaction is
to take up arms and fight back and we've all heard the pundits we've all heard the criticism
we've all heard the causes that were asked to sign up for and some of us participate
in that gladly and cheerfully as well we should but understand this historically fighting
back for Christians has been a bit of a conundrum a bit of a challenge because there are those
and the Amish would be included in that their Mennonite cousins would be included in that
who would be considered pacifists and the argument would be Christians ought never to
fight back and Christians ought never to take up the sword and of course that's rooted in
an attempt at being obedient to the teachings of Jesus in the Gospels particularly in the
Sermon of the Mount listen to these words of Jesus in Matthew 5 39 and 40 he says I
tell you do not resist an evil person if someone strikes you in the right cheek turn to him
the other also and if someone wants to sue you and take your tunic let him have your
cloak as well and there are many who believe that following Jesus means taking that very
literally and allowing yourself if need be to be harmed or killed without fighting back
because that is the spirit of Jesus now I said this is controversial because we're not
all pacifists I'm not a pacifist chances are you aren't either and those of us who are
not pacifists that is people who refuse to ever fight back or take up the sword will
argue that that those injunctions deal with the inner attitude of the heart and are not
prescriptive for every situation because Jesus himself says to his disciples at one point
this is in Luke chapter 22 verse 36 if you have a purse take it also a bag if you don't
have a sword sell your cloak and buy one that's hardly pacifist language similarly folks point
out that when Jesus sees the money changers in the temple what does he do it's his only
recorded act of violence but boy he makes one heck of a scene and turns those tables
upside down likewise when he comes back at the end of history he comes back riding on
a white horse with all the armies of heaven arrayed behind him and at the end of history
it's not going to be a picnic it's going to be violent when good ultimately triumphs
over evil and David of course back in the Old Testament Psalm 144 praise be to the Lord
my rock who trains my hands for war and my fingers for battle the Apostle Paul talks
about putting on the armor of God he calls his fellow workers soldiers when he dies he
says I have run the race I have fought the good fight and so yes there are very differing
opinions in Christian communities over the years as to what this all looks like in fact
Saint Augustine many years ago was one of the first church fathers to formulate what
is known as the just war theory and he listed a number of criteria that had to be present
before a nation that professed to be structured after Christian values could actually go to
war in a way that was justifiable these were modified then later by Thomas Aquinas but
they include things like war must be a last resort it must be conducted by legitimate
authority it has to be for a just cause it must have a probability of success it must
have the right intention that is it must want to establish peace it must follow the rule
of proportionality you can't use more force than what is necessary and civilian casualties
of course they ought to be limited very practical question for Christians in war zones do we
you know maybe sort of academic for us right but Iraqi Christians who are being murdered
by the hundreds have had asked that question and they have now begun to organize Christian
militias to take up arms to fight off ISIS Christians in Nigeria fighting the scourge
of Boko Haram a number of them have begun to take up swords Cathy when she was here
was sharing with us the tension and the difficulty how do Nigerian Christians response in the
face of overwhelming evil difficult questions particularly if you want to be a serious follower
of Jesus some time remains let me again give you three principles that I believe biblically
ought to govern our response in the face of evil number one and we talked about this extensively
the last couple of weeks so I can be brief about it when it comes to personal injury
or personal injustice we must trust God to vindicate us we must trust the authorities
that he is established to do do justice and if they fail we must trust in him under no
circumstances ought we to take matters into our own hands because we will only start a
cycle of violence that will quickly get out of hand Paul in the context of Christians
launching lawsuits against one another says why not rather be wronged God keeps his eye
on what happens to you and to me and the desire to get even the desire to get back the desire
for vindication is a desire that needs to be surrendered to God because if we are his
and he is our father he is perfectly capable of keeping his eye on everything and nobody
who puts their trust in God will ultimately be left hanging or be ashamed and Jesus I
pointed out before is the best example of that try practicing that and you will know
that you need the Holy Spirit because I'll tell you I don't care how mild-mannered you
are when it gets close to home everything inside you starts screaming with pain and
for the and the desire to be vindicated so personally we must trust God to work out the
process we must resist the temptation to return evil for evil tit-for-tat I believe that's
what Jesus means when he talks about turning the other cheek he wants to change that deep
attitude in our hearts that says I want my justice and I want it now and if nobody else
is going to provide it for me I'm going to do it for myself second principle to remember
we need to exercise our God given authority we've talked about that too God not only rules
creation directly he also rules creation indirectly through authority figures governments parents
teachers policemen when God puts us in that kind of position we have a responsibility
to exercise our office and to steward those who are under us because God has entrusted
them to us we cannot expect God to do what he has challenged us to do and given us authority
to do and I love the way one of our denominational confessions puts it the Heidelberg Catechism
in its exposition of the Ten Commandments asks this question about Lord's Day five
which is the commandment to honor your father and your mother and the question is what is
God's will for you in the fifth commandment in the answer that I honor love and be loyal
to my father and mother and all those in authority over me that I submit myself with proper obedience
to all their good teaching and discipline and also that I be patient with their failings
for through them God chooses to rule us now typically we think of that as being under
the authority which indeed is what that refers to but we're not only under authority we also
have authority parents have authority over their children if you are boss in a business
you have some measure of authority over your employees if you're a teacher you have authority
over your students to some degree if you're a member of society a member of some organization
most of us have some measure of authority in that place of authority it is your responsibility
to exercise the authority that God has put you in and so if some bad dude were to come
in my house and try to attack my children would I stand there passively and say well
go ahead and do it no I would not I might not win the battle it might cost me my life
but I have a responsibility to my children and so do you and if you were a teacher in
a school and somebody came in and wanted to harm your students are you just going to stand
by and say well it must be God's will see historically it's easy to fall into those
kind of patterns as an excuse for cowardice no you have a job to do and it was going to
cost you your life you just better do it because that's the call on you same thing in your
job any position that you exercise you cannot just passively stand back and say well hey
sir ah sir ah whatever will be will be I know you must do what God has called you to do
and you better not make any excuses for it and you better pray for a lot of wisdom to
know what to do and how to do it and how to do it wisely because that's another whole
picture you with me we have stewardship over what God has entrusted to us and one day we'll
be judged as to how we exercise that stewardship did we bury our treasure was it all about
us and keeping our own skin safe and comfortable or was it about the responsibility that God
had entrusted to us in our particular situation one more principle and then we'll be done
in a few moments and a very important one we must always fight fear Peter puts it this
way 1 Peter 3 15 and 16 always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you
for the to give the reason for the hope that you have but do this with gentleness and respect
keeping a clear conscience so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior
in Christ may be ashamed of their slander do this with gentleness and respect and do
it with a clear conscience we must always fight fear what does that mean you don't demonize
your opponent you don't attack personality when you need to deal with issues you don't
talk about your opponent behind his back you don't slander you don't misrepresent the truth
you face the issues head on with the desire to bring about restoration and reconciliation
and to stand for truth in a way that honors God and that does not dishonor his kingdom
and if after Christian Church is too passive in the face of encroaching evil then the other
half sometimes is too aggressive and minimizes the impact of their message by their inappropriate
conduct and their ways of fighting that bogged down into a courtyard scrap or a schoolyard
scrap between two children how many of you here know Michael Corrin anybody Michael Corrin
is a fairly well-known personality in the media he's written a significant number of
books he's run a number of his own television shows and and he's just recently migrated
from the Roman Catholic Church to the Anglican Church and the issue the reason he says is
because his position on same-sex marriage has changed from being against it to being
in favor of it and because the Anglican Church is much more congenial to that in most of
its manifestations than the Roman Catholic Church is he feels that he can no longer in
good conscience be a Roman Catholic now let the issue rest whether you agree or disagree
most of his invitations to speak at Catholic institutions of course got withdrawn almost
immediately and I think that's that's fair enough but what he says bothered him the most
is the vitriol the poison the aggressiveness of the attacks that were directed towards
him that became personal and antagonistic and and just very very destructive and whenever
I hear that and I hear that a lot and even if you make allowances for the fact that you
know people have been stirred and are particularly tender and sensitive about it does damage
to the cause of Christ Peter says do it with a clear conscience and with gentleness and
with respect Paul writing to Timothy puts it this way he says don't have anything to
do with foolish and stupid arguments because they produce quarrels and the Lord's servant
was not quarrel instead he must be kind to everyone able to teach not resentful and those
who oppose him he must gently instruct in the hope that God will grant them repentance
so here's where I want to leave it this morning number one as you look at what is happening
in the world today and it's coming at us from all sides what's your response there are some
of us here we're naturally given towards passivity don't bother me don't engage me I am just
interested in my own comfort and in my own life some of us we swing the other way we're
naturally aggressive and given half a chance we'll take out a stick and we'll clobber
somebody and that may not always be done in the spirit of the Lord I see you recognize
yourself or each other in those two descriptions some people are passive some people are aggressive
and a lot of people are passive aggressive they just let it go let it go let it go till
they can let it go no longer then they blow up and you get a big mess on your hands now
here's the question identifying who you are and what your natural inclination is what
is the Holy Spirit saying to you this morning where is the Holy Spirit stirring in some
of you to get engaged in the issues of life that are threatening not only Western civilization
but especially the church what is your job you say well I don't know don't worry about
that start praying about God stirring in your heart and asking what you're stirring in my
heart what do you want me to do about it because if the willingness is there to be engaged
trust me God will open doors you will find other people whose hearts resonate with your
heart then the next question is what am I going to do about it maybe you can't do anything
about it but you can pray or you can give or you can sign a petition or you can be stir
your mind and body and spirit and say there's evil here and how can I be part of the solution
and if you're on the other end of the spectrum and you're just ready to put your foot in
your mouth and clobber the nearest opponent then ask yourself the question what is the
Holy Spirit want to temper in me because you can see you can have the strength of a horse
and you can be filled with energy and filled with passion but a horse that has not been
bridled and that can't run as part of a team wastes his energy and becomes dangerous because
it is not focused and it's not purposeful see the purpose of the Holy Spirit on the
day of Pentecost wasn't just to make us feel good wasn't just to allow us to share in the
blessings of heaven through faith in Christ of course it is that and a whole lot more
but Jesus did say when the Holy Spirit comes upon you you're going to be my witnesses
the word is martyr just for the record he's going to inspire in his children the passion
to engage in his work of ministry so again I ask you the question given where you find
yourself giving who given who you are given what you know about the world around you given
what stirs in you would your eyes to the occasion and say Lord what is your Holy Spirit directing
me to do for your cause and for your glory may only be to pray may only be to link with
other Christians it may only be to be here every Sunday and make a faithful contribution
to the work I don't know what it will be but I can guarantee you that if you're walking
with the Lord something somewhere will stir your heart it will get your attention and
then you've got to make the decision do I follow up on it or not and the degree to which
you and I do to that degree God opens up the door and makes us participants with him in
the bringing about of his kingdom people died generations ago that you and I could sit here
today and name the name of Jesus.
you