IT’S NOT THE OUTLOOK – IT’S THE UPLOOK!

Rev Sjirk Bajema

 

Sermon 1 on Heidelberg Catechism Lord’s Day 52 (Q & A 127)

Scripture Reading: Ephesians 6:10-20

 

Church of our Lord Jesus Christ…

We ask that temptation won’t control us. It’s something so important that we need to ask it all the time. It’s in the Lord’s own model prayer, so it must be so! That’s why Answer 127 begins, “By ourselves we are too weak to hold our own even for a moment.”

At some time in our lives we have all felt very afraid. Perhaps it was when we were young. You needed someone else – someone stronger or grown-up – to make you feel safe.

Still – it was scary wasn’t it? To be in a place where you were helpless. You ever so glad to find help and get away!

But spiritually we’re all helpless. While physically we might be able to look after ourselves what’s that compared with eternal realities? Compared to the vast universes that sweep across the depths of space, what are we? We are too weak.

Does the wording imply that the Lord can lead us into temptation? He must know our frailty. We ask Him to keep us away from bad things. Surely He wouldn’t deliberately lead us into sin!

No, He doesn’t. He isn’t trying to trap us in sin.

Then who would? Why, who else but Satan – the devil himself – trying so hard to lure us away! That’s why we pray, “And lead us not into temptation.” “Do not allow anyone or anything to lead us into sin.” As the Catechism confesses, “our sworn enemies – the devil, the world, and our own flesh – will never stop attacking us.”

 

Congregation, here we have the first aspect to this text. This is about THE CONSTANT DANGER TO OUR LIVES.

In the second place we confess our helplessness to deal with our lives. So this is about THE COMPLETE INADEQUACY OF OUR LIVES.

And, thirdly, let’s therefore realise that our dependence is only on God’s protecting and guiding power. So we then see THE GREATER FORCE IN OUR LIVES.

 

The constant danger to our lives

Firstly, there is THE CONSTANT DANGER TO OUR LIVES. We would all agree, I’m sure, that life can be dangerous at times. There are car accidents, acts of physical violence, serious illness, kidnappings, and much intimidation. Anywhere, anytime, you could suddenly be hurt.

But, fellow believers, what are even these drastic physical problems compared with the damage that can be done to us spiritually as Christians? Didn’t Jesus Himself warn us in Matthew 10:28, “Don’t be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.”

The Catechism points us to the real cause of difficulties upon this earth. As it says, “our sworn enemies – the devil, the world, and our own flesh – never stop attacking us.”

Consider these three enemies. We start with the devil.

Well, there’s a nasty piece of work! The apostle Peter in Chapter 5 of his first letter is very graphic about him. He says there in verse 8, “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

He’s a dastardly villain alright! And it’s especially because he is so deviously deceptive.

If he fought fair, okay. But he’s the original dirty fighter! There are no rules in his book.

After all, what could have been more deceiving that his approach to Eve in the Garden of Eden? How deliberately misleading it was when he hissed to her in Genesis 3:1, “Did God really say?” “Go on Eve,” he’s saying, “Have a little flutter.”

Well, it seemed harmless. And that suggestion from Satan about the incredibly wonderful things they would know – that really appealed to Eve. And Adam!

 

Many advertising campaigns follow the same technique. They get your curiosity going.

In Genesis 13 we see Lot being tempted in a similar way. Life looked to be pretty rosy in that particular place. So we read that Lot “pitched his tents near Sodom.” And we know what happened after that!

Don’t you find this to be so often true in your own experience? Just a little taste of something forbidden, and you’re dragged in – hook, line, and sinker!

Like those people who just have a flutter on Lotto every now and then. It’s only “occasionally”. And then they’re at the casino. Oh they’re hooked alright! For if Satan – the evil one – can sense any kind of weakness, he’ll be in like a shot – exploiting it for all its worth!

 

The devil who is particularly focused on God’s people. He’s got the unbelieving world wrapped up and so the greatest battle of all is against you and me! Scripture is very clear about that. It is very dangerous being a Christian.

But in the end, however, as we all know, it’s far more damaging to your health, not to be a Christian. To be doomed to everlasting damnation isn’t good for the complexion, I can assure you!

Yet, the world around us doesn’t know that. Instead, you’ll find that world is our second enemy. This world is another tool Satan uses.

That’s why we shouldn’t make friends with this world. And no matter how “good’ our non-Christian friends may be, still, if they don’t have Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour they’re godless, and they’ll lead us that way, too.

This doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t be involved with unbelievers – how else can we witness to them? But the warning is against becoming too involved, or unthinkingly involved. Could it be that their company becomes much more enjoyable to you than that of your fellow believers?

The same goes for the kind of television programmes we watch, and the movies we see. Is it stuff that’s good for you – or is it stuff that you just have to watch?

This is a call to be discerning about what we watch and read. What’s underneath it? If we aren’t actively thinking about what we’re doing we’re already being lured away. How can we pray “And lead us not into temptation” if we’re always exposing ourselves to that exact temptation? Play with fire and your hands will get burnt!

But there is a further difficulty. We find that even our own selves trip us up. We are often our own worst enemy! And so our Lord’s Day points us out as that third enemy.

This is very much what the apostle Paul testified to in Romans 7. As he spoke so despairingly there in the verses 21-23, “For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I don’t want to do – this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer I who do it, but it’s sin living in me that does it. So I find this law at work: When I want to do good, evil is right there with me.”

 

The complete inadequacy of our lives

Congregation, it all points, in the second place, to THE COMPLETE INADEQUACY OF OUR LIVES. In ourselves we are so hopeless. In our own being we don’t have a single shred of positive direction and inner strength. We’ve lost our bearings for what really counts!

The Bible tells us that Joseph ran for his life when he was faced with temptation. When he was faced with Potiphar’s wife trying to seduce him in Genesis 39:12 he took off. But Joseph wasn’t operating from his own strength – his genuine love for God was stronger than his love for sin.

But we often rather prefer the way of Samson! I can’t imagine Samson having any time to pray this sixth request. Can you see him praying, while at the height of enjoying his pleasure with a pretty pagan woman, “Lord, by myself I am too weak to hold my own even for a moment?”

No way! He was clever and strong. He thought he could play with fire and not get burnt!

Congregation, don’t we demonstrate THE COMPLETE INADEQUACY OF OUR LIVES in trying to do the same thing? Doing God’s will is foreign to us in our own selves.

There’s a trend in many churches today to give sin a back-seat. As many Christians sincerely say, “But if the Lord has forgiven our sins, what more do we need? He’s washed us from our sins. That’s all we need.”

Yes, Jesus cleansed us from all our wrong. But he did that by uniting us to himself, so that we live in communion with him. How can we live in sin any longer?

Prayer is vital in maintaining our communion with the Lord. We need to keep in touch. It’s our vital pipeline to truly receiving His grace into all the parts of our lives.

It will be a connection that often breaks down because of our sin. As Samuel Chadwick said, “The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying.” Prayer is part of the Lord’s way of keeping us going His way!

That’s why true preaching always challenges us about our position before the Lord. Scriptural preaching doesn’t avoid the cold, hard, facts. We are sinful. Why try to deny what’s true?

Instead, we should acknowledge it. It needs to be a prod to make us grow in faith. When we daily confess our sin, we remember the relationship we’re in by God’s grace and we treasure that more than anything else!

In 1 Peter 2:9 Peter points us to our identity in Jesus Christ. “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his glorious light.”

Think of some of these words Peter used. “Chosen people,” “royal priesthood,” “a holy nation,” “a people belonging to God,” and we are all these so that “we may declare the praises of him who called us out of darkness into his glorious light”!

Does it seem to you that these words actually describe someone else? Surely they’re not about us? When we consider our lives, we cannot see anything special, much less holy, or royal, or belonging to God!

But, and this is the crunch, it’s not something we ourselves achieve in our own strength. When we think we’re strong, aren’t we actually terribly weak? It’s only by depending on a strength not our own that we can stand. It’s only in seeing what we cannot see that we can continue.

 

The greater force in our lives

This is what we see in our third point. For this third point shows how our dependent we are upon God’s protecting and guiding hand. He is THE GREATER FORCE IN OUR LIVES.

How can we resist the devil, making him flee from us? We need only to listen to the verses that follow James’s statement about this. James 4:8-10 “Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.”

You see, it’s only in losing ourselves to the will of God that we truly find ourselves. We need Him! His is the only way! This is why we confess in the Catechism, “And so, Lord, uphold us and make us strong with the strength of your Holy Spirit, so that we will not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle, but may firmly resist our enemies until we finally win the complete victory.”

Sometimes, God, in His wisdom, might see fit to bring us right into the middle of a fierce and devastating temptation. He wants to test us. He looks to us to respond in such a way as we pray! In the Lord’s Prayer we ask that we may not give way to sin, that we will stand in the strength from above. “Heavenly Father,” we pray, “please give us the strength we need, so that we don’t fall into the clutches of Satan!”

Then those words, “resist the devil and he will flee from you,” become all the more vital! Then we’re drawn again once more into God’s grace. God’s love, which has brought us so far, will keep us still. That’s what we realise more and more in our lives as we come to see the purpose that God had in placing us under temptation.

Think of Joseph again. The temptation he faced was very real. Satan tried so hard to change God’s saving plan for His people. Yet Joseph was able to say at the end of his life, in Genesis 50:20, to those very brothers who had tried to kill him, “You intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.”

Joseph knew THE GREATER FORCE IN OUR LIVES. He knew the One who was guiding Him specially. He had prayed – pleading for His Saviour God to be right next to Him. That’s why he knew that everything was fitting into the plan and purpose of the LORD.

 

God’s plan for the Christian is the very best! In the end, in Jesus we’ll win the complete victory!

That’s what the Lord promised to His people in Hebrews 13. In the verses 5 and 6 He says, “‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.’ So we can say with confidence: ‘The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid. ‘What can man do to me?’”

People of God, we will be sorely tested and tried. Jesus has grasped our hand as we were drowning in that quicksand of sin, but He still hasn’t finished pulling us right out! Like Abraham, Job, David, and Peter, we’ll sometimes slip back, perhaps even denying our Saviour.

But, dear friend, the Lord gives His grace so we can repent in sorrow and return to Him. He won’t let us go! As the Catechism says, “we may not go down to defeat in this spiritual struggle!”

Total victory will be ours at the end, though we may lose battles on the way. And we know why we lose sometimes, don’t we? We don’t practice what we preach. We don’t always flee temptation!

Brother, sister, young person, what are some of those temptations that are limiting your fellowship with the Lord? Think about it. Confess them to your God in prayer.

And, please, make it your heart that pours it out. That way you depend on His strength! That’s what Ephesians 6:10 means when it tells us to “be strong in the Lord.”

We must be guided by His Word and Spirit. That’s “the sword of Spirit” in Ephesians 6:17. That’s truly praying.

Do not be scared. He is there. In His Son He’s here. And He really does care!

Amen.

 

 

PRAYER:

Let’s pray…

O God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, do convict us once again of our desperate need of what You have done in Your Son. May we not slip away into the wiles of that evil one but draw all the more into Your most loving arms.

Please guide us to set regular times to be with You. Every day may we be found on bended knees, living life as it was always meant to be!

Through Christ our Lord, Amen.