You’re walking in a forest and you hear “Timber!!!” The voice sounds really near. Then you hear a slow creaking sound and a loud crack. A tree is about to fall - conceivably on you.
Or you’re standing around beside a golf course and suddenly someone shouts “Fore!” with an element of panic in the tone of voice. A golf ball has been hit badly and is travelling dangerously off course - perhaps towards you.
I’ve never been hit by a falling tree or by a stray golf ball – but I spent most of my weekends as a boy racing sailboats on the Thames, crewing for my dad. I learned to duck quickly whenever I heard my dad shout “Jibe!” It meant the boom was going to swing at great speed from one side of the boat to the other – and, being in the middle of the boat, my head was in the way. And, being a bit dithering and vague, I got hit by a jibing boom on several occasions. “Jibe!” “Eh?” Smack!!! “Ouch!”
Timber, Fore, Jibe; three urgent warning calls that danger is real, close up and imminent.
Why Vigilance Is Essential
The Apostle Paul, finishing off his letter to the Romans, starts to wind it up in v17 with a similar warning; “Watch out!” Picture a runaway chariot, speeding down a cobbled hill in Rome, clattering against the stones, hurtling towards a mother with a pram. The word Paul uses here in v17 “Watch out” is the very word you would have shouted as soon as you saw that chariot. It’s a word that expresses something urgent and pressing and critical. There’s a lunatic running amok in the street with a knife. The word Paul uses here in v17 is what you would shout to a friend to warn him about the danger. “Watch out!”
What do you think a young and growing Christian community would need to watch out for? We’ve been thinking a lot about spiritual warfare in the last few months; principalities and powers, strongholds and footholds, armour and weaponry – all we need for the battle out there. But the sobering thing about tonight’s readings from God’s word is that sometimes the battle is not out there in the big bad world. It’s in here, in the church. Sometimes we have to do battle with an enemy within.
One of the key features of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan – and one of the reasons why they were, and are, so difficult to win – is enemy insurgents infiltrating local police or armed forces. Just last week, tragically, you’ll have seen the news, five British soldiers came under machine gun fire and were killed by a man who had gained access to their quarters by joining the Afghan army as a trainee. In the same week a disillusioned loner in the American military opened fire on his brothers in arms in a base in Texas. 100 bullets. 29 injured. 13 fatalities.
I don’t know what the answer is to all that. But I do know what the answer is in the spiritual realm, because God gives it to us here in Romans 16. And we’re going to look at that together in a minute.
Truth or Love?
But first of all, let me tell you about two friends of mine; Margaret and Patrick. They are both real people and neither is from here. Margaret once said to me something like this; “What we need is unity and love. People go on about what we have to believe. Truth is important, don’t get me wrong, but if I had to choose between love and truth, I’d take love every time.” Patrick takes another view. “Only one thing has any value; the truth that Jesus died for my sins on the cross – everything else is unimportant.”
Who’s right? What do you think is most important in the Christian community? Is it truth or unity? In other words, is it more important that we hold on to the truths established in Scripture and passed on to us? Or is it more important that we keep the Church together as a loving, united community? Verses 17-18 give us something to go on.
“I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people.”
So – what do you think? Margaret would say, “Look, it says here, ‘watch out for those who cause divisions,’ because what we need is unity.” Patrick would say, “Look, it says here, ‘watch out for those who put obstacles against teaching you have learned’ because what we need is the truth.”
And of course we want both, don’t we? If you drift away from what the Bible says you’ll get spiritually unhealthy and eventually you’ll die because Jesus said “my words are spirit and they are life.” And if we drift away from each other, becoming unloving and disunited we’ll lose our cutting edge because Jesus said “all people will know you are my disciples by the love you have for one another.”
I wonder if we naturally tend towards an approach that says, “Look, nobody has the whole truth, everybody sees things differently, let’s celebrate difference, and keep our unity, let’s not divide over these matters, let’s be a broad church.” Is that so bad? The thing is, Paul does care about unity here. That’s why he says, “Watch out for those who cause divisions.”
Here’s the key to unlocking this problem of truth versus unity; it’s not refusing bad teaching that damages unity in the church – the real harm is done when we just accept it uncritically. It’s not rejecting strange doctrine that is unloving – it’s tolerating weird ideas and new fads and unbiblical novelties whenever they appear that shows we are too scared to fight for the spiritual wellbeing of our brothers and sisters in Christ.
In both our readings tonight Paul talks about Satan in the context of people, in churches, promoting beliefs contrary to wholesome, healthy, biblical teaching. And there still are. It’s spiritual warfare of a different kind. “For such persons are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.” He still does. “Give them a wide berth” says Paul.
If you’re under 30, you were born in an era of human history where it is very hard to be a lover of truth. Lovers of truth in 2009 will spend their whole lives resisting pressure to conform to the dominant worldview of this age – which is the post-enlightenment belief that there is no truth (there’s just opinion), there’s no absolute right and wrong (there’s just differences) and that everything is relative (it just depends on your perspective).
Do people really infiltrate churches and sweet-talk people with false teaching? Yes. I’ve seen it happen in London and in Paris. I’ve seen how young, impressionable Christians, hungry for new experiences of God, desperate for some kind of spiritual sensation or some new thing that’s taken off elsewhere, easily became attracted by the promise of success, health, happiness, revival and personal fulfilment - and then it ends in tears. It’s the enemy within.
I want you to look at several cases of the enemy within in the New Testament. You have an envelope on your table with a passage from the Bible. I’m going to give you a few minutes to read the passage and try and answer the questions…
For discussion in groups of 10 people
Galatians 1.6-9 and 3.1-6
Colossians 2.16-23
2 Corinthians 11.3-11
Jude 3-13
1 John 2.18-26
What does the author say here, if anything, about the behaviour of ‘the enemy within’?
What clues does this passage give about what ‘the enemy within’ was teaching?
What, if anything, does the passage say about the effect this had on the church?
These questions might seem irrelevant – but they are important because Satan still does the same sort of thing in the same kind of way today. Know your enemy!
I think the key words to note about his behaviour are subtlety, pride, confusion, competitiveness, deception and greed for money.
The key strands on what they were teaching are, I think,
- legalism – it’s all man-made and focused on what you do
- mysticism – spiritual techniques or experiences and an emphasis on angels
- getting Jesus all wrong – it’s another Jesus, or they’ve lost connection with the head, or they’re denying Jesus Christ.
Be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil. What does that mean? I think “be wise about what is good” means keep your brain switched on, be level-headed, check stuff out, don’t just swallow what someone says because they’re on God TV or write books. The Message translates it, “I want you to be smart, making sure every ‘good’ thing is the real thing.”
What about “Be innocent about what is evil?” I think it’s about not being naïve. Don’t be easy to fool. Again, the Message translates it well; “Don't be gullible in regard to smooth-talking evil.”
And, v20, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” His defeat is comprehensive and complete.
Past: Satan has been irretrievably doomed by the resurrection of Christ from the dead.
Future: Satan will be finally defeated and thrown into hell, never to deceive the world again, when Christ returns victorious.
But tonight’s emphasis has been on the present. What is the situation now?
Preset: Satan is being beaten back every day by Christ through believers like you and I wearing the full armour of God and speaking the word of truth. You may say, “Alleluia.”
Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 15th November 2009
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