Series: Growing Together in God's Grace
Dear friends in Christ.
Have you ever broken something or
ruined something that was valuable to another person? Sadly, I think it’s safe to say that at one
time or another in our lives, we have done this very thing; we have ruined or
broken something that belonged to someone else.
For me, the thing that sticks out most clearly in my mind today is a
matchbox car that belonged to my sister.
It was a simple blue hatch back with an orange plastic trunk that
actually opened. I remember receiving
her permission to take it with me to school and play with it there. I remember playing with it at recess, and I
remember the trunk being broken. To this
day I don’t know how it broke, though I’m sure I’m the one who broke it, because
I was the only person playing with it.
To this day I can still remember the feelings of horror and sorrow,
guilt and shame that washed over me because I knew I had let my sister
down. I had broken her favorite and only
matchbox car. I remember wishing I could
take it back and do it over; wishing that I had a second chance to get it
right. But it was broken, there was no
second chance. There wasn’t even the
opportunity to buy a new one because that model of matchbox car simply could no
longer be found.
Well, in many ways this is a
picture of what happened with God’s creation!
Though it was perfect when God was finished with all his creating work,
as we know, the entirety of God’s creation was ruined by one simple action; one
simple mistake, by one single sin. And,
of course, we know exactly who was behind it all, orchestrating the ruin of
God’s creation. We know that it was our
enemy, the devil. Though in the last two
weeks we’ve looked at the importance of God’s creation and how he provides for
us through his creation, this morning we want to take a closer look at how the
devil ruined God’s creation.
So, to understand more fully how
the devil ruined God’s creation, we want to take a look at the Scriptures and
learn exactly who the devil really is.
We look first of all at Matthew 25:41 where Jesus say, “‘Depart from me,
you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his
angels." (Matthew 25:41, NIV84)
As I’m sure you remember these
words were spoken by Jesus in answer to the disciple’s question of what it will
be like on the Last Day and what will be the signs of his return. Jesus answered them with many parables and
finally he spoke to them with the parable of the sheep and the goats. When Jesus comes to judge the world he will
separate believers from unbelievers as easily as a shepherd separates sheep
from goats. Those who believed in him
would be given the inheritance of eternal life, but those who did not believe
in Jesus would be condemned. They would
be told to depart from Jesus. They would
be sent to the eternal fire which was prepared for the devil and all his evil
angels who sinned against the Lord after and who are being held for the day of
God’s judgment, as Peter tells us, “God did not spare angels when they sinned,
but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for
judgment;" (2 Peter 2:4, NIV84)
Though the devil was one of God’s
angels, created in perfect holiness so that he might serve the Lord and care
for his creation, satan sinned against the Lord by seeking to overthrow the
Lord and set himself up in God’s place.
But not only did he sin by seeking to take over heaven, he also sinned
by convincing a number of angels to rebel with him. Though he raised his mutiny, he was defeated and
cast out of heaven, and now he, an evil angel and ruler of a finite number of
evil angels seeks to destroy all that God has created and all who believe in
him.
This is what our enemy, the
devil, really is! He is a very powerful,
evil angel, who is also the ruler of many other evil angels. Yet, how often doesn’t it happen that he is
portrayed as a benign powerless force in the world. How often isn’t he portrayed as cute, or
innocent, or even cool rather than what he truly is, as Peter tells us, “Be
self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring
lion looking for someone to devour." (1 Peter 5:8, NIV84) or as Jesus
tells us, “[The devil] was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the
truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native
language, for he is a liar and the father of lies." (John 8:44, NIV84) or
as John tells us, “The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called
the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray. He was hurled to the
earth, and his angels with him." (Revelation 12:9, NIV84)
This is who our enemy, the devil,
truly is and this is how he accomplishes his evil work today! He is not a cute, or innocent, or cool, or
benign force in the world. He is a
roaring lion who is prowling around, looking to devour us by leading us into
sin. He is an ancient serpent, a great
dragon who seeks to lead us astray with his lies. He is a liar and a murder who seeks to murder
us by separating us form God’s truth through his lies; who seeks to destroy us
and God’s creation through his lies still today, just as he did with Adam and
Eve. For the truth is, satan is still
destroying God’s creation today with the very first lies he spoke to Adam and
Eve: “Did God really say?” “You will not
die! You will be like God!” These are the very lies that our enemy, the
devil, continues to use today! These are
the very lies that he uses to eat away at our faith in God’s creation of the
heavens and the earth. These are the
very lies that lead people to the seemingly glorious truths of the theory of
evolution, because in the theory of Evolution what God really said is replaced
by what we really say, and what God really is, is replaced by who we really are
as we seek to take his place and be like God ruling over heaven and earth by
our declaration of God’s non existence through the “proof” of scientific fact.
In so many subtle ways, our
enemy, the devil, does his evil work among us as he seeks to destroy us with
his lies and deceits, just as he did with Adam and Eve, as Moses tells us, “Now
the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the LORD God had made.
He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in
the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees
in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is
in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’ ” 4
“You will not surely die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that
when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing
good and evil.” 6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for
food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took
some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he
ate it." (Genesis 3:1–6, NIV84)
One little lie! That’s all it took to get Adam and Eve to forget
all about God’s goodness in creating them and giving them a perfect place to
live in the Garden of Eden. But before
we criticize Adam and Eve for being so foolish, think of how easily satan gets
us to lie, to speak angry words, or to covet some little thing that another
person has. Why do we do these
things? Only because Satan’s lies tempt
us to think that it’s better or easier or more profitable to do these things
than to follow God’s will. But when we
do these things, all we wind up doing is bringing more frustration and hardship
and even suffering into our lives, just as Adam and Eve brought these things
into the world when their sin ruined God’s creation.
When Adam and Eve listened to
satan instead of the Lord, they ruined God’s creation through their sin. They brought sin and death into this world
together with pain and suffering. For
these were the very consequences bestowed upon them and all creation because of
their sin, as Moses tells us in Genesis 3, “To the woman [the Lord] said, “I
will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth
to children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you.”
17 To Adam he said, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree
about which I commanded you, ‘You must not eat of it,’ “Cursed is the ground
because of you; through painful toil you will eat of it all the days of your
life. 18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the
plants of the field. 19 By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until
you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to
dust you will return.” (Genesis 3:16–19, NIV84)
Because of that one sin, we are
now sinful. Because of that one sin,
creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth until this present
time (Romans 8:22) Because of that one sin we face suffering in this life;
suffering that comes to us through sicknesses inflicted upon us or our loved
ones. Suffering that comes to us through
the frustrations of weakening limbs, joints, hearing, abilities, eyesight, or
other physical ways. Suffering that
comes to us through family and friends who turn away from us or turn against
us. Suffering that comes from financial
issues. Suffering that comes to us because
of the curse of death. Though God
created this world and everything in it to be perfect, satan successfully
ruined God’s creation when he tempted Adam and Eve into sin and brought sin and
death, pain and suffering into the world for us and for all who follow after
us. But even though satan was so
successful at so thoroughly ruining God’s creation, our God enacted his
solution only a short time after Adam and Eve became his enemies. For it was on that very day in the cool of
the evening when the Lord spoke to them and said, “I will put enmity between
[satan] and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your
head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15, NIV84)
In that moment the Lord enacted
his solution of salvation by promising to send his Son to be the Savior. From that time forward the Lord continued to
reiterate his promise that the Savior would come to free his people from their
sins. All who put their faith in the
Savior who was to come found that their sins had been forgiven, lived in a
right relationship with the Lord their God, and looked forward to the
inheritance of eternal life by their Savior’s side forever in heaven. Though satan had ruined God’s creation, in
his love the Lord God provided all people with a second chance to once again be
made perfect through faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior. In his great love, the Lord our God sent his
Son to be the sacrifice of atonement to make us righteous in his sight so that through
faith in Jesus, we too can look forward to the gift of eternal life. Though we will still face frustration and
hardship, pain and suffering in this life, because we know Jesus, our Savior,
we can see these things as blessings from the Lord, designed to help us keep
our eyes focused on him and our faith securely founded in him. Though we will face difficulties in this
life, these are also things that are designed to make us lean on the Lord all
the more for help in this life. Though
we will see friends and family suffer with sickness and hardships and even face
the death of family and loved ones, we have our Savior’s promise that whoever
is faithful to him, even to the point of death, each one will receive the crown
of life in his heavenly kingdom (Revelation 2:10) when he calls us home to the
place that he, himself, has prepared for us. (John 14:2-3)
What an incredible solution that
the Lord bestows upon us. Even though
our enemy, the devil sought to ruin God’s creation and murder our first parents
by enticing them into sin, the Lord saved them and us through Jesus our
Savior. Though our enemy, the devil,
still prowls around like a roaring lion seeking to devour us, it is our Savior
who defends us, protects us, and forgives us, because he has made us his own
through faith. Though the devil ruined
God’s creation by using his lives to bring sin, death and suffering into the
world, in his great grace the Lord has given us a second chance through faith
in Jesus. He has given us the promise
that he will be with us in this life as well as the promise that he will take
us to be with him forever. For all of
this let us thank and praise the Lord our God!
Let us serve him and obey him.
Amen.
Pastor David M. Shilling
GraceEvangelical Lutheran Church--Le Sueur, MN
