Our challenge to defeat Satan as Chris­tian citizens in our respective nations involves resolutions that we should make in the strength of Christ by faith:

1. Resolve to evangelize by spreading the truth wherever possible.
2. Resolve to extend Christ’s love to the poor and needy.

1. Resolve to evangelize by spreading the truth wherever possible⤒🔗

Satan is the father of liars; he is both liar and the lie. He is the antithesis of God, who is the essence of truth. God the Father declares truth (John 1:18), God the Son is the personification of truth (John 1:17; 14:6), and God the Holy Spirit leads us into truth (John 17:17; 16:13). God is absolute, unconditional truth; He cannot lie or be untruthful (Titus 1:2; Heb. 6:18). As Psalm 111:7-8 says, “The works of his hands are truth and judgment; all his precepts are sure. They stand fast forever and ever, and are done in truth and uprightness.” Truth is a glorious attribute of God. All lies are sin, for they are a contradiction of God as truth.

Therefore, God loves truth. Thomas Goodwin said, “God hath but three things dear unto Him in this world — His saints, His worship, and His truth, and it is hard to say which of these is dearest unto Him.” People who are com­mitted to Satan’s downfall and Christ’s increase spread the truth. Resolve to be such a person.

Do you wonder how to go about that? Spreading the truth begins in the closet of prayer. Ask God every morning to make your life a force for truth that day. Ask Him to help you forget yourself and remember Him by proclaiming His truth in what you say and do. Pray for openings to speak a good word for God, then anticipate and act upon such opportunities. Force yourself not to let any opportunity slip by without saying some word for good. The more you do that, the easier it will become.

Let me give you two quick examples. As a pastor, I am often asked to visit people in the hospital. When I get on the elevator, I usually make it a point to converse with those who are riding with me. I break the typical silence on elevators with a friendly comment or two, perhaps about the weather. Most of the time, other people respond warmly. I then ask, “Do you have a rela­tive or a good friend in the hospital?” In almost every case, they do, so they talk about whom they are seeing and what the situation is. If we get off at the same floor, conversation often continues. I have had many opportunities to pray with such people, who, minutes before, had been total strangers to me. I have often followed up those pastoring opportunities by sending them Reformed literature.

I also initiate conversation with people on airplanes. I have resolved to do that whenever I fly alone. At first this was hard work! But, over time, I have come to enjoy witnessing to people on airplanes. For one thing, due to the ano­nymity of airplanes, people are almost always willing to open up about their lives. Most of the time, they accept some Reformed literature that I purposely carry with me. Before we land, I offer to send them more free literature. About half of the people accept that offer and provide me with their address.

No doubt many of these efforts remain fruitless, but who can tell? Ecclesiastes 11:1 says, “Cast thy bread upon the waters: for thou shalt find it after many days.” One time while flying over New York state, I gave some literature to a stewardess, who was an unbeliever. As we were landing, she asked me if I would send her some sermons by tape because she had to drive ninety miles to work every day. I sent her twenty tapes. A few weeks later, she sent me a letter expressing how much the sermons meant to her. Needless to say, I sent her more tapes.

Life is incredibly short. Let the truth convict you of sin, liberate you in Christ, and transform you into a spreader of truth. “Keep the truth, and the truth will keep you,” said William Bridge. Spread the truth wher­ever you can, in whatever way best fits the gifts that God has given you. Spread truth in private conversa­tions, tracts, tapes, periodicals, books, radio, and email. Spread truth in your home, your church, your Sunday school, and among your neighbors. Spread truth in soci­ety, in jails, in nursing homes, and on the street.

A friend in Cape Town, South Africa, gives himself to a full-time ministry of spreading John Blanchard’s Ultimate Questions to anyone who will take them. He has numerous stories to tell of how God has blessed the handing out of tens of thousands of these booklets. His greatest expense is buying several pairs of shoes each year, due to their wearing out from his walking the streets for ten to twelve hours a day. Closer to home, I have an uncle in his eighties who always carries in his pocket several copies of the Inheritance Publishers’ sermon booklets. Wherever he goes, he seeks to spread truth by striking up a conversation with people with the goal of getting a booklet into their hands. Once, at a church meeting, we heard numerous sirens; he disap­peared for a while, only to return with great excitement. “A large crowd had gathered around a motorcyclist who had hit a car, flipped onto the grass, and was doing well,” he said. “But, best of all,” he added, opening his suit-coat, and showing his empty pockets, “I was able to give away all my sermons in one place!”

What truth do we spread? If we are not saved, we pervert truth and our lives spread lies, for we belong to the liar, Satan. Every moment that we do not glorify God, live by faith, and walk according to the spirit of the law, we bear false witness to our Creator. If we are saved, our lives must increasingly spread the truth, for we are of Christ, who is the Truth. Do not be shy about speaking up for Christ. The world isn’t shy about its false agenda; why should Christians be shy about telling others about life-changing Truth? Thomas Brooks wrote, “Every parcel of truth is precious as the filings of gold; we must either live with it, or die for it.”

If you would expose Satan’s weakness, resolve to live as a light on the hill and salt in the earth. Let your life be contagious. Let love and truth abound, remembering that the deepest need of our nation is not the legislation of godliness and morality from the top down but the conversion of ordinary people, one at a time, from the grass-roots level. One-on-one evangelism, not national politics, can save our backslidden countries.

Buy the truth (Prov. 23:23). Be a prayerful, persis­tent, dedicated spreader of truth. Know the truth (John 8:32), do the truth (John 3:21), and abide in the truth (John 8:44). Be a truth-teller and a truth-liver. Follow the advice of John Hus: “Search the truth, hear truth, learn truth, love truth, speak the truth, hold the truth till death.” Then your salt will not lose its saltiness as a Christian citizen of your nation.

2. Resolve to extend Christ’s love to the poor and needy←⤒🔗

Satan’s cause gets stronger when Christians turn a blind eye and deaf ear to social concerns. James sternly warns us of God’s judgment on not caring for people in need. He says, “If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, and one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (2:15-17).

We must reach out to our needy neighbor both in word and deed. John Stott says, “Why should Christians get involved? In the end there are only two possible attitudes which Christians can adopt towards the world: Escape and Engagement.” “Escape,” Stott explains, means turning our backs on the world. It means reject­ing unbelievers, washing our hands of them, and steel­ing our hearts against their agonized cries for help. By contrast, “engagement” means turning our faces toward the world in compassion and getting our hands dirty, sore, and worn in its service. It means “feeling deep within us the stirring of the love which cannot be contained.” Stott concludes: “If we truly love our neighbors, and ... desire to serve them, we shall be concerned for their total welfare, the well-being of their soul, their body and their community. And our concern will lead to practical programs” (Decisive Issues Facing Christians Today, pp. 14, 19).

The Dutch Reformed liturgy for marriage challenges a new husband to work faithfully so that he may main­tain his household honestly “and likewise have some­thing to give to the poor” (Psalter, p. 77). What are we giving of our time and financial resources to help the poor? Are we reaching out to them in word and deed?

Finally, our challenge to defeat Satan as Christian citizens in our respec­tive nations involves resolutions that we should make in the strength of Christ by faith:

Resolve to speak out on scriptural and moral issues. Many Christians avoid get­ting involved in politics because their efforts seem so ineffective. Yet, perhaps one reason that political life has degenerated is that God’s people are often no longer getting involved.

We need to seriously consider two things: first, God has established civil authorities to execute justice, to establish order and righteousness in society, and to provide for the common good. He does this in order to provide a peaceable context in which the gospel, godliness, and honesty may prosper (Rom. 13:1-7; Ps. 106:3; Isa. 1:17; 1 Tim. 2:1-2).

Second, we have a responsibility to support our government. We must pay what we owe to the government (Mark 12:13-17) and pray for those in authority over us (1 Tim. 2:1-4). We must respect and obey the state, but our obedience to the state is not blind obedience. The apostles said that Christians should not obey civil authorities if their mandates contradict God’s laws (Acts 5:29). Paul used his Roman citizenship to object to injustice (Acts 16:35-39; 22:24-29). Other biblical characters influenced the secular government that ruled over them. Consider the examples of Joseph (Gen. 41) and Daniel (Dan. 6).

We should carefully consider whom to vote for in local and national elec­tions. As John Jay, the first chief justice of the United States Supreme Court, said in 1816: “Providence has given to our people the choice of their rulers, and it is the duty ... of our Christian nation to select and prefer Christians for their rulers” (Correspondence and Public Papers of John Jay [New York: G.P. Putnam, 1893], 4:393).

Christians are to be salt and light in the world, and that world includes the government level. J.I. Packer writes, “The more profoundly one is concerned about heaven, the more deeply one cares about God’s will being done on earth.”

How far should a Christian go in supporting state and political affairs? Here are four principles to guide us:

• Study Scripture for guidance. Understand what the Bible has to say on moral issues like abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, and Sabbath desecration. Read appropriate materials that will give you a working vocabulary and knowledge of these issues, then speak to your family, friends, work associates, and neighbors about them.
• Pray daily for civil authorities. Pray for the conversion of those who are unsaved and for the strengthening of those who are Christians (1 Tim. 2:1-2). Pray for revival in the land. Cry to God, “Save thy people, and bless thine inheritance. Turn us again, O LORD God of hosts, cause thy face to shine; and we shall be saved” (Ps. 28:9; 80:19). Could one reason why we see so little of God’s movement in society be related to our shallow prayers, our minimal expectation of God, and our neglect to view ourselves as personally involved in the sins of our land? When King Edward died suddenly in England, John Bradford confessed, “He died because of my sin.” Bradford, as a Christian citizen, viewed himself as part of the corporate nation, and thus confessed guilt for his lack of prayer for his God-fearing king. This inclusion of ourselves in prayer for the nation is biblical — for example, notice how Daniel includes himself repeatedly when confessing corporate, national guilt in his well-known prayer of Daniel 9.
• Learn how your government operates. Political institutions are imperfect in this fallen world, but remember that God has ordained them. Gov­ernments do legislate morality; the question is, whose morality will be legislated? If Christians ignore what is happening in government and put their heads in the sand, their country will deteriorate even faster.
• Note, however, that the church is not to be a political institution. The church helps to bring people to Christ and then molds them to be like Him. Believers who are motivated by Christ’s love and compassion then may enter the political arena well-equipped to stand firm for justice.
• Get involved. Write letters to government leaders and editors of newspapers and other media that influence political processes. Join organizations and support movements that uphold Christian morality. Run for public office, if God calls you to do that. Otherwise, support other Christians who sustain biblical views and do run for office.
• When you contemplate raising your voice on moral issues of the day, remember Luther’s famous statement:

“If I profess with the loudest voice and the clearest expo­sition every portion of the truth of God, except precisely that little point which the world and the devil are at that moment attacking, I am not confessing Christ, however boldly I may be professing Christ. Where the battle rages, there the loyalty of the soldier is proved.”

Live for Christ←⤒🔗

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, “Neither give place to the devil” (4:27). Leave no opening for the devil. Be too busy for Satan. Do not allow empty spaces in your life, for the devil will surely fill them. Do not serve Satan; he is a squatter without rights in this world. As a believer, you have no business sinning or living like an unbeliever. By God’s grace, suppress all lust, bitterness, and anger. Live for Christ.

“Who is sufficient for these things?” 2 Cor. 2:16 asks. For years, I thought that was a rhetorical question to be answered with, “Certainly not me and no one else, either.” But Paul answers the question six verses later: “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God” (2 Cor. 3:5). In the power of Christ, we can live a life to God’s glory that triumphs over Satan’s defeat — personally, in the church, and in the nation. Live for your Savior who holds the world, the nations, the church, and yourself — including the smallest detail — in His almighty, gracious hands.

Let me close with a prayer of John Calvin: “Grant, Almighty God, that as Thou art graciously pleased daily to set before us Thy sure and certain will, we may open our eyes and ears, and raise all our thoughts to that which not only reveals to us what is right, but also confirms us in a sound mind, so that we may go on in the course of true religion, and never turn aside, whatever Satan and his demons may devise against us, but that we may stand firm and persevere, until having finished our warfare, we shall at length come unto that blessed rest which has been prepared for us in heaven by Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.”