THE apostle Paul has been warning the church in Rome of the danger of false teachers which can do so much harm, and destroy people's faith. False teaching brings divisions in the church fellowship which are so destructive. Such a warning brings the fear that the powers of evil may be too strong and bring disaster, so in this verse Paul gives us the believers confidence in all the troubles and difficulties which Satan brings in his vicious work to destroy the work of God. False teaching in the church is an ever present danger, but there are many others which Satan uses to destroy peace within the fellowship. This verse before is the answer to them all by which we may have confidence even in the darkest time.

We have in this verse three things on which our confidence can safely rest. The first is the truth about God. The second is the action of God. The third is the blessing of God. Let us address these three aspects of our text for our assurance and comfort against all the wiles of the devil.

THE TRUTH ABOUT GOD.

The truth about God which brings confidence in all the assaults of the devil is the truth that God is the God of peace. The devil's business is to destroy peace and bring about conflict.

The devil destroys peace by perverting the truth and so destroying the peace in believing. The devil destroys peace when he causes fear in God's people in one way or another, and takes away love and confidence in the fellowship. The devil destroys peace when he causes God's people to sin. The devil destroys peace when he causes the church to depend on the arm of the flesh, and human wisdom, rather than trusting God and following his ways. There are so many variations of these works of the devil, and there are many more that could be named. The devil's purpose is to destroy peace in individual believers and in the fellowship of the church in one way or another. Because of this Paul reminds us that our God is the God of peace.

Peace is an essential blessing of the gospel. We have peace with God when we are granted the faith to put our trust in Jesus as our Saviour, Lord and God. By this we are justified in the sight of God because of what Christ has accomplished in his life and on the cross, because we are counted righteous in the sight of God because Christ has worked perfect righteousness for us by his life and death, and so God sees no sin in us to be condemned. So this peace is found in Romans 8: 1 where we read that there is no condemnation for them that are in Christ Jesus.

Through Christ and faith in him we are not only blessed with peace with God, but because of the changed nature, the new creation created within us by the Holy Spirit, we find we have peace with each other. Jew and Gentile are reconciled. People of every nation and culture are brought together in peace as they become believers in Jesus.

God is the God of peace in all the troubles and difficulties of life because Christ is working all things for our good, and we know that God is working in us to will and to do of his good pleasure.

We have peace when we face the future and the certainty of physical death, because we have been given eternal life, and God who has begun a good work in us through Christ will continue it until the day of Jesus Christ, that is when Christ returns and gathers all his believing people into his heavenly glory.

God is the God of peace because his peace fills our hearts and minds as we place our trust in him, believing that in each day God is working his purpose out for us, and Christ is our shepherd leading us in the paths of righteous, and on the road to the heavenly glory.

God is the God of peace because in Christ he has won peace for all who believe in him.

THE ACTION OF GOD.

The action of God is expressed in the assuring words of our text which tell us that the God of peace will soon crush Satan under our feet.

Satan is a fallen Archangel, full of power but still a created being. He has thousands and thousands of lesser fallen angels to do his being. His power is greater than any one of us can defeat in our own strength. Satan holds the whole world under his dominion, and he blinds people to his dominion over them, and his purpose to destroy them with him in hell.

But Satan is a beaten foe. He is described by Jesus as the strong man who holds his goods in peace. This means he holds the world of people firmly under his power. But Jesus went on to tell of a stronger than the strong man who has come, and taken away from Satan his goods and freed them from his bondage. This stronger than the strong man is Christ himself, the Son of God and the Son of man. Jesus defeated all the devil's assaults against him throughout his earthly life, and remained sinless and pure. He defeated Satan in the terrible temptations by which he assaulted Christ in the wilderness after Christ's baptism. Satan motivated his subjects, the Jewish authorities, to continually assault Jesus in the desperate purpose of causing Jesus to sin, and so destroying him as the one who give his sinless life in the place of sinners. Jesus remained victorious, and never was overcome. Satan moved in the heart of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus, and the Jewish authorities and the Roman authorities to condemn Jesus to death unjustly. Satan thought he had overcome the one stronger than he, but he was mistaken, for by his voluntary sacrifice, where Jesus took the burden of the sins of the whole world and suffered all the justice of God against sin, Jesus overcame the hold Satan has on sinners, and provided a way of escape from eternal death to eternal life.

In all these ways and many more which are revealed in the New Testament, Jesus defeated the devil once and for all, so that all who believe on Jesus are translated from the devil's kingdom, and transferred in the kingdom of God, and given the privilege of becoming the sons and daughters of God.

Christ has already defeated Satan, but still in the purpose of God to save all he has chosen before the foundation of the world, the devil is still left to harm the world, and to assault the people of God. However the promise of Christ is that no power can pluck any of God's believing people from his hand and his kingdom, and this Paul expresses so powerfully and graphically in Romans 8: 28-39. In those verse Paul tells us that nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus

Though we are assaulted by the devil in many ways and by many temptations, he can never claim authority over us because our life is hidden with Christ in God. We may fall under his attack, but we will always be raised up again by the power of Christ exercised in us and for us by the Holy Spirit. Satan can not claim the believer in anyway, because Christ's obedience to blood hides all our transgressions from view.

THE BLESSING OF GOD.

The blessing of God is because grace flows to us from Christ. This Paul adds at the end of our text when he says "The grace of our Lord Jesus be with you."

What is the grace of our Lord Jesus? We speak of it continually but have we ever stopped to think about what it is?

The grace of the Lord Jesus is the the unmerited favour we live in by faith in Jesus, whereby all the work Jesus did for us, and the blessings he has provided for us by his life and death, and his heavenly intercession, are bestowed upon us freely, and we are safe in the arms of Jesus, whatever assaults of the devil we face, and the sins we commit, and the falls we experience, and troubles we face. Through the grace of Jesus Christ we can never be lost, and God has pledged his word that eternal life and membership in his family is ours forever.

This is the grace in which we stand Romans 5: 2. By grace we stand secure in the love of God, and can rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We are saved by grace, not by our own works and faltering righteousness. By this unmerited favour, all Christ's righteousness is put to our account before the majesty of God, and we are accepted for ever for Christ's sake.

This unmerited favour is the power working in our lives which is the grace of the Holy Spirit who dwells within us. The grace of the Holy Spirit is the guidance we are given by the Holy Spirit. The spiritual nourishment fed to us by the Holy Spirit, who teaches us the truths of God and Christ from the Bible, and open our minds to understand them, and opens our hearts to receive them by faith.

This grace of Christ through the Holy Spirit is the power to withstand all the assaults of the evil one, and cause us to be triumphant over Satan. Though we may frequently fall under the assault of the evil one, the grace of our Lord Jesus is there to cause us to stand in the evil day, and having done all to stand.

The grace of the Lord Jesus is the whispers of the Holy Spirit to our hearts and minds when temptations and trials are powerful, telling us that Christ is with us always even to the end of the world.

CONCLUSION.