Quote from Forum Archives on February 3, 2003, 9:44 am

Posted by: bhfbc <bhfbc@...>

ARE YOU A DEAD DUCK?
February 2, 2003

Text: Romans 7:7-25

In a devotional covering these verses from Romans 7, Dennis De Haan
writes, “A wealthy man went duck hunting with one of his employees named
Sam... They took a horse and carriage, and on the way a rim came off one
of the wheels. As Sam hammered it back on, he accidentally hit his finger
and let go with some bad words. He quickly fell on his knees, asking
God’s forgiveness. ‘Lord, it’s so difficult at times to live the
Christian life,’ he prayed. ‘Sam,’ said his boss, ‘I know you’re a
Christian. But tell me, why do you struggle so? I’m an atheist, and I
don’t have problems like that.’ Sam was silent. Just then two ducks flew
overhead. The boss raised his gun and two shots rang out. ‘Leave the dead
one and go after that wounded bird,’ he shouted. Sam pointed at the duck
that was fluttering desperately to escape and said, ‘I’ve got an answer
for you now, Boss. You implied that my Christianity isn’t any good
because I have to struggle so. Well, I’m the wounded duck, and I struggle
to get away from the devil. But Boss, you’re the dead duck!’” (Dennis J.
De Haan, “Dead Ducks Don’t Flutter,” Our Daily Bread, Grand Rapids: Radio
Bible Class, March 16, 1992)

The story doesn’t include how Sam’s boss responded to that observation.
Was Sam still an employee after their trip? Well, that’s left to our
imagination. But Sam’s point is well made. One argument typically made
against the reality of the Christian faith is the observation of how much
Christians struggle with sin, as in Sam’s case, and how they even
struggle with God at times. Skeptics and atheists take particular joy in
pointing out the hypocrisies of Christians. As Sam points out, although
Christians may still struggle, at least they’re not a dead duck.

Anyone familiar with the New Testament knows something about the life of
the Apostle Paul. Spoken to by Jesus himself, Paul repented of his
rebellion against the Savior, presented himself to the church for
service, became the missionary to the Gentiles, traveled extensively
throughout the Mediterranean region, established Christian churches, and
wrote letters of encouragement, instruction, and correction to Christians
throughout the region. Wears us out just reading his profile. If anyone
could point to being the “perfect” Christian, it could be Paul.

Yet here he is in a time of reflective soul searching, writing in a
letter for numerous believers to read, “I do not understand what I do.
For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… I know that
nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the
desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is
not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do - this I keep
on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do
it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” This is Paul, the “super”
Apostle, writing? Yes, it is, and he discloses that he has struggles,
too.

On the surface, Paul sounds a bit schizophrenic here comparing some
sinful nature with a good nature. Some in our day could even make out
that Paul is allowing himself an excuse for the sinful things he did.
“Hey, it’s not really my fault. I want to do good, but this old inner
struggle keeps getting in the way. That sinful nature, you know. So it’s
not my fault if I do the wrong thing or can’t do the right thing - the
devil made me do it!”

Upon closer study of the Scriptures, though, we can easily recognize that
Paul is not using his sinful nature, nor anything else, as an excuse to
sin, or as an excuse to ignore the power of God. His declaration is made
in verse 25 after asking, “Who will save me from this body of death?
Thanks be to God - through Jesus Christ our Lord!”

Paul here is the fluttering duck - the duck struggling to get away from
further danger. The message shared by Paul here to Christians through all
space and time is “keep struggling!” Keep struggling against sin and evil
and against the devil himself. Keep struggling to walk closer and closer
with our Savior. Don’t become a dead duck!

How do we do that? By staying close to God’s Word and accepting His will
for our life. As we grow in His will, we will become more and more
successful in our struggle against the devil. I have never driven in
England, where they use the left hand side of the road instead of the
right. I have ridden with others in Japan and Okinawa, where they also
drive on the left hand side of the road. Just being a passenger was
disconcerting enough!

If driving on the left hand side of the road isn’t confusing enough,
England has intersections called roundabouts. No stoplights or stop
signs, just this circle that you drive around until you get to the street
where you want to continue your trip. Like the circle in downtown
Indianapolis, only you drive the other direction. Before turning into one
of these traffic circles, you have to know which lane takes you where you
want to go. You stay in the outer lane if you are taking the first turn,
the middle lane if you go halfway around, and the inside lane if you go
three-quarters of the way around. If you get in the wrong lane, you may
end up going down the wrong road or going in circles. (from David L.
Burnham, “The Good Way,” Our Daily Bread, Grand Rapids: Radio Bible
Class, March 2, 1992)

Turn to Jeremiah 6:16 and read along with me. “This is what the Lord
says: ‘Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask
where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest in your
souls. But you said, ‘We will not listen.’” The Lord spoke to His people
Israel as if they stood at a crossroad with a choice to make. He told
them to consider carefully where they were going. He encouraged them to
follow ‘the good way,’ trusting Him as they had done in the past. But
Israel refused to ask “where the good way is.” The result? Disaster!
Millions of people today make the same mistake. When faced with a
decision of whether they will live for God or themselves, they choose the
wrong way. They are stuck on that roundabout, or get into the wrong lane
and take the wrong street. Jesus said in John 14:6, “I am the way, the
truth, and the life.” That is the lane to be in, yet millions reject this
truth, preferring to stay on the wrong road and refusing to follow the
“good way.”

Instead, like Sam’s boss, there is this conception that a “belief” in
atheism - an outright denial of God - exempts a person from any of the
struggles like Sam or Paul or any Christian experiences and expresses. If
a person can block out God and not be answerable to Him, then he or she
need not worry about what they do. Of course, such a conception is
completely wrong. It is one of the ways used to try to ignore God’s good
way described by Jeremiah. But in truth, atheists struggle a great deal.
Some spend a great deal of time and effort trying to disprove the
existence of God. Of course, that undermines their own arguments. Addison
Leitch, writing in Interpreting Basic Theology, says, “Unless [an
atheist] is carrying on his fight against absolute nothingness - and this
makes us wonder about his zeal - then he must be [arguing] against
something he finds ingrained in himself and in others.”

Now an inherent belief in God does not prove that He exists, but it
strongly hints in that direction. One well known Christian was also a
well known atheist. C. S. Lewis rejected the idea of a divine Being
because of all the injustice in the world. That’s a fairly typical
argument we’ve heard before. Right? But when Lewis asked himself where he
had gotten the idea of justice in the first place, he had a problem. “Man
doesn’t call a line crooked unless he has some idea of a straight line,”
he wrote. “What was I comparing this universe with when I called it
unjust?” Lewis realized that his case for atheism was too simple. If the
idea for justice was merely a product of his own imagination, that would
have destroyed his argument, which depended upon real injustices.
Injustice in the world, in fact, pointed to a God who Himself set the
standard of justice. (Dennis J. De Haan, “A Fool‘s Argument,” Our Daily
Bread, Grand Rapids: Radio Bible Class, May 6, 1992)

Turn to Genesis 4. What made it wrong for Cain to kill his brother Abel?
The sudden onset of remorse over his action? Nowhere in Genesis 4 is
there an expression of remorse from Cain. Listen to how he responded to
the Lord. Beginning with verse 8: “Now Cain said to his brother Abel,
‘Let’s go out to the field.’ And while they were in the field, Cain
attacked his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain,
‘Where is your brother Abel?’ ‘I don’t know,’ he replied. ‘Am I my
brother’s keeper?’” Some way to answer God. What hint of remorse do we
find here? It was God who set the standard of justice and moral judgment
here. “The Lord said, ‘What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood
cries out to me from the ground.’” Before his despicable act, Cain
ignored God’s call to righteousness. Afterwards, the only sorrow he
expressed was that of being caught. Only God made it clear that this act
of murder was wrong and unjust and immoral. Clearly, anyone who has no
struggle with such concerns, and even what we might consider the “lesser
concerns” of using “bad words,” is a dead duck in the hands of the devil.

Are you a dead duck? Certainly not, if you find yourself in the
occasional struggle to escape the devil and run to God. Not even Paul
could claim to be perfect, and he knew it. He did not deny it, and freely
admitted his struggles to God and even to fellow believers in the Lord.
Even a struggling Christian is not a dead duck.

The wonderful news of salvation of Jesus Christ is that even a dead duck
can be resuscitated - revived. Anyone who may not be struggling against
the devil now - anyone whose conscience has been seared for even maybe
years - can be revived by the wonderful love of Jesus. Maybe it happens
through the hearing of God’s Word, through the prayer of a loved one,
through the company and testimony of other Christians around you, through
a sermon, through a Christian song - in whatever manner it happens, even
the deadest of ducks can hear and heed the call of the Holy Spirit, come
to Christ, and be saved. God’s love is so great toward us, that He makes
it possible for us to be alive in Christ instead of dead in sin.

Rev. Charles A. Layne, pastor, First Baptist Church, Bunker Hill, IN

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