(1 Peter 5:8-11) The Battle for Our Allegiance: Who will Control You? (v.2)

INTRODUCTION:

Our Scripture this morning reminds us of an important fact.

Even when we experience peace in this life; we as Christians are still at War with the enemy.

ILLUSTRATION:

For me, Pearl Harbor has a personal significance.

I was stationed aboard a ship in Pearl Harbor -

And Every time we went out sea, on the starboard side of the ship

we would pass by the sunken memorial of the USS Arizona.

2ndly are ship was ordered several times to render honors to the USS Arizona on Pearl Harbor Day, Dec 7th.

You want to think about a bone chilling, goosebump reminder.

Be an 18 year old sailor, standing in your dress whites at the deck rails as you pass around the Historic Ford Island, USS Arizona, and the USS. Oklahoma.

I ran my PT test around the old air strip on Pearl Habor.

And many of the buildings still show bullet holes from the attack.

It was unique reminder - that war can break out anytime.

And as a service member; you never really know what you are signing up for.

The Christian life is much like this.

We may be in human terms at peace -

That is Life can be good, with no struggles, no pain, with family all around you.

You can be praising God about his goodness towards you and the great treasures you receive through Christ.

But may we not forget; the enemy can come around the corner and attack at any time.

ILLUSTRATION:

That is a good illustration of who Satan is.

Satan is more powerful than us.

But he is not God

He can only be in one place at a time.

He leads an army of demonic forces; but they also can be only in one place at a time.

He is not all-knowing; though he is very wise.

And he also can only do what God allows him to do.

But his limitation does not mean we are not in open warfare - engaged in a battle for the Souls of men and the Glory of God.

Our text this morning reminds us that we are engaged in Battle with demonic forces.

1 Peter 5:8–11 ESV

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

According to Peter,

We ought to Fight Against Satanic Influence

And this text gives us 3 ways we ought to wage war against Satan.

We ought to:

1) Be On Alert for Sin. (1 Peter 5:8)

1 Peter 5:8 ESV

8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

“Be Sober” is perhaps the idea of serious.

“Be watchful” is the idea of being alert.

The picture here is a sentry guarding an important road or facility in active warfare.

I you are the person in charge of guarding your platoon

- you are going to be wide awake.

- intently listening for the enemy.

And in the same way, we are

Command: Be Alert towards Satan.

Why do we need to be on high-alert?

Because Satan is looking for someone to attack.

Our text says he goes around “roaring”.

Lions will often use the roar to frighten their prey, in hope to make their prey hesitate for just a second.

And in that second they pounce on their prey.

And then sit down and have dinner.

Which is why we need to be alert and sober minded.

Exhortation:

This is not something to kid around about.

Peter is using this imagery for a reason.

Because he wants us to think about how you would act if you are in a field with a lion all by yourself.

You would be on edge.

That is how we ought to be with Satan.

But this imagery can also confuse us.

The imagery causes us to treat Satan’s attacks as being violent attacks in the Physical realm.

However,

Explanation: Satan’s attack is Spiritual rather than physical attack.

ILLUSTRATION:

How Often we have heard it said, Satan’s after me.

And they referring to the car crash, or a financial crisis, or someone’s anger towards them.

But is that really what Satan is after?

Satan who has been attacking everything Holy in creation is most concerned about physically hurting you.

Satan is no dummy- he exceedingly wise because he has been devouring people for 1000’s of years.

He has watched hundreds of people die.

Why inflict those who are doomed to death anyway?

Because it is not about physically hurting you.

Though Satan may be using the Physical Realm to attack; his ultimate goal is more deceptive than that.

What is the classic story for Satanic attack?

Job 1:6–12 ESV

6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. 7 The Lord said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the Lord and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.” 8 And the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, who fears God and turns away from evil?” 9 Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? 10 Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. 11 But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.” 12 And the Lord said to Satan, “Behold, all that he has is in your hand. Only against him do not stretch out your hand.” So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord.

Did Satan attack job simply to hurt him? No.

v. 11; he attacked him so he would curse God.

He was using the physical to accomplish a dark, but Spiritual victory.

Which he failed, but that his was Goal.

As we consider the New Testament, we are told Satan blinds unbelievers from seeing the Gospel.

2 Corinthians 4:4 ESV

4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

He seeks to tempt believers -

1 Thessalonians 3:5 ESV

5 For this reason, when I could bear it no longer, I sent to learn about your faith, for fear that somehow the tempter had tempted you and our labor would be in vain.

So when we are talking about Satan attacking us; how does he devour the saints?

He devours us principally by tempting us to a) curse God and b) sin against God.

The Physical realm is trivial, it is the Spiritual decisions he is after.

So he tempts believers and blinds unbelievers.

Temptation can take a lot of different forms.

- Satan might bring suffering to tempt us to become embitter against God.

- To tempt us to question God’s goodness, love, and might.

- To tempt to us to respond in anger and bitterness at suffering.

In suffering, we need to affirm the goodness, love, might, and wisdom of God.

That was the attack on Job.

- Maybe he doesn’t allow us to suffer - instead he allows us to prosper.

Why would Satan want his enemy - the Children of God - to prosper?

To make us apathetic and self-dependent.

You see, If we were suffering, we would be on our knees seeking God.

But because life is good; we neglect God.

We are self-absorbed;

self-dependent.

We worship our two hands.

When we are in prosperity and peace, we need to be careful Satan is not tempting us with apathy.

That was the attack on Lot - in Sodom and Gomorrah.

He was tempted to apathy in the time of prosperity.

- Satan might confronts us with the temptations of our heart.

We all have desires in our heart. Some sinful and some Good.

a) Satan can use the good desires of heart to cause us to love a good thing to much - In other words to transfer our worship from God to the objects and feelings of this world.

Isn’t that what James 4:1-4 warns us about.

OR

Satan can use a sinful desire, what we know is wrong, but we struggle with.

And he tempts us, drawing us away from the love of God to the wretched enslavement of the sin we struggle with.

Isn’t that what happen with David and his adultery with Bathsheba.

- May I challenge us, we need to be alert to sin; because Satan uses that to devour us.

Thus, We need to guard the desires of our heart, by purifying our desires with the Gospel.

So First, Peter warns us to be on high-alert against Sin that Satan uses to tempt us.

But secondly, he tells us we must

2) Resist Defection (1 Peter 5:9)

The Gospel is our greatest hope and answer to Sin and the temptations of the devil.

However, At the same time Satan’s goal is to cause us to turn against God, to curse God, and to sin against God.

Thus, Peter warns us to Resist the Devil by Standing Firm in the Gospel

1 Peter 5:9 ESV

9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world.

This passage is a bit ironic.

The

a) Greatest temptation of suffering believers is to defect from the Gospel.

Hence why we are told to resist Satan and stand in the faith.

b) Greatest solution to temptations in suffering is to look to the Gospel.

Hence why we are told to resist Satan and stand in the faith.

How might Satan lead us to defect from the Gospel of Christ?

The only difference between a person who has rejected the Gospel and one who has the Gospel applied to their life is what?

Belief!

That is the difference between trusting in the work of Christ and submitting to him as Lord

And simply put - not trusting in the work of Christ and rejecting his Lordship.

Which means all that it takes to defect from the Gospel is to change your mind about Christ.

Clarification:

Now, in case that sounds like we can lose our salvation. If salvation was completely dependent upon us - then it would be that simple and that easy to lose.

But when we consider that through Faith we are united with Christ - then we also realize that God has to fail for us to lose our salvation.

And an all-knowing, all-present, all-powerful God doesn’t fail.

Nevertheless, How does Satan try to buffet God’s work in our lives.

By enticing us with temptation; and thus challenging the weight and truth of the Gospel in our minds.

This can happen because of sin.

I leave my first love because of my sinful desires.

We read this error about the Ephesians in Rev 2:4.

Revelation 2:4 ESV

4 But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first.

This can happen because we believe the lie that something else can meet our needs better than Christ.

Isn’t that the error of the Colossians in Colossians 2.

Colossians 2:20–23 ESV

20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

Both of these examples are not the unsaved like we find in 1 John.

They are believers who are saved - but by their thinking have to different degrees defected from the True Gospel they have been given.

We must resist the satanic desire and influence to defect from Christ and instead stand firm,

That is remembering, believing, and trusting in the all-sufficient grace and mercy that is found in the Gospel of Christ.

ILLUSTRATION:

In that way, we ought to enduring the battle, like good Soldiers holding the line.

A soldier must choose to fight the battle, and hold the line.

He could run, but his job is to endure the fight - and win the victory.

When it comes to Satan; we must resist the evil desires we are faced with - always fighting through the Gospel of Christ. Resisting his attempts to turn us against God.

The third way we ought to resist Satanic influence is to

3) Trust in God’s Restoration. (1 Peter 5:10)

(NOTE: Technically, this point falls under the “Resist” imperative - as a connecting independent conjunction “and”. However, for purposes of communicating “how” to the congregation; I have chosen to separate this into two commands; with an implied subpoint to resisting Satan - Trust God.)

ILLUSTRATION:

I remember hearing the testimony of an Iraq infantry veteran who after his time in the service - intended Southern Seminary.

He talked about fear, the exhaustion, and the disappointment of battle.

The fatigue was physical in some ways.

The fatigue was mental in some ways.

And there were times he didn’t want to go back into the fight. He was tired of the struggle.

He had one Sergeant - who looked at him and said; I know you are tired. I know you have lost friends. I know you are scared.

But we need you to stay in the battle through the struggle.

Then in a powerful testimony he related how that experience is the same experience in the Christian realm.

The Spiritual warfare we are engaged in; against a smart, tough enemy; can exhaust us.

And we can come to a point - Why continue this struggle? Is it worth it? Is it making a difference?

I could go on and talk about the worthiness of Christ as to why we should stay in the battle.

Isn’t that the point of Revelation 4 and 5.

And that is true,

but our text gives us another reason that should comfort us in this battle.

Our text tells us in v. 10.

1 Peter 5:10 ESV

10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

This text gives us terrible news, and wonderful news.

The terrible news.

a) God will allow suffering.

Our Holy Just God has not withheld suffering - though he promises to overcome entirely one day.

The Churches in N. Turkey who are reading this letter have been suffering because they believe in Christ and are obeying his commandments.

In fact, v. 9 tells us that all the World finds themselves suffering in the same way.

The reality is that we all will face suffering - and in fact may I suggest we will face suffering from the day we are born to the day we die - unless Christ returns before then.

Doesn’t that sound like terrible news?

But that terrible news is why the next part is wonderful news.

b) God will glorify you.

1 Peter 5:10 ESV

10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

The eternal glory refers to our life after Christ has changed us. “Our Glorification” or “Complete Sanctification”.

Peter then gives us 4 verbs that help us understand what that means.

“he will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.”

From a language standpoint these are synonymous terms.

In fact, our translations will switch between the terms.

And Word study shows they have nearly identical range of meanings.

I think Peter meant for these terms to be nearly the same - to give us a fourfold emphases to the fact that God will glorify us.

That is entirely remove the sin, the temptation, the exhaustion, the fear, the disease - all suffering will be removed.

What great hope that is to the hurting and the suffering?

I think of people like Joni Eareckson Tada - who since her teenage years has faced pain everyday.

I think of the husband and father - who is struggling to put his family back together because of his sinful choices.

I think of the person who quietly struggles with guilt, or fear, or depression.

Why should we stand firm in the Gospel - and stay in the fight?

Because there is hope. God will relieve us of this struggle and win the victory.

CONCLUSION:

We ought to Fight Against Satanic Influence

And this text gives us 3 ways we ought to wage war against Satan.

1) Be On Alert for Sin. (1 Peter 5:8)

Satan seeks to devour us through the desires of our flesh.

2) Resist Defection (1 Peter 5:9)

Satan often uses suffering to cause us to doubt God Goodness, grace, mercy, love, power, and wisdom.

And thus, lead us to curse God. May we instead stand firm in the Gospel.

3) Trust in God’s Restoration. (1 Peter 5:10)

We ought to stay in this fight, being on alert, resisting defection - because we know one day he will glorify us.

These are the 3 ways we ought to fight Satanic influence and wage war against Satan.

As we leave here this week, may we be on alert, ready to resist the enemy, trusting in the Promises God. May we fight the evil because the just one, Christ, is on our side.

PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY PRAY.