Our Mighty God and the Nefarious Adversary

Introduction

In Enduring God’s Purification ...

A. Trust God’s sovereignty

B. Recognize the nefarious plot against you

C. Trust God’s abundant grace

D. Recognize the necessity of Christian love

I. Trust God’s Sovereignty (vv. 6-7)

A. Therefore

Because God opposes the proud, humble yourself before Him.

Humble in this context means that we recognize there is nothing that happens in your life that is an accident. Either God caused it to happen or He allowed it to happen, and He is using it for His will and purpose which exists beyond our control or comprehension.

B. That He may exalt you in due time

Exalt means to lift up.

Notice Peter also adds ‘in due time’ or ‘in the proper time.’ In whose proper time? God’s! But we want it to be in our time. We want to see the results now. We think we know better than God. But God says, “My ways are higher than your ways, and My thoughts higher than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).”

The lower we go, the higher God may bring us. Ultimately, he exalts us in glory before His Father in heaven, but God can also exalt us here in this life.

C. How do we humble ourselves?

By casting ALL our anxieties on Him.

Anxiety is worry

Casting denotes the idea of throwing the burden upon someone else

Prayer tells God what the care is, and asks God to help, while faith believes that God can and will do it. Prayer spreads the letter of trouble and grief before the Lord, and opens all its budget, and then faith cries, ‘I believe that God cares, and cares for me; I believe that he will bring me out of my distress, and make it promote his own glory.’

As Christians, we are great at casting some of our anxieties on God. When your life circumstances become too overwhelming, when you’ve lost all control, and when there is nowhere else to turn, we are great at turning to God. But we will hold on to our little worries. Why?

Because we have a pride problem. We desire to be in control.

Because we think our concerns are too small for God to care about.

A big concern of mine is what the next step is for my wife and I. Is it to stay where we are currently, or is God directing us somewhere else. Just the other day, my wife and I were praying about a possible doorway that might be opening in another location. I had found out there was no disc golf course in the town. And I had a small concern about that, because that is a way Charity and I enjoy spending time together. So I mentioned it to God, and I remember even during the prayer saying, ‘I know this is silly, but this is something that I’m worried about.’

Because we don’t really believe God can handle it.

Here is what the Bible gives you permission to worry about: NOTHING

Philippians 4:6–7 NASB95

6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Matthew 6:31–34 NASB95

31 “Do not worry then, saying, ‘What will we eat?’ or ‘What will we drink?’ or ‘What will we wear for clothing?’ 32 “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 “But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. 34 “So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

D. Why should we humble ourselves?

For He cares for you

God loves you. God loves everyone, but He has a special love for His Church. For the faithful Church, for the faithful Christians, who are preparing themselves as the bride of Christ, it doesn’t matter what God causes to happen or allows to happen in your life, you should rest in the fact that He loves you. And if we really believed that the all-powerful God of the universe, the One who breathed out the Milky Way galaxy, the One who created an incredible variety of plants and animals, the One who formed human beings in His own image and breathed into them the breath of life, if we really rest in the fact that He LOVES us, then we would freely throw every concern onto Him. We would fall down on our knees before Him daily and say, ‘Jesus, you are much more equipped to handle the stresses, concerns, and worries in my life. I’m giving them to you because I know You love me, I know You know whats best for me, and I am trusting You to work according to Your good time and Your good purpose.’

II. Recognize the Nefarious Plot Against You (vv. 8-9)

A. Humility before a strong God is required because we do not fight against flesh and blood, but against the spiritual forces of darkness. We fight a battle we cannot win on our own.

We must remember satan:

Is a literal being

Is crafty and alluring

Is a fierce adversary of humanity, but especially the children of God, Christians

B. Be sober, be vigilant

In other words, be self-controlled and be watchful and ready.

satan and his minions know you. They watch you carefully. They know when to press the weak areas of your life. They know when you are most vulnerable.

Our adversary as Christians is nefarious

Nefarious means infamous for being exceedingly wicked

Therefore, we are to be always watching, always waiting, always controlling ourselves because our adversary is cunning and crafty

A couple weeks ago, my wife and I went to watch a film called Nefarious. In that film, the demon says they can’t just inhabit a person. They have to be given permission. But no person in their right mind would give that kind of permission to a demon. But they don’t need that. They just need a series of yeses. They need a series of little footholds of sin in your life, and the more you say yes and give into that, they become strongholds. And the more satan gains strongholds in your life, the greater things he can push you towards. And it may be pleasurable in the moment, it may feel good and he might whisper to you that you can get away with it. But make no mistake, satan has a nefarious reason, a wicked reason, for what he does: he HATES you.

C. Peter describes satan as a roaring lion seeking to devour

Make no mistake Christian, satan’s ultimate goal is not to make you miserable. His ultimate goal is to destroy you for all eternity. And if destroying you means making pleasing your flesh for but a moment in this life, he will happily do it.

D. But God has not left us defenseless.

Peter commands Christians to ‘resist.’ It means to stand against. The Christian who has humbled themselves before God does not stand against the devil on his own authority, but on the authority of the blood of Christ.

Romans 8:38–39 NASB95

38 For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, 39 nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

1 Corinthians 10:13 NASB95

13 No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.

E. And we are comforted knowing that we do not face spiritual warfare alone.

In the midst of unjust suffering, in the midst of spiritual warfare, our initial response is too often that we are the only ones who are going through it.

III. Trust God’s abundant grace (v. 10-11)

A. It is by God’s grace that out of suffering, He will perfect, establish, strengthen and settle you.

Perfect/Restore - to supply that which is missing, to mend that which is broken

God, in His abundant grace, uses suffering to perfect the weaknesses in our character. God uses suffering to bring out greatness in us that could have never existed otherwise.

Establish - to make solid, firm

The man who does not love God will either collapse under the pressure, or further harden his heart.

The man who loves God in a deep humility is strengthened, like steel tempered in a hot furnace.

Strengthen - to fill with strength

Through God’s grace, He will fan the flame of our love and desire for Him, making it into a raging fire.

Have you ever noticed how Christians who have experienced intense suffering often have the greatest love and desire for God?

Settle - to lay the foundations

Through suffering we are often taken to the lowest depths of our beings. In these moments, Christians by the grace of God recognize that when everything else was shaken, when everything else fell, there was an unbreakable foundation which did not give way, namely Jesus Christ.

B. To this God, and Him alone, be all glory, praise, honor, and dominion.

IV. Recognize the necessity of Christian love (vv. 12-14)

A. Greeting, loving, and welcoming are common exhortations all throughout New Testament letters

Our natural inclination when we suffer is to isolate ourselves. But as Christians we need social interactions.

B. She who is in Babylon, elect together with you

We don’t know who this woman is for certain, but it is my belief that Peter is alluding to the Church who is in Rome.

If it alludes to the Church who is in Rome, Peter is once again reminding all Christians not only to have a deep love for those they know, but for those they do not know in Christ all throughout the world.

C. Greet one another with a kiss of love

We need to be strengthened by a fellowship which transcends traditional friendships. We belong to a tighter knit family than our physical families: a family bound together by the blood of Christ.

D. Peace be to you all

Peace is for everyone, and it is found in the person of Jesus Christ. God’s desire is for His body, His Church, to experience His peace here on this earth.

Church, my desire for you is that no matter what trials and suffering you may experience, you remember the God of the universe loves you, that the God of the universe cares for you, that God of the universe is growing you in the midst of every circumstance, and that by resting in those glorious facts, you will find Peace. A peace which surpasses all understanding that will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.