The Resistance!
1 Peter • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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· 3 viewsResist the Devil - part 2 Standing firm in our faith Strongly committed
Notes
Transcript
Mic
Prayer
It is Great to see you brave souls on this fine wintry day. It has been cold this last week.
Two weeks ago we were looking at 1 Pet 5:8.
Slide
8 Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.
This week we will concentrate on verse 9.
3 Slides
9 But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
10 And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you.
11 To Him be dominion forever and ever. Amen.
We also talked about ways to resist the Devil..
We talked about the power in raising a Hallelujah to the Lord… in singing songs of praise to God.
We talked about the importance of daily devotions and spending time in God’s word. Remember the saying.… This book will keep you from sin and sin will keep you from this book. Spending time in God’s word, memorizing God’s word, and meditating on His Word will also provide significant help to keep you from being deceived by Satan’s lies.
We talked about the importance of prayer.…
2 Slides
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, shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
and we mentioned that when faced with temptation, we may just need to flee the situation and get out of there.
However… resisting the Devil also involves contending earnestly for the faith as we learn in the book of Jude.
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3 Beloved, while I was making every effort to write you about our common salvation, I felt the necessity to write to you appealing that you contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.
One of the ways we do that is when we share the good news of the gospel with those we come into contact with.
We also do that when we challenge people when they are falling for Satan’s lies.
We live in a fallen world.
Our fight is against the prince of the power of the air.
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1 And you were dead in your trespasses and sins,
2 in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.
Satan is the prince of this world and whole host of demons under his control that are at war against you. and He is at work in the sons of disobedience (the unsaved) trying to get you to join them.
and ultimately our struggle is not against flesh and blood.… although we are tempted by our own lusts.
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14 But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust.
But our struggle is against Satan and his host of demons.
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12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
Those forces include social pressure, they include pressure from governmental authorities that advocate policies contrary to the will of God.
And Satan will use our own lusts and own sinful nature to lead us down the primrose path to our own destruction.
During covid, He used governmental authorities to forbid us to go to church; to assemble together.
Hey, it was ok to go to the bar or liquor store or Walmart… but woe to you who go to church to praise the Lord. Who was behind this? If you think this was for your health and safety, you have bought into his lie… It was to separate you from God and ....
for a lot of people, he was successful.
Satan will also use social pressure to keep you from witnessing or speaking up for Christ.
He will also use social pressure to keep you from coming to church (I need to entertain family).
He will schedule events during time you should be in church. Friends will also encourage you to do things you know you should not be doing.
They will pressure you not to talk about Jesus in certain places, like work or school, or while visiting friends or family.
What ever you do.. don’t talk about religion.
I have news for you.… If it is ok to talk about the football game last night…
if is ok to talk about what you are going to be doing this weekend…
then it is ok to talk about Jesus.
And the best defense is a good offense. One of the best ways to resist the devil is to spread the gospel where ever we go.
and what is the gospel?
Sorry, but the gospel.… the good news … begins with some bad news.
We are all sinners. We have all done things that we know we should not have done. It could be something simple like speeding, or saying something that we knew was not true.
It could be something worse like stealing, or murder, or sleeping with someone to whom you are not married.
One thing that is true for all of us is that we have violated the first and greatest commandment -
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You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your might. Deut.:6:5
Have you always made God number 1 in your life? Does He come first before everything else?
2) Unfortunately, it gets worse.… The wages of sin is death. and I am not just talking about physical death. But an everlasting eternal punishment in hell and eternal separation from God.
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8 “But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
Someone may say, I am not like those murderers, and sorcerers… but notice everyone who does not believe in Jesus Christ and all liars will be thrown into the lake that burns with fire.
2 Slides
and
14 And death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15 And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
Anyone whose name is not written in the book of life will be thrown into the lake of fire.
You may say that’s not fair! You may think it’s not fair. I suspect everyone who is sent to hell will be crying out at some point that’s not fair… but friend you and I do not get to make up the rules. God is the one who created the heavens and the earth. God is the one who created us and He is the one who makes up the rules.
He loves us so much that He has prepared a way for you and me to have our name written in the book of life. He has prepared a way for us to be adopted into his family and to live with him forever. He has prepared a way for us to be free from the curse of sins… [That sounds fair to me.]
and if we choose to go our own way… then the only person we can blame for being cast into hell is ourselves.
Another person may say… well I don’t believe that. I don’t want to believe it.
Friends, I am only telling you what God has said.
The people during the days of Noah ignored his warnings and chose not to believe it. They were all killed during the flood.
Lot’s son’s-in-laws chose not to believe Him. What happened?
2 Slides
14 And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, “Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.” But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
15 And when morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up, take your wife and your two daughters, who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
and then
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23 The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zoar.
24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven,
25 and He overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.
It did not matter what his sons-in-law believed… if they had gone with Lot, they would have been saved… but instead they were buried in brimstone and fire. and as for Lot’s wife… she was turned into a pillar of salt because she lingered and wanted to look back.. That one last look cost her her life.
Remember Pharoah who ignored the warnings of God through his servant Moses, how did he fare? All of Egypt was destroyed, the Egyptian army was wiped out… their elite forces drowned in the Red Sea....
and Pharoah lost his first born son. Why? because he refused to believe God’s warning...
and friends, I don’t have to stick with Biblical examples.
There are plenty of tragic examples outside of the Bible as well.
Slide
Consider the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius in AD 79 that destroyed Pompei. There were several warnings. This guy did not believe them and was turned into a statue.
Pompeii was not the first town to be destroyed by the eruption of Mt. Vesuvius. There had been at least two previous towns, both of which were completely destroyed.
Leading up to the day of the eruption, Pompeii experienced series of tremors caused by an increase in the molten rock below Mount Vesuvius.
The Romans didn’t know the relationship between the quakes and an impending eruption, so they can’t be blamed for that. On the other hand, the Romans believed that sighting giants roaming around a town was an early warning of an impending disaster. Many people living in Pompeii reportedly sighted giants, but no one bothered to find out why.
More recently there was the sinking of the Lusitania during World War 1. Germany had even run ads in the New York Times warning of the danger, but the captain ignored the warnings. The British Government warned them. The British Government told the captain if he insisted on coming that he should take precautions and run a zig-zag course. The captain ignored all the warnings , the Lusitania was torpedoed and 1,195 people died.
In 2004 there was a Tsunamai, in Asia. There were warnings beginning 7 years before and even the day of the 9.1 earthquake … all the appropriate people in all 14 countries were warned. They chose to ignore the warnings and over 230,000 people died as a result.
But the one that caught my attention was the Challenger disaster
On January 28, 1986, the Challenger space shuttle exploded over the skies of Florida while being watched by millions of people on the ground and on live TV. The explosion was caused by the formation of ice around the space shuttle’s O-rings, which were used to separate the rocket boosters from the shuttle.
and there were warnings. This time, they came from Bob Ebeling, an engineer who worked for the company that produced the booster.
He had warned that the extremely cold weather would prevent the O-rings from sealing properly and would cause an explosion. He and another engineer then requested that the shuttle’s launch be delayed until the weather was favorable.
The delay was initially granted but was later dismissed by executives, who were under pressure to get the shuttle into space. The launch had already been delayed six days.
When Bob complained, one of the executives told him that the Challenger was “not his burden to bear.”
The shuttle took off against Bob’s insistence only to explode in midair 73 seconds after takeoff.
Seven astronauts, one of whom was a teacher who had won a seat on a NASA educational program, were killed in the accident. but can you call it an accident if you refused to listen to the clear warnings from the lead engineer?
Slide
Friends,
2 for He says, “At the acceptable time I listened to you, And on the day of salvation I helped you” ; behold, now is “the acceptable time,” behold, now is “the day of salvation” —
God is warning us of the greatest impending disaster of all time and we cannot afford to ignore it.
and How many people will be affected?
I am reminded of
2 Slides
13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide, and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and many are those who enter by it.
14 “For the gate is small, and the way is narrow that leads to life, and few are those who find it.
Think of what Jesus is telling us in this verse.
Enter by the narrow gate… He goes on to tell us that this gate is small and narrow. That word for Narrow is
θλίβω and it means constricted. you can barely get through it .…
It is a narrow path, a constricted path.
So we have a small gate that you can hardly fit through and a wide gate with broad way .. that leads to destruction.
Think of it this way… There is line of 100 people outside of Walmart waiting to get into Walmart for the Christmas black Friday sale.
Of those 100 people they are all going to end up in hell or heaven. How many people are going to go to heaven and how many to hell? … remember .. You have a broad way…
and you have a narrow constricted way that only a few will find .…
No matter how you cut it… out of 100 people, I end up at best with 3 or 4
maybe you could stretch it to 10
Jesus is telling us that over 90% of the people on earth are on the path to hell.
and that leaves out a lot of people.
Where are you in that mix?
Where is your family?
What about your friends?
That is the bad news....
But here comes the good news!
The wages of sin may be death, ..… but
Slide
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
But the free Gift of God is eternal live in Christ Jesus our Lord.
God loved us so much that He sent His Son to save us.
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16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
In fact the name Jesus - Yeshua - means Yahweh saves. Jesus is our deliverer.
The wages of sin may be death, but Jesus paid the price for us. He died for us.
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8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
He not only died, but He raised from the dead on the third day.
We are saved not on the basis of any works we can do. We are saved by God’s grace through faith. Paul explained this in Romans chapter 4 and He gave Abraham as an example.
6 Slides (ending vs 25)
20 yet, with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God,
21 and being fully assured that what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
22 Therefore also it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
23 Now not for his sake only was it written, that it was reckoned to him,
24 but for our sake also, to whom it will be reckoned, as those who believe in Him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead,
25 He who was delivered up because of our transgressions, and was raised because of our justification.
Now note, it is not everyone who is delivered from their transgressions (their sins) and that is justified. It is those who believe in Him.
What does it mean to believe in Jesus. It is not those who say they believe… it is those who place their total faith and confidence in Jesus.
I was listening to John MacArthur this week and he pointed out that all the demons could sign the doctrinal statement of his Church. They believe that Jesus is God. They believe in the trinity. They believe that the Bible is the word of God. They believe in heaven and hell. They believe that we are saved by grace though faith.
They will acknowledge all of that with their mind. They are just not willing to personally, of their own free will, submit to his lordship over their life. They are not willing to place their faith in God. They want to do what they want to do.
Listen to James 2.18-19 .
2 Slides
18 But someone may well say, “You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”
19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder.
There faith is a dead faith.… and a dead faith, will not save them.
You can come to church. You can be baptised and become a member of the church. You can teach Sunday School and even become a pastor.… but if you are not willing to trust the Lord with your whole life… you are just as lost as the man on the street.
It is not enough to hear the words… we must but our trust in God and become doers of the word.
Listen to the words of Jesus.
4 Slides (ending vs 27)
24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine, and acts upon them, may be compared to a wise man, who built his house upon the rock.
25 “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded upon the rock.
26 “And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand.
27 “And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall.”
And so when we share the gospel. whenever we share the good news that Jesus is offering to us the gift of eternal life.
He has paid for our sins. He was raised from the dead and is offering to raise us from the dead, adopt us into His family, and make us co-heirs with Him in heaven. ...
We need to ask our friend to put their trust in God, and make a commitment of their total life to God as His servant because of that faith. We are not saved by making a token commitment.
We need to put our faith in God and as a result we need to go all in. We commit to follow His leadership for the rest of our life. We are going to make Him the Lord and the love our life.
Have you done that?
Are you willing to?
Then why not tell Jesus right now?
And if you have already done that… why not re-affirm that commitment, and make a commitment to share this good news with someone this week. Let’s put Satan on the run by sharing the gospel where ever we go.
Let’s pray
