The Enemy

INTRODUCTION

Peter concludes the body of his letter by admonishing his readers to accept the difficult times they are facing as from God’s hand but at the same time to be on guard against the devil’s evil desire to take advantage of their circumstances to their own destruction. Peter’s readers are not alone in their struggle which is shared by Christians throughout the world today. God is sovereign over even the hardships and suffering, we can put our trust in him to make things right in order to strengthen, empower, and secure them.

Accepting difficult times as from God’s Hand (5:6-8a)

There are 3 clear imperatives in this text.

Be humble under God’s mighty hand.

Be clear-minded and on the alert.

Take your stand against the devil.

Variations of the phrase “the mighty hand of God” are used repeatedly in the exodus story to refer to the power that God displayed when he delivered His people from Egypt and brought them into the promised land.

The very gospel of Jesus is his deliverance from our bondage to sin in this age into his eternal glory, portrayed as a second exodus. Here is what we have learned to this point in Peter’s letter about our testing and trials.

1) Persecution comes to faithful Christians and is not apart from God’s will. (1 Pet. 3:17)

2) We should recognize painful trials as a part of normal Christian life. (1 Pet. 4:12)

3) These experiences are God’s purifying judgement. (1 Pet. 1:7; 17-19)

Why does Peter exhort his readers to Humble themselves?

A natural human reaction to difficulties and persecution is to fight back. To be humble implies a decision to remain faithful to Christ even knowing that humiliation will result.

Anxiety Is Now Our Most Common Mental Health Issue

According to data from the National Institute of Mental Health, some 38 percent of girls ages 13 through 17, and 26 percent of boys, have an anxiety disorder. On college campuses, anxiety is running well ahead of depression as the most common mental health concern, according to a 2016 national study of more than 150,000 students by the Center for Collegiate Mental Health at Pennsylvania State University. Meanwhile, the number of web searches involving the term has nearly doubled over the last five years, according to Google Trends. (The trendline for “depression” was relatively flat.)

The beginning of anxiety is the end of faith, and the beginning of true faith is the end of anxiety.

The command: be humble under God’s mighty hand is a command to accept, though not to seek, difficult circumstances as a part of God’s deliverance.

The Purpose: that He may exalt you at the appointed time.

Note: exaltation is in the future, therefore, God does not leave his people unsupported as they face certain circumstances now present in their lives.

1 Peter 5:7 ESV

7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you.

What Anxieties do Christians face?

We read in:

Philippians 4:6–7 ESV

6 do not be anxious about anything, 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 understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

NOTE: The truth is that Christians have many concerns and anxieties about life once we become believers.

loss of status and respect

loss of family standing

loss of friends

loss of livelihood

loss of ones own life (in extreme cases)

Jesus taught that the worries and concerns of life can impede and even choke out the word of God in the believers life.

Mark 4:19 ESV

19 but the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches and the desires for other things enter in and choke the word, and it proves unfruitful.

1 Peter a. Accepting Difficult Times as from God’s Hand (5:6–8a)

For God’s word to be fruitful, there must be a self-forgetfulness that is based on trust in God regardless of circumstances. “Worry, anxiety for oneself and striving to secure one’s own life, which are marked by fear, is lifted from those who are called to faith,” lifted by knowledge of God’s personal care and concern for them

THE MIGHTY HAND OF GOD

OBEDIENCE means submitting to the arm of the Lord, acknowledging Him as Lord and acknowledging His eternal and everlasting authority to require of us whatever is pleasing to Him. When we do so, He will exalt us in his timing. The exaltation will come at the hour that God chooses. We are told repeatedly in Scripture that God has appointed a time when He will judge the living and the dead, at that time He will vindicate His people.

How do we know the difference between attacks by Satan and difficulties that God brings into our lives to test us?

First, we must understand the difference between temptation and testing.

TEMPTATION: Temptation to sin has been universal throughout human history.

Testing: situations that God sends or allow into our lives to reveal our loyalties, motivations, character, and commitment to Him.

Temptation: an enticement to act in disobedience to God’s will.

The Garden of Eden Test

The tree of the knowledge of good and evil was placed in the garden as a test which later became a temptation fueled by Satan.

God gave Adam and Eve everything they needed for nourishment and fulfillment however, he placed one restriction on this single tree. God designed this test to give man the opportunity to show their gratitude, love, and trust in God by obeying one simple command. However, tests hold the possibility of failure. And failure is the goal of the Devil who wages war against God and his people. He will then tempt those who are being tested by God with the enticement of disobedience. What God means for good the devil will try to exploit for his own evil purposes. The result then gives birth to the first sin.

By introducing unbelief, followed by an appeal to pride, he cleverly placed a powerful temptation before her. Eve could have passed the test by simply obeying God’s command, for the tempter could not have forced her to eat the fruit. Instead, she considered the apparent benefits of eating: it was good for food, a delight to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. She freely chose to disobey God, and she ate the fruit. She gave it to her husband, and he too ate from it. That one tragic choice brought disastrous consequences upon them, their family, and every other person who has ever lived

1. We resist the devil when we recognize his disguises.

His Identity

(We are told that he is the Devil)

His disguises

He has a fairly extensive wardrobe. He is a quick-change artist. He has three common and familiar disguises. He can attack us in any of these three forms. Let us take a look at them in order.

1). The Serpent

Revelation 12:9 ESV

9 And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

Genesis 3:14 ESV

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.

This name suggests that he dulls our senses, perverts our judgments, he enchants our imagination.

The serpent slithers in subtle, quiet, and hidden. until the opportune time and he strikes at our heal.

2). The Angel of Light

2 Corinthians 11:14 ESV

14 And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

Deceives us with false views of spiritual things.

He poses as an evangelist, pastor, or teacher, all the while undermining the faith he is professing to teach.

3). Roaring Lion

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.

There is terror in his threatening.

Exhibited in persecution

Roars of blasphemies from the multitude.

Strength bearing down on us down.

Seeking to destroy us by violent oppositions.

The Devil is like that. He’s dangerous sometimes because he is subtle and quiet and hidden. But that’s not the case here. He is dangerous for other reasons. A lion is dangerous not mainly because he sneaks, but because it’s so strong. Even if you know it’s there, you’re a goner unless you have some power more than your own, like a rifle, or a giant net, or God.

Peter’s point here is not the devil’s subtlety or craftiness, but his power. What power specifically? Verse 9 tells us to “resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by other brothers and sisters in Christ in the world.

We resist this lion because the same suffering we are are experiencing in the lion pit with the lion are being experienced by Christians everywhere who are in the fight.

We see a clear picture of this played out in in Revelation at the church in Smyrna,

Revelation 2:10 ESV

10 Do not fear what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and for ten days you will have tribulation. Be faithful unto death, and I will give you the crown of life.

The roaring jaws of the lion are the suffering of the saints.

Satan has designed these jaws to devour you.

NOTE in the text we read in Revelation that some will be “perfected, confirmed, strengthened and established.”

Who Causes the suffering?

We read in

1 Peter 4:16–17 ESV

16 Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name. 17 For it is time for judgment to begin at the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will be the outcome for those who do not obey the gospel of God?

that suffering of Christians is God’s was of purifying us through his judgement. It’s a refiners fire as it says in 1 Peter 1:6-7.

But now I am saying that suffering is Satan’s attack. So, which is it, God’s refining judgement or the jaws of the lion? The answer is both. This is nothing new, we see this in the life of Job and Paul. Paul says his “thorn in the flesh” was given to him to keep him humble (implied by God). But he calls it a “messenger of Satan” (2 Corinthians 12:7). IF God is sovereign over all things, including Satan, then God has a different sovereign plan in all the designs of Satan that Satan does. When Christians suffer, the devil’s design is to devour us through suffering and destructive pain, however in the same suffering - God makes in constructive through our purification, holiness and revealing his power.

The devil aims to devour and God aims to empower

God empowers and purifies and prepare us for His glory.

2. We Resist the devil when we are ready for action.

Do We Mean Business?

Everybody treats us so nicely. No one seems to think that we mean what we say. When we say "kingdom of God," no one gets apprehensive, as if we had just announced (which we thought we had) that a powerful army is poised on the border, ready to invade. When we say radical things like "Christ," "love," "believe," "peace," and "sin" -- words that in other times and cultures excited martyrdoms--the sounds enter the stream of conversation with no more splash than football scores and grocery prices

1). Always KEEP your COOL (8,9)

“Be sober minded and watchful”

Can true Christians be devoured by the devil?

Devour is not scratch or maul or wound. It’s to chew up and sallow. I don’t think there is any way to make this mean anything less than bringing to ultimate ruin. The devil aims to take people with him to the lake of fire.

2). Always KEEP AWAKE

NOTE: Because devouring is real and resisting is real. The bullets being fired are not blanks they are real and whats at stake is heaven and hell. Being devoured in hell versus being merely mauled in prison followed by glory.

So, can true, born again, Christians possibly be devoured by the devil? No they can’t, because true born again Christians resist the devil standing firm in their faith. That is the meaning of being a true born again follower of Christ; they have the Holy Spirit living inside of them compelling them to fight the fight of faith. Compelling them to run as fast as they can away from the evil one.

James 4:7 ESV

7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

3). Always RESIST THE DEVIL.

Giving no place for Satan to attack us.

Ephesians 4:27 ESV

27 and give no opportunity to the devil.

Stand against the onslaught when it happens. How do we give the devil opportunity in our lives? When we flirt with sin. You remember what flirting looks like don’t you. You get close to the real thing but try not to cross over the line. However flirting with the devil and sin is dangerous business.

Resist the Enemy ... Like the Llama

Like many sheep ranchers in the West, Lexy Fowler has tried just about everything to stop crafty coyotes from killing her sheep. She has used odor sprays, electric fences, and “scare-coyotes.” She has slept with her lambs during the summer and has placed battery-operated radios near them. She has corralled them at night, herded them during the day. But the southern Montana rancher has lost scores of lambs--fifty last year alone.

Then she discovered the llama--the aggressive, funny-looking, afraid-of-nothing llama. Fowler said, “Llamas don’t appear to be afraid of anything. When they see something, they put their head up and walk straight toward it. That is aggressive behavior as far as the coyote is concerned, and they won’t have anything to do with that. Coyotes are opportunists, and llamas take that opportunity away.”

Possible Preaching Angle:

The author of temptation is much like the coyote--he is an opportunist. But if we are firm in our faith in God to give us the strength we need to resist temptation, then he can be beaten. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7-8)

Ephesians 6:11 ESV

11 Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

4). Always CURB EVERY PASSION.

"Rocky": Training Required

Rocky is the classic inspirational movie about a down-and-out, mediocre boxer who seizes an incredible opportunity. When heavyweight champion Appollo Creed's opponent is injured and cancels three weeks prior to their fight, Creed chooses a local fighter, Rocky, to box. It is an amateur's dream.

During one promotional interview some time before the fight, Rocky (Sylvester Stallone) and a reporter stand in a large meat freezer with a long row of sides of beef behind them. The reporter asks him how he came to train inside an ice box. Rocky answers that his friend let him in, he hit the beef, and he liked it—and the owner doesn't mind.

"Is this a common training method? I mean, do other fighters pound raw meat?" the reporter asks.

"Naw. I think I invented it," Rocky replies.

The reporter asks for a demonstration, and Rocky obliges her. He begins punching a side of beef.

Meanwhile Appollo Creed's assistant is watching the interview on TV. Creed, unlike Rocky, isn't training but is rather engrossed with promotional details. He makes sure he flies his barber in to Philly, confirms ringside reservations, and sends the mayor's wife 200 roses (making sure the newspapers are there to take pictures).

While Creed and the promoter briefly discuss tax breaks and advertising for the fight, the assistant, engrossed with Rocky on TV, leans forward. As Rocky ferociously pounds the meat, the assistant says, "Hey, Champ. You gotta come and look at this boy you're gonna fight on TV. Looks like he means business."

From the background Creed says, "Yeah, yeah, I mean business, too," and asks for coffee.

The assistant has a worried look on his face as he watches Rocky continue his assault on the beef. Out of breath, Rocky stops, steps back to the reporter's side, and she ends her report.

When it comes time for the match, although Rocky doesn't win the fight, he shocks Appollo Creed and the world by going 15 close, bloody rounds with the champion.

The apostle Paul spoke about being in spiritual training. Are you like Rocky or like Appollo Creed?

3. We resist the devil when we have a firm faith.

CULTURAL CONNECTION

Could God be using the current pandemic and political election to sift out the Church and separate those who are truly strong in their faith and those who have have been playing the role of Christian in Church life.

It is obvious in Church life how many people have now pulled away from not only Church but also growing in their walk with Christ. Remember in 1 Peter 4:17 Paul reminds us that a time of judgment will begin with the household of God.

Remember in Luke 22:31-32 Jesus said to Simon Peter that Satan demanded to have him, that he might sift him like wheat but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when he has turned again, strengthen your brothers around you.

Have you ever felt like you are being sifted by God?

Do you feel confused about seemingly unanswered prayer.

Does it fell as though your heart is being ripped apart as your life is severely shaken by unwanted circumstances.

Is sin defeating you to the point where you doubt whether God can, or would want to, use you anymore?

Has loneliness or rejection tempted you to wonder if God has forgotten or rejected you too?

Jesus did not die and leave us to fight alone.

1 Peter 1:5 ESV

5 who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

We have eternal security in knowing that He will keep us secure by his power through faith, therefore, it is foolish and presumptuous to say, I am eternally secure without a life of faith.

1). Keep your foothold strong in the faith.

Have you planted your foot on the firm foundation of our faith?

Knowing the Best Defense

In the United States, mountain lions are the animal regarded as the number one human predator. Author and naturalist Craig Childs was on foot doing research on the lions in Arizona's Blue Range Wilderness. As he approaches a water hole from downwind, he spots a mountain lion drinking water. The lion does not notice his presence. When it finishes drinking, it walks slowly away into a cluster of junipers.

After a few minutes, Childs walks to the water hole to identify tracks in the mud and record notes. Just before he bends down to look closer, he scans the perimeter, and there among the shadows of the junipers, 30 feet away, he sees a pair of eyes. He expects the lion to run away, but it walks into the sunlight toward him. Childs pulls his knife and stares into the eyes of the lion. He knows what he must do. More importantly, he knows what he must not do. He writes:

Mountain lions are known to take down animals six, seven, and eight times their size. Their method: attack from behind, clamp onto the spine at the base of the prey's skull, snap the spine. The top few vertebrae are the target, housing respiratory and motor skills that cease instantly when the cord is cut….Mountain lions have stalked people for miles. One woman survived an attack and escaped by foot on a road. The lion shortcut the road several miles farther and killed her from behind….

I hold firm to my ground and do not even intimate that I will back off. If I run, it is certain. I will have a mountain lion all over me. If I give it my back, I will only briefly feel its weight on me against the ground. The canine teeth will open my vertebrae without breaking a single bone….

The mountain lion begins to move to my left, and I turn, keeping my face on it, my knife at my right side. It paces to my right, trying to get around on my other side, to get behind me. I turn right, staring at it….My stare is about the only defense I have.

Childs maintains that defense as the mountain lion continues to try to provoke him to run, turning left, then right, back and forth again and again, now just ten feet away. Finally, the standoff ends. The lion turns and walks away—defeated by a man who knew what never to do in its presence.

Paul the apostle had a similar knowledge of his greatest adversaries, Satan and his demons. Because he knew Satan's methods, he knew how to defend himself.

The promises that we stand on.

Philippians 1:6 ESV

6 And I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.

1 Corinthians 1:8 ESV

8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Romans 8:30 ESV

30 And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified.

Where is our assurance found?

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.

2) If God has called you to His glory, He is going to get you to His glory.

A Little suffering in the world is not going to stop the king of the jungle. When Peter say’s that the God of all grace makes this promise, he want’s to help you believe down to the core of who you are in Christ.

You may say, I’m qualified, but, I’m not spiritual enough.

Peter says, you don’t start with being qualified. You start with the God of all Grace. God doesn’t call the qualified, he qualifies the called. We have the promises to successfully navigate through the jungle of this world and bring us to glory, he can do it and will do it.

He will restore you

In the scope of eternity our suffering and struggles here on this earth are brief. To restore is to put things right. When something is restored it is put back to it’s original form.

(rope illustration of our life.)

He will confirm you

He will re-establish anything that has been lost during your time of suffering, reaffirming your status in his kingdom.

1 Peter 2:9–10 ESV

9 But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. 10 Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

He will strengthen you

Causing you to become more firm and unchanging in your attitude and belief. We are truly in a weakened position however, the time will come when Christ is revealed as the Lord of the earth, and the believers faith in him will be vindicated. At that time Christians will be the empowered people.

He will establish you

1 Thessalonians 3:13 ESV

13 so that he may establish your hearts blameless in holiness before our God and Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus with all his saints.

1 Corinthians 1:8 ESV

8 who will sustain you to the end, guiltless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God’s establishing us is His process of perfecting us which will be completed when Christ returns. He will sustain you to the end.

Cultural Problem: Here’s where the problem arises, do we believe that God will do this? I venture to say if I asked all of you here this morning if you believe that God has the power to sustain you to the end everyone would say yes we do, now what if I asked if you truly believe He will do what he has purposed to do in your life?

CONCLUSION

If you ask any vineyard owner and grower of grapes for the purpose of making wine they will tell you that the best wine is formed when the vines are stressed. First, the best fruit is produced when the lower vines are stripped of any buds that would form future fruit. Second, the best fruit is that fruit that is in direct sunlight. And finally you would think that the vines that are in well watered soil would produce the best fruit, however the best fruit domes from the stress of little water or at least the right amount of water.

I think about the fruit of my own life. How has it been tested and where has it grown the best. The fruit of my life has grown the best when it has been stressed or tested. If for no other reason it is from the stress of life that the quality of the fruit of my life is revealed. Once again, it is in the stress, I find where I lack the growth I need to have. It is in the the stress that my heart is revealed. It is easy for me to go along and be happy when everything is going great and there are no problems in my life.

But what happens when stress comes? What happen’s when the lion attacks, or the anxieties and stress of this world begin to choke out the vine as Jesus used in his illustration of the seed. It is in these times that we lean on God and God’s word planted deep within our hearts that continues to establish us in Him.

We cannot see what God is doing in the heavenly places and He doesn’t necessarily explain why He allows some lives to be tested more severely than others. He simply calls us to walk out this faith and remember that He want us to believe these things according to Romans 8:26-31

The Spirit helps us in our weakness

(when we are absolutely certain we cannot endure, He will uphold and strengthen us with His might right hand.)

That those who love God, all things work together for good.

(although we may question whether anything good could be worth all our pain, God promises our momentary troubles are reaping a greater harvest in the eternal weight of God’s glory)

Nothing can separate us from His love

(not matter how unloved our circumstances may make us feel.)

That He is interceding for us according to His perfect will

(He alone knows what will further His purposes on earth and bring us the greatest eternal joy).

That no matter what tribulations come against us, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us

(nothing can defeat those who belong to Christ when we trust Him to fight for us).

If you are being threshed and thrashed as wheat, perhaps in the greatest test of faith you have ever endured, remember that; “to be crucified with Christ,” means as

Oswald Chambers calls “breaking the husk of independence.” As that husk is broken, we begin to see more clearly how completely dependent we are on Christ to bear any good fruit in our lives.

For, “You also like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ; You are…. a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light,” 1 Peter 2:5, 9b.