Your Adversary the Devil, Part 2 | 1 Peter 5:8-9 | Pastor Andrew Coleman | 05/31/26

If you don't have an outline, you're

going to need one this morning. I do

want to circle back on the lyrics that

we just sang. So, I'm going to ask our

guys to go back to verse two because it

really goes right along with where we're

studying this morning. Look at the words

in front of the screen. This is verse

two. Lord, we are weak and frail,

>> helpless in the storm.

>> Surround us with your angels. Hold us in

your arms. And then look at this. Our

cold and ruthless enemy.

His pleasure is our harm.

Rise up, O Lord, and he will flee.

before

our sovereign God.

This morning we come again to our study

of the adversary. The roar of a lion can

be heard five miles away

under favorable conditions.

The roar of a lion can reach 115 dB.

That's 10 times louder than your wife

when she's frustrated with you.

I don't know if you've heard the roar of

a lion.

I was speaking with someone this week

and they said we were in a zoo walking

along peacefully with our children

looking at the monkeys and off in the

distance

we heard a roar so loud that both of my

daughters began to cry.

Lions are fierce. They don't typically

roar when they're hungry. Much to many

people's

misunderstanding, they can. That's not

usually what they're roaring about. You

know what they're usually roaring about?

They're usually roaring in intimidation

of those that are on the perimeter of

their territory.

What they're saying is, "We are here and

we are fine.

And if you come here, you may have

trouble.

Now, we also do know that roaring lions

devour other animals.

So, they have this this double feature

that they have. They can be very proud

and prominent,

very bold, and yet they can also be

very,

very stealthful.

In fact, last week we did look at that.

Last week we read this passage. Be

sober. Be vigilant because your

adversary, the devil, walks about like a

roaring lion seeking someone that he

will devour. Indeed, we see this great

adversary that Peter and the Holy Spirit

through Peter wants us to be very aware

of so that we do not become his prey. Do

you have your outline here? Notice with

me review and context. For those of you

who are new to us, this will help you

understand what we've been studying as

we've been studying this little letter

of Peter. First of all, number one, we

mentioned this last week, the Apostle

Peter writes to churches scattered

across the Mediterranean world who are

being persecuted for their faith in

Jesus. So this is in the first century.

The Roman persecution was great. The

Jewish persecution was great against

those Jewish people who had now

transferred trust to Jesus Christ. They

were following the way of Christ and

they were being persecuted by secularism

and by religious um means. There were

many many Christians being persecuted.

The Romans would persecute unto death

but also we saw that the Jews could do

that as well. We saw that the one named

Saul was going about rounding up the

Christians and seeking to bring them

back to Jerusalem.

We saw that Saul stood there and watched

while Steven was stoned to death. He

held the coats of those who was doing

the stoning. But this Saul by the

conversion of the Holy Spirit in his

life would become the Apostle Paul from

from an enemy of God to a preacher of

the gospel to a church planter to a

leader of the Christian faith. Notice

here that Peter, one of his

contemporaries, number two, Peter is

writing this and he calls Christians to

three things so far. Notice this.

hopeful perseverance in the midst of

your trials.

Let's don't miss the middle one there.

Holy living.

Holy living is a big deal to God. We are

called to live not like the rest of the

world. We are called to live godly

lives. Our language is to be different.

What we do with our time, what we do

with our mind, what we do with our body,

what we do with our resources is not to

be our pursuits are different than the

world's pursuits. The world is pursuing

the things that are going to be gone in

70, 80, 90 years. And the followers of

God are to pursue the things that are

beyond this earthly temporal life into

the things that belong to eternity. We

are called to be living for something

more and that is a life set apart and we

are the only way that we can do this is

through being Christ centered because

Christ indeed is our only hope.

>> Amen.

>> Number three, Peter is wrapping up his

letter with um a few final exhortations.

The first one we saw a few weeks ago was

humble yourselves. Humble yourselves

before God and others. And then this one

that we've been focusing on, be

vigilant. Be vigilant because the devil

is real and he is terrible.

Now, last week, um, we looked at some

differences. Uh, as we look at war, as

we look at warfare, we saw that 100

years ago, um, the tactics looked like

this. loud and slow.

Now today, they look like this.

Fast and quiet, unable to be seen. In

World War II, the mighty B17 cruising

along could be heard for dozens and

dozens of miles away. Whereas today at

night, very sneakily,

the B2 can come and deliver a lethal

punch.

We see that Satan has chosen the stealth

model here in our world today.

And that's why the Apostle Peter's words

are so important. Last week, we looked

at as we studied the names of the devil.

We studied the fact that he shows up in

many different forms throughout the

biblical record from the Old Testament

to the New Testament. We gave a bit of a

systematic theology of that. We looked

at the actions of the devil from the

Garden of Eden all the way to the night

of the of the arrest and betrayal of

Jesus Christ. Through the book of Acts,

we see that there was opposition to

God's grand plan. And that's indeed what

it all winds up as. The devil's extreme

opposition to God. He opposes God. Do

not be in league with him.

>> He is in opposition

to

all that God holds dear and to all that

God has proclaimed. In fact, let's read

the passage. Notice there in verse

eight, it says, "Be sober, be watchful.

Your adversary, the devil, prowls around

like a roaring lion, seeking someone to

devour." Verse eight, verse 9, excuse

me. "Resist him firm in your faith,

knowing that the same kinds of suffering

are being experienced by your brothers

throughout the world."

Today, we're looking at dealing with the

devil. And we're not going to quote the

Charlie Daniels song. Um, how many of

y'all know about The Devil Went Down to

Georgia? Right. Okay. Yeah. Oh, great. I

grew up listening to that. I I remember

it very well. And the idea is the devil

goes down and makes a deal with

somebody.

Um, and uh it's all based on fiddle

playing. Well, that's a neat little

idea, but it's woefully inadequate for

really understanding this text.

So, but the Bible does give us without a

fiddle how we are to deal with the

devil.

And the very first thing that I want us

to notice here is in verse 8, number

one, stay alert. Stay alert. This is the

first command. There's really four

commands in this passage. We're going to

see those four commands. Number one,

stay alert. He says, "Be soberminded.

Be watchful. Now, sobriety, this is the

opposite of that which is distracted by

other things. That which is numbed. What

does alcohol do? Does it does it cause

you I mean, we we we we know very well

what what that looks like. Inebriation

causes you to not think clearly. It

causes your inhibitions to be gone. You

will say things, do things and think

that you can do things that you cannot

do.

You will destroy yourself

with inebriation, not being sober.

Here we see that this is really using

that as a metaphor. He's saying be

soberminded. It's this isn't the big

passage on don't be drunk. This is it.

It goes way beyond that.

It goes to your whole life. Don't think

that you can shift your mind into

neutral and think that you're going to

be okay with the greatest adversary that

there's ever been. He says, "Be

soberminded.

Be watchful." somebody who's not sober

minded, somebody who's um a little

drunk, what do they what do they quickly

uh

move toward after they've had a lot to

drink?

>> Sleep.

Right.

after after we were in Algeria and there

was a big crowd of people who came to a

restaurant for a company party and while

we were there we saw that the company

had given bottles of alcohol to

everybody there and I thought oh my this

is going to get interesting

and they were clear bottles of straight

whiskey and it was a Chinese company

with Chinese employees and uh there's a

lot of Chinese that have moved around

the world to build things. And these

were people who were building trans

Algerian highway and other things. And

so they had a big party one night and

our family happened to be at the

restaurant at the same time the party

was going on and all these nicely

dressed guys came in very quiet, very

quiet, very very very respectful, very

very calmly. They sat down at the tables

and I gathered my girls together and I

said, "Now girls," they were about eight

and nine years old at the time and I

said, "Okay, tonight you're going to

learn a big lesson and we're going to

watch it happen."

I said, "What's about to happen is this.

They're going to open all those bottles

and they're going to start drinking and

the noise of this room is going to get

louder and louder and louder and then

you're going to see there's no telling

what all we're going to see. And then

we're going to see the noise in the room

get less and less and less and uh we'll

just watch and see what happens. And for

the next two hours, we watched that

process

before everything was over. They're

standing on the tables. They're getting

each other to drink with each other.

They're going crazy. There was a fight

or two. And uh they're very, very loud.

They're all going crazy. And then they

started that you started looking around

and some of them sitting over there

slumped over in their chair. And before

it was all over, there was a huge spiral

staircase that went down four floors

down to the ground floor. And when we

were leaving the restaurant, there were

Chinese guys littering all just just

asleep on the stairs all the way down

the huge spiral staircase.

I won't tell you other things that they

were doing at that time. They couldn't

even get on the bus that was there. And

our girls said, "Oh my, I that doesn't

look like fun." I said, "Exactly."

What did they what did they become? Were

they Were they watchful? Were they able

to even take care of themselves? No.

They they were drunk on the on alcohol.

But here the Apostle Paul is saying,

don't be drunk on your daily life,

unaware of what Satan is ultimately

planning for you. Be soberminded. Be

watchful. Notice this that Peter does

not say, he does not say to fear the

devil. We are not called to fear the

devil. Number two, we are not called to

obsess over the devil. There are some

people who run around afraid of the

devil. There are other people who run

around kind of obsessed with the devil.

And that even goes into this next one.

We He does not say do a deep dive on

demons.

Back in the 1980s, it was a very popular

thing. Um there were some novels written

on demonology and there was a real

obsession for quite a while on

demonology or the study of demons. We

certainly need to be aware of them. We

certainly can have our eyes open to some

of those things. But if you live your

life obsessing over the devil or um

living uh ever pursuing more knowledge

and how the underworld and the demons

work, you are living out of sync with

the rest of the Bible.

They are they are barely mentioned. They

are rarely there's a few instances where

there far more mention is the Holy

Spirit. Far more mention is the work of

the Lord Jesus Christ. Far more mention

is the work of the gospel and the

church.

>> So we don't need to focus on the devil.

We need to focus on Christ. The Bible

says we are to fix our eyes on Jesus,

the author and the perfector of our

faith.

>> So notice this last one here. He does

not say that we are to seek out the

devil, as sometimes has been said,

behind every bush. I remember being a

high schooler in this church when Pastor

Billingsley said those very words. I

remember when that was kind of occurring

in the 1980s that Pastor Billingsley

said, "Folks, we don't need to be

pursuing the devil. We don't need to be

seeking out the devil behind every bush

and finding what, you know, a demon made

me do that or this or anything along

those lines. He said, "What we need to

do is focus on the call of Christ, the

person of Christ, and the power of the

Holy Spirit in our lives." That's a good

word.

But the Apostle Peter mentions him and

warns us very directly. So, what are we

to do instead? Instead, Peter commands

you to think clearly. He commands you to

think clearly. Be soberminded.

He commanded you. He commands us to stay

awake spiritually. That's really what

he's talking about here. Being watchful.

He's saying don't go to sleep

spiritually.

be aware of what's happening around us

in the spiritual world in the in the in

in the spiritual nature of our own

hearts.

And he says, do not become careless.

You need to be what's the opposite of

careless?

>> Careful. You ought to write that down.

Don't be careless. Instead, be careful.

And you can do that without obsessing

and focusing on the Diablo or upon the

devil.

You see, maybe I I was thinking about

this. Maybe Peter had a little bit of

PTSD. You know, everybody's got some

PTSD out there, right? Haven't really

thought about that. Thought that's only

people now have PTS. You know, it

started off with uh Afghanistan and Iraq

um veterans. It's where that kind of

that gnomen cluster became uh apparent

to us and then it kind of turns into

everybody. But but notice this. If we

were going to classify this a little

bit, maybe Peter had a little bit of

PTSD. And I want you to think about

this. You see, he learned this lesson

the really hard way. I want you to

remember back with me in the Garden of

Gethsemane after the last Passover

supper.

Um they finish the Passover supper and

Jesus leads his disciples across the

Kidedron Valley over to this mountain

that is there, the Mount of Olives. They

go into the Garden of Gethsemane. It's a

beautiful quiet place. I've been there.

Some of you who have visited Israel have

been there. It's there's still a garden

there. There's still olive trees there.

Some olive trees that are there probably

about a thousand years old.

But here we see that Jesus is there and

he leads them to this quiet place

knowing what is about to happen. And

what does he do under this time of great

pressure? He goes to prayer and he calls

his disciples to prayer. That's what he

calls them to do. And instead, what did

they do?

>> They kept falling asleep. I want you to

think about the Apostle Peter looking

back on this and remembering this. I

want you to think about the fact that

he's one of the inner ones. He's the one

that's really close to Jesus. And and

Jesus comes out to them a couple of

times and says, "Can you not

pray with me just one hour?"

You see, folks, listen. We need to

recognize that we are prone to fall

asleep spiritually.

>> Amen. We are prone to not be aware of

the dangers at hand or the times that

are there. And the biblical record is

given to us so that we might see that.

And I think it's all too vivid in

Peter's mind when he's writing this

about the many ways in which he was

deceived, the many ways in which he had

fallen asleep, the many ways in which he

had failed the Lord.

And so he writes to them, "Be sober

minded. Be watchful. Your adversary, the

devil, prowls around like a roaring line

seeking someone to devour. Resist him

firm in your faith." See, Jesus at that

night, this Matthew 26:41 is that very

Matthew 26:41

place in scripture when Jesus called his

disciples in the garden of Gethsemane.

And look what he says. Let's read it out

loud together. What does he say? Watch

and pray that you may not enter into

temptation.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is

weak.

Watch and pray. Watch and pray. I will

just share with you that this passage

right here.

The Lord gave it to me when I was 19.

This passage came onto my radar when I

started to realize, wow, there's a

battle going on all the time. And

sometimes I really mess it up. And if I

want spiritual victory, I need to I need

to pay attention to Matthew 26:41. I

Matthew 26:41

memorized it. And when I memorized it, I

was in Canada. I'll never forget that

was in Hamilton, Canada, when somebody

stood up in a meeting and they were

talking about lust. And they were

talking about how do you control your

mind? How do you control your

circumstances? How do you how do you

honor the Lord amidst these pressures?

And a guy stood up and he said Matthew

Matthew 26:41

26:41. And he said it just like this,

"Watch and pray that you do not fall in

temptation. For the spirit is willing,

but the flesh is weak." At that moment,

by God's grace, I memorized that

passage.

And ever since then, I said, "That just

makes sense. Watch and pray that you do

not fall into temptation. For this

spirit is willing, but the flesh is

weak. Lord, I want to do the right

thing, but my flesh is weak.

And yet God calls us to not just say,

"Oh, my flesh did it. Oh, the demon did

it." No, the Bible calls us to follow

the Lord in obedience.

Well, not only are we to stay alert, but

number two, this passage says to us in

verse 9 that we are to resist him. We

are to resist him. Notice the next

command. So in verse 8, you see up there

at the top, be sober, be watchful. Those

are commands. In verse 9, we see another

command. This is in the imperative.

Resist him firm in your faith. So Peter

does not say negotiate with him. Peter

does not say try to reason with him.

Peter does not say, you know, experiment

with temptation.

>> Kind of see what you can get away with.

Kind of get up close to him and get as

close as you can without sinning. He he

he doesn't say any of those things. He

says resist.

Resist him. That is our main response is

resist. And there's a a beautiful thing

that we see that comes out of this and I

want you to see it just a second. Notice

this. Peter is not alone in this. James

comes along. James is the halfb

brotherther of Jesus. Um and he is the

leader of the Jerusalem church. So this

is a very responsible guy. He writes the

book of James. Um perhaps the first

letter to go out to churches across the

Mediterranean world. And listen to what

James writes in this first letter to

churches around the Mediterranean world.

He also brings up this issue that Peter

brings up. Look what he says in chapter

James 4:7.

James 4:7

Submit yourselves therefore to who?

>> God.

>> To God. Don't submit to the devil. He

says, submit to God. And instead, what

are you supposed to do with the devil?

>> Resist.

>> Resist the devil. Same thing, same word.

Resist the devil. And then I love this

and he will flee from you. Do you know

why

Satan is so proud?

He is so proud. And he wants your

worship. He wants your failure. His His

pleasure is your harm.

He He wants to control you so much that

when you resist him, he cannot stand it.

This angers him. This frustrates him.

This messes up his plan for you.

And so when we through the power of the

Holy Spirit by the blood of Jesus Christ

say no

no to that thought, no to that habit, no

to that that value that is wrong. When

we resist him,

he cannot stand it. So he leaves. In

fact, it says he flees. That indicates

to us he hates it.

It hurts him. And so instead of the

devil hurting you, you know, you can

hurt the devil.

>> Amen.

>> You can re you can hurt his pride when

you resist him. He will not hang around

for your resisting. Now, we see in the

Lord Jesus that he will come back. Satan

will come back. Um Jesus resists the

devil in the wilderness as we're about

to see. But we know that he would come

back looking for a more opportune time.

And he'll do that with you, too. But

it's kind of interesting. The better you

get at resisting him, while the stakes

in some ways get higher, the rewards are

more and more and more worthy. There is

a greater reward. But notice this and

look at it again. Submit yourselves

therefore to God. Resist the devil and

he will flee from you. Read it out loud.

The last line, draw near to God and he

will draw near to you. That is golden.

Your heart can live on that.

God wants you to be near to him. And as

you by faith draw near to him, listen,

he's drawing near to you. He's not

saying backing away from you saying,

"Okay, a little further. Keep Yeah,

okay. A little further." You know what?

The the Bible tells us that when you

draw near to God, God draws near to you.

So, are you drawing near to him?

That's what this is all about. Resist

the devil and draw near to God. Now, so

that's Peter and James. What about the

Apostle Paul? The Apostle Paul

extensively deals with our spiritual war

that we're in and the warfare, how to go

about the battle.

And so I've I've printed out this

passage this morning for you because

it's so very important. I want you to

see this. Ephesians 6:es 10-18. Look

what it says. Finally, what does it say?

Be strong. Be strong in the Lord and in

the strength of your might. Is that what

it says?

>> It says be strong in the strength of his

might.

And how do we do that? Put on the whole

armor of God. So now we're going into

warfare language. Put on the whole armor

of God that you may be able to stand

[snorts]

against what?

>> The schemes of the devil. This devil has

schemes for you.

>> He wants to ruin your life. He wants to

ruin your health. He wants to ruin your

mind. He wants to ruin your heart. He

wants to ruin your relationships. He

wants to ruin your hopes. wants to ruin

your eternal pursuit. He wants you to

focus on the temporal things that are

passing away. He wants you to love the

stuff that's going to rust and tarnish

and break and dissipate.

He doesn't want you to focus on the

things that are eternal, the things that

are just going to last forever that have

true value.

He doesn't want you to. He's scheming to

distract you.

So put on the whole armor of God that

you may be able to stand against the

schemes of the devil. Verse 12, for we

do not wrestle against flesh and blood.

So it's not just a physical battle that

you're used to with that you see right

in front of you, but against the rulers,

against the authorities, against the

cosmic powers over this what?

>> Present darkness. So we are in a present

darkness. In fact, Frank Peretti in the

80s wrote a book called this present

darkness. And that was um it was a

novel. It was about demons and about the

battle between angels and demons and and

all of this. And that's that's part of

in some ways what is is helpful. It's

similar to Screw Tape Letters from CS

Lewis. But again, it's that thing of we

don't want to we don't want to get out

of balance and focus on that. But it is

a present darkness that we're in. There

are rulers. Look at this in verse 12.

There are authorities. There are cosmic

powers of this present darkness. And

then he goes on at the end of verse 12

against the spiritual forces of evil in

the heavenly places. That means the

unseen realm, the heavenly places

doesn't necessarily mean in heaven, but

and it outside the atmosphere of the

United States. Listen, it's it's in this

room

that there's a spiritual battle going on

even over your mind and your heart in

this room.

Look at this in verse 13. Therefore,

take up the whole armor of God once

again that you may be able to withstand

in the evil day and having done all to

what? To stand. Circle that one. I

didn't circle that one. Stand firm.

Verse 14. Stand therefore, having

fastened on the belt of truth, and

having put on the breastplate of

righteousness, and as shoes for your

feet, having put on the readiness given

by the gospel of peace. Verse [snorts]

16. In all circumstances, take up, this

is so important, and I want you to

underline all of this, the shield of

faith, and then read it out loud

together, with which you can extinguish

all the flaming darts

>> of the evil one.

So this is this is truly what Peter is

talking about

that we resist him to stand firm in our

faith. And it's that shield of faith

[snorts]

by which and this is this is the idea

how this plays out is that you're

trusting in the promises of God. You're

trusting in the gospel of Jesus Christ,

the shed blood of Christ on the cross.

that Christ came and forgave you,

cleansed you, declared you his, and that

you are no longer a child of evil.

You're no longer held in the bondage of

your natural state of sin. Instead,

you've been given a new identity.

Ephesians chapter 1. You've been given a

Ephesians 1 · chapter mention

new identity in Jesus Christ. and that

you are to live by faith in all that has

been said about what Jesus did for you

>> in the new you in him. That's that has

to be done by faith. And when you live

in faith,

Satan flees.

You hold up the shield of faith. That's

everything that Jesus has said and

everything that Jesus has done for you.

And then look at this verse 17. Take the

helmet of salvation. This is your

salvation. This is the gospel, the

bottom line of it all. Protecting the

most vulnerable and important part of

the body, your head.

If you smash your brain, nothing else

survives.

>> The brain is extremely important. And

so, notice this. The helmet of

salvation, the sword of the spirit,

which is the word of God. It's

interesting as we take on the helmet of

salvation and the sword of the spirit.

This is the word of God. It is our way

of fighting the war that we find

ourselves in.

Verse 18, look what it says. Praying at

all times in the spirit with all prayer

and supplication. To that end, circle

it. Keep alert

>> with all what?

>> Perseverance.

making supplication for the saints. That

means praying for your friends, praying

for people who maybe live in far off

places under pressure.

We continue in prayer. So this is the

spiritual life that God has given us. It

it it's not just being consumed with how

do I get the next fun thing? How do I

get the next clothes? How do I get the

next car? How do I get the next

vacation? and how do I get the next

whatever

um for myself. It's starting to live

according to

what God says is important.

So in all of this we are called we don't

chase Satan.

We don't try to engage Satan. During

that time in the 1980s, it became very

popular um to pray these elaborate,

powerful prayers, talking to demons and

telling the devil to go to hell. Um I I

think that's fine to do every now and

then when it's appropriate, but you

don't just run around turning everything

into an exchange with the underworld.

We don't see that in the rest of

scripture.

What we see most powerfully in the

preponderance of scripture in our

interactions is fixing our eyes on

Jesus, remembering the gospel,

proclaiming the gospel,

praying for God's help to deal with

these things, but we don't need to run

around. You say, "Well, Jesus did it."

Well, yeah, but that was kind of Jesus.

We're called to focus on Jesus. So, what

how do we stand? We stand with Christ in

holiness

and advancing his kingdom.

>> Amen.

>> We stand with Christ pursuing what he

values. This means learning to share the

gospel with people. This means using our

home. This means maybe using our

Wednesday nights to get to know somebody

new

so that his kingdom grows in the hearts

of people. This is helping people go

from being church attenders to church

members,

saying, "That's my family. I'm a family

member." This is this is advancing his

kingdom and not just our own. You see,

one of your greatest tools for

resistance to Satan is worship.

>> This is one of your greatest tools.

You want to know how to deal with Satan?

Worship God. And you can worship when

you're alone. when you're alone, when

you're spending time alone at your home

or in a place where you can go and and

be quiet and still and you can worship

God in gathering with God's people.

And may I say this? If you had to make a

choice between worshiping alone

and worshiping with God's people, you

don't have to make that choice between

the two. But if you had to make the

choice between worshiping alone or

worshiping with God's people, if God's

people are gathering, you need to be

with them.

>> You always choose corporate worship

over

singular worship.

>> Amen. You know why? Because of Satan.

When you are with God's people, when you

are worshiping with God's people, when

you are in regular worship with his

people, other people are with you and

can help you stay with the Lord. But

when you start to choose worship alone,

worship alone, worship alone, you no

longer have the fellowship, the

accountability, the encouragement, the

the care

that can keep you. You can get alone and

you can get deceived. It's much harder

to be pulled down by Satan when you are

with the body of Christ.

>> This is why church life is so important.

All of the the folks that say, "Well, I

love Jesus. I just don't love his

people. Actually, the Bible says if you

don't love his people, you don't love

him.

>> First John makes that very clear.

So, you say, "Well, I I don't love his

people." I want to encourage you to

investigate your own heart on that and

say, "Lord, I I didn't realize that's so

important."

Notice this last one here, the worship

of Christ and the fellowship of the

saints. This is the fellowship of the

saints builds key word resistance. We're

told to resist. Builds resistance to the

devil's lies and attacks.

So when you're worshiping Christ and

when you have the body of Christ around

you, you are much more likely

to

be safe from the devil's lives. Now, I

know you're turning over the page, and

that's okay. But look at the blue

statement on the bottom of the screen,

and it's also on the bottom of your

page.

Know the truth and stand in the truth.

Now, you can't stand in the truth if you

do not know the truth. And so, that's

where we go for page three, which you

are already there.

Look at page three. And number three,

fight with truth. That doesn't mean you

fight against the truth. That means you

fight with the truth. You you use the

truth in your fight. And how do we do

that? It says in verse 9, resist him

firm in your faith. Now, faith has to be

in something. Faith has to be in the

truth. Um it's not just faith and faith.

It's not just having some nebulous

faith. Well, you we hear that all the

time on the morning talk shows or

whatever, you know, it's just really

important. Hollywood, they they'll all

say, "Well, yeah, faith is important.

Everybody has to have faith." And if you

were to start to say, "Okay, faith in

what?" Well, a lot of times, you know

what they'll say? Faith in humanity.

That's a nice positive thing to say.

Great. Faith in humanity. That is also a

lie from the pit

because humanity is fallen and tainted.

Just look and see where we go.

It's only the Judeo-Christian values of

the laws of God that help people in some

semblance even in non-Christian

societies where there's value and where

there's a pursuit of of the values of

God that a care for others that we see a

a dampening of depravity at all. We

don't we don't have faith in humanity.

We don't have faith. A lot of times

people say, "Well, you got to have faith

not just in humanity. You got to have

faith in what?

>> Yourself." Thank you.

You've got to be kidding me.

Jesus says, "Without me, you can do

>> nothing."

Don't have faith in yourself.

Turn it all toward the Lord.

>> And say, "Lord, my faith is in you. My

hope is in you. The only good that I

have is that which comes from you.

The only hope for my life is you.

So don't put your faith just in the

things of the world. Instead, when we're

talking about this, he's saying put your

faith in the truth. Peter does not say,

"Stand in your feelings and how you feel

about stuff." Feelings come and go.

Feelings will deceive you. In Jeremiah,

put out there to the side. Jeremiah

Jeremiah 17:9

17:9.

Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is

Jeremiah 17:9

deceitful above all else and desperately

sick."

How many people say, "Well, I just put

faith in my heart. I just put faith in

my heart." Those are toxic words.

Your heart will deceive you.

We need to put faith in the Lord, in his

word. What he has said is true.

We can't do that if we don't know it.

That's why we study the Bible. Notice

this. Peter does not say stand firm in

your passion or your zeal.

Now the Apostle Peter tried that. He

kept being passionate.

Um he was the one who would say, "Lord,

I'll never leave you." And Jesus just

looked at him and said, "Before the

cockrows, you're going to deny that you

even know me."

Peter says, "They're here to arrest

you." Draws a sword, chops off an ear.

And Peter says, "Put that down."

Or the Lord says, "Put that put that

down." And he actually puts the ear back

on the guy. I mean, the Garden of

Gethsemane was an amazing place of some

very, very significant events. See,

passion and zeal aren't what are going

to see you through.

>> Faith in the truth is what will see you

through. So, it is faith in the truth

that overcomes the adversary. And the

Apostle John writes this. The Apostle

John writes in 1 John 5 and verse4. Look

what he says. For everyone who has been

born of God overcomes the world. So if

you're if you're truly a Christian,

you've been born not just of your

mother, but now you've been born of God.

That's what Jesus was talking about to

Nicodemus. Nicodemus said, "I I don't

understand. What do you mean be born

again? I can't enter into my mother

again." And he said, "Nicodemus, are you

a studyer of the things of God and you

don't understand what I'm saying? You're

born into this world into a fallen

nature. You have to be born again

through conversion in the Messiah in

order to be clean, in order to have new

life." This is talked about all through

the Old Testament and we see it in the

New Testament. This is the picture. And

look what it says here at the second

line in 1 John 5:4. And this is the

1 John 5:4

victory that has overcome the world. Our

faith.

This is our faith in Jesus Christ. I I

think I left that off of the PowerPoint.

So, right in there, our faith.

Faith in Jesus Christ. How did Jesus

resist Satan? Think about that. At the

beginning of his ministry, Jesus has an

encounter with Satan. And three times,

three times as he is tempted, Jesus

says, "It is written." What did that

mean? He's going to the word of God.

He's going to the truth.

You see, God's word is the truth upon

which you stand and fight. That's how we

make it.

And so,

we remain vigilant. We stay alert. We

come to the place of resisting. We

resist. We number three, we fight with

truth. And number four, I love this in

verse nine, we see it. Remember, you are

not alone

because Satan wants you to think you're

alone. And that's what Satan does. Think

about a lion. A lion when he goes after

one of the herd animals, which is

primarily what they go after, they go

after the gazels or they go after an

analopee or they go after one of the

other herd animals. What does he seek to

do? The lion as he takes off after them.

Go home and watch National Geographic or

BBC or whatever it is. It's very

disturbing. He goes after them and he

singles one out. And once he singles

that one out, he's got him.

And so

here we see that Peter is saying, look

at verse 9 at the top of your page.

Resist him firm in your faith, knowing

that the same kinds of sufferings are

being experienced by your brothers

throughout the world.

You see, Satan loves to make believers

think, "Nobody understands me.

that's why I've fallen into this or

that's why I'm I'm in this vice of sin

or whatever it is. Nobody understands

me. How about this one? Nobody else

struggles like me. Nobody else struggles

like me.

Nobody has the sex drive I have. Other

guys just don't get it. I have a special

sex drive. I can't control. They, you

know, if everybody had the same, you

know, nobody nobody struggles like me.

That's the oldest lie in the book. No,

there's a lot of people just like you.

You say, "Well, I'm prone toward

depression. I'm prone to toward despair.

Nobody has my circumst."

No. You know what? It's It's only about

10 problems that we all have. And and

there's billions of people with the same

problems.

Nobody struggles like me. Satan will

whisper that in your ear. How about this

one? I'm the only one. Everybody else is

fine and I must be the only one. He

loves to keep you under that de

deception.

Nobody else feels this way. Nobody else

thinks like this. Nobody else struggles

with this. I must be the only one.

No.

Look at verse nine again. Knowing that

the same kinds of suffering are being

experienced by your brotherhood

throughout the world. You see here we

see the absolute necessity of genuine

genuine Christian community.

Not

cultural Christianity but biblical

Christianity. This is where we see

genuine community. The absolute

necessity of it. The brothers in the

world, the sisters in the world that are

around you. Church membership. This is

belonging. This is accountability.

Church membership matters.

How about fellowship? That word coinia.

And I'm not just talking about dinner on

Wednesday nights. I'm talking about the

deep fellowship that Christ calls us to.

The fellowship that he enjoyed with his

disciples. The fact that they ate

together. They spent time together. They

ministered together. They suffered

together.

They loved one another.

This is what we are called to a deep

fellowship of bearing one another's

burdens.

And what about this one? Serving

together.

That's where you're really hitting it.

That's where you really experience God's

grand plan is when we serve the King of

Kings and the Lord of Lords together,

advancing God's agenda and his kingdom.

And brothers and sisters, this is how we

resist the devil. This is how we deal

with the devil.

We stay alert. We resist. We remember

the truth and believe in it. And we stay

together with the family of Christ. This

is how Satan is defeated in your life.

I love Philippians 1:27. Look what it

Philippians 1:27

says.

Only let your manner of life, that's

what Peter's been writing about for five

chapters, your your manner of life. Look

at this. Only let your manner of life be

worthy of the gospel of Christ. So that

whether I come and see you or I'm

absent, this is the Apostle Paul writing

to the Philippian church. He says,

"Whether I come visit you or I or I

don't, I may hear of you that you are

here it is standing firm."

>> Amen. in one spirit with one mind

striving I love it side by side for the

faith of the gospel.

This is how God intends

for us to receive first Peter's message

and for us to have victory over our

adversary. Amen.

>> Would you stand with me for prayer?

Wow.

>> Father, I thank you this morning for the

game plan on how to be victorious. And I

know that there's many in this room,

even right now, that are saying, "Golly,

I I want that victory.

I don't want Satan to keep ruling over

my heart."

Lord, I pray that each one that maybe is

dealing with that would first of all ask

them, "Do I really know know the Lord?

Do I really have Jesus? Have I really

been born again?"

Because this passage says in first John,

"Everyone who is born of God." Lord, I

know that in this room there are many

who are not born of God.

They've never come to faith in Jesus

truly. Maybe they even grew up in a

Christian home, grew up in a very

Christian home,

but yet in their own heart of hearts,

there's never been a surrender in true

conversion to the faith of Jesus.

Lord, I pray that we would evaluate

carefully our lives and Lord, that we

would come to you in faith,

repentance.

Lord, I pray that we would walk in the

gospel. I pray that we would see the

gospel alive in our lives and that we

would experience the victory that has

overcome the world, our faith in Jesus.

In the wonderful name of Christ, I pray.

Amen.

>> Amen.

Every fall we sing a hymn. We sing a

hymn entitled, "A mighty fortress is our

God."

Fortresses

are weapons of war. You need a fortress

because there's a war.

This morning, we're going to sing this

great hymn. Again, those of you who are

new to us, I want to encourage you to

look at these words. They were written

500 years ago by Martin Luther, and

they're beautiful. He is a bull work.

that that that means he is a strong

place, never failing. He is our helper

amidst the flood. And we'll see in this

that there's a very real enemy that

seeks to do us harm. And there's one

word that wipes out that enemy.

Celebrate that word as we sing it

together. Let's sing together. A mighty

fortress is our