Your Adversary the Devil

Your Adversary the Devil

“Your Adversary the Devil”
(1 Peter 5:8-9)
Series: Strength Through Adversity

 Rev. Todd A. Linn, PhD

Henderson’s First Baptist Church, Henderson

  • Take your Bibles and join me in 1 Peter, chapter 5 (page 817; YouVersion).

 

If you’re visiting with us we are preaching our way, verse-by-verse, through the book of 1 Peter.  This is what we do here: preaching through books of the Bible, believing this is the best way to learn the Word of God.  So we left off last time at verses 6 and 7.  These are very encouraging verses.  You will recall Peter says in verse 6 and following:

 

6 Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time,

7 casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.

 

Those are great verses that bring great comfort to us.  In fact, verse 7 is a popular memory verse, “Cast all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”  At the same time, however, humbling ourselves by casting our cares upon the Lord doesn’t mean that we can just stretch out on our couches and sleep away our worries.  You know, we’ve “let go” of our worries and so now we just “let God” deal with them–let go and let God.

 

And of course there is some truth to that, but the Christian life is not a passive life.  It requires action, activity, diligence, work.  So if verses 6 and 7 teach us how to rest in our faith, verses 8 and 9 teach us how to fight on in the faith.  Because you go from “casting all your care upon Him” in verse 7 to–verse 8–“Be sober, be vigilant,” in other words, “Stay awake!  Don’t go to sleep!”

 

  • Please stand in honor of the reading of God’s Holy Word.

 

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 

9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. 

 

  • Pray.

 

Introduction:

 

Most of you know before I was in the ministry I worked for seven years as a parole officer in North Georgia.  Before serving, I had to complete eight weeks of training at the Georgia Public Safety Training Center in Forsyth, Georgia.  There we learned basic law enforcement, counseling techniques, and qualifying with a handgun.  And one of the things we had to do toward the end of the training was to go through a simulation of an arrest at a location where we would have to enter the house and search for a wayward parolee and then arrest him.

 

This was a very stressful part of the training.  Each team waited in a car until we got the radio notification that it was our turn.  And we drove up to the house and began the drill.  And so your heart is pumping hard as your team splits up and you’re radioing one another, and one guy covers the back door and a couple others go to the front door.  And it’s dark and you go in that house and you search and cover and clear the rooms, looking for the bad guy.

 

Of course, you’re told ahead of time that there will be other bad guys hiding in closets and under furniture and everything, waiting to surprise you and catch you off guard.  And so the whole thing is just a recipe for a fatal heart attack!

 

The trainers warn you to beware of things like “tunnel vision,” because you’re so focused on looking ahead that you may not see things happening on the periphery.  So it really is a grueling exercise.  And you’ve got to pass it.  You’ve got to find the bad guy and arrest him and take him out of the house.  I was so glad when that training was over.

 

But it was good training and it was always there in our experience for those future times when we found ourselves in situations requiring special vigilance and alertness.

 

In the spiritual realm we are to be always vigilant and alert.  As we live the Christian life, the “bad guy” is everywhere.  The bad guy is the devil.  And he doesn’t work alone.  His demons–other bad guys–work with him, and like the outlaw friends of a convicted felon, they hide here and there and they seek to surprise us and to catch us off guard.

 

So we must always be vigilant and alert.  That’s how Peter begins this section of material in verse 8.  He says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”

 

So Peter teaches us this morning about our adversary the devil.  That’s what we’re going to study this morning in our brief time together.  If you’re a note-taker you may find it helpful to arrange the material in verses 8 and 9 as I arranged it in my notes this past week.  There are three actions for us to take this morning concerning our adversary the devil.  Number one:

1. Know the Nature of His Identity

 

It’s not Peter’s intention to give us a full-blown theological treatise on the origin of Satan.  So we’ll not do that either, but it may be helpful to review just a few things about what the Bible teaches about Satan.

 

Satan was originally good.  He is an angel and was created by God as good.  Satan chose evil by rebelling against God.

 

Now whatever else we may wish to know about that, it is supremely important that we remember this much: Satan was originally good as created by God.  The Bible does not teach a sort of dualism–the idea that there is both good and evil in the universe and that they are equal in power–the good sometimes winning, the bad sometimes winning, both equal in power.

 

The philosophy of dualism is reflected in popular culture, literature, and movies like Star Wars.  You have the light side of the force and you also have the dark side of the force.  Sometimes the light wins and sometimes “the Empire Strikes Back” and the dark wins.  That’s not how the world operates.  God is light and He created all things.  When Satan, as a created being, chose to rebel against God, he did not become more powerful than God.  He is still under God.  So there is not an equality of power between God and Satan.  God is always intrinsically and infinitely more powerful than Satan.

 

Having said that, we must not underestimate the power of Satan.  He is powerful.  Our popular ideas and caricatures of the devil are not helpful in reminding us of his power.  The devil is not a skinny runt in red tights.  Neither is he a smiling imp with a plastic pitchfork.  He is real.

 

And Peter seeks to remind Christians of the reality of his existence in these verses.  He wants us to know the nature of his identity.  There are two words Peter uses to describe Satan in verse 8, “adversary,” and, “devil.”

 

The first word, “adversary” is an old word to describe an opponent in a lawsuit.  For example, in Matthew 5:25, Jesus says when you’re on your way to court, “Agree with your adversary…while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, the judge hand you over to the officer, and you be thrown into prison.”

 

So the word describes someone or something against you.  Your adversary is the one who is totally against that for which you stand.  Applied to Satan, your adversary is totally against everything for which you stand.

 

The second word “devil” is the Greek word dia¿boloß.  In my childhood town of Walnut Creek, California, there is a high mountain visible to the East called Mount Diablo, literally Mount Devil.  I remember hiking up it when I was in cub scouts.  It was the devil!

That’s the word translated as devil here, dia¿boloß.  It literally means, “false accuser” or, “slanderer.”  The devil seeks to accuse you falsely.  He seeks to slander you, to speak falsely to you and about you.  His accusations may be directed to you in the form of false information about God or others.  Or his accusations may be directed to you in the form of false information about you.

 

And so you need to be prepared to hear these false accusations from your opponent, your adversary, the one who is totally against everything for which you stand.

 

The devil and his demons will do everything possible to undermine your faith.  Jesus described the devil in John 8:44 as, “a murderer from the beginning, [one who] does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

 

The devil is a liar.  So he will lie to you about God and others.  And he will lie to you about yourself.

 

For example, the devil would love to get you doubting about God.  He works hard to get you to doubt God’s good character.  When bad things happen, it is the devil and his demons who whisper in your ear, “How could a good God cause that?  Hmm?”  When someone hurts you, the devil whispers in your ear, “You really deserved that and you know it.”  And when you sin as a Christian, the devil seems to say to you, “You’re not really saved.  God has not forgiven you.  You are still in your sins.”

 

Now we’re going to come back to this point when Peter tells us how to respond to these false accusations.  For now, simply note with me, number one, the nature of His identity.  Satan is our “adversary,” the “devil.”  Verse 8 also describes Satan’s actions.  So note with me, second, we must:

2. Understand the Way of His Activity

 

Verse 8 also describes Satan’s activity.  There are two main actions Peter gives in verse 8.  He says Satan, “walks about like a roaring lion,” and, “seeking whom he may devour.”  Let’s talk about these two actions for a moment.

 

First, Satan “walks about like a roaring lion.”   Most of you know that the reason the lion is considered “King of the jungle” is because of its brutal and violent nature.  Lions are feared because they will attack and eat everything available within their range.

 

So we’re not talking about a cute, seemingly harmless lion secured inside a cage at Evansville’s zoo, receiving daily meals from a friendly zookeeper.  Peter’s talking about a lion in its natural habitat, roaming and walking about the jungle, menacingly looking for its next prey.

 

Imagine you are heading down a dark and dangerous pathway.  You will take extra care as you walk, looking this way and that, avoiding potholes and pitfalls, keeping an eye open for shady characters along the way.  Peter’s teaching that we’re to have that same level of spiritual alertness as we journey along the path of faith.  The devil is walking about the same path you are traveling.  Like a roaring lion, the devil is continually on the move.

 

The second action flows from the first.  Peter says the devil is, “seeking whom he may devour.”

 

In the Greek version of the Old Testament, that word “devour” is the same word used to describe what the big fish did to Jonah: to swallow up (Jonah 1:17).  Satan is always “seeking whom he may devour,” to swallow up.  The devil’s purpose is nothing less than seeking the ruin of men and women.

 

The devil wants to see men fail morally.  The devil wants to see women fail morally.  The  devil seeks to devour new Christians.

 

Now again, the devil cannot act apart from God’s power, so he does not have absolute power, but he has power.  And while the devil cannot take away your faith, he will do everything within his power to make you miserable and to render your Christian life joyless and powerless.

 

The devil seeks to ruin the witness of Christian men and women at the workplace or at school.  The devil seeks to devour your faith by accusing you, by creating doubt in your mind.  That’s what Peter’s talking about when he says, “the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.”  He seeks the ruin of men and women.

 

So we’ve looked at what he does.  We’ve considered the nature of his identity, the way of his activity.  But what are we to do?  Number three:

 

3. Follow the Plan for Your Victory

 

The first two words of verse 8 describe the Christian’s battle plan.  Peter says, “Be sober, be vigilant.”  Both words convey the idea of being awake.  The word translated, “vigilant” there is the same word used by Jesus in Matthew 26.  Jesus told Peter, James and John in the Garden…Matthew 26:38, “Stay here and watch with Me.”  It’s the same word.

 

So the plan for victory over the devil is to “Be watchful.”  The plan begins with unceasing spiritual vigilance, spiritual alertness.

 

The opposite of spiritual alertness is what?–spiritual dullness.  Being asleep spiritually.  Never taking God into consideration.  Living your life as if God were not part of the equation.  Making decisions with little care for God’s opinion.  Going to school without thinking of God, going to work without thinking of God, living at home without thinking of God, buying things without thinking of God, planning things without thinking of God.

 

Spiritual dullness or spiritual drowsiness is living our lives with little concern for God.  Think of it.  How many of you work without even thinking of God?  For example, do you give?  Do you tithe?  God has given you that job.  What are giving to Him?

 

Do you do your job without ever thinking of Him, of how you can glorify Him in your workplace?  If not, you are spiritually drowsy and dull.  You need to be awake.  You need to be sober and vigilant.  Be thinking regularly about the things of God and how you live for His glory.  Be sober, be vigilant.  Remember, Peter has said in this letter that we are temporary residents of this world, we’re just passing through.  So the first step of the battle plan for defeating our adversary, the devil, is to be awake spiritually, thinking regularly about God and the things of God.

 

The small pups of hyenas and the defenseless young of the giraffes are not expecting the lion to come out of nowhere and attack them.  The lion attacks suddenly and viciously, at times when the defenseless prey are simply engaged in routine activities.

 

When many of you get up Monday morning, you are going to go about your routine activities.  You are not expecting the enemy to trounce upon you.  You’re may not even be thinking about him.  Be sober.  Be vigilant because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

 

Now look at verse 9.  Peter says first, “Resist him.”  How do we resist the devil?  I think the key is to keep reading.  Peter says, “Resist him, steadfast in the faith.”  In other words, the way you resist the attack of the enemy is by being strong in your faith.

 

One way you and I can be strong in the faith is by walking closely with God.  When you and I are regularly communing with God, regularly talking to God and reading His word, the enemy has less power over us.

 

This is why I think James wrote what he wrote in James 4:7-8, “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…”

 

The phrase, “Resist the devil,” is sandwiched between the two actions, “Submit to God” and “Draw near to God.”  So if I’m regularly walking with God, talking with God, I’m prepared to meet the devil.

 

The way you resist the attack of the enemy is by being strong in your faith.

Another way we grow in strength is through the church.  We come together to encourage one another.  This truth is implied by Peter’s phrase at the end of verse 9 where he writes, “knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.”  In other words, your suffering is not unique.  Your suffering and your battles are shared by all Christians.

 

That’s why regular church attendance in big group and small group is so essential.  Lions attack defenseless animals that are alone and separated from others.  One of the ways we can avoid attack is by regularly gathering together.  We gather together and God encourages us through our regular meetings with one another.

 

Lions attack those who are weak.  Lions attack those who are defenseless.  Listen, if you want to resist the attacks of the enemy, you’re going to need to be strong in the faith.  You’re going to need to know what to believe and why you believe it.

Your most important weapon in defeating the enemy of the devil is the Bible.  That’s why Paul called the Bible in Ephesians 6:17, the “Sword of the Spirit.”  The Bible is the Christian’s sword.  It is the weapon to use against the enemy of the devil.

 

Our Lord Jesus used the sword of the Word when Satan battled him in the “jungle” of the wilderness.  Read it later in Luke, chapter 4.  Three different times the devil tempts Jesus and three different times the Lord responds with the phrase, “It is written.”  He’s quoting Scripture.  He’s using the Sword of the Word.

 

So when the enemy attacks you this week by whispering in your ear those false accusations, are you prepared to strike back with the Sword of the Word of God?  Can you say, like your Lord Jesus, “It is written?”

Let me give you an example: Satan whispers in your ear, “If God were truly loving, He wouldn’t have allowed that tragedy to happen.”

 

What will you say back to your adversary, the devil?  Will you use the Sword of the Word of God?  Will you quote Scripture to rebuke the devil and to encourage yourself?  Will you say, for example, “I don’t know why God permitted that, but the Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:29, “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God” and so I’m going to trust Him.  Or will you say, “I don’t know why that happened, but Psalm 11:7 says, “The Lord always does what is right.”

 

When someone wrongs you and the devil whispers, “You deserved that because you’re no good,” how will you respond?  Are you strong in the faith?  Will you use the Sword of the Word of God?  Will you reply, “You know, devil, there’s a sense in which you are right on this one.  I am “no good” (Romans 3:10) in the sense that I am a sinner and always fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23), but I know the One who is perfectly good in my place and His name is Jesus Christ and the Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5:21 that, “God made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  Take that, devil!

 

Remember Christian, the word devil means “slanderer” or “false accuser.”  Satan will do his level best to try to get you to believe lies about yourself and about your relationship with God.

 

When you sin, he will whisper to you, “Look at you.  You are a filthy sinner.  You’re not saved.  You keep on falling again and again.  Why don’t you just give it up.”

 

What will you say back?

 

Why not sing a few verses from, “Before the Throne of God?”

 

When Satan tempts me to despair

And tells me of the guilt within,

Upward I look and see Him there

Who made an end of all my sin.

 

Because the sinless Savior died

My sinful soul is counted free.

For God the just is satisfied

To look on Him and pardon me.

 

Follow the plan for your victory:

 

8 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 

9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.

 

  • Stand for prayer.

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