The Devil is Real - 1 Peter..

Welcome to Cornerstone Reformed Baptist Church. Thank you for using and sharing our resources. What you're about to hear is God's Word from one of our teaching elders. We trust that God's Word will inspire, instruct, and bless you. For further teachings or information on our ministry, please visit us on our website at cornerstonerbc.

com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. as we always do we're going to be reading an extended portion of scripture the one that comes from chapter 4 verse 12 all the end until until the end of the book. So from chapter 4 verse 12 all the way through chapter 5 until the end of the book.

But our focus, as I said, is going to be on verses 8 through 11. So let's read carefully, paying much attention to each one of the words with a reverent heart and expecting that the Lord might speak to us through the preaching of His Word, that He might edify us through the meditations of His glorious truths. Let's read all together. The word of our Savior, Jesus Christ. This is 1 Peter chapter 4, verse 12.

Beloved, do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice in so far as you share Christ's sufferings, that you might also rejoice and be glad when his glory is revealed. If you are insulted for the name of Christ, you are blessed, because the Spirit of glory and of God rest upon you. But let none of you suffer as a murderer or a thief or an evildoer as a meddler. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in that name.

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? And if the righteous is his cursely saved, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? Therefore, let those who suffer according to God's will entrust their souls to a faithful creator while doing good. Chapter 5.

So I exhort the elders among you, as a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, as well as a partaker in the glory that is going to be revealed. Shepherd the flock of God that is among you, exercising oversight, not under compulsion, but willingly, as God would have you, not for shameful gain, but eagerly, not domineering over those in your charge, but being examples to the flock. And when the chief shepherd appears, you will receive the unfading crown of glory. Likewise, you who are younger be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, so that at the proper time He may exalt you, casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you. Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you In Christ will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

To Him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. By Silvanus, a faithful brother as I regard him. I have written briefly to you exhorting and declaring that this is the true grace of God. Stand firm in it.

She who is at Babylon, who is likewise chosen, sends you greetings. And so does Mark, my son. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace to all of you. who are in Christ.

Amen. This is the Word of God. Now, brothers and sisters, as I said, the portion of Scripture that we will be focusing on this evening is that which is found in verses 8 through verses 11. And in this portion of Scripture, beloved of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ by His Spirit, and through His servant, the Apostle Peter, is going to give an exhortation to these churches, historic churches of Pontus, Galatia, Asia, Cappadocia, and Bithynia, and of course, by the ministration and wisdom of His Spirit, to the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ before His second coming. an exhortation, i.

e., an exhortation, a divine exhortation from the heart and from the mind of God to be ready and to be sober-minded, to be watchful of the attacks of Satan. The topic of these verses is going to be the attacks of Satan against the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ and an exhortation that the Apostle by the Holy Spirit is going to give us to be ready and to be prepared how to face this threat of the attacks of Satan. He's going to give us an exhortation and also he's going to give us a hope. I promise for the end of this exhortation.

But I want us I want us to meditate upon Satan and the attacks of Satan to the church. If we are going to understand, brothers and sisters, this exhortation to the church to be sober-minded and to be watchful, how to respond to the attacks of Satan to the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, then we are to understand what the Lord in His Spirit and through Peter speaks of this Satan and the attacks to the church. If we're going to face and we're going to give a biblical response to those attacks, then we're going to need to understand from a biblical point of view Satan, the devil, and the attacks to the church. And the way that the apostle is going to present to us the nature of Satan and the nature of his attacks to the church is by giving us an illustration, an imaginary, an illustration that is found here in these verses. He is going to present Satan as a roaring lion.

He calls it Satan, the devil, who is like a lion that is prowling, is lurking, is going around. He is a roaring lion. He's furious. He is ready to attack. He's ready to destroy.

He's ready to devour. This is a lion that desires to kill the saints, that is ready to destroy. the saints. And this picture of this illustration that the Apostle Peter gives us in this portion of the scripture is quite interesting because more than likely the Apostle Peter is drawing this illustration from the many Psalms that David wrote in the Old Testament where he portrays himself as a victim of the enemy and the enemy portrayed as a lion and as a lion that is ready to destroy him. Now, remember that Peter would have known the Old Testament Scriptures very well, but also he would have been very well acquainted with the circumstances that the church was living and going through when he was writing this letter.

So even though more than likely he's using the imaginary or the illustrations of the Old Testament to portray Satan as a lion that is ready to attack and ready to destroy, It is also very likely that Peter would have known the cases of many of his brothers and sisters who would have been thrown to what the Romans called the condemnation of the beasts, or who would have been thrown to the lions to be devoured. He would have known even names and people that he loved that had been thrown to the beast in order to be destroyed, in order to be devoured. This is the imaginary. This is the illustration that the apostle is using to present this exhortation to the church. This is clear another exhortation of the necessity of the readiness and the preparedness of the church of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And in this particular case, brothers and sisters, it is to be ready for the attacks of Satan, who is like a lion, who is ready to destroy, ready to devour, ready to take the life, the spiritual life of the Christian. And last week, brothers and sisters, in my heart, I had the burden to bring to you the importance of the local church when it comes to making the Christian ready for these times of suffering and these times of tribulation. I try to show to you that the context of the passages that we're dealing with here in this letter is clearly a concern of the Apostle Peter to show the importance of the local church when it comes to prepare the saint, to make the saint ready for the diverse and the variety of difficulties or tribulations that the saint might face. I spoke to you about the desire of the apostle in chapter 4, for instance, in verse 7 and 8, to bring to the attention of the congregations the end of all things and how people were in need of being self-controlled and sober-minded and be prepared for the end of all things. One of the things that is very important that when we go through our Bibles is that when the Apostle is referring to you or your prayers or to you as a whole, he's referring the plural sense.

He's not referring in the singular individual sense of the christian but rather he is speaking to the congregation as a whole so he's warning them not only in this case of first peter verse chapter 4 verse 7 of the end of all things but he has also warned them to be ready and to be prepared for fiery trials in verse 12 of chapter 4 for persecutions that are coming for the judgment of god that is to start to begin with the household of God. It is in that context, brothers and sisters, that he is speaking of this need of the readiness or the preparedness of the saint, of the believer. And as I said, my burden, my desire last week, and as we continue until the end of this book, is to show you the importance of the local church in the life of that Christian when the Christian is to face all of these difficulties. And I think that's why, that's why in Chapter 5, the Apostle seems to shift so drastically to the topic of the structure of the Church. I said to you a few months ago that I did not understand why Peter will insert the topic of elders and the topic of submission in Chapter 5 when he is speaking about persecutions and sufferings.

And brothers and sisters, let me submit to you that this makes complete sense because we are to get ready spiritually to face the tribulations and sufferings and difficulties of the world only through the context of the local church. That's why he presents to us this exhortation to the elders, to shepherd the flock, to oversight the flock, to be examples to the flock. And then he introduces a similar exhortation to the younger in the faith, as I tried to make my case last week, that these are younger in the faith, that is anyone who is not an elder in the church, those are who are the most recent in their faith, and the relationship is to be a relationship of submission, And then the apostle gives an exhortation to the whole church to have a biblical heart of humility, cover, clothe themselves with humility and have faith, absolute faith that this God of the universe, this sovereign God who is in charge and in control of all things, as it says in the end of verse 7, that He cares for you. Casting all your anxieties on Him, it says verse 7, because He cares for you. In other words, throwing all your cares upon God because God cares for you.

And again, that you there is not the individual you, but it is the plural you. It is that God cares for His people. God cares for His church. Of course, we assume here the individual aspect of this statement that it is directed to each believer, but here the Apostle says through the Spirit that God cares for His people. This is the collective aspect of suffering and the collective aspect of God being sovereign over the suffering of the church and being the one who cares, who is concerned, whose heart it is towards the people of God.

Brothers and sisters, this is the context of the passage. in which the apostle now is going to give us an exhortation and being ready for the attacks of Satan. He has told us that suffering is a reality for the Christian in this world, that the more that we become like Jesus Christ, the less that we will be like the world, not only individually, but very importantly, collectively as a church. The more that the members of the church become like the person of Jesus Christ, the more that that church will be like the church of the book of Acts. And the more that that church is like the book of Acts, the more that that church will be insulting to the carnality of this world.

And it is in that context that the apostle calls the individual members of the church and the church as a whole to be ready for the sufferings that are to come. He gives us this glorious promise that we can do that with all certainty, that we can cast cast or give all of our or throw all of our anxieties to the Lord because He cares for us. It is the Lord Jesus and the Father and the Spirit that care for the church. But as I said, what I want us to meditate upon this evening is the reality of Satan, the reality of the devil, the reality of the adversary, as it is called here in this text by Peter and his attacks to those who are in Christ, namely to the church. It is the reality of the devil.

and His attacks to those who, by grace, through faith, have been united to Christ, but also have been baptized into His body, united to the universal Church, and also to a local body. Now, brothers and sisters, it's important that we acknowledge this, that that is the reality of Satan and the spiritual evil forces that Satan, the devil, commands. You see, in our contemporary world in which we live a type of life that is quite materialistic, we have the risk, or quite naturalistic better, we have the risk of reducing the importance and the reality of the spiritual realm of things. What we do is that sometimes we diminish the power of the Holy Spirit in our lives, and then we assume the Spirit of God as something abstract and something ideal, but can not happen in us, and also in the same sense of things, we tend to not only diminish, but remove completely the spiritual reality of Satan and his demons. That we say with our mouth that we believe that the Word of God says that Satan and his demons are real, but when it comes to our practical living, when it comes to our awareness of all these things, we live like if Satan and his demons were not more than just a fairy tale and just an abstract idea that does not really exist.

While the apostles and all the authors of the Bible were in an urgent desire to show the people of God the reality of Satan and the spiritual evil forces that Satan commands. That is what the Bible clearly teaches, brothers and sisters. Ephesians 6 says that we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers of this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. That is that the fight, the wrestle of the Christian is not against that which is natural, that which is material flesh and blood, but rather the fight or the wrestle of the Christian is against these cosmic powers of darkness, which are spiritual forces of evil. And the evil, the devil, Satan is on top of all of these evil forces, all of these spiritual forces.

Actually, the Bible says that the whole world lies in the power of Satan, of the evil one, that he is the one that is in the domain of darkness. And even the Lord Jesus Christ in the Book of John, in the Gospel of John, calls Satan the ruler of the world. Not only one time, nor two times, but three times, the Lord Jesus Christ refers to Satan, the devil, as the ruler of this world. Brothers and sisters, this is something very important for our life. If there's someone who is interested in destroying us, then this is Satan.

We are to acknowledge and to be aware of the reality of who he is His power and the evil forces that He commands. In fact, brothers and sisters, the reality of Satan, the devil, is so important in Scripture that even our salvation, the salvation that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ, is defined in terms or in relation to the power of Satan. When the Apostle Paul was speaking about salvation in Acts chapter 26, he defined salvation as the opening of the eyes, that we might be turned from darkness to light. That is, that our eyes might be opened because we were in darkness, and from that darkness we might move to light. And he put that and says that that is moving from the power of Satan to the power of God.

The Apostle Paul makes that equivalent to being forgiven of our sins, to have peace with God. The process or the fact that we have been made opened in our spiritual eyes and that we have moved from darkness into light. And that is because, brothers and sisters, salvation is indeed a process of enlightenment. It is coming from darkness to light. It is the process of our spiritual eyes being open.

That is that we were under the dominating power of Satan and all his evil forces. And that is that we were under the power of darkness. But then once by grace through faith, the Spirit of God says, grace upon you. Then we are taken from that darkness and we are given the light of the Lord. Jesus Christ.

So just as the light shined in the beginning of creation, also the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shown in our hearts, taking us from the dominating power of Satan. and moving us into the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And you see this contrast of darkness and contrast with light is a contrast of lies and a contrast of truth. Because the devil was a murderer from the beginning in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he cannot say or speak the truth because the truth is not in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of who he is. That is his character. Why? The apostle Or better, the Lord Jesus Christ says that Satan is the father of lies. That is, the darkness in the Bible represents lack of truth.

And once we are saved, taken from the dominating kingdom of darkness of Satan, we are inserted into the shining glory of the kingdom of the Savior upon the foundation of truth. And his word is truth. This is the devil. that peter speaks of here in this portion of scripture that we have precisely here in in verse eight this is this is the devil that peter refers to is the father of lies, is the father of slander, is the one who speaks continually and unstoppably lies, is the false accuser, is the one that continues to accuse He's the one that is the God of this world, because this world, it is in darkness, and He's the one who has the power. Brothers and sisters, Satan has the power to blind the mind of humans, to blind the mind of the unbeliever, according to 2 Corinthians chapter 4.

And he's able, he has the power to keep people from seeing the light of the truth of the gospel. The light of the truth of the gospel that is found in Jesus Christ can be prevented from the soul of people by the satanic powers of the devil. That is darkness and that is not of light. He is described as the Apostle Paul as the princess of the power of the earth. And this prince of the power of the earth is the spirit that is at work in humans that he calls them the sons of disobedience or the children of wrath.

The spirit of Satan, of darkness, of lie, is the one that is at work in the sons of disobedience. I want you to note with this, brothers and sisters, that this devil, this Satan of whom the apostle is speaking here in this portion of Scripture, this adversary that is described as the devil, he is a powerful being. not almighty like our God but he is a powerful being. He has the ability to blind the mind that is that he has the ability to cover the light of the gospel and he has the ability to to work within or to persuade to move humans into doing and being what he wants them to be you see apart from the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ upon a person that person is not only a slave to his unrighteousness but is submitted to the evil powers and forces of this world and those forces are commanded by the devil now pay attention carefully to the text because this devil is described by peter as your adversary your adversary he says be sober-minded in verse eight be sober-minded be watchful your adversary the devil now pay attention brothers and sisters that peter does not say god's adversary he does not say the lord's jesus christ adversary but rather he is clear here and precise when he says your adversary that is that the devil is the adversary of the soul of the christian He's the adversary of the believer. Yes, of course, he is the adversary of God and of the Lord.

He's been in enmity since the fall and before when sin entered, but he's the direct adversary of the saint. Here, Paul, or Peter better, is careful to present to us this personal enmity of Satan. with the believer. He is very careful to show us the direct intention of Satan to target Christians. His clear intention to use all of his powers to attack believers and the church.

Now, there is something very interesting about these words that are used here, your adversary, and this is going to help us brothers and sisters to understand the nature of the attack of Satan to our souls. So pay attention to this, because this word adversary, which means generally enemy, actually literally means a legal opponent, that it is a legal enemy. Satan is a legal opponent of the Christian, and understanding this word adversary as a legal opponent is going to help us to understand the nature of the attack of Satan to are sold and satan is an enemy who opposes very strongly the christian and again this your adversary it is referring to a very personal attack of satan to the christian but this year again is plural it is that Satan is an enemy, not only of the individual Christian, but Satan is an enemy, is an adversary of the church. Satan is an illegal opponent of the church as a whole. Now, of course, as I said, the individual Christian is considered here.

But what the apostle is saying is that Satan, the deceiver, the father of lives, It is the one who desires to destroy the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, if the Lord Jesus Christ is the builder of the church, then Satan is the destroyer of the church. If Jesus Christ is the one that loves his church, then Satan, the devil, is the one that hates the church. If the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who gave his life for the church, then Satan is the one who wants the one who wants to take the life of the church but thankfully we have the promise of the savior and even the promise given to peter that the church is built upon a rock and that the gates of hell will not prevail against the church. Brothers and sisters, this is this devil, this Satan that we have here.

If we want to understand the nature of his attack, we are to understand that he is real, that his dominion and his power is real. And that the word of God is clear to warns us of the powers of Satan. But perhaps beloved of Christ, the question that I want us to ask ourselves in this time that we are coming here, together to listen to the preaching of the Word. Perhaps the question that I want us to address from our soul is, how does Satan attack the Church and believers? Or in other words, how does the devil attack our souls or our congregation?

If we are to be ready, if we are going to understand this exhortation of Peter of being sober-minded and being watchful and all the other things that are around the attacks of Satan, if we are going to understand those things, then how does the ancient snake aims to destroy the church of the living God. We are to understand the nature of his attack, the nature of the ways that he looks for in order to destroy the people of God, the church of God, and the Christians in general. So the way that we're going to do it is just by simply seeing what the apostle writes here in this letter. If we are going to understand the nature of the attacks of the devil, of satan let's just pay careful attention to what apostle says he is not only comparing satan with a lion but he more precisely says that this this adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion and he's seeking someone to devour. This is the imaginary.

This is the illustration that the apostle gives us here that this Satan, this deceiver, this accuser, this legal opponent of the church, this powerful being that it is aiming to destroy the church prowls around like a roaring lion, sinking someone Now, the first thing that I want you to pay attention to, it is to the method. To the method of how Satan tries to attack us. That is, that he's prowling around, that it is going around like a roaring lion. That is, that he's active. that he is intentional in seeking to devour us that he is maliciously prowling around going around the christian to destroy them that he does not attack his brothers and sisters straight away which is very interesting here but rather he's just prowling around that he's lurking he's going around like a meticulous first animal that is planning how to destroy its praise looking for the correct moment to doing thinking and planning, looking for the opportunity that is given to him to attack and to destroy, looking for the minimum mistake that a Christian can make so that the opportunity will be given to this roaring lion to attack and to devour and to destroy.

that he's seeking for the smallest of the opportunities to be given to him. It could be just simple negligence in our Christian life, or just to be taken by the distractions of this world, or just to be moved in our hearts by the things and the affairs of the world. He is ready. He's not only ready, but he's also willing and eager to destroy the Christian. This is the picture that the apostle is presenting to us.

But beyond this active disposition, beyond brothers and sisters, this prowling around, or this going around its prey, and this activeness, if that is a word, to destroy, I want us to think about the ways that he can actually attack because one thing is to have this lion or this adversary prowling around threatening to attack. But another thing is when, indeed, this lion attacks us to destroy us and try to devour us. That is two different things. One is the intention, the active intention of Satan, looking for the minimum mistake that we can make in order to attack us. And another thing is when he actually attacks us, we are to understand those two But now, brothers and sisters, if we're going to meditate upon the ways or upon the different things that Satan can do to attack its prey, to attack the Christian or to attack the saint, I'm going to submit to you that when we just go through the New Testament and through Scripture in general, we found many ways, we can find many different ways in which Satan can attack the Christian and, of course, that he can attack the Church.

For example, We are told, as I have quoted in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, that Satan has this power to blind the eyes of the lost and preventing them from the gospel. That is, that he prevents them from coming and joining, spiritually speaking, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ. In a sense, he has the power to prevent the power of the light of the gospel as it is described by the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians. But also, Satan has the power not only to prevent the lost from coming to the light of salvation of the gospel, but also Satan can attack the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ by tricking churches into choosing non-qualified elders, but rather tricking them into choosing immature elders in their faith, people that Paul calls in 1 Timothy 3, recent converts. And many of these elders, according to the text in 1 Timothy 3, can become puffed up with conceit and can fall into the condemnation of the devil.

That is, that Satan has the power to trick churches, not to be guided by the authority of scripture, but rather by the preferences of men, and to choose unbiblical elders who are not mature in their faith, recent converts who can easily be puffed up and fall into the condemnation of the devil. If that happens to a church, the whole church is affected. This is a way in which Satan can attack the church. In 1 Corinthians chapter 7, for instance, also we are given another example of how Satan can attack the church, and that is that Satan can attack the church through the marriages of the church. Satan also aims to destroy the covenant union of men and women in the context of the church by tempting one of the parties, one of the spouses, to sexual immorality when there is lack of self.

control. Then that person can be drawn by the temptations of Satan into committing sin, and then marriage is affected, and therefore the church is affected. Now, we could go, brothers and sisters, with more examples of how Satan can actually attack the church and attack the believers. But let me submit to you that even though all of these examples that I have given you are clear ways in which Satan attacks the church, I think that the Apostle Peter in this section has a more specific way in which Satan attacks, something that goes beyond the attacks that I have just described and many other attacks that are described in the New Testament, something that is core to the christian something that is core to the saint i think that the apostle is directing an attention to an attack of satan that goes to the core of the believer now how do we know that well just simply brothers and sisters let's together pay attention to the context of how he presents these workings of satan and these attacks Satan please the first thing that I want you to pay attention to is how Peter mentions the intention of Satan he says that the intention of Satan or the intention of the devil better to use a word that we use here in the ESB they the adversary the devil the intention is to devour his intention is to destroy This means that whatever Satan attack is, is core to the soul of the Christian to the point that the apostle uses the illustration of destruction, not of making us weak, not of making us sick, or not to making us unable to do something, but rather to devour. And that word means to destroy us.

He's presenting the attack of the devil as something that could destroy us. Now, second, please note the description of Satan as the adversary. And I said to you that the definition of that word adversary was going to be important for us to understand the nature of his attack. so he's not only presented as one that aims or decides to destroy the believer but also he's presented as the adversary that means literally the legal accuser that is that is the legal opposer the legal opponent of this person has a legal aspect so to whatever well whatever the Satan or the devil is attacking the Christian aims to destruction, and it has a legal component. And the third aspect of the text that I want you to pay attention to, and it will help us to understand the nature of the attack of Satan, it is what Peter calls the Christian to do in response to this attack of Satan.

And that is found in verse nine. You see, he's given us the exhortation to be sober minded and to be watchful, but he tells us what to do in verse nine. And in verse nine, he says, resist him. And then he gives a clarifier. Firm in your faith.

Firm in your faith. Now, brothers and sisters, I think it's very clear to you that what I'm talking about here, it is that Satan aims to attack the faith of the believer. And that in attacking the faith of the believer, there is a sense in which the believer can be devoured, can be destroyed. Now, remember that faith is our legal instrument that gives us certainty and power for the saving promises of God. That is very important, brothers and sisters.

Our faith is a legal instrument, is a legal verdict that gives us certainty of what God has done and has said that he has done for us. That is, that we are not guilty, that we are innocent in Christ. But not only that, it does not only justifies us. Faith is also the instrument by which we live our lives after we have been justified. So Satan is not only the legal accuser before we come to faith, trying to blind our minds so that we might not come to the light that shines in the face of Jesus Christ and that we might be saved, but Satan continues to be the adversary of the Christian as the legal accuser once the Christian is walking in his or her life, because we live the life of Christ by faith.

We live the life in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. So Satan, the devil, this accuser, this adversary continues to be the legal accuser that tries to destroy us by attacking our faith. Brothers and sisters, what I'm just simply trying to say here, it is that He has the power, and of course, he has demons and all spiritual beings under his power. And by the power of Satan, and in the power of Satan and all the evil forces that are under him, the evil forces that he commands, he's constantly seeking to devour. And the primary way is by being a legal accuser of our faith.

That is by attacking our faith. You see, faith is so important, so important, not only for the moment in which we are initially saved, but also faith is important for the life that we live. And according to the same Peter in chapter one, we obtain the outcome of our faith once we are saved, once we obtain the salvation of our souls, so we live our life as Christians from faith to faith. Now, brothers and sisters, This is not only going to be clear from the context. I hope that it is very clear from the context because the Apostle Peter is calling us to be firm in our faith.

He is calling us to resist the attacks of a disadversary and to be firm in the faith. That means that this lion, this roaring lion, is trying to attack our faith. And I think that is clear from the context. But this would have been not only clear from the context of what Peter here is writing, but also he would have experienced the reality of Satan attacking the faith. You see, in a sense, what Peter is doing here in this portion of Scripture is obeying what the Lord Jesus Christ told him to do, that is, to strengthen his brethren.

You might remember the passage in Luke chapter 22 from verses 31 and 34 and i'm just going to read that to you you might remember the story of of um of the the denying of the apostle peter this is what luke chapter 22 verse 31 to 34 says simon simon behold satan demanded to have you that he may shift you like wheat but i have prayed for you that your fate might not fail. So Satan, the devil, the adversary, the lion that was seeking to devour Peter, had requested to have access to Peter to destroy him. But He was given that opportunity to do so, but the Lord Jesus Christ says, I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned, the Lord Jesus Christ continued again. Strengthen your brothers.

When you have turned back, when you have returned, when you have been restored, strengthen your brothers. Once you have gone through the sifting of Satan, once you have gone through the suffering and the difficulty and the attack of Satan to your fate, Then strengthen your brothers and your sisters. Now Peter there filled with emotions and filled with this carnal flesh center desire to serve the Lord and to observe to be observed in his service to the Lord. He said, Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death. But Jesus said to them, I tell you, Peter, the rooster will not crowd this day until you deny three times that you know me and effectively that took place.

He was requested by Satan to be sifted like wheat, to be attacked in his faith. The Lord allowed that to happen, but the Lord was also in control that he did not allow that Satan will take his life and his soul. Now, the denying of Peter was a result of this attack of Satan, brothers and sisters, of course, to his faith. Satan requested to sieve Peter to attack his fate, and Satan could have requested, for instance, to attack Peter in a different way, like, you know, like the attacks to the righteous job, to his flesh, affliction to his flesh and to his family and to the things that he had. He could have requested any other type of afflictions to be given and to be afflicted to or given to Peter, but rather he chooses to attack his faith.

And under the attack of faith, what we see is that Peter was filled with fear. The attack of Satan to Peter was just bringing fear, bringing doubt, bringing love to self and not love to the Lord whom he had said that he will go even to prison, that he will go even to death, that he was going to do everything possible to continue to follow the Lord. But when Satan attacked the faith of Peter. He was a fearful person, a doubtful person, a person that loved himself more than the Lord. He was filled with uncertainty.

The faith of Peter had been attacked. The faith of Peter had been weakened by the attacks of Satan. Thankfully for him, the Lord had given the promise that he was going to restore him, and he did. But what I want you to see, brothers and sisters, is that Peter is calling us, the church here, to resist the devil, to resist Satan, and to be firm in our faith. That is that Satan is interested in attacking our faith.

Brothers, Satan knows that our life is rooted in faith. Not only the faith that saves us in the beginning, but also the faith that we live in our lives. As I said, we live our life in the flesh by the faith of the Son of God who loved us and gave himself for us. for us. It is faith, the instrument that helps us to live our life in the Lord.

It is the conviction, it is the certainty that He's our Savior. Not only once we are saved, but the continued saving power of faith, saving us from the attacks of Satan. Now, brothers and sisters, this is so important. This is so important because the endurance of faith It is the ultimate, listen to this please brothers and sisters, the endurance of faith until the end is the ultimate proof of genuine salvation and the genuine conversion in the Lord Jesus Christ. Enduring faith, faith that goes until the end, faith that is not weakened, faith that does not disappear, faith that is not removed, continuous faith until the end, He is the type of faith that proves that the workings of the Spirit in our lives are genuine workings, and that He is the one that preserves us and keeps us until the end.

You see, Peter had genuine faith. He had been saved by grace through faith, and even though his faith was attacked, The Lord Jesus Christ interceded for him so that his faith may endure and continue to endure until the end, to the point that the instruction that we're receiving now comes from his mouth. But brothers and sisters, what I want you to think and have in your heart, it is that there is a reality of a being out there whose name is Satan, the devil, the accuser. And His goal to destroy you, His goal to devour you, is to legally accuse you of condemnation, that you are guilty, that you are a sinner, that the sacrifice of Christ is not enough. Why?

So that He may affect your faith. And by affecting your faith, He affects your life. You see sometimes many times we we think that the attacks of satan are only thoughts or words or Imaginations that come to our mind we can imaginations that come to our mind Yes, satan can do those things to the christian, but that has a deeper root that it is that satan does whatever it takes to weaken your faith, because by weakening your faith, by diminishing your faith, then your life as a Christian becomes the life of a weak Christian. You see, that faith works through love. That is, that love and works and obedience are necessarily connecting to faith.

This is what Galatians 5 6 says that our faith is connected to love and to obedience. So then if we do not love and if we do not work as we are to do good works in the Lord, then that means that our faith has been affected. That means that our faith has been weakened. You see, works are not necessary for salvation, but rather faith is necessary for genuine salvation once we are saved and once we live the life of salvation. So that's why.

Satan is interested in attacking the faith of believers. And brothers and sisters, there will be no other passage, a better passage for us to meditate upon these truths than the parable of the sword that is found in the Gospels. So I'm just going to get you before I finish and give some other comments on the rest of the exhortation. I'm going to take you to go to Mark chapter 4. Go to Mark chapter 4, brothers and sisters, because here in this parable, in Mark chapter 4, in verse 10 through 20, we are going to be given great truths about the nature of genuine faith.

faith that endures, and faith that is attacked by Satan and by the devil. Go in your Bibles, please, to Mark chapter 4, verse 10, all the way through verse 20. And here I want us to carefully meditate upon the nature of saving faith and endurance until the end, and also the role of Satan attacking and aiming to destroy that particular faith. This is what the Word of God says in Matthew chapter 4, in verse 10 it says, let's just read it from that portion carefully, it says, And when he was alone, those around him, with the twelve, asked him about the parables. And he said to them, this is about the parable of the sword and the four different seeds.

To you, speaking to the disciples, brothers and sisters, to you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God. That it is that the explanation, brothers and sisters, the explanation of this parable, which speaks of the nature of saving faith, of enduring faith, the Lord Jesus Christ puts it into the category of the secrets of the kingdom of God. But for those outside, everything is in parables, so that they may indeed see, but not perceive, and may not indeed hear. indeed hear, but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven. We've mentioned that in the past during our Bible studies, how the blindness of those who did not receive the grace of the Lord.

In verse 13, it continues, And he said to them, Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? He continues in verse 14 with the explanation. The source shows the word, and these are the ones along the path. where the word is sewn.

When they hear, Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sewn in them. Satan immediately comes and takes away the word that is sown in them. And these are the ones, verse 16, and these are the ones sown on rocky ground, the ones who, when they hear the word, immediately receive it with joy, and they have no root in themselves, but endure for a while. Then, when tribulation or persecution, namely sufferings as the ones of 1 Peter, when tribulation or persecution arises on account of the word, not on account of sin, but on account of the word, immediately they fall away. Verse 18, and others are the ones sown among thorns.

They are those who hear the word, 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. But those that were sown in good soil are the ones who hear the word and accept it and bear fruit thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundred. Brothers and sisters, the Apostle John in 1 John is very clear in saying this exhortation to the saints. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.

For all that is in the world Not 99% of the things that are in the world, but he says, for all that is in the world, and he says, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it's from the world. Now, Satan is the ruler of this world. This world is passing away, but Satan is the ruler of the world, and he is the ruler of all the things of the world, namely the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes, and the pride of life, namely all the reasons why these three seeds fell away and only one seed produced fruit. You see, the first one, Satan came and took the word that was preached unto the heart, and then Satan robbed and took away that, and then fate did not exist. But then after that, Satan brings persecutions and tribulations and attacks to the church, and those people fall away.

There's no fruit. There's no endurance until the end. And then to the others, Satan brings the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, the desires for other things, and he takes and chokes the word, and there is no fruit. Satan. attacks the faith, because by attacking faith, he attacks the church.

He removes us from certainty. God is the one that preserves everything in us, even our faith, brothers and sisters. But it's very important for us to pay attention to what the apostle does, because it is easy sometimes for us just to hang and to hold on the promises that God is going to preserve us and keep us until the end. But Peter does not does not do so what he does brothers and sisters is that he calls us in the beginning of verse 8 the exhortation is clearly given to us to be sober-minded and to be watchful that is to be active and intentional for these attacks that come from satan he wants to destroy our faith he wants to destroy uncertainty of the lord jesus christ and the apostle by the authority of the holy spirit calls us, brothers and sisters, to be sober-minded, to be watchful. That is, not to be spiritually drunk with unstable senses, moved from one place to another, but to be spiritually sober.

That is, with all of our senses in full awareness, walking in faith. with a mind that is diligently seeking to be renewed day by day in the Word of God by faith, a mind that is constantly seeking to hold fast the promise that we, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians and in Philippians, that we have the mind of Christ, a mind that is constantly looking for threats and is eager to put them away, a mind that is focused on the important things, the things that are above, the mind that seeks those things which are above, and not of things that are on the earth, a mind that is not only sober, but a mind also, brothers and sisters, that is watchful, that is a mind that is alert, that is not sleeping, but is constantly awake. The things of this world are distractions that are powers to move us and to shake our faith. A mind that is not complacent with what we are in Christ, but rather a mind and a soul and a heart that is actively and intentionally seeking the Lord for refuge and protection and empowerment. Not thinking, brothers and sisters, that we are all good and that we have obtained it all and that we are spiritually okay.

Not thinking that we are safe, but rather, as the Apostle Paul says in 1 Corinthians, that anyone who thinks that he stands, let them take heed. lest they fall. And as the apostle also in Hebrews chapter 3 says, take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief. Take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil heart that it is a heart of satan of unbelief because satan attacks our faith and that those attacks of unbelief leads us to fall away or to depart from the living god it is this the exhortation that the apostle is given that's why he calls us to resist this Satan, this devil, to be firm in our faith. And he adds and he gives us the reality of these brothers and sisters.

He says, knowing that the same kinds of sufferings are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. That is that the rule for the church of the world is suffering, suffering by the attacks of Satan's and the attacks of the world and the things of the world. attacks to the church through the attacks of the believers that is the rule for the christians all around the world for those who become like the person of jesus christ this is a very Convicting passage, brothers and sisters, because that is the rule as it is given here by the Apostle through the Spirit. The same kinds of sovereigns are being experienced by your brotherhood, not in Judea, not in Asia Minor, not in Rome, but throughout the world. The Apostle Peter would not know the extents of the world.

His trips or travels would have not been so far. And his concept of the world was, of course, not the whole world, but a big portion of the world. But he would not have certainty of the states of all the churches all throughout the known world to him. But he is confident by the Spirit to say that these kind of sufferings are experienced by Christians. throughout the world.

Now, brothers and sisters, of course, I have to present to you the glorious promise that is given to us, and I'm running out of time, but quickly I'm just going to present to you the glorious promise of endurance that is given to us in verse 10, that it says, 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 to him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen. Brothers and sisters, I don't want you to miss the point. that the Apostle, before given the glorious hope that after the temporal sufferings, because of our persecutions and the attacks of Satan, that we will be restored, brought to consolation, as it is said here, restored, confirmed, strengthened, and established by the Lord himself, who has called us to the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. I don't want you to miss the intention of the Apostle in which he has called us, first of all, to be sober-minded.

and to be watchful and to resist satan firm in our faith knowing that this is the reality of all christians all around the world if you turn the page quickly to first to first peter chapter one you will see that that was the message that he was preaching from the beginning of the book in chapter one verse three he says blessed be the god and father of our lord jesus christ According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, to a future living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God's power are being guarded. But now, he says, through faith. It is God who guards us. It is God the one that restores us, the one that confirms us, the one that strengthens us, the one that establishes us, either when we die and we are taken up to glory or when he comes to judge the living and the dead. He's going to take all the genuine Christians, all whose faith is established upon good soil.

He's going to take all of the saints who have been chosen in him before the foundation of the world, and he's going to preserve them and keep them until the end through faith. through faith, through continuous, ongoing, everlasting, spirit-given, scripture-based, faith. We are to believe the Word of God. We are to believe the promises of God. We are to nourish our faith continually.

Otherwise, we're going to be an easy prey for Satan. And we should not pay attention and to ask the question here, oh, so that means that Satan can destroy us. This is not what the puzzle is addressing. And it's not for us just to go and say, OK, but once saved, all will be saved, and we will endure until the end. This is not the answer to the text.

The answer to this text is be sober-minded and be watchful and resist Him, firm in your faith. That's what the Bible says that we ought to do. We are not to hold to a set of doctrinal statements that say you are saved and always saved or you're eternally secure. No, we are to grasp by faith to the words of the Savior and do what He says because we love Him, and that is to be sober-minded. to be watchful, to resist the devil firmed in our faith.

Why? Because he's an adversary. He's our legal opponent that is constantly trying to tell us that there is condemnation, that our sin is not covered, that we are outside the favor of Christ. that the cross of Christ is not sufficient to cover for our sins, that the words of Christ are not to be believed, that the words of Christ are not to be followed, that the statements of the Lord are not trustworthy. He's telling us all of these things weaken our faith so that he will find those who are to be Devoured, brothers and sisters, our eyes should be placed in Jesus Christ, not only in the moment that we believe in order to be saved and they will look upon Him, but rather our eyes should be established upon the Lord Jesus Christ, ongoingly and continually, trying like a baby, like a little child saying, Lord, apart from your sustaining power, I am destroyed by Satan.

So I come to you Lord, feed me with your word, empower me with your spirit and take me in your hand. I don't want to walk this walk of the Christian life in my own strength, but rather I want to do it by the faith of the son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. Amen.