Your Adversary

1 Peter 5:8-9

Immanuel – 10/10/21

Sometimes it is hard to see hope; especially as the world seems to be getting darker. Not only does secular society speed headlong into that darkness, it is being relentlessly driven by a supernatural foe. The speed and fury of this godless madness is dizzying. And sometimes it is hard to see hope.

But that is not what you have been born into. According to His great mercy, [God] has caused us to be born again into a living hope.” (1 Peter 1:3) In other words, we are a people fueled by hope – living on hope. No matter the troubles of this world, no matter the darkness of night, there is an unfading hope in the Risen Son; and we are a people running towards that hope.

Hope has to do with drive, with joy, with expectation – the things that make life worth living and certain deaths worth dying. A person that lives by hope has a heart that is on fire. They burn for the King’s victory to be consummated, for truth to be unassailed, to see earth transformed by heaven, to finally touch the One that loves us and gave Himself for us.

Yes, hope sets hearts on fire. Not even the deepest dark nor enduring anguish can extinguish such a living hope. Because these hopes are grounded in the unshakable, unmoving, promises of God.

And yet, there is a danger. We have a cunning and powerful adversary. He is not powerful enough to shake the promises of God. So instead, he tries to shake our faith, and have us doubt God and His promises – just as he did when he poisoned the hearts of our first parents. Our enemy is a destroyer of hope and a devourer of faith.

Purpose

Why must we have a sober mind?

How does Satan oppose us?

How do we resist him?

Read 1 Peter 5:5-9

Last week we looked at the relationship between humility and anxiety. Writing to churches plagued by local persecutions, on the verge of a war between the Jews and Rome, Peter arms these elect exiles with the most powerful weapon to combat their many anxieties: humble dependency on God. The deepest root of anxiety is pride, because pride tries to control, because pride fears what it cannot control, because pride does not trust God and His promises.

Therefore, the only antidote for anxiety is to humbly depend upon God.

It is no coincidence that Peter immediately pivots from the enemy that lives within – pride and its anxieties – to the enemy that lives without – the Devil: the progenitor of pride.

And Peter’s pivot point is the mind.

Read vs 8a

Be Sober-Minded

Be sober-minded. This is now the third time that Peter exhorts us to have sober minds: once in 1:13, again in 4:7, and now in 5:8. Three times Peter pleads with us to be sober-minded. That should be enough times to make you sit up and pay attention! Be sober-minded!

What does it mean to be sober-minded? Certainly alcohol can affect your mind, but Peter is talking about so much more than inebriation. Being sober-minded is about being awake to reality as defined by God. It means loving the truth. It means assessing the world and yourself as God assesses. It means understanding the will of God for your life and for this world.

A person that does not have a sober mind suffers from spiritual drowsiness. They think only of trivialities. They are comfortable in shallow thought and would rather escape than consider weightier matters; and escape is easily found in a screen. This is the mind of a fool.

How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge?

For the simple are killed by their turning away, and the complacency of fools destroys them. -Proverbs 1:22,32

Do not be the fool, destroyed by their own complacency. Sober your mind. See the world, see your situation, according to the revelation of God’s word.

“Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you.” Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. -Ephesians 5:14-17

Being sober-minded means being a thinker. Thinking about the things of God, about the travails of this world, about your inner struggles and strengths, all according to God’s revealed will – as found in the Bible.

Perhaps you find it difficult to think upon weighty things. It is hard to understand Scripture and discern the will of God. Likewise, a person that does not apply appropriate exercise finds it difficult to run 5 miles. But with exercise comes endurance, and with thinking comes understanding. Peter’s admonition to sober-mindedness is akin to saying, “Exercise!” Exercise your mind, that you may be sober-minded.

And with a sober-mind will come watchfulness. See how Peter goes from a sober mind to a watchful attitude in verse 8? A sober mind produces a watchful attitude.

A sober mind understands the dangers around you and seeks to mitigate them. A fool walks into the middle of a freeway, lays down, and takes a nap. The only reason they are comfortable enough to sleep is because they are dangerously ignorant. There is a famous saying in mountain climbing: “Your greatest threat is the one you don’t know about.”

A sober-minded person is alert to these dangers and watches out for them. They would never sleep on a freeway; let alone walk into one.

Qualifier: A sober-minded, watchful person does not hide in fear. They wisely discern risk, prepare for it, and cast all of their anxieties upon God – as they trust in Him.

When Peter says, “be watchful,” He’s essentially saying, “Watch out!”

Watch out for what?

Read vs 8b

Peter gives us three descriptions of the same person.

Your Adversary

The Devil

Roaring Lion

We’ll take these descriptions one at a time.

Adversary/Devil/Lion

Adversary. It means opponent/enemy. You might be tempted to look at certain human individuals, such as government leaders, and think they are your enemy. But behind them is a much darker power. Even if it seems like whole swaths of humanity are amassed against us; we do not ultimately wrestle against these.

For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places. -Ephesians 6:12

Hitler controlled a giant and powerful military machine that was evil to the core. Far greater, far darker, far more deadly, Satan controls an enormous multitude of demons with spiritual powers we can hardly comprehend. Though the armies of men may be arrayed against us, it is truly the Devil and his demonic forces that we battle.

And he strives against you; conspires against you. He is bent on your destruction. Every follower of Christ, every one of us elect exiles, faces a foe that does not merely want you to die, but he ravenously wants you to forsake Christ and be cast into eternal torment. He works for your eternal destruction.

The Devil – from the Greek word Diabolos. It is a word that means accuser, slanderer, false witness.

Before Jesus, Satan was the ruler of this world. And as ruler he was unrestrained as he led the nations astray. He looked deep into the wickedness of man, saw how weak we are to resist evil, and he drove the nations deeper and deeper into darkness. And as the ruler of this world he would go before God like a prosecutor and bring accusation against the sinners of earth, especially those sinners that God has called His elect.

We see this described in the book of Job, as Satan accuses Job before God.

Then Satan answered the Lord and said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have you not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse you to your face.”

-Job 1:9-11

God then allowed Satan to afflict Job. The book of Job tells of Job’s wrestlings through this horrific suffering. It is a book about God’s faithfulness and sovereignty and goodness despite our suffering. In the end it is revealed that Job’s faith was not false, but that the accusations of Satan were false.

Peter even came under the accusative eye of Satan. Jesus said,

“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan demanded to have you, that he might sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail.” -Luke 22:31-32

God allowed Satan to afflict Peter; and as a result Peter denied Christ three times. But these denials were temporary, and Peter’s faith held; not because Peter was so amazingly faithful, but because Jesus had prayed for him.

In both these cases, God gave Satan audience. He gave ear to the accuser’s lies. And Satan was relentless in his accusations. You might ask, why would God give ear to Satan? Does Satan have any credibility in the divine courtroom?

In a way, yes, he did. Humans are fallen; and even the best of us are filled with wickedness. God had set His favor upon His elect, and it was Satan’s joy to mock God’s decision. Satan continually reminded God that His people were evil, saying about the elect: “Liar, thief, coward, weak.” Endless accusations, and Satan was right to bring up humanities evils.

A Roaring Lion. Likely many of the readers of Peter’s letter had been to the Roman amphitheaters – perhaps before they came to Christ. With their own eyes they watched the strongest of men be torn apart by the ferocity of lions.

In the year 107, anticipating his own death between the jaws of lions, Ignatius wrote this: “Let me be given to the wild beasts, for through them I can attain unto God. I am God’s wheat, and I am ground by the teeth of wild beasts that I may be found pure bread…Come fire and cross and grapplings with wild beasts, wrenching of bones, hacking of limbs, crushing of my whole body, come cruel tortures of the devil to assail me. Only be it mine to attain unto Jesus Christ.”

Peter brings to mind terrible images of Roman bloodlust; that our adversary is like a roaring lion. He hunts, seeking the elect, hungry to swallow us whole. And just as the Roman lions, he is pitiless as he devours.

But do you know that his teeth have been cut? Do you know that God no longer gives ear to the accuser? Satan is not welcome in the courts of heaven, for the Risen King has judged him and thrown him down.

A Foe Defeated

When Jesus was just beginning to establish the kingdom of God, He saw a vision, and prophesied things soon to take place.

“I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” -Luke 10:18

Like lightning, Satan would be flung from the courts of heaven. And how would this happen? Jesus told us this too.

“Now is the judgement of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

-John 12:31-32

When Christ was hoisted upon that cross the judgement of our adversary was complete. The lies, the wickedness of Satan was on full display with the death of the perfectly righteous, entirely innocent, Son of God.

Again, just hours before the cross, Jesus said,

“The ruler of this world is judged.” -John 16:11

Around 30 years later, Paul writes this.

[God] disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in [Christ]. -Colossians 2:15

How are Satan, and all of his demonic soldiers, disarmed? Peter told us this earlier in his letter.

For Christ also suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit.

[He] has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to Him. -1 Peter 3:18,22

In death Jesus was proved perfectly righteous and Satan was proved judged. In resurrection the Lion of Judah cut the teeth of the devourer. In ascension Christ took the throne, subjecting the demonic, and casting Satan down.

Christ reigns as King and Heaven knows no contest. He reigns supreme!

But let us consider the line in verse 8 of our passage: prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Satan is still on the hunt. No longer having access before Heaven’s throne, and cast down from there, now he roams the earth; and the Accuser he is still.

Now he spins his accusations into other ears. He and his demons crawl through the weeds of our lives and from their hiding place say, “Coward. Liar. Sinner. Hypocrite. Worthless. Does God really love you? Are you really one of His?” These accusations are effective because we know they are true about us. We are cowards and liars and hypocrites and sinners, each one of us.

But convincing us of these things isn’t the Devil’s winning strategy. He is hungry for our faith. He uses these accusations to get us to believe that God’s word is not true, that He doesn’t love us, that we cannot trust Him, that there is reason to doubt God and His promises.

Your adversary, the devil, devours like a lion by getting you to believe lies about God and His word. For when you abandon trust in God, you throw yourself into the yawning abyss. And the lion licks his lips.

Read vs 9

As a result of David’s sin, a single angel slew 70,000 men of Israel (2 Samuel 24:15-16). Satan is the greatest of all fallen angels. What can we do against him? Amazingly, we can resist the devil. And this is proof that Satan is a defeated foe, a lion with teeth that have been cut.

Resist!

But resisting the devil doesn’t happen by having a strong will, or by speaking some special rebuke into the air. Resisting the devil, and his storm of accusation, is only possible when you lash yourself to the mast that is your faith.

Peter does not tell us how to do this. But Paul gives us some help. He too understood our frailty, and the power of sin still residing within us.

Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weakness, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me…For when I am weak, then I am strong.

-2 Corinthians 12:9-10

Yes, just as Peter said a few verses earlier, we must humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God (1 Peter 5:6). We must reckon ourselves as weak, as needing to be strengthened by God, and then depending upon Him for that strength. We believe – we have faith – that Christ will indeed be our strength, though we feel all the frailties of our humanity.

Paul also says,

Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil.

In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. -Ephesians 6:10,16-18

Your strength to resist the devil come not from within, but from God. There are other pieces of the armor that I am not going to mentioning, but here are a few that I want to highlight.

The helmet of salvation: wear it confidently like a crown. Christ has given it to you – purchased it in blood. Know that you are His and that He has rescued you from death. You are saved! Put on this helmet!

The sword of the Spirit: it is the word of God. With the word you cut down Satan’s temptations. Every temptation that Satan assaulted Jesus with was ultimately a temptation to get Him to doubt His Father. And every temptation and doubt were cut down with Scripture. Jesus was a man saturated in the promises of God, as they are found in the word. His reality was shaped by the reality of God, as revealed in the word. Take up this sword!

The shield of faith: lift it to extinguish the fiery accusations of the devil. Every word that would make you doubt God’s love for you, that would steal your confidence in Christ, is extinguished by faith. Faith is choosing to trust Jesus, even when the whole world would celebrate you doing otherwise. Faith is being tirelessly, relentlessly, filled with hope in the promises of God. Trust in God and lift this shield!

When sufferings come, when the devil accuses, when the world hates you, in faith lift your eyes from the place you stand and gaze once more upon the Righteous King.

He suffered the wrath of God for the unrighteous like you. You have become the righteousness of God (2 Corinthians 5:21). All of your wickedness has been forgiven and you are hidden in Christ. Now set your hope fully on God’s promises.

He has chosen you; He will always love you. He has redeemed you; He will resurrect you. He has defeated Satan; you will be given a crown of victory. Believe!

Jesus once said,

“No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. Then indeed he may plunder his house.” -Mark 3:27

When the Son of God became a child, he entered the strong man’s house. Through His life, death, and life again He bound that strong man. Now He is plundering his house. We are the plunder, and what can the strong man do?

Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is Christ who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who is indeed interceding for us. -Romans 8:33-34

Do you hear that? In the place of the Accuser, our Adversary, now stands our Savior, interceding on our behalf. The One who successfully prayed that Peter would not be sifted, now continually prays for us. No longer are the failings of the elect proclaimed before the throne, but only the imparted righteousness of Christ.

In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. -Romans 8:37-39

The lion has had his teeth cut. The devil’s accusations fall on deaf ears. Our adversary has been defeated. Resist the devil as you stand firm in these truths.

But watch out. Discipline your mind to be sober. Because the moment you become complacent, and your faith grows lazy, the lion will be lurking there. If you are one of Christ’s, and He is indeed interceding for you, you will not be devoured. But even falling into a mouth with blunted teeth is a terrible experience. Watch out! Be sober-minded! Stand firm in your faith!