Beloved, this morning, for our text, we return to the end of 1 Peter chapter 5, considering specifically verse 8 this morning. We'll read a few verses before it and after it. But first of all, we turn together to Ephesians chapter 6, beginning at verse 10. Ephesians chapter 6, considering that portion of Scripture in which we find the armor of God. Read together verses 10 through 20, and then turning back over to 1 Peter chapter 5. Hear now the word of God. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm, then, with a belt of truth buckled around your waist, with a breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, and pray in the Spirit on all occasions, with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the saints. Pray also for me that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly as I should. 1 Peter 5, beginning at verse 6, which was a portion of our text last week. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that He may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on Him, because He cares for you. Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. To Him be the power forever and ever. Amen. Beloved, let's bow together in prayer. Father, we thank You for Your Word, for the beauty and the truth of Your Word and all that You have to teach to us from Your Word. And we pray in this morning hour that once again You would bless Your Word which we have read, which we prepare to hear preached to us in this morning. Grant to us all that we stand in need of, Father, that we might receive this Your Word. That You would speak to us through Your servant clearly and boldly and that You would be praised. Help us, Father, to recognize indeed, even as we live under Your mighty hand, Help us to recognize the danger that continues to surround us in this life and give us strength to stand. Hear us, we pray, for Jesus' sake and in His name alone. Amen. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, we said last week that Peter is giving here final instructions for Christian living in this life. Again, we live in safety under the mighty hand of God. And we are called to trust Him for His care and protection and for carrying our burdens and our anxieties. But right after Peter tells believers to cast their anxiety on God, he says in verses 8 and 9, Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. Now, even though it might sound like it, there is no contradiction here. No contradiction between what we considered last week in the previous verses and now this call to be self-controlled. God never promises us in this life that this life will be easy street with no cares and worries and struggles or dangers. In fact, it pretty much guarantees the opposite, doesn't He? For those who desire to live righteousness in Christ, Paul says, they will be persecuted. There is danger. And even though ultimately Satan has been defeated by our Lord Jesus Christ, even though his doom is sure, until every last elect child of God has been gathered into the fold, Satan is busy and he is dangerous. We said as well last week that the command to cast your anxiety on God is not a call to simply let go and let God in an irresponsible, close-your-eyes sort of way. God calls us to take action. And this text proves that. Yes, God will carry the burden and the anxiety of trouble and difficulty, that which would drive us to despair and hopelessness. He will take care of that for you and me, but He calls us to be active. This text makes it clear that our trust in God works itself out. Not our salvation. Christ has already worked that out for us. But our trust in God works itself out, at least in part, in our active stance against Satan. Now for those who would say that humility and being humble, as we said last week, is being spineless and gutless, We can point to this text and say, oh, really? Really? You see, as God's people, we are called to take a stand against the most fierce, the most dangerous enemy that exists. Those who are called to be humble before God and before His people are called at the same time to stand strong in the faith, to put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. Now that doesn't sound like being weak and spineless to me. That sounds like courage. That sounds like courage in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved, as Christian pilgrims, as we said, Peter says we are, as Christian pilgrims travel through this life among pagans, among the world of wickedness, whose prince is the devil, we are called to exercise guarded living. Oh, indeed, our salvation is secure. We will receive that wonderful inheritance. We are, without a doubt, safe under God's mighty hand. But that doesn't mean, that does not mean that we won't be a target for the dangerous predator. The most dangerous predator. The armor of God isn't to be put on for nothing. It has a serious purpose. Yet we know that this armor is effective only because it comes with the strength of the Lord. Now, Peter begins this text, this verse 8, with very short to the point commands with regard to the detailed posture. Posture for Christians. We'll consider that in our third point. But there's a good reason, you see, for this posture, and that's because of the dangerous predator. Your enemy, the devil. Now, Peter is talking here about the church's sworn enemy, Satan. He's not just God's enemy. He's not just the individual believer's enemy. But he is the enemy of the church as a whole. Your enemy, the devil. Your is in the plural here. He is the sworn enemy of the church because she is the body and the bride of Christ of whom it was said already in the Garden of Eden that he will crush the serpent's head. And this means, beloved, that Satan is not the church's friendly companion. Boys and girls and young people, Satan is not your buddy. You say, we know that. We don't want anything to do with him. But you see, he often disguises his roar with a gentle voice. He often transforms himself into an angel of light. And compromise is one of his biggest weapons. Come on, just once. It's okay. He makes the world look friendly, indifferent, and neutral. For example, beloved, as we celebrate the Reformation of the church, October 31, the Reformation of the church, from which we obviously get the Reformed in our name. Our society celebrates Halloween. And Satan makes witches and ghosts look fun and harmless. Casper, the friendly ghost. Yet we need to understand, beloved, that His hand is in it all along. The Bible describes Satan as the prince of this world and the ruler of this dark age. And in John 8, verse 44, Jesus describes Satan as a murderer from the beginning. And he 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. You see, Satan is the other side of the antithesis. He is the darkness that opposes the light of Jesus Christ. He is the lie that opposes the truth of the Word of God. He is God's enemy. He is the enemy of God's people, and therefore, he must be your enemy and my enemy. Peter makes it clear in his description of Satan that he is no friend of the church. He is our enemy. Now, boys and girls, another word that is translated the same way is adversary. The same word is enemy or adversary. An adversary is one who is your opponent. One who is opposed to you, against you. And the idea here is especially that of an opponent in a court of law. See, beloved, we cannot stress enough the fact that He is against us. He's against us. Against Christians in Christ's church. But then Peter, of course, adds that he is the devil. This enemy is the devil. Devil means accuser, but not just one who accuses. We once in a while might accuse our brother or sister of taking something that belongs to us. We can't find this, so that's the only logical explanation. They must have taken it. We accuse them of something. But you see, he is the one who accuses us slanderously or falsely for the sake of evil and wickedness. He accuses God's people by way of slandering or lying, purposefully lying, you see. He accuses God's people falsely before God. We see that with Job. In Job chapters 1 and 2, we read these words. Does Job fear God for nothing? Satan says, Have you not made a hedge around him and everything he has? You have blessed the work of his hands and his possessions have increased in the land, but now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has and he will surely curse you to your face. And then later Satan says, a skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has, he will give for his life. And to paraphrase, Satan says, take his health and watch him curse you. As well, in Zechariah 3, we read, Then he showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan standing at his right hand to oppose him. Now, beloved, indeed, Satan is not short on evidence against us. We've said that before. When it comes to our sin, he has an open and shut case, as it were. According to him, our sins are too great. They cannot be atoned for. According to him, we do not deserve the grace of God. We do not deserve forgiveness because our whole being, apart from Jesus Christ, is an offense to a holy God. We do not deserve salvation. But just as with Joshua the high priest, Satan has no firm ground to stand on because Jesus Christ has satisfied for all of our sins and He fulfilled all righteousness. We heard that in essence in our assurance of pardon. And Paul says in Romans 8, Who will bring a charge against us? It's Jesus Christ who died, who was raised, and is even now at the right hand of God on your behalf and on my behalf. He has removed our filthy garments of sin from us. He has clothed us in its place with His white robes of righteousness. Beloved, our God is a just God. Which means that our sin must be punished. but also because He is just. Our sins will not be punished twice. They've already been punished in Christ Jesus. Satan also accuses God's people not only before God, but also before men. He infects the thinking of the world that Christians don't belong. In a sense, we don't, do we? Our citizenship is in heaven. But this is our Father's world. He made it. He will redeem it. But He infects the world's thinking that the church is dangerous for the world when we know in truth that we are not dangerous for the world. We are good for the world. But in Acts, we find that the apostles in the early New Testament church were accused of basically turning the world upside down, causing trouble everywhere because of their teaching. It's upsetting people. It must be put to an end. Stop it. But Satan's accusations also attack God's people, not only before God, not only before the world, but they also attack God's people directly. And Peter, remember, Peter knew this from experience. Even after Jesus told him that Satan had asked to sift him as wheat, Peter failed to watch and pray. And the very same night, he denied his Lord three times. And Satan continues to fire his flaming arrows at us, one after the other, from all directions. Cadets, you don't know, but you gave me a good illustration. For those of you who weren't able to let you know, when we were on our camp out Friday night and Saturday, the ground was covered with acorns. For some reason, you can't pick up an acorn without throwing it at somebody else. And the boys had many acorn wars going, And I decided to get involved and learn very quickly there's a lot more of them than there are of me. And they surrounded me and they were coming at every corner. And that was fun. This is not. Satan surrounds us all around. And those flaming arrows are coming at us in front and back all around us, one after the other. Him and his wicked host continue to shoot those arrows. He wants us to believe that because our sin is so terrible, which is true, He wants us to believe, therefore, that there is no cleansing agent so strong that can remove it. That there is no stain remover so effective to remove that stain completely. He wants us to think that forgiveness can only be secured if we have a hand in securing it, knowing, of course, that sooner or later as we try, we're only going to become despondent and fall into despair because we can't. We cannot secure it. The word from which we get devil or accuser has the idea to strike through or stab and Satan's goal is to strike or stab right through us, right to our soul with poisonous accusations to destroy us, as it were, from inside out. He slanders both God and His people in order to pit us against each other, to make it seem, boys and girls, that we are opponents of God. That we stand opposite to Him. He did that with Eve, didn't He? Did God really say? Oh, He's not telling you the whole truth. But I am. Trust me. But you see, as Jesus makes clear, Satan is the captain of deceit. For example, He doesn't want us to think about October 31 as Reformation Day and what that means. He wants us to focus on Halloween, which is really the devil's night out. Boys and girls, I know that trick-or-treating is fun in and of itself. It's not sinful. But see, Satan has seen to it that it's put together. That fun that we could have is put together with the devil's night out. You see, the idea behind Halloween is that evil spirits are going wild for an evening. And believe me, He loves the fact that our culture makes light of this by ignoring the danger and instead by dressing up in costumes and celebrating witches and skeletons and black cats and more. He makes it look fun and harmless to play with Halloween fire. But that's exactly what it is. It's compromise. He doesn't want us to think of Christmas as the Savior's birth who came to save those who could not save themselves. But he wants us to focus on that jolly old man, that Santa Claus, the one who knows if you're naughty or nice. But boys and girls, you know who truly knows if you're naughty or nice. Satan doesn't want us to think about Easter as Christ's resurrection and victory and looking above to our secured eternal future. Instead, he wants us to focus on the Easter money and to keep our noses stuck looking in the grass for eggs. Now, boys and girls, we can have candy and presents and eggs any day of the year. But we must not let Satan tempt us with different meanings for our church holy days. Nothing can compare with the joy of the true meaning of Christmas and Easter and even our celebration of the Reformation of the church. Resist him. Satan is the evil enemy at the door. He is prowling around. He's on the move. And his is a destructive purpose. Peter says, again in verse 8, your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Now, of course, the imagery is vivid here. Lions prowl around quietly and as they approach their prey, they might even keep close to the ground, keep low to the ground and out of sight. They want to remain unseen. But at the time of the attack, the lion announces its ambush with a thundering roar as it pounces on its victim. The lion is powerful, strong, fierce, dangerous. The lion is life-threatening. Some believe that there may have been an allusion here to the persecution of Christians by Nero in the Roman Colosseum in which lions tore to shreds and devoured Christians. It was done for sport, as many people watched. Satan's goal is the destruction of the believer's soul and thereby, then, the destruction of Christ's church. He is seeking, prowling and seeking with the goal of finding. And His desire, beloved, is not just to hurt you a little bit, but to devour you completely. The word for devour means to gulp down, swallow whole like an animal swallowing its prey. Makes sense, doesn't it? The serpent. Think of how a snake swallows its prey. There is the idea of helplessness on the part of that which is being swallowed. and that's Satan's purpose, to get us when we least expect it. He attacks when our guard is down, when we are the weakest. He comes after us in ways that we cannot always recognize, as we said before. Friendship with the world. Or He wears us down with temptation, especially temptation of the flesh. But the problem is, beloved, we don't always take the time to recognize these things, do we? How often do we really stop to consider our actions and our activities in the light of the Word of God? In Ezekiel 22, Israel's wicked leaders are described using the very same illustration as we find here. The conspiracy of her prophets in her midst is like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured people. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in her midst. Satan devours through false teaching that infiltrates the church, which disguises itself as truth, but is really opposed to God's truth. Again, tempting us to trust in ourselves, in the gospel according to me, not God. Because certainly, really when it comes down to it, my feet are planted on the ground. I know about my situation better than God does. I know what's right for me. And again, through compromise, just once. Just once. It'll be okay. Peter is teaching here that Satan himself is the power behind all the persecution and the suffering these pilgrims have been suffering along with their brothers and sisters throughout the world. See, when you and I suffer, beloved, we're not alone. I'm sure Reverend Green can attest to that even in Costa Rica. We're not alone. God's people are suffering throughout the world for the sake of the faith. Satan is like a savage lion which can take your breath away. His roar terrifies us into fear. His teeth and his claws can tear deep into our spiritual being and inflict permanent scars. When the church deals with evil, she is dealing with the devil himself. But, God has given to His people His armor. Satan is a fierce and a greedy pursuer of souls. His eye is always open. as with his wicked host, he looks for chinks in the armor. Boys and girls, remember King Ahab? King Ahab thought that he was safe. But that arrow found one small opening in his armor. And it cost him his life. When God's people are fully clothed with the armor of God, they are impenetrable. Nothing can penetrate that armor of God. Why? Because of the Lion of Judah. Now notice, Satan is like a lion. But Jesus Christ is the Lion of Judah, as Revelation 5, verse 5 says. The Lion of Judah, the Lamb of God, has defeated Satan through his shed blood. The Savior has dealt the serpent a death blow. And that's why, by God's grace, Christians and the church are then called to exercise the detailed posture. Be self-controlled and alert. Other translations say it a little more pointedly. Be sober. Be vigilant. This is the posture that Christians must take up in this life. Again, because Satan is still prowling. Now, there are two different ideas being expressed here. Self-control or soberness is talking about internal control. And alertness or vigilance is talking about watching for the external enemy. Our whole being is involved inside and out. And beloved, as with so much of Scripture, these are commands. These are commands. These are not options for the Christian and the church to consider how they might best fit me or how I might best use them, if at all. These are commands. And these commands with detail and precision must characterize God's people in the midst of the antithesis. Now, when we hear the word sober, most likely we think of the opposite of being drunk. That's exactly what Peter is saying. Don't be spiritually drunk. When one is drunk from alcohol, then we know that everything about him is affected. His faculties of mind and thought and perception and strength are all impaired. That one cannot see straight or walk straight or think straight, he lacks self-control. One commentator said a drunken man is mentally and physically confused and does not know where he goes and cannot walk steadily. And the spiritually drunk person is the same. He is confused with regard to the truth, ignorant when it comes to the truth. He is, as Paul says in Ephesians 4, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men and the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, which Paul also says is the opposite of those who enjoy the fullness of Christ. A spiritually drunk person has no spiritual strength to stand firm on the truth, but compromises at every turn. Those who are not spiritually sober, beloved, judge according to a different standard than Scripture. They judge according to their feelings. Is it fun? will it hurt me? Are there worse things that I could be doing that justify this desire and the action that I'm going to take? Or everybody's doing it, so it must be okay? But the proper and the only question must be, beloved, is it pleasing to God? The Christian is to have a posture of soberness. That means being attentive. to be well-balanced, to be self-controlled, to be clear-headed. We are to walk the straight line of the truth of the Word of God and stand firm in our position in Christ against Satan and sin. We find an increasing trend among Reformed people today questioning the truth of the Reformed faith. And ironically, sadly, it's not those who are new to the Reformed faith, but those who grew up with it and ought to know better. One of the privileges of the elders that many of you don't have is that lately we get to meet people who are joining our fellowship through our daughter, the Christ URC in Santee. So many who come and say, oh, I heard the Gospel the first time in this fellowship or that fellowship, but then the Lord brought them to the beauty of the Reformed faith. And they eat it up. They read the confessions cover to cover. They cannot get enough of it because it's so comforting to them. They've been brought out of a, I must save myself, I must do something for my salvation into the comfort that Jesus Christ has done it all. What about us? When's the last time you sat down one evening and instead of turning on the TV or picking up a novel, you picked up the Heidelberg Catechism to read it through? Or the Belgian Confession or the Canons of Dort? Yeah, we consider them in church. Little by little, lords day by lords day, article by article. When's the last time you did that? Have you done it? Soberness, beloved, is a familiar call in Scripture. Paul says in 1 Thessalonians 5, verses 6 through 8, So then let us not be like others who are asleep, but let us be alert and self-controlled. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. But since we belong to the day, let us be self-controlled, putting on faith and love as a breastplate, and the hope of salvation as a helmet. And Peter even calls for self-control in spirit two times before this text, in chapter 1, verse 13, and chapter 4, verse 7. But the truth is, congregation, you cannot be self-controlled and sober into the truth if you don't know the truth. Peter also adds, Be alert. Be vigilant. Another way of saying this is, be watchful. Keep your eyes open. Wide open. And it should be clear that self-control, being self-controlled or sober then, is an indispensable condition. It is absolutely necessary for being alert and watchful. Which 1 Thessalonians 5 makes clear. Without being sober, one cannot watch out for the enemy. And that's the idea of being sober internally in order to watch externally. Beloved, this calls for strict attention. Watching and being ready to resist the devil as Peter calls for in verse 9. When I think of being alert and watching, I think of the royal guards who stand at attention for their whole shift. Nothing distracts them. Their focus remains on the duty at hand. Even with people waving their hands in front of their face, Nothing distracts them. Being alert or vigilant or watchful is another reoccurring theme for God's people. And as Paul makes clear in Acts 20, verse 31, one must be ready to warn others of danger. He says, therefore, watch. And remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears. And he says in another place, watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong, You see, we can be humble and be brave and strong at the same time. And beloved, this is to be the Christian's detailed posture throughout this pilgrimage. There's never letting off. Never a slacking off. We are never to relax from this position, this posture. We must be suspicious of constant danger from this evil enemy, this predator, and he must be resistant. as we stand steadfast by grace in the faith. You see, Satan cannot break through that shield of faith. He cannot, his flaming arrows, ricochet off like raindrops on the sidewalk. He cannot ruin the souls of those who are founded firmly on the Lord Jesus Christ. He cannot. He will not. At times, confessing Christians go to sleep in the spiritual struggle. They let their guard down a little bit and Satan finds a way to work. And when that happens, they begin to ask Satan's questions. I've asked them, maybe you have too. Did God really say? Did He really mean what He said? Believe you me, God really means what He says. The devil must be resisted with the preaching of the Word and with all diligence according to the Word of God. He must be opposed so that his false doctrine does not infiltrate the church. Our lives are to be lived by the standard of the Word of God, not by the standard of our feelings and our desires and what provides pleasure. You see, Satan doesn't care. Young people, Satan doesn't care how he gets you. Only that he gets you. But he cannot stand the truth. And he cannot stand against the truth. And we cannot stand apart from the Holy Spirit who clothes us with God's unfailing armor. The beauty of the Reformation, as we know well, was that biblical truth was brought forth once again as the apostles learned it from our Lord Jesus Christ and taught it that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone for the sake of Christ alone. And beloved, we are empowered to stand firm against Satan and he will resist us, as Satan says, when we stand on the truth of Jesus Christ. The devil cannot devour God's people. He can no longer deceive, as Revelation 20 says. He has been defeated. His head has been crushed. So that now, against the church, we might say his bark is worse than his bite. Yet, he will still attack for a time. And those who reject the Lord Jesus Christ and are devoured by Satan will be lost forever. But again, our comfort, beloved, is those who know their sin and misery and look to the only Savior, Jesus Christ, are kept safe forever, clothed with that unfailing armor. See, Halloween fire is just one way, just one way that Satan tries to lure God's people into his trap. But don't be fooled. Be self-controlled and sober. Know the danger. Resist Him. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Martin Luther, we know, expressed the believer's confidence in Christ against the devil with these words, The Prince of Darkness Grim. We tremble not for Him. His rage we can endure. For lo, His doom is sure. One little word shall fell Him. Satan's doom is sure. But beloved, so is the Christian's glory. For Jesus' sake, amen. Shall we pray? Father, we thank You for the necessary warning that You give to us in Your Word. That Satan is relentless. That he continues to move around, to seek, to attack, to devour. And we know, Father, that especially His first target is Your church, Your people. At times when we look at the world and think that they have it so easy, and in a sense they do in this life, Father, because Satan doesn't bother with them. He already has them in His grasp. But may we, O Lord, may we not be tempted to look at the grass on the other side of the fence for in some ways it may look greener in this life. Be a yet true pastor, O Lord, to belong to you, to be a sheep safe in your fold. Give us strength, O Lord, day by day, moment by moment. Rescue us when we fall. Keep us safe. Help us to resist the devil, O Lord. Cause him to flee from us. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Thank you.