Resist Satan - 1 Peter 5:8-11

You see, Satan is dangerous and Satan is smart. He hates God, he hates God's people.

If anybody knew about the attacks of Satan, it was the Apostle Peter. No wonder he wrote in 1 Peter 5:8-9, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, like a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour, whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. You'll recall that when Jesus announced he was going to go to the cross to die, Peter tried to persuade him not to die. And Jesus said to Peter, "Get thee behind me, Satan." He didn't say, "Get thee behind me, Peter." "Get thee behind me, Satan." Peter and the other disciples found out that Satan was very real and our Lord's warning was very appropriate. You see, Satan hates the people of God. Satan is behind the persecutions that go on in the world today against the church. Satan is a destroyer, he's a liar, he's a murderer. And you and I must learn to deal with him and overcome him.

You see, Peter is writing about the fiery trial, the persecutions that are going to come to God's people to refine them, to unite them, and to give them opportunity to glorify the Lord. But times of testing can become times of temptation. Oh, it's so important to know that. Satan knows that when you and I are going through the fire, we are very vulnerable. And how easy it is when we're going through times of testing to have Satan come and win a victory.

Well, Peter gives us three instructions to follow if you and I are going to defeat Satan. Number one, we must respect him. Be sober. Now, that's a good word, isn't it? Be sober. Be serious. Now he doesn't say we should revere the devil or worship the devil. Obviously, that would be wicked, but you'd better respect him. If I were walking down the street and along came a roaring lion, I would get pretty serious about the situation. I enjoy visiting zoos, but I'm always glad that the bars and the pits are between me and those animals. Respect Satan. Don't joke about the devil. Don't jokingly say, "Well, the devil made me do it." Satan is an enemy and you learn to respect the enemy. Just the way you learn to respect fire, or electricity, or a loaded gun. Our first instruction is we must respect him, be sober, be serious.

Here are the three enemies of the Christian: the world, the flesh, and the devil. And Peter tells us that we should respect these enemies. We should realize that they are foes that are very formidable. You see, Satan is dangerous, and Satan is smart. He's smarter than we are. He's had more experience at all of this than we have. He hates God, he hates God's people. Satan's desire is that the world worship him.

Now, there are two extremes to avoid here. Extreme number one is what I've already talked about, jesting about the devil, not taking him seriously at all. If I were Satan, one of my chief devices would be to get people not to take me seriously. Then you can do anything. The other extreme is to blame everything on the devil. Peter's not saying that there is a demon behind every bush. He's not saying that every time you have a headache or an automobile accident or something like that, then Satan is at work. No. Between these two extremes of jesting about Satan and taking him so seriously, we blame everything on him, between these two extremes is the balanced position, we had better respect him. Be sober, be serious.

Secondly, we must recognize him. Be vigilant. That means be watchful, be awake. Have your eyes open. Be alert. The Greek word gives us our English name Gregory. If you know anybody whose name is Gregory, this is the word. It means somebody who is vigilant. Oh, I hope we are vigilant. You see, it's when we go to sleep at the switch. It's when we get careless that Satan is able to work.

Let me read to you Matthew 26 beginning at verse 38. Our Lord says to his disciples, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here and watch with me." And he went a little farther and fell on his face and prayed, saying, "Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt." And he cometh unto the disciples and findeth them asleep. And saith unto Peter, "What? Could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." What was our Lord saying to Peter and James and John? You better stay awake and be alert. Don't get sluggish. Don't get careless. Watch and pray. Now it's one thing to watch and quite something else to really watch. We must learn to recognize Satan.

You see, Satan sometimes comes as a lion who devours. Oh, he'd love to attack your body. There are cases listed in scripture where Satan attacked the body. Job is a case in point. Now Satan cannot do anything to the believer that God will not permit him to do. Satan is limited by the sovereign will of God. And so God is always in control. But Satan as a lion wants to attack your body. He'd love to do that. I think Satan would kill every Christian if he could.

2 Corinthians 11:3. "But I fear lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety. So your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ." Paul tells us that Satan is not only a lion who devours, but he is a serpent who deceives. He not only attacks the body, he attacks the mind. With what? With lies. Once you believe a lie, Satan is already at work in your life. That's why you've got to try and test everything that you hear and see. Don't believe everything. You've got to test it by the word of God.

John wrote and said now, "Little children, don't believe every spirit, you try the spirits to see if they be of God." And so Satan is a lion who devours. He attacks the body, and he is a serpent who deceives. He attacks the mind. He is an adversary. Your adversary the devil. Now that word adversary means an accuser at court. Satan would love to drag us before the court of God and accuse us. He is the accuser of the brethren. Revelation 12:10. "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, 'Now is come salvation and strength, and the kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.'" Oh, how Satan loves to accuse us before God. He accused Job before God. He said to God, "The only reason Job is a good man is because you've blessed him. If you take away all of these material blessings, he will curse you to your face."

You see, Satan was accusing Job of being a dishonest hypocrite. Satan loves to accuse us to ourselves and to the Lord. There are Christians who have done things they shouldn't have done and the devil won't let them forget it and he just bombards them with accusation. We better learn to recognize him. He's the counterfeiter. He's the one who counterfeits everything that God wants to do. 2 Corinthians chapter 11, Paul says this, "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ." Now verse 14, "And no marvel, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." He can come as the lion or the serpent or the adversary or the counterfeiter. We must learn to recognize him. How do you do that? You study your Bible and you let the Holy Spirit give you wisdom. The Holy Spirit is your spiritual radar to warn you when Satan is at work.

We must respect him, be sober. We must be vigilant, we must recognize him, and we must resist him. Whom resist. How do you resist a roaring lion? By being steadfast. Whom resist steadfast. Ephesians chapter 6, Paul talks about the armor that God gives to us. He says, "Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all to stand. Stand therefore." And so be steadfast. Don't tremble at Satan's roaring. He's already a defeated foe. Be submissive. Wherever there's pride, the devil is happy because Satan is proud. And believe God for the victory. Whom resist steadfast in the faith. Now Peter had denied his Lord. Peter was restored. Now Peter says, "Look, you trust God's word. Believe what God's word says. Heed the warnings of God's word. Satan is already a defeated enemy. Satan has been defeated on the cross by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, respect him. He is your enemy. Recognize him. Be vigilant. But resist him in the faith, using the sword of the spirit, the word of God, and you can resist the devil and he will flee from you.

It would have been interesting to sit in a local assembly when one of the letters was read from an Apostle. Suppose you had been in one of the assemblies in the different places where 1 Peter was sent. Oh, what an exciting time you would have, especially with 1 Peter 5:10-11. "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

The word I want to focus on is the word translated "make you perfect." Make you perfect. Now in the Greek language, it's the word katartizo. Our word artist comes from it. Katartizo. And you know if you'd been sitting in that congregation next to a doctor, he would have nudged you and said, "Oh yeah, make you perfect. In our work, that's the word for setting a broken bone. Katartizo, to set a broken bone or to develop and exercise a limb." If a sailor were there, he'd say, "Oh that word in our vocabulary means to outfit a ship for a voyage. We wouldn't think of taking off on a voyage without getting the ship ready." A soldier would speak up and say, "Why yes, we we have that same word. To us it means equipping an army for battle. An army wouldn't go out on the field without being equipped for battle." That's the word, katartizo. And of course the fisherman would know the word because the word means to mend your nets or to prepare your nets for casting. Matthew 4:21. When the Lord Jesus came and found the fishermen, they were mending their nets. That's the word, katartizo. The word family is used in about 19 different references in your New Testament. And it refers to the equipping of God's people for Christian service.

Now, let's read 1 Peter 5:10 with that in mind. "But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, equip you." Perfect you, complete you, outfit you for your voyage, equip you for your battle, mend you, repair you, get you ready for service. Now, how does God go about equipping his people for life and for service? Well, of course Peter tells us here that the first tool God uses is suffering. After you've suffered a while, make you perfect. God uses suffering to equip his people.

Now suffering by itself does not mature a person. I want to make that very clear. I have met saints of God, Christians, believers who went through the furnace and they came out burned. They didn't come out purified, they didn't come out refined. They came out angry and bitter and burned because they didn't drop on the grace of God. You see, verse 10 tells us in 1 Peter 5 that you've got to focus your attention on the grace of God.

Now the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory, grace and glory, they go together, don't they? Suffering and glory go together. Suffering can lead to glory if you're on the bridge of grace. It's grace that turns suffering into glory. It's grace that God uses in our lives to glorify himself while we are suffering. And this is what Peter's been talking about. The God of all grace will use suffering to perfect you and mature you.

Now the second tool God uses is the fellowship of the local church. You find this in Ephesians chapter 4 beginning at verse 7 and going through verse 16. I'm not going to read the entire paragraph, but in this paragraph Paul is saying we all belong to the body of Christ, who are saved through faith in the Savior. Each of us has a different gift. But the purpose for the body is given in verse 12, "for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of the ministry, unto the edifying of the body of Christ."

We need the local church if we are going to be equipped. The local church is an army. That's where you learn how to fight spiritual battles. The local church is a family. You learn the graces of the Christian life in the family. God uses the local church to equip his people for life and service. And if you're an isolated, insulated Christian, you cannot be balanced and fully equipped. What tools does God use to equip us? Suffering and the fellowship of the local church.

Now there's a third tool God uses, and that's the word of God. 2 Timothy 3:16-17. "All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished." Now there's our word. Thoroughly furnished unto all good works. God uses his word to equip us. That's why the word of God is so important in the local church. If the local church is not magnifying Christ through the word, nobody is going to be equipped. The the ship is going to sit there unable to face the storm. The army won't be able to go out in battle. The bones won't be set properly. We need the word of God.

Now the word of God comes from God. All scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's God-breathed. It's God's life given to us. It's the living word and the spirit of God uses the word of God to equip us. As you read the word of God day by day, the word of God equips you. As you go to church and fellowship and study the word of God and worship the God of the word, the word of God equips you. That's why it's so important to have songs that are biblical. Because we are influenced by what we hear sung and by what we sing. It is biblical music that helps equip you to fight the battle and to make the voyage. What tools does God use to equip his saints? Suffering, the fellowship of the local church, the word of God. And there's a fourth tool, and that tool is worship and prayer. 1 Thessalonians 3:10. "Night and day, praying exceedingly, that we might see your faith and might perfect," there's our word, "that which is lacking in your faith." Prayer.

Now listen to Hebrews 13:20-21. "Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect." Now there's the word, katartizo. "Make you perfect in every good work, to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." The book of Hebrews is about our exalted High Priest, the Lord Jesus. When you and I come to the throne of grace, we are able to worship him and pray and draw upon his grace and he perfects us.

Notice now, the God of peace, make you perfect in every good work. Now how does he do this? Working in you. For what purpose? To do his will. That's a marvelous thing. When the child of God comes to worship at the throne of God, a transforming experience occurs. Oh, how we need to get back to the worship of God. You want God to equip you in your daily life? Do you want to be a ship equipped for the storm? An army, a soldier equipped for the battle? Do you want to be ready to face life, then you'd better learn how to worship God. Because everything in the Christian life is a byproduct of worship.

I don't know how many times on a Lord's Day I have gone to God's house and I fear that the the sails on my ship were all torn and battered and the equipment for my battle was in pretty bad condition and some of the bones in my life were out of place and and my nets were not in very good shape. I was really in need. And I'd go to the house of God to be with the people of God and we'd worship together, we'd praise the Lord, we'd pray, we'd hear the word of God. And you know what? A miracle would take place. God would fix the sails on my ship. God would repair the nets. God would set the bones and God would would equip me. He'd get that that uh battle array all prepared. And I'd walk away from the house of God having been equipped. Katartizo, make you perfect, equip you, get you where you ought to be for life and for service. God uses suffering, the fellowship of the local church, the word of God, and prayer and worship to equip his people. Everything else is a byproduct of this. Oh, I trust that God will help us to be confident Christians because we are equipped spiritually by the Spirit of God.