Fend or Feed the Lion, Part 2

Chapter 5. And I’m hoping that
our diminished numbers this morning are not because people were frightened
away at the subject matter of Chapter 5. If they were, I hope
they get the rest of this tape. We were introduced last week
to a special guest. And before you throw me out,
I use that word special in quotes. We were introduced to a special
guest who often we meet and we know all too well his deeds. He has been the ruiner of countless
marriages. He has been the tragedy of scores
and countless scores of souls. He is the one that influences
our thoughts to evil, the one that prompts us and provokes
us to sin. We know of him as the devil or
Satan, but really in Scripture, there are a number of names by
which he is referred. The dragon, the evil one, the
serpent, the prince of this world, It is he that set about to attack
Adam because Adam was the crown of God’s handiwork of creation. Once sin had been introduced
to the world, one of the common ways that he is known in Scripture
is the accuser because he is constantly going about his business
of accusing falsely God’s people. One wrote of him and his henchmen,
the demons, that according to the Bible, there are legions
of fallen angels who under the malevolent rule of Satan are
bent on opposing God’s rule and doing people harm. And if it were just that, if
that’s all the information we had, we probably should all run
out and hide and cower in fear of the devil and his demons. These comprise,” he continues,
a great and terrifying force, but they are described for us
not to induce terror, but to warn us of danger so that we
might draw near to God as the one who alone can protect us. The last thing that you want
to be is alone. The last thing that you want
to be when faced with Satan is without God and without the resources
of God, without the grace of God, without the Word of God,
without the people of God. It’s the last thing. He goes
on in discussing Satan to say that he is represented in Scripture
as the originator of sin. He is repeatedly called the prince
of this world, not the world. Because that would encompass
heaven itself. Satan himself is superhuman,
but not divine. He has great power, but he is
not omnipotent. He wields influence on a large,
but it is a restricted scale. And ultimately, he is destined
to be cast into the bottomless pit. But he’s not there yet. I love the truth. of God’s Word, that Satan is
not omniscient, he is not omnipotent and he is not omnipresent. John Calvin said of this being,
this special guest in the sense that he requires our special
focus, not because of anything he ever did is noble or good. John Calvin said of him, we have
been forewarned that an enemy relentlessly threatens us, an
enemy who is the very embodiment of rash boldness, military prowess,
crafty wiles, and untiring zeal and haste with every conceivable
weapon at his disposal. We must then bend our every effort
to this goal. That we should not let ourselves
be overwhelmed by carelessness or faintheartedness, but on the
contrary, with courage rekindled, stand our ground in combat. That’s exactly what Peter says. It’s exactly what Peter urges
us to. Look at, again, 1 Peter chapter
5. We pick it up in verse 8 and
we carry through to verse 11. where Peter wrote, be of sober
spirit, beyond the alert, your adversary the devil prowls about
like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. But resist him, firm
in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering
are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.
And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of all
grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, will
Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. To Him be
dominion forever and ever. Amen. Now, we began to look at
this being last week, this so-called special guest, this special focus
of ours. who, I pointed out by way of
Scripture, is your adversary. It’s not just that he’s against
God. It’s not just that he’s against
the church. He’s against you. He wants you
to fail. He wants you to fall. He wants
you to become completely, if he can’t take you to hell, completely
worthless for God’s use in his kingdom. He wants you unusable. He’s your adversary, the devil,
and he’s prowling about like a roaring lion seeking someone
to devour. Now, a lot of people get the
idea from reading that whole devour. They take the image too
far. They say that, well, Christians
can’t be devoured ultimately. So he’s not talking about us.
This is merely talking about the unbeliever out there who
doesn’t quite have a grasp on the gospel yet and can be snatched
and devoured whole, body and soul, and so that he can no longer
ever have any hope of going to heaven. Is that what it’s talking
about? That we’re nowhere in this picture? Why would Peter
write Your adversary, the devil, he’s writing to his saints, he’s
writing to believers and that we can in a very real way be
devoured. Does that mean our soul goes
to hell? No. No. And here you need to begin to
take the totality of Scripture and what it teaches, we can’t
lose our salvation. The devil can’t gobble us up
whole body and soul. But He can devour us and He can
make us useless to God, or He can diminish our usefulness. Even when a Christian falls in
great sin, it doesn’t mean that God can never use him again in
any capacity. How does He do this? He does
it by undermining our faith, our belief in God, our belief
in His love and His goodness. And what he wants to do is provoke
us and incite us and wet our appetite so that we would look
for happiness, look for our satisfaction in ways which are not by God’s
design. That’s what Satan wants. He wants
us to look at anything but God for our hope. Charles Spurgeon
said of Satan, he is more cunning than the wisest. How soon he
entangled Solomon. He is stronger than the strongest.
How fatally he overthrew Samson. Yes, and men after God’s own
heart, even like David, have been led into the most grievous
sins by his seductions. And so, if you’re sitting there, there are two possible errors
that even you can fall into. You can say that this passage
doesn’t apply to you, in which case you literally are prepared
to become lion’s food. Or you could become so fearful
that you become useless to God, even
in that. We saw last week that there really
is only two ways that we can go here. We can either fend off
Satan or we can feed the lion. That’s exactly what Peter tells
us. And what Peter wants to give us is three encouraging reminders
for dealing with the devil. We can’t avoid it. We’re going
to face him. We’re going to deal with him.
He is going to come. He is out there. And he’s after
you and I. And so we will do one of two
things. we will either fend or feed the lion.” Some begin to think that maybe
God’s kingdom is so big, maybe their part in God’s kingdom is
so minute that maybe they are flying under the radar currently
and Satan doesn’t take notice of them Some might think that
they’re so strong and surrounded by so much grace and they’ve
got so much behind them, spiritually speaking, that they couldn’t
possibly fall. And yet, if you begin to look
into the pages of Scripture and you begin to see the resources
that are at the devil’s disposal and at those who have fallen,
then you begin to have the sobering perspective that Peter designed
in this warning. One Puritan wrote, Satan is so
wily that as his agents surround us and their designs are so masked,
their language is so plausible, their manner is so insinuating,
their appearance so imposing, arguments so subtle, activity
so unwearied. Their lack of principle and all
honesty so thorough that though the net be drawing around us
before we have the slightest suspicion of these infernal plots
directed at us.” We live in such an evil time and we are so blind
to it in so many ways. You’ve heard of the proverbial
frog in the kettle, right? Where the water is just gradually
turned up to where the frog literally is boiled alive. We live in a
society where Christians now have become dull and ignorant
of the traumatic mindset that our society has taken on. An
almost active disdain for God Himself. As I said, Satan invades our
political thought. He invades our social thought.
He invades all the pervading appetites and desires and fads
and notions. And so much of the church is
completely blind to it. We take everything as if it’s
true. And I want to do a quick, if
not quick, I want to do a thorough review of some of those who have
been infamously attacked by the devil. Nobody’s safe. Nobody’s
safe. You go out there without the
sword of the spirit, without the armor of God, without the
grace of God. If you go out without your brethren
and the company of them, you are in a very dangerous place. Nobody is perfectly safe. Adam and Eve. were the first. If you would,
turn to Genesis 3. In Genesis 3, you’re very familiar
with the story that there are some really incredible details
here that we so often overlook. This is the devil himself tempting
the very creation of God In Genesis 3, it says, now the
serpent. And it’s almost like the way
the Scripture reads in narrative is it was to be expected. It
was just a matter of time. Satan had already fallen. This
isn’t just new stuff happening. Satan had already fallen. We
already knew that evil was going to come. Now the serpent. was
more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord had
made.” This is a being who has infinite evil designs. And he said to the woman, indeed
has God said you shall not eat from any tree of the garden?
This is Satan’s attempt to get us to doubt God’s Word. The woman
said to the serpent, from every fruit of the trees of the garden
we may eat, but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle
of the garden, God has said you shall not eat it or touch it
or you will surely die. She knew what he had said, but
the serpent said to the woman, you will surely not die. Here he’s again trying to get
the woman to doubt the veracity of God’s Word, the trustworthiness
of it. Maybe God was bluffing, He’s
suggesting. For God knows that in the day
you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like
God, knowing good and evil. Here, He’s trying to get you
to distrust the truth of His Word in the sense that, you know,
He’s hiding something from you. When the woman saw that the tree
was good for food and it was a delight to the eyes and the
tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit
and ate and she gave to her husband with her and he ate. Then both
of their eyes were open. They knew that they were naked
and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. This is the fall of man right
here. I mean, it’s that simple, that subtle. It doesn’t have
to be this scary, evil show which has so clouded our minds that
we wouldn’t recognize the devil if he walked in and sat down
in a pew. We look for horns. We look for the red suit. We
look for some evil face. This is the same devil. that provoked Saul to hatred
and persecution of David. This is the same devil that was
behind Peter’s rebuke of God’s plans. Remember in the Gospels,
when Jesus began to lay out his plans, Peter rebuked him. I mean, can you imagine the audacity? And what was Jesus’ response? Get behind me, Satan. Satan can influence our thoughts
to the point where we are literally thinking satanic thoughts. Contrary
to God’s Word. He was behind Judas’s betrayal.
Remember the passage we just read a couple of weeks ago regarding
service. That during supper, the devil having already put
into the heart of Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon, to betray him.
That is Christ. The devil could trip us up. The
devil can get us to go directly contrary to what God wants us
to do. Ananias and Sapphira, another famous, infamous, rather,
example from Scripture. Nobody ever told them to do this.
Nobody ever insisted they go sell their property. Nobody ever
told them that that was one of the requirements for becoming
part of God’s church. In fact, turn there. It is such
an incredible passage and such an incredible transition that
if I skip over it, you lose. Acts chapter five. This is why I’ve often said that
chapter divisions so often get completely in our way and they
end up tripping us up in our understanding of the Scriptures.
Skip back to chapter four and look at verse 36. In fact, you
can go back to verse 32. We have time. And the congregation
of those who believed were of one heart and soul. I mean, you
get that picture of a church that just they’re just together. They’re so joyful over the salvation
that they possess. Look at what happens. The congregation
of those who believe through of one heart and soul, and not
one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own,
that all things were common property to them. This isn’t communism,
as some have suggested, because it wasn’t mandatory. They did
it of their own willing heart. Watch what happens. With great
power, the apostles were giving testimony of the resurrection
of the Lord and abundant grace was upon them all. For there
was not a needy person among them. For all who were owners
of land or houses would sell them and bring the proceeds of
the sales and lay them at the apostles feet. And they, these
goods would be distributed to each as any had need. This wasn’t
mandatory. This wasn’t part of being part
of the church. Look at what happens to Joseph,
verse 36. Now, Joseph, a Levite of Cyprian
birth, who was also called Barnabas by the apostles, which translated
means son of encouragement, who owned a tract of land and sold
it, brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet. What a glorious thing was going
on. And again, no one was ever commanded to do this. This is
just something that the spirit was prompting among the people. And there’s another couple that
wants in on it. And look at verse five, and this is why the transition
is too abrupt. But a man, but a man named Ananias
with his wife Sapphira sold a piece of property, kept back some of
the price for himself with his wife’s full knowledge and bringing
a portion of it, he laid it at the apostles feet. You say, well,
how did Satan get a hold of them? How did Satan devour them? Look.
But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to
lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back some of the price of land?”
You know what I get from that passage? He could have walked
in and said, look, I sold this piece of land and I’m giving
half of it to the church. And he’d have been fine. The
idea was that he was bringing this whole pile of money, everything
that he sold from the land, just like everybody else was doing, Ananias and Sapphira were devoured
by the devil because of their deceitfulness over God’s money.
The Corinthians were devoured or being devoured or potentially
devoured by the devil over doctrinal purity. Just listen to this one
where Paul wrote to them and he said, I am afraid that just
as the serpent deceived Eve, by His craftiness, your minds
may be led astray from the simplicity and purity of devotion to Christ.”
We’ll be doing something in Sunday school this morning that really
is a modern day warning about drifting from the simplicity
and purity of devotion to Christ. It’s not over. It wasn’t over
in the Corinthians day, and it’s not over in ours. We too can
be led astray by Satan and devoured by doctrinal impurity. The Jews were devoured. In John 8.44, Jesus told them,
you are of your father, the devil. And you want the desires of your
father. He was a murderer from the beginning
and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in
him. I mean, what strong words to say that they had so imbibed
this lie that it had become Judaism, not in its pure form, but in
all those extrapolations that the Pharisees had accumulated. He said that ultimately they
had been devoured by the devil. Some are devoured by the devil
through physical sickness. Acts 10.38 spoke about those
who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed
by the devil. The devil can have his hand in
physical suffering. I wouldn’t say that’s the first
place that you should look, but he can. He can. Satan can devour through your
anger. Those who linger in their anger,
Paul wrote, Ephesians 4.26, be angry. There’s nothing inherently
evil about anger. God is angry. He’s angry with
some people every day. Be angry and yet do not sin.
There is such a thing as sinful anger. And Paul says, do not
let the sun go down on your anger. Do not give the devil an opportunity. An opportunity for what? To devour
you in your anger. There are those that can be devoured
because they failed to put on the armor of God. Ephesians 6.11,
put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand
firm against the schemes of the devil. That’s why we’re here.
That’s why we’re looking at this passage to find out how we’re
supposed to respond to the devil when we meet him. Paul says there
in Ephesians 6.11, that those who go out without the armor
of God are lion food. There are those, those elders
who through their pride are devoured. First Timothy says that an elder
shouldn’t be a new convert so that he won’t become conceded
and fall in to the condemnation incurred by the devil. That the devil can have this
influence, this sinking, debilitating influence in a man’s life. The devil can devour those who
are doctrinally ignorant. Second Timothy, this is a fascinating
thought. When you think about all your
friends and neighbors and loved ones and co-workers who do not
know Christ, listen to this. The thought is Second Timothy
2, 26, that they may come to their senses and escape from
the snare of the devil having been held captive by him to do
his will.” There are those that are in the midst of Satan. They are in his claws. And he
has them and he’s prepared to devour them. And in that case,
specifically, it would be heart and soul. There are those that are devoured
through their insincerity. There are those that are devoured
through false teaching. There are a myriad of ways in
which Satan can ply his trade. There are a myriad of ways in
which Satan can have his effects upon you. And as we began last
week, the most foolish approach in dealing with the devil is
to ignore the fact that he exists. It’s interesting. I was reading
this past week and I know I’m once the sermons going, I’m supposed
to stop reading, but I couldn’t help it. And I’m reading and
I’m reading about this. Where did this idea of the image
that we have of Satan come from? And you know what I’m talking
about? The red suit and the tail and the horns and the whole bit,
the pitchfork. Right. Well, in the Middle Ages,
when the vast majority of people became illiterate, they couldn’t
read, couldn’t write. They largely spoke and taught
through pictures. And there was this evil being,
this creature that began to creep up in art generally, that was
supposed to personify this being. And it continues to this day,
and that’s why I said last week. The most shocking thing to me
at Halloween is when some little child, this precious little child
comes to my door dressed up as a devil. And in our own thought,
we’ve kind of done the same thing with him. We kind of know what
he should look like. If he exists at all, this is
what he should look like. And until I see this, I’m really
not all that afraid. That’s our attitude, isn’t it? And that’s why I said last week,
there’s basically two options for us. We either become preoccupied
with devil and we go around fighting him in every turn, every corner,
or we just begin to think we reason him right out of our mind.
He doesn’t exist. He can’t possibly exist. And
if he exists, he’s practically a cartoon. It’s not a cartoon
to Peter. Peter told us last week in the
first of these encouraging reminders for dealing with the devil, that
first of all, we are to be watchful, knowing the enemy is out there.
We don’t doubt his existence. Almost every one of us could
tell stories of acute influence and frustration and thwarting
by the devil himself, right? Peter said, be sober, be of sober
spirit, be on the alert. Exercise that mental self-control
because your adversary, the devil, prowls about. He is against us. That word adversary we saw last
week, it’s a legal term. He is against us just as if He
was in a court of law. He is bringing up charges on
you, even as you sit. He’s thinking up new charges.
He’s digging through files. He’s going through your trash.
He’s finding ways to bring up sin falsely before God. He is the slanderer. He is the
malicious, false accuser. He will not see you in the righteousness
of Christ as God does. He wants nothing more than to
get you to doubt the grace of God, to doubt that Christ’s payment
was substantial and adequate for paying for your sin. He will
tell you that your sin is too great. He will tell you that
you are far beyond the justice system of God. Your sin was the
unpardonable sin. I can’t tell you how many people
have come to me and in pleading and tears have told me I’ve committed
the unpardonable sin. Oh, really? That’s a problem because you’re
still alive. And if you committed the unpardonable sin, God would
take you. Your adversary, the devil prowls
about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. Through doubt, through temptation,
through persecution, through this false teaching, this influence,
through your own self-sufficiency, as we said last week, through
the social mores that have become so acceptable, the way that we
dress, the way that we talk, the way that we carry ourselves,
the way that we exercise our Christian liberties, all of those
become tools at the devil’s disposal. Secondly, and this is where we
left off last week, I said that there were three
encouraging reminders for dealing with the devil. And so far, I
look out and you’re not encouraged. You’re not playing along. It
is supposed to be encouraging to us. It is supposed to hearten
us just knowing that the enemy is out there. We are supposed
to be watchful. And if we don’t know he’s there,
we won’t be. We’re supposed to be watchful,
knowing that the enemy is out there, but we’re also secondly
supposed to be steadfast, knowing that we’re not alone in this
fight. Look again at the passage. This
is where Peter tells us how to deal specifically with the devil. He says, Be of sober spirit,
be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls
about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist
him. He wants us to know how to contend,
how to deal with the devil. He didn’t tell us to rebuke him.
He didn’t tell us to bind him and go through all these other
incantations, this modern approach for dealing with the devil. He
says, resist him. One pastor wrote of this really a modern and carelessly
thought out phenomena, largely centered in charismatic circles. But now it’s bled out to a lot
of other evangelical churches. This whole idea about how to
go about fighting Satan. It pops us up to this thought
where far beyond where God ever designed us to think of ourselves. One pastor wrote, contrary to
what some teach, Scripture nowhere commands believers to attack
the devil or demons with prayers or formulas. And now you think
back to all your Christian friends who have, you know, cast out
so-and-so and done this and such. We’re never told to bind the
devil, he goes on and says, those who foolishly engage in useless
efforts to speak to Satan, who is not omnipresent anyway, you’re
talking to thin air. or to command him, or to dismiss
him, or other demons, they are confused and wrong about their
powers as Christians. Since the saints are not apostles
of Christ, they have no authority over demons. Only Christ Himself,
by dispatching a powerful holy angel, can bind Satan. What we are told to do is to
resist Him. And this too is a military term,
just as we talked about. It means literally to gird up
your foundation, to stand firm against. And we can do that by
standing firm in the truth of God’s Word, in what we’ve been
taught, in what we know of God, in what we know God has done
in our lives, in what God’s Word says. It’s a military term, as
I said, speaks of taking a firm stand against an enemy. It’s
not just standing yourself firm, wondering if the attack is going
to come, but knowing it’s coming. We’re to stand, as one said,
against this hellish foe by being firm in the faith, which speaks
of doctrinal purity and conduct. One pastor said it this way.
He said the Christian would do well to remember that he cannot
fight the devil. He was originally the most powerful
and wise angel that God created. He still retains much of that
power and wisdom as a glance down the pages of history and
a look about one today will easily show. While a Christian cannot
take the offensive against Satan, yet he can stand his ground in
the face of his attacks. Cowardice never wins against
Satan. Only courage. The Christian is
to stand firm against the onset of the devil, not in himself,
but in the exercise of a faith that depends upon the strengthening
and protecting power of God. That’s what Peter urges us to.
Resist him. Firm in your faith. Know what
you believe and stand in it. So when the devil comes with
all of his banter and all of his accusations and all of his
slanderous thoughts, all of his evil speaking and railing, you
can stand firm knowing the truth. Knowing the truth. We resist him by not yielding
to temptations. We resist him by applying that
spiritual armor that is given to us as articulated in Ephesians
6. We are to hold to our faith.
We are to persevere in our faith, which the devil would love to
take from each and every one of you, but he can’t. And so
if he can just bring you to a point of doubt and frustration with
God, anger and bitterness toward him. See, the devil knows well that
faith Faith in God is the Christians greatest strength. It is purely
by faith that the Christian engages the power of God and grace. That
is how he becomes victorious over his enemies, including the
devil. Thirdly, We are given three encouraging
reminders for dealing with the devil. Not only are we to be
watchful, knowing that the enemy is out there, we’re to be steadfast,
knowing that we are not alone. And let me pause and finish my thought
from the earlier verse. We are to resist him firm in
our faith, knowing, look at verse 9, knowing that the same experiences
of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the
world. The passage that we read at the outset, the reason I got
so excited about 1 Corinthians 10. No temptation has overtaken
you, but such as is common to man. You know what? You’re not
going through anything any different than any of the rest of us or
any of the rest of your brethren in the world, as Peter says. Others are currently resisting
Satan. Great saints of the past have
already resisted him. Others in front of you in the
future will resist him if the Lord tarries. You’re not alone. You’re not in the midst of something
that nobody else has ever faced before. Stand firm in your faith. Thirdly, not only be watchful
and be steadfast, but thirdly, be hopeful. Be hopeful that if
the devil can take away your hope, your confidence is next. Your faith is shortly behind. Look at verse 10. Be hopeful,
knowing that God is going to use this for His glory. And after
you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace who
called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect
Confirm, strengthen and establish you. See, what Peter wanted them
to know is that God is sovereign in all circumstance. This early
church was facing the fires of pure persecution, as we’ve said
from the outset, that really almost nowhere else in history
has persecution been poured out on the church so heavily as it
was here in this first century. And they had good reason from
a human perspective to doubt and to wonder, where is God and
why are we going through this? What Peter wanted to remind them
of is that God is sovereign in all circumstances, and if He
allows this brief period, He has a purpose behind it. See, what he wanted them to be
mindful of is that even though Satan is called the God or prince
of this world, when he’s spoken of as a strong armed man in Luke
12.29, the spirit of the prince of the power of the air, the
roaring lion, all those things really only point to the fact
that we’re to be more cautious and watchful and prepared for
this battle. So that we’re not caught off
guard. So that we’re not in the cage, as it were, with the lion
prepared to be his dinner. And look at the hope. Look at
the hope that is there for the Christian. After you have suffered
for a little while, this from the man who faced so much So
many imprisonments and beatings. And he goes on and on and on
and on and on in 2 Corinthians 11 of all the things that he
faced, stoned and beaten and shipwrecked. You know what he
called it when he wrote to the first Corinthians? Momentary light affliction. Nothing big. No biggie. Nothing
major. No wonder Peter can write to
us and say, after you have suffered for a little while, I know that
it seems like a long time. I know that perhaps 70 or 80
years, maybe you’ve suffered the whole life. Maybe that seems
like a long time. He would still say, that’s just
a little while. That’s just momentary light affliction. And he’s not
making light of your suffering. He’s not saying that this isn’t
painful. Remember, he said already that
these things are distressing. But look at this, the God of
all grace. You know what that tells me?
God has grace that you don’t even know anything about yet.
God has an abundance of grace that He has yet to lavish upon
you. And once He begins to apply it, the same One who called you
to His eternal glory in Christ, He’s not done with you yet. He’s
still perfecting you. He’s still going to lavish you
with grace. He will perfect and confirm and strengthen and establish
you. And that goes into the very design
and the sufferings that we experience already. Satan can use it for
his purpose. Satan can, through those things,
get you to doubt. What God wants you to do is be
hopeful, be confident that he’s working a work in you for his
glory. See, it’s His dominion anyway.
That’s what Peter says at the end. To Him be dominion. This
isn’t Satan’s domain. Satan has a little territory.
He’s on a leash and he drags his chain wherever he goes. Let’s rejoice before Him. Our gracious King, opened our eyes to your word
and shown us the accuser, the devil, the evil one. And Lord,
in our flesh, perhaps even wisely, we don’t
want to pick a fight with the devil. But Lord, we know that
we cannot avoid dealing with him in our lives. He is part
of the Christian life. He is the part that thwarts and
sends evil and tempts us and says evil things about us, influences
our mind with evil thoughts and an evil society with evil designs. And Lord, the advice to us is
simple. Know that he’s out there. Be ready when he comes. Stand
firm in our faith with the hope that you will use these things
for your glory. Father, help us, we pray, to
lay hold of and stand firm upon the truth of your Word, that
Christ has paid it all, that there is therefore no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. We rejoice in the truth. In Jesus’
name we pray. Thank you.