Fend or Feed the Lion

We come to a difficult subject for
Christians. A difficult subject for really
everybody. Every Halloween, you know, one
of my least favorite parts of Halloween is the fact that inevitably
there is going to show up on my doorstep some precious child
dressed as the devil. And that’s our attitude towards
him, is that he is this red-suited, pointy-tailed creature that comes
out once a year on October 31st. Kind of a mythical creature.
And in so dressing up these children, people take either the attitude
of glorifying Satan or mocking his very existence. Christians as well suffer from
a like disease We sometimes don’t know quite what to do with the
devil. There are basically two extremes. There is the extreme
of disbelief, where we believe that God is so powerful that
there can’t possibly be a being that could effectively thwart
us, given the fact that we are saved and empowered by God’s
grace. And then, as has been really
the case for the last 20 years, even in the Christian church,
there is an almost preoccupation or presumptuousness about the
devil and our approach to him. C.S. Lewis, however, almost 100
years ago, said this. There are two equal and opposite
errors into which our race can fall about devils. One is to
disbelieve in their existence. The other is to believe and to
feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them. They themselves
are equally pleased by both errors and hail a materialist or a magician
with the same delight. It’s nothing new. It’s nothing
new. And Peter, writing to his first
century saints, knew for them that this was a real danger. this polar opposites of indifference
and preoccupation about the devil. There are many in our church
today that have an excessive and therefore unhealthy fascination
with the whole dark world, Satan and demons and all those spiritual
forces and everything can be blamed upon it. Where else but in this present
society could a body of literature by Frank Peretti gain not just
notoriety, but extreme popularity among the Christian church? It
is billed as Christian fiction, but it is so often received as
fact. And therein lies practical preoccupation. Some are on the other extreme,
denying the existence of personal devil, demons. Some see him involved
and directly to blame with every single trouble that they face
as Christians. Some take their approach to him
in unbiblical extremes. They want to get into what’s
called binding Satan, which is not biblical. We’ll discuss that
in a moment when we come to our strategy for dealing with the
devil. That particular strategy involves speaking directly to
demons and the devil and rebuking him and talking to him and arguing
and fighting with him. Something that Scripture never
admonishes us to do. We have forgotten that as one
faithful shepherd many years ago exhorted The Christian conflict
is not only real, it is difficult and dangerous. It is one in which
true believers are often grievously wounded and multitudes of reputed
believers entirely succumb. It is one also in which great
mistakes are often committed and serious loss incurred from
the ignorance of its nature. and of the appropriate means
of carrying it on. Men are apt to regard it as a
mere moral conflict between reason and conscience on the one side
and evil passions on the other. I mean, in the 60s, I grew up
and that’s remember the catchphrase that Flip Wilson coined. The
devil made me do it. That’s the extent of spiritual
warfare for most people. They therefore rely on their
own strength and upon the resources of nature for success. The source
of strength is not in nature. As we have superhuman enemies
to contend with, we need not only superhuman strength, but
divine armor and arms. The weapons of our warfare are
not natural, but divine. So said Charles Hodge. The Puritans were not preoccupied
with the devil. They knew he existed. And they
did not fall into this whole rebuking and binding and talking
to the devil himself, because they saw such an evil creature
as one who could not be reasoned with. One who had only our ill
in his heart and mind. Some of you are familiar with
My dear friend, John Bunyan, the Puritan writer who wrote
The Pilgrim’s Progress, a great allegory on the Christian life,
one whom I cannot wait to greet and meet and fellowship with
in heaven. A solid saint of God who has
for generations helped the church and for almost behind the Fox’s
Book of Martyrs and the scriptures itself has been the most popular
book In Christian history. John Bunyan wrote another allegory
beside he wrote several, but beside Pilgrim’s Progress, but
he wrote one called the Holy War. Here’s John Bunyan’s take
on the devil. In this gallant country of universe,
there lies a pleasant and peaceful municipality called Mansoul. The picturesque architecture
of this town, its convenient location and superior advantages
cannot be equaled under heaven. Once upon a time, a mighty giant
named Diabolus made an assault upon this famous town of Mansoul. He tried to take it and make
it his own habitation. This giant was the terrible prince
of darkness. He was originally one of the
servants of King Shaddai who had placed him in a very high
and mighty position. Knowing that they had lost their
position in the king’s favor forever, Diabolos and his rebels
turned their pride into hatred against Shaddai and his son.
They roamed about in fury from place to place in search of something
that belonged to the king on which to take their revenge.
At last, they happened to find this spacious country of universe
and they steered their course toward the famous town of Mansoul. Considering it to be one of the
chief works and delights of King Shaddai, they decided to make
an assault upon the town. When they found the place, they
shouted horribly for joy and roared as a lion over its prey
saying, now we have found the prize and how to take revenge
on King Shaddai. for what he has done to us. So
they called a council of war. And they considered what methods
they should use to win this famous town of Mansoul for themselves. That is an accurate portrayal
of the devil’s plan for us. The Puritans had it right. And what Peter wants to do in
this passage before us is call us to an awareness of
the one with whom we have to deal, the devil himself. If you would, I want us to pick
up Peter’s epistle here, beginning in verse 8. It’s there in the
bulletin with a place for notes if you so choose. 1 Peter 5,
beginning in verse 8. 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, 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. Peter was concerned. Peter didn’t want a body of believers
indifferent about Satan, nor preoccupied about him. He wanted
them to know that he was in existence and he wants them to have a proper
strategy for dealing with him. And notice I didn’t say fighting
him. Peter wants to show what kind
of frame or spirit or conduct is becoming of a soldier of Christ. And he gives toward that end
two directives. Essentially, that we should meddle
very sparingly with the delights or pleasures of this life. And
secondly, that we should be on our watch so that we won’t be
surprised by our spiritual enemies. Let’s look at the passage again. And if you note, I simply coined
the passage by way of a title, Fend or Feed the Lion. There
are no other alternatives. As a Christian believer, you
will either fend him off And we’ll see the strategy as the
passage unfolds. Or you will be his meal. It’s
that simple. That’s exactly how the passage
lays out. That you will either be devoured
by the devil himself or by God’s grace, you will fend him off. Peter here in this passage gives
us three encouraging reminders. Three heartening reminders for
dealing with the devil. First of all, be watchful knowing
that the enemy is out there. Be watchful. Peter begins by reminding us
of something he’s already said on several occasions in this
epistle alone. Be of sober spirit. He said it
in 1 Peter 1.3, prepare your minds for action, keep sober
in spirit, fix your hope completely on the grace to be brought to
you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. He repeated himself in
1 Peter 4, verse 7. The end of all things is near. Therefore, be of sound judgment
and sober spirit for the purpose of prayer. It just speaks of
that composure that self-controlled mindset that fits us for battle. One described it in these terms.
Everyone that would be a good soldier in this holy war against
Satan must labor for a sober frame of spirit, whereby Christians
esteem lowly their own abilities. That’s what it means to be of
sober spirit, is to realize that you can fall. You can be tempted. You can be tripped up. You could
be devoured. One of the great faults of Christians,
and you hear it in a great deal of contemporary music, I will,
I will, I will, I will. It’s arrogance. It’s just patent
arrogance. It’s arrogance in our own ability
to do. This sober spirit is one that
realizes there, but by the grace of God, go I. And if God doesn’t
help me, I am undone. Not only that, not only a confidence
in their own abilities, but they meddle sparingly with even lawful
delights. There are many things that are
good and great. Ice cream is great. But if you
eat several gallons of it, per day, it becomes an inherently
evil thing to you, to your body, to your soul, because that excess
begins to fuel Satan’s temptations. We’ve looked at what sobriety
is, and he isn’t even focusing directly on alcohol here. He’s talking about a sober mindedness
that carries us through all that we do, not just with what we
drink. Be of sober spirit. Secondly,
be on the alert. Well, this is the language of
the watchman. This is the language of one who
is posted on a watch for a specific purpose during a specific period
of time. One watching for an attack. And
he says that we ought to be alert and watchful, wakeful and watching
of any of Satan’s activity. It’s an oft repeated command
of Scripture. You know that. Perhaps having just told people
that they are to cast all their cares upon God, perhaps Peter
was trying to mitigate against this lazy mentality to let go
and let God and to sit back and let God take care of everything.
He doesn’t give us that prerogative to sit back Faith and effort
go hand in hand and we see it right in this passage. Watch. We’re supposed to watch our surroundings.
We’re supposed to watch those around us. We’re supposed to
watch our appetites. We’re supposed to watch our affections.
We’re supposed to watch our priorities. We have to watch. One brother said it this way.
We need to take the matter with the devil seriously by being
wide awake and spiritually alert. Our thinking must not be imbalanced
and cluttered and confused or self-centered. We have an entire
industry that is developed since 9-11 of various think tanks and
organizations in our country designed to think of nefarious
ways that others could harm our country. Designed essentially
to think like criminals and to think like terrorists and to
try to think of ways that others might attack our country. And
we’re so casual as Christians, we just sit back and wait until
the worst case scenario comes. We don’t think of all the ways
that Satan could and often does attack us. We just sit back and
we wait. That’s what watchfulness is.
Watchfulness is thinking of areas of weakness in our lives. Thinking
of areas of strength where we have begun to think that we are
responsible. That we are strong in our own
regard. Watch for areas of indulgence
that go beyond just enjoying what God has given us. We forget
to be watchful. We put far too much confidence
in our flesh and far too little in the devil’s ability to destroy
us. Look at verse eight again, be
sober of spirit, be on the alert. This is the context. I mean,
you could put these two words, be sober and be alert. You know,
you could put those in a variety of contexts. You could even put
them in literal battle context, but that’s not at all what Peter
does here. It’s in the context of watching over the devil. Your adversary, the devil, prowls
about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I’ve known
people that won’t even read this passage. It spooks them so badly.
I don’t think we need to be spooked. Peter is giving us information
here. He’s giving us the means for
dealing with the devil and the first The first means of dealing
with it is acknowledging that they exist. The devil and his
henchmen, the demons, they exist. There’s no denying it. The Scriptures here, specifically
the passage in front of us, call this devil the adversary. Satan is against God. We’ve already
established that he’s against the church. That much people
seem to understand. Okay. Satan’s against God. He’s
against church. He is God’s adversary. I can live with that. But that’s
not what Peter says. He doesn’t say God’s adversary,
and he doesn’t even say the church’s adversary. He says he is your
adversary. Peter was concerned that his
flock in a multiplicity of cities had this attitude of indifference
toward the existence of the devil. And Peter says that he is not
only God’s adversaries, not only the church’s adversary, he is
your personal adversary. He is against you to the death,
to the death. People seem to be able to live
with the fact that he’s God and the church’s adversary, but suddenly
Peter puts him on us. Peter characterizes it in more
definitive terms. The devil is your adversary. It’s interesting language here
to this word adversary. It’s a legal term. It means an
opponent, a lawsuit opponent. One who brings charges against
you. That’s what the devil does. That
is his job description. That’s all he does and he’s very
good at it. Satan is not only the adversary
of God and his holy angels, but he is a vicious, relentless enemy
of God’s people, said one pastor. A vicious, relentless enemy of
all God’s people. But let’s look again at this
passage. Your adversary, the devil. The classic word for the
evil one, it literally means diabolos, dia, over or against,
to cast over. Bule just means to throw, to
overthrow. To cast over these accusations
that essentially overwhelm you. He is, as such, called the slanderer,
the accuser, the malicious false accuser of the brethren. And
what it expresses, this little word, is the hostility of the
devil. A lot of people have this ridiculous
idea. The most ridiculous idea is that
the devil himself is savable. He’s salvageable. We can reform
him. Ridiculous. The second thing
is to think that the devil is neutral. Boy, if I just kind
of hover below the radar, maybe the devil won’t notice me. Wrong. He is your adversary and he is
your accuser. He has nothing good to say about
you. He hates you to the death. That word expresses, as I said,
the hostility of the devil to every aspect of the Christian
life, resulting in temptation to apostasy. There’s nothing
more than the devil thinks of your Sunday morning activity.
There’s nothing more that he hates than for you to be in fellowship
with God’s people, than for you to pick up God’s Word, than for
you to hear God’s Word preached and taught. He hates that. He
loves it when you go golfing. He loves it. And it isn’t just
golfing. This word was used not only of
those who bring a false charge against one, but also those who
disseminate the truth concerning a man and do so maliciously,
insidiously, with hostility. That’s one person’s definition
of that word. There is a hostile intent to
what Satan brings up. When he brought up Job’s shortcomings,
He had a hostile intent. He wanted to do Job evil. He wanted to bring him down. This devil, you know him. He’s
mentioned in Scripture about 130 times. 130 times. You would have to
be completely blind and ignorant to what the Scriptures say to
ignore the fact that they speak of a real and personal evil being
called the devil. just in the New Testament alone. In the New Testament alone, the
devil appears as the rebellious prince of evil, the great adversary
of God’s purpose. Remember, John 13.2, during supper,
the devil, having already put into the heart of Judas Iscariot.
It didn’t blame Judas exclusively, but it said that Judas became
an emissary of the devil. The devil was alive and well
and active. not only the rebellious prince
of evil, but the great adversary of God’s purpose. He’s against
everything that God is for. 2 Corinthians 4-4 speaks of Him
as the God of this world who has blinded the minds of the
unbelieving so they might not see the light of the Gospel of
the glory of Christ who is the image of God. You talk about
evil intent. The devil would like nothing
better than to blind every individual ever born on the face of this
earth to any good thought about a so-called higher being, about
God Himself, about Christ our Savior. He doesn’t want any meditation
upon those things. And the sooner he can snatch
those thoughts, the better. in closing out the book of Ephesians,
urged us to take up the shield of faith with which you will
be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.”
These great saints, these writers of the books of Scripture, they
didn’t take Satan in a casual way. They didn’t suppose the
unlikeliness of his existence. To them, he was extremely real. He is the father of all lying
and deceit. The definition goes on. He is
the great accuser and slanderer. Second Thessalonians, Paul speaks
of the devil in these terms. He says that he comes with all
the deception of wickedness for those who perish. What an evil,
evil being. He has no good intentions. No good intentions. Don’t be
confused. Look at the passage again. When Peter says, your adversary,
the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion. Now, we certainly,
you know, especially in our Western culture, we have a glimpse of
what it is to be fearful of a lion. You know, we’ve seen the great
creatures. We’ve often seen them, though,
in a zoo where they look practically tame. They’ll walk past the glass
and glance at us and they look scary. But imagine walking the
dark jungles where they are in their own habitat and you are
alone. And in that culture, people were
often devoured by these creatures. And in that sense, the likeness
begins to break down because lions, real lions, have limitations. Earthly lions are nightly predators. They’re not so great during the
day. They need darkness so that they can operate under the cover
of surprise. And they need to generally attack
the weakest creatures and the wayward creatures. And they operate
as a team. They’re nightly predators. Satan himself, he doesn’t need
anybody else. He uses demons. But he can operate
alone and he can operate anytime. He doesn’t need the cover of
darkness. In fact, if He can get you to sin during the day
against the light, all the better. Here’s another big difference.
An earthly lion can be and often is satisfied. When an earthly
lion eats the gazelle and the zebra and he gives up, he reaches
a certain satiation point when his stomach becomes distended,
he can lie down for days. Not the devil. The devil is like
a lion, but the devil is never satisfied. The devil could take
a thousand souls and go immediately hunt for a thousand more. An earthly lion is visible even
in the night. Even in the night, you can get
night vision goggles and watch a lion. You never, ever. There
is no machine that presents you the opportunity of watching the
devil in operation. It’s a good illustration, but
it’s limited. The devil does his work in secret. The lion, the real lion, does
his by great violence. The devil is different from the
lion in that the lion devours flesh. The devil can devour both flesh
and soul. This imagery comes from Scripture,
really. It’s derived partly from the
prowling lion of the psalm and partly from the image that we
get in the opening pages of the book of Job. Picturing Satan
is walking about on the earth to spy out the weaknesses of
God’s saints. Throughout Scripture, the devil
is actively involved in suffering, some suffering, not all. And he is pictured as this lion
here by Peter. One pastor characterized it in
these terms because Satan, our adversary, wants to capture us
in sin. In his attempt to make us fall,
he preys on us like a lion. And then he presents an interesting
fact. Did you know that a lion tends
to roar only when he already has his prey? It’s an interesting
thought. Satan here, pictured by Peter,
is rejoicing after your capture. If you hear him roaring, it’s
only because he got someone else already. But he’s not going to
give up. figure of speech, it symbolizes
the cruelty that Satan uses and the craft with which he operates.
His restless activity, his terrifying threats, all of those characterize
the tempter, the evil tempter Satan that we have to deal with. And what are some of the things
that he uses? Doubt. I can’t wait to get you doubting.
Doubting about God. Doubting about God’s ability.
Doubting in God’s Word, the very initial tool that He used on
Adam and Eve. Doubting in God’s power. Doubting
in your salvation. Doubting in your ability to return
and grasp Christ and to be strengthened by Him. He uses temptation. He uses persecution. He loves discouragement. He loves
it when you’re downcast. He loves it when you begin to
listen to his cat calls, when you begin to listen to what he
has to say about you and your life. He loves it. He’s got you
right where he wants you. And now he’s playing with you
like a cat toys with a dead mouse. Satan said, one sows discord
among the brethren. He not only accuses God to men,
He accuses men to God and men to men. He loves arguments. He loves it when you bicker with
God. He loves it when God questions you. He loves it when other people
are at odds with you. He loves all that kind of discord.
That just makes Satan laugh with glee. Persecution is his. False teaching
is his. Self-sufficiency is his. Political
attitudes become his. Social mores become his. Weaknesses
become his. Strengths become his. They’re
all his weapons. They’re all his weapons and he
uses them all. One pastor faithfully warned
in these terms Satan and his demons constantly mount the attack
on individual believers through ubiquitously sinful and alluring
world system. That means all that’s out there
becomes weapons at his disposal, all designed to tempt you and
trip you up to make you fall so that he can pounce on you
and devour you whole. This is how 1 John reads. Do
not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves
the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is
in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes,
and the boastful pride of life is not from the Father. It is
from the world. The world is passing away and
also its lusts, but the one who does the will of God lives forever.” That means even our Christian
liberties, Certainly, our sinful tendencies, those little bad
habits that we would, you know, wink at. Satan knows them all
and he’ll use them all. Peter certainly knew this kind
of temptation. Peter had to have been, even
as he penned these words, remembering how the devil had overcome him,
causing him to deny the Lord even as he drew near to the cross. And somehow we’ve forgotten.
We’ve forgotten about the nature of the devil. We’ve forgotten
about the nature of this battle that we’re in. J.C. Ryle penned it very accurately
when he said, true Christianity admits of no breathing time.
He says it doesn’t allow for any breaks. It admits of no breathing
time, no armistice, no truce. There is no peace with devils.
On weekdays as well as Sundays, in private as well as public,
at home by the family fireside as well as public, in the little
things like management of the tongue and temper, as well as
great ones like government or kingdoms, the Christian’s warfare
must unceasingly go on. The foe with whom we have to
do keeps no holidays. He never slumbers, never sleeps. So long as we have breath in
our bodies, we must keep our armor and remember that we are
on the enemy’s ground. Now, people, I don’t believe that Peter wrote
this passage to put us in a fearful frame. He wants us in a sober
frame. He told us at the outset. He
wants us watchful. He doesn’t want us running scared. We need to respect the devil
and his ability, but we don’t need to fear him. Not with Christ. Peter will turn his attention
as the passage turns to giving us some help. that as we come
to the Lord’s table today, we need to remember that the devil
is very real and very powerful and we are very weak and very
much in need of God’s grace. And it is that very purpose that
we come to the Lord’s table. Let’s bow. Our great Our holy, our merciful
God, we thank you that as we come before you, we come before
the one who has already conquered sin and death and even the devil
himself. There is no power that he has
that hasn’t been allowed him for your own sovereign purposes. Father, as we come before the
Lord’s table, we come to that which the devil hates He hates
all things pertaining to Christ and to God, to righteous living. He hates that we come here and
we confess our sin. He hates that we come here and
cry out for new grace to overcome old sin. Father, we come before
this table desiring to continue to affiliate ourselves
with a walk on the path of righteousness towards the great kingdom of
heaven where our Savior waits. Father God, grant us the grace,
we pray, to examine our hearts for your glory in Christ’s name. Amen. We’ll do the hand, one of your
forces. Do that one now.