Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse
9. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished
in your brethren that are in the world. 1 Peter 5 verse 9 and it specifically
is the first clause, who resist steadfast in the faith. This is a clear message and exhortation
to resist the devil. and in what way we are to resist
Him steadfast in the faith. Peter is the pedman here. In the beginning of this chapter
he says this exhortation is from Him who is also an elder and
he describes himself as a witness of the sufferings of Christ and
also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed. Now just think and think concerning
our subject and concerning Satan and resisting him of what Peter
says here he was. a witness of the sufferings of
Christ. In one sense, he witnessed Christ's
sufferings in all his life, but when he came to the end, you
think of what that must have been to Peter. Satan hath desired to have you
and to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee that thy
faith fail not." In our text we have the Satan to be resisted. How? Steadfast in the faith. Peter remembers what the Lord
had prayed for him. But when you remember, and Peter's
saying on the witnesses of Christ's sufferings, Peter, you think
of how you witnessed it, by denying Him three times when He was before
the Jews. And then from that time, you
witnessed all that Christ went through, knowing what He had
done. with that pain, that sorrow of
denying the Lord. The Lord had given Peter a commission,
when thou art converted, when thou art restored, strengthen
the brethren, that's what he's doing here. And then the commission
on the loaf, feed my sheep and feed my land. and that is what
he's doing here. He's saying to the other elders,
feed the flock of God which is among you. That commission Peter
had direct from the Lord. But the words that he has here
concerning faith are important to Peter, they're not just to
elders, or even to the younger, but he says in verse 5, yea,
all of you. And the words that lead up to
our text is applying to all of us, all of the people of God. And so you have the verses 6
through to 8 leading up to the text that tells us very clearly
who it is that is to be resisted, which is the devil. But Peter
has the emphasis on humility. Let me go back again and think
of Peter. Though all men forsake thee,
yet will not I. One very humble, was it? You
think of the apostles debating amongst themselves who should
be greatest. You can see some of the advice
and the words that Peter is using has come out of bitter deep experience. He knows what it is to have pride,
especially over brethren. They might fall and they might
He prayed to Satan, but not man. And so he, not only in one verse,
but in the end of verse five, God resisted the proud, giveth
grace to the humble, humble yourselves therefore unto the mighty hand
of God, that he may exalt you in due time. There, Peter had
to walk that path. Humility. Then there's a casting. of all our care upon the Lord. Again, instead of saying, I don't
need care, I'm all right, I can provide, he's setting forth the
people of God as a dependent people, a people that those things
that they might think, well, these are cares I must deal with,
I must manage these things, and you might come this evening with
things that you have before you. I must manage this. I must deal
with this. Why? Because the position that
I am in the church as a member or as a deacon. I must decide
this and I must work in this way. And all the cares and the
burdens. Paul speaks about what fell on
him, the care of all the churches. But everyone who has position
in the church has in that measure the care and to know what to
do and how to act, but applies personally as well, where we
have care, casting it on the Lord with the assurance that
the Lord does care for His people. And then again in verse 8, an
attitude of mind, soberness and vigilance. Instead of just acting
in a way that we don't need to be watching or diligent or have
a mind that is on the, ready for attacks and ready for Satan
to come upon us, he exhorts to be sober, to be really vigilant
and watching. And he gives the reason. Because
you're adversary the devil. Maybe remind ourselves that the
devil is a very real being. He is not omnipotent, he's not
omnipresent, he's not like God in that way, but He is powerful. He does have
many devils, many demons, many that can work for Him. And we read in the temptations
of our Lord that He could take Him up upon a pinnacle of a temple
or a high mountain and show Him all of the nations of the earth
or cities at one time. He is powerful. and he is an
adversary. May you always remember this.
The devil is an adversary. In the picture we have here,
there's a roaring lion, one that is cruel, one that has malice,
one that has strength, one that has power, one that is real able
to destroy if allowed to do so. and he walks about seeking whom
he may devour. We can be sure of this, he doesn't
worry about the world. He doesn't worry about those
whom he has already got. It is the church, it is the people
of God that he hates. And some have said, well, as
time goes on, and those are getting fewer and fewer, then the devil
has less that he's got to vent his anger against, and also we're
told scripturally, he knoweth that his time is short. He hasn't got long. And that
is one reason why he is so angry against the Church of God. Another
description in the word is not that he goes about as a roaring
lion, but that he goes as an angel of light as well. That
his ways are movable and we are to really recognize when
we are actually dealing with the devil. And so I want to, in looking
at this word, firstly, look at what we are to do. And that is resist. Does this
word resist? And then secondly, who we are
to resist. Now it takes this who, resist. But we have to know our adversary
or know how to actually identify him, otherwise we won't be able
to resist him. And then thirdly, how we are
to resist, and that is, in these words, steadfast in the faith. But firstly I want to think of
this word, what we are to do, which is resist. Resist is an opposing force,
isn't it? If we have someone to push against
us, If we don't resist it, if we don't push the same force
back, we will then either move back or fall backwards. It's
an opposing force, a resistance to being pushed in a particular
direction. There's a very sober illustration
in Deuteronomy, in the law, where God gives the direction
as to guiltiness or not to a woman that was forced or right. If it happened in the city, then
both she and her attacker would be put to death. And the reason
was because being in the city If she'd have cried she would
have been hurt and someone would have delivered her. The other scenario was that she
was found in the field away from everybody and in that situation
she was guiltless, she would go free. Because she cried there
was none to hear and none to deliver her. And the whole comparison
there, of course, we could think of, or ways how in the city she
couldn't have been hurt as well, but the whole point was, God
is looking, has this woman resisted, or has she gone along with it?
She has still been raped. She has still suffered injury.
But what's looked at is not the effectiveness not has she overcome
her attacker and destroyed her attacker, but has she resisted? And that's what the Lord looks
and the Lord sees with his dear people. Are they like the hemrider,
complains of, as being the easiest fool that Satan ever had, and
by weak resistance are how vain. But it's good if there is resistance. However weak we might feel it
to be, and ineffectual it is to be, there's a great difference
from resistance and no resistance at all. Of course in the war,
there was the main armies that were fighting, but also in France,
in there's what they called the resistance. Those groups of people
that were running really an underground army, just resisting the advance,
trying to hold it up as much as they could, cause as much
trouble as they could, so that the invading armies didn't just
sweep right through no resistance whatsoever. This is the picture
that's set before us here. God's people, instead of being
willing, complicit and going along with Satan, they called
to resist him. Who resist? We read in Ephesians 4 concerning
neither give place to the devil and another place to resist the
devil and he shall flee from you. All the time there's that
idea of instead of being his friend or to go along with him,
we're obviously not. If we were to see a person out
in the street, perhaps a child or a lady, and someone came up
to them and they wanted to take them and to take them somewhere
where they weren't going to go, we're looking from a distance.
And we saw that person come up to them and interact with them
and speak with them. And then that lady or child went
away with that person. You think, oh, that's all right.
But if we saw that person resisting and pulling and pushing and fighting,
however small, however little resistance, looking from a distance,
you'd say, that person doesn't want to go. They are being forced
against their will. And that is what God says, and
that is what God would have his people do when Satan comes with
his temptations. I am not going along with that.
I don't want to go along with that. Whom resist? Steadfast in the
faith. Secondly then, who is it that
we resist? We say, well, the verse prior,
it tells us that it's our adversary, the devil. But how do we actually
know him? We cannot see him. We read in
Psalms 9, that the Lord is known by the
judgment that He executeth. And we might say in the same
way, Satan is known by how he works, by what he does. He betrays himself, who he is,
And it answers to this word that he is an adversary, an adversary
to the people of God. He has power and he has that
6,000 years, you might say, experience of human nature, fallen nature,
and of men and of women. What he charged Job with was
something that no doubt he had seen happen and will see happen
thousands, millions of times with the human race. Those that
will follow the Lord for good times when the Lord gives, but
as soon as the Lord takes away, then they turn against Him And
as Satan charged Job, they have set a hedge about him, touched
now all that he has, and he will curse thee to thy face. Natural
man will do that. He will do that. Satan knew it,
and it would be true of so many today, that Job was a saved character. He's one of God's children. He
had true faith. He knew his Redeemer lived. and would stand at the latter
day upon the earth. He knew of the resurrection,
that though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I
see God. And Satan was given permission
to do, but not take away his life, to really prove the grace
and strength of God, and that Satan was a liar in Job's case. You have heard, says James, of
the patience or endurance of Job and the end of the Lord,
how merciful he was. In a way, Job had even his wife
voicing like what Satan Shall we not receive good at
the hand of the Lord and shall we not receive evil? Says Job. The Lord gave and the Lord had
taken away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. No one could ever minimize the
greatness of the trial that Job went through. We would shudder
to think if the Lord would call us to go through any similar
trial like that. looked at from the outside, we
would fear whether we would really stand or not. But the Lord sustained
him, the Lord brought him safely through, that Satan is then known
by what he does. Now another text that we read
in 2 Corinthians is then have blinded them that believe
not. And you see always these two
things go together. It struck me really with our
very first hymn. Amidst ten thousand anxious cares,
and you think that casting all your care upon Him, the world
and Satan's steep laziness. The two things, they go together. The two things. And you think
of how it was in the Garden of Eden, where God gave the Word,
but Satan questioned the Word of God. He opposed the Word of
God. And it was with this worldly
attitude. When he had questioned, hath
God said? Then we read that Eve, she saw
this tree and saw the fruit, the food, that it was good to
eat and it was pleasant to the eyes and it would make one wise. And John in his epistles, 1st
epistle, 2nd John, he draws that parallel, those three things,
And He says, all that is in the world, and it is the lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, that is
not of the Father, but is of the world. And all the time Satan
is trying to draw the people of God away from faith, away
from Christ, away from what He has done, to the world in which
He is the God of, and the world that will perish and pass away,
to the men and the women of this world that speak the things of
this world and the ways of this world. And Satan then is to be
noticed in this way. The temptations that come to
us, You think of what our Lord went through, the temptations
that He endured. Does that answer to the world
and the things of it? The food of this world. Our Lord was not like our first
parents who had a garden full of food. He was in the desert
and He was hungry for 40 days. But Satan comes, commands his
stone to be made bread. Man shall not live by bread only. This was the thing our Lord constantly
had to deal with. In John 10 we find Nicodemus struggling
with the idea of the new birth. He must be born again because
all the time, natural birth. How can a man be born enter into
his mother's womb again, seeking naturally all this world. And
then we have them following over the sea, after the Lord had given
the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. The Lord said, you
seek me not because you saw the miracles, but because you did
eat of the loaves and were fulfilled. They could understand being fed
and given a free meal. So much so that they just passed
over the fact that a miracle had provided. Even the disciples
overlooked it. And so then, in John 6, the Lord
is speaking to them. Except ye eat the flesh and blood
of the Son of Man, ye have no life in you. How can this man
give us his flesh to eat? And all the time the natural
man is just going to natural things. In the next chapter,
chapter 4, with the woman of the well of Samaria, the well
is deep, there's nothing to draw with. But he's speaking of living
water. He's speaking of spiritual things.
The natural man, and Satan all the time, is going to natural
things. He's going to things of the body,
and so he goes on with the temptations of our Lord. When he brings him
to see all the kingdoms of the world, shows the kingdoms of
the world in a moment of time, all this power will I give thee
the glory of them. And it's the world, it's the
things of this world. tempting also with the preservation
of our Lord should He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the
temple. There was a temptation that one of the thieves cast
at the Lord. If Thou, Christ, save Thyself
and us, come down from the cross, come down from the cross back
to this That is Satan's dominion and
that is what he tries to get the people of God under his dominion. What a triumph it was with the
martyrs who would choose rather to suffer, rather to die, rather
to part with this world even in the flames of the fires, than
to deny their faith. They were looking to that which
was above. Our text says, who resists? How do we know him? By his work, by what he is actually
doing, by how that he's aiming for the things that are seen,
the things that are tasted, the wisdom of this world. That's
what he's looking for. And that's what he will bring
the people of God back to, is to be known by that. You might say, how do we know
where the things are from our own evil, sinful heart and not Satan? Sometimes it's
hard to tell, we don't know. But David gives us the right
way of viewing things when he numbered Israel. We have two
accounts of that. We have one account that Satan
stood up against Israel and he caused David to number Israel. The other was that the Lord was
angry with Israel and he moved David to number Israel. You have a little picture like
it was with Joe. Satan couldn't do anything that
he wanted to do unless the Lord gave permission. Our Lord says concerning Pharaoh,
for this purpose have I raised thee up. But the evil was Pharaoh,
so is the Lord that I should serve him. We have our Lord delivered by
the determinate counsel and full knowledge of God to be crucified
and slain, but those that slew Him are charged as by wicked
hands and crucified and slain. And we have this mystery of the
purposes of God, God's sovereign, God decreeing what comes to pass,
You have Satan as an adversary, hating the people of God, thinking
that what he is doing is going to destroy them. But the Lord
brings good out of that. Satan says, we'll bring violence
and we'll curse the people of God. The Lord says, yeah, you'll
bring violence, but He'll bless the people of God, not curse
them. When we had David numbering Israel,
and I said, why was it wrong? Again, it was pride, and there
was no paying into the sanctuary. If it was not in a time of war,
they had to pay five shekels or so for each one numbered into
the sanctuary. That wasn't done. When David was convinced of it,
he says, I have sinned. He doesn't blame the Lord. He
doesn't say, well, the Lord is suffering. He decreed it, and
I couldn't do anything but do the suffering will of God. No.
He doesn't say, this was Satan tempted me. I'm not guilty. Satan
tempted me. No. He says, I have sinned. And for the people of God all
the time, that is the position to take. We think of verses 6
and 7, or 5, 6, 7, humbling ourselves before the Lord. That is the
position to blessing, confessing our sin. James is very clear
that no God tempts no man. He is not the author of sin.
Every man is tempted when he is led astray of his own lust
and enticed. is no sin to be tempted, our
Lord did not sin, but to fall into and go along with that temptation
and not resist it, is making that sin ours. And so, whatever
comes upon us, whatever is suggested to us, whatever is making us
to incline to the world and the things of it, we may trace them
to Satan. He may say, this is the spirit
of Satan, this is the spirit of the world, this is that which
the Lord has delivered me from and saved me from, set me free
from, cut me out from among them, touch not the unclean thing,
and I will receive you, you shall be my sons and my daughters,
saith the Lord Almighty. Those things which of the world
are not of the Father, says John, of the world and the world and
the fashion of it passeth away. And it's by this that Satan,
though he cannot see him, though he does not come waving a flag,
this is Satan coming, he doesn't know his colours, but you can
see what he's aiming at, you can see what he's trying to do.
and what his snares and his temptations are will always undermine the
Word of God. They'll always be inclined to
the world and the things of it. A worldview, not a biblical view. And so when we are told here
to be sober and vigilant, this is what we are looking for. This
is what we are identifying. You know, when David was waiting
for news, when Absalom was slain, and they saw the runners coming
from a distance, and they said, the foremost,
the running looks like Ahimehas. And all of you have probably
been, say, in the dark evening or something, or even in the
light, but since someone and you know who that is. Their
back is towards you, you can't see their features, but you can
see the gate, and you know who it is. When Jehu was coming,
they say the riding is that of Jehu. He rideth furiously. They could tell him afar off. In the Second World War, one
of the things that God used as a blessing and a help to deliver
England was the radar, to see the enemy afar off, to get as
much warning as possible. And it's good then where we can
be vigilant to actually notice and realize Where the devil is
coming, even when he's just beginning, when he's far off, he's not even
nigh. Depart from all appearance of
evil. So, maybe notice this and as
you read through the Bible from now on, notice how Satan is discovered,
how he's described how he's identified, to help us to actually be vigilant
and to know whom it is that we're actually resisting. We'll want
to look then at the third point as to how we are to resist. One thing that I had thought
of the second point was, Whether it was so or not, because last
time I was due here, I was not able to come. And Paul writes,
he says to the Thessalonians, but Satan hindered us. And how that can be discerned or
the Lord, it's hard to know. But we know where the Lord does
bring together and Paul was brought to the Thessalonians, and they
were blessed. Satan cannot hinder it. He cannot
overreach the Lord's will and the Lord's purpose. But there's
been many times I've been really encouraged, actually, in coming
to a place to preach, and there's been many hindrances. There's
been many things that have happened, and I thought, will I ever get
there? And the thought has arisen, what
does Satan know that I don't know? Why does not he want me
to go? Why is he trying to hinder? And
I thought that 15 minutes before the service here, sitting on
the M25, absolutely stopped because of some incident. And we were
there 5, 7 minutes or more. not moving at all, and then it
all moved about three feet. But you wonder how much influence
that Satan has to bring up things to stop up a path. And in that, of course, you can't
resist it. You just notice what is happening.
There's not much way you can go around, much you can do. is just another thought of an
adversary, an opposition, a hindrance. I want to look then at how we
are to resist, and the word here is steadfast in the faith. In John's first epistles we are
given very clear direction as to the victory that we are to
have. In 1 John 5, verse 4, we read,
For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this
is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world? but he that believeth that Jesus
is the Son of God. Now if you look at the word of
our text, whom resists steadfast in the faith, and we've identified
Satan as being the God of this world, and seeking to drag the
people of God back to the world, make them worthy-minded, carnal,
to consider and look to the things of the world. And John, he says,
whosoever is born of God overcometh the world. This is why Satan
tries to get those that are born of God and brings them back to
the world. Because they'd been snatched
as brought from the world, whom the God of this world had blinded
them that believed not. But those that believed, how
they could release, not in their own strength or might or power,
but by the same way that they'd been snatched. Remember the first
promise. Genesis 3.15. The seed of the woman. to bruise
thine hand, thou shalt bruise his heel. The conflict between
Christ and Satan, and to think of what was done at Calvary,
that was fulfilled. Our Lord suffered, his heel bruised
in that sense, but Satan defeated, Satan overcome, the empty tomb,
a risen Saviour, Who is he that overcometh the world? And we
may imply that overcometh the God of this world, Satan, and
all his temptations back to the world. Who is he? It is he that
believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. What was Satan's temptation? If thou art the Son of God, command
this, command do that. All the time, if thou art the
Son of God. What is the requirement or the
reason? John writes, he said, many things
might be written, but these are written that ye might believe
that Jesus is the Christ, that he is the Son of God. That was
the Ethiopian eunuch's testimony as to who the Lord Jesus Christ
is and was. Satan all the time, he still
attacks today, he has the Jehovah's Witnesses, he has Mormons, he
has the Muslims, he has all of them, and nearly everyone will
be on the issue of who the Lord Jesus Christ is. Only the Eternal
Son of God, God manifest in the flesh, Emmanuel, could ever defeat
Satan, could ever overcome him. There is no wonder in John's
second epistle that he says, Look to yourselves that we lose
not those things we have wrought. Who so transgresseth and abideth
not in the doctrine of Christ hath not God. But he that abideth
in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the
Son. If there come any unto you, and
bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither
bid him God's speed. For he that biddeth him God's
speed is partaker of his evil deeds. The world only consults
to cast him down from his excellency. But the people of God, they speak
of his glory, and their faith is not self-centered. It's not
a faith that says, of what I am, and what I believe, that my sins
are forgiven, that I believe I'm elect, that I believe I'm
going to heaven, is not those things all belong to the people
of God, but their belief is in Christ. The Hymn Writer says
it rightly, what think ye of Christ is the test. Try both the statement scheme.
You resist the Satan and say, I believe that Jesus Christ is
the Son of God. that he suffered and bled on
Calvary's tree and rose again the third day, that will send
him going. He cannot stand on that to be
reminded that it is Christ that died, yea rather risen again
and he is sitting at the right hand of the throne of God on
high. Remember our Lord always used
the word It is written to resist Satan. It was this that Luther,
when Luther had a dream, a vision, that Satan came to him with this
great long list and he said, on this list was all of Luther's
sins. He said, these, these are all
your sins. Yes, says Luther, they all are,
but right on the bottom of it, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleansed from all sin, and Satan was gone. It's vital for
good, real doctrine, the doctrine of the faith of God, the faith
of God's elect. Remember we're not alone in this,
we're told in this verse that the same afflictions, the same
temptations, the same trials, They are with their brethren
in the world. We all have to fight with the
same. We can't gather in the house
of God and think, well, some of my brethren, they might have
these afflictions and temptations and trials, but I don't. No, the people of God are common.
He fashioned their heart alike. They have the same adversary.
But blessed be God, they have the same Saviour. and same Redeemer,
and same salvation, and the blessing of God is that the Lord has given
that promise that they might be saved. And he has given also,
we haven't got real time to mention it, in Ephesians 6, that which
is given is the armour of God. We are told there in verse 12,
Well, verse 11, put on the whole armor of God, why? That ye may
be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. And that armor is directed at
the same adversary. And now he's spoken of not an
angel of the lion, not a roaring lion, but the wiles of the devil. His tricks, his deceivings, we
wrestle as your resistance. We wrestle, not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of darkness of this world, the God of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places. Therefore take unto you the whole
armour of God, that you may be able to withstand, gain resist
in the evil day, having done all to stand. and therefore having
your loins girt about with truth." That's the thing, to know the
truth. You shall know the truth, the
truth shall make you free. Having the breastplate of righteousness,
not my righteousness but thine. Going to Jeremiah, this is the
name wherewith he shall be called the Lord our righteousness and
wherewith she shall be called the church of God, the Lord our
righteousness. What an answer to Satan at any
a tank pointing to our sin, that our hope for heaven is Christ's
imputed righteousness, our hope for heaven is that His precious
blood has put away our sin, and Satan was not able, the grave
was not able to hold him, he rose from the dead. And then,
having your feet shoved with the preparation of the gospel,
The Lord Jesus Christ's gospel is a gospel of peace. May we
always remember that. The law is law, the gospel is
gospel. I often feel so sad when I hear
ministers using the gospel, thankfully not so in our denomination, but
in others, as if it was the law. A great big stick to beat people
with. If you don't believe today, you'll
be lost. You should believe before you
go out the chapel. and many such words. Yes, we know that he is the only
name given among men whereby we must believe. It's a solemn
thing not to. But the gospel is the remedy.
We increase the law, we increase the condemnation, but the oil
of mine to heal and cherish is the gospel. And there you can
see the difference between Satan. Satan comes as a as an adversary,
you'll come to use or misapply the law of God, you'll come in
every way but the peace-speaking blood of our Lord and Saviour,
Jesus Christ. But the faith of God's people
is looking to what Christ has accomplished at Calvary. Remember
the ordinances of God's house, the ordinances of the Lord's
Supper, Christ's blood, His broken body, That's for the Church of
God, not great big sticks, not the wrath, but to remember what
Christ has done. His sufferings, His death, there's
our faith, there's the object of faith always. And so he goes
on, the above all taking the shield of faith. That which centers
in the Word of God. Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the Word of God. that you are able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked, take the helmet of salvation,
that hope beyond the grave, a hope of salvation, and the sword of
the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all
prayer and supplication. The weapons are there, and it
is what Peter directs to as being the faith. who resists steadfast in the
faith." Really the message is, that which the Lord has given
to quicken us, to bring us separate from this world, that which has
made the Lord Jesus Christ precious, that is what Satan cannot stand
before. And this is why Paul says, even
regarding our own flesh, If ye through the Spirit do mortify
the deeds of the body, ye shall live. In every way, the remedy
and help for the people of God is the Gospel, is the Lord Jesus
Christ, is our faith in Him. By faith, ye are saved. By grace, ye are saved. Through
faith, that not of yourselves, It is the gift of God. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the author and finisher of it. And Peter well
knew the Lord had prayed for him, that his faith fail not. And that's why he was delivered. That's why he was not left in
Satan's city. Satan did not rob him and take
from him glory or that which the Lord had given him. May the
Lord give us that same triumph by faith and same blessing as
we attempted and as we may be drawn aside. For heaven alone
my heart prepare, have my conversation there, whom resist steadfast
in the faith. Amen.