Turn with me, if you would, back
to 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5. My desire, my true, true desire
and my prayer for us as a congregation of believers
is that we might grow. That's my prayer. I truly, truly desire that. I pray we might grow as children
of our Heavenly Father, not just stay stagnant, but grow. Grow in grace, grow in the knowledge of our
Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. I don't presume on our growth. I don't assume on our growth,
but I hope and pray that we're growing. Because of that, I have
a burden of warning for us. Because of that, because I do
hope and pray we are growing as a congregation in grace and
in love and in the things of Christ. I have a burden of warning
for us. When a child is born into this
world, two parents, they have an infant.
That's how a child starts out, as an infant. You don't spend
any time at first warning It's not how things start out. You
don't warn infants. You feed the child, you clothe
the child, you bathe the child, you comfort the child. But as the child begins to grow,
warnings start coming. At first, when they become toddlers,
it's very minimal. It's just, don't do that. But then as the toddler becomes
a child, it becomes more. Teaching takes place. Start to
spend some time teaching. It's important. Then as the child
becomes a teenager, you start to have more honest conversation
about the dangers that are out there. It's like, now, I really
want you to know this. I want you to really be aware
of this. And then when it's time for that
teenager to go to college or to go do whatever he or she is
gonna do, you tell them, this is the reality
of life. It's time you really know the
reality of life, the reality of this world that you're about
to go out into. The point is with growth and
maturity comes a greater need for warnings. The more we grow
and the more we mature, we receive a greater need for warnings.
I have a word of warning for us tonight, and I'm gonna begin
this warning with a word of comfort. Now let's read first Peter five,
verse eight. It says be sober, be vigilant because your adversary,
the devil as a roaring lion walketh about. seeking whom he may devour. All right, let me read that verse
again. It's very important. He said, be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about
seeking whom he may devour. Now here's where we're gonna
start. Turn with me to 1 Peter 1. Peter said at the end of this
letter, be sober, be vigilant. And here's how he began the letter.
1 Peter 1 verse 5 says, you are kept by the power of God through
faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time.
He said, you're kept by the power of God. At the end of the letter,
he said, now be sober, be vigilant, be vigilant. He started the letter
by saying, you are kept by the power of God. You're kept, these
warnings are to God's children. That's who the warnings are to.
And if we're God's children, we are never not going to be
God's children. If we are his children, we're
never not going to be his children. Once God's children, always God's
children. And that is, that's the truth.
That's a fact. People say, do you believe in once saved, always
saved? I sure do. I sure do. If Christ saved me, if Christ is the one who poured
His blood on me, yes, I sure do. Now, if I ran out and got my
own salvation, that a lot of people do, and then they go tell
others, I got saved, I decided, I went on ahead, and if I did
that, I can lose that as fast as I got that. That wasn't a
salvation anyway. But if God did the work, if God
did the work, if the Father ordained the work, Almighty love, arrest that man
right there. If God the Father ordained the
work, and if the Son performed and finished the work, and if the Spirit has notified
of the work, If God did the work, then I'm going to be kept by
the power of God, and you will too. And you talk about relieving.
You talk about relieving. Kept by the power of God. People
say, you better heed these warnings now or you'll lose your salvation. No, you won't. No, you won't. In Christ, You're being kept
by the power of God, not by the power of yourself.
A lot of men are trying to keep themselves by the power of themselves,
not by the power of yourself, by the power of God. In Christ,
we are kept by the power of God. Verse two right here says, you
were elect. According to the foreknowledge
of God, the father through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience
and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. He said, God, the
father chose you. And he said, the spirit set you
apart. and the blood of Jesus Christ
cleansed you from all your sin. Therefore, he went on to say,
at the end of verse two, he said, grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Grace unto you and peace be multiplied. Let it be multiplied. By what
number? What number are we multiplying
by? whatever number you want, any number you want. The higher
number you can think of is not nearly high enough. Higher than
the heavens is not high enough. God has infinitely multiplied
his grace and his peace to you in the person of his son, Christ
Jesus, our Lord. Verse three right here says,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which
according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a
lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead
to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth
not away reserved in heaven for you. He said, that's secured. That's totally secured because
of the mercy, because God showed mercy to sinners like us. That means he did not give us
what we deserved because he gave his son what we deserved. God
showed mercy to us by punishing His Son in our stead, shedding
the blood of His Son in our stead. He showed mercy to sinners like
us through the death, the burial, and the resurrection of the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He said, because of that
mercy, we have. We have. That's the message of
the gospel. It's totally a notification,
totally. You possess. It's a reading of
the will. This is what's yours. Peter said, we have a living
hope. A living hope. We have an expected
anticipation. Hope is not, oh, I hope that
works out. Hope is it's going to happen.
It's an expected anticipation. He said it's an incorruptible
inheritance. And that inheritance is the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ. What do we inherit? What do we
get? Him. You know what his inheritance
was? Us. Psalm 2, God the Father said
to God the Son, if you ask of me, I'll give you the heathen
for your inheritance. And he said, that's what I'd
like to have. So this inheritance is the person
of the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. It is eternal, holy life with
Him. Eternal, holy, spotless, perfect,
joyful life with Him. He said that inheritance that
Christ secured for you is reserved in heaven with your name on it. And he said, it'll never fade
away. It'll never run out. It'll never be taken away from
you. And that sounds to me like what
God has done for us in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ is ordered
in all things and sure. That's what it sounds like. That sounds to me like we can
rest in that. It sounds to me like we can trust
that. We can truly hope in that. He's
given us a lively, a living, true hope in that. All right. Well, here's the question
then. Why do we need the warnings? If that's the case, then why
do we need the warnings? Here's why. My children will
never stop being my children. Never. They were born of us. They have our DNA. They can't
not be our children. They just can't. It's not a possibility. In the end, they're going to
be just as much our children as they are right now. I don't
care how old I get. I don't care how old they get.
They're gonna be just as much our children as they are right
now, but they can do things along the way to make life miserable
for themselves. They can either heed warnings
and heed the wisdom of experience, or they can ignore warnings and
ignore the wisdom of experience. Both of those actions are gonna
have a different reaction. And that's just a physical illustration
that perfectly illustrates the spiritual life of a believer.
I'm not an old man, I realize that. I haven't lived very long,
but I've lived long enough to see and long enough to know of some believers who went astray
for a while. I have witnessed and known some
believers, not talking about unbelievers. I'm talking about
believers who went astray for a while. And if we belong to
him, he will bring us back in the end. He will. But for whatever reason, because
of some decisions they made or they just lost their interest,
lost their sense of urgency for worshiping Christ and gathering
with the saints. Other things just started seeming
important. And I'll go ahead and tell us
they are not. They're not. Other things are
not important. Doesn't matter what it is. If
anything stands in the way of worshiping Christ and gathering
with the saints, then we need to get rid of it. If anything
stands in the way. We need to get rid of it. Nothing
is as important as this. I know that this wicked sinful
flesh loves other things naturally in its natural condition more
than what we're doing right now. I know that there are many things
that seem even like they have importance, but nothing, nothing,
nothing. is more important than what we're
doing right here. Nothing is worth being lukewarm
over, and eternity will prove that to us. The scary part about it is the
flesh loves lukewarmness. It does. The flesh loves it. That's the flesh's favorite place
to be, is in a lukewarm state. Our Lord is the one who warned
us of that. He said, watch out for lukewarmness. The longer we go, the more susceptible
we are for it to sink in and settle in. Our Lord said, either
be hot with the fire of the... Didn't our hearts burn within
us? That fire of His Spirit. Be consumed with worshiping our
Lord, the Christ that saved us. Or He said, be ice cold, hating yourself. Just hating
yourself, just ice cold, just miserable over your lukewarmness,
just miserable over your sin and miserable over your lack
and miserable over your error. Just begging for mercy. Have
mercy on him. Please help me and deliver me
from this state of lukewarmness. Just deadness, coldness. Our
Lord said, be one of those two things, but don't be lukewarm. And what lukewarm is, it's neither
hot nor cold and fine with it. That's what it is to be lukewarm.
Somebody's gonna say, well, What about his providence and his
predestination concerning us? Isn't that what you preached
on this morning? What about his providence in ordering our steps? Thank God for his providence
in giving us his warnings. Thank God for him bringing us
to these. For some, he has predetermined
for them to heed the warnings. And for some, He has not. And I pray for all of us that
He has. I pray that He has. All right, go with me back to
1 Peter 5. All right, here's our warning tonight.
1 Peter 5, verse 8. He said, be sober. Be sober. What that means is
clear-minded, It means calm and collected. You ever been told
to clear your mind? Just clear your mind of everything.
The apostle Paul said, I have cleared my mind. He said, I've
cleared my mind of everything but this one thing. He said,
I have determined to know nothing among you. I've gotten it all
out. I've determined to know nothing
among you except for Jesus Christ and Him crucified. That's it.
The Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Our warning is stay
on Him. Stay on Him. Stay clear minded
on Him. Don't let anything creep in and
steal your focus away from Him. The way that the adversary devours
us is by using pleasant things to steal our attention. He doesn't
jump on us and stab us and pitchfork us and all that kind of stuff.
He uses things that are desirable to us. That's what he did with
Eve. He presented something that was
more desirable to her flesh than the word of Christ her Lord. And he stole her attention away.
That's what happened. And he is still doing that. That's
what he does with us. Even as the message goes out,
our Lord is the one who gave the parable of the sower. He
said it goes out. And he said, some of it falls
by the wayside. Some of it, as soon as it goes,
the adversary is just stealing it away. And Peter said, he walks to and
fro in the earth, seeking those who have bowed to Christ, trying
to devour them. And he does it by attracting
them to pleasant things, things that are desirable. We hear of
his fiery darts that he fires at us. Paul is always warning
about the fiery darts. We think that that's, we naturally
think that that's wicked thoughts that he puts in our mind and
that's sinful feelings that he puts in our hearts. No, that's
just us being us. That's all that is. That's just
sin being sin. That's the old man being the
old man. Those fiery darts are a burning desire for something
else. And if anything creeps into our
mind, into our heart, into our affection, to the point that
it clouds our view of Christ, then we need to get rid of it.
We need to beg God to remove it from us. David said, search
me and see if there'd be any wicked way in me and remove it
from me. Let me just see you. Let me just
focus on you. Hobbies are great. They are great. But if our hobbies start to steal
us away, if they start stealing us away from our worship of Christ,
our gathering with the saints, we need to get rid of them. We
just need to get rid of them. We need to be sober, clear-minded
on Christ. And the apostle Peter said in
verse eight, be sober. And then he said, be vigilant,
be vigilant. What that means is the word vigilant
means awake. It means watchful. It means attentive. It literally means stay awake,
stay awake. Now let me illustrate the importance
of this. You teenagers who have your driver's license, or you
teenagers who will at some point soon have your driver's license. When you get behind the wheel
of a car, especially at night, stay awake. Stay awake. I remember I was
driving down the road one time, I was coming down the interstate,
and I started dozing off, and I could see, it was late at night,
and there was a car in front of me, just two red taillights,
And I would doze off, and I'd see those two taillights. And
I'd doze off, and I'd watch those two taillights. And I'd doze
off, and he took an exit. And that exit turned around,
and he didn't turn around. He must have been dozing off,
too. But he veered off, and all of a sudden, I saw those two
taillights start bouncing. He'd gone off the ramp, down
into the grass. It scared me to death. I still think about that. I was
a teenager. I didn't have a cell phone. I
immediately drove to a pay phone. I called 911. But the point is,
is I still think about that to this day. When I feel myself
dozing off, I'm talking about driving. It's the time for me
to rouse myself. I cannot do this. I can't do
this right now. I cannot give in to this. I must
be vigilant. I must be sober. I must be clear-minded. I must set my eyes on the mark,
the way. I can't veer off side to side. And this is how it is with spiritual
matters. If we're kept on the mark, we're not being kept by
ourselves. We're being kept by the power
of God. If we stay sober, that's him
doing it. If we stay vigilant, that's Him
doing it. Whatever we do, that's Him performing
in us what needs to be done in us. But He does that through
His Word to us. He speaks to us. He directs us. He leads us through His Word. And He is saying, Stay awake. Stay awake. And I'm not even
talking about sleeping in the pews. Our Lord was so gracious
on that. The disciples, He was in the
Garden of Gethsemane. While their sins were being pressed
into Him, He was sweating great drops of blood and just pleading
on their behalf. He kept coming back and saying,
can you not stay awake for an hour? But then He finally said
to them, sleep on. I've taken care of it. And that's
how I feel about this. Sleep on. He'll take care of
it. Sleeping, physically sleeping
just tells me I need to do a better job. Spiritually speaking, spiritually
speaking, the word of our Lord to us is stay awake. Stay awake. Don't veer off. Don't do it. Stay awake. This is an important warning. It is such an important warning. If you at all feel lukewarmness,
if you at all feel indifference, if you feel cold, I don't mean
if, I mean when you feel indifferent. When you feel so cold, cry, Lord,
wake me. Wake me. Please don't let me
sleep the sleep of death. Please don't let me. That is
an important warning, such an important warning. Let's be vigilant. Let's be sober. This is what
David said in Psalm 13, verse three. He said, consider and
hear me, O Lord." And this is how we rouse ourself. We cry
out, help me. I can't do anything about it.
I can't be vigilant. You must do it. So David said,
consider and hear me, O Lord, my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest
I sleep the sleep of death. Would you do that, Lord? Would
you illuminate me? Would you show me Christ? warm
my heart to Christ. Peter right here was speaking
from firsthand experience. He was telling it, this is our
elder, this is our brother, brother to brother. He's speaking from
firsthand experience. He's saying, trust me, if you
think that you're not capable of being devoured, I was an apostle. I was there the night He was
betrayed. The moment of Jesus Christ crucified. And He said, I denied Him. For some reason, you know, we
think that we're, it's just, oh, that won't come to me. I'd
never, like Peter, they may deny you, but I won't. Peter said,
I denied Him. I walked away from Him. I cursed
Him. But he said, I was being kept
the whole time by the power of God. That's what he wrote. I was being kept the whole time
by the power of God, and he brought me back. That moment when Peter
was cursing, and to a little girl, just to a little girl,
you know, big, big Peter, and just saying all those things
about the Lord, and Peter, you know, he looked over, and the
Lord was looking right at him, eye to eye, and it just crushed
him and broke him to the point that he said, he won't have anything
else to do with me. I better just go back to fishing. This is over for me. And when
our Lord arose and appeared to Mary Magdalene, he said, I want
you to go tell my disciples and make sure you tell Peter that
he was kept by the power of God that whole time in spite of his
sin. So Peter says in verse eight, be sober. Be vigilant because
your adversary the devil as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom
he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the
faith. In the faith means looking to
Christ. That's what faith does. That's
all that faith does. It looks to Christ. It says,
I need you. If you don't help me, if you
don't reach down for me, I cannot withstand these wiles. I have no defense. You're my
only hope. You're all I have. That's what
faith does. It says, I can't and you must. That is the gift of God. That
is Him keeping us. He sends faith and that faith
cries out to Him. Hold your place right here and
turn over to Ephesians 6. Ephesians 6 verse 10 says, finally,
my brethren be strong in the Lord, not in your own self, not
in your own flesh, be strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might. Paul said, when I'm weak, I'm
strong. And when I'm strong, I'm weak. And he said right here, finally,
my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His
might, put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to
stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,
against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places, 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, having your
loins girt about with truth." That's Christ. Truth is Christ. He said, I am the truth. Have
your loins girded about with truth. Verse 14, he said, and
having on the breastplate of righteousness. That's Christ. He is our righteousness. He's
our perfection before God. He's our good deeds. He's all
that we have. Verse 15 says, and your feet
shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. That's Christ. The gospel of peace is Christ
himself. He is our peace, the prince of
peace. Verse 16 says, above all, taking
the shield of faith, that's Christ. That faith is of him, through him, performed by him,
to him, that's Christ himself. Verse 16 says, wherewith you
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked and
take the helmet of salvation. That's Christ. He is our salvation. He's all the salvation we have
and the sword of the spirit of Christ. It's the spirit of Christ
himself, which is the word of God, that's Christ. In the beginning
was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God, the Word
was made flesh, that's Christ. Verse 18 says, praying always
with all prayer, and this is how we put on the armor, praying,
begging, calling, crying, help me, please help me, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me," Paul
said. Honestly. We're kept by the power of God.
We're honestly kept by the power of God. But our Lord is speaking
to us through his word, telling us to be sober, be vigilant,
and put on this armor. And this is the best physical,
spiritual way for us to do this. Pray for me. If you want to put
on that armor, you cry out for mercy, you cry out for help,
and pray for me. Pray for me. Pray that God will
keep me pointing you to Christ. Nothing's worth veering off from
Him for. Nothing. We just cannot do it.
Verse 19, He said, Pray for me that utterance may be given unto
me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery
of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in bonds, that
therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak." Go with me
back to 1 Peter 5. We'll close by reading these
verses. 1 Peter 5, verse 8. It says, be sober, be vigilant,
because your adversary the devil, as 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." He said, "'But the God of all grace, who
hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after
that you have suffered a while, make you perfect, He will establish
you, He'll strengthen you, and He'll settle you. To Him be glory
and dominion forever and ever. Amen. We're gonna sing a closing
song, and this song is our prayer. One of the lines in this song
is, keep us, Lord, oh, keep us cleaving to thyself and still
believing. Till the hour of our receiving,
promise joys with thee. Lord, please keep us. Please
keep us. All right, Brother Eddie, you
come.