The Activity of the Devil

Introduction: The Threefold Purpose of the Study and Review of Previous Principles

0:05 This adult Sunday school class was held on June 6, 1982, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Younger visitors in particular, just a word of explanation is in order. This is our adult Sunday school class, and we seek to conduct it as a class and not a lecture or a preaching service, though the present teacher occasionally turns aside from the stated framework and, alas, falls into preaching now and then. But basically, it is a class in which we welcome the interaction of the members of the class,

0:45 and we are presently studying together a broad subject that I have entitled, Major Principles of Living the Christian Life. And our purpose in conducting the study on this particular subject is threefold. I am concerned to sketch in a working, practical theology of living the Christian life. Secondly, to immunize you, the Lord's people, against the many erroneous theories concerning the Christian life which have been prevalent in the Church in past ages, and, alas, many of them are with us to this very hour.

1:25 And then my third purpose is, by God's grace, hopefully, to see any misunderstanding concerning the major principles of the Christian life purged from your own mind, and then hopefully, by the grace and power of the Spirit, from your own Christian experience. So the threefold purpose, then, is to sketch in a working theology of the Christian life, to immunize you against error, and to purge out any existing...

1:55 misconceptions. Now we've covered already one of these major principles. Will someone, without looking at his notes, tell us what was the first major principle of the Christian life that we examined? All right? Chuck?

2:10 All right. There is no one master key to living the Christian life. Almost all false theologies of the Christian life hold forth what they call the master key. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

2:28 to the Christian life, will it lead to the master key, or not the master key, or not the master pressure unused to the life we are there for the life that we live now? To find Lord I want you to come fresher in the Lord, till I come without a time of 나서. of this key, we are told, you will unlock all of the basic problems of living the Christian life. But as we saw from many passages in both the Old and the New Testaments, God has given us a large key ring. That key ring is composed of the Old and the New Testament

2:48 and on it are hung all of the words of God, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And all Scripture is profitable for teaching, reproof, correction, instruction, or child training in righteousness, that is training in living the Christian life. Now we are presently examining the second major principle of living the Christian life. Will someone tell us what that principle is, please?

3:20 All right, Rich. All right, the Christian life is not divorced from the Christian life. The Christian life is not divorced from the Christian life. The Christian life is not divorced from conflict and tension. I've stated it this way, there is no escape from tension

3:34 and conflict in living the Christian life. And now what we're attempting to do is to establish from the Scriptures why that principle is true. Why can there be no escape from tension and conflict as long as we are living the Christian life this side of glorification? And thus far we've considered just that.

3:58 There is one basic reason, and we'll take up the second this morning. What is the first and fundamental reason as to why there can be no escape from tension and conflict in the Christian life? Someone prepared to tell us? Yes. Doug? No, we have taken two, I'm

4:17 sorry. Maybe that's why I threw you off when I said we've only covered one. We've covered two. Yes, Doug? All right, remaining sin. Go ahead. All right, I stated it this way,

4:35 the fact of remaining sin. Remaining or indwelling sin with its incessant and powerful activity. As long as sin remains, there must be tension and conflict in the Christian life, and this truth is taught explicitly in such key passages as, give me the two key passages. Ralph? Romans 7, particularly verses

5:00 14 to 25, and Galatians 5 and verse 17. And if you forget all the key passages, you're going to forget all the key passages. All the other passages, those two more than any others, clearly establish that the fact of remaining or indwelling sin with its incessant and powerful activity preclude any release from tension and conflict until we are glorified. And then last week we considered B, the second reality, which undergirds or makes necessary this principle.

5:38 And what is it? All right, John? All right, the presence and pressure of the world system. I stated it this way, or should have, the presence of the world with its restless and aggressive pressure. And when we use the word world, we're thinking of a fallen universe

6:03 hostile to God, and the key text which indicates that the world is constantly seeking to pressure the people of God into its own mold. What are some of the key texts that we considered last week? All right, one of them, Chuck?

6:19 All right, Romans 12, 2. Be not conformed to this world. Another key text? All right, 1 John 2, 15 and 16.

6:31 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love 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, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Well, we looked at other texts, but to summarize, we noted in our study last week that the world is constantly pressuring us to conform to its standards, and toward the end of our time together, Pastor Nichols made the very salient point that the world seeks to intimidate us, seeks to bring us into a state of fear, and to pressure us by that fear into conformity.

The World's Aggressive Pressure: Evangelistic Endeavors and Intimidation

7:13 And then, of course, it is constantly seeking to seduce us through those who are a part of its system. And I was thinking of this as I was writing out my review and thought of two passages that we ought to consider as we round out and conclude our consideration of this second factor, and then we'll move to the third. One is in the Old Testament, the book of Proverbs, chapter 4. Now, remember what we're considering, why there can be no relief, from tension and conflict in living the Christian life.

7:48 The second factor is the restless and aggressive pressure of the world. One of the ways that restless, aggressive pressure is constantly upon us is described in Proverbs 4, 14 to 17. Enter not into the path of the wicked, and walk not in the way of evil men. Avoid it.

8:15 Pass not by it. Turn from it and pass on. Now, here's the injunction that we are not to enter into the path of evil men. Whenever we are aware of that path, we are to turn from it with deep spiritual resolution.

8:34 Now he's going to give the reason for that command. Notice verses 16 and 17. Four. This is why he's telling him, telling his son, why he should not enter the path of the wicked, for they, that is the wicked, men of the world, sleep not, except they do evil, and their sleep is taken away, unless they cause some to fall.

9:05 Now, you see the pattern? Not only are they committed to doing evil, but they are determined to drag others, with them, into their course of evil. They are not content to drink in iniquity for themselves. There's a sense in which they feel much more comfortable when they get everyone around them to drink in iniquity as they do.

9:30 And so he says, don't go into their path, because they are evangelistic in seeking to convert you to their lifestyle.

9:38 The worldling is not content to live and let live, because the presence of someone, in close enough proximity for him to observe his lifestyle, who is walking in the way of righteousness, is a constant what to the worldling? What is he? A constant source of what? Rebuke, irritation to his conscience, reminding him that there is a God who has claims over him.

10:06 There is a God whose law does make demands upon him. And so this passage teaches us that the world exerts its pressure by means of, the aggressive, evangelistic endeavors of its subjects to get us to conform to their ways, and therefore there can be no release from tension and conflict. If the world would just lie over on its right side and die, and say, I will cease to exert any influence, then there might be release from its tension. But there cannot be, because the world will not.

10:40 And then the parallel passage, or in a sense a parallel passage in the New Testament is 1 Peter chapter 4.

10:49 Some of you have proven in your own experience the validity of Peter's observation here.

10:57 He is calling the people of God to a life of holiness, no longer living the rest of their time in the flesh, to the lust of men, but to the will of God, 1 Peter 4.3. For the time past may suffice to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, notice, to have wrought the desire of the Gentiles, he says, your past life was a living out of the desire of the Gentiles. Not just your desires, but the desire of the Gentiles, and to have walked in lasciviousness, lust, wine-bibbings, revelings, carousings, and abominable idolatries, wherein they think it strange

11:40 that you run not with them into the same excessive riot, speaking evil of you. You see, you no longer walk, with them in this way, and because you have abandoned that way and are now found in the way of righteousness, they speak evil of you, they cannot understand this change, but they are not content simply to back off and say, all right, if that's your thing, fine. There is this pressure to conform to the ways in which we once walked with them, the ways of the lust of the flesh, the ways of the Gentiles. And so, if we take seriously the biblical doctrine of the presence of the world

12:22 with its restless and aggressive pressure upon us, we will settle in our minds and hearts that there is no release from tension and conflict in living the Christian life. All right, any question on either of those first two subheadings before we move on to the third? The presence and reality of indwelling sin, the aggressive, restless pressure of the world. Yes, Pastor Nichols?

Discussion on Remaining Sin and Intimidation from Family

12:50 With regard to the pressure, one passage that seems to me that's relevant to that is 1 John chapter 1. Yes, I believe it was that if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive. If we say we have not sinned, then we make God a liar and His truth is not in us.

13:16 1 John chapter 1, verses 8 through 10. Very pivotal passage. Particularly pivotal because John is writing, among other reasons, that peoples would not sin. 1 John 2, 1.

13:28 Things I write unto you that you may not sin. So he's not opening the door for license. It's a call to holiness. This is the message we've heard of him.

13:36 God is light. In him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth. So the whole pressure, pastoral concern of John is to prod the people of God on in a life of holiness, but in so doing, he informs them if at any point they say they are above the conscious tension and conflict with sin, he says the truth is not in them.

14:01 He calls them liars. Strong language. Strong language. All right?

14:06 Let's move. Yes. Yes, and there's the intimidation element. You see, he said, don't think that I came to send peace.

14:22 I came to send a sword. I came to set a man at variance against his father, the daughter against her mother, daughter-in-law against the mother-in-law. A man's foe shall be they of his own household. He that loveth son or daughter more than me.

14:35 He that loveth, father, mother more than me is not worthy of me. So, we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by that opposition, even when it comes to the most intimate, natural, God-ordained ties of family. They must not, in any way, be allowed to intimidate us from the path of obedience to Christ. Okay?

Introduction to the Devil's Activity: Caution and Explanation

14:57 Let's come on now to the third factor which makes this second principle true. No release from tension and conflict because indwelling sin to the world. Now, three, can you guess what's next? The devil.

15:15 All right? And the way I'm going to state it is this. And there's nothing inspired in the way I'm stating it. I just find this helps me and I hope it helps you.

15:24 The third factor which establishes the validity of the principle is the activity of the devil with his vicious, devouring intentions. The activity of the devil with his vicious, devouring intentions. Now, before we come to open this up and I'll be seeking text from you, I want to give, first of all, a word of caution and then I want to give a word of explanation. The word of caution is this.

16:00 We are not going to think and talk about the devil in order to glorify him.

16:08 There's something there's some people who are taken up with devil mania and there's nothing he likes more than to get more attention than he deserves. From the very beginning it has been his desire to usurp the place that belongs to God alone. And we have no sympathy for those approaches to the Christian life that can be called nothing less than approaches characterized by devil mania. Taken up with the devil.

16:35 And there are certain groups, what I would call fringe elements of certain charismatic groups that really are off the wall with their theology of the devil and demons. If you've got a problem with irritation, you've got an irritable demon. If you let them name the demon then you can vomit him out and they actually have vomiting sessions in their meetings. And now this is not caricature.

16:59 This is not caricature. I've actually seen the pictures with my own eyes. I've seen the film clips of this stuff going on. So if you have lust and you have a problem, a problem with irritation or you have a problem with jealousy, you've got a demon of lust, of jealousy, of irritation.

17:16 And if someone exercises that demon and you can vomit it out and then you're delivered and released. Well, that is not the emphasis of the Bible. Our main problem is remaining sin. The corruption of the flesh.

17:28 The lust of the flesh. However, there is a biblical doctrine of the activity of the devil. So without on the one hand in any way showing sympathy for a preoccupation with sin, with the devil, which is contrary to the emphasis of the Bible, we must be biblically realistic about the devil. All right?

17:47 So there's the word of caution. Then the word of explanation is this, that when I speak of the devil and when the Bible speaks of the devil, often it is not speaking simply of this personal spiritual being who is called the devil, Satan, the deceiver, the adversary. But it includes with him all of those other spiritual beings who carry out his bidding and do his will. Demons, those called principalities and powers in a passage such as Ephesians 6.

18:25 So when we speak of the activity of the devil with respect to the ordinary believer as an activity that is vicious and devouring, we are not in any way suggesting that the devil is just a devil. He is ubiquitous, that is, in every place. He is not omnipresent. Only God fills heaven and earth.

18:47 The devil does not fill heaven and earth. The devil is a created being and therefore he has the limitations of a created being. But the Bible does teach that he is a very powerful created being and that he has multitudes of his minions and imps at his disposal, those whom the Bible calls demons. So there is that word of caution, the word of explanation.

Our Former Relationship to the Devil: Children, Slaves, Disciples, Blinded, Deceived

19:13 Now then, as we proceed to open up this division of our subject, I want to start with asking a very basic question. For those of us who are Christians, what was our former relationship to the devil? Every single one of us sustained a relationship to the devil. And so question number one this morning is, what was our, our former relationship to the devil?

19:43 And if you make an assertion, I want chapter and verse to buttress it, all right? Pat? Well, we may help you. You make your assertion and if it's biblical, we'll try to find the text, all right?

19:58 He was our spiritual father, all right? Can someone help Pat out with locating the text? That's a very proper assertion. Bill?

20:08 That's not the one he's fishing for. We'll hold off on Ephesians 2, all right? Brian? All right, read it for us, please.

20:39 All right, when Jesus was facing these very religious people of his own day, he said, you are of your father, the devil, and the lust of your father it is your will to do. Here, at least this class of people, and if that's the only text we had, we could not be dogmatic and say that's true of all people because Jesus was speaking to a distinctive class. Pastor Nichols, you were going to say something? No.

21:07 All right, say it a little louder and then read it for us, all right? All right, you'll read it first. He that doeth sin is of the devil, for the devil sins from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil.

21:37 Whosoever is begotten of God doeth no sin, because his seed is wise in him, and he cannot sin because he is begotten of God. In this, the children of God are manifest and the children of God are not. The children of God are the children of the devil. Whosoever does not righteousness is not of God, neither he that does not love his brother.

22:00 Okay, and he goes on to speak about Cain being of the evil one, slaying his brother. All right, so here the very clear teaching is that all mankind are neatly divided, tragically divided, into two categories of paternal relationship. They are either the children of God, They are either the children of God, They are either the children of God, or the children of the devil. And there's no middle class, there's no half-way class, there's no mixture.

22:34 Children of God, those who practice righteousness as the fruit of the divine beginning, and the children of the devil, those who are still in the path of practicing sin, following out the native inclination of their own unregenerate heart. So what is clearly a difference between the two? So what is clearly a difference between the two? Clearly attributed to a certain class in John 8, 44, and only by inference could be applied to others, is explicitly and more broadly asserted in 1 John 3, verses 8 to 11.

23:07 You see that connection now between these? What was our former relationship to the devil then? We were his spiritual children. We were part of his family, and we bore the family likeness.

23:20 and we bore the family likeness. and we bore the family likeness. The devil sinneth, and we showed our family likeness by being committed to a course of sin. We showed our family likeness, and supremely he is a murderer and a liar, and perhaps in those areas there is the most aggravated expression of likeness to the devil.

23:43 All right, some other texts now that answer the question, what was our former relationship to the devil? These texts clearly teach that we were his, in that sense, spiritual children. All right? Yes, Dean?

23:57 All right. 2 Timothy 2.26. Read the text and then tell us what it says about our former relationship to the devil.

24:07 All right? It must not strive to present for us all, after the forbearing, correcting them that oppose themselves, for our ventures God may give them retention, such as the knowledge of the truth, that they may recover themselves as the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him unto his will. All right, so what does this verse tell us then about our former relationship to the devil, prior to God's work of granting us repentance and divine recovery? Taken captive by him.

24:46 All right, so how would you summarize that? All right, so he is not only our spiritual father, he is our, or was our, what? All right, he was our master. We were his slaves, taken captive by him unto his will.

25:07 So we were not only his spiritual children, he was our father, but he was our cruel taskmaster. Now here's the point. Exerting a very real, powerful, profound, practical influence upon our lifestyle. Taken captive by him unto his will.

25:25 All right? Other verses that tell us what our former relationship was to the devil. Yes? Doug?

25:39 Keep your voice up while you speak and quote, all right? All right, so he describes their former path of lifestyle, the way they walked, as one in which they walked according to the prince of the powers of the air, of the spirit who now is working in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived. So how would you describe that, Doug? I think you've already done it, all right?

26:20 All right, so he was not only our master and we his slaves, he was, in a sense, our teacher and we were his disciples. We took our lessons in lifestyle from the devil himself, working, as the passage clearly teaches, through the lust of the flesh, through the world system, but behind all of that was the devil himself. All right? Yes, Don?

26:45 All right, in the context, Jesus is talking about the kingdom of Satan and the kingdom of God, and he speaks of Satan. He speaks of Satan as the strong man who must be bound before his goods can be spoiled, so this would certainly be a secondary text under probably this heading or this heading. All right, there's one other key thing that indicates our former relationship to the devil,

27:26 or maybe more than that, but as I've tried to examine the key text, at least one other thing. Yes, Pastor Nichols? Okay, that's it. All right, good.

27:40 All right, give us the text and read it and tell us what its teaching is with respect to this text. This matter we're dealing with. Three and four passages which have to do with the parable of the sower have this dimension of it. Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled in heaven's parish, in whom the God of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers that the light of the gospel of the glorious Christ, who is the image of God, should not go on.

28:19 But there seems to be some agency of the devil in it, seeking to blind the minds of people, to blind the minds of people, to blind the minds of people, to blind the minds of people, to prevent them from coming to the same faith and points and saving the rest of the gospel. You find the same teaching in the parable of the sower, where that which fell by the wayside, the devil comes and takes the word out of their hearts, that they should receive it and be saved. All right, do you see the point that's made then? There is a very powerful activity of the devil, and I don't know how to describe it in terms of another category.

28:55 We are his spiritual children. We are his slaves. He is the master. We are his disciples.

29:01 He is the teacher. And whatever you want to call it, there is this activity in which he blinds our minds, peculiarly and particularly now, to this whole matter of the glory of Christ as revealed in the gospel. So the gospel can be preached simply, plainly, accurately, passionately, and even with the unction of the Holy Spirit. And people see nothing to get excited about.

29:26 Nothing that captures their hearts. The world still enthralls them. The flesh still captivates them. They are still committed to living unto self.

29:36 Well, there is this powerful activity of the devil blinding their minds. And the parallel passage, the parable of the sower, these are they that are sown by the wayside. When Jesus interprets the parable, he says, the birds of the air that follow behind the sower. And when they see that seed that goes on the beaten path and it lies there, they are ready to swoop down and pick it up.

30:01 He likens the activity of the devil to that of the birds. Then cometh the devil and snatches away that which was sown, lest they should believe and be saved. So we have that very clear teaching. Now those are the key passages that I, in reviewing this, felt were paramount ones.

30:22 And there's one, perhaps it's an overarching one, that no one has mentioned, that should be mentioned because it is a parable. It is a parable. It is a parable. It is so much a work of the devil in those that are still a part of the kingdom of darkness.

30:36 Let me give it to you, all right, in the interest of time. Revelation 12 and verse 9.

30:44 Revelation 12 and verse 9.

30:51 We'll back up to verse 7. And there was war in heaven, Michael and his angels going forth to war with the dragon. And the dragon warred and his angels, and they prevailed not. Neither was there, nor place found any more in heaven.

31:08 And the great dragon was cast down, the old serpent that is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world.

31:22 He is a deceiver of the whole world. So we are not only his children who bear his likeness, his slaves who do the will of our master, his disciples who follow the teaching of the master, who are blinded by him, but we are deceived. Now that may come under the blinding, one may be subsumed under the other, but this is such a broad and general category with respect to our former relationship to the devil that I felt it should be included in the key texts. All right?

Our Deliverance from the Devil's Power at Conversion

31:54 That was our former relationship. Now that's a dark, tragic picture. Now, when a person becomes a Christian, what happens with this former relationship? And if you make an assertion, give me a chapter and verse to prove it.

32:10 Something very marvelous and wonderful happens when a person becomes a Christian by the grace of God. What is it?

32:19 And where are we instructed concerning that fact? Jerry? All right, we are adopted into a new family, and so we can say by inference then we are no longer in the household of Satan, and that certainly would be an accurate deduction from the doctrine of adoption. But I want an explicit text that says something actually happens in our fundamental relationship to the devil at every point.

32:54 Yes, Chris?

32:58 Yes.

33:02 All right. Yes. All right. So here in Hebrews 2, there is declared a freedom from that kind of bondage that Satan was able to lay upon us because of our fear of death in our state of an accusing conscience.

33:39 All right, here's one of the key texts then in terms of what happens when we are delivered. Here we are. Two, four. Fourteen.

33:46 Isn't that the... Okay.

33:50 Now there's another key passage. All right. Yes, Louise?

33:57 Ephesians 2 what? All right. Ephesians 2 and verse 3.

34:11 The fact that all of this is put in the past tense, is that the point, Louise? Okay. So here's the transition from wrath to grace, and since in the state of wrath we were bonded to Satan by clear inference and deduction, we are delivered from that. Very good.

34:33 Someone, I want someone to come up with a text I'm fishing for. All right. Mike?

34:40 No.

34:42 Bob? No.

34:46 Patty? No.

34:50 Harry? A text that actually says we are delivered from the power of the devil. And that means all of his power in all of these areas. We're delivered.

35:04 All right. Eleanor?

35:07 Colossians 1.13. We're getting closer. Well, let's look at that one.

35:12 And if some of you, if you have a cross-reference system, you may get my text yet. All right. Colossians 1 and verse 13. He has delivered us out of the power of darkness, the authority of darkness, and who reigns in the kingdom of darkness?

35:28 The devil. But it doesn't still say it explicitly, does it? We're coming closer, but there's a text that actually tells us, and this ought to be a precious text, and everyone who gets saved is delivered in this way. Every single one.

35:43 All right? Yes.

35:47 No, that's not my text yet. All right? Chip? At last.

35:54 At last. At last. All right. Give us the reference again, and then everyone turn to it, please.

36:02 Acts chapter 26 and verse 18. Now, what is so significant about this passage is that it comes in what context, Chip?

36:18 All right? And what is he doing before King Agrippa at this point?

36:23 He's giving his testimony of how he was converted and commissioned to be a preacher of the gospel. So this, in a sense, is a distillation of the entire thrust of the work of grace in Paul and the intentions of the grace of God working through him as a minister of the gospel. Now, follow closely then as I pick up the thread of thought at verse 16. But arise, stand upon your feet, for to this end have I appeared unto you to appoint you a minister, and a witness, both of the things wherein you have seen me, and of the things wherein I will appear unto you,

37:07 delivering you from the people, that is, from his fellow Jews, and from the Gentiles, unto whom I send you. Now, why is he being sent to Jew and Gentile as a minister and a witness of Jesus Christ? What does Jesus Christ intend to accomplish through Paul as a minister and a witness? Well, verse 18 tells us, to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light, now notice, and from the power of Satan unto God,

37:49 that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified, and all of these blessings, blessings come by faith in me. So whenever a sinner believes unto the forgiveness of his sins, unto the obtaining of the pledge of eternal inheritance, he is delivered from the authority, the power of Satan, and is brought into this entirely new relationship to the living God. Now, you see, that's why as believers, we cannot have, we cannot have this devil mania. We cannot have this preoccupation

38:32 with demons and with the devil, because we have been delivered. We have been delivered by the mighty power of God from the authority of the devil. And we must not undermine to any degree the radical nature of that deliverance out of the kingdom of darkness from the authority or power of Satan into the kingdom of light unto God himself who stands at the head of the world. It's like the matter of what we have learned to call radical or definitive sanctification.

39:05 When we are initially brought into union with Christ, there is a radical breach with the dominion of sin. And though we have remaining sin, there is still this radical deliverance. Now, there's a parallel. There is a radical deliverance from the kingdom of Satan, from the power of the devil, all of this biblical language.

The Devil's Present Activity: Wrestling and Devouring

39:26 But now, does the Bible tell us that as believers, delivered from the kingdom of darkness, from the power of the devil, that we still have dealings with the devil? And if so, what text clearly teaches that?

39:50 Ephesians chapter 6, what verse, Ray?

39:56 Alright, read it for us if you will.

40:20 The whole end for which we are to put on the armor of God, according to this passage, has to do with the reality of the devil. Now, look at the passage. Finally, verse 10, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God.

40:41 Why? In order that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Well, why do I need the armor of God to stand against the wiles of the devil? Because through no choice of my own, he's engaged in a wrestling match with me.

40:59 For, we wrestle not, that's the way some would read it, full stop. But that isn't what it says. You're told if you enter into the abiding life, the higher life, no more struggle, no more wrestling. They'd rewrite this passage and say, if you're strong in the Lord, you wrestle not.

41:17 Christ fights all your battles through you. You just rely and relax.

41:23 No, Paul didn't learn that secret. He says, put on the armor, not that you might go off on a three-week holiday, basking in the sun on Waikiki Beach, put on the whole armor of God that you may be equipped for this wrestling, because the wrestling is real. And if you wrestle without the divine armor, you're going to come off from the field hacked and hewn and bloody and bruised. You see, it's the reality of our conflict with Satan and the host of darkness that precipitates the exhortation, put on the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

42:04 put on the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. put on the whole armor of God in order that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. The machinations, the subtle schemes of the devil. So here, we are told as Christians, we are engaged in a wrestling match with the devil.

42:13 Now, we've been delivered from the power of darkness. You think he's content that he loses his subjects, that he loses his disciples? You think he dances a jig for glee when he loses those whom he has kept blind? When he no longer has his serfs to do his will, you think he takes that sitting down?

42:34 No, he's determined, he's a usurper who wants to, as it were, gain back what he has lost. And there is this wrestling with the child of God, though he's been delivered from his kingdom. All right, another key passage that speaks of his activity. Yes, Hartmut?

42:50 All right, can you give us the street address of that verse? You quoted it.

43:03 That's it. 1 Peter, 1 Peter 5 and verse 8. Now again, let's look at the passage in its context because again, there is a very important point here. There is a very intimate conjunction between two points of emphasis that so often in false teaching on the Christian life are set in two antithetical, that is, opposite categories.

43:25 But here, they are brought into the closest conjunction. 1 Peter 5 and verse 7. And then we'll go on to verse 8. Okay?

43:36 1 Peter 5, verse 7. Now we'll go back up to verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your anxiety upon Him because He cares for you. Now here's a call to cast all of our anxious concerns upon our gracious God because He cares for us.

44:06 There's a call, in the proper sense, to rely, to cast our care upon Him. Don't carry it around as though it were something concerning which God was indifferent. Cast your care upon Him, but that's immediately followed with this exhortation. Be sober.

44:26 Be watchful. You see, some would say, if you just can cast your cares upon the Lord fully enough, then He just takes over and you can just rest. But from casting care, He uses military terms. Be sober.

44:43 Be awake. Be awake. Be awake. Be awake.

44:44 Be watchful. Why? Because He says there is a reality that you ought to be aware of. Be sober.

44:51 Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil. You say, well, wait a minute. I never went out and declared war on the devil.

44:59 I mean, I never rang up a banner saying I'm out to get the devil. He's my enemy. How did he become your adversary? When God in grace wrenched you from his kingdom, he declared war.

45:13 A new kind of war. Having lost, one of his subjects, he's declared war. And he doesn't wait for you to say, well, I think I'd like to enter into warfare. He's your adversary.

45:24 Whether you like it or not, it's a fact. And Peter says, in the light of that fact, be sober. Be watchful for your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion walks about seeking whom he may devour. And old Bishop Leighton in his classic commentary on 1 Peter, those of you, who've been blessed by reading John Brown, you will notice again and again, John Brown says, as the good old bishop has said on this passage, and John Brown gives you about one-third of Bishop Leighton in his commentary on 1 Peter, because he found him so helpful and he certainly was a perceptive commentator.

46:05 And he said this, this passage underscores three things about the devil's activity toward the believer. His strength, he goes about as a lion. The lion is the king of the beast. He's described that way even in the Psalms.

46:19 The lion roars. He seeks his prey and he's pictured as king of the jungle. His strength. But then his diligence.

46:28 He goes about seeking. He doesn't lie around waiting for his prey to come to him. He goes about seeking. And then his cruelty.

46:39 Seeking whom he may what? Literally swallow up. The Greek word is a word which means to swallow up. To swallow up.

46:48 To devour. He's not content to just nip at you. He's content with nothing less than leaving your bleached bones on some desert of a by-path meadow. That's what he's determined to do.

47:03 Nothing less than that. He's seeking to devour you. Do you believe that?

47:09 Well, if you do, then you're going to be sober. You're going to be watchful. Because the devil means business. You've been delivered from his kingdom.

47:19 But he's not going to do that. He's still your adversary. He goes about as a restless, roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour his strength, his diligence, and his cruelty. And this verse tells us that as Christians we are not to be indifferent to this matter of the devil's activity.

47:39 Now, with a devil who is strong, diligent, and cruel, can there be any release from tension and conflict as long as he exists in that capacity?

47:51 Not going to do that. There won't be any release. When you can go out and declare the devil dead and make your declaration good, then we might expect a little release from tension and conflict. But my Bible says in the book of the Revelation that it is not until the consummation of all things that the devil that deceived them will be cast into the lake of fire.

48:12 Now, a death blow was struck to him at the cross, and I am not ignorant of that clear biblical teaching. He's the devil, and there's a chain about him. But he is active, very active. And we read in Colossians 1, we read in other passages that a powerful blow was struck to him.

48:33 But whatever that blow was, he is still a lion, still going about seeking whom he may devour. And then a parallel passage, James 4 and verse 7, one that was mentioned earlier, and we'll just mention this because our time is gone. We are told to resist the devil, and he will flee from us. And then next week, there's one or two other key passages that we must take up under this whole question of what is the devil's present activity with respect to the believer.

Conclusion: No Release from Conflict Until Glorification

49:07 But suffice it to say, these key passages should cause us as the people of God forever to be convinced, as much as we'd love to have it otherwise, there is no release from tension and conflict. Until that time, when we stand in the presence of our Lord, glorified. Now, if you want a Christian life that releases you from tension and conflict, you'll have to create one that is not taught in the Bible.

49:38 And that's precisely what some have done. They've become so weary that without realizing it, they have actually come under the influence of the deceiver in thinking there could be release from tension and conflict. But lest we have a heavy spirit, in the face of that, remember, we have a mighty victor who crushed his head upon the cross and we are promised in the word of God that greater is he that is in us than he that is in the world. Well, our time is gone, so we'll pick up our lesson and hopefully finish off this point and move on into the fourth factor which necessitates conflict and tension all the days of our life.

50:22 Let us then commit these things to God in prayer.

50:30 Our Father, we are so thankful that we have the scriptures as a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our pathway. We praise you that you have given to us this clear revelation of your mind and of your will. We confess with shame that many of us bowed in your presence in this very moment were once the very willing slaves of the devil, that we owned him as our father, we reflected the family likeness. We were glad to be blinded to the glory of Christ for only as we were thus blinded could we find anything attractive in the world and in the flesh.

51:15 But we thank you for your mighty work of deliverance. We thank you that the work done in us flows out of that objective work done for us upon the cross when your beloved son, spoiled Prince of Palisades, and triumphed over them in his death. How we thank you for that blow that was struck to the enemy of our souls and that our present release from his dominion is the fruit of the suffering of your beloved son. We praise you.

51:50 We thank you. And yet we cry to you that we may not be careless and indifferent to the reality of Satan's designs to us. To devour us and to render us less effective in our testimony and witness than we ought to be. Help us then, O Lord, as we reflect upon these things and may the Holy Spirit enable us to know their own peculiar application to each of our own lives.

52:22 Hear us and receive our thanks for your word and for your presence, for your Holy Spirit. We ask these mercies through you, Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.