Being renewed in the spirit of your mind is an essential factor of Christian living. And when your mind perceives what is right and what is best, and what is pure and what is holy. Then it begins to order the responses of your emotions and your will. Yeah. Welcome to Grace to You with the Bible teaching of John MacArthur.
I'm your host, Phil Johnson. Perhaps you find it easier to read your Bible, pray, and meditate on Scripture when your life is going well. But what about when money is tight? Your health fails. Your enemy won't let up.
How can you make sure that under any circumstance you're growing spiritually and honoring Christ? Find out today as John MacArthur continues to show you a practical path to spiritual maturity. That's the title of our current study here on Grace to You. And so now with today's lesson, here is John MacArthur. When the scripture says, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he.
It touches on the core of all spiritual life. For everything you do in your spiritual life is a product of how you think. Attitudes determine responses and behavior. And for a Christian then to grow toward maturity in Christ, for a Christian to be productive and effective, he must be established in certain essential fundamental ways of thinking. And we've chosen to call these attitudes.
If you can train your mind by the power of the Holy Spirit, to certain thinking habits. That are righteous, if you can have what the New Testament calls a renewed mind. then you have put together the foundation for a godly life. Peter knows that. And so at the end of this...
epistle written to some Christians. who are being persecuted, he pulls together a series of final commands. and they call for fundamental attitudes that God requires. and that lead to spiritual maturity. Starting in verse 8, we find the fourth necessary attitude for spiritual maturity: an attitude of self-control.
An attitude of self-control. Verse 8 says, B. of sober spirit. Be sober-minded. That's all we need to read because that's the point.
Again, a very rapid fire, almost staccato use of the imperative here. Be of sober mind or sober spirit. This is not something new in this epistle. Peter has made reference to this before. Back in chapter 1, verse 13, he said, Gird your minds for action and keep sober.
In chapter 4, you'll remember verse 7. He says, The end of all things is imminent, therefore be of sound judgment and sober for the purpose of prayer.
Now what does this word sober really mean?
Well, it means self-control. It can be used with reference to intoxication. That would be its literal use. But here it is used metaphorically, as it is most often in the New Testament, to refer to self-control. It means to be in control of the issues of life.
Having the priorities of life in the proper order and the proper balance, it requires a discipline of mind and a discipline of body. that avoids the very intoxicating allurements of the world. It starts with a well-disciplined thought life. That is absolutely essential. In 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 6, Paul says, Let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober.
Watchful and under control. In verse 8, he says, since we are of the day, let us be sober. And again, he's calling for the same attitude that Peter is calling for here. That is an attitude of sober-mindedness. Beloved, I remind you that there is a great premium set on a pure mind in Scripture.
Being renewed in the spirit of your mind is an essential factor of Christian living. And when your mind perceives what is right and what is best, and what is pure and what is holy. Then it begins to order the responses of your emotions and your will. It is then an essential fundamental of Christian living that you have an attitude of self-control. That you harness your life.
I love the words of Peter that I just quoted you from chapter 1: gird your minds for action. That word literally means to tie up your robe in a belt. To pull in all the loose ends in your thinking. All the loose ends in your preoccupation. Cinch everything down tightly.
Get your mind clear. and under control. It is essential, then, as a necessary fundamental for spiritual maturity, that you have submission, humility, trust, and self-control. Through the years, we have said much about self-control and about self-discipline and the disciplined life, and I would commend you to those teachings. The fifth Spiritual attitude that is essential for growth, we'll call an attitude of vigilant defense.
An attitude of vigilant defense. Look at verse 8. The reason we have to have our priorities right, the reason we need to trust God, the reason we need to humble ourselves under His almighty hand, and the reason we need to submit to those in authority over us and to God Himself. is because Our adversary the devil. prowls about like a roaring lion.
seeking someone to devour. Peter says, be on the alert. Be on the alert. Not only sober-minded, not only having your priorities right, but watchful. It's an heiress imperative.
Stay awake. Be ready. Be alert. Watch out.
Now strong trust in God's mighty hand. Strong trust in God's care. Strong confidence that we can cast all of our anxiety on him does not mean carelessness and it doesn't mean indulgence. It doesn't mean that because we trust God and because we throw all our care on Him, that we become indolent and lazy. And let down our guard.
or we will become victims of the enemy. The outside forces that come against us demand us to be alert. Vigilance. The enemy, by the way, is very subtle. According to 2 Corinthians chapter 11, he disguises himself as an angel of light and his ministers as angels of light.
He very rarely shows himself for who he is. He almost always masks himself as a religious personality, almost always endeavoring somehow, in some way. To be able to approach you subtly so that you can't recognize the reality of who he is. But let's find out about him. Let's find out why it's so very very important to be alert.
Your adversary the devil. That introduces us to the enemy in spiritual warfare. Very personal designation, by the way, your adversary, the devil. He's not only the adversary of God, he's not only the adversary of holy angels, but he is your adversary as well. Adversary, by the way, is a legal Greek word.
That means the legal opponent in a lawsuit. In a technical sense, in a general sense, it means any enemy.
So you have an enemy. And you better be alert. Even though you can trust God and entrust yourself to God, you need to be alert. to the enemy in general. This enemy here is called the devil.
Diabolas. Slanderer. The term diabolos or slanderer means a malicious enemy who slanders. It can even go beyond that and mean a malicious enemy who attacks. He is also called destroyer.
And he is called the slanderer, he is the accuser, he is the destroyer. And he is prowling about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. He's always active and he's always looking for an opportunity to overwhelm us. His aim is to sow discord. to break fellowship.
To accuse God to men, to accuse men to God, to accuse men to each other, to undermine confidence, to silence confession, to get us to stop serving God. He's always after us. He is called in John's Gospel three times the prince of this world. He commands the human system.
So as he is moving around seeking whom he may devour, It is not that you have to come into contact with him individually to fall prey. Because he orchestrates a whole realm of demon beings, and he orchestrates and controls the whole world system. And so from his Seat. As Prince of the World, he orchestrates an environment. which in and of itself can devour us.
He is also called the prince of the power of the air by Paul in Ephesians chapter 2. The power of the air means the supernatural demonic power that exists in the universe. He commands that.
So he commands the human system, the cosmos, the world, and he commands the supernatural sphere in which demons move. And so he individually, and he through his demons and through his system. is prowling about like a roaring lion. Warning. to devour someone.
That statement, by the way, is reminiscent of Job chapter one. In Job chapter one, you remember that Satan came. Into the presence of the Lord. And the Lord said to Satan, Verse 7, listen to this. From where do you come?
Then Satan answered the Lord and said, From roaming about on the earth and walking around on it. Really? Why is he doing that? Why is he roaming around the earth and walking on it? Peter answers it: he is prowling about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he what?
may devour. He is wandering through the earth looking for victims. It's a real spiritual warfare. And the Lord said to Satan, Job 1:8. Have you considered my servant Job?
You want to try to chew on him, see if he'll go down? You want to try to devour Job? There's no one like him on earth. A blameless, upright man fearing God and turning away from evil. And Satan says, Let me have him, and I'll show you how strong his faith is.
So God said, all right, have at it. And you know the story. No matter what happened in Job's life, Satan couldn't devour him. And Job said, Though he slay me, yet will I trust him. And Job said, The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. And the Lord took everything away from him, everything he owned, his property, took away all of his children. Took away all of his wealth, all of his animals. The only thing the Lord left was his wife, and I think there were some days when he would gladly have traded her. For somebody else.
Because she was always telling him to curse God and die. But even she, as an instrument of Satan, couldn't bring him to do that. But you see, that's Satan's ploy to move through the world to find somebody he can consume. The prowling, roaring lion is a symbol of viciousness in Scripture. I would just uh Thank you.
Some 22 verse 13 that messianic psalm Talking about How the bulls of Bashan have encircled me, referring to Christ being encircled by those who hated him at his cross. They opened wide their mouth at me as a ravening and a roaring lion. That's a picture of viciousness, of maliciousness. That same expression is used. elsewhere in the Psalms with the same intent.
of one who would be vicious. Psalm 104, verse 21, the young lions roar after their prey.
So, Satan is going after his prey. He's going out to consume. He's going out to chew someone up. That's his goal. In Ezekiel chapter 22 and verse 25 is another enriching insight.
In Ezekiel 22, 25, it says, There is a conspiracy of her prophets in her midst, like a roaring lion tearing the prey. They have devoured lives. They have taken treasure and precious things. They have made many widows in the midst of her. And of course, here the judgment of God is coming upon the sins of the leaders of Jerusalem, but he says they are like a roaring lion tearing her prey.
So, whenever you see that phrase, Peter is borrowing it from the Old Testament, every time it's used, it's seen as a malicious kind of thing. Satan is moving around, wanting to take someone and literally rip that person to shreds, looking for someone to devour. Satan's goal is to devastate. And you must understand that the objective of his devastation, listen very carefully, is not unbelievers. For obvious reasons, right?
He already possesses them. He wanted somebody like Job. who named the name of God. And I believe that he goes after people who name the name of God. Wanting to destroy Tear up.
devastate. Even though obviously he cannot take away their salvation. He can destroy their life. He can destroy their testimony. He can devastate them.
So, says Peter back in 1 Peter chapter 5. You better be on the alert. Because you have a personal adversary, an enemy. The slanderer, Diabolas, the destroyer. who is moving all over the earth with one goal in mind.
Finding people who name the name of Christ and wanting to tear them to shreds and destroy them. You better be alert. If you want to get the best look in the Bible at this whole matter of spiritual warfare, what is the devil doing and how do I respond? How am I going to deal with this roaring lion? Let me take a few minutes and digress to Revelation chapter 12.
Revelation chapter 12. This is the watershed passage on the matter of spiritual warfare. And we can use it as a foundation to pull all of the parts together so we really understand what's going on. First of all, Who are the participants in spiritual warfare? Who are the participants in spiritual warfare?
We find in verse Three of chapter twelve, this statement. And another sign appeared in heaven. And behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven diadems. I won't go into all of the details about that. Suffice it to say that that great red dragon is Satan.
It is Satan. Look at verse 4. And his tail swept a third of the stars of heaven. and threw them to the earth. What is this?
This is what it means. When Satan, who once was Lucifer, son of the morning, perhaps the highest of all angelic beings. When he opposed God and said, I will be like the Most High, as recorded in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. He who was the covering cherub, when he decided that he would be lifted up with pride. Be equal to God.
God threw him out of heaven. But when God threw him out of heaven, he didn't go alone. He dragged a third of the stars of heaven. What does that mean? A third of the angels.
Yeah. What is the status of this third of demons? Let me tell you. Of all of the third that fell, There are three categories. Category number one, some of them are bound eternally.
Some of them are bound eternally. Jude 6 says they are bound in everlasting chains. Those who were bound in everlasting chains were bound because of the sin recorded in Genesis 6. Where they took on human bodies, cohabitated with women, produced some kind of demon-man race that had to be drowned in the flood, those demons who did that. were bound in everlasting chains.
So, as far as the number of forces go, they're certainly in our favor. Two-thirds of the holy angels remained holy. One-third fell. Of the one-third, a number are eternally bound, so they're not an issue.
So even the third is depleted.
Furthermore, Some are temporarily bound. According to Revelation chapter 9 and verse 2, during the time of the tribulation, hell is going to be opened up. And belch forth some vicious, vile, wicked demons. One description of them describes them as if they were unclean frogs. It means that up until that time, some of them are bound there.
That we would understand that because you remember when Jesus cast the demons out of the demoniac. They said, don't send us to the pit. The place of bound demons.
Some are bound permanently, some are bound temporarily. The temporarily bound ones won't be released until the time of the tribulation, so they're not running around now.
So the third is depleted even more. The rest of the demons that are allowed to run around loose are what we know as demons. They are the principalities and powers. They are the rulers of darkness. They are the spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies, referred to in Ephesians 6:12.
and we wrestle with them. They're the ones that are after us.
So who are the participants in spiritual warfare? Satan. The dragon. and his fallen Demons. But they're not alone.
Because they work their work through human beings. It says in the middle of verse 4, look at this. The dragon stood before the woman who was going to give birth. Who is the woman? Israel.
So that when she gave birth, he might devour her child. Who is the child? Christ The Messiah was about to come out of Israel. And Satan is poised to To devour the child. Why?
He's always wanting to devour. He goes throughout the whole earth like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He wanted to chew up Job, too. Same pattern. And there he was, poised to destroy the child.
And what is fascinating to note here is how did he try to do that? Through demons? No. Through a human being. What was his name?
Herod. Herod. who went and slaughtered all of the infant children under the age of two. And so we see a third participant in the spiritual battle. Satan, demons, and men.
Who are the pawns of Satan? They are the hypocritical liars who preach the demon doctrines in 1 Timothy 4, 1 and 2. In John 8, I can't resist reminding you of John 8, verse 44, one of the very important passages in the New Testament, which gives us insight into this. In John 8, 44, Jesus said, You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. There you are.
He says to those Pharisees, those Jewish leaders who rejected God, you're of your father, the devil, and you want to do what he wants.
So that's the spiritual struggle right there. Satan, demons, and men who are the children of Satan. Those are the participants.
Now, what is Satan's strategy? Remember, now he works his strategy through the demons and through people. in the system. Through the demons he controls the supernatural. Through the people, he controls the cosmos, the world system.
Those are the participants.
On the other hand, You have God. Holy angels. and believers. And that draws the battle lines, right? Holy angels are battling demons.
Did you know that? Did you know God had to send Michael because God sent to Daniel a heavenly messenger and a demon held him up in the air? And God had to send Michael, who is super angel. To go down there and knock that demon out of the way and let that holy angel go on about his business. There is a warfare going on in the air.
And it comes all the way down to us as we battle with the agents of Satan. who are the human beings in this world who serve his kingdom.
Now what is the strategy? We've seen the participants. What's the strategy? Let's go back to verse 1. Revelation 12.
And a great sign appeared in heaven. A woman clothed with the sun. the moon under her feet and on her head a crown of twelve stars. And she was with child. She cried out, being in labor and pain, to give birth.
Verse 5. She gave birth to a son, a male child. who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. and her child was caught up to God. and to his throne.
Who is that? That's Israel giving birth to Christ. But what was Satan's first Approach The child. First strategy in Satan's warfare: oppose Christ. Oppose Christ.
He still does it. He still does it. He did it before Christ was born. He tried to wipe out The Davidic line. He's always tried to do it.
He tried to kill the child using Herod. He then tried to get the child, Christ, to bow his knee to him, become the servant of Satan, and therefore obviate his messianic work and damn the human race forever. That takes us then to the second. target Israel. Verse 6, and the woman who is Israel in this picture.
Who gave birth to the child, fled into the wilderness where she had a place prepared by God so that there she might be nourished for 1,260 days. That's one half of the seven-year tribulation. And during that half of the seven-year tribulation, the Antichrist, who is the agent of Satan, goes out to destroy the Jews. And God has to hide them and protect them. Thirdly, Satan goes after holy angels, verse 7.
There was war in heaven. Michael and his angels. waging war with the dragon and the dragon and his angels Waged war. And they were not strong enough. Amen.
and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. When Satan first fell, He scooped up his third, who agreed with his rebellion, and they made war with Michael, who was always the super angel commander-in-chief. And Michael and his angels threw him out of heaven. Verse 9 takes us the next step. The fourth Target in the strategy of spiritual warfare is believers.
He was thrown down to the earth, it says in verse 9. He deceives the whole world. And his angels were thrown down with him. And so here they are, building their system of deception. And then verse 17.
And the dragon was enraged with the woman, Israel. And so he went off to make war with the rest of her offspring. Who was that? Those who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus, believers.
Now, if you have any questions about spiritual warfare, here it is. Satan Demons Children of the devil, the unregenerate world. Our fighting God. Holy angels. and believers.
The strategy of Satan is to oppose and attack the name of Christ. Destroy his name, destroy his character, destroy anything that names his name so that you discredit him and cause people to turn their back on him. Attack Israel. Do everything you can to destroy that nation so there is no covenant people and there can be no prophetic kingdom. Fight the holy angels, destroy them.
Tear them down so you can rule the universe. And finally, fight believers. Those who keep the commandments of God. And hold. to the testimony.
of Jesus. And that's why it says in Ephesians 6, we wrestle. Principalities and powers, the rulers of darkness, spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. You're listening to Grace to You, featuring the Bible teaching of John MacArthur. John's current study is titled A Practical Path to Spiritual Maturity.
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Now for the entire Grace DU staff, I'm Phil Johnson. Thanks for winding down the year 2025 with us. And be back tomorrow as we launch the new year with more from John's study, A Practical Path to Spiritual Maturity. It's another 30 minutes of Unleashing God's Truth one verse at a time on grace to you.
