Hope Beyond the Battle: Standing Nose-to-Nose with the Adversary, Part 2

Today, on Insight for Living, from Chuck Swindoll. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood. You can't see the enemy. Our struggle is against rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Therefore, take up the full armor of God.

These days, when you hear a conversation about the devil, it seems that few people really take him seriously. However, the Bible delivers a sobering warning about an enemy who wants to take us down. Today, on Insight for Living, Chuck Swindoll describes the plan for defending ourselves. In 1 Peter chapter 5, the apostle gives us clear instructions for resisting the devil and gives us the confidence to overcome.

If you missed our last program, we'll begin with a review. In this message, Chuck explains what to do when we're nose to nose with the adversary. If I could give one statement of the five things I want to say about this overall chapter. It is a chapter of commands and wise advice. What begins rather mildly with an exhortation to elders on shepherding a flock, builds to the top of the crescendo in 8 through 11 as he talks to all of us who are doing battle with the enemy. Let me read, if I may, verses 8 and 9 of 1 Peter 5. Be of sober spirit.

Be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour, but resist him firm in your faith knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accompanied by your brethren who are in the world. He begins by identifying the enemy and stating in general terms the style of the devil. Whoever is under the impression that there is no literal enemy of our souls chooses to live in a dream world.

You simply reveal your lack of understanding and a lack of reality. All the way through, not only the New Testament, but through the Old Testament, there is evidence, there is case after case after case of a literal devil, an actual Satan, a real, in Peter's terms, adversary. See how he identifies him in verse 8? Your adversary.

It is a Greek word that means an opponent in a lawsuit. This is a person on the other side of your life. This is not a friend. This is not a playmate. This is no one to mess around with.

Not even anyone to joke about. This is an adversary. The next word is devil. Your adversary, the devil.

Diabolos means slanderer. Revelation 12 verse 10 states that the enemy of our souls is the accuser of the brethren. Not only does he attempt to accuse us to God, he accuses us to ourselves.

Many of the self-defeating thoughts that we have come from the demonic realm. He is constantly accusing, constantly building guilt, constantly coming against us in hopes of destroying us. Will you notice his style? He prowls about. He is like a roaring lion. This roaring is like the howl or the growl of a hungry beast. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion seeking to devour and put your name there. Please observe it isn't simply to tantalize or to interest or to tease. It is a devouring, consuming appetite.

He dances with glee when he destroys the lives, especially the lives of Christians. Now our response to that is very significant. I left out the opening command because it's part of the response. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert.

That is absolutely primary. He hates messages like this. He hates exposure. He hates being talked about. He especially hates being identified in all of his ugly and filthy plans and destructive ways. He stands against moments like this.

Be sober. Be on the alert. Verse 9, resist him. Resist him. I see nothing of fear in the word resist. You have nothing to be afraid of.

Greater is he who is in us than he who is in the world. Don't run scared of the enemy. Don't play with him.

Don't invite him. But don't be afraid of him. It says resist him. It's the word for withstanding.

Kenneth Wiest has a wise piece of counsel on this. The Greek word means to withstand, to be firm against someone's onset. The Christian would do well to remember that he cannot fight the devil. The latter was originally the most powerful and wise angel God created.

He still retains much of that power and wisdom as a glance down the page of history and a look about one today will easily show. We are to stand steadfast. It's translated in verse 9, firm in your faith. You know what I find helps me when I sense I'm in the presence of the enemy? The actual quoting of scripture. There is something marvelously strong about the word of God.

It is alive and why do you think it says it is active? It is sharper than a two edged sword. Resist him firm in the faith and look at this comforting thought knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

We are not alone. Our rather regular gatherings every Sunday and periodically through the weekdays are reminders that we are not in the battle alone and when you face the enemy, you're not in a lonely battle. You are in the same battle being experienced by other believers stretching around the world and this is where the Christian has the jump on every other person who does battle with the enemy. The other people without the Lord Jesus have no power to combat.

They are facing the enemy without weapons to defend themselves. The Christian is fully armed and if wearing the right armor is absolutely invincible. Isn't that a great word? That is a great word. Invincible. That's why he says with such strength resist him steadfast as a Greek phalanx in your faith knowing all the while that you're not alone in the battle. What a wonderful comfort. Now let me hasten to say unless we make some faulty conclusion here that it is an exhausting battle.

I don't know of anything that leaves one more rung out could we say? More weary than battle with the enemy. Nothing more demanding, nothing more personally painful than encountering our arch enemy. But I have good news for you.

The scripture has good news for you. When you resist he will ultimately retreat. He will not continue. He will back away. He won't stay away but he'll back away.

He will move away as you resist him firm in faith. Hold your place right here for a quick review of Ephesians chapter 6. It's been a while since we've read our armor.

Maybe it's time to do it. Ephesians 6 10. Just a few comments as I work my way through these verses 10 through 18. Finally be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Do you notice right there that if you're not in the Lord you have no strength? It's a mockery to say to a person who is not a Christian just stand strong against the enemy.

He wants to know how do I do that? I don't have any equipment. I don't have any weapons. You have to have the Lord to be able to stand strong. Stand strong in the Lord and in the power of or the strength of your might, no way, his might. Put on the full armor of God that you may be able to stand firm against the methodia.

We get our word method from that term translated schemes of the devil. The devil has a strategy. By the way he is an excellent student of every one of us. He knows our every weakness. He knows our hardest time in life. He knows our besetting sins. He knows the areas where we tend to give in. He knows the moment to attack. He knows the right time.

He knows the ideal place and don't think his emissaries aren't there ready to launch and ready to prowl. Our struggle is not against flesh and blood, verse 12. You can't see the enemy. Our struggle is against rulers, against powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenlies. Therefore, he doesn't deny the reality of our enemy, verse 12, but he doesn't back away. He says, therefore take up the full armor of God that you may be able to resist, there's our word again, in the evil day.

That's the day of the attack. And having done everything, stand firm. Isn't that wonderful? Having done everything there is to do, stand firm. Reminds me of the old reference in sports writing of the four blocks of granite. The four blocks of granite.

Those incredibly strong linemen that stood fast and we still see them in the game today. Irresistible, immovable. Stand firm, verse 14, having girded your loins with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace. In addition, take up the shield of faith with which you're able to extinguish all the flaming missiles of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, frema, the spoken word of God, not the written word of God, the literal expression of the word of God. With all prayer and petition, pray at all times in the spirit.

With this in view, here is the word again, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints and even pray on my behalf, he adds. This is what we call basic issue. You folks who were in the military, remember when you first got to boot camp in that dizzy, double time, no sleep, constant movement of those early hours when they pushed you through the line and they dumped all the basic issue on you? I remember they gave us in the Marines a little bucket and they gave us enough to fill two sea bags. We were supposed to carry all of it in a little bucket. We had all this stuff hanging around us and on top of everything came a rifle, clunk.

I remember it hit me right across the forehead. I thought, this is the beginning of a great experience. I didn't know how to use any of it, but I wound up with two handfuls of everything and staggered out into the night, as I recall, it was early morning and running to our Quonset hut for the beginning of our training. God gives us in Ephesians 6 not a stack of things but tailored, perfectly equipped, knowing that they will all work.

You know the good news is you don't have to be trained to use it. All you've got to do is wear it. Put it on. Verse 11, put on. Verse 13, take it up. Verse 14, stand firm. I mean, how much skill and how much IQ do you need to stand firm? Just stand there.

You can do it. Put on the breastplate of righteousness. All you really need to be skilled in is the use of the sword and that takes a lifetime.

We're involved in it right now. That's what it means to fight. You just have to have the right equipment and you've got it in Christ. You've got it.

Back to 1 Peter 5. Now I wish I could tell you that it's easy. It's not. It's painless. It's not. I wish I could tell you that it's always a victorious result. It's not.

We want it to be but we don't always stand firm. But look at verse 10. He even gives us hope beyond the pain. After you have suffered for a little while, God pins four major medals on your chest.

Look at it. He who called you to his eternal glory in Christ will give you these four medals. Perfection, confirmation, strength, and establishment. It's the picture. It's the well-rounded portrait of a seasoned, well-grounded Christian. He will, by his great grace, perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. It's wonderful. It'll happen.

How could it be? Well, look. The God of every kind of grace who called you to his eternal glory will himself make it happen. And who is he? Verse 11. He is the one who has the dominion forever and ever.

Amen. He is the commander in chief. He is the conqueror.

He is the victor. I was keeping our grandkids the other night, a couple of them, and we were there alone and a knock came at the front door. It was late in the evening. Granddads usually let grandkids stay up longer than they should and so I exercised that right that evening. We were having a great time together and here came this kind of mysterious knock at the door. They didn't ring the bell. There was no light on and suddenly one of my grandsons grabbed hold of my arm.

I said, it's okay. And the knock came again. So we got up and he was hanging on to my leg. I was walking to the door like Frankenstein.

I had this kid hanging on my leg and he was hiding behind my leg as I opened the door and happened to be a friend of one of our kids and kids weren't there. So everything was fine, but I could, I could feel his little arm hanging on my leg and while I was talking to him, my voice was going like this. He was, she was kind of shaking. We closed the door and it was, then he stood real strong. He said, Bubba, we don't have anything to worry about, do we? And I said, no, we don't have anything to worry about.

Everything's fine. You know why he was strong? Because he was hanging on to protection. He didn't have to worry about a thing that happens to us when we face the enemy. When he knocks at the door or when he prowls around back or when he looks for the chink in the armor, you hang on. You stand firm. You have nothing to worry about.

Nothing. He has the dominion forever and ever. Now let me give you a couple of pieces of advice that have helped me throughout my Christian life. Here's something I want you never to do and then there's something I want you always to do. Number one, never confuse confidence in Christ with cockiness in the flesh.

Don't do that. Never confuse confidence in Christ with cockiness in the flesh. They are not the same. They are in fact opposites.

They mask themselves as the same. When you're facing the enemy, there's no place for cockiness. There is a place for confidence and it's all in Christ. You tell him your weakness. You tell him your fears. You ask him to assist you as you equip yourself now, as you put on, as you take up the armor, as you wear the helmet. You ask him to think through you and to act beyond your own strength and to give you an assurance. He'll do it. But it's all confidence in Christ.

It's not some sense of cockiness in the flesh. Now here's something always to do. Always remember that the suffering is temporal but the rewards are eternal. Always remember that the suffering is temporal but the rewards are eternal.

Listen to the reading of scripture. Therefore we do not lose heart but though our outer man is decaying yet our inner man is being renewed day by day for momentary light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison. While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporal.

The things which are not seen are eternal. 2 Corinthians 4, 16, 17, and 18. Never confuse confidence in Christ with cockiness in the flesh but always remember that suffering is temporal and its rewards are eternal.

You know the best illustration I can think of? Christ on the cross. Suffering was intense. It brought him to death but it was temporal. Death had its day and he hung there as a corpse and before nightfall he was taken down and placed in a grave. Many in authority thought that is the end of that and he rose victorious beyond the grave offering eternal life down through the centuries to this very day to all who would believe.

He left us the Lord's table as a beautiful reminder of this which Christians were to observe and are still observing since he left this earth. Every time you partake of the table let it be a reminder that the suffering is temporal but the rewards are eternal. May we bow our heads together. For the next period of time let's let time stand still. Let me urge you to set aside the cares of the morrow and your concerns for what is going to happen on the horizon. Let me ask you to focus your attention. Wonderful thing about the mind.

It will aid you, it will assist you in giving full and uninterrupted attention to that which matters and it has the ability to filter out all the other extraneous incidentals. Are you certain you have the Lord Jesus Christ in your life? Are you absolutely sure that his blood has washed away your sins?

Do you know beyond the shadow of a doubt that if you died this night you'd spend eternity in heaven? You know he gives us the table as a quiet sermon. It's really a sermon without words. It's a proclamation until he comes that he has died for the sins of the world. That little piece of bread is a picture of his body given fully for you on the cross and that little cup of juice it's a reference to his blood that flowed through his veins and finally stopped moving when he died. But that blood continues to wash away sins.

Let me give you a few moments to search. For some of you it's time to receive Christ Jesus as Savior. For others it's a time to receive cleansing and refreshment for your soul. Heavenly Father, meet with us in this intimate moment. Remind us again of the loveliness of this moment, a time when we shed all status and rank and role of authority and we all come together as the people of God. Meet with us in our deep need for confession and cleansing. Hear the prayers of the sinners as they call out for cleansing and forgiveness and turn our attention to that which will outlive us the eternal principles of your word for the glory of Jesus Christ in whose name we pray. Amen. It's possible you're listening to Chuck Swindoll's message today and you're feeling the oppression that comes from your spiritual enemy.

Scripture teaches that the devil is prowling around in your territory like a roaring lion. Even so, take heart. Peter comforted his friends with this timeless counsel.

Give all your worries and cares to God for he cares about you. You're listening to Insight for Living. To learn more about this ministry, visit us online at insightworld.org.

We make it our mission to equip you with resources to help you in your daily battle. For example, Chuck wrote a very practical book called Hope Again. This book would make a great summer read because it walks you through the entire letter of 1 Peter and Chuck draws out the prevalent themes in Peter's letter and shows you how to apply these principles to your life today. To purchase a copy of Chuck's book called Hope Again, give us a call.

If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or visit our website at insight.org slash store. And then let me take a moment to thank those who have given generously to Insight for Living. Perhaps you have no idea of the impact of your generosity, but we do. A day never passes without hearing from someone whose life has been touched because of the Bible teaching they receive through Insight for Living. And those sacred moments are made possible through the voluntary gifts from people like you. Recently, we received a note from a listener who said, you don't know me, but you've been my pastor for more than a decade now. Your dedication and passion have drawn me into the word. I just wanted to say thank you. Well, we pray that that brief note will encourage you to keep up the good work. To give a donation today, call us. If you're listening in the United States, call 800-772-8888 or you can give online at insight.org. I'm Bill Meyer inviting you to join us next time when Chuck Swindoll explains how to find hope beyond misery on Insight for Living. The preceding message, Hope Beyond the Battle, Standing Nose to Nose with the Adversary, was copyrighted in 1989, 1990, 1996, 2006, and 2011. And the sound recording was copyrighted in 2011 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for commercial use is strictly prohibited.