Well, thank you for the selection of songs. Eileen was after me to pick the songs and everything. And we had to do it early because we were gone away. And so we had an opportunity to, I could have chosen songs, but I wasn’t sure that they would match what I was going to speak on. And I thought, it’s been a while since we’ve just sang favorites. And that’s always a good and just a good thing to do, to hear those testimonies. It is a nightmare for the musicians. And so I want to thank all of the musicians tonight. We have really good ones, but you know, and they are very faithful and they’re good.

And Carrie was the one who had to carry that as being on the piano. And she graciously, as Eileen asked her, were you willing to play a phrase? She said, yes, absolutely. And so praise the Lord for that. Thank you. I’m also was going to say, When she was on the keyboard down here this morning on that closing hymn, she was singing while she was playing. And that does show she can multitask well, because she’s got a lot on her plate with Stephen. But that was just… Take your copy of God’s Holy Word in whatever form that you have it here with you tonight, or from the pew, and I want you to go to 1 Peter chapter 5. First Peter chapter five.

When you’re asked to speak to services I will be speaking next Sunday night as well Lord willing that. You wonder, okay, I’ve got two sermons. I don’t know, do I make them go together? Or do I try to just do two separate things? Someone suggested, well, just go to the Psalms. That’s a preacher default. Go to the Psalms. You know, they’re good no matter what. And you don’t have to have a theme or anything like that. We almost did that tonight. But my heart came across this passage and something that I wanted to share.

And in the text, There’s really one sermon, but what I’m going to do is to break it into two. And we are going to look at this in two particular ways. Tonight, we’re going to look at our adversary. And next week, we’re going to look at, okay, now, in light of our adversary, the devil, how does 1 Peter tell us to respond? Or what’s the preparation? So that would normally be the second point or the second half of one sermon. But we’re just going to look at some of the characteristics of our adversary.

1 Peter, written by the Apostle Peter, obviously dearly loved of the Lord, very influential. in the early New Testament church, a man who had some major victories in his life, had some tremendous defeats in his life, and yet in the early church when the Holy Spirit came, that dude changed like a bunch. As he preached and he pointed, I don’t really know that he pointed, but you know, he might have like Stephen this morning with the double fingerprint and just go, you know, and you. this same Jesus you have taken and you have crucified. And so he came out like he was acting like a bull in a china shop and he really came out. So this is the first letter that he wrote known as a general epistle. It was written to the early church. It was it written probably around early to mid 60s. So about 30 years after the resurrection.

Jesus is gone, there’s a lot going on, and it’s hard to tell if Rome had been burned yet or not. But Nero was the emperor, a really bad dude. And most people believe, and probably even back then, that he set the place ablaze because he was build, build, build.

You know, spend, spend, spend. He wanted to be in control. I am the greatest. I’m going to do the most and all of that. And Rome caught fire, probably set by him or his little minions, and then he was able to rebuild. But you can’t maintain your leadership and respect for whatever little bit that he had. He really ruled by fear, taking people and just killing them left and right. He needed someone to pin it on. And the Christians that were there, they were being persecuted, not loved.

And this is an epistle written to believers in that first century where there was tremendous persecution, whether it was after the fire and this came after, or it was right before and God the Holy Spirit was preparing the believers to know great persecution was come. But it’s an epistle about suffering, an epistle about persecution and so forth. And I find it interesting that in the last chapter, chapter five, 1 Peter, as he’s beginning to wrap it up and he’s gonna give us a series of admonitions which we’ll consider next week. But in chapter 5 verse 8, he gives two exhortations and then he gives us a warning. Well, actually three exhortations. Let me just pick it up. Well, let me pick it up at just verse 8. Be sober. Be vigilant. because your adversary, the devil, walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” Those are terribly sobering words.

As we know from church history, many early believers died at the claws and the fangs of tigers. Tigers in that land were majestic, but they were used not only literally, the word, I said tigers, didn’t I? Lions. Lions are, were seen in the Bible over 150 times. And they are used physically, they are used metaphorically, they are used of Satan, as in this passage, and they are used as a metaphor with respect to our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, being the Lion of the tribe of Judah, both in Genesis and in the book of the Revelation. So lion was something that was very common in that day and age. However, lions in Palestine went extinct around the time that Martin Luther wrote that hymn, A Mighty Fortress is Our God.

The last one died. But they lived up until then. And I know most of you are not so in tune with the animals that like I am and with a passion, but We usually think of African lions, and that’s what they would look like. If you saw one, you’d say, oh, that’s an African lion. But there were lions, as far as I know, there were lions over there. Now they are pretty much in India, being protected in the Zigar, G-I-R, forests. And that’s it. They’re trying to breed them and reintroduce them. And I know, I can hear your thoughts.

Why would you want to reinduce lions to the wild? Well, that’s because a bunch of animal people are like that. But the last lion that died over in that particular area in Iraq, Iran, was 1960. Now we don’t normally think about lions over there in the Middle East and in those countries. I don’t know about you, I think of rocks, sand, and deserts. But there were lions and it was a very common thing and they were used in that particular way very much.

Our text here begins to tell us that our Father, who is the Father of lies, our Father, who is the God of this world, our Father before we came to know Christ as Savior and God was our Father, once we were born again and trusted Christ, now. is our adversary.

He is our enemy. He is out for our demise. Martin Luther put it in the song, who works for our woe. And I just constantly, whenever I see that term woe, I think of my mentor, R.C. Sproul, who said, woe is the word of judgment, the pronouncement of judgment. He works so that we will go into woe, into judgment. And so Satan, our enemy, our adversary, is roaring as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

Now I personally, while I was studying to be a zoo veterinarian, as most of you know, I was studying to be a zoo veterinarian until a senior in college, and I wanted to, I have a flair for the exotic animals. And that kind of manifested itself with monkeys, alligators, the big snakes, and a lot of that kind of stuff.

But the big cats have never been my interest. However, recently, since I have stepped down from being the senior pastor here, that I’m able to consistently and work a little bit more at an exotic animal rescue called FEAR, Forced Exotic Animal Rescue. And we have some baboons, that was a lot more than what I ever had. We have some apes, given apes and things like that, and other cats, mountain lions and that. But we recently, within the last year, have taken on two tigers, and a lion. And so when I come to this passage, it means something a whole lot more.

Because I don’t know if you know, but lions are really big. And lions really don’t fully tame down. And lions are really big. I know I said that already, and it’s not Alzheimer’s. I’m just doing that for emphasis. Because you see, the lions, the Asiatic lion that would have been in the minds of these people as they would have thought about it, there were some that were 10 feet, possibly a little bit more long. They would weigh up to over 400 pounds. That’s a big tabby cat, you know what I mean? This thing is, they are massive. The heads, they get up and you think, how much power it takes just to move. And that would have been what was in the mind here when he talks about our adversary, Satan, who is a roaring lion. The book, as what I said, was already about the suffering and suffering persecution.

Peter chapter one, it says this, Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the pilgrims of the dispersion in Pontius Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, Bithynia, the elect according to the foreknowledge of God and the Father and sanctification of the Spirit for obedience and the sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ.

Grace to you and peace be multiplied. Blessed be the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope. and through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible undefiled that does not fade away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith of salvation ready to be revealed in this last day now he’s it’s two believers we’re rejoicing uh we are blessed And then we get to verse six. And in this you greatly rejoice, though now, for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved by various trials, the genuineness of your faith being much more precious than gold that perishes, though it is tested by fire. See, there’s a hint. I think maybe the fire has already taken place. Tested by fire may be found to the praise, honor, and glory of the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Chapter three and verse 13, he kind of continues that same theme, verse 13. and he who will harm you if you become followers of that which is good. But even if you should suffer for righteousness’ sake, you are blessed, and do not be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled, but sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense of everyone who asks you of the reason for the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. having a good conscience, and so forth. And he points out this, verse 17, for it is better if it is the will of God to suffer for doing good than for doing evil. Chapter 4, verse 1, therefore, since Christ suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves also with the same mind for he who has suffered in the flesh has ceased from sin that he may no longer live the rest of his time in the flesh for the lust of men and so forth. So he’s approaching this topic of suffering Persecution, verses 12, beloved, don’t think it a strange thing when the fiery trials which is to try you as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice in the extent that you partake of Christ’s suffering, that when his glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding And then chapter five in verse one, the elders who are among you, I exhort, I am a fellow elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also partakers of the glory to be revealed. So suffering is the theme and it goes on, it’s gonna happen and so forth.

Then as he’s beginning to wrap up the book, be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil walks about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. What I want us to do is to consider Satan in three particular ways that are given us here in his names or identifying marks. First of all, the first word that is used in the text is, for your adversary, the devil. He is called our adversary.

That particular word in the original language had the idea of a legal situation. He was a legal opponent. He is, as it were, in a court of law, is the prosecuting attorney going after you. And he is going to get you condemned. He is going to list anything and everything. He’s going to twist thoughts. He will try to do anything but, well, maybe even make imaginary facts about it so that he can get you convicted. You are had. He is your advocate. He is your legal opponent. It is a word of a person who is dead serious. He wants you.

It is an aggressive term. It was used in hostile situations of a person against an enemy or against a foe. In fact, the word itself used probably 80 percent of the time in all of scripture starts off with the term of anti. ante in Greek language, but ante or anti, meaning against. I am convinced, and even as the longer I live my life, we really do not fully understand how much Satan is really against us.

He wants your demise, but not just that. That’s piddly stuff. He wants to bring shame to our Savior. He is out to destroy what bit of kingdom and Jesus’ kingdom He can. Yeah, I know those people say things like, well, He was defeated at the cross, He’s sealed, and surely he knows that and understands all that. But he knows his time is short. The Bible even talks about when he’s in the bottomless pit, then he’s released and he comes back with great wrath. Wherever you are on your eschatology, He was confined. He’s not just a lion on a long chain right now, but he will be contained. And then he’s going to have great wrath to come back to bring as much destruction as he can.

Paul wrote, for we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the spiritual wickedness and hide places. And that’s why we need spiritual armor. And we tend to take life as that, well, there’s unfortunate things, and he, well, he can’t indwell me, and I don’t think Satan can indwell a believer.

But man, he can mess around with you really bad, and do some bad damage. And so we need to understand who our enemy is. He is called our adversary. We have one who is our opponent. God has given us the spirit for spiritual armament and the word of God to fight. And it’s real. Satan is not just a thought or the evil in the world. He is a person. He has wrath. He can talk.

And we need to understand that there is a being, a spiritual being, a very powerful spiritual being who is out for our demise. He is the adversary, first of all, of God. Many believe And rightly so, probably, that Isaiah chapter 14, I will be like the Most High. Yeah, that’s a King of Tyre, but I can see that in the heart of Satan. God is Satan’s adversary. You go to Ezekiel. He was considered perfect until iniquity was found in him. But the idea was he was the anointed cherub. He was the one that was high and exalted.

And then God became his adversary because he wanted to be like him, and God does not share his glory with anyone, human, physical, or spiritual, angelic. And God became the adversary of Satan. We are, I’m sorry, angels became his adversary. We know about the fights between Michael, the archangel, Gabriel, and fighting over Moses’ body and the fighting in heaven in the book of the Revelation. He became, the angels became his adversary, then he took a third of them to be with him.

And God’s people down through the ages, the time of the Reformation, and all of that, that we have become his enemy and he is our adversary. Now the next word is that when it says be sober, be vigilant, it’s because your adversary, the devil, The devil, it means in a real sense that he is one who slanders, he is the malicious enemy who slanders and who attacks. Peter probably was thinking a little bit of this when we get the idea how that Satan goes before the throne of God and slanders believers.

You know, things like, yeah, did you hear that that Pastor Stephen hit the B flat, but it was an A sharp? And you know, it just really sounded terrible. And I pick on him because, no, actually he’s a good singer. But he slanders believers to the very face of God. And praise be unto God, Martin Luther in that song, but we have an advocate who stands for us and pleads our case. But he is the devil. Jesus called him the ruler of this world, John chapter 12, verse 31, 14, verse 30, and 16, 11. He is one who deceives.

He is the one who comes as an angel of light, not just like a lion. Now, the metaphor of Satan being a lion is not lost with an angel of light. Angel of light is basically that of deception. And having worked now with a live lion, they are terribly deceiving. They’re not as smart as a baboon because they’re deceiving too. But a lion, when they’re tracking, and this thing is like 350 pounds, you can’t hear him come.

He just appears. Do you don’t think, oh no, the lion is out of its cage. What am I going to do? And then, boom, he’s there in all of his glory. Because he’s a deceptive. He is creeping. There was a song, a rock song, that talked about how that Satan was a blonde and had blue eyes and blue jeans. And, you know, a lot of people hated that song, but that one kind of really hit home to me. I go, wow. It’s teaching those who think they know what Satan looks like. They are so dead wrong.

He’s got a red suit tail, you know, with a point on it and his horns and the pitchfork. Yeah, I’ll guarantee you that’s not that’s the lie of Satan because he’s a deceiver. He’s the devil and he seeks to deceive. So he is the god of this world and he’s powerful.

However. In our text, we are given a metaphor that is truly powerful. Be not deceived, or I’m sorry, be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, I’m gonna pause right here. We have a personal savior, but we also have a personal adversary. We have your adversary, the devil. He walks about like a roaring lion. A lion. Well, the term lion is used over 150 times in the Bible.

It’s used for real symbolic metaphor for Satan, for Christ, Revelation 5.5 on that. But the Bible refers to lions. In so many ways, we got Daniel and the lion’s den. We’ve got Samson killed the lion with his bare hands. We’ve got David protecting his sheep and killing a lion. There is a prophecy concerning lions in Isaiah chapter 11 and verse six that says, the lion will eat straw like an ox and rest next to lambs where there are children. So there will be a taming of the lion.

Now, I know that some would say that’s not literal. I tend to take things literal unless forced otherwise. And I think that in that context, he’s talking about the gloriousness of the kingdom. And I think there’s going to be a tremendous change in what a lion physically, what lions eat and how they are now and what they will be in the new kingdom. But it isn’t just a lion. And this is not just a biology lesson. Here it says he is a roaring lion.

And I want us to spend a few moments to think about Satan. Maybe to broaden this up just a little bit and to help us to maybe know and understand our adversary a little bit better. And this is all preparatory for next week when what is supposed to be our response in the text. And what I would like to do is to have you hear a roar. Recently, I was up at fear.

And in this particular case, it was a tiger. But the lion is actually only worse. We actually had some from the Seminole Indian Reservation that’s up in North Lakeland, miles away. Because you can hear a lion’s roar five miles. And they called the police. And the owner had to go back home, who works at the hospital. Because we think there’s a lion in our neighborhood. And she said, well, yeah, there is. But it’s in a cage. big cage and a very powerful, strong cage. But I want us to consider the roar of a lion. And I’d like for you to hear the roar of the lion. Would you? Well, for sake of time, I can’t go through all these roars and go turn to all the passages.

The first, chronologically, was the roar of Satan in the taking and in his fall before Adam and Eve fell. And he took angels with him, because his fall had to come first. And then there was the roar of Satan. In the garden, this lion is seeking to devour. And in the book of Genesis, Chapter three, verse one. Now the serpent, he was forming as a snake at that time, was more cunning than any beast in the field which the Lord God had made. And this is the first words, or the first roar of Satan.

And he said to the woman, this is our adversary, this is our opponent, and he dare with like no history here, you know, length of time. And he dares to misquote God. The sovereign, holy one, immortal, invisible, God only wise. Has God indeed said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Roar! Bold-faced lie and the father of lies. seeking to devour God image bearers before there’s any children, before there’s anyone else but a man and a woman, a husband and a wife. And he goes for the juggler vein to destroy, to oppose. He is wicked. He roared in the garden. Well, then, of course, we all know how he roared in the book of Job. Very old book. Some believe it is actually during the patriarchal time and very, very early.

But listen to the roar of Satan here. In Job chapter one, and we’ll pick up the reading of verse six. Now, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came among them. And the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come?

Walking to and fro, seeking whom to devour. In other words, that is not in the text in Job, but that is, where do you come from? So Satan answered and said to him, from going to and fro on the earth. and from walking back and forth on it. Doing what? Looking for people to devour them spiritually.

And the Lord said to Satan, have you considered my servant Job, that there’s none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? So Satan answered the Lord. This roar is putrefying. Does Job fear God for nothing?

Have you not made a hedge about him and around his house and around all that he has on every side? You have blessed the works of his hand, his possessions, and the increase of the land. But now stretch out your hand and touch all that he has, and he will surely curse you to your face. It’s an adversary to God, to Job, to all believers, A hateful enemy. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, all that he has is in your power. Only do not lay a hand on his person. So Satan went out from the presence of the Lord. And we all know how that his roaring continued. But what did the roaring look like? He roared.

And there was a day when the sons and daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and a messenger came to Job and said, the oxen were plowing and the donkeys beside them, and when the Sabbateans raided them and took them away, indeed, they have killed the servants and the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you. He roared and brought destruction. And yet while he was still speaking another one came in and he roars again, fire of God from heaven burned all the sheep and the servants and consumed them and I alone have come to escape to tell you. He roars again while he was still speaking another came and said the Chaldeans formed three bands and raided the camels and took them away. Yes and killed the servants with the edge of the sword and I alone have escaped to sell you.

He roars again. And while he was still speaking, another also came. Your sons and daughters are eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house. And suddenly a great wind came from across the wilderness and struck the four corners of the house and it fell on the young people, your children, and they are dead. And I alone have escaped to tell you. The lion roared. And look at the the mess, the death, the destruction. He’s our adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.

Written in a book to remind the early believers in that first century, persecution and suffering is real. And you better be prepared for it. We live in such a soft age, at least here in our country, not everywhere in the world, but in our country, and we tend to be lulled to sleep. Well, we know then that if we continue on in the book of Job, where this becomes quite clear, look at chapter two, verse one, and again, there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan came among them to present himself before the Lord, and the Lord said to Satan, from where do you come?

He going to and fro in the earth, walking back and forth, seeking whom I may devour. And the Lord said, have you considered my servant, Job? He’s a blameless man, upright, one who fears God and shuns evil, and still he holds fast to the integrity, although you incited me against him to destroy him without a cause. So Satan roars and says to God, skin for skin, yes, all that a man has he will give for his life, but stretch out your hand now and touch his bones and his flesh and he will surely curse you to your face. The roar of our adversary. The Lord said, behold, he’s in your hand, but spares the life.

Now, I’m going through an awful lot of terrible things that’s happening in the book of Job, but please note, it’s all by the permission of God who controls everything. Why do the righteous suffer? Well, for the glory of God. And it’s for our faithfulness to be proven to him. And the Lord said to Satan, behold, he’s in your hands, but spares life.

So he goes out. And as we know that he got painful boils from the sole of his foot to the crown of his head. And it’s a disgusting thing that he has to do. And his wife turns against him, curse God and die. And he then says, and then eventually in all this, God’s testimony is Job did not sin with his lips. Now, that’ll be his response. It will be found in what we’ll look at next week. But we see the roar of Satan in the life of Job. And there’s others.

Revelation 12, verse 1, the nation of Israel, and it talks about how the dragon is there when the woman is about to ready to give birth to the children. And Satan roars after the Magi report, where is he that is born king of the Jews? And when he perceives that they mocked him, the lion roars and baby boys die, two years old and under. And there is blood flowing in Israel. And they are crying, moms, because the lion is seeking whom he may devour, trying to get a baby Jesus. The lion roars at Jesus in the temptation.

Aren’t you hungry? You’ve been fasting 40 days, 40 nights. Take these stones, make them bread. Roar! Yeah. And he responds with, no, the word of God. And he goes through those three temptations. The lion was roaring, but he fulfilled all righteousness and did not sin.

The Jewish leaders, they would plot to go against him. And then they got Judas, who in Luke chapter 22, verse three, it says, and Satan entered Judas. And he roared, the guy I go up to and kiss, that’s the one you arrest. And we’ll get him there and we’ll beat him beyond recognition. We’ll pluck the hairs off of his face. We will have him scourged. And if he can live through that, let’s crucify him. Judas goes up to Jesus, kisses him. Friend, betrayest thou the son of man with a kiss? And the lion roared.

Well, right before that, Jesus had to tell Peter, who said, I’ll never deny you. He says, you know, Satan desires to sift you like wheat. And so we go into the trial and Peter, see, this is how Satan can influence believers. He can’t indwell us. He entered Judas. He didn’t enter Peter. But think of what he got Peter to do. Aren’t you one of those, his disciples? I don’t know the man.

Blankety, blankety, blank, as it says, he cursed. Satan so influenced Peter, the lion roars and we get denials. He is our adversary, our opponent. Upon the cross, when Jesus dies and he cries out those words, the Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? That was the roar of the lion of the tribe of Judah, but it was all because of what was the end result of the lion. Our adversary was out to bring destruction. The believers, later on, he roars with us.

Revelation chapter 12, verse 17, it talks about how that this, The beast and Satan is out for our destruction. Ephesians 6, we wrestle not against flesh and blood that I’ve already made mention of. In all of this, we learn we have a personal adversary who is intimidating, roaring.

By the way, it didn’t happen to be the lion, but it was a tiger that so roared at me and pounced upon the front of the cage to come at me. And I love animals, but the viciousness that I saw, I told them up there, I won’t go back unless I have at least a .357, a .44, maybe a .50. I was thinking cannon, but it’s hard to aim a big old cannon. Bazooka, maybe.

It is intimidating. It truly makes your liver quiver. And we have an enemy just like he prowls. He prowls and looks for weakness. He wants to devour. He wants a direct attack. He wants an ambush. This is the one who comes in to destroy marriages. That’s what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 7 about how that we are to show due benevolence between husbands and wives, but you can refrain, but then you need to go back unless Satan get the advantage because he’s looking for that. This is the one who comes in and wants to destroy congregations. He wants to destroy the testimony of pastors, of elders, of deacons, of church members.

It’s church tradition, and however, most people believe that this is true, that the author of 1 Peter, Peter himself, he told us about the roar of this lion. That included the fact he saw his own wife crucified. And as she was dying on a crucifixion cross for her faith, Peter cried out, quote, remember the Lord. And then he was crucified upside down.

The lion roared. This is our enemy. Brethren. Those two words, be sober, be vigilant. That’s two of the admonitions. There’s a lot more. We’ll consider them next week. But our adversary is out for our destruction. Don’t ever downplay that. He is real. But praise be unto God. Our savior is greater. Greater is he that is in us. than he that is in the world. Be encouraged, be encouraged, but be warned because we need this warning.

Would you stand with me tonight as we close? Our Father in heaven, I can’t imagine what it was like for Peter to hear those words, Peter, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat. But don’t worry, I have prayed for you and you will persevere through it. What precious words from the Savior, but what scary words to come from his mouth that this roaring lion, intimidating, prowling, wants to sink his teeth in you.

Our Father, cause us to be faithful. Cause us to live by faith, not by sight. And Father, I pray that we might know truly the victory that is found in the finished work of our Savior as we claim that by faith. Use us for your glory this week and help us to resist the devil and he will flee from us. For we pray these things in Jesus’ powerful name, amen.