Sovereign Over Persecution (part 1) - [1 Peter 5:6-14]

Bethlehem Bible Church

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You know, we live, I think we live in a very strange world, and it's certainly an evil, wicked and perverse world.

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Recently I read where Spain is planning to extend human rights to apes.

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In the next few months, they're actually going to legalize that. Gorillas, champagnes, orangutans and bonobos, which sadly my education doesn't even stretch to let me know what that is,

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I don't know. But they will be granted the rights to life, liberty and freedom from physical and psychological torture.

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How long before it is men and women behind the bars at the zoo? Why would they do something like that?

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Well, one of the prime movers behind this is a man named Pete Singer, who's an ethicist at Princeton who thinks that babies ought to be able to be put to death up to the age of two or until they have their own sense of personhood that they are completely dispensable.

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But he wants to elevate apes, monkeys, why?

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Because if we are truly descendant from them, if we are just animals just as the monkeys are, then there really are no moral lines that need to be drawn.

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We can do whatever we want. This is a world at war with the truth.

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Just a few days ago at the Olympics, a few Americans who identified themselves as Christians were deported from China because they unfurled a banner at Tiananmen Square that read,

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Jesus is the king. They don't have any problem with religious freedom as long as you don't try to utilize it.

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Then this from April 18th, 2008, four Christian teachers, two of them converts from Islam, were murdered by Islamic militants last

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Sunday. That was April 13th. This is in South Central Somalia. According to the

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British -based Barnabas Fund, et cetera, et cetera, two Somalis and two

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Kenyans were shot when militants stormed the school where the Christians were sleeping. Both Mr.

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Ali and Mr. Ahmed lived in the United Kingdom and were converts from Islam to Christianity.

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Mr. Ali returned to his hometown in 2004 to realize his lifelong dream of establishing a school.

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In his blog for supporters of the school, he expressed concern about nighttime raids by militant fighters in his last posting on March 30th.

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A spokesman for the Islamist group responsible for the attack on the town claimed that the killings were not premeditated, but that the four teachers had been caught in crossfire while they were sleeping in their school.

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This group in Britain says this, there are a tiny number of Somali converts to Christianity living in Somalia, many of whom have been murdered in recent years by Islamic radicals who have vowed to wipe out

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Somali Christians. Recent fighting between Somali Islamic militias and Ethiopia has heightened anti -Christian feelings as there is a long conflict or long history of conflict between Somalis who have historically all been

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Muslim and Ethiopians who have historically all been Christians. Somali converts from Islam to Christianity are especially at risk at this moment in time.

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Just kind of setting the table, this is the world, I mean we live in a little idyllic slice of Massachusetts where we have no problems at all.

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Everybody loves Christians, unless you unfurl a banner that Jesus is king and then

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I don't suppose they could deport you, but they certainly would not appreciate it very much. Peter wrote this letter to encourage

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Christians who were facing persecution and whose persecution was about to get worse.

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And I think this again, I've said this over and over again, I find this an incredibly practical book.

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Why? Because we live in a world that hates Christianity and is becoming increasingly vocal about it.

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Please turn to 1 Peter chapter 5. We're going to be in just the end of the book here, 1

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Peter chapter 5 verses 6 to 14. We're going to be looking at this this week and next week.

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It's going to be my first two -parter where I actually go through a book and get a two -part message,

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I'm pretty excited about that. 1 Peter chapter 5 verses 6 to 14.

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Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you at the proper time, casting all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

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Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

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But resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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After you have suffered for a little while, the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself perfect, confirm, strengthen, and establish you.

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To him be dominion forever and ever, amen. Through Silvanus, our faithful brother, for so I regard him,

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I have written to you briefly, exhorting and testifying that this is the true grace of God.

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Stand firm in it. She who is in Babylon, chosen together with you, sends you greetings, and so does my son

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Mark. Greet one another with a kiss of love. Peace be to you all who are in Christ.

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This morning and next week, I want you to see two commands, two commands. That's all, and all that, just two commands from our text, so that you will live your life in full submission to God, without regard to your circumstances.

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I'm going to show you two keys to a life lived in peace and harmony with the will of the

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God who saved you, rather than struggling against him, complaining against him.

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What could be more futile than resisting the will of God?

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As Paul says in Romans 9, who resists his will? The answer is no one. Let me ask you this, do you want to be miserable?

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Try to improve on what the Lord has designed for you. Command number one, and of course

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I've got sub points, otherwise how can you stretch two points into two weeks? It's easy. Command number one, submit to your sovereign.

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Submit to your sovereign, and I have three realities to help you do that. Submit to your sovereign. First reality, have an attitude of humility.

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Look at verse six, therefore humble yourselves. The whole point that Peter has been making in the previous set of verses is the need for humility, a willingness to submit to different institutions, to the government, to your boss, even if he's unreasonable.

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And keep in mind again, the government at the time of Peter was not some great government, this was Nero, who would eventually use

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Christians as torches, and start a severe persecution of Christians.

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We're even told in 1 Peter to endure wrongful persecution, why? It's just the way that Jesus did.

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We're to honor Christ in all that we do. If you have a bad husband and you're a believer, as a wife you're supposed to submit to him.

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If you have a wife who's an unbeliever, you're supposed to love her sacrificially.

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You're supposed to live with her in an understanding way. All these things are to submit, not directly to the government, although that's what we do, but we submit to God.

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We want to please Him. We want to honor the sacrifice of Christ. We want to show that the purchase of God, by sending

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His Son to die in our place, was not in vain. We live a different life from everyone else.

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And over and over again, Peter has instructed Christians to honor the work of Christ by submitting to the will of their

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Father. In just the preceding verse, in verse 5, Peter instructed his readers to put on humility with regard to one another.

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Basically, he gave the same instruction Paul did. Philippians, when he said that we should consider one another more important than ourselves, to genuinely care for one another.

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And the Spirit of God, through Peter, has a message for each one of you. You're not as important as you think you are, and you need to live in light of that.

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Think about it. Where in Scripture do we ever read, demand others respect you?

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How about this one? Have you ever read this anywhere? Don't give someone respect unless they give it to you.

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How about this one? More of a New Testament bent. This church is not meeting my needs.

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One famous author said, Christianity is, quote, not about you.

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And then he went on for a few hundred pages to explain how it really is about you. But the

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Bible never does that. The Bible is always crystal clear. It's not about you.

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It's about other people secondarily, and it's about the Lord primarily. We are commanded to work at unity, not to consider ourselves important, but others important.

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We're to work for the unity of the body. We're to serve others. We're to humble ourselves. And that idea in 1

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Peter 5, verse 6 of humble yourselves, the therefore just refers to everything that went previous to it.

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The idea in humble yourselves doesn't really lend itself to a long process.

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It's not like, OK, this morning I got the message. I need to start working on humility.

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I've got a program, and I've laid it out. In three years, I will arrive.

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It's not the idea at all. It's a command, and it demands action now. It's a call to look at yourself now and look at the areas where you fall short and change.

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You need to think rightly of yourself now. You don't have the right to expect things to get better, not even in your own life.

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You have the obligation to Christ to humble yourself, to behave rightly, to think rightly about others, to think rightly about yourself.

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And specifically in this context, the idea, as we're going to see, is that God is not obligated to remove the difficulties from your life.

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We need to humble ourselves. Secondly, it is futile to resist.

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Again, look at verse 6. Therefore, humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God.

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What is the mighty hand of God? Well, if we look throughout the scriptures, we would see that, first of all, does

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God have a hand? No, as opposed to some teachers that will say, you know, God measures the span of his hands or the heavens by the span of his hands.

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Therefore, they interpret it to mean that he's six feet tall, he has blue eyes, he weighs about 180 pounds, and on and on they go.

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This is an anthropomorphism. This is just a way of explaining the power of God in a way that we'll think, okay,

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I get it, I understand it, I grasp it. And the psalmist understood that. Listen to some of these quotes from the

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Psalms. Psalm 74, 11. Why do you withdraw your hand?

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I mean, here he is in a situation where the psalmist is under persecution, the enemies of Israel are all around, and he says, why do you withdraw your hand?

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Even your right hand. From within your bosom, destroy them. The power of God's hand, why did you withdraw it?

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Why not destroy my enemies? Psalm 138, 7. Though I walk in the midst of trouble, you will revive me.

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You will stretch forth your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and your right hand will save me.

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Job 42, 2. Job writes, I know that you can do all things and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted.

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It's this idea of the all -powerful God. Ephesians 1, 11 says that God works all things according to the counsel of his will.

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So this picture of the all -powerful hand that we are to submit to, think about it.

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If you don't want to submit to the will of God, and he's all -powerful, guess what? You lose.

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And can I just say something? It's not humility to say, okay, I don't like where I am, but you know what?

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If that's the way it has to be, I'll just take my lumps. That's not humility.

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Humility in light of God's sovereign hand is this. I do not fully understand this.

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I may not even like it sometimes, but I know God is God and I am not.

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And I know that he's working out everything for my good, even if I can't comprehend it. Commentator Hebert puts it this way,

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Christians are to submit to God's dealing with them as part of his program of discipline, purification, and training of his family members.

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This brings up images from Hebrews, but when you were growing up, did you always like what your parents told you?

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Did you always like the way they disciplined you? Did you always like the things that they let you do and the things that they didn't let you do?

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How much more, when God brings things into your life, do you say, you know what? I don't really like this.

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But I know that God cares for me. Can I just tell you something? And I may have said this before. God loves you more than you love you because you'll do things that are not good for you.

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He'll never do anything that's not good for you. Everything that he brings into your life is absolutely the best thing that could be in your life.

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Why? Because God has brought it to pass. He is shaping you, conforming you, molding you into the image of his son.

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Third, his timing is perfect. His timing is perfect.

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Again, look at verse 6, that he may exalt you at the proper time.

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As with so much of Peter's letter, he gives the reason for humbling yourself under the mighty hand of God.

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He uses a hynna clause, a purpose clause. It's a Greek word, H -I -N -A, and it shows a purpose.

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Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, and he says, here's why. I'm going to give you the reason why.

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So that would be another way to translate that. For the purpose of that he may exalt you at the proper time.

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I mean, again, I've said this. Peter is not the most original guy, and that's great. This is almost like a paraphrase of what

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Jesus said, Matthew 23, 12. Listen, whoever exalts himself shall be humbled.

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And whoever humbles himself shall be exalted. Lift it up. Exalt it at the proper time.

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And there are many things that we would like to have done on our schedule. I mean,

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I don't remember the last time I had somebody call me at home and say, you know what, Pastor Steve, this is coming into my life, and I know this obstacle is exactly what

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I need in my life right now, and I just wanted to share that with you. Got a little praise report. Maybe I'll start getting those calls.

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I don't know. But our tendency is to think that we know what we need and when we need it.

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But his timing is not always ours. It may conflict with ours.

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And his mighty hand, his sovereign will, his providence always prevails.

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J. Adams says this, part of humility is willingness to patiently wait for things according to God's timetable.

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That phrase, at the proper time. In reality, in Greek, it's only two words. It's just in time.

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So why do I think I looked at almost every translation, every translation that's really a translation, and it basically had the same idea of in the proper time, at the right time, that sort of thing.

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Why? Because think about the stress, the way it's stressed that God is sovereignly in control here, and the implication of God's perfect timing is perfectly clear.

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Well, what of those who suffer even unto death? Those who are persecuted to the end, what about them?

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How do they get exalted? Let me just kind of detour here for a second.

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I have to tell you, I don't want to suffer. Pain is no friend of mine. I mean,

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I am like, you know, for a long time, I think I was the sole supporter of Advil, I mean,

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I just, I don't like pain. But when

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I think about being burned to death for translating the Bible, being run through with a sword for refusing to receive a false religion, for refusing to renounce

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Christ, or some other horrific death, if we went through Fox's Book of Martyrs, we would find horrible death after horrible death.

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Think about those men and women who died for the cause of Christ, and then what happened in the next second?

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Dead, horrible death, and then what? Eternity in the presence of Jesus Christ, your

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Lord and Savior. That's not a bad way to go, and that sums up the book of 1

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Peter. Suffering and persecution are coming, but unlike heaven, they will pass.

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Heaven's not going anywhere. You're going to heaven, and when you get there, you're not going to think one second about everything that you went through in this life.

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Get your eyes off your troubles. Keep your eyes focused on Christ and the prize that lies beyond.

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Either God is going to raise you, exalt you out of this difficulty in this world, in this time,

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He's going to exalt you, lift you up out of it, or ultimately, He'll do so in heaven, but it will be according to His will, not according to yours.

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Our second command, trust your sovereign, and I have nine reasons to trust them, and we're only going to go through a couple of them this morning.

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Trust your sovereign. Trust the sovereign God of the universe. Such an easy thing, you know, and I even titled the message

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Sovereign Over Persecution, and people are like, well, you know, sovereignty, sovereignty, sovereignty.

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If the Bible didn't talk about it so much, I wouldn't talk about it so much. God obviously likes it, and therefore, I love it.

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First reason that you should trust your sovereign is that He is your Father. What a great reason to trust

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Him. He has a special care and concern for you. What are we to do with our concerns, our worries, our troubles?

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Look at verse 7, casting all your anxiety on Him. When we know, when we not just intellectually assent, but when we live from the heart that God is sovereign, that His timing for everything is perfect,

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I don't think we'll have much of anxiety, I don't think we'll have many cares, but we still could have some.

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But at its root, what is anxiety? What is worry?

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What is fear? All these things can be categorized as anxiety. The Greek word anxiety, discontentment, disappointment, discouragement, sadness, where all those things ultimately they are sin.

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Why? Because they say, you know what? I'm not going to humble myself under God's mighty hand.

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I am going to struggle. I'm going to complain. I'm going to be discouraged. I'm not going to rest in you.

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And you know something? We all have those feelings from time to time. But ultimately, they are nothing more than a failure to rest completely in the providence of God, to trust

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Him completely. And Peter commands, when he says that we cast them, he doesn't mean to throw them over our shoulder, he means to hand over, to say, here are all my troubles, my worries, my anxieties, the things that make me afraid.

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Give them all over to God. When we think about this rightly, you know, many times if somebody comes to us, again,

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I don't think we get too many praise reports running around, sometimes we do. There's a lot of burden sharing, which is good.

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And thankfully, we're not all running around with the Al Mohler biblical counseling methodology. I love it.

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It's pretty funny. That's why I'm using it. But he says, here's what he goes through whenever he's doing biblical counseling.

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He says, what is your problem? That's his first question. I mean,

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I can't see any of these sessions lasting more than five minutes. That's the first question. Number two, what does the

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Bible say about your problem? And number three, what are we doing here?

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That pretty much clears it up, doesn't it? Here's your problem. Here's what the Bible says about it. What are we still doing here?

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Go and do it. And Peter is saying, listen, this is my paraphrase.

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Listen, I just told you God is in control, that he will lift you out of your difficulty when the time is perfect.

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But if you still have worries, give them over to your sovereign God. Why?

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7B, because or since he cares for you. That's a great comfort in a time of trial.

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One commentator puts it this way. It is the belief, what separates, talking about what separates

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Christianity from other religions, he says, it is the belief that God cares, that marks off Christianity from all other religions, which under all varieties of form are occupied with the task of making

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God care, of awakening by sacrifice or prayer or act the slumbering interest of the deity.

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And that's right. You can look at any religion and what are they worried about? They're worried about making him happy, about pleasing him in some way.

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But our God neither sleeps nor slumbers. And he is perfectly satisfied, not in what we do, but in what

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Christ did. And this tells us, this verse tells us that God has an inherent interest in his children.

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He is not indifferent. He is not far off. He is not remote. He is causing all things to work for good to those who love him and are called according to his purpose, his children.

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Jesus said this in Matthew 6, for this reason, I say to you in the Sermon on the Mount, which

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I think we'll get to this, I say to you, do not be worried about your life as to what you will eat or what you will drink, nor for your body as to what you will put on, what you will put on.

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Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air that they do not sow nor reap nor gather into barns.

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And yet your heavenly father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they?

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And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? And why are you worried about clothing?

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Observe how the lilies of the field grow. They do not toil, nor do they spin. Yet I say to you that not even

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Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. But if God so clothes the clothes, the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, will he not much more clothe you, you of little faith?

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Do not worry then saying, what will we eat or what will we drink or what will we wear for clothing?

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For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things. For your heavenly father knows that you need all these things.

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But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you.

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And Peter just takes it to the next level. He says, listen, not only should you not worry about what you're going to eat, what you're going to wear, where you're going to live, but don't worry about persecution.

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Don't worry about trouble. God is in control. The father's care for his children is evident.

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But sometimes we choose to ignore that. We put it off. We put it out of our minds. If your father has saved you, will he then desert you?

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Obviously not. And what greater comfort comfort is there than the sovereign creator of the universe cares for you and has called you to be his son or daughter has adopted you.

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That's the first reason. The second reason to trust your sovereign. He is greater than your enemy. He is greater than your enemy.

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I'd like you to note that, yes, he is sovereign. But you also have responsibilities.

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God is sovereign. Man has responsibilities. If you don't believe me, let's read the text. Verse eight, be of sober spirit.

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Be on the alert. Again, Peter gives us commands. Be of sober spirit. Be on the alert.

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Kenyon writes, Peter is careful to maintain the balance between casting our care upon him and the necessity for being sober and vigilant in our pilgrimage.

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In other words, we're not supposed to let go and let God and just not worry about anything. Yes, we are to give our cares and our concerns over to him.

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But we don't just then step back and say, well, I can't do anything. We can do something.

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We can be a sober spirit. We can be on the alert. It is also fair to say that if we looked at this, the idea would be one of vigilance and vigilance is said is the price of freedom.

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We have spiritual freedom. We must be spiritually vigilant. Christians are to be self -controlled or sober and alert, meaning that we are to look at the world as it really is.

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Fallen, sinful, and in the grasp of the prince of this world, Satan himself.

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There is a need for spiritual alertness. Why? Because there is a world system and a multitude of false teachers of cults who would lead you astray if they could.

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You have to be on the alert. You have to be at the ready. You have to be watchful. You also need to acknowledge you have responsibilities, but you also need to know that your enemy is fierce.

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Again, verse eight, your adversary, the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

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Now, when I think about that picture, Satan roaring, running around the world looking for someone to devour.

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It's a little scary. If we thought about the power of Satan rightly, we might not sleep much.

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Satan is certainly no one to be trifled with. And what's the typical world view, the kind of Star Wars view?

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You know, that there's a good side, that there's a bad side, there's an eternal struggle, and that everything will be fine as long as good is not vanquished.

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But the Bible does not speak of an impersonal good or an impersonal evil. Note what

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Peter says there. The devil is your adversary. He is opposed to you.

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A little scary. But isn't he the enemy of God? Yes, but he's your enemy as well.

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And there are some important truths about Satan that we need to examine because we hear a lot of misinformation and disinformation about him.

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First, he is not omnipresent. Satan is not every place at one time.

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Look at the text. Says he prowls around. It doesn't say, like in Psalm 139 when it talks about God, that there's no place to go to flee from him.

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Omnipresence is an attribute of God and God alone, not of Satan.

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Satan is a created being. Sometimes people say, and you know, maybe with even good intentions,

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Satan is attacking me. Satan is doing this. Satan is doing that. I doubt it. There are 6 billion people on the world.

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The odds of him being focused on you and you alone, pretty slim. He's got a busy schedule. He's running all over the place.

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And he cannot possibly wreak havoc on every single believer. What else is true about him?

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Not only is he not omnipresent, he's in one area at a time, one place at a time. Also, he cannot take up residence in believers.

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Let me say that again. He cannot take up residence in believers. And I want to say that again, because many

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Christian teachers today say that they have to cast demons out of believers.

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They claim to be delivering Christians from demon possession, or breaking them free from the bondage of demons.

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Why? Why is that? I'll tell you why,

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I think, in a few minutes. But Paul clearly said that it could not happen. This cannot happen.

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2 Corinthians 6, you don't have to turn there, verses 14 to 16. This is usually used about marriage.

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But that's really not the context. But there are a whole variety of applications. But listen to this.

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Do not be bound together with unbelievers. Do not work in a spiritual enterprise, is the idea.

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Together with unbelievers. For what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness?

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Or what fellowship has light with darkness? And the answer is none whatsoever. Or what harmony, what peace, what accord is there between Christ and Belial?

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Or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols?

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For we, listen to this, for we are the temple of the living God. We are the place where the living

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God takes up residence. Just as God said, I will dwell in them, and walk among them, and I will be their

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God, and they shall be my people. So my question is, can Satan and or his demons also take up residence where God resides?

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If Christ doesn't dwell you, if the Holy Spirit doesn't dwell you, do they make room for demons? This says no.

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They don't work in conjunction. That Jesus doesn't slide over. That the Holy Spirit doesn't make way for demons.

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Satan and Christ are like oil and water, only infinitely more.

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They don't mix. The Holy Spirit takes up residence with you, and he does not share his abode with Satan or demons.

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Think about what Jesus said. Did he not say that whom he set free would be free indeed?

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Free from what? Free from the presence and power of sin, yes, but not from demonic possession.

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I think that's wrong. I think if you've been set free by Christ, you are no longer subject to demonic possession.

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And in many cases, I think the reason why people teach this, I think the reason people practice this, there was a church near the one we went to in Los Angeles.

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It was a huge church, and they had these deliverance ministries. They had flyers all over the place, and they would literally put hands on people and cast out demons out of alleged believers.

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They would even sometimes name the demons. And I'm convinced that sometimes this is but a fig leaf to disguise the sins of believers, the weaknesses of believers.

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They don't, they can't really understand why they don't do the things they want to do, and why they do the things they don't want to do.

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They don't understand Romans 7 rightly. They conclude, therefore, it must be a demon, and that demon has to be cast out.

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People don't like church discipline. And you know what? This whole casting out demons thing is a whole lot more cool than church discipline.

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It's more fun. Let me tell you something else I don't believe Satan does. I don't believe

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Satan whispers in our ear. I don't think he has to. The Bible makes it clear that we sin on our own.

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What did James say? Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself does not tempt anyone.

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And here's the key point, verse 14, but each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by Satan. Oh, wait, by his own lust.

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Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.

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There is no Satan in all of that. Still, these evangelical teachers want to explain a pattern of sin in a

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Christian's life by calling it demonic possession. Another example, was

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John wrong when he wrote under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, 1 John 2, 4, the one who says,

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I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

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Well, maybe what he should have said, if he understood this rightly, is he'd say something like, the one who says,

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I have come to know him and does not keep his commandments is filled with demons and needs to have them cast out.

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That's not what the Bible says. If demonic possession of believers were possible, would

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Paul not have told Timothy, Titus, when he was instructing them in the pastoral epistles, or one of the churches that he wrote to and said, these are the things that you guys need to work on.

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Would he have not said, here, by the way, I know you guys have some demonically afflicted believers, and here's how to cast those demons out of them?

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He never did that. As Luther said,

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Martin Luther said, the devil is God's devil. Satan, even in his rebellion, even in his hatred of God and his hatred for believers, his hatred of the truth, brings about the perfect will of God.

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And you say, how is that? Because he doesn't get to do anything God doesn't design, that God doesn't want him to do.

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He came and sought permission to go after Job. He actually, the

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Lord enticed him to go after Job. He wanted to sift

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Peter, and what was the response to that? Jesus prayed for him. Satan is described as the prince of this world, and the whole world system is under his control, but he is not inside of believers.

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He cannot control them. Does he have influence on us? Yes. Because he has influence on the whole world.

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I mean, when we see things like apes being declared people, we know there are things wrong, and that is the influence of Satan.

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Satan cannot be bound today. There are groups running around binding Satan and binding demons, but he cannot be bound.

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We have, again, we have no instruction for binding. We have, there are, there are descriptions of the casting out of demons.

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Jesus did it. He gave his disciples authority to do it, but we have no ongoing revelation, instruction on how to do that.

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And when I say he cannot be bound today, well, think about it. If you could, I always like this. I think, well, if we're going to bind

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Satan now, why would we have to bind him next week? Or why would we have to bind him tomorrow? If we're casting out demons now, why would we, you know, where do they come from?

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And how do they get back in? And how does Satan get loose?

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You know, is there like a time expiration on those things? You know, well, when we bind Satan, it's only for three hours.

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And after that, you have to do it all over again. People are operating,

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I think they mean well, but there is no biblical warrant. There is no biblical support for what they do.

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In Revelation chapter 20, verses one to three, we can see how

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Satan will be bound. And it is the Lord who's going to send an angel to do the job.

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I mean, if the Archangel Michael didn't want to wrestle with Satan, why would we want to?

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But God is going to send an angel to bind Satan, and he will be bound. Here's the secret.

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Let me just let you in on the inside scoop. God is going to destroy this world. That's why

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I'm not really much of an environmentalist. He's going to create a new heavens and a new earth without sin.

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And he's going to cast Satan into the lake of fire and brimstone. And our text in 1

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Peter chapter five portrays Satan, our opponent, our adversary as a vicious hunter.

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That's the idea that he's stalking about like a roaring lion. He is literally looking to gulp down, really destroy someone.

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And history is filled with Satan attacking the people of God. And you say, well, how so? I don't read about Satan attacking people.

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And you just said he couldn't. Well, it is Satan and his minions who are behind the persecution of God's people.

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They hate God. They can't get at God. So what do they do? They take it out on his people.

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They go out to harm his people. Put it another way. You love the truth.

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How does Satan feel about the truth? He hates it. He loves evil.

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I mean, if you ever watch the news and you see the unspeakable things that are done, you say, well, who could possibly,

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A, want to do that? And B, think that's a good thing. Satan does. Satan does.

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If you think of the worst things that ever happen, those are his greatest delights.

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The more perverse and evil and wicked it is, the more he enjoys it. He hates all that is good and godly.

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That's Satan. That's your adversary. And he is powerful. So what do you do?

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Peter tells us, but resist him firm in your faith.

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Can I just tell you right now that your knowledge of the truth is your best weapon? Believers are to resist, which means to oppose him, to struggle against him.

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One commentator puts it this way. Scripture urges believers to flee from various evils, but nowhere are they advised to flee from the devil.

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They're told to resist him. James told believers to resist the devil. And then what? Flee? No, he said the devil would flee when resisted.

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Why? Because he's got other things to do. He's got other fish to fry. He's got other believers to try and devour, other people to try and devour.

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How do you resist him? By having what the

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Greek would almost imply is stereo faith. Stereo. Well, the Greek word is actually stereoi, however you say it.

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I'm not... My Greek is... Reading it, pronouncing it is not all that great. But stereoi, from which we get stereo.

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Because it is a balanced sound from two speakers. And this Greek word pictures something that is solid, immovable, firm, balanced.

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And the concept of being firm in the faith is to have a balanced knowledge of the truth.

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And you say, well, what good is that? Well, how is it that Satan attacks? By presenting lies, as he did with Eve in the garden, as he did with the

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Lord himself when he tempted him. He twists the truth. He twists scripture.

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He presents a false picture. So how do you defend against that? By knowing the truth.

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Well, what did Jesus do? Think about it as he was tempted.

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He could have simply banished Satan. He's God. He could have said, get lost, take a hike, get out of here.

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But he didn't do that. He refuted Satan with scripture. And I want to just draw your attention again to 1

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Peter 5, there in verse 9. Because it says, stand firm in the faith, not stand firm in your faith.

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It is the objective truth, not your subjective knowledge, but the once for all delivered faith that was given to the saints.

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It is the objective truth of God. Jesus Christ was born, lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was resurrected on the third day, and everything that goes with it.

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You are a sinner saved by grace alone. All those truths are what will defend you against the attacks of Satan.

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Scripture, scriptural truths. One man says this, victory is not assured by the personal tenacity by which we cling to our personal beliefs.

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Victory lies in adhering to the work of Christ on the cross, where he defeated the devil. It's not because I believe,

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I believe, I believe. It's because of what Jesus did. It's what he accomplished. He defeated the devil.

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So the question really comes down to, do you know the gospel? Could you give the gospel?

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Can you repeat it when falsehood comes your way? Can you say, well, I know that's not true because the

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Bible says thus and such. One good question, and I think it's something great that the kids did,

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I think, in VBS this year, is they learned what the armor of God is. And this is what he's calling us to.

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He's calling us to be prepared, to be ready. It's really a picture of Ephesians chapter 6.

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Let me just read that. Finally, be strong in the

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Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the full armor of God so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil.

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Does that sound familiar? For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, and against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.

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Therefore, take up the full armor of God so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, go into battle, and having done everything to stand firm.

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Stand firm, therefore, having girded your loins with truth and having put on the breastplate of righteousness and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace.

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In addition to all, taking up the shield of faith with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit, which is the word of God.

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Listen, the more you know, the more the truth is at the front of your mind, on the tip of your tongue, as far, you know, just surrounding you, enveloping you, you are so filled with the truth that when, you know, it's like when they cut you, the

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Bible comes out. That's the idea. If you are in that state when the persecution comes, when the attacks of Satan come, when the falsehoods come, you will reject them utterly.

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Why? Because you know the truth. Also, you are not alone in your suffering.

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You say, well, how's that comfort? We'll get to that. But look at verse 9 again. Knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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Listen, as I even read, you know, we're talking about China. We're talking about Spain.

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We're talking about Africa, all around the world. Satan is actively controlling the world system, bringing about persecution on Christians, subverting the truth every chance he has.

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So these same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world.

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You know, when you meet, when you travel, when you meet like -minded believers, it's always a source of great joy.

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And in this context, Peter encourages his readers scattered around the ancient world, not with the promise of face -to -face fellowship, but with the promise of shared suffering.

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Shared suffering, that's supposed to make us feel better. Kistemacher said this,

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Christian men and women throughout the world are suffering for the sake of Christ. Because of the fellowship of these saints, this information should be heartening to the readers and should not surprise them.

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Why is that heartening? Why is that heartening?

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Well, because we're not alone. We serve the same Lord. We love the same things.

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And I personally, I am encouraged when I read these stories. Why? Because I think, oh, to have the faith to live through those things, to go to sleep in a school, not knowing if I'll wake up in the morning, to have the faith to suffer, not because I'm a dope, but because the truth is worth suffering for.

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The world hates us. Jesus said that. The world will hate you just as it hated me.

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And because it hates believers everywhere, just like Satan wants to destroy them.

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And some believers are persecuted more, some less. Some are discriminated against in subtle ways.

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Maybe they don't get a job that they want. Maybe they have to pay more for something.

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But some are beaten. Some are jailed. Some are tortured. Some are even killed. And doesn't that bring sorrow to you?

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I remember several years ago, just reading about in India, Christian missionaries who were burned to death, a father and son and their vehicle.

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And it was one of these great religions of the world, the Hindus, Hindu fundamentalists, who burned them to death.

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Maybe sad. But at the same time, it thrills my soul and it should thrill yours to know that such faith exists.

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It encourages us to see the Lord's strength in believers to the point where they can undergo these things.

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Two commands found in these verses. First, submit to your sovereign. Three realities. First, have an attitude of humility.

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Second, it is futile to resist the sovereign hand of God. Third, God's time is perfect.

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Second command, trust your sovereign. Nine reasons. First reason, he is your father. Second reason, he is greater than your enemy.

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Listen, if God is not greater than Satan, if Satan somehow is outside of God's control and God really doesn't know what

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Satan's going to do, if Satan is a true rebel who is completely out of the grasp of God and there's nothing he can do about it, then how can you trust

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God? Maybe God can't do the things he says he can. Maybe he won't win in the end.

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That's not the God of the Bible. Back in the

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Old Testament, Isaiah, God said, listen, from the beginning, I've told you things that haven't happened yet and I brought them to pass.

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That same God has told us in the end of this book that he wins. In the end,

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Satan is cast into the pit. He's not overthrown. He doesn't overthrow God. We can trust

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God because he is greater than our enemy. Let me ask you, do you humbly submit to God's mighty hand?

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Meaning submitting not in a complaining, I don't know why this is happening to me kind of way, but in a true, submissive, humble heart, knowing that God loves you and cares for you.

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Do you cast all your anxieties upon him? Do you trust him completely? Do you not only know intellectually that, yes,

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I am a son or daughter of God, but he really cares for me. He really has my best in his heart.

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God is sovereign when things are as we desire and when they are not. He is sovereign when apes are given human rights, when persecution and even murder is visited upon his people.

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He has brought all this to pass so that we, as his children, might properly value the heavenly prize.

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Let's pray. Our Father and our

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God, Lord, we are reminded yet again of your sovereignty and that this is not some cold, heartless doctrine that turns us into automatons.

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But it is the truth by where you reveal yourself to be a loving, compassionate father who brings both good and bad into our lives for our good, working all things together for good.

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Because you love us, you care so much that you sent your son into this world to suffer a brutal death at the hands of wicked and godless men.

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So that you could forgive our sins, our failures. Father, we have many. Were it not for the grace of God, who could stand?

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And yet many do. You give them the grace and the strength to undergo great persecution, to preach the truth, to spread the truth of the gospel throughout the world.

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That your name might be exalted, that Christ might be magnified and that your spirit might be unleashed, as it were, through your word on every continent, to every people group on the face of this planet.

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Lord, we rejoice in that. Father, make us a people that submit joyfully to everything that comes from your hand, who trust you completely and who acknowledge your powerful hand in all things.