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  WE HAVE A REAL ENEMY
  by Anton Bosch
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Summary: This sermon delves into the importance of humility and
vigilance in the face of spiritual battles, emphasizing the need to
submit to God's authority, resist the devil's schemes, and cast all
cares upon Him. The speaker highlights the dangers of pride, the tactics
of the enemy, and the necessity of remaining steadfast in faith amidst
challenges and temptations.

Topics: "Humility", "Spiritual Vigilance"
Scripture References: 1 Peter 5:5, 1 Peter 5:6, 1 Peter 5:7, 1 Peter 5:8, 1 Peter 5:9, James 4:6, Luke 14:11, John 10:10, Romans 12:3, 1 Corinthians 11:23, Ephesians 6:11

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DESCRIPTION
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This sermon delves into the importance of humility and vigilance in the
face of spiritual battles, emphasizing the need to submit to God's
authority, resist the devil's schemes, and cast all cares upon Him. The
speaker highlights the dangers of pride, the tactics of the enemy, and
the necessity of remaining steadfast in faith amidst challenges and
temptations.

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CONTENT
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Sorry about all that, we tested everything this afternoon and it was all
good, and now it's not working. But basically what we're doing, what's
changed is that we've added an FM transmitter so that Henry and whoever
else is in the car, anywhere on the property can tune in to that
frequency and listen to the message. But obviously it's interfering
here, so we're going to have to move something around.

All right, let's get down to the word. We're in 1 Peter 5. I think this
is the second last in the series on Peter, and then we'll move on to 2
Peter the week after. 1 Peter 5, and let's read from 5 through the end
of the chapter.

1 Peter 5, reading from verse 5. Likewise ye younger people, submit
yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another,
and be closed with humility. For God resists the proud, but gives grace
to the humble.

Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may
exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for
you. Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him steadfast in
the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your
brotherhood in the world.

But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by
Christ Jesus after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish,
strengthen, and settle you. To Him be the glory and dominion forever and
ever. Amen.

By Silvanus, our faithful brother, as I consider him, I have written to
you briefly, exalting and testifying that this is the true grace of God
in which you stand. She who is in Babylon, elect together with you,
greets you, and so does Mark my son. Greet one another with a kiss of
love.

Peace to you all who are in Christ Jesus. Amen. And so we want to just
pick up where we were last week.

The younger, obviously we said as opposed to the elders, which is at the
beginning of the chapter. So this is everyone who is not an elder, and
obviously includes the elders as well as they submit to one another.
Younger, submit yourselves to your elders.

Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be closed with
humility, because God resists the proud. God resists the proud. Notice
that word, we're going to come back to that word, resists.

God stands opposed to. God stands against. God pushes against those who
are proud, but He gives grace to the humble.

The proud do not need grace. The proud do not need grace, because they
think they can do it their way. They think that they have everything
together.

They think that they're all powerful, that they're invincible, and they
really are independent of God. And so God doesn't give them grace, but
He stands against them. But those who are humble are the ones to whom He
extends grace.

You remember Paul when he spoke about the thorn in the flesh, whatever
that means. But clearly he had some kind of opposition in his life, some
kind of problem, whether it was physical or emotional or spiritual.
Personally, I tend to believe that it is a demon who opposed him.

I'm not saying he was a demon possessed or even oppressed, but wherever
Paul went, there was always trouble, and that trouble seemed to have
been stirred up by demons. And so that may be the thorn in the flesh. I
don't know.

We're speculating. But he says, I prayed three times for the Lord to
take this away. And the Lord said, My grace is sufficient for you.

Now why did He have the thorn in the flesh? He says, so that I would not
be exalted above measure. So the thorn in the flesh, and I believe that
the Scripture doesn't tell us what it is on purpose, so that we can all
relate to it. If it was just a physical thing, we say, well, you know, I
don't have physical challenges, so it doesn't, you know, it doesn't
affect me.

Or, you know, if it was an emotional thing or whatever. No, we're all
able to relate to that. And so he says, I asked the Lord to take it
away.

The reason He allows it, he says, is lest I be exalted above measure.
Lest I become proud. Did Paul have reason to be proud? Well, he did.

Because he says, I was caught up into the third heaven. I saw the risen
Christ. The Lord Jesus revealed to him much of the New Testament.

Remember that twice in the New Testament he says, that which I received
of the Lord. We read this in 1 Corinthians 11, when we break bread every
week, every month. What I've received from the Lord.

In other words, he says, I received these things directly from Him. And
so he had a lot of reason to feel superior. Never mind his previous
history as a Pharisee, and his education, and his birth, and his Roman
citizenship, and all of these things.

But he says, lest I be exalted, so that I remain humble. God has allowed
a thorn in the flesh to keep me under, to keep me humble. But then he
says, my grace is sufficient.

So how will I deal with this problem I have? And we all have challenges
and problems, and we're going to speak about cares in a moment. He will
give us grace. But he only gives grace to those who are dependent on
him.

When we feel we can handle our lives, when we feel we can do things our
own way without him, he stands apart, he stands aside, and he just
watches us as we make a mess of things. But it is when we turn to him
and we say, Lord, I can't do this. I need your help.

I need your grace in my life. It is then that he extends grace to us.
Now, the next verse he tells us, Therefore humble yourselves under the
mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you.

So there are two parts to this humbling process. The first part I've
alluded to in Paul's thorn in the flesh. He says that the Lord has
allowed something in my life to keep me humble.

So the Lord will humble us. If we will be humbled. If we don't want to
be humbled, then he won't humble us.

And of course, it's a prayer that I've heard some people pray, and they
say, Lord, I want you to make me humble. Well, you don't know what
you're asking for. You don't have a clue the trouble that's going to
come your way.

Because how does God make us humble? Well, he doesn't make us humble by
zapping us. You know, you can't come out and ask for prayer, and I'll
lay hands on you and zap, and now you've got humility. It doesn't work
that way.

Humility comes as he sends trouble into our lives and drives us
literally to the wall, to the place where we recognize I have nothing, I
am nothing. Without him, I am useless. Without him, I am weak.

Without him, I am miserable. It's only him that can strengthen me.
That's where we learn humility, when we are broken by him.

And that's not an easy thing, and that's not a pleasant experience. The
problem is that we go through those experiences, and we come out the
other side, and we forget very quickly, and we begin to pick up where we
were before, and pride enters back in again. And we get back to square
one, and so it's not a pleasant experience.

But there's the other aspect. So there's a part that God does, and
that's not the part of the text this evening, but here's the part that
we have to do. Remember that all of these things that God is doing in
our lives is a cooperative process.

There's the part I have to do, and there's the part that God has to do.
And so God will humble us, but we must also humble ourselves. We must
humble ourselves.

The Scripture says, Let a man not think more highly of himself than he
ought to think. Not to think more highly of himself than he ought to
think. Romans 12, I think.

The problem is that it's very easy for us to think highly of ourselves,
particularly when we live in a society which is basically hedonistic, a
society which is self-centered, a society that when kids grow up,
they're taught that everything that they do, it doesn't matter how bad
it is, it doesn't matter how naughty they are, it's great, it's
wonderful. Look at what little Johnny did. He just did this.

He just destroyed something. Because we don't want the kid to feel bad
about himself. The problem is that the kid then grows up with an undue
idea of his own importance and his own greatness.

And unfortunately, modern families revolve around the kids, and the kids
come to believe that they are the center of the universe. And it's no
wonder when they become adults, they can't handle life because they
discover that, in fact, everybody else thinks that they are the center
of the universe. As long as you're in the home and everybody is going to
revolve around you, that's cool.

But the moment you hit the real world, you find that everybody else has
the same opinion. And then what? Then you have a problem. And so we need
to humble ourselves, and it begins with our understanding of who we are,
our understanding of who we are.

And the problem is that it's easy for us to look at ourselves and say,
Well, I've done this and this and this and this. I went to school, and I
was very good at school. I did grade three, four times.

I was that good. No, not really. But I actually went to school, and I
graduated grade 12.

I actually read a book once. I'm a pretty good husband. I'm a pretty
good father.

We think that we're the greatest. But the problem is that we don't see
ourselves the way other people see us, and we don't see ourselves the
way that God sees us, and that's the problem. And so really the key to
humility is to see myself the way that the Lord sees me, the way that
the Lord sees me.

Now, I understand that because we're saved, he sees us as righteous. He
sees us as justified by the work of the cross and by what Jesus has done
for us. But at the same time, God is not fooled by our weaknesses and by
our sinfulness and by our failure.

This is a difficult thing because we don't want to be so down on
ourselves that we become paralyzed, and we say, Well, you know, I can't
do anything. I can't do anything good. I can't do anything right.

But we need to come to a place where we recognize that I, of myself, am
nothing, and that without him I cannot do anything. Without him,
personally, I can't do this job. And even this afternoon as I was
preparing my heart, there was something within me that says, Lord, I
can't do this.

I'm too tired. I'm getting too old. I can't do this.

But I need you to help me. I need you to do it. It's very easy after
doing this for 50 years to say, Well, I've got this.

I can handle it. I just uploaded the MP3s for the various books that
we've talked through in the last 16, 17 years. I don't remember exactly.

And just on that is 1,144 recordings. That's just what I taught in Bible
study and Sunday mornings here. It's not what we taught elsewhere.

It's not the other messages that were not part of the books that we
taught when we break away and we deal with some other subject. So I
don't have a clue how many messages I've preached in the 50-odd years,
48 years that I've been in the ministry, but thousands. I've done this
thousands and thousands and thousands of times.

And it's easy to say, Well, I've got this. I can do it. But when we
recognize our weakness, when we recognize our frailty, when we recognize
our sinfulness, it's then that we are humbled before God.

But that's the hardest thing for any of us to do, is to see ourselves
the way we really are. We just have an amazing ability to see ourselves
as being perfect in so many ways. Therefore, humble yourselves unto the
mighty hand of God.

How do I humble myself? I believe that I humble myself when I see Him
and when I compare myself to Him. We've spoken about this before. Paul
says in Corinthians, he says, that those who compare themselves by
themselves are not wise.

Those who compare themselves by themselves are not wise. And that's
where pride comes from. We look at ourselves, and we look at somebody
else, and we say, Well, you know, I thank you, Lord, that I'm not like
this sinner over here.

I do all of these things. I thank you, Lord, that I'm a better father
than that man. I thank you, God, that I'm a better preacher than that
preacher.

And the list goes on and on and on. And the problem, of course, is that
we can always find somebody who is less successful, who's not as good as
we are in some area or the other. And oftentimes, that becomes the norm.

That becomes the standard. And we say, Well, you know, I'm pretty good.
No, that's not the standard.

The standard is the Lord Jesus Christ. That is the standard. That's what
He is trying to get me to.

And if I'm going to be constantly happy to be down the bottom here, I'm
never going to reach that. But when I compare myself and I say, Lord, I
just don't make it. I don't have His patience.

I don't have His holiness. I don't have His ability to understand and to
preach the Word. And when we humble ourselves under His mighty hand, He
exalts us.

You see, here's the thing. I'm going to come back to that verse. In Luke
14, Jesus says, Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, but he who
humbles himself will be exalted.

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled. So the question really is, Do I
want to be exalted? And don't try and be holy on me. Of course you want
to be exalted.

Every one of us want to be exalted. But how do I get to be exalted? Not
by exalting myself. When I exalt myself, when I lift myself, the word
exalt to lift up, when I lift myself up, God will put me down because He
knows that that's not a good place to be at.

Folks, it's not a good place, not just because of my relationship with
Him, but pride comes before the fall. Over and over we're seeing
preachers falling these days. Why do they fall? Because they don't know
the Scriptures.

No, some of them know the Scriptures better than you and I do because
they have bad theology. Yes, some of them have bad theology. But
invariably it's because of pride.

They have lifted themselves up. And God says, I can't work with you
anymore. He resists them.

And they are ultimately humbled. Now, we've got to talk about the timing
because if we go back to Peter, you'll see he uses this word in due
time. Remember, God's timing is not our timing.

And so if we exalt ourselves, He will humble us. But it may not be
tomorrow. It may not be in five years' time.

It may only be at the judgment seat. And there are many preachers, there
are many Christians who have died thinking that they were the greatest
things in sliced bread. But on the day of judgment they're going to find
out that in fact they weren't that great.

And the same applies to those who humble themselves. He will lift up.
And again, the timing is His timing.

And so if we exalt ourselves, He will put us down. If we put ourselves
down, He will exalt us. And when He exalts us, no one can pull us down
again.

You remember that in James he speaks about when a brother comes into the
meeting and he's well-dressed and he looks like he's successful and
influential and he wants the prime seat in the assembly. He says, don't
look for the prime seat. Don't look to be exalted.

Because maybe somebody more important than you will come into the
meeting. And then the brothers have to say, look, brother, you can't sit
up front here. You have to go and sit down there.

That brother needs to come and sit up here. Now we don't practice that
in our church. But many churches do where all the most important people
sit on the platform at the front there.

And preachers and visitors, they just like to be up there so they can be
seen. He says, no, don't look for that. Because maybe you will be put
down.

And so let's go back to Peter then. And therefore humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God that He may exalt you in due time. When is
the due time? Now I've already said God's timing is not our timing.

And sometimes we say, well, God, you know, I've been humble for such a
long time. I've been put down for such a long time. I've been down in
the dust for long enough.

It's time that you lifted me up. But God knows the time. And the time,
as I said, may not be in this life.

When is the due time? When is the due time? When we can handle it. When
we can handle being exalted. I said to one of my brothers the other day,
a couple of weeks ago, and I say this with absolute sincerity.

One of the things that I am deeply grateful for in my life, deeply
grateful for, is that I never made the big time as a preacher. That I
never made the big time. Because God knows I would not have been able to
handle it.

And that may have led to a fall. I'm grateful that God has kept me
small. He's never opened big doors for me.

In big churches and big crusades and thousands and thousands of
followers and all of those kinds of things. I'm pretty sure if I chased
it with the flesh, I could have gotten it. But that's not what we want.

We want God to exalt us. And I'm quite content to die without having
achieved greatness in this life. Because I know the time is not in this
life.

Because I know the pride in my own heart. I know the pride in my own
heart. And so let's humble ourselves under His hand.

And notice it's the mighty hand of God. We're not humbling ourselves
before men. And maybe that applies sometimes.

And sometimes, oftentimes God uses men to humble us. But it's under His
hand. And He is the one who's able to exalt us.

And when He exalts us, no man will put us down again. And I pray that
that day would be on that day when we stand before Him and the Lord
Jesus will acknowledge us before His Father and before the angels and
say, this is my son, this is my daughter. I am pleased.

They are my faithful servants. They have been faithful even unto death.
And then verse 7, casting all your care upon Him.

Now I want you to notice, is there something wrong with that verse?
Well, the problem is it doesn't begin with a capital C. In other words,
this is not the beginning of the sentence. So it is connected to the
previous verse, which ends with a comma and not a period. And so, kill
us, I've told you, by putting cares upon us, by giving us problems, by
giving us trouble.

But in that process, I don't have to carry those problems myself. I'm
able to cast them upon Him. And I like that.

That word is a good translation of the Greek word. It literally means
just throwing your stuff down, your problems on Him. The same word is
used of the donkey that Jesus rode on.

And it says that they threw their garments on Him and on the road. The
same word, just throwing it down, throwing your cares at Him. Now, when
you put them on Him, you are still holding on to them many times.

So you take your care and you say, well, I'm going to lay it on Jesus.
But I'm still holding it. But when I've cast it on Him, it's gone.

I don't have it anymore. It's His. I'm not even trying to hold it with a
pinky anymore.

I've thrown it at Him. I've thrown it onto Him. And He bears our
burdens.

He bears our burdens. And so, in that humiliation process, there are
many cares that come upon us. And that's the problem, is that we're
chasing after nirvana.

We're chasing after some kind of heaven here on earth. And we want all
the problems to go away. No, the problems are a very necessary and
essential part of our growth process.

They're a very necessary part of teaching us many, many spiritual
lessons. And without them, we will never learn anything. But in that
process, we're not called to carry them ourselves.

But we cast them upon Him. We throw them at Jesus' feet. And He cares
for us.

I think there are many people in the world today, we spoke about this on
Saturday, that we're going through very difficult times. And
particularly with the isolation going on, people not being able to visit
one another, people not being able to visit family in other parts of the
country and so on, or in other parts of the world. People feel lonely.

People feel nobody cares. I think particularly for older people, it must
be difficult, because they can't get out at all. And some of them have
been locked up in their homes for however many months it's been now, 6,
7, 8, 9 months now.

Does anybody care? He cares. He cares for us. It's easy in a self-
centered world where everybody just cares for themselves, cares for
their own issues and their own stuff, to feel that nobody cares.

No, He cares. He cares. And not only does He care, but He is able to
bear our burdens with us.

He's able to strengthen us in that situation. And He's able to give us
grace so that we're able to bear the burden and we're able to see it
through. All right, so now we come to a different thought.

So He's dealt with that, dealing, starting with elders and speaking
about humility and submitting ourselves one to the other. Now He's going
to talk about the problem with the devil. The devil is real.

The devil is real. Unfortunately, too many Christians think that he
doesn't really exist. And even if they believe theologically or
theoretically that he exists, they don't think that he has much
influence on their lives.

He is real and he does have a tremendous amount of influence in the
world and in our lives. And particularly these days, he is out there
doing his terrible work. Now just remember, we're not doing a study on
the devil tonight.

We just want to stick to the text. But remember that the devil is not
omnipresent. He can't be everywhere at the same time like God is.

He can only be in one place at one time. So I don't know where he is
right now. But if he is in San Diego, he's not here.

If he is in China, he's not here right now. Can he move around? It seems
that he has tremendous power, so he seems to be able to move around
pretty quickly. So when we speak about the devil, we're not speaking
about the devil himself.

But we're speaking about him and his angels and his demons who do his
bidding. So he doesn't have to be everywhere, but he has, as we'll see
on Saturday night, Jesus casts the demons out of the sky and he has a
legion of demons. So I'm not going to preach that message now.

But he has a legion. A legion is hundreds. So when we speak about the
devil, we're not speaking... You and I are not that important that the
devil himself attends to us.

But he certainly makes sure that his angels do their terrible work.
Alright, so, be sober. It's amazing how many times this word comes up,
not just in Peter, but right through the New Testament.

And remember, for those who weren't with us before on this, let me just
remind you quickly that being sober here does not speak about not being
under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It's that as well. But it's
really being sober-minded, being level-headed, thinking straight.

And of course, that's when we are not sober, on alcohol or drugs, we're
not thinking straight. We're not in control of our thoughts and of our
actions. And so, he says we need to be sober.

We need to think straight. We need to be level-headed. And that's a
tremendous need in the time in which we're living right now.

As people are going for all of these conspiracy theories and all sorts
of crazy stuff. And yes, there are tremendous forces at work in the
world today. But half the stuff that people are focusing on are not
biblical things.

And people are just not thinking soberly. They're just not thinking
straight. And particularly on Facebook, as you see these conspiracy
theories and things people are propagating, you just need to read a
couple of sentences and say, well, where did that come from? It's just
nuts.

It's just crazy. And yet people believe it. Why? Because they are not
being sober.

And because they're not being level-headed, they're not thinking
clearly. They are open to deception. That's a very dangerous place to
be.

And remember that Eve, and we're speaking about the devil. It was the
devil himself that tempted Eve and Adam. And remember that she wasn't
thinking clearly.

And neither was Adam. If they were sober, if they were level-headed,
they would not have done what they did. But the devil was able to mesh
with their brains and convince them of something which is crazy.

And yet they believed it. And people are believing all sorts of nonsense
today because they are not being sober. Be vigilant.

The word vigilant, be awake. Be alert. Be watching.

Folks, this is not the time for us to be falling asleep. I really
believe with all my heart that Jesus is coming very soon. And I believe
that the devil knows that.

That his time is short. And he is working overtime. As I said, not just
him, but his demons are working overtime to destroy the work of God, to
grab as many souls out of heaven and to get them into hell as he
possibly can.

And we need to be alert. We need to be awake. Whenever you go on the
Internet, you need to be vigilant.

Don't just believe it because it's there. Don't believe it because it
comes from what you think is a reputable source. Oh, that brother so-
and-so.

I know him. He's my friend. He's a good guy.

For good guys are turning into bad guys just like that right now.
Overnight. Be vigilant.

Be alert. Be awake. And watch.

One of the most terrible jobs I ever did was to stand guard in the
military. Four hours. Pacing up and down.

Looking. And the most terrible crime you could commit those days was to
fall asleep when on watch duty. And yet millions of Christians have
fallen asleep.

They're not awake. And the devil is having his way with them. So it's
high time, Paul says, it's high time for us to wake out of sleep.

It's high time for us to be alert and to recognize what is going on in
the world. But the stuff that is happening in our country are not just
political. They are spiritual.

And I'm not going to preach a political thing again. And I'm not going
to analyze it. But there are spiritual forces at work in this country
right now on both sides.

On both sides. In Wisconsin right now, on both sides. The devil is doing
his stuff because he's got a plan.

And his plan is to destroy the work of God. To destroy believers. To get
believers sucked in emotionally into all of this stuff.

To get believers to begin to defend one side against the other. Oh no,
but my side's wrong is not as bad as your side's wrong. And we're not
vigilant.

And preachers are falling for these things. Christians are falling for
these things. And they're being overcome.

Be sober. Be vigilant. Because your adversary, the devil, walks about
like a roaring lion.

Your adversary. This is a legal term. Your opponent.

The one who stands against you. Folk, we have an enemy. And remember
Paul said that our enemy is not flesh and blood.

But they are spiritual forces. That is where our enemy is. The problem
is that we begin to fight with other people.

And we say, well that's with... No. Our adversary is the devil. Your
enemy isn't your wife.

Or your children. Or your colleague at work. Or the democrats or the
republicans.

The enemy of the believer is the devil. And he's walking about like a
roaring lion. He's pacing up and down.

Have you come across that idea of the devil walking around before? It's
in the book of Job. God says to Satan, he says, where you been? He says,
I've come from walking up and down on the earth. See, he never sleeps.

He never sits down. He's walking up and down. Looking for an
opportunity.

He's walking about like a roaring lion. Seeking whom he may devour. Why
does he say a roaring lion? Surely if he comes by stealth, he would
catch more.

I mean, isn't that how lions hunt? They creep up. I'm sure you've seen
the movies or the National Geographic or whatever. They creep up just
like it.

We've all seen a cat. I mean, it's the same thing. Just a little bit
bigger.

A little bit more dangerous. Slowly, quietly sneaking up on their prey.
But he says he goes about as a roaring lion.

Well, what he's talking about is one of the tactics of a lion. Lions
don't just sneak up on people. The devil does that too, by the way.

And that's why we have to be vigilant. He doesn't always come and say,
hey, here I am. I'm going to come and, you know, Eve, here I am.

I'm the devil. I'm going to tempt you, and you're going to sin and bring
death upon all flesh. No, sometimes he comes by stealth.

But sometimes he comes as a roaring lion. Now, why do lions roar? They
don't... Nothing in nature just happens for the sake of... Animals are
not like people. We just do stuff.

Everything that the animals do is there for a reason, for a purpose, and
it's part of their survival. When lions hunt, they invariably hunt in
packs, in family groups. And what they do is they set an ambush, and
then the lions will come.

Some of them will be lying in wait, and then others will come and they
roar. Now, I don't know if you've heard the roar of a lion, but it's
quite a scary thing. I've heard it many times camping in Africa, in
Botswana.

And up here, walking right up here in the mountains when the wildlife
way station still used to be in Little Tujunga until a few months ago,
you could be walking right up on the top of the mountain, miles and
miles away, and you hear the lions roar down there in the valley. And it
strikes fear into the hearts of the animals, of the antelope, and they
run. And when they run, they run straight into the jaws of the ambush,
and they're caught.

In the old days in South Africa, when we still had lions in the wild or
in the farming areas, the cattle would be brought in at night into a
pen. And those days they didn't have wire fences like we have today. I'm
talking about over a hundred years ago.

And so they would build what we would call a crawl. It would be an
enclosure out of thorn bushes. And so they would chop thorn bushes down
and they would stack them together to make an enclosure.

And they would be about eight feet high and probably about eight feet at
the base. And in time, they would compact and they would put new
branches on top. There's no way a lion could get inside there.

And the lions knew that if they got anywhere near those thorns, those
thorns would fester in their paws and they would die of hunger. So what
the lions would do is they would come around the enclosure and they
would roar. And they're pacing around and around and around and they're
roaring.

And the more they roar, the more panic-stricken the cattle become. Until
eventually the cattle break loose and they just run. And they break free
of the safety of the enclosure.

And the lion is able to have his meal. In fact, that's, I believe, what
Peter has in mind here. You see, we're safe in Jesus.

But as long as we remain there, we're fine. But he comes with fear. He
comes with fear.

And he gets us to run. To run from the safety of the Lord Jesus into the
hoping that maybe there's some kind of help out there somewhere. Maybe
in the politicians, maybe in psychology, maybe in entertainment, maybe
whatever it is, maybe... But the restraints of being within the body of
Christ, the restraints of being within Christ are just... And when we
run scared, that's when he's able to have his way with us.

Don't be intimidated by his roaring. Part of the conspiracy theories is
that it's there to drive men and women into despair out of fear of the
stuff that is coming around us and that's happening around us. And I
think that that's easy in reading the book of Revelation that we can be
fearful.

But what these things should do is drive us closer to the Lord Jesus.
Closer to the protection of his mighty wings. But when we allow the
devil to intimidate us, to get us to run, we're in a dangerous place.

And he is seeking whom he may devour. Remember that Jesus says that he
comes and it's in the context of John chapter 10 of the sheep in the
sheepfold. And remember that Peter has spoken in the beginning of the
chapter about us as sheep.

And he's saying we're the sheep and now he's saying there's the devil.
And Jesus says that he comes to rob, to kill and to destroy. That's the
only purpose he has in life.

He is not interested in building up. He's not interested in improving
you or making you better. He had no interest in even Adam's welfare and
their improvement of their knowledge of God or any of these things.

He has one purpose only. Well, three purposes, but three in one. And
that is to devour.

That is to consume us. The safety is to be found only in Jesus Christ.
People are running from the churches today.

Every church that I know about has lost people in the last eight months.
People are on the run, thinking that there's safety out there. Many
times stuff happens in the church that are not good and that are not
right.

And there are so many Christians who are outside of churches today
because they've been disillusioned and disappointed by some of the
nonsense that goes on in churches. But it's the devil who's roared at
them and they're running. And they find themselves outside of the
protective care of the body of Christ.

I'm not saying they're not saved anymore. You see, because here's one of
the other tactics of the lion. And that is to isolate individuals from
the herd.

To isolate individuals from the herd. And if you watch the lions hunt,
what they will do is they will chase the herd until they find a
straggler or one that breaks from the herd thinking that maybe there's
safety if I go that way. And the moment one has been isolated from the
herd, he will be tracked down and will be killed.

And the devil's doing the same thing today. He's isolating Christians
from the herd, from the body of Christ, where they are vulnerable and
they are easy prey. Don't run.

Run to Jesus. There is safety and protection in other believers. And I'm
not saying that there is not, that every church is good.

I'm not saying that there are not massive problems in churches today.
Yes, there are. But there are also good believers everywhere.

And we need to find them, whether it's one or two or three others. And
we need to stand with them that we might have each other's backs that we
might be able to protect one another and that we might be able to be
safe in the multiplicity. Now I'm going to deal with this next week.

But resist him steadfast in the faith. In other words, don't allow the
devil to have his way with you. Stand against him.

Stand firm. Be sober. Be vigilant.

Because he's real. And you think you're not important enough. He doesn't
care.

Yeah, he'll take the big wigs down if he can. But he doesn't
discriminate. He'll take whoever he can.

And he'll take you if he can. Be sober. Be vigilant.

And remain close to Jesus. Father, we thank You for Your Word. Lord, as
we humble ourselves under Your hand, we pray that You would help us to
do that.

Lord, it's so easy to look at ourselves and say, well, you know, I am
humble. But Lord, I pray that there may be a real work in every one of
our lives, Lord, in my heart and my life also. A work of being humbled
before You.

Lord, that we may never think we can go it on our own. That we could be
isolated from others. Because that's when the devil is able to have his
way with us.

Help us, Lord, to be sober. Lord, we live in desperate, desperate times.
Help us to be vigilant.

Help us to be watching, Lord. Not just for ourselves, but for our
brothers and our sisters, for our children, for our families, for our
church. Lord, that we might be exalted in due course when we stand
before You.

And so, Lord, I pray that You would help us to understand, but above
all, Lord, help us to live these things in a real way, Lord. Not just in
a supercilious way, in a superficial way. But Lord, help us that these
things may be real in the very depth of our hearts.

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Video: https://sermonindex2.b-cdn.net/moQHv7QgPuA.mp4
Source: https://sermonindex.net/speakers/anton-bosch/we-have-a-real-enemy/
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