From sermon # 419 CHS – The roaring lion.
“Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”
1 Peter 5:8, 9.
“Has he assailed you with some temptation obnoxious to your spirit? Yield an inch and you are undone, but become more watchful and more vigilant over yourself in that particular sin and resistance must certainly bring victory. Or has he injected blasphemy? Resist. Be more prayerful every time he is more active. He will soon give it up if he finds that his attacks drive you to Christ. Often has Satan been nothing but a big black dog to drive Christ’s sheep nearer to the Master. Often has he been like a tremendous crested billow which has just lifted the poor shipwrecked mariner on to the Rock and from very fear has made him cling the more tightly there. If he thrusts you thus, match him by turning even his temptations to good account and he will soon give up that mode of warfare and exchange it for another.
Resist him. But how resist him? “Steadfast in the faith.” Seek to obtain a clear knowledge of the doctrines of the Gospel and then get a good grip of them. Be ready to die sooner than give up a particle of God’s revealed Truth. This will make you strong. Then take hold of the promises of God which are yes and amen in Christ Jesus. Be ready for every attack of Satan’s commencing with, “Is it written?”—answer Satan with “Thus says the Lord”—“Steadfast in the faith.” Remember all the water outside of a ship cannot sink it. It is the water inside that perils its safety.
But there is another word added for our comfort—“Knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” This is well sketched by John Bunyan in that picture I have already alluded to, in the Valley of the Shadow of Death. “As Christian was going along the exceedingly narrow pathway, with a deep ditch on one side and a dangerous quay upon the other, he came to a stand and he had half a thought to go back and then again he thought he might be half-way through the valley so he resolved to go on. And while he pondered and mused, he heard the voice of a man as going before him, saying, ‘Yes, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me.’
“Then he was glad and that for these reasons. He gathered from thence that some who feared God were in this valley as well as himself and that God was with them though they perceived Him not. He hoped to have company by-and-by so he went on and called to him that was before, but he knew not what to answer for that he also thought himself to be alone.” Here honest John has our experience to the life. It is likely enough that as I am speaking this morning some of you will say, “I did not think that anybody ever felt as I feel.” And though I tell you these things and know that many of you have heard Satan roar, I am compelled to confess that I have frequently said in my own heart, “I do not believe that any other man ever had this temptation before me.”
Well, this text stands to refute our supposition—“The same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.” Martin Luther was wont to say that next to Holy Scripture the best teacher for a minister was temptation—he put affliction next—but temptation he kept first in his view. When we have been tempted and tried ourselves we know how to succor others. I grant you it is hard to have the conviction on one’s mind that you are standing in a perilous place where never man stood before and tempted as never man was tempted before you. Come, Believer, we will talk this matter over for two or three seconds. Certainly your Lord has been there before for He was tempted in all points like as you are. Scripture says that all your Brethren have had some participation in your trials.
Now mark—as they suffered as you suffer—no temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man. As they came through the temptation safe and unharmed, so shall you. As they testified that their light afflictions worked out for them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory—so that shall be your testimony. As they have overcome and now circle the Throne of God clothed in pure white garments—so will you. And inasmuch as their temptations have left no tears upon their brow, no stains upon their robes, no rent in their royal mantles—so neither shall Satan be able to disfigure or to mutilate you—you shall come out of every trial and of every struggle, losing nothing therein save that which it is well to lose—your dross and your tin, your chaff and your bran. You shall come forth from the deep waters washed, cleansed and purified. God
grant that so it may be with you—but it can only be so by your resisting Satan—steadfast in the faith.
