Skip Heitzig - Lion Alert
This is week 28 of our series Rock Solid in a study in First Peter, and I've discovered we're having a hard time ending it. And it's Peter's fault, he keeps saying stuff, and we find that some of the stuff we have to really kind of go through and probe a little deeper and go in depth and understand and apply. We're in two verses of First Peter, chapter 5 today. Can we pray before we start.
Father, we pray because we want to say that we depend on you. We need your help. It's plain to understand what we read, but we need the help of your Spirit to make real consideration and application in a way that would change lives. Lord, I pray with what we discover today, as for some it will be eye-opening and sobering. I pray, Lord, that we would rejoice because of the ultimate truth that this text bears out. We look to you, Lord, we thank you for this day that we can gather together and worship as your flock, in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, the name of this message is "Lion Alert"! and you'll see why as we get into the text. But as I was considering the passage and the title, my mind kept going back to that song. It was actually written in 1939, but every generation knows it. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight. Near the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight". You remember the word that they say over and over again in the song? "A wimoweh, a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh".
What if the lion doesn't sleep tonight? What if the lion is on the prowl? What if the lion wants to destroy? Well, that's exactly what happened when a movie was made out of it called The Ghost in the Darkness about two man-eating lions in Tsavo, Kenya, who attacked villagers and destroyed lives. And there's been disputes as to how many actually were killed. One report says up the 135 people were killed by prowling, man-eating lions. I guarantee you in that village they were not singing wimoweh over and over again. We have an enemy. We have a brutal, attacking, destructive, unrelenting enemy and he is described for us in two verses of First Peter, chapter 5. I commend you to verse 8. "Be sober," writes Peter, "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".
That would be a sobering statement to read if you were getting this letter from Peter for the first time. It's quite an announcement, similar to the announcement that the Lord Jesus himself made to Peter one night when he said, "Peter, Satan has asked for you by name that he wants to sift you like wheat". I think if I were Peter I'd take a few steps back, "Whoa, what kind of an announcement is that"? Imagine an announcement if you were at the zoo, and you're there with your family and you're wandering around the park, and suddenly over the PA system you hear this announcement: "Ladies and gentlemen, we just wish to inform you that the lion has escaped its enclosure and it's roaming about the park. And, by the way, this lion has not yet eaten, so you may want to keep your children close". Actually we don't even have to imagine that.
Three days ago in Sydney, Australia, that happened. A lion got out of its enclosure in the park during operating hours and dozens of people had to be brought inside in order to be protected. Just last year a lion in California killed a zookeeper, a young intern by the name of Dianna Hanson, mauled her to death. I did a little bit of research and discovered something that was really appalling. In the last 21 years, 20 people, including 5 children, have been killed by big cats in the United States. And in that same time period 246 people were mauled by those cats. A few years back I was in Kenya and we were doing some ministry, but I had an afternoon where we went to a park, an animal park. And it's just the wide-open range, the savanna animals wandering around for miles, and it's just in that natural, beautiful habitat.
And as we're going around, we went around this corner where there was a tuft in the ground with some trees and we came upon a group of lions, and they were just lyin' there, and peaceful. And when I saw them, I wanted to go a-wimoweh, a-wimoweh. I was just kind of like, "Man, this is so awesome"! So I roll my win, we're pretty close, so I roll my window down and the driver goes, "Uh, you may want to not roll that down too far. Don't even think about getting out of this Land Rover because you'll discover those peaceful lions will turn on you so quickly and attack you if they get spooked, if they get frightened". I even discovered the lions are on the top ten list of Africa's most dangerous animal. The male lion can weigh upwards of 550 pounds and will attack elephants. Called the "king of the jungle" because it has no predators. The only predators that the lion has is a crocodile and a man with a gun.
When lions attack, they pounce. They will pounce on their prey and usually sink their teeth into the neck of the prey, suffocating that victim to death; that's how it kills. We have an enemy. He's a real enemy, an invisible enemy, a deadly enemy, far deadlier than any lion on this earth. The apostle Paul in Ephesians 6 says, "We do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places". So as we unpack verse 8 and 9 of First Peter, chapter 5, there's four things about this lion that you should know аbout: his identity, his strategy, his territory, and his frailty. Let's consider his identity.
Notice what it says in verse 8, "your adversary the devil". Let's just consider that, "your adversary [or enemy] the devil". The word "devil," diabolos, means one who slanders or one who will attack another by slander. It is a term that is used 35 times in Scripture, he's called "the devil". Another 54 times he is referred to as "Satan"; another 5 times he's called "the evil one"; another 8 times he is called "the wicked one". He's also called "the destroyer," "Abaddon," "Apollyon," "Lucifer," and a host of other names. He first appears in Genesis, chapter 3; his career finally ends in Revelation, chapter 20. In other words, his work spans all of human history.
Now, I realize that some people hearing this or reading this flinch whenever they hear somebody like me talk about a literal devil. I realize that we live in a day and age when a lot of people deny the existence of a literal devil. Certainly people who are unbelievers don't give him a thought, even born-again Christians, many of us, don't consider the devil to be real. He's just a cartoon character. He wears tight, little red underwear and has a funny goatee and hops around and goes from one comic book to the other. The Gallup Organization said though 70 percent of Americans believe in the devil, about half believe he's just a metaphor for evil, not really a real entity, just evil in general. That doesn't concern me.
Here's what concerns me: a Barna Organization poll polled just born-again Christians, or should I say those who claim to be, and made a statement and asked born-again Christians to say: "Do you agree with that or do you disagree with this statement"? Here was the statement: "The devil is not a living being, but just a symbol of evil". Of those who said they were born again, 32 percent "strongly agree," 11 percent "agree somewhat," 5 percent "don't know". All totaled, about half of these "born-again Christians" lean to the idea that the devil is not a real entity but just a symbol of evil, or they just don't know. A poll that I read more recently is, in fact, it was a Christian organization magazine and the title of the article is "Christians Don't Believe in the Devil Anymore". In that poll 65 percent of Christians didn't believe in the devil.
So just in case I'm talking to any of that ilk, let me propose a question to you: How much stock to you put in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ concerning the devil? That's really the issue. The issue is one of authority; where do you derive your authority? Everybody gets authority from someplace. Your authority is your culture, what everybody else thinks about something. You want to go along with them. It could you be your tradition, what's been passed down. What you're friends think, that's your authority. How you feel at the moment, that's your authority. Or is your authority from indeed the Bible? And do you put stock in what Jesus said about the devil? For when Jesus talked about the devil, he never referred to the devil at an "it" or a "that," but a "he" and a "him". Personal pronouns were given to him. Jesus said, "I saw Satan fall from heaven like lightning," his words, his experience.
D. L. Moody used to say, "I believe in the devil for two reasons: number one, the Bible says he exists; number two, I have done business with him". Something about this lion that we read about here; Peter pictures him as "a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour," wandering around. However, this lion often wears a disguise. We know him to be a lion because he's portrayed that way in this text, but Jesus said usually when he shows up, he doesn't show up like a lion, but like a wolf in sheep's clothing. He's all about the cover up. He's all about deception. He doesn't come off as an enemy, but as a friend. When Satan first appeared to Eve, he questioned God: "Has God said that? Is God wanting to keep you away from this tree? Would God be so unkind as to keep you away from something you want? I, on the other hand, can give you what you want". He comes off so deceptive, so friendly, not at all like a lion.
I read an interview that I wanted to pass on to you. I found it fascinating. It was an interview with Mel Gibson about his movie The Passion of the Christ put out several years ago. And it caught my attention, because if you remember that movie, the actor that portrayed the devil in that movie was just creepy. And I've often wondered, "Ugh! What's that about"? Well, the interviewer asked Mel Gibson this question: "Why was the devil portrayed by a person you couldn't clearly identify? Was it a beautiful woman or a hideous man? Sometimes the character looked good and other times the character looked ugly". Mel Gibson responded by saying, "I wanted it this way because that is how the enemy is. Evil looks good until you turn it around a little and you see the whole spectrum, and then you see the ugliness".
Ooh, what a statement. The ugly, brutal lion goes undetected. In fact, the world doesn't see him as a lion, they're going, "Here kitty, kitty, kitty, kitty". Not knowing what his really intent is. Everyone has some relationship with Satan, everyone. He's either your friend or he's your enemy, and for born-again believers he is indeed our enemy. It's better to have that relationship. It's better that the devil be your enemy than be your friend. If you have any relationship with him at all, you want to make sure he is your enemy, "your adversary the devil". So that's his identity. Look at his strategy. Peter says he "walks about". Get the picture? He's on the prowl, this lion. "He walks about... seeking whom he may devour". The word "devour," a very strong word, means to gulp down. One translation says, "He is looking for someone to eat". That's what devour is. How does the devil devour people? Well, let me kind of boil it down and just get down to brass tacks.
Number one, his number one aim: he wants you to burn in hell forever. How's that for a bottom line? That's what he wants. Jesus in John 10 said, "The thief comes for no other reason except to steal, to kill, to destroy". That's his intent. We know that hell was not made for people; it was made "for the devil and his angels". But misery loves company and he wants to get at many people, entities, beings, in hell with him and his minions, and he wants humanity to burn in hell forever.
Number two, if he can't get that, and the only reason he couldn't get that is if a person said no to him and said yes to Jesus, turned their life over to Jesus Christ, became, in Jesus' words, "born again". So now he's not in allegiance with Satan, he's in allegiance with God, and principally Jesus Christ. How would Satan devour a Christian? Well, by making you weak. That's his second aim. If he can't have you burn in hell, then as a Christian he just wants to make you a weak, anemic, impotent, ineffective believer, get you so weighed down and distracted with piddly little stuff, your this, your that, your career, your boat, your project, and just get you swimming in all of that and not thinking about advancing the kingdom of God. So it's just existing and not really doing the devil any damage. So here's the bottom-line statement: Satan is hungry and gullible; ill-prepared Christians are on his menu. He is on the prowl, "seeking whom he may devour".
Now I was considering this week this text, and I thought about Peter and his use of this metaphor of Satan like a lion. And I thought, well, you know, Peter didn't have a zoo that he could go to like we do today. It's sort of a modern development. So Peter wasn't, like, at the local zoo eating peanuts going, "Huh, that's kind of cool watching this lion in the enclosure here". So perhaps the imagery came to Peter, I can't be certain, but perhaps, because of his contact with Roman believers he had actually seen people fed to the lions, which was part of Roman entertainment. And he saw the vicious attacks these animals could have on humans. Whatever his source, the picture of Peter is profound: a lion walking about studying its prey, looking for the right time to pounce. That's the idea of what he writes.
Can I take your mind back to a familiar passage in the book of Job? You don't have to turn there, but recall it with me. In Job, chapter 1, God asks the devil who appears before him, Satan appears before God, and God says, "Have you considered my servant Job"? That's a rhetorical question. It would be better translated: "You have been considering my servant Job, have you not"? The word "consider" means set your heart on, study. "You've been studying Job, haven't you? You've been looking at him very, very carefully, haven't you? You've been eyeing him". "Consider" was a military term of a general who would survey a town before he would lay siege to it. So Satan had been studying Job and thinking, "How can I undermine this blameless, perfect man"? Looking for weak points, looking for a time to attack. This leads me to a couple conclusions.
Number one: Satan is actively studying you. Does that make you feel a little unnerved? I hope so. It makes me feel a little creeped out. Ever been in a restaurant when you realize that person across the restaurant has been looking at you staring at you the whole time? It's like, woo-ooh, that's just weird. You have an enemy who studies you. All of us have weaknesses. There are areas of our life where we are prone to fall and easily tempted: for some it could be anger, for others it could be lust and pornography, for others it can be a bad habit, for others it might be insecurity and lying, trying to project an image, because "I always want people to accept me and like me".
Whatever that is, and you know what those areas are, you have an enemy who also knows what those areas are. And the point being: whatever temptation he sends your way is custom made just for your personally. "You've been considering my servant Job," that's the idea of prowling around. But the second conclusion that I find is that Satan operates within parameters. He can only act by permission of God and in line with God's purposes, much like the demons who inhabited a man at Gedara. And before Jesus cast them out, they said, "Permit us to go into that herd of swine". They operate only by permission. That brings comfort to me, that I know I have an enemy who's studying me and attacking me, but I have a Lord who's over him permitting him certain freedoms and curtailing and restricting other freedoms.
So he can only go so far. So this is what it means to me: when I'm in the fire of a trial or I'm in the fire of a temptation, I know that God has his eye on me and his finger on the thermostat. He knows what I can take. Paul said, "He won't allow you to be tempted above what you are able to endure". So that's his identity and that's his strategy. Consider now with me his territory. Look at verse 9. "Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world". Consider that phrase. Who's "your brotherhood"? Fellow believers. "In the world"; where's that? Well, it could mean scattered outside the church, the worldly system. But it just means everywhere on earth where there are believers Satan is attacking.
So listen to this: Satan has access to the entire world geographically, but his focus of attack is on believers specifically, "your brotherhood in the world". Did you know that three times Jesus Christ referred to Satan as "the ruler of this world"? I've never liked that. I like to sing, "This is my Father's world". And it is his world by creation, and it is his world by sovereign purpose controlling everything, but he allows this devil, this Satan certain liberties and freedoms to move and to do. And though he is on a leash, frankly, sometimes I wish the leash were a little shorter, he has access. The world is his oyster. It's his platform of attack. Like a lion who is considered to be king of the beasts because he can roam just about anywhere he wants, so this enemy roams wherever he wants. He roams, he searches, he looks for prey.
Go back in your mind to Job, chapter 1, the story that I began with a little bit ago. It says there came a day when God called for an account and among those that he called for an account from was Satan. So Satan appears before God to give an account. And in Job, chapter 1, I think it's verse 7, God says, "Where you been Satan? What have you been doing"? And Satan says, "From going to and fro on the earth and walking back and forth on it". So he appears before God for some personal accounting, but he's been cruising the earth. Did you know that Satan has access to heaven and earth? Stay with me here. He has some access to heaven. He had some ability to appear before God to give an account, but he was cruising the earth.
Let me give you something else that to some people is a shocker: Satan is not in hell. He has never been in hell. He will one day be in hell. He's going there. When he gets there he will not be in charge, he will be in chains. He will be the chief victim. But until then he has freedom and he wanders and he works. The devil commands the demonic realm, but the theater of operations of that demonic realm is in the human world. So this is what we're dealing with: we have an invisible army in a visible world. It's pretty tough. I mean, think about it, it's like a massive cloaking device for Klingons. It's like they're everywhere, but you can't see them. He's active all over the world. He's active to deceive. And did you know the devil has four principle targets, and you're not number one on the list, even though sometimes you think you are.
We flatter ourselves thinking, "He's all against me. He's all against me". You're not even in the top three. His first target is not you, it's Jesus Christ. And the only reason he would ever get to you is because he hates him. Jesus Christ is his first principle target, because back in Genesis, chapter 3, in the very beginning, God said, "There's coming someone who's going to crush your head, Satan, and that's going to be my promised Messiah, the Seed of the woman". Ever since that promise he's been looking for a way to get rid of Jesus whom God said would bring salvation and destroy him. We see in the book of Revelation, chapter 12, John said, "I saw a dragon who was ready to pounce on the male Child as soon as he was born". He's always against the gospel. He's always against Jesus.
I found it interesting when I listen to people, and I try to listen carefully, and I listen to people what they say even when they swear. And it's an interesting thing that one of the swear words a lot of people like to use is the name of Jesus Christ. I take personal offense to that and often I'll let them know. But what I find is that people who claim to be atheist or agnostics, I've even heard Muslims use the term "Jesus Christ" to swear. No one says, "Oh, Buddha"! And I just think, "Why is it that of all of the religious names in the world, since all religions are created equal, some say, why not pull out a different name"? But I can see, even in that, behind the scenes the spiritual warfare that is going on.
So Jesus is number one target. Second target of the devil, still not you, holy angels. These are the one-on-one combatants in the battle. If you have evil angels, the equal opposite of that would be holy angels. And we find in passages like Daniel, chapter 10, the heavenly hosts doing battle. Revelation, again, chapter 12, John said, "I saw war in heaven: Michael and his angels warring with the dragon and his armies".
Third on the list of attacks, still not you. Jesus, holy angels; number three, the nation of Israel. And why the nation of Israel? You see it all throughout the Scripture, because the nation of Israel God made a promise to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, David, about them and their land and the plan of salvation. So Israel is the object of God's plan, so he's incessantly attacking the nation of Israel. And in the tribulation period it will be no holds barred. The attack will be fiercer than ever.
And then number four, here you come in on his attack list, is believers. And that's why Peter says, "He is 'your adversary the devil.'" He certainly attacks Christ and angels, he certainly goes after Israel, but he's also "your adversary the devil". And why yours? Why does he attack you? Because you're the object of God's favor, grace, and love. That's why he attacked Peter and Paul and John and every follower of Jesus Christ from the beginning. How does he do it? What are his tactics? Well, I don't have time to give them all to you in this message, but let me just share a couple.
Number one, the very name "devil" means... do you remember? Slanderer, slanderer. In Revelation, chapter 12, he's called "the accuser of the brethren". When he came to God, he was accusing Job of motive. So one of the ways he tries to attack us is by accusation. He accuses you before God. He accuses God to you. He accuses your brothers and sisters to you, and you to your brother and sister, always trying to divide. He's "the accuser of the brethren". I bet you've even heard some of those accusation in your own mind spill over, things like: "You call yourself a Christian"? Ever heard that? "What are you doing here"? "You think God's going to answer that prayer of yours"?
We've heard all of those accusations from our accuser of the brethren. The second tactic toward believers is what's mentioned in the text: persecution. That's the thrust of the verse 9, please see it. "The same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world". He persecutes believers. You say, "Yeah, but this was 2,000 years ago, certainly not today". Did you know that in the last 100 years, last century, more Christians have been martyred for their faith than the combination of martyrdoms from the time of Jesus up until the last hundred years? All of those centuries combined, the last century has seen more persecution, more martyrdom.
So that's his identity, his strategy, and his territory. I have saved the best for last; that is, his frailty. He can be and must be engaged and he can be defeated. And that's found in these words: "Be sober," verse 8, "be vigilant," also verse 8. Verse 9, "Resist him, steadfast in the faith". Listen, listen, your enemy cannot be ignored. You can't cloister yourself up in a church, that's what he'd want you to do, and just "I don't want to think about the devil". Now some people think too much about him, granted. But you have to engage him. The devil is never too busy to rock the cradle of a sleeping saint. He'd just like you to go, "In the jungle, the mighty jungle the Christian sleeps tonight". He must be engaged. It begins here, right here, in the mind where you think. This is your biblical heart inside, and then it has an out-working into your life.
So notice the three things: "Be sober," he says, "Be sober". Some of you may be thinking, "Well, I'm not drunk". Well, that's good, but it doesn't mean don't be intoxicated. It's here used metaphorically for "be mentally, spiritually sober". "Be sober-minded," some translations say. It means be self-controlled, be disciplined, think clearly. Let me translate it and how I think the intention is: "Don't allow yourself to be intoxicated by the amusements of this world. Be sober-minded". The battle always begins in the mind, folks, it always begins in the mind. "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he". Every behavioral scientist in the last several decades have said that most people are governed by sub-conscious thought. So we begin in what we set our minds on, what we think about. We have to think clearly.
"Be sober". Number two: "be vigilant". It means be alert, be watchful, be on the lookout, don't fall asleep on the job. I think of Peter and James and John in the garden of Gethsemane. And that was probably still resonating in Peter's head when he wrote this. And Jesus came to him and he said, "Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation". So watch out. Watch out for what? Watch out for attacks in weak areas. You know what they are. Watch out for that. Watch out that you don't get in a compromising position or a situation where you would be more apt to yield than to resist. Watch out. So, be sober, be vigilant; third, be resolute, be resolute.
Verse 9, "Resist him," resist him. He can be resisted. James, chapter 4, "Resist the devil and he will flee from you". "Resist him, steadfast", notice what it says. Please read it with me. "Steadfast in the faith". You see the definite article "the"? It's important. He does not say, "Resist him steadfast in faith". He's not talking about your faith, our faith. It's "the faith," which is this: it's the truth embodied in the Scripture. That's "the faith". In Jude, chapter 1, there's only one chapter, verse 3, he said, "Contend earnestly for the faith, once for all delivered to the saints". He was speaking about the body of truth that has been passed down by the Holy Spirit in the written Word of God. What did Jesus do when the devil assaulted him? Used Scripture, "It is written," he said, "It is written," "It is written".
Can I just say, you gotta know what is written before you can say, "It is written..." That's why Christians need to know their Bibles, otherwise when we're attacked we're going to be going, "Okay, uh, what is that verse?'God helps those who help themselves.' Ah, that's not even in the Bible. Um, um, 'A good turn goes...' No. Wait a minute". "It is written..." The faith is how you resist the devil. I just want to add a fourth. You wouldn't read it, but it is implied, and I'll explain it. So, be sober, be vigilant, be resolute; here's the fourth, be together. When he writes these little imperatives, these commands, "Be sober, be vigilant," these are commands, imperatives. They're written in the second person plural. In other words, he's writing to a group of people, all y'all. He's not writing to an individual, but to a group.
There's a principle in that: be together. Do you know that lions in Africa when they hunt, when there's a herd of animals, they want to isolate an animal from the herd. Once they isolate that animal, they pounce on it. You are safer with the herd. If you think, "I can live a Christian all by myself, live the Christian life". You are dead meat! You need the herd. I need the herd. But I want to close with this, because otherwise you say, "Yeah, I heard a great sermon. I got an enemy who wants to kill me. Woo-hoo! It feels so good"! Listen, as vicious a lion, as brutal a lion as the enemy is, he's only a second-rate lion. He roars a lot, he sounds so intimating, but he's a second-rate lion. Jesus Christ is called in Scripture the "Lion of the tribe of Judah". And John sees him in the book of Revelation, he said, "I looked and saw the Lion of the tribe of Judah has prevailed".
C. S. Lewis wrote a whole series of books, Chronicles of Narnia, and he wrote about the Christ figure in that as Aslan the lion. That's what he was referring to. In Amos, chapter 1, the prophet predicted, "The Lord will roar from Zion," and he did. When Jesus was on the cross dying in Zion, our lion King, the true lion King roared from Zion these words, he cried out with a loud voice, "It is finished"! He made that proclamation.
There was a guy who lost his job, was looking for a job, and couldn't find one. He went to the zoo and the guy said, "We don't have jobs, except I've got an idea. Just the other day our gorilla died. And I was just wondering, you're a pretty big fella and I've got this gorilla suit, would you be willing for a pretty good pay check to dress up and play the part of a gorilla until we can get a new one? He said, 'I'd love to. I can do that.' So they gave him the gorilla suit and he went in the cage and he started, you know, beating his chest, and banging on the bars, and swinging around. And people loved it. He was so amusing. In fact, they said he was the most intelligent gorilla they've ever seen. Well, the second or third day of this, he kind of got carried away and he was moving and swinging and he swung a little too far and he ended up in the other enclosure, which next to him was the lion enclosure. And he came face-to-face to the lion who started walking. He looked like he was prowling, studying him, ready to pounce. And the guy was just freaking out. His heart's pounding. He's moving back, he's moving back, and he's trying to get over back into his enclosure. But there's no holds on this side like there were on the other side. And so he just yells out, 'Help! Help! Help!' And just then the lion in a quiet whisper says, 'Shut up, stupid, or you'll get all of us fired.'"
Now, why do I close with that? Well, one, I just was looking for a way to fit that joke into this sermon. No, but here's my application: one day Satan the lion is going to get fired. Now I don't mean let go from the job, I mean fired, hell, fired. He's going to be fired eternally. John in Revelation sees him "tormented day and night forever". It's one of the best verses in the Bible. Are you kidding? He's going to get his eternally, this malevolent being who has been out to attack God, attack holy angels, kill Jesus Christ, destroy Israel, and neutralize believers, and bring people with him to hell. He will be the chief victim. Until then he roams around, but until then you can be resolute, sober-minded, alert, clear thinking, disciplined in your thought, watchful, and engaging. "Greater is he that is in you," the Lion of the tribe of Judah, "than he that the in the world".
Father, we thank you for these truths. We thank you, Father, for giving us the scoop in your Word about who this enemy is, and what he does, and what we can do, and how we can stand, in Jesus' name, amen.