TOPIC:“The Devouring Devil”
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8, NKJV)
I read this article recently in a Christian magazine. In March of 1898 a man by the name of John Patterson, a thirty-one year-old engineering student, was in Kenya to help build a railroad bridge across one of the rivers. Soon after his arrival, two ferocious, man-eating lions began terrorizing him and his workmen. So cunning were these beasts that the native workmen came to believe they were really devils in the shape of lions. And by the time those lions were killed they had devoured about 140 rail workers.
Now the Bible warns us that the devil, like a lion, is also a predator that tirelessly stalks his victims. How many Christians I have known down through the years have fallen prey to his cunning ways and deceitful lies. This is precisely what Jesus was driving at when He said to Peter: “Simon, Simon behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat” (St. Luke 22:31, KJV). Whether you realize it or not, like Peter we are in a constant and relentless battle with the devil. And get this: His goal is to devastate and defeat each one of us.
In light of that fact, we Christians must as Peter states in our text “be vigilant in our spiritual conflict against the devil.” The NLT gives us a stronger rendering: “Be self-controlled and alert.” Let us now consider what must be done to gain the victory over the devil.
Let us consider, first of all, the WARFARE that CONFRONTS us. Notice Peter's words in our text: “your adversary the devil” (v. 8). The NLT has it: “your great enemy, the devil”
He is the Christian's opponent, our malicious enemy who is out to destroy us. The devil and his demons are always looking for opportunities to overwhelm believers with temptations they can't resist in their own strength. Dr. John MacArthur was . . .