“Your Enemy the Devil”

Our previous two Sunday morning studies we might summarize in a phrase, if we were seeking to encapsulate what Peter had been addressing, by simply saying, “Don’t worry, be humble.” Actually, humility comes first, but nevertheless, those have been the two exhortations: to put from us pride, to embrace humility; to put from us anxiety and to embrace peace. And I suppose if we were expecting the previous weeks’ studies to have taken root within our hearts, we would be able to say to one another that we are actually so proud of the fact that we haven’t been anxious at all this past week. And if that were true, then we would have been successful in last week’s study and not so successful in the first, because any absence of anxiety would not be a cause for pride but would be a further ground for humility, recognizing that only God is able to bring us to that point.

Anyone who may be tempted, incidentally, to doubt the relevance of the Word of God would be hard-pressed to try and convince me along those lines on the basis of these studies in which we’re presently engaging. And I’m sure many of you saw the article in the Plain Dealer on Tuesday of this past week, which just came a few days too late to be used as an illustration in last Sunday morning’s study but not too late to be used as an illustration in this Sunday morning’s study. I had seen it myself, but I was greatly encouraged by a letter that one of the young couples in the church wrote to me. It went like this: “Alistair, after your teaching on Sunday on anxiety relief, quoting 1 Peter 5:7, I just had to send you this article”—which, of course, I was grateful for and was carrying around already in my car, but I brought the one that was in their envelope just to let them know how appreciative I am of it.

This is what they said: “It struck me so strong on Sunday that I committed to memorize the Sunday study verses. I simply write them out. I Scotch tape them, of course, to the outside of our glass shower doors so every day, for at least one hour every morning during my shower, I get to know and reflect and listen to God. And I find myself, when I look at this article, laughing and crying, because here is an outward sign of millions of others trying to seek the cures for anxiety. Just wanted to let you know your message and Jesus hit my heart and attentive brain on Sunday. In Christ’s comfort.”

And I’m sure that many of us found an echo with that and discovered that we were touching last week on a nerve ending in our society. According to the article… Of course, this man has a vested interest in saying this, because he has a company called Stress Care Systems in Great Neck, New York. I don’t know whether there’s any correlation between the location of the company and the stress. But it says that stress control, in a myriad of forms, could be a $15-billion-a-year business within ten years. And the methodology that they’re embracing is from workshops to “mind spas,” and so far, relaxation goggles are the most controversial. And then it goes on to say that “devotees of the devices report effects such as deep relaxation, enhanced creativity, a happy natural high, even an occasional out-of-body experience. Others simply get a headache.” Kind of takes the edge off of it a wee bit, doesn’t it? “The most popular unit is Synchrotext Relaxman.” So we’ve got Walkman; now we have Relaxman. And they’ve sold 150,000 of these at $600 a pop. But you can get a lesser pair of goggles for $19.95. These will also be available on the welcome table.

Now, the thing that struck me about this was that as I read—and you will notice from the article—it then went on to a major piece on the place of the New Age movement in addressing anxiety and stress.

And so, I was reading that, and then it so happened that I was in one of these What-Do-You-Call-Them Marts here—the place you get everything when you’ve forgotten to get it at a place that it costs less—and I noticed a magazine on the racks. And I discovered… I picked this magazine up. I’d never seen it in my life. It’s called Omni, and it’s the twelfth-anniversary edition. It’s a bad magazine. I discovered, after I purchased it, that its editor-in-chief and design director is Bob Guccione. And in this magazine you can find, for example, all the gizmos and gadgets that are mentioned in the Plain Dealer. For example: “Synchronicity. Brother Charles. Technology for the expansion of awareness. High-tech meditation. It doesn’t matter if you think! Stereophonic holodynamic cassette soundtracks. If you’re not using Synchronicity soundtracks, you’re either uninterested in precision meditation or you’re too enlightened to care. … This is a contemporary non-sectarian, not-for-profit experience.” So if it’s not for financial gain, what’s it for?

And if you go through this magazine, you will discover that it is full of stuff which ties the apparent alleviation of anxiety, without any sense of being melodramatic, to the activity of the devil, quite straightforwardly and unashamedly—even the cover of the magazine, which most of you won’t be able to see. And for twelve years, unbeknown to me, this has been flooding through people’s minds. It has a lot of computer stuff in it, a lot of Nintendo stuff in it, a lot of music in it, and a lot of stuff that directly is addressed by 1 Peter 5:8: “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”

Now, all you have is a blank sheet of paper in your notes this morning, but let me give you where we’re going. We’re going under three headings: first, to pay attention to our enemy; then to our activity; and then, finally, just in a moment, to our solidarity.

Our Enemy

First of all, then, our enemy. It’s interesting, is it not, that Peter identifies the fact that Christians do have an enemy? The whole Bible is replete with the exhortation to make sure that we don’t make enemies of one another. Sadly, the Christian church has been adept at making enemies out of its own. And the times when we’re most conscious of the enemy factor in relation to our brothers and sisters in Christ is probably directly correlative to the times when we are least aware of the enemy factor in relationship to what the Bible has to say—that the devil is our enemy.

The reason that he is our enemy is because of a radical transformation having taken place in our lives. We were not, by nature, enemies of the devil, although he has always been about our discouragement and destruction; but we were never so radically removed from him until such times as God redeemed us by his grace. And when you read, for example, even in 1 Peter 2:9, you are reminded of the fact that when we came to faith in Christ, we were transferred, or we were “called … out of darkness into his wonderful light.” Now, that didn’t mean that we lived in a dark house and we went to live in a light house. It rather means that we lived in the realm of darkness. We lived in the realm where Satan rules. For the whole world is in the grip of the Evil One[1]—1 John 5—and he holds sway and court every day, and until we are redeemed by God’s grace, we live in that darkness. That’s our dwelling place. And indeed, unless we are redeemed by God’s grace, we will live in that darkness throughout all of eternity, which the Bible—which Jesus—said is hell. But according to God’s “great mercy,”[2] he came and transferred us from darkness to light. That’s Peter’s explanation.

If you turn to Ephesians chapter 2 for a moment, you find what Paul has to say concerning this, describing the change which has taken place. Ephesians 2:2. He says, “As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins”—it’s another way of saying, “You lived in darkness”—“in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the Spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.”[3]

What we need to realize this morning is this: that the Bible says that men and women outside of Christ help to fulfill the agendas of the Evil One. They may do so willfully; more often than not, they do so unwittingly. And unless the great transfer takes place, then we find ourselves in that department. That’s why, incidentally, if you talk about a devil today, or if you suggest to people the kind of things that I’m suggesting and about to suggest, they’ll say to you, “Alistair, you’re nuts! Why would you make such a fuss about things? You’re just seeing things all wrong. Nobody believes what you believe. These things are perfectly normal. Everything is okay. Why would you be so concerned?”

It’s not simply that people were once irreligious and became religious. There are many religious people caught up in the affairs of the Evil One. And if we were in any doubt as to that fact, we need only to listen to the words of Jesus himself—John chapter 8—as he speaks to the religious orthodoxy of his day. And in the course of a dialogue with them, as they claim their various rights as per their background, claiming that their Father is God himself, in John 8:42, “Jesus said to them, ‘If God were your Father, you would love me.’” Let’s just put that down as a maxim. If somebody tells you that God is their Father, then you’ll be able to discover whether that is a true statement or not: whether they love Jesus with all their hearts, whether they love Jesus as the eternal Son of God, whether they embrace him as the second person of the Trinity. No matter how much they may be God-conscious, God is not their Father unless what Jesus says is true: “If God were your Father, you would love me, for I came from God and now am here. I[’ve] not come on my own; but he sent me. Why is my language not clear to you? Because you[’re] unable to hear what I say.” Now, here he hits them right between the eyes:

You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.[4]

Now Peter, listening carefully to the instruction of Jesus and now writing by the divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit, addresses this factor and points out to his readers, and to us as readers this morning, the fact that the one against whom we wage war is the devil, the Evil One. He is the one who is our enemy.

Now, his schemes are vast and varied, and it’s not my purpose this morning to give him any publicity at all. But I want to tell you where I believe one of the most sinister dimensions of demonic influence exists in our country. It is in the area of sexuality—not the question as to whether people are engaging in sexual involvement at the wrong times but the whole question of human sexuality per se.

For example, the front of the magazine carries the title “Sex: The Rational, the Bizarre and the Uncertain Future of Gender.” Okay? Gender now has an uncertain future, says the world. And you need only to open it up and look and you will discover articles such as this: “Why Can’t a Man Be More Like a Woman … and Vice Versa.” An interview by Douglas Stein: “It’s 1990; do you know what sex you are?” Two pages later: “Blurring the Lines…”: “Our concept of masculinity and femininity is being redefined by both society and surgery. Read about stereotypes giving way to androgyny, then take our quiz on sexual characteristics,” and find out what you are.

This is not funny, guys! This is unbelievably devastating. And in the article, some of the people that some of you young people think are terrific singers are here in all their resplendent glory as examples of androgyny. “Blurring the lines” of human sexuality—does it matter? Yes, of course it matters! “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”[5] Darwinian nonsense says, “No, he didn’t.” And so we fight the battle on that level. We now proceed a little further through the record of God’s purposes for man, and it says that God created man and woman: “Male and female created he them.”[6] And the world says, “No, he didn’t.”

And it would be fine if the church of Jesus Christ was prepared to embrace the biblical record, to recognize the wiles of the devil, to stand up for godly role models of masculinity and femininity, to say that a father is a father qua father, that a mother is a mother, that a boy is a boy, and a girl is a girl. But take Christian periodicals, and listen to the articles capitulate in the realm of role relationships, and trace the line through, and I put it to you this morning that men and women, unless they are self-controlled and alert, are going to be suckered by the devil’s schemes. Solzhenitsyn saw it from the Soviet Union years ago as he looked at the Western world. So if we won’t take it from Solzhenitsyn, maybe we’ll take it from our Bibles, huh?

Well, let’s proceed with this this morning and notice that in matters of his identity, we are made perfectly aware of the fact of who he is: he is our enemy. That’s his identity, okay? So if we’re looking at our enemy, let me give you three words underneath.

Word number one is his identity. The word is antidikos. It is the word that describes an opponent in a lawsuit. If the Holy Spirit is our Advocate with the Father,[7] then the devil, says the Bible, is the prosecuting counsel. He is described in Revelation 12—check it up, you’ll see—verse 10, as “the accuser of our brothers, who accuses them before … God [night] and [day].” And in this word “enemy” is conveyed one who is malicious in his accusations and in his false charges.

He is not only described as our enemy, but he is described as diabolos, “the devil,” or “slanderer,” for that’s what the word means. He is the great slanderer. And so he slanders God to men, as he did in the garden of Eden. “Did God really say that?” he asked Eve,[8] questioning the authority of God. He slanders men to God, and he slanders men to men. His identity is as enemy and diabolical slanderer.

His strategy is equally plain. Notice what we’re told in the verb “to prowl.” He “prowls around.” It’s a very graphic word, to “prowl around.” It’s not the same as to walk around. It’s not the same as to run around. It’s a very clear word: to “prowl around.”

Do you remember the encounter between God and Satan recorded for us in the first chapter of Job? The Lord encounters Satan, and he says to him, “Where have you come from?” And Satan responds, Job 1:7, “From roaming through the earth and going back and forth in it.” “Roaming through the earth.” “Prowling around.” And the picture is of one who is restless in his search for victims, restlessly looking for someone that he may gather up into his group.

Only the naive and the foolish and the skeptical will treat any notion of the devil as if he were some large, friendly dog that we could pat on the head and play with for a wee while and then send him away. He is not! He is “a roaring lion.” And those of you who are tempted, as it were, to pat the dog on the head by reading your horoscope, and pat the dog on the head by buying your nephew a Ouija board, and pat the dog on the head by paying attention to science fiction such as Stephen King, and pat the dog on the head by opening your mind to all kinds of things—believe me, loved ones, you are dealing with a roaring lion.

And he roars, as do lions. And we ought not to think of the lion here in the Cleveland Zoo, chained behind bars. We ought to think of it out in the vast expanses there in Nairobi, Kenya, as they roam free. And they roar to intimidate their prey, and they roar so that they may be sure that no other rivals will come into their territory. Listen to him roar. Listen to him roar.

Not only does he roar, but he devours. That’s his strategy. He doesn’t just want to shout; he wants to eat. What does he eat? He eats people. “The devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” He comes to undermine our confidence. He comes to silence our confession. He comes to disintegrate our faith. And his quest is absolute decimation.

Now, not contained in this passage, but a factor that I think we ought to feed in at this point, is this truth: that not only does the devil roar, not only does he devour, but he also smiles. Two Corinthians 11—you should note it for just a moment. Two Corinthians 11:14. And Paul is talking about false apostles. He says these “false apostles”—verse 13—are “deceitful workmen.” They “masquerad[e] as apostles of Christ.” And he says it’s no surprise that they do this. It’s no surprise that you’re going to have counterfeit Christianity. It’s no surprise that you’re going to have people who make dramatic claims about what they can do and their ability to heal and their ability to prophesy, their ability to preach. He says, “Don’t be surprised at that”: there’s “no wonder, for Satan himself,” he says, “masquerades as an angel of light. It[’s] not surprising, then, if his servants masquerade as servants of righteousness. Their end will be what their actions deserve.” Satan himself also smiles. He’s the Joker in Batman. Yes, he is—more ways than one, if you read anything of the character who played the part.

You don’t have the power of God and the power of Satan at war with one another, and everyone holds their breath to see who will win. This Satan is a created being. God is the Creator.

So we ought not to fall into the abyss of believing that we’re dealing with somebody who carries a fork and has horns coming out of his head and whose face flashes on and off with the press of a button that he has in his inside pocket. The devil is a created being. He’s not omniscient. You do not have two equal powers in the world. You don’t have the power of God and the power of Satan at war with one another, and everyone holds their breath to see who will win. No, no, no, no. This Satan is a created being. God is the Creator. And his destiny is made perfectly plain.

That’s the third thing to notice: his identity, his strategy, and his destiny. Turn for a moment to Revelation 12:9: “And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back. But he was not strong enough, and they lost their place in heaven. The great dragon was hurled down—that ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, who leads the whole world astray.” That’s what he does. He leads the whole world astray if he could. And “he was hurled to the earth, and his angels with him.”[9]

Jude—you only need to go back one book. Jude 6: “And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority but abandoned their own home”—namely, heaven—“these he”—namely, God—“has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great Day.”

And finally, Hebrews 2:14: “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity”—that is, Jesus—“so that by his death he might”—now, notice this—“destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”

So, there are two great fears in addressing the question of the Evil One. One is that we so become preoccupied with the Evil One that we cannot think of anything else other than he and that we ascribe all of our poor experience to him. That is manifestly not the case. However, the other extreme is that we pooh-pooh the whole notion of satanic activity exclusively, and we so remove it from our minds as to deny what the Bible says about spiritual warfare. In both cases, the devil is pleased. I.e., he is pleased when we believe him to be an illusion, because then he can do his work of prowling; and he is pleased when we become so consumed with his presence, because then he has an increasing hold on our minds. So we need to know his identity, we need to understand his strategy, but we must also be very, very clear about his destiny. He is, if you like, out waiting for the garbage truck of eternity to finally come by and take he and all of his gang with him into a Christless experience forever.

Our Activity

Okay, if that’s our enemy, what, then, of our activity? What are we supposed to do, given that we have this enemy? And once again, Peter is very, very helpful.

First of all, we need to stay awake, and we need to stay alert. That’s what the two words mean at the beginning of the verse. “Be self-controlled and alert.” It’s possible to be awake and not to be alert. We are to be both awake and alert. If verse 7 induced any kind of dreamy carelessness into our minds—if it was a kind of cozy verse: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares [about] you”—and we put our stereos on in the afternoon, and we laid down, as we might, for a moment or two, and we said to ourselves, “My, my, this is lovely! All my anxiety is all gone! Oh, what a happy day! What a nice time. Everything.” Okay? Now, that would be true, but don’t stay there for very long. Why shouldn’t we stay there for very long? Because of verse 8. You can’t lie down there and just have a holy huddle to yourself. And he uses two incisive imperatives, as he’s done earlier in the book. In 1:13, we found him doing the same thing: “Prepare your minds for action; be self-controlled.” Chapter 4 and verse 7: “The end of all things is near. Therefore be clear minded and self-controlled.” Here he is back towards the end of his letter: “Be self-controlled and alert.”

Incidentally, this is the whole thing about music, if I might just say a word in passing to our young folks again. Everywhere I go, I have a number of questions that I always ask young people when I meet them in the mall and everything else. And one of my questions is “So, what are you listening to today?” “So what are you listening to today?” So they tell me: “Well, I’m listening to this,” or “I’m listening to that.” And then I say, “And do you listen to the words?” And some say, “No, I never listen to the words,” and some say, “Oh yes, I know all the words.”

And I try and share with them, just in passing—they think that I’m the most amazing creep that ever walked the malls, but I try and tell them—I said, “You know, you fill your heads with that, it’s garbage in and garbage out. Do you know what you’ll do to yourself if you keep flushing that in?”

“Where did you come from? Where did you crawl from? I mean, aren’t you the great Beatles man? And now you’re telling me?”

Yeah! I don’t know about the former, but I am telling you, yeah. Is there a difference? I think there’s a difference between “I Want to Hold Your Hand”[10] and “I Want Your Sex,”[11] or “Love in an Elevator.”[12] Don’t you? “I don’t want to kiss or hold [you tight]… ’cause I’m happy just to dance with you.”[13] That’s a little different! Now, we can argue about it being on a continuum. But here’s the thing, young people, I want to tell you: you cannot open your minds to this stuff without you get that, and you get a pile of stuff that comes along with it. Do you hear me? “He’s old. He’s weird. Forget him.”

“The moment slothfulness begins,” said an ancient commentator, “that moment dangers stand thick about us.”[14] “The moment slothfulness begins, that moment dangers stand thick about us.”

“So, where are you going tonight?”

“I’m going to my friend’s house.”

“What age are you?”

“Seventeen.”

“And what are you going to do?”

“I’m going to listen to CDs.”

“And what CDs are you going to listen to?”

“Oh, you wouldn’t understand them.”

“And what are you going to do when you listen to the CDs?”

“I’m just going to lie around on the floor.”

I tell you what: go before them, send the fire brigade, climb up ladders, fire water hoses, do whatever you like, but I am telling you—the danger that attaches to that whole scheme of activity is phenomenal. And I don’t care if you think I’m old and cold and “settled in my ways.” ’Cause remember, I laid around on the floor and listened to those albums. When slothfulness comes, “dangers stand thick about us.”

That’s why he says our activity must be to be self-controlled and to be alert. Think about it for a moment. Think about who’s saying this: Peter! Think what it cost Peter. Eh? What did Jesus say to the group? He said to them, “Watch and pray so that you [may] not [enter] into temptation.”[15] Right? And Peter neither watched nor prayed. And in a moment, bam!—he’s bowled over by a servant girl and a bunch of people standing round a fireplace.[16] We say, “But I’m not like Peter, you know. You know, he didn’t watch and pray, and neither do I, but I can handle it.” No, you can’t. Neither can I!

Self-controlled and alert, first. Second: mount your own resistance movement. The resistance movement! Here we go. You want to be a revolutionary? Now’s your chance. You want to be a rebel? Now’s your chance. Here is a way to channel those rebel instincts of adolescent life: KOKTD—Keep on Kicking the Devil. That’s it. Go for it. Resist him.

Now, think about it: of all the things the Bible tells us to run away from, we’re not told to run away from the devil. We’re told to run away from sexual immorality.[17] We’re told to run from idolatry,[18] from false doctrine,[19] from a desire for riches,[20] from the evil desires of youth,[21] but when it comes to the devil, he doesn’t say, “Run.” Instead, he says, “Resist.” “Resist him.” You find the same thing in James 4.[22] You find the same thing in the passage we read in Ephesians chapter 6.

Victory in resisting the devil is not on the basis of our personal tenacity. Rather, it is upon the basis of the faith which is ours in Christ.

And indeed, Ephesians chapter 6 provides a helpful commentary for the next phrase that we notice, giving us the key as to how we may mount a resistance movement: standing firm in the faith.[23] Victory in resisting the devil is not on the basis of our personal tenacity. Rather, it is upon the basis of the faith which is ours in Christ—in adhering to the work of Jesus upon the cross, where he defeated the devil, and, if you like, holding up that standard; not our ability to hold it but our willingness to hold to it. We resist him, firm in the faith, by putting on the helmet of salvation. So when the devil comes and attacks us with doubts, we say, “Listen, I know that you’re here to make me doubt, but Jesus died upon the cross for me, and I’m wearing the helmet of salvation. So be gone!” That when he comes to pierce into our innards, we wear the breastplate of righteousness. No armor for the rear. None for the rear. We’re not to be caught running, except running at him, resisting him, firm in the faith. His gates, the gates of hell, cannot hold back the onrush of the people of God as they begin to take from him that which he has garnered as his own.[24]

In other words, it is our theology which gives us a basis for our resistance. It is as we know the Bible that we can resist him. It is as we employ the strategy of Jesus in Matthew 4 that we will know victory. You go back and read Matthew 4 this afternoon, and watch as the Evil One comes to tempt Jesus. And he comes to him; in verse 3, it says, “[And] the tempter came.” Temptation number one: he hits Jesus; Jesus replies beginning with the phrase “It is written…” Temptation number two: “It is written…” Temptation number three: “It is written…” Verse 11: “Then the devil left him.” It’s the exact same strategy today. How are we to resist him? We are to resist him by “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.”[25] He will come. He’ll make us doubt our salvation if he can. He’ll make us so disgruntled and dispirited. He’ll take from us our joy if he may. And we must resist him, firm in the faith.

Our Solidarity

And finally, recognizing that our resistance movement is part of a great solidarity. And that’s at the end of verse 9. Notice what he says: “When you resist him, firm in the faith, realize that you do so, and you are experiencing things that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing.” In other words, “You’re not on your own.” There’s others who are experiencing what Jesus said. John 16:33, I think: “In the world [you will] have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”[26] So you can go to America, you can go to Africa, you can go to the UK, you can go to halfway around Southeast Asia—it doesn’t matter. You will meet believers, and every time you meet believers, you will discover them engaged in spiritual warfare. It is a fact of our Christian experience.

We might ask ourselves this morning if our experience and enjoyment of freedom is finding us, as Western Christians, seizing the opportunities that it affords. Are we, as individuals, taking our chances?

They phoned this week to ask if I wanted Time magazine again. I heard my wife answering for me on the phone. I didn’t know who it was, but it was an interesting discussion. I won’t reiterate it, but basically, we said, “No, we don’t want Time magazine again, because you offered us a free offer.”

They said, “Let me get this right: we were going to give you something free, and you don’t want it because we were going to give you something free?”

“That’s right.”

“Well, what’s the problem? You don’t like free things?”

“Hey, I’m Scottish! I love free things.” No, she didn’t say that. The deal was this: What were they offering us? The same trash they offer on the 1-800 number on the TV: science fiction, mind-altering states, stuff from the pit of hell. No thank you!

Here we are this morning in freedom. We’re worshipping in freedom. We’re hearing about the devil taking a toll. We look at it, and we wonder. Let us end our service this morning by affirming the great debt that we owe to those who in earlier generations resisted, firm in the faith.

Let me give you two illustrations, and we’re done.

In the second century, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna, was brought before the proconsul of his day, and he was commanded to offer incense to Caesar. “Take the oath,” said the proconsul, “and I shall release you. Curse Christ.” And Polycarp replied, “Eighty-six years I have served him, and he never did me any wrong. How can I blaspheme my King who saved me?”[27] And he was tied to the stake and burned.

In 1729, a French girl called—maybe Dutch, actually—Marie Durand was imprisoned with a number of Huguenot women in the Tower of Constance, which overlooks the Mediterranean Sea in the South of France. She was fifteen years old. The reason she was imprisoned was because she held true to the doctrine of justification by grace through faith. And the authorities of the day said, “Stop it.” And she, along with others, said no. At the age of eighteen, her older brother was hanged at Montpellier. In 1745, she was offered freedom if she would agree to renounce the faith of the Reformation. She refused all such offers, and she remained captive for thirty-eight years. A fifteen-year-old girl resisting the temptations to despair and to suicide and to betrayal! And if you and I were to visit the tower room where they were held, there is a stone coping which goes round a hole in the floor, and carved around the opening in the floor is one word: résister—resistance.

And whether we’re smart enough to realize it or not, it is the commitment and faith and struggle of the Marie Durands of the past that allow us to witness in freedom today. And it will be the courage and faith of another generation of Maries that will make it possible for these little children this morning to live in freedom in this nation, if the Lord tarries. But of course, if we’re so stupid as to believe that we may fall asleep on the job and pass truth to our grandchildren, God may have to intervene in ways that we cannot even imagine. For he will preserve his own.

We have an enemy, we have activity, and we have solidarity.

[1] See 1 John 5:19.

[2] 1 Peter 1:3 (NIV 1984).

[3] Ephesians 2:1–2 (NIV 1984).

[4] John 8:44 (NIV 1984). Emphasis added.

[5] Genesis 1:1 (KJV).

[6] Genesis 1:27 (KJV).

[7] See John 14:26.

[8] Genesis 3:1 (paraphrased).

[9] Revelation 12:7–9 (NIV 1984).

[10] John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “I Want to Hold Your Hand” (1963).

[11] George Michael, “I Want Your Sex” (1987).

[12] Joe Perry and Steven Tyler, “Love in an Elevator” (1989).

[13] John Lennon and Paul McCartney, “I’m Happy Just to Dance with You” (1964).

[14] John T. Demarest, A Translation and Exposition of the First Epistle of the Apostle Peter (New York: John Moffet, 1851), 274.

[15] Matthew 26:41; Mark 14:38 (NIV 1984).

[16] See Matthew 26:69–75; Mark 14:66–72; Luke 22:54–62; John 18:15–18, 25–27.

[17] See 1 Corinthians 6:18.

[18] See 1 Corinthians 10:14.

[19] See 2 Timothy 2:16–18.

[20] See 1 Timothy 6:9–11.

[21] See 2 Timothy 2:22.

[22] See James 4:7.

[23] See Ephesians 6:10–18.

[24] See Matthew 16:18.

[25] Ephesians 6:17 (NIV 1984).

[26] John 16:33 (KJV).

[27] Martyrdom of Polycarp 9.