Satan is a prowling lion, an enemy of ours who is right now seeking to devour Christians. But can we be devoured? Yikes! Or are we safe? And what does that mean anyways? And how can we find shelter for such an unseen threat to our eternal security? John Piper addressed this important question straight away in his 1994 sermon on 1 Peter chapter 5.

Here's what he said. Here's another question. Can Christians be devoured? Verse 8 says, "Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." The word is to swallow whole, like the fish did Jonah. Same word in Jonah and Septuagint. Your adversary the devil wants to just make you disappear, vanish.

You're out of here. You're gone. You're going with him to the lake of fire. That's what devour means. The question is, can that happen to me and you? Verse 9 says, "Resist him." And the reason you're to resist him is because he's trying to devour you. He's trying to devour you.

Resist him. Is that a charade? It's war games. They're blanks. They're all blanks. There are no bullets in the gun. Nobody gets killed in this game. It's just, just resist him because, just do it. Nothing's really going to happen if you don't because it doesn't happen to Christians. Is that right?

Well, I think the devouring is real and it sure sounds serious to me when Peter says, "Resist him. Resist him." Doesn't it sound like a game? Sounds like heaven and hell are at stake here to me. So I ask again, can true born-again Christians possibly be devoured by the devil?

And the answer is, no. Because true born-again Christians always fight. They fight. That's what it means to be a true born-again Christian. True born-again Christians have the Holy Spirit within them so that when they see the lion coming, they don't say, "Ah, nothing's at stake here. I don't need to fight.

I don't need to stir up my faith. I don't need to read the Bible. I don't need to pray. I don't need to be with other believers. I don't need to be vigilant over my eyes and make sure that flesh doesn't get the upper hand because nothing's at stake here." True born-again believers do not talk like that.

True born-again believers have the Holy Spirit inside who embraces the Word of God that he inspired. They hear the word, "Resist him now. Fight because your life depends on it. I'll give you the success, but you fight." And they fight. If you don't fight, you're probably not born again.

At least if you go on and on and on and on, slipping away from the vigilance of faith and fighting sin and the devil, you've got no reason to think you're saved. It doesn't really matter what you prayed a long time ago. It doesn't matter what card you signed.

It doesn't matter if it's baptism. It doesn't matter what your parents did. Salvation is real. It's real. It's real. It's the work of God in a human heart. And there are effects from it. And one of the effects is when the lion comes, you fight. There's a promise in this passage which is just staggering.

It's in this passage. It's also way back in chapter 1. In chapter 1, verse 5, it says that Christians are kept, precious word, kept by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Through faith. Through resisting the devil firm in your faith.

If you say, "I'm kept. I'm kept by the power of God." And you don't resist him firm in your faith, you're contradicting God. God says, "I'm going to keep you. I'm going to keep you by my power through your faith against the devil." And you say, "I'll take that, but I won't believe." It's like I go into a king's hall, this great king in some enchanted empire, and he takes the ring off his finger.

And he puts the ring on my finger and he says, "Sir John, as long as you wear this ring, you will be invincible." I say, "I'll be invincible?" "You will be invincible." I write that down. "I will be invincible." And I walk out, I take the ring off and I sell it, pocket the money, and I say, "I'm invincible!" He said, I got it written here, "You will be invincible." There's something wrong with that.

It's something wrong with hearing God say, "You are kept by my power through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed." And then say, "I'm kept by his power. And if Satan comes, I don't need to fight by faith because I'm safe." It's like taking off your ring. Now God will not let the elect, born of God, called, take off their ring.

The evidence that you are a child of God is that you keep the ring on. The badge, the badge of the children of God is battle. The badge of the children of God is battle against sin and the devil, not perfection. That badge, that crown, that comes later. But the fight, I will fight.

I will not lay down my shield. I will not take off my ring. I will not rip off my badge. I'm a believer and he will keep me safe through faith that he himself works in me. That is a classic Piper clip on the theme of perseverance through means.

And it's a clip that comes from his 1994 sermon titled, "The Dominion Belongs to the God of All Grace." A sermon on 1 Peter 5, 8 to 14. The entire audio can be found online at DesiringGod.org free of charge right now. It was sent in to us by Brian Hughes in Houston, Texas.

Thank you, Brian, for this clip. And if you have a clip to send in to us like Brian did, email us at AskPastorJohn@DesiringGod.org. And put the word sermon clip somewhere in the subject line and send the message in to me with the name of the sermon and the timestamp of when and where the clip occurs in the audio recording.

And I am, I'm not sure what's coming up tomorrow, but I suspect many of you will be back tomorrow to find out. In any case, thanks for your commitment to this podcast and for making it a part of your daily routine. I'm your host, Tony Ranke. I'll see you tomorrow.

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