The sermon closes out an exposition of 1 Peter that has run for nearly a year, arriving at 1 Peter 5:8-11, one of the final passages before the series ends. The preacher opens by reflecting on the discipline of expository preaching: because the preacher moves verse by verse through a book rather than choosing topics week to week, the congregation sometimes receives a text that feels out of step with their present struggles — a rebuke when comfort is wanted, or a warning when comfort is needed. Yet this is precisely the strength of expository preaching: it forces the church to hear the full counsel of God rather than only the themes the preacher or the hearers find comfortable. Today's text, the sermon notes, turns out to be strikingly relevant, since Peter closes his letter by commanding believers to be sober, to watch, and to resist the devil with firm faith.

The sermon dwells on Peter's image of the devil as a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Unlike the serpent, which stalks silently, the roaring lion is a picture of open, declared strength — a predator that announces its power and intimidates through fear rather than stealth. Verse 9 supplies the context for this roaring: it is expressed through suffering, the same suffering "your brothers throughout the world are undergoing." The devil's aim in inflicting suffering, imprisonment, and even death on believers (as in the letter to the church in Smyrna in Revelation 2:10) is not merely to wound them but to swallow them whole — to drag as many people as possible into eternal condemnation alongside himself. The sermon insists that faithfulness to God does not guarantee physical safety; Smyrna's believers are called to be faithful "even unto death," and that call to costly faithfulness runs through church history, exemplified by martyrs such as Stephen, who prayed for his killers even as he was being stoned.

This raises the sermon's central question: can a true, born-again Christian actually be devoured by the devil? The answer, the preacher argues, is both yes and no. Yes, in the sense that Peter commands believers to resist "with firm faith" — faith is genuinely required, and without it no one is justified before God; watchfulness and active resistance are real obligations, illustrated through Job's steadfastness under satanic assault and through Christ's own temptation in the wilderness, where Satan questioned the Father's goodness by tempting Jesus to turn stones into bread. The preacher also shares a personal illustration: watching his mother's cancer relapse and his father's temptation, in desperation, to seek healing from a folk shaman rather than trust God — precisely the kind of fear-driven temptation the roaring lion produces.

But the deeper answer is no: ultimately it is not the believer's own faith or strength that secures them against the devil, but God himself. Verse 10 supplies the promise: "the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you after you have suffered a little while." The sermon connects this to 1 Peter 1:3-5, where believers are described as being "guarded through faith" for a salvation ready to be revealed — God's preserving work operates precisely through, not apart from, the believer's faith. The sermon warns against two opposite errors: relying on one's own strength and effort as if perseverance were self-generated (a subtly self-reliant faith), and, on the other extreme, hyper-Calvinism, which so emphasizes God's sovereignty that human responsibility to watch, resist, and persevere is abandoned. The fifth point of Calvinism, perseverance of the saints, holds both together: the saints will persevere to the end, not because they achieve perfection, but because God himself sustains their perseverance.

The sermon closes with an illustration attributed to Pastor Stephen Tong, recounting General MacArthur's reply to soldiers begging him to pray that God would be on their side during a fierce battle: "Let us not pray that God be on our side, but that we be on God's side; if we are on God's side, he will surely keep us." This becomes the sermon's final appeal, tied to Francis Havergal's hymn "Who Is on the Lord's Side?", whose refrain answers the question not by human strength but by grace: "By Thy call of mercy, by Thy grace divine, we are on the Lord's side, Savior, we are Thine." True Christians will fight, watch, and resist the devil — not perfectly, but genuinely and continually — precisely because it is God who preserves them, and because death itself cannot separate them from the love of God in Christ.

Bible Verses Used

• 1 Peter 5:8-11: the sermon's main text — the call to be sober, watchful, and to resist the devil, pictured as a roaring lion, with the assurance that God will restore and establish believers after suffering.

• Revelation 2:10: cited to show the devil's tactic of imprisonment and death against the church in Smyrna, and Christ's call to faithfulness "even unto death" for the crown of life.

• Job (narrative): used as an example of a believer whom Satan sought to destroy through loss and suffering, yet who remained steadfast, defeating the devil's proposal.

• Matthew 4 (the wilderness temptation): cited to show Satan tempting Jesus by questioning the Father's goodness, paralleling the doubt suffering produces in believers.

• 1 Peter 1:3-5: connected back to 5:8-11 to show that believers are "guarded through faith" by God's power for a salvation to be revealed, grounding perseverance in God's preserving work.

• Romans 8: referenced for "if God is for us, who can be against us" and the assurance that God who calls and justifies will also glorify, reinforcing that God's preserving purpose cannot fail.