[0:00]
With questions, and I'm going to answer them both now. Either the studies and the talks have been just crystal clear, or you have no idea what they're about, and you can't ask questions at all. So, anyway. First question is, did God create the devil? Answer? Yes. It's a good question. How do we?

[0:30]
we know that answer. God created everything. Everything's been created by him. But we do know that God created the devil, yes, but he was not created evil. God does not create evil. God can use evil for his own good purposes, but God did not create evil. So God created the devil, yes. You see the great temptation to want to fill in the gaps there? I can't tell you much more than that from the scriptures.

[1:00]
Here's another one, and it's a harder question. Why in the first place allow the fruit, I assume the tree of knowledge of good and evil, the fruit to be present in Eden, to tempt us? Good question, isn't it? As far as I can understand, the tree stands for the choice to follow God and trust His Word. God did not create robots.

[1:30]
God created people with real wills. In fact, as God creates Adam and Eve, God created them with free will, the ability to make real choices freely. They used that free will to disobey him and to bring sin into the world. Now, none of this surprised God. We saw last night from 1 Peter chapter 1 that God knew from before the creation of the world that Adam and Eve would sin and God. and God had determined that he would give his son to redeem the human race.

[2:06]
Now, the change in humanity is this, that people talk about us having free will. That's not actually correct. Every aspect of the human, of the human character, all parts of our character, have been damaged by sin. We don't have free will. humanity can't just choose or not choose God. It takes God to open hearts and minds and draw us to himself.

[2:38]
What we have, I prefer to call it, is real will. And that is we make real decisions with real consequences. But free will? No, the ability to choose God is a gift of God. Second part to the question. So if God created Satan too, why did he do it? In the first way, place and allow suffering. Yes, God created Satan, and I think probably from 1 Timothy 3.6, Satan does fall because of pride.

[3:09]
And the issue of pride keeps coming up again and again, as Satan is mentioned in the scriptures. All suffering comes from sin. Sometimes it's just in our world and it seems random. It's like, you know, we now live in a swamp and people get mud on them. and it's not directly cause and effect related because someone suffers a lot doesn't mean they're a worse sinner. It's just kind of the way things are. Suffering is not good, but God is able to bring good from it.

[3:44]
Jesus calls on Christians to suffer as we follow him. The reason, it's not that suffering's good, it's that we should be prepared to suffer for the good of others. Do you see? We suffer, but only for the good of others. If you want to wrestle with this whole idea of a good and sovereign God, and yet there's evil in the world, the best book I've ever read on it is by Professor Don Carson, D.A. Carson, and it's called How Long, O Lord.

[4:16]
How Long, O Lord. It's a book without pictures, though. So, you know, you need to be a bit of a reader to cope with it. it. I showed my eldest daughter a book the other day that we'd bought for someone that had no pictures in it. I said, here honey, look at this. He's a book with no pictures. She said, how do you know what's happening? So it may not be a book for my beautiful daughter, but yes, she should read. That's what she should do.

[4:49]
Okay, it's been a beautiful morning. I'm woken up early. I've done one of my favorite things, and that is a nice hot shower. And then what you do, what I love to do is I lather up from the neck up. I get my shaving brush out, soap it up, and then I cover my whole head in soap and shave off everything but my eyebrows. How good's that? You should try it sometime. It's great. And then you get in a hot shower and you think, yeah, I'm ready to face the day. Beautiful. Shave it ahead. But here's the thing.

[5:22]
Not every morning's like that, is it? Sometimes there are a real, difficulties and heartaches in life. Yesterday I got an email from a young guy I know back in Australia who's just lost his job. It's a young guy, he's got a couple of kids, he's in a fairly specialized industry. He's lost his job through no fault of his own. It's kind of, you know, global financial meltdown thing. And he's going to suffer because of it.

[5:53]
Or for others of us, it may just, you know, maybe financial pain or it may be, you know, maybe financial pain, or it may be that our business has gone bad or we're getting a hard time at work for being a Christian. It may be that I've had a number of talks with young women lately who are single and would love to be married and yet there's no Christian man around who's in any way useful.

[6:23]
It may be heartache with your children. children and can't our children rip our hearts out and drop them in our laps? It's just, here's the question. Is that the devil making life difficult? Well, Revelation, I've been told to speak a little more slowly and I will when I give Bible references, okay? I'll do that. It could be the devil, couldn't it? Because Revelation chapter 2 and verse 8 and following, Revelation 2 verse 8 and following,

[6:55]
as the Lord Jesus speaks to the seven churches in the beginning of Revelation, he says to the church in Smyrna, do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for 10 days. Be faithful even to the point of death, and I will give you a crown of life. The devil will actually physically personally. Some of them will die because of the persecution of the devil. Or if you've read, the beginning of the book of Job. Job, chapters 1 and 2,

[7:28]
where Satan actually takes Job's children, his wealth, his health, his health, and leaves his wife. It's a complete disaster. And that's all done from small attempted humor. If you read the only… But the whole lot of terrible things happen in Job's life and direct the devil has done it. Yes. But do you know, at the same time, time, the hard things in life that come could be from the hand of a loving God.

[8:03]
You see, is my friend who's lost his job. That could actually be pruning, the idea of pruning the vine from his loving heavenly father who needs to teach him to trust God more rather than the career. So Jesus says in John 15, verse 1, I am the true vine and my father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch of me that bears no fruit. While every branch that does bear fruit, he prunes, literally cuts it back, and that means pain, he prunes so that it will bear even more fruit.

[8:37]
And in a year's time or two years' time, my friend will look back and say, yes, I can see the lesson that God taught me, and it was a hard lesson, but I've learned to trust him, and now he's given me an even better job or something. Or it could be the discipline of your heaven. father. So Hebrews chapter 12, verses 7 to 11. The writer of Hebrews says, endure hardship as disciplined. God is treating you as sons, for what son is not disciplined by his father or daughter disciplined by her father? Now in verse 11,

[9:11]
no discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who've been trained by it. So is it from, is it the devil doing it, God doing it. Now one thing you can be sure of, if it's a temptation to sin, it's straight from the evil one. Right? If the temptation is, oh, my secretary is so cute, I'm half tempted to kind of do the wrong thing with her at work. Man, that's got the smell of sulfur all over. You know, that's from the devil. But what about the suffering, the hard times that come in life?

[9:48]
Here's where I think, I don't think you can know. I don't think you can know whether, you know, you know, the persecution at work. Is this discipline from your heavenly father or is this the devil or it's trying to unscramble the omelet? You can't know. And that's why you need to understand the sovereignty of God, that God's in charge of all of this. And the way the sovereignty of God works is that God is able to use the evil actions of other agents to bring about his good purposes. I'll give you some

[10:22]
quick references. You can look them up later on. In Isaiah chapter 10, God says he will use the nation of Assyria like a club to punish wicked Israel. Assyria is evil. They intend evil. God will bring his justice from that. Isaiah chapter 10. Or the story of Joseph, which is probably my, outside the gospels, I think my favorite story in the Bible. Joseph's brothers intend evil when they sell their brother into slavery.

[10:52]
And yet at the end of the story, Joseph has worked out his brothers intended evil. God used it for good to save the whole nation and fulfill his promises. On 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Satan gives Paul some kind of thorn in the flesh, some kind of physical problem. And yet when Paul prays to have it taken away, God says, no, this is actually the kindness of God to him to keep him weak.

[11:22]
and humble. And of course, the greatest example of people doing evil and God, including the devil, people and the devil working together to do evil and God bringing good from it is, what's the greatest example of that? People, devil do evil, God brings good from it? Come on, you can tell me. Well done. The cross. Yes. Acts chapter 4. I can't remember the exact verse, but it's in the Acts chapter 4.

[11:52]
So here's the thing. God oversees all of that. And if it is Satan giving you a hard time, it happens under the good hand of God. Romans chapter 8, verse 28, tells us that everything that happens, works together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purposes. And what is our good? It says to conform us to the image of Christ. You suffering at the moment? I'm sorry. But it's under the hands of a good God and God is used.

[12:22]
that to change you to be like Jesus. And it's a sad thing, really. The happy times in life don't change us much. The hard things in life are what mold us and change us. And as you live, you can live with confidence because in the same chapter, in Romans 8, verse 37, what's the promise? No, in all these things, we are more than conquerors, through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither.

[12:52]
death nor life, neither angels nor demons. The demon's word, they're the NIV translation. It's the word for heavenly rulers. Paul uses it a lot in Ephesians. Neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So you live with confidence. Okay.

[13:22]
Having said all that, the warfare is real. The same Paul who writes that confidence passage also writes about spiritual warfare, which we'll look at tonight and tomorrow morning. The battle is on. In fact, it's a hot battle because in Revelation 1212, we're told the devil is here and full of fury because he knows his time is short. You know, it's like a big blowfly or whatever, and he spray it with the insecticide. What's it do? It, right, because it knows his time is short and the devil is like that.

[13:58]
Furious. And the two main ways in which the devil attacks the children of God, you put them down as the carrot or the stick. Okay? By the carrot, I mean seduction. And that is kind of the honey sweet, it seems all right, the seduction to walk away from God. And the stick? persecution, suffering, difficulties and so on. And they're both there. Now, the way it works is the seduction thing, I think he's picked up more in Ephesians,

[14:31]
and we'll look at that in Ephesion 6, as I said, in the next two talks. And the persecution one particularly comes out in one Peter. So if you'd like to turn with me, or perhaps the Bible is still open, at one Peter and chapter 5. Let's have a look at what Peter says. So he says in chapter 5, verse 8, resist the devil. And the devil looks to, you know, devour people. How is it that you resist the devil? Well, in many ways, the whole of the letter is about that. The whole letter is about suffering.

[15:01]
Have a look. Just turn back a page or two to chapter 1, verse 6. In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. Or chapter 4 verse 12. Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering as though something strange were happening to you. They are suffering. And the part about the devil isn't tacked on at the end. I think really it's like the high point of the letter

[15:33]
where the one behind the scenes becomes visible. I think that's more the way that it works. And it's interesting that as Peter gets to speak directly about the devil in chapter 5, what's the topic that leads into it? Look at verse 5. In chapter 5 verse 5, what's the topic that keeps coming up around the devil?

[16:04]
Humility. Humility. Oh, sorry, no, pride and humility. Okay, it's those two, the opposite sides of the coin. Pride and humility comes up again and again. It's linked. Now you see the context. What I'd like to do is just walk you into that verse about the devil, but let's look at how. Peter leads up to it. Because Peter's not actually changing topics every sentence. What it is, it actually fits together, what he's saying. All right. So, see, the chapter begins speaking to elders or literally older men,

[16:37]
the presbyterate, presbyters, older men, as they are to shepherd and lead and guide God's people. And then speaking of humility, of course, the mind turns immediately to younger men. So have a look at chapter 5 verse 5. Young men, in the same way, or literally likewise, young men, be submissive to those who are older. That can be a hard word to young men, can't it? Be submissive.

[17:07]
So when you're a young man, you kind of, you know, fired up and impatient and you know best. There's a particular sign that I've seen. Sometimes it's a bumper sticker. Here we go. In case you're listening on that. tape the sign says, hire a teenager while they still know everything. Some of you young ones aren't laughing. In a few years time, it'll be funny. Just remember it, okay, and then think about it later. What's the submissive word? The submissive word is the word hoopatassow, which means to rank yourself under someone.

[17:42]
And it's got the sense of to choose to do it, rather than just be obedient. So when you get to Ephesians chapter 5 and 6, The Apostle Paul tells wives to Hooper Tasso to their husbands, to be submissive to their husbands. He tells children to be obedient. It's wives are to choose to be submissive to their husbands. Okay. Now here's the thing. Here is something that Asian culture does much better than Anglo culture.

[18:13]
There are many things. Food, all sorts of stuff, right? But the submissive thing, Asians are way ahead of Anglos on this. And that is much more the older, so the younger being submissive to the older, it fits. The older are usually wiser. They've seen more, have suffered more, have made mistakes and so learned and so on. And young men are called on to be submissive. So my younger brothers hear that.

[18:45]
Now by the way, I know nothing about the church here. No one has been in my year about any problems. I'm just telling you what the Bible says, okay? All right. So, okay. Here's the thing, if you want an example of being submissive, the Lord Jesus himself was submissive to his parents. Do you know the story after they lose Jesus? He's about 12 years old, and they lose him in Jerusalem, and then it takes three days to find him, and then they finally find him in the temple.

[19:15]
You know, there's thousands of people, they finally find him after three days, and his mom says, what have you, you know, have you done this to us? And Jesus says, what? Why are you looking for me? What's the problem? Which does show that he was a teenager, actually. I speak with all reverence, but I'm just saying that that's the words of a teenager. What have I done? And then in Luke 2.51, what are we told? He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was submissive. Same word as Peter uses. Was submissive to them and his mother treasured all these things in her heart.

[19:49]
I've just gone for the English standard version there because the NIV translates it as was obedient to them. Similar meaning, but that's submissive is the word. Now, here's the thing too. What's the definition of young? When do you stop being kind of a young man? And ladies, listen to this as well, apply it to yourselves, but particularly this is a young man thing. When do you stop being a young man? Well, as I said, yesterday I hit 50 this year, and I think in the Anglican church that I work for,

[20:24]
I'm still in meetings where I'm a boy. That's how old, everyone else is. It's kind of a two-edged sword, though, and that is, it can be frustrating, but even at my age, I still need to remember to be submissive to those who are older. So it's a matter of the heart, not a matter of a number. Okay? By the way, it doesn't say, Peter doesn't say, older men make the young men submit.

[20:54]
Notice that? This is between young men and God. It's not for older men to make them submit. All right. Young men, in the same way, be submissive to those who are older, middle of verse 5. All of you clothe yourselves with humility towards one another, because God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. See what he's saying? We all need to be submissive to older, but we all need to be humble to one another. What's humility?

[21:25]
The consideration of others ahead of yourself. If you want the great example of humility, Philippians chapter 2, the Lord Jesus, who in very nature God did not put the needs of others ahead of himself. So young men are told to be submissive, but just a quick word to older men, if I may. And once again, I know nothing about what's happening here at ARPC. just, you know, yeah? But older men need to learn humility. Okay? And you look back at verse 3. Old men are not to lord it over those entrusted to you.

[22:00]
Do not think, my brothers, as you get older, it's all about me, because it's not. And we need the humility to let younger men have some oxygen get on with things, especially in ministry stuff. What I see back home in Australia is older men hanging on to power more and more in church structures and not letting younger men, in get the oxygen and freedom that they need. And our churches are the poorer for it. So it needs to happen. We all need to learn humility.

[22:31]
And what's humility? Humility is, of course, the opposite of pride. You see, God opposes the proud, the middle of verse 5, God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Pride about, it's all about me, It's all about my power, my name, I've done it, or I will do it, or I'm in control, about my glory and so on. And pride is a very ugly thing, and our world runs on it. The writer C.S. Lewis, I'll read you a quote from what he says about the damage that pride does.

[23:06]
He says, there is one vice of which no man in the world is free, which everyone in the world loathes when he sees it in someone else, and of which hardly has. any people except Christians ever imagine that they are guilty themselves. The essential vice, the utmost evil, is pride. Unchastity, anger, greed, drunkenness and all that are mere flea bites in comparison. It was through pride that the devil became the devil.

[23:37]
Pride leads to every other vice. It is the complete anti-God state of mind. As long as you are proud, you cannot know God. A proud man. is always looking down on things and people. And of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you. Pride is me first, me is clever, me is important, me is the centre. And you know what? Jesus had no time for the proud. He had time for sinners and prostitutes and tax collectors and you name it,

[24:09]
but the proud, that was what he had no time for. The great preacher, Charles Spurgeon, said, Jesus sends none away empty, but those who are full of themselves. I wish I could make up lines like that. Anyway, Jesus sends none away empty, but those who are full of themselves. And so what should we do? Look at verse 6. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand. He is God, we are not. It's all about him. It's not all about us.

[24:40]
He's the centre. We're not. Humble yourselves, therefore, under God's mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Since the humility to humiliation. Humble yourself means God will lift you up. But do you know, you want to be careful of being proud about achieving humility. Okay? Because the devil's very subtle. In C.S. Lewis's book, the screw tape letters, the screw tape letters is kind of a fictional thing about a senior devil,

[25:10]
writing to a junior devil about how to tempt and basically ruin the Christian life of this particular, you know, a particular human. And so it's advice from one devil to another. Here's what the senior devil says about catching someone when they're beginning to be humble. He says, I see only one thing to do at the moment. Your patient has become humble. Have you drawn his attention to the fact? All virtues are less formidable to us once the man is aware that he has them.

[25:42]
But this is especially true of humility. Catch him at the moment when he is really poor. spirit and smuggle into his mind the gratifying reflection, oh, well, I'm being humble. And almost immediately the pride at his own humility will appear. Beware. Now then Peter changes topic, or he appears to change topic, when he says, verse 7, cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you. He said, don't be anxious.

[26:13]
You know, I think I'd go so far as to say that anxiety is a lot of, a sin. Anxiety is a sin. Jesus uses the anxiety word in the parable of the sower to talk about the things that take people away from listening to the word of God. I'll show you, Mark chapter 4 verse 18. It's exactly the same word. Still others like seed sown among thorns, hear the word, but the worries, that's the anxiety word,

[26:45]
the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful. Notice what he says, the anxieties of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth, the desires for other things. What are we anxious about? We're anxious about our status, how we're seen, how we perceive, where do we fit in the pecking order, how much, you know, how important are we, and we're anxious about our security. both of which, by the way, our status, who we are, what we're worth, and our security

[27:19]
should come from God. But if you're anxious and not trusting God, what do we look to? We'll we look for other things, don't we? If I just had more money, if I just had more stuff, if I just got the promotion at work, if I just had the corner office, if I just had a bigger house, if I just looked better, if I just had a iPhone, I don't know, depending how old you are, all right, if I just had technology, and here's the thing, we will worship, we will serve what gives us security in life.

[27:51]
Hey, whatever it is, you, whatever you get your security from, that's what you'll serve. Your looks, fashion, money, career, or God. Whoever it is, that's what you'll serve. Isn't it interesting that the New Testament says that greed, greed is the more and more stuff is what life's all about that I'll find my security and status and so on in possessions that greed is idolatry. And what do we see, was it yesterday, the day before? Behind the idols of the nation

[28:24]
stands the demons. It's got the devil's fingerprints all over it. Don't be anxious. Why? Learn to trust God. Learn to trust God. Because it says, actually, it's a really kind of a catchy little phrase. In verse 7 where it says, he cares for you. What it literally says in the original is in the Greek, to him it matters concerning you. To him, it matters concerning you. You don't need to worry.

[28:56]
You don't need to, he will look after you. So if you're anxious, if you're a Christian, and you have trusted your eternal well-being to God and God gave his only son so that you could be forgiven, what is it that you're worried about? What is it you walk around with your guts in and not about? Drag it out into the sunlight and look at it. And stop being anxious about it. Stop being anxious about it. Now, if you look, pride and anxiety seem really different, and yet they're not. They're two sides of the one coin.

[29:29]
See, pride is, I will do it. I'm the one that matters, not God, right? I lift myself up, put God down. Pride is, I will do it. Anxiety is, well, God won't do it. you see both of them are actually a refusal to honour God, pride and anxiety. It's in that context, as you talk about pride and so on, or putting me first and not trusting God, then he talks about the devil. You see how that starts to fit into the picture that we've seen

[29:59]
in the last kind of four talks? What's he say in that context? Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devout. Your enemy, the devil. It's personal. He is personally your enemy. He wants to destroy you. And when Peter calls him a roaring lion, often in the Psalms, especially in Psalm 22, which is about the suffering of Jesus, often in the Psalms, the enemies of God's people are called lions.

[30:36]
But as Peter wrote about lions here, some of the people that he wrote to, would literally face lions in the arena for being Christian. Your enemy, it's the idea of an adversary in a lawsuit. This is the one that wants to defeat you. It wants to devour you. And you notice, too, this, the devil against the Christian person, it's to the Christian, not the non-Christian. Don't let anyone tell you, become a Christian and life gets easier.

[31:06]
Not a bit. As soon as you become a Christian, you've got to walk against, the way the whole world flows, and you've got the devil on your case. Why? He doesn't bother about the non-Christians. He's got them. They're not a problem. It's you, your life that he's after. He already owns the other guys. So life will get more difficult. Verse 8, self-controlled. The word is literally sober. Be sober. Be sober. Be alert. The great danger for Christians is actually falling asleep at the wheel.

[31:38]
Not being alert. I wonder if I wonder if Peter kind of shook his head and remembered, you know, 25, 30 years earlier when on the night before Jesus died, they're in the garden, Garden of Gethsemini. And Jesus says to Peter, or calls him Simon in this thing, Simon Peter. Jesus says in Luke 22, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to sift to you as wheat,

[32:08]
to judge him, to destroy him. Satan has asked to sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you've turned back, strengthen your brothers. But he replied, Lord, I'm ready to go with you to prison and to death. So, as always, Simon Peter, you know, wave the sword, beat the chest. And then just a few hours later, what is it the Lord Jesus says to him? Then Jesus returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Simon, he said to Peter, are you asleep?

[32:39]
could you not keep watch for one hour? Watch and pray that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the body is weak. And so there's Peter. For all the big talk, he's asleep and drowsy and so on, and then a little while later he denies his Lord when challenged by a servant girl. Peter says now be alert, sober. What does it mean?

[33:09]
to be devout? I think in verse 9, what it means is to actually the opposite of not hold onto your faith, to give in to your faith, to give in to the pressures of the world. I think that's what it means, to walk away from your faith. So the way to resist Satan is to stand firm in your faith. To be devout is to give up. To give into pride and think it's all about me, or to give into anxiety and to think I can't trust God, he won't look after me. And the whole of the letter is a call to stand up, put your faith into practice.

[33:39]
stand firm You see verse 9 You know brothers throughout the world, sorry, you know, I'm sorry, stand firm because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And that is the Christians suffered then and in many countries today around the world, especially in Islamic countries. We have brothers.

[34:09]
and sisters who suffer for the sake of Jesus. I think you are not alone. I know I should do a better job in trying to support them. It's just so foreign to the world that I live in. The secular media doesn't cover the persecution of Christians. In our country, I don't think it's kind of an organized conspiracy to not cover it. I think it's just that it doesn't fit their worldview. So they find other reasons for what happens or just don't.

[34:39]
don't cover it at all. Why does God allow Christians to suffer? Well, back in chapter one of Peter, he says it's to purify their faith, the way that gold is purified. Fire purifies gold, suffering purifies faith. And those who have suffered for Jesus have steel in their spine. And God allows suffering, but only for so long. You see verse 10, and the God of all grace, who calls you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have.

[35:09]
have suffered a little while will himself restore you and make you strong and firm and steadfast. To him be the power forever and ever. Amen. Now, if you live in Singapore or if you live in Australia, we won't, or the vast majority of us will not suffer physically the way that Peter's readers obviously were. But the devil is at work, isn't he? And there's subtle or not so subtle pressures on us. Pressures to, you know, to compromise.

[35:39]
This pressure is to just shut up rather than speak up. Where I come from, there's just this great pressure to be nice. And to not speak up about the truth and say that Islam is wrong, or to say that Buddhism is wrong, or to say that pluralism is wrong. Just the pressure on just to be nice. If you ever pray for me, if you ever think to pray for the baldy-headed bishop from Australia,

[36:09]
Would you pray that I won't be nice that I'll be loving? Please, God, stop him being nice, make him loving. Because there's all the difference in the world. Do you know what nice is? Nice is I act in a certain way so people will like me. Loving is, I do what is best for other people. And that will mean a very different life. The loving person will say hard things to people. The loving person will do stuff that's unpopular.

[36:41]
Why? Because it needs to be done for the good of others. So pray that for me. Pray that for yourself. Pray that for your church. Pray that for Christians in Singapore. They might be loving and not just nice. The churches in my country are wealthy and sleepy. And you know, It may well be that God and his severe mercy will send persecution to wake us up

[37:16]
and stop us fighting with each other and fighting over trivia and actually see our church grow. Because the interesting, as the church is persecuted, churches grow. I can't bring myself to pray for persecution, but it would be the severe mercy of God. So what does Peter say? Be self-controlled and alert and. see what's going on because the devil is subtle. Now, I think the letter of Peter isn't, and what he says here,

[37:49]
kind of about the stick, yes. In our case, it's more likely to be seduction. It's more likely to be the honey-coated kind of seducer that draws us away and makes us useless in our Christian life. Tonight, we'll have a look at Ephesians. I just want to read you a paragraph, get you to think about this. I'll read it again tonight from a book that's edited by a friend of mine, Peter Bolt, who's a lecturer at Moore College in Sydney.

[38:20]
Let me read it to you. You'll get it, and then I'm finished. Here's what he says. The devil is not only in the dramatic, but also operates in the humdrum, mundane, routine features of ordinary life. including things we know as culture. What are the things that take people from God and distract them from His Word? Do these not include such things as wealth, marriage, family, business concerns about

[38:56]
business, concerns about status in society, pleasure seeking, education and human wisdom, friends and other social relations, being busy with what to eat, drink and where, attractive but false teaching that meets our own needs and the like. If so, then here are Satan's methods and schemes. Easy to miss, because they are all around us and so much a part of our lives.

[39:26]
Be self-controlled and alert. And tonight we'll look more at Satan's schemes in Ephesians chapter 6, verses 10 to 20. Would you pray with me? Lord God, we ask please that you might make us self-controlled and alert that we may actually see the schemes of the evil one. We ask please that we'd be able to stand firm in the faith. For those of us who face persecution, we ask please that you would put steel in our spines and hope in our hearts.

[39:59]
And for our brothers and sisters around the world who do suffer for your name, we ask please that you would strengthen them, keep them firm in the faith, and provide brothers and sisters in other hearts. the countries who will support them. We ask, please, Lord, that you might make us more than just nice that we might be loving to those around us. And we ask this in Jesus' name, amen.