Fundamental Attitudes for Spiritual Maturity, Pt. 3
1 Peter 5:8‑14
Tonight as we come to our sacred time, really, in the Word of God, a time when the Spirit of God speaks directly through revelation to us, as we learn His Word and as we endeavor to elucidate its meaning, it's our prayer that the Spirit of God may ennoble us even to more faithful fulfillment of the task to which we have been called. And I know that was on Peter's heart as he wrote to the dear saints who were the recipients of his letter.
We're looking then tonight at 1 Peter chapter 5, our last look in this epistle. The section before us actually began in verse 5 and concludes at the end in verse 14. In this our third study of these verses, we've used the title, "Fundamental Attitudes for Spiritual Maturity."
As we begin, let me just say to you by way of a general observation that we live in a time when there is a prevailing mindlessness in the church. We could consider the church as today as having a spirit of anti‑intellectualism, and I don't mean that in an academic way, I mean that in a spiritual way, in a biblical way. The church has in many ways fallen victim to the New Age Movement. The New Age Movement is nothing more than a newly clad form of Hindu‑mysticism. If you know anything about Hindus, you know they believe in everything and they believe in nothing. They are characterized as mystics in the sense that they make no distinction between fantasy and reality. The natural and the supernatural blend into some kind of blur. That characterizes the New Age Movement which is an anti‑intellectual movement, it's an anti‑content movement that wants only to speak about experiences and mystical experiences at that, that knows little difference between what is real and what is fantasy.
To give you a perspective of how this has found its way into the church today in a broader kind of consideration, we could look first of all at the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman Catholic Church is deeply involved in mysticism. If you were to attend a Mass, you would find yourself caught up in a very mystical kind of ritual, a mechanical kind of anti‑intellectual series of movements and motions and ceremonies and activities. The product of that sort of mystical ceremony is to produce in you some kind of feeling rather than to impart to you some kind of truth. Mystical ceremony has replaced intelligent worship. Scripture becomes completely subservient to form and ceremony.
In liberal Protestantism you have much of the same. They have emphasized another kind of anti‑intellectualism. They call it sometimes "the leap of faith." They speak about God as if He were some transcendent being that we through some mystical experience can touch. Another product of their social orientation or their anti‑intellectual perspective is a political kind of anti‑intellectualism, when you no longer know the content of truth, when you no longer know what is right or wrong, when you no longer believe the Bible as liberals do not, then all your left with is experience and experience finds its way into social life and social issues and therefore into political concerns. If you are wearied with trying to agree on a non‑authoritative scripture, if you are weary of trying to find truth without a standard, you wind up in a sort of mystical kind of religious experience that eventually descends into social action and little more.
Not only is the Roman Catholic Church involved in mysticism and the liberal Protestant church but today the Charismatic Movement is probably the most obvious purveyor of subjectivism, the most obvious seller of mysticism. It promotes, in my judgment, an experiential anti‑intellectualism also. It is the product of a weak theology and the product of an incompetent handling of the Word of God. The bottom line is you have people looking for experience. That experience knows little or no biblical definition.
These kinds of things have produced a sort of mindless Christianity that is in fact the antithesis of everything that God has designed for His church. God never intended that His people would somehow connect up with Him or worship Him without the use of their minds and without basing that relationship upon a very clear and precise understanding of truth. In Psalm 32 verse 8 the Scripture says, "I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go. I will counsel you with My eye upon you." Then He says this, "Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding."
There is no virtue in not understanding. There is no virtue in a lack of information. There is no premium on not knowing. In Psalm 73 and verse 22 the psalmist writes, "When my heart was embittered I was senseless and ignorant and I was like a beast before You." Senselessness and ignorance before God is considered to be that which is characteristic of an animal, not a man. In the prophecy of Isaiah, chapter 1 and verse 18, you remember these familiar words, "Come now and let us reason together, says the Lord." In Jeremiah chapter 4 and verse 22 we read these words, "Words of condemnation for My people are foolish, they know Me not, they are stupid children and they have no understanding." In Hosea the prophet says in chapter 4 what would sum up a very important truism, "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." God has never put a premium on mindlessness, just the opposite...just the opposite.
Turn for a moment to Philippians chapter 1 and let me remind you of some verses there. Verse 9 says, "And this I pray that your love may abound still more and more in real knowledge and all discernment so that you may approve the things that are excellent, in order to be sincere and blameless until the day of Christ, having been filled with the fruit of righteousness which comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God." Going through that backwards, we are to be filled with the fruit of righteousness so that we may be sincere and blameless. To do that, we must approve the things that are excellent and to approve the things that are excellent, we must have real knowledge and all discernment.
In 2 Peter chapter 1 and verse 5, Peter writes, "Now for this very reason also applying all diligence, in your faith apply moral excellence and in your moral excellence, knowledge...knowledge."
Beloved, I just say this by way of reminder. We are called to know. We are called to use our minds, to understand the truth of the revelation of God. Not to engage ourselves in experience as that which determines truth, not to be caught up in mysticism but that is ever becoming the mode of operation of the church today. That is why you see the blurring together of Catholicism, liberalism, Charismaticism because it is all predicated on the same kind of mystical approach which wants to bypass the mind to feel God. Lade Rufus Jones(?) wrote, quote: "Whenever I go to church I feel like unscrewing my head and placing it under the pew in front of me because I never have any use for anything above my collar button," end quote.
We're not here to make you feel, we are here to make you think because proper action and proper response comes with proper understanding. Christianity is a matter of the mind. Do I need to remind you how the Bible describes the mind of the sinner, the mind of the unregenerate, the mind of the one without God? In Romans 1:28 it says he has a depraved mind. In 2 Corinthians 4:4 it says he has a blinded mind. In Ephesians 4:17 he has a futile mind, or an empty mind, or a useless mind. In Colossians 1:21 he has an alienated mind, that is it is alienated from God.
You might even sum it up in the words of Paul to the Romans in chapter 8 verses 5 and following. "For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit. For the mind set on the flesh is death but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God for it does not subject itself to the law of God for it is not even able to do so."
So the unregenerate man has a depraved mind, a blind mind, a futile mind, an alienated mind that can be summed up as a mind of the flesh. He can't think properly. He cannot understand the things of God, they're foolishness to him. But on the other hand, the New Testament tells us about the mind of the believer. In 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 16 it says, "But you have the mind of Christ." A Christlike mind. In Romans 12:1 and 2 it says we have a renewed mind. In 2 Timothy 1:7 it says God has given us a sound mind. And so we are able to think on things that are virtuous, things that are pure, things that are noble, things that are good.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 5 Paul says, "We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ." Your thoughts must be captive to obey Christ. And wherein has Christ revealed His will but in the Scripture. And so as our minds are filled with divine truth, as that filling of the mind with divine truth becomes woven into the fabric of our lives, then that begins to control our conduct. William James said, quote, "The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes," end quote. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, "A man is what he thinks." And the Scripture says, "As a man thinks in his heart, so is he."
Beloved, the purpose of preaching and the purpose of teaching is to pour truth into your mind, to pour it in your mind in a persuasive way, to pour it into your mind in a convicting way, to pour it into your mind in a clear and precise and definitive way. That is its purpose. So that truth continually poured into your mind somehow becomes part of you as the food which you eat becomes part of the body and the life and the energy by which you life, so does the truth. It is the goal of the preacher and the teacher to give you truth which translates into strength, translates into action, translates into beauty, translates into usefulness. That's why we're here.
And what that truth poured into you does is create attitudes. It finally becomes so mixed with your thought patterns that it begins to generate attitudes and those attitudes control your behavior. And if you have a mindless Christianity and if you do not hear precise clear truth from the Word of God brought to you persuasively, then you will not have a clear mind and you will not have the truth that translates into action, translates into attitude. And so it's crucial that you expose yourself to truth. And what I do on Sunday morning and Sunday night and what I do with most of my life is impart truth to people so that once received in its clarity and in its impact, it begins to cultivate attitudes.
As a footnote to that let me say that is why you must continually be exposed to truth because on the other hand you are being continually exposed to error...continually. And you must put yourself under the sound hearing of the Word of God often in order that the fabric of your life might be strengthened by the truth.
Now, receiving truth cultivates proper attitudes. As Peter closes out this epistle of truth, he reminds all of us what those proper attitudes are. It's a simple formula, receive truth, as truth begins to take over your thinking patterns it creates attitudes. Those attitudes become just a part of the expression of your personality. They become almost involuntarily the way you respond and they dictate how you act. So Peter here is talking about attitudes and he gives us at the last part of this wonderful little epistle a list of fundamental attitudes for spiritual maturity. This is what the preacher wants to produce. This is what the teacher wants to produce. This is what the truth wants to effect in you in terms of attitudes.
The first one we noted in verse 5 was an attitude of submission. "You younger men likewise be subject to your elders." The second one we noted was an attitude of humility. He says in verse 5, "We are to be clothed with humility." Verse 6, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God." The attitude, of course, of submission attacks self‑promoting pride which is what the world would like you to have as an attitude. The attitude of humility attacks self‑love which is what the world is selling and even the church today. The third attitude is in verse 7, an attitude of trust where you cast all your anxiety upon God because He cares for you and you trust that care, an attitude of trust. That attacks doubt, that attacks self‑independence. So call to trust God is the one who cares and has the power to do something about it.
Fourthly, we noted an attitude of self‑control in verse 8. Be of sober mind or be of sober spirit really means be self‑ controlled. This calls for a well disciplined life, self‑ restraint, discipline of the heart and the mind against the intoxicating allurements of the world. Self‑control is really mind control. So, the attitude of submission, humility, trust and self‑control.
Fifthly, and this is where we left off, Peter says you must develop an attitude of vigilance or vigilant defense. Verse 8, "Your adversary," well first of all, "Be on the alert, your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." You have to have an attitude of vigilant defense.
Now how do you get that attitude? By learning about Satan, by learning about your weakness, by learning about spiritual truth, by learning about the armor of God, by learning principles of Scripture to apply against temptation. All of those things equip you with an attitude of vigilant defense. That's why I say, as the truth is poured into you, as it's poured into you it becomes that which generates your attitudes.
Now the enemy is powerful and the enemy is subtle. The enemy seeks to devastate those who claim to belong to Jesus Christ. He goes around seeking whom he may devour. And just because you can cast your care on him in verse 7, doesn't mean you're careless in your own life and it doesn't mean you are indulgent. However, I believe, and I want to stop at this point and digress as I've been doing on this particular point for at least a few minutes, I believe the church has entered into a mindlessness at this point that is very very threatening.
When it comes to our adversary, the devil, and his strategy, there is so much fantasy now in the church and so much ridiculous superstition and so much mindlessness that the church has become very very vulnerable to Satan. A recent article in the L.A. Times pointed it out. Dateline, Pasadena, California, "Under the militant banner of spiritual warfare, a growing number of evangelical and Charismatic Christian leaders are preparing broad assaults on what they call the cosmic powers of darkness. Fascinated with the notion that Satan commands a hierarchy of territorial demons, some mission agencies and big church pastors are devising strategies for breaking the strongholds of those evil spirits alleged to be controlling cities and countries."
My I just slip in as a footnote, if this is not the greatest exercise of a twisted Christian ego, it's close to it, to imagine that a group of men can meet in Pasadena and plan a strategy to assault the powers of darkness, is a slight over statement of their capability.
The article goes on to say, "Some fledglings in the movement already claim focused prayer meetings ended the curse of the Bermuda Triangle. Some of these prayer meetings led to the 1985 downfall of the Guru Bogwain Shree Rogenese(???). And other focused prayer meetings produced a two week drop in crime and freeway traffic in Los Angeles." The writer says, "This is not the story line for a second sequel to Ghostbusters, but the developing scenario does have a fictional influence. Interest in spiritual warfare has been heightened by two novels that have become best sellers in Christian bookstores, This Present Darkness, by Frank Paredy(?) which describes the religious fight against territorial spirits mobilized to dominate a small town and a second Paredy novel has a similar premise. Fuller Seminary professor, C. Peter Wagner, has written extensively on the subject, led a so‑called summit meeting on cosmic level spiritual warfare earlier this month in Pasadena. Two dozen men and women took part, including a Texas couple who head a group called `Generals of Intercession' and an Oregon man who conducts spiritual warfare bootcamps. In his opening remarks, Wagner said, `The Holy Spirit is saying something to churches through these Paredy books even though they are fiction. People are reading these books that would never read our books.' Then he says, `If you do not know what you are doing and few have the necessary expertise, Satan will eat you for breakfast.'"
What he is saying is that if you don't learn the techniques of spiritual warfare being taught, Satan is going to eat you for breakfast. You know, you want to back up and say to these people, "Do you really think that you have any capability to deal with Satan at all? And if you would say, no, really we don't, then you're left with a very simple solution, and that is to trust God to deal with him."
I'm very concerned about this because I think it is communicating a very very misleading message. And while there may be enjoyable reading in those books and I don't want to fault all that's in them by any means, there are many things that are fantasy. For example, in those books it seems to make the holy angels glorified human beings, one even laughs with a quote "spiteful laugh." That wouldn't be right for a holy angel to do that. They even come in various human races. The books seem to confuse demons with the flesh and leads people to believe that all their sins are attributable to some demon that's doing it. These demons have names that reflect the deeds of the flesh. And this information, by the way, comes not from Scripture but from supposed encounters with demons in demon interviews.
Now are we going to believe the demons? Are we going to have a demon interview and believe what they tell us? If they're getting their strategies out of a demon interview, that's really frightening...that is really frightening. Some of them are saying, "Well, we had an interview with a demon and this is what they said so this is how we're going to deal with them." Furthermore, the view of prayer in the book seems to make holy angels dependent on Christians' prayers rather than on God's power. The impression is that God is not in complete control and if we're going to get this thing in control and defeat Satan and all his demons, we've got to get our warfare strategy down pat. And the heroes in this whole deal are victorious Christians, not God.
The thing that concerns me is when you mingle this fantasy with reality, you're simply playing into the mindless kind of Christianity that is typically mystical...rather than biblical clarity. You say, "Well, how are we to understand this matter of spiritual warfare?" Well, you're going to have to get some of these past messages ??? I want to go all over it. But we already went into that. We looked already in Revelation chapter 12, didn't we? And we looked at the matter of who participates in spiritual warfare, what is the strategy of spiritual warfare, what is the program of spiritual warfare, how does it function, how does it operate, how does it work. Now we come down to just a few things to tie that together, all right?
What is the...what is the general approach of the demons? How do they...how do they attack? Well first of all, Satan and his demons attack us as individuals. You say, "Can you tell when a demon is attacking you?" Not necessarily, I certainly can't tell, I can't see them, I can't feel them. And the Bible doesn't say anything about that except that we wrestle against them. In some way they are closely involved in some combat with us, although they are indistinguishable to us for the most part, there are occasions when they manifest themselves. But they will attack us primarily through the system, through the alluring world system. They can't read our minds. Nor is there any indication in Scripture that there's some means by which they can have access to plant thoughts in our mind. I don't find that in the Bible.&n