Hello, friends and
welcome to "Books of the Book."
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My name is Deyvy
Rodriguez and I'm very pleased
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that you are able to
join us in this Bible study.
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We are studying the Books of 1st
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and 2nd Peter
with Dr. Tom Shepherd.
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He comes from
Andrews University,
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and he is a professor at
the Theological Seminary there.
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And that today we
are studying the last,
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very last verses of
Chapter 5 in 1 Peter.
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Dr. Shepherd, how are you doing?
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Good. How are you?
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Doing good. Welcome back.
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And today we will be
talking about or discussing
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the last few
verses of Chapter 5. Yes.
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Now how did this verse
or these verses link up
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with what Peter talked about
the beginning of Chapter 5?
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Okay, so we last time
looked at Chapter 5:1-4
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and now we are
looking at Chapter 5:5-14.
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And Peter in this section
first talks to young people.
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He had talked to the
elders at the beginning
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and now he turns to
talk to the young people.
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So that's the kind of a
natural pair that go together,
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the elders and young people.
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So he talks with the
elders in verses 1 to 4.
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And then the young
people in this passage.
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But then he widens the
idea, the concept out and speaks
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to all Christians
calling for humility before God.
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And he is going to lay out just
how gracious and caring God is
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and how His great
power can overcome the devil.
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So we should read the
passage verses 1 Peter 5:5-14.
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Okay, "Likewise
you younger people,
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submit
yourselves to your elders.
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Yes, all of you be
submissive to one another
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and be clothed with humility.
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For God resists the proud,
but gives grace to the humble.
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Therefore humble yourselves
under the mighty hand of God,
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that He may
exalt you in due time,
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casting all your care upon Him,
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for He cares for you. Be sober.
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Be vigilant because
your adversary the devil
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walks about like a roaring lion,
seeking whom he may devour.
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Resist him,
steadfast in the faith,
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knowing that the same
sufferings are experienced
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by your
brotherhood in the world.
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But may the God of all grace,
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who called us to His
eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
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after you have
suffered for a while perfect,
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establish,
strengthen, and settle you.
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To Him be the
glory and the dominion
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forever and ever. Amen.
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By Silvanus, our faithful
brother as I consider him,
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I have written to you briefly,
exhorting and testifying
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that this is the true
grace of God in which you stand.
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She who is in Babylon,
elect together with you,
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greets you and so
does Mark, my son.
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Greet one another
with a kiss of love.
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Peace to you all who
are in Christ Jesus. Amen."
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All right, So we start off
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by looking at the
young people in verse 4.
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And in the
pattern he has established
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of the Christian relationship
to those around him.
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He tells the young
people to submit to the elders.
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We remember how
he told the slaves
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or the household servants
to submit to the masters.
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He tells wives to
submit to their husbands.
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He tells all the
community to submit
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to the governing authorities.
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So it's not surprising here
that he tells to young people
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that they're supposed
to submit to the elders.
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There's some
question that is raised.
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Just who these young people
were or who are the "young."
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Some people want to say,
well, these must be people
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who are new, you
know, new in the faith,
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neophytes, new believers.
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And that's a possibility,
but that he has just
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talked to the
elders and they probably
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were older men in the community.
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It was a male
dominant society at that time.
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And so the elders
would be these older men.
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The natural pattern probably
is that these are young people
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who are told
that they are supposed
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to listen to
what the elders say.
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Now it's really
interesting because the passage
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we just studied
before in verses 1-4.
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That told us about the elders
and what their role was to be.
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How would you summarize that?
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What we said about them?
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Would you, what were those?
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Remember those three
antitheses that we had.
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And they weren't
supposed to do it for the gain
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that they were supposed to
get. They were supposed to do--
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not pushed into
it but willingly.
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Not to be masters, but to
the examples to the flock.
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What kind of idea,
kind of summarizes all that?
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Do you have any words
that might come into your mind?
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Well, in summary,
I'd say that the elders
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must be sincere in
their work, in their--
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as we read willingly
without any personal gain.
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But as Jesus said
that that the shepherd
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should not wait to be paid
or the one that is interested
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in being paid will somehow
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sometime will scatter
when the wolf comes around.
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Yes, all right.
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And so they are supposed to
have their focused on the flock.
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Care and concern for the flock,
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a deep concern
from what we remember.
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Peter's particular experience
that he had with Jesus
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that got him thinking
along these lines of shepherding
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and there the
great characteristic
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that made him ready
for ministry was humility.
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Where he would
humbly, listen to Jesus
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where he would humbly
serve and do his will.
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And so it's rather interesting
that the young people
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are to focus their attention
on listening to the elders,
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submitting to their leadership.
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And the elders are
to focus their attention
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on service to the flock.
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In both cases,
there is something
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that you're giving to the other.
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You're giving either your
service, or you are giving,
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shall we say your
ears to listen to them.
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And both are in
submission to God.
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And how does Peter bring out
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this sense of
listening to one another?
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Well, in verses 5 and 6,
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he expands it beyond
just the young people.
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We'll just look
at this verses here,
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where he says, okay, he says,
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"Younger to be
subject to the elders."
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And then he says,
"Clothe yourselves
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all of you with
humility toward one another.
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For God opposes the proud,
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but gives grace to the humble."
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It was interesting
that humility was something
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that Peter
displayed in that story,
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we read in John Chapter 21.
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And humility is what
Peter emphasizes here,
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the need for humility.
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He supports it with the text
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from the Book of
Proverbs, Proverbs 3:34.
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And I like us
to read the context
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of that Proverbs 3:28-35.
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Okay, so we are
looking at Proverbs 3.
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Proverbs Chapter
3. Proverbs 3:28-35.
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"Do not say to your neighbor,
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"Go, and come back, and
tomorrow I will give it,"
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When you have it with you.
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Do not devise evil
against your neighbor,
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for he dwells by
you for safety's sake.
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Do not strive with
a man without a cause,
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if he has done you no harm.
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Do not envy the oppressor,
and choose none of his ways,
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for the perverse person is
an abomination to the Lord,
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but His secret
counsel is within the upright.
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The curse of the Lord is
on the house of the wicked,
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but He blesses
the home of the just.
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Surely He scorns the scornful,
but gives grace to the humble."
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And read verse 35 as well.
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"The wise shall inherit glory,
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but shame shall be
the legacy of fools."
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So this text that
he quotes is verse 34.
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"Toward the
scorners, He is scornful,
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but to the
humble He gives favor.
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And so all of these kind
of concepts linking together.
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There's a relationship
to God which must influence
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and change our relationship
to other people around us.
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See, so we have been talking
about this consciousness of God
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and that has to be
expressed through our life
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in how we treat other people.
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I say sometimes that
grace is a new set of glasses
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that you are given
to wear as a Christian.
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You cannot look at
people other people
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the same way
anymore. God has forgiven you.
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Now you have to act differently
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towards other people around you.
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You have to have that humble
attitude of care for them.
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He returns to
this command, He says,
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"Humble yourselves, therefore,
under the mighty hand of God,
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that He may lift
you up in due time."
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It's an interesting contrast.
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Our humble attitude, our sense
of our weakness before God.
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And then His mighty hand
we are weak but He is strong.
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His mighty hand will lift us up.
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Unless, we get the idea that God
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is some kind of
strong-armed bully.
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It says that you are to
cast all your cares on Him
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because He cares about you.
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Now where does Peter here go
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with his last
pair of antithesis?
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All right, so let's take a
look at that in verses 8 to 11.
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"Be sober, be vigilant
because your adversary the devil
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walks about like a roaring lion,
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seeking whom he may devour.
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Resist him,
steadfast in the faith,
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knowing that the same
sufferings are experienced
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by your
brotherhood in the world.
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But may the God of all grace,
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who called us to His
eternal glory by Christ Jesus,
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after you have suffered a while,
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perfect, establish,
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strengthen, and settle you.
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To Him be the
glory and the dominion
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forever and ever. Amen."
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All right, so
it's interesting here
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that the final set of
contrasts in this book.
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We've seen all
kinds of contrasts
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throughout the book.
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You know, back and
forth and back and forth
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different ideas
things that, you know,
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seem to be against
each other all the time.
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The last set of antitheses
is not a contrast of ideas.
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It is a contrast of individuals.
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It's a battle or a
controversy between individuals.
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And the two individuals
are not human beings.
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They are the devil and God.
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We are fighting each other
and he uses this phraseology,
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He says that the devil
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walks about like a roaring lion,
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seeking someone to devour.
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Now I lived in
Africa for six years
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and they have
lions still on the loose.
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It's surprising when
you're out in the bush,
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how you can't see a lion
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because they just
blend right into the grass,
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that's, you know, going brown
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and so forth in most of the
different times of the year.
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And they are hard to
see, but I'll tell you what.
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When you hear a lion's
roar and you are out there
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in the bush, it is scary.
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Lions have an
incredible power to roar.
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Interestingly enough
scientists' tell us that cats
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all the cats in the
world have you the ability
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to purr or to roar not both.
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Some lions
don't purr, they roar.
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And kitty cats
don't roar, they purr.
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But a lion is, you
know, just a ravenous beast
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that you just--
it's scary to think of,
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that you would be in a
place the devil goes about
00:12:08.29\00:12:11.18
like a roaring lion,
seeking somebody to devour.
00:12:11.21\00:12:15.25
How do we respond to
that because apparently,
00:12:15.28\00:12:17.34
this is a very scary
picture of the devil--
00:12:17.37\00:12:20.77
Just going around
like a roaring lion. It is.
00:12:20.80\00:12:22.96
It is quite a scary
picture of the devil.
00:12:22.99\00:12:25.06
And I like us
to see a little bit
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of where this
picture comes from.
00:12:26.61\00:12:29.88
It comes from
the Book of Psalms.
00:12:29.91\00:12:33.48
And there are numerous Psalms,
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but this
particular one is Psalm 22
00:12:35.51\00:12:38.70
which is a messianic Psalm.
00:12:38.73\00:12:41.06
And this Psalm is
interesting because of the way
00:12:41.09\00:12:45.93
it goes back and forth
and back and forth between,
00:12:45.96\00:12:51.85
you might say the highs of
glory and the lows of despair.
00:12:51.88\00:12:56.54
So I want to take
a look at the Psalm.
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I think probably first before
we read the Psalm, Psalm 22.
00:12:59.92\00:13:05.24
We will take a little
break and then when we come back
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we'll have time to
read it all the way through
00:13:08.62\00:13:11.14
and not miss out on time.
00:13:11.17\00:13:13.33
So let's take a
little break at this point
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and then we'll come
back after a few messages.
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