What does First B Jackson teach about resisting the devil?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on resisting the devil is rooted in 1 Peter 5:6-11 and treated as one of four commands a believer is responsible to carry out. Pastor Brian and Pastor Nathan both make clear that this imperative does not stand alone. It is preceded by humbling yourself under God, casting your anxieties on Him, being sober, and staying alert. Only someone who has done that work is in a position to resist anything. The adversary Peter describes is not a vague spiritual force but a prosecuting attorney, someone arguing a real case against a guilty party and seeking a penalty. The reason that accuser has no ground to stand on is that Christ has already paid for the sin being charged.
Pastor Brian drew out what resistance actually requires: firm faith, not individual willpower. The reason Peter attaches faith to the command is precisely because no one can sustain resistance on their own. Being sober, in this teaching, means having your full faculties about you, not being under the influence of whatever besetting sin clouds your judgment. Being on the alert means staying watchful rather than drifting. Together, soberness and alertness describe someone who is awake to the reality of their situation rather than sleepwalking through it, and that wakefulness is what makes resistance possible.
Both Pastor Brian and Pastor Nathan connect this whole sequence back to humility, because pride is what leaves a person exposed. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, and that is not a New Testament novelty. As Pastor Nathan pointed out, read the Old Testament and you will find that anyone who is proud appears to be getting ahead for a while but is eventually humiliated. The casting of anxiety, the soberness, the alertness, and the resistance are all expressions of a prior posture: trusting that God is sufficient and that what He has dealt with does not need to be pulled back and managed again.
Taught from 1 Peter 5:6-11 · James 4:6-10 · Ephesians 6:10-11 · 1 Corinthians 10:13 · 2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
The passage taught · 1 Corinthians 10:13
13 No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.
World English Bible
Messages that go deeper
- June 12, 2022 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God Peter commands humility, sobriety, and resistance against the devil. Pastor Carl walks through 1 Peter 5, showing what we do and what God promises in return.
- June 12, 2022 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God From 1 Peter 5, four clear commands for anyone who feels stuck: humble yourself, stay sober, stay alert, and resist the devil. God promises to do the rest.
- November 11, 2018 Humble Yourselves Under the Mighty Hand of God Pastor Nathan walks through 1 Peter 5:6-11, showing what believers are called to do about anxiety and pride, and what God promises to do in response.