Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
— Ephesians 6:13
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
— Ephesians 4:13-15
For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect.
— Mark 13:22
Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices.
— 2 Corinthians 2:11
The Wiles of the Devil, by Thomas Brooks.
Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
— Ephesians 6:11
Doctrine: Satan hath his several devices to deceive, entangle, and undo the souls of men.
I shall, 1 prove the point; 2 show you his various devices; and 3 the remedies against them; 4 explain how it comes to pass that he hath so many different devices to deceive, entangle, and undo the souls of men, and 5 lay down some propositions concerning Satan’s devices.
For the proof of the point, take these few Scriptures: “Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” Eph 6:11. The Greek word that is here rendered wiles is a notable emphatic word.
1 It signifies such snares as are laid behind one, such treacheries as come upon one’s back at unawares. It notes the methods or waylayings of that old subtle serpent, who, like Dan’s adder “in the path,” biteth the heels of passengers, and thereby transfuseth his venom to the head and heart. The word methodeia signifies an ambush or stratagem of war, whereby the enemy sets upon a man at unawares.
2 It signifies such snares as are set to catch one in one’s road. A man walks in his road and thinks not of it; suddenly he is caught by thieves or falls into a pit.
3 It signifies such as are purposely, artificially, and craftily set for the taking the prey at the greatest advantage that can be…Julian, by his craftiness, drew more from the faith than all his persecuting predecessors could do by their cruelty. So doth Satan more hurt in his sheep’s skin than by roaring like a lion.
Take one scripture more for the proof of the point: “And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will” 2Ti 2:26. The Greek word that is here rendered recover themselves signifies to awaken themselves. The apostle alludeth to one that is asleep or drunk, who is to be awakened and restored to his senses; and the Greek word that is here rendered taken captive signifies to be taken alive. The word is properly a warlike word and signifies to be taken alive, as soldiers are taken alive in the wars, or as birds are taken alive and ensnared in the fowler’s net. Satan hath snares for the wise and snares for the simple; snares for hypocrites, and snares for the upright; snares for generous souls, and snares for timorous souls; snares for the rich, and snares for the poor; snares for the aged, and snares for youth. Happy are those souls that are not taken and held in the snares that he hath laid!
Take one proof more, and then I will proceed to the opening of the point: “But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden, but…to hold fast till I come” Rev 2:24. Those poor souls called their opinions the depths of God, when indeed, they were the depths of Satan. You call your opinions depths, and so they are; but they are such depths as Satan hath brought out of hell. They are the whisperings and hissings of that serpent, not the inspirations of God.
Now, the second thing that I am to show you is his several devices. and herein I shall first show you the several devices that he hath to draw the soul to sin. I shall instance in these twelve, which may bespeak our most serious consideration.
Device 1 To present the bait and hide the hook; to present the golden cup and hide the poison; to present the sweet, the pleasure, and the profit that may flow in upon the soul by yielding to sin; and by hiding from the soul the wrath and misery that will certainly follow the committing of sin. By this device, he took our first parents: “And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: for God doth know, that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened; and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil” Gen. 3:4-5. Your eyes shall be opened, and you shall be as gods! Here is the bait, the sweet, the pleasure, the profit. Oh, but he hides the hook—the shame, the wrath, and the loss that would certainly follow!
There is an opening of the eyes of the mind to contemplation and joy, and there is an opening of the eyes of the body to shame and confusion. He promiseth them the former, but intends the latter, and so cheats them—giving them an apple in exchange for a paradise, as he deals by thousands nowadays. Satan with ease puts fallacies upon us by his golden baits, and then he leads us and leaves us in a fool’s paradise. He promises the soul honor, pleasure, profit, etc., but pays the soul with the greatest contempt, shame, and loss that can be. By a golden bait, he labored to catch Christ Mat 4:8-9. He shows Him the beauty and the bravery of a bewitching world, which doubtless would have taken many a carnal heart; but here the devil’s fire fell upon wet tinder and therefore took not. These tempting objects did not at all win upon His affections, nor dazzle His eyes, though many have eternally died of the wound of the eye, and have fallen forever by this vile strumpet the world; she, by laying forth her two fair breasts of profit and pleasure, hath wounded their souls, and cast them down into utter perdition. She hath, by the glistering of her pomp and preferment, slain millions; as the serpent Scytale, which—when she cannot overtake the fleeing passengers—doth astonish and amaze them with her beautiful colors, so that they have no power to pass away until she have stung them to death. Adversity hath slain her thousand, but prosperity her ten thousand. Now, the remedies against this device of the devil are these:
Remedy 1 Keep at the greatest distance from sin and from playing with the golden bait that Satan holds forth to catch you. For this, you have Romans 12:9: “Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.” When we meet with anything extremely evil and contrary to us, nature abhors it and retires as far as it can from it. The Greek word that is there rendered abhor is very significant; it signifies to hate it as hell itself, to hate it with horror.
Anselm used to say, “That if he should see the shame of sin on the one hand, the pains of hell on the other, and must of necessity choose one, he would rather be thrust into hell without sin than to go into heaven with sin”—so great was his hatred and detestation of sin. It is our wisest and our safest course to stand at the farthest distance from sin—not to go near the house of the harlot, but to flee from all appearance of evil Pro 5:8; 1Th 5:22. The best way to prevent falling into the pit is to keep at the greatest distance. He that will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the edge of the pit may find by woeful experience that it is a righteous thing with God that he should fall into the pit. Joseph keeps at a distance from sin, from playing with Satan’s golden baits, and stands. David draws near, plays with the bait, falls, and swallows bait and hook with a witness 2Sa 11:2-3. David comes near the snare and is taken in it, to the breaking of his bones, the wounding of his conscience, and the loss of his God.
Sin is the plague, the greatest and most infectious plague in the world! Yet—ah! How few there are that tremble at it, that keep at a distance from it! “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?” 1Co 5:6. As soon as one sin had seized upon Adam’s heart, all sin entered his soul and overspread it. How hath Adam’s one sin spread over all mankind! “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” Rom 5:12. Ah, how doth the father’s sin infect the child, the husband’s infect the wife, the master’s the servant! The sin in one man’s heart is of such a spreading and infectious nature, it can infect a whole world.
The story of the Italian—who first made his enemy deny God and then stabbed him, murdering both body and soul at once—declares the perfect malignity of sin. Oh, that what hath been spoken on this head may prevail with you to stand at a distance from sin!
Remedy 2 To consider that sin is but a bitter sweet. The seeming sweet in sin will quickly vanish; and lasting shame, sorrow, horror, and terror will come in the room thereof: “Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue; Though he spare it, and forsake it not; but keep it still within his mouth: Yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him” Job 20:12-14. Forbidden profits and pleasures are most pleasing to vain men, who count madness mirth. Many long to be meddling with the murdering morsels of sin, which nourish not, but tear and consume the belly, the soul, that receives them. Many eat on earth what they digest in hell. Sin’s murdering morsels will deceive those that devour them. Adam’s apple was a bitter sweet; Esau’s mess was a bitter sweet; the Israelites’ quails a bitter sweet; Jonathan’s honey a bitter sweet; and Adonijah’s dainties a bitter sweet. After the meal is ended, then comes the reckoning. Men must not think to dance and dine with the devil, and then to sup with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; to feed upon the poison of asps, and yet that the viper’s tongue should not slay them. When the asp stings a man, it doth first tickle him so as it makes him laugh, until the poison, by little and little, gets to the heart; then it pains him more than ever it delighted him. So doth sin; it may please a little at first, but it will pain the soul with a witness at last; if there were the least real delight in sin, there could be no perfect hell, where men shall most perfectly be tormented with their sin.
Remedy 3 Solemnly to consider that sin will usher in the greatest and the saddest losses that can be upon our souls. It will usher in the loss of that divine favor that is better than life; the loss of the joy that is unspeakable and full of glory; the loss of that peace that passeth understanding; the loss of the divine influences by which the soul hath been refreshed, quickened, raised, strengthened, and gladdened; and the loss of many outward desirable mercies, which otherwise the soul might have enjoyed.
Ah, England! My constant prayer for thee is that thou mayest not sin away thy mercies into the hands of those that cannot call mercy mercy, and that would joy in nothing more than to see thy sorrow and misery, and to see His hand make thee naked Who hath clothed thee with much mercy and glory.
Remedy 4 Seriously to consider that sin is of a very deceitful and bewitching nature. Sin is from the greatest deceiver—it is a child of his own begetting, it is the ground of all the deceit in the world, and it is in its own nature exceeding deceitful. “But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day, lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin” Heb 3:13. It will kiss the soul, pretend fair to the soul, and yet betray the soul forever. With Delilah, it will smile upon us that it may betray us into the hands of the devil, as she did Samson into the hands of the Philistines. Sin gives Satan a power over us and an advantage to accuse us and to lay claim to us, as those that wear his badge. It is of a very bewitching nature; it bewitches the soul, and where it is upon the throne, the soul cannot leave it, though it perish eternally by it. Sin so bewitches the soul that it makes the soul call evil good and good evil; bitter sweet and sweet bitter, light darkness and darkness light; and a soul thus bewitched with sin will stand it out to the death, at the sword’s point with God; let God strike, wound, and cut to the very bone, yet the bewitched soul cares not—fears not—but will still hold on in a course of wickedness. You may see it in Pharaoh, Balaam, and Judas. Tell the bewitched soul that sin is a viper that will certainly kill when it is not killed, that sin often kills secretly, insensibly, eternally, yet the bewitched soul cannot nor will not cease from sin.
When the physicians told Theotimus that except he did abstain from drunkenness and uncleanness, he would lose his eyes, his heart was so bewitched to his sins that he answered, “Then farewell sweet light.” He had rather lose his eyes than leave his sin. So a man bewitched with sin had rather lose God, Christ, heaven, and his own soul than part with his sin. Oh, therefore, forever take heed of playing or nibbling at Satan’s golden baits.
“The Lord is a man of war: the Lord is his name” Exo 15:3. We find in daily life and by experience that we are in a condition of conflict. We see that the world is in a state of warfare against God, and Scripture confirms our observation that God is engaged in war and is continually at battle. How it ennobles us to find it is our warfare. It is God’s warfare, but it is ours also. You and I, brethren, are linked with God. The battle is the Lord’s, but the battle is ours too. Enlisted under the banner of the King of kings with Immanuel for our Prince, we have become soldiers of the cross; and the battle is not now simply that of divinity against His rebellious subjects, but of divinity and restored creatures against the fallen ones. The battle is not now with God alone, but against God and the whole company of His elect whom He hath redeemed, who stand side by side with Him in the conflict. What an honor!
— Charles H. Spurgeon
No furloughs are granted the soldiers of Jesus Christ, for their enemies take none. Our spiritual warfare calls for incessant alertness.
— A. W. Pink
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