EN 3:1-7{WE should be impressed, each of us, as far as the Lord enables us, with what we have to guard against; any part of the truth that has been overlooked anywhere. What we require in a measure to be revived, the Lord- would supply it to us, if we waited on Him. We ought to come to hear with the expectation that He will set. forth to us what we- require. And, in saying this, it is not abstract things that I mean: we are often too abstract; it is Himself that we want; it is everything that we may know what He is. But we are constantly taken unawares; we are unprepared for the character of the thing that is here, because we are not instructed as to it. " Forewarned is forearmed."
The subject I wish to bring before you, after this preface, is one on which I am not able to say much, but it is one of great importance. It is Satan-his power, and the different ways in which we suffer from his antagonism.
I feel there is a great, and, I trust, a growing desire, to follow the Lord; but- I do not think there is a sufficient sense of the power of evil, and of the character of that evil. The Lord says: " I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil." It was a very momentous thought in His mind He does not wish us taken out of it, but He does wish us to be kept from it. I feel that many are not sufficiently acquainted with the character of this evil. I may say, for one, I have not been sufficiently acquainted with his devices.
The first class of opposition comes out in what I have read. Whatever God is set upon, that is what Satan is set against. It is an immense thing for us to get hold of this thought. As far as I am able to take you, the subject will be mostly suggestive; but I think the greatest and the most important teaching in a day like this is suggestive. If you are true in heart before the Lord, you will work it out. It does not produce the same results, I think, when everything is made as plain as a map to us. It may be very pleasant to be able to say: " I see it as plain as A B C; " but it will not be effective teaching when it is. The Lord spoke to the multitude in parables. If Israel had really cared to understand Him, they never would have been satisfied till they had arrived at understanding His thought. The Lord spoke to them in parables, and the very fact of their being satisfied that He should do so, showed that they did not care to know His mind. If a friend of mine speak or write to me in parables, I never rest until I get at his meaning. But the Lord spoke to them in parables, and the multitude were indifferent as to what was meant; and when He was alone with them, He expounded all things to His disciples.
I will touch on two or three places in Scripture where my subject comes out. In the passage I. have read, Satan comes in against what God: was set upon; he comes in to explain away the word. It is the word he assails, not things. When you lose the word you have lost your power. So he does not begin so much by pointing out to the woman the advantages to be gained as by assailing the word. Having got the word- he attempts to pervert it. It is, " Yea, hath God said?" and,," Ye shall not surely die."- He does not yet tempt her to eat.
If you study your own history you will see the way you have been ensnared and rescued; and no one is happy who has not got a history if he do not walk, so to say, historically with God seeing and understanding God's dealings with him. I do not mean by this your keeping a diary,-a diary is a record of your feeling's;. I mean; literally, history, that is, the-events of your life.
An important thing comes out here which marks the difference between a work of the flesh and a work of Satan. It is a point of great interest as to the moment when an act of the flesh becomes a wink of Satan. A simple act of the mean an act of flesh simply-is just doing something that pleases me at the moment; it is simply gratification of the flesh: as we read: " She saw that it was good for food, and pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise." But in Satanic action there is always a design-there is an end farther on to be reached. The action of the flesh is momentary; it is the present moment that is before me; I like it at the moment; there is no forecasting-no issue to be reached. But when there is an evil issue to be reached by it, it is Satanic.
How would it come in? " Let not the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil." When you are in a condition for Satan to help you, he will surely do so. I state the principles in a broad way, and may my doing so give you a deeper sense of what a shelter your heart may find in Christ. If you get the sense of a terrible, never-ceasing foe, on the one hand, it will make you more conscious, on the other, of what it is for you to have the Lord for your shelter as you walk through this evil world.
I just pursue the subject, but not to dwell on every example. I say nothing of Cain, for instance, but pass on to Noah., Noah does not begin with Satan he only plants a vineyard; but that is self-gratification. And, let me warn you, the moment you yield to self-gratification you a are in danger. It is a thing that suits you, and you are allured by it; green fields, no matter what it is, but the allurement comes first. Woe if you yield to it! This was the character of the first temptation 'of the Lord. When He was a hungred, Satan presents the temptation to make stones into bread.
If I look at Noah, I see he is set upon the earth on new terms, and the point was whether he would break down in keeping them. His planting a vineyard was simply self-gratification, but in so doing he failed to keep the word. " Hold fast the form [the outline or scope] of sound words." It was the scope of the things that he lost. It is not, as people so often say, whether you " have a text " or not for a certain action. Noah had no text -nothing had been said to him about a vineyard; but, Noah, if you had understood that God had put you upon the earth to rule, you never would have done anything to imperil your calling? He who cannot rule himself cannot rule others. Satan was meanwhile glorying in the fact that what God had set up in man had failed, and he brings in Canaan, who is the emissary of- Satan, and Canaan is cursed.
I now pass on to Aaron himself. Aaron wanted to please the people, and, through this desire, led away from God, he is soon betrayed into sin by Satan. It is not that he is a bad person, but, thinking he would meet the condition of the people, he was ready to be the tool of Satan. It is the converse of Job's case. He was a good man, who, afflicted by Satan, will not surrender faith. The calf that-Aaron made was the evidence of the Egypt out of which they had come-surrendering the truth Of God for idols.
I have passed over Pharaoh, because he was a wicked man. But whilst doing so I just say, that man is an incompetent creature, so that when he gets into a strait, he must have either God or Satan to help him. Pharaoh went to the magicians. Aaron has been prominent for God, but prominence does not save him Prominence for God here does not save from the activity of Satan. The moment you look out to meet the popular mind, it is man you are trying to meet and not God, and you then readily become the tool of Satan. He supplies a ready invention: he quickly found the gold for Aaron. What a thing is Satan!
You ask, What would be the effect of heeding this counsel? Practically you would have such a sense of what Satan's power is, that you would know that if you are not in Christ nothing can protect you. Education cannot keep Satan out; not all the thoughts of man can do it. One of the greatest crimes I ever heard of has lately been carried out by a roan of education; if he had not had intelligence and education, he could not have constructed his infernal machine.
The terrific nature of Satanic power is that it is unceasing in its hostility against that which God is set on. And who, then, escapes his attacks? Why, those who not are set upon what God is. They escape from suffering; they escape the pain of his opposition.
I pass by the book of Daniel, in which we find more than one instance of his working, and go on to the Lord's own temptation. Nothing astonishes me like this. See what the malice of Satan is-malice in the very essence of it. Here is the Son of God on the earth, and what would Satan do? Satan in effect says, I will turn the Son of God aside first for a bit of bread-that is the necessary food for every man. Second, by offering Him the world in a new way. And, third (God forbid that we should ever fall into it!)' by seeking to. make Himself singular among men by the interposition of God for Him. Thus could Satan seek to upset the very Son of God. Wickedness cannot imagine goodness, any more than a good man can believe in a bad one. Here is God's Son, the Creator, on the earth; and Satan thinks he will turn Him aside for a g bit of bread!
I know how small a way I can take any of you into this, but I have the comfort in my own soul of knowing that the Lord would have you awake up to the gravity of it, and, if you wait upon Him, He will carry you into it far beyond what I can.
We now pass on for a' moment to Matt. 16. where the Lord calls Peter, Satan. He says: " Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me; for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that of men." This is a remarkable thing. Here is he, who has just received the greatest revelation that was possible for a man, coming out with that which is Satanic. The Lord had just before said to him: " Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona, for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." And now, when the Lord spoke of His death, not as merely saving, but as that through which man should be judicially set aside, "Peter took him and began to rebuke him." Mark, it is not salvation here. Peter never objected to be saved-no one does; but Peter objected to man being set aside.. This shows us what Satan is about. The Lord here brings out what is his great point of attack. It is accompanied with a great revelation; and this person to whom the revelation has been made cannot endure the fact that man is to be set aside-to find his end on the cross. " Be it far from thee, Lord; this shall not be' unto thee." And the solemn answer is: " Get thee behind me, Satan."
I now travel on to see how this is worked out. But I must first take another thought in connection with this principle, so I just state the fact, in passing, that when the Lord was being crucified, Judas was actually carried off by Satan: " Satan entered into him." But Peter is sheltered.. The Lord says to him: " Satan hath desired to hake you, that he may sift you as wheat, but I have prayed for thee." Satan gets round him first by great bravery for his Master; he is carried away by his natural prowess, and cuts off the high priest's servant's ear, and then he will go on to the high priest's house to see the end. It was all quite natural. But just see how he is decoyed on. A friend leads him into the house, and there he warms himself by the fire, for it was cold. Satan never lets you know you are in his toils until he has got you fast, and then he seeks to plunge you into despair. And notice his malice; not satisfied with having got the multitude and the apostate disciple to work his will against the Lord, he will have one of the nearest and dearest of His disciples. Do you understand at all his malice? Are you alive to the fact that, if you have not the arms of Christ around you, you are not safe for a moment from the virulence of this untiring foe?
In Acts 1 find Ananias and Sapphira the tools of Satan; he makes them believe that the Holy Ghost is not in the church. He says to them: You may tell the lie, no one will ever find it out; and you will get an advantage in two ways: you will have the credit of having given all that you possess to the church, and you will also have a good bit of the money for yourselves. The object of Satan here is to disparage and undermine the work of God, and to neutralize His grace. The temptation offered to them was that of eminence in the church of God. That was the bait with which Satan deluded them. It 'is well, when anything is put before you, to ask yourself the simple question: Is this Christ, or is it a bait Christ is the only measure for everything; can I answer, I have enough in Christ? This is the practical benefit of being in the presence of Christ; I can then say, Having Him I can do without anybody; I am perfectly happy with Christ. Can you do without your family? Well, I say this, that the sense of the presence of Christ consists in being able 'to say: " No bread; " nothing but Christ; nothing for the human side. When I come down to the wilderness I want other things; why, I want a coat, for instance; but up there, in His presence, it is ever " No bread." You may be a very sincere man, but I do maintain that you have lost His presence when you take up your cares.
You say, I have to go to Him about my troubles, surely? and of course you have; I do not mean that; but when you are occupied with Christ in His own sphere you need nothing else. As one has said: " A prayer-meeting is in the wilderness; a. worship-meeting in the holiest." The moment I am in His own sphere He Himself is the satisfying object of my heart; I do not want anything but Himself-no super-additions. Here on earth I want food and raiment and comforts; I cannot get on without things needful to the body. God knows I want things, and He furnishes them too. But I have the sense in my soul that when I have to do with Christ in His own sphere, though I may drop. very soon into the wilderness again, still, as I know Him there, I am in an ecstasy. It is Christ, and not myself, that engrosses me. In " believers' meetings," as they call them, they are looking out for -divine grace acting on themselves, instead of enjoying Christ Himself.
I look now for a little at the 'epistles.' What was their failure at Corinth? It was that they would spare man. It is not that they would not accept Christ for their sins, but they would not accept Christ crucified as their pattern here on earth. There are three things important for the soul to see., First, God in the cross of Christ clears me of everything that stood, between me -and Him. Second, I am united to Christ in glory; I am put where he rules, where his sway is owned. Third, I return now to the cross to, turn out everything in myself that would hinder the outshining of Christ. You admit that you are clear of your sins; if you were not you could not be united to Him in glory; and now you are to resist everything in you that is contrary to Him, that the light may shine out in this vessel that He has redeemed to Himself, and that you may come out here in the strength and grace of Christ. The man must go. And this the Corinthians would not have. The consequence was, that Satan got in. I do not comment on it; but I just point out how that, in the second epistle, they were slow to receive back the offender. They had been unduly lax; now they are unduly severe. Says the Apostle: " I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him, lest Satan get an advantage of us." I mention it to show how he first mars the work of God by introducing terrible laxity among the saints, and then by leading them to go too much the other way.
There is another thing I just turn to in the first epistle of Timothy. In these two epistles to Timothy we get mention of 'f the latter times" and of " the last days." We are now in the latter of these two; and I wish to show you the difference between the Satanic action in the two. It is the same principle here that we have already noticed. In " the latter times " of the first of Timothy, Satan brings in a system with which we are all acquainted-Romanism-which is an exaction on man; hence, of course, it is not supercession. It is just the difference between exaction and supercession. All exaction on the man admits his existence. Satan substitutes a new kind of godliness for the divine- godliness brought before us in the preceding verse, and this consists in exaction on the man: If I say you are not to marry, not to do this and that, I admit that you are alive. Satan will bring in anything to make me admit that I am here. Let Ishmael stay in the house; make a servant of him, if you like; but do give him a corner. No, he is to go out. So Romanism came in to substitute something for God's supercession of man here, and that substitution is exaction.
But in the second of Timothy it is not substitution that he brings in, but imitation. Oh, but is not Romanism still going on with its exactions all around us? I have no doubt that it is; but besides Romanism, another phase of evil has now come in: we read of " having a form of godliness, but denying the power," and of those who are " ever learning; and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." These " resist the truth," as " Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses." It is imitation of the truth, and that not in a person who has never learned it. It is imitation, combined with sickly sentimentality, which the term " little women " expresses; it does not mean literally women, but the effeminacy of character which goes after this imitation. This is the character of the last days.
All I am saying is conveyed in the first sentence I uttered, namely, that Satan is ever set against that which God is set upon.
If you look at Ephesians, you find that Satan is always opposing the saints who faithfully pursue their heavenly calling. It is when we have on the whole armor of God that " we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in heavenly places." It is there that the warfare is unceasing. There is something exceedingly fearful in the virulence of it. If you are determined to enjoy your rights to heaven, his opposition to you will be unceasing, and therefore it is compared to wrestling—every sinew is strained to the uttermost to upset the-antagonist; and all this because I insist upon my rights. Many a one has proved the severity of the struggle. God will help them; that is enough. But many a one, because he insisted on his rights with not strength enough to maintain him-many a one who has been the brightest, the foremost of all-has been floored by Satan. Their purpose, however, is known to God, and Ile certainly will restore them. They were set on going on to glory, but they did not look for the protection offered them by the way-they had not on their armor-and so they were drawn aside. And' then it is said of them, " Oh, there are your people who said they were heavenly! " And so they are they were right in their purpose, but they have failed in carrying it out; and I warn you, if you do seek to maintain your rights, you must be prepared for the most unrelenting opposition for the, most dire virulence of Satan. If you say, God has given the heaven and I mean to have it. I answer, You must have your armor "on then. And that is character; it, is not prayer-simply. No man can get on against Satan Without character; you never can face, Satan if you have not character.; you may have large conceptions of righteousness, but the question is, Is your own character righteous? With -your armor on you are invulnerable. You can say to Satan,- You cannot' touch me; Lam strong in the Lord. I would have you search your ways and everything about you as to this and then, though Satan may be able to say, I saw you do such and such a thing the other day, you can answer, So I may have, but I am not doing it to day. I stand by the, power of God now, and I am going to resist you.
This is what I call the first class of opposition.
I need not tell you how he opposes in preaching the gospel. I cannot go into the subject, but I may say I do not believe the gospel is e'er preached without his seeking to neutralize it. It is well for those who preach to make up their minds to this. It is not only the hardiness of man's heart that they have to meet but the gospel is never preached without Satan being there to pick it up if it be by the wayside.
As to the way in which Satan deals with individuals, Peter says. he " goes about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and he knows you well. He knows what Your peculiar liking is, and finds you in a condition to entertain his suggestions. Judas had the bag before Satan came to him, and he say to him: I know you like money, now I will give you some money if you will do it. To another, who is ambitious, he says, I will give you power.
It has been a great question with philosophers as to the interval of time that elapses between the conception of a bad act and the execution of it. I will tell you; and not by philosophy, but by Scripture. " Satan entered into "
He put it into his head; and if you entertain the thought he pits before- you, he will enable you to carry it out. Wherever there is consistency, persistency, in an evil course, there is Satan. Man has no power of himself; so I say, you never see a persistent attempt to a certain end for evil that it is not Satanic. When people say, That man has a great will, you May be sure he is supported by Satan.
Paul says, " Satan hindered " me. I do not know how it came to be so, but we find that he was going to preach in a certain place, and that he could not go. ".
How; then, am I to overcome him? Resist him. "Whom resist, steadfast in the faith; '! and, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." The great thing is to stand against him.
There are just one or two more points I should like to touch on. First, the way in which God makes use of Satan. I believe He uses him to correct the saints and to scourge them. In Job's case how terrible for him to know, if he did know it, that he was in the hands of Satan; that it was Satan who had taken -away his sheep, his camels, his oxen, and his sons and daughters. And Satan was glad to do it; and he was glad to be the thorn in the flesh to Paul. Just think of it! I believe it would give us far greater sobriety if we thought more of these things, if we saw that we are never safe from the attacks of Satan but in the hands of the Lord.
And, lastly, we have that most solemn word " Delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme."
May the Lord keep us close to Himself as our great High Priest by the way! He never suffered from the attacks of Satan internally, though He did from outside. And, for that very reason, He is able to carry us through all the virulence and malice of that which is outside us. He makes it all to be but the winds blowing on His garden, " that the spices thereof may flow out." As for ourselves, we have no power at all unless we are depending on the Lord Jesus Christ.
(J. B. S.)