JUST as the Scriptures reveal a personal Saviour, so also they make known to us a personal enemy. The friend is Jesus; the enemy is Satan it is more pleasant to speak of the friend than of the foe; but as the One has warned us against the other, it is well to take heed to His warnings.
Mark, then, what this friend says. He tells us that our adversary, the devil, is watching for an opportunity to assault us, and compares him to a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Violence is not, however, his only nor his most dangerous weapon. He who beguiled Eve by his subtlety, accomplishes oftentimes by cunning what he fails to effect by force, and so we are exhorted to “put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.” (Eph. 6:1111Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11).)
Now, if ever there was a time when this injunction required to be attended to, it is the present. Persecution seems to have spent its force; Satan has apparently made the discovery that it will not now serve his purposes, and so he has changed his tactics. Cunning has superseded violence, the sap and mine have taken the place of the battering-ram; and the danger now arises from the subtlety of the serpent rather than the open assault of the roaring lion. Hence then, our need of considering the wiles of the devil, that we may be on our guard against them.
In 2 Cor. 4:3, 43But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: 4In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. (2 Corinthians 4:3‑4) we learn that it is Satan who hides the gospel of Christ, from unbelievers. How does he do this? In the simplest manner possible. Either he places something, before Christ, or substitutes something for Christ. A penny placed before the eye will hide the sun; the world placed before the soul will hide the Saviour. What is more common than to see men wholly occupied with the world, and living in utter forgetfulness of the Son of God, slighting and rejecting Him for the sake of wealth or fame or power or pleasure? And what is more common than to see men whose thoughts are directed to the subject of salvation occupied with some form of religion instead of Christ? The ritualist, I doubt not, is in earnest, and believes that he is serving God; but what is he occupied with? Rites and ceremonies, sacred music, and clerical vestments. And so with many also who repudiate ritualism, and yet are occupied too with outward observances, and living without Christ. From all such — papist, ritualist, or Protestant — the gospel is hid, as it is “to those that are lost;” and they are as completely that.4s ate liar or the thief. Satan is wise in his own way. He knows that it is not crime or sensuality or covetousness only, that ruin the soul. Religion without Christ will do it as effectually, perhaps even more so. Never is the devil so much to be feared, as when in the guise of an “angel of light.”
Misplacing truth is another of the wiles of the devil, whereby he ruins countless souls. “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ; and thou shalt be saved.” All that the sinner needs is to come to the Saviour, and salvation is his. This Satan knows, and seeks with all his power to hinder it. When he can no longer prevent such an one from thinking of salvation, he whispers, “You are not fit to come to Christ yet; you must amend your ways first, pray, read the Bible, cultivate a spirit of devotion, “do many things.” This, while Christ says, “Come unto Me, and I will give you rest,” the wily adversary by misplacing truth would prevent the anxious one from coming. Now it is indeed true, that men should pray, read the Bible, amend their ways, or the like; but it is not true that they must do anything before believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. “Without faith it is impossible to plc se God,” and therefore without faith, these things are of no avail. Satan would reverse God’s order. He would give Christ and the cross a secondary place. Nay, if he could he would give them no place at all. Follow God’s order and the result is life and peace. Yield to the wiles of the devil, and the result is death.
Souls that are Christ’s, and have escaped these dangers, do not thereby pass out of reach of the wiles of the devil. He who tempted the Master, will not leave the disciples unassailed. For a season he induced them to doubt the freeness of Christ’s salvation; now he will try to make them doubt its fullness. Alas, how few escape the snare. Nothing can be plainer from Scripture, than that the believer is saved, that he may know that he is saved, and that he cannot be lost. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life.” “I write unto you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake.” “My sheep hear My voice, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish.” “These things have I written unto you that believe on the Name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have everlasting life.” These texts are but a few examples of Scripture teaching. But it has ever been the policy of Satan to lessen the force of Scripture, to induce men to doubt the efficacy of the blood of Christ, and to get souls occupied with themselves instead of Him. Hence, when those who rest their faith on the plain statements of the Word, speak of the blessed position in which the believer is placed, there is a cry of presumption raised. This is one of the wiles of the devil. If the Christian is still according to the old nature a sinner, it is equally true he is a pardoned sinner. If in his flesh dwells no good thing, he is yet “accepted in the Beloved.” If he was a child of disobedience and of wrath, he is, none the less, now a child of God. He has entered into a new state and sphere of existence lead with Christ as to all the past, he has been quickened together with Christ, raised tether with Him, and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. To deny this is to deny Scripture and the fullness of Christ’s salvation.
Who placed us in this wondrous position as the redeemed of God? Did we ourselves? Nay, verily. Who, then? Christ by His grace. Then why speak of presumption in saying it is ours? If the Queen of her own good pleasure were to make me a peer of the realm, would I be guilty of presumption, if I said I was a peer of the realm? If Christ by His grace has made me a king and priest unto, God, is it presumption to say that He has done it? No, it is rather unbelief to deny it, and instead of praising Him for His grace, to begin to talk of myself and my own personal unworthiness.
And now let us take note of another, and also very successful wile of the devil, whereby the Church of God has been grievously injured. Before our blessed Lord went away He said to His sorrowing, disciples, “I will come again, and receive you unto Myself, that, where I am, there ye may be also.” This is the “blessed hope” set before the church. We are assured that “the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump of God,” and that all His saints, dead or living at that time, will be caught up to meet Him in the air, and to be with Him forever. What a precious thought! In this world, we which have the first-fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit the redemption of our body. The whole creation, groaning and travailing together in the bondage of corruption, waits also for the same time —“for the manifestation of the sons of God,” (Rom. 8:1919For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19)). These groans will he stilled when the Lord return, and heaven and earth break forth in songs of joy, when the Bridegroom comes fir His royal Bride, and the King ascends His throne.
There is no more precious truth fur the Christian. The thought that any moment the Lord may come cheers him through his pilgrim journey, and separates him from a world which loves not the name of Jesus. It did so in the brightest days of the Church, and it is fitted to do so now. But Satan has here also employed his wiles. By substituting the delusive hope of a triumphant Church and a converted world for the “blessed hope,” he has succeeded in drawing away the hearts of many of the people of God from the coming of the Lord. If, as some say, Christ will not come till the close of the millennium, of what use is it to remind Christians, that they ought to have their loins girded and their lamps burning, waiting for the coming of the Bridegroom?
How can men whose span of life is limited to threescore years and ten, be expected to be on the look-out for an event, that will not take place for a thousand years? But it is said, that Christ comes at death, and will come to judgment. Indeed is death the Lord Himself? Does it come with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and the trump bf God? Are the dead in Christ raised, and is the church caught up into the air, when a Christian dies? Or if you say, that is at the judgment, is it conceivable that Paul bade the Thessalonians be comforted at the thought of standing before the great white throne, when he speaks of Christ’s coming Tor His church (1 Thess. 4)?
For my part, I cannot doubt that the confounding of things so opposite has been effected by the wiles of the devil. Just as he succeeds in hiding Christ from unbelievers, and making them think of the works of the law instead, so has he succeeded in getting believers to think more of the gospel of Christ than Christ Himself, and attributing to it what alone His personal coming will effect. It is true that “the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” but it is not true that that will be effected by the preaching of the gospel. Scripture is very plain upon this point, that Christ will come first and take away His Church; then Israel will be converted, the earth purged with judgment, and the Lord appear in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. It is then that He will take the kingdom which his saints will share with Him; Israel be fully restored, the Spirit be poured upon them from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest. Then judgment will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness in the fruitful field. And the work of righteousness will be peace; and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance forever.
H. M.