Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayerful attention to our first reading. 2 Corinthians chapter 2 and reading
from our text, verse 11. Lest Satan should get an advantage
of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. The holy, sacred, infallible
Word of God tells us about the existence of Satan, a fallen
angel, the devil, legion, Apollyon, many names he is called. It is not Satan that tells us
about himself. God tells us about Satan and
warns us of him that is an enemy of the truth, an enemy of God,
an enemy of God's people. He that was the one that tempted
our first parents, that brought about the fall and brought sin
into the world and death by sin. We know in a natural way that
if there is an enemy, a conflict between nations, that one of
the things that the enemy pries most is the prize. One of the great blessings that
we had in the Second World War was the invention of radar. That we were able to detect the
enemy when he was a great way off. But we should remember that
a nation or a people that is in ignorance of an enemy. We read of the tribe of Dan that
went forth to a people that were quiet and secure. They weren't
on their watch guard. They were taken by surprise. That a people in that position
are very, very vulnerable. And a people that even know of
an enemy, but do not take warning against his coming are a foolish
people. And so we have not Satan, but
the Lord our God, revealing a lot in the Word of God about Satan,
about his devices, that is, his plans, his methods, his tricks,
We are told here in our text, we are not ignorant of his devices. And so it behoves us as the people
of God, as much as we may delight to look into the precious things
of the gospel and of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, and
delight in those blessings that he has given to the church of
God. We must also hear the word of warning and admonition and
attend unto what the Lord himself has to say about the enemy, the
enemy of our souls. We only need to read the account
of Job, Job, a righteous man, an upright man that feared God. And yet Satan accused God of
hedging him about, keeping all that he had. And his thought
was, which is true of many in this world that are just nominal
Christians, If God was but to touch a little of their substance
or their health, then they would turn round and curse God to his
face. So God gave Satan permission,
and Satan needs God's permission. Satan is not in control. He is
a enemy that is not an almighty enemy. He is not greater than
God. God will turn about as he did
with Job, Satan's malice and all of his hatred against the
people of God, and turn it for good. And though Job was very
afflicted and lost so much, he proved that God's grace given
him was sufficient so that he didn't curse God. He still remained
a believer. His hope was still in God and
beyond the grave, beyond this world. He says, I know that my
Redeemer liveth. He says, I know that after my
flesh, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh will I see God. And it is a great blessing to
have a faith that looks beyond this world. The apostle says
in his first epistle to the Corinthians, if in this life only, we have
hope in Christ with all men most miserable. The important thing
is that Satan does not rob us of our comforts in Christ, that
he does not turn us out of the way that he does not take advantage
of us, and it may be cause many to stumble as well, or as many
he does take advantage of and causes their complete fall. We know with God's people they
cannot be lost, but we are to fear, we are to be on our watchtower,
we are not to be careless and indifferent. We are exhorted
in the word of God in this way, to be watchful and diligent. And in our text, that Satan should
get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant of his devices. So what was the situation here
with the Corinthians? What had happened in the first
epistle, the apostle had had to deal with one member of that
church, that was living in open sin and walking in sexual sin,
and the church was turning a blind eye to him. They were happy to
have him still amongst their number, and the apostle wrote
to them. He reproved the church, and he
brought them to discipline that member and to put him out from
their number. When he wrote to them, it was
effectual. The church was brought to deal
with the man willingly. The man himself was brought to
repentance and sorrow. And now in this epistle, he is
warning that church, where the man had been brought to repent,
to turn from the evil ways, and to be sorry for his sin, then
they must forgive him. They must restore him. If they
didn't, then Satan would get an advantage. Worse, error would
be to discipline, and then when repentance was granted, that
they weren't restored. It's vital that repentance be
real, be from the heart, but where it is, then there is to
be restoration. He says, to whom ye forgive,
anything I forgive also, for if I forgave anything, to whom
I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of
Christ. He says in verse 6 and 7, sufficient
to such a man is this punishment which was inflicted of many,
so that contrarywise ye ought rather to forgive him and to
comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up
with overmuch sorrow." Discipline, the aim of it is restoration,
is bringing back from the pit and back from the ways that they
were walking in. And where the repentance then
is real, there will be a real public acknowledgement that that
way has been a sinful way, that there was a just cause of discipline,
and there'll be that real godly sorrow before God and men. So that is the context that is
here. Well, I want then to look with
the Lord's help at the word before us. We are told in our text,
we are not ignorant of his, that is, Satan's devices. So firstly,
let us look at some of the devices of Satan that are recorded in
the word of God. Then secondly, the way we are
to walk so Satan does not take advantage of us. Paul was warning
the Corinthians here, if they walked in the way of not restoring
a repenting brother, they're walking in a way that Satan would
take advantage over them. I want to look at the way that
we should walk so he does not take advantage over us. And then lastly, some of the
promises of God's protection against Satan. But firstly, some of the devices
of Satan, that is his plans. his methods, his tricks, the
way that he goes about to entrap, ensnare, and turn aside, and
attack the children of God. The first I mention is the context
here when an opening is given to him. And really there is an opening
here if the Corinthians do not walk in the way that the Apostle
is setting before them. We read as well in the first
letter to the Corinthians a warning concerning marriage. that where
there is not a fulfilling of the act of marriage between the
husband and the wife withholding it, then it will bring in an
opening for Satan in drawing aside one of the partners to
look elsewhere outside of the marriage to be satisfied in that
way. And so he exhorts to that duty
of marriage and he says, lest Satan should get an advantage
over us. And so there are those things
that we can do or walk in that we actually give him an opening,
we give him an opportunity if we are walking in ways where
we know that we will be tempted. We know that Satan's people are,
or the wicked are. And it may be asked with us,
what do we have to do in such company? Satan may rightly say,
I found you on my ground. I found you amongst those that
are walking in my ways. And so we actually give him an
opening. So Satan, one of his devices
in this, he is watching. When he gets an opening, there
he goes in with it. Watching for an opportunity.
You know, you think of what they call this opportunistic thieves. Those that may be just going
along and they see an unlocked door, an open door, or something
in open view and quickly they reach in and take it. They're
taking advantage. And this is one of the things
that Satan does. The other thing that he does
is provokes to sinful actions. This is what King David found
when Satan provoked David to number the children of Israel. And when David numbered them,
they weren't going out to battle. There was no cause for him numbering
them. He did not take the money that
should have been given for each that were numbered and bring
it to the sanctuary. And God then judged Israel for
that. and 70,000 died of a plague.
David says, I have sinned. He confessed his sin. But it was Satan that provoked
that sinful action. May we be very mindful of this,
that sometimes we can be provoked to do something by Satan. He is real, you know. Some will
deny the very existence of Satan. Satan will be very happy about
that. But he is a very real adversary. He provokes. We read later on in this epistle,
in the 11th chapter, that he corrupts from the simplicity
that is In Christ, in chapter 11 and verse 3, he says, but
I fear, lest by any means as the serpent beguiled Eve through
his subtlety, remember it was Satan coming in the form of the
serpent, so your mind should be corrupted from the simplicity
that is in Christ. and his warning against those
who were bringing another gospel. And how often we find there are
those that would make the gospel a very complicated thing. Get
the people of God, have them in admiration because of advantage. Oh, we've got a doctorate in
theology and we know this and we know that. this scripture
doesn't really mean what it says, it means this, and you've got
to know Greek and Hebrew to be able to interpret that, and they
corrupt from the simplicity in the gospel, and the Apostle is
warning this, this is one of Satan's ways, this is how he
actually acts in this way. As Satan begot Eve, what was
the simplicity with Eve? My God had said to Adam, in the
day that thou eatest thereof, the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil, thou shalt surely die. And Satan comes and saying,
no, it doesn't really mean that. God knows that your eyes will
be open, you know good and evil. He was saying the very simple
word of God didn't really mean what God had said, but it did.
The gospel really is very simple. Sin and salvation. We have sinned. The Lord Jesus Christ has come. He has lived a perfect life that
we could not live. He has died a death that we could
not die, a death of a perfect man, And in doing that he has
died, bearing the sins of his people, and put them away. And those that believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, that he has endured the wrath of God and
put away their sins on Calvary's tree, in that belief they are
saved. May we be delivered from Whosoever believeth that Jesus
Christ hath come into the world to save sinners, they are saved. With the heart man believeth,
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Yes, of course, there are many
doctrines There are many teachings, there's many aspects of it, but
may we never be removed from the simplicity of the Gospel,
which all centres in the Lord Jesus Christ and his substitutionary
offering at Calvary. We read in this same epistle,
again in chapter 11, of Satan transforming himself. And he transforms himself into
even an angel. He says of false apostles in
Verse 13, 2 Corinthians 11, 13. For such are false apostles,
deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles
of Christ. And no marvel, for Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no
great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness. What a solemn thing. There are
ministers that seem to be ministers of righteousness, but they are
ministers of Satan. They are anti-Christ, they are
preaching not the Bible, not the gospel, but error. And he says here, one of Satan's
devices is that he transforms himself as if he is an angel
of light. A solemn thing that was said
of Ahithophel, who joined in the conspiracy with Absalom against
King David, his advice at that time was as one that had inquired
at the oracle of God. It seemed that all that he said
was so godly, so good. We remember that Judas Iscariot,
of which Ahithophel was a type, The Old Testament, that Judas
Iscariot, he preached. The disciples, they couldn't
find him out. The Lord knew who he was. And so may we be mindful of those
that come as if they were angels of light, but they did not speak
according to the word of God. to the law and to the testimony,
if they do not agree according to that, it is because there
is no light or life in them. We have in the prophecy of Zechariah
how that Satan, he stood at Zerubbabel's right hand, he stood to resist
And some of us, we know what that is. To feel a real resistance,
a resistance when we come to preach, a resistance when we
come to hear, resistance when we come to pray, resistance when
we come to read the word of God. This is one of Satan's ploys. What child of God doesn't know
what it is? a secret resistance that makes
it a hard thing, a hard thing to go to prayer, to go to worship,
to seek the Lord. One of Satan's devices. Another one of his devices is
to put in the heart to do evil. Our Lord spoke of Judas in this
way, and he says in John 13 and verse 2, supper being ended, the devil
having now put into the heart of Judas Iscariot Simon's son
to betray him. What a solemn thing. The devil
having now put good, he hath that power to put into one's
heart. And yet he was not the last one,
Judas wasn't, because in the early church we have Ananias
and Sapphira. When the Lord had so blessed
the church and many were selling their lands and giving the money
to the poor and to the church. So that those that had much gave
to those that had lacked. And they gave it willingly, freely,
the Lord loosened their hands. But Ananias and Sapphira, they
wanted to be seen the same, but they didn't want to lose off
their riches. So they sold land. And they brought
half of the money and told the apostles that they were bringing
it all. And Peter had so reproved them,
he said, how is it that Satan hath put it into your heart to
lie to the Holy Ghost? How careful we need to be that
it is not Satan putting into our heart to do evil things. of his strategies, one of the
things that he devises to do. In the portion that we read in
Ephesians 6, we have in verse 11, concerning
the wiles of the devil, be able to stand against the wiles of
the devil, that is his devious strategies, the ways that he
tries to take to trap and deceive the people of God. Then we have in Peter's epistles
a warning that Satan goes about as a roaring lion whom he may
devour. the picture that we get in the
Word of God, the inspired Word of God that your adversary the
devil, that his ways are so movable. One moment he's like a lion,
the next moment he's like an angel of light, and the next
moment he's using some other wiles and devices to trap and
to deceive. And really he has 6,000 years
of experience of deceiving, trapping, destroying men. No wonder there
is so much in the Word of God that makes us wise to his devices,
to his ways that he takes. His desire is to sift the people
of God. As the Lord said regarding Peter,
Satan hath the desire to have thee, to sift thee of wheat,
but I prayed for thee that thy faith fail not. That is to toss
around, to throw about, to confuse. Another one of Satan's ways,
and this is where he used even Peter as a mouthpiece, is to
turn us away from the cross. Our Lord had told his disciples
about the cross and the sufferings that were before him, and Peter
took him and began to rebuke him, saying, be not this unto
thee, Lord. The Lord turned to rebuke Peter,
said, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou saviour'st not the things
that be of men, be of God, but that which is of men. And you
know, we can be Satan's mouthpiece. The Lord has said of his people,
they're to take up their cross and to follow him, and that in
the world you shall have tribulation. And when we find one of the Lord's
dear people, Desiring to take up the cross, walk in a way of
the Lord, and we try and discourage them from it? They're doing Satan's
work. May we rather encourage the people
of God, like the disciples did, that ye must, through much tribulation,
enter the kingdom, instead of spare thyself. And then we have, the revelation
in the 12th chapter, really what sums up the whole,
that he is a deceiver. And a deceiver not just of part
of the world, but the whole world. And the great dragon was cast
out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan, which deceiveth
the whole world, the whole world, a deceiver. What a solemn thing
that when our Lord was crucified, His own people, the Jews, they
accused our Lord of being a deceiver. He that is the a true God. When our Lord at Calvary, as
He offered up Himself as sacrifice, He fulfilled that very first
promise, that which was really spoken to Satan. The seed of
the woman shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. And at Calvary, Satan's head
was bruised. The Lord delivered his people
out of Satan's hand. He settled the debt. He redeemed
them. He paid the price. He set them
loose. He set them free. He gave them
life instead of death. But the sufferings of our Lord,
that's what is meant by thou shalt bruise his heel. The cost,
we're not to forget the cost, is intense sufferings of body,
of mind, of soul. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? But the empty tomb proves the
victory over death. Yes, Satan has devices, and we've
only just mentioned, as it were, a few of them. in the word of
God. So then how should we walk? In
the second place, the way we are to walk so Satan does not
take advantage over us. First thing I'd mention is that
which we read in Ephesians 6, put on the whole armour of God. We've already mentioned verse
11, the introduction to this. put on the whole armour of God,
that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities,
against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world,
against spiritual wickedness in high places. Through what
is the whole armour of God. Verse 14. loins girt about with
truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness, Christ's righteousness,
feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace, taking
the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all
the fiery darts of the wicked, take the helmet of salvation,
and the sword of the spirit which is the word of God, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the spirit and watching thereunto. Many things in that portion that
direct us how we are to walk. The emphasis is on the word of
God, on prayer and the truths of God. the righteousness of the Lord
Jesus Christ imputed to his people, and walking according to the
gospel, and having that hope of salvation, which is saving
from hell and saving to heaven. And we are always to be mindful
of this, that salvation, as Jonah said in the whale's belly before
the Lord commanded, the whale and he vomited him up on dry
land, salvation is of the Lord. The Lord Jesus Christ, his name
shall be called Jesus, for he shall save his people from their
sins. When our Lord was tempted in
the wilderness by Satan, our Lord always answered by the word
of God. Satan began to use the word of
God to tempt our Lord, but he was taking the word out of context. So our Lord answered him, it
is written again. And he compared scripture with
scripture and rebuffed Satan. Never turn away from the scriptures
of truth to just the writings of man in rebutting Satan. Now we know the word of truth,
and know how to wield it and have on this armour of God. In James's epistle, we are bidden
to resist the devil. We might say, well, who are we
to resist the devil? We have no strength or power
at all. And yet this is clearly set before
us, submit yourselves therefore unto God. In James 4 verse 7,
resist the devil and he will flee from you. There's a promise
with that as well, that we are to resist. Now sometimes if we
were attacked by a very strong person, we would think there's
no use resisting. I've no power, I've no might
whatsoever, it's no use resisting. But that is not what is taught
us in the word. Satan's power is not minimized
at all, it's very, very great. Our weakness is also emphasized. But we are to resist. And with
a promise. Why, with God on our side. and
that Satan will flee from us. May we not be willing followers
of Satan's lies and deceits. So the third thing again is set
before us in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 27, that we are not
to give place to the devil or give way to him. This is in the
context of putting on the new man. Put away lying, speak every
man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and sin not, let not
the sun go down upon your wrath, neither give place to the devil. How easy it is when Satan is
tempting and leading us in a way that's so contrary to the word
of God. the spirit of the gospel and
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we give way to him and we go
along with him. Sometimes we might feel that
we can't resist anymore. We feel our weak resistance,
as the hymn writer says, are how vain. But the path that is
set before us, don't give way to him. And then we have the
hearing of instruction, where Timothy is written to by the
Apostle Paul in the second epistle, chapter two. We read this, that in verse 25,
or in verse from verse 24, the servant of the Lord must not
strive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient in
meekness, instructing those that oppose themselves, if God perventure
will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth,
and that they may recover themselves out of the snare. of the devil,
who are taken captive by him at his will. Through instruction,
through the teaching of the Word of God, we might know those,
we might be ourselves snared in a wrong way, in the devil's
snares. May the Lord help us to listen
to the Lord's servants, listen to the Church of God, listen
to their admonitions, that we might be delivered out of that
snare of the devil. And if we have those that are
walking in a contrary way, snared by Satan, the Lord give us that
meekness to instruct and to teach, knowing this, that this is the
path that the Lord uses to deliver out of Satan's snares. So there are ways that we are
to walk so that Satan does not take advantage over us. As the word of our text says,
lest Satan should get an advantage of us, for we are not ignorant
of his devices. I want to then leave you with
a few of the promises of God's protection against Satan. John, when he writes in his epistles,
in 1 John, chapter 3, verse 8, We read this, he that commiteth
sin is of the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil. What a blessed promise in a showing
forth of the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ,
for that purpose, to destroy the works of the devil. As a
blessed thing, if the Lord Jesus Christ is revealed to us, shown
to us, He is the way of life, He is the way of deliverance
from Satan and deliverance to heaven. as God's promise. This is why he is revealed. This was the very first promise
in the Garden of Eden, that he should bruise the serpent's head. The second thing I'll mention
is in that beautiful chapter, the Gospel according to John,
and chapter 10, where our Lord speaks of himself as the good
shepherd who gave his life for the sheep. He says in verse 28,
And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which
gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck
them out of my Father's hand. That is, no man, no devil, no
one. or how so clearly the Apostle
in Romans 8 sets forth his persuasion that nothing should separate
us from the love of Christ. I am persuaded, he says at the
end of that Romans 8, I am persuaded that neither death nor life nor
angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature.
shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is
in Christ Jesus our Lord. He holds his people, they are
safe in his hands. And we really have a picture
of that with Peter, we have a picture of that with Job. And so regarding
Peter, In the third place, it is the Lord's intercession for
his people. Satan hath desired to have thee,
to sift thee as wean, but I have prayed for thee that thy faith
fail not. How valuable is that? Him says,
what voice is that which speaks for me in heaven's high court
for good? That voice is Christ's voice,
His precious blood, His intercession, appearing in the presence of
God for us. We have these little illustrations
of that intercession here below. I prayed for thee that thou faith
fail not. I pray for them. I pray not that
thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst
keep them from the evil. Then we have a beautiful promise
in the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians in chapter
10. And he says this, there hath
no temptation taken you but such as is common to man. But God
is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that
year able. that will with the temptation
also make a way to escape, that ye be able to bear it. It's a blessed thing. The Lord
is in control, not Satan. The way that he has set before
us is a way where he warns, he discovers Satan's devices and
shows us the way that we are to walk Cleaving to his word,
cleaving to his directions, his guidance. And with those precious
promises of his protection and his care. What a blessing to have such
a God for our God. To have one who loves his church
more than any minister, any man can. who gave himself to redeem
it. And he shall redeem it. And those
that he has died for shall be in heaven with him. They are
his sheep, and he will not lose any of them. Not to Satan, not to any man. May we be helped
in this day when Temptations arise on every hand, and Satan
is very active, that we be mindful of his devices. The Lord give
us grace and help that we might be mindful of the Word of God,
and fight the good fight of faith, and lay hold on eternal life. Dear friends, I know, I know
what a struggle it is, I know what temptations are, what trials
are, what a strong one Satan is, but we have a stronger, a
mighty God, a mighty Saviour. May we be helped to look up this
evening, to lay hold upon those precious promises, and to be
thankful that the Lord has so set forth in His Word all of
those devices, I know that we have such an adversary. And the
Lord is mindful that we are weak. We have no strength and power
at all. And he's shown us that way, the
way he'd have us to walk. And when we fall, how he recovers
us, lifts us up, and strengthens us again. But may we be delivered
from Satan taking and getting an advantage over us. Bring us
then under the rod, bring us in sorrow, losing our comforts,
our blessings, our joys. May we instead walk under the
blessing and in the sweet presence and fellowship of the Lord and
of his people. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.