Prayer Meeting 28/ 11/2023
Snares And Solutions - Part 2
2 Corinthians 2:11
Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
Well, we started this new series last time from the astonishing work by Thomas Brooks entitled ‘Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices’. In Brooks’ work he lists 12 devices Satan uses to draw the human soul to sin. Then 8 devices that keep the soul from holy duties. Then 8 devices Satan uses to keep the soul sad and doubting. And lastly, 4 devices Satan uses to destroy all sorts and ranks of men (by this he means men of strong standing position, men of influence, men in power etc.).
Within each category of each of Satan’s devices Brooks gives remedies to overcome these devices from Satan.
The work is 180 pages long, packed with amazing stuff. The good news is that it is also a Banner of Truth abridged puritan paperback, which many of you have purchased. If you haven’t yet, we still have some copies. Don’t pass it up. It’s too good to not have, and of course at 180 pages long we won’t be able to go through it at the depth in which it truly deserves. So you need to get it.
I heard one reviewer saying ‘it’s one of the most shocking books on the human soul’ he has ever read. Last time I said I would share the twelve devices Satan uses to draw our souls to sin. Last time I shared the first six. Tonight I will share the second six.
As last time, each time I share one of the devices, I will share one of Brooks’ remedies that counter that device. Out of this amazing 180 page teaching Brooks draws simply from one verse from one chapter.
It’s Paul’s final letter, or second letter to the Corinthians
2 Corinthians 2:11
Lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
The NASB reads:
So that no advantage would be taken of us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his schemes.
And the ESV:
So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
Okay let me read our puritan prayer. It is the same prayer from our last teaching, from Tim Chester’s book ‘Into His Presence’, page 83, and is by Thomas Brooks. It’s called ‘Sin’s True Colours,’ and for me it’s the prayer of the teaching he has done which we will be covering over the next few weeks.
The very language he uses is word for word from some of the points he makes in his work. It’s a fairly lengthy prayer. But the words are so impacting and striking, especially when you have read his teaching. This is the prayer of the very teaching we will be pondering over this week and again in the next meeting. I hope and believe this prayer will become one we will return to again and again, as a reminder of this teaching and lesson.
Lord God, when the devil presents the bait, show us the hook. When the devil presents the golden cup show the poison hidden inside. When the devil presents the sweet pleasure of sin, show us the misery that will follow, When the devil presents the profit of yielding to sin, show us the wrath that comes from committing it. When Satan promises the soul honour and profit, give us eyes to see the shame and loss he delivers. Strengthen our resolve that we keep at the greatest possible distance from sin, and not play with the golden bait held out by Satan. May we tremble at sin, and keep our distance from it. Give us eyes to see that sin is a bitter sweet whose sweetness quickly vanishes, replaced by lasting shame, sorrow, horror and terror. May we fear to lose that divine favour that is better than life, that joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, that peace that passes understanding, those divine influences by which our souls are refreshed, raised and gladdened. Help us to see when Satan paints sin with virtue's colours: when pride is called neatness and cleanliness, when covetousness is called good stewardship,, when drunkenness is called good company, when a lack of self-control is called liberality, and when wild living is called youthful tricks. Help us to see through the deceits of sin, Help us to see sin as one day we will see it: when what once appeared sweet will appear most bitter, what once appeared beautiful will appear most ugly, what once appeared delightful will appear most dreadful. Gracious Father, may we reckon the true price of our sins, that it cost the best blood, the noblest blood, the life-blood, the heart-blood of our Lord Jesus. In temptation, impress these truths on our hearts: that Christ came from your side to sorrow and death; that God should be manifest in the flesh; he who was clothed with splendour, wrapped in rags: he who filled heaven with his glory, cradled in a manger the God of the law, subject to the law; he who is the fullness of all things, hungry and thirsty: the God of strength, weary; the Judge of all flesh, condemned; the God of life, put to death; the fairest of faces, spat upon; hands that hold the sceptre of heaven, nailed to the cross, eyes purer than the sun, put out by death's darkness; each sense aggravated: his feeling with a spear and nails; his smell with the stench of death; his taste with vinegar and gall; his hearing with reproaches; his sight with his mother bemoaning him; his soul, comfortless and forsaken; and all this for those very sins that Satan dresses up in fine colours! Oh, may these considerations stir up our souls against sin, that we might fly from temptation, and use all holy means to subdue and destroy it! May the thoughts of the crucified Christ never leave our minds. May they be our meat, our sweetness and comfort, our honey and our desire, our life, death and resurrection.
-Thomas Brooks
Okay, as I said last time: let’s delve in, crash helmets on (or don’t bother - let your head and heart be smashed by these truths).
Here is the 7th device that Satan uses to draw the soul to sin:
Brooks writes:
By making the soul bold to venture upon the occasion of sin.
By this what Brooks means is that many think they can be in and around sin, and have it within their vicinity to yet not be affected and drawn in by it.
Brooks says:
You may walk by the harlot’s door, you won’t go into the harlots bed… (drawing from proverbs 9 of course).
He adds:
You may sup with the drunkard but won’t get drunk with him.
Another example he gives is:
You may play and toy with Delilah but do not commit wickedness.
This is how Satan draws our soul to sin. He makes us lie to ourselves and think ‘well I’m not really doing anything wrong, I’m only in the vicinity of it’.
What a silly thing to do, to be around sin and think you will not be affected, or enticed further.
Again I will only give one of Brooks’ remedies. One of his remedies is really not rocket science. Brooks, in his first remedy he lists writes:
The first remedy is to solemnly dwell upon scripture that commands us to avoid sin and the appearance of evil.
An example of this would be: 1 Thessalonians 5:22
Abstain from every form of evil.
Brooks writes:
So we must not only hate sin and avoid gross sins, but everything that may even carry a savour or suspicion of sin.
Brooks then writes this profound statement:
To venture upon the occasion of sin and then pray ‘lead us not into temptation’, is to put your finger in the fire and then pray you don’t get burned.
How feeble do our prayers become when we have already chosen to compromise? How little conviction do we pray for a sound mind, and to free us from temptation, and carnal pursuits, when we have already started to entertain the thoughts, and already have one foot in it?
Okay, the 8th device Satan uses to draw the soul to sin:
By representing to the soul the outward mercies that vain men enjoy.
Really self-explanatory here. Bottom line: Satan draws the soul to sin by making you look at other people who seem to be getting away with it with no ill affect.
Brooks has seven remedies. Remedy 5 is the one I will share:
That outward things are not as they seem.
Brooks adds:
Indeed they have a glorious outside, but if you view their insides, you will easily find they fill the head full of cares, and the heart full of fears.
Oh how often do I see people comparing their lives to the outer lives of others, which in turn cause them to stumble.
Brooks quotes Augustine on the 26th Psalm:
Many are miserable by loving hurtful things, but they are more miserable by having them.
Oh how does someone’s nonchalance at times draw us to sin, and become obsessed with them rather than our own journey?
Okay, the 9th device Satan uses to draw our souls to sin:
By presenting to the soul the crosses, losses, reproaches, sorrows and sufferings, that daily attend those that walk in the ways of holiness.
Oh how true. How many a person I’ve met who found no conviction for their own sins and sinful lives, due to them comparing and judging the burdens and persecutions of those who are faithful.
Like the soldiers at the cross mocking Jesus: ‘you call yourself a messiah and the Son of God, yet your God has abandoned you.’
I’ve had that with people who are serial sinners. A lot:
“Look, so and so has left as well…”
“Look, there’s someone else having a go and been hurt by his ministry…”
What they don’t see is how Satan uses that to keep them in sin, and justifying their disobedience.
One of Brooks remedies:
That all the afflictions that God’s people face are only to try them and not to wrong them.
All things working for good. Affliction is not proof of God’s departure but God’s purpose. Afflictions teach us, equip us, sanctify us. It’s in affliction that we truly are being sanctified.
Often we can get so lost in the battle, while God is showing us all who we are, and the battle is but the avenue and the source to show us.
So I would say to anyone who is judging those who are being afflicted: don’t use it to justify your disobedience. Don’t you know that God is using it bring that person into the image and actions of Christ?
Too many weak, immature believers abandon and judge those who are being afflicted and persecuted. And use it to either justify their anger, and lack of love towards them, or they distance themselves from them.
Okay, the 10th device Satan uses to draw the soul to sin.
This one needs no explanation:
By working in them to compare themselves and their ways to those who are worse than them.
Basically: ‘I’m not that bad’ – ‘yes, I’m not perfect but at least I’m not….”. Listen, even that comparing doesn’t need to be towards another person, but yourself. ‘I’m better than I used to be’ is the cry – ‘I’m not near as bad as I was’.
Oh how at times those statements bring such a justification to current disobedience and sinful pursuits.
Brooks’ remedy - this is remedy 3:
Although thy sins are not as great as others, yet without repentance you will certainly be damned as others, even if not tormented as much as others.
Being a wee bit less of a sinner doesn’t get you a pardon without repentance. Not being as bad a sin, or as depraved is no consolation.
Okay, the 11th device that Satan uses to draw the soul to sin:
This one is a bit wordy but I will explain after I’ve said it:
By polluting and defiling the souls and judgments of men with such dangerous errors, that do in their proper tendency tend to carry the souls of men to all looseness and wickedness, as woeful experience doth abundantly evidence.
To put it simply: by teaching and sharing things about God and His Word that are in error, and represent God in a poor light that pollutes men.
Satan will both, if he can, draw our souls to error, then draw us to others to teach that error. Poor knowledge, weak knowledge, leads to weak and corrupt teaching, where souls are drawn away from God towards sin.
I think the worst of these teachers are not those that are so far wrong, but those that are nearly right.
When I sat under wrong teaching. I brought wrong teaching. When I sit under sound teaching I bring forth sound teaching. Mostly. Of course, there are those under sound teaching, bringing error but in general they never stay.
Okay, one of the remedies - Brooks has seven, and I love them all but here is one. This is probably my favourite point out of the twelve I must say:
To receive truth affectionately and let it dwell in your soul plenteously.
Don’t you love that? Receive it affectionately and let it dwell plentifully.
Oh how, when I start to see people not receiving truth well, it truly troubles my soul. Because I know next will be that their ears and flesh starts to become drawn to deceit. In fact they work in tandem.
Know this: when you start to baulk at truth, or try and manoeuvre it, or start to call it opinions, or whatever your do - I promise you, it’s only a matter of time before the lies you look to instead, draw you far from God and into sin.
Okay, final one…
The 12th device Satan uses to draw the soul to sin:
This is really a follow on, as most are in the twelve:
To affect wicked company, to keep wicked society.
How utterly damaging is it, that as believers we are not just in company but actually, due to our own sin, and disobedient behaviour, corrupt it.
Have you ever said something that was not just not Christlike, but so unchristlike that it was a true stumbling block, or worse: an aid to anti-God people?
Compromising, gossiping, saying things that were a total opposite of what you ought to be standing on, to the point you feed their unbelief. I have, and I’m glad I feel utterly convicted by it. However, often only after saying it.
Brooks’ remedies:
That their company is very infectious and dangerous.
You may think: ‘well, I need to get better’ - and I’m sure you do. But know that when you’re in that company, its infectious to become unfaithful.
Okay time has gone…
Amen.
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