The Defense Against the Devil
Bid me of men beware,
And to my ways take heed,
Discern their every secret snare,
And circumspectly tread:
O may I calmly wait
Thy succours from above,
And stand against their open hate,
And well-dissembled level
He that with Christian armour manfully fights against and repels the temptations and assaults of his spiritual enemies, and he that keeps his conscience void of offense, shall enjoy
peace here and forever. -Ray.
FILL UP AND crowd out. Leave no room for the devil. Be too busy for him. Have no time and no place for him. Vacant places invite him. The devil loves a vacuum. A very busy person himself, he does his biggest business with those who have no business. The apostle in writing to the Ephesians gives this direction: “Neither give place to the devil." Leave no opening, no space for him. Keep him out by prepossession. Keep him out, nose, head, and all. “Give him an inch he will take an ell."
“Give no place to the devil." The apostle is writing of wrath, which is wicked, by which we give full scope to the devil. He comes into power and has full sway when we relinquish ourselves to the indulgence and continuance of evil passion. Our bad passions are the regions where Satan finds his favourite field and largest sphere of operation. Suppress evil, every tendency to indignation, bitterness and wrath. Suppress and purge out every heated impulse, every unholy flame, every stirring that is not of God. The devil's occupation will then be gone, when gentleness and benignity reign in the spirit.
“Resist the devil and he will flee from you." This is James' curt directory for getting rid of the devil. Resist means to set one's self against, to withstand. Yield him nothing at any point, but oppose him at every point. Be always against him, belonging ever to the party of the opposition as far as his plans, suggestions and ways are concerned. Bravely and strongly to resist what the devil proposes is half victory. To hesitate is to lose. To parley is to yield, to give an inch is the surrender of the whole ground. Firmness, decision and opposition, these the devil cannot stand. He is easily defeated if we are decided and uncompromising. Loyalty to God is rout and ruin to Satan.
We are taught the same simple all important lesson in Peter, with an addition: “Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour; Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world." The first part of the direction has reference to the elements of personal character. What we are, is of prime consideration in this conflict with the devil. Strong, good character is thrice armed. Character tells in all relations, duties and trials, but nowhere is character more telling in its gracious results than hi our encounters with Satan.
Sober, calm and collected, free from passion or intemperance, that cannot be clouded or bewildered; always against spiritual dangers and beguilements; vigilant, cautious and active; never to be surprised nor overcome through un watch fulness or indolence; aroused and wakeful, because of the full apprehension of the presence of an all powerful, all malignant, all cruel foe. This is our strong defense. Here we have James directing us to " resist," to set one's self against the devil, with will and thought, with conscience and heart, with might and main; rigid and firm, in the faith of God; the Word of God held strictly, strongly and rigidly; the truth of God inflexibly held to make one invincible to the devil, yielding to no assault of his, succumbing to no toil, fainting under no affliction, knowing that these trials have been the portion of God's saints in all ages, and by this warfare with the devil we are perfected, stablished, strengthened and settled. “Be sober," says the apostle, for your adversary, the devil, walketh about. This calm, self-collected condition, free from passion, and with the full mastery of all our powers, is one of the elements of successful resistance to Satan. A passionate man is a weak man. A cool head and a calm heart are the conditions of successful contest with the devil. The apostle adds to this sobriety and vigilance. "Be vigilant," he says, watch, give strict attention, be cautious, be active. Vigilance awakens, sobriety arouses and gives fullest strength.
The Apostle James, in his frank, practical, earnest way, says: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you." Resist means to set yourself against, to have no parley with, make no concession to, meet the devil only to fight him, talk with him only to withstand him. “Whom resist," says Peter, “steadfast in the faith." That is, be solid, firm, rigid in the faith. Be stalwart in orthodoxy, for heterodoxy has no devil, or only a very amiable and young one, and makes no fight against him.
The spirit of forgiveness always maintained and constantly exercised is a supreme defense against the attacks of Satan. An unforgiving spirit is not only Satan's widest door into our hearts, but it is the strongest imitation and warmest welcome. St. Paul not only urges a spirit of forgiveness as a bar to the devil's ingress, but hastens to close the door by his own readiness to forgive even in advance. “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. Lest Satan should get an advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices." A lofty spirit, ready and compliant with the spirit of forgiveness, free from all bitterness, revenge or retaliation, has freed itself from the conditions which invite Satan, and has effectually locked and barred his entrance. The readiest way to keep Satan out is to keep the spirit of forgiveness in. The devil is never deeper in hell nor farther removed from us than when we can pray, “Father, forgive them; they know not what they do."
The devil is to be overcome. He is not only a hypocrite, full of quiet, slippery and artful ways, but he is a man of war, a warrior of renown of many a campaign and many a battlefield. It is not all poetry nor myth that his valour and prowess were tested in heaven. Angels were his foemen there, heaven the scene of his conflict and his defeat, and still he fights. It takes strong young blood with its fire and valour to meet him and conquer.
The devil must be defeated. Victory over him is victory all along the line. It takes strength and valour to overcome him. He is no baby foe, no disheartened enemy. The ardour and valour of a manly faith is requisite in this battle. The Word of God is the conquering sword in this warfare. He who has his quiver full of these divine arrows, swift, strong, penetrating and deadly to Satan and to sin, will be more than conqueror over the devil.
The weapon used by the Son of God in His conflict with Satan was the Word of God, and by it He conquered. “I have written unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." The John of love, nearest the heart and deepest in the Spirit of his Lord, is full of this victory. John's love was too genuine to evaporate itself into sickly sentiment, or evaporate the devil into a mere influence. His experience was too profound, his memory too quick and retentive for an impersonal devil or an impersonal Christ. He had the scars of the battles with the adversary of his soul. He had witnessed the conflicts of many a young soldier. His soul had shared in their triumph and recorded their victories. Fight the devil and overcome him, is John's process of becoming fathers in spiritual power, rooted, grounded and perfected. Overcoming the devil, is with John the presage of overcoming the world.
The mighty new-birth principle makes a man watchful like a sentinel at his post, when the enemy in power is massed in the front, like a watchman on the walls of a beleaguered city and like a guard over a royal prisoner. This keeping and guarding himself, is safety against Satan's inflaming touch. As with his Lord, so the faithful, vigilant Christian keeps himself, and Satan comes and finds nothing in him. Every point is barred and sleeplessly watched. “We know that whatsoever is born of God sinneth not; but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself, and that wicked one toucheth him not And we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in the evil one.” “Keeping ourselves" is the surest pledge that Satan will not keep us. Hands on ourselves in holy vigilance keeps Satan's hands off. The martyr spirits who are faithful unto death, who love not their lives unto death, are victors in this warfare with the devil: "And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ; for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death." The blood of the everlasting covenant must be sprinkled on the warriors who are victors against Satan. A clear conscious experience of the saving power of that blood and an ability to be a martyr-witness before any company at any cost mark their devotion to Christ and their experience of His salvation. “He is mine and I am his." Satan cannot stand an exposition of the blood of Christ. He turns pale at every view of Calvary. The flowing wounds are the signals of his retreat. A heart sprinkled with the blood is holy ground, on which he not only dares not tread, but he dreads and trembles and cowers in the presence of the bloodbesprinkled warrior.
A clear-ringing word of testimony as to the power of that blood, he fears more than the attack of a legion of archangels. It is like the charge of an irresistible phalanx which bears everything down before it. It is the blood applied and the testimony to its application, the martyr witness in life and by tongue of the power of that blood is more a barrier against Satan than a wall of fire. The atoning blood, an experience of that blood - that is heaven's infallible protection against Satan. They in heaven thus overcame the devil. We also “overcome him by the blood of the Lamb and the word of our testimony."
No sorrow is so pathetic as the sorrow of young widowhood, which is an exposed sorrow, as we have seen, to Satan's attacks. Paul's direction puts them on the defensive and guards them against the insidious attacks of the enemy. I quote from the Revised Version: "I will therefore that the young widows marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully. For some are already turned aside after Satan." No defense is more secure against Satan than a life crowned and crowded with sweetest duties all so fully discharged as to give no occasion to the devil to speak reproachfully.
The devil's work is much helped or much hindered by the spirit of the servants of Christ. Gentleness becomes the servants of Christ not only as a beautiful adorning, but as the corner foundation stone. Meekness and gentleness win men, for they form the Christly character. Sharpness, impatience and contention are no spiritual propaganda, neither are they good recruiting officers for Christ. “And 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 peradventure 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." A very passionate preacher is long-suffering doctrine.
“Watch" is the keynote of safety. The devil plies us by a thousand instruments, comes to us in a thousand ways, administers a thousand rebukes, and assaults by a thousand surprises. Wakefulness at all times is our only safety, wideawake not only when we see his form and fear his presence, but wide-awake to see him when he is not to be seen, to repel him when he comes in anyone of his ten thousand guises or disguises-this is our wise and safe course.
No alarm cry is so frequent in the New Testament as the call to watch. No call hurts Satan so vitally and none defeats him so readily and so totally as to watch. Being on the watch tower prevents all surprises, and is the presage of victory at all times.
The Son of God makes it the keynote to many a solemn saying. It is a call to be sleepless, to vigilance, to be ready, always ready. It is an image drawn from shepherds, in which we have Jacob's indignant defense and protest against Laban: “In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and sleep departed from mine eyes." To watch is to be opposed to all listlessness, a wakeful state, sleep gone. It implies a wakeful state, as the rousing effort in the presence of some great peril, cautious, wary, a state untouched by any slumbering or beclouding influence. Drowsiness and bewilderment are gone. It quickens us against laziness and spiritual sloth.
Read how the church at Sardis is called to the exercise of watchfulness, because she was stupefied by the opiates of a fair exterior and a goodly religious frame. The Ephesian Church is charged to unite watching with persevering prayer. The Corinthian Church is urged to watch and stand fast. The Colossians are exhorted to " continue in prayer and watch in the same." The Thessalonians are to "watch and be sober." Timothy, the young preacher, was to " watch in all things." Peter's call is "to be sober, and watch unto prayer," because the solemn end of all things was hastening. Again he says: "Be sober; be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he might devour." In Revelation we have the startling call, “Behold I come as a thief. Blessed is he that watcheth and keepeth his garments, lest he walk naked, and they see his shame."
The most frequent call to watchfulness is from our Lord. “Watch, therefore," He says, “for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come." Again He calls us to the exercise of this great grace, “Watch, therefore, for ye know neither the day nor the hour the Son of Man cometh." Again and again does He call us " to watch ye therefore." The herald cry, the trumpet call from Him to us, is to be awake, to be fully awake, to be tremendously awake. "Watch ye, therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass and to stand before the Son of Man.” “Watch and pray," He charged His disciples, and so He charges us to " Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation; the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Still the flesh is weak, and watchfulness must ever be united with prayer while we are in the flesh.