Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices

Thomas Brooks, a puritan pastor in the seventeenth century, has written a book that describes spiritual warfare with the greatest of understanding. It is entitled, “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.” It is a classic and should be read by every Christian. Too many Christians have a woefully inadequate view of Satan’s strategy. The way some contemporary Christian writers have spoken of “spiritual warfare” you would think that only in recent years have we really come to know how to do hand-to-hand combat with the devil. The proposed plan of battle of some of these self-styled warriors against Satan and his demons leaves one wondering about the biblical base for their conclusions. Such ideas as demonized Christians, territorial spirits, demons inherited from ancestors, and binding, loosing, and taking authority over the powers of darkness do not represent apostolic instruction.

The apostle Peter warns us that Satan is on the hunt to do harm to Christians (1 Pet. 5:8). He is a hungry lion “seeking someone to devour.” That someone is the Christian who is intoxicated with unbiblical thoughts and is spiritually drowsy. The apostle Paul declared that “we are not ignorant of his (Satan’s) schemes” (2 Cor. 2:11). This brings us back to Brooks’ book. In it he lays out thirty devices of the Evil One. It gives us a look into the devil’s play book. The Tempter is exposed for who is He, a trick shot artist. He knows how to “present the bait and hide the hook” and how to paint “sin with virtue’s colors.” It is by these kinds of devices that Satan works on Christians.

Another device of the devil is “by extenuating and lessening of sin.” His idea is, little sins are not as bad as big sins. So we ought to bear with “a little pride,” “a little worldliness,” and “a little drunkenness.” Like Lot who wanted to settle in a “little” Sodom (Zoar) and still live, so we can commit a “little sin,” and our soul shall live (Gen. 19:20). The puritan pastor gives some biblical remedies for such flawed thinking which put the lie to the thinking that so-called little sins won’t hurt you enough to kill you. This is the stuff of true spiritual warfare. His first remedy is the reminder that perceived little sins have done the greatest damage. Eve’s bite out of the forbidden fruit (Gen. 3:6) yielded no few consequences. Handling the Ark of the Covenant carelessly cost Uzzah his life (2 Sam. 6:7). We must know that “the least sin is contrary to the law of God, the nature of God, the being of God, and the glory of God.” Another remedy is to see so-called little sins as giving birth to greater sins. Adultery, murder, and grief sprang from David’s wandering eye (2 Sam. 11:2). Much moral mischief has been spawned by a remote control in the hand of a man in a motel room.

So-called little sins must be seen as displeasing the Christian’s greatest Friend by yielding to His greatest enemy. A little sin violates the conscience and becomes a stepping stone to even less concern for doing God’s will. Illegal drugs and lives enslaved to alcohol have often begun with a little joint or a little drink. This kind of danger leads to another remedy. When little sins get their foot in the door, the whole body will follow. This is what Paul told the Corinthian church as it looked the other way while some of its members engaged in immorality. “A little leaven leavens the whole lump” (1 Cor. 5:6). One of the hazards associated with “little sin” thinking is that great sins may prompt immediate repentance while repentance may be ignored with little sins. For example, a young person who gets entangled in DUI charges may be scared into life altering repentance. But when it comes to a lie that is used to avoid the truth about the real reason for a broken curfew, repentance is nowhere to be found.

Strong measures must be taken against little sins. Daniel and his three friends were willing to be eaten by lions and burned to a crisp rather than do something politically correct, but morally wrong. Brooks says, “We must choose rather to suffer the worst torments that men and devils can invent and inflict, than to commit the least sin whereby God should be dishonored, our consciences wounded, religion reproached, and our own souls endangered.” Little sins bring great conviction to the biblically informed, Spirit-sensitized conscience. A final remedy is found in the truth that, “there is more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.” In other words, little sins carry a big price tag, namely, the death of Jesus Christ. The wages of sin is death whether that sin is great or small. We must not forget “that God the Father would not spare his bosom Son, no, not for the least sin, but would make him drink the dregs of his wrath.”

Our Bible study on Wednesday evening through the summer will track further with “Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices.” If you want to know how to wage warfare against the enemy of your soul, come and join us. Spiritual warfare is fought successfully by those who are not ignorant of Satan’s schemes.

Dr. Howard E. Dial
Berachah Bible Church