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Devotions from Gospel Chapel Ministries HOME SERMONS SERMON NOTES
ENTERTAINING THE DEVIL
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you," JAM 4:7-8.
Our study of Satan's devices must be two-fold: first how he draws us into sin and secondly how he troubles us for the sin he has drawn us into. That is something we must stop and analyze. The Lord will never allow any one of His people to be destroyed eternally, but think of the trouble Satan brings us into. We must analyze how he brings us into sin and the trouble he brings us through that sin. How does he draw us into sin? How did he draw Eve there? He picked a suitable object with which to pose his temptation--the tree. That object can be so many things within our hearts. The object of temptation can be anything that is outside of Christ. Satan will pick an object of lust. He will pick an object of temptation.
Eve's eyes were fixed upon the tree with evil desires. She could always see the tree in the midst of the garden, but after Satan picked that as the object of temptation, it became the object of evil desires. That is what we must learn to recognize. Anytime the Lord allows Satan to fix our eyes on an object with evil desires, it becomes the object of temptation. As soon as Satan was able to engage Eve into a dialogue about his object of temptation, her eyes were fixed upon that tree with evil desires. Then she saw with an evil eye, "That the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise," GEN 3:6.
Before a man is drawn into sin, he must behold the object. Then when his heart embraces it, he becomes Satan's victim of that sin. This is very important to understand. A man's eye and heart must be fixed upon the object of temptation before he can ever be drawn into sin. After our eyes behold the object, our heart starts to embrace it. Then we become Satan's victim of that sin. Scripture so clearly tells us these things. When we see this developing in our life, then we have to flee unto the Lord. Jesus said in MAT 5:28, "Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart."
Satan's first device is to place mental objects before the minds eye and then focus his conversation, i.e., the thoughts and lusts of our hearts around that object. When we have evil thoughts and lusts in our heart, we are in a dialogue with Satan. Satan has our human reasoning going. He is fixing our lusts on an object that he is going to use to snare us.
Oh, beloved, how often our hearts can be engaged in the holiest devotions while our souls are soaring aloft in the presence of our lovely Lord, enjoying a little heaven on earth when Satan raises his ugly head. Satan flashes some object before our eyes. That heavenly communion ends right then. Satan uses a mental object, thereby destroying such blessed, heavenly devotion. He raises his ugly head by bringing some object to distract us.
In just such a time Satan will place some mental object before our minds eyes to derail our heavenly communion. Oh, how we wonder why such an object should interrupt such a blessed communion with our Lord; the devil has designed a scheme! It could be some strange noise or some object that caught our attention. That is one of his devices. The object can be such a trifling thing. It could be the wind outside or a door latch falling loose. It can be anything that distracts our minds and the Spirit of God withdraws.
How must we come against such crafty devices? The great question is, if you want to entertain him. Entertaining those thoughts is entering into a dialogue with the devil. We have to understand that. When we entertain thoughts that are unchaste, ungodly or unrighteous, we are entertaining the devil. JAM 4:7-8 says, "Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." When Satan comes with these little distractions, when Satan comes with objects to entertain our minds, we must not entertain it.
A minister told me how this happened to him. One time he was having such a blessed communion with a fellow Christian. Then the wind blew and something rattled outside. If they had just gone on with their conversation, Satan wouldn't have gained his snare. The distraction turned the conversation. They began wondering what it was. They entertained the devil. The end result was that the communion was over. The Lord withdrew.
We must understand that we don't entertain these things. "Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you." When these little distractions and mental objects come into play, we don't entertain them.
When Scripture speaks about our conversation, it means that which traffics our minds as well as that which proceeds from our mouth. We allow Satan to pick up our conversation. We allow him to pick up that which traffics our minds and distract us with some mental object. This completely destroys our communion with God. JAM 3:13 says, "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom." This good conversation is not only that which comes out of your mouth, it is also that which traffics your mind. So often when I was riding on the tractor, my heart would go out to the Lord. I would spend the whole day meditating. It was like a heaven on earth. I have also had times that my heart would entertain the devil the whole day. What does the Lord say? He says, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you."
JAM 3:13-15 says, "Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, [This is talking about the conversation in our heart, i.e., by letting it traffic your mind], glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish." How often does Satan entertain us for a whole day with bitter envyings, bitter minds and bitter hearts? If someone has upset us, how often does the conversation of our heart entertain Satan all day long?
Recently my wife read PSA 50:20-23 to me. It really struck me how this passage of Scripture dealt with our conversation. It says in verse 20, "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest thine own mother's son. [Then in verse 22 God's displeasure is revealed for such conversation.] Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver. [Then in verse 23 we see how our conversation must be praising, not slandering our brother.] Whoso offereth praise glorifieth me: and to him that ordereth his conversation aright will I shew the salvation of God." I saw that in that chapter it was speaking about our brother. We must give praise of our brother because he was created in the image of God.
Whenever Satan strikes up such a conversation in our hearts through, "...bitter envying and strife;" the only escape is to stop entertaining this dialogue with the devil and turn our eyes unto our blessed Redeemer. If our eyes are lifted to our blessed Redeemer and we see the corruption of our own heart, there isn't anything left to be bitter about. Then we will learn to understand that all things come to us by the hand of the Lord.
2CO 2:10-11 says, "Forgive...it in the person of Christ;[Isn't that beautiful? When we have bitter envyings and strife in our heart, we must forgive it in the person of Christ.] Lest Satan should get an advantage of us: for we are not ignorant of his devices." Isn't that powerful? Those bitter envyings of our heart must be forgiven in the person of Christ. We must take our eyes off the object of Satan's devices and turn them unto the faith of Jesus Christ. As He hung upon the cross He said in LUK 23:34, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." The Lord Jesus Christ did not entertain frustration or bitterness. He says, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." Amen.
To Thee, O Lord, I fly
And on Thy help depend
Thou art my Lord and King Most High;
Do Thou my soul defend.
I praise the Lord above
Whose counsel guides aright;
My heart instructs me in His love
In seasons of the night.
~The Psalter 1912
Our sermons and devotions are a ministry of Gospel Chapel located in Conrad, Montana. We also have a daily devotion and sermon notes on-line. We pray this devotion has been a blessing to those who read it. Thank you.