The Devil’s Devices
Text: 2 Corinthians 2:10-11
2 Corinthians 2:10-11 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, 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.
The word devices here in our text has four meanings in the dictionary. Two are relevant to the use of the word in our text. The first is a scheme or strategem and the other definition is will or desire.
Christians that are faithful and love the Lord will readily recognize that God has a plan and will for their life. But would you believe the devil has a will, a desire, a scheme and a strategy for your life as well? It is true. One way in which the devil can gain an advantage over us in our spiritual warfare is by our own ignorance about the devices he uses to fulfill his will for our life. God does not want us to be ignorant of these devices. It’s God’s will that we know our enemy enough to detect the devices he uses against us. I want us to look at four of the devil’s devices. I am certain that there are many, many other ways in which the devil accomplishes his will for us, but we only have time for these.
Misplaced Trust Is One Of The Devil’s Devices
1 Chronicles 21:1 And Satan stood up against Israel, and provoked David to number Israel.
When David became king, he fought many battles and won many victories. In chapter 20, David defeated the children of Ammon, the Phillistines and even Goliath’s brother Lahmi. The Bible says here in the first verse of chapter 21 that Satan stood up against Israel and provoked David to number them. The device Satan used was misplaced trust.
The Lord told the children of Israel back in Deuteronomy 3:22 and in other places, that He would fight for them and He would get them the victory over the enemy. The devil sought to misplace the trust Israel had in God, by causing them to trust in their own strength.
Because David trusted in his own strength, he was chastened of the Lord and 70,000 men died in Israel. Satan laughed as each one of them fell. Satan will try to get Christians to trust in their own heart because he knows it is deceitful.
Isaiah 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.
When Christians trust in their own strength, abilities, knowledge, skill, righteousness or anything else, they have fallen to one of Satan’s oldest tricks.
Proverbs 3:5-6 Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths.
2 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think any thing as of ourselves; but our sufficiency is of God;
Misbelieved Truth Is One Of The Devil’s Devices
Matthew 16:16-23 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Then charged he his disciples that they should tell no man that he was Jesus the Christ. From that time forth began Jesus to shew unto his disciples, how that he must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
Here we have the incident of the devil using Peter to rebuke the Lord. It is amazing that Peter had just been blessed with the knowledge that Jesus was the Christ and is now being rebuked because he was being used by the devil. What was the problem here? What was the devil’s device? It was misbelieved truth. Peter did not want to accept the truth about the Lord’s destiny. Jesus could not lie because He was God. Peter denied the truth the Lord was giving him. Had Jesus not rebuked the devil for his part, we would have never known that the devil was influencing Peter to think the way he thought.
It’s a dangerous thing when Christians deny revealed truth. If the truth sets us free then denying truth makes us captive.
I admit that there are things in this Bible I do not understand. It’s one thing to not understand something that God says, but it’s quite another to deny what God says. How many times have you heard someone say, “I know what the Bible says, but…” That person fell prey to a device of the devil that’s as old as humanity itself. Remember what Satan told Eve?
Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
Do not think for a moment that the devil cared one bit about what God said. His device was to make her doubt God’s Word. He said:
Genesis 3:4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:
Mark this down Christian: Misbelieved truth comes from the devil. It’s a device he uses to turn our hearts from God.
Misunderstood Trials Is One Of The Devil’s Devices
I am sure you know the story of Job and his trials from the devil. The question is, what motive did the devil have in tempting Job? If we consider but a few verses in the text, I believe we can learn what his motive was.
Job 1:20-22 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither: the LORD gave, and the LORD hath taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD. In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
I can understand verse 20. Any man that has lost all his children is going to take that loss hard. I can even understand verse 21. He recognizes that everything comes from God, everything belongs to God and God can give or take as He wishes. But why did the Spirit of God write down verse 22?
Job 1:22 In all this Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly.
Could it be that the motive of the devil, yea, the device of the devil was to make Job misunderstand the trial? Notice what the devil influenced Job’s wife to do.
Job 2:9 Then said his wife unto him, Dost thou still retain thine integrity? curse God, and die.
Curse God? Why would a loving, godly wife say that to a loving, godly husband? Why would a wife that has just lost all her children wish that she lose her husband as well? I believe the devil was working on her. His goal throughout the trial was to make Job misunderstand the trial and cause Job to blame God for it.
Do you ever feel like a trial is God’s fault? Have you ever even thought such a thought? I imagine we all have at some time or another. That’s nothing more than the devil’s device.
Romans 9:14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
We know God will not be unfair with man.
Job 34:23 For he will not lay upon man more than right; that he should enter into judgment with God.
Then where does such a thought come from? It comes from the devil. Isn’t the devil called the great accuser of the brethren in Scripture? Someone said, “The Devil accuses God to Man, and Man to God.” He wants to put God at odds with man and man at odds with God. James said that if we do not understand something we should ask God, not blame God.
Misapplied Tolerance Is One Of The Devil’s Devices
What do I mean by misapplied tolerance? Well, in Paul’s first letter to Corinth he rebuked the church for allowing a member to remain in the congregation even though that member had committed fornication with his father’s wife. Paul said:
1 Corinthians 5:1-6 It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. And ye are puffed up, and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you. For I verily, as absent in body, but present in spirit, have judged already, as though I were present, concerning him that hath so done this deed, In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, when ye are gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, To deliver such an one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?
Looking at our opening text in 2 Corinthians 2, notice this fourth device of the devil.
2 Corinthians 2:7-11 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. Wherefore I beseech you that ye would confirm your love toward him. For to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether ye be obedient in all things. To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, 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.
Evidently, between the first and second letter to the church at Corinth, this brother repented of his sin and wanted to rejoin the congregation and serve the Lord again. When Paul heard of this, he also heard that there were some in the church that did not want to forgive the brother. That is who Paul wrote in the second letter:
2 Corinthians 2:7 So that contrariwise ye ought rather to forgive him, and comfort him, lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up with overmuch sorrow.
The fourth device of the devil is misapplied tolerance. In other words, when they should have forgiven the brother, they didn’t. This device is probably used by the devil more than any other because it can be disguised to look like righteous indignation and a holier than thou attitude. Let me ask the question, “What right does a child of God have to not forgive someone that God has forgiven?” We fundamentalists need to get a grasp on this because it is a device the devil loves to use on us. Here’s a man that openly fornicated with his mother but later repented. God said that if they didn’t forgive that person they would have been guilty of falling prey to one of the devil’s devices.
Aren’t you glad God is more merciful than Christians? Peter was a good fundamentalist. Notice his question.
Matthew 18:21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Matthew 18:22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.
What was Peter really asking? He was asking, “Lord, do I have to really forgive my brother when he sins?”
The number didn’t mean anything to Peter. He just wanted to know if there were any reasons not to forgive. That’s what he really wanted to know. What did Jesus say? He basically told Peter to forgive seven times more than he was willing to. Remember what the Lord told Peter years later?
Acts 10:15 And the voice spake unto him again the second time, What God hath cleansed, that call not thou common.
What God has cleansed often gets called uncommon by independent, fundamental Baptists. This happens every time we fail to forgive a brother or sister that has received forgiveness from the Lord. This is a wicked device of the devil and it’s one that often causes a repented Christian to give up in their service. Because others will not forgive, the repented Christian has no choice but to live defeated, discouraged and denied.
Our attitude towards forgiveness ought to be the same attitude that Paul had to the church at Corinth.
2 Corinthians 2:10 To whom ye forgive any thing, I forgive also: for if I forgave any thing, to whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the person of Christ;
Do we have a choice in the matter? I don’t think so unless we want to be guilty of one of the devil’s devices.
Have you been snared by any of the devil’s devices?