Follow the Lamb - Section IX

Pastor Bonar urges us to be on the lookout. We have an enemy lurking, looking for someone to eat.

IX. WATCH AGAINST SATAN

He is above all others your enemy; he, the 'old serpent,' the 'dragon,' the 'liar and murderer' from the beginning. It is with him that you are to fight. 'For we wrestle not against flesh and blood [that is, earthly foes, men like ourselves], but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places' (Eph 6:12). The world tries to bewitch and beguile us; but it is the 'god of this world,' the 'prince of this world,' the 'prince of the power of the air,' that so especially lays snares for us, making use of the world's beauty, and pleasure, and vanity for leading us captive at his will. 'O how [as one has written] are thou entrenched, O Satan--how art thou entrenched in thy beautiful deceptions; thou hast played thy part well in these last days; thou art all but the Holy One, thou consummate deceiver!' It is this that gives to the ballroom, and the dance, and the theatre, and the voluptuous music their special power to harm; for these are Satan's baits and nets, by means of which he allures the unwary, and leads back the believer to unbelieving ground, disarming our watchfulness, dazzling our vision, reviving our worldliness, and perhaps, for a season, lulling us wholly asleep. We know that through his successful wiles, perilous times are to come, when many, while lovers of self, traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasure, are still to have the 'form of godliness' (2 Tim 3:1-4); and we know that the last days are to be like the days of Noah and Lot (Luke 17:26-32), days of revelling, and banqueting, and luxury. Let us be wary, lest, standing as we do on the edge of these days, we be drawn away into the sins of an age led captive by Satan at his will.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Fight the good fight of faith against him and his hosts. Watch unto prayer. 'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary, the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour' (1 Peter 5:8). In these last days he will lay his snares more cunningly than ever, to deceive, if it were possible, the very elect. He is coming down, having great wrath, because he knoweth he hath but a short time (Rev 12:12).