XXI. THE BELIEVER SIFTED BY SATAN. BEHOLD, SATAN HATH DESIRED TO HAVE YOU, THAT HE MAY SIFT YOU AS WHEAT: BUT I HAVE PRAYED FOR THEE, THAT THY FAITH FAIL NOT.-Luke xxii, 31, 32. AMONG the many scriptural representations of the duty and office of God's ministers, one of the most instructive is that contained in Ezekiel xxxiii, 7: "O Son of man, I have set thee a watchman unto the house of Israel; therefore thou shalt hear the word at my mouth, and warn them from me." The business of a watchman is to guard those over whose interests or property he is placed in trust against any danger which may threaten them. Of the dangers of which it is our office to warn you, my brethren, that which arises from Satanic malice is not the least alarming or formidable. You "wrestle not" merely "against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.' Not only earth, but hell, is plotting your ruin. We have solemnly to admonish you, as our Lord and Master here admonished Simon and his other disciples, that "Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat;" so that, being forewarned, you may be forearmed. In applying this weighty admonition, I shall not now stop to examine with critical accuracy its primary import and bearing, but shall consider it a general truth which concerns all mankind. For, brethren, as religion is always the same, so are its enemies. We have to seek the same Lord, and serve the same Christ, whom the apostles sought and served. And many other passages of holy writ assert, in terms still more explicit than those of our text, that we have to contend with the same hellish adversary. Satan, who once "desired to Vol. I.-24 have" the apostles, still "goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom" of us "he may devour." I shall call attention, I. To the great enemy of souls, here denominated Satan. II. To the nature and objects of that desire to have us which the text ascribes to him. And then, III. To the means by which this desire may be frustrated, and Satan's malice defeated. I. The great destroyer of souls is here denominated Satan. I am aware that there have been men, in various ages of the world, who denied the existence of any such beings as we call devils, and the reality of that agency which we ascribe to them. This will not appear surprising when we consider that there have also been men, by David termed "fools," who have had the still greater hardihood to "say in their heart, There is no God." Indeed, it is a remarkable fact in the history of human opinions, that a close and intimate connection has been found to subsist between the belief of the being of a God, and that of the existence of a wicked spirit who thinks and acts in opposition to God. For those who have disputed the one have usually disputed the other also; and where the one is seriously believed, there is, generally, no doubt as to the reality of both. Hence, to characterize an atheist, we are wont to say, "He believes in neither God nor devil." But, whatever may be the notions of men, all who form their opinions from Holy Scripture will soon be convinced both of the existence and of the agency of Satan. This Hebrew term literally signifies an adversary. It is applied to the devil, the chief of the powers of darkness, by way of eminence; because he and his apostate legions are emphatically the adversaries of God and man. His original state, it is probable, was exceedingly glorious. Perhaps, as Milton has supposed, he was "Of the first, If not the first archangel, great in power, But he kept not his first estate of innocence and dignity. The particular nature of his crime is not revealed to us, unless, indeed, we may be allowed to found upon the words of St. Paul, "Lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil," a conjecture that the sin of Satan was pride. (Timothy iii, 6.) Whatever it was, it certainly amounted to high treason against the King eternal, immortal, invisible. In this foul and unnatural war against God he was, of course, unsuccessful; and being, with his host of rebel angels, expelled from heaven, "reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day," and having lost together with his innocence all his moral beauty and splendor, he has become the enemy-vanquished indeed, but implacable and determined-of everything good and godlike. But, though he be driven from his former throne of glory, he still retains superior rank and influence among the degenerate seraphs who shared in his apostasy and fall. These are now called his angels, over whom (no longer permitted to serve in heaven) he reigns in hell. His commands they receive, his orders they execute; and by bonds of invincible hatred to God and man they are firmly united to him and to each other. II. The desire to have us, here ascribed to Satan, will, I trust, receive some illustration from the following remarks. 1. It is a mischievous desire. Its aim is our ruin. It implies, (1.) A wish to tempt us severely and closely. In allusion to this, his constant and favorite employ, he is repeatedly called in Scripture "the tempter." Thus we read, "The tempter came to him;" (Matthew iv, 3;) and, "Lest by some means the tempter have tempted you." (1 Thessalonians iii, 5.) And, in order that his temptations may have the greater probability of success, he desires to have us, as it were, laid open to his attacks; or, as it is expressed in the Lord's Prayer, led into temptation, by being placed in such situations and circumstances as will have a natural tendency to favor his assaults. This was the case with Job. (See chapters i, ii.) Satan desired to have Job; that is, (as the word rhoaro, used in the text, may be rendered,) required and challenged him, by demanding of God permission to place him in a very critical and painful situation, that so an opportunity might arise of trying whether he would still hold fast his integrity and his patience, or whether he could be induced to curse his God and die. So, in later time, he challenged or desired the apostles, but especially Peter. He asked and obtained leave to sift him as wheat, by exposing his faith and perseverance to the severest attacks, during the time of his Lord's shame and humiliation. And, doubtless, the subtle foe acts on the same plan with respect to ourselves. So that those persons who take the liberty of mending the Lord's Prayer, as they think, by saying, "Leave us not in temptation," quite mistake the design of that petition, which ought to be used as it stands: "Lead us not into temptation" do not permit us to be involved in such embarrassing circumstances of affliction, of persecution, or of painful competition between conscience and convenience, as might expose us to greater danger of apostasy than we should be able to overcome. But if thy providence should ever call us to such peculiar trials as Peter and Job were called, then "deliver us from the evil" Let our strength be as our day; and may we be enabled to hold fast faith and a good conscience, and not suffered, for any pleasure of life or pains of death, to fall from thee! (2.) A wish to draw or drive us into sin. This remark has been, in some sense, anticipated; for Satan's temptations are designed by him, not merely to vex and harass us, but also to seduce and defile us. He wishes to unite us with himself in apostasy and rebellion against Heaven. He desires to have us as his vassals; the subjects of his kingdom of darkness; attached to his interests, engaged in his work, and obedient to his sway. He wishes to eradicate everything good and holy from our minds, and to make us like himself, full of all unrighteousness. The end of all his temptations and siftings is to shake out of us all that is wheat, all that is pure and godlike, and to leave nothing in us but the chaff of sinful affections and desires. (3.) To employ us as his instruments, auxiliaries, and angels in the work of tempting others. This is, in short, to make devils of us. All who ensnare their fellow-creatures into sin, or who directly or indirectly hinder their holiness and salvation, are Satan's very associates and allies; and, being engaged in the same hellish business, deserve the same name. Hence the word Satan is in the Scripture actually applied to such: for example, in 2 Samuel xix, 22, and Matthew xvi, 23: “And David said, What have I to do with you, ye sons of Zeruiah, that ye should this day be adversaries unto me?" "But he [Jesus] turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan; thou art an offense unto me: for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." (4.) To drag us into his den, to have us in hell, as the companions of his woe; so to have us abandoned to his fury, that he may torment us forever and ever. Thus our perdition in body and soul is the ultimate object of the archfiend's desire. He tempts men that he may seduce them into sin; he seduces them into sin that he may employ them in seducing others; and he thus employs them for a while only in order that they may be the more fitted unto wrath, prepared for deeper destruction, and plunged into a hotter hell, where "their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." 2. It is a malicious desire. It is prompted by enmity to Jehovah, and by the wish, which that enmity inspires, to defeat the plans of God our Saviour for the redemption of man. Because the arm of the Lord has expelled him from heaven he is filled with rage and malice against him: if he had the power, he wants not the inclination to dethrone the Eternal. "The devil," says one, "is, on this account, his own hell." If he were not in any dark, local abyss, his torment would be scarcely the less; because he would still carry about with him those dispositions of hatred, revenge, and opposition to the divine government, which, wherever they exist, either find or make a hell. The thunder of the Son of God has, indeed, vanquished Satan; but only his grace could have converted him and grace there is none for the inhabitants of Tophet. Punishment enrages their malice and abridges their |