Part 3 SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SOULS FROM HOLY DUTIES
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Part 4 SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SOULS FROM HOLY DUTIES
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DEVICE 3 By presenting to the soul the difficulty of performing them.
Says Satan, it is so hard and difficult a thing to pray as you should, and to wait on God as you should, and to walk with God as you should, and to be lively, warm, and active in the communion of saints as you should, that you were better ten thousand times to neglect them, than to meddle with them. Doubtless by this device Satan has and does keep off thousands from waiting on God and from giving to him that service that is due to his name.
Remedy (1). The first remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell more upon the necessity of the service and duty, than on the difficulty that attends the duty. You should reason thus with your souls: O our souls, though such and such services be hard and difficult, yet are they exceeding necessary for the honor of God, and the keeping up his name in the world, and the keeping under of sin, and the strengthening of weak graces, and so the reviving of languishing comforts, and for the keeping clear and bright your blessed evidences, and for the scattering of your fears, and for the raising of your hopes, and for the gladdening the hearts of the righteous, and stopping the mouths of the ungodly, who are ready to take all advantages to blaspheme the name of God, and throw dirt and contempt upon his people and ways. Oh, never leave thinking on the necessity of this and that duty, until your souls be lifted up far above all the difficulties which attend religious duties.
The necessity of doing your duty appears by this, that you are his servants by a threefold right; you are his servants by right of creation, and by right of sustenation, and by right of redemption.
Remedy (2). The second remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That the Lord Jesus will make his services easy to you, by the sweet discovery of himself to your souls, while you are in his service. 'You meet him who rejoices and works righteousness,' as the prophet Isaiah says (Is. 64:5). The word in the Hebrew is diversely taken; but most take the word here to signify 'to meet a soul with those affections of love and tenderness as the father of the prodigal met the prodigal with.' God is Pater miserationum, he is all affections; he is swift to show mercy, as he is slow to anger. If meeting with God, who is goodness itself, beauty itself, strength itself, glory itself—will not sweeten his service to your soul, nothing in heaven or earth will.
Jacob's meeting with Rachel, and enjoying of Rachel, made his hard service to be easy and delightful to him; and will not the soul's enjoying of God, and meeting with God, render his service to be much more easy and delightful? Doubtless it will. The Lord will give that sweet assistance by his Spirit and grace, as shall make his service joyous and not grievous, a delight and not a burden, a heaven and not a hell, to believing souls.
The confidence of this divine assistance raised up Nehemiah's spirit far above all those difficulties and discouragements that did attend him in the work and service of the Lord, as you may see in Nehemiah 2:19, 20: 'But when Sanballat the Horonite, and Tobiah the servant, the Ammonite, and Geshem the Arabian, heard it, they laughed us to scorn, and despised us, and said, 'What is this thing that you do? will you rebel against the king? Then answered I them, and said unto them, The God of heaven, he will prosper us; therefore we his servants will arise and build: but you have no right, nor portion, nor memorial, in Jerusalem.' Ah, souls, while you are in the very service of the Lord, you shall find by experience, that the God of heaven will prosper you, and support you, and encourage and strengthen you, and carry you through the hardest service, with the greatest sweetness and cheerfulness which can be. Remember this, that God will suit your strength to your work, and in the hardest service you shall have the choicest assistance.
Luther speaks excellently to Melancthon, who was apt to be discouraged with doubts and difficulties, and fear from foes, and to cease the service they had undertaken. 'If the work is not good, why did we ever own it? If it is good, why should we ever give it up?' Why, should we, who have Christ the conqueror on our side—fear the conquered world?
Remedy (3). The third remedy against this device of Satan is, To dwell upon the hard and difficult things that the Lord Jesus has passed through for your temporal, spiritual, and eternal good. Ah, what a sea of blood, of wrath, of sin, of sorrow and misery, did the Lord Jesus wade through for your internal and eternal good! Christ did not plead, 'This cross is too heavy for me to bear; this wrath is too great for me to lie under; this cup of suffering, which has in it all the ingredients of divine wrath, is too bitter for me to sip of—how much more to drink the very dregs of it? No! Christ pleads not the difficulty of the service—but resolutely and bravely wades through all, as the prophet Isaiah shows: 'I gave My back to those who beat Me, and My cheeks to those who tore out My beard. I did not hide My face from scorn and spitting.' (Chap. 50:6).
Christ bears his Father's wrath, the burden of your sins, the malice of Satan, and the rage of the world—and sweetly and triumphantly passes through all. Ah, souls! if this consideration will not raise up your spirits above all the discouragements that you meet with, to own Christ and his service, and to stick and cleave to Christ and his service, I am afraid nothing will. A soul not stirred by this, not raised and lifted up by this, to be resolute and brave in the service of God, notwithstanding all dangers and difficulties—is a soul left by God to much blindness and hardness.
'It is not fit, since the Head was crowned with thorns, that he members should be crowned with rosebuds' says Zanchius.
Godfrey Bouillon, Crusader King of Jerusalem (1099), refused to be crowned with a crown of gold, saying, 'it was not fitting for a Christian to wear a crown of gold, where Christ for our salvation had once worn a crown of thorns!'
Remedy (4). The fourth remedy against this device of Satan is to consider, That religious duties, holy and heavenly exercises, are only difficult to the worse, to the ignoble, part of a saint. They are not to the noble and better part of a saint—the soul, and the renewed affections of a saint. Holy exercises are a heavenly pleasure and recreation, as the apostle speaks: 'I delight in the law of God, after the inward man' (Rom. 7:22). To the noble part of a saint, Christ's 'yoke is easy, and his burden is light (Matt. 11:30). The Greek signifies that Christ's yoke is a kind, a gracious, a pleasant, a good, and a gainful yoke—as opposed to that which is painful and tedious.
All the commands and ways of Christ (even those who tend to the pulling out of right eyes and cutting off of right hands) are joyous, and not grievous, to the noble part of a saint. All the ways and services of Christ are pleasantness, in the abstract, to the better part of a saint. A saint, so far as he is renewed, is always best when he sees most of God, when he tastes most of God, when he is highest in his enjoyments of God, and most warm and lively in the service of God. Oh, says the noble part of a saint, that it might be always thus! Oh that my strength were the strength of stones, and my flesh as brass, that my worse part might be more serviceable to my noble part, that I might act by an untired power in that service, which is a pleasure, a paradise, to me. As every flower has its sweet savor, so every good duty carries sweet and comfort in the performance of it.
Remedy (5). The fifth remedy against this device of Satan is, solemnly to consider, That great reward and glorious recompense that attends those who cleave to the service of the Lord in the face of all difficulties and discouragements.Though the work is hard—yet the wages are great. Heaven will make amends for all! Yes, one hour's being in heaven will abundantly recompense you for cleaving to the Lord and his ways in the face of all difficulties. This carried the apostle through the greatest difficulties. He had an eye 'to the recompense of reward.' He looked for 'a house that had foundations, whose builder and maker was God,' and for 'a heavenly country.' Yes, this bore up the spirit of Christ in the face of all difficulties and discouragements: 'Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God' (Heb. 12:2).
Basil speaks of some martyrs who were cast out all night naked in the frigid weather, and were to be burned the next day, how they comforted themselves in this manner: The winter is sharp—but paradise is sweet; here we shiver for cold—but the bosom of Abraham will make amends for all.
Christians who would hold on in the service of the Lord, must look more upon the future crown than upon the present cross; more upon their future glory than their present misery; more upon their encouragements than upon their discouragements. God's very service is wages; his ways are strewed with roses, and paved 'with joy which is unspeakable and full of glory,' and with 'peace which passes understanding.' Some degree of comfort follows every good action, as heat accompanies fire, as beams and warmth issue from the sun: 'Moreover, by them is your servant warned, and in keeping of them there is great reward,' Psalm 19:2. Not only for keeping—but in keeping of them, there is great reward. This is a reward before the reward, a sure reward of well doing; indoing thereof, not only for doing thereof, there is great reward (Psalm 19:11).
The joy, the rest, the refreshing, the comforts, the contents, the smiles—which saints now enjoy in the ways of God, are so precious and glorious in their eyes, that they would not exchange them for ten thousand worlds! Ah! if the gratuities be thus sweet and glorious before pay-day comes, what will be that glory that Christ will crown his saints with, for cleaving to his service in the face of all difficulties; when he shall say to his Father, 'Lo, here am I, and the children whom you have given me' (Is. 8:18). If there be so much to be had in a wilderness, what then shall be had in paradise?
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Part 4 SATAN'S DEVICES TO KEEP SOULS FROM HOLY DUTIES
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