Satan’s Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin

Thomas Brooks, Part 1

The next five weeks (or so—we’ll see as we go along) we’ll be looking at Thomas Brooks’ Precious Remedies Against Satan’s Devices. Thomas Brooks was an English non-conformist Puritan preacher and author. He was born in 1608 and died in 1680. His book is sort of an early Screwtape Letters, though of course written in a much less popular format (he was a Puritan, after all). His goal is to expose how Satan works and entraps earnest believers and then to equip Christians to anticipate and withstand these attacks. Brooks wants us to know that whether we take up arms or not, we are in a fierce battle: “Satan…is so full of malice and envy that he will leave no means unattempted, whereby he may make all others eternally miserable with himself.”

If we’re being warred against, it’s wise to ask, “What am I doing to fight back?” If the answer is, “Not much” or worse, “Nothing, really,” this book might be something you want to pick up.

The format Brooks chooses is to first label the “devices” Satan uses to draw us into sin, and then offer the remedies God’s people need to apply in order to recognize the deception and fight off the attacks.  He urges a slow and meditative reading of his book, leading to application. Quoting Ephesians 6:11, he warns that the “wiles of the devil” tend to be subtle and treacherous.

My hope is that these summaries will make you want to read the book for yourself. Find the book HERE. (Gary Thomas is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and Church Source Affiliates Program, advertising programs designed to provide a means for Gary to earn fees through customized links to these sites.)

Satan’s Devices to Draw the Soul to Sin

1. Satan will tempt us by “presenting the bait” while “hiding the hook.”  

I love the way Brooks describes this. Satan’s play is “to present the golden cup—and hide the poison.” He seeks to give us “an apple in exchange for a paradise.”

Remedies:

i.          Keep a great distance from sin, even abhor it (Romans 12:9).

1. Remember that sin is bittersweet. “That seeming sweet that is in sin will quickly vanish; and lasting shame, sorrow, horror and terror” will follow. “After the meal is ended, then comes the reckoning.”
2. Remember that sin ushers in the greatest and saddest losses.
3. Consider that sin is deceitful and bewitching by nature.

2. Satan will tempt us by painting sin with virtue’s colors.

An earnest believer may reject sin if sin presents itself as sin, so Satan will sometimes mask sin with something good.

Remedies:

1. Remember that sin is still filthy even though it is painted with virtue’s colors.
2. The more a sin is painted as a virtue, the more dangerous it becomes.
3. Look on that sin as you will in eternity and you’ll see its true nature.
4. Remember that every painted sin cost the blood of Christ.

3. Satan will tempt us by downplaying the seriousness of our sin.

Satan knows we may be inclined to reject and resist sin, so he tries to downplay its seriousness, as if God will understand “just this once.” Every sin is a serious sin; no sin is to be downplayed or toyed with.

Remedies:

1. Sins we consider small have resulted in great wrath from God.
2. Giving way to a lesser sin opens the door to a greater sin: “Sin is of an encroaching nature.” “When a man has begun to sin, he knows not where, or when, or how he shall make a stop of sin.”
3. How sad it is to sin against God for a trifle; if it’s only a trifle, why disobey God? “The less the temptation is to sin—the greater is that sin.”
4. Remember that there is great danger in even the smallest sins. “Little sins often slide into the soul, and breed, and work secretly and indiscernibly in the soul, until they come to be so strong, as to trample upon the soul, and to cut the throat of the soul.”
5. Remember how other saints have suffered torture rather than commit the least of sins.
6. Even the smallest sin will “sink the soul into hell.”
7. Consider that there is “more evil in the least sin than in the greatest affliction.”

4. Satan may tempt us by reminding us of how other saints have fallen and making us forget their virtue and faithfulness.

Remedies:

1. Though the Bible is honest about how his followers fall, it also recounts their repentance.

ii. The saints didn’t make sin a practice; it stayed an event. “The saints cannot sin with a whole will—but, as it were, with a half-will, an unwillingness, not with full consent—but with a dissenting consent.”

iii. Remember that though God doesn’t disinherit us for our sins, He has punished His people for their sins (we might prefer the word “discipline” today).

iv. Biblical accounts of sins have two purposes: to keep the earnest saints from despair when they sin and to warn others not to fall into the same trap.

5. Satan will tempt us by presenting God to the soul as one made up all of mercy.

God is merciful, yes, but to look on God as only merciful might tempt us to be soft on sin.

Remedies:

1. Remember that the greatest judgment in the world is to be left in your sin.

ii. Remember that God is just as well as merciful.

iii. Sins against God’s mercy will bring judgement. “Mercy is God’s Alpha, justice is His Omega.”

iv. God shows a hand of general mercy to all, but “His gold, special mercy, is only toward those who His heart is most set upon.”

• The highest saints in heaven used the truth of God’s mercy as motivation not to sin rather than as an encouragement to sin.

6. Satan tempts us to sin by presenting the work of repentance as easy and not a matter of great concern

Remedies:

1. Remember that repentance is a mighty and difficult work requiring God’s strength.

ii. the true nature of repentance is turning from sin to God.

iii. Repentance is an ongoing act.

iv. If repentance was so easy, fewer would be so miserable for not doing it.

v. To repent of sin is as great a work of grace as to not sin.

vi. The same Satan who tempts you to sin by making repentance seem easy and unimportant will lead you to despair after you sin so that you give up and stay imprisoned in your sins.

If there is one area of study in the contemporary church that is sadly lacking today, it is our lackadaisical view of sin. Brooks’ Precious Remedies is a much needed reminder that we are in a spiritual war every day of our lives. Satan is luring us, sin is beckoning us, and naivete and indifference plays entirely into his plans.  

This “outline format” differs substantially from how we usually write these blogs but, again, I’m hoping to just whet your appetite to dig in to all that Brooks’ offers. You can order the book for yourself HERE. (Gary Thomas is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program and Church Source Affiliates Program, advertising programs designed to provide a means for Gary to earn fees through customized links to these sites.)