Even he whose coming is after the working of Satan
The agency of Satan
I.
The scripture account of satan.
1. He is represented as a spirit or immaterial being (1Ki_22:1-53; Luk_10:17-20).
2. As an angel, preferable to man in understanding and might.
3. As a fallen angel (Jud_1:6).
4. As the prince or chief of infernal spirits (Mat_9:34; Mat_12:24; Mat_25:41; Luk_12:41).
As lying under punishment, in reserve to be brought forth at the great day of retribution as a monument of God’s hatred of sin.
II. The instances of his agency.
1. His introducing sin into the world (2Co_11:3-13).
2. The temptation of Christ (Mat_4:1-11).
3. Possession of bodies when Christ was in the world (1Jn_3:8; Act_10:38).
4. The objects against which his force is directed are the dishonour of God and the rum of men.
5. The subjects are good and bad men.
6. The ways in which he acts are two--force and fraud, fiery darts and subtle wiles (Eph_6:11-16).
7. He acts on persons and means with diligence, and constancy, and malice, as a roaring lion (1Pe_5:8).
8. Be his activity ever so great, it is restrained and overruled by God, who has all evil spirits under His control.
The practical improvement of the subject:
1. We should admire the wisdom and goodness of God in making a discovery of Satan.
2. We should watch against his manifold artifices.
3. We should pray for grace and power to resist him. (J. Towle.)
Emissaries of Satan
Some years ago, when the cholera was raging in New Orleans, a steamer, near nightfall, put out from the city, laden with passengers escaping from the pestilence. The steamer had been but a little while out when the engineer fell at his post with cholera. The captain, in despair, went up and down among the passengers, asking if there were any one there who could act as engineer. A man stepped out, and said that he was an engineer, and could take the position. In the night the captain was awakened by a violent motion of the steamer, and he knew there was great peril ahead. He went up, and found that the engineer was a maniac; that he had fastened down the safety valves; and he told the captain that he was the emissary of Satan, commissioned to drive that steamer to hell. By some strategy, the man was got down in time to save the steamer. There are, men engineered by maniac passions, sworn to drive them to temporal and everlasting destruction. Every part of their nature trembles under the high pressure. Nothing but the grace of Almighty God can bring down those passions, and chain them. A little while longer in this course, and all is lost. (T. De Witt Talmage.)
