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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 026. Great—greater
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Great—greater
Satan is being forgot. That is the chief danger regarding him to-day among Christian people as well as others. He is ignored, even where he is believed in as an actual personality.
There is a feeling among earnest, godly people that this is a dreadful subject. Better put it aside, and go on doing the best you can in earnest dependence upon God's grace. The thought of Satan gives a feeling of dread, almost akin to horror. The result is a failure to get definite, clear thought about him, so as to resist him more intelligently and victoriously in the great Victor's great Name. Satan is practically ignored and forgot. That is very bad. It leaves him free to work. That is the most common danger to-day regarding him.
There is a second danger less common, but not less real; namely, that we shall think too much of him, when we begin to study the teachings of God's Word about him. Unless we are on our guard against it, there is an easy tendency to think that he is bigger and stronger than he is. That is bad, too.
Extremes are always bad, and work harm. We want to keep the poise between the two, though that is the hardest thing to do, and the rarest thing to find. He should not be minimized nor magnified. Clear outlines will let us see him as he is, neither smaller nor bigger. And this will be an immense help in resisting him, as we are bidden to do. Our resistance of him, in our Lord Jesus' Name, will become an immense factor in undercutting his activity and power.
There are two things that help immensely in correcting this second danger—the danger of being afraid of him, as we learn how real he is, and how tremendous is the power he wields.
The first is always to couple the Name of our Lord Jesus with Satan's, in all our thinking. Remember Satan, big, bold, cunning, sleepless, and quite too much for any one of us alone. We are clear outmastered by him at every turn. Don't get him in too big—nor too small, just the right size, as revealed to us in the Book.
But—but, remember Jesus too; He is bigger and stronger. He is more than a match for Satan. You and I are clean outmatched by Satan, out-classed and out-done; but Satan is clean outmatched by our blessed Lord Jesus, clean out-classed and out-done. We can't hold our own alone against Satan, and—blessed fact for us!—he can't hold his own for a moment against our Lord.
Always couple the two names, Satan—big and strong, wily and persistent and aggressive. Be wary of him—keenly, intelligently, earnestly wary of him. And Jesus—bigger to the point of being almighty, stronger, wise in conflict, resourceful in battle, and who undertakes for us. Remember Jesus, our Lord. That's the first thing that helps. The second is this, remember that Satan is defeated. We are fighting a defeated foe, who has all the enormous handicap of a defeat behind him. He is defeated, and he knows it.