about facing Satan's divisive devices and just by way of review really quickly we are basing this study together on an old book by an old author written back in the 1600s Thomas Brooks wrote Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices and And when he meant precious, he meant valuable remedies. He's talking about ways that we face Satan's devices. We must not be ignorant of his devices, and we must face them biblically. He talked about how Satan has a device to destroy the saints, and he focuses specifically on this device by working them first to be strange, that is to be at odds or upset with one another, then to divide, then to be bitter and jealous, and then to bite and devour one another. And we probably have seen by personal experience and have heard even more of the times where Satan has done exactly that. So Brooks encourages us biblically with several remedies. And last week we looked at four of them. The first one was to dwell more on one another's graces than on one another's weaknesses and infirmities. So to be more focused on those good things that we see God doing in a person than on those things that we see as their weaknesses or their, or their infirmities. The second remedy is to consider seriously that love and union make most for your own safety and security. That is, there is a safety in the body united. We're able together to stand for truth. We are able together to stand against error. We are able together to stand against sin. His third remedy was to dwell upon those commandments of God that do require you to love one another. And we read those commandments throughout all of the New Testament. Over and over again we're told that we are to love one another. And again, just to remind you of where we were last week, Love has various shades and intensities of meanings, but those all can be summed up in this, love, whether used of God or man, is an earnest and anxious desire for and an active and beneficent or benevolent interest in the well-being of the one loved. And so it's more than just emotions. It's an active interest in the good of others. We are called then to love one another. Then the fourth remedy, the fourth way that we face this device of Satan was to dwell more on the choice and sweet things wherein you agree than upon those things wherein you differ. In other words, to focus more on those doctrines and truths that we hold in common. than on those things that are of lesser importance, but yet sadly often have a tendency to be exalted out of proportion. So with those four in mind, let's move on now to the fifth remedy that Brooks proposes. And this is the longer one, but it can be summarized by simply remembering that God is a God of peace. So this is the longer way that he expresses this. That we should solemnly consider that God delights to be styled or called the God of peace. That Christ is the Prince of peace, the King of peace. and the spirit is the spirit of peace. In other words, the Trinity, Father, Son, and Spirit, are notably peace. In fact, if we were to go to Galatians chapter 5 and verse 22, in keeping with that, we would see Galatians chapter 5 verse 22, The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace. Peace is listed as a fruit of the Spirit. And so, if our God is a God of peace, why should, Brooks asks, why then should not the saints be children of peace? If God is a God of peace, God the Father is a God of peace, if Jesus our Savior is the Prince of peace, and the Spirit is the Spirit of peace, why then should saints not be children of peace? And he goes on to say, essentially, that if a person is constantly at odds with other believers, they can have no true assurance of their salvation. I wonder if you've ever thought of it that way. That a person who is constantly at odds with other believers can actually have no true assurance of their salvation. Brooke's point is that if God is this kind of God, and we are truly His children, there should be evidence then of God at work in us by His Spirit to produce peace. And so essentially what he is saying, I'm going to read his statement, and then I'll give an explanation. But he says, certainly men of froward, we don't use that word very much anymore. Some of you King James readers might recognize that word froward. But very few people today use that word. So what does froward mean? Well, froward is, it used to be that in years gone by with the English language, that you would have the word forward, in other words facing someone, and forward would be facing away from someone. And it would take upon itself the meaning of backward, or even perverse. It had a shade of meaning. But when it comes to relationships with others, where peace is disrupted, the word froward had the idea of being self-willed, difficult to get along with. The idea is that if everyone is looking this direction, you have to be cantankerous and stubborn and look a different direction, because that's just who you are. Well, Maybe that's just who you are, but Brooks says, be careful, because if that is a constant disruptor of peace, you probably should be questioning, am I a believer? Because one of the evidences of the Spirit's work is that there is peace. He says, froward, unquiet, fiery spirits cannot have that sweet evidence of their interest in the God of peace, in the prince of peace, and in the spirit of peace, as those precious souls that, as those precious souls have that follow after the things that make for love and peace. In other words, he's saying that difficult people cannot have solid assurance of their salvation as they do not resemble the God they claim to worship. He says, the very name of peace is sweet and comfortable, the fruit and effect thereof pleasant and profitable, more to be desired than innumerable triumphs. It is a blessing that ushers in a multitude of other blessings. And he describes how in times gone by, peace would often be personified in the form of a woman with holding a horn of plenty in her hand. And the idea is that with peace, peace that is upon the right principles, comes good and prosperity to others. Peace is good for others. He says, peace and love among the saints is that which will secure them and their mercies at home. Yea, it will multiply their mercies. It will engage the God of mercy to crown them with the choicest mercies, and it is that that will render them most terrible, invincible, and successful abroad. Now when he says terrible and invincible and successful abroad, he's not talking about those words terrible, It's like that word awful. There's a hymn that was written back in times gone by, how sweet and awful is the place. And it's not meaning that it's a horrible thing to worship God, it's saying that awful is awesome. Terrible here does not have the idea of causing terror, but rather the idea, as he states later, of more successful and invincible. That is that if God is for us, who can be against us? And God so often is at work in particular ways through people who pursue peace. Love and peace among the saints is that which puts the counsels of their enemy to a stand, renders their enterprises abortive. It is that which doth most weaken their hands, wound their hopes, et cetera. And so God is a God of peace. And those who claim to be people of God should be people of peace. Why? Well, because if we claim to follow God, we should resemble him. Why? Because God works in amazing ways through people who pursue peace for the right reasons. The sixth remedy then that Brooks speaks of is to make more care and conscience of keeping up your peace with God. That seems like a strange way of expressing. What Brooks means by this is to be intent on living in such a way that pleases God. to live in such a way that pleases God. Look with me at Proverbs chapter 16 and verse 7. It tells us in Proverbs 16, 7, when a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him. Brooks says that the fact that many professing Christians do not intentionally live to please God is shown in the fact that they are constantly at odds with others. Because there is a principle that when men's ways please God, that God makes them to be at peace with others, even their enemies. He says, if we make it our business to keep up our league with God, God will make it His work and His glory to maintain our peace with men. But if men make light of keeping up their peace with God, it is just with God to leave them to a spirit of pride, envy, passion, contention, division, confusion, to leave them to bite and devour one another till they be consumed of one another. So may we be people who are intent on making our ways please the Lord. Now I know that life is busy and we can reach the end of the day hardly having thought of much more than trying to survive from one minute to the next. But underneath all of that is this understanding that as God's people, we are to live for the glory of God. That whatever we do, whether we eat or drink or whatever we do, we do all to the glory of God. The person that lives for God's honor is the person who pleases God. And there is a principle that when we please God, God makes our time or our interactions with others to be peaceful ones. Now I need to note at this point, some of you in hearing these remedies to this point might wonder, number one, was Brooks soft on sin? Was he someone that, you know, He speaks a lot about peace and maybe he is saying, well, sin doesn't really matter. We just live for peace no matter what. And I'll have to tell you, that's not the case. In fact, one of the complaints of his church at one point, one of the few details we know of his life is that at one point in his ministry, several people in his church complained because he would not let them take communion because he felt that their lives We're not walking in obedience to God. So this is not a man who takes sin seriously. And if that were not enough, he wrote an entire book on how we face the temptations of Satan and don't fall. So he's not light on sin. We're looking here at a particular type of temptation. Brooks is not encouraging us to be light on sin. Far from it. He's encouraging us to stand against Satan's devices. and even here in this moment, to live in such a way as to please God. Now the second question that might come to mind as you look at what we've been looking at so far is, does it mean automatically that if I am walking in a way that pleases God, I'm never gonna have interpersonal problems? And that's not true either. The proverb is a principle. Book of Proverbs is a book of principles. These are not hard and fast laws that never are broken. These are principles for living in wisdom. If we need further evidence of that, we can look within the book itself, where you will have, in one verse, answer a fool according to his folly, and in the very next verse, answer not a fool according to his folly. These are principles by which we order our lives in wisdom, but they're not laws that will never, ever, ever be broken. If we need further evidence beyond that, think of the great believers of years gone by. Remember that I preached through the book of Acts, and Paul, for no wrongdoing on his part, was pulled out of the temple and falsely accused. by people who hated him. Paul's actions were pleasing to the Lord, and yet there were those still who opposed him. And of course, if we need further evidence of this, think no further than our own Lord himself, who in everything pleased the Father, and yet was taken by the hands of wicked men and crucified and slain. And so this is but one remedy. We know by experience and by scripture that living right with God so often brings us into right relationships with others. But we also know that it can bring us into conflict with others. Now let's apply this more particularly to our fellow believers. If we are all living to please God, If that is our goal and our ambition, it would significantly limit our conflicts with one another if we're all facing that direction. We're all longing to live to please God. When we start thinking about living to please ourselves, living to be contrarian, living to show that we're different from everyone, for the sake of being different, that is a recipe for problems. And so let us be people then who make it our intention to please the Lord and rejoice in the peace that he gives us in that. Seventh remedy then that Brooks proposes is this. I'll state it the way that Brooks states it and then I'll restate it in maybe terms that we might be more familiar with. Brooks says, to dwell much upon that near relation and union that is between you. Talking about between believers. The way that I would say this is to say, remember that we are members of the same family. Remember that we are brothers and sisters. to dwell on that relation and that near union that is between us. We are family. He draws the reader's attention to Abraham when Abraham's servants and Lot's servants began to strive about the wells. And Abraham said to Lot, let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee, and between my herdsmen and thy herdsmen, for we are brethren. Brooks then draws our attention to the Psalm that we read at the beginning of our talk in this series, Psalm 133, verse one. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. It is not good and not pleasant, and it's not pleasant and not good. It is good and pleasant for us to dwell in unity. We are brothers and sisters, and there's a whole lot that's embedded in that truth that should urge us to be in unity with one another. Look with me at 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 27. 1 Corinthians 12, 27, and then we'll look at Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 30. 1 Corinthians chapter 12 and verse 27. Now you are the body of Christ and members individually, or as the King James says, members in particular. Each individual is a particular member of the body of Christ. Ephesians chapter five and verse 30. We have the same essential truth declared to us. Yes, I have the right one. For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. So you think about your own body. All right, we are near relations, we're brothers and sisters, but also think about the fact that we are near relations, we're part of the same body. There are big problems in the physical body when things aren't working together. Occasionally bring illustrations about my own troubles and trials trying to do jujitsu, and I've had a fair share of them. And sometimes, because of the injuries that I have, it kind of opens the door up for other injuries, because the body isn't working together. I have a pinched nerve, and so two of my three tricep muscles in this arm, they're not working. They didn't work at all for a little while. Now they're working a little bit, but not fully functioning. So when you have an imbalance like that, it can throw things off. How much more when someone has an injury that's even more severe than that? And how the body can almost work against itself. Sometimes a disease will happen where that's a very literal fight that goes on in the body, where the body is fighting against itself. But in a normal functioning body, the body works together. This is the same illustration that Paul gives, isn't it? The members of the body don't have their own agenda. Well, I want to be this and I want to do that. No, we're all part of the body. If it's against the law of nature for our natural members, our natural parts of our body, it's against nature for those things to fight against each other, how much more unnatural it is for members of Christ's body to fight against each other. So we need to remember that near relation. We are part of the same family, we're part of the same body or part of the same building. Brooks goes on to state several things in succession, these biblical principles. He says, and as you are all fellow members, we're fellow members of the same body. So he says, if you are members of the same family, you're also members of the same body. He says, if you are all fellow members, so you are fellow soldiers under the same captain of salvation, the Lord Jesus, fighting against the world, the flesh, and the devil. We have the same Lord. We have the same common enemies, the world, the flesh, and the devil. And as you are all fellow soldiers, so you are all fellow sufferers under the same enemies, the devil and the world. We're in this fight together, and we also suffer together. Remember what Paul said? When one member suffers, the whole body suffers. And as you are fellow sufferers, So are you fellow travelers to the land of Canaan, the new Jerusalem that is above. Here we have no abiding city, but we look for one to come. We are the heirs of heaven and strangers on earth. We have that identity together. We're fellow travelers. We're on that same road leading to the same destination. And shall we fight and bicker? Shall we engage in combat with one another as we're traveling to the celestial city? How foolish that is. And then he says, and as you are all fellow travelers, so you are all fellow heirs of the same crown and inheritance. We have that common inheritance that awaits us. that inheritance that is reserved in heaven for us who are kept by the power of God. We have so much in common because of who we are in Christ. How contrary to nature, how contrary to the way that things should be that we would fight our way to glory. We're going to end early again tonight, but that's all right. Because I want to save the last four. The last four are a little bit longer, but I want to save the last four for next week. The eighth remedy against this device of Satan is to dwell upon the miseries of discord. To dwell upon the miseries of discord. I wanna talk a little bit more than what, talk about a few more miseries than what Brooks focuses on. Brooks focuses on nearly exclusively spiritual miseries, and those are true miseries, we'll get to those in a moment. But there are, there are miseries and difficulties that come with being at odds with one another. There is the natural, Just the bad feeling of knowing that someone is angry and grumpy at you. Knowing that you are at odds with someone. There's the sadness that you might feel for the loss of fellowship that you have with that person. I have said this before, I'll no doubt say it again, the hardest thing in ministry, as it relates to the ministry of the body, not personal ministry and not family ministry, but as it relates to the ministry of the body of Christ, the hardest thing is, in my experience, the hardest thing to deal with is not putting a sermon together, it's not praying, it's not scheduling the week in the midst of a lot of difficulties, the hardest thing, the most The thing that causes the most agony to a minister, and I think most ministers would agree with me, is when believers are at odds with one another. When believers are bickering one with another. That causes more strain on a pastor's heart and mind than almost anything else I can imagine. We have experienced The sadness that comes with loss of fellowship at times. You might think of this yourself. We've experienced the sorrow that we feel internally for a lost friendship. Those are very real miseries that come as a result of discord. In fact, those who delight in strife, Those who delight in conflict and perhaps those that don't feel these things have deep spiritual problems. And possibly are sociopaths. I'm not a psychologist, but that's reality. When a person doesn't feel the strain of a difficult relationship, that's a mark of a sociopath. But beyond that, it's a mark of someone who's not in a good place spiritually. but beyond our own, what we might call our personal, emotional difficulties that come with the miseries of discord. Brooks focuses on some of the spiritual damage that's done, some of the spiritual miseries that come. He says, for example, how are many that are entering upon the ways of God hindered and saddened? So those who are first having their eyes open to the truth, they're first hearing gospel truths, and maybe they're finding the truth of the gospel intriguing, and yet they come into a church and they hear somebody yelling at someone else. Or they hear the bickering, or they join a church and, oh, it's wonderful, it's great, I'm so happy to be in this place. And they're there for two weeks and they find out that there are four or five cantankerous old goats in that church that, you know, they can't speak a peaceable word to anyone. How they're saddened. How they're turned away from the ways of Christ. How many are the mouths of the wicked opened, he said. One of the top complaints against Christianity that we hear today, of course the obligatory Christians are hypocrites and the obligatory Christians are horribly judgmental, but beyond those sort of culturally fun ones that we deal with, is the common complaint that Christians are always fighting against each other. I knew these Christians, or they claim to be Christians, and they were always at odds with this person, and they had this beef with this person, and the sad thing is that happens. And when it happens, it gives cause to the enemy of truth to open their mouth and complain about it. I wonder if you brother, you sister are cause for the wicked opening their mouth against the ways of God as they look at your life, not resisting this insidious attack of Satan to tear down unity. He says, hearts are hardened against God and his ways. It's another great spiritual misery that happens. Those who are entering into Christianity, perhaps they're newly saved, perhaps they're intrigued by the message of the gospel, deeply saddened and disillusioned by the discord. The wicked mouths open to complain about Christ and his ways. After all, look at these people. And then how many hearts are hardened against God and his ways? People who perhaps come into a church and they see the dissent and the discord, the disagreements over foolish and trivial things, and all of those things serve to harden their hearts rather than soften them to the truth of the gospel. Brooks says this, remember this, the disagreement of Christians is the devil's triumph. And what a sad thing is this, that Christians should give Satan cause to triumph. It was a notable saying of one, take away strife and call back peace, lest thou lose a man thy friend, and the devil and enemy joy over you both, or rejoice over you both. The picture is that there's this division call back your friend so you have your friend back in fellowship with you. Because if that doesn't happen, the devil is laughing and rejoicing over both of you. So often that seems to be the way that Satan has caused to rejoice over many brothers and sisters who fight and bicker over foolish and trivial things. We will talk a little bit later about what the true standard by which we are to judge ourselves and each other, because Brooks does not leave us wondering about that, nor should we wonder about it because we're to judge everything by God's word. So it's not like there's never a cause for us to disagree, but how do we disagree? To what degree do we disagree? Over what do we disagree? The intensity of our disagreement should be in proportion to the weightiness of the matter. If the intensity of our disagreement, if we don't have a great disagreement over somebody that comes in and preaches heresy, and we would have more of an issue if someone puts something in the wrong place on a Sunday evening that it's not supposed to be, that's a huge problem. The proportion of our disagreement must be in proportion to the weightiness of the issue. And so, brothers and sisters, let us stand against this divisive Satan. Satan is very happy to work to divide, brothers and sisters. And he might even be doing that now. I mean, I've just come back. You know, one of the things in the past is I knew far more about issues than people thought that I knew. People thought that I had no idea of the fights and strife and bickering. complaining that they're having against each other, but I knew a whole lot more than people realized. And I'm kind of coming back into things, and I've been out of the loop for a little while, and maybe that's good for my own soul, but I suspect that it won't be long before I start hearing more about, so-and-so's angry at so-and-so, and so-and-so won't talk to so-and-so, or if they do, they just pretend like everything's good where they're at church, and then they get away from church, and they curse each other over the phone. I hope I don't hear about that kind of nonsense. But listen, let's not give Satan any advantage. Let's not give him any cause to triumph. Let's stand together as brothers and sisters, as members of one body, striving for the faith of the gospel together. Next week, we will continue to look at these remedies against Satan's devices. But for now, I think it's good for us to evaluate our own hearts this week. Am I walking in fellowship with my brothers and sisters? And if I'm not, why am I not? If I have some problem and if I'm at odds with a brother or sister, what's the issue? How important is that issue? How am I treating that brother or sister in the midst of this disagreement? Am I truly descending into discord and bitterness, anger, division, biting and devouring one another. May God give us the grace, having examined ourselves, to apply ourselves to true Christian unity. Remember the great work of our Savior, who died for the sake of making us one. That work will be complete in glory one day. I know that. It won't be perfect this side of earth, but that should not be an excuse for us just to let things slide and be sinful and cantankerous now. Let's live in light of that glory that is to come. Let's live in light of heaven, that perfect kingdom of perfect peace and righteousness. While we have one more hymn, or really it's kind of a chorus to sing, and I think we all