SATAN’S INVETERATE AIM

J. Taylor

The devil has always watched what God has set up—he has been interested from the very outset in regard to divine operations, and his great aim in regard to anything God has instituted has been to capture it. That has been the devil’s aim from the very outset. We know how he captured humanity at the beginning. Man was perfectly constructed. God was the Creator of man, and of everything, and, having created all, He expressed His approval of His own work. All was “very good”. Everything God has created or instituted has been in perfection. So God creates man in perfection, and sits in judgment on His own work, and pronounces it “very good”. Now, I think the devil’s point was to capture it. Man was the best God had created, and would he not be a wonderful servant to the devil? Could not Satan use man? I believe that was Satan’s thought, and the same holds good as to everything God created and established down here.

I could go over the Scriptures following the account of the creation, and point out how everything that God set up down here fell a prey to the devil. Why? Because it was committed to human responsibility. The result was this—Satan was more than a match for man, and hence whatever has been committed into the hands of men has become a prey to the devil, and thus has it been with the church. One has to admit the success of the enemy in capturing the church; and the explanation of it is this, that it was committed into the hands of men. The church was set up in perfection by God—there was nothing lacking. Everything that was required for the comfort, satisfaction, and support of the Lord’s people, was furnished; and not only

for that moment, but for the perpetuation of it; but as in the hands of men it was captured by the devil. And what has he done with it? He has done more with it than with anything he ever touched.

Further, wherever God has moved in the way of recovery, Satan in turn has succeeded in capturing the result of the movement; and for the same reason—failure on the part of those responsible. Take the Reformation—that was a mighty movement of God. It was a movement of the Spirit of God. How long did it last? As a purely divine movement it was very brief.

The leaders, instead of leaning on the Lord alone, accepted the patronage of the world, and in this way fell a prey to the devil. I speak with reverence of those men; but as a matter of fact they all became system-makers. I do not know of one of them who did not become a system-builder, and in that way they were used of the devil. I am not saying they were not Christians—unquestionably they were, and also servants of God; but the devil was more than a match for them, and the result was they fell under the power of the world, and began to build up another system. Even Luther set up a system. They began to build up another system in the world. That is what Rome had done. Rome was the result of the original capture of the church.

When Satan captured the church he set up his throne there. “Where the throne of Satan is”, the Lord says. Do you think the Lord is not observant of what is going on? He knows everything that is going on; He is perfectly aware of what has been carried into the church.

He knows how Satan has got in, and what use Satan has made of the church, that he has set his throne in the church. There is more wickedness committed in the name of the church than ever has been committed

before in the history of the world. That is the church in the hands of the devil. Look at her there. A public market for the souls of men! That is what things came to. That is what Rome was until the Lord mercifully came in at the time of the Reformation; and the devil then, as I said, captured that too, and has built up Protestantism out of it; and he has been adding material to this within the memory perhaps of some of us here. There was that remarkable movement of the last century. What has been the outcome? The devil has captured it. The bulk of those affected by the movement, primarily, turned aside from the truth and fell into system.

That has been the history of things, and if you are not in dependence every single moment on the Spirit of God you may be captured. Depend upon it, the devil is bent upon your capture.

He does not care much about you if the Spirit is not moving in you—he will leave you alone—you are not of much account to him; but if he finds a man with the Spirit of God active in him, he will capture him if he can. Look at the apostle’s exhortation to Timothy, to labour patiently with those who are in error, “That they may awake up out of the snare of the devil, who are taken by him for his will”. That is the purpose for which the devil captures men. He is building up a system, and wants the very best servants he can find, and those are servants who are enlightened by the gospel. We are never out of danger. If there is any movement of God the devil is bent upon its capture. He has captured everything that came into the world from God. If that marvellous structure reared up in the beginning of the Acts by God has fallen a prey to the devil, you are in danger, and I am in danger; we are all in danger of falling a prey to the world-system.

It may be you are not in much danger from Rome; I think that snare was broken a good many hundred years ago, but there are other dangers. Probably the greatest danger in this country is prosperity. This is the most prosperous country in the world today, and we are living in it.

The greatest danger we are exposed to is the prosperity of the country. A great majority of people here have emigrated to this country. Did they come here for God? I do not think so. I think most people have come here because there is prosperity here. The devil will give you prosperity so long as you yield yourself to him. He has a great many ways of helping you. He would hold out prospects to you. It does not take much to become prosperous in America.

Any fairly intelligent person who comes here bent upon being prosperous can succeed, and I think if you are a Christian the devil will help you. It is policy on his part to do so.

Now I have not touched much on my subject. It is because I feel concerned about what I have spoken of. I think it is a most essential thing to be on our guard against the world-system. If there is any movement of God, you may depend upon it the enemy will do his utmost to capture the result of it. The world in its varied features is his great net, his great snare. What was that by which the children of Israel were captured? The world-system. Babylon was the great system Satan had been working at for hundreds of years.

Do you think he did not set a snare? The moral end of the church as such is Thyatira. Ephesus was properly the public beginning of the church, and the history of the church publicly closes with Thyatira. When we look at things in the face it must have a very humbling effect upon us, but now what we have to do is to look up to the Lord, and wait for His coming. “The Lord shall deliver me”, says Paul. If you do not remain close to the Lord, you may depend upon it that the devil will capture you. The Lord is the only One that can deliver you. He “shall deliver me from every wicked work”.

From an address at Chicago (‘Ministry by J.Taylor’ Vol. 1, pp.248–251)