Satan's 12th Device to Draw Us into Sin

Device 12 - Satan will entice you to have sinful friends and run in sinful circles. 

First Remedy - Meditate on the commands of God that expressly forbid us to shun the company of the wicked (Proverbs 1:10-15; Proverbs 5:14-16; 1 Corinthians 5:9-11; Ephesians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 3:6).  These commands cannot be taken lightly.  If you don't observe them, they will rise up like witnesses against you and like a millstone around your neck to sink you in the day of judgment. 

Second Remedy - Consider how bad company is infectious and dangerous. "As ye shun a stinking carcass, as the seaman shuns rocks and sand, as ye shun those who have plague-sores running on them, so you should shun the society of wicked men." As weeds endanger a garden, the company of evil people endangers the soul (Proverbs 13:20)!

Third Remedy - Consider the names that Scripture gives to evil men. They are referred to as lions for their fierceness, bears for their cruelty, dragons for their destruction, dogs for their filthiness, and wolves for their craftiness.  Scripture also calls them scorpions, vipers, thorns, briars, thistles, brambles, stubble, dirt, chaff, dust and dregs.  It is not to safe to look at them with the names that sinful men may give them, but we must remember those names that Scripture sets upon them.  As was Nabal's name, so was his nature (1 Samuel 25:25)!  You may know what is in a man's nature by the names that the Holy Spirit gives them in Scripture. 

Fourth Remedy - Remember that the company of evil men was a source of grief to the saints who have gone before  (Psalm 120:5-6; Jeremiah 9:2; 2 Peter 2:7). Guilt or grief is all that the saints receive from the company of evil men.