The Snare of the Fowler: sermon notes

Likely Title: The Snare of the Fowler

Likely Text/Passage: Psalm 91:3

Main Theme: God surely delivers his people from Satan’s deceptive temptations, whether he keeps them from the snare or brings them out after they fall into it.

Introduction

• The “fowler” is understood as Satan, the great deceiver and enemy of souls.
• Though Satan’s methods change, from persecution to subtle persuasion, his purpose remains the destruction of people.
• The sermon considers the snare, God’s deliverance, and the certainty expressed by the word “surely.”

Main Points

1. The Nature of the Fowler’s Snare
2. Satan’s traps are secretive, disguising evil beneath apparently harmless pleasures, profits, or respectable conduct.
3. The snare is adapted to each person’s particular weakness, including drunkenness, lust, pride, or sloth.
4. Temptation often comes through attractive pleasures, worldly advantage, or the example of professing believers.
5. Satan may also attack through slander, but believers should not descend into quarrels; they should continue faithfully and leave the matter with God.
6. Christians must remain watchful because snares surround them in every condition of life.

1. God’s Deliverance from the Snare
2. God may prevent his people from entering the snare through trouble, spiritual courage, prayer, or a changed heart that no longer finds the temptation attractive.
3. Believers are called to resist temptation decisively, as Joseph did, and to seek God’s help in prayer.
4. When believers do fall into the snare, God is still able to bring them out, restore backsliders, and lead them again in righteousness.
5. Chastening and painful providences may be used by God to turn his people away from worldly ruin and restore them to holiness.

1. The Certainty of Deliverance
2. Deliverance is certain because God has promised it, and his promises are never dishonored.
3. Christ’s responsibility for his people, their union with him, and the covenant of grace guarantee their preservation.
4. The promise belongs to those who believe in Christ, trust wholly in his blood and righteousness, and are made new by his Spirit.

Application

• Examine personal weaknesses and beware of temptations disguised as harmless pleasures, profits, respectability, or religious example.
• Choose companions carefully, follow others only as they follow Christ, resist temptation through courage and prayer, and refuse to answer every slander.
• Those who have fallen should repent rather than despair, trusting God to restore them.
• Those outside Christ must repent and believe in him rather than rely on self-righteousness or worldly security.

Conclusion

• God’s people are surrounded by snares, yet God surely preserves and delivers them.
• The hearer must determine whether this promise is theirs through genuine faith in Jesus Christ.

Warm-Up (5 minutes)

1. What kinds of traps or hidden dangers do people commonly overlook in everyday life?
2. When have you discovered that something appealing or harmless-looking carried an unexpected cost?

Diving In (20 minutes)

1. The sermon compares Satan to “the fowler,” a person who catches birds. What did the pastor say this picture teaches us about how temptation works?
2. Psalm 91:3 says, “Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler.” What different forms of deliverance did the pastor describe, both before someone enters the snare and after they have fallen into it?
3. The sermon says Satan adapts temptations to each person’s weaknesses, using things like pleasure, pride, sloth, profit, or the influence of others. What practical steps could you take on a Tuesday morning to recognize and resist a temptation suited to your own weaknesses?

Going Deeper (15 minutes)

1. The pastor says God may use trouble to rescue people from spiritual danger, comparing it to a painter being pulled away from a dangerous ledge. How can this teaching be comforting, and what questions or tensions might it raise when we experience painful loss?
2. Where are you most vulnerable to the kinds of snares described in the sermon, secret compromises, pleasure, pride, wrong influences, slander, or something else, and what kind of help from God or from trusted believers would be useful?

Prayer Prompt

• Pray for God to expose hidden temptations, give strength and wisdom to resist them, and restore anyone who feels caught in a snare.

Big idea

God surely delivers his people from Satan’s hidden, personalized snares, whether by keeping us from them or bringing us out of them.

Live it out

• Examine one pleasure, profit, or habit that may conceal temptation, and bring it honestly before God.
• Identify your easily besetting sin and ask the Holy Spirit for courage to say, “I cannot and I must not.”
• Choose companions who follow Christ, and follow no professing Christian further than they follow him.
• When slandered, refuse retaliation; pray for grace to imitate Jesus, who reviled not again.
• If you have fallen, return to God in repentance and trust his promise to deliver you.

Closing prayer

Father, we confess that snares surround us, in our thoughts, pleasures, work, relationships, quiet, and devotion. Give us discernment to recognize the fowler’s secrecy, courage to flee temptation, and grace to seek you in prayer. When trouble exposes our wandering, keep us from despair and restore us through repentance. Guard us by your hand, strengthen us by your Spirit, and help us rise above slander. Through Christ, deliver us from the snare and keep us faithful until we dwell with you. Amen.