Sermon - Invocavit 2024 - Matthew 4:1-11

Christ Tempted by the Devil, John Ritto Penniman, 1818

The Battle against Satan

1. Temptation is the weapon of assault

2. God’s Word is the weapon of victory

3. Adam and Eve fell, and we needed to be rescued

4. Jesus is the Victor and our foe is vanquished

Christianity in America is often quite tame. It’s seen as gentle and nice, homey, and perhaps a bit kitschy. Going to church is kind of like going to grandma’s house, it’s warm, comfortable, and cozy. Those are good qualities for grandma’s house, but Christianity isn’t soft and gentle. Christianity is warfare; Christianity is the battle against Satan.

Don’t be fooled, the devil and his demons are real. There is a real battle against the devil that we are truly fighting. Sometimes we speak as if demons were just metaphorical beings and not actual literal beings. So this needs to be emphasized that demons are real creatures, albeit spiritual and not physical, but real nonetheless. Certain behaviors therefore make people prone to demonic assault. I’ve noticed this especially today with pornography and drugs; these things act like portals for demons and will infiltrate a person’s life with great cruelty. Of course those are only a couple of the more obvious demonic portals, and there are more subtle ones, but those things are clear examples that show us demons are real and do some very ugly things.

The primary weapon of the devil, therefore, is temptation. When the devil fought against Adam and Eve, he fought by means of temptations. Same with Jesus, he tempted Him. I want you to notice something about these temptations: they all had the appearance of godliness and goodness. When the dragon tempted Adam and Eve, he pointed them to what God supposedly said and what God supposedly desires. “Did God actually say that you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? That sounds pretty harsh. You must be mistaken. God knows that if you eat of this tree it will open your eyes and make you like God. Look at the beautiful fruit, God made it, it must be good to eat.”

Similarly when the devil tempted Jesus, he made the temptations sound godly. “Didn’t God the Father just call you His Son? Then surely you must have the power and authority to turn these stones into bread. Afterall, in your ministry you will do many great miracles. Why not do one right now?” “You’re the immortal Son of God, the angels themselves serve you. God’s own word says this is true! Don’t you want people to believe in you? If you threw yourself down from the temple in the sight of everyone, and you were saved by angels, then surely all would believe.” “Look at all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. You’re God’s Son, and you’re going to suffer and die a miserable death? What for? These people don’t deserve to be saved by you, forget about them. You deserve the glory and the kingdoms of the world!”

The devil disguises himself as an angel of light, and he appears good and godly to those whom he tempts. He often and regularly uses God’s Word for his own lies and schemes. The most convincing temptations are those which appear good and from God. For that reason temptations that have the appearance of Christianity are far more dangerous than outright evil temptations because they’re more convincing. For example, Mormonism has the appearance of godliness, claims to be Christian even, whereas Satanism is obviously bad. Both of those lies lead to damnation, but one of them is much more convincing than the other.

The devil likes to make good look like bad and bad look like good. It is Satan who makes killing babies look like the good and compassionate option and makes not letting babies be killed as unloving and hateful. Satan makes sin look appealing and right, and he makes God’s design for life look repressive and backwards.

Since the devil often has the appearance of godliness, looking like an angel of light, how can the devil’s assaults be recognized and thus resisted? The devil is defeated with the weapon of victory: God’s Word. Everytime that the devil tempted Jesus, our Lord replied saying: “It is written” and then He quoted the Bible, He quoted God’s Word against the devil’s temptations.

This is the only way to recognize the devil’s lies. Since what the devil says sounds so close to the truth, and even at times uses the Bible, we need to know the Bible well enough to be able to fight against the devil. It’s kind of like how people are taught to recognize counterfeit bills by being very well acquainted with what legitimate bills look like. In order to recognize a fake, in order to recognize the devil’s lies, you need to know the genuine Word of God.

Here Jesus shows us a very important and helpful principle of reading the Bible: Scripture interprets scriptures. When the devil misquoted the Bible at Jesus, Jesus interpreted those out of context verses with other clearer passages of scripture. So when people throw Bible verses at you in order to attack your faith, you must have other clearer passages up your sleeve to rebuke their attacks.

This doesn’t mean that you have to be some sort of professional academic or a pastor to be able to fight against the devil’s temptations. You just have to be an ordinary simple Christian who delights in God’s Word. Lent is a great time to restart or refresh your daily Bible reading, or perhaps ramp it up a bit. We have some lenten devotionals available if that’s helpful to you. The point is, God’s word is your weapon of victory against the devil’s assaults, so take up the sword of the Spirit and bravely fight!

Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were not victorious in their fight against the devil. They both ate of the forbidden fruit and became sinners. From that sin death spread to all.“By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.” In battling against the devil, Adam and Eve lost, and all of us with them. We lost the battle and now we need to be rescued.

Adam and Eve’s fall into sin ought to teach us a great deal of humility when it comes to temptation. Far too often we presume to be stronger than we are, thinking that we can handle temptation, so we put ourselves into tempting situations. “I can watch that, I can read this, I can eat that, I can drink another one, I can smoke that, I’m a strong Christian and so these temptations won’t hurt me.” But we’re wrong! Adam and Eve, before they ate the fruit, were perfect, they had no sin, and yet they succumbed to temptation. How do we, who are riddled with sin, ever think we could do better than Adam and Eve?

Therefore, our great Savior is Jesus, the Victor! He is our Champion who triumphed over the foe! When the Lord faced temptation in the wilderness, He was successful and did not give in. Every blow the devil thrust at Christ, Jesus parried and struck a blow against the enemy. Finally after all of these temptations, after this great battle, the devil ran away like a wounded dog with his tail between his legs. Jesus underwent temptation not for His own sake, but for you. In your place Jesus suffered temptation and did not succumb. He is the perfect and sinless Son of God who fights the devil on your behalf.

This was just the first battle of the fight. On Good Friday our Champion once again took the field, but on that day He struck the final blow against Satan from the cross. Jesus declared: It is finished, meaning that the battle against the demons has been won by Christ. Your sins and the sins you’ve inherited from Adam and Eve, every temptation you’ve failed to resist, is atoned for and forgiven by Jesus on the cross. This means that whenever we face the devil today, he’s already lost, the battle has been won, we fight with the knowledge that Christ is victorious and the devil lies slain. Therefore be strong Christians!