The Devil at Work

Text: Matthew 4:1-11

Grace, mercy, and peace be to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

          “The world is more full of sin today than it has ever been in all of history.” Let’s let that sink in for just a moment. And here’s another one to contemplate. “People since the beginning of time have never been less likely to believe the truth of God’s Word than they are today.” These are things that people like to say to try to prove that we’ve got it worse than anyone else ever has. That our lives as Christians are harder than anyone else’s have ever been.

But those statements aren’t true. The world is no more full of sin today than it was at any other point in time. Think about the wickedness of the world that drove God to realize that He had no choice but to destroy everything He had made except those eight precious souls. But even that didn’t solve the problem of wickedness in the world. Think Sodom and Gomorrah, and Nineveh, and countless other places and times where wickedness would abound and need to be dealt with. And other than the fact that there are more people in the world today being wicked, the world is no more wicked than it was immediately following Adam and Eve’s fall into sin. Because sin is sin is sin.

The simple and seemingly benign act of taking a bite out of a beautiful looking fruit in the Garden of Eden, and thus bringing sin into the world, is exactly the same in the eyes of God as each sin, big or small, that each of us has committed already today. Therefore, there’s no point in trying to compare the amount or severity of sin in the world today as opposed to any other point in history. Especially since we know the consequence of each and every one of those sins. As Paul points out in his letter to the Romans, “Just as sin came into the world through one man, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all sinned.”

Now, let’s look at that second statement that I made, which is also not true. “People since the beginning of time have never been less likely to believe the truth of God’s Word than they are today.” It might seem like it in a world where everyone believes that truth is relative and that I can have my own truth and you can have your own truth. And that even if those truths are in direct contradiction to one another, somehow, they can still both be true. We might think that this kind of inconsistent thinking is new to our day and age, but it’s not. God gave Moses the Ten Commandments on Mt. Sinai which began with the command that they were to have no other God’s before Him. How long did it take before they had set up a golden calf and were sacrificing to it simply because Moses took too long to come down from the mountain?

And we sure are good at twisting God’s Word to make it into something that we want to hear. Something that’s more palatable to us. And it’s not just the heathens doing this, it’s Christians as well who would like to make God and His Word in their own image as opposed to recognizing that we are made in His. We’d all like God’s Word to say what we want it to say, because quite frankly there are times when we don’t like what it actually says. But we’re not the first, and certainly no worse than those who have gone before us. But why do we do this?

It’s because of the third statement that I’d like to share with you. “The devil is working harder today than he ever has before.” That’s false as well. He certainly is working hard today, but it’s not any harder than he’s been working every day since the beginning of time. And he’s using the same old trick he invented in the Garden of Eden. “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden?’” He takes God’s Word, “You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden” and he changes it just enough to sow confusion and doubt.

Sound familiar? Of course it does. Because it’s exactly what the devil is still doing today. And while he may not be harder at work right now than he’s ever been,

THE DEVIL IS HARD AT WORK TODAY TO GET US TO QUESTION

THE TRUTH OF GOD’S WORD.

          It’s his go to assault. Attacking the Word of God. And it’s just what he does in our Gospel lesson where he attacks the very Word of God in the flesh and tries to use the same tactic. He tries to get Jesus to stumble by using God’s own Word against Him. He twists it and shapes it to His own will. Which is exactly the opposite of what God calls us to do. God’s desire is that His Word would shape our will instead of the other way around. Paul says, again to the Romans, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” And the only way to test and approve His will is to know His Word. Because that’s the place where He clearly states His will for you, me, and every person He’s created.

But before we get to how Jesus stands firm against the flaming arrows the devil throws at Him, I want to pause for a moment and think about why it is that we think the devil is harder at work today than he’s ever been. Because even though that perception doesn’t actually reflect reality, it can often feel that way to us. And it’s because we’re His primary target. He doesn’t need to be attacking non-Christians. He doesn’t need to put his efforts there because they’re already on his side. In fact, the stronger your Christian faith, the harder the devil is going to be working to win you over.

And the same is true for the church. The stronger the church is, the more the devil is going to try to tear it apart. Because this is the place where God’s people find safety and sanctuary from the wickedness the devil is sowing in the world around us. When the Word of God is rightly preached and the sacraments are administered according to Christ’s institution, and when God’s people come together to hear and to receive these things, this is a fortress with high and mighty walls, designed to keep God’s people in and the devil out.

And yet, the physical churchly walls are still built by fallible human hands. Which means that the devil, who wants to disrupt all the good that we’ve got going on here, will weasel his way in, seeking to destroy the work God is doing among His people. I’ve witnessed it just this week. The devil sees the good that God is doing among His people right here and he throws wrenches into the works. He erects walls between God’s people, turning them against each other. He seeks to tear apart every good thing that God is doing. And He does it by twisting, no mangling, the Word of God so that it suits his will and his desires.

But even as the devil attacks us and seeks to destroy all of God’s good work, we know that we’ve been given the most powerful weapon to thwart his efforts. The same weapon used by Jesus in the wilderness as the devil tempted Him to be separated from His Heavenly Father. We have God’s Word. The Word that we know God speaks to us for the strengthening of our faith. Which is why we need to respond with a resounding “Yes” when Satan asks us, “Did God actually say?”

Which is exactly what Jesus does as He’s tempted in the wilderness. After 40 days and forty nights of fasting “the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.’” Satan knows just where to strike, and exactly when to do it. When what we need is to be humbled, he places recognition within reach. When we’ve been fighting with our spouse, he causes our eye to wander to another. When we’re weary and run down, and the place we really need is the church, he gives us other options. And in our weakness, we often succumb to his tricks. But not Jesus. Even in His wearied state he answers, “It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.”

But the devil’s not going to stop after one bitter rebuke. Seeking to trap Jesus using His own words against Him, the devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and says to him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down, for it is written, He will command His angels concerning You, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.” His plan is to pit us against our Creator. Just as he tricked Adam and Eve in the garden with, “Did God actually say,” he’ll time and again twist God’s Word for his own purposes. In these times, our response should be the very response that Jesus gives. “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”

          You’d think that two rebuttals would have been enough, but Satan doesn’t give up easily. He then takes Jesus “to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to Him, ‘All this I will give You if You will fall down and worship me.’” The same temptation is laid before us every time we think the things of this world are worth striving for. With eyes fixed on the things of this world, we lose sight of the One who created it all and has already given it to us. Like Jesus, our response to this testing should simply be, “be gone, Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.”

Three times Jesus is tempted to doubt God and His Word for physical and spiritual help. In each of those tests Jesus defeats Satan and shows His love for God and sinners by trusting and abiding by the Father’s Word. In doing this He gives us the model of resisting the devil’s lies. And thanks be to God that Jesus continued to resist the devil’s temptations even as He was on the cross paying the price for our sins. It was the devil in the voices of those passersby who “derided Him, wagging their heads and saying, ‘You who would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross.’” He remained there, enduring the cross, obedient to His Father’s will. “Therefore, as one trespass led to condemnation for all men, so one act of righteousness leads to justification and life for all men. For as by one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous.”

We began by examining a few false statements and we learned that sin is not worse today than it’s ever been. That people have always been just as inclined as they are today to not believe the truth of God’s Word. And that from the beginning of time the devil has been just as hard at work, even if it feels to us like he’s busier today than ever. So, I’ll leave you with one more truth. And it comes from the hymn of the day we just sang. The world’s prince may still, scowl fierce as he will, He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done; One little word can fell him. And that word is the name of Jesus. The One who was tempted as we are, and more, but knew no sin. His is the name we call out to when we’re under attack. And His is the strength that will help us overcome every challenge that comes our way. Amen.

The peace of God which surpasses all understanding guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.