Faith Unbroken: The Devil’s Defeat

A Summary of Sunday’s Message – October 6, 2024

The Real Battle: Knowing Our Enemy

“We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of this age, and against spiritual hosts of wickedness in heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).

But how can we wrestle effectively against these spiritual forces if we do not first grasp their strategies? We are warned not to be ignorant of the devil’s schemes (2 Cor. 2:11). The enemy wages war against Christ and His people on every front imaginable. There is no sphere of life that he does not seek to infiltrate, twist, and pervert into a platform for his wicked message and nefarious designs. But what is the devil’s core objective? What is his primary method for achieving it?

Understanding this is to know where we must marshal our spiritual energy and forces against him. If we understand the enemy’s ultimate aim and his primary weapon, we can view the battlefield clearly, knowing that even some temporary losses may lead to long-term victories if they frustrate him at his central aim.

The Devil's Deceptive Promise: Becoming "Like God"

So, what does the enemy seek? From the time of Eden until now, he has enticed us toward sin—not by promising domination or bondage, but through the seductive allure of autonomy, of self-will, of grasping at glory and godhood: “You will be like God, knowing good and evil” (Gen. 3:5). Yet, in promising us divinity, he leads us away from the image of our Creator and down toward the image of beasts. The first book of the Bible shows the devil promising mankind that they can be God’s equal if they transgress. The last book of the Bible shows mankind bowing down to worship a grotesque and hideous beast as if it were their god and master.

I recall sitting on an overseas flight, surrounded by hundreds of screens. Though I’m not accustomed to these screens, I couldn’t help but notice three recurring themes: food, reproduction, and violence. And I asked myself—what does my German Shepherd live for if not these things? Food, reproduction, and violence. These things have their place, but they do not describe the elevated attributes that we share as beings made in God’s image. I speak of qualities like love, faith, language, meaning, beauty, and grace. Christ’s culture exalts these divine qualities. But the culture preparing to bow before the beast is marked by brutality, unrestrained pleasure, sensuality, and ruthless competition.

Promising Divinity, Delivering Beastly Debasement

But is the devil’s aim merely to make us beasts rather than gods? No. His aim is subtler and more treacherous. He promises godhood while stripping us of our humanity. He, who once stood radiant beside the Most High, slithered from the Garden as a serpent, licking the dust of the earth (Gen. 3:14). The devil chose pride, violence, and rebellion as supreme forces in the universe. In contrast, God created a world and subjected it to futility—in hope (Rom. 8:20)—placing it in our hands and giving humanity dominion over creation, contending that the greatest forces in the universe would prove to be love, faith, and life.

Destroying Faith: The Devil's True Aim

Here lies the devil’s true aim: to prove that God is weak, that His ways are folly, and that fear, force, and rebellion will ultimately rule the universe. His paramount objective is to destroy our relationship of trust in God. His first act on this earth was to sow suspicion in human hearts toward their Creator. Suspicion is the antonym of trust. The devil’s premier objective is to annihilate trust because he knows that all of God’s intentions—His eternal purpose for us and the success of His design—hinge on an unbroken conduit of trust, that is, faith.

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You. Trust in the Lord forever, for in Yah, the Lord, is everlasting strength” (Isa. 26:3–4). These verses reveal that the antidote to suspicion and fear is a steadfast trust in God’s unchanging nature. The devil knows that if he can sow doubt in our hearts, he disrupts the peace and stability that comes from resting our confidence in God’s faithfulness.

The Example of Job: Faith Against All Odds

The Bible gives us many stories revealing the cosmic conflict between the Almighty and His arch-nemesis, but perhaps none depicts it more vividly than the story of Job. In this account, the curtain parts, and we see into heavenly councils, agendas, and strategies.

The devil swaggered into God’s presence, and the Lord asked, “Where have you come from?” The devil replied, “From roaming to and fro throughout the earth”—as if to say, “This world You gave to man’s dominion, believing Your glory and plan would be realized through unbroken trust—well, it’s all under my dominion, manipulated by pleasure, pride, and pain.”

And God made an astounding statement. He told the devil that there is one man who pokes a hole in his proud canopy of control: “Have you considered My servant Job? There is none like him on the earth” (Job 1:8). Job was the single pinprick that reminded the devil he hadn’t won. Faith still persisted in one corner of the world, and that meant the relationship remained intact, God’s purpose was still advancing, and His glory was still possible.

But the devil told God that Job is basically an animal—because that’s what he needs to turn us into to control us. He told God that, like a Labrador retriever, Job is easily manipulated by pleasure and pain: “Skin for skin—stretch out Your hand and harm him, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 2:4-5). And God allowed Job to suffer such affliction to demonstrate the falsehood of the devil’s claim and the durability and power of the faith that was a harbinger of human salvation and the hope of the world.

Job's Defiance: Trust Beyond Reason

So, what is the crux of Job’s struggle? Job is confused, at times hopeless, even angry with God, and begging for a mediator to vindicate him before God. But the one thing Job won’t do is make his trust in the Almighty subordinate to his visceral experiences and anguish. His seminal statement is: “Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him” (Job 13:15).

This tells us what the devil’s primary object is—to destroy our faith. If he fails at that, he fails categorically. No matter what small victories he may claim, it’s a strategic defeat in the end if faith remains alive in the people of God.

Peter's Trial: Faith Amid Failure

This is why Jesus tells Peter that Satan has asked to sift him like wheat but that the defeat of the devil’s agenda is assured if Peter’s faith does not fail. Peter’s understanding failed. His self-control failed. His character failed. His words failed. His self-confidence imploded. But in all of Peter’s failings, his confidence in his Lord did not fail. No, when he saw his Lord look at him amidst his thrashing failures, he went out and wept. There was no hatred, rejection, or loss of trust in Jesus, only in himself. When Peter heard that some women had found the stone rolled away from the tomb, he ran and stooped to see (Luke 24:12). His faith had not failed. And when he saw Jesus on the shore after a long night of fishing, he dove into the deep, fully clothed, and swam to His Master (John 21:7). His faith had not failed.

Faith's Victory over Fear

Now we know the devil’s primary goal: to destroy our faith. So Jesus asks, “When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). And what is the weapon the devil uses to attack our faith? Fear. The most repeated command in all of Scripture—given more than 365 times—is “Do not fear” (Isa. 41:10; Matt. 10:31). The writer of Hebrews tells us that the devil holds people in bondage all their lives through the fear of death (Heb. 2:15).

The Shield of Faith: Our Defense and Victory

We defeat the devil when we defeat the fear of death and keep faith alive in the face of great suffering, confusion, perceived abandonment, or agony of body and soul. So the Lord tells us in the book of Revelation that we overcome the devil “by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death” (Rev. 12:11).

Satan’s ultimate defeat is resurrection. But there can be no resurrection without death. And there can be no persevering faith without the raging fires of affliction that refine that gold and prove it more precious.

“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Rom. 12:21). In the face of the devil’s schemes, our response should always be to reflect God’s goodness, returning his every attack with faith, hope, and love. When we choose to respond to evil with good, we thwart his attempts to lead us away from our divine calling and reveal the power of God’s light shining through us.

Stand Firm: Resist the Devil and Keep Faith Alive

Above all else, take up the shield of faith. Keep faith alive. Fight the good fight of faith (1 Tim. 6:12). This entire war is about preserving the victory that overcomes the world—our faith (1 John 5:4). A faith rooted in God’s love beyond knowledge (Eph. 3:19) and His peace beyond understanding (Phil. 4:7). A faith that cannot be burned up, drowned, intimidated, or silenced.

So, put on the full armor of God and stand firm (Eph. 6:11). Protect that heart of faith. If we keep the faith and finish the race (2 Tim. 4:7), we defeat the devil and prove that we are not mere animals. We remain in God’s image. Therefore, let us resist him, firm in our faith (1 Pet. 5:9).

May God bless you all as He opens our eyes to the schemes of the devil, his primary objectives, and his inevitable defeat.