Satan’s defeat through faithfulness of church

I wonder if you realize what a great victory it is for you, for us together, simply to stand in a wicked generation, to commit ourselves to the worship of God, to obedience to Jesus Christ through his Word. Do you realize what a blow it is to Satan and his realm, how frustrating it is every time a real Bible study takes place, every time there is a children’s Sunday school class—and not some soapy story is told, but the Word of God is taught in an appropriate way to little hearts and minds? That is a deadly blow to the realm of Satan. Every time a mother prays with her children, or a father opens the Scriptures on a kitchen table, when a husband loves his wife and a wife submits to her husband, and the church lives together as one—Satan is cast down by God. That is how Jesus put it. When he sent out the seventy-two, two by two, they were preaching the gospel, they were declaring the kingdom. He said, I saw Satan cast down from heaven—by God in the activity of his people. If we as Christians simply do not give in to the agenda of the world—just to stand, to hold fast to the Word of God, upholding biblical godliness and gospel mission—then Satan cannot win.

You do realize the key institution is the church. As we complain about our generation, it is the church that we need to look at. If we will stand, Satan cannot triumph. Paul writes, Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labour will never be in vain (1 Corinthians 15:58). And so our goal is stated in Ephesians 6:13: Having done everything, to stand firm. To stand firm. And I think when Paul says that, when Paul rejoices in the Thessalonians standing, when he urges all his churches, Here is what you are going to do through faith, through the Word of God: you are going to stand firm, I think surely in his mind’s eye he sees the visions that John was given in the book of Revelation of the great assembly of the people of God, of which we and they were a part, standing in the presence of God: A great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, crying out with a loud voice, Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb! (Revelation 7:9–10).¹

Richard D. Phillips