1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,000 Hi everyone, my name is Bianca. I'm going to read Matthew 4 verse 1 to 11 for you and I'll give you a minute to look that up. 2 00:00:09,000 --> 00:00:33,000 Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert, to be tempted by the devil. 3 00:00:33,000 --> 00:00:39,000 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 4 00:00:39,000 --> 00:00:48,000 The tempter came to him and said, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. 5 00:00:48,000 --> 00:00:59,000 Jesus answered, It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. 6 00:00:59,000 --> 00:01:06,000 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 7 00:01:06,000 --> 00:01:16,000 If you are the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command His angels concerning you, 8 00:01:16,000 --> 00:01:22,000 and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 9 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:30,000 Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. 10 00:01:30,000 --> 00:01:40,000 Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 11 00:01:40,000 --> 00:01:48,000 All this I will give you, he said, if you will bow down and worship me. 12 00:01:48,000 --> 00:02:00,000 Jesus said to him, Away from me Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. 13 00:02:00,000 --> 00:02:06,000 Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him. 14 00:02:10,000 --> 00:02:12,000 Thank you Bianca. 15 00:02:12,000 --> 00:02:18,000 Good morning again church, it's great to be together. 16 00:02:18,000 --> 00:02:23,000 These are the words of God that we have indeed heard read before us this morning. 17 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:31,000 And if you have your Bible with you, let me just say we're going to be in our text quite a bit this morning as per usual. 18 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:38,000 But let's go to the author of these words and ask for his help in understanding what he has given to us this morning. 19 00:02:38,000 --> 00:02:43,000 Would you please pray with me? 20 00:02:43,000 --> 00:02:53,000 Father we are indeed in awe of the work that has been done on this earth in our Lord Jesus Christ. 21 00:02:53,000 --> 00:03:01,000 We thank you Father that we as your creatures, as your image bearers, as your people, 22 00:03:01,000 --> 00:03:10,000 we don't have to guess or wonder about your justice, your holiness and your love. 23 00:03:10,000 --> 00:03:17,000 But we have indeed been told about it from the evangelists. 24 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,000 Father as we come to these words of eternal life this morning, 25 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:26,000 would you please help us to understand them by the work of your spirit among us? 26 00:03:26,000 --> 00:03:33,000 And we ask for this in the precious name of Jesus Christ. Amen. 27 00:03:33,000 --> 00:03:43,000 So for the past couple of weeks we've been focusing on the ministry of the rugged mountain preacher, John, 28 00:03:43,000 --> 00:03:56,000 who in the wilderness of Judea was seen by Matthew as Isaiah's prophesied forerunner of Yahweh himself, Matthew 3.3. 29 00:03:56,000 --> 00:04:05,000 And it was to this John the Baptist that the task was given of getting Israel ready to meet her Messiah, 30 00:04:05,000 --> 00:04:09,000 who as we saw was bringing in the kingdom of heaven. 31 00:04:09,000 --> 00:04:18,000 And John prepared Israel for all of this by preaching that all those who turn to God would be purified before God, 32 00:04:18,000 --> 00:04:27,000 because they would be baptized, not with water like he was doing, but with the very spirit of God. 33 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:33,000 And it was in the midst of all of this that we were introduced to the man Jesus, 34 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:38,000 who came to John to be baptized from Galilee. 35 00:04:38,000 --> 00:04:45,000 Now as we saw last week, as soon as he being Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water, 36 00:04:45,000 --> 00:04:53,000 and at that moment heaven was opened and he saw the spirit of God descending like a dove and the lighting on him. 37 00:04:53,000 --> 00:05:01,000 But not only that, which is incredible in itself, we also saw a voice from heaven, 38 00:05:01,000 --> 00:05:10,000 which said, this is my son whom I love, with him I'm well pleased. 39 00:05:10,000 --> 00:05:20,000 All this to say what we witnessed at the end of chapter 3 last week was a very public coronation of Israel's long-awaited king. 40 00:05:20,000 --> 00:05:26,000 Not with a prophet announcing Jesus to Israel, mind you, but God himself, 41 00:05:26,000 --> 00:05:37,000 gave Jesus the Holy Spirit for his ministry and mission in bringing in the kingdom of heaven on this earth. 42 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:41,000 And that leads us to the text that we have before us this morning. 43 00:05:41,000 --> 00:05:47,000 So if you have your Bibles open, we're looking at chapter 4, verse 1, 44 00:05:47,000 --> 00:05:54,000 and we read, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 45 00:05:54,000 --> 00:05:59,000 Okay, wow, it really is, as God said through Isaiah all those years ago, 46 00:05:59,000 --> 00:06:06,000 for my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither your ways, my ways. 47 00:06:06,000 --> 00:06:12,000 I mean, think about it. Israel had been waiting for her Messiah for hundreds and hundreds of years, 48 00:06:12,000 --> 00:06:19,000 and he'd been talked about by all the prophets who said that he was going to come and rule and reign 49 00:06:19,000 --> 00:06:24,000 from his father's throne, from King David's throne. 50 00:06:24,000 --> 00:06:31,000 I mean, we've even seen Israel's greatest prophet, John, preach that the Messiah was going to come to Israel 51 00:06:31,000 --> 00:06:37,000 and start sifting the wheat from the chaff with his winnowing fork. 52 00:06:37,000 --> 00:06:43,000 What do we have here, church? God announces Israel's Messiah. 53 00:06:43,000 --> 00:06:51,000 He gives him the Holy Spirit, but then the Holy Spirit doesn't lead Jesus into Jerusalem to conquer Rome. 54 00:06:51,000 --> 00:06:57,000 No, just the opposite. He leads Jesus straight out into the wilderness. 55 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:06,000 Not to gather an army, not to build a fort, not even to go and make weapons, but to do what? 56 00:07:06,000 --> 00:07:14,000 What's in our text this morning? To go and be tempted by the devil. 57 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,000 Now, if you were here this morning and scratching your head and wondering what on earth is going on here, 58 00:07:21,000 --> 00:07:31,000 let me assure you that you're not alone. In fact, let's remember who Matthew was primarily writing to. 59 00:07:31,000 --> 00:07:42,000 He was writing to Jewish Christians to affirm and build their faith in Jesus and to the Jews to prove that their Messiah had indeed come. 60 00:07:42,000 --> 00:07:49,000 So let me assure you here, the original audience would have been scratching their heads as well. 61 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:58,000 So we have to stand back and have a look and have a think at what Matthew is showing us here. 62 00:07:58,000 --> 00:08:08,000 And so first, I think something needs to be said about this word that lies under our English translation for temptation. 63 00:08:08,000 --> 00:08:14,000 And that's that it can also be translated as testing. 64 00:08:14,000 --> 00:08:20,000 But in saying that, I think both ways of understanding it are on view here. 65 00:08:20,000 --> 00:08:29,000 As God is testing the Messiah of Israel as he did their patriarch Abraham, though as we will see, 66 00:08:29,000 --> 00:08:34,000 because the devil is involved in all of this, he works a totally different angle. 67 00:08:34,000 --> 00:08:41,000 And that is to tempt the Messiah to reject God and follow him. 68 00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:48,000 As the great theologian reformer once said all those years ago, God tests for edification. 69 00:08:48,000 --> 00:08:52,000 The devil tempts for destruction. 70 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:59,000 Second thing that I want us to have a think about here is the context that the Holy Spirit leads Jesus into. 71 00:08:59,000 --> 00:09:04,000 That's the wilderness for 40 days. 72 00:09:04,000 --> 00:09:10,000 Now, we know already by looking in our series that John primarily ministered in the wilderness. 73 00:09:10,000 --> 00:09:13,000 That's where we saw him preaching to Israel. 74 00:09:13,000 --> 00:09:20,000 But if we think about the whole Council of Scripture and in particularly the history of Israel here, 75 00:09:20,000 --> 00:09:28,000 the wilderness is more than just a place that we were introduced to in the book of Matthew. 76 00:09:28,000 --> 00:09:39,000 Now, the wilderness is where a certain Jewish nation spent 40 years wandering around after they too came up out of the waters, 77 00:09:39,000 --> 00:09:43,000 not of the Jordan, but of the Red Sea. 78 00:09:43,000 --> 00:09:48,000 You see, none of this would have been lost on Matthew's original Jewish audience 79 00:09:48,000 --> 00:09:53,000 because they were a people that had come from a nation who had been rescued from Egypt, 80 00:09:53,000 --> 00:10:02,000 who had come out of the Red Sea, through the Red Sea, and were taken into the wilderness for 40 years. 81 00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:06,000 But as we know from reading the first five books of the Bible, 82 00:10:06,000 --> 00:10:16,000 when the people were tested, they crumbled under the weight of that testing and ultimately rejected Yahweh as their God. 83 00:10:16,000 --> 00:10:22,000 Let's keep that in mind as we work through our text this morning. 84 00:10:22,000 --> 00:10:27,000 Just one other thing that I want us to have a little bit of a think about here, 85 00:10:27,000 --> 00:10:32,000 and that's who the devil is and why he's even involved. 86 00:10:32,000 --> 00:10:40,000 Well, the first thing that I want to point out is that this isn't the first time that we've been introduced to the devil either. 87 00:10:40,000 --> 00:10:47,000 No, in fact, we were introduced to him in the opening scenes of human history in Genesis 3, 88 00:10:47,000 --> 00:10:51,000 where this same devil or Satan, as he's sometimes called, 89 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:59,000 tempted our first parents into doubting God's Word so that they would ultimately reject him. 90 00:10:59,000 --> 00:11:07,000 And they did, which plunged the human race into spiritual darkness and death. 91 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:16,000 And it's from that moment on that all creation has been darkened with sin and under the rule of the Prince of this world, as he's called. 92 00:11:16,000 --> 00:11:25,000 That's right. There's a spiritual realm with created beings and forces that are out there, not for humanity's good. 93 00:11:25,000 --> 00:11:31,000 We had a bit of a look at that when we were going through our Ephesians series. 94 00:11:31,000 --> 00:11:39,000 All this to say the devil with his minions or demons, as they're called, they're not only an enemy of God, 95 00:11:39,000 --> 00:11:49,000 they're also an ancient enemy of the human race, which is continually out to turn God's image bearers against him 96 00:11:49,000 --> 00:11:56,000 so that we will doubt our good creator and curse him and die. 97 00:11:56,000 --> 00:12:05,000 We see this all throughout the Bible, this Satan rising up against God's people to snuff them out and destroy them, 98 00:12:05,000 --> 00:12:11,000 either individually, like in the case of Adam, or corporately with the people of God in Israel, 99 00:12:11,000 --> 00:12:21,000 so that there will be no light in the world to draw the nations to God, which we'll explore a bit more in Matthew five. 100 00:12:21,000 --> 00:12:29,000 All that to say, what we're seeing here in our text before us this morning is Jesus, the second Adam who represents all humanity, 101 00:12:29,000 --> 00:12:40,000 Israel's Messiah, who represents God's people up against that ancient serpent, the devil, in another spiritual battle between two kingdoms. 102 00:12:40,000 --> 00:12:46,000 The kingdom of heaven that is breaking into this world with Jesus and the kingdom of darkness, 103 00:12:46,000 --> 00:12:54,000 which encompasses this world and is ruled by this spiritual being known as the devil. 104 00:12:54,000 --> 00:12:58,000 That's the context that we have before us this morning, Church. 105 00:12:58,000 --> 00:13:07,000 Jesus, who is the Messiah sent to Israel to bring in the long awaited kingdom of heaven in the power of the Spirit, 106 00:13:07,000 --> 00:13:12,000 being trialed by humanity's greatest enemy, the devil. 107 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:23,000 So the question is, will Jesus, like Adam, who doubted God's word, or like Israel, who rejected Yahweh, triumph over Satan, 108 00:13:23,000 --> 00:13:32,000 or will he be like all humanity before him who crumbled and gave into temptation to follow the devil? 109 00:13:32,000 --> 00:13:41,000 Well, praise be to God, we already know the answer. But it's here that we want to explore how Jesus overcame the evil one 110 00:13:41,000 --> 00:13:53,000 and how as God's people, we the Church, can do the same thing when evil and temptation come after us and be assured that it will. 111 00:13:53,000 --> 00:14:05,000 So let's look at our text, verse three. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. 112 00:14:05,000 --> 00:14:14,000 Now we have to remember, this is all after Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. 113 00:14:14,000 --> 00:14:19,000 And as Matthew tells us here, he was hungry, verse two. 114 00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:26,000 Let's keep that in mind. Jesus was starving because he had dedicated the last 40 days of going with our food 115 00:14:26,000 --> 00:14:33,000 and giving his entire attention to the task of prayer. 116 00:14:33,000 --> 00:14:41,000 Now the question instantly becomes, could Jesus have really sinned? 117 00:14:41,000 --> 00:14:52,000 Well, as we've already seen in this series, Jesus is very man, but also very God. 118 00:14:52,000 --> 00:14:58,000 I don't want to spend too much time on this because we've already covered it just a few weeks ago, 119 00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:05,000 but we need to understand that because Jesus is very man, like you and me, he could be tempted. 120 00:15:05,000 --> 00:15:13,000 But because Jesus is fully God and God cannot be tempted, we have to hold these truths together. 121 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:27,000 Jesus being fully man was able to be tempted, yet fully God who cannot be tempted was in the midst of this trial that we have in our text this morning. 122 00:15:27,000 --> 00:15:32,000 How do we put these mind boggling mysteries together? 123 00:15:32,000 --> 00:15:39,000 Well, I've heard it put this way. Think about the person that you love most in this world. 124 00:15:39,000 --> 00:15:48,000 Picture them. And let me ask you a horrendous question. Could you murder that person? 125 00:15:48,000 --> 00:16:03,000 Well, I hope that you're thinking absolutely not. And I also hope you're feeling repulsed at the very idea of hurting that person in any way. 126 00:16:03,000 --> 00:16:12,000 But I want you to hear the question again. The question is, could you murder that person? 127 00:16:12,000 --> 00:16:23,000 In terms of physically performing that action, and I know it's unthinkable to you, but it would be physically possible, right? 128 00:16:23,000 --> 00:16:35,000 Well, in a similar way, Jesus in his deity as the light of the world in whom there is no darkness could not have sinned as his moral nature is incapable of that kind of action. 129 00:16:35,000 --> 00:16:45,000 Yet at the very same time in his humanity, Jesus could have sinned in the sense that he was absolutely capable of doing so. 130 00:16:45,000 --> 00:16:52,000 That is the tension we have to hold with our text this morning. 131 00:16:52,000 --> 00:16:56,000 So what is the first temptation exactly? 132 00:16:56,000 --> 00:17:02,000 Well, I want you to notice that this isn't about food as much as it is about doubt. 133 00:17:02,000 --> 00:17:15,000 Notice it. The tempter, which is who the devil is, says here, if you are the son of God, verse three. 134 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:21,000 Now that's significant to this whole thing, because what have we just seen declared to Jesus by God the Father? 135 00:17:21,000 --> 00:17:30,000 Well, we've just seen God the Father declare in chapter three, this is my son, whom I love, with him I'm well pleased. 136 00:17:30,000 --> 00:17:43,000 And now we have the devil here in chapter four, trying to cast doubt on the very thing that's just been said by God, trying to get Jesus to doubt God's word that he's a son. 137 00:17:43,000 --> 00:17:50,000 I mean, if this doesn't reek of there's nothing new under the sun, I don't know what does. 138 00:17:50,000 --> 00:17:57,000 And I say that because he's up to those very same tricks that we saw in the garden with Adam, right? 139 00:17:57,000 --> 00:18:02,000 Trying to get people to doubt God's word. 140 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:11,000 Genesis two, God said, You are free to eat from any tree in the garden, but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. 141 00:18:11,000 --> 00:18:16,000 For when you eat from it, you will surely die. 142 00:18:16,000 --> 00:18:21,000 Then Satan comes, very next chapter, verse three, Genesis three, saying, Really? 143 00:18:21,000 --> 00:18:27,000 Did God say you'll surely die if you eat a certain tree? Come on. 144 00:18:27,000 --> 00:18:39,000 So we have Satan, the devil, the tempter, coming to Jesus, doing the same thing here, trying to get Jesus to doubt God's word. 145 00:18:39,000 --> 00:18:43,000 But let's look at how he responds, verse four. 146 00:18:43,000 --> 00:18:54,000 Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. 147 00:18:54,000 --> 00:19:00,000 Now, it's so interesting what Jesus quotes here, as we'll see in just a moment. 148 00:19:00,000 --> 00:19:03,000 But for now, I want you to notice this. 149 00:19:03,000 --> 00:19:11,000 The devil tries to cast doubt on Jesus's sonship in the context of provision. 150 00:19:11,000 --> 00:19:21,000 Let me say that again. The devil tries to cast doubt on Jesus's sonship in the context of provision, saying in a roundabout way, 151 00:19:21,000 --> 00:19:28,000 If you're really God's son, then why are you starving? If your father's good, why is he not providing for you? 152 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:36,000 Why is he not providing for you? Come on, you can do it. You can make these stones bread. 153 00:19:36,000 --> 00:19:40,000 Really, at the heart of this is self-gratification. 154 00:19:40,000 --> 00:19:50,000 That's what we have here. The devil is tempting Jesus to doubt God's word so that he'll give into self-gratification. 155 00:19:50,000 --> 00:19:57,000 And church, no doubt, our bodies need food and yes, our bodies have other desires. 156 00:19:57,000 --> 00:20:07,000 But, and this is the important thing, these desires are intended to be looked after by our good Father in heaven. 157 00:20:07,000 --> 00:20:15,000 And Jesus gets that because we see it in the way that he uses the quote from Deuteronomy. 158 00:20:15,000 --> 00:20:19,000 And I want to show you that, but first let me set the scene. 159 00:20:19,000 --> 00:20:31,000 So God rescued his people Israel, who he just so happened to call his son, from slavery and then miraculously took them through the Red Sea into the wilderness. 160 00:20:31,000 --> 00:20:37,000 But as we read, they didn't trust God to provide for them like he said he would. 161 00:20:37,000 --> 00:20:49,000 No, just the opposite. They freak out and started questioning him, wanting to go back to Egypt, wanting to go back to the House of Bondage, wanting to go back to slavery. 162 00:20:49,000 --> 00:20:57,000 But as we see in the midst of their complaining, God always intended to provide for his child as a good father. 163 00:20:57,000 --> 00:21:12,000 And he miraculously met their every need and made sure that they didn't die of starvation or thirst like he said they wouldn't as he led them to the promised land. 164 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,000 That's where Jesus took his quote from. 165 00:21:16,000 --> 00:21:29,000 He took his quote from Moses in Deuteronomy 8.3, who at the very end of his ministry, he's preaching the sermon and he reminds Israel that as they were tested in the wilderness, 166 00:21:29,000 --> 00:21:36,000 they failed to trust God's word time and time and time again. 167 00:21:36,000 --> 00:21:48,000 So in effect, by Jesus using this quote, he's saying to the devil, where Israel failed, I won't. Where they failed to trust that God wouldn't provide for them, I do trust. 168 00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:56,000 And there is something so much greater than gratifying the immediate desires here. 169 00:21:56,000 --> 00:22:00,000 It's trusting what the word of God says. 170 00:22:00,000 --> 00:22:04,000 So that's the first tactic that we see from the devil. 171 00:22:04,000 --> 00:22:16,000 He's tempting Jesus to not trust God's word, to trust in God's provision and trying to get Jesus to self-gratify his own desires. 172 00:22:16,000 --> 00:22:22,000 Next he shifts to self-protection. Read with me verses five and six. 173 00:22:22,000 --> 00:22:29,000 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 174 00:22:29,000 --> 00:22:34,000 If you're the son of God, he said, throw yourself down for it's written. 175 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:48,000 He will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. 176 00:22:48,000 --> 00:22:53,000 This is an incredibly interesting context that we have here. 177 00:22:53,000 --> 00:23:04,000 We read that Jesus took Jesus to the highest point of the temple, meaning that this would have been done maybe in full public view 178 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:15,000 because you have to remember the temple was the highest building in Jerusalem and could be seen from any part of the city. 179 00:23:15,000 --> 00:23:21,000 And the devil had Jesus stand on the highest point to jump off. 180 00:23:21,000 --> 00:23:27,000 And that's what we have here. We have Jesus standing on the highest building, on the highest point in the whole city. 181 00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:36,000 Then the devil starts quoting from Psalm 91 about God commanding his angels to come and rescue him. 182 00:23:36,000 --> 00:23:46,000 Verse seven. Jesus answered him, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. 183 00:23:46,000 --> 00:23:58,000 Once again, Jesus's response here goes back to Deuteronomy, which helps us understand the essence of this temptation. 184 00:23:58,000 --> 00:24:13,000 Because he takes his quote from Deuteronomy 6.16, which says, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test, but notice this, as you did at Massa. 185 00:24:13,000 --> 00:24:25,000 And that, as you did at Massa, takes us back to Exodus 17, when the people of God were wandering in the wilderness experiencing the testing of God. 186 00:24:25,000 --> 00:24:35,000 It's there that we read that they began to complain about not having enough water and they challenge Moses. 187 00:24:35,000 --> 00:24:45,000 And the challenge was, is God really among us or not? And they begin to question the presence, the provision and protection of God over them. 188 00:24:45,000 --> 00:24:55,000 Complaining and grumbling, and they end up putting God to a test to protect them from certain death. 189 00:24:55,000 --> 00:25:01,000 There's nothing new under the sun. Now the devil was tempting Jesus to do the same thing. 190 00:25:01,000 --> 00:25:12,000 Tempting Jesus to jump off the temple as to force the father to show that Jesus was truly his son by not letting him fall to his death. 191 00:25:12,000 --> 00:25:20,000 I mean, this was the equivalent of the devil getting Jesus to ask God for proof of his presence and protection, 192 00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:30,000 which would demonstrate from Jesus a complete faithlessness in God's very nature towards his people. 193 00:25:30,000 --> 00:25:37,000 That's what the devil wanted him to do. He wanted Jesus to do something outlandish so that he would have to be saved, 194 00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:45,000 so as to prove that God really cared for him, like the Israelites did in the wilderness all those years ago. 195 00:25:45,000 --> 00:25:50,000 Who basically said to God, are you with us or not? 196 00:25:50,000 --> 00:25:59,000 Time and time again, God showing his love, his covenant faithfulness to these people, and they're screaming out, 197 00:25:59,000 --> 00:26:06,000 are you going to let us perish? Are you going to save us? 198 00:26:06,000 --> 00:26:18,000 Jesus saw right through it, and he simply responded by quoting scripture because he had an unshakable security in what the word said. 199 00:26:18,000 --> 00:26:25,000 He knew that the father cared for him. He knew that the father was pleased with him. 200 00:26:25,000 --> 00:26:31,000 Jesus knew the word, and he didn't need any more proof. 201 00:26:31,000 --> 00:26:38,000 And as we see, by the end of these temptations, God did indeed provide for him. 202 00:26:38,000 --> 00:26:40,000 Verse 11. 203 00:26:40,000 --> 00:26:52,000 So the devil has gone after self-gratification. He's going after self-protection, and now he goes after self-exhortation. 204 00:26:52,000 --> 00:26:54,000 Verses eight and nine. 205 00:26:54,000 --> 00:27:01,000 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendour. 206 00:27:01,000 --> 00:27:07,000 All this I'll give you, he said, if you bow down and worship me. 207 00:27:07,000 --> 00:27:15,000 Now, the context of this last temptation is admittedly, Church, a little harder to understand 208 00:27:15,000 --> 00:27:26,000 because we all know in this room, as well as the original readers, that there's no mountain on earth that could show all the kingdoms of the world at one time. 209 00:27:26,000 --> 00:27:34,000 So this might be an insight into another tactic that the devil has taken, and it might be with a vision. 210 00:27:34,000 --> 00:27:45,000 Whatever the case may be, the devil says something intriguing that also gives us an incredible insight into his deluded mind. 211 00:27:45,000 --> 00:27:50,000 That's what he says to Jesus about the world. 212 00:27:50,000 --> 00:27:55,000 He says, all this I will give you. 213 00:27:55,000 --> 00:28:01,000 Now, we need to understand how crafty this character is. 214 00:28:01,000 --> 00:28:09,000 He's gone from trying to cast doubt in the son's mind as to his father's word and good provision 215 00:28:09,000 --> 00:28:19,000 to now giving a future promise that he and Jesus knew full well that he couldn't give. 216 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:30,000 But I don't actually think the temptation that the devil is presenting here is that easily dismissed. 217 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:35,000 You see, we've already seen this morning. 218 00:28:35,000 --> 00:28:38,000 The devil knew the Scriptures. 219 00:28:38,000 --> 00:28:45,000 So he knew that if the world was going to belong to Jesus as the obedient second Adam, 220 00:28:45,000 --> 00:28:51,000 if he was going to be the king of God's people that took the throne of his father, David, 221 00:28:51,000 --> 00:29:00,000 well, the devil knew full well that that was only going to happen by doing it God's way. 222 00:29:00,000 --> 00:29:07,000 And that was through the horrendously difficult road of the cross. 223 00:29:07,000 --> 00:29:17,000 So, church, with that in mind, the temptation that the devil is presenting to Jesus here was to not have to do it God's way, 224 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:26,000 to not have to do it by God's way of going through the horrors of the cross as the suffering servant that Isaiah prophesied about. 225 00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:32,000 The devil and Jesus knew full well that for the kingdom of heaven to come into this world, 226 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:41,000 for it to penetrate into the deepest, darkest parts of this world, it had to be established in the way that God ordained it. 227 00:29:41,000 --> 00:29:46,000 And that was by way of the cross. 228 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:54,000 Why? Because no one enters into the kingdom of heaven without first being purified. 229 00:29:54,000 --> 00:29:59,000 No one can stand in the holiness of God without being holy themselves. 230 00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,000 And for that to happen, they have to have a sacrifice. 231 00:30:02,000 --> 00:30:09,000 And that sacrifice has to be perfect if it's going to last for all eternity. 232 00:30:09,000 --> 00:30:12,000 Jesus knew that was on the line here. 233 00:30:12,000 --> 00:30:23,000 He knew that for his people to be saved for all eternity, for them to be justified and purified, they had to receive the Holy Spirit. 234 00:30:23,000 --> 00:30:32,000 So as their servant, he had to stand in their place and take the punishment that they deserve for their wickedness. 235 00:30:32,000 --> 00:30:34,000 That's the temptation here. 236 00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:39,000 The devil is saying, you're a king, you're not a servant. 237 00:30:39,000 --> 00:30:42,000 Why do you have to do it God's way? 238 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:44,000 Why do you have to suffer? 239 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:47,000 You can have all the kingdoms of the world now. 240 00:30:47,000 --> 00:30:52,000 All you have to do is do it my way. 241 00:30:52,000 --> 00:30:57,000 And you can have it now. 242 00:30:57,000 --> 00:31:04,000 Brothers and sisters, this is what makes verse 10 so incredibly, incredibly powerful. 243 00:31:04,000 --> 00:31:14,000 With all of that presented to Jesus, with all of that on the line, with all that Jesus knew he was going to have to go through for his people, 244 00:31:14,000 --> 00:31:21,000 as Isaiah's suffering servant, he says to the devil, away from me Satan, for it's written, 245 00:31:21,000 --> 00:31:27,000 worship the Lord your God and serve him only. 246 00:31:27,000 --> 00:31:32,000 Verse 10. 247 00:31:32,000 --> 00:31:39,000 So as we wrap up this morning, we wanted to answer the question that we started with. 248 00:31:39,000 --> 00:31:43,000 And that was how did Jesus overcome the evil one? 249 00:31:43,000 --> 00:31:51,000 And how as God's people can we do the same when evil and temptation comes after us? 250 00:31:51,000 --> 00:31:58,000 Well, I think the words of American theologian, Dr. Russ Moore, sum it up very nicely. 251 00:31:58,000 --> 00:32:07,000 He says Jesus refused to exchange the end time exaltation by the Father for a right now exaltation of a snake. 252 00:32:07,000 --> 00:32:15,000 Jesus, the beloved son, knew the supreme duty of every single person on the planet and that's to worship God. 253 00:32:15,000 --> 00:32:20,000 And he knew that everyone who humbles himself before the Lord would be exalted. 254 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:27,000 So he chose to live a life of suffering obedience to the Father instead of sinful submission to Satan. 255 00:32:27,000 --> 00:32:33,000 And in the end, all authority in heaven and earth were given to him. 256 00:32:33,000 --> 00:32:41,000 Church, we are told in scripture very clearly that we are to resist the devil and he will flee from us. 257 00:32:41,000 --> 00:32:44,000 That is certainly the case, but as we have seen this morning, 258 00:32:44,000 --> 00:32:51,000 we're to resist him in the knowledge and the strength and the wisdom of another. 259 00:32:51,000 --> 00:32:53,000 And that's of God. 260 00:32:53,000 --> 00:33:02,000 This means that you have to know when it's him or when it's you or others that are trying to drag you off and entice you. 261 00:33:02,000 --> 00:33:06,000 And I say that because not everything is the devil. 262 00:33:06,000 --> 00:33:12,000 As it's already been pointed out this morning, he's a created being, which means he's not omniscient. 263 00:33:12,000 --> 00:33:16,000 He's not everywhere all at once like God. 264 00:33:16,000 --> 00:33:29,000 That's not to say that there's not evil spirits that do have some sort of work in targeting Christians here in the city of Armidale and at this church by various means. 265 00:33:29,000 --> 00:33:37,000 That's why we need the word of God, because it is the word that identifies the work of the evil one. 266 00:33:37,000 --> 00:33:43,000 And it is through knowing the word that we can wise up to the evil one's scheme so that we can resist him, 267 00:33:43,000 --> 00:33:50,000 not in our strength, but in the power and the work of the spirit. 268 00:33:50,000 --> 00:34:01,000 We would be lying in this room this morning if we were to say we're no longer tempted to fulfill our wants apart from God's good design. 269 00:34:01,000 --> 00:34:09,000 We are, and our flesh still desires to go back to so-called Egypt, to that house of bondage. 270 00:34:09,000 --> 00:34:22,000 The devil knows that, and he's so subtle in the way that he attacks our desires, either for self-gratification, self-protection or self-exhortation in this world. 271 00:34:22,000 --> 00:34:31,000 Always trying to convince us that our father doesn't really care about us, doesn't really know our needs, 272 00:34:31,000 --> 00:34:36,000 and that we need to look in other places to find that satisfaction. 273 00:34:36,000 --> 00:34:44,000 He tries to convince us always that these desires that we have, well, they define us. 274 00:34:44,000 --> 00:34:47,000 That's who we really are. 275 00:34:47,000 --> 00:34:50,000 So just go and do it. 276 00:34:50,000 --> 00:35:00,000 But I want to say to you, brother, I want to say to you, sister, here this morning, because of Jesus, that is not who you are any longer. 277 00:35:00,000 --> 00:35:12,000 It's because of Jesus and his total and utter obedience, which eventually, as the suffering servant, led him to go to that cross, that your sin has been forgiven, 278 00:35:12,000 --> 00:35:20,000 that you have been washed clean, and that you are at this very moment a purified child of God. 279 00:35:20,000 --> 00:35:27,000 And we all need reminding of this this morning, us all, that we are children of God. 280 00:35:27,000 --> 00:35:36,000 And just because you have a desire that leads you towards temptation doesn't mean that that's who you're destined to be. 281 00:35:36,000 --> 00:35:45,000 The reality is you may fight that desire for 40 days, 40 years or a lifetime, and it will be a battle. 282 00:35:45,000 --> 00:35:53,000 The way to fight that battle, day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, is the same way Jesus did. 283 00:35:53,000 --> 00:36:01,000 And that was by trusting in the all satisfying, all sufficient goodness of our Father. 284 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:09,000 This is what Jesus did. Jesus didn't tell the Father when and how his desires should be met. 285 00:36:09,000 --> 00:36:19,000 Instead, he trusted God to fulfill those desires in his way, according to his word. 286 00:36:19,000 --> 00:36:25,000 So how do we fight self-gratification, self-protection, self-exaltation? 287 00:36:25,000 --> 00:36:34,000 We fight it by believing, by trusting, and by realizing that our Father is indeed good. 288 00:36:34,000 --> 00:36:41,000 Let us trust in the all satisfying, all sufficient goodness of our Father. 289 00:36:41,000 --> 00:36:45,000 He is not keeping good things back from us. 290 00:36:45,000 --> 00:36:54,000 We know he is a good Father, and as his children in Christ, we can rest in the unshakable security 291 00:36:54,000 --> 00:37:05,000 that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. 292 00:37:05,000 --> 00:37:12,000 Would you please join me in prayer? 293 00:37:12,000 --> 00:37:20,000 We thank you for the words that you have given us in the text of Matthew this morning. 294 00:37:20,000 --> 00:37:28,000 We started our time by asking that your Spirit would work among us to show us Christ. 295 00:37:28,000 --> 00:37:36,000 And I pray, Father, that we indeed see more clearly our loving Savior, the suffering servant 296 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:44,000 who didn't stay in that grave, but raised victorious, who indeed has given the Spirit, 297 00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:50,000 who is alive and at work in us at this very moment. 298 00:37:50,000 --> 00:37:54,000 Father, we are indeed tempted by various things. 299 00:37:54,000 --> 00:38:00,000 Father, we do suffer with various infirmities. 300 00:38:00,000 --> 00:38:07,000 And I ask for this church that you would give us wisdom, that you would give us discernment, 301 00:38:07,000 --> 00:38:15,000 and that you would help us to pray, that you would help us to go and find time to get in that prayer closet 302 00:38:15,000 --> 00:38:21,000 and come before you and confess our various struggles and infirmities, 303 00:38:21,000 --> 00:38:27,000 and to witness and know and experience your loving kindness. 304 00:38:27,000 --> 00:38:31,000 I ask for this all in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.