Matthew chapter 4 will begin verse 1.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward he was hungry.
But when the tempter came to him he said, If you are the Son of God, command that these
stones become bread.
But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
Then the devil took him up into the holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and
said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
For it is written, He shall give His angels charge over you, and in their hands they shall
bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Jesus said to him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the Lord your God.
Again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain, and he showed him all the kingdoms
of the world and their glory.
And he said to him, All these things I will give you, if you will fall down and worship
me.
Then Jesus said to him, Away with you, Satan.
For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.
Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and ministered to him.
Let's pray.
Father Lord, what an important passage of scripture.
Lord, it is here we see the captain of our salvation absolutely.
Lord, stand against the wiles and temptations of the evil one, and procuring righteousness,
Lord.
Lord, He has triumphed.
Lord, we rejoice in that triumph this morning, His defeat, not only at Calvary, but even
beginning here.
Lord, as He was stood the onslaught of the enemy, and Lord, we rejoice in that this morning.
Father, help us to see Lord Christ and His glory, and in Him our salvation.
And we pray this in Jesus' name, Amen.
You may be seated.
In Ecclesiastes chapter 7, Solomon writes this.
He says, In the day of prosperity, be joyful.
But in the day of adversity, consider, surely God has appointed the one as well as the other.
So what Solomon is saying is what you and I know to be true by experience, that life
is a mixed bag.
There are sunny days and there are rainy days, cloudy and exceedingly clear, hot and cold.
There are good days and there are bad days.
There are days when one is on the mountaintop rejoicing in the goodness and greatness of
God.
And yet we also know that there are days when God's people finds themselves in the valley
doing their very best to cling to God.
And the scripture tells us in Ecclesiastes 7 that God ordains all these events, all of
them, both the seemingly good and the seemingly bad.
Matthew 3, chapter 3, ends on a gloriously high note.
We saw there the end breaking of heaven on the banks of the Jordan River.
We heard a confirming word from heaven.
The Father Himself said this, This is my beloved Son, and whom I'm well pleased.
But from there, immediately we go to a difficult moment in the life of our Lord.
And I want to always say there were no chapter and verse divisions in the early manuscripts.
That came much later.
So 3, 17, then we go to 4, 1.
Then, so now just this is my beloved Son, and whom I'm well pleased.
Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness, and that is a desert wilderness,
to be tempted, that is to be tried, tested by the devil.
So we have the mountaintop to the valley at God's direction and in God's timing.
Now the passage is instructive here because it explicitly tells us it was the Holy Spirit,
the third person, the blessed Trinity.
He was the one who led Jesus into this wilderness desert.
Why?
Why would He do that?
They're told so that He might be tested, tempted by the devil.
He must be tested just as Adam was tested.
Now in this passage from verses 1 through 11, we see three names that's used for Satan.
In verse 3, He's called the tempter.
The tempter is the one who entices you, the one who makes sinful things look appealing
and look good.
He will tempt you in this way.
Verse 5, He's the devil, that simply means the accuser.
Once you fall for the tempter scheme, He then turns on you and accuses you.
How could you have done such a thing?
You call yourself a Christian, how could a Christian do, and then you fill in the blank?
He's the tempter, He's the devil.
In verse 10, our Lord calls Him Satan, which means adversary.
He's the enemy, the enemy of our soul.
He is the one who will disguise Himself as an angel of light only to seek to destroy
you.
Ligon Duncan says, evil is more than psychological.
It is more than sociological.
It is more than environmental.
Evil is personal.
There is a one, he says, in the universe whose sole purpose of being is to wreck you eternally.
It's a state of purpose, to destroy you, to damn you, to condemn you.
Now, friends, let me just stop and say there, just knowing that in itself ought to sober
us for the life we live because most of us are far too trivial, far too trifling with
things that are eternal.
There is one who has been on your destruction, you do well to know who He is and His schemes.
Now here we see there had to be a face-off, an encounter between the Lord Jesus and this
hideously evil one in that desert wilderness.
Jesus, if He was going to save His people, had to prevail.
He had to earn back all that Adam lost.
The scriptures call our Lord the last Adam in 1 Corinthians 15.45.
So it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being, the last Adam became a life-giving
spirit.
But two verses later, He is also called the second man, a last Adam, a second man, verse
47.
The first man, that's Adam, was of the earth, made of dust.
The second man, that's Christ, is the Lord from heaven.
Now why is it that the Lord Jesus is referred to as the last Adam and the second man?
You and I know that there were lots of men who lived between the time of Adam and the
time of the Lord Jesus.
So how is it that the scriptures call Jesus the second man?
Because God in His wisdom chose two men, that's Adam and Jesus, to be the covenant heads,
the representatives of their people.
Now that theme is clearly developed in Romans 5 and several years ago I preached on that.
So what that means, they're the covenant heads, the federal representative.
Their actions, whether good or bad, will affect all those whom they represent corporately.
Christ Jesus is called the last Adam, meaning there's not another one to come.
There won't be a third Adam, there won't be a fourth Adam, there are two.
You have the first and you have the last.
So what the scriptures are pointing to and calling our attention to is all that Adam
did, the Lord Jesus came to undo.
Adam lost everything in the fall, Genesis 3.
Christ came to restore everything in redemption.
So we find in Genesis 3 a fallen and corrupt humanity follows Adam in his transgression.
But when we come to Christ, we see a new and redeemed humanity following Christ in His
obedience.
Death reigned through Adam.
Life reigns through Christ.
The first Adam caused us to be alienated, estranged, separated from God.
The last Adam came to bring us back to God.
The first Adam's disobedience brought death.
And today the last Adam's obedience brings life.
Adam the first Adam was tried, he was tempted by Satan.
So must also our Lord the last Adam be tempted by Satan.
But as we look at their trials, we see a stark contrast between the two.
Adam was tempted differently than Christ was.
First of all, the location.
Adam was tried in the lush garden of Eden.
It is a place of paradise, unspoiled beauty.
Everything was perfect.
Sin had not entered into the dominion.
Sin had not entered into creation.
So we have Adam being tempted in a garden paradise that he enjoyed in unparalleled joy
in unhindered fellowship with God.
That's where it was.
But not the last Adam.
Jesus would be tempted not in a garden, but in a desolate, harsh desert wilderness.
Why?
Because the paradise of Eden had long been lost.
It was now a hostile environment.
It's a fallen world.
And we think about the Judean desert, it was not a friendly, if a hospitable environment.
In fact, it was a home to scorpions, hyenas, and other foreboding animals.
One writer said the desert is a kind of symbolic place of danger, of emptiness, of godlinessness,
of where the demons actually reign.
Do you remember when Jesus tells us about the demon that was cast out and he goes looking
for places and he's looking for waterless places?
So there's always been this thought that somehow the desert, it was a symbolic place of demonic
activity, the home of demons, if you will.
And it is into this enemy territory that the Spirit of God leads Jesus right after his
baptism to be tested by Satan himself.
Now let me just say this as a side note, this is not the central thesis here.
The Spirit of God who lives within you, church, will also lead you into the desert to be tested.
Your faith will be tested.
Peter writes about that.
Be loved.
Do not think it's strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, to test you, as
though some strange thing happened to you.
But rejoice in this fiery trial, is what he's saying, to extent that you partake of Christ's
sufferings so that when his glory, Christ's glory is revealed, you also may be glad with
exceeding joy.
What is Peter writing about?
Christian, you're going to face trials that are designed to test you and refine you.
You are going to be tested.
Is your faith genuine or is it inauthentic?
This is the reason that testing comes upon us.
Jesus, will he prove to be a faithful son or an unfaithful one like Adam?
So let's look at our text today and we'll see how we should respond as well.
Christ, the true man, the God man, in Greek, the Anthropos, God man, literally.
He was tested just as Adam was.
Adam, though, was tempted while having access to all the trees of the garden but one.
It was not in the desert, it was in a garden.
He could eat to his full whatever he wanted, but there's one tree that was off limits,
but not our Lord.
This temptation took place while he was severely hungry having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
He's physically weak.
He's in a desert environment having only water, no food whatsoever, but he has been spiritually
strengthened.
He has been fasting.
Why was he fasting?
Because he's preparing for the battle he was to endure.
When we think of Adam, he had companionship.
His wife was present when he was being tested, not our Lord.
He would face the tempter alone.
But what is Matthew driving at?
Why is he writing about this?
Because what is taking place is that this last Adam, this second man, a new covenant
head has come and his obedience will be the answer to Adam's disobedience.
Now both Adam and the Lord Jesus are called sons of God.
In Luke 3, they give the genealogy of Christ and it goes all the way back to Adam.
And look at verse 38 of Luke 3.
It says, the son of Enoch, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God.
So we see here, here is a parallel.
Adam is referred to as a son of God, yet he has proven to be an unfaithful son.
How do we know that?
Well, our cursed fallen world clearly reveals this truth.
Because of his sin, the whole entire human race, all of humanity is plunged into sin,
ruin and misery.
This is what sin does.
This is what our federal head, Adam, did.
So we fail with him and his sin.
And God sends another Adam, the last Adam, the second man, the true son of God.
Adam was called a son of God, Luke 3.38.
In Matthew 3.17, what did the father say?
He said, this is my beloved son, the one standing in the muddy waters of the Jordan River.
This is my beloved son.
He's the one in whom I am well pleased.
But what type of son will he prove to be?
He has not been tested yet.
Is he going to be faithful?
Or will he be unfaithful like the first one was?
But not only is Adam called a son of God, Israel in Exodus is also called a son of God.
So is Jesus, will he be unfaithful like Adam?
Will he be an unfaithful son like Israel?
Remember, they too were tested in the desert.
They didn't pass the test.
So our Lord's testing here is going to prove what type of son will he be?
In this desert trial, he will show, he will clearly demonstrate his faithfulness.
Satan will do his very best.
He will throw everything in his arsenal at him to get him to compromise.
But he won't do it.
Why?
Romans 5.19.
For as by one man's, that's the first Adam, by his disobedience, many, that is all, were
made sinners.
So also by one man's obedience, this is Christ, the last Adam, the second man, by his obedience,
many, all those in Christ, will be made righteous.
All those in Adam, you're made sinners.
All those in Christ will be made righteous.
What's the point?
Jesus is the source.
He's the root of a new humanity.
It's a redeemed humanity that follows him in his obedience.
And that last part is very important, that follows him in his obedience.
For his sheep hear his voice and they do follow him.
Now the testing of Christ, in essence, was the very same thing that Adam had to face.
And here's what the testing boils down to, and it's really the testing all of us face.
Will you trust God?
Will you really believe God?
Will you trust the Father or will you choose your own way?
The first Adam was tested in a very light manner compared to Christ, but he failed to
trust God.
He failed to trust the Word of God.
He failed to trust the goodness of God.
What about this one here?
Is he also going to fail?
Look at verse three and four.
So when the tempter came to him, he said, if you are the Son of God, command that these
stones become bread.
But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every
word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
If you are the Son of God, now this is a conditional if, and in Greek it doesn't always mean if,
but Satan is not doubting who he is.
He knows who he is.
The demons know who he is.
So the if in this case means since.
It's a perfectly good translation.
So since you are the Son of God, you really shouldn't be in this situation, should you,
Jesus?
I mean, you as a Son of God, you should not be hungry.
You should not be having to suffer in this way.
Turn these stones into bread.
You're the Son of God, do it.
Now this temptation comes after 40 days of not eating.
Jesus is ravenously hungry.
And here's the trial.
Is he going to trust his father and his father's provision and his father's timing, or will
he take matters into his own hands?
It's not a hard thing for him to do.
Where is he?
He's in the desert.
There's not a lot of food in the desert.
So is Jesus going to depend on himself or on his father?
So this temptation, this first one, is to distrust his father's providence, to distrust
what his father was doing, to distrust his father's goodness and his father's timing,
because keep in mind, he has always enjoyed perfect fellowship with the Father in eternal
bliss.
Now he's suffering.
So what does the Lord do?
In this temptation here, he prevailed how by he hit, he threw a haymaker at devil, hit
him right the face with the word of God.
He comes back, he said, it is written, man does not live by bread alone.
Well, what does man live by?
By every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.
He's quoting Deuteronomy 8.3.
By the way, that's very important because Deuteronomy 8 is in reference to Israel being
tested when they failed.
Satan doesn't stop.
The tempter comes at him and again.
Verse five.
Then the devil took him up to the holy city, that is Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle
of the temple.
You don't have the pinnacle without a wall, probably 400 feet high.
Said to him, if you are the son of God, well, throw yourself down.
It's written.
He, that is God, shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear
you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Why this one?
This is interesting.
What had the word Jesus just said?
Man does not live by bread, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.
So he's just declared his trust in God's word.
So he said, in essence, I'm choosing to live by the word of God and I'm refusing to take
matters into my own hands.
So now the devil comes insidiously and challenges him on that very point.
Really?
You want to talk about the word of God?
Okay.
Since you're the word of God and you trust God's word so much, I mean, every word that
proceeds out of the mouth of the father, why don't you just jump off the temple and prove
it then?
I mean, God's word says that the angels will not allow you to even dash your foot against
a stone.
Jump off.
Satan is quoting Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12.
Let me read them to you.
For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways.
In their hands, they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone.
Satan knew it.
He knew the Psalms.
See, you're telling me, Jesus, that you live by every word that proceeds from God's mouth?
Well, jump off the temple and let's see if angels really do rush to catch you.
Now, here's the thing.
If Jesus were to jump off the pinnacle of the temple, that would be a violation of the
very word he said he's trusting in.
The word of God forbids putting God to the test.
Jesus replied, hit him again through another haymaker with the word of God.
It is written, you shall not tempt the Lord your God.
Now he's quoting Deuteronomy 6 verse 16.
Same, he's in that wilderness testing passages there.
So he's quoting scripture in the face of severe trial.
It's worth noting, again, that all these scriptures are from Deuteronomy and this is where Israel,
another son, is being tested in the desert, but they keep failing over and over miserably.
So the Lord Jesus is proving to be a faithful son.
He's not like Adam and he's not like Israel, but the devil's not done.
Verse 8, again, the devil took him up on exceedingly high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms
of the world in their glory, and he said to him, all these things I will give you if you
will fall down and worship me.
Now this last temptation, as I said, is the most insidious of all of them.
The gloves are off here.
There's no pretense here.
The devil doesn't say, since you're the son of God at this point, he simply tries to go
a direct approach.
He desires to get Jesus to render worship to him.
So what the devil does, he comes and he offers Christ a kingdom and he offers Christ glory
without a cross, without the cross.
In God's plan, Christ will inherit the nations.
Psalm 2, we looked at that last week.
The nations are yours for inheritance.
Christ, Jesus will be given a name that is above every name, but that will come because
of his obedience.
Here Satan offers a shortcut.
He offers Christ a kingdom and pseudo glory in exchange for worship.
Satan tells him, you can have the kingdom and you don't have to endure the cross.
Several chapters later, Peter would have the same exact thought and be rebuked sharply.
Look at Matthew 16.
From that time, Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem, suffer many
things from the elders and chief priests and scribes and be killed and be raised the third
day.
Then Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him.
How?
You just think, que pantalones in Espanol, what arrogance here.
Say, far be it from you, Lord, and this will not happen to you.
But he, our Lord, turned and said to Peter, now notice, get behind me Satan.
Why?
You are an offense to me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things
of men.
Where'd that thought that Peter had come from?
It's satanic.
To bypass the cross of Calvary is a satanic temptation.
Our Lord's route to glory will be through the path of extreme humiliation.
His crown will not come until after the cross.
And friends, I thought about this and I think so strongly here.
This same satanic perversion is still with us today.
There's an idea that is pervasive that you can have a kingdom and you can have heaven
and you never have to take up your cross and follow the crucified one in obedience.
Satan himself is behind shallow, easy, believism that appeals to the sinner's lust while at
the same time leading them to damnation.
There is no crown without a cross and there is no glory without suffering first.
That's the way of man.
It's not the way of God.
In Satan's temptation, here our Lord once more is going to respond and reply with scripture,
verse 10.
Jesus said to him, away with you, Satan.
It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.
There is no easy path.
The Lord Jesus will not seek to shortcut what his father has already determined for his
mission to be.
He's not going to bypass the cross.
He's not going to skip the suffering at all.
His fidelity, his trust were resolutely with his father to whom alone he would offer worship.
That's it.
He's trusting, said listen, my father has laid out a plan and whatever that plan is,
it is good and I will endure it.
He's not going to fall for some easy shortcut, but we do this.
Evangelists all over the world today are telling people you don't ever have to follow Christ
in obedience.
He never has to be Lord.
You simply pray this prayer, you're in the kingdom and welcome.
Friends, that's a satanic perversion of the gospel of the Lord Jesus.
Verse 11, then the devil left him, that is Jesus, and behold angels came and they ministered
to him.
The devil left him, but Luke tells us in his gospel in chapter four, until an opportune
time.
This isn't the last time these two will face each other.
This is not the only face off between Christ and Satan, but the pattern of obedience and
trust has been firmly established.
Christ will not be deterred.
He is the faithful son.
He is the one who would not believe the enemy's lies and he would not compromise his mission
given to him by his father.
He knew his father was good and if his father said the cross, then he would go to the cross.
His father said suffer hunger for 40 days, he would suffer hungry for 40 days.
Our Lord proved to be the faithful son unlike Adam and unlike Israel.
Adam failed, he failed in the garden when everything was perfect and yet our Lord, the
captain of our salvation, he prevailed, he succeeded in the desert where nothing was
perfect.
He's the faithful son, he's not like Israel.
Israel was the unfaithful one.
Christ is the true and faithful Israel.
Christ is the true and better Adam.
So after their exodus, remember through the Red Sea, that's their baptism, immediately
when they get out of the Red Sea, where do they go?
Into the wilderness for what?
To be tested.
Israel like Christ was also hungry in the wilderness.
Remember all the time they're hungry.
Israel like Christ was tempted to doubt God's goodness and provision, but Israel, their
testing showed what?
They're unfaithful.
What were they always guilty of?
Grumbling, complaining.
God has not been good.
God you brought us out here to die in the wilderness, but our Lord's in the wilderness
and you don't hear a word of complaint, you don't even hear a murmuring or a grumbling
at all.
His testing revealed that he had a faithful, perfect, trusting, obedient heart.
He's the true man.
He's what all of us should have been and what none of us are.
Christ is the faithful Adam and Christ is the faithful Israel.
And friends, I can't stress that as much that he is everything we should have been.
That's why we need him.
He alone rendered perfect obedience.
He alone sat aside the justice of the law, for he alone rendered absolute fidelity and
trust to God.
You're like, well, he was a God man.
He lived in the Philippines too.
He laid us, he sat aside, he didn't use his divine prerogative.
He lived as a man because he was a true man.
That's why he was hungry.
Matthew tells us at the end that angels came and ministered to him.
The word ministered, it's actually always in reference to food.
So Jesus would not make stones from bread.
That wasn't his father's plan.
But later angels came bringing him food in the desert wilderness, much like Elijah was
fed.
The father did provide for his son, didn't he?
His father provided the son, and he didn't have to jump off the pinnacle of the temple
to prove it.
Jesus knew that his father was perfect, and he knew that his father was trustworthy, and
he knew that whatever his father ordained was right and good.
You might be saying, so what then?
Matthew in his gospel, he wants everyone who reads this to see the victory of our Lord
in his testing.
Friends, this is not some simple biographical sketch in the life of our Lord.
We are supposed to see something important and take notice.
Something important happened here.
Here it is.
We should see that our elder brother, Jesus Christ, did for us what we could never do
for ourselves.
He alone rendered perfect obedience and overcame all temptation.
And because of that, he secured a perfect, righteous record before God.
From the very beginning, from the very beginning, this is the beginning of his public ministry
right here, we start to see him put his heel on the head of the old serpent to put an end
to his evil reign.
You start to see it here.
The victory in the desert, it's a preview of the victory that Christ would have over
Satan at the cross.
It is there where sin and death will be defeated.
How ironic.
How unlike man.
Jesus will defeat death by succumbing to death.
See, this is the thing.
The ways of man and the ways of God are diametrically opposed.
Life in the kingdom and life in the kingdom of man are two different.
That's why we'll start to see that in Matthew 5.
We'll start to see the Sermon on the Mount.
What's life in the kingdom look like?
But this is so very important, friends, and I want to stress this.
His victory is our victory because in him we are victorious.
Christ is our captain.
He blazes the trail and we are united to him by faith.
This is how we stand before God.
You and I don't have any righteousness to offer to God.
We have all failed and sinned in miserable ways even today.
Not Christ.
And so we need him and we desperately cry out to him and in faith the spirit unites
us to him.
So what is true of him is now true of us.
Now what?
You must trust the one whom the Father has sent for he alone has eternal life.
There is no other righteous one out there.
So that means there can be no salvation apart from the one who endured the desert testing.
I would also say to you, all who are gathered this morning, do not fall for the devil's
lies.
Many people come to church seeking things from God rather than seeking God himself.
That's satanic deception.
Part of this deception is to get people to hope for things from God.
God restore my marriage.
God take away anxiety.
God help me with depression.
Instead of what God promises to give, which is himself.
That's the gift.
He gives himself and with himself you get eternal life, you get freedom, you get truth,
you get love, you get adoption, you do get peace.
But all that's in Christ.
Don't seek other things.
Seek him.
And sadly many people fall for the devil's lies, which is to bypass the cross altogether.
Let's bypass suffering.
Let's bypass praying.
Let's bypass praying, not my will but thy will be done.
Friends, Jesus said, all who will come after me, let him take up his cross and follow me.
I don't think he was lying and I don't think he was speaking hyperbolically.
He's telling the truth.
We must, we pray like our Lord prayed, Lord not my will.
And for those of you who have come to know Christ, look to him as our example as well.
How did he defeat Satan's temptation?
So he had a resolute trust in his father and he had confidence in the word of God.
So I'm not gonna fall for it.
Things might look different.
There might be a thing that appeals to my flesh, but the word of God contradicts that.
I'm choosing to believe the will of my father revealed in his word and saying no to what
is offered.
Young people hear that.
I don't care how many people say sexuality or sex before marriage is okay.
It is not.
Fornicators and adulterers, God judges regardless of our promiscuous society.
And we need to hear that.
Jesus trusted completely in the Father's provision.
That could be in the desert or it could be leading him to the cross.
Dear brother, sister, I realize today some of you may be in the desert even now.
So here's the choice.
Will you trust him?
Truly trust him.
Or will you seek to take matters into your own hands?
We're gonna look for everything horizontal to try to get out of this.
Again, I think of the African, one of the African Christians said, you American Christians,
we're very different.
You all pray for God to take away the trial.
We pray for God to strengthen our backs.
Friends, sometimes God wants us to suffer.
Philippians 1, verse 20, I believe.
And to you it is granted not only to believe on his name, but also to suffer for his sake.
Trusting, it's not fun.
But I don't know a Christian that God has ever used ever who did not endure hardship
and suffering at some point in their lives.
Read through, that's one thing that's helpful to read through biographies.
You're not alone, Christian.
You may be in the desert.
Listen, we live in a land of affluence.
We live in a land of ease.
And so sometimes we think God would never have us to endure difficulty.
I don't read that one sentence in scripture.
Trust him.
You're in the desert, trust him.
He may have you in a wasteland right now, but that wasteland is designed to test you,
as Peter said.
Will you pass the test?
Is your faith genuine?
Is it authentic?
You'll know.
Stay there until he's done his perfect work in you.
No one likes it.
Help us not to become the grumblings and the complainers that Israel was.
We're united to Christ.
Look to Jesus and don't grow weary in your own heart.
Look to him.
He never lets you down.
And you know what?
I know this.
Even if you're in a desert or you're in the wasteland, he gives grace today to you.
His grace is sufficient.
He will see you to this end.
For the one who has begun a good work in you, he'll be faithful to perform it and complete
it until the day of Christ.
Look to your older brother for grace, for strength, and for the divine example to follow.
Christian, may we see this.
Learn to deny ourselves.
Take up our cross and follow him absolutely and anywhere that he leads us for he is faithful
and he is wise.
Let's pray.
Father, there are things that are sometimes hard to hear and hard to process.
Hard suffering can be bewildering.
There's the fog of war that comes to us.
We don't have clarity in the midst of it.
We're kind of caught off guard.
And we wonder how this could possibly be good.
Lord, I have questioned you.
I have questioned your goodness.
Lord, I said by faith I believe you're good and I know that, but in the midst of it, I'm
like, how is this good?
And Lord, I know my brothers and sisters, I'm not alone in this.
Lord, we're caught off guard when difficulty arises in our lives.
And it does arise.
We're not to be surprised that the fiery trial which has come upon us as though some strange
thing happened to us.
Oh, Father, we look to Jesus.
We see in him the perfect obedience.
We see in him a pattern, but Lord God, we still cry out because we fall short.
Lord, full God, forgive us, have mercy upon us, and we look to Jesus for salvation and
strength and grace.
Lord, I pray for those who are here and Lord, perhaps they believe a false gospel.
It's a gospel without a cross.
It's a gospel without suffering.
It's a gospel without having to take up their cross.
God, would you show them the truth of Christ and the true, glorious, blessed gospel of
union with him.
God, bring them into the fold, open their eyes, and Lord, may you grant the gift of
repentance to them.
And Lord God, help us.
Lord, I pray for strengthening.
Lord God, even as you have us in the crucible, Lord, God, would you strengthen us?
Would you help us refine us, Lord?
But God, of all things, I pray, be with us, Lord.
For your presence, we can endure anything, and we have your sure word that you will not
leave us and you will never forsake us, Lord.
You're never going to turn your back upon us.
We have the promise from Jesus, our Lord, that lo, he is with us always, even to the
end of the age.
Father, thank you.
Lord, help us prove to be the children of God that you've called us to be, shining
his bright lights, offering hope, and offering this message of mercy and salvation to a lost
and dying world who really needs to hear it.
We pray this in Jesus' blessed name and for his glory alone.
Amen.
Church, let us commune with our God.
Let us commune with our God.