Now before our Savior went to
the cross in order to save his people from their sin and the
punishment that was their due, before he went there in accordance
with the will of his Father, and before his public ministry
really even got going, before that time there's a record recorded
for us in what we call the Synoptic Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and
Luke. And all three of them record
for us the temptation of our Savior in the wilderness. Mark just mentions it in one
verse, but Matthew and Luke go a little bit deeper. And we'll
be looking at this temptation in Luke chapter 4. Now, one of
the reasons, at least one of the reasons, why the Holy Spirit
has recorded this for us here is to help us understand something
about our Savior. What a complete, compassionate,
kind, loving, gracious Savior is our Lord and Savior Jesus
Christ. He's there as the mediator, the
surety of His people. Now in the wilderness, temptation
of our Lord, we begin to understand something deeper of our God's
humiliation for us, the Son of God's humiliation when He took
upon Him flesh. He came in the likeness of His
people in our flesh. In 2 Corinthians 8 and 9 Paul
said, For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though
He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor. that ye through
his poverty might be rich. And so when we see our Savior
here in the wilderness being tempted of the devil, what we're
looking at is the humble servant of God who yielded himself up
for us. He yielded his obedience to the
Father in all things in order to redeem us. to fulfill all
righteousness for his people. To fulfill all righteousness
for his people. And what we see here is an affirmation
of our faithful Savior who's demonstrating that He is the
fit Savior. He is the fit, perfect, spotless
Lamb of God to accomplish our redemption. He's putting it on
full display here according to the will of God. And we see him
do this enrobed in our flesh. Flesh just like you and me. And he's suffering in the flesh
just like you and me suffer. And he's testifying that When
He comes through this, He knows our weaknesses. He knows our
infirmities. He knows our sicknesses. He knows
what we are in the flesh because He's been tempted like as we
are. And so, having entered into our
case as our surety, He knows. He knows what you're suffering.
He knows our weakness, brethren, he knows our infirmity, and we
see him here triumphing gloriously over all our enemies. Now we
read in Hebrews 4 verse 15, for we have not in high priest, because
that's what he is, he's our high priest that leads us into the
presence of God and he speaks for us and he reconciles us to
the Father. We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And these things are shown to
us to comfort your hearts. These are given to comfort your
hearts to know that our Savior, knowing what we are, yet loves
us. Yet loves us. Yet went to the
cross. to lay down his life, to die
for his people, for their life. And he cares for us in all our
needs. Hebrews 2.18 says, for in that
he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to succor,
to provide care for them that are tempted. Now, in this passage
of Luke chapter 4 and Matthew chapter 4, What men do is they
often try to resolve questions, hard questions. How is it that
the son of God could be tempted? What does that mean? What does
that make him? How is that possible that he could be tempted? How
real were these temptations? And there are certainly mysteries
here being spoken of. But I'm content to let a lie. I'm content. I don't need to
know the mysteries there, I'm more struck with the fact that
my savior is there at all. That he went here to save his
people, to conquer all our enemies, to do what we could not do for
ourselves. He's there as our mediator and
as our surety. That's why he's there. He would
say in another place, Referring to the devil, he says, he hath
nothing in me. There's nothing to latch on to
in Christ. There's no weakness in him. There's
no sinfulness in him. There's no sin nature in Christ. He hath nothing in me. He can't
put his hooks in me. He's got nothing on me. Nothing
on me. And that's demonstrated here,
our mediator and our surety. who endured the temptation to
show his fitness to save us. Now the reason he's there, he's
there as our mediator and surety, and he's obediently, faithfully
fulfilling all that the Father sent him to do. to do. He's there
to establish the covenant of God's grace that God may be gracious
to us, that God may forgive us of our sins and give us all the
blessings, the covenant blessings obtained for us by the Lord Jesus
Christ. All this is given to us in Christ. And so Christ must make us righteous
that we may have fellowship with the true and living God. Now
Luke tells us in Luke 4 verse 1 and Jesus, being full of the
Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into
the wilderness. First, what was Christ doing
around Jordan? Why is He coming back from Jordan?
He had just been baptized by John the Baptist in the river
Jordan. And when he was baptized, we
have the witness of the triune God, that this is the Son of
God. This is the Son of God. And when
I say the triune God concerning Jesus of Nazareth, we have the
Son who was baptized by John. The Son of God in flesh was baptized
by John the Baptist to fulfill all righteousness. We find back
in chapter 3 verse 21 at the end of that verse it says Jesus
also being baptized and praying the heaven was opened. And then
In verse 22, at the beginning, we see the Holy Ghost descended
in a bodily shape like a dove upon him. And then at the end
of verse 22, and a voice, this is the voice of the Father, came
from heaven which said, Thou art my beloved Son, in thee I
am well pleased. Now here's a comfort. for you
to take notice of. Here's a comfort for us. You
that believe Christ and worship Him, but you're troubled about
your sin, and your sin stands between you and the comfort that
you would have with your Savior. Here's a comfort. You that are
tempted, and you feel that you are tempted, even though you
seek the Lord, you read the Word of your God, you pray to the
Lord, and you hunger for the Lord, you thirst for the Lord,
you want to know the Lord, and you come to public worship, and
you want to be with the Lord's people, and you want to worship
the Lord. You want to do that. You want to be there, and you
want to serve the Lord in that way, but you feel in yourselves
that temptation, that temptation of sin. that temptation of doubts
and that temptation of fears and worries and these things
that come into the mind and you're saying how is this possible I'm
reading the Word of God and yet I I feel the temptations the
weakness of this flesh what's wrong with me well be comforted
be comforted because here we see our Savior who I just enjoyed
this this great blessing he was baptized faithfully according
in obedience with the father's will he had just partaken of
that and he had the witness of the holy spirit given to him
he had the voice of the father bearing witness testifying that
this is my son in whom i'm well pleased right the father said
thou art my son i'm well pleasing you and with all those blessings
here he is led by the spirit into the wilderness where he's
tempted by the devil, and not because there's any sin in him,
but because he must be made known to sinners, that we who are tempted,
we who do have sin in our nature, we whose flesh is yet weak and
sinful, and has not and shall not arise until that day when
he raises us from the dead. It's to make us to know that
Christ is the savior of sinners. It's to make us to cry out to
him when we are tempted to know, this is my savior, who is tempted
like me, who receives me and draws me to himself, to cry out
to him, Lord, save me. Help me, Lord, I'm sinking under
the waves. Save me, else I die, else I perish. And so one of the things that
the Lord is showing us here is that He's our Savior, and He
knows the feeling of our infirmities. He does. He knows us, and He
draws us to Himself. And temptations come, and they
come at the worst of times, and yet the Lord knows, and He draws
you, He calls you to Himself. Another thing is we see the proximity
that there's a closeness. There can be a closeness at times
of great blessing, followed by times of great temptation. So for example, there's many
examples in scriptures, but the one I was thinking of today is
in Exodus. There's the time when the Lord
had picked up and led the people into the wilderness. And we're
told there's no water around there. And the people began to
murmur and complain against Moses, saying, have you brought us out
here to kill us and our cattle, to kill us and our children and
our cattle, and just that we perish here in the wilderness
with no water? And so Moses cried out to the
Lord. He brought the case to the Lord, and the Lord said,
take the elders and take your staff with you, the rod that
you touched the part of the waters with, and you come out. little
ways and I'll be standing on a rock. And you touch that rock
with your rod and I'll give you water." And that's what the Lord
did. It's the rock in Horeb where Christ gushed that water. And
that rock is Christ. That rock is Christ. And that
was a mighty blessing for the people. And the very next verse
that follows is, Then came Amalek and fought with Israel and Rephidim. And so, there is a proximity
that we see to blessed times, joyful times, wonderful times,
and then comes temptation. Then comes trouble. Then comes
trials that follow closely on those blessed times. And so,
it teaches us, you know, we think that I'll be obedient, I'll pray
up, I'll get a store of grace and protection for me so I won't
have to deal with tough times for a while. And that's just
simply not true. It's not how it works. It's not
how it works. And so, the Lord teaches us that
very thing. And so, When temptation comes,
the Lord has permitted it to come. The Lord has allowed you
to be tempted in that time. And what is he doing? Well, he's
delivering us from pride and from vain confidences in this
flesh. Because it humbles us very quickly,
doesn't it? When we see just how weak and
needy we are. and it brings us to the feet
of our Savior, and that's a good place to be. That's where we
want to be. The flesh doesn't want to be
there, but the spirit is certainly willing and thankful when we're
brought near to the Lord. And so, our Lord says to us,
take ye heed, watch and pray, for ye know not when the time
is. It's going to come when the Lord
brings it, but you and I, We're called to watch and pray. And
then in Hebrews 5, 8 we're reminded that though he were a son, yet
learned he obedience by the things which he suffered. You see, Christ
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and He was obedient
to the Father's will and He showed Himself faithful to His Father
in all things. And if you're wondering why you're
being tempted, why you're being tried, why you're going through
hard times, well it's because your Heavenly Father has given
you that time, permitted it, for you to learn obedience in
His perfect will, to keep looking to Him, to keep praying to Him,
to keep fleeing to Christ. And that doesn't mean that He's
cast you off. He permitted Peter to be tried
and tempted. Right? Simon, Simon, Satan hath
desired to have thee, that he might sift you like wheat. but
I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail thee not." And
from our fleshly viewpoint, it looks like Peter failed, like
his faith failed, but it didn't, because Christ kept him. Christ
kept him. We see the weakness of Peter,
but we see the almighty grace and power of the Lord Jesus Christ
that delivered Peter and restored Peter into the fold. and delivered him from that death
from that sin and death and so we're learning we're learning
to look to Christ we're learning to seek him for grace through
the trial and and we're finding his sufficiency because the Lord
teaches us that that's what he's showing us it's not to say You're
not mine. It's to say you're mine. Seek
me. Seek me. I've provided everything
you need and your temptation. I've endured it and I've overcome
it all. I've triumphed over it. I am
able. I am able. Believe me. Trust
me. That's one thing we see there. Now, often men bring out this
this there there's there's something beautiful here and men often
bring out this truth here that the temptation that our Lord
is enduring here in Luke 4 Matthew 4 that temptation is everything
that that Adam and Eve well especially that Adam as our head failed
in everything all every evil thing he did and how he failed
under that covenant of works to establish the covenant for
us. In his failure we see Christ overcoming and Christ accomplishing
and fulfilling perfectly. And they draw it to what the
Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2 verse 16. where John writes it this way,
he speaks of the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes
and the pride of life. And men say, well, that's what
Adam and Eve succumbed to in the garden. The lust of the flesh,
of the eyes, and the pride of life. And so there's three temptations
that are recorded for us here by the Spirit. There's three
temptations that the devil used against our Lord And in each
of these temptations, we can see how each one is at least
in some way what is seen in the garden and what is described
by the Apostle John when he speaks of the lust of the flesh and
the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. Now in the garden,
the reason why I say that is because in the garden when Eve
was tempted by the serpent, we're told in Genesis 3-6 that when
the woman saw that the tree was good for food. There's the lust
of the flesh. And that it was pleasant to the
eyes. There's the lust of the eyes.
And a tree to be desired to make one wise. That is the pride of
life. She took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat. And when Adam ate that fruit,
he plunged himself and all his posterity in him, all his seed
in him, into sin and death. And we died. We died. We fell in Adam. We rebelled
against God in Adam. And so in the first Adam, We
fell. We failed. We fell. We sinned
against God. But in Christ, our husband, the
last Adam, he endured the temptation. He didn't fall. He triumphed
over the temptation. He triumphed gloriously. And
He fulfilled, He was faithful to the Father in all things. He established our covenant of
grace, a covenant of grace for us. He delivered us from death.
We died with Him so that we are dead to the law and there's no
more condemnation in Christ. We are delivered from that dominion
of the body of sin. It's put to death. We have no
more part in that. We stand complete in Christ Jesus,
our Lord now. And so he's finished the battle. He went to the cross and finished
the whole work to deliver us once and for all. Once and for
all. So first now, let's look at these. Let's read Luke 4 verses
2 through 4. Being 40 days tempted of the
devil, he was there in the wilderness. And in those days he did eat
nothing. And when they were ended, he
afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him,
if thou be the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying,
it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word of God. And so to me, when I read this,
this falls under the lust of the flesh. Now our Lord was very
hungry after fasting for 40 days. He had nothing to eat, and we're
told He afterward hungered, and the devil says, we'll turn this
stone into bread. It seems like a simple, almost
reasonable request or suggestion to the Son of God. He's saying,
you're the Son of God, you have important mission to fulfill
shortly. You have the testimony of God. You have the Spirit of God without
measure. The Father has testified that
you are His Son and in you He's well pleased. Turn this stone
into bread. Eat. Satisfy your hunger. Satisfy yourself. Please yourself. Just do this. It's fine. It's
fine. Now, Looking at that, we know
what our Lord said, but let's go to the original verse there
in Deuteronomy 8, verse 3. Let's turn over there. Deuteronomy
8, 3. Moses writes, and he humbled
thee, and suffered thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which
thou knewest not. Neither did thy fathers know
that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread
only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
the Lord doth man live. And so, we know that Christ lived
by faith upon the Father. Christ had power, but Christ
didn't do anything for Himself. Everything our Lord and Savior
did was in accordance, was in obedience to the will of His
Father, and He depended holy upon his father. He looked to
God for everything. He's fulfilling all righteousness
for his people. He fulfilled I mean, he looked
to the Father for everything, and in that he's fulfilling all
righteousness. He's doing what we should do
but don't do, and he does it perfectly. And the scripture
in Deuteronomy begins with, God humbled thee and suffered thee
to hunger. God did this. He humbled you. He suffered you to hunger and
Christ believed God. He trusted the Father in all
things. He understood this is what my
God has done for me. He's humbled me. I'm in the flesh
like my brethren to save them. This is Christ's humiliation
here. He's rich. He's the Son of God. And here
he is in the flesh now. Here he is in the weakness of
the flesh made like unto his brethren. But God humbled him
and God decided he would be hungry. God gave him that. God brought
that to him. God decided you're going to hunger. And so Christ wasn't going to
change a thing. Christ wasn't going to step out
of what God had purposed for him, not one bit. Not one bit. Therefore, he would not command
that stone that it be made bread. Because if he did that, he would
have ceased trusting the Father. He would have now been doing
his own will. And that's what we do. That's what Adam did.
He did his own thing. He didn't trust God. He didn't
believe God. He stepped out in rebellion, which is what we do
all the time, and Christ did it. Christ didn't. He remained
faithful to the Father. And not only was he trusting
the Father, but it also instructs us, it tells us, believe God. Trust. Trust your God in all
things. Believe Him. Trust Him. Christ
was living on earth as a man, made in the flesh just like you
and I, and subject to the same needs that we have. He needed
to eat. He needed to drink water. He
needed all those things that you and I need because food's
a necessary part for the sustaining of this flesh. God knows that. Christ is showing, trust God.
You can trust your father. He knows. He knows the things
that you have need of. Trust him in all things. And
we see him there. perfectly obeying, just like
you and I. I can't change a stone into bread
if I'm hungry. I can't just go out there and
just pick up a rock and make it nutritive, sustaining food. And so Christ didn't either.
He didn't do that either just to satisfy His own flesh. He
trusted the Lord in all things. And it shows us that He's touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. We depend upon God. Well, He
depended upon God. And so we know, the Lord knows
my needs. I know He knows my needs because
He endured the same suffering, the same for me. Now second,
verses five and eight, back in Luke four, five and eight, five
through eight. And the devil, taking him up
into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of
the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that
is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will give it. If
thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus
answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan, for it
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only
shalt thou serve. Now the devil showed him all
these kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And what is
this? It's a type of the lust of the
eyes. This is where we see Eve that
was pleasant to the eyes. She saw what she saw in a moment
of time and it pleased her. It pleased her eyes. Now the
devil has, he doesn't have the authority and the power that
he's boasting of here. He's not God. He's not like God. like that in any way. The Father
must give him permission to do anything. He couldn't touch Job
except the Father gave him permission and he could only go so far as
the Father allowed him. And so this whole proposition
is full of lies and empty promises. And Christ wasn't moved by it.
He knows that the true and living God alone is to be served. He
knows that all things are the Father and his authority, Christ's
authority, Christ's power is of the Father there and so he
says thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou
worship and so our gospel what our Lord shows us is that our
Savior accomplished our redemption and he died and he rose again
and now all authority belongs to him all power is given to
to Him to implement the will of His Father in the earth. All
things are going exactly as God purposed them to go and to do
and so Christ is risen from the dead. He's risen from the dead
never to die again and by His obedience to the Father through
His redeeming death and resurrection all kingdoms of the world that
is now and that shall be are His. They're His. And so, for
us to be so careless and to think that
there's anything in this world more precious than Christ, that
there's anything in this world more precious than our eternal
souls, and to give that up for some momentary passing pleasure
in this world, even to rule some kingdom or the whole world, it's
not worth it. Because it's passing, it's temporary,
it's already gone. It's not eternal like our Lord
and His kingdom. And so we have an everlasting
kingdom, brethren. Rejoice, rejoice and trust your
Savior. Now third, Luke 4 verses 9 through
12. And he brought him to Jerusalem
and set him on a pinnacle of the temple and said unto him,
if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down from hence, for
it is written, he shall give his angels charge over thee to
keep thee. And in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. Jesus answering said unto him
it is said thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God and so here
we see the height of pride to tempt God in this manner and
it's the pride of life it's the pride shows us the pride of life
now the devil was quoting from Psalm 91 11 and that shows us
he's not afraid to take the scripture and to arrest it from the rest
of the scriptures and to twist it and make it say whatever pleases
his own wicked ends. We need the Spirit of God to
teach us and to keep us and to show us Christ always. Now, had our Lord done this,
cast himself off and be gently placed down on the ground, it
surely would have got the attention of a lot of people, a lot of
important people in Jerusalem. And they maybe would have recognized
him as the Christ in the flesh. and in a fleshly manner. And
the scriptures tell us that had they known that He was the Christ,
they would not have crucified Him. Then where would our redemption
be? Where would our salvation be?
We'd all be yet in our sins and there'd be nothing, no hope for
us. And He wouldn't be the spotless
Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. And so our
Savior did not do it. He trusted the Lord in it. He did not even expose himself
to such a proud, arrogant thing to do and not trust in the Lord.
So He trusted the Lord. You and I, we must trust the
Lord. We died in Adam. We died in Adam. And we see our weakness, we see
our sin, we see how we cannot save ourselves by our works and
not by our wisdom. But we see here our faithful
Savior, our mediator, and our surety, who endured all the temptation,
triumphed over our great enemy, and all our enemies of sin and
death, the grave, nothing, can keep us. Nothing evermore can
separate us from the love of God and Christ Jesus, our Lord
and our Savior. We have all things in Him. And I'm thankful to the Lord
for His grace. And it encourages me and comforts
me to see what our Savior did. And I pray that seeing it in
that light, that it comforts your hearts of what He accomplished
for you. And that it bless you, brethren.
Amen.