Pray with me, please. All-gracious and merciful Father, Lord, on this day, this day when
we particularly remember our men and women serving in the
military, those who are working in this country and around the
world to keep our country safe, how I pray that you might be
with them, be close to them, Could it be, Lord, that they
might hear Your Gospel and believe and trust in You? And I pray, Lord, for ourselves
that You would be with us this morning as well, that You might
open our understanding, teaching us of Christ by the power of
Your Holy Spirit. Lord, without You, our men and
women in the service and we have no power But I pray, Lord, that You might
bring those things that You bring into our lives in this wilderness
of sin, that You might enable us to look to Christ, that we
might know the joy of our temptation. Because they reveal to us, as
You give us faith, they reveal to us Your presence and Your
love And You're enabling us in Christ in whom we pray. Amen. Open your Bibles, please,
to James 1, verse 2. That is our text for today. But
the first Scripture that I will ask you to turn to this morning
is in Genesis 22, verses 1-4. So if you keep your finger in
James, Then turn to Genesis 22, verses 1-4. This morning I'd like to invite
you to walk with me into the wilderness. Walk with me into
the wilderness where we pray that we will see and sympathize
with and get instruction and comfort from a Savior who is
tempted. tempted so that we might learn
the joy of God's temptation. Teach us, Lord. But before we
leave and go into the wilderness to see this Savior tempted, I
think it would be better to define from Scripture what it is for
Christ to be tempted and for us to be tempted in Christ. To
be tempted is usually understood in relation to the act of tempting
as the devil or as bad men tempt the hearts of the Lord's people.
In that case, temptation usually means to excite them to sin. But when this word tempt or temptation
is used in connection with the Lord's dealing with His people,
it really means just the opposite of what it means when Satan or
those who serve Satan tempt us. In Genesis 22, verses 1-4, We see that God did tempt Abraham. God did it. God tempted Abraham.
And I pray that you can see the result of God tempting Abraham. Beginning in verse 1 of Genesis
22, the Holy Spirit tells us, And it came to pass after these
things that God did tempt Abraham and said unto him, Abraham. And
he and Abraham said, Behold, here I am. And he said, God said,
Take now thy son, thy only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and
get thee into the land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt
offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And
here's the result of God's tempting Abraham. It's in verse 3. And
Abraham rose up early in the morning, saddled his ass, and
took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son. And he
claimed the wood for the burnt offering, and he rose up and
went into the place of which God had told him. Then on the
third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes, and he saw the place
afar off." Now turn, if you've found it already, but if you
haven't, turn to James 1, verses 2 to 15, please. It's there that
we see what James said about temptation. And I pray that the
Holy Spirit will teach us the truth of what temptation is.
James, beginning in verse 2, says, My brethren, count it all
joy when you fall into adverse temptations, knowing this, that
the trine of your faith, the trine of your faith, worketh
patience. But let patience have her perfect
work, that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing. If any of you lack wisdom, let
him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth
not, and it shall be given him. But let him ask in faith, nothing
wavering. For he that wavereth is like
a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed. For let
not that man think that he shall receive anything of the Lord,
A double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways. Let the brother
of low degree rejoice that he is exalted, but the rich in that
he is made low, because as the flower of grass he shall pass
away. For the sun is no sooner risen
with a burning heat, but it withereth the grass, and the flower thereof
falleth, and the grace of the fashion of it perishes. so also
shall the rich man fade away in his ways. Blessed is the man
that endures temptation, for he has tried. He shall receive
the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised them that
love him. Let no man say when he is tempted,
I am tempted of God. For God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man. But every man is tempted
when he is drawn away of His own lust and enticed. Then when
lust conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death." Can you see that God's tempting isn't
tempting us to do evil as Satan tempts us, but it's tempting to do evil doesn't bring
joy. It only brings grief. God never
tempts His people to do evil. But God does tempt His people,
as He tempted Abraham when He called Abraham to sacrifice his
son. In God's temptation, Abraham
was called to try his faith, try his fear and love and obedience. But understand this too. God didn't tempt Abraham so that
God would come to know Abraham's strength. God knew Abraham. God knew Abraham even better
than Abraham knew himself. God knew Abraham's heart. No,
God tempted Abraham so that his faith and his fear and his love
of God and obedience to God would be known to Abraham as well as
to others such as you and I. I turn, please, to Revelation
3 in verse 19. But in addition to being able
to see the difference between God's tempting of His people
and Satan and Satan's servants tempting them, I ask you to see,
and I pray it's by the eyes of faith, that when God tempts His
people, it's to reveal His love to them. And this is the joy
of temptation. In Revelation 3 verse 19, Jesus
said to the church at Laodicea, God speaking, as many as I love,
He says, I rebuke and chasten. Be zealous therefore and repent. God's tempting isn't done so
that God can see how those that He loves will do in their trials
and temptations which He brings them. But He does it so that
they can exercise the gifts and graces which He has given them,
such as their faith and love and obedience. And God's tempting
us isn't so that God can see how much we have improved. Because
if that was the case, it would be to make our faith and love
and obedience dependent upon us, rather than on God working
in us through the power of His Holy Spirit. If God tempted His
people, in order to see how much they had improved, then God's
grace to His people wouldn't be grace, but it would be of
our works. It is the grace of God which
brings salvation, not what we do. Jesus Christ, by His death,
has brought salvation to His people. And God the Father, according
to the covenant of His grace, has agreed to bestow all of His
blessings of grace to them in Christ. The Lord, therefore,
will bring His people, just as He Himself was led up into the
wilderness of temptation, to try their spirits and to reveal
His faithfulness to them in Christ. Now turn please to 1 Corinthians
10 and verse 13. But the result of God's temptiness
isn't ever the least bit in doubt because the covenant of God stands
as firm as the ark of Noah did in the waters of the flood. And
that ark and the waters of that flood pictures Christ on the
cross. The waves beat against that ark,
who is Christ, until those waves washed away all the sin of God's
people. Only Noah and his family were
saved in that ark. And that sweet promise which
belongs to the covenant of God promising that God would save
His people from their sin, that promise can never fail. So we
don't trust ourselves. We trust Christ when we're tempted. And in temptation, our faith
is revealed to us. As God says in 1 Corinthians
10, verse 13, there hath no temptation taken you, but such as is common
to man. But God is faithful, who will
not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but
will with the temptation also make a way to escape that ye
may be able to bear it." What's that way to escape? That's Jesus
Christ. And the only way we can bear
God's temptation is by the faith of Christ Jesus, our Savior.
I pray that the Holy Spirit has taught us the difference between
Satan's temptation of God's people and of God's tempting them. Because
if He has, then we're ready to begin our walk into the wilderness
of sin. But be careful. There is a devil
there in that wilderness who roams around like a lion seeking
whom he may devour. Turn please to Matthew 3 in verse
13. As we look at Matthew, and you
might hold your finger there in Matthew because we'll be looking
at it several times. As we look at Matthew, I pray
that you will see that Christ, who is not only our Savior, but
also our great example, made preparation to do battle, which
He was about to fight with Satan. Only after God prepared Him did
Christ fight with and overcome that dragon. The dragon's name
is Satan. And he is a devil. In Matthew
4, God tells us about that fight in which Christ overcame Satan.
But in Matthew 3, we see that the preparation for that battle
with Satan before this glorious and important combat began, it
was a preparation for the greatest temptation that any man has ever
endured. In Matthew 3, verses 13 to 17,
we read, Then cometh Jesus from Galilee
to Jordan unto John to be baptized." That's John the Baptist. But
John forbade him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee.
And comest thou to me? John is saying, why do you come
to me? And Jesus answered, said unto
him, suffer not to be so now. Do it please now, John. Baptize
me now. for thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness." And so, as our example, Jesus Christ was
baptized. Then He suffered them. John baptized
Jesus. And Jesus, when He was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. And, lo, the heavens were
opened unto Him. And He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon Him. And, lo, a voice from
heaven spoke, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well
pleased." Matthew 3 verse 17 says, And lo, the heavens were
opened. John the Baptist saw the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting on Jesus. Now turn
please to John 1, the Gospel of John chapter 1 and verses
32 and 34. It was seen the descent of the
Holy Spirit of God on Christ that God had promised to John
as a sign which confirmed John's faith in Jesus. It confirmed
his faith as Christ being the true Messiah. It was the presence
of the Spirit of God on Christ that John based his testimony
on that Jesus Christ was the Son of God. Because in John 1,
verses 32 to 34, the apostle writes, And John, he's talking about
John the Baptist, not the Apostle talking about himself, and John
bear record saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven
like a dove and it abode upon him, it abode upon Christ. And
I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the
same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending
and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizes with the
Holy Ghost. And I saw and I bear record that
this is the Son of God. I show this to you from Scripture
about Christ preparing to begin His ministry in the due battle
with Satan in order to make this point to you. If Jesus, if our
Lord, who was without sin, needed the Holy Spirit of God to prepare
him before he began his ministry or before he entered into battle
with Satan, then surely we too need the Holy Spirit of God before
we suffer diverse temptations. Did Jesus need the confirmation
of His Father to begin His ministry? Well, honestly, I don't know.
But that's what God gave His Son when Jesus was baptized.
And His baptism is a picture. of His coming death and burial
and resurrection. And I know how important it is
to me to know that God loved me enough to send me a Savior
who would die for my sin. And I know that Christ did only
His Father's will. And everything that Jesus did
was to fulfill all righteousness. And I can't read this account
of the dove descending on Christ. without thinking about the dove
which Noah sent out of the window of that ark. You remember? Sending
it out to go and see if the waters were abated off the face of the
earth. And what did the dove do? But he brought back in her
mouth an olive leaf, which is a token of peace and reconciliation. That voice from heaven, of course,
was the voice of God saying that he was very pleased with his
beloved son. which is God announcing for all
to hear that this man, Jesus Christ, was the Son of God sent
to us to save us from our sin. When the ministry begins and
you know that Jesus Christ is Almighty God, when you know that
He is the Son of God and that His Father is well pleased with
Him, and that the Spirit of God rests on Him, it sort of gives
us a clue, doesn't it? about how the battle is going
to end up. Would it be the same with us if we knew the same things
as we faced temptation? What does it do for your faith,
your faith in Christ, to know in your trials and temptations
that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who loved you enough to
die for you and that God has now sent His Holy Spirit to lead
and to guide and to keep you in Christ? That's what Christ
knew. Imagine suffering in your trials
without knowing the love of God. You would not have any confidence
at all, would you? But let's look in Matthew chapter
4 where we learn about the tempting of Jesus in combat. In Matthew
4 and verse 1, God says, after Jesus was baptized, then was
Jesus led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
by the devil. It was then when Jesus had come from the solemn
ordinance of baptism, and when Christ was about to show Him
openly to Israel, that the Holy Spirit leads Him into the wilderness.
As Luke 4-1 says, Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned
from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. You
know, God's Word is very descriptive, isn't it? Jesus Christ is led
by the Holy Spirit of God. It says so plainly and clearly.
He's led like a champion ready to do battle. He's led like a
champion onto the field of combat. He's led there by the Holy Spirit
to engage a powerful enemy. And because Jesus Christ was
God, Going in God's love and in the power of God's Holy Spirit,
Christ was absolutely sure to conquer the enemies of God. He could not fail to accomplish
God's will. But where did the Holy Spirit
lead this conqueror? Jesus our Savior was led into
a lonesome, wide, howling wilderness. Matthew Henry says that it was
into the great wilderness of Sinai where Jesus was led by
the Holy Spirit. And that wilderness of Sinai
is a wilderness that is not only lonesome, but it's inhabited
by wild beasts. As Mark 1 verse 13 says, And
He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan,
and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto
Him. Turn please to Isaiah 63 in verse 2. Our Lord was led there into that
wilderness not only so that He could prepare Himself by spending
time in prayer with His Father before the battle, but also He
was led there so that He might be alone. God would have Him
be alone. Our Savior in this combat, as
well as when He hung on the cross in His last agony, told us in
Isaiah 63, verse 3, that He would be alone on the cross just as
He is alone in the wilderness now. Christ said, I have trodden
the winepress alone, and of the people there was none with Me. Because Christ was alone there
in the wilderness, it gave Satan all of the opportunity that he
could want or need to begin the battle. In Matthew 4, verse 2, it says
about Christ, And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights,
He was afterward and hungered. But until the battle began, Jesus
our Lord and our Savior prayed and He fasted. Maybe it was as
Moses and Elijah had done many years before. And it may have
been done in the very same place. Turn please to Exodus 34, verse
28. It's remarkable to me to read
in the Old Testament Scripture about those men who were pictures
of Christ. Scripture tells us that they
fasted. In Exodus 34, verse 28, it tells us about Moses up on
Mount Sinai. It says, "...and he was there
with the Lord forty days and forty nights, and he did neither
eat bread nor drink water, and he wrote upon the tables the
words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. And in 1 Kings
19 verse 4, it tells us about Elijah fasting too. It says,
but he, but Elijah himself, went a day's journey into the wilderness
and came and sat down under a juniper tree And he requested for himself
that he might die. And said, it is enough now, O
Lord. Take away my life, for I am not
better than my father's. Elijah in the wilderness in prayer
is much like the Savior was. Then in verse 8 of 1 Kings 19,
it says that Elijah arose and did eat and drink, And he went
in the strength of that meat 40 days and 40 nights into horror
of the Mount of God. What a sweet thought it is that
our Lord Jesus Christ was in all points tested as His people
are. And yet when Jesus was tested,
He was without sin. And yet, before the battle, even
Jesus Christ prepared to meet the enemy. He prepared in prayer,
and he prepared in fasting. But what does it mean to us that
Jesus not only prayed, but he also fasted in preparation to
do battle with Satan? Well, I'm not at all sure that
the Holy Spirit would have the people of God fast by not eating
food. Robert Hawker points out that
many men down through history have fasted And the reason that
they fasted was as an atonement for their sins. But not eating
food for a short period of time is what they did, and I don't
think it atoned for anybody's sin. Those men, though, were
not necessarily men of God. I'm sure that they were religious
because they fasted. They fasted for atonement for
sin. But I suggest to you that they
were not men of God. It's not unusual, from my experience,
that religious people often think that they need to do something
to physically suffer as an atonement for their sins. Sin must be punished. And men know that. I think all
men know that. But the very fact that natural
man, since the fall of man, has wanted to do something to suffer
for his sins, like fasting, makes me very suspicious of fasting. The Jews were often fasting.
Now, I'd think that if you wanted to fast for a health reason,
that might be a different thing. But to fast to impress men or
to fast to impress God, especially if you're doing it to atone for
your sin, is to deny Christ's atonement. And your fasting doesn't
point to Christ. it only points to yourself. The cry from the heart of every
sinner is like that of the prophet in Micah 6, verses 6 and 7. He
asked, wherewith shall I come before the Lord and bow myself
before the High God? Shall I come before Him with
burnt offerings and with calves of a year old? Will the Lord
be pleased with thousands of rams or with ten thousand of
rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for
my transgression, the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"
In other words, Micah is saying, what must I do to be saved? That's the question of every
natural man when they first see their sin. What can I do to save
myself? Atonement for sin can only be
made by the death of Christ. and by being washed in His blood.
As God said in Hebrews 9.22, And almost all things are by
the law purged with blood, and without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Once before in John 4, verse
32, Jesus has said to His disciples, I have meat to eat that you know
not of. And then in verses 34 and 35, Jesus said unto them,
My need is to do the will of Him that sent me and to finish
His work. Say not ye, there are yet four
months, and then come in the harvest? Behold, I say unto you,
lift up your eyes and look on the fields, for they are white,
all ready to harvest." Jesus was about to go to the cross
to die for the sins of His people. Turn please to Matthew 4, verse
3. He was about to go to the cross to die for the sins of
His people. The fields were wide and ready
to harvest. And the harvest was about to
begin. During these 40 days in the wilderness, we may suppose
that our Lord felt no hunger. To spend time in prayer with
His Father in heaven about that which He had come to do was to
Christ meet and drink. But afterwards, He was hungered. And now the battle begins with
Satan. Jesus had been led into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. Christ was led by the Holy Spirit of God. Oh,
that we all might know the close presence of God with us, the
leading and guiding of His Holy Spirit as we travel through this
wilderness. Forty days and forty nights Jesus
was hungry. And in Matthew 4, verse 3, we
read, And when the tempter came to
him, he said to Jesus, if thou be the Son of God, command these
stones be made bread. Satan is called the tempter because
he tempted our first parents to sin and ever since the devil
has been tempting the descendants of Adam to sin. But as we've
already said, Satan's tempting is a different kind of tempting.
Satan's tempts our lusts and our desires, exciting us to sin
against God. God's tempting is to show us
our God-given faith. And so when the devil saw Jesus
alone and he saw Him hungry, what does he tempt Christ to
do? What is his point of attack in this battle for men's souls?
It's nothing less than to challenge the faith of Christ. He says
to Jesus, If thou be the Son of God." What arrogance to challenge
the Word of God and to put an if to the divinity of Christ.
God had said, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.
And Satan has no fear of God that keeps him from questioning
God's Word. And yet like so many people today
who deny that Christ is God, Satan surely knew who Jesus was. They knew who Christ is, but
they deny Him. They reject Him. They reject
Him as their Savior. Satan knows who Christ is too.
Satan saw the heavens open up and he heard the voice of God
just as John the Baptist did. But now in this battle for men's
souls, Satan wanted to make the man Jesus Christ doubt. He wanted
to make him doubt that he was really the Son of God. It was
a test of faith, just as all of our testing is a test of faith. And anyway, what is so important
about a hungry man eating? What is so sinful about that? When the tempter came to Jesus,
he said, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. It's as though the devil was
saying to Jesus, if God is your Father, He would never want you
to starve to death in a howling wilderness among wild beasts.
Surely the voice that you heard was only a foolish delusion.
If you were the Son of God, especially His beloved Son in whom He is
so well pleased, wouldn't He take better care of you, Jesus?
If you are really the Son of God, You could just command these
stones be made bread. Turn please to Romans chapter
14 and verse 23. And why would Satan want Jesus
to turn those stones into bread? Because Satan is attacking Christ's
faith. Because whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. As Paul said in Romans 14 verse
23, And he that doubts is damned if he eat, not because he eats,
but if he eat, because he eateth not by faith. For whatsoever
is not of faith is sin. And if Satan can get Jesus to
sin, then Christ will not be able to die for the sins of His
people. As a sinner, the man Jesus would
have to die for his own sin. But praise God, in Christ, in
Christ who is our righteousness, there is no sin. All that Satan
has to do is to get Jesus to doubt his faith. Isn't that the
way that Satan attacks you and I? Satan attacks our faith continually. And what do we do under those
attacks that we so often regret later? It always goes back to
the same thing. It always goes back to our faith. If we really believed that Christ
was the Son of God who came to die for our sin, wouldn't we
love Him more? Wouldn't we trust Him more really
believed in Him? Wouldn't we be more obedient
if we believed Christ? I ask you, do you believe that
Christ died for your sin? If you do, then what can Satan
do? Satan continually attacks us
where we're weakest. He gets us to think that our
salvation depends somehow on us. He gets us to thinking about
ourselves and our sin and to question our God-given faith
in Christ. Satan throws the law at us, challenges
us to trust Christ when by our sin natures we want to trust
in ourselves. We want to trust in our love
and in our faith and in our obedience or in whatever we think that
we need to do to be saved. or to be loved by God. That was
the way that Satan attacked our first parents. He challenged
their faith. They knew God. They believed
in God. But did they believe that God
loved them? Or was he just making laws to tease and torment them
rather than because he loved them? Subtly, Satan was challenging
their faith. getting them to doubt the goodness
and the love of God for them. Satan was suggesting to our first
parents that they should think better of themselves than they
thought about the all-bountiful and righteous Creator. He was
challenging them as to what they believed about God. The devil
asked the woman in Genesis 31, yea, has God said ye shall not
eat of every tree in the garden? In other words, has God placed
you in the middle of such a variety of delicious fruits only to tease
you and to make you miserable? God wouldn't do that if He loved
you, would He? And how subtly Satan tries to
insinuate himself into our Lord's affections, just as he tried
to be such a false helper to our first parents. He is pretending
to be an angel of light, but he's not an angel of light. He's
Satan. He's a devil. If thou be the
Son of God, Satan says, come and prove it by commanding these
stones to be made into bread. This will demonstrate your divinity
and it will relieve your pressing hunger at the same time. How
easily Satan is able to turn himself into an angel of light,
appearing to be our helper rather than our destroyer. This is the
way that Satan has done in all of his other temptations of God's
people. Satan would appear to be our
Lord's very kind friend, but Christ Jesus saw through the
disguised enmity and hate of his antagonist, and refusing
to either distrust his righteous father on the one hand, or to
work a miracle to please and gratify the devil on the other.
Although Christ had the Spirit of God without measure, and might
have made use of a thousand other ways to satisfy his own hunger,
and yet Christ answers him with the text of Scripture. Our Lord
says, it is written, that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This
is a quotation from Deuteronomy 8 verse 3, and it contains the
reason which was given by the great God of Israel as to why
He chose to feed the Israelites with manna so that they might
learn that man doesn't live by bread alone, but he lives by
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Our Lord
is applying this verse to Himself. And His being here in the wilderness
made the application of it still more pertinent, I think. The
Israelites were the children of God. And if we are the children
of God in Christ, then we should apply this verse to ourselves
too. Israel was God's son that God
had brought out of Egypt and had then led into the wilderness
where Israel was miraculously supported by God by feeding them
with manna from heaven. And so it was by faith that our
Lord, knowing that He was pictured by Israel and that like the Israelites,
He was now in a wilderness where by faith He would trust God.
In this wilderness, this wilderness that we are all in today, our
only hope, our only hope is to trust God. And so our Lord quotes
this scripture as a reason why he shouldn't, as Satan suggests,
either despair of receiving help from his father in his present
circumstances, or distrust the validity of his father's recent
acknowledgment that he is the beloved son of God, or that he
needed to make use of any means of his own to save himself. Faith says that all that God
does is good, and so we trust God because we see His love for
us in Christ. As Paul said in Romans 8.28,
and we know that all things work together for good to them that
love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. The
faith of Christ believes God and trusts God. And so Christ
believed and trusted that because God was his Father, God would
therefore, either in an ordinary way or in some miraculous way,
spread a table for him in the wilderness to support him and
sustain him as he did Israel of old. Because man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the
mouth of God. Whatever is not of faith is sin. And so the faith of Christ looked
to God, and the tempter was spoiled. Even the man Jesus Christ didn't
look to himself, but he looked to God. But Satan has other arrows
in his quiver, which he will use to try and wound the Immaculate
Lamb of God, and he'll use the same techniques on us. Since
Satan can't draw Christ in by getting him to distrust God,
Satan will see if he can't attack Christ's pride and get Him to
take God for granted. Look at it in Matthew 4, verses
5 and 6. In order to get Christ to presume
or to take God's loving care for granted, Matthew 4, verses
5 and 6 tells us that, Then the devil taketh Him, took Christ,
up into the holy city, took Him up to Jerusalem, and he set Him
on a pinnacle of the temple. And He said to him," again the
same words, "'If thou be the Son of God, take thyself down,
for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning
Me, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time
thou dash thy foot against a stone.'" Well, Satan gets Jesus up on
the very highest part, on the pinnacle of the temple, a temple
that was probably filled with worshipers, And he's still attacking
the faith of Christ. He says, if thou be the Son of
God, cast thyself down. And when God comes to save you,
you'll show this large worshiping assembly who you'll show them
who you really are. And they'll surely believe that
you're God's beloved son when they see that you're under the
special protection of heaven. And they'll see that you are
the Messiah, the Messiah who's come into the world to save his
people from their sin. This was clever. Very clever. But Satan seems to improve on
his cunning because he brings his Bible with him. And so Satan
backs his temptation up with a text of Scripture. He says,
For it is written, Satan says, He shall, God shall, give His
angels charge concerning me, and in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. And therefore, Jesus, since you
are so sure of God's protection, you don't need to be afraid to
cast yourself down in front of all these people. This might
have worked with me, because Satan is appealing to pride.
And besides, Satan has misquoted God's Word by purposely omitting
these important words, in all thy ways. It's true that God
has given charge to His angels concerning His children in general
and concerning His beloved Son in particular. He's given this
charge so that the angels should keep Him in all His ways. But if our Lord had done what
the devil asked, to gratify pride, if Christ had thrown Himself
down from the pinnacle unnecessarily presuming on His Father's protection,
He would not have been acting in God's way. He would have been
acting in Satan's way. And so he would have had no right
to the promised protection at all. Satan was aware of this
and therefore he fitly left out what he knew would not suit his
purpose. But is Scripture less true because
Satan and Satan's followers abuse it or misquote it for their own
purpose? No, of course not. And so our Lord takes what is
quoted correctly And with another scripture that he uses as a proof
text, he gives a true interpretation of what Satan had quoted. Christ
says, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. No matter what you say, Satan,
that this verse means, God says that thou shalt not tempt the
Lord thy God. Again, our Lord quotes from the
book of Deuteronomy. and he applies this scripture
correctly to himself. The meaning of what Christ is
saying is that it is written in another part of God's Word
that the Israelites should not tempt the Lord their God by distrusting
his goodness on the one hand or by presuming his protection
on the other. And therefore, just as I would
not command stones to be made bread needlessly and distrustfully
to be set up to provide for myself, Neither will I now presume unnecessarily
on God's power by casting myself down, though I have been placed
by you, Mr. Satan, in such a dangerous position. I will only live by the ways
of the Word of God, not by your ways, Satan. How easy it is for
me, who because of my pride, I tend to look to myself when
I come under attack by Satan. But Christ is able to win this
second battle too. I learned from this that in my
strength I should never try to fight against Satan because in
my sin I will only look to myself. I'll try to live by my own way. Christ has already won the battle.
And what I need to do and what we all need to do is to look
to Christ. If someone wants to sincerely
get my opinion about Scripture, well, that's one thing. But to
argue about Scripture with Satan's servants is nothing but a waste
of time. The only reason to do it is to
satisfy my own pride. And my Lord and Savior doesn't
fall into the trap that Satan often so successfully uses with
me. But apparently, the servant doesn't
feel that his head has been bruised enough And so, as Matthew 4,
verse 8 says, He again takes Christ up into an exceeding high
mountain, and He shows Him all the kingdoms of the world and
the glory of them. Satan has tested Christ's faith,
tested His pride, and now Satan tests Christ to reveal lust.
But Christ is without sin, and Satan is doomed to fail. because
Christ is the Son of God and He's full of the Holy Spirit
of God. He's up against an enemy. Satan is up against an enemy
that he cannot possibly defeat. Satan was showing our Savior's
crowns of glory, but he never told Jesus that those crowns
contained thorns. And then in verse 9, the devil
says to Jesus, all these things I will give you if thou wilt
fall down and worship me. What arrogance! What horrible
arrogance! Satan wants God to worship him. Be careful. We're seeing the
true character of Satan here. He's speaking to the Son of God
with total disrespect. As Jesus said later in Matthew
28 verse 18, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth.
Satan is speaking to the Son of God. who in six days made
heaven and earth and the sea and all that in them is." As
it says in Exodus 20 verse 11. And Satan, he wants to be worshiped. He's not the Creator. He has
no power. Nothing except what God gives
him. Who would worship Satan? Only those who don't know Christ
would worship Satan. So then in verse 10, said Jesus
unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Christ
our Lord is saying to Satan that this is the great commandment
of God's law. This is the commandment that
my Father has given to Israel of old and to the church that
I am about to die for now. Would you, Mr. Satan, have me,
who came to fulfill the law and the prophets, So shamefully be
a transgressor of the law and sin against God, my Father. Get
thee hence, Satan. Go back to your pit of hell that
you came from." Now the battle is over. This important combat
has ended. Jesus has won the field and Satan
is routed and totally put to flight. Then when the devil found
that Jesus, the Son of God, would withstand even the golden bait
which Satan had offered, the lust of the eye and the pride
of life, Satan, who, like all of his followers, seeks to be
worshipped, was dispatched by the Word of God. Get thee hence,
Satan, the Savior commands, and Satan left him. The first Adam
was attacked only once, and Adam was conquered. But the second
Adam, although Christ was repeatedly assaulted, he comes forth from
the battle without sin in the least. Christ comes from the
battle not only as a conqueror, but as more than a conqueror.
And was there joy in heaven on this happy occasion? As John
said in Revelation 14 verses 2 and 3, And I heard a voice
from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice
of a great thunder. And I heard the voice of harpers
harping with their harps. And they sang, as it were, a
new song before the throne. and before the four beasts and
the elders, and no man could learn that song but the 140,000
which were redeemed from the earth. What equal, or if possible,
what infinitely greater joy could there be if you are tested and
found to be among the children of God here on earth? Because
we would do well to remember that our blessed Lord in this
great fight with and with His with Satan and with his conquest
over the dragon, acted as a person. Christ, our victorious Savior,
acted as the federal head of His mystical body, the Church,
even as the common representative of all believers. Christ, our
substitute, was tempted by God and found to be the Christ, the
Savior of His people, found to be without sin, and therefore,
He was able to die for us. We may, therefore, from these
scriptures that we've been looking at this morning, we may gather
some strong consolations because our Lord's conquest over Satan,
we are therefore assured of our own conquest over sin and Satan. In Christ, of course, Christ
our substitute is our power and in whom we conquer. And so we
should look to Christ, not to ourselves, but we should look
to Christ. because only in Christ are we made conquerors. We should
look to Christ as our compassionate High Priest, who was in all things
tempted as we are, that He might, in His power and wisdom, enable
us to conquer when we are tempted. Because we know that if we are
left on our own, we shall fail. And when we fall, we should always
remember that Christ is the end of the law for righteousness,
and so in Christ we are made righteous in Him. Christ has
won the battle. Christ is able to die for us.
And Christ did die so that those who believe might have life. Which of us is able to stand
up in our own power against the subtle and deceiving Satan who
seeks to devour us like a lion? But we have a Savior. We have
a Savior who is Christ the Lord. And if God is for us, who can
be against us? Though Satan may be permitted
to come against us, with wave after wave, with one trial after
another. If we look to Christ, trusting
Christ in His strength, not our own, but in His strength, how
can we fail? If Christ is our strength, we
have the strength of God. Satan may follow us in this wilderness,
seeking to tempt us to doubt our faith and to doubt our love
and to doubt our salvation, that salvation which is in Christ.
And in our pride, cause us to look to ourselves, but in Christ
we shall be victorious. Didn't Satan treat our Lord in
exactly the same way that he treats us? And shall the servant
be above his Lord or the disciple above his master? No, it is sufficient
for us that the servant be as his Lord and the disciple be
as his master. And so Jesus as Christ looked
to his Father. We shall look to Christ for all
things. by the leading and guiding of the Holy Spirit of God. And
just as God our Father sent His dear Son, the Holy Spirit, to
strengthen and to lead Him in this wilderness, we also, as
sons of God, will look to Christ, who promised to send us a Comforter
to live in us and to teach us all things. As our Savior said
in John 14, verses 16 and 17, shortly before He went to the
cross to die, I will pray the Father, and He shall give you
another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever, even
the Spirit of Truth, whom the Word cannot receive, because
it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him, but you know Him, and He
dwelleth in you and shall be in you." O gracious and merciful
Father, Lord, we praise You. We thank You for Christ our Savior.
May we always know the comfort of Your Holy Spirit teaching
us of Christ, leading us in this wilderness to Christ, giving
us the faith of Christ that we might not sin against You, dear
Lord. What a joy it is when You show us Christ, that You have
loved us, that You have given us the faith of Christ and the
love of Christ by which we can look to Christ. And in Christ,
we can be victorious over Satan who would destroy us. And so
we praise You, Lord, for Christ, In whose name we pray, Amen.