Alright, Matthew chapter 4 begins with the word, then. Then. Notice when this happened, then. It comes after Matthew 3 verses
16 and 17. 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 saying, This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. Then was Jesus led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Every
believer can expect to be tempted of the devil. The devil's a real
adversary. He is the believer's personal
adversary. He is our adversary. If the devil was not afraid to
tempt the Lord Jesus, he won't be afraid to tempt me and you.
That's for certain. And it was after this entering
into this public, the Lord's public ministry after he was
baptized, after the Spirit of God visibly descended upon him,
after the voice of the Lord spoke and said, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well well plead. We can expect to enter into the
temptation of the devil after we've been born of the Spirit
of God, after we believe on Him and confess the Lord Jesus Christ
publicly before this world, after the sweetest times often of fellowship
with our Lord. Then was Jesus led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. But
here's our rejoicing. Our Savior was tempted of the
devil, but He conquered him. He didn't sin. Our Lord is that
holy, spotless Redeemer. He was manifest. John said this,
for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might
destroy the works of the devil. Hebrews 2 verse 14 says, for
as much then as the children were partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through
death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that
is the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death were
all their lifetime subject to bondage. The first Adam sinned,
when Satan entered the garden. The first Adam sinned and plunged
all mankind into death. The second Adam, the last Adam,
sinned not. He was proven to be faithful,
steadfast in the faith. Steadfast in faithfulness to
the Lord God. And he delivered his children
from bondage. He delivered us from bondage.
And he'll keep those he's called and made known that he has delivered
us. He'll keep us from the adversary,
and He will yet deliver us. He'll bring us into His presence. And anytime we're tempted, Hebrews
2.18 says, for in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted,
He's able to succor, to help, to aid, to relieve them that
are tempted. The devil appeals to our weakness. That's what he appeals to. He
makes strong appeals to our weakness. What is the believer's weakness?
What's the child of God's weakness? The Lord told us clearly. Look
over to your right there in Matthew 26, 41. The Lord said clearly
what our weakness is. He told his disciples in the
Garden of Gethsemane, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation. The Spirit indeed is willing.
Here's our weakness, the flesh. The flesh is weak. The flesh
is weak. Our flesh, the believer's flesh,
our old man, that which is born of the flesh, that is born the
first time, is our weakness. The flesh is infirmity. Paul said, I will rather glory
in my infirmities. And he said, for when I'm weak,
that word infirmities and that word weak are the same word.
Our weakness, Paul said, I was given a thorn in the flesh. That's my thorn. That's my weakness. The flesh. The flesh. And it's because of the sin. It's because of the sin of our
old man. It's flesh. That's what it is
and that's what it will always be. And our weakness is in our
flesh. Now our Lord was tempted here
with three specific temptations. The Lord was tempted of the devil. God doesn't tempt any man. It's
the devil who does the tempting. You notice he was led of the
spirit. God was in complete control here this whole time. And as
a man, our Lord was tempted. And these three temptations he
makes, he appeals to the, we see the three things that Satan
appeals to in our flesh. The three things that are the
weakness of our flesh. John summed it up this way. Turn
over to 1 John chapter 2. I'll show you these three things. John summed it up, speaking by
the Spirit of God. He summed it up this way. Let me see. I'm sorry, 2nd John. No, no, 1st John. 1st John, chapter
2, verse 16. All that is in the world. This
is what's of the world. Now, God said to His own, you're
not of the world. If you've been born of the Spirit
of God, you're not of the world, you're of God. Born of God. But this is what is of the world.
Here it is. The lust of the flesh. the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. That's not of the Father, but
is of the world. That's what we are in our flesh.
Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life. Now
I want you to look at, while you're there, 1 John 3 and look
at verse 8. I want to make this point to
you. The devil's tempting of our Lord was very real. But our
Lord, you recall, He's not of this world. Our Lord, though
He was in human flesh, our Lord's not of this world. That holy
thing conceived in the womb of the virgin was not of man. It
was of the Holy Ghost, born of the Holy Ghost. And that tells
us plainly that though our Lord's tempting of the devil was very
real, our Lord could not sin. He could not do anything but
that which is holy. How do you know he couldn't?
Read 1 John 3.8. He that committeth sin is of
the devil, for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For this
purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works
of the devil. Now this is speaking of a believer,
but this is true of that faithful one, Christ Jesus. Whosoever
is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in
him, and he cannot sin. because he's born of God. In
this the children of God are manifest, and the children of
the devil. Whosoever doeth not righteousness is not of God,
neither he that loveth not his brother. Our Lord though he was
in the human nature, our nature, as a man. He couldn't sin. He's
holy. He's of God. And there is a man
born in every child whom God regenerates, who's born of the
Spirit of God. And that man, that inner man,
that new man, we cannot sin. His seed remaineth in us. We
cannot stop believing on God, and we cannot cease loving our
brethren. And included in that is All the
Word of God, all the Word of God. Believe God and love your
brethren. The believer, that inner man
cannot. But yet in our flesh, all we are is sin. And in our
flesh, these three things the devil appeals to continually
when he comes. This is his appeal. The lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.
Now these were the three things that we can see here in which
our Lord was the devil used to tempt the Lord. Not that there
was any lust of the flesh in Him, any pride of life in Him,
any lust of the eyes in Him. We'll see that, but these are
the three things the devil used. First of all, and these will
be our divisions, and we'll just go back here and look at Matthew
4 and we'll see these Three things. This is what the devil will appeal
to. The lust of the flesh is the
first thing we see. Verse 2 says, When he had fasted
forty days and forty nights, he was after a hungred. That was a real hunger. He had
a natural hunger. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. Satan sought advantage at our
Lord's hunger. This was something that he needed,
that his body needed was to be fed. And he sought advantage
at that hunger. Now, our bodies have needs. We have We need to eat. We need
to be fed. We need to be clothed. We have
things that our body needs. We need an income. We need things
to live in this world. And at times, there's very trying
circumstances that we face, very trying times that we face, because
we need these things. And we know we need these things. And the devil came here and he
challenged Christ to distrust God to provide his need. He challenged him to distrust
God. He's tempted Christ to be his
own provider. But our Lord trusted God to provide
for him without Christ providing for Himself. That's what faith
does, verse 4. But he answered and said, it's
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." I was thinking about
this. You know, our Lord had power
to make those stones bread. Our Lord took a few fish and
a few little pieces of bread and He fed 5,000 people with
that. But you know, our Lord never
did use That power that he had to provide for himself, he never
used his power as the son of God to work a miracle for himself
when he walked this earth. He did it for others, but he
did not do it for himself. He trusted God his Father to
provide for him. He trusted God his Father to
provide for him. There's something we need more than anything that
our flesh lusts after. Bread here is what's used, but
everything that we lust after, our flesh lusts after, is like
bread. But there's something we need
more than bread. We need every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. That's what we need. How were
we born? Of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth. That's how we begin, with the
word of truth. You know how we're going to be
strengthened? By the word that proceeds out of God's mouth.
You know how we're going to be kept? by the Word that proceeds
out of God's mouth. We need the constant Word of
God. We need the preaching of God's
Word. We need to search the Scriptures. We need to seek His face in the
Word. We need to seek Christ who is
the Word Himself. He is the Word by which we will
be strengthened. And it's so often that the lusts
of our flesh, we get all We get all in these trying circumstances. We get all in these circumstances
in life. And the tempting of the tempter
is this, be your own provider. Look to these lusts of our flesh. Look to those things and give
yourself to those things. Provide those things for yourself. that God gives and the faith
that God sustains and the faith whereby He keeps us in all our
trying circumstances is He drops the Word into our hearts and
He makes us to see, He makes us to rejoice, not in the lust
of our flesh. Those things become secondary
when the Word of God becomes so necessary and so needful in
all in our hearts that those secondary needs that we, you
know, sometimes we get out of kilter and we think that the
needs of our flesh, that's all I, that's all my need. One day, we're not going to have
any of these fleshly plus anymore. We're not going to have any of
these things cumbering us about that we think we need so desperately. And right now in the middle of
it all, The thing that saves us from it is the Word. The Word. How many times here
we're going to see the Lord keep saying, it is written, it is
written, it is written. He's living. He's resisting steadfast
in the faith by the Word. This is what we need. We need
the Word. We need the Word. We need the
Word. A lot of times whenever you've
talked to me and I listen and I hear the problems and I hear
the trials that you're in and what I say to you is what I'm
saying to my own self. It's what faithful brethren tell
me when I express my troubles and my trials to them. It's what
you tell me when I express my trials and my troubles to you.
Seek the Lord. Bury yourself in His word. Just,
just, that's what we need. That's what
we need. The things we think we need,
we don't really need. What we need is every word that
proceeded out of the mouth of the Lord. Every word, His word. That's the first thing that we're
gonna be tempted with, is be our own provider. And I wish
I could, the lust of the flesh, all the lust of the flesh, every
lust of our flesh, every sinful inordinate affection, everything
that is contrary to God is us trying to feed upon and make
ourselves alive and make ourselves sustained and make ourselves
happy and make ourselves to rejoice by our flesh. That won't ever,
will never be comforted, will never be settled, will never
be found rejoicing there. It's the Word of the Lord, the
Word that comes from Him. That's what conquers the lust
of our flesh. Do you see how Satan appealed,
first of all, to the lust of the flesh? If you be the Son
of God, Did these stones be made bread? You're hungry, aren't
you? Provide for yourself." And the Lord said, no. The Lord said,
I'll trust God to provide for me. Trust in Him. Here's the
second thing, and we invert John's order just a little bit, but
it's the pride of life is the second thing we can see here
in this. Matthew 4, 5. Then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle
of the temple. And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down. For it is written, He shall give
His angels charge concerning thee. And in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Satan appeals to the pride of
our flesh. He appeals to the pride of the
flesh. If thou be the Son of God. Now,
there was no pride in our Lord. No sinful pride in our Lord.
But you know what the pride of the flesh, the pride that's in
a believer, the fleshly pride that's in a believer, you know
what just eats us up? If thou be a child of God. If
you really be a child of God. Does it matter really what, do I have to defend whether
I'm a child of God? Do I have to say something in
such a way when folks are talking to make you to convince somebody
else, oh, I'm a child of God? That's pride. That's pride. It's a great contentment to be
able to not defend ourselves, the pride of life, if you be
the son of God. Look at this, it's worth noting
here in this. I've never seen this before. Satan took him up to the holy
city. To the holy city. And set him
on a pinnacle of the temple. Of the temple. And said this. cast yourself down. If you're
the Son of God, cast thyself down. Here's the promise God's
given you. He gives His angels charge concerning
you. And in your hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone. You know what the grace of God does? The true grace of
God. It takes His children into the
holy city. It takes His children into the
heavenly Jerusalem. It makes us to behold that we're
in the heavenly city of God in His sign with Him. That's what
the grace of God does for us. The grace of God makes us to
ride upon the high places of the earth as He did to Jacob,
as He said He did to Jacob. God makes us stones in His holy
temple. He reveals great and precious
promises to us. He makes us to see that His ways
are higher than our ways. His thoughts are higher than
our thoughts. But when it's the grace of God
working and doing that, it draws us to Him. It humbles
us at His feet. It brings us down to His feet
and makes us rest in Him. It makes us trust that He's able
to perform everything He's promised. It doesn't lift us up in pride. It doesn't take us up and make
us say, well, because God's promised me all
these things. It doesn't do that. It does the
opposite. When grace is at work, the work
of the Spirit doesn't use the promises and doesn't use the
power of God to make a child of God justify rebellion against
God. It doesn't do that. I'm saying
to you, Sunday, that God promises us like He did in Isaiah 43.1. Fear not. He says to His child,
I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy name.
Thou art mine. When thou passest through the
waters, I'll be with you. Through the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee. When thou walkest through the
fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle
upon thee. And I said to you, when He speaks this word into
your heart, presume upon the promise of God that you're the
child of God He's speaking to, that He says, I have redeemed
you. I have called you by Your name, by His name. I have, you
are mine. But that grace when He speaks
that in our heart, when He says, when you pass through the waters,
they won't overflow you. When you pass through the river,
it won't, through the fire, it won't burn you. That doesn't
make a child of God want to build a fire and jump in it. That don't
make a child of God want to say, well I have these promises now
so I'm going to go jump in the river. The Lord promises I'll never
leave thee nor forsake thee. That doesn't make a child of
God forsake the assembly of His saints. That doesn't make the
child of God forsake reading His Word and studying His Word
and drawing near. It makes us draw closer and wait
upon the Lord to deliver us. It doesn't make us swell up in
our pride and say, well, God said He'll never leave me nor
forsake me. I can go out here worship God
here and there, and run over here and worship God, and it
makes the child of God draw nearer to Him because He's promised
us, I will not leave you nor forsake you. It doesn't promote
pride. The Lord promises in 1017, there's
sins and iniquities I'll remember no more. And He says in remission
of these, there's no more offering for sin. You know what that does
not do in a child of God? It doesn't promote pride into
him, where he says, oh, well, that's my license to sin. No. It makes him have boldness to
enter the holiest by the blood of Christ. It makes him draw
near to God by a new and living way. It makes him draw near to
God by Christ Jesus our Redeemer. It makes him hold fast the profession
of faith without wavering because he knows God's faithful who called
me. He washed my conscience. He drew
me near. He made me... He made me... trust in these promises, that
he's not only promised it, he's able to perform what he's promised.
It doesn't, it doesn't, the grace of God, the word of God, the
truth of God, doesn't promote the pride of life. He does give
life. But when he gives it, it makes
us draw near to him who is our life. It doesn't make us say,
well I've got life, so now I'll live like death. I'll eat death. I'll consume death. I'll heap
upon my body death." It makes us pray with Paul and say, Lord,
who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God
through Christ Jesus I'll be delivered. And it causes us to
draw near to Him. If I ever find myself using the
Scriptures to justify direct rebellion against God, that ain't
of the Spirit of God. I guarantee you that. That's
not. That's not, that's of the flesh. That's of, that's of Satan, directly
of Satan. He wants you to presume. He wants
you to have pride of life. He wants you to say, you got
all these promises? Jump off the, jump off here,
he'll protect you. Jesus said unto him, verse seven,
it's written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. You see? A believer's not, God's,
God, we trust Him. It doesn't promote pride, it
promotes trust. It promotes humility. That's
what the Lord did here in faithfulness. The Lord said, I'm not gonna
tempt the Lord. Who had the promises of God?
Christ had the promises of God. He's God come in human flesh. He had all these promises of
God made unto him before the world was ever made. He had the
promises of God made unto him. And he walked this earth trusting
God. But it didn't make him turn from
trusting God. It made him walk after God, trusting
God. Do you see that? First thing
that Satan appeals to is the lust of our flesh. You be your
own provider. But the spirit of grace says,
nope, God's my provider. I trust, I need his word more
than anything else. And the second thing Satan appeals
to is the pride of life. He wants, there's a host of people
in this world who are proud of grace. And that's the worst kind
of pride. That's the very worst kind of
pride. work that spirit in his people. He brings his people
to trust his promises and to say, I have the promises of God,
therefore I'm not going to tempt the Lord my God. It works just
the opposite. Here's the third thing Satan
tempts us with, the lust of the eyes. The lust of the eyes. What do you see when you look
out, when you see with your eyes in this world? You see these
artists, these music artists, and I see some of these music
artists that have so much of this world. I mean, it's like,
if they started spending, they could spend it all. They got
so much. The lust of the eyes. The lust
of the eyes. Look at what he did, verse 8.
Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain
and showeth him, he presented before his eye all the kingdoms
of the world and the glory of them and saith unto him, all
these things will I give thee if thou will fall down and worship
me. Does a believer worship God to
try to get things in this world? Is it our spirit to say, well,
now, I've done this and this and this as God commanded me. Why hadn't he given me these
other things? Why hadn't he given me things of this world? That's
hedonism. That's worshiping God for a reward. That's saying, I'll jump through
these hoops if you'll give me this and that. That's works,
not grace. That's not what the Spirit of
God does. That's idolatry. That's covetousness. That's serving
my flesh, the belly. When it came to a bribe, that's
exactly what the devil was trying to do, bribe him. When it came
to that, He said this, he ends the whole matter, verse 10, Then
saith 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's reward was the glory of His Father. and Jacob, the lot of his inheritance. His reward was his father and
his children. Did God promise him that he would
give him all the kingdoms of the world, that he would be king
of kings and lord of lords? He did, and it is all his. He
has inherited all things. All power in heaven and earth
is his. It's all given unto him. But he served the father for
the glory of God. He served. Look at this. Thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou serve. It wasn't serving for reward. It was serving God. That's what
Christ did. He served. He worshiped God and
he served the Father. All the kingdoms of this world
If you could have all the kingdoms of this world without God, would
you be happy? What would be heaven without
God? It says that the streets are
gold, because gold's nothing. Gold's nothing. Do you think
when you get to glory, do you think it's going to be that we're going to be just enamored
with all the stuff and all the glory of heaven, God? The glory is God. It has no need
of the sun or the moon because He's the light of it. glory of God. That's what draws
a believer. It's not the kingdoms of this
world. It's not looking out looking
for stuff. It's the glory of God. That's
what the Spirit of God works in our heart. But Satan appeals
to the other. Satan appeals to the stuff. The stuff. Because that's the
lust of the flesh. The lust of the eye. The lust
of the eye. Mercenaries serve God for gain.
God's people serve God because He's God. We serve God because
of what He's done, what He's done for us. He's our constraint. He's our, what do we want? I want God. I want to be with
Him. That's what I want, for God only. How am I going to be delivered
to Father? Do you see this in yourself? Paul said, in my flesh
dwells no good thing. You know what I see in my flesh?
I see the lust of my flesh. I see the lust of my eyes. And I see the pride of life. That's what I see in myself,
in my flesh. In my flesh dwells no good thing. How are we going to be saved
from our flesh? How are we going to be saved from these things
so that when the devil comes, we resist, Pope Peter said, resist
steadfast in the faith. How are we going to do that?
How are we going to do that? It's by this one right here who
stood steadfast and resisted him. He conquered him. He conquered
him. And he's the comforter. He's
the one through the Spirit of God who comforts us. The Spirit
of God tells us of His Word. The Spirit of God tells us of
His provision. The Spirit of God tells us of
His glory. And He makes the lusts of our
flesh, the needs of our flesh, small. Because we need the Word. He makes the pride of life He makes us to be humbled before
Him. And He makes the glory to be Him and not anything else. Do you ever distrust the providence
of God? Sometimes I think, when do I
not? When do I not? Christ was tempted with that.
Provide for yourself. Be your own provider. And he
said, I'm not. We ever distrust the promises
of God so that we take them for granted and presume upon them.
So we say, well, I don't need his word anymore. We need it,
don't we? We need it. We ever distrust,
find ourselves looking for the, world, living after the world,
and trying to convince and justify that we're not living for the
world. I need Him to deliver me from that. I need Him to deliver
me from that constantly. There's only one place to find
help. It's in our Redeemer. You know, He was tempted in all
points like as we, yet without sin. That doesn't just mean that
He knows what we're going through. It means He knows exactly how
to deliver us. And He is the deliverance. There's
no temptation that comes upon us but that which is common to
man. But God, with every temptation,
provides a way to escape it. And Christ is that way. He is
that way. He understands. He knows. He's been right where we are.
He knows every bit of it. And so He bids us come. He bids
us come to the throne of grace that you might find help in time
of need. Come to Him. Come to Him. You know what He did right here
in all of this? What Satan tried to get Him to do could be summed
up in one word. Sin. And you know what He did
in all of this? Believed. Believed. Believed. Look at Romans 16,
20. Romans 16 20. Let's read verse 17 down through
it. Now I beseech you brethren, Mark
them which cause divisions and offenses contrary to the doctrine
which ye have learned, and avoid them. You know what Satan would
do? You know what the devil does? He causes division and offenses
contrary to the doctrine which we have learned. That's what
he does. For they that are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly. And by good
words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple. You
know what the heart of the simple is? It's the heart of one that's
set simply on Christ. Singularly on Christ. for your obedience has come abroad
unto all. I am glad therefore on your behalf,
but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good and harmless,
simple, concerning that which is evil." And look at this word. This is the same word Peter told
us over there in 1 Peter 5, after you've suffered a while, The
God of all peace, the God of all grace who called us the same
way, same power by which He called us into His eternal glory. After
you've been tempted a little while, tried a little while by
that roaring lion, He will perfect you. He will come and He will
make you of one mind. single on Christ. He will establish
you. He will turn you toward Him and
Him alone. He will strengthen you. He'll
be that vigor. He'll be that strength. He'll
be that light. And He'll settle you right on Him. Look at what
Paul says here. And the God of peace shall bruise
Satan under your feet shortly. That's what he'll do. The grace
of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Look over, one more scripture,
we'll close with this. 1 Thessalonians 5.24. Do you
see here when you look at 1 Thessalonians 5.24, do you see faithfulness
when you look at Christ here tempted by the devil? I see faithfulness,
don't you? I see one steadfast, immovable. Well, you know who our God is,
the God of peace that's called us? It's Him. That's who He is. Steadfast,
immovable, faithful. Faithful. And this is what Paul
comforts the hearts of the saints with. Let's read verse 23. The very God of peace sanctified
you wholly. And I pray, God, your whole spirit
and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now watch these words. Faithful
is he that calleth you who also will do it. Can you rejoice there? I just find rejoicing in there. Strength, my strength, is God
who is faithful. Amen.