I'm going to read out of Psalm
27. The Lord is my light and my salvation,
whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my
life, of whom shall I be afraid? When the wicked, even my enemies
and my foes, came upon me to eat up my flesh, they stumble
and fell. Though a host should encamp against
me, my heart shall not fear. Though war should rise up against
me, in this will I be confident. One thing have I desired of the
Lord that I will seek after, that I may dwell in the house
of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of
the Lord, and to inquire in his temple. For in the time of trouble
he shall hide me in his pavilion. In the secret of his tabernacle
shall he hide me. He shall set me up upon rock.
And now shall my head be lifted up above my enemies round about
me. Therefore will I offer in his
tabernacle sacrifices of joy. I will sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. Hear, O Lord, when I cry with
them my voice. Have mercy also upon me and answer
me. When Thou saidest, Seek ye my
face, my heart said unto Thee, Thy face, Lord, will I seek.
Hide not Thy face far from me. Put not Thy servant away in anger. Thou hast been my help. Lead
me not, neither forsake me. O God of my salvation, when my
father and my mother forsook me, then the Lord will take me
up. Teach me thy way, O Lord, and
lead me in the plain path because of my enemies, delivering not
over unto the will of my enemies, for false witnesses are risen
up against me, and such as breathe out cruelty. I have fainted unless
I had believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the
living. Wait on the Lord, be of good
courage, and he shall strengthen thy heart. Wait, I say, on the
Lord. Father in heaven, we come before thee
to thank thee for thy word we heard already in this morning
hour. And Lord, we thank thee for a place that we gather here
to do that. We ask a blessing upon thy word,
which is to be brought forth to Him. Lord, that we may look
unto Thee and rest in Thee, O Lord. That we may be seen in Thee for
our righteousness, our justification, our sanctification. Lord, we
are thankful that You have that. Lord, we ask the Lord if You
would be with us and lead, feed Thy sheep, O Lord, guide and
protect us. We pray for our children wherever
they may be, O Lord. Watch over them. And we ask the Lord to remember
Eric as he brings forth this message. Be with him, O Lord. Give him what he stands in need
of. We ask in Jesus' name. Amen. Okay, take your Bibles and turn
to Mark chapter 1, Mark 1. We're going to read verses 12 and 13. Mark 1, 12. And immediately the Spirit driveth
him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness
forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts,
and the angels ministered unto him. Our Savior had no sooner
entered his public ministry after his baptism by John, when he
heard the Father say, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am
well pleased, but that immediately the Spirit driveth him into the
wilderness, there to be tempted of Satan. Brethren, one thing
we do know that from this, there's a benefit to the people of God
to see that Christ himself was tempted. That we might know that
we have not a 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. That's from Hebrews 4, 15 and
16. That is that we might remember
and recall that Christ himself knows what we're feeling when
we're tempted and when we're struggling and when we're feeling
the burning in our flesh according to the lusts, we can know and
be comforted that Christ knows what it is to be tempted. He
was tempted like we as men and women are tempted, right? So
that we might come before him not trying to hide, not trying
to make excuses, not trying to sound better than we are, but
that we can come before him honestly and openly about what's in our
heart because he says that he is kind and merciful to those
who come to him, and he himself was tempted. Not that he has
the lusts and burning in his flesh like we do because we're
sinners. He's without sin, but he was tempted Therefore, Hebrew
says, 416, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of
need. Our title is simple. It's just
called Tempted. Tempted. And I'm not standing
before you as an expert about all that the Lord suffered and
endured here. I don't understand fully how
the Son of God, who is Christ, could be tempted because he has
no sin. He's not a sinner. He doesn't have the lust in his
flesh the way we do, but we will look at what the scriptures plainly
reveals and teaches us there. So I'm not looking to do verbal
gymnastics or theological gymnastics to try and say things that aren't
there, but just look at what God has revealed in his word. Because there is a mystery to
it, right? Paul said, great is the mystery
of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh,
justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the
Gentiles, believed on in the world, and received up into glory. While there is mystery around
it, we can still take comfort in seeing how our Savior, the
God-Man, what He endured for us. Because remember, Christ,
the Son of God, is holy. He didn't have to leave heaven.
He didn't have to come off His throne and the fellowship that
He had with the Father from all eternity to do for us what He
did, yet He did it willingly that we might know Him. Just
as He was driven of the Spirit into the wilderness, we have
the benefit of when we go through temptations and trials, we're
driven of the Spirit to Christ our Savior, because that's where
we find all our hope and joy and comfort. It's in Christ.
We'll have four divisions. We'll first look at the adversary,
then our sovereign God, then the weapons of warfare, and a
summary of all temptation. So first, from this passage,
we see and understand that Satan, he is a mighty adversary. Again, he is the enemy of our
souls. He means us no good. He hates
us, and he hates the God that we love and worship. And I'm
aware that Hollywood, especially, you can see they've basically,
with some of the programming that's airing these days, and
you see, I don't really watch Emmys, but I've seen things that
they do there where it's a thinly veiled, if you can call that,
satanic-type rituals that they're doing on stage now and getting
away with it. And there's shows that seem to kind of make Satan
seem more like us or something like something where he's he's
not a bad guy that he's just kind of like us you know and
just trying to get along and do his thing but the scriptures
declare that he's a murderer and a liar. He's a murderer and
a liar, and he means you and me no good whatsoever. Matthew
4, 1, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. This one feared not to assault
the Son of God himself. He attacked the very throne of
God, and he did it with impunity. He's a mighty foe, and Revelation
12.7 says that there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels
fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought
against Michael and his. So, brethren, you and me are
no match for this one. If you are being tempted, flee
to the Lord Jesus Christ because you're not going to endure and
withstand the temptations of Him. You will lose. But we have
the joy of knowing that Christ prevailed. He was tempted, and
he did not succumb to Satan's temptations. All men and women
are born into this world under the influence of Satan. They're
born spiritually dead. Our reasoning is carnal. We have
only a carnal, dead, fleshly faculties and ability to do and
think the things that we think. As Ephesians 2, 1 through 3 says,
you hath he quickened. He had to give us life. You who
were dead in trespasses and in sins were in in time past. Ye, that includes me, ye we walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air. the spirit that now worketh in
the children of disobedience, among whom also we all had our
conversation in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling
the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature
the children of wrath, even as others. So none of us can stand
here and boast that somehow we freed ourselves and set ourselves
free, taking ourselves out from under the influence of Satan.
If you are delivered from Satan and his bonds and the love of
sin, you have only God to thank for it, because it's his power,
what he himself does. And we see that in Ephesians
2, 4. But God. So the one who makes the difference
is God. Not we ourselves, not by our
works, but God made the difference. who is rich in mercy, for his
great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in
sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are
saved, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together
in heavenly places in Christ. John 8, 44, we see Christ. He's speaking to the unbelieving
Jews, and he says this very plainly. unto them, Ye are of your father
the devil, and the lust of your father ye will do. He was a murderer
from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there
is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh
of his own, for he is a liar, and the father of it. So that
is true of all of us by nature, except that Christ himself set
us free from that spiritual darkness and deadness and being just taken
captive by him. Because no one in the world feels
like they're taken captive by Satan at his will. We think that
we're making free choices of our own hearts and of our own
minds. And we are, but it's bound in
sin and iniquity so that all we can think of are carnal and
fleshly things. understand that which is spiritual
and that's why none of us by nature knows who God is because
he's spirit and we're just carnal dead creatures so we've been
taken captive by Christ by his love and his spirit and his mercy
delivering us out from that so that we are the willing bond
servants of the Lord Jesus Christ and we rejoice in this because
we're not just set free but he's even adopted us into his family
so that we are the sons and daughters of the Most High God, having
His Spirit, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. So when we are tempted,
we can cry out to the Father, calling upon Him to have mercy
upon us. So there's nothing we're boasting
of in our flesh. We're not praising ourselves.
We're giving God all the thanks and all the glory for delivering
us out of that bondage, right? Otherwise, we'd only have fallen
for his lies and the temptations that he sets before men. So, we are never to think of
ourselves more highly than we ought to think and because we're
in his flesh, we do that a lot. We do it a lot. I know even myself,
even when I'm trying to be humble and trying to think of others,
I'm still thinking of myself and I'm still doing things for
me and to preserve me and trying to do what is right, but this
flesh is ever with me. And so we need our Savior to
deliver us from the wicked one's influences, from the influences
and the lusts of this flesh, so that we cry and pray to our
Lord God. As Christ said, when you pray,
lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, because
there's evil all around us. So don't think of yourself more
highly than you ought to think. Don't think you've got this in
the bag and everything's good and I'm not going to sin anymore.
I've got that taken care of and I'm such a good person now. When
you think that, you will fall and you'll fall as hard as is
necessary. So remember, pray to the Lord. Remember to seek Him and pray
that you be not led into temptation but that you be delivered from
evil. Alright, second now, our sovereign
God. Another thing that we learn and
understand in this is that our God is sovereign. He is sovereign
over all things. He's not the author of sin, because
sin flows out of our depraved hearts. It just comes out of
us naturally. He's not the author of sin, but
He controls us. He determines what we do or don't
do, that is, our boundaries, where we go or where we don't
go, so that He's working and controlling all things. I don't
fully understand that. It blows my mind to think that
God is working and controlling all things. I might turn left
as opposed to turning right one day or look down as opposed to
keeping my eyes up. He does all things and ensures
that we are where we're supposed to be when we're supposed to
be there. and it's all the Lord. He is sovereign, absolutely sovereign,
doing all things according to His good pleasure, so that He's
ruling even in the temptation. He's not causing any of us to
sin, but He's still ruling even in the temptation. As it says
in Matthew 4.1, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And Mark 1.12 declares,
immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. So that he's ensuring and determining
that all things are working as he has purposed in his own heart
to do. So God doesn't tempt man to sin,
man loves sin, and he is tempted because of the lusts that are
in his own flesh, right? Man isn't essentially good, which
is another popular teaching of false religion that all men are
essentially good. No, they're not. Man is essentially
evil, and the Lord God is restraining that iniquity in our hearts which
does not praise Him which is not necessary and isn't needed. James 1.13 says, 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 hath conceived,
it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth
forth death. So God isn't even tempting Christ
to sin. Satan's tempting Christ to sin.
But, thanks be to God, Christ has no lust in him. So there's
no ability for sin to even be conceived in him because he doesn't
have a lustful heart like we do. So Satan's trying to tempt
him, but it's going nowhere because Christ is perfect. He doesn't
have that lust that we have in his own flesh. But the Lord God
is allowing this that we might see and know that Christ as our
second Adam, the first Adam when tempted, he sinned and he plunged
himself and all his race into sin and death and darkness. But
the second Adam who came representing his people, he came and withstood
the temptations of Satan so that he and his people are declared
righteous. He resisted the devil, he resisted
the temptation, he remained faithful looking to God so that God is
pleased with him in all things. And we are pleasing to the Lord
because Christ is pleasing to the Lord, because he obtained
for us righteousness. He withstood the temptation of
the devil and as our second Adam he defeated the serpent, he crushed
his head, he destroyed the works of the devil so that they no
more have power over us who hope in Him and look to Him for our
salvation. And it's good for us to know
and to see and to witness our merciful Savior being subjected
to this willingly to fulfill all righteousness. He didn't
have to do this. He did it for our benefit. He
did it to save us from our sins, to save us from the destruction
that comes upon all the enemies of God and all those who rebel
against God. Christ delivered us from that, that we might be
his people and rejoice in the salvation of our Lord God. He
knows our weaknesses. You know, Satan tempted him with
the very things that man is tempted with. Man wants these things,
and you see Satan tempting Christ with those things. He tempted
him with bread, right? And we as men and women, we want
to have provision. We want to be provided for. We
like that security. And so he tempted him with that
security to be able to provide for himself. But he didn't do
what Satan wanted. He tempted him with divine protection. We all would love to have that
divine protection so that everywhere we go and everything we do or
say that God is watching over us. And he tempted them with
that desire to have dominion over the world. But Christ waited
upon the Father. He trusted the Father that he
didn't succumb to the temptations. He waited upon the Father to
provide. He trusted that the Lord was protecting him, that
he didn't need to prove him and throw himself down. And he trusted
that waiting upon the Lord, trusting the Lord and fulfilling that
work which the Father sent him to do, He would have dominion
over all the world. He didn't need to take that which
was before him right then and there immediately. In Matthew
4 verses 2 and 3 we read when he had, just as an example, when
he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and
hungered. right? So he knew as a man, he
knew what hunger is and he felt that hunger after 40 days and
40 nights of not eating. So he's very weak in the flesh
and certainly primed for temptation. And the tempter came to him and
said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be
made bread. So Satan tempted him right then
and there and When we're thinking about us
being tempted and when we've struggled, we find anything to
justify our giving in to the temptation. We find all kinds
of reasons why we might feel justified in doing what we did,
but thankfully, by the Spirit, If we've done that, the Lord
shows us and convicts us that we've just been fooled and what
we've done is not good. It's not profitable. It's neither
profitable to us, and it's not profitable to our brethren. Because
when we sin, now our hearts and our thoughts and our minds are
on us and what we've just done now. And we're dealing and battling
with the guilt for our sin and our foolishness and our folly.
And we're no longer praying for our brethren. We're no longer
thinking of how we might serve our brethren. We're now battling
this old Arminian flesh of how can I make this right? How can
I make up for this thing? feel good the way I was feeling
before I did this. How can I make this right? And
that's just the flesh. That's not even the spirit, because
that's just the flesh trying to set right what it's wrong.
That's like Adam and Eve going and making fig leaves to make
right what they've done wrong, but we know it's not a covering.
And so when we sin, it's just It seemed right, and we justify
it, but once we've done it, it leads to death. It just leads
to that corruption and that feeling that we've just done wrong. And that's when you see the flesh
acting up all the more to try and make things right. But brethren,
we are told to cast our care before the Lord, because he careth
for you. When you're tempted, don't try
to take it on yourself, pray to the Lord Jesus Christ. Trust
Him. Pray to Him. Beg Him. Seek Him to do it. Don't
try to make things right in your own power and in your own strength,
but be honest and confess your sin to Him, because He knows
what we are by nature. He knows that we're sinners.
He knows that we have this flesh, that lust for the things that
the flesh lusts for, but go to Him. And even Those things, I'm
sure you're like me, you have those. those sins in your flesh
that you are predisposed to, that you have a certain affinity
for, and no doubt, like me, you've protected them. And you thought,
let me not really pray about this in sincerity because, you
know, I've given up enough. I've done a lot. Let me just
ride this one out, you know, and stay quiet about this because
if I bring it before the Lord, He might actually deal with it.
But trust Him. The flesh I can promise you the
flesh won't like what the Lord does in dealing with your sin,
but the new man always rejoices in what Christ has done. Never
has the Lord ever delivered you from any sin that you cherished,
any lust that you protected and kept from him, but when he delivered
you from it, The flesh may have smarted and felt the pain of
it and said, I don't like this, but the new man was brought to
Christ to see how Christ is made more precious to us and in the
new man we can confess and say, Lord, thank you. I would never
have chosen to go down that way, but thank you for bringing me
down that way and removing that from me. Thank you, Lord. The
Lord does a work in us that we can't ever affect or make happen
in us. The Lord has to do it. In Hebrews
2.17 it says, Wherefore in all things it behooved Christ to
be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. For in that he himself hath suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted."
He's able to care for, to provide the healing ointment, to provide
the salvation, to deliver his people, and to restore them in
himself, even when we have sinned and fallen into that. And just
remember, brethren, whenever you do give in to that sin, are
you ever satisfied? Do you ever say, well, that's
enough for the rest of my life. I don't need to do that ever
again. Nope, nope, within moments. I mean, you might feel guilty
for a while, but as soon as you feel good about yourself, you're
immediately calculating and thinking right back towards those things
which are separating you from your God. Not that we're ever
separated from Him, but just that condemnation guilt that
we feel in ourselves. Just seek Him. The Lord is sovereign.
He led Christ into the wilderness for this purpose, and He's sovereign
over us that He is able to teach us even in the temptation. Wait
upon Him. He teaches us in the trials. He teaches us in the tribulations
we go through. He teaches us in the struggles
we go through. He teaches us in the afflictions we go through.
And you can be sure He's teaching you even through the temptation. Be patient. Keep looking to Him,
waiting upon Him to to strengthen you and to equip you with His
presence and His deliverance. Just wait upon Him. As I mentioned,
the flesh won't love it, but the new man will indeed rejoice. And so God is able to teach His
people. He's able When we find ourselves
in temptation, again, it's because it's finding a place in the lusts
that are there in our flesh, but he's able to overrule, you
know, and so we, the child of God will think awful, wicked
things at times. There's wicked thoughts that
rise in our hearts and in our minds and we think, oh, how can
I be a Christian and think that thought? And those things will
arise in your heart and mind and certainly don't think that,
well, if I thought it, I might as well go ahead and do it. No,
there's ramifications for sin, right? If you go out and you
murder somebody, even if you find forgiveness with the Lord
and the Lord forgives you, You're still going to be caught, most
likely. You're going to go to, you know, you're going to stay
in trial and go through the stress and go to jail and hurt yourself,
hurt your family. There's ramifications for the
evil that we do. So don't do it just because it's
in your heart. But there's thoughts that come
in our heart and we think that's just awful. I hate that. And
yet in the flesh, we love it. In the flesh, we love it. But
in the new man, we know that's wicked. That's wicked. I don't
even want that. Even in your flesh you see disgusting
things and you think weird thoughts and it's the Lord that has to
save us and deliver us from it. So He knows. He knows and He's
able to teach us through it all. Hebrews 5 says, says, So Christ
was faithfully obedient to the Father in all things. And you
know, He's able to affect obedience
in our hearts too. He's able to teach us through
all the things that we suffer, through all the various trials,
even through the temptation that we go through, He's able. So
that He makes us to be obedient, looking to Him, and He'll carry
you through it. He'll deliver you through it.
So that He bears the fruit that He desires to bear in His people. The Spirit will bear fruit in
us. Turn over to Galatians 5 and we'll see that. Galatians 5 and
go to verse 22. But the fruit of the Spirit is
love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith,
meekness, temperance. Against such there is no law."
Right? Because that's a fruit that he
works in his childhood, that he teaches. And they that are
Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts.
If we live in the Spirit, so let us walk in the Spirit. And
brethren, I can't give that to any of you. I can't even give
it to myself. And the law? The law can't give
it to you. The law can't affect that fruit
in you. And it can't affect it in me.
That's a work of the Spirit. Only the Spirit of God can bring
forth that fruit out of His child. Only He can work that in us.
He plants the seed. He puts it in the good ground.
He adds the rain. and the sun, and causes it to
grow, and to bring forth fruit as it pleases Him." And that
takes time, brethren, a lot of time. There are sins that He's
delivered immediately, like He's delivered us from that, but there
are other things that take time, but be faithful, just waiting
upon Him, and don't try to hide it and protect it, but let Him
have His perfect work, and He'll bring you through it. One of the things that He bears
fruit in His people through all these things, that He teaches
us that through it all, that it's all of His grace. He's going
to cause you I mean, I have no doubt that some of you have probably
tried to conquer certain sins and tried to overcome them and
maybe for a time succeeded and then fell back into them and
things of that sort. But He's going to show you that
it's all of His grace and that's a fruit. When you truly know
and understand that God saves by grace and that He's working
in His people as it pleases Him, that you can trust Him and wait
upon Him to do the work That's a fruit that he bears in the
child of God. His spirit is the one that's
going to do that. So we'll learn that even when
we're faithful, we've been faithful and endured the temptation and
got through it without without committing the sin, even that,
we learn that my faithfulness is because of him. It's his faithfulness. So that we're always rejoicing
in and giving him all the praise and glory, not looking to what
we've done saying, hey, good job, but we're trusting that
he's done that work faithfully for us. All right, let's look
at the weapons of our warfare. Right? So the weapons that the
Lord has equipped us with, they're all spiritual. They're all spiritual.
And go to Ephesians 6. You probably were thinking that,
but Ephesians 6. And we'll go in verse 14. And
you'll notice that there's none that's ever been so skillful
as the Lord himself. He uses these weapons perfectly. And we often fumble and don't
do very well with them in and of ourselves, but only the spirit
can exercise these things in us, because the flesh can't yield
these things, not in spirit and not in truth. So here's the weapons
that he's given to his people. He says in verse 14, Stand therefore,
having your loins girded about with truth. Well, our truth is
the Lord Jesus Christ, right? That we need him, that he's done
all the work of salvation for us. He's our truth, that he alone
is righteous and that he has saved us, he has sanctified us,
he has justified us, he's done everything. That's truth. And
we remember that Christ is our truth, that he is our righteousness.
He says, in having on the breastplate of righteousness, Again, Christ
is our righteousness. He is obtained for us what is
called here the breastplate of righteousness, that is, that
righteous robe whereby we stand before holy God. Verse 15, And
your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. You've
heard the gospel, right? Keep hearing the gospel. It's
not enough just to hear it once. Not that God can't save us through
one hearing of the gospel, but we who are given life and extended
life here on this planet, come and hear the gospel. Set your
lives around the hearing of the gospel, because that's how he's
going to feed and teach his sheep. We ought to make every effort
to be here when the gospel is being preached. If the congregation's meeting
for the word, Do everything you can to be here. Talk to work and pray about it. Pray about it. I understand.
I know, again, the flesh is weak and the flesh thinks, I don't
know if I'm going to be able to do that, but trust the Lord
to give you a heart and to be able to speak to work and to
see if they can't make a way. If they don't, the Lord, just
keep praying about it, keep praying about it, and the Lord's able
to do His work and His way. You know, because when we're
faithful sometimes, again, because that seed can take a long time,
but when you're faithful before others, you don't know how the
Lord may use that to show that one and convict that one. And
they may think about it for a long time, but as they see you just
consistently being faithful in that little thing, it may cause
them one day to ask a reason for the hope that is within you. Why do you do that? Why do you
do those things? Down here it might even be a little easier.
I know up north it's pretty shocking that someone would ask to be
excused from work to go to services because so few go to services. So few do it. Then he says in
verse 16, above all taking the shield of faith wherewith you
shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. So
trust the Lord. He's faithful. He's not abandoning
you when you're feeling afflicted and you're feeling tempted, it's
not that the Lord has abandoned you. He's brought you there for
a purpose. Trust Him. He's sovereign over
all things. Verse 17, take the helmet of
salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of
God. And I would ask, you know, do
you read the Word of God? It's not enough just to have
a Bible, but pick it up and read it. When you get home from services,
don't leave it in the bag unless you have another one at your
bedside. That's fine, but read the Word and try to read the
Word when you're awake. You know, there's one of the
greatest cures for insomnia I found in my flesh is just open the
Bible. And my flesh was within three to five words, all of a
sudden I was wide awake and my eyelids just started dropping.
I was wide awake and I just read five words and I'm already getting
tired, ready to close the book and go to sleep. So, there was
a time when I used to read it more at night, but I would encourage
you to try and read it in the morning. And if you can't read
a lot because you're running out the door, read a phrase of
a verse and just try and meditate on it, you know, and seek him
in that, but try to read it and try to memorize it and study
it, not as a religious duty, but Christ responded to the temptations
of Satan with the word, and think about his word, and the Spirit
will bring back his word to your mind and to your thoughts and
just trust Him to use that time to teach you and to build you
up in the Lord Christ. And then he says, praying always
with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto
with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. And one of the
biggest things I noticed between me and my Savior is that He prayed. He prayed. And I feel ashamed
at how little I pray in comparison to when he had downtime, he was
off praying to the Father. And it doesn't mean that you
always have to be on your knees in your closet praying, though
that is good to set some time apart, you know, and to have
some quiet solitude. But when you're doing your chores,
you can pray. When you're in your car, shut
off the radio and pray. And pray for your brethren. Think
about them. If you have a cold, dead heart,
Just thank them and start praying for your brethren and remember
Then, and remember the work here, that the Lord would establish
it, that His presence would be among us, and that He would grow
that work, and that He would teach us. Don't just assume that
you know all things, but the Lord says in His Word that of
Israel, I will be sought of for these things. He will allow us
to come to the end of ourselves. I noticed the one time when I
can pray without being urged, or reminded, or provoked in any
way, It's when I'm going through an affliction and when I'm being
tempted out of measure, prayer comes a whole lot easier. The Lord uses that to remind
us our frailty, our weakness, that we're not anything apart
from Him, that we desperately need Him in all things at all
times. So temptation He's able to overrule
it for our good and to make it work good in us as it pleases
Him by His Spirit. All right, fourth, a summary
of all temptation. So one of the things that you
notice when you're looking at what the Lord was tempted with,
if you look over in Matthew, Mark doesn't really get into
it, but in Matthew, it was all things that involved disbelieving
and distrusting God in heaven. and not believing that he even
is. He said, if thou be the son of
God, right? And he said, provide for yourself
bread or throw yourself down from here. Try and kill yourself.
God will save you. He won't allow it to happen. And what's amazing
is that the scriptures declare to us that at his baptism the
voice came from heaven and said, Thou art my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. And immediately Satan went right
after that trying to work doubt and cause doubt in his mind.
And I know certainly I can relate to that because there's been
times when I've seen things so glorious The Lord has led me
to pray about it, because he's going to do his will anyway.
But there's times when I've prayed about it, and it's been on my
mind a lot, and the Lord brings it to pass. And I rejoice and
say, there's no possibility, but that had to be the Lord doing
it. And you ever notice how just within a few moments, in your
mind, thoughts start coming up, maybe it was just a coincidence.
I don't know, maybe it was just a coincidence that that happened.
So immediately the temptation can come in to make us doubt
those things. And so Christ had just heard
the father say, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
And Satan went after it. Now Christ, of course, he did
not sin. He wasn't fooled. He answered
him with the scriptures. And that's a good thought for
us not to try to handle the temptation in our own flesh, but to wait
upon him, to trust him to do it. And then, you know, Satan
says to him, you know, finally, he says, you know, bow down and
worship me and I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. And I thought, how true is that
in this world? Everywhere around us, when you
talk to people, They're just taking what they can get that's
right in front of them, what they can get. They don't, the
thought of waiting upon the Lord for our inheritance, the thought
of trusting Him, that He says, don't do these momentary pleasures,
these things that are passing away. Your life is but a moment.
Your life is but a vapor. And all the world just buys that
lie of Satan where he says, bow down in front of me right here
and now and I'll give you everything. that you want, and they do. They
just bow right down, and they say, you know what, I don't know
whether the Lord is coming or not, I don't even know if God
exists, but I see this, I see these physical things right in
front of me, and so I'm gonna pursue them, I'm gonna go after
them, and alter my life to pursue all that with a great career,
or my education, and things like that, that are all ultimately
taking them away from their ability to seek the Lord, their time
that they could seek the Lord and know Him. So in coming from
the Northeast, where I just was, they really do trust in science,
and they really do trust in the things that they can see, even
though they're always changing the laws about certain things,
and are always looking to discovering some new thing that changes their
mind, and then eventually, after 20-30 years, something else changes
their mind, and they go back to it, or just change it all
together, but they're so smugly confident and sure in science,
and they doubt the existence of God, and they challenge you
to prove the existence of God, But James says boldly to his
hearers, ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship
of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever, therefore, will be
a friend of the world is the enemy of God. And he encourages
us, saying, Submit yourselves, therefore, to God, resist the
devil, and he will flee from you. And it seems that with every
passing day that the Lord tarries and he doesn't return, man just
gets more and more confident in his rebellion and is just
pushing off the things of God, right? And I don't know, you
know, for you that, you know, I don't
know if it's happened to everybody yet, but there will come a time
when the temptation will be so fierce and so strong, you will
begin to rationalize and you'll think, you know, it has been
a long time. Maybe God isn't true. Maybe all this is made up and
make-believe and, you know, what the world says, maybe that's
true. Because the world's all around you saying, look, this
is reality. This is reality. This is tangible. You can touch
this. Go for this. Bow down to this right here,
right now. And that temptation can enter
the heart and the mind to think, you know, it has been a long
time. It was 2,000 years since Christ
walked the earth. But I think what Peter wrote
in his second epistle is appropriate for us to be reminded of. And
he said in 2 Peter 3, verse 1, this second epistle, beloved,
I now write unto you in both which I stir up your pure minds
by way of remembrance. that ye may be mindful of the
words which were spoken before by the holy prophets and of the
commandment of us the apostles of our Lord and Savior, knowing
this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers
walking after their own lusts and saying, where is the promise
of his coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. And even scientists use that
word creation because they attribute creation to the Big Bang, not
to God, but even they still use that. And people are looking
to the fact that as far as their lifetime is concerned, everything's
been going the same way it has. And this is silly to worry about
God and to think that God's returning, that surely that which we see
is reality and it's never going to change. What has always been
is always going to be. And so they scoff at and laugh
at the thought or the idea of seeking the Lord God and trusting
that he is indeed returning again as he said. So they laugh at
it now, but Peter says they are willfully forgetting that God
destroyed the earth with a flood and that the next time he's going
to destroy the earth with fire. And it is interesting just how
this world, it's odd how Those people that are powerful and
can make decisions and have a lot of money, they are doing everything
to get off the planet. You notice that? They're all
trying to work on this like... transhuman and post-human thought
and trying their hardest to get off the planet as if they somehow
know that the planet is going to be destroyed. It's just a
very odd thing, but the people by and large are just thinking,
when is God going to return? When is God going to return?
But remember, there was long seasons in the Old Testament.
There was long seasons where the Lord didn't speak to the
people. Moses himself went 40 years. When he killed that Egyptian,
He went 40 years in the wilderness before the Lord spoke to him
in the burning bush. That's a long time to go without
hearing from the Lord. And David clearly went some time.
There were seasons when David went for a while where he didn't
have a close fellowship with the Lord and he fell into all
kinds of sin which the Lord had to deliver him from. So don't
be discouraged by the fact that you haven't heard from the Lord
in some physical way. Malachi was 350 years before
John the Baptist came, and it's been 2,000 years since Christ
walked this earth in the flesh, but he's given us his word, and
he's kept his people, trusting him, looking to him. He said,
blessed are they which have not seen and yet believe. And think
about that. We don't have those gifts that
were given to the apostles. We have the Holy Spirit. We have
the Holy Spirit just as they did, but we don't see those outward
manifestations. And yet through this gospel,
this simple gospel, he's teaching his people and keeping them,
stayed upon him, trusting in him. And I think this parable
that the Lord said in Mark 13, turn over there and we'll see
this parable, because I think it's very appropriate for our
day to remember If you're tempted, I don't know, but if you're ever
tempted and you think that thought, that it's been a long time since
we heard from the Lord, maybe this isn't true. Mark 13, verse
31. Mark 13, 31. Christ said, heaven
and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away.
But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels
which are in heaven, neither the son, but the father. Take
ye heed, watch, and pray, for ye know not when the time is.
For the Son of Man is as a man taking a far journey, who left
his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every
man his work, and commanded the porter to watch." Right? He's taken a far journey. And from our puny little perspective,
it seems like it's been a long time. It seems like it's been
a long time since he said that all authority is given to him
and that he's returning again to redeem his people. But remember,
as Peter said, that our God is long-suffering to us-ward, not
willing that any should perish. Not willing that any of his people
should perish, but is long-suffering to us-ward, and that he is redeeming
his people. He's calling out his sheep. He's
adding to the inheritance of the Lord all those that he's
chosen from all eternity. So he says, don't fall asleep,
brethren. Watch and pray. Watch and pray. Don't succumb to the temptation.
Verse 35. Watch ye therefore, for ye know
not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight,
or at the cock crowing, or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly
he find you sleeping, and what I say unto you, I say unto all,
watch. So brethren, Be patient. The Lord said it would be a far
journey and it may seem like a long time, but he's kept his
people and he's preserved his gospel. He even delivered us
from the prevailing Arminian no gospel and raised up again
in our country that the gospel of our Savior would go forth.
He's not letting it get snuffed out, the gates of hell aren't
rebelling against it. He's kept his gospel and he's
teaching his people, so trust him and don't be weary. Watch,
pray, seek the Lord. He says, he tells us to watch
and pray so that we would continually remember him and just trust him,
brethren. Just trust him.