Turn back to Matthew 4. Matthew 4. The title of this
message, Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness. We read in the book of Hebrews,
Hebrews 4.15, We have not an high priest which
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in
all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. In Hebrews 2.18 we read this,
for in that he himself has suffered being tempted, tried, he is able to succor or help
them that are tempted. You and I go through troubles.
We experience different things. There are things that I may experience
that you may not experience. Things you have experienced that
I may not experience. And it's hard to really identify
with someone, to truly identify, until you have gone through what
they've gone through. Our Lord can identify with everyone
of His children, no matter what the situation is, no matter what
the trouble. He can identify. He was tempted
at all points, as we are. Our Lord met every enemy we have
and conquered them. He conquered them. Satan, who
is an evil spirit, has been conquered by our Lord. He's nothing more
than a pit bull on a chain. Really. It's all he is. He can only do what our Lord
will allow him to do. Now here in Matthew 4 is one
of our Lord's many victories over Satan. In fact, every time
our Lord saves a sinner, every time He saves a sinner, it's
another demonstration of His power, of His authority, and
of His victory over Satan. How many times when you go through
reading the Gospels did our Lord command a demon or evil spirit
to come out of a person? Not one time, not one time do
we read where that evil spirit or demon says, no, no, I'm not
going to. They do it every time. In fact,
they said, we know who you are. You are the Holy One of Israel. You know, the Jews said, we know
who you are. You are the carpenter's son.
But the devil said, no, we know who you are. You're God. You're the Holy One of Israel.
Now, this knowledge of His power and authority over all principalities
and powers should give all God's children great comfort as they
pass through this world, this shadow of death, is what's called
in Psalm 23. Now, I know that people, for
the most part, they believe that Satan does his greatest evil
on the streets, in the brothels, in the drug world, but the greatest
evil Satan does is in the pulpit. It's in the pulpit. The brothels, the drugs, the
streets, that's just people being people. That's just people being
people. We don't need the devil to be
devils. We've got that nature in us. If God annihilated all
the fallen angels, if He annihilated all the demons and the devil,
just annihilated them, we'd still be a bunch of devils. By nature
now, we would be. That's the truth. If He turned
us loose, that's exactly what would happen. Satan's greatest work comes from
the pulpit. It comes out of false religion,
confusion. You know, his greatest tactic
is confusion. Get confusion in the battle.
That's his greatest tactic. But especially, now listen, especially
when the message is so close that even the elect of God would
be deceived. Listen to 2 Corinthians 11. For
such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel, don't marvel at
this, for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers
of righteousness, self-righteousness, morality, Don't be surprised about that.
People think of Satan, they always think of something real devious
and sinister and, oh, he's got them in the pulpit as ministers
of righteousness. Self-righteousness, morality.
You can be as moral as you want to be. If you miss Christ, you're
gonna perish. Because no one's that moral inwardly.
Outwardly, you know, those Pharisees, they thought they were the most
moral people in town. Outwardly, they were. Inwardly,
Christ said, you're a bunch of adulterers. God knows your heart. He said, I know what you're thinking. I know what's going on in there.
God knows what's going on in the heart. And when false religion
makes a convert, our Lord said this in In Matthew 23, "'Woe
unto you, scribes and Pharisees and hypocrites, you posers! For you encompass sea and land
to make one proselyte, and when he is made, you make him twofold
the child of hell than yourselves. You've given him a false hope,
You've given him a false refuge, and the hardest thing to get
any man out of, any person out of, is a false hope, a false
refuge. They hang on that all the way
to the end. And he said, that's what you
do. He said, you compass sea and land. You put a lot of effort
into this. And all you did was make that person twofold a child
of hell. Now let's look at the time of
his temptation here. It was right after his baptism.
It was right after his baptism. You see, Satan's not really interested
in the unregenerate. He already has them. It's God's Son he wants to destroy,
and it's God's people he wants to destroy. That's what he wants
to destroy. He's not concerned about the
unregenerate out there. If He can get him, He can get
all of them. If He can get one of His children, He can destroy
His glory. Just one. Just one sheep. He
can destroy the whole glory of God in redemption. But notice
something else interesting in this verse. It says, the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit led Christ into the wilderness to be tempted.
The Spirit of God led him into the wilderness to try him. To try him. To test him. To prove him. What happened before
they offered the Passover lamb? Do you know what they would do
to that lamb? They would put it up and observe it. and make
sure there was no blemish in that lamb. And they would observe
it for some days to make sure there's no blemish in it. We
are going to see here in this temptation, there's no blemish
in God's lamb. There's no blemish. This was
by design. It was purposed of God for Christ
to be tried in every way, in every way as we are. There's
not, as I've already said, there's not a way you and I will be tried
or tempted that Christ was not tried or tempted. Martin Luther
said this, there are three things that make a preacher, meditation,
prayer, and temptation. And our Lord is the greatest
preacher that ever walked on this earth. He is truly the prince of preachers.
Now our Lord's temptation was very real. He felt the full force
of Satan's onslaught. He took the full blow of it.
You know, when you and I are tempted, it can only go to a
certain point before God removes it. He only allows it to go so
far. Our Lord got the full force of
it. There was no blunting of the
temptation. And don't think because He's God that the temptation
was not difficult. or that he did not feel it. He
couldn't identify with me if he couldn't feel it. But I want you to notice this.
What condescension that the son of God, that God, would allow
himself to be tried or tempted by Satan. That is just astounding to me.
That's astounding. Again here, the time of his temptation. After he had fasted. After he
had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, it says, after that he was hungry.
This shows his humanity. He was truly a man like us in
every way except for sin. Satan came at him at his weakest
point, so he thought. at his weakest point. Remember
how Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of soup? Adam, what
did he do? He ate of the tree of knowledge,
the forbidden fruit. He ate of it. And Satan comes
at him the same way. He waits until he's hungry. After
40 days and 40 nights, this man has not eaten. And he feels it. He feels it. The first temptation
is self-preservation. Satisfy this flesh, lust of the
flesh. Satisfy your hunger. Is there
anything wrong with eating if you're hungry? Listen to this. And when he had
fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterwards hungry. And
when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of
God, command that these stones be made bread, Rack said, not eating for 40
days and nights. He's hungry. And Satan shoots at the chink
in the armor. But there's no chink in his armor.
There's no chink in his armor. No doubt Satan believes he can
bring him down just like he did the first Adam. Let me at him. I can bring him
down. Satan made it sound so innocent.
You're hungry. You are the son of God. But if
you're the son of God, put the question mark on it. You think you're strong. See,
if I challenged you, if I said, you really think you're strong,
pick that up. Let me see you pick that up. And you know what
we're going to do? We're going to go pick it up.
Because we've got to prove it. We've got to prove we're strong.
We've got to prove we're intelligent. We've got to prove these things.
He says here, if you're the son of God, if that's so, turn these
stones into bread and eat. Feed yourself, there's nothing
wrong with that. But notice how the Lord answered
him. When he answered in verse four, he answered and said, it
is written. Every time he answered, he answered him with the word
of God. How important is that? It is written, man shall not
live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
mouth of God. I'm not living right now because
I had a good breakfast or because I've maintained a good diet. I'm living because God said live.
Now when He says die, I'm gonna die. But we live, he says, by
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. But our
Lord here answered him with God's Word. Our best defense, our best
defense is the Word of God, not human logic, not human logic. You know what human logic would
do? It would eat. Human logic would say there's
nothing wrong with eating. Eve looked at the tree and she
saw that it was good for food. There's nothing wrong with it.
So she took it. Human logic would say, eat instead
of wait on the Lord to provide. Wait on the Lord to provide.
Our Lord said, man shall not live by bread alone. That's not my life. What am I
going to eat? What am I going to drink? What
am I going to wear? The Lord said, it's not life more than this. But by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God, every word of God are His decrees and
purpose. That's what we live by. We live
by the decree of God, the will of God, the purpose of God. And
when God has fulfilled that in each one of us, He'll take us
home. I want you to listen to Deuteronomy.
In Deuteronomy chapter 8. And thou shalt remember all the
way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the
wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was
in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his
commandments or no. Did they? No. They didn't keep
one. He proved them and they failed. And he humbled thee and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna which thou
knewest not, neither did thy fathers know that he might make
thee know that man doth not live by bread only." He doesn't live by bread only,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord,
and that is capital L-O-R-D. The self-existing One, the One
who exists by Himself, Jehovah. Jehovah doth man live. And our
Lord quoted that scripture. He said it's written. Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out
of the mouth of God. It's amazing when you look over
all of humanity, there's no desire to know God who commands our
life. There's no seeking Him. You know
what He said in Genesis, when He looked down from heaven to
see if any sought Him, and there was none. There was none. Out of all His creation, He said,
there was none. But our Lord always answered
Satan, thus it is written. Christ's words and actions were
always, always according, always according to God's Word. Always. Here's a lesson. Never do wrong
in order to satisfy your hunger. whatever that hunger may be.
Spurgeon said one time, he said, don't make a dog out of yourself
trying to get a bone. Our Lord wouldn't. He would not
make that stone bread. You know why he didn't make the
stone into bread? Can you? Can you make it into
bread? So he's not going to either.
He's not going to take care of himself in areas where I can't
take care of myself. Our substitute has to suffer
everything we suffer. I can't make a bread and He's
going to... When you go through the Gospels
not one time, notice this when you read through the Gospels,
not one time does our Lord ever do anything to relieve His sufferings,
His hunger, His thirst. Not one time. Not one time. Because I can't. I can't. Now the second temptation. Cast
thyself down. Since the first temptation failed.
You see, Satan only tempted Adam one time. And it was over with.
But the first temptation failed. Now let's go to the second. Cast
thyself down. Prove God is your Father. Instead
of believing God, prove God. If you are the Son of God, He's
given His angels charge over thee. That's what He's saying.
He's given His angels charge over thee, lest you dash your
foot against a stone. You know, He only quoted half
that verse. Go over to Psalm 91. I believe
that's the one it's in. We're here in Psalm 91. Look in verse 11. For he shall give his angels
charge over thee. Satan knows the Word of God.
He knows the Word. But he never quotes it properly,
does he? He puts a twist on it. He shall
give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways.
He left that out. To keep thee in all thy ways.
It would not be the way of Christ to tempt God to prove Himself. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Prove you're God. Take care. God will take care of you if
you're His son. He'll catch you. He'll catch
you. Prove you're a son of God. Go
stand out there in the road and see what happens. I'll tell you what's going to
happen. You're going to get ran over. You're going to tempt God to
prove that you're a son of God or a child of God by standing
in the road. Well, you're going to get run
slap-dead over. That's what's going to happen. If our Lord had succumbed to
this temptation and cast Himself down to prove He's the Son of
God, He would have body-slammed the ground. God is not to be tempted. Satan
knows what the Word of God said. He twists it. And again, our
Lord quotes Scriptures. His weapon of choice was always
the Word of God, which is the sword of the Spirit. And that
sword cuts, going and coming. He quotes Deuteronomy 6.16. Ye
shall not tempt the Lord your God, as you tempted him in Massa. That's what he quotes, that you
shall not tempt the Lord your God. Faith doesn't go around
trying to prove God. Faith believes God. Faith doesn't go around trying
to prove God, to be God. God doesn't try to prove God
is God. And the Lord Jesus Christ didn't go around trying to prove
God to be God. Then we come to the third temptation.
Never underestimate the power of Satan if God turns him loose. Now he shows our Lord the kingdoms
of this world. He doesn't show him the kingdom
of God, nor does he show him the kingdom of grace, nor the
kingdom of righteousness. He shows him the kingdom of this
world. That's what he shows him. If a man gains the whole world
and loses his own soul, what does he have? What does he have? If you gain the whole world,
if you become one of the richest people in this area, what do
you have? When you die, I guarantee you,
U-Haul's not gonna follow you to the grave. A hearse and the
family. But what you have is not gonna
follow you, it's gonna follow somebody else. And Solomon said,
he got so depressed about this, after he sat down and thought
about it, and he looked at all that he had done, and all that
he had accumulated, he said, a fool may inherit this next.
Sooner or later, he will. I promise you, sooner or later,
a fool will inherit it. All Satan wants is for Christ
to worship him. That's all. Just fall down and
worship me. Men crave worship. Satan craves
it. Men crave it. Look at these movie
stars. Look at these athletes. Seriously. They crave that applause. They crave that form of worship.
They crave it. That's why they stay in the game
so long. They stay in the game too long because they can't let
that glory go. He says, fall down and worship
Me. And I'll give you the kingdoms of this world. He's a liar. The
earth is the Lord, the fullness thereof are they who dwell therein.
Anytime, I can tell you this, anytime Satan opens his mouth,
he's lying. You can mark it down, he's lying. Truth has never came out of his
mouth. It's a lie. He said, I'll give
you the kingdoms of this world. That's a lie. They all belong
to God. God never turned them over to
him. I know he's called the prince
of the power of the air, but it's God's air. And the power he has is of God,
what God allows him to have. He's just lying there. But our Lord said, our Lord said, only God's to
be worshipped. Only God. In Matthew 4.10, it says, Then
said Jesus unto him, and he's going to put it, listen, when
he said, notice this, when Satan said, if you'll just fall down
and worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms of this world. That's when the Lord put a stop
to it. That's when he put a stop to
it. When he called on the Lord to worship, just worship me.
He said, all right, that's enough. Enough's enough. Listen. Then
said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan. Get out of here.
That's enough. Duh, this is done. This is over.
This is over. Get thee hence, Satan, for it
is written. Thou shalt worship the Lord thy
God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Nothing is to rival our
love and devotion to our God, and we should be offended when
it does. We should. We should. And Satan leaves. He leaves him
for a while. Why? Because the Lord said to.
Who's controlling this situation? Our Lord. And you and I are given
this morning the opportunity to look into this temptation
and see the power and glory of our Redeemer. Satan leaves Him for a while. He'll be back. In John 14, verse
30, this is written, Our Lord said, Hereafter I will
not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and
hath nothing in me. Listen, there was nothing in
the Lord Jesus Christ that he could sink his teeth into. There
was nothing he could get a hold of. He got a hold of it in Adam. He gets a hold of it in us. There's
a lot in me and you that he can get a hold of. He can dangle a little change
and we get weak in the knees. But there was nothing. Christ
said, the prince of this world coming has nothing in Me. Finds
nothing in Me. Can't get His teeth into anything.
There was nothing in Christ for Satan to get a hold of. We have
a mighty Savior. We have a mighty Redeemer, a
mighty God. We have One who is tempted in
all points as we are, yet without sin. And He can be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities. And He has promised He'll not
let us be tempted above what we are able to bear. He's able
to control the whole situation from start to finish. Start to
finish. All right.