♪ Now my words speak for my glowing
eyes ♪ ♪ Shine through the gloomless ♪ ♪ Point me to the light ♪ ♪
Heaven pouring rain ♪ ♪ Sender rain shadows flee ♪ In life and
death, O Lord, how I pray to Thee. Okay, go back to
Matthew 4. First, one of you landlubbers
that laughed at me pegged leg, I'm going to have you walk the
plank. I see you smiling at me. One of the preacher brethren
called me, and they've all called me, and so many of you, everybody.
It's amazing, and some of you can attest to this. The brethren,
that's when you find out they love you. Something happens,
and one of the brethren was talking to me, and I told him I was going
to sit on a stool to preach, and I said to him, I think that's
a good thing. The Lord, when he went up on
the mount, sat down and talked to him there. I told him I thought it would
be a good thing for most preachers to keep them from running around
all over the place. Keep them in their place. Keep them kind of settled, you
know. That's true. They do. All right. Matthew chapter four. The gospel
of Matthew has been called the gospel of the kingdom because
it constantly mentions the kingdom of God. And it began, you remember,
it began with the birth of the king. That's how it started. And the king of kings is who
this is talking about, who comes to this earth to conquer. He's
a king who's come to take for himself a kingdom. And that's
what this book is about. And he has just been anointed
in chapter 3. God Almighty spoke out loud,
saying, He's the Son, my Son. The Holy Spirit declared Him
to be the Son of God at His baptism. And then, in verse 1 of chapter
4, it says, Then was Jesus, that is, the man, the God-man, led
up of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit led him into
the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The king has come
to do battle. Now, this is not a fairy tale.
This is not fiction. This is true. This is true story. This is what is taking place
here. He's come to do battle with the
prince of the power of the air. That's who Satan is called. As
I said, this is not some This is true. He's come to do battle
with the prince of darkness, the scripture says. And this
is his first confrontation with Satan. Not his last. There is
a last one. And it's at the end of this book.
And it's the final confrontation. But this is the first. And what
I want us to get from this. It's not going to be an allegory,
it's just a sample of it. But what I want to get from this,
what I want us to see is that all our hope and all our comfort
is found in our King who came to conquer, who came to be our
substitute, who came to be our surety, who came to be our covenant
head, who came to be the captain, Hebrews says, of our salvation,
to defeat all our foes for us. He comes out as a thirty-year-old
man, declared to be God's Son, anointed of the Holy Spirit,
to do battle. That's why he came here. He said,
I didn't come to bring peace, but a sword. To do what? To conquer his people, to conquer
his foe, leave captivity captive, and take for himself a kingdom. And this is our representative,
our head, the second Adam from above. That's who this is, the
second Adam, God's servant, God's chosen man, who the Scripture
says in Isaiah 42, will not fail, nor even be discouraged, but will defeat all our foes.
Now turn with me to Hebrews chapter 4, Hebrews chapter 4. There's
great comfort in knowing that our Lord was tempted like we
are in all points. Great comfort in that and knowing
that he feels our infirmity. Isn't it? There's great comfort
in knowing that. He feels our infirmity because
he was made flat. Look at chapter four, verse fifteen. It says, We don't have 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. And chapter five, look over there
in verse eight, says, Though he were a son, yet he learned
obedience by the things which he suffered. And there's great
comfort in knowing that he took our flesh and was with these
infirmities, and knows our frame, knows what we're going through,
and can have compassion upon us. For he himself went through
these things, and he took part of the same. But our chief comfort
is not in that. Our chief comfort is not in that.
Look at chapter 2. Our chief comfort is found in
this. Chapter 2 of Hebrews. Look at verse Well, look at verse
9. We see Jesus, that is, a man
named Jesus. The whole world sees a man named
Jesus, recognizes a man named Jesus. But most of the world,
that's all they saw Him as, and even now, that's about all they
see Him as, and that's how they refer to Him, but not God's people. The disciples didn't refer to
Him in that way. They called Him Lord every time. Because
they see him, they saw him a little higher, a lot higher than just
Jesus. Look at this. It says, We see
Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angel. That is,
he was made flesh, not like the angel. They're not flesh. Why
was he made lower than the angel? For the suffering of death, that
he might die. What we see him, crowned with
glory and honor. You see that? And in down in
verse ten it says, it became him, it's becoming to him, for
whom are all things, by whom are all things, and bringing
many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation
perfect through suffering. It was defending of him to go
through what he did, not only to feel what we feel, but in
order to be our substitute, in order to do what he had to do
as a man for men. Are you with me? Look at verse
fourteen, here's what he did, and here's our greatest comfort. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same. Why? Just to feel our infirmity?
No. That through death, look at it
now, here it is, 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.
That is subject to this fear and subject to the tempter himself,
tempted by him. We will be tempted. We are tempted
by the same one in the same ways that our Lord was. But our salvation
doesn't depend on us making it through the temptation. Our salvation
started right there when he undertook to face this foe as our representative. Are you with me? As our substitute,
as our covenant head, to face the tempter, to be tempted in
all points, yet without sin. To come through with flying colors,
to be declared by God as a worthy captain of our salvation. We need to take our shoes off
on this story, too. So great. He was tempted as our
substitute. Because Adam, the first man God
created, Adam, fell to this same one, did he not? He fell to the
temptations of the tempter. He fell. And every son of Adam
thereafter is no match and is a fallen son of Adam. Every single
son of Adam is a fallen son of Adam. They're born in sin and
they're no match for the tempter. No match. for Christ's sake,
to do battle. Not to show us how it's done,
but to do it for us. I love those scriptures that
says, He went out before them. They were headed toward Jerusalem,
you know, and certain death, and the Lord went out right in
front. He endured all things for them and endured all things
for us. And this is the good news and comfort of the gospel.
The battle is not ours. It's the Lord's. You don't hear anything yet.
I've just told you to come. The battle's not ours. It's not
up to us to keep on keeping on. It's not up to us to keep ourselves. It was all up to him. And this
is what he's doing. We're going to see that. And
though we do battle, we do battle, we fight against our foe, yet
we battle, and though we battle, it seems as if our lives depended
on it, yet the Scripture is plainly said, tell them the warfare is
accomplished. Doesn't it? The Scripture is
plainly said, don't tell the people, comfort my people, tell
them the warfare is accomplished. There's some little skirmishes
that are going on. And Christ our captain went before
us and conquered our foe, led captivity captive, and crushed
the serpent's head. And the battles and the struggles
we have are what the Lord sees fit for us to endure and for
our good to test our faith in our captain. Are you with me? Now here's the
beginning. And our Lord in the beginning says, as it were, what
he did in the end. Do you remember in the garden,
in the end, when he was going to be crucified? And one last
show of why he came and who he was in the garden. When they
came to take that band of rebels and Christ, and they were going
to take them all. You know that. And the Lord went out in front.
Do you remember that? and said, Whom seek ye? And he displayed
his mighty person and power and they all fell to the ground.
That's what the foes do when our Lord just says the word.
Right? One little word Martin Luther wrote shall fail them.
And the Lord uttered these wonderful words. He said, If you seek me,
let them go. That's why I came. That's why
I came. All right, verses 1 and 2 in
our text. When Jesus was led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness, the Holy Spirit is the one who led
Him to do this. God purposed this to happen. We're going to see how that it
says the tempter takes Him up into a holy city. The tempter
takes Him up into a high mountain, but Satan's not taking anything.
You know that? Nor does he have free reign with
any of God's people. Read the book of Job and you'll
find that. First two chapters. They have a hedge about them.
But he comes and when Christ was at his weakest, or that is
seemingly at his weakest, verse two, when he had fasted forty
days and forty nights, he was afterward in hunger. Our Lord
knows what it is to be hungry. He knows what it is to be thirsty.
He knows what it is to be tired. It says, when he was weary from
his journey, he sat on the way. And he was thirsty. He gave him
a drink. Well, he was at his seemingly
weakness, and the tempter comes then. Now, why? To show us, you know, man at his best state.
Adam was at his best state. He was the greatest man to ever
live, Adam. Man at his strongest, was he
not? Man at his strongest is no match for this temple. But
Christ at his weakest. Satan's no match for him. The
Lord merely has to redeem him in his place. So what does that
tell us? When the scriptures talk about
resisting the devil, what does that tell us? that we can't, there is no resisting
him outside of faith and crime, outside of calling on crime.
And these idiots that are going around talking about what they
tell the devil and this and that and the other, that's all they
are, is blooming idiots. And Jude talks about them, talking,
speaking evil of dignities that they don't have any clue about,
when in fact they're pawns in his game. We're no match, Adam
was no match, and neither is any man at his best state any
match for the tempter. Christ alone could and must be. Well, here's
what the tempter says in verse 3. When the tempter came to him,
he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones
be made bread. Make bread. If you're the Son
of God, you're hungry, aren't you? Make bread. Prove it. Show
something. Reveal yourself to be the Son
of God by this. Now, there are three things summed
up in 1 John. We read about this in our study,
1 John chapter 2, verse 16, I believe it is. Three things that sum
up all temptations that we have, that we endure. 1 John 2, yeah, 16, says this,
all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes, and the pride of life. Not of the Father, but is of
the world. These are the three things, all that's in the world.
That is the temptation of those things which we're tempted with
in the world. Lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes, and the pride of light. All those things, all three things
are found right here. They're not given in that order
here in Matthew 4, they are in Luke 4. I'm glad, that's why
I'm glad you read that. At any rate, our Lord faced all
these temptations here, without sin. Lust of the flesh, lust
of the eyes, and the pride of life. Now, the first thing that
the tempter does is cast an accusation on him, or that is, cast doubt
upon his sonship, who he is. And he says, if you're the son
of God, prove it. Prove it. I just read to you in Hebrew,
it says, though he were a son, though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience. What does that mean? Faith. He
had to live by faith as a man, because the just shall live by
faith. By faith are you saved. Christ
came as a man to live for men by faith. He never did anything
for himself. He relied on God to do it for
him, like we must, right? We must. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience, that is, reliance or trust, faith upon God. The Scripture says when he was
reviled, he reviled not again, but committed himself unto the
judge. He didn't defend himself. He
didn't feed himself. He defended his own, didn't he? He defended those he loved. He
didn't defend himself. He told them, turn the other
cheek. That's just what he did. Proving God's Word. Proving the
truth of what God says to his people. I'll take vengeance is
mine. God said, I'll repay. Christ
proved it. He did not defend himself. God said, I'll give. All the
cattle on a thousand hills are mine. You'll never go hungry.
I've never seen my seed break in bread. Christ proved it. He didn't have to do it for himself.
Neither do we. Are you with me? learned he obedience by the things
he suffered. We wouldn't know reliance or
faith. We wouldn't have any faith except by trying. We wouldn't
need any reliance on God if we didn't have needs, right? And listen to this. The next
verse there in Hebrews says, "...and be made," or that is,
declared, He became the author of eternal
life or salvation unto all them that obey him. That is, he became
the perfect substitute and author of eternal salvation unto all
them that obey him. Now all you need to do is appeal
to him. Trust him, look to him, believe
him. Now the lust of the flesh here is what he's dealing with,
hunger. Now this is a Good hunger is
a good thing. You know that? God makes these bodies crave food.
It's a good thing, is it not? They need nourishment. And if we did not crave it, and
bless God, he made food taste it to taste real good. He didn't
mean that our God should be our belly, and we're going to see
that. Nor did he mean that it would
derive all our satisfaction from bread. It's just to sustain these
temporal bodies. But we have hunger. Nothing wrong with being hungry.
Yet, these bodily cravings that we all go through—hunger, thirst,
sleep, the need for sleep. Isn't sleep a wonderful thing?
We take it, you take it for granted until you start losing it, don't
you? Oh, I think of that all the time,
what our Lord said, He giveth His beloved sleep. And sensual pleasures, a good
thing. But these things, the flesh is
weak, and we feel most of the time as if we're captive to these
cravings. No. I've heard people say when they
go like eight hours without food, I'm dying. You've probably said that yourself.
I'm dying. I can't go on. I feel weak. It's
sad, isn't it? It's sad. bodily cravings will render the
strongest man and or woman a captive and weak woman, not this man,
not this man. Paul one time wrote, he said,
I keep my body in subjection, lest in preaching to others I
myself be a castaway. That's exactly what Christ did.
He was not in subjection to his body. It was to him. We can't do that. We can't do
that. He did. Why? He kept his body in subjection
to his will, and he kept himself in total subjection to God. Total
subjection to God's will. God's will for me not to have
food? I'll go without it. And listen to how our Lord deals
with the tempter. No. Listen. Verse 4, it says,
He answered and said, It is written, Our Lord deals with the tempter
each time by His word. As I said, the Lord said, I came
with a sword, the sword of His Spirit. Scripture says He'll
conquer with a sword that comes out of His mouth. What's that? God's Word. That's how he deals
with the tempter, and this is the only way we can resist, by
faith in Christ with His Word, using His Word. Now look at it,
verse 4. He said, It is written, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. How relevant this is in our day.
You know, bread is called the staff of life in the scriptures.
You know how many times we've talked about bread in the scriptures? A lot. And our Lord calls Himself
the bread of life. Hmm. Bread must be good for you. Why would you want to do without
that? A little modern man always comes up with a better way. Well,
bread is necessary. It certainly is. The old sailors,
I told you how I like to read those books, they pretty much
subsisted on bread and wine. Hardtack, what it's called, an
old biscuit is about as hard as it's dead. The only thing
worms wouldn't eat. Bread is necessary for the flesh
to live, but Christ is speaking of life more abundant If man doesn't really live, he
can have all the bread he can eat, all the food he can eat,
and he's not living. That's not living. When man really
lives or begins to live, man has life more abundant, true
life, that is, eternal life, by the bread from heaven. And
Christ said, I am the bread from heaven, by the Word of God that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Man, we're begotten by it, that
is, born by it. We're sustained by it. We grow
by it. We have a great need of it, bread. And more specifically, the word
which speaks of Christ, the gospel of Christ, is the bread of life. And man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word. You notice that? Every word. What's written has been written,
and every single word of it is necessary to make up the whole.
We dare not take out one part or add any other, every word. All right, look at verse 5 and
6, the next temptation. The devil then takes him up into
the holy city, that is, Jerusalem, the seat of religion. and setteth
him on a pinnacle of the temple, the highest part of the temple,
the chief place of worship in religion, a high point, 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 left at any
time thou dashed thy foot against a stone. And like I said, the
devil could not take him anywhere that the Holy Spirit did not
will for him to go. That's the same way it is with
God's people. Absolutely. But it says he takes
him up on a pinnacle of the temple, the highest place. Now this is
all so significant. Every part of it. takes him up
to the highest place of the temple and he says, now he uses the
same accusation or test doubt, or if you be the son of God,
if you be the son of God. And then he quotes or seems to
quote Psalm 91, also found in Deuteronomy, but
he seems to quote Psalm 91. Stay with me. Satan's greatest
fear of his operation, where he operates today, is not where
men think. It's not so obvious. It's clear
that people in the, you know, bordellos and in the gutters
and this and that and the other are dead and trespassing. That's
very clear. But Satan's fear of work, chief
work, is in religion. It was religion that killed the
Lord Jesus Christ, was it not? And this is, and where he works,
he uses, or that is, misuses God's Word. And I thought, it
just occurred to me for the first time. He doesn't start out using
God's Word, does he? But then when Christ said something
to him from God's Word, Then he comes back with a word. Does
that sound familiar to you? Does that sound familiar to any
of his ministers which have for wolves in sheep's clothing have
transformed themselves into ministers of righteousness? They don't
start out using the word of God, but if you do, then they do. But it's most of
the time out of context and misquoted. He misquotes Psalm 91 and takes
it totally out of content, totally out of content, completely. Isn't that significant? And I
don't have time to deal with that, but you look at it for
yourself. Psalm 91, he's talking to God's people. He says, you
won't fear for the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence,
and so forth. It will not come nigh thee, and
so on and so forth. It says, for he shall give his
angels charge over thee. And it says, it will keep you
in all your ways, that is, wherever you go. He's not telling us that
we can flaunt our faith and so forth. and so forth. This is what the
tempter tempts the Lord with, to make a vain show of his faith. Are you with me? If you're the
son of God, takes him up on the pinnacle of the temple where
all the people worship, and everybody's there to see this, if you're
the son of God, fly! Show everybody your great faith.
God never told us to fly. God never told us to handle snakes. They're in that same Psalm 91,
the same chapter that says, They shall tread on. That is, if they
walk on one, they won't show up. The apostle Paul wasn't handling
snakes when that snake bit him to show his great Show everybody what great things
to fly. The Lord never told us we could
fly. When I was preaching somewhere recently, I told you a fellow
took issue with being called a worm, one of those preachers.
He didn't like that. And he got up and he said, I
ain't no worm. And he went on to talk about that, and the people
were just cheering like, that's right, we're better than that.
The Son of God! in Psalm 22 said, I'm a worm. And that's all we'll ever be
until we leave this planet. We'll never rise above that.
And I don't care who it is. If he thinks he's anything better
than a worm, God's going to cast him down. You can't fly. We can't even crawl without God's
help. Right? Christ said, without me
you can't do nothing, can't overcome the slightest
temptation. But he can, and he could have
flung. Yes, he could. As a matter of
fact, a couple of times, and he didn't do it to show them,
but he just did it. Walked through a door, and a
whole crowd of people, they grabbed hold of him, and walked Not as
a vain show of his faith and so forth, but because it wasn't
his time. And they kept telling him that.
Show yourself to be the king. Show yourself. You know, we're not to do what
God's Word doesn't promise us or tell us. Now listen to me, proud religion
with all its bragging and boasting of great faith and exploits in
the name of God. God says it's an abomination
to him. That which is highly esteemed, the highest pinnacle
in the temple of religion is an absolute abomination to God.
And whoever puts themselves to the highest pinnacle, God will
cast them down. God will cast them down. The
best place for us to be. I'm not moving around. The best place for us to be is
lowly. The lower we are, the higher
he is. The higher we get, the lower he gets. Are you with me
here? The higher man gets in his own estimation, the lower
he brings God down and Jesus down. The lower we are, the weaker
we become, the stronger he gets. When I'm weak, He's strong. When
I'm nothing, He's everything. When I'm helpless, He's my help.
When I'm a sinner, He's a savior. When I can't resist one temptation,
He says, I do. I can. That's why I can. Thank God for this, our substitute
who meets the tempter. The tempter. Let me tell you
this story. I'm going to run out of time. You've got no place
better to go. I've told you this before. Years
ago, my dad, when he was a young preacher, the Lord had just started
out, you know, as one of these Armenian Southern Baptist preachers,
didn't know the gospel from a hole in the ground. And the Lord sent
an evangelist preaching the true gospel and tore up that religious
playhouse called Pollard Baptist Church. tore up a lot of people's
religion, brought them all down from the pinnacle of religion into a little rag-tag, rebel
bunch of people meeting. Well, as any young preacher,
he was liable to the bad influence of
other preachers. There was an older preacher,
I'll not say his name, but there was an older preacher who told
him that this fellow had got involved in this Pentecostal
movement. Now this was back when it really started to catch on.
And this fellow, who claimed to believe the gospel, and was
a preacher, got involved in this Pentecostalism, talking in tongues
and all that, which is all a big sham. But anyway, this fellow
told My dad, as a young man, he said, Henry, he said there's
more to this than just preaching the gospel. He said there's more
to it than just Christ. He said there's this gift of
the Spirit and he said it's wonderful. Is there something more wonderful
than Christ? Well, at any rate, he and another
fellow, We're talking to my dad and said, don't you want all
that you can get from God? Don't you want this? Don't you
want the best? And so they tried to get him
talking in tongues. It's a true story. Tried to get
him talking in tongues. They wanted to lay their hands
on him. And they sat him down and it says one on one side and
one on the other. And they laid their hands on
him. And they said, now, do it. He said, do what? Speak. And this is a true story. He
said, say the first thing that comes to your mind. He said,
the first sign is die. And they said, say something
else. And he said, say something else. And he said, say it all again.
Die before me. He said, you're doing it. True story. True story. If you're doing it, the Lord may possibly let you
down. Thank God he didn't fall for
that. Thank God he didn't fall for
that. He didn't fall for that. I know. Why did I say that? Because there's religion without
it's all a vain show. It's all a vain show. And they
tempt God. Look at what Christ said. It is written again, Thou shalt
not tempt the Lord thy God. Verse 7. Religion tempts God
with all its bragging and boasting about God in the name of God.
God is angry every day. He calls them, remember there
in Matthew 7, he said, you're a worker of iniquity. Those that
did many wonderful works in his name. Cast out devils. He called
them workers of iniquity. Why? They were doing it as a
vain show. To show everybody, look at us.
We're sons of God. Wow, I love Jesus. Got it written
all over my bumper sticker. You love yourself. The Lord didn't do that. He didn't do that. Scripture
says he shall not cry or cause his voice to be heard in the
street. He can go around boasting and bragging about his love for
the Lord, but he sure proved it, didn't he? And this goes further than that.
Man tempts God. Listen to this. Man tempts God
daily. If we wake up without thanking
God, The word tempt means to dare, to defy. You've heard the
statement, death defy. He's doing a death defying trick
today. Eh, he's not defying anything.
It's just not his time. When death comes, well, it's
times appointed of the Lord. His bounds are set, the number
of his months with the Lord. He cannot have. When it comes,
he won't defy it. But that's what they mean by
their tempting God, their defying God. Kill me. A man wakes up without thanking
God for the breath that he's about to breathe, he's tempting
God. You know that? If he goes on without asking
God for permission to use his earth, he's a trespasser. You know that? He's tempting
God. somebody won't ask what that means forgive us our trespasses
this is God's earth it's the earth is the Lord's and the fullness
of the world and all that's there and it happens there. What belong
to us? We're squatters. We've got to
ask him for permission or else we're trespassers. Lord can I
have some of your food? He'd like to get it. Man tempts God. Man tempts God
if he wakes up without asking God for pardon, without asking
God for mercy. Daily defying Him, but tempting
God, without asking God for grace. And that says nothing, like I
said, of all those death-defying things men attempt to do, but
that's taunting God. And even believers, listen to
this, all of us, all of us are guilty of this. doing things
foolish things that are in fact. When we. God will deal hardly
even with the believe. Him by living contrary. He will
come down hard. If they're one of his own, and
they live outside of his word and his will, express will, knowing
full will, well, God's will, God will deal hardly. Ask Lot, ask Jacob, ask David,
and most assuredly will. Will God kill a believer who tempts him? Yes, he will. That's what our Lord was talking
about when he said that the salt has lost its savor. It's not
good for anything but to be trodden underfoot. We've got to catch that. We will. Barnard preached the message
years ago of when God kills Christians. That was his text. Will God damn
a believer? Not a fool. How do I know? Because they won't
stay in that. Proof is that they'll be brought
out. They will repent. Repent means turn, change. They
will have that godly sorrow that Paul talked about that needed
no repentance of. True godly sorrow. Not for the
consequences of their actions, but for who they did it against.
For bringing reproach on him. That's how you know. And they'll
bring forth fruit fitting. God's people all fall to temptation. And how you know they're not
or how you know that they are God's people is they don't live
in it. They don't stay in it. Well,
look at the last thing. It says in verses 8 through 11.
Again, the devil taketh him up into a seating high mountain,
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of
them, and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,
if thou wilt fall down, and worship me." Now, over in Luke's account,
he says that these things are given to me to give, and there
is a sense. Well, it's a good sense. He's
called the God of this world. Christ called him that. The God
of this world. That's how he fits his subject. That's how
he allures his subject. With what? World. Health. Wealth. Prosperity. Where do you hear about that
the most? In religion. In religion. The Christ's kingdom is not of
this world. If it were, he said, my subjects
would fight. But he didn't, and they don't. He that is a soldier in Christ's
army does not entangle himself with the affairs of Islam. His
kingdom is a spiritual one. His battle is a spiritual battle.
worships and serves the God. Look at this, verse 10. Then
Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written,
Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou
serve. God's people, and this is what
Christ said, they worship in spirit. They worship the Father.
God's people are in this thing of religion, not for what they
can get out of God, but because they worship God. You go down through history and
look at the true church, they were without these things. Look
at Hebrews 11, read it for yourselves. It says they were torn, they
were sawed asunder, they were cast to the blinds' end, they
wandered around without homes and living in tents and goat
skins and all that stuff. Absolutely contrary to what religion
says about God and true salvation today,
that God, all your troubles will be absolutely contrary. Those were God's people. And God's people don't worship,
not involved in this, for what they can get out of God. But they worship God. They're
here to worship God. And their great cause for worship,
the chief, is His mercy, His grace, His salvation, His love. That's why they come. That's
what they do. Worship God. And Him only they serve. And
it's true, you know, these old sayings about the fellow who
sold his soul to the devil, made a deal with the devil, sold
his soul. You know, it's true. It's true. That's exactly what
our Lord is alluding to here. And in order to be loved by the
world, In order to have the best of everything, in order to be
rich and famous, you have to sell yourself. Christ said you
can't have both. You can't have two masters. He
said you either love the one, hate the other, hate the one,
love the other, be hated by the world, or loved by God and hated
by the world, or hated by the world and loved by the world
and hated by God. You can't do both. You can't
do both. And Christ wasn't interested
in the world. Commendation. Neither are these people. As
he is, so are we in this world. Same temptation that we're tempted
with. He was tempted in all forms,
yet without sin. And I like this in closing. I've got to show you this. Then
the devil leave a tent. He would have, if Christ had
said from the very outset, hit. Wouldn't He? Sure He would. This
is the same Lord and the same devil back in Job 1 that the
devil had to report to Him and get His permission. Same Lord,
same devil, is it not? And the Lord, all He had to do
in the very beginning, hit. Like you'd say to an old carrot
dog, and he'd hit. But he endured all of it for
us. He's our substitute. We're no
match, and we'll face all these things, but he endured it for
us. But it says, After it was over, the devil leaveth him,
and behold, the angels came and ministered unto him. He was hungry,
tired. An angel. God sent angels to
minister to him. I told you in the beginning,
he didn't do anything for himself. God sent these angels. And Charles Spurgeon said this.
I love this. This is wonderful. I'm glad I
read this. Charles Spurgeon said, The angels, you know, were watching
this. Oh, yeah. Scripture says our
angels encamped around the battle. Nothing moves and nothing harms.
He gives his angels charge. That's what was quoted. The angels
were hovering around this scene. Michael, Gabriel, all of them. Powerful things. Ready at a moment's
notice to come in to defend their Lord. Ready to come and help. But he didn't need any help. And Spurgeon said they were told
by God, bat a feather. You're not going to be part of
this. You're not going to get any glory.
He's going to do it by himself. He gets all the glory. He defeated
our foes by himself. And since he was a man, though,
and Depended on God, God then after that sent angels and he
feasted. Feasted on God's good. All right.
Best I can do with that. Stand. Stand. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
so much for sending your Son, Son of your love, to endure what
he did for us. Didn't have to. And your purpose,
will and purpose sent him to be our substitute, our covenant
head. And he endured all things on
our behalf. And how we thank you that our
salvation is in the hands of so great a captain. May we look to him in all things.
Lord, leave us not to ourselves, but may we look to Jesus, author
and finisher of our faiths in all things. Bless your word for
your glory and the good of your people. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.