I want to bring a message here
tonight on our Lord's temptation. Here in Matthew chapter 4, that's
what we're talking about. Our Lord was tempted. He was
tempted. It says, Then was Jesus led of
the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now
the word tempt has two different meanings in the scriptures. Two
different meanings. And they come from two different
sources. The different meanings come from two different sources.
When it says tempt, where God said He did tempt Abraham. In
Genesis 22, that means He tried Abraham. Because you go to Hebrews
11 and then God tried the faith of Abraham when he told him to
take his son Isaac, his only son, up on the mountain. So the
word tempt means to try. It means to try as God tempted
Abraham. And the second meaning of tempt
or tempted is or tempt is to entice. is to entice, to bait,
to draw after somebody as Satan here tempted our Lord Jesus Christ. Now let me tell you about God's
trials. When God tried Abraham, God's trials are always, always,
all of them are for our good. Always. Never fail. They're always for our good.
And that's why He said that we know that all things work together
for them who love God and are thee called according to his
purpose. God said that. And I can be a
witness to that and you can too. And that's why he says, think
it not strange concerning the fire trial which is to try you
as if some strange thing happened unto you. And he says the trying
of your faith being much more precious than of gold. Though
it be tried with fire, that it might be found unto praise, and
honor, and glory, at the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now
you keep this, and look in Job 23 with me, just a minute. Job
23. When God tries a man, like He
tried Abraham, when God tries a man, it's always for his good.
Always for his good. I believe you preached that on
that Sunday night, didn't you? About Abraham and Abraham believed God that he
says I'm the lad going to go up yonder and worship. We're
coming back again But he said God did tempt Abraham take his
son your only son And you take him up on that mountain
and you offer him you make it and Abraham went right on to
do it because he really believed that God would bring that boy
back off that mountain if he had to if he had to raise you
from the dead again to do it because the promise dwelt in
that son so God's trials are always for our good look what
he said here in Job 23 10 but he knoweth the way that I
take when he hath tried me listen to this when he hath tried me
I shall come forth as gold I'll show him when he has tried
me, I'll come forth as gold. That's the whole purpose of the
trials. And oh, you know, and I'll tell
you something else about the Lord's people. They want to be
tried. David said in Psalm 139 and verse
23, he says this, Try me, O Lord, and know my heart. Search me
and know my thoughts. You do it, Lord. You. Don't let
me be deceived. Don't let me be enticed. Don't
let me know. Please, you search me. You search
my heart. You know my thoughts. Because
I'm afraid to trust myself. And that's why it's all God's
people. And then Satan, when he tries, when his temptations
come and he entices it, it's always for evil. Always for evil. When he was walking to and fro
on the face of the earth, the Lord asked him, said, what are
you doing? He said, I'm walking to and fro upon the face of the
earth, seeking whom I may what? Destroy. I've come here to destroy. I've already come to give life. And he said, I'm looking for
somebody to destroy. And he goes about as a roaring
lion, seeking whom he may what? Devour. He's a serpent for his
subtlety. He's called an angel of light
and that's what he is here when he begins to quote scriptures.
He says, sir, he changes himself into an angel of light and you
can't tell the difference in him. And then, beloved, he's
called the dragon for his fierceness. He is a master beguiler. Paul
said, I'm afraid for you as I serpent beguiled our mother Eve through
his subtlety. You may be beguiled from the
simplicity which in Christ Jesus. So you see, I'll tell you why.
So God tries us for good. Satan's are always for evil,
but now let's look at our Lord's temptation back over here again
Let's look at his temptation. I want you to notice something
the time that his temptation took place Now look back up here
in Matthew chapter 3 in verse 16 And look at the time And Jesus,
when he was baptized, went straight up, straight way out of the water.
And listen to this now. And, lo, the heavens were opened
unto him. And he saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and lighting upon him, and lo a voice from
heaven saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. You know the time of this temptation
was after the heavens were opened on our Lord Jesus Christ. After
the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And there's an order here. First he's owned by the Father. The Father says, this is my beloved
son in whom I'm well pleased. He was anointed by the Spirit
of God. The Holy Spirit came down upon
him, came down upon him without measure. And then, then he was
tempted by the devil. But after the heavens opened,
after the Father said, this is my beloved son, that's when he
was tempted of the devil. It was after Paul was caught
up into the third heaven. He's caught up into the third
heaven. He heard things and he said, I cannot come back. And
I can't tell you what it means. I can't tell you. It's not lawful
for me to tell you what I saw. But just as quick as he got back,
you know what the scripture says? The Lord sent the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. He came
down from heaven, seeing those glorious things in that third
heaven. And when he got back, what happened to him? Devil attacked
him. Satan attacked him. Messenger
of Satan sent to Bethany. And it was after God's testimony
of Job, he said to Satan, he said, if you ever consider my
servant Job a perfect and an upright man, he eschews evil,
And he said, and he fears me. He said, I'll tell you what,
you let me at him and he'll cuss you to your face. But it was
after God made the testimony of who Job was and what he was
like and how God owned him, that's when Satan came and said, you
let me at him. It's always after some great
blessings. And I'll tell you something too,
beloved, it's only after God owns us God owns us, says, you're
my beloved, only God owns us and make us to know that we're
His. It's only after the Holy Spirit anoints us and fills us
and teaches us about Christ, that's when Satan starts to try
us. He don't have to try us until
we become believers, till God acknowledge us to be His own.
And that's when he does it. He despises. He despises giving
up his goods. He despises letting his people
go. And letting people, you know,
a strong man armed, as long as he's armed, he can keep his power.
Until a stronger man comes and spoils him and takes his goods.
And he don't want to let us go. He don't want to let us go. And
I tell you, it's only after God owns us. So it's the time after
the heavens open. Just as sure as you get taken
so high, Satan's gonna come along and
try you. Gonna try you. And then look
at the place, this temptation. The time was after the heavens
opened. After God owned him to be his beloved son. Look what
it says here, the place it was. Verse 1 of chapter 4. Then Jesus
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness. The place was the
wilderness. You know when Adam was tempted,
when Satan came into the garden, serpent came into the garden,
Adam was tempted in paradise. He dwelt in paradise, surrounded
by Eden. He was the Lord's creation, fresh
from the hand of God. And that's when the devil came
and tempted Eve and caused them to fall. They were in paradise. And here our Lord Jesus Christ
is alone in the desert, in the wilderness, among the wild beasts
of the field. And all of our Lord's battles,
every one of our Lord's battles must be fought alone. Our Lord
Jesus Christ went out there by himself. And I tell you our Lord's
battles must be fought alone. He's alone in the wilderness
by himself alone with the devil toe to toe. He was alone in the
garden of Eden. I mean the garden of Gethsemane
when he bowed and cried till his sweat became as it were great
drops of blood. He was alone. When he says, Father,
if there be any other way, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless,
not my will, but thine be done. He was alone to drink that cup
by himself. He was alone when he fed the
fierceness of the winepress of the wrath of God. He was alone
when he was on the cross. When he says, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? And now he's alone. in the desert,
in the wilderness with the devil. And I tell you what, soul battles,
soul battles, they're solid battles. And I tell you what, we'll only
be tempted, the only place we'll ever have any temptation is in
this wilderness of sin right here. And whatever the devil
is going to do, he can do his best. But I tell you one thing,
our Lord Jesus Christ done faced him, done whipped him, done defeated
him, and us in him have defeated him too. So whatever he's going
to do, give it his best shot. Because he can't have one thing
he can't do. He can't come through the blood
and then get you. He can't do it. And oh, that's
why he says, God will not, will not let you be tempted above
that you're able to bear. He will not. He says there's
no temptation caking you that ordinary man has not been through
it one time or another. God will not let you be tempted
above what you're able to bear. And with that temptation, you
know what he does? He makes a way for you to get
out from under that temptation. And He'll make a way for you
to get through that pain. Just like He did Paul. He said,
Paul said, Lord, take this thing away from me. Oh, he asked the
Lord three times, take this thorn that's in my flesh, take it away
from me. Asked Him three times. You know
what the Lord said to him? My grace is sufficient for you.
That was his way of escape. Lord, my grace is sufficient
for you. Oh Lord, it makes me so weak.
Well, I'll tell you something, Paul. My strength is made perfect
in your weakness. The weaker you are, the more
glory I get. And oh beloved, not only the
time after the heavens were opened and the Father says this is my
beloved Son, not only the place and the wilderness, not only
is our Lord Jesus Christ alone, but look who it is that is tempting.
Our Lord Jesus Christ in His humanity. In His humanity. Oh my, says then Jesus was led
up with the spirit into the window just to be tempted of the devil.
And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards
he was hungry. And then the tempter came to
him. The tempter came to him. wait
until he was weak and it's our Lord Jesus Christ it says Jesus
in his humanity thou shall call his name Jesus for he shall save
his people from their sin but look what this look what and
it says in verse three and when the tempter came to him look
what he says He was tempted. The tempter came
to Him. And let me tell you something,
before I get to that, let me say a few things. This shows
us how truly human our Lord Jesus Christ was. Now we know that
God cannot be tempted. God cannot be tempted. He tempteth
no man with evil, neither can He be tempted. But here our Lord
Jesus Christ in His humanity was tempted. Look, you keep this
and look at Hebrews 2, just a minute. You know it says, we have not
a high priest who can be touched with the filth of our infirmities.
But He was all in all points tempted like us, yet without
sin. But our Lord Jesus Christ was
tempted, and yet He was tempted, and yet without sin. You and
I, We don't even have to be tempted
to sin. Look what it said here in Hebrews chapter 2 and verse
14. For as much then, It shows how truly human, what a man his
humanity was. For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took
part of the same flesh and blood, that through death he might destroy
him that had the power of death, that is the devil. and deliver
them who through fear of death through all their lifetime subject
to bondage. For verily or truly he took not
on him the nature of angels, but he took on him the seed of
Abraham, that promised seed. We're listening to this now,
wherefore in all things It behooved him to be made like unto his
brethren, that he might be a faithful high priest in things pertaining
to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. For
in that he himself hath suffered, being tempted, he is able to
secure them that are tempted. And ain't that what it says there?
Back over here in verse 3, and when the tempter came, the tempter
came, the temptation of our Lord Jesus Christ, I'm telling you,
beloved, was so intensely real. And I'll tell you why it was,
because of His sinless nature, His holy nature, the purity of
His nature. You know, We as believers, especially
when we were younger, sin would be such a burden to us, such
an awful burden to us. It just grieved us and we grieved
over our thoughts, we grieved over our feelings, we grieved
over a thousand things that would go on in our heart and mind.
Because you imagine our Lord Jesus Christ in His sinless humanity,
the purity of His heart, the purity of His soul, the purity
of His mind, the purity of His person, that when Satan would
come to tempt Him, how intense must that temptation have been
because of His sinless, holy nature. How intense and real
it must have been. And oh, look, he said, and he
said, and he said, if thou be the son of God, that's the first thing he says
to him. If you really who you say you are. And people still
throw that in the face of God, in the face of our Lord Jesus
Christ. If He's really God, if He's really
Christ, and if He's really got the power, why don't He do this? Why don't He do another thing?
Why don't He stop this over here? Why don't He bring that person
down and bring this one up? And why does He let this happen
to that person, something not happen to that? It goes on and
on and on with all those. And what they're saying is, is
that I know more about what ought to be done in this world than
God does. But now look at the nature of
his temptation. Oh, our Lord Jesus Christ was
tempted. But look at the nature of it.
It can only be without. Had to be coming from without
because Satan could find nothing in Him. Our Lord Jesus Christ
said, let us get up and go. Satan coming and he hath no place
in me. So it had to be from without. It had to be toward his flesh.
It had to be toward that human nature. And look what he said. He tempted him to self-satisfaction
in verse 3. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be brave bread. You know why he said that to
him? Because he knew he was hungry. He just went 40 days and 40 nights
and didn't eat anything. Very hungry. Satan knew that. So he came to him, you being
a son of God, if you're really who you say you are. He said,
there's these stones right here. All you got to do is say, command
them to be turned to bread and you can pick them up and eat
them. You can satisfy your own hunger. You can do, you can satisfy
your own hunger. But all listened and he was hungry. He was hungry. You imagine what
it's like to go without just a few hours without anything
to eat. And here our Lord Jesus Christ has been 40 days and he
answered. But he answered, hungry, hungry. And he answered and said, it
is written. that man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God." Our Lord Jesus Christ here, our Master, shows us that there's
something more precious than bread in this world. And that
is the Word of God itself. Our Lord Jesus Christ said it
was His meat. Jeremiah said it's honey. There's honey to his taste. Job
said he esteemed the words of his mouth more than his necessary
food. I can do without food, but boy,
if I have to do without the Word of God, what would I do? Our
Lord Jesus Christ Himself said this, Search ye the Scriptures,
for in them ye think ye have eternal life, for they are they
which testify of me. Our Lord says, the word that
I speak unto you, their spirit and their life. Now, I'll tell
you some people who did not think that the Word of God was precious,
did not think that the Word of God was worth believing, did
not think that the Word of God is what they needed. Esau sold
his birthright for some need. He said, God said that the firstborn
The firstborn had all the inheritance. He had the head of the house.
He was the spiritual leader of his house. He was the priest
of his house. So that birthright for Esau had spiritual, great
spiritual significance to him. And what did he say? What good,
what good will a promise do me if I die of hunger? What good
will it do me? Huh? And I gave. Eve was tempted to do what? To
eat. To eat. The Lord said for us
not to eat that. He said, oh, listen. Listen,
if you eat that, you know how smart you'll be. Oh, it'll make you wise. It'll
make you so wise. And your eyes will be opened
and you'll see things that you just never dreamed existed. Oh, your eyes will be opened
and all the wonders of the world that you'll see. She ate that fruit, gave it to
Adam, and here we're set tonight. Because Satan, she'd rather have
something to eat and be enticed into doing it than taking God
at his word. And in dying, they began to die. Now there ain't anything wrong
with getting bread, but it's how it's obtained. Would you
sell your soul for a piece of bread? That's what Esau did.
Would you sell the human race into sin? That's what Eve and
Adam did. And all listened. And you say,
well, there's people who'll do that. Well, you go to how many
times did we find in the New Testament, in the Old Testament,
bro, where people were beggars. Lazarus was a beggar sitting
at the rich man's gate. And I tell you what, he was so
poor that he begged for his bread. And he sat right there and the
dogs, when he had so many sores on him, the dogs would come up
and start licking on his sores. And he was so poor and so weak
that he wouldn't even beat the dogs off. But I tell you one
thing I know. He's in glory now. And the other
man fared. What did he do? He said he fared
sumptuously. That means he sat with more than
he knew what to do with. Not only did he tempt him to
self-satisfaction, command these stones to be made bread because
he knew he was hungry. But he tempted him to self-destruction. Look what else he says now. In
verse 5. Then the devil taketh him up
into the holy city and saith him on a pinnacle of the temple. Oh my! And saith unto him, If thou be
the son of God, cast yourself down. Now listen to what he said. And this is, you talk about an
angel like, look what he says here. And he quotes this verse
of scripture exactly the way it is. He shall give his angels
charge concerning you. And in their hands they shall
bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a
stone, unless you even let your foot hit a rock. And thy Lord said unto him again,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And look what he said,
he took him up first. Took him up first. Set him on
a great big pinnacle up on top of the temple. And I tell you
one thing, the higher up you go, the greater your fall will
be. Pride goeth before destruction,
a haughty spirit before a fall. The higher you go, the greater
you fall. There's no telling how many people
committed adultery in David's day. But David was the king. David was the highest. And David
had to come all the way down. So the higher you go, the farther
you fall. And I tell you, they said here,
the Lord will catch you. That's what he told the Lord
Jesus Christ. Catch yourself down. Catch, you're
sitting up here, just throw yourself off this pinnacle here. Just
jump off. He said, oh, before you get down
there, the angels will come scooping you up and just bury you away
and carry you away and set you down just like a baby. Oh, the Lord will catch you.
He won't even let you stamp your toe. And our Lord Jesus cast
him down, warned him, self-destruction, destroy yourself. And our Lord's
answer, yes, you're right. But our Lord Jesus Christ said,
I'm not going to put myself in a position where I force God
to save me. I'll not presume He'll catch
me if I jump. I'll not presume He'll stop me
if I cast myself down. And that's why our Lord says,
Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Don't put yourself in
a position where if I get out here and get on this thing, God
will save me. Don't presume. Don't you dare. If you see a tornado coming,
if you don't find your hiding place, you need to be swept away. Ain't that right? I'm gonna stand
out here and see if the Lord let that tornado just go right
around me. Well, there have been a lot of the Lord's people killed
in tornadoes. It comes as a whirlwind. I mean,
that just, we just, it's just this foolishness. Foolishness. Now not only did he tempt him
to self-destruction, self-satisfaction, but tempted him to glorify himself. Tempted him to self-glorification.
Glory in yourself. Glory in who you are. Look what
he says now in verse 8. Again the devil taketh him up
into an exceeding 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." Huh? Took him up there and set him
on the altar, and this says here it showed him all the glory,
the kings of the world, and the glory of them. That's a lot of
cities, a lot of places you can go, and you've seen the glory
of them. There's lots of places I've been. You see the glory
of the glory of the Grand Canyon, the glory of those redwood trees
in Northern California. The glory of Edinburgh and the
lights and those big temples all over that city at night. The glory of standing over on
the Smoky Mountains and looking down in those big old valleys
as far as you can see. And he took him up and said,
look at all these kingdoms and all this power and all this glory
and all this wealth. He said, it can be yours. All
you've got to do is worship me. And he's telling our Lord Jesus
Christ, this is the easiest way. This is much easier to get all
the kingdoms of the world. And you won't have to shed any
blood. You won't have to suffer. But he's a liar and he's the
father of lies. And that's how he deceived Eve.
That's how he deceived her. Started lying to her. And I'll
tell you something that he lied about. The kingdoms of the world
are not his and they're not his to give. How many times we read where
the earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof. The heavens
His throne. You know what this earth is?
Nothing but His footstool. And Daniel it says there that
God has given Him everlasting dominion over all the kingdoms
of the world. And the Father loveth the Son,
giveth all things into the hands of the Son. and all beloved that's
why he's a liar and the father of the lies and the only person
who said anything original in the scriptures was the devil
rest of us we have to take what God said The world, that's what he's telling
us, that's what he's saying here. He said, you know, the kingdoms
of the world are yours. He's telling the Lord Jesus Christ,
the world don't need saving by blood. Don't need saving by your
death. Don't suffer any. I'll give you
all that you want. But all, listen, don't let him
ever deceive you this way, because without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sins. Whatever whatever you think you
have and the devil makes you think you've got It'll be an
illusion And one of these days men will wake up and learn that
Jesus Christ is king of kings and lord of lords and he must
reign Until the last enemy is put under his feet And oh, look
what our lord jesus christ. Look I answered him in verse
10 He said, Oh, I'll give you all this if you'll just fall
down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee
hence, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Worship the Lord thy God, him
only. I tell you, let me just say a
few things about the tempter. The time, the place, the temptations. But look at the tempter. It says
here in verse 1, to be tempted of the devil. The devil. It said in verse 5, then the
devil taketh him. Verse 8, the devil taketh him. He's called the devil. He is
a person. He is a person. He has great
power. But his greatest power is delusion. His greatest power is to delude
people. To bring them strong delusions
that they might believe in lies. The only weapons he has is deceit,
is guile, and pride, and lies. That's the weapons he uses. Pride,
self-righteousness, lies, guile, deceit. But let me tell you something. Wicked men and women, they have
the deceit they already in themselves. And all Satan's got to do is
come and work with what's already in a human being. And I'll tell
you what, he's called the strong man armed, but that's just a
facade. Just a facade. Because Lord Jesus Christ has
the power. You know, it's like that rich
fool that had, he said, I've been blessed so much. I've got
so much stuff. I don't know what I'm going to
do with all of it. I know what I'll do. I know what
I'll do. I'll tear down all these barns. I'll have them be some
great biggins built. I'll fill them up. And say now,
soul, take thine ease, eat. Oh, you have a bunch of goods
stored up before. That was a delusion. Satan deceived
him. I've got everything. I don't
need nothing. Don't need God. I don't need
salvation. I've got enough wealth to do
me. Tonight, God requires your soul. Esau, oh, Satan deceived him. What good is a promise gonna
do you if you're hungry? And you starve to death and you're
so weak you can't stand up? You know how many people's left
this world and never ate nothing for days and days and days and
went to be with the Lord? Yeah, it's been a lot of people.
And then there's a lot of people that very sumptuously, they're
going to hell. But I tell you not to worry.
I tell you, I'm not going to, God helping me, I'm not going
to sell my soul for a bowl of oatmeal. Are you? He's the God
of this world and all outside of Christ are His slaves and
He does with them as He will. But now let me tell you how our
Lord Jesus Christ fought this fight and won this battle. and won the great victory for
all of us. And it was called the fight of faith. Look at the
means our Lord Jesus Christ used. He used the word of God. He said,
it is written, it is written, it is written. That's what he
used to get saved. Everything Satan said, our Lord
Jesus Christ, it is written. But it is written. Wait a minute,
it is written. The Word of God. The Word of
God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword. And
to obey is better than sacrifice. The foundation of our faith is,
thus saith the Lord. Yes, God is true and every man
is a liar. Our Lord Jesus Christ, He had
a multitude and they heard Him preaching. And Todd preached
on this last Sunday. This is a hard saying. Those
are harsh words that you say. Why can you expect us to believe
them? How can you expect anybody to
follow you when you use such harsh language? No man can come
unto me except my Father send me to all of you. That's too
hard. That's harsh. What about my choice? What about
my free will? What about my rights? What about
my power? What about my morality? What
about my church going? What about my praying? And a multitude went and walked
away from the eternal to the twelve and said, will you also
go away? And they said, Lord, Lord, Peter
said, Lord, to whom shall we go? You've got what? The wheres
of eternal life. Oh, listen, faith comes by hearing,
hearing by the Word of God. Fight the good fight of faith.
And this is what you fight it with, this right here. All the promises of God are in
Christ Jesus. They're yay and amen. And then look at the victory
of our Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 11. Oh, the victory. He said, get thee him Satan,
then the devil leaveth him. And look what happens now. And
the angels came and ministered unto him. Our Lord Jesus Christ was weak,
had an ache, and the angels come giving strength. Angels came
and ministered unto him. And all beloved, I tell you,
the scriptures tells us in 1 John 4, 4, greater is He that is in
you than he that's in the world. Oh, our blessed, blessed Father,
thank you for your gospel. Thank you for the truth as it
is in Christ. Your blessed, blessed Word Oh,
Lord, to never presume on you and to worship you and you alone
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for this time together.
Oh, blessed be you for letting us have it this time. Lord, meet
the needs of this congregation. Those who are not with us, please
protect them and preserve them. Peggy in the hospital, strengthen
her, encourage her, and see her safely home. Strengthen Brother
Gary and encourage him. Father, I pray for mercy for
our children, for Josh, for Dylan, Lenny, Dougie, Riley, Bentley,
Cason, Amy, Brietta. Oh, Lord, we call their names.
Lord, it's not enough to just say forgive our children. But
Lord, we call out their very names to you. want their names
to be heard before you. So, Lord, please, in your sovereign
mercy, go where they are. Deal with them. Make them fill
their need of Christ. In his name we pray. Amen. Amen. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. And the things of earth will
grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace.