Well, good morning, everyone.
If you would open your Bibles with me to Mark chapter one.
I have a lesson this morning I believe will be very helpful
and beneficial to us. Been looking forward to it. Before
we begin, let's look to our Lord in prayer. Our Father, we bow before you
this morning, a humbled people and creatures. coming into the presence of Almighty
God. Father, we come before you carefully
and humbly, daring only, come pleading the righteousness in
the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we're a thankful
people. How thankful we are that you've told us in your word that
we can come accepted in your presence in the beloved because
of who the Lord Jesus Christ is and because of what he's accomplished
for his people. Father, we're so thankful. Father,
I beg of you this morning that you would enable us to exalt
the name of Christ our Savior, that you would enable us to look
to him by faith and to rest in him. Father, show us your glory,
we pray. Show us your redemptive glory. Father, how thankful we are for
a place that that you provided where the gospel's been preached
these many years. We pray you would continue to
bless, continue to be with us. Our great fear is that we'd be
left alone now. Father, don't leave us alone,
we pray. Continue to honor your word and to make yourself known
in this place. Father, we pray for the sick
and afflicted of our number, those who are in deep waters,
sorrow, bereavement, Recovering from surgery, facing tests, and
all these different troubles of this life, Father, we pray
you'd be with your people. We pray you'd heal, that you'd
deliver. Father, above all, that you'd give a special portion
of your presence to comfort their hearts till such time as you
see fit to deliver them. And all these things we ask in
that name which is above every name, the name of Christ our
Savior. I've titled the lesson this morning,
Lessons from the Lord's Temptation. Our text is just two verses,
Mark one, beginning in verse 12. And immediately the spirit driveth
him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness
40 days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beast, and
the angels ministered unto him. There's two things I want us
to see from our lesson this morning. Number one, I want us to see
what is it that the Savior accomplished for his people when he was there
tempted or tried of Satan. And number two, I want us to
find something that will comfort our hearts, that will instruct
us and be something that's helpful for us when we're tried. Now
first, I want us to see what was it the Savior accomplished
in this trial, this temptation? Well, he was tempted as a representative
of his people. Mark records this whole event
in just two verses, and that's his writing style. His style
is to quickly go from one act of the Lord to the next. Because
remember, Mark is showing us Christ the servant of God. He's
rapidly going from one task to the next, one job to the next
that the Father's given him to do. And Mark's writing style,
I think, is very good for us in this way. It shows us there
were many, many things that had to be done. that Christ had to
do in order to save his people from their sin. And he went to
those things quickly. He went from one task to the
other. He was determined to do all of these tasks perfectly.
So the Savior, when he went to be tempted or tested of Satan,
he did that as the servant of God. You see, somebody has to
stand up to Satan and defeat him. Somebody has to be tempted
of Satan and not fail. Well, you and I can't do that.
I mean, we cannot stand up to Satan's temptations. We never
have, and we never will. None of our race will. Adam and
Eve failed the very first time Satan tempted them. I mean, the
very first time. And he's been doing the same thing ever since.
We fail every single time we're tempted of anything, particularly
of Satan, but not the Savior. He never failed. He never sinned. He was often tempted, often. He was often tried. But he never
sinned. I'll tell you why that's important.
His obedience is the righteousness of his people. His success in
all of these temptations, his success is the righteousness
of his people. Now if you look over at Hebrews
chapter four, I'll show you that. Hebrews chapter four. Verse 14, seeing then we have a great high
priest that's passed into the heavens, Jesus, the son of God,
let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was at all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Our savior was tempted in every
single way his people are tempted. and he never failed one time.
He never sinned one time. I find that comforting, don't
you? That every step we take as a child of God, every step,
every circumstance, our Savior went there first. He suffered
it first. We fail every time. He never
failed. And since he never failed, Now
we can go to him to find grace at all times. Look at verse 16.
Let us therefore, therefore because he was tempted in all points
like as we are yet without sin, therefore let us come boldly
under the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. This is also comforting to me. We may come boldly, confident
before the throne of Almighty God, even though we failed every
test. We can come boldly confident
that we'll be accepted of the Father because Christ never failed. See, because our Savior, our
representative never failed. The Savior is holy. It's impossible for him to sin.
When I say tempted, and that's the word the scripture uses,
tempted. It's not he was tempted in this way, tempted like, oh,
I want to sin, should I sin, should I not? The word means
tried. When he was tried in this way,
he never sinned. He couldn't. It was impossible
for him to sin. He didn't have a sin nature.
That's why when Satan came to him, he couldn't find anything
to work with, because there's no sin nature in him. Satan finds
plenty to work with, you and me, but he couldn't find anything
to work with. He couldn't find a foothold on
the Savior. That's what enabled our Savior
to crush Satan's head, to destroy his power, to accuse and condemn
and trick his people. Our Savior was tempted. Here's
why he went to the wilderness and was tempted these 40 days,
so he could do for his people what they could never do for
themselves. He went there to defeat Satan, to put this temptation
aside, and he did it. And that's a Savior we can trust.
That's why the Savior went there, what he accomplished. All right,
number two, I want us to find some comfort and some help for
God's people when they're tried. And as you've heard many times
in the past, now you listen to these things, because if you
don't need them right now, you're going to need them soon. Sooner or later,
you will. These are six things that are
comfort and a help to God's people when we're tried. Number one
is this, don't be surprised when trials come our way. We just
read there in Hebrews four that the Savior was tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin. All points like as we are. Well, that tells me we're gonna
be tempted in all points too. Look at first Peter chapter four. If you're a believer, Here's
something that you can expect. Expect trials. Just expect them. You know, a trial can't be a
sneak attack on you if you're expecting them, can you? First
Peter chapter four, verse 12. Beloved, think it not strange
concerning the fiery trial, which is to try you, as though some
strange thing happened unto you, but rejoice. as much as you're
partakers of Christ's sufferings, that when his glory shall be
revealed, you may be glad also with exceeding joy. Peter says,
don't think when this trial comes to you, it's a strange thing.
It would be strange if we weren't trying, wouldn't it? Some strange
thing hasn't happened to us. Something out of God's control
hasn't happened to us. Something that is wrong hasn't
happened to us. Our Savior promised us this.
In this world, you shall have tribulation. You shall, that's
a promise. But he didn't end the sentence
there. He went on to say, but you be of good cheer, I've overcome
the world. I've overcome it. You see, trials
are indication that we're children of God, not bastards. That's
what Hebrews 12 verse eight says, that all of God's children suffer
these things. God-given faith, the faith that
God gives his children to trust Christ. Now that faith has to
be tried. It has to be. It has to be tried
for our good. You know, when a trial comes,
and you go through that trial, and you still trust Christ, now
you know you have genuine faith. The Lord already knows if you
have genuine faith. He's the one who gave it to you. But now
you know you have genuine faith, and it's not just an outward
show of religion, because you kept trusting Christ. Look at
1 Peter, if they're still there, chapter one, verse five. Peter, you're talking about believers
who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation,
ready to be revealed in the last time. Wherein ye greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, ye are in heaviness through
manifold temptation, that the trial of your faith be much more
precious than the gold that perishes. though it be tried with fire,
might be found under praise and honor and glory at the appearing
of Jesus Christ. See, our faith must be tried.
You see what Peter says there in verse six? If need be. Now for a season, if need be.
Well, if Lord sends you to trial, it must need be, right? He only
sends these things if need be to try our faith so that our
faith is strengthened. Now let me tell you, Anything
that strengthens our faith in Christ is a good thing. It's
a good thing. That doesn't mean it's not painful.
It's painful, but it's still a good thing. And you can expect
this. Our heavenly father's gonna do
what's good for his children. He's always gonna do what's good
for his children. So don't be surprised when these
things happen. Number two, when trials come your way, trust the
word of God. Trust God's word. When the Lord
sends a trial your way, get in God's word. Read it, devour it,
beg God to reveal himself to you in his word. You know, it's
a shame that it takes a trial to drive us into God's word.
But that's just the way it is, and that's the way it'll always
be, unfortunately, as long as we're in this flesh. But get
in God's word. There's comfort, there's strength,
There's instruction for your soul in God's word. And if you
look back at Matthew chapter four, Matthew gave us many more
details about this 40 days of temptation in the wilderness.
And when he does, our Savior's giving us an example of what
is our strength? What do you use to strengthen
your soul in times of trial? Matthew four, verse one. Then
was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter
came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that
these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, it's
written. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Here Satan tempts our
Lord with the lust of the flesh. Now you can imagine going 40
days without food. Our Lord Jesus was starving to
death. I read somewhere that 40 days is the maximum amount
that a human body can go without food. He was at the point his
body couldn't take anymore. I recently had some tests where
I couldn't eat all day or I could only eat liquid diets one day
and the next day you can't eat nothing after this test. John,
it's hard for me to go eight hours without eating. Our Lord
went 40 days, 40 days. How easy would it have been for
a man starving to death to just give in to this temptation? It
would have been very easy, wouldn't it? But he didn't do it. This
man has the power to turn stones into bread, but he didn't do
it for his own benefit. And you know why he didn't do
it? Because remember, he's there as the representative of his
people. If you're somewhere and you're starving to death and
surrounded by a bunch of stones, you couldn't turn them into bread,
could you? Well, the Savior didn't either, because he's your representative.
He couldn't do something for himself you can't do for yourself. Our Lord never one time performed
a miracle for his own benefit. It was always for the benefit
of somebody else. And instead of giving in to this
temptation, He answered the trial with the word of God. That's
what we're to do. Now read on, verse five. Then
the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him
on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, if thou be
the son of God, cast thyself down. For it's written, he shall
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Now here Satan tempts the Lord
with the pride of life. He says, just jump off this building
like you're gonna commit suicide. And if you're really the son
of God, God won't let you die. He'll send his angels and they'll
catch you. Why the Lord wouldn't even allow you to stub your toe
on a stone. He wouldn't allow that. Now can you imagine how much
you would be tempted to do that? How tired? Do you reckon the
Lord God of people not believing him, not believing he's the son
of God? This is the son of God came preaching
the kingdom and people didn't believe him. I mean, wouldn't
you be tempted to show people who you really are? But see,
Satan quoted scripture there, but this is what he does. He
quoted scripture, but he twisted it. He misused it. That is a
misuse of a promise of God just to show off. That's what he was
wanting the Lord to do. Now again, our Lord didn't do
that because his people can't do it. And instead of giving
into the temptation, he answered with the word of God. Now that's
where we find the answer. That's why I tell us, get in
God's word and read it and devour it, because that's where you
find the answers. All right, verse eight. 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 said unto him, all these things will I give thee,
if thou will fall down and worship me. And here Satan tempts the
Savior with the lust of the eyes. Now Satan's the prince of the
power of the air. He has a dominion, he has some
power in the earth, but it's power that the Lord's given him.
He can only go as far as the Lord will allow him. Satan's
the prince of the power of the air, but he doesn't have control.
He doesn't have control over the earth. The earth is the Lord's
and the fullness thereof. The Lord is the one who puts
kings on the throne. He's the one who takes them off
the throne. Those kingdoms already belong to the Lord. So Satan's
promising something here he can't deliver. He can't deliver because
it's not his to give. But this is Satan's trick, his
method. He started with Eve, promising
her something that wasn't true. by twisting the word of God.
He said, you eat this fruit, then you'll be as God. You'll
be the one deciding what's good and what's evil. You'll be the
one making the rules. Well, it worked with Eve, didn't
it? But not with our Lord. Our Lord came to this earth as
a humble, poor man. This man is the prince of glory. John tells us in the New Jerusalem,
There'll be no need of the sun. For Christ the sun is the light
thereof. I mean, he's the light of heaven. But he came to earth
as a humble, poor man. He didn't own a house. He didn't
have a place to lay his head. He said even the foxes had dens.
So a man doesn't even have a place to lay his head. Satan is tempting Batman, the
one who doesn't own a home. It doesn't have a place to sleep
tonight. It doesn't have, you know, just any money, resources,
you know, humanly speaking whatsoever, and he's tempting him with all
the riches and all the houses of the world. All he had to do
was bow down and worship Satan. All he had to do was to commit
idolatry. That's all he had to do, and
he wouldn't be a poor man anymore. You know, sometimes when we're in a trial, you could be tempted
to compromise, couldn't you? You could be tempted to compromise
the gospel. Well, our Savior didn't, and
he didn't by answering with the word of God. Verse 10, then saith
Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it's written, thou
shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and
behold, the angels came and ministered unto him. See, God is to be worshipped. And here's the answer that the
Lord gave Satan, and this is a good answer for you and me.
We need to remember this. God's to be worshipped. Period. God is to be worshipped. I don't
care who we are. I don't care what God's done
for us. He's to be worshipped. God's to be worshipped. if he
saves us or if he names us. God's to be worshipped if he
heals us or makes us sick. He's to be worshipped equally,
both ways. God's to be worshipped if he kills us or makes us alive,
if he makes us rich or if he makes us poor, if he tries us
or he delivers us. Either way, whatever, God's to
be worshipped. That's our relationship with
God. He's God, we're the creature. He's God, we're the sinner, and
we're to worship him. That's our relationship. But
you won't find that anywhere but in the word of God, will
you? Now when you see, when you read God's word, and I told you
to read it and beg God to show himself to you in it. Don't just,
don't read God's word looking for what you're supposed to do.
If I do this, this, and this, then I'll be delivered. That's
worse. Pray that God would reveal himself
to you. If the Lord gives us a glimpse
of himself, we'll worship. See, that's the answer. Nothing
will strengthen and comfort and instruct our souls like the word
of God. And I think this is a true statement. That's especially true when we're
in a time of trial. Because when we're in a time
of trial, and you really need the Lord, and you seek him, you'll
find him. You surely will. All right, number
three, this is very comforting. When the Savior was tempted,
do you know the Spirit never left him? The Lord Jesus was
always full of the Spirit. He was always the Son of God
and he knew it. Well, if you're a child of God,
the Spirit's always with you too. A trial does not mean that
the Lord's casting you off. You know, unfortunately, we think
that. The trial comes and we go, well,
what did I do wrong? And worse yet, a trial comes
on somebody else and we think, ooh, what did they do wrong?
A trial does not mean that the Lord's casting you off. Now,
since you're a child of God, when you're hurting, draw closer
to the Savior than ever before. He's not left you. I'll give
you a silly little illustration that warms my papa's heart. When our grandson, Grayson, is
upset, you know what he does? He smushes his face just right
into the side of his mama's face. I mean, he's going to get as
close to her as he possibly can. He just gets in there and just
smishes their faces together. That's what makes him feel better.
I want to be as close to Mama as possible. If you're a child of God, and
you're hurting, smush yourself up to the Savior. Get as close
as you possibly can to Him. He's not left you, and He'll
comfort your heart. His presence, listen to me now,
I know what I'm talking about, His presence will comfort your
heart. It won't take the hurt away, it won't take the pain
away, it won't take the trial away, not immediately it won't,
But even though the heat of the trial is the same as it ever
was before, you're gonna be comforted if you're in his presence. All
right, number four. This trial lasted a long time,
but our Lord was delivered right on time. Now, 40 days is a long
time to be without food and without water. And during that time,
Mark tells us something that you don't read in other places,
During that time, the Lord is also surrounded by wild beasts.
That's a long time. But the Savior was delivered
from that trial. If you look at 1 Corinthians
10, the Lord has promised that he'll do the same thing for all
of his children. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 13. There hath no temptation taken
you, for such as is common to man, but God is faithful, who
will not suffer you to be tempted, above that you're able, but will
with the temptation also make a way to escape, that you may
be able to bear it. Now that's a precious, precious
promise. It says here that he'll not suffer
you to be tempted, above that you're able, and you think, well
I'm not able endure anything. I'm not able. Well, no, you're
not. But here's how you'll be able. He's going to give you
grace sufficient to bear. So he's going to be the one to
strengthen you to be able to bear. That's his promise to you. Now, hang on to that promise
for all your worth. The Lord will give you grace
to bear whatever it is he sends to you, and he will eventually
make a way to escape. And when you plead with God,
In the midst of the trial, in the midst of the darkness, in
the midst of the heartache, when you plead with God, I'll tell
you a mighty good plea. Best plea I can think of is plead
God's word. Plead his own word. Plead his
own promises. God will honor his word. He'll
keep his promise. I can tell you that. I told you
earlier that believers should expect trials. Expect them. And that's true. But listen,
it's not all doom and gloom for the believer. We're not saying
just expect trials like that's the only thing that you can expect.
You know what else a believer can expect? My grace is sufficient
for you. You can expect that. You know
why you can expect it? Because the Lord promised it. You know, a person, not really
thinking about what you're saying, might think that you're being
cocky, that you're being very presumptuous to say, Lord's gonna
give me grace sufficient for this. But it's not presumption
to expect the Lord to keep his promise. This is his promise
to you. I'll give you grace sufficient,
and I will make a way of escape. All right, number five, the Lord
was tried. but he was always protected.
The Lord was tried of Satan. Satan couldn't find anything
in him to work with. Satan couldn't harm him. But
also during those 40 days, Mark tells us that the Lord was surrounded
by wild beasts. Those beasts were always there.
I don't know, maybe they growled, maybe they roared, maybe, you
know, whatever those things, you know, animals do, but they
never harmed the Savior. You know why? Because the Lord's
in control. He's able to make a wild beast
do something that's not in its nature. Same thing he did for
Daniel in the lion's den, didn't he? He made those lions do something
that's not in their nature. Now that Lord is the same Lord
today, ruling today just like he always has. You and I are
surrounded by wild beasts. We're surrounded by men, and
I promise you, they're worse than any lion that you can find.
But the Lord is still able to make those wild beasts do something
that's not in their nature to do. The Lord's gonna send trials
to his people. But I promise you this, they'll hurt the body,
but they'll never touch the soul. Because the Lord's protected
his people. And the sixth thing is this,
and this is just what I was saying here a minute ago. You remember
when a trial comes your way. Now remember this, it's so important. It's something that will only
comfort the hearts of God's people. The Lord's the one that's in
control of this thing. He's the refiner sitting there controlling
the heat of the fire. He's the one controlling how
long his precious metal's in that fire. The Lord's in control
of this thing. Why was the Savior in the wilderness
in the first place? Well, Mark tells us it's because
the Spirit drove him there. Matthew says it's because the
Holy Spirit led him there. This trial was the Lord's doing
all along. The Spirit led him there. The
devil didn't do it. God did it. God did it. And God did it for a reason,
for the good of his people. and as hard and as painful as
this trial was for our Savior, it was for good, wasn't it? It
was for the good of his people. Is that he went and he stood
up to that temptation of Satan for us. He went there to suffer
that trial to give us an example to follow in his steps when we're
in a time of trial, in trouble. This was a painful trial for
our Savior, but it was for good, wasn't it? It's for the good
of his people. Now the same thing is true when
the Lord sends a trial our way. This is for good. We may not
be able to see it. We may not be able to understand.
Sometimes we will, sometimes we won't. I don't know. I like
what Brother Henry said. I remember him saying this years
ago about trials coming. He said, now the Lord's working
them for good. Not necessarily your good. Could
be for the good of somebody else. This trial's gonna be painful
for you. It's gonna be difficult for you. It's gonna be just,
you're in the fire. That's not good for you. I mean,
it doesn't feel good, but the Lord's working it for good. It
could be good for somebody else. But I do know this. This is one
way a trial is always good for God's people, always. It increases
our faith. So we trust the Lord more than
we ever did before. Trials teach us by experience
how much I can really depend upon the Lord. You know, there's
a great big difference between book learning and learning by
experience in there. Great big difference. I've said
this before, and I think it sums up what I'm trying to say. As
long as I can, remember, as long as I've ever understood language.
I truly believed God's grace is sufficient. I believe that
because it's in the word of God. So it has to be true. I believe
that. And then one day I found my world
turned upside down. And I actually said these words
to my wife. What am I going to do now? I
can't do this, I cannot do this, I cannot in doing this. And you know what I found out?
God's grace is sufficient. Learning that by experience is
a whole big difference from book learning. And trials wean us
away from this world. You know, we'd never want to
leave this world until we suffered the effects of sin in it. A man told me recently, he said,
told me it's a true story about a man who was sick and knew he
was dying. He was in the worship service
and the pastor had asked him to read scripture and to lead
in prayer if he had a word for the congregation to give it.
And the man did. His family was there. He read
the scripture. And he looked back at his pastor,
he said, pastor, it's these reasons it's hard to leave. His family,
you never want to leave them unless the world weans you away
from this world. We'll always think I find my
joy in this world until the Lord teaches us our joys in Christ.
And trials teach us that, wean us away from the world. And then
trials keep us. they keep us looking to, depending
upon Christ. It's just the way of the flesh,
isn't it? Oh, I trust Christ, I do. And as time goes, my flesh
will get strong and make me think I can depend upon, you know,
the arm of my flesh, and the Lord's got to knock me down to
make me remember, oh, how much I depend on Christ. And anything
that does that for me is good. It will still hurt, but it's
good. It's just I likened it to getting
a spanking as a child. It hurt like the dickens, but
it was good for me. It taught me. And trials from
our heavenly father accomplish the same thing. Now, they'll
be grievous, but afterward, it produces the peaceable fruit
of righteousness. Well, I hope that'll be a blessing
and a help to you.