Okay, Matthew chapter four. I have a lesson this morning
that I trust will both glorify our Savior and be something very
helpful to each of us this morning. I've titled it Help and Temptation.
Verse one of Matthew chapter four says, Then was Jesus led
up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. The
word tempted here means to entice or to examine, to test. If you
look over first, John, hold your finger there. Just look over
at first John chapter two. There are three basic ways that
Satan entices that he examines and tests men of this world. First John chapter two, he tests
God's people with the things of this world. And John tells
us what they are. First John chapter two, verse
15. He warns us to love, not the
world, neither the things that are in the world, If any man
loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For
all that is in the world, and here's the three things, the
lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride of
life is not of the Father, but that's of the world. Now, these
are the three things that Satan uses to entice God's people. It's the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And this is the very
way that Satan tried to entice or to examine the Savior. The first one was with the lust
of the flesh. Verse two back in Matthew chapter
four says, and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was
afterward and hungered. And I read this week, I just
wondered about this fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. I looked
this up. A human being can actually survive 40 days without eating. I try to remind myself and I
don't think I can go four hours without eating. I looked this
up. They said a person, a human being
can live 40 days without eating as long as they are well hydrated.
But at the end of 40 days, they will be on the brink of dying
of starvation. And our Lord actually did this,
fasted for 40 days and 40 nights to show us that he was truly
a man. Because what happened after 40
days of fasting? He was in hunger. And I look
that word hungry up and it means that he was famished. His body
was craving food. And he endured 40 days of fasting
to put his body at the weakest frame, I guess is the way to
say it, the weakest frame that it could be in, to show us how
he truly overcame this test. He truly passed this test. It
was a real test. He hadn't eaten in 40 days. And
the test was the lust of the flesh. Look at verse 3. And when
the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, Command
that these stones be made bread. Now, Satan was right. The Lord
could have spoken and turned those stones into bread, couldn't
he? And he had the power to create food from nothing. I mean, he
fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. I mean, he kept breaking
that. It was enough to feed all those
people and have all those baskets of food left over. He was creating
food. So certainly he could change
by his will. He could change stones into bread.
But the Savior never one time ever performed a miracle for
the benefit of his own flesh. When he was thirsty, he had to
ask a sinful woman to draw him water. He never performed a miracle
for himself. And even though his flesh craved
food, he wouldn't give in and perform this miracle to relieve
his flesh because that would have been sinful. It wouldn't
have been passing this examination. And instead, He taught us something
very important. He taught us that we need spiritual
bread. We need Christ more than we need
wheat bread. Verse four, but he answered and
said, it is written. And every time the savior, you
notice this through here, this, this passage, every time the
savior is answered, he answered, it is written. He answers with
the word of God. Man should not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of
God. Our Lord's teaching us too. Very important lessons here.
Number one, don't ever do religious work to satisfy the flesh. Nothing is more satisfying to
the flesh than earning our salvation. Nothing is more satisfying to
the flesh than that. So don't do that. But trust Christ
to be your life. Trust Christ to give you life
and trust Christ to be your life. And the second thing the Savior
is teaching us is this. And he's not denying that we
need the things of this life. We do. We, we must have food
and clothes and shelter and drink. There's no question about that.
But look at Matthew chapter six. This is what the Lord's teaching
us. We need Christ more. We do need those things, but
we need Christ more. So arrange your life accordingly.
Matthew six, verse 31, therefore take no thought. And he means
no anxious thought, no excessive thought. saying, what should
we eat or what should we drink or wherewithal should we be clothed?
For after all these things to the Gentiles, see for your heavenly
father knoweth that you have need of these things, but seek
ye first the kingdom of God and his righteousness. And all these
things will be added to you. All those things are things that
can be added. But the thing that we must have,
the thing that we need is the Lord Jesus Christ. So do what
you have to do to be able to live. Dwayne, keep going up that
factory and working. Do what you've got to do, you
know, to live. But don't seek those things at the expense of
seeking Christ. Don't seek having those things
at the expense of being in the worship service, being where
the Word of God is preached. Don't seek satisfaction for the
flesh at the expense of the satisfaction of your soul. Our flesh has to,
we gotta take care of it. The Lord gave you a body and
a mind to take care of it. A great American told me that
one time. But don't seek satisfaction for your flesh at the expense
of the satisfaction of your soul. That's what the Lord's teaching
is. A person can get everything this
earth has to offer and go to hell without Christ. So we need
food and clothes and shelter But keep those things in their
proper perspective. We don't need luxuries. We have
to have food and clothes and shelter, but you don't have to
have luxuries at the expense of seeking Christ. And we have
to spend time working and taking care of the responsibilities
of this life. But let's allocate our time accordingly. Let's allocate our time every
week to the worship of God first. This is when the children's bread
is being passed out. This is when the children's bread
is there for the souls of God's people, when God's word is being
preached. And we need to be there. Children's
bread is being sent out. Now we gotta be here to eat it,
to live and be healthy. And I don't want to sound snarky
when I say this, but you know, we do preach more than just Sunday
morning at 11 o'clock here. We preach, we have a class. like
we're doing right now. We preach Wednesday night. Some
people might not know that, but we preach Wednesday night. That's
when the children's bread is being passed out. Children need
to be here to have it, to hear it. All right. Number two, the
pride of life. 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, see
how he keeps casting doubt upon the word of God. If, thou be
the Son of God, cast thyself down. For it is written, he should
give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
should bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone." Now here, Satan is tempting the Savior to do something
foolish. Just jump off this building like
you're going to commit suicide. And if you're really the Son
of God, God's not going to let you. If you're really the son
of God, his angels will catch you before you hit the bottom.
He's not even let you to dash your foot against the stone.
He's not gonna let you die. If he cast yourself off this
building. Now that is twisting God's word and misusing the promises
of God. He's just trying to get the savior
to show off his power and his deity. And the savior answers
him again with the word of God. Verse seven, Jesus said unto
him, it is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God. Now, here's the lesson that the
Savior is teaching. It's not the job of the creature
to test our God, to test out and see, is his word really true?
Is his promises really true? And it's wrong for us to presume
on the promises of God by not acting prudently, by not acting
like God's given you a little bit of wisdom. I mean, God God's
promised his people life. But if you don't look both ways
before you cross the street, you deserve to get hit by a truck.
I mean, that's just all there is to it. And mostly this temptation
of the pride of life is teaching against the pride of grace. Now,
clearly, the way we it's wrong, the way what we clearly are usually
defined as the pride of grace is a wrong attitude. It's wrong
for us to live in an attitude of pride, strutting around like
a proud peacock because God's been merciful to us and not somebody
else. Because God's been pleased to
show us something and teach us something and save us and not,
he's not been pleased to do that for somebody else. Clearly, it
is the wrong attitude to look down our nose upon people that
God's not been pleased to save like we're better than they are.
When the only difference between us and them is what? God's grace. So it's wrong, that's wrong.
But pride of grace goes a whole lot deeper and more dangerous
than that. Pride of grace is twisting the promises of God
and twisting the word of God to create an excuse for us to
sin and act foolishly. Someone might say, well, since
God gets all the glory and showing grace to sinners, let's sin that
grace may abandon. God's promised to forgive all
my sins so I can just go out there and live like hell, sin
all I want. What did the Apostle Paul say about that? God forbid. God forbid. That's contrary to
grace. That's contrary to the rest of
God's Word. Then someone says, I know that
God ordains everything that happens for good, so I'm not going to
worry about the effect of what I do. I mean, I want to do something
and I know good and well it's going to hurt somebody else,
That's all right. You know, God has a purpose for
everything. So it's just going to turn out all right. If I do
hurt, you know, my friend, God forbid. Then someone will say,
well, God's promised that I cannot lose my salvation. So I don't
need to worry about going to the worship services. I don't
need to worry about worshiping with God's people and identifying
with God's people because I'll still be saved. I can't lose
my salvation. Salvation is by grace, not by
works. So I don't have to be concerned
with good works. I don't have to be concerned
about serving the Lord and serving his people and giving and living
a holy life. I have to be concerned about
those things. Now, that is the wrong attitude. That's tempting
God by presuming on his grace, taking one verse of scripture
and twisting it to fit what we want to do and not looking at
what the whole word of God teaches. Absolutely, salvation is by grace
and not by works. I'm not arguing against that.
That's absolutely true. Salvation is by grace, not by
works. But you and I are still responsible
to serve the Lord and to follow Him. We're still responsible
to come to Christ. We're still responsible to believe
Him. And absolutely, our sin is forgiven. And nothing we can
do would ever cause God to cast any of His people out. But that
never makes the believer think, Well, then I just want to sin
more. I'd want to sin less if I could. I mean, I really do.
I mean, I know I can't, but I still, I still strive to sin less, even
though I know I can't. Because if God has forgiven my
sin, I hate sin. I hate my sin. I don't want to
commit more of it. That's the teaching of all of
God's word and this pride of grace by taking God's promises
and twisting them to just let us do whatever our evil mind
wants to do is wrong. And you'll notice our Savior
was tested, passed the test, didn't he? All right, third thing
is the lust of the eyes, 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 saith
unto him, all these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall
down and worship me. Now, Satan is the prince of the
power of the air. But that doesn't mean that he has absolute dominion
and unquestioned control over the earth. The earth is the Lord's,
isn't it? And the fullness thereof. The
Lord's the one who puts kings on the throne. He's the one who
takes them off the throne because all those kingdoms are already
his. He just puts his puppet on there
to do his will. So Satan here is promising something
that wasn't his to give. He couldn't deliver it because
it wasn't his to give. And this is his mode of operation,
isn't it? Isn't that how he started with
Eve? He started promising her something that wasn't true. He
started taking God's word and twisting it. Saying, you'll be
his God. You'll be the one to make the
rules. You'll know good and evil. And that wasn't true. When Adam
ate that fruit, they knew evil, didn't they? But they didn't
know good. No. He's promising something he can't
give. He's twisting God's word and
lying about it. Now you think of the Lord Jesus.
just at this particular moment. He came to earth as a humble,
poor man. His body is starving. He didn't
own a house. He didn't even have a place to
lay his head. He didn't have a house he rented. He owned nothing.
And Satan is tempting him with all the riches, all the power,
all the fame, all the comforts of this world. Up until just
a day before, The Lord Jesus was unknown. He spent 30 days
in obscurity. Satan is promising him fame in
the whole world. All the Savior had to do to have
those things. This is not true, but this is
what Satan is telling him. All you got to do is worship
me. All you got to do to have all
these things is commit idolatry and you won't be a poor man anymore. And the Savior answered him again
with the word of God, verse 10. 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. God is to be worshipped. God
is to be worshipped no matter who we are, no matter where we
are, or no matter what God has or has not given us. God is to
be worshipped. As a matter of fact, God will
be worshipped. whether he saves us or he damns us, God's going
to be worshipped. If God heals us or makes us sick,
if God kills us or makes us alive, if God makes us rich or makes
us poor, if God giveth or he taketh away, the Lord is to be
worshipped. And Job teaches that. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. He gave and he took it away. It's his to give, just take it
away. And Job worshipped. Blessed be the name of the Lord.
No matter what our circumstances, God is to be worshipped. There are a couple of very important
lessons here. Number one, what is true religion? True religion
is not worshipping so I can get more stuff of this life. Actually,
true religion is looking forward to the time we can get rid of
all the stuff of this life, this body included, isn't it? True
religion is not worshipping God So God will make us rich. It
drives Janet crazy. Buddy, I channel surf around.
If there's a commercial, I'm turning the channel. I'm watching
something else. And I came across, what was his swagger? His sons
in the family business now, stealing money from people. And he was
promising people. Oh, he said, now you've given
all this money in these last, how many ever days we've raised
$5 million, but we need another 1.9. And if you give, God will
make you rich. He promised that. That's not
so. Let's not seek earthly riches.
They're all going to be burned up right quick, right quick. God's going to burn them up at
the end of this world. God's going to burn them up.
But you know what? They might get burned up for then. The stock
market may crash again, they get burned up and they're gone.
They're not even smoked, they're just gone. That's not true religion. True religion seeks spiritual
riches, which are in Christ and they're eternal. True religion
is not worshiping God so he'll heal our bodies. God may be pleased
to heal our bodies, but I'm telling you this, sooner or later, Our
bodies are returning to the dust from which they were made. They're
either going to go back to the dust or God's going to change
them when Christ returns. One or the other, but they're
not lasting. True religion has to do with seeking health for
our souls, seeking eternal life in Christ, not our bodies. True
religion is not worshiping God. So God will give us lots of family
and friends, somebody that will entertain us more in this life
till this life is over. I love family and friends, but
that's not the purpose of true religion. True religion is worshiping
Christ and seeking to know Christ, seeking to have Christ who is
the friend of sinners. See, if we have Christ, we have
a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. We have a friend
and we have family. It's in him. And true worshipers
do not worship God out of a mercenary attitude. We're not worshiping
God, asking Him what's in it for me. True worshipers say what's
in it for God. To worship Him, to praise Him,
to lift up His name. We worship God simply because
of who God is. That's the proper relationship
you and I have with God. He's God and we're the creature.
He's God above, we're creatures below. The only proper relationship
we can have with Him is to worship Him. That's the only relationship
we can have. And true worshipers worship God
in spirit and in truth. Not in the flesh, not in the
motions of the flesh, not in the activities of the flesh,
in spirit and in truth. And our Lord said, the Father
seeketh such to worship you. That's true religion. And the
second lesson the Lord's teaching us is this. Don't compromise
with false religion. in order to get a bigger crowd,
in order to get more recognition and more fame and create creature
comforts for yourself. This is how serious compromising
with false religion is. The Savior calls it idolatry.
It's idolatry. All right, now these are the
three tests our Savior was faced with. I want to ask you a question.
How are you doing on passing these tests? very poorly. Every single one
of us has failed. We just got a big fat zero. That's what we got. We failed.
Our Savior was tempted and he passed every test. You and I
don't even have to be tempted till we fail. Let's be honest.
We don't have to be tempted to fail the lust of the flesh, the
lust of the eyes and the pride of life. It's so deeply ingrained
in this flesh. We don't have to be tempted to
fail. Well, then let me give you a few things that will be
helpful to God's people in temptation. Number one is this. Look to Christ. Look to Christ. We fail every
test, but Christ has passed every test. He has a perfect righteousness,
a perfect obedience. Satan tempted, or he examined
the Savior. And you know what our Lord said?
He hadn't found anything in me. He's found nothing in me he's
got to work with. That's why he had to go away.
So don't try to stand on your own. Look to Christ. Look to
him and trust him and don't trust yourself. Trust his strength,
not yours. Trust his righteousness, not
yours. Seek shelter in Him. Seek acceptance
in Him. Seek to be found in Christ. Seek
to rest in Christ. Look to Christ. He's the one
who passed every test. Number two is this. Find comfort
in this truth. The Lord is in control. You know, I'm afraid that far
too often we use this truth. The Lord is in control. It's
some sort of religious catchphrase or something. This is the comfort,
the assurance that God's people have in the heart, in the soul.
God's in control. He is in absolute control. Nothing can, Satan can't even
wriggle without his permission. When was our Lord tempted of
Satan? Was this Satan's idea? The Lord arranged it because
God's in control. Verse 1 says, then was Jesus
let up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. This was God's doing. Satan didn't come find the Lord.
The spirit brought him to Satan. God's in control. The same thing
happened with Job. Satan didn't come up with a bright
idea. I want to attack Job, did he? Who brought up Job's name
first? God did. Have you considered
my servant Job? God's in control. The Lord is
the one who is in control of our troubles, our trials, our
temptation. Entrusting. He is our loving
Father. Trusting. He knows best and He's
doing best. Even when we don't understand,
He's in control. The one who's in control of this
is not Satan, who's your adversary. One who's in control of this
is your father, who loves you and gave his son to save you.
All right. Thirdly, understand this, and
this is something we've got to be taught over and over and over
and over again. At least some of God's purpose
in trials is to humble us and to keep us dependent upon him.
I don't know what God's purpose is in every trial, but in every
trial, this is part of his purpose. to humble us and to keep us dependent
upon him. When did this trial begin for
the Savior? Immediately after he began his
public ministry. Immediately after he identified
himself as the Savior at the baptism of John, the Father spoke
audibly from heaven, said, this is my son. The Spirit came and
dwelt upon him. What a moment. And then immediately
after that, the trial began, the temptation began. And a believer's
trouble begins the very moment God saves us. The very moment
God gives us life, our troubles begin. Because at that moment,
when God gives us life, that's when the warfare begins. The
internal warfare between the flesh and the spirit. It begins
immediately when God gives life. When we, the very moment we confess
Christ publicly, I promise you that's when Satan's going to
attack. Sooner or later, more likely sooner. The Lord allowed
Satan to attack Job when Job was wealthy. He was well known
as a wise and prosperous, godly man. He was older. He was on
the downhill side of life, on the downhill pull. And then Satan
came. Children of Israel were attacked
immediately after they left that high being delivered from Egypt
at the Red Sea. When did the Lord allow Satan
to buffet? Buffet Paul repeatedly with a
thorn in the flesh after he was taken to third heaven. And Paul
said, God allowed it, lest I be exalted above measure. to humble
me and keep me dependent upon him. That is at least part of
the Lord's purpose in every trial. And we can take comfort in this.
All will be well if we depend upon the Lord and not on the
arm of the flesh. All right, fourthly, in times
of temptation, trouble, trial, seek answers and find comfort
in the word of God. Our Lord answered every temptation
with the Word of God. And Satan never one time answered
against it, did he? And eventually he just went away.
You know, people argue against the Word of God. Yeah, but I
think this, or yeah, but I think that, or yeah, that's true, but
this too, you know, and they try to argue with God's Word.
I don't know what all this means, but Satan had the sense not to
argue against the Word of God. He twisted it. but he could not
argue against it. So get in God's word, find your
comfort, find assurance, find help in the word of God. That
was the savior's only defense. It is written, the word of God.
And this is Satan's mode of attack is to put a question mark on
God's word. Did God really say that? Did
God really mean that? That's how He started with Eve,
isn't it? Did God really mean that? He came to the Lord and
said, well, now, if you're the Son of God, now, if this is so,
He puts a question mark on God's Word, and He'll do the same thing
to you and me. And our defense is this, be well taught in God's
Word, because it's our only defense. Read it prayerfully and carefully,
and then find somebody God's taught and listen to them preach
it, so you won't be deceived. This word is our only foundation
of faith. The only thing we believe is
what's clearly revealed in this book, and it's our only defense.
And then lastly, in times of temptation, trust the Lord to
comfort and trust the Lord to deliver. Verse 11 says, then
the devil leaveth him and behold, angels came and ministered unto
him. I don't look for comfort or help anywhere. other than
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who can drive
the tempter away. The only one. He's the only one
who can deliver. So trust Him to deliver. He's
the only one who can comfort, so trust Him to comfort. He will
do it. He promised He would do it. Now why is this story given to
us? It's to show us that the Savior
went through this temptation. so that when his people are tempted
and tried in the exact same way, we'll have confidence in him.
He's been through this. He knows what it's like. He knows
what it feels like to be tempted like this. And so he's able to
comfort. Let me show you that Hebrews
chapter two. You know, we've been studying
through the book of Hebrews and this ties very closely to what
we've been seeing in, in the book of Hebrews, the savior endured
this. so that he would be able to comfort
his people when they're tempted. Hebrews 2 verse 17. Wherefore in all things it behooved
him to be made like unto his brethren, that he might be a
merciful and a faithful high priest in things pertaining to
God, to make reconciliation for the sins of his people. Now the
Lord endured all that, he endured everything his people go through.
He was made flesh just like his people, so that, verse 18, for
in that he himself has suffered being tempted, he is able to
succor them that are tempted. So in times of trouble, times
of temptation, and might I add, in good times too, look to Christ. Trust the Savior. He's what we
need. All right, Lord bless you.