I want you to turn to Matthew
chapter 4. Mark tells us that immediately the Holy Spirit driveth him into
the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness
forty days, tempted of Satan. And he was with the wild beast
and the angels ministered unto him. But over here in Matthew,
we have a more detailed account of the temptation of our Lord. How real it was. For 30 years, All things had been quiet, except
for his parents. They had to leave and go into
Egypt. You can't have Christ and not have trouble in this
world. But for 30 years, we really hear
nothing about him except when he's 12 years of age and he goes
to the temple and instructs those people in the temple. You remember
that story, the parents had to look for him and they found him
there. Other than that, it's pretty quiet. Scripture says
he grew in wisdom and in stature, being taught of God as a man.
As a man, he learned. As a man, this is the mystery
of godliness. Here is the embodiment of wisdom.
And yet he grew in wisdom, a God-man. God, and yet he's really a man. And the temptation is very, very
real. Very real. And I want you to
notice when Satan attacked our Lord, when he really came at
him, it was after his baptism It was after he was identified
as the Son of God. This is the Son of God. And I thought last night as I
was looking at this again, this is when the battle begins. When
we are identified as the sons of God. That's when the battle
begins. Satan's really not that interested
in you because he already has you. He already has you. It says in
Ephesians 2, the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience. So if you're not a child of God,
you are a child of Satan. The spirit of devil is working,
it says, in you. You're not out there on an island
by yourself. The spirit of disobedience. You
look at this world, you look at all the disobedience, you
look at all the stuff that's going on, all the mess. What is that all about? The spirit
of disobedience. Same spirit that Satan has. Same
spirit. Spirit of disobedience. And it's
not until a sinner is identified as a child of God that Satan
marks him. And that's when the warfare begins.
Did you have a warfare before you believed? You didn't have
one. The only warfare you had was mom and dad wanting to get
out of the house, wanting to go your own way. That's the warfare
we had. trying to figure out how, how
to fulfill the lust of the flesh. How can I do this and not get
caught, not get in trouble so much? That was our main objective. But now, since you have believed,
there's a warfare. There's a warfare going on. And this attack of Satan on God's
son here and on every one of his sons
and daughters, it will come. It will always come in one of
three ways. Turn over to 1 John chapter 2. Here's how it will come. And our Lord dealt with all three
ways in which Satan attacks us. and defeated him. Look in verse sixteen. First
John chapter two, verse sixteen. For all that is in the world,
the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the pride
of life is not of the Father, but of the world. That's how
he comes at us. And we will see this is how he
came at our Lord. I want to notice this before
I get into that. Our Lord's temptation here was ordained of God. You'll notice here in Matthew,
go back to Matthew chapter four. In Matthew chapter four, it says
verse one, then was Jesus led, says the same thing over Luke.
He was led up of the Holy Spirit, not away from temptation, not
away from trouble. Now listen, our representative,
our Messiah, our Savior was led into it. He was led right into the face
of temptation. That's why He said, over in Matthew
chapter 5 when we pray, lead us not into temptation. He knows
what it's all about. He knows what it's about. He
was led on purpose by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted, to be tried of the devil. We've seen a little bit
of that in Job. See, it was ordained of God.
for him to be tried. Will this second Adam, will he
fail or will he stand? Will he? Will this second Adam,
our Savior, be able to stand against the wiles of the devil?
The first one wasn't able and he was in a garden, a perfect
garden, plenty. Will he be able to stand? Or
will he fall? Well, we have God's Word on it.
He stood. He did not fall. Now, here's
the first temptation. He says here, Then was Jesus
led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights,
he had not eaten anything. You know, just a little, you
and I know just a little bit, not much, but just a little bit
about hunger. You go six, eight hours without
eating. I know this. I get, I get weak. I mean, I get trembling. Go 40
days and 40 nights without. Because he's God did not take
away the pain, the hunger pain. Did not take that away. He felt
hunger just like you and I feel hunger. And he fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, and afterward he was hungry. Hunger. You could
only imagine. I mean, they can only imagine
the hunger pain that was there. And when the tempter came to
him, you know he's watching. And now he's allowed in. Now
he's allowed to take his shot. And when the tempter came to
him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread. What was the first temptation
that he brought to Eve? It was to eat. Satisfy your hunger. Satisfy your what? Self. Provide
for your, take care of yourself. Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord will
provide. We wait for him to provide. We
don't do something wrong in order to provide and justify it that
way. But he told him, he said, if
you're the son of God, and there's one thing you'll notice throughout
this temptation of our Lord, that he kept coming at his faith. His faith. If you're the son
of God. If you're the son of God. Prove
it. You know, when Satan came at Adam and Eve, As I said, they
were in a perfect garden. And this shows the greatness
of the second Adam. This shows us who he is. The
perfect man. The God-man. Adam's in a perfect
garden. He's full. He needs nothing,
and yet he calls. Our Lord, the second Adam, hasn't
eaten for 40 days and 40 nights, and he stands. He doesn't give
in to the lust of the flesh. The first Adam was full and comfortable. The second Adam was hungry. And yet he stood. He did not give
in to Satan's temptation to fulfill his hunger or take care of himself.
Take care of yourself. Take care of yourself. It's only
right. Nothing wrong with eating. What's wrong with turning these
stones into bread? Eating is something we need to
do. He's our representative. He's our substitute. Can you
turn stones into bread when you're hungry? Well, he's not going
to either. He's got to suffer what I suffer.
He's got to go through what I go through. He could not at any time relieve
himself of any suffering or any pain. I can't do it. I can't
do it. And here's something else. Satan
challenges him to prove, to prove his sonship. What's the one thing that probably
troubles you the most as a believer? Was it John Newton that wrote,
"'Tis a point I long to know, oft it gives me anxious thought,
am I is, or am I not?" Isn't that one of the ways that
Satan comes at us? Doubt your sonship. You're the
Son of God, prove it. And he's saying to him here,
if you're the Son of God, prove you are the Son of God. Display
it! Display your power! He's attacking our Lord's faith,
just the same way He does us. He attacks our faith. Why do you believe you're a son
of God? I'll tell you why. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. That's why. Not because I feel
like it, because most of the time I don't. I'd say 90% of
the time we don't. It's because we take God at his
word. And then his spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are the
sons of God. Satan attacks our Lord's faith. And here's why he attacks his
faith. Look over in Philippians chapter
three. Philippians chapter three. Here's
why. Our Lord lived by faith. He lived
believing God. Here's why he attacks his faith. I never really saw this until
last night. Look in verse 9. Paul says, And be found in him,
not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
righteousness which is through the And I know sometimes we translate
that faithfulness of Christ, but it's also through the faith,
the faith of Christ. He believed God. If Satan could
bring him down and get him to just do something to provide
for himself, to help himself along the way here, he could
destroy us. We wouldn't have that righteousness
that we so desperately need. We wouldn't have it. But that
which is through the faith of Christ. Christ did not need to
turn those stones into bread to prove He's the Son of God. Do you and I need to do something
to prove we're sons of God? We don't do anything to prove we're
sons of God. We believe God. We believe God. Paul said, I
believe God it'll be just as he said it would be. Just as he said. Our Lord, he trusted his Father
to provide for him, to take care of him, to provide his needs. And Satan knew he was hungry. He knew he was hungry. You know,
you look at this word hunger, he was hungry. That can cover
about everything, doesn't it? You talk about this flesh, this
flesh hungers for more than just food, doesn't it? This flesh
hungers for a lot of things. That's why it's called the lust
of the flesh. But we depend, we totally depend
upon our Father to provide for us and take care of us. Spurgeon said one time, don't
make a dog out of yourself trying to get a bone. We depend upon Him to take care
of us. And our Lord handles Satan. Notice
here how He handles him. It is written. He didn't argue
with him. He didn't argue at all. He used
the sword of the Spirit. He used the Word of God against
Satan. God's Word is our weapon of choice. It is written. And he did not go beyond that,
did he? He did not go on beyond it is
written and try to explain and talk to him about it. No, it's
written and that's it. It's settled. That's what the
Word of God says, now we don't need to talk about it anymore.
It's over with. The conversation's over with.
It's written. Back over here, let's go back to Matthew. Matthew
chapter 4. But he answered and said in verse
4, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Now that bread alone, that bread
can be, like I said, it's like hunger can be anything. It could
be whatever this flesh desires. But man shall not live by bread
alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of
God. That's how we live. That's how
we live. Look over in Job chapter 23. In Job chapter 23, it says in verse 12, Job says in verse
12, neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips.
I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than what? My necessary food. That's what he's saying. Man
shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. Do you know why you're alive
right now? It's not because you had a good breakfast. No, that's probably working on
you. Cholesterol and all that junk. There's what we eat. You end up going to the doctor
and you've got high cholesterol and all that stuff. No, you're
alive right now because God's commanded it. And when you die,
God will command it. That's exactly why we're alive.
The Lord has commanded life. He's commanded life. Now look
over at Psalm 119. Here's why we live
by His Word. We need His Word. Over here in
Psalm 119, 105. Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet
and a light unto my path. You need that. You need to know
which way to go. You need to know how to walk
in this life. This is how important the Word
of God is to us. It's like Job said, it's more
than my necessary food. I don't have to eat." You say,
if you don't eat, you'll die. You're going to die anyway, aren't
you? I mean, first of all, you're going to die anyway. No, I need
God's Word. Where did you learn about the
Savior at? You learn about the Savior and His Word. This morning,
we have got His Word in our lap and we're looking at the temptation
of our Lord on our behalf, for us. He's being tempted for us.
This temptation that He's undergoing, It's on our behalf. It's on our
behalf. And He's going to defeat Satan.
He's going to defeat him. Well, you and I could not do
it. Couldn't do it. Saturate yourselves in His Word. And I'm talking to myself. When
I wrote this, I was writing it for myself. It will not fail
you when you need it. You cannot use what you do not
have or do not know. You cannot find comfort in God's
Word if you don't have the Word of God in you. How many times, and you who believe
the Gospel, you know, how many times have you been in a situation
or you've gone through something or even just gone through the
day and a Word or just a Word of God will come to your mind
and it'll bring comfort or direction. Just His Word. It's Word. Oh, how important that is. Here's a second one. Pride of
life. This is not in the order John
gave it in 1 John, but this is the order here in Matthew chapter
4. It's the pride of life or the
pride of the flesh. Proud. Proud. I mean, you can meet people that
have nothing, know nothing, and go nowhere. And proud as can
be. As proud as can be. It's just
a natural trait of this flesh. Satan appeals to the lust of
the flesh. He appeals to the hungers, the
appetites. The appetites of this flesh,
he appeals to it. All you've got to do is just
study you long enough and he knows what your appetite is. He knows what
you like. He knows what your problem is,
your greatest problem. All he's got to do is just watch
long enough, and then that's what he'll bring. If the Lord
allows him, that's what he'll bring. Now here, he's going to
come at our Lord with the pride of life. Let's see here. Then, in verse 5, then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city. And he's going to set him on
a pinnacle of the temple. You notice something's going
on here. Because the next time he takes him to a high mountain. Satan keeps lifting up. God brings
down. Satan will lift us. Satan will
take a man and lift him up and make him proud in religion. He'll
have him proud of race, proud of grace, proud of face, proud
of place. He keeps bringing him up. But
now, for God to save us, what happens? You've got to come down.
You've got to come off that pinnacle. You've got to come off that high
mountain. And He takes our Lord, and He
takes Him to the Holy City. The Holy City. They'll set Him
upon a pinnacle. And He says to him, If thou be
the Son of God, Now here's an opportunity. Here is a real opportunity. Because there's a promise in
the Word of God over in Psalm 91. Look over at Psalm 91. Satan's
very... He knows what the Scripture says.
He never quotes what it says. He'll twist what it says. You
can always be sure he'll put a twist on it. Look at verse 11 and 12. For
he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all
thy ways. Now, he leaves that out. If you
look over here, back over here, he takes in verse 6. And he says 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, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against
a stone. Over here, he leaves out. He leaves this out, and
he shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all
thy ways. Well, what are all his ways? The Lord's ways. It's the way of faith. It's the
way of faith. It's the way of trusting God. But he left that out. He'll keep thee in all thy ways.
They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot
against the stone. Here you are, takes him to the
temple, puts him up on a pinnacle. Now, here you can prove you're
the Son of God. You can make a great display
of your power and throw yourself down and the angel's catching
you. My, what a display. What a display of power. Again, he challenges his sonship. Again, he challenges his faith.
He challenges his faith. Prove who you are. Do something
here. Here's an opportunity to do something. Our Lord was not out to prove
anything to Satan. He was out to conquer. To conquer. And how did he conquer? How is it he overcame the world?
How is it we overcome the world, John says? By faith. By faith. Cast yourself down. He'll give
his angels charge over you. He's given his angels charge
over you. He'll bear you up. You won't hit the ground. You won't hit the ground. And our Lord said to him, it
is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." Don't create a situation in order to prove your sonship.
You know, we have a promise. There's a promise right there.
He'll give his angels charge over this. You know, it says
in Isaiah, when you go through the water, it shall not overflow
you. But I'm not going to go down
and walk through the Ohio River. When you go through the fire,
it will not burn you. I'm not going to step into fire.
I'm not going to build a bonfire and step in it and say, well,
God said it won't burn me. I bet it will. And I bet you
drown if you go down and walk through the river. I bet you
drown. You don't tempt God. You don't
take a promise and create a situation in order to try to prove sonship.
That's what Satan's trying to do here. He's trying to take
a promise and use it in a wrong way. He's going to just totally
use this promise in a wrong way. He's going to create a situation
to where you can prove your sonship. No, we believe God. We believe
God. He that comes to me, I will know
why I was cast out. I believe that. I believe that. Are you sure? I'll tell you what,
I'm as sure as this word is. When I stand before God, my only
hope is Jesus Christ and His righteousness. And His blood
that put away my sin. And that's it. And that's it. And I'm going to trust that all
the way home. I'm not going to try to take
a promise and try to create a situation to prove I'm a child of God. We just believe God. We believe
God. Then here's the last one. Bluster
the eyes, then the devil taketh him, because he failed the first
two times, He couldn't get him to eat. He could not get him
to satisfy the hunger of his flesh. He couldn't get him to do it.
As hungry as he was, he wouldn't do it. And you know he was hungry. He would not give in to the flesh. Then he took him and put him
up on that pentacle to the holy city. He told him to cast himself
down. Prove God. Prove you're a son
of God. Make a great display. And that's
what men do. Don't we like to make great displays
of who and what we are? I mean, if we have a talent,
if we think we have a talent, sooner or later everybody's going
to know about it. Our Lord made nothing of Himself,
did He? Made nothing of Himself. And then again in verse 8, And
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." Just worship me. The kingdoms belong to our Lord.
You can be sure of this. Anytime Satan opens his mouth,
he's lying. You can just write it down. Every word out of his
mouth is a lie. Truth can't come out of that
guy's mouth. It's a lie. He said, I don't know what powers
he does have. He's been given some power. Prince
of this world. I mean, he's got some power now.
But it all belongs to our Lord. When God created the heavens
and the earth and it fell, he didn't turn it over to Satan
and try to get it back. No, it's always been his. He just allows Satan to have
his little power and domain where he lets him have it. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get
thee hence, Satan. And I tell you what, I love this
because whenever Satan came to this point, and this is what
he's been after all along. Here's what Satan's after the
whole time. Worship me. Give me the glory that belongs
to Almighty God. And that's what false religion
does. False religion gives the glory to Satan, not God. And this is what it's all about.
Fall down and worship me. And he said, I'll give you all
these things. I'll give you all the glory of
the kingdoms. I'll give you the world. He showed
him the glory of the world. He showed him all this. That's the lust of the eyes. We know what that's about, don't
we? We know what all three of these are about. But it's hard
to pass up anything. Oh man, isn't that something? Then you start to covet, which
is idolatry. We do that a lot more than we'd
like to admit. We do it a lot more than we'd
like to admit. But that last one there is the
lust of the eyes, what we see. It draws us. It draws our attention. It draws
our heart. It draws our affection. It pulls
us in. But not our Lord. Not our Lord. He was not, and I believe this,
He was not He was not tempted in the sense
that he started to look at it and started to think about it.
Not one time did he do that. You see, we give it a look, and
then we give it another look, another look. It gets our attention. It never got his attention. When
he showed him the glory of the world, it did not get his attention. Satan hath come, our Lord said
this in one place, Satan hath come and hath found what? Nothing
in me. I bet he'll find it in me. There's
a whole lot Satan can find in me to get a hold of today. But
when he came to our Lord, there was nothing that he could get
a hold of. There was nothing that he could
sink his teeth into to get him to fall. That is our representative. That
one is our substitute. He's our substitute. Satan hangs
out all the trimmings of this world to entice our Lord. You see these game shows. They
bring that car out there. You know, you're going to win
this car. Man, they're just jubilating. I mean, they just almost wilt. They're going to get an expensive
vacation. They always throw all these trimmings
out there and people just melt. That's us. That's the lust of
the eyes. But it never grabbed hold of
our Lord. What is that? compared to the glory of God.
What is that compared to what our relationship is with God
and what we shall have when this is over? There's no comparison. There
is no comparison. The streets in glory are made
of what? Gold. You're going to walk on it. You're
literally going to walk on it. It's not going to be in a bank
drawing interest. That's what you think of in the glory. You
walk on it. Because the glory of that place
is Jesus Christ. Not anything. Not the material
things. It's Christ. Now, why did our Lord have to
go through this? I'm going to close. Why did He have to go
through this temptation? Turn over to Hebrews chapter
2. Hebrews chapter 2, look in verse 17. Here is why
our Lord went through this. Wherefore, in verse 17 of Hebrews
2, wherefore in all things it behooved him to be made like
unto his brethren. that he might be a merciful and
faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people, for in that he himself has suffered,
being tempted forty days and forty nights," and he's tempted
to the death, he's able to succor, to run to help them that are
tempted. You reckon He knows my problems?
You reckon He knows my temptations? You and I have temptations. We've had them. We will have
them. We've had strong ones. Can I take that before the Lord? Can He identify with me going
through this? Whatever that is. Because it's
covered under the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and
the pride of life. He faced it. He knows exactly
what I'm going through. He knows the temptation. And
he says he can run to help. He can suffer. He can help. He
can lift up. He can hold them that are tempted. How in the world did Job standing
under that trial. How in the world did Job say,
It's the Lord who gave and the Lord who taketh away. Blessed
be the name of the Lord. I'll tell you how. This one right
here. The only way that we can make
it through any temptation is the help of our Lord. He said that no temptation would
come upon us that would overtake us that He would not with that
temptation make a way out. Make a way out. When you are
tempted and tried, go to Him. He knows just what you're going
through, and He's able to help you through it. Here's another
scripture over here in Hebrews 4, 15. For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted, like as we are, yet without giving
in, without sin." Now listen to this, and then
we'll close with this one. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace. we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need.