Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. The title of the message is Christ's
Temptation in the Wilderness. As I have been reading this, it just amazes me to think that
Almighty God, who kicked Satan out of heaven,
the Lord said, I beheld Satan fall from heaven. That He would
come into this world, take upon Him flesh, God in human
flesh, and allow Himself to be tempted by Satan, the one He
kicked out. I mean, this is just As I read
this over and over today, it's just mind-boggling to me that
Almighty God would stoop, humiliate Himself to be tempted by the
devil. And He did that for this reason. that he might
be a faithful high priest, that he might be a priest that can
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He did that
for us. He did that so that at no time,
with none of his children, he could not feel what they were
praying about, what they were going through. You know, I can't feel everything
you go through. You can't feel everything I go
through. But He can. He can. When Martha and Mary wept over
Lazarus, it says that Jesus wept. He felt
it. He felt their pain. He felt it. He felt what they felt. One writer
said, He felt everything He took away. That's one of the best
statements I've ever read. He felt everything. He took away.
We are told in Hebrews that we have not a high priest that cannot
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all
points tempted as we are, yet without sin. That's in Hebrews
4.15. Listen to Hebrews 2.18. Let me read 17 with it. Wherefore,
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren.
And 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, he hath suffered, he suffered
temptation here in the wilderness, being tempted. He's able to succor
or to help them that are tempted. This has to happen. Our Lord
met every enemy that we have, and He conquered every one of
them. Every last one of them. And Satan, who is an evil spirit,
and our greatest enemy, has been conquered by our Lord. Conquered now. He's a very real
person, and very evil, but he's conquered. And we see this all
through the scriptures. And here in Matthew 4, we see
one of his victories over Satan. And as I thought about this and
was reading this, I thought every time God saves a sinner, it is
another demonstration of the power and victory of our Lord
over Satan. It's another brand plucked from
the fire. It's another one of God's children
taken out of the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom
of God's dear Son, the kingdom of light. Every time God saves
a sinner. And this ought to give us great
comfort to read these things, to read these things as we pass
through this life. What comfort we have in the Scriptures. I believe it's over in 1 Thessalonians
where he's talking about Christ bringing back those who have
died with him. And at the end of it he says, comfort one another
with these words. And that's not just talking about,
and I know he's talking there about that situation, but I tell
you what, the whole Word of God is our comfort. From Genesis
to Revelation is comfort one another with these words. This is where we find our comfort.
in the Word of God. How did our Lord, we will see
this, but how did he handle Satan? This is the Son of God. And he
doesn't say, he doesn't say, and he says this, and I'm sure
for our benefit, but also this is how he handled it. He doesn't
say, now I'm telling you. He said, it's written. He took
him to the Word of, he took him to the Word of God. That's how
he handled it. Now I know this, people for the
most part believe that Satan does his greatest work on the
streets, in the brothels, in the drug world, but that's not
so. That is absolutely not so. Men will be men, evil will be
in these places without the devil. You don't need him for these
things. That's just who and what we are by nature. But Satan does
his greatest work and harm in religion and in the pulpit every
week, every week. I like what Joe Terrell said
one time, I never forgot it. He said, it's funny, the spirit
of antichrist is leading the search for antichrist. Look over in 2 Corinthians. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. He does his greatest work out
of the pulpit, right out of the pulpit. It says in verse 13 of
2 Corinthians chapter 11, are false apostles, deceitful
workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
But don't marvel at this, for Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore, it's no great thing
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
not the righteousness of Christ, but self-righteousness, whose
end shall be according to their But his greatest work and damage
is not done on the streets. It's in religion. False religion. You turn over to Matthew 23.
That's why our Lord, going over in 1
John, He says, "...try the spirits, whether they be of God." In Matthew 23. Look in verse 15. Matthew 23, 15. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites, for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte.
And when he is made, you make him twofold more the child of
hell than yourselves. See how dangerous it is? You
make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves. So Satan
does his greatest work in religion, false religion, self-righteousness. That's where he does his greatest
work. Now, let's get back to here, to chapter 4 of Matthew. I want us to notice, first of
all, the time of his temptation. If you'll notice, look up in
chapter 3, verse 16. And Jesus, when he was baptized,
went up straightway out of the water. 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 pointed him out. He entered upon
his earthly ministry here. For the next three years, he's
going to preach the gospel and reveal some things. says here,
in a low voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son in whom
I am well pleased. And after that, immediately,
immediately after that, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. After he was baptized,
after it was revealed, this is the Son of God. You know, we
have a gap there of silence. We read one time when he's 12
years old when he's in the temple. We have this real silence. He's
working in the carpenter shop there with Joseph and everything's
quiet. But boy, when he enters upon
his earthly ministry and it's revealed this is the Son of God,
all hell breaks loose. It all breaks loose. Satan attacks. This is the one. This is the
one. As it says over in the Old Testament,
fight with neither small nor great, save the king of Israel. All arrows are aimed at him because
Satan knows if he can destroy him, if he can get this second
Adam, he's got it. He's got it. If he can get it
done, he believes if he can get that done, he's got it. So he's led into the wilderness
after he's baptized. Satan is not, listen, Satan is
not interested in unregenerate sons of God. Christ was never
unregenerate, but he's not interested in people out here that have
not been born of God, that's not preaching the gospel. He's
not interested in them. He's interested in bringing down
every child of God. That's when the battle starts.
The battle starts the day that you're born of God. That's
when the battle starts. It's God's people he wants to
destroy, especially the captain, the captain of our salvation. Now, there's something interesting
here in this first verse. It says the Spirit led Christ
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. over Marcus as
he driveth him into the wilderness. And Luke, for it, he led him
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil on purpose. On purpose. All our trials, all that was
appointed for him came to pass. Nothing happened to him that
was not appointed and nothing happens to us that's not appointed.
All our trials, all our afflictions are appointed. And it says here,
that he would be led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. Last Sunday, I preached from chapter 5. He says over here, listen, let me find it. into temptation. He knew what
he was talking about. He knew exactly what he was talking
about. He was just in that wilderness
for 40 days and 40 nights and hungry, and then after that,
he was tempted of the devil. And he was led of the Spirit
of God to be tempted of the devil on purpose. I'm not going to
try to enter into all that. That's over my head, but I know
what it says. It says that the Spirit of God
purposely Took him into the wilderness to be tried, tempted of Satan. All purpose. This didn't just
happen. It was according to the purpose
of God. Martin Luther said this. There's three things that it
takes to make a preacher. There's three things that it
takes. He said it takes meditation, prayer, and temptation. Martin Luther said it takes those
three things to make a preacher. Meditation, prayer, and temptation. And that's what happened to Hyrule.
He was led into the wilderness to be tempted. Tempted. And his temptation was very real.
He felt the full force of Satan's onslaught. Now, I can't put this
into words because you and I never get the full force of it. We
never get the full force. God either removes it or we get
into it. It's one or the other. Our Lord
felt the full force of Satan's power and temptation and all
that he brought at him. And he didn't fall. You're going
to notice here, three times, three times he comes at him.
Three times he comes at him in three different directions. He only came at Adam one time.
He came at Adam one time, and Adam hit the dirt. He fell. He fell. But he came at our Lord three
times. And he stood the test. He stood
the test. Christ's temptation was very
real. He felt that. He felt it now. Don't think that
because he's the Son of God that the temptation was not real or
as real as it would be against me and you. Oh, it was real.
He was tempted, it says, at all points as we are. That's not
a play on words. Not a play on words. He was really
tempted. Tried. And you know what, I can't
enter into all that, what that means. That's just beyond me. But I do know this. There is
not and never will be a situation that I or you will ever come
into that our Lord cannot identify with us. Not a situation. That's why he can be a faithful,
merciful high priest. That's why he can be touched
with the feeling of our infirmities. He's been there. Been there.
Notice the time of his temptation. The time of his temptation. After he had fasted for forty
days and nights. Did not eat anything. For 40 days and nights the Son of God
was in the wilderness. It says over in Mark with the
beast. And for 40 days and nights He
does not eat a thing. And then after the 40 days and
nights of going through all that happened during those 40 days
and nights, whatever was going on, it says He was hungry. And when he had fasted 40 days
and 40 nights, he was afterward hungry. You know he was hungry. This shows his humanity. This
shows his humanity. He was hungry. I would say, I
would say this. I would say severely hungry.
I'd say he was severely hungry. And Satan comes at him. He comes
at him after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights. And he shoots
at him. with this first temptation. Here's
the first one. Make these stones bread. Make these stones bread. Satan always shoots at the chink
in the armor, although our Lord had no chink in his armor. But
he knows human nature far better than you and I know it. He knows
where to attack us. He knows where to attack every
individual, and He knows where your weakness is. Where you might
be weak, I might be strong. Where I'm weak, you might be
strong. But Satan knows where it is. He knows where every individual
weakness is. And here, he's hungry. He's hungry. And he knows that we have to
eat. There's nothing wrong with eating
when you're hungry. He knows that. And he knows this. He knows that people will sell
their birthright for a bowl of pottage. He saw it happen. He was in on that one. I guarantee
you. Oh, he saw it. It means nothing
to that birthright. It means nothing to him. Hands it over to Jacob for what?
A bowl of soup. We do many things for when we
get hungry. We do some really... People kill to feed themselves. To feed their family, they kill
for it. Our Lord is hungry. And no doubt
Satan believes, I can bring him down here. I can bring the second
Adam down just like I did the first one. Bring him down. Just like I did the first one.
Well, the first Adam wasn't God. The second Adam is. And I have no doubt that Satan
made it sound, and I don't believe he just stood there and challenged
him like this. You know, I picture it in the
Garden of Eden. That serpent speaks to Eve so
smoothly, so gently. Had a way with words. Be careful. You ladies be careful with a
guy that has ways with words. He has a way with words. And I have no doubt he was saying,
you're hungry? Take these stones. If you're
the Son of God, if you're the Son of God, take these stones
and turn them into bread. Ain't nothing wrong with that. Yeah, there is something wrong
with it, too. Because had He done it, it would have been over
with. We wouldn't have a Savior. We wouldn't have one. Our Lord never
performed one miracle to relieve Himself. He performed a lot of
miracles to relieve us, but never to relieve Himself. Turn these stones into bread
if you're the Son of God. Feed yourself. You can do that.
There's nothing wrong with that. But note how our Lord answers
him. He answers him with the Word
of God. Listen, he did not get into a conversation with him.
It was none of this back and forth stuff. It was none of this
arguing. He took the sword of the Spirit,
the Word of God, and he was slicing. It is written, he said, It is
written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. We don't live by bread. I tell you
what, it's not bread that gives me life. It nourishes this body,
but my life is of God. He says, man will not live by
bread alone. Look over in Deuteronomy 8. That's
where that's at. Deuteronomy chapter 8. Look at verse 1. All the commandments
which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do, that
ye may live, and multiply, and go in, and possess the land which
the Lord sware unto your fathers. Thou shalt remember all the way
which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness,
to humble thee, to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart.
and whether thou wouldest keep his commandments or not. And he humbled thee, and suffered
thee to hunger, and fed thee with manna." Every day, every
day they had manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy
father know, that he might make thee know that man does not live
by bread only. You're not living by that manna
you're eating every day. If God did not command the man,
he'd starve to death. If He did not give the Word for
that man to appear and you go out and gather it, you'd starve
to death. If He did not command this day,
our bread, we'd starve to death. We would. And he said to Satan,
it is written, he reaches back to the Old Testament, Man shall
not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of God. That's how he's going to live.
Our best defense is the Word of God. It's the Word of God. Listen, in every situation, every
situation we'll find ourselves in this life, the best defense
is the Word of God. Not human logic. Human logic
would eat. Human logic would say, you know,
you're right. There's nothing wrong with eating. I'm hungry.
There's nothing wrong with that. At this time there was. He couldn't
do that. He could not relieve himself
and be our Savior. He had to suffer what we suffer
fully, fully. Christ never answered Satan except
thus saith the Lord. According to the word of God,
one writer said this, I thought this was so good. According to
the word of God was his actions. That's so good. According to
his word was his actions. Here's a lesson. Never do wrong
in order to satisfy your hunger. Wait on the Lord. Wait on the
Lord. Just as our Lord did. Wait on
Him. And secondly, now here's the
second temptation. The first one, He tempts him to eat. Lust of
the flesh. You know, there's three sins
that just pretty much cover everything. Lust of the flesh, lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life. That pretty much covers it all. And all three of these came at
our Lord. Here's the second one, the pride of life, the second
temptation. Cast thyself down. Then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city and saith him on a pinnacle of
the temple and saith unto him, If thou be the son of God, get
put in this question mark over him being the son of God. If
thou be the son of God, cast thyself down for it is written.
He knows what's written too. Although here's what he does
with it, he twists it. He'll twist it. Our Lord quotes
the Word of God as it is. Satan will take the Word of God
just like he did with Eve and twist it. Turn it just a little,
just a little. Well, just a little is just too
much. 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." He's quoting to him out of the Psalms. Here's what
he's saying. Prove God. Prove God. You're the Son of God. Prove
you're the Son of God and prove God that he'll do what he says. You cast yourself down. He said
he'd give his angels charge over you and they'll catch you and
you'll have this soft landing. Satan knows that the angels are
ministering spirits sent forth to minister to those who shall
be heirs of salvation. He knows they are ministering
spirits sent forth to protect Christ when he's growing up as
a child. as a tender plant. He said He's
given His angels charge over you. He knew that. Again, our Lord quotes scriptures.
He knew how to wield the sword of the Spirit. He knew how to
use it. He says here, it is written again,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. You're not going to jump off
a building and say, catch me. He said he'd give his angels
charge that he'd keep me. And I'm just going to step out
here and trap him. You're going to get run over.
You're going to get ran over. Because he said, you don't tempt
the Lord thy God. We're not trying to prove God,
we believe God. There's a difference. There's a real difference. When a man believes God, when
he believes God, he does not go about trying to prove God.
He doesn't do it. He believes it. You don't do
things to see if God's going to work a miracle. A child of God believes God. Wisdom says, don't put yourself
in that situation. and then tempt God and try to
prove God. We just believe Him. He said,
it's written again. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord
thy God. And he didn't. He didn't. He didn't get into an argument
with Him. He just quoted one verse of Scripture to Him. That's
all He did. It is written. Then we have the
third temptation. We come to the loss of the eyes. Look at verse 8 and 9. He doesn't
give up, does He? Oh, He's persistent. You see,
you and I have to rest. He doesn't. We have to sleep. He doesn't. Again, the devil taketh him up
into an exceeding high mountain, a high mountain, and showeth
him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory, the glory, the
splendor of them. One place it said, in a moment
of time. Give you the United States of America, the greatest
nation ever on earth. Give you all these other nations.
I'll give all these to you. Personally, I think he's just
lying. God never did turn this over to him. The world, the earth, the creation
was never turned over to Satan. The scripture says he's a liar
and he's pulling one here. I believe he's telling one here.
But now I don't know, I mean, I'm sure he's given certain lead
weight, certain powers. But it's not in his power, I
do not believe it's in his power to give him the kingdoms of the
world. Because what do we pray? Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come. It's all his. It's all his. But he takes him up there and
he says, I'll give you the kingdoms of the world and the glory of
them. What does the scripture say?
If a man gained the whole world and lose his own soul, what have
you gained? What have you gained? of all that you've saved up and
all the glory and all the honor and the accolades that the world
lays upon you, when it's over, it's over. I bet you I've mentioned
that to Jeremy at least two or three times this week. Talking
about running a business and talking about different things.
And I said, but I want, he's probably tired of listening to
me. I said, son, I want you to listen to me. When it's over,
it's over. And this doesn't matter. I said,
our relationship to Christ is the only thing that matters.
Now, get after it. Whatever your hands can find
to do, do it with all your might. Do the best you can, but I'm
telling you, when it's over, it's over. And if you don't know
Christ, it just, listen, if you don't
know Him, and you've been really successful, now listen, it adds
to your condemnation. To whom much is given, much is
what? Required. Required. He shows him the kingdoms of
the world and he says, all this is yours. Here's the rest of
the house. Oh, look at this. Las Vegas. United States. You've got Russia,
you've got China, you've got all this. I mean, look at this. But there's a price. There's always a price that comes
with this life. There's always a price that comes
with honor that comes from men. And he says unto him, I'll give
these to you, all these things will I give thee, verse 9, if,
this is an if all the way down through here in this conversation,
if thou wilt fall down and worship me, not God, me. If you'll fall down and give
me the same, If you'll fall down and give me the same worship
and adoration that you're giving to God, if you'll give that to
me, I'll give you these things. I'll give them to you. Here we are in the wilderness.
Nobody's watching. Nobody's here but me and you.
If you'll just fall down right here, nobody's around. We're
out here. Not a congregation watching up
there in the wilderness. It's just me and you. Nobody
sees it. Oh, yes. God sees it. He said, all I ask
of you is this one thing. If you fall down and worship
Me, fall down at My feet This is mind-boggling to me. Satan
is asking Almighty God, he's asking Almighty God to fall down and worship him. Remember when our Lord went over
to the land of the Gadarenes? I just preached on this a couple
of weeks ago. And they said, we know who you are, the Son
of God. They recognize him as the Son of God. He knows who
this is. It says, a voice from heaven
saying, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. This
is a second person of the Trinity. He knows this. He knows it. And he's asking God to bow down
and worship him. And our Lord, now he looks him
in the face. And he did when he quoted the
Scriptures too, but I think he looks him dead in the eye. And
he said, now you get out of here. Get thee hence. It's time for
you to leave. I want to ask you this. Who's
in control of this whole thing? Our Lord. He's allowing the devil
to tempt him. To try him. For what purpose
that he might be touched with the feeling of our infirmities? In all points. In all points. And so here's the third time
he tempts you. And when it comes to this matter of worship, now
I want you to notice this. When it comes to this matter
of falling down in worship, he says, all right, enough. That's it. Get out of here. Get out of here. Get thee hence, Satan, for it
is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only
shalt thou serve. And look what verse 11 says. Then the devil left him, leaveth
him. Why? Because he told him to. Just
like he said to that legion, come out of him. And when he
mentioned about worship, falling out of worship, he said, that's
enough. You get out of here. Leave. This is after 40 days and 40
nights of fasting, being hungry. He withstood him with the Word
of God. And it says, Then the devil leaveth
him, and behold, angels came and ministered under him. And I tell you what, I bet they
were ready. I bet they were just, I could
just, this is my imagination with me. This is my imagination.
I can imagine those angels were like, let us go. I can just see
that. I can just see them ready, ready
to Go and help their master. This is their Lord. This is the
one whom God said, let all the angels of God worship Him. And
they had to stand back and watch this battle and watch Him be
tempted after going through 40 days and 40 nights without eating. Don't you know
they were ready to fly to His hell? You know they were. And the devil
left him. You know why the devil left him?
I've got to get this done. Look in John 14. Here's the reason
why he left. Well, first of all, he was told
to. That was the first reason. He was told to leave him. Let me find the verse. Look in verse 30. Hereafter I
will not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world
cometh and hath nothing in me. There was nothing in Christ for
him to tempt, I mean, to pull, to work on. I mean, I've got
a lot. I mean, it's just like pick a card. Really? Really? I mean, He can
come at us at any angle. But there was nothing for Him
to latch onto. He knew no sin. There was absolutely nothing
for Satan to get a hold of. He tried. He tried every angle. And He found nothing in Him.
He did in Adam. I'll tell you what He found in
Adam. He found a love for the creature more than the Creator.
I think Adam saw his wife. She ate that fruit. And he just
did not want to lose her. He went with her. I don't know
what all was going on in his head and his heart. I don't know,
but I know this. When he brought that to him, I just, he took
it. He loved that creature more than
he did the Creator. Christ loves the Creator. He
loved God perfectly. I'm sure glad he did. I'm sure
glad he's... Alright, let's look in Ephesians. Let's close with this. Ephesians chapter 6. Verse 12. Well, verse 11. Put on the whole armor of God.
That you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil
because it's coming. Don't think that he forgot you.
Don't think you were hiding in a corner when he passed by and
he missed you. Because I'm telling you, every
child of God at one time or another is going to deal with this guy. You've got to deal with the evil
that's out here every day. You've got to deal with the wretchedness
that goes on in your own heart. But you're going to deal with
this one. This church, as a church, will have to deal with it. Walk
in the door and you may never know it. You never know it. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness
in our places. Wherefore, take unto you the
whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil
day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having
your loins girt about with truth. and have it on the breastplate
of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of
the gospel of peace, above all taking the shield of faith, wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked,
and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit,
which is the word of God." Brethren, I cannot express to you and to
me how important it is to bury ourselves in the word of God.
You can't swing the sword you don't have. You can't find comfort
in the scriptures you can't remember, that you don't know. Comfort
one another with these words. If you can't remember these words
and you don't know what these words are, you can't find any
comfort in them. That's the importance of saturating
yourself with the Word of God. And take the hammer of salvation
and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Here's
another, pray always with all prayer and supplication in the
spirit, watching there unto, with all perseverance and supplication
for all saints. Watch after one another. Watch
after one another. It's like I keep, you know, I
know the pitfalls of business. I know the pitfalls if it goes,
if Germans take that business and make it successful. That's
dangerous. That's more dangerous than failing
at it. I'm telling you, it's more dangerous than failing at
it. Riches are deceitful. I keep
telling, I tell him, I tell you and whoever listens to this. Christ is what's important. My union to Him, my having Him,
my knowing Him. These other things. They come
and they go. They come and they go. We have a high priest that can
be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He was tempted
in all places we are, yet without sin.