We're back to Matthew chapter
4. Matthew chapter 4. I titled this message, Satan
Attacks the Second Adam. I read Genesis chapter 3 because
of this chapter here. I want you to see the contrast. The first Adam was in a garden,
a perfect garden. Everything about him was perfect. The Son of God was in a wilderness.
The wilderness came on, brought on, brought on because of the
first Adam, because of sin. It says here in verse 1, Then was Jesus, after he was
baptized and after the Holy Spirit descended upon him, a voice from
heaven, he was led, not driven, led. Our Lord never had to be driven
to do anything for us or to do any obedience unto his Father. He was led by the Spirit of God
into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He was led there
for that purpose, to be tempted by the devil. Now I want you
to notice something here. The Lord comes to John. He's baptized. John owns him as the Lamb of
God. You can read that over in The
Gospel of John. The Holy Spirit descends on him,
anoints him. This is the Messiah. A voice
comes from heaven. This is my beloved Son, whom
I'm well pleased. And then he's assaulted by Satan. As soon as he is revealed to
be the Son of God, he's assaulted. by the devil. And this is how
it is with all of God's children. As soon as it is revealed that
they are a son or daughter of the king, Satan is on their trail. Satan is after them. Satan, now
listen, Satan is a very real person. This is not a fictitious
person here. This is real. And he's real. And he's someone you and I do
not want to deal with. I hear these preachers on television
talk as if they just run him off. Michael, the archangel,
wouldn't even argue with him. He wouldn't even answer him.
He turned him over to God. He wouldn't get his hands dirty
with him. That's what's going to happen.
If you ever deal with him and try to argue with him or his people,
his followers, you're going to get dirty. He's the Prince of Darkness.
That's who he is. And what we have here is a battle
between the Prince of Light and the Prince of Darkness. You realize
this morning what we are getting to look and witness? in the scene
we are allowed to look in on. A battle going on between good
and evil. A battle between the Prince of
Darkness and the Prince of Light. The accuser of the brethren and
the advocate of the elect. Satan is pure evil. He comes
with no good. He comes to our Lord here with
absolutely no good. He's never had a pure motive
of good. Always evil. Always seeking whom he may devour. Who can I devour today? Isn't
that evil? Who can I destroy today? Seeking
whom he may devour. That's amazing. But what we are going to witness
here is the beginning of Satan bruising our Lord's heel. But when this battle is over,
which ends at Calvary, we are going to see Satan's head crushed,
his power crushed. Our Lord is going to get the
victory. He's got the victory. You know,
the advantage we have, we can read the end of the book. You
ever do that? I'm a cheater. I have to admit,
I'm a cheater. A lot of times I read the end
of the book and then I go back and read the book. No surprises. I like no, I worked for a man
one time, ran a company for him. One of the things he made clear
to me, I don't like surprises. He said, if there's any trouble,
you let me know now. He said, trouble never gets better
with time. I don't really like surprises.
Not that kind of surprise. Not the kind of trouble that
follows. It says here, And when he had fasted forty days and
forty nights, he was afterward hungry. Can you imagine going
forty days and nights without any food whatsoever. Sustained. He was sustained by the power
of God. Like Elijah was one time. Moses,
when he was going to receive the law, did this. Sustained. And Satan, the coward
that he is, attacks him. He attacks our Lord at his weakest
hour as a man. As a man, he attacks him at his
weakest hour, and that's the way he deals with every one of
God's children. He tries to get you at your weakest
point, your weakest hour, and attack. We notice here that our advocate,
our substitute that Mike spoke of in his prayer, denied himself. He denies himself for our sakes. He allows himself. to be brought
under the attack of Satan for our sakes. He defeats Satan for
our sakes. He's defeated for our sakes.
And he allows himself to be brought to this low point so that you
and I won't have to. And I have no doubt that during
this time he prayed to his Father for strength to complete the
mission. to complete the mission. He was
on a mission, and that mission was to redeem all of God's elect
and bring them home. And he prayed for his help. He
was always dependent, always dependent upon his Father's help.
He didn't do anything to relieve his own self. He always looked
to God. What an example we have. What
an example we have to follow. He always depended upon his Father
to supply his needs. even at the end of this 40 days
and 40 nights of being hungry, and had the ability, he had the
power to turn those stones into bread. He turned water into wine,
didn't he? He could turn those stones into bread. But he always depended on his
Father to help him, just as we are today. We cannot go this
alone. Christ said, without me, ye can
do nothing. And how often are we made to
realize that? How often are we brought to a
point where we know there's no way out unless the Lord delivers? It says here, he was hungry.
Now, I've been hungry a few times between breakfast and lunch. He was hungry for 40 days and
40 nights. He did not eat. As a man, he needed to eat as
much as I do. He needed to, as a man. Truly, he was tempted, tried
in all points as we are, yet without sin. There's not a point
that he was not tried in. The tempter, just as we are,
yet without sin. Now, when the tempter came to
him, and that's a good name, isn't it? The tempter. That's
the only reason he comes. If he ever comes to your house,
he only comes there for one reason. That's to tempt you. To disobey
God. That's his only purpose. The
tempter came to him, and he said, if, put a question mark here, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be
made bread. He questions His Sonship. He
asks Him to prove His Sonship. Prove who you are. God's not
going to prove anything to us. God's not going to prove anything
to a bunch of worms. And He's sure not going to prove
anything to Satan. Prove if thou be the Son of God. Satan takes
advantage of the circumstance. He's hungry. I'll see if I can
get him to make bread. I'll be stones. He tells a hungry
man. He tells a hungry man to turn
the stones into bread and eat. Is there anything wrong with
that? You're hungry, aren't you? Is there anything wrong with
feeding yourself, eating when you're hungry? Take care of yourself. Is there anything wrong with
taking care of yourself? Provide for yourself. Use your power to relieve your
hunger. Christ never relieved His sufferings
by His own power. Do you know why? Do you know why He didn't take
their stones and turn them into bread? Do you know why He didn't
do that? Because I can't do it. And he's my substitute. He's
got to endure everything I endure. I can't turn those. When I'm
hungry, I'm hungry. I can't command stones to be
made bread and he's not going to do it. He's going to endure
everything I endure. He's going to be tempted to the
fullest with everything that I have to be tempted with and
deal with. Oh, what an advocate we have.
What a surety, what an advocate, what a substitute. He never relieved
himself by his own power. Now, I would do that in this
fallen nature of ours. We'd do it. I mean, even before
we even get hungry, we'd do it. It doesn't take much of a temptation.
Adam was tempted what? One time. One time, in a perfect
garden, in a perfect setting, Satan gives one assault and he falls. Head over heels,
just collapses. Brings down the whole humanity.
But this is the God-man. This is God in human flesh. But
he is still a man. He is still a real man, hungry,
thirsty, just like you and me. Virgin said a true son will wait
on his father to provide for him without turning to devilish
ways. He waited on his father. He was
going to wait on his father to provide. I tell you this, better
to die as an obedient son than to live as a rebel. Or better,
it would be better to starve to death obeying God than to
be full and end up perishing. He would. But he answered and said, the
Lord answered and said to him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Turn
to Deuteronomy chapter 8. Deuteronomy chapter 8. Let's read where our Lord quotes
from. He quotes Scripture to him. Let's see what verse that
is. In verse 3, And he humbled thee,
and suffered thee to hunger. See, that's why our Lord had
to suffer what we suffer. Do I suffer hunger? He has to
suffer hunger. And suffered thee to hunger,
and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did
thy fathers know. that he might make thee know
that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that
proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. I tell you what, he's the only
one who can answer our adversary. Michael says, Michael doth not
answer him, but this one can. This one can answer him. He doesn't
have to send him to somebody else. He, oh I can answer you. I can answer you, it's written.
It's written. You know what he did? He drew
out that glittering sword of the Word of God. He drew that
sword out and used it on Satan. It's written. It is written. His weapon was the Word of God. It was the Word of God. I wrote
here in big letters And we need to learn this. Our weapon against
all of Satan's attacks and all of the attack of unbelievers
is the Word of God. Thus saith the Lord. It is written. Oh, how powerful! How powerful
that is! It is written. You can stand
on that. You can stand on that. It is
written. Saturate yourself with the Word
of God. And when you need it, it's there.
When you need to draw that sword, it's there. Our best defense
in times of trouble is the Word of God. J.C. Ryle said this, Knowledge of
the Bible never comes by intuition. It can only be got by heart Regular,
daily, attentive, wakeful reading. That's how you get it. It doesn't
come by intuition. I had a man say to me the other
day, he was talking about drinking wine. This man doesn't believe
anything. He said, you know the Bible says
that to drink wine puts a smile on your face and a shine on your
heart. You must be reading the Koran
or something. He ain't reading the Bible. But that's how he
quotes. I mean, that's... Oh boy. Don't know. Don't have a clue
what they're saying, do they? I didn't even answer. I didn't
even answer. Our Lord said it's written. He
used no new revelations. He didn't use anything but the
old word of God that was given to the old saints. He reached
back there and said, it's getting. Bread is used to nourish our
bodies. God has given us means, hasn't
he? He's given us means to feed and take care of these bodies.
But you know, God can keep alive these bodies without bread. You know what, you and I are
truly kept alive by the Word of God. When He commands, when
He commands you to leave, you to die, when He commands life,
when He commands the Spirit to return back to Him, all the bread
in the world will keep you alive. None of it. No, he said, man will live by
every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. He commands
life and he takes it too. He also takes it. We are alive
at this moment by the power of God, by the power of His Word. The world, it says in Scripture,
the world is held in place, how? No strings attached. You can
look all around. It's held in place by the power
of His Word. He just said, see there? Put it in its orbit. Put all
that's in the universe where they are. People try to make
these movies like things are going to crash into us and we're
going to have this big disaster. No, it's held in check. It's
held in place by the Word of God. You really see how ignorant man
is. Once God gives you faith and
understanding of the Gospel, understanding of the Scriptures,
you really realize how ignorant this human race is. It's just so simple. It's held
in check by the Word of God. And then the devil, here in verse
5, the pride of life, you see he had the lust of the flesh,
command these stones to be made bread. Now you have the pride
of life. Then the devil taketh him up
into the holy city, seeing he's a holy man, and setteth him on a pinnacle
of the temple, on a wing, sits up high where the temple is made.
They said they had some like wings up there, I was reading
of. And he's setting up there. He sets him up on it. You know,
Satan's motto is this. If you don't succeed at first,
try, try again. Wonder where we got that. Satan takes him where all others
have fallen. Puts him up there high. You know,
if Satan is going to try to, and the Lord allows him to, Make a man fall. Just keep promoting
him. That's all you need to do. Just
keep promoting him until he falls out the top. You can't get him
at the bottom. Just keep bringing him up until
sooner or later he'll fall right out the top. That's what he does
here. He takes him up into the holy
city, Jerusalem. Sets him on a pinnacle of the
temple. The highest place of worship and honor. He takes him there. And he tries
him there. You know, Satan will try, I have
no doubt about this, Satan will try the preacher the most, for
there he can do the most damage. If he can really damage this
pulpit, the one standing here, he can damage the whole lot.
If he can destroy the captain of our salvation, then he's got
the troops. He's got the troops. And that's
what he's trying to do. He's trying to destroy the captain
of our salvation. Here's the lust of the eyes,
the pride of life. Look at this. All these men down
here will worship you. All these priests and all of
religion will worship you. And the Lord said to him, Or
when Satan said to him, here in verse 6, and he said unto
him, If thou be the Son of God, questions him again, doesn't
he? Puts another question mark on it. If thou be the Son of
God, cast thyself down, for it is written. Oh, now he's going
to try it. He's like that guy who tried
on me. Puts a smile on the fake shine yard. Now he's going to
try to use the Word of God. 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." Now he tries to use the sword, but it doesn't fit.
He doesn't know how to use it. He's got the whole wrong end
of it. He doesn't know what he's doing.
Scripture in its context is truth. Out of context, it's deadly.
Because that's not what it says. Turn over to Psalm 91. See, he
quotes the Scripture, but he misquotes it. I preached from
this Wednesday night. Verse 11, For he shall give his angels
charge over thee, and look what he leaves out, to keep thee in
all thy ways. Not in all thy follies, in all
thy ways. They shall bear thee up in their
hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. Kept in all thy ways. But here's what he's trying to
do. He's trying to get him to tempt God. To tempt God's love. God's faithfulness. God's promise. Just tempt Him. See if you'll
do it. Try Him. See if you'll do it. I tell you this, we do not tempt
God to keep us. We trust God to keep us. There's
a world of difference in that. We trust Him to keep us. He tempted
Christ to test His Father's faithfulness. So to put a question mark on
it. To do this would prove an absence
of trust in His Father, in His Father's Word. His Father gave
His Word that He would keep Him. He said, well, cast yourself
down here and see if you'll do it. You know, the Scripture says
the just shall live by faith. To question God's Word is unbelief. The first Adam failed here. The
second Adam triumphed. He didn't do it. He didn't do
it. What our Lord is doing here,
listen, what He's doing here, He's doing for us. We died in the first Adam because
of His disobedience. We live in the second Adam because
of His what? Obedience. Because of His obedience. Jesus said to him, it is written. It uses the Word of God. He doesn't
even correct Satan back in verse 6. He doesn't even correct him
and say, well, you misquoted that. You twisted that. He just leaves him alone. And
he quotes Scripture correctly. Jesus said unto him, It is written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Let me read that
to you out of Deuteronomy chapter 6. Deuteronomy 6, 16. I have it marked here. Ye shall
not tempt the Lord your God as ye tempted him at Massa. Again, again, he draws out the
sword of God. He draws out the word, the sword.
He uses it on him. He uses it to slay Satan. God is not to be tempted. He's
to be believed and trusted. He's to be believed and trusted.
Now this is where Satan does his most damage. Twisting. Twisting the Word of God. We
receive the Word of God as it is. Don't try to turn it, twist it,
or interpret it. Like that article I had last
week about Paul Mayhill. We take it as it is. And I know
a lot of people read the Word of God and they say, well that's
just, can't mean that. Part of the Red Sea? Could that
happen? How could that happen? I believe that. I believe he parted that Red Sea. Many things in the Word of God
sound impossible to men, but I tell you this, what's impossible
with men is possible with God. Apart from that Red Sea, I want
to say it's a lot easier than saving Santa, but with God, nothing
is impossible. He has all power to fulfill and
do His will. We don't need to change the Word
of God, just leave it as it is. Leave it as it is. It needs no
improvement. We trust His Word at all times. And I cannot express the importance
of knowing His Word, being saturated with it. And then here in verse 8, again,
the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain. Keeps
going up, does he? Oh, I tell you, keeps just taking
him higher and higher. The higher up, the greater the
fall. And He shows him all the kingdoms of the world and the
glory of them. This would fail even the strongest
of men. I'll give you this. Look at this. If a man gained the whole world
and lose his own soul, what does it profit him? This would fail, I said, even
the strongest of men, but not the God-man, not our substitute. Oh, what a substitute we had.
What a Redeemer, what a Savior, what a... What a Savior. But I tell you this, Satan tempted
him with all these things, these things. But if you've ever seen
those things, these things won't mean anything. He tempted Him with all, tried
to tempt Him with all the glory of this world. Now that would
just break us. We would be slobbering all over ourselves for that.
The glory to be worshipped, to have all this. And that's what
men go after. That's what they go after. But
not our Lord. Not our Lord. He went after the
glory of God, the glory of his Father. These things meant nothing. The way he lived proved that
these things meant nothing to him. Nothing. But Satan kept taking them up
higher and higher to try and get him to fall. Men die. Men die for what our Lord refused. They die for what our Lord refused,
the glory of this world. honor of this world. This is
a good lesson for us. This stuff means nothing, really. It really doesn't. Not all promotions,
I wrote this down last night, not all promotions are promotions.
Boy, sometimes they're a trial, a test of our commitment to Him. A true promotion is only a promotion
if God does it. If men do it, you're probably
going to find trouble. If God opens that door, if He
opens the door and promotes you to a certain position, good will
come out of it. But if it's just of men, it's
going to be trouble. And He said unto him in verse
9, And he saith unto him, All these things will I give thee,
if thou would fall down and worship me. I'll give them to you. They're
mine to get. Look over here at Luke. Look
how Luke puts this. You know, Luke says he was tempted
for 40 days and 40 nights. It says in verse 2 of Luke 4,
being 40 days tempted of the devil. I mean, he put up with
this for a while. And then this was the end. This
was like the grand finale of Satan trying to bring him down. But he says here, let me find
the verse. Let me find the verse here, I didn't write it down.
Because he said, all these were given unto my power. Is it verse 6? Okay. And the devil
taketh him up, verse 5, and the devil taketh him up into a high
mountain showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in
a moment of time. And the devil said unto him,
All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them, for that
is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will, I'll give
it." What's he doing? He's acting as God. Whomsoever
I will, I'll give it. You liar. He's a liar from the
beginning. All these things are mine. Doesn't
Psalm 24 say, The earth is the Lord's, the fullest thereof,
and they who dwell therein? Isn't it written in Psalm 24?
Go over to Isaiah 14. I believe it's Isaiah 14. I should
have written that down. In verse 12, How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down to the
ground, which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in
thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne
above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the
congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascend above
the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. I'll give it to whomsoever I
will." No, you won't. No, you won't. No, you won't. He says unto him, all these things
will I give thee if I will fall down for this one thing, if you'll
fall down and worship me. This was the ultimate purpose
of Satan. Here's the ultimate purpose of Satan and all of the
evil that he brings on. To be worshipped. Craving the
worship and the honor and the glory that belongs to God. And
he has infected every one of his children And that's everyone
who does not believe God. Worshiped. Served. Don't we like
to be served? Do not men and women like to
be served? You know, the more wealthier you get, you end up
having maids and servants running all over the house. Served. We want to be served. Worshipped. People stand in awe when we walk
in the room. That's satanic. That's satanic. Satan here says, I'll give you
these things. They're all mine. He's always
a liar. He can never tell the truth.
He can't even quote the scriptures right. He can't even quote truth
right. The kingdoms of this world belong
to our God. And they always have and always
will. I tell you this, flattery will
get you everywhere in this world, but not in the kingdom of God.
Humility reigns there. We need to look at this scene
with great awe as our advocate, our surety, our substitute grapples
with darkness in our place. He stands there and fights with
him, deals with him. grapples with Him on our behalf. And He defeats him. And how does
He defeat him? With the Word. With the Word. Then Jesus said unto him, Get
thee hence. It's time for you to go. Enough
is enough. See, He allowed all this to go
on and this scene went on and it's happening for us to look
in on and see. our Advocate, our Savior, how
He defeats our archenemy, Satan. He said, Get thee hence, Satan,
for it is written, that's over in Deuteronomy 6.13, Thou shalt
worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Enough is enough. Enough is enough. Well, if Adam would have just
said something like that. If Adam would have just said,
only God should be worshipped. Only God should be believed.
Only God should be obeyed. But the second Adam did. The
second Adam did. And the Son of God lets this
thing go on for our sakes here. For us to see this. And what
confidence this should give us in Him. He defeated Satan. I
read you Genesis chapter 3. Failed. There was no struggle. There's not even a hint of a
struggle. There's not even a hint of even
kicking up a little dust. But here, He just says, enough's
enough. Here He stands up as the Lord. The Lord speaks. the Lord of
heaven and earth, the King of kings, and the Word of the Lord
speaks. He says, now, get thee behind me. Get thee hence, Satan. It's written, thou shalt worship
the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Satan is defeated
by the God-man. He made a man fall, and a man's
going to make him fall. He's going to finally destroy
him. Christ draws the sword again
and plainly declares who should be worshipped. The Lord thy God,
in Him only shalt thou serve. You know, whoever you worship,
that's who you serve. Whoever you worship, that's who
you serve. Let us always, and I'll wind this down, let us always
make the weapon of choice His Word His Word. There was power
in His Word that even Satan can't resist. Then the devil leaveth
him. It says over Luke, left him for
a season. He came back. He's going to take
another angle at it. But the devil leaveth him and
behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Satan had to leave
because the Living Word said leave. It's time for you to go.
This conversation is over. Christ withstood all that Satan
could throw at Him. And He emerged without sin. The first Adam didn't. No. Sin entered. But here He conquered. The second Adam conquered. And
the angels, those ministering spirits came and ministered unto
Him. I'm sure, I'm sure that they
were watching They were watching this, the host of heaven, watching
this and waiting to come to Him. Just waiting to come to Him.
But He didn't need their help. He doesn't need my help. He can
do this on His own. They came after He won the victory
to congratulate Him. I bet so. To congratulate Him? To bring food? To minister unto
Him? This temptation here is over.
He won the victory. He got the victory. Oh, what
we have just seen, what we've just witnessed here in this chapter.
He got the victory. So they came and they congratulated
Him. They worshipped Him and ministered to Him. He only will receive the glory
for the victory of the battle. It's not going to be Him and
the angels. Redeeming us is going to be Him and Him alone. It's
like on the Mount of Transfiguration. They saw Moses and Elijah and
the Lord and they were going to make a tabernacle for all
three of them. We're going to worship all three
of them. No, you're not. No, you're not. When that scene was
over with, they saw Jesus only. He is the object of our worship. Now, any time you find yourself
in trouble, Flee to Him who's able to make Satan flee. Flee
to Him who's able to subdue all our troubles. He's the mighty
conqueror. He's the mighty conqueror. He
knows what it is to grapple with Satan. He knows what it is to
be in this situation. He knows what we're going through. We can identify with each other
in certain situations, but He can identify with us in every
situation. Everyone. Our high priest knows
our needs. He's able to save us. He's able
to do so.