So we're going to look at this
account of Jesus being tempted by the devil in Matthew chapter
4 and the first 11 verses. Jesus tempted of the devil. I remember when I made an Arminian
profession of faith in my late teens. And I went to tell the
vicar of our local Anglican church. At the time, I used to have a
job cleaning the local church, so I used to see him regularly,
because it was him that paid out my wages for cleaning the
church. And I remember telling him that
I had accepted Jesus, you know, the Arminian pattern, and he
was very impressed. He was mightily impressed, but
he gave me some advice. He told me that I must from now
on be very wary of the devil, for the devil would seek to attack
me. Do you know, I don't know how I stopped myself bursting
out laughing in his face. The whole idea to me seems such
a ridiculous idea that there was this being. You know, I just
imagined, you know, the way that people think of the devil as
this guy wearing a cape with, you know, a red face and these
horns and such like, and what a silly, stupid idea. And do
you know something? That reaction and things like
that is exactly what Satan wants people to think. It's exactly
what he wants them to think, that he's not real, so that he
can get on with his kingdom of antichrist and of rebellion against
God. You see, this world and our life
experience in this world, you know, there are two great propositions
put to us. And one is the proposition of
the Kingdom of Antichrist, which is that the world is the product
of mechanistic, random, uncontrolled material processes with absolutely
no purpose whatsoever. So don't get bothered about it.
Just carry on, enjoy your life. That's what The vast majority
of people think, or else they're into some false religion. It's
either that, or this world and this life experience is the stage,
if I can put it that way, on which God who is infinitely holy,
fights his war with Satan and all that rebels against him.
For Satan and a great number of angels rebelled against God,
we read in the Scriptures. And there has been war going
on between the goodness of God, the holiness, the righteousness
of the person of God, and the evil of that which rebellion
against him with Satan and all of his forces and all of the
forces of this world which Satan has enslaved from the fall onwards. And that war goes on from the
fall in the Garden of Eden when Adam sinned. when they did that
which God forbade. It goes on from that time, right
until Armageddon, at the very end of time, when God draws all
of this to an end. That is the situation in which
we are living and existing, in a situation where the good of
God is set in conflict with the evil of Satan and everything
to do with him. And that war is at its sharpest,
at its fiercest, where Satan directly confronts the Christ
of God in his mission. What was the mission of the Christ
of God? As promised at the fall in Genesis 3.15, Speaking of
the seed of the woman, the son of God who would come from the
woman, who would bruise the serpent's head, a fatal blow to the serpent
in his redemption of his people. That's how he bruises the serpent's
head. He redeems God's elect from the
effects of the fall, from the curse of the law, from the consequences
of sin. The Lord Jesus Christ comes as
the seed of the woman promised by God to bruise the serpent's
head. And that's when the battle between
God and Satan is at its most fierce, when Satan directly confronts
the Christ of God. He confronted him when he was
a child of two years old. We read about it in Matthew chapter
2. the coming of the Magi and Herod
seeking to destroy him and to try and make sure he did destroy
him, having all the children killed in the area around Bethlehem. He had them killed because he
thought in that way he would get rid of this one that was
born King of the Jews. And then you hear nothing about
Jesus apart from one account in Luke's gospel where he's debating
with the scribes and the Pharisees in the temple, and we hear that
one account of them when they went up to one of the feasts,
but apart from that you hear nothing. Because, as somebody said, when
our Lord Jesus was in the carpenter's shop in Nazareth, chipping away
at wood, he was of no interest. It shows, doesn't it, how limited
is Satan. all very powerful as he is, nevertheless,
he is limited. There was this boy growing up
into a man, an apprentice carpenter, through his twenties even, as
a young man, a strong young man, in the carpenter's shop, with
Joseph, his stepfather, helping there, doing the work of a carpenter
in that shop, chipping away at wood. And Satan pays him no attention,
none whatsoever. But in verse 1 of chapter 4,
then, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted of the devil. What had just happened? That
then is significant because it's immediately after the verses
that we read at the end of chapter 13. When Jesus from obscurity
in Nazareth, never heard anything of him from two years old. Well,
there one incident at 12 years old that Luke records. But then
at 30 years old, he comes from Galilee a two or three day journey
to the south, to Jordan, to John, to be baptized by John. And look
what it says, when Jesus was baptized, verse 16, he came up
out of the water, That means he went in and was immersed in
water to be baptized. Let's be absolutely clear, there
is not the slightest hint anywhere in scripture that baptism is
anything other than immersion in water. He came up 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.
Whether anybody else saw it, we're not told. But he saw the
Spirit of God. He, the man. This is Jesus, the
man. The flesh and blood. The flesh
and blood of the children that we were thinking about on Wednesday
night with Hebrews chapter 2. He partook of the same flesh
and blood as the children. The children that he was coming
to save. And he, the man, had this confirmation, the Spirit
of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him. And not
only that, there was a voice from heaven, and I believe this
is something that was heard by those around, because it was
a sign from heaven to attest to who he was. The voice came
from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. This is God speaking
from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom
I am well pleased. Then was Jesus led up of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Immediately
after his baptism and the Holy Spirit's anointing, he was led
of the Spirit. It wasn't that Satan came to
him, the Spirit led him into this situation, to be tempted
of the devil. The Spirit of God led the Son
of God, the Son of Man, Jesus Christ, He led him into a situation
where he would be subjected to the severest test by the one
who was the chief of the rebels against God. You know, it reminded
me, just as God prompted Satan regarding Job, you remember we
read in Job chapter 1 about God saying to Satan, have you considered
my servant Job, how there's nobody quite like him? Have you thought
about turning your attention to Job? God arranged the encounter,
and God arranged this encounter, because it had to be arranged,
because it had to be done to fulfill all righteousness, to
accomplish all, just like the baptism, to accomplish all righteousness. You see, all things are under
God's direction, for the accomplishment of His eternal purposes of grace
to His people. And part of it was this, proving
that His Son who came to save sinners from their sins was the
one who was sinless. who withstood the temptation
of the devil. So I want to see who is Satan,
what is his objective, what's it about, the temptation of Jesus
itself, and then the application to believers. What does it mean?
What's the relevance to us? First of all, who is Satan and
what is his objective? Now if you turn to Isaiah chapter
14, These are mysteries, these are deep mysteries, but we can
see here in verse 12 of Isaiah chapter 14, we read about this
creature, for he is a created being, called Lucifer. Lucifer. How art thou fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning. Apparently a glorious created
being. Lucifer, son of the morning,
how art thou cut down to the ground which didst weaken the
nations because of rebellion against God. What was it that
he did? You have said in your heart,
I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne above
the stars of God. I'll be chief, is what he's saying.
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 will be like God, yet Satan,
yet, Lucifer, thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of
the pit." Lucifer was the chief of the angels of God, if you
like, who rebelled. And with him, we read in Revelation
chapter 12, the great red dragon is another picture of him. He
drew with him out of heaven, it says, a third of the angels. He took an entire angelic force
out to become demonic powers in rebellion against God. And
why? All for God's purposes of grace. This is a mystery. This is a
mystery. All for God's purposes of grace,
to save sinners from their sins. But be in no doubt be in no doubt,
Satan is real. Satan is real, the devil is real. His objective is the destruction
of God's kingdom. His objective is the enslavement
of God's people. He is the one who is pictured
again in Revelation 12 as the accuser of the brethren, the
one who accuses the people of God of being unqualified for
heaven, of being sinners not fit to go to heaven or to be
in heaven. And it's only when Christ comes
and redeems them from the curse of the law that he is defeated
in that accusation. His intent was always to destroy
the promised seed. Genesis 3.15, the seed of the
woman. His intention was always to prevent
Christ's victory in redeeming his people, to stop it from happening.
He's pictured in Revelation 12 as the great red dragon waiting
for the woman who is about to give birth to a child. That woman
is the church of God, the people of God, from whom comes the Christ
of God, to redeem the people of God. And he waits to try to
devour, but we know the account. He escapes. He escapes down into
Egypt. He escapes into obscurity. He
escapes from the hand of Herod. All of these were instruments
in Satan's hands, seeking to destroy the Christ of God. And
thus defeated, in Revelation 12 we read that he is a furious
dragon, he is a furious devil, he is furious that Christ has
won, and it says there that he sets out for the rest of the
time because he knows his time is limited, to persecute the
church, to persecute the woman, the church, the people of God,
to devour those that are born of the woman, which is new believers
as they come along. And not only that, but it says
in Revelation 12, he spews out of his mouth a great flood in
the direction of the woman. And the intention of that is
to sweep the woman off her feet, if you like. You know, you see
pictures of strong floodwaters, and you see people unable to
stand up in it, and you get bowled off their feet and swept along.
Well, his idea is to sweep the people of God into conformity
with his kingdom of Antichrist, so that we give up on the truth
of God and the gospel of grace, and we conform to this world
and the kingdom of Antichrist. He is the one who tempts the
people of God to sin. He, Satan, is, as Peter says
in his first epistle, chapter 5, verse 8, he is a roaring lion. seeking to prevent the people
of God attaining the bliss of God's heaven. It says in 1 Peter
5 verse 8, be sober, you believers, be sober, be alert, don't lose
control, be sober, be vigilant, on the lookout, because your
adversary, the devil, child of God, the devil is your adversary. I mean, that was one thing that
that Anglican vicar told me when I'd made that Arminian profession
of faith, but what he told me was perfectly true. There is
an adversary of believers. Those whose allegiance is to
the God of the universe, who trust the Lord Jesus Christ,
you have an adversary. We all have an adversary, the
one who is against us. He's against us because he's
trying to crush us into conformity with his ideas. Your adversary,
the devil, is as a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he
may devour. He's prowling around. Resist
him in the faith, it says. Peter says resist him, steadfast
in the faith. Stand fast, resist him. He's
looking to see if he can devour you, but resist him. How are
we going to resist, you might say? Turn to Ephesians chapter
6. Ephesians chapter 6. Bear all of this in mind as you
walk through life. Ephesians chapter 6 and verse
10. It's the armour of God. This is how we resist. God has
given his people armour with which to resist the wiles, the
schemes, the plans, the tricks of the devil. Finally, my brethren,
be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on
the whole armour of God that you may be able to stand against,
there it is, the wiles of the devil, the tricks, the schemes,
the delusions of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh
and blood, all those forces that you think are against you as
a believer, it's not really flesh and blood, it's principalities,
it's powers, it's the rulers of the darkness of this world,
it's spiritual wickedness in high places, it's these fallen
angels, Satan and his fallen angels. This is what we really
wrestle with. Wherefore, take unto you the whole armor of God
that you may be able to withstand. withstand him steadfast. How?
By taking the whole armour of God in the evil day, and having
done all, to keep on standing. Stand therefore, having your
loins girt about with truth. Oh, be sure it's the truth of
God you believe. And having on the breastplate
of righteousness, the righteousness of God, that you are made, because
the one who knew no sin was made your sin for you, and bore it,
and took it away. with your feet shod with the
preparation of the gospel of peace. You're on a firm foundation. Above all, taking the shield
of faith. Faith. Oh, increase our faith. Lord, increase our faith. Wherewith
ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Because he fires fiery darts at us. But with the shield of
faith, The fiery darts of unbelief. The fiery darts of doubting God
who has spoken, whom we said that we believe. Satan fires
fiery darts, fiery arrows, and we have a shield, and that shield
is the shield of faith that God gives to His people. And take
the helmet of salvation. Protect the head. It's salvation
that protects the head. And the sword of the Spirit.
What's the sword of the Spirit? It's the Word of God. Praying
always, with all prayer and supplication. Pray, pray to... You see, we
have all of this armour, is what we read there. We have all of
this armour. And later in Matthew's Gospel,
in chapter 26 and verse 41, Jesus tells his disciples to watch
and pray that you enter not into temptation. Pray for it, that
you don't enter into temptation. One of the requests of what is
commonly called the Lord's Prayer, Our Father which art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name, lead us not into temptation, but deliver
us from evil. Lead us not into temptation,
keep us from it. Be vigilant to avoid... What should I do?
What should I do? Be vigilant to avoid situations
that make us more susceptible to the snares of sin. Are we
not always susceptible to the snares of sin, especially as
we go about this world and the world of work and school and
all these different places, the snares of sin. Charles Spurgeon
said, and there's a little article in the bulletin to this effect,
it's one piece from one of his sermons, he said, don't go out
hunting for the lion. Don't you go out hunting for
him. Don't go into places where you're more likely to come across
him. He'll find it easy enough to
find you anyway. But don't you go out hunting
for him. Use the God-given armour and remember who is in control. Do you know this? As fearsome
as Satan appears in his determination to crush the people of God, never
forget that what Revelation 20 tells us is that Satan is chained. He's on a chain. to prevent deception
for a symbolical thousand years, until what I believe we're now
in, which is his little season of extreme deception again, as
we see it all around us. But nevertheless, at all times,
his limits are set by the God of the universe, and beyond those
he cannot go. You know when he told Satan to
go and turn his attention on Job, Job said, right, let me
do what I want to him. And God said to him, well, you
can go this far, you can deal with his goods and his possessions,
but don't touch him himself. All right, so he did. He took
all these things away from him. And then Satan comes back and
says, well, I did that, but of course, you didn't let me touch
his life. Let me touch his life. What will
a man give for his life? And he said, okay. Don't take
his life away but you can afflict him in his body and of course
Job was greatly afflicted in his body. But do you notice what
I'm saying all the time? What Satan is permitted to do
is at the limit of what God allows him to do and never beyond it.
So then, here is Jesus having being baptized and having had
that great attestation from heaven that this is His Son, the Son
of God in whom He is well pleased. If Jesus is to be demonstrated
to be the Christ of God, the promised Messiah, the messenger
of the covenant who would come, the one who is able to save His
people to the uttermost because He is the seed of the woman that
was promised at the fall, then If that's the case, then he must
be subjected to the full force of Satan's temptations. And that's
what we have in Matthew 4 verses 1 to 11. So let's look at the
temptation of Jesus. Then, immediately following his
baptism, Before the disciples were called, because that's in
the second half of Matthew chapter 4. Before the disciples were
called, before the public ministry of preaching the kingdom of God
commenced, just immediately after this baptism and this confirmation
that he's the son of God, this is when the temptation had to
happen. Often, You find that God leads his people into times
of testing, following times of great blessing. So here, remember,
this is the man Jesus. The man, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus
born of Mary. The man Jesus was led of the
Spirit to be subjected to temptation as a man. We read, don't we,
that he partook of the children's flesh in Hebrews 2, that he might
for the suffering of death so that he could save his people
from their sins and destroy him who had the power of death, that
is, the devil. It was only in a human body that
he could accomplish that. God has to become man. And in
that body, that man, the man Jesus is made, again as we saw
in Hebrews 2 on Wednesday night, the man Jesus is made for a little
while lower than the angels. He who is God and above all is
made lower than the angels. Why? For the suffering of death.
for the redemption that he would accomplish. And he's tempted
as a man because he's inhabiting the flesh of the children for
the purpose of saving the children from their sins. And so he goes
into this wilderness, wherever it was, I'm not sure, commentators
speculate, but that's not really our interest at the moment. But
he goes without food for 40 days and 40 nights, and he suffers
extreme hunger. It must have been extreme, debilitating
hunger. because we don't read of him
getting some sort of miraculous nourishment from somewhere. No,
he was fully man, being fully tested as a man. Forty days to
make him extremely hungry. You can imagine, can't you, how
your body desires. I mean, I get rather upset when
food doesn't pass my lips for six or seven hours. Most of us
do. We suffer from hunger and we
want to have it satisfied. Esau, the brother of Jacob, sold
his birthright for a plate of stew because he was hungry. I'm
hungry, I'm going to die of starvation, give me something. Even though
Jesus, we read in Colossians 2 verse 9, in him dwelt the fullness
of the Godhead bodily, nevertheless he was fully man, and he felt
hunger. He had all the feelings of a
man desperate for food, and Satan tempts him to doubt his mission. If you are the Son of God, if.
We sung in that hymn, didn't we? What an if was there. What a monumental if was there
in that statement of saying, if thou be the Son of God. You're
hungry. If you're the Son of God, are
you really the Son of God? He was the Son of God. God had
just said, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm... If you are
the Son of God, and you're starving hungry, then you can do any miracle,
turn these stones into bread and satisfy your hunger. That
was the very first thing he said. Doubt whether you are what you
are, but if you are, use your power to turn these stones into
bread. Show that you are the son of
God by making bread from stones to feed your hunger. How does
Jesus respond? He answered, verse 4, and said,
it is written, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Jesus
wields the sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6, the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. Learn the lesson. Believer, learn the lesson. Learn,
what's the lesson? Study. Study the scriptures. Feed on the Scriptures. Feed
your soul with this manna from heaven, this bread from heaven,
which is the Word of God. Paul writes to Timothy, In 2
Timothy 2.15, study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman
that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of
truth. Well, which bits of it should
I study? All of it. Because in 2 Timothy 3.15-17,
we read that all scripture is profitable for doctrine, for
reproof, for teaching, for exhortation, etc. All of it is profitable. Study it. Walk through life,
the narrow way of life. Walk, live your life with it
lighting your way. As Psalm 119 verse 105 says,
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. You
know, where do we go in this world? How do we see where to
go? How do we make the right decisions? Thy word is the light
that shines on my path and shows my feet where to go as I live
this life. This word, be like the noble
Bereans. The noble Bereans were not like
the others who sought to stone Paul, but they listened to him
preaching and they searched the scriptures daily to see whether
what he was preaching to them was the truth of God. Secondly,
Satan tempts Jesus, the man, to spiritual presumption. Don't trip up over being taken
to the holy city and sitting on a pinnacle of the temple.
Didn't the people look up and see them up there and think,
oh look, there's the devil tempting Jesus. It's spiritual. The lessons
of spirit. So don't get hung up on exceeding
high mountains and things like that. They're picturing the idea
that Satan was able to put Jesus in a position where he could
tempt the providence of God. He puts him there and says, throw
yourself off, cast yourself down. Is it not written, see the subtlety
of Satan? Jesus has said, it is written,
man shall not live by bread alone, and Satan comes back. Is it?
Well, all right then, you're using the word of God. Is it
not written that if the son of God casts himself into a dangerous
position, 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? And Jesus again replies with
the Word of God, with the sword of the Spirit. It is written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And then thirdly,
He takes him, it says, to an exceeding high mountain, or a
vantage point, whatever that is, where all the kingdoms of
the world can be shown. You know, all the kingdoms of
the world are Satan's kingdoms at this time. Why? Because God
had delegated the rule of his creation to Adam, and Adam handed... Adam was the viceroy, he was
the deputy king of God's creation. And Adam, in the fall, handed
over that viceroyship, if there is such a word, to Satan. He
surrendered it to Satan, and so Satan said, they're mine,
I've been given them, all these kingdoms of the world, and the
glory of them. He says, if you, the son of God,
will bow down and worship me, Lucifer, the son of the morning,
all these kingdoms will I give you. I'll give them to you, if
you will bow down and worship me. Isn't that amazing that he
had the audacity to tempt the son of God to idolatry? to surrender
to the kingship of Satan, just as Adam surrendered his viceroyship
to Satan in the Garden of Eden. Don't be distracted then by the
physical implausibility of the temple pinnacle and the exceeding
high mountain. It's spiritual truth that we're
talking about. Jesus the man was strongly enticed
in his human condition to conform to Satan's thinking. And that's
what Satan does. The flesh is weak. The Spirit
might be willing, but the flesh is weak and susceptible to temptation,
and has desires to do things and have things and possess things.
And Satan tempts to those things. But Jesus resisted, and He fought
with the sword of the Spirit. And He must have prayed incessantly
in preparation for this during the 40 days running up to it.
James tells believers, he says, resist the devil and he will
flee from you. Isn't that assuring? He says
to believers, resist the devil when he tempts you and he will
flee from you. But why was it necessary for
Jesus to be tempted in this way? Why was it necessary to come
through Satan's most extreme temptation without sinning And
for Satan to have been resisted to the extent that he left him.
He left him alone. Verse 11, the devil leaveth him.
And behold, angels came and ministered to him. Why was it necessary?
just like the baptism was necessary to fulfill all righteousness. With baptism, it was to demonstrate
how redemption would be accomplished by that burial into death and
resurrection again, rising again to newness of life, and also
to leave an example to his followers to do the same through the waters
of baptism. And with the temptation The reason
was, it was to demonstrate that Christ, that this man Jesus was
the Christ who was a fitting, a qualified, a suitable substitute
for his people, a sinless sacrifice. A lamb without blemish or without
spot. You know the Passover lamb, they
had to pick it out ready for the Passover sacrifice, and they
had to keep the lamb for 14 days. And the reason they had to do
that was they had to examine it and see that it was without
blemish or without spot. It had to be perfect. It couldn't
be deformed in any way, or with any marks. It had to be a perfect
lamb. John, as you know, said, it's
recorded elsewhere, behold the Lamb of God, pointing to Jesus,
behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. If
Satan could tempt Him, Jesus, to succumb to the weakness of
human flesh and do the things that Satan was putting before
Him, if he could tempt Him to do that, then Christ This man
Jesus could not stand a surety for his people to redeem them.
He couldn't stand in their place to redeem them from the curse
of the law by being made a curse for them, because he would already
have been a curse by being a sinner. But he had to be sinless. He
had to be sinless and harmless and holy and undefiled and separate
from sinners. He could not bruise the serpent's
head if he himself was a sinner. But He is able to save them. He is able to save to the uttermost,
says Hebrews 7.25. He, Jesus, is able to save to
the uttermost those who come to God by Him. Oh, but He can't
possibly save me because I've done too many things wrong. He's
able to save to the uttermost, whoever you are. He's able to
do that. He has passed this test as the
Son of God, as the Son of Man, come to redeem His people from
the curse of the law. But look, He was a man in flesh
that was hungry, and angels came and ministered unto Him. He had
to have the help of angelic ministering spirits to help him. So then,
there's the account, but what's the application to us as believers?
I would say one very obvious thing is that our glorious Saviour
empathises with His people. It's not just that He feels sorry
for His people, but He's been in the situation, so therefore
it's more than sympathy, it's empathy. He empathises with His
people. And by His victory over Satan,
Because we're united with Him, we have that victory over Satan
in Him. You know what we read in Hebrews
chapter 2 on Wednesday evening? Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 18. I'll just find it there. Well, I'll read a couple of verses
before. He, Jesus, verse 16, took not
on Him the nature of angels, but He took on Him the seed of
Abraham. He united with the people of
God that would come from Abraham with the same faith as Abraham.
Wherefore in all things it behoved him, it was necessary, that he
be made like unto his brethren, the people that he's saving from
their sins, that he might be a merciful and faithful high
priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for
the sins of the people, that he might save his people from
their sins, For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted,
he suffered being tempted, when Satan came to him and tempted
him, It was a situation of suffering for him. He's been through it.
He's been through the fiercest of temptation. And having done
that, he is able to succor them that are tempted. He is able
to help. He is able to support. He is
able to assist those who are being tempted. He completely
identified with his people in bringing many sons to glory,
as that chapter also says. He partook of the flesh of his
people for the suffering of death, to pay redemption's price. And
he felt every feeling of humanity except for sin. So that we read
later in Hebrews, we have not an high priest which cannot be
touched with the feeling of our infirmities. He understands our
weaknesses. He was in all points tempted
just as we are. He suffered it yet without sin.
Empathy. Empathy. Our Lord Jesus Christ
empathizes with his people. You know those of you that go
to work, and I went to work for quite a section of my life, and
I had good bosses at times, and I had some terrible bosses at
times, but you know the best boss to work for is the one who
knows and empathizes with you in all the challenges of your
job. Not the unsympathetic tyrant
who bullies you into doing what they want to do, The one who
you know knows exactly the stresses and strains and challenges of
the job you've been given to do, and you know that if they
had the time to do it, they would do it with you or do it for you.
That's the best boss to work for, isn't it? Well, it's a weak
illustration, but nevertheless, our Lord Jesus Christ has been
through every challenge that we, his people, go through. He's
one who helps his people in their challenges. 1 Corinthians 10,
13 says this, there hath no temptation take, you say, I'm suffering
great temptation. And he says, there's no temptation
taken you, but such as is common to man, but God is faithful,
who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you're able,
but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that
you may be able to bear it. If Christ had been tainted with
the merest hint of sin, He could not have been the Saviour of
His people. But He, in real flesh, with all
of its inherent weakness, He triumphed and remained sinless. As I said earlier, as Hebrews
again says, holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. This one,
Christ, because He resisted and did not sin, Christ also hath
once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust. Couldn't have
done it if he was unjust. He had to be the just for the
unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in
the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit. Only a sinless Savior
could be made sin, so as to make his people the righteousness
of God in him. Amen.