Todd's Road Grace Church would
like to invite you to listen to a sermon by our pastor, Todd
Nybert. We're located at 4137 Todd's
Road, two miles outside Manowar Boulevard. Sunday services are
at 10.30 a.m. and 6 p.m. Bible study is at
9.45 a.m. Wednesday services are at 7 p.m.
Nursery is provided for all services. For more information, visit our
website at toddroadgracechurch.com. Now here's our pastor, Todd Nybert. In Matthew 4, verse 1, we read,
Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to
be tempted of the devil. I'm going to preach upon this
subject, the temptation of Christ. Now this took place right after
his baptism. And if you will remember, when
he was baptized, a voice came from heaven saying, this is my
beloved son, in whom I am well pleased. And someone that you
can be sure heard that was the devil. So he comes to tempt the
Lord Jesus Christ. He used three different temptations. First, tempting him to turn stone
into bread. He had the ability to do it as
the God man, but this was considered a temptation and he did not do
it. And the next temptation was to
give us something we can see. If you're the son of God, jump
off the pinnacle of the temple, because the scripture says he's
gonna give his angels charge over thee, and they'll hold you
up lest you dash your foot against a stone. Prove it to us by jumping,
and then we'll see that you really are the son of God. And the third
temptation was that of if you'll worship me, I'll give you all
the kingdoms of the world. Now those three temptations can
be summarized by what John spoke of in 1 John 2 when he says,
all that's of the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of
the eyes. And the pride of life is not
of the Father, it is of the world. Now in that temptation, the lust
of the flesh, command that these stones be made bread. The lust
of the eyes, and the lust of the eyes means you're wanting
You're more concerned about what men think than what God thinks.
You have to have proof. Show us something that'll prove
it. That's the lust of the eyes, and that was when he said, jump
off the pinnacle. And the pride of life, the lust
for power, was seen in, if you will bow down and worship me,
I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world. Somebody may be
thinking, well, how could Satan do that if Satan is God's devil? Well, God had given him that
ability. The only reason he had that authority
is God gave it to him. But before we consider the temptation
of Christ, I would like to first consider the temptation of our
first parents in the Garden of Eden, because these are so closely
related. Now, in Genesis chapter 2, Verse
15, And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden
of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it. And the Lord God commanded
the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely
eat. But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day you
eat thereof, you will surely die." Now, notice he didn't say,
if you eat. He said, when you do. Could God
have prevented the fall of Adam? Of course He could have. He's
God, but He didn't because it was all a part of His purpose. God is in absolute control, and
the fall is actually for the cross. Christ is called the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. That's before man
came in time and fell. It was all a part of God's purpose.
Somebody says, are you charging God with evil? No, but I'm saying
God's in control of everything. And the reason for the fall is
the purpose of God. Now, in chapter 3, we have the
story of the fall. Now, the serpent was more subtle. more deceitful than any beast
of the field which the Lord God had made." Now this is before
the fall, and the serpent at this time was not a snake crawling
on its belly. It was some kind of, I believe,
some kind of magnificent-looking creature that could speak. And
I don't know what Eve understood of this, but here is his temptation. He comes to Eve and says, and
he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said you shall not eat
of every tree of the garden? He adds to what God said. There was only one tree that
they were forbidden to eat of. They were given the ability to
eat of every other tree, just this one tree, the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil. They were forbidden to eat of
that tree. And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden. No, he didn't
say that. We can eat of all of the trees
except that one tree. But of the fruit of the tree
which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. Now, she added something to what
God had said. We don't read where he said,
don't touch it, although I would say that would be good advice
not to touch it, but we never read where God said, don't touch
it. And I believe that she, the fall has already begun in her
mind. This is where touch, not taste,
not handle, not religion comes from. Don't touch it lest you
die. Verse four. Here's the lie, and
the serpent said unto the woman, you shall not surely die. You're
not gonna die if you eat that fruit. I know God said you would,
but you won't. Verse 5, 4, God doth know that
in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. Now, God is holding out on you,
is what Satan is saying. God is holding out on you. He
knows if you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, Your eyes will be opened. You'll be in a better
state. You'll be like God, knowing good
and evil. Now, here's the point. What he's
implying is, right now, there is no virtue in your obedience. All you're doing is obeying your
nature. You're not like God. God knows
good and evil and chooses the good over the evil. Now, if you
eat that fruit, you're going to know good and evil, and this
is what is going to give moral virtue to your obedience, because
you're going to be like God and choose the good over the evil. And Eve thought to herself, well,
that makes sense. Now, here's what the temptation
was in the Garden of Eden. You will have a free will, and
that is what will make you like God. You see, free will is a
declaration of independence from God's will. My will is free. There's no, there's nothing directing
my will. It is free. It's very much like
them saying, we will not have this man to reign over us. The
temptation of the garden is if you eat of this fruit, you'll
have a free will, you'll choose God over bad, you'll choose good
over evil, and that's what's going to make you like God. Now, free will is rebellion against
God's will. I realize that that's what most
people believe. They believe God loves everybody,
Christ died for everybody, God the Holy Spirit wants to save
everybody, but it's up to your will, your choice, as to whether
or not you'll let Him save you. It's up to you to, as an act
of your will, to accept Jesus Christ as your personal Savior.
That's the language we hear constantly, but there's no truth in that.
You see, there is no such thing as free will. Your will is controlled
by your nature. Now, a tiger, if he wanted to,
he could eat grass. You can stop him. If he wanted
to, he could eat grass, but he won't because it's against his
nature. God's will is governed by His holy nature. He can't
choose to sin. He can't choose to change. There's things that He cannot
do because of His nature. He cannot lie. He cannot sin. He cannot do evil. You see, His
holy will is governed by His holy nature. But Satan is trying
to cloud that issue. He's saying, if you disobey God
and eat this fruit, it's going to make you like him. Your eyes
are going to be opened, and you will know good and evil. Verse 6, and when the woman saw
that the tree was good for food, there's the lust of the flesh,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes. There's the lust of the
eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise. There's the
pride of life. She took of the fruit thereof,
and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her, and he
did eat, and the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew
they were naked. Now they were naked before eating
the fruit, but it wasn't an issue because they didn't have a sinful,
fallen, corrupt nature. But now that they have eaten
of the fruit, they have died. They've died spiritually. They
didn't die physically, but they died spiritually. God said in
the day you eat thereof, you'll surely die. They ate of the fruit
and they died spiritually. And now nakedness is an issue
because they have evil natures. And the first thing they did
is they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves aprons. They
tried to make their own covering for their sin. This represents
works religion, self-righteousness, a fig leaf apron. This was their
attempt at covering their sin before God. And they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden." Now, there was
a time when they relished being in God's presence, and now when
they hear Him, they hide from His presence. They no longer
want to be where He is, and they became spiritually stupid. They
thought they could hide from God's presence. You can't hide
from God's presence, but they thought they could. And the Lord
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And then the blame game
begins. And the man said, The woman whom
thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did
eat. He's saying, This is your fault. If you wouldn't have given
me this woman, I would have never eaten this fruit. But you gave
me this woman, and that's why I ate the fruit. This is ultimately
your fault. And then verse 13, And God said
unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the
woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. It's the serpent's
fault. And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou
hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every
beast of the field. Upon thy belly shalt thou go,
and thus shalt thou eat all the days of thy life. And I," here's
the first gospel promise, "'I will put enmity between thee
and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise
thy head, crush him, and you'll bruise his heel. And that's what
took place on the cross. Satan bruised Christ's heel,
but Christ crushed his head. Now, thousands of years later,
or centuries later, the seed of woman was born. Remember how
he said the seed of woman will crush your head? Now, Christ
is the seed of woman. He's not the seed of Adam. He's
not of Adam's nature. He was born of a virgin. Now,
why is it important to believe that Jesus Christ was born of
a virgin? Well, because the Bible says He is. And if He wouldn't
have been born of a virgin, that means He would be born of Adam
and have Adam's corrupt nature. But He was born of a virgin,
and He came into this world holy. That holy thing which shall be
born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And he lived
thirty years upon this earth in obscurity. Nobody really knew. I guess his parents, because
the angels said that. But he lived 30 years in perfect
obedience, working out a perfect righteousness, never sinning.
And I don't think anybody got it. They didn't understand. And
that lets us know that holiness is not what men think it is. He's the only holy man to ever
live. And then his baptism, the announcement
of his public ministry, And the Lord saying, you're my son, that
word from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well
pleased. The devil heard it and then he's
led by the spirit. After fasting 40 days, into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Now we read in Matthew
chapter 4, beginning in verse 1, Then was Jesus led of the
Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty
days and forty nights, he was afterwards unhungered. And when
the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread." Now, let me ask you a question.
Christ is tempted. The Bible says He was tempted.
He was tempted of the devil. Could Christ have sinned? It's an important question. I've
heard people say, well, as long as he didn't, that's all that
matters. I mean, there wouldn't be anything to him resisting
temptation if he couldn't have sinned. But he didn't. That's what we want to emphasize.
Not could he, but he didn't. And that's true. He didn't. But
he could not sin because he's God. Jesus Christ is God. God cannot Well, somebody says,
well, what's the virtue in his obedience if he cannot sin and
cannot give in to temptation? Well, that's the reasoning Satan
used with Eve. There's no virtue right now in
your innocence. You need to-you'll be as God
when you can choose good over evil. That's what will make you
like God. Really, there's no virtue in your innocence. That's
using the same-there's nothing to Christ's temptation if he
couldn't sin. but he chose not to sin. No,
he's God. If he could sin then, he could
sin now. And if he could sin, that means
he would change. That means he would be, not be
immutable any longer. So it's blasphemous to say that
he could sin. He said, the prince of this world
has come and has found nothing in me, nothing he could get ahold
of. Now, you think of how easily
he can turn me or you inside out. I mean, as soon as we're
tempted, oh, it's only by the grace of God we won't cave into
any kind of temptation. But he could not sin. Now, the devil comes first and
says, when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the
Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. Now, he
could have. He created bread during his earthly
ministry. He could have commanded these
stones to turn bread, but he didn't, and he was hungry. The
reason he didn't command that these stones be made bread is
because me and you can't do that. We're totally dependent upon
the Lord for all things. And because He's coming as our
representative to work out the righteousness that we must have
to be accepted in God, He would not do it. And He answered. It is written, isn't this interesting?
that when he answers the devil, he answers with an, it is written. That shows the importance of
the scripture. The Lord used, it is written,
to speak with the devil. Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then, verse five, then the devil
taketh him into the holy city. and set it on a pinnacle of the
temple. I mean, it was very high. And
then the devil used the scriptures. He's still using the Scriptures
today to try to prove his point. You see, you can go to the Bible
and prove anything you want if you pull that out of context
and make it say what it's not saying, but that's what Satan
is doing at this time. He's using the Scriptures in
order to tempt him with the lust of the eyes. Prove to us that
you're the Son of God. If you really are, prove it to
us. Then the devil taketh him into
the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,
and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, CAST THYSELF
DOWN, FOR IT'S 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, GIVE US SOMETHING
WE CAN SEE. THIS IS THE LUST OF THE EYES.
THE LUST OF THE EYES IS BEING CONCERNED ABOUT WHAT MEN SEE.
PROVE THIS TO US. JUMP OFF, AND IF YOU REALLY ARE
THE SON OF GOD, THE ANGELS WILL CATCH YOU. THAT'S WHAT WILL And
the Lord said once again, Jesus said unto him, It is written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Now to see, to,
if he said something, it's settled. I hate that statement I hear
men make, God said it, I believe it, that settles it. No, no,
God said it, that settles it, whether you and I believe it
or not. You see, forever, oh Lord, thy word is settled in
the heavens. And I'm not to do anything to
try to prove God is true. If God said it, it's settled. Yes, the angels would catch him,
but he wasn't going to try to prove anything to Satan. He wasn't
going to give Satan something to see. He resisted that temptation. He would not tempt God. What's
it mean to tempt God? Well, let's see if what you're
saying is so. Do something to prove what you're saying is so.
You know, when the thief was hanging on the cross, He didn't
have any physical evidence that Jesus Christ was Lord, but he
knew he was, because God had revealed it to him. He knew that
one seemingly so helpless, nailed to a cross, was nobody less than
the Son of God, who was going to come back as a mighty reigning
king. And he said, Lord, remember me.
He didn't have anything for his sight. Now, I don't have to have
anything for my sight to believe what God says. What God says
is true. And then here's the third temptation. Verses 8 and 9, 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. Now, how
could he do that? I don't know, but he did. He
did. All the kings of the world in a moment of time were shown
to the Lord Jesus Christ and all the glory of them and all
the power of them. Verse 9, And he saith unto him,
All these things will I give you, if you will fall down and
worship me." Now, I know people could think, Well, how could
Satan say, I'll give these to you if God is God? Well, we know
from Luke's account that Satan said, All these things are delivered
unto me. Every kingdom, every nation ultimately in this world
is under Satan's dominion. People talk about the United
States being a Christian nation. There's no such thing as a Christian
nation. There never has been a Christian nation. Everyone
is living in a fallen world, and Satan is the prince of the
power of the air. He's the prince of this world.
And he said, if you'll fall down and worship me, I'll give all
of this to you, because it's permitted to me to do that. Verse
10, Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it's
written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt
thou serve. Satan found nothing in the Lord
Jesus Christ to work with. Just as our first parents fell
before the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life, the desire for pleasure, popularity, what other
men see, power, They fell, and how miserably have you and I
fallen to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. Somebody that thinks, well, I've
resisted those temptations. You're lying. You have not. You
have been guilty of all those things, and so have I. But there's
one who resisted this temptation, the Lord Jesus Christ, and this
lets us know about His perfect righteousness, His sinlessness. He said, the prince of this world
has come, and he's found nothing in me. He worked out a perfect
righteousness. And do you remember in his baptism
when he said to John the Baptist, thus it becometh us to fulfill
all righteousness? Everything he did, he did as
an us. And here we see his perfect righteousness. Now, what if the Lord just would
have went back to heaven after defeating Satan? Well, it wouldn't
do us any good. It wouldn't do us any good at
all. But the Lord Jesus Christ, that one who worked out this
perfect righteousness, the devil couldn't find anything in him.
He also died. Why did he die? There's one reason
for death, sin. The sins of God's elect became
his sin so that he became guilty of it and he died under the wrath
of God as the sin-bearing substitute. But there's something different
about his death. His death satisfied all the claims
of God's justice, and that's why He was raised from the dead,
because His death satisfied. Now, in Hebrews 4, let me read
these words. Hebrews 4, verse 14, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that's passed into the heavens, He was raised and went into the
heavens. Jesus, the Son of God, let us
hold fast our profession, 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 sin. Now, I
used to read that and think, well, how can he be moved to
sympathy if he never gave in to sin? How can He be touched
by the feelings of my infirmities if He never sinned? Here's why. Although He never sinned, He
was made to feel all the shame and the guilt of sin. Looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy
that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame. You're only shamed if you did
something. And the sins of God's elect so
truly became his that he experienced all the being forsaken, all those
things he experienced. And now when God's people are
feeling alone, he's touched by the feeling of their infirmities. Verse 16, let us therefore come
boldly under the throne of grace. You see, it's not a throne of
absolute justice. It's a throne of grace, free
grace that we may obtain mercy. You know, anyone who seeks mercy
has it. and to find grace, unmerited,
demerited favor to help in time of need. The Lord said, him that
cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Now the Lord resisted
temptation, worked out a perfect righteousness, died on Calvary's
tree as the sin bearing substitute was raised up. And now we're
called upon to come boldly. to the throne of grace. We have
this message on CD and DVD. If you call the church, write
or email, we'll send you a copy. This is Todd Nybert praying that
God will be pleased to make Himself known to you. To receive a copy
of the sermon you have just heard, send your request to todd.nybert
at gmail.com, or you may write or call the church at the information
provided on the screen.