The NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The Temptations Of Christ ｜ Part 1

00:00:00.000 Amen.

00:00:12.260 Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word.

00:00:14.280 Our text today is Matthew 4, verses 1-11.

00:00:19.240 Again, that's the Gospel according to Matthew 4, verses 1-11.

00:00:23.860 I'm going to read our text for us in its entirety.

00:00:26.340 When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say,

00:00:28.040 this is the word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond

00:00:31.840 by saying, thanks be to God. One final time, our text today is Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through

00:00:38.260 11. The Bible says this, then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by

00:00:44.580 the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to

00:00:51.400 him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered,

00:00:58.040 It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

00:01:05.040 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him,

00:01:12.360 If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,

00:01:17.160 He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up,

00:01:23.060 lest you strike your foot against a stone.

00:01:26.460 Jesus said to him, Again, it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

00:01:33.200 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

00:01:40.520 And he said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

00:01:48.360 Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God,

00:01:55.220 and him only shall you serve.

00:01:58.040 Then the devil left him,

00:01:59.460 and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

00:02:03.100 This is the word of the Lord.

00:02:05.600 All right, please be seated.

00:02:09.840 So we are continuing today with our series

00:02:12.400 through the gospel according to Matthew.

00:02:15.340 And today we find ourselves

00:02:17.340 directly after the baptism of Jesus,

00:02:20.940 now being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness

00:02:24.460 where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights

00:02:27.580 and then the tempter comes to him.

00:02:30.580 A few things that are important for us to understand

00:02:34.860 in regards to the context of our particular text today

00:02:39.860 is this.

00:02:42.240 This is important in significant timing.

00:02:46.220 It's not a coincidence that Satan tempts Jesus

00:02:49.460 when he is physically, that is, according to his human nature,

00:02:53.660 at his weakest, having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.

00:02:58.200 It is also worth noting that Satan comes

00:03:01.320 and tempts Jesus directly after his baptism.

00:03:06.620 One of the things that took place in the baptism of Jesus

00:03:09.900 is that he was affirmed by his Father publicly

00:03:15.320 to all those who were standing by.

00:03:18.460 That the Spirit descended as a dove

00:03:21.140 and rested on Jesus when He came up out of the water

00:03:25.080 after having been baptized by John.

00:03:28.760 In addition to the Spirit descending and resting upon Jesus,

00:03:32.960 we also have the voice of God the Father.

00:03:36.020 The skies that previously up until this point,

00:03:39.880 as the Scripture testifies elsewhere,

00:03:42.480 had been turned to brass or bronze.

00:03:45.300 These skies which had functioned for 400 years as a barrier

00:03:50.780 blocking the word of the Lord

00:03:54.580 from His image-bearing creatures on earth 1.00

00:03:57.500 due to Israel predominantly 0.93

00:03:59.820 and their rebellion and unbelief. 0.89

00:04:03.220 These guys, which had been a shield

00:04:07.000 separating God from man,

00:04:10.740 were now broken apart.

00:04:13.100 The barrier is now removed

00:04:15.000 and the voice of God the Father

00:04:17.020 comes to God the Son

00:04:19.260 And it is a voice of approval, not a voice of condemnation, which would be well deserved by man, but not by Christ.

00:04:29.640 He had only merited the voice of his father as it came to him in approval rather than condemnation.

00:04:37.580 And when this public approval comes, it is no coincidence that immediately what follows is a spiritual attack from the enemy.

00:04:46.680 And this is fitting that right after the father gives his approval to his son and does so, remember this, does so publicly so that many witness and hear this voice coming from the clouds.

00:05:04.780 This is my son in him. I am well pleased right after this public approval directly from God, the father himself given to the son.

00:05:16.840 It is then that he is immediately led up by the spirit into the wilderness to fast and then to be attacked, to be tempted by the enemy.

00:05:28.440 And that's the timing, the context.

00:05:31.980 Another element of this particular text and this incredible battle, this showdown that goes and happens, takes place in the wilderness between Christ and the devil, is that both of them are disguised.

00:05:49.980 And we don't think of that. It's something that's easy to miss with a plain reading of the text.

00:05:54.720 if we don't pause for a moment and think.

00:05:58.260 But there's an argument, I think, to be made

00:06:00.920 that at this point, Satan is quite sure,

00:06:06.840 but not entirely sure,

00:06:09.360 that Jesus from Nazareth is, in fact, the Christ,

00:06:14.380 the Son of God.

00:06:16.100 I think it's noteworthy that in his first temptation,

00:06:18.980 he begins with, if.

00:06:21.820 Part of that is simply this conditional phrase of saying, you know, Jesus, prove it.

00:06:27.380 He's goading him. He's tempting him.

00:06:29.700 If you really are the son of God, then then cause the stones of the ground to be turned to bread so that you might eat.

00:06:37.100 But there's also maybe perhaps a sense in which Satan is still not quite sure.

00:06:43.300 Up until this point, the text and the gospel narratives are not exhaustive.

00:06:49.480 But I think it's reasonable to assume that Jesus had not yet experienced this level of direct attack from Satan.

00:06:58.940 Not yet.

00:06:59.660 And part of that is because the identity of Jesus as in him being, in fact, the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, had not yet been publicly revealed.

00:07:10.900 It's not until the point of his baptism

00:07:13.140 that Satan is now much more aware

00:07:17.800 that this is the Messiah.

00:07:20.860 Satan knew that the Messiah had come into the world.

00:07:24.520 He knew that.

00:07:25.780 He knew the timing.

00:07:27.700 But Jesus and the providence of God

00:07:30.940 as Joseph, his earthly father,

00:07:33.160 was directed by an angel in a dream,

00:07:35.280 escaped the wily plans and threats of the devil by fleeing to Egypt,

00:07:44.120 escaping the human agency of Satan's plans that were enacted through Herod,

00:07:50.840 seeking to kill the newborn Christ in Bethlehem.

00:07:55.740 And we know that Jesus was raised in some sense in obscurity,

00:08:00.780 that he was raised in a small town,

00:08:06.140 flyover country, if you will.

00:08:09.000 It's similar to Superman.

00:08:11.800 He doesn't come from Manhattan.

00:08:13.640 He comes from Kansas.

00:08:15.940 He's a true American. 0.99

00:08:17.940 Jesus is a true Nazarene. 0.99

00:08:21.460 Can anything good come from Nazareth, 1.00

00:08:24.780 the backwoods country? 0.98

00:08:26.160 Well, yes, in fact, it can.

00:08:29.000 Jesus is raised under a veil as it were. He's raised in obscurity and he's patient

00:08:38.260 submitting to his father that is his heavenly father as well as his earthly father in all things

00:08:45.000 waiting for the proper time waiting for his ordination in a sense that takes place at his

00:08:53.780 baptism, where his earthly public ministry then begins. And so up until this point, there is a

00:09:01.280 sense in which both Satan and Christ are disguised, or another way to put it would be veiled. How is

00:09:11.200 it that Christ is veiled? Well, as I've already been speaking, he is veiled by his second nature.

00:09:19.240 He did not empty himself of the divine nature.

00:09:23.760 That's biblical language, but in terms of how we should interpret that in a literal sense,

00:09:29.260 it is addition or subtraction rather by addition.

00:09:33.400 Jesus does not substitute the divine nature in the incarnation and replace the divine nature with the human nature,

00:09:40.260 but rather the divine nature, which remains fully intact in his earthly ministry throughout the course of his earthly life,

00:09:48.000 That divine nature doesn't go away.

00:09:50.500 It is not replaced, but it is covered.

00:09:52.760 It is sealed.

00:09:53.920 It is veiled by a second nature, namely the human nature.

00:09:58.260 That's the whole point of the transfiguration.

00:10:01.200 The transfiguration is Jesus just for a moment giving a glimpse to Peter, James and John on the mountain,

00:10:08.540 giving them a glimpse not of what will be or what was, but what presently had always been.

00:10:15.180 the divine nature in all its glory,

00:10:18.540 which had remained present and intact

00:10:20.740 throughout the entirety of His life on earth.

00:10:24.180 But it's simply been veiled by His human nature.

00:10:27.140 And all that really occurs at the Mount of Transfiguration

00:10:30.980 is that the human nature is simply pulled back.

00:10:35.380 The veil is partially lifted just for a moment

00:10:39.100 so that His three disciples can see

00:10:41.900 the glory of the divine Son of God,

00:10:44.660 which had been there all along.

00:10:47.620 But that veil, it was successful.

00:10:52.080 The veil of the human nature of Christ,

00:10:54.500 it did deceive Satan, at least to some degree.

00:11:00.060 Even St. Augustine, he said that there was,

00:11:03.560 in the incarnation and then in the crucifixion,

00:11:07.540 there was, in some sense, a divine trickery on God's part.

00:11:11.900 Not a trickery that would merit sin, deceitful sin, but a divine trickery that was righteous and successful.

00:11:22.920 That Satan seized like a fish.

00:11:26.100 He seized his opportune time in the vulnerability of Christ, or at least seemingly his vulnerability, as he was in the flesh, in human nature.

00:11:38.680 Augustine says that the dual nature of Christ

00:11:42.180 in taking upon himself the human nature,

00:11:44.500 a second nature, was likened to fishing.

00:11:50.420 It was as though the human nature was the bait,

00:11:54.560 but underneath the human nature was the hook.

00:11:58.300 And Satan saw the human nature,

00:12:00.760 and he lashed out and bit down,

00:12:04.820 Just like a fish would bite a bait or a lure, thinking that it's food, thinking that it's something that he can overcome, he can defeat and devour.

00:12:18.220 Not realizing that sealed underneath the bait is the steel hook, the divinity.

00:12:25.400 And that in doing so, Satan unwittingly sealed his own defeat, his own demise.

00:12:31.560 that in some sense Satan conquered himself

00:12:34.900 because God was far greater.

00:12:38.440 We look at all of this in hindsight,

00:12:40.820 2,000 years of hindsight to be precise.

00:12:44.460 We look at it with the fullness of the completed canon.

00:12:49.320 The Scripture having been inspired by the Spirit,

00:12:54.140 but also for those of us who are Christians

00:12:56.800 with new hearts and spiritual eyes to see,

00:13:00.320 spiritual ears to hear, we have the same spirit who inspired the text now illuminating the text

00:13:06.960 to us as we read it and providing for us insight. Satan did not have these things. And so when he

00:13:14.000 approaches Christ in the wilderness, there is a sense in which he's probably has a great sense

00:13:20.860 of certainty due to the baptism of Christ and the spirit descending and resting as a dove and the

00:13:27.980 voice of the Father coming from the sky, giving his approval of Jesus. This is my son. But there

00:13:35.360 probably is, or at least possibly is, still some question in the mind of Satan. Is this another

00:13:43.200 John the Baptist? Is this merely another Elijah or an Isaiah, some kind of prophet? Or is this

00:13:49.960 the son of God. If you are the son of God, then turn these stones into bread. Now on the flip side,

00:14:00.760 Satan is also veiled. The scripture says that Satan, that he cloaks himself, veils himself

00:14:07.040 as though he were an angel of light. If there were any time for Satan to veil himself

00:14:15.560 in his best, most glorious attempt

00:14:19.880 to appear as an angel of light,

00:14:22.900 it would be in this moment in our text today

00:14:25.940 when he approaches Christ in the wilderness

00:14:28.600 and attempts to tempt Christ to sin.

00:14:34.800 Christ is veiled, that is, in his human nature.

00:14:39.080 Satan is veiled, that is, appearing

00:14:42.300 as an angel of light.

00:14:45.560 And we may not think much of that because, after all, we are talking about the Son of God.

00:14:51.320 And the divine nature, as I've already stated, is fully present and fully intact.

00:14:56.300 And in the divine nature is omniscience, that is, all-knowing.

00:15:02.640 So surely in his divine nature, Christ is fully aware that this is, this angel of light who approaches him in the wilderness, is in fact the devil.

00:15:14.460 the great enemy of God.

00:15:18.960 But in his human nature,

00:15:21.260 there could have been perhaps a moment

00:15:24.880 or at least an inclination to wonder.

00:15:30.120 After all, he is hungry.

00:15:32.560 He has been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

00:15:36.100 He is at this point in his human nature,

00:15:39.780 incredibly vulnerable, incredibly hungry,

00:15:43.060 incredibly weak.

00:15:44.460 As we read in the text, I always almost chuckle to myself.

00:15:49.080 It seems like the understatement of the millennia.

00:15:54.000 After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

00:15:58.980 Yeah, no kidding, huh?

00:16:00.280 He was hungry, you know.

00:16:02.500 A little snacky at that point, you know.

00:16:06.120 A little bit of a hankering for something, you know, just a light snack to kind of hold him over.

00:16:11.680 Yeah, he was hungry.

00:16:13.140 He was starving.

00:16:14.460 He was probably near the point of death.

00:16:18.860 It was probably difficult for him at this point to even stand or walk.

00:16:24.420 And one of the things that I want to draw to our attention, again, setting the stage before entering into the text and its particularities,

00:16:32.820 is that immediately after these three temptations, the third and final temptation, Christ, his response being, depart from me.

00:16:43.360 Be gone, Satan, which he doesn't say after the first and second temptation, but rather he reserves that response for the last.

00:16:54.120 It is only after the third temptation that Jesus says, be gone.

00:16:58.840 And at that point, Satan, in fact, he does flee.

00:17:02.340 But immediately what happens, what follows after the finishing of Satan's three temptations and his fleeing is that Jesus is now accompanied by what?

00:17:15.040 Angels of light.

00:17:17.840 The text concludes in verse 11, the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

00:17:26.880 What do you think these angels were doing?

00:17:29.060 Do you think these angels who came to Jesus and ministered to him provided him with bread and food to nourish him?

00:17:38.860 Not only consoling him spiritually, but also nourishing him and caring for him physically?

00:17:47.500 I think so.

00:17:49.960 That certainly, it may not be a necessary reading of the text, meaning that you can't read it any other way.

00:17:57.600 but it's certainly a plausible, more than just possible, but I would argue highly plausible

00:18:03.640 reading of the text. It's not explicit, but it's certainly implicit that these angels who appear

00:18:11.160 to Christ in the wilderness after Satan flees, that they minister to him and that part of their

00:18:16.360 ministering capacity is ministering to him physically by providing him with food. Well,

00:18:23.660 what did Satan, who we can be sure guised himself as an angel of light, what did he

00:18:30.220 attempt to do just moments earlier in his first temptation? What he attempted to do

00:18:35.980 was to get Jesus to eat, to minister to him, seemingly to his physical vulnerability

00:18:44.740 by nourishing him with bread. So one angel veiled as an angel of light appears to Jesus

00:18:52.680 and says, you should eat.

00:18:56.440 And then other angels,

00:18:58.320 just as far as we know, minutes later,

00:19:01.080 maybe at most a couple of hours,

00:19:03.000 they appear and very likely provide for Jesus' food.

00:19:08.400 And again, the implication, I think,

00:19:10.480 the proper assumption would be

00:19:11.980 that when these later angels appear

00:19:14.440 after the devil has fled and minister to him

00:19:17.320 and very likely minister to his physical needs

00:19:20.440 in addition to his spiritual needs

00:19:22.420 and provide for him bread,

00:19:24.220 the implication, I think, is to assume

00:19:26.900 that Jesus probably took that bread and ate it.

00:19:31.940 So half an hour earlier,

00:19:34.960 an angel appears,

00:19:38.660 seemingly offers bread,

00:19:40.820 and Jesus says, no.

00:19:43.500 Half an hour later, angels appear,

00:19:47.460 offer bread, and Jesus says, yes.

00:19:50.020 Why is one sin and the other permissible?

00:19:57.100 Why does Jesus resist the first offer and yet say yes and oblige the second?

00:20:07.320 This is, in some sense, a battle of wits.

00:20:11.580 It's like this cosmic divine game of chess.

00:20:14.740 This is one of the most fascinating texts, I think, in all of the Scripture.

00:20:20.020 This great showdown in the middle of nowhere, with no human spectators around to witness.

00:20:26.680 But all we have is the witness of Scripture.

00:20:30.140 But we can imagine you have the divine versus the great enemy of God, the serpent.

00:20:39.280 The serpent crusher versus the serpent himself.

00:20:42.960 And that both, at least initially, neither one, at least in some sense, fully aware of who the other is.

00:20:50.960 Jesus, knowing that His Father is a good and loving Father,

00:20:55.860 He is just 40 days prior given His public approval.

00:21:00.020 He knows the Father loves Him.

00:21:02.340 And He knows that 40 days marks the end of His fast.

00:21:08.140 That's another thing that we should be aware of as we're setting the stage,

00:21:11.760 providing the context for our text today.

00:21:14.500 Jesus is not just fasting in the wilderness indefinitely.

00:21:18.460 He's doing so with a purpose.

00:21:21.940 Now, there are several purposes that could be listed,

00:21:24.420 but suffice it to say,

00:21:25.780 there's at least one that we should be aware of.

00:21:28.740 One of the reasons that Jesus goes into the wilderness

00:21:31.300 and He fasts for no less and no more

00:21:34.140 than 40 days and 40 nights

00:21:35.820 is because Jesus, after receiving

00:21:38.380 the public approval of His Father,

00:21:40.600 is now fulfilling all righteousness.

00:21:43.040 That's why He was baptized.

00:21:44.780 We saw that last week.

00:21:45.960 The baptism of John was a baptism that represented the repentance of sin, of which Jesus had none.

00:21:53.540 And so he had no need to be baptized in that sense.

00:21:56.860 And yet he still subjects himself to the baptism of John simply to fulfill all righteousness.

00:22:02.660 Not just to avoid a presence of sin, but to engage and fulfill the fullness of obedience.

00:22:11.080 But also he is now fasted in the wilderness for 40 days.

00:22:14.960 so too to fulfill all righteousness.

00:22:18.680 What righteousness is Jesus fulfilling

00:22:20.740 by fasting for 40 days in the wilderness?

00:22:23.440 He is proving that He is the true Israel of God.

00:22:29.440 You can actually follow the life of Jesus.

00:22:32.720 It's fascinating to do this,

00:22:34.000 and we don't have time to show you

00:22:35.560 each and every example of this

00:22:37.360 throughout the Gospel narratives today.

00:22:39.640 Perhaps we'll be able to do so in the future.

00:22:42.440 But everything that God did

00:22:44.280 with Israel as a holy priesthood

00:22:48.480 under the Old Covenant, a nation,

00:22:52.520 everything that God did with Israel

00:22:54.420 in the macro sense over centuries

00:22:57.440 in the Old Testament,

00:22:58.980 all those things are fulfilled in Christ

00:23:01.800 in a kind of a rapid sense,

00:23:06.380 in a symbolic sense, in His life.

00:23:10.020 Israel, what did they do in the wilderness?

00:23:11.760 Well, they were there for 40 years.

00:23:15.620 What did Christ do?

00:23:17.520 He was in the wilderness for 40 days.

00:23:21.120 Israel, when they were in the wilderness,

00:23:23.680 God provided them with bread.

00:23:26.660 When Jesus is in the wilderness,

00:23:29.280 there is no provision of bread. 0.95

00:23:32.040 Israel, for 40 years,

00:23:34.640 provision constantly from God as their Father.

00:23:37.680 the response of Israel is unbelief and hardness of heart.

00:23:43.100 Jesus, without provision from His Father,

00:23:47.300 He in the wilderness, His response is perfect faith and trust in His Father.

00:23:55.700 Affirming that His Father is good and not giving in to the temptation to despair.

00:24:02.040 The first temptation that comes to Christ from the serpent,

00:24:06.180 the great deceiver of men

00:24:08.660 is an attempt to get Jesus

00:24:12.180 to question the goodness

00:24:13.500 of His Father.

00:24:16.120 If you are the Son of God

00:24:18.220 then speak to these stones

00:24:21.760 and turn them into bread.

00:24:25.240 It's not just a test of Jesus

00:24:27.300 and His power.

00:24:28.880 It's a subtle accusation

00:24:30.820 veiled underneath.

00:24:32.360 A subtle accusation

00:24:33.900 insisting that thus far

00:24:36.100 your Father has not provided for you

00:24:38.860 and so provision should be taken

00:24:40.600 into your own hands.

00:24:42.960 Where the devil is saying,

00:24:44.040 he's not just testing

00:24:44.860 if you are the Son of God,

00:24:46.280 work a miracle.

00:24:47.700 It's deeper than that.

00:24:49.440 It's if you are the Son of God,

00:24:51.440 recognize that as God's Son,

00:24:54.360 your Father has abandoned you.

00:24:57.780 And so, therefore,

00:24:59.320 you must take care of yourself.

00:25:02.460 He won't provide for you.

00:25:04.080 so make provision for yourself

00:25:08.200 but he says to Satan

00:25:11.920 it is written

00:25:12.980 man shall not live by bread alone

00:25:15.520 but by every word that comes from the mouth of God

00:25:17.880 this isn't just a random quoting of scripture

00:25:21.540 and it's not just to say

00:25:24.340 spiritual bread is of more importance

00:25:28.480 than that which is physical 1.00

00:25:30.160 although that certainly is true

00:25:32.360 But part of what Jesus is doing here is he's rebuking Satan by saying, no, no, no, you're insisting.

00:25:43.520 I know what you're doing.

00:25:45.240 You're subtly insisting or at least implying that for these past 40 days and 40 nights, my father has abandoned me.

00:25:55.660 That he has not made provision for me because there's been no physical bread.

00:26:00.780 Ah, but man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

00:26:07.040 What Jesus is essentially saying is that for these last 40 days, God has constantly been providing for me.

00:26:14.420 He's been speaking to me all along.

00:26:17.240 He has been nourishing me without pause, without fail.

00:26:22.140 Every minute, every moment, every day, every night, I am well taken care of.

00:26:28.920 I am well fed. In fact, Satan, I couldn't eat a single bite. I'm full because my father

00:26:37.660 is faithful. My father is good. The first temptation in the wilderness is Satan attempting to get

00:26:47.240 Jesus to despair or to doubt his father's goodness. There's more that I'll come back

00:26:54.660 and say on that probably next week.

00:26:58.860 This text is so dense

00:27:01.060 that it's a two-parter

00:27:02.820 that easily could become three.

00:27:05.000 We'll see.

00:27:06.560 But the second temptation,

00:27:08.000 giving kind of a 30,000-foot view,

00:27:09.940 right now just providing context,

00:27:12.540 setting the lay of the land,

00:27:14.580 putting up the framework,

00:27:16.620 and then giving us kind of an overview

00:27:18.780 of each of the three temptations.

00:27:21.200 Moving on now,

00:27:21.980 let's look at the second briefly.

00:27:24.420 The first is a temptation to despair and doubt the Father's goodness.

00:27:31.180 The second is to demand the Father's power.

00:27:36.400 The first is to despair or doubt the Father's goodness.

00:27:41.020 The second is to demand the Father's power.

00:27:45.200 Notice that the language that Satan levies against Christ

00:27:49.160 is that Christ should demand.

00:27:53.780 He should demand what His Father does

00:27:57.200 rather than petition.

00:27:59.980 Rather than making His request known to God in humility,

00:28:04.900 that He should simply tell His Father what to do.

00:28:09.260 That He should force the Father's hand

00:28:12.140 rather than asking God, His Father,

00:28:16.560 in his own timing, in his own way, his own manner,

00:28:21.120 according to his own preordained plan,

00:28:24.900 rather than saying, I trust the Father

00:28:27.840 and I humbly request of my Father

00:28:30.920 that he might reveal to all those who are his

00:28:34.400 that I, in fact, am his son

00:28:37.120 and that he would do so his way

00:28:39.320 and that he would do so in his time.

00:28:42.660 Instead, what Satan is suggesting

00:28:45.480 is that Jesus should force the Father's hand,

00:28:50.740 that He should essentially make demands upon His Father

00:28:54.620 rather than trusting and petitioning His Father.

00:29:00.040 So the first temptation is to doubt the Father's provision

00:29:03.420 and therefore to doubt His goodness.

00:29:05.600 The second is to demand, make demands of the Father's power,

00:29:10.940 elevating Himself above God the Father

00:29:14.400 rather than submitting to God the Father

00:29:17.380 and trusting in His way and His time.

00:29:22.680 Lastly, the third and final temptation

00:29:25.420 is denying the Father His glory,

00:29:30.020 that which is rightfully due to His name.

00:29:34.400 And it's not a coincidence,

00:29:35.900 just for our understanding,

00:29:40.640 it's not a coincidence that Jesus

00:29:42.440 at this point responds with,

00:29:45.360 be gone, Satan.

00:29:47.900 Be gone.

00:29:49.220 Because the first two temptations

00:29:51.600 are not nearly as sinister as the last.

00:29:55.620 Now, of course, 0.93

00:29:57.560 what modern, pietistic, 1.00

00:30:00.460 impotent evangelical Christians 0.98

00:30:02.400 would have you believe 0.97

00:30:03.600 is that Jesus responds

00:30:06.140 with such aggravated frustration

00:30:10.940 at this third temptation

00:30:12.160 because there's nothing.

00:30:13.880 There's nothing that gives Jesus the ick

00:30:16.880 like politics, you know?

00:30:20.900 There's nothing that would make Jesus

00:30:23.820 more disgusted and turned off

00:30:28.080 than the idea of earthly kingdoms.

00:30:33.060 The last thing that Jesus wants

00:30:34.940 is real, tangible authority. 0.56

00:30:38.580 that Jesus, as a true pietist,

00:30:44.180 is merely content and satisfied

00:30:47.220 with ruling in the 17th dimension.

00:30:51.880 It's a spiritual rule

00:30:53.080 with no interest in the things of man

00:30:55.960 because the things of man

00:30:57.280 and the kingdoms of this world,

00:30:59.960 well, they're corrupt. 0.82

00:31:02.900 They're petty. 1.00

00:31:04.480 They're shallow.

00:31:06.020 They're vain.

00:31:07.080 And that's why Jesus responds as strongly as he does.

00:31:13.880 Be gone, Satan.

00:31:16.740 He's responding at this point by commanding Satan to flee from him

00:31:22.500 because the offer that Satan makes here is so unattractive.

00:31:28.100 The kingdoms of the world.

00:31:30.540 Only Christian nationalists who are heretics and have abandoned the gospel 0.86

00:31:35.540 would care about things like that, right?

00:31:38.860 No.

00:31:40.520 It's terrible exegesis.

00:31:43.040 That's not what the text is saying. 0.98

00:31:45.480 The reason that Jesus responds

00:31:47.460 with such aggravation at this point

00:31:49.400 is not because he's turned off

00:31:51.740 by the kingdoms of the world

00:31:52.900 and has no interest in an earthly kingship.

00:31:57.120 Now, the reason Jesus responds

00:31:58.740 by saying, be gone, Satan,

00:32:00.960 is because this is the first

00:32:02.380 of the three temptations

00:32:03.760 where Satan outright tells Jesus

00:32:06.200 to bow down and worship him.

00:32:09.440 That's why.

00:32:11.520 Notice that in the first temptation,

00:32:13.800 Satan does not tell Jesus,

00:32:16.500 hey, if you're hungry,

00:32:18.060 I'll turn these stones into bread

00:32:20.140 and feed you upon the condition

00:32:22.260 of your fidelity to me.

00:32:25.040 That's not what happens.

00:32:28.080 Satan does not require

00:32:30.060 in his first temptation of the Christ

00:32:33.440 that Jesus worship him instead of his Father.

00:32:39.240 And neither does Satan require in his second temptation

00:32:42.500 that Jesus worship him instead of his Father.

00:32:47.260 It is only in the third and final temptation

00:32:50.560 that Satan now reveals his true agenda.

00:32:56.520 The gloves come off.

00:32:59.260 The veil is officially lifted.

00:33:01.140 Again, up until this point, it really is a battle of wits.

00:33:05.940 It's this cosmic, divine game of chess happening in the middle of the wilderness

00:33:11.840 where only angels are privy to be witnesses.

00:33:17.420 And Satan is still, at least partially, playing the role of an angel of light.

00:33:25.780 It's only in the third and final temptation

00:33:28.000 that he drops the mask,

00:33:31.320 that he comes out with full disclosure

00:33:34.400 and allows himself to be identified.

00:33:39.940 He makes it plain.

00:33:42.680 Yeah, I am.

00:33:44.340 I am the devil. 0.97

00:33:46.640 I am the Satan. 0.77

00:33:49.060 But here in my final temptation,

00:33:52.280 I'll give you a way around the cross.

00:33:56.400 I'll allow you to skip suffering and death.

00:34:01.660 I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world.

00:34:04.060 That's why you're here, isn't it?

00:34:07.880 Because God in the garden and his original purpose for mankind,

00:34:13.220 his image bearing creatures, was to give them dominion over earthly kingdoms. 0.53

00:34:19.080 that to Adam was given dominion

00:34:23.500 over all the created cosmos,

00:34:26.180 that he was to function as God's viceroy,

00:34:30.700 that over all of earthly creation

00:34:35.780 he would exercise righteous rule.

00:34:40.420 But Adam, by his sin, forfeited his dominion to me.

00:34:45.640 And so now it rightly belongs to me. 0.70

00:34:49.080 And Jesus doesn't object to this because Jesus recognizes and knows that it is, in fact, true.

00:34:57.760 That there's a reason that at this point, the scriptures elsewhere refer to Satan as the prince of the air.

00:35:07.420 That even the book of Revelation speaks of Satan being cast down from heaven to where?

00:35:14.660 To the earth.

00:35:15.580 But woe to you, O earth, for the devil has been cast down to you.

00:35:21.680 That up until this point, Satan really does have legitimate authority over the earthly kingdoms of the world.

00:35:31.780 This is not a bluff.

00:35:34.760 It's not an empty offer.

00:35:37.020 Satan is not offering to Christ something that he does not possess.

00:35:41.960 When he takes him up in this third temptation

00:35:44.580 on a high mountain and shows him

00:35:46.620 all the kingdoms of the world,

00:35:48.760 he is showing Jesus that which rightfully

00:35:52.080 at this point belongs to Satan.

00:35:55.960 And he's saying to Jesus,

00:35:58.160 all you have to do,

00:36:00.340 your father has told you

00:36:01.860 that to win back these kingdoms,

00:36:05.600 you must honor and worship him alone.

00:36:09.460 But I'm telling you,

00:36:11.260 that all you have to do is bow down and worship me.

00:36:15.860 And then all the other plans of God

00:36:18.140 can be avoided and bypassed.

00:36:21.820 I can save you a lot of pain.

00:36:24.680 I can spare you a lot of trouble

00:36:26.920 if you will merely bow down and worship me.

00:36:32.180 It is at this point and only at this point

00:36:35.280 that Jesus rightfully responds,

00:36:38.140 be gone, Satan.

00:36:40.320 At this point, there is no fourth temptation

00:36:42.920 because Jesus will not tolerate another temptation.

00:36:46.980 It's at this point that Jesus has had enough.

00:36:51.520 He's had enough.

00:36:53.440 And the reason he's had enough, again,

00:36:55.580 is not because Jesus is modeling

00:36:57.580 for 21st century evangelical Christians 0.52

00:37:00.980 the proper disdain that we should have

00:37:03.760 for civil politics.

00:37:04.980 That is not the interpretation of the text.

00:37:09.400 It's not. What Jesus is modeling for us is not a proper disdain of the kingdoms of this world, pretending as though they don't matter and that all that matters is that which is spiritual because Gnosticism is faithful Christianity.

00:37:26.120 No, the reason that Jesus is disgusted and aggravated is not because he has no interest in earthly kingdoms,

00:37:35.520 but because he has no interest in idolatry.

00:37:41.460 It's so apparent. It's so plain.

00:37:46.420 This is the first of the three temptations that Satan calls Jesus to worship him.

00:37:53.060 coming to Jesus and telling him

00:37:57.300 turn these stones into bread

00:37:59.540 is different

00:38:01.300 it was a deception

00:38:03.400 if Christ had done it

00:38:05.400 it would have been sin

00:38:06.420 but it was not overtly telling Jesus

00:38:10.220 to bow down and worship him

00:38:11.920 things began to ramp up a bit

00:38:16.340 in the second temptation

00:38:17.540 that certainly would have been sin as well

00:38:20.580 if Christ had failed

00:38:21.800 telling him that he should cast himself off of the highest pinnacle of the temple

00:38:28.240 in the middle of the holy city, that is Jerusalem.

00:38:32.580 It was crowded where all the peoples of the earth were gathered.

00:38:36.200 They would have witnessed this miracle.

00:38:39.360 The Son of God casting himself off of the highest point of the temple

00:38:43.420 and then the angels coming and lifting him up

00:38:46.520 and seeing to it that not one of his feet struck a stone of the ground.

00:38:51.800 but this too although it would have been sin

00:38:57.780 demanding the father's power

00:39:00.520 rather than submitting to the father's manner

00:39:04.020 and the father's timing for revealing his son to the world

00:39:08.380 although it would have been sin

00:39:10.540 it is still not the same caliber

00:39:12.760 of outright bowing down and worshiping Satan

00:39:16.960 instead of God

00:39:18.880 The reason that Jesus responds the way he does to the third temptation is not his revulsion to the kingdoms of this world, but his absolute abhorrence of worshiping anyone other than God himself.

00:39:36.520 So that's an overview of the three temptations.

00:39:39.420 And again, the context is that it's notable.

00:39:44.120 It's notable the timing directly after God the Father affirms publicly Jesus as His Son.

00:39:52.440 He is then tempted in the wilderness.

00:39:55.580 And He is tempted at His lowest and most vulnerable point after 40 days of fasting.

00:40:01.700 And His fasting, again, 40 days in the wilderness, is not arbitrary or at random.

00:40:08.240 And it's worth noting that it's not something that was determined by Christ at his own whims.

00:40:16.540 Remember that after his baptism, Jesus doesn't go into the wilderness.

00:40:22.260 He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

00:40:26.940 A few points on that.

00:40:28.760 Again, setting the stage, and that's probably all we'll do is just an introduction and overview of the text today.

00:40:34.560 And we'll look at each of the three temptations in more detail, Lord willing, next week.

00:40:41.080 But utilizing Matthew Henry, the late great Puritan, in his commentary on our text today.

00:40:47.180 He says this in regards to the timing of Christ's fasting and then his following temptation.

00:40:54.820 Immediately after the heavens were opened to him and the spirit descended on him and he was declared to be the son of God and the savior of the world.

00:41:03.000 the next news we hear of him is that he is tempted.

00:41:08.120 Then, when he began to show himself publicly to Israel,

00:41:12.400 then he was tempted.

00:41:14.560 So as he never had been while he lived in privacy.

00:41:19.460 Note, the devil has a particular spite at useful persons

00:41:23.800 who are not only good, but given to do good.

00:41:29.080 There's a lesson, a principle that applies for us

00:41:32.180 that we should be aware of to this day.

00:41:35.960 That the devil will ramp up

00:41:38.120 his spiritual warfare and attacks

00:41:40.780 on those who have been publicly exalted by God,

00:41:46.660 not only to be good,

00:41:48.400 that is to pursue righteousness

00:41:50.040 and character and virtue,

00:41:52.780 but those who are to do good,

00:41:55.220 that is those who in the providence

00:41:57.940 and sovereignty of God

00:41:59.460 have been chosen by Him

00:42:01.580 to be useful vessels,

00:42:04.860 whether it be preaching the gospel

00:42:07.040 as a minister,

00:42:08.960 or whether it be legislating

00:42:11.060 the law of God in the civil realm

00:42:13.120 as a civil magistrate.

00:42:15.940 In all various capacities,

00:42:18.900 God uses His children

00:42:21.100 to varying degrees,

00:42:23.060 not only to pursue good,

00:42:25.340 that is, inward good in their character,

00:42:28.240 but to do good.

00:42:29.680 and those who have been appointed by God

00:42:32.800 to do good in a way that would positively

00:42:36.320 for the kingdom affect many others,

00:42:40.120 those will be targets for Satan.

00:42:44.240 Satan will levy more assaults

00:42:47.620 on those who are used by God

00:42:50.760 to do great good in the world.

00:42:53.640 There's a lesson here.

00:42:56.220 It's not until Jesus is revealed publicly

00:42:59.380 as God's Son anointed by Him

00:43:02.780 that the devil now begins

00:43:04.940 to ramp up his attacks and temptation.

00:43:09.160 Another quote from Matthew Henry

00:43:11.780 about the temptation of Christ is this.

00:43:16.080 Christ was directed to this combat.

00:43:19.700 He did not willfully thrust Himself upon it,

00:43:23.380 but He was led up of the Spirit

00:43:26.500 to be tempted of the devil.

00:43:29.380 Christ was led to be tempted of the devil and of him only.

00:43:34.700 Others, that is, you and I, we are tempted when we are drawn aside by our own lust and enticed.

00:43:44.120 We see that in James chapter 1, verse 14.

00:43:47.360 But our Lord Jesus, and I spoke of this last week, our Lord Jesus had no corrupt nature,

00:43:54.360 And therefore he was led securely by the spirit to be tempted of the devil in the wilderness without any fear or trembling as a champion into the field to be tempted purely by the devil.

00:44:08.720 That is not tempted by his own flesh, not tempted by any corrupt desires that might lie within, but only outwardly tempted by the devil alone and to overcome him, to overcome him.

00:44:24.360 So a few things here. The timing, it is not a coincidence.

00:44:29.060 Jesus is publicly affirmed by his Father.

00:44:32.160 He is then tempted.

00:44:34.460 The very next witness that we have in the Scripture of Jesus

00:44:37.740 after his public affirmation at his baptism

00:44:40.680 is that he is tempted by the devil.

00:44:44.360 God affirms him, exalts him,

00:44:46.460 and the devil comes in stronger with spiritual warfare.

00:44:50.640 There's a lesson there that we should be aware of.

00:44:52.940 Secondly, this spiritual warfare that comes to Jesus is not something that he subjects himself to.

00:45:01.480 Notice, Jesus is not affirmed by his father, exalted by God, and then of his own accord says,

00:45:07.960 well, I'm a pretty big deal, and therefore I'm going to go and wage war on Satan.

00:45:15.440 No, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and then it is Satan who approaches him.

00:45:25.700 I remember in the early 90s, there were some specific sects of charismatic churches.

00:45:34.940 And for the record, not all charismatics do things like this.

00:45:38.860 This would not be a fair description.

00:45:40.540 But there were some, and I'd like to think the minority.

00:45:45.440 But there were some who, I don't know if they just,

00:45:50.740 if they watched that one movie, I can't even remember the name,

00:45:53.480 with Keanu Reeves, where he was like an exorcist.

00:45:58.780 I don't know.

00:45:59.220 They just, they got really excited about trying to fight the devil.

00:46:02.320 You know what I mean?

00:46:03.220 Just really excited.

00:46:04.700 And so they came up with, you know, some spiritual strategies.

00:46:09.760 One of them is that, you know, a bunch of guys would get in a room

00:46:13.560 and they would fast, just like Jesus did in the wilderness.

00:46:17.800 And they would kind of close themselves up in a room,

00:46:20.400 maybe a church building or whatever it was,

00:46:22.420 and fast for multiple days.

00:46:25.160 And then they would call upon regional principalities,

00:46:31.420 regional, demonic, dark spirits,

00:46:34.300 and demand that they reveal themselves,

00:46:38.440 demand that they would identify their name

00:46:42.560 So that then with the name of these dark powers, they could begin to utilize their name and levy prayers against them and cast them out so that the city would be blessed or something to that end.

00:47:00.540 That's not what Jesus is doing. 0.53

00:47:04.660 That's what the seven sons of Sceva did.

00:47:08.680 There are guys who set that example in the scripture.

00:47:12.040 They're just not the good guys.

00:47:14.440 I mean, there is a biblical example of being demon hunters

00:47:18.320 and willfully tracking down demonic powers

00:47:25.220 in a group of young men,

00:47:28.280 zealous for the things of God

00:47:30.040 and utilizing the authority of Jesus

00:47:33.800 and the authority of the apostles such as Paul.

00:47:37.020 The problem is that that strategy,

00:47:39.280 If you finish reading the text, the result is that these men are beaten within an inch of their life and they leave the house naked and bleeding.

00:47:50.720 And we're family integrated here at Covenant Bible Church.

00:47:54.240 And so I won't go into any great detail whatsoever.

00:47:58.880 But when I see that combination of naked and bleeding, you know, that was not a good day.

00:48:06.820 you probably didn't just get beat up

00:48:10.860 that that demon destroyed you in every sense so if you're thinking you know what are some

00:48:20.380 biblical examples that i would do well to follow probably not that one probably not the seven sons

00:48:27.620 of Sceva. The guys who get

00:48:30.660 destroyed by demons. You don't want to be

00:48:35.680 the seven sons of Sceva. And Jesus 1.00

00:48:38.940 who is God and sinless and righteous

00:48:43.680 is entirely distinct to those

00:48:47.640 seven sons of Sceva. He doesn't go to hunt down

00:48:51.620 the devil. Rather he is led by the spirit.

00:48:56.400 He doesn't come up with the idea of fasting for 40 days.

00:49:00.460 Rather, we are left to rightly assume that that too is led by the Spirit.

00:49:07.080 And that He is doing so to fulfill all righteousness as the true Israel of God.

00:49:14.440 And He doesn't approach Satan when He's at His weakest.

00:49:18.380 but rather Satan, guised and veiled as an angel of light, comes to approach him.

00:49:27.640 Jesus is not foolish, and neither then should we be.

00:49:34.120 So, before we even enter into the text, and we'll do so with much more thoroughness next week, Lord willing,

00:49:42.500 there's already a ton of principles for us to glean.

00:49:47.900 Jesus doesn't go to the wilderness of his own accord, but rather he is led.

00:49:53.740 If the spirit leads you into a place within God's providence where you are tempted, that's one thing.

00:50:01.240 But let's be honest, brothers and sisters, many of us are tempted not because we are led by the spirit.

00:50:08.420 The spirit doesn't lead you and I into temptation.

00:50:12.920 That's one of the prayers in the Lord's Prayer that Jesus himself taught us to petition of God.

00:50:19.420 Lead us not into temptation.

00:50:22.500 Now, Matthew chapter 4 is not an accurate description of us.

00:50:28.740 It's an accurate description of the temptation of Christ.

00:50:32.180 But the accurate description of our temptation is not Matthew 4, but rather James chapter 2.

00:50:38.820 that for us when we are tempted

00:50:41.680 is because we are led by the Spirit.

00:50:45.740 It's because we are led by our inward desires.

00:50:49.960 That each man is tempted when he is led astray

00:50:52.480 by his own evil desires.

00:50:55.640 James explicitly tells us,

00:50:57.620 let no man say when he is tempted,

00:50:59.380 I am being tempted by God.

00:51:00.800 For God cannot be tempted,

00:51:03.200 nor does He tempt anyone else.

00:51:06.060 But you and I are tempted

00:51:07.800 when we are led astray, not by the Spirit,

00:51:11.180 who never leads the sons of God astray,

00:51:13.700 but rather led astray by our own corrupt flesh

00:51:17.300 with its own sinful desires.

00:51:21.360 Our temptation is not like Christ.

00:51:25.080 Jesus did nothing wrong.

00:51:28.300 It's important that we recognize

00:51:29.740 it's not only that He fulfilled all righteousness

00:51:32.460 by resisting sin in the final analysis.

00:51:37.800 He didn't just obey God because he resisted these temptations.

00:51:43.220 He obeyed God even before the temptations ever came by making no provisions for the temptations.

00:51:53.620 John Owen and the Puritans would speak of this.

00:51:57.140 John Owen said it's not just enough to avoid sins of commission.

00:52:02.820 That is the sins you commit, the sins you actively engage in.

00:52:07.800 By volition, by will.

00:52:10.320 But you and I, before we ever sin in that way,

00:52:14.680 commission, giving in to temptation,

00:52:17.320 engaging in temptations,

00:52:19.300 we only sin by commission

00:52:21.040 because we have already sinned by omissions.

00:52:24.480 That we've already made provisions

00:52:27.040 for the corrupt desires of the flesh

00:52:30.700 by not levying for ourselves by the grace of God

00:52:34.920 a sufficient defense against these things.

00:52:40.080 Why are you and I so susceptible

00:52:41.940 to our own corrupt desires?

00:52:45.520 Well, part of it is because we allow

00:52:47.120 so many things to share quarter in our lives.

00:52:53.780 There's so many things that we know are dangerous.

00:52:57.200 I've said it many times.

00:52:58.480 I'll say it once more,

00:52:59.440 and we'll end the sermon today on this point.

00:53:02.040 you and i are like batman and that's not a good thing never been a big fan of batman to be honest

00:53:13.440 i appreciate you know that it's realistic right everybody else has superpowers that guy he had to

00:53:19.580 he had to earn it the old-fashioned way right his parents being rich which i'll be honest i do

00:53:26.020 appreciate because generational wealth being passed down it's a good thing so i'm not against it

00:53:30.760 But the problem with Batman is, to be fair, it's kind of all superheroes, but especially Batman.

00:53:39.480 He just, he never finishes the job.

00:53:42.780 He never finishes the job.

00:53:45.140 It's like, oh, I caught Joker again.

00:53:48.140 This is the 17th time this week, you know, and I know what I'll do.

00:53:54.060 I'll put him in jail.

00:53:55.160 He's never gotten out of there before.

00:53:58.960 You're the Dark Knight.

00:54:01.500 Nobody knows your identity, allegedly.

00:54:05.540 You're a vigilante. 0.94

00:54:06.540 What is vigilanteism if not killing bad guys?

00:54:11.000 What's the point in being a vigilante if you don't break the law?

00:54:13.760 Otherwise, just join the police force, right?

00:54:17.960 Fair trial?

00:54:19.340 I mean, I'm all for fair trial.

00:54:20.800 Don't misinterpret me.

00:54:22.120 But if you're going to do a fair trial, then don't be anonymous, right?

00:54:26.440 Be a good law-abiding citizen.

00:54:27.940 Join the police force, you know, or be a litigator, be a prosecutor, you know, like do something like that. 0.96

00:54:33.900 But if you're going to dress up as a full grown man in a costume with a cape, then the least you could do is kill bad guys.

00:54:43.080 The least you could do out of the goodness of your heart for humanity is finish the job. 0.95

00:54:50.220 You and I are like Batman.

00:54:52.780 The Bible talks about mortifying sin. 1.00

00:54:56.160 kill it 1.00

00:54:58.420 you and I don't 1.00

00:55:01.320 we subdue sin

00:55:03.300 at best

00:55:04.800 sometimes

00:55:05.680 we capture sin

00:55:08.600 we might even lock sin up

00:55:11.600 like

00:55:12.840 are you gonna

00:55:13.760 I mean that seems pretty sinister

00:55:15.720 right that seems pretty dangerous

00:55:19.020 don't you want to go ahead and just

00:55:20.860 and just give it the death blow

00:55:23.320 just finish the job 0.93

00:55:24.700 no no no no

00:55:25.340 Now, but don't worry, I'm locking it away in this corner of my heart and I, you know, I'm putting the key in my pocket and, you know, this lust, I know that it could absolutely destroy my soul and ruin the lives of my children and my family.

00:55:44.420 It could end my marriage, all these different things, right?

00:55:48.120 But, I mean, I want to be humane.

00:55:51.620 I don't want to be mean to lust, you know?

00:55:56.600 What did lust ever do?

00:55:59.060 And so I'll lock it away,

00:56:01.460 give it three meals a day,

00:56:03.200 you know, but I won't let it out.

00:56:05.400 And, you know, I'll give in here or there,

00:56:07.600 but, you know, the buck stops here

00:56:10.000 and I'm drawing the line

00:56:11.100 and I'll never go this far

00:56:13.020 when it comes to lust.

00:56:15.720 That's how we often, sadly, treat sin.

00:56:18.680 we subdue sin

00:56:22.160 when Christ calls us

00:56:24.360 to mortify sin

00:56:26.480 and so how are we led astray

00:56:29.780 well the spirit leads us into the wilderness

00:56:31.920 to be tempted, no

00:56:32.980 well Satan, you know

00:56:37.300 he comes personally, one on one

00:56:39.320 showdown, don't flatter yourself

00:56:42.140 Satan's not God

00:56:44.140 this is not yin and yang

00:56:45.660 some Eastern mysticism.

00:56:50.740 Satan's not, he's not omnipresent.

00:56:53.160 He can only be one place at one time.

00:56:55.680 And here's the good news.

00:56:57.340 You're not a big enough threat

00:56:58.520 for him to ever visit you personally.

00:57:02.340 You have never,

00:57:03.320 never probably been in the same room with Satan.

00:57:07.920 Because he can only be in one room at one time

00:57:10.100 and you're not that big of a deal.

00:57:14.360 Neither am I.

00:57:15.660 No offense, but if Satan is, you know, going after one guy, it's probably a better guy than you.

00:57:27.400 So, no, we're not experiencing what Christ experienced in the wilderness.

00:57:30.740 We're not experiencing a one-on-one showdown after fasting for 40 days in the wilderness with Satan himself masquerading as an angel of light.

00:57:40.920 And we're not being led into that showdown by the Spirit.

00:57:44.800 Now, you and I, we're giving in to sin that comes by the temptation not of Satan, but more often than not, just our own flesh.

00:57:58.680 And the reason why we're led into those temptations in the first place is not by the Spirit, but by our own evil desires, as James says.

00:58:07.880 And the reason why eventually we often give in to those sins of commission is because we are not vigilant and diligent, actively avoiding sins of omission.

00:58:20.800 That we make provisions for the flesh.

00:58:25.040 We don't pray nearly as often as we ought.

00:58:29.180 We don't fast.

00:58:31.320 When's the last time you fasted?

00:58:35.300 When's the last time I fasted?

00:58:37.880 i remember a season in my life for years i would fast one day a week and it was before

00:58:46.600 the research came out or at least i was aware of it of intermittent fasting right because now

00:58:51.720 everybody fast right to be spiritual but really let's let's be honest it doesn't count if you're

00:58:56.340 just trying to get skinny it's not a real fast not spiritually it's a fast but you don't you

00:59:02.580 don't get spiritual points if you're on a diet. A diet and a fast are not the same thing. Jesus

00:59:09.540 wasn't watching his figure. He was honoring God, okay? But there was a time in my life where it

00:59:15.460 wasn't for physical reasons, but I would regularly fast as a spiritual discipline. In addition to

00:59:20.580 prayer, in addition to study, in addition to all these things, I would fast. And now with the

00:59:26.460 busyness of life, I probably have more spiritual need of bringing back that discipline of fasting

00:59:33.960 on a weekly basis than I did when I was younger. My point is this. All of us, we give in to these

00:59:42.920 sins of commission because we are not actively waging war at the level of sins of omission.

00:59:49.760 We don't pray as we should. We don't read as we should. We don't study as we should. We don't fast

00:59:54.920 as we should. That's why we're tempted. That is not why Jesus was tempted. Jesus had no corrupt

01:00:02.460 desires within him. He had no sinful flesh. He had no sinful desires that led him astray.

01:00:08.720 He was tempted because he was led by the spirit to fulfill the will of God. He was tempted

01:00:13.200 outwardly by the devil and not inwardly by desire. He resisted all these temptations

01:00:20.100 because he was well prepared before they even came.

01:00:24.780 He had avoided all sins of omission,

01:00:27.700 and so he championed over any potential sins of commission.

01:00:33.540 This is the great showdown that we find in Matthew chapter 4.

01:00:37.800 There are more lessons that can be gleaned.

01:00:39.620 We'll look into them, Lord willing, next week.

01:00:41.440 Let's pray.

01:00:42.260 Father, thank you for your word.

01:00:43.680 Help us to follow the example of Christ.

01:00:46.820 Lord, help us to recognize that as you exalt the humble,

01:00:50.100 that there is even more need

01:00:52.560 to be further humble.

01:00:54.960 That when you exalt us,

01:00:56.480 just as you did with your son Jesus 0.94

01:00:58.680 in his baptism,

01:01:00.320 it is then that a target

01:01:01.700 is painted on our chest

01:01:03.240 and that more spiritual warfare

01:01:05.040 is likely to come our way.

01:01:08.220 Help us, Lord, to be prepared

01:01:10.780 for the temptations that come

01:01:13.020 by avoiding temptations

01:01:15.300 when they're smaller,

01:01:17.420 by putting in place

01:01:19.580 good and proper disciplines

01:01:21.960 that we might honor you

01:01:24.520 and we might strengthen our resolve,

01:01:28.440 strengthening our inner man

01:01:30.020 so that we might live a life

01:01:32.440 that is pleasing to you.

01:01:35.420 And help us, Lord, not to be arrogant,

01:01:37.900 not looking for trouble,

01:01:40.800 but trusting and praying

01:01:43.380 as you commanded us.

01:01:45.560 Lead us not in temptation,

01:01:47.020 but deliver us from the evil one.

01:01:51.180 One of the best ways that we can avoid falling into sin

01:01:54.300 is by acknowledging your goodness,

01:01:57.940 your strength, your power,

01:02:00.480 but also our weakness.

01:02:03.580 Lead us not into temptation

01:02:05.240 but deliver us from the evil one

01:02:07.240 because left to ourselves we are weak

01:02:10.960 and it is you who is strong.

01:02:15.620 Help us, Lord, to be righteous

01:02:17.380 as Christ was righteous

01:02:20.000 to do so by the power of the Spirit

01:02:22.840 for your glory. Amen.

01:02:25.760 Okay, we're going to continue to worship the Lord now

01:02:28.100 through psalms.

The NXR Podcast - September 02, 2024

THE SERMON - The Temptations Of Christ ｜ Part 1

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