Dealing with Temptation

for. And this is a passage of scripture that more than likely is familiar with just about every one of us here, but as we get into the scripture, we'll start reading in verse one. And it says, then, when Jesus led up of the spirit, when Jesus was led up of the spirit. Into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones to be made into bread. Let's go to God in prayer. Lord, we come to you now and just thank you for this day. We thank you for the blessings you give us, Lord. We thank you for just the specials that we've been able to lift up to you, Jesus, and to praise your name. I thank you for just all that you do. I ask that you'll be with me now and just use me as an instrument to preach the word that you laid on my heart. Lord, help us when we face trials, when we face temptations, to learn to do as you and to obey your will and to have you as our focus. God, again, I pray that you'll just use me as an instrument. I pray that if there are any here that need, that do not know Jesus as Savior, that may be listening to this message today, that Lord, you'll work with your Holy Spirit for their hearts that they may come to know you. Help the rest of us to grow closer to you with everything that we do in Jesus name we pray. Amen. So this morning, we see in Matthew chapter four, where Jesus is starting at his ministry. In chapter three, he had just been baptized, and now he's going into the wilderness. And as he's going into the wilderness, it says in verse one that he's being led up to by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus Christ desire and focus was on the will of the Father to fulfill the plan that was set before the foundation of the world. And in this we see different things as he was going through his life, his ministry. And we see this time of tempting. We see that Jesus was led by the Spirit to a place to be tempted by none other than the devil himself. Well, we say, what an odd thing for the Spirit to do, that he would lead the Son of God into a place of trial and a place of temptation. Does that make sense? God has a reason, God has a purpose for it. And we can see different things, how Jesus responded to that, that we can apply to our lives. And I believe that God wants us to. We must remember that God doesn't always spare us from hard times and trials. If we remember back in Job, in Job chapter one, in verse eight, if you want to take a peek there, you can, but we're not going to go there. I'm just going to describe kind of what happens. God is up there and the angels are there before him and Satan comes up and they have this conversation and God initiates this conversation with the devil saying, Hey, have you considered my servant Job? He's a good guy. He serves the Lord. He's dedicated to God. You can see that in his actions. And God questions Satan, Hey, have you considered my servant Job? Satan didn't question God on Job. God initiated that conversation. And through that initiation, we have this conversation that goes about and Satan just tells God, he only serves you because you bless him. We go to verse 12 and the Lord permits the devil to have a little bit of leeway in Job's life to cause some havoc, to put it the least. And we see that God allows Job to pass through temptations, pass through trials. When we stand in the face of temptation, will you stand or fall? It's all determined on this one simple thing. When you stand in the face of temptation, you must be in tune with the Lord and focused on him. In tune with the Lord and focused on him. And we're going to look at that and see what the scripture tells us about that this morning. Of course, we see first and foremost in verse one, Jesus was led up by the spirit. So Jesus Christ was following the leading of the spirit. He by all means was in tune. And what was he doing? He was going there to fast for 40 days and 40 nights. And it says in verse two, he was hungry. Obviously so. The interesting thing about hunger is that it can do some strange things to your mind and to your body. One of the things, some of the things that I looked up to just bring it out in this morning is that it messes with your concentration. It messes with your ability to sleep. And if you can't sleep, then you definitely can't concentrate. And if you don't have energy provided by food, you definitely can't concentrate. Dehydration also affects your mental state. It affects your ability to reason and to judge. And we see this weakened state that Jesus being human, but also being God, allowed himself to be in and to be confronted by the devil himself. When anybody else should fall, any other human should fall. Surely we wouldn't expect Jesus in his human state to give way to. But that isn't slow. We come to this first temptation in verse three, and we see this temptation of the flesh. Verse three, and when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones to be made into bread. Command these stones to be made into bread. So how did Satan first tempt Jesus Christ? He knew he was hungry, obviously. So Jesus Christ came into that place dedicated to serve the Lord, dedicated to follow him, dedicated to focus on him. That's one of the reasons that we see people fast in the Old Testament is to put their full attention on God. And we see at this end of fasting, he's hungry. And the devil tries him. And the devil tries him. Of course, temptation, what does it mean? Because I wanted to find this in verse three, because it's a different word when we use temptation later on. Temptation in this, in these first three verses, it means to try to examine or to put to the test. So Jesus Christ being out in the wilderness is now being put to the test. And the devil does it by testing his flesh. Will he get into the hunger or will he not? What's the big deal if Jesus Christ gives in to making this bread with the stones? We're going to get into that. Verse four, we see Jesus' response to this temptation to the flesh. But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now, without knowing what that's talking about and where that's coming from, we really don't see the weight of it. And so many times I've gone through Matthew chapter four without looking into the context of what he's actually quoting and what he's actually bringing into light here. It's not just the idea of being focused on the God, but he brings in a whole context based on using scripture at that time. Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three is where this is mentioned. Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three. It says, and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger and fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know. And he might make thee know that man does not live by bread only, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord does man live. Of course, in Deuteronomy, God's talking to the Israelites. He's saying that he's humbled them. How did he humble the Israelites? He's brought them out of Egypt. He has, by all means, given them reason to be lifted up. We're following God and we're going out into this away from our slavery. They crossed the Red Sea. Now they're getting into the wilderness and they're hungry. They don't have all the food that they had back in Egypt. In fact, if you go back and read, you see that they were desiring to go back to Egypt because it was much better there than it was with God. It's crazy, right? And the God that provided the way out of Egypt, that provided deliverance from the Egyptian army, the God that parted the Red Sea, the God that had gotten them through thus far, is he not so powerful, is he not so great to provide them something to eat? And he brings them out. He leads them out to a place to be tried, just as Jesus was tried, led into the wilderness. He let them be hungry. Why? To teach a simple lesson, the same thing that Jesus quoted and applied here, men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God. What does that mean? Men shall not live by bread alone. Where did the sustenance, the food, what they needed, where did that come from? Where did the Israelites get what they needed? It wasn't because they thought up a big plan and they started planting seeds really quick and food started spreading up out of the ground or they brought extra provisions so that they had it. They had nothing, but rather God spoke, God made manna come out and gave them what they need. In this same instance, the devil is tempting Jesus, saying, give into your flesh, give into your human desires. Obviously, food is one of those basic ones, but you can put so many different things in there and different applications. But the devil is tempting Jesus, take this into your own hands, do it your own way. The father, he has a plan, but put that plan aside, do it your own way. Make your own bread. And Jesus responds, quoting Deuteronomy, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Man does not live by his own strength, by his own will, he does not survive by his own means, but by the means that God gives him. Ultimately, Jesus is reminding himself, it's telling Satan that my survival, my needs, everything that I need is met, not by me, but by my Father who is leading me and guiding me. Jesus could have turned the stones into bread, but when he would have been exercising his powers independently of the will of the Father, and this is the reason why he came, is to obey the Father. John chapter 5 verse 30, I don't have this in the slides, but it says, I've come of my own self and do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is judged, but I seek not mine own will, but I seek the will of the Father which sent me. For the Son, for in John chapter 6 verse 38, for I came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. We see in Matthew chapter 6 verse 25 through 26, a simple, in the Sermon on the Mount, an illustration that Jesus gives that we can easily tie directly back to these words that he's saying now. Jesus says, therefore I say unto you, take no thought into your life, what you shall eat, what you shall drink, nor yet of your body what you shall put on. Don't think of your clothes, don't think of the food that you're going to have, don't think of the water that you need. It's not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment. Behold, the fowls of air, they sow not, neither do they reap, nor gather into barns, yet your heavenly Father feedeth them. Are you not much better than they? How do we overcome temptations to the flesh, trials to the flesh, and attempts to pull us away from God? When we're put to the test, remember who does everything belong to and who does it all come from? The Lord. Jesus Christ being tempted in this, tempted in his flesh, being in tune with God, being led with the Spirit, trusting God even to bring the sustenance he needed so he didn't have to make it on his own. Of course, that doesn't negate the other times when he makes it in the future for different reasons to show who he is as Messiah, but this is a different context, different situation. So we go on to this next point. In Matthew chapter 4, we read on in verse 5. Then it says, the devil takes him up into the holy city and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast yourself down, for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Okay, so Satan comes up ready for this second temptation. He says, okay, Jesus, he won't eat? Alright, he won't give into the flesh? Well, we'll go this way. He brought up the Word of God. I'll bring the Word of God back to him. And Jesus is being tempted by using the Word of God against him and to try God or to entice God in a way. We see Satan quotes Psalms chapter 91 verses 11 through 12. Psalms chapter 91 verses 11 through 12 says this, For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways. Thou shalt bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone. So Satan is bringing up Scripture. He's bringing up the Word of God to try Jesus to get him to fail. But the interesting thing is, he says this, and yes, it is true. All Scripture is true and inspired by the Lord. We see the context of Psalms chapter 91 in verse 2. We see kind of the overall message where it says this, I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge, my fortress, my God, in Him will I trust. So Satan is using this verse to try Jesus. God has power and God has power to save you. If you were to throw yourself off this high place, of course Jerusalem being up on the mountain as well, so we get extra elevation, He says that God won't let you even dash your foot against the ground. Let's see, why don't you try it? Tempt the Lord. Put Him to the test. Is it not good to taste and see that the Lord is good? Not in this way. And we're about to see how Jesus responds to this. He pulls up Scripture from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 16 where it says, You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massa. We're about to go into the context of that, what is Massa, what happened. But I want to bring out the definition of this tempt here. You have tempted in verse 1, you have tempt here in verse 7. You have tempt brought up two times. Is it the same temptation? No, it's not. What's happening there in verse 1, Tempt is putting to the test, trying it, or putting to the test, trying them, seeing how much He'll bend. The second tempt that we see is not like that, but it's rather like something we see so often, okay? How many of y'all have had kids or been around kids? Raise your hand. Surely pretty much everybody. Kids, as great as they are, and me, praise the Lord, I'm not a parent, so I can still sit there and kind of not laugh in the moment, though I've done it in the moment, but I can see it and think that's terrible, but it's kind of funny, but it's not good, is that oftentimes you'll see that kids know something's not quite right to do. Maybe the parent says, don't touch this, or don't grab that, don't go do this. And I can use my little nephew for an example, because if any of y'all have seen him, you can think of the grin, the smirk that he has on his face when he does it. I can remember the time my sister had told him to don't, or to leave the rocks on the ground. We were out somewhere. I can't remember exactly where it was. But she had told him to leave this thing on the ground. He kind of looked at her and gave this smirk, literally raised up his eyebrows, and he started stepping closer to it, and stepping closer to it, and eventually grabbed it. That same type of idea of this temp, this try, is saying God, will you really do it? Let's see. Looking over at God, saying, okay, are you going to do it? I'm getting closer. I'm going to do it. Are you going to do what you say? Putting God to the test and making him where he, in our convoluted mindset, is obligated to fulfill something he has said that ultimately is not according to his will. That is what it's talking about here. Jesus very well could have thrown himself off. Maybe angels could have come up and saved him, but yet that is not the way to treat our God and our Savior. We see this same type of idea coming up in the way Satan brought up this temptation, this power, this idea, in even the beginning. In Genesis chapter 3, we see in verse 1 where Satan comes up, the serpent, to eat. And they're over there by the tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And what does Satan say to eat? Have God said, you shall not eat of every tree of the garden? He used Scripture. He used what God literally said, but yet pulled it out of the context of the whole wording of God. Later on, of course, he goes and says, you won't surely die. That's not what Jesus said. That's not what God said. In the day you eat thereof, you will surely die. And we see that Eve fell for this trial, this testing by Satan, if she would bend and take the fruit. But praise the Lord, our Savior did not fall. He brings up that Scripture, talks about it, you shall not tempt the Lord as you tempted him in Massa. Okay, so now let's figure out what happened in Massa. If we go over to Exodus chapter 17, Exodus chapter 17 verse 2, it says this, Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? Wherefore do you tempt the Lord? Are you putting God to the test? Exodus chapter 17 verse 7, jump down there, and we see that he called the name of the place Massa and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us or not? Is he going to do this or not? They put God in a situation where it seems he had to fulfill some obligation, but really, that is not the way to do it and that is in disobedience to the Lord himself. The interesting thing is when Jesus brought up this Scripture, it put Psalm chapter 91 in the proper context. Yes, God is our fortress. Yes, God will provide for us. Yes, God will protect us. But that does not mean we need to step out in the middle of Highway 5 and say, Lord, save me. Don't put the Lord your God to the test. That's the second temptation. We have different things where we say, Oh, well, the Lord is powerful. If I do this thing, he's obligated to fulfill it, so we have some idea of receiving power. Of course, Scripture affirms Scripture. We must remember that we can always use the Word of God to affirm itself. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 13 says, Which things also we speak not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual things. This is what Jesus did in a literal sense. He took spiritual things, Scripture, placed it with Scripture so we had an overall context to apply when the temptation came. When we are faced with trials, when we are pushed to bend by Satan or his devils or whatever may come our way or the world, we must apply Scripture. We must focus on the Lord and be dedicated to Him that we may know His will and how to live. Just as Jesus used Scripture to affirm Scripture, we must likewise do the same. In that, that is why it's so important to know His Word that we may know how to use it when the time comes. We must not tempt the Lord just as Satan was trying to get Jesus Christ to do. When we tempt God, we put ourselves into circumstances that force Him to work a miracle on our behalf. And that is not the way to go. So we see through the first temptation, we must remember when our flesh is being tried, when we're being tried to do what is not good, what is against the will of the Lord, fulfill the will of our flesh, we must remember that God provides everything we need. He gives us the food we need. He gives us the shelter we need. He gives us everything to sustain life. When the time comes that we are tempted to try God and not in a good way, not as in knowing this is where He's leading, but rather stepping out and saying, We must remember Scripture that we do not tempt the Lord. And when other points are brought up against the same, that Scripture, you can do this, but other parts of Scripture really affirm and show the right teaching. We must remember that. We continue on in the following verses. Matthew 4, verse 8. And it says 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. And he saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if you will fall down and worship me. In verse 10, we'll read Jesus' response in just a second. Now this is one of the most audacious things that I think the devil has done up to this point in this series of temptations. We see that he's tested the flesh. He's tested Jesus' knack for using the power of God or to tempt the Lord to use His power in a way that is not convenient to the Lord and does not follow His will or His word. And now we see this tempting of the world. You can have the world. Lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. We see all these different things here displayed. And to put it simply, Satan says, worship me and you can have the world. Worship me and have the world. In Isaiah 14, we see a description of Satan. He's called Lucifer in this passage. It says, How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How art thou cut down from the ground which didst weaken the nations? For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend to the heavens. I will exalt my throne above the Son of God. I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation and the side of the north. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High. We see this is one of Satan's core desires. To be lifted up. To be exalted. To be God. He desires to be worshiped. In place of God. And Satan comes to Jesus in this last temptation. You can have all this. Just worship me. What would Jesus have gotten out of that? You know, Jesus, it's prophesied that he will establish his thousand year reign. He will rule the nations. He could have gotten a head start on that. Revelation chapter 20 talks about the fulfillment of what that's going to be like and all that. But Jesus could have already gotten that done. We look and see that Jesus would not have had to suffer to take away Satan's claim to the world. It would have been a whole lot easier. But Jesus, what is his main priority? Where is his focus? What was the statement that I said at the beginning? That if we are to stand in the face of temptation, we must be in tune with the Lord and focused on him. Jesus came to fulfill the will of the Father. And we see in this third temptation, he's tempted with the one thing that you think, surely this is it. This is where he would give. This is where he had been. He no longer has to suffer. He no longer has to do those things that we would think just crazy. But we see Jesus' response. Jesus said unto him, Get thee hence. Go away. Get out of here. Satan, for it is written, you will worship the Lord your God, and him only will you serve. Using scripture again, focused on the Lord, in tune with him, dedicated, he was able to withstand and overcome this final different temptation. The thing is, if Jesus Christ would have bent and given in to Satan's wishes, Satan would rule over Jesus. If Jesus was worshiping Satan, Satan would be above Jesus and therefore still ruling the world and having his own will and his own way. Jesus would not be able to fulfill the will of God, which is to save men from their sin, for Jesus Christ to come and live his life perfectly without sin, to die on the cross and to raise again three days later, paying the penalty for our sin so that we did not have to suffer and die and go to hell. By fulfilling the will of the Lord and not giving in to Satan's wishes and his temptation, we see that we have hope and we have life and can have life by putting our trust, our faith, in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Jesus' response was right. Of course, Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 13 is what he was quoting here. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve him and shalt swear by his name. Of course, fear is this idea of worship, this high regards to in this context here. This fear shows his focus on God. We see serve and we see that same devotion that Jesus has to the Father. Jesus maintains his communion with the Father and therefore it makes a fortress for him to stand even being hungered in the wilderness facing the devil himself. And we read on and it says in verse 11, Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. But we look over in Luke chapter 4 verse 13. We're calling the same story but from a different perspective. And it adds on to this. And the devil had ended all these temptations and he departed from him for a season. Why do we need to apply all these things? Why do we need to focus on the Lord? Why do we need to know his word that we can apply it in every situation? That we may be able to resist temptation. James chapter 4 verse 7 says, Submit yourselves therefore to the Lord. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. The devil fleeing in this case. You look at this temptation. Why did the devil flee? Why did he go away? Because Jesus Christ was submitted to God and his will and would not let anything else take the Lord's place in his worship, in his life, in his devotion. Why is the reason that we fall into sin and we fall into different temptations and trials that come into our lives when they come? Ultimately it comes down to this. Our devotion isn't where it could be or should be or we allow it to falter for a moment. That is why it is so urgent and so important that we take heed to what we see being demonstrated by Jesus. If we are to stand in the middle of trials when we are being bent and even led into those moments, we must be in tune with the Lord. Of course we read back in Luke chapter 4 verse 13 and it says that the devil departed from all temptations but he departed from them for a season. The devil will leave. He will flee if you are founded and trusted in God because he knows he ain't getting anywhere with you. But that doesn't mean he won't come back to revisit. So that's why day by day we need to take up our cross. We need to follow the Lord. We need to set ourselves towards him. We come to our final point just before we close for the invitation and don't come up yet. I've got a couple of other things I'd like to mention. I'll sit down and y'all can come up for the invitation. In this idea of being dedicated and focused for the Lord, I mention that point, take up your cross. Denying yourself, take up your cross daily and follow me. That's what Jesus says and that's what Jesus asks us to do. I want to bring up this point that I was blessed to be able to make several weeks ago on a Wednesday night. We had just gotten back from the mission trip down to Mexico and we were able to preach over this point to all these youth there. And one of the things that still baffles me when I think of it and the application of it, when Jesus Christ is saying to take up your cross, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me, Jesus Christ, he is Jesus the Christ. He's dedicated, he is focused, separated for a specific purpose. At that time during his ministry, the ultimate purpose was to die on the cross, to pay for our sins and to raise up again three days later. He was anointed, he was set apart for that purpose. He denied himself, his will, his desires. Just as we see in Matthew chapter 4, he could have made those stones into bread. He could have tempted the Lord. He could have bowed the knee to Satan. But he denied the flesh, he denied his will. He took up his cross, literally in his sense, in our sense. What is the Lord calling us to do? And the Lord has a will for us to do and to fulfill and ultimately it's to obey him and to glorify him in everything that we do, to share the gospel. There are some simple things and as you are serving, I will lead you and guide you into a more specific will, but I will say this. If you are walking after the Lord, taking up your cross, you will be tempted, you will be tried. And some of those you may be led into that wilderness to be tempted, that you may come out stronger and more pristine on the other side. Take up your cross, denying yourselves and following him. Keeping Jesus in our sights through it all. As we prepare for the invitation, will you stand in the face of temptation? When the times get tough, when trials come, will you still trust in the Lord to provide? Will you still trust in the Lord? When different things cause you to want to divert off of that narrow way that the Lord says that we need to follow, will you stick on it or will you not? It's determined on one thing. Where is your focus and who are you following? If you are following the Lord, if you are in His Word and you are applying on a day-to-day basis, you will be ready when those trials come to stand and to stand firm in the foundation of the Lord. Will you stand in the face of temptations and trials? As we stand for our invitation, the Lord has given us everything we need.