Join us as we discuss not only the three ways the devil tempted Jesus, but also how the enemy tempts us in similar ways.
The Remnant Church
Under Attack - Luke Neer
But Father, we thank for this time. Lord, thanks for just the opportunity, Lord, to gather as a body, Father, and just worship you, Lord, to be in your word, Lord, to be sharpened, to be fed. Father, I pray you would be with all of us this morning, Lord, I pray you be with the broken hearted, Lord, I pray you be with the ones that are feeling heavy this morning, Father, the ones that are sad. But Lord, I pray you would also be with the ones that are encouraged this morning, they're joyful. Lord, I pray you would speak to our hearts this morning, and Father, I pray that you would speak this morning, Lord, it'd be your words, you'd be seen, Father, I don't wanna be seen here, Lord, or heard, so I pray all this in your name, Father, because I love you, amen. How's everybody doing this morning? It's weird, not so good, let's try it again, how's everybody doing this morning? (audience cheering) It's better, it's kind of better, it's a little bit better. Why have a question for you guys, and raise your hands, even though there's rebels in the room, raise your hand? Who's had a rough week? Good, I mean, not good, but good. What's been rough this week in your life? When you think about that, what's been rough? What's been hard? Where have you been attacked? Where have you suffered? Where have you lost in the midst of all that? What does that week look like? And in the midst of those struggles, in the midst of that pain, in the midst of that sorrow, in the midst of the loss, or the victory, why did that come? Did that come because A, did the wind come because you were in God's word and you used the sword? Or did that loss come because you tried to fight your own will to try and impose your will to the situation? Now, a lot of us can run into, well, I can handle it. This is my problem, I'll deal with it. I don't wanna bother anybody, God's busy. I don't have time to look in his word. I don't have time to pray for it right now. And those lies will compound and compound and compound. And then what happens? You try and fight the battle yourself. What happens when you fight the battle yourself is ultimately you're gonna lose. We can't have victory unless we know that we're going to Christ and go into the word of God to fight the battle. So I'll ask you again, how was your week? I know mine was busy and crazy, and I have a tendency sometimes when it gets busy and crazy that I don't take time to stop and go Lord, take the day. I can get up in the morning and go, this is what I have to do today. This is what I'm gonna get started with today. This is my agenda and this is where I get started. The problem is about 37 minutes into the agenda, everything starts to crash. I have certain amounts of time. I have time slots to get things done. Anybody else like that? Your life's so busy. You have time slots for things. Anybody else? Like you have a slot that you have to get this certain thing done that day. And if it doesn't get done, the rest of the day is in trouble. The reality is the day isn't in trouble if that's not how it goes. The problem is we create that trouble because we don't go, hey God, take the day to day, use me today, today's your day, help me today. I can't do this on my own. When we take it on ourself, the enemy goes, I got him 'cause he didn't even consult the person he should have consulted first. So that's what I want us to see today. Here's the beauty part for all of us. There is nothing that you have been through, God doesn't know about. There's nothing that you are going through right now that God doesn't know about. And this is even the more beautiful part. There is nothing that you're going through on an emotional level that Jesus hasn't felt himself. Whatever that attack that's going on, he already knows and he's been there. Whatever that battle you're in, he already knows and he's been there and he won't leave you alone. And not only will he not leave you alone, but we have an example of a God that does not leave us and go, well, I'll do my best to try and help you 'cause I really don't know what you're going through right now. We don't serve a God like that. We serve a God that knows. So I wanna talk about that today. If you have your Bibles, I want you to open up to the Book of Luke. Now I didn't pick that because it's my name, okay? Yeah, which I should have introduced myself. My name's Luke. I get to serve as one of the pastors here. I should have said that to begin with. I enjoy this book, not because it's my name. I love the detail in the Book of Luke. I love how he puts everything down so meticulously, puts it down with a great detail. Some people can get bored with that. I don't. I like the detail. When we get into Luke chapter four, this is the temptation of Jesus. And I wanna walk us through this. And when we look at this, we can see Jesus and we can see him in a moment that each and every one of us faces consistently in our life on some level. He enters into the conflict with Satan. Here's the crazy thing to start with. He's prompted by the Holy Spirit. He's prompted by the Holy Spirit. Now that seems weird. And Mark one, two, it says, the Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. The Spirit drove him into the wilderness. That's like going out to pick a fight. Satan didn't come after him. It was like he went out there. And it was critical here from the outset of his ministry that he's given this ultimate test of the power of Satan to see if he can withstand that, right? If he can't withstand this test, how's he gonna die on a cross? How's he gonna take on everything else if he can't handle this test right here? How's that gonna work out? He's been tempted throughout his whole life, just like we're tempted. Here's the beauty part. Hebrews 4.15 says this. It says, "For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet, but without sin." Jesus claimed victory every single time. Anybody in here bad a thousand? I've never met anybody that did either. Jesus is bad in a thousand, yet without sin. No matter what he went through, he never sinned. He never sinned. He overcame constantly. He did it for 30 years up until this point, right? And he does it here. And he'll do it throughout his whole ministry. Ultimately, he overcomes at the cross. This first one here, he's gotta manage this one first, but not him by himself. So this is a pretty monumental battle here. Jesus starts his ministry, kinda adds to his credentials as the Messiah. If he can't defeat sin and Satan here again, how's he gonna do it on the cross? Be pretty hard, right? The cross is a pretty huge defeat for Satan. What happens if he doesn't do it here? We all lose. If he can't beat this one, that means he can't defeat at the cross, which means we all lose, which means there's no hope. But we know what happens, right? This is a huge part in scripture. It's recorded in Mark chapter one, Matthew chapter four. Luke tells us that we've got a Savior who knows what we're going through. He tells us that we have a sympathetic Savior. He can overturn the curse. He can take the fury of the devil. He never winces, he never budges, and he comes out triumphant. So when we go through this today, I want you to look and I want you to hear and I want you to see your life can be a struggle. But Jesus knows a struggle and you're not left alone. So starting in verse one, Luke chapter four, verse one, and Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days and when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, you are the son of God. Command this stone to become bread and Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you, I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will be all yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. There's a lot going on there, isn't there? The enemy is a pretty strong adversary, isn't he? You battle him every day, I have to. Pretty strong adversary. And he's caught Jesus right here at the end of 40 days. And we see that he's being tested as to his ability to resist. Now we know Jesus, he only did what the Father wanted him to do, he always did what the Father wanted him to do. He was completely submissive to what the Father's plan was. When God said, this is my beloved son with whom I'm well pleased, what he was saying was in 30 years, Jesus had never done anything, had never said anything or thought anything that did not please the Father. I can't be awake for an hour without doing something that's not pleasing. Jesus was perfect. So the Spirit led him into the wilderness. Here he is for 40 days to do battle with the devil. Every day of those 40 days, so intense Jesus didn't eat anything. He didn't even think about eating anything. His conscious wasn't even into that. He was so busy battling what was going on that he wasn't even thinking about being hungry because in verse two, it says when they were ended, he was hungry. So at the end of that 40 days, he was hungry. He'd been battling 40 days, never thought to eat. And then all of a sudden goes, "Man, I'm hungry." Anybody here seeing the green mile? See it? That big guy looks down and he goes, "I'm tired, boss." Right? Jesus is tired, it's hungry. He was so focused on the enemy and the conflict that doing the will of the Father was the only thing that he was focused on. And here we see after those 40 days, he's hungry. Satan pelted Jesus for 40 days with everything he compelled him with, the onslaught and he's unsuccessful. Can't get him. And all the temptations came from the outside. This is another cool part of it. None of this came from the inside. All of these were temptations from the outside because Jesus was what? He was perfect. So he's tempted from the outside. He's trying to fight this off and fight this off and fight this off and he gets hungry. And he's starting to get that hunger. And that's when Satan goes, "Man, there's a chink in the armor." Because in Jesus' humanity, what? He's hungry, he's tired. And he goes, "If he's tired, maybe I can get him now." You think the devil does that with us? Man, I got him tired. I got her tired. I can get her now. I can get him now. He's sadly mistaken. So what happens is Satan uses three specific temptations. These are ruthless and clever and he kept them for just this moment. Jesus is at his most vulnerable point. He's tired. He's hungry. Satan goes, "Oh boy, I got these three right here. I'm gonna get him with one. I'm gonna get him with one." But these are unique to Christ. Here's the cool thing about these. These are unique because these are ones that we, we couldn't comprehend. We wouldn't be tempted by any of these because A, we can't turn stones into bread. We can't imagine being able to rule the kingdoms of the world and we can't be tempted to dive off a cliff and land safely. These are specific to Jesus. These couldn't come to us but in a category, that's where I want us to look at, specifically not but in a category they would. So here's the first temptation to distrust God's love. To distrust God's love. We can understand that, right? Anybody here ever been tempted to distrust his love? I have. If God really loved me, would I be in this circumstance? I wouldn't have this illness. My kids wouldn't end it up this way. I wouldn't have so much disappointment. It wouldn't be this way. I wouldn't have to bear so many burdens. If God really loved me, see Satan knows just how to get in there and just what to use. So he starts with this first one. Well, if I can get him to distrust his father's love, maybe I can get him to fold. And that's what he starts with. I can't turn stones into bread but I can sure be tempted to distrust God's love. By the way, all the way through this, the devil speaks with the measure of truth. This is the kicker here. Deception only works if there is some form of truth. You can't have a lie if you don't have what? Truth. So there's some form of truth. That's where he gets with the deception. The measure of truth is in verse three. The devil said to him, "If you are the son of God, "if you are the son of God." In the Greek, it's actually better translated since. Satan's going since you're the son of God. But you hear the deception? Most sense you are. Turn these in to bread. See, you don't love you. Otherwise, he'd given you food. You wouldn't have to be out here battling right now. Why would he leave you to do this? Hungry and tired? God doesn't love you. Your father doesn't love you. He says he does, but he's not proving it right now. Anybody ever feel that way? Enemy will get us. So what's the temptation here? It's not sinful to make bread, okay? It's not. It's not sinful for him to eat bread. It's not sinful to create it if you have the power to do so. Jesus had the power to do it, right? He could have created it if he wanted to. But that's not what he's supposed to do. It's not sinful to satisfy your hunger, and it's not sinful to just meet your basic needs. It's not what this is. He's trying to get him to distrust his father. God says I'll take care of you. If he says I'll take care of you, then that means what? He'll take care of you. The problem is, when we say that, there's a disconnect from here to here, where we go, "Well, I believe he said he'll take care of me." But do I believe it here? My head tells me that he'll do it. Does my heart tell me that? He said he'll provide for me. Well, I'm struggling right now, and it just doesn't seem like he's providing for me. I can't trust him, 'cause he didn't do it when I wanted it. He didn't do it how I wanted it. You see where that creeps in? It's very subtle. He doesn't have to use huge, huge signs that say, "Hey, I'm gonna test you right now." He puts these little subtle things into our mind, and the deception is cruel. Jesus said on many occasions, he goes, "I only do what the father tells me, "or I've only come to do my father's will." Jesus said aside that deity to go, "I'm not doing anything that my father doesn't want me to do." So guess what, in this moment, I guess I'm just gonna have to go hungry right now, 'cause my father said he'll provide for me, and he'll open a door up for something. I'm not gonna do anything. In that moment, if he'd done that under his own power, he would've done what? He would've sinned. So Satan is saying here, "If God really loved you, you wouldn't be hungry." And he said, "You know what? "You just had your moment in the sun down at the Jordan. "You were out there. "You got baptized. "Your father acknowledged who you are. "You just had this great moment with your dad, "and now look at you. "You're out here in the wilderness, "in the desert. "You're tired, you're hungry. "Where's your father at now?" He's not here. I'm here. I can help you. Let me help you. But there's no deception unless there's truth. If you think you can trust God, you're crazy. Where's he at? You're hungry. You got nothing. Where's your God now? Can you hear him? Man, he's cunning. He's clever. Do you ever think that? I shouldn't be suffering like this. I shouldn't be going through this. God says I'm one of his. How's come I'm going through this? Why is this all happening to me? Why am I in this place right now? I felt God had my back. That's not you. That's the enemy speaking lies into your life. God promised to take care of us. When we act on our own, that's when we fall into that deception. And we let him win. Satan wanted to set Jesus against the father to act out of his own will. You know he wants to do the same thing to us. You know that, right? If I can set you against your God and get you to act out of your own will, then he wins. There's no question Jesus could make the bread. He made enough bread to feed thousands of people, right? He could have made the bread. There's no doubt about that. He was being tempted to decide when the food would come and how it would come. That's where the distrust in God's love comes from. Disobedience. Don't trust your God to supply the need for you when he wants it. You go ahead and take care of it when you want it, how you want it. When God says no, wait for me. I'll provide it for you. Romans 12 says his plan is good and pleasing and perfect. That means what he has for us means what. His time is perfect. When we need it, we get it in his perfect time. Not ours. We are all selfish toddlers at time. We want to jump up and down, stomp our feet and throw our hands and go, no, I want it now. God says, yeah, I know you want it now, but you don't need it now. Jesus waited and was not disobedient. Look at his answer in verse four. I want to, I want to believe it was immediate. Just me, it doesn't matter where Jesus went. He was always the baddest dude in the room. You know, I just, I want to believe he answered immediately. Look at verse four. He said in Jesus answered him. "It is written, man shall not live by bread alone." I don't think Jesus said, oh boy, how am I going to come down on this one? Boy, what am I going to say here? What do I do? I don't know if I can handle this one. I don't know if I'm going to be able to make it. He takes out his sword and says what first? It is written. It is written, it says, "Man shall not live by bread alone." And in the book of Matthew, Matthew adds, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Now Jesus is fully God, fully man, right? In the midst of this, he is still submitting and saying it's written what? I'm not going to battle this guy on my own. I'm going to use what? I'm going to use my father to battle this. Here's what my father says about this. He quotes Deuteronomy eight, three. This is talking about obedience. The key for the Israelites was to obey, okay, to obey God. He said he would provide for them. He said he would lead them, just obey me. That's in Deuteronomy. He says, if you just follow me, obey me, I'll take care of you, right? The Israelites were in that same predicament. Interesting parallel. They were in the wilderness 40 years. Jesus was in the wilderness for 40 days. Here's the difference. The Israelites failed. Jesus passed. Matthew 633, you guys probably are familiar with this. It says, "Seek first the kingdom of God "and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you." Jesus is saying in verse four, "If we want to live and obey God's word, "we have to use his word in times of trouble." Take out that sword and use it in times of trouble. And guess what? He'll take care of you if you seek him first. You'll get your bread if you seek him first. He said he's the bread of life, right? If he's the bread of life, then if I seek him first, it's natural that he's gonna provide that for me, isn't he? But if we're not seeking it, if we're not trying to continually seek it, we're gonna fall short and then we fall prey. And then he wins. We don't live because we eat. We live because God determined to give us life and provide for our meals, okay? It's not about the food. As soon as God decides we're not gonna live anymore, we won't live anymore. We can't be under an illusion. It's like, I got control here. We don't have control. He has control. And if we could all just figure that out, we'd probably be better off. I'm a control freak. I wanted how I want it when I want it. It's okay, God, I'll handle this. I got this under control. I wonder how many times he laughs at me daily. Probably a lot. Because I think I can handle this. It's not about the food. It's about the obedience. Lots of people have lots of food and still die. It's not about the food. Life isn't a matter of food. It's a matter of the purposes of God. If God wants me to live, he'll feed me. And obeying God and believing the gospels is a command just like anything else God lays out for us. Well, if I believe what Jesus said, that means he's gonna take care of me and I'm gonna follow his commands. Here's an example. Israel, they had the manna from heaven. They had all the bread they could stand to eat. They had it all. All they could need, what happened to them? They all died. Why did they die? Disobedience. It's not about the bread. Moses, he never got into the promised land. Plenty of bread. Never saw the promised land. Why? Disobedience. He didn't trust God. He didn't trust God. In contrast, Jesus says, here in verse four, he says, "I'll trust God, I'll obey God in every single way." All I'm concerned with is seeking the kingdom. Jesus is trusting God to keep him alive and feed him by trusting in the love that his father has for him. Do you love the father? Do you love God? If you do, you'll obey what he says. God says, "I'll take care of you. I love you." In Matthew, it says, after this was over, it says the angels came and ministered to him. After all this was over, it says the angels came and ministered to him. Man, I hope they brought him bread. And if they did, I'll bet it was the best bread he ever had in his life. It says they were singing and ministering to him. Think about that, our Savior in such peril, distraught, tired, hungry. Angels had to come minister to him after this. Imagine what he was battling. And this won't be the first time the angels have to come minister to him. Don't distrust his love. He says that he'll provide for you. He says he'll take care of you. He's promised us to supply all your needs. Trust him in that. How many people in here have friends that they would trust to provide for them on certain levels more sometimes than they would trust God? We can't trust like that. Don't let him get in your head and say, nah, God's not coming. He won't provide for you. He doesn't mean what he says. It's written what? Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Use your sword, okay? Use your sword. Look at the second temptation here. Verses five through eight. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And he said to him, to you, I will give all this authority in their glory. For it's been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, "You shall worship the Lord your God "and him only shall you serve." Now, we all have a time lapse, right? This would have happened quickly. I don't think they took some long hike. I wouldn't assume that Saint said, "Come on, Jesus, come on, Jesus, come walk with me. "Let's go talk." Can assume the devil is trying to fire as quick as he can. Well, he didn't fall for that first one. I gotta fire another one quick. Can you imagine what it would have looked like from that vantage point? 'Cause it says he could see all the kingdoms of the world. You imagine what that view would have been like? You imagine the temptation of seeing that? It could rule all this, like, I could be the man. We can fall into that and the small things in our life, right? I mean, I can rule over this. It's mine, I get to rule this, I'll rule this. I'll take that, yeah, yeah, I'll take that. It's not yours. The second temptation here is to distrust God's plan. So he's trying to get Jesus to distrust his love. Now he's going, "Well, he obviously still loves his dad, "so I can't get that. "Maybe I can get him to not trust in the plan that he has. "Let's see if I can get him to sway from the plan." Verse six, "And he said to him, "'To you, I will give all this authority and their glory, "for it has been delivered to me, "and I will give it to whom I will." Look at you, Jesus, here you are. Can you hear him? Can you hear the devil getting after him? He says, "Here you are. "You got nothing but the clothes on your back. "You got no food, you have nothing. "Here you are, the son of God. "You're hungry, you're alone, you have nothing, "and where's your kingdom? "You're out here in the wilderness with me, battling. "You didn't have a kingdom before. "You're just a poor carpenter's kid. "You see no kingdom there. "Is this really God's plan? "Is this really what he wants? "Is this really what he's going to do? "Is that happening in your own life?" Devil says, "I'll tell you what, Jesus, "I'll give it all to you." "I'll give it all to you." "You lived in this little obscure town in Nazareth "for 30 years, nobody even knows who you are. "You're not anybody." "I'll give you all this and they'll all know who you are." You sucked into that. Our whole society and culture is built on that. Money, prestige, right? Who's the biggest YouTube influencer on TikTok? I don't follow a bunch of stuff. I'm not as hip as Todd is. Todd keeps up on that stuff. Everybody wants what? To be known, know who I am. I want to be a big deal. Can you hear the devil getting after him? God doesn't have this big plan for you. Look, he's giving you nothing. You have nothing. Again, you're stuck out in the wilderness with me. Where's your God at? He's not here. That's not his plan. I've got everything, though. I've got all this stuff and I'll give it to you. I've got control over it all. Now, we know that's a lie. But he's trying to get him and bait him. Remember, again, Jesus is still weak. He's tired. He's hungry. He's still trying to throw these darts. Jesus, you've had enough humiliation, don't you think, right? You've put up with it enough. Why don't you just take what's rightfully yours? You're entitled to this. Anybody hear that today? It's okay, you're entitled to this. You should have this. Go get that. That's for you. Is that God's plan? God's plan says what? No, I'll provide. I'll take care of it. You get what I give you. But then in verse six, the overstatement. When he says, "To you, I will give all this authority "and their glory for it has been delivered to me "and I'll give it to whom I will." Can you see? Can you see the devil? I'll puffed up. This is all mine, right? It's a little bit of an inflated sense of self, wouldn't you say? Look, Jesus, I have all this. Look at all these kingdoms. These belong to me. They're all for you. I just want you to do one thing. Just one thing, just a small thing, even. It's not that big of a deal. I'll take care of you, 'cause your dad's not. You know what I'm saying? 'Cause your dad's not. Now we know who Lucifer is. We know who the devil is, right? And there's some truth to some of this, right? So in John, three different passages, Satan's called the ruler of this world. And we know that, right? He's got power and stuff here, doesn't he? Influences stuff here, doesn't he? But he doesn't do anything that isn't allowed by who. By God. I think an Nebuchadnezzar with this too, Nebuchadnezzar thought he was a pretty big deal too, didn't he? God went, "No, you're not as big as you think you are." He thought he controlled the nations, look what happened to him. He wound up knocked down by God, grazing like a wild animal at the end of seven years. This is what he says, Daniel 4.17, Nebuchadnezzar says, "The most high rules, the kingdom of men, "and he gives it to whom he will." Sounds like the devil's got a whole lot of control there, does it? Sounds like God's in control there. Satan can't give it to anybody. He simply rules the system of evil. He just gets to rule it. Not only did he not have the power to give it, it wasn't his to give to begin with. You see how he twists the truth? Does he do this in your life? Does he take the truth and twist it just enough? Does he take lies in your life and twist them enough to go, "Gosh, that really sounds real good." Maybe this is what he wants for me. Or do you justify what you want by going, "Well, I'm gonna do this 'cause I think this is what God "will want me to do." If you understand the mind of God, come talk to me 'cause I don't understand it, you can explain it to me. The devil is the God's devil. He doesn't do anything that God doesn't allow. And God could crush him at any point. He doesn't have that power. He only has the power that we allow him to have. And if we allow him to have it, he will use it all day long. He says to Jesus, he says, "I'm gonna make life easy for you. "You deserve it, you're the son of God. "You're supposed to have kingdoms. "You're supposed to be the ruler. "You're supposed to have it all. "How's it come you don't have it all? "What's going on here, Jesus? "Why don't you have it all?" He wants Jesus to fall into that trap and he'll try and get every single one of us in the same way. He's got sweet, smooth speech. Man, I bet the guy be a great used car salesman. You can go right to the crown and forget the cross. It's what he's telling him. You don't even have to go through all that stuff. You can bypass it all and get away from all of it. You've had enough suffering. You don't need to go the next three years in agony. You don't need to go to Jerusalem and have everyone plot to kill you. You don't need to be beaten, thorns smashed on your head, nailed to a cross. You don't have to go through that horrible death, Jesus. You don't have to go through any of it. I'll give you everything right here. He says, "I got the deal of a lifetime. "I'm willing to give you this whole thing. "If you want it, I'll give it to you." You have times in your life where you look at a situation and you go, "Man, I really don't want to go through "what this is going to cost me to go through. "Can I find an easier way?" Easier doesn't always mean better. But we're always looking for that easier way. Why? 'Cause we don't want to suffer. We don't want pain. He knows that. And he says, "Well, if you don't want pain, "you don't want suffering, I got a deal for you." Let's go this way and it'll be easier for now. Now Jesus' journey, we know what was anything but easy, right? Manisaros, ridiculed, rejected, despised, beaten, killed. It's an awful lot of pain and sorrow, right? Then, but where is he now? The problem is we will go, "Well, I don't want the pain "and sorrow now. "Yeah, it'd be easier to go this way. "I'll take the easy route now, and then guess what? "Later on, I'll worry about the pain and the sorrow, "'cause it'll come. "If we spend our life trying to avoid that, it will come, "because ultimately, we can't escape it." The devil knows that. He says, "Well, I can promise you this. "If we do this here right now, it'll be just fine. "You'll be fine." Jesus, I'll give it all to you, you deserve it. You're a king, right? Here, have it all. Verse seven, Jesus claps back. Sorry, verse eight. He says, "And Jesus answered to him, 'It is written, "'You shall worship the Lord your God, "'and him only shall you serve.'" Here's the problem with the devil, right? Here's the problem of loose for his lust, for worship, and praise is what God even kicked out to begin with. Now he's trying to get it from Jesus. Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, I'll tell you all about his lust, for worship, and praise. Jesus says, "Not you, I'm supposed to worship. "This is who I worship. "This is who I'm supposed to worship." "You think the devil would have given all that "to Jesus anyways? "Why would he give it up? "I'm gonna give all that up. "How can I trick you into believing that I'll do this? "All you gotta do is bow down, just bow down to me, Jesus, "it's okay." He wouldn't have given up to begin with, and it wasn't his to give away anyways. (Praying) Take the cross before the crown, suffering before glory. Take the cross before the crown, and take the suffering before glory. Jesus chose the cross for the crown, and took the suffering for the glory. He didn't take the easy way out. Satan's offering him the easy way out, he didn't take the easy way out. (Praying) There's always a bigger, better deal. He's always got something to offer you that's gonna be better, sounding, and better looking than what Jesus has. He's gonna make it look all real nice, he's gonna dial it all up and make it look pretty, he's gonna take anything he can and just create this illusion that this is so much better than what God has for you. And the problem is, for us, a lot of times, we take the bait. Looks good, must be good if it looks good, right? Jesus knew better, and he knew none of this is true to begin with. We can identify with that type of temptation, right? Can you be tempted to distrust his plan? (Praying) This has taken too long, never said that? Why does it have to be like this? This isn't the way I would want it. I see lots of pain, I see lots of sorrow, I see lots of problems with your plan, God. This doesn't seem like a very good plan to me. I don't know if I can trust you right now. This doesn't look very good. (Praying) I don't know how much longer I can take the suffering. Isn't there a shortcut to glory? It's gotta be a shortcut, God, isn't there? (Praying) Do I have to take this path? (Praying) Can I trust you that you're gonna help me in this? If I'm gonna have to go through this, are you really gonna be there? (Praying) I don't think I wanna do it your way anymore. Anybody ever said that? (Praying) I like my way. My way is not very good. I'm still dumb enough to like it. (Praying) And the last one here we can get caught up real quick is I think I'll just grab some satisfaction for myself. (Praying) Your plan's not bringing me much satisfaction. I'm gonna give some satisfaction for myself. (Praying) (Praying) Remember the cross before the crown suffering before the glory. His plan is perfect. Jesus gives him the right answer, though. And he quotes Deuteronomy 613. Funny how he quotes the Old Testament, right? Jesus says, "I will not worship you. I worship God alone because he's the only one worthy of loyal worship and allegiance." I'm gonna worship you. I know who the right one is. I'm not doing it. I will worship God alone because that's what scripture demands of me and that's what I will do. This is obedience to perfection. Man, I wish I could do that. 'Cause I can't. And we can fall into that trap. He makes no deal with the devil here. He makes no compromise. There's no shortcut. He's gonna follow the plan of God no matter where it leads. However it leads, whatever it leads to. Anybody else that dedicated? Man, I feel pretty small. 'Cause I can struggle with that big time. Lord, am I dedicated that much? Am I willing to do the Luke 923 pick up my cross and go? Am I willing to deny myself every day? Lord, that's hard. There's a lot of suffering there. I don't want to do that. The enemy says, "You don't have to do that. I've got a better plan. Come on over here." Here's what we'll do. We'll bypass all that. I have this plan set before you that is gonna be easier. It's gonna make life great. Look at these things that I have for you. By the time we get to the end of this thing, it's gonna be wonderful. The problem is he takes all that goodness and all of that and he disguises the pain that comes after it so you can't see it. Put lipstick on a pig, it's still a pig, right? Sandy, you don't laugh at that, see? Doesn't matter how much you dress it up. Satan will try and dress it up and make it look as good as it can look and we can go, "Wow, that does look better." And then what happens at the end we go, "Uh-oh." I'm still at the same place I was. I still got the same problems I had before. Or they might be worse. Jesus gives the right answer. Whatever the cost, whatever the sacrifice, he's gonna serve God and God alone. I'm not going to bend from what I know. I know he loves me and I know his plan for me and I'm not gonna bend. This is where I'm gonna go, this is what I'm gonna do. And with authority, even in the midst of being tired and hungry, remember, he's gotta be pretty beat up by now and he's still with authority. He says, "No, I'm not gonna do that." Here's what it says. It's written, "You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve." I'll take him. So Satan's over too. He says, "Well, if I can't get him to distrust his love, if I can't get him to distrust his plan, well, maybe I can get him to try something different." Satan turns an amazing corner and this is the most devious of him all. One last assault, look at verse 9. "He took him up to Jerusalem and he set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, 'If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here.'" I'll never ever twist by Satan to trust God in a kind of a presumptuous way, to presume on God's grace. If I can get him to presume on God's grace, then maybe I can get him. Well, if I do this, God's Word says he has to protect me. If I do this, God says that he'll take care of me. If I do this, he's not going to leave me. Well, yeah, that's all true. 100% it's all true. That doesn't give us the right to make a foolish decision to then what? Tempt God. What are we trying to do? If you throw yourself off of here, he'll catch you. Satan is trying to get him to presume on him. Try and force his hand, try and back God into a corner. Anybody ever done that before? That's what Satan's trying to get Jesus to do. Satan says, "You trust God, you obey His Word, you trust His love, you trust His care. You will only do what His Word says, right? Okay, well, if you only do what His Word says, let's go over here to the temple. Jump off and I'm going to quote Scripture to you. Let's see if you'll really follow what His Word says. And I'll give you Scripture. And let's see what you have to say about that. See how deceitful and just cunning he is. He will take whatever he can and use it against us. He'll even take God's Word and twist it. And he takes it and twists it here. Satan takes Scripture and he takes Jesus' Word and tries to spin it around on him. Look at verse 10, verse 10. This is Satan talking. For it is written, "He will command His angels concerning you to guard you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone." He says, "You want to go by Scripture, huh? All right, I'm going to quote it to you." And he quotes Psalm 91, 11, and 12. It says, "For He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone." You see how cunning he is? He took Scripture and went, "Okay." Go ahead and jump off. Because your father says that if you jump off, he'll take care of you. He'll catch you. You won't get hurt. Everything will be fine. Go ahead. Jump off. Part of me is thinking in the midst of this that Satan is getting to the point where he's getting a little bit aggravated. He's resorting to Scripture. How can I take it and quote it and twist it to my will to get what I want out of this? Here it is. Throw yourself off. He pledges protection for the Messiah. He says, "You'll be protected. Just go up there, throw yourself down, and you'll give God an opportunity to prove His word." Now, remember, okay, let's remember Jesus is a man. He's fully man, fully God, right? What happens if you throw a man off the side of a building? It's trouble. Jesus knows what the devil is trying to do. Satan wants to kill him. If I get him to buy into this and he jumps off, then it'll be dead. And then if he's dead, all this is done. The deception here is how Satan takes the Scripture. He's saying, "Jesus, it's written that God will protect you. God will have a chance to fulfill His word for you. Won't that be wonderful?" Here's an opportunity to fulfill His word to you. He said that you can trust Him, throw yourself off of here, and guess what? He'll prove it to you. Ever have those times in your life? That's scary when we presume on what God's grace is. We let ourselves be lied to and go, "Well, I'm going to do this. God says He'll take care of me if I do this. God promise He'll protect me if I step into this." And we step into it in our will and not the will of God. We're presuming on His grace. That's a dangerous place to live. Everyone will know that you're the Son of God if you do this, Jesus, because He'll save you, and you'll prove it to everybody. Everybody will know who you are. Nobody's going to come after you. You'll see that He is who He said He is. He's your father, and He loves you, and He'll protect you. His word's true, and everybody will know you're the Messiah, and they'll all celebrate you. It won't be great Jesus. He's trying everything to get Him to cave. You'll be popular. People love you. They're not going to try and kill you. Once they see what happened, they'll know who you are, and they're not going to come after you. Your life will be all sunshine, rainbows. It'll be perfect. It's all right. Jesus didn't want that. He didn't come here to become popular. He didn't come here to become accepted. He knew what His purpose was. Jesus came here to save us, but He also knew He was going to be hated. He knew that. It was essential that He was hated and rejected, so He could be killed. It's the whole point. If He doesn't die by that crucifixion, if He doesn't die on the cross for you and me, we are in big trouble. So He knew what He was doing. Jesus responds to Him in verse 12. He quotes Deuteronomy 6, 16 right here in verse 12. He says, "And Jesus answered Him, 'It is said you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'" Don't presume you know what God is going to do. Don't presume that God is going to take care of a situation. Don't presume that His Word is going to be matched to what you would justify as something you want to do in your life. Does God love you? Absolutely. Does He care about you? Yes. Does He provide for you? Yes. Does He show grace and mercy and love? Absolutely. Don't you dare take that for granted or take advantage of it. That's what Satan's trying to get Jesus to do here. Take advantage of that. Because He'll try in your life and He'll try in mind. So you've got that twist by saying to get God to be presumptuous in what is going to happen. Trying to force His hand. At the end of this, then it says what? Verse 13 says, "And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time." There were other times. This wasn't the only time. There were other times. This is proof to us that He doesn't stop one time. He comes after us continuously. The misery loves company. He knows what's going to happen to Him at the end. And just because that's going to happen to Him doesn't mean He doesn't want to take as many of us along with Him as He can. That's why we need Jesus. Jesus is the one that saves. Jesus is the one that washes and redeems us. Once we're Christ, He doesn't have a shot, but He can work in our life to try and make it miserable for us. Use the Word of God to battle. You don't have the strength of battle. I'm going to tell everyone of you, you don't have the strength of battle. God does, and the Word of God promises that He'll do what? He'll take care of you. He'll battle it for you. You take it to Him. Use the Word of God. I don't know how to do this, God, but you do. Help me. Not, I'll help you, God. No, no, no, God, you help me. Where are you at? Are you struggling? Is He getting at you constantly? Are you struggling with something right now? What do you got going on in your life right now? What's He throwing darts at right now? Where's He trying to twist scripture? Where's He trying to justify? Where's He trying to smooth talk you into something? Whatever that thing is that just popped into your head right now, there you have it. He wants you to distrust God's love. He wants you to distrust His plan. And He wants you to assume that you can do whatever you want and God will take care of it. If He will do this to the Savior, what do you think He's going to do to us? How do you think He's going to try and get us? And none of us are Jesus, right? Jesus was able to battle this off. I fail on a daily basis. Jesus has to be the one that fights these battles for you. The devil came back again and again after Jesus unsuccessfully. Jesus was without sin. Jesus was perfect. Jesus triumphed here. He crushed Him at the cross. He crushed Him at the tomb. And at the end, He's going to win the whole thing. My question is, do you know Him today? What do we learn from this? Satan will tempt us to distrust God's love, to distrust His plan, and cause us to compromise with sin to get what we think we need and that we deserve it. And that's what we want. He'll try and do that constantly. He'll get us to presume on God, and then He'll get us to act foolishly out of pride. This is what I want. This feels good to me. I deserve this. I'm entitled to this. Newsflash everybody, we're not entitled to anything. We don't deserve anything. We don't deserve the salvation that we have right now. We don't deserve it. I don't know if anybody in here was born royalty. I wasn't born royalty. I don't have silver spoon. I'm not entitled to anything. That's the beauty of Jesus. He knows that and says, guess what? You don't have to worry about that. I'll take care of that for you. We need to watch out consistently. Watch out for the high points in your life. Just as soon as you're at a high point spiritually, you're liable to the biggest temptation in the biggest attacks. Because at the high points, guess who we're not thinking about? We're not thinking about Jesus in the high points. It's funny how in those moments we get so high we don't think about it, but man, as soon as we drop low, who's the first person we're crawling to? Man, we should be running to Jesus in the high points. I want to hold on to his hand when I'm at that high point because I know if I don't somebody else is going to grab me. But I don't. Hey, everything's going great. This is awesome. And then before I know it, I'm going, "God, please help me here." And he's like, "What are you doing?" Be aware the high points in your life. Watch out for when you're physically weak. Be alert. Watch out for those twists of Scripture. There's false teachers all over the place. There's people that take Scripture and twist it to use it for their own evil purpose. Know the Word of God. When temptation comes, how are you going to fight it off? It's written. Did you hear Jesus? It is written. Not I say. Not I can. He said, "It's written." This is what my Father says about this. It's written right here. This is how I win. I don't win on my own. I can't win on my own. We defeat those temptations in Satan when we do it the way Jesus did. We just go to Scripture. And the only way you're going to be able to go Scripture is to know it. Do you read it? Do you soak in it? Do you bathe in it every single day? A soldier isn't ready for war on day one. What happens? He has to be trained constantly. How is he training? How are you training? Are you training yourself in the Word of God? Are you just using God as a bunker when it starts to get a little hot? What are you doing? Do you have God's Word? Know it. Have it in your heart. Have it in your head. Know when that comes up. Know what to say in those times. Know what to do. God's Word says I'm to do this. Use that sword. It's called that for a reason. Be committed to it. Love it. When Satan challenges your loyalty to God you can have the confidence and go nah. I know who I belong to. I know where I stand. I know who's on my side. And the reason I know that is because his Word tells me so. You can't get me. I won't let you get me. The problem is when we compromise and try and do it our way we push that aside and we say no I can handle it. And he comes in and says oh good all that stuff that he's got in my way it's not my way anymore now I can get him. But we push that out of the way. Jesus gave us an amazing pattern to follow in our own struggle. Act in a way. Act in a way that you know that you can stand on the promises of God. And act with strength because he's our strength. If you don't know Jesus today it's pretty simple. God made everything perfect. Everything was wonderful. Adam and Eve were here. They walked in the garnishes. They were even with them in the cool of the day. They walked together. They were in perfect relationship with God. And what happened? They chose to not follow his plan. They didn't trust the love he had for him. They didn't trust the plan. And they sinned. And because they sinned the whole world fell into chaos. The whole world is in chaos. It's been in chaos since the fall. Sin entered. And then what happens? We are cut off from God. That perfect relationship that we had is now severed. How do we get back? We can't get back. There's nothing you can do or I can do to ever ever restore that relationship. Nothing. And God said, well, since I am the only one that can do that, here's my plan. And he sent a son here to earth who lived a perfect, sinless life. And at the end of the day he lived a perfect, sinless life and they killed him for it. Because he wasn't who they wanted him to be. When he came and died on that cross for you and me, he bridged that gap so that you and I could come back and have a relationship with his father. But it's not enough that he died. He had to raise. He defeated death three days later. He rose from the grave. Over 500 witnesses attest to seeing the risen Christ. If you're in this room today and you don't believe that, I'm sorry. It's still truth. 500 witnesses attest to seeing the risen Christ after he was raised. Do you know that it takes one witness in a court of law to convict someone? And 500 witnesses said they saw the risen Christ. This is truth. It's all truth. Whether you believe it or not doesn't change the fact that it's still truth. Jesus knows you. Jesus loves you and Jesus wants to be in a relationship with you. But the only way that can happen is by you acknowledging your sin and acknowledging who God is. Romans 10 tells us if we confess with our lips and believe in our heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and was raised from the dead, you will be saved. Confess with your lips, believe in your heart. It's all it takes. God, I'm a sinner. I know I'm a sinner. This way is heavy on me. I don't have anything to bring to you. I don't have anything good in me. I don't have anything that is worthy. But all I know is that you came and you did this and I believe that. And I put my faith in trusting you. Bring all your junk. Bring all the junk you have. Don't try and clean yourself up. He doesn't say to clean yourself up. He says, "Come to me." And he says, "I'll clean you up." Are you struggling in your life right now? You got an emptiness? You got a hole? You got something that just can't get filled? Jesus can fill that. And if you're struggling today, if you have been battling and battling and battling and the enemy is getting after you and you've been compromising and justifying and making excuses, repent today. There's going to be people up here to pray with you. This is altar time. There's going to be people up here to pray with you, to pray for you. If you don't know Jesus today, don't let that stop you. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day you can walk out of here different. You can walk out of here changed. You can walk out of here today knowing that the devil can't touch you anymore. You can walk out of here with the strength of Jesus and not have to do stuff on your own. Don't leave today wondering where you're going. Don't leave today taking a chance. Leave today with confidence. Leave today with strength. And leave today knowing that you belong to him and the fact that you belong to him means that you don't belong to the evil one anymore. There'll be people up here to pray with you. Don't waste this opportunity. Don't take this time lightly and use it as an opportunity to change your life. (gentle music)