NXR Podcast - THE SERMON - The Temptations Of Christ | Part 1
Aired: 2024-09-02
Duration: 01:02:28


=== Temptation Immediately Follows Baptism (07:44) ===

[00:00:11]  Amen.
[00:00:12]  Please stand with me for the reading of God's Word.
[00:00:14]  Our text today is Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11.
[00:00:19]  Again, that's the gospel according to Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11.
[00:00:23]  I'm going to read our text for us in its entirety.
[00:00:26]  When I finish reading the text, I'm going to say, This is the Word of the Lord, at which point I would appreciate very much if you would respond by saying, Thanks be to God.
[00:00:34]  One final time, our text today is Matthew chapter 4, verses 1 through 11.
[00:00:38]  The Bible says this Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
[00:00:45]  And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
[00:00:49]  And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.
[00:00:57]  But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
[00:01:05]  Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
[00:01:26]  Jesus said to him, Again it is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
[00:01:33]  Again the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
[00:01:41]  And he said to him, All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
[00:01:48]  Then Jesus said to him, Begone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
[00:01:58]  Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
[00:02:03]  This is the word of the Lord.
[00:02:06]  All right, please be seated.
[00:02:10]  So we are continuing today with our series through the Gospel according to Matthew.
[00:02:15]  And today we find ourselves directly after the baptism of Jesus.
[00:02:21]  Now being led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and then the tempter comes to him.
[00:02:30]  A few things that are important for us to understand in regards to the context of our particular text today is this.
[00:02:42]  This is important and significant timing.
[00:02:46]  It's not a coincidence that Satan tempts Jesus when he is physically, that is, according to his human nature, at his weakest.
[00:02:55]  Having fasted for 40 days and 40 nights.
[00:02:58]  It is also worth noting that Satan comes and tempts Jesus directly after his baptism.
[00:03:06]  One of the things that took place in the baptism of Jesus is that he was affirmed by his Father publicly to all those who were standing by.
[00:03:18]  That the Spirit descended as a dove and rested on Jesus when he came up out of the water after having been baptized.
[00:03:27]  By John.
[00:03:28]  In addition to the Spirit descending and resting upon Jesus, we also have the voice of God the Father.
[00:03:35]  That the skies, that previously, up until this point, as the scripture testifies elsewhere, had been turned to brass or bronze.
[00:03:45]  These skies, which had functioned for 400 years as a barrier, blocking the word of the Lord from his image bearing creatures on earth, due to Israel predominantly.
[00:04:00]  And their rebellion and unbelief.
[00:04:03]  These skies, which had been a shield separating God from man, were now broken apart.
[00:04:13]  The barrier is now removed, and the voice of God the Father comes to God the Son, 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]  He had only merited the voice of his Father as it came to him.
[00:04:34]  In approval rather than condemnation.
[00:04:37]  And when this public approval comes, it is no coincidence that immediately what follows is a spiritual attack from the enemy.
[00:04:47]  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 This is my son.
[00:05:07]  In him I am well pleased.
[00:05:09]  Right after this public approval directly from God the Father Himself given to the Son, 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.
[00:05:29]  And that's the timing, the context.
[00:05:31]  Another element of this particular text and this incredible battle, this showdown that goes on.
[00:05:41]  And happens, takes place in the wilderness between Christ and the devil, is that both of them are disguised.
[00:05:50]  We don't think of that.
[00:05:51]  It's something that's easy to miss with a plain reading of the text if we don't pause for a moment and think.
[00:05:58]  But there's an argument, I think, to be made that at this point, Satan is quite sure, but not entirely sure, that Jesus from Nazareth is in fact the Christ, the Son of God.
[00:06:16]  I think it's noteworthy that in his first temptation, he begins with if.
[00:06:22]  Part of that is simply this conditional phrase of saying, you know, Jesus, prove it.
[00:06:27]  He's goading him, he's tempting him.
[00:06:29]  If you really are the Son of God, then cause the stones of the ground to be turned to bread so that you might eat.
[00:06:37]  But there's also maybe, perhaps, a sense in which Satan is still not quite sure.
[00:06:43]  Up until this point, the text and the gospel narratives are not exhaustive.
[00:06:49]  But I think it's reasonable to assume that Jesus had not yet experienced this level of direct attack from Satan.
[00:06:59]  Not yet.
[00:07:00]  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.
[00:07:11]  It's not until the point of his baptism that Satan is now much more aware that this is the Messiah.
[00:07:21]  Satan knew that the Messiah had come into the world.
[00:07:24]  He knew that.
[00:07:25]  He knew the timing.
[00:07:27]  But Jesus and the providence of God, as Joseph, his earthly father, was directed by an angel in a dream, escaped the wily plans and threats of the devil by fleeing to Egypt, escaping the human agency of Satan's plans that were enacted through Herod, seeking to kill the newborn Christ in Bethlehem.

=== The Veil of Human Nature (12:11) ===

[00:07:55]  And we know that Jesus was raised in some sense in obscurity.
[00:08:01]  That he was raised in a small town, flyover country, if you will.
[00:08:09]  It's similar to Superman.
[00:08:11]  He doesn't come from Manhattan, he comes from Kansas.
[00:08:16]  He's a true American.
[00:08:18]  Jesus is a true Nazarene.
[00:08:21]  Can anything good come from Nazareth, the backwoods country?
[00:08:26]  Well, yes, in fact, it can.
[00:08:30]  Jesus is raised under a veil, as it were.
[00:08:35]  He's raised in obscurity and he's patient, submitting to his Father, that is his heavenly Father, as well as his earthly Father in all things, waiting for the proper time, waiting for his ordination, in a sense.
[00:08:52]  It takes place at his baptism, where his earthly public ministry then begins.
[00:08:58]  And so, up until this point, there is a sense in which Both Satan and Christ are disguised, or another way to put it would be veiled.
[00:09:10]  Now, how is it that Christ is veiled?
[00:09:13]  Well, as I've already been speaking, he is veiled by his second nature.
[00:09:19]  He did not empty himself of the divine nature.
[00:09:23]  That's biblical language, but in terms of how we should interpret that in a literal sense, it is addition or subtraction rather by addition.
[00:09:33]  Jesus does not substitute the divine nature in the incarnation and replace the divine nature with the human nature, but rather the divine nature which remains fully intact in his earthly ministry throughout the course of his earthly life.
[00:09:48]  That divine nature doesn't go away, it is not replaced, but it is covered, it is sealed, it is veiled by a second nature, namely the human nature.
[00:09:58]  That's the whole point of the transfiguration.
[00:10:01]  The transfiguration is Jesus just for a moment giving a glimpse to Peter, James, and John on the mountain.
[00:10:08]  Giving them a glimpse not of what will be or what was, but what presently had always been the divine nature in all its glory, which had remained present and intact throughout the entirety of his life on earth, but had simply been veiled by his human nature.
[00:10:27]  And all that really occurs at the Mount of Transfiguration is that the human nature is simply pulled back, the veil is partially lifted just for a moment.
[00:10:39]  So that his three disciples can see the glory of the divine Son of God, which had been there all along.
[00:10:47]  But that veil, it was successful.
[00:10:52]  The veil of the human nature of Christ, it did deceive Satan, at least to some degree.
[00:11:00]  Even St. Augustine, he said that there was, in the incarnation and then in the crucifixion, there was, in some sense, a divine trickery on God's part.
[00:11:12]  Not a trickery that would merit sin, deceitful sin, but a divine trickery that was righteous and successful.
[00:11:22]  That Satan seized like a fish.
[00:11:26]  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]  Augustine says that the dual nature of Christ in taking upon himself the human nature, a second nature, was.
[00:11:45]  Likened to was likened to fishing.
[00:11:51]  It was as though the human nature was the bait, but underneath the human nature was the hook.
[00:11:58]  And Satan saw the human nature and he lashed out and bit down, 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, not realizing that sealed underneath the bait is the steel hook.
[00:12:24]  The divinity, and that in doing so, Satan unwittingly sealed his own defeat, his own demise.
[00:12:32]  That in some sense, Satan conquered himself because God was far greater.
[00:12:38]  We look at all of this in hindsight, 2,000 years of hindsight to be precise.
[00:12:44]  We look at it with the fullness of the completed canon.
[00:12:49]  The scripture, having been inspired by the Spirit, but also.
[00:12:55]  For those of us who are Christians with new hearts and spiritual eyes to see, spiritual ears to hear, we have the same spirit who inspired the text now illuminating the text to us as we read it and providing for us insight.
[00:13:11]  Satan did not have these things.
[00:13:13]  And so when he approaches Christ in the wilderness, there is a sense in which he probably has a great sense of certainty due to the baptism of Christ and the spirit descending and resting as a dove.
[00:13:27]  And the voice of the Father coming from the sky, giving his approval of Jesus.
[00:13:32]  This is my Son.
[00:13:35]  But there probably is, or at least possibly is, still some question in the mind of Satan.
[00:13:42]  Is this another John the Baptist?
[00:13:44]  Is this merely another Elijah or an Isaiah, some kind of prophet?
[00:13:48]  Or is this the Son of God?
[00:13:52]  If you are the Son of God, then turn these stones into bread.
[00:13:58]  Now, on the flip side, Satan is also veiled.
[00:14:02]  The scripture says that Satan, that he cloaks himself or veils himself as though he were an angel of light.
[00:14:11]  If there were any time for Satan to veil himself in his best, most glorious attempt to appear as an angel of light, it would be in this moment in our text today when he approaches Christ in the wilderness and attempts to tempt Christ to sin.
[00:14:34]  Christ is veiled, that is in his human nature.
[00:14:39]  Satan is veiled, that is appearing as an angel of light.
[00:14:46]  And we may not think much of that because, after all, we are talking about the Son of God.
[00:14:51]  And the divine nature, as I've already stated, is fully present and fully intact.
[00:14:56]  And in the divine nature is omniscience, that is all knowing.
[00:15:02]  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, the great enemy of God.
[00:15:19]  But in his human nature, there could have been perhaps a moment, or at least an inclination, to wonder.
[00:15:30]  After all, he is hungry, he has been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he is at this point.
[00:15:38]  In his human nature, incredibly vulnerable, incredibly hungry, incredibly weak.
[00:15:45]  As we read in the text, I always almost chuckle to myself.
[00:15:49]  It seems like the understatement of the millennia.
[00:15:53]  After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.
[00:15:59]  Yeah, no kidding, huh?
[00:16:00]  He was hungry, you know.
[00:16:02]  A little snacky at that point, you know.
[00:16:05]  A little bit of a hankering for something, you know, just a light snack to kind of hold him over.
[00:16:12]  Yeah, he was hungry.
[00:16:13]  He was starving.
[00:16:14]  He was probably near the point of death.
[00:16:19]  It was probably difficult for him at this point to even stand or walk.
[00:16:24]  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, is that immediately after these three temptations, the third and final temptation, Christ's response being, Depart from me, 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]  It is only after the third temptation that Jesus says, Be gone.
[00:16:59]  And at that point, Satan, in fact, he does flee.
[00:17:03]  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]  Angels of light.
[00:17:18]  The text concludes in verse 11 the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.
[00:17:27]  What do you think these angels were doing?
[00:17:30]  Do you think these angels who came to Jesus and ministered to him provided him with bread and food to nourish him?
[00:17:39]  Not only consoling him spiritually, but also nourishing him and caring for him physically?
[00:17:48]  I think so.
[00:17:50]  That's certainly, it may not be a necessary reading of the text, meaning that you can't read it any other way, but it's certainly a plausible reading.
[00:17:59]  More than just possible, but I would argue highly plausible reading of the text.
[00:18:05]  It's not explicit, but it's certainly implicit that these angels who appear to Christ in the wilderness after Satan flees, that they minister to him, and that part of their ministering capacity is ministering to him physically by providing him with food.
[00:18:23]  Well, what did Satan, who we can be sure guised himself as an angel of light, What did he attempt to do just moments earlier in his first temptation?
[00:18:34]  What he attempted to do was to get Jesus to eat, to minister to him, seemingly, to his physical vulnerability by nourishing him with bread.
[00:18:48]  So one angel, veiled as an angel of light, appears to Jesus and says, You should eat.
[00:18:56]  And then other angels, just as far as we know, minutes later, maybe at most a couple of hours, they appear.
[00:19:04]  And very likely provide for Jesus' food.
[00:19:08]  And again, the implication, I think the proper assumption would be that when these later angels appear after the devil has fled and minister to him, and very likely minister to his physical needs in addition to his spiritual needs, and provide for him bread, the implication, I think, is to assume that Jesus probably took that bread and ate it.
[00:19:32]  So, half an hour earlier, an angel appears.
[00:19:38]  Seemingly offers bread, and Jesus says no.
[00:19:44]  Half an hour later, angels appear, offer bread, and Jesus says yes.
[00:19:52]  Why is one sin and the other permissible?
[00:19:57]  Why does Jesus resist the first offer and yet say yes and oblige the second?

=== A Cosmic Game of Wits (15:48) ===

[00:20:07]  This is, in some sense, a battle of wits.
[00:20:11]  It's like this cosmic divine game of chess.
[00:20:15]  This is one of the most fascinating texts, I think, in all of the scripture.
[00:20:20]  This great showdown in the middle of nowhere with no human spectators around to witness.
[00:20:26]  That all we have is the witness of scripture.
[00:20:30]  But we can imagine you have the divine versus the great enemy of God, the serpent.
[00:20:39]  The serpent crusher versus the serpent himself.
[00:20:43]  And that both, at least initially, neither one, at least in some sense, fully aware of who the other is.
[00:20:51]  Jesus, knowing that his Father is a good and loving Father, he is just 40 days prior given his public approval.
[00:21:00]  He knows the Father loves him.
[00:21:02]  And he knows that 40 days marks the end of his fast.
[00:21:08]  That's another thing that we should be aware of as we're setting the stage, providing the context for our text today.
[00:21:14]  Jesus is not just fasting in the wilderness indefinitely, he is doing so with a purpose.
[00:21:22]  Now, there are several purposes that could be listed, but suffice it to say, there's at least one that we should be aware of.
[00:21:28]  One of the reasons that Jesus goes into the wilderness and he fasts for no less and no more than 40 days and 40 nights is because Jesus, after receiving the public approval of his Father, is now fulfilling all righteousness.
[00:21:43]  That's why he was baptized.
[00:21:44]  We saw that last week.
[00:21:46]  The baptism of John was a baptism that represented the repentance of sin, of which Jesus had none.
[00:21:53]  And so he had no need to be baptized in that sense, and yet he still subjects himself to the baptism of John simply to fulfill all righteousness.
[00:22:03]  Not just to avoid a presence of sin, but to engage and fulfill the fullness of obedience.
[00:22:11]  But also, he has now fasted in the wilderness for 40 days, so too to fulfill all righteousness.
[00:22:18]  What righteousness is Jesus fulfilling by fasting for 40 days in the wilderness?
[00:22:23]  He is proving that he is the true Israel of God.
[00:22:29]  You can actually follow the life of Jesus.
[00:22:32]  It's fascinating to do this, and we don't have time to show you each and every example of this throughout the gospel narratives today.
[00:22:39]  Perhaps we'll be able to do so in the future.
[00:22:42]  But everything that God did with Israel as a holy priesthood under the old covenant, a nation, everything that God did with Israel in the macro sense, Over centuries in the Old Testament, all those things are fulfilled in Christ in a kind of a rapid sense, in a symbolic sense, in his life.
[00:23:10]  Israel, what did they do in the wilderness?
[00:23:13]  Well, they were there for 40 years.
[00:23:16]  What did Christ do?
[00:23:17]  He was in the wilderness for 40 days.
[00:23:21]  Israel, when they were in the wilderness, God provided them with bread.
[00:23:27]  When Jesus is in the wilderness, there is no provision of bread.
[00:23:32]  Israel, for 40 years, provisioned constantly from God as their father.
[00:23:38]  The response of Israel is unbelief and hardness of heart.
[00:23:43]  Jesus, without provision from his Father, he in the wilderness, his response is perfect faith and trust in his Father, affirming that his Father is good and not giving into the temptation to despair.
[00:24:02]  The first temptation that comes to Christ from the serpent, the great deceiver of men, Is an attempt to get Jesus to question the goodness of his Father.
[00:24:16]  If you are the Son of God, then speak to these stones and turn them into bread.
[00:24:25]  It's not just a test of Jesus and his power, it's a subtle accusation veiled underneath, a subtle accusation insisting that thus far your Father has not provided for you, and so provision should be taken into your own hands.
[00:24:43]  Where the devil is saying, he's not just testing if you are the Son of God, work a miracle.
[00:24:47]  It's deeper than that.
[00:24:49]  It's if you are the Son of God, recognize that as God's Son, your Father has abandoned you.
[00:24:57]  And so, therefore, you must take care of yourself.
[00:25:02]  He won't provide for you.
[00:25:05]  So, make provision for yourself.
[00:25:10]  But he says to Satan, it is written.
[00:25:13]  Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
[00:25:18]  This isn't just a random quoting of Scripture.
[00:25:22]  And it's not just to say spiritual bread is of more importance than that which is physical, although that certainly is true.
[00:25:33]  But part of what Jesus is doing here is he's rebuking Satan by saying, No, no, no.
[00:25:42]  You're insisting.
[00:25:43]  I know what you're doing.
[00:25:45]  You're subtly insisting, or at least implying, that for these past 40 days and 40 nights, my Father has abandoned me.
[00:25:56]  That He has not made provision for me because there's been no physical bread.
[00:26:02]  But man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
[00:26:07]  What Jesus is essentially saying is that for these last 40 days, God has constantly been providing for me, He's been speaking to me all along.
[00:26:17]  He has been nourishing me without pause, without fail.
[00:26:22]  Every minute, every moment, every day, every night, I am well taken care of.
[00:26:30]  I am well fed.
[00:26:31]  In fact, Satan, I couldn't eat a single bite.
[00:26:35]  I'm full because my Father is faithful.
[00:26:39]  My Father is good.
[00:26:41]  The first temptation in the wilderness is Satan attempting to get Jesus to despair or to doubt.
[00:26:51]  His father's goodness.
[00:26:53]  There's more that I'll come back and say on that probably next week.
[00:26:59]  This text is so dense that it's a two parter that easily could become three.
[00:27:05]  We'll see.
[00:27:06]  But the second temptation, giving kind of a 30,000 foot view, right now just providing context, setting the lay of the land, putting up the framework, and then giving us kind of an overview of each of the three temptations.
[00:27:21]  Moving on now, let's look at the second briefly.
[00:27:24]  The first is a temptation to despair and doubt the Father's goodness.
[00:27:31]  The second is to demand the Father's power.
[00:27:36]  The first is to despair or doubt the Father's goodness.
[00:27:41]  The second is to demand the Father's power.
[00:27:45]  Notice that the language that Satan levies against Christ is that Christ should demand.
[00:27:54]  He should demand what his Father does rather than petition, rather than making his request known to God in humility.
[00:28:04]  That he should simply tell his father what to do.
[00:28:09]  That he should force the father's hand rather than asking God, his father, in his own timing, in his own way, his own manner, according to his own preordained plan.
[00:28:25]  Rather than saying, I trust the father and I humbly request of my father that he might reveal to all those who are his that I, in fact, am his son.
[00:28:37]  And that he would do so his way, and that he would do so in his time.
[00:28:42]  Instead, what Satan is suggesting is that Jesus should force the Father's hand, that he should essentially make demands upon his Father rather than trusting and petitioning his Father.
[00:29:00]  So the first temptation is to doubt the Father's provision, and therefore to doubt his goodness.
[00:29:06]  The second is to demand, make demands of the Father's power.
[00:29:11]  Elevating himself above God the Father rather than submitting to God the Father and trusting in his way and his time.
[00:29:22]  Lastly, the third and final temptation is denying the Father his glory, that which is rightfully due to his name.
[00:29:34]  And it's not a coincidence, just for our understanding, it's not a coincidence that Jesus at this point responds with.
[00:29:45]  Be gone, Satan.
[00:29:48]  Be gone.
[00:29:49]  Because the first two temptations are not nearly as sinister as the last.
[00:29:55]  Now, of course, what modern pietistic, impotent evangelical Christians would have you believe is that Jesus responds with such aggravated frustration at this third temptation because there's nothing.
[00:30:14]  There's nothing that gives Jesus the ick like politics.
[00:30:19]  You know, there's nothing that would make Jesus more disgusted and turned off than the idea of earthly kingdoms.
[00:30:33]  The last thing that Jesus wants is real, tangible authority.
[00:30:40]  Jesus, as a true pietist, is merely content and satisfied with ruling in the 17th dimension.
[00:30:52]  It's a spiritual rule with no interest in the things of man because the things of man and the kingdoms of this world, well, they're corrupt, they're petty, they're shallow, they're vain.
[00:31:08]  And that's why Jesus responds as strongly as he does Be gone, Satan.
[00:31:17]  He's responding at this point by commanding Satan to flee from him because.
[00:31:23]  The offer that Satan makes here is so unattractive, the kingdoms of the world.
[00:31:30]  Only Christian nationalists who are heretics and have abandoned the gospel would care about things like that, right?
[00:31:39]  No.
[00:31:40]  It's terrible exegesis.
[00:31:43]  It is not what the text is saying.
[00:31:45]  The reason that Jesus responds with such aggravation at this point is not because he's turned off by the kingdoms of the world and has no interest in an earthly.
[00:31:55]  Now, the reason Jesus responds by saying, Be gone, Satan, is because this is the first of the three temptations where Satan outright tells Jesus to bow down and worship him.
[00:32:09]  That's why.
[00:32:11]  Notice that in the first temptation, Satan does not tell Jesus, Hey, if you're hungry, I'll turn these stones into bread and feed you upon the condition of your fidelity to me.
[00:32:25]  That's not what happens.
[00:32:28]  Satan does not require in his first temptation of the Christ that Jesus worship him instead of his father.
[00:32:39]  And neither does Satan require in his second temptation that Jesus worship him instead of his father.
[00:32:47]  It is only in the third and final temptation that Satan now reveals his true agenda.
[00:32:57]  The gloves come off.
[00:32:59]  The veil is officially lifted.
[00:33:01]  Again, up until this point, it really is a battle of wits.
[00:33:05]  It's this cosmic, divine game of chess happening in the middle of the wilderness where only angels are privy to be witnesses.
[00:33:17]  And Satan is still, at least partially, playing the role of an angel of light.
[00:33:25]  It's only in the third and final temptation that he drops the mask.
[00:33:31]  That he comes out, full disclosure, and allows himself to be identified.
[00:33:40]  He makes it plain.
[00:33:42]  Yeah, I am.
[00:33:45]  I am the devil.
[00:33:46]  I am the Satan.
[00:33:49]  But here, in my final temptation, I'll give you a way around the cross, I'll allow you to skip suffering and death.
[00:34:02]  I'll give you all the kingdoms of the world.
[00:34:04]  That's why you're here, isn't it?
[00:34:08]  Because God in the garden and his original purpose for mankind, his image bearing creatures, was to give them dominion over earthly kingdoms.
[00:34:20]  That to Adam was given dominion over all the created cosmos, that he was to function as God's viceroy.
[00:34:31]  That over all of earthly creation, he would exercise righteous rule.
[00:34:40]  But Adam, by his sin, forfeited his dominion to me.
[00:34:45]  And so now it rightly belongs to me.
[00:34:50]  And Jesus doesn't object to this because Jesus recognizes and knows that it is, in fact, true.
[00:34:58]  That there's a reason that at this point, the scriptures elsewhere refer to Satan.
[00:35:04]  As the prince of the air.
[00:35:07]  That even the book of Revelation speaks of Satan being cast down from heaven to where?
[00:35:15]  To the earth.
[00:35:16]  But woe to you, O earth, for the devil has been cast down to you.
[00:35:21]  That up until this point, Satan really does have legitimate authority over the earthly kingdoms of the world.
[00:35:32]  This is not a bluff, it's not an empty offer.
[00:35:37]  Satan is not offering to Christ something that he does not possess.
[00:35:42]  When he takes him up in this third temptation on a high mountain and shows him, All the kingdoms of the world, he is showing Jesus that which rightfully at this point belongs to Satan.

=== Abhorrence of False Worship (09:54) ===

[00:35:56]  And he's saying to Jesus, All you have to do, your father has told you that to win back these kingdoms, you must honor and worship him alone.
[00:36:09]  But I'm telling you that all you have to do is bow down and worship me.
[00:36:16]  And then all the other plans of God can be avoided.
[00:36:20]  Bypassed.
[00:36:22]  I can save you a lot of pain.
[00:36:25]  I can spare you a lot of trouble if you will merely bow down and worship me.
[00:36:32]  It is at this point and only at this point that Jesus rightfully responds Be gone, Satan.
[00:36:40]  At this point, there is no fourth temptation because Jesus will not tolerate another temptation.
[00:36:47]  It's at this point that Jesus has had enough.
[00:36:51]  He's had enough.
[00:36:53]  And the reason he's had enough, again, is not because Jesus is modeling for 21st century evangelical Christians the proper disdain that we should have for civil politics.
[00:37:05]  That is not the interpretation of the text.
[00:37:09]  It's not.
[00:37:11]  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.
[00:37:24]  Is faithful Christianity?
[00:37:26]  No.
[00:37:27]  The reason that Jesus is disgusted and aggravated is not because he has no interest in earthly kingdoms, but because he has no interest in idolatry.
[00:37:42]  It's so apparent, it's so plain.
[00:37:46]  This is the first of the three temptations that Satan calls Jesus to worship him.
[00:37:55]  Coming to Jesus and telling him, turn these stones into bread, is different.
[00:38:02]  It was a deception.
[00:38:04]  If Christ had done it, it would have been sin.
[00:38:07]  But it was not overtly telling Jesus to bow down and worship him.
[00:38:13]  Things began to ramp up a bit in the second temptation.
[00:38:18]  That certainly would have been sin as well if Christ had failed.
[00:38:23]  Telling him that he should cast himself off of the highest pinnacle of the temple.
[00:38:29]  In the middle of the holy city, that is Jerusalem, it was crowded where all the peoples of the earth were gathered.
[00:38:36]  They would have witnessed this miracle the Son of God casting himself off of the highest point of the temple, and then the angels coming and lifting him up and seeing to it that not one of his feet struck a stone of the ground.
[00:38:55]  But this too, although it would have been sin, demanding the Father's power.
[00:39:01]  Rather than submitting to the Father's manner and the Father's timing for revealing His Son to the world.
[00:39:09]  Although it would have been sin, it is still not the same caliber of outright bowing down and worshiping Satan instead of God.
[00:39:20]  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]  So that's an overview of the three temptations.
[00:39:40]  And again, the context is.
[00:39:43]  Is that it's notable, it's notable the timing directly after God the Father affirms publicly Jesus as his Son.
[00:39:52]  He is then tempted in the wilderness.
[00:39:55]  And he is tempted at his lowest and most vulnerable point after 40 days of fasting.
[00:40:01]  And his fasting, again, 40 days in the wilderness, is not arbitrary or at random.
[00:40:08]  And it's worth noting that it's not something that was determined by Christ at his own whims.
[00:40:16]  Remember that after his baptism, Jesus doesn't go into the wilderness.
[00:40:22]  He is led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
[00:40:27]  A few points on that.
[00:40:28]  Again, setting the stage, and that's probably all we'll do just an introduction and overview of the text today.
[00:40:35]  Then we'll look at each of the three temptations in more detail, Lord willing, next week.
[00:40:41]  But utilizing Matthew Henry, the late great Puritan, and his commentary on our text today, He says this in regards to the timing of Christ's fasting and then his following temptation.
[00:40:55]  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, the next news we hear of him is that he is tempted.
[00:41:08]  Then, when he began to show himself publicly to Israel, then he was tempted.
[00:41:14]  So, as he never had been while he lived in privacy.
[00:41:19]  Note, the devil has a particular spite at useful persons who are not only good, but given to do good.
[00:41:29]  There's a lesson, a principle that applies for us that we should be aware of to this day.
[00:41:36]  That the devil will ramp up his spiritual warfare and attacks on those who have been publicly exalted by God, not only to be good, that is, to pursue righteousness and character and virtue.
[00:41:53]  But those who are to do good.
[00:41:55]  That is, those who, in the providence and sovereignty of God, have been chosen by Him to be useful vessels, whether it be preaching the gospel as a minister, or whether it be legislating the law of God in the civil realm as a civil magistrate.
[00:42:16]  In all various capacities, God uses His children to varying degrees, not only to pursue good, That is inward good in their character, but to do good.
[00:42:30]  And those who have been appointed by God to do good in a way that would positively, for the kingdom, affect many others, those will be targets for Satan.
[00:42:44]  Satan will levy more assaults on those who are used by God to do great good in the world.
[00:42:53]  There's a lesson here.
[00:42:56]  It's not until Jesus is revealed publicly.
[00:43:00]  As God's Son, anointed by Him, that the devil now begins to ramp up His attacks and temptation.
[00:43:09]  Another quote from Matthew Henry about the temptation of Christ is this Christ was directed to this combat.
[00:43:19]  He did not willfully thrust Himself upon it, but He was led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil.
[00:43:29]  Christ was led to be tempted of the devil and Of him only.
[00:43:34]  Others, that is, you and I, we are tempted when we are drawn aside by our own lust and enticed.
[00:43:44]  We see that in James 1, verse 14.
[00:43:47]  But our Lord Jesus, and I spoke of this last week, our Lord Jesus had no corrupt nature, 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.
[00:44:06]  To be tempted purely by the devil, 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.
[00:44:23]  To overcome him.
[00:44:24]  So, a few things here the timing, it is not a coincidence.
[00:44:29]  Jesus is publicly affirmed by his Father.
[00:44:32]  He is then tempted.
[00:44:34]  The very next witness that we have in the scripture of Jesus, after his public affirmation at his baptism, Is that he is tempted by the devil.
[00:44:44]  God affirms him, exalts him, and the devil comes in stronger with spiritual warfare.
[00:44:50]  There's a lesson there that we should be aware of.
[00:44:53]  Secondly, this spiritual warfare that comes to Jesus is not something that he subjects himself to.
[00:45:01]  Notice, Jesus is not affirmed by his Father, exalted by God, and then of his own accord says, Well, I'm a pretty big deal, and therefore I'm going to go and wage war on Satan.
[00:45:16]  No.
[00:45:17]  Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and then it is Satan who approaches him.
[00:45:26]  I remember in the early 90s, there were some specific sects of charismatic churches, and for the record, not all charismatics do things like this.
[00:45:39]  This would not be a fair description.
[00:45:41]  But there were some, and I'd like to think the minority, but there were some who, I don't know if they just.

=== Why Jesus Did Not Hunt Demons (02:25) ===

[00:45:51]  If they watched that one movie, I can't even remember the name, with Keanu Reeves, where he was like an exorcist.
[00:45:58]  I don't know.
[00:45:59]  They just got really excited about trying to fight the devil.
[00:46:02]  You know what I mean?
[00:46:03]  Just really excited.
[00:46:05]  And so they came up with some spiritual strategies.
[00:46:09]  And one of them is that a bunch of guys would get in a room and they would fast, just like Jesus did in the wilderness.
[00:46:17]  And they would kind of close themselves up in a room, maybe a church building or whatever it was, and fast for multiple days.
[00:46:25]  And then they would call upon regional principalities, regional demonic dark spirits, and demand that they reveal themselves, demand that they would identify their name.
[00:46:43]  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]  That's not what Jesus is doing.
[00:47:04]  That's what the seven sons of Sceva did.
[00:47:09]  There are guys who set that example in the scripture, they're just not the good guys.
[00:47:14]  I mean, there is a biblical example of being demon hunters and willfully tracking down demonic powers in a group of young men zealous for the things of God and utilizing the authority of Jesus and the authority of the apostles, such as Paul.
[00:47:37]  The problem is that that strategy, if you finish reading the text, the result is that these men.
[00:47:45]  Are beaten within an inch of their life and they leave the house naked and bleeding.
[00:47:51]  And we're family integrated here at Covenant Bible Church, and so I won't go into any great detail whatsoever, but when I see that combination of naked and bleeding, you know that was not a good day.
[00:48:08]  You probably didn't just get beat up, that demon destroyed you.

=== Our Temptations Differ From Christ's (04:07) ===

[00:48:16]  In every sense.
[00:48:18]  So, if you're thinking, you know, what are some biblical examples that I would do well to follow?
[00:48:23]  Probably not that one.
[00:48:25]  Probably not the seven sons of Sceva, the guys who get destroyed by demons.
[00:48:34]  You don't want to be the seven sons of Sceva.
[00:48:38]  And Jesus, who is God and sinless and righteous, is entirely distinct from those seven sons of Sceva.
[00:48:50]  He doesn't go to hunt down the devil.
[00:48:53]  Rather, he is led by the Spirit.
[00:48:56]  He doesn't come up with the idea of fasting for 40 days.
[00:49:00]  Rather, we are left to rightly assume that that too is led by the Spirit and that he is doing so to fulfill all righteousness as the true Israel of God.
[00:49:15]  And he doesn't approach Satan when he's at his weakest, but rather Satan guised.
[00:49:21]  And veiled as an angel of light comes to approach him.
[00:49:28]  Jesus is not foolish, and neither then should we be.
[00:49:34]  So, before we even enter into the text, and we'll do so with much more thoroughness next week, Lord willing, there's already a ton of principles for us to glean.
[00:49:48]  Jesus doesn't go to the wilderness of his own accord, but rather he is led.
[00:49:53]  If the Spirit leads you into a place within God's providence where you are tempted, that's one thing.
[00:50:01]  But let's be honest, brothers and sisters, many of us are tempted not because we are led by the Spirit.
[00:50:08]  The Spirit doesn't lead you and I into temptation.
[00:50:13]  That's one of the prayers in the Lord's Prayer that Jesus Himself taught us to petition of God.
[00:50:19]  Lead us not into temptation.
[00:50:22]  Now, Matthew chapter 4 is not an accurate description of.
[00:50:29]  It's an accurate description of the temptation of Christ.
[00:50:32]  But the accurate description of our temptation is not Matthew 4, but rather James chapter 2.
[00:50:40]  And for us, when we are tempted, it is because we are led by the Spirit, it's because we are led by our inward desires.
[00:50:49]  That each man is tempted when he is led astray by his own evil desires.
[00:50:55]  James explicitly tells us, Let no man say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God is.
[00:51:01]  Cannot be tempted, nor does he tempt anyone else.
[00:51:06]  But you and I are tempted when we are led astray, not by the Spirit, who never leads the sons of God astray, but rather led astray by our own corrupt flesh, with its own sinful desires.
[00:51:21]  Our temptation is not like Christ.
[00:51:25]  Jesus did nothing wrong.
[00:51:28]  It's important that we recognize it's not only that he fulfilled all righteousness by resisting sin.
[00:51:36]  In the final analysis, he didn't just obey God because he resisted these temptations.
[00:51:43]  He obeyed God even before the temptations ever came by making no provisions for the temptations.
[00:51:53]  John Owen and the Puritans would speak of this.
[00:51:57]  John Owen said it's not just enough to avoid sins of commission, that is, the sins you commit, the sins you actively engage in.
[00:52:08]  By volition, by will.
[00:52:10]  But you and I, before we ever sin in that way, commission, giving in to temptation, engaging in temptations, we only sin by commission because we have already sinned by omissions.

=== We Are Like Batman, Not Heroes (02:38) ===

[00:52:25]  That we've already made provisions for the corrupt desires of the flesh by not levying for ourselves, by the grace of God, a sufficient defense against these things.
[00:52:40]  Why are you and I so susceptible?
[00:52:42]  To our own corrupt desires?
[00:52:45]  Well, part of it is because we allow so many things to share quarter in our lives.
[00:52:54]  There's so many things that we know are dangerous.
[00:52:57]  I've said it many times.
[00:52:58]  I'll say it once more, and we'll end the sermon today on this point.
[00:53:03]  You and I are like Batman, and that's not a good thing.
[00:53:10]  Never been a big fan of Batman, to be honest.
[00:53:14]  I appreciate that it's realistic, right?
[00:53:16]  Everybody else has superpowers.
[00:53:18]  That guy, he had to earn it the old fashioned way, right?
[00:53:22]  His parents being rich.
[00:53:24]  Which, I'll be honest, I do appreciate because generational wealth being passed down, it's a good thing.
[00:53:29]  So I'm not against it.
[00:53:31]  The problem with Batman is, to be fair, it's kind of all superheroes, but especially Batman, he just never finishes the job.
[00:53:43]  He never finishes the job.
[00:53:45]  It's like, oh, I caught Joker again.
[00:53:48]  This is the 17th time this week, you know, and I know what I'll do.
[00:53:54]  I'll put him in jail.
[00:53:55]  He's never gotten out of there before.
[00:53:59]  You're the dark knight.
[00:54:01]  Nobody knows your identity, allegedly.
[00:54:05]  You're a vigilante.
[00:54:06]  What is vigilanteism if not killing bad guys?
[00:54:11]  What's the point being a vigilante if you don't break the law?
[00:54:13]  Otherwise, just join the police force, right?
[00:54:18]  Fair trial?
[00:54:19]  I mean, I'm all for fair trial, don't misinterpret me.
[00:54:22]  But if you're going to do a fair trial, then don't be anonymous, right?
[00:54:26]  Be a good law abiding citizen, join the police force, you know, or be a litigator, be a prosecutor, you know, like do something like that.
[00:54:33]  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]  The least you could do out of the goodness of your heart for humanity is finish the job.
[00:54:50]  You and I are like Batman.
[00:54:53]  The Bible talks about mortifying sin, kill it.
[00:54:59]  You and I don't.

=== Pray For Humility In Warfare (07:26) ===

[00:55:02]  We subdue sin, at best, sometimes.
[00:55:07]  We capture sin.
[00:55:09]  We might even lock sin up.
[00:55:12]  Like, are you gonna?
[00:55:14]  I mean, that seems pretty sinister, right?
[00:55:17]  That seems pretty dangerous.
[00:55:19]  Don't you wanna go ahead and just give it the death blow?
[00:55:23]  Just finish the job?
[00:55:24]  No, But don't worry.
[00:55:28]  I'm locking it away in this corner of my heart, and I'm.
[00:55:33]  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]  It could end my marriage, all these different things.
[00:55:47]  Right?
[00:55:48]  But, I mean, I want to be humane.
[00:55:53]  Right?
[00:55:54]  I don't want to be mean to lust, you know?
[00:55:56]  What did lust ever do?
[00:55:59]  And so I'll lock it away, give it three meals a day.
[00:56:03]  You know, but I won't let it out.
[00:56:05]  And, you know, I'll give in here or there, but, you know, the buck stops here and I'm drawing the line and I'll never go this far when it comes to lust.
[00:56:16]  That's how we often, sadly, treat sin.
[00:56:21]  We subdue sin when Christ calls us to mortify sin.
[00:56:28]  And so, how are we led astray?
[00:56:30]  Well, the Spirit leads us into the wilderness to be tempted.
[00:56:32]  No.
[00:56:36]  Well, Satan, you know, he comes personally, one on one, showdown.
[00:56:41]  Don't flatter yourself.
[00:56:43]  Satan's not God.
[00:56:44]  This is not yin and yang, some Eastern mysticism.
[00:56:50]  Satan's not omnipresent.
[00:56:53]  He can only be one place at one time.
[00:56:55]  And here's the good news you're not a big enough threat for him to ever visit you personally.
[00:57:02]  You have never probably been in the same room with Satan.
[00:57:08]  Because he can only be in one room at one time, and you're not that big of a deal.
[00:57:14]  Neither am I.
[00:57:17]  No offense.
[00:57:19]  But if Satan is going after one guy, it's probably a better guy than you.
[00:57:27]  So, no, we're not experiencing what Christ experienced in the wilderness.
[00:57:31]  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.
[00:57:41]  And we're not being led into that showdown by the Spirit.
[00:57:45]  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.
[00:57:59]  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.
[00:58:08]  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, that we make provisions for the flesh.
[00:58:25]  We don't pray nearly as often as we ought.
[00:58:29]  We don't fast.
[00:58:31]  When's the last time you fasted?
[00:58:35]  When's the last time I fasted?
[00:58:40]  I remember a season of my life for years, I would fast one day a week.
[00:58:45]  And it was before the research came out, or at least I was aware of it, of intermittent fasting, right?
[00:58:51]  Because now everybody fasts, right?
[00:58:53]  To be spiritual.
[00:58:54]  But really, let's be honest, it doesn't count if you're just trying to get skinny.
[00:58:58]  It's not a real fast.
[00:58:59]  Not spiritually.
[00:59:00]  It's a fast, but you don't get spiritual points if you're on a diet.
[00:59:07]  A diet and a fast are not the same thing.
[00:59:09]  Jesus wasn't watching his figure, he was honoring God.
[00:59:13]  But there was a time in my life where it wasn't for physical reasons, but I would regularly fast as a spiritual discipline.
[00:59:19]  In addition to prayer, in addition to study, in addition to all these things, I would fast.
[00:59:25]  And now, with the busyness of life, I probably.
[00:59:28]  Have more spiritual need of bringing back that discipline of fasting on a weekly basis than I did when I was younger.
[00:59:39]  My point is this all of us, we give in to these sins of commission because we are not actively waging war at the level of sins of omission.
[00:59:50]  We don't pray as we should.
[00:59:51]  We don't read as we should.
[00:59:52]  We don't study as we should.
[00:59:54]  We don't fast as we should.
[00:59:57]  That's why we're tempted.
[00:59:58]  That is not why Jesus was tempted.
[01:00:01]  Jesus had no corrupt desires within him.
[01:00:03]  He had no sinful flesh.
[01:00:05]  He had no sinful desires that led him astray.
[01:00:08]  He was tempted because he was led by the Spirit to fulfill the will of God.
[01:00:12]  He was tempted outwardly by the devil and not inwardly by desire.
[01:00:17]  He resisted all these temptations because he was well prepared before they even came.
[01:00:24]  He had avoided all sins of omission, and so he championed over any potential sins of commission.
[01:00:33]  This is the great showdown that we find in Matthew chapter 4.
[01:00:37]  There are more lessons that can be gleaned.
[01:00:39]  We'll look into them, Lord willing, next week.
[01:00:41]  Let's pray.
[01:00:42]  Father, thank you for your word.
[01:00:43]  Help us to follow the example of Christ.
[01:00:46]  Lord, help us to recognize that as you exalt the humble, there is even more need to be further humble.
[01:00:55]  That when you exalt us, just as you did with your son Jesus in his baptism, it is then that a target is painted on our chest and that more spiritual warfare is likely to come our way.
[01:01:08]  Help us, Lord, to be prepared for the temptations that come by avoiding temptations when they're smaller, by putting in place good and proper disciplines that we might honor you, that we might strengthen our resolve, strengthening our inner man so that we might live a life that is pleasing to you.
[01:01:35]  And help us, Lord, not to be arrogant, not looking for trouble.
[01:01:41]  But trusting and praying as you commanded us, lead us not in temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
[01:01:51]  One of the best ways that we can avoid falling into sin is by acknowledging your goodness, your strength, your power, but also our weakness.
[01:02:03]  Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one because left to ourselves, we are weak.
[01:02:12]  And it is you.
[01:02:14]  Who is strong.
[01:02:15]  Help us, Lord, to be righteous as Christ was righteous, to do so by the power of the Spirit for your glory.
[01:02:24]  Amen.
[01:02:25]  Okay, we're going to continue to worship the Lord now through Psalms.