SPEAKER_00: Ministering to the heart of Western Arkansas's River Valley for over 165 years, welcome to Chapter and First, the Bible teaching ministry of Fort Smith's First Baptist Church.
SPEAKER_00: You'll find sermons and teachings from Pastor Greg, our ministry staff, and guest speakers.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening.
SPEAKER_01: Well, if you will, we're going to continue our series on discovering Jesus and learning who he is.
SPEAKER_01: So turn with me in your Bibles to Matthew chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: Today we've taken the Lord's Supper, so this is a great day to talk about our pursuit for holiness and why Jesus saved us to transform us, to cleanse us, to make him like his.
SPEAKER_01: Why do we spend time doing things like evaluating our sin life and are we clean before the Lord and giving that to him and letting him cleanse us and grow us to be like him?
SPEAKER_01: Because that's what salvation is.
SPEAKER_01: He is saving us, he's changing us, he's transforming us into his image.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what I want you to discover about Jesus today.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to look at his temptation, but we're going to look at why Jesus went through this temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And so today we're going to talk about Jesus, the one who is qualified to help us to victory over temptation.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to first, you're right there in Matthew chapter 4.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to just read this scripture on the screen.
SPEAKER_01: Twice in the book of Hebrews, it tells us this.
SPEAKER_01: In Hebrews chapter 2, the Bible tells us, therefore, he, Jesus, had to be made like his brothers in every way, so that he could become a merciful and faithful high priest in service to God to make payment for the sins of the people.
SPEAKER_01: For since he himself was tested or tempted and has suffered, he is able to help those who are tested.
SPEAKER_01: And so what he's saying is that Jesus came down out of heaven and he became a man for a lot of reasons.
SPEAKER_01: He became a human and lived the life that we live for a lot of reasons.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, a human has to die to pay the price for sin.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, for the wages of sin is death.
SPEAKER_01: And so a human had to die to pay the price for human sin.
SPEAKER_01: So Jesus became a human so that he would be qualified to pay the price for our sins.
SPEAKER_01: But even more so, he is saving us, he is transforming us, he's working in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: And so he didn't just come down from heaven and then just sort of spend a little time and then go die for us.
SPEAKER_01: As we looked at in December, as we're learning about the life of Jesus, he was born on what we celebrated in Christmas, and we studied that.
SPEAKER_01: We saw as a child how he's preparing himself to live this human life and to go into this ministry to become our Savior.
SPEAKER_01: And so the Bible's telling us that he walked that journey of the human life so that he had walked, if you'll take an idiom from today, walked a mile in our shoes.
SPEAKER_01: So that when we go through the things that we go through, especially times of temptation, if his purpose is to cleanse us and transform us in his image, and we're going through the temptation to sin, then Jesus wanted to have those experiences so he knew what they felt like and he understood.
SPEAKER_01: See, the Bible says, for he himself was tested and suffered.
SPEAKER_01: It's difficult going through temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And the harder and the more difficult that time of temptation, the harder that battle is.
SPEAKER_01: And we'll see today that Jesus knows and understands what that feels like for us, and it qualifies him to step into those moments in our lives and say, I know exactly what you're going through.
SPEAKER_01: I know exactly how that feels.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, I am with you and I have got you, and we are strong, and here is how we're going to get out of that.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he is qualified to give us victory in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: So now let's read in Matthew chapter 4 about this experience as the Bible unpacks it for us so we can see how Jesus was qualified.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in Matthew chapter 4, verse 1, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
SPEAKER_01: After he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.
SPEAKER_01: No kidding.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we know Jesus was a Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Because fasting made him hungry, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's how we know.
SPEAKER_01: So here we go.
SPEAKER_01: Then the tempter, that's Satan, approached Jesus and said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's saying, Listen, I know you're physically hungry.
SPEAKER_01: I know the physical situation that you're in.
SPEAKER_01: Right here, if you really are the son of God, you know, here's a chance.
SPEAKER_01: Just take care of this, just turn this into bread for you.
SPEAKER_01: And he is tempting him to misuse his position as a son of God.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus answered and he said, It is written.
SPEAKER_01: And we will talk about through today the importance of Scripture and memory and owning Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: And you see right here, very clearly, Jesus said, It is written.
SPEAKER_01: He wants Satan to know that I am pulling out the sword of God, the living and powerful word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, Man must not live by bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
SPEAKER_01: He's telling Satan, I have been here, I've been in this time with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He has fed me, he has sustained me, and he is all that I need.
SPEAKER_01: Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, Now get this picture, right?
SPEAKER_01: The temple, uh Jerusalem, when you go to Jerusalem, it is up and down like this.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth than northwest Arkansas.
SPEAKER_01: There is not a piece of ground where your feet are level.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, you're standing like this everywhere you go.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is up and down.
SPEAKER_01: And when you go to what they call the Temple Mount, now you can sort of picture what it would be like.
SPEAKER_01: There is a mosque there on that spot now, but it has this gleaming gold roof.
SPEAKER_01: It's this beautiful architecture thing.
SPEAKER_01: And in your mind's eye, you can picture what it would be like for the temple to be there.
SPEAKER_01: And it's on this hill, and you see the hills and all that.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're on the top of that mount, you can see everything.
SPEAKER_01: You can see the entire city of Jerusalem, which represents the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says he puts them up there and he has, and he's casting this vision of all these people.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down.
SPEAKER_01: And then Satan says, I know the Bible too.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're going to throw scripture at me, I'm going to throw something back at you.
SPEAKER_01: It is written, He will give his angels orders concerning you, and they will support you with their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, he's saying, Listen, you can just throw yourself down and man, they're going to take care of you.
SPEAKER_01: Again, misuse your position as a son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus told him, It is also written, Do not test the Lord your God.
SPEAKER_01: As if Satan, you know, he's oh and two in the count right now, but he can't give up.
SPEAKER_01: Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
SPEAKER_01: And he said to him, I will give you, Jesus, all these things as if they were Satan's to give, right?
SPEAKER_01: I will give you all these things if you will fall down and worship me.
SPEAKER_01: Then Satan said, then Jesus told him, Go away, Satan, for it is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve only him.
SPEAKER_01: Then the devil left him, and immediately angels came and began to serve.
SPEAKER_01: And so there you see Jesus goes through this very specific experience about being tempted.
SPEAKER_01: Now here's the first thing I want you to see about temptation.
SPEAKER_01: The setting.
SPEAKER_01: God gives us this picture as an iconic moment to help us understand the qualifications that Jesus has to help us through any temptation experience that we go through.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't believe this was the only time Jesus was ever tempted, right?
SPEAKER_01: But he is giving us this picture to help us understand the extent to which Jesus was tempted in every way as we are, as it says in Hebrews.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's what you see: you see a lot of settings in which temptation occurs.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he's on a spiritual high.
SPEAKER_01: He has been with God and the Holy Spirit for 40 days and nights.
SPEAKER_01: He has been fasting, he has been communing with the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: He has been surrendered to him.
SPEAKER_01: He's been hearing from God.
SPEAKER_01: He has been being spiritually prepared as he's about to begin his ministry and go out and become the Messiah.
SPEAKER_01: He's in this spiritual moment.
SPEAKER_01: It's incredible.
SPEAKER_01: And we have those spiritual moments.
SPEAKER_01: Our students had a spiritual moment this weekend, right?
SPEAKER_01: You guys had your winter retreat this weekend, right?
SPEAKER_01: Was it good?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all are asleep.
SPEAKER_01: That's how good it was, right?
SPEAKER_01: That you can't even say it was good.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we hope you guys had a great weekend.
SPEAKER_01: We love y'all.
SPEAKER_01: There are many people praying for y'all.
SPEAKER_01: And those moments where you're really focused on the Lord, a mission trip as a spiritual high.
SPEAKER_01: You were focused on the Lord and all of that.
SPEAKER_01: Man, you would think that when we're the strongest, that's when it would be hardest for Satan to get to us.
SPEAKER_01: But sometimes what it does is it creates a blind spot, and he can sneak up on us and get us in a specific way because we are in that moment of spiritual high and we're not necessarily paying attention to things around us.
SPEAKER_01: Physical weakness is another time.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible says that he was hungry.
SPEAKER_01: You know, he was tired, and so he's physically down.
SPEAKER_01: So he doesn't have the addition of this physical stamina to strengthen or to help carry his spiritual understanding and wisdom in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we shouldn't be that way.
SPEAKER_01: Our spiritual life should rise above how we're feeling, but often it doesn't do that.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we're only human and it's all mixed up in the same person of who we are.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes when we're physically down or we've gotten a bad doctor's report, or we haven't slept in a couple of days, or whatever it is, and in those moments we're weak to temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is alone.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says here he is alone, other than being in the presence of God.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one encouraging and there's no one holding him accountable.
SPEAKER_01: And being alone at times is very difficult and makes us vulnerable.
SPEAKER_01: It's one of the reasons that we need to be in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be invested in church.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be engaged in relationships with other believers because the Bible says it's not good for man to be alone.
SPEAKER_01: We shouldn't be out there just walking on our own.
SPEAKER_01: There's no such thing as a lone ranger Christian.
SPEAKER_01: Now, there are times like here when Jesus gets alone with the Lord, and in that moment the presumption is that he is being deeply connected.
SPEAKER_01: Again, that spiritual high.
SPEAKER_01: But again, you get away, you do that, and then you step back into the encouragement of other people.
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus hadn't gotten back into that encouragement yet.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes we think, boy, I'm alone.
SPEAKER_01: We get tempted, nobody will see this, nobody will know it but me.
SPEAKER_01: And we're at risk.
SPEAKER_01: And here's the other thing I want you to see in this setting: that it is Satan himself who is tempting Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was led up by the Spirit in the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
SPEAKER_01: And it makes it very clear every time the devil's one doing this.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to understand what's happening here.
SPEAKER_01: The devil showed up and tempted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because Satan wants to unravel the plans of God.
SPEAKER_01: Everything he is about is the enemy of God and therefore the enemy of God's people.
SPEAKER_01: And he is trying to unravel the plans of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when he showed up with Adam and Eve, he didn't give two flying leaps about Adam and Eve.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't care who they were, he didn't care about their life.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't care about anything.
SPEAKER_01: He hates God Almighty.
SPEAKER_01: And he showed up there to tempt and try to destroy the plan that God had put in place to commune with his children that he had created.
SPEAKER_01: He shows up in our lives for the same reason.
SPEAKER_01: And then he understands that in Genesis chapter 3, as we looked at a few weeks ago, God makes this promise that Jesus is coming.
SPEAKER_01: And so he understands when Jesus gets there, okay, this is the battle, this is the Savior, the Messiah that God said would come.
SPEAKER_01: And God said he would bruise my head, he would give me a fatal wound, he would win.
SPEAKER_01: Well, we'll see about that.
SPEAKER_01: And Satan himself attacks Jesus because he is trying to unravel the plans of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when Satan shows up in our lives to tempt us, we got to understand it is a spiritual battle that Satan is stepping in and he is trying to unravel some plan of God.
SPEAKER_01: It may be a plan in your life, it may be a plan that you're a part of in other people's lives.
SPEAKER_01: It may just be because he hates God and God is moving in the church or he's moving in the family or he's moving in this life and he just hates it.
SPEAKER_01: In the book of Job, we see Satan shows up and he tells God, Job is just serving you because you blessed him and made his life easy.
SPEAKER_01: Satan doesn't care about Job, he doesn't care about his family.
SPEAKER_01: He hates God and he sees a man serving God and he shows up to tempt Job to sin because he is trying to unravel the plans of God.
SPEAKER_01: And we have to understand that's who Satan is.
SPEAKER_01: That is the evil and malevolence that he brings.
SPEAKER_01: And you are a pawn or a tool or your family he doesn't care about, and he will run over you and destroy your life or use you as any weapon he can, trying to destroy the plans and the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we see, and that's what temptation is.
SPEAKER_01: And we've got to understand that to get a healthier picture and a deeper understanding of just what's at stake in these times of temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And then we see how Jesus is qualified, how he's qualified.
SPEAKER_01: Now, again, it says in Hebrews, as we read, he was tempted in every way as us.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John chapter 2, verse 16, if you want to write that reference down, the Bible says all that is in the world, all that's out there that tempts us, falls in these three buckets lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and pride of life.
SPEAKER_01: That's all, if you want to boil all that stuff down, it is going to attack at you in one of those three strategies.
SPEAKER_01: Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.
SPEAKER_01: And that's exactly what happens with Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: First of all, he's hungry, and Satan tempts him with his flesh.
SPEAKER_01: He tempts him with his body, his human body, and those things that he wants and feels and needs that are a part of having a physical life as a human.
SPEAKER_01: And then he tempts him with lust of the eyes.
SPEAKER_01: He takes him up on that mountain and he shows him all of the world and he says, I'm going to give you all of this.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you want to be the ruler of all of this?
SPEAKER_01: And he is trying to prompt that part of Jesus' humanity that wants more.
SPEAKER_01: It's greedy.
SPEAKER_01: It covets what other people have.
SPEAKER_01: It just says, Hey, I want more of this, and I want more of this.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, there are some things we just need more of, right?
SPEAKER_01: We need a bigger house, we need a cooler car, we need a bigger boat, we need more experiences where we get to do this or that.
SPEAKER_01: We want more.
SPEAKER_01: Lust of the eyes, that desire that we want for more or the pride of life.
SPEAKER_01: And he takes them up on the top of the temple and he says, Look here, just go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: Show them that you're God.
SPEAKER_01: Just show them what it's like.
SPEAKER_01: Jump off here and let the angels take care of you and show off who you are.
SPEAKER_01: Just go ahead.
SPEAKER_01: And so he's tempting him.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you get in this picture, in this iconic moment, as Satan is attacking Jesus and he's trying to unravel him, you see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is in this moment to experience these temptations so he knows what it feels like for us.
SPEAKER_01: So he knows what it is.
SPEAKER_01: He takes the full range and gamut of those experiences, every one of those strategies of Satan, and he says, I'm going to show you how to defeat them.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is an interesting passage here.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Now we'll see in a moment that God doesn't tempt us.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens is he is walking Jesus through these qualification experiences.
SPEAKER_01: So when you get in that moment of temptation, you know that Jesus has been there, and when you turn to him, he will help you and he will bless you.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want you to just see a few things here I want to show you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just going to give you some scripture references.
SPEAKER_01: I don't'm going to try to preach all the way through every one of these.
SPEAKER_01: What I want to do is just give you an overview and a picture of how this works.
SPEAKER_01: And the upshot of all of this is to get you to understand you can trust Jesus because he's been there.
SPEAKER_01: In that moment of temptation that you're facing, in that time, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: You are not ill-equipped.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has been there.
SPEAKER_01: He has defeated it.
SPEAKER_01: He is in your life.
SPEAKER_01: He is calling to you.
SPEAKER_01: He is trying to help you through that moment.
SPEAKER_01: And as we are doing this, discover Jesus and learn who Jesus is, who we need to know and be reminded of who Jesus is He is the one who is qualified to help us have victory over those temptations.
SPEAKER_01: Now, here's one way.
SPEAKER_01: We're going to talk about Scripture again in a minute.
SPEAKER_01: And we saw that Jesus was using Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: It is written.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I've done just as an example for you.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: I just took these scripture verses and I wrote them down on three by five cards.
SPEAKER_01: Just to illustrate a way for you to begin to work through these moments and connect with Jesus and trust him.
SPEAKER_01: And so I've written these down just as an example right here to show you.
SPEAKER_01: So here's what he says.
SPEAKER_01: We can trust that Jesus has been here.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 2, we just read, it says, so that we can come to him because he has been tempted in all ways as we are.
SPEAKER_01: Hebrews chapter 4, verse 15 reiterates that again.
SPEAKER_01: He has been through everything that we have been through so that the Bible says in that verse, we can boldly come to the throne of grace in time of need.
SPEAKER_01: So we are to come to Jesus in these moments, and we're not supposed to be embarrassed that we're having this temptation.
SPEAKER_01: We're not supposed to hide the fact that we have this struggle, and maybe I've been tempted to be with this, and this is in my life.
SPEAKER_01: He says, listen, I went through that so you could come to me.
SPEAKER_01: And so what we should do when we have that time of temptation is realize Jesus loves us and he did this for us and he has qualified this.
SPEAKER_01: You boldly come to him and say, okay, Jesus, here we go.
SPEAKER_01: This is hard.
SPEAKER_01: I need some help.
SPEAKER_01: I need you to help me.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it is the first foundational understanding of trusting Jesus in these moments that we come to him.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what do we do when we come to him?
SPEAKER_01: The next thing is we pray for protection.
SPEAKER_01: Again, one of the beauties of Scripture is how it all weaves itself together.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew chapter 6, and what we call the Sermon on the Mount, we've preached about this before.
SPEAKER_01: He gives us what we refer to sometimes as the Lord's Prayer, and it's the model of the things that should be on our prayer list as we're praying to him.
SPEAKER_01: In Matthew 6.13, you lead into it this way, you know it.
SPEAKER_01: Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_01: And what's the next verse?
SPEAKER_01: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_01: How do we come boldly to the throne of grace?
SPEAKER_01: You come in prayer and you ask him, Lord, I need you to lead me through this, get me away from this evil, you know how to do this.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, please protect me in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: And so he has already taught us how to come and pray and ask him to help us and protect us through that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the next verse.
SPEAKER_01: If we live surrendered to the Holy Spirit, if we live surrendered to the Holy Spirit, what does that mean?
SPEAKER_01: It just means we're walking with Jesus on a daily basis.
SPEAKER_01: It means that we are surrendering our lives to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to think about it this way, Pastor, where I grew up, used to tell us all the time Jesus is God for us on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: The Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Is God in us?
SPEAKER_01: It's how we live the Christian life through the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the Bible says in Galatians 5, verse 16.
SPEAKER_01: I say then, walk by the Spirit, and you will certainly not carry out the desires of the flesh.
SPEAKER_01: If we are in the Holy Spirit, if we are surrendered to Him, and that temptation comes, man, we know immediately to turn in prayer and draw close to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: We can trust that Jesus has been there.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me give you this word of encouragement.
SPEAKER_01: If you fail in that moment, because sometimes learning to defeat one of these things, a struggle we have in our lives, it can be a journey as our faith grows.
SPEAKER_01: Or sometimes we're in a moment where we just stumble and fall.
SPEAKER_01: As we've just modeled in the Lord's Supper, he says, listen, don't pull away because you have sin in your life.
SPEAKER_01: You draw to the Lord and you ask for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: 1 John 1 9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That verse in Hebrews 4, verse 14 that says we're supposed to come to him boldly.
SPEAKER_01: What does he say?
SPEAKER_01: Come to the throne of grace boldly.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, if you're in that temptation and maybe you're in a situation or a season where you feel like you're just failing and failing, and Satan gets in your ear.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, he is trying to destroy the work of God in your life, and he says, God didn't want to hear from you because you keep failing on that deal.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, he is lying to you, and that is a lie from the pit of hell.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus has been in that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: He knows how hard that temptation is.
SPEAKER_01: He already knows we failed and sinned.
SPEAKER_01: That's why he went to the cross to die for us.
SPEAKER_01: He is in that moment to give us victory.
SPEAKER_01: He understands the suffering and the struggle in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: He understands the lies of Satan.
SPEAKER_01: And when we have fallen in that temptation, the first thing we need to do is make a beeline to Jesus and his grace for forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let a failure or a struggle pull you away from God or the people of God.
SPEAKER_01: In that moment, you turn to Jesus because he is there to carry us through that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: I've given you an example there.
SPEAKER_01: If you just write that reference down, we don't have time to go to it.
SPEAKER_01: But what happens is Jesus warns Peter before he goes through all of his trials and all that that you will deny me three times before the rooster crows in the morning.
SPEAKER_01: But then he tells Peter this, he says, Peter, I want you to understand in this moment, and I've written this verse down because this is a key verse, Luke 22, verse 32.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't say you're not going to mess up.
SPEAKER_01: He's already told them you're going to mess up.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm praying, Peter, in that moment.
SPEAKER_01: I've already prayed for you.
SPEAKER_01: I've prayed ahead of time.
SPEAKER_01: I'm praying you through this, and I'm praying that your faith does not fail.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because it is our faith and trust in Jesus that draws us back to him.
SPEAKER_01: And you, Peter, when you have turned back.
SPEAKER_01: You see, Jesus gives us victory.
SPEAKER_01: Even in that time of failure, Jesus knows the work that he's doing in Peter's life, and he's encouraging Peter when you have turned back.
SPEAKER_01: Not if, not maybe, but Peter, when, because I am not giving up on you, and I have prayed you through this struggle when you have turned back.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen your brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Peter, I'm literally going to turn around your failure and struggle into ministry that encourages your brothers around you.
SPEAKER_01: Do not pull away from the throne of grace.
SPEAKER_01: Turn to the throne of grace in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: Let's look at the next way that Jesus is qualified for us.
SPEAKER_01: He reminds us in this story that we can rely on Jesus as our helper and we are to resist Satan as our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And James 1:13, remember, God loves us.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says clearly, no one undergoing a trial should say, I am being tempted by God, since God is not tempted by evil.
SPEAKER_01: Remember, Jesus said, don't tempt God.
SPEAKER_01: And he himself does not tempt anyone.
SPEAKER_01: Each person is tempted when he is drawn away by his own evil desires.
SPEAKER_01: What is temptation?
SPEAKER_01: Temptation is not a sin, but it pulls at something in our lives and it tries to draw it out in a way that we make choices that are sinful, that we put things above Jesus, that we walk away from him, that we allow some separation to get created.
SPEAKER_01: Satan comes in and he pulls at something in our humanity.
SPEAKER_01: It may be our fallen nature, it may be our just life here, it may be taking a circumstance that's difficult, and he's just gonna tug and stir and find something in us and tempt us to get on that track and to start making decisions not to trust the Lord and not to follow him.
SPEAKER_01: But remember, God is not the one doing that in your life.
SPEAKER_01: God loves you.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came to give you victory over this.
SPEAKER_01: In James chapter 4, he goes to the next verse and he says, Satan is our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, submit to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_01: Remember that it is Satan who is trying to mess up the work of God, and he is trying to use us as a tool in that battle.
SPEAKER_01: And the Bible makes it very clear in Matthew chapter 4 when Jesus rebuked him that final time, the Bible says that the devil immediately left him.
SPEAKER_01: He won, he gives us victory.
SPEAKER_01: Arm yourself with spiritual armor.
SPEAKER_01: So now you understand God is on our side.
SPEAKER_01: He loves us.
SPEAKER_01: We're submitted and drawn to him.
SPEAKER_01: We're walking by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Satan is trying to mess up the work of God.
SPEAKER_01: He is our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: When we recognize him as our enemy, it gives us a healthy understanding of sin and the danger of this moment, and we want nothing to do with that because now we recognize him as our enemy.
SPEAKER_01: And then Ephesians chapter 6, the Bible says that we armor ourselves, and we spent the summer looking at the spiritual armor of God.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what the Bible says in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11 put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the schemes of the devil.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 13, for this reason, take up the full armor of God, so that you may resist in that evil day.
SPEAKER_01: And having prepared everything to take your stand.
SPEAKER_01: It's how we fight that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And then 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13.
SPEAKER_01: When I was in Bible drill as a kid, some of you remember Bible drill where we memorize scripture and all that.
SPEAKER_01: And we memorize this verse, and they used to refer to this verse as the trapdoor verse.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all know what a trapdoor is, right?
SPEAKER_01: You're watching some movie or whatever, and they escape from the enemy through a trapdoor in the floor and get out through some tunnel in the other side of the deal or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And so they told us this was the trapdoor verse.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what he says in 1 Corinthians chapter 10, verse 13 No temptation has come upon you except what is common to humanity.
SPEAKER_01: We think we're the only one going through this.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus went through all of it.
SPEAKER_01: Remember this story.
SPEAKER_01: But God is faithful.
SPEAKER_01: He will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able.
SPEAKER_01: But with the temptation, he will also provide the way out so that you may be able to beat it, to have victory.
SPEAKER_01: Because that is what Jesus has promised to do and qualified himself to do to give us victory over these times of temptation.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, what I want to tell you to do is invest yourself in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: See how deeply Jesus is invested in Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: He quotes Scripture by memory.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have to look around.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't have to Google a Bible verse.
SPEAKER_01: When Satan shows up with lust of the flesh or pride of life or whatever, Jesus is prepared and immediately has scripture memory.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not just random scripture, it is specifically for the moment.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives exactly the thrust from the living, powerful word of God that is exactly to that moment in the moment that is there, and he does it from a place of ownership in his heart.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, it is written.
SPEAKER_01: He looks them in the eye and he wields the two-edged sword of scripture and he waves it at his enemy because he has put on the armor of God and he says, No, it is written, and it is a place of ownership on his heart.
SPEAKER_01: And as believers, we cannot own scripture enough in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just give you this scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Psalm 119, 10 and 11.
SPEAKER_01: I have sought you with my whole heart or with all my heart.
SPEAKER_01: Do not let me wander from your commands.
SPEAKER_01: How do we search him, search for God?
SPEAKER_01: How do we communicate him?
SPEAKER_01: How do we work with him?
SPEAKER_01: How do we pursue him?
SPEAKER_01: It is through the living and powerful word of God.
SPEAKER_01: It is inherent in our life as a Christian that we own scripture as Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: Two weeks ago, we looked at even as a teenager when Jesus was 12 years old, about to turn 13, he had already spent so much time memorizing scripture and learning scripture that the priests and the scribes were in awe of what he already knew, of his insights.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, don't let anyone tell you that you kids or that your kids, moms, and moms and dads are too young to be learning scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Don't let anyone ever tell you that.
SPEAKER_01: You post it in your house, you speak it in your house, you play songs of scripture in your life, you memorize scripture, you help your children memorize scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Man, my parents crammed scripture down our throat all the time.
SPEAKER_01: It was unbelievable.
SPEAKER_01: When I was about seven years old, I figured out that my spiritual gift was howling at the moon.
SPEAKER_01: That I just griped and was frustrated.
SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I'm smart enough as a seven-year-old that I know exactly how life's supposed to work.
SPEAKER_01: And when mom and dad don't fall in line, or my brother or sister don't fall in line, that's frustrating because they just are not smart enough to know what I know that this is exactly how life's supposed to work.
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_01: Some of us have still not grown out of that experience, right?
SPEAKER_01: And so here we are, and I'm frustrated now, and so I start griping.
SPEAKER_01: And you know what my mom does?
SPEAKER_01: My mom is supposed to be a sweet, loving, caring mother who loves Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: She's the meanest five foot two South Mississippi honorary woman you ever met in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, she is stubborn and mean, it was awful.
SPEAKER_01: You know what she did?
SPEAKER_01: She wrote from the book of Philippians do all things without murmuring and disputing in big letters with a magic marker and put it with magnets on the refrigerator.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's just awful.
SPEAKER_01: There's just no call to be that unloving to your children.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_01: Y'all with me?
SPEAKER_01: But what was she doing?
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't just getting on to us, she is investing scripture into our lives.
SPEAKER_01: There is not ever too much scripture that you've invested in your life.
SPEAKER_01: I have to treasure your word in my heart so that I might not sin against you.
SPEAKER_01: What I would love to see our church do, what I pray would help you greatly, is to take this example.
SPEAKER_01: Write down Scripture.
SPEAKER_01: Take it with you.
SPEAKER_01: Begin to memorize it.
SPEAKER_01: And start with these principles that Jesus is the one who loves you.
SPEAKER_01: That he is qualified to give you victory in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: That the word of God teaches us through example and through truth that Jesus is there to make a way and give you victory.
SPEAKER_01: That Satan is your enemy, but praise God, he is a defeated enemy by the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, living the two-edged, wielding the two-edged sword of the Word of God.
SPEAKER_01: And there is nothing Satan can do to stand.
SPEAKER_01: It is God's word that says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because you are walking with Jesus, who is the King of kings and the Lord of Lords, and is qualified to give us victory over that temptation.
SPEAKER_01: Don't you bow your heads as we close this morning?
SPEAKER_01: I've been talking to Christians today.
SPEAKER_01: We've been taking the Lord's Supper today.
SPEAKER_01: But I told you at the beginning listen, we'd love for you, if you've never trusted Christ as your Savior, to give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Man, here's as good an example today as you can possibly get.
SPEAKER_01: The bread, that's a picture of how Jesus' body was broken for us when he went to the cross and he died in our place.
SPEAKER_01: He did that because he loves you.
SPEAKER_01: If you will give your life to Jesus, you enter into a covenant relationship with him.
SPEAKER_01: That's the covenant in his blood.
SPEAKER_01: It means that he promises he will step into your life and he will never leave you, he will never forsake you, he will never stop working, and he will always walk with you.
SPEAKER_01: That's how I can say, listen, he is qualified to defeat that temptation and give you victory.
SPEAKER_01: And if you fail, do not pull away from him and come back to him because the covenant in his blood says if we confess our sins, he is faithful to that covenant and what he has promised, and he will cleanse you from all unrighteousness.
SPEAKER_01: That's how we can say that.
SPEAKER_01: And then you've seen the picture of what Jesus went through just for us so that he could help us in those moments.
SPEAKER_01: That's how much Jesus loves you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to invite you to come and do give your life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Make him the Lord and Savior of your life.
SPEAKER_01: Ask for his forgiveness.
SPEAKER_01: Step into a relationship, trust him, draw near to him, give your life to him.
SPEAKER_01: Because he's done all of this for you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna pray, and our people are gonna stand and sing a testimony.
SPEAKER_01: Our pastors will be here at the head of the aisles.
SPEAKER_01: If you need Jesus, listen, I want to invite you to come.
SPEAKER_01: If you have questions and you just want to ask, just come and we'll answer them.
SPEAKER_01: No pressure, no hard sells.
SPEAKER_01: Listen, Jesus loves you, He's drawing you by love.
SPEAKER_01: Just come and ask.
SPEAKER_01: Bible says again, draw near to the throne of grace in time of need.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we love you and we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: And I ask, Father, that you'll take these pictures of how qualified you are to carry us through to victory to speak to lives and hearts today.
SPEAKER_01: Encourage, my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, help us all to make a commitment to invest more in Scripture as Jesus modeled for us.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, if there's someone today who needs to be forgiven, who wants to be saved, who wants to walk in relationship with you because of the picture they've seen from your word today.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray you'll give them the faith and the freedom to come.
SPEAKER_01: Help us to encourage them as they give their life to Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It is in his name we pray, and all God's people said.
SPEAKER_00: We pray this message has been a blessing to you and helped to strengthen your walk with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Please know we want to minister to you and pray for you.
SPEAKER_00: Send an email to contact us at fsfbc.org and let us pray for you and help you in any way we can.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for listening to Chapter and First, the Bible Teaching Ministry of Fort Smith First Baptist Church.