The Spirit and The Word Luke 4:1-15

Sunday April 19th  Luke 4:1-15
The Temptation of Jesus

4 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around [a]by the Spirit in the wilderness 2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. 3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.” 4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”

5 And he led Him up and showed Him all the kingdoms of [b]the world in a moment of time. 6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and [c]its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. 7 Therefore if You [d]worship before me, it shall all be Yours.” 8 Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God and serve Him only.’”

9 And he led Him to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here; 10 for it is written,

‘He will command His angels concerning You to guard You,’

11 and,

‘On their hands they will bear You up,
So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.’”

12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

13 When the devil had finished every temptation, he left Him until an opportune time.

Jesus’ Public Ministry

14 And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding district. 15 And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

Transcript

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Five, four, four, five, five, four, four, five, four, four, five, five.

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If you've got your Bibles, I encourage you to turn with me to Luke chapter four. Luke chapter four. And as you're turning there, and as we're making the transition to uh the choir coming back to the seats, by the way, you are coming back to the y'all aren't just leaving, are you? You're you are you're gonna you're gonna stick around. Okay, yeah, no, that that'll be good. That'll be good. I just want to a couple of personal things just to kind of set the stage. Uh first off, uh Pastor John Lilly last week, I'm so grateful. Um I've I've had this private conversation with a number of people, but just publicly so grateful for him sharing the word with us. And I don't know how many times I've thought to myself, am I letting the Mobites into the into the into the camp and all all that that's happened with that? I'm thankful for him, thankful for Pastor Bryant. Um I know with the transition of snowbirds, if you're not aware, they'll they'll be going back up north, and then hopefully we can snag them again coming back um south. But I'm also grateful for the pastors here at First Baptist. You are you are a very blessed church, and uh part of that is hearts like Pastor Matt, of caring about his Savior and caring about people and wanting to bring those two together. And I I just want you to know publicly that I'm I'm thankful for my brother in Christ. And it it it is one of those, it's bittersweet. It's like, man, I wish I was that passionate. At the same time, I'm I'm so grateful for what he he is and what he's doing, how God is using him. Now, this morning, we're going to be continuing in Luke, and even as I say this, I know this is going to be an issue, and I I am so sorry. And but I'm not, but I am. Uh we started, yeah, uh sorry, not sorry, but we started this year off wanting the our congregation um as pastoral staff. How do we how do we uh get a sense of the commission? How do we understand what it means to be living sacrificially for Jesus? And one of the thoughts that came to mind, it wasn't the scriptures inspired, I'm not, but it was a thought. It was just an idea. Wouldn't it be cool if we had missionaries throughout the year come and share what it's like to follow Christ sacrificially, what it's like to be on the mission field and what it what it's like to take the commission seriously. And we've got a privilege next week. I'm really excited about this. We've got an International Mission Board uh missionary who is going to be here next week. And it's one of those, we can't really advertise it strongly because of where he's serving. We can't we can't put it out there, but I want you to come back. I think you'll be blessed uh by what he's gonna share with us and the chance to be a part of that. I say all of that to say we're still in the Gospel of Luke. It's just taken us a whole lot longer to get through this than it would normally. But if you haven't turned there yet, Luke chapter 4, Dr. Luke is still in the precursor. He's still he's still in the point where he's wanting to explain how Jesus begins his ministry. He's not there yet. Jesus hasn't gone public per se yet, but he's getting really close. And as he's getting to this point, he's talked in the first three chapters, he's talked about who Jesus is. And if you haven't read this lately, or if you haven't been here for previous sermons, I'm gonna give you a spoiler alert. I'm gonna tell you what happens the first three chapters. He's he's talked about the coming of John the Baptist, the forerunner, the one who's gonna cry out, the Lord is coming, prepare the way. He's talked about the birth of Jesus, the Messiah, and where he came from and what he is all about. He's talked about the need for a savior and how that's going that's going to be realized and who Jesus is. And as he's doing all of this, he gets toward the end of chapter three, and he has this point of he's talking about Jesus encountering John the Baptist and the baptism of Christ, and then the genealogy of Jesus and how Jesus is proclaimed the Son of God. He comes from Adam, the other gospel talking about from Abraham, but this is all the way back to Adam. And all of this is happening on mission with Jesus, and something interesting happens after the baptism. If you got your Bibles, Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan. Now just pause there. And this is what I do all the time, so I'm I'm projecting on you, but sometimes I read verses and I think, oh, that's nice. And I don't take the time to just slow down and walk through this. And that's what we're going to do this morning, just for a few minutes. We're going to walk through what this verse means. So looking at the passage, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, Luke chapter 4, verse 1, full of the Holy Spirit, returns from the Jordan. He's referring to the baptism. He's saying, Jesus encountered that point of the story where Jesus is being baptized by John the Baptist. The Holy Spirit descends on him like a dove. God the Father speaking from heaven. This is my son in whom I'm well pleased. All of that's happening. And then continue the verse, Luke chapter 4, verse 1. Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness. Okay. Please keep keep the scripture up there, please. I I know you you want to see the preacher. I really want you to see the word. Look at this. Returned from the Jordan. Go back to verse 1. Led by the Holy Spirit. I am so grateful for those guys. I'm not trying to frustrate you, I'm sorry. Led around by the Spirit in the wilderness. Just let chew on that just for a second, because that's there's so much more that we could talk about. We're just going to talk about this. Led around by the Spirit in the wilderness. Satan, the devil, the evil one. Never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever control Jesus Christ. The temptation is not about, ooh, let's see who's going to win. God is God. Always God. And I don't understand why a lot. I don't understand how most of the time. But in Luke chapter 4, verse 1, Satan didn't lead Jesus into the wilderness. God led Jesus into the wilderness. That's really, really important. Because right now, this very moment, you could be unintentionally, subconsciously, by mistake, and that's why we have the word, that's why we have the church, you could be thinking to yourself that the powers of evil and the powers of good are two equal, separate powers that are battling against each other like the Star Wars and the Force. That's not what's happening. You have a God who is fully God. And even in the worst of the worst of the worst of the worst times, in the concentration camps, in the times of death and grief, in the times when you don't understand what's happening and why it's happening, there will never be a point where you or I will be outside of the hand, the providence, the sovereignty, the love of God. Folks, that is amen and amen. Because what we do, what I do, I'm projecting on you, and I apologize. Sorry, not sorry. What I do is I think, I wonder if God's aware of this. He's very aware. I wonder if God's in charge. He's very in charge. That never stops. It never stops. Luke chapter 4, verse 2. He was in the wilderness, verse 1, for 40 days being tempted by the devil. 40 days. His temptation didn't start on day 41. For 40 days, he was tempted by the devil. And during those 40 days, he ate nothing. And when they were it was over, this is one of the greatest understatements in the scripture. He was hungry. He was famished. He was emastiated. He was, he was, he would, if you had a picture of him, he probably looked uh he probably looked like he'd lost lost a water weight and and his face, ash, and all that. He was exhausted after 40 days. Now, why? Why is all this happening? What's going on? That's where I want to go with this. Now, Luke chapter 4, verse 1 and 2. I want you to see the last few verses that are part of the passage, and this is the inclusio. This is why I'm referring to this. If you've got your Bibles, I hope you do. If you don't have your Bible, grab a Bible on the pew back in front of you, scoot real close to the friendly neighbor who's got one in their lap. Whatever, just be sure that you you have the scripture in front of you. But look in verse 14 and verse 15 of Luke chapter 4. He says, And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit. So he was led by the Spirit in chapter 4, verse 1. He the Spirit descended on him like a dove in chapter 3 at the baptism. The Spirit of God, the Son of God, the God the Father, all of this is happening. The power of the Spirit, verse 6 14, and news about him spread through all the surrounding district. And he began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, truly human, truly God, completely 100% on both counts. His human nature was all human, his divine nature, all divine. He was a partial, parts, sub. He was completely both sides. We get this from a number of passages. Some were alluded to earlier when Pastor Matt was speaking. When we talk about who he is, his fully human nature was fully tempted by the devil. Now I know the thought occurs often. It has in my mind over the years. Well, I'm not Jesus. You're right, you're not. I'm not. The temptation isn't the same. Yes and no. The fully human part of Jesus was fully tempted, truly tempted by Satan. The equivalent, the closest thing I can come to in terms of trying to get my mind around this, is that Adam, before the fall, did not have a sinful nature inherited in him. Jesus, at this point, when we understand that he was conceived not by Joseph, but by the Holy Spirit, did not have a sinful nature within him, but he still, Adam fell. Jesus did not. It's one of those theology questions, and if I've already lost you and your eyes are glazing over and you're thinking about what's for lunch, I apologize, but this is really an important point. You've got to, we've got to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And if we claim to serve a Savior who could never have fallen, who could never have sinned, then that's not the perfect sacrifice. That's someone who is all God and not even close to human. We have to understand who he is in both natures. And even as I'm saying this, I am filled, I guarantee you, I'm filled with fear and trembling. Because I'm thinking, I hope I'm saying this right, I hope I'm understanding this right, and I hope you're hearing it right. All of that happening simultaneously. We serve a Savior who is fully God. His divinity never went away, he never stopped being all God. But he has two natures, divine and human. And in that human nature, we have the evil one coming, tempting him. And the one of the one of the commentators, one of the authors that I studied and researched as I was going through this, I like the way he put this. He said it's the equivalent when we talk about being in Christ, and you and I are followers of Christ. And we have we have the devil, oh, the silliness, some gypsy russell or whoever it was, the devil made me do it or whatever. But we have this idea that Satan is coming at us full force, that he is the enemy and he wants to destroy us, which is true. But in Christ, Jesus has the victory, and there is nothing. The book of Job, it was referenced last week. There is nothing that will come our way that doesn't filter through the hand and the sovereignty and the power of God. So even in the worst of times, we're in God's protection. Now, think about what was going on with Jesus' temptation. This is this is where we're going with this. When Jesus was tempted, in his human nature, he did not have the protection of union with Christ that you and I have. In other words, his encounter with the evil one was the power of hell, full force, no filter, no protection, no guarding. And to claim that Jesus doesn't understand temptation is a lie. To claim that Jesus doesn't understand what we're going through, Hebrews chapter 2, Hebrews chapter 4, is a lie. As a matter of fact, I would say that he understands temptation more than you and I will even begin to comprehend it. And let me tell you what I mean. This is so silly. I'm I'm hesitant even to say it, but some of you will say, well, finally, he's he's he's speaking my language. Here we go. How do you feel about chocolate chip cookies? What if the doctor told you no more chocolate chip cookies? This is so silly. I don't even believe I'm talking about this. What if the doctor told you no more chocolate chip cookies? And on one morning in particular, you had a glass of milk, and your eyes gleamed over, glanced over, and you saw that chocolate chip cookie. And you thought to yourself, I'm really tempted, this is so silly. I'm really tempted to eat that chocolate chip cookie. And you think, well, no, I'm gonna resist the temptation. And so you go about five minutes, then 10, and then 15, and you rationalize and you excuse, and you you you think to yourself, well, nobody will know, and what does the doctor know? He is practicing medicine, he doesn't really understand, and all this, all this other things that go through your mind. And then finally, after 30 minutes, you say, You know what? Life is short, eat, drink, and be merry, and you go and you grab and you enjoy that chocolate chip cooking. Compare that to the the gentleman who sits for 30 minutes and then an hour, and then a day, and then a week, and then a month. Still tempted, but never succumbs. Still possible, but doesn't happen. See, we we get it backwards. We think that Jesus doesn't understand temptation. Jesus understands it better than we do because we fall, because we eat the chocolate chip cookies, because we get into the mess and we start to tumble over and the slippery slope and we start to compromise and drift and doubt and struggle. Jesus didn't. And it isn't because he was weaker, it was because he was stronger. It wasn't because he didn't understand. He understood. He understood the full power of the evil one, and in the midst of that, standing his ground, he stood in a way that allows us to say, I can't do it in my own strength. I can't do it in my flesh, but by the Spirit of God, I'm going to abide in him. And because of his victory, I am victorious. Can I just do a little comment, a little editorial, a little parentheses? It won't take but two seconds. But be real careful when you talk about spiritual warfare, about your fight against the devil. Your fight against the devil was completed on the cross and on the resurrection. And your identity in Christ is what makes you victorious. Greater is he who is in me than he is in the world. If you spend more time focused on the devil than you do on your savior, you're getting misguided and you're getting duped, to be honest, because you're living in a world that doesn't need to be lived in. You live in victory, you live in freedom, you live in the power of Christ, the power of his resurrection. And because of that, we get to read passages like Luke chapter 4, and we get to say, wow, this is good. Because of what Jesus did for us. This is what he's doing. Jesus has a mission, he has a purpose, and Satan wants to steal, kill, and destroy. He wants to get him off track. And that's what we're going to talk about. Luke chapter 4, verse 3. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. The first temptation. Now, this is a summary. There are a lot, there's a lot I can say about this, but just real quick, this is a summary of the three. Um, I I I don't know how it all played out. I don't know if it was sequential, I don't know if it was over the 40 days. I don't know. I don't think Dr. Luke cares about us knowing that. I think he just wants us to understand what happened. Verse three If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. The temptation to disobey. Now, I I don't like my my notes in this one just to just shoot straight away with you for a second. Just fill it in, but listen to what the scripture says. If you are the son of God, Jesus in the baptism, God the Father saying, This is my son, going back to chapter three, this is my son, you are my beloved son, in you I am well pleased. You are my son. The last part of chapter three in Luke, he goes through the genealogy, starting with who they thought he was the son of Joseph, goes all the way back to Adam in the very last verse in chapter three, the son of Inosh, the son of Seth, the son of Adam, the son of God. Satan is getting to the very reality or the questioning of the reality of the Messiahship, the the truth of who Jesus is, fully God, the Son of God, the Messiah. This is a temptation you and I will never experience. We aren't the Messiah, we're not going to be the Messiah. He is, that's it. But what Jesus is experiencing right here is this temptation to question, to wonder. And what he the way that Satan is addressing it is in the fully human state of Jesus, of being hungry. He wasn't God only. In his human nature, he was hungry, which helps us identify, helps us understand that he had appetites, that he needed to be, he needed to be taken care of. And in his hunger, Satan was basically saying, and there's so much more to this, but he was basically saying, if you're really as big a deal as that baptism and all those people, and John and all those people are talking about, if you're really that big of a deal, then why don't you just why don't you just show off? Why don't you just take some of these stones that's been surrounding you for 40 days? And why don't you just, why don't you just like like manna in the desert? That's scriptural, right, Jesus? That's something in the Bible. We can do that. Take these stones and like manna in the desert, let you be the provider of your food. Let you take care of things. Let you take care of your needs. You claim to have the power of God, so by all means, Jesus, take care of yourself. And then Jesus does what is a pattern for us, which should be, which should be replicated in our walk with Christ, is he uses scripture to confront false. He uses scripture to battle the lies, the the armor of God. He says, This is this is how I'm going to walk in this. So what Jesus does as he's responding to that, verse 4, Jesus answered him, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone. And what we've got to do with all three of these, and I hope you're in a life group. If you're not, I I encourage you to get connected with one because what we try to do is we take passages like this, and we really spend more time digging into them. And once with all three temptations, you've got the first one out of Deuteronomy chapter 8, the next the last two out of Deuteronomy chapter 6, and there's a story that goes along with what Jesus is quoting. So he is using the scripture, but he understands the scripture he's using. He's not just saying a Bible verse, he's keeping it in context and the right hermeneutic or interpretation so that he can give it the way that it needs to be given. The passage he's quoting in Luke chapter 4, verse 4, comes out of Deuteronomy chapter 8. Let me just read this to you real quick. He says, All the commandments that I have commanded you today, you shall be careful to do, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land which the Lord swore to your to your forefathers. You shall remember all the way which the Lord your God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. He humbled you and let you be hungry, and fed you with manna which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you understand that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of the Lord. Moses writing to the children of Israel You've been through it. You went through the wilderness. Not a coincidence, Jesus is in the wilderness. You've been forty years. As you've gone through, God's taking care of you. And part of the provision, part of the substance, part of him taking care of your physical needs is mamma, quell, water. He's done this. But he didn't do it just so you would be satisfied physically. He wanted you to know that he is the provider of every good thing. He wanted you to know that this isn't just about crumbs that fall along the side of the road. This is about a life that is dependent upon God. And Jesus, as he's hearing Satan say, take these stones, turn them into bread, the temptation is to think, well, that would satisfy my physical hunger. But then the greater, bigger picture, the thing that allows us to worship Jesus all the more and to glorify his name is that he realized that if he were to take the sovereignty and the provision and the grace of God out of God the Father's hands, he would be usurping an authority that he needed to stay in submission to. If he were to say, I'm going to take care of this, it doesn't matter what God says or Satan says, I'm going to take my own word, I'm going to do my own thing. Even though he was fully God and fully human, what he was doing is he was saying, I'm not going to trust what God says or why he says it. Put it another way. I'm going to trust the commandments of God. And I'm not trusting them just so I can do the right thing and God will be pleased by me. I'm trusting them because I trust the heart of a God who loves me. He loves me so much, he gives me the commands that he wants me to listen, he wants me to depend, he wants me to trust, he wants me to stay humble and submissive, not dissatisfied, not insubordinate, not self-interest, not self-will, but he wants me to trust him. You see, sometimes we treat the law of God like the enemy, like, well, that's a that's a cosmic kill joy. He he wants us to be upset and unhappy and negative. No, no, no. It's out of love. They're not burdensome. It's out of love that he tells us how he is ordained, how he is sovereign, how he is governed. It's out of love that he gives us these so that we can know him better, so that we can enjoy him better, these means of grace, so that we can walk with him and talk with him, so that we can be with him. And the temptation to disobey isn't just about the disobedience, it's about the heart behind the disobedience, about who's going to be God, who's going to be in charge, who's going to be, who's going to be the leader here. Alright, that's the first one. The second temptation, Luke chapter 4, verse 5. It's a different order in the Gospel of Matthew, I believe, for a different reason. But for this, Luke chapter 4, verse 5, he led him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. I have no idea what that looked like. I have no idea how that played out, but I tell you it happened because the scripture says so. Verse 6. And the devil said to him, I will give you all this domain and its glory, for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you worship before me, it shall all be yours. Does that bother you at all? It shouldn't. There's a number of things that's wrong with this. Is it true that Satan was in charge of everything? He's the ruler of this air, uh, of the air, he's he's the ruler of this been handed over back to the book of Job again, but not outside of God's sovereignty. So the funny thing about temptation, our will being butted up against the will of God, thy will be done. The funny thing about temptation, idolatry, pride, thinking that we know better than God himself. The funny thing about temptation and what Satan does is he doesn't tell you whole truths and whole lies. He tells you partial truths and partial lies. You see, Satan did have authority, but not the way that he was saying. And there is something happening, but not the way that he is describing it. And so there's this rationalization, there's this, this it's the Garden of Eden. It's it's him telling, did God really say that? Is that really what it was supposed to be? And what he does, he does, he does, is he makes you question not just the words of God, but the character of God coming behind the words of God. He says, I wonder if God really does trust you, I wonder if God really does love you. I wonder if God really does have your best interest at heart. That's the temptation. And what Jesus does when he hears this, this temptation to deny, what Jesus does is he says, No, I'm gonna keep this, I'm gonna keep this very simple. Luke chapter 4, verse 8. Now he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 6. He says, You shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only. So what may be seen as, well, let's let's uh let's just get up there on the top of the mountain, wherever he was, let's see all of these kingdoms, and now I can have all the glory that I I believe I was born to have, that I was that I'm here to be a part of. But if I do it Satan's way, I don't have to worry about the cross. I don't have to worry about the passion, I don't have to worry about suffering. If I do it Satan's way, then I can I can get all of the benefits, quote unquote, of the glory without the pain. You understand what's happening here? Do you understand what happens in our walk with Jesus? When we say, Lord, I I want to be yours, I want to I want to deny myself, I want to take up my cross daily, I want to follow you, unless, of course, it's between these hours or cost this much money. And then then it's too inconvenient, and please leave me alone. Unless it costs me something, unless it unless it creates some sort of conflict where I have to please people or or my my job or my family or myself, then let's renegotiate. That's what's happening here. Do you trust the will of God? Do you consider the wisdom of God and how he works in such a way that he, his path, his way, is not one of many good options. It is the option. That his will is what God has called you to. Jesus, as he's encountering this, he'd rather he'd rather do it God's way for a number of reasons, if for no other, because to do it Satan's way would be to glorify Satan, and Satan is a created being. He needs, we need to glorify God and God alone. He is he is a jealous God, his glory does not belong to another. But I want to I want to show you this passage because I I love the way that this happened doing it God's way. Philippians chapter two, speaking of Jesus, saying, Being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death. So his obedience, his humility, even death on the cross. For this reason also God highly exalted him, and bestowed on him the name which is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. If they had done it, if he had done it the way Satan wanted them to do it, he's still getting the glory, but not this way, not to the glory of God the Father. He would have gotten things with strings attached, he would have gotten things that were not right, that were outside of the will and the providence and the love of God, and because of that, not trusting God's will, he he would have been tempted to go against that, but he wasn't. He wasn't. One last one last temptation. Luke chapter 4, verse 9. He led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and he said to him, If you are the son of God, so there he goes again, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from there, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will they will bear you up so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Now there's a number of passages that underlie this passage. Uh you go to Psalm 91, you see the psalm about the refuge, the security of those who trust in the Lord. You go to Deuteronomy chapter 6, what Jesus is quoting in his response. You go to Exodus chapter 17, which is the story behind the quote of Deuteronomy chapter 6. I'm getting I I know you're lost, I'm sorry. But here we go. Here's the response Luke chapter 4, verse 12. And Jesus answered and said to him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. The temptation, chapter 4, verse 9 through 11. If you are the Son of God, go up to the top of the temple. The temple representing the presence of God, the protection of God, go up to the top of the temple. And if you're as special as you claim to be, if you're as protected as you claim to be, as you if you are as as magnificent as you're claiming to be, this Holy Spirit descending and the God the Father saying, You are my my son, I'm well pleased. If all this is true, then why don't you just live up to your reputation? Why don't you just go ahead and go to the top of the temple, let everybody see you, and just jump off and let it happen so that you don't even scratch your little toe against the semen or the against the flint, against the rock at the bottom of the temple. Why don't you take care of that? The temptation to doubt. The temptation to doubt. You see what was happening. Satan uses scripture against Jesus' use of scripture. The difference is Psalm 91 is about refuge in God, security in the one who trusts in the Lord. It's not about presumption, it's not about pride. But what Satan was asking Jesus to do in this moment was to say, go ahead and just throw yourself out there. Just go ahead and and make God do what you want Him to do. I need you to hang on to your spiritual hats for just a second. The testing of Gideon and the fleece, or yeah, the fleece. That's not that's not okay. I I know we treat it like, well, let me just see if the wool will be wet and the ground will be wet, and vice versa, and all that. You and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, and I'm I'm praying as I'm saying this, we don't have the right to tell God, prove yourself. He is God. We don't have the right to yell up to the heavens and say, Lord, are you really among us or not? And that's what they were doing in Exodus 17. We don't have the right to doubt the authority of God in our life. And this presumption, this pride, what he's referring to, what he's talking about, the the last blank, trust the authority of the Lord of God. What he's doing as he's as Satan is tempting Jesus, what he's doing is he's he's saying, What I want you to do is I want you to get up there and I want you to make God show himself out for you. It would be the equivalent of us going to the top of this church and jumping off in in irregardless of the laws of gravity or the scripture or anything else and saying, if God really loves me, he's going to catch me before I hit the ground. God really, really does love you. He loves you with a love that you can't even begin to get your heart or your head around. But in the midst of his love for you, he's giving you his inspired word. And in his inspired word, it says, if you jump off of a building, you are going to hurt yourself. His inspired word says that there's a man-given wisdom, knowledge, common grace that allows us to understand the laws of gravity. There's a given understanding of when the scripture talks about poisonous snakes and handling snakes and whatnot, it doesn't say, go ahead and just see if I'm going to keep you alive, even if you get bitten by a hundred snakes. That's not what the scripture says. When we talk about presumption, when we talk about pride, when we talk about testing the or trusting and not trusting the authority of God, we're talking about, God, I know you said that I shouldn't be married to an unbeliever, but I'm going to go ahead and do it and I'm going to trust that you're going to make it all come out okay. That's presumption. God, I know you said that I'm not supposed to lie, cheat, steal, but I'm doing it for a good reason. That's presumption. God, I know you say in your word that I'm supposed to have integrity, that I'm supposed to walk in truth, that I'm supposed to love my neighbor. But you understand that they did such a terrible thing to me. And I still need you to bless me. That's presumption. You can't go against the word of God and say, I submit to your authority, Lord, except for this one time, and I want to do my own thing. I want to do it my way, and I don't, I, I don't, I don't want to do yours. When we start to dictate to God the terms, when we test God, rather than allowing him to test us, we're getting into all sorts of mixed up and backwards. Jesus did it right. The Israelites in Deuteronomy did not. Jesus understood, he understood how to accomplish this, and we follow him in that. Now, I'm about done. I'd like you to turn with me, please, to James chapter 4. And I understand that when the pastor says about done, some of you are excited and some of you are not, and I get that, and I I understand there's a whole lot of mixed emotions. But I need you to I need you to hang on with me for just a couple moments, because I want to read this passage to you, and I want you to think about something. James chapter 4, starting in verse 1. He says, What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source of your pleasures that wage war in your members. You lust, you do not have, so you commit murder. You're envious and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask, and you ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures. You adulteress. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Now just pause there. I just want you to think about this just for a second. James is writing to the church. He's not writing to the unbelievers, he's writing the believers. And he's writing to believers who are having all sorts of conflict, all sorts of tension, all sorts of issues within the body. And he says, What I want you to do is I want you to think about what you're fighting about. I want you to think about what your quarrels are about. I want you to think about why this bothers you. Why are your buttons, this is my paraphrase, why are your buttons getting pushed and why are they getting pushed so hard? And why are you reacting the way that you're reacting? And he says, I want you to, I want you to like an onion, I want you to take layer after layer after layer off, and I want you to realize that your issue really isn't the other people. Although you'd like to believe that, the real issue is that in your heart of hearts, you are not a friend with God, you are a friend with the world. In your heart of hearts, you want it your way better than Burger King. You want everything to function the way you want it to function. And what's causing the quarrels and the fights among you is that you're an adulterer. And he gets right down to it, man. James, man. He got to try to do it. So he says, What you're doing is you're committing adultery because you're supposed to be faithful to your God, to be friends with your God. Instead of being friends with your God, you're being friends with yourself. You want to do things the way you want to do them, and you want other people to become projects or programs and get out of the way, help you or get out of the way. He says, Do you understand what you're doing? Do you understand what this is? Continue in the passage. Verse 5. Do you think that the scripture speaks to no purpose? He jealously desires the Spirit, which he has made, to dwell in us. The Spirit of God, when you're saved, that metamorphosis, that transformation, that new creation, the Spirit of God dwells. And he says, He's not gonna, he's not gonna be okay with a fight with the flesh. You're gonna have to choose whether you're gonna follow the spirit or and and satisfy that pleasure for God, or you're gonna follow the flesh and satisfy your own selfish desires.

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Then verse six. But he gives greater grace.

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Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.

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Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God. This is beautiful.

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Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Now I'm gonna finish the passage in just 20 seconds, but but just hang on. What happens in our walk with Christ is we say, well, the preacher, the Sunday school teacher, my my parents, my my elders, my deacons, they all they said I need to read the Word of God. So we read and we read and we read and we say we we get puffed up with knowledge, and we say, hey, I understand now, I understand the Trinity, I understand the virgin birth, I understand the redemption and the story and the covenants, and we get more and more proud. We become we become really nice, polished Pharisees walking around with all this information, and we have lost God. We haven't thought about the creator, the author. We we've thought about what he said, and it's really good, but we're the word without the spirit. We're really, really well educated, way beyond our obedience. And we think that all we've got to do is just know the Bible, and we're good. Nowhere in the Bible, nowhere does it say sacrifice the giver for the gift. Nowhere does it say seek God's word above God Himself. The point of God's word is to know God, his inspiration, his word. And what happens along the way is that we we get it all kind of mixed up and we think to ourselves, well, as long as I know more Bible, then I'm gonna be fine. No, as long as I know more God, I'm gonna be fine.

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No. The word and the spirit. You can't know God without his word. And you have to have the word to know God.

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Do you understand what happens when you just focus on the scripture without the God who wrote the scripture? You are gonna dry up, you're gonna die on the vine, and you are gonna be one of the bitterest, angriest malcontents on the face of the planet because you're gonna think all I gotta do is just memorize a few more scriptures and I'm gonna be good. What if you go to the other side? What if you fall on the other side of the ditch? What if you think, well, all I gotta do is know Jesus and you'll leave your Bible closed? What Jesus are you knowing if you you don't open your Bible? All I gotta do is just experience the emotions and the and the worship. I just gotta feel good. Without the scripture, there's no basis, there's no foundation to what you're feeling. There's no interpretation that is inspired and accurate to allow you to see whether it's you or the flesh or the devil, there's nothing that's gonna be able to guide you step by step, a lamp unto your feet, a light unto your path. You've got to have both the spirit and the word. If you try to do all inspiration, all oh boy, at church history, if you try to spend all your time looking for an experience, chasing an emotion, you're gonna lose sight of the fact that he gave us the word so that we can know him fully, so that we can abide with him. So you can't have one versus the other. You have to have both. And so what Jesus is doing in the temptations, and I love this, he's saying, I'm gonna walk the Father's way, I'm gonna submit to him, the fully human nature of Jesus. I'm gonna submit to the Father. And I'm not just submitting because he said so, which is a really good reason. It's because I know him. And when I read his word, I'm reading him.

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Him. Him. Come back to James chapter 4.

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Back up to verse 6. He gives a greater grace. Therefore, it says, God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit, therefore, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. Be miserable and mourn and weep. Let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and he will exalt you. You can't take the temptations of Jesus, and you can't say, Well, those are my temptations, those were Jesus' temptations. You can't take the temptations of Jesus, say Satan is doing the same thing to me. He's not. You're not God, you're not in you're not Emmanuel, this is not the same thing. But what you can do and what we should do is we should realize that Jesus wasn't done with Satan. Satan was going to continue to tempt, he was going to continue to work through the ministry in the life of Jesus. For example, when Peter tries to say that the suffering would not come, Jesus says, get thee behind me. There is so much that we see Satan trying to give shortcuts or alternatives to the truth of God's plan. We can't take that. We can't say that we are the Messiah. But what we can do is we can realize that what Jesus was doing in the midst of the temptation, using the Word of God, is He was giving us this pattern, this budget, this outline. And he was saying, okay, when you are tempted to go outside of the sovereignty and the wisdom and the love of God, you don't spend more time thinking about what you're tempted with. You come back and you look at the one who is the source of all wisdom, the source of all power, the source of all love. When you're tempted to think that God doesn't know what he's doing and things aren't going the way you want them to go, and you should do something different because you know better, you don't spend more time thinking about the counterfeit, you come back to the authentic. You don't spend more time thinking about the fake, you think about the real true thing, and you fix your eyes on the author and the perfecter, the finisher of your faith, and you realize that if I'm going to get through this, it's not because I'm doing a better job, it's because I'm humbling myself before the Lord, submitting to God, resisting the devil, drawing near to God, letting God draw near to me. The heart cry of this passage, the heart cry of this church is in the next few sentences. Please, I beg you, don't mistake the gifts of God for God Himself. And don't think that all you've got to do is just get a few verses and have a few gifts and go about your business, and equate that with knowing the person and the work of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.

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You and I have a responsibility as followers of Christ to navigate this in such a way that we start and finish and all the time in between, every day, seeking Him. Blessings will come, grace abounding, truth without end. But really, what we want is Jesus. Really, what we want is Jesus.

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Jesus Christ and Him crucified. If you come into this room this morning and you're thinking to yourself, just give me a few more tips, give me a few more additions, give me a few more, give me a few more bullets for my spiritual gun. I'm going to disappoint you. But if you come to a point of realizing that we are at war with the world, the flesh, and the devil, and that Jesus Christ Himself withstood temptation greater than we will ever understand. And in the midst of him withstanding that temptation, he understood and he walked and he talked the truth that the way we do this is not focusing more on the evil one, it's focusing more on the Savior, focusing on God. If that's your heart cry this morning, in just a few moments, we're going to have a time of invitation. And there will be pastors, there'll be deacons who'll be at the front to be honored, honored. I'm not just saying that lightly. Honored to talk with you and pray with you about what it means to follow Jesus Christ, to be his disciple. It might be that you're here this morning and you're thinking to yourself, I don't know what the pastor's going on and on about. None of this really makes any sense to me. But I'm open to a conversation. That's why we're here. We're glad to talk to you about these things. And between you and me, don't tell anybody I said this. We haven't got it all figured out either. But we serve a Savior who has. We don't have all the answers. He does. We don't know all of it. He does. And that might be your call today as well. Just somebody to talk with, somebody to pray with. It very well could be that you are in the throes of a spiritual battle right now. And passages like Luke chapter 4 are really encouraging or really discouraging. He's like, well, okay, Pastor, what do I do? I don't know. But I know what Jesus does. He takes care of the humble. He draws nearer to those who draw near to him.

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He is our victory. He is our answer. He is our truth.

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I'm going to ask you to bow your head. I'm going to take some time in prayer this morning. Every head bowed, every eye closed. Pastor Adam's going to come to the front. He's going to close us in just a moment in prayer. And as he's coming and as I'm praying, I'm going to give you the option in just a few moments to, after the closing prayer, to come and talk with a pastor or with a deacon.

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But right now I just want to open open the heart and the opportunity to speak with your Savior. Not for us. Not for our glory, but for yours. Not for our name, but for yours. Lord, you taught us to pray, our Father growing in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. And truth be told, we forget that.

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I forget that. All the temptations, all the trials, all the struggles. Let us fix our eyes on you. I pray for the believer here this morning who, even now, the Spirit of God and the Word of God is working, is speaking, is healing, is forgiving. I pray for the unbeliever, the one who is not yet to that point of surrender, of repentance and faith. I pray today be the day of salvation. I pray for the angry, for the bitter, for the pride, for the adulterer. I pray that your spirit would would break through and that you would be glorified.

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Not because we made more of ourselves, but because we made more of you.

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On earth as it is in heaven.

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In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Would you stand with me, please? Pastor.

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Amen. That's powerful. Be sure to. If you haven't filled out your ballot, make sure you put that at the back desk. I'll be sure to count that for you. Let's have a word of prayer. Father, we thank you for the preaching of your word just now. We thank you for, as we were reminded by Pastor Byron, Lord, you have won the war. You have the victory. So Lord, as we live the Christian life, as we put on the armor, Lord, this is a putting on of you. This is a trusting in you. This is a looking to you, Jesus. So Lord, as we battle, as we as we fight against, as Pastor said, the world, the flesh, and the devil. Lord, help us to keep you first and foremost. Help us to cry out to you. Thank you for our Savior, our example, our Savior, our King. Be with us as we go out now into the world. Help us to be a shining light, to be salt. As Pastor Matt reminded us, Lord, to carry the commission. Help us every morning as we wake up to put on our armor and go out and fight. For King, thank you for your love, Lord. You am I praying. Amen.