Why Jesus Faced Temptation And What It Means For Us - Luke 4:1-13

A silent wilderness. An empty stomach. A question of identity. Our walk through Luke 4 isn’t about trivia or moralism; it’s about how Jesus stands where Israel—and we—so often fall. Fresh from His baptism and the Father’s approval, the Son is led by the Spirit into testing, not away from it. There, the devil aims at hunger, ambition, and spiritual pride. Each time, Jesus answers with Deuteronomy, tying His obedience to Israel’s story and revealing Himself as the faithful Son who trusts the Father’s word when appetite, power, and spectacle beckon.

We unpack three crucial temptations. First, the pull of immediate desire over intimate devotion: turning stones to bread would have traded communion for convenience. This frames modern discipleship in honest terms—fasting versus scrolling, presence over distraction, joy grounded in God rather than quick fixes. Second, the offer of a crown without a cross: authority divorced from atonement would have abandoned people for power. We explore how Jesus’ mission prioritizes redemption over status and how our own shortcuts—platform over character, acclaim over service—erode the very calling we claim to pursue. Third, the lure of presumption dressed in Scripture: from the temple’s height, Satan quotes Psalm 91 to sanction a reckless leap. We show how context guards us from misusing promises, how faith submits while presumption coerces, and why obedience is the only secure path through testing.

This message blends theology and practice: Jesus as the true Israel, tempted as we are yet without sin; the role of Deuteronomy in spiritual warfare; fasting as recalibrated desire; worship as loyalty in a world of shortcuts; and the disciplined reading of Scripture to resist subtle lies. The takeaway is both humbling and hopeful: the Son’s perfect “yes” becomes our righteousness, and His pattern becomes our path. If this resonates, share it with a friend who’s battling distraction, chasing hollow crowns, or wrestling with verses in isolation. 

Transcript

Setting Luke’s Theme: The True Son

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Well, good morning. If you have a Bible, go ahead and open it up. And if you would, uh, meet me in the book of Luke, chapter four, as we continue what is going to be a two-year-long series walking through the book of Luke. That series is called The Real Story of Jesus. Luke was written by a guy by the name of Luke. He was a physician. He had a friend named Theophilus. Theophilus had a crisis of faith, needed certainty concerning the things he had been taught. And so Luke compiled a narrative of detailed events to give Theophilus, his Roman friend, certainty concerning the things of Jesus. Theophilus was probably a skeptic. And so we say this is good news for skeptics. This morning we'll be looking at the temptation of Jesus, why it's in Scripture, why it happened, why it happened, why it matters, and what it teaches us about Jesus, Satan, and temptation. If you can see chapter 4, verse 1 in front of you, we're going to go ahead and read through all 13 verses. So if you'll just follow along, I'm going to read them. And if you can just follow along. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, that is where he was just baptized, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. First test. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. Second test. And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will be all yours. And Jesus answered him, It is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Third test. And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. Would you pray with me? God, speak to us this morning, we pray, by your spirit, from your word. Convict us, teach us, train us to be more like Jesus, whom the world needs. Lord, you know more than anyone else in this room that I am a fallible man prone to wander. Please help me bring your infallible word, the word that teaches us that you never wandered. In your name we pray. Amen. This passage, the temptation of Jesus. This passage exists first and foremost to teach us something about Jesus, the Son of God. First and foremost, notice something. At his baptism, Jesus is identified as the Son of God. He has many titles at his baptism, the identification of Jesus, the Son of God. And notice at his baptism, not only is he identified as the Son of God, but he is the Son in whom the Father is well pleased. Notice also that in the temptation of Jesus, following right after his baptism, what is put into question from the devil is Jesus' what? His sonship. Twice the devil appeals to who he claims to be. Verse three, if you are the son of God, verse nine, if you are the son of God. So what the devil puts on trial again is Jesus' sonship. So here's the question Is Jesus the true son of God? Well, ancient Israel. Ancient Israel too had been called the Son of God. And that's important. Exodus four, beginning in verse twenty-two and twenty-three, God told Moses, You shall say to Pharaoh, Thus says the Lord, Israel is my firstborn son. And I say to you, let my son go, that he may worship me. Or how about Hosea chapter 11, verse 1? When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. So Israel was the son of God. But the people of Israel were far from perfect children, right? God had made a covenant with them to bless them, to establish them, and make them a holy nation, but it was conditioned upon their obedience to his covenant. If you will keep my commands and obey my covenant, you will be a holy nation, a people of my own possession. And this son, Israel, was consistently disobedient. In fact, most of the references to Israel as the Son of God in the Old Testament are in the context of their disobedience to their father. Isaiah chapter 1, verse 2, I reared children and brought them up, but they have rebelled against me. Malachi 1 6, a son honors his father. If then I am a father, where is my honor? Or Deuteronomy chapter 32, verse 5 and 6. If you don't know, Deuteronomy is the last book that Moses wrote in his older age, talking to Israel, who consistently disobeyed, and because they disobeyed, wandered forty years in the wilderness. His final sermon to Israel, he says, This they are no longer his children because they are blemished, a crooked and twisted generation. Do you thus repay the Lord, you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father who created you, who made you, and established you. Now, in Jesus' temptation, it is fitting that every verse Jesus quotes in response to the devil who tempts him is from that same book. The book of Deuteronomy. Moses' final words from the Father to the Son. Every response. Every response Jesus gives the devil is from Deuteronomy. Again, the book recording Moses' final words to Israel, who had been wandering in the wilderness, giving in to temptation after temptation, for hunger, for power, and for safety. Now, why does that matter? It matters because in this important moment, beginning Jesus' ministry, Jesus is identified as who? The Son. And he is in the wilderness. Will he wander from the mission when tempted with hunger? When tempted with power, and with tempted for safety. Well, God shows us through his servant Luke that Jesus is the true Son of God. The perfect Son of God. In fact, because he is so, he is the true and perfect Israel. From the water, chapter three, into the wilderness, chapter four. Forty days, like forty years, disarming the devil's attempts to cause him to distrust God with the conviction of God's word. He is in all ways the better Israel, the true Son. Jesus is the one who keeps that covenant. Jesus is the true Israel. He is the perfect Son. And now all in Him, Jew or Gentile, slave or free, male or female, receive His righteousness by faith, Galatians three and Romans four. They inherit God's promises to Abraham. Again, Galatians three and six. All who trust in him by faith receive his righteousness, inherit God's promises to Abraham, and are now in an unconditional covenant with God as his holy nation and royal priesthood, according to First Peter chapter three. Men, you know this because you've been memorizing it on Monday nights from First Peter chapter, I said three, chapter two. In Christ, the Son of God, you who believe by faith are the sons of God. Romans 8, 14 through 17, Galatians 3, 26, Galatians 4, 7, John 1 13, 1 John 3 2, Philippians 2 15, Ephesians 1 4, 2 Corinthians 6 18, Romans 9 26. It is all over the New Testament. He is the Son, in him you are the sons of God. That's the point of this passage. The main point. Jesus is who we could never be, so that we might receive what we never could earn. He was righteous and perfect in all his ways. We are not, but he gives us his righteousness by his death. So that we're called sons and daughters of God. That's the point. But there's more we learn. In every text of scripture, there is often like one central point, but there's also many things that we learn along the way. So we are going to walk through this passage nice and slow. I have three main points out of the three tests. Because this passage doesn't only help us identify Jesus as God's Son and identify ourselves in Jesus as the sons of God, but it also shows us how Jesus withstood temptation and did not succumb to it. It also teaches us how we might think through the devil's tricks in our lives. So let's walk through it nice and slow. Verse 1, you see it with me. Many comments to make, many things we won't be able to even cover. Verse 1, and Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit. Now, this is a unique phrase because it's not before been used in Scripture. There's been scripture like it, but not exactly. Even in the Gospel of Luke, two other times we see something similar to this is Elizabeth when she's filled with God's Spirit to proclaim that Jesus, the one visiting in the womb of Mary, is the Messiah. She's filled with God's Spirit. Then again, we have a similar thing when Simeon in the temple grabs baby Jesus, making the most interesting baby dedication ever, and says, This is Jesus, I can die now. Well, he's filled with God's Spirit too. But Jesus is unique because he is full of God's Spirit. But full of the Spirit to communicate the eternal nature of God residing within his son. He is different. And he, after being baptized, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit. And we know he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness where he'd be tempted. So let's just look at that phrase, led by the Spirit. Because I want you to notice that the conflict that he is encountering was not initially initiated by the devil. He was led there. Not by the devil, but by the Spirit of God. So Jesus in our passage is not portrayed as being like passively dragged out so that he might have to endure the devil's schemes. The initiator of this event seems to be the Spirit of God, which tells us ever so briefly here, those led by God's Spirit are not always led away from difficulty, but right through it. God, according to the book of Hebrews, often allows us and even kind of leads us through difficult days to grow our dependence upon Him. And to grow even some distaste for the world, reminding ourselves, it's passing away. My hope's not here, it's there. And if God is gracious to us, which he is, he will sometimes allow us to go through those difficult days so that we don't put our hope here. God in his kindness may lead us through difficulty to grow our dependence on him and show us once more that he keeps us. He keeps us. Where was he led? He was led into the wilderness. This word wilderness reminds us of a place called Jeshemon, which is a Hebrew term meaning deserted place, desolate place, wasteland. It's used elsewhere in the Bible to refer where the young near king, nearly King David, hid from King Saul as Saul pursued him. It's a desolate place. It's a place of testing. Jesus is there. It's a place where people are hungry. It's uninhabited. It's rugged. And of course, the question is: what will come of this time if I hadn't already told you that he was perfect and withstood temptation? That's the question. What will happen? Will Jesus succumb? For forty days he was tempted by the devil. Now again, this is not a junior varsity demon. This is the devil visiting Jesus. Pulling out all the stops. The temptation he brings is not what you would think it would be. I mean, at least not what we would experience as temptation you would think. Like because he says certain things that only Jesus can do. The devil's not tempting you to turn uh stones into bread, right? But they're very important for Jesus' mission. Will he be derailed or not? When we think about temptation as Christians, I want to give this to you. Temptation, I've said this many a time. Temptation is that brief but significant moment of evaluation between believing that what God has given us is good and enough, and believing that what he has kept us from is bad and harmful. That's what temptation is. A brief moment of evaluation. What God has given me. Is it good? Is it enough for me? Has he been kind to me? Do I trust him? Will I believe him? And will I also believe him that what he's keeping me from is bad for me? Though it looks interesting, it's bad for me. It's harmful to me. Do I believe him? Will I take him at his word? Temptation simply asks the question will I believe God?

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Will we believe God? What he has said. Temptation is not sin.

Test Two: A Crown Without A Cross

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Yielding to it is. Yielding to it is. It's that moment of evaluation. Will I believe him with what I see and with what I don't? Says Jesus ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry. Just as an aside, Luke's a doctor, but you don't need to be a doctor to know that after 40 days, you're gonna be hungry. And he's hungry. He was truly man. So here's three temptations. We're gonna walk through each. We'll learn a lot from each. The first temptation, I am uh I have changed my outline like 20 times because I didn't like the titles for each temptation, each, each, each section. I kind of like these, but these aren't scripture, right? So make sure you pay attention to the scripture, not just the title. Here's the first the temptation of immediate desire. Fleshly desire. Immediate desire over intimate devotion. Immediate desire over intimate devotion. Verse 3 says, The devil said to Jesus, If you are the Son of God, again his sonship's being challenged, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him. Again, from Deuteronomy. Now note this temptation is physical, it is appealing to the physical nature of Jesus. Jesus here, aside from being with the devil, is alone and isolated and hungry. So here's the devil. You're hungry, right? You have power, right? You can fix it. So why don't you? And you're kind of thinking, yeah, why doesn't he? Like that's that's not sinning to make if you're a miracle worker to make prayer. Bread out of stone? He certainly can do that. This doesn't sound like temptation at all. So, what do we think? Well, let's think for a moment about the passage that Jesus is bringing up. Because Jesus is bringing up a passage when he says, man does not live by bread alone. It's Moses giving, again, a sermon, his final sermon, to the people of Israel and Deuteronomy. He's referencing the fact that when they didn't trust God for food, he fed them with this like heaven bread. They would wake up every morning and eat that bread. And if they would trust him, he'd get new bread the next morning. Well, some of them didn't trust, and so they tried to keep the bread overnight and it spoiled. It got stinky and gross. So they had to trust God's word that he would keep feeding them every day. He humbled you and he let you hunger and he fed you with manna, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone. But here's the quote man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Moses says, Israel didn't pass that test. Not perfectly. But I cannot live without God. Ultimately, God is the one who provides for me and sustains my life. See, Jesus had been fasting. His heart had been set on the Lord. He was in many ways not only withdrawing to be tested from the devil, but also to spend time with his father, as he would do multiple times throughout his ministry.

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And now you have the devil come up and basically say, Hey, I know you've been fasting, but aren't you hungry?

Power, People, And Jesus’ Mission

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You see, Satan's temptation was to encourage Jesus to cut short intimacy with the Father for self-satisfaction, devotion for desire, cut short prayer for pleasure, fasting for feasting. I mean, don't deprive yourself, Jesus. If you're the son of God, you would. You wouldn't deprive yourself. If you're the son of God, prove it. Jesus has the ability to do this. In fact, John the Baptist says that Jesus can make the stones that surrounded the Jordan into his sons if he wanted to. But Jesus, in this test, will not trade time with the Father for bread, not yet. He wants time with his father. Jesus will not be like Esau, who traded his inheritance for soup. He will not trade intimacy with his father for bread to show us his hunger is first and foremost for his father's presence, and his hope is that his father will provide. What about you? Maybe a little bit of a practical application here has to do not just with desires that lead us astray or trusting that the Lord will provide, but just distraction in life from spending time with God. And hear me, I'm pointing five fingers at myself before I point one out at you. The most common application, and we all know it in this room, is hey, will I spend the extra time in my day in something fruitful like spending time in God's Word, or fruitful like spending time with my Father in prayer, or will I waste two hours feeding my algorithm? It will not produce spiritual fruit, but feed a sort of dopamine addiction that I have and really leave me sad. I mean, genuinely. This is how God has wired us psychologically. The joy of the Lord comes from spending time with him. Psalm 16, 11 says, uh, uh, in your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. You want joy, you won't find it elsewhere.

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Not totally. Seek him.

Test Three: Presuming On God’s Promises

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Well, then what about when you lack, when you're hungry? Will he provide? What do we learn from the Old Testament? Well, we learn from the Old Testament and the Israelites that you say senseless things and make bad decisions when you're hungry. Over and over and over, right, in the book of Numbers. They're wandering, they're hungry. God, let's go back. Moses, let's go back to Egypt. It's like, you know it's really bad there, right? I always think of uh the this the old Snickers commercial. Not to make light of this, but like the old Snickers, you're not you when you're hungry. Eat a Snickers, right? They're saying senseless things. They didn't make any sense. They're out of their mind. It's because in some ways your mind is linked to your stomach. That's why Jesus encourages us to fast. To literally take time away from food.

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To remind ourselves that we don't live by bread alone.

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I think Christ envisioned for most of history a hungry Christianity.

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We have it good. There are many Christians everywhere who don't.

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He envisioned, I think, a hungry Christianity, but a Christianity led by the Spirit, not giving into temptation in the middle of being starved for material goods. I have little, but I have enough. If I can speak to the men, this goes for a woman as well, but just as a man, if I can speak to the men, disciplined, godly men, even starved material goods, can say, Whom have I in heaven but you? You are my strength and my portion forever. And you I am satisfied. I have learned to be content with plenty and with scarcity. God will provide. I trust that. I know that. Here is the word from God to hold on to and live on when you lack and are tempted to worry. Matthew chapter 6. Do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body or what you will put on. Is life not more than food? The body more than clothing? Look at the birds. God feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you, by being anxious, can add a single hour to your life? And look at the lilies, God clothe them. Are you not of more value? Will he not much more clothe you? Oh, you have little faith.

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Will you trust him? The second test.

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The test involves a crown without a cross. The devil took Jesus up. He showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. The phrase in a moment of time seems to tell us that in some way the devil showed multiple kings, multiple kingdoms, all the powers that be on the earth. Satan said to him, To you, I will give all this authority and all their glory, for it's been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. And I would love to talk a little bit about that and how Revelation 20 plays into a number of things. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. So here's the here's the temptation. Hey Jesus, if you want what I have, just go ahead and worship me. I'll give you power, I'll give you glory, I'll give you a crown. Jesus answered him, It is written, again, Deuteronomy, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. Jesus sees all the power and authority on the earth, and Satan basically says, Do you want it? Do you want it?

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Notice, in this whole passage, Satan never mentions God's name.

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He doesn't say who he got power from if he had power. He might be stretching his limits here a little bit. This is why I think this passage is important. And I'm gonna go a little bit quicker through this section than I need to go, but um Satan is saying, You want a crown?

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Take it. Now, where's the temptation there?

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Think about this. Jesus came on a rescue mission. Luke 19, 10, for the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost. Well, how does he do that? Well, he becomes like us, Philippians chapter 12. He withstands temptation. Luke chapter 4. He ministers to multitudes, showing who he is that they might come to him. He shares about the good news of the kingdom of God. He shares about the wheat and the chaff. Why? Because soon he will be shown to be the great divider, the one in whom you have eternal life and away from whom you don't. He came on a rescue mission to redeem people. It is through his cross that he received a crown in heaven above. Daniel chapter 7. He ascends to the ancient of days and he receives through his cross a kingdom that will never end for citizens who trust in him. Satan is offering glory that he doesn't own for a gospel. And Jesus would not trade power for people. You get that?

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He came for people. Will he take power without him? No.

Presumption Versus Faith With Examples

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He laid down his authority on heaven's throne to save people who didn't deserve it before his father. And now he has all authority in heaven and on earth. The devil thought he could sideline him. And he couldn't. And he lost all his power. See, Jesus' mission was a cross. So Satan won't directly deal with Jesus after this. It doesn't seem like it. He actually uses Jesus' friends, like Judas, to get him to a cross where actually Jesus disarms the devil. He'll almost in some ways use Peter. Get behind me, Satan, because Jesus was headed to the cross. He knew why he came. And it was for people, not just power. Will Jesus choose desires over devotion? No. Will he choose glory without the gospel? No. Why? Because he chose us. He chose us. Jesus chose the cross for death. Because he chose us for life. He did not get derailed. Third and final temptation. The final test. Here we're going to sit for a little bit. I think we're doing well. Presuming upon the promises of God. Presuming upon the promises of God. He took him to Jerusalem. He put him on the pinnacle of the temple. It's about 150 feet looking at the lower valley. And he says, Well, if you're the son of God, it's said in the Old Testament, from the book of Psalms, that God will protect you. So why don't you just go ahead and throw yourself off and let's all see it? He'll protect you, right? Show yourself to be the son of God. This is the first time the devil uses scripture. He kind of caught on to the way Jesus responds. So he uses scripture, and of course, Jesus again quotes scripture back. From what book? Deuteronomy. He says, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. The temple is important to Jesus. It's important to the writer of Luke. Jesus visited the temple as an infant when he was dedicated. He visited the temple when he was a 12-year-old when his parents left him and he stayed back to stay in his father's house. He will not again visit the temple after this until he comes back to die. Luke 19. Satan recognizes that importance. He takes Jesus there and he uses Scripture. Hear that. The devil quotes from the Bible.

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That tells us that it is not outside of Satan's tool belt to use scripture to trick you, to tempt you.

Obeying Context And Closing Prayer

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He can use people who use scripture. Scripture can be one of the devil's techniques in temptation. I mean, he may recognize a person's passion for the scriptures, but try to work with it to become pride. Oh, yeah, know a lot about God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Show people. What about a young believer, a new student of the Bible? He may encourage the listening of a young believer to listen to false teachers who appear like sheep, but are really ravenous wolves, leading them astray to dangerous territory, away from God, preying upon fleshly desires. False teachers used of the evil one often quote scripture. You will not turn on a false teacher on any given network and find that they never use scripture. They use it all the time. What they do is they'll cherry pick a verse here and there and they'll put them together to mean something that they never meant, the scriptures never meant, preying upon the lustful or greedy desires of man. So this is why it's so important when you study scripture to examine the context. Context is key. You probably heard that before, right? Context is key. Examining the context of a passage, why it says what it says and what it says around it, where it lies in a given story, who's writing it for what purpose, asking questions like, are there commands against what's happening in this story? Elsewhere? Has this been fulfilled in another part of scripture? And if so, in what way? Context is everything. What do false teachers do? Well, they take things out of context. They try to get you to do something or believe something that is not consistent with the entirety of the revealed will and word of God. So back to Satan. That's what he does. Psalm 91. He will command his angels concerning you to guard you. On their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. As if to say, Jesus, you want to say you really believe what God has said? Do you believe God, Jesus? Are you really the Son? Do you believe him? Well, take this word for example. Why don't you jump off? Prove it. What Satan is tempting Jesus to do, trying to, is to have him presume upon the promises of God. God said he will. Let's test him. There's no question God will care for Jesus. Jesus knows this. He knows the scripture. But Jesus knows going around God's plan for him to try to use God's promises, either to benefit himself or for a pride-laden proof, was ungodly and strictly prohibited in Scripture. This would be presuming upon the promises of God, putting God to the test. Hey, God, you said this, and so I'm going to do what I want, and you're going to keep this promise as if to put God in a corner. That's what it means to presume upon God. In Scripture, maybe this is helpful, to act presumptuously is to take God's promises while ignoring God's commands. That's what it means to act presumptuously. To take God's promises while ignoring God's commands, or to assume God's protection, blessing, or approval apart from obedience or faith. Presuming upon him is confidence without submission. Biblical presumption is claiming God's grace without honoring his holiness. It's expecting protection while disregarding his word. It's acting as though God is obligated to bless what he's not commanded. Presumption is not biblical faith. Jesus jumping off is not faith in God, it's presuming. Presumption says God will be faithful even when I'm faithless in this right now. Faith says God is faithful even when I'm not, so I will obey. Again, Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 29. Moses warns, Beware lest there be among you a root bearing a poisonous and bitter fruit. One who, when he hears the words of God's covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart. Moses says, The Lord will not be willing to forgive him. You see it on the screen. Presumption is quoting God's promises to justify disobedience. Most often the scripture quoted is not even in context. Let me give you three examples. You'll see them on the screen. This could just be helpful because presumption is not a word or a thing we think about often, but you're going to think you know these. One example of acting presumptuously with God's word would be thinking and saying, Well, God will forgive me, which is true, right? If you're a believer, God has promised to forgive you of all and Righteousness. Acting presumptuously is taking that statement and using it to excuse ongoing sin. It's taking a promise from God's Word, Romans 5.20, where sin increases, grace abounds. And then you live in unrepentant sin. Bitterness or unforgiveness begins to get excused because grace covers it, of course. Sexual immorality is justified because God just knows your heart. But what does God's word say? When we take into account what God has said. Romans 6, the next chapter. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Certainly not. A second example. God wants me to be happy. Well, good father, in a lot of ways, how many you want your son to be happy? There's a second example. God wants me to be happy. Well, how can that become acting presumptuously? That redefines my obedience. My obedience is dependent on my happiness in God. Maybe the word quoted here in the acting presumptuously is John 1010. I came that may have life and life abundantly. So I expect abundant life for obedience. Or I can pursue abundant life, and that is obedience. Because God will want me to be happy, right? Treating happiness or emotional peace as like the full plan of God for you, which is obviously not from scripture. It can be used to justify leaving a marriage without biblical grounds, or ignoring costly obedience because it feels toxic or unhealthy. Here's the biblical truth. Luke 9.23, Jesus defines abundant life through following him. In me you will have life. So carry your cross and follow me. Last of three examples. God uses broken people. Well, he certainly does, right? That's certainly true. But can it be used to justify refusing repentance and growth in godliness? Maybe God's word quoted as my power is made perfect in weakness, 2 Corinthians 12. And so then you presume upon the Lord. Well, then brokenness is to be celebrated. You can shrug off personal repentance and healing, justifying sinful patterns. Well, that's just my thorn. That's just my thorn. Resisting correction under the guise of, I'm just trying to be authentic. Yes, you might have a thorn. Yes, you should be authentic. But here's the truth weakness is not an excuse for disobedience. Second Corinthians chapter 7. Hear me. You don't get to test the Lord. He can test to you. You don't get to test him. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy again: you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. So here's just final application. Hold on, we're going to conclude. Final application. Be careful to obey. And don't believe what God did not say. Misinterpreting a passage leads to misapplying a passage, which leads often to mistrusting God. Be careful to obey and don't believe what God did not say. He has given you the entirety of his word. Seek Him. Verse 13 When the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. So let's conclude here, but hear me close. Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. He is tempted in that wilderness and hunger for power and to safety. Jesus was tempted like us that he might empathize or sympathize with us. Hebrews. Yet he was without sin, unlike us, so that he might save us. What God is showing us through his servant Luke is that Jesus is the true Son of God who fought every temptation without succumbing to it. And if you would place your faith and trust in him, by his death and through your faith, you will receive a righteousness that is not yours, but will be given to you. And God will not see all the imperfections you still struggle against, but the perfect one who is sacrificed in your place. Would you seek him? He is perfect in all his ways, and he is good. Let's pray. God, we thank you for our time and your word. We pray that you were glorified as we studied it and as we saw you stand where we often succumb. Lord, we thank you, our great high priest who makes intercession for us. We thank you, our perfect Passover Lamb, who was perfect and sacrificed yourself for us. In his name we pray. Amen. Let's stand. Let's sing one more song.