Dealing with the Devil (Luke 4:1-13)

Temptation doesn’t just show up, it studies you. We walk through Luke 4 and watch Satan aim three carefully chosen attacks at Jesus in the wilderness: meet a real need in a wrong way, grab the crown without the cross, and twist Scripture to make disobedience sound holy. If you’ve ever thought, “Why does the same temptation keep returning,” you’ll recognize the pattern and the bait.

We also start with a surprising true story from an early church leader who tried to solve his sin problem by escaping society. He found out what we all eventually learn: you can change your address and still carry pride, desire, and self focus. The real question is not where we can hide, but how we can stand. That’s where Jesus’ example becomes intensely practical, because He relies on resources available to us today: submission to the Holy Spirit, humble obedience, patience with God’s timing, and a life saturated with the Word of God.

One of the most sobering moments comes when Satan quotes Psalm 91. The enemy doesn’t always push blatant evil; sometimes he repackages temptation in Bible language and dares us to make Scripture fit our agenda. Jesus answers with truth in context and refuses to test the Father. By the end, we’re reminded why Christ’s sinless victory matters for our salvation and for daily spiritual warfare: He has already won, and He equips us to stand firm.

If you want practical help for resisting temptation, learning Scripture, and trusting God when the wilderness feels endless, listen now. Subscribe, share this with a friend who’s in a battle, and leave a review so more people can find these gospel centered tools.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:32

Jesus knows Psalm chapter 2, where he will rule over the nations. He knows his destiny as the sovereign lord of the nations. Satan knows that Jesus knows that, but here's the bait. Father's will for you, Jesus, is untold suffering, it's rejection. Take the shortcut! Don't go through Gethsemane! Let's just go right up to glory. Right now, you can have all these nations here. Avoid the cross! Seize the cross.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Welcome to Wisdom for the Heart with Stephen Dady. Have you ever felt like temptation keeps coming back? No matter how many times you resist it, it's persistent, it's personal, and it often shows up when you least expect it. Today's message takes you into the wilderness with Jesus Christ, where he faces temptation head-on. He shows us how to respond with truth, obedience, and strength. In this message, you'll discover that the same resources Jesus used are available to you today. And victory doesn't come from your strength, but from relying on God's word. Here's Stephen with today's message.

Led By The Spirit Into Wilderness

Forty Days Of Relentless Attacks

Temptation One Put Yourself First

Temptation Two Avoid The Cross

Temptation Three Twist The Bible

The Second Adam Wins For Us

SPEAKER_01 2:07

Several years ago, I read the true account of an early church leader who decided that the problem with sin and his inability to deal with the daily troubled him like it troubles you and me. He came to the conclusion that the problem was his surrounding culture, society, people, the audible and the visual temptation. So he decided to move away from his village. He found a cave where he began to live a very simple life, away from all the stimuli that bombarded him daily. His needs were simple. He grew his own garden. He hunted his own game. But eventually he came to the realization that it wasn't working. In fact, he moved back into his village and he wrote in his journal, which survived these centuries. Here's what he wrote, even there, all alone, I was tempted with thoughts of great pride. Worldly temptations daily knocked at my door. There in that cave, temptation found me. So what hope do we have? If we can't outrun it, if we can't hide from it, how do we handle it? Well, we're about to be given an amazing model in the life of Jesus Christ. In fact, he's going to rely on only those resources that we have today to rely upon: obedience, submission, humility, patience, and a mind that is saturated with the Word of God. So let me show you where. Let's go back in our study of Luke's gospel. We're now in chapter four, and let's watch as Satan drops the line of temptation into the pond of Jesus Christ's life, heart, and mind. Notice verse 1. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, that's where he was baptized, and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. Now the wilderness here was several hundred miles of desert. It was actually nicknamed the Devastation. This is the perfect place for this kind of meeting. It was described by authors that I read with rocks bare and jagged, glowing with heat like a furnace as it swooped downward in elevation some 1,200 feet to the dead sea. You can't imagine, really, a more classic setting for this battle between the princes, the prince of darkness and the prince of peace. Now we're told here, don't miss this, that Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit. What that means is he is under the dominating influence of the Spirit of God. By the way, we're told to do the same daily. Paul wrote to the Ephesian believers in chapter 5 and verse 18, be filled with the Holy Spirit. That means be dominated by, be under the influence of the Holy Spirit. So here is Jesus in perfect fellowship under the dominating control of the Holy Spirit. And can you not help but notice these two contrasting environments? He is in the Spirit in the wilderness. We don't normally put those two together, do we? We assume that if we're led by the Spirit, if we're exactly where the Spirit of God wants us, it won't look like, it won't look anything like the wilderness. It's going to be green pastures and still waters. Psalm chapter 23, verse 2. Well, it might be, but it also might be a season where he prepares a table for you in the presence of your enemies. Psalm 23, verse 5. As hard as it might be for us to imagine, it's possible to be full of the Spirit and face to face with the serpent at the same time. We're also told here in verse 2, notice, the Lord was led by the Holy Spirit in the wilderness. Now notice, for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. When they were ended, he was hungry. Now, keep this in mind if 40 days is linked to the participle being tempted, which Mark's gospel account, by the way, makes it clear. It links it together. Well, what this means is that Jesus isn't being tempted at the end of 40 days. He was tempted throughout these 40 days. For 40 days, it's been non-stop temptation. For 40 days, Satan has been probing for weaknesses. He's been changing the bait every day, probably several times throughout the day and into the nighttime. We're just told what's happening at the end of 40 days. We're not given any of those temptations, just these. So these are following his 40 days. He's exhausted, he's hungry, and now Satan, you can think of it this way, he's gonna pull out all the stops. So what we find here is the three final, the three climactic. These are our three incredibly strategic temptations. Here's the first one, verse three. The devil said to him, If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread. These little limestone rocks about the size of a loaf that dotted this desert region. Just turn them into some bread. Now let me give each temptation a title for the sake of our study. And I want to give each temptation a subtitle to further describe what's going on. The title of the first temptation would be this, simply put. And the subtitle is God the Father is withholding something good from you. Now I want to point this out here. When the devil says in verse three, if you are the son of God, this is not a denial, this is not to raise doubt. The English is difficult at times translating the original language. This is actually an affirmation. He's essentially saying this, in view of the fact that you are the Son of God, why are you hungry? In view of the fact that you are God the Son, we just heard that. I mean, the heavens were, you know, were ripped open, and we heard God, your father, say, This is my beloved son. Well, for goodness sake, if you are God the Son, why in the world are you hungry? Do something about it. You've got a legitimate need as humanity, and you have the power of deity. Why not use your deity to solve the problem of your humanity? Oh, clever. He's asking Jesus to step outside his representative role as a man. Jesus never used his divine attributes, by the way, to make his life comfortable. He never used them to serve himself. He never said, you know, it's just a little too much rain around here. I'm gonna snap my fingers and it's gonna be sunshine. I'd have done that this morning, driving over here. The fog got thicker as I got closer. Never once, never once, Peter would preach in Acts chapter 2. He did these signs and wonders to attest to the fact that he was indeed the Son of God. He was never for himself. So he wants Jesus here to use his divine attributes to serve himself. Jesus, put yourself first. Serve yourself. And if Jesus does this, it's going to create this split second of time, this act of self-serving, and any split second of self-serving is sin. There is this subtle implication going on, though. This is the subtitle in this temptation. Why isn't he giving it to you? Doesn't he want the best for you? Doesn't he know you're hungry? Doesn't he know it's been 40 days? What's he waiting for? I mean, surely after 40 days, it's the time you started looking out for number one. How many of us have fallen for this bait? You're in the wilderness. It's been a long season. You're suffering without any light at the end of the tunnel. You have legitimate needs that are unmet. There are good things that God is not giving you. What's God waiting for? Maybe it's time for me to just look out for number one. Gotcha. Instead of taking the bait, Jesus responds with the Bible. Look at verse 4. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Would you notice Jesus does not say, man shall not live by bread? Period. No, man shall not live by bread alone. Jesus doesn't want bread at the expense of fellowship with God the Father. See, for Jesus, it was better to be hungry in the will of God than full outside the will and pleasure of God. So keep in mind now that Jesus is going to counter each temptation by quoting Scripture. His mind and heart are saturated, and this is modeling for us what we're to do. In fact, he's modeling Psalm 119, 11. Thy word have I hidden in my heart that I what? Maybe sin against thee. Thy word have I stored, literally stored up in my heart that I might not sin. Well, how does that help to store up the word? Well, the word of God gives you the mind of God. It gives you the wisdom of God. It gives you the perspective of God. It gives you the moral boundaries of God. It gives you the warnings of God. It gives you the commandments of God. It gives you the counsel of God. We can't stand, we can't deal with the devil without the mind and the wisdom and the boundaries and the commands and the warnings and the counsel of God. Temptation number one, put yourself first. Let me entitle the second temptation this way: Take the Easy Way Out. And the subtitle would be this God is asking too much of you. Go to verse five. 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 will give it to whom I will. Now Satan obviously has delegated power. In fact, you notice here he's able to sweep Jesus up in a moment. Matthew mentions a high mountain where they're suddenly at its peak. Luke doesn't mention that. It seems that Jesus was high. There's some kind of elevated position. Perhaps he's showing him the glories of the Roman Empire or the Grecian Empire before this. Satan doesn't know the future, so he's not showing him America or Europe or whatever. He can show him what has happened. It was glorious enough. And by the way, he's not lying here to Jesus. Three times in the Gospels, Jesus will refer to Satan as the prince of this world. The prince of this world. But do you know Satan slips up? Did you notice? He mentions the fact there at the end of this verse, these nations, they have been delivered to me. They have been handed over to me. Oh, who handed them to you? Uh-oh, you shouldn't have said that. It's delegated, it's only temporary. But ultimately, they don't belong to you. Just for a season. He's legitimately, though, promising Jesus that he can have all of it now. You can have it all right now. That's debate. Now you might wonder, as I did, why would this be tempting to Jesus? Well, there's this hidden hook. Satan is subtly suggesting that the will of the Father is just too much suffering. Let's take a shortcut to kingdom authority. Now Jesus knows Psalm chapter 2, where he will rule over the nations. He knows his destiny as the sovereign Lord of the nations. Satan knows that Jesus knows that. Satan knows that Jesus knows that. I mean, they're back and forth here. They know this. But here's the bait. Take the shortcut. Avoid the cross. Seize the crown. Don't go through Gethsemane. Let's just go right on to glory. Right now, you can have all these nations here and now. The Father's will for you, Jesus, is untold suffering and agony, it's blood and pain, it's rejection. There's no need for that. You're God the Son, you can have the kingdoms of the world without suffering. That's debate. Oh, but here's the hook. Verse 7. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. The word for worship here means to genuflect, to bow. He wants us to take this bait. And one of his strategic methods is to drop this bait in our mind that God's will is too hard. God is asking too much from us. Living for him is too difficult. Ah, I thought God was gonna make things easier. Haven't you met individuals who said, yeah, okay, I'll pray that prayer, and God's gonna solve everything. We sell Jesus that way to people. He's gonna solve all your problems. Then you come to faith and you realize, wow, I just got a lot more. What happened? That's the bait. Leave that narrow, hard, uphill path. My path is broad, my way is easy, and it's paved, and it's ever so slightly downhill. But I master those that will give their lives to that path. Temptation number one, put yourself first. Temptation number two, take the easy way out. It's entitled Temptation Number Three, Do Things Your Own Way. And the subtitle would be this, and this is where it gets very deceptive. God's word needs to fit your agenda. So work it a little bit and make it fit whatever you want to do as you do it your way. Incredibly subtle. Look at verse 9. And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. That word pinnacle means tip, ledge, little wing. More than likely it was the ledge on the southeast corner of the rooftop of the temple, described by Josephus, the first century Jewish historian, as that tip, that corner which could look down into the Kidron Valley, some 450 feet below. And Josephus said, if you were that high up, it would make you dizzy to look down. Well, Satan again takes Jesus and sweeps him up, notice verse 9, and said to him, If you are the son of God, again, make sure you understand, in view of the fact that 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. Biblical way of saying, unless it's, you know, splat, he's gonna take care of you. Now Satan is quoting here from Psalm 91. It's a psalm that celebrates the protection of God over his beloved uh people. But Satan now rips this verse out of its context and says, let's make this verse apply to you. Let's make it justify you taking this rather spectacular uh leap from the roof of the temple. God said in Psalm 91, He will protect the faithful. You're faithful, aren't you? Well, I mean, come on, this is gonna then apply to you. You ought to put it to the test right now. Take this verse, it'll justify your agenda. You do the thing your way. Now, before we go any further, don't miss the fact that the devil can quote scripture. He can quote scripture too. He's heard Jesus respond now two times with scripture, and he's a brilliant fisherman. Oh, well, I'll tell you what I'll do. You know, there's a favorite psalm of mine, and there are a couple of verses I'd like to quote to you. That's the Lore. He's obviously a student of Scripture. The problem is he twists it to serve his own defiance. You probably know as well as I do, to this day, most cults and unbelievers that I have come in contact with over the years, I have found this similar thread. They they do not necessarily reject the Bible. They reinterpret it. They they add to it, they take away from it. They've rung my doorbell, as I'm sure they have yours. And the opening line, I already know what it's gonna be. We'd like to interest you in reading the Bible. And I usually say, I'm I'm kind of interested in that. So let's talk. But you know it's one thing to talk about those cults out there and those unbelievers and ignore the passages that we might not like or that we might reinterpret. In order to justify our own agenda. We use phrases like, well, God told me, or the Spirit of God led me. But underneath is our own agenda. Satan wants Jesus here to reinterpret Psalm 91 to do something spectacular. And there's something more here. There's this passage and we won't turn, but it's in Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1, where he makes the promise that when the Lord arrives, that is, this is a messianic phrase, when the Messiah arrives, he will come to the temple suddenly. Jesus is aware of that text, and so is Satan, though it's not mentioned here. But Satan's challenging Jesus once again to jump ahead of the divine timetable, twist the meaning of scripture, and with one spectacular descent to the temple courtyard below, announce I'm here. And everyone will follow him. This is a way around a denial. This is a way around rejection. Do something spectacular right in their midst. Do it your way, Jesus. Test the Father. He'll reward your leap of faith. It'll be amazing. Jesus responds, look at verse 12. It is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. In other words, don't tell God what to do. Don't use his word to disobey his will. Verse 13, notice. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him forever. Isn't that a great verse? Oh wait, I'm sorry. He departed from him until an opportune time. Satan's going to stay on the Lord's trail and track him every single moment of every single day. But listen, now I I want you to I want you to rejoice with me in the glory and the hope and the security and the confidence that we have today. How? In that Jesus never sinned. He was in every respect tempted as we are yet without sin. Hebrews 4, verse 15. He committed no sin. 1 Peter 2 22. Which means he is worthy. Our sin. And we take the bait every day, don't we? Our sin only mounts up. He took it all. Daily we go to him, though, because we want to follow him. And so often when we go to him, what do we do? I'm snagged. Would you relieve me of the hook? I took the bait. But here's our model. He used only the resources we have. He's showing us how to deal with the devil. Here are our resources in this combat. Be submissive to the leading of the Spirit of God, even if he leads you into the wilderness. Be patient with the timing of God, even if it doesn't fit your timetable. Be willing to suffer according to the will of God. And be saturated with the Word of God. Jesus is fully God, yet we're watching Him, fully human, choose to use here only those resources we have at our disposal. And here's the glory of it all. As a man, the second Adam, the first Adam failed. He couldn't handle the lore. He took it. The second Adam, he took on the devil, and he won.

SPEAKER_00 27:11

That was Stephen Davey, and this is Wisdom for the Heart. What an encouraging reminder today. Temptation may be persistent, but God's truth is stronger. And no matter how intense the battle feels, you're never facing it alone. Christ has already won the victory, and he gives you everything you need to stand firm. One of the most powerful ways to stand strong in that battle is through prayer. When you pray, you're not just talking, you're aligning your heart with God's will. You're bringing your struggles, your temptations, and your needs before the one who has complete authority over them. That's why we invite you to become part of our global prayer team. You'll receive a simple, focused way to pray for people, for nations, and for the spread of God's word around the world. It only takes a few minutes, but it keeps your heart engaged in what God's doing far beyond what you can see. So take a moment today and visit wisdomonline.org forward slash prayer to get started. Be sure to join us next time as we continue growing together in God's Word on Wisdom for the Hearts.