Jesus Versus Temptation

The devil doesn’t usually tempt us with something that looks evil on the surface. He tempts us with something that feels reasonable, urgent, and even “deserved” and then he asks one poisonous question: “If you’re really God’s child…” We open Matthew 4 and slow down the temptation of Christ to see what is actually being attacked, why it matters, and why this moment is a pillar of the gospel. If Jesus is not sinless, He cannot be our spotless sacrifice. If He cannot stand where we fall, we have no Savior who can truly save.

We talk about the Spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness, the purpose of testing, and why temptation often hits when we are tired, stressed, hungry, and worn down. Then we trace Satan’s playbook across the whole Bible: Genesis 3, 1 John 2, and Matthew 4 all expose the same pattern of lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. We also tackle a sobering reality: Satan quotes Scripture too. When the Bible is ripped from context, it can be used to excuse almost anything, so we push hard for Spirit-led interpretation and Scripture comparing Scripture.

Finally, we get to the practical fight. Jesus answers with Deuteronomy because the Word is not a prop, it’s a weapon, and it has to be close enough to use under pressure. We unpack the difference between trusting God and testing God, the temptation of the crown without the cross, and why daily surrender is the only sane path forward. If this helped you, subscribe, share it with a friend who’s tired of losing the same battles, and leave a review so more people can find the show.

Transcript

Welcome And Sermon Setup

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hi, and welcome back to the Faith Works Podcast, where we believe we have a biblically informed faith that works for everyday believers like you and I. One of your hosts, Jonathan Locklear. And I'm the other one, Tyler Edge. Hi, buddy. Good to see you. Good to be here with you, bud. Yeah, much to talk about today. Yes, we do. Matthew chapter 4, right? Temptations of Christ. That was the sermon this week. Yeah. This incredible passage of scripture, and it really is the foundation of the gospel, had well, the foundation of the gospel is that we have a perfect savior. Right. Well, this passage tells us and assures us that he remains that way. Right. An imperfect savior, a sinful savior, could save nobody. Nobody, absolutely. And this is such a marvelous passage. This is such an incredible event in the life of the Savior.

SPEAKER_00 0:46

So what would you say overall is the purpose of this passage? Why does it exist? Is it to show us the perfect Savior and that he was tested just like us?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

You know, listen, so Jesus is 100% man, 100% God. Right. He knows who he is. He's God even in diapers. He's God at the breast of Mary.

SPEAKER_02 1:03

Right.

SPEAKER_01 1:05

The Bible then says he continued to learn and grow in wisdom. So there's some development, there's some knowledge of exactly who he is and where he is. And I think part of this is proof, even unto himself, the faithfulness of the Father, what God, the Father, has called him here to, right, because he is faithful, he does endure, and then God rewards him in this incredible way. So aside from the fact that this is the means by which salvation comes into the world, this is a this is a slap in the face to the evil one.

SPEAKER_02 1:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:39

You can't corrupt this savior. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

One of the quotes that I saw is I can't remember who did it, but I really liked it. It said, because you have previous chapter, right? You have the baptism, and then you have this is my son with whom I am well pleased. Right. And the commentator said this, and I just thought it was really beautiful. He said that in that verse, you have God declaring, This is my son with whom I'm well pleased. And then the following chapter, you have Jesus proving why he is well pleasing to the Father. And I thought that was really good, right? Yeah. Because you have Jesus

Why This Passage Exists

SPEAKER_00 2:05

continuing to be perfect. Because if he had come and he had not struggled whatsoever, there were no difficulties, there was no humanity, there was no temptation, you'd say, Okay, well, that seems a little one-sided. That seems a little unfair, right? He comes and he suffers just as we do.

SPEAKER_01 2:18

It gets right in our shoes. I mean, we can't lose sight of the fact what John was enamored with in John 1, and God became flesh and dwelt among us in his humanity. You read it so well Sunday from Hebrews. We have this high priest, not one who can't be touched with our infirmities, right? Not just God, but he sent us man, right? Jesus Christ, who was tempted in every way as we are, and yet absolutely perfect. Absolutely perfect. And I told the people Sunday, I said, you know, there's two ways to go to heaven. And everyone's like, Yeah, right. That's heresy. Well, it's true. There are two ways. One way is that you can be perfect, born perfect, somehow not sinless or not sinful, and then you can live perfect, remain perfect, and then you can go to heaven that way. Right. Because then you would belong in perfect heaven. But since that's not the case, Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven. He's the only way because he's the one who remains in perfection. Therefore, when he sheds his blood on the cross, it's a perfect sacrifice. From the very beginning, Tyler, God always required that a perfect sacrifice, a spotless. I mean, just read Acts of Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and it is so clear. This is what God requires.

SPEAKER_02 3:45

Right.

SPEAKER_01 3:45

Even from the very beginning, when he kills an animal, God kills the first one and clothes Adam and Eve. It's always a spotless lamb. Well, Jesus is exactly that. No one is spotless among us. A sinful savior can save no one.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Absolutely.

Spirit Led Testing In The Wilderness

SPEAKER_00 4:03

Um, this chapter starts, honestly, with a verse that I I find a lot of people have struggle with or struggle to understand a little bit. Yeah. So I thought we could take a moment and talk about that. You have you have verse one there. It says, Then Jesus, excuse me, then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. Yeah. In that while. Yes, now you spoke about this on Sunday at length and talking about this. Now you spoke about how it isn't that Jesus, it's not, excuse me, it's not that God or the Holy Spirit tempts us, but they do allow us to be tempted and to be tested. So why is that? What's the purpose? Well, I would push back on that.

SPEAKER_01 4:33

God does. The Bible says he tested Abraham. That's true, yeah. He and there was in the King James says he tempted Abraham. It's the same word for testing, sure, for trying. By the way, something that's not tried is worthless. Something that can't be proven is well, it's unproven. It's untrustworthy. God tests Abraham, God tests Moses, God tests you, God tests me. Everything is tested to be proven. This is why I don't want to get too far off. James is gonna say, count it all joy, brethren, when you fall into various testings of your faith. Why? Well, it proves that your faith is genuine. Right. If Jesus doesn't pass the test, he's not the guy. He's not the one. Well, come to verse 11. He's the one. Right. He's the one that endures. And so, yes, at his the beginning of his ministry, he hasn't started his ministry here yet. He's baptized first, and immediately there's a time of testing. When Paul was knocked off his animal on the Damascus Road for three years. There was a time of testing. First of all, he's blind, and then he goes away for three years to learn about who is this who's been revealed to him. He said, I'm Jesus, I'm the Christ. Why do you kick against the pricks? Why are you persecuting me? Well, he goes and has this time of testing. Yeah. And what emerges is the Apostle Paul, right? If you've not been tested, my goodness, the Bible says that the Lord chastens those whom he loves. It's an act of God's love, it's an act of preparation. One, John sees it, the Baptist sees it, and it is proof as he emerges here victorious that he's the son of God. And so, yeah, the Lord tests his son 40 days, and when it's completed, he's victorious.

SPEAKER_00 6:27

He wins. Amen.

The Real Aim Of Doubt

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Um, so I have this question here, and it says this says, What was Satan really attacking when he said, If thou be the son of God? Something that I think that we we mistake a lot. And I wish I remembered the quote of my Bible teacher when I was in like fourth grade, because he made me look so silly. Because I remember I always, when I was younger, I would take the approach or the belief of like, well, Satan's stupid and he's dumb and he's foolish and he can't do anything, right? And he said something to me along the lines and he said, Who's the real fool? The one that falls to the temptations, or the one who does the tempting. And I'm like, oh man, I'm the fool. Yeah, I was like, okay, it's me. Never again did I think this, right? And so we need to be cautious, obviously not underestimate. Exactly. He's a genius, right? And so we need to be cautious there. But so what is because that's verse three, right? Yeah, yeah. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And the reason I'm asking this is because this isn't a phrase that's unique to uh Jesus here. He comes to us, Satan comes to us and always causes us to doubt. That tends to be how he starts, right? Doubt your salvation, doubt your savior, doubt.

SPEAKER_01 7:28

The two big Ds I talk about. First one is doubt that leads to discouragement.

SPEAKER_00 7:32

Very good. Yes, exactly right. And so what is what are we seeing here? What is Satan doing when he comes and he says those specific words? If thou be the son of God. It's such a loaded question.

SPEAKER_01 7:44

It's such a by the way, every thing from the father of lies is never as it seems. It's never a legitimate question. Right. Right? It wasn't Satan's intent to come and really advocate on the part of Eve. Right. Did God really say? No, Eve, he knows just what it is. When you do the thing he explicitly told you not to do, man, the quality of life's gonna get better. He doesn't want you to be like him. He's trying to withhold something good from you. He's not good, he's not nice, he's actually mean. Yeah, he's that you should not trust him. Yeah, that's to impugn the character of God. And that's part of it. And then part of it here is to say, if you really are the son of God, right? If you really are, I don't know if there was any doubts in Jesus' mind or not. It does say he's weak. It does say he's vulnerable. 40 days, 40 days without any food. Right. And here he is in this most vulnerable state. By the way, friends, that's how Satan comes to you in your vulnerability, in your fatigue, when when you're worn out, when you're stressed, when you're dehydrated, when you've not slept. This is when the devil comes. By the way, there's always a period of testing that you have to endure. And here he's trying to say, this is long enough. You've endured enough, Jesus. If you're really the Son of God, and Jesus knows that he is, he absolutely knows that he could make all the stones into all the bread, and he also knows that bread is what he needs. That's not wrong. Nothing wrong with the stones, nothing wrong with the bread. Nothing wrong with him making the stones into bread. He could have flexed and been like, yeah, let's make a pizza. Right. Like, give me a Philly cheesesteak. Like that sounds so good right now. Well, it's always wrong to do what the devil says. It's always wrong to give into what he says. Like, that's what he's saying. What would be wrong if you did this? Well, nothing would be wrong necessarily, except it's from the devil. Right. And Jesus says, Well, first of all, here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna answer you with your loaded lies with scripture. And what does he say? Is this written, man shall not live by bread alone? Like, do I need bread? Yes. In a sense, like let's talk about sexual temptation. Right. Because all these temptations mirror ours. Do you need sex? Yeah, probably. Are you wired in some way to desire it? Yes. And is it bad? Is the bread bad? Is the stones bad? Is the sex bad? No. It's always bad to embark and to partake as the devil tells you to. Do it now. Do it for yourself. God doesn't know about this need. God doesn't care about this need. Here you are starving 40 days. Where's your help? Where's the angels? Where's the father? If you really are the son of God, that's partly true. And every temptation comes with, I don't know, 60% truth. Right, absolutely. And there's going to be some twisting in there of truth. There's going to be some flat out lie there at the end. Then just do for yourself. And what does the spirit say to Jesus Christ? Go into the wilderness, fast, be vulnerable, be tempted. And the Father's going to take care of you. The Spirit is going to take care of you. And the evil one would like to say, No one's coming. No one's coming. You better give up now. But just notice this: it's at the end of 40 days. That's when he comes. How long did it rain on Noah's Ark? 40 days and 40 nights. Moses wasn't ready for ministry until he's 80 years old. That was at the end of a 40-year period of running from the law on the backside of the wilderness as a shepherd. Well, at the end of that time of testing and preparation, then God shows up to him in the burning bush. Right. They leave Egypt led by Moses. How long are they in the wilderness? There's a time of testing in the wilderness. How long is it? For 40 years. This number 40, it's very significant in the scriptures. And I don't I just want to say this. What happens if they give up at 39? What happens if on day 38 Jesus is like, I am starving. And the devil comes up. No, no. You have to endure the entire complete temptation. We don't get to skip out, throw in the towel at some incomplete time. Right. God knows what he's doing. If you are the son of God, let me ask you this, friends, because Tyler, like, you know this. You're a son of God. You are. So if you be a child of God, I am a child of God. Right. Well then, don't you deserve? And shouldn't you have? Right? See how the devil does that? It's so wicked, man. It's so slippery and sleazy. If you be the son of God, well, he is the son of God. And if you are hungry, I am hungry.

SPEAKER_00 12:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:31

Well, let me tell you a solution to your problem here. The solution to your problem is to do this. Oh, well, what could be wrong with that? I am hungry. I can make stones into bread. I I could masturbate. I could I could gossip. I could rage. I could, you know, I could be angry. I could that would make me feel better. I could, you just name it. I could lie. I could steal. I could cheat. Justify all these things. Could justify all of it. By the way, we're really good at justifying these things. I could. And what would be wrong with it? I mean, is there anything really wrong with it? Right. It's not hurting anybody. Right. Except it's from the devil. Right. Other than that, though. Other than it was from the mouth of the devil. Yeah. And we're so short-sighted sometimes. We're very short-sighted in these things, and we don't see the end goal. The end goal is we break the heart of the Father. We separate ourselves from God because we sin. We quiet the Holy Spirit. We quench the Holy Spirit, as it says in the book of Hebrews, with our sin. David says, When I regard sin in my heart, O Lord, you will not hear me. So what's the big deal about a little bit of sin, giving into a little bit of temptation? Well, it's it's the death of a thousand cuts. It matters. It does. It's a really big deal. And I'm so thankful that I have fallen, you have fallen, you have fallen, our savior has not fallen, and he's perfect on our behalf.

SPEAKER_00 14:06

You think of the difference too, right? The costs here. The cost if I sin is that I usually spend an evening in tears running back to the Lord and saying, I'm so sorry, I can't believe I've wronged you. Right. If Jesus had sinned here, I mean the cost was innumerable, right? The cost was damnation for all of mankind.

SPEAKER_01 14:24

So Jesus is gonna show up here, be perfect, go to the cross, pay for all the sins of the world, past, present, and future. If he doesn't, Satan claims all those souls. Yeah, who suffers is us. And the and the father doesn't get his reward. The father is worthy of his reward of the souls that he is. They are his. We've been bought with a price. Yeah. My goodness. It's if Jesus, if Jesus makes stones into bread, his sacrifice on the cross doesn't mean anything.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Amen. It's a big deal. It is. There's a

When Scripture Gets Weaponized

SPEAKER_00 15:00

it's a good question. It says, how can people misuse scripture like Satan did? And when I was writing this, when I was thinking of it, I and I'll be interested, I don't know if I've ever brought this up to you, I'll be interested in your opinion on it, but I saw, once again, a commentary, because apparently I had no clever thoughts of my own.

SPEAKER_01 15:13

Listen, Tyler, no one has clever thoughts. Nothing's original. It's true. If people think I'm brilliant, listen, this is a PSA. I read smart people who are very smart, and I fail to give them credit a lot of the times.

SPEAKER_00 15:26

True. Okay, all right. Thank you for making me feel better. But yeah. Um so what it said, and I heard this a while ago, was that simply that Jesus, excuse me, not Jesus, Satan is the is the perverter, right? He takes things that are made and they're made good, right? And he and he twists them and he just counterfeits and perverts everything. Right. Um, and I've heard it said before as well that, and I find this really beautiful, and slight rabbit trail, we'll bring it right back, but that the only ones with a capacity to create are God and then humans. That's us, right? He's given that to us, right? To create life, to create things, and that's incredible, but that's a whole nother topic for another time. So we see this, and it said, how can people misuse scripture like Satan did? And I think we're really good at that as humans. We're really good at twisting scripture to the things that we want and we desire, right? Right? A lot of people out in the world who will come and will attack Christian values, unsurprisingly so, they'll do it using twisted scripture. Absolutely. In the same way that Satan attacks.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 16:18

And so what's the what's the danger there? Or I suppose let's not ask that. We know the danger. What's the solution to that?

SPEAKER_01 16:28

It's being full of the Spirit of God and asking the Holy Spirit to help us to interpret and apply scripture correctly.

SPEAKER_00 16:35

Isn't that also why it matters to have the full context of the passage that we're teaching in?

SPEAKER_01 16:39

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_00 16:40

You you have, and this is something, the reason I love this church, the reason that my family stays here, right? Is if we're we're looking into a passage, it's for the good preaching. We know that no, not that, but it's the context. We know the context, we know the reason behind it, we know why this is written, right? It's not just here's the one verse we're gonna focus on today. Don't you dare look at the verse before it or after it. Just listen to what I have to tell you, right? That's nonsense. However, that's very prevalent in modern-day churches.

SPEAKER_01 17:06

Yeah, it is. And it's the lies of the devil filling a lot of pulpits for various selfish reasons. It's the tickling. Is it the tickling or the scratching of ears that it says in Revelation? Same thing. One of those. Every time I get scratched, I tickle. You know, and every time I get tickled, I'm tickle. When I get tickled, I scratch it. That's the truth. We we're we're so committed to pleasing people that, you know, there's a temptation to say what they want to hear. Yeah. And I said something Sunday. People don't want to hear it. Yeah, and I fight that. I fight that, but yeah, a lot of people didn't want to hear a lot of that. Sure. That's okay. That is okay. Thus says the word of the Lord. Amen. We are here to love God and to not love the world. And we have to check ourselves and our hearts because that's how the temptations come. Right. Right? Think about this. These three temptations that Satan brings before Jesus, they are the same exact things that he brought before Eve. Exactly. The MO is the same. MO stands for modus operandi. Okay, mode of operation. Latin, Latin. We do Latin around here. We do Latin right here. We do a little Latin. It's the same thing that John said in 1 John 2. Let me, I'm gonna read that to you. That's what I was looking at. Yeah. 1 John 2, verse 15, it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For he that loves the Father, the lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. So we have to decide who are we going to be of? Where are we gonna be taking our cues from? Right. Who are we trying to please? The world or the father? The disciples had it right. They were arrested. Acts chapter 2 and 4. You must quit preaching in this name. They said, We are here to serve God. We fear God rather than man. Right. That's so true. But that's exactly what Eve deals with at the very beginning, Eve and Adam, the same way. This is what Jesus deals with. This is what the disciples dealt with. This is what you are dealing with right here. Let me go back and read to you. Genesis chapter 3. This is where it all goes off the rails. But I just want to tell you this is the same mode of temptation, the same pattern here. Listen to what it says. Now the serpent was more subdued than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, Yea, hath God said? Did God really say, Are you really his son? Let's let's check his uh quality of character here. Let's demean him a little bit. Did God really say that you shall not eat every tree of the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the garden, but of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God has said, You shall not eat of it. He did. But then she goes too far. And then she says, We're not even supposed to touch it. No, Eve, when you go beyond God's word, you get in trouble. God didn't say don't touch it. God said, Don't eat it. We have to get the scriptures right. Doesn't matter what God says, we should get it exactly to the best of our ability, get it exactly what God says. Verse six says let me skip a verse. Verse six. For when the woman saw that the tree was good for food and it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree was desired to make one wise, then she took and eat. That's everything. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. These temptations that Jesus goes, they're the exact same thing. Here, turn these stones into bread. That's the lust of the flesh. You need this. Your flesh needs this. Jesus comes back and goes, Yeah, that's not what I really need, though. Right. What I really need is to hear from the Father. Well, you do not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Up on the temple, takes him up there. Throw yourself down, Psalm 91 says, He will give his angels charge over you, and they'll they'll swoop you up before you hit the ground and they will not let your foot dash against the stone. Right. Well, that's cool. Except he skipped the part in Psalm 91 that says, God will send his angels to bless you and minister to you. When you walk in his way, when you put him first, Satan says, put yourself first, and then the Lord will reward you by sending his angels. And he goes, You shall not tempt the Lord your God. By the way, you're twisting scripture. Right. You damnable creature. By the way, anybody that twists scripture is a damnable creature. And then he finishes there with, If you bow down and worship me, I'll give you all the kingdoms that you see. He showed him all the kingdoms of the earth. To whatever degree that Satan has power in this world, and he's the God of this world. So it says in Ephesians chapter 2, he goes, I'll give you all of it. By the way, it's what Jesus came for. Jesus came for glory over all of the world. He's gonna get glory. Every knee will bow, every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord. And Satan goes, I have a shortcut for you, and you can have it. You can have it. The lust of the eyes, look on what I will show you, and I'll give It to you. Lust of the eyes, pride of life, the lust of the flesh. And this is the same thing he gives to Eve, this is the same thing he gives to Jesus, this is the same thing he gives to you and I. Nothing has changed. So here's some application. Do not love the world. Neither the things that are in the world. Because the things that are of the world, they're not of the Father. The love of the Father. Now that's that's that's also the love of his word. And that's why we do that, Tyler, and we're committed to doing that. We interpret Scripture with Scripture.

unknown 22:38

Right?

SPEAKER_01 22:38

I don't interpret Scripture with commentaries. These are brilliant people, and I thank God for their ministry. Right. But they could get it wrong. We interpret Scripture, we say, does this fit with the rest of the theology of the canon of Scripture as given by God? And if it doesn't, well then we know that it's crooked and we know that we're missing it somewhere.

SPEAKER_00 22:56

Right? Yeah, and this really matters, right? I mean, because this is specifically how Satan comes and attacks believers. He doesn't really need to test twist scripture for people who are unsaved, for people that don't know the Lord, for people that don't care about the Lord. Yeah, exactly. They don't care about God's word because they don't care about God, right? This is how Satan, like you said, the MO, this is how he attacks us. Exactly right. Something we must take very, very seriously.

SPEAKER_01 23:17

And what was what was the saving grace here? Well, let me just let me just say this how others may be controversial.

Build A Mind Full Of Scripture

SPEAKER_01 23:23

Could Jesus have sinned?

SPEAKER_00 23:26

Yeah, yeah, he was human.

SPEAKER_01 23:28

He could have. It was human. He could have. If he couldn't sin, this means nothing, right? Right, right. If he was a robot, he could have. He doesn't. He puts himself in a vulnerable, fleshly state, wrapped in human flesh. Emmanuel, God is one of us, among us, right? And God became flesh and dwelt among us. My goodness. Could he have? It looks like he could have. What does he do? He shows us how to understand it.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

Scripture.

SPEAKER_01 24:01

How you do it. Well, you need to really spend some time in Deuteronomy. You know, as I'm sure many of you spend a lot of time in Deuteronomy. I'm telling you, it was what this is the Bible Jesus read. I've heard people say, oh, the Old Testament, I'm not big into it. Like, I want to slap you in Jesus' name. Yeah. But like, it was the Bible Jesus read. I don't know. Yeah. I like the one, the new it's good enough for him, but not for me. What's the matter with you?

SPEAKER_00 24:25

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:25

It is the closed canon of scripture as given by God. Right. By the way, that's what Paul is writing about in Romans when he says, all scripture is given by God and is profitable. That which was written aforetime, Paul says, was written for our admonishment, for our edification, for our endurance, for our correction. This is the Bible he's talking about. Read the Bible. And memorize it, right? You talked about that on Sunday. Well, Jesus doesn't have a copy of Deuteronomy with it.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Where's my scrolls at? Yeah. What is he saying? Where's my scroll, right?

SPEAKER_01 24:56

Give me a second. I know it's somewhere in here. He opens his tablet. No, he has these scriptures ready. Right. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That is Deuteronomy chapter 8 and in verse 3. And he has it ready. He has it ready. It's locked and loaded in his brain. He has grown up. By the way, he is characterized by a mastery of scripture. Right. When he's 12 years old, and his parents lose him, and they come back to Jerusalem. Where do they find him? In the temple, and they said, We've never heard anybody quote scripture like this kid. He's 12 years old and he's got a mastery of the scriptures.

SPEAKER_02 25:36

Right.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

Praise the Lord, man. Right? So he's learning these things. So don't give me this. I can't quote scripture. I can't memorize scripture. I don't have a good memory. Don't tell me that. You do. God has given you a great brain. You can.

SPEAKER_02 25:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 25:52

You can. I can. In fact, let me obligate you to memorize scripture. What other means are you going to use to defeat the temptation of the evil one? Nothing. What? Death. Willpower. You're gonna willpower it? No chance. I'm gonna wait for an inspirational Instagram post to give me the boost I need. Yeah. To not take my life. Right. To not partake in sinful things that my flesh desires. Right. Or I can say, no, Satan, thus says the word of the Lord. Not my word, not your word. Right. Not a word from some preacher, some motivational speech. Right. Not something that, you know, that I saw on a t-shirt. Right. No. We live by the word of God. That's the only way that we can endure these temptations.

SPEAKER_00 26:49

Where's the passage, right? Thy word overhead in my heart that I might not sin against thee. Psalm 119.111. Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 26:54

No, 119-103. I don't know. Psalm 199. It's in 119 there. Case in point. Yeah. Well, there it does say, wherewith shall a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to your word. It's the only way we can be clean. It's the only way we can live clean, right? Right. We have to have the word of God. We have to have a mastery of God's word.

SPEAKER_00 27:16

Well, and it hid in my heart, right? You know the Jews, I mean, when it came to the heart, that was something they took of the utmost sincerity, right? Exactly. And

Trusting God Versus Testing God

SPEAKER_00 27:26

so, yeah. So moving on, this what's the difference between trusting God and testing God? And the reason I ask that is because as we move forward here to the next temptation, right? In verse verse five, then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, She shall give angels charge concerning thee, like you said. And then he says, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. So what is what does that mean? What's the difference? What does it look like for us to trust God? And then what does it look for us maybe to tempt God?

SPEAKER_01 27:56

I think it's to manufacture something that God has promised us, but we're doing it in our way. Case in point. That's good. God promises Abraham and Sarah a child. And, you know, Sarah laughs, which by the way, that was like a pre, that was a Christophany experience, a pre-Christ experience. These two guys come down with a third guy. Abraham says, My Lord, my Lord, bows down, worships them, invites them in, and says, and they have a meal there, and says, Abraham, God's found favor with you. He's gonna give you a son, and your descendants are gonna be more than the stars of the sky. Sarah laughs. She can't believe it. That's why they end up naming Isaac Isaac. It means laughter.

SPEAKER_02 28:34

Right, right.

SPEAKER_01 28:34

Because she she is, she is not believing God. Twenty-five years go by, and there's no child. There's no child. And what does she do? She tempts the Lord by trying to manufacture what God has already promised her. And she says, Hagar, my handmaiden, I'm old, I can't have children, there's no way. And so here, come have a baby with Abraham. I'll call that my child, and we'll help the Lord out. And this is a tempting, this is a tempting of the Lord, as though we need to test the Lord or tempt the Lord. We need to let the Lord be the Lord. We're the ones that need the testing. We're the ones that endure the temptation. We do not mock God. We do not do that in that way at all. We trust the Lord and we don't get ahead of the Lord. That's exactly what it says. Because here's what God promised: God promised Jesus, you're gonna be the king of the whole world. You will have all the authority and all the glory. And the devil comes along and says, You're gonna have it. God's promised it to you. Let me give you a shortcut to get all the glory when you fall off the temple 90 feet up and the angels come down, oh, and they bear thee up. Right. Then everyone's gonna know. And you can have all the glory and the praise and the adoration. And you can avoid the cross. You can avoid the betrayal of Judas and the denial of Peter. And you can avoid all the heartache of his brothers and sisters who did not believe in him, but they shunned him. You can avoid all the trouble here. By the way, you're gonna get what God promised you, anyways. Right. Let me ask you this though, like Tyler. Here's a good question. You're the one asking the questions. Let me give you What if you could have heaven without Jesus?

SPEAKER_00 30:28

That's a tough question. I don't think it'd be heaven.

SPEAKER_01 30:30

Yeah, well, what if it is? Like what a golden street, perfect heaven without Jesus, without the salvation of the Lord. But you could have it for Peter and Ezekiel. Man. Right? You could take your boys, right? You could take your wife, you could take your daughter to heaven.

SPEAKER_00 30:48

Yeah. I mean, the fleshly side of me says, yeah, wonderful, that sounds good. Yeah, this is a good question. Right. The spiritual side of me says, though, that there is no heaven without Christ. I mean, that he's the point of heaven, right? That's right. Just to worship and glorify him. That's exactly right. It's not out of nothing.

SPEAKER_01 31:00

That is exactly right. There's a great illustration of this. By the way, it'd be dark. He's the light of that place. There's no sun there, there's no moon there. It'd be dark. You can have all the streets of gold. You can see nothing. But that's the whole point. It wouldn't be worth it. He's the point of heaven. Regardless of the crowns, regardless of the mansions. In my father's house are many mansions, regardless of all that stuff. None of it means anything. You could have all the heroes of the Bible if Christ isn't there. God told Moses in Genesis 33, I'm going to give you people that were so wicked, the people of Israel. They're basically Egyptians. They're whiners, complainers. They don't even want God. They want Egyptian gods. That's what they want. They don't care about God at all. And God says, He's fed up with them. He goes, I'm going to give you the promised land just like I promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. I'm going to give it to you because I promised and I'm honored, gonna honor my word, but I'm not going with you. I'm gonna give you an angel. The angel's gonna go ahead of you. He's gonna defeat all your enemies. He's gonna give you the land flowing with milk and honey, but I'm not going with you. I'm gonna give you what God has promised. I'm not there. And Moses weeps, and the people weep when they realize you're the point. It's not fish and garlic and leeks and good food and great weather and victory over our enemies. No, the point is relationship, union with the Father, union with the Son, peace with the Holy Spirit in your heart. And the devil comes along and says, Here's what we're gonna do. I'm gonna give you everything God promised you health, wealth, happiness. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Yeah, there you go.

SPEAKER_01 32:46

But you don't have to do it the way Jesus said to do it. I'm gonna give you another way. Yeah, do it my way. We can acquire all these things for you. Yeah, they're all good things. Nothing wrong with any of those things. But we're gonna do it my way instead of his way. That's what he says to Jesus. And then you can have the glory, and you don't have to do it the Father's way, you can do

The Crown Without The Cross

SPEAKER_01 33:06

it my way.

SPEAKER_00 33:06

Yeah. I saw it written, the the crown without the cross, right? Yeah, that's what he's promising, isn't it? And however, this is something, once again, as as is every passage here, it's you can immediately transfer it over to us, the temptations, right? Satan constantly promises us the crown without the cross. Yes, isn't it? It's exactly. There's so many different things. The the the the joys of sex without the marriage, the right, you know, the money without the the work, all these different things, right? It's such a strong temptation. I might say it's it's it's possibly the strongest temptation. It's the root of all the temptations, exactly, right? And so you can do this, and there doesn't have to be any suffering, there doesn't have to be any difficult, right? That's what he's telling Christ here. Yes. And so why is that so strong to us? How do we stand up to that? Because man, that's a tough one. If we got really good at that, we'd be wonderful Christians.

SPEAKER_02 33:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

So how can we stand up to that? Well, here's the difficulty.

SPEAKER_01 33:53

The the game has never changed. Well, we're still trying, we're all still trying to do the same thing, right? Right? We're all fighting these same battles. No one's temptations in the history of the world, no one ever born from a woman has ever had different temptations than these. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, and getting it our way, keeping it to ourselves in our time, without having to wait on that pesky old, what's it called? The will of God. It's so because, and here's the here's the why it's so difficult, here's why it's so strong, is because you're a rebel, and I'm a rebel, and I want to be the God of my life. I want to be in charge of my life, I want to do things in my time, I want to be in the driver's seat when relationship with the father comes out of surrender to quote the great theologian Carrie Underwood. This is true. Jesus take the wheel, you be in charge. Right. It's not a great song, but it's not terrible theology either. For God to be in control, for the hands to come off the steering wheel. That's what the devil is saying. Jesus, let's do it this way. Right. You know the Father's will is gonna include whips, a spear through the side, nail through the hands, crown of thorns, betrayal of your friends. Let's do it this way instead. And we all have that. And we all have to, listen to me, Christian. We all have to surrender ourselves to the Lord every day. Right. We submit and we repent of ourselves every day. Right. You're wicked, I'm wicked. We have to surrender our wills to God. Listen, if you know anything, if you have any maturity and discernment about yourself so spiritually at all, you know that's the way. That's the best way to go about it. But every day that thing creaks back up. Let's get it our way, let's get it in our time, let's manipulate it, let's let's manhandle it. What that is, is tempting the Lord your God. And Jesus says, No, devil, we do not tempt the Lord our God. By the way, it just comes from an old passage in this Bible in Deuteronomy 6. That's why it's so difficult. It's never gonna not be difficult, Tyler. You and I are gonna fight these same battles, the listeners are gonna fight these same battles until we die. Now listen, I'm better at it, getting better at it. Yeah, right. It's not like it was when I was 20, right? The victories are coming easier. I see the temptations now more for what they are. I'm not as foolish as I used to be. God is helping me. The Spirit of God is living within me, and I'm very thankful for that. But I can confidently assure you, we're gonna fight these same temptations until we're with the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 36:46

Right. I had a kind of a question in closing here, and it's a it's a very it was a personal one. So what I'll do is I'll answer it in the first place, and then you can continue if you'd like. But said which of these temptations, like the three that Jesus struggled with, uh, do you find yourself struggling with the most? And I immediately know the answer. I I think of the first one. I think of the turning the rocks into bread and doing it simply because exactly simply to me, because that's stepping outside the will of God and wanting to do it in my way and my time, right? Yes, and man, do I struggle with that every single day of my life with different things, right? It's always a different topic matter, subject matter. It's it's it's money, it's my family, it's my wife, it's it's my job. It's it's always something different, but there's the same heart issue that lies at the core of it, right? That's right. And and the next part here was the what can we learn from the way that Jesus used scripture to fight his temptations? And and and really when I say that's my number one struggle, right? The only way that I've ever overcome it is simply by relying on Christ, right? And what He's told me, what He's told me to be true. Because I do want to do things my way, but I know they're not the right way. That's right. And submitting to him. I'm sorry, what was the word you said a few surrender, not submitting, but same idea, right? Exactly. Surrendering it to him. Father, I want to do this my way. And you know my heart and you know that that I feel that way, but I just can't. Lord, you take this, right? You you you deal with it because I'll mess it up.

SPEAKER_01 37:59

It's also a daily surrender because that's what brings the relationship. Yeah, it's a daily submitting. And I'm thankful because when we struggle with that, that's what brings us back to the Lord. That's what brings us back to the Lord in our failures. Lord, I I know I needed to and I didn't. Forgive me for that.

SPEAKER_00 38:18

I think there's such a beauty in that. And I'm so and and like I don't pray this out loud, but when it's just me and the Lord, I tend to be so raw when I pray these things, especially when it's things that I'm failing at. I've told you this before, right? But something that I have to do daily is I have to I have to repent and say, Father, I want this thing more than I desire you right now.

SPEAKER_02 38:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 38:38

This this lust, this money, this object, this thing, I desire it more than I desire you right now. Amen. And brother, and say it out loud, right? That's exactly right. I do. It's in tears, right? To the Lord. I'm sorry, but this is the truth. And Father, you know my heart, so I'm not gonna try and hide it. You know this to be true, right? Yeah, so I'm just gonna pour it out before you. Exactly. And man, it's it's a beautiful thing, right? Because never once have I been met with him turning his back when I say something like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:01

Exactly right, right? Also, you say it out loud, and he's not like, what? Yeah, he's not surprised. He knows it. You don't you don't love me? Yeah, he knows you don't love him correctly. Yeah, he knows that we love him imperfectly. Yeah, he knows it's not a surprise to him, Lord. I desire this more than I desire you. If I'm being honest, I crave it, I think about it. Yeah, I'm so sinful. I have to resist this temptation. And by the way, Tyler, that's it. We're no match for the devil.

SPEAKER_00 39:28

No chance, no hope.

SPEAKER_01 39:29

The Bible doesn't say fight him. Right, the Bible says submit to the Lord and resist him. Yeah. Let me read to you from James 4. It says, Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. That's exactly what happens here. At the end of verse 11, it says, and when Jesus resisted the devil, it says he fled from him, and then the angels came and ministered to him. So, like, there is breakthrough coming, right? There is restoration coming. I I praised the Lord yesterday. I said it like this. I said, Lord, thank you for this new revival in my heart. We go through seasons, you know, and sometimes it's more difficult, sometimes it's cooler than it is, and I mean cool, like things have cooled off in the relationship. And sometimes you may be listening to this and you can identify with this. Sometimes you don't love God like you do, like you should. Sometimes you don't desire him like you should. I'm like that. I go through difficulties like that. I go through seasons of doubt, seasons of not caring, lackadaisical, apathetic seasons. And God knows that. He's not like surprised by your spiritual weaknesses. Well, here's the antidote to that. Keep submitting yourself to God, keep resisting the devil. And the Bible says that he will flee from you. In fact, he has to flee from you. The closer you get to Jesus Christ, the more difficult it is going to be for him to tempt you. Yeah. And to do those things. We have to daily do it. So it's not like a one-time thing at the altar where you go for, and there's this large emotional right? That's a marvelous thing. I did that, I've done that many times. Yes. But it's the quiet in the morning, Lord, I submit myself to you again. I have my plans. You know my day, you know what I'm going to do here. Go before me, right? Teach me, minister to me, lead me, give me wisdom, give me discernment, guide me in this. And the Bible says, when we draw near to God, that the devil will flee from us. James goes on to say, draw nigh to God, he'll draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, purify your hearts, you double-minded. Well, that's me, and that's also me. Be afflicted and mourn. Be sorry. Yeah. It's wonderful to grieve that you don't love God like you should. That's marvelous. We should be grieved by that. And when he says, Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourself in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. He goes on to say, This other temptation, this other sin, speak not evil one of another. Because that's so that's easy for us. Easy for us to do. Why? Because you have a flesh and a free will, and it's awful. And we're fighting, we're resisting it. We're trying to bury the old man every day. But we simply do the work of putting God's word in our hearts, as the psalmist says, your word have I hid in my heart. Why? So that I don't sin against you. How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed to the word of the Lord.

SPEAKER_00 42:41

Yeah. Amen.

Hope For Fighters And Closing Prayer

SPEAKER_00 42:42

So just in closing here, and I'll have you close this out in a word of prayer as well, but just simply as a Christian, I read this passage and there's just such hope in it, right? I mean, it just puts a smile on my face, right? It brings me such a hope. And in in several things, right? I mean, a hope that Jesus didn't fail, right? Because if he did, if that was the recording here, this would not be a hopeful passage. Right. If he did, I wouldn't be here sitting here today. I'd be doing something else, right? I would be a complete hedonist. Exactly.

unknown 43:06

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

I'd be like, where's the pleasure? Life means nothing. There's no savior, right? There's no sin. There's no consequence. This is as good as it gets. Right.

SPEAKER_00 43:14

But that's not true. And and second, it shows us, right, that if we will simply, simply, if we will do what Jesus did here and we will rely upon God because we're thinking, yeah. It's not complicated. It's not complex. It is simple. If we hide his word in our heart. It's not easy. Right. No. If we hide his word in our heart, right, that we can also be successful in terms of the temptations that's great. And so I'm just encouraged in that.

SPEAKER_01 43:35

And if you want to, buddy, if you want to close us, if you have anything else to say and let's pray and ask God's blessing on our current temptations that we're going through right now. Father, we thank you for the victory. We thank you, Lord, that we're not left alone to our devices. We are not left to figure it out. We're not left to manufacture our own necessities and our own needs. You are a good Father. You know what we need. Not only do you know, but you care. Not only do you know and care, but you are able to meet our needs. And so, Father, I pray that as our listeners submit themselves to you, that you'll take care of their needs, that you'll not leave them high and dry, that you'll not just leave them out there. As we give you our flesh, Lord God, would you give us your spirit? I thank you, Lord, for your perfect love, your perfect salvation, your perfect forgiveness. Thank you for loving us. Lord, when we do not love you, Lord, you have come and you've made up all the difference. I thank you, Jesus. You took the cover off of your book and you put it on mine, and you took the cover off of my book, full of sins, and you put it on yours. I thank you, Lord, for your perfect salvation. I thank you for your perfect forgiveness. Lord, help us to resist the devil. Help us to run to you. And Lord, would you send your angels to minister to us and give us your strength in Jesus' name? Amen. Amen.