The Life of Jesus The..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Welcome once again to our Wednesday night Bible studies. We're continuing our series this evening in the series of Christ in his earthly ministry.

We are number three, study number three of seven in that series. And by the grace of God, this evening, the topic for our consideration would be, or is, the temptation of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, in particular in Matthew chapter four. So if you want to open your Bibles there and get ready, We will be getting to Matthew chapter 4 shortly. Now, brothers and sisters, we know that this account, most of us are aware of the account of the temptations of our Lord and the three salts that Satan throws at our Savior in tempting Him in the wilderness. Some have thought that these temptation accounts are recorded for us in Scripture merely so that we as Christians can go and examine and contemplate and learn how to deal with temptations for ourselves.

Now, amen to that. It is true that we can go to see how our Lord, who is the author and the perfecter of our faith, how He dealt with the assaults of Satan, and that in turn we can certainly learn how we ought to deal with temptations. But if that's merely all we think that this account is about, then we have missed the point. Because this account of Christ's temptation is critical for us to understand and know, because He has come to defeat the foe. He has come to defeat the enemy, the chief enemy, which is Satan, and we see this at least initiated in the wilderness, in these temptation accounts.

And we see Christ here so clearly portrayed after we read this account, I hope we can see it more clearly, as the one who throughout history has been awaited, that seed of a woman who is promised back in Genesis chapter 3, when man fell and sin entered into the world and rebellion and depravity had sunk in and the world plunged into the consequence of sin. that the seat of the woman has been awaited since almost the beginning of time and now we see that this seat of the woman is indeed the messianic king Jesus Christ who will crush the head of the serpent. We'll also hopefully we'll see this evening also that this victory of our Savior against this formidable foe on behalf of his people is not a conventional warfare, because it is not a battle that is a physical battle, but rather it is a spiritual battle. And it's a spiritual battle that Jesus will have victory and conquer the enemy. And we'll see that our Lord, through the power of the Holy Spirit, and his complete trust in the Father, and his faultless obedience to the will of the Father, that we'll see that Jesus, this Son in flesh, the Son of God in flesh, will indeed, he'll issue a victory over Satan.

And we'll see here that Satan will assault Christ in three different ways, and Jesus disarms him and is victorious over him. But the final victory will come at the cross of Calvary when Jesus will willingly go to the cross and die on behalf of his people and then is resurrected into glory. That is when the final blow will come upon Satan and when Christ will actually crush his head where Christ will bind the strong man and plunder his goods and he'll save and deliver his people from the kingdom of or the domain of darkness and bring them into the kingdom of the sun as Colossians 1.13 tells us. So what is the context of our passage?

this evening. Well last week we were together we meditated and examined and considered chapter 3 and that is the chapter of the baptism of Christ and if you remember back then we we said that the baptism of Christ was a baptism that John the Baptist baptized. And we said that that baptism is not similar. It's not like the baptism that we know, the New Testament baptism of the believers who are identified in Christ. They die in his death and they rise in his newness of life.

It's not the same baptism. The baptism of John was a baptism of repentance. His mission, his ministry was to go out in the wilderness and call all Israel to repentance. To say the kingdom of God is at hand, the Messianic King is coming, make straight the way of the Lord. Repent, recognize your sin, Israel.

Recognize that you've rebelled against a good and holy God, and recognize that you need to be cleansed of all unrighteousness. His baptism was one of cleansing, of repentance. And that's why we said last week when Jesus came onto the scene, John was astounded. He almost wanted to forbid Christ to baptize him, because he believed that Christ is the one who should be baptizing John, not John baptizing Christ. Because John understood that his baptism is one of repentance.

However, even though a reluctant John will end up baptizing Christ because he obeys the will of his master, even though he knows in his heart, how is it that I can baptize the one who I will come to proclaim as the sinless lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world? But when Jesus speaks to John and makes him aware that all righteousness needs to be fulfilled, John the Baptist submits to the will of Jesus and he baptizes Christ. And so it's at this point last week where we, at least last week, we examined the book of Exodus and we looked at the fall of man. Because when we heard that Jesus is saying that it is all righteousness that he has come to fulfill, we need to understand what that righteousness entails. So we went back last week and we saw that Adam is the federal head of humanity.

All humanity was in the loins of Adam. And as the federal head who broke the test in the garden, he disobeyed God. God was expecting of him perfect obedience. Do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Eat from all other trees, but from that one you are not to eat.

From the day you eat of it, surely die you shall die. And Adam broke, broke obedience with God. And through the breaking of that obedience, then he became unrighteous and death entered into the world. And we examine, we look together in Romans chapter 5, where the apostle Paul so clearly shows us that death came into the world through the sin of Adam. And as a result, the sin of Adam has infected every single human being apart from the Lord Jesus Christ.

Why? Because we were all in his loins, and as the federal head, his sin has affected all of us. But we also looked at Christ being the new Adam. That where Adam in the garden failed, Jesus Christ has come to succeed. And he's come into this world born of a woman, born under the law, So he would be perfectly obedient to the law of God so that he would fulfill all righteousness on behalf of his people.

Where Adam failed, Jesus succeeds. But also last week, we had a look and we said that that righteousness, that righteousness that Jesus must fulfill, the perfection to the law of God, the stipulations and the precepts and all the requirements that God expects of his people, he was to be perfect in those. But not only those, we said also the unique work that the Father had given him. The will of the Father would need to be obeyed perfectly by Christ, namely that he would be submissive to death, even death on the cross. But beloved, we said last week also that for Christ to be the substitutionary sacrifice, then he would need to fulfill all righteousness.

But beyond that, we said also last week that God requires or demands perfection, sinlessness, in order to be reconciled to God. Man needs to be sinless to be in His presence. But beyond that, he needs to have an active righteousness. In other words, he needs to be perfect in his obedience to the farmer and none of us are sinless and none of us are perfectly obedient. So what Christ has done in his earthly ministry is so profound that he is not only the righteous one who is pure and sinless, the spotless lamb that has died on that cross willingly to bear the wrath on behalf of his people, but those who trust in him have his righteousness imputed to us.

His righteousness is now covering us. So the father would see and look upon those who have been united in Jesus and he sees the righteousness of Jesus Christ. So what Christ has done is he died in our stead and he's also covered us in his righteousness. Adam brought death and unrighteousness into the world. Jesus brings righteousness and life for all who would trust in him.

Now that That's the doctrine and we spoke about that last week and we said this is the thesis statement of Jesus. He's come to fulfill all righteousness now by the grace of God as we look from this point in the earthly ministry of Christ at least from the point of his temptation We will see how the doctrine plays out in the actual life of Jesus. How it is that Jesus comes to fulfill all righteousness. How it is that Jesus comes to fulfill all the requirements of the law of God. But it won't come easy because the world will be against Christ.

He has a formidable enemy in Satan who will do everything he can to try to trip him up. So this will be a warfare. This will be a warfare on behalf of our Savior. But we must not begin that text before we remember once again that what happened in the baptism of our Lord last week. Because when the baptizer, that's John, baptizes our Lord, we need to remember in the Jordan River, by full immersion, then we need to remember that the Spirit of God, the heavens opened.

Glorious sight that would have been. And the Spirit of God descended upon our Savior and He remained upon Jesus. At that point, John the Baptist knew because he'd been given by God that the one where the Spirit of God descends upon and remains upon, He is the Son of God. He's the one that you've been called to introduce to Israel and to proclaim, hey Israel behold your king. But then beyond that a voice came from heaven and this is important for our passage because that voice that came from heaven was the voice of the father and he was heard to say this is my beloved son speaking about Jesus with whom I am well pleased.

An acknowledgement not only that the Father is eternally delighted in Jesus Christ, but also an acknowledgement that this Jesus is indeed the Son of God. That he is same in essence with God, same in the divine nature with God. Jesus is indeed the Son of God. Now we need to remember that because the enemy is going to use that when he tempts Christ. So let's now open our Bibles, if we have them open, to Matthew chapter 4 and we'll begin our reading from verses 1 and we'll read the first 11 verses together.

So Matthew chapter 4 and we'll read from 1 to 11. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone. 6 Jesus said to him again, It is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. And then Jesus said to him, begone Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Brothers and sisters, I want us to realize even from the very first verse here, where we're told that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. It is so important that we see this. That it is the Spirit of God who has indwelt Jesus Christ.

He is now, according to Luke chapter 4, Jesus is full of the Holy Spirit. And the Spirit of God, God himself, is leading Jesus into the wilderness for this reason, to be tempted by the devil. Now, it's important that when we read that, we don't think for a moment that it is the Spirit of God who's tempting, or God who is tempting Jesus. That's not what he said here. In fact, James is very clear to deny that notion, where he says in James 1, verse 13, let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

See, God indeed does allow and even direct the path, our path, sometimes into places where we can be tested, tried, and even tempted. But he himself tempts no one with evil. All he does good. And so Christ is being led into the wilderness because it is necessary for Jesus to be led into the wilderness to engage with this battle against the enemy, this formidable enemy, Satan himself. We're not talking about a demon here.

We're talking about the chief enemy of God, Satan himself. And he will go into battle with Jesus into the wilderness. And the Spirit of God has led Christ into the wilderness to engage in this battle. We need to be able to see this. We need to be able to see this, because it's necessary for Christ to engage with the enemy.

The enemy, we'll see, will throw everything he has at Jesus. He'll assault Christ with all that he can, but Jesus will show himself unlike the previous Adam, unlike the old Adam who this same enemy had presented himself and deceived and tempted and the old Adam did in fact swallow it up and was tripped up and he was deceived, his wife was deceived and so he engaged in sin. No, Jesus will prove himself unlike the previous Adam. Because this Jesus will bear whatever the enemy has to throw at him. He'll bear the full brunt of the force of the enemy, and he will stand firm, and he will indeed not only stand firm, but he will crush him with victory.

And as I said earlier, this is an initial victory, but the final victory will happen when Jesus dies on that cross and once and for all binds Satan and plunders him and crushes his head as he was foretold. foretold to do. So we're told, after fasting for 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. Jesus was in the wilderness led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness where he meets Satan after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting. This is probably a time of his preparation.

He's preparing for his ministry. He's preparing to engage in his earthly ministry, to redeem his people, to do the will of the Father exactly and perfectly and faultlessly as we said last week. So he's hungry. He's tired. And so this is really a demonstration that Jesus Christ is indeed human.

He engaged truly with our humanity. It's easy for us to say, because we cannot in our mind be able to fathom how it is that he could be fully God and fully man. The Bible teaches that he is indeed fully God and fully man, but our minds can't conceive of that notion. And so sometimes we may sit back and say, was he 100% man? Was he truly fully man?

Beloved, he was. And all throughout the scripture, we'll see evidences that Jesus indeed experienced the full human experience just like you and I. He was tempted like you and I, but without sin. He was tired. He was hungry.

He felt sleepy, we know. And he'll be subject to much suffering, which we will see as we progress through and see the life of our Lord in his earthly ministry. But Satan is a schemer. He's a planner. He's a low blower.

And so he finds Jesus after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting, and he is in a physical state of frailty. He's hungry and he's tired. And humanly speaking, Jesus right now is at the most vulnerable state, humanly speaking, because he's tired and he's hungry. And this is the opportune time for Satan to come to Christ and to tempt him with these three assaults that we see that is before us. He'll launch an attack at Christ because his plan is to bring him down.

His plan is to discredit this Jesus, to destroy the plan of God. Now he is not omniscient, he doesn't know all that Christ is to do, but as we'll come to find out very shortly, he has had plenty of time to understand and read the Scripture. Now, he doesn't understand it like one who is indwelled by the Spirit of God, but he does know the Scripture, and we will see that is the case as we look at the temptations that he throws at Jesus Christ. But I also want you to see that not only is Jesus portrayed as the new Adam, and I want us to see this as we examine this text, that not only is he portrayed as the new and the better Adam, the one who's come to succeed where the old Adam has failed in the Garden of Eden, but I also want you to see that the text is very much alluding to portray Jesus as the true Israel. as the true Israel.

In other words, the text is wanting us, and we'll see this in a few moments, to look back at the people of Israel after they were rescued from the land of Egypt, and to see how they failed the tests in the wilderness, and to show how Jesus doesn't fail. to show how Jesus is indeed victorious, to show how Jesus is indeed fulfilling all righteousness. He does what is required of him and he does it perfectly. How do we see these things? Well firstly, we see that Jesus is led into the wilderness for 40 days after he's baptized in the Jordan River.

You see, when the children of Israel were rescued from Egypt, before they were led into the wilderness, they, for 40 years, it wasn't 40 days for them, it was 40 years for them, but we're told in 1 Corinthians 10 that they were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, that is the Red Sea. They were baptized into the sea before they were led into the wilderness for 40 years. Now, 40 years for them, 40 days for Christ, but Jesus is like a condensed version of the testing for which they lasted 40 years. But in both cases, we know that the children of Israel failed time after time after time. We've seen that in our corporate reading, have we not?

We're going through the book of Exodus, we're almost at the end of the book of Exodus, and time after time we've seen them fail the tests that God has placed before them. but we see that Jesus fails, does not fail the test. Jesus is the one who is victorious. Moses makes it very clear to us, makes it very, very clear to us that these people of Israel were actually tested in the wilderness. And we'll come, we'll read the passage in a few moments.

It's in Deuteronomy chapter eight. And on many occasions, the people of Israel were indeed tested in the wilderness, but we'll come to see they were they failed the test. And also, in Exodus chapter 4, before Yahweh declares Israel to be the Son, you remember that? In Exodus chapter 4, God declares of Israel, He's declaring that Israel is his son. This is when he spoke to Moses and said, you go tell Pharaoh that this is my son.

You're going to let them go. And then, of course, the series of plagues. And in the end, they're released from Egypt to go into the wilderness. But we also see when Jesus was baptized, that voice from heaven It was the voice from heaven that came down from the Father that declared, this is my Son in whom I am well pleased. So there's a declaration that Jesus is the true Son of God.

And the most compelling evidence, I think, that the text really wants us to look back into the people of Israel to see that Jesus is not only the new and better Adam, but also true Israel, is the fact that every single time Jesus, when Satan assaults Christ with his temptations, every single time Jesus responds, he responds with text from the book of Deuteronomy. And that text is when Moses, this is the people who have wandered in the wilderness for some 40 years, and they're about to enter into the conquest into the promised land, and Moses is telling them and reminding them of what they've been through. And so Jesus uses text in the book of Deuteronomy. That's the scripture that he uses to respond to every one of Satan's assaults. So all in all, it is clear that Jesus Christ is not only the new and better Adam, but I'm hoping that by the time we're done this evening, we'll also see that Jesus Christ is the true Israel.

That he is the true people of God. that what God requires of his people is only accomplished in Jesus and those who are united in Christ by faith are now become or now become in him true Israel. So let's look at the three temptations. Let's look at the first one. We look at verse three.

And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. can almost hear the scorn in his voice, can't you? If you are the Son of God. Can you see that? If you are the Son of God.

If you believe Jesus, that voice you heard some 40 days ago, declaring from heaven that you are the Son of God, if you believe that, then use your divine prerogative. Use that privilege. If you are the Son of God, look at you, Jesus. You look famished. You're tired.

You're hungry. That is no condition for deity. That's not a condition to be in if you truly are the Son of God. If you believe that you are the Son of God, turn these stones into loaves and satisfy your hunger. See, Jesus does have the ability to do that.

This is not a case of does Jesus have the ability or doesn't. We're New Testament Christians and we've seen the miracles and the signs that our Lord has performed throughout his earthly ministry. We're still in John chapter 6, and we've seen even there that he creates bread to feed some maybe 15 or 20,000 people. No, it's not a question of power, because Jesus does have the power to do this. We know that for sure.

There's a deeper issue at play. You see, what Satan is doing here is not concerned that Jesus is removed from the famished state that he's in. He's not concerned that Jesus is so hungry that he needs to be fed. Satan has no concern for Christ. What he's trying to do is he's trying to wedge, put a wedge between Christ and his explicit trust in the will of the Father.

Trust that will lead this Jesus to hunger. Trust that will lead this Jesus to suffer. Trust that will lead this Jesus to ultimately the excruciating pain of being hung on a Roman cross. Satan is putting a wedge and saying, he can you indeed trust the Father. You see, he's trying to manipulate Christ to use his divine power to seek himself over and above the will of the Father.

In other words, what Satan is saying is this, hey Jesus, you should be looking after number one. You're in desperate need for food. You're famished. You're hungry. Why don't you fill your stomach with your divine power?

But beloved, is that not how Satan tempted the original Adam? Wasn't the original Adam more concerned with himself than the glory of God? That won't work with Christ. The original Adam was more concerned. He believed Satan.

You're holding back, Satan said to Eve. And he believed that there's more to it than this. God is holding back His goodness from me. So I'm not going to trust in His will and His will alone. I'm going to accept the deception because I think I need more.

But that's not the response. Listen to the response of our Savior in verse 4. But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. You have to love that response. That Jesus is saying that man does not live by bread alone.

Satan, you're trying to tempt me with physical bread. You're trying to say I'm hungry and I am hungry. And in his humanity, Jesus is hungry. Let's not deny that. He's hungry.

But he's making him aware. He's making the enemy aware that there's something greater at play here. The soul is not satisfied. apart from every word that comes out of the mouth of God. And in fact, he believes it so much that his response is of the Word of God.

Jesus' response, as I said earlier, is from the book of Deuteronomy, where he speaks the Word of God. In other words, Satan, you'll attack me as much as you please, But I'm telling you that your attacks, the way I will alleviate or the way I'll respond to your attacks, my weapon of choice is indeed the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. You see, Jesus disarms Satan with the Word of God. And so that quote, as I said earlier, was from the book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy chapter 8 from verses 1 through 6.

Let's open our Bibles because I think the context there is important for us to understand what Jesus is doing in this passage. So if we can open our Bibles to Deuteronomy chapter 8, we'll be reading from verses 1 through 16. from verse 1. Deuteronomy chapter 8 from verse 1 through 6. The whole commandment that I command you today you shall be careful to do that you may live and multiply and go in and possess the land that the Lord swore to give to your fathers.

Remember Moses is speaking to the people of Israel now before they have the conquest into the promised land. And so they've already been wandering the wilderness for many, many years. And you shall remember the whole way the Lord your God has led you these 40 years in the wilderness, that he might humble you. Hear this, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commands or not. Verse three, and he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna.

which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Your clothing did not wear out on you, and your foot did not swell for these 40 years. Now then, know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, the Lord your God disciplines you. So you shall keep his commandments of the Lord your God by walking his ways and by fearing him." You see, Israel was tested in the wilderness.

It says here that they were tested, even in verse 3, with hunger. Why? So that the Lord will teach them to trust in Him. To trust in His promises. Israel had been given promises through Abraham and Isaac and Jacob.

Promises that would be fulfilled in this people. That they will be people unto God. He'll be their God and they will be His people. He will take them and He'll put them in the promised land. He'll protect them.

They are to honor him and love him, and they are to obey his commands and trust him. He's promised and they are to believe his word. So he put them through the tests. But beloved, the people of Israel in the wilderness were falling in the same area. They were falling in the same area that Satan was hoping Christ would fall in, was the area of their physical provisions.

They could not look beyond the physical. They wanted to be satisfied in their stomachs. They wanted the physical and the temporal things. So they failed the test. They continued to moan.

They continued to groan. They continued to complain to Moses. We are hungry, Moses. We are hungry, Moses. Rather than trusting in Yahweh, who has miraculously brought them out of the land of Egypt by ways of miracle, and has opened up the Red Sea, and allowed them to walk through on dry land, and has provided for them every step of the way, yet they still did not trust in Christ, in trust in God.

But rather they were more concerned with filling their bellies, so they looked at Moses and said, we would have been better off back in Egypt, where at least our bellies were full with food. But Jesus, Jesus is the true Israel. He's faultless in his righteousness. He's faultless in his obedience. And no matter how hungry he gets, no matter how severe his physical need gets to, he will not flinch.

in his trust of the Father. There is no need for him to take divine action for himself that puts him outside the will of the Father in order for him to make food for himself to eat. He can trust the Father explicitly with all things. Satan, you cannot put a wedge between me and the Father, is what Jesus is saying. Because what you fail to understand, Satan, is a humongous point.

Yes, I am hungry, but my food is to do the will of Him who sent me in to accomplish His work. That's John 4.34. That's the heart of the Savior. That my food, my complete satisfaction, the satisfaction for my soul, is to do the will of my Father, whom I love and who I've come into this world to accomplish His will perfectly.

So if that means that He leads me by His Spirit into the wilderness for 40 days, 40 nights, without food, if that means I'm famished and hungry, That's fine, because I trust myself to the Father's care and my soul is nourished in my obedience to Him. That's a glorious lesson to learn. But the assaults keep coming. First assault by Satan diffused. But then the second one comes.

Verse 5. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. So now we find that Jesus and Satan are in Jerusalem, actually, in the temple grounds. Now, whether this is a physical or a vision, we're not 100% sure, because in the next temptation, Jesus is taken to the highest mount where all the kingdoms of the world are before him. So we don't know in what sense he is there, but we cannot deny the reality of this event and the realness of what takes place before us.

But Satan takes him there. And he sets him on the high point of the temple, most likely the southeastern side, the side that overlooks the Kedron Valley, maybe about 130 odd meters high. So he has a pretty good look and it's pretty high. Any man who drops 130 meters will drop to their instant death. But you can see, even in the voice of Satan, what he says here, like he says earlier in the first command, if, again, he throws that little bit of doubt, if you are the Son of God.

But this time, the devil, in his sneakiness, he does something that is different to the first command. Because this time, Satan is actually using Scripture himself. You know, he knows the Word of God. He's had a lot of experience. And he's been distorting the Word of God for many years.

He did it in the garden. You remember when Eve, you know, said that you can't eat the knowledge of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and he or on that day I shall die and then Satan said no surely you won't die. There's a distortion. God had spoken and now Satan will go ahead and deny and distort and blatantly lie and say this is what God says when in fact God did not say that. So here Satan is actually quoting Psalm 91 and it's not so much a manipulation of words that he's using but it's more so a manipulation of the context that he's using.

Satan is taking this psalm that speaks of God's protection upon those who are devout and those the faithful people of Israel. That he will care for them, that he will protect them, that he'll provide for them. And he applies this and says, Jesus, since God, your Father, has spoken these words, then why don't you presume on these words and jump since he says that he will send his angels and you will not be hurt. In other words, if you're so devoted to him, If you've just told me that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God, and so you are Jesus, you are the Son of God, and you're saying that you're living in your humanity by every single word that comes from the mouth of God, now I'm going to give you something from the mouth of God. You acknowledge Scripture, the Psalms are the Word of God, I'm going to give you the Word of God.

Why don't you obey this? Jesus. You see what Satan's doing? He's following Jesus step by step and he's deepening the assault at our Lord and our Saviour. But this is the thing, that text is written to those who are devoted to God.

This text is written for those who know God, who have experienced his goodness, who have tasted and seen that he is indeed good and understand his laws and his precepts. They know not to take the rest of God's word or take a proof text and take a verse or a small section and take it out and use it as a life verse or a proof text. But rather, they will harmonize, they know well enough to harmonize that it is all the words of God that need to be considered. And therefore, they will know very clearly that this passage is not at all condoning that one presumes upon the grace of God. Not at all.

That God does not warrant any of his people to run or walk into unwarranted danger like jumping into the fire and saying, hey God, protect me. Your word says. Or walking in front of wild beasts and saying, hey God, protect me. What Satan is doing now is one of those examples where he's saying, Christ, jump from this high point and believe in the Word of God that you say you live by. Why don't you jump and then let's see if God will actually indeed send his angels to protect you, if you are indeed the son of God.

And the other point is, look where they are. Look where they are. They're in the temple or they're on temple grounds. So in other words, if God is near, he's got to be here, right, Jesus? Isn't the temple the place where God has chosen to manifest his glory and manifest his presence?

He's brought him to this place. And he said, if God's going to hear you, this is the best place. You're right on the temple grounds. This is where God will hear you. Jump, Jesus.

Jump. Believe the words that are quoted in Psalm 91 and go ahead. Jump. Show that you are indeed explicitly trusting in the word of God. But Jesus can see right through the deception.

Jesus can see right through the deceitfulness of Satan. He knows the scripture is being distorted and he will not take any of it. He will not be manipulated by this schema. Because this is what we call proof texting at its best. When we take sections of the Bible, and we just read them on their own, and then we go and say, these are the things that God promised he will do, and this is the way I'm going to live, and this is what I'm going to demand of God.

This is how Satan deals with scripture, but not God's people. God's people, they take the whole of scripture. We read all the scripture. This is why Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by all the words that come out of the mouth of God. Not just a portion.

To know God, we need to know his word. From cover to cover we read and we examine and we meditate upon, because we know who God is through His Word and through the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit. And then when we hear texts taken out, we know we are not to do this thing, because this would be tempting the Lord God, and we know we are not to do that. And the Father's faithfulness, Jesus knows, is certain. He knows He's faithful to Him.

He knows He will care for Him. But He's not about to take His Father and put Him to the test. You see, the Father The Father is able and does indeed have the right to bring his people to a place of trial and testing to prove them genuine. But beloved, his people have no right to test him. That's his prerogative, not ours.

Jesus says to him, and again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. You see, again, Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 6. The first quote was from chapter 8, and this one is in chapter 6. And it's also very important that we understand the context of this quote as well. So let's open our Bibles to chapter 6, Deuteronomy chapter 6.

The context is still the same as the previous chapter Moses speaking. And I want to read just from verse 16, 16 through 19. "'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test,' that's what Jesus said, "'as you tested him in Massa. "'You shall diligently keep the commands of the Lord your God "'and his testimonies and his statutes "'which he has commanded you, "'and you shall do what is right and good "'in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you, "'and that you may go in and take possession of the good land "'that the Lord swore to give your fathers "'by thrusting out all your enemies from before you as the Lord has promised." Now I want you to see chapter 16.

That's the response of our Savior to the second assault of the devil. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. That's where Jesus ends it, right? But here it says, as you tested him in Massa. So how did the people of Israel test God in Massa?

Let's flick our pages back to Exodus chapter 17. Exodus chapter 17. And we'll read the first seven verses. Exodus chapter 17, read the first seven verses. These people have been rescued out of Egypt, they've crossed over the Red Sea, but they haven't quite made it to Mount Sinai, so they haven't received the law.

All right, from verse 1. All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim. But there was no water for the people to drink. Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water to drink. And Moses said to them, Why do you quarrel with me?

Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water and the people grumbled against Moses and said, why did you bring us up out of Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? So Moses cried to the Lord, what shall I do with these people? Hear this, they are almost ready to stone me. Pretty serious.

And the Lord said to Moses, Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel and taking your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on a rock of Horeb and you shall strike the rock and the water shall come out of it and the people will drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. Seven. And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah.

because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, hear this, and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us or not? They were furious. These people were thirsty and therefore they were about to stone Moses. And Moses comes and pleads before the Lord. What do I do?

What do I do with these grumbling people? The main thing I want you to see is verse 7. Because in the end, he says, and because he called this place Masa and Meribah because of the quarrelling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, is the Lord among us? The wilderness generation put God to the test. Because they could not see with their eyes the physical water that they were so desperately requiring and wanting to satisfy the thirst of their bodies.

So they question, they question if Yahweh is even among them. They tested God and they failed the test. They tested God and they failed the test of God. He put him in situations that would be found faithful, trusting in the promises of God, but they completely failed the test. But Christ, Christ is the true Israel.

the obedient one who will not deny God. He will not fail the tests. He will not succumb to the temptation of the enemy. He knows the Father is with him. He knows.

He has absolutely no need to test to see if the Father is indeed faithful to him. So he looks at Satan and says, no. I trust the Father. I believe Him. And I will not do what you want me to do.

I will not fail this test. I will not put God to the test. No one, no man has the right to put God to the test. But before we move on, we'll look at the last temptation in a moment. It's interesting that Satan resides, Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12, to tempt our Lord, but he stops there.

He doesn't go on to read verse 13. It's interesting. We'll just mention this and move on. Because he mentions 11 and 12, talking about the angels coming and not allowing the heel of Christ to strike a rock. But verse 13 goes on to say, you will tread on the lion and the adder, that's a snake, your young lion, and the serpent you will trample underfoot.

I wonder why he stops at verse 11 and doesn't continue to the text that speaks of a serpent being trampled underfoot. But we'll continue. Finally Satan opens his mouth one final time. In verse 8, again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me.

He shows Christ, all the kingdoms of the world, all laid bare before him, and he says, Jesus, fall on your knees and worship me, and I will give you everything you see. But Jesus has already made known that he has come to do the will of the Father. Jesus has already made known that he has come to fulfill all righteousness, to succeed where the first Adam failed, to succeed where the people of Israel failed in the wilderness through all the testing, that he would show himself to be the new, better Adam, to show himself to be the true Israel. And he knows that that journey, that journey that the Father has placed him on, and that journey that he desires to seek all righteousness, which is to do the will of the Father, will ultimately lead to the cross through suffering. You see, this journey is a journey of unimaginable suffering for Christ.

How much of this suffering Satan knew would come? Well, that's debatable because he's not omniscient. But Christ knew, but Christ knew what he was meant to do. And he knew what would come before him. He knew what it would take to fulfill the will of the Father.

He knew that one of his own will betray him for 30 pieces of silver. He knew that his own people will reject him as Messiah. He knew that he would be led to a place, carrying a plank of wood on his back, to a hill called Golgotha, where he would be crucified before all people present. A death fitting, in the Roman Empire at least, to the lowest scum of society, to the point where Roman citizens... It was against the law for Roman citizens to actually be crucified.

Only in very rare circumstances was that allowed by high permission. But in general, Romans weren't crucified, because the crucifixion carried with it a stigma. It was a curse. It was a horrible way of dying. The word excruciating comes from the word crucified.

That's the sort of pain and suffering that Jesus would have to bear in order to fulfill the will of the Father, in order to actually fulfill all righteousness. beyond that. We know that when he was on the Mount of Olives and on the night he would be betrayed. You remember when he was praying before the Lord and he was told that sweat drops like blood came from our Lord in Luke chapter 22. Why?

Because of the bitter cup of judgment that he will come to bear. The wrath of God will be poured out on him. He who knew no sin would become sin. He would be deemed as a sinner. on the cross where God will punish him for the sins of his own people.

And that is a cup. That is a cup that caused anguish in Christ. Absolute anguish. He knew what pain and suffering would come. He knew what he would endure to do the will of the Father and what was leading him to the cross.

And so in this temptation, where Satan takes them to that high mountain and shows them all the kingdoms of the world, Satan is trying to say, Jesus, I'm going to give you a shortcut. I'll give you all these worldly kingdoms, but what it'll cost you is to first give up on the will of the Father and bend your knee to me. It is true that Satan is called the Prince and the Power of the Air. It's true that we're told that Satan is also the God of this age. But beloved, he is a deceiver and he is a liar.

The fact of the matter is that his leash is only as long as God allows him. Now he does have a certain power. and he does have a massive strong influence otherwise the Bible wouldn't say he's the prince of the power of the air otherwise the Bible would not say that he is indeed the god of this age but beloved what he is offering Christ Christ can see right through that because what he's offering if Christ were to accept and of course he couldn't he's impeccable incapable of sin but if he were to accept this then he would be no better than satan himself But of course, Christ rejects that completely. Completely, he rejects it. We know that Jesus has come to fulfill all righteousness.

And we know that Jesus's gaze is like flint to obey God and his will. Back to the Mount of Olives when Jesus was praying, you remember what he said? When he was contemplating the bitter wrath of God, that cup that he would have to drink, you remember what he said? He said, Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done. Of course, Jesus would never bend his knee to Satan.

And what Satan had before him, it wasn't a temptation. It was never a temptation for Jesus to deny God. It was never a temptation for Christ to go against the will of God. That was never a temptation. But what was really happening here?

is that Jesus was reminded that I don't want all these kingdoms. I have no interest in these kingdoms. The kingdom I have come to establish and inaugurate is a kingdom that is not of this world. It's the kingdom of the Son. But I would have to go through real suffering.

Immense, immense suffering I would have to endure. And that's what was brought up in that moment. his knee to Satan. Let's not think of it that way. It was never a temptation for Christ to bend his knee to Satan.

But the anguish of the true humanity of Jesus, in that he would have to go and bear that suffering on that cross, which, beloved, is unbearable. We cannot even begin to understand what we would be like for the one who knew no sin, undefiled, pure, holy, to actually bear the sin of His people on that cross. We cannot even begin to understand that. But in His humanity, He could see what was to come. And you know what?

That was a bitter, bitter cup. But Jesus remained resolute, fixing his eyes upon God, fixing his eyes upon the Father, trusting him in all things. And so he looks at Satan and he says, then Jesus says to him, be gone, Satan, be gone. For it is written, you shall not worship, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And then the devil left him and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

You shall have no other gods before me is the first and preeminent commandment of God. And what Satan was trying to do here was what Satan always wanted and has always sought after, the worship of all. He's one who wants to usurp his authority over God. He's one who wants to take what belongs to God and take it for himself. That's what he did in the garden.

Adam and Eve. That's what he did with the people of Israel in the wilderness. The temptations that he kept tempting them, that can you trust this God? Can you trust his goodness? Can you trust his promises?

Can you trust that he will indeed fulfill if he can't even provide you with water and food? How can you trust this God with his ultimate promises? Beloved, the people of Israel did actually fall. They worshipped a golden calf. And those tests kept coming, and we know that they kept falling.

And we know that Adam did the same, as I said earlier, and plunged all humanity into sin. But the new Adam, this Jesus, this is the Son of God, and this is the one in whom God is eternally pleased. He's always delighted. He's always been delighted in Christ, and forevermore shall be he delighted in Christ, because his son in the incarnation, he was perfectly and faultlessly obedient to the will of God to the nth degree. to the nth degree.

He succeeded where Adam failed. He succeeded where the people of Israel failed. He makes him the new and better Adam and the true Israel of God. And so the angels come and they minister to our Lord Satan flees for a more opportune time, which he will find as we look through the gospel. We see he pokes his ugly head up every now and again.

But Jesus defeats this formidable foe. This is the initial victory of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is what humans, this is what man was meant to do. In the garden and every one of us, we are meant to be obedient to the law of God, obedient to the will of God, but every single one of us has failed in this area. Every single one of us.

However, Christ has proven that he is victorious. He has done what God wanted his people to do. And so that those who would trust in Jesus will be wrapped in that righteousness. And beloved, that righteousness is that perfect obedience. That righteousness is how he dealt with temptation, That righteousness is his victory, is his pass grade with the temptations and with the trials and the testing that came Jesus' way.

His success in all these areas is the righteousness that he's fulfilled for his people. And beloved, when Jesus went to that cross, willingly, and hung on that cross, and then cried out, it is finished, what he began here in the wilderness, he brought to a consummation, because on that cross, he crushed the head of the enemy, and he purchased the redemption of his people. He bound the strong man, he plundered his goods, that is, those who were belonging to him, and he brings them away from or out from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of the sun. This is the kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is not a kingdom of this world.

It's not the kingdom that Satan shows him, no. It's the kingdom, and he's the king, and that crown that he earns is through suffering that he endured for everyone who would come and trust in him. Amen.