 Tonight, we're in chapter 3 here in the Gospel of Luke, and as you look at chapter 3, we're concluding chapter 3 by looking at verses 23 through 38. I'm not going to read chapter 3 verses 23 through 38 other than to mention that in this passage here, we have the genealogy of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so let me begin by simply reading verse 23, and then I'll say a couple of things. And if you're a person who really is tremendously interested in the genealogy of the Lord, I encourage you to get a commentary, because tonight I'm not going to take you into that much information, okay? You need to know that. Some people are really interested in knowing who Eilea Kim was, for example, and at this moment I'm not. And so I'll read at verse 23, and I'll give you a couple of thoughts, and we're going to move right into chapter 4. And so in verse 23 it says, now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age, being as was supposed the son of Joseph, the son of Halle. And so basically that's what you see here. You see a genealogy that is laid out for us. There are basically two genealogies that you find in the New Testament concerning Jesus Christ. You see a genealogy found in the Gospel of Matthew, and you see a genealogy that is found here in the Gospel of Luke. And anybody who notices the two genealogies will also notice that there are differences. Matthew seems to be giving to us something different than Luke gives to us, and indeed he is. Matthew gives to us the genealogy descending from Joseph. But Luke gives to us the genealogy of descent from Mary. Now Matthew points out Joseph as being not the physical father of Jesus, but he's pointing out Joseph because Joseph married the mother of Jesus, Mary. So what he was giving to us is the legal line of descent when you look at the Gospel of Matthew. You see as her husband he automatically would confer on Jesus the rights of inheritance that Jesus would receive through the line of David. And so he gives to us the legal descent following from Joseph's lineage. Luke's genealogy gives to us Jesus's physical descent from King David. And that's intended to fulfill that which was spoken of in 2 Samuel chapter 7 verses 12 and 13 in the Old Testament of the prophecy related to the fact that Messiah would be a descendant of King David. And so that's what you see here in verses 23 through 38 of Luke chapter 3. In 2 Samuel in chapter 7 verses 12 and 13, God had said to David, when your days are fulfilled and you rest with your fathers, I will set up your seed after you who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom, and then he shall build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. And so when you look at the genealogy of Jesus as is found in Luke chapter 3, you're seeing the descent of the Lord Jesus Christ, the descent from King David. There are a couple of names, actually three names here that you might find interesting, at least I did. In verse 29, you see that Jesus had a Mexican in his family, the son of Jose. And the same is true in verse 33, the son of Perez. And then you find that there was a Hawaiian there in verse 37, mahalal. That's about as much as I can give you on the genealogy, I hope you appreciated it. What I really want to, I'm kidding of course, now some people are writing, oh, Mexicans in the Bible. I'm kidding you, I'm just teasing with you. What I really want to speak to you about though is chapter 4. So let's look at chapter 4 together. I'll begin reading at verse 1, reading to verse 13, and we'll get into our study tonight that relates really to the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Luke chapter 4, beginning at verse 1, Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. In those days he ate nothing, and afterward when he, when they had ended, he was hungry. And the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. But Jesus answered him, saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, get behind me Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only, you shall serve. He brought him to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, for the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you, and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said to him, it has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. And so, as we get into this passage, let me remind you of something. Remember with me in chapter 3 verses 21 and 22, we looked at this last time we're together, let me refresh your memory. It had said in chapter 3 verses 21 and 22, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized, and while he prayed, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him, and a voice came from heaven which said, you are my beloved son, and you I am well pleased. So Jesus has been baptized by John. He received baptism at the Jordan River, and even as we saw a moment ago, the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form, remained on him, and a voice spoke from heaven, this is my beloved son, or you are my beloved son. In you, he says, I am well pleased. As we go into chapter 4, we're going to see why his father would be pleased with him. As I mentioned to you that at the baptism of the Lord Jesus Christ, he had been commissioned and he had been anointed for service. That is spoken of later on in the New Testament in the book of Acts in chapter 10 verse 38. There it says, God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. So the Holy Spirit had descended upon him and the Holy Spirit had anointed him and completely filled him for the service that he would perform on behalf of his father and for his father. In John chapter 1 verse 34, in reference to that, John the Apostle writes, for he whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God does not give the Spirit by measure, meaning that Jesus Christ was fully saturated with a presence of the Holy Spirit in his ministry. Now we remember and we know that many prophets were sent by God to speak his words to a lost and dying world, and each of the prophets had been anointed for that task. They all had received a measure of the Spirit, but in the case of Jesus, there was no limit to the work the Spirit would perform through him. Colossians 1.19 says it pleased the Father that in him all the fullness should dwell. And so the Lord Jesus Christ being saturated, anointed by the Holy Spirit goes out to perform works of service that bring pleasure to his father and is demonstrating his anointing and commissioning by his father. So his qualifications are now about to be proven as Jesus is about to enter into a wilderness experience. I want you to see something with me, and this is very practical, and hopefully I'll be able to communicate to you what the Lord was speaking to my heart about this just today. I want you to see verse 1 here with me. I'm going to spend a moment developing something with you. I want you to see verse 1. How it says here in Luke chapter 4, Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness being tempted for 40 days by the devil. I want you to see that with me for a moment. Because as you read that, first I want you to notice that Luke writes that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, but if you were to cross reference this with Mark's Gospel in Mark chapter 1 verse 12, Mark writes, immediately the Spirit drove him into the wilderness. Now Mark would say that Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness because Mark wanted to emphasize in his Gospel that Jesus is the servant of God. When you study the Gospel of Mark, you need to remember Mark, Matthew, Luke, John, all of them had a special presentation that God had anointed them to deliver. Matthew wanted to write his Gospel for the Jewish nation. And so when you read the Gospel of Matthew, you're going to see that he quotes the Old Testament significantly. Why? Because he was writing for the Jewish nation to understand who Jesus Christ is. When you look at the Gospel of Luke, he was writing to the Gentiles, and in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus Christ is presented as the perfect man because the highest ideal for the Greek was a perfect man. When John was writing his Gospel, John was writing as an apologetic as well as in defense of the Gospel because a heresy was creeping into the church called Gnosticism. And so he had a purpose in writing which was to combat this infiltration of heresy. And Mark, well, Mark was writing to the Romans. And when Mark wrote to the Romans, because the ideal in Rome was the servant of Rome, naturally he would be speaking of Jesus in that way. And that is why in Mark chapter 1 verse 12, instead of saying as Luke just did that Jesus was led by the Spirit, he wanted to emphasize the fact that Jesus being the great servant had actually been driven by the Spirit into the wilderness. And that, again, is to emphasize that he's the servant of Jehovah. Isaiah 42 verse 1 says, Behold, my servant whom I uphold, my elect one in whom my soul delights, I have put my Spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. And so here we have a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ, and I want you to see this, being filled with the Holy Spirit. Notice that with me in verse 1 chapter 4 here in Luke. Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit. Now, normally when I think of being filled with the Holy Spirit, I think in terms of the blessings that God gives to us as it relates to the work of the Spirit in our life. When I think of the being filled with the Spirit, I think of God's baptism with the Holy Spirit where he empowers and gifts us. I think of the fruit of the Holy Spirit that is demonstrated in our life. I think of worshiping God because it's by the Spirit that you worship God and Spirit and in truth. And so when I think of the Holy Spirit, especially when I consider the blessing and benefit of being filled by the Holy Spirit, well naturally I will normally go towards those kinds of things. You know, as God wants to bless our life, as God wants to move in us, as God wants to work through us and in us and all. And so as I was reading this, the Lord was speaking to my heart again about this and gave me something else because I want you to see this in verse 1 how it says that Jesus was filled with the Holy Spirit. He returned from the Jordan meaning he had been baptized. But he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be duped. Now I found that intriguing. Here's something for you. When you're filled with the Holy Spirit, and by the way, I try to emphasize that as often as possible to you, our church, I try to emphasize that often. Open your heart to the Lord. Let His Spirit fill you. Let Him just pour into you. I say things like that to you all the time and some of you have heard that. But as I consider that, and even as I was looking at this today, I thought, Lord, how interesting is this? I had never really looked at it in this way. How that Jesus being filled with the Holy Spirit was actually led into a wilderness as a result of being filled by the Spirit. I think that that gives to us an insight into what it means to be filled with the Holy Spirit. Because when Paul was writing to the Galatians in chapter 5 verse 16, Paul said to them, Walk in the Spirit, and you will not fulfill the lust of the flesh. I feel very strongly that the Lord will put us into a position in a wilderness you are very dependent on God, by the way. I believe that God will, after saturating us with His Holy Spirit, very often will bring us into parched places because it's in those dry and parched places, those wilderness experiences, that we have an opportunity to die to ourselves and learn to cling to the Lord in a more powerful fashion. In other words, sometimes I might think of being filled with the Holy Spirit as a way to get out of the problems that I'm in, when in reality being filled with the Holy Spirit may lead me into deeper things, into things that are even more difficult. Why? Well, because in the wilderness experience that we have, that's where we learn to depend on the Lord most. You know, the greatest temptations that we ever deal with normally are going to be the temptations that come when we're prospering and begin to forget God. But when you're in a wilderness experience, when you're going through a dry time, that's when you cling most closely to Him, and that's when your faith is, I think, most clearly refined. Notice with me here that it says in verse 2 that He was tempted for forty days by the devil. What you have here is a confrontation, it's a face-to-face confrontation between Jesus Christ and Satan. And what we're going to see here in chapter 4 really is an insight into the secret of victory over the enemy. You see, God wants us to be aware of the strategies of Satan. In 2 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 11, Paul said, we are not ignorant of his devices. And so what happens here is Satan reveals his pattern of attack as he tries to gain a victory over Jesus Christ. And Jesus is going to give to us insight into how we overcome the enemy. You see, when the Bible says in verse 2 that He was tempted for forty days, that word tempted there means to test. It actually has a moral neutrality. It depends on the intent of the testing. In this particular case, the enemy is testing Jesus Christ to try and stumble or defeat him. Now he's being tempted, Jesus is being tempted by the devil. The word devil means the accuser or slanderer. So the devil is the one testing him and his intent is evil. Some ask the question, could Jesus have succumbed to the temptation? We need to remember that Jesus never did commit sin and Jesus has no sin nature. There's nothing within him that would succumb to the temptation. In John 14 verse 30, he said, I will no longer talk much with you for the ruler of this world is coming and he has nothing in me. There's nothing between him and I. He has nothing in common. There's nothing within me that responds to him. Jesus had no sin nature. But Jesus is still being brought into the wilderness and there's a couple of reasons why he's taken there. One is to demonstrate his power to resist Satan, which reveals his absolute authority over him. And second, it teaches us Jesus' pattern in overcoming temptation. Now notice as the scripture here says to us, he was tempted in verse two for 40 days by the devil. 40 is the number that signifies judgment in scripture. It also signifies temptation. When you think of the number 40, you can associate it with a variety of things that are revealed in scripture. For example, the flood that came upon the earth was 40 days and 40 nights. You see that in Genesis chapter seven, verse seven. We know that Moses was on the mountain for 40 days in order that he might receive the law. You see that in Exodus 24-18. The children of Israel were 40 years in the wilderness, numbers 14-33. The stripes that would be received as punishment were 40. You find that in Deuteronomy 25-3. Elijah's time of fasting was 40 days. You see that in 1 Kings chapter 19, verse eight. And so 40 is a symbol or a picture or a number that speaks about testing or temptation. Now in revealing that Jesus spent 40 days fasting, he is now being associated with Moses and Elisha, who also had the number 40 associated with them. And that gives us insight that Jesus Christ is fulfilling both the law, Moses, and the prophets represented by Elisha. And so here he is, he's being tempted. And he's being tempted in verse two for 40 days by the devil. Notice, he goes on and says in those days he ate nothing. And afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. That word hungry can also speak of being famished. When it comes down to it, Jesus Christ had been there for 40 days, being tempted, and he is now at the end of his physical strength. When it says that he's hungry, it's not just that he's hungry, it's that he is famishing. And when you take a fast that long, it's been stated that within the first few days of the fast, you actually lose sight of the fact that you're hungry. You can fast for five days. It may be difficult the first day of the fast, and you can fast the second day, and it'll be a little difficult. By the third and fourth day, you're starting to get used to it. By the fifth day, you're pretty much used to it. That happens. And then your hunger will return, and when it returns, it's normally a sign that you're starving to death. And so Jesus, in other words, is at a very low point. He's at the point of death, really, physically, when this is all taking place. And so it says in verse three, the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command the stone to become bread. And so the enemy actually is speaking to him. Notice how he says that if you are the son of God, you might find this interesting. The Greek language can translate the word if you are by also the word since you are. It's not as if he's doubting the Lord Jesus Christ. He's putting him to the test. And as he's doing that, he's saying, listen, there's something that you can do. You can meet some physical needs that you have if you simply use the power that God has given to you. Now, in 1 John, if you take notes, 1 John chapter two, verses 15 and 16, John reveals that there are three basic areas that we have to be guarding our lives in. As Christians, three things. In 1 John chapter two, verses 15 and 16, he said, love not the world, neither the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life is not of the Father, but is of the world. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and pride of life. Those are three areas that every person who's a believer, every human being really, is tempted in. Those are the three areas that Eve was tempted in in the Garden of Eden when the enemy came and spoke to her. And Eve succumbed to that temptation. You remember the temptation. The Bible tells us in Genesis chapter three, verses five and six, that Satan was speaking to Eve and he said this. He said, God knows that in the day you eat of it, this forbidden fruit, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit in eight and she gave to her husband with her and he ate. I was talking to my daughter today and I said, you know that forbidden fruit that is spoken of in Genesis? She said, yeah, I said, I think it was chocolate. But anyway, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. That's what you have. That's what's in the temptation. Lust of the flesh, the tree was good for food. Lust of the eyes, it was pleasant for the eyes. Pride of life, it was a tree desirable to make one wise. Those are the three basic things that John speaks about that Eve succumbed to. These are the three things that the enemy brings into the life of Jesus in a form of temptation. Lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And so when he begins to give his temptation, the first one found in verse three is the lust of the flesh. And what he's saying is this, use your power to satisfy your physical appetites. The Bible tells us that after 40 days of fasting, Jesus was famished. So under physical fatigue, he's now vulnerable to attack. And so the bottom line is eating food and drinking water are natural and legitimate behavior. There's nothing wrong with that. Meeting a legitimate physical need in a legitimate way is not wrong. But the point that Satan is making here in this temptation is this, if God was good, if he was a good father, he would want you to be satisfied and he'd want you to be satisfied right now. Now, the temptation is meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. You have a biological need. It's a God-given need. And therefore, when that need is crying out for attention, why don't you simply meet the need? You're hungry, feed yourself. And so underneath that is to discipline yourself and to suffer needless hunger and thirst is simply not right. Listen, if you've got power and you have ability, if you're capable of doing this and since you're the Son of God, then why don't you turn this stone into bread? And you could almost see that. You look at these round stones there in Israel. They can look like a loaf of bread so you get the image. Why don't you use your supernatural power to meet a physical need that is a legitimate need because you've been created with it as a human being you thirst and as a human being you hunger. Why don't you meet a biological need because it's appropriate if you have that need to do that. Our society that we live in today is being destroyed by the desire for and the pursuit of instant gratification. And for many people the question, why should one delay self gratification is really a mystery. We are tempted, all of us are, to satisfy our physical urges. We have physical desires to eat, to drink, to engage in physical activity. We desire to pamper our flesh. That's all part of the way that we are. But the sad fact is the society that we live in is being destroyed by the desire for pleasure. And the point that would be made here is there is a proper time to satisfy physical desire and there is a proper time to die to them. And one of the things that we have to learn is to delay gratification because some things that we may desire to have, though they are not wrong in and of themselves, are wrong when they're taken out of the proper context. Sexual pleasure. God created us in such a way that we would fulfill His command to multiply and replenish the earth. God gave us the ability to actually desire to do that. And sex was not created by Satan. It wasn't his idea. When God created man, he declared that all things were good and that included his biological drive to reproduce. It's only wrong when it is taken out of its biblical context and used for selfish gratification. It's wrong when I'm a single individual and I begin to sleep around with people and claim I have a biological urgency. God created me with it and therefore it's appropriate and okay if I fulfill those desires. Food for the body and the body for food. I have natural desires, I should fulfill them. Well, God says, no, when you take that biological need that God created us with and I fulfill my longings in an inappropriate way, then that which at one time was declared to be good becomes sin because they didn't follow God's laws. It relates to that. When Jesus Christ is famished, when he's starving, Satan begins to appeal to his biological need and he says to him, you have an ability to use your supernatural power. Why should you delay your gratification, especially when you're in the state that you're in? So command this stone to become bread. Well, if you do something like that, what you do is you're succumbing to the temptation to satisfy a lust of the flesh. In Romans chapter 14 verse 14, Paul said it this way, he said, put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill its lusts. And so the question that's being asked is why wait? And what would be my motivation to wait if I have a need or a desire? Well, my motivation to wait ought to be the same one that Jesus had and that would simply be a desire to please the Lord, to do the right thing at the right time. And so notice what Jesus does in response to this. Verse four, Jesus begins to use the sword of the Spirit. He opens up the word of God to him and Jesus answered him saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. There is something much deeper than meeting my physical need and that is being satisfied spiritually. God's word reveals that the Father is the one who cares for our needs in all ways. And a man can have physical needs met, but if they have their physical needs met, they could still be empty because spiritual needs are preeminent. That's why some of the most empty people that you may ever encounter very often will be those who are most well off financially. They have everything except contentment. They can buy everything that they want and still be lacking. You know, the other day I was listening to an interview with Bill Gates and Bill Gates was asked the question, do you realize how rich you are? I don't realize how rich he is, to be honest with you. The numbers, when you get past a million, that's beyond my capacity. This man has 40, 50 billion dollars of assets that are personal, I have no clue. So they asked him, do you realize you're rich? And he says, well, you know, to be honest with you, that's one of those things that are, it's kind of like difficult to really grasp. Except for this, this is the way that I know that I'm rich. I just ask myself, is there anything that I can't buy? Is there anything that I want that I can't buy? And so the obvious answer is, nothing material. There's nothing material out there that he cannot really buy, he can't afford to buy. I mean, he doesn't walk into Nordstroms and say, man, I wish he could buy that shirt. He just doesn't do that. You know, it's Christmas and he doesn't say, oh man, I wish I had money to buy the kids some presents, doesn't have to do that. And he never does that, doesn't go into a restaurant and say, man, look at that, how much that is on that menu. Man, I would never spend that kind of money. He doesn't have to think that way. If he dropped a, if it was possible to drop a $10,000 bill on the ground, he's wasting his time picking it up. You know, he's just wasting his time because the interest that he has in his money, the interest on his money is accumulating quicker than bending down to pick up a $10,000 bill. I mean, this is a man that is beyond. And yet, there are so many men who have that kind of money, not quite as much as him, but have so much money and they're miserable. They're absolutely miserable because the things that satisfy are never going to be material because your spiritual need will never be met by a material thing. It can never be. It can never be. You can do that in anything in life. You can think in terms of, oh, I'm single and if I only had somebody who loved me, it's Valentine's Day. And I didn't get a Valentine today from anybody. I wish I had somebody give me a Valentine, you might say. You know, but the bottom line is, is if you hook up with somebody and they're the most wonderful person in the world and you fall in love and you get married, you know, after a while you wake up next to this person and you ask yourself a question, was this all there is to it? I mean, I thought there was something more and that's the truth. I'm not lying to you. I never do that, but you might. You say, is this all there is? I mean, if I married somebody because they were supposed to fill every empty part of my soul, I made a mistake. I made a mistake. They can't do that. There's only one who can and that's Lord Jesus Christ. He can fill me in every way. And so a physical need is never gonna be, a spiritual need is never gonna be met by a physical thing. And so what we hunger for is something beyond that and that's basically what Jesus is saying when he says, man lives by something more than just bread. He lives by the word of God. In Psalm 37, verse three, the scripture says, trust in the Lord, do good, dwell in the land and feed on his faithfulness. On one occasion in John chapter four, verse 34, Jesus said it this way. He said, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work. That's what satisfies me. That's what fills my life. And so when Satan says to him, make this stone into bread, he says, no, man doesn't live by bread alone but by every word of God. Well, Satan doesn't leave easily. Verse five, the devil taking him up on a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, all this authority I will give you and their glory for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, get behind me, Satan, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall thou serve. And so notice with me that in verse five, he says that it shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And then he begins to say, this has all been delivered unto me. You know, when he deceived Adam, Adam who had authority basically handed that authority over to the enemy and that's what he's referring to. It's been handed over to me. It's been delivered to me. And I give it to whomever I wish and therefore all you need to do is worship me and I'll give it to you. So what is he doing? He's now appealing to the lust of the eyes. You can wear the crown without bearing across Jesus. You can have it all and you can have it right now. Put yourself first and God last and all of this will be yours. Adam forfeited it to me. I'll hand it over to you but I have one condition and it's a small one. All you need to do is worship before me. And I've taught you this before. It's a bottom line reality. Jesus knew this. He said he knew that. The one that a person worships. What a one person worships. What I worship, I will serve. Whatever it is that I worship, that becomes my God. I find it interesting to note that people today think that we're too sophisticated to be idolatrous and that's just simply not true. We are not too sophisticated to be idolatrous and you say well I don't carry around a little statues or anything like that and all of that. And I say well that's true. You more than likely don't. You probably don't carry anything around that's a statue or something like these old gods that you see these old idols. That may be so. But you get a brand new car and you go to the store and you look for a parking space and you see that there are several spaces. But the cars, well they seem to be just too close to your car and so you'll drive all through that parking lot, won't you? Until you find a couple of empty spaces then you kind of take up two spaces because you don't want anybody to swing their door open and hit your car and then so I say that and you're thinking oh no I'm just a good steward. Okay you're a good steward. But sometimes you worship that Japanese God Honda or Toyota or whatever you wanna call them. How do I know that? Because I've been sitting in my car when somebody swings their door open and hits it and then I'm thinking why'd you do that? And you almost wanna talk to the car, are you okay baby, you all right honey? I'll go wash you, I'll wax you, I can wanna get out and see whether there's a dent on it and the Lord has spoken to me numerous times about that. Numerous times. It is easy to get caught up with things like that and what happens is what you worship, you will serve, you will spend your time thinking about, you'll take your finances and put it into it, you will, that's what you're gonna do, that's just the way it is and the Lord Jesus Christ knows that, you see Satan is saying listen I can give you this, you don't need to have that cross, you don't need to die, you don't need to do anything like that, I can give you what you came for but I only have one small stipulation and that is worship before me, if you worship before me it will all be handed to you. You see the Lord Jesus Christ refuses and he refuses this because instead of redeeming the world he would have joined the world and so what does he do? He wields the sword because he knew he was there to die and to die is gain. In John chapter 12 verse 24 and 25 Jesus said truly I say to you accept a corner if we'd fall into the ground and die it abides alone but if it dies it brings forth much fruit. He who loves his life will lose it, he who hates his life in this world will keep it into life eternal. You have to have this attitude of just letting go and so Jesus said no there's no way I'm gonna do that. That's why he says it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve. Jesus once again pulls out the sword of the spirit and he quotes the Old Testament Deuteronomy chapter six and as he quotes it he once again is saying to him there's no way you're gonna get me to succumb to the temptation. Well then finally what happens? In verse nine he brought him to Jerusalem set him on the pinnacle of the temple said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down from here for it's written he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and Jesus answered and said to him it has been said you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And so once again he brings a temptation this time it's the pride of life. Gain a following without sacrifice use God to attract attention to yourself. If you will not use your power to do something spectacular force your father to use his. Jump from the pinnacle of this temple because if you wanna quote scripture too can do that because the Psalmist in Psalm 91 says he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone. You wanna use the sword of the spirit Satan is saying I can do it too the Psalmist said that if you wanna quote scripture let me quote you scripture. Now you need to know that Jesus Christ being taken to the pinnacle of the temple is some 450 feet above the Kidron Valley 450 feet. And you need to also know that in the Old Testament there's actually a prophecy related to Messiah that could have been physically actually physically fulfilled in an interesting way because in Malachi 3 1 it says Behold I will send my messenger he shall prepare the way before me and the Lord whom you seek shall suddenly come to his temple even the messenger of the covenant whom you delight in behold he shall come says the Lord of hosts. How much more sudden would it be for Jesus to come hurtling at the speed of gravity how much more sudden would it be for him to enter into that area and that's why it takes him to the pinnacle of the temple. Throw yourself down because the Bible says he shall give his angels charge concerning you and let me give you something here that's really interesting. He quotes Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12 but he doesn't quote it exactly because in Psalm 91 11 he shall give his angels charge concerning you but it goes on to say to keep you in all your ways. Satan quotes scripture but he misquotes it. Keep that in mind. The enemy uses scripture. There are times that somebody may start talking to you about the Lord and they may even use the Bible as they're speaking to you and what they're doing is they're taking the scriptures out of context and they're using it in such a way as to deceive you. As a Christian I have for many years read the Bible, studied the Bible even taught the Bible and I can tell you beyond a shadow of a doubt that I've had many conversations with people over the years who will misquote scripture in such a way that it is so subtle that you could be deceived and there've been many conversations that I've had with people and some in well-known cults that they would quote a scripture and I had never heard it used in that way and I actually have, I've looked at them and I've blinked and I've thought, that isn't what I've learned that isn't what I've been taught that's not what I have studied but what's wrong with it? There's a certain taste to what they're saying that just doesn't, it just is not right there's something wrong here. God gives to you the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit can give you discernment and there are times when you'll hear the word being taught even from this pulpit perhaps you will disagree but what you can do is you can go home and you can open up the word you can seek the Lord for light you can do your own personal study and you can see whether or not what is being said is accurate. That's an important thing to do but the cults have a tendency of saying this is the way it's always been this is the way we've always believed and what you believe is wrong. I've had so many people over the years do that so many conversations with people who have said things to me that I can't even go into it right now and what I've tried to do is I've tried to find out what does the whole scripture say? What's the whole counsel say? Not just a scripture out of context what is the context? I remember a guy who was saying to me on occasion he said you know he says I was in the backyard I was working I cut my hand and the blood began to pour out of my hand but I looked at my hand and I remembered something Ezekiel said when I see in your blood I say and he said so I saw myself in my blood and I said dry up blood and he said and I was healed he said because of the word of the Lord so I looked up the passage this was 30 some years ago and I read its context it had nothing to do with that and I pointed it out to him I said that's not what this passage says it doesn't say that and you're misquoting it you're misunderstanding that he says it doesn't really matter does it my blood dried up and I'm healed so the pragmatism well if it worked for me it must be true well we find that today don't we? We find people saying well it doesn't really matter what it actually says because you can't really know truth anyway now can you? and is there such a thing as truth and if there is such a thing as truth how do you know that you have that truth? and so what happens is they can take the scripture and they can say well I believe that this is the truth here but it may not be your truth it may be somebody else's truth it's my truth and you get into arguments concerning that as if God doesn't declare things clearly Satan does that I believe that the Bible's very clear you can read the Bible and you can see some things that are very very clearly presented to you it's not mysterious and yet here we have Satan saying to Jesus Christ here he's saying listen you wanna quote scripture I can quote scripture just leap from the pinnacle of the temple as you start accelerating in order to smash God is gonna send his angels they're gonna surround you they're gonna lift you up lest you dash your foot against a stone the people will see the messenger coming they'll realize that this is the fulfillment of Malachi's prophecy concerning Messiah they're gonna rush to you and they're gonna accept you but what is it that Jesus says? He says in verse 12 it has been said you shall not tempt the Lord your God presumption is not faith Jesus knew that this kind of effect the kind of effect that sensationalism would produce sensationalism never satisfies because when they see something that sensational they desire something else and also no matter how noble our motives are to test God is always to doubt God and the fact is people are not convinced by signs anyway in John 1237 the Bible says although he had done so many signs before them they didn't believe in him the signs are intended to point you to Jesus Christ you don't necessarily believe the sign itself you believe the one who performs a sign a sign is a direction to move you in the direction of Jesus Christ and so when Jesus said here it has been said you shall not tempt the Lord your God he's simply saying listen if I jump off the pinnacle of the temple I'm gonna be testing my father but I have a time that God has called me to fulfill I have three years of ministry that I must produce so I'm not about to test him I'm not about to try and become something spectacular I'm gonna stay within the guidelines of my father and do those things which he's commanded me to do and as a result of that I'm gonna please him and so in that temptation Jesus resists it and actually sends him away now in verse 13 it says when the devil had ended every temptation he departed from him until an opportune time one of the things that I've discovered is that if you resist the devil he will flee from you he will James tells us in chapter four verse seven if I submit to God I will resist the devil and he will flee from me and so if you stand up in the word of God and say I'm not gonna yield then Satan will back off now here's the problem he will back off but he backs off temporarily he just waits for another opportunity and I've been sharing that with you your adversary the devil is like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour so he's on the prowl looking for a way to destroy you and he will use these three basic things he will use these things to tempt you the lust of the flesh the lust of the eyes and the pride of life the lust of the flesh I wanna get something for myself and satisfy my needs right now the lust of the eyes I want a position and I want power I wanna have those things that I think I deserve the pride of life I think you should treat me better than you do I think I'm more important than the way you're treating me all of those things are the things that we have to deal with in all and so what we have as a way to have victory is always gonna be through the word of God that's why in this church that's why I try to emphasize to you that we need to yield ourselves completely to study and meditating on and memorizing the word of God so that when the enemy does attack we can say this sounds familiar and we can say it is written this is what God says I'm not gonna yield to it he will back off but he'll just take a step back and keep watching and look for some weakness then he'll come back and he'll keep doing that the rest of your life I wish I could say well if you just resist him one time it's all over but that's not the case he's a master at destruction and he wants to destroy you and he will watch you and the closer you get to the Lord the more battles you're gonna have but as you stand fast in the Lord you will have victory through Jesus Christ you will overcome the enemy because it's something we can have guaranteed to us as we resist him he will flee from us