I want to focus on the first 11 verses there.
The title of my sermon this evening is called The Temptation of Jesus Christ.
The Temptation of Jesus.
This is a pretty important story.
It's recorded in multiple gospels.
It says in Matthew chapter 4 verse 1, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
So his plan is to be led there in order to be tempted of the devil.
This was just something that had to happen.
Something that he had to go through.
And it says in verse 2, When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward
and hungered.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these
stones be made bread.
Now when we read this, sometimes we could wrongfully get the impression that forty
days of fasting go by and then the temptations begin.
But actually if you read it carefully, he is tempted throughout the entire forty days.
Flip over to Luke chapter 4, I'll show you what I mean.
You can keep your finger there in Matthew chapter 4.
Let's go to the parallel account over in Luke chapter 4.
While you're turning there, I'll read for you the account from Mark.
Mark 1 verse 12 says, And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness, and
he was there in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan, and was with the wild
beasts and the angels ministered unto him.
And Mark doesn't really give a lot of detail, but when you read it in Mark, it sounds
like he's being tempted for forty days.
Well look what it says in Luke.
It says in verse 1 of chapter 4, And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from
Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of
the devil.
So the temptations of Christ by the devil went on for forty days, if you read Luke
chapter 4 verse 2 there.
It says, And in those days he did eat nothing.
Which days?
The forty days that he was tempted of the devil.
And when they were ended, he afterward hungered, and the devil said unto him, If thou be the
Son of God, command this stone, that it be made bread.
And the reason that I want to make a big point about that, or a big deal about that,
is just so that you understand that these three temptations that we read about, these
are not the only three temptations.
After forty days of being tempted by the devil, these are just three final temptations.
So these are just three noteworthy temptations that God felt it was necessary to reveal
unto us in the Bible.
He doesn't list all the other temptations that took place over the course of those
forty days.
And the reason I say that is because we need to understand that not just during this
time of forty days of intense testing and temptation, but also throughout the rest
of Jesus' life, he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.
Not just in these three areas.
Because I've heard sometimes people try to fit all temptations into one of these
three categories.
Which obviously, yeah, you could generalize these into representing some broad categories.
But at the same time, we need to understand that there were lots of other temptations
that Jesus endured because he was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet he was without sin.
But let's focus in on these three particular temptations.
Look if you would at Matthew chapter four, where we were.
It says in verse number three, when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be
the son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
But he answered and said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but
by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Now this first temptation is a pretty obvious temptation where he's being appealed with
the flesh, right?
With his physical appetite of hunger.
And we can also think of other temptations that have to do with our flesh or our bodily
appetites.
Not just a hunger for food that's an inordinate amount of food, or maybe it's junk food,
unhealthy food, or just eating too much food, being gluttonous, but it could be other
physical cravings, for example, alcohol, or cigarettes, or drugs, or other inordinate
affections like fornication, or adultery, or looking upon a woman to lust after her.
Just all of the bodily, fleshly desires.
And obviously there's nothing wrong with eating food in moderation.
We should all eat and take part of our daily bread, and eat meat, and even celebrating
with rich foods and special foods is biblical.
But we see in this situation that him being the son of God is being called into question,
which is blasphemous of the devil, and he doesn't want to do this at the devil's
command and just perform miracles in order to gratify his own flesh or in order to
satisfy the devil.
So in this situation it wasn't right for him to do that.
So he counters with this statement.
It is written, man should not live by bread alone, but by every word that perceives out
the mouth of God.
Now how can we apply this to our lives?
Well, we all face temptations like this.
We all face temptations to eat things that we shouldn't eat.
Some people struggle with temptations to drink what they should not drink, or to
take drugs, or to smoke cigarettes, or to look at things that they shouldn't be
looking at.
Just to gratify the flesh in some sinful way, we need to understand that we like Christ
must resist those temptations, and we need to realize that man does not live by bread
alone, but by every word that preceded out of the mouth of God.
How can we resist these type of temptations in our life?
Well, first of all, we can quote scripture.
That's what Jesus did.
He quoted a Bible verse, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that
preceded out of the mouth of God.
And that Bible verse from back in the book of Deuteronomy that he quoted from memory
is a scripture that helps strengthen him and motivate him not to commit that sin.
And we should commit scripture to memory that would help motivate us not to give in
to the lust of the flesh.
The Bible says, thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee.
And we can think of all kinds of scriptures that could help us to battle certain lusts
of the flesh, or lusts of the eyes, verses that have to do with controlling our
appetite, or verses against drinking.
Wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging, and whosoever is deceived thereby is not wise.
We could quote scripture about I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes.
I hate the work of them that turn aside.
It shall not cleave to me.
We could quote verses that say, make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.
We could meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them.
You could quote all kinds of scriptures about food, about drink, about I made a covenant
with mine eyes.
How then should I think upon a maid?
Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her had committed adultery with her already
in his heart.
Look not on the wine when it is red, when it moveth itself aright, giveth its color
in the cup, and so forth.
We could quote scripture that would help strengthen our resolve not to give in to these
temptations.
That's what he's doing here.
But not only that, we should also take into account the actual scripture that he quoted.
When he says, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded
out of the mouth of God.
We need to get it in our hearts and minds that the life is more than meat and the
body is more than raiment.
We have something more to live for than just to gratify our flesh like an animal.
See, the world today has a philosophy that they're just some kind of an evolved
animal, and so they just live to gratify the flesh.
They live from one meal to the next.
They live from one round of fornication to the next.
They live from one alcoholic bender to the next.
They live from one adulterous affair to the next.
That's all they've got, but we have more than that.
We don't live by bread alone.
We don't live by gratifying the flesh alone.
We don't live.
We get our endorphins not just from gratifying our flesh, but our meat and our drink is
to do the will of him that sent us and to finish his work.
That's how Jesus was able to skip a meal.
He skipped a meal because he said, my meat and my drink is to do God's will.
You see, he got gratification from serving God.
You see, spiritual things can gratify us in a way that the flesh can't.
And so we need to not just realize, oh, quote scripture when we go into temptation.
That's a great application.
But let's take it a step further and actually quote this scripture that he quoted and realize
how this particular scripture can help us when we want to eat something that we shouldn't
eat or when we want to look at something or imbibe something that we shouldn't partake in.
You know, we can quote the scripture, realize, hey, there's more to my life.
I don't just live by bread alone.
I just don't live on pleasure alone.
No, I actually have spiritual goals.
I have a spiritual mission.
I'm a child of God.
And that's why one of the greatest scriptures to quote about alcohol or about fornication
is that scripture from back in Proverbs chapter 31, which says it's not for kings,
O Lemuel.
It's not for kings to drink wine nor for Prince's strong drink.
Why?
Because we're better than that.
You know, God wants to lift us up out of a sinful, worldly, fleshly lifestyle.
And he wants us to live a better life, a life of holiness, a life of service to him.
We don't live by bread alone.
We live by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.
Job said, I've esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food.
And obviously, we need to eat and drink.
And I don't think we should go overboard in starving the body or anything like that.
But you know what?
Most people in America, they're not going overboard starving their bodies, just so
you know.
So, you know, we do want to be sensible about what we eat.
And we certainly don't want to become gluttonous.
And we certainly don't want to indulge in other appetites that can lead us into even
worse sin.
We need to control our appetites.
I read a pretty good quote this week.
It said, there's no greater pain than too much pleasure.
And that's true.
People who just indulge in too much pleasure, they actually end up living a very depressing
and sad life.
Even though they think it's going to bring them happiness, look how much pain it brought
to King Solomon in Ecclesiastes chapters 1 and 2, when he just indulged self.
And then he said, I hated life.
So let's look at the next temptation.
It says in verse 5, then the devil taken them up into the holy city and set them
on a pinnacle of the temple.
And he saith unto him, if thou be the son of God, cast thyself down, for it
is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they
shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
You say, what kind of temptation is this?
This doesn't gratify the flesh at all, does it?
But this is the temptation to go out and do stupid things that are dangerous.
And people fall into this temptation all the time of just seeking thrills, right?
Say, throw yourself off the temple.
Why?
I don't know, just for kicks?
Think about that.
He wants him to throw himself down.
Look, young people today, they think that they're invincible.
When I was a young person, I thought I was invincible, right?
And so this thing of, well, you know, if you're the son of God, cast yourself down,
for it's written, you know, go up on the pinnacle of the temple and jump off.
And today we have young people doing all kinds of crazy, stupid things on a dare.
And this is sort of what the devil's doing in a sense.
He's daring him to jump off this really high thing and, you know, and
basically injure himself or even kill himself.
But he's misquoting scripture that, oh, no matter what dumb, pointless thing you
do, God's just going to step in and help you, right?
Wrong.
Because that scripture that says he's given his angels charge concerning thee,
and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.
You know, that's not a scripture telling us that no matter what foolish, vain, ridiculous
thing we do, God's just going to protect us.
That's not what that's teaching.
You know, anything that we do in his will, he's going to protect us.
But he's not necessarily just going to protect us from ourselves if we just say,
well, you know, I'm a child of God, the angel of the Lord, and campeth round about them
that fear him.
So I'm just going to go run out into traffic.
I'm going to just handle serpents for no reason, just to prove that if I get bit
by a poisonous serpent, I'm going to be like the apostle Paul, where I just shake off
the beast and I feel no harm.
You know, that's a foolishness.
And by the way, foolishness is a sin.
One of the sins and one of the evil things that comes out of the heart of man,
according to Jesus, he said, blasphemy, pride, foolishness, foolishness, stupidity,
doing dumb things for no reason, just for kicks.
Young people will do all kinds of strange dares.
And it's a temptation from peer pressure of, oh, yeah, instead of if thou be the son
of God, cast thyself down.
Well, if you're tough, if you're cool, cast yourself down if you want to hang out with
us.
And young people get caught up in doing dumb things and crazy dares.
Let's think of some of them, shall we?
I remember there was this stupid thing that young people would do when I was a teenager
where they would do this weird process.
And I don't remember how it worked.
Maybe somebody else can remember.
This thing where they would make themselves pass out and someone else would catch them.
They do some kind of a hyperventilating.
They hyperventilate and then somebody hits them in the chest and then they just
fall over unconscious.
Somebody else catches them and then they shake them awake and, oh, that's cool, man.
Now I want to try.
And they pressure people to do it.
Now, who knows what I'm talking about?
Put up your hand.
Look around the building.
There's no temptation taking me but such as was common to man, apparently.
You know, and I didn't participate in that.
Now, I did other dumb things, okay?
I'm using the examples of dumb stuff I didn't do, right?
So, you know, it's stupid.
Isn't that just foolish?
You could get seriously hurt.
You could get seriously injured.
You don't know why your body's doing that and you get caught up.
And this is, you know, where young people will try drugs and they'll do dangerous things.
They'll drive the wrong way on a one-way street dodging cars.
I mean, things that could kill people.
You know, they'll drop something heavy off of an overpass onto cars that are driving by.
I mean, they could literally kill someone.
But people, they get all amped up by their buddies and by the devils in their life
that are trying to tempt them into just doing foolish and dangerous things,
putting themselves in danger, putting other people in danger.
Just recklessness for no reason.
Now, it's one thing to run out into traffic to save someone's life
or, you know, jump into the ice cold river in order to pull out someone who's drowning.
That's heroism.
But, hey, I dare you to jump in this ice cold raging river,
swim across and back, and then somebody drowns.
You know, because you're not thinking safety.
You're not being careful.
Somebody give me another example.
I need more examples.
Train dodging.
Train dodging?
Man, you grew up in a rough area.
That sounds horrible.
So what do they do?
Just see who has the guts to stay the longest before they jump out of the way?
Yeah, anybody else familiar with that one?
Yeah, wow.
Thankfully, it's less than that other weird hyperventilating thing.
Hey, let's go cow tipping.
Let's go train dodging.
What else?
Somebody help me out.
Hey, cliff diving's fun.
Don't bring that up.
But, you know, but here's the thing.
Cliff diving's fun if you put on the goggles
and you make sure it's all safe and sane, amen?
All right, I was a little close to home there.
Watch it.
What do you got?
Cigarette on it.
Yeah, I mean, my wife just told me some crazy story about some guy
who thought it was going to be cool and he wanted to get viewers on YouTube.
So he got a book and supposedly this book was going to stop a bullet.
Who heard about this?
And somebody just shot the guy through this book like,
oh yeah, we're going to do this stunt where we hold this book.
It's like, hello?
Look, even if that, I don't care how bulletproof that,
but you never point a gun at anyone that you're not willing to destroy,
that you're not willing to kill.
You never point a gun at anyone or anything.
Oh, it's not loaded.
You don't point a gun at anyone for any reason unless you want to kill them.
You don't just wave guns around.
Oh, the safety's on.
Oh, it's not loaded.
Ha ha, funny.
And look, I've seen people do stuff like that.
And they get, especially teenagers, they get around their friends
and they start one-upping who's got the most guts and who, right?
And that's kind of what this temptation reminds me of
because he's trying to see if Jesus has the guts to throw himself off this building.
You know, if you're really the son of God,
you should have the power to just do this
and you should just know that the angels are going to bail you out of this.
But here's the thing, Jesus knew that foolishness is a sin.
It would have been vain.
He doesn't take orders from the devil.
He's not trying to tempt God and test God
to see whether God's really going to protect him or not
as he just does something foolish and vain.
These are temptations though, aren't they?
The temptations to indulge in foolish, vain, dangerous activities for kicks.
And look, I'm all for having a good time
but we should not put ourselves or other people in serious danger
in order to have a good time, okay?
And that's what we see the temptation here with throwing himself down.
He said, it's written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Verse eight, again, the devil taking them up into an exceeding high mountain
and showeth them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them
and saith unto him, all these things will I give thee
if thou wilt fall down and worship me.
Then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence Satan
for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and him only shalt thou serve.
Flip over to Luke four.
It's interesting, there's a little more detail given in Luke four.
Flip over to Luke four on this one.
So the first temptation was that he would make the stones into bread.
He's appealing to the lust of physical appetites, the flesh.
And there are plenty of those
that we have to deal with temptations all the time.
How do we withstand them?
We quote scripture specific to that lust.
And also we realize that our life is of greater value
than just that of an animal that just fulfills lust and physical desire.
The second thing had to do with this thing of just recklessness
and just putting yourself into dangerous situations,
doing crazy things for thrills, for kicks,
instead of being sober and being mature and grave
and doing things that actually matter with our lives,
not just, you know, dodging trains or, you know,
giving into the peer pressure to light ourselves on fire
and, you know, drop fireworks down our shirt
or whatever stupid, ridiculous things that people come.
I mean, they come up with some stupid things, don't they?
And so, you know, especially children, you need to listen
as when your friends start daring you to do stuff that is dangerous
and to climb up places that you shouldn't be climbing
and jump off of things that you shouldn't be jumping up,
just say, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
But anyway, let's look at this in Luke chapter four.
It says in verse number five,
and the devil taken them up into a high mountain
and showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time.
Now that's pretty amazing.
Somehow all the kingdoms of the world flash before his eyes.
I mean, and he sees all the glory of them.
Just in one moment of time,
it's like he's able to just freeze time
and just show him all these different kingdoms
of the whole world in a moment of time.
Now, some people say, well, that's a really high mountain.
If you can see that.
Well, no, because it doesn't matter how high the mountain is.
You can't see that far.
Okay.
You know, it's a miracle because it all happens in a moment of time.
And look what it says.
The devil said in him, all this power will I give thee
and the glory of them.
But this is what's interesting for that is delivered unto me
and to whomsoever I will, I give it.
That's a pretty bold statement, isn't it?
If thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine.
And Jesus answered and said to him, get thee behind me, Satan.
For it is written, thou shall worship the Lord thy God
and him only shout thou serve.
So here we see that he's appealing to his pride, right?
He's appealing to pride.
And even people who aren't controlled by their physical lust
and they don't want to just gratify themselves with junk food
and drugs and alcohol and porno and fornication and adultery
and whatever else that they just want to indulge in.
You know, other people, their drug of choice is power.
They want power.
They want to be famous.
They want to be a great person in the world and a celebrity.
And they want to make millions of dollars
and control great businesses and have all kinds of servants
and all these different things.
Power is another pursuit of carnal man in this world.
And so this is another temptation that we need to be aware of.
And let me tell you something,
there are people that I believe have made this deal with the devil.
You know, the rock band ACDC, they had an album called
We Sold Our Soul for Rock and Roll.
You know, and some of these bands, their music is so bad,
that's the only way to explain their success
is the selling of the soul to Satan.
Because the music is such garbage.
So the point is that, you know, there are people out there
who have decided to forfeit any kind of service for God,
loving God, obeying God.
None of that matters to them.
All they want is the power, the riches, the glory.
They want the devil to give them something.
And the devil has a lot to offer.
He really does.
Because the devil controls Hollywood.
The devil controls Madison Avenue.
The devil controls the media.
And so these musicians, you'll notice that that's why
if you turn on the radio and listen to the popular music,
you'll find that all of it has some element of wickedness to it.
And you wonder to yourself, why is it all so wicked?
Why can't you just listen to it
and just have some good clean music?
It's not there because of the fact
that the way that those people get
to the position that they're in
is through the power of the devil.
Because of the fact that the people who promote the bands
and promote the music
are people who want to push a sinful agenda.
So if the musicians are putting out sinful music,
that's who they're going to promote.
And if people were putting out good clean music,
they're not going to push that stuff.
Because the people who control the music industry,
the television, and Hollywood, they have an agenda.
Look, if you controlled Hollywood,
wouldn't you have an agenda?
I know I would.
I mean, if I were in control of Hollywood,
I'd be putting out all these biblical films.
You'd be producing all this stuff
that's all pointing people to the Lord Jesus Christ,
and it's all promoting the family,
and it's against wickedness, and against sin.
It's going to make all the sin look bad.
It's going to make church and the Bible look good.
That'd be my agenda if I were running it, right?
So these people who hate the Lord,
they're atheists, they're Jewish, whatever.
They don't like Jesus Christ.
They don't like the Bible.
They're not going to make it look good.
They're going to make it look bad.
And you say, well, the musicians that are popular
are just the best ones.
That's not true.
There's some pretty lame stuff that gets pretty popular.
And there's a lot of talent,
and there are a lot of people that are great musicians
that they never get anywhere in their career.
Why?
It's because it's the promoters.
It's the advertisers.
I mean, no matter how good your music is,
if it's not on the shelf in Barnes and Noble,
if it's not being promoted in Walmart
when you walk in the door,
not nearly as many people are going to find out about it.
But the certain musicians and acts
that the devil wants to promote,
he's going to put them right there on that display case
in every record store, in every music store.
It's going to be a giant banner ad on Amazon.
It's going to be a banner ad on iTunes.
It's going to be a banner ad on YouTube,
because that's the agenda they want to promote.
That's why the gangster rap was promoted.
Not by just people in the ghetto,
just grassroots made that happen.
No, a bunch of big bucks, record companies,
and record executives, and managers,
they got together and said,
hey, let's promote this stuff.
Let's make this stuff popular.
Let's put this on the map.
And they polluted the minds of a generation
of inner-city young people
with all the garbage that gangster rap promotes
and all of just the mistreating of women
and just drinking and glorifying drugs,
glorifying gangs, glorifying violence.
Why did that stuff get popular?
It's being pushed.
It's being promoted.
And the musicians who produce that stuff
have sold out to the devil.
They don't care how they make a buck.
They just want to make the money.
And if music sells,
that promotes the worst kind of violence
and filth and smut,
then that's what they'll produce,
because they just want that power.
They just want that fame.
They just want that wealth.
And the businessmen are just as unscrupulous.
The ones who are behind the scenes
pulling the strings.
These musicians, they're not smart enough
to run their own show.
A lot of them, they've got guys in suits
that you never hear about
that are the ones that are making sure
it's on every radio station
and it's on MTV
and it's in every record store.
And maybe I'm speaking from the past
because I don't even know
if record stores even exist anymore,
because I think now everybody just buys it online.
I mean, does anybody,
do people go to the store
and buy a CD anymore?
Like of music, typically?
Where would they go?
What kind of,
do they go to like a Barnes and Noble
or do they, where?
Zia Records?
I haven't even heard of that.
Is that just an Arizona thing maybe?
Okay.
Yeah, because when I was a kid,
there were record stores everywhere.
You'd physically go to the brick and mortar
because it was before all the electronics.
But the point is that, you know,
people have made this deal with the devil.
And I'm not saying necessarily
that the devil literally came to them
and said, all right, sign right here
with your own blood
and just your soul and everything like that.
But what I'm saying is
that even if they didn't do this literally,
they did it figuratively.
They did it figuratively,
but maybe many of them did it literally too.
I don't know.
But I will say this,
they certainly did it figuratively.
There's no question about that.
And the temptation is even there for a preacher
to do what?
Trim the message.
Cut out the parts of the Bible
that are not popular.
Preach what people want to hear.
Compromise the doctrine.
And then what?
They can have the mega church
and they can get on TV and TBN
and they can have all of the expensive clothes
and the expensive mansion
and the drive around in limousines
and stuff like that.
But they have to preach lies to do it.
And the devil's the father of all lies.
And so we see these three temptations
are pretty close to home to all of us.
Because all of us could be tempted
to give in to the lust of the flesh
in one area or another.
And maybe one thing's not your problem.
Maybe you don't struggle in the area
of the lust of the eyes,
but you might struggle in the area of gluttony
or you might struggle in the area of drinking
or you might struggle with drugs
or whatever the case may be.
You might struggle with laziness.
I mean it's also a battle with the flesh
to get yourself to go to work.
So whatever your struggle is,
that temptation is close to home.
The struggle of being tempted to show off
or to live dangerously
just to get kicks
or to impress your friends
especially for young people.
That's a big temptation.
The temptation for the pride of life
and to have great power
and to be lifted up with pride.
You know that's something that
older people would struggle with
as they get into middle age and get older.
They want to have more power, more riches
and hopefully they won't compromise
with the devil in order to achieve that.
So those are three important temptations
that Jesus went through,
but those are not the only three.
Jesus was tempted in all points
like as we are yet without sin.
Go to Hebrews chapter 2.
Hebrews chapter number 2.
Hebrews chapter 2.
While you're turning there,
the Bible says in Luke 22, 28,
ye are they which have continued with me
in my temptations.
And I appoint unto you a kingdom
as my father had appointed unto me
that you may eat and drink at my table
in my kingdom and sit on thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Look at Hebrews 2, 14.
Hebrews 2, 14 is about Jesus.
For as much then as the children
are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also, Jesus himself,
likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him
that had the power of death,
that is the devil,
and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage,
for verily he took not on him
the nature of angels,
but he took on him the seed of Abraham,
wherefore in all things it behooved him
to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful
and faithful high priest
in things pertaining to God,
to make reconciliation for the sins of the people,
for in that he himself hath suffered being tempted,
he is able to succor them that are tempted.
Succor means to help.
Those of you who speak Spanish,
how do you cry out for help in Spanish?
That sounds similar to this, Kevin.
Let me test your Spanish.
Succorro!
Right?
Have you heard that one?
Am I saying it wrong?
Yell it out for me, Juan.
Succorro!
Yeah, okay, I was all right.
So yeah, in that like sucker,
you need help.
That's how you yell for help in Spanish.
So the point is,
because he himself has suffered being tempted,
because he's been there,
he's able to succor them that are tempted.
He's able to help those who are tempted.
So in times of temptation,
Jesus Christ can help us with that temptation.
Right?
He's able to.
He's been there.
He's been tempted in all points like as we are.
He was without sin.
Look at chapter 4, and this is reiterated.
Chapter 4, verse 14 of Hebrews,
seeing then that we have a great high priest
that has passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God,
let us hold fast our profession.
For we have not an high priest
which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin,
let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace,
that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need.
He said, look,
Jesus Christ is able to help those,
or to succor those that are tempted.
Right?
So that's why the Bible says
because we don't have a high priest
that can't be touched with the feeling of our infirmities,
one who doesn't understand what we're going through.
No, he was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin,
so we can boldly come to the throne of grace
and obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
We can ask the Lord to help us
when we're going through temptations
because he is touched with the feeling of our infirmities.
He knows what we're going through
and he'll help us resist temptation.
So pray that you enter not into temptation.
That's what Jesus told the disciples
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Pray that you enter not into temptation.
When you're facing strong temptations,
yes, quote scripture.
Yes, think about the scripture that Jesus himself quoted,
but also pray for the Lord to help you
and say, Lord, help me resist this temptation, Lord.
Help me, succor me, Lord.
Get me through this.
The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 10,
you don't have to turn there.
Wherefore, let him that thinketh he stand
to take heed lest he fall.
There is no temptation taken you,
but such is his common demand.
But God is faithful who will not suffer you
to be tempted above that ye are able,
but will with the temptation also make a way to escape
that ye may be able to bear it.
It's possible to resist temptation.
There's a way, there's always a way of escape.
There's never no way out.
And the Bible says that God is faithful.
We can trust him that he's not going to allow us
to be tempted above our ability, right?
He will with the temptation also make a way of escape
that we may be able to bear it.
But many times we're not looking
for that way of escape, are we?
We just walk right into that temptation
instead of looking for that scripture
or looking for prayer to help us not to give in.
Look at Hebrews chapter five, this is about Jesus.
Hebrews five verse seven,
who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears unto him
that was able to save him from death
and was heard and that he feared,
though he were a son,
yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered.
And being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him,
called of God on high priest after the order of Melchizedek.
So even though Jesus Christ was God in the flesh,
even though he was divine,
even though he was the son of God,
yet the Bible says he learned obedience
by the things which he suffered and being made perfect,
he became the author of eternal salvation
unto all them that obey him.
Jesus Christ is our example for resisting temptation.
He was tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin.
And in verse seven it says,
who in the days of his flesh,
when he had offered up prayers and supplications
with strong crying and tears
unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard and was heard and they feared.
Now some people will twist this scripture
and come up with a weird doctrine
that Jesus didn't really die on the cross.
Now that's a blasphemous doctrine.
That's a wicked doctrine.
That's a bizarre doctrine because over and over again
the Bible tells us that Christ died for us.
But they'll say,
well he prayed to him that was able to save him from death
and he was heard.
So this is where horrific, blasphemous heresies have come from.
But what it's actually saying there
is that when Jesus Christ prayed unto him
that was able to save him from death
and was heard and that he feared,
you know how that prayer was answered?
It was answered because God sent angels unto him
to strengthen him and to comfort him.
Why?
So that he could have the resolve
to go through with what he was supposed to do.
Because Jesus Christ was obedient unto death.
Go to Philippians chapter 2.
Jesus Christ prayed unto the Lord
in his hour of temptation in the garden of Gethsemane
and he prayed unto him that was able to save him from death.
But you know what he did not pray?
Lord, save me from death.
You know what he actually prayed was
not as I will but as thou wilt.
He prayed,
Father if there's any way let this cup pass from me
but nevertheless not my will but thine be done.
So Jesus Christ through prayer
was able to resist the temptation
the temptation to do what?
To not obey the will of the Father.
To not go through with dying on the cross.
He prayed and he received the strength
and the resolve to do what?
To be obedient unto death
even the death of the cross.
Look at Philippians chapter 2 verse 5.
It says let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus.
Who being in the form of God
thought it not robbery to be equal with God
but made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in fashion as a man
he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death
even the death of the cross.
Wherefore God also has highly exalted him
and given him a name which is above every name
that at the name of Jesus
every knee should bow
of things in heaven
and things on earth
and things under the earth
and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.
So in this passage we see very clearly that
Jesus Christ was obedient unto death
even the death of the cross.
Was he tempted?
Did he struggle?
Of course we see that in the garden of Gethsemane.
How did he resist temptation?
He prayed.
The Lord sent angels from heaven
to minister unto him to strengthen him.
And by the way that's the same thing
that happened also
back where we started the scripture in Matthew 4
when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness.
The Bible says in Matthew 4 11
the devil leaveth him
and behold angels came and ministered unto him.
Angels came and ministered unto him.
He was strengthened.
His prayers were answered.
Now sometimes when we pray to the Lord
he's not going to answer our prayer
in a way that just makes our life perfect or easy
or takes away the struggle
or takes away the pain
or takes away the obstacle
but often he'll answer our prayer
by strengthening us
and helping us to do what we need to do
to obey, to be obedient
and to fulfill the will of God.
And that's what we see in Philippians chapter 2
with the temptation of Christ.
Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus.
What's that saying?
This is our example to learn from.
Christ Jesus is the example that we can follow.
Now this is a pretty profound scripture.
Philippians chapter 2
it's probably one of the most famous scriptures
in the New Testament
and it's packed with great doctrine
about who Jesus is.
Look at Philippians 2 verse 5.
Let this mind be in you
which was also in Christ Jesus
who being in the form of God.
So stop right there.
Jesus Christ was in the form of God, right?
And then it says that he thought it not robbery
to be equal with God.
So that's pretty clear on the deity of Jesus Christ
that Jesus Christ is God.
Because he was in the form of God
and he thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
But he made himself of no reputation
and took upon him the form of a servant.
So first he's in the form of God
and he's even equal with God, right?
But then he takes upon himself the form of a servant
and was made in the likeness of men.
Why did he do that?
Well, one of the reasons was
so that he could leave us an example
that we could follow in his steps.
1 Peter 2 21.
For even here unto were you called
because Christ also suffered for us
leaving us an example
that he should follow his steps.
He took upon him the form of a servant.
He was made in the likeness of man
and being found in fashion as a man
he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death
even the death of the cross.
But we need to understand is that
this wasn't all just a charade.
This wasn't just a facade.
This wasn't just Jesus going through the motions.
No, he actually took upon himself
the form of a man.
He actually became
he really was tempted in all points
like as we are
yet without sin.
He really was hungry
after 40 days and 40 nights of fasting.
He really did thirst
when he was on the cross
and said I thirst.
He really did
get tired and sad and angry
and he really did face every temptation
that we face.
It's not just a facade
where he's just pretending.
Like I've heard some people
try to explain away
scriptures like
my God, my God,
why has thou forsaken me
of well that was just
he's just going through the motions
to fulfill prophecy.
He was just trying to fulfill
Psalm 22 there.
No, no, no.
He's asking a question.
He's not going through the motions.
That's what he really
was expressing there.
Or like when Jesus prayed
in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Oh, that's just
that's just showing us
how to pray
but he's not really
talking to anybody.
You know, he's just
he's like the Pharisee
who prays thus with himself.
You know, or whatever.
And so a lot of people
would try to say,
oh, it's just going through the motions.
No, no, that was real.
I mean, when there's
great drops of sweat
coming off of him
like drops of blood
and he's in agony
and he cries out and says,
Abba! Father!
But he says,
you know, what shall I say?
Deliver me from this?
He's saying for this cause
I'm coming to the world.
That's why I'm here.
Everything up to this point
has led him up to the cross.
He's got to go to the cross
but the agony is real.
The struggle is real.
The prayers to the Father are real.
That's the Son communicating to the Father.
And when he said,
not my will
but thine be done
he's not just going through the motions
or pretending to have a different will
like, oh, I'm going to show people
how to conform to God's will
when they have their own will.
So I'm going to act this out.
You know, not my will
but thine be done.
Hint, hint, wink, wink, nod, nod
cause of course we have the same will.
No, no, no.
Jesus Christ as a human being
he didn't desire the shame.
The Bible says he despised the shame
of the cross.
Being beaten,
sped upon,
going through all that,
but he submitted himself
under the will of the Father.
He said not my will
but thine be done.
And yeah, of course it's an example
but the reason that it's even an example
is because it was real.
If it's not real
it's not much of an example.
You know, it'd be like
if I put some super light,
foam filled plates onto a bar
and said, here, let me show you
how to deadlift 400 pounds
and I demonstrate it
and then, okay, you try now.
Let's put the real 400 pounds on.
Now let's see you try.
I already demonstrated
the perfect form for you.
But that's not much of a demonstration, is it?
It's fake.
Christ's demonstration was a real demonstration.
That's what makes it a powerful demonstration
is that he was tempted in all points
like as we are,
yet without sin.
He really did endure those agonies.
He really did sincerely,
not with dissimulation
or lies coming out of his mouth.
He truthfully and sincerely said,
not as I will but as thou wilt.
He truthfully and sincerely
cried out to ask the question,
my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me?
Jesus Christ was in the form of God.
He was equal with God,
but he became man and dwelt among us
and he shows us how to endure temptation
and the temptation of Christ helps us understand
how we endure temptation in our lives.
Now let me just mention one more thing
about this passage while we're here.
Brother Jesse, can you go and grab
those poster boards that I have in there?
Because there's this controversy
about the Trinity that we've been dealing with
and you say, oh, you're going to bring that up again?
Yup.
And here's why.
Because the Bible says that precept
must be upon precept and line upon line
and here a little and there a little.
So sometimes it's a lot to digest.
So I'm giving it to you
in little bite-sized pieces now
after the big meal a few weeks ago.
Yeah, and you stay here
because I'm going to have you hold this too.
So a lot of people would twist this passage
to make it teach something that it's not.
Now the Bible says here that Jesus Christ
being in the form of God,
he thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
You know what that means?
It wasn't something that he had to steal or grasp.
No, no, no.
He was God.
So being equal with God comes with the territory, right?
Well, here's where a false doctrine
comes from that verse right here.
I'm going to hold this up.
People said, well, you know, back in math class
and I've heard several people use this illustration
over the last few weeks.
And usually they said something like,
well, I didn't get that far in math,
but I did get this far.
Well, you should have gone a little further, folks, okay?
Because look at this.
On this chart, this is their logic.
This is their faulty logic.
They say, well, Jesus is equal to the Father
because they'll say, you know,
well, because Jesus is equal to God here
and because Jesus is God
and because the Father is God,
well, that means that Jesus is God the Father
and this is where they get their oneness heresy, okay?
Or modalism.
So here's the logic they use.
They'll use a math principle
called the law of commutative properties.
Who remembers this?
You know, if A equals B and C equals B,
well, therefore A equals C.
Now that works great with numbers,
but when you start applying that to other areas of life,
that doesn't work anymore, okay?
Like, for example, their logic says,
well, if the Father is God and if the Son is God,
therefore the Father equals the Son.
That's false.
Okay, but let's use this illustration
that I've often used in the past about the Trinity, right?
I've often talked about how even we ourselves are a trichotomy
in the sense that we are made up of body, soul, and spirit, right?
So if you were to look at my dead body
and identify it for the police and say,
this is Steven Anderson, would that be accurate?
Yeah, say yes, officer, it's a tragedy,
but this is Steven Anderson lying before me.
Okay, if you were to then meet me in heaven
and my soul were to greet you in heaven
before the resurrection,
my body's still on this earth,
and I were to say,
hello, I'm Steven Anderson, would that be accurate?
Okay, so the body that you're looking at
equals Steven Anderson.
The soul equals Steven Anderson,
therefore body equals soul?
Doesn't work, does it?
See what I'm saying?
Now here's the thing,
our body, soul, and spirit come together to form us,
Steven Anderson, right?
Now as human beings, that's one person, right?
One person, Steven Anderson,
composed of these three parts, body, soul, and spirit,
but God is three persons.
So no illustration is perfect or exact,
and Jesus Christ is the express image of the Father's person.
So that's the Father's person,
and then there's the person of Christ
and the person of the Holy Spirit,
three persons, okay?
So this kind of logic is a bad logic,
see, this is why I wrote this,
bad logic, and maybe we,
I don't know if we're on camera here
for those out in internet land,
eating chips off their chest, watching the sermon.
So yeah, so A equals B, C equals B,
therefore A equals C.
Bad logic when it comes to the Trinity,
because this makes no sense,
just like this makes no sense.
And you know what?
We could come up with all kinds of bad examples of this.
You know, dog equals mammal,
cat equals mammal,
therefore dog equals cat.
Wrong.
Or what if I said,
well, Steven Anderson is human,
and Jesse Clark is human,
therefore Steven Anderson is Jesse Clark.
That doesn't make sense, does it?
Because here's the thing,
this is why it doesn't make sense,
because I'm not the only one who's human,
and Jesse's not the only one that's human.
Well, guess what?
The Father is not the only one who's God,
because the Son is God also,
and the Holy Ghost is also God.
So this falls apart.
But for those who went a little further in math,
we have this chart,
because two can play the math game, can't they?
How about this law?
Here's another law that we learned in math class.
In the next semester,
or in the next year of class,
how about this one?
If A is greater than B,
it is impossible for A to be equal to B.
Remember that one?
Okay, try this on.
John 14 28 B,
for my Father is greater than I.
Greater than,
and what's this symbol mean?
Greater than.
So, you know, you can't just take a math book,
and do, oh man, case closed.
Well, turn the page,
because on the next page,
you'll find this law in your math book,
or geometry book,
or wherever, your pre-calculus book.
Okay, so the thing that we need to...
Go ahead and sit down.
Thank you, Jesse.
The thing that we need to understand
is that when it comes to Jesus Christ
being equal with God,
what that means is that
he is every bit as much God
as the Father is God.
So when we say that the three persons
of the Trinity are co-equal,
what we mean by that is that
Jesus is not an inferior being,
a created being.
Jesus is not of lesser value,
or not as God as the Father is God.
No, they're equally God.
They're equally worthy.
They are of equal value, right?
If we were to put a number on it,
they're of equal value,
and not only that,
but they both go all the way back to the beginning.
It's not like there was a time
when there's just the Father,
and then he begets Jesus Christ.
No, because if you look up the verse,
thou art my son,
this day have I begotten thee,
it's about the resurrection.
Acts 13, he's the first begotten of the dead.
That's where that verse is referring to,
because all the way back in the eternity past,
you had the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost
co-existing,
co-equal in the sense that
one is not more God than the other.
They are all equally God.
But are they equal when it comes to their authority?
No, when Jesus said my Father is greater than I,
that simply speaks to a chain of command
where the Son submits himself to the Father,
subjects himself to the Father,
is obedient to the Father,
but it doesn't mean that he is any lesser of a person.
Now, I don't believe that my wife is a lesser,
and obviously the husband-wife relationship
falls apart on many levels
if we start talking about the Trinity,
but just for this one aspect of the Trinity,
it does work to say that my wife and I,
I believe are equal.
I believe we're equal.
I do not believe that I am more important than my wife.
I don't believe that I'm a better person than my wife.
I don't believe that she's expendable and I'm not,
or something like that.
But I will say this,
we're not equal when it comes to a chain of command.
So if my wife said my husband is greater than I
in the context of,
hey, can you make this decision?
Well, no, he needs to make that decision.
He's the boss.
He's the head of the family.
He is greater than I.
But if she made it in the sense of,
I'm more valuable as a human being,
it wouldn't be true.
You see what I'm saying?
So when the Bible says that Jesus is equal with God,
and in this sense,
if you were to take it as God the Father,
which is, again, that's you putting that into there,
okay,
but the point is that the co-equality of the persons of the Godhead
doesn't change the fact that there's a chain of command,
and it doesn't mean,
well, if A is equal to B and C is equal to B,
then A equals C.
That's nonsense.
I just demonstrated it to be nonsense.
And then another thing that the law of commutative property says
is that you can substitute one for the other, doesn't it?
Because if A equals C,
that means in an equation I can rip out A and throw in C,
and everything's fine, right?
Okay, let's start trying that with Bible verses.
The Son sent the Father to be the Savior of the world.
The Son so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Father.
And look, I'm not going to belabor the point,
but I could rattle off about a hundred verses
that would sound pretty silly
if we just started swapping those out, wouldn't they?
My Son is greater than I.
The Holy Ghost is greater than I,
because it all just interchanges, right?
It's all the same thing, same person.
But that's what that kind of logic leads you to.
It's a half-baked logic,
because it hasn't been fully thought through
what the ramifications of that are.
So let's leave math to the mathematicians, amen?
So we see here that Jesus Christ is God.
He's equal with God.
He's equivalent to God.
He is God.
He's 100% God.
And by the way, did I mention that Jesus is God?
But we have to understand that God consists of
the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost,
and a lot of people struggle with that
because they're on a Judaic God.
That's a oneness, a singular God.
No, no, no, God is three.
That's why He said, let's make man an hour image.
So Jesus Christ was in the form of God.
He thought it not robbery to be equal with God.
But what did He do?
He humbled Himself.
He took upon Himself the form of man,
meaning that He already existed
before He became a human being, as God in heaven.
And then He took on Him the form of a servant.
He was made in the likeness of men.
And He showed us the example of how to resist temptation.
And if we're smart, we'll take that Matthew 4 example
and that Luke 4 example of Jesus dealing with temptation,
and we'll do the same thing.
We'll quote scripture.
We'll understand the value of our lives.
And then we will get on our knees
and pray to the Father and say,
Lord, Lord, succor us, help us, succoro.
That's what we cry out when we need help, right?
Succor us, Lord, help us.
I don't want to look at that.
I don't want to eat that.
I don't want to drink that.
I don't want to smoke that, Lord.
Help me.
I don't want somebody to punch me in the chest
after I hyperventilated and so I pass out.
Help me not to jump in front of a train for kicks.
And look, it sounds funny, but you know what?
Kids die all the time.
All the moms love this part of the sermon
when I'm telling their kids not to do dumb, dangerous things.
Playing with fire and playing with dangerous weapons,
fooling around with guns and things.
Hey, we need to be safe.
Go throwing yourself off the pinnacle of the temple.
Let's bow our heads and have a word of prayer.