Let's look at Luke chapter 4 verse 4, the memory verse, Luke chapter 4 verse 4.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
The title of the sermon this morning is Every Word of God.
Let's start off by reading verse number 1, Luke 4 verse 1.
And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, started to speak in tongues.
All right?
Now, hey, when we see people filled with the Holy Ghost in the Bible, what are they doing?
They're out preaching the gospel, or in this case, as we see Jesus being taken up into the wilderness to pray and fast.
Look, they're not wasting their time speaking some gibberish language, all right, some nonsense language.
Hey, tongue speaking is biblical.
Hey, I can speak two tongues, English and Spanish.
And maybe some of you have the ability to speak other languages.
That's great.
Hey, but what you see in a lot of these Pentecostal Charismatic churches is nonsense.
Okay?
They claim to be fueled by the Holy Ghost, but no.
What we see in the Bible when you're full of the Holy Ghost, you're either preaching the gospel or you're praying and fasting as we see here in Jesus Christ.
Hey, and when you're filled with the Holy Ghost, what do we see here?
Full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
Guys, if we want to be believers that have been led by the Spirit, what do we need to be having in our lives?
We need to be filled with the Holy Ghost.
We need to be full of the Holy Ghost in order for our steps to be led by the Holy Spirit.
And notice the Holy Spirit led him into the wilderness.
Verse number two.
Of course he'd be hungry, right?
Of course Jesus Christ would be hungry after fasting for 40 days.
Look at verse number three.
Here comes the devil, you know, concerned about the welfare of Jesus Christ, right?
Concerned that he's hungry.
So what does the devil say about Jesus?
And by the way, I'm being sarcastic there.
He says in verse number three.
Now when I first read this in the Bible as a child, I remember reading this and I'm thinking,
wow, Satan's really concerned for Jesus, right?
Satan really wants Jesus just to eat.
Because look, is there anything wrong in of itself to eat bread?
Of course not.
And then it's got me thinking about what Satan is like.
What is the devil like?
Look, the devil, when he comes and approaches you the first time,
it's not to tempt you to do necessarily sins.
Hey, when Satan comes, he's going to come, you know, concerned for your welfare.
You know, finding something, some lack in your life and saying, hey, I can feel that for you.
Hey, I can give you direction.
And it's going to seem like the devil just wants to help you, okay?
But as we see in this passage, that is far from the truth, okay?
Now again, there's nothing sinful to eat bread of itself.
But look at verse number three again.
What are the first words out of Jesus's mouth?
If thou be the Son of God.
Now is Jesus Christ the Son of God?
Absolutely, right?
Absolutely.
If you've read the Bible, you know, you'll come to the conclusion that Jesus Christ is definitely the Son of God or God the Son.
Some people put it that way, right?
And so the first thing you see out of the devil's mouth is to create some doubts.
Are you really the Son of God?
If thou be the Son of God, right?
He comes and doubts the Word of God.
Now keep your finger there, go to Genesis chapter three.
Genesis chapter three, verse one.
We see the very first introduction of Satan in the Bible.
And what is he doing?
Two things.
We'll see this in Genesis three, chapter one.
Genesis three, chapter one, the Bible says,
Now the serpent, that being a reference to Satan, was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?
So what's the first thing that he says to Eve?
He wants her to doubt the Word of God.
All right?
The reason why I stand firm on the King James Bible and say that it's perfect and preserved,
because I don't want to doubt the Word of God.
All right?
If I was reading or teaching from the NIV, the New American Standard Version, the New King James Version,
or any of these other corruptions,
I'm going to constantly be doubting the Word of God because there's constant contradictions.
Okay?
And I remember being in a church, growing up in the Baptist Union Church.
All right?
Thank God the first pastor that was there was King James.
But then they went through different pastors, always different Bibles.
And you know, I can't remember what Bible I had at that time,
but we'd read stuff and I couldn't even follow what was in the Word of God.
Because it was saying something totally different.
I don't know what the Word of God is saying.
I don't know which one's right.
Okay, but that's what the devil wants.
The reason why there are so many English translations, guys.
It's not the translation itself that's a problem,
but so many differences is because yes, ultimately copyright issues.
Yes, ultimately to make a buck.
Yes, ultimately the love of money.
But the root of all that, guys, is Satan wanting us to doubt the Word of God.
All right?
Look at verse number two.
And the woman said unto the serpent,
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden,
but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden,
God have said, ye shall not eat of it,
neither shall you touch it, lest ye die.
Now here's the concern of the devil.
Right?
Verse number four.
And the serpent said unto the woman,
Ye shall not surely die.
For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof,
then your eyes shall be opened,
and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.
Hey, Eve, I'm here just for your welfare.
I just want you to have an increase in knowledge.
I just want you to know that if you eat this fruit,
you'll be like gods.
You'll know the difference between good and evil.
All right?
You'll know these things.
You see how Satan comes, right?
Doubting the Word of God,
and coming to pretend to be your friend.
Pretending to look after your needs.
Go back to Luke chapter four.
Actually, go to...
What do I want?
Where do I want you to turn to?
Yeah, keep your finger there.
Go to John chapter eight.
John chapter eight, verse 28.
Because I want you to think about what is it?
What was the problem
for Jesus to turn the stone into bread?
Okay?
What was the underlying issue there?
John chapter eight, verse 28.
And this is when Jesus Christ, of course,
is defending himself and attacking the Pharisees.
A very, very popular chapter here.
But Jesus says in John eight, 28.
Then said Jesus unto them,
When ye have lifted up the Son of Man,
then shall ye know that I am he.
Look at the next words.
And that I do nothing of myself,
but as my Father have taught me,
I speak these things.
Verse 29,
And he that sent me is with me,
the Father hath not left me alone,
for I do always those things that please him.
And notice what Jesus Christ would do
when he was on this earth.
He sought the will of the Father.
He sought to please the Father.
And he only taught and did the things
the Father asked him to do.
Okay, so there's nothing wrong
with bread in of itself.
But there's something wrong
when you're listening to Satan
and eating of that bread, right?
If God wants you to have bread,
then he's going to provide that.
And of course, as working fathers,
that's our job to go out, work a job,
make money so we can provide for our family.
Hey, but Jesus Christ was filled by the Holy Ghost
and led into the wilderness,
meaning that God will ultimately look after his son.
Okay, he does not need the devil
to step in and take that role.
All right, so what was the problem?
That if he turned the stone into bread,
he was listening to Satan.
He'd be following the direction of Satan
rather than listening to his father
and doing the will of the Father.
That's the first problem, okay?
Satan wants you to turn you away from God's word,
doubt his word and give an ear
to what Satan has to say to you.
Okay, that is problem number one.
Go back to Luke chapter four.
Luke chapter four, verse four.
And Jesus answered him saying,
now this is very important to understand
why this was a major problem
to turn the stone into bread following after Satan.
Verse number four, Jesus answered him saying,
it is written that man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word of God.
Every word of God.
Please absorb this into your minds, guys.
I know you love the Lord,
I know you love the Bible,
but I know how hard it is to get through the Bible
cover to cover, okay?
I know how challenging it is, okay?
But more important than our daily bread,
our physical bread that nourishes our physical body
is the word of God.
More important than that is this book,
the Bible, the word of God.
This is, Jesus Christ compares the word like bread, all right?
Jesus Christ says this is what we need
to nourish the new man,
to nourish the spirit of God.
If you want to be full of the Holy Ghost as Jesus was,
then you need to consume the word of God, okay?
Daily.
Hey, how often do you eat a meal?
All right?
I mean, most people have a breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Most people, right?
Just to keep themselves going,
maybe two meals a day, you know,
at least one meal a day.
Most people at least have one meal,
even if they're doing some type of fast,
they're having at least one meal usually, right?
So look, the same principle applies for the new man, okay?
If Jesus uses comparison,
it means we need to take the word of God
and feast on his word at least once a day,
twice a day, even three times a day,
and as much as you need to, right?
As much as you can absorb the word of God,
nourish that new man,
be full of the Holy Ghost,
you're going to be able to hear from God
and he's going to be able to direct your past.
But we need every word of God, okay?
This is again why the King James Bible,
I believe it's perfect.
Every word is needed.
We can't just start taking verses out of the Bible.
We can't just start taking words out of the Bible.
We can't just start taking the blood of Christ
out of the Bible, all right,
and think we're going to be nourished as believers.
No, we need the entire word of God available to us.
Thank God he's given us the King James Bible
for our nourishment today, all right?
Now, why is this important?
What is Jesus actually referring to?
You don't need to turn there,
I'll just read it to you quickly.
But Jesus Christ is quoting Deuteronomy 8 verse 3.
Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3,
he's quoting that, in other words,
he's memorized the Bible, okay?
He's memorized certain passages
of the book of Deuteronomy, okay?
And this is how he's overcoming
the temptations of Satan.
Now, let me read to you what he quoted.
It's in Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3.
It says,
Which thou knewest not,
neither did thy fathers know,
that he might make thee know
that man doth not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth
out of the mouth of the Lord, doth man live.
All right, so what is Jesus comparing
his situation to?
When Israel were in the wilderness themselves
and were without food, okay?
But how did God provide for them?
Hey, he brought down heavenly bread,
the manna, which ultimately is a type,
a picture of the body of Christ.
We're going to that right now.
But who provided for the Israelites
during that time?
It was God himself.
God performed a miracle
and provided that manna to fall
and feed the Israelites.
And Jesus uses that to quote to Satan.
So in other words, Satan says,
hey, turn this stone into bread.
And Jesus says, look,
we know that the Father can rain down manna,
essentially is what he's saying, okay?
And so he's looking for provision
from God the Father,
rather than listening to the devil.
Hey, sometimes, you know,
there's this saying, hey,
the ends does not justify the means.
Hey, the ends might be something positive.
It might be something good
that you're trying to achieve.
But you need to do it biblically.
You need to do it the way God wants you to do it
and not go about making it your own way
or doing it some sort of way
that the devil wants you to achieve.
All right, same thing with Jesus.
He knew the bread was coming.
He was just waiting for the Lord to provide, okay?
Verse number five, Luke 4-5.
And the devil, taking him up into a high mountain,
showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world
in a moment of time.
And the devil said unto him,
all this power will I give thee
and the glory of them,
for that is delivered unto me,
and to whomsoever I will give it.
If thou therefore will worship me,
all shall be dying.
So what does the devil ultimately want, guys?
Is he looking for your welfare?
Does he want you to have a bit of bread?
No, ultimately, the devil wants to be worshiped.
Instead of you worshiping the Lord God,
he wants your worship.
Now, some people debate as to how much control
the devil has over the powers of the earth.
And if you look at verse six, he says,
you know, all this power I will give thee
and the glory of them,
for that is delivered unto me,
and to whomsoever I will give it.
So one view is basically,
the reason Satan is able to tempt Jesus with this
and say these things,
is because he does have full control
over the governments and powers of this world.
That's one way to look at it.
But we also know the devil is the father of lies.
All right, so I'm not sure exactly
how much power he has.
You know, I'm not sure exactly
what he's able to offer.
You know, obviously,
the Lord puts certain limits on Satan, okay?
And obviously, we know that government
in of itself is a institution that God ordained.
Okay, now, so take that as you will,
you know, I don't know how much Satan
is actually really offering there.
But ultimately, he wants Jesus Christ
to worship him.
And let's look at,
I'm going to read to you very quickly
from Revelation 11, verse 15.
Again, if you want to turn this up to you,
Revelation 11, verse 15.
It says, and the seventh angel sounded,
and there were great voices in heaven saying,
the kingdoms of this world
are become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of his Christ,
and he shall reign forever and ever.
Hey, Satan was offering Jesus something
that the Father has already offered Jesus Christ.
But it's something that's going to come
in the future, all right?
After God rains down
his wrath upon this world,
when Jesus Christ comes back
and establishes his kingdom,
he's going to receive all the kingdoms
of the world, all right?
But what's important about this?
What's the key thing about the Father
offering it to the Son?
It said, and he shall reign forever and ever.
Hey, isn't it God, Jesus Christ
be reigning forever, okay?
His kingdom will be forever.
What Satan was offering,
even if it was all the powers
of the kingdom of the world,
it was only a temporal thing.
It's only a earthly, worldly thing
that will come to an end at some point, all right?
Now, you can either listen to Satan
and follow after his ways,
but let me just tell you now,
that's temporal, it's going to end,
and it's going to end in your destruction, all right?
Or you can listen to God,
he promises you the mansions,
the streets of gold,
the heavenly Jerusalem,
the new heaven, the new earth,
you know, all the rewards in heaven
that you're able to, you know,
claim for yourself, all those things,
being blessed, being the Son of God,
and it's eternal.
Which of these two things
are you going to take in life, okay?
Do you want to satisfy the now,
or are your eyes fixed upon eternity,
fixed upon the future?
And look, obviously Satan has some power,
obviously he has,
look, I think a lot of these celebrities,
you know, we read about
a lot of these musicians, right?
And how many times do they say,
I mean, so many of them,
from rock stars to pop stars,
you know, say they sold their soul to the devil,
or something along those lines,
and that's how they achieved their success.
That's how they became musically talented,
is by giving themselves,
align themselves worship in Satan.
So obviously there's something to this,
okay, there's obviously something to it,
and again, it's probably very tempting
for those that only have a temporal view of life,
but again, life goes on, it's eternal,
you know, life goes on, it's eternal.
So what God offers is obviously much more superior
than what Satan is able to offer there.
Look at verse number eight.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
get thee behind me Satan,
for it is written,
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God,
and only, sorry,
and him only shalt thou serve.
Okay, so now,
if you're reading the book of which we are,
we're going through the book of Luke,
you'll notice that there is a third temptation
after this that's written here.
And you might be wondering
as you read this in verse eight,
if Jesus says get thee behind me Satan,
why is Satan still, you know,
giving him a third temptation here
in the book of Luke?
Well, the truth is,
and I'll show this later on,
the truth is Satan did flee
from Jesus Christ at this point in time.
Now remember,
when we went through Luke chapter one,
I explained to you guys
that the book of Luke
is not written in a strict chronological order.
Okay, we'll have a look at this in a minute.
But just keep that in mind.
So when Satan says get thee behind me,
Satan surely did.
All right, he fled from Jesus Christ.
Now the Bible says in James 4-7,
just very quickly, it says,
submit yourselves therefore to God,
resist the devil,
and he will flee from you.
Hey, we have the power through the Holy Ghost
to resist the devil.
All right, we stand by his word.
Hey, if it helps us to overcome temptations,
then quote scriptures.
Okay, and he will flee from us.
Let's look at verse number nine.
Verse number nine.
And he brought him to Jerusalem
and set him on a pinnacle of the temple
and said unto him,
if thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down from hence.
For it is written,
he shall give his angels charge over thee
to keep thee,
and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone.
And Jesus answered and said unto him,
it is said,
thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God.
And when the devil had ended all the temptation,
he departed from him for a season.
So we see there that the devil,
once Jesus Christ overcame these temptations,
that the devil departed from him.
Next words are important.
For a season.
All right, for a while.
Now understand this.
We are not the Lord Jesus Christ.
Okay, yes we, you know,
we have his righteousness imputed upon us.
Yes, we're a child of the Father,
but ultimately we still have this sinful nature.
Okay, now you in your Christian life,
you are going to have spiritual victories.
Okay, there are going to be times
that you defeat the devil.
All right, through his word.
And there are times that he's going to,
you're going to resist him.
He's going to flee from you.
But remember this.
It's only for a season.
Okay, the devil's coming back.
He's going to come back and do it again.
He's going to try.
He's going to find a time,
and maybe not the devil Satan himself,
but one of his devils that he's got.
Okay, find a weakness in you
and try to take you down.
Don't think just because I had
a spiritual victory yesterday,
the devil's not going to attack you today.
Okay, we always need to be aware
the devil's like a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour, the Bible says.
All right, so let's keep a few things in mind here.
So he's basically saying to Jesus,
take him to the top of the temple
and says, look, basically commit suicide.
Throw yourself down from this tower
and God promises that he's going to
not allow your foot to dash against the stone,
that the angels will charge over thee
and keep thee.
Now, I'm going to read to you again from,
by the way, this is from the Bible.
Satan quoted the Bible.
What I'm trying to get to guys
is that don't assume anybody,
any preacher, anyone is just of God.
All right, even Satan himself
can take the Bible and quote it.
All right, we got to be careful about this.
Now, what did he quote?
He quoted Psalm 91, verse 11.
Don't turn there.
I want you to stay in Luke 4, Psalm 91, 11.
Okay, so I'm going to read to you
what the Old Testament says
and you guys read what he said,
what Satan said, right?
So you guys are just reading from verse 10,
Luke 4, verse 10.
I'll read to you from Psalm 91, 11.
Let's see how similar it is
and I'll read it slowly
because I want you to see what's missing.
Psalm 91, verse 11.
For he shall give his angels charge over thee
to keep thee in all thy ways.
I'll just stop there.
Do you see anything missing there?
In your, what he quoted,
what Satan quoted,
he didn't quote all of the Psalm.
He didn't quote,
to keep thee in all thy ways.
All right, so keep this in mind.
Jesus has been fasting for 40 days, right?
He's in the wilderness.
He's without food.
He's hungry, all right?
And the angels have not yet come
to serve Christ.
They've not yet come to minister
and help him.
And Satan wants to speed up this process.
He says, look, just cast yourself down now, right?
And the angels come
and they'll come and rescue you.
They'll come and minister.
They'll come and serve you.
They'll help you out of this difficult situation.
All right?
Let's read on.
Go back to Luke chapter four.
Well, you guys are probably there.
Luke four.
Actually, I'm getting a little confused.
So just bear with me.
Let me just remember what I'm up with.
Okay, so what was missing?
To keep thee in all thy ways.
All thy ways.
Satan is saying,
if you cast yourself down,
then the angels are going to come.
But Psalm 91 said,
if the Lord's going to look after you
in all thy ways, okay?
You don't have to throw yourself down
from a temple, commit suicide,
put yourself in a position
where you're forcing God
to come to your rescue.
No, God is always with us.
He's always going to provide our needs.
Okay?
That's what Satan left out
when he quoted the Bible.
All right?
He left that out.
Now, I want you to go to Matthew chapter four.
Let's go to our parallel passage here.
Matthew chapter four for two reasons.
And I'm going to get this all together
for you in a minute.
If it sounds a bit disjointed,
just let me get to it.
Matthew four verse three.
So we have another record here
of the temptation of Christ.
But this time,
it's in chronological order.
Okay, it's in chronological order.
Matthew four verse three.
And when the tempter came to him,
he said,
if thou be the Son of God,
command these stones to be made bread.
And 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.
So yep, that's the first one.
Look at the next temptation.
Then the devil
taketh him up into the holy city
and set of him on the pinnacle of the temple
and saith unto him,
if thou be the Son of God,
cast thyself down,
for it is written,
he shall give his angels charge over thee,
and in their hands they shall bear thee up,
lest at any time
thou dash thy foot against the stone.
Verse seven.
Jesus said unto him,
it is written,
thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
Verse eight.
Again, the devil taketh him up
unto an exceeding high mountain
and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world
and the glory of them
and saith unto him,
all these things will I give thee
if thou will fall down and worship me.
Now notice this.
Verse 10.
Then saith Jesus unto him,
get thee hence, Satan,
for it is written,
thou shalt worship the Lord thy God
and him only,
shalt thou serve.
Verse 11.
Then the devil leaveth him,
and behold,
now notice this,
and behold,
angels came and ministered unto him.
All right?
So we see the order of the temptations
were different in Matthew four.
They're in chronological order.
The reason we know this
is because when you read Matthew four,
it says,
once you get through the first temptation,
it says,
then the devil taketh him,
then, so then is following it,
and then verse eight on the third one,
it says,
again,
the devil taketh him up.
So again,
he's doing another temptation.
So in Matthew,
it's in chronological order.
If you notice in Luke,
every time the temptations come up,
it says,
and the devil or whatever,
and, and, and.
Instead of then being following,
it's and, and, and.
Let's put it this way.
If we were talking about church this morning,
and let's say someone asks you,
you know,
what did you guys do in church this morning?
You know,
what was church like?
You might answer this way,
you know,
not in a strict chronological order.
You say,
well,
you know,
we heard a sermon from Luke four,
and we sang hymns,
you know,
and we heard a testimony from brother Sam,
and we,
you know,
and we did whatever,
we fellowshiped and whatever,
okay?
So you can include all those things,
okay?
And it's all true,
okay?
But when you're using and, and, and,
all you're saying is all the things
that took place during that time.
But if you're using words like then,
you know,
well,
if we sang a hymn,
then we prayed,
then we sung another hymn,
then we did the memory verses,
then now you're talking about
a chronological order.
Does that make sense?
All right.
And again,
the reason why Luke,
the book of Luke was written in a way
to be more thematic,
to be more topical in its nature
of the way it's written.
I'll explain to you a little bit more
that in a minute,
okay?
But notice
that once Satan had fled away,
that God had sent the angels,
we saw that in Matthew,
to minister unto Jesus,
all right?
What Satan was saying to Jesus was,
you've got to throw yourself from the temple,
essentially,
for the Satanists to come and help you,
you know?
And no,
Jesus knew,
hey, no,
if I'm being led here by the Holy Ghost,
if I'm being led by the Spirit,
yes,
it's challenging in the wilderness.
Yes,
there's a lack of food,
but I know my Heavenly Father
is going to come and provide my needs.
All right?
And he does,
okay?
He does send his angels to come
and minister unto Christ.
I'm sure he came,
they came and gave him food
and his nourishment
to get through it all.
So,
keep that in mind, guys.
If the Holy Ghost has given you guidance,
has given you a way to walk,
and you don't have all the answers,
but you know it's from God,
it's established in the Word of God,
then take that step of faith,
okay?
Because the Lord God is going to provide
all your needs.
You don't need to listen to Satan
and find some other way,
no.
If the Lord's leading you,
he's going to provide all your needs.
Okay?
Now, verse number nine,
Luke chapter four, verse nine.
Sorry, we read that already.
Luke chapter four, verse 14.
And Jesus returned,
so once he's gone through that
time of temptation,
returned in the power of the spirit
into Galilee.
And there went out a fame of him
through all the region roundabout.
And he taught in the synagogues
being glorified of all.
So, we see once he gets back,
there's fame of Jesus Christ.
People are talking about him.
He's going in the synagogues,
you know,
and teaching the Word of God.
You know, he's proclaiming boldly,
speaking out of authority.
He's opening their eyes to the,
to the news of God,
to the Word of God,
and the fame is being spread out
about this Jesus Christ.
But look at verse 16.
And he came to Nazareth,
where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was,
he went into the synagogue
on the Sabbath day
and stood up for to read.
So, I just,
first thing I just want you to notice then,
I love the fact that it says,
as his custom was.
I love that, okay.
Because the synagogues in this day,
now, just keep this in mind.
God never told the Israelites
to build synagogues, okay.
Now, it's not wrong that they've done that.
We need to understand about the synagogues.
Synagogues today,
when we talk about synagogues,
we think about Judaism.
We think about the religion of Judaism, okay.
But the synagogues in Jesus' time
were just community centers, all right.
Just like we had, like, you know,
if we met in a community center,
we did, right, in Kawana Waters.
That was a community center.
We met there.
That's like a synagogue.
It's a place where the public
are free to come
and use for their purposes.
You know, maybe for, you know,
parties or celebrations
or, you know, anything.
You know, but on the Sabbath day,
it was used to come and hear the Word of God.
Because remember, in those days,
they did not have
the 66 books of the Bible
in one volume like we have,
that they can hold in their hand, all right.
In those days,
they would have to copy
the Word of God by hand, okay.
That's why it's called manuscripts.
Scripts is writing
and man is like manual.
They had to manually write their out
with their hands, all right.
So, it was difficult for every family
to have the Bible in their homes.
So, they would go into the synagogues
and hear it read.
So, in many ways,
the synagogues in Jesus' time,
though it was on the Sabbath or Saturday,
was like church.
You'd come and hear the Word of God
being read and being preached.
And what we see of Jesus Christ,
it says, as His custom was, all right.
And we should say as families,
what's our custom for a Sunday?
It's to be in church, I hope, right.
I hope that we would walk
in the steps of Jesus Christ
and say, whenever the church is open,
whenever there's church service,
it's our custom as a family to be there, all right.
That's how it should be.
And notice, what else happened?
He went into the synagogue, verse 16,
on the Sabbath day
and stood up for to read.
Guys, church is a place
where the Word of God is to be read, all right.
You go to these modern churches.
Again, I'm going to attack
the Pentecostals and the Charismatics.
What are they focused on?
Is it the reading of the Word of God?
No.
In fact, some of the sermons
barely contain the Word of God.
And whatever Word of God is in there,
it's corrupt anyway, all right.
Look, their focus is on the music.
Their focus is on their experiences,
on their stories.
No, it's a place to come
and read the Word of God.
That's why we make it our custom,
you know, every service to read
through at least one chapter of the Bible.
Verse 17,
And there was delivered unto him
the book of the prophet, Esaias.
And when he had opened the book,
this is Esaias, by the way.
This is the prophet, Esaias.
And when he had opened the book,
he found the place where it was written.
I love this.
And look, keep your,
turn to Esaias 61.
Let's have a look at what Jesus Christ is reading.
Turn to Esaias 61, verse one.
Esaias 61, verse one.
I love this passage for several reasons.
But again, we see the Trinity here,
okay, being pictured here.
Esaias 61, verse one.
Now you guys read there.
I'm going to read to you from Luke four.
You guys read Esaias 61 from verse one.
I'm going to read to you from Luke chapter four.
These are the words that Jesus read.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me
because he have anointed me
to preach the gospel to the poor.
He have sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives
and recovering of sight to the blind,
to set them at liberty, them that are bruised,
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord.
And then Luke four, it says in verse 20,
And he closed the book
and gave it again to the minister
and sat down,
and the eyes of all them that were in the synagogue
were fastened on him.
Did you guys notice there was something extra?
What were you reading?
Esaias 61, right?
Did you notice that when I was reading through Luke four,
there was something extra that Jesus mentioned?
In Esaias 61,
sorry, in a...
I'm losing my spot here.
Oh, yeah.
In Luke four, Jesus said,
and to set at liberty them that are bruised.
That is not in that passage.
That is not in Esaias 61, verse one and two.
To set at liberty them that are bruised.
Now, there's a couple of thoughts here.
Why did Jesus add these words?
Well, first of all,
let me just say Jesus Christ is the Word of God.
Jesus is God.
He has all authority.
If he wants to add something to the scriptures,
he's entitled to do that.
It's his book, first of all.
Secondly, this wouldn't be the first time,
well, this wouldn't be the only time
Jesus adds something to the Bible.
Now, if you guys remember the great commandment
to love the Lord our God,
with all our strength,
with all our heart,
and with all our soul,
Jesus adds something in the New Testament,
with all thy mind.
Okay, in the Old Testament,
it does not say to love God with all your mind,
but Jesus Christ adds that to the great commandment
in the New Testament.
So it wouldn't be the first time that Jesus does this.
All right.
Another view is that Jesus is given a commentary.
He's added a few more words
because he's expounding the scriptures,
not just reading it,
but he's expounding what he read.
Okay, that's one, that's another view.
The third view
is that he's comparing scripture with scripture.
So in Luke 4,
if you guys can go back to Luke 4, verse 19,
Luke 4, sorry, 18,
Luke 4, verse 18,
just the last words there,
to set at liberty them that are bruised
may come from Isaiah 58, verse six.
I'll just read it to you.
Isaiah 58, verse six, it says,
is not this the fast that I have chosen
to loose the bands of wickedness,
to undo the heavy burdens?
And then he says this,
and to let the oppressed go free,
and that ye break every yoke.
So there's the same idea of liberty to the captives, right,
in Isaiah 58, verse six,
though it's not word for word the same.
Okay.
So my personal take on this
is that Jesus, as he was reading,
was expounding the words of God.
He may have been comparing scripture with scripture.
All that just to say this,
these are good principles
when reading the Word of God,
when preaching the Word of God, right?
It's a good thing to compare scripture with scripture,
all right, that may have been what Jesus did,
but also it's a good thing to expound what you're reading.
Okay, to expound the Word of God.
These are just things that we see Jesus Christ doing
in the early church, if you will, in the synagogues,
and something that we can be doing today
as preachers as well.
Okay, now go back to Luke 4,
Luke 4, verse 20,
and he closed the book
and gave it again to the minister and sat down,
and the eyes of all them that were in a synagogue
were fastened on him.
So after Jesus reads this and preaches,
he sits down and they're all looking at him, right?
Now, the Bible doesn't really tell us,
or it does actually a little bit tell us why that is.
If we look at verse 21,
and he began to say unto them,
this day is the scripture fulfilled in your ears,
and all bear him witness and wonder
at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
So one of those reasons is because of the gracious words
that came out of the mouth of Jesus, okay?
Another reason why their eyes may have been fixed on him
is because of the fame that was going out about him, okay?
Everybody was hearing about how great he was.
Another reason might be
is that he didn't finish reading all of Isaiah 61.
He didn't finish that verse.
And I'll just quickly show you what verse he missed out on,
and, sorry, I'm getting you guys to jump all over the place,
but Isaiah 61,
Isaiah 61, verse 2,
it says in verse 2,
Isaiah 61, verse 2 says,
to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
then there's a comma, okay?
The sentence has not finished,
but this is where Jesus Christ closed the book.
He didn't read the rest of it
because the rest of the book says this,
the rest of the verse says this,
and the day of vengeance of our God
to comfort all that morn.
Hey, the day of the vengeance of God
is what we commonly read as the day of the Lord, all right?
It's when the Lord will pour out his wrath upon this earth,
and Jesus Christ closed the book before he got to that, okay?
And then in Luke 4, he says,
this day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears.
So obviously he did not want to talk about the wrath of God
being poured out on the earth
because it had not yet happened.
It's still a future event.
But we see another good principle of Jesus Christ.
He's able to rightly divide the word of God, okay?
He's able to rightly divide the word of truth.
And so Jesus Christ could teach,
hey, you know, the acceptable year of the Lord has come,
Jesus Christ is here,
but the day of his vengeance has not yet come.
That is still a future thing to come.
All right, now look at verse 22,
Luke 4, verse 22.
And all bear him witness,
and wonder the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth.
And notice just that beautiful thing, right?
Gracious words that came out of the mouth of Jesus, right?
People loved listening to him.
He was a preacher that people could listen to
and learn and grow from.
Look, Jesus Christ was trying to send a message
when he was preaching,
when he read the word of God,
he wanted people's ears to hear him, okay?
He wasn't being obnoxious for no reason, all right?
He wasn't being difficult for no reason.
His words were gracious, okay,
for people to listen to it and think about it
and contemplate what was being said.
But look at verse 22.
There's a problem here.
And they said,
is not this Joseph's son?
Now we just finished,
well we just finished reading
about Jesus Christ being the son of God, all right?
Jesus Christ is God the son,
God manifest in the flesh, all right?
And they're saying, is this not Joseph's son?
Now look, you might think that's just an innocent question
because obviously he grew up in the household
of Joseph and Mary, okay?
But it's not just a curious question.
They're actually rejecting the Lord Jesus Christ
at this point, okay?
Jesus Christ affirms this in verse 23.
Look at verse 23.
And he said unto them,
ye will surely say unto me this proverb,
Physician, heal thyself,
whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum
do also here in this country.
And he said, verily I say unto you,
no prophet is accepted in his own country.
So what is he saying?
They're not just asking an innocent question.
They're actually not accepting him.
They're rejecting him.
They're rejecting the words that he said,
even though they're sort of amazed at his teaching,
at his fame, at the gracious words that he said.
They still rejected him, okay?
Because they're like, this is Jesus.
This is just Joseph's son.
We know him, we've grown up with him, okay?
Now what I find very interesting is in verse 23,
Jesus says, and he said unto them,
ye will surely say unto me this proverb.
So he's saying to the people in Nazareth,
he says, you're going to surely say this to me.
Think about the words.
Think about when do you think they said this to him?
Physician, heal thyself,
whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum
do also here in thy country.
What does that sound like?
Let anyone answer.
If you can think about it.
Mathias?
When he died on the cross, exactly.
Keep your finger there.
Go to Mark 15.
Mark 15 verse 29.
Mark 15 verse 29, the Bible says,
and they that passed by railed on him.
This is when Jesus Christ is on the cross,
wagging their heads.
And this is Jerusalem, by the way.
This is a long ways from Nazareth.
Saying, thou that destroys the temple
and buildest it in three days,
save thyself and come down from the cross.
Likewise, also the chief priests mocking
said among themselves with the scribes,
he saved others, himself he cannot save.
Hey, that's a lot like the parable
that Jesus says that they're going to say about him.
Physician, heal thyself.
Whatsoever we have heard done in Capernaum
do also in thy country.
We've heard that you're healing others.
Why don't you heal yourself, physician?
All right, so that's the mocking
that we see play out
at the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ,
which tells me that his own people from Nazareth
was there in Jerusalem,
mocking him as he died on the cross.
A lot of these people
just outright rejected Jesus Christ, all right?
Now, just say one thing in Luke 4 24.
And he said, verily I say unto you,
no prophet is accepted in his own country.
You know, one of the reasons why
I'm on the Sunshine Coast and not in Sydney,
is because this verse,
as I was thinking about becoming a pastor,
this verse just rang into my mind, right?
No prophet is accepted in his own country.
I was born and raised in Sydney.
And as I read this, I thought, man,
I need to get out of Sydney then, right?
I need to find somewhere else to go.
Now, I'm not saying that's a principle for everybody,
but I'm just saying that's part of the reason
why I'm up here on the Sunshine Coast.
But for whatever reason,
the Lord led me to start a satellite church
in Sydney as well.
So that's interesting in of itself.
Verse 25, Luke 4 25.
But I tell you a truth,
many widows were in Israel
in the days of Elias.
That's Elijah, by the way,
when the heaven was shut up
three years and six months,
when great famine was throughout all the land,
but unto none of them was Elias sent,
save unto Sarepta, a city of Zion,
unto a woman that was a widow.
So we won't go into it now, guys,
but you may know of the Old Testament story
of a famine in the land of Israel,
which I think was three years and six months,
three and a half years from memory.
I might be a little bit wrong on that.
I'm pretty sure that's right.
But hey, it was a time of famine.
I mean, just going through one season of famine
is tough enough.
Imagine three and a half years of famine, all right?
People were dying of hunger
and he finds this widow and her son.
And if you remember, Elijah does a great miracle
and he multiplies the food
and he multiplies the oil for the woman, okay?
But here's the lesson.
She received Elijah
and through the power of God,
he was able to provide for her needs.
Okay?
And for those that are ready to receive
the Lord Jesus Christ,
he's going to come there and bless them,
forgive them, save them,
and provide their needs.
All right?
We have two groups of people here.
And by the way, she's a Gentile.
She's not an Israelite woman.
Okay?
Elijah, in the same way,
was rejected by his own people.
Hey, they had a prophet of God in their midst.
You'd think if you're going through famine,
you'd go to the man of God and ask for some help.
Okay?
And they didn't do that.
Instead, we have a widow woman,
a Gentile woman,
that was blessed by the preaching
and work of Elijah.
All right?
Same thing with Jesus.
Jesus is comparing himself to Elijah here.
And then verse 27, Luke 4-27.
And many lepers were in Israel
in the time of Elishias, the prophet.
That's Elisha.
And none of them were cleansed,
saving Naaman, the Syrian.
Another Gentile, a Syrian, Naaman.
You may know the story
where Elisha told Naaman to go
and bathe himself in the Jordan River
seven times
and then he'd be cleansed from his leprosy.
We weren't going to that story right now.
But again, there were many lepers
in that time in Israel.
Many of them could have come to Elisha for help.
But they rejected the man of God.
Instead, we have the Gentiles being blessed.
Okay?
What's the lesson?
If Jesus Christ is comparing himself
to these two prophets, what's the lesson?
That his own people would reject him.
Okay?
And yeah, many Israelites were saved.
Don't get me wrong.
Many, many Jews were saved
in the ministry of Christ.
But by and large,
the nation as a whole
rejected the Lord Jesus Christ
and crucified him to the cross.
Hey, but the Gentiles,
most of us are Gentiles, right?
I mean, I think we're all Gentiles.
Okay?
We have the blessing.
Okay?
Of receiving the Lord Jesus Christ.
But look, it's no different
regardless of your race,
regardless of your background ethnicity.
There are people out there
ready to receive the word of God,
ready to receive you
as a prophet, if you will.
Okay?
With the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
And then there are those that are
not going to receive you.
They're going to reject you.
So what?
You move on.
You go on to those that are ready
to receive the word of God.
Don't be discouraged
when people don't receive you.
Don't be discouraged
when they say they're not interested.
Just move on.
We see the same thing
happen to Jesus Christ.
Why do you think
it's going to be better for you?
All right?
It's the same thing
that happened to Jesus Christ.
The people rejected him.
Verse 28.
Verse 28, Luke 4 28.
And all they in the synagogue,
when they had heard these things,
were filled with wrath,
and rose up and thrust him out of the city,
and led him into the bro of the hill,
wherein the city was built,
that they might cast him down headlong.
This is the first attempt
we read about the trying to kill
Jesus Christ before his time.
And verse 30.
But he passing through the midst of them
went his way.
I believe that's a miracle.
I believe somehow,
I don't know how,
maybe he made himself invisible
or intangible
or blinded their eyes somehow.
But Jesus Christ was able to pass
through their midst safely.
All right?
It wasn't his time to die.
Verse 31.
And came down to Capernaum,
a city of Galilee,
and taught them on the Sabbath days.
And they were astonished at his doctrine,
for the word was with power.
Now notice the next things.
So Jesus Christ is just gone.
He's moved on
unto other synagogues,
teaching the word of God.
And let's just use the synagogue here
as a about church.
You know, like I said,
it's sort of like a church back then.
All right?
But what do we find in the synagogue?
What do we find in the church?
And in the synagogue,
there was a man
which had a spirit of an unclean devil
and cried out with a loud voice.
Hey, look,
where was this possessed man?
It was a church.
He was with God's people
hearing the preaching of God's word.
Look, don't assume.
Look, thank God for this church.
I thank God for New Life Baptist Church.
You know, I don't think
any of you are a devil, right?
But one day, one day,
we may very well have somebody
that comes in here
with an unclean spirit.
Hey, one day,
you may move on in life
and be part of some other church.
You need to be aware
that maybe everybody around you
is not a brother in Christ.
They could very well be possessed
by an unclean spirit.
All right?
Verse 34.
Saying,
Let us alone.
This is what the devil said.
Let us alone.
What have we to do with thee,
thou Jesus of Nazareth?
Art thou come to destroy us?
I know thee who thou art,
the Holy One of God.
Hey, the devil's speaking truth.
The devil says,
you're the Holy One of God, right?
Verse 35.
And Jesus rebuked him,
saying, hold thy peace
and come out of him.
And when the devil had thrown him
in the midst,
he came out of him
and hurt him not.
Notice something about
the unclean spirit.
What does the unclean spirit do
to the man he was possessing?
He threw him in the midst.
What do we see
in the Pentecostal churches?
Don't we see people
just falling on the floors,
having seizures,
doing crazy things,
and they're saying
they're fueled by the Holy Ghost?
Hey, you don't see the Holy Ghost
throwing people around.
All right?
In the Bible,
it's the unclean spirits.
It's the devils
that are trying to hurt people,
and we're trying to throw them
to the ground.
All right?
We've got to be careful
because we may have people
with unclean spirits
come in here
trying to do the same tricks,
okay, trying to do the same thing.
And let me just say
the Pentecostal charismatic movement
is full of devils,
full of unclean spirits.
Verse 36.
And they were all amazed
and spake among themselves,
saying, what a word is this?
For with authority and power
he commanded the unclean spirits
and they come out.
And the fame of him went out
into every place
in the country roundabout
and he arose out of the synagogue
and entered into Simon's house
and Simon's wife's mother
was taken with a great fever
and they besought him for her.
Now, just a couple of thoughts here.
Just very quickly,
and I've got a lot to cover here,
but let me just get through it.
Simon had,
Simon Peter had a mother-in-law.
All right?
He had a mother-in-law.
Praise God.
Which means
he was married, all right?
He had a wife, all right?
He had a mother-in-law
living there in his house
and she was sick, right?
Now, the Roman Catholic Church.
What do they teach?
What are their leaders taught not to do?
Their commander,
they're taught not to marry.
They're commanded to remain celibate, okay?
Now, I don't believe they're celibate at all, okay?
I believe the reason why
there's so much perversion,
so much homosexuality,
so much pedophilia in that church
is because they're not being celibate, okay?
And they're disobeying the Word of God
and they're burning with lust
and they end up becoming full reprobates
in that kind of church, okay?
But the reason I bring that up
is because they say
Peter was their first pope, okay?
They say Peter was their first pope
but we see in the Bible,
Simon Peter was married.
Now, let me just read to you
from 1 Timothy 4.1.
It says,
Now the Spirit speaketh expressly
that in the latter times
some shall depart from the faith,
giving heed to seducing spirits
and doctrines of devils.
What are some of these doctrines of devils?
Speaking lies in hypocrisy,
having their conscience
seared with a hot iron.
Verse 3,
Forbidding to marry.
Hey, this is a doctrine of the devil.
Forbidding people to marry.
That is what the Roman Catholic Church does.
That's why they're filled with reprobates.
That's why they're children of the devil
because they've taken on the doctrines of the devils
and commanded them to abstain from meats
which God had created to be received
with thanksgiving of them
which believe and know the truth.
So, vegans and vegetarians,
it's fine if you want that as your diet.
But if you're forcing people to do that,
that's a doctrine of the devil, okay?
That's doctrines of devils.
Now, just another passage.
Quickly, 1 Corinthians 9.5.
We already covered this
when we went through Corinthians
but just very quickly.
Paul is saying here,
Have we not power to lead about a sister,
a wife, as well as other apostles?
So, remember Paul himself was unmarried?
He says, look, I've got the power to take on a wife
as the other apostles.
And then, and as the brethren of the Lord and Cephas.
What's Cephas? Who's Cephas?
Peter.
So, we have Paul confirming
that Peter is married, okay?
So, we see this in two passages
that Peter definitely was married
but Paul and Barnabas were single
and were unmarried at this time.
Anyway, Luke 4 verse 39.
Luke 4 verse 39.
And he stood over her
and rebuked the fever
and it left her
and immediately she arose
and ministered unto them.
So, she's sick with a great fever.
Jesus heals her.
Immediately, she goes and serves him
and serves them.
She immediately goes and ministers.
Look, if someone's recovered from a sickness,
aren't you normally like,
hey, look, take it gentle,
you know, just rest, you know, recover.
Look, when Jesus Christ heals,
it's immediate.
It's done, all right?
Again, look at these Pentecostal churches, right?
They try to find somebody
that maybe can't walk.
I've seen videos of this.
They can't walk.
Say, all right, you don't need that,
you know, you don't need
those crutches anymore.
You know, the Lord rebuked
the sickness or whatever
and then they try to lift them up
on their feet.
And what are they doing?
They're walking gingerly.
All right, they're struggling
and they're like, praise God,
look at this great miracle.
No, look, if she can't get up
and start cooking and serving,
then it's not of God.
When God heals,
it's a complete healing, okay?
It's completely taken care of
and I believe this is a symbol
or symbolism of salvation.
Hey, we're all sick with sin.
We've all got that sinful nature in us, okay?
We're all dying with a fever,
if you will, okay?
But when Jesus Christ steps in
and we receive Him as our Savior in faith,
when He comes and He heals us,
He forgives us of our sin,
it's immediately, okay?
And what?
You can serve Him.
You can minister.
You can serve the Lord
as soon as you're saved.
Praise God, you can tell other people,
tell other families
about what Jesus Christ has done for you
and give them the same gospel, all right?
Verse 40, Luke 4-40.
Now when the sun was setting
and they that had any sick
with diverse diseases
brought them unto Him
and He laid His hands on every one of them
and healed them.
Every one of them, by the way.
Every one of them.
And the devils also came out of many,
crying out and saying,
Thou art Christ, the Son of God.
Look, you think these are good words
for the devils to be saying, right?
But look,
And He rebuking them,
suffered them not to speak,
for they knew that He was Christ.
Again, think about some churches.
Look, there are many, many churches
here on the Sunshine Coast.
Many churches, many preachers
will point to Jesus.
Many of them will say,
He's the Holy One of God.
Like we saw before.
Many of them will say,
Hey, this is the Son of God.
Hey, many false prophets,
many ministers of Satan
will speak the truth.
Hey, they don't have a problem
pointing you to Jesus.
But what they'll do is say,
if you want to receive salvation,
that's what they're working on, right?
They're going to tell you some false gospel.
They're going to say it's by works
or they're going to say it's by
repenting of your sins
or they're going to say it's by baptism
or they're going to say
you've got to receive the Holy Ghost
and speak in tongues
or they're going to say all these things.
Okay, they don't mind
pointing you to Jesus, okay?
Don't think just because
they mentioned Jesus that they're saved.
Don't think just because
they point to Jesus that they're your brother.
They may very well be possessed
by an unclean spirit.
We see even the unclean spirits
don't mind pointing you to Jesus, okay?
But what they want to do
is cloud the gospel.
They don't want you saved
these false prophets.
That's why they cloud the gospel.
They don't mind you knowing about Jesus.
I mean, we go out there,
preach the gospel.
People already know about Jesus, don't they?
But what don't they know?
How to receive eternal life,
which is through faith, all right?
Verse 42,
And when it was day,
He departed and went into a desert place,
and the people saw Him
and came unto Him
and stayed Him,
that He should not depart from them.
And He said unto them,
I must preach the kingdom of God
to other cities also,
for therefore am I sent.
And He preached in the synagogues of Galilee.
So we'll just leave it there.
We just see the heart of Jesus Christ.
You know, He heals everyone
that comes to Him, all right?
He takes out those unclean spirits.
But when He's done the business,
He says, look, I've got to move on
and find some other places
that need to hear the gospel.
That's why we're here on Sunshine Coast,
by the way.
This is our area.
We need to preach the gospel.
There are many towns in this area.
There are many little cities in this area.
Yes, we're focusing on Caloundra,
but eventually we need to spread out.
We need to start locking doors in other areas.
And we've already done some of that.
But we see the same thing with Jesus Christ.
He's interested in going from place to place
and not just staying in the one area
of preaching the gospel.
All right, let's pray.