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We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion We're marching upwards to Zion, the biblical city of God Like those real music sing, who never knew our God? The children of the hair we keep, the children of the hair we keep We speak their joys abroad, we speak their joys abroad We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion We're marching upwards to Zion, the biblical city of God Then let our songs about make every tear we try We're marching through the man's mouth, we're marching through the man's mouth We're marching to Zion, biblical, biblical Zion We're marching upwards to Zion, the beautiful city of God Saved by the blood of the crucified One, now ransomed from sin and a new word begun Sing praise to the Father and praise to the Son Stay, Lord of blood of the crucified Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing for all, for in my guilt is all God Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing by the blood of the crucified One Saved by the blood of the crucified One The angels rejoicing because it is done A child of the Father who knew the Son Saved by the blood of the crucified One Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing for all, for in my guilt is all God Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing by the blood of the crucified One Saved by the blood of the crucified One The Father who's faithful is willing, most done Pray praise to the Father and praise to the Son Stay, Lord of blood of the crucified One Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing for all, for in my guilt is all God Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing by the blood of the crucified One Saved by the blood of the crucified One All hail to the Father, all hail to the Son All hail to the Spirit, the great, great God Saved by the blood of the crucified One Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing for all, for in my guilt is all God Gloria, sing, Gloria, sing I sing for the blood of the crucified One I am told no longer to think they're charmed by the world's delight Things that are higher, things that are numbered, these have alert my sight I will listen to Him, praise Him so glad and free Jesus, greatest highest, I will come to Thee I am resolved to go to the Savior, leading my sin and strife He is the true one, He is the just one, He hath the words of life I will listen to Him, praise Him so glad and free Good evening everyone and welcome to Steadfast Baptist Church. If you could all find your seats we're going to go ahead and get started Once you've found a seat, go ahead and grab a hymnal. We're going to start in song number 427, We Three Kings of Orient Are, one of my favorite hymns 427, so I'll sing it out nice and festive tonight, 427, We Three Kings of Orient Are, sing it out nice and loud, on the first We Three Kings of Orient Are, bearing gifts we traverse afar, field and fountain, moor and mountain, following yonder star O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light Born a King on Bethlehem's plain, gold I bring to crown Him again, King forever ceasing, never over us all to reign O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light Frankincense to offer have I, incense owns a deity I, prayer and praising, amen, raising, worshiping God on high O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume, breathes alive from gathering gloom, storming, sighing, bleeding, dying, still in the stronghold too O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light All right, on this last verse we're going to slow it down, sing it out really loud, everybody ready? On the fifth Glorious now, behold Him arise, King and God with sacrifice Hallelujah, hallelujah, pearls through the earth and skies O star of wonder, star of night, star with royal beauty bright, westward leading, still proceeding, guide us to Thy perfect light Great singing everybody, let's go ahead and bow our heads for a word of prayer Heavenly Father, we thank you for this church, we thank you for everyone that's gathered here We ask Lord that you fill Pastor Shelley with your Holy Spirit, help him to preach an edifying sermon unto us and help us to take in this season so we can really show our love for you Lord in your precious name we pray, amen All right, next up we have song number 425, No Room in the Inn, song 425 Sing it out on the first No praises of gladness, no thought for their sin, no glory but sadness, no room in the inn No room, no room for Jesus, oh give Him welcome free, bless you should hear at heaven's gate, there is no room for Thee No sweet consecration, no seeking His part, no humiliation, no place in the heart No thought of the Savior, no sorrow for sin, no prayer for His favor, no room in the inn No room, no room for Jesus, oh give Him welcome free, bless you should hear at heaven's gate, there is no room for Thee No one to receive Him, no welcome while here, no balm to relieve Him, no staff but a spear, no seeking His treasure, no weeping for sin No doing His pleasure, no room in the inn, no room, no room for Jesus, oh give Him welcome free, bless you should hear at heaven's gate, there is no room for Thee Thank you for coming to Steadfast Baptist Church and if you didn't already get a bulletin you'd like one you can lift up your hand nice and high And on the Bible Memory passage I had given out prizes on Sunday night. Is anybody that did not get their prize but had completed this? Okay so I still have some prizes up here so if you completed Jonah chapter 2 and you did not get your prize you can come on down and I have a gift card over here that has your name on it so if that's you you can come on down and pick whichever one you'd like Got a couple different options over here and I'll try to make sure to have those out for Sunday morning too Alright thank you so much for those who participated we're also doing Matthew 28 and so if you can complete that entire chapter and preach it to a non-family member or recite it then you can also receive a prize for that as well So we'll go ahead and go through the rest of the announcements, those are service times, soul winning times, there was a little handout for the missionary update with Evangelist Urbanic and what he's doing in the Philippines And so if you want to read through that I highly encourage you he ends up giving us kind of a monthly update, they had 495 salvations for the month of November and 2800 so far for the year and so they're doing a really good job there in the Philippines Additionally we have our list of expecting ladies and then our prayer list, before I get to that let's just go on to the back so this Saturday is going to be our turkey bowl and so we're really looking forward to this Also this Friday is going to be our ladies Christmas party, I think that they were going to try and set up and do a little bit of decoration right after the service and so if you want to stick around you can maybe help with that We'll give people a chance to just fellowship for a little bit but then if you can help us we'd like to go ahead and get some of that stuff set up Also the caroling is going to be December 9th and I put in our group chat a location that we're going to be meeting at and 6pm as the time and I kind of had indicated if you were planning on going you could just thumbs up that particular note that I put there, that comment there and that'll let me know that you're planning on coming, that way I'll try to do my best of just having people already kind of grouped and who their leader is and who they'll be following and so hopefully by that Monday everybody will kind of have an idea of where they're going and who they're following and everything like that but we'll probably be going somewhere pretty close to our meetup spot If you didn't see that note you can go ahead and still comment in there, give me a thumbs up or if you're not in our group chat just come talk to me or my wife and we'll make sure to give you that information As far as caroling on the 9th, we usually go out for maybe about an hour or so so I'd anticipate maybe we wait about 15 minutes or so for everybody to show up and then we'll go out for about an hour My wife also had brought some bags and we were going to try and just have some of the ladies help make some Christmas cookies and put them just in a little bag So you can take as many as you'd like, 4, 5, 10, something like that and then in the bags you could just put maybe somewhere between 5, 7, 8 cookies, something like that Tie them up and then we'll just hand them out as we go and so if you'd like to participate you can just grab some of those bags and just cook, bake a few cookies and then we'll throw them in the bags and we'll just hand them out with a church invite As we go out caroling and it'll be just kind of a nice treat That's pretty much all I'm going to say on the caroling We have the Christmas cookie bake-off December 25th, that's going to be immediately following our service and it'll also be our candlelight service so I don't think I'd necessarily put that in the bulletin but that'll be a candlelight service that we have January 1st will be the men's preaching night and pizza so those are just some of the upcoming events that we have As far as the inside of our bulletin, we've been praying for the Naim for their grandmother, also the Carlson's mother, we've been praying for Ms. Miller's friend's mom and also another child that was from a work friend Been praying for the Scott's parents for cancer and nerve pain, been praying for the Garcia's daughter who's pregnant, also continue to pray for brother Tony and he's having some health issues and work stuff too He had recently lost his brother so he'll be in prayer for them Also we're praying for the Foley's and their travel, we've been praying for the brother Rich for his back Also been praying for brother Alex's work situation, we've been praying for the Warner's brother, brother Chalmer who's recovering from an injury Also Ms. Hernandez's grandmother's recovering from surgery, the Goodwin's were asking for prayer for Ms. Sarah who's having surgery and having some health complications Also praying for brother Nick for upcoming exams and work and then also Ms. Cindy was asking for a friend who apparently is very sick I guess it's a very serious illness, possibly even life threatening and so we're praying for them And then several church members that even mentioned and messaged me, their kids are sick and a lot of people have already been kind of sick but just asking for prayer for health for that So we'll go ahead and just pray for those who are mentioned here for our church family Thank you Heavenly Father so much for this church service and for this opportunity for us to be gathered here I pray that you please just bless all these ladies who are expecting, please help them with their children's development and give them a timely birth I pray that you just please help these church members and our friends and family that are struggling with cancer, with illness, with sickness, with severe health issues I pray that if possible please you could just give them life, give them just blessing, please give them a miracle, give them peace and give them comfort during their difficulty right now I pray that you just please help our church family, several that need help or blessing with their work or with their jobs, I pray that you just please help them right now I pray that you'd also help those who are trying to travel or need favor in their traveling, that you please bless them Please continue to bless our evangelist in the Philippines and all the work that he's doing out there And please help us to be a bright and shining light unto those that need to hear the gospel That this Christmas season that they would have, we'd have opportunity to preach the gospel and we'd have the boldness to do so and in Jesus' name we pray, Amen That's pretty much all I have as far as announcements so go ahead and sing our third song of the evening, Holy, Holy, Holy in our special handouts So if you have that, Holy, Holy, Holy Alright, that is Holy, Holy, Holy Sing it out on the first Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty Early in the morning Our song shall rise to thee Holy, Holy, Holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons Blessed and Trinity Holy, Holy, Holy Holy, Holy, Holy All the saints adore thee Casting down their golden crowns Around the glassy sea Cherubim and Seraphim Falling down before thee Which Word and Art and Evermore shall be Holy, Holy, Holy Though the darkness hide thee Though the eye of sinful man Thy glory may not see Holy, thou art holy There is none beside thee Perfect in power Love and glory to thee Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God Almighty All thy works shall praise thy name In earth and sky and sea Holy, Holy, Holy Merciful and mighty God in three persons Blessed and Trinity Excellent singing, everyone. As the offering plays are going around, would you please turn your Bibles to Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. Matthew 4. The Bible reads, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward in hunger. And 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. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, for it is written, 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 a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again the devil taketh him up into 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 wilt fall down and worship me. 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. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee, and leaving Nazareth he came and dwelleth in Capernaum, which is upon the sea-coast in the borders of Zebulun and Nephilim, that it might be fulfilled, which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, The land of Zebulun, and the land of Nephilim, by the way of the sea beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles, the people which sat in darkness saw a great light, and to them which sat in the region and the shadow of death light is sprung up. From that time Jesus began to preach and say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. And Jesus, walking by the sea of Galilee, saw two brethren, Simon called Peter, and Andrew his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. And they straightway left their nets and followed him. And going on from thence he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee, and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father, mending their nets, and he called them. And they immediately left the ship and their father, and followed him. And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. And his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers, diseases, and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And there followed him great multitudes of people from Galilee, and from Decapolis, and from Jerusalem, and from Judea, and from beyond Jordan. Let us pray. Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you for Matthew chapter 4, Lord. Thank you for this church. I just pray that you bless Pastor Shelley, fill him with your Holy Spirit, as he preaches your word unto us, and help us to receive your word into our hearts. And praise him in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Here in Matthew chapter number 4, we're following right after Jesus Christ's baptism, and we notice in verse 1, Then Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And what's really unique about the word of God and the Bible itself is just how many layers, and how much symbolism, and metaphors, and foreshadowing is in the scripture itself. And when we think about the Old Testament again, the New Testament is really in a lot of ways re-preaching the exact same things, telling the same type of stories, and teaching the exact same message. But perhaps the characters have evolved a little bit. They're more clear in the New Testament specifically. But in the Old Testament, if you think about the children of Israel in Egypt specifically, while they were in Egypt, they had to leave Egypt, and they passed through the Red Sea. Now the Bible tells us that that passing through the Red Sea was likened unto baptism, where they basically have water on both sides, and then they have the cloud overhead, and so they're kind of immersed in water, and that's like baptism. Then the children of Israel wander in the wilderness for 40 years. And it's no coincidence, in fact it's very purposeful, that the Lord Jesus Christ, he gets baptized, and then immediately following baptism, what happens? Then he wanders in the wilderness for 40 days. So you have that exact same number of 40. It's 40 years for the children of Israel. It's 40 days for the Lord Jesus Christ. And there's a direct parallel to that story, that whole book of the Bible, plus all of those chapters, along with the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're going to look at that as we go through, but I kind of want to get you up to speed. Now, there's many things that that pictures as well. It also just pictures the Christian life, in the sense that, when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that was like the Passover. We had that blood sprinkled on the doorpost, and you're saved by faith, just like they had the blood sprinkled on the door, and they were passed over by the death angel. We've been passed from death unto life. Then the next step of obedience is to get baptized, just like they got out of Egypt was a picture of the world, saying they don't want to continue living the same way. They want to walk in newness of life. And that's the picture of baptism, that you walk through the Red Sea, and now you're going into what we call the wilderness, which is really just Christian life until you go to heaven. The promised land is heaven, and specifically the wilderness is essentially your time left here on earth, and you're going through all the temptations and trials that the world has for us. Of course, this is also something that literally happened. And then again, the Lord Jesus Christ is foreshadowing many of the things that he was going to do specifically. So I want you to kind of understand all these different parallels and layers exist, but we're kind of focusing in on how Jesus Christ also parallels with that story and example that we have here. Now, it says in verse 2, And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward and hungered. I would be pretty hungry too. That's a long time to fast. In fact, I don't even know if it's medically safe for very many people to actually fast for that long. I think a lot of people that fasted this long may actually die, and so this is not like a recommendation, try this at home. No, Jesus Christ must have been very healthy, because if he was not very healthy and in very good shape, there's probably no way he could have even physically done this, have fasted for forty days and forty nights, and been able to survive such extreme and harsh conditions. But obviously, he's extremely hungry at this point. He's very vulnerable at this particular point. You could argue that the flesh is going to be at its weakest at this particular point, and then what happens? And when the tempter came to him. Notice that the devil loves to come and attack you when you're at your most vulnerable, your most susceptible, at your weakest moment. We often think of the devil tempting us all the time, and of course in a sense he does, but he really comes after you hard when you're in your weakest moments. He really tries to go after that one sheep when it's strayed a little bit away from the flock, or when it's by itself, or when mom and dad aren't around, or your good friends aren't around, you have bad friends around. And so you have to understand that the devil loves to strike when you put yourself in vulnerable situations, or by happenstance you find yourself in a circumstance, maybe no fault of your own, that you're very weak. And so you have to be very careful that when you're in weak moments that you don't undermine the aspect that the devil may come and attack you in that moment. The devil loves to attack. And it seemed like even for our church as a whole, as a conglomerate, there were times when we were a little bit weaker, maybe we had a little bit more issue, maybe we're in precarious situations, we don't have a building, or we don't have as much money, or we have all these finances. And then the devil just pours it on in those moments. He tries to make it even harder, bring and unleash everything he's got in those moments, because he just really wants to get you to fall, destroy yourself, make a bad decision. And so sometimes when you're going through a difficult spot, the devil's going to come even harder when you're in a difficult spot. He's not waiting for you to be strong and ready. He's waiting for you to be a little bit vulnerable, and that's when he's going to attack. That's when he's going to come after you hard. And so you always have to be aware of the fact that maybe if you're going through a hard time, that might be a time when you might get really attacked by the devil. And he might come after you like he did the Lord Jesus Christ. And so whenever you do find yourself in a weak and vulnerable time, that's a time to press even more into church, the things of God, rely on brethren and other things like that, rely on the Scriptures to get you through the hard times. And that's, of course, what the Lord Jesus Christ does, is when the tempter comes, he rebukes him over and over with Scripture. Notice, when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. What is the devil doing? He's questioning his authority. He's questioning his identity. He's questioning who he is. And the devil will do this to everyone, but he especially does it to Jesus Christ himself here. This is the main thing that he's kind of trying to attack Jesus with. He's like, Well, if you're really the Son of God, won't you do these things? And that's kind of like his premise for each one of these temptations that he's bringing up. And, you know, I can't necessarily understand all the motivations of the devil, but I think sometimes it's also he's trying to appeal to pride. Because, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he doesn't necessarily want to be attacked for not being the Son of God. No one wants to be attacked for not really being who they are. People want to show off that they really are who they are and that their word is valid. And so it could kind of get at your pride when someone's attacking you for who you are. And so we have to sometimes just, you know, realize that the devil would love to use pride to motivate us and provoke us into making a bad decision. But he's trying to provoke Jesus Christ into making stones into bread. Obviously, he wouldn't have said this if he couldn't have done it. Obviously, the Lord Jesus Christ has the ability to do such a thing, yet he doesn't have to. He can rely upon God and God's word. It says here in verse 4, 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. So Jesus Christ appeals to Scripture to answer the question of the devil. And he's saying more important than bread is the word of God. Now, talk about a great time for the devil to tempt Jesus, excuse me, with food is when he's fasted for 40 days and 40 nights. So here's another thing. The devil's not stupid. Of all the things the devil could tempt him with, what's the thing he's going to tempt him with? Probably the most tempting thing. If you've not eaten for 40 days and 40 nights, what's going to be probably the biggest temptation? Eating food. So of course, the devil's going to then bring food up to the table and be like, Hey, why don't you make yourself some food here? I'm sure you're pretty hungry. And so you have to understand, whatever is the most tempting thing for you, the devil's going to probably try to bring your way. And again, it's going to be different for all of us because we probably all have our own issues, whether that be pride, gossip, lust, consumerism, covetousness, whatever it is, foolish thoughts, maybe it's drugs, maybe it's alcohol. I mean, for me, if some bozo just came up to me and was like, Hey, you want some LSD? I'm really not going to be that tempted. But someone that's gone down that path or gone down that road, that could be an extreme temptation for that particular individual. And what we have to understand is, many times the devil knows what he's doing. He's going to bring to you what you are most tempted with. And so you have to be careful and guard yourself because the devil is not playing around. The devil is smart. The devil is cunning. And he knows how to tempt people. And he's going to bring the fire. He's going to bring the main thing that you're going to struggle with, your main problem. And he's going to try and get you to go against the God. I mean, think about Job. The devil was considering, like, what can I do to Job that's going to be the most effective? And he's thinking, like, let's take out his kids. Let's take out his money. And then he's like, OK, yeah, but for sure he's going to curse you if you take his health. He knew, like, exactly where to hit him. He knew where it hurt. He knew how to get him to be tempted in the most extreme way possible. And so the devil knows what he's doing, folks. And wherever you're vulnerable, you need to be careful. And you need to take the shield of faith. You need to take the scripture. You need to take the Word of God. And you need to prepare your hearts for the areas where you're the most vulnerable, you're the most weak. You have the biggest areas of temptation because the devil will bring that temptation to you. The devil is most likely not going to just tempt you with things that you aren't even that interested in anyways. He's going to bring things to you that you are tempted in, that are a struggle for you, that are real, and so you have to get some scripture, get some of the Word of God into your heart and mind so that you know how to combat such a situation. Now, he fails here. He offers him pleasure. I mean, that's what food is. Food is pleasure. And the Lord Jesus Christ rejects it. He sticks with the Word of God. Verse 5, Another thing we learn here is the devil does not take no for an answer immediately. He is rebuked by the Word of God, but then he tries again. And he tries in another way. Again, notice again, it's still appealing to pride. Hey, if you're really the son of God, can't you do these things? Couldn't you just throw yourself off of a building and God would make sure to take care of you? Because if you're the son of God, I mean, he's going to take care of you. But what is that doing? It's kind of testing God. It's tempting God. And it's not a fair temptation because nowhere in the Bible does it say try to kill yourself and God's going to prevent you from killing yourself. The Bible is basically saying when accidents happen, when chance happens, when an enemy attacks, God will deliver you. But he does not say, hey, try to kill yourself and I'll make sure to deliver you. And so that would be an unfair temptation. That would be a twisting of scripture. Notice also that the devil is quoting the Bible. And, you know, he's not even quoting like the NIV. He's not even quoting like the ESV. He's quoting the Word of God. He's quoting what the Bible says. He's not taking the words and turning them into something completely different. He is using the Word of God, but he is taking it out of context. And that's what the devil really does because he's very cunning. The devil loves to take the Word of God and twist the context and pervert the context and to apply it incorrectly. This is what he happens with Job's three friends. This happens with Elihu. This happens with the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the scribes. He's constantly twisting things out of context. Twisting the Sabbath out of context. Twisting Job's situation out of context. Saying, Job must be a wicked person. Look at his lifestyle. Look at his circumstance. Look at him losing his children. Has to be a bad person. And they're not understanding the Bible. They're thinking only good people live a long time. And bad people get what's coming to them. But then Job's constantly rebuking them saying, then why are all these wicked people living such a long life? And why is it that, you know, many good people sometimes have to suffer? And if I'm such a bad guy, point out my fault. And you can't point out my fault. And so we can't always necessarily understand things through circumstance. We have to understand them through the Scripture. But it also has to fit in the context of the Scripture. That's why it's so important that we read, when we read these chapters, we're reading the whole chapter. We're trying to understand exactly what's being mentioned in all of the passage. Not just taking one verse and just running with it. And many times people have false doctrine just simply because they didn't even just read the few verses surrounding the particular verse that they're basing their thought on. You know, we need to make sure we're basing our Scriptures and thoughts and doctrines on context. What does context mean? With text. It's just other verses. It's just like, hey, what is the, you know, people say like, oh, it's impossible to understand the Bible because everybody has their own interpretation. No, there's just some people that just ignore the context and then there's some people that just read the context. And if you just read the Bible, if you just read what it says, many times you're going to come to the right interpretation, the right conclusion, especially when you're saved. It's that when you just start cherry picking a verse or a phrase out and just coming to it with your own ideas and perception, that's when you can start getting wild ideas and crazy ideas. So we want to make sure that we're not just reading a random verse that says like, hey, he gives his angels charge concerning me. Let's just jump off buildings. No, that's not really what the Bible is saying there. There is no context like that. When Saul went to fall on his sword, notice no angels caught him. Notice when Samson pushed over the pillars, no angels caught the aspects of the building and caught the pillars from coming down and crashing on him and stopping him from dying. So if you read the stories, you read the context, you realize the Bible does not say when you try to kill yourself, God's just going to always prevent that or always stop you from doing so. Never try to kill yourself. And I will never do that. So if anybody ever reports that, it's a lie. I wouldn't do such a thing. I guess you could say the only real strong temptation for anybody is when they're being literally tortured. But according to Hebrews 11, many people wouldn't even allow themselves to receive any kind of mercy in a tortured situation. Hopefully I would have that bravery. I don't know. But I'm not going to kill myself. That's definitely not going to happen. But here in this passage, we have Jesus being tempted with this, and he's saying, let's not tempt the Lord thy God. He uses scripture. Verse 8, again, the devil taketh him up into a high exceeding mountain and show them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and saith unto them, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. 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. So initially the devil offers him pleasure, and the Lord Jesus Christ rebukes him with scripture. Then he offers him protection, and he rebukes him with scripture. And then thirdly, he offers him here power, and he rebukes him with scripture. And this is a lot of what the unsaved want, or would try to get from the devil, is they try to get pleasure from the devil, they try to get protection from the devil, and they try to get power from the devil. But you know what? The only true pleasure, protection, and power comes from God. And that's why we should look to the scripture. Notice also, how do you combat false teaching? With the Bible. That's why, again, think about it. Jesus is giving context. Every time the devil's giving some idea, he's like, no, here's what the Bible's saying. When we want to combat false doctrine, we don't use logic, we don't use reasoning, we don't use commentaries, we don't use church fathers, we use scripture. It is written. If you want to combat an idea, if you want to prove something right or wrong, it is written, is what you need to say. Not, well, did you see what John Wesley said? Or do you know what St. Augustine said? I don't even know that he's a saint, number one. But I do know what the authors of the Bible said, because they were under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, and I know that that's true, and that's right, and we should base our verses and what we think on what God said. Here's another really important point that's kind of a nuance, and I want you to make sure you're understanding. Not only did the Lord Jesus Christ quote scripture, but he quoted scripture that's coming from God. He's not quoting scripture that came from Elihu. He's not quoting scripture in a vague story. He's not quoting a parable. He's quoting, like, clear statements that came from God the Father. He's, like, quoting what God said in direct, clear statements, because, you know what, he bases his doctrine on clear statements from the Bible. He bases his doctrine on what the Father is saying. He's basing it on what the Word of God is saying, and he's not just on some vague story or parable or something like that. No, he's just getting right to the point. This is what God the Father said. This is what we're supposed to do. So we want to make sure we're doing such a thing, and we're only supposed to worship God. What does Hollywood and this world do? They seek after the pleasures of this world, the protection that this world has to offer, and the power that this world has to offer, and you know what? The Lord Jesus Christ did not do such a thing. He simply relied on those things coming from God, and they're real. Those are real temptations. I mean, a lot of people would like that, and a lot of people would like to have power and like to have pleasure and like to have protection, but you know what? The devil won't protect you anyways. Think about the devil's protection. Kill yourself, and God will prevent it. But how many people today are actually killing themselves because of demonic influence? I mean, how many people are taking Tide Pods or they're taking drugs or they're living a very dangerous lifestyle, and they end up dying as a result of doing what the devil led them to do? Because the devil would love for you to kill yourself. Why is it that when people are demon-possessed, they're throwing themselves in the fire? Because the devil comes about to steal, kill, and destroy. He just wants to devour people and destroy people. The true protection comes from honoring their father and their mother. You want to live a long life? You want to have God be pleased with you? Do what Mom and Dad said. And then continue to do what your Heavenly Father says, and you know what? That's how you're going to live long in the earth is by following your parents' commandments and by following your Heavenly Father's commandments. That's what causes you to live and have protection. He offers them food for pleasure. But, you know, while food has its pleasures and stuff like that, at the end of the day, I find that you're going to have more pleasure in general speaking by serving God than by not. And, you know, when I go... This is just me. This is a personal anecdote, all right? Personal anecdote. When I go to these restaurants, and I've gone very rarely, but when you go to these really fancy restaurants, the ones that these Hollywood elites and all these people like to go to, I find that it's not nearly as pleasurable as just, like, normal food. I'm thinking, like, it's like instead of just having, like, a nice, charcoal-grilled steak, it's like they try to put some weird sauce on it and, like, all this extra stuff, and I'm thinking, like, you can only make a steak so good. And then when they start putting all this weird stuff on it and this extra stuff and this fancy stuff, it's like, well, here's a duck that, you know, vomited on itself, and it's fatty liver, and we fried it, and you're like, it's foie gras, you know, and you're like, I don't even want this stuff, you know what I mean? It's like they're trying to go, like, over the top, and it ends up not even being that great anyways, or they start, this is a burger made out of cucumbers, you know, or soy or kale or whatever. You're like, ugh! I guarantee if I went to a Hollywood party, I wouldn't like the food as much as going to R&N Brisket, you know, R&N Barbecue or something, you know what I'm telling you? Like, I guarantee just, like, living godly and doing what God says, you're probably going to have better food anyways. Let's go to some of these places in the world that worship false gods. False religion never has better food. I'm never thinking, like, man, I'm really missing out on the Hindu party. I'm really missing out on the kosher Jewish party. No, I want a cheeseburger! No, I'm really missing out on this Indian tribe party, like, the Native Americans. No! Look, I'm telling you, Christianity's got the best food, folks. The devil wants to give you garbage food, garbage protection, and garbage power anyways. Because the devil wants you to have power and influence in places that I'm not even that interested in. You know what I'd rather have power and influence in? The church. I'd rather be a soul winner. I'd rather be a soul winning captain. I'd rather be, you know, playing in the orchestra. I'd rather be given the opportunity to preach behind God's pulpit. I'd rather have that place of authority than the authority this world is offering, the authority over all the criminal enterprise that's going on in America, and all the authority over all kinds of evil companies and evil businesses over the power and authority of Hollywood that's making all kinds of garbage and smut and filth. You know what? It's all garbage. It's a fake and a cheap substitute for the real pleasure, the real protection, and the real power that God offers. And you know what? Nuts to the devil and what he offers. It's fake and it's not real. It's not worth it. Don't seek this world's pleasure. It's not worth anything. But what's also awesome about this story is not only just the surface level, just not only what it's just kind of saying right here, is the symbology, the metaphors that are being brought out in the text. Now, I want to go to a lot of places in the Old Testament, so you're going to keep your finger here. Go to Deuteronomy 1. I want to read a lot of some Old Testament passages here and talk about what just happened with the Lord Jesus Christ because this is kind of an incredible imagery that we're getting here in this particular chapter of the Bible. But all of these characters of the Old Testament are foreshadowing and picturing this event that we just talked about in really cool and unique ways. Now, Deuteronomy 1 brings up a concept that's important here for us to understand. Look at verse 32. Yet in this thing, ye did not believe the Lord your God. This is God and Moses talking to the children of Israel as a whole. Who went in the way before you to search you out a place to pitch your tents in in fire by night to show you by what way you should go and in a cloud by day. And the Lord heard the voice of your words and was wroth and swear saying, Surely there shall not one of these men of this evil generation see that good land which I swear to give unto your fathers. Save Caleb the son of Jethuni. He shall see it and to him will I give the land that he hath trodden upon and to his children because he hath wholly followed the Lord. So we have, let's keep reading. I want to read the two more verses. Also the Lord is angry with me for your sakes as Moses is talking saying thou also shall not go in thither. But Joshua the son of Nun which standeth before thee he shall go in thither. Encourage him for he shall cause Israel to inherit it. So if the children of Israel as a whole that entire generation is rejected none of them are allowed to enter in the promised land. Moses himself is not allowed to enter the promised land. Caleb is allowed to enter the promised land and Joshua is able to enter the promised land. What is this picture? Well the children of Israel pictures us. It pictures man. Man cannot enter the promised land because we've all come short of the glory of God. We cannot get there. Why? Because we have sinned and come short of the glory of God we fall short of that and so we're incapable of getting to the promised land on our own. Moses cannot enter the promised land because he pictures the law and the law also cannot get you into the promised land. You cannot be saved, you cannot go to heaven by the law and by repenting of your sins. Neither are capable of ever getting you in. Now that leaves us with two characters that do get in Caleb and Joshua. Joshua, his name literally is Jesus and he pictures Jesus. And notice in verse 38 he's the one which is going to cause everybody to inherit. Joshua's the one that gives us an inheritance. So Joshua foreshadows and pictures how Jesus is going to go into the promised land and he is going to give us that inheritance. And so we get the salvation through Jesus Christ. We also get the inheritance of the land through the Lord Jesus Christ. Which brings us another character which is interesting is Caleb. Why in the world does Caleb get to go in there? Well Caleb, notice, is the son of Jephunneh but specifically Caleb is a Kenizzite. Now for sake of time I'm not going to go to all the verses on that but the Bible makes it clear that Caleb is a Kenizzite. Meaning he is not of the lineage of the children of Israel. He is a Canaanite. He is a Gentile in a sense. He's a heathen. Now why in the world would all of the children of Israel not get in and then a Canaanite get in? Well it's called replacement theology buddy. So even Caleb gets to picture how he's going to come in and he's going to get to inherit the promised land whereas all of these unsaved in a kind of a picture all these unsaved Jews are going to be rejected and not get in because they didn't trust in the Lord. Why did Caleb get to go into the promised land? Because he trusted the Lord would deliver them into the hands of the giants. They were going to enter into the land of the promised land but they thought they couldn't enter in because they're too small they're not capable and they brought up the ten spies brought up an evil report. Caleb and Joshua bring up a good report and of course what does Caleb picture? He pictures the person that actually trusts in God and actually puts his faith in God to give him salvation and deliverance whereas they picture them trusting in themselves and yeah trusting in yourselves will never get you into the promised land but trusting in God he will deliver you and bring you to the promised land and that's why they were replaced by Caleb. That's why they were replaced by the Gentiles. That's why they were replaced by the next generation. And you know what? That's a picture of how in the gospel this entire generation is going to be replaced by Joshua and Caleb. Joshua and Caleb. And who is Joshua? Again it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Now here's the thing. Joshua also goes through this entire temptation of the wilderness and then enters in the promised land. Just like Jesus Christ went through that wilderness temptation and was successful. Man failed, Jesus succeeded. Now what's interesting is all the three temptations. Go to Numbers chapter 11. Go to Numbers chapter 11. What was the first temptation? Food. The first temptation was food and we see that the Lord Jesus Christ was able to succeed in this whereas the children of Israel when they were tempted with food what happened? They failed. They failed with the manna specifically. It was very interesting what Jesus Christ brought up that man should not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Well Numbers chapter 11 explains to us why God did that. Look at Numbers chapter 11 verse 4. And the mixed multitude that was among them fell alusting and the children of Israel also wept again and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat? Remember the fish which we did eat in Egypt freely, the cucumbers and the melons and the leeks and the onions and the garlic. But now our soul is dried away. There is nothing at all besides this manna before our eyes. So what is it? They despise the manna. They don't want the manna. What does the manna represent? The word of God. The scripture. They're like, Oh, we don't want just the word of God. We want this other. Now look at verse number 20. It says, But even a whole month until it come out your nostrils, this is God saying, I'll give you what you wanted. And it be loathsome unto you, because that ye have despised the Lord, which is among you, and have wept before him, saying, Why came me forth out of Egypt? So here's the thing. They despise the manna that God gave them. Instead of living by the manna, they despise the manna and reject the manna and want the cucumbers and the garlic and the melons just in the same way that the children of Israel spiritually, what it's saying is they're rejecting the word of God and despising the word of God and not living by the word of God. And so they failed that temptation. The Bible makes it clear that God gave them that to prove whether they would live by the word of God or whether they would basically fall by the wayside. So the manna was a spiritual picture of the word of God, them reading the word of God, living by the word of God, but they rejected the word of God, despised the word of God, and therefore they failed. Whereas Jesus, he did live by the word of God, and he overcame the devil with the word of God. Go to Numbers chapter 14. Numbers chapter 14, look at verse 21. So the first temptation, the children of Israel failed with the manna. Jesus succeeded with the word of God. The second temptation, he is offering them protection and he's kind of tempting them. But look what it says in Numbers chapter 14, verse 21. But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord, because all those men which have seen my glory and my miracles, which I did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and have tempted me now these ten times, and have not hearkened to my voice, surely they shall not see the land which I swear unto their fathers, neither shall any of them that provoked me see it, but my servant Caleb, because he hath another spirit with him, and hath followed me fully, him will I bring in the land whereinto he went, and his seed shall possess it. So the devil's trying to get Jesus to tempt the Lord. Jesus says, I'm not going to tempt the Lord. The children of Israel, they tempted the Lord ten times. So they're constantly tempting the Lord. So they constantly are failing, whereas Jesus Christ succeeded. So in the wilderness, they're supposed to live by the bread alone. They don't want it. Jesus lives by bread alone. They're tempting the Lord. Jesus will not tempt the Lord. Then what was the third? Go if you would to, I want to go to Acts chapter 7 actually for this one. But they were supposed to worship only the Lord, and they failed, whereas Jesus Christ only worshiped the Lord and only worshiped God. Now Acts chapter 7 actually gives us a good commentary on what had happened with the children of Israel in this particular point. But we can see all kinds of examples. I just like how Acts just kind of wraps it up in a bow for us. But obviously the golden calf, that was an epic fail. When they asked Aaron to fashion them a golden calf, that was a clear violation of worshiping only the Lord their God. And in Acts chapter 7, it explains this to us. Look at verse 37. This is that Moses, which said unto the children of Israel, Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren. Like unto me, him shall ye hear. This is he that was in the church in the wilderness, with the angel which spake to him in the Mount Sinai, and with our fathers, who received the lively oracles to give unto us, to whom our fathers would not obey, but thrust him from them, and in their hearts turned back again into Egypt, saying unto Aaron, Make us gods to go before us. For as for this Moses which brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we woe not what has become of him. And they made a calf in those days, and offered sacrifice unto the idol, and rejoiced in the works of their own hands. Then God turned and gave them up to worship the host of heaven, as is written in the book of the prophets, O Yahweh of Israel, have you offered to me slain beasts and sacrifices by the space of forty years in the wilderness? Yea, ye took up the tabernacle of Moloch, and the star of your god, Remphan, figures which he made to worship them, and I will carry you away beyond Babylon. So the children of Israel, the devil's coming and tempting them. He's tempting them with something other than the manna from heaven, the word of God, and you know what? They failed. But when he comes to Jesus, Jesus succeeds. He offers them options to constantly tempt the Lord and detest the Lord. And the children of Israel always are tempting the Lord ten times. Jesus Christ never tempts the Lord. The devil comes and offers them false gods and false religion to worship. The children of Israel fail and worship the false gods, but the Lord Jesus Christ says, I'm going to only worship the Lord, and him only shalt thou serve. And so we see that this is a picture of how man fails. Man is not capable of succeeding here, whereas only one could, and that was the Lord Jesus Christ, who went through all of those temptations, went through all of those same battles, and yet was victorious and overcame the devil, just like Joshua is going to now enter in the Promised Land, and we get that salvation and inheritance through him. We'll go back to Matthew chapter number four. Incredible layers of the Bible. It's incredible how the book of Matthew is just constantly reiterating all of the Old Testament, all of the stories, all of the pictures, all of the foreshadowing, how it's all about the Lord Jesus Christ, and bringing it all together in just a cohesive narrative, and showing how when man failed, Jesus Christ succeeded and gave us that victory and gave us that salvation. So we have him getting baptized. Then we have him going through this temptation in the wilderness. And what I don't know, and I can't fully understand, is kind of the chicken and the egg. Did all of those events happen because Jesus was going to go through them? Or did Jesus go through all these because they happened? I don't know. But somehow God, in his divine wisdom, had already ordained all of these events to transpire exactly how his life would be, and how when you study the children of Israel, they're journeying in all the different stories how it has exactly everything to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. It wasn't just accidental. It's not coincidental. It's kind of like, why do we just have this random story? Why are we jumping to this one? But it's all exactly what's going on with Jesus, and it jumps around pretty much in the exact same way and manner. Why? Because everything's about the Gospel. They had the book of Matthew in a weird way. It was just a lot longer. He had to read a lot more to get through the book of Matthew. You know, we just read through, in just a handful of verses, their whole temptation in the wilderness in a sense, whereas you read in the Old Testament, I mean, it's just Exodus. Then you've got Leviticus. Then you've got Numbers. Then you've got Deuteronomy. You've got a second time. You're kind of sitting here thinking, like, why did I have to read all that? But there was a specific meaning, and God wanted to get all the information deep in your mind and heart so that you could make these really cool connections here with Matthew and the Lord Jesus Christ and what He would do. Now, as we keep reading, it says in verse 11, Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Notice that when you resist the devil, you can win. You can beat the devil. I want to actually go to that verse. Go to James 4. Let's just read it, because this is important. You will probably be weak. You'll probably be vulnerable at some point. The devil will come hard after you, and you say, well, what do I do? You resist the devil. Why? James 4, verse 7, Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. The devil has limited resources, limited time, limited knowledge, limited ability. He's not going to waste it on someone that's steadfast. Let me tell you something. It's important to be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, for as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. What you have to understand is that the devil will try to stop you. The devil will try to stop this church. The devil will come against you. You will have moments of your wilderness, but you know what? You stand fast. If you're steadfast, if you're unmovable, if you resist the devil, he will eventually have to flee and move on. Don't give in. That's the worst thing you can do. And this is what often happens in our minds and our hearts, is when we're being tempted, we're being tried, and we're going through difficulty, we feel like, I can't go through this the rest of my life. But it's almost never the rest of your life. I mean, think about Job himself. That could have felt like, man, this is going to be an eternity. But you know what? Eventually God delivered him. He didn't have the health issues anymore. He started having more kids again. And his life got better again. And many times we have this mentality or this idea like, where I'm at right now and the struggles that I'm having right now are going to be forever. But most of the time that's not even the case. Most of the time God can do all kinds of things that you didn't foresee, you didn't understand. He's just letting you go through a wilderness right now. I mean, the children of Israel, they went through the wilderness. They would have had gone for a couple weeks. But then they would have gone to the Promised Land. But instead of just resisting the devil and getting through that and going to the Promised Land, now they have to be in the wilderness for 40 years. And so often when we fail, we're going to put ourselves in way worse situations, way worse predicaments, than if we were just to resist the devil, stay on the same course, just keep going to church, just keep reading the Bible, just keep going soul winning, just keep following his commandments, just stick it out. You know, there's going to be areas of your life where you want to quit, you want to quit your job, you want to quit marriage, you want to quit raising kids, you want to quit going soul winning, you want to quit going to church, you get through some part of the Bible and you're like, you want to quit reading the Bible? And you just say, you know what, I'm just going to keep doing it though. And you finally get out of the Old Testament and you're back in the New Testament. You're like, oh sweet, all right, this is good, I like reading this. I love reading the New Testament. The Old Testament, there are sections of it that are hard. You know, and I think for a lot of us too, it's like Genesis is fun. You kind of get into Genesis with all these stories, it's kind of entertaining, and then it just really slows down. You're like, now I have the rest of the Old Testament or something. Now I have all these other parts that are a lot more difficult, maybe some of the hard meat stuff that's more difficult to chew. But you should also understand, you know, as a Christian, just like a baby can't necessarily handle all of the food that you could offer it, you can handle it later in life. And sometimes certain parts of the Bible, they're hard to chew, they're hard to get through, they're difficult, but later, or further down your journey, you're going to start enjoying those more. And in fact, you'll actually be kind of bored by the stuff you loved. It's like as a kid, you just love mac and cheese. I don't know, who in here likes mac and cheese? Who in here, oh yeah, you like mac and cheese. You know, as an adult, if it was like you're just going to have mac and cheese for every meal, you'd be kind of like, man, mac and cheese again? Whereas some of my kids, they want mac and cheese every meal, okay? They love that, but eventually you're kind of like, can't we get some steak or some chicken or some beef or, I want something, you know, to sink my teeth in, right? I want something a little bit more deep, dense, something more difficult. And that's kind of how it is with the Bible. You read it, and sometimes it's going to be, you know, at first it's going to be milk. You get that milk. Then it's going to be mac and cheese. And then it's going to graduate, you know, to something else. And then eventually, you know, you start getting the points where you want, I kind of want some steak. I kind of want some brisket. I want something a little, I want some beef jerky. You know, I want something that's going to actually take some effort and some energy to consume. And that's the importance of just reading your Bible over and over and over. You get different things out of it. But most important point, we need to resist the devil, and the only way we can do so is with the Bible. That's why we have to read it. You know, you're going to have hard times in your life. That's why we need the Bible. Why is there so many stories that are messed up, weird things, bad problems? Because if you live a Christian life, you'll have bad things, messed up stuff, problems, issues, severe temptations, trials, and that's where the Scriptures come to comfort you. And nothing can truly comfort you like the Bible. I think we all want a person to comfort us, but sometimes we have to realize that the only one that can truly comfort us is the Word of God. You know, I try to do my best to help people when they're going through difficulty, but the Bible's way better than me. We sometimes lean on our spouse, but honestly, the Bible's still better than even our spouse. And so we have to make sure that we're leaning upon Jesus when we go through difficulty, not on ourselves, not on our spouses, not on our pastor, but simply on the Word of God as our main source. David got to a point where everybody turned on him, and he had to strengthen himself in the Lord. The Apostle Paul had a point in time when all men turned away from him. At my first answer, no man stood with me, but the Lord stood with me and strengthened me. You know, sometimes we have to realize our only strength, power, encouragement can come from the Bible and the examples that we have here in the Scripture. We need to constantly rely on that and just realize that the devil can and will leave you. I say that because I've seen a lot of people go through difficulty, and then it was over, and it was just like, if they had known, it would have been a lot easier for them to know, hey, it's just a short duration. But sometimes it feels forever. I mean, I thought, we're going to be protesters in a church forever. But boy, we can't even get them out here. What do I need to say? You know, they ran away. They didn't realize what church they were protesting. It was steadfast, right? Look at verse 12. Keep your finger, go to Isaiah 9. We'll actually read that passage. But what is the Bible saying? This area that's extremely dark ends up seeing light. And this is a prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ going into areas that were very dark and bringing the gospel light with him. Now, this is mentioned in the book of Isaiah in chapter number 9. Look at verse 1. And, of course, then you skip down to verse 6. You have that great prophecy of the Lord Jesus Christ, for unto us a child is born. I kind of preached a little bit about this in another sermon maybe a few weeks ago. But the Lord Jesus Christ was foreshadowed with Meir Sheleh Hashbaaz, which was a child that was born as a sign that the Lord was with them. They were being afflicted as a nation. They're afraid they're going to be destroyed. And this child being born was a picture of like, hey, God's actually still with you. It's a sign of faith. Hey, we can trust that this child here being born is giving us light. Just like when the three wise men see, oh, this child being born, God has not forsaken Israel. God has not forsaken the Jews. God has not forsaken his people. No, there is a light, and we can trust in this child. We can trust in him as this light that's come. When the Lord Jesus Christ is going through these areas, you have to think about these areas historically. These areas historically have been very forsaken, very abandoned. God has often allowed them to be delivered unto the Assyrians, unto the heathen. I mean, Zebulun is not known as like the most righteous area, the most blessed area of the 12 tribes of Israel. It was kind of a more forgotten leftover. But God's wanting to say, no, no, no, I didn't forget about you all. I didn't forsake you all. And in fact, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to come unto you all, and he's going to preach the gospel unto you to be a sign that God has not abandoned you, that God has not forgotten you, that there is still some light, there is still some hope, and that hope comes through the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And for this world, there are so many people that are so black-pilled today. There are so many people that are so negative today, and they feel like the whole world's doomed. They see the writing on the wall. They can anticipate, man, this one-world government's coming down the pike. This cashless society is coming down the pike. The mandates of this evil, wicked swamp government and this Jewish conspiracy, it seems like it's going to take over, and there's no hope, and we're all doomed. But there is still light, and God is still with us, and that light is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And we are to go into the dark places of this world and bring that light with us and to give them hope, just like Zebulun and Nephthalim, and say, hey, here's the hope that we have. And the Lord Jesus Christ is that hope. You know what I really love about the Christmas season is when you go into neighborhoods and they have the Christmas lights up. And without Christmas lights, it's very dark. Many neighborhoods, it's very dark out there, especially when we were thinking about where to go Christmas caroling, when we were at Pure Words, and this was kind of one of the first years that we were there, and we were trying to find... I didn't know what areas to go and find, so I was just looking all over, right? And I enter into this one neighborhood, and the first street I turn down is just, like, dark. It's, like, super dark. And then I turn to the next, just dark, dark, dark. There's no lights anywhere. And then I'm thinking, like, this is weird. I've never been into an American neighborhood. There's just, like, nobody has Christmas lights anywhere. And then I finally saw one light, and it was a blue dreidel dancing on the house. And then I'm like, I think I know which neighborhood I'm in. And then I pass by this elementary school. It's called Harrod Elementary School. And boy, you know, you could tell, you know, as big as the nose is on certain people's face what kind of neighborhood you were in. And it was dark. You know, I like going into neighborhoods where there's the light because it pictures something. It's like how this world is in darkness, and yet this Christmas light comes out of nowhere to show that there's still some hope. And that is us with the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me tell you something. Those neighborhoods without the lights are ones without the gospel. There is no hope. The blue dreidel won't save you. You know what will save you? The light of the gospel. And it's the light that shines in the darkness, and the darkness doesn't comprehend it. But let me tell you something. Unsaved people don't understand the light that we have, but we do, and we walk in the light, and we live by the light, and we need to preach the gospel to a lost and dying world. We need to be like those Christmas lights that are shining out in these neighborhoods and getting people saved. It's a great picture of the gospel itself and how there's this little bit of light in the midst of darkness, in the sea of darkness, just like the gospel is that light that's shining in the sea in the midst of all kinds of darkness in this world. There's so many people that are so negative, and you know what? It's a sign that God still cares. God has not abandoned this world. God has not abandoned these people. God still loves the world. God still wants them to be saved, and we bringing that light is the evidence that God still cares. The gospel message is what is getting them saved, just like Jesus. Go back, if you would, to Matthew 4. Jesus showing up shows that God has not forgotten his people, that God still loves his people. He came unto his own, but his own received him not. And he cares about people so much that he was willing to reject his entire nation, his own nation and his own people, just so that he could replace them with a better nation to bring forth more fruit. Because if he had just stuck with Israel, less people would have gotten saved. If he didn't let the Apostle Paul go into the Gentile nations and unto the heathen, less people would have gotten saved. He rejected his nation so that more people could get saved. And just in the same way I had to reject his own son, he had to give up his own son so that people could be saved. He gives up on his own nation and his own child in the sense of the nation of Israel, so that we could be saved. And so we have to understand the love and the compassion that God has for us. It's not dark because of him, it's dark because of us. He's the one that's bringing the light. There is no darkness in him. There is no darkness with him. The darkness is us. And we have to accept that light, the light of the gospel, and that's what gets us saved, and that's what gets other people saved. Why do we do a candlelight service? Because we show how the gospel spreads. From one light to another. And how it spreads really quickly. You can have one light, and then just multitudes having that light, just from that same one light. And that's how the gospel, we preach from faith to faith, and that's how people get saved, and we spread that light. And if we want to light up this world, if we want this world not to be so dark anymore, we need to get more people saved. Verse 17, From that time Jesus began to preach and to say, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Not a coincidence that that's the next verse. What was the light that he was bringing to Zebulun? He was preaching repentance. Now what is that repentance? That repentance was to believe on Jesus Christ, and to be saved. And specifically the kingdom of heaven is at hand. What does that mean? It's close by. It's right here. All they had to do is believe in Jesus Christ, and they're entered into the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is not coming with observation. It's not something you see with your eyes. It's something that you experience by getting saved, and believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. And people were entered into that kingdom when they trusted in Jesus, and accepted the gospel. Keep your finger and go to Mark chapter 1. You notice that it says the exact same thing about the Lord Jesus Christ, and what he was preaching. Mark chapter 1 verse 14. Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye, and believe the gospel. What is the gospel? The death, burial, and resurrection. The Lord Jesus Christ was entering into towns, saying, I'm going to die on the cross. I'm going to be buried. I'm going to rise again from the dead. Change your mind, and believe in me. That's what he was saying, and people weren't getting it. And it's crazy because even today, how many people have heard the gospel, and are not saved? I think we just, we don't understand. It's the same. How many Catholics have heard that Jesus died on the cross, was buried, and rose again, and yet they're still trusting in their works? They still haven't repented. They still haven't put their faith in Jesus Christ. They haven't put their faith in the gospel. It still just goes over their head like it did all the children of Israel, how they just hear the gospel. Oh, that's cool. Oh, that's neat. Yet it's meaningless to them because they don't apply it by putting their faith in the gospel. They're still putting their faith in themselves. They're still trusting in themselves. Go over to Luke chapter 18. What is the entire message of the Bible? Don't trust in your works. Trust and faith in Jesus Christ. What is the whole message of the Bible? Cain wants you to believe in your works, salvation, and Abel is a picture of salvation by faith by putting your faith in the shed blood of the lamb, in that lamb sacrifice, and it's the same religion everywhere, whether it's Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Presbyterianism, trusting in their works, and works will never save you. Salvation has always been by faith, and the Bible always emphasizes believing the gospel is what paid for your sins, not your works. Jesus didn't need to show up for people to hear that they needed to stop sinning. They already had the law. They already had Moses. They already had repent of your sins. Repent of your sins was everywhere. You know what they didn't have is someone going around preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. That was the light that was showing up. That was the fire that was getting started. That was kicked off with John the Baptist preaching the repentance of people to believe on Jesus Christ because that light had almost gone out in the world. Very few people were getting saved because they were preaching repent of your sins for salvation, not salvation by faith. And specifically you can see in the Bible how consistently the people that were not saved, what were they trusting in? They were trusting in their works. Look at Luke chapter 18 verse 9. And he spake this parable unto a certain, notice this, which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. What is that called? Works salvation. Why is it that the Pharisees and the Sadducees died and went to hell? It's not because they were hypocrites. It's because they trusted in themselves to go to heaven. Because let me tell you something. Hypocrites that are saved still go to heaven. You know why hypocrites don't go to heaven? It's not because they're a hypocrite because we're all hypocrites on some level. It's because they trust in themselves in order to go to heaven. Now you have two different people here. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess. What is this guy trusting in him? He's trusting in himself. And let me explain something to you. The more sinful you are, the more likely you are to get saved. And why is it that the less sinful are less likely to get saved? Because everybody likes to play this comparison game and it's a dangerous game. They think that they're somehow righteous because they're better than other people. But the standard is not are you better than other people. The standard is God's law. And that's why Jesus is constantly pointing to the law to show the Pharisees and the Sadducees you guys are still wicked. You guys are still sinful. And you might be a little bit better than the harlot. You might be a little bit better than the publican. Maybe. But even if you are, it doesn't matter because you're still a sinner. And salvation is not by repenting of your sins or giving up your sins or trying to be righteous because there's none righteous. No, not one. And the Pharisees were trusting in themselves that they were righteous. And Jesus came preaching. No, no, no. You have to repent and believe the gospel. You have to put your faith in Jesus Christ. I'm the one that's going to pay for your sins. I'm the lamb that's going to sanctify you. I'm the blood that needs to be shed. You cannot get saved by repenting of your sins. But, of course, that's what the Pharisees believed. That's what the Sadducees believed. Why do you say that? Well, look, did you read verse 11? The Pharisee stood and prayed with him. It says the Pharisee. Now what does it say in verse 13? And the publican standing afar off would not lift up so much as his eyes in heaven but smote his breast saying, God be immersed in me a sinner. Did the publican say that he was going to quit sinning? No. No. Did he say he was going to get baptized? No. Did he say he was going to stop being a publican? No. What did he say? Be immersed in me. Meaning what? He was trusting in the Lord only, and that's a picture of salvation. When you're trusting in your works and yourself, that is you not being saved. And so when Jesus Christ went preaching, repent for the kingdom of God is at hand, he was not saying give up sin. He was saying believe in me. He was saying believe the gospel. He was saying trust in him for salvation. And most people were not willing to do that. They were trusting in themselves. Go if you would back. And what did they do? They crucified him. And you know what? The Catholics have no problem with that. The Catholics are the same people. The Catholics are the same people as the Jews that kill Jesus. You know why? They crucify him every single week with their stupid Eucharist. They love crucifying Jesus. Why? Because they believe in their works to get them into heaven, not in Jesus. And they can even be around Jesus the whole time and it still doesn't click. They still don't get it because they're too prideful to accept salvation by faith. And they think they're better than other people. We need to be humble and accept the free gift of salvation by faith and we need to show others that it's not by repenting of your sins. It's by repenting of your works. Repentance from dead works and a faith toward God is what the Bible says. And you can read some of these synoptic gospels and get a little confused if you aren't paying attention. But if you pay attention, it preaches salvation by faith in these passages too. There's no works in the Bible. Now it says in verse number 18, In Jesus walking by the Sea of Galilee saw two brethren, Simon, called Peter and Andrew his brother, casting a net in the sea, for they were fishers. And he saith unto them, Follow me and I will make you fishers of men. Notice that Jesus Christ wants you to follow him and he'll make you a fisherman. If you follow Jesus, you will catch men. That's why it's hard for me to think like there's these great preachers and great pastors out there that are reaching nobody. Because I'm thinking like, well that's not biblical. The Bible teaches the greatest disciples will be catching men. So if someone is not catching anybody, they're not a great disciple. I'm just telling you what Jesus said and I'm telling you what's consistent in the Bible. The greatest disciples of Jesus Christ are catching people. So this is what you should do. If you want to evaluate pastors and preachers, you should be thinking like, how many people are they catching? And when you notice people that are not catching hardly anybody, they're not building their church, they're basically reaching no one, or they're a net negative for the cause of Christ, I just know for a fact that they're not a good disciple. I don't like that because you're comparing, you're doing numbers or whatever. Yeah, but that's just how the Bible reads, buddy. The Bible says that if you follow Jesus, he'll make you a fisher of men. When you're not catching anybody, you're not following Jesus. And we should all constantly ask ourselves that. Hey, am I following Jesus? If you can never get someone saved out soul winning, are you really a great follower? Are you really a great disciple? Because I'll tell you something, the better disciple you are, the more people you'll be following, or catching, and they'll be following you, and following your example, and following what you're doing. Fishing is a great example of soul winning. What are you doing fishing? I'm not an expert fisherman, I've only been fishing a handful of times. You basically put the bait on the hook, cast your line, and you wait. And how do you catch a fish? They have to bite the bait, right? Now, if you cast really good bait, I mean, you could have great bait and put it out there, but if there's no fish in that area where you've cast your line, well, no one's gonna get saved. It's like going soul winning in the rich area, okay? And what does a fisherman do? A fisherman that's not catching anything, he moves on. He goes and finds where they're biting. And then he wants to go where the fish are biting so he can catch them. And he's also trying to go in areas where there's a lot of fish, right? I mean, if you wanna be a good fisherman, you're not gonna go in an area where they're not biting and there's not any fish. Because you could be the best at throwing that line, but nothing's gonna happen. So what does a good fisherman do? He tries to find where the fish are biting and he tries to go where there's a lot of them. Isn't that exactly what we do with soul winning? We try to find the receptive areas and we try to go to areas where there's lots of them. I mean, why in the world would we send an evangelist to the Philippines? Because let me tell you something. That's where the fish are biting and there's a lot of them. And he's doing a great job. You know, I know that Evangelist Urbanic is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Have you read our newsletter? 495 salvations. Have you read our newsletter? 2800 salvations for the year. Not only that, he has multiple people that he's trained and they're going soul winning with him. You know, I know that Pastor Matthew Stuckey is a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ because he went over to the Philippines and he started to plant a little humble church and now he's grown it up to 100 people plus. Plus he has multiple church plants. Plus he started another church in Poland. This guy must be a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, when you see a guy taking something humble and growing it and getting lots of people saved and doing lots of great work, that's a picture of someone that is a great follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now when you see someone taking over a church and it's shrinking, failing, no one's getting saved, well that's not the guy you want to follow. That's not the guy you want to listen to. When the guy is causing people to leave church and get out of church, that's not the person you want to listen to. Let's listen to the people. Let's consider the people that are actually bringing people to the party, getting people into the boat, and actually, I mean, if you didn't know anything about fishing and you see a guy, he's got a bucket with hundreds and hundreds of fish in it. He's like, how'd you get there? I caught them. You want me to show you? And there's another guy who literally has nothing. Which one are you going to be like, hey, which one, who do I get tips from? Or you see the one guy, he goes over there and takes the bucket that has fish and throws some of his fish back in the water. He's not even, not only does he not have fish, he's throwing fish back in the water, and the other guy's catching fish constantly. It's like I care more about the guy that's constantly catching fish than the guy that's doing nothing for God, that's not reaching people, that's not producing fruit. You know what? You know a tree by its fruit, and we can tell the real prophets of God the real preachers buy their fruit. We should always be evaluating someone if they're a fisher of men, and we need to be fishers of men. Now when Jesus Christ said to follow me, what did they say in verse 20? And they straightaway left their nets and followed him. We need people that are going to immediately follow Jesus. He does this again and says in verse 21, and going on from thence, he saw other two brethren, James the son of Zebedee and John his brother, in a ship with Zebedee their father mending their nets, and he called them, and they immediately left the ship and their father and followed him. You know what? Sometimes in order to serve God, you have to give up jobs, you have to give up careers, and you have to give up family. You have to give up relationships. Now does this mean that they weren't going to talk to their dad and they don't love their dad? No, it just means they had to leave him. And you know what? There's been people, even today, many people, sometimes you just have to leave a physical location to be a better servant of God, to be a better follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's biblical. You can't always necessarily even serve God where you're at. Sometimes the Spirit's going to lead you to go somewhere else. Where the Spirit blows, we will go. Go, go, go. Where the Spirit blows. Hey, sometimes Jesus comes along and says, hey, come and follow me. And the real disciple immediately leaves the ship, immediately leaves his father. That's what a real disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ looks like. He's caring more about Jesus than all the things that he has in his life. It says in verse 23, And Jesus went about all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, and preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. So again, here's further confirmation. Verse 17 said, Repent for the kingdom of heaven in his hand. We cross-referenced that with Matthew, I'm sorry, Mark chapter 1, verse 14 and 15, and it was the exact same moment in time. And we noticed that it said, Repent ye and believe the gospel. Then here it's saying very specifically, he's preaching the gospel of the kingdom. So when you put all those together, you realize he wasn't going around saying, repent of your sins. He was saying, repent and believe in Jesus Christ. He was constantly saying the gospel. That's the message that was being brought up. But then you'll have heretics just cherry-pick like that. Jesus preached repentance. And you're like, okay, but what repentance? What was he asking them to change on? And isn't it interesting that the whole New Testament is focused in on people believing that Jesus took away their sins, not them giving up sin? I mean, like, the whole Bible is just constantly focused in on people needing to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, that he's the Christ, that he's the lamb which take away the sins of the world, that he rose again from the dead. I mean, we have whole chapters dedicated to explaining Jesus Christ rising from the dead. The whole gospel of Romans is basically explaining how what Jesus did actually took away all of your sins. You have the book of Hebrews explaining how the whole Testament is null and void because Jesus fulfilled all of that. I mean, you don't see just constant chapter after chapter and book after book and example and story of all these people, like, they wouldn't give up smoking. They just wouldn't give up drinking, and so they just couldn't get saved. No, no, it was that they believed a false gospel. It's that they didn't believe in the resurrection. It's that they didn't want to trust in what Jesus Christ had done. It's because they were trusting in works. It's because they believed in idols. It's because they didn't put their faith in Jesus Christ because Jesus was preaching the gospel of the kingdom. Don't let anybody persuade you away from the importance of soul winning and preaching the gospel of the kingdom. That is why we're here. That is the message of the New Testament. That is what it's emphasized, and it's that preaching that gets people saved. But again, they want to twist these verses. They want to say, oh, but he was healing all man of sickness and all man of disease among the people. Well, let's keep reading, and we'll finish. It says, and his fame went throughout all Syria, and they brought him all sick people that were taken with diverse diseases and torments, and those which were possessed with devils, and those which were lunatic, and those that had the palsy, and he healed them. And they're following great multitudes of people from Galilee and from Decapolis and from Jerusalem and from Judea and from beyond Jordan. So it finishes with this idea and concept of all these sick people being healed. We have to understand something. Number one, he healed everyone. Jesus healed every sick person that came to him. What is that picture? You know what it pictures? It pictures the fact that anybody who believes in Jesus Christ will be saved. He won't turn any way. The only reason why someone doesn't get healed is because they didn't come to Jesus. And the same way, spiritually speaking, the only reason someone didn't get saved is because they didn't believe in Jesus. They never came to Jesus. You know, people will get mad about the reprobate doctrine or other things that are taught in the Scripture, and they'll say, like, how dare you? Anybody that believes in Jesus is saved. And you're like, yes, they are. But there's just some people that won't come to Jesus, and they won't be healed. It's not that Jesus couldn't heal them. It's not that Jesus didn't want to heal them. It's just they didn't come to him to get healed. Because if they come to Jesus, whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. The Bible's crystal clear on this. But think about what a sick person does. When a sick person comes to Jesus, you know what Jesus doesn't say? You need to exercise more. Here's some pills. You need to eat healthier. He didn't give out medical advice. He just instantly healed them. They were just relying upon him to heal them, just like salvation. When a sick person spiritually comes unto Jesus Christ, he doesn't say, you need to exercise, eat healthier, and do this to get saved. He doesn't say, repent of your sins, give up smoking, give up drinking, give up fornication. He just heals them. So, like, in the same way, a sick person relies completely on a miracle for that restoration. We, too, rely on a miracle to go to heaven. It's not some kind of a work or some kind of a preventative that we can do. You know, I need a cure. Repenting of your sins is not a cure. You know, if you have cancer, you can't just, like, well, now I'm gonna stop eating sugar. Okay, that's great, but you know what? It's all the sugar and all the junk and all the other stuff that you did that probably caused it. You need a cure. You need healing. You need a miracle, in many cases, in order to get saved from that. And in the same way, yeah, I stopped lying, okay? But the past lying is the problem. You need a cure. You need a miracle. And that miracle comes from Jesus Christ. Why? Because we can't save ourselves. And we need to point people to the great light, which is Jesus Christ, just like the Christmas lights are being put out all over this city and all over the world right now. They're beautiful. But what's more beautiful is the gospel of Jesus Christ. And showing no matter what sickness, no matter what illness, you can be healed if you put your faith in Jesus Christ. And we're talking about spiritually. What is the Pentecostal? The Pentecostal loves to tell you that it's all about physical healing. And isn't interesting, they never heal anybody. They never heal anybody physically, and they never heal anybody spiritually. And, you know, I wish I had the ability to just heal everybody physically. I would love that. But the most important thing is that people are healed spiritually, and I can do that. And you can do that, too. And we have to realize that, you know, I think all of us in a carnal way would say, like, I wish, like, if I could press a button and I could just walk around and just touch people and the instant cancer's gone. People are sick, just instantly touched, just gone. People have a deformity, instantly gone. I mean, wouldn't we all just be like, I want that. Wouldn't you do, like, almost anything to get that? Wouldn't you pay tons of money to get that? But you know what's better than that? Being able to walk up to somebody and get them saved, take them from going to hell and get them into heaven. That is more important than actually being able to physically heal them. And you already had that, and it was already free. And if you, I guarantee you, if you had the ability to just touch somebody and for them to get healed, you would go to the hospital immediately. You would go to all your friends and family members immediately, and you would touch them and you'd heal them. But you know what? You have the gospel, which is even more important, and yet you don't give the gospel to them. Why? Because we walk by sight many times and not by faith. And it's wrong. We need to start walking by faith and not by sight. We start realizing we have a better cure than the physical cure. We have a better message than the Pentecostal preacher. We have a gospel that saves. We are that bright and shining light in such a dark world, and we need to take the gospel seriously and realize there is a lost and dying world right now, and we have the only cure out there, the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we need to preach it. We can't get through the wilderness on our own. Only Jesus can get through the wilderness. Only Jesus can give us the salvation. But we get to enter in through his righteousness, just like Caleb, because we trust it in him. And let us help encourage other people to be like Caleb and to trust in Jesus so that we can inherit with him the true riches and glory. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Heavenly Father, so much for this Christmas season. Thank you for sending your son here. Thank you for allowing him to go through all the sufferings and the temptations and to be successful so that we could have the victory. Thank you for giving us a bright and shining light and giving us hope in this world. Thank you for a King James Bible. Thank you for giving us a church that we can go to and be encouraged. I pray that we would start walking with spiritual eyes, realizing how sick this world is, how diseased this world is, how lame and lunatic this world is, and that we have the only cure, which is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray that we would try to reach as many people as possible and offer to them the free gift of salvation. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right, for our last song, we're going to go to song number 430, while shepherds watch their flocks. Song 430. Sing it out on the first. And glory show around. Fear not, said he, for might he dread had seized their troubled mind. The tidings of great joy I bring to you and all mankind. To you and all mankind. To you in David's town, his day is born of David's vine. The Savior who is Christ the Lord, and this shall be the sign. And this shall be the sign. The heavenly babe there shall find two human beauties playing, only re-wrapped in swaddling pants, and in a manger laying. And in a manger laying. All glory be to God on high, and to the earth be peace. Good will henceforth from heaven the moment begin and never cease. Begin and never cease. Great singing everybody. You are all dismissed.