Reading
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
62 if someone can start that.
I said amazing the president every night for a year and wander out because of me transparent, condemned by his brain.
How marvelous.
So wonderful.
It reigned on my will, upon my.
Height and thumbnail. Sorry.
Green blood, sweat, drops of blood bore my mind.
Umm, great and summer and I love.
The Brown Wonderful.
And my son tell everything.
Oh my God.
I will be in my no my incredibly.
Dangerous.
And I'm all I need.
How I would love.
Wonderful. And my son.
00:05:03
Two Lukes Gospel Chapter 4, where we were yesterday.
And I think what we'll do, we talked about it in a general way. So perhaps, uh, Nathan will read the whole thing again just to keep it in context. So for loop 4 verses one through 15.
All right, Luke. Luke, Chapter 4.
And Jesus being born like the Holy Ghost, the true Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness.
The 40 days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, he afterward hunger. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command his stones, that it be made bread.
And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.
In the devil, taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of that, for that is delivered unto me, and to whomsoever I will I get it.
If thou therefore will worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought it to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from him. It is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee to keep thee.
And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thy dash thy foot against the stone. And Jesus answering, cut unto him. It is said that shall not tempt the Lord thy God. And the devil had ended all the temptation. He departed from him for a season.
And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee, and there went out of fame with him through all the region round about, and he taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all.
Just before we mentioned these three specific temptations.
Just stress again that you find as you trace through the life of the Lord Jesus that it was a life completely in the power of the Spirit of God, because the Spirit of God, as we've already said, is the mighty energy in which God has always moved. So let me just quickly give you some examples.
In Matthew's Gospel in connection with the incarnation of the Lord Jesus, his birth, it says that holy thing that shall be begotten of thee is begotten. Born of thee is begotten of the Holy Ghost.
Now I realize in the King James it says conceived, but if you notice your margin, and it's the way Mr. Darby translates it lates it, it is begotten. And it's a very, very important truth to hold on to because the woman conceives, the man begets. And so again, as we have said in these meetings before, the Spirit of God is so very, very careful whenever you have the manhood of the Lord Jesus, His incarnation.
Very careful to guard the eternity of this person. He was the eternal Son of God. Yes, Mary was the instrument that God used to bring the Lord Jesus into this world, but he was the only begotten of his Father. That's why the Lord Jesus said 12 years of age very gently corrected his mother in the temple. She said your father and I have sought for the sorrowing. The Lord Jesus very gently corrected her. He said, wish you not that I must be about my Father's business.
And it's interesting that in Scripture, Joseph is never referred to other than in by Mis in in a mistaken connotation like what Mary said. He has never referred to as the Lord's Father. Mary was his mother because she was the instrument used to bring him into the world, but it is always God who is his Father. So he was begotten of the Holy Ghost. Then, as we have noticed, we find that at his baptism.
The Spirit of God descended upon him in the bodily form of a dove. There are two times in Scripture where the Spirit of God becomes momentarily visible. That's one of them. Who can think somebody else? Help me? Who can think of the other time the Spirit of God became momentarily visible?
00:10:11
The fire coming down from heaven on the umm Apostle, Yeah. On the day of Pentecost, when the 120 or so were gathered together, the Spirit of God came and rested upon them in cloven tongues of fire. Thank you, Clement. So these are the only two times. But it was important that it happened there because it was to mark out the Lord Jesus at his baptism, lest there be any doubt in the minds of those who stood on who the Lord Jesus was. He was the anointed 1.
He was the one of the Father. You remember just a little aside, but you remember when Noah let the dove out of the ark, it found no place for the to rest its foot until the Lord Jesus came and the dove finally found a place of rest in on the Lord Jesus, the perfect man walking here in this world. And the dove comes to light on him. The Spirit of God comes to light on him in the bodily form of a dove. Then we find that when he goes into the temple at the beginning of his public ministry.
He reads in the book of Jeremiah, the place where it says, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, preach the gospel, and so on. So to confirm that his whole public ministry was in the power of the Spirit, It says of his death, It says, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, His death on the cross within the power of the Spirit, as far as His resurrection.
It says in Corinthians, he was put to death in the flesh, quickened or made alive by the Spirit. So I just say that it's, it's, it's, it's a beautiful study. And it's very important to see how the whole life and work of the Lord Jesus was in the power of the Spirit. And so as we noticed yesterday, he was LED of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted.
Now the reason I bring this out young people is because we have an example for us now. He, the Lord Jesus was perfect, I understand that, but he left us an example that we should follow in His footsteps. And what is the power for your life and mind? It's the Spirit of God and your life and mine as believers Now being indwelt with the Spirit of God, it ought to be one completely in the power of the Spirit as the Lord Jesus gave us the example.
I wanna point out too that this little expression in verse 3.
And the devil said unto him, I want you to notice this, if thou be the Son of God. Now if we were to go back to Genesis, the first recorded words of Satan in the Old Testament are half. God said immediately trying to raise the doubt in the mind of Eve. Did God really say that? Raising a doubt as to the spoken word of God? And then when the living word came, the eternal word, the Lord Jesus.
The first recorded words of Satan in the New Testament are, if thou be the Son of God, immediately trying to raise a doubt in the mind of the Lord Jesus. What's he really who he said he was? And I believe that the enemy has been busy all down through the history of man to raise a doubt as to those two things to apply to you and me today. He's trying to raise the doubt as to the word of God we hold in our hands. Is this really the word of God?
Has God really said that?
And then seeking to raise the doubt in the minds of folks, if the Lord Jesus really who he said he was, was he really the eternal Son of God? Was He really the sinless Son of God? And so that is the great attempt of the enemy.
And I know if you haven't experienced it yet, you're going to experience it even from those who profess Christianity and perhaps are real. They're going to question because Satan Satan's great attempt is to question the Word of God, the written Word, and the living Word as as to the person of the Lord Jesus.
So we noted yesterday that there are three specific temptations given to us in Scripture. We realized that the the devil tempted the Lord for 40 days, but these were three special temptations that are recorded for us for a very, very specific reason. And we noticed that in Luke's gospel they are in a different order than in Matthew's gospel, because in Luke's gospel they're given to us.
00:15:08
To correspond with what the Apostle John said, let's go to first John and see that first John chapter 2.
First John chapter 2 and verse 16.
For all that is in the world is the lust of the flesh, that's one, the lust of the eyes, that's two, and the pride of life, that's three. So there are these three things that the enemy uses. Now someone has said that perhaps these three things affect us in a special way at three different points in our lives, and I think to some degree that's true.
Perhaps the loss of the flesh is what we experience more when we're young, however young people.
Don't ever think that the lust of the flesh, that Satan's attempt as is to the lust of the flesh, ever becomes any easier as we get older. It does not. Satan does not give up in that way. Then there's the lust of the eyes. Some have have suggested that's more during the prime of life. We see things that we want and covered and desire. We work hard. We set our goals on goal on it.
Well, that may be true, but I I'm not so sure. That doesn't affect us at all points in our lives, even when we're young and certainly when we get older. And then there is the pride of life. And I I agree that does come a little later.
Scripture speaks of an old and foolish king who will no longer be admonished.
That's the pride of life. So we'll speak of this perhaps a little more, but just notice then back in our chapter in verse 4.
Uh, and Jesus answered him saying, uh, or let, let me uh back up here, uh, verse three. And the devil said unto him, if thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. Now remember the Lord Jesus was a real man. He felt things the way we do sent apart, but he was hungry.
Scripture tells us that in the verse before he hadn't eaten for 40 days, he was very, very hungry. But remember, the temptations here are all from without, not from within. You know, when we're tempted, we have the flesh within us that still corrupt. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. It never changes, even in a believer. And we have something within that will respond, all the temptations for the Lord Jesus.
We're strictly from without. The devil cometh and hath nothing in me, it says on another occasion. And so the Lord Jesus, I want to notice the answer here, verse four. And Jesus answered him, saying, it is written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Now I think it was already mentioned that in each case here, the Lord Jesus never argues with the devil.
Never tries to fight with the devil, he simply quotes the word of God and on all three occasions he quotes from the book of Deuteronomy.
Which is very significant because Deuteronomy is one of the books that over the centuries has come under fire from the critics as to whether it's really part of the word of God and so on. But the Lord Jesus gives it veracity here, I believe, anticipating what the critics would come up with. He gives it veracity here by quoting all three times, uh, from the book of Deuteronomy. But he quote, the point is he quotes the word of God.
Meets the devil, as we said in the afternoon or maybe it was this morning May wasn't this afternoon. We said we spoke of the sword of the spirit. It's the word of God used in communion by the spirit that's going to do that's going to have its effect on on the devil when it comes to tempted.
Should we read what happened in Genesis?
Yes, please.
OK.
But where should I start?
It was.
For whatever you have on your heart, Andres, yeah, please, there's more. And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in the day you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as God's knowing good and evil.
00:20:19
And when the woman saw that the tree was loose, as soon as it was pleasant to the eyes, and the tree to be desired to make one wise, he took the fruit thereof and didn't eat, and gave also unto her husband and her, and he and he.
In the eyes of them both were open and they knew that they were naked and they so we used together and made themselves a place.
For six, that's, that's, uh, we're, uh, you were talking about the three ways the devil uses to.
And, uh, like you said, it's in the right order. The rest of the flesh, uh, she saw that the tree was filled with food in this case, and then.
The last of the.
I she saw, and then it was pleasant to the eyes, and then the fried applied.
And agree to be desired to make one wise.
I think that, yeah, like you said, that does come to everyone of us.
Should be in separate times, but the natural man wants to.
Once these things and I guess that's why the devil wants knows what to attack us with.
And uh.
I'd like to know your loop chapter four. We have a way to.
Uh.
Lancing those kinds of temptations that, like we have said before, it's with the word of God.
So this is how we resist the devil turn turn to a verse in James chapter 4.
That gives us some good instruction that follows up on what Andreas has just said. James Chapter 4.
And verse seven, we're gonna notice two things here.
James chapter 4 and verse seven. Submit yourselves therefore unto God.
Resist the devil and he will flee from you. So how do we submit ourselves under God? Well, it's the word of God, isn't it? It's bringing the word of God into our lives. But then how do we re? But. And in doing that, then we we're resisting the devil.
So we have confidence in God, we submit to His will, and we bring the word of God in as we have with the example of the Lord Jesus. And we're never told to fight the devil. You and I are no match for the devil. Now I maybe this illustration won't work so well for your generation, but you know what a chimney sweep is. OK, So do they still have them around for big chimneys and big houses? Probably so.
But you know, a chimney sweep gets pretty dirty. A chimney sweep cleans the soot out of chimneys and you get filthy. And someone has said you'll get pretty dirty hugging a chimney sweep and you'll get pretty dirty fighting a chimney sweep. So of course, we don't want to ever embrace the things of Satan, but we'll get just as dirty trying to fight Satan as as well. What do we do? We resist the devil. How do we resist the devil?
In Ephesians 6, where we read earlier, we stand fast, we don't run and we don't move forward. We stand fast with the sword of the spirit and the armor of God. Sword of spirit, part of the armor of God, and we stand fast and we meet the devil in that way. I say we never run either because it's very interesting when you read the account of the the armor that denoted there in Ephesians 6.
There's no armor for the back, never any armor for the back. It's never assumed that we're gonna turn and flee. We're to flee evil and flee fornication and so on. But we're never told to flee from the devil. I've heard little choruses about running from the devil and so on. Uh, that's, that's not accurate. We stand fast, we use the word of God and we resist the devil. And what's the re result?
00:25:18
The devil flees from us, and so that's what happened, isn't it, with the Lord Jesus. He resisted the devil with the Word of God and what happened? Satan left him for a time. That's again the example, the perfect example for you and for me. But young people, that's why you have to store up your mind with the Word of God. If you don't read the Word of God, the Spirit of God can't bring scripture back to you at the at a time when you need it.
The Spirit is the remembrance, Sir, and you'll never remember something you didn't read or hear from the Word of God. So you've got to read the Word of God, Saturate your mind with it. You know, when I was younger, I heard the scriptures read and expounded from my parents, from the brethren at meeting and so on. You know, I didn't understand a lot of it, but I heard it and I read it. And as I've gotten older, the Spirit of God has brought it back to me at times when I needed it. Scriptures I didn't even realize were.
I had stored up and the Spirit of God brought them back just at the right time when there was some temptation or difficulty in my life.
What's the difference between?
Resisting the devil and fleeing from evil. What are some examples?
Well, to flee from evil is to get as far away from it as you can. So it says, uh, not even to look at it. The surpass, not by turn away and, uh, and so on. I'll give you an, an example. Now, again, this is a, an example from a past era, but I think you'll get the point. Back in England in the, uh, early days, there was a very wealthy man who, uh, had, uh, carriages and coaches and horses and so on.
And he lived in a, uh, great Manor house at the top of a hill and there was a steep, winding, narrow Dr. that ran up to the, up this hill to his home. And so he needed to, to, uh, hire a coachman. And so there were several applied for the job. And when they came in for the interview, one of the questions he asked them was how close could you go to the edge of the driveway and not go over?
And some of them had great explanations on how they were expert horsemen and they could come so close and so on. And finally he asked one man. He said, why Sir, I stay as far away from the edge as possible. He said, you're the man for the job. You're the man I want. The others might be very skilled, but maybe the horse would give alerts or something and or be spooked and or some gravel would roll and he'd go over the edge. No, this man wanted a coachman that stayed as far away from the precipice as he could.
And that's what we are to do. If we if we put ourselves in vulnerable situations, we're going, we're opening ourselves for a fall as far as the temptations of the devil.
If we see or hear something now, young people I know sometimes at school and at work and so on, you can't help it. And the Lord can give you the grace to get through. But if we, if we knowingly put ourselves in a in a bad situation, we're leaving ourselves open for trouble. If we come to a situation where there's evil being discussed or practiced, what are we to do? We're to get out of there right away. And if we don't?
Then the devil is going to get an advantage. So we flee evil. We get as far away from it as possible. I'll give you an example from the Old Testament. Joseph, he was tempted by Potiphar's wife. She kept after him and after him, and finally, when she grabbed his coat, what did he do? He fled. He got as far away as he could. That's fleeing evil. Now, when it comes to the devil again, we can't flee from the debt. We don't flee from the devil. We don't try to fight the devil.
We simply resist the devil by with the armor of God lifting the shield of faith, resting on the word of God, the sword of the Spirit, and uh, we meet the devil in in that way. And if we do.
Then he flees from us. Maybe you have something to add, John. No, that was good. Thank you.
00:30:11
So the next temptation then is the lust of the eyes. Let's read verse five. And the devil taking him up into a high mountain showed him all the kingdoms of this world, of the world in a moment of time. Not interesting. A moment of time. You know, that's what the kingdoms of this world really are. They're just for a moment of time. And how many kingdoms have risen and fallen throughout the history of man? And when it's all said and done and this world is finished.
At the end of the Millennium, the kingdoms of this world are in view of eternity. They're just for a moment of time. Now, I wanna say this in a practical way, young people, what do we want? What are we seeking? Are we seeking something of this world to be great in the kingdoms of men, to be great in this world for a moment of time? Or are we seeking the Kingdom of God, that which is going to last for eternity and have eternal value?
Why would the Lord Jesus want the kingdoms of this world for a moment of time?
When he knew that there was a Kingdom going to be given to him by his father in the coming day, and it says he shall reign forever and ever. And so he could refuse that which was just temporal, just for a moment of time, just passing.
Now you might say what? How could the devil do this? Offer him the Kingdom of this world? Well, Satan is the Prince of this world. He's the Prince of this world politically. He's the God of this world religiously, but he's the Prince of this world politically. And he will be until the prophecy of the time is fulfilled when it says the kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our, of our God and of his Lord.
That is yet future. He's going to take it all back in the coming day. But again, Satan is the Prince of this world. You know, my mother had an interesting expression. She said it's a higher up you get in this world the closer you get to the Prince of it. Is that interesting? If we strive to be high in this world, we get close to the Prince of this world. Now I I don't wanna be misunderstood. God has used great men and women in this world.
And Daniel was promoted in his business the under each of the kings and so on. But I believe it's what we strive after. God may give us a position where we can be a testimony and a light for him. But the question is, what are our hearts striving after? Daniel never, never strolled to be next to the king or great in the kingdoms of this world. God placed him there and used him in a wonderful way. But I believe we need to be careful. Yes, you need to get through university or college or.
A vocation, whatever it may may be, whatever you feel you the Lord is calling you to. But, uh.
Don't strive to get ahead in this world. Work hard. Do all to the glory of God.
And God will give you the position that He wants you in, and He will place you just where He can use you, just where you're needed as a testimony.
So this is the lust of the eye.
So he offers him all this in verse six, but there is a, uh, there's a criteria given verse seven. If thou will worship me, all shall be thine. You see, the enemy had Satan hadn't changed. Satan had risen up in the beginning and uh, in his pride and sought worship, cast out of heaven. It hadn't changed him in any way. And Satan still desires that today.
You know, I've been appalled to realize how, how much Satan worship is really seeping into the Western world. It's, it's been for thousands of years in the heathen world. But it, it really scares me. I live in a small town of 9000 people in, in basically rural Ontario. You know, on Halloween, there's a lot of actual Satan worship and animal sacrifices and so on that go on.
00:35:09
That's not in Nigeria or Guyana, South America, that's right in rural Ontario. And so we need to be very, very careful. Satan is still seeking worship, worship. But I would like to say this about worship. It is only deity that we worship. We worship the Father and we worship the Son. You know, John the Baptist, John the Baptist, John the John the Evangelist tried to worship in Revelation, the Angel, I think twice.
And the Angel said to him, See that thou do it not. I am thy fellow servant, worship thou him. We only ever worship a deity. I know under the old British order of things. And even today there are those in political office who are respectfully referred to as Your Worship. But that's not really, really scriptural.
Well then there was the 3rd temptation and as we said, it's in connection with the pride of life. Again we have the order in first John, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life. And I suppose again, the pride of life is something that affects us more as we get older. But perhaps it even effects, if I can put it this way, older young people perhaps. Yet they we the tendency is to look at some of the younger ones coming along and feel.
That you have more experience and you've arrived at a different station along life than than the others. And so again, I think to some degree these three things affect us all, uh, although perhaps more in different stages of our life. So the devil in verse nine, he brings the Lord to the pinnacle of the temple. He said, how could he do that? Well, we're not told how he did it and it's not for us to know. And we could sit here and discuss it all day and not be anymore ahead or edified. But the scripture says that the devil does that. He brings them to the pinnacle of the temple.
Tells him to cast himself down, quotes the scripture from the Old Testament that the angels will take care of him, and so on.
But the Lord Jesus, again he answers with a with a verse of Scripture, verse 12, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
I think there's a broad application of this too. You know, it's good to learn to trust the Lord, but we never want to tempt the Lord. What I mean by that is.
If I go up on the roof of this building tonight and decide to jump off and say, well the Lord will protect me and he's got a host of angels and camping round about me and so on, I'm tempting the Lord. That's just absolute foolishness. Now if I'm up on the roof of this building trying to repair a leak or something and I slip and fall, the Lord can take care of me. So there's, there's quite a difference. So we never want to put ourselves in a situation where we are tempting the Lord.
Going beyond what we, what the common sense, if I can put it that way, that the Lord has given us, yes, he does take care of each one of us, but we're never to put ourselves in a vulnerable situation, uh, on purpose.
Is there any significance in like the location that he takes him? Like he takes him to the pinnacle of the temple or that mountain so you can see the world a minute or the stones, uh, changing the stones. Is there any significant in those particular items in place?
I I'm not I'd like to hear what someone else says. I would only suggest this that Satan being the God of this world, he takes him to that which is reality. The the the temple was still at that time owned of God. It was still owned by the Lord Jesus as the center. Later on it was disowned. Later on when he was fully rejected, he said your house is left to you desolate, but at this time it was still God's center.
For worship and the enemy always seeks to mix as the God of this world religiously and as an Angel of light, he always seeks to mix that which is, which is true and that which is false. That is always the work of the enemy. I suggest that that may be one reason why it is centered at this, at the TE, at the temple. There may be more to it than that. But having traveled around the world to various places where something other than Christianity is the order of the day and the profession of the country.
00:40:21
You realize very quickly how much overlap there is in false religion, you know, Hinduism, Buddhism, uh, heathendom, umm, Islam, you know, they, they take a lot from Christianity and from the Bible.
And it's mixed together with that which is false. So I I suggest that that may be what the devil was seeking to do, mix that which was reality, the really the truth and God center with that which was a lie.
Well, our our time is gone as far as our schedule goes, but just say that in in conclusion that in the 14th and 15th verses. Then we have the beginning of the Lord Jesus public ministry. So again he returns in the power of the spirit. He had been LED of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. He had met the the temptations of the devil with the word of God and now.
Have God having shown the fact that His Son was the sinless Son of God, now He starts His public ministry as a man. He starts it in the power of the Spirit, and there's great blessing as a result. So I just say this in conclusion. Maybe there's a young person here and you're going through some real temptation or trial in your life. God may be preparing you for something special in His service.
If you follow the example of the Lord Jesus in the way that He met the temptation in the wilderness, then you can go forth to like the Lord Jesus and the power of the Spirit and have an effective ministry. It may not be a public ministry like the Lord had, but young people, remember this. Everyone of you here who know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, our ministers, your ministers of Christ, He has a little ministry for you to do.
I don't know what it is. You've got to get before the Lord and He'll tell you what it is. It may not be public, it may be more private, but that's not the issue. It's doing that little ministry for Him in the power of the Spirit. And so if you're going through some trial or temptation, special temptation, don't be discouraged. Meet it with all the resources that you have in Christ. And I believe then the Lord will use you in a tremendous way.
Maybe someone has a hymn we can conclude with from either book.
S.
In the Blue Book.
53 Thank you.
All right, straight as well.
Now it's turning back low. Turning back.
And Christ before me.
The world we are.
Great, and Christ before me.
00:45:04
The world behind me.
And Christ before.
OK.
It's all about.
Why I can't see you?
How's life going?
I'm behind the door.
That's a very serious prayer we've just sung. And I hope and trust is the desire of each of our hearts to follow Jesus and not go back because.