Defeating Temptation

Today we're going to examine one of the accounts of the temptation of Jesus Christ, an event that is quite well known to most Christians as one of the significant events in the life of our Lord. Recorded in all three of the Synoptics, Matthew chapter 4, Mark chapter 1, and in Luke chapter 4, though Mark only gives a two-verse summary rather than the detailed summary, details we find in Matthew and Luke. But we come to realize that this temptation was part of Christ's necessary preparation for His ministry and mission upon the earth.

There are significant lessons here for us as well, and I trust that we shall learn them before the morning is over. We are aware, I think, that Christ answered each temptation with Scripture, which is highly significant, and all three of the answers He gave came from the book of Deuteronomy. All of them are Old Testament Scriptures, because of course at that time no New Testament Scriptures were written, but it assures us that the Old Testament is just as much the word of the living God as the New Testament. And Christ employed the book of Deuteronomy to defeat Satan in these temptations, which is highly significant. When you realize that as God, God and man, 100% God and 100% man was He. And as God, everything He spoke was God's word. And yet as a man, and His temptation came to Him as a man, the incarnate Son of God, but the man. And as a man, He lived according to the written word of God. If He did, so must we.

My heart is leaning on the word, the written word of God, and that should be our song day by day. Examining Luke's account of this temptation, we shall see number one, the time, number two, the tests, and number three, the triumph. This is written to us in verses one and two. Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for 40 days by the devil.

And in those days, He ate nothing, and afterward, when they had ended, He was hungry. When is the time of this temptation in the overall life of Jesus during His 33 years upon the earth? Well, the time is number one, following His baptism. It is number two, following His deprivation.

And it is number three, following His physical weakness. Following His baptism, we are told when He returned from the Jordan, and that's a reference to His baptism by John in the Jordan River. And His baptism was His public identification, first with sinners and second with God. But it was a very important identification of Himself with sinners, for He was to become the sinner's substitute. He was to take the sinner's place. And therefore, as a man, He must be identified with sinners. And so we read in Luke 3, 3, and He went into all the region around Jordan preaching a baptism. This is John, of course, preaching a baptism of repentance for remission of sins. Now, why would the sinless one be identified with sinners in their repentance and in their sinfulness?

But it is necessary for him to become the vicarious substitute for sinners. And thus we read in verse 21 of chapter 3, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized. When all the people were baptized as sinners, when all the people, and that doesn't mean, of course, every individual without exception, but great multitudes of people, another use of the word all that is helpful to our understanding of how the word all is used in Scripture so that we are not misled. But when multitudes of people came and were baptized by John, they came confessing their sins and then being baptized. In fact, when the Pharisees came, they wanted to be baptized, but they didn't think they had any sins to confess.

And John said, who told you to come, you generation of vipers? You can't be baptized unless you're willing to acknowledge your sin. And so all of the people who were baptized came confessing their sins and being baptized in water. And then Jesus came, he had no sins to confess except ours that would be laid upon him later, but he too was baptized to identify himself with sinners, but also it was to identify himself with God. Because in verse 21, it goes on to say, and while he prayed, Jesus in the water, while he prayed, the heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon him. And a voice came from heaven, which said, you are my beloved son. In you, I am well pleased.

And here they come together, don't they? Christ's identification with man, Christ's identification with God. Christ having come as a man, he became a man, he was identified with men, even identified with men in their sins, though he had no sin, but at the very same time, clearly identified as a member of the triune Godhead.

The father in heaven above, the son in the water below, the Holy Spirit descending upon him in the form of a dove, God authenticating him. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And so he was publicly identified with sinners and he was publicly identified with God as God. But if this baptism was his public identification, it was also his official authorization as God's approved agent.

With you, I am well pleased. And he was well pleased. And he was well pleased to send him forth to carry out the mission for which he had come from heaven to earth. And he was authorized as God's anointed messenger for the Holy Spirit descended upon him. And from that time forth, he went into his mission filled with the Holy Spirit. And we read in the opening verse of Luke chapter 4 that he, full of the Spirit, was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. How can the one who is God be filled with the Holy Spirit? Well, that's his human side and that's the mystery. As God, God the Father, God the Holy Spirit, God the Son are three separate persons, but all one God.

And you can't really separate them completely. How could the Son be filled with the Holy Spirit? He was always filled with the Holy Spirit.

And yet as the man, the man Christ Jesus, this was a special anointing of the Holy Spirit upon him. But all of this was for his necessary qualification for public ministry. His baptism was the next to last qualification and the temptation by the devil was his last qualification.

And when that was over, he officially began his public ministry. His baptism to publicly declare who he was, to identify himself with sinners and with God, and his temptation to demonstrate that he was qualified to do everything that God sent him to do. And in his temptation, we see a record of perfect obedience and a record of victorious overcoming. When we consider men from ministry today, we consider their qualifications. And none is as qualified as Jesus and none is as sinless as Jesus and none is as obedient as Jesus.

But we look for these two qualifications. We look for a record of faithfulness to the Word of God, a record of obedience, not perfect, but a record of obedience over time to the Word of God and a record of victorious overcoming of temptation. We look for someone who has not been regularly and often stumbling and falling into sin. How grateful we are that sinners can be forgiven. They can be cleansed. They can be restored to God and to the fellowship of the saints. But when we're looking for spiritual leaders and ministers of the Word of God, we're looking for those who have demonstrated a spiritually given power to overcome temptation, who can continually and regularly fall into it.

And Christ shows us that with his temptation. And so the time was following his baptism. The time was following his deprivation. He was led, we are told in verse 1, into the wilderness, full of the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit of God.

We can't miss the import of this. How was Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by Satan? Was this some kind of a mix-up? Was this some kind of an unplanned moment? Was this something that the devil snuck up on him and did when neither he nor the Father intended for this to happen?

No, no, no, no. He was led into the wilderness by the Spirit in order to be tempted by the devil. God put him there. And friend, it's very important that you remember that your temptations also have been appointed to you by God.

Remember that and look to him for help and strength during those times. He was led into the wilderness. He was tempted by Satan, the devil, diabolos, the slanderer, the accuser. Being tempted, we are told, a present participle, which seems to indicate that he was being tempted in some fashion during that entire 40 days.

We don't know what those temptations were because the ones that are recorded came at the end. But he was being tempted throughout this time, being tempted for 40 days by the devil. During this time, he had nothing to eat.

He was deprived of food. He endured a long, long fast, 40 days, longer than most of us could even imagine enduring. But we know of others in the Bible who also endured a 40 day fast, such as Moses and Elijah.

It is not beyond the realm of possibility. Jesus was fasting for 40 days. Presumably he had drink, but no food during this time. But the interesting thing is that he didn't seem to become aware of his hunger until the end of the 40 days.

Did you notice that? Being tempted for 40 days by the devil, and in those days he ate nothing and afterward, when they had ended, he was hungry. Why wasn't he hungry for 40 days?

Well, there are several possibilities. He could have been so sustained by God that his hunger did not appear. He did not feel his hunger. But I think it's far more likely that he was so focused upon the temptations of the devil, so engaged in spiritual warfare, that he couldn't even be aware of his hunger. He was too occupied with what was going on in this battle of battles, in this crucible of temptations. But at the end of 40 days, he was aware of his hunger, and following his physical weakness, which of course came because of these 40 days of fasting, he was hungry and he was exhausted, and then the devil jumped upon him with the three largest temptations, the ones that are recorded for us in Matthew and in Luke. And we need to recognize that generally our times of weakness are going to be the times of our greatest temptation. Satan looks for opportunities to exploit our weaknesses. And so when we are ill, we are likely to be more greatly tempted. When we are exhausted because of overwork, we are likely to be more greatly tempted.

When we are discouraged because of difficulties in our lives, we are likely to be more greatly tempted. When we are weak and vulnerable, Satan will make us the special object, the special target of his temptation. And he will tempt us to do what? He will tempt us to take shortcuts. He will tempt us to compromise the word of God. He will tempt us to become active in known sin.

He will tempt us to doubt God, to doubt his goodness, to doubt his faithfulness, to doubt his word, which is just as much sin as is committing adultery. And he will tempt us to do all of these things in the times of our weakness. The devil will whisper in our ear and we'll find ourselves saying things like, if I belong to Christ, why is this happening to me? If I really am God's child, how come he's letting this happen?

If I am a Christian, then why am I struggling with this? And just remember the temptation of Christ twice in the three temptations. Satan said to him, if you are the son of God, almost echoes the words that we ourselves have spoken at times. If I am a child of God, if I am a Christian, you see how Satan insinuates doubts and weakens us in this way. But we move from the time of Christ's temptation into the tests, the three tests that he faced during this culmination of his trial of temptation. Three tests recorded for us in verses 3 through 12.

There is, first of all, a temptation of physical desire, secondly, a temptation of personal glory, and third, a temptation of religious presumption, a temptation of physical desire. And the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. But Jesus answered him, saying, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

He starts with this insinuation. If you are the son of God. And that if should probably be understood by the word since, since you are the son of God, but that really doesn't lessen the question mark after it, the insinuation that comes after it. Since you are, or since you claim to be the son of God, since just a few days ago in the Jordan River, you heard a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. Well, since you are the son of God, use your divine powers to satisfy your hunger.

If you are hungry, command this stone to be made bread. He certainly could. He had the power. He could do it.

Why not? It is a legitimate need. He is hungry. Surely God doesn't want you to be hungry. Surely God doesn't want you to starve.

If you are the son of God and you have this power, then use it to satisfy your hunger. But this is a testing. And by the way, the word temptation is synonymous with the word testing.

You could interchange either one. The Greek word means one as much as the other. This is a test to entice Jesus to satisfy a legitimate desire in a sinful manner. Now, what would be sinful about turning a stone into bread? Jesus did many similar things.

He multiplied the loaves and the fishes and made them bread for the multitudes. Why would it be a sin for Jesus to turn the stone into bread? Well, it is because it would be saying, in effect, that God doesn't care for me. God's not concerned about my need.

God is not supplying what I need. I'm going to have to take matters into my own hands, forgetting who it was that led Jesus into the wilderness. It was God, His Heavenly Father, by the Spirit of God, who determined to deprive Jesus of food for 40 days and 40 nights. It was God, His Heavenly Father. Who knows His every need? God, His Heavenly Father, does.

He was committed to supply His needs. God, His Heavenly Father, is. And so if God led Him into the wilderness to this time of testing, then at the proper time, God is going to supply the food that He needs.

God who led Him this far is not going to drop Him at this point. Therefore, to take matters into His own hands and to supply what would seem to be a very legitimate need would actually be to sin by supplying that need in an illegitimate way, in a faithless way, in a doubting way, in a way that indicates that He doesn't fully trust God to take care of Him. And thus He says to the devil, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Which is to say, yes, food is a legitimate need, but it is not man's greatest need. Of course we need food.

But as Jesus Himself said in the Sermon on the Mount, talking about food and raiment and the necessities as we call them of life, what did He say? Your Heavenly Father knows. He knows that you have need of these things. He knows it and He will supply it. Don't worry about it. Don't be anxious about it.

Don't take thought about these things. Your Heavenly Father knows you have need of these things and He will faithfully supply. That's what Jesus taught the multitudes. But right at the beginning of His ministry, before He was launched into public ministry, He is being tested to see if He believes that Himself.

And He does. Devil, it is written, it is written, you shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. Food is a legitimate need, but it's not man's greatest need. What's man's greatest need? To know, to believe, to obey the word of God always and ever.

That's the greatest need. And if you are following that, the greatest need, you can be certain, you can be sure, you can be absolutely assured that all of your other needs are going to be supplied at the right time in the right place by the Heavenly Father, whose word you are trusting, whose will you are obeying, whose honor you are glorifying. The temptation of physical desire.

Number two, the temptation of personal glory. Verse five, then the devil, taking Him on a high mountain, showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. This would have to undoubtedly be some kind of a vision that passed before His eyes and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, just in a quick panorama. And the devil said to Him, all this authority, that is rulership over all these kingdoms, all of this authority I will give You and their glory, the great honor that comes with this, for this has been delivered to me and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.

The appeal, what is it? Well, it is in essence for Christ to secure the glory of His kingdom by not going to the cross. Bypassing the cross, bypassing all of the difficulties that lead up to the cross, bypassing all of the disappointments and the trials and the ignominy and the shame and the pain of the cross, which is God's way of giving Him the kingdoms of this world, which shall all be His, as God has promised them to Him. But to get all that which God has promised to Him in a quicker, easier way without all the pain. Now the question is, does Satan really have the power to give Him all these kingdoms? And the answer is no. Yes, I know the Bible says he is the God of this world. And yes, I know the Bible says that he is the power of the air and other verses that talk about the great measure of authority that God has placed in Satan's power at this time, but he doesn't have all the power and the Bible is clear.

Here's one text out of many that I could cite. Romans 13, 1. Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except from the devil, and the authorities that exist are appointed by the devil. Is that what it says? You know better.

You know better. There is no authority except from God. And the authorities that exist, and he's talking about rulers and governors and governments in the world at this time, and the authorities that exist are appointed by who?

They're appointed by God. The devil didn't have the power that he claimed. The devil couldn't deliver on the promise that he made. He was lying.

Are we surprised? That's his specialty. He was lying. He was offering something that he couldn't offer, which, by the way, is what he does regularly in enticing people into sin. He entices us to think that if you'll do this, it will make you happy. If you do this, you'll be fulfilled. If you acquire this, then everything's going to be good, and he's lying between his teeth. That's not what's going to happen.

It's going to take you down, down, down, down, down. He is a liar and the father of it, but I find it interesting that Jesus, knowing that he was lying, knowing that he didn't have this power, knowing that he couldn't give him all these things, doesn't call him a liar, doesn't rail against him. It's kind of fun, isn't it, to start shaking your fist and kicking the devil and talking in disrespectful language about him. Did you notice Jesus doesn't do that? Other Bible godly people don't do that. Even with the devil in the Bible, you'll find that there is always a measure of respect, of dignity. We're not being godly when we rail at the devil. It's a lot of fun, but I've seen a lot of preachers do it. I've been tempted to do it myself sometimes. Take that! I don't even like any more.

I did when I was young, but I don't even like that children's song that says if I, let's see, I can't think how it goes. I'd lock the devil in the box, I'd throw away the key, and so forth, but even that is treating the devil as if he's some kind of a mischievous imp. It's not really treating him with the dignity that he's treated in the Bible. And if Jesus and the godly people in the Bible treated the devil that way, then how honoring is it for us to rail and to treat with undignified language people we don't like in the political realm because they're on the wrong side of issues?

Christians need to root that out of their activity and vocabulary. We can stand for truth and oppose error without calling people names, without bullying them, without belittling them. We have a godly way to fight against error. We don't wrestle with flesh and blood but with principalities and powers and the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness in high places. We are battling against the devil.

We are battling against his demons. And we battle with truth, and we don't do it in the same way. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal.

They are not carnal. We don't win by giving it back to them as good as we get. We win by calmly, assuredly, standing our ground and speaking truth, which is exactly what Jesus did. And so the devil said, if you'll worship me, I'll give you all of the kingdoms of the world, tempting him to compromise in order to achieve the goal of what would be his anyway, just to get there a little quicker than he would have otherwise. And his response is, once again, it is written, I can't do this, I won't do this.

Why? Because the written word of God tells me otherwise. Get behind me, Satan. Who else did Jesus say that to? Peter, one of the apostles, who when he was talking the way he was, was demonstrating the influence of Satan in his life. Satan can take even Christians and use them for his purposes.

Get thee behind me, Satan. Jesus says that here. Get thee behind me, Satan, for it is written, and here's what's written in Deuteronomy 6 13, the first quotation was Deuteronomy 8 3, this is Deuteronomy 6 13, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.

And of course other scriptures could have been cited. You could have cited Exodus chapter 20 verse 3 that there's only one God and we worship him and him alone. You shall have no other gods besides me.

One God. It is wrong to bow down to anyone or anything except the Lord God Almighty. And so Jesus said, I can't bow down to you, Satan, even if it would be an attractive and an easier way to achieve the goal of becoming the ruler of the kingdoms. It is written, it is written, you shall not worship or you shall worship rather the Lord your God and him only you shall serve.

The third temptation was a temptation of religious presumption and this may be the most dangerous of all. Verse 9, then he brought him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, there it is again, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written, now Satan is going to get pious. Satan's going to quote scripture. That's what Christ has been doing to him. Jesus said, it is written, Satan, it is written, Satan.

So Satan says, it is written. And he quotes from Psalm 91 verses 11 and 12. For he shall give his angels charge over you to keep you and in their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone. The location of this temptation we are told was in Jerusalem and on what is called the pinnacle of the temple.

We don't know exactly what that pinnacle is but most commentators believe that it was the southeast corner of the royal porch or the royal portico which was in the wall that surrounded the whole temple area and that particular corner was right on a cliff and below it was the Kidron Valley and depending on which of the ancients you read, and of course we can't go there now, the conditions have changed, so there's no way of knowing exactly what it looked like at that time, but depending on who you read, from the top of the wall at that point to the floor of the Kidron Valley was anywhere from 300 to 450 feet. Throw yourself down because if you are the son of God, God will surely save you. If you are the son of God, you can prove your claim by throwing yourself off and God will have to save you.

He's promised to prove God's promises and Satan uses scripture. Quoting from Psalm 91, 11 and 12. Now if you read Psalm 91, it's a wonderful psalm. It's one of your favorites.

If you don't recognize the number right offhand, you'll recognize it immediately if I start reading some of it. Wonderful psalm. He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God and Him I will trust. Surely He shall deliver you from the snare of the fowler and from the perilous pestilence, that's a good one in the days of COVID.

He shall cover you with His feathers and under His wings you shall take refuge and so forth. And what it's promising is for those who are walking with the Lord, God's going to protect you from all of the dangers and challenges, difficulties, dangerous difficulties of life that come your way. But it's not promising that if you manufacture a crisis that God didn't send your way, that God's going to protect you from that. In fact, it's far more likely if you do something stupid like that, God will say, pom, you idiot. We don't presume on God in this way. We don't put God to the test. I'm going to see if you really mean this, God.

He proves His promises over and over and over again in the daily affairs of life. The trials that He brings into our lives, He will bring us safely through until that last one, that's the one that He sends to call us home. And when that one comes, hallelujah, I'm going home. Goodbye, planet Earth. Goodbye, trials and sorrows and pain and all of those things.

We're going to the place where that is all over. But until that time comes, God is going to protect us from every trial. He's going to supply every need. Anything that God brings into our lives, God has already designed the answer to, the supply for, the protection needed. God has been arranged and that's what Psalm 91 tells us. And He tells us that if in the course of life we stumble and dash our foot against a stone, God will, if necessary, even send His angels to bear us up and to keep us safe in that situation. How many of you have experienced things where you're almost sure that God must have put an angel there? I've had things like that.

I didn't see them, of course. When I was in college, I was in an automobile accident that should have taken my life. If you saw the car, you would wonder, how did he get out alive? That's what the patrolman said. How did he get out of that alive? And I had some minor injuries, but I was brought out alive. I can't prove it, but I wouldn't be surprised if God didn't send an angel to protect me.

And there I was. He'll do that. I'm sure you're not going to run my car in front of an 18-wheeler to say, now God, you promised to protect me. Let's see you fulfill your promise.

The day I do that is the day you'll read my, well, the day or two later you'll read my obituary in the Times News, because I'll be gone. So Satan quoted scripture, which reminds us that not everybody who quotes scripture is telling the truth. Not everyone you hear on radio quoting scripture is quoting it correctly, is interpreting it correctly, is telling you the true meaning of it.

They're not all telling you the truth. Not everyone you hear on television quoting scripture is telling you the truth. Just because somebody quotes scripture does not mean that they are communicating truth. They may be lying through their teeth just like the devil and deliberately doing so and deliberately twisting and misusing scripture to try to deceive gullible Christians who wouldn't fall for another temptation.

But if you'll quote scripture, if you'll make it religious, some Christians will just stumble right into the trap because they don't know scripture very well. The devil knows it better than you do. He's been studying it for thousands of years.

He knows how to misuse it. So what did Jesus do to counteract the misuse of scripture by the devil? He quoted scripture and quoted it correctly and quoted a scripture which corrects the misuse of Satan's illegitimate use of scripture.

And interesting, here the language is slightly different. Instead of saying it is written, he says it has been said, which means the same thing, but it probably indicates that he picked up on Satan's little device. Jesus had said to him, it is written, it is written. Satan says back to him, it is written. Jesus says, it has been said. Still the word of God. And he quotes scripture. It has been said, you shall not tempt or test the Lord your God. It's sinful to do what you just suggested that I do.

Throw myself deliberately off of the temple and demand that God send angels to protect me. This tells us Christ quoting scripture to correct scripture. We've got to do that regularly or we will be misled by misuse of scripture by others. We need to know scripture well enough that we know the scripture that will correct the misuse that others make of scripture. But this tells us that scripture does not contradict itself. If Deuteronomy 6 16 says don't test the Lord your God, then you can be sure Psalm 91, 11, and 12 doesn't mean if you throw yourself off the cliff, God's obligated to protect you. Scripture doesn't contradict itself. Therefore, if it seems to, and a lot of people struggle with what they think are contradictions in the Bible, if you think you have some contradiction that you're struggling with, just chalk it up. It's not the scripture that's faulty. It's your understanding that's faulty. It's not the scripture that needs to be corrected by some wise man who's wiser than God and knows what the scripture should have said.

It's your misunderstanding that needs to be corrected. You need to humble yourself under the mighty hand of God. You need to put yourself under the authority of scripture.

You need to ask God to help you understand what scripture means so that you can understand scripture to correct the misuse of scripture that many in our days will employ. Well, the triumph in verses 13 through 15 is very, very wonderful. We find that Jesus exhausted Satan's devices.

Isn't that amazing? Now, verse 13, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time. When the devil had ended every temptation, all the temptations of the 40 days plus the three final ones at the end have exhausted Satan's arsenal for now. He has no weapon left at the moment. Jesus exhausted everyone.

I'll never do that, you'll never do that, but he did. He left the devil with no weapon left in his quiver. He had fired everyone unsuccessfully until they were all gone. Jesus exhausted Satan's devices. Jesus defeated Satan's assaults. And Satan departed from him until a more opportune time, until he had a chance to lick his wounds, think about his weapons, and come back another time and try again, which he did later on. But Satan was defeated for now. Though he returned in the future, he was defeated for now.

And how was he defeated? By the written word of God. My heart is leaning on the word, the written word of God. Salvation through my Savior's name, salvation in his blood.

That's the way that you defeat Satan. And now Jesus begins his assigned mission, preaching in his home region, begins by what? Teaching in the synagogues. He's preaching.

Sabbath day by Sabbath day in the very synagogues in the different towns around in Galilee. That's how he begins his public ministry, preaching in the synagogues on the Sabbath day. Received a favorable response initially and went into this ministry fully prepared by the godly home where he was reared, by his personal study of Scripture, which we find reference to, by the maturing process that took place. Now he's 30 years of age and he's fully mature. By his baptism, which was a necessary obedience to his public identification, and by his amazing victory over temptation, he is fully prepared to carry out his mission.

Now, two significant lessons in conclusion. Number one, what is the significance of Jesus' victory over temptation? Well, first of all, he now, at the end of the temptation, remains the sinless one. He was sinless going into the temptation. He's still the sinless coming out. He's still the sinless one. That's critical. I think I told you that a recent poll showed that I think 47%, I think that was a number, of people who identify themselves as evangelical Christians think that Jesus may be sinned.

What are you thinking? What's your understanding of the gospel? How can there be any vicarious atonement for sin if Jesus had sin of his own?

People who call themselves Christian don't even know the gospel, the simple gospel. He remained the sinless one. He demonstrated that he's superior to Satan.

That's why we don't have to fear. We're not superior to Satan, but the one that we are joined to is. And the one who indwells his children is. And the one who has given us the written word of God is. And he's given us everything we need. And therefore Jesus is qualified to teach us. He's qualified to represent us as our high priest and as our sacrifice on the cross.

He's qualified to die for us. He is fully qualified in his victory over temptation. But secondly, there's significance here for our own temptations, and we need to learn from this. Even though there's some difference, for Christ, temptations were unique. They're not exactly like ours because he had no sin nature, no inward sin. There was nothing in his temptations that could appeal to some sinful impulse inside of him that responded to the temptation, like we have, every one of us. In his case, it was all external enticement. So it was unique, but there are similarities.

And the similarity of appeal cannot be overlooked. He was tempted in regard to physical desire, personal glory, religious presumption, and so will we be in all of those areas. Physical desires, we have them, all kinds.

Let me take one. It's so big in our day, sex. Well, God created us as sexual beings. He created me with a, and here we go, a need for sex. So it must be okay for me to satisfy it in whatever way I can. Or in this day of LBGT, the homosexual, God made me this way.

Did he really? But we'll save that for another time. God made me this way. Therefore, he can't be displeased if I satisfy my need in this way. I know it's opposed to what the Bible says, but God made me this way. God gave me this need.

It's legitimate for me to satisfy this need. Or even something as simple as an unhappy marriage. God wouldn't want me to be unhappy, so he's not going to mind if I ditch my husband or wife and get somebody else to make me happy. God wants me to be happy.

You see how easy it is to justify and rationalize our sin? Now, what did Jesus say to the devil when he appealed to him to satisfy his physical desires? Man shall not live by bread alone. Food is a legitimate need, but it's not the most important need. The most important need is obeying the word of God. Sex is not the most important need. The most important need is obeying the word of God.

Marital happiness, as wonderful as it is, is not the most important need. The most important need is obeying the word of God. The only way you can honor God is to obey his word.

Anytime you step outside his word with whatever justification, and we can fill our minds with justifications that sound very reasonable to us, they can even sound very godly and religious, and they are about as godly and religious as the devil. We must keep going back to the same defense, the word of God. We need to know it.

We need to know how to use it. We need to submit to it. Our logic, our emotions, our desires never, ever, ever, ever trump God's word. Nail that down. If you'll never let that go, you'll honor the Lord with your life. Let's pray. Father, help us to be people of your word. Help us to be determined to obey your word. Oh, Lord God, help us. We are weak. We need the power of your Spirit. Open our hearts to your word and don't let us go. We pray. Amen.