The Crown Without the Cross - Pt. 1

Nothing says Christmas like a water buffalo. For a poor family in Asia, getting a water buffalo is like getting a farm tractor to pull a plow, or getting a milk truck full of delicious milk, or getting a stand at the market to sell cheese. A water buffalo opens the door for work, food, and income. More importantly, it opens the door to talk about Jesus.

And nothing says Christmas better than that. Hello, this is Matt Slick from the Matt Slick Live Podcast where I defend the Christian faith and lay out our foundations of the truth of God's Word. Your chosen Truth Network Podcast is starting in just a few seconds.

Enjoy it, share it, but most of all, thank you for listening and for choosing the Truth Podcast Network. Do you feel like your efforts to reach God, find God, and please God are futile? Do you feel like your faith is dead or alive? Today, Pastor Russ Andrews will walk us through Scripture to answer these questions. Join us on Finding Purpose, a local triangle ministry glorifying God by helping men find their purpose for living.

For more information and to connect with Russ Andrews and Finding Purpose, you can visit us online at findingpurpose.net or connect with us on Facebook. Now let's listen to Russ Andrews as he teaches us how to be a Christian without being religious. I've entitled tonight's message, The Crown Without the Cross. We're going to be looking at Luke chapter 4 verses 1 through 13. So I want to ask you to take your Bibles and turn there. And what I want to talk about tonight is temptation.

And I really want to answer two questions. First, what is temptation? And second, how can we as fallen men overcome it? So first, what is temptation? Temptation is an enticement to commit acts that are contrary to the laws and commandments that God has provided for us in His Word.

And this enticement comes with a promise for gain and pleasure. God is the one who has established what is right and wrong. He's laid out His laws and commandments in His Word. And so temptation is really any seducement or any allurement to go against God's Word. God has given us His Word so that we know what's right and wrong and so that we know how to live our lives in obedience to Him.

But we need a lot of help doing that, don't we? In Greek mythology, the siren was a creature, half bird and half woman, who lured sailors to destruction by the sweet sound of her voice. I remember watching a movie one time.

Did you all see that movie? I can't remember the name of it, but you could hear the sirens. You know, the ships would hear the siren's voice, and they would be drawn to this irresistible song that these sirens were singing, and they would be lured off course, and they would be brought to their destruction upon the rocks. The Greek hero Odysseus escaped this danger by stuffing the ears of his sailors with wax so they could not hear what the sirens were singing, but he wanted to hear it.

And so he ordered his sailors to tie him to the mast so that when he heard the sound of the sirens' voice, he would not steer his ship off course where it would be shipwrecked. Temptation is powerful like that, men. And it's a powerful bait that lures unsuspecting men and women onto a path that leads to destruction and death. And so what I want us to do tonight, I want us to learn from the master how to deal with temptation when you're faced by it, because we are faced with temptation every single day, particularly in the world in which we live. And so I want you to read along with me, beginning with verse 1. Here we are in Luke chapter 4. Luke writes, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil.

He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him, If you're the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Man shall not live on bread alone. The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And he said to him, I will give all their authority and splendor that has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want.

So if you worship me, it will all be yours. Jesus answered, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve him only. Then the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. And he said, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, and then he quoted from Psalm 91, He will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully.

They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered, It says, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. And then it says, When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left Jesus until an opportune time.

And God, Satan, is always looking for an opportune time with you and me. Now I want to share with you some key differences between Jesus and us. As we've already established, Jesus is the God-man. That is, He was, and by the way, He still is a hundred percent man and a hundred percent God. In fact, when John was on the island of Patmos in Revelation 5, he looked up and he saw a lamb who looked as if he'd been slain. He was seeing Jesus in His glorified body, still with the nail prints. He's a man.

That's what Grant, you know, told us when he was here a couple of weeks ago. As God, He does not have any evil desires within Him. However, as a man, He faced the full onslaught of temptation without using any of His divine powers.

I believe that's what made the temptation so tempting, because at any moment He could have unveiled His deity and done whatever He pleased. However, men, before the foundation of the world, the Son submitted to His Father's will in every respect. Paul writes about His self-humiliation, His submission, the submission of the Son to the Father, in Philippians chapter 2, verses 5 through 8.

Listen to what Paul writes. Christ Jesus, who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made Himself nothing. Taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness, and being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on the cross. That's what Jesus did for you and me. He became a man.

Now, here's the question. Could Jesus have given into temptation and sin? Well, first thing I want you to understand is that this is not a question of whether Jesus sinned or not. Scripture is clear that Jesus never what? He never sinned. 1 Peter chapter 2, verse 22 says, He committed no sin and no deceit was found in His mouth. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 says, God made Him who had no sin to be sin for us so that in Him we might become the righteousness of God.

So back to the question. Could Jesus have given in to temptation and sin? Well, according to most theologians, Jesus, even as a man, still possessed His divine nature. Thus, He could not sin.

To believe that Jesus could sin is to believe that God could sin, and God cannot sin. Colossians 2, 9 says, For in Christ all the fullness of the deity lives in bodily form. Jesus was deity veiled in human flesh.

Are you with me? He was fully human, and yet at the same time, He possessed divinity. I believe that what Flippance is teaching us is that he temporarily set aside his divine attributes as he submitted to His Father's will and literally became a man and lived among us. And although Jesus was fully human, He was not born with a sinful nature like you and me. Thus, He did not possess evil desires. He was certainly tempted, I believe, in the same way that we are, in that temptations were put before Him by Satan. Nonetheless, He remained sinless because God is incapable of sinning.

Now guys, some of this is mystery. We can't fully fathom the God-man. And listen, we can't fully understand exactly what He endured during those temptations, but I do believe they were real temptations, but not to do evil, okay? He didn't have evil desires within Him like you and I do.

Now some people respond, Well, if Jesus could not have sinned, then He could not have truly experienced temptation in the same way as mankind. Therefore, He can't really understand. He can't really relate to us.

He can't really understand our struggles and our weaknesses. What does Scripture say about that? God knows everything. He's omniscient. While God has never had the desire to sin, nor has He ever sinned, He certainly understands sin and the nature of sin. He understands that we are men who are made from what?

The dust of the earth. And that we live in a fallen world, and we have a fallen nature. Listen guys, if you don't leave but with one thing tonight, I want you to understand this, Jesus understands us.

Do you know why? Because He became one of us. And listen, He has great sympathy for you and me. That's one of the things I have learned about Jesus that I love so much.

He has been sympathetic towards Russ Andrews, and I didn't deserve it. You see, He fully understands why we give into temptation, because more than any other man who's ever lived, He faced the full magnitude of the lure of temptation. Think about blowing up a balloon. You know, the more you blow in it, it expands until the pressure on the inside is more than that on the outside, it explodes. So how much, and think of the air that's going in as the temptation. How much temptation, how much air does it take before your balloon pops?

Not much. But see, if you resist temptation, the pressure keeps building. Jesus never gave in to temptation.

Do you understand? He faced more pressure from temptation because He resisted it to the full extent. And guys, let me tell you something. Because of what He went through, He understands what we're dealing with, men. He was a man. Hebrews 4, 14 through 16 says, Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way.

Did you all hear that? In every way, just as we are, yet was without sin. Then He goes on to say, Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that what? So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our hour of need. I bet some of you coming here tonight, probably with a guilty conscience over something where you gave in to temptation in the last week. And you probably have had some guilt, some anxiety.

So let me ask you this. Do you think Jesus wants to condemn you? The Bible says He did not come to condemn the world, but to what?

Save the world. And the Bible says He delights in showing mercy. And so as a believer, if you've sinned, what should you do? Run to the throne of grace.

He's right there like the father of the prodigal with open arms saying, Come to me, all who will, who are weary and burdened, I'll give you rest. And that's where you find grace and mercy. I've been to the throne of grace so many times it's ridiculous. How many times can you go before you run out of opportunities? You don't run out.

Infinite. So now I want us to look at these temptations. How was Jesus tempted? I believe He was tempted in three ways.

Physically, psychologically, and spiritually. In other words, the entire humanity of Jesus was tempted. His mind, His body, and His soul.

And guess what guys? That's what Satan wants to do with you and me. He comes after our whole being.

Our mind and our body and our soul. And what he does, he wants to destroy us. And he begins on the inside and works his way out.

Literally killing as he goes about his work. So let's take these temptations separately. First, Satan appealed to Jesus' physical desire for food.

Do you know why? He was hungry. He was hungry like you and I were hungry.

After Jesus was baptized, we learned about that last week. He was full of who? Is the Holy Spirit an it?

No, it's the third person of the Godhead. He was full of the Holy Spirit. And then the Spirit led him into the desert to be tested. And so for 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus ate nothing. Can you imagine the hunger pains he must have been dealing with? I remember years ago, I decided I was going to fast for 24 hours. Now guys, I'm not bragging because I've only done it about...

I can't count on how many times I've done it. And so I got up, I was going to go 24 hours and I made it through breakfast, I made it through lunch with no problem and I came home and I was determined I was going to walk through that kitchen and bypass the stove. And I walked in after a long day at work with an empty tank and when I came through the door, this incredible aroma hit me in my nostrils. My wife, Crecy, was cooking a feast for our two sons who were probably 12 and 10 at the time. She had a pork loin roast in the oven.

She had stewed corn on the stove with mashed potatoes and snap beans. And I walked right on by. I said, Lord, please help me.

And after I'd been home for a little while, Crecy said, Russ, I need to run out for a minute. I'm afraid the corn is going to burn. Do you mind stirring it while I'm gone?

And I said, well, okay, I'll do that. You need to understand that corn was my favorite vegetable growing up. I grew up in Bethel and we had some farmland and we grew corn. You ever tasted good, early corn?

It's good in it, Neil. Well, my mother used to put up, she would spend three or four days putting up jars of corn and we would have it all throughout the winter. In fact, I ate so much at one time I threw up, but that's another story. And so Crecy learned how to cook corn like my mother. So I went over there and I took that lid off. Gosh, that smells good. I took that spoon and I started stirring. And then this little thought entered my mind. You know, it really won't be breaking a fast if I just take one bite. So I took one bite.

Gosh, I can taste it right now. I took another bite. And then I turned around and I grabbed a plate from the cabinet. Nobody was in the kitchen but me.

The boys were out playing. Crecy's gone. And I took the pork roast out of the oven and I cut me two big pieces of meat. And I piled up my plate with corn and snap beans and mashed potatoes. And I devoured it.

And it was good. Did you know that sin, the Bible says, tastes good for a while? But then you wake up and it's a disaster. But listen, what I've just described to you is a picture of the way temptation works. When you are weak, the devil will appear and ask you to stir the corn. And you say, okay, I'm just going to take one little stir. Not that big a deal. As Jesus dealt with his hunger pains, the devil appeared to him out of nowhere in the kitchen. I listen.

It didn't say this but Kent Hughes said this and I think he's probably right. How do you think the devil appeared? As a wimpy little former angel?

No, in splendor, glorious, powerful. And remember, his name used to be Lucifer. And he was the most beautiful angel in all of heaven and the most powerful next to God. But he wanted to be like God. And he had seen the Son in His form of glory sharing the throne with His heavenly Father. Now here is this Son in a frail human body, just dying with hunger pains. And this powerful being stands before the Son, Jesus, and says, If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to turn into bread. In essence, what Satan said was, since you are the Son of God, see Satan knew it. He believed it.

Then tell your Father to take care of you. That's what he did for the Israelites for 40 years when they wandered through the desert and he took care of them. He gave them manna and quail.

Certainly, if you really are the Son of God, He'll do the same for you. Again, Jesus had been going without food for 40 long days and he felt he was dying as the hunger pains convulsed his body. And since he had the power to turn stones into bread, his body was screaming, Do it. You think that wasn't a temptation, not from evil, but to do something good.

This temptation, I believe, was both physical and spiritual in nature. If he gave in, he would usurp his Father's will, who led him to actually fast and who had promised to take care of him. And yet he was starving.

His body craved nourishment. In spite of the hunger pains, Jesus was faithful. According to Matthew chapter 4 verse 4, Jesus responded, It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.

What's the lesson there? Our life does not consist of what we have, what we eat, but on nourishment from the Word of God. You see, Jesus believed God's Word and He trusted in His Heavenly Father to take care of Him. And therefore, He was faithful. What should we say to Jesus right now?

Thank you, Jesus. Because He was faithful, we are sitting here tonight. If that was the first temptation, and Jesus passed it with flying colors, but Satan pushed a little harder and a little deeper with his second one. He appealed to his psychological desire to get the crown without the cross, to bypass the pain and suffering and just go straight to the kingdom. And so the Bible says the devil took him up to the top of a high mountain and he somehow showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And then the ruler of this world, 1 John 5.19 says, The whole world is under control of who? The evil one.

Did you all know that? I mean, he has limited control. He's like a lion on a chain, but he has control of the world. And he said to Jesus, All of these kingdoms which have been given to me, I'll give to you if you just do one thing.

Bow your knee and worship me and it will all be yours. You think that wasn't a temptation? Jesus came into this world to do what? To establish His kingdom on earth. His greatest desire was for the people of the world to worship His Father and to follow Him so that He could give you and me eternal life. However, His greatest dread was the cross.

Remember? Before His arrest in the garden, He was asking His Father what? If it's possible, Father, take this cup from Me.

But not My will, but Thy will be done. And He was so full of anxiety over what He was getting ready to face. I don't think it was the pain and suffering, although that was part of it. It was going to be the first time when the Father looked away as He took our filthy sins upon His body. And so He dreaded the cross.

And His anxiety was so severe that He perspired blood. And so here He was being presented with a way to establish His kingdom on earth and avoid the cross. I don't think we can imagine how tempting this was to Jesus in His humanity. Just a quick bow. Just a fleeting moment of recognition before this beautiful, powerful being. It would pass in an instant, and then His kingdom would come to this earth in all of its glory.

Just a quick little nod. Imagine Jesus in this weakened condition existing in a frail human body before this imposing being masquerading as an angel of light. I believe in the unseen realm. All of the heavenly angels watched to see how the Son would respond, because they didn't know. They weren't omniscient. Did Jesus disappoint them?

No. He replied to the devil, It is written, Worship the Lord your God and serve Him only. Please remain faithful.

What should we say? Thank you, Jesus. When I prepared a lot of this today, I really was so thankful as I thought about what Jesus did for us. This is just the beginning of the battle. He's got three more years of battling this foe all the way to the cross when He's going to cry out three words.

What are those three words? It is finished. And, guys, He did it for you and me. But He's still got a long battle ahead of Him.

Three more years. So the devil upped the ante. This time Satan appealed to his spiritual desire to know and feel the love of his heavenly Father, a love that he had never been without. The devil took him to the highest place on the Temple Mount, which I believe is the corner, the southeast corner of the wall.

I've looked at it with some people that traveled to Israel with us three years ago from the other side of the Kidron Valley, and it's a 450 drop to the bottom. And so somehow Satan and Jesus are standing there on the edge of that wall looking down. And once again the devil in his splendor and beauty said, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here for it's written. Now, listen, Jesus has been quoting Scripture. Now Satan's quoting it. You think Satan doesn't know what the Bible says? He said, Jesus, He will command His angels concerning you to guard you carefully.

They will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. I believe this was the most powerful temptation that Jesus faced. You see, the Son, as I said, had enjoyed fellowship with His Father from eternity past. And not only had the Father not fed Him yet, but then now the devil was questioning the love of the Father for His one and only Son. And Satan reminded Jesus by quoting Psalm 91 that God promised to take care of Him, anyone who trusts in Him.

You know what he was saying to Jesus? Just prove it. Prove it to the world. If you really are the Son of God, prove it.

And the whole world will know who you really are. Do it now and you can avoid the cross. Just a shortcut to the kingdom.

Bypass the pain and suffering. But once again, Jesus was faithful to His Father. He replied, it says, do not put the Lord your God to the test. See man, Jesus was faithful all the way to the end.

So what should we say? Thank you, Jesus. Then it says, when the devil had finished testing Him, Satan left to wait for another opportunity.

And man, that's what he does for you and me. You pass one test, there's another one coming. At the beginning I said we were going to answer two questions. First, what is temptation? We have established that temptation is an allurement or an enticement to sin against God's Word for pleasure or gain. Jesus was all for the world.

But to take it, He would have to go against His Father's Word and will, and He refused. So the second question, and the one that I want to camp out on as we end tonight, is this. How do we overcome temptation? Well, to answer this question, I want you to take your Bibles and turn with me back to the book of James, right after Hebrews. In James chapter 1, we're going to look at verses 13, 14, and 15.

Okay? I think that was part of your homework assignment this week. James 1, 13, 14, and 15. Here's what James writes. When tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when by his own evil desire he is dragged away and enticed. Then after desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.

Any of you ever experienced that deadly cycle? Let me give you some truths about temptation. First, temptation in and of itself is not sin. You can let the birds fly over you, but don't let them build a nest. Yeah, that's when it becomes sin. This temptation becomes sin when you get into it. This is the Truth Network.