Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church Now, these are 11 kind of short verses, but I hope that you and I understand the context here of how close this could have come to us spending an eternity in hell. If Jesus had swayed just one little bit to the influence or temptation of Satan, our redemption would have been lost forever. These verses show how grateful you and I should be for Jesus Christ and what he did for us. Satan normally always tries to tempt us in three particular areas.

And in these areas there's all kinds of sub-areas that would apply. And you're familiar with these. First thing is the lust of the flesh. The second is the lust of the eyes.

And the third is the pride of life. Now the lust of the flesh means your body wants it. The lust of the eyes means your emotions want it. That's why Eve in the garden, she saw the fruit, it looked good. She made an emotional decision. her emotions wanted it.

The pride of life means your ego wants it. And usually in one of these three areas Satan will tempt the believers. Now I must give you the context of when this particular instance happened. Do you realize that in chapter 3 of Matthew and the last few verses, immediately after the heavens were opened unto Jesus and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus and Jesus was declared to be the Son of God by God. And obviously here as he was not only declared to be the Son of God he was declared to be the Savior of the world. And here it is this wonderful moment as as Jesus obviously is baptized by John and this Holy Spirit like a dove descends on our Savior and he's declared to be the Son of God and obviously the Holy Spirit descending on him and then he as he left he gave us the Holy Spirit to be the comforter and and the guide to us and all these things and immediately after that wonderful victorious moment the next thing we hear about him is he's being tempted. Now there's some things that gain number one is this just because you have been given divine favor or special tokens of grace by God does not mean that you are exempt from temptation. Let me put it this way just because you've been saved for years doesn't mean he's gonna leave you alone. He didn't even leave Jesus alone and right after one of the most victorious moments in Jesus life he didn't leave him alone. The second thing I want you to understand this is normally usually after great honor is put on us or after great privileges given to us Satan normally tempts us right away because that is usually when you and I are susceptible when we've had some great honor or some great privilege or something great has happened to us oftentimes pride can slip in and that's exactly when Satan jumps on us so if you have something wonderful happen in your life you just put the seatbelt on because I'm going to tell you before long you're gonna be humbled. The third thing I want you to understand is this that normally God prepares his people before putting them or allowing them to go to temptation now remember God does not tempt God tests Satan tempts but we find here that Jesus had fasted 40 days and nights in the wilderness and then the Spirit led him up to be tempted so I want you to understand dear friend that the Bible says that Jesus will never put on us more than we can bear and so I'm here to tell you that whatever temptation you face in your life you have the power inside of you through the blood of Jesus Christ to overcome that temptation oftentimes we just don't use it now I'm gonna be honest with you it seems like deader than a doornail in here this morning and I know Satan is fighting me preaching on temptation but you don't need to help him out number one I want you to see this morning Satan's efforts Satan's efforts let's look at what happened and how we can apply it to our life under Satan's efforts number one Satan will tempt you to doubt the Word of God notice if you would verse 1 that Jesus was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted the devil and when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was afterward and hungered and when the tempter came to him he said listen if thou be the Son of God isn't that what God's Word claimed if thou be the Son of God command that these stones be made bread but he meaning Jesus answered and said man shall not live by bread alone but by what every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God now if you've got a piece of paper and a pen and you're keeping notes you need to write this down listen as we look at these verses under the under Satan's efforts and Satan will tempt you to doubt the Word of God number one you got to understand this under this Satan will always do this when you are weary Jesus had just been 40 days and 40 nights fasting in the wilderness he was weary and that means this there was a mental battle going on if many of you if you've ever fasted and we're going to talk about that in a little bit and fasting means that you do without physically to give yourself focus and time on that which is spiritual and many times obviously we say fasting means I'm doing without food for a period of time because I want to give the time that I would normally spend eating food or around food that I can spend that extra time praying to the Lord over spiritual things over a particular subject matter I believe personally that fasting could be food it could be anything else it might be fasting television it might be fasting activity it might be fasting entertainment whatever the case might be whenever there is a special thing in your life a burden or a breakthrough that you need that that means setting aside things that the flesh would desire to give you time and to show God that you are focused on him and we find that Jesus had just done that 40 days and 40 nights he was weary mentally you mark it down that's exactly when Satan's gonna come at you when you're tired he's gonna make you doubt just about everything and everybody that you've ever been taught from the Bible he'll make you doubt what the Bible says he'll make you doubt the promises he'll go through all that why because he always does it when we're weary number two he will always do it when you are weak you see Jesus was weary which means mentally but he was also weak which means physically he had not had food for 40 days and nights he was starved physically now remember he was all God and he was all man but the man side of Jesus was starved he had been without food he was literally probably so weak and by the way if you've ever fasted and those of you that have ever participated in it if you've ever gotten serious into fasting and and eat usually people that are even serious might make it three days that's a very serious fast normally you drink water or something like that but you'll go three days and I have known people that have gone a week I've known people that have actually done the 40 days and and those that have actually tried 40 days literally what they face mentally the attacks of Satan and your body and all those things cannot be described and yet they didn't even have as we know from the book of Mark that Satan was tempting Jesus during these 40 days and nights so they didn't face all that Jesus faced as he had Satan himself on his back there is no way to know the shape Jesus was in mentally and physically and then Satan shows up now listen I mean I want you to get this Satan will come at you when you're tired and when you're weak when you have had mental battles when you are tired physically when you are weak physically and when you have all these things I'm going to tell you Satan will throw lies in your head third thing I want you to see from this is he will always do it when you are wanting what was Jesus wanting he needed physical nourishment he desired that and so Satan came to him because he knew that he was wanting and by the way when Satan when Satan said hey why don't you look at these stones and why don't you make these stones into bread you think about this there was nowhere else to get food in the wilderness where they were there wasn't a McDonald's there wasn't even a garden they were in the wilderness it was dry it was a desert and literally Jesus was famished and he was weak and I'm going to be honest with you there's nothing sinful about eating bread except what dr. Atkins says but other than that there would be nothing inherent sinful about Jesus turning a stone into bread there's something sinful about that he was God he has the right to do whatever he wants to do and it didn't seem like an unreasonable request and that is often how Satan comes at you it sounds reasonable and it sounds like it makes sense but he always has an agenda behind it he looks at Jesus when he's weary when he's weak and he's wanting now why would Satan's do this particular thing if you are really the Son of God why don't you cast these stones and make them bread why was he saying that now listen to me I want you to get this this was an occasion that he was trying to make Jesus question whether or not his father was really taking care of him and this point was this that if you are really the Son of God God would not do this to you if he was really your father why would he allow you to get in a situation where you are this weak and this hungry and provide you nothing to eat you got to understand that what Satan was trying to do was to tempt Jesus he was trying to get Jesus to question his father's care he was trying to get Jesus to question his father's word he was trying to get Jesus to even literally think that I can't believe my father would get me in this kind of condition does that not sound familiar how many times in your life you think if God is loving God and all that I've tried to do all these years why would God let this happen in my life an old Satan creeps up on your shoulder and he begins to make you doubt everything you've ever been taught from the Word of God now Jesus makes a reply here notice this in verse 4 he says it is written by the way that was the reply he gave every time he always used God's Word it is written it is written it is written listen and by the way he wrote it he wrote it he can quote it but it's amazing that even Jesus found it necessary to use God's Word to respond but notice what he says he says man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God now he said it is written where is that written this was a cross reference of Jesus to Deuteronomy chapter 8 and after keeping notes you can write that passage down verses 1 through 3 now let me just read them to you this is what Jesus was talking about it had already been written these promises had already been made listen to this all the commandments which I command thee this day shall ye observe to do that ye may live and multiply and go in and possess the land which the Lord swear unto your fathers here we are the children of Israel and obviously God has made promise to them of the promised land verse 2 listen and thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these 40 years in the wilderness in other words if God's taking you taking care of you all the way from now he'll take care of you the rest of the way listen to this to humble thee and to prove thee to know what was in thy heart whether thou wouldst keep his commandments or no and he humbled thee and suffered thee to hunger Deuteronomy chapter 8 now where is Jesus in Matthew chapter 4 he is hungering Deuteronomy chapter 8 suffer thee to hunger to feed thee with man of which thou knewest not neither did thy fathers know that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live dear friends that have been nothing nothing wrong or sinful about Jesus making a stone into bread but if he had it would have showed that he doubted his father's word and if he had done that it would show that he was doubting his father's care and if he had done that it would show that he was not dependent on the father how many times do you and I we try to meet our needs ourselves instead of trusting the father to do it what's really going on when you and I go ahead of God and we decide we're gonna try to fix things in our life before he does what is really going on is you and I are doubting his word and all the promises in it when God says I will supply every need according to his riches in Christ Jesus when God makes promise after promise like that when you and I try to fix our problems ourselves it is nothing but temptation of Satan and we are literally letting him and everyone know that we doubt the father's word we doubt the father's care and we are not totally dependent upon him Satan will always try to get you to doubt his word he even tried to get Jesus to down it and he wrote it I can't tell you how many times talking to people at church sometimes come for counseling and different things and they say you know I'm getting the point I'm just I'm beginning to doubt everything I've ever been taught why old Satan Satan's tempting you he's putting questions in your mind and you're beginning to doubt whether God's word is really true or whether it's really accurate or whether God's care is really sufficient for you dear friend look at me his word is sufficient his care is sufficient and you can trust him I want you to notice number two Satan will tempt you to alter the will of God he'll tempt you to doubt the Word of God and he will also tempt you to alter the will of God look at verse 5 then the devil taketh him up into the holy city how they get there we don't know we don't know if they walked or we don't know if Jesus and him just went there which they both have the ability to do by the way if you remember as we were talking about angels and Satan and our Wednesday nights we talked about the fact that Satan can move anywhere in the world he wants to in an instant the problem is he can't be everywhere at once like God is so he's limited but Satan can move there and by the way Jesus is God he could he could appear there in a matter of a second just like Satan could too we don't know how they got there I like to just imagine just boom they were there I don't know but we know this in verse 5 that the devil took him the devil led him in other words they will say hey let's go here and notice this he took him up into the holy city which was Jerusalem by the way and said at them on a pinnacle of the temple the highest part of the temple verse 6 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 the stone Jesus said unto him it is written again thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God now Satan's getting a little nastier here he started easy he started with the hundred-dollar question and then he moved on to the $500 question Satan takes Jesus to the temple the holy city Jerusalem and it's the temple in the holy city of Jerusalem now just think about this Jesus takes them up there and he says if you'll just jump off the temple you know the Bible said that he's going to give his angels charge concerning thee and they're going to protect you and as you jump off that temple and they save you and literally you could just almost like glide or fly above everybody and you'll be safe and then now they'll know that you're God and all these things now you say well I don't really know if that would really be tempting preacher oh hold on wait a second think about where he's at they're on top of the temple the religious crowd the very crowd that always gave Jesus problems the religious hypocrites the one that were trying to deny him the ones that were saying he was not God the ones that were saying he was a false prophet the ones that were constantly following everything he did trying to find some way to snag him and to prove him wrong think of how tempting it would be at the temple where they were to finally in front of them show them he's God think about this what an opportunity to show these religious leaders that they were wrong and he was right what an opportunity to turn all the haters into believers if everybody saw that they would think oh my goodness look at that this guy jumps off the temple and angels hold him and bring him to safety of all places to put God right on top of the house of God of all places to tempt Jesus right above the religious crowd and dear friend I'm here to tell you it happens just about every service here at Kerwin Baptist Church Satan tempts you right in God's house you say what do you mean what does he tempt me to do he tries to get you to tempt God and here's why you say well you know what I'll live the way I want to he still has to take me to heaven dear friends that is tempting God for you to say I can do what I want live like I want if I decide I'm just gonna jump off the temple it doesn't matter if it's the will of my father or not I'm gonna do this so I can show everybody that I'm God that's exactly what would happen if Jesus had done what he asked and how many times does God convict our heart in church and we tell him I'm not going to go forward I'm not going to get this right I'm going to keep doing what I want to do and you're still going to take me to heaven anyway dear friends I'm here to tell you what Satan did not he gave some truth in this statement and he left out a bunch of truth what he did not say is that God has promised that when you are in the will of God but the moment you jump out of the will of God protection is not promised now you might get it and you might not but it is not guaranteed or promised apart from the will of the Father now listen to me I want you to get this please listen to me don't don't give up on me yet God did not give us promises in his words so you and I could perform our will God gave us promises to bank on while we're doing his will Satan was doing nothing but trying to get Jesus to perform his will instead of the will of the Father now listen to me it is wrong for you and I to try to use God's power to accomplish our plan that is tempting God it is saying God I'm going to do what I want to do but you're going to have to do what you told me you would do and dear friend look at me no he doesn't that's why Jesus said Satan thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God now listen to me there are those who have been persuaded that Christ is willing to save you from your sins and there are some that actually believe also that he'll save you in your sins I'm here to tell you the blood of Christ will save you from your sins but he has no no I'm trying to think of the word that I could best describe it to you he has no thing applied to him where he has to follow a rule to let you sin and still to save you from that sin listen to me he'll save us from our sins and give us salvation but you determined to do wrong he has no reason that he has to protect you by the way if you think about it once you've been saved he already has protected you and for us to determine I'm gonna do what I want to do and God's gonna have to do what he already said in his word that is tempting God and teenagers I want you to understand something you go and mess around and you do what you want in your life and you go party and you go do things and then you say God you're supposed to give me the wife or the husband that I need for my life and God you're supposed to bless me and God you're supposed to do that no he's not you do what you want to do you take the consequences don't you tempt God and think that God somehow is obligated to do something for you because of his word God's Word was given so that we could do his will with promises not so that we could sin with his guarantee listen to me notice something that I found very encouraging look if you would at verse 6 Satan looks to Jesus and he says this if thou be the Son of God notice this cast thyself down now I don't know if you I don't know if you understood this I was reading it read it read it and I was like whoa listen to me what a guarantee Satan is limited on what he can do he couldn't push Jesus off he can't push you off a building look at me listen James teaches us that all of us listen oftentimes we are tempted we're drawn away of our own lust and enticed that means this that Satan can't entice us but he can't make us do anything if Jesus was going to sin Jesus had to do it himself and oftentimes you say well listen sir I just can't help it Satan made me he didn't make you do anything he can't he's limited Jesus is all-powerful dear friend he can entice you but don't hurt yourself don't jump off the temple on your own he can't make you do that that's a decision you make dear friend Satan is limited in his power and he can tempt and he's got some nasty things he'll do and he'll play with your mind and he'll play with your emotions and he'll come at you and you're weak and you're weary and you're wanting and he'll do all that stuff but I'm here to tell you look at me you got to understand you can still say no because he can't make you he doesn't have that power I guess I was the only one that was excited about that you know why a lot of us aren't excited about that because that means it's our fault we can't blame anybody well mama made this well is it's because of my family and they did this and so that's got to cause this in my life huh huh family doesn't make you do anything Satan doesn't make you do anything it's our decision Oh God if you would clean the church up and clean this old pastor up and we would realize that you know what I don't have to do what Satan intense tempts me to do and I don't have to do what he's enticed me to do greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world dear friends Satan will always try to get you to do your own will instead of the will of the Father and Jesus said hey let me tell you something Satan you get away from me he says this thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God number three we're almost done we find here now remember this is Satan's efforts this is everything that he tried number three Satan will tempt you to neglect your worship of God that always happens by the way bad things happen in people's life what do they do they get out of church and quit their worship but now notice what he tries look at verse 8 again the devil taketh him into an exceeding high mountain now they're in location number three they go from the wilderness to the temple and now they're on top of the high mountain and there's probably three or four mountains that different people believe it wasn't I'm gonna say it because I don't know you can try to work on that yourself if you want to try to figure it out we're not told exactly where there's some good ideas where but we don't know for sure notice what it is and and by the way if God wanted us to if it's something we had to know he had told us everybody wants to spend so much time figuring out things that Jesus didn't tell us why don't we work on obeying what he did tell us that'll keep us busy till he comes right all right that's just a little pet peeve of mine anyway okay verse 8 again the devil taking them up into an exceeding high mountain and show them all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them now that is one picture show he shows him all the kingdoms look at me now get this we're talking kingdoms that weren't even discovered yet we're talking places that nobody had ever been he shows them all the kingdoms notice this and the glory of them he made him beautiful verse 9 and saith unto him all these things will I give thee if thou will fall down and worship me now you say preacher why Satan couldn't have been more blunt there you just worship me now we know Jesus isn't going to do that preacher now hold on when Satan showed him all the kingdoms and the glory of them why would that be so tempting to Jesus why was he there on earth to begin with because he loved them he loved them so much that he left a perfect heaven and came to sin cursed earth simply to be a perfect lamb to die for our sins and how tempting would it be that maybe I could go ahead and get all this kingdom and the glory and not have to suffer for it thank you for listening today we hope you received a blessing from our broadcast the Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville North Carolina you may also contact us by phone at three three six nine nine three five one nine two or via the web at Kerwin Baptist Church calm enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today god bless you