LUKE 4:3-13 THE DEVILS TACTICS2011 Teaching by Jerry B Simmons

Teaching Transcript: Luke 4:3-13 The Devils Tactics

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Well, last week we began this portion just looking at verses 1 and 2.

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And in looking at verses 1 and 2, we pointed out three things about how to survive a season of trials. We all face those seasons of trials in our lives. And the way to survive those seasons and to stand fast through them, first of all, we saw that we needed to be filled with the Spirit.

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Second, we needed to be led by the Spirit. And then thirdly, we needed to persevere, to endure through the trial that God has us in. And so those things are very important as we studied last week. And we will come back and revisit those same topics next week. But I want to continue to encourage you and remind you.

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to be filled with the Spirit, to be led by the Spirit and to persevere in the things that are in front of you right now in the life that you're experiencing.

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Well, as we continue on in this passage, looking at verses 3 through 13, what we have before us is really an amazing passage. There's some great depth here to this passage, and we're going to spend a few weeks studying through verses 3 through 13 and understanding really what is taking place here and what it means for us as believers in Jesus.

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One of the things that we'll be talking about in the next couple of weeks is the proof that we have here. You see, this passage is amazing because it proves the sinless nature of Jesus.

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And yet at the same time, it proves and it shows his ability to relate to us who are sinners. And so it shows his sinlessness, but it also shows how we can relate to him and how he relates to us. In the same way that the author of Hebrews said in Hebrews chapter 4, we have a sympathetic high priest.

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who understands what we're going through because he was tempted in all points as we are, yet without sin. And so we get to see a snapshot of that, of the temptations that he experienced that are very similar to what we experience and we can understand how he can be sympathetic and understanding towards us. And he's not, you know,

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often some distant thing, wondering how can these people struggle with sin. He was right here on the earth facing temptation and he knows what it's like.

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And so we want to spend some time looking at this passage and today specifically looking at how we can relate to these temptations that Jesus experienced. I want to take some time to consider with you how the devil uses these same tactics in our lives.

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It's interesting as you talk about temptation and the work of the enemy, Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 2 that we are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

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That is, we're not ignorant of His methods, of His tactics. We know what He does. We know how He does it. We know how He operates. It's not some great mystery. You know, there's the saying that the Lord works in mysterious ways, and there's a lot of things about God that we don't fully understand, and there's ways that He's working that we don't quite get.

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Yet when it comes to the tactics of the enemy, we have seen throughout the scripture that he is quite predictable. And here in this passage, we have some great insights on his attacks, on his tactics that he uses.

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Now, Jesus was tempted more than just these three times that we have recorded here. It says that he was tempted actually for 40 days. That's what we studied last week. But these ones are recorded so that we can learn the devil's tactics. These are kind of his three most used attacks or his three most effective attacks. And we see that throughout the scripture. In 1 John 2, verse 16,

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The Apostle John says, all that is in the world, and he mentions three things, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. He says those are not of the Father, but those are of the world. Well, those three things parallel these temptations that we will see in the life of Jesus. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

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Those same three things we see paralleled in the situation with Eve in the Garden of Eden when she fell into sin in Genesis chapter 3. The temptation that she experienced was also along that same lines, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, as well as the pride of life. And so what we have here is Satan's moves, his tactics that he's been using from the very beginning there in the Garden of Eden.

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I kind of liken it to, you know, if you're a sports team or you're into sports and you're studying your opponent, right? And you go and you watch the videos or you watch the games, you watch the match and you see what kind of moves do they have? What are they doing? Where are they strong? How are they operating?

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And in a similar way, what we get to see here is the enemy, his best shots, the big guns that he pulls out in order to try to take down Jesus with these temptations. And so there's four things I'd like to point out to you this morning about temptation and the enemy's tactics. And the first one begins in verses 3 and 4. And what we see here is the temptation to provide for yourself.

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Again, relating this to what we experience in our life, what we see here is the temptation to provide for yourself. Read again verses 3 and 4. It says this, 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.

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Here in this first temptation that is recorded here, we have the parallel in 1 John 2, verse 16, is the lust of the flesh. The lust of the flesh is the temptation that's going on here. And to me, as I look at this temptation, it's just plain cruel.

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It reminds me that the devil is not looking for a fair fight. He's not looking, you know, for some, you know, good sportsmanship. He's looking to take advantage of anyone any way he can. I say that because at this time, what we saw in verse 2 was that Jesus is hungry. He's been in the wilderness for 40 days. He's been fasting for those 40 days. He has not been eating for those 40 days. Now,

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Long-term fasts are interesting because, well, what they say is that the first week is when you experience the hunger pains, right?

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But beyond that first week, those hunger pains subside and your body kind of gets used to, you know, pulling from the reserves. All of us have a little bit of reserves, you know, right here on the middle and some other places as well. But the body kind of goes into the mode of pulling from those reserves and it's able to survive off those mass storehouses that we have.

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And so the hunger pains go away, but what they say is that when the hunger pains come back, that's your body's way of telling you, listen, I've run out of the storehouse. I mean, there's no reserves left. And so now if you don't start to feed me, I'm going to have to start to eat your organs. And so the body will deteriorate, cause the organs to deteriorate as it gets the necessary fuel that it needs to be able to continue.

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And so the organs will start to break down at that point. And that is, you know, heading into that starvation when the body begins to eat its own organs in order to survive. And so that hunger coming again, it says after the 40 days that Jesus was hungry, that's an indication that his body is probably at that point, that the reserves are all gone. His body is heading into, about to go into starvation mode where it begins to eat the organs within him.

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And so it's at this critical point that the enemy comes and says, hey, why don't you have a loaf of bread? And so he tempts him with food at his very weakened and very hungered condition. And he does this by coming to Jesus and he says there in verse 3, if you are the son of God.

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Now as he says the word if there at the beginning, understand it's not a question. He's not wondering maybe Jesus is the Son of God or not. Really, the way it could be translated is, since you are the Son of God. Since you are the Son of God, he says, command this stone to become bread. Can you hear the seduction and deception there in the devil's voice? The devil's saying, look, you're the Son of God.

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You don't have to be hungry. You deserve better than this. You don't have to stay in this condition. You can make for yourself bread from the stones. You don't have to continue this way. You are the Son of God. And so it's this powerful temptation that the enemy is bringing to him. But of course, Jesus resists.

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And he resists, he responds with the word of God, which he does in all three cases, as we'll see. He quotes from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. We're going to come back and study these references in a couple weeks, but I would encourage you to check it out on your own. Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3. He quotes from that, and there in verse 4 it says, Jesus answered him saying, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

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And so there's a lesson for us here. We are to obey God first and all the other things that we need, including food, will be added. You remember what Jesus taught in Matthew chapter 6 verse 33? He said, seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other things will be added to you.

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What are the all these things that he makes reference to there? Well, if you look back in Matthew chapter 6, he's talking about food, he's talking about clothing, he's talking about those things that we need in order to live. He says, look, don't worry about those things. Instead, seek first the kingdom of God and then all of those things will be added to you.

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And so that's the lesson that he's practicing for us. He's seeking first God. He says, look, man does not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. In other words, my responsibility, Jesus says, according to the Bible, is to obey God first, even before eating, even before providing my own nutritional needs, I must obey God first.

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Now, as we look at this temptation that Jesus experienced, I would ask you, are you ever tempted to turn stones to bread? Probably not, right? We don't have that power. Jesus had the power, so the temptation was real for him. But for us, we don't have the power to turn stones to bread. If you do, come see me afterwards. You know, I would like to enjoy that. But let me ask it another way. Looking at the principle of what's going on here.

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Are you ever tempted to provide for yourself? That's the temptation that was going on. Satan is trying to get him to provide for himself. Are you tempted to provide for yourself? You see, Jesus, if he would have turned stones to bread, it would have been sinful.

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Not because there's a verse somewhere that says, you know, thou shalt not turn stones to bread. No, it's not like a direct violation of the scripture to turn stones to bread. But it would have been sinful for Jesus to do so because the Father had not instructed him to turn the stones to bread. You remember, it was the Holy Spirit who led him into the wilderness. God put him there.

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And the Father, for whatever reason, chose not to provide food for His time in the wilderness. He's God. He can make those kinds of decisions. Jesus' responsibility was not to provide for Himself. It would have been a misuse of His power. It would have been an act of unbelief in God's provision as well as God's direction for Him to make the stones into bread for Himself. It would have been unbelief. It would have been misuse.

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He was to be submitted to the Father. And God put him there. And God didn't provide food. God didn't instruct him to get food or to make food. So he was to wait until the Father gave him what he needed. Now you and I may not have that same power to turn stones to bread. But we do face the same temptation with the resources that we do have.

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We have resources. We have free will. We have choices that we have to make. And there's a great many ways that you and I are tempted to provide for ourselves, to meet our own needs instead of letting God meet the needs in His way, in His time.

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Now I'm going to give you a few examples. This isn't the full extent of the way this works, but as I give these examples, they're for you to consider in your own life and see how is this temptation manifesting itself for you personally. How is it working in your life? One example of how we are tempted to provide for ourselves is in the area of relationships. Boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife,

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If you remember your single days, or for those of you who are here and you're living in your single days, there is a great temptation in that time to provide for yourself. You know, perhaps you've been single for a long time. Now, if you remember when you were really young, three months is like forever, right? I mean, that's a long time to not be in a relationship. But maybe it's been years. Maybe you are hungering for a relationship in the same way that Jesus hungered for food.

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And so you're there in that condition. It doesn't look like God's providing. There's just nobody around. There's nobody eligible. There's no one that you could see that God has provided for you. And at that time, there can be a very great temptation to provide for yourself, to go outside of the kingdom of God to try to find a boyfriend or girlfriend, which is clearly forbidden in Scripture. We are not to be unequally yoked.

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And yet so many Christians get involved in these dating relationships with others who are unbelievers. Why is that? Well, because of this great temptation to provide for yourself. Because there's a great temptation. It doesn't look like God's meeting the need. I have to take matters into my own hands. And we justify it in our own minds. Yeah, she's an unbeliever, but she's going to come around. She lets me pray with her and stuff. And so I think she's going to get saved.

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Or, yeah, he's not a Christian, but you know, he's so nice and I could spend my whole life with him. And we begin to justify and provide for ourselves disregarding what God has instructed in his word because it looks like God's not providing. No, instead, wait. Let God provide in his will, in his way, in his time.

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Well, another example of how we are tempted to provide for ourselves is in the area of sexual relationships. Moving on to married couples or still dealing with single people, it's the same thing. We all have to face the temptation of providing for ourselves in regards to sex. Now, Jesus fasted 40 days without food. How many of you have ever... You don't have to raise your hand. I'm just kidding. How many of you have fasted 40 days from sex?

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Now, you know, in your single days, it had to be years, right? You had to go without. You had to fast. But even as married people, there is a fast from time to time. There's seasons where there's not sexual relationship between husband and wife, whether it be for good reasons or bad reasons. But whatever the case may be, there's a desire that builds, right?

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There's physical things, there's hormones that kind of add to the problem and there's this great drive, there's this great need for a sexual relationship. And then comes in this temptation to provide for yourself. For a single person, understand, the only sexual relationship that God approves of, that is not sinful, is a relationship that takes place between husband and wife within a marriage.

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That's the only sexual relationship that is not sinful. Anything else, whatever you want to call it, it's sinful. It's wrong. It's trying to provide for yourself instead of letting God provide for you. But I don't have a husband. I don't have a wife. How am I supposed to? I have needs, don't you know? God knows. He has you where He has you. Let Him provide in His time. Don't take matters into your own hands.

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But then the same happens within a marriage. And there will be temptation for a husband or for a wife to provide for themselves in the area of sexual relationships. And it may take the form of pornography and you may justify yourself and say, well, you know, she's just not giving me what I need. I have needs. I'm a man. It might be a relationship that's outside of the marriage. And he or she is saying, you know, again, they're just not providing what I need. This is the way I can get what I need.

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Can't live in this condition. It might come in the form of you just gratifying yourself. Because again...

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I have these needs. There's this drive. There's this temptation to provide for yourself. And as a result, Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 7, verse 5, he gives instruction to husbands and wives, something we need to pay attention to. He says, Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time that you may give yourselves to fasting and prayer and come together again, notice, so that Satan does not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

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See, look, this is a common area of temptation. We may not like to talk about it a whole lot, but it's a common area of temptation for husbands, for wives, for single people to provide our own sexual relationships because we feel like God is not taking care of it. But he says, look, don't separate for too long, husband and wife, because that is a common tactic of the enemy to tempt you to provide for yourself.

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One final example of how we're tempted to provide for ourselves. I would suggest to you in the use of credit cards, we're tempted all the time. Now, not that using a credit card in and of itself is sinful, but we are tempted to spend what we don't have to get what we want. Now listen, God can give you as much money as the world has. I mean, He can give you money to buy France if He wants to. He's not limited.

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I don't know why you'd want to buy France, but he's not limited. He can give you whatever he wants. He can provide for you. He knows how. It's not hard for him. If he wants you to have that thing that you want so desperately, he can give you the means and the resources. If he wants you to go on that vacation that you're desiring so desperately, he can give you the means and the resources. If he wants you to enjoy that evening out or whatever the case may be, he can provide. He knows how to do so.

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But what we often do is we want it, we need to go on vacation, we have this situation, and we just take matters into our own hands and provide for ourselves because it looks like God's not providing. Instead of waiting for Him to provide, we go out and we do it on our own using the credit cards that have been provided to us.

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Now again, not that it's automatically wrong if you use a credit card, but something to seek the Lord on. We don't have the right, we don't have the authority to just do whatever we want whenever we want to. We need to be submitted to the will of God and to the ways of God. Now there's many other ways that we are tempted to provide for ourselves and I'd encourage you to consider that and see how is that taking place in your life.

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But the point here again is that we don't have the authority to provide for ourselves. God knows your need and you must allow Him to meet those needs and not just try to take care of it on your own. Well, the second temptation that we see found in verses 5 through 8 is the temptation to take the easy way out.

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Look at verse 5 through 8 again. It says, Then the devil, taking him up on a high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to him, All this authority I will give you, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Verse 7. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours. And Jesus answered and said to him, Get behind me, Satan, for it is written, You...

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So here we see now the lust of the eyes. There in verse 5, the devil takes him and shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. There's this supernatural experience that's going on where the devil shows him everything. All of humanity, all the kingdoms of the world, perhaps all of humanity throughout history. And he says to Jesus, look at all this.

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It's yours for just one little thing. Just one little price to pay. One little condition. All you have to do is worship me. Just bow down before me and I'll give you the whole world. All the kingdoms of the earth. Now we know that Jesus loves the world. I mean, that's why he became a man to begin with, right? Because he loves us. He was concerned about our condition. And we know that the cross was exceedingly difficult for him.

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We saw that there in the Garden of Gethsemane where He's sorrowful, He's overwhelmed, He's praying, Lord, any other way, please let it be that way. He's dripping sweat with great drops of blood in it as a result of the great stress that He's under because of the cross. So we know the cross was hard. We know He loves the world. And so this offer to get the world without going to the cross would be much easier. It would be painless.

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for the moment. Because if he did bow down before the devil, of course, all hope for humanity would be lost for the rest of eternity. But for that moment, for that season, there wouldn't be pain. It would be much easier. Now Jesus resists the temptation once again with the scripture, quoting from Deuteronomy chapter 10 verse 20. He says here in verse 8, "...you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve."

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The lesson we have here is to worship God only and to compromise, to take the easy way out, is to worship other gods. It's idolatry. Now if I were to ask you, are you tempted to worship the devil? I don't think many of you would respond that you are. But if I were to ask, are you tempted to compromise? Are you tempted to take the easy way out? All of us, if we were honest, would have to say, yeah, there is that temptation in my life. I do experience that.

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But what that equates to is idolatry if we give in to that temptation. Worshipping other gods. Let me give you a couple of examples. In the area of parents with their children. We have a good example of this in the Old Testament in 1 Samuel chapter 2. And parent, if you're not familiar with 1 Samuel chapter 2, you need to study it. You need to spend some time in it and allow God to speak to you there.

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It's the account of Eli, the priest, and his sons. He had two sons who were very wicked. They were abusing their power as priests. They were taking from the offerings that were given what they weren't supposed to take. They were committing sexual immorality with the ladies who were there coming to the temple to worship.

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And Eli sees what's going on. He knows what's happening, but he doesn't deal with it. He doesn't bring any correction. He doesn't bring discipline. He just lets them continue on in their wickedness. He does tell them, hey guys, that's not right. You shouldn't do that. But that's the extent of his discipline. He just says something, but he doesn't actually bring the correction that is necessary. And so God sends a prophet to Eli. He sends a prophet to Eli to rebuke him.

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God says through this prophet in 1 Samuel 2, verse 29, he says, Why do you kick at my sacrifice and my offering which I have commanded in my dwelling place? Notice he says, And honor your sons more than me to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel my people. God says to Eli, Eli, you honor your sons more than you honor me.

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Because you allow them to continue on in this wickedness. You see, Eli took the easy way out. Instead of disciplining his sons, instead of bringing the correction that was necessary, because of course, that's difficult, that's hard, it's painful, it's hurtful. It's not easy for a parent to do so.

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Instead of bringing the correction that was necessary though and disciplining his sons, he let them continue. And God says, in doing so, you honor them more than me. You're worshiping them instead of me. You're placing them of more importance and more value than me because you don't want to deal with them. You don't want to address the situation. You don't want to bring correction. Listen, parents, you need to discipline and disciple your children

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And that's going to be hard. And they're going to fight against it. And it's going to be easier to let them do what they want. It's going to be easier to try to be their best friend. But to do so, to allow them to continue in wickedness, to continue in sin, and not really address it, not really deal with it, is to honor them more than the Lord. It's taking the easy way out so you don't have to deal with the conflict.

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Well, another example of where this takes place, we're tempted to take the easy way out in the workplace. Depending on what your objective is, you know, if it's to get more money, there's all kinds of opportunity to, you know, bend the rules, to stretch the morality, to lie, to cheat, to steal. There's many opportunities to compromise in order to meet your objective of getting more money. But then your God, the one that you're worshipping, is the more money that you're after and you're not holding fast to that.

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to the true and living God. Or if your objective is to get along with everybody, and so you know you're participating in the jokes, you're participating in the stories that are not right, you're not standing up for righteousness, you're not being true to your commitment to the Lord, well then you're loving them, you're honoring them, you're taking the easy way out. It's easier to get along with everybody...

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than it is to stand up for righteousness. Or maybe your objective is to climb the ladder. You want to be the boss. You want to be on top. And you know what? Maybe God has that in store for you. But His way is not going to involve lying, cheating, stealing. His way is not going to involve you having to violate your integrity. His way will come with obedience, with faithfulness, with servanthood. It's the harder way. You can take the easy way out and get to the top.

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But that's honoring something else before God. It's worshiping another God. Another example of this that we see happen all the time, even, and I'm talking specifically about within the church, and that's the area of marriage. You know, marriage is hard and it takes work. And that's why there's a potluck on Saturday, so make sure you go. Even the best marriages are hard and they take work. It's not just effortless and it just happens, you know, automatically.

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Now, with that being said, many people feel like they're stuck in just a really bad marriage. And for a person who feels like they're stuck in a bad marriage, there's a great temptation to take the easy way out. Peter tells the wives in 1 Peter 3, verse 1, listen, even if you have an unbelieving husband, you stay, you be submitted to him.

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So that he could be won by your actions, by your obedience to God. You don't even have to use words. You don't have to nag or hound him. Just show that the word of God is real and alive by the way that you live. Paul tells the husbands in Ephesians chapter 5, listen guys, love your wives as Christ loved the church. Now how did Christ love the church?

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He didn't wait for the church to be all beautiful and nice and lovely and all, you know, fully submitted and want to be with Him. He didn't wait for that. He sacrificed Himself. He gave Himself for us when we were against Him, when we hated Him, when we crucified Him. He loved us and gave Himself for us. Husbands, you may feel like you're stuck in a bad marriage. Your wife maybe hates you and she's trying to crucify you.

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That's the perfect opportunity for you to love her like Christ loved the church. Serious. Don't take the easy way out. Just try to get out of the marriage. Separation is not a way for you to work on your marriage. That's just the bottom line, guys. Separation is not a way for you to work on the marriage. That's easy way out. You know what separation often is, although we won't say this out loud?

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Many times, separation is a way for you to put the spouse in a position where you hope they walk away first so that you don't feel guilty about getting a divorce. Trying to set them up to fall so that we don't feel guilty. So that we don't feel so bad. Don't take the easy way out. Divorce, I know it's rough and it's messy and it's difficult, but it's the easy way out. God wants you to stick it out. He wants you to persist. He wants you to stay there.

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Remember I shared with you, I think it was last week or the week before, you need to get it out of your head that God always wants you to be happy. That is not God's priority. But that's the justification for many actions that we take. Well, God must want me to be happy, so I'm not happy now. We got to separate. I'm not happy now. We got to divorce. We got to get out of this situation because I'm not happy. Listen, there's two problems with basing decisions on whether or not you're happy. The first problem is...

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You don't know what will make you happy. You know there's a saying, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence? You know why they have that saying? Because the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Wherever we are in life, the single person looks at marriage and goes, man, that's so wonderful. I'm so miserable because I don't have that. The married person looks at the single people and goes, that's so wonderful. I remember those days. It would be so much easier if I wasn't married.

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The unemployed looks at the person who has a job and says, "Oh man, it's got to be great." The person who has a job looks at the unemployed, "Oh, it must be so wonderful for you." It's always greener on the other side. We don't know what's going to make us happy. We're bad judges of that. So making decisions based on what we think will make us happy, that's foolish to begin with. But the second reason why is that your temporary happiness is not usually what's best for you in the long run, especially eternity.

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And so God's not primarily concerned about our immediate happiness. He wants to bless us. He's going to work in our lives. But that's not the basis for everything in our lives. Now, in regards to what I was sharing about marriage, are there exceptions to this? Absolutely. There's two exceptions. You can write them down if you need to. Number one, you need to separate if there's physical abuse or danger. Then separation is necessary. It needs to be immediate. You need to do it right now.

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If there's danger, if there's physical abuse, absolutely. You don't have to stay in that situation. The second exception is in the case of infidelity. If your spouse has not been faithful and been having sexual relationships outside the marriage, then the scripture allows for divorce. Now, I would point out it's not required, it's not preferred, but it is allowed. And so those are the two exceptions. Other than that, God wants you to stick it out.

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What God has put together, let not man put apart. Now again, there's many other ways of how we are tempted to take the easy way out. But the point is, we cannot compromise and do so. We must, as Jesus said, lose our life in order to find it. We must submit to God's plan, even if it's the more difficult one.

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Well, point number three, as we look at verses nine through 12, is we find the temptation to glorify yourself. Verse nine says, then he brought him to Jerusalem, set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, 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 and

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And Jesus answered and said to him, It has been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. And so here we find the third area of the enemy's arsenal, the pride of life, the temptation to glorify self. Here he takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple. It was a high point of the temple, probably about 400 feet above the courtyard area.

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Now, from that point is where the priest would watch the sunrise. As the sun would come up, then he would give the signal so that the people down below would be able to offer the morning sacrifices. It was a point that was familiar to them. And so he takes Jesus up there. He says, why don't you jump off? And this time he uses scripture. He quotes from Psalm chapter 91. He says, look, God has promised to protect you. His angels are going to keep you. You're not going to dash your foot against a stone.

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So he incorporates the word of God into this temptation, which is no surprise because he knows the word and he uses the word. He twists it, he uses it out of context, and that's what he does here. The devil is saying, look, since you are the son of God, you have God's protection, you can't get hurt, why not show everyone who you really are and prove to them that you're the Messiah? Now what's interesting about this is there was a tradition of the day where

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that the Messiah would reveal Himself there on the pinnacle of the temple. And so, the enemy takes Him there. He's like, look, everybody's expecting you to be up here. Why don't you jump off from here, show everybody who you really are, and reveal yourself as the Savior. Now, think about this. We're heading into the ministry of Jesus. He's just been baptized. Before He goes into His three years of ministry, He's enduring this temptation.

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So for 30 years, he's been in obscurity. Do you think that was hard for him? Do you think that was difficult? Seeing the problems, seeing the difficulties, living there, nobody knows who he is. He's the Son of God. He's the Creator. Nobody even knows. Nobody pays attention. He walks by, nobody cares. Here, Satan says, why don't you jump off? Why don't you just reveal yourself? Show everyone who you really are. Now again, Jesus resisted using the Word of God. Deuteronomy 6, verse 16 says,

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He says, it's been said, you shall not tempt the Lord your God. He says, okay, Psalm 91 says I've got God's protection, great. That doesn't mean that I'm supposed to be foolish. Just because you have God's protection doesn't mean you should play hide and go seek on the freeway. Doesn't mean we just, you know, jump off a cliff. He says, you're not supposed to tempt the Lord your God, not to test Him, not to do foolish things just to see if He'll come through. The lesson we learn here is to glorify God and to glorify self is to tempt God.

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Are you ever tempted to glorify yourself? You don't have to raise your hand because I already know we all are. We're all tempted to glorify ourselves, to promote ourselves, to cause others to think about us, to get people to notice us, to thank us, to admire us. Self-promotion, it's sinful. It's wrong. When I was young,

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at the old church I would go to I was in like junior high high school age and I was never really part of the cool people you know still I'm not really fit in with the cool people they all make fun of me but

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But I always wanted to, but I never could quite fit in, you know, and I was youth group age, but I wasn't quite with them. And so what I would do is there was this room, there was a trailer where the youth group would meet, and there was a room where all the donuts would work. And there was a window, a big window in that room that when you looked out, you could look across the way. It was a little bit distance off, but across the way was the playground.

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And so I wanted to, you know, kind of get people to admire me and think about how wonderful I am because I am pretty wonderful. And so what I would do is I would go by the playground area.

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when I knew the youth group would be in there and I'd be kind of like looking, trying to see through the window. Is anybody at the window? And then because I was in gymnastics, I would do some type of tumbling or some type of handspring or back handspring and some type of thing to try to get their attention, to try to get... Because what I wanted to happen was someone would look and go, Oh my goodness, Jerry's amazing. Let's bring him in. Let's talk to him. We need to get to know him. And that's what I was trying to do. It's promoting... It never worked. I don't know why, but...

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Trying to promote myself, you know, indirectly because I knew better than to do it, you know, blatantly. And so it was a way for me to try to promote myself. But that's sinful. That's wrong to try to get others to notice us or to recognize us.

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Another way we glorify ourselves is by putting others down. You know, I don't have to make myself look good if you look terrible. So it's easy to do that. And it could be straightforward and gossip and slander and making fun of someone. Or it could be a sneaky backhanded way like Absalom did to David in 2 Samuel chapter 15. Either way, it's sinful. It's wrong. And again, there's many other ways that we glorify ourselves. But the point is we must glorify God. Here's your job.

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Your job is to humble yourself and serve others. He will lift you up in his time and according to his will. But your job is to humble yourself and serve others. Well, finally, the fourth thing that we see found in verse 13 is the temptation that comes at an opportune time. Look at verse 13. Now, when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.

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The devil ended every temptation at this point. Jesus endured the season that had been set apart for him. And as the author of Hebrews said again, he was tempted in all points, yet without sin. And so at this time, Satan departs. He resisted. Jesus resisted. He did not sin. He kept himself holy and pure. And so Satan, he doesn't give up for forever, but he departs

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Until later on he departs until there's a good opportunity to come back I really like what David Guzik had to say about this He says look if you want Satan to leave you alone for a while You must continually resist him. He goes on to say many are so attacked because they resist so Little think about that many are so attacked because they resist so little temptation is strong in our lives and

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The enemy comes to battle so fiercely. Many times because we resist so little. We don't fight. We don't hold fast. We're easy targets. Scripture says resist the devil and he will flee from you. We need to resist temptation. We'll talk more about that next week as we come back and look at this from a slightly different angle. Slightly different perspective.

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But now Satan departs, it says, for an opportune time. And again, I would remind you that Satan does not play fair. He's not looking for a fair fight or good sportsmanship. Here's what he does. He waits for you to be hungry. He waits for you to have some physical desires that are really strong. Or he waits for your physical body to be weak, perhaps a sickness or a broken foot, you know, something like that.

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He waits for your emotional desires to be really strong or for your emotions to be weak. He waits for your spiritual life to be lacking. He's looking for some advantage, some opportune time to come in and bring some temptation against you, to set the odds against you, to make it harder for you to stand.

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and because of this because of these battles that are going on sometimes we just feel like we need a break you ever feel like you need a break man at work it's a battle at home it's a battle everywhere i go it's a battle it's difficult there's there's these battles that go on i just need a vacation vacations are good as the lord leads but be careful because also it's a time where we are most vulnerable remember david and bathsheba he decided ah man i don't want to go out to war i've been fighting for many years

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I'm just going to kick back at the palace. These guys can handle it. And that was the time that he was tempted with Bathsheba. He fell into sin. He committed adultery and then murder. I mean, he was very vulnerable at that point as a result. So be careful. Vacations are good. We need time off. We need rest. But make sure you're led by the Lord. And again, not just providing for yourself. And so he's going to be looking...

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for an opportune time to bring these temptations against you to provide for yourself to take the easy way out and to glorify yourself but now you know his tactics and so I encourage you again I gave you some examples but you need to spend some time and consider these things in your own life because again these are his three best tools these are going to be happening in your life how are they manifesting for you what do these things look like in your life

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And are you standing strong or are you giving in? We don't have to give in because we have the power of God, the Holy Spirit within us. And again, we'll talk more about that next Sunday as we talk about resisting temptation from Jesus' example. One last thing I'd like to share though. In 1 John 1, verse 9, it says, If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

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As we look at this area of temptation, we would all recognize, we all understand, we've fallen short. We've given in to these various temptations. We have sinned. But the good news is, because of what Jesus Christ did upon the cross for us, if we confess our sin, if we approach Him by faith in His finished work upon the cross and agree with Him, that's what confess means, agree with Him about our sinful condition,

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that He will forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And so I want to encourage you, don't leave here, you know, condemned and feel like God, you know, wants to get rid of you because you give in to temptation. No, God wants you to come near to Him and agree with Him about your sinful condition, that He could forgive you and then help you to overcome the sin in your life. Let's pray.

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God, I pray for each and every one of us. Lord, that you would give us insight into how these temptations are being brought up and manifested in our own lives. Lord, that we would recognize the work of the enemy, God, that we would be able to stand strong and not give in to temptation. But Lord, that we would hold fast to you, Lord, and to walk uprightly in the power and strength that you provide.

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God, I pray in the areas that we have fallen short that you would help us to agree with you. Not to try to justify it, not to try to explain it away, but to simply agree and say, Lord, you're right. I am a sinner. This is sin in my life. And Lord, I turn it over to you. Forgive me and cleanse me. Help us, God, to do that in those areas that we've fallen short. Lord, I pray for any who do not know you.

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Lord, that you would draw them to you, that they would see the salvation that you offer, the forgiveness and freedom from sin that's found at the cross. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. We pray you have been blessed by this Bible teaching. The power of God to change a life is found in the daily reading of his word. Visit ferventword.com to find more teachings and Bible study resources.