I invite you please to take your Bibles and turn to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. I began this morning a short series, two Sunday series, four messages through the temptation of Jesus recorded for us in Matthew chapter four verses one through 11. Because I believe it's vitally important for us to understand that following Christ is actually following him into spiritual battle. that when we come to Christ, we actually, based on Ephesians chapter two, are being liberated from the dominion of Satan and now actually become his enemy because we're aligned with Christ. We are no longer of this world. And Jesus warned his disciples that we would actually come under attack. And I think we need to grasp that deeply and fully because if we don't realize that we are in a battle, then we are not living the way Christ taught us to live. And the apostles warned about us being alert and being on guard because we have an adversary who goes about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And so I think it's important for us as a regular pattern of our Christian thinking to be reminded of how we engage in this spiritual warfare. We began by looking at really in a sense the central issue at stake, but setting in the context of answering the question why Jesus faced this testing. And I answered it by saying that we need to remember it was under God's control, that it was not a sign of God's displeasure, and that at the very center of it is because testing reveals our hearts. What's at stake always is a test of our loyalty, and that's what was at stake. in this with Jesus and it is with us. Tonight I'd like us to look at the first temptation. So look at verses three and four, if you would, chapter four. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command that these stones become bread. But he, Jesus, answered and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. In some ways, this first temptation is perhaps the most difficult for us to get. Because, or if I put it this way, set it alongside of bow down and worship me. And we know for Jesus to worship Satan would be a direct violation of God's word, of what's right and proper. What is sinful about bread? What is sinful about making bread and eating bread, particularly after you've been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and are hungry? How is this a temptation? I mean, in what way is it Satan trying to entice Jesus to do something sinful? because that doesn't just immediately seem clear to us, unless we sort of step back from it and think about it, partly in light of what we saw this morning, but also in light of who Jesus is and what he is now doing. So let me just tackle those two things in that order. The first is, if you look again up to verse one, it says, then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he then became hungry. So here's, I think, the first clue as to what's going on. Jesus is in this place, for this period of time and this reason, according to the will of his father, right? So Jesus is there because that's where the father wants him to be. He's doing what the father wants him to do, and he needs to do it for as long as the father wants him to do it. And what Satan is coming along is appealing to Jesus to do something independently of his father's will, to act apart from what the father wanted him to do. And a part of the reason I think we can say that is because what Jesus himself says, for instance, in John chapter five and verse 30, he says that I do nothing of my own initiative, but what I see the father doing, I do. Right, so Jesus describes the control center of his life as responsive to the Father's will. That he is not sort of a free agent, just doing what he wants to do, when he wants to do it. Hey, I wanna do a miracle over here, and I'm gonna do a miracle over here, and I'm gonna just do my thing. But that he actually is doing the work of his Father, and he's doing it at the Father's initiative or command. And Satan is actually coming to him and trying to sort of bypass that and say, hey, if you're the son of God, I mean, if you're the son of God, and I don't think Satan doubts that he is at all. It really is a sense, hey, you're the son of God, why don't you do this? I mean, you're hungry, just do this. He's trying to get him to step outside of that, and that was a fundamental issue in the life of Jesus, the Son of God. Hebrews chapter nine talks about him coming to do the will of the Father. I think it was last year coming into Christmas, I did a series on why Jesus came, and one of those was because he came to live righteously. Right, we sometimes talk about it as the active obedience of Jesus Christ. That a part of our redemption is tied to the fact that Jesus did what we can't do and haven't done. And that is fully and completely obey the Father. And so his obedience to the Father's will is a part of his redemptive mission. And while it may just look like an issue of food here, it's really not food, it's food or the Father. Are you going to stay in submission to the Father, doing what He wants done, when He wants it done, in the way He wants it done, or are you gonna act independently of Him? Are you going to break free from that place of submission, and do your own thing. And that leads us really into sort of the second key to understand it, and that is precisely the nature of who Jesus is as the Son of God. And we need to make sure we clearly hold this true understanding in our mind, that he is one person with two natures, fully God and fully man. Right, and I'm not gonna chase this down far, but sometimes people get this wrong and they think he becomes 50% God, 50% man. That's not the way it is. He's not a hybrid, right? He's one person who has a full divine nature and a full human nature. But a part of the mystery of that is that as he grew in wisdom and stature, as he lived as a man, he lived like you and I have to live in obedience and trust. His glory was never removed from him. Right, sometimes people talk about the incarnation, Jesus gave up his attributes. He can't give up his attributes or he stops being God. Attributes are what make you, right? I mean, if I have water and it's H2O and I decide, hey, I'm just gonna give up the H, it stops being water, right? So the Son of God couldn't just say, well, I'm gonna give up my attributes. as if they could be separated from him. But in the mystery of the incarnation, in some way, his divine nature, the glory of that was veiled. It wasn't fully manifested. And so as a fully human person, right, he lived in obedience to the Father like you and I do. and miracles were the revelation of his glory. Remember the first miracle the gospel of John records? It's a miracle that wouldn't be that much different than this one, right? Turning stones into bread. What was it? He turned water into wine and John records that this was the first of his miracles by which he manifested his glory. Right, when the son performed these miracles, they weren't just parlor tricks and magic things. Right, he wasn't like a superhero that could, you know, just sort of do some really cool things. This was actually the revelation that Jesus of Nazareth was God. It was the manifestation of his glory and he was only revealing that as the father directed him to do it. The son had come, remember what Philippians 2 says? He humbled himself and became obedient. Right, he took the form of a servant. So when Jesus came and took to himself, the Son of God came and took to himself a human nature, it came with his commitment to follow the Father, to only manifest his glory at the Father's will. That's why when he comes to the end of his earthly ministry in John 17, he says to the Father, glorify me with the glory which I had with you before the world. Right, Jesus has been living in submission with that veiled glory that's been being opened up through the display of his miraculous power because they testified to him. But he had purposed that he wasn't doing it to glorify himself. He says that point blank in John chapter nine and verse 15, I will not glorify myself. Right, it's the Father who will glorify me. The works testify to this. I'm doing the Father's works. So this, what seems like a very simple issue, you're really, really hungry, Jesus, and you can turn those stones into bread. If you're the Son of God, why not do it? Because the enticement there was to take a good thing, food, it's not inherently sinful, and elevate it above God. To take something that was natural and proper and right. Because 1 Timothy 4 says, food is something that God made and is to be received for his glory, giving him thanks. but turning that good thing into a point of temptation because that good thing, what Satan was trying to do was take that good thing and elevate it above God. He was actually enticing Jesus to step out from the will of his father and to act independently of him and thereby compromise his mission. and establish a kind of sin that would have been selfishness. So to make bread for himself without direction from the Father would be to act independently and therefore not submissively. All right, so what does that have to do with us, right? I don't think anybody here can turn stones into bread. Right, but that's not really the point at stake, is it? And I think Jesus helps us see that in his answer. But let's think about it for a moment, right? I would suggest that what this temptation is is one of the ones that perhaps, perhaps is the most important for us. Because the temptation is to take a good thing and turn it into a sinful thing, right? And here's where sometimes when we talk about the word lust, in our culture, in our language, lust tends to have one kind of meaning to it. But in the biblical language, lust really simply is a strong desire. And sometimes that's why it's come to be described as, and it's a little more of a technical phrase, but an inordinate desire. That is a desire that is out of order. For instance, I mean, and we talked about this when we looked through 1 Timothy 6, it's not money that's the root of evil, it's the love of money, which is the root of all evil. Because people wanting it and longing for it plunge themselves into all kinds of snares, right? So the problem isn't the object, it's an inordinate desire for it. It's a love of it, a desire for it, which transcends or I should say even trespasses proper boundaries. I mean, at some point, most of us will face situations where there is some good thing in our lives where we allow it to go ahead of or above God. Work is a good thing. given to us by God. But when work begins to leverage out God from our lives, then it becomes a sinful thing. Marriage and family are good gifts from God. But when marriage or family begins to leverage out God, our desires for those things take a priority over God, then they become sinful things for us, right? It's an inordinate desire. We're actually choosing it over God. That's why Jesus says you can't serve God and mammon, right? And in that context, the thing that he's pitting against each other, right? We automatically go to people who wanna be rich and are willing to do whatever they have to. But in the context, you know what he's dealing with? He's dealing with anxiety about what you're going to eat and wear, right? That's what he's confronting. And he's saying, the Gentiles seek after all those things. Right, so it's not that he's saying, so don't be a cheat, don't steal. He's saying don't live your life under the control of those things, right? Don't serve them. Because food is good as a servant, not as a master. Safety and security are good, but not as master, only as servant. Right, and so we have to constantly recognize that part of the most, what I would say the most dangerous temptations for us, the most effective way perhaps that Satan can get an advantage in our lives is when he causes us to love things out of balance with their real value. Right, it's really worth this much, but our love for it is like this. So that it becomes a controlling thing. We plan our lives around it. Everything about our life is controlled by this desire rather than by God. Rather than by what he's revealed to us in his word. what he's declared to us should be the value system of our lives. We cannot become slaves to our desires, our dreams. We cannot live entangled in this world or we have the problem that's at stake here. The thing that we see and we want and potentially could think that we need. Right, at some point, we would argue, Jesus has to eat something, right? So it's not just a desire. I mean, we could start to argue, it's a necessity. I mean, he has to. Right, and that's the power of it. is that we become convinced that the thing that we want or desire is actually something that we must have. That's why we can give up the things that we know are more important, right? I mean, say someone who desperately wants to be married And they know God says that they can only marry in the Lord. Is marriage a good thing? Yes. Does God put a boundary around that? Absolutely. And if someone says, I can step outside that boundary and get the thing that I want, and it'll all work out okay, they have said that good thing, marriage, is more important than God. Right? I mean, is work good? Yes. Is your family good? Are those things ever to be leveraged in such a way that you cannot obey effectively the commands of God with regard to your worship and service of him? Right? No. So that good thing, becomes a replacement for a necessary thing. And at that point, we've pushed out the boundaries of what God has called us to do. So I said, it seems like a need, so go to verse four, because I think Jesus would actually tell us the antidote here to this kind of problem or temptation. Jesus answered, verse four, and said, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. So here's, I think, the point that Jesus is making. And it could seem so obvious that we don't grasp the significance of it, right? What Jesus is saying is that there is a kind of life which is better than the kind that bread supplies. Right? You don't live on bread alone. You need something more than what bread will give you. And that you need so much more, you need so much more importantly that you should be willing not to take the bread. Right, he's establishing a value system and he's not saying the bread that is food that would sustain your life is unimportant, but that if you put it on one side and you put the word of God on the other, you need this more. You need it more. Right, and that's the issue. that the word of God, the life that comes from God through his word is more important than anything else that you could have. And coming to grips with that is the key to effectively encountering the temptation. Because the temptation is gonna run on this line. You really have to have this. You have to have happiness. And then fill in the blank what that is. A husband that is like this, not the one you have. Or a wife that's like this, not the one that you have. Or the income that's like this, not the one that you have. Or the health that's like this, not what you have. I mean, you can keep going down the list, all things that are good. I mean, they're not evil things, right? I'm not saying you need to have this kind of wicked endeavor in sin. It's this good thing that you want so badly that you are making it the object that you serve, you're willing to step away from the word of God to get it. You're willing to say, you know, God's word doesn't apply to me in this situation, right? I am the son of God, I can make bread. I mean, God must want me to be happy. He can't want me to be in this situation. He can't want that person to have robbed me of what's mine, so he must not care if I steal it back. Right, he must not want me to just be hurt by what they say. He must think it's okay for me to defend myself in a way that is contrary to his word, because he certainly wouldn't just leave me here to be gored by this. Right, all of that is actually the devil coming in and saying, certainly, you deserve some bread. Think about how hungry you are. And you can get it, it's right there, take it. And the answer of your heart has to be, whatever that is, whatever it is, no matter how good it is, how important it might be to you, how valuable it may seem, it is not worth more than God. And it does not give you real and true life. Only the word of God can give you that. You cannot actually live off of that. You can only live by what comes from the mouth of God. That means that at the heart, right, at the heart of this, is always a question of faith. Do I believe this or do I believe what God said? Do I see it as being properly told to me from the pages of scripture or do I believe what I think I see? That's always the issue. Years ago, I remember talking, actually, I mean, it's like probably almost 28 years ago or so, I was sitting in a class in my doctoral program, and the professor was telling a story about another professor at the school whose father died, and they were having a garage sale to clean out the stuff. And they just took all of his old baseball cards and sort of dumped them in a shoebox and put like a couple dollars over it. And this professor that was telling the story showed up with his son, started looking in the box and goes, you need to get this thing off the table. I mean, because he had baseball cards from the early 20th century. When they got done totaling it up, I think if I recall correctly, the number was close to like $25,000 worth of baseball cards that he had like a $2 or $3 tag on. He had no idea what the value was. Right, he was clueless. And here's what I think is the point, right? We are being sold a bill of goods by the devil. We're being told to put the box on the table, hey, just put a couple bucks on that, that's not worth much, right? I mean, just that, that's not worth that much. This is really what matters. Right, and what's happened is Satan's deceptive tactic is to take the thing that has ultimate imperishable value, take the price tag off of it, and stick it on the stuff that's perishable and cheap. And we grow up being told that this is the really valuable stuff. And that stuff, yeah, I mean, I'll get to heaven, that'll be great then. It's just like, yeah, yeah, sure, it'll be good someday, but it's really not of much value to me now. What I really now need is this, right? I mean, think about it. Jesus is like, yeah, sure, I'm gonna be the Messiah, and everyone's gonna say it, but I mean, I need a sandwich. And I say that, and it's like, ugh, you don't wanna talk like that. But that's the point here. The Father is keeping you from having something that you need. He sent you out into the wilderness and told you not to eat and you need to eat. You've got the power to make a sandwich, just go ahead and take that sandwich. And Jesus, Jesus knows where the price tags are. That's not gonna give me life. Man doesn't live by bread alone. by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. What I really need is over here. So no, Satan, no, I'm not gonna do that. My father knows what I need and has told me that I can trust him to give me what I really need, not what you say I need.