The scripture reading today comes from the first epistle of Paul to the Corinthians, chapter 15, verses 35 to 49. 1 Corinthians 15, and verses 35 to 49. This is the scripture reading. The sermon text will be in Mark, but this is the reading in scripture we will pay close attention to beforehand. This is the word of the Lord. But someone will ask, how are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come? You foolish person, what you sow does not come to life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the body that is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps of wheat or of some other grain. But God gives it a body, as he has chosen, and to each kind of seed its own body. For not all flesh is the same. If there is one kind for humans, another for animals, another for birds, and another for fish. There are heavenly bodies and earthly bodies. But the glory of the heavenly is of one kind, and the glory of the earthly is of another. There is one glory of the sun and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars, for star differs from star in glory. So is it with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable. What is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor. It is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus, it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first, but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust. The second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust. And as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. Please turn in your Bibles now to the Gospel of Mark, chapter 1. The sermon text will be verses 12 and 13. I'll go ahead and read from the beginning of the chapter. We'll be focusing today on verses 12 and 13 of Mark 1. This is the word of the Lord. The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John appeared. baptizing in the wilderness and proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. And all the country of Judea and all Jerusalem were going out to him and were being baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. Now John was clothed in camel's hair and wore a leather belt around his waist and ate locusts and wild honey. And he preached saying, after me comes one who is mightier than I. the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. I have baptized you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit. In those days, Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he had come up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens being torn open and the spirit descending upon him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven. You are my beloved son. With you, I am well pleased. The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. And he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. And he was with the wild animals. And the angels were ministering to him. Thus far the reading of God's word. Let's ask the Lord's blessing upon its preaching. Gracious Heavenly Father, we thank you for this portion of your word and all of your word that you've granted unto us by your grace, by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, prophets and apostles of old. We ask, O Lord, now that you would send the same Holy Spirit unto us to illumine our minds, to understand the truth, the reality of your word. We ask, O Lord, that you would bless its preaching for your glory and for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Congregation, the evangelist reveals in this passage some very significant truths we must pay attention to today about the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Mark reveals in this temptation event that Jesus is not only the second Adam who meets with Satan to lock with him in mortal spiritual combat, under a divine test. The Lord Jesus Christ is here also revealed to be the true Israel. And if that were not enough to spark our interest in this hostile encounter between our own king and the prince of darkness, Jesus is also revealed here, once again, once again by Mark in this first chapter, to be God himself. The outcome of this contest, therefore, is sure. The fate of the evil one is sealed. The fact itself that he is tempted will introduce a question for us to examine in some detail. And that question is, could Jesus have sinned under temptation? Could he have failed this temptation and this trial? I've divided today's sermon up into two parts. The first part I have entitled, Trial in the Wilderness. The second part I have entitled, With the Wild Beasts. So part one, Trial in the Wilderness. Now this scene opens for us immediately, we are told. Even abruptly, with an act of war. The wilderness, brothers and sisters, the trackless wastes of the desert. You see, that was understood by the Jews to be the special domain of the devil. The wilderness was, to the ancient Jews, the special habitation of the evil one. Mark tells us that immediately after the baptism and commissioning, if you will, of the Lord Jesus Christ to his labors in the Jordan, that the Holy Spirit immediately cast him into the wilderness. That is the word in Greek, that word cast. In Greek, it means to throw, to cast, or cast out. Mark typically uses this word for the casting out of demons. You can see that in verse 34. The Spirit of God then hastens to cast our Lord into the wilderness. like a spear, as it were, into the heart of Satan's realm to hit the devil where he lives. The kingdom of God has thereby, with this text, opened hostilities against the kingdom of Satan. The Lord Jesus Christ, we are told in the Apostle John in his first epistle, chapter three, verse eight, that Jesus was sent into this world for this very purpose. He writes, the reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. And that unstoppable divine campaign began here, in the wilderness, in the devil's own realm. This moment is, in fact, how and when God begins to perform his ancient promise at Genesis 3.15, what we call the Proto-Evangelium. The promised seed of the woman has arrived, prepared for this encounter by endowment with power by the Holy Spirit at the Jordan. As I said, a question could arise for us sooner or later once we start to think about that, the implications of that. Could Jesus Christ sin? Could God the Son incarnate have sinned at this temptation? I've heard smart people discuss this. The short answer to that question is no. God cannot sin. Jesus is God. Therefore, Jesus could not sin. He could not have failed in this temptation. Although that is the short answer, one can see how that answer might not be so obvious once other biblical truths about Jesus' person and his work are brought into view. You see, although Jesus was God, God in the flesh, after his incarnation, He was a human at that point as well. So the question becomes complicated right off. Moreover, Jesus was not only a man, he was also a man who was likened in scripture as we saw in 1 Corinthians, he's likened to Adam. And we know that Adam underwent a trial, a probation, a temptation at the hands of Satan as well. And Adam could have either failed or succeeded in his trial and test. So one who knows all this from scripture might be led to conclude that Jesus too, the second Adam, could likewise fail as well as triumph while under temptation at Satan's hand. But at this point we must remember not how Christ is similar to Adam, not in the ways that he is likened unto Adam, but how Christ was very different from Adam. While Adam was purely and solely human, The Lord Jesus Christ is not. Our Lord, when he was incarnated, added a human nature to his divine person. His person already had a divine nature. The second person of the triune God, God the Son, is a person in his own right. And that person, of course, has always had a divine nature. This divine person added a human nature to his divine person so that that divine person would now no longer have one nature, a divine nature. He would also have and always will have a human nature as well. Now this human nature he added to his person was never corrupted by sin. And in this sense, the second Adam, Jesus Christ, was a lot like Adam before Adam fell, back during the time of his temptation in the garden. As you must also appreciate, he was also very different from Adam, too. His human nature, unlike Adam's, was and is united to a divine person, and God cannot sin. You might think to yourself, Well, couldn't Jesus' human nature have sinned? Well, indeed, his human nature might have sinned, if mere natures could commit sin. But natures do not commit sin. People commit sin. Persons, people, sin or do not sin. Not their natures. Even if the nature prompts the person to sin. So the person of Jesus Christ could not sin because his person was and is divine. Even after the incarnation, he was still a divine person and God cannot sin. Just remember that Jesus could not have sinned here at this temptation because only persons commit sin and his person is divine and therefore incorruptible. But I'd like just to move on and consider another question that can naturally arise in light of everything we've discussed. A possible question would be, why was he made subject to this temptation at all then? If Jesus could not have fallen here, why did he bother with this exercise in the desert to begin with? There are two reasons that I'd like us to consider as to why Jesus was tempted by the devil and proved by God here in the desert. And the first involves Jesus' role as the second Adam, but also his role as the true Israel. The second reason he was tempted and tested here was to communicate things that we as his disciples will need to understand, things we'll need to take away from this text as disciples. So first we are going to discuss Jesus as the second Adam and Jesus as the true Israel. But let's begin by considering for a moment what the word tempt means. In the Bible, the word tempt can mean to make a test or a trial of a thing or a person, to test or to prove someone. But it also implies here, especially in light of the more fulsome accounts of this encounter with Satan than the parallel records of Matthew and Luke, that the devil was trying to tempt Jesus away from his mission, a mission so soon undertaken after his arising out of the Jordan, the waters of his baptism. So here the term tempt clearly means both. This temptation was both an enticement to sin or disobedience and a test or a trial. This was a temptation to sin on Satan's part and a trial or test or proving of Jesus on God the Father's part. In other words, God uses Satan's attempt to entice Jesus to prove Jesus. God does never, God never tempts anyone to sin. Satan does that. But God does test or try or prove his servants at times. But why should God the Father tempt or prove, or excuse me, test or prove Jesus himself? There is a pattern, brothers and sisters, of God's dealing with mankind. to which the rest, or excuse me, the test or trial of Jesus conforms. You see, God created mankind for worship, for service, and for loyal fellowship. Adam, the firstborn of the old creation, was supposed to serve God as a prophet, as a priest, and a king under his God. But Adam failed and he fell, and when he did, he dragged all those he represented into his fall with him. God, however, did not give up on the human race. But through his gracious call upon the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their descendants, the nation of Israel, God ordained these same offices of prophet, priest, and king to serve, to worship, and to glorify him in the bond of a sacred covenant. But like Adam, the people of Israel transgressed. They broke his covenant and went after their own counsels. They failed their test too. First in the desert, after the exodus, and then later in the land of Canaan itself. Jesus, in becoming incarnated, stepped into the same pattern, but with a difference. Jesus is the son and image of God who did not fall, who did not fail, who did not transgress, who did not go after strange councils or strange gods, he kept the covenant. He proved himself to be the faithful prophet, priest, and king, who triumphed where both Adam and Israel had failed. Jesus was conscious of the fact that this was his mission, not only to take up the torch that Adam had dropped, but also to take up the mantle of Israel, that is to be the true Israel, to sum up in himself the people of God. He reveals this understanding of his own mission in many places in the New Testament. And the apostles reveal this in many places as well. As Paul put it in Romans 5, Adam was a type of Christ. And as we saw in 1 Corinthians 15, our Lord is identified by Paul as the second man and the last Adam. But let's examine just three ways that the Bible reveals that Jesus saw himself as the true Israel. Recall with me back to John chapter 15. There the Lord Jesus Christ explicitly calls himself the true vine. That language about being the true vine is a clear statement that Jesus is the true Israel. For Israel is referred to as a vine that God planted in Jeremiah chapter two. Jeremiah wrote on behalf of the Lord. For long ago I broke your yoke and burst your bonds, but you said I will not serve. I planted you a choice vine, holy of pure seed. How then have you turned degenerate? and become a wild vine. And in Psalm 80, we find, and we read this earlier today as our response of reading, you brought a vine out of Egypt. You drove out the nations and planted it. So in calling himself the true vine in John 15, Jesus was explicitly challenging the conventional understanding of Israel. He is the true Israel. Now for a second proof. And again, we're only selecting a few of many possible proofs from the Bible that Jesus is the true Israel. Let's turn in our Bibles together to the book of the prophet Hosea, chapter six. Hosea chapter six. It's the first of the minor prophets after Daniel. Hosea chapter six. Now looking at this chapter in your Bible, most likely your Bibles have a heading for this chapter, signaling to you the effect that the passage will concern national Israel and Judah. And the reason that the editors of your Bibles put those headings there for this chapter is because that's what is so obviously being dealt with there. This passage so clearly concerns Israel, God's covenant community of the Old Testament. Let's look at verse seven together of Hosea 6. But like Adam, they transgressed the covenant. There they dealt faithlessly with me. And this is what I mentioned before, that both Israel and Adam had failed. They failed in their commission to love and to honor, to serve and obey and so glorify God. Now let's look at verse two of this chapter. After two days he will revive us. On the third day he will raise us up that we may live before him. Do you recall how Jesus claimed many times in the New Testament that the scriptures of the Old Testament insist that the Messiah must suffer and die and be raised from the dead on the third day? In Luke's gospel, chapter 24 for instance, our Lord says, thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. Now did you know that there's no single place in the Old Testament that says that explicitly, that the anointed one, the Messiah, was to die and lay in the grave for three days and rise again. Now Jonah chapter two may indeed be a place where Christ is portrayed as being in the grave for three days, only to rise again, metaphorically. But the only explicit reference in the Old Testament to anyone being raised from the dead on the third day is this place in Hosea 6-2. And as we can see, it is Israel that hopes in such a resurrection. It is Israel that will rise on the third day, apparently from the dead. For our Lord, this passage has its reference and its fulfillment in him. When he says in Luke 24 and elsewhere that thus it is written that the Christ should suffer and on the third day rise from the dead. We are to understand the scriptures as our Lord does. To interpret them and him as he teaches us to. Then our Lord Jesus is Israel. He is true Israel, the true vine. In other words, the resurrection of Christ is the resurrection of Israel of which this prophet spoke. Now this is not to obliterate the corporate reference caught up in this place in Hosea. Certainly our Lord wants us to understand that this place has reference to him, but it still has reference to his people as well. How can that be? Do you recall the last time we were together, how we saw that Jesus underwent a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins, not because he was a sinner, but because of his self-identification with we believers who are sinners. This place too applies to us because it applies to him. The baptism we share with him signifies that spiritual union and bond that we enjoy with him in his death, in his burial, and his resurrection on the third day. As he is Israel, we who are united to him, and only those who are united to him, are likewise true Israel. As he said in John 15, I am the true vine, and you are my branches. As the tie between a vine and its branches is organic, and as the bond between the head and the body is organic as well. So is the bond between Christ and his people, living and organic. Now for a third reason, given in scripture for why Jesus should be thought of as the true Israel. Please turn a few chapters forward in Hosea to chapter 11, Hosea 11, and look at verse one. Hosea 11, verse one. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. When Israel was a child, I loved him. And out of Egypt, I called my son. Now, in the New Testament, in Matthew chapter 2, we are told this. Hear this, brothers and sisters. And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt and remained there until the death of Herod. This, Matthew adds, was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet. Out of Egypt I called my son. As you can see, Jesus and the apostles agree. Matthew interprets and applies language in Hosea describing Israel's exodus in rearward-looking language, narrative language, mind you, not forward-looking prophetic language, as being, quote, fulfilled when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus down and then out of Egypt. Jesus, according to scripture, is the true Israel, who sums up in himself the entire people of God. So to recap, Jesus Christ is the true vine of John 15. Jesus Christ is the Israel raised on the last day, or excuse me, the third day of Hosea 6. And Jesus Christ was the Israel, Matthew says, that was brought out from Egypt. So Mark, in setting Jesus in another recorded temptation by Satan, seconds Paul's revelation, given elsewhere, that Jesus is the second Adam. And by placing our Lord's testing and trial in the wilderness, the place of Israel's beginnings, Mark echoes other scriptures that reveal Jesus to be a corporate person, who sums up in himself the people of God, namely Israel, which is the church. But there is another reason, a more practical reason, perhaps, for this temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. As I said before, there are at least two reasons for this temptation, even though Jesus could not successfully be tempted to sin. The first, as we saw, was that Jesus had to succeed where both Adam and Israel had failed. Jesus had to be the faithful representative, unlike Adam, the unfaithful representative. And Jesus had to be the faithful people of God, the true Israel, unlike the faithless people of God. Looking at this temptation of our Lord by the evil one, we should mark at least three other truths, brothers and sisters, these practical lessons. that we should also take away from this temptation of our Lord. First, we learn from this temptation that no servant is greater than his master. If our Lord was tempted by the devil, you can expect to be tempted by the devil as well. Second, if you resist the devil, he will flee from you. We are explicitly told that by the epistle of James. As we can see from the parallel accounts of this temptation in the wilderness, Jesus resisted the devil and he fled from him. So expect demonic temptation and know that if you resist, he will flee from you too. And lay hold of that divine promise that if you resist, God will see to it that the devil will flee from you. As Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 10, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it. Third, lay hold of, make a personal claim upon today's scripture meditation at the top of your bulletins. Because their 40 years of testing in the wilderness typifies his 40 days of testing and trial in the wilderness. That language from Deuteronomy also applies to you. It speaks to you. It should speak to you. It speaks to all those who are united to him by faith. Let's move on to the second part of today's sermon, with the wild beasts. Let's consider that reference to wild beasts that we find in this text. Why is this detail added by Mark? This detail is not mentioned in any of the other evangelists. What does this reference to wild beast, what does it add to Mark's account of this temptation, this momentous encounter between our king and the Prince of Darkness. Why this odd reference of his being with the wild beasts? Mark leaves out a lot of the details of his account, details that are found in Matthew and Luke, such as the specific points of temptation employed by Satan and how Jesus encountered them and with what verses he countered those temptations out of God's word from Deuteronomy. You can easily see why Matthew and Luke included those details. But why would Mark leave those out and then add this detail about how Jesus was also with the wild beasts? Looking over commentators, you'll see several explanations. But I think the following is Mark's actual reason, his reason for including this reference to wild beasts. Mark is continuing to drive home the fact that he has begun at the beginning of chapter one, that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, and that the Messiah is God in the flesh. He is God with us. As we wind down this message today, turn with me to Isaiah 43, the book of the prophet Isaiah, chapter 43. Let's look at verses 16 to 21, 16 to 21 of Isaiah 43. Thus says the Lord, who makes a way in the sea, a path in the mighty waters, who brings forth chariot and horse, army and warrior. They lie down, they cannot rise, they are extinguished, quenched like a wick. Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing. Now it springs forth. Do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. The wild beasts will honor me, the jackals and the ostriches, for I give water in the wilderness, rivers in the desert, to give drink to my chosen people. the people whom I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise." This new thing that Yahweh promises to do, do we not perceive it? Mark, by including this language about the wild beasts, situates the person and work of Jesus into this divine promise found in the book of the prophet Isaiah. For it is only by virtue of the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ that those who thirst for righteousness might partake of living waters, living waters, brothers and sisters, in the desert. As Yahweh performs this mighty work, this new thing, we find him incarnated in the wilderness as prophesied in the presence of wild beasts, whereby his faithfulness, his faithfulness under trial, he overcame the devil, destroying all his works, and thereby providing life, life-giving drink to his chosen people. As our Lord reveals in the gospel, whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water, welling up to eternal life. Let us pray. Most gracious Heavenly Father, we praise you and we exult in your goodness unto us in Christ Jesus our Lord. Were it not for him being sent into this world to provide us that life-giving water, we would remain as wild beasts in your midst, pursuing our own will, thoughtless, careless about you and your ways. We ask, O Lord, that you would receive our thanksgiving now. Help us, O Lord, both now and forever to have your praises on the tips of our tongues, singing them to the highest heavens and to the ends of the earth. Over your goodness to us in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whose name we pray. Amen.