Luke chapter 4 verses 1 and 2. And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing. And when they were ended, he afterward hungered. We would like to, with the Lord's help, and if the Lord spares us to look in the coming weeks at the temptations of Christ as found here in the Gospel of Luke chapter 4, But we'd like today to look at the first couple of verses which introduce these temptations. We'd like to notice, first of all, Jesus blessed for battle. Blessed for battle. You'll notice in verse 1, it begins by telling us that Jesus was full of the Holy Ghost. That means, the word there, full, means thoroughly permeated. It's used for a covering which covers every last bit of something. In other words, there was absolutely nothing lacking of the Holy Spirit in His experience at this time. and it goes on to tell us that he was led by the Spirit. A Spirit filled man as there had never been up until this point in time. It's interesting to notice in Luke's Gospel the emphasis he places upon the Holy Spirit right from the beginning of his account of the Lord's ministry. Even in his account of the preparatory work of John the Baptist, we are told, Luke records the words in chapter 115, he shall be filled with the Holy Ghost. And then again in verse 35, the angel speaking to Mary, the Holy Ghost shall come upon thee. Again in verse 41 of chapter 1, The babe leaped in Elizabeth's womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost. John the Baptist's father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost. Then we go on into chapter 2, verses 25 and following we are told about Simeon, the Holy Ghost was upon him. It was revealed unto him by the Holy Ghost. He came by the Spirit into the temple. Then we're told about Christ in chapter 2 verse 40, the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, meaning we believe the Holy Spirit. Then again we look into chapter 3 and the same theme is continued. In verse 16, John's words are recorded, of Christ he shall baptise you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. Verse 22, the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Christ. And so the scene is set for us by these repeated references of a world gradually being prepared by the Holy Spirit for a Spirit-filled man as there had never been before. And so this chapter begins by repeating this emphasis of the Holy Spirit in verse 1 And then the temptations conclude in verse 14, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. And then a few verses later he begins his public ministry with these words, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. What's going on here? What's going on is a man being prepared for battle. by the greatest blessing of all, the filling of the Holy Spirit. He is being anointed as the High Priest, as the Prophet and as the King of his people. He is being anointed not with oil but with what the oil spoke of, the Holy Spirit. And that is why when we read these verses about the temptation We see him, this anointed man, this spirit filled man, anointed and equipped and qualified for these great offices of prophet, priest and king. Beginning to exercise these offices, equipped for them and exercising them. As high priest, he suffers being tempted in these verses. As our great prophet, he appeals to scripture three times. And as our great king, he does battle with and conquers our great foe. And this is a pattern that the Lord also follows in his dealings with his own people, not just with his own son, his own special son. He prepares his people for spiritual battles by blessing them with special preparatory trials, temptations and troubles. God does not give anyone service of a special nature to do for him, whether it's in the church, in the workplace, in the home or wherever without first preparing them for it by putting them through temptation or trial and rewarding them with the blessing of the Spirit. It's like when gun manufacturers are making guns, they take them to what's called a proof house and they simply prove the guns there by loading them with up to maybe five times more explosive and charged than they would ordinarily experience in their ordinary usage. And they're taken to this proof house which is specially made so that when this gun is, as it were, overcharged with explosive and when it's shot, that if it does explode, no harm will be done to anybody or anything and it's a place therefore where this weapon can be tested to its limits before being brought into public use in the hands of an ordinary hunter or whatever. It's similar to what the old Scottish warriors used to do before they went into battle with They would take their swords and they would try with all their might to bend them and break them over their knees in order to test it and prove it that it might be a worthy weapon for battle. And God does this with his people too. He takes them into the proof house of temptation. He bends them as it were over the knee of the devil. He overcharges them as it were. He brings them into a situation where they undergo exceptional, even extraordinary temptation and testing in order to prepare them for battle, for public service of him in a special way. And that should encourage anybody who is feeling the viciousness and the ferocity of temptation and the natural reaction is to think, well, I can't be a Christian. I can't be one of the Lords of this is what I'm going through. If I'm being subjected to this kind of pressure, perhaps and most likely the Lord is preparing you for battle and blessing you with temptation. Somebody once said of Martin Luther, Martin Luther would never have been the Martin Luther he was if it had not been for the devil. The devil was, as it were, the proof house for Martin Luther. He must be tried and tempted by Satan before he became fit for the Master's use. And that's true of all the Lord's people. We will never be the Christians we ought to be apart from the devil. The Lord uses him as his instrument for good to prepare his people for battle, for service in his name. And so we see the Lord himself here incarnate being blessed for battle with temptation, being prepared for his exceptional duties by exceptional testing and temptation. But then notice secondly, the devil in the desert. The devil in the desert. He was led by the spirit into the wilderness and who did he meet there but the devil. We often think with all the temptations that there are around us in the world today, we feel like the psalmist who said, oh that I had wings like a dove, then I might flee far hence and spend some time in the wilderness away from all temptation and trouble. But what this portion of scripture teaches us is that The devil is in the desert and the world is in the wilderness and you cannot get away from them. It is impossible to evade temptation by physical separation from the world and all its attractions. We are of course to try and not put ourselves in the place of temptation, but remembering always that separation and isolation, distance from people, distance from places, distance from the world, will not guarantee us evasion from temptation. Here we have the Lord. He was more isolated than he had been up to this point and yet he was never more tempted than he was at this point. He was separate from all human company. There were no places as it were in the wilderness, no billboards, no adverts, no people, none of the worldly habits. of the world around him to act as temptations upon him and yet he met with the most exceptional temptation. When we look at the history of the church and we see, when we look at the history of monasteries and convents, what happens when people try in an artificial way to use physical means to get away from temptation. What does the devil do? He stirs up the world in our heart even more than was necessary before. And so these places, these communes, convents, monasteries have become the greatest dens of iniquity, worse even than many of the pubs and clubs of the land. You might think, well, surely though if I was a holy person, I wouldn't be tempted. Well, was there any holier than the Lord? No. We notice here that even the holiest character and person that ever lived was subject to temptation. This was a person in whom the devil could find nothing to help him in his temptation. There was nothing in Christ, no indwelling sin, no moral corruption for the devil to appeal to and to use as a bridgehead, as an advantage to bring about his fall and yet even he was assaulted and assailed in a remarkable way. It was It was like trying to light water by striking a match. It was impossible. And yet the devil still did it. He still tried it. And if this was true of the most holy one that ever lived, who had no inflammable material in him, how much more so will it be true of you and I. who are packed full of gunpowder and tinder as it were. The devil is in the desert and the world is in the wilderness. But then thirdly notice Christ focusing on his foe, concentrating all his efforts on this great enemy. This was one of the reasons for him going apart from company and other people and places in order that he might concentrate all his energies on his greatest enemy. We may ask ourselves, well, why was this experience necessary for the Lord? Well, it was necessary because Before he could be a saviour from sin, he had to have a conscious experience of the power of sin in the lives of his people without sinning himself. He had to undergo this greatest ever temptation to sin in order that he might better understand and experience as much as was possible for him to experience the incredible pull and power of sin in the lives of his people. And that was of course perhaps one of the reasons why he was fasting. In those days, 40 days, 40 nights, he did eat Nothing. The great purpose of fasting, of course there's nothing in fasting itself which is meritorious or spiritual. Fasting is simply a means to an end and the end is that we might better concentrate and focus our efforts on spiritual things without worrying about what we should eat or drink. To allow us to concentrate and focus our thoughts and energies upon prayer for example, prayer for a specific person, a specific situation or against a specific sin. And so here when we read of the Lord not eating, it may be that he took this conscious decision that not only did he have to separate himself from people and places, but also from even eating and drinking in order to focus and concentrate on this great enemy of sinners. But it may not have been a conscious decision to fast. The fact that he fasted may have been a consequence of a spiritual experience. I'm sure most of us, if we've lived long enough, will have had periods in our lives of deep and intense anxiety and strain and worry and turmoil so deep and intense that our appetite has been taken away altogether. And you would think, I'll never eat again. I can never imagine myself having an appetite again. And when we think of the Lord here in the midst of the greatest temptation that anyone ever experienced and we think of the physical strain and the mental anxiety and the spiritual stress, unimaginable in its extent and depth and power, it may be that the effect of such a thing was to take away his appetite, his desire for food. It's a possibility. But whatever we have a picture here, whether it was a conscious decision to fast or a consequence of the struggle that he fasted, whatever the reason is, the fact is that it enabled him or it showed him focusing on his foe. giving all his attention to this implacable enemy of himself and his people. He was in hand-to-hand, soul-to-soul, spirit-to-spirit combat with the devil in all his horrible reality. Seeing him and experiencing him in a way that you and I never have and never will, and which no horror film or novel can ever portray, filling him with fears and tremors and agonies that you and I have only paddled in the shallows of. No matter how much we think we've conceived of the wickedness and the evil and the vileness of the devil, he is infinitely worse than our wildest imaginations. And so this task required focus and concentration. Here he was, as it were, being given a crash course in temptation. Concentrated into these days was unimaginable struggle. And of course also probably being brought before him by the Father as he was about to begin his public ministry was more and more of the nature of what he had to do. And we doubt not that such revelations from heaven would have been used by the Devil to deter him and distract him. and to continually suggest to him that he would not want to go through with such a work. Behind these little black words on white paper is an indescribable struggle. Fourthly, we notice glimpses of his grief. we're only given here a selection of his temptations. We're told in verse 2, he was forty days tempted of the devil. We sometimes approach this chapter and we think of three temptations, but the three temptations we have a little record of came after what we're told were forty days of temptation. And so when we hope to look at these three temptations, we must remember that they are but a snapshot, a glimpse into what was a far greater, longer, deeper, intenser experience than is brought before us in this chapter. I wonder if Such few words have ever been used to describe such huge and momentous events, being forty days tempted of the devil. And how evil was that temptation? The devil no doubt felt exceedingly threatened by this good man who had come to do nothing but good to poor sinners and the devil dedicated himself to his utter destruction. Tempted as Jesus was throughout his whole life, yes these are perhaps particularly exceptional temptations that are brought before us. But Christ was tempted from his first moments of consciousness to his last moments of consciousness. And all we have, just as we have only glimpses of his miracles, glimpses of his sermons, as John says, if I was to write everything, there wouldn't be books enough in the world to contain it. So we're only given glimpses, snapshots, of his sufferings, of his temptations. And we wonder, why was he so tempted? Was it not because he was more than an individual? This wasn't just about, as with us, when the devil deals with us, can I keep this person out of the kingdom of God? Can I get them evicted from the kingdom of God? This wasn't about an individual and his relation to the kingdom. This was about the existence of the kingdom itself. This was the king. The king falls, so does the kingdom, so does his whole domain. Somebody said we have no doubt that because his fall would have given Satan the greatest prize of all, The pressure on the soul of Jesus to succumb was far greater than anything we could have resisted. So we have only glimpses into his grief. But then fifthly, I would like to notice that Christ here is brought before us as peccable and impeccable. I would like to try and explain these terms. It's very hard for us to understand how someone could be tempted without having indwelling sin and corruption to appeal to. Hard for us to understand how a perfectly holy man could be tempted. And it's even harder to understand how someone could be tempted who could never fall, who could never sin. How can there be a real struggle? How can there be a real battle? How can there be a fight that we could identify with and understand if it was impossible for Christ to sin and fall, which it was. Well, there's a little phrase which might help us to understand this and I'll say it and then try and explain it and it's this. He was peccable in his nature but impeccable in his person. Let's take the first part of that. Peccable in his human nature. Peccable simply means able to sin, able to sin. When we think of Christ's human nature, we remember two things about it. First of all this, it was like ours post fall physically. It was like ours after the fall physically. In other words, his human nature experienced many of the sinless infirmities and weaknesses of human nature that were not present before the fall but were present after the fall. For example, the kind of extreme hunger and fatigue and exhaustion and thirst that are not sinful in themselves but they are infirmities and weaknesses associated with the fall. So Christ's human nature was like ours, post-fall, physically. But, secondly, it was like Adam's, pre-fall, morally. Like ours, post-fall, physically, but like Adam's, pre-fall, before the fall, morally. And what was Adam's nature before the fall, morally? It was a peccable nature, a nature that was capable of sinning and yet that did not have sin in it. And this is how we understand the human nature of Christ. It was peccable. It was without sin and yet considered in and of itself, if we can isolate the human nature at all, considered in and of itself peccable, capable of sinning. But, though peccable in his human nature, he was impeccable in his person. Peccable in his human nature, but impeccable in his divine person. The human nature, peccable, capable of sinning. considered in and of itself, but when we suddenly remember this was no human nature in and of itself. This was no human nature in isolation. This was a human nature that was united with the divine. This was a human nature that was in inseparable union with the second person of the Godhead and therefore secured from sinning, impeccable, incapable of sinning. And this is how we can both hold on the one hand that there was a struggle in his human nature, a real, anxious, fearfully, violent and intense struggle against temptation. And yet all the while, guaranteed to emerge victorious, impossible for that struggling, fighting, battling human nature to fall into sin because united to God himself. As someone said, owing to his intrinsic spotlessness, Temptations in his case could only come from the outside. The fact that solicitations came wholly from without and were not born from within does not prevent that which was offered to him being regarded as desirable. The force of a temptation depends not upon the sin involved in what is proposed, but upon the advantage connected with it. And a righteous man whose will never falters for a moment may feel the attractiveness of the advantage more keenly than the weak man who succumbs. For the weak man probably gave way before he recognised the whole of the attractiveness. In this way the sinlessness of Jesus augments his capacity for sympathy. for in every case he felt the full force of temptation. It was Plummer who said that. Another theologian said, sympathy with the sinner in his trial does not depend on the experience of sin, but on the experience of the strength of the temptation to sin, which only the sinless can know in its full intensity. He who falls yields before the last strain, but he who maintains spotlessness feels the strain as no fallen sinner ever can. If we bear these considerations in mind, we shall realise that the Saviour experienced the violence of the attacks of temptation as no other human being ever did, because all others are sinful and therefore not able to remain standing until the temptations have exhausted all their terrible violence in assailing them. As Luther said, even Jesus had to work hard to keep Satan at bay. In one sense, peccable, but in a true and real sense, impeccable, the human nature subservient to and secondary to the divine which was in ultimate and total control. Then, sixthly, we notice failure and fulfilment. We can't read these verses without thinking of the contrast between the failure of the first Adam and the success, the fulfilment of the second Adam. Adam fell having been offered and taken forbidden food. Jesus here, the second Adam, offered the forbidden food as it were in the first temptation, yet resisted to the last and succeeded. We also notice another contrast between the Israel of God as a corporate people. Forty years in the wilderness, succumbing continually to temptation. Forty years of wilderness wandering characterised by failure in contrast to him who is truly Israel. Succeeding in the face of more temptations in his forty days than they had in their forty years of wilderness wandering. We also see a contrast with the other messengers of the covenant. There were three main covenant developments and preachers in the Bible. Moses, the one who brought in the covenant as it were, Elijah who renewed it and Christ who perfected it. And when we look at these three men characterising the three phases of covenant development. We see contrast. We see in Moses and Elijah's side failure. We see in Christ's side fulfilment and success. Think of the fasting. Moses fasted in the middle of his ministry. Elijah at the end. But Christ, his fasting came right at the beginning. of his ministry. The other men had years of experience, as it were, before they went through similar trials. Moses fasted 40 days in the presence of God. Elijah fasted 40 days really alone. Christ fasted 40 days in the presence of the Wicked One and yet still succeeded. Moses was called up by God to the mountain. Elijah went forth in the bitterness of the Spirit, but Christ was led personally by the Holy Spirit throughout. Moses failed at the end of his 40 days, smashing the tables of the law. Elijah failed before his 40 day fast. But here Christ succeeded at the beginning, the middle and the end. We think of Moses getting angry with Israel. We think of Elijah despairing over Israel. But we see here Christ overcoming and conquering for Israel's sake. Here we have failure contrasted with fulfilment. Defeat contrasted with success and victory. The last Adam. The true Israel. Prince with God. and the one to whom Moses and Elijah pointed. Finally here we have the great question to obey or not to obey. That's the question. That's the great question and that's really what sums up all these temptations and all our temptations. They all resolve themselves into this one great question. Will I obey or will I take the easy way out? And the three temptations, as we hope we'll see, can be summed up like that. Obey, or the easy way. Obey the will of God, or take the easy way. And that's the crux of all temptation. The hard path of obedience in the strength of the Spirit, or the easy way out. for a comfortable, supposedly, life. Here we have an example Christ to follow in our temptations. But more than that, we have an encourager for us in our temptations. As Hebrews tells us, being tempted in all points like as we are yet without sin qualifies him to be a succorer, an encourager and a helper of the tempted. a merciful and faithful High Priest. In the midst of our temptations we must cry to Him who can help us and assist us and deliver us. He knows what we're going through and above all we have a Saviour from sin so that when we do fall, we do fail, we can still go to the One who conquered for us, who suffered for us and who succeeded for us and claim His salvation, worked out so perfectly for us. Can you do that today? Pray that ye enter not into temptation. Let us pray. O Lord our God, use these awful temptations and that wonderful victory to encourage us in our own battles against the tempter. We pray that we would have a real appreciation of his presence and power, but that we would also have a greater appreciation of the presence and the power of the Conqueror. In His name we pray. Amen.