Weren't you glad that Jesus took away our sin and darkness? Because at one point, that's where we all were. If you're a Christian here today, that's where we were. We were in sin and darkness. Now the sad thing about that is people that are in sin and darkness don't even realize that most of the time. I mean, people live in sin, and we all know people that have lived in sin all their life, and never even realize that they rebuke the fact that they are sinners. Well, see, one of the first things that we must have as Christians, or to become a Christian, is that we must realize that we're sinners, and that we have sin, because just as Jesus' first sermon, he said, repent. And repentance is from sin. We must turn from sin, and we must turn to Christ. the only person, the only place that we can find forgiveness. And you see in the temptation of Christ as we begin, and if you want to turn your Bibles this morning to Matthew chapter 4, That's where we will be this morning talking about the temptation of Christ. Now, last week, we went through the baptism of Christ and the important things of the baptism of Christ. But this morning, we're going to go through the temptation of Christ and the things of Christ. And I have to remind myself every once in a while to look at my notes or I forget where I am, even though I think the Lord leads us many times where we need to be. But when we read about the temptation of Christ, there are several things that we have to understand about this temptation of Christ. And if you read the scripture, you'll see that. Number one is his deity. He is God. He was God in the flesh at this time, but later on, he was resurrected into heaven. But you see that, and as we read this scripture, you can see it very plainly, that of who he is. But the other thing that you have to see in this is the importance of the word of God. I mean, as Christians, the most important thing that we do is to read the word of God and understand and study the word of God. Because even Christ himself, as you'll see here in the scripture, when he was tempted of Satan, face to face with Satan, which we've never been, He defeated Satan by his word or by the word of God. So let's read the scripture. And I'm going to begin reading there in Matthew chapter four with the first verse and read down through verse 11 there. Matthew chapter four says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward and hungered. And when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And he answered and said, it is written. Now this is out of Deuteronomy chapter eight, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeded out of the mouth of God. Then the devil taketh him up to the holy city and setteth him on the pinnacle or a pinnacle of the temple and said unto him, if thou be the son of God, see here it is again, the devil's tempting him just like he tempted Adam and Eve. What did he say to Adam and Eve? He said, did God really say? So he's trying to put into the mind and heart of Christ here. Did God really say you're the son of God? Did God really proclaim this? But it says in verse five, there again says the devil taketh him under the holy city and said to him on the pinnacle of the temple and said unto him, if I'll be the son of God, cast myself down for it is written. He shall give his angels charge concerning the, and in their hands, They shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, again the word of God out of Deuteronomy 6, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Christ replied there back to Satan. Verse eight says, again, the devil taketh him up unto an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them, and said unto him, all these things I will give thee if thou will fall down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. And the devil left him because of the word of God." Now, the thing that we have to understand as Christians is that we don't have the ability of Christ. And if you read any of the commentaries on these verses, one thing that the commentators say, and that we have to understand, and we're going to read the scripture here in just a minute, Hebrews 4, is that he was tempted without any ability to sin. So, you know, we have to look at ourself in that, because we have the ability to be tempted, but we sin, the opposite of Christ. See, that's where we stand. We stand opposite of Christ. So what do we need in that case? See, we have to have a redeemer. We cannot redeem ourselves. There's no works that anybody can do to present to God. See, when we break God's law, we're headed for hell at that point. There's no, nothing that can rescue us but the blood of Christ. See, at that point, we have to have Christ. And this tells us that very plainly. We understand that, that Jesus was led up. But see, look at the things that Jesus did. He humbled himself. The very first verse there in Matthew says he was led up of the spirit. See, in other words, the spirit can lead men, but men may not do what the spirit leads them to do. Many times we don't. even as Christians. So this tells us that he had the choice here, but his desire, as we read last week, when he was 12 years old, he said his desire, his will, was to do the will of the Father. the Father in heaven, God in heaven, His will was to do that. But see also here in this again, you see the Trinity, the Father in heaven, Christ is wanting to do His will. He's led up by the Spirit. So you see the Spirit of God, you see God the Father and you see God the Son who is about to be tempted at His own will. But now notice also in this, that there's 40 days and 40 nights, real days, real nights. See, a lot of atheists have used this to say, no, this could not happen. A man couldn't live 40 days. But notice that he became hungry. So he still had this flesh side of him. He had this flesh side. He became hungry. Well, and And Satan used that, this temptation, whenever Christ was at his lowest point. But here's the thing that I wanted to get to in this, too, is that why, now think about it in your own mind, and some of these things we'll have to think about ourselves, because even the commentaries won't tell you certain things, but why was it that Christ had to be tempted? Why was it he submitted to this temptation, this terrible time facing Satan face to face? Think in your mind why he had to be tempted. Well, the first is, is he had to prove who he was. He's sovereign. He's God. He had to prove that. Now, not for himself, not for the Father, and not for the Spirit. He did not have to prove that to them, but he had to prove it to us. We had to see that he's going to go through these great temptations without sin. The sinless Son who presented us to the Father, who makes us secure in the Father. See, that's Christ. He's the one who does all this. But see, This was brought about by the whole counsel of God here. It wasn't just the son. But the son's determination, he says it over and over again throughout the New Testament, is to do the will of the father. The father has sent him. Now, go back to what I said to begin with. We have to determine in ourselves where we stand when it comes to Christ. The average church in Jones County, Mississippi, and many other surrounding counties, and probably all the state, and probably the whole country, and maybe even the whole world, the average person thinks they're okay. That here we have this loving God, he loves us, and certainly he does, and he is a loving God, but certainly I'm okay. When I get to heaven, he's gonna pat me on the back because I've not done anything that wrong. See, that's what the average Southern Baptist believes today. That's shocking, but you talk to some of them. You talk to them about Christ, and when you see men draw back, that they don't even understand the things of God. They don't even understand what salvation really is. And many of them have never been in churches that preach the word. See, that's the shocking thing today. But when you look at this temptation of Christ, you understand who he is. He's totally sovereign. He's God. Now, he is also the Savior. He saves people. And we see that throughout the Bible. But we have to understand that we can never apply sin to him. But now, here's the thing about ourselves. Let me ask you this question. You don't have to answer it. But you have to answer it to yourself. Who taught you to sin? Who taught you to sin? Who taught me to sin? See, there's nobody that taught us to sin. We're born in sin. And if we're honest about ourself, the first point of salvation, as I said, is to realize our sin and realize that we're sinners. But we also must own our sin. See, nobody taught us to sin. We did it automatically. And most of the time we've enjoyed our sin. Even though most of the time it's caused us terrible situations in our life or in our lives that we had to, we have to repent of it. The spirit warns us of that and we have to repent of those things. But nobody taught us to sin. It's automatic. We're prideful. See, pride, most people say, is the worst of all sins because we're all prideful. We're eat up with this pride. But see, nobody taught us to sin, but we must own this sin. And what I mean by that is this. Our sin is ours. Psychologists today teach people, no, it's not you. You didn't do this. Your grandfather did this, or your father did it, or your mother did it to you, or your neighbors did it. No, that's not true. They may have done something. We may have been abused as a child, like a man recently told me about that he was abused as a child. My neighbor, who's no longer my neighbor, but he was so vile that he One of his sons won't even have children because he's afraid he would abuse his own children. But see, still, he must own and we must own our own sin, no matter who or what caused us to sin or what we think caused us to sin. Now, there's a story about two brothers. They had a dad that was an alcoholic and he beat both of them. He was a horrible man. One brother, is a dedicated Christian and lives for Christ in all that he does. The other one is a horrible alcoholic, just like his dad. Both of them raised by the same dad. Both of them live the same life in the same home all their life as youngsters. And a man asked the one that was a Christian, why is it that you're a Christian? You don't drink like your dad did. You don't beat your children like your dad did. He said, because I saw my dad and I was determined I would not live that way. And eventually the Lord saved me and I will not live that way. Well, he asked the other son, well, why do you drink and why do you beat your children like your dad? He said, because I saw my dad and he caused me to be the way I am. See, that's what we see in the world today, but we have to own our sin. We cannot blame the way we live, the way we are, on anybody but ourselves and our own sin. We must own it. But here Christ is. He had no sin. Now see, when the devil tempts him, here's what you're going to see, is that in his mind, he was sinless. See, in our mind, we're sinful. That's why when we're tempted, most of the time we sin. Now, there's a lot written about temptation, and there's a lot written about temptation of sin. But one of the things is, is that if we're not careful, we become familiar with sin. And we become familiar with an act of sin. And if we're not careful, we fall off into sin, because all of a sudden, we begin to tell ourselves and the devil tells us and helps us in our mind because, say, we can't sense him, so he helps us fill our mind with the fact that, hey, this is okay. This is okay, this sin is okay. So if we're not careful as Christians, we fall into that, that type sin. But in Hebrews chapter four, I want to read this verse. If you turn there in your Bibles, Hebrews chapter four, A very important verse when understanding Christ and who he is. Matter of fact, the book of Hebrews explains that very well, who he is. But in Hebrews chapter four, it's specific about the temptation of Christ. But Hebrews chapter four, I want to begin to read verse 14 and 15. Let me read verse, yeah, verse 14 through 16. It says, seeing then that we have a high priest, that is passed through or passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession. Let us hold, for we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. See, now that's Christ. He was tempted. but yet without sin. So you know, again, we're the opposite of that. We're tempted and we sin most of the time. Well, then verse 16 says, let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help us in a time of need. So we must come before the throne of God so that we do not sin, that we don't fall off into this temptation. that leads us into this sin. See, we must come boldly, and we can come boldly admitting to Christ that we're a sinner, admitting to Christ that they were tempted by this sin. Lord, help me make it through this sin, this temptation, excuse me, that I do not fall off into sin. See, he is that. He is our high priest, the Bible says. See, We're not Jews that we have to come before the priest with a blood sacrifice to get for remission of our sins. That's not us. But what are we? We have this high priest, Jesus Christ, who is there and has presented his blood for us to cover our sins, to take away our sins. That's Christ. That's who he is. And that's what the book of Hebrews, you look at Hebrews chapter one, It tells us very plainly who he is. Verse 1, Hebrews 1, it says, God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in times passed unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and by whom also he made the worlds. who being the brightness of his glory, the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the majesty on high. Christ, he's on the throne. He sat down because his work was finished. The setting position there is the position of a king. The king of kings and the Lord of lords. He's there for us and you can see it there. Upholding all things by the word of his power. See, now when Satan faced Christ, he was facing a losing situation. You know, if you just look at a ball game, for instance, One of the worst things that can happen in a ball game is for a key player to get hurt and they can no longer play. Because many times a team will lose because of that if their key player, like a quarterback or running back, gets hurt. Then they have nobody to replace them. You don't see that here. We don't have to worry about that. We're not going to lose this battle because we're upheld by Christ, by his mighty word and by his mighty power. Satan was facing a losing battle. And obviously, it's very obvious that he didn't even understand that. But he will never give up because he goes right from the temptation of bread right into the temptation of putting Christ on the pinnacle of the temple. And this begins the second temptation here of Christ. So these are just some things getting into this, the second temptation, this temptation of Christ. The Bible says, that Satan came unto him. See, one thing that you can depend on in all of your, and we have to understand as Christians, is he's going to come. He came to Christ. He's going to come to us and he's going to tempt us. But there's a very important thing is that we cannot sense him. Christ sensed him. Christ knew he was there. If you remember later on in the book of Matthew and the gospels, whenever Christ faced the men that were demon possessed, he knew them. He knew these demons. He knew that some of them had multiple demons and he knew that. The demoniac had many demons and Christ knew that. He knew them. See, we don't have that ability. We can't sense Satan. So therefore, it's very dangerous because he can actually lead our mind, if we're not careful, into false things. He can lead us off into sin. So we have to be very careful of those things. But let's look at this temptation. Says, in verse 5, says, the devil taketh him up to the holy city and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, if thou be the son of God, see, cast thyself down, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and their hands, they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against the stone. Now, that doesn't seem like much of a temptation to us. But think about the setting of Christ, where he was and who he was. See, from the pinnacle of the temple, he could see all the things going on in the Jewish religion. He could see the sacrifices. He could see the priest and all dressed up in all their fancy robes. He could see all that. But he had been taught this all of his life. See, in the Talmud, the Jews say this, that the Messiah is going to come and he's going to rule from the pinnacle of the temple. He's going to rule all the earth from the pinnacle of the temple in Jerusalem. That's what they believed, and that's what Christ had been taught. So was this a great temptation to him? Yes, it was. Because see, all of a sudden here, he was going to be the one that was going to be or could be, he could be the one that even all the priests, even the high priests would bow down and worship him. He was going to be or could be the ruler of the world here. That's what Satan was tempting him with. Remember too, that he was a carpenter, which was considered a very low position in the Jewish realm. So in today's society, a man in low position is offered the greatest position in all of society. Almost any man in society would jump for that position. But see, Christ Turned it down. He had no desire to have that position. He'd been taught it all of his life, but he knew different. Why did he know different? Because of what he said. He said, it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. See, he could not be tempted by Satan. But see, we're the opposite. We're tempted by Satan. In everything that we do, we're tempted by Satan. And see, we're sinners. We have to understand that. Romans 3.23 tells us that very plainly. We all know the book of Romans and the things of the book of Romans, but we all sin and fall short of the glory of God. There is none righteous. No, not one. I mean, you can go on and on that the Bible tells us. That's us. From Adam's time till now, there's not been a righteous person other than Christ. See, there's many men. Matter of fact, I was reading this week in the Bible, and it says that there were three kings. Hezekiah was one of those kings. He was a very godly king. And then after him was his son Manasseh. Manasseh was a very evil king. And these were kings of Judah, the kings of the southern kingdom. Manasseh was very evil. Hezekiah had broken down all the idols and all of the places of worship, and he had brought the nation back to be a nation that was dependent on God, and Manasseh destroyed all of it. The Bible says even Manasseh caused his son to walk through the fire. In other words, he sacrificed his son, probably on the altar of Molech, his own son. So after that, Manasseh's son became the reigning king, Josiah. Well, Josiah was a godly man too, probably taught by his mother, but we don't know that for sure. But Josiah One of the priests were in there and Josiah began to rebuild the temple and the things of the temple that Manasseh, his father, had destroyed. Well, the priest was in the temple digging around, is what I call it, one day looking for something like we were looking in the gym here a while back for things that we may want to buy. But they were looking for things to rebuild the temple. And they found the law of God. Well, the priest took the law of God to Josiah. And Josiah immediately, when he read this, the priest read this law to Josiah and he rent his clothes. And he said, we've sinned and our fathers have sinned. And Josiah realized that God had already put into motion to destroy Judah because of their sin of worshiping idols and all the other sins. He realized that by the Word of God. See, the Word of God warns us. Now, the Lord didn't do that until after his death, but the Lord warns us against this sin, that we are sinners, and it warns us constantly. Book of Proverbs said, there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof is death. It also says the way of a fool is right in his own eyes. So we have to be careful. We have to be careful about even our thoughts and the things that we think when it comes to living our lives. We have to remember. But we also have to remember this about what the Bible says about the devil. that he's a very powerful. We have no weapon against him except the spiritual weapons that the book of Ephesians tells us about. But the word of God, if you look at John chapter eight in verse 44, it says this about the devil. Now at this point, the Jews were coming to Christ And well, let me be in reading verse 42. Jesus said unto them, if God were your father, you would love me for I proceeded forth and came from God. Neither came I of myself. So here it is again. He came not of himself, but he sent me. Why do you not understand my speech? Even because you cannot hear my word, ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he spake a lie, he speaketh of his own, for he is a liar and the father of lies. See, that's where our danger is, is facing this devil and facing the things of the world. And the devil uses the things of the world against us and even our own flesh against us. And we have to understand that he's going to put these things out there for us. Now, if you notice what he did, what the devil did, he led Christ, the Bible says, up to the pinnacle of the temple. Now that's very important to us because he's going to promise us high things, great things. He's going to promise us things that we can see and he's going to put in our mind that this is going to be the best thing that has ever happened to me. And in the end, it leads us to destruction, even as Christians, if we're not careful. It can lead us to terrible things. It splits families. It causes people to be bankrupt because these things of the world look great, but we have to, as Christians, learn to decipher the difference between fallacy and truth. See, the truth is the word of God, and the word of God teaches us truth. And we have to understand that the things of the world are going to promise us great things. The things, actually, that we desire. See, he came to Christ. What did he tempt Christ with? First thing was bread. He hadn't eaten in 40 days. So he tempted him with that. So he's going to do us the same way. See, you get in a little bit of a pinch monetarily, and he's going to bring you something that may cause you destruction in the end, but in the beginning, it looks like gold. I remember a song in the 70s that said everything that glitters is not gold. And see, as Christians, the Bible teaches us that. Everything that the devil tempts us with is not gold. He's a liar. He's a cheat. He's a murderer, is what the scripture says. John 10.10 says, the thief cometh not but to steal and to kill. The devil is the thief. He comes to steal our lives. He comes to kill us. whether it's actual physically killing us or whether it's killing our reputation of who we are. That's the devil, and that's what he's out to do. But Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. Come unto me. Come unto me, all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. That's what Jesus said. So that's the thing. See, we must abide in Christ. And the last scripture that I want to look at is in John chapter 15. If you're already there in the book of John, John chapter 15, divine and abiding in Christ. John chapter 15, in the first verse, the first five verses, Jesus doing the talking, he said, I am the true vine, my father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that bringeth forth not fruit, he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit. Now you're clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can you accept you abide in me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me you can do nothing. Abiding in Christ. There's been many books written on these scriptures and on the phrase of abiding in Christ here. But if you notice, there's one thing that you notice in all this, and that is that we cannot, as the vine, have life without being into the vine of Christ. And Christ said, I am the vine. as a vine, we must be in Christ, we must be in Christ, and we must abide in him if we're going to do what the Lord has called us to do. There's no other way to do it. He is the life. There is no life apart from him and apart from Christ. We must abide in Christ. And he says this in verse three, and here again it points back to the word of God and to his own, whenever he was tempted of Satan, He said, now you're clean through the word which I've spoken unto you. See, the word of God cleanses us. That's the reason it must be a part of our life. It must be in us. We must know it. We must study it. We must pray that the Lord shows it to us and reveals it to us. It's a part of our life. It should be a part of our life as Christians. We cannot live apart from it. But we must be clean through the word, through the washing of this word, the spirit working in our heart, through the word of God, showing us the word of God and teaching us the word of God and cleansing us. As Christ said here, now you're clean through the word, which I've spoken. See, what did he say to Satan? He said, if you go back to the book of Matthew again and look at what he said, he said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Not the words of men. We can't depend on the words of men, but we have to depend on these words of Christ. If we're going to live the way God intended us to live and live the life, the Christian life, We must depend upon Christ. He said that the devil took him up to the temple there. He quoted him scripture. But yet, he said this. If you notice, he set him down on the pinnacle. See, the setting positions, I said in Sunday school this morning, setting position of a king. That's a position of a king, setting on the throne. See, he set Christ down and said, this throne is yours. You can have it. You can have all the world and be ruler of all the world. Here it is. You can have it. But he did not. He did not submit to this temptation of Satan. And here again, it is to us that we must be aware that he's coming. He came to Christ. He's going to come to us. Most of us comes many times during every day, tempting us, tempting us with his lies, trying to destroy us, and promising us things that can never happen, things that are going to destroy us if we're not careful. The question today is how do we stand with Christ? Are we abiding in Christ? Is Christ a part of our life? Let's pray.