I draw your attention this morning to verses 3 and 4 of this chapter 4 in Matthew. And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. And so we read, the tempter came to Jesus. The temptation of our Lord Jesus was real. It wasn't something in his mind. It wasn't imaginary. It was real. Not only was it real, he suffered in it. In fact, the Bible tells us, he himself suffered being tempted. It was very hard on our Lord Jesus Christ to be thus assailed and assaulted by the devil. He suffered But bless his name, he never sinned. Suffered, but didn't sin. The experience was bitter for him. The experience, we could say, for him was Mara bitterness. But while the experience was bitter, bless his name, his heart never became bitter. His heart never became Mara. You see, trials and temptations, not only are they bitter, but they can make us bitter. They can make us hard. They can make us cold and callous. But they did not do that to our Lord Jesus. He never sinned in all His temptations. It never made Jesus bitter. But while temptation never made our blessed Lord bitter, it did do something to Him. It did do something to Him. It made Him sympathetic. It made Him understanding. It made him able to succour us. You see, Jesus has been there before us. And this is what the Apostle says. He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And he says that he is able because of that to sympathise with us. To succour us. He's been there. He's been there. And so he is touched, the Bible tells us. with the feeling of our infirmities having himself felt the same. He is most sympathetic. And that's good to know for you who are going through the battle and going through trials and difficulties and having a wilderness experience such as this is for our Lord. It's good to know that our Lord Jesus has been there before us. Jesus knows Jesus has experienced it in His human nature. And Jesus cares. That's the lesson of the whole Gospel of Matthew. In all His sufferings and trials, He knows and He cares. He has first-hand experience. And so I would say to you, child of God, stay close to the tempted and the tried ones. Touched with the sympathy within, He knows our feeble frame. He knows what sore temptations mean, for He has felt the same. And so Matthew 4 is about His care for us, what He went through for us, and how He understands our temptations. There are three temptations that our Lord had to face that are recorded for us. We only deal with the first one this morning that we have read. There are two things I bring to your attention in this first temptation. Notice, first of all, the Satan's proposal. And then, secondly, the Savior's response. The Satan's proposal, first of all. The temptation, as I said, was real. These stones. These stones, Jesus. You can see them. These stones. Come on. that they be made into bread if you are the Son of God. You see, they are real stones. They are present stones and they are brought to the attention of the Lord Jesus who is hungry. And he is asked by Satan to command that these stones be made bread. Forty days and forty nights How could he sustain his humanity during that time? He was upheld by his Heavenly Father. But now after it, he begins to feel hungry. And just at that point, the devil comes along and says, here's a way whereby you can satisfy your hunger. The temptation is real. And his humanity is failing it. The Lord has not yet commenced his miraculous work. The Canaan wedding is not far off. The first miracle is still ahead of him. You know that miracle well. The miracle of turning water into wine at his father's behest. But Satan wants him to begin now. And he wants him to turn stones into bread. These stones They're real. They're present. They are before his eyes. The devil manifests himself and says to him, why not begin your miracles now? If you're the son of God, why not begin them now? Commence them now. Go ahead. Do it. Turn them into bread and satisfy your need. These stones. And in this area of the wilderness you can easily find stones that resemble loaves of bread. I don't see any loaves of bread here today at the harvest. You have omitted to include that. But the devil could find stones that look like loaves. I'm sure he came at a right time. I'm sure he chose the right stones. Very loaf like stones. And he said, these stones, do you see how like bread they are? Turn them into bread. It would be so easy for you. You see, stones are like bread in parts of the wilderness in Israel. You'll remember how in another mountain, a better mountain, the mountain of the Sermon on the Mount, where Jesus taught us, if a son asks a father for bread, will he give him a stone? Will he palm him off with something that just looks like it, but doesn't satisfy the needs of his body? And so stones can look like bread. Well, the devil says these stones turn them into nice, satisfying, replenishing loaves. Feel them already beginning to melt in your mouth, Jesus. If you are a son, your father will not refuse you. If you are the son of God, you can do that. And Jesus had power to do that. The devil knew that. And so, who is going to start off the miraculous ministry of Jesus? Who is going to commence it? Is it his father commanding him to change the water into wine? Or is it going to be Satan commanding him to turn the stones into bread? Who is going to commence this wonderful ministry of the Son of God for which he has just received the auction of the Holy Ghost? Is Jesus going to do what the devil says? No. It is never right to do what the devil says. It's never right to do what the devil says, no matter how plausible it might seem. It is never right for you, child of God, to listen to Satan. However just and right and proper and even true the words that come out of his mouth are, it is never right for you to listen to him and do what he says. And Jesus certainly isn't going to do it. And he's leaving us an example. And so, child of God, never listen to the devil. Listening to the devil does not bring life. Though he uses the word life, perhaps though he makes us think it will bring life, the devil never brings us life. He only brings us death. He only deadens our spirituality. He only harms our work with God. We must never listen to that foul spirit. however he might intimate his mind to us. And so, it is not wrong to satisfy a legitimate appetite. But it is wrong to satisfy a legitimate appetite illegitimately. That's always wrong. Christ's appetite is one thing. The devil's means of satisfying it is an altogether different thing. And he knows how to work that. He knows how to satisfy our appetites in illegitimate ways. And the Lord can never succumb to satanic suggested means of satisfaction. Satan's proposal, command, Son of God, if you are such, command that these stones be made red. Satan's proposal. I want you to notice, secondly, then, the Savior's response. The Savior's response. And there are two things. There is, first of all, the powerful weapon the Savior uses. It is written. and then the particular word that the Savior used. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. First of all then, in this response of our Lord, our wonderful Lord, who stood against Satan and resisted him on our behalf, the first thing is the powerful weapon that he uses. It is written The Saviour has power to turn the stones into loaves. Do you remember how John the Baptist preached, not so long ago actually, in Matthew chapter 3, to the Pharisees and to the hypocrites? He says that the Lord is of these stones, able to raise up children unto Abraham. That's amazing. God can turn stones into Children of Abraham. And so Jesus can easily turn these lows into bread, it would not be hard for him. Perhaps the devil has heard that great sermon of John the Baptist about what can happen stones, and perhaps he comes mockingly along here to the Son of God and says, just make them bread. Don't worry about making sons of Abraham, just make them bread and satisfy yourself. He had power to do that. In fact, he had power to turn Satan into hell. But he must be our Savior, and he must win the day as a sinless man, and therefore he does not resort to divine power to banish Satan. Jerome, one of the early church fathers said, it was the Lord's object to smite the devil, not by majesty, but by humility. And that is true. I remind you that Jesus is the Spirit-led man. Verse 1, Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness. The last Adam. The one who is standing in our stead. The one who is like Israel of old, though they failed in their 40 year wandering in the wilderness. He has his counterpart now. 40 days and 40 nights. Will the last Adam fail? Will the new Israel fall? And so, Satan comes and buffets him. But the Spirit-led Saviour resists him. And He resists him in the only way that Spirit-led men can, with the Word of God. with the Holy Scriptures, with an it is written. And so He leaves us an example. Our General, our Captain, teaches us how to war a good warfare and what weapon we are to use. And He gives us the sword of the Spirit and He takes it up Himself. The sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. He says it is written. The quotation is from Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, as we shall see. And so, here he is, unshakable confidence in the Holy Scriptures, as a Spirit-led man, and he quotes it too. And with all three temptations, you will notice, it was the only weapon he used. Three times tempted, three times he said, it is written. It is Christ's only armor. It is the head's armor, and it must be the member's armor as well. We are to use the same weapon in our warfare. There is no other way. You remember how the psalmist said, Thy word have I hid in mine heart. That's where it is in Jesus, it's in his heart. In this 40 day of wandering, he has been particularly meditating on the book of Deuteronomy. It has filled his soul. All his quotations on actual fact are from that book. The 40 years, his 40 days, he's meditating, he's drinking in Deuteronomy, he's filled with it. And so when the devil comes along, he has it at hand. I've had it in my heart, but I might not sin against it. You remember what the Apostle John wrote to young men. He said, I write to you, young men. Young men, he says, because you are strong. Why? The Word of God abides in you. And you have overcome the evil one. And that's only going to be true of us young men and women if the Word of God is abiding in us. Really abiding in us. It makes us strong. It alone makes us overcomers. It alone makes us victorious. Take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. Some people wonder, what has Jesus been doing for thirty years? Well, among the many things that He has been doing, we know that He has been doing this in His sinless humanity. He has been laying up in his heart the Word of God. He's been drinking it in at the synagogue, drinking it in all the time. It's steeped in Scripture. And so, should you be child of God, follow your Savior in this regard, If you are a true disciple of him, this will certainly be high in your list of priorities, to drink in the word as he drunk it in. What saith the holy apostle? Let the word of God dwell in you richly. It dwelt richly in Jesus. It is not a feeble weapon either that our Lord Jesus Christ uses. because the Apostle reminds us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. No, it is true. It is not a metal sword. It is not a two-edged sword such as man might frame in the furnace and on the anvil. No, it is not carnal. Those carnal weapons are useless in our warfare for the Lord Jesus, whose kingdom is a spiritual kingdom No, they are not carnal weapons, but nevertheless they are mighty. Mighty through God. Mighty through God to the pulling down, yes, to the tearing down of the strongholds of Satan, even perhaps that he for decades has built up. The mighty Word of God can just pull them down in a moment. And that's all we use is the Word of God. And that's the only weapon that we in the Free Presbyterian Church resort to in our warfare. The Word of God alone. It is mighty to the pulling down of strongholds. And the Apostle goes on casting down. And the word our translators use is imaginations. It literally is reasonings. These reasonings These thoughts that the world has. These thoughts and reasonings and logic that the ungodly have. We should do it this way or that way or the other. Well, the Word of God just pulls it down. And the devil comes with his reasonings. Oh yes, these are stones. You have power. You're the Son of God. You're hungry. You know you've hungered for 40 days. You've been faithful. Now just give yourself a good feed here and turn these stones into bread. It's reasonable, isn't it? It's a reasoning. Well, Jesus comes along and he just casts down those reasonings. Pills them down. And it's going to happen to you, child of God. All these reasonings are going to come to your mind. And you'll think, oh, it sounds very logical. It sounds good. It sounds just. But is it according to the Word of God? And has it originated with the Holy Spirit? Or has it originated with Satan? Pull it down with the Word of God. And so, His weapon is the Scriptures. But I want you to notice also in this response of our Savior, not only the powerful weapon that He used, but the particular word that was quoted. Because he says, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He used the point. And the text has a point, an appropriate point on this occasion, and he uses the point of the weapon You know, it's not carrying a Bible that makes you powerful. It's not having a Bible in the house that will make you an overcomer and defend your home and defend your mind and defend your soul from all the assaults of hell against it. It's not having a Bible. It's not possessing a Bible that will make you an overcomer and a victor. It's not even having a Bible in your hand. No good just having it in your hand. It must be in your heart. And you must have a text. And you must know the text. And you must be able to bring out the point and ram it into the enemy of your soul. It is the text. Yes, the text taken by faith. and a pride through faith that guards us against the assault of the enemy. Nothing else. The text that Jesus uses has a point. It is an appropriate word that guarded our Lord. Perhaps we would read the text that he quoted in its context. Deuteronomy 8, verse 3, He humble thee. God did that. Where was Jesus led to? The wilderness. A most humble place. He had heaven open to Him. He had the Spirit of God come down for Him. Perhaps He might have thought, Oh, I'll go to a great pulpit now. I'll go to a great synagogue now. Thousands will follow Me. But no, the Spirit drove Him out into the wilderness. He humbled Him. He humbled Him and suffered thee to hunger. This is what happened to Israel of old. He humbled thee. He suffered thee to hunger. But He did preserve thy life, fed thee with manna, Which thou knewest not. You didn't grow it. You didn't plant it. You didn't do anything about it. But he sustained your life for forty years with that mammoth that he might make thee know this thing. Man doth not live by bread alone. But by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. Man. It's Jesus the man now in the wilderness. Jesus, the man resorting to trust and faith in his heavenly Father and in the Scriptures. And here he is in the wilderness. He's already been sustained for his 40 days, comparable to the 40 years in the wilderness. He's already been sustained. And now afterward, he's a hungered. And the devil just comes in at that point. The devil really is trying to make Jesus think there are two alternatives. Either he must die of hunger, or he must turn the stones into bread. There is no other way out. The devil is suggesting, you want to live? You want to live? You need then to turn these stones into bread. And Jesus gives the answer from God's Word. Now, brethren and sisters, Jesus is saying, it's not about bread alone. Yes, man needs bread and must labor for it. But life is not by bread alone. I've already been sustained for 40 days miraculously, and I've had no bread. I've been sustained. It's not by bread alone. And I didn't need it for 40 days, and I don't need it now if my father doesn't want me to have it now. It's not bread alone. That's a lie, Satan. You're always a liar. Bread isn't everything. Look around you at this harvest produce people of God. Look around at it. Is this everything? Does that sustain your life? Will that make you live for a hundred years if you have all of this every day and every week and every year? Will that be your life? Is that what keeps you alive? Is it? No. It's God that keeps you alive by His mighty Word. That's what keeps you alive. We need one thing for life. The will of God and the Word of God saying, Live! Every word that proceeds out of His mouth, that's what is only needed. What He wills, what He says, what He determines. Life doesn't come by bread. I can eat bread every day and still die. And so, what word is this that Jesus speaks about? Well, let's take it two ways. First of all, it's a powerful creative and providential word that God speaks. But also, we can take it as a powerful inscripturated word that is written. We'll take it, first of all, as the creative providential word. There is a difference, you see. God said, let there be light. And there was light. That word made light. God said light. Light was. If God says life, life will be. If God says death, death will be. That's what it all hangs on. Every word out of his authoritative mouth. Every word out of his sovereign volition. That's what it all depends on. He upholds of all things by the word of his power, the Bible says. That's what keeps us. That's what preserves us. That's what heals us. He sent out his word and healed them. Not the medicine. Yes, the Lord uses medicine and he blesses medicine, but it's only his word that gives healing power to any medicine. Man lives by the word of God's volition. Not by the wee medicine out of the doctor's bottle. Or by the bread that goes into our body. We don't live by that only. It is God who preserves our physical life. In Him we live and move and have our being. Not in bread. Not in money. Not in all these material things. In Him we live and move and have our being. There is nothing else. Do you think, Satan, if I get bread, I will live? Do you think, Satan, if I get bread, that will be the end of all my problems? Do you think if I get this and that and the other, it'll be well with me? Do you think my life is dependent on the harvest? I think not. This is something we need to know in our wilderness experience, people of God. All is dependent on the sovereign Word of our God. You remember, this is Fury, and in chapter 8 of this Gospel, I said to Jesus, verse 8, I am not worthy that thou shouldst come under my roof. Speak the Word only. Speak the Word only. And my servant shall be his, because I have authority. And I say to this servant, go. And I say to that other servant, come. And he does all these things. But you're the Lord. Just you speak the word. And Jesus said, I never saw such great faith. Just speak the word. That's what it all depends on. God just speaking the word. That's all I need say to him. And so, That only brings life. That only sustains life. You know, your food can actually harm you. And there have been cases where people, they eat things and it just harms them. It turns into poison. They get allergic reactions to food. And it's killing them. Their food is killing them. Man doesn't live by this alone. Man lives by the Word of God. When God says, let that food bless that man. That's what we live by. So saith the Holy Book. Jesus knew. Take this harvest. Why did it come about? Just through natural laws? Why did it come about? It came about because of God's Word of God's sustaining word. God's upholding all things by his word. He sent his word and there is a harvest. That's what we live by. And so take these loaves, eat them. Do they sustain life? It is God that blesses our bread to us. It is not only so for physical life, men and women, but it is also true of our spiritual life, our life of salvation. A man is only saved when Jesus comes along and says, you blind sinner, be open, that you might see your need of me. Be open, you blind sinner. You deaf sinner, you never hear me until Jesus comes along and says, Be opened. Now you hear me. That's what saves us when Jesus comes and speaks that word of salvation and power. Like the leper, Oh, I'm unclean. I'm a sinner. And so I want to go to the sacraments and I want to go to baptism and I want to climb the mountains to merit the cleansing of my sins. No. You need Jesus to come to you and say, sinner, be thou clean. That's what you need. Man doesn't live by bread alone. Not even savingly lives by any material goods. He lives by the Word of Salvation that comes out of the mouth of God. Ezekiel 16 shows you this very quickly. Verse 5, Now pity the Israel under the image of a wretched infant cast out in his uncleanness. Verse 5, None I pitied thee to do any of these unto thee, to have compassion upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field to the loathing of thy person in the day that thou wast born. And when I passed by thee, and saw thee polluted in thy own blood, I said unto thee, When thou wast in thy blood, live. Yea, I said unto thee, when thou wast in thy blood, live. One word, one word from the mouth of God over this polluted infant, over this dead, dying, cast out infant, one word from the mouth of God, the word live. And sinner, you will never live until an omnipotent Savior comes to your life. who you are keeping out by your unbelief and depraved rejection of Him, until that Saviour comes and speaks over you, then, and I tell you when He speaks it, you will be a new creature. It is true also of the revealed Word, the inscripturated Word. Christ proves that, does He not? He does not turn to these stones. The devil says look, look, these stones, these stones. Does Jesus go over and handle them and turn them around and twist them about and consider the whole matter? Does Jesus do that? These stones, perhaps they're in the devil's hand and the devil is handing them over to him. These stones, you see Jesus, will you not look at them? Will you not handle them? Will you not turn them? No, I will not turn those stones. the sacred book. He turns the pages of the book of God, the inscriptorial word of God. He goes to the text. Having turned to it in his mind, he goes to the text and he says, that's the word I am leaning upon. I am living on the mouth of my Heavenly Father. Every word out of his mouth. And so, that's how we are to live, people of God. We must never do wrong at Satan's behest. We must always turn to the text and do what is right. Turn to the Word of God in all your battles. So Jesus puts His reliance on the Word of God, and so should we. It will never fail us. Not one word that has come out of His mouth will drop, will fail. Not one word. His Word brings life. His Word brings salvation. His Word defends us. His Word guides us. His Word feeds us. It's all that we need. Let us receive it then. and live on every word that proceeds out of His mouth, every word, that it dwell in you richly as it did in your Lord, in your Lord Jesus Christ. To whom be glory, always to Him be glory, both now and forever. Amen. I'd like to thank the Reverend McCammon very much indeed for bringing that very helpful, very challenging and encouraging word as well to us. It's good to know that we have the word to use and we do trust that the Lord will use that word that was preached to strengthen each one of us here today.