All right, Matthew chapter 4 if you would there, please Matthew chapter 4 and We this morning talk about the temptation of Christ temptation of Jesus a very important part of his ministry if you would he just been anointed by the Holy Spirit to ministry and now he's going because what he's going to face there's going to be this 40 days of Fasting in the wilderness and then he will be tempted and then he will come through though I want you to know with flying colors every single time he never sins He never waffles and he is the king of kings and Lord of lords But as a man he's going to be tempted like as we are yet without sin It says Hebrews and so that's what today's topic is about if you're following along, please Matthew chapter 4 Courage you get your Bibles out and follow along as we read our scriptures together I'll read you listen then was Jesus let up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil and And when he fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward unhungered, and when the Tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the Son of God, how audacious that was, if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. And 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. By the way, if the Lord used the Bible as his, if you would, against Satan, and the the understanding, the integrity of Scripture as it is written. So Christ just sanctions the Old Testament right there as it is written. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. So the devil is wised up, If the Lord is going to use scripture, then I will. For it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Verse eight, Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain. I've been wondering about the logistics of this because Christ has a body. So how did all this work? The scripture says it happened. It happened. I've just been wondering about the logistics of going to the pinnacle and then into exceeding high mountain. And showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said 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. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, I pray that you bless the reading of your word. to our hearts. May I say nothing amiss, forgive me of sin, empty me of self and please fill me with your spirit today. Be with the junior beginner church and nursery folks working and teaching our young people or they are the future of churches, the future of our church specifically. I pray that you give wisdom and direction and Lord bless our time together next few moments in Jesus name I pray amen. If you're taking down an outline, matter of fact there's an outline already taken down for you on the back and for first of all we see preparing for battle. He is preparing for battle. That is Christ. He's preparing for battle. Between his birth and baptism, he spent 30 years. And during this time, I believe that Christ was loving and kind and happy and peaceful and patient and submissive. Why? Because he never sinned. And he was not just self-controlled, he was spirit-controlled. So Christ was the perfect young man if he would. He was perfect naturally, but a perfect little boy. He was perfectly normal, but absolutely holy son. He was a perfect brother, neighbor, friend, student, workman. I think he spent time being what God had always intended man to be. That was what Christ was. He was the perfect example of humanity as God would have humanity be as they were created in the Garden of Eden. Then was Jesus led up, verse number one, then Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness. You know, I just imagine he put on our sanctified imaginations for just a moment possible skirmishes that Christ had. Perhaps there was a school bully that Christ had to deal with. He did it correctly. Perhaps there was a jealous half-brother. Many homes have those. Perhaps there was an opinionated pastor or rabbi. Many churches have those. And perhaps there was a dishonest tradesman who dealt with furniture. And a lot of towns have those. But I think moment by moment, situation by situation, our Christ did exactly what he should have done, for he was Spirit-controlled. Now, you, if you're a Christian, you have the Spirit indwelling you, do you not? Yes. The answer is yes, because the Bible says so, and the Spirit then convicts us and teaches, et cetera. So it's not how much, you've got all the Spirit. You trusted Christ as Savior. He comes in all at once. There's no outward manifestations of that. Your motions must be subservient to what the Bible says. The Spirit comes in. He was given the comfort that comes in. Then the question is, how much of you does he have? That's the question. I think it varies. Every day we should ask, Lord, please fill me with your spirit and you'll be filled. But Lord didn't use me. You're indwelt by the spirit, but is he filling you? That is the question day by day we must answer. Number one, preparing for battle, then where was Jesus to go? the wilderness. Time had come for Christ to be tempted a new and significant way by none other than Satan himself. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and he had just been anointed for ministry. Back in chapter 3, the Spirit comes on him, and verse 17, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. This is Christ's public ministry, three, three and a half years. He's been preparing. He's been living. Why didn't he have a ministry the entire time? Because once he starts, people start flocking to him. It was God's plan, God's timetable. And that's for three, three and a half years, he's going to have the 12 disciples, especially, and then other people he's going to train. So where is he to go, wilderness? What was Jesus to do? Verse two. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he afterward and hungered. So he fasted in the wilderness for a long period of time, 40 days and 40 nights. The gospel of Mark says he was with the wild beast, if you would, and he hungered. During a prolonged fast, according to John Phillips, the feeling of hunger goes away after three or four days, only to return with renewed force at the end of 30 or 40 days. So at this point in time, Christ is very, very hungry, we imagine, and then he hungered. And here comes Satan, just the right opportunity, per se. I think, though, he was probably, a personal feeling, he was tempted far more than just these three times. I think he was tempted of the devil, often on, my personal feelings, this whole 40 days and 40 nights. He's hunkered. And the 16th century reformer said, there were two reasons why Christ withdrew into the wilderness. First, that after a fast of 40 days, he might come forth as a new man rather than a heavenly man to discharge of his office. And secondly, that he might be tried by temptation and undergo an apprenticeship before he undertook an office of such arduous and so exalted. So before he starts this public ministry, he's going to have some testing time. Now, we, as we prepare for ministry, you might go to Bible college, you might teach Sunday school, but all these different things, and the Lord uses these things to maybe grind off some of the rough edges and to teach us and to bring things into our lives. You can't teach about trials, really, unless you've gone through them in many ways. You can't teach how to play classical piano as you see these concert pianists playing this. Pretty much, you may not be as good as your student, but you've got to be fairly good yourself if you're going to teach that. If you're going to teach auto mechanics, you pretty much need to know how the motor works. I could never do that because we would have it running backwards and it would never even start if I was doing that. So Christ is going to be tempted, tested. He was tested in all points like as we are. So now we can come boldly into the throne of grace because he knows what you're going through. He does. He's been through it. He understands preparing for battle. Secondly, Prevailing in the battle and we see tempted along the line of provision of God's provision So he's prevailing in a battle number two tempted along the line of God's provision what Satan suggested verse 3 And when the tempter came to him he said if thou be the Son of God Command these stones be made bread. Now, wait a minute. Yes. Don't you think Satan knew what went on at the, I think he did at the baptism. He knows he's the son of God. It was a slap in the face, if you would. If thou be the son of God, he's tempting him. Satan knew Christ to be the son of God. For the truth had been recently publicly proclaimed by the father. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Don't you think at least some of the henchmen of Satan's were around there close enough and reported if Satan wasn't there himself, To hear this, this is the Son of God. Do you remember on the cross, Matthew 27, 40? and saying, thou that destroyest the temple and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. His ministry started with that, if thou be the Son of God. His ministry ends with that. If thou be the Son of God, there are going to be doubters from now until the eternal kingdom when everybody knows Christ as personal Savior. There's going to be those who just, I don't believe in Christ. I don't believe it's true. It's the watershed issue for your life. It is. What you do with Jesus is the singular most important thing you ever, ever decide to do. You must receive it. If you want to go to heaven, you must know the person of heaven. So, if thou be, in a way, it's sort of like he's saying, you, a poor, starved, emaciated being, famished and perishing with hunger, you're the son of God. There was a solution and it was instant food. Command these stones be made bread. Now, could have Christ done that? Yes, absolutely. I mean, he's upholding all things by the word of his power. I think changing a few stones in the bread, my goodness gracious, that would not be difficult for him if it's what God wanted him to do. But it was not. He could multiply a few five loaves and two fishes and feed thousands of people. Behind the temptation was this implication that God has been unkind to let Jesus hunger for so long. Your Father then, make these stones bread. Why are you even hungry? You're the Son of God. There's nothing wrong with being hungry. Nothing wrong with wanting to satisfy a legitimate craving. The evil suggestion was that Christ would have to act in independence of the Holy Spirit who had led him in the wilderness and independence of the Father. The Father said, no, I want you to do this. The Spirit's led him there, so he's going to be obedient. Remember, everything he did was in obedience to the Father. He never, ever messed up. He never, ever sinned. He never, ever made a mistake. That's the Son of God. That's who he is. Responsibility was never to act in independence from or of his father. Incidentally, a prolonged fast has been broken gradually. If you remember, maybe in the last year I saw pictures of the GI soldiers in 1945-46, and they're going to the concentration camps. And they would give their rations to those emaciated Jews who were honestly nothing but... And a lot of the ones who had survived the camp died because they could not handle even the rations of the food because their bodies had become so unaccustomed to having that much food. And several, many of them, I believe, perished. And the soldiers were just trying to help them. So Jesus is gone 40 days and 40 nights. And so we find that this fast needs to be gradually broken, but however he wants to break that fast, it's only when God allows it and when the Father gives permission and the Holy Spirit. It has to be their own tune together. The Satan suggested, and secondly, what scripture stated in verse four. And 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. In foiling a temptation, Jesus said what Satan suggested alongside of what God has said. And Satan's suggestion really went out the window, because that's just what you want. This is what God has said. He's quoting, by the way, from Deuteronomy chapter 8, verse 3, which says that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live. The first utterance of Christ and his public ministry, man does not live by bread alone. He's going to go right to the scripture. His first utterance after his anointing by the spirit to serve and to go out and to live his ministerial life. The question of errancy or irrelevance never occurred to him. It's like it's written in the Bible. God is, it is written, man shall, where is it written? In God's word. So he's given veracity to the Old Testament, it is written. And this is what Satan fears, I'm telling you. Satan worries when he sees the bended Christian on his knees. And Satan worries even more when we use God's word. Because this is what Jesus, if Jesus is setting the example, I remember my piano teacher, and she played so loud, and she played so strict, and she had these exercises, and if I didn't do the exercises just right, do it again. And she had a ruler, she'd pop your hand, and she had fingernail clippers, your fingernail, click them right there while you're sitting, too long. And she was so strict, and just do it, just right. When Christ comes, he does everything just right. And it is the Word of God. Thou shalt not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. How do these people sustain? How do Christians sustain years in prison? By the Word of God. Sustaining them. Not necessarily by the physical food, yes, it's important. Wiersbe says, but we must not think that Jesus used his divine powers to overcome the enemy, because that is just what the enemy wanted him to do. See, what he wanted him to do is throw himself from the temple and then float right back up, or to make these stones bread and reach down. That's what Satan wanted, to get outside of the will of God the Father. Show his godhood, if you would. Jesus used the spiritual resources that are available to us today, the power of the Spirit of God and the power of the Word of God. That's why it's so important for us. That's why we have it here, that we can see that we too, by God's grace and through God's power, can survive the temptation. And really, the temptation presents to commit sins. That's what it represents, to commit the sins that have to do with appetite. The sins, the kinds of sins we associate with lust. The sins are essentially physical. Bodily drives are not wrong, and they're necessary for preservation of life. But they must never be allowed to get out of hand, out of control. I found a few quips about temptation. These are such as, temptation always knocks softly before it breaks the door down. We drift into sin when we stop steering toward holiness. No one stands long who doesn't kneel often. Sin never shows its price tag up front, and it's easier to resist temptation at the door than to escape it once it's inside. Is that not true? Just this past week, Philip Yancey, in an article, I think, in Christianity Today, admitted, now he sold 1,500 or 15 million Christian books, admitted in an article that he had started an affair at 68 and lasted eight years with a married woman. And so he was stepping back from the ministry. How did that happen? He started with small things. It's the little foxes that spoil the vines. And it says, stop doing this here and stop doing this there. Todd Friel had 10 things to help the pastor, help the Christian man to avoid what happened to him. One of the things was he stopped being involved, not necessarily he did, but if you stop being involved in a local church ministry, if you stop doing these things, stop doing the things that brought you to spiritual maturity, when you stop those, any of us, any of us could go backwards. We could fall into sin. You know, typically we don't fall into sin, we sort of step backwards into it and slide right down into it, don't we not? Oops, there I go. No, no, I didn't do that. I sort of took a step here, I took a step here, I took a step here, and finally over I went. You don't really trip, you intentionally really, you make the decision. I love this Robert Frost poem. the road not taken. Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and sorry, I could not travel both. And be one traveler long I stood, and looked down one, as far as I could, to where it bent in the undergrowth. then took the other as just as fair, and having perhaps the better claim, because it was grassy and wanted wear, though as for that the passing there had worn them really about the same. And both that morning equally lay in leaves, no step had trodden black. Oh, I kept the first for another day, yet doubting how way leads unto way, I doubted if I should ever come back. I shall be telling this with a sigh, somewhere ages and ages hence. Two roads diverged in a wood, and I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference. You're going to be faced with choices. But one less traveled by, and I picture that as broad is the way that leadeth to destruction, and narrow is the gate, and narrow is the way that leadeth to life. Many are on this broad way leading to destruction, and very few, truly. find this narrow gate and narrow way. So prevailing in the battle, number one, was tempted along the line of God's provision. Secondly, tempted along the line of God's protection, the form of temptation there starting in chapter four, verse five. And then the devil takes him up into the holy city and set him on a pinnacle of the temple. transport him to the pinnacle of the temple, probably the top of what is known as Herod's Royal Portico, the southeastern part of the temple enclosure. And to look at the top, you look down 450 feet. Now, I probably don't want to look down five feet, because I don't like ladders, I don't like heights. 450 feet to the Valley of Kidron below. The suggestion then presented by Satan is a blatant trap, verse 6. He said to him, if thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down. The first was instant food, make the stones into bread. Now we have instant fame. Cast thyself down. And the implication was, when you're doing that, those angels are coming, or you'll be able to float right back up to the top. As, in effect, Satan is saying, you aren't getting anywhere. Here you are, 30 years of age, and you have no audience, no followers, no acclaim. You're not even known. If you listen to me and do what I say, you can be famous instantly, a celebrity overnight. Your name will be on everybody's lips. You'll be on the front page of the news. I'll see that you get the crowds. Now, here's the plan. I'll set you up up here on the pinnacle of the temple. You cannot get away any higher than this anywhere in Jerusalem. The people down there in the temple courts seem as small as ants. Look, you have attracted attention already. In a moment, you can see their applause. Now, where you are, you've been up here. This is where you should have been years ago in the public eye. Now then, I have brought you up. You cast yourself down. So he's using his powers of persuasion. And I was thinking this morning, You know, with most of us, I'll just put, with me, he doesn't have to go through all this rigmarole. I pretty much said, oh, there's a temptation. Let me just jump right on it. Sometimes. Perhaps you're like that. We shouldn't be like that. I don't think he would have had to go through all of that. Sometimes we're looking for things because we want to fulfill our own desires, and so when the temptation comes, He doesn't have to go to that much effort sometimes with us. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, the same three temptations that work in the garden, He's still using them today, He's gonna use them tomorrow, He'll use them all week long. How do we get around that, Pastor? using God's word, having your Bible verses ready. Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my redeemer. Bind me, brother, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things have good report, appear as well in there. If there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things. And that's what will fix your mind. Remember, pastor, and you said this before, remember, you can only think of one thing at a time. So when that sinful thought comes in, what's gone out is the good thoughts. But when the good thought comes in and God's word comes in, then out goes what? The bad and the wrong thinking. It's a blatant trap. By the way, I read this as well. We need to remember that we can, we can persuade, he can persuade, Satan can persuade, but he cannot push. And he creates a temptation. We create the transgression. We've used Flip Wilson before. I'll use him once again. Flip Wilson, we used to say, the devil made me do it. He did not make Flip do it. Flip did it on his own. The devil may have brought a temptation by, but Flip did it on his own. Can't get out of it. And you, as I as well, if we sin, if we do things that are wrong, it is on me. Satan may tempt you. You make the choice. The blatant trap, there's a biblical text also, verse six, for it is written, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee. This is Satan now, and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. In effect, Satan is saying, you must do something daring, something spectacular. You say you trust your heavenly father. Well, prove it. Exercise your faith. Show that your faith by casting yourself down. Take your stand on the word of God. God's word says, and here he goes, he shall give his angels charge concerning thee. And in their hands, they shall bear thee up. Lest at any time they shall dash thy foot against a stone. See, there's the Bible. There's the Bible, Jesus. You reminded me of what the Bible says. Now I'm reminding you. You believe the Bible? Do what it says. Put it to the test. The world is waiting to see a man who will go all the way for God, one who'll behave as he says he believes. Again, we're just doing some creative license there with what Satan might have said or said. Interestingly enough, later on, a rabbinic saying said, our teachers have taught when the King, the Messiah reveals himself, he will come and stand on the roof of the temple. So, I mean, he didn't play part of that in there. He's urging Christ, again, to be presumptuous, not trusting. And there's a fine line between being trusting and being presumptuous and tempting God. Peter was trusting when he said, step out into the water and come on. Now, if Christ had not said, step out of the water, come on, that would have been presumptuous. Lord, I'm going to jump in here. Now, you pick me up and you save me. And then he done. But when the Lord said, step out of the boat and come to me. Can you imagine that now? And we get all over. We laugh at Peter. He's the only one that went. Everybody else is still in the boat. I'm not doing that. But Peter, had the courage to start and you not have the courage to start. But when you get your eyes fixed off him, I'm telling you, down you go. And it happens the same today when we get our eyes off who he is and what we are to be about. Be careful with that. We find in, Satan quoted from Psalm 91, but he did not use the original Hebrew text. He used a Septuagint translation, what they had added in there, lest at any time. So, basically what he did, he added to it, and he took it out of context. He made the part about, to keep thee in all thy ways. He let that part out, and added some in there. So, it's sort of, if you remember, In the Garden of Eden, chapter 3, Satan said, well, he cast doubt upon God's Word. God's Word is very clear, and God has given it to us, and we have in our hands God's Word for us, so we aren't to fiddle with it. It was Thomas Jefferson who took out all the miraculous things in the Bible and had his own Bible. Our God's a miraculous God. Matter of fact, you have to believe in the miraculous because we have a virgin-born Savior. We have a Savior who was resurrected from the dead. I'm about the supernatural, that God can do those things. And so we are not to decide what is. We must trust what God has given to us through the form of temptation. And there's the failure, verse 7. Jesus said, as it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. He did not waste time arguing over the original Hebrew text and the Septuagint renderings. He said, listen, the Bible says, and in Deuteronomy 6.16, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And he did not ignore the context, which goes back to Exodus 17.7, talks about the Israelite people when they needed water in the wilderness. They thirsted in the wilderness. This represents really temptations that had to do with acceptance or approval or applause. The first temptation along the lines of the physical. The second is along the line of the psychological. Can you imagine today if they knew about Facebook and all the social media and how that we have to be on social media and how many likes I can have? And I was just thinking, I'm guilty because I said something in response to a I post on Facebook post on Facebook and the county judge responded on that and says look who noticed my oh See that's not well what did God notice about me this week a failure, but you know I Didn't do all I should do Sin this week and you probably sinned as well this week If we confess our sins, he's faithful. Aren't you glad for that verse? Faithful just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What a wonderful verse that is. We find ourselves, Lord, I've sinned. Lord, please forgive me. And he says, I forgive you. Wonderful thing. The failure, the temptation, Satan got nowhere again. interesting, but we want to become popular. Even a small child will sometimes indulge in bad behavior to get the attention of his parents or grandparents. Some adults will go to extraordinary lengths to gain the approval of those whose applause is so important to them. We get on social media, and is your social media presence different than your reality presence? I mean, are you a different person when you're online? Why do you have to Why do we have to put our opinions on everything? What are we doing all the time? We're wasting so much time sometimes. Now, I'm on there, too, sometimes. But we take these things. Who cares what I think about this or that? My wife hardly even cares about that. And I know my cats don't. So I can't expect any of you to care. You know, I sort of like butter. I really like those roadhouse rolls with that cinnamon butter. Who cares whether you like it or not? I do like that, by the way. Those are very good. What is important to us? A couple more quips. Following the lines of least resistance makes men and rivers crooked. Most people who fly from temptation usually leave a forwarding address. Never invite temptation, it always accepts. No one can be caught in a place they do not visit. No one can be caught in a place. They do not visit. And if you would master temptation, you must first let Christ master you. How important is the Bible to you? Do you know that the Pony Express only lasted 18 months? 18 months! And these men, it was a business adventure that went belly up financially, because then, if you remember, in 1862, approximately, the telegraph came on the scene, and there was no need. It cost you $5 an ounce. which is quite a price, $5 an ounce to get on the Ponexpress, and had these really small saddles. And they would go 50 miles, and had 500 fine horses, and had 40 men who pretty much gave up their lives. And they had no weapons. And they would race across from Missouri to Sacramento, California. And the one thing they carried, they carried a full-sized Bible every time they went. small saddle, fast horse, little food, and we're going to race all this way through. Yeah, I'm taking my Bible. I'm taking my Bible. tempted along the lines of God's provision, along God's protection, and thirdly, along the line of God's program, verse eight, the suggestion is made, and we see then a crown, verse four, verse eight. The devil. Again, the devil. Now, you notice what's left off in this third time, if thou be the son of God. I'm just thinking about this point in time, you know, really, I probably should leave that part out, because Christ is really showing himself to be who he was. Says he is. Perhaps I'm reading too much in there. Again, the devil takes him up into a seating high mountain and shows him all the... But wait, pastor, he's the prince of the power of the air. God has seated over to Satan at this point in time in history. As a matter of fact, it's Adam and Eve who's seated over to Satan. He's the ruler of this world right now. So yes, he can do this legitimately right now because he is the prince of the power of the air. He has been given authority because Adam and Eve left it off and negated the authority. Satan has it. So, don't get stuck on that point. Now, I think a lot of the world will do that for a whole lot less. You give me a million dollars, I'll do that thing for me. I'll do it for $500,000. And on a good day, I might do it for a quarter of a million dollars. All the kingdoms of the world, if you'll just for a moment, that pinch of salt, if you'll just one time a year, if you'll say Caesar is Lord, we won't kill you. All you gotta do is one time a year, you can worship Christ, but one time a year, you've got to come before the altar of Caesar and say, Caesar is Lord, and if you do that, we'll not kill you. But if you don't do that, we're gonna put you in, we're gonna put you in, we're gonna kill you. We're gonna put you in the arena, the crown. The instant food, instant fame, and now instant fortune. But it's a world without the cross, that's the crown, and what's gonna be the cost? If thou wilt worship me. Can you imagine? He prays. He says, I gave the world Alexander. I gave it Caesar. And you're a much bigger man, Jesus, than all of them, a better man. Think of how the world longs for a king like you, Jesus. You're a king. All you need is a throne. Think of how much good you can do. You can bring into new laws and put your program into effect. Think of it, the carpenter of Nazareth, crowned emperor of the world. Just think of it, Jesus. And all you have to do, just one time, Fall down and worship. And there's no cross. There's no cross looming three and a half years from now. I didn't say that. But there's no cross looming ahead. You may not even realize that. But it's a crown without the cross. Suggestion is made. The suggestion is met. In verse 10, the Lord's will. The Lord's will. Then saith Jesus unto him, get thee hence. Christ did not find anything appealing in what Satan was offering. Oh, that I and you and I would not find anything appealing that Satan's offering today. Whatever it is that you struggle with, oh, that we would not find that appealing any longer, but we'd focus on what the Bible says and turn our attention on the right kind of things and away from the worldly things and close to thee, as Bud so well sang this morning. Close to thee. Is that what you want? To be closer to God? Not only the Lord's will, the Lord's word. For it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. For the third and last time, Jesus appealed to the written word of God, Deuteronomy 6.13. It is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Do you ever wonder perhaps that was his morning devotional, Deuteronomy chapter 6, 7, and 8? Perhaps that morning, just a reminder, worship the Lord thy God. Christ and the Father were in seamless harmony, except for three hours on the cross. It represents the temptation to commit sins that have to do with ambition. The sins are essentially spiritual for the ambition to generate pride. That was Satan's downfall. It can cause us to exalt some rival to God's throne. Satan offered the world to Christ in exchange for worship. By the way, power is a very heady drink. It was Lord Acton who said, power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Don't live your life for more and more power and more and more authority. I don't want more power and more authority. It's not just in my nature. I just want to just do my job or do what God has called me to do. I don't want this power and authority. But there are some who live for that. It's not wrong, by the way, for a person to wish to improve his position. But he needs to be aware of why he sets the goals and how he goes about achieving them. So it was preparing for the battle, prevailing in the battle, and finally proceeding from the battle. Verse 11, exit of the adversary, and the devil leave with him. Tempted Christ. He lost. Satan lost. Jesus won. I can tell you, I know who wins in the end. Jesus wins. God is still in control. The exit of the adversary, and then there's the entering of the angels. Behold, angels came and ministered unto him. The very thing that Satan so audaciously offered and the right time they come and minister to Christ. What a wonderful thing. He wants to minister to us, not to have us faint in the day of adversity. Christ is there for us. Joseph Stoll tells Dr. Joseph Stoll, who his dad serves as pastor of First Baptist Church of Hackensack, where Stephanie and I were for five years. And Dr. Joseph Stoll, the one-time president of Moody, used to ride the dumbwaiter up and down between the floors and get in trouble with his dad, who would call him down from the balcony. When he'd get in trouble, his dad would call him down and make him come and sit down front. The same guy who was at one time president of Moody Bible Institute, that Joseph Stoll said, He and his son were going to go to the store and my four-year-old son, Matt, he said, we're watching me carry cartons of empty pop bottles. If you remember when pop bottles could be turned in for money, I think it was like a nickel that we got for a pop bottle and we turned it in. Maybe it's a dime, I think it's a dime in this case. So they're stacking them up and he says, son said, can I go dad with you? Yes. So they drive to the store. And he gives his son, his four-year-old son, his case of pop bottles, and so they start down the parking lot, and just a little bit, he says, Dad, I can't do this anymore. Dad, I can't carry this anymore. And Dr. Stoll says, count on it. I did not say, listen, kid, you started this, so pick up that carton right now and finish what you started. Of course not, he said. I took the carton out of his hands because I knew it was too heavy for him to handle. As earthly father, I understood what the limits were and helped him carry the load. Thankfully, he says, our heavenly father understands our load limit and comes alongside to help. It's hard to stick it out during difficult times when the trouble in our lives seems far too heavy and there's no end in sight. It's in times like these that we feel like giving up, like we can't go on. But God's word reminds us there is no temptation taking you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that you are able, but will with the temptation also make a way of escape that you may be able to bear it. Each trial hides a double door. One leads to sin, one to the Lord. Faith chooses the path where grace abides and finds escape where Christ resides. So when the whispers press within, give up, resist in vain, just sin. Lift up your heart, cry, God is true. Christ is enough. He will carry you. My wife sent me a video this week about a lady who's talked A man went on television or radio, and the talk show host said to him, listen, I don't want to hear anything about your God. No verses, nothing whatsoever. And he says, and I believe, the host was saying, I believe I've been a good person. And if I get to heaven, and I knock on that door, and Jesus does not let me in, that's a hate crime. And so the pastor, I think he's a pastor, how do you respond to that and not use any of the Bible? So he said, you know, let me give you an analogy. He said, let's say perhaps that there's this mansion on top of the hill, a very rich person who owns this beautiful home. And you'd go up to that home one day and you knock on the door. And he opened the door and said, listen, I would like to live the rest of my life with you. Is that OK with you? And they look at you and say, I don't even know who you are. No. Same is true for heaven. You're going to get to heaven. How do you expect to live in a place who the owner does not even know who you are? You must know the person inside. And that's God. So do not think that someday, because you've been good, and God's going to let you in automatically. It doesn't happen. You must know the owner of the home. Do you know him today? If you don't, please receive him. Let's pray. Heads are bowed. Eyes are closed.