Let's turn to the Word of God tonight to Mark chapter 1. Mark chapter 1. We'll read the entire first chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. Our text for the sermon tonight is verses 12 and 13 of the chapter. This is the Word of God in Mark 1. The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. As it is written in the Prophets, John did baptize in the wilderness, and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. And there went out unto him all the land of Judea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in the river of Jordan, confessing their sins. And John was clothed with camel's hair, and with a girdle of skin about his loins, and he did eat locusts and wild honey, and preached, saying, There cometh one mightier than I after me, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. I indeed have baptized you with water, but he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens open and the spirit like a dove descending upon him. And there came a voice from heaven saying, Thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. And immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness 40 days tempted of Satan and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him. Now, after that, John was put in prison. Jesus came into Galilee. preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Now, as he walked by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, his brother, casting a net into the sea, for they were fishers. And Jesus said unto them, Come ye after me and I will make you to become fishers of men. And straightway they forsook their nets and followed him. And when he had gone a little further, he saw James, the son of Zebedee, and John, his brother, who also were in the ship mending their nets. And straightway he called them and left their father Zebedee in the ship with the hired servants and went after him. And they went into Capernaum. And straightway on the Sabbath day, he entered into the synagogue and taught. And they were astonished at his doctrine, for he taught them as one that had authority and not as the scribes. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, saying, Let us alone. What have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? Art thou come to destroy us? I know thee who thou art, the Holy One of God. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, Hold thy peace. and come out of him. And when the unclean spirit had torn him and cried with a loud voice, he came out of him. And they were all amazed in so much that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him. And immediately his fame spread abroad throughout all the region round about Galilee. And forthwith, when they were come out of the synagogue, they entered into the house of Simon and Andrew with James and John. But Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever, and Anon they tell him of her. And he came and took her by the hand and lifted her up. And immediately the fever left her, and she ministered unto them. And that even when the sun did set, they brought unto him all that were diseased, and them that were possessed with devils. And all the city was gathered together at the door. And he healed many that were sick of diverse diseases, and cast out many devils, and suffered not the devils to speak, because they knew him. And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed. And Simon And they that were with him followed after him. And when they had found him, they said unto him, All men seek for thee. And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also. For therefore came I forth. And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils. And there came a leper to him, beseeching him and kneeling down to him and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean. And Jesus moved with compassion, put forth his hand and touched him and saith unto him, I will be thou clean. And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him and he was cleansed. And he straightly charged him, and forthwith sent him away. And saith unto him, See thou say nothing to any man, but go thy way, show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing those things which Moses commanded for a testimony unto them. But he went out, and began to publish it much, and to blaze abroad the matter insomuch that Jesus could no more openly enter into the city, but was without in desert places, and they came to him from every quarter." So far we read Holy Scripture. Let's read the text for the sermon one more time. Mark 1, 12 and 13. And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness. And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan, and was with the wild beasts and the angels ministered unto him. Beloved in the Lord Jesus Christ, the passage before us tonight, even though it's just a couple of verses long, is profound. And the fact that it's profound, I think, is right on the surface of the text. The idea of the passage is that Jesus was tempted. And whenever we think about that concept, very quickly what can come to our mind is the question of how that was the case. How could it be that the only begotten Son of God, the sinless one who could not sin, yet was tempted? The Word of God is clear. The fact of it cannot be denied. Jesus was tempted. And while we do certainly admit there is something very difficult to understand regarding this, nevertheless, God willing, we hope to explain a bit of what that means. But at the very least, we recognize the passage before us tonight is very profound in that regard. At the same time, The word of God before us tonight is practical. It's practical because it speaks to the reality that we all experience in our lives. There's a reason that Jesus taught us to pray, lead us not into temptation. Temptations are any attempts to lead us in the ways of sin by others. And the fact is we are tempted. We experience this all of our life long. And we need strength to fight and resist temptation. And the Word of God tonight leads us to see where our victory is and where our strength is found. It's found in Christ. And it's found in Christ because He, as our Savior, was the one who was in the wilderness. tempted of the devil. And he, as our Savior, was the one who was victorious in that wilderness, defeating the devil as a precursor to the ultimate defeat of him, when he would hang on that cross and defeat sin, and when he would arise from the dead and defeat the grave. So our strength, we're going to learn tonight, is found in this Christ. The passage is profound, but as it leads us to our Savior tonight, it is also extremely practical. Let's see that under the theme this evening, the temptations of Jesus. We notice in the first place tonight, driven into the wilderness. In the second place, tempted of Satan. And third, ministered unto by the angels. That third point will be very brief. Driven into the wilderness, tempted of Satan, and then very briefly, ministered unto by the angels. The first point of the sermon is going to be answering four questions. When, how, Where and why? But before we get to those four questions, just a few introductory things regarding the text. Number one, notice the word that the text begins with, and immediately. It's interesting that that word is a favorite word of Mark in his gospel. It's used over 45 times throughout the gospel according to Mark. Translated elsewhere, straight way or at once. And that word immediately fits with the character of Mark's gospel. Mark's presentation of Jesus is Jesus as the King in action. He's the one who came to conquer. And Mark presents Jesus as going from here to there to there, healing and teaching and preaching. And so you have that right at the beginning of the book of Mark. He's baptized and immediately he marches on in the work that he came to accomplish. In the second place, by way of introductory material, take note of how brief this presentation of Jesus' temptations is in the Gospel according to Mark. You children here tonight are familiar, understanding the history of Jesus' life, with this event. And you're familiar not with just what we have in these two verses, but you could probably say, I know what the three temptations were. And that's because the other gospel accounts lay it out more fully. Laying out those three particular temptations that we're all familiar with, turning bread, into or stones into bread, jumping off the pinnacle of the temple and bowing down to Jesus on to Satan on the mountain. Mark, however, gives us just two verses and That's going to shape the sermon tonight. We're not going to go into great depth about each of the three temptations in particular. Instead, we're going to take it as Mark presents it more generally in this reality that he went into the wilderness tempted of Satan. Part of the purpose in just having a couple of verses is to step back and see that bigger picture reality of what is going on here. So we're going to let the two verses shape the character of the sermon, looking at this idea more generally and then applying the idea to us in our lives. The third thing to note by way of introductory material is even though it's the shortest presentation of the temptations, it's the only presentation that includes this interesting detail, and that is that he was with the wild beasts. It's the only Gospel account that includes that detail. Interesting little detail that he was in the desert and he was there with the wild beasts. And we'll come back to that later in the sermon. Let's answer now these four questions. Four questions to get at the main idea of Jesus in the wilderness tempted of Satan. We'll start with when. When? The when is immediately after his baptism. When we read at the beginning of the text, and immediately the spirit driveth him into the wilderness, that takes place immediately after what we read right before it. And what we read right before it was this grand event in the life of Jesus of his baptism. So for some 30 years, we know very little about the life of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus came not primarily for those first 30 years, but he came on behalf of us to accomplish salvation. And that starts officially, we can say, especially at his baptism. Some 30 years after he was born, he goes to John the Baptist at the Jordan River, the great forerunner of Christ, and he's baptized by John the Baptist. And this grand event of his baptism, he's in the water, the dove comes down, visibly symbolizing the Holy Spirit who comes upon him, who will equip him as he presses on in this work. And as he hears the booming voice from heaven, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. You step back and you say, what an event, what a day for Jesus when the Spirit comes upon him. And this day marks now the beginning officially of his earthly ministry. In a certain sense, it started, of course, at his incarnation, but now his public ministry. which will end with his death on the cross of Calvary. And immediately, he's driven into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan. And so right on the surface, what a contrast. The spirit coming upon him, the booming voice, this is my beloved son. And right after that, here he goes into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. leads to the question in the second place of how he goes into that wilderness. And the passage tells us that the spirit drives him into the wilderness. The same spirit that came upon him at his baptism is the spirit now that drives him into the wilderness to be tempted of Satan. That word drive is a very graphic and powerful word to indicate that. You can look at other places that it's used. It's used, for example, to describe what Jesus did when he drives out, casts out devils. We read of that even in Mark chapter 1. The power of Jesus in his word to drive them out of those who were possessed. It's the same word that's used to describe what Jesus does later in his ministry when he goes into the temple and he sees the corruption at the temple and he drives out the buyers and the sellers. It's that word that's used now to describe what the Spirit that was just poured out upon Jesus does to Christ as He leads Him, drives Him into the wilderness. Now we need to not misunderstand what is going on here. This does not mean two things. It does not mean, therefore, that the devil was able to lure Him into the wilderness. So whatever we say about what's going on here, that Jesus ends up in the wilderness tempted of Satan, the reason this is happening is not because Satan was able to entice him, to lure him, to draw him in, to get him on his own playing ground and fight him there. It's not that. It's also, in the second place, Not this. That Jesus goes there against His own will. So that when we read that the Spirit drives Him there, it's not as though He's driving with Jesus, kicking and trying to run the other way, but the Spirit overpowers Him and He gets Him into the wilderness with Satan. That's not the way to understand it as well. Jesus is just as willing here in this battle as he will be later, three and a half years later, when he goes to the cross. He willingly, as his will with the Father and the Spirit is one, willingly engages the battles that he came to fight on behalf of God's people. So it doesn't mean that the devil lures him. It doesn't mean that he's compelled. Well, what's the sense of drives that? Well, the answer to that is that it lays before us the necessity of this. He was driven there for the reason that He had to go there. According to the will of God, this is what had to happen. And to indicate the necessity of this being where Jesus starts His earthly ministry, the sacred scriptures tell us that He was driven there. Driven there in the sense that nothing could stop this. This is what had to happen. He had to go there, and he had to be there, tempted of Satan. That leads to the third question of where it is. So briefly on where it is. Well, the where, of course, is the wilderness. He was driven into the wilderness, the Texans. Now, we don't know exactly the precise location of where this took place. He was baptized in the Jordan River. And somewhere in the desert region around the Jordan River was the area that this actually took place. And it's in that connection that there's that interesting detail that he was there with the wild beast. And so the point of this is that a picture is painted for us. The barren, scary wilderness. That's where Jesus is. And this is literally true. It was the place of the wild beasts. It was a wilderness. It was barren. It was desolate. This was a dangerous place to be. And the point is that what was outwardly characteristic of where he was, points to the spiritual reality of what was the real danger. The real danger of where he was, was not that it was barren and filled with wild beasts, but that outward reality points to this. This was the battleground where the devil was found. That's the real danger. That's what makes this the scary place that it is. This is where Satan was found. And the Spirit drives him into that wilderness because in that barren, desolate, scary wilderness was the one who is the Prince of Darkness, Satan himself. And all of that leads to what is the most important question. And that is, why? Why? Was this the official beginning of Jesus' earthly ministry? We're going to develop the why a little bit more than we did with the other questions. In order to answer the question of why, what I'd like to do is call attention to the striking similarity between the gospel according to Mark and how it starts. with the book of Genesis and how it starts. Verse one of Mark one, the beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the son of God, the beginning. Genesis one, verse one, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And as we know from Genesis chapter 1 and 2 and 3, after God created the heavens and the earth and created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden where they enjoyed life with God, what took place? The devil in the form of the serpent enters into the paradise of God and tempts Adam. so that you have this striking similarity between the beginning of the book of Genesis and the beginning of the Gospel according to Mark. The beginning of the heavens and the earth and the creation of Adam and Eve, and in the paradise of God, tempted of Satan was Adam. And the beginning of the gospel, according to Mark, with the beginning of his earthly ministry, now not in the paradise of God, the Garden of Eden, but in the barren, desolate wilderness. But the same reality, tempted of the evil one. But when we go over here, and when we go to that first beginning, we all know what took place. And we know it not only intellectually as we understand the scriptures, but we know it experientially as those who are in Adam by nature. Adam, when he was faced with the temptation of Satan in paradise, fell. He was seduced by the lie of the devil, and He ate that forbidden fruit. And when He ate that forbidden fruit, He disobeyed God, and He cast the entire human race into death and depravity. And this is the reality for you and me by nature. We were in that Adam. In Him, we fell. I think I saw in the sermon this morning that you considered Lord's Day 33, the opposing natures, the opposing natures, the sinful flesh that still clings to us. That part of us that is sinful and defiled in Adam. That was that beginning. And so the question then becomes, what is going to happen in this beginning in the Gospel according to Mark? Satan comes again. And he tempts now the Lord Jesus Christ. And will the outcome of the temptation of Satan be like it was for Adam in the beginning? And the answer to that, of course, is no. Jesus had to come. And Jesus was tempted of Satan. In order that Jesus, now for those who would be in Him, would be victorious. Conquering Satan. And in conquering Satan, conquering Him for you and me. And that's the wonderful parallel. In Adam we fell. In Adam there is nothing but death. But God gives us the second Adam, who is Jesus Christ. And just as all of those in the first Adam fell and died, those who are in the second Adam, Jesus Christ, will find victory because He came, He was tempted, And He defeats the evil one. And what happens right here at the beginning of His earthly ministry is what characterizes the whole of His earthly ministry. It starts here. Defeats Him in the wilderness. And then it continues. It continues as we see in the Gospel according to Mark in chapter 1. He preaches the Gospel unto victory. He casts out demons. He raises the dead. And then He goes to that cross. And He conquers sin. And He goes to that grave. And He defeats that grave. Because He is the great victor on behalf of His people. Why did He have to go there? The answer to the question of why is that He had to go there for you. He had to go there for me and all of those who are in Him so that we would know that in Jesus Christ there is victory over Satan and temptation. And so that's the wonderful truth, the wonderful gospel truth that we learn when we consider the temptation of Jesus by Satan in the wilderness. So let's look at that temptation a little bit more specifically now. Looking at that now in the second point in the sermon, tempted of Satan. Interesting question when you come to the passage is that he was there for 40 days, and he was there in the wilderness for 40 days. And one of the questions that always arises in this regard is, what was going on during the 40 days? And the two options really are, was it 40 days of continuous spiritual warfare with the devil? Or was it 40 days of being there and then just at the end of the 40 days, the devil enters the scene and tempts Jesus with the three temptations that we're familiar with from the other gospel accounts. I believe that it's the former. Part of the reason we have this passage, just the two verses when you read it, that's the way it makes sense. He was there in the wilderness 40 days, 40 days tempted of Satan. So that the picture that it paints is 40 days tempted for 40 days of Satan. So that as we think about this passage, what's going on, I believe, is that there is intense spiritual warfare between Christ and Satan for those 40 days. And then it comes to a climax. It comes to its peak. The devil unleashes everything he has, so to speak, in those final three temptations when he tempts Jesus at the end of the 40 days to turn stones into bread, to jump off the temple, be caught by the angels, and then to bow down to Satan. in order to receive the kingdoms of the earth. So that what we see here is raging spiritual warfare between Christ and the devil in the wilderness. Now admittedly, when we, as I noted in the introduction, consider this, it can be hard to wrap our mind around what it means. But what we have to take away from this, at the very least, is that it was real. This spiritual warfare between Jesus and the devil in the wilderness was real. And it was real because, on the one hand, Satan is real. When we read in the passage that he was tempted of Satan, that Satan is a real being who has real power, who really came and truly engaged Jesus in spiritual warfare. Now there's always dangers when we think about Satan. The danger on the one hand is that we minimize his presence and his reality. That we live our lives as though he doesn't exist and his demons don't exist. That we forget this realm of the spiritual warfare that's taking place. That's the danger on the one hand. The danger on the other hand is that we overemphasize his ability. He's not God. He's not omnipotent. He can't be everywhere at one time. He can't do whatever He wants to do. So He must not be minimized, but He must not be turned into a god. But the middle ground says this. He's real. And He is powerful. And He is the adversary. And he hates God. And he unleashes all of his power against God and against Christ and against his church. So that whatever we walk away from with the text, we do so understanding this was truly something that took place. And this was truly spiritual warfare. Because on the one hand, Satan is real. And then on the other hand, the reality of this comes from the fact that Jesus was and Jesus could be tempted. It's not only this passage that teaches this, but also the book of Hebrews makes this clear as well. Two passages in Hebrews, Hebrews 2 verse 18, For in that he himself hath suffered being tempted, he is able to succor or help them that are tempted." That's going to be the application. But the point is, he suffered being tempted. And then Hebrews chapter 4 verse 15 and 16. I'll read both of them. Jesus, as the sinless Son of God, came in our flesh with a human nature, a weakened human nature, that experienced all the effects of sin. He was without sin, but it was in a human nature that experienced the effects of sin. In that weakened human nature, the Lord Jesus Christ was and could be tempted. He'd experienced the pressure and the onslaught of the devil in his attempt to lead him down the ways of sin. In fact, In fact, we can say even that Jesus experienced that to a greater degree and to a greater intensity than you and I do. One of the ways in which we can illustrate this, maybe you've heard something like this before, is that the temptation of Jesus is compared to our being tempted by looking at this in terms of pipes. You can look at a long thin pipe, or a short, thick pipe. And imagine a long, thin, narrow pipe bending and then coming to the point where it touches, and that can represent the actual fall into sin. Well, we're like that long, thin pipe. The pressure of the temptation comes, the pressure bends that pipe, and then when the pressure becomes too great, it bends so far that the two ends are able to cross and touch, and then we fall. Well, Jesus isn't like that. Jesus is like a short, thick pipe, which you can put so much more pressure on and bend a little bit, but what will never happen with that even greater pressure is that the two ends will never touch. They can't touch, even though the pressure exerted is way more than the shorter, thin pipe. And that's what it's like for Jesus. He could endure a pressure so much greater than we could, but it would never come to the point where he would actually succumb and fall into that temptation. And that's what Jesus did. Jesus experienced it, but he never fell. And the nature of that temptation that he experienced by the devil has everything to do with what the Gospel is. He could never fall, even though Satan threw everything at him. Satan knew. He knew the Gospel. He knew that Christ was the Messiah. That's why he tried to prevent His coming all throughout the Old Testament. And then when he couldn't do that, he attacks Him here. And generally, the temptation was to get Jesus to deviate from the will of God. To do something sinful against God's will that would disqualify Him by that very fact of being the Savior of God's people. But specifically, what Satan was trying to do here was knock Jesus off the path of humiliation that led to the cross. When Jesus came to this earth, he set himself on a path of humiliation, a path of suffering. It was represented in all of the facts about his incarnation and birth. Weakness, no room for him, swaddling clothes, in a barn, all of that saying he comes in humility because he came to suffer. And that was the path. The path was very clearly defined according to the will of God for you to accomplish the salvation of God's kingdom. You need to go to the depths of hell on the cross of Calvary and satisfy my justice, pay for that sin and conquer death. Then there would be victory for the church and Satan's temptation, Satan pressure. was trying to push Jesus off that path. Push Jesus down a slightly different path. Any path that didn't lead to the humiliation of the cross of Calvary. And that's what the three temptations were when you look at them from a broad, general point of view. Jesus, take these stones and turn them into bread. Use your power to do whatever you want here on this earth to, by implication, if you can take stones and turn them into bread, you can feed the nations, you can build empires, you can do whatever you want here below on this earth. Jesus, go to that pinnacle. Go to that pinnacle, jump down, let the angels come swooping in to catch you. And remember the pinnacle of the temple and jumping down was a public place and everybody will see it. Everybody will see you doing that and the angels coming down and catching you and they will bow down before you and worship you as the king. Jesus, here's the kingdoms. Here they are. The kingdoms of the entire world. I'll give them to you. Just bow down to me. They were all temptations to be a shortcut earthly savior veering off the path of the true salvation of the church, which was the path of humiliation, suffering and death. It was Satan's attempt to say, Jesus, you don't need to go that way. Why would you do that? Do this and all of that pressure put upon the Lord Jesus Christ. He endured it and he endured it to the end and he continued to press on until he went to that cross where the definitive victory was established. He was tempted of saying it was true. It was real. But Jesus was victorious. All of this leads us to see what it means for you and me as we live our lives in this week to come. It means, number one, that there are forgiveness for our falls. It may be the case that as you were listening to the sermon, and maybe when we got to that point, describing the temptation of Jesus in contrast to us, that you think about yourself. The whole sermon has been describing Christ. Him enduring it. Him facing it. Him being victorious. And then when we look at ourselves and we reflect upon our lives, we realize very quickly, but I am weak. And I fall. And I have fallen. And all of us can look back at our lives and we see some great Some smaller, but all of them real. When we have been tempted, and when we have given into that temptation, we have fallen into sin. Paul, what's the word to us tonight? The word to us tonight is this, see the Savior. See the Christ who was tempted, but did not fall. See the Christ who maintained His life on the path of humiliation to the cross. See what that cross is, so that as you reflect upon those temptations in which you fell, and you do so in the sorrow over that sin, you see Christ on that cross and you know He conquered Him. And He conquered that sin. And He paid for that sin. And there's no sin so great that Jesus does not lay down His life and satisfy the justice of God for it. So that as we cling by faith tonight, thinking about our falls into sin, when we were tempted, we can do so with the conscience of peace, knowing in Jesus, in him alone, look to him alone, there is forgiveness. But then there is also strength for the battle. It's not just forgiveness for the falls, but it's also strength for the fight. In Hebrews 4, verse 15, what we read earlier, we are told that He was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. And therefore, let us come boldly unto His throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time of need. So that God has given us this history of Jesus being tempted so that we hear this tonight. In your temptations, go to Christ for all of your strength. The fact is we are tempted. We pray to God, lead us not in temptation. As those who live on this earth, we know the devil is at work. And we know the world is always going to try to entice us. And we know our sinful flesh is prone to these things. The temptations come in all different shapes and sizes. We can go to those big things in our mind. All of the sexual temptation, for example. That affects all of us. The adolescents here, the teenagers here, with just a few clicks of swipes on the screen, to find things that inflame the lust of our flesh, it's always right there, those who are deity. And as you grow more and more comfortable with each other, the temptations for sexual sin become greater and greater. Then it doesn't stop when we're married. In fact, in a certain sense, the devil doubles down when we're married. So that we're faced with it there too, and how we interact with those of the opposite sex. What we're doing private, without our spouses knowing. And it's with us all of our life long. There's the big things, and that's just one example. But don't think just along those types of things. Think about the little things in life. Think about thought processes. Tempted to think a certain way. Because that can take a hold of us too. Where the devil works so that all of a sudden we're not looking at life right anymore. We're not looking at it through the lens of who God is. All we can see is the here and now. All we can see is the difficulty and suffering. And we're not seeing the grand wisdom of God and the grace of God in all things. It's those types of things too. Tempted not just for these grand falls, but tempted even as simply to think the wrong way. and to fixate our minds on the wrong things. So this is where we examine ourselves. This is where we take what we hear right now and we say, what am I being susceptible to walk in this sin, or that sin, or that throbs, or this way of thinking? And the response to that is, where do we find our strength? And Jesus tells us, Jesus tells us tonight, I know what you are going through. I get it, he says. That's Hebrews chapter four, verse 15. I suffered, tempted in all points like you are. That doesn't mean that he wanted it. That's the difference. There's that sinful flesh in us that's drawn to it, that wants it. Jesus didn't have that. But without having that, he still understands it. And so the point of Hebrews chapter four is go to him. Go to him and seek help in your time of need. And be open with God. As you face the struggles, as you face the temptations, be open with him. Be specific with him. This is what I'm being tempted with right now, God. This is the lust in my heart. I want to do these things. Oh God, I feel it, I experience it. I'm being tempted to talk the wrong way about people. God, help me. Christ, you know what it's like. Give me the strength, the grace, the mercy to be able to face it, to resist it. and to walk as I'm called to. Don't lead me down these paths. Help me to go down the right paths. That's the point. Where are you drawing your strength from? In the battles against sin and temptation. And remember where we were earlier in the sermon. Adam was over here, and Christ was over here. And everything in Adam over here, beloved, is weak. It can't Do it. That part of us that is of Adam still, that sinful flesh in us, will continue to fall. We can think, oh, I'm going to mustard up of myself. No, you're not. You can't. It's weak. And if you do, somehow behavior change a little bit, but it's not aimed at the glory of God out of the new man in Christ. It's not that which is pleasing to God. It's not in Adam. It's not in ourselves. It's in Christ. And so that's the word to us tonight. The word to us tonight is, in the face of the battles against sin and temptation, see what your Savior did. Understand that He in all points is tempted like as we are. and go to Him. Go to Him and find strength and grace and mercy in the time of need. And as you fight that temptation, do so also in the power of the Word. It's striking that when Jesus faced the temptations, three times He said, it is written, it is written, it is written. As we look to Him, Through the strength of God's word, we face the devil and we face the temptations. And we do so in the confidence that God will keep us and preserve us on our path as we press on in the life that we are called to live. And that leads us to the end of the sermon briefly. The end of the sermon is that he was ministered unto by the angels. As Jesus came to the end of the battle with the devil, the text tells us explicitly that the angels came and ministered to him. Admittedly, it's hard to understand exactly what that was all about. But in some way, they came and they served Christ and helped Christ. Part of it likely was the fact that Jesus was there for 40 days, He was hungry, he experienced the weakness of the body, and in some way the angels came and provided him with what he needed. And the point of being ministered unto by the angels is that Jesus, administered unto by the angels, then pressed on. This was the beginning of his earthly ministry. It was the showdown with the devil. He was ministered to by the angels so that now he presses on. And that's why I wanted to read all of Mark 1, because then you see it. You see him going forth in action. He's teaching. He's preaching, He's calling His disciples, He's casting out demons, He's raising the dead, He's healing the sick, and then He goes to the cross, and then He goes to the grave, and He does so as the one who is the Savior of His people. And that's the word to us then as well. Just as Christ pressed on, now in the strength of Christ, we press on too. We press on, having been ministered to, not by the angels per se, but by God himself, ministered to, strengthened by the power of the word as it's preached, so that as God's people, as those who desire to live a holy and thankful life, we press on, too, with our eyes on the Christ, confident that there is forgiveness and confident that he will give us the strength as we look to him to face the devil, to face his hosts and to press on in a new beginning of obedience to the glory of God's name. May God so help us in this week to come. Amen. Let us pray. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for thy word of truth, and we thank you especially tonight for the finished work of Jesus Christ. and His battling of Satan so that we can know in Him is the victory. We're so thankful for that because He's the only one in whom we can find victory in the time of our need and in the face of our sin. Thank Thee for Thy grace and Thy mercy to us in the Savior. In His name do we pray, Amen.