Let's turn now in God's Word to Matthew. Matthew's Gospel in chapter 4. Matthew's Gospel chapter 4 will be, as we have been, reading verses 1-11. And our focus this morning will be on verses 10 and 11. So we'll read verses 1-11. Our focus will be on the last two verses. And before we read God's Word, let's pray and ask for His help. Gracious Father, we do come pleading again for Your mercy, that Your grace would be upon us, that You would fill us with Your Holy Spirit and pour out Your Holy Spirit and power You would grant us Your Word, not just in our ears, but to all of our persons. That You would grant salvation in each one. And Father, we ask that You would speak through Your servant and that He would decrease and you would increase for your glory alone. We pray in Jesus' name, Amen. Matthew 4, verse 1. These are God's words. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was afterward hungered. 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. Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him on the pinnacle of the temple and saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down, 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. Again the devil taketh him up into an 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 saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And the devil leaveth him. And behold, angels came and ministered unto him. And those are God's words. We have come to Satan's third set of temptations we began hearing last Lord's Day that come against Jesus Christ. In verse 9 we heard, And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Now, Satan is the devil, the great accuser and the father of lies, and he is an eternal and complete failure. Praise the Lord. All those temptations within the three temptations that we've seen and we've heard, all Satan is attempting to do is destroy Jesus and thereby destroy salvation, which means he's trying to destroy each and every one of us. By tempting Jesus to not be faithful to the Lord. By tempting Jesus to overthrow His faith in the Lord and to move Him to glory in Himself alone and above the triune God. To move Jesus to doubt the good providences of God, who always supplies our every need. Every need. He seeks to get Jesus to doubt the very eternal and perfect Word of God, but again, Satan is a failure. And He's failed thus far. And He will always fail. He's come in verses 8 and 9 to get Jesus to deny Himself, deny the Father, and to deny the Holy Spirit. And in that, deny the one Godhead in three persons. And that's tempting Jesus to idolatry, to worship Satan. to worship the devil. Satan attempting again to get Jesus to fall down where He must be and shall be lifted up and exalted. Again, praise the Lord, He will be exalted and He is exalted. Will Jesus submit to Satan and Jesus end up the failure and Jehovah brought down and we destroyed having no hope? Will we who worship in the assemblies on the Lord's Day to our God who sits on the throne, the triune God, whose name is Jehovah, will we be made to worship Satan? For if Jesus would worship the devil here, we would certainly worship Him too. You see, beloved, this is Satan's ultimate desire here in the third temptation for glory, to be worshipped, to be like or to be God. and to be worshiped by you. And by God's great power and grace, Satan will not prevail over Christ. But now his goal is to get you, the Christian, to worship him. Are you prepared for Satan's attack upon you, attacks upon you, so that you will worship him, the devil? And how does he think we worship him? How does he think he wins, when he already knows he's lost the war? And yet he believes he can win many battles, and he will win many battles in the church. And he thinks he wins. when He draws your heart away from worshiping Jehovah Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Now before we get to Jesus' answer in verse 10, we ought to consider three religions. Three religions as such religions are spread throughout the world. These three religions are throughout the world, though the first is somewhat close to Christianity in its foundations. And of course, the third. And that is the religion of the Jews, the religion of Muslims, and the religion of Papists, the Roman Catholics. And all three of those religions, beloved, such a worship as Satan is tempting Jesus here to, such a worship exists for the Jew and the Muslim and the Roman Catholic. In other words, beloved, in those religions today, very prominent religions, our God is not worshipped, but the devil is worshipped. Satan is worshipped by the Jews. Satan is worshipped by the Muslims. And Satan is worshipped by the Papists. How do we know this? We know this, first of all, because all doctrines and teachings, or teachings that are devised by man in religion, which either directly or by good and necessary consequence bring into question the validity of God's Word as the supreme authority, are doctrines of the devil. Or, more specifically, are doctrines of devils or demons. And 1 Timothy 4 teaches us this. It says, Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking lies and hypocrisy, having their conscience seared with a hot iron, forbidding to marry. You know, in marriage. "...forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth." So there are the Jews, the Muslims, the Roman Catholics are condemned as teaching and coming up with the doctrines of devils. Doctrines that are contrary to and unacceptable to Jehovah and His Word. Forbidding marriage, right? Roman Catholics. Abstaining from meats. like the Muslims and the Jews. Doctrines of the devil. And so all who hold to such doctrines are of their father, the devil, whom they worship. But not only this, but secondly, a great rebuke also upon many churches of God too. All worship of God devised by man against His Word, contrary to His Word, is no worship of God at all, but of the devil. 1 Corinthians 10, verse 20, it says, But I say that the things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils and not to God. And I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. Now the Gentiles' intent was worshiping by images. But Paul is showing that worship is not That is not according to God's will, not according to His Word, not according to His commandments. It has nothing to do really with intent, but of substance and action. Their worship was done unto the devil. Even if their intent was, we are coming to worship Jehovah, their actions, the substance of their worship was worship of the devil. Because the Lord's teachings through Paul, these religions of the Jews, Muslims, Roman Catholics, are not worship of God, they're of the devil. Because all of them have such worship as devised by man and not by Jehovah. The Jews worship God outside of Jesus Christ. And we've heard a lot about how Jesus Christ is so important in worship today, in the call to worship, and even in Exodus 37. And so all these, even Muslims would be the same, they worship God outside of Jesus Christ. And the Papists worship God but outside of the true Christ. because the true Christ is not of the papists. The Christ of the papists is a false Christ, which is the anti-Christ, and who in the end is not sufficient in their Gospel. Jesus Christ of the Scriptures is not sufficient for them. They need something more, and so they worship something more. And so those religions that cover the earth today, the religion of Jews and Muslims and papists, they are religions of Satan that are completely to be completely avoided and should be repugnant to us because of the curse and abominable idolatry that they bring forth. And that we see there in those religions that so much of Satan's purposes have come about through them in causing men to worship him. and give the devil the glory instead of Christ Jesus. And this is what happens, beloved, when we set our hearts upon the world instead of setting our hearts upon Jesus Christ. And we move more and more to the devil and his ways. We'd rather have the world and the things of the world instead of Jesus and His Word. And so we fall down into idolatry, just like, again, a great rebuke upon the churches today. Falling for the world instead of Jesus and His Word, simply. Just Jesus and His Word. And they go off and they're in various parts worshipping the devil. Even though that's not their intent at all. And they love Jesus, and they love the Lord, and yet, what are they doing in their actions? They're worshipping, just as Satan wants them to do, and destroying their souls. That's devil worship. In 2 Corinthians 4, it says, "...and whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." And so we ought to be warned. All of us should be warned concerning our love of the world today and the things of it. Let this be a warning to all of you who would worship the Lord contrary to His Word and worship, therefore, the devil. That's what you're doing. This is how serious this is. Now, what was Jesus' answer to this temptation or these temptations that came about from verse 9? You see His answer in verse 10. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan, for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. First, before Jesus quotes Scripture in response as He has done so far and only so far, Jesus rebukes Satan, defies him, and commands him what to do. Get thee hence, Satan. So here is Jesus' righteous anger, His indignation, that is righteous, against idolatry. This is the first of two times Jesus uses such language, here and then in chapter 16. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from Thee, Lord, this shall not be unto Thee. That is, Jesus would die. But he turned, Jesus did, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan, thou art an offense unto me. For thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. He's looking at Peter in the eyes. Peter, the apostle Peter, and he says, Get thee behind me, Satan. Because here is Peter, who has brought Satan's worship to Jesus. and said, Worship Me. And then for Peter, here in our passage, verse 10, he rebukes Satan's attack on the glory and worship of God. There in chapter 16, Jesus responds to Peter. Jesus rebukes Peter of his satanic attack on Jesus' love for mankind. That he would tempt Jesus to not die out of His love for His people. and especially his love for the bride for whom he must die for. Jesus can endure neither of those attacks, which are both devilry, and so Satan is commanded in both out of his presence with righteous indignation. It's the same zeal we see in Moses in Exodus 32. And it came to pass, as soon as they came nigh unto the camp, that he saw the golden calf and the dancing, and Moses' anger waxed hot, and he cast the tables out of his hands and broke them beneath the mount. So too, in Paul in Acts 13, the elemist, the sorcerer, for so is his name by interpretation, withstood them. seeking to turn away the deputy from the faith. Then Saul, who is also called Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, set his eyes on him and said, O full of all subtlety and all mischief, thou child of the devil, thou enemy of all righteousness, wilt thou not cease to pervert the right ways of the Lord? And so we're taught, open blasphemy is to be abhorred by us. And we are to rebuke it openly with God's judgment, that is, God's Word. And so Jesus doesn't mince words. When Jehovah alone is to be worshipped, what unholy blasphemy is there here come to seek Jesus to whom every knee will bow and must bow? He commands, get thee hence, Satan. Get out of here. where there are such clear cases of blasphemy and devil worship and temptation to it, there is no time to, hey, let's sit down and chat and have a conversation about this. And let's come to an agreement, a compromise, so that this is not continually happening. There is only defying Satan. and exalting Christ. There is no sitting down, there is no time to sit down and have a nice chat with someone who is blaspheming the eternal God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. There is only zeal for His worship. And a life lived detesting all of Satan's worship and Satan's ways. Not only are we to detest and confront such blasphemies against the Lord's worship, but we are to grieve when this happens. True tears, which will help our indignation to be righteous. But we are to grieve that there must be a humble sorrow when we see idolatry in the church to move us to righteousness in our anger. Like 2 Kings 18, if you remember, Reb Sheka blasphemes the Lord. In the next chapter, right after that, the godly king Hezekiah responds to it and he says, And it came to pass, when King Hezekiah heard it, that he rent his clothes and covered himself with sackcloth and went into the house of the Lord. And he sent Eliakim, which was over the household, and Shebna the scribe, and the elders of the priests, covered with sackcloth, to Isaiah the prophet, the son of Amoz. There's humility and grieving over Satan worship and blasphemy towards God. Think of David as well. My tears have been my meat, and day and night while they continually say unto me, where is thy God? You're questioning whether there is a God and where is He? And he's grieving, he's mourning, because they're saying, where is thy God? Lot, as well, in 2 Peter. It says, "...and delivered just Lot vexed..." Notice that language. "...vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, and seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished." He vexed His righteous soul there in Sodom. And what does Leviticus require? What does the righteousness of God declare in His justice? It requires blasphemers to be stoned to death. Beloved, we could ask the question of what happens when a citizen of the kingdom comes before the king just a king, any kingdom, comes before the king and disgraces the king before his face, dishonors him. What happens? You already know the answer. That citizen is put to death. They are punished greatly or they're put to death. Well, how much more when it's the king of kings? How much more than should he die the death of a thousand lives? that shall bless him the King of kings," one theologian said. And why are we to be so zealous on this point? So that we would cleave to our first love, our husband, Jesus Christ. That we would not be drawn easily away to the Father of lies and bow to Him, may it never be. Now the reason is given by Jesus of His righteous anger and detestation of Satan when He commands the devil to leave him because of what God's Word says. Why does he have righteous indignation? Because of God's Word. For it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. And here we see that every temptation, beloved, every temptation of Satan upon Jesus was warded off by the Word of God. Again, teaching us that it's the Scripture, the Word of God that is all-sufficient and all-powerful to resist the devil that he will flee from you. That sword of the Spirit, the Word, which is quick and powerful, forged for us to use against all temptations against the devil, the armor of God, right? What does this mean then? Well, we need to be in the Word. We need to be in the Word. Are you in the Word daily? If you're not, you will be easily tempted by the devil and fall. We need to be in the Word day and night, meditating upon it day and night, learning it, studying it, praying for knowledge and understanding and wisdom, even as Solomon sought after. What does the Scripture say? But Thy Word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against Thee. How do we not sin against the Lord, storing up the Word in our hearts? This is my comfort and my affliction, for thy Word hath quickened me. Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction. You have an affliction of some kind. If it wasn't for God's law, then you would have perished. But it's God's Word, it's God's law that upholds us. And His promises. Here again, Jesus quotes Scripture from Deuteronomy. There's two parts in Deuteronomy that He's quoting from. They're very similar. It says, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him, and shalt swear by His name. And again, Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God, Him shalt thou serve, and to Him shalt thou cleave and swear by His name. First, we're looking at the word in verse 10, serve. It's the very last part of the verse. The word serve. It means that duty to worship Jehovah. It is your duty to worship Jehovah, to cleave unto Him in Christ, to swear By His name, that is, to take vows in His name. That's why we come up here, we take vows, membership vows, baptismal vows, Lord willing, next week with Elias. We swear by His name. to serve is more of that outward action in worship. So your outward body. What are your bodies doing in worship? Whether it's with your mouth, with your ears, in receiving God's Word, with your body, right? And to fear the Lord, or like it says in verse 10, thou shalt worship the Lord. That is the inward part. The inward soul worshipping the Lord. Your heart worshipping the Lord. And so the fear of the Lord is to certainly worship Him in reverence and awe. Not so much in the prostrating of our bodies on the ground, but more in our souls to reverence Him in our hearts. In John 4, there with the woman at the well, and Jesus talks and teaches us about worship, there are the two parts there, to fear and serve. The inward and outward worship. For the Father desires worshipers who will worship in spirit, in their hearts, right? The word worship, inward worship, the fear, who worship in spirit and truth." Truth, to serve Him in outward worship, in our actions, according to His Word. Notice the language of fear, meaning to worship of reverence and awe as it is described in Isaiah 29. Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men. Yes, they have an outward worship of the Lord, but not a heart worship that feared the Lord. Their fear toward me is taught by the precepts of men. based on men's teachings. That is idolatry. It's satanic. And that's what Jesus is speaking about when He quotes Isaiah in Matthew 15. This people draweth nigh unto Me with their mouth, and honoreth Me with their lips, but their heart is far from Me, but in vain they do worship Me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men. Now we know what Jesus also said, it's out of the heart that the mouth speaks. The fear of God is that reverence and awe of God from the heart. And that service, serving God, service of God is the necessary effect and fruit of that reverence and awe from the heart. For service, the outward duty, is an open testimony of our reverence and our worship from the heart, our fear of the Lord. But where service is based off our fear and worship, our hearts to the Lord, both are and must be given to the Lord. It can't be one or the other. It can't just be our hearts, and it cannot just be our bodies. It has to be hearts and body. Hearts and action must be given in worship to the Lord. And so now hopefully you understand the difference here, what he's saying, the two different parts of godly worship. is worship and serve, fear and serve. The first is the inward heart of reverence and awe for Jehovah, and thereby giving all our life to Him. And praise to His name from our heart, but also service. The latter is the outward actions founded upon the heart. It's fruit that comes forth from what is true of your heart, the fear of the Lord, the reverence of God. and worshiping Him from your heart. And so then dwell on how Jesus is responding, because Satan's temptation is, serve me, right? He's saying, serve me, Satan. Fall down, bodily outward actions, fall down and worship me. And notice the order is reversed. And that's important. Because where you put your actions against Christ, usually when it's that way, when you put your actions against Christ, that will eventually change your heart to conform to your outward actions. A little leaven leavens the whole lump. Because the evil that you're doing, your outward actions, though you want to worship God, you want to worship Jehovah from your heart, you're doing these outward actions, what does that make you? It corrupts, and it keeps corrupting, and keeps corrupting your heart until your heart is in line with your actions. And so it's important to first start with your heart. and the actions will follow. But look what Satan is doing. He's falling down outward and worship me inward. And think of one that speaks often in the Scripture of idolatry, which is the way of Satan, Isaiah 44. And the residue thereof he maketh a god, there's the outward actions, even his graven image, he falleth down unto it and worshipeth it. The outward actions, then the inward actions. He falleth down unto it, and worshipeth it, and prayeth unto it, and saith, Deliver me, for thou art my God. That's false God, of course. And yet, what is true? Those outward actions towards worshiping that false God show what? It shows really the truth of one's heart. Because out of the heart, the mouth speaks, the body acts. All these things. Listen to the command of the Lord in 2 Kings 17. "...with whom the Lord had made a covenant and charged them, saying, Ye shall not fear..." There's the word. Worship, fear. "...Ye shall not fear other gods, nor bow yourselves to them, nor serve them, nor sacrifice to them." There's that outward. Right? Don't fear them. Inward. Don't serve them outward. And what do we conclude from this, beloved, but that it is the whole person that is demanded in God's worship. It is your whole person, body and soul, soul and body. To worship and serve the Lord, Jehovah requires your heart and your body, spiritual and physical. And so when we come to the first through the fourth commandments, all those summarized in the greatest commandment, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength. When we come to those commandments all about worshiping of the Lord, a lot of people will argue that they aren't breaking them because their intent is to worship Jehovah. And they love Jesus, and they love our God. And they love to worship Him with great intent. Well, their heart is right. their service, their outward worship, wrong idolatry. And they argue, I'm still good, I'm still following after God because my heart is right, my intent is right. Or, I didn't physically make something to worship that was not God. I didn't physically make something to worship, but your heart is worshiping and reverencing man's creation instead of Jehovah alone, who is a spirit. He doesn't have a body. There are many sins that will be discovered in our hearts and our bodies when we look at God's Word and meditate upon His Word. and examine ourselves and hold up our hearts and our actions, our thoughts, our feelings, all these things, our hearts and all those things to the Word of God, against that standard of God's Word alone. Jesus here puts the standard for all three of the temptations, not just this one, but the standard for Him is God's Word. How do you, how does this temptation, whatever you're saying, Satan, how does this measure up to God's Word? How do we measure up to the Word of the Lord? How do you measure up in your hearts, in your lives? And of course the reality is that we have such a great love for the world, don't we? And often give in to the temptations of Satan. But here we offered We are offered the Giver of all good things, the Defender and Deliverer from all evil in Christ alone, who while tempted not only here but to the cross, was in all points tempted as we are and yet without sin. That's our Redeemer and our Savior who reigns over all as King, even over the devil. And so we see verse 11, what happens? There's no defeating Jesus. And having been commanded by Jesus in verse 10, by the King of kings, the ruler of rulers, even in the ruler of this world, He is ruler over him. Verse 11, Then the devil leaveth him. And behold, angels came and ministered unto him. The devil left Jesus. He had no option of staying. Because notice that Jesus has the power and the authority all along. The whole time He had the power and authority to chase the devil away at His own pleasure. And yet He suffered these temptations for our sakes. that He would be found righteous. Jesus endured for His people to be for us not only the righteous Son of God, but the pattern of victory and the pattern of conquest over the devil. That we would be able to resist the devil ourselves. And that He would indeed flee from us as God promises. This too comforts us, knowing how great an enemy Jesus has overcome. as man with a human nature, showing us how to fight against Satan and overcome him. How? By the Word of God alone. The Word of God is sufficient. And moreover, Jesus had no more time for this. And so he commanded, get thee hence, Satan. He had no more time to waste. His ministry was more important now. He needed to move ahead and go into Galilee to preach the Gospel. And even it says, we learn in Luke's account, it tells us, Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit into Galilee. He had to go right away and minister the Gospel for our sakes to those people and for our sakes here as we read in the Gospels. And this also shows, again, that Satan is limited in power and authority where Jesus is not. He is not only man in his human nature, but he is the God-man. And so, when Jesus commands, Satan must obey. He has no comeback here. He can't have a comeback here. He has to obey. Luke's Gospel also reveals that Satan's leaving and tempting Jesus was only for a time. Notice that. It says in Luke's Gospel, in Luke 4, in the same account of the temptations, And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season. For a season. Well, then where again did Satan tempt Jesus? When did He come back and do this again? Well, we already made mention of one instance there in Matthew 16, certainly leading up to the cross, when He's continually challenged by the chief priests and the high-ranking people of the Jews. But again, Matthew 16, then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee that you would die. But he turned and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan. Thou art an offense unto me, for thou savorest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men. It is necessary in the great plan and eternal decrees to not deny God that Jesus must die. And so to say, this cannot be, is of men. John 14, leading up to the cross, what did Jesus say? Hereafter I will not talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh and hath nothing in me. But where Satan comes and tempts Jesus, Satan never has power over him that would overcome him as our Savior. Praise the Lord. Satan's defeat also brought forth great malice from him, but never a victory. He is always in utter failure. And so here the devil leaveth him, and angels, behold, angels came and ministered unto him, unto Jesus. Jesus who had been fasting, remember back in verse 2, fasting and hungered for forty days and forty nights, that which Jesus was tempted to doubt of God's good providence, the Lord at the right time, Notice that. Here's Jesus, verse 2, hungry. Forty days, forty nights without food or water. He's hungry. And the first temptation, "...if thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread, so you can eat them." And Jesus responds with the Word of God. It's not God's right time. It's not the right time in His providence that He will provide for me. But now it's time, in God's good providence, at the perfect time. He brings forth His ministering spirits, angels to minister and serve Jesus. And this is to excite our hearts and our minds, because notice the language, it says, Behold, then the devil leaveth him, and behold, angels came and ministered unto him. See it? It stands out. The angels come. So you must be excited. You must be excited. Just as the angels are always ready to serve Jesus Christ, so He has made them to be always ready to serve His people, His bride as well. Each one of His children, Hebrews 1. But to which of the angels said he at any time, sit on my right hand until I make thy enemies thy footstool? Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?" To minister for us who are heirs of salvation, right? Now why didn't they come before the devil left? Why didn't the angels come and help them then? Because the victory over the devil cannot be attributed to angels at all. And if the angel had come before, some might say, well, it's because the angels were there that Jesus triumphed over the devil. Maybe the devil would have said that, too. No, it had to be Jesus alone. No angel there with Him, but to the Lord Jesus, our Redeemer alone, defeating Satan, and we in union with Him by the Word. And these angels of the Lord coming to minister to Jesus teach us again Psalm 34, Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivereth him out of them all. He keepeth all his bones, not one of them is broken. The Lord delivereth him. Jesus. And He kept all his bones, even not the cross. Not one broken. And so our God, beloved, is faithful to His promise, even there in Psalm 34, even to Christ and for us, that Jesus would truly be our Savior and our Redeemer, our great High Priest who has overcome the devil for us. And so, Revelation 2, Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer. Behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that you may be tried. And ye shall have tribulation ten days, but be thou faithful unto death. Be thou faithful unto death, Christian, and I will give you the crown of life." And so again, where does your life stand before the judgment seat? Where does your life stand before the great standard of the Word of God and the Lord's commandments? The devil would destroy you at every moment. At every sliver, He can get you to sin. He will tempt you to it. And so, close up the doors of your hearts to Him. And resist the devil with the great sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. And what if you're in such a sin? It seems like you're under the hold of Satan, the devil. Your only hope today is found in Jesus Christ. Your only hope is found there, because He overcame Satan for you. He overcame your father, the father of lies, for you and thereby can overcome you and overcome your soul. He can do it. He can conquer you and deliver you from slavery and win you to Himself. He commands you, just as He told Satan, He commands you to repent. That means turn from your sin to Jesus. Repent. Turn from your sin to Jesus. He commands, repent ye and believe the Gospel. Believe that Jesus is your Savior who saves you from your sins and your slavery to Satan. He saves you from that. He delivers you from that. He alone can do that. And cut the cords that bind you and hold you in prison. He alone can do it and grant you the victory over the evil one. And so you're commanded to come unto Christ today and fall at His feet and worship Him alone. For the Scripture says here, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Let's pray. Our gracious Father, we're thankful for Your Word. We're thankful that it is the great sword of the Spirit As the Holy Spirit indwells our hearts, and you use your Word to do great and mighty things. Mighty things where we don't even comprehend how they could actually happen. How a certain one, even myself, even ourselves, as we think of our own heart, how Your Word, by Your Spirit, could conquer us and deliver us from slavery and bring us to Your Son and our Savior, Jesus Christ, who reigns as the ruler of all rulers. And so we praise Your name, that You're the God who is so granted in us Your Spirit and Word. Pray that we would be in it, Your Word, day and night, and learn it, and use it when tempted to close up the doors of our hearts and to question these various spirits that come. Give us discernment and give us a fighting spirit by your Holy Spirit against the evil one, knowing that we can defeat him because we are in union with Jesus Christ, your Son. And it is by no other means that we could, but by Jesus alone. And so grant us that faith that is needed and the comfort, comfort our hearts, knowing that in all afflictions, that we are delivered from them because of you, because you are a gracious and merciful God. Lord, help us Deliver us from evil and lead us not into temptation. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.