have to make a special announcement about our worship this evening. Some of you have high expectations. I'm afraid they'll be dashed. Sandy and I are aware of a church that we know very well in Oklahoma City that tonight will set up a big screen TV on their communion table. And the stated pitch is come and watch the game, and we'll have a very brief worship service at halftime. And then back to the game. And so if you're coming in here tonight looking for the big screen, it's in Pastor Dodd's office. It won't be here. I will tell you this morning, you will need your copy of God's Word open, not only to Matthew chapter 4, the text that Pastor Anderson just read in your hearing a moment ago, but you'll need to be at the ready to look at scripture interpreting scripture. One of the ways that we strive to fulfill our motto, to produce mature believers, to be a church for grown-ups, is we dig deep into the text of scripture, and so you will certainly need your Bible this morning. Our text today is all about temptation. The only time our culture seems to use this word, temptation, is when the waitress comes to your table and asks if you'd like dessert. But I want you to be genuine today and think with me how frequently you're tempted and from what direction those temptations come. What is it that truly tempts you? Is it that woman at the next desk in your office? Is it that pornography site? Is it the temptation, if I lie just this once, I can have that promotion? I'm tempted to cheat on this exam because I've been lazy and I haven't studied for it. Does the temptation come from your friends, the media, or usually just from your own heart and eyes? And most importantly, when was the last time you ever resisted temptation? Have you ever? Or are you like Oscar Wilde who famously said, I can resist anything but temptation. And so what I want you to do now is to gird up your mind. Purpose to listen carefully to God speaking in his word. I can say it very without any thought of being proven wrong. Every person in this room is facing temptation. And so this is something that is profoundly relevant to you. Let's seek the help of the spirit now. Our Father, we're profoundly aware today that if you do not send the Holy Spirit in power to open our eyes and give us understanding of this text, we will remain in a spiritual fog. We'll leave no better than we came if you do not assist us by giving us concentration and remembrance. Lord, especially we plead that you might enable us to carefully grasp how this word, this text applies to us today in our homes, on our jobs, in our relationships and especially in your church. We pray with great expectation of blessing and grace. We pray in the name of our only savior and mediator, Jesus. Amen. Look at Matthew chapter four, the very beginning of the text. You remember that Jesus has just been marked out as a priest. He's just been anointed. And so he is a legitimate high priest. Well, in Matthew chapter 4, we're told now the next saga in Jesus' life is His leading by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now, I want to point out a couple of interesting texts there. This account of the temptation of Jesus is so important. that it's given to us in Matthew's Gospel and Mark's and Luke's, and they're just tiny bits of differences. Again, they're not different in that they communicate different words, they just complement one another. And so in Mark's account, in Mark chapter 1, we're told not only does the Spirit lead Jesus into the wilderness, but the Spirit drives Him into the wilderness. This is the same Holy Spirit, by the way, who had just descended upon Jesus like a dove in Matthew 3.16. Now, what I want you to see is the Spirit is initiating the challenge. This means that the temptation had to occur. It was decreed. The Spirit was taking Jesus towards the temptation. Jesus is being led to take the battle to the enemy and defeat him on his turf. The Spirit is on the offensive. Now, don't read into the text reluctance on the part of Jesus. Rather, the text is emphasizing the opposite. Jesus is willingly led into this battle to do the will of the Father. Now, the site chosen for the temptation, and you're going to see why it's so important that we understand what the site was, was a wilderness. Traditionally, this has been understood to be an area where there's a range of limestone peaks called Quarantania. The site is one of utter desolation. It looks like a moonscape. The rock peaks are pocketed with caves. One day late, one day, three years after this, the Holy Spirit would take Jesus into a far worse wilderness called Golgotha. So immediately what we are to learn, just looking at verse 1, is the temptations and trials don't come by chance. God ordains them, orders them for His own glory and our good. But I want you to understand this very carefully. This temptation doesn't sneak up on Jesus. He's not surprised. Oh, where did that come from? But God orders these temptations and trials for His glory and our good. Think of this, how Satan, we're told repeatedly, has to get permission to tempt. For example, in Job chapter 1. The Lord said unto Satan, Behold, all that he has, that is Job, is in your power, only do not lay a hand on his person. There's a concession there from the Lord with a limitation. Till God exposes us to trials, the devil cannot trouble us nor touch us. And that was certainly the case in this trial. We hear that in the language of Jesus just before the crucifixion when Jesus turns to Peter and says in Luke 22, Simon, Simon, Satan has asked for you that he may sift you as wheat. Simon had to be told that the evil one had to come and ask permission. to tempt and try Peter. And then Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians 12, when he was being greatly troubled by a thorn in the flesh, Paul tells us that it was a messenger of Satan, but sent by God. In fact, the devil and his demons, we'll find out in Matthew chapter eight in a few months in our exposition, the devil and his demons couldn't even enter into a herd of pigs without the permission of God. Because the evil one is held in the chains of irresistible providence. He cannot molest any creature of God without the Lord's prior permission, which is a great satisfaction to the believer. All things which concern our trials are determined and ordered by God. I know it well because I know what some of you are going through. There are some of you going through horrible trials. Difficult temptations. And you need to be reminded, these did not catch God off guard. He has ordained these things, and they are by his permission. My dear friend, the old Puritan Thomas Manton said, if we are free, let us thank God for it, and pray that he would not lead us into temptation. But when we are tempted, when we are in Satan's hand, remember, Satan is in God's hand. And so having given ourselves up to God, we are no longer to be at our own disposal and direction, but we're to submit ourselves to be guided and ordered by God in all things. So it was with Jesus. He was led by the Spirit continually. Look at the first verse of our text. We are told that he's led by the Spirit into this temptation. And as soon as the temptation is over, we are told in the parallel account in Luke chapter 4, that Jesus now returns in the power of the Spirit to Galilee. The Holy Spirit leads him to the conflict, and when it's over, leads him back again to his home district. There's to be a likeness between Christ and the Christian. Just as Jesus is led by the Spirit, so we must be guided by the Spirit in all our actions. That's why Paul can say in Romans 8, as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God. We must grasp that we have a God who takes the initiative to bring trials into our lives. Let me say that again, because some of you have drunk a little too deeply at the wells of prosperity gospel and health and wealth gospel. You can't imagine that God would take you into trials and temptations. But here's all I need to do to convince you. He brought his beloved son into trials and temptations. When the Holy Spirit takes you into the wilderness, to the trial, and some of you are there right now today, you will be able to survive because God promises all true Christians that their faith will not fail. One of the first verses, when I'm doing discipleship with a brand new believer, one of the first verses that I encourage people to memorize is 1 Corinthians 10, 13. It has usefulness for you right now and on your deathbed. where Paul says, no temptation has overtaken you except such as is common. So the first thing you need to know about temptation, when you're going through a horrible thing, you think nobody has ever been through this difficulty like me. Paul says, don't take yourself so serious. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common. But Paul quickly adds, but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you're able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape that you may be able to bear it. No time that you spend in the wilderness by God's eternal decree, that wilderness of trial will be of such duration and agony that it will result in your faith in Christ collapsing. No, for the true Christian, you'll emerge. You'll come out on the other side, battered, bruised, wiser and stronger. Many who profess to be a Christian that's shown to be untrue because just one day, one hour under trial, and their faith is crushed. They apostatize. I know that many have not endured a temptation, but none of the elect of God have ever perished because God has guarded them. He's the great shepherd of his sheep, and he's never lost one lamb yet. As Jesus goes into the wilderness to the temptation, look at our text in verse 1 and 2. I want you to grasp this theologically. The rest of the New Testament writers, especially the writers of the epistles, want to say that when Jesus goes into the wilderness and when he marches towards the fight, he's going as the second Adam. In Romans chapter 5, Paul explicitly sets up a type-anti-type relationship between Adam and Jesus. And in Romans 5.14, we're told specifically, Adam was a type. Was he a real person? Absolutely. But he was also a type, a foreshadowing of him who was to come. And so what we should look for at every point in the life of Christ, how do we see Jesus is the better Adam, the second Adam, the final Adam? Paul does this repeatedly, especially in the book of 1 Corinthians, where Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15, as in Adam all have died, even so in Christ all shall be made alive. And what I want you to do, I warned you that you would need your Bible, look at 1 Corinthians 15, and I want you to see this model because one of the ways we should study the temptation of Jesus is, oh, this is just the temptation in the garden replayed. In our life, our eternal salvation is hanging on, will Jesus win the battle that Adam lost? In 1 Corinthians 15, pick up the narrative in verse 45. Paul says, it is written, the first man, Adam, became a living being. The last, Adam, became a life-giving spirit. However, the spiritual is not first, but the natural and afterwards the spiritual. The first man, that is Adam, was of the earth, made of the dust. The second man, Jesus, is the Lord from heaven. And so one of the grids I want you to set up as we think through this temptation is you need to understand first Adam, second Adam. Anything you see Jesus doing, any temptation you see the evil one throwing, say, oh, this is a parallel to the temptation in the garden. What Paul wants us to see by all of these exhortations is the first Adam was our representative, and by his actions, He plunged us into death. And the second Adam, the final Adam, Jesus is our new representative, but he brings us life. Our happiness and hope were destroyed by the first Adam, but they've been recovered by the second Adam. Christ has done what Adam could not do. The first Adam was tempted in a perfect garden, a paradise. The second Adam, Jesus, was tempted in a rough wilderness. In fact, what you're meant to see when you see Jesus going into the wilderness is it's the anti-Eden. The contrast, the first Adam was living under the most favorable external circumstances ever. None of you have ever been in a place so beautiful and so perfect. Maybe you've gone to spectacular places and you thought, I've got to catch it on video, I've got to take pictures, I've got to save this in my memory because it's so perfect. It's like a trash heap compared to Eden. That was where Adam was living under the most favorable external circumstances. This morning when you walked out the door, you probably said, it's the climate in the field is perfect. That'll change soon, by the way. And so what you will see is Eden was the most perfect of circumstances. But the second Adam, we are told in the text, was living in the most unfavorable of circumstances, a barren wilderness. The first Adam, when he faced the temptation, he faced it with the companionship of his wife. But the second Adam had no companionship. There was no one there to see what he would do, no one to encourage him. In a brilliant piece on loneliness, the late Elizabeth Elliot said, Loneliness is the most difficult deprivation to endure for any length of time. To be forced to be utterly alone, cut off from all human contact. When Jesus withstood the temptation, he did so completely in solitary. The first Adam faced the temptation in a gourmet's paradise. He could eat freely of all the trees of the garden except for one. When Satan came to the first Adam to test him, Adam was tested on a full stomach. Adam wasn't undermined by physical pain or yearning, but when Satan comes to the second Adam, he was greatly weakened. Look at Matthew 4 verse 2. He was greatly weakened in his humanness because he'd gone without food for almost six weeks. He would have been emaciated. You could have counted his ribs. The first Adam was only given one challenge by the evil one. The second Adam, what we will see next week, God helping us, the second Adam was subject to at least three, and perhaps these are only representative of a much greater number, but we know there's no fewer than three temptations. The first Adam's trial seems almost momentary and brief when we read about it in Genesis 3. But the structure of the Greek text tells us when we look at all three of the parallels in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, that the evil one tempted the second Adam for 40 days. Why? That magnificent theologian of South Carolina, James Henley Thornwell, wrote, Jesus' trial must be more protracted than that to which Adam was subjected because by this greater trial, he will procure greater benefits by his success. The first Adam's disobedience brought us death, but the second Adam's obedience will bring us life. The first Adam fell in disgrace and misery. The second Adam triumphed. standing against all temptations and was victorious. Adam fell in paradise and made it a thorn-riddled wilderness. But the second Adam conquered in the wilderness and is making it a paradise. There's another parallel at work here. The Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where he spent 40 days, an obvious parallel, and we're going to see that next week, an obvious parallel with Israel's 40 year sojourn during which God's people repeatedly failed. Jesus had reflected long and hard on the wilderness failures of Israel. And what we're going to see is, and I will hopefully be able to point this out to your satisfaction. is Jesus has in his mind the failures of Israel in the wilderness for 40 years as he's undergoing the 40-day temptation. And Jesus will answer Satan's successive temptations with three successive references to a section of all things. Deuteronomy. Because Jesus is recalling the time in the wilderness and what happened in the book of Deuteronomy, where Israel is tested and fails. But we're going to gain rich comfort and say, for those of you who think, I need the perfect verse, I need the perfect text to be able to withstand the evil, and as I put on the full armor of God, what would be that perfect text? And most of you, if I were to say, you might want to try Deuteronomy, you'd say, Really? Isn't there a psalm that would be more fitting? What we're going to see is Jesus takes in His hand and upon His lips the book of Deuteronomy and triumphs over the evil one. Deuteronomy holds the key to understanding Jesus' three temptations and victory over them, and we'll certainly examine them next Sunday. But I want you to look at this one who is called, look at verse 3, the tempter. That's one of more than 10, but I'll just point out 10 names that he's known by in scripture. But here in verse three, he's called the tempter. We need to be very emphatic and state the clear, careful meaning of our text. Our Lord Jesus was enticed, seduced towards sin, and was tempted by a real person, a real creature. We need not have one shred of intellectual embarrassment to say this. The world we live in is a God-created universe in which an evil power lurks. It's a supernatural world. In 1821, Friedrich Schleiermacher, the father of modern liberalism, declared these words. The idea of a devil as developed among us is so unstable and rests on such tenuous grounds that we cannot expect moderns like us to be convinced of its truth any longer. I'm afraid my friend Friedrich knows better now. After each, you'll see by the way how the media and the elite view this, because they are completely dumbfounded. Every time there's a major public mass shooting, the news analysts always stare at each other and say, how could this happen? How could people be so evil? Aren't people basically good? They're befuddled because they've suppressed the truth of the existence of an evil person that has mighty power. But just ask the cop on the beat. Ask the coroner. Ask the judge. Ask the prison guard if there are evil forces at work in the world. Our text speaks of such a person, look at him in verse 3, he's called the tempter. The New Testament teaches us that the devil has all the traits of personality, such as a mind. We're told in 2 Corinthians 11, the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness. And so this one who's going to tempt Jesus, he has, just like you, he has a mind, will, and emotions. He's a fallen angelic being, but he has a mind. His mind is shrewd. Paul will even give the devil his due and say in 2 Corinthians 11, he was able to deceive Eve by his craftiness. Not only does he have a mind, he has emotions. This is why John writes in Revelation 12, 17 that the dragon was enraged with a woman. He can be calm. He can be outraged. He has emotions just like you do. And he has a will, meaning he has a desire. Paul writes it in 2 Timothy 2, speaking of believers that they might come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will. We talk about doing the will of God, but Satan has a will. just as he has a mind and emotions. And by the way, personal pronouns are used of him. Now, personal pronouns, I think, is thankfully a fad that's dying. I hope so. And so if you have those in your email, you might want to take them out. But notice what we are told in our text in Matthew 4, verse 7. Jesus assigns personal pronouns to the evil one. The evil one is a he him. He's called proud, rebellious, lawless, slanderous, a liar, a distorter, a deceiver. Let me remind you of his history. If you weren't here for our PM series a few months ago on angels, both elect and evil, let me remind you of his history. Look at Ezekiel chapter 28, keeping one finger in our text in Matthew four, but look at Ezekiel 28. And this is the tempter's history, and he has a glorious history. Pick up the narrative describing him in Ezekiel 28 verse 12, where the Lord says of him, you were the seal of perfection, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty, You were in Eden, the garden of God. Every precious stone was your covering, the sardius, topaz, and diamond, beryl, onyx, and jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold. The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day which you were created. You were the anointed cherub who covers. I established you. You were on the holy mountain of God. You walked back and forth By the way, that ought to be a tip off right there who we're talking about. You walk back and forth. What are we told of the evil and later? He's restless. He's prowling. He's looking for someone to devour. It said of him, you walk back and forth in the midst of the fiery stones. You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created until, until iniquity was found in you. But we're clearly told in this history there in Ezekiel 28 that the devil was a creature. The implication, he's a creature, he's not eternal, he's not omnipotent, he's not omnipresent, he's not omniscient, he's dependent. He's dependent for every breath he draws from the Creator. Look at what Ezekiel 28 says of him. He was created full of wisdom and beauty. Some of you, when you think of the evil one, you think, Oh, I would spot him because when he comes in the door, he would be hideously ugly and he would have a long red tail and he'd be on roller skates. But when you think of what the evil one is like, scripture repeatedly says he's beautiful. He's attractive. He's the highest of angelic beings, holy and righteous until. until pride. Pride was the beginning of his fall. Knowing this, do you know what the evil one will attempt to seduce you with every single time? Your proud flesh. Every single temptation of the evil one appeals to your pride, your self-esteem. There's a second text that tells us the history of the tempter. Look at Isaiah chapter 14. And now you go in deeper into what was going on, because I've had people say to me, Carl, what was Satan thinking? I can tell you exactly what he was thinking. The scripture doesn't leave any doubt. Isaiah chapter 14, beginning in verse 12. This is the second chapter of the history of the evil one. And again, this is who Jesus is going towards. This is who the Spirit is leading him towards. Isaiah 14, verse 12. Scripture says, How are you fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning? How you're cut down to the ground, you who weaken the nations. Here it comes. Here's what Satan was thinking. If you're ever thinking, this is one marked by beauty. He was the greatest of all the angels. He had everything at his fingertips. What was he thinking? Isaiah 14 verse 13, you said in your heart, I will ascend into heaven. I will exalt my throne, my throne above the stars of God. I will also sit on the Mount of the congregation on the farthest side of the North. I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the most high. Isn't it fascinating that what causes Satan to fall when he comes to Adam and Eve, that's what he tempts them with. You'll be his God. That was the lie that he bought. Isaiah concludes by saying, you'll be brought down to Sheol to the lowest depths of the pit. And so what we're told in this brief history in Ezekiel 28 and Isaiah 14, the evil one had sought to exalt himself to the position of Jehovah and above. In his vanity and pride, we're told he declared, I will be like God. He was not content to be a creature. The highest of creatures, yes. The most beautiful of all creatures, yes. But he wanted to be something more than a creature. He wanted to be as God. This is what caused him to fall and become the devil. Now, I want you to think more because names should identify. Names are never used in scripture thoughtlessly. According to both 2 Peter and Jude 6, and speaking of Satan and those angels who rebelled with him, they're called angels who left their first estate. But let me tell you nine other titles of the evil one, because I told you the one that's in our text in Matthew 4, 3, he's called the tempter, which means when he comes to you, he always has a nefarious divine. He never comes for a social call. He comes to lay a trap for your feet. This is the one who Jesus is headed towards. But nine other titles, he's called Satan. It's used in 34 New Testament texts. The term Satan means adversary. He is the relentless opponent and enemy of your soul. Another title, he's called in Revelation 12, the accuser of the brethren. When you're struggling with guilt and thinking, but Jesus has died for that sin and you just can't seem to Be content with Christ's atoning blood. That's because that is the evil one functioning as the accuser of the brethren, the one who causes fear and doubt, uncertainty and lack of assurance. Another title that Satan is given in scripture in Isaiah 14, he's called Lucifer, and that means angel of light. because he's the one who masquerades evil for good. In Revelation 20, he's called the dragon, and this is used to show his fierceness and power. In Matthew, we'll see repeatedly in Matthew's gospel, in fact, it's the most repeated title, and that should tell us something. We see it in Matthew 4 verse 1. He's called the devil. Sixty times in the New Testament, the New Testament writers use this title, the devil, which means slanderer. Anytime you walk out of this door and you walk down the hall and you're gossiping about someone else, speaking ill of them, you're in league with the devil. because that is his stock and trade. He loves to slander the believer. In John 8, he's called a murderer and a liar. He cannot speak the truth. And then, one of the most interesting etymological terms for the evil one in Revelation 9-11, he's called Abaddon and Apollyon, the angel of the bottomless pit. In 2 Corinthians chapter 6, he's called Belial, meaning the worthless one. And the title that ought to appeal to every junior high boy, the last one I'll tell you, is the term Beelzebub, which is told to us in Luke 11, which means the dung god, the lord of the flies. This is to demonstrate that Satan presides over a wicked, filthy kingdom. In terms such as principalities and powers and rulers of the darkness indicate the ranks and the organization of his forces. Now, we have to have a balanced view. This one has power. We dare never sell his power short. For example, in Ephesians chapter 2, this is the one who Jesus is going to. Jesus isn't going to take on a 95-pound weakling. He's going to face someone with incredible power. In Ephesians 2, he's called the prince of the power of the air, meaning the unsaved are largely under his authority. In 2 Corinthians 4, we're given just a little insight into how much power he has, where we're told the God of this age, speaking of Satan, the God of this age has blinded the minds of those who do not believe. Right now, the evil one has somewhere between four and a half and six billion people blinded. Right now, that's power. Another aspect of his power, according to Job chapter one, he has the power to bring death. Brings the death of Job's 10 children. He can inflict disease, pain, and suffering. Peter sums it up best when thinking about his power when he says in 1 Peter 5, he's a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour, to consume, meaning he can totally control and possess individuals. This is the opponent that Jesus is going towards. This is the one who has one single intention in the great temptation. What we're looking at in Matthew chapter four, Satan is clear-minded. He has one strategy to entice Jesus to sin just once. He succeeded before. He succeeded in a much more difficult climate. He succeeded in a perfect garden, with a perfect man, on a full stomach, who has a companion. Satan thinks, I succeeded with him. All I need to do is entice Jesus to sin one time, word or thought or deed, just once. And the entire human race belongs to me. Billions of the elect will be lost forever. Because if they don't have a sinless savior, they're all lost, all damned. Because if Jesus ever sins once, their perfect substitute is gone. How do we apply this word? We should be vividly reminded that we have the same adversary as Jesus. The very same person who we are told in 1 Peter 5.8, your adversary. Your adversary, the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. We should not treat him lightly. The same adversary that went against Jesus, who makes three brilliant arguments and lays out three astounding, enticing temptations. That's your adversary. I would say by way of application too, the conflict is real. Paul in writing about This spiritual warfare says in Ephesians 6, we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but we wrestle. Do you? We wrestle. against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places. If you somehow read that and think, well, that was kind of a first century thing. My friend, spiritual warfare is a daily reality in the 21st century. The conflict is real. Another application, testing and trials should never be a surprise to the believer. No one is exempted from temptation. The same adversary who was brash enough, not afraid to attack the Son of God, will not be afraid to attack you. And this text teaches us something profound about temptation. We're going to go deeply next week, God helping us into the psychology of temptation. What Satan knows about you and how he will come at you. This text teaches us that a holy character doesn't exempt someone from temptation. Jesus was perfect, holy, spotless, yet he was tempted. If the devil keeps on And he does, comes back over and over again at the Lord Jesus. If the devil keeps on repeatedly against an invincible Holy One, how much more will he keep attacking those who are weak? This text teaches us as well. that the greatest distance from the world doesn't exempt one from temptation. One of the silliest movements, and there have been plenty in the history of the church, one of the silliest movements in the 2nd and 3rd century was the monastic movement, especially the pole sitters. You had monks who would leave the cities and they would go and they would build a pole, usually about 20 feet high with a platform, and they would climb there and not come down. And they would have people bring them food and drink and sometimes a blanket, but they'd said, I need to be removed from the world. The patron saint of all pole sitters was Saint Simeon the Stylite who created a pole that was 60 feet high because he really wanted to be away from the world. But let me tell you what I would tell them. The greatest distance from the world, by the way, you notice nobody really does that anymore because people figured out that really doesn't exempt you from temptation. When we mix with the world, we know we'll be tempted, but we think we can come apart, go to our own private monastery and there be safe from the evil one's temptations. Well, Jesus went away from all worldly contact. He's alone in the wilderness. He's got no radio, no TV, no internet, no cell phone. And he was tempted more fiercely than anyone has ever been tempted before. Don't suppose then that it's only the worldly minded who have blasphemous temptations. This text teaches us as well that total consecration of heart does not exempt one from temptation. Jesus was powerfully, totally set apart, concentrated for the father's use, a pure vessel preparing to enter into powerful public ministry. Yet the evil one lays hold of him to tempt him. But this text has good news. The writer of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 2 and Hebrews 4 that because our Jesus has been tempted in every possible way as we are with one exception. without sin. Because he's been tempted in every possible way we've been, he can understand and sympathize and give power to those who are tempted. And this text gives us hope for success against temptation. The scriptures hold out the pattern of Christ for us for our imitation. We are told what temptations are coming and how to resist. Next Lord's Day, we will examine it in excruciating detail. Let's pray together. Our Father, we confess that we have taken sin and temptation lightly. We have ignored your command to put on the whole armor of God. And so we ask that you would take this word and the sermons in weeks to come and fortify us.