You may be seated. We'll let our children go out to Children's Church. And as they go, please turn with me to Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 4. Look with me today at verses 3 and 4. The devil said to him, If you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone. I subscribed to my little Hill Country hometown's newspaper and I saw that it's that time again they're rehearsing their annual Easter pageant. Every year on the night before Resurrection Sunday, The people in the town where I was from stage this great pageant about Jesus' last days on earth across the side of a mountain. And against that rugged terrain, the production looks spectacular. And even though it mostly depicts the Lord's passion and resurrection, it does begin with his baptism. And true to scripture, it immediately proceeds to his temptation. Where it ceases to be true to life is that when Jesus is shown meeting the devil, he confronts a man dressed in a red suit with horns and a tail and carrying a pitchfork. Well, the enemy of our souls is far more subtle than that. One of the most effective representations of the devil that I ever saw in a film was in the form of a little preteen blonde girl wearing a frilly dress and bouncing a white ball and just smiling. So brothers and sisters, our enemy is a formidable one. And it would be more convenient for us all if he showed up in a red suit with a pitchfork. Sometimes we do see him, as we look at the pictures of vicious dictators throughout history and around the world, even at the present time. One man, I'm sorry to say, seemed to see him in his wife. And the point is this, that he is presented in Scripture as very dangerous. a being of great wiles, a serpent who deceives, a roaring lion who devours, and as one who can transform himself into an angel of light. He's presented as someone who's bent on accusing you and me, and intent on destroying the credibility of God in the church and the world. So he is far too clever to dress in red and carry a pitchfork. And we're not told here in this passage how he came to Jesus, simply that he came during this critical moment in Jesus' life. This was all planned by God. We saw last time we were together that according to Mark, the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by Satan. Jesus is fulfilling 40 days in the wilderness and that symbolically harkens us back to the 40 years in the wilderness that Israel spent. Jesus is the embodiment of Israel. He is being the perfect righteous son that the nation of Israel never was. So we don't know how Satan came to him. We don't know if he assumed a form, or if he simply spoke with his voice, or if he only poured thoughts into Jesus' mind. But however he came, he proceeded to test Jesus at the moment of greatest weakness. As I told you last time, Doctors, physicians, and nutritionists say that around 40 days is when starvation sets in. You and I may be ravenously hungry, some of us after only a few hours, but certainly if we've done our religious thing and tried to fast for a couple of days, most of us find that we're nearly dead. I don't know if that's been your experience or not, but fasting is very hard unless, of course, you do something called a juice fast. which I think is cheating. If you're going to fast, fast. But the point is this. If you fast, you're not dying yet until about a month goes by. But then the body begins to feed on itself, and Jesus was at that critical point. Now you and I need to watch always for temptation, but especially in times of weakness. in times of hunger, in times of stress, in times of tiredness, in times of tension, we know from our experience that these are moments when we give the devil an opportunity. But most subtly of all, We have to watch out in times of euphoria, when we're just in a great mood, when we're deliriously happy, and on top of the world, and thinking, I can handle anything. Many years ago, I read a statement by a theologian named George Buttrick, which has stuck with me ever since. And the statement was this, he matches his wiles to our weakness. And I believe that that not only means he matches types of temptations to our personalities. That's true enough, but that he preys on us when we're physically, emotionally, or spiritually weak. So, in our text today, Jesus was physically weak, and he faced the first of three categories of temptation. They are, as you may remember, from 1 John 2.16, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, and this one, the lust of the flesh. These were the three categories that Satan had used to tempt Eve in the Garden of Eden. And because Jesus was in the wilderness specifically to reface those kinds of temptations on behalf of his people, it would be good to turn back to Genesis 3 and remind ourselves of exactly what happened in that first recorded instance of temptation. Genesis chapter 3 beginning with the first verse. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but God said you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden. Neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, You will not surely die, for God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So then the woman saw that the good was food, that the tree was good for food, there's your lust of the flesh, and that it was a delight to the eyes, there's your lust of the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, there's your pride of life. She took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate." Notice how Satan worked. He said, did God actually say, and then he distorted God's words. Did God actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? You can imagine Satan feigning shock and outrage that God would be so restrictive, so narrow, set such unreasonable boundaries. Did he actually say, you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? I don't, I just, you can imagine him adding, I can't believe he would do that. Have you ever noticed how there are people who inflame you and stir you up to think more evil than you normally would have? They're quite critical and they're quite sometimes critical of God. And if you listen to them, you will find your thinking being changed and you'll begin to say, well, yeah, that's right. Come to think of it, hey, I'm getting indignant too. Well, that's the way Satan was working on Eve. You ought to get really indignant as to how God is keeping you two down from enjoying all the blessings that could be yours. I can't believe he would do that. And then she responds because she does remember at least a great deal of the truth. She says, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it lest you die. Well, she was right. They could eat of every tree of the garden, but they couldn't eat of the one tree, the knowledge of good and evil. She added a little extra restriction, neither shall you touch it. She was already a bit of a Pharisee. But she said, you know, he also said that when he didn't. lest you die." And then Satan's reply is wonderfully translated by William Tyndale here, "'Tush, you shall not die.' Don't be silly. You will not surely die." He says, "'For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. God is threatened by you. He's jealous of you. He knows that there are going to be two other gods running around if you eat of this forbidden fruit. It's the same old temptation. The lie that you and I shall be as gods. That's what we want to be. And before we become Christians, we really want to be God of our lives. We really want to be our own Lord. We want to be in sovereign control of everything. And our message to God is, I am in control and you are not. And I don't need to yield my life to you or obey your commands. So, Satan says, you will not surely die. Now what is he doing? He's calling God a liar. He's saying, he lied to you. He just flat out lied to you. God has a motive for doing this. He's jealous. He knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. Satan is a master salesman here. He has a product. Rebellion. His product is rebellion. Why don't you rebel against this one who is oppressing you and crushing you and cramping your style and keeping you from being all you can be? And then he's not only got a product, he has a demonstration. Good salesmen have a demonstration of their products. And so he's saying, look at it. Smell on it. Think of what it'll do for you. And so she saw that the tree was good for food and that it was a delight to the eyes and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise. And so she took of it. So there's attraction. What was the salesman's foot in the door? What was his foot in the door? Have you ever talked to a salesman who figures you out and figures out that what you really want is safety for your family in the car that you buy? And the cheapest one just doesn't provide as much as one that's one level up, and maybe you might want to, well, if you can swing it, if the money's there, you ought to go to two levels up. Because you got to get that safety. You're afraid for your family. You've got fear, and the salesman knows it. Or he may understand that You're kind of into prestige. You like the status of whatever product he's selling. And keeping on the subject of cars, he knows that you need the status and you're seeking the status. Or, you know, if you're in midlife, it may be that he wants to sell you the two-seater convertible. And you say, well, why not? The days are fleeting. I won't be around forever. Never mind that I have a family of four. I'm going to buy the two-seater convertible. So brothers and sisters, what's his foot in the door here? Doubt. Doubt about God. Is God telling the truth or not? Is God holding something back? And there's some doubt that God's way is right. And so, that's where he comes to you so often. And here is what is so utterly tragic about the situation with Adam and Eve. They did not have any need whatsoever in Eden. They had Paradise there and the choices that they had in terms of food were just limitless except for the fruit of this one tree. there was no need whatsoever, there was no lack of beauty, there was no lack of peace, there was no lack of any good thing in their physical environment. And so he sowed doubt when there was no need. The hardest people that I have to counsel I would almost be rather torn apart by wild animals than counsel somebody who is jealous for no reason. Jealous for no reason. Jealous of a spouse, for example. And they have no reason to be, but they just have thoughts, and they have fears, and they have suspicions. Try counseling a King Saul sometime. A King Saul who's jealous of a David for which he has no reason whatsoever to be jealous. There's no need. And you say, this is so tragic, this is so stupid. And it's just Satan pouring thoughts into this person's mind when there is not a basis for it in fact. That's the toughest kind of counseling that I have to do. And this is exactly what was going on here. Satan was sowing doubt where there was no need. No need for anything. Now, here's what he does with Jesus. He used need where there was no doubt. It's the complete opposite. So he comes to Jesus in Luke chapter 4, and he says, Oh, you have a pretty bad need here now. I know you have no doubts about who you are and what you're supposed to be doing. Satan doesn't engage in that kind of stupidity. He knows good and well that 40 days ago, The spirit, like a dove, descended on Jesus in the river Jordan. He knows further that there was a voice from God saying, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. And so, Satan knows he can't appeal to Jesus' doubt, but this is a perfect moment to appeal to his need. So, in the Garden of Eden, it was doubt where there was no need. In this wilderness north of the Jordan, it was need where there was no doubt. And the lesson of this temptation, the lesson of this temptation, whether you remember all the points today or not, remember this point. Put your love for God above your need. Put your love for God above your need. How many times do we think, I need something. I have a need. And I've just got to get that need met or I'll die. I've got to get that need satisfied. And have any of you had the experience where you got that need satisfied? Hey, how did that go for you? Was that just a real unmixed blessing? No, it's usually not. It's usually not because what have you done? You've made the need your idol above God. That's what you've done. And so, the point of the lesson of this temptation is put your love for God above your need. It's promised in Philippians 4 that God will supply all of your needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. And you're going to have times when you say, well, God has a different idea of my needs than I do. Yeah, bow to it. Maybe you don't really need that thing that you're going to put in place of God as much as you need the needs that God is going to supply. One of the things that we so often hear about, and you got to be careful because we hear about how important it is to minister to people's felt needs or perceived needs. And I respect that. We certainly have to do that with our spouses and our children. If they're feeling neglected or needing more attention, and those are felt needs and perceived needs, we've got to honor that. We have to honor that to a certain extent in how we are as a church. We have to minister to felt needs. That's why you have the padded pew to sit on today. We feel your need. You know, you have to do that to a certain extent. But also, one of my jobs as a minister, one of your jobs as a father or head of the family, one of your jobs as a Christian employer, one of your jobs as a Christian in the world is to help people see their true needs differently. and to never let them elevate a need above God because that's what Satan was trying to do. So Jesus had his Messiahship confirmed. He had received the anointing of the Holy Spirit. And here he was, as a man, having received that anointing and received that accolade from the Father, you are my beloved son, with you I am well pleased. And Satan comes to him and he says, you know if all that's true, and you did receive the Spirit, and you are the Son of God, and you have this anointing, then you have a power to satisfy your hunger with a miracle. Do it. Go for it. You need to. It's a real need right now. You may die soon. and you can do it. And if you need to, and you can, you should do it. Jesus was undergoing acutely the natural human desire, the natural human need of hunger. And so it's important to see that natural human desires in and of themselves are not sins. Jesus was capable of hunger. He was capable of sleep. He was a sexual being as well because he was human. These desires for food or for sleep or for sexual fulfillment are part of our humanity and they are not in themselves wrong. But there are two problems with our desires. One, we still have a fallen nature even after our conversion. Our flesh, our human nature, our flesh is sinful flesh. So in us, these normal human desires can become corrupt. Jesus Himself came in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in sinful flesh. He was human, but His flesh was not sinful flesh. His heart was not a sinful heart. So a temptation that meets our corrupt flesh, when faced by Him, met His sinless flesh. And our corrupt flesh can take a normal human need and make it into an idol that assumes more importance to us than God. And the second problem with us is that we're then tempted to meet the need in an inappropriate or illegitimate way. In other words, meeting a legitimate need in an illegitimate way. So, take hunger. For hunger, we're tempted to eat too much, or eat at the wrong times, or perhaps to eat things that are destructive to us. And if you're like me, you will do all three together. Eat too much at the wrong time and things that are destructive. And so our hunger, which we say is a huge need, we say, I'm starving, I'm ravenous. And you think of the biblical character who had that feeling. Give me some of that red stuff. Will you sell me your birthright, Bubba? Sure. I want that chili. That was Esau. Sold his birthright for a mess of pottage. And so this is how hunger can be elevated into a god, into an idol. Take sleep. No, that wasn't a command. Take sleep. Perhaps you're tempted to get too much. Perhaps you're tempted to get too little. because for every hour you're asleep, that's an hour that you're wasting time. Maybe you're one of those people. The point is, sleep can be a temptation, especially to oversleep or to sleep at the wrong time. There is an interesting little translation that I want to show you in Matthew 26, where Jesus and Peter, James, and John are in the Garden of Gethsemane. And Jesus had asked them to go with him because he was sorrowful and troubled. And if you'll look at verse 38 of Matthew 26, it says, Then he said to them, My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch with me. And going a little farther, he fell on his face and prayed, saying, My father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will. And he came to the disciples and found them sleeping. And he said to Peter, So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that you may not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. Again, for the second time, he went away and prayed. And then it goes on. He does it the third time. Every time he comes back and they're asleep. And look at verse 45. Then he came to the disciples and said to them, and this is an interesting translation. Our English translations usually translate this phrase, are you still sleeping and taking your rest? But the ESV translators decided that William Tyndale was right, and this is how he translated it in the 16th century. Sleep and take your rest later on. Sleep and take your rest later on. See, the hour is at hand and the Son of Man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise, let us be going. See, my betrayer is at hand. In other words, he's saying, don't sleep now. sleep and take your rest later on. There's a proper time for it. There's a proper place for it. But not on this duty of watching that I have put you on. For our sexuality, we're tempted to express it wrongly with wrong partners or through pornography or adultery, all apart from the marriage relationship. So these bodily appetites, these human desires can be transformed into something very unlovely and even into an idol itself. So here's Jesus, our Lord himself, tempted with one of his bodily appetites. He was tempted with a natural human function. Even the God-man needed to eat. and the temptation is twofold. So I'm going to give Satan's twofold temptation and I'm going to give you Jesus' two-fold response, and it's ours as well, to temptation. First, Satan says to him, establish your identity by doing something inappropriate. Establish your identity by doing something inappropriate. In other words, he says, if you're the son of God, command this stone to become bread. Now, we understand that temptation, don't we? We have temptations like, well, I'm the boss of this firm. I'm going to lord it over everybody. Or I'm the pastor of this church. I'm going to show everybody who's boss. Or I'm the head of this family. Doesn't matter if my rules make any sense. We're still going to play by them. Or I'm the mother. And when mama ain't happy, ain't nobody happy. So, brothers and sisters, you establish your identity by doing something inappropriate, and it was inappropriate for Jesus to turn a stone into a loaf. That's one part of the temptation. The other part of the temptation is meet your legitimate need in an illegitimate way. And here is Jesus' answer. Here's Jesus' answer, verse 4. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone. I want you to notice how important it is that he limited himself to scripture. He did not go back in time and talk to Satan about the time that his father created him. He did not say by way of pulling rank on him, I am the son of God and you know who you are, I know my place and you know yours. He did not do any of those things. Instead, he handicapped himself to responding as one of his people should respond. We have the same option. We have the same opportunity in responding to Satan. So, Jesus limited himself to Scripture, and it is extremely important to see that. This is one of the weapons in our arsenal of spiritual warfare, as you know. in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 17. It says, And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And what did Jesus quote? Well, He quoted Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3. A passage about the Israelites in the wilderness. Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3. And He humbled you, and let you hunger, and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Now, here is what that passage means. Life was to be lived before God, and it was more than eating and drinking. It was by taking heed to his word in every area of your life. If you look at Luke 4.4, you see that Jesus only quotes half of the verse. Man shall not live by bread alone. Matthew tells us that he quoted the rest of it, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. This is a textual question, and so some of you who are using King James versions or new King James versions will see extra words there. You will see Jesus saying, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And that is likely the work of a scribe who remembered the account of the temptation from Matthew and he is filling out the verse. But the best of textual criticism says, no, All Luke wrote, this is not saying all that Jesus said, it's all that Luke wanted to tell Theophilus and all of us that Jesus said. Luke wanted to tell us that Jesus said, man shall not live by bread alone. Feel the weight of that for just a moment. Man shall not live by bread alone. Man shall not live by any created thing alone. Man shall not live by any possession alone. Man shall not live by anything gained by materialistic effort alone. Man shall not live by anything alone. Think of the significance of that and please let it sink down into your being. We need God. We need him every hour, as we sang earlier today. And so, Jesus is saying, bread is not all there is to life. And you think of some of the things that you seek after, and want more than anything in the world, and always are trying to be sure you have in your life. Even they are not the most important things in your life. The most important thing in your life is God. The most important thing in your life is pleasing Him. The most important thing in your life is following Jesus Christ as Lord. And Jesus was saying, I know exactly what is truly important and I know it from Scripture. And any of my disciples in the future can know it from Scripture. So I'm not going to exercise messianic power in a way that my disciples cannot. This is extremely important. So, what did Jesus do? He established his identity by the Word of God. Satan told him, establish your identity by doing something inappropriate. Here's Jesus' answer to that. Number one, he said he would establish his identity by the Word of God. That's advice for you and me too. Establish your identity by the Word of God. Jesus quoted a verse that said, man shall not live by bread alone. He said, I'm a man. I'm a man. I've always been a human being ever since I was conceived in the womb by the Virgin Mary. And I am a man. And as a man, I am not to live by bread alone. I am to honor God in all things. And so, establish your identity by the Word of God. What does the Word of God say you are? Until you come to know Jesus Christ as Lord, you're a sinner. You are estranged from God. You deserve His wrath. Once you receive Jesus as your Lord, then these things are true of you. You're counted as righteous as Jesus. You're justified by your faith. You are born again by the Spirit of God and you are adopted as a child of God in the family of God. So always come back to who you are in Christ. Jesus came back to who He was. He established His identity by the Word of God. And then the second thing he did in response to Satan's invitation to meet the legitimate need in an illegitimate way, he established his priorities by the Word of God, and you must establish your priorities by the Word of God. By quoting this verse in Deuteronomy, Jesus is saying there's more to life than eating. There's more to life than my bodily appetites. There's more to life than my ambitions. There's more to life than my disappointments and my pity parties. There's more to life than the struggles and troubles that I'm going through. What there is to life is knowing God, knowing Him as Lord, following Him as my Master. So Jesus is saying, I will trust God. I'm starving to death, but I will trust God and I won't cheat. I won't get my need met in a way that the people I represent cannot. I will obey God in this desire of the flesh. And that's hard. It may be really hard, especially for, well, people who do have trouble with food and who have trouble with dieting, people who do have a craving for sleep and they fight against slothfulness, and people who are sexual beings. And perhaps marriage is not immediately in their future and they don't have an answer. And so, brothers and sisters, we do have to seek the Lord to help us with the natural human desires. One of the greatest natural human desires we have is the desire for companionship. It's the desire for companionship. Once in a while, you will stumble on a real loner who likes to be alone, and yet at the same time, he can't completely quell or squelch the need for some sort of human interaction. Mostly, he'd like to tell you how great it is to be alone. But he's got to have somebody to tell that to. But one of the first human needs that was ever, the first human need that was ever met is that God said, it is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion fitted for him. So brothers and sisters, we do have these natural needs. God understands them. He will provide for them. But Jesus is saying, I'm not going to cheat. I'm going to play by God's rules. And later on, he actually said, my food is to do the will of my father. So right there, in the wilderness, in this first temptation, and with this I want to close, it's a very important concept, though, about temptation. Jesus was offered a choice of joys. He was offered a choice of joys. He certainly could have turned that stone into a loaf, which is what Satan invites him to do. But he chose a different kind of joy. You see, obedience to the Lord brings true joy. Knowing the Lord's approval brings true joy. Always, in every temptation, you have a choice of joys. And the question is, which joy do you want? Do you want instant gratification, or do you want God's approval? Do you want instant gratification, or do you want God's approval? Let me show you what I think is one of the most tragic of all passages of Scripture. It certainly is many other things. other than tragic. It's a very sobering, stirring passage. It is the moment when the prophet Nathan confronted King David about his sin with Bathsheba. And I want to show you a couple of verses from that story. 2 Samuel 12. 2 Samuel 12. Nathan told David a parable you know about. a poor man who had a lamb, and a rich man took his lamb away from the poor man. And then in verse 7 of 2 Samuel 12, Nathan said to David, you are the man. Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, and this is what I want you to hear, verses 7 and 8. I anointed you king over Israel, and I delivered you out of the hand of Saul. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms, and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. You think about that. I've given you all these things and I would have given you twice more. I would have doubled it for you. You had joy. Then in verse 9, why have you despised the word of the Lord to do what is evil in His sight? David did it for the momentary joy of Bathsheba. And he did it for the gratification of knowing that since she was pregnant, her husband was now safely out of the way. David faced a choice of joys. And that is what you and I face every time we are tempted. And David's life from then on, even though he was justified by faith, was a life of misery, treachery, conflict in his family, consequences of his sin abounded even to the next generation. So brothers and sisters, I hope you find your joy in the Lord because the joy of the Lord is your strength. Aligning your mind and your heart with God and obeying His commandments brings you the greatest possible joy and satisfaction. Let me show you one more example from the Old Testament, but we find it in Hebrews 11, and then we will close. Hebrews 11, verses 24 through 28. This is about Moses. And it says in verses 24 through 28, By faith, Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ, the embarrassment to the world of being associated with God, is what that means. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." Do you see that for Moses it was a choice of joys? There were fleeting pleasures of sin, and there was greater wealth in Egypt, but there was a greater wealth still, knowing God, obeying God, and following God. These are your choices, brothers and sisters. A choice of joys. And Jesus said that when you choose Him, no one can take your joy from you. Let us pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we pray Lord that you would help us this day to seek true riches, true wealth, true treasures, and true joy. We pray, Heavenly Father, that we would begin to see our enemy Satan for what he is, and hear his words for what they are. Heavenly Father, we pray that you would keep us from elevating certainly our wants, but even our needs above you. You are our God and we want you and you alone for our God and no idol. And so we pray, Lord God, that you would help us to find our idols and cast them down. We pray that you would help us to seek the solid joys and the lasting pleasures that none but Zion's children know. We pray that we might find joy in you, which is our strength. and that you would lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Please stand together. We're so glad for you visitors who are here today. We hope that you will sign our guest register so that we can have a record of your visit. And we hope that as many of you as can will join us this afternoon for our afternoon service at four o'clock. May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the fellowship of His Holy Spirit be with you all. Amen.