you The bells of heaven bear his joy today, For a soul returning from the wild. See the Father leads him out upon the way, Welcoming his weary, wandering child. Glory, glory, how the angels sing! Glory, glory, how the loud harps ring! Tis the ransom army, like a mighty sea, Let's join the choir and song this morning as we sing 612. Let's stand as we sing, He Keeps Me Singing 612. Let's sing it unto the Lord this morning. There's a rhythm, a heart, a melody Jesus whispers, we can go Here I am with thee, please be still Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know, fills my every longing, gives His living as my own. All my life He's had joy, see and shine, His work of my heart we've made. Jesus left and crossed the broken streets, He'll lift us up and forge again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know, Fills my every longing, Is He singing as I go? He's filled the riches of His grace, As we leave the sheltering grave, Always looking on in smiling face. ♪ That His voice shall transcend ♪ ♪ Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know ♪ ♪ Fills my every body, keeps me singing as I go ♪ ♪ Full to the brim with humility ♪ ♪ Shadows from across the way ♪ Love to pass, we pass each trough and sea, see its footprints all the way. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know, fills my every heart beat, leads me singing as I go to hell. Soon he shall be rapt in the world above me, far beyond the starry sky. I shall leave the glory to worlds unknown. I shall reign with him on high. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest King I know, built my heaven Amen. God bless you. You may be seated. Come into this place, Lord Jesus. Make us your people once again. We would set aside all that keeps us from praising You. Cleanse our hearts, Lord Jesus. Give us Your power once again. Through undying love you have freed us and made us new. Revive us, Lord, give us life again, and stir the dying embers of our love for you. Revive us, Lord, fill up everything we have. O come, revive us, Lord. ♪ Since we gave our lives completely ♪ ♪ Since your will we've chosen as our own ♪ ♪ You have given back those most sweetly ♪ ♪ And so much more ♪ ♪ Would we give to you ♪ You alone are worthy of our praise. We will ever sing our sweet story all our days. Give us life anew, and stir the dying embers of our love for you. Renew us, Lord. Oh come, revive us Lord, revive us Lord, give us life again. and stir the dying embers of our love for you. Renew us, Lord, fill up every need we have. O God, revive us. So I'll take our hymn books. Hymn number 385, He Hideth My Soul. I invite you to stand with me please. 385. Amen. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord. Let's stand and sing it together. He Hideth My Soul. ♪ How wonderful Savior is Jesus my Lord ♪ ♪ How wonderful Savior to me ♪ ♪ Behind Him my soul in the path of the wrong ♪ ♪ Where rivers of pleasure I see ♪ ♪ Behind Him my soul ♪ ♪ And shadows of kindness he led ♪ ♪ He guides my life in the depths of his love ♪ ♪ And covers me there in his hand ♪ ♪ And covers me there in his hand ♪ so Each moment he crowns. As shadows of my mercy burn, He guides my heart. ♪ And I'll be fine, I'll be fine, I'll be fine ♪ ♪ When evening comes, I'll be fine, I'll be fine ♪ ♪ When evening comes, I'll be fine, I'll be fine ♪ Life, my life, in the hands of Israel, and poverty there in his hand. And poverty there in his hand. Amen. Good seeing you. Glad you're saved. Amen. We're so thankful that you're here this morning in the house of the Lord. Good to have some visitors with us. Good to have all the way from Jordan, the Bill and Joanne Daub family, better known as Mr. Joanne Roberts. We're so glad that they're here today and they're still half asleep. They just kind of flew in all in. It takes a long time to get from over there. and got here early Friday morning, and they're still waking up. We're so excited that they're going to be gone for a few weeks traveling, then they're coming back here, and Brother Bill's going to preach. And tonight, during our sing-along, we're hoping that they'll sing for us. I'm trying to encourage them. He's trying to get something together. How many would you like to hear him sing tonight? Wouldn't that be wonderful? So we're going to have a church sing-along tonight. You want to be here for the service, and prayerfully and hopefully, if we encourage him enough, we'll get the Dobbs up here singing. That'd be wonderful. All right, Pastor McDonald, you come. Good to see you all here this morning. We had a great day. Wasn't yesterday a beautiful day? It was just beautiful. I mean, the humidity was down, the temperature just right, and it was just one of those great days. And it's good to have all you here today. Again, as Pastor mentioned, Brother Bill Dobbs here, missionary. You're still tired, are you? How would you like to come up here and pray for the offering this morning and to get you some exercise, get your legs working again and to get you on your ground. Psalm 137 verse 14 says this, I will praise thee for I am fearfully and wonderfully made And I just look at that verse and I think, boy, we've got so much to thank God for, what he's done for us. So let's praise God all the day long. Birthdays this week, we've got Maria Van Hardingsfelt's birthday is on Wednesday, that's Bill and Mary's daughter. And I've got also Sherry Post has got a birthday on Thursday, is that correct Sherry? Amen, amen. So be sure to congratulate them for those birthdays. This time we'll have Brother Dobbs open us in a word of prayer. Lord, we thank you for this place. We thank you for your church and your people. And Lord, we ask you to receive our offering today. It may be pleasing before your eyes and in your sight. And Lord, we love you. We thank you for the opportunity to give. We thank you for all you've done for us. And we pray this in Jesus' most precious name. Amen. Amen. you so Let's take our hymn books once again, please. 641, 641. I hope that this is what you can exclaim from your soul today, all that thrills my soul is Jesus. Let's stand this morning as we sing together, 641, all that thrills my soul. Who can cheer the heart like Jesus by His presence so divine? True and tender, pure and precious, oh, how blessed, how divine! God fills my soul with Jesus, He is more than life to me, Just the ladies on the second together. Ladies. Jesus, He is more than life to me. At the very top of the mountain, in my blessed heart I see His love burn. How I sing of Him, my Prince, and can be lighter than the snow, you know. One with my soul is Jesus. He is more than life to me. Let's sing the fourth, first octave melody together. All His strength in my relying, He is all in all to me. All that thrills my soul is Jesus, He is more than life to me. ♪ Where it's rocked and melted ♪ ♪ In my blessing are my seeds ♪ You have to watch now. ♪ By the crystal flowing river ♪ ♪ Threefold as the life you'll see ♪ Praise him, Lord, my one King! All the world's my soul is Jesus, His royal life to me. Lamb of Ferris, wood and mountain, I'm back His heart was broken, mine was mended. became sin now I am clean the cross he carried for my burden the nails that held him set me free his life for mine How could it ever be That he would die God's son would die To save a wretch like me What luck divine He gave his life for mine His scars of suffering brought me healing He spilled his blood to fill my soul His crown of thorns made me royalty His sorrow gave me joy untold His life for mine, His life for mine How could it ever be? That he would die, God's son would die To save a wretch like me What love divine He gave his life for mine. He was despised and rejected, stripped of his garments and oppressed. I am loved and accepted and I wear a robe of righteousness. His life for His life for mine How could it ever be That He would die God's Son would die To save a wretch like me Like me What a great song. Let's start our Bibles this morning. Please turn to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four this morning. I have not intentionally started a series, but I've been studying through the book of Matthew, and the Lord has given me a couple of messages. Of course, Matthew 1 and 2 have to do with the birth of Christ. Last week we looked at Matthew 3. This morning we're looking at Matthew 4 and the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. Specifically, verse 7, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. We've had a great week of serving the Lord with our Love Works program. The Lord has blessed. We've had some fantastic responses. People are very open. We think sometimes in Canada people are just so closed off, but actually we're seeing quite the opposite through this. We're seeing just because we're expressing love and kindness, people are opening up and open to the the message of the gospel. So I want you to do this. I want to challenge you now for the next two weeks. Two weeks from today is our Love Works Barbecue. We have a community barbecue here at the church following the morning service. I want you to pray every single day that folks will come and hear the gospel preached that morning and accept Christ as their Savior. Would you do that? Pray that they'll come. You know the devil will hinder them from getting up that morning and coming. The devil will somehow turn the sun up a little brighter and make it such a nice day to go to the beach or something. And we don't want them to be distracted and we want them to be committed to coming. And so be in prayer for that. And for those that you're inviting, pray that they will come and that the gospel will have effect upon the hearts of those that are here and we're excited about what the Lord might do if we'll just continue to be faithful in praying. Also, I want you to continue to pray if you will, for the Forest City Baptist Church, and Pastor Gord Legro, of course, is in the hospital in palliative care and weakening daily. And from what we understand, he's to the point where, he's getting to the point where he's not knowing people now and things. And so a lot of confusion because of the pain medication and things. And they've said that he doesn't have very much time left. And so let's be in prayer for the Forest City Baptist Church, Pastor Gordon Shelley-Legro, his wife, and of course the children there. And then of course Mark and Gretel Bowman. Mark is gonna take a lot of responsibility on his shoulders, and we need to be in prayer for him as God leads him. To be the pastor and the preacher there, and if that's the Lord's will the folks are thrilled with them They have brought four or five families into the church since they've been there pastor little girl has told me so he just feels that's a sign from the Lord that they're the right fit in that place and so pray for them as they transition here in the next few months can be very difficult as He is working full-time and having to shoulder the burden of the church as well while his pastor is sick in the hospital So let's be in prayer for all those things such an important We don't want to see a church close. We don't want to see a church change. And so let's be in prayer for the Bowmans at this time. Matthew chapter 4. Oh, one more thing. Let me say this. On Tuesday night we have scheduled a Freezy giveaway where we've scheduled a couple places where we can go. Hand out freezies the city has dragged their feet just a little bit on we have to anytime you have anything with food They have to have a permit and they've said okay verbally, but we're just waiting on the piece of paper We're gonna push that back one week to the following Tuesday night We should have the paper Monday or Tuesday and be all set to go and but we're gonna push it back one week Mr. Baker's on vacation this week I'm going to a pastor's training for the next few days and so neither one of us will be here and so the following Tuesday night We'll do that freezie Giveaway and the reason we want to be here is because we're hoping a lot of our young people will get involved in and we're working with the teens currently, so if you could Remember that this Tuesday night. We'll still have a love works outreach We'll go to a seniors building and do the bags in the seniors building this week instead, so that's been wonderfully attended Thank you so much for those that were here Thursday I couldn't be here Thursday, but I heard we had a fantastic group come out and handing out the bags Tuesday night we went to Townsend and did a couple buildings there and folks are very receptive and and appreciative of all that we're trying to do. Matthew chapter four, Matthew chapter four. The Bible says, then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. And when he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he was afterward a 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 a 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 shalt dast thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God, Again, the devil taketh them 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. Then the devil leaveth him. And behold, angels came and ministered unto him. Let's pray together. Father, help us, Lord, to understand The message of the scripture today, we pray that the Holy Spirit would guide us into all truth and teach us the things that we need to learn today. And so, Lord, I surrender to you and ask that the Spirit of God would fill me and communicate to each one of us through your word today. Father, help us, we are needy people, and we'll thank you, Lord, in Jesus' name, amen. Well, in Matthew chapter 4 we've just read about the temptation of the Lord Jesus Christ. He was led by the Spirit into the wilderness and there he was tempted by the devil after fasting for 40 days. The devil, of course, attacked first his physical needs. After 40 days, I can imagine he'd be very hungry. How many of you would be hungry after 40 days? I'm hungry after just a few hours normally, and for 40 days, it's incredible to think that the Lord Jesus Christ could be sustained that long in prayer. A couple weeks ago, Pastor Stone and I were talking, and I asked him, I said, well, what about fasting? And we have our ideas. The Bible doesn't have a section that says, Here's what fasting is, we know what fasting is, and we know why we should fast and things. I said, what is your take on fasting? And he says, look at me, do you think I know anything about fasting? That's what he said. But then we had a good conversation. The Lord had been fasting. And he attacked him physically, but Christ answered and said, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. Then the devil proceeded to attack him spiritually. Did Jesus have enough faith to believe that God would preserve his life if he threw himself off the Temple Mount? Jesus answered and said, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. He then tempted his ego. Would Jesus bend when he was offered the kingdoms of the world and receive the glory of them? And Jesus answered, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. I was thinking about that. There seems to be a lesson here in James 1.14. The Bible says that man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and entice. The devil can draw you away, I believe, in three areas that we see here in the life of the Lord Jesus Christ. He can tempt you in body, soul, and spirit. I think that's what we are being demonstrated to by the attacks of Satan upon the Lord Jesus Christ. If you struggle with the physical disciplines in this life, such as the appetites of the flesh or the things that we do on a day-to-day basis in our physical bodies, then you can be drawn away. If you are struggling with the pursuit of recognition, nobility, and limelight, then you can be drawn away. That's your ego. That's your soul. That's your interaction with this world. If you're struggling spiritually, if you're not reading your Bible, if you're not praying, if you don't have a walk with God, then you can be drawn away spiritually. And we see how the devil tried to attack in all three ways, and the Lord Jesus Christ was sound in body, soul, and spirit. His relationship with the Lord was solid. You know, Satan can tempt you, but you must make the decision to be drawn away. You know, so many times we hear that excuse, the devil made me do it. The devil may have tempted you, but he didn't make you do it. You are a child of God. You are blood-bought. You made a choice of who you would obey. Years ago, when Austin was just about three years old, he was just a little guy, and Austin always had a great sense of humor. We always noticed, if we were at home at night, we'd look at Austin. Austin entertained us, and he'd tell a joke, and he'd start doing his show, and it was just a lot of fun. A lot like Jacob. Jacob's an entertainer, right? And so Austin was like that, and Emily was always the little mother. And so she was always trying to straighten him up, you know. It's very serious. And one time we were at the dinner table and she said something to Austin. She says, Austin, you know, and she tried to straighten him up about something, I don't know. And he looked her right in the eye and he says, why don't you blame it on the devil for once and show me some mercy? Boy, that's what we like to do, isn't it? We like to blame it on the devil. The devil gets way too much credit, friend. If we are drawn away of our own lust, That's because we have a chink in the armor somewhere. That's because we have not strengthened the area of our life where we are the most weakest. We have not read the Bible and prayed and sought God's wisdom and strength and counsel to reinforce our lives. Let me give you some proof here this morning. Turn to Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. Luke chapter 8. I'm gonna give you an introduction that's rather long this morning, but then I'm only gonna preach for just a few minutes, all right? So don't get scared when I get to my first point. Luke chapter eight. Look at verse one. And it came to pass afterward that he went throughout every city and village, preaching and showing the glad tidings of the kingdom of God, and the twelve were with him. And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils. And Joanna, the wife of Judge Herod Stewart, and Susanna, and many others, which ministered unto him of their substance. And when much people were gathered together and were come to him out of every city, he spake by a parable. A sower went out to sow a seed. And as he sowed, some fell by the wayside, and it was trodden down, and the fowls of the air devoured it. And some fell upon a rock, and as soon as it was sprung up, it withered away because it lacked moisture. And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up with it and choked it, and other fell. on good ground, and sprang up and bear fruit a hundredfold. And when he had said these things, he cried, He that hath ears to hear, let him hear. And his disciples asked him, saying, What might this parable be? And he said, Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God, but to others in parables, as seeing they may not see, and hearing they might not understand. Now the parable is this, the seed is the word of God. Those by the wayside are they that hear. Then cometh the devil and taketh away the word out of their hearts lest they should believe and be saved. Now look at verse 13. They on the rock are they which when they hear receive the word with joy and these have no root. Which for a while believe and in time of temptation fall away. I wonder if we are like that sometimes where we get into an evangelistic service and somebody is preaching the word of God and we say, hey, that's some good preaching. There's a principle there I'd never heard before. Boy, I need to grab onto that. I need to take that home. I'm going to be honest with you. There are times where I've gone home and my wife will say, hey, somebody put something on Facebook about your message today. They've put a little comment about how I need to take that and apply that to my life. And then we don't see the fruit of it. We receive the word with joy. But because our hearts are hard like rocks, there's no place for it to take root. And the problem is when temptation comes, the plant just withers and dies. What the scripture is indicating to us today is that if we would soften our hearts and receive the word of God and allow the seed of the word of God to take root in our hearts, then we can endure the time of temptation. and we won't be so easily drawn away. Luke chapter 22 is four, just a few pages in your Bible. Luke chapter 22, you'll remember the Lord Jesus Christ went into the Garden of Gethsemane to pray, and he parted from his disciples for a time, and as he went away, he asked them to watch and to pray. Well, you know that the Lord Jesus Christ came back and found his disciples were what? Sleeping. Man, they must have been Baptist. They were to have a prayer meeting and they fell asleep. And the Bible says in Luke chapter 22 and verse 46, and he said to them, why sleepy? Rise and pray, why? Lest ye enter into temptation. If I'm reading that correctly, it tells me that prayer combats temptation. Fellas, if you're gonna sleep your lives away, you're gonna enter into temptation. But if you'll rise up and pray, you'll have something to grab onto. You'll be able to resist. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 13 says this, There is a way of escape. We don't have to give in to temptation. Galatians 4, verse 14, Paul speaks of the temptations that he says, which was in my flesh. In 2 Corinthians, we find that he prayed three times that God would remove that temptation, and he found this, God's grace was sufficient. God can help you through temptation. James chapter one verse 12 says, blessed is the man that endureth temptation, for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. These verses indicate to us that there's victory in temptation, that we can have the victory through Jesus Christ. They also show us how the devil attacks in various ways. James four says this, submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. You can have the victory. Now turn back to Matthew chapter four. Matthew chapter four. Now I'm just giving you some introduction about temptation. What is temptation? The Lord Jesus Christ faced temptation. The devil came and he tempted him. Now he was not drawn away of his own lust. Jesus was not enticed in any way. The key to that is because James is talking about a man. Jesus was the Son of God. He was perfect. He was sinless. But there's a twist here that we see in Matthew chapter 4. Look at verse 7. Jesus said unto him, it is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. That's a different kind of temptation, isn't it? We've been talking about the temptations the Lord Jesus Christ faced, and how that is calm and undemand, and that God has provided a way of escape, and we can have victory in Jesus Christ over temptation, just like Jesus Christ did, but we are not gods. We are not like Jesus Christ in that sense, and so we must trust in Jesus Christ, and we must walk in the spirit of God, and we must be a people of prayer. There is a defense. We must let the word take root in our hearts. But Jesus said this, he says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Could it be in this relationship that we have with the Lord, not only are we tempted by the things of this earth and are we tempted in our flesh by the things of this world, but we can tempt God? Well, that was the rebuke of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. How do we tempt the Lord? Listen, I want you to understand something. If the Bible says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, and by the way, he's quoting from the book of Deuteronomy, that's something maybe we ought to look into. Don't you want to be sure that you're not walking around every day tempting God? Wouldn't you want to know that? I mean, if God says, thou shalt not kill, and you don't know what the word kill means, you better find out. Amen? I mean, you better understand what it says. If the Bible says thou shalt not commit adultery, then we better find out what that word adultery means, because God says we ought not be doing it. And even if I'm, listen, how many of you have ever got a ticket because you didn't know what the speed limit was? Was the police officer impressed when you said, well, I didn't know what the speed limit was? Ignorance of the law is no excuse. So we must know what it means. What does it mean to tempt the Lord God? The word tempt means this. It means to prove, to test thoroughly, to put to proof God's character in power. You say, now wait a minute, preacher. Doesn't the Bible say, taste and see that the Lord is good? Aren't we to try me, saith the Lord of hosts? Aren't we to put God's promises to the test? I'm gonna show you in just a moment what all that means. You know, sometimes the Bible has the same word for two different things, and often we get confused. How many of you have ever said, well, we ought not judge? But the Bible does say we ought to judge. But then it says we're to not judge other things. So there's times we judge, and there's times we don't judge, but we can't just throw out a blanket statement and say, well, you shouldn't judge. You know what, I'd be in a whole lot of sin if I didn't judge right and wrong. I'd be in a lot of trouble if we didn't make judgment calls every single day. The Bible says, judge yourselves lest you be not judged. And so we sometimes confuse those things and we just grab one little verse and say, well, the Bible says do not judge. The Bible says do not tempt. We shouldn't tempt the Lord. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. But there are other scriptures that say we are to prove the Lord. And we are to put God's character to the test. But this one goes a little bit further and it says by irreligion and immorality, test the patience or avenging power of Christ. Now, I told you there's two types of testing or proving. Let me look in the Bible and see what it says. The first type of testing we see is the trying of ourselves before God. Turn to Malachi chapter 3. Malachi is just going to be back just a few pages from Matthew chapter 4. Malachi chapter 3, flip back, is page 1038 in my Bible. Malachi chapter 3. Look what it says in verse 1. Isn't that a typical Baptist preacher that even when he's preaching on temptation, he can get the tithing chapter in there? Amen? Malachi chapter 3. Behold, I will send my messenger, and he shall prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom ye seek shall suddenly come to his temple, even the messenger of the covenant whom ye delight in. Behold, he shall come, saith the Lord of hosts. But who may abide the day of his coming? Who shall stand when he appeareth? For he is like a refiner's fire and like fuller soap. And he shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver, that they may offer unto the Lord an offering in righteousness. Then shall the offering of Judah and Jerusalem be pleasant unto the Lord, as in the days of old, and as in former years. And I will come near to you to judgment, and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against false swearers, and against those that oppress the hireling and his wages, the widow and the fatherless, and that turn aside the stranger from his right, and fear not me, saith the Lord of hosts. For I am the Lord, I change not. Therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. Even from the days of your fathers ye are gone away from mine ordinances and have not kept them. Return unto me and I will return unto you, saith the Lord of hosts. But she said, wherein shall we return? Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But she said, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you have robbed me, even this whole nation, bringing all the tithes into the storehouse that there may be need of mine house, and what? Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I'll not open you the window of heaven and pour you out a blessing that there shall not be room enough to receive it. In Matthew chapter four, we read the phrase, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, and the very first definition of the word tempt is to prove. We shouldn't prove him. And yet in Malachi chapter 3 it says, Look what he says, When God says prove me, it can easily be confused with the word tempt as the definitions are the same. But I want you to notice the context now. Here's where it gets really important. The prophet Malachi is recording the words of God to the people when God says, prove me. It is a provocation to the people to step up by faith and trust God and see if he is not true to his word. That is the biblical way we are to test God. That is the only way we are to prove God, is to say, God, I trust you, I believe you, and I know for a certain that if I obey you, you're gonna open up the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing. We are proving the Lord. When we, like with a quiet, childlike faith, step out in prayer and say, Lord, I'm gonna trust you with this situation, I'm gonna ask you to give me wisdom, and I know for a certain fact that you will supply all my need according to your riches of glory, we are proving the Lord. And we're putting him to the test. But by the way, God's word, he just said, I am the Lord, I change not in verse six. He doesn't ever change. And so because he gave his promise, we are really not testing the character of God at all, are we? What we are doing is we are testing our faith. Are we going to trust what God said to be true? That's very different than tempting the Lord like we see in Matthew chapter four. Look at Psalm chapter 34. Psalm chapter 34. I'm still giving you some introductory stuff, then we're gonna get down to that tempting. The Lord. Psalm chapter 34. I just want you to see. You know, for so many, so often we read one verse and we think, well that just wipes out that other verse. Not really. If we read the context and understand what the Bible is saying. Psalm chapter 34. Look at verse 8. Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. Again, the Bible says, taste and see. And what's God saying? Put me to the test. Try it out. Prove me. The very same definition that we get for the word tempt me, or tempt the Lord thy God in Matthew chapter four. But look at the ramifications here. Taste and see that the Lord is good. We are not testing the character of God. We are trusting the character of God. For the man that steps out and says, I'm gonna taste and see, he is saying, I know it's good. And so I'm gonna put my faith in him and trust him. It's very different than tempting the Lord. God already knows he's faithful. And so he is testing us to see if we will trust in him. Now turn back to Matthew chapter four. Let's look at our text this morning and talk a little bit about the tempting of God. I hope, I hope that with me this morning, when you read Matthew 4, 7, and it says, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God, I hope a bell went off in your mind and a little flag went up and you said, boy, I better not do that. I better make sure that I'm not walking and living my life in such a way that I'm tempting God. Well, let's look at it this morning and see what the Bible teaches us. The tempting of God is testing God in a completely different sense than just trusting in his promises. Do you understand that? Sometimes, when we grow up in a home, we test to see if our parents will really keep their word. You ever done that? I know that it has been the habit of one of my children over the years, I can say, hey, we're going to this place at 10 a.m. in the morning, or what have you, and they'll ask me 30 times, dad, are we going at, yeah, at 10? Yeah. Really, we're going at 10? Yeah, we're going at 10. Really? 10 o'clock, right, dad? And just, I mean, to the point where, don't you trust me? Well, I'm going to keep my word. We're going to attend tomorrow. Yes, we're headed over there and we're going to take care of that. Don't worry about that. We're going to have that fun we promised and whatever family time it was. But it's just they had to be reassured over and over. Well, we're like that with the Lord. Often we need to be reassured of his promises. That's because we're frail. We're flesh. We can't stand in the presence of a holy God. That's not tempting the Lord. That's trusting in his promises. We tempt the Lord in a very negative way. When we continue in our sin and we say to God, I don't believe you're gonna keep your word, I don't believe you'll judge me, I don't believe you'll keep your promises, then we're in a lot of trouble. And that's what was happening with the devil here as he began to tempt the Lord Jesus Christ. He says, why don't you cast yourself off the pinnacle of the temple? and see if God will take you up with angels lest thy foot be dashed against a stone. Let me ask you something, does that violate scripture? Do we have a right to take our own life? The devil was trying to get him to tempt the Lord by sinning against God and seeing if God would either rescue him or judge him and let him die. You see, we often tempt the Lord by walking in sin And though we may not say it out loud, maybe we don't have our fists to the sky, but we are daring God to judge us in our sin. That's tempting the Lord. Let me prove it to you from the scripture. Deuteronomy chapter six. Deuteronomy chapter six. You say, Pastor, am I tempting the Lord? I don't know, are you walking in sin? There's a remedy for it. The Bible says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We are flesh, we are human, and we fail every day. We sin against God. And we have that mechanism where we can go to God in prayer and we can seek forgiveness for our sins. But friend, if we continue to walk in our sins and we are strolling happily along the way thinking that we'll never get judged, we'll never get in trouble, listen, you are misunderstanding the holiness and righteousness of God. And you are tempting the Lord. Deuteronomy chapter six is where Jesus Christ is quoting from. He says, ye shall not tempt the Lord your God as ye tempted him in Massa. In Massa, turn back to Exodus 17. Let's look and see what happened at Massa. Exodus chapter 17. Look at verse one. And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of sin after their journeys according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim, and there was no water for the people to drink. Wherefore, the people did chide with Moses and said, give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, why chide with me? Wherefore, do you tempt the Lord? You say, how did they tempt the Lord? Because did not God say he would provide all their needs? Did not God say that he would get them to the promised land? that he had a place prepared for them. You know, similar things happen throughout the Bible that catch our attention. Do you remember the Lord Jesus Christ told his disciples to get into the boat and go to the other side? And yet, when they were tossed in the middle of the sea, they said, Master, don't you care that we perish? Well, wait a minute, didn't you just hear Jesus say you're going to the other side? Don't you believe him? We are tempting the Lord when we doubt his promises. The people, in verse 4, it says, And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? They be almost ready to stone me. And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river. Take in thine hand, and go, and behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb. and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel, and he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, is the Lord among us or not? Can you just hear the derision in their voice? Is the Lord with us or not? Moses, you've made some promises, and God has made us some promises, but is God really with us? You know, there's rebellion in the air, wondering where God had disappeared to. Over the years, I've been to a lot of funerals, and it's amazing how people react when somebody dies. There are some that are angry and they fight. There are some that say, well, they're with the Lord, and I'm thankful for that. Their suffering's over, and they're at peace. But then there's others that get angry. I remember being in a funeral home, and just across the hall, there was a young lady. They had taken her life, and she was about 19 years of age, and people were literally going up to the coffin, and they were yelling and screaming at the body in the coffin. Angry. Angry at God. for what had happened. I've seen people suffering with a disease and perhaps they've got the bad news that it's terminal and they get angry and bitter against God. Don't tempt the Lord. Did he make you a promise? A child of God should never be all that discouraged when we go to heaven. I mean, is that what you're gonna threaten me with? I understand that we hold on to this life, but listen, are we daring God to act in judgment? The story is told, and John R. Rice wrote it in one of his books I read years ago, of a man that sat in a restaurant and sitting around with some other men and talking, and one of the men began to witness to him, tell him about the Lord. There was a terrible thunderstorm outside, and the gentleman went out on the hillside, he said, I'll show you there's no God, and he walked up to the top of the hill, and there was lightning and thundering, and he began to scream at the heavens and dared God to hit him with lightning and kill him. And he came back in, and he sat down, and it was in Africa, and it was a missionary that was talking to him, and he came back in, and the missionary said, well, what did you expect God to do? Did you expect him to strike you dead with lightning? And the man was white as a ghost. And as he stood up on that mountaintop, daring God to kill him, he got bit by some poisonous spider or snake or something. And within three minutes, he was dead. We shake our fists at God and we say, God, I'm just daring you to judge me. God is long-suffering and thank God for it. But there are times he'll act in judgment. Don't tempt the Lord. Don't tempt the Lord. Turn to Psalm chapter 78. Psalm chapter 78. The Israelites, I believe, raised their fist in the sky towards God. That is the context of their tempting God. But let's look at another this morning. You say, well, I would never do that. I would never blatantly in rebellion raise my fist to the sky and just dare God to judge me. Maybe you would do this, let's see, Psalm chapter 78. I'm not gonna read, there's 42 verses here that have to do with this. I'm not gonna read it all, but I want you to get the sense of it. Verse one, give ear, O my people, to my law. Incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth, and a parable I will utter, dark sayings of old, which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers that they should make them known to their children that the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born, who should rise and declare them to their children." So God is saying to the people of Israel, you've learned something, now pass it on to your children about the character and the nature of God. Verse 7, that they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep His commandments, and might not be as their fathers, a stubborn, rebellious generation, a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with the God. with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law, and forgot His words and His wonders that He had showed them. Marvelous things did He in the sight of their fathers in the land of Egypt. He divided the sea and caused them to pass through. He made the waters to stand as a heap. In the daytime also He led them with a cloud, and all the night with a light of fire." And on and on it goes for several verses. of what God did for Israel. Verse 20 says, Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out. Look down in verse 40. How oft did they provoke him in the wilderness and grieve him in the desert? Yet they turned back and tempted God and limited the Holy One of Israel. How did they tempt God? Look at verse 42. They remembered not his hand, nor the day when he delivered them from the enemy. Let me say this this morning, you don't have to raise your fist in defiance to God to tempt him. You can simply forget all that he's done for you and turn and live your own life. That's tempting the Lord. That's what the scripture says. Ephraim and all of Israel had forgotten so many things. God had split the Red Sea. They walked across on dry ground. He gave them water from the rock. And if you were to read that passage this afternoon, it just talks about all the wonderful things that God had done. He says, yet you forgot. We are so much of a generation that says, what have you done for me now? What have you done today? Don't tempt the Lord. Don't turn your back on Him. Don't forget what He has done. By the way, if He's done it before, He can do it again. Yet we forget. We forget about the mighty works. We forget about His provision. We forget about all that He's done. And we are tempting God. For God wants that relationship with us. Just as sure as the one who is angry and bitter, the one who forgets and walks away is also tempting God. Turn to Acts chapter 5. Let me show you one more. Listen, friend, are you guilty of tempting the Lord? I've met people and they say, well, you know, I pray and I pray and I pray, but the Lord hasn't done a thing. Don't tempt the Lord. Have you forgotten what he's already done for you? Have you forgotten that his mercies were new just this morning? Have you forgotten that he saved you, that he died on Calvary, that the tomb is empty? Have you forgotten? Maybe he's just testing your faith. Acts chapter five, but a certain man named Ananias with Sapphira, his wife, sold the possession and kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why has Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost and to keep back part of the price of the land? While it remained, was it not thine own, and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? Why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and gave up the ghost. And great fear came on all them that heard these things. And the young man arose, wound him up, and carried him out, and buried him. It was about the space of three hours after when his wife, not knowing what was done, came in. And Peter answered unto her, Tell me whether ye sold the land for so much? And she said, Yea, for so much. Then Peter said unto her, How is it that ye have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of them which have buried thy husband are at the door, and shall carry thee out. Then fell she down straightway at his feet, and yielded up the ghost. And the young man came in and found her dead, and carrying her forth, buried her by her husband. And great fear came upon all the church, and upon as many as heard these things. Did you catch what the apostle said? Why have you conspired together? Why have you agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord? How did they tempt him? By lying. By putting forth a false impression of what they really were. I think the word we're looking for is being hypocritical. Let's be careful in our walk with God that we are real. Listen, don't be something you're not. We're all sinners, aren't we? Admit it. Listen, we need to understand that there's no such thing as a perfect Christian. There's forgiven Christians, but not perfect ones. Sometimes I think we play church to the extent where we put on our suit and tie, and we walk in, and we're all Joe Christian, and we look right, and we smell right, and we talk right, and behave right, and the rest of the week we're not right. Being hypocritical before God is tempting the spirit of the Lord. Ananias and Zephira wanted everybody to think they were something different than they really were. They wanted to show how sacrificial they could be, so they sold a piece of land, and whatever money they got for it, they told the disciples, this is what we earned, but they kept back a portion for themselves. Peter said that wasn't a problem. If you want to sell a piece of land and split it 50-50, that's fine. If you don't want to give anything, it's in your power. But don't tell us you gave it all. Don't be a hypocrite. So many complaints about the church today is that it's full of hypocrites. Absolutely, we are. We're sinners. But we're forgiven and trying to do the best we can. When we sin, let's confess it. Let's make it right with the Lord. Let's not tempt God in our sin. All three stories that we read this morning were different in the sense that the Israelites raised their fist to God in anger and said, where is God? The psalmist wrote about those that just simply had forgotten what God had done and so kind of strayed from the Lord a little bit because they weren't remembering his mighty works. Ananias and Sapphira, they were hypocritical and tried to show a life that they really weren't consistent with. But all three things also had something in common, sin. All three were sinning against God. and thought they could continue, they thought they could get away. Ananias and Sapphira would have never come up with this idea had they known they would have dropped dead in the church house. They thought they could get away with it. The Israelites had grown complacent, and they thought, well, you know what? God has done so much for us, but we can kind of go our own way now. And they thought they could get away with it. The Israelites of old thought that they could raise their fist to the sky and say, God, where are you? and they thought they could get away with it. But 40 years of wandering told them otherwise. And in Isis and Sapphira tell us a very different story. Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Let's bow our heads and close our eyes this morning. I want you to think about something with me today, will ya? Is there something going on in your life right now? This is not my business, it's between you and the Lord. I don't want you to raise your hand. You don't confess it to me, I don't want to know about it. But is there something going on right now in your life? And you're just kind of thinking, well, you know, the Lord hasn't judged me yet, I guess I'm okay. That's because the God is merciful, gracious, and long-suffering. But he won't be forever. A righteous God has to judge sin, that's just the way it is. He is giving you an opportunity to repent of your sin. He's giving you an opportunity to get it right. Noah built an ark and for 100 years he was a preacher of righteousness. And the entire world had an opportunity to get their sin right with God, but they refused. Achan took of the accursed thing. And if you go back and read that passage, you'll find this. It wasn't until the next morning that the sin was going to be judged. I believe with all my heart, if Achan had got on his face before God that night and come to the leadership and said, I have sinned, I've done wrong, and I've cost Israel in battle, I wonder if the outcome would have been different. I wonder if God would have still stoned his family. I don't know. But it seems like God allowed some time there to get things right with God. Are you living on borrowed time? You say, well, I'm not in open rebellion. I'm not raising my fist to God. Are you living a consistent Christian life? That's the hardest thing to do. I understand with everything that's all around us, it's difficult. But we ought to keep short accounts with God. When we're involved in something we should not be doing, we ought to confess our sins. He is faithful and just to forgive them. but don't tempt the Lord. Let me encourage you in this, if nothing else, we need to change our way of thinking. We can no longer think that we can get away with sin, that God doesn't care. The Bible says in time of our ignorance, God winked at it, but now that we know, it's different. Don't think you can get away with it forever. Let's not tempt the Lord this morning. Let's stand to our feet as the instruments play. If God has spoke your heart, this altar is open. Let me encourage you, Christian. Let me encourage you, friend. Let's get things right with the Lord. Let's not tempt Him today. Let's not think that we could continue in our sin that God will bless us. No, God will judge. If God has spoke your heart, would you step out and come? Brother Baker, if you'd lead us in a song. One more verse, let's sing it together. to me Amen. God bless you. You may be seated. Thank you for being here today. And we're going to have Pastor McDonald come. He's going to close our service with some announcements and prayer today. Amen. That was a good message. You know, God wants us to have our lives filled with joy, his joy. But we can't do that if we leave things unchecked. And we keep tempting Him with our sins. So that's a good message. We all need to hear that. We need to hear that periodically. We do have a loving God, don't we? He's wonderful. He's patient. He's long-suffering. But there is a payday someday. And He's giving us time. So let's take advantage of it. And let's really enjoy what the Lord is providing for us. As far as announcements go, I just got a few for you this morning. that aren't necessarily in the bulletin, and one of them is this. We are looking, we are looking for new volunteers to help us on this Love Works program that we're working on. We need some people to help us. We have deliveries of coffee and donuts. I mean, that's not difficult, okay? It's easy and it's a happy, it's a joyous time to really get out in the community and work with people and get to see them. But we're looking for some new volunteers. We've had some, not that we don't like the old volunteers, but we'd like to have more people in participating in that, especially this week. And if you'd like to volunteer, please call the office or please talk to Cindy Fett about that and we'll schedule you in. We'd love to have you do that. It'd be a great opportunity for you. Also, what's going on here? No Wednesday night service. I just want to remind you again of that this week. So our midweek service is going to be moved to Friday because we're having the graduation. And I encourage you all to come out Friday night. It's Friday the 13th. Don't go to Dover. Come here instead. And we're going to have a graduation. We've got eight people graduating this year. We've got two grade 12s, six grade 8s. And they're all moving up and on with their lives. You're going to need your prayers, your support. So I encourage you to come out at 7 o'clock. It'll be a great time. I guarantee it. It'll be a great time. One last announcement, and I don't know what's going on with the teenagers. I have no idea what's going on with them, but they're going on these trips and stuff. They're having more fun than they should be. Tuesday, June the 17th. Teenagers, write this down, mark this down. Tuesday, June the 17th. That's coming up. And there's a trip going, a bus trip going to Tilsonburg to Milltail's Restaurant. Been there, that's good food, good place to be. But that's not all. That's not all. Okay? Then you go to Port Burwell. Okay? And there's no better place than Port Burwell. But you're going to go there to see there's a submarine there. I mean, this is a full, real submarine that's brought up out of the water. If you haven't been there and seen it, you've got to see this. This was used by us in the, during the Cold War in the North Atlantic. This is a real submarine and stuff. So you're going to be doing a drive-by of that, checking that out. It's an amazing thing to see. So this is a great opportunity for fellowship If you're interested in that, there is a sign-up sheet just outside here in the main foyer, and I encourage you to put your names down, get ready for that. And if you have any further questions about that, you can see somebody. Jimmy Roberts comes to mind, Michael Hatch, Sue Hatch, if you have any more questions about that. But those are some great opportunities for some fellowship, and I encourage you to get involved with that. Let's have a word of prayer and we'll be dismissed. Heavenly Father, again, we thank you for your word, Lord. We know that your word is sure, and we're thankful, Lord, that we have a God that does not change. We can trust you, and Father, we can prove you, as the pastor had said, in a positive way by stepping out in faith and watching your miracles happen in our lives day to day. Father, help us to always take into consideration, Lord, that we might be tempting you when we continue on with our sins, thinking that you're not watching. For we know we do have a God who has many eyes, and his eyes are upon the universe that he's created. Help us to make sure that we have a right relationship with you. And Father, we thank you so much that we have a Heavenly Father that's not there to harm us, but there to help us. And Father, help us to take advantage of it. Bless us now as we go our ways. Give us safety on the roads, Lord, and return us safely back tonight, that we may have a great time in your house. For we ask in Christ's name, Amen. God bless you now as you go.