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[0:00] Something that I've noticed as I've looked across cultures, across time, is that people like to watch men fight.

[0:24] ! Think about it. In almost every culture, you find boxing and wrestling. We even let our high schoolers compete in it. And our nations compete together in the Olympics every four years to see who has the best fighters.

[0:39] The Romans had gladiators. In the medieval period, knights would joust in front of huge audiences. The Japanese, even till this day, have sumo wrestlers.

[0:50] We had Hulk Hogan. And now we have mixed martial arts. But also think about our films. Think about how powerful that image was the first time you saw it when Luke fought Darth Vader.

[1:06] Or even the old films like the ones that I grew up on. Inevitably, John Wayne or Clint Eastwood and the bad guy were going to end up facing each other down a long, dusty street so that they could fight mano y mano.

[1:19] Now our passage today is the closest we get to seeing our Lord contend one-on-one with Satan in the arena of the desert.

[1:32] But let me spoil it for you. The fight isn't even close. Our passage today is a fascinating window into Satan's attempt to derail the Lord's mission and into the strength and goodness of Jesus.

[1:46] Would you please stand with me as we read Matthew 4, 1 to 11 together. The word of God says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

[2:02] And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. And the tempter came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

[2:13] But he answered, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, He will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.

[2:39] And Jesus said to him, Again, It is written, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Again, The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

[2:53] And he said to him, All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

[3:08] Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering. You may be seated. You may be seated. Pardon me for just a moment. One of the ways I guarantee you're going to get to lunch at a reasonable hour is that I run a timer when I'm speaking.

[3:24] But it's an old pastor's trick to not start the timer until after the introduction. So I just gave myself a few extra minutes. Now guys, in context, we must remember that Jesus has just inaugurated his public ministry in Matthew chapter 3 by being baptized by John.

[3:45] You will recall that during this event, the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my beloved Son. And the Spirit, like a dove, descended on our Lord.

[3:57] What a glorious event this was. The Trinity is seen acting together in unison. God has entered into our broken world. This is a time for rejoicing.

[4:09] And then we read the first verse of our text. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Now how disappointing this is.

[4:21] How confusing. Why would the Spirit himself lead the Lord into the desert to be tempted? By Satan? Today we'll discuss the three temptations of our Lord in order to learn how great Jesus is and how we, his children, can resist the enemy, enabled by his power and inspired by his example.

[4:44] Now look again with me at verses 1 and 2. Scripture says, Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry.

[4:58] Notice that Jesus was led by the Spirit. This isn't some random accident that Satan just so happened to find our Lord in the wild. Our God is triune and undivided.

[5:11] This means that wherever one member of the Trinity is working, all are working together in unison. Each person of the Trinity making his own unique contribution. In this case, we see the Son being led by the Spirit into the wilderness according to the will of the Father.

[5:30] And why, you ask, would the Spirit lead Christ into the wilderness to be tempted? How is that helpful? Now there are many reasons. Let us name but a few. Firstly, we need to see that this is a demonstration of the truth that was just spoken from heaven in Matthew chapter 3.

[5:47] Remember, Christ has just been baptized and the Father speaking from heaven has just said, This is my beloved Son. Now what does it mean for someone to be the Son of God?

[5:59] Well, we see this demonstrated partly through the process of him being tested to the breaking point and not breaking. Obviously, Satan thought that Jesus being the Son of God was hugely significant because he himself brings it up in the first two temptations.

[6:16] Jesus will demonstrate truly that he is God's Son and that he is ready and worthy to do his Father's will by resisting in the devil, staying sinless to the end.

[6:28] God is holy. And the trial in the desert proves that his Son is holy as well. Now, in addition to demonstrating the sonship of Christ, the temptation is initiated to show everyone the greatness of the Lord Jesus.

[6:45] The word used here for temptation can also mean to test, which does not always have to be a bad thing. We find out something's quality only by testing it.

[6:56] Plans and data are nice, but we fundamentally know nothing until we actually put our plans to the test. All you college football fans know the agony of your team getting a coveted recruit.

[7:12] The future looks bright. All the magazines say he's going to take us to the promised land. And then he gets out there on the field and he craters under the pressure. I see a lot of heads nodding.

[7:23] You know it. I think about something earlier today. I was thinking about the history of our country. It's December 1941. One, the Japanese thought that the United States was too rich, too decadent, too soft to want to fight a war.

[7:40] They thought that they would attack us at Pearl Harbor. And within six months, the American people would sue for peace. They decided to test the strength of our nation. And they awoke a sleeping giant unlike any the world had ever seen before.

[7:54] It's only in the testing, though, that our strength was revealed. Likewise, with the Lord himself, a commentator said, But what the devil sees as a temptation, God may simultaneously use as a more positive test to prove Jesus' faithfulness.

[8:13] Now, how would we know the full purity of Jesus' heart and of his love for his father, his strength and his fortitude, if we did not get to see Jesus locked in personal combat with the accuser himself?

[8:27] But Jesus, resisting the targeted direct attack of the enemy and emerging victorious, shows us the true extent of his greatness.

[8:39] We also learn from this passage that temptation is a fact of life for all of us. No matter how close to the Lord we are, temptation is coming for us. If Jesus was tempted, we will be also.

[8:53] So, Charles Spurgeon said of today's passage, God had one son without sin, but he never had a son without temptation. The natural man is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward, and the Christian man is born to temptation, just as certainly and just as necessarily.

[9:17] But also, we see from our passage that Christ has done this for our example. If we had not been allowed to witness this event, we could possibly make the excuse when sinning, well, the temptation was just too great.

[9:32] What could I do? I had to give in. Well, drawing from this passage, I will tell you what you could have done in that situation. You could have resisted. And when things got hard, you could have resisted just a little bit longer.

[9:46] And when things got harder still, you could have resisted just a little bit longer. Because no matter how much you wanted something, you didn't want it as badly as our Lord wanted a loaf of bread after 40 days of fasting in the wild.

[10:03] And yet, Jesus resisted. No matter how great the reward of your sin or mine, it pales in comparison to the kingdoms of all the earth offered to the Lord by Satan.

[10:15] And yet, our Lord overcame. As Augustine said, Christ allowed himself to be tempted by the devil that he might be our mediator in overcoming temptations.

[10:28] Not only by helping us, but also by giving us an example. And notice also where and how Christ will be tempted. In the wilderness and alone.

[10:41] In this context, this word means desert. Now, don't think a desert like sand dunes. Think instead like a rocky place with barely any life. Something similar to North Tulsa.

[10:55] No, but seriously, this desert was harsh. The sun was lethal and water was scarce. Something about the desert is that even though the days are blazing hot, the nights are usually freezing cold.

[11:10] As our Lord was fasting for 40 days, he would have lost whatever body fat he had and the nights would have been brutally cold. He was hungry and thirsty.

[11:21] Scorched by the sun and blasted by cold. And yet we see him still standing up under temptation. Now, writing of this, the great preacher John Chrysostom wrote 1,500 years ago, you see how the spirit led him, not into a city or a public arena, but into a wilderness.

[11:40] In this desolate place, the spirit extended the devil an occasion to test him, not only by hunger, but also by loneliness. For it is there, most especially, that the devil assails us when he sees us left alone and by ourselves.

[11:56] In the same way did he also confront Eve in the beginning, having caught her alone when she was away from her husband. And we will not spend much time today discussing our enemy.

[12:08] That would be for another sermon. But dispense with any silly ideas you have about a red creature with hooves and horns and a pitchfork. Satan is so much more than that.

[12:20] He is everything that you could possibly fear, while simultaneously being everything that your flesh or your pride desires. He is all that is powerful and cruel, rotten and vile, seductive and alluring.

[12:38] And we see that Satan is a person. He is not some disembodied force, but a crafty being who personally desires to destroy the Lord and ruin the plan of God, damning us all forever.

[12:53] As 1 Peter 5 says, Be sober-minded, be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And think then, if he had the boldness to dare to approach the Lord himself, to dare to quote scripture to its very author, what then do you think he would be willing to do to you and to me?

[13:15] And yet, notice in this account, who is sovereign over Satan and his works? It is the Spirit who leads the Lord into the arena of the desert. And notice also in verse 10, Jesus commands Satan, and the tempter actually obeys, because he has to.

[13:35] Satan can do nothing that is outside of the will and control of our God. And brothers and sisters, that is an encouraging thought. Now notice the length that Jesus fasted in the wild.

[13:51] Forty days and forty nights. Well, this would have put Jesus, who was fully God, but also fully man, at the very edge of death. His body would probably have been emaciated.

[14:04] He would have probably looked skeletal and found it hard to stand, increasing the difficulty of his struggle against Satan. But why forty days, you ask?

[14:15] Besides the fact that this is approaching the absolute limit of human endurance, we should see at least two important connections here. First, two mighty prophets from Israel's past, both fasted for forty days and forty nights.

[14:30] Moses, the lawgiver, in Exodus chapter 34, and Elijah, a mighty prophet, who raised up the dead and called down fire from heaven, in 1 Kings 19.

[14:41] Both fasted forty days and forty nights. But a new prophet is here. A new lawgiver is here. A new worker of miracles has come. And this is Jesus Christ.

[14:52] He stands in line with all of the prophets of Israel's past, back to the beginning. And this is an announcement of that. But these forty days also make us recall another period of testing in the wilderness.

[15:04] A forty-year period, to be exact. By staying forty days in the desert, Jesus is enacting, in a figurative sense, the forty years of Israel's wanderings in Sinai.

[15:19] But remember with me, Israel was in the wilderness because of their lack of obedience to God. Jesus is in the wilderness because of his obedience.

[15:30] Israel, fed from heaven the entire time, consistently failed in its wilderness wanderings. They grumbled and complained and rebelled. They worshipped the golden calf.

[15:42] They committed adultery with the women of the surrounding nations. Their entire time was a disappointment. But now we see Jesus, who is everything that Israel was supposed to be, stand in the wilderness, starving and tested.

[16:01] And unlike his ancestors, Jesus will succeed where Israel failed. Jesus will love God supremely, never bowing to any other desire than the desire to please his father.

[16:14] To defend himself against Satan, we will see Jesus quote three times from the book of Deuteronomy, a book written by Moses when Israel was stumbling in the wilderness.

[16:25] That's not a coincidence. Now let's look at the temptations themselves. Let's look at verses three and four together. And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

[16:40] But he answered, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Now the word if that Satan is using does not necessarily mean that he is challenging the fact that Jesus is the son of God.

[16:58] For certainly he knows this. But the challenge is more on the type of son that Jesus will be. Will Jesus be a submissive son who allows himself to suffer for his father?

[17:11] Or will he take care of his own needs and desires in any way that he would like? D.A. Carson writes, we must conclude that Satan's aim was to entice Jesus to use powers rightly his, but which he had voluntarily abandoned to carry out the father's mission.

[17:31] As Hebrews 5, 8 and 9 says, although he was a son, he learned obedience through what he suffered. And being made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey him.

[17:44] Satan is here testing whether or not Jesus really has the relationship with his father to say, not my will, but yours be done. Notice also how Satan tempts Jesus with food, the very thing that the Lord's body is crying out for.

[18:02] It is not a coincidence that Jesus will be tempted by Satan with food, the same way that the serpent tempted Adam and Eve in the garden. For the devil, this approach has worked spectacularly before.

[18:14] But in the same way that Jesus succeeded in the wilderness where Israel had failed, we will see Jesus succeed in being tempted where Adam and Eve, our parents, failed.

[18:25] Jesus felt strong desire for food, and yet, rather than giving into it, he submits to God's timing for meeting his needs. And here Jesus is physically hungry, but many commentators have taken this to picture not just a desire for food.

[18:40] That's too simple. But for any desire of our bodies. In fact, this temptation is an example of what John will say in 1 John 2, talking about the lust of the flesh.

[18:54] Dear friends, you do not need me to tell you about the desires of your body and how if you leave them unchecked, they will, without fail, lead you to destruction. You already know how dangerous your appetites are.

[19:06] If we're honest, each of us in this room has been tempted by our appetites all of our lives. An example of providing for ourselves rather than waiting on God that I think we have all probably seen is when believers make poor decisions about getting married to people that they know can't help them spiritually, all because they're in a hurry to have their needs met.

[19:30] Driven by loneliness, I came close personally to doing this before I met Katie. I wanted to provide for my own needs rather than waiting on the provision of the Lord. Now what about you?

[19:42] What temptations are you facing? Are you being tempted by drugs or drunkenness? Is there a co-worker or someone at the gym whose attention you enjoy more than you should?

[19:56] My brothers, are you drawn to the internet late at night when you know you should not be on it? Does food have too strong of a hold in your life? How about a temptation to laziness, something that tempts me all the time?

[20:11] The ways our appetites can lead us astray are limitless. Notice also that the way we feel is not an excuse for sinful behavior either.

[20:22] We know that Jesus was hungry and yet he did not use that as an excuse to sin. I don't know about you but I am much more prone to snap at my wife when I'm tired.

[20:34] In those instances, my lack of patience might be understandable to other humans but it is not excusable. It doesn't matter how hungry or tired you are.

[20:45] It doesn't matter how many aches and pains you have, how tight your finances are, how rough things are at work. The Lord teaches us here by his example that it is never permissible to give in to temptation.

[21:00] We must look to the Lord and see how he responds to the needs of his body. Jesus would not allow physical needs to rise above the importance of his spiritual needs. If making bread at the command of the devil would satisfy his stomach, it would separate him from his father.

[21:16] And this was not a trade that the Lord Jesus was willing to make. Now when we look at verse 4, we learn much about Jesus and how we are to withstand temptation. Notice that Jesus goes to the word to defend himself.

[21:30] He can literally speak new words and they will become scripture but instead he leans on the Old Testament as his weapon in this engagement. It is the word of the Lord that truly nourishes us, that truly gives us life.

[21:44] Sure, bread nourishes for a day and it will keep you alive in the short term but it is the word of the Lord that nourishes us eternally. For only there do we know of our Lord and what he requires of us.

[21:56] But more than this, Jesus viewed the doing of his father's will as being more important than his daily bread. In John 4, 34, Jesus says, my food is to do the will of him who sent me and to accomplish his work.

[22:14] Is this true of us? Is what is satisfying and nourishing and delightful to us the doing of our father's will? This is the example of our Lord and if the answer to that question is no, then we need to pray that it will become so.

[22:31] Now notice how the Lord so completely dismantles Satan's attack that the enemy does not even try to re-engage, he just moves to the next attack. Let's look at verses five to seven together.

[22:43] Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against the stone.

[23:01] Jesus said to him, again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Now Satan is here tempting the Lord to proclaim his place as the son, the Messiah, through testing the Lord's love for him in public.

[23:19] Takes him to the temple mount, it would have been full of people. And look at this, the devil, the serpent, knows how to quote scripture. Isn't that terrifying for those of us who don't know the word?

[23:31] Are we ready and able to defend the word when called upon? Now Satan is here quoting from Psalm 91. If you turn there, you'll notice that he has dropped off a clause from Psalm 91 verse 11.

[23:46] Now perhaps Satan was intentionally trying to misquote the verse. Scholars are divided on this. But what is certain is that he was trying to misapply it, which is just as wicked.

[23:59] Satan wants Jesus standing on the top of the temple mount to throw himself down and be caught by angels, announcing to the people that he is indeed the Son of God, the Messiah.

[24:11] But more than this, Satan wants Jesus to test his father's affections, challenging whether Jesus really is the beloved of his father.

[24:23] Now in defending himself, Jesus is quoting here from Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 16, which is itself hearkening back to when the Israelites tested the Lord and his patience by immediately complaining at the waters of Meribah in Exodus chapter 17.

[24:39] Right after the Lord had brought them out of bondage through the Red Sea, the first thing they do is complain. Jesus, knowing that his father cared for him, was not going to test God the way the enemy wanted.

[24:52] But beloved, what of us? Are we guilty of ever putting ourselves in a place that we presume upon the Lord's grace by knowingly going so far down a sinful path that his intervention is the only hope we have of rescue?

[25:08] Do we ever dance near the edge of the cliff playing with sin, confident that the Lord will keep us from going over the side? The teaching of Scripture and the example of the Lord are sure.

[25:20] We should not test the Lord. Now verses 8 and 9 say again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

[25:32] And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. Now these kingdoms contain everything that we in our flesh desire.

[25:45] Wealth and power, status, pleasure, fame, everything that could possibly delight the heart of a human and Satan offers all of them to Jesus. Now through sin, Satan has a dominant place in all of these kingdoms but we know that God is still sovereign over the nations of men.

[26:04] Satan is offering Jesus temporary authority over all of human civilization and accomplishment for one little act of worship. Now we know that Christ our Lord has inherited all things from the Father as his reward after his resurrection.

[26:24] As Jesus says in Matthew chapter 8, and Jesus came and said to them, all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

[26:41] Or as Paul wrote of Christ in Philippians 2, have this mind among yourselves which is yours in Christ Jesus who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped but emptied himself by taking the form of a servant being born in the likeness of men and being found in human form he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death even death on a cross.

[27:07] Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.

[27:24] Do you know who has all authority and do you know who everybody bows in front of? Yeah, that's the king and that's who Jesus is. The kingdoms of this world are the Lord's but he had to go through the path of pain to receive them.

[27:39] He had to live in poverty and suffer the rejection of men. He had to experience the agony of the cross and know what it felt like to be forsaken of his father when he became sin for us.

[27:51] He drank the cup of the wrath of God down to its most bitter dregs and tasted death as fully as any man that ever lived or ever died. And at the end of all of this he received the kingdom.

[28:06] Satan on the other hand is offering our Lord everything that the world has to offer but without the cross. Without suffering. Without pain.

[28:17] Without separation. He's offering them the easy way out. Now he offers this to us as well on a much smaller scale. We all want meaning and significance.

[28:30] We want joy and security and satisfaction. Yet it is through the long often hard road of obedience to God and relationship with him through Christ that we will receive all of this in this life or the next.

[28:46] And I think that so often is the problem. We are Christians and yet our bodies are declining. And for some of us our bank accounts are almost empty.

[28:59] We feel loneliness in our relationships and disappointment in our life choices. We might find ourselves asking where is God when it hurts?

[29:10] But some of us also might be asking where is God when I feel like my entire life hasn't worked out. Then the enemy in those moments will tell you throw off the shackles fall down before me and worship and I will give you everything that you desire and it won't be hard.

[29:29] But this is the same temptation that he offered the Lord. The path of the Christian is often one of struggle and hardship but in the end it leads to glory.

[29:41] Stay on the path brothers and sisters stay on the path and help those around you do the same. And notice how Jesus defeats this temptation. Once again he goes back to scripture.

[29:52] Let's look at verses 10 to 11 together. Then Jesus said to him be gone Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. Then the devil left him and behold angels came and were ministering to him.

[30:09] Now the issue of who the Lord will serve comes back to the same issue that we face on a daily basis right now. It is one of worship. We worship that which we ascribe the highest value to.

[30:23] We do this with our attention and our resources our thoughts and the attitudes of our hearts. Jesus looked to God and ascribed highest value to him alone.

[30:35] To do the same for anything else but God is to fall into the trap of worshiping the serpent. Now do I think that the enemy is coming to any of us and asking us to kneel before him and worship?

[30:49] On one hand no not really. There is something unique about how overt and clear this temptation of the enemy was. But in another sense do I believe that the enemy is always trying to get us to worship him?

[31:04] Absolutely. And this will never stop. If you crave any of the common idols of our culture money, sex, status, power then you are in danger of giving yourself over to the enemy.

[31:17] Beware of idols for they are deceptive and they are all around us. They take good things like family or health or financial security or enjoyment of hobbies or sports and they build them up until they are ultimate things.

[31:33] Taking our worship and service away from the Lord. an issue that I think is pervasive in our culture right now and that we as God's people have been facing for years but are going to continue to face yet more in the future is how much importance we put on being accepted by the society around us.

[31:57] The enemy says accept my stance on homosexuality and transgenderism. Things will be easier for you. society will embrace you and together you and the rest of society can worship me in front of a rainbow colored altar.

[32:15] Yet we know from scripture that we cannot do this for we desire to be accepted by God more than we desire to be accepted by men. We in churches like us will continue to stand on what the Bible teaches about these issues even as it will become increasingly costly for us to do so and the surrounding culture labels us as hateful.

[32:38] Now I want you to notice a few last points from these verses. Firstly see how Jesus commands Satan to leave. The test is over. Christ has overcome.

[32:49] The enemy is ever and always under the ultimate control of our Lord like we said earlier but notice also how Jesus is received by angels. Satan said take care of your own needs in your own way by making bread and yet Jesus stayed true to his father even when it was hard and what is the result?

[33:10] The father is watching all the time and Jesus has his needs met gloriously. Now for you listening to me who say it's been a long time since I had what I needed since my needs were met and the voice of the enemy telling you to take what you want sounds increasingly attractive I point you back to Jesus and to his example for us cry out to Jesus for strength ask him to help you hold on and I promise he will and your needs will be met in this life or the next alright so how do we apply these truths we learned from the story in our own lives when we are under temptation what can we do so today we're going to talk about three things to know and five things to do the things to know first first know that God does not tempt us as the scriptures tell us in James chapter 1 blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him let no one say when he is tempted

[34:21] I am being tempted by God for God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one but each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death second know also that God will make a way for us to escape temptation but it is our choice to take this path now here are 1st Corinthians 10 therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man God is faithful and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it thirdly know also that Jesus understands personally the difficulty of resisting temptation and he is actively interceding for us now listen to what

[35:28] Hebrews chapter 4 has to say since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens Jesus the son of God let us hold fast our confession for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need now how great is it that Jesus knows what we're going through when we're under temptation so those are three things we should know but now five things that we can do to stand up under temptation first we pray then you might say well of course but remember how the Lord himself taught us to pray to pray that we are not led into temptation but that we will be delivered from evil many Christians have prayed this prayer daily for thousands of years and if you think about it it shows how important deliverance from temptation is in the life of the believer because Jesus includes it in the

[36:39] Lord's prayer right next to forgiveness and our daily bread now second in addition to prayer we must study the word and commit it to memory so that we have it ready to utilize when temptation comes now apparently the Israeli army has a saying a weapon that cannot be deployed is not a weapon at all now Jesus leaned on the Old Testament for strength in his time of greatest need when being tempted and even when hanging on the cross this is the ultimate example for us if scripture was good enough for the Lord to use under temptation then certainly it is good enough for you and for me there is no substitute for time significant time spent in God's word I say this to my own shame because it is so easy for stupid and frivolous information to drown out the Bible in my life and beloved if you take nothing away other than this know that the Bible is the answer it is the sword and the lamp that lightens our path read it study it memorize it and apply it to your life and do it now because if you wait to open it until you feel tempted then it will most likely be too late and third we need to tell someone about how we are being tempted

[38:06] I heard a preacher say that Satan the roaring lion always looks at the flock and attacks the sheep that are off on their own first the enemy often uses embarrassment to keep us from being willing to confess our sins one to another like scripture encourages us to do if you are struggling today don't wait don't fight this fight on your own talk to your spouse or a friend or find one of our elders the burden of temptation is too great for any Christian to bear alone and fourth we need to get serious about sin in our lives I was watching a film recently and before a gunfight a hardened criminal looks at his younger brother and tells him I need you to get mountain lion mean mountain lion mean I want us to get mountain lion mean against sin in our lives I don't want us comfortable with being tempted

[39:07] I want us radical think of what Jesus himself said in Matthew 5 if your right eye causes you to sin tear it out and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell and if your right hand causes you to sin cut it off and throw it away for it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell if you can't use the internet without falling into temptation and sin then either get accountability or have the courage to give up your computer and your smartphone it's worth it if you can't be around a person because they tempt you to gossip every time then avoid them like the plague we need to get serious about sin in our lives and finally when tempted we must look to Christ we must remember his example and his love for us and cry out to him in prayer for his strength and intercession he has experienced what we have and he is always with us even until the end of the age so brother and sister remember when you are being tempted that greater is he that is in you than he that is in the world in your moment of weakness lean on

[40:31] Jesus the last man standing in the arena now today if you don't know Jesus as your Lord then I can tell you that you are truly alone in the wilderness being attacked by the enemy though you might not even know it if you have not embraced Jesus as your Lord and Savior then please don't leave this building until you have talked with someone about what it means to believe in Christ more than anything we at Heidland Park want you to know Jesus as we know him now we're going to have an altar call if you would like to come forward and be prayed for by me or another member I encourage you to do so would you pray with me Lord we love you we thank you so much for your goodness and your grace we thank you for your word which we know is true and father we thank you for your son for who he is and what he has done

[41:34]  Lord we ask that you help us to be faithful to you help us to love you supremely as your son did and help us to pursue you with our entire hearts Lord lead us not into temptation we ask you today to deliver us from evil it's in the name of Christ Jesus we pray amen you