Tempting and Testing

In the September 2018 edition of the online magazine Lawfare, Gregory Johnson wrote an article that I picked up and was perusing because it was talking about the war that is going on in Yemen. If you're not familiar with where Yemen is in the Middle East, it's just to the southern border of Saudi Arabia in the Middle East. Now, if you're like me, I didn't have much knowledge about what was going on, and maybe the extent of your knowledge was the same as mine, which is I've heard that there's a war going on in Yemen, and that's the extent of what we know. Well, when I read this article, I realized that there was a lot more going on than I actually realized. In fact, the writer of the article talked about that the war that's going on in Yemen is more than meets the eye because it's actually three wars in one.

You wouldn't know that unless someone like him who's been covering these types of things may have let us in on those kinds of things. He talked about the nuance of what was going on in this three-in-one war. I came away after reading that article realizing that there was much more going on than what I just thought. What I thought was simply there was a war in Yemen, but there's actually much more going on. It's a three-in-one type of war that's happening there. Now, why do I tell you that? I don't tell you that because we're going to be talking about what's actually happening in Yemen, but it's because I want that idea to be in your mind as we approach our text today in Matthew chapter four.

The idea that I want you to have in mind is that there is a war that we're going to be looking at in Matthew chapter four that we're really pretty familiar with. It's this great temptation battle between the Son of God and between Satan himself. We probably have read that passage a number of times, Jesus in the wilderness being tempted by the enemy, but what I want you to kind of keep in mind is that while that is certainly the case, that Jesus himself, the Son of God, God with skin on, is being tempted by the enemy, there is more going on in this war than we think. There's actually three wars in one that are happening right here because, listen carefully, because there are three sons of God that are being dealt with in this passage.

Now, let me pause for just a second before you go, "Wait a minute. Are you talking about three Jesuses?" No, I'm talking about one Jesus. There's one, right, the Son of God, the unique Son of God, no one like him. He is the only begotten of God, God with skin on. Jesus the fullness of God in bodily form is facing the tempter of our souls, the enemy of God, the one who's trying to establish an unholy kingdom in the domain that we live in. That's what's happening in this. What Satan wants more than anything is for Jesus to fail and falter so that he can not fulfill his mission as the redeemer of all humanity. There's the one that's going on, but Jesus the Son of God is also representative of two other sons of God that have had this war that has been waged with them as well. The first one you can imagine is Adam.

You see, it's interesting. When we look at the various gospels and how they record the events of what happened in this battle, this temptation battle between Jesus and Satan, what we find very quickly is that in one of those places, it doesn't say very much, in Mark's gospel. We'll come to that in a moment. Matthew gives a very full treatment, and Luke gives a reasonably full treatment as well to this event. What happens in Luke is that just prior to the talk in Luke chapter four of what happens in Jesus battling Satan in the wilderness is that in chapter three, there's a genealogy. The genealogy runs down, and it kind of chronicles all these people who were the sons of who and who were the sons of who and who were the sons of who. You've seen those before. You usually skip those in your daily reading section. You're like, "I don't need to know all that. They're family." You just kind of do that. Well, what's important about this is how Luke sets it up.

Luke sets it up in such a way that as the close of genealogy comes down, he's in descending order going all the way back to Adam, and he's naming all these people. Then, he says, "The son of Enosh, the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who is the son of God." It's interesting there because right after you finish that in Luke chapter three, Adam the son of God, then it says, "And then Jesus went into the wilderness where he was tempted by the enemy." The Son of God who is representing a son of God, Adam, who had fallen into sin and humanity, was plunged into that with him. Now Jesus becomes this representative new Adam that is facing the enemy of humanity, but he's doing so in a very different way. The first Adam faced the enemy in a garden, a beautiful place. The Son of God, Jesus, the second Adam is facing the enemy in the midst of the wilderness.

Now, it's interesting how Mark records this event because Mark has very little to say about this whole temptation narrative, but what he does say reminds us, gives us an echo of the time of Adam. Listen to how Mark says it in Mark chapter one. It says, "At once the Spirit sent Jesus out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness 40 days, being tempted by Satan. He was with the wild animals, and angels attended him." Isn't it interesting that when Adam was first tempted by the enemy, Adam was surrounded by the created animal kingdom of God, and he was naming all the animals? After this plunge into sin, it's interesting that the garden started to become a bit of a wilderness outside of the garden. Now, what we see with the Son of God is that he goes into the wilderness and is among the wild animals and now is being face to face with Satan.

Where Adam was in a garden, now Jesus is in the wilderness. Where Adam was tempted by an inexperienced tempter, remember, Adam was kind of his first guy, Jesus is now facing a wily veteran who knows his tactics, who knows what to do. Adam, who was in a garden, was rested and well-fed and still fell to temptation, and the second Adam is alone in the wilderness, and he's not eaten for 40 days and nights. Yet, this King actually demonstrates his glory that he is worthy of his name because he succeeds and triumphs where Adam failed. That's why we look to Jesus as the one who can rescue us and who can save us because of what he's done, but Jesus is not only just the new Adam, he's also the new Israel. You see, there's actually three sons of God, Jesus that we're talking about, Adam who was called the son of God, and Israel who was also called the son of God.

In fact, if you remember how God said this in Exodus chapter four, said, "Then say to Pharaoh, 'This is what the Lord says: Israel is my firstborn son, and I told you let my son go so he may worship me.'" Then, in Hosea chapter 11, it says this, "When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son." You see, what God is reminding us is this. When he said, "Out of Egypt I called my son," he's referring to Israel being led out of Egypt through the Red Sea and ultimately into the land of promise, being delivered. What's interesting is that when you read a few chapters earlier in Matthew's gospel, and, again, we're going to be looking at chapter four in just a moment, but when you look a few chapters earlier, what you find is that Matthew, because he writes about the kingship of Jesus, actually applies Hosea 11:1 where it says, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

He applies that. Even though it was directed toward Israel, he applies to Jesus because, as you remember, Herod found out that there was a King to be born in Bethlehem, and so he wanted to exterminate all the young boys there so that there would be no King that would rise up and maybe take over for him. An angel came to Joseph in a dream and said, "Hey, Herod's going to try and kill everybody. Get Jesus out of here. You and Mary go to Egypt, and I'll let you know when to come back." They go, and they go to Egypt. You know, then they ultimately come back after Herod dies. Do you know what Matthew says? That that was in fulfillment in the prophesy of Hosea, "Out of Egypt I called my son."

What Jesus is doing, what Matthew is helping us to see is that Jesus is actually living out the story of Israel. Jesus is becoming everything Israel was intended to be. While Israel's purpose was actually to declare the glory of God in all the world, they had fallen down on the job, but there was a faithful Israelite that was born in Bethlehem named Jesus who was actually going to fulfill everything that Israel had failed to do. How does the story start in Matthew chapter four, this great battle that's kind of a three-in-one battle? How does it begin? It begins this way, "Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry."

Now, what you find pretty quickly is that this 40 day, 40 night thing is also kind of synonymous with the idea of 40 years of Israel in the wilderness as well. The way that Jesus starts out here is the same way that we see with Israel. Israel came through the water of the Red Sea, and then they went into the wilderness led by the Spirit. Jesus came up out of the waters of baptism, and then was led into the wilderness by the Spirit. Why? Because he is recapitulating kind of the life and the story of Israel because he is the representative of Israel. Just like he is the representative of humanity as the second Adam, he is also the representative of Israel. He is the new and better Israel, so to speak.

This story now finds us where Jesus is in the wilderness, and he has fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, and the tempter is making his way to him. What I want to do is I want to look at each of those temptations, break them down for us, and look at lessons that we can take from each of those temptations, just one lesson kind of per temptation that we can take away. We're going to kind of talk and apply and talk and apply. You're just going to have to let the Spirit of God say to you what he wants to say to you in this timeframe. Temptation number one, here it is. You can just jot this down. Temptation number one was this, complaining about God's provision and purpose. This was the temptation that I believe that Satan was trying to get Jesus to fall to, to complain about God's provision and purpose.

In fact, if you're tracking with me in Matthew chapter four with an open Bible there, here's what it says beginning in verse three, "The tempter came to Jesus and said, 'If you are the Son of God ...'" By the way, pause right there. That word "if" in the Greek language is also translated "since." In other words, it wasn't a question mark. Satan wasn't going, "If you're really the Son of God." Do you think Satan knew he was? Satan knew exactly who he was dealing with here. He wasn't confused. "If you're the Son of God ..." This was more, "Since you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." Jesus answered, "It is written: Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'"

You see, what Satan was doing here was not trying to get Jesus to prove his deity. Satan already knew who Jesus was. He wasn't saying, "Hey, turn these stones into bread so you can prove to me who you are." He already knew that. That wasn't what he was trying to do. Nor was he trying to get Jesus to just do a party trick because it was great, right? "Hey, there's some stones. You're really hungry. Just turn them into bread." No, what he was trying to do, what Satan was trying to get Jesus to do was to act independently with his own power because he's hungry, and he knows this is what God has assigned him to do, to go out into the wilderness and to recapitulate the life of Israel. He was supposed to learn the lessons and embrace the lessons that Israel had failed to embrace and learn.

What Satan wanted Jesus to do is to use his power independent of the Father because he didn't trust his provision and didn't trust his purpose. That's what he wanted him to do. Now, that is a big deal to us because what Jesus ultimately does is he quotes from scripture when Satan kind of puts this out in front of him, "Turn these stones into bread." Jesus is reminded of what went on with Israel. When Jesus is there, he's quoting from Deuteronomy chapter six and Deuteronomy chapter eight in each of these temptations. That's a passage of scripture that's after the time of the wilderness wanderings but before Israel actually went into the land of promise. Why does he quote from there?

Because in there are the lessons that Israel was supposed to have learned and that Jesus is now willing, as the new Israel, to embrace and to live out. Satan says, "Turn these stones into bread." In other words, be like Israel who, although God was providing for them the manna, they were sick of it. They wanted something different. They didn't think he was providing for them as he ought to have. They weren't sure what his purpose was, so they thought, "Maybe we need to just work around this. Let's just go back to Egypt and get a good meal instead of all this stupid stuff that God gives us." You see, "Why don't you do that, Jesus, and fail just like Israel did?" Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy chapter eight. He said, "Man doesn't live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord."

What was the greater context of his quotation? Let me show you. In Deuteronomy chapter eight, here's the context of what he said. He was quoting from this passage, "Be careful to follow every command I am giving you today, so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised on oath to your ancestors. Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these 40 years," listen to this, "to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. Your clothes did not wear out and your feet did not swell during these 40 years. Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the Lord your God disciplines you." Now, did you catch that?

Jesus was quoting from a context that talked about testing humility and discipline. I don't want you to miss this because whenever a rabbi would quote, and Jesus certainly was one, whenever a rabbi would quote a passage of scripture and he would quote just a single verse, the context was always in view. They always knew that when they were quoting, they were helping people, when they quoted it, to understand the context as well. Jesus is quoting from the context of a passage that talks about how God, with Israel, wanted to humble them, wanted to test them, and wanted to discipline them. Why? Because he wanted them to learn some lessons for the mission that he had for them. That mission was that they would enter into the land of promise, that they would set up camp there, and that they would take the land space by space and place by place. Why? Just so that they could have it? No, so that they could demonstrate to all the Pagan nations around them that God is God and that they are there to demonstrate the glory of the one and only true God.

This was what God was trying to do. He wanted them to learn the lessons in the wilderness that would benefit them being able to live out the context of the mission. In fact, though I'm not going to read it, a little bit later in Deuteronomy chapter eight, he gives warnings. He says, "Hey, by the way, you get into the Promised Land, all of a sudden, you've got plenty to eat, all of a sudden, you've got a house to live in, everything's good. Then, you forget that the Lord your God gave you all of this, that I provided everything for you, that I got you to this place. All of a sudden, in your pride, you say, 'Oh, no. I did this myself. I made my own wealth. I made my own way.'"

He said, "Don't you do it. I'm trying to get you to remember these lessons here." By the way, good lesson for us. Isn't it amazing that God, who provided for you when you had nothing, when you had absolutely zero, and he gave you the mind, and he gave you the health, and he gave you the strength, and he gave you the opportunity to now, all of a sudden, you're able to earn, and you're able to grow? Maybe you'll have some success, and maybe you've got your own place now. You can pay your bills. You can even go on vacation maybe if you wanted to. Now, all of a sudden, people start looking at you like, "Man, I'm impressed by that person, that man, that woman. They've really got it together. They've done some really good things."

Then, all of a sudden, you're known as a self-made man or a self-made woman who has forgotten that it was God who had provided for you all along and that God had a purpose for you. You've forgotten when you get to the place God led you that you actually have a purpose in being there. I'm trying to preach through this sickness, by the way, so you just have to suck it up with me. I will. I'm telling you right now I will preach straight through this sickness. You don't know if I'm going to be able to do it. I'm telling you in advance. This is a faith statement on my part. If it doesn't work out, just pray like, "Jesus, he tried." You see, Jesus learned this lesson.

The reason I know that is because Jesus really understood that this time in the wilderness was a time for him to humbled and hungry, to be tested to find out what was in his heart, and to be disciplined by God. Why? Because he had a mission to fulfill, just like Israel did, but now he was fulfilling what Israel had failed to do. Now, he's doing it. I know that he learned this lesson. Here's why. Because there's a time in his ministry that John records for us that Jesus is actually hungry. It's in the heat of the day. He had met a woman at a well. His disciples had gone off to go get some lunch. Jesus had been ministering to her, and he hadn't eaten anything. Listen to how the story picks up in John four.

"His disciples came back, and they urged him, 'Rabbi, eat something.' Jesus said to them, 'I've got food to eat that you know nothing about.' Then his disciples said to each other, 'Could someone have brought him food?'" Isn't it funny how we get on our moral high horse, and we laugh? We're like, "Those stupid disciples," when in actuality, those disciples are you and me. We're kind of going, "We're the knuckleheads who would do that." Right? "Could someone have brought him some food?" Jesus said this, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work." That's it. Let me say this. What's the lesson that we can learn out of this temptation? Here it is. God's discipline is for God's mission, and God's testing is for God's task. His discipline is for his mission, and his testing in your life is for a task that he has prepared for you.

Many of you know I came to faith in Christ in a real pronounced way at the age of 19, really kind of like boom. Everything was new. By the age of 20, God called me into full-time ministry. God had called me to preach the gospel. God had called me to lead and to pastor and to do all of those things. At the age of 20, I sensed that calling of God. Now, it wasn't just I was searching for that. I wasn't. I wasn't running from it, but it wasn't something I was trying to run toward. I realize that through spending time in the word, spending time in prayer, having godly, wise counselors around me who confirmed what God was doing in my heart, at the age of 20, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt, and my pastoral leadership had confirmed it, and my heart and my life, this is what God called me to do. What I'm doing right now, God had called me to do. He called me to do that at 20.

I didn't start doing it like I'm doing it now, like I knew God had destined me for it until I was 32 when I arrived here. That's 12 years. What did God do with me in that 12-year timeframe? He walked me into the wilderness to test me, to humble me, and to discipline me. Why? Because I had a task that I didn't even know about. I had no idea. I knew Buffalo was a city. I knew it was on a map. I just didn't know where to find it. Only thing I knew about Buffalo, I'm in Georgia at this time. I'm in Georgia. The only thing I knew about Buffalo was snow and the Bills. That's kind of what you get when you're outside of Buffalo in other places in the rest of the country. That's all I knew. I didn't know a human being in Buffalo. I had no family. I didn't know anybody. It was never on my radar. Yet, at 20 years old, God had called me.

Then, he was going to lead me to a place later on in Southwest Florida where I would be, and I loved being there, but it was a time where God was busier doing things in me, pulling things out of me, putting things into me. Why? Because he had a task for me that I was going to be headed to. You see, don't punch out of the Lord's discipline. Don't punch out of the Lord's testing because his discipline is for his mission in your life, and his testing is ultimately for his task that he's given to you. You see, sometimes what people want to do is they want to punch out because they're like, "Listen. Come on. God, I don't know if you're really providing for me the way that I think you should. I don't really know if you've got this whole thing worked out yet in your head, so I'm just going to take matters into my own hand."

Take them out of your hands and leave it in God's hands. Listen, let him test. Let him work. Let him mold. Let him uproot. Let him plant. Why? Because he is doing that for the sake of the mission he has in your life, and you will not be able to shortcut that. Embrace the fact that your faith has to get tested by God. God won't tempt you. The enemy will. God doesn't tempt to evil, but God will test us. Listen carefully. I can promise you this. A faith that can not be tested can not be trusted. It can't be. If you don't have a faith that can be tested by God, then it can't be trusted. Do you know why Jesus is worthy of his name? Because he was coroneted King at his baptism, where the Father says, "This is my Son in who I am well-pleased."

It's almost as if he was saying, "The crown is going to be eventually on his head," but when he left that water and he walked into the wilderness, while this was a coronation of a kingship, this was a confirmation of it. "This man has the right stuff. Check his heart. Test him and see. You will find that he comes out the other side because he is the Son of God. He is the one whom I love. He is the King that is going to reign over everything and everyone. It doesn't matter what the enemy brings him. Bring it in the wilderness instead of the garden. Bring it with the wild animals instead of among the tame ones. Bring it where he's not well-rested and fed like Adam was. It doesn't matter. He will triumph because he trusts my provision, and he trusts my purposes in his life." This is what we have to learn. God's discipline is for God's mission, and God's testing is for God's task.

I've got way more to say today than you've got time or that I've got time. Some of you are like, "No, no. We'll stay." You might. Some of you might not after you hear what I say. Let me give you the second temptation. Here it is. The second temptation is testing God. It's one thing to let God test you. It's another thing for you to try and test him. Listen to how the second temptation unfolds in verse five. "Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. 'If or since you are the Son of God,' Satan said, 'throw yourself down. For it is written ...'" We got Satan quoting scripture. "'It is written: He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.' Jesus answered him, 'It is also written: Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'"

Now, it's interesting, isn't it, that, first of all, what Satan does is he tries to tempt Jesus in the area of his weakness. He's hungry. He's starving. 40 days and 40 nights, and he hasn't had anything to eat. He says, "Turn these stones into bread." He tries to tempt him in the area of his weakness. Now, he turns right around and tries to tempt him in the area of his strength. Don't think for one second, ladies and gentlemen, that the enemy cares whether he attacks you in an area of weakness or he attacks you in an area of strength. He will do both. It doesn't matter. He'll try and get you to fail in any one of those things. If you think just because you're strong in one area that that area doesn't need to be guarded, you're crazy.

Oswald Chambers said this. He said, "An unguarded strength is a double weakness." You better be careful because the second we start saying to ourselves, "I would never. I will never," and we think because we are strong for a moment, that's all Satan needs to use because when you start into the "I wills," you are basically saying, "It's not about I am. It's about I will." Whether it's weakness or whether it's strength, and while the first temptation smelled a bit like a bakery, "Jesus, why don't you take these stones? Can you smell that? Make them turn into bread. Aren't you hungry?" The second temptation started to sound a little bit like a liturgy, holy temple in the Holy City with the holy scripture. Now, he's going to tempt Jesus.

It's almost as if he said, "Okay. When I told you to turn stones into bread, and you answered me by saying, 'Man does not live on bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord,' is that right? Let me quote you something." Satan says, "Jesus, if you want to live by every word that comes from the mouth of God, then let me quote you Psalm 91. I want you to get up here on the pinnacle of the temple, and I want you to throw yourself down. Here's why. Because Psalm 91 says he won't let your foot fail. He won't let you be dashed. He's going to protect you. If you say you believe every word that comes out of his mouth, let me see you do it, Jesus."

Jesus says, "You think I have to prove something to you? Do you think I have to prove something to the devil who doesn't even believe the word that you quoted? You may believe it. You just don't want to obey it. You don't want to acknowledge it. I believe it, and I don't have to prove it. You know why? Because I'm not going to put the Lord my God to the test." Here's the lesson for us. The lesson is this. Testing God is not trusting God. You see, Jesus knew that God would protect and provide so he didn't have to prove it to the devil, but Jesus did not want to test him. In other words, if Jesus were to throw himself down from this place, knowing that the scripture promised in Psalm 91 that he wouldn't dash his foot against a stone and that he would be protected, Jesus would be trying to convince God to follow him instead of Jesus following God.

Frederick Bruner actually said that the great question of this text is this, "Do we follow God or do we want to make him follow us?" You see, that's what we do when we test him. We try to make him follow us instead of us following him. Some of you have been in this position before. You ever felt abandoned in the dark time of your life, and you're just like, "You know what? I just don't know if God's around. I've been through all kind of stuff, and I'm just not sure if God still hears me, if he knows my address, if he knows what time it is, if he knows my name. I just don't even know if he's around"? Then, you got to a place where it was like, "God, if you're around, you're going to have to prove it," so God needs to follow you.

Testing God is not trusting God because trusting God has to do with faith, and faith is being, listen to this, faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see. We know God will not abandon his own. It doesn't matter how dark it gets. He will not do it regardless of what you feel. If you want to see what trust really looks like, it's those people in the midst of those times who say, "It doesn't feel like you're around. I am struggling, and I am sometimes doubting, but here is where I stand. You are with me." That is not testing God. That is trusting God. Trust is the heartbeat of what faith looks like. "Whatsoever is not of faith is sin," the Bible says. We need to be a people of faith.

You see, what Jesus did in this moment as he's standing there, this is a dark time for Jesus, isn't it? He's starving. The enemy is taking him these places, generally, probably at this time in a vision to the temple, "Throw yourself off." He's trying to get Jesus to test God. You know what Jesus understood? Jesus understood that he didn't have to doubt God because he believed in the dark times what God had shown him in the light times. Don't doubt in the dark what God has revealed in the light. You see, some of you know, and you're in a strong place right now. You're kind of in that place where life is full and vibrant, and God's doing great things. That's wonderful. I love those places. I love those times.

When that's the case, and you're like, "God, he's just confirmed in my heart. He's with me. He'll never leave me. He'll never forsake me." Don't doubt in the darkness what God has shown you in the midst of the light. Why? Because ultimately God wants our lives to be lives of faith, not that we're testing God. Sometimes we feel like we're trying to prove things to the devil or the devil's people. You don't have anything to prove to him. Just trust God. "Well, if you really trusted God, then you would do this." No, I don't have to jump off the corner because that would be testing him. It would be one thing if Satan pushed him, and God said, "No, you don't." It's another thing if Jesus said, "I'm going to make God follow after me instead of me follow after him." See, testing is not trusting.

Let me give you a third temptation. Temptation number three is worshiping other gods. Notice how this begins to unfold in verse number eight. It says, "Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor." This is likely a vision. I've been in Israel, and on those mountains you can't see the entire world. I'm just going to confirm that. He's giving him this visionary picture. "Satan says, 'All this I will give you,' he said, 'if you will bow down and worship me.' Jesus said to him, 'Away from me, Satan! For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" At first, maybe you're thinking this doesn't sound all that bad because it's not like Satan is asking, "Hey, worship me every day for the rest of your life." He's just saying, "If you'll just bow down just this time, just this once, if you'll bow down just this once, here's what I'll do. I'll give you all the kingdoms of the earth."

Now, it's debatable whether Satan had those to be able to give or not, but, nonetheless, Jesus' destiny is to be the ruler of all things. Basically, Satan's saying, "Hey, this is where you're headed, so why don't we just go ahead and get there? You just bow down and worship me just this once. I'll give all this to you, and we're good." Jesus says, "You will worship the Lord your God, and serve him only." You see, what Satan was offering Jesus was a shortcut. This was his destiny, but he was offering a shortcut. He does it with you too. He'll offer you shortcuts all the time. You'll think to yourself, "You know what? This is my destiny. This is what I want to do. This where I want to go," but he wants to offer you a shortcut. You see, what Jesus realized is this. Even though his destiny is to be crowned, his destiny is to be King of all, his destiny is to be rulers of everything, but he realized that there is no crown without a cross. To shortcut God would be to undercut God's purposes. Don't do it.

Don't try and shortcut God because God wants to do everything in you that he wants to do to lead you to the purposes for which you are designed. Jesus quotes, and here's what he quotes. He quotes Deuteronomy six, and he says this, "Fear the Lord your God, serve him only, and take your oaths in his name. Do not follow other gods, the gods of the peoples around you." In other words, here's what we're learning. There are lots of gods. There are lots of them, and Jesus is saying, "You serve the Lord your God and him only. That's what I'm going to do." God was saying to Israel, "Hey, don't follow after all these other gods. You fear the Lord your God, and you serve him only. I know there's lots of options for you, but you serve him only." Why is that important for us? It's important for us because of the lesson that we learn from this. Here's the lesson. Choose your god wisely. You better choose your god wisely. There's lots for you to choose from.

Some of you are going, "That's not real hard for me because, I'll be honest with you, it's not like I need to go bow down at some Pagan temple and worship some moose or whatever." You're like, "That's not really a big temptation for me. I haven't really felt the need. It's like of like, 'Oh, the holy raccoon,' and you're bowing down to it." You're not even thinking about that. Even though that was the case back in the time of Israel, the case in our time now is that the devil has become a lot more subtle. You see, idolatry, which means when we create idols for ourselves, doesn't just take the form of gold and silver anymore. Idolatry means when we put anything in our lives, even good things, in place of the ultimate, which is love and service to God. Whatever that is, it can even be a good thing.

By the way, the things that Satan was tempting Jesus with here in this entire battle weren't inherently wrong. It's not inherently wrong to eat food when you're hungry. It's not inherently wrong for Jesus to say, "Yes, I'm going to be the King over all of these vast domains." That is his destiny, but he wasn't going to shortcut what God desired for him because he wanted to serve God and him only, and he didn't want anything to come in the place of that. You see, we need to choose our gods wisely because, in our day and age, sometimes the gods that we put in place of the one true and only God is the god of self. Sometimes if our loyalty was between us and what God said, we win every time.

Sometimes maybe it looks even a little different than that. Sometimes I think in our day age, in Western culture now, we have little gods called children, where we've made them idols. Now we have kid CEOs who are running entire households based on their whims, their desires, what they want when they want it, and you're so wanting to be their buddy that you forget to be their parent and lead them into places where they know Jesus. We sometimes are living our dreams through them, whether it's whatever, and it's all-consuming. It can happen in sports. It can happen in ballet. It can happen in dance. That is ballet. It can happen in all kinds of stuff. You can tell I don't have girls, girl things.

It can happen, and it can consume you. You have to make choices. Sometimes moms and dads and grandparents, we're so concerned with their achievements and all of these things, and we hold them up here, that what we end up with at the end of the day because we said, "You know what, man? We just want them to be really good at hockey, so it doesn't matter that they've not stepped foot in church in months and months and months, maybe even years, because we're just so busy with our schedule and all this kind of stuff. We've made all these investments and all this money and all of this energy," and you haven't put any of your money and any of your energy into teaching your child what it looks like to walk with Jesus and to actually live out the virtues of the kingdom of God. Instead, they know how to handle a puck.

Now, some of you are going, "Hey, now." Hey, you're talking to a guy who has two college baseball players here. Don't be bringing it up in here like I don't know what I'm talking about. I know what I'm talking about. I also know the choices that Edie and I had to make along the line. "Well, you're a pastor. You're expected to make those." I'm a Jesus follower who's a parent, and my kids don't care if I'm a pastor or if I'm a farmer. What they care about is whether or not I'm a man of God who helps them to see the truth of who God is. Sometimes you have to make choices. It's a good thing when Tanner was little he was really, really good at baseball. He's okay now, but he was really good when he was little. He's playing in college.

He was really good, so much so that when I told the coach on the travel team, "Hey, look. Tanner's not going to be able to play until after 1:00 on a Sunday because he's going to be in church because, our kids, we want them to learn things bigger than baseball. We want them to be able to see what God is doing." Now, I'm not saying there was some out of town tournaments and that kind of stuff that we went to. Of course. I'm not a legalist, but I'm saying, generally speaking, we kind of held that on a week-in, week-out basis. Thankfully, Tanner was good, so Coach was like, "I think I'm going to schedule us like 3:00." I was like, "Okay. Cool. That's great." The moral of the story is if your kid's an athlete, make sure they're the best. No, I'm kidding. Just kidding. Then, they have to schedule around you. No, sometimes you have to make difficult choices. You know what? Talking to my sons, do you know I never, and, Edie, you can confirm, we never heard them gripe to us one time about it?

Now, that doesn't mean that when they were by themselves they're like, "Good grief." They might have on a few occasions, but I never heard them belly ache to us personally. They knew we charted a course in our family, and we care more about who you are in Jesus than whether you can throw a ball or hit a ball. Now, I want you, when you're on the field, to be the best you can be. I want you to do it well. I want you to work hard. I want you to do all of those things. They did, and they have, but not at the expense of who you are. Here's why. Because those things can become gods, even good things. I love those things, but I don't love them more than I love Jesus. Choose your god wisely because if you don't, it ends up in the wrong place, and it brings you into the wrong spaces.

Jesus would combat everything that the enemy said with the word of God. You found that out, right? You can see it every single time. He's combating it with the word of God, but don't misunderstand something. Write this down. Quoting scripture alone won't defeat the enemy, but obeying the author will. Jesus did not just quote scripture because, as you saw in this text, Satan can quote scripture. Just because you can quote something doesn't mean you're obeying something. Jesus not only quoted it, but he lived it. He made choices consistent with what he was quoting. What am I saying to us today? If you want to have victory over the enemy, that's the question that we're asking.

We all face temptation. We all are walking through battles, and you've got to make a determination, and I've got to make a determination. Do we want to have victory over the enemy? Do we want to have victory over the enemy? If you do, here's how you accomplish that. Obey God's word. Obey it, not just, "Hey, I know a couple things. Oh, the enemy's coming after me, and I'm going to quote a passage to him." Quote it to him, but then live it because quoting it alone won't get the job done because Satan might just quote it back. He might just give you something else to think about. The question is whether you're going to live it. I mean, the demons, they know full well the Bible.

James says they know there's a God, and they shudder, doesn't mean that they obey him. They know he exists, they know they can quote it, but it doesn't mean they obey. We've got to obey the word of God. I'm just grateful, when I read this passage of scripture, that the worthy one won the three-in-one battle. He fulfilled the destiny of humanity and fulfilled the destiny of Israel as the one unique holy Son of God. Isn't it something that humanity started out in a garden but, through sin, it became a wilderness? The Son of God came into a wilderness and died for those in the wilderness, and then he rose from the grave in a garden. Kaboom. You see, Jesus is just demonstrating that he is the new Adam. He will make all things new. He is the new Israel, and he has come to destroy the works of the devil.

You see, his faithfulness on our behalf, his faithfulness is what allows us to have victory over temptation and victory over the enemy, victory of over sin. Here's what I need you to know. I need you to know that if Christ lives in you, you don't have to sin. You're not in bondage to it anymore. You actually have the power not to sin where, before, in our unredeemed, idol making factory hearts, we didn't have a choice. We had to sin. We just sinned because we were. You're like, "I didn't really sin by what I did." No, you just sinned by who you were because we were sinners by nature. Once we are redeemed, now the power of Jesus, his life, listen, the same one who overcame the enemy here flawlessly, sinlessly, perfectly lives in me. It means when I am face to face with temptation, I am face to face with the enemy, if I will allow the life of Jesus in me to live out of me, I do not have to sin any longer.

I still might. I still will from time to time, but I don't have to because I'm not bound to it like I used to be. There's victory, but it comes in yielding ourself to the life of Jesus in us and the word of God that is being poured upon us. When we do that, we can say like Jesus did, "Away from me, Satan. Away from me." Now, he's going to go away, but it's only going to be for a time just like he did with Jesus, and he's going to return, which means just because you got pumped up one time, buckle up. He's coming again because he hates your guts. It's why we have to be saturated in the presence of who God is, in the knowledge of his word and in obedience to that word. Don't be tempted to think that you can't live in victory because you can because the faithfulness of Jesus. Let's bow our heads together.

I'm going to pray for us and dismiss us in a moment. If you're here and you have yet to put your faith and trust in Jesus, I hope that you do know that there is no salvation outside of him. You and I are hopeless without him. If you think you can save yourself, that's just you trying to be a better god than him, and you will fail, and it will not work because God is God, and you are not, and I am not. If you've never come to a place of turning from your sin and putting your faith in Jesus, then maybe when we dismiss in just a moment, whether you're in this room or the East Worship Center, we'd love for you to swing by in the Atrium. There's a room called the Fireside Room. We've got some wonderful people who'd love to just spend a moment with you and share with you how you can know that you have your sins forgiven and your life changed, how you can receive Jesus.

So many of us have experienced that and a few haven't. I pray that you will. There's no bigger issue that you have in your life, no bigger one. Father, for those of us that know you, we've been changed by you, we've been transformed by you, there is so much for us to apply in this text. I pray, God, by the power of your Spirit, in the lives of your people, that you would break through distraction, and you would help us to sense and know your voice and what you want to say to us and how you want our lives to conform to it. We would not just be hearers of the word only, but we would be doers of the word. God, in my own life and in our life, as a body, would you shape us more into your image as obedient children so that the enemy has to flee because we simply believe you, we trust you, we obey you, we trust your provision, we trust your purpose? God, may we magnify you that the world may see Jesus through us. We pray in Christ's name. Amen.