Episode Transcript
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For God's illumination on his word this
morning. And now, our God and
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father, we come to another important
part of the service, or your word
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is read and your word is expounded. Lord, it is an awesome responsibility
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to stand behind this pulpit and seek
to deliver your word to your people and
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Lord, I asked that you would
help me, guide me and all that
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I say. I pray, Lord, that you would use the words I
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have prepared during this week to speak
to your people comfort edification, strength,
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exhortation, and I pray, God, that above all, you would illuminate
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your word to us. This morning, Lord, we are reading a passage
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that is common, that we know. But Lord, in every time you
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read your word, you're able to
reveal new treasures out of it, and
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Lord makes us like the wise scribe, who who takes both old and new,
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and Lord uses it to our own
benefit. So, Lord, I
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pray you'd bless your word to your
people, give us understanding and light,
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and may we see you glorified in
it. We asked this in Christ name,
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Amen, if you would turn in
your bibles to the gospel of Luke
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to follow along with me as I
read, beginning with verse one through verse
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thirteen. Here again, I remind
you what I'm reading is God's word.
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and Jesus followed the Holy Spirit,
returned from the Jordan's and was led by
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the spirit in the Wilderness for forty
days, being tempted by the devil,
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and he ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended he was
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hungry. The Devil said to him, if you're the son of God,
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command this stone to become bread,
and Jesus answered him, it is written,
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man shall not live by bread alone. And the devil took him up
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and showed him all the kingdoms of
the world in a moment of time and
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said to him, to you,
I will give all this authority and their
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glory, for it has been delivered
to me, and I give it to
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whom I will. If you,
then will worship me, it will all
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be yours. and Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship
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the Lord, your God, and
him only shall you serve. And he
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took him to Jerusalem and Said Him
on the pinnacle of the Tempo and said
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to him, if you're the son
of God, throw yourself down from here,
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for it is written he will command
his angels concerning you to guard you
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and on their hands they will bear
you up lest you strike your foot against
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the stone. and Jesus answered him. It is said you shall not put
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the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every
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temptation, he departed from him until
an opportune time. Thus, all in
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the reading of God's word. Please
be seated, because I was preparing the
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message for this week I found myself
in a opposite conditions last week's message.
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Last week, you remember, I
preached out of the genealogy and I was
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trying to figure out if I could
find enough material to preach out of that
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genealogy. Well, this morning I'm
confronted with a different problem. I have
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way too much material and I decided
that, whether than try to preach for
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an hour and a half or something
like that, I would split the message
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into two, and so I'm actually
only going to deal with the very first
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part of the account that we have
this morning and then next week, Lord
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Willing, I will probably try to
go on to the latter part of the
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temptation narrative. Now, all scripture
is profitable for us. We know that,
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but I find some parts of scripture
are more profitable than others. And
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I find this text particularly profitable in
several ways and having several scriptural truths that
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are important for us to understand.
So I'm hoping it will be that way
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to you as well. And last
week we noted in the genealogy. It
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brought your attention to the fact that
it says at the end of that genealogy
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that Jesus, as as we've traced
it back, is the son of Adam,
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the son of God, which means
that the son of Adam, he
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is man and is the son of
God, he is God. And I
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told you it is important for us
to understand the two natures and I gave
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you several examples of stories in the
Bible where the two natures of Christ are
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clearly seen, but I didn't give
you this one, and this one is
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one of the best, and so
we're going to look at that this morning.
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So we again by looking at the
first two verses and the baptism of
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Jesus. We saw the Holy Spirit
descend upon Jesus and now in this chapter
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we see some of the effects of
that spirit coming upon our Lord at the
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baptism. So in verse one Luke
gives us two references to the Holy Spirit.
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He tells us Jesus is full of
the Holy Spirit and that Jesus is
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being led of the Holy Spirit into
the Wilderness. The word full indicates a
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person is being filled completely. In
the New Testament, for example, of
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Jesus, it has said that that
he is full of the spirit or that
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he is full of grace and truth, and on the other hand we read
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of others who might be full of
leprosy or full of deceit or full of
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all villainy. Here the fullness of
the spirit upon our Lord will help him
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to face the temptations of the enemy
in his human nature. And the temptation
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is one of those accounts. Like
we mentioned in the fellowship groups this week,
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the parable the parable of the sore
that is found in all three of
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the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark
and Luke, and all three of the
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Gospel Writers Position The temptation account after
the baptism of Jesus and right before his
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public ministry. So here we're given
two important events that perceive the Public Ministry
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of the Lord. One positive is
baptism and one negative is temptation. Both
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are important. In his baptism he
sees heavens opened and he hears the Voice
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of his father reassuring him. In
the temptation, hell is opened and he
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hears the voice of the enemy trying
to tempt him. Frederick Gorday says the
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temptation was the last act of his
moral education. It gave him an insight
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into all the ways in which his
messianic work could be easily marred. The
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account of the temptation of Jesus is
meant to mirror two things. Number one,
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of course, the temptation of Adam
in the garden and number two as
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well, the temptation of Israel in
the wilderness during the exodus. And if
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we compare the two temptation accounts of
Israel, as well as our lords and
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later, and I think in the
next message I'll talk more about the comparison
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between Christ and Adam, but we
notice that both temptations, that of Israel
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and Christ, share the number forty
and that they are both tempted in regards
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to hunger and also thirst. And
it's interesting to know that in the three
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replies to the devil that Jesus gives, he gives all three replies are from
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the Wilderness Account in particular, all
three are found in the book of Deuteronomy.
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Now what we don't know is what
wilderness exactly Jesus went into. Now
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some of the commentators claim to know, and maybe they know more than I
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do, but we're not exactly sure
where it is. Some refer to it
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to as a wilderness by the dead
seed. That's called the gentleman, which
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means the desolation. And here when
Luke says our Lord was lad, he's
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using a very common Greek word.
I'll go. It's just a very simple
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word and it just means to be
led. That's what it is. But
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what's interesting in comparing the account of
Mark, which is a very brief account
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of the temptation, mark uses a
much stronger word. He says the spirit
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drove Jesus into the Wilderness. In
Greek Acabolo, and it comes from two
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words meaning out and to throw the
cast it is a violent word. It
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is the word that is used of
Jesus casting out demons. It is the
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used word that is used when Jesus
talks about those who are cast out into
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outer darkness. That is the word, a very vivid word. It's not
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like, Oh yeah, I think
maybe I'll go this way. It's no,
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you will go this way. It's
a driving force. And in verse
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two, Luke gives us the reason
why he's led or driven into the Wilderness,
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and that is to be tempted by
the devil. Now this gives us
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a couple of interesting questions. Number
One, if Jesus is God, how
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could he be tempted? For James
says, let no one say when he
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is tempted and tempted by God,
for God cannot be tempted with evil and
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he himself tempts no one. So, pastor, how can you say that
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Jesus has tempted if he's God,
because God cannot be tempted by evil?
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And secondly, why would the spirit
lead or even drive him? Why?
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Why that necessity, doesn't the prayer
that we will pray together this morning say
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lead us not into temptation? Well, let me deal with the first question
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first. I think that probably makes
some kind of sense. How is it
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possible that Jesus, being God,
to be tempted, as they said?
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We talked about Jesus being son of
Adam, son of God, and I
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gave you several instances. But this
is important for us to understand why we
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confess that Jesus is man and God. Let me say in regards to the
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question, how could Jesus, being
God, be tempted? We don't often
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ask the opposite question would be,
how would it be possible that Jesus,
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being man, wouldn't be tempted?
I mean that's the other side of it,
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right. If he's if he is
man, how would it be possible
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that he couldn't or wouldn't be tempted? He must be. So both can
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lead to confusion unless we can understand
that it all makes sense by the fact
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that Jesus is God and he is
man. I think somebody, I think
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sometimes we kind of grasp the fact
that Jesus humanity in his body, I
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think. I think it's easy for
us to grasp, but I think the
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harder part, and maybe this isn't
true of you, just me, but
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I think the herder part is to
grasp that Jesus is that way in his
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mind as well, and I think
that's the hard part that people have in
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grappling with it. And we have
some verses in Luke already that kind of
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lead to that. Luke to forty
and the child speaking of Jesus grew and
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became strong, filled with wisdom.
Luke to fifty two, and Jesus increased
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in wisdom and in stature and in
favor with God and man. Like I
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said, we understand stature, but
it seems confusing to US perhaps to think
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of Jesus increasing in wisdom. But
it reminds us of the fact that Jesus
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took on humanity in both his body
and his mind. And so we read
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in Matthew. But concerning that day
and that hour, no one knows,
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not even the angels of Heaven,
nor the son, but the father only.
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That's the verse that's confused many people
through the years. But Hebrew says
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he had to be made like his
brothers in every respect so that he might
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become a merciful and faithful high priest
in the service of God to make propitiation
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for the sins of the people.
Later, the writer of the Hebrews in
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four fifteen reminds us we do not
have a high priest who is unable to
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sympathize with our weaknesses, but one
who, in every respect, has been
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tempted as we are, yet without
sin. Well then, why does the
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spirit drive Jesus into the Wilderness again? James makes that statement. That tells
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us that no one should say when
they are tempted they are tempted by God.
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But yet doesn't the Bible speak in
different places of God tempting people?
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So when we look at that question
people are confused by that. Now some
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of the later versions have made this
a lot clearer than it used to be.
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But the problem is in both the
Hebrew and the Greek the word that
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has translated temptation can just as easily
be translated as test. So if you
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have a King James version of the
Bible this morning and you look at Genesis
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twenty two one, you'll see that
it says it came to pass after those
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stayings that God did tempt Abraham.
And then in almost every other version it
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says God tested or proved. The
S V said God tested, the s
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V says God proved Abraham not tempted. So although God does not tempt us
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and will not tempt us, he
may indeed lead us into a situation where
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temptation will present itself, and that
can happen. In Second Samuel we read
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this again. The anger of the
Lord was kindled against Israel and he incited
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David against them saying go number Israel
and Judah. But in the same exact
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account, in First Chronicle, we
read then Satan stood against Israel and incited
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David to number Israel. And in
these scriptures, as well as the book
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of Job, we have this situation
where we understand that well, although it
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is Satan who is indeed doing the
inside and the temptation, it is God
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who leads people into these situations where
where they have to go through this,
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and the purpose of God doing this
is so we might be proven, so
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that we might come out, as
job says in I shall come out as
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gold. First, Peter one seven
says, the trial of your faith being
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much more precious than that of gold
that perishes. They'll be tried with fire.
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Might be found on the praise and
honor and glory at the appearing of
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Jesus Christ. So we don't have
to pray God, please don't tempt me
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to evil, because he won't.
That would be contrary. But we do
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indeed pray Lord, lead me not
into temptation. Let me come back to
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that. The temptation of Christ is
going to come at the hands of the
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devil. The Word Devil, you
may know, is a translation of a
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Greek word, Diablos, and it
is the word that Luke uses throughout the
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temptation account, with one exception,
which is where Jesus a dresses the devil
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and says get thee behind me,
Satan, and there he uses the word
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Satan and what that word particularly means
an adversary. The word Diabolos, however,
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is not universally used for the devil
in scripture, but it's also used
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of others who are called false accusers, and that is the same word that
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we have there as well. And
of course the enemy is a false accuser
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and he is a tempter. And
it marks very short account of the temptation.
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The only word he refers to is
Satan as the advertary adversary. Let's
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note the number of days. Forty
days he's in the world. There's another
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one of those important numbers. I
told the people at the fellowship groups,
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if you're ever going to guess the
number and ask a question, guests seven
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and you'll be right se at the
time. That's not an accurate number,
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perhaps, but not nonetheless it's close. But here's another important number, forty.
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Forty is one of those numbers of
tests in the Bible. Forty Years
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in the wilderness, Forty Days in
the Wilderness uh, forty days and forty
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nights of reigning uh during the time
of Noah. We think of Moses fasting
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for forty days. We think of
Elijah. I'm out in forty days,
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and we think of those days as
well. And again, when Moses was
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in the mountain. We read this
an exodus. So he was there with
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the Lord, Forty Days and Forty
Knights. He neither ate bread nor drake
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water and he wrote on the tablets
the words of the Covenant, the Ten
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Commandments. And if Elijah says,
he arose and ate and dragon went in
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the strength of that food, Forty
Days and forty knights to horror the amount
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of God. So here we have
identical situations with Moses, Elijah and Jesus.
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Moses the giver of the Law,
Elijah the restore of the law,
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and Jesus, of course, the
fulfillment of the law. And with Moses,
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although we don't know for sure,
Jesus Mountain. Both Moses and Elijah
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were in the same mountain. Now
the King James says here, being forty
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days tempted of the devil, the
S V says for forty days being tempted
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by the devil. I know,
I don't know about you, but sometimes
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I read this account and I think, Oh, you know, he's forty
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days, he's fast end, he's
having a good time and then the end
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of forty days here comes Satan and
that ends everything. But actually the wording
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of the Gospel writers lead us to
believe it was a temptation the entire forty
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days that he was undergoing, that
they were there. Of course we're only
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given the ones at the end,
but it appears he was tempted for that
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entire time and I will go further
than that and say indeed he was tempted
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for his entire life, from beginning
to the cross. The temptation was there,
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and I'll talk about that more next
week. There's something else I want
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to see an introduction concerning the temptations. None of these things, none of
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the temptations that Jesus went through that
are mentioned for us here. Well,
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you and I ever go through,
or could we ever go through, if
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Satan came to us and said I
want to tempt you to turn these stones
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into bread, I'd say well,
Nice Try, Satan, but I can't
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even do that. So there's really
no temptation here at all. If you
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showed me all the kingdoms of the
world and said I'm going to give me
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a said, well, you know
you won't, because I can't receive those.
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They're not available to me. So
it doesn't work, you know.
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And and all of those temptations.
CAST yourself down from the tempo and no,
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that that's not a scripture I can
take. It's not. It's not
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my own. And so all of
these are not my kind of temptations,
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but they are all actual temptations to
Christ. So let's look at the first
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one. In versus. Three through
four we have what both Matthew and Luke
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give as the first temptation. Now
there's a difference in the second third.
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Deal with that next week. And
although none of us could face the exact
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temptation as just mentioned, that Jesus
met, we can face the underlying temptation.
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We can all understand if we were
forty days without food afterwards we would
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be hungry. Right. That makes
sense to us that that that would be
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the case. So we can understand
that and can understand that we could be
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tempted. We may not be tempted
to turn stones into bread, as Jesus
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is. But we could be tempted, as Jean Valjean was tempted, to
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steal bread, couldn't we? That
could be something that we might want to
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do. But because Christ has the
power to do what the devil suggests,
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because he can do that. He
can turn stones into bread, he can
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turn stones into children of Abraham,
so of course he can turn stones into
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bread. So therefore this is a
real temptation to him. But then we
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have to ask the question, well, really, would that be so bad?
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I mean, come on, he
hasn't eaten for forty days. Would
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that really be a bad thing to
make bread so he can eat? And
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we might wonder, you know,
why is that such a terrible thing?
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I mean, after all, Jesus
spends most of his ministry meeting the physical
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needs of people. I mean he's
always doing that. If they're hungry,
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he's making bread, if they're thirsty, is making wine. He's taking care
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of them, whatever their needs are. He's always doing that. So why
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couldn't he do that right now?
is is satisfying hunger at the end of
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a forty day fast any worse than
making water into wine at a wedding.
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But the problem here doesn't concern so
much what the actual temptation is. It
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is a temptation, of course,
because Christ is hungry, but the importance
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here is of Jesus only doing what
his father commands him to do in obedience.
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This is the point Jesus would say
in John Twenty nine. And he
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who sent me is with me,
he has not left me alone, for
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I always do the things that are
pleasing to him. and John Jesus said.
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Truly, I say to you,
the son can do nothing of his
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own accord, but only what he
sees the father doing, for whatever the
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father does, the son does likewise. So for Christ to step out of
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that and make bread for himself,
what his father is not dealing with him
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to do that, that would be
wrong and a sin, and therefore he
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cannot do it. And in verse
four we have the answer of Jesus to
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the temptation which I said, is
found to Deuteronomy, it says in Luke
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it is written man shall not live
by bread alone. Deuteronomy Atri says be
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humbled you and let your hunger and
UH. And he humbled you and let
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you hunger and fed you with Manna, which you did not know, nor
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did your fathers know, that he
might make you know that man does not
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live by bread alone. And Matthew
gives us the entire quotation, which ends
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with but by every word that comes
from the mouth of God. And that
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temptation is foiled by Christ. Has
All of them will be. I'll tell
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you that. Just you know,
left taking for next week. So let's
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make some applications. The first temptation
that Jesus Faces in the Wilderness is a
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temptation of provision. will his father
provide for his needs or not? And
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although, as I said, we
cannot face the exact same temptation in the
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same way that Jesus faced it,
nevertheless we do understand the temptation to doubt
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God's provision, don't we? We
all have that issue. That's a problem
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we often wonder the Psalm has said
in some five I have been young and
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now I'm old. Yet I have
not seen the righteous forsaken or as children
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begging for bread. But we still
tend to worry about that, don't we?
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We tend to wonder whether something is
going to be provided for us or
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not. It might be food,
it might be rent money, it might
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be car payment. It might be
a hospital visit, it might be a
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disease, it could be several things, but we won there we question it.
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Jesus gave us this instruction in a
sermon on the Mount in Matthew six.
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Therefore, I tell you, do
not be anxious about your life,
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what you eat or what you drink, nor about your body. What you
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put on. Is Not life more
than food and the body more than clothing?
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Look at the birds of the air. They neither sow nor reap gather
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into barns, and yet your heavenly
father feeds them. Are you not of
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more value than they? and which
of you, by being anxious, can
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add a single hour to a span
of life? And why are you anxious
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about clothing? Consider the litters of
the field, how they grow? They
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neither toil or spin, but they
tell you even Solomon and all his glory,
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was not a raid like one of
these. But if God so clothed
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the grass of the field, which
today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into
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the oven, will we not much
more clothed? You or you of little
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faith? Therefore, do not be
anxious saying what shall we eat or what
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shall we drink? Or what shall
we wear? For the gentile seek after
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all these things, and your heavenly
father knows you need them all, but
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seek first the Kingdom of God and
his righteousness, and all these things will
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be added to you. Therefore,
do not be anxious about tomorrow, for
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tomorrow will be anxious for itself sufficient, for the day is his own trouble.
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Wonderful words, but then when the
rubber meets the road, and we
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faced these questions about God's provision,
sometimes an ox for comforting and we struggle
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and we wonder, will God really
provide? Let me give you an illustration
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for my own life. During nine
eighty one, I was living in Sacramento,
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California, Doing Street Ministry and to
support myself I worked at an insurance
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company there and at the time we
only had two of our eventual five children,
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but even so our budget was being
stretched to the limit. We mostly
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lived on hot dogs, which is
my my my oldest daughter won't eat hot
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dogs anymore because kind of ruined that
for her, but that's what we lived
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on. There was a tie one
night when I was there. I was
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in the Church Service for the Sunday
evening service and I was sitting in the
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Pew and I wasn't the pastor of
that church, I was just a member
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of that church and I was having
one of those fights with God. You
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know, I don't if you know
what I mean when you have those fights
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with God, because I had money
to put in the offering basket for my
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ties, but I also needed that
same money from my rent money that was
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due that week. And I'm fighting
with God and I'm making good arguments.
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You know, O Lord, you
don't want me to. You know I
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have to pay our landlord. I
mean, come on, you know you
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tell us that we gotta pay.
What to do? We gotta. We
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gotta be faithful in that. We
gotta. And I'm making all the arguments
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and fighting with God and saying,
you know, I'm not gonna do this,
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I'm not gonna give you the tide. I know what yours. I
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know the first to belong to you. I know this should be yours.
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I understand that, but I don't
think you'd want me to. So on
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goes the argument. But guess who
wins? So I put my money in
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the offering plate and say, all
right, Lord, I don't know what
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I'm gonna do, but I'm obeying
you've told me to do. So I
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wondered what am gonna do? Excuse
for the landlord? What am I gonna
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say? What I'M gonna do?
And the next day, of course,
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in the mail. That's how God
always asked, and this is used to
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before computers. Um, so the
mail. But we got a letter totally
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unexpected from our home church. They
hadn't supported us at all the ministry and
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they want us a letter and said
we were meeting together as a board and
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praying and thought we ought to help
support you in your ministry. And they
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sent us a check that covered our
real money. And I've learned from that
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time that I just needed to give
to God what's his. And that's been
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a temptation, to be honest,
I haven't really faced again. I faced
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a lot of other ones, but
that's when God brought me through and taught
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me a lesson that Lord Willie and
I still will never forget. But we
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faced that temptation. Will God provide
for us? We'll food be there for
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my children? Will I be able
to afford gas if it gets much higher?
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and I wonder, you know what, what would I do? What
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about this medical issue? What about
you know the other problem that we're facing
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within our family. Will Will God
provide? And in the temptation of Jesus
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and the Wilderness, we learned God
indeed will provide. There's a poem I
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came across many years ago. I've
used it many times in sermons. You've
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probably heard it as well. It's
by Elizabeth Cheney and it goes like this,
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said the Robin to the sparrow.
I should really like to know why
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these anxious human beings rush about and
worry. So said the sparrow to the
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Robin. Friend, I think that
it must be that they have no heavenly
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father such as cares for you and
me. We need to trust God will
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indeed care as our heavenly father.
He loves US, he'll take care of
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us, he'll provide. But as
we look at our low or and his
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temptation, it's good for us to
also look at our own temptation. It's
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clear we're never tempted by God,
but we can be led into situations where
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temptation is there, and I think
all of us know exactly what that is
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like. And I said as part
of our prayers that God would not lead
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us into temptation. And one of
the problems we have in temptation is we're
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fighting against an enemy who is much
more stronger than we are. He is
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he is much better armed for the
fight that we're going to have. Our
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Savior Triumph into wilderness. He overcame, but if we trust in our strength
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alone, we will not overcome.
We have to flee to God. It
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is our only hope. God's word
gives us many promises. James, four
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seven. Submit yourselves, therefore,
to God. Resist the devil and he
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will flee from you first, Peter, five, eight and nine. Be
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Sober minded, be watchful. Your
adversary, the devil, prowls around like
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a roory line, seeking someone to
devour. Resist him, firm in your
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faith, knowing the same kinds of
suffering are being experienced by your Brotherhood throughout
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the world. He was four or
fifteen and sixteen, we do not have
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a high priest who was unable to
sympathize with our weaknesses, but who,
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in every respect, has been tempted
as we are, yet without sin.
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Let us, then, with confidence, draw near to the throne of grace
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that we may receive mercy and find
grace for help in time of need and
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the promise we read in our assurance
this morning that no temptation has taken us,
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but God will provide a way of
escape. Now, brothers and sisters,
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we understand God's providence and we understand
that sometimes in providence we are led
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into a situation with very great temptation
and we allow us and we understand that
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God has, in his Providence,
allowed us to be there. Now listen,
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I would guess some of you are
thinking to this time. Yeah,
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you don't know how I mess up. When happens, you don't understand.
394
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I cry out to God, I
pray to God, I say God,
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please, please, don't let this
overcome me, but it seems like I'm
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always falling, always failing. Let
me give you a closing example. This
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morning, in Luke, chapter versus, thirty one and thirty two, our
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Lord says this to Peter, and
I want you to listen carefully to these
399
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words. Simon, Simon, behold
Satan demanded to have you D D might
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sift you like wheat, but I
have prayed for you that your faith may
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not fail and, when you have
turned again, strengthen your brothers. I
402
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wanted you to listen carefully because I
misunderstood the scripture for years. I thought
403
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Jesus said, Satan or Peter,
Satan has desired to have you, but
404
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don't worry, I said no,
and so you're gonna be okay. But
405
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that's not what he says. And
and I also thought that was strange,
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because he prayed that Peter would not
fail. And then I thought, but
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Peter did fail. He failed three
times, the first time to a servant
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girl, the least threatening person in
the face of the earth. He failed
409
00:31:26.119 --> 00:31:33.640
three times. But I want you
to notice that Jesus doesn't say, I
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prayed for you and Satan is not
going to have you. He is telling
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00:31:37.240 --> 00:31:41.799
Peter Indeed, Satan's going to sift
him, he's gonna go into a time
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00:31:41.839 --> 00:31:48.799
of temptation and indeed he's going to
struggle. And indeed he doesn't say I
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00:31:48.839 --> 00:31:53.039
prayed for you and you won't fail, but he said instead I prayed for
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you that your faith doesn't fail.
Because you know what, Peter did fail.
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00:32:04.359 --> 00:32:09.400
He did fail and it caused him
great shame as he thought about it.
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00:32:09.440 --> 00:32:14.480
And even after the resurrection, it
appears that he is struggling in that
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00:32:14.599 --> 00:32:20.759
great confrontation between Jesus and Peter.
And John One that I won't go into
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00:32:20.839 --> 00:32:24.599
this morning, but you know it. But I want you to take heart
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from this, because sometimes the Lord
says you're gonna go through a sifting,
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00:32:31.559 --> 00:32:36.559
the enemy is gonna have you and
you're not gonna like it very much.
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00:32:37.279 --> 00:32:45.160
But you know what, I prayed
for you and you might even fail in
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00:32:45.319 --> 00:32:51.440
sin him, but you know you'll
never fail in falling from me, because
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00:32:51.480 --> 00:32:57.720
I hold you and I have you. So do not fear for what you're
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00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:01.000
going through. I'm with you and
will strengthen you and even if you fall,
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00:33:01.680 --> 00:33:06.079
you will come out of it better, as Peter did, as he
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00:33:06.200 --> 00:33:10.599
learned his self. Confidence was a
terrible thing, and God can help us.
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00:33:12.559 --> 00:33:16.279
Our faith can never fail. John
says. This is the victory that
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00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:22.880
overcomes the world, even our faith. The psalmist says those who trust in
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00:33:22.920 --> 00:33:29.160
the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed but abides forever.
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00:33:29.319 --> 00:33:32.240
Can We pray? Lord, we
thank you for your word this morning.
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00:33:34.359 --> 00:33:40.599
We thank you indeed, God,
that you have given US power and
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00:33:40.720 --> 00:33:45.400
strength and although all of us can
look back at times of failure in our
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life, we know that yet you
have kept us and we are here this
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00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:55.119
morning because you have kept us.
And Lord, we are yours. Our
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strength is not sufficient to meet the
strength of the enemy, but your strength
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00:34:00.759 --> 00:34:07.200
is. And Lord, help us
to learn reliance upon you, because often,
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when we become convinced of our own
reliance, you teach us, as
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00:34:10.320 --> 00:34:15.880
you did Peter, that that does
nothing and only fail us. But help
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00:34:16.000 --> 00:34:21.519
us. And Lord, if there
are those who have never trusted to you
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00:34:21.840 --> 00:34:25.760
in the Cross and never don't have
a recourse, they don't have a refuge
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00:34:25.800 --> 00:34:30.159
to go to, I pray this
morning they will know that Jesus Christ is
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00:34:30.199 --> 00:34:34.400
their help. If they will turn
to him, turn to the cross,
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00:34:35.639 --> 00:34:39.280
if they will indeed believed that that
cross paid the price for all of their
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00:34:39.280 --> 00:34:45.519
sins and confess Christ to be their
savior and their Lord, that they will
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have an anchor and a hold in
their times of temptation. But, Lord,
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00:34:51.360 --> 00:34:54.159
may all of us trust only in
you, and if there are those
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00:34:54.159 --> 00:34:58.719
who are not, may they do
so today and trust in you, I
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00:34:58.800 --> 00:35:00.000
ask, in Christ name. Amen.
