When Temptation Comes | Matthew 4 | Gary Hamrick

[Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] Matthew chapter 4 is where we're gonna be today we come to a familiar passage in the Gospel of Matthew that probably many of you have read before or heard before this has to do with the temptation of Jesus Satan trying to get him to sin and so Satan comes along to tempt Jesus here in Matthew chapter 4 I'll read the first 11 verses this is what it says then Jesus was led led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil and when he had fasted forty days and forty nights afterward he was hungry now when the tempter came to him he said if you are the son of God command that these Stones become bread but he answered and said it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God then the devil took him up into the holy city set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him if you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone jesus said to him it is written again you shall not tempt the Lord your God again the devil took him up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship Me then jesus said to him away with you Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only you shall serve and then the devil left him and behold angels came and ministered to him let's pause there and pray father in heaven we thank you for the time now that we can gather together to worship you to study your word together and we're thankful that we can reopen our church on a limited basis like this Lord we look forward to the day we can all be together again we pray that you would just put an end to this virus Lord thank you for what we're learning through it thank you for what you're teaching us despite it but we think of those who have lost loved ones we pray for you to comfort them we pray that you would keep the healthy well especially our our medical community who are attending to the sick and we just thank you for the privilege of gathering here and online to study your word together to worship you so we pray that you would use this story here to minister to our hearts our hearts today and to really show us through this story how we can be on our guard against similar temptations from the enemy and we commit our Bible study to you Lord thankful for your grace and your love in our lives it's in Jesus name that we pray and everybody said amen I've entitled today's teaching when temptation comes not if temptation comes but when temptation comes because it is not a matter of if it is a matter of when we will all experience temptation and Satan comes here to tempt Jesus and he is one of the primary ways that we will be tempted Satan's desire to tempt you is rooted in the idea that just as the Bible says God loves you once none to perish and all to come to repentance Satan hates you wants everyone to perish and no one to come to repentance Satan understands that his ultimate destination is hell and quite honestly he just simply wants to take as many people with him as possible and he will do whatever necessary to destroy your life be aware the enemy your devil the the devil your enemy prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour and he's on he's on the warpath he wants to destroy your life and he will use whatever means possible in order to bring that destruction now in the Bible Satan is referred to by many titles and names I'll share a few with you in this story here in Matthew 4:3 he is mentioned as the tempter but we also read in John 8:44 where Jesus specifically refers to him as a murderer he is behind death he incites people to and he is a liar and the father of lies that's John 8:44 and Satan the name Satan is derived from the Hebrew spelled the same way pronounced Satan and his name just simply means enemy or adversary in addition he is known in the Bible as the devil the Greek word in the New Testament for devil is diabolo s' we use an English term to describe something evil or something wicked we say it's diabolical and so that's his name in the Greek diable owes devil meaning accuser and then John in Revelation 12:9 uses three different titles to express who he is he refers to him as the dragon here first him also as that ancient serpent a reference of course to Genesis chapter 3 when Satan first appears in the Bible seen as a serpent attempt Eve and attempt Adam and he's also listed there in Revelation 12:9 as the one who leads the whole world astray and believe me he is actively working to do just that today I mean what we see happening right now in our world is none other than just Satan's influence to try to bring destruction and so we need to be wise about the way that he works we need to understand a little bit about them and how he tempts us to try to destroy us and we see here in the temptation of Jesus it reveals to us three different tactics that Satan typically takes in order to try to tempt someone into sinning and before we look at those three different tactics I want to first to briefly discuss a little bit about temptation itself and so for you note-takers here's the first important thing to realize temptation by itself is not sin giving into it is we know this because of Hebrews 4:15 where the Bible says that Jesus was tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin in other words Jesus experienced the same kinds of temptations that we experience but he never gave in to them and thus he tempted like we are yet was without sin which is a proof text Hebrews 4:15 that temptation itself is not sin because Jesus was tempted and yet he didn't sin he didn't give into it you and I can't control how we are tempted or when we are tempted what we can control is our response to it Martin Luther in describing that very kind of situation where we can't control how or when we're tempted but we can control how we respond to it he he once said this he said quote you cannot keep birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair okay that you know birds will fly overhead you can't control that but you you have a say in whether or not they're going to make a nest in your hair the same goes for temptation temptation comes we can't control it you know how it comes when it comes we have no control over but we can control whether or not temptation ends up making a nest in our hair and whether or not we give in to sin and because Jesus was tempted in every way as we are yet was without sin he can sympathize he can empathize he understands what we're going through and Hebrews 4:15 that same verse the beginning of that verse says for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet was without sin so the first part thereof he was 4:15 says that that Jesus can sympathize with our weaknesses because he experienced it when he walked on the earth he experienced the same temptations that we experienced but temptation itself is not sin giving into it is number two an important thing to realize is that temptation is common to all in 1st Corinthians 10:13 the Bible says no temptation has seized you except what is common to man and God is faithful he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear but when you are tempted again when not if he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it so in other words God understands and that that's what 1st Corinthians 10:13 is about that we will all experience similar temptations in life now there might be a certain temptation or two or three that you struggle with more than somebody else but they have their own temptations there one two or three that they struggle with more than others that you may not but collectively between all of us we cover the spectrum of temptations there's nothing that is uncommon all of us share similarities some might be more difficult for one person than another but between all of us we all share common temptations and one of the things that makes us most vulnerable to giving in to temptation and thus sinning is when we think that we couldn't really fail in that particular area whenever you say to yourself or I could never do that I could never sin that way you have now made yourself vulnerable you've set yourself up for failure because not only is it judgmental when we look at somebody else's there I can never do what they did you know that was terrible what they did I would never do that not only are you judgmental in saying that about somebody but you also then expose your own pride that you think you're above doing what they just did which is what the enemy loves to prey on we can't we can't have this you know proud view about temptation and sin and think that that we're invincible because the fact of the matter is as soon as we start to think that way or taught that way we've made ourselves vulnerable we've exposed our pride and Satan preys on that so be careful temptation is common to all but don't think that you're invincible because given the right circumstances and the right conditions and the right environment we are each capable of committing just about any sin and and if we deceive ourselves and think otherwise you're setting yourself up for failure so temptation is common all and then the third thing just what I mentioned here is that Jesus helps us when we are tempted this is an important thing to keep in mind Hebrews 2 verse 18 says because he himself suffered when he was tempted he is able to help those who were being tempted and so we can turn to him and our weaknesses because again Jesus understands he can empathize with our weaknesses and he will help us when we are tempted remember a conversation that Jesus had about Peter during the scene of the Last Supper Luke records in Luke chapter 22 when Jesus tells Peter in advance that he knows that Peters going to betray him he will he will deny knowing him sorry Judas is really the betrayer Peter denied knowing him and Jesus told him this in advance and and listen to what Jesus says it's Luke 22 verses 31 to 32 Jesus said to him Simon Simon indeed Satan has asked for you that he may sift you like wheat now think about in the in the process of of trying to get the kernel the the wheat from the chaff they would basically grind it and then the wind would take the chaff away and then you'd be left with the kernel of of the wheat itself and Jesus says Satan has asked Simon Peter to sift you like that to sift you like that now it's interesting to note that Satan had to ask Satan doesn't have free will in every capacity he had to get permission first and Jesus says Satan has asked to sift you like wheat now listen of the rest of the verse but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail that's it's it's wonderful to note that Jesus says to Peter I have prayed for you I have prayed for you and listen to this the Bible says in Hebrews 7:25 that Jesus lives forever ever lives to make intercession for you and me in other words likewise Jesus is praying for you right now Jesus is praying for you Jesus has seated at the right hand of the Father is praying for you and for me because Jesus under stands what we're going through he experienced humanity he understands what temptation is and he's praying for you and me that our faith may not fail now you know Peter denied knowing Jesus but his faith didn't fail you know there are different times that we can disappoint the Lord and sin against the Lord doesn't mean we've had a faith failure Peter denied knowing Jesus but his faith did not fail him and and Jesus says to Peter as part of that exhortation and when you have returned to me go and strengthen your brothers like use it as a learning experience to go and encourage your brothers but it's important for us to know Jesus is praying for us and so temptation is not sin by itself not until we give into it we will all be tempted in different ways and Jesus is helping us through our temptations so that's important to understand about temptation now let's take a look at the different tactics that Satan employed in trying to get Jesus to sin here and the three different tactics that he takes in this story here in Matthew chapter 4 john spells out in 1st john chapter 2 verses 15 and 16 i'm gonna put it on the screen for you and i've underlined the important tactics that satan takes here so here's here's the verse do not love the world or the things in the world if anyone loves the world the love of the father is not in him for all that is in the world number 1 the lust of the flesh number 2 the lust of the eyes and number 3 the pride of life is not of the Father but is of the world and so John kind of summarizes for us there in first John 2 the three different tactics that Satan takes in trying to tempt us he appeals to the lust of the flesh he appeals to the lust of the eyes he appeals to the pride of life this is exactly the tack that Satan took with Jesus here Matthew chapter 4 now not in that order but I'm going to show you as we go through the story again how Satan used those three tactics those three doors to try to get to Jesus to cause him to sin and really when you look at all sin all sin can be categorized in one of these three categories it either germinated from the lust of the eyes the lust of the flesh or the pride of life one of those it fits within one of those categories and this is what Satan will often use in order to try to cause us to sin and so the first thing here in our story Matthew for that he employs is the lust of the flesh he tries to go after Jesus he appeals to Jesus's flesh to try to get him to compromise into sin if you look in your Bibles there again in chapter 4 verse 3 it says now when the tempter came to him he said this is the devil speaking if you are the son of God command that these Stones become bread now circle in your Bibles the word if Satan starts the conversation if but it doesn't mean that he's questioning the identity of Jesus he actually knows exactly who Jesus is a story that we didn't read from chapter 3 the previous chapter is the baptism of Jesus when Jesus comes to be baptized and John the Baptist baptizes him and at that moment there's a voice from heaven and the Holy Spirit descends like a dove and God the Father speaks and says this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and this voice from heaven God pronouncing his love for his son Satan now chapter 4 sigh if you're really God's son why don't you do this why don't you just use a little your magic here and turn these stones into bread but when he says if it can literally be translated in the original language since since you are God's Son why don't you do something here about your hunger seeing as how of course Jesus has been fasting for the last 40 days and 40 nights and the Bible says that he's hungry at this point so Satan appeals to his physical appetite but it can be translated since you are the son of God Edwyn rather urban Lutzer said this about this passage he said quote that word if should be translated since Satan is Orthodox in his understanding of who Christ is he knew Christ was the son of God it is true the evil ones theology on the inspiration of the Bible the existence of God and the person of Christ is more accurate than that of theological liberals who deny those truths it's true he goes on to say the devil believes and trembles yet he goes on rebelling he has never found it easy to act on what he knows and quote and I think loser is is correct in this there's a lot of liberal theologians who don't believe in who Christ is as Messiah and the inerrancy of Scripture and the inspiration of the Bible and Satan understands who Jesus is he's not doubting the identity of Jesus he's challenging the identity of Jesus since you are the son of God literally the Greek lining it turned these stones into bread now again he's appealing to Jesus's flesh he is hungry Jesus is hungry and Satan is always trying to exploit your god-given appetites that you might express those god-given appetites in ungodly ways that's what he's trying to do here you see Satan likes to entice us to behave impulsively only thinking about the gratification instead of behaving responsibly thinking about the consequences now just just think on that for a moment when you think about when we get into trouble when we give in to temptation it is also it is often because we think impulsively about the gratification that's where our mind goes but what we need to be disciplined about is to think responsibly about the consequences if we were to think responsive about the consequences we would not yield so much and do impulsive things because of the gratification we need to stop and ask ourselves is this a godly way to express this godly appetite or is this an ungodly way that we're trying to express this appetite because God has given us various appetites we were created with various appetites that are god-given obviously in this story we see the obvious one is physical appetites God has given us a physical appetite for hunger he's given us a mental appetite for learning he's given us relational appetites to want to be close to each other he's given us spiritual appetites to want to be close to him he's given us emotional appetites to love and to be loved he's given us sexual appetites for intimacy in marriage you know all these kind of appetites physical emotional spiritual relational sexual all these are god-given but the problem is when we exercise god-given appetites in ungodly ways trying to satisfy those appetites that's why not only do we sin but we cause our ourselves grief we eventually bring trouble into our lives when we tried to fulfill or gratify god-given appetites in ungodly ways and this is what Satan is always trying to get you to do and that was the case here with the temptation of Jesus now again Jesus was facing physical hunger it was a physical appetite is physical hunger bad no of course not it's god-given we need it for survival but Satan was trying to exploit it as a way of dominating Jesus by tempting him to use his power and turn stones into bread as at a time when Jesus was fasting to prepare himself spiritually for the launch of his public ministry so Jesus was engaging in a self-imposed fast 40 days and 40 nights and he was doing it to prepare himself spiritually because that's what fasting does in part the Puritans used to call fasting soul fattening in other words deny your your flesh food to build yourself up in your spirit this is what Jesus was doing he was denying himself food to build himself up in his spirit because his public ministry was about to be launched and so after he's baptized by water by John the Baptist it's kind of the beginning moment then he goes into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights too fast he's preparing herself spiritually Satan comes along and tempts him to interrupt that spiritual preparation by gratifying his physical appetite nothing wrong with physical hunger except when Satan is trying to exploit a god-given appetite that you might use it to gratify it in an ungodly way and Jesus is fast was for a purpose and had it been interrupted then he would not have been obedient to the purpose and so Satan was trying to exploit his hunger to cause him to sin in this way but Jesus refused to give in and notice he quotes here scripture Jesus's response in verse 4 of Matthew 4 he's actually quoting from the book of Deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 by the way every single time that three times that Jesus is tempted Jesus quotes scripture and every time he quotes scripture he's quoting it from the book of Deuteronomy and he quotes here from Deuteronomy 8 verse 3 and he says it is written man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God in other words he's saying life is more than physical food and the body it's also about spiritual food like the Word of God for our spirit so he doesn't give him Satan tries to take a god-given appetite and tempt Jesus to gratify it in an ungodly way he exploits our appetites this is what he wants to do with every single one of us we have to be very careful that every god-given appetite is expressed in a godly way not an ungodly way Satan wants to use that as a doorway the lust of the flesh and Jesus quotes scripture and refuses to give in the second Avenue that we see here that Satan uses is the pride of life the pride of life here in Matthew 4 verses 5 and 6 it says then the devil took him up into the holy city set him on the pinnacle of the temple now they didn't literally like climb okay this is like a supernatural moment where they are transported here to the pinnacle of the temple this is the highest point of the temple there in Jerusalem and he says in verse 6 he says to Jesus if you are the son of God since you are the son of God throw yourself down for it is written he shall give his angels charge over you and in their hands they shall bear you up lest you dash your foot against a stone and so one of the things that Satan loves to do is appeal to our desire to rule over our own lives rather than God ruling for our lives and so what he was basically saying to Jesus is you're in charge your life go ahead and throw yourself down from the temple you don't need to worry about being you know under God's rule you could rule yourself after all the Bible says Satan's quote scripture he says God will give us angels charge over you lest you dash your foot against the stone so God's gonna hold you up if you throw yourself off you're gonna be fine as if we can quote the Bible and step out in front of a moving bus and that somehow God is obligated to protect us that's not the way it works friends but Satan is trying to get Jesus to live like that just live recklessly you're in charge of your own life you don't have to listen to God you could do whatever you want because after all the Bible says he'll take care of you not if you just try to tempt the Lord that way and live recklessly and decide how how you're gonna run your own life then this is what Satan is trying to get Jesus to do here to be in charge of his life instead of God to live however he wants and to put God to the test with reckless selfish behavior that's the pride of life and again Satan is quoting scripture here to entice Jesus he quotes actually from Psalm 91 you know the Bible says that God will give his angels charge over you lest you dash your foot against a stone you know you're good to go but listen friends Satan knows the Bible and he's quoting scripture to Jesus here which is that's audacious I made you you are quoting the Word of God to the Word of God you know what I'm saying to you he's actually quoting it's like Jesus is there yeah I kind of know what the Bible says I kind of wrote it you know I mean it's like it's like this is not news to him but yet Satan is gonna here's the deal Satan knows the Bible but doesn't submit to it he has the head knowledge but not the heart obedience he twists it he distorts it and he manipulates it in order to deceive people that's what he likes to do and he's doing it right here in this scene but Jesus is always ahead of the game of course and it's a good reminder to us that we need to be as well because if say knows enough of the Bible to quote it to twist it to manipulate it to try to entice us to do something that appeals to the pride of our lives we have to be versed in the Bible ourselves to know the difference which means you have to be reading your Bibles you know I appreciate that you're here and we have thousands watching online but listen friends you can't get enough Bible just listening to me on Sunday mornings or Wednesday nights you got to be reading your Bibles you got a you got to be built up in the Word of God so that you can be able to take your stand against the enemy because every time the enemy came against Jesus Jesus quoted scripture because he is the word and he knows the word and it is the weapon of our warfare and so it's important for us to be built up in our faith to be able to know enough scripture to stay ahead of Satan's game whenever he might even try to do that to manipulate the Bible to tempt us but he loves to appeal to a sense of pride now there's a good kind of pride and there's a bad kind of pride you know if your kids do something great you know you filled your filled with parental pride okay but the kind of pride we're talking about that a sin is when again we think too much of ourselves we put ourselves above God we think that we are the captain of our own ship and God is just kind of relegated to the fringe and we call on him when we need him know being submitted to God and surrender to his authority is a life of humility a life of pride is when we're arrogant and filled with ourselves and Satan knows a little bit about this topic because it was his downfall before Satan became known as Satan he was Lucifer he was a beautiful angel that God had created and the Bible says that when he was in heaven as this beautiful angel that God created and it's interesting to note that God obviously gave angels the same kind of capacity for freewill as he has given human beings and in the exercise of his own free will Lucifer decided that he wanted to be like God and pride filled his heart and the Bible says in Ezekiel 28 17 that pride filled his heart on account of his beauty was created as a very beautiful angelic creature originally and so in Ezekiel 28 17 God says so I cast you to the earth Satan got kicked out of heaven because pride filled his heart so he knows something about the topic and he will capitalize on any ounce of pride in our own lives in order to bring us down he knows something about pride this is why God kicked him out of heaven you know sometimes we think that the first recorded sin of the Bible was when Adam and Eve fell and ate of the fruit and they were tempted by Satan in the garden to sin against God that was not the first sin the first sin of the Bible is before that when Satan became proud in his heart rebelled against God it was kicked out of heaven and so because of that he knows something about pride and he will capitalize on pride in our lives to try to bring us down the pride of life and so we have to be very careful that we are aware of his schemes and that we humbly submit to the authority of the Lord Jesus and that we live lives under submission and not full of pride because it's an area that could be our downfall last one number three is the lust of the eyes in our story here in Matthew 4 look at verses 8 and 9 it says again the devil took him that is Jesus up on an exceedingly high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and he said to him all these things I will give you if you will fall down and worship me at Satan's requests now Satan again this is some supernatural transport to some exceedingly high mountain where there's this bird's-eye view of all the kingdoms and you know it might be figurative it may not be a literal mountain it could just be this figurative mountain where he can see globally like all the different kingdoms of the world and Satan offers these kingdoms he offers the authority of these kingdoms and he offers the power over these kingdoms to Jesus now wait a minute Jesus is the Son of God what doesn't he have power over those things well well Jesus you know is is God in every way is omnipotent but there are certain things that Satan has been allowed to you have control over to have influence over to dominate and when Satan was kicked out of heaven earth became his his playground and the Bible says in first John virtus a 5 verse 19 that the whole world is under the control of the evil one so the reason that we see so many terrible things happening in our world is because it's under the influence of the evil one now God is he dominates everything supremely but for a time for a season when he kicks Satan to earth Satan has this limited dominion over the kingdoms and it's the reason why he could offer them to Jesus because this becomes his territory now we have to be wise about this kind of thing in the book of Daniel the Bible says that Daniel was praying and didn't get an answer for 21 days and finally when he got an answer the angel Gabriel was actually dispatched to give Daniel the answer he had been praying for from God and Gabriel says to Daniel the reason I was delayed for 21 days is because the Prince of Persia resisted me and what he's telling us there and what Daniel gives us insight about is that there's this demonic principality over the region of Persia and Gabriel had to fight in the unseen spirit realm I know this sounds a little spooky to some of you but I'm just telling you this what the Bible teaches in the unseen spirit realm there was this spiritual battle going on and Gabriel was detained by this demonic principality over the region of Persia from delivering the message to Daniel because Daniel at that time was in Persia Persia Babylon that same region and Gabriel is announcing through the pages that look at Daniel I was resisted by this demonic principality and then Gabriel says on my way back I know I'm going to have to fight the Prince of Greece so we need to understand that there are territorial demonic influences in the world and the United States is no exception there's a there's a spiritual battle going on right now for our nation and major cities are being influenced in different demonic waves and Loudoun County is no exception I mean you know we shouldn't think well we're you know we're we're rural so we're safe you know what what does the enemy want with us everything everything and so we have to be wise about the different ways that he's inciting things manipulating things working in ways to cause hatred animosity and all kinds of wickedness this is this is demonic stuff the reason why Satan can offer Jesus the kingdoms of the world is because he has influence over kings and kingdoms and he says to Jesus look at this you could have this now he's appealing there to the lust of the eyes look at what you see here that you don't have which is really coveting it's the reason why in the Bible you shall not covet is one of the Ten Commandments because coveting is basically always looking at who someone else is or what someone else has and wishing that you were that or had that and the reason is a sin is because it's an affront to God if we understand that who we are and what we have is all for the loving hand of God but yet we look at what we don't have and who we aren't as and we covet what other people have we covet their house you covet their car we covet the boyfriend we covet the girlfriend we covered the spouse we covet the job we covet the look we covet all that stuff coveting is basically saying I'm not content God with how you have made me or what I have been given by your loving hand and and so there's this lust of the eyes which is really coveting and all coveting a sin because we're never content with with what God has given us or how God has made us and so we strive to always have and want and it's this endless pursuit it's the lust of the eyes and so Satan is trying to appeal to that with Jesus and Jesus responds there in verse 10 of chapter 4 he said to him away with you Satan for it is written you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve and he quotes again from Deuteronomy chapter 6 verse 13 now just in summary listen I'm gonna emphasize this again every single time the enemy came to tempt Jesus Jesus quoted scripture it is written it is written when you look into Ephesians chapter 6 and you see how Paul urges us to take on the full armor of God all of it is defensive armor except one the offensive armor of the soldier who understands the battle that were in spiritually in Ephesians chapter 6 is the sword of the Spirit in Ephesians 6 verse 17 and he says to us take up the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God he says it right there in Ephesians 6:17 why because in Ephesians 6 he says we wrestle not against flesh and blood every disagreement is not a human origin some of the stuff and battles and difficulties is again incited by demonic things satanic things so he says there we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities and spiritual forces of evil and darkness in the heavenly realms so he says put on the full armor of God and the one offensive part of the armor is the word of God he says take up the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God we have to know God's word in order to continue to remain strong against temptation that will come our way that's important to understand I want you to also notice that every time he quoted scripture finally the last time it says and then Satan left him and verse 11 in our story says and I love this part and angels came and ministered to Jesus angels came and ministered to Jesus now I could not say that an angel has ever come to minister to me after I have withstood temptation but in principle it's a wonderful thing to think about how encouraging it is that God is going to sustain us and help us and and encourage us but literally angels came and ministered to Jesus now it doesn't say anything about what that looked like I've always wondered what what did that look like he just came around started high-fiving Jesus like well son of God like well done did they bring him angel food cake to break the fast I don't know but they ministered to him and they encouraged him and he was strengthened but now listen to this Luke tells us something when he records this story that Matthew does not and this is an important point Luke says that after Jesus kept quoting scripture Satan left him listen until an opportune time that Matthew doesn't tell us that but Luke does so you said sometimes you get the full picture by all the four Gospels put together and Luke helps us to understand something about the way that Satan works he's not going to leave you alone he would come again at some point looking for an opportune time to tempt Jesus Satan is always looking for an opportune time somebody made this connection of course we all know the quote that opportunity knocks once was somebody said opportunity may knock once but temptation will bang at your front door forever and it's true that's why we have to be wise about all this we have to understand how the enemy works and Paul would write in second Corinthians 2:11 don't let Satan out with us for we are not unaware of his schemes be aware he's on the prowl looking for those to devour stand strong resist temptation know your Bibles and Jesus will help you amen let's pray together father we thank you for your word and we thank you for the example of Jesus how he withstood temptation and Lord we know that the enemy is working overtime to tempt us to sin as well and so we pray that you would help us Lord we pray that you would strengthen us we pray that you would make us wise about these things we think about even what we call the Lord's Prayer when you taught your disciples how to pray part of what you taught them was to pray saying and lead us not into temptation but deliver from evil for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever Lord help us in our temptation deliver us from the evil one we need you Lord we recognize our own flesh and our own propensity to fail and so we ask you Lord by your Holy Spirit strengthen us that we might be men and women under control who wouldn't be proud to say that we're in control but know instead that we are under control under the control of your Holy Spirit strengthen us lord help us deliver us from the evil one for yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever in Jesus name we pray and all God's people said amen and amen

Channel: Cornerstone Chapel - Leesburg, VA

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Length: 41min 37sec (2497 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 29 2020