Matthew 4:1-11 | Fighting Through Trials | Alex Culpepper

And if you church, if you want to open your Bibles up to Matthew chapter four, that's where we're going to be. Matthew chapter four.

I'll. Just before we get started into the message this morning, I would love to draw your attention once again to the prayer meeting. Our prayer meeting this month is upcoming on Wednesday. And so this is significant for our church. We believe that anything that we do as a church, everything that we accomplish, that if we do not start with prayer, that it's kind of a futile effort because then we're trying to do something in our own energy and our own effort.

And we want to ensure that we're following what the Lord has for us, that we're doing what the Lord has for us. And so if you are able, if you have the space and time in your schedule, I would really encourage you to, to make space to come to prayer. We believe that it's an invitation from God where we encounter him, we meet with him in our prayer meetings. But not only that, that is like the engine that fuels the fire of the mission that he has given to us. And so would you please prioritize that.

That's this Wednesday at 6:30, this Wednesday at 6:30, if you can make it out for that. And so as I start this morning, I just want to say if you're here and you, you don't trust Jesus, I just want to let you know I'm really glad that you're here. We open the Bible, we teach through the Bible. We do that because Jesus has saved us and we believe that His Word is a guide for our life. It tells us the way that we ought to walk.

But our deep desire, if you're here and you don't trust Jesus, our deep desire is that you would come to trust Him. Like for us at this church, I just wanna let you know faith is not for us, like a matter of fact, personal affinity. It's not a matter of convenience for us. Like we do not have a Christian faith because, well, that's just the thing that works for us. Faith for us is a matter of life or death.

Without it we were dead. And with it we are alive. And we want you to find the same life that we have found. And so I would really, if you haven't trusted Jesus, I just want to let you know our heart is that you would see something this morning that would incline you to want to trust Him. So today we're continuing a series called it has Been Written.

And what we're doing in this series, we're Looking at Jesus and some of the scripture that he quoted. We spent a season going through the Book of Deuteronomy. And that was significant for us. And what's interesting is that Jesus most quoted book is the Book of Deuteronomy. The scriptures that he goes to most often come from there.

And we're looking to glean from Jesus and how he used these ancient writings, how did he interpret and apply the Hebrew scriptures. And in the process, what we're doing is we're kind of learning and discovering kind of what is the relevance of things that were written 3,500 years ago? What is the relevance of those things for us today? And so today we explore what is popularly known as Jesus temptation, wilderness. So in order for us to kind of grasp what's happening with Jesus, we have to remember that there was a people, right, who went through another wilderness, right?

That the children of Israel came through the wilderness after having been saved out of Egypt. God brought them through that place. And in the midst of the wilderness, they're wandering from Mount Sinai into the promised land. They were tried and they were tested. And in that test, they were proven to not really trust God.

They didn't believe him. They didn't take him at his word. They failed the test. They got up to the very edge of the land of God, and they became afraid of everything that they saw in the land. And they said, well, we should turn back.

We should. We shouldn't go in. And so when Moses, he preaches the book of Deuteronomy, they then had to wander through the desert for 40 years so that that generation that didn't believe would die off, right? And then so that their kids could then prepare to go into the land. When Moses preaches the book of Deuteronomy to that generation's kids, he is doing so reflecting on the failures of their parents and in the wilderness.

And so Deuteronomy is essentially like Moses, wisdom on the lessons that have been learned from these failures in the wilderness. And so now we come to Jesus own story, his own kind of wilderness journey. And this is what it says in Matthew 4. 1. It says, Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

So what's happened here is that Jesus has just been baptized. John the Baptist baptized Jesus. And at his baptism, the voice of the father spoke from heaven and set, you know, it was to set Jesus apart for his ministry. But the voice said, this is my beloved son, right? This is God's chosen and anointed king.

King, right and at that baptism, the Holy Spirit fell from heaven like a dove on Jesus. And before, you know, if you go back to Israel and at Mount Sinai, they had their own kind of experience of God speaking identity over them. God told them at Mount Sinai, you are my beloved people, you are my beloved children. You are a chosen and precious treasure to me. And then they go out into the wilderness and they fail to live up to the divine calling that God put on them.

And so now God once again has spoken identity, but here he has spoken identity over his Son. And the question is, right, we're all on the edge of our seat wondering, will Jesus live up to his divine calling or not? Says that he was tempted by the devil to tempt. This word is kind of difficult for us because we kind of. We misunderstand what it's actually saying.

It's better to just think of it as testing, right? To tempt is to put the purity of one's character on trial to see if it is what you say it is, if it is what it is supposed to be, does it stay true? Is it consistent? Is there integrity here? So here's the thing.

Satan knew that Jesus was God's chosen Messiah. He knew that Satan knew that God had a plan to establish a Messiah who was supposed to play some role in undoing the work that he had done in the world, that the Messiah was going to come, and he was going to kind of undo the problems that Satan had had created. And so God kept this kind of plan in secret, right? Because Satan was watching, and he's like, okay, what is God going to do? Right?

And so God kept the plan secret. He shrouded it in all of this prophetic mystery where the prophet said things that were initially very confusing, but then once Jesus comes, it makes sense of all of the things that the prophets had said, right? And so God then speaks and makes known in blatant terms what had previously been hidden. He sends clouds of angels. You know, when the shepherds.

The angels appeared to the shepherds. And there's a Savior born this day in the city of Bethlehem. And the angels sing, glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace among those with whom he is pleased. Like, increasingly, God is becoming more and more forthright with the truth about who Jesus is and what he's come to do. And here at his baptism, he has become especially explicit about who Jesus is.

So just to take us back just a few verses before chapter four, it says, in verse 16, when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water and behold, the heavens were opened to him and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him. And verse 17, behold, a voice came from heaven and said, this is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. So this is what God did. God declared to every being present, human or spiritual, and said, he's here, right? My beloved Son, who has all of my love and favor is here.

And so now Satan's goal is to do to Jesus what he did to the people of Israel. He wants to prove that just like the Israelites were corruptible, so too is God's chosen Messiah corruptible. Just like he could turn the Israelites towards unbelief, so so too could Jesus be corrupted and turned towards unbelief. So verse two says, and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. That seems kind of obvious to me, right?

But, but, but this is, this is the situation Jesus is in. So Jesus right now, where we catch him and in kind of the timeline is that he is at the end of the. Of a period of fasting. And the purpose of this fasting is he is dedicating himself to what the Father has called him to. And it says 40 days and 40 nights here, that 40, that number 40 is meant to connect us to Israel's 40 years wandering in the wilderness.

Because Jesus is going to set right what they got wrong. Jesus is going to succeed where they fell short. But you need to know, as Jesus succeeds at this, his success is not just his own, it's ours too right. Jesus is setting right what went wrong at the wilderness. Jesus is actually setting right in this process.

What went wrong in the Garden of Eden? Jesus says he comes to John the Baptist and after he gets baptized, he's going to go into the wilderness and all this. And John the Baptist is like, well, why am I baptizing you? And Jesus says to John the Baptist, this is necessary to fulfill all righteousness. There are things that are lacking in the world because of the failure of humanity and the failure specifically of even a people that God had chosen for himself.

And I have to do this to set right what has been made wrong. And so if Jesus is not tested and tried, and if he does not pass with flying colors, you need to know there is no pathway to redemption for humanity. He has to prove here that there is not in him one inkling of resistance to the Father's will. And so that's why he is out here for 40 days. So let's talk about this fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

Just to make sure that we understand what is fasting for 40 days and 40 nights. First of all, fasting for 40 days and nights is a task from the Holy Spirit, right? It says that after he was baptized, the Holy Spirit drove him out into the wilderness. Right? So this is a specific calling and task given to him by the Holy Spirit for Jesus as the savior of humanity.

So if you go, Jesus fasted for 40 days and nights. Should I fast for 40 days and nights? No, no. This is. Jesus has a very specific calling to set right what was made wrong in the wilderness all those years ago.

Right? And so second, then, fasting for 40 days and nights generally is very unwise. I just want to let you know that now I am an advocate for fasting. I believe that fasting is a good and helpful thing for our spiritual development. That fasting one day or two days or a week or maybe even in some cases a couple of weeks can be a helpful thing.

I've never fasted a week or two weeks. I just want to let you know. So don't think that as I say that I'm up here kind of lifting myself up. I haven't done it. I'm just saying that it can be a legitimate thing for people to do.

Okay? But generally, and I would like, usually most of the time, 99% of the time, you should not do this. This is not a good idea. Again, this is a specific task that was given to Jesus because of his role as savior of the world and because the Father has called him to it. The Father supernaturally sustained Jesus body.

This happened at another point in Scripture. Elijah, the prophet Elijah, he ate. And that actually tells us that God miraculously sustained Elijah's body from the moment that he ate through the 40 days, which he did not eat. Right? And so the same sort of thing is happening here.

The Father is supernaturally sustaining Jesus body. And then finally, we just need to know this. Jesus was at his limits in every way. He may not have died because of this, but I promise you that he was at the limits of what his physical body could handle. He's at the limits of what his soul could put up with.

Like the extreme difficulty of going through this for 40 days. And now, now your muscles don't have calories to burn on. And now you've, like, every resource that your body has been depleted in this. And that's the situation that Jesus is in. And so Satan is gonna show up and he's gonna put some opportunities in front of Jesus to attempt to expose Jesus as a fraud.

And so, in light of that, would you just stand up with me? I want to read this passage. We're gonna read God's Word. Stand for the reading. God's Word, it says in Matthew, chapter four, starting in verse three, the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

But he answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up. Least you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test again. The devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.

And he said to him, all these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. And then Jesus said to him, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve. And the devil left him. And behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Would you pray with me please?

Father, as we your people gather here, Holy Spirit, would you fall on us to instruct our hearts, yes, at the identity of Jesus. But not only that, could you show us what it means that Christ in us would live and empower us to resist the devil?

Father, would you equip us? We ask in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. You can be seated.

So, verse three, the tempter came and said to him, if you are the Son of God, all of these temptations are primarily about Jesus identity, right? There are lessons for us to learn here, yes, about how to battle temptation. But if we do not have kind of a rock solid foundation regarding what this passage proves, then what it will become about is just our own moral performance. So when Satan tempts you, you should resist. But this is not primarily about that.

This is about Jesus identity. And what Satan is doing is that he is putting Jesus identity as God's beloved Son on trial. If you are the Son of God, will you doubt this? You know this is what the Son of God would do. So quick note, this is for you to know as well.

When the enemy comes at you and tempts you, you should know that he is first and foremost trying to lay claim to your identity. He's trying to stake ground in your heart and in your soul so that he can set up shop in you and set sell you lies from that place and tell you that you don't belong to God, that God could never love you, that God's tired of you. And what he's trying to do is trying to drive a wedge between you and God in order to get you to identify with your sin as opposed to identifying with God. And so Satan, what he is trying to do here is he is trying to stake claim to ground in Jesus life. So it goes on in verse three, if you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.

Did Jesus have the ability to do this? Say yes. Thank you. He is God in the flesh. At every moment, Jesus has the option available to him to take hold of his God power.

And yet throughout his earthly ministry, at every moment, he willfully chose not to utilize his God power to his own benefit. And in this way, Jesus shows us what it means to be human. Like in this moment, Jesus could have used his God power to feed himself, or he could trust his Father to take care of him, like every human being has to trust our Father to take care of us. You see, what's very interesting about this whole story is the opportunities that the adversary puts in front of Jesus. Because until the very last one, it's not obvious that Satan is leading him to sin, right?

Like, he doesn't put a man who has food in front of Jesus and say, here, kill this man and take his food. He doesn't take Jesus into a market and say, here, steal some bread. Right? Those would be blatant violations of the Ten Commandments. He doesn't do that.

He is way more subtle than that. And so the first thing to notice here is that initial temptation rarely aims for outright rebellion. You gotta be aware, it aims for compromise. Will you just give up a little bit of ground? You know, like, Satan doesn't need to start as the CEO of you.

He's just trying to get his foot in the door. That's it. He just wants to. Just wants to get started, get somewhere in and then work his way up. And so here he's like, hey, Jesus, you're hungry, right?

You got an Appetite? I mean, 40 days. Wow, great job, by the way. 40 days is impressive. You know, you could just.

You could just. A little bit, you could just take care of yourself a little bit, right? Like, why? Why trust the Father to take care of you? Because you're the Son of God, like, you can get what you need right now.

You don't need to trust the Father for that. And so the apostle John actually reflecting on the ways of Satan, and I think specifically reflecting on this story, he refers to Satan's aim here as an aim at the desires of the flesh. In First John 2:16, it says, for all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the Father, but it is from the world. So I just want you to remember these three things here, because these three things are operative in the story that is being told to us. And specifically here in this first temptation, we're dealing with the desires of the flesh.

This is what it looks like. It looks like excusing disobedience for the sake of meeting legitimate physical needs. You will make an excuse of disobedience because you have a need to meet, and you should be able to meet that need. But Jesus purpose here is to live the entirety of his earthly life being dependent on the Father to take care of him, right? To live fully as a human being with human limitations, to not take shortcuts around patient connection to and trust in the Father.

And that's really what this is about, right? Like, that's what Satan is putting in front of him. He's putting a shortcut in front of him. Like, Jesus is gonna eat soon, right? Why not just eat right now?

He could take a shortcut to eat right now. But Jesus knows that the shortcut would be a compromise and give Satan ground in the trust that Jesus is supposed to have with his Father. And so verse four, it says this. Jesus answered. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

So Jesus quotes this from Deuteronomy, chapter 8, verse 8. This is what it says. And if you go back to verse three, it kind of gets the whole context for us. But starting in verse three, it says, he humbled you. This is Moses again preaching to Israel, reflecting on their failures in the wilderness, trying to give some wisdom here.

And he says, he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna. Remember, manna is. What is it? That's what it means. It's.

It's the stuff that fell from the sky as God simply spoke and showed that he was going to sustain these people in a place that could not produce food for them. So. So God spoke and manna fell from the sky to take care of them that he might make, you know, that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of God. And indeed, you know what they had to do in this process? They, I mean, they had to go on, particularly on Friday, go collect two days worth of manna so that they didn't go out on the Sabbath, right?

So you're not going to go provide for yourself on the Sabbath. You're going to prepare ahead of time for that because you're going to build a rhythm of trusting God and waiting on him day by day to provide for you. And so here's what Jesus says to Satan by quoting this passage. He says, hey, if I am God's son, right? Because that's what say, if you are God's son.

Well, if I am God's son, it means that I am loved by God and that God will give me exactly what I need for what he's called me to.

If I get food but don't obey the voice of my Father, then the food I get is not life to me, it is death. Life can only truly come to my bones through obedience. That's what Jesus is saying. So take that. It's like Jesus is out here and he's making himself very clear with Satan.

So then he goes on the next temptation comes, verse 5. The devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle. So this is not a dream, this is not a vision, right? Like Satan has used his Satan power in some way to, to transfer Jesus from the wilderness to the temple. And if he's at the temple, what it means is that he's in the midst of all of the Jewish people gathered.

Like, if there were ever an opportunity for him to set himself up as king, this would be it. And so verse six, Satan said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, jump off the temple. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up. Least you strike your foot against a stone. So Satan is getting creative here.

He's responding to what Jesus has done because Jesus responded to him with God's word. Satan is now speaking God's word to Jesus and twisting the meaning of it. He says, hasn't it been written about you, son of God? And quotes Psalm 91, which indeed is a psalm about the Messiah and is speaking of the Messiah and says these exact words about the Messiah, that the Messiah would have angels commanded by God to come to his aid and protection. And here Satan saying, hey, Jesus, look at all those people down There, throw yourself off the temple.

You can prove to them that you are who you think you are. Let your Father take care of you, right? Let his word. Just trust the Father's word, right? Put your life in moral danger and let the Father prove to all of the these people who you are.

But again, remember, Satan's tactic is compromise and shortcuts. So first of all, you need to know we don't make the Father do anything, right? To be human is to not force the hand of our Father. We are responsive to Him. We do not sit in a position and expect to make him responsive to us.

Now, in his grace, for some reason, he chooses to be responsive to the requests, the humble requests of his people, but we do not command him. And so second of all, Jesus does not need God to prove himself. Jesus is completely secure in that the Father is who he says he is. And he is completely secure in the Father's word that he has already spoken that you are my beloved Son. And so what Satan is trying to get at here is the second in that series of temptations that come against us that the apostle John said.

This is the pride of life, the pull to put yourself in God's place. It is a posture kind of that puts God on the hook for all of your evaluations of his performance.

Right? And it is at its core like a rejection of meekness and humility.

So Jesus is Messiah. Right. Like that aligns with the passage that Satan quoted. And Jesus, you know, actually Jesus would end up performing miracles by the power of the Spirit that testify to his identity as Messiah. Right?

That that was going to happen. He was going to perform healings and cast out demons, right? That this was just going to be a thing that he did, those would testify to his identity as Messiah. But should Jesus right now put his own life in mortal danger and force God to prove who he is right now? And the answer is no.

And Jesus's discernment is trained in this regard. Right. The compromise for Jesus again is blatant. It's not obvious. And he sees again that Satan is just trying to get his foot in the door.

And so Jesus said to him, again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. Right? So verse, this is a quote from Deuteronomy 6:16, says, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him at massa. If you remember this, this is where the children of Israel, after God had delivered them out of the land of Egypt, after God had worked miraculously on their Behalf. And even after God had spoken and allowed Manna to come down and provide for them daily food, the people of Israel.

Oh, and by the way, God himself, the presence of God is with them all, all the time, visibly in a pillar of cloud that keeps them shielded from the sun by day and a pillar of fire by night that provides heat and light for them in the middle of the desert. All of this is true. And at Massa, after all of this had just taken place, the children of Israel, they said this thing, we're thirsty. If God was really with us, he would give us water to drink. You know, God needs to prove that he's with us.

God doesn't need to prove it. He's already proven he's shown you more than enough to prove that he is with you. But they say if God is really with us, if God would just meet our expectations on our terms, that would show us what we need. And Jesus again, Jesus says, you know, God, God is with me. There's no if God is with me.

God is with me. I trust him to take care of me on his terms, by his timing. And so the last temptation comes in verse 8. Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world. Again, he's transported, he moved from, from the top of the temple to a very high mountain, showed him all the kingdoms of the world, all of their glory.

And he said to them, or he said to him, all these I will give you if you fall down and worship me. So here it's different than the first two, right? Because here the sin is obvious. It's like on its face, blatant. It's not hidden under the surface.

And by the way, often you just need to know this. Like when you resist Satan, his tactics do get more and more blatant until he overplays his hand. And that's what happens here. He overplays his hand. What he is aiming at here is the desires of the eyes.

The desires of the eyes are when you. Your sense of entitlement, the things that you see that you think belong to you or should belong to you. Or you look at what somebody else has and you think it should be yours. When your sense of entitlement causes you to forsake loyalty to God.

See, but even though it's blatant compromise and shortcuts still linger under the surface because one day every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. True or false? True. Satan says To Jesus. Why wait?

It'll happen one day. Why not start right now?

I am, after all, the ruler of this world. You could skip the suffering that you'll face. You could skip the wrath of God's judgment on sin. You could skip the heartbreak of your followers. You could skip the suffering that they'll face when they die for you.

You could have everything you deserve right now.

And what about with you?

God works everything together for the good of those who love him. True or false? True. Why wait?

Why not go for something that you consider to be good right now? Maybe it'll cost you a little bit of loyalty to God. It's not a big deal. That's what Satan is getting at here. And so because it's so obvious, right?

It's blatantly on its face. Verse 10. Jesus said to him, be gone. Like, enough of this. This is a silly game I'm tired of playing.

Begone Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.

Jesus here is quoting verse 13 of Deuteronomy, chapter 6. It is the Lord your God you shall fear, and him you shall serve. So Jesus commands Satan to leave. After submitting himself to God and resisting the devil, the devil fled from him, right? And so Satan left.

And I just want you to watch what happens next. Verse 11. Then the devil left him and behold, angels came. The very thing that Satan said was supposed to happen did happen, but on God's terms. Angels came and were ministering to him.

So Jesus, he could have commanded Satan to leave at the beginning. Why? Why didn't he? Well, because the Father wanted Jesus identity as the Son of God, the chosen and precious and beloved Son of God, to be tested and proven. And so?

So what? What do we do with all of this? So what, Number one, I would say to us that Jesus victory provided a pathway to our victory. So John 14, verse 30. Jesus is.

It's after the Last Supper, Jesus is with his disciples and he says, I'm not going to talk with you much longer. Like the number of words that I have are just running out. Time is running short for the ruler of this world is coming. But he has no claim on me. He has nothing in me.

The ruler of this world did come. And he pressed Jesus and he tempted and he probed Jesus for some kind of compromise. But Jesus says he has no claim on me. He does not even have a foot in the door. There is no agreement between me and him.

He has no leverage on me. See, you and I have sinned Right, We've made all sorts of compromises with the tempter and he's got his foot in the door everywhere, right? Like, this is just the circumstances of our life. But Jesus went to the cross uncompromised. And the enemy's claim over everyone who believes in Jesus is now broken because Jesus went to the cross uncompromised.

So if you want something to memorize for spiritual warfare, I would just tell you to memorize this. Colossians, chapter 2, verses 13 through 15. If you want something like to bring to the table when you are facing temptation or when you are feeling the accusation of Satan, this is what you need to hear. Verse 13. And you who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, right?

All of the compromise, you are dead because of your compromising.

God made you alive together with Jesus because Jesus is alive. You are made alive having forgiven us all our trespasses by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. What he's saying is the claim that Satan tries to have in you by leading you to compromise, when you come to Jesus and you receive the gift of Jesus, life given for yours, then all of those claims that Satan thinks he has are nailed to the cross. They're conquered.

They're overcome. And indeed, this is what the apostle Paul says. He disarmed the rulers and authorities. And when Paul says rulers and authorities, he's not talking about the governor or the president or Caesar. He is talking about spiritual powers.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. So now what this means is that the accuser has lost his courtroom authority, right? The tempter has lost his ownership rights. The ruler of this world has been judged by Jesus not because we resist perfectly, but because Christ resisted perfectly for us. So here's what that means.

That the devil's primary weapon, which is accusation, a claim on our identity, his primary weapon, has been taken away from him. He doesn't have it anymore. His temptations no longer need to define us. Compromise for us. I just want to let you know it's no longer inevitable.

You are not resisting to earn a place as God's child. We resist because we are already sons and daughters. You are not fighting for your victory. You are fighting from Christ's victory.

So here's the sobering part, though. So though Satan has lost his claim over you, he still is looking for agreement in you, right? He cannot own you if you're surrendered to Jesus, but he will tempt you to align with him. And every compromise that you make is like just a small act of misplaced allegiance. So this is where we need to take heart.

Because if he does have ground, the territory doesn't have to stay his. Because Jesus has purchased a pathway for us by his blood, and now Christ in us can break agreement with Satan and break the power of sin and break the power of what the Bible calls demonic strongholds and put on display the victory which Jesus has won for us. So what? Number two, God's word is your primary tool or weapon to wage war on compromise. So I just ask you, how do you need to consume God's word?

Right? How do you need to become more aware of all that the Lord has to say and all that he desires for you? Do you need a Bible reading plan? Do you need to be pointed in the direction of podcasts you can listen to or Bible teaching that you can get? Do you need, maybe you need an audio Bible or maybe you need some kind of notification on your phone to come on in a certain day to tell you, hey, it's time to read your Bible.

Or maybe you need practices for just like meditating on Scripture, or maybe you need to have more Bible fused conversations at home. Maybe you need to do some Bible memorization, I don't know. But like, what do you need to do in order to consume more of God's word so that when the tempter comes, you know how to respond to him. And then finally, so what? Number three, Jesus did perfectly what you have failed to do.

So trust him.

The Bible, when it talks about Jesus death on the cross for us, speaks of it as an exchange. Jesus did fulfill all righteousness. He succeeded in fighting against temptation and trial in every way that every human being before him had failed. And as a result, the Bible says that when Jesus went to the cross, that what happened is an exchange took place where those who believe in him, that on him is placed our sin, and on us is placed his righteousness. And because we are recipients of his righteousness, not only do we get a place with the Father where we are indeed called God's beloved children because of what Jesus accomplished for us, but also we get the power to overcome the enemy of our souls.

We get a solid rock on which to stand. We get truth that combats Him. But not only truth. The Holy Spirit takes up residence in us because we have been washed clean by the perfect blood Jesus. And this empowers us to do battle and to indeed overcome the enemy.

So these are gifts that we have. If you have not trusted in Jesus, you don't have access to that right. And the enemy, he's going to try to lay claim to your identity and he will succeed.

But if you trust in Jesus, then Jesus takes away the claim that the enemy has on on you. And so if you have not done so, would you please, I'd implore you trust in Jesus for your life and your hope and your future. Would you pray with me, please? Father, we thank you for these truths. Jesus, we thank you for the way that you resisted temptation for our sakes.

And God sitting with this reality ought to just make us stand in awe of what you accomplished for us. And so this morning, as we worship and as we continue on, Lord Jesus, would you strengthen us as we take part in remembering what you did for us? As we indeed posture ourselves in the place of saying, it is your life and your body and your blood which sustain us. God, would you cause hearts to effectively rely on these things that you would transform us from the inside out? We ask all this in Jesus name.

Amen.