And please turn with me in your Bibles to the third chapter of Genesis for our Old Testament reading. Genesis 3, and we will read verses 1 through 8. Listen to this. This is the very word of God. Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made.
He said to the woman, did God actually say you shall not eat of any tree in the garden? And the woman said to the serpent, we may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden. But God said, you shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die. But the serpent said to the woman, you will not surely die.
For God knows that when you eat of it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked, and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
And then for our New Testament reading, please turn to the gospel according to Luke, where we will encounter the same serpent, but a different Adam, a new Adam, the second Adam. And where the first Adam failed, the second Adam will get the victory. Luke chapter 4, verses 1 through 13. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. The devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone.
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And He took him to Jerusalem, and set him on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to him, If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, He will command His angels concerning you to guard you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered him, It is said, You shall not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
That’s the reading of God’s word. Let’s pray now that he would bless it to us. Father in heaven, How thankful we are for a Savior who triumphed over the evil one, who triumphed over temptation, even in the austere conditions in which he faced his enemy. Bless us as we consider the word together now. Make it an effectual means of grace for us all. And most of all, make Christ our Savior be exalted and glorified in the in to the eyes of our faith and to the world. We pray in his name. Amen. In events like a boxing tournament or contest, usually they have a ticket. There are several fights to take place on any given night.
And most of the time, they save for the last, the main event, the heavyweight fight, because everybody wants to see the heavyweights duke it out. It’s not that the other fights might not be exciting and might not have skilled fighters, participating. But it’s that heavyweight bout that gets most of the attention. I’ve never been to one. I’ve watched a few on television, I guess. But these big showdowns between the big guns draw our attention. Epic conflicts, like the shootout at the OK Corral, or Rocky Balboa versus Ivan Drago. things like that.
In God’s providence, I did not plan it this way, but in God’s providence, both this morning and this evening, we’re going to be looking at epic showdowns between heavyweights. This evening, we’ll consider the conflict, the contest between the prophets of Baal and the true prophet of the true and living God, Elijah on Mount Carmel. Today, an even greater bout between our Lord, the second Adam, the Son of God, and that ancient serpent, the devil.
This all comes on the heels of Jesus’ baptism, of course. We looked a couple of weeks ago at Christ’s baptism, which I described as sort of an ordination. We installed two officers today. We didn’t ordain them because they’ve already been ordained, and ordination is a one-time thing. But we saw Jesus’ baptism as a kind of ordination to His redemptive ministry.
And what we read in this passage is that immediately after Jesus’ ordination at his baptism, where God spoke from heaven and said, this is my beloved son, in whom I’m well pleased, the very next thing that happens is he’s sent into the wilderness to be tested.
And from Satan’s perspective, for the first time in 4,000 years, God has a son on earth who’s undefiled. And Satan’s like a shark in the water. He senses that undefiled blood and he approaches to attack. But thankfully, even on those words of the first verse, we’re told that Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit and he was led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. This bout, this conflict was not arranged, it was not provoked or set up by Satan. It was set up by God. And He, through His Spirit, led His Son into the wilderness to be tempted, to be tested, and to be victorious.
And what we see in this passage is that Christ endured vehement temptation, remaining sinlessly obedient to fulfill His role as our Redeemer. Christ endured vehement temptation, remaining sinlessly obedient to fulfill His role as our Redeemer. If in the 30 years prior He’d ever sinned once, He would be disqualified to be our Savior. If He gave in to any one of these temptations offered to Him by Satan, He would have been disqualified. But He didn’t give in. He didn’t fail. He endured. and he obeyed and he triumphed. We’ll look at this passage under three points.
First of all, the circumstances of Christ’s trial in the wilderness, they’re very significant. And they’re very much in stark contrast to the conditions under which the first Adam faced his test. Secondly, the substance of Satan’s temptations. What were they really about? And then third, the manner in which Christ prevailed. So let’s consider first then the circumstances of Christ’s trial in the wilderness.
As I said, he was led by the Spirit. This trial was ordained by God. The word led is used there in verse one of our text. It’s interesting that Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak of this, but they each use a different verb to describe the Spirit’s influence in this matter. The word that Mark uses is a little bit more forceful a word. It’s as if the Spirit drove him or thrust him into the wilderness.
And the word that Matthew chose to use is a word that means to lead up. which is significant because it’s the word that’s often used to describe what a person would do with a sacrifice when they’re taking it to the temple to offer it up to the Lord. So again, this encounter wasn’t forced by Satan. He didn’t call Jesus out. This encounter was ordained by God. It was the Holy Spirit who declared war on the serpent and not the other way around.
Now let’s consider the state in which Jesus faced these temptations, because it’s very significant. He was in the wilderness for 40 days. And both the time, those 40 days, and the place are greatly significant. They have tremendous meaning in terms of the scriptures and in terms of redemptive history.
So first of all, the wilderness. Think of all the different significant events that take place in the Bible, in biblical history, in the wilderness. You think of Israel’s wanderings. You think of that journey of Elijah, how he went through the wilderness for 40 days. We think of John’s ministry. He was baptizing in the wilderness of Judea.
So the wilderness is a significant place. The Hebrew word that we translate wilderness can more literally be understood as the place of speaking. It’s a meeting place. God, for some reason, really likes to meet with people in the wilderness. Significant things happen there.
But then these 40 days, the number 40, of course, is very significant throughout scripture and in many different ways. But just as Jesus had been in the wilderness for 40 days being tempted by the devil, Moses went up onto Mount Sinai. After he’d received the law, God had spoken the law to the people, and the people said, you go and let the Lord speak to you, and you tell us what he said. So Moses went up on the mountain. He stayed up there on the mountain for 40 days. Elijah was on his journey through the wilderness for 40 days. And in both cases, Moses and Elijah, both of those men, during their 40-day periods of time, were fasting.
And being in the wilderness implies isolation, deprivation, even danger. We’re told in Mark’s gospel, he makes reference to the fact that Jesus was with the wild animals. He was there among the beasts out in the wilderness. And he was being tempted by the devil. That was the very purpose of his being led there. And he was fasting. Look with me again at verse two. He was there for 40 days being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
There have been medical studies done that suggest that on average, A healthy human being can live for between three and five weeks without food. It’s not pretty, because as a person enters those advanced stages of starvation, they begin to experience organ failure, and the body actually begins to feed on itself. It consumes muscle protein in order to try to survive. So extended fasts of that duration are not good for the body, but a person can live for multiple weeks with no food.
Most commentators, most scholars that speak of Christ’s fasting and going without food for 40 days in the wilderness believe that this is probably a supernatural fast. In other words, he wasn’t in that state that a person’s body normally might enter into without food for 40 days.
Because if you think of Moses, his time on the mountain with God, he didn’t eat or I can’t remember if it says he didn’t drink either, but he didn’t eat for 40 days and yet God through the Spirit was sustaining him during that time, supernaturally sustaining him. Similarly with Elijah, you remember Elijah was fleeing from Jezebel and God fed him with with what must have been the inspiration for Tolkien’s Lembas Bread because he gives food to Elijah and he says, eat this and drink, the journey’s too great for you. Elijah eats and he sleeps and then he goes for 40 days in the strength of that food that God had provided. So he too was sustained supernaturally and it’s generally understood and accepted that during these 40 days when Jesus did not eat food, he was being upheld supernaturally by God. But after 40 days, then it seems that that supernatural support was withdrawn. And then he experiences hunger.
Most important of all, though, those first words in verse one, Jesus was full of the Holy Spirit. That same Spirit who led him into the wilderness was also indwelling him. That Spirit was filling him. And that Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God, would strengthen him to face the temptations of the devil. Now, another question that comes up is, was he being tempted the whole time? And are these three temptations that we read of in the passage sort of the culmination of a 40-day period of temptation?
And there are different opinions on that. But I can imagine, and you can too, what it might have been like to be alone in the wilderness, night and day, with no companionship, You’re among the wild animals, and your adversary is there. The mere presence of Satan in the wilderness, even if he wasn’t close by in terms of proximity, must have been a terrible thing. If you’ve ever been alone somewhere and you knew that someone who intended to do harm was close by, you know that feeling. And Jesus probably experienced such feelings, that feeling of being threatened, even if he wasn’t actively being tempted by Satan the entire 40 days.
Now, the reason it’s so important for us to reflect upon the circumstances of Christ’s trial in the wilderness is because it’s such a contrast to the circumstances in which the first Adam was tested. God permitted, he ordained the temptations and the trials that Christ experienced in the wilderness. He also permitted the testing that came to our first parents. But what a contrast in terms of the conditions under which they were tested.
Adam and Eve were living in a garden paradise. Jesus was in this desolate wilderness. Adam and Eve were tempted in a context where they enjoyed companionship. Adam acted as the federal head of the human race, but he had a friend there. He had this helper that has been made and tailored specifically and perfectly for him. He had someone with him.
Jesus was alone. Our first parents had plentiful food. They could eat of any tree in the garden. Jesus, on the other hand, was undergoing extended fast. And then he was, by the time we get to these three specific temptations that Luke records for us, he’s hungry.
He’s weakened. So in other words, Adam was tempted under ideal, favorable conditions, and yet he sinned. He failed. He was defeated. Jesus was tempted while disadvantaged in every imaginable way. And those are the conditions, the circumstances of Christ’s trial in the wilderness. And we do well to remember. knowing that he got the victory, and he got the victory for us and for all of his people, and he did it under such austere conditions of disadvantage and weakness. So those are the circumstances. Let’s now consider the substance of Satan’s temptations.
What exactly did he come at Jesus with? Well, think back that at Jesus’ baptism, I think even in the hymn we just sang, it used the word, the heavens were torn open. That’s the word that one of the gospel writers uses. And just like in the word about the spirit leading Jesus into the wilderness. The gospel writers use differing verbs when it comes to the heavens opening. And one of them uses a word that, it’s the same word that’s used to describe what happened to the curtain in the temple at Jesus’ death.
The heavens were torn open and the Father, with an audible voice, declared, this is my beloved Son. And Satan comes along and he says to Jesus, prove it. or tempts him to doubt it, even though he’d heard the voice of the Father. Satan was tempting him to doubt that he’s the Son, or to prove that he is.
And there are three specific temptations. They’re recorded for us in Luke, of course, as we just read. Matthew also gives an account of these temptations. Matthew records a different order, though. They both start with the one about turning stone to bread. But then the second and third are in opposite order in those two gospel writers.
Doesn’t matter. Matthew’s generally believed was that maybe the actual order of the temptations. Luke switches the order for emphasis, especially because of Luke’s close attention to the temple and all the significant events that Luke highlights relating to the temple. But it really doesn’t matter.
They’re the same temptations. And there are parallels in those temptations to the temptations that were brought to our first parents. Eve saw the fruit and saw that it was a delight to the eyes. Satan showed Jesus the kingdoms of the earth and all their glory in a moment’s time. Eve saw that the fruit was good for food. Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread so he could have food. But there are also similarities in these temptations that Satan assailed Jesus with, there are similarities in the temptations that we experience. There are principles about the things that come against us and the ways in which Satan may tempt us.
And it comes down to three basic things. The temptations that Satan brings are devised to try to get us to distrust the Lord. What is faith? at its most basic. It’s trusting God. And Satan tempts us not to trust him. Secondly, Satan tempts us to circumvent God, to go around him, not to do things his way, but to choose our own way. And he tempts us to think that our way is better, or it’s more practical, or it’s easier. And he tempts us to presume upon God.
So the first temptation is to turn stone into bread. The devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command this stone to become bread. And again, let’s not forget that this attack comes at his time of weakness. He’s been without food for 40 days. And here it is, the temptation to distrust God, to doubt his goodness, to doubt that he’ll provide And this is if Satan comes to Jesus and said, oh, you poor thing, you must be so hungry. I can’t believe your father hasn’t fed you. But you’re the son of God, aren’t you? Turn this stone to bread. And the thing for us to remember is that we’re susceptible to that same species of temptation any time The voice of our adversary tempts you to distrust God or to doubt him. In the second temptation, where Satan pretty brazenly invites Jesus to worship him, we see that in verses five through seven.
The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory. For it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. So somehow, probably in some sort of a vision, Satan gives Jesus a glimpse of all the nations.
And then in words that we’re familiar with, have we ever watched The Price is Right? All this can be yours if you just bow down and worship me. And the temptation here is to circumvent God. To seek his gifts by our own means. And the allure here of this particular temptation has to do with power.
Showed him all the, nations of the world and their glory. He says, I’ve got authority over these and I’m going to hand it over. You can have it. If you’ll indulge me in another reference to the Lord of the Rings, remember when in the preface to the first novel, the first movie, where it talks about the different rings that were given to the different races. And a certain number were given to the dwarves, and three to the elves, and nine rings for the race of men who, above all things, desire power.
And it’s true, isn’t it? There was a movie. By the name, the name of the movie was Power. I think it’s from 19, in the 1980s, mid 80s. And the tagline talked about power being something that’s more alluring, more enticing, more addictive, and more precious than anything else. Power.
That’s what Satan offers Jesus. Now we get to this temptation, a question that often comes up is, hey, did Satan really possess this authority? And he told Jesus, it’s all mine, it’s all been given to me, I can give it to whoever I want. But was that really true? Was he really able to give it? Well, actually there’s a sense in which the answer is yes.
If you think about it, the authority over the nations was Satan’s in a certain sense, in the sense perhaps of Ephesians chapter 2 verse 2 where Paul is talking about people who are dead and sins and trespasses. All people who are apart from God apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he describes that category of people, anyone who’s apart from Christ as following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience. So Satan has authority over the nations in the sense that they’ve turned away from God and they’re really following him.
But there’s another sense in which the answer is no. That’s because Satan cannot in any way override or overrule God’s sovereignty. Which brings up another question, and that is, if Satan wasn’t truly able to give Jesus the nations, then was it really a temptation? How could he be tempted by something Satan wasn’t actually able to deliver?
But you know, that’s really the point. Because Satan is a liar. And the scriptures describe him as the father of lies. And the temptation was to believe him, as it always is. God made it very clear to our first parents, in the day you eat of that fruit, you will surely die. Satan said, uh-uh. And he was lying. And they believed him. Well, then the third temptation is, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple.
And the words that Satan quotes came from the psalm that we used to open our service this morning in which we sang as our opening hymn. In verse nine, he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said, if you’re the son of God, throw yourself down from here. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hands, they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone. So since Jesus was so effectively able to wield scripture against his previous two temptations, Satan decides to show that he knows a thing or two about scripture himself. Throw yourself down, if you’re the son of God, that is.
Because this is what scripture says. Satan can say, it is written, and quote the Bible, as well as any of us. Better, perhaps. The temptation here was to presume upon God, to presume. Because those promises in Psalm 91, that he would give his angels charge over you and to bear you up lest at any time you dash your foot against a stone, those were particularly and specifically for the Lord Jesus. Jesus knew it. But the temptation was, make God prove himself. Make God show that he’ll bear you up and protect you. Make God prove himself. So these same basic temptations in different forms are the same things that confront us as well.
Consider the words of J.C. Ryle on this matter as he reflects on the assaults of Satan and the temptations that he brought against our Lord. He said, each assault showed the hand of a master in the art of temptation. Each assault was the work of one acquainted by long experience with every weak point in human nature.
But then we finally want to consider the manner in which Christ prevailed. And there’s much for us to, to glean from this. But the bottom line, as you know, is that Jesus Christ prevailed against the temptations brought to him by the Father of lies by using the Holy Scripture. He responded to each temptation with the right application of God’s Word. And in doing so, he’s a model for us. God’s Son relied on Scripture. Think of the fact that he was the incarnate Son of God, he could have appealed to his own authority. He could have responded in some other way, but as a model for us, he replied with Scripture.
That’s why I so strongly encourage Christians, brothers and sisters, all of you, to have a regular Bible reading program. There’s nothing in Scripture that says you have to read through the Bible every year. If you can, it’s great, praise the Lord, do it. But if that’s a little too ambitious for you, for whatever reason, read the Bible through in two years.
But get a continuous and constant diet of the full counsel of God, because that’s the only way you’re going to have enough of a handle on the content of Scripture that you can wield it as a weapon against the temptations of Satan. It’s the only way you’re going to know whether someone else is mishandling the Scripture. If you have a grasp on the full content and the full counsel of God, His Word, then the warning lights are going to go off when somebody comes to you twisting Scripture, misrepresenting God’s Word. You’ll only be able to do that if you have a familiarity with the contents of God’s Word, the whole of it.
And so as Christ modeled the use of God’s Word to confront Satan and his lies, we should do the same. So when Satan tempts us to distrust God, we simply need to trust him. Think of those beautiful words in Proverbs 3, 5 and 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart. And do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight. So when Satan would tempt you to distrust God, trust God. Double down on your trust in the Lord.
When Satan tempts you to pursue God’s will some other way, to circumvent God, then the answer for us is to pursue God’s will and pursue it God’s way. One of the hooks that Satan got in our first appearance is when he was talking to Eve, he said, God knows that when you eat of that fruit, you’ll be like him. He’s holding out on you, but you’ll be like God if you eat that fruit. He knows that. What the woman ought to have said is, we’re already like God. We were made in his very image. Get behind me, Satan.
From eternity past, the son of God had been promised all authority. He’d been promised the kingdoms of the world. So when Satan comes and entices the son in the wilderness and saying, I’ll give you all these, will all be yours. That had all been promised to Jesus.
Psalm 2 verse 8, ask of me, says the father to his son, ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage, the ends of the earth your possession. But the path to glory and honor and power was through suffering. It was the path that included the cross. Satan was offering Jesus, presuming to offer Jesus the kingdoms of the earth without the cross. Oh, don’t bother with that. Think of all the pain. Think of how terrible it would be. I’ll give you the kingdoms and you can avoid all that. Just worship me.
We’ve always got to remember that for Christ and for us, There is no crown without the cross. So we need to trust in God, we need to pursue God’s will, God’s way, and we need to humble ourselves in the sight of the Lord. We’re the creatures, he’s the creator, he’s God, we’re not. The Lord tests us. He does and he will and he can, but we are not to test him. Do not put the Lord your God to the test.
So Christ here in this passage, there’s so much more that could be said about it, but he he provides a master class for us in the art of resisting the devil. And he’s the master example of persevering. In holiness. Just a few words of application in closing.
Let’s remember. how the Lord answered Satan with that second temptation that we find here in Luke. Satan offered him a pretty astounding prize, but the cost was, worship me. So always remember that God alone is to be worshiped. God alone is to be served.
The way one writer kind of expanded upon and paraphrased Jesus’ response to Satan, that that temptation was, it’s as if the Lord Jesus, our Savior, said, I will not worship the enemy of God who I came to serve. I came to serve God, not you, and I’m not gonna worship God’s enemy. And I will not come, I will not worship the enemy of man who I came to save. Because Satan is exactly that, the enemy of God, the enemy of man.
Anytime we worship anything or anyone other than God, we’re serving an idol, we’re worshiping the devil. Another application just by way of information, the enemies of our souls, Satan, of course, but any others who act according to his devices, the enemies of our souls will will use scripture, they’ll use God’s Word to deceitfully draw us away from true religion.
So just because someone speaks the Word of God, doesn’t mean they’re genuinely representing the mind of God. False teachers in every generation do this very thing. They follow the pattern of the father of lies. They twist the scriptures to their own destruction. They come alongside us and they say, did God really say?
And then Jesus teaches us so beautifully, so powerfully in this passage, that principle that we find elsewhere in the New Testament. And that is, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Now, when it comes to dealing with temptation, we sometimes get it backwards. Because the scriptures are very clear about this.
They say, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. But our sort of default notion is that the devil is this, and he is, he’s a fearful opponent, but if we sense that he’s coming against us, we should flee, run away. He’s this horrific, hideous monster. He is.
But Scripture doesn’t say flee from the devil. And yet when it comes to other temptations, we think that it’s our job to dig in our heels and resist temptation. I think particularly of sexual temptations of different kinds. But the scriptures don’t say, resist temptation. They say, flee from temptation. They say, resist the devil. We get it backwards. We think, run away from Satan and be strong and resist temptation.
But scripture says, flee from temptation, resist the devil. How can I resist the devil? You can resist the devil because greater is he who is in you than he who is in the world. You can resist the devil because if you are in Christ, you have the Holy Spirit dwelling in you. And the Holy Spirit is more than a match for the devil.
Israel, when they were in the desert, they distrusted God. And they disobeyed him. Jesus, the Messiah and the true Israelite, trusted his Father in the wilderness and was obedient. Man in the garden distrusted and disobeyed God. Jesus, the second Adam, obeyed.
He conquered Satan. He conquered all of his temptations, not only for himself but for us in his role as our Redeemer. And as our great high priest, he suffered being tempted. As our prophet, he appealed to the scriptures. It is written. And as our king, he engaged in head-on single combat with our great adversary, and he decisively won the victory.
Thanks be to God. Let’s pray. Lord, how thrilling it is to know that our Lord and Savior decisively and overwhelmingly defeated Satan, defeated our adversary, and in doing so, He blazed a path for us. Thank you that His Spirit is in us. Help us to be imitators of Him, and help us to rejoice in His great victory in the desert over the enemy of our souls. We give you thanks, and we pray that you’d help us to be His disciples and to persevere to the end. We pray in His name. Amen.