A man will welcome our first ever second service of three.
Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah.
Hey, I was really interested to see how everybody is going to divide out.
First service was absolutely packed.
And so good job for coming this one.
So we're, so we have some people.
Good for you.
Good for you at,
It's going to be a it's going to be a good day.
It already has been.
I'm excited for what God's going to do.
Through this, our time together.
If you have a Bible and brought one with you,
if you go to the book of Matthew.
We're going section by section.
Chapter by chapter, verse by verse through the book of Matthew.
And my hope today is to get through chapter three and part of chapter four.
But, we'll see how that goes.
I haven't really planned we're going to do this section, on a Sunday morning.
We'll get through what we get through and we'll just keep going through.
It's going to be a long study,
and so we're not going to rush it, but we're not going to cut stuff short.
So, chapter three and chapter
four, we're going to see heaven breaking through and hell breaking in.
In these, in these two sections.
In Matthew chapter three,
we're introduced to a person named John.
It's called John the Baptist.
Because he baptizes people in the Jordan River.
John and Jesus, not John the disciple.
That's a different John. This is John the Baptist.
John the Baptizer, and Jesus, our second cousins.
Jesus's mother, Mary,
and John's mother, Elizabeth, are first cousins.
John is about six months or so older than Jesus, and they're second cousins.
And God has obviously called John to a very significant and significant ministry,
which is to prepare people for Jesus's public ministry.
And so we're introduced to John today.
And then we'll be introduced to, what is commonly
referred to as the temptation of Jesus before he sets out on his public ministry.
And so if you just follow along with me.
Verses one and two of Matthew chapter three, in those days,
John the Baptist, the Baptizer came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
That word repentant or repent,
the act of repentance is a key motif.
It's, it's a it's a key, topic for John
and for Jesus and for the disciples
and for the first church,
to repent.
That word repent is not necessarily a feelings word.
It's an action word.
It may come with feelings of remorse
and feelings of grief and feelings of guilt.
But the word repent is an action word.
It's been said that
heaven's doors swing on the hinge of repentance.
I titled this whole series Kingdom Now
because in Matthew, Jesus will teach his disciples to pray.
And during that prayer, part of his teaching on prayer
is this your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In order for God's will to be done and his kingdom
to come necessitates repentance.
Heaven's door swing on the hinge of it.
It in in Scripture,
when you look at this idea of repentance, this this call to repent.
It's the first words of every major
New Testament message.
The first words of John the Baptist are to repent.
The first words of Jesus in this sermon in
Matthew 417 is to repent.
The first words that the disciples preach in Mark chapter
six is to repent.
Jesus's instructions to his disciples after the resurrection.
The first thing he tells him is preach repentance.
The first Christian message
was about repentance in acts chapter two.
The apostle Paul, his message began and ended with repentance.
All through Scripture.
In the New Testament, the primary motif
of preaching and teaching begins with repentance.
Repentance.
Well, I like to say it like this.
Repentance is not backward looking guilt.
It's forward facing surrender.
It's not just that I feel bad over my past.
That's backward looking guilt.
And that may be a part of
the feelings that prompt repentance.
But repentance is really forward facing surrender.
Repentance.
As I say this, the proof of repentance is a changed life.
But you cannot repent without a change.
So what the word means means a change of direction.
We can feel bad about sin.
We can be remorseful about sin,
and we can be feel bad about the consequences of sin.
But repentance isn't in place until a life is changed.
There's a change of direction, a change of sides.
Repentance
is less about proximity and more about direction.
And so
for any of
us to claim that we have repented of our sin,
if that is in fact the case, it will be seen by a change of life.
Does that make sense?
You know you can't keep living the same life
and claim to have repented.
That's inconsistent
and it's disingenuous.
And so John's first words here
to the community at large is to repent.
Change sides.
So the first words of Jesus first rose,
the disciples first words of the first church.
And he says, repent. Why?
Because the kingdom of heaven is at hand
when Jesus will teach his disciples to pray, your kingdom come.
How does that happen?
But first, by repentance,
the kingdom of God cannot come upon a life in life through a life
to any lives without first repentance happen in your will be done.
What's that mean? It means repent.
When I go my way, that's called sin.
When I go God's way, that's called repentance.
Your kingdom come.
It requires repentance.
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
Verse three.
For this is he who is spoken of by the prophet
Isaiah when he said, and this is quoting
Isaiah, the voice of one crying in the wilderness,
prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his past.
John the Baptizer is the one who is making the way
ready for Jesus, the Messiah and his public ministry.
And the way of Jesus is prepared
by repentance.
Repentance prepares the way for Christ.
Repentance means Kingdom come and kingdom
come means repentance.
And requires repentance.
And the first thing that we need to acknowledge right now,
every one of us,
is the need to repent.
Not just to repent for salvation,
but to live a lifestyle of repentance.
The church has gone astray and and
and lived in great misunderstanding.
When we think that repentance is Jesus, I'm sorry for my sin.
Come into my life and make me a Christian and I'm done.
I have repented.
Repentance is one of those things.
That on a regular basis,
we must live in the lifestyle of repentance.
Father, I realize that my tendency is to walk away.
I realize my habit is to go my own way,
and I repent.
I choose to go a different way.
It's pervasive.
It's profound.
It's grand.
It's expansive.
And in every way of my life, father, I repent.
Do you understand?
This is the only way that the kingdom comes.
It's the way through which the kingdom comes.
It's the hinges that the doors of heaven swing on.
It's required of every person
to live a lifestyle of repentance.
I don't have to know.
I ought not know. It's not my job to know
your need for repentance.
You need to know.
I know for my life when God has called me to repentance,
just not to salvation, but to godliness and holiness.
I know when he's called me to repent, and I know there have been those times
when I've heard that word and I've been obedient
and I've repented.
And I know those times when I've heard that word it to repent and I've ignored him.
Only to my
shame and disgrace and destruction.
So repentance was very necessary
in light of my sin
and in repentance.
Heaven comes.
I don't know what it is for you.
I don't need to know.
You need to know.
God is saying right now, repent.
Not just look back in guilt, but look forward and surrender.
Father, I repent, I go a different way and I surrender my future to your way.
Your will, your kingdom.
Do you understand this?
This is vital and crucial.
You cannot follow Jesus without repentance.
We can claim to be Christian all we want.
We can try to be a good person all we want.
It doesn't matter.
You cannot follow Christ without repentance.
That's why it was the first message of John the Baptist of Jesus,
or the disciples of the First Church of the Apostle Paul himself.
Repent.
Verse four.
Now John were a garment of camel's hair
and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey.
My gracious
God, I get a picture of this guy.
He's living out in the wilderness.
He wears a height of camel that can't.
If any of you ever ridden a camel.
So he just one year and rode a camel.
They're not nice creatures.
They're not comfortable.
They're nasty, dirty, stinky.
And this guy is covered in camel hair
with a leather belt eating
grasshoppers and honey,
I there's a lot of different ways
they made grasshoppers and locusts back in the day.
I can't imagine any of them being any good.
Unless maybe you put them on a Traeger. Because Traeger makes everything all right.
But I was
talking to someone last week about John the Baptist, and they said, why did he.
Why was he so eccentric?
Why did he wear camel hair and leather belt and live out in the in a wilderness
and here's here's why.
If you were to read Second Kings one, you'll read about the great prophet
Elijah,
and he is of that model.
Just like Elijah.
Elijah wore hairy camel hair and a leather belt that this whole idea.
And it's not that John the Baptist is trying to emulate Elijah.
It was just that type of austere life that the father called him to live.
And so he looks very much like an Old Testament.
Matter of fact, the Bible says John the Baptist, though he's a contemporary of
Jesus, is the last and greatest Old Testament prophet
because it prophesied about the coming of the Messiah before the resurrection.
Jesus will say of this man that there is no greater man born of woman
than John the Baptist.
And so here's this man, camel hair, leather
bill eating locust, and then he living out in the wilderness somewhere.
He's not seeking a follower. He doesn't have a hashtag.
He doesn't have a website, doesn't have Instagram.
He doesn't have any of that.
So there's no mailing campaign, there's no followers.
And look at what God's doing.
Verse five in Jerusalem and all Judea and all the region about the Jordan
were going out to him, and they were baptized by him in the river Jordan.
Confessing their sin like God is just.
He's setting the stage through people repenting
for Jesus, his ministry, to take root.
And all these people from the surrounding
hills are coming out to John in the wilderness.
They're seeking him out, wanting to be baptized.
Now, I want to I want you to understand the difference between the baptism of John
the Baptist that we read about here and the baptism that we practice there.
Different.
John was baptizing for the confession of sin, as people would confess their sin
and realizing they were out of line with God in repentance,
changing their life, being baptized in acknowledgment of that,
what we practice, if you
read, Romans six, especially of verse three,
we're baptized into union
with Christ, into his death, in his resurrection.
And so John was baptizing for the acknowledgment of sin,
just that people would acknowledge their sin.
We're baptized.
So according to the New Testament, into the death and the resurrection of Jesus,
as this statement, I have joined my life to the death of Christ,
died to my sin and joy in my life, to the resurrection of Christ eternally.
It's different than what John was practicing.
John's just saying that listen, acknowledge
you're a sinner separated from God.
That's what his baptism was.
And all these people are coming out to be baptized.
Now watch this.
But when he saw many of the Pharisees
and Sadducees coming to his baptism, he said to them, listen to these words.
This this boy is is a rough dude, man.
You snakes,
you brood of vipers!
Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?
Bear fruit in keeping with repentance.
Don't just talk about it.
Make sure it shows up in your life.
And do you do not presume to say to yourselves, we have Abraham
as our father, for I tell you, God is able to raise these stones up for children,
children for Abraham.
Even now, the access later the root of the trees.
Every tree, therefore, that does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown in the fire.
I mean, he just throwing the helm like.
He just knocking them out.
He said, well, who do you think you are.
Don't just talk about this
lip service of being religious.
Prove it by your life because your life doesn't look like it.
Bear fruit in keeping with what repentance.
You gotta change who you are.
You just talk about it.
Who warned you to flee from the wrath that's coming?
Did you realize something that when when someone accepts
Jesus as their Savior, you know what they're saved from?
Let me tell you.
Let me tell you what you're saved from.
You're not saved from sin.
You're saved from the wrath of God.
That's what we're saved from because of sin.
So in essence, when I accept Jesus as a Savior, what I'm saved from is
God Himself.
I'm saved from God
and His wrath because of my sin.
And what John is saying here is, who warned you to flee
from that wrath?
You talk a good game.
You talk like you're a religious person. It means nothing
to these Pharisees and Sadducees.
These are the two primary religious and political groups for the Jews,
two very different groups.
The Pharisees.
They were the larger group and they were the conservative group.
They believe the Old Testament, they believe the scriptures.
They were really, really moral.
They were conservative,
and they were part of the Conservative Party, the Sadducees,
a much smaller group, very vocal, very liberal.
And they had all the money.
Hmhmm.
The more things change, the more they say the same.
And neither of them were good.
The Sadducees being liberal,
they didn't believe in the eternal things of God.
They didn't believe in the miracles of the Old Testament.
They didn't believe in eternity. They didn't believe in heaven.
They didn't believe in hell. They didn't believe in angels.
They didn't believe in demons.
They were sad. You see.
Have you ever
heard that dumb pastor joke before?
It's so old.
It's horrible.
They're just miserable people.
And so you got these conservatives on one side, these liberals on those side
who are both giving lip service to religion.
And John says, you're both headed for destruction
because you don't live in a lifestyle of repentance.
Who warns you to flee?
Every tree that therefore doesn't bear good fruit is cut down
and thrown in the fire.
Verse 11 I baptize you with water for repentance.
But he was coming after me is mightier than I,
whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry.
And he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.
His winnowing fork is already in his hand, and he will clear threshing floor
and gather his wheat into the barn.
But the chaff he'll burn with unquenchable fire.
That's a brutal message, man.
Says no more.
Are you religious people? No more lip service.
Repent.
Bear fruit of repentance.
Show it in your life because otherwise it doesn't matter and it's of no effect.
It says, I'm baptizing you with repentance right now, so you acknowledge your sin.
But there's coming one after me who will baptize you with fire.
And the Holy Spirit.
And he says these words, whose sandals I'm not worthy to carry in this, in this,
this bondservant or slave culture,
the lowest of the slave in the home.
The lowest slave was the one when the when the owners or the masters
would walk in the house, would unbend to untie their sandals and carry their shoes.
For him that was the lowest of the lowest slave.
That was their job. Do you hear what John saying?
I'm not even worthy to be the lowest of the lowest slave of Christ.
I love his humility.
He's not seeking a following.
He doesn't have some social media army behind him.
He's not asking for followers.
There's no hashtag Instagram.
None of that.
He's the greatest of those born among women.
And yet, he says, I'm not even worthy to be the lowest of the slaves
for Christ.
That's a humble life of repentance.
Do you understand?
That.
Then verse 13, Jesus came
from Galilee to the Jordan to John to be baptized by him.
John would have prevented him saying, I don't.
I need to be baptized by you.
You even come to me.
Can you imagine?
Like like you're sitting in the backyard by your pool of sun.
Jesus walks through the gate. Hey, we got water.
How about you baptize me? I mean, I want to
know.
I mean, the only time you could feel right telling Jesus. No.
Like I'm going to baptism.
It makes no sense.
And I'm sure John's like, here's my.
You get this.
You need to baptize me.
And Jesus answered him, let it be so.
Now for us.
It is fitting for us to fulfill our righteousness.
Then he continued, you can sin.
And so here's what's happening.
Jesus wants to be baptized by John.
Here's why.
In baptism, Jesus is identifying with sinners
so he could later justify sinners.
Jesus is not being baptized for confession.
Jesus is being baptized for identification
so he can identify with sinful humanity.
Not that he's sinful, but as an identification with sinful humanity.
It's a baptism for Jesus of identification, not a confession. Why?
Because Isaiah 5312
says that he was numbered with the transgressors,
though never transgressed.
So for Jesus to identify with fallen, sinful humanity,
he has to identify with fallen sinful humanity.
And to do that, he does that in baptism so that he can justify fallen,
sinful humanity. You understand?
The Bible says in Hebrews chapter four that Jesus
as our high priest, the model of the Jewish High priest,
was tempted in every way that we are, yet without sin.
Jesus had to be tempted in every way.
He had to identify with with us in every way so that he could
rightfully hold us accountable for our sin
and rightfully provide the provision for the forgiveness of sin.
So he's baptized in identification with sinful humanity,
so he can later justify sinful humanity to follow.
That's why he's baptized.
And when Jesus was baptized, immediately
he went up out of the water and behold, the heavens were open to him.
And he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him.
And behold, a voice from heaven said, this is my beloved son,
with whom I am well pleased.
So at his baptism,
which, by the way, the Greek word for for baptized is baptism,
and it means literally to immerse or dunk underwater.
That's why we baptized by immersion, because the word means to immerse under
water.
That's why we don't sprinkle, because the word baptize means to immerse.
And so when it says Jesus came up out of the water,
it means by necessity he was totally immersed in the water.
Do you follow so he comes up out of the water after being totally immersed.
And the Bible says, The Spirit of God descends
as like a dove, and a voice from heaven is heard.
This is my son, in whom I am well pleased,
that what we see here
is a manifestation of what's called the Trinity.
Have you heard about what the Trinity is?
You heard that word Trinity.
The Trinity is a Christian doctrine that there's one God
manifest in three persons God the father, God the son, God
the Spirit, equal in nature, all being God.
Different manifestations.
The Father is God, but the father is not the son.
The Son is God, but son is not the spirit.
The spirit is God, but the spirit isn't the father.
They're all God.
Different manifestations now,
you may know or have been told
by people who don't understand and by some cults,
that the Trinity, the Trinity is not in the Bible,
and that therefore God is not equal
in three persons, but distinct in different natures.
For instance, that the son was created by the father.
That's false.
The Bible's
very clear about the doctrine of the Trinity.
It is true that the word Trinity is nowhere in Scripture.
You can look all through every page and word of the Bible,
and you will not find the word Trinity.
It doesn't mean the Trinity isn't there.
The doctrine of the Trinity for the Christian Church
was clearly defined, in at the Council
of Nicaea in 325 A.D.
and they said, this is what the Scripture says
about the nature of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the spirit.
That's put the verbiage around it so everybody knows.
It was a response to, heresy called Arianism,
that rejected the idea that Jesus was eternal with the father.
And so they said, let's set it straight for all Christians.
The doctrine of the Trinity that God is one God.
God is Father, God the spirit, God the Son, co-equal but different persons.
And so the doctrine of the Trinity was really fleshed out in 325 BCE.
But the Trinity is all through Scripture, Old Testament and New Testament here
and then the least you have the Spirit of God
and the father saying, this is my son,
father, son, spirit.
You see that all at the same place at the same time.
Okay, so don't doubt the doctrine of the Trinity.
Don't be fooled by people's arguments about it.
But I want you to, I want to I want to point something else out about this to.
And this is just super practical, okay?
Especially for parents.
What does God the Father
say of God the Son in verse 17?
This is what
my beloved son finish it,
with whom I am well pleased.
This is the father saying over his son,
this is my beloved.
I'm so proud of him.
I'm so pleased with him up to this point for what we know.
Scripture.
What had Jesus done to make the father say, I'm so proud of you.
From from what we know, Scripture
and anything he showed up
and anything.
From what we know in Scripture, he hasn't done anything.
And what does the father say?
Man, I love you and I'm so proud of you
parents, please understand this.
The love of the father,
the pride he has in his son
has nothing to do with performance.
Simply his person.
Parents get this.
Make sure that your children know.
That you love and your love for them.
And your pride in them has nothing to do with their performance,
just simply for who they are.
When you get upset
at their lack of opportunity or performance, what's that?
Tell them.
That you're pleased when they get it.
Parents,
please hear me on this, especially if you got little.
I don't care if they're little or old. Doesn't matter.
I, I just had my my middle son compete
in a jujitsu, competition this last Saturday.
He took jiu jitsu for three months. He got third place.
It's like it
and but but here's my point.
We're talking to him.
Had nothing to do with how he performed it.
Just.
Man, I'm so thankful
that you still have this desire to do stuff and you're able to.
And how fun that must have been.
I'm just proud of you for yourself out there getting after it
had nothing to do with what he did.
So parents, please, please do this man.
You get a little girl, a little boy, oh, boy, all that matters.
Listen, I just love getting to watch you do your thing.
That's it.
I'm just proud of you.
Nothing to do with your performance,
parent.
You understand that?
Take if you from God the Father.
And so verse four
or chapter four, chapter three.
Heaven breaks through the Spirit of God upon the Son of God.
For the father.
Chapter four.
Hell breaks in the moment this happens.
Great moment.
Then Jesus was led by the spirit into the waters to be tempted by the devil.
He had to be tempted.
Jesus could not escape this life without temptation in every way we are. Why?
Because he has to identify with every temptation we face.
If Jesus was tiptoed in every way, at the core of every way we are,
we can make a charge against him.
You cannot condemn me because of my sin,
because you don't know what it's like to be me.
You understand that we would have a charge against God.
So in order to take every charge away from like we can't charge God with anything,
Jesus had to be tempted
in every way that we are and had to face it without sinning.
And so he's led
is this great moment with the father, and he's led in the desert to be tempted.
And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights,
I love how
simplistic the Bible puts this next statement.
He's fasting 40 days and nights
and it says he was hungry.
You think?
I mean, I didn't get breakfast this morning
and I would say I'm hungry.
40 have any of you fasted before?
Like like a biblical fasting on a medical fast, but a difficult fast.
Yeah.
For like you missed a meal and because you're busy
a day, two days, three days a week, 40 days, anybody?
40 days and nights.
Have a church planner friend in Ohio?
He played right tackle for University of Georgia back in the day.
He's a big, big man.
He's done 240 day fast.
He now he a lot of weight to lose.
No big deal. But I'm
but but
for 40 day fat that's that's that's brutal.
And at some point your body starts eating itself.
And so yeah he's found and for days he was hungry no doubt.
And the temperature came to him and said,
we're going to see the three temptations to Jesus in those same two ways.
We're tempted.
The devil isn't creative, but he's consistent.
The devil cannot.
I said, if you are the Son of God, give man these stones, become loaves of bread.
Couple things going on here.
One thing I want you to stand.
Regardless of the temptation.
There's a way out.
None of us has to give in to temptation.
When I was, When I was a little boy.
I've told this story a few different times.
My mom and dad really want us to memorize the Bible,
and they knew that the way to my heart was through a Baby Ruth candy bar.
And so
my mom put a Baby Ruth candy bar on top of the frigerator
not one of the cheap little ones, like the big full thing.
And she wrote this verse for first Corinthians 1013
on a, on a index card and put on a mag on the refrigerator.
She said, when you memorize that verse, you're gonna have a candy bar.
And it was first Corinthians 1013.
There is no temptation which come upon you, which is common to everybody.
And God is faithful and just and won't allow you to be tempted
beyond what you can handle and will with the temptation.
Make a way out so you can handle it.
And so what that told me is that whatever temptation
I face is common to everybody else, I'm not special and neither are you.
Your temptations are exactly what everybody else faces, nothing new.
So don't think that devils singling you out special.
You're going to
be tempted in the way everybody is tempted, and God is faithful
and just, and he won't allow that temptation to be too much for you.
And even beyond that, he'll give you a way out
that you can handle it so you don't have to sin.
That's what I learned growing up,
Carl. You're not special
to every temptation everybody else faces your dad.
Face it, your brother face it.
Your uncle's face it.
Your friends faces. Same.
And you can handle it.
And you'll even have a way out.
And what that told me is
I need to look for the way out.
And what that told me is,
sometimes I don't want to way out.
Sometimes I want to sin.
So God is faithful and just to provide a way out.
He's also faithful and just to hold me accountable for my sin,
because sometimes I choose it.
And he's also faithful and just to provide, to provide
the payment for my sin through Jesus.
And so these temptations.
The devil starts with with Jesus.
If you are the Son of God, he's saying a couple of things.
He's raising a question.
He said, do you think you got a relationship with with God?
He's your father.
If he's your father, why would he treat you like this?
You think this relationship you have with him is
is is solid and good?
If so, why?
Why is he?
Why is he doing to you what he's doing?
He's also raising is raising this this point.
If you are the Son of God, why don't you prove it?
Why don't you prove it?
Do you see how the
devil just starts raising questions in our minds about the father?
And this is the first temptation command.
These stones become bread loaves of bread.
Why does he start with that temptation?
Because. Why? Because he's hungry.
It's the temptation of his greatest felt need.
And what the devil is saying?
The temptation, number one, is you cannot trust the provision of God.
That's the.
That's the first temptation.
You can't trust
God to take care of you because obviously he hasn't.
If you have this great relationship with God,
why would he let you be
in such need right now?
Why would you trust him to provide for you?
Because obviously, look back, he hasn't.
Do you understand this temptation?
If this relationship is so good between you and the father,
why would he let you go hungry?
Why would he let you be in so much need?
It makes no sense.
Take matters into your own hands.
Do this yourself.
Anybody?
You can't trust God to take care of you
because he's left you without.
What kind of loving God is that?
That's a temptation.
It's the same temptation of Eve in the garden.
When the devil came to even said, why would you trust God
to provide for you?
Look what he's kept from you.
It's the same thing with Adam.
Or with, with Abraham and Sarah.
What?
God said he's going to give you a son.
How many years has it been?
You can't trust him to provide.
He hasn't done it yet.
Let's solve this ourselves.
But he answered, it is written, man shall not live
by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.
I love the how Jesus responds.
He just gives one Bible.
I'm not going to talk to you about it. I'm not gonna argue with about it.
I'm not going to try to read anything.
Here's what the Bible says.
There's no discussion.
Then the devil took him to the holy city and sat him
on the pinnacle of the temple and set him.
If you are there, it is again, right?
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, lest you strike your foot against a stone.
The devil says, fine, Jesus.
You want to quote Bible up the Bible?
Do you know the Bible?
Or you know the devil probably knows the Bible better than me, and you.
And so he takes so much to the pinnacle
the temple, the top of the temple, the pinnacle, all the way down
to the bottom of the Kidron Valley that it overlooks was 450ft.
And so the devil's like look, 450ft.
Go throw yourself down, the Bible says, or you won't quote the Bible.
I'll quote the Bible.
The Bible says, so come out and see angels.
Concerning is quoting Psalm 91
and he he's saying, here's the deal.
You based on the track record Jesus, you can't trust
God's provision, nor can you really trust his protection.
That's the second temptation
he hasn't provided for you, and he will not protect you.
Like I said, the devil isn't created a bit.
He's consistent.
And Jesus said to him, again it is written,
you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.
No discussion, just the Bible.
Friends take.
Let's take our cue from from Jesus.
Our response to every question, our response to every temptation,
our response to every whatever has got to be.
The Bible says
what the Bible says.
The Bible says
when we got to know the Bible, but to our response
as we go, the Bible says, but here's the thing.
The moment you or I respond in this culture today,
the moment we respond with the Bible says we're going to be labeled
ignorant and bigoted and whatever other title you want to put on people.
Because it flies in the face
of culture to say the Bible says, let's so all it's so archaic.
Well, the Bible says.
And we've got to be willing to bear that,
to bear that badge.
I'm a man of the Bible.
I'm a woman of the Bible.
We're a family.
The Bible in the Bible says that's just that's just how it is.
You can label me however you want.
You can call me whatever you want.
That's fine.
But the Bible says.
In this culture, there was so much confusion
and so much verbiage about all kinds of.
Identities and genders and relationships.
And the Bible says.
Roles and the Bible says.
Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain
and showed him all the kingdom of the world and their glory.
And he said, all these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.
What right does the devil
have to give kingdoms to God?
Well, in Luke four six
we learned that for a time being,
he's the ruler of this dark world.
See? And in the garden at the sin of Eve
and Adam, the devil was given the title deed of the earth.
He owns it.
The good news is we read the last book of the Bible, revelation chapter five,
and we see the lamb who was slain, who gets the title deed back.
But in the meantime,
over this dark world, the devil still yields power.
And the devil tells Jesus, look, if the point of this whole thing,
let's just get pragmatic.
Now, if the point of this whole thing
is that the world worship you, let's just circumvent the cross.
Why go through that?
Just bow down.
All the kingdoms are mine to give you.
I'll give them all to you. They'll worship you.
Which is the goal anyway, right?
Because
after all, Jesus, you can't really trust the promises of God.
That's the third temptation.
You can't really trust his promises.
You can't really trust his word.
And so let's get let's get to where we want to get,
but let's do it a different way.
For me,
this would probably be the greatest temptation.
I mean, other than the bread one,
because when I'm hungry, that would be fantastic. But.
But I'm so pragmatic.
Let's understand what the goal is.
Let's get there by any way possible.
And if we can do it easy, let's do it easy.
And that's what he's telling Jesus.
Well, we'll get to the worship
if you part, but let's do it without the suffering part.
Let's do it off the cross.
You can't really trust the promise of God.
He has his promise of,
of of a resurrection, his promise of redemption through your blood.
You can't really trust that.
Let's get it a different way.
And then Jesus said in verse ten.
Shut up.
You, you.
He's done.
Be gone, Satan.
And he doesn't say, be gone, because I believe he does
say be gone because I trust he doesn't to be gone because I anything
he says be gone because it is written,
you shall worship
the Lord your God and serve him, and only him only shall you serve.
I love the fact man that Jesus.
He doesn't boil it down to what he thinks or what he believes in. Nothing.
He boils it down. This is what the Bible says.
And I'm going to build my life,
and I'm going to build my response on what the Bible says.
Basically, what Jesus saying is
my job is to honor my father.
That's my job.
And however he wants me to do that, I'm going do that.
I will believe his provision because the Bible says I will believe
his protection, because the Bible says I will believe his promise.
Because the Bible says
my job is just to honor him.
Verse 11 then the devil left him, and behold,
angels came and were ministering to him.
Jesus met every temptation with Scripture,
every temptation with Scripture.
That's our key.
The Bible says.
And and I want you
to understand this, that heaven always means obedience with strength.
Heaven always
meets your obedience with strength.
Just be obedient, repent.
He'll meet you with strength.
And angels came and ministered to him.
I want to close with this verse to wrap this whole thing up.
James four seven
submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
This whole thing starts with submitting ourselves to God.
It's repentance.
Father, I submit my will to yours.
I submit my agenda to yours.
I submit my future to your design.
I humbly submit myself to you.
You are king.
I'm your slave.
Do with me as you will submit yourself to God.
Then resist the devil.
There's a lot of us who have tried to resist the devil
and be good people, and change our lives in ourselves.
It doesn't work.
Behavior modification doesn't work.
There has to be a submission to God first.
It has to be a repentance first.
And when we submit ourselves and repent,
then we're able to resist the devil.
And the moment the devil sees submission to God in repentance and resistance,
he runs away.
Do you understand that?
But it starts with our repentance.
And so, according to what John
the Baptizer said, according to what Jesus preached, according to the disciples,
according to the first church, according to Paul, repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.
I want you to pray with me.
Father, I thank you
that you've not left us her own devices, as you not left us to,
to this world.
According to our effort.
I thank you that you've given us your word,
that you've given us your son, that you've given us your spirit.
And I pray that in these moments that you would call us to repentance.
Not just our
remorse over our past, but in
submission of our future.
Friends, I want to invite you in this moment.
Like I said, I don't need to know.
It's not for me to know
your need of repentance.
You need to know it
and the need to repent.
The moment
you live in repentance and submission,
which is obedience,
heaven meets you with strength.
And so I invite you in this moment, just simply between
you and the father to say, God, I repent,
I repent.
I agree with you about this part of my life.
I've lived in rejection
of your design.
I acknowledge that,
and I come before you today in repentance
and submission.
Not because of who I am, but because of what you've done.
Jesus, I pray you, make me a new person. I want to go a different way
and I give you my life.
I give you my future.
I give you my direction.
May walk in newness of life.
Now God.
And then in this moment,
would you then also commit.
Father I,
when I choose to resist the devil,
the attitude he creates in
me, the grudges he continues in me,
the habits he propels in me, I submit to you,
I resist him, make him run away.
He has no authority in my life anymore
because I'm submitted to you.
Jesus, I love you.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Thank you for this church thing, for these people.
May your kingdom come and your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
In your name I pray, Amen.
Friends, I love you.
I'm proud of you.
Good job.
For the first second service of the three.
I want you this
week to read chapter four and get into chapter five.
Chapter five starts the greatest
message ever preached called the sermon on the Mount, chapter five, six and seven.
There's a lot there, so read those two. Chapter four.
In chapter five. Let's get into that next week.
Invite your friends with you.
Invite your huddle to come to church with you,
and live a lifestyle of repentance.
Heaven will meet you with strength
I love you. Let's sing.