Acing the Devil's Tests, Part 2

Whether it's overindulging at the dinner table, letting her jealousy.

Consumers were allowing our minds to cultivate unhealthy ambition. Most of us are a little embarrassed by the things that tempt us. Yet temptation is a test that no one escapes today on Insight for living trucks went all this teaching from Matthew chapter 4 in this passage were invited to see Jesus alone in the wilderness transform his temptation in the moments of triumph's response is a model for us all.

Check titled today's message acing the devils tests and we begin with prayer.

How marvelous is your grace our father to come to us and to meet us in our deepest needs and to rescue us from stupid decisions foolish allurements. Subtle temptations that have a way of warming into our minds beginning to convince us that wrong is right and questionable is not that it all.

How great is your grace. How profound is your compassion. You have never once shamed us never once thrown us out because we walked our own way, you never once turned against us. Never once turned a deaf ear to our prayers. You hear us when we call and you are touched with the feelings of our infirmities as strong as your armor protection, health think that shield the guards us from the assaults and darts in the tax of the enemy we live in a wicked world is easy for us, our father to care more about what others may think than we do about what you have said to fight battles on our own. And to think foolishly that we can win them through secular means and human effort shows over and over again. Lord, that there is no one else to turn to but you, you alone have the words of eternal life and our father. How deep is your love for us, astonishingly deep, limitless beyond the deepest ocean farther than our minds can take us your love is there, never changing, always pulling for us. Filled with encouragement and affirmation dripping with forgiveness.

Thank you. With a God like this. Please forgive us for turning to the other things in this life to find our security, our hope and our reason to go on as we open the vault of truth and peer deep with in this line of treasures.

May we understand the dialogue between the son of God and the sinister one, Lucifer himself and may we have never before take you seriously and trust you completely our gifts, with confidence that they will be used wisely and well. We pray that integrity will mark the use of these funds they will be able to sprout wings and spread the good word of our Lord beyond our own community and into our state and our country and our world. A world that has lost its way. May your love draw us back again and again to yourself, and may we not doubt the sincerity of your promise that you so love the world, you gave your one and only son, that whoever believes in him would never perish.

We may die, but we will never perish but have eternal life.

This is our prayer today and these are our gaps both in the name of Christ who loves us and gave himself for us in everyone's email. Study the book of Matthew with Chuck Swindoll. Be sure to download his searching the Scriptures.

Studies by going to Insight world.or/study now, let's resume Chuck's message about acing the devils tests as we cover this fourth chapter in Matthew's gospel we will read about tests that were designed by the devil, for Jesus, specifically with the hope in mind that he would fail. The 11 verses are full of the devil five times. He is named. Once he is called Satan all the way through is like like them. The main thread in the fabric. He appears and reappears. He's engaged in one simple plan and that's to bring Jesus down with to be careful, however, that we don't make this an impractical kind of formal time of study. Practically speaking, Jesus is all alone in the wilderness.

If you've never been in the Judean wilderness. You don't know what alone is all about.

It is barren beyond belief.

It is usually cold at night and during the summer especially, it is blistering hot. There is no water all alone in the wilderness area on top of that he has fasted 40 days followed by 40 nights, he has maximum privacy, silence and solitude in many ways it's a perfect setting for him to grow deeper in his relationship with the father we have learned in our lives. Practically speaking, that when we are alone we can hear God a little better than the noisy crowd when we are fasting holding back from so much to eat.

We often growing our sensitivity toward the Lord and because of the silence and solitude. He is able to speak.

There's everything right about this, but the danger signals were there by just being alone.

Stop and think Eve was alone when she yielded to the serpent.

David was alone on his bed when he began to take that walk on the porch and noticed Bathsheba bathing below him in her backyard. Eliza was alone under the juniper tree when he asked the Lord to take his life, King Saul was alone in the tent when depression overwhelmed him, and the demons were hot after him. Judas was alone when he made the bargain with the devil to betray him for 30 pieces of silver. Your mind plays tricks on you when you are tempted, and in the midst of the temptation if you're not careful you begin to feel sorry for yourself. Self-pity plays a major role when we are very much alone it says Coleridge wrote in his rhyme of the ancient mariner alone alone all all alone hello wide wide see another one took took pity on my soul and nag in the how alone he felt and how alone is Jesus. What alone we can rationalize our way into wrongdoing. We could justify our evil desires.

Don't think the devil doesn't know this.

He's been studying you since you were in the womb. He knows you completely. He does every tiny chink in your armor. He knows every every area of weakness. He knows what appeals to you the most and the least he knows how to shape his temptations in such a way that will bring you closer and closer to his goal of having fallen fail now to sand the devil can only be one place at one time he may be supernatural, but he is not God. Only God is omnipresent.

So when the devil is here he is nowhere else and when he is here he is altogether here, by the way, these 11 verses former rare account. No one else was there to tell of them except Jesus. So somewhere in the training of Matthew and the disciples he reveal the story of what occurred in the temptation he alone would know, but remember the devil's supernatural he loses with charm, he could leave the most successful charm school in the world and advertising why you would whenever Super Bowl ad that you would ever want to see he would be so appealing it up to go out and buy it or tasted or tried. He knows that well then he knows our nature that well that when he begins his often subtle approach.

It just kind of unfolds out of I want you to miss that. Notice the devil came and said what course he's not stomping up and down blaspheming the living God cursing the son of God is no appeal there is compassion a commitment.

We can talk about this. I mean I just II just heard in your baptism.

Heard your father your father right. I heard them call you son is a silly way to treat three son, would you treat your son like, hey, here's a stone turned into a warm hello think I'm nursing that would be. But Jesus is been 40 days. 40 days. While you're at it, course make thousands of those stones everywhere man you could you feed them. People are hungry all over the world and you're all about that students together. First of all, you will be nourished and it's about time. 40 days 40 days and nights stumbling across locusts and scorpions and snakes in the barrenness.

The howling winds of the wilderness. I thought you were his son, William Barclay writes we must always remember that the person who is gifted with charm, will be tempted to use that charm to get away with anything. The person gifted with words, will be tempted to use his command of words to produce glib excuses to justify his own conduct. The person with a vivid insensitive imagination will undergo agonies of temptation that a person more solid will never experience the person with great gifts of mind will be tempted to use these gifts for himself and not for others to become the master servant of man is the grim fact of temptation that it is just where we are strongest that we must forever be on the watch I love Jesus response. He doesn't play with the enemy is no plaything placement keeps he wants her.

So don't ever doubt it. He wants everything about you everything you want your marriage. You want your motive. He wants her ambition. He wants her dreams.

He wants her successes.

He wants to team up with you doing it together with Mr. charm the angel obliged Lucifer is ready for a partnership. So Jesus told him no love the way this is handled in the new living scriptures know the Scriptures say people to not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Deuteronomy 83. Check it out yet and plan for the test but he knew the word of God. It had been streaming into his mind for 30 years growing up in the home cooking of his mother Mary in the village of Nazareth. They have today.

Year after year. He knew Deuteronomy backwards and forwards you could quote it at the moment and Satan has no answer for the Scriptures, but it doesn't stop up. By the way, remember Peter's words, the devil is like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may wipe down how are you know is the Greek word cutout means down Tino's liquid to drink down, we would say to swallow all but a roaring lion, seeking everyone this will not playing games with Jesus is not only about bread. It's about doing what he tells them to do this about meeting his own needs, not trusting in the father to nourishing in his own providential way. It's a test designed to get him to miss trust the provident provisions of God, you will face them regularly married or single, will constantly be tempted to do it your way, your way and the devil will be there applauding it saying welcome, there's lots stones.

We can turn into bread together. No verse five is the second test, then the devil drove him no, no, pushed him no we took him contrary woman may appear to commit to Jerusalem take him up to what is called in the Greek text, the wing of the temple. It's apparently at that time a precipice that hung high over the street 450 feet below over 40 stories you're standing there together and he said son of God. Job just about everything you think people will follow you looking for signs for all this time and I think the Messiah comes, he's going to be this miracle working your this miracle working job vaudeville falling over the thousands. You will not begin with a small deal bill get in line to what you charm that isn't enough. Satan quotes from Psalm 91 liquid that you think you don't want to know the Scriptures. Your enemy knows better than you and I ever will know them but he will order his angels to protect you.

Jesus they'll hold you up with her hands so you would even hurt your foot so check it out yourself. Psalm 91 problem is he twisted on context. He misquotes a part of it and he lays out a section that ought to be mentioned is has nothing to do with sensationalism. Which of the temptation do something sensational long enough. It is wilderness nonsense why your angels and you could name one after another. You created all of us will become your parachute so Jesus responds. The Scriptures also say you must not test the Lord your God, what what what's what's wrong with this test is presumption is the center presumption happens all the time people do in the name of faith. They play with snakes and they call it faith. They play with illness; faith they promise miracles of this the miracles of that is it. Miracles were every day and they call it faith.

And if you don't have it happen you don't have the faith sensationalism. You will always be with us and it is a cheap way to minister those who follow the sensationalist are headed for a dead-end street, one man puts it this way. He who seeks to attract others to him by providing them with sensations has adopted a way in which there is literally no future latkes always want more, you jump from there by jumping from here. If you jump from here when I go up there and if you job on not in the starting remember this as you lead ministries and measure involved in ministries.

Many of you are. Remember that is always a tendency on the part of the flesh to rely on the flesh to do the spirits work don't go there. Don't go there on a number of years ago I came across a little cartoon type clip out of a Christian magazine. It's called a meeting of the board. A satire it's if Jesus had done things our way back then the conversation as the disciples meet as if there are group of elders and Jesus is the leader and Pete begins the conversation. This meeting is been called at the request of Matt John, little Jim and Bart Bart, would you please lead us with prayer sure Bart said Almighty God, we ask your blessing on all we do and say and earnestly pray that your will that that you will see our side is your side.

Amen Mr. start their Pete Jesus, we would follow me around for some time and were getting concerned about the attendance figures Tom Avenue on the Hill yesterday, 37 is going to be ridiculous.

As Peter you had to pick things up man expect things to happen.

John, I'd like to suggest you pull up more miracles that walking on the water bit was the most exciting thing of ever seeing but only a few of us saw it now, if a thousand or so had a chance to witness and we would have more than we can handle on the hill little Jim. I agree the healing miracles are terrific, but only a limited number really get to see what is happened. Let's have more water to wine more efficient year never hurts to fill their stomachs. No more storms get more signs for the people need PI. Another thing publicity is essential you tell half the people you care to keep it quiet. What's that about let the word out. Jesus met the miracles, but I want to hear a few stories I can understand this.

Those who have ears to hear stuff just clouds the issue yet to make it clear Jesus or most of his inaugural Babel is a good thing home, big Jim, I like to offer an order service first tell a story and give a big miracle, followed by an offering and then maybe thought about a small miracle to bring him back next time. Boy I pray if you like, go do something. Jim, that's for sure. Attendance is been awful. Judas is like to say I forgot. Keep meeting in the supper room will do something about the car all so secular is a way people wanted to give them what they want. Scripture says you must not test the Lord your God presumption is a sin we will go there. I'm not jumping most of us can readily picture this fictitious scenario in which the disciples attempt to manipulate their evangelistic efforts. This is insight for living and there's much more that Chuck Swindoll wants to show us in the fourth chapter of Matthew, he titled today's message acing the devils tests to learn more about this ministry.

Visit us online at insight world.or, in the first century. Matthew under the inspiration of God's Spirit recorded the story of Israel's king.

He starts with Jesus arrival in Bethlehem works through his earthly ministry all the way to the great commission in which he commanded us to make disciples around the world over the next few weeks and months will take this journey in Matthew together. It's a serious Chuck is titled the King of Kings. Now, in order to make the most of this brand-new teaching series we're inviting you to add Swindoll's living insights commentary on Matthew dear personal collection. The commentary on Matthew comes in two hardbound volumes in their written in a style that's easy to understand and the format is simple to navigate Chuck's practical insight conversational style and humor bring the warmth and accessibility rarely found in commentaries.

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