The Desert, The Devil And You Part 1

Rain forests looking to Jesus and sometimes we find ourselves directly requesting times of bring. That's what happened to Jesus was led by God into the wilderness and found himself tempted to sin by the devil. Today lessons we can learn from the desert you stay with the church in Chicago. This is certain. Your teaching helps us make it across the finish line leads are wouldn't have been possible for Jesus to succumb to Satan's tempting throughout history there been theologians who have said yes and they like to emphasize the fact that Jesus Christ had a genuine human nature and so they say. Yes he could've succumb to sin but I insist that the answer is no. And the reason is because his two natures were brought together in such a way that the human nature could not have sinned without implicating the divine nature. He was after all one person now. This series of messages is incredibly important and I want to thank the many of you support this ministry.

If you are blessed as a result of the ministry of running two minutes because other people have invested in this ministry, would you consider becoming an endurance partner that someone who stands with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts. You need more info. Of course, here's what you do go to RTW offer.com that's RTW offer.com when you're there, click on the endurance partner button or if you prefer, call us at 1-888-218-9337 and now let us listen to Jesus in the desert purpose of this series of messages is to prepare us for hired time, but some are already there in the next two messages I'm going to be speaking more about the global issues of the economy and all those things. But today it's 11 I'm talking to you and I'm speaking to myself. I have a friend that I've known for many years. He is not a member of Moody Church, nor does he attend here, I walk with them through some very dark times especially in the last three years we meet somewhat regularly. In fact, I met with him last week. What I'm going to share with you as to what is going through is done with his complete permission. You know that I would never share a story like this unless he signed off on all the details, so here goes. What is happened in his life. In the last three years. He was unjustly fired from a job, a Christian man offered him the job and benefited from him. But then he was let go. He said far-reaching betrayals by close friends and business associates.

Secondly, went through a nasty and difficult second divorce, complete with false accusations of abuse which were later proved to be false, loss of health insurance and near loss of life due to cancer as a result of having no life insurance. Although his physical needs are now being met. Thankfully, financial ruin, unable to pay his mortgage for two years, a bright spot is he does continue to live in the house, which is not yet totally foreclosed daily oppression from creditors harassing phone calls. He said I know I owe them money, but I've nothing to pay them complete reliance on food stamps. A food pantry and the generosity of families and friends, bank accounts, his in one of his children illegally zeroed out without warning.

Both parents died in the last three years and because his bank account was zeroed out he was not able to visit his mother the week before she died. Continual oppression from the legal system. One thing after another injustice piled upon injustice. His son experienced a terrifying physical assault resulting in stitches in my head. Someone jumped on him someone hiding behind the bushes and so this is being investigated terrifying mistaken SWAT team raid of the outside of the house SWAT team doing a lot of damage and then the worst and what I'm to share with you now is worse than the others that I already gave a son addicted to drugs. Presently incarcerated, not helped by rehab.

So when I met with him this past week I said to him, my friend, my brother after all this every time I get an email I almost know in advance what is happening now can't ever some good things happen to him. I said, do you still trust God. So this is what he said Word for Word. My faith is not only been strengthened as a result of this difficult. My experience of seeing God so faithfully work in my life has given me more confidence to extend my faith in ways that I would not have had the courage to do previously. I've seen my children and others in my life respond favorably to Jesus Christ as a result of observing my faith despite the circumstances and I have seen how God can use hardships to open doors to develop new relationships as a result of my brokenness and humility.

I now better understand the nature of God and the love of Jesus, and I want to say wow and thank you. You stated able pastor Luther what is God up to his one trial enough does it have to be multiple trials. One thing after another.

The loss of a job, injustice, mistreatment by Christians when does the list ever and will in this message. I'm glad you asked. I'm going to explain to you from God's word exit sack delay what's happening and what the deal is and what God is doing and what the devil is doing. Thanks for joining me on this journey. The passage of Scripture is actually the fourth chapter the fourth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew and I do hope that you turn to it. It's always so important to see you there in the word of God. Jesus is tested by the devil, but we can't understand the fourth chapter, unless we go back a couple of verses at the last part of the third chapter, Jesus is being baptized by John the Baptist to later on is beheaded this past week I was speaking at a conference where somebody said that it a man.

You know sometimes we have people who are marginal in some ways he came to the platform and said I'm John the Baptist I want to speak and the pastor said you're not John the Baptist. The man said how do you know and the pastor said because you still have your head on. I guess that would be one way to go that he was not John the Baptist. What this was when John still had his head on. He baptized Jesus and then it says in verse 16 and when Jesus was bad ties eating 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, behold a voice from heaven said this is my beloved son, with whom I am well please. And then the Bible says, then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

In fact, it's the gospel of Mark who says immediately Jesus was led to the desert to be tempted of the devil. Why immediately, what's the rush.

Jesus had just heard from the father, thou art my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Those words had just come from heaven and now the question is, will Jesus cleave to those words and believe those words. No matter what God puts him through. That's the issue that needs to be settled. So Jesus is driven by the spirit into the wilderness. Now there are purposes for temptation. There are purposes the devil has his purpose. And what is the devil's purpose. What the devil wants to do is to take the fabric of God's love toward Jesus and carriage.

He wants to put daylight between the words of the father and the experience of Jesus to get Jesus to doubt whether the father spoke truth, you're my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.

The devil Diablo loss is called the accuser he is an accuser.

If you use the other word to word polygon means destroyer so he's out to destroy this past week I listen to a message by a man by the name of Jim Greer a very good message in which he called the devil, the splitter and I love that the splitter what he wants to do is to split Jesus from the will of the father and that's exactly what he wants to do in my life and your life is to make sure that we are not in fellowship with Christ, so that's the devil's intention in the whole issue of temptation and at what is God's issue.

What is God, after God wants to prove that there are some people who will believe him.

Even though when you look around.

There is no reason at all to believe that he's on your side but you still believe that he is as good as his promises and he will be with us, even when the evidence for that is somewhat hard to find the bottom line is, the devil tempts us to bring out the worst in us. God tests us to bring out the best and that contest means that it is often times played out in the desert. In the case of Israel. It was played out in the desert. Now, in the case in Jesus it's played out here in a land of barrenness on ending sand, no water or bread in the site so there are purposes for these temptations.

Let me say also that there are diverse temptations, diverse, and will look at the text in a moment when Satan tempts us. He doesn't come to us like he does Jesus, he doesn't show up in a fury and say I'm here, I'm the devil we would be terrified.

So with us. He works it very differently.

He works at like cat. We might use a trap to catch a mouse in our first apartment that Rebecca and I had we had some mice were living along with us and we soon learned that they cannot be caught when you're sitting there they see you. I remember one scurrying across the floor and it was a very slippery floor and he is having such difficulty gaining traction.

I still see it in my mind, but we learned that you could have a trap so that even when we weren't there, they would be caught and they were in the devil never comes saying I'm the devil. He comes with a trap. With the lure and he has many different lures and he does not announce his coming.

But behind the trap is a trapper and behind the lie is the liar and what he does is he puts ideas in our minds that we think are our own, with the intention of doing two things. First of all making sin look good to us and secondly convincing us that we can manage the consequences very well. And so, like Ananias and Samira who were sitting there and who decided to be dishonest and later on, Peter says, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit. They did not know that their thoughts had actually come from the devil.

So that's the way he comes to us make sin look good and lets us think that we can manage it very well. Thank you.

We can handle the consequences one out to the temptations. You'll notice that the devil comes to him and says them.

If you are the son of God than most people who translated say that it could be translated if you are is not necessarily debating whether Jesus is the son of God is as if you are turn these stones into bread. Your hungry turn the stones into bread.

Nothing wrong with that later on. Jesus is going to feed 5000 people by his word, but what the devil wants to do is this. He wants to say to Jesus. I will also this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased relate, then why are you hungry if you mean so much to God. If God loves you as much as God says he does explain your hunger to me that God is on your side. Create bread right now Jesus won't fall for the bait. What Jesus is saying is if my heavenly father has mapped out a difficult road for me. I would rather starve here in the desert then do one single thing to somehow have my own way.

So Jesus comes back at the devil and that quotes from the book of Deuteronomy and says clearly man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. That quotation comes from a time in Israel's history when people were angry with God because they were hungry and God says I let you go hungry, that you might know that man doesn't live by bread alone, but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God.

That's the context and what the people were really saying is this, we prefer bread to your word and God says in this temptation to Jesus.

Are you going to be willing to believe my bare word or does bread mean more to you than my promises.

That's really what's at stake. Parenthesis you and I don't really, really live by every word that comes out of the mouth of God doing.

We only live by those words that we like. We only live by our favorites.

But Jesus quoted a verse here and down the devil says, in effect being very clever pieces you quoted a verse I can play your game. All quote 12. I'll take a verse out of Psalm 91 so he takes them to the pinnacle of the temple.

The eastern wall.

The pinnacle there that falls off into the Kidron Valley and says to him, cast yourself down because it says in Psalm 91, he shall give his angels charge concerning the and in there by hand they shall bear the up last outcast afoot against the stone. If you believe every word that comes out of the mouth of God prove this one. And furthermore, you'd be a hero falling from the temple and not dying, but you would also have proof and vindication that you are God's beloved son after all because you need to confirm God's word with the miracle and so jumped down from the temple and I'll catch you, Jesus does whatever a good theologian does what Jesus does is he corrects the devil's theology with another verse he doesn't say what you know you're misquoting the personnel because he wasn't really misquoting it, but he was saying you need to balance this over here to put it in context. There's something going on over here. Another parenthesis there are so many false teachers in the airwaves today and I spoke about the recently.

I can just imagine some of them coming across a promise like in Psalm 91 and say you know the Lord showed me something we could just jump out of an airplane. We could just do all this and he catches hallelujah Jesus. Jesus said them. You need to balance and buy another one and the other one is you shall not test the Lord your God again. He quotes Deuteronomy and the context is this the people were upset because they were hungry and thirsty and if you look at the context what they were basically saying that was this they were saying if you don't provide food and water and do a miracle were not going to believe you anymore. Who can trust a God who allows people to be hungry and thirsty so they tested God give us a miracle. Or else Jesus said never do that. Never put God in a box. Never be presumptuous and say oh here's a promise from the pinnacle of the temple and you've got to catch me. Thou shall not put the Lord thy God to the test set Jesus and Jesus is saying I don't even need a miracle like that to believe that I am God's beloved son in whom he is well. Please answer Jesus passes that test and by the way the devil can indeed quote Scripture, but now he comes to the biggie in the biggie has to do with the possessions and the ownership of the world, the devil being a scholar in the sense that he reads the Bible.

He's read Psalm two where it says that someday Jesus is going to sit on the throne, and God is going to give them the kingdoms of this world so the devil comes to Jesus and says well Jesus I'll tell you that if he shows them the kingdoms of this world. We don't know how it happened. Maybe it was some kind of a vision. But we can imagine that all of the opulence that was in existence at that time was seen by Jesus in the company of the devil. I'm thinking for example of the great pyramids of Egypt, which already were centuries old. By that time maybe they saw the Acropolis in Athens and they saw the great buildings in the city of Rome – Satan says that Jesus, if you bow and worship me.

I'll give them all to you how to give a multiview worship me and I will give you the kingdom. Not a question of course is them. Did he have a right to do that theologians debated. After all, he is the God of this world.

Some people say and they say it was a legitimate offer that he was making to, but if you think of this theologically putting all of the things together.

I think that there's something else going on here in the text and that is I think that the devil was laughing if Jesus had bowed down. Jesus would not have received the kingdoms of this world because sure he's the God of this world. But remember, he's the God of this world on God's terms, and moment by moment, is subject to God and so he could not have given Jesus that right. But what he's doing is this the same Jesus, there's an easier way to get the kingdom than to die and be on across because you can take a shortcut and if you take a shortcut you can be wealthy, you can own the kingdoms of this world and you can be powerful so you don't have to do it with integrity. You don't have to do it following the father's plan.

No, you simply go ahead and do it worship me and I'll give you of course Jesus said no to that. And he made the statement, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test and then he says, begone, the Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God only, and him only shall you serve. While what he saying is no my friend. I certainly hope that you tune in next time as this message continues because it is so important for us to understand how Jesus Christ confronted Satan, but also the kind of techniques that Satan uses to also tempt us if you are blessed as a result of the ministry of running to win. It's because other people have invested in this ministry and they have helped us that the word of God to more than 20 different countries in three different languages from the bottom of my heart I say thank you when you consider standing with us as an endurance partner. These are people who stand with us regularly with their prayers and their gifts.

I like to think of it as becoming a part of the running to win family because together as you have frequently heard me say we are making a difference. Would you at least investigate. Here's what you can do.

Go to RTW offer.com that's RTW offer.com when you're there, click on the endurance partner button or if you prefer you can call us at 1-888-218-9337 I'm going be giving you time to find that pencil so that you can write that number down and that you can call us. Thanks in advance for helping us as we get the gospel of Jesus Christ. To many people that phone number 1-888-218-9337 you can write to us running to win 1635 N. LaSalle Boulevard Chicago, IL 60614 running to win is all about helping you find God's roadmap for your race of life, hungry and thirsty. Jesus was offered all the kingdoms of the world. If only worship Satan. Sometimes we see a quick solution to the crisis and we are tempted to dishonor God meet legitimate needs. Next time the lessons we can take home from an encounter with the devil.

Thanks for listening for Dr. Erwin Luzerne this is Dave McAllister running to win is sponsored by the teacher