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Tempted of the devil

August 29, 2007

 Bob Bradley

_________________________ 

 

Mark 1:12 & 13

 

12 And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness.

13 And he was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts; and the angels ministered unto him.

 

As we looked last week, we learned some things about Mark.  The scriptures call him John Mark in chapter 12.  Mark got his information that he writes in the book of Mark from Peter.  Peter, if we understand things correctly, when we read in the book of Peter; Peter was probably the one that led John Mark unto the Lord.  They probably had a great relationship.  Peter was an older fellow than what Mark would have been.  We know that this gospel was written thirty years or so after Jesus Christ has died.  We also know that he is writing to Gentile readers or Roman readers.  In addition, we know that as Mark paints a picture about Jesus Christ that he painting Jesus as a servant.  We know that Matthew portrays Him as a King, while Luke portrays Him as the Son of Man, then John portrays Him as the Son of God.  Here in Mark it is about Jesus Christ being a servant. 

 

We talked about His identity; He, being the Son of God.  We talked about John the Baptist coming, clearing the way, and getting some things ready in preparing to meet the Lord.  We also talked about Him being baptized. 

 

When John baptized Jesus, we know this was to fulfill all righteousness.  We know that Jesus was not baptized because He was a sinner.  He was the Son of God and we know that He could not sin.  We know that He could not have sinned.  We know that He did not do that.  He did identify himself with us.  There were people coming from all over the country to hear John’s preaching and they were being baptized confessing their sins, or agreeing with John that the Messiah was about ready to come on the scene. 

 

We know that Jesus Christ is identifying Himself with us in His baptism.  When this happens, something happens, that is unique in a way, or unusual in the way—that I think was because Jesus was about to embark on His ministry.  He was about ready to start in a few days calling the disciples and apostles that were going to come and follow.  He was calling some men that He was going to give great power, to be able to give great things.  However, before he does that something happens. 

 

The Bible says that,  “...immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness...”  Do you remember what the word driveth means?  When you read the accounts of Jesus going to into the wilderness, Mark used the word "driveth" many times, when talking about Jesus throwing out the demons that were in people.  It means 'to be thrown out' or 'torn out' It means to compel.  Before we go on let us remember, that it does not mean that Jesus was reluctant to go.  It does not mean that at all.

 

Have there been times in your life that you were about to make a decision about something and you were not sure if you needed to make a decision this way or that way? 

 

Have there been times in your life like that?  Probably every one of us has been like that.  Have there been times in your Christian life that you have been praying about something and there was no doubt in your mind that the spirit of God was directing you to do this certain thing?  This is actually, what is happening here. 

 

The Spirit was urging Him.  That means that it was an absolute necessity for Jesus to go.  He was not forced.  However, the energy here that was directing Him was strong. 

 

The reason that is so important is that sometimes in life we do many things just because we want to do them.  Sometimes we do things that God does not lead us to do.  Sometimes we do things because it makes us feel good.  Sometimes we do things just because somebody else is doing it.  Jesus is going to be driven or led by the Spirit into the wilderness.

 

Turn your Bibles back to the book of Matthew.  Mark does not give us the accounts of what takes place.  It just says here that He goes in the wilderness and He is there forty days.  He is there with the wild beasts.  He is tempted of satan and that really is all it says.  Matthew gives us the full account of what has taken place.  In Matthew chapter 4:1 it says:

 

1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

 

...to be tempted of who?  the devil.  Does everybody believe there is a devil?  Do you know he is real?  He is a real personality. 

 

Luke made this statement.  In Luke 4:1:

 

1 And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

 

Those are the accounts that we have of what is taking place here.  The Bible says that Jesus was led, driven, compelled to go into the wilderness.  What do you think about when you think of wilderness?  What don't we find in the wilderness?  Inhabitants.  In the wilderness, where Jesus was going, you are not going to find food, or comfort in the wilderness.  It is going to be a dry, dusty place where there is danger.  There is activity from wild beasts. 

 

When you read about this time, we know that in this area, there were jackals.  There could have been lions there.  There were leopards and serpents.  There were all kinds of dangerous, wild animals living out there, but what was not out there were Holiday Inns.  Nothing out there was going to bring Jesus Christ comfort. 

 

The Bible says that He is out there.  He was led out there to be tempted of the devil.  The word tempted means what?  It means trial, tested, or temptation.  The temptation, trial or testing is something that is to be done toward us or put us in a place to do something that is not right.  That is what temptation is about.  Temptation is not about getting us to do something good.  It is about something to get us to do something that is evil or bad.  The test here that Jesus was going to go through and the temptation that He was going to go through here, was satan trying to get Him to do some things that were wrong. 

 

Think about something.  He just heard the voice of His Father from heaven.  He has just been baptized.  He hears the voice from heaven saying, "Thou art my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."  The Spirit of God has just descended from heaven.  The Holy Spirit has descended in the body form of a dove.  It was a great time here.  It was a high time.  It was a time of being on the Mountaintop. 

 

We have times that we are on the Mountaintop.  We have times, in our Christian life, that when it seems like nothing can go wrong.  It seems like God is right in our presence that God is so close to us, it seems like sometimes that we could just float away.  I want you to remember something.  When we get in those times, when we get there and there are times like.  We need to remember that there are also going to be times—and it is usually not very long after we have a Mountain top experience—that satan is going to come along and tempt us to do something that is not right.  He does not like us to be happy.  satan does not want us to have a great relationship with God.  satan does not want God to be speaking to us and us speaking to God.  satan does not want us to have communion with God and fellowship with God.  satan does not want that.  He hates us and he hates God.  He hates it even more when you and I live a life that we can hear the voice of God.  he hates that.  He is going to do everything that he can to destroy that relationship. 

 

The word tempted here means to be "put to the test" or "to be tried."  In addition, it was an absolute impossibility for Jesus Christ to fail.  It was an absolute impossibility for Jesus Christ to sin.  He is the Son of God.  Why is He doing these things?  The Bible says that He is full of the Spirit of God.  The Holy Ghost here, He is full of it.  Remember:  It is an impossibility for you and I to succumb unto temptation when I am filled, walking, and being led by the Spirit of God; I will not and you will not succumb to temptation. 

 

We get into trouble when this ole boy gets empty.  When I walk away from God and when He is a long way from me, when I have not talked to Him and He has not talked to me, when we have no communion, when I lay my relationship down then I am getting to a place that I can and will succumb to temptation.  Do we all get tempted?  Absolutely.  Every one of us does.  You do and I do.  Temptation is something that excites us many times.  The thing that excites me may not bother you at all.  The thing that satan uses to tempt me and to try me with may not bother you at all.  It is also vise versa, as the thing he tempts you with may not bother me.  We all get tempted and we all are tried.  We will never succumb to temptation as long as we are filled with the Holy Ghost. 

 

The problem is that scares some of us but it should not.  If you are saved tonight, the Holy Ghost is on the inside.  You may not know Him real well.  You may not be acquainted with Him real well.  We may not have lived the life of separation from the world.  We may not have lived the life that we have been sanctified, or we might have set our lives apart everyday as we should have.  There may things in my life that I have never cut off that God has condemned me for.  I may not have a personal relationship that is real close with the Holy Spirit of God, but that does not mean that I am not saved.  It does not mean that you are not saved.  However, it does mean that when we get weak and when we are weak that we are more susceptible to succumb, or to give in to the temptation of satan than when we are on the Mountaintop. 

 

I am not teaching that you cannot ever fail.  I am not teaching that you cannot ever fall.  I am teaching that when I am living as I should be living, when I am living as a Christian should live, then I will never throw my hands up and just give in to satan.  I will never do that and you won't either. 

 

Many people have quit.  However, they have given up on their relationship with God a long time before they ever succumb to temptation.  Do not blame God.  Do not blame your problems on the temptation being too great for you.  Don't say, "God I had to do this or I had to do that."  That's a lie.

 

He is in a wilderness, in a dry place, in a barren place, and a place that is dangerous.  The Bible says that He was in there with wild beasts.  No doubt, these beasts were looking for something to eat.  Most of the beasts that were here were meat-eating animals. 

 

I know sometimes that we think that He was only tempted when He came out of the temptation of these forty days.  However, when you read the Bible it will tell you that He was tempted the forty days that He was in there.  The temptation lasted longer than when He came out.  The temptation was going on the forty days that He was in there. 

 

Matthew 4

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

 

He has been in the wilderness, this wild, barren place with wild beasts all around Him.  The enemy has been tempting Him for forty days. 

 

What do you think about the number 40?  The children of Israel were in the wilderness for 40 years.  Regarding Noah, it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.  There is a lot of significance to numbers in scripture and honestly it is over my head.  However, numbers mean more than we give credit for sometimes. 

 

The Bible says:

 

2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred.

 

"...he was afterward an hungred."  I would imagine!  If any of us would have been in there four hours, we would have been hungry.  He did not eat anything and He did not drink anything.  The angels came and ministered unto Him.  They helped Him and strengthened Him.  In a lesson that we all need to learn as Christian people, there is something more important than the physical.  There is something more important than the physical and that is the spiritual.  The angels came and ministered unto Him.  They did not bring Him any food to eat.  They did not do that at all, but they did come and minister unto Him. 

 

He is in a dry place and a dangerous place but He is there because He has been led there.  He is there because that was God's Will for Him to go there.  Yet, it was dry and dangerous. 

 

When we get there sometimes; more than physical food, I need for my soul to be fed.  I need to be encouraged.  I need, for my soul, to be lifted up.  I have been in places before that the last that thing I was thinking about was eating.  I had been going through valleys and trials.  During that time, the last thing that I was thinking about was getting something to eat or drink.  Those times are not pleasant.  What we need in those times is to be encouraged spiritually.  We need the help that comes from our Savior that feeds us spiritually.  We need the ministering that comes from Him to our soul. 

 

3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

 

"...if thou be the son of God, command that these stones be made bread."  What was satan doing there?  He was tempting Him. The question that he asked if thou be the Son of God then what in that is temptation for Jesus?  What in that is temptation?

What in that was wrong?  Jesus came here to do His Father's will.  "...If thou be the Son of God..." 

 

When you read about Eve, and the things that happened to Eve, satan put some doubt in Eve's mind.  "Does God really love you."  He is holding out on you.  He knows that if you eat of the tree of knowledge of good and evil that you are going to become as Gods knowing good and evil.  satan was telling her that God was holding out on her.  God really does not love you.

 

Do you know what he is trying to get Jesus to do?  Jesus Christ did not come here to feed the poor.  If that would have been the mission of Jesus Christ, then He would have never had to go to the cross and die.  The mission of Jesus Christ was not to come here and feed the hungry of the world because if that would have been His been His mission then there would not be a hungry child on planet earth tonight.  If it would have been the mission of Jesus Christ to come here to earth to feed hungry kids then there would not be one kid hungry tonight. 

 

He came here not to use His power to supply physical needs, but He came here to use His power or His authority on spiritual things.  The question was, "...if thou be the Son of God..."  satan says:

 

“Jesus, you are hungry.  You have been in the wilderness for forty days and forty nights, you have been over there with wild beasts and it has just been a terrible time.  If you are really the Son of God then you have all kinds of power and all you have to do is just turn these rocks into bread and we will sit here and eat.” 

 

Here is what was wrong with that.  The mission was not for Jesus to come to planet earth to supply people's physical needs.  I know that He does that and I know that He supplies everything that you and I need, but His mission on planet earth was to go to a cross, hang there, suffer and die for my sins and for your sins.

 

Let me ask you a question.  When He comes out of the wilderness, and if He would have turned rocks into bread, what do you think would have happened?  If He would have walked into Jerusalem, or over in Capernaum by the sea side or where ever it was at; if He was to walk over there, and saw a bunch of stones laying around everywhere, then just walked over there and said turn the stones into bread…

 

What do you think would have happened? 

 

satan would have had Him right where he wanted Him.  They would have looked at Him as the supplying the physical things and that is all they would have ever saw about Jesus Christ.  He could have turned every rock in Israel into the best bread you ever ate.  However, the mission that He came here to do would have been lost.  People everywhere He went, would not have been worrying about their souls being hungry, but they would have worried about their bellies being hungry.  Many churches and church people are more concerned about their belly than they are their soul. 

 

He said, "...If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."  You and I are tempted from time to time to satisfy the physical, but would destroy the spiritual.  We are tempted sometimes to do things that might make the physical feel good, but if we do that, there are things that we can do physically that can destroy us spiritually.  When that happens, we have succumbed to temptation. 

 

Remember:  The only avenue or defense that I have that will help me, take me through temptation, around temptation, or keep me from temptation; is believing the Word of God.  That is what will derail the enemy's on slot against you and me.

 

He said, "...Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."  That is an awesome statement.

                                                     

He did not say that it was wrong to eat bread.  He said that there is something more important than bread.  We forget that many times.  Jesus just turned back to Deuteronomy and He quoted what had already been written way back there.  God had already said that man does not live by bread alone, but he lives and is sustained by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. 

 

Many things that we lay our hands on, many things that we may indulge in physically are not what we need.  What we need is to live by every Word that is in the Bible. 

 

satan did not quit then and he won't quit with you the first time.  He just came off a great high Mountain and now He is being tempted. 

 

5 Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple,

6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

satan always casts doubt.  "...if thou be..." 

 

Jesus, in verse four quoted what the Bible says and now satan is going to try to quote some scripture here.  satan knows it better than we know it. 

 

I was sitting somewhere and listening to a fellow talk.  satan is a whole lot like this fellow was, or this fellow is a whole lot like satan in that he will pick and choose words and scripture here and there to try to prove his point.

 

6 And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

What is wrong with that statement?  Psalms 91:11 & 12

 

11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.

12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.

 

satan says this:  "...He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone."

 

The pinnacle of the temple is the highest spot of the temple.  From where the temple is at looking down to the kidron valley, it could have been several hundred feet.  If Jesus or someone would have dove off this pinnacle, it might have been three to five hundred feet in the air before he would have hit the ground.  What satan is saying is, “since you are, if you are the Son of God, why don't you just go ahead and jump off because the scripture says that the angels are going to come down and swoop you up in their arms and gently take you over and let you sit down on the ground real easy.”  That is what satan is trying to say. 

 

What is wrong with that? 

 

I was on this roof yesterday.  What do you think would have happened if I would have walked over to the edge of the roof and jumped off?   (We would have got a new pastor.  by Larry S)  That would be stupidity, wouldn't it?  I am saved and I know that I am saved.  If tragedy would happen tonight, if my heart quits beating tonight, if the dogs eat me tonight; I know I'm going to heaven.  I also absolutely know that it would be absolutely brain dead for me to walk out on the edge of this building at fifty feet in the air, jump off and say, "Lord, I know you will take care of me."  I would have hit the parking lot and there would have been a spot out there today.  I'd been gone. 

 

We do that many times and expect God to take care of us.  Many times, we jump when God is not going to catch us.

 

Look what Jesus says:

 

7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

 

Jesus was saying, "Don't put God to the test."  We do not need to tempt Him.  We do not need to walk out here and jump off then half way down say, "God save me."  God is not going to do that.  Now if I fall off accidentally, God can preserve.  God has done that many times in all of our lives.  There have been many times in our lives that we may have been in an accident where God protected us. 

 

I don't do stupid things like that; jump off then say to God, "I know I'm saved. I know God is going to take care of me."  It does not work. 

 

Jesus Christ did not come to get people looking at Him where that God would come down and swoop Him up in His arms.  He did not come for that reason.  If He had done that then He would have never been able to point out to people that their hearts and their souls need to be redeemed.  Everywhere that He would have went; they would have been wanting Him to do some kind of a magic trick.  They would have been saying, "Jump off again and let us see what happens."  He did not come for that reason.

 

Sometimes we put God to the test.  Sometimes we say, "Lord, I know this is wrong, but I am going to do it anyway. Please forgive me."  That is dangerous.  We make moves in our life and all kinds of decisions in our life; I have made them and you have too.  They have been dead wrong.

 

8 Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;

9 And saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me.

10 Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

 

The temptation—when He goes to the high Mountain and satan shows Him all the glory of the world; satan said if you will just fall down and worship me, I'll give you all the glory, all the fame, all the popularity, if you will just bow down and worship me.

 

He asked Him to turn rocks into bread.  He asked Him to dive off the temple.  He asked Him to bow down and worship him.  If Jesus Christ had made the wrong decision, there would have never been a Calvary.  There would have never been any blood shed there.  There would have never been an Easter Sunday morning and you and I would be lost.

 

Sometimes when we make wrong decisions, we derail the plan and will of Almighty God for our lives.  God has a will for my life just as He had a will for Jesus Christ's life.  Jesus came to do His Father's will.  When we get saved then we must surrender our will unto God's will and say, "Lord, whatever you want me to do, my will is your will.  Tell me what you want me to do and that is what I'll do."  Many times when God asks us to do things, sometimes we do them and sometimes we don't do them.  Many times, we do things that God never asked us to do and it derails, interrupts the plan of God for our lives.  It might take us years to get back on track.  It might make us a long time to get back on track.  When we make a bad decision today, it might take us ten years to circle back around.

 

The children of Israel walked in a circle for 40 years because they were disobedient to God. 

 

I don't want us to walk around Mountains for 40 years.  I don't want us to lose not one day, and not one inch of the ground that we have gained in our spiritual lives.  I want us to make decisions that we know is right and is Biblical.  I want to make us decisions that we know that when we make them that God is leading us to make them.  When we do that, friend, instead of going around the Mountain in circles, we will gain some ground with God.  In addition, I will not wake up when I am 80 years old, look at someone and say that I have wasted my whole life. 

 

The sad thing is that has happened to many people.  However, the great thing is that God will forgive us, cleanse us, and put us back on the right track if we will just ask Him.  I am not going to say that we are not going to lose any ground.  I am not going to say that there is not going to be some battles to fight.  If we have made wrong decisions, we have derailed the plan of God for our life, and we know it, find a place to pray and ask God to forgive us and to cleanse us.  Let’s get back on track with God and God will bless us. 

 

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