Overcoming Evil Like Jesus

Well good morning beloved. I'd like if you can turn to your Bibles in Luke chapter 4 this morning. We'll be reading in Luke chapter 4 starting verse 1 to verses 1 to 13. When you have that, please do stand for the reading of God's Word.

And Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.

And the devil said to him, if you are the Son of God, command a stone to become bread. And Jesus answered him, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. The devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory for has been delivered to me and I will give it to whom I will.

If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. And Jesus answered him, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him shall you serve and him alone shall you serve. And he took him to Jerusalem and set them on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you.

And on their hands, they will bear you up. Lest you strike your foot against a stone. Jesus said to him, it is said, you should not put the Lord your God to the test. And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed.

He departed from him until an opportune time. This is the reading of God's word. Now may he bless the preaching of it. You may be seated. Let's pray. Father, we do come before you in the name above every name, the name by which every tongue shall confess and every knee shall bow all into the glory of the Father, even Jesus Christ, our blessed Savior and Redeemer.

May we receive instruction this morning on how we can overcome evil and temptation like Jesus that we may follow in his footsteps. We may grow in wisdom and stature and faith so that we too may be able to withstand all the evil machinations of the wicked one.

And that on that day, we may stand approved, standing in the righteousness of the one who came before us, even our Savior, Jesus Christ, to whom be the glory both now and forevermore. Amen. Well, friends, today's sermon is overcoming evil like Jesus.

And I think it is important for us to realize that we all have a common enemy. We all have an enemy. This enemy, to give you some bad news, is smarter than you. He is stronger than you. He's tougher than you.

He is more wiser than you. He is more knowledgeable than you. In every single earthly metric, He has every advantage against you. Yet, do not despair. I want you to keep your finger in Luke, but I want you, if you can, please turn to 2 Corinthians 2.

And I want to share with you an important scripture that will ground our discussion and our topic this morning. And that is found in 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11. Paul writes to the church in Corinth this timely warning.

He says, So that we would not be outwitted by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his designs. Friends, we have an enemy. Yet, we are not like those in the world who are ignorant of his schemes, that we should be outwitted by him.

For though our enemy, as Martin Luther called him, our ancient foe, though he be wise, though he be powerful, and though he be angry against the people of God, we have in our possession the knowledge of the Word of God, which leads us to victory over this ancient foe.

So that we would not be outwitted by him, because we have something in our possession which warns us of his designs or schemes. So if you're following along in today's teaching in the insert, the Bible warns us not to be outwitted, which is to say that we are not to be outdone, that we are to be ignorant of the schemes of this ancient foe.

Because it is in the ignorance of not knowing our foe, it is in the ignorance of not knowing our enemy, that we fall prey to his schemes and to his attacks. If you know anything about the art of war, one of the tenets of the art of war is to know your what? Your enemy.

Know your enemy. Jesus knew his enemy. He knew who this ancient foe was, he knew what tactics he would use, he knew what he would do to undermine him and to undermine the authority of scripture. Because this is true about our ancient foe, that though he's powerful, though he's mighty, though he's knowledgeable, his schemes are usually always the same.

Therefore, we're not to be outwitted by sin by not being ignorant. I want you to write that in the notes. Ignorant of his schemes or ignorant of his designs. That is to say that he has a set schematic, a set design in order to lead astray the people of God into the sin of rebellion.

This ancient foe came on the scene in Luke chapter 4. It says in verse 1 of Luke 4,. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness. All right, now here's a part of the story that sometimes is overlooked.

You've heard of this gospel narrative before where Jesus is led into the wilderness and there's this temptation event with Satan. But here's what I ask myself when I read that first opening line,. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit.

I ask myself this question, if you're going to mess with Jesus, why there? Why when he's at his peak in being filled with the Holy Spirit? Why would Satan pick a fight with Jesus in this moment? Yes, because all of us go in our minds, we go to the fact that Jesus, well, he was weakened in the flesh.

He had been fasting. He'd been in the wilderness. He's hungry. He's thirsty. He's dirty. He's got all these fleshly weaknesses. But that's not how the verse starts off with. It doesn't start off with, well, Jesus was tired and hungry and all these things.

But it said, no, it says,. And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit. That's how it starts. Jesus, though, can have every fleshly disadvantage, has every advantage spiritually. Why? Because he was filled with the Holy Spirit of God.

And it was in that state that he was led into the wilderness, not by the devil, not by the flesh, but by the Spirit of God. That is what led him into the wilderness to fulfill all righteousness, to fulfill that which Israel failed to do.

Because in this narrative, there's an overarching metanarrative that is at play here in the life of Jesus in this, that Jesus is the greater Israel. In last week's message, we talked about the genealogy of Christ, how every single person there is leading us to a knowledge of Jesus, how every person there is leading us to this Messiah, this figure that would come into history.

But notice this about the narrative of Jesus's life. He is the greater Israel in that he's the chosen one from among all the children of men, that Jesus is the one who was prophesied by which all the nations of the earth would be blessed by this individual seed, the seed that was prophesied back in the fall of humanity in Genesis chapter three, verse 15, the seed of the woman coming to crush the head of the serpent.

And that through Abraham's seed, all the nations of the earth will be blessed. Paul in Galatians three says that this seed is singular because it is pointing to not an entire ethnic group, but rather pointing to Christ himself.

And so in Christ, we see the greater Israel, that Jesus is the one who is coming out by the Spirit of God into the wilderness. Similarly, as the Israelite people were led out of slavery, out of Egypt, through the waters of baptism as a people, as God part the seas, now being led into the wilderness with Moses and to the wilderness of sin to be tempted.

And when Israel was in that wilderness, what did they encounter in their flesh? Hunger, thirst, confusion. As the people began to grumble and the people began to murmur against the true God and against his anointed one, Moses, and say, why did you lead us here?

You've led us here to die. We were better off in slavery in Egypt. Yet Jesus, he doesn't go into this wilderness grumbling nor murmuring, but rather filled with the Spirit. Filled with the Spirit, showing the distinction between earthly Israel, the Israel that was led into the wilderness by Moses and ultimately failed and sinned in that wilderness, and the perfect Israel, Jesus Christ, who comes on the scene and is entering into the wilderness, not by the flesh, not by the weakness of the flesh, but rather by the power of the Spirit.

And in this state, he does what natural Israel could not do, and that is withstand the attacks and the schemes of the wicked one. Verse 2 says, for 40 days being tempted by the devil, reminiscent of the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness.

And he ate nothing those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry. Yeah, no kidding, right? Wouldn't you be hungry? I get, most of you probably are hungry right now. And you can't wait for lunch.

You say, preacher, how much longer you got here? Because some of us, we can't even hold it for 12 hours, let alone 24 hours, let alone 40 days. But Jesus was operating on a different plane. Jesus was operating in the Spirit, operating in a life that was able to withstand the limitations of the earthly, fleshly nature, because have no doubt about this, Jesus was truly a man, 100 man.

That half man, half God, he was fully man. Everything you feel when you're hungry, guess what? Our Savior felt likewise. The grumbling of his stomach, the migraines and the pain associated with not eating, with depriving oneself and one's body of precious nutrients.

All those things were felt by the Savior. But again, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. And because of this, though he was hungry, though he had every fleshly disadvantage, when the devil came to him and said this in verse three, if you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.

You know, what's curious about that is the answer or the question posed by the enemy. If you are the Son of God, do you think Satan didn't know who he was speaking to? Do you think Satan didn't know that he was standing before the presence of his majesty, of the King of kings and Lord of lords?

Why does he then pose this question? Because again, knowing the limitations of the human flesh, Satan was able to attempt to cause doubt in the man, Jesus Christ. After 40 days of hunger, 40 days of thirst, 40 days of wandering, being exhausted, you might begin to doubt yourself who you are and what you stand for.

You might begin to ask yourself questions. Is this truly my calling? Is this truly who I am? Is this truly what I'm about? It's in the wilderness where we are tempted and we're tried. Our person, our convictions are put to the test.

It's in the wilderness. And it's because of this, it's Satan knowing fully well who this person is, begins to try to put seeds of doubt. Similarly, as we see the serpent, Satan, the devil do in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve, when they begin to, when Satan begins to tempt Eve by saying, did God actually say, did God actually say this?

Because you, if you eat of this tree of knowledge of good and evil, you'll become like God and your eyes will be opened. Begin to doubt the voice of God and begin to doubt one's place in God's economy.

And that is what Satan is attempting to do here in the narrative of Jesus' temptation. He's attempting to sow seeds of doubt in the man, Jesus Christ. For he says, if you're the son of God, command this stone to become bread.

If you're following the notes in the wilderness, while in the state of hunger, Satan tempted Jesus. He tempted him. The Bible says that he was tempted and tried in every way, but unlike us, he remained without sin.

Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread, thus break his fast. And so Satan comes in the picture. He says, if you're the son of God, command the stone to become bread. And Jesus, notice how he answers him in verse four.

It is written, man shall not live by bread alone. Notice the difference between how in the garden of Eden, Eve takes on this temptation. When the devil says to her, did God actually say? She doesn't go to the authority of the word.

She begins to entertain the seeds of doubt that were planted by the wicked one. Jesus will not fall for that same trick. He being filled with the spirit, his first weapon of defense is these words. It is written demonstrating that to Christ, the authority laid not in one's flesh, nor in one's capacity to understand or perceive things, but rather it was in the word of God.

Because in a state of hunger and a state of thirst, you might perceive things a little bit differently. You're a partner might look a little bit more annoying to you after a couple of hours of not eating and you're in the car and you're hungry and you're annoyed at each other.

You begin to perceive things differently. The same is true of course, of Jesus in this instance, he may begin to perceive things differently, but instead he focuses on the authority of God's word. By quoting from Deuteronomy chapter eight, verse three, where it's written that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of Jehovah.

That's his sustenance. That's his manna. That is his bread, is the word of God. In the notes, Jesus responds with the word. How appropriate that Christ, the word made flesh who dwelt among us, of whom we beheld his glory.

He comes in the flesh and he defends the integrity of God's character and of God's name by going to the very word of his father, by going to the source of authority, the word of God itself. Jesus responds with the word saying that man must not live on what?

Bread. That is earthly, physical sustenance. Now you would think to yourself, of course we need bread. Of course we need earthly sustenance. Man cannot live without earthly sustenance, but it's not to live on that alone.

Not to depend upon earthly means alone. And dear Christian, the world will have you more and more convinced that all you need is that which is right before your very eyes. That all you need is the bread that's placed before you by your job, by your employer, by Facebook, by advertisers.

That the bread of the world provides all you need, but Jesus says man must not live on bread alone. Earthly sustenance will only be for earthly good and it will end at the end of your earthly course. Because all bread, even the manna that came from heaven, spoils.

But there is one manna in particular, one sustenance that never spoils. One sustenance that will never be brought to shame. One sustenance that will never fade away. And this is the word of the everlasting God of whom Jesus says heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will by no means pass away.

His sustenance, his words stand forever. As it says in Isaiah 40 that the lilies of the fields and the grass quickly withers away, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Therefore, we must not live on bread alone.

Demonstrating that our spiritual sustenance on God's word is our true source of power against the enemy. Again, it's the first thing Jesus goes to. Jesus could appeal to many great things, many great things that would even originate from his own mind because he himself is again the God man.

But yet he relies upon that which was already written, that which already preceded him in this redemptive narrative. And it's the word of God for it is written man shall not live by bread alone. Now does the devil stop there?

No. It says in verse five, the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time and said to him, to you I will give all this authority and their glory for it has been delivered to me and I will give it to whom I will.

If you then will worship me, it will all be yours. So much important theological things that are coming out of this text that I just want to ravel just at least a little bit of this. Satan is positioning himself as the ruler and God of this world.

In this statement, he takes him up this high mountain and how Satan is able to show him all the kingdoms of the world is unbeknownst to us. Satan is a supernatural being with powerful spiritual powers.

He's able to demonstrate these things onto Christ and he takes him with this high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. Think about that for a moment. Think of Rome and its apex and its glory.

Think of the kingdoms of the world in Persia, Egypt. Think of the great nations that were even unbeknownst to the Western world in the new world. Think of all the kingdoms of the world and all their glory and all their progress being demonstrated to Christ in this moment.

One of my favorite places to go in the Bay Area when I go up to San Francisco in particular and I always take anytime I have friends or family, I always take them to this place because it's my favorite and it's the Palace of Fine Arts.

You guys ever been to the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco? Absolutely beautiful architecture. The reason I love it because it feels like I'm back in Roman times or Greco-Roman times because this is beautiful architecture and it's like we don't see this type of beauty anymore, this type of attention to detail.

We don't see these beautiful things in civilization anymore, but instead we see kind of what modern art looks like in modern buildings just devoid of a certain beauty. But friends, when Jesus is showed all the kingdoms of the world, He's shown all the kingdoms of the world in their full splendor, in their full glory.

It's interesting that Satan does this, that Satan attempts to bribe Jesus in this moment. Why? Because the Bible says that all the nations belong to whom? To the Lord and His Anointed One. In fact, in Psalm 2, this is a messianic psalm, it teaches us that to Christ, the Son, all the nations will be His inheritance.

They'll all belong to Him. Therefore, how is it then that Satan can claim it as his own and then try to say, I'll give it to you, Jesus, if you will just worship me? The answer is in the words found in scripture itself in Luke chapter 4 and verse 6.

It says, to you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me. Satan said that the kingdoms of the world had been delivered to him. By whom? The answer is actually twofold.

One, ultimately, is God, because the psalmist says that the Lord reigns over the nations even then, as the psalmist was writing this. All the nations belong to the Lord, to Yahweh, to Jehovah. Every single thing belongs to God.

So, God has given temporarily authority to this wicked ruler in Satan. But also, I think it's another aspect of this that we don't focus on enough as well. And remember in the Garden of Eden, whom did God put in charge to tend the garden and eventually the world and the nations?

It was man. And what does man do? He abdicates his responsibility and he hands over that right to rule to Satan, to the serpent. And so, the serpent had been given this authority, had been given this world and its nations to rule.

One, by the sovereign hand of God, but also by man refusing to rule as God had set forth in the garden. We handed over our stewardship, our rulership, that was rightfully man's by God's decree in the garden, to Satan, the enemy.

And so, in this moment, Satan can say with full confidence, all the nations are under my hand and authority. Therefore, Jesus, instead of having to suffer on the cross, instead of having to go through this martyrdom, I can just give you the end result, which is the nations.

Because at the end of human history, what does Jesus have as his inheritance? The nations. And Satan is saying, you don't have to go through the sufferings, you don't have to go to the cross, I'll just give it to you.

But all you have to do is worship me. That's the trade-off here. If then you will worship me, it will all be yours, Satan says. Isn't that true also of the Christian experience and the Christian life?

Know this, brothers and sisters, that we too share in that great inheritance of Jesus Christ. The nations should not only be his inheritance, but we should also share in that inheritance of the nations, to be co-rulers, co-regents with the Lord Jesus Christ.

And yet, so often, Satan's temptation to the believer is likewise, hey, I'll give it to you. Fame, money, women, all these things, I'll give it to you. If you'll compromise, if you break the law of God, if you break the commandments, I'll give it to you.

You don't have to go through all this hard life, this process of sanctification where you constantly have to die to yourself. Hey, I'll just give you what you want. It's what you want, isn't it? And Jesus, how does he respond to this great temptation?

He responds again in verse 8, it is written. It's the word. He goes back to the word. Before we move on from this part of scripture here though, I want you, if you're following the notes, Satan tempts Jesus by showing him all the kingdoms of the world and offering it to Christ in exchange for an act of worship.

Now again, why is this important to Satan? The Bible teaches us about Satan, that he is the ruler of this age. Jesus says as much in John 14 30. There's a nursery song that is often taught, which is, it's forbidden in my house, and it goes like this.

He's got the whole world in his hands, he's got the whole world. Well, you know that song, right? I don't allow my kids to sing that song for a very clear reason. First John chapter 5 verse 19 says, the whole world is lying in the hand of the wicked one.

It's lying in the hand of the wicked one. Who holds the world in his hands? At this current time, in this current moment, it is the wicked one, the evil one, our ancient foe, Satan the devil. Therefore, we understand and know this, as it's written in 2nd Corinthians chapter 4 verse 4, that the God of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers so they may not see the glorious light of the gospel of Christ.

Satan is both the ruler and God of this present age. I want you to write down the notes. He's the ruler and God of this age. He was not bluffing when he showed Jesus the kingdoms of the world and offered it to him in exchange for worship.

But know this, what's interesting in Revelation chapter 11, not to get too deep into the book of Revelation here, but there's a statement that is startling that says that now has come to pass that the kingdoms of this world have now become the kingdoms of our God and of his Christ.

The time is fast approaching when that statement will ring true from sea to sea, from nation to nation, that all the kingdoms of the world and their fullness shall belong to God and to his Messiah, to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Therefore, Satan's rule and Godship over this age is temporary and will soon be fleeting because Christ is even now on the throne. So how does Jesus respond to this? Again, verse 8, he says, it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

In a complete moment of weakness where Jesus has no fleshly gas in the tank, what does he do? He refutes the claims of the enemy by going to the word, which is the source of true power and sustenance for the believer.

The word doesn't change when you're hungry. The word doesn't change when you're sad. The word doesn't change when you're happy. Regardless of the circumstances of your individual life, the truth of God's word stands firm.

So always go in times which are quickly changing and are like the swifting sands of the sea. Always go to the word for the solid advice, not only for life, but for all things that belong to life and godliness.

And so we continue to see how Jesus responds to the enemy. He goes to the source, to the word of God itself, and he says to the devil, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve.

So again, Jesus rebukes the devil following the notes. I want you to write this in. Jesus rebukes the devil by pointing to God as the only rightful recipient of worship. You see what Satan was trying to do in this moment?

He was trying to get Jesus to break the first commandment, which is only to worship God. And we, how can we as people, as Christians, overcome similar temptations when Jesus answers the devil that you shall worship the Lord your God and him alone shall you serve?

We too are now being given this example by which we are to walk in, that when the enemy comes with temptation, we are to answer with God's word. But not only that, it's not just a quotation of scripture that will save you on that day of temptation, but can I tell you, that is a grand defense for the Christian, is to know scripture, memorize it, because when temptation comes, what's our refutation to that temptation?

It's the scriptures. It is written. Jesus knew the word. He was able to quote the word, and he was able to defend his integrity with the word that he had learned. We too as Christians must learn to not only read scripture, but to memorize scripture.

It's our defense against the enemy. But it's not just a memorization that saves us in times of temptation, but it's knowing and receiving the heart of scripture. What do I mean by that? It's so often and clear, especially sometimes in reformed circles where we have a high knowledge of scripture, high regard for scripture, but we don't always know and apply the intent of scripture.

So though we can know a lot of good things, a lot of good theology, a lot of true things, we also must know why, the why of scripture, not just the what. What does the scripture say? That's important, but why does scripture say it?

So that when Satan tempts Jesus, Jesus doesn't only just answer with the what, what does scripture say, but he also goes to the why. Why am I not to bow down before Satan? Because it is the Lord your God whom you shall serve.

That God is so infinitely worthy of my praise. He's so infinitely worthy of my exclusive devotion. Therefore the heart of the matter is not lost, but is sustained in the trial of temptation here. Verse 9, there's another temptation.

And he took him up to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you.

Well, would you look at this, this sneaky devil, what does he do? He notices what Jesus is doing. He's quoting scripture and the devil says, aha, I too can quote scripture. Matter of fact, beloved, the devil knows the scriptures better than you do, better than I do.

He says, okay, if we're going to have this theological scuffle, I know what I know what to do. I can, I can quote scripture. He quotes Psalm 91, a beautiful Psalm concerning the preservation of God's people.

And he says that he knows that this all scripture points to Jesus. So he says, look at what the scripture says. He'll command his angels concerning you to guard you. If you just toss yourself, you just throw yourself down, you'll, you'll, you'll, you'll show and demonstrate to the world that you are the son of God.

You'll demonstrate that the angels will guard you, protect you, that not one thing will strike even your foot. Sneaky devil. He comes at Jesus with the word. Now, this is why we have to learn to overcome temptation and evil like Jesus.

And the last part of that last note there that I didn't give you is we can overcome temptation like Jesus by loving God more than we love the fleeting pleasures of this world. And that takes us to this temptation that Jesus is encountering here, where he's brought to the pinnacle of the temple and Satan throws this temptation at him by saying, throw yourself down because the scripture says you'll be protected.

You'll be all right. Nothing will happen to you. You won't, the Lord won't let your foot strike a stone against it. You'll be protected. But Jesus loves God and loves the commandments of God more than the fleeting pleasure of sin, more than the fleeting pleasures of being magnified and glorified in one moment of time.

Because again, a lot of the temptations that are being dealt with are temptation for glory. When Jesus has given all the kingdoms of the world, all their glory without the suffering, when he's brought to the pinnacle of the temple to fall down so that God may show up and protect his anointed one.

And at that moment, many people would come to believe that he's the promised one. If they saw this event happening, Jesus would just throw himself and angels would come attend him. Many surely would come to know that he's the Messiah.

Many would surely come to accept him as the king. Yet it was an undue glory in which the Lord God was being put to the test. Therefore, it would not be appropriate for Christ to do any of these things because he loved God more than he loved the fleeting pleasures of this world.

In the last temptation, Satan uses scripture, which you write down there as well. He uses scripture to try to convince Jesus to jump off the temple. Again, what does Jesus respond with? He responds in verse 12, and Jesus answered him, it is said you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

So what does he do? He refutes Satan's claim again with the authority of the word. Jesus here is rightly handling the word of truth. Is Satan rightly handling the word? No. Neither do our foes and false religion, whether it be Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnesses, the false religion of Islam, all these religions will appeal to authority such as scripture.

It's not written in scripture. It does not say this. Friends, even the devil himself can quote scripture. Jesus is not only quoting scripture, he's rightly exegeting scripture. He's rightly coming to the intent of scripture, the why of scripture.

Therefore, we too must learn from Jesus' example on how to overcome temptation, not just by knowing the word, not just by memorizing the word, but by properly exegeting the word in our day-to-day life.

That's how we come to a full and accurate knowledge of God's truth, and it's how we can become overcomers like Jesus, not just by knowing the word, but by living it and applying it in day-to-day life.

Jesus' response is not to put the Lord God to the test. We're not to put the Lord to the test, and friends, it's so often in our own lives where we do such things, where we put the Lord to the test, and we do so in various means, and sometimes we do without even noticing that we're doing it.

An example of that would be when we say, God, I don't know that I trust you with my finances. God, I don't know that I trust you with this illness. I've given my life to you, Lord, but there's certain areas of my life where I just need to have the control, where I just want to be the one in charge, Lord, and we put the Lord to the test by not recognizing that everything belongs to Him.

Your life belongs to Him. Your car belongs to Him. Your house belongs to Him. Your job belongs to Him. Your finances, your marriage, your children, everything that you have, everything that you've touched, everything that you've theorized in your life belongs to Him.

It's all His. Therefore, do not put Him to the test, but rather trust in Him. Have a full devotion to Him as Christ did. Christ was fully devoted to the Father. Christ was fully devoted to doing the will of the one who sent Him.

We have been sent into this world by our Father, and we too must live not by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. The Word is our very sustenance. The Word is the very foundation of us, not only as Christians, but as human beings having an experience and a life in this fallen world.

The Word of God truly is our defense against this ancient foe. Brothers and sisters, I want to give you three quick things. Sign the notes. But I want you to have, I want you to have in mind three schemes that the devil often uses in order to deprive us of the riches of God in Christ.

And the first thing that Satan does, and the first thing you have to recognize about the devil, which Jesus was able to recognize from the onset of this temptation journey, is that Satan is a liar. He's a liar.

So what will he do? Satan, as the original liar, will deny God's Word and substitute it with his own. He denies God's Word, and he'll substitute it with his own. This is what we see in And Eve says, quoting from God, God said, if we eat of this, we will surely die.

And what's the first thing that Satan does? He questions God's Word. He says, did God really say that? And then he substitutes God's Word with his own, with his own lies. The second thing that we have to recognize in regard to the schemes of the wicked one, of Satan the devil, who is our enemy, is that Satan is the ultimate counterfeiter.

He has a counterfeit gospel. He often comes with a counterfeit Christ. He often comes with a counterfeit gospel. All these things. He's the great counterfeiter. And so you have to recognize the counterfeit from the genuine article.

We've talked a little bit about that in our Sunday school this morning. And we can only do so if we have a firm grasp of God's Word. He seeks to mislead the world with many of his counterfeits, whether it be a counterfeit Christ, counterfeit church, counterfeit gospel.

And the last thing you need to know about the enemy is that the enemy seeks to make us ignorant of God's Word. So many Christians today don't have a good grasp of the Bible, which is why when the Jehovah Witness or Mormon comes knocking on their door, they don't know how to answer the objections brought by the cults.

If they encounter other religious groups or maybe secular people, they don't have a right defense for the Scriptures. Why? Because they have fallen prey to ignorance that is ungodly. Ignorance of Scripture is ungodly, brothers and sisters.

Do not be ignorant of the Word, but truly, fully devote yourself to its teaching. And one of the ways that we can do this is by regularly reading the Scriptures day to day. We're a church that emphasizes family worship, where we appeal to you, brothers and sisters, to regularly worship God by reading the Word, by studying it together as a family, by singing praises to God.

These are things that are a defense for us as individuals, and they're also a defense for our homes. And so we implore you, brothers and sisters, continue to actively seek these things. Be regular in your attendance here with the body of Christ at church.

Do not forsake the gathering of ourselves, as many have come accustomed to doing so, but rather that we would draw near to each other as the day itself is drawing near. Friends, let us not grow complacent in our most precious and holy faith, because the hour of our salvation is nearer now than it was when we first received this incredible gospel.