Great Is Thy Faithfulness - [1 Corinthians 10:11-13]

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God is faithful. Do you know how great it is to be able to be your under -shepherd and to stand up and say, on the authority of the risen
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King's testimony, God is dependable. Think about how many people and how many societies and how many institutions are unloyal, unfaithful, not dependable.
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Yet God is faithful, and He's always faithful. He's steadfast,
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He's reliable. How many people do you know who are always faithful, always steadfast, always reliable?
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And yet Yahweh is all of those. So much so that the word faithful in the
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Old Testament is where we get the word Amen. God is Amen. When God says something, it's true, and it's always true.
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So let's turn our Bibles this morning to 1 Corinthians 10 and get some encouragement from Paul in the midst of a lot of negative comments.
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A lot of comments like, watch out for your own selves, because if Israel easily committed idolatry, you might too.
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If Israel easily slides into sexual immorality, that could happen to you. If Israel tests
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God, you might test God. If Israel grumbles, you might grumble, and you might save yourself after this barrage from Paul to Christians who are justified by Christ's life and work, confirmed by the resurrection.
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I need some breathing room. A little encouragement might help. Is failure the only option?
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Am I relegated to just fail and slide into trouble all the time? How can
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I have victory, as it were, in the midst of my own self? I'm the problem, and so I need some encouragement, and that's exactly what
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Paul does. And Paul says in the middle of 1 Corinthians 10, the exhortations to flee idolatry, flee immorality, and to flee testing
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God, and to flee murmuring, there's some encouragement there. Failure doesn't have to be an option.
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You're not defaulted to just always do that. And so this morning we're going to look at 1
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Corinthians 10, probably finish 1 Corinthians 10 in the next three weeks, just in time for our two services to have the inaugural first two -services sermon to be on head coverings, so that'll work out just great.
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1 Corinthians 11 we'll be at then. Tozer said this about God's faithfulness.
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He cannot act out of character with himself. He is at once faithful and immutable.
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So all his words and acts must be and must remain faithful. Men become unfaithful out of desire, fear, weakness, loss of interest, or because of some strong influence from without.
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Obviously, none of these forces can affect God in any way. He is His own reason for all
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He is and does. He cannot be compelled from without, but ever speaks and acts from within Himself by His own sovereign will as it pleases
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Him. God is faithful. Stated negatively, God can never forget.
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God can never fail. God can never falter. God can never forfeit on His promises.
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What a great God we have, a faithful God. And so what
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Paul is doing in this particular section, chapter 10, verses 11 through 13, is to focus in on a little more warning, but then he wants to encourage.
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Don't, don't, don't, don't, don't. And then at the very end he says, but you can rely on God's faithfulness.
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There's more than just you when it comes to trials. If it was just left up to you, trials and temptations, we'd always fail.
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You'd always fail. I'd always fail. But the components when it comes to faithfulness of God wrap
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Himself around us and our problems and there is hope for the Christians. So much so, 1
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Corinthians 1 .9, Paul begins the letter by saying God is what? Any guesses?
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God is faithful. And so this morning I want to talk to you about the faithfulness of King Jesus, the faithfulness of our
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Triune God. Failures might discourage you, but God's faithfulness should encourage you.
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Well, 1 Corinthians is a book written to a church that's all messed up, and so we here at Bethlehem Bible Church are trying to learn from them, not because we're all messed up.
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I think we're messed up, but we're not all messed up. We're on our way in progressive sanctification and we can learn even from a letter like this where Paul takes them to the woodshed, we can still learn, even though I didn't pick 1
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Corinthians because I thought we were completely discombobulated like the church of Corinth.
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So let us read 1 Corinthians 10, 11 through 13 for our passage today, and you'll see immediately that Paul goes from the negative exhortation to the positive encouragement, even here in these three verses with a very famous verse, verse 13.
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I'm wondering if you really know the context, but we'll read all three now. 1 Corinthians 10, 11.
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Now these things happen to them as an example, but were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come.
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Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
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No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability.
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But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
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Our outline this morning is very simple. I want you to study your Old Testament and let me give you three reasons to study the
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Bible or to study the Old Testament in particular. For Paul, of course, the Bible was the Old Testament, and he's trying to tell the church, here's how you can study the
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Word of God and the character of God in the Old Testament so that you don't do what Israelites do. You don't do what human beings are so prone to do because of the fall and the consequent sin nature that is in everyone.
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Three reasons to read and study your Old Testament. Before I give you the three, I could ask you the question, don't raise your hand, but have you read through the entire
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Old Testament? Now, maybe you're a new Christian and you think, no, I haven't, but I'm trying, I'm on my way, and for that I say, good job.
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I remember when I first got saved, you get a book, you don't know where to start, and so, like other books, I just thought I better start with the book of Maps.
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No, I just started with Genesis and just started reading and just kept reading because I thought if God has taken the time to write it and then preserve
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His Word, I ought to study it. And if this is the Bible of Jesus' day, this was
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Jesus' Bible, the Old Testament, I need to know it, even though I'm a church member and I'm not in the nation of Israel.
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I need to know these things. Just because I'm in the New Covenant doesn't mean I can't learn about God and His nature and who
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He is from the Old Testament. So, if you're a new Christian and you haven't read it, that's okay.
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If you've been here for quite some time and you haven't read the Old Testament, then may I encourage you, may
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I get the goat out, may I get the spurs out, may I just take my heels with these sharp spurs on them and just try to kick them into your ribs now and say, for the glory of God, you should read the
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Old Testament. And I've tried to whet your proverbial whistle the last few weeks by going back to the
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Old Testament and hasn't it been exciting to see who God is and what man has done and yet God is so faithful?
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We need to know the Old Testament. And the automatic default, if you're not thinking correctly, is, well,
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I tried Leviticus and I tried the first seven chapters and numbers and they're bogging me down.
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I don't know what to tell you. It's like when our kids say at home, Dad, I'm bored. That's a bad thing to say in our household.
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I'm bored. The words come out, I'm bored, but what they're really saying is, I need some work to do around this house.
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The mind of God. And some things may be more exciting than others, but for Paul, when he was trying to teach them, he was saying, look to the
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Bible. How many times in our Sunday school classes and IBS classes we want to teach people a thought or a lesson about God and we say what?
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What does the Bible say? And so I want you to look to the Old Testament because it's not just full of types and shadows and figures and anti -types and all this.
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There are examples for you to look at and say, that was good, I should follow that. That was really bad,
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I should run from that. Or look at, that's the same God that I have who in the middle of unfaithfulness,
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He still remains faithful. And so by the end of today, I hope that the last few weeks have even stimulated you to say,
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Phineas, I want to read about Him. I want to study how God used Him. And Korah's rebellion.
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These things have hopefully motivated you to study. And so the outline, three critically important lessons that you can learn from Old Testament history.
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Three reasons to read and study the Old Testament. Number one, you need to learn from Israel's bad example, so read your
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Old Testament. What's the first reason to read the Old Testament? So that you can learn from Israel's bad example.
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And this kind of dovetails, not kind of, but it does dovetail on what we said the last several weeks.
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Verse 11, see how it wraps everything up? With the testing God, the idolatry, with the immorality, with the complaining.
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Now these things that we've just talked about happen to them as an example.
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Literally as a type. But they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.
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Of course we look at the Old Testament and we see Christ in the Old Testament. But we see something else too.
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And we see examples for us either what to do or what not to do. And Paul is giving cautionary examples.
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He says when you look at the Old Testament and you see Israel sinning, may they be a deterrent to you.
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May you be advised from them and heed the warnings. We're the same as the
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Israelites in the sense of human beings affected by the fall. And Paul is saying, don't be like the
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Israelites. And so it kind of wraps up everything we've been going through. When you drive down the freeway and you're not paying attention because you're texting or something and you go off to the side of the road, many of those roads and freeways and turnpikes, they have little bumps there and you can tell you're off the road and you just kind of start sounding like what?
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So you read the Old Testament to help you realize I am them, they are me, same sinful heart, and I'm going off the road.
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And if you don't read the Old Testament, then you're missing out on these warnings that God has graciously given you.
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I mean, would you ever say to someone who came to you and said, I'm struggling with immorality, I'm struggling with testing
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God, I'm a real complainer, I don't have much contentment, and I'm kind of worshiping work and money and other things.
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Would you ever in your wildest dreams say to the person, I think I could help you, you need to start reading your
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Old Testament. That's exactly what Paul is doing. So I'm just waiting for the next person to come into my office.
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I've got these troubles. Have you read your Old Testament today? It's like Martin Holt, my dear friend in South Africa, every person he saw, he just went to be with the
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Lord in January of this year, every person he ever saw, the first thing he'd do is he'd walk up to them and he'd say, have you read your
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Bible today? And then smile. These aren't just stories.
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These just aren't metanarratives. These are written down for our, what's the text say? I like ESV sometimes, but here it just totally dogs it.
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It says for our instruction. It's for our admonition. This isn't just learning. This is the word to admonish, to put sense into how parents need to admonish and train children.
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Same word from Ephesians chapter 6. This says I've got a truth and I want to put it in your mind.
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I want to take a funnel out and I want to put that funnel into your brain and then start pouring in some truth.
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That's an interesting picture. Let's just keep moving on. Father says,
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I'm warning you, there's a danger over here. Don't cross a street. You go in the front yard, but you're five years old, you can play in the front yard, play wherever you want in the front yard, but don't cross a street.
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It's the same kind of admonishment because God loves us and God cares for us, so He gives us instruction, our literally admonition.
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1 Thessalonians uses the same word. For a period of three years, Paul said, I did not cease to admonish, each one with tears.
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And so it's a warning. I want to put this into your mind. You've got to get your mind right. I think that was an old
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Cool Hand Luke movie, wasn't it? Son, you've got to get your mind right. I remember one of my kids disobeyed one time and sinned and I said, why did you do that?
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And he said, because I wasn't thinking right. Oh, who was that? He's the only he. Sorry. I owe
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Luke a dollar. I wasn't thinking right. That's the right answer. To love the
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Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Repentance is to change your thinking.
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And so Paul says, you want to have your thinking changed to think rightly? Of course, read your
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Bible, but don't forget the Old Testament. Of course, the principles apply to the
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New Testament. Paul is saying, when you read the Old Testament, you see these warning signs.
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So when you're driving your car and when you see the brake light go on, you immediately say, the emergency brake must be on.
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Well, it's not on, but I still have the red signal that's flashing and it's the brake light. What do you do?
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I just speed up. No, no, something's wrong. This is not like low pressure oil.
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My brakes are bad. And so it's like this light going off when you read the Old Testament. You don't read the
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Old Testament, you don't see the dashboard. In college, I had a 1972 Plymouth Fury.
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This is 1979. And the fuel gauge was broken.
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My dad said, it's only going to cost you 25 bucks to get that fixed. And I thought 25 bucks, that's a lot of money. So I didn't get it fixed.
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I would just estimate. Two gallons of gas, it was about 28 cents a gallon then.
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And I put two gallons in, 15 miles to the gallon, I can drive 30 miles. And I kept running out of gas all the time.
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I couldn't see the warning. If you don't read your Old Testament, where are the warnings? So Paul said, just read the
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Bible. And do you know one of the reasons why you should read the Old Testament? This is the same point here, a sub -point of this.
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Because the world is wrapping up. The world's about over. And that's exactly what he says.
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Isn't that insightful? On whom the end of the ages has come. God is wrapping up history now.
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So if there's ever a time to read the Old Testament, now's the time, because the sovereign God of the universe is finishing history now.
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We're close to the end, is what Paul is saying. So finish well. When Jesus comes back, don't you want to have finished well?
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So beloved, read your Old Testaments. Today's a good day to start. And just start reading the
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Old Testament. Speed isn't the issue, but understanding is. And so just start beginning with Genesis and start reading through.
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If you read Proverbs and Psalms every morning, good. Read some of the narratives. If you just read nothing, start.
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If you keep reading it, that is excellent. Good job. Keep reading. Number two.
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The second reason you should read and study your Old Testament Bible, and all the Bible of course, not just to learn lessons, but so you can see pride in Old Testament saints and then run from it, so that you run from pride.
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Why read the Old Testament? Because there's examples of pride that are there, and you'll be able to tell yourself, you know what,
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I'm no different. And if I'm no different, then if they've fallen, I could too. It'll help you run from pride.
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Take a look at chapter 10, verse 12. If the saints of old, the men and women of faith, have fallen into sin, do you think you could too?
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If David fell into sin, do you think you could? And so Paul says, Therefore, let anyone who thinks that he stands, take heed, lest he fall.
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Oh, I'd never do what David did. I'd never do what that other saint did. I'd never do what
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Sennacherib did. When you read the Old Testament, you realize quickly that the self -sufficient heart is the falling heart.
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The reliant heart upon God is the standing heart. Israel, God's people, the elect of God, fell.
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We, God's people, chosen of God, need to take heed lest we fall.
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Oh, I'd never do that. Well, then I would say to you, take heed lest you fall. False sense of security can be rooted out by looking at the
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Old Testament. Overconfidence can be excised by looking at the
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Old Testament. And so what would happen is, in context, the
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Corinthians would say, I'm in Christ, I'm justified, I have liberty, and I can go to this pagan banquet.
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I'm fine. Nothing's going to happen to me. I'm a strong Christian. And Paul says, take heed lest you fall.
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You go in there, one thing leads to another. Have not saints of old fallen who thought they were above it?
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I could say it this way if I really wanted to get in your minds. The worst thing you read in the newspaper in the next week that happens in the world that an individual does, you could do.
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There's not one of us in this room that's past doing what someone will do in that news.
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The most gross, horrible, horrendous thing that can be done. Our hearts are still wicked.
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And so we need to make sure we realize, do you know what? Let's just stay from that.
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Stay away from that. Run from that. Because it's either standing or falling. By the way, this language, standing or falling, if you like the military or if you like battles and warfare, this is the kind of language that is used of a general who says, you know what?
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We're going to go over there and we're going to kill these people and wipe them out and massacre them. And they march in boldly with their chests out and then they get ambushed and get wiped out.
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That's the language. This is Custer's Last Stand kind of language. Solomon's exhortation is wise.
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Pride goes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. When you read the Old Testament, you realize, you know, humans aren't very different.
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And if they could fall, so could I. So let's not be self -sufficient should be the lesson.
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If you say to yourself, well, I've been baptized and I'm a church member and I'm a five -pointer and I believe in the doctrines of grace and all that, well,
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I have an exhortation for you. Take heed lest you fall. It's not an
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Old Testament example, but it is before the cross example. Lord, with you
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I am ready to go both to prison and to death. Anybody here better than Peter?
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The Laodicean church was wealthy in Revelation 3 and in need of nothing. That's why prayer is so important because when you pray, you realize you're not self -sufficient, that you are dependent upon this
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God. Why read the Old Testament? There's lessons to be learned and will help you from being prideful and number three, you can see the faithfulness of God in the
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Old Testament when you're tempted. You need to remember that God is faithful and that's a good thing to do and you can easily accomplish that by reading the
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Old Testament. Let's look at verse 13. This is a super famous verse. You probably all know it. It's almost as famous as 1
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Corinthians 10 .31. But what's the context? How does it fit in here?
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He's going to encourage. It's a breath of fresh air. Watch out, be careful. And now he says, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
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God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it.
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Now one commentator said this is the most difficult passage in the entire book of 1 Corinthians. I just thought, it is?
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So much so that people say it shouldn't even really be here. If you read chapter 10, verses 12 and 14, skipping 13, it almost seems to flow better, they say.
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So if I read 10 .12, Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall.
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Verse 14, Therefore, my beloved, flee from idolatry. It almost seems to make better sense, they're saying.
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But this is obviously here so that you could be encouraged. I don't always have to fall prey to my own emotions and my own heart.
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There can be victory in Christ Jesus. Sometimes back in the
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Corinthians day, it wasn't as simple as well, I'll stay away from the idol temple where they have feasts.
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You would go to your neighbor's house for dinner. And they would have an idol there and present the food to the idol there and you could just get sucked into everything right there.
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Like this is hard. Everywhere I turn there's some temptation to do this and to do that.
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And if I can soon eat the food, then I might be doing something with an idol.
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Then along with idol worship is a sexual immorality. This is hard. I need help. Help me. So Paul, with great pastor's heart, gives the tender words of the
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Spirit of God. You know what? God's there. God meets our temptation with His faithfulness.
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Here's a principle that you need to get into your mind. You don't have to sin. If you're a Christian, you don't have to sin.
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If you're an unbeliever, you have to sin. No choice. But Christians don't have to sin.
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And don't you like it? Just as God has set limits to the ocean, thus far and no farther, God has set limits to your temptation.
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This is as far as I'll allow you to be tempted. That's what he's going to talk about here. Testing comes upon Christians met with God's faithfulness.
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So what Paul is saying is this. No excuses for sin. No excuses for the
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Corinthians' idolatry. No excuses for immorality. No excuses for testing
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God. No excuses for complaining because God isn't going to give you more than you can handle.
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His faithfulness is there. He's set limits. And when you say, you know, I couldn't help myself, basically you're impugning
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God's character. No excuse for any compromising.
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And if you struggle with other things, and you say, you know what, I struggle with sinful anger, with lying, with laziness, with pornography, there is no excuse for those because God's faithfulness is there.
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And this is a common demand. It's common to everyone. These things aren't new and novel, and neither is
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God's faithfulness. One reformer said, therefore once he has taken you under his own faithfulness, you have no need to be afraid.
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So long as you depend wholly on him. And hear this great faithful God saying, there's an end to the trial.
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The trial won't last forever. Then temptation won't last forever. Failure's not inevitable.
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I like that. There's a way of escape. By the way, if you take a look at your text there, that way of escape, it means you're on a boat, you're on a sailboat, and the wind's coming, the storm, the sea, the waves, and you begin to lighten your load because you've got to get out of this thing.
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That's the language here. Paul says this isn't unique. God's faithfulness is going to be there.
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Great is thy faithfulness. Temptations are not irresistible. You say, well,
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I always do this, and then I always fall into doing it. Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.
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Jesus taught his people to pray. Did you know you can count on the help of God when you're in a temptation?
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God isn't just a deist. He didn't just wind everything up. He isn't some open theist God and say, all right, I hope you make it.
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He's worthy of all reliance. That's what that word faithful is. You ought to underline that. He is worthy of all reliance.
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You can depend upon Him. He's trustworthy. He's fixed bounds for the temptation and says to Satan, if it's a satanic temptation, you can't tempt beyond this and you can read
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Job 1 to see that. The opposite of succumbing to temptation is trusting
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God's faithfulness. He can be counted on to help. When you're tempted, it should be as simple as this.
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Let's just bring it down to a junior high level. When you're tempted, here's your response. Help. God, help me.
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I'm being tempted. God, I know who you are. And you begin to think about God's faithfulness. And then you're beginning to think rightly.
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It's like if you have a telescope and you put your eye to the lens, you see things far away, but they seem up close.
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But if you flip that telescope around and you put your eye in the large glass, do you know what you see?
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Not just people who look like ants. But I've done it before, and you see your own eyelid. You see your own eyeball, and there it is.
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And so, thinking about God's faithfulness and rehearsing that is no different than my mother when she was choking on her own fluids from lung cancer.
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She would say, when I really think I'm about at the end of my rope, I just begin to rehearse the attributes of God alphabetically.
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God's awesome. God's beautiful. God's compassionate. God's dependable.
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God's everlasting. God's faithful. And when you begin to think that way, it's much easier to then say no to the temptation or to turn off the computer screen or whatever your temptations happen to be.
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Remembering the faithfulness of God. I once was told that you can solve every sanctification problem in your life by thinking about who
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God is. That's exactly what Paul says. I love the book of Revelation where Jesus is called.
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This is His name. He's like this for a name. Sometimes people call me Reverend. Don't call me that.
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There's nothing in me to be revered. Somebody just said Amen. It's true. Father.
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Four people can call me Father. Nobody else. I'm no spiritual father. I didn't beget anybody. A minister.
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That's not bad. That just means servant. Pastor just means shepherd. People have different names. How about this name for God in the book of Revelation?
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Faithful and true. That's what He's called. That's His name. He's always called faithful. He's always called true.
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He's absolutely trustworthy. A lot different than the deceiving dragon, the false prophet, the false worshipers.
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God is faithfulness. Psalm 89, Thy faithfulness surrounds thee. Psalm 36,
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Thy faithfulness reaches to the skies. Isaiah 11, And faithfulness the belt about His waist.
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All language, poetical language to say God is faithful. Your trials are great. God's put a limit to those things.
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And trust in the faithful God. You don't have to sin the way you've always sinned.
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Now, I have two ways to go for the rest of the time. When you talk about temptation, in this passage,
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I could say to you, let me give you four steps to overcome temptation. Would that be good? That'd be a fine sermon.
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How does the Bible say we overcome temptation? I just gave you one matter of fact. It's reflect on the non -uniqueness of your own problem.
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It's a common problem. And reflect on God. That would be two ways of something for you to do. But I'm going to do it a different way.
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Since I do fall to temptation, my heart longs for somebody who doesn't fall to temptation.
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My heart longs for someone who's been tempted more than I have and never sinned. So when you study something like temptation,
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I could either tell you these are three ways to never be tempted, or I could say, why don't we look at the Savior Christ Jesus?
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And then even when you fail in temptation, you have a representative, and you have the righteousness of another who never failed.
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Now some were here a few Sunday nights ago when I taught a little bit about this, but if you were here, you're not going to mind because this passage, this passage here that we're going to look at now where Jesus was tempted but didn't sin, is really, to use
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Texas terms, a barn burner. So let's go to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew 4.
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How do I want to end the sermon practically is not to tell you these are four reasons not to be tempted, succumb to temptation, but to show you
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Christ Jesus in Matthew. This passage in Matthew chapter 4 about Jesus being tempted by Satan has nothing to do with you learning that when you're in temptation, you say,
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I'm going to quote Deuteronomy. You should have the Bible in you when you're going through temptation, and that's a good second principle.
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But the principle that's at the top is this, Israel was tempted, they failed.
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Adam and Eve were tempted, they failed. The human race, if you were transported back to the garden and put there in probation, you would have failed.
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So who's going to succeed? Who's not going to fail? We live in this default failure world.
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The first Adam and all of us in Adam have failed. We are failures. We need somebody to succeed.
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Who's going to please God? Who's going to honor God? Who can stand in our place? Who could be our mediator? Who could be our intercessor?
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Who could be an advocate? If they fail, then they can't help us. And so what Matthew does is he says there's a king,
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King Jesus. And when Israel failed, and when Adam failed, and when Eve failed, somebody doesn't fail.
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Let me add one more. And when you fail, you have a Savior. How would you like to look back in your life and add up all the temptations you've ever been tempted with, and then also add in all the times when you've fallen to those temptations?
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You just look at those and you think, how could there be any hope of heaven? How could
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I just stand before God and say, yeah, God, I deserve to go to heaven? We would be undone.
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So when you look at sin in the Bible, one of the things you have to make sure you do is make sure you quickly look at the
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Savior. Here's Christ Jesus, and He's just gotten baptized. Remember, heaven has opened?
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Heaven has opened. This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. And now one commentator says in Matthew 4, now hell opens.
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Now hell opens. And Matthew 4 is going to show us this battle royale, the temptation of Christ, our representative, fully human.
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So as He was tempted and never gave in ever, He is our stead now. He cloaks us with that righteousness.
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And so the hope for sinners who are tempted and sin is this great King, King Jesus.
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And once Jesus is working, Satan is soon to be found. Jesus is inaugurated into His pastoral ministry,
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His public ministry in chapter 3, and now Satan's right there. Then Jesus was led up by the
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Spirit into the wilderness, Matthew 4, to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights,
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He was hungry. Luke says He ate nothing.
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And the same Spirit of God that descended upon Him like a dove now drives Him in the wilderness to be tempted by Satan.
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The Spirit of God knowing this has to be done. Adam failed, Eve failed, Israel failed. Who will not fail and succeed?
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I don't know about you, but if I don't eat for a while, I can kind of get crabby. I can kind of get moody.
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I can kind of get hungry. I remember one guy in Louisville I met and he said,
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I'm kind of hungry. So maybe you get hungry too. But all of a sudden my blood sugar,
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I was going to say my blood alcohol levels get all messed up. And you have no excuse when you sin because you haven't eaten or slept or because you've got a headache.
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But there is a contributing factor. And as Moses fasted, as Elijah fasted, and now we have
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Jesus fasting, staining from food. It's a perfect moment for Satan's bidding.
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And the tempter came. Even the name, the tempter came and said to Him, if you're the
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Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread. Jesus, you're hungry.
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It's no big deal just to eat. You must be starving. You know
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Jesus, I don't know if Satan knew this or not, but soon enough Jesus is going to be making bread for thousands of people, for the 4 ,000 men, for the 5 ,000 men.
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Nothing wrong with making a little food out of nothing. You're God's Son and you're hungry.
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What a God you must have. Your Father must be really a good provider. Show me a kid without food and I'll show you a father who doesn't provide.
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Born in a barn. God's Son. Well, Satan didn't know that Jesus would not go farther than the will of the
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Father, that the triune God was accomplishing redemption for us. It would not have been right for Christ to do this.
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Come on, Jesus. Just get your way apart from the will of the Father. He could have done it.
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Theoretically. And what does Jesus say? There's something more important than food. Verse 4, But he answered,
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It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God. I am not going to act independently from the
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Father's will. It's better to obey God and die of hunger, from hunger.
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It's better to suffer. And he quotes Deuteronomy. And he quotes a context that God was allowing
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Israel to be hungry, that he might teach them self -sufficiency, let Satan know the opposite, and then give them manna.
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Yet they failed. They grumbled. Something's more important than food. Oscar Wilde said,
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I can resist everything except temptation. Thomas Brooks says,
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Satan promises the best but pays with the worst. He promises honor and pays with disgrace.
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He promises pleasure and pays with pain. He promises profit and pays with loss. He promises life and pays with death.
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Well, Satan's not done yet. By the way, Jesus has succeeded. Aren't you glad? What would you have done? Adam fails.
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Eve fails. Israel fails. We fail. Jesus, round one, succeeded.
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But it's not over. Temptation number two. Let's presume on God's love and care.
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Oh, I guess you still think God loves you even though you're hungry. So let's presume on that and test God, verses 5 and 6.
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Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him up on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, If you're the son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written,
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He will command the angels, or his angels, concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.
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Oh, okay, Jesus, you're going to trust God even if you die and you're hungry and you suffer?
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Then let's just show how much you really trust him. How much do you really trust him? He takes
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Jesus to what we think is the southeast corner of the temple complex. It's very tall.
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Tradition said if you were the Messiah, you could stand up there and jump off of it. And many people did. Oh, okay,
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Jesus, you don't really need bread. Something's more important than bread. The Bible's more important than bread.
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So let me give you a couple of verses. That's what Satan does. I wonder, on a side note, do you know the
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Bible better than Satan does? Do you know the Bible well enough so that when Satan is playing around with it through the hypocritical, lie -speaking, false teachers on television, you go,
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I know that's wrong. Here's a verse for you. And he quotes,
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Satan does, Psalm 91. He's quoting the Bible to Jesus. I mean, that's kind of crazy to me.
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Except he does two things to the Word of God. And it's what false teachers have always done. He admits something, and he twists something.
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So you can either add, here he admits, omits, and then he twists. He omits in all your ways.
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So let me just read you Psalm 91. He will give you his angel's charge concerning you to guard you in all your ways.
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Satan left that out. And now what Satan also does as he messes around with Psalm 91, a passage that means you should trust
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God, he takes it to mean you ought to test God. So a verse that means trust
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God with all your heart turns into test God with all your heart. This is what we call a complete switcheroo in hermeneutics.
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Or as Todd Friel says, this isn't exegesis, this is lackagesis. Do what you want,
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God will protect you. By the way, as we're going through this, I've forgotten about me.
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I've forgotten about my back. I've forgotten about my cough. I've forgotten about my bills.
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And I've even forgotten about my temptations, haven't you? That's exactly what happens to look at the greatness of King Jesus.
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That's why you ought to read your Gospels every day. At least some of them. God will protect you no matter what.
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Satan says to Jesus, Jesus said to him, verse 7,
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Again it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. It's written. Now Deuteronomy 6 comes out.
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Don't test the Lord. This is right from where the Israelites put the Lord to the test.
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And they demanded that Moses give them water, and they failed. And here Jesus succeeds. And now we come to the third temptation, and now
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Satan gets the big guns out. First two were big, but now we get even more.
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And by the way, now Satan, the duck and jive is all gone. No disguising things.
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No beating around the bush. No camouflage. Just this is blatant. Let's get to the bottom of everything.
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And Satan is basically going to say, Glory before suffering, crown before cross.
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You deserve it. You deserve a break today. Verse 8, Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory.
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How did it happen? Real vision, it doesn't matter, but here, Rome, Egypt, Greece, Persia, Jerusalem, everything.
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The God of this age is showing Jesus. And he said to him something, All these
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I will give you if you will fall down and worship me. I'll just give you these. Just genuflect one time.
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Bow down one time. Courtesy one time. Just one little fast one. And of course
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Jesus knew what he was going to face later in ministry, didn't he? Did he know about the garden of Gethsemane? Did he know about wrath bearing on the cross for three hours and the separation from God?
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My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Just take it now,
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Jesus. You're worth it. So there's only one catch. It wasn't the
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Father's will. The ruler of the world says, It's all yours. And what does Jesus do?
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Israel failed. Eve failed. Adam failed. We failed. God. Verse 10.
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Then Jesus said to him, Be gone, Satan, for it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.
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Quoting Deuteronomy 6 again. In the Greek it means pack it up, pal. Israel was in the wilderness.
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They didn't do the right thing. God alone deserves worship.
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And so what happened in verse 11? Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Don't miss this.
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The very verses that Satan twisted by perversion and omitting, now the
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Spirit of God uses in the real way. How about that? The angels came, and they began to minister to him.
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God's perfect plan to have the angels come. It's an imperfect tense, by the way. It was a long time of ministry, because it was a very intense time of temptation.
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Amazing. The angels ministering to Jesus. Out there for 40 days, and the angels ministered to him.
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So, what's the point? The point is not when you're tempted, quote Deuteronomy. It would be good.
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I like that. All three from Deuteronomy. What's the point? Here comes the King, King Jesus.
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Ever wonder why there's a genealogy in the book of Matthew? Because kings have to have credentials.
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Just from the royal line, can he rightfully come to the throne? Ever wonder why the king, small k, tries to kill the baby king,
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Jesus? Because that's exactly what happens in the courts of the world, where one king kills another, kill the baby.
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Ever wonder why John the Baptist comes before the king to say, behold, there's a great king coming? Because you had a spokesperson who would come and say, here comes the king.
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And now, we are about to hear from the king in the Sermon on the Mount, but before that, will this king measure up where everyone else has failed?
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So, if you've failed in temptation, Jesus hasn't.
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If you've sinned with anger or lust or idolatry or immorality,
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Jesus never did. That's good news for us. That's why the gospel is for Christians.
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It's not, well, just accept Jesus in your heart and go your merry way. It's Jesus died for you and confess it with your heart and believe in your heart that he was raised from the dead and never forget it.
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Never ever forget it, because if you do forget it, take heed, you're going to fall soon.
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When we look at redemptive history, we see Jesus is the qualified Messiah who never gave in to temptation.
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And do you know, if you have a temptation building in your life, once you give in, it's done. No more temptation, because you've done the deed.
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But for Jesus, tempted, tempted, tempted, tempted, never having the release of a sinful disobedient act, because he always obeyed.
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What's the point of Matthew chapter 4? Not how to overcome temptation, because we're not found in Matthew chapter 4.
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You look at Matthew chapter 4 like a yearbook. Where am I? I quick out my yearbook when
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I was in high school, and I looked in the yearbook, and I immediately went to A. There I was. And then I wanted to think to myself, you know what,
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I didn't know many of the drama people in the photograph club, so I don't think I'm going to be in. So then I had to go to the basketball team.
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There I was. I went to the football team. There I was. I went to the math club. I was in that.
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I went to Fellowship of Christian Athletes. I wasn't saved, but I was in that. Where am
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I in this book? Where are you in Matthew 4? The good news is you're not in there, because if you were, it would be failed.
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But Jesus is there, and he succeeded, and we have a great captain. God's faithful.
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Read your Old Testament. Let's pray. Father, we thank you this day that we have a high priest, faithful.
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We have a great sacrifice, Christ Jesus. And we have one who stands in between frail humanity and holy
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God. Thank you for your great faithfulness. Thank you you assisted
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Christ Jesus on earth. He was faithful. The Spirit's faithful. And you love us even though we're not faithful.
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Yet in Christ Jesus, you see us as faithful. You see us as in Christ, and now, based on what you've done, heaven is ours.