FBC Daily Devotional – June 8, 2021

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, a good Tuesday to you. How's your week going? Did you get off to a good start yesterday and heading in full bore into this first full week of June?

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Kind of interesting, as summer months come and we tend to kind of get into vacation mode of some kind, don't we?

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I mean, we had the holiday last week with Memorial Day and that shortened week, and then a first full week of work and everything else, and yet at the same time summer months are often the times we take a take a little break and go off and have a vacation or something like that.

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Hope you're doing that this summer, by the way, and getting some time away, getting some refreshment, some recreation, some rejuvenation.

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Hope you're able to do that. Well, anyway, in today's reading, Luke chapter 4, we're reading about the temptation of Jesus, and one of the reasons that Jesus is the perfect intercessor for us, and the book of Hebrews brings this out, is that he was in all points tempted like as we are and yet without sin.

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Now, that statement may cause us to, you know, rub our chin a little bit, thinking, how, you know,

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Jesus tempted in all points like I am? And then you can think of some of the ways you're tempted to sin that are maybe kind of very, very modern, very contemporary, that may be due to technology or whatever, you know, with workaholism or what, you know, whatever it is.

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And you think, well, how is Jesus tempted in that area and yet without sin?

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I think the way you need to look at this is be a little more, think a little more generally, a little broader in the topics of all points.

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In other words, when you look at this temptation in the wilderness, you see that Satan tempted

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Jesus in three areas that are the same three areas where he tempted

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Eve. He tempted Eve in relation to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

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The lust of the flesh. She wanted this fruit because it would taste good.

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The lust of the eyes. She looked at the fruit and it was beautiful to look upon, was good to look upon.

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And the pride of life. She thought that by taking that fruit, her eyes would be opened and she'd be as wise as God and she'd have the experience and the level of understanding and so forth that God had, that she'd be like God.

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The pride of life. Here again, in the temptation with Jesus in the wilderness, he faced these same three areas.

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It's like all temptation, when you think about it, any way you're tempted, it falls into one of those three categories.

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The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Jesus faced that as well.

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The lust of the flesh. Make these stones to be bread. The lust of the eyes.

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He took them up on high mountains and said, look out over all of these nations, all of these kingdoms of the world.

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And I will give them to you. Bow down and worship me. That's both the pride of life and the lust of the eyes, isn't it?

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Because he's looking and Satan's trying to get him to want desire on the basis of what he sees.

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And then there's also the temptation of the pride of life. When it comes to taking him up on the pinnacle of the temple and telling

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Jesus, hey, jump off the pinnacle, because after all, the angels will keep you from dashing your foot against the stone.

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And of course in each of those, Jesus answered with Scripture. And he successfully handled those temptations.

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He was tempted in all points, like as we are, yet without sin.

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By the way, have you ever thought about this? How did...

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I mean, he's out in the wilderness, Jesus is. How did Satan take Jesus up into a high mountain and show him all the kingdoms of the world?

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I mean, what mountain is so high that you can see all the kingdoms of the world?

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And how did Satan take Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and tempt him to jump down off the pinnacle of the temple?

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And that's a little perplexing, isn't it? How did he do that? Well, I think the answer to that is very similar to the way that Satan tempts us in some of those areas.

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He causes us to see in the mind's eye. He introduces thoughts or ideas into the mind.

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He takes us places in our mind. And you say, well, how could he do that with Jesus?

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I mean, he was this perfect son of God. He's also fully man.

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This is a great mystery for us and very difficult for us to comprehend, but I don't think we have to understand this pinnacle of the temple in a very little sense.

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I mean, after all, how did he get up there? How did they get up there on the pinnacle of the temple?

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And could they really have gotten up there without being seen by everybody else and so on and so forth?

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So no, I really think this is Satan coming to Jesus and tempting him in similar ways in which he tempts us.

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He shows us ideas, shows us tempting things in our mind's eye and appeals to us the lust of the eyes or the lust of the flesh or the pride of life by what he shows us.

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So that's my answer to that. I wouldn't say it's definitive and I wouldn't stake my life on it, but that's the best way

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I've come to answer that particular question. So the other thing I wanted to point out is how

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Jesus in Nazareth, he goes into the synagogue and he basically reveals to them that the prophecy of Isaiah has been fulfilled.

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You know, the Spirit of the Lord is upon me. I've come to preach good news and so forth. And he says today this prophecy is fulfilled and he's basically saying,

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I'm your Messiah. And that causes no small stir because people say, well, who is this? This is

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Joseph's son. He grew up among us. We know who this is. And Jesus responds and says, a prophet's not without honor except in his own country, right?

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And then he goes a little further and he says, think in your own history of Israel, you know,

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Elijah wasn't sent to somebody in Israel.

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He was sent to the the the widow of Zarephath, widow of Zarephath and so forth.

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And the ones listening to him, they got the point and the point was you're gonna be rejected because of your rejection of me and they didn't care too much for that.

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And so in fact, they didn't like it so much that they wanted to kill Jesus. They couldn't get rid of him.

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But Jesus walked right through the midst of them and read at the end of verse 30, passing through the midst of them, he went on his way.

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Now, here's my point. Here's where I was going with this. Some people like to hear what Jesus has to say.

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Some people like to go to church and, you know, they're okay with going to church and listen to messages and preaching and all the rest of that stuff and they're okay with it until something is said that gets a little too close to home, you know, maybe steps on the foot a little bit and then it's a different story.

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Then they get angry. Then they then they pull away. Then they shun.

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They avoid. Don't be like that. Don't be like that. When God's Word is opened and it applies to your life in a way that hurts, in a way you don't like it, the response to that is not to run away from it.

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Like you can get away from that kind of conviction. No, the right response is to bow your head and say,

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Oh Lord, you're right. I'm sorry. Have mercy on me. So, let's beware of our response when things get a little uncomfortable from God's Word as he challenges us.

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All right. So Heavenly Father, we do thank you today for our perfect intercessor, the

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Lord Jesus, tempted like we are and yet fully without sin. And so Father, we thank you for him and thank you for his ongoing work and ministry of intercession even today.

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Bless, O Lord, these thoughts to our hearts, we pray. We ask in Jesus name. Amen. All right.