Wilderness Temptations and Suffering

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Date: 1st Sunday in Lent Text: Mark 1:9-15 www.kongsvingerchurch.org

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Welcome to the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church. Kungsvinger is a beacon for the gospel of Jesus Christ and is located on the plains of northwestern
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Minnesota. We proclaim Christ and Him crucified for our sins in salvation by grace through faith alone.
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And now, here's a message from Pastor Chris Roseberg. The Holy Gospel according to St.
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Mark, the first chapter. In those days
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Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized by John in the Jordan. And when he came up out of the water, immediately he saw the heavens opening, and the
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Spirit descending on him like a dove. And a voice came from heaven, You are my beloved
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Son, with you I am well pleased. And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days, being tempted by Satan.
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He was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him. Now after John was arrested,
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Jesus came into Galilee, proclaiming the gospel of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand.
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Repent and believe in the gospel. This is the gospel of the Lord. In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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Probably one of the saddest things I've seen as a Christian, let alone as a pastor. This past week the news was announced that Fred Price, the very famous televangelist who is from Los Angeles, that he died of COVID -19.
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And the reason why it is so sad is because this is a fellow who taught in his career as a prosperity televangelist that healing is guaranteed by God.
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It's guaranteed. All you have to do is speak the right faith -filled words, and you will be healed.
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That didn't save him. And I would also note that as far as televangelist goes, he was one of these fellows that very early on started showing his wealth in visible signs.
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He was one of the first televangelists to drive a Rolls Royce. In fact, when called out regarding the fact that he was driving a
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Rolls Royce, which seems kind of an odd thing for somebody who's a pastor to be doing, he said these words.
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He said that Christ has left us an example that we might follow in his steps. Did Jesus drive a
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Rolls Royce? I seem to remember that Jesus borrowed a donkey when he went in his triumphal entry on Palm Sunday.
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And if those circumstances had gone poorly, Jesus would have been rung up on charges of a grand theft donkey, right?
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This is a fellow who says foxes have holes and animals have places to lay their head, but the
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Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head, right? So Jesus didn't leave us an example of living in opulence, of having it easy.
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In fact, that's kind of the problem. There's so many preachers nowadays who turn Christianity, and the major message of Christianity is it's going to solve all your problems.
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And Jesus is all about dollar bills and lollipops. But he's not.
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We like lollipops, though. The boor kids, lollipops are okay. But that's not what
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Jesus is about. In fact, we would do well to pay attention to the passage that Fred Price twisted as his justification for having a
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Rolls Royce. That text does say that Christ left us an example that we might follow in his steps, but listen to what
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Peter said in proper context. He said this in 1 Peter 2, 19, this is a gracious thing.
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When mindful of God, one endures sorrows while suffering unjustly.
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What credit is it if when you sin, you are beaten for it and you endure it?
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If you sin and you're beaten for it, that's called punishment. And by the way, you know, we dads are always tasked with the job of spanking our children when they misbehave.
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And we're totally lying when it says it's going to hurt me more than you. I just want to let that out. You know, that's just not true.
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But you'll note that there's nothing commendable about suffering when you've done wrong.
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But here's what Scripture says. But if when you do good and you suffer for it and you endure, this is a gracious thing in the sight of God.
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For to this you have been called, and listen to the words, because Christ also suffered for you.
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He's left you an example that you might follow in his steps. Wait, wait a second.
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Christianity is not about the easy life. No, it's not. Not at all. And Christ has left us an example for us to suffer in a way that God considers to be gracious.
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And then he notes the gospel. Christ committed no sin. Neither was any deceit found in his mouth.
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Was Jesus's life easy? No, not at all. No deceit was found in his mouth.
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When he was reviled, he did not revile in return. When he suffered, he did not threaten. But he continued entrusting himself to him who judges justly.
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He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness.
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Sin isn't your friend. And by his wounds we have been healed. For you were straying like sheep, but have now returned to the shepherd and the overseer of your souls.
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So consider it in this light, then, as we look at our gospel text today. Our gospel text teaches us that Christ, after being baptized, after hearing the voice of the
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Father, says that the Spirit immediately drove Jesus into the wilderness.
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Now, a little bit of a note here. You'll note that when you read through the Gospel of Mark, it's kind of like listening to an audio book at double speed.
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Have you ever noticed that about the Gospel of Mark? Everything happens immediately. All right? So immediately, the
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Holy Spirit drove Jesus out into the wilderness. Now, we have to do a little bit of work here.
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Have you ever heard a bad sermon where somebody says, oh, I'm getting a download from God and the Spirit is saying that in the season ahead that you are going to leave your wilderness and enter into your promised land?
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And what they're talking about is like, find a new job, you know, or things are going to go well for you financially.
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Listen, that ain't the promised land. So when we look in Scripture, the wilderness is a type and shadow.
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It is something that we should pay attention to. But it's not about a current season that you're in or a dry season or whatever.
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It's about the life we're all living as baptized believers in Jesus. Think of it this way.
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The children of Israel, after they were set free from slavery in Egypt, they were baptized into Moses, 1
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Corinthians 10 says. They crossed the Red Sea and they went and spent 40 years where?
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In the wilderness. That's a generation before they entered the promised land.
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It's kind of, if you would, a map of the Christian life. And so Christ himself now does the
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Israel thing. He goes into the wilderness. So for us, we recognize then that a right application of the wilderness for us to consider it is is that we are all in the wilderness presently.
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Unless you're in the graveyard over there. Then you've entered the promised land. This is the wilderness.
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The promised land's out there. You see how that works? And I know that we haven't got much snow this year, but hopefully we'll pray for something, that our wilderness won't be so dry come spring.
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But you get the idea. So we're each presently in our wilderness wanderings. And Christ, he does the
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Israel thing, and he is driven out by the Spirit into the wilderness. For what reason? He was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan.
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Not even Jesus lived his best life now. And so you'll note that he also, like us, have been tempted.
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And he was with the wild animals. And the angels were ministering to him. So then consider then in this context the idea that we as Christians are called to suffer.
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Paul says that we should rejoice in our sufferings. The Christian life isn't easy street.
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And because Paul says that we are to rejoice in our sufferings, Martin Luther actually pointed out that when we are experiencing suffering, we should consider it to be a friend.
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A friend that is teaching us not to rely on ourselves, or our money, or our talents, but teaching us humbly that we are incapable of doing anything apart from Christ.
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Suffering is a friend that teaches us to trust even more in Jesus.
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And so you'll note then in this regard that Abraham, the great man of faith, was tested by God.
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And it's important to note what our epistle text said. There's a difference between testing and tempting.
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James says it this way. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial. For when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life, which
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God has promised to those who love him. So when we face trials of different types, or when our faith is tested by God, it is not because God is trying to trip us up, have us fall on our face, and for us to end up in hell.
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In fact, when God is testing our faith, it is more akin to what a meddler just does with gold when it's being smelted, testing the gold to get rid of the dross.
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Whereas the devil himself throws temptations at us, and those are just no fun. But James makes it clear that when we are tempted,
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God is not the one tempting us. God is not tempted, nor does he tempt anyone.
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And so our temptations then come from our own evil desires when we are enticed and led astray by our passions.
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But note here in Genesis 22, we have this interesting account of God testing
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Abraham and asking him to do something that makes no sense. Because God isn't
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Molech. Molech is the one who demands that you sacrifice your children. So what is going on in this passage?
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And you'll note that this had to be probably an extremely painful thing for Abraham.
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God tested him and said, Abraham, he said, here I am. He said, take your son, your only son.
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And by the way, that language should cue you into the fact there's something deeper going on here.
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How many sons does Abraham have at this time? Two. Right?
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Your son, your only son? He has two sons. Two. But God here,
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I think, is kind of hinting at the bigger picture of what's going to happen on that same mountain.
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Because Mount Moriah is the place where the Temple Mount is today. Mount Moriah, the slopes of Mount Moriah, are also the place where Christ was crucified, just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
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Take your son, your only son, whom you love. Go to the land of Moriah. Offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which
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I shall tell you. Abraham rose early in the morning, saddled his donkey, took two of his young men with him and his son
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Isaac. He cut the wood for the burnt offering, arose and went to the place of which God had told him on the third day.
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Always pay attention to that third day stuff. Isn't it amazing how often I have to say that when working through texts?
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They're there for a reason. It invokes Christ. On the third day, Abraham lifted up his eyes and he saw the place from afar.
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Then Abraham said to his young men, stay here with the donkey and I will come again to you.
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So Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, laid it on Isaac his son, laid the wood on his son.
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I seem to remember that Christ carried his own cross. It kind of seems like a dress rehearsal for the crucifixion if you ask me.
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But it goes on and it says, so Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering, laid it on his son. He took in his hand the fire and the knife.
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So they both went together and Isaac said to his father, Abraham my father, and he said, here
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I am my son. And here comes the awkward conversation. He said, behold the fire and the wood, but where is the lamb for a burnt offering?
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It's difficult to imagine what's going through Abraham's mind at this point. Now, a little bit of a confession. One of my favorite times in my life is when all my kids were past diapers, but not really teenagers yet.
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It was so much fun. All right. They were crazy. They were awesome. I mean, the laughter, the jokes, the stories, the movies, the games, the puzzles.
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Ah, it was just amazing. And I am confident that had God asked me to do this, that I probably would have failed the test because I could not for a second imagine having to take a knife and plunge it into one of my own children.
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So what is going through Abraham's mind here? You'll note, even
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Abraham, his faith, and he is the man of faith, his walk is taking him down dark paths.
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Ours go down dark paths as well. Thankfully, we do not have to guess what Abraham was thinking.
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Scripture tells us, and here's what it says in Hebrews 11. By faith,
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Abraham, when he was tested, he offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises was in the act of offering up his only son, of whom it was said, through Isaac shall your offspring be named.
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He considered that God was able to even raise him from the dead, from which, figuratively speaking, he did receive him back.
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And there it is. Abraham, the man of faith, knew full well the promises of God. In fact, his wife,
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Sarah, long after menopause had given birth to Isaac, just as God had said at the exact time that he said that she would conceive and bear a son.
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Abraham knew full well that when God says something is going to happen, it's going to happen.
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And that same God who said that Sarah would conceive and bear a son is the same
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God who said that from that son, Abraham's descendants would be numbered. So Abraham's thinking was, well, he wants me to offer him up.
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Well, that's God's problem because he said that he's, that's the kid that my descendants are going to be named through. So God's going to have to raise him from the dead.
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Still not an easy proposition, but you'll note that the promises of God were firmly fixed in front of him, and Abraham is held up by Hebrews as the great man of faith, the one who believed the promises of God.
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And that's the thing, is that our promises right now in Christ are that through his burial, death, resurrection, and ascension, we are reconciled to God.
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By grace, through faith. Christ is the one who has made peace with God, taken our sin, died in our place, just like that ram that God provided.
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You know, remember Isaac said, where's the burnt offering? And Abraham said, God himself will provide the sacrifice.
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And he did. But God provided all of us the sacrifice, the real one, and that's
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Christ. He died in our place so that we can be reconciled to God, and our hope now in our wilderness wanderings as we are heading towards the real promised land, and the real promised land is the new earth, which he gives us as a gift, that in this life we are promised by Christ persecution, suffering, temptation, difficulty, and trial.
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Peter was not engaging in hyperbole when he said, your adversary, the devil, is prowling around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
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That's for sure. That's real. And so you'll note, we're not promised, like I said, dollar bills and lollipops.
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Not now. No. We're not promised the wealth of the nations. No, not now.
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And so I always like to tell adults that I baptize. I want to warn you ahead of time, and you need to expect this, that once you are baptized in the name of the
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Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, that you should expect that the devil and his entire army of legion of demons are going to come at you and come at you hard.
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Have any of you all noticed here at Kongsvinger, things are not exactly rainbows and lollipops?
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Right? That's exactly what we should expect.
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And so Christ himself suffered temptation. He had to endure it, buckle up under it.
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Even he himself was slandered, and he bore up under it. When he was reviled, he did not revile in return.
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And so you'll note that all of this then, this invoking of these wilderness wanderings, of these difficulties, these sufferings and trials, 1
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Corinthians gives us clarity regarding them. Here's what it says in 1 Corinthians 10. I don't want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and they all ate from the same spiritual food.
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They all drank from the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was
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Christ. And so here you can see the typologies now being brought forward into the New Testament for us to consider.
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Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, so that we might not desire evil as they did.
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So do not be idolaters as some of them were, as it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and they rose up to play.
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We must not indulge in sexual immorality as some of them did, and 23 ,000 fell in a single day.
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We must not put Christ to the test as some of them did and were destroyed by serpents, nor grumble as some of them did and were destroyed by the destroyer.
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Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction on whom the end of the ages has come.
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What temptations the children of Israel faced in the wilderness, do we not face those same temptations?
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We do. So Paul then says this, so therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed, lest he fall.
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Don't worry, Jesus, I got this. I got it all worked out.
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That guy is going to fall on his face, get out of the way so that you don't get caught up in the tumble.
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None of us are capable of standing on our own strength, period, and that's the point of our suffering, to drive us to our knees and say,
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I can't do this. God, please have mercy on me and help me.
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And note then, no temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man.
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And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide a way of escape so that you may endure it.
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Now, if you're honest, you're going to say to me, pastor, but you see there's these temptations that even though the word says
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I wasn't being tempted beyond my ability, that rather than go the way
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I should have, I gave in to the temptation. What about me? Well, you're in good company.
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That's all of us. And so you'll note then that in our gospel text, it says that Christ was tempted in the wilderness, and we know from the other gospels that Christ in weakness repulsed the devil.
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And note then this, Hebrews 4 says this, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens,
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Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, and yet is without sin.
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So note that Christ, when tempted, did not sin. And it's not so that he can rub our noses in our sin and say,
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I was able to do it, what's wrong with you? That's not the point at all. Instead, the fact that scripture tells us that Christ was tempted in every way that we were, and yet is without sin, gives us comfort because scripture makes it clear that by faith, we are clothed in the righteousness of Christ.
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Not only has Jesus bled and died for our sins, he was the one who died instead of you.
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He has also gifted us his royal robes of perfect, sinless righteousness so that we can, well, stand before God, not in the soiled garments of sin, but in his righteous righteousness.
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And so because of this, Paul then, not Paul, the author of Hebrews, writes and concludes this section of Hebrews by saying, so let us then with confidence, because Christ has been tempted in every way that we are, and yet is without sin, let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
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So our gospel text ends with these words, Christ, after having been tempted by the devil in the wilderness, ministered by angels among the wild animals, after John the
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Baptist was arrested, Jesus now says the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.
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Repent. Repent and believe the good news. In the name of Jesus.
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Amen. If you would like to support the teaching ministry of Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, you can do so by sending a tax -free donation to Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th
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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 And again that address is
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Kungsvinger Lutheran Church, 15950 470th
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Avenue NW, Oslo, MN 56744 We thank you for your support.
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