Sermon Transcript:

On July 14th 1861 the 2nd Rhode Island infantry was preparing for a major battle. Among the troops was a major named Sullivan Ballou. As he considered what the coming days might bring, he wrote the following in a letter to his wife Sarah.

“My Very Dear Wife:

Indications are very strong that we shall move in a few days, perhaps tomorrow. Lest I should not be able to write you again, I feel impelled to write a few lines, that may fall under your eye when I shall be no more.

… If it is necessary that I should fall on the battle-field for my country, I am ready. I have no misgivings about, or lack of confidence in, the cause in which I am engaged, and my courage does not halt or falter. I know how strongly American civilization now leans upon the triumph of government, and how great a debt we owe to those who went before us through the blood and suffering of the Revolution, and I am willing, perfectly willing to lay down all my joys in this life to help maintain this government, and to pay that debt.”

He goes on to pour out his heart about his love for his wife and children, sharing what he wants them to know, saying he is suspicious that death is creeping behind him. A little over a week later, major Ballou was struck by artillery fire in the first battle of Bull Run and died several days later. His letter to his wife Sarah is one of the most famous letters from the Civil War. It remains a testimony to the power of duty, sacrifice, and love. Major Ballou knew his service may cost him his life, but he believed what he was fighting for was worth dying for.

It is a commendable thing to be willing to lay down your life for others. We should be thankful to those like Major Ballou who are willing to leave the comfort of home and give their lives if necessary for the freedom and safety of others. So how much more we should appreciate the Lord Jesus Christ, who left the glory of heaven to fight a far greater battle. Jesus came to free those enslaved to sin not by fighting rebels, but by redeeming them.

In our passage this morning, Jesus steps onto the battlefield where Adam fell, where Israel failed, where every human has been defeated. At last, the two ancient foes are face to face, the Prince of Darkness vs. the Light of the World, the old Serpent vs. the promised deliverer.

Satan comes against Him with weapons that have never failed against men, doubt, pride, self-sufficiency. He is undefeated against humans, but Jesus is not like the others. His heart is fixed on the Father and His obedience is unwavering. Where Adam listened, Christ rebukes. Where Israel murmured, Christ trusts. This is not just a test of personal virtue. It is a decisive moment in redemptive history. Christ is the obedient Son, the true Israel, and the Second Adam who fights for us. Our main point this morning is that…

In Jesus, the history of humanity is rewritten, and the cycle of sin and failure is broken.

It is as if there is a towering mountain that we have all tried to climb, only to fall back down. The cliff is too sheer and we do not have the strength to pull ourselves up. But then Jesus comes, and He reaches the top. He is the first and only one to ever do so, but instead of standing at the summit alone, He lowers a rope and pulls all who are willing to trust Him to the top with Him. All put their faith in His strength instead of their own reach the summit.

We begin in verse 1,

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

The baptism of Jesus marks the beginning of His ministry. The Spirit rests on Him and remarkably, the first thing the Spirit does is to lead Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. To understand this, we need to recognize that Jesus is not living only as an individual. He is a representative. He is the second Adam and the true Israel.

From the beginning of the book Matthew makes sure we know Jesus is the promised one who will fulfill Israel’s calling to bring salvation to the nations. To do that, Jesus needs to pass the tests they failed. Jesus is retracing the history and rewriting it. Like Israel, He goes to Egypt and is then called out of Egypt. Like Moses, He survives the slaughter of the male children, establishing Him as a new deliverer. Just as Israel passed through the waters of the Red Sea and is led into the wilderness for testing, Jesus passes through the waters of baptism and now He is led into the wilderness for testing. Israel wandered for forty years, Jesus is there 40 days.

None of this is random. Everything is unfolding according to the eternal plan of God as has been foretold in the scriptures. The timing and the places are not accidental. Even the temptations he faces mirror the failures of Israel. The story is being edited, and Jesus is remaining faithful everywhere fallen humans have stumbled. He is winning a victory for mankind. He is also revealing how it is a righteous person deals with temptation.

When it says the Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness to be tempted, it doesn’t mean that God initiated the temptation. James 1:13 reminds us God does not tempt anyone. It means that the Spirit is guiding Jesus in the fulfillment of His mission. God will turn the devils own weapons against him. This should be a reminder and encouragement to us that the very things that the devil intends for our harm, God uses in the end for our blessing.  

So, after His baptism, Jesus goes into the wilderness,

2 And after fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry. 3 And the tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But he answered, “It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

The devil’s first move is subtle but familiar. He tries to turn the attention of Jesus to what He lacks. This is almost always the devil’s first move. If he can get us to focus on what we don’t have, he already has a foot in the door. He will use that to stir up dissatisfaction. We begin to think God is unfair. But unfairness implies that we deserve something.

Do you see how he can, with this one subtle move, enflame our pride? Shifting our attention to what we lack and convincing us we should have it is an attack on the goodness of God. It is a very sneaky way to get us to doubt God’s love for us. It is no accident that it was food that Satan used to tempt Adam and Eve. It was food that caused the Israelites to grumble as they left Egypt, and it is food the devil begins with in tempting Jesus.

No one can deny that we need food. By starting with a legitimate need the devil camouflages his attack. If we confront him he just claims he is looking out for us. Do you see the subtlety in this. He twists something true into something dark. God knows we need food, but the devil subtly shifts our confidence because we don’t have it now. It is an attack on our faith. God knows you need it, you don’t have it now, so what does that imply about God?

The darkest, most soul-destroying lie the devil tells is that God doesn’t love us. If he can plant that seed of doubt in our hearts, everything else crumbles. Because if God doesn’t love us, then why wait for Him? Why trust Him? Why depend on His timing? If God doesn’t love us, then we must become our own providers, our own protectors, our own saviors. That is the opposite of faith, it is the root of sin. The active rejection of God’s sufficiency and the turning away from Him to grasp for something else, is to say that we are wiser and greater than God.

It is terrifying how small a shift it takes. Just a whisper of suspicion and we are tempted to turn our sight away from the Giver to the gifts. It is to wish that God was dead so we can enjoy what He created without Him. The devil knows this. He has seen it work a million times. So he watches us and slithers in when we are weak. When we are hungry, he offers counterfeit bread. When we feel abandoned, he extends false fellowship. When we feel unloved, he offers a hollow, fleeting substitute. He whispers in our ears, “you can’t trust the Father, why wait, get it for yourself.” He says to Jesus,

“If You are the Son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread.”

The devil knows Jesus is the son of God and as the Son of God He has the right to attend to His own needs, but Jesus came in our place. He never uses His power to satisfy Himself or to impress others. It is only used to accomplish the mission the Father gave Him. He is resisting temptation as a man, using the means provided to men to do so. There will be no miracles here, His tools are prayer and the word of God.

In each case, Jesus will use the scripture to fend off the lies and temptations of the devil. Each of these temptations parallel temptations Israel faced, and in each case, Jesus quotes a passage of Scripture they failed to obey but He will. Jesus replies,

“It is written, “ ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’ ”

After God brought Israel out of slavery in Egypt, they sinned by creating an idol of a golden calf. After this, God led Israel into the wilderness to teach them dependence on Him. Jesus is quoting from Deuteronomy 8:2-3 that recounts what happened there,

2 And you shall remember the whole way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments or not. 3 And he humbled you and let you hunger and fed you with manna, which you did not know, nor did your fathers know, that he might make you know that man does not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

The people of Israel cursed God when they were hungry, even though God fed them with manna from heaven. They complained about it and longed for the food they ate in slavery in Egypt. Jesus is not willing to trade food for faithfulness. It is more important to Him to be faithful than to eat.

What sustained Him was not His belly, but His relationship with the Father. The devil pointed to the stones and tempted Him to turn them to bread, but Jesus knows the Father understands what He needs and will provide for Him. In Matthew 7:9–11, Jesus says to His disciples,

9 … which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Seeing that Jesus trusts God’s word, the devil shifts tactics. Jesus appealed to the Bible, so the devil will try to use that against Him. Make no mistake friends, the devil knows what the Bible says. He watched the history it recorded as it happened and has read it for a millennia. He hates it, but he knows what it says and does not hesitate to twist it to create confusion. Picking up in verse 5 it says,

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple 6 and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you,’ and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ” 7 Jesus said to him, “Again it is written, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”

The devil takes Jesus to a high place on the temple, overlooking Jerusalem and tells Him to jump so that He can prove God’s word is true. To support this, he quotes Psalm 91 that speaks of God’s protection. We see the twisted logic the Devil uses in that he takes these verses out of context. There is a big difference between a promise that God will protect those who stumble and applying that promise to those who deliberately jump.

While in the wilderness Israel repeatedly demanded God prove Himself. Although He led them out of Egypt by a pillar of fire, parted the sea, and fed them with manna from heaven, still they refused to trust Him. At a place called Massah, they put God on trial, accusing Him of bringing them into the wilderness to destroy them. They demanded proof that God was with them despite all He had done. It is sinful to test God’s faithfulness to His word by trying to force Him to act in certain ways as if it is He who must prove Himself to us.

This doesn’t come from faith, but doubt. It is a way of claiming faith while showing a lack of it. Jesus doesn’t take the bait. He replies by quoting Deuteronomy 6:16–17,

16 “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah. 17 You shall diligently keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and his testimonies and his statutes, which he has commanded you.

True faith does not demand signs; it trusts in God’s character and word. We cannot rip promises out of context and demand God perform as if we control Him. This is the problem with the prosperity preachers who speak as though our faith in God gives us some kind of power over God. We have no right to demand that God produce any certain blessing on-demand as if all the treasures of heaven are immediately available to us now. Often, like what the Devil does with Psalm 91, they are twisting God’s word into promises God did not make. I get angry when I think about how many are doubting or discouraged because they believe God has not kept promises that He never made.

Just because someone is quoting the Bible doesn’t mean they are speaking the truth. Satan attacks and twisted God’s words with Adam and Eve, Israel, and Jesus. Do you think he won’t do it to you too? Jesus overcomes because He is filled with God’s word and knows when it is being applied inappropriately. That is why everything in our ministry is anchored in the desire to pour as much of God’s word into the lives of people as we can.

The devil is predictable. He is cunning, but he is not original. He’s like a football coach who keeps running the same play over and over until someone proves they can stop it. His playbook is old, but it still works. His tactics haven’t changed, because people keep falling for them. He doesn’t show up with horns and a pitchfork. He isn’t usually going to try and get you to openly reject God from the start. No, he often comes disguised as an angel of light, quoting Bible verses, sounding like a preacher. But he uses the Bible like a weapon, to deceive not to heal and bring life.

Listen carefully to those who teach. Does what they offer sound like Christ who calls us to repentance and says we must take up a cross and follow Him if we are to be raised in glory? Or, do they sound like the devil who says, don’t worry about sin, you deserve it, God wants you to be happy, make Him prove He loves you. Friends, I urge you to spend enough time in the word that you recognize His voice.

Jesus trusts in God’s promises and refuses to put God to the test. Satan now makes the most brazen offer of all. Verse 8,

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. 9 And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.” 10 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.’ ”

The gloves are off and the true nature of what the enemy is driving at is made clear. What the devil wants is to be in the place of God. He offers to give Jesus all the kingdoms in the world in return for worship. Scripture says the world is in his power. God is sovereign, but when the earth fell into rebellion through sin, this realm declared itself to be in rebellion. Satan therefore has certain authority in this age and that includes great influence in the affairs of this world.

He offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world. Jesus knows these rightly belong to Him already and not to Satan. The Father promised these to Him when the fullness of the kingdom comes. Do you see how crafty the devil is? It is like when he told Eve she would be like God if she ate the fruit, even though she was already like him and was created in His image.

The real temptation lies not in the offer but in the shortcut. It is to think we can have everything we desire without any sacrifice, suffering, or faith. That would be to believe the devil is better than God and to depend upon him rather than God for what we need and want. Israel fell into this trap multiple times in the wilderness. In fact, it is one of the first things that happens after they leave Egypt. Exodus 32:1 says,

1 When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron and said to him, “Up, make us gods who shall go before us…

Israel failed because they didn’t trust God’s timing. Faith waits. Faith endures. Faith believes that suffering is not an enemy but a servant. Israel didn’t trust that God’s promises were worth the pain. Now Satan comes to Jesus with the same offer: Why wait? Why suffer? Take the power now. Take the glory now. Just bow to me and it will all be yours. Do you see what’s happening? Satan is offering Jesus the kingdom without a cross, the crown without the nails, the glory without the suffering.

Don’t think for a second that this lie is just for Jesus. Satan tells us that every day. “You can have success without sacrifice. You can have comfort without obedience. You can have influence without faithfulness.” The Devil says “success, reputation, health, and so it can all be yours but with me you don’t have to endure the trials. You don’t have to take up a cross. I will give it all to you if you worship me.”

But it is all a lie. Whatever he gives soon vanishes. He takes it all back with interest. Death destroys everything he can offer and all that is left is destruction. Jesus is not fooled by the trap. He knows the cross is the only pathway to true glory and again He rebukes the enemy with the Scripture.

Jesus again quotes from Deuteronomy, this time chapter 6, a passage that is a reminder of the Grace of God and offers the assurance of God’s promises to those who trust Him. It says,

10 “And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, 12 then take care lest you forget the Lord, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. 13 It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. 14 You shall not go after other gods…

The battle over idolatry has been won. Jesus has withstood the onslaught of the enemy and has proven Himself faithful, rewriting the record book of human spiritual history. The devil no longer stands undefeated, the illusion of his invincibility has been shattered. There is now hope for mankind. A champion has come who can withstand the attack and counter it.

What an amazing Savior we have. He stands where Adam fell, He follows the path where Israel lost their way, and He is perfect where we have failed time and time again. The most glorious truth is that He did not do this for Himself, but for us! The Bible said we were all lost and enslaved to sin, so the Son of God in His great love and mercy, came as a human, one of us, to fight this battle for us. He is our Champion and our Savior.

He is victorious but the good news is His victory is not just His, but ours. It is credited to all who trust in Him. Just as Adam’s failure brought sin and death to us all, Christ’s obedience brings righteousness and life to all who believe. His perfect record becomes our record. His triumph over temptation is counted as our triumph. His fulfillment of God’s law is credited to us, not because we earned it, but because He freely gives it to those who place their faith in Him.

This is why salvation is not about trying harder or doing better. If we look to ourselves, we will always fall short. But if we look to Jesus, we see that He has already done everything necessary for us to stand before God—fully forgiven, fully accepted, fully loved. His whole life was lived to obtain righteousness for His people. He was perfectly faithful, and then was crucified on a cross to pay for our sins and raised from the dead to give us life. Jesus has destroyed the power of the devil and now He is seated at the right hand of the Father calling all people to repent and believe, trusting in Him as their Savior.

You may say, I have tried and failed. Yes, but Jesus has succeeded! You may say, I have wandered too far, but Christ has come to rescue you! The Devil will whisper in your ear that there is no hope, but Christ has triumphed over the devil. Colossians 2:13–15 says,

13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him.

Jesus has rewritten the story of Israel and He can rewrite our story as well. This first battle ends with Satan in retreat. We will see him again, but the next time Jesus will not only resist him, He will defeat him. Verse 11 says,

11 Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him.

The Father does not abandon His Son, He sends angels to minister to Him. If you put your faith in Christ, He will never abandon you either. So, ask yourself, Where is the enemy whispering lies, offering shortcuts, planting seeds of doubt in your heart? Where is he drawing your eyes away from Christ and toward something that seems good, but in the end, will not satisfy?

He often doesn’t come head on, He comes with a subtle question: Did God really say that? Doesn’t He promise you this? He wants you to doubt the goodness of God, the sufficiency of Christ, and the power of the cross. He wants you to believe that God’s way is too hard, too slow, too uncertain.

Don’t listen to him, his promises are no good. Trust instead in the promises of God and in Jesus Christ who has already overcome the enemy. May God help us to be faithful as we follow Jesus. I would like to finish with an encouragement Colossians 3:1–4,

1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.