[0:00] of the services today. We have a testimony evening hopefully tonight at half past eight. We'll have that on Zoom. Hoping it'll last about maybe half an hour, maybe slightly longer, but we're not going to go on for too long with it. Half an hour, 45 minutes, something like that.
[0:16] We pray for Dina as she shares with her her experience. On Wednesday the 1st December, we'll have a mid-week prayer meeting on Zoom only. Andy Martin from Mission Aviation Fellowship will give us a presentation. And we were sorry to hear of the passing of Dolangi, as he was known to us. We pray for the family and also the passing of George McKeever also. We pray that they would know the comforting hand of God in their lives at this difficult time. And the Salvation Army, Christmas appeal for donations of sweets, chocolates, biscuits, small toys, any stocking filler, family games and toilety sets, male and female. Donations to be handed into their May Hall. The date's there, as on the bulletin sheet. All these, God willing. May we begin our service of worship by singing to God's praise in Psalm 121. Psalm 121. Find that in the blue book on page 416. We'll sing the whole psalm. I to the hills will lift mine eyes. From whence doth come my need? My safety cometh from the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made. Thy foot he'll not let slide. Nor will he slumber that thee keeps. Behold, he that keeps Israel. He slumbers not, nor sleeps. The Lord thee keeps. The Lord thy shade. And on thy right hand doth stay. The moon by night thee shall not smite, nor yet the sun by day. The Lord shall keep thy soul. He shall preserve thee from all ill. Henceforth thy going out. And on God keep forever well. We'll sing these verses. Let's just do God's praise and we'll stand to sing.
[2:17] I to the hills will lift mine eyes. From whence doth come mine head. My safety cometh from the Lord, who heaven and earth hath made. Thy fruit he'll not let slide. Nor will he slumber that Lord he keeps. The Lord he keeps. He slumber that beat Israel. He slumber's not, nor sleeps. The Lord
[3:30] He keeps the Lord thy shape On thy right hand doth stay The moon by night thee shall not smite Nor yet the sun by day The Lord shall keep thy soul He shall preserve thee from all ill Henceforth thy going out and in God keep forever will
[4:31] If we can turn to the Bibles I will take a reading from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4 Gospel of Luke, Chapter 4, we read from the beginning This is a account of the temptation of Jesus We'll have three readings And we'll consider the tempting of Jesus through his life So this will be our first of three short readings Let us hear the word of God And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit Returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit Into the wilderness for forty days Being tempted by the devil He ate nothing during those days And when they were ended, he was hungry The devil said to him If you are the Son of God Command this stone to become bread
[5:32] And Jesus answered him It is written Man shall not live by bread alone And the devil took him up And showed him All the kingdoms of the world In a moment of time And said to him To you I will give all this authority And their glory For it has been delivered to me And I give it to whom I will If you then will worship me It will all be yours And Jesus answered him It is written You shall worship the Lord your God And whom only shall you serve And he took him to Jerusalem And set him on the pinnacle of the temple And said to him If you are the Son of God Throw yourself down from here For it is written He will command his angels Concerning you To guard you And On their hands
[6:34] He will bear you up Lest you strike your foot Against a stone And Jesus answered him It is said You shall not put the Lord your God To the test And when the devil had ended Every temptation He departed from him Until An opportune Time May the reading of God's word Be blessed to us May we draw close to him In prayer May we join our hearts together In prayer Our Father in heaven We pray that you would Still our hearts This moment As we gather together That we come before you As little children indeed Seeking what Good you shall give to us With eyes that look upon you Let us have ears to hear What you shall speak to us also That we would admire All your works in our lives
[7:36] And be thankful for all the gracious things That you have given to us Lord we pray As we come to your word tonight Speak to us Through it This word that is living and active May your spirit be over us This night And may we know it May we know your presence Speaking to us Correcting us Leading us Guiding us Watching over us Step by step The one who knows us Greater than we know ourselves Who knows the hairs on our heads And we are humbled by that thought Of one so glorious and mighty And all powerful And we cannot understand you Fully
[8:36] But we thank you For the word you have given to us That helps us In our understanding May we give our mind to it To see who Christ is To see How He has loved us And how he willingly went to the cross for us And what that involved for him Lord as we consider The temptations in his life May we be mindful That we are weak men And women Boys and girls That are often Led to and fro Tossed up and down By the temptations That the devil sets before us But that we seek You in all things To guard our minds To guard our minds To guard our minds And protect us As we seek Guidance from your word
[9:37] And the armour that we shall put on To protect us Given by you That you equip us For every step of the way You shall not leave us as orphans You are the one Who will provide for us And in every temptation Give us means of escape Give us the strength to escape When they come to us Lord we are mindful As a congregation also That we are saddened by the loss Of dear brothers to us Remember the family Of the late Dolangi Who was well thought of In our congregation And in the community Pray especially for his wife Anne That she would know You being with her We also remember the family Of George McKeever as well
[10:38] That they would know Your comforting spirit amongst them As one who was so diligent For your cause And for your good Lord we are mindful of others In our congregation Who have lost Close family members We pray for them also And we commit them to you In our prayers Upholding one another Lord Death also Death Death Death Death Leaves a mark with us A mark that is felt For the rest of our lives In most cases But it points us To what death Means for each of us And the death That leads Us from A lost eternity To one that is a glorious eternity
[11:39] And that only through the death Of the Lord Jesus Christ Who is Our Saviour Who was So willing In that death In that suffering That we shall see As we consider your word Lord Lord we pray At this time of year That people would understand Who the Christ Child Was People are so consumed In receiving gifts And giving gifts To one another And this is another Trap of the devil Distracts us From the real Root meaning Of what Christmas is for The birth Of the Saviour This child That descended From glory Descended from the throne
[12:40] Rooms of heaven And was born In a stable Not even a room For him But a stable Amongst the animals How he humbled himself Help us to see What he did for us And his coming To this world Even that itself To dwell amongst us Who are At often times So full of sin And we see it In ourselves Why would he come For us And dwell amongst us Because he loved us So let us see that love Through your word May it become alive To us tonight And understand With a clearer mind And a better knowledge Of who this Christ was
[13:43] What he means What he means To us What he has done For us Lord we pray That you would Go forth In all our Hopeful dealings Of the week ahead In all our Intimations That we have Proposed on our sheet We pray that you We pray that you Would be a blessing Over them And we remember Dina tonight As to share Personal testimony Of how you Have worked In her life Be with her As she does So we welcome All to it And that we Would all Be encouraged And strengthen One another Through it So Lord be with us We ask That you Remain with us That you keep us From being tempted As we sit even Here this night And that we Would have Our minds
[14:44] Fixed upon The Christ That died for us Give us An hour Of peace From temptation We pray And all these Things we ask In your name Our Saviour The Lord Jesus Christ Amen We can turn Together to Another one Of our readings We'll take The Gospel of Mark For our next Two readings Chapter 8 For our first one Gospel of Mark Chapter 8 We'll begin At verse 27 This is Peter's confession Of Jesus As the Christ And we'll turn To Mark 15 After Let us hear God's word again Mark chapter 8 Verse 27 And Jesus Went on
[15:44] With his disciples To the villages Of Caesarea Philippi And on the way He asked his disciples Who do people Say that I am And they told him John the Baptist And others Say Elijah And others One of the prophets And he asked them But who do you Say that I am Peter answered him You are the Christ And he strictly Charged him To tell no one To tell no one About him And he began To teach them That the son Of man Must suffer Many things And be rejected By the elders And the chief priests And the scribes And be killed And after three days Rise again And he said This plainly And Peter Took him aside And began To rebuke him But turning And seeing His disciples He rebuked
[16:45] Peter And said Get behind me Satan For you are not Set in your mind On the things Of God But on the things Of man And if we can Turn to Chapter 15 And we'll read From verse 16 Chapter 15 Verse 16 And the soldiers Led him away Inside the palace That is the Governor's headquarters And they called Together the whole Battalion And they clothed Him in a purple Cloak And twisting Together a crown Of thorns They put it On him And they began To salute him Hail King of the Jews And they were Striking his head With a reed And spitting On him And kneeling down In homage To him And when they Had mocked him
[17:45] They stripped him Of the purple Cloak And put his own Clothes on him And they led him Out to crucify him And they compelled A passerby Simon of Cyrene Who was coming In from the country The father of Alexander and Rufus To carry his cross And they brought him To the place Called Golgotha Which means Place of a skull And they offered him Wine mixed with Myrrh But he did not Take it And they crucified him And divided his garments Among them Casting lots for them To decide What each Should take And it was The third hour When they crucified him And the inscription Of the charge Against him Read The king Of the Jews And with him They crucified Two robbers One on his right And one on his left And those Who passed by Derided him Wagging their heads
[18:46] And saying Aha You who would Destroy the temple And rebuild it In three days Save yourself And come down From the cross So also The chief priests With the scribes Mocked him One to another Saying He saved others He cannot Save himself Let the Christ The king of Israel Come down now From the cross That we may see And believe Those who were Crucified with him Also Reviled him Amen May the reading Of God's word Be blessed To us And as our text Tonight We'll take That of the final Verse there In 32 Let the Christ The king of Israel Come down now From the cross That we May see And believe We'll consider
[19:51] The temptation In Jesus' Life For the time That we have And it will Just be a brief Thought On the temptation And I was told Of a picture This week An image And some of you May know About it It is an image Well suited To our thoughts Tonight Imagine a long wall That is ready To fall over But there are men With their backs Against it Holding it up From falling But as you watch This wall You notice That it does Begin to fall Like a wave Upon the men Section by section But it comes To a point Where one Man Upholds it He upholds The wall And the question
[20:53] Is posed Well which Of the men Knows the weight Of the wall Who understands The full Pressure Of the weight Puts upon him Well it's the one Who held it For all other men Fell under The weight That they were Exposed to And this one Is similar To Christ Who and his Experiences He knows The fullness Of the weight Of the temptation In his life He is the man Who knows More than we do The entirety Of temptation But he is the man Who restrains it And overcomes it And where all other men
[21:54] Fall under Its weight Because It overwhelms Us And when you think About the temptation Of Christ We often jump To the first reading That we had In the wilderness When Jesus Began his ministry When he was Baptized And then he was Led into this Wilderness By the spirit And endured Temptation for Forty days But there is An interesting Verse at the end Of the gospel Of Luke That we read It says In verse 13 When the devil Had ended Every temptation He departed From him Until an opportune Time Meaning The temptation Wasn't over Return Is inevitable For him So if we can We'll consider Times That he Returned Before Significant Moments In scripture That we have Read together And the thread
[22:55] Of temptation That goes Through his Life That continues Manifesting Itself Again and Again From the Beginning of His ministry Right through To the end Of it But that thread Is broken Every time Every time Every time By christ We only have Time As it were To join the Dots Here tonight Find a link And maybe a Lesson In what he Went through So if we Can take The wilderness As a Beginning Of our Thoughts We'll Then look At the Confession As a Midpoint And lastly We'll Come to The cross So the Wilderness The beginning This Initial Temptation It gives us A background The appearance Of the Temptation Comes through The devil Himself As Jesus Stands in Solitude
[23:55] Having been Led by the Spirit Into this Place To be Tempted And tested Though the Spirit led Him there It was not A temptation From God God does Not tempt Us Though he Does allow Times of Trial in Our lives The temptation Is the Devil's Work It says In James 1 verse 13 For God Cannot be Tempted With evil And he Himself Tempts No one And also It says In 1 Corinthians God is Faithful And he Will not Let you Be tempted Beyond your Ability But with The temptation He will Also provide An escape That you May be Able to Endure It This was A test Set before Jesus Would Would he Sin Well Could he Sin He asked A self And he
[24:56] Said no Of course He couldn't Be the Righteous Saviour The spotless Unblemished Lamb The payment For our Sin If he Had sinned Himself But Did Jesus Have the Ability To sin Sin And then That has Its own Implications When you Think about It God has His own Eternal Purpose That has Been already Foreordained From the Beginning Of time To bring The sinner From misery Into salvation By a Redeemer Who is Jesus Christ His Beloved Son And when You say That it Almost sounds Like a Sealed deal Already So there Was no Possibility Of Jesus Sinning And failing But saying That there Was no Potential Ability And saying
[25:56] It so Hard and Fast Equates To saying That well There would Be no Temptation For Jesus The fact Of the Devil Being before Them would Be a Worthless Exercise If there Was no Ability To his Tempting It becomes Pointless If there's No ability To sin There's no Temptation In it But then If you Say that You question The language Of the Bible Because it Does say That Jesus Was tempted And it Says in Hebrews 4 Verse 15 The man Who in Every respect Has been Tempted As we Are But he Yet Without Sin We must Remember Christ Became A man As us Like us With a
[26:57] True body And a Reasonable Soul And he Would have Experienced Temptation As we Do But Beyond What we Know For often The root Of the Temptation Goes Unnoticed In us The temptation Has to Grow in our Mind Before we Identify it It's there Already It's growing It's The seed's Been planted And it Grows before We identify It Whereas in Christ He identifies It At it's Outset At it's Appearing It's Refused And rejected So as Not to Enter His Mind So as Not To defile Him And he Resists Every Single Weight Of Temptation But because Of the Man that He was Would have Been tempted All the
[27:58] More And bearing The weight Of the Wall Of temptation Is there Not a Worth In this Man Who bore Such a Weight In his Great Effort In his Great Struggle His Battle And his Fight To hold And resist Is there Not a Worth In that Well it Was all For you It was all For you And there's A hidden Beauty In the Temptations Of Christ The Wilderness Account Sees Three Attacks By the Devil And let Us be Clear Jesus Is on His Own Where no One else Is watching Him And as I
[28:59] Do not Often When we Fail When no One else Can see Us Jesus Is hard Pressed Here This isn't An easy Situation That he Is in But often We fail When we Are in Situations That are Easy So this Situation That Jesus Is in Would guarantee Our failure Jesus Doesn't And the First attack Is his Desire To satisfy His hunger Something that Would seem Reasonable To us If Jesus Were not Fasting This would Void his Fast Jesus' Mind was Not to Eat Jesus was Fasting To bring Himself Closer and Focused On the Work that The father Had for Him Next
[29:59] Comes the Attack on His identity And the Gospels do Put them in Different order But we'll Look at the Attack on The identity As they Stood on Top of The temple The devil Says If you Are the Son of God Throw Yourself Down Someone was Saying Prove Yourself Who are You Are you Really The son Of God And lastly He makes An attack At the Purpose Of Christ's Coming And we See a Great Lie that The devil Sets Before him Offering the Whole world To Jesus If you Fall down And worship Me That Wasn't His Place To offer It It's a Lie But Essentially What he's Saying There To him Is I Know Why You're Here I Know Why You've Come You've
[31:00] Come For the World I'll Give It to You Let's Avoid Going To the Cross Let's Make This Easy You Don't Have To Go Through With All This Suffering Just Bow Down And Worship Me Let's Make It Easy That's Often What he Says To us Too So keep These Temptations In mind As we Walk Through The Passages That we Have Before The Temptations That we Initially Said And that Is a Response From Christ Every Time In the Wilderness By the Use Of God's Word And it Shows us The Importance Of Knowing God's Word And Understanding It When To Use It This Is Important For The Christian In Their Life When We Feel Tempted To Keep Our Mind And to Deflect Every Temptation
[32:00] That is Set Before Us To Help Us Identify Who Is God And Help Us Identify The Devil When He Comes Before Us And That We Would Find A Confidence In That Word To Respond Directly In The Name And Power Of My Lord And My Saviour Jesus Christ He Is The Man Who Has Overcome You The Devil Who Stands Before Us He Has Overcome You And He Will Crush You You Are A Defeated Foe Be Gone Satan We Have Confidence To Say This In The Power Of Jesus Christ And So Till An Opportun Time We Leave The Wilderness And We Go On To The Confession What Goes On
[33:00] Here At Peter Confession There's Plenty Going On But With A Mind On Temptation We Focus On That But The Confession Of Peter Is A Moment In Scripture Worth Noting In Mark's Gospel Everything That Has Gone Before This Point Is Revealing Who Jesus Was And Now It Comes To The Point Where Jesus Asks Who Am I Who Do They Say That I Am And Peter Confesses Him That The Christ As The Christ And This Is Like A Turning Point Now He's Been Revealing Who He Was He's Come To This Point And From Now On It's Towards Jerusalem It's Towards The Cross But How Does The Devil Make His Appearance Before Christ Here In This Account
[34:01] He's More Subtle Now He's Not So Easily Identified To Us He Uses An Instrument And The Instrument Is Peter Think About That For A Moment That's Quite Frightening I Don't Know About You But That Scares Me We We We have We have A Man Peter That Walked Physically With Christ Who Saw First Hand His Power Heard His Words As They Were Spoken Experienced His Nature And Character How He Treated People The Miracles He Had Done He Was The One That Was Not Ashamed To Speak Out And Willingly Identified Jesus As The Christ You Are The Christ But Satan Was Able To Enter The Mind Of
[35:01] This Man Develop The Thought Into Action And The Thought Into Speech And It Happened So Quickly And So Worryingly It Goes Unidentified By Peter Does That Not Humble Us From Having Any Self Confidence In Our Christian Lives The Image We Had At The Beginning The Wall Has Fallen Upon Peter The Man Has Failed In Being Tempted And He Uses Peter But But What About The Temptation He Poses Through Peter Jesus Begins Speaking Of His Sufferings In Verse 31 Onwards He Says He Says He Must Be Rejected By Men He
[36:01] Says He Must Be Killed And Peter Comes Saying You Know What Is This Matthew He Gives He Says Far Be It From You Lord This Shall Not Happen To You He Can't Understand This Isn't Going To Happen He Is Rebuking Him Against The Sufferings That Christ Came For That's The Temptation You See You Don't Need To Die Jesus We Know Who You Are You Are The Christ You Are The King You Are The One Who Will Restore The Nations You Shall Not Die Why Will You Die And He's Talking Him Around What He Has Come For The Purpose Of His Coming The Purpose Of The Suffering Servant We Have Seen This Already In The Wilderness
[37:02] But In This Account There's An Acceptance Of Christ's Identity First And He Uses A Different Method This Time The Devil Through The Lips That Gave Him Honor And Praise And Is That Not True In Our Lives As Well People Will Praise Us And Then Deceive Us Death But Christ Identifies Satan Straight Off When We Would Have Missed Him And If Christ Had Not Said These Words We Would Have Missed Him But Before Christ Gives This Response here. It says in verse 33 that he turned and but he turned seeing his disciples is what it says.
[38:01] And I believe this was a look made in love towards the people. For the people. You know, Peter's come rebuking him.
[38:14] We know who you are. But Christ is saying you don't really know actually who I am. I must die.
[38:26] And these things must happen. So you will then understand exactly who I am. He had to die.
[38:40] This is him I imagine it as I'm looking out over the world again. As he looks out over his disciples. And there's a crowd there as well.
[38:52] He's looking out over the people of this world. And he's saying in his own mind almost as he looks upon it that he is willing to die for them.
[39:09] So that they understand. They come Peter comes saying that they understand. but they don't. Jesus knows best. Jesus knows best in our lives.
[39:26] And then he responds with the words get behind me Satan. He's direct again. He's direct and blunt to him again.
[39:37] He's exercising his authority over him. And he's saying to Satan now is not the time. Now is not the time.
[39:49] But Jesus here in this account of the Christian who was deceived and fell under the temptation. He gives them correction. He says to Peter for you are not set in your mind on the things of God but on the things of man.
[40:07] To have a mind on the things of God and a mind to pray in all circumstances to read his word and his words that give us direction and to give a dwelling upon these words.
[40:24] Where is the mind of the believer in Scotland today? Where is the mind of the believer sitting in Stornway Free Church tonight?
[40:35] Do we have our mind upon the things of God? Or are we planning for tomorrow? Does our mind upon the things of the world are we being led away as we spoke of in the morning?
[40:54] Are we distancing ourselves from God? There's no neutral ground. No neutral ground. We either have our mind on the things of God or we are inclined to turn away to the things of the world.
[41:11] But in this passage also the importance of God's word comes through and full attention to it. Jesus said at the end of verse 31 and three days after rise again when he was speaking of his suffering and his death and three days after rise again.
[41:31] Now it seems that Peter missed this phrase because I don't believe that he would have given a rebuke to Jesus if he had heard this as he thought he understood everything.
[41:49] Had he paid more attention and full attention to every word that Christ has said I don't think he would have been so quick to speak. And a note to the Christian in passing tell me have you ever doubted your own identity?
[42:12] Have you ever asked yourself you know am I even a Christian? This is what the devil does to us as well in our lives.
[42:24] I bet you have asked that. I'm sure you have asked that. He tempts us away from the things of God. He tempts our mind away from the things of God and he turns our mind to our faults to our sins and he says to you look at what you've done.
[42:46] You can't be a Christian if you do these things. But we must have our mind on the word of God. so all these things and all these temptations that come before us do not go unnoticed.
[43:05] We must give our full attention to the word of God to be able to identify these temptations that come before us and to find correction in it and maybe even a rebuke.
[43:21] and through it we'll be strengthened to stand trusting in the worthy saviour who enables us to escape from temptation and gives us a reassurance as a man who prays for us even when we fail as he did for Peter.
[43:46] remind the devil that he has a defeated enemy and trusting that Christ will ultimately crush him.
[43:58] We looked at the confession and when we were at the confession the focus in the Mark's Gospel changed to the cross so let us now go on to the cross.
[44:10] In this account Jesus as a man was tempted again but being a man he would also have known fear in his life and what I noticed was looking at these temptations it makes it all the more clear to me the fear he had of the cross we don't fully understand it but it seems like a fear that would equate to our worst fear a fear that we would want to run away from a fear that we would want to escape Jesus knows the time has come and when he's in Gethsemane he knows the time is near and he prays with earnestness to the father but it says that he prayed in agony he this fear of what's coming up we can hardly understand it and he's sweating drops of blood because of this fear that awaits the devil knows that if there's a chance of humiliating this man at all surely this is the time and if there was ever a day of his opportune return then surely this must be it the devil as a fisherman baits the hook according to the fish that he is trying to catch he knows the weak point within every one of us and
[45:49] I believe he knew that the fear of the cross in Christ would be his best attack to Christ although we know that he failed and his appearance this time to Christ well it's different again he takes an instrument that is the sinful man and here is where he has a field day he's let loose in minds that are easily inclined and aligned to his thoughts the devil's got something of a grasp in the situation here the soldiers the passers by the chief priests the scribes everyone that is there seems to have their hand against Jesus and it is a wall of weight that we will never know but where is the temptation at the cross well firstly you can imagine they have already scourged him his body is raw would have been throbbing from these chunks that were taken out of him that is enough to shorten a resilience as men to temptation but then comes the mocking the mocking from what came in verse 16 is the whole battalion that were called together and you might have a footnote beside that verse along the lines of saying that a whole battalion was 600 men
[47:37] I have never had 600 men mock me not to my face anyway you know two is enough imagine having 600 men mocking I couldn't imagine standing here if everyone here was mocking me but every temptation that is made here every mocking here is a temptation to give him to walk away to prove himself one way or another and how did they mock him well they put the purple robe on and they dressed him as a king they put a crown of thorns upon his head and they gave him an entertaining salute hail king of the Jews but also they went on it says that they were striking his head with a reed and no words or actions were recorded from the mouth of
[48:52] Jesus like a lamb to be slaughtered he opened not his mouth fulfilling scripture every method of the men here is used to provoke Christ to react and you know if none of these things work you can usually spit on a man to get a reaction out of him that usually gauges a reaction but not in Christ imagine spitting on the man that came to die for you imagine spitting upon the son of God and in a sense many people do today they lower him by taking his name in vain they take his name in vain they use his name as a swear word they lower
[49:55] Christ below anyone else they could imagine they use him as a curse word they blaspheme against God pretty much in my eyes he quits to spitting upon Christ his response was silence what was the worth of going through all this why did he do it this is a great suffering he's going through here a great mocking for whom he says you are worthy of it he goes through all of this for everyone that is seated here tonight and as he looked out upon the men and women in the confession he's looking out upon the world and he's saying you don't know me yet
[51:03] I must die so that you do and I love you beyond any love that you can know and so great was that love that he considers everyone sitting here tonight worthy to endure these temptations but this is just the beginning and then they let him be taken they hammered him to the cross verse 23 they offered him wine mixed with myrrh he did not take it and the myrrh was added to the wine to give it a bitter taste other gospels say that it was placed at his lips and he tasted it that he tasted the bitterness of the wine but he didn't absorb the wine in his body because he didn't want anything to take away from the pain that he was experiencing he felt every bit of pain he endured every bit of it the wine was not there to deaden his pain remember the bread to satisfy his desire the wine would have satisfied taking away the pain the bread would have satisfied the desire and taken away his hunger and made it easier for him so the devil is saying let's make this a wee bit easier for you what happens in verse 26 it says and the inscription of the charge read the king of the
[52:44] Jews and they address him as they shout at him the Christ the king of Israel he cannot save himself remember the top or the pinnacle of the temple where he was challenged by his identity here his identity is attacked again testing him to prove himself he cannot save himself of course he could but he didn't provoking him to prove himself and the funny thing is that they tempt him with the truth of his identity he could save himself and I believe every mocking and temptation that comes before us as a truth is harder to take than if it were a lie because we want to prove it it is true but the one that strikes me as being the opportune of all times is when the religious leaders shout at him come down now from the cross so that we may see and believe is that not why he came that you may see and believe in him that these men may see and believe who he was what a lie that was to
[54:09] Christ if you come down we'll believe you but it was a time to be silent and a time not to rebuke the devil we can hardly understand the weight of the temptation that is here he had every ability to stop it he could have flattened the 600 men in a word he could have drunk the wine to ease his pain for he had created all things it's mine I can take it I've made it he could have come down from the cross but he never the blood had to be poured out as payment for sin his mind was secured on the things of God he was not tempted in any way to make it easier he felt every ounce of pain that was set before him so that we wouldn't have to endure suffering and he knew if he did not die they wouldn't believe him he knew it was a lie that they were saying to but they tempted him with it come down from the cross he knew what was best for us and he endured every suffering for us and like the centurion which follows after he who stood there with the rest of the men probably mocking him assuming that's just an assumption but it wasn't until
[55:57] Jesus breathed his last that he was able to confess himself that truly this man was the son of God you see he had to die do you see in this man Jesus the resisting of every temptation standing before 600 men hitting him on the head spitting upon him he did it for you but resisting every temptation he proves himself to us who he is he felt everything to its extremity so that we may see and believe remember that wall that we thought of at the beginning the man who knows the weight of it temptation was Jesus but at the cross he overcomes every temptation it's done and he essentially stabilizes the wall and secures it he secures the wall of his kingdoms by his work he sets a good foundation and now he is at work rebuilding rescuing the men that have fallen under the weight of their sin and have fallen under the temptations that the devil has set before them and now he is setting these men free the men who call out to
[57:39] Jesus have mercy on me as sinner he will come to you and you will know freedom in Christ Jesus what freedom he earned for you and his kingdom will surely be built to completion so let so let us learn from Christ our great example and in his resisting of temptation comes through a beauty the man who had the mind against all opportune times where is our mind tonight is it on Christ is he not worthy of it may these thoughts be blessed to us tonight we conclude by singing in psalm 31 psalm psalm 31 on page 241 in the
[58:55] Scottish Psalter sing from the beginning down to verse mark 5 in thee oh lord i put my trust shamed let me never be according to thy righteousness do thou deliver me bow down thine ear to me with speed send me deliverance to save me my strong rock be thou and my house of defense because thou art my rock and thee i for my fortress take therefore do thou me lead and guide even for thine own name's sake and sooth thou art my strength therefore pull me out of the net which they in the which they in subtlety for me so privily have said unto thine hands i do commit my spirit for thou art he or thou jehovah god of truth that hast redeemed me we'll sing these verses to god's praise in thee oh lord i put thy trust in thee oh lord i put my trust shame let me never be according to thy righteousness there oh a deliverance, to save me my strong rock, be thou and my house of defence.
[61:24] Because thou art my rock and thee, I for my fortress take.
[61:44] Therefore do thou me lead and guide him for thine own name's sake.
[62:04] And saith thou art my strength, therefore pull me out of the net, which thee in subtlety for me so cleverly have set.
[62:42] Into thine hands I do commit my spit for thy hearty.
[63:02] O thou Jehovah, God of truth, that hast redeemed me.
[63:21] Amen. Closing prayer. Our heavenly Father, as we go from this place, make us mindful that we must have our minds set upon thee and thy ways.
[63:37] That we would not be distracted nor to and fro by the works or schemes of the devil. And we ask that you would protect us. Your spirit would be with us, watching over us.
[63:48] We would have our minds fixed upon the Christ who died for us and endured every suffering. So that we may know it. And all these things and his righteousness imputed to us, to us, his perfect, perfect grace.
[64:06] Lord, remain with us in the week ahead. May we know the love and fellowship of the spirit being upon us. Keep us on the path, we pray, narrow as it seems in our lives, confessing our sins before thee, our Father, and humbly clinging upon thee, who knows what is best for us, and shall pray for us, and keep us along every step that we take.
[64:36] So forgive us in all our wrongdoings, and in all our failings, and in all these things, in all our worship.
[64:47] May we cast our minds towards the Christ, who is worthy of all our praise, and all glory to be his. We ask it in his name.
[64:58] Amen.