WEBVTT

00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:01.700
 Thanks very much, Alice. Good morning, everyone.

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 As Graham said, delighted to have you with us, whether you're here in the building, watching

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! on YouTube, or listening to the audio recording. It will be helpful if you have a Bible in front

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 of you to be able to refer to the passage as we go along.

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 When I was about 13, the teacher-led my scripture union group at school brought us all a book.

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 It was The Fight by John White. It's still in print, I believe, is considered a classic,

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 these days. It had a very deep influence on me as a Christian teenager. Maybe you'll see the

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 subtitle, A Practical Handbook of Christian Living. And so it covers things like reading the Bible,

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 prayer, witness, and all the things you'd expect. But as the title suggests, it has a particular

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 focus on the fact that if we are Christians, then we're in a fight. We're in a battle against

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 the forces of evil. One chapter in the book is called His Infernal Majesty. And there's a picture

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 in that that has stayed with me through the 50-odd years since I first read the book.

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 I want you to imagine a piano. Now we're talking real pianos here, not electronic gizmos. So we need

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 one that's got the full works. And what we're going to do is we're going to open the top and we're going

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 to expose all the strings and the hammers and all the fantastic works inside. We're then going to

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 put our foot on the right-hand pedal. I think it's technically a sustained pedal. We'll call it the

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 loud pedal. And we're going to sing to the piano. We're going to sing a note very loudly. It doesn't

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 matter if you're as tuneless as I am. We're going to sing to the piano. And as we sing, we'll hear at

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 least one note vibrating. Our voice in these circumstances will resonate inside the piano

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 and we will hear something, music coming out. Of course, that's not how you're supposed to play

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 pianos, by singing at them. So we'll close the lid and we'll take our foot off the pedal.

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 And if we still keep singing, then there will be no response. We can sing as loud as we want,

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 but nothing will happen. So what's the picture? The devil, when he tempts us, it's like him singing

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 at us, looking for a response. And some of his songs are very, very attractive. And if figuratively

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 our lid is open and our foot's on the pedal, then there will be a response. We'll listen and we'll

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 respond to the devil in the way that he wants us to. And the songs, as I said, are very attractive.

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 Sometimes there's things which in the right context would be fine. Enjoying food, sexual attraction,

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 even anger. These things in the right context are okay, like if they played using the normal

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 pedal, the normal keys, when the devil is tempting us, they're wrong. So we need to make sure we've

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 not got our foot on the pedal, the lid is shut, and that we don't respond in the way the devil

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 wants us to. And here's a particular point relating to today's passage. When the devil sang his best songs

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 to Jesus, he got no reverberation back. There was no way that Jesus was going to give in to the devil's

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 temptation. That's a key message as we go through the passage this morning. I want to think particularly

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 this morning about the tactics the devil uses to tempt Jesus and the way in which we can overcome

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 these tactics. But we need to do a little bit of work to begin with understanding what's going on in

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 this passage. So I've got four things to think about to begin with. First of all, this is the last of

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 three passages in Matthew's Gospel which are the preparation for Jesus' ministry. So he's about to go out

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 and to preach and to heal and to do all the wonderful things that he did. And these three short passages

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 tell us what happened before that. Graham took us through the first two over the last couple of weeks.

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 We saw John the Baptist with his message of repentance, preparing the way for Jesus and for what Jesus

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 would do. We saw Jesus being baptised, identifying with us sinners, and then receiving God's commendation

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 for his son as the Holy Spirit descended on the three persons of the Trinity coming together.

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 And today we're going to see Jesus being tested and proving that he's ready to fulfil God's purpose

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 for him. You may already have seen the parallels for what we will be doing at the end of the service

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 today, those of us in the church, as we commission Danny for her service.

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 Louie has been prepared for her. She has been prepared in part during her time in this church,

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 and others have gone before, and OMF are providing great support and help for her.

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 We are commending her because we know that she has a good Christian character and a real commitment

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 to the Lord Jesus, which makes her really suitable for the service that she is going into.

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 And she has been tested her faith, and her desires have been tested over the years,

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 and she has proved that she has a genuine call, and that she is the right person to do the work

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 God has called her to. And so we're going to be delighted later on to commissioner.

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 True, of course, of any Christian work. We build on the work of others, the preparation that's been done.

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 We need to live in a way that's commendable in our character, in our conduct,

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 and we need to prove our faith as is tested regularly. We need to be ready for ministry, as Jesus was.

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 The second thing I want to highlight is that it wasn't accidental that Jesus was in the desert,

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 and the devil tempted him. Verse 1 tells us he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness

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 to be tempted by the devil. As we saw last week at his baptism, Jesus saw the Holy Spirit descending

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 on him in the form of a dove, and the first thing the Spirit does is to lead him into the place of

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 temptation. Now, that wasn't in any way to set him up to fail. It was a test so that he could demonstrate

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 his commitment to obeying his Father, and also to set an example for us.

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 As with Jesus, the devil tempts us in the hope that we'll fail, that God tests us to prove our faith

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 and the transforming power of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The same word is used in Greek for tempt

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 and test. The devil tempts us to make us fall. God tests us so that we can demonstrate that we can stand

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 in his strength. Next overarching point is just to note that the devil is real. Very easy to have a

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 picture of the devil in our minds as a kind of cartoon character in a red cloak, but he's so much more

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 than that. Jesus calls him the prince of this world because its influence is so great, and he commands a

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 multitude of evil beings. Paul describes them as rulers, authorities, powers of this dark world, and

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 spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Christians rightly focus on Jesus as our Savior. We

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 want to fill our minds with him and for all that he has done for us. But we must never forget the havoc

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 that the tempter can wreak when he gets a place in our lives. We need to make sure he doesn't get in,

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 that we don't respond to his songs.

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 And then the last big picture point is that Jesus is fully God, but also fully man. Now there was no way

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 that Jesus was going to give in to the temptations the devil put in front of him. If he had done that,

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 it would have been totally against his divine nature. It simply couldn't happen. But we're not to take that

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 and think, well, the temptations weren't real then, were they? It's all just a bit of a charade. No, it's not.

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 Jesus had to face the temptations as a man, as a human being. Matthew tells us he was hungry. He was very, very hungry.

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 His body would be craving for food. Now at the end of the passage, Matthew tells us that angels came and attended him.

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 I think that's an indication of just how traumatic it had been for Jesus. How hard and draining it was for him as a man to face the devil's temptations.

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 Yes, as God, he didn't give in. But as a man, it was really, really hard. Now that's difficult to understand.

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 Graham pointed out last week the difficulty of understanding the Trinity.

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 It's also very difficult to understand the detail of how Jesus can be both God and man. But he is.

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 The writer to the Hebrews says he was tempted in every way, just as we are, yet without sin.

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 And that is key as we think about this passage this morning.

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 Now I said we'd look at the temptations, the three temptations of Jesus and the tactics of the devil.

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 So let's do that.

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 The first thing the devil does is he targets Jesus at a point of weakness.

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 Jesus is hungry. He's very, very hungry. He's been fasting for 40 days and 40 nights.

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 He's famished. He's physically weak.

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 And in that condition, the devil offers him bread.

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 But more than that, he suggests that if he's the son of God, then he shouldn't need to go hungry like this.

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 Just a little miracle.

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 Turn the stones into bread and you'll be satisfied.

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 But that would have been wrong.

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 Jesus would have been using his divine powers for his own gratification.

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 And so he points out how much more important the spiritual is than the physical.

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 Quotes in the book of Deuteronomy and says,

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 The devil attacks when he's weak, but Jesus overcomes the temptation.

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 The devil will attack us too when we're at our weakest.

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 When we're most vulnerable, he will come and he will tempt us.

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 For me, there's a point of maximum danger at about half past nine in the evening.

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 By that point, Bridget has normally gone upstairs and I'm sitting at my laptop and I'm trying to finish off something I've decided I need to do that day.

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 I'm tired.

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 It's a few hours since we've had our tea, so my blood sugar's low.

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 I know there are chocolate biscuits in the cupboard and cheese in the fridge, but I also know if I start eating, then I'm never going to stop.

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 It's also then I'm most likely to get discouraged.

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 To think, what's the point of me staving away like this?

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 What is the benefit in it?

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 And if someone happened to send me an email or a WhatsApp message I don't particularly like at that point,

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 then I can get unreasonably angry.

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 I'm at my weakest and that's when the devil attacks.

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 Now your weakness may not be associated with that time, maybe a different time, maybe to do with a place or a set of circumstances,

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 but the devil knows what it is.

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 The devil knows when you're most vulnerable.

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 And if you do too, then you can be prepared to stand up to him and to overcome his temptation.

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 He targets our weakness.

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 Second thing the devil does is he targets our pride.

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 And that's what he's doing in the second temptation of Jesus.

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 He takes him up to the temple and says, in effect,

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 So you think you're the son of God, then the normal rules don't apply to you.

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 You can throw yourself off the temple and you won't come to any harm.

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 And for good measure, he also quotes it from the Bible, saying that God will send his angels to catch Jesus.

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 But Jesus never did anything just because he could.

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 Maybe at this point he recalls his father's words at his baptism.

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 This is my son whom I love.

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 With him I am well pleased.

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 And he knows the father will certainly not be pleased by frivolous use of his powers.

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 So again, quotes from Deuteronomy, it is also written,

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 Do not put the Lord your God to the test.

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 Again with us, the devil targets our pride.

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 That's almost the opposite of the first situation we're talking about.

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 This is when we feel really strong.

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 When we're confident in ourselves and perhaps we feel in some way we're superior to others.

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 And maybe even that the rules that we'd apply to other people don't really apply to us.

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 Sadly, we sometimes hear about Christian leaders who've gone wrong in one way or another.

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 Usually sex or money involved.

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 And you sense very often that there's pride at the heart of it.

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 They're so used to people telling them how wonderful they are,

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 that they begin to believe in their own superiority,

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 and that they can get away with anything.

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 Even things they would tell others to avoid.

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 Maybe they even justify it with some kind of spurious Bible text like the devil does here.

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 And so they fall.

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 Or if we think about situations where churches split sadly.

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 Again, pride isn't very bare at the heart of it.

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 People saying if you don't do things my way, then we're not doing them at all.

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 Or dispute by neither side will back down because they'll lose face.

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 Pride getting in the way of God's work, bringing us down.

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 And it can definitely happen to any of us.

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 Maybe a particular danger for Christian leaders, but any of us can fall through pride.

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 Thinking we're better than we really are.

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 Not recognising that all we are and have is from God.

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 And we start to believe in ourselves and take pride in our achievements

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 and perhaps to do things we really shouldn't do.

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 Paul tells us the right attitude in Galatians.

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 He says, may I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.

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 The devil targets our pride.

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 And then the final tactic of the devil is he targets our ambition.

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 Now the third temptation is different from the other two.

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 He's not now addressing Jesus as the son of God and enticing him at what he can do.

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 He's saying to Jesus, you need to turn your back on God.

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 You need to worship me.

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 He takes him to a high mountain and promises him all the kingdoms of the world.

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 Almost saying, look what happens when you obey your father.

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 You face humility, a simple, poor lifestyle, physical hardship.

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 Ultimately, you'll face rejection.

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 Why don't you come to my side?

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 I'll give you ultimate power and status.

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 You just need to worship me.

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 If Jesus in any way had been driven by ambition,

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 then that would have been an overwhelming temptation.

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 But he wasn't.

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 He was determined to do his father's will,

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 even though it meant a life of humility and service and an awful death.

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 And again, he turns to Deuteronomy and says,

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 it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

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 And the devil will target our ambition too.

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 The temptation will be to put our career, our comfort, our influence, our importance,

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 whatever else, ahead of our relationship with Jesus.

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 And it can be very subtle as it grows over time.

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 I've not really got time to serve in the church because I'm so busy at my work.

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 I've got this job I need to finish over the weekend,

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 so I'll just miss out on going to church today.

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 I've too much on today to read my Bible or pray.

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 And our selfish ambition gradually squeezes out our commitment to God.

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 Pete Campbell reminded us last Sunday evening that we need to be seeking God's glory,

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 not our own.

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 But it's so easy to get it the wrong way around.

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 It's worth noting here, the devil offers Jesus all the kingdoms of the world.

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 If we went forward to the very end of Matthew's Gospel and the final teaching of Jesus,

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 he says this,

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 After his life of humility, of service, after he'd been rejected and had died on the cross,

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 he received much, much more than the devil could offer.

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 The devil offered the kingdom of the world.

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 God gave him all authority on heaven and on earth.

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 And if we put God first, we will ultimately never lose out.

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 So three tactics of the devil we need to be aware of and guard against.

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 He'll target our weaknesses, he'll target our pride, and he'll target our ambition.

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 So how can we overcome temptation?

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 Well, let me begin by telling you the wrong way.

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 Have you ever, like me, been in a situation where you thought,

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 I'm not going to do it?

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 I'm not going to do it.

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 I'm not going to do it.

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 Oh, I've done it.

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 We dwell on the temptation and we end up giving into it.

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 The devil's tune has its effect.

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 We listen to it, we reverberate, and he gets his way.

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 And trying just to resist temptation in that way is setting us up to fail.

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 We're trying to do it in our own strength.

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 The key is to do what Jesus did and move your mind away from the temptation

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 and onto what God wants you to focus on.

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 I mentioned that Jesus quoted three times from the book of Deuteronomy.

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 After 40 years in the wilderness, which is paralleled by Jesus' 40 days in the wilderness,

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 Moses is giving his final instructions to the Israelites.

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 And he effectively says, this is how you need to live if you want to please God.

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 If you do this, you will please God and you will prosper.

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 And Jesus uses verses from Deuteronomy, from Moses' teaching, to counter the devil.

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 And for us too, the Bible is our most powerful weapon when we face temptation.

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 It's the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.

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 If we know it well enough, if we've been reading it and learnt it,

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 when we face temptation, there may well be a verse or a passage that comes to mind to make us strong.

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 Or we may be able to set our minds on all that we have in Jesus, of God's goodness to us.

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 Alistair Begg is a well-known preacher and writer and he says this,

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 If you are in Christ, you are no longer the person you once were.

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 You have been made a member of a people who will last forever.

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 So when you face temptation, stop for a moment and remember your Creator.

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 Contemplate the goodness and holiness of God, both in history and in your own experience.

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 And thank him for his abounding mercy as he deals with you.

00:21:34.759 --> 00:21:37.539
 Don't forget to remember.

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 And the best way to stand up to the attacks of the devil to temptations we face in our lives

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 is to focus on what we have in Jesus and of all his goodness to us.

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 And sometimes we then just need to remove ourselves from the situation we're in.

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 That's not giving in to the devil.

00:21:58.719 --> 00:22:02.699
 Paul says to Timothy, flee the evil desires of youth.

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 And it's not just young people who have evil desires.

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 All of us will be tempted.

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 But however loudly and sweetly the devil sings,

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 we can shut that out by focusing our minds on what's good and right.

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 Paul says in 1 Corinthians 10, God is faithful.

00:22:23.799 --> 00:22:27.559
 He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear.

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 And when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.

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 None of us is perfect like Jesus.

00:22:39.359 --> 00:22:43.079
 All of us will face powerful temptations.

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 But there is always a way out if we focus our minds on what is good and what is right,

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 if we use our time in a way that's productive and conducive to growing in Jesus.

00:22:58.439 --> 00:22:59.799
 Let me finish with this.

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 You will fall.

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 We all fall.

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 We all fail over time.

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 As we grow in Christ, if we're Christians, that should happen less often.

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 But it will happen because we're not perfect.

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 We may carelessly have left the piano top open.

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 We may deliberately have put our foot on the loud pedal.

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 But the devil's song has achieved what he intended.

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 The good news for all of us is that whatever we've done, when we fail, there's always a way back to God.

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 And that's because Jesus overcame an even greater temptation than the ones we're looking at today.

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 In the Garden of Gethsemane, the day before he died, Jesus faced up to his death.

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 He's had a very intense evening with his disciples.

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 They didn't really get what he was telling them.

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 In his hour of need, he's asked them to pray and they've fallen asleep.

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 He's tired.

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 He's every reason to feel deeply discouraged.

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 And he knows what lies ahead of him.

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 He knows he's going to be mocked.

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 He's going to be beaten.

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 He's going to be nailed to the cross.

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 And he's going to have the full wrath of God for sin piled on him.

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 And his whole being shrinks away from it.

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 Everything in him as a man says, this is too difficult, too hard to do.

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 And he prays, my father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.

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 But then he says, yet not as I will, but as you will.

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 And it was God's will for him to suffer.

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 That was the only way in which we could be offered forgiveness for our sins.

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 So Jesus goes to the cross.

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 He doesn't call down 12 legions of angels to prevent him being arrested.

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 He doesn't pay attention to those when he's on the cross saying,

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 if you're the son of God, come down from that cross, save yourself.

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 And because he's overcome that temptation,

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 because he's taken the punishment for our sin,

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 there's forgiveness for everyone who trusts him.

00:25:25.660 --> 00:25:30.540
 Perhaps for some people here, you need to trust him for the first time.

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 Perhaps what I've been saying, in some ways you find difficult to understand

00:25:35.680 --> 00:25:39.240
 because you've never tried to follow Jesus in your lives.

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 But you need forgiveness for all the wrong you've done.

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 You need to trust in Jesus as the one who can bring you peace with God and security for the future.

00:25:51.799 --> 00:25:53.559
 Perhaps some of us need to return.

00:25:54.220 --> 00:26:01.059
 We need to get back to the cross and we need to experience God's grace again and again and again

00:26:01.059 --> 00:26:04.279
 as we confess our sins.

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 We can always know forgiveness when we come in repentance and faith,

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 confessing our sins and knowing that because Jesus led a perfect life

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 and died our death on the cross,

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 our Heavenly Father is willing to forgive us.

00:26:21.799 --> 00:26:26.220
 So let's make sure that we are right with God this morning.

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 And let's go out into this week aware of the devil's schemes,

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 ready to overcome and particularly fixing our eyes on Jesus,

00:26:37.059 --> 00:26:41.240
 focusing on him as the pioneer and perfecter of our faith,

00:26:41.740 --> 00:26:45.659
 but also as the one who is now with God in heaven,

00:26:45.660 --> 00:26:53.000
 acting as our high priest and also as the atoning sacrifice for our sins.

00:26:53.560 --> 00:26:54.519
 Let's trust him.

00:26:55.040 --> 00:26:56.420
 Let's go in his strength,

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 knowing that he is able to preserve us and to help us in our time of trial.

00:27:03.620 --> 00:27:05.279
 Let me pray and then we'll sing together.

00:27:06.840 --> 00:27:08.120
 Father, we thank you for your word.

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 We thank you for the way in which Jesus was so able

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 to overcome the temptations of the evil one.

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 That the devil could try his worst,

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 and yet Jesus was able to completely conquer him

00:27:24.079 --> 00:27:27.339
 at the point of his temptation in the wilderness,

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 but particularly as he died on the cross

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 and won the ultimate victory for us.

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 Help us to have our trust in him,

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 to recognise him as our hope for eternity,

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 and help us too to fix our eyes on him

00:27:43.519 --> 00:27:46.179
 so that when the temptation comes,

00:27:46.659 --> 00:27:49.419
 we will be able to stand up against the evil one.

00:27:49.879 --> 00:27:51.779
 We will be able to overcome

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 and to remain strong in Christ.

00:27:55.559 --> 00:27:56.759
 We thank you for our time together.

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 We pray you'll be with us as we continue together now.

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 In the name of the Lord Jesus.

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 Amen.

00:28:09.839 --> 00:28:12.240
 Amen.

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