Resist The Devil and He Will Flee — Luke 3-4

0:00 Alright. Good morning, everyone. Good morning. As you know, we are tracking through the book of Luke and glad everyone could be here with us this morning to continue on that on that journey as we progress to the book of Luke. We've just come out of chapter three when Don spoke a couple of weeks ago and we'll be launching into chapter four today.

0:26 Now, you know, as we were we've been planning as to how to how to lay this out and who would speak on what topic and things like that. You know, we you kind of gotta go in in order and I was hoping I wouldn't fall on this particular one. I I can't say that I've ever spoke on Luke chapter four this first first half before but yeah, here we are But I will say this, it has been a very rewarding study and I hope that I can convey that to you all today as a group. And I'll say this also that the Lord knew what I needed and so hopefully, it'll be a benefit to us all as we focus on this this portion of Luke. Now, it does look like we have some slides up, right?

1:16 And are you going to advance? Am I going to advance or you're to advance? Okay. Alright. Very good.

1:23 So, we'll let's open with a word of prayer and then we'll we'll get into our study. Our heavenly father, we want to give thanks for this opportunity that we have here this morning. Father, we we we recognize that behind the scenes, there's been a lot of disruptions and interference, a lot of hurdles to even being able to present this this message and so we we acknowledge that but we we are trusting you father. We're asking for your help. Father, we we know that this portion of the of of the chapter that we'll be dealing with does help us learn and see more about the Lord Jesus Christ.

2:08 And we want to be impressed by Christ today. We wanna to be impressed by the Lord Jesus. We want to see Him. We want to understand Him better. We also understand that this particular portion we're dealing with reveals to us more about the adversary, the devil.

2:24 And so, father, we pray that we would learn about him as well and that you would you would shed light on what we need to know to be able to be victorious over our adversary, the devil. And so, father, we commit ourselves to you. We pray for your help as we look at the scriptures and we ask this in the name of the lord Jesus Christ. Amen. You're open to Luke chapter three if...

2:51 Or or excuse me, Luke chapter four. If you're not there, go ahead and turn to Luke chapter four. I want to grab two verses out of chapter three just to make a connection for us as we as we look at the new portions that we're studying. So, go to Luke chapter three and verse 21. Now, when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also being baptized and praying, the heavens were open and the holy ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon the lord Jesus, upon him, and the voice came from heaven that said, thou art my beloved son, in thee I am well pleased.

3:35 So we have this record of the Lord Jesus Christ being baptized in chapter three. Then it transitions into a genealogy. You'll notice the genealogy is given from verses 23 all the way to the end of the chapter, verse 38. Now this genealogy is important because this gives... Luke is showing the humanity of the Lord Jesus.

3:57 The humanity is emphasized. And so here we have this genealogy of how He is born of a woman and the genealogy is recorded for us. Now you'll notice as we go to chapter four and verse one, look at the first two words, and Jesus. His name Jesus is used, which again signifies His humanity. The the the title Christ, well that signifies he's the anointed one, the the Messiah.

4:29 That's what Christ indicates. Jesus indicates god with us. Emmanuel, remember the lord Jesus would say, we have it recorded for us in scripture. Thou hast prepared me a body. This is Christ in the flesh.

4:47 Christ living among humans and and so here we have Jesus. So notice his humanity if you will. Notice his humanity and Jesus being being full of the Holy Ghost returned from the Jordan, that was where he was baptized and he was led by the spirit into the wilderness. Verse two, being forty days tempted of the devil, and in those days he did eat nothing, and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, if thou be the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

6:23 And looking down He said, If you be the Son of God, cast Yourself down from here, for it is written. Satan quotes a portion from Psalm 91, he says, He shall give His angels charge over thee to keep thee and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time you should dash your foot against a stone. And Jesus answered and said, it is said, or we could say it is written, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from Jesus for a season. And Jesus returned in the power of the spirit into Galilee and there went out a fame of Him throughout all the region about.

7:16 And He taught in their synagogues, being glorified of all. Now we'll pause right there. Pretty common portion, right? I mean, like it's we we we know about this. We we've heard about this before.

7:34 Like I said, I don't think I've ever been asked to speak on it or study it out for myself and but we we understand what's happening. Christ is baptized. He's getting ready to come into his earthly ministry. He's starting his his teaching and then this opposition or the Satan comes and tries to trip him up, tries to thwart Christ's mission. As we track through this, we want to remind ourselves, who is the Lord Jesus Christ?

8:03 First thing. The second thing we'll remind ourselves is or ask ourselves is what... Why is he here? What does he come to do? And we'll refer to those things as we as we track through.

8:12 Let's go to our our first slide. And here's a here's a group think question for all of us. Now we've read the passage and we've understand what's going on here, but let's ask this question, why was Jesus being tempted? And so I'll I'll take some responses from the... From our audience here.

8:33 Why was Jesus being tempted? What's what what what's all what are some ideas that you have? Bob? Okay, good. Alright, great.

8:44 Maybe she could describe here. Mason? Him from fulfilling god's purposes. Yeah. Yep.

8:50 Okay. Good point. Andy? Isn't that fulfillment of prophecy? That's a good question.

8:57 That he would be tempted by the adversary? Could be. Could be a fulfillment of prophecy. Alright. Zach?

9:05 Yep. That's true. Yep. How about any others? Why was he being tempted?

9:17 Devin? I'm going to selfishly say it so that we would learn more about him. Okay. Definitely displays his his actions, his attitudes, his Trevor? All right.

9:35 Good point. That's a good one. I'm going to hold off for one more. Anybody got one more? Denzel?

9:41 Okay. Yeah. Alright. Yeah. To to show he had he had no blemishes, he to show he would not sin.

9:54 Andy? Well said. Well said. So let's let's... We got that on our mind.

10:38 This is the Trinity working before us and so here he's being led into the wilderness. And there's there's a lot of symbolism there. The wilderness, a barren place, a hard place. We... There's this contrast between the Garden Of Eden and this wilderness here.

10:56 The the the first Adam and the and the last Adam. We have these kind of things that that present themselves but verse two, it says, forty days being tempted of the devil. Now, let's let's focus just for a moment on this concept of temptation. Samuel, go ahead and advance the slide or did he already do that? Alright, he's got it for us.

11:18 Temptation, let's think about that for a minute. Now in my study, I came across some of you may recognize the name William Graham Scrogy, is that how you say his name? But anyway, he had this layout of temptations that I found very helpful. Bring the first one up. Notice this, it makes an appeal to our personality.

11:43 A temptation, just a temptation itself where we want to understand temptation to to to better understand how to thwart it or how to combat it, how to not let it throw us off so to speak. But it it it it can attack our body, our soul, and our spirit. And we see, we can see even in the lord's temptations like the what's the very first temptation? Turn this stone into bread. That's his appetite, his physical body.

12:10 We could we could make connection to see that there was there was an inference to the soul in the in the next one, and an inference to the spirit in the third one. And so, let's go ahead with the next the next slide. It makes appeal we lost some some of our spacing here, but that conscience should be up on third column. Makes an appeal to our faculties, faith, reason, and conscience. Go to the next one.

12:43 Works on our natural interest, our appetite, our adventure, our ambition. And then again, if you just want to you may make a connection to these based on the temptations that are being given. Are are they the tactics, I guess you could say. The next next one. The elements of this world are against us.

13:04 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. The next one, seeks to degrade our desires of satisfaction, acknowledgement, usefulness. You ever notice that how like Satan will take something good that's satisfying to us and he will thwart it or distort it and all of a sudden, the satisfaction becomes less and less and you need more and more, something different and so, he he seeks to degrade our desires. He he he affects our our satisfaction. Acknowledgement and usefulness.

13:41 We feel we feel useless. Next next slide. It seeks to damage our relationship with God, the church and each other, and the world. Man, how true is that? That when we when we fall subject to temptation where it interrupts our relationship with God, it can interrupt interrupt our relationship with each others, believers in Christ and interrupts our relationship with the world.

14:08 Man temptation is a serious thing. It's a... And it's it's it's... I'm gonna say this, it's somber. It's heavy.

14:41 I mean, I I dipped my coat jacket in somebody's coffee but here's what the here's the word the word endure, what it means. To suffer without yielding, to hold out and emerge victorious. In our reading in Luke chapter four, what did the Lord Jesus do? He endured the temptation, you see. He suffered it forty days hungry.

15:13 Forty days temptation. Turn this stone into a bread. Was that a sin? No. I mean that was...

15:23 He could have done that, he had the power to do that, he had the right to do that. Down and worship me, he says to Satan. All this power that I've gained can be yours. He endured the suffering of this. He endured the conflict without yielding, and he held out and emerged victorious.

15:51 So, yes, Jesus is setting a pattern. You know, I'm going to make a statement and if you're surprised by this, I want you to be surprised by this. In this portion that we read, Jesus yielded. You say okay, what did he yield to? Did he yield to Satan?

16:17 No, but he yielded. What did he yield to? We already read it. He yielded to the spirit. He yielded himself to god the father and god the father's will.

16:28 He yielded himself to the word. You see that? So, he yielded endurance is yielding without or or enduring without without yielding, okay? Endurance is is to suffer without yielding but listen, it is okay to yield. We yield to to the spirit.

16:50 We yield to the father. We yield to the word. Christ suffered without yielding to Satan's temptation, without yielding to temptation to hold out and emerge victorious. You go to the next the next slide. So we have this, Jesus example, when we gave our our reasons for being...

17:14 Jesus being tempted, this was one one of the main reasons. Yeah, he gives for us an example. And so, we also, another reason is that Satan is exposed. We get to see the reality of who Satan is and what he wants to do. We have many descriptions of Satan in in the in the scripture.

17:36 Father of lies, a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. And so look, keep this in your mind. When temptation comes, we try to present how important temptations are. When temptation comes from Satan, it is to destroy you. It is to devour you.

17:56 That word that's used in the scripture in first Peter there, the word devour means that there's nothing left, okay? And so what he wants to do, Satan's intent is to... For the believer is he wants to devour you so there's nothing left for God. There's no testimony left for God. There's no witness left for God.

18:16 He wants to throw you on the trash heap. We think of what just a couple of years ago, Ravi Zacharias. He was devoured by Satan. His his testimony is none effect. RZIM Ministries is like taken off the air.

18:38 His books, you know, thrown away. I mean like you're thinking like, see what's... This is what his intent is. It's to throw you off so bad that you're devoured, your testimony is ruined. If you're a believer, he wants to ruin your testimony.

18:54 If you're not a believer, he just wants to keep you away from the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. What's our... Oh, okay. So here here's our... Let's let's do this.

19:21 Satan's going to be exposed, but these four points... Maybe I should have retitled this slide as as these are four things that you and I can do kind of as a way to combat Satan, a way to follow Christ's example. And the first thing is we must know our own weakness. You might say, well there's no weakness in Christ and that's a true statement. But you know what?

19:47 Even though we don't understand this, there was weakness in Christ's humanity. He subjected himself. Remember he made himself of no reputation. He took on the form of a human body. He subjected himself to hunger.

20:04 He subjected himself to the need to sleep. He subjected himself to discipline. And so, yeah, know your own weakness. Know your own weakness. We're going to talk about that in just a little bit more.

20:17 Let's go. Let's look at the other one. I must know my own strength. Did everybody know that you you got some strength? You got some weaknesses, but you got some strengths, right?

20:26 Well, it's not a SWAT analysis, so relax. Go to the next one. I must know the weakness of Satan. Here's something where education comes in. This is where Satan being exposed.

20:39 And then the fourth one is, I must know the strength of Satan. Alright. Go to the next slide. Here's a here's a first to identify with for our weakness. Romans seven eighteen, For I know that in me that is in my flesh dwells no good thing, for to will is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I find not.

21:08 You know, this first concept in a in a battle plan for for standing up against temptation is to know my own weakness. And look, don't ever remember Satan's the father of lies? He tells you, oh you can stand up to this. You can take it. You know when to stop.

21:27 You know when you know where your line is and you won't cross it. You won't go too far. I can have x number of this. I can look at this for x number. You know, we play those tricks on our mind all the time.

21:38 Know our weakness. In your flesh, you cannot stand up to him. Now look, Satan, we need to recognize who he is and he is a created being. He is a... An adversary, he is powerful, but listen, he is defeated.

21:54 He is nothing against Christ. If I live in Christ, I am in the spirit, I resist, I stand up to, I defeat. You've got the same ability to have the same outcome as Christ did. But recognize in your weakness, in your own strength, in your flesh, you're going to fail. Just know that right up front.

22:15 What's my strength? Go to the next one. Here here's some strength. My own strength is in Christ. Philippians four thirteen, I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me.

22:25 When we see the word Christ, we want to remember Jesus Christ. He's the one that was in the wilderness. He's the one that was victorious. He was the one that endured. I can endure.

22:36 I can endure all things through Christ which strengthens me. Right? I can... I I have strength. I can endure and come out on the other side victorious.

22:47 Galatians reminds us of this, yet not I, but Christ lives in me. Let Christ be... This is your strength. Okay? You've got weakness in your flesh.

22:58 You've got strength in Christ. Remember this, part of God's overall plan is for you to carry out His plan. You and I are carrying out his plan. You and I are witnesses for him. You and I have roles to fill in the local church.

23:19 This is... And so he is strengthening you, he's empowering you to do this plan. He doesn't want His purpose distorted. Realize your weakness, realize your strength. Go to the next one.

23:34 Now look at this. This is a verse we know, but now this this kind of came to more light for me in studying this in this context. First Corinthians ten thirteen, Paul writing says, there is no temptation taken you but such is common to man. But God is faithful who will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able, but will always with the temptation, here's the thing that we're concerned about, this weighty matter, this temptation that's hitting us from all angles, with the temptation, he will make a way of escape. He will make a way of endurance.

24:28 He knows that he's got a boundary. He knows that you have Christ on your side. And so this is so helpful for us. If we will grab hold of this, the to know the weakness of Satan. Alright, go to the next slide.

24:48 The weak... Here's another weakness. His motive is exposed. Bring bring up. It is clear that Satan wants to be God.

24:56 Go to the next one. Here's in Isaiah fourteen four four fourteen fourteen, it says this, I will ascend to the heights above the cloud. I will be like the most high. This is his original sin. This is where Satan got off track and says, I want to be like God.

25:15 He didn't keep his order, he didn't recognize God's authority, he wanted to trump God. Okay? The next one says, we we see Satan in the garden tempting Adam and Eve. For God does know that in the day that you eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be like or you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. You see his motive is exposed.

25:41 It's clear what he wants. And so because he wants this, he knows that it's going to appeal to us and he tries the same tactic. You can be like a god. You can you can you can you can be bigger, better, more powerful, more knowledgeable. You can...

26:00 And this appeals to us. It sounds good to us. His motive is exposed and so look at this next one. Right here, we read in verse seven earlier that what did he want Christ to do? If you will worship me.

26:15 What does he... He wants God in the flesh to worship him. He wants to be like God. He wants to be worshiped. And then in Thessalonians we read this, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped so that he as a God sits in the temple of God setting himself forth to be, I should say, as God.

26:42 To be... That he be... Setting himself forth that he be as God. In second Thessalonians four, Satan's motive is revealed. He wants to be like God.

26:55 He wants to take God's place. He wants to take God's place in your life. And so if we're aware of his motive, we can beat him. Right? You hear...

27:05 It's like the sports teams that watch the films of the of the competitors. You know, you're looking for their weaknesses. You're knowing you're knowing your adversary. We can know our adversary, the devil. Go to the next slide.

27:16 This is a weakness of his. The weakness of Satan. Look at James four seven. Submit yourselves therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Automatic, you know, James four gives us this this admonition.

27:29 Draw near to god, he'll draw near to you. Automatic, resist the devil, he'll flee from you. Automatic. We've got this and Satan knows it. If you'll resist him, he'll flee and so, with...

27:43 Did you notice when we read through this in this in this first part of Luke? As we're reading through the the narrative, Satan comes at him with a claim like with a, you know, turn the stone into bread. Bow down and worship me. Jump off and let the angels rescue you. He comes at him with all these things.

28:00 Christ give gives gives a a response. Quote scripture, all from Deuteronomy chapter six through eight, select verses through there. He's quoting Deuteronomy as it is written and you'll notice every time Christ quotes scripture, Satan doesn't refute it. He doesn't he doesn't say, well, yeah, but what about he doesn't debate it? He he he withdraws.

28:25 It's done. If you'll resist, he will flee. If you'll quote scripture, he stops. He's not going to he's not going to debate it, you see? Now, go to the next slide.

28:46 You see the pattern that he did in the Garden of or or in the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve. You see the pattern that he comes to to to the lord Jesus. The same pattern. It's the the lust of the the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. It's consistent.

29:04 These are his tactics and so you know this. You can expose it, you have armor to combat it with and you have the word of God. We can stand up against Satan. These are his weaknesses. This is where he is able to be defeated.

29:24 Temptation? Yes, you're going to face it. Can you endure? Yes, you can. Yes, you can.

29:32 All right, next slide. Is that the last one? Just leave that there. Okay. So there was the four points.

29:41 The last one was know Satan's strength. What is his strength? Well, I had a handout. Some of you may have gotten it. It's okay if you don't have it.

29:52 We won't take time to hand it out now. But I want you to if you did pick it up, it's that little green sheet back there. And they're at the table. You can pick this up on your way out, okay? Now, this is something that was put together by one of my Liberty professors, Doctor.

30:13 Wilmington. And so I'm going to share this with you. It's great tool. Now, it's 16 D words. He was a Baptist preacher, you know.

30:23 It's 16 D words that all talk about Satan's strength. Just listen to thee. You've got your paper, you can read along but just listen to these. Disappointment, discouragement, despair, doubt, disbelief, distraction, double mindedness, dishonesty, deceit, dullness, deadness, delay, defilement, defamation, disobedience, discord. I read these things and it's like disappointment.

31:06 Ouch. Yeah and I see how he uses that. That's a strong weapon. We're disappointed. We're down.

31:17 What's the use of going on? What's the use of enduring? What's the use of holding out till I've become victorious? I'm disappointed. My hopes were dashed.

31:27 My dream's gone. You see that? This is his strength. But this little sheet, now I'll tell you why it's so useful. To be disappointed is to forget and he gives you a scripture verse with every one of these.

31:41 For we know that all things work together for good to them that love God and to them that are called according to his purpose. Romans eight twenty eight. Oh, Satan's got a strength in that but God's got a higher purpose you see. So why was the Lord Jesus Christ tempted? He does a great job of giving us an example of how to live this Christian life when faced with temptation.

32:51 What have we been studying in the book of Luke? The angels proclaimed, glory to god in the highest, peace on earth, goodwill toward men. Why? The Jesus, the Christ, the anointed one, the promised one. He's born.

33:11 He's here. Jesus shall be his name. Zacharias couldn't speak. His name... And and and Simeon says, he's here.

33:31 Anna says he's here. They recognize him as the son of God at his baptism. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. Why was Jesus tempted? He proved, he showed us who he was, the son of God.

33:55 Why was Jesus tempted? Well it's true that he was tempted in all points like we are and we take comfort in that, but Jesus was tempted this... Think of it in this way, think of it in a different way. Jesus was tempted to show that he was able to redeem mankind, the spotless lamb of God. John has already said it, behold the lamb of God.

34:36 Now we're going to see that this lamb is spotless. This is the one able to carry the sin of the world because he has no sin of his own And that's being proved in this temptation. He has no sin. He is sinless. He's gonna be nailed to the cross and he's gonna have the capacity to take all the sin of the world on him.

35:04 So yes, he, while was he tempted, he proved that he was the one to be our savior. In closing, I'd like to read from Hebrews. Hebrews chapter Hebrews chapter two and we'll pick up in verse 17. Hebrews two seventeen, Wherefore in all things it behooved him, this speaking of the Lord Jesus Christ, it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren. What we've been discussing, Jesus in the flesh, Jesus in human form, that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.

36:06 And we see the Lord Jesus Christ taking up every role that he was intended to take to make reconciliation for the sins of the people. He had not His own sin, so He can make reconciliation for the sins of the people. Verse 18, For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted. That's been the focus of our talk this morning. The Lord Jesus Christ was tempted.

36:31 And now we think about this, He has He has born the sin of the world. And notice what this verse is telling us is that He is able to secure, secure, that word means to help, He is able to help them that are tempted. That's you and I. He's able to help us in our temptation. Chapter four and verse 14, seeing then that we have a great high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is passed into heavens, Jesus the son of God, he's the son of man, he's the son of God, Let us hold fast our profession.

37:11 For we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with with the feeling of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like we are. Yet he was well without sin. Grab hold of this. Jesus Christ, he was tempted for forty days. We can't enter into all these temptations, but but listen, the scripture tells us he was tempted in all points like we are.

37:49 You and I battle temptation. Satan knows our weakness. He comes to us when we're vulnerable, and he's saying, I wanna devour you. I wanna make your reputation of none effect. I wanna screw up Westlake Bible Fellowship.

38:08 I wanna wreck your marriage. I wanna I wanna destroy you. Jesus experienced every temptation, but he didn't yield. And you and I, as hard, we fail, but people have gone before us. Even scripture tells us Joseph flow...

38:33 He would flee temptation. Daniel would stand and endure. Paul himself would be tempted, but he would he would say, no. God's grace is sufficient for me. Let us come boldly to the throne of grace.

39:01 Who's sitting on the throne? Jesus, the human? His humanity, Jesus, the human, Christ, the anointed, lord, the lord of all is sitting on the throne and we're able to obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need. Listen, we're able to endure temptation. Heavenly Father, we pray, we ask that you would help us to watch and keep watching, that we would not be tripped up, that we would not be stumbled, that we would not be devoured by the adversary.

40:28 We are so thankful that it's not I, but Christ who lives in me. We are so thankful that we've been given... We see this path for victory. Father, we we pray that we'd be aware of Satan's devices and that would have no claim against us. And so we ask these things now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

40:45 Amen.