I. Introduction
In this life there is no greater struggle that you and I have to face every single day than the struggle against sin and the temptation to commit sin. Even the most diligent and committed Christian is still living in a physical body that has been corrupted by the fall of man. In our natural state we are products of that fall. Despite our best human efforts we find that our flesh is helpless against the continual onslaught of temptation. It comes and we succumb to it again and again and again.

Nowhere is that struggle against the flesh more forcefully and eloquently described than the Apostle Paul’s battle with his own sin. I do not believe any honest Christian can read Paul’s words and not see himself in them and fail to be convicted.
*Romans 7:15-24
15 For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.
16 But if I do the very thing I do not wish to do, (then) I agree with the Law, confessing that it is good.
17 So now, no longer am I the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
18 For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh; for the wishing is present in me, but the doing of the good is not.
19 For the good that I wish, I do not do; but I practice the very evil that I do not wish.
20 But if I am doing the very thing I do not wish, I am no longer the one doing it, but sin which dwells in me.
21 I find then the principle that evil is present in me, the one who wishes to do good.
22 For I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man,
23 but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner of the law of sin which is in my members.
24 Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?

This morning’s text tells us Who will set us free. In it we’ll see how we are tempted. We’ll see the battle we are in. And we’ll see how to defeat the enemy of our souls.

Words like battle, fight, weapons, defeat, and enemy all sound very warlike, don’t they?
We seldom think of ourselves as being at war, but we are. If you’re a Christian, you’re at war every moment, and in every aspect of your life. Our flesh is at war against our spirits, and consequently, it is at war against our very souls.

James and Peter speak to the very same issue.
James 4:1
1 What is the source of quarrels and conflicts among you? Is not the source your pleasures that wage war in your members?

1 Peter 2:11
11 Beloved, I urge you as aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts, which wage war against the soul.

Every one of us, without exception, is literally in a battle that has eternal consequences. So what can we do about it? We can learn from our Lord and Savior.
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II. Text
Before we get to the text I want to take just a moment to set the stage. In Luke 3 John the Baptist came on the scene. He preached repentance because the day was coming when God’s wrath would be revealed against all sin and unrighteousness. Judgment was coming and the people needed to prepare their hearts to receive the Savior. Then later in Luke 3 Jesus came to John to be baptized and God announced that Jesus was His Son.

Following that announcement, Jesus’ genealogy proved that He was the Jewish Messiah, the Son of the Living God. Now that we know who Jesus really is, we can go forward.
*Luke 4:1-13 (Please stand with me in honor of the reading of God’s Word.)
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
5 And (Satan) led Him up and showed (Jesus) all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall be Yours.”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.’”
9 And (Satan) led (Jesus) to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;
10 for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You,’
11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the LORD your God to the test.’”
13 And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

Fallen man could never have “invented” the Jesus presented to us in the pages of the Bible. The sinless perfection of our Lord and Savior is seen in His wisdom, His under-standing of the human condition, and the oneness of His nature with God. Jesus’ perfec-tion is on display in this confrontation with the ultimate evil.

It is important for us to grasp this right at the outset. If Jesus could not defeat Satan in the wilderness, how could He defeat him in the Garden of Gethsemane, or later on the cross, or later still in the grave itself? If Jesus could did not defeat Satan in the grave, then there would be no resurrection. If there is no resurrection, you and I are wasting our time here this morning and we are all hopelessly and helplessly lost. But…
*1 Corinthians 15:12-17
12 Now if Christ is preached, and He has been raised from the dead, how do some among you say that there is no resurrection of the dead?
13 But if there is no resurrection of the dead, not even Christ has been raised;
14 and if Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain.
15 Moreover we are even found to be false witnesses of God, because we witnessed against God that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, if in fact the dead are not raised.
16 For if the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised;
17 and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins.

But we, as Christians, are not still in our sins because Jesus Christ has been raised. And so, this morning’s text is critical to us because it proves yet again that Jesus is the Christ. Furthermore, this morning’s text is critical to the credibility of the rest of Luke’s gospel. If this morning’s text isn’t true we can write off everything else Luke will tell us about Jesus. In short, if Jesus did not defeat Satan in the wilderness, He cannot be our Savior, our Redeemer. That’s how important this passage in Luke really is.
*Luke 4:1-2
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led about by the Spirit in the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days; and when they had ended, He became hungry.

Jesus was filled with the Spirit. That’s the goal of every Christian. Ephesians 5:18 com-mands us to “…be filled with the Spirit.” It’s only when we fully yield ourselves to God that we make the right choices in this life. Our temptations often come upon us as a result of the poor choices we make. But Jesus never a made a poor choice of any kind.
The man Jesus did not choose to go into the wilderness. He was led there by the Holy Spirit. In the parallel passage in Mark 1:12 it says Jesus was “impelled” to go. Why would God literally drive His Son into such a thing? It was for our sakes. First, Jesus had to confront the devil head on and defeat him. Second, Jesus had to face the same temptations you and I face. That is why Jesus understands us when we are tempted.
Hebrews 4:15
15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weak-nesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

At this point someone usually says, “Well, since Jesus is God He couldn’t sin, and if He couldn’t sin there was really no temptation at all.” But consider the facts. The first part of that argument – since Jesus is God He couldn’t sin – is most certainly true. That is known as the Doctrine of the Impeccability of Christ. It says this…
Jesus Christ did not sin because He could not sin. He did not possess Adam’s sin nature. The Scriptures teach that He was tempted as we are tempted but that He always did what pleased God. Jesus, the second Person of the Trinity, consists of both a human nature (fully man, which was tempted) and the divine nature (fully God, which could not be tempted). The spiritual union of these two natures in one Person made it impossible for Jesus to have committed sin.

So Jesus “knew no sin…” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He “committed no sin…” (1 Peter 2:22). “In Him there is no sin…” (1 John 3:5). However, it’s the second part of the argument – if Jesus couldn’t sin there was really no temptation at all – that is most certainly not true.

Jesus’ temptations were as real as they could be. Since He was fully human, a Son of Adam, He endured exactly what the writer of Hebrews says He endured. He was “tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.” In his commentary on Luke 1-5, John MacArthur speaks to the reality of Jesus’ temptations.
“But even though Jesus could not sin, that does not mean the temptations He faced were not genuine; their reality did not depend on His ability to respond. Actually, since He never yielded to them, He endured their full force. Tempta-tion was therefore, more real for Him than for those (of us) who yield to it. It could be so intense that it made His ‘sweat become like drops of blood, falling down upon the ground’.” (Luke 22:44)

Jesus stood up under a pressure such as you and I never have and never will. When we are tempted there is always a breaking point. When we reach it, we break and the pres-sure is removed. But Jesus never broke. The pressure was never removed.

Imagine a tea kettle that has no pressure relief valve, no whistle, if you will. Now fill it with water and boil it. The heat and pressure build and build but there is no way for the steam to get out. Inside the kettle the temperature continues to climb and the pressure continue to build. Eventually the kettle will explode. In the analogy of the tea kettle you and I have a relief valve. At some point we succumb.
The valve opens, and the pressure is released. But Jesus could not sin. He had no “relief valve.” Therefore His suffering in undergoing temptation was intense beyond anything you or I will ever know.

Now the specific temptations that Jesus faced in the forty days He wandered in the desert wilderness are not recorded in Scripture. But what is recorded, what we do know, is what Satan hit Jesus with after the forty days. We can only imagine how physically weakened Jesus had become from the lack of food. It is only then that the devil, sensing Jesus’ physical condition and apparent vulnerability, unleashed “all he had” in one final drive to “break” the Lord, and in the process, to destroy God’s plan of redemption.

Those temptations came in all three realms of our human existence: The physical, the intellectual, and the spiritual. We have seen these temptations before. Satan first used them on Eve in the Garden of Eden. She fell. He then used them on Adam. He fell. Tim read from Genesis 3 to open the service. Let’s go back there for a minute.
*Genesis 3:6
6 When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a de-light to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.

Do you see how Eve fell in all three realms of her human existence?
• The first was that she was tempted in the physical realm. She “…saw that the tree was good for food…” That appealed to the lust of her flesh.
• Then she was tempted in the intellectual realm. Eve knew it “…was a delight to the eyes…” That appealed to the lust of her eyes.
• Finally she was tempted in the spiritual realm. She realized it “…was desirable to make one wise…” That appealed to her pride of life.

And she fell! And then Adam fell. And then every single member of Adam’s race fell. Satan used the same “playbook,” if you will, on every man and every woman and every child from Adam and Eve onward through four thousand years of biblical history. Did you know that Satan’s playbook has only three basic plays in it? They are the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.

That’s all he’s got, but that’s all he needs. They’re all he needs because they always work. They never fail. He uses them again and again and again because he knows they work. And every member of Adam’s race succumbs to them again and again and again.

And so it went for four thousand years. But then God led His Son into the wilderness and Satan got out his playbook and went to war. He expected the same result. Or at the very least, he hoped for the same result.
*Luke 4:3
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
In v. 3 the word “if” is better translated “since.” It should read, “Since you are the Son of God…” Unlike all cultists and most liberal theologians, Satan and his demons never deny the deity of Christ. They know better. They know who Jesus is. In that narrow sense they are “believers.” In Matthew’s gospel demons literally affirm Jesus’ deity.
Matthew 8:28-29
28 …two men who were demon-possessed met (Jesus) as they were coming out of the tombs; they were so exceedingly violent that no one could pass by on that road.
29 And behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with You, Son of God? Have You come here to torment us before the time?”

So the devil knows who Jesus is, but incredibly he tries to tempt Him anyway. In Luke 4:3 Satan appeals to Jesus’ physical needs. He tempts Jesus with the lust of the flesh. But his temptation is deeper and more subtle than that. He’s saying something like this. “God hasn’t fed you in forty days. If He really loved you wouldn’t you have eaten by now?” Notice that Satan is not saying God doesn’t love Him. He’s saying, “What if God doesn’t love Him?” He’s trying to plant doubt. Does that sound familiar?
Genesis 3:1 (to Eve)
1 “Indeed, has God said, ‘You shall not eat from any tree of the garden’?”

Do you recognize it when temptation comes to you in this form? It isn’t outright denial. It’s creeping doubt. This kind of temptation has far less to do with being hungry than it does with being preoccupied with satisfying physical needs and gratifying ourselves instead of relying on God’s provision. Do you see that?
*Luke 4:5-7

5 And (Satan) led Him up and showed (Jesus) all the kingdoms of the world in a moment in time.
6 And the devil said to Him, “I will give You all this domain and its glory; for it has been handed over to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
7 “Therefore if You worship before me, it shall be Yours.”

In these three verses Satan appeals to Jesus’ intellectual needs. He is tempting Jesus with the lust of the eyes. He shows Jesus all the world’s kingdoms and their associated riches. In v. 6 Satan says they are his, they’ve been given to him, and he can do with them just as he pleases. After all, Satan is the ruler of this world, isn’t he? Jesus calls him that on three different occasions in John’s gospel (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11). So Satan says, “Here they are Jesus. You can have them all. That is, if You will worship me instead of God.” But again, his temptation is deeper and more subtle.

Jesus will have all the kingdoms of the world when He rules in the Millennial Kingdom. Satan knows that. But Satan also knows that he will be bound right before Jesus takes His seat on David’s throne (Revelation 20:3). So this temptation offered Jesus all the kingdoms of the world right now. Jesus wouldn’t need to wait for thousands of years.
And it offers something far more than that. It offers Jesus authority over this world by bypassing the suffering and agony of the cross. Satan says, “Why take the hard road Jesus? I can put you on the throne today.”

Do you recognize it when temptation comes to you in this form? If you’re not sure, ask yourself this. How often are you tempted to do what’s wrong for the sake of immediate gratification, or simply because it’s easier than doing what’s right?
*Luke 4:9-11
9 And (Satan) led (Jesus) to Jerusalem and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down from here;
10 for it is written, ‘He will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You,’
11 and, ‘On their hands they will bear You up, lest You strike Your foot against a stone.’”

Now the devil tempts Jesus with what may well be the strongest of all the temptations a man or woman can face. Satan appeals to Jesus’ spiritual needs. Such temptations are subtle and can be very dangerous especially for those who consider themselves to be religious people. Satan begins by quoting from Psalm 91, wherein God promises to protect the Messiah, and subsequently, the Messiah’s people.

Listen, anyone can quote Scripture. Anyone can take it out of context. Anyone can make the Scriptures say what they don’t say. For example, Psalm 14:1 says, and I quote the exact words, “…there is no God.” But the whole verse says this.
Psalm 14:1
1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds; there is no one who does good.

Do you see what Satan is trying to do to Jesus? He is using the authority of God’s Word. He is taking exact words, and without regard to their original context, twisting them so that they seem to teach something they do not. Do you see how dangerous this can be for the unsuspecting or the untaught or the naïve Christians?

Now again, Psalm 91 is about God’s protection of the Messiah and His people. So Satan seems to agree with God’s promise. In Luke 4:10 he says, “(God) will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You.” Well, that’s right! That’s exactly what Psalm 91:11 says. But there’s more. The rest of what it says is, “…in all Your ways.” It says, “(God) will give His angels charge concerning You to guard You in all Your ways.”

What’s the point? What is Satan attempting to do here? It’s clear that his intent is evil.
It would seem that he omits the words “…in all Your ways” to entice Jesus to act in a way that would be inconsistent with His godliness. The point is that godly people act like godly people. They are humble. They do not draw attention to themselves.
They do not try to make a display of God’s special favor upon them. They don’t say, “Look at me, am I great or what? Do you want to see me do something really impress-sive?” Well, you get the point.

But how often are we tempted to do so? How often do we fail in this aspect of our lives? This is how Satan tempts Jesus here. The implication is, “Go ahead Jesus, throw Your-self off this pinnacle. Show us that You’re God’s Son. It will be really impressive. And besides, God said His angels would catch You.”

What if Jesus’ had actually done that. Then it would have been seen that Jesus was the Messiah. He would have proved it. But then there would be no need for faith on the part of God’s people. And hasn’t God told us unequivocally that faith is the real issue.
2 Corinthians 5:7
7 for we walk by faith, not by sight…
Romans 5:1
1 Therefore (we are) justified by faith…
1 Corinthians 16:13
13 …stand firm in the faith…
Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please (God)…

Jesus Christ does not “prove” He is God. Instead, He gives faith so that we may believe He is God. Had Jesus given in to this last temptation He would have “backed God into a corner,” as it were, and forced Him to act. Either God would have to let Jesus die or He would have to miraculously deliver Him before it was time. If Jesus died in the fall He couldn’t die on the cross, and Satan would win. If God delivered Him even before Jesus’ ministry began, He would be out of God’s will, and Satan would win.

Satan wanted Jesus to presume upon God’s grace and against His eternal plan. This kind of temptation is so dangerous, so heinous, because it seems to encourage people’s faith in God and His Word. But it doesn’t. What it does is demand things from God. It is pride and arrogance taken to the max. It’s the pride of life. It tries to turn God into some sort of a “celestial vending machine” where man, not God, is the final sovereign authority.

This kind of thinking runs rampant in the Church of Jesus Christ today. Do you recog-nize it when temptation comes to you in this form? What can you do? How can we defeat the enemy of our souls? We can do – no, we must do – what Jesus did when Satan hit Him with everything he had. It is our only defense. Not only is it our only defense, it is our only offense as well. It is the written Word of God, rightly understood and rightly used. “It is written…”
*Luke 4:4, 8, 12
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
8 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is written, ‘You shall worship the LORD your God and serve Him only.’”
12 And Jesus answered and said to him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the LORD your God to the test.’”

In v. 4 Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 8:3 and He defeats Satan. In v. 8 Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:13 and He defeats Satan. In v. 12 Jesus quotes from Deuteronomy 6:16 and He defeats Satan. “It is written…”

Would Jesus ever be tempted by the devil again? Yes, He would. He would be tempted every day of His life on this earth. It would only end in the Garden of Gethsemane just before Jesus went to the cross and defeated Satan once for all time and eternity. In all of Jesus’ temptations He would prove beyond any doubt that He is our sinless Savior.

He was victorious by the power of the Word of God. He knew it and He used it. “It is written…” The lesson for us could not be any more obvious, could it?
*Luke 4:13
13 And when the devil had finished every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time.

James 4:7
7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
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III. Conclusion
Satan used everything he could to defeat Jesus but it was all to no avail. He tempted Jesus in the physical and the intellectual and the spiritual areas of life. He appealed to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. But defeated by the power of the Word of God, he failed and he fled. “It is written…”

Oh, how you and I need to know God’s Word! Satan knows it and he causes us to doubt it and he twists it and he misquotes it. Unless we are knowledgeable and wise enough to see through his deceptions and schemes, we will find ourselves defenseless against the powers of darkness that want to overwhelm us and destroy our testimony for Christ. May God help us to learn from Jesus’ encounter with Satan in the wilderness.

I want us to close with these words from the Apostle John.
*1 John 2:15-17
15 Do not love the world, nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.
17 And the world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God abides forever.
~ Pray ~