So this morning we're going through the Gospel of Mark. And as we go through the Gospel of Mark, Mark is proving to us that Jesus is God. And he he's God, but he's also a man. He was a man from a very small podunk random place called Nazareth in northern Israel. And that's where the Messiah lived at before his ministry began. And he Martin writes not only that we would believe that Jesus is God, but that we would be saved as we place our faith in him. But Mark does this. He proves that Jesus is God by proving that John the Baptizer was the one who went before Jesus and prepared the way. That was the first way that he proves that Jesus is God. But then in verses 9 and 10 that we looked at last week, he does this by recording the baptism of Jesus Christ and the three unique things that happened after the baptism. The spirit descended, the heavens were torn open, and the father spoke from heaven. All three things were prophesied about and were explicitly confirming that this this Jesus this this human from Nazareth was in fact God. He was Emmanuel, God with us. But Jesus, he lived an obscure life for 30 years before this time. He was a carpenter. We know that he was the son of a carpenter. and he lived an obscure life absolutely unknown to the greater world. And now he gets baptized in these three mind-blowing things happened and they they didn't happen in a quiet way. We have to remember that thousands of people were pouring into the Judean wilderness at that time to be baptized by John the Baptist. I've said it before, but roughly they estimate 300,000 people were baptized by him during that time. There was there were flooding from the countryside. They were flooding from Jerusalem. All the all the religious leaders of the day were there. It was a big deal. But the baptism of Jesus inaugurated Jesus messianic ministry here on earth. And he was empowered by the presence and the filling of the Holy Spirit to accomplish that minute. He's he is ready. Now, I don't know if you've ever been to a NASCAR race, but when they're lined up and they press that gas pedal, uh I I'm not into NASCAR all that much, but I got free tickets one time to the one here in Roseville, and I was like, "Oh, this is why people go to car races." I had no idea the the the way that the earth trembled as they as 16 cars revved their RPMs. And here is Jesus. He has been filled with the Holy Spirit. God has said, "This is my son. He is the son of God. He is God. And he's ready to do his ministry. So, he's been empowered. He's been filled. He's ready. Where will he what will he do? Where will he go? What are what are the going to be the first things that God is going to do in his ministry? Why don't we stand and read this morning's text, and we're going to find out. Mark 1:es 12 and 13. This is what Jesus God does. The spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan and he was with the wild animals and the angels were ministering to him. Father, we come before you in Jesus name. And Lord, you have a work to do this morning that only you can do. And we invite you to do that. We surrender to that. We actually are expectant for you to speak because nothing can happen if you don't. Please, Holy Spirit, work in our lives. Expand our our minds. enlighten our our ideas about you and our thoughts and our perceptions. Grab hold of our attention this morning. In Jesus name I pray. Amen. So the spirit immediately drives Jesus into the wilderness and what happens is God is tempted. God is tempted. Jesus who is God is tempted. And above all, this text is about the victory of Jesus over Satan and temptation that leads to sin. He's fully human and this passages this these passages remind us that he is fully human and that he would be tempted and and in fact he's actually tempted in in all ways as we are. Hebrews 4 tells us that Jesus in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin. So why did Mark include this and what should we do with it? And I think that there's two goals that I would like to to endeavor to meet this morning in studying this passage. And the first one is we get to learn about the majesty of Jesus Christ. We get to learn about the person of Christ, the perfection of Christ, the sinless nature of him and exalt him as God and perfect man. We really do want to learn about Jesus. But we also want to learn from Jesus. You know, sometimes we we we'll we'll you'll hear a study or you'll you'll hear hear something and and instead of actually concentrating on what the text is about, they immediately apply it to our lives. They they immediately apply it to the people around them. They provide application and what was intentionally about God perhaps becomes oblivious because we've made it about ourselves. I don't want to do that this morning. But I also don't want to forget and miss the ways that we can learn from Christ's example. We want to walk as he walked. We want to learn to obey the father as he did. And we need to learn how to overcome temptation. And Mark's narrative is so short here that I think it's going to be helpful for us to flip to another gospel and get a fuller perspective. So, I'm going to ask you to stick your hand in Mark there and turn to Matthew chapter 4. Matthew chapter 4. Both Matthew and Luke give a much more expanded view of what happened here in the in the wilderness. And so, we we'll read that together. Verses 1- 11. Then Jesus was led up by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. I would be too. And the tempter came and said to him, "If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." But he answered, "It is written, men shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." And then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it's written, he will command his an angels concerning you, and on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." And Jesus said to him, "Again, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test." Verse 8 again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give you if you will fall down and worship me." Then Jesus said to him, "Be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him alone shall you serve." Then the devil left him and behold angels came and were ministering to him. So in verse 12 of our text, you can flip back to Mark. In verse 12 of our text, we see that the spirit immediately drives him into the wilderness. Again, this word immediately is Mark's favorite word. He uses it almost a dozen times in this first chapter. We're kind of like running from verse to verse. We get a sense of of there's no breathing time. And that's basically basically the whole book of Mark. But he comes from the baptism where God spoke from heaven and and there's no backs slapping. There's no dinner parties. You know, the big thing now is gender reveals. There was there was no Messiah reveal balloon. You know, Jesus went immediately from this absolutely glorious and magnificent moment where the heavens are torn open and into the wilderness where hell is opened. In one moment, the fullness of the Trinity in and displayed in love and unity and celebration. and the next he's alone and driven to the wilderness in a place of testing and temptation. Adrien Rogers said this, "Be prepared. As soon as God opens the windows of heaven to bless us, the devil will open the doors of hell to blast us." And this is how life rolls along. After great successes or victories or blessings, there comes testings and temptations. But what do we learn about Jesus in this? And remember, this text is a text that proves that Jesus is God by displaying his absolute victory over sin and temptation. It proves that he was sinless. And I want to identify a few things that about Jesus that led to his victory over temptation. For in doing that, we're going to learn from Jesus as well. First of all, Jesus was victorious over temptation and sin because he was led and surrendered to the Holy Spirit. You might say, "Duh, John." But man, this is so essential to know and learn. The victory and power Jesus had as a human was due to the filling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus power to overcome temptation was due to the manner in which he was led and surrendered to the Holy Spirit. Luke tells us this. And Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit to the wilderness. But but he wasn't just led, was he? He was certainly led, but there was more to his leading. Mark uses the word drove. The spirit drove him. And that Greek word that's used there is defined as this. To lead one forth or away somewhere with a force which he cannot resist to thrust out. The spirit's leading was irresistible to Jesus. The spirit drove or thrust Jesus out into the desert to confront Satan. And the imagery is really reminiscent of the scapegoat that was loaded down with the sins of Israel forced into the wilderness. If you know that that story in Leviticus, Leviticus 21 16 says this. Leviticus 21:16. And Aaron shall lay both his hands on the head of a live goat and confess over it all the iniquities of the people of Israel and all their sins and transgressions. and he shall put them on the head of the goat and send it away. Same word, cast it out into wilderness by the hand of a man who is in readiness. Kind of the same picture. Jesus would not resist could not resist the Holy Spirit. This did not alter or diminish the temptations as a human, but his deity and his oneness with the Holy Spirit and the father as part of the Trinity prevented him from succumbing to those defations. The fancy theological word for that is impeccability. I'm sure you guys will all remember that Jesus was not capable of succumbing to sin, but it in no way lessened the intensity of the temptation. The second thing was so he's filled with the spirit. The second thing was he was victorious over temptation and sin because he was willingly stripped of his human and earthly strength. This is so important guys. It is so important that we see this. He was willingly stripped of his human strength and provision. The first thing that we see is that Jesus was alone. Mark tells us it was the wilderness that he was driven to. He was without an earthly companion. He was stripped of any earthly voice or comfort or strength. If you think about Gethsemane, the other book end of Jesus ministry was also defined by temptation, wasn't it? In the garden of Gethsemane, he was tempted. And he was alone in that hour of temptation, in agony. Three times he went to his disciples, but they left him alone. Oh, how he wanted an earthly companion in that final hour. Like I said, he three times he went back to his disciples. Will you will you at least stay awake and pray with me? Being alone in temptation is hard. Just think about Jesus for a minute. In the dry and barren wilderness, Jesus is utterly forsaken by any human touch, any human voice, any human consolation. You can imagine with me the the jagged rocks of the Judean wilderness in the parched desert and the the unforgiving cold that at night and the howling jackals of those wild animals. And do don't forget the whispers of hatred and rejection, lies of Satan himself that the bitter cold winds would have carried to his ear and the dark and forsaken shadows of night. Don't don't even think for a second that there weren't demons prophesying to him in his ear that he would fail and that he would be destroyed and that he would be defeated. That must have blurred his mind in the same way that the that the heat waves of the afternoon distorted his own vision. 40 days of this constant attack, constant lies and deceits of the enemy. And he was alone. He willingly stripped himself of human companionship and was alone in the desert. The son of God would now face the adversary of God. Isn't it true that sometimes the lies of the enemy when we're not just alone but lonely are as effective perhaps even more than any physical suffering. Verse 13 in our text says and he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. Matthew says and after fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. Luke says, "And he ate nothing during those days, and when they were ended, he was hungry. He stripped himself of human companionship, and he was hungry. He was willing to let go of human strengths to learn how to rely on spiritual strengths." That is how he overcame temptation. Jesus had not eaten food for 40 days and 40 nights. And I and I love the fact that uh Matthew puts nights in there as well. So that's probably added for us who are especially tempted to snack at night. I I don't admit to doing that, but there's I'm sure there's a bunch of other ice cream sinners in here. Jesus was stripped of the physical strength and sustenance that food brings for 40 days. And and just to give you a picture of what happens of 40 days of fasting for the first day, phase one from day one to three day three, there's usually like hunger pangs and cravings maybe similar to what you're experiencing right now. decreased blood sugar levels, increased fat burning, and reduced insulin production. This is where the phrase hangry comes in. Day 1 to three, or day hour two to four, depending if you're a teenaged boy, midphase, days 4 through 20, the body enters ketosis where it burns fat as energy. Muscle breakdown begins. electrolyte imbalances happen and you this there's a lack of sodium and potassium and the muscles don't they're not as lubricated as well by those ion exchanges that happen. No bananas to to speed up the potassium. There's reduced immune function. And then in the last phase, days 21 through 40, there's extreme weakness and fatigue. There's a full increased risk of infections. There's hair loss and skin problems. And there can be organ damage in both the liver and the kidneys. Day 40, this is what we're looking at with Jesus. Add to that the spiritual attack that Satan himself and his demons have been pounding him with day after day after day. Saying Jesus was hungry does not capture the weakness and fatigue and vulnerability both physically and mentally that Jesus was experiencing day and night in the wilderness. I know when I'm hungry, I'm a little more prone to sin. My family could probably confess that. I hear all the men laughing. Think of the state that Jesus was in. exhausted, hungry, and alone. His physical protections were decimated, his earthly comforts ripped away, his loved ones absent and unable to touch him or pray for him or encourage him. And he willingly did that. Mark says in verse 13, "And he was in the wilderness 40 days being tempted by Satan. Matthew writes, "And the tempter came and said to him," and then Luke writes this, "He was led by the spirit in the wilderness for 40 days, being tempted by the devil." It wasn't just at the end of 40 days that that Satan shows up. It was through the duration of that time. We need to recognize that those temptations were ongoing. the haunting lies, the incessant attacks, the unrelenting coiled strikes of the serpent that would hit him constantly day and night. Satan is how Mark names the adversary of God. But between all the gospels, we see three different names here. Satan means the adversary. Devil means the accuser or the slanderer. Tempter is pretty self-explanatory, the one who tempts. But being the father of lies, we must know and acknowledge that the unprovoked attacks of Satan would include accusations and slander. And after 40 days of this, Satan shows up for his final temptation. So Jesus was victorious and overcame the tempter himself because number one, he was fully surrendered to the Holy Spirit. He was submitted to the Holy Spirit. The spirit drove him and he was submitted and surrendered. Second thing, Jesus willingly stripped himself of earthly strength so that he knew the only place he could go was God and the word of God. Number three, how did Jesus overcome temptation? He knew and obeyed God's word. He knew and obeyed God's word. Picture the wasteland. It's kind of like I don't know if anybody remembers Salvador Dolly in your your your your painting class 101 at your freshman year of college or whatever, but you know, you might like Salvador Dolly, you might not, but picture Salvador Dolly's paintings. They were they were like a wasteland, grotesque and distorted. That's what I picture here. And Jesus sits weary, starving, depleted, and fatigued. And it appeared that there was no match because in comes the prince of the air. Artent Hughes in his commentary on Mark says this before Christ glides the rependant the respplendant figure of Satan radiating power and promise elegantly beautiful. And so I want to take a moment and look at each one of these temptations. And in doing so, do doing so we discover our enemy's tactics and our savior's strategies. Matthew 4:3, reflecting back to that that uh version of this event, it says, "And the tempter came and said to him, if you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Basically, get your own bread. You don't need God. Jesus just said, "I'm going to strip myself of everything that's human, so I only have God to rely on." And Satan says, "You don't need God. Go make your own bread. You don't need that stuff. You can do it. You got the strength. Follow your heart. It's inside of you. just pull up your bootstraps and do it. And this first temptation, this first dart was perfectly timed and perfectly aimed. And Jesus is literally starving to death. And Satan says, "Get get yourself some food. I I care about you. I can see that you're hungry. Get yourself some food." But Satan hits him right where he is the weakest in this point. He's starving to death. I don't know if anybody has chickens. But if you have chickens, I grew up on a farm and we now currently have chickens as well. If you if a if a chicken has a vulnerability or a weakness or a wound, those other chickens, as you might know, will attack that chicken right where that wound is. and and do that incessantly until the chicken dies. You have to pull the chicken out, let it heal, and reintroduce it, and hopefully it goes okay. But but but a chicken chickens especially seem basically demonic. Um and aside from the eggs, we probably wouldn't have them, but great, they give us eggs. Excellent. Um so, so this is what Satan does. He says he's hungry. How about some food? How about some food? I want to say this even though I might not need to articulate the obvious, but Satan will hit us where we are vulnerable when we are weak. First Peter 5'8 First Peter 5'8 says, "Be sober minded. Be watchful. your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. I don't know if you've ever seen those videos. Um they're they're pretty cute. They're they're typically uh set up as as a parent is videoing their child and in the background is the San Diego Zoo lion's cage or whatever it would be. And as the child uh makes eye contact with a lion, that large animal stops and as soon as the child turns around, the the lion or whatever it is will make haste right close to it. And then the kid will turn around and the lion stops and it's so cute. But when it gets to the end and the child turns around for the last time with its back to the animal, the lion or whatever animal it would be literally crashes into the glass and you can see the teeth and you go, "Oh goodness." Like, "Thank goodness that glass is there." But this is the picture. This is the picture of Satan seeking to devour you as a Christian. You look his way, he crouches. there's nothing going on. You turn around and that's when he makes his attack. He's he's literally waiting for that moment. And the second thing that he does here that Satan does here, he not only times his his dart perfectly at the wound, he's not only just prowling around, but he puts into question Christ's relationship with the father. If you are the son of God, the father had just called him the son whom I love. He's just been baptized. God has declared the truth of who he is. But Satan says, "Son of God, you cannot be kidding me. Look around you. There's no one around you. You're alone. Desolate, helpless, starving to death. You think you're the son of God. And we can hear those same lies as God's children, can't we? You're a failure. You're alone. How can you call yourself a child of God? All of your spiritual efforts up to this point. Take Jesus. His spiritual efforts and willingness to be solitary in the wilderness and then to fast, all of his efforts to this point added up to this. Satan says to you and to me, "You're alone. You aren't who you say you are." And if those were the means of the temptation, what is the nature of the temptation? What is the nature of the testing? Notice Jesus was tempted to exalt himself and provide for himself where the where the father had decided not to provide. The father had not decided that it was time to eat yet. And and Satan says, "I want you to go get what you need right now. Right now. You deserve this. Get it." Jesus would later teach his disciples to pray and in doing so teach us to pray. Give us this day our daily bread. That's humility. That's a spiritual reliance on God the Father to provide. And Satan says, "Get it yourself." Jesus would not provide for himself. And as God's children, we couldn't even if we tried. But that is the temptation. And so Jesus response is this. It is written, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God." Right at the crisis of weakness, Satan tempts Jesus to get what he deserved and truly needed by his own means instead of relying on God's word in the spirit. And Jesus tells Satan this, "I'd rather starve to death than die sustaining myself on what God has said. I will find my sustenance in God's words. Jesus said, "I'd rather die than do it my way. I'll wait for the father. I will find my sustenance in God's words." So Jesus' strategy here in his response is he uses the authority. He says, "It is written." Remember that was a legal legal term. He uses the authority and truth of God's word to resist the temptation. You want to take note of this. And he actually quotes Deuteronomy 8:3. He didn't have his Bible app. He had it memorized. He knew and practice Psalm 119:11, which is, "I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you." Dear Christian, if you want to overcome temptation, that could be physical, it could be spiritual, comes in all kinds of shapes and sizes, and you're a different chicken than I am. So, you got a different wound or vulnerability than I have. But, but Satan is coming for it. He's not dumb. And if you want to overcome temptation, I want to tell you he's Satan is looking to devour you with doubt. He's looking to devour you with fear. He's looking to devour you with lust. He's looking to devour you with greed and anxiety. And anyone that tries to sustain themselves with worldly things when only God's word will do is going to fail. You can't do it. He will question your relationship with God. He questions God's words to you and then he strikes when you're weary and tired and he's tempting you to make your own bread to sustain yourself on your own power. Don't try it. Memorize God's word and use it in that moment. Matthew 4 back to back to 4:es 5-7. This is the second temptation. Then the devil took him to the holy city and set him on the pinnacle of the temple. And he said to him, "If you're the son of God," there he questions it again, "throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and on his on their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." And Jesus said to him again, "It is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to test." Again, Satan puts into question who Jesus is. If you're the son of God, this is the very thing that Mark is writing to prove. Remember, he's writing to prove Jesus is God. But this time, Satan's tactics change a little bit. This time he brings Jesus to the southeast corner of the temple on top of the the temple mount which rose up from the steep western slope of the kiddron valley and it would have been about 15 stories from the road to the top of the pinnacle about 165 ft and it would be another 450 ft down to the floor of the kiddron valley and then he misused uses Psalm 91 11 and 12. Satan does similar to his intentional misuse and miscoding of God in the Garden of Eden because Psalms 91 says nothing of dramatically and intentionally throwing yourself down on the ground. Right? Psalm 91 says he will command his angels concerning you and on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike a foot. It doesn't say, "Hey, test the Lord and throw yourself down." The temptation Satan assaults Jesus with is a temptation to test God by demanding God fulfills his word despite creating or being in a situation that is outside of God's will. This passage that Jesus quotes is from Deuteronomy 6:16. says, "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test as you tested him in Masa." Okay. Well, that doesn't give us any help, right? What happened in Masa? What happened there? Well, the Israelites were complaining that there was no water. They were grumbling and complaining and they were irritated and they were annoyed. And Moses says, "You rebels." And he goes, and you remember the story, he hits the rock twice and he gets 86 out of the group that is planning to go to the promised land. Yeah, I had to throw that out there. 86, right? And in Exodus 17:7, he we read this. He named Moses named the place Masa and Meabbah because the Israelites quarreled and because here it is. They tested the Lord saying, "Is the Lord among us or not?" Can God actually do anything? He brought us out here in the desert. Can he actually keep us alive in the desert? Can he get water? Is God able to do what he said? Well, then prove it. And all the while they were living in unbelief. They were living outside of his will. And so the temptation comes to Jesus to prove or to test God in order that God might be believed. And Jesus again deals a death blow quoting scripture and again from Deuteronomy and he says don't test God. Christian friend we would be wise to see that this temptation is common among us his children. The word tested, when it says, 'd do not test the Lord your God, the word tested is similar to the idea of proving something, seeing what it is. Often that when they when they test metal, they have two robotic arms that grab each end of that metal. And those robotic arms will twist the metal to see how much pressure can be applied in a vertical axis to find out if it can twist that metal. It tries to bend the metal to try to test tensil strength. It's testing or proving what that metal is made of. It the the robotic arm does not believe the number that's stamped on that piece of metal. Could be rebar. It could be a steel stud. It could be whatever it is. The robotic arm says, "Prove it to me and I'll believe you. And as as Christians, we're tempted to test God. That's the temptation. To hold God to his word while we live out decisions that are not his will. What arrogance? What satanic dark temptation? Satan literally walks Satan to the edge, teetering on the brink, and says, "You do what you want. Throw yourself down. Do what you want and demand that God blesses you." Oh, and and here's some cute little verse that you can tack on in the in the end as you demand that God blesses you and takes care of you. Do you see how that happens? He's he's literally Satan's literally saying do something that's completely out of the father's will and then demand that the father take care of you because you know a verse that's the temptation and Jesus overcomes the temptation with the power of God's word and Jesus said to him again it is written you shall not put the Lord your God to the test. I will not do what he hasn't asked me to do and put God to the test. I won't test God. And again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, "All these I will give to you if you will fall down and worship me." Satan promises something he's not able to give. He offered Jesus all the nations that have ever existed if Jesus would simply worship him. Couple things I want to identify here. Satan offered something. He couldn't give. Satan offered to Jesus what was already his and would be would be his but without the cost. Satan says, "Hey, hey, listen. I'll give you this all if you worship me." And in reality, God had already promised him those things, but it was a different path that God would have him take. Satan says, "I'll give to you without any pain. There's going to be no weeping over Jerusalem, no rejection, no cross. He could have it all and be king without the cost." Quoting from Arquette Hughes again, he says this, "The temptation was to take the easy way to the kingship apart from God's will to be a shortcut savior. Satan promised what only God could give." The messianic psalm in chapter 2 of Psalms verses 7 and 8 says this. I will tell of the decree the Lord said to me, you are my son today I have begotten you. Clearly about Jesus written back in in the day of David, King David in the Psalms. You are my son. Today I have boughten or begotten you. Check it out. Ask of me and I will make the nations your heritage and the ends of the earth your possession. I I will give you the kingdoms and their glory. Satan was trying to tempt Jesus to believe that he could give him what God said he'd already give him, but without the pain, without the cost, without the sacrifice. God and Satan both promised Jesus the nations. And listen, catch me. Jesus believed God. Not only did Jesus believe God, he did it God's way. Dear fellow believer, you're a Christian just like me. You're walking through life. This same temptation slithers around the feet of God's children. Satan offers to you what God has already promised. But Satan offers it at no cost, no price, no spiritfilledness, and it's cheap and it's pathetic. And God the Father has what's real, but you got to do it his way. Satan offers to us what he cannot give. He He offers us pleasure and contentment and fulfillment and peace. And should we be so foolish to take the bait and to offer Satan worship? And what I mean by worship is basically this. I believe you and put my trust in you and in your word. I believe you, Satan, that fulfillment and peace and and satisfaction and security actually comes your way. I'm going to worship you and believe you and take you at your word versus believing and worshiping God the Father. That says actually peace comes this way. Satisfaction comes this way. Contentment comes this way. If you go to Satan and you believe him, it's just like the Greek sailors who heard the beautiful sound of the siren singing on that island. And they would sail in. All my classical students should be following right along. and they would sail in to their death as they met a creature who would kill them. God and Satan both promise the same things. They both v our worship, our trust, and our allegiance. Satan is a liar, though, and he intends to enslave you by your own desires. God is true and cannot lie and frees us from our sinful desires by his sacrifice. And they both have promised the same thing. And he says, "Which one are you going to worship? Which one will you believe? Which one will you put your trust in?" And this is what faced Jesus Christ in the wilderness alone, starving to death, stripped of every human comfort and strength. Satan says, "Will you believe me? Will you believe that? Will you believe me that looking a certain way will give you security? Got the right clothes, got the right body type, got the right sneakers." God says, "Will you believe me? Your value lies in being made in my image." Satan says having certain things bring you happiness. God says living righteously will bring you joy. Satan says friends and dinners and events and vacations and these things are going to bring you a sense of belonging and satisfaction. And God says, "Fellowship with believers, serving side by side, and sacrificing your life for the glory of God and the benefit of others will ground you and establish you." They're so different. I'm not saying, well, certainly I'm not saying dinners are bad. I love dinners and I love vacations, but that is not going to do what Satan says it'll do. And if you try to make it do what Satan says it will do, you're like you're like Prometheus, unbound to the mast of the ship, listening to the siren approaching death. But if you believe God, here's the great thing. This is awesome. Track with me. If you've been sleeping, wake up. If you believe God, you not only get what he's promised, but you get more than he could ever that you could ever ask or think. Ephesians 30:20 and 21 says, "Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory of the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations and forever more. Amen. You believe Satan, you you don't even get what he promised. You believe God and you do it God's way, you get even more than you could ever ever even imagine. And here Jesus was offered to he was offered fake glory in exchange for false worship. He was offered an imitation crown instead of the long agonizing road of suffering for real glory, real honor. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord one day. Amen. That's what he really gets cuz he took God's way and he didn't fall into the temptation and believe Satan's way. He didn't take the bait no matter what he what position in life he was. He said, "I will not take the easy way. I will not fall and succumb to the temptation from Satan. I am going to do it the father's way." And he receives glory and honor forever and ever. Amen. This is where the rubber meets the road for Jesus. This is the moment that will differentiate the first Adam in the Garden of Eden who failed and the second Adam in the wilderness who succeeded. And our hero, the Lord Jesus Christ, is victorious. He prevails. He quotes scripture again from Deuteronomy and he resists the temptations of Satan. And he says this to him, "Be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve." Then the devil left him, and behold, angels came and were ministering to him. Mark says this, "And he was with the wild animals, and the angels were ministering to him." Again, my final quote from Arent Hughes this morning. Then in the air above the desert and around Jesus on the wilderness stretches, angels glimmered and soon the sky was filled with God's messengers ministering to the Son of God. He passed the test. He overcame temptation. Jesus was victorious. The tempter had been defeated. Number one, he was filled with the Holy Spirit. How did he overcome temptation? He was filled with the Holy Spirit. If you're not filled with the Holy Spirit, and what I mean by that is a child of God. When we give our when we when we surrender our lives to Christ and we confess that he is Lord and believe in our hearts that God raised him from the dead, we will be saved. And at that point, all Christians are sealed with the Holy Spirit. We are filled with the Holy Spirit. There is no way for you to overcome temptation. You might be thinking to yourself, why do I keep on failing and you have not yet given your life to Christ? I'm just telling you, give your life to Christ. I beseech you, surrender so that you could do that. This is the most important factor in fighting temptation is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. But then also for us Christians who are filled with the spirit, we surrender to the spirit. We're led by the spirit. Jesus, it says, was led. He was driven into the wilderness by the spirit. Number two, he willingly was stripped of earthly strength. You cannot rely on earthly things to accomplish spiritual battles. You just can't do it. Our weapons are not carnal. You got to be willing to to to to be hungry and to be alone and to be exhausted spiritually and rely on God's word to actually overcome temptations, which is the number three thing. He was filled with God's word. He had known and memorized it. And let's just be practical for a minute right now as we close and the worship team can get ready to come back up. But be practical, friend. If you think that me, literally me, John Nelson, if you don't think that I haven't written out verses in my specific areas of weaknesses and memorize them and put them on my dashboard as I drive around, you're crazy because I have. I can't do it. I can't be the man that I want to be without God's word in my heart. And if you really want to overcome anxiety, go home, look up the word anxiety on Google with Bible verses, write a couple down, and memorize them and pull out your sword and whack Satan's head off when he comes to you with that. We got to be practical as Christians. These aren't just ideas. If you struggle with with just you got to have every new trend and every new fad and you you walk into a room and all you're thinking about is what do they think about me? How how does that girl how do I feel right now? H how do they feel? So now if I know how they feel, I'll know how I feel. Right? You got to figure out what verses speak to that. Write them down. Put them in your heart because Satan is just like those videos. He'll be still while you're watching him. And as soon as you turn your back, he is going to he is looking to devour young people and vulnerable people and older people in their insecurity. Put God's word in your heart. Overcome temptation. The fourth thing is he resisted the devil. James tells us in chapter 4:es 7 and 8, submit yourselves to the submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. You literally got to you you have to resist the devil. There has to be an action on your part where you say, "Okay, I'm I'm driving home. I know when I get home that I'm going to have this temptation to fall into sin, whatever it is, or go, you're driving to the ice cream shop and you're like, I got to I can't get another ice cream cone here." You might want to not drive by the ice cream shop. That's called resisting the devil. I I I really do believe that as Christians, if we're not practical in our faith, then we're just idea people. How will you practically resist the devil in your temptation? How will you do that? Don't walk out of here and just go, I can't wait to, you know, enjoy the day. And I hope you do. But be practical about how you're going to resist the devil. Write it down. Share it with somebody. Don't just be idea people. Be practical. Jesus stood his ground and he resisted him and Satan fled. And I can think of no better way to close our time together than to read what was written about Jesus so many centuries ago before he ever came to earth from Isaiah 42:1. Isaiah 42:1, "Behold my servant whom I I uphold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him, and he will bring forth justice to the nations." Jesus did perfectly and victoriously resist the temptations of the accuser, the slanderer, and so can we. And Mark writes this all to prove that Jesus was God because he remained sinless and perfect and righteous even in the face of the greatest temptation while being so depraved of all his strength. Let's close in prayer. Father, we come before you in Jesus name and I thank you God for your word this morning. Jesus, I want to thank you for taking the long road and sacrificing so much so that you could be the true king of glory that you could you gave us hope. You said that we you have overcome the world. And I know there's some people in this room that are struggling with temptation. And by some, I mean everyone. So look upon your children, Lord. Help us to be honest where we struggle. Help us to be honest of where our temptations come from. But Lord, help us to learn from you so that we might overcome temptation. [Music] and honor you with our lives and build each other up and enjoy all the things that you would have for us. We pray these things in Jesus name. Amen. [Music]