We're gonna be looking at something today that affects every believer because our flesh is still under sin. And that is temptation. Do you have the... Oh, there it is.
Temptation. This is something that affects all of us. Now, I had our time deciding what I wanted for a background for this image because temptation can look different for all of us, right? So, for example, for my wife, it might look something like this.
Okay, now this isn't working. Okay. Yeah, it's... Oh.
Yeah, there you go. Now, for my brother, it might be more like this. For my seven-year-old son, this is what temptation looks like. I don't know, for me, maybe it's Rogaine or something like that.
But it all started with a piece of fruit, and that's why this image is perfect. Today, we're gonna be talking about two men, both who face temptation and how they're very different responses to temptation change the world. And we see as we look at the lives of these two men, as we look at their responses, we see a common thread, a common strategy from the enemy. I've summed it up here.
If I can cause him to doubt, I can lead him to sin. Very common tactic of the enemy, to plant doubt in our hearts, to cause us to sin. So I'm gonna open with a word of prayer, and then we'll get into it. Dear God, I thank you for another Sunday that we can gather, and that we can listen to your words and worship you.
I pray that it would be your words through me, and that you would bless the reading of your words and the study of your words. I pray this in your name, amen. So we're gonna get right into the scriptures here. Genesis chapter three, we're all familiar with this, I think.
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say you must not eat the fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will certainly not die, the serpent said to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and was also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
But the Lord God called to the man, where are you? He answered, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid. And he said, who told you you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree?
I commanded you not to eat from? The man said, the woman you put here with me, she gave me some fruit from the tree, and I ate it. Then the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman said, the serpent deceived me and ate.
So the Lord God said to the serpent, because you have done this, curse it or you above all livestock and all wild animals. You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her offspring and your offspring and hers, and he will crush your head and you will strike his heel. So right away we see that strategy by Satan.
He asked the question, did God really say that? He calls his Adam to question God's word. And so sin enters the world because Adam and Eve second guessed the word of God. They second guessed the truth.
They listened to the wrong voice. Now I wanted to give an illustration here. I love the music here. I really enjoy, I'm a guitar guy, just like my brother.
I really enjoy his guitar playing. Now imagine for a second Sam is playing and it sounds great. You can hear all the notes, but now imagine 10 more guitar players join them. And there's 10 amps and 10 guitars going.
Only problem is they're all playing different songs. Could you imagine what that would sound like for a second? It wouldn't even be music anymore. It would be like a sensory avalanche of some kind, right?
He wouldn't be able to pick out what he's doing anymore. And in this world in 2025, there are so many voices. There are over 7 billion people living on this earth. There's probably about that many social media apps and news networks now.
Millions and billions of voices all sending a different message. And it's very easy for the word of God to get choked out. Very easy. When you look at it this way, for Adam, it only took one voice.
One voice to cause him to stray away from the truth from the word of God. And so we send entries to the world. But God as he curses the earth, he reveals his plan, even then to save humanity. He foreshadows the one who will come from the offspring of the woman and crush the serpent and deal with this sin problem.
And so first the serpent will strike his heel. He will attempt to take him down. And so now thousands of years go by, generation after generation. People do evil in the sight of the Lord.
But God in his mercy, he sticks with his promise. And the Lamb of God finally comes to Messiah. And we have this wonderful scene in Matthew chapter 3 where Jesus is baptized and all three parts of the Trinity converge to create this special moment where Jesus is proclaimed as God's Son, the one whom he is well pleased. There's a test first.
And we see that in the next chapter. Jesus must be tempted in the same way Adam was tempted. And so we're going to get into that. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
After fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. Then the tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on everywhere that comes from the mouth of God. Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.
If you were the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down. For it is written, he will command his angels concerning you and they will lift you up in their hands so you will not strike your foot against the stone. Jesus answered him, it is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Now this is a bigger deal.
This is a bigger deal than just bread. This is a bit more than just hunger. So once again, we see Satan employ the same strategy, this time with Jesus. Now we don't know exactly what image or what form Satan took in the desert.
I like this image because it kind of ties back to Genesis. It is the same strategy that we see back in Genesis. If I can plant dope, if I can cause him to doubt, I can lead him to sin. He encounters Jesus and Jesus has been in the desert for 40 days and he is hungry and he is filthy and he is exhausted.
Satan looks at him and he says, what kind of king is wandering around in the desert? What are you doing hungry and exhausted like this? Across the Mediterranean Sea, right now, Tiberius Caesar is sitting on a throne surrounded by wealth and power being spoon fed grapes by his servants and you are hungry in the desert. Could you not at least provide for yourself?
That is a voice that can be very common. Sometimes whether it is a better job, a bigger house, we often hear people talk like that. This prosperity gospel, there shouldn't be struggle if you are truly a child of God. I don't know if you have heard that before, I know I have.
But how does Jesus respond? Just as Adam gave away authority to Satan by doubting the word of God, Jesus reclaims that authority when he responds to the temptation with the word of God. I want to read that passage. This is the passage Jesus quotes, be careful to follow every command I am giving you today so that you may live and increase and may enter and possess the land the Lord promised and oaths dear ancestors.
Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these 40 years to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. He humbled you causing you hunger and feeding you with manna which neither you nor your ancestors had known to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord. So Jesus responds with the word of God. Jesus citing this passage about God's provision affirms his identity as not defined by his physical needs.
It affirms that the struggle he is facing does not confirm who he is. It is the will of the Father who sent him. That is his identity and that is who he is. He is here for a purpose.
That purpose includes suffering. But we see that focus that he is here for a purpose. Now once again Satan continues his attack. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor.
All of this I will give you he said, if you will bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me Satan, for it is written, worship the Lord your God and serve only him. Then the devil left him and the angels came and attempted him. Attended him.
So finally Jesus is tempted with all the kingdoms of the world. Something he already had. Something that was already his. It was his inheritance.
But Satan knows there is tremendous suffering ahead for both Jesus and his followers before the kingdom is established. So he offers him a shortcut. He says, I will give you all of this right now. You can have it now.
Just nobody else to know. Just bow to me right now. Once again his identity is called into question because of his suffering. Now I want to talk about this.
I want to expand on this a bit because this is interesting. Sometimes we blame our circumstances when we follow the temptation. We often do that. I just want to show you this is where Adam lived when he fell to temptation when he gave in.
That's where he was. And it's a stark contrast to where Jesus was when he stood up to temptation. So it's not necessarily our circumstances. I think that it's based on the things that we focus on.
If we were focused on the Word of God, if we were focused on our identity in him, we can resist Satan's temptations. We can resist his attacks. When you look at Adam's situation, it's truly heartbreaking. He lived in this garden, or at least a garden that looked like this.
He had this perfect life. There was no suffering. His food was provided for him by the trees. He didn't have to struggle.
He had the sweet government job where he got to name all the animals and tend to the garden. His wife was the most beautiful woman on the earth. I think that's a safe assumption to make. He walked with God and spoke with God face to face every day.
But just as Satan attempted to do with Jesus, we see Satan convinces him, God is holding something back from you. Just as he does when he shows Jesus, all the kingdoms of the world, and he says, maybe God's holding something back from you here. Maybe your father's holding something back, and I'm willing to give that to you. But because Adam was listening to the wrong voice, he gave in to that thought.
And he lost everything. How heartbreaking is that scene where God comes to spend time, spend the evening with his precious creation that he loves so much, only defines that creation, only defines those precious creatures that he wants to fellowship with and they're hiding and they're afraid of them because of sin. It's the most heartbreaking text ever written when Jesus comes and finds that his creation has betrayed him. And a stark contrast to Christ when he comes to that point of temptation.
Now I wanted to include some e-mail-style trivia in this. I always like the trivia questions. It keeps everyone engaged. So Jesus tells Satan to leave.
There's language used there. Get away from me, Satan. He uses a similar language with Satan again later on in the book of Matthew. Can anyone tell me where that is?
That's right. Peter. So let's read that. Matthew chapter 16, 21 to 23.
From that time on, Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things at the hands of the elders, the chief priests, and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed. And on the third day, be raised to life. Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. He said, never Lord, he said, this shall never happen to you.
Jesus turned and said to Peter, get behind me, Satan. You are stumbling block to me. You do not have in mind the concerns of God, merely human concerns. Now as far as we know, Peter's not possessed.
So it's an interesting thing that Jesus would look him in the eye and say, get behind me, Satan. But even a voice that maybe meant well, even somebody that we know and love. Peter here, he doesn't fully understand what's going on. He's not aware yet of the bigger picture.
He's not aware of the purpose, the full purpose why Jesus is here. And he shows concern for somebody he cares about. He says, when he hears Jesus say, I'm going to die. When we go into Jerusalem, I'm going to die.
They're going to kill me. He says, no, no, no, don't talk like that. That's, you'll be all right. We'll look after you.
But what's going on here, what's happening here, is another temptation, maybe an overarching temptation that Jesus faces throughout his life on earth. And we see it again in Matthew 26. So throughout Jesus' life, throughout his ministry, he's repeatedly tempted to abandon the cross and thus abandon God's plan to save humanity, to redeem humanity. And we see that on full display in Matthew 26, verses 36 to 41.
Then Jesus, this is hours before the cross, after the Passover Supper. Then Jesus went with his disciples to a place called Gethsemane, and he said to them, sit here, well, I'll go over there and pray. He took Peter and the two sons, thank you. He took Peter and the two sons of Zebedee along with them.
And he began to be sorrowful and troubled. Then he said to them, my soul is overwhelmed with sorrow to the point of death. Stay here and keep watch with me. Going a little further, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, my father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me, yet not as I will, but as you will.
Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. Couldn't you men keep watch with me for one hour? He asked Peter, watch and pray so you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.
We see another response to temptation from Jesus. In his darkest hour, his most desperate hour, he is hours away from being nailed to a cross. And what does he do? He prays.
He turns to his father in prayer, the word of God and prayer. Adam doubted the word of God. Wait, no, I skipped ahead. The mental torment Jesus faced is revealed with Gethsemane.
He's facing the cross, he's overwhelmed with sorrow, yet he submits to his father's will. The relationship he had with his father is what defined him. His commitment to following the will of his father is what defined his ministry on earth. His commitment to his father's will and of course his love for us is great love for us.
We can see Adam didn't have a lot of love in him because once he was caught, he immediately threw his wife under the bus, as too many men do. But Jesus, because of the love that he had for us, because of his devotion to his father, was able to submit to his father's will and have victory over temptation. Adam doubted the word of God. And as a result of his failure, he stood naked and trembling, having to answer to God for his own sin.
The same fate awaits all who follow Adam's lead. There are two choices here. You are either a child of Satan through Adam or you are a child of God through Christ. That's it.
And I would say to anybody who might be here or listening online, if you were still under the curse of Adam, if you were still following his lead, turn to Christ, turn from your sin, repent, and give your life to Christ. This is the key verse that kind of ties us all together. For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead also comes through a man. For as in Adam, I'll die so in Christ, all will be made alive.
As Jesus gave up his spirit on the cross, having resisted every temptation that was thrown at him, he triumphantly cried out, it is finished. The serpent has been crushed. The cycle of sin and death and temptation is done. It's over.
It's broken. Since death came through one man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through another man. As in Adam, we all die, so in Christ, all will be made alive. Adam sold humanity to Satan.
God bought us back with his own son, who was obedient to death, even death on the cross. I'm going to close in prayer and then I'll invite the band back up to play more than conquerors. God, I thank you. Thank you for your work on the cross.
I thank you that you are the Lamb of God. You are God's son. And that you separated yourself from sinful humanity. You faced every temptation that we face.
But you had victory over that temptation. You had victory over sin. I thank you that through you, we too can have victory over sin. And I pray that if anybody here has not experienced that victory over their sin, through you, that they would give their lives to you today.
I thank you and I pray that you would bless those congregations and go about our week. I pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.