The Controversialist No.4 The Saviour and Satan

This is number 694 in Mission Praise, maybe on the overheads. Probably note by heart, thou art my God and I will praise thee. Stand and sing it, 694.

Stand right now. And into 191, God of Glory. Thou art God and I will praise thee.

We lift our hearts to you. Our little world is rising. And Jesus Christ is born.

Now that's great singing. You sing as though you mean it. So let's sing it just once more.

God of Glory, we exalt your name. God of Glory, we exalt your name. You reign in majesty.

We lift our hearts to you. Our little world is rising. And Jesus Christ is born.

Now that's great singing. You sing as though you mean it. Please be seated.

Before I read the scripture passage for today, may I just again welcome you and remind you, especially if you're a visitor, to pick up a copy of notes and news which will tell you the various events that are taking place here during the course of this coming week. And if you're a regular member, you will of course already make sure you have one and read it through after the service and particularly use it during the week to remind you to pray for specific things. There is something to pray for each day of the week shown on page three of notes and news.

I'd also just like to say that there are copies of the notes of Tony's exposition last Wednesday evening from Romans chapter 11. Those of you who were here will have picked one up, but those of you who weren't may like to have one as it was a particularly interesting talk on Wednesday. You'll find them round in the foyer after the service.

Do come along tonight if you can. We've been involved in a series under the heading God's Mouthpiece. We've been thinking about a student, a farmer, and a mother through whom God spoke.

And this week we are moving to the medical profession and we should be thinking about a doctor. And we're trying to get a live link up with the Indian subcontinent to actually speak to a doctor there. I suspect we have some doctors here as well, but I'm not quite sure whether it's easier to fix them up from India where they don't charge such high fees.

Also this evening there will be a special opportunity to pray together and I'm not sure whether to say unfortunately or what to say really. Farewell to Dave and Irene Hansen. This time last week most of us were still praying very much that Dave and Irene would find the right way forward for their lives having come back from Pakistan.

And during this week I think God has very clearly shown them the way forward and no doubt they'll tell us a bit more about it tonight. But I think when you're here you can't help but see how God was working. After a series of three interviews around the country really this week they were offered a job in Bolton more or less on the spot which not only is in line exactly with what David really felt he the sort of qualifications he already had made up for all the years that he's been away which he thought he was going to have to sort of redo here really and although he'll get an opportunity to train in this job he has actually been given a post which is in accordance with the qualifications he already had which did seem impossible shortly not long ago.

Not only that there is a big Pakistani community. His Urdu language meant that the local community health people were delighted with that so that he will have an opportunity to use his contacts and his language facilities there. So it's a tremendous answer to prayer.

All sorts of other things. Accommodation was available before they even got back home. Gene Hansen received a call from the local vicar and the people up there, Christian church there who've already offered support.

It was all a very exciting Friday for them I think so we want to thank God for that and I hope you'll be here this evening when we shall have an opportunity to thank God for that and say goodbye to them. Au revoir perhaps because they'll come back again I'm quite sure. I think John and Gene hope so anyway.

I'd now like to read to you Matthew chapter 4 and the first 13 verses. Chapter 4 of Matthew's Gospel reading verses 1 to 13. Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.

After fasting 40 days and 40 nights he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, If you're the son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, It is written, Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word 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're 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 that you will not strike your foot against a stone.

Jesus answered him, It is also written, Do not put the Lord your God to the test. Again the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All 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 him only. Then the devil left him and angels came and attended him.

When Jesus heard that John had been put in prison, he returned to Galilee. Leaving Nazareth, he went and lived in Capernaum, which was by the lake in the area of Zebulun and Naphtali. Let's pray again.

Father, we thank you for your grace. Grace unmerited. Grace abundant.

Grace offered from Adam right down to the present century. Grace for the western world. Grace for the eastern world.

Grace for the rich. Grace for the poor. Grace so wonderful.

The riches of God directed to us through the expensive sacrifice of your Son on the cross. If ever we loved you, our Jesus is now. Thank you, Lord, for sending your Son.

Thank you, Lord Jesus, for coming. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for commencing your ministry on the return of our Lord into the heavenlies and continuing to search out men and women down the years, introducing them to the gospel, linking them to the Father through the Son, and indwelling them so that they know of a surety that they belong to God, their destiny sealed, their pardon guaranteed in the signature of the blood of Jesus, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. We bless your name this morning and ask that in the grace of this book, as well as in the grace of the emblems on this table, you will spread in the wilderness sufficient food for all of us here to digest and to go on our way as did Elijah of old, nourished, fortified, till next we find ourselves in the company of one another and, more particularly, in your immediate presence.

Amen. So let's have our Bibles open at this particular passage of Scripture. We have been looking at a series, just a short one, though it's getting a little extended, basically because of the interest that it's generated on the subject of Jesus Christ as a controversial figure.

And, indeed, He was the most controversial figure, arguably, in history. And maybe one of the greater illustrations of the controversial nature of our beloved Lord, His person and His bearing and His witness, is when you consider Him in the presence of the evil one. And now, straightaway, there's a controversy.

In fact, as soon as you say the word controversy, there's a controversy, because you don't quite know whether to pronounce it controversy or controversy. But I'm following the BBC at the moment. But the fact that the Bible makes reference to the devil.

I mean, surely you don't believe that in the 20th century there is such a personage as the devil, and the answer is you cannot understand Scripture unless you accept that. And, indeed, as I've tried to show you in the address as preached from Genesis, you cannot really understand the psychology of man. And the history of contemporary times, as well as the history of the story of man, stretching right back to the very beginning, without postulating, without agreeing to the fact that there is a source of evil centralized in one being, the devil.

Well, here in Matthew in chapter 4, and there are other narratives that give us just a little variation in information in Mark and Luke's account, but here in Matthew 4, we have the picture of Jesus the Savior, Iesus, and Satan, the adversary. And the two of them are together in conflict right at the very beginning of the ministry of our beloved Lord. In the remarkable poetic work Paradise Lost, John Milton suggests that pivotal to the ministry of Jesus is not the crucifixion, but actually the temptations.

Now, I'm not arguing that Milton is right, but I am agreeing with him that the temptations are extremely significant for us to understand the attitude of our Lord Jesus to the devil, and indeed the devil himself. I will also concede that this was not the first encounter that Jesus had with the devil. I mean, when he was born, there was a policy of infanticide that Herod promulgated from Jerusalem, and doubtless the inspiration behind that diabolical desire was prompted by none other than the evil one.

But here is our Lord Jesus at the beginning of His ministry, anticipating an even greater crescendo at the end of His ministry, involved in this conflict, in this controversy with the devil. At Calvary, we read Paul's comment on the scene when he says in Colossians 2.16 that Jesus has despoiled principalities and powers. On the cross, he grabbed the tail, if you like, of the serpent, and the devil goes spiraling downwards, his power diminishing, taking with him thousands if not millions of people who will not agree to the gospel of Christ, but nonetheless, the devil under the overarching sovereignty and power of our Lord Jesus Christ.

In the Garden of Gethsemane, the question is put, in effect, can Adam be like God? I would suggest to you that in the Temptations, the question is put of the second Adam, can he be like man? This Jesus, this Son of God, this personality who is creating a lot of problems for Satan and the demonic forces, can he really be truly human? Satan has a creed. You see how all this comes together in just a moment. Satan has a creed.

The creed is actually quite contemporary, although it's as old as Adam. His creed is threefold. First of all, it says, be selfish.

Then it says, be spectacular. And then it says, be successful. Now if you trace it back to Adam, you can find that that's just what was dangled in front of him in the garden.

But as I say, it's completely modern. It's right up to date. It is as modern as the editorial of the Financial Times.

It is as modern as the Spice Girls. Shakespeare asks the question about being. And it's the Spice Girls really that answer it.

To be or not to be, that is the question. And they say, I really, really want what I want. I want success.

I want to be spectacular. I want, in effect, to be selfish. I know what I want, what I really, really want.

The creed of the devil. He knew what he wanted at the beginning of time. He knew what he wanted in the Garden of Eden.

And here is the devil with this creed. And he makes this creed his sort of platform on which to launch an attack against Jesus. In other words, what I'm suggesting that in this holy controversy, as far as Jesus is concerned, and a holy controversy as far as the devil is concerned, you can see Satan's creed.

And you can discover how much Jesus differs from not only the philosophy of Satan, but Satan's idea of God. You see, we moderns, we have our ideas of God, don't we? What is God like? Who is God? Sorry, this is not... I think it's the PA system that we've got a problem with. Let's just hold it a little bit.

Our Lord moves from the waters to the wilderness and from the blessings of immersion by John and the commendation of the Father into the buffeting that He will know in an area of land which would have been familiar to Moses. It's an incredible thought that where Israel became a nation in the wilderness, there our Lord Jesus is tempted. And as Moses was shown in the heart of the Sinai desert in a high spot, something of the extent of the promised land, so our Lord Jesus, the greater than Moses, in the third of the examples of temptation in Matthew's gospel, is lifted to a high mountain.

And as though there were some modern TV camera that can pan the globe, He is shown all the countries of the world and to the twin temptations, be selfish, be spectacular, is offered also the temptation, be successful. Now, Martin Luther, when he was reflecting upon Satan and his conflict with Jesus at this particular time, almost has a sympathy for the devil. You see, the way that this chapter is portrayed, this incident, is of our Lord who knows what He's doing and Satan who's shadowboxing.

You start shadowboxing with the idea that you're not too sure just what your assailant can do. And your shadowboxing can then move into a sort of parrying. You put up a few blows.

You explore your opponent's ability to be able to hit back. Now, one of the things that you have, which in one sense is an advantage over that of Satan on this particular occasion, is you have an accurate theology of who Jesus is. He doesn't.

I mean, he doesn't have omniscience. That means to say he doesn't have all knowledge. And so, he is knowing that Jesus in the wilderness is there for forty days in order to be positioned to move back into Israel and to stake out a claim that's even a greater claim than that of Moses because he's concerned not just for land, he's concerned for people.

He's concerned for the salvation of the Jew. He's also concerned for the salvation of the Gentile. And here is the devil parrying with Jesus, trying to work out just what he is taking on.

And if you can ever accuse the devil of being sincere, then I imagine that the strategy of his temptation merits that description. What I'm suggesting is that from his own prediction of how God should act, he takes on Jesus. How should God act? How do you naturally act? How did Adam act? And the answer is for number one.

This is what I want, what I really, really want. The creed of the twentieth century, the creed of man generally expressed with, of course, some exceptions. I'm speaking on a wide tapestry, on a wide background.

Jesus, forty days. You are empty. Here are stones.

Turn them into bread and satisfy your stomach. No, there's nothing the matter with satisfying human need. Even sometimes in a more frivolous area.

I mean, Jesus will turn water into wine, and presumably there went dying of thirst. But he was on this honorable occasion of a wedding prepared to not only meet the needs, but give such bounty that presumably the excess wine could have been sold in the marketplace and save the happy couple from going to the Halifax and getting a mortgage with the prophets. Jesus will not use his knowledge of who he is and the power that he possesses for personal self-advantage.

And so he takes the theology of the devil apart at stage one. Jesus is the only person who ever came into the world to exert his rights. But he never does.

He gives them up in the interest of others. And this Satan cannot understand. And neither can you.

And neither can I. And we would not naturally ourselves, not for the whole of our lives, behave like Jesus behaved. The selflessness that there is within this congregation is largely as a result of the special grace of God being released amongst you. So the devil's fashioning of God has as his number one conviction that God is as selfish as he is.

But the devil is wrong. Our God is not selfish. Jesus is not selfish.

What is more, Jesus does not come to give you such incontrovertible evidence of the existence of God by ironing out all the creases of doubt and difficulty in your life that you want to have to exercise faith. You see, basically, this is what the second temptation was all about. Jesus, if you are who you say you are, well, let's go to this temple.

Let's go to the top of the temple, a 450-foot drop from which, incidentally, Jesus' blood brother James will be shoved some years in the future. Now, Jesus, it's a little giddy as you look down. Just lose your balance.

Drop. And if you do that, the Bible says that because you are Messiah, and it's in accordance with rabbinic tradition, your feet will not hit those stones at the bottom with such an impact that any bone will be broken whatsoever. Be spectacular, because if your approach to Messiahship is right, then you will fulfill my requirements and also you will fulfill the requirements of all the ordinary people.

But you see, Jesus never does that. Jesus never even uses his miracles in such a fashion that you can liken him to the average popular charlatan or so-called miracle worker of his day. His use of miracles is very discreet, very discreet indeed.

For Jesus will want you to have to cope with the creases in your life and still be able to hold on to him through faith, having sufficient evidence to hang in, but having enough experiences to make you so uncomfortable that your grasp on Jesus and his gospel will become even more firm. For if Jesus is just a cartoon, spectacular, miracle worker, then the faith that John Newton spoke about and the faith that the Apostle Paul wrote a theology on is not a faith that you and I would have to embrace. So Jesus dismisses this notion.

This may be what the rabbis want, at least some of them, but it's not what my father wants. Now hear me. There was nothing basically wrong.

Here's a staggering thought. There was nothing basically wrong with the temptations, actually. See, it's the way that they were applied.

What do you mean by that? Well, it's turning stones into bread. I mean, bless my soul, a bit later on he's going to be turning fish. Well, he's not changing the constituency, but he's multiplying them.

In terms of the seriousness of a miracle, I reckon that feeding 5,000 takes a little bit more miraculous oomph, if one can use that expression, than turning stones into bread. So he's going to be involved in that. We've already talked about watering to wine.

And as for something spectacular, well, a stinking corpse he's going to bring back to life. And Mary and Martha are going to be dancing with charismatic enthusiasm that Jesus has so displayed his power. But you see, the context of the incidents that I've just quoted are so different from this.

Here you've got the devil trying to project his theology of God on Jesus. And you've got Jesus saying, no, no way. You're revealing more about yourself than being successful in trying to unmask or unnerve me.

You quote from God's Word. But I have a greater understanding. Moses, my forerunner, he said, man shall not live by bread alone.

Moses, my forerunner, says thou shall not tempt the Lord thy God. Well, what about the kingdoms of the earth? Well, they will become his. The kingdoms of this world shall be the kingdoms of our Christ and he shall reign forever and ever.

So the temptation itself, in its essence, if you follow me, is not invalid. None of these temptations were invalid. It was what the devil was trying to prove that was wrong.

He was trying to squeeze Jesus into a theological mold that Jesus will not accept. He didn't then and he doesn't now. That's why a lot of people do not get in the New Testament the Jesus they want.

The Jesus they get is unacceptable to them. What sort of Jesus is he? He's the Jesus who is continually independent on the Father. Look, Jesus, if you are who you say you are, then how can your Father be faithful? Forty days and you're without food, man.

You see, what is happening is that the devil is trying to slander the Father in front of the Son and he won't have it. If you are the Son of God, hath God said? The same strategy that worked with Adam and Eve doesn't work with Jesus because our Lord will always outwit the devil. He'll always outwit the evil one.

So if you put together this threefold creed of what a God should behave, how a God should behave, as it falls from the lips of the devil, Jesus will not identify with it at all. Be selfish, that's not why I came into the world. Be spectacular, that's not for me.

Be successful, not in your terms. The only success I want is for my Father to say constantly, I am pleased with my Son and hear Him. And on the cross, although it's so incredible that it has to be true, our Lord Jesus is actually at the divine level being successful because the Father said, whom shall I send and who will go for us? And the life of Jesus was completely programmed and He lived it to the letter.

He lived it to the hour, taking direction from the Father. So when you ask, what is God like? Jesus supplies the answer. Have I been so thong with you? Don't you see that the Father is like me and I'm like the Father? We're of the same essence, we're of the same psyche.

Our God is not a selfish God or else you wouldn't be here. Our God does not spectacularly answer every whim of your fancy or else you would never need to exercise faith. Our God will not rain down upon you unlimited material political blessings for you couldn't handle it and this world is not in a finished condition.

And what's more, the world belongs to the Father who gives it to the Son and the day shall come when Jesus shall reign where the Son doth its successive journeys run. The earth will be covered with the knowledge of God as the waters cover the sea. Now that is what Jesus knew, what He clung on to at the beginning of His ministry, what He maintained throughout and what He achieved at the end.

Jesus the Christ, the mighty victor, who leaves Satan absolutely gobsmacked. He thinks he knows about Godness but he's wrong. Only Jesus knew what God was like and only Jesus gives the distilled knowledge of God that you and I need to accept, embrace, and live by.

Let's stand. Jesus, name above all Beautiful Savior with us blessed Redeemer in love take joy, my dear in what you give may there be a sweet, sweet sound in your ear Father, first of all, thank you for answering so many prayers. We did get to hear your sermon destined for your people in Worthing on this Sunday.

Thank you for overruling. Thank you that we have heard some more deep mysteries from the divine plan. Thank you that through your omniscience we are able to share in knowledge that Satan just does not understand.

More than that, thank you that you have given us a share in the divine nature. You have put your spirit within us. You whisper deep, affectionate, intimate secrets to your loved ones.

And not only that, you tell us this isn't it. Whatever cares we have on us this Sunday morning there will be a glory where we say fancy we ever even were concerned about that because God had it all in hand. We really are honored people, Father.

And if there be any amongst this morning who don't know you we pray that what has been said and what will continue to go on working in their hearts after this morning may lead them to the foot of the cross may wash them in the blood and may have them join the number of the redeemed who will sing your praises forever in glory. Father, some couldn't make it here this morning. Some are sick.

Some have got the burdens of family. We do pray that what's blessed us may bless them also. They may not lose out by not being able to be here physically.

Now, Father, we commit all our lives we bundle them up and we present them before your throne in a fresh way as if for the first time. If we slip, Lord, we repent of slipping. And we want to come back.

Many here this morning will be like that, Father. We bring our lives back. We say, Father, we know you could forget that ever happened.

I want to come back. I want to be recommitted to you in a fresh way. Well, in your grace, Lord, will you whisper the secret to them that that has been done and they can feel secure in the arms of the one who stretched them out on the cross.

Renew your people and may today tell us something that will have an effect on the rest of our earthly pilgrimage. Thank you, Father. Amen.

Please just sit down. While these glasses are being collected, let me just remind you of one or two things. Even our Lord had to stop preaching when they started to come through a roof.

He didn't have problems with PA, nor with an airplane buzzing below, nor with an ambulance. Whoever was arranging for all this this morning, I'd like to see you in a little while. And I'm sure the grace of God will be abundant in my heart.

Seriously, we are glad to have had you with us, and we have put together what I think will be a very interesting time this evening when, again, we'll be coming around the word of the Lord right at the end. And thank you for coming this morning. If you can be present at any of our activities during the week, then Notes to News gives you all the information that you require.

Some of our older friends here will know Mrs. Small. She's not very well. I was with her yesterday on Friday, and she really does need your prayers and your thoughts at this time.

So thank you for coming this morning. God bless you, and may you have a good remaining part of this day. Our instrumentalists will play you out.

God bless you.