[0:00] Good morning and a warm welcome to the service this morning. Those who are in the building, there's just a few of us this morning with the weather being the way it is.
[0:11] And those who are watching online, it's good for us to come together once more and to worship God. One or two intimations. Firstly, to remind you that this evening the service will go online just before six o'clock.
[0:27] And this evening we will have Myrdo McSween sharing his testimony. I think we had the month of September last year where we had four testimonies.
[0:38] And with this period of restrictions going on, I thought it would be good for us maybe to have one testimony for each month. And Myrdo will share something of the Lord's work in his life this evening as part of that service.
[0:54] And there will be a short word also within that. The Youth Fellowship, I understand, will still meet on Zoom tonight. And the prayer meeting on Wednesday will be at half past seven on Zoom.
[1:05] And just to say also that on Wednesday, Gordon McLeod, who works in youth work within the area here, is going to just say a wee bit about what it is that he does.
[1:19] And maybe those who don't normally tune into the prayer meeting might be encouraged to do so, to hear Gordon share at that meeting. These, I think, are all the intimations.
[1:34] So let's begin this time of worship and we'll sing to God's praise. We'll sing from Psalm 84. Psalm 84 and from verses 1 to verse 9.
[1:46] When I say we, I mean that Stuart will sing and we will listen. And Stuart will sing verses 1 to verse 9. How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts to me.
[1:58] The tabernacles of thy grace, how pleasant, Lord, they be. My thirsty soul longs vehemently. Ye faints thy courts to see. My very heart and flesh cry out, O living God, for thee.
[2:09] And down to verse 9. Stuart will sing God's praise. How lovely is thy dwelling place, O Lord of hosts to me.
[2:31] The tabernacles of thy grace, how pleasant, Lord, they be. My soul thirsty soul longs vehemently.
[2:48] Ye faints thy courts to see. My very heart and flesh cry out, O living God, for thee.
[3:04] Behold the sparrow findeth thou an house wherein to rest. The swallow also bought herself, a purchase said and rest.
[3:24] In thine own altar's where she's safe, her young one's port may bring.
[3:34] O thou almighty Lord of hosts, who art my God and King.
[3:47] Blessed are they in thy house that dwell, they ever give thee praise.
[3:58] Blessed is the man whose strength thou art, in whose heart are thy ways.
[4:09] Who passing far, though big does fail, did in to dig up wells.
[4:19] Also the rain that falleth thou, the pools with water fills.
[4:30] So they from strength unwitting foe, still forward unto strength.
[4:42] Until ensign, I on they appear, before the Lord at length.
[4:53] Lord God of hosts, my prayer here, O Jacob's God, give ear.
[5:04] See God of hosts, my prayer here, O God, give ear.
[5:21] Let's unite our hearts now in prayer, and let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, your day once more.
[5:34] This day when we are reminded of the fact that you're the God who died in our place, but rose from the dead. We thank you that Jesus died, but rose from the dead.
[5:45] We thank you, Father, for sending your Son into this world. And we thank you, Holy Spirit, for opening our eyes that we would see Jesus. We thank you that he is the one who brings that soul quenched to our hearts.
[6:02] We sing there in the psalm of our thirsty souls longing. And we know that although we could try to quench that thirst in many different places in this world, we know that, as the old Puritan said, these are like broken cisterns.
[6:20] They promise much, but they deliver nothing. We thank you that the satisfaction for our souls is found only in Christ. Our hearts, as we so often say, are restless until they find their rest in thee.
[6:36] And so we pray this morning as we come into your house, and as in our own homes we come together in the act of worship, we pray that you would meet with us, Lord, and that you would bless us, that you would speak to us.
[6:48] We confess that we are sinners who seek to come into the presence of the Holy God. And we do not do so casually. We do not do so presumptuously.
[7:00] But we do so in Jesus' name. Looking at our own sin and confessing it. And looking to Christ, the Saviour. Asking that he would cleanse us from the sin that we are so aware of.
[7:17] And that you, Lord God, would give us that righteousness, which is not ours, but is offered to us in Christ. So we pray that you would meet with us as we seek to come in Jesus' name.
[7:31] We pray that you would receive us as we look to the cross of Christ. We pray that you would give us a taste of that eternal life, which is received the moment that we trust in Jesus.
[7:45] We ask that you would minister to each one of us, those who are here, those who are in homes, you know our hearts. We pray that if we are distracted, Lord, if our minds are full of the cares of this world, that you would sweep them aside and that you would enable us to be disciplined in our thoughts, in our thoughts, that we would look to you with that expectation that you will speak to us.
[8:08] We pray, Lord, that if we are cast down in our souls, that we would trust in God. We pray that if we are burdened with that sense of guilt, that we would not allow that guilt to cause us to sink further, but that we would look to the Saviour who promises to cleanse us from sin and lift us to that place of being secure in Christ.
[8:31] We pray for any who have not yet trusted in Jesus, those who are outside of Christ. And we pray that even today there might be some who would look unto the Lord Jesus and be saved.
[8:43] And for those who are in Christ, Lord, perhaps some who may be at this time wandering in their hearts, we confess that we are prone to wander, but we pray that you would draw each one back, that we would have that close walk with God.
[8:59] Lord, we pray for our nation. We ask, Lord, that you would be with those who are in authority over us. We are told to pray for them, and we do bring them to you in prayer.
[9:12] We ask that you would give them wisdom. We pray that you would give them and that you would give us as a nation that spirit of repentance that we would turn back to you. We pray again for the United States as well, where we see a degree of turmoil, less than we perhaps expected over the last seven days.
[9:31] We thank you for the peace of the inauguration, but we ask, Lord, that that nation who professes to trust in you would look to you and would follow your ways as they seek to step forward.
[9:46] We pray, Lord, that you would be with us as a community, and we pray that you would comfort those who are grieving. We pray that you would be near to those who are sick, those who are struggling with health.
[9:58] We pray that you would minister with that closeness to those who feel lonely and who feel isolated. And for those who are anxious, we ask that you would give to them the peace of God which passes all understanding.
[10:14] We pray in this time when we are all too aware of this virus coming closer to our shores, we ask that you would protect us and that you would help us to be looking to you.
[10:27] And we thank you for those who continue to serve us, those who are caring, the nurses, the doctors, the carers in the community. We ask that your hand would be upon them, that you would protect them, that you would strengthen them.
[10:42] We pray for those who support them in different roles within hospitals and within the government. We pray for those who serve us in shops. We pray for those who are driving on the buses.
[10:54] We pray for those who are working hard today to keep our roads clear. All those who must go out to work. We ask that you would protect them, Lord, and that you would strengthen them for the work that you've called them to do.
[11:08] We pray for teachers in schools. We pray for parents who are trying to muddle through education. We pray for children who may be anxious about the work before them and the way ahead of them.
[11:20] We thank you that in everything we can look to you and you are the God who helps us and who ministers to us in our time of need. So hear our prayers. We pray that you would be with us this evening also as we gather and as Murdo's testimony is played.
[11:36] We pray that it would reach many and that you would use him and his ongoing witness to show Jesus to those that he's on the boat with and those who he passes day by day.
[11:50] We ask, Lord, that you would help us to be salt and light, to be ambassadors for Christ. And all these things we pray together with the forgiveness of our sins. In Jesus' name. Amen.
[12:00] Boys and girls. Quite a few of the boys and girls this morning are not able to get in. So it's just a few that can answer.
[12:12] So I'll maybe open up so the adults can answer today as well. Two things to show you. And the first thing to show you is this.
[12:24] What's that? It's a watch. And it always makes the congregation very happy to know that the minister has a watch.
[12:35] And it always brings great encouragement to the congregation. I say, when I do that and I look at my watch when it's kind of coming close to 12 o'clock. So it's a watch. And that's the first thing I want to show you.
[12:48] Mary and I got a present of these watches from my sister and my brother-in-law. They had new ones and so they gave us their old ones. And it's... Do you know what kind of watch it is? What it's called?
[12:59] Yeah, it was. It's called an Apple Watch. And I've never had one of these. I wouldn't have bought one of these. But I was happy to get one.
[13:10] And I started to read up all the things they could do. And you could look at your emails on it. And you could look at photographs on it. And it can check your steps. It checks your heart rate. It can track your performance when you're running.
[13:24] Which is never very good for me. Or cycling or swimming. It does all kinds of things. It can play music. And I was reading up about all these things that it could do.
[13:35] And it came in the box. And I opened up the box. And I took a look at it. But you know what this watch could do when I took it out of the box? What do you think?
[13:48] It could do nothing. Nothing. And do you know why it could do nothing? Well, I had the watch.
[14:02] But what did I not have? What do you think? Well, I didn't have a charger. And so I had to go looking to figure out where you could get a charger.
[14:16] And I had to go online and I had to check. And that's the second thing. I think it came on Friday. I got this charger. And you get the charger and you plug it into the wall.
[14:29] And then you get the watch. And you put the watch on top of that. And it kind of clips on like a magnet. And it starts to charge the watches up. And now that the watch is fully charged up, all the things that it said it could do, it can do.
[14:44] So now it works like it should. So we're happy to have these watches. And for your encouragement, I have a watch. It's functional. It works. If I go past 12, it's not the watch's fault.
[14:57] It's all mine. I'll try. I'll try. Now, why am I telling you all this? Why am I telling you about this watch and about this charger? Well, I'm telling you this because it reminds me of what Jesus said to his disciples way back then but still today.
[15:18] And he said in John chapter 15, he said, if you're apart from me, if you're away from me, you can do nothing.
[15:29] If you are away from me, you can do nothing. And I was thinking about Peter, the disciple, when I was thinking about this message this morning.
[15:42] Remember Peter, the disciple? He was one of Jesus' closest friends and disciples. And he was so close to Jesus for such a long time, but there was one night, and you know the story, when he let Jesus die.
[15:56] And he was so sad in his heart when he let Jesus die. And he was so ashamed that for a while, he drifted away from Jesus.
[16:08] Still with the other disciples. But he drifted away from Jesus. And he said one day, he said one day to the other disciples, I'll tell you what, I'm going fishing.
[16:23] Now all this sitting about is no good. I'm going fishing. He was a fisherman before. He's a good fisherman. That was his business. So he said, I'm going fishing.
[16:34] I can catch fish. But could he catch fish when he was away from Jesus? He went out. It says he was fishing all night and he caught nothing.
[16:49] He learned the hard way that when we are apart from Jesus, we can do nothing. And so Jesus came to him to try and help him to come close to him again.
[17:04] And Jesus really explained to him when he met him, I never called you to be a fisherman anymore. I called you to go and fish for men. Tell people about me.
[17:14] So he says to Jesus, says to Peter, after Peter repents, back to work and I'll be close to you. And Peter went off and he was with Jesus.
[17:29] He was remaining close to Jesus and God did amazing things through Peter. And the lesson for you and for me is that God made us to be close to him.
[17:44] And sin pulls us away from Jesus. We know that, don't we? But why did Jesus come into this world? He came into this world to go to the cross, to pay for our sins, so that we can be forever close to him.
[18:01] And as we stay close to him, he gives us his power and he makes us to be the people that he wants to be. John chapter 15, verse 4.
[18:13] Jesus said, Remain in me and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself that must remain in the vine. And neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
[18:28] So let's, this week, try to make sure that we stay close to Jesus. And we do that when we're in the Bible, when we're in prayer, when we're turning away from sin and we're turning day by day to Jesus.
[18:41] We'll pray. Lord God, we thank you for the fact that you call us to come away from sin and to come to you.
[18:52] We thank you that that's the message that we hear in the Bible and it comes time after time after time. Jesus says, Come to me and stay close to me.
[19:04] And we thank you that Jesus came to the cross to take away the sin that holds us back. We thank you that the way is now open. It's now clear.
[19:15] And every day we thank you that we are able to come close to you. And you've promised in the wee book of James that if we draw near to you, that you will draw near to us.
[19:26] And so we pray that you would help us whether we're young or whether we're older, whether we're here in this building or whether we're listening or far away. We pray that we would come close to Jesus, that you would be very near to us today and that you would help us to be the people doing the jobs that you call us to do.
[19:47] And we ask all these things in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen. Okay. I was going to say boys and girls but there's not actually a boy.
[19:57] It's all girls. Okay girls, off you go to Sunday school now. And we're going to read now God's word.
[20:15] We'll read from Luke chapter 3 and into Luke chapter 4. Luke chapter 3 verses 21 to 23 and then we'll read the first part of chapter 4.
[20:47] This is God's word. When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too. And as he was praying, heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove.
[21:02] And a voice came from heaven, you are my son whom I love. With you I am well pleased. Now Jesus was himself about 30 years old when he began his ministry.
[21:14] He was the son so it was thought of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Mathat, the son of Levi and so on. We go down the genealogy. I kept saying genealogy last weekend.
[21:25] Sorry about that. I had two or three people phone me up and say it's not genealogy, it's genealogy. So it's the genealogy of Jesus and we follow that down through from verse 24 to verse 38 and we'll just note that in passing.
[21:41] Then we move on to chapter 4 the temptation of Jesus and it says Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the desert where for 40 days he was tempted by the devil.
[21:55] He ate nothing during these days and at the end of them he was hungry. The devil said to him if you are the son of God tell this stone to become bread. Jesus answered it is written man does not live on bread alone.
[22:09] The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and he said to him I will give you all their authority and splendor for it has been given to me and I can give it to anyone I want to so if you worship me it will all be yours.
[22:28] Jesus answered it is written worship the Lord your God and serve him only. the devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple if you are the son of God he said throw yourself down from here for it is written he will command his angels concerning you to guard you carefully they will lift up you in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
[22:57] Jesus answered it says do not put the Lord your God to the test when the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until an opportune time.
[23:10] Amen and may God bless that reading of his word to us. Once more we will pray just for a moment. Our Heavenly Father we thank you for your word we pray now that you would pour out your spirit upon us we ask Lord that we would know the Holy Spirit as our teacher because we know that without his help we are not able to speak or listen or respond in a way that is appropriate in a way that brings benefit to our own souls and brings glory to your name.
[23:48] So we ask Lord that you would help us as we would seek to listen to your voice. We pray for the children as well we ask that you would minister to them as they watch the Sunday school lesson here and in their own homes.
[24:03] We thank you for them and we ask that they would grow up to know you and trust you. We pray for those who go to the Connect Club and the Jam Club in normal time. We pray for those who have come through holiday clubs of past years.
[24:17] We pray for the YF and we ask for every child that we are connected with. We think of the school SU group as well and we pray Lord that although much that we have been able to do in the past has stopped meantime we thank you that the gospel is not restricted the gospel is not chained.
[24:37] We thank you that your spirit he is active everywhere at all times and we pray that we would see that activity in and through the young people that we bring to you in prayer.
[24:50] So help us Lord we pray we pray for the congregations around us as well in different denominations we pray for the churches that we have had a connection with over the years and we ask Lord that whatever the gospel is preached that you would be active that you would be working.
[25:08] So hear our prayers and go before us now we pray in Jesus name Amen. If you think back I think it is only two or three weeks John McSween he preached and as he preached he shared quite a lot of testimony he spoke about his own life he spoke about the times that he spent in different places and working in different areas and as I think back on it he painted such a vivid picture of leaving the Isle of Scalpy as a young lad and then leaving Tarbert and looking back at the lights of Tarbert as he headed for the mainland where he lived and where he worked for for many years and yet although John spent probably the majority of his life in forests of Wester Ross and Sutherland and Skye and different places he never lost the accent of Scalpy he never sounded like he was out of Scalpy for five minutes he never lost his connection with the islands there's a connection that remained live throughout all the years of his life and today we're launching out into a new series we touched on it last
[26:38] Sunday we are going from Genesis to Luke's Gospel and in the human sense and we think about these two books they're very different Genesis were written by Moses Luke was written by Luke the doctor these are two books that were written at different times Genesis was written well over a thousand years before Jesus was born probably about 1400 years they think before Jesus was born whereas Luke was written maybe 60 to 80 years after Jesus was born so they were written many many years apart but because they were inspired by the same Holy Spirit and because ultimately every book of scripture is focusing on Jesus they have all these connections so going from Genesis to Luke may not actually be as big a leap as we as we first think why is Luke writing this
[27:42] Gospel we touched on that at Christmas time he writes to Theophilus we're not totally sure who he is he's probably a Roman official who had come to believe in Jesus and so Luke writes to him and he writes to us and he writes Luke chapter 1 verse 4 so that you may know the certainty of the things you have been taught about Jesus I was listening to a sermon last Sunday I think it was by a Welsh minister called Derek Thomas and he told the story about a young man who was in university and this young man was a he was an atheist but he decided he would go along to the University Christian Union just out of curiosity and what he heard on the evening he went there it kind of gripped him so he went back and then he went on a weekend away where there was a concentrated study of
[28:44] God's word and over the course of that weekend he came to faith he became a Christian following Sunday he went to church and the minister of the church was speaking with him and he'd heard he'd become a Christian so he asked him the question tell me about your conversion tell me how it happened was there a particular verse in scripture or was there some kind of remarkable experience that you had that brought you suddenly from outside of Christ to in Christ as a Christian and he replied by saying no there wasn't a particular text and there wasn't some remarkable experience he said just as I listened over these occasions to what I was being taught about Jesus he said I just became convinced I became certain that it was all true and that was his testimony he came to believe that everything that was written about Jesus in the gospels it was true and I wonder just by way of application as we come into this passage could we could we give that testimony could we echo his words it's good that we're in church it's good that perhaps we're watching online but do we believe do we know the certainty of the things that we're taught about
[30:18] Jesus life and his death and his resurrection becoming a Christian is not about what we do it's about what Christ has already done and about our having faith in him and his finished work so what are we being taught in this passage about Jesus as we look at Luke's words here well there's two things this morning the first point is that Jesus is the savior and the second point that we see here in these two chapters is that Jesus is the substitute so first of all Jesus is the savior and really we touched on this last week so I don't want to spend really any time on this point this morning but that's the purpose of the genealogy that Luke shared in chapter 3 verses 23 to 28 and it takes us back to
[31:21] Genesis we noted that last Sunday in Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 against the backdrop of the fall there was this promise that God gave there would be one who would be born he would be of the seed of the woman he would come to undo the curse of sin he would come to destroy the works of Satan he would come to remove the sting of death he would come to offer the gift of eternal life and so we ask the question who is the saviour that was promised and Luke shows us as he takes us by the hand and leads us through this genealogy he takes us all the way from Genesis chapter 3 through the generations of the seed of the woman until eventually we get to Jesus that's why we have that genealogy it's so that we will trace the line from Genesis 3 15 and that promise all the way to Christ who fulfilled that promise and Luke is saying to us even in these names even in these details
[32:35] Jesus is the saviour you don't need to look any further Jesus is the one who fulfilled the promise he is the saviour and it's so important that we know that and it's so important that we act on that for a long time we were looking for and we were praying for a vaccine for coronavirus and now it's here and we're thankful for that but for us to benefit from that vaccine we need to know not just that it exists we need to know not just that it's offered to us but we need to act on that offer and receive it into our own system and when we think about salvation how can we be saved well we can be saved through
[33:40] Jesus and we need to know that and we need to believe that and we need to act on that we sometimes sing that hymn I heard the voice of Jesus say come unto me and rest and there's an action that's required that's underlined in that hymn even to be saved we need to come in faith to Christ as saviour so that's the first point Jesus is the saviour and the second point the final point but it's a longer one than the first one so don't be too encouraged it's Jesus as the substitute and as we think through this point we see all these connections within the bible in genesis we see adam fall and we know because adam was our representative head all humanity fell with adam when he fell so we were in this situation we had this problem so what did we need as a race what did we need to happen we needed another adam to come because the first adam made a mess of things we needed another adam to come and not fall but rather do for us what the first adam didn't do and the last adam who didn't fall into sin but who came to save us from sin was Jesus think about a connection with the book of romans which we were in before genesis paul looks back to genesis then he looks back to jesus and he says this in romans chapter 5 verses 18 and 19 he says just as the result of one trespass he's talking about adam was condemnation for all men so also the result of one act of righteousness that's jesus and his cross was justification that brings life for all men for just as through the disobedience of the one man adam the many were made sinners so also through the obedience of the one man jesus the many will be made righteous so jesus he came to this world to be our savior but paul explains there that the way he saved us was by becoming our substitute now what does a substitute do well if you're anything like me your mind immediately goes to football when you think about a substitute they come on to take our place you see a substitution in the game of football very often one player in a position he's making a mess of things he's having a terrible game the manager puts the hand up the referee steps forward the game stops and the player who's made a mess of things is coming off a substitute whom we hope will do a better job is brought on so a substitute comes on to take our place and what we see in Luke chapter 3 and Luke chapter 4 is jesus taking our place standing in the place of sinners to be our substitute there's two elements to this the first element here as we see in Luke chapter 3 jesus standing in the place of sinners to pay for our failures so if you're a note taker the second point and a within the second point would be jesus he stands in the place of sinners to pay
[37:41] for our failures and we see that in the baptism that we are shown in Luke chapter 3 if you have Luke chapter 3 in front of you just now that would probably help you but because you see in the opening verses of the chapter which I didn't read it says there as we're shown John the baptist that the word of god came to john son of zechariah in the desert he went into all the country around the jordan preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and that point there is significant john he preaches a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins and the reason that's significant is because what happens next doesn't stack up for john john is there he's in the jordan he's baptizing sinners those sinners who want to repent and that's all what he expects but then in verse 21 we see something happen that leaves john dumbfounded it says there in verse 21 when all the people were being baptized jesus was baptized too now all the people were sinners so they and we needed to be those who repent and are baptized but but jesus why should he receive this baptism of repentance when he had no sins to repent of does it make sense to john and matthew allows us to listen into the conversation that happens between john and jesus matthew 3 chapter chapter 3 verse 13 to 15 we're given this conversation that luke doesn't share it says jesus came from galilee to the jordan to be baptized by john that john tried to deter him saying i need to be baptized by you and do you come to me and jesus replied let it be so now it is proper for us to fulfill to do this to fulfill all righteousness then john consented so what's going on here and what is jesus doing here but what he's doing is he's standing in the place of sinners he's standing in the place of sinners as our substitute he's taking our sin that we need to repent of upon himself and as jesus does this we see in verses 21 to 22 of luke 3 that heaven was opened and the holy spirit descended on him in bodily form like a dove and a voice came from heaven you are my son whom i love with you i am well pleased so here we see as jesus stands in the place of sinners we have this expression from father son and holy spirit of their commitment of their of sinners as jesus stands in our place heaven opens the holy spirit comes down on jesus like a dove and we hear the voice of the father saying you are my son whom i love with you i am well pleased and yet
[41:42] this was only a preview of what was to come here in the jordan we see jesus standing in the place of sinners and water pours over his head but soon jesus will hang in the place of sinners and blood from the crown of thorns which represented that curse of sin would run down his face as our substitute murdo in his testimony this evening i only heard a snippet of it he talks about being a wee boy at one point and he talks about being a wee boy looking at a picture in his children's bible of jesus on the cross he talks about how this affected him and upset him to see what evil men were doing to jesus and yet he goes on to say that he soon realized that he was one of them that jesus hung there on the cross because of his sin because of our sin as our substitute we often sing these lyrics behold the man upon a cross my sin upon his shoulders ashamed i hear my mocking voice call out among the scoffers or we sing a man of sorrows bearing shame and scoffing rude in my place condemned he stood sealed my pardon with his blood hallelujah what a savior so we see here jesus the substitute and in luke chapter three we see him standing in sinner's place as he receives this baptism of repentance and the second thing we see here the final thing is we we can see in luke chapter four that jesus he stands against the temptations of satan to share with us his victory jesus he stands against the temptations of satan to share with us his victory he's again in our place he's doing what we fail to do he's standing against the temptations of satan so that we can have the victory that only he could procure verse one and two of luke chapter four says jesus full of the holy spirit returned from the jordan and was led by the spirit in the desert where for forty days he was tempted by the devil and we should note that i think when we think about the temptations of jesus and the trauma that that would have been we should never say poor jesus look at how the devil ambushed him look at how the devil drags him off to the desert against his will that's not what happened this was all part of the plan jesus was led by the holy spirit verse two to this battleground where jesus would clash with satan as adam had in the garden and again note these connections these contrasts with with genesis chapter 3 in genesis chapter 3 adam is in this beautiful garden that god had created and that's when the devil comes and attacks but here in luke chapter 4 where is jesus he's no longer in a garden he's in this barren desert that adam's sin had caused that's the battleground on which this fight
[45:43] must take place it's the place where the evidence of sin is all around and so we see the first temptation verse 3 jesus ate nothing during these days and at the end of them he was hungry the devil said to him if you are the son of god tell this stone to become bread and there's the first temptation and what's satan doing in this first temptation well what he's doing is he's attacking the humanity of jesus remember jesus he's not some superhero figure who feels nothing he was a real man i can't go four hours without food without feeling faint jesus was 40 days without food and so he is hungry and he's faint he's weak physically and the devil comes to him and says you don't need to be this way if you're the son of god you don't need to be suffering like this you don't need to be hungry and weak as you are just now serve yourself make some bread and so the temptation comes to jesus but the thing is jesus came to suffer he was suffering but that was the purpose for which he came jesus came to experience the weakness that we go through he came not to be served but to serve and lay down his life and so he resists satan as satan comes with this temptation and think again about these connections with genesis chapter 3 think back to the garden in the garden adam reached out he took hold of the food that satan was pointing him towards because adam wanted to be like god but in the desert jesus resists the food satan pointed him to because he was committed to being man human and so jesus responds in verse 4 it is written man does not live by bread alone he's quoting from deuteronomy chapter 8 verse 3 and jesus in speaking back to the devil is saying my mission is not to satisfy my own appetite with bread that i make but my mission is to be the bread of life my mission is to be the one who will bring soul satisfaction to those who look to me so he pushes satan back and yet in this first temptation there's another dimension to it because satan through this temptation is attacking the relationship between the father and the son he says to jesus if you are the son of god where is your father you're hungry you're weak you're very vulnerable physically just now where is your father has he forsaken you and again we have a preview here just as we had in the in the baptism we have a preview of what was to come because on the cross remember what jesus would cry out he would cry out from psalm 22 my god my god why have you forsaken me and yet jesus knew that that is the way it would have to be he would need to feel
[49:43] this forsakenness he would need to suffer this forsakenness that we might be saved and not have to suffer that god forsakenness and so satan as he tries to drive a wedge between father and son jesus he resists and yet there's a final dimension maybe to to this first temptation what satan tries to do is he he tries to attack satan's he tries to attack the assurance that jesus had because every time he comes to jesus he says if if you are the son of god are you sure about that because it doesn't look like it from where i'm standing if you are the son of god says satan now remember we've just heard the father saying at the baptism you are my son just moments before jesus has heard the father speak these words you are my son in whom i am well pleased but satan is saying to jesus you've heard the word but the word is not enough let's have some miracles no miracles no assurance so let's have some tricks and this is still how satan works he hits us when we're weak he targets us when we're falling down he loves to tell us when we're going through a hard time that our father doesn't care for us and he will always try to persuade us that the word of god is not enough he will always try to rob us of the assurance and the joy of our salvation that we find in scripture but jesus he resists him for jesus the word is enough it's the word he responds with it's the word that he uses to push satan back with and that's something that we must learn from when our bibles are closed our lives are wide open to satan's attacks we have no defense jesus teaches us here that in order to push satan back we need to be always in scripture so we have the first temptation and very briefly i'll just take it to a conclusion we see the second temptation here in verses 5 to 7 the devil takes satan up to a high place he shows him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world and he said to him i will give you all their authority and splendor for it's been given to me and i can give it to anyone i want to so if you worship me it will all be yours so what's satan doing here well he's showing jesus the very thing that he came for and that he wanted now if someone came to me and said you can have the kingdoms of the world you can be an authority over them i'd run a hundred miles from that but that's why jesus came he saw satan's rule over this world and he came to break it and the
[53:47] devil says you want all the kingdoms of this world well they're under my power if you want them in an instant bow down to me you can have them i can give you the kingdoms he says without you having to go to a cross dale ralph davis says this was at least partly a temptation to take the shortcut rather than long obedience you can you can have all the glory now jesus but jesus had committed himself to a certain procedure in his baptism to stand in sinners place which meant that suffering must precede glory and jesus although he wanted the kingdoms of this world although he wanted to rule over the kingdoms of this world he could see that satan was asking him to do exactly what adam had done to follow him to serve him and jesus knew that he had come to be the servant of the lord not satan which meant that he must suffer he must go the way of the cross if we are to be saved and so jesus resists satan he pushes him back in verse eight and says it is written worship the lord your god and serve him only third temptation the devil led jesus to jerusalem and verse nine and had him stand on the highest point of the temple if you are the son of god he said throw yourself down from here for it's written they will lift you up in their hands so that you will not strike your foot against a stone so what's satan saying here well he's saying let's have some drama let's have some theatre jesus do a trick if you are the son of god and everyone who's down there seeing you jumping will know that you are special and they'll be amazed and crowds will gather jesus to see tricks like that throw yourself down but again that wasn't the plan it's not what jesus came to do he didn't come to be a celebrity he came to be despised and rejected he didn't come to spectacularly defy death but he came to die and so jesus answers in verse 12 it says do not put the lord your god to the test and when the devil had finished all this tempting he left him until an opportune time singly ferguson says the devil appeals to jesus senses and sight jesus responds by appealing to god's word the devil offered victory through short-term gains jesus was committed to long-term faithfulness the devil was determined to take jesus off the road to the cross but that was the road jesus was committed to and the key point here to see as we finish is that where adam failed jesus succeeded adam was tempted and adam fell into sin jesus
[57:47] was tempted and he did not fall into sin adam faced satan and he fell he failed jesus faced satan and he overcame him he did not sin he did not fall he did not fail he was victorious over satan and he shares that victory with us when we trust him there's the two-way thing going on here with jesus as our substitute our sin is taken from us and he takes it upon himself we see it in the baptism and yet his victory his success is shared with us is given to us the victory that we see as he resists satan in the desert we're going to sing this hymn in just a moment oh loving wisdom of our god when all was sin and shame a second adam to the fight and to the rescue came oh wisest love that flesh and blood that did in adam fail should strive afresh against the foe should strive and should prevail and that's what we see jesus doing here he prevails over satan on our behalf as our substitute he is the substitute who gives his righteousness his righteousness and his victory to us so what are we to do well it's very simple we're to trust them we're to believe if we can see that jesus is the savior the antidote for sin we need to ask him to be our savior we need to be in christ and if we can see that he came to be our substitute then we need to ask him to stand in our place to take from us our sin to deal with our failures and to give to us his righteousness and his victory we'll pray lord god we pray that you would help us to see jesus all that he is and all that he has done for us help us to believe and help us to act in faith that we would know the assurance that we are in christ that our sins have been taken away from us that we are saved and we pray that we would know the assurance that he is our substitute who stood in our place and offers to us all the righteousness that we failed in but that we see he succeeded in to the end and we pray these things in jesus name amen stuart is going to sing as we finish now and it's not a familiar hymn to me but the words are very fitting as we look at the passage we reflect on this passage 563 in mission praise is where we find the lyrics to this hymn and the tune
[61:34] I understand is a familiar one praise to the holiest and the height and in the depths we praise in all his words most wonderful most sure in all his ways oh loving wisdom of our god that all was sin and shame a second Adam to the fight and to the rescue came down to the end of this hymn and Stuart will sing to God's praise praise to the holiest in the high and in the depth be praised in all his words most wonderful most sure in all his ways oh loving wisdom of our god when all was sin and shame and shame a second
[62:54] Adam to the fight and to the rescue came oh wisest love that flesh and blood which did in Adam fail should strive afresh against the foe should strive and should prevail and and that a higher gift and grace should flesh and blood refine
[63:56] God's presence and his very self and essence all divine oh general that he who smote in man for man the foe the double agony in man for man should undergo and in the garden secretly and on the cross on high should teach his brethren and inspire to suffer and to die praise to the holiest in the high and in the depth be praised in all his words most wonderful most sure in all his ways and
[65:52] I may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God the Father and the fellowship of God the Holy Spirit be with us all both now and forever more Amen