[Spiritual Conflict] Luke 4:5-7 | "I Will Give All This...If"
Spiritual Conflict • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 26:21
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· 31 viewsSunday, February 6, 2022. Luke 4:5-7 | "I Will Give All This...If" In this second test of Jesus in the wilderness, the Devil questions not what God has said but what Jesus will do. Let's listen to how Jesus responds to the Devil and learn how to make him flee! This message preaches from Luke 4:5-7. It is part of a preaching series about Spiritual Conflict. The title of this sermon: "I Will Give All This...If."
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I. The Reading
I. The Reading
A reading from Luke 4:1-13. This is God’s Word:
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And he ate nothing during those days. And when they were ended, he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become bread.”
4 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone.’ ”
5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ”
9 And he took him to Jerusalem and set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here,
10 for it is written, “ ‘He will command his angels concerning you, to guard you,’
11 and “ ‘On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone.’ ”
12 And Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.’ ”
13 And when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from him until an opportune time.
[ Scripture Reading: ~2 min ]
Say Amen
Say Amen
If you receive this word by faith, for what it really is, the word of God and not the word of man, will you say Amen?
Amen.
II. The Exhortation
II. The Exhortation
Our recent sermons have been gathered around a shared theme of spiritual conflict.
We’ve learned that if we are obedient to God’s Word, we will be at odds with the enemy who opposes God’s Word and God’s ways.
We also know, that while the enemy may use people as conduits for his schemes, and while he may take advantage of the places people give him in their lives, in their families, and in their churches from which to operate —
We know that our conflict as Christians is not against flesh and blood, but against the real power behind people— against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Eph 6:12).
The conflict is real. The spiritual enemy is real.
But so is the Gospel. So is the victory Christ won through His own conflict with sin on the cross, with death and the grave.
So is the power of Christ’s resurrection from the dead, and so is the Holy Spirit that dwells within the heart of every believer by faith (Eph 3:17).
We’ve been listening to the places in Scripture where the enemy is allowed to speak.
He only speaks in three places in the Bible, and as we hear his voice we become aware of his intentions and methods - so that we might know how to resist him with greater faith and unwavering trust in God.
We look now to the Gospels, where the Devil speaks for the third and last time in Scripture.
As has been the case with the previous two speeches, the context and circumstances that lead to this speech are important to the conflict that occurs.
This experience in spiritual conflict begins with movement of the Holy Spirit.
In verse 1 the Holy Spirit leads Jesus in to the wilderness for forty days.
Jesus moves in.
But in verse 13, at the conclusion of the conflict, the Devil departs from Jesus until an opportune time.
The Devil moves out.
So Jesus enters in to the wilderness, in verse 1.
And the Devil exits out of Jesus’s presence, in verse 13. But --
Jesus stayed.
The Devil didn’t stay; Jesus stayed.
Jesus stayed right where the Holy Spirit led Him to be. Jesus stayed right where His Father wanted Him to be.
And Jesus did not give up; and Jesus did not give in. Jesus did not leave.
The Devil left.
The Devil gave up. The Devil departed from Jesus until an opportune time.
That’s a significant revelation in this text of Holy Scripture.
This means that Jesus successfully resisted the Devil and caused the Devil to leave.
Here’s something we can learn about the spiritual enemy:
The Devil flees when he is met with resistance (Jas 4:7).
7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
If the Devil doesn’t meet resistance, he stays.
He takes up residence in whatever place he is given. He builds a stronghold in that place.
But —
Jesus resists the Devil, so that the Devil leaves.
Psalm 1 says:
1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers;
Jesus doesn’t entertain the Devil or give him place. He dealt with the Devil so that he would leave.
How did Jesus do that?
Jesus resisted the Devil in the power of the Holy Spirit and with the Word of God.
Notice the Spirit’s presence in verse 1:
1 And Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness
Jesus was FULL of the Holy Spirit, and LED by the Spirit, and in verse 14 —
14 And Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and a report about him went out through all the surrounding country.
Going back to Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit has descended, filled, led, and empowered Jesus — and now Jesus faces conflict with the Devil. This is a spiritual conflict.
Through the experience of Jesus, this text suggests that if we pray for the Holy Spirit to move, we must also at the same time, prepare for conflict. For when the Spirit moves, there will be conflict.
The lowest points of our faith might come directly after the highest points in our faith. Jesus confronted this conflict when the text says of Him, that He was “full of the Spirit.” But it was through the conflict that Jesus emerged from the wilderness in the power of the Spirit.
And as such, any spiritual conflict must be engaged in the power of the Holy Spirit.
In teaching this text, often the emphasis is placed on the Word.
Jesus responds to each temptation of the Devil with the Word. The Word is the weapon. The Sword.
But remember, Church, that it is the sword of the Spirit (Eph 6.17).
[ An exhortation for the Church: ]
Let us not neglect the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is more than the fruit of Galatians 5.
The essential weapons of spiritual warfare are the Spirit and the Word.
2 Corinthians tells us:
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
[The Exhortation for the Church]
The weapons of our warfare are in the Spirit and in the Word.
This is the context for this conflict, but the enemy is the same and his purpose is the same.
He’s not speaking here to humanity about God, as he did in the Garden:
“Did God actually say...” (Gen 3:1)
Neither is he speaking to God about humanity, as he did in Job:
“Does Job fear God for no reason?” (Job 1:9)
But here in the Gospels, the Devil is speaking to God in humanity.
He’s speaking to the God-man, to the Lord Jesus Christ.
And in the canon of Holy Scripture, the enemy does not speak again. (GCM).
Jesus gets the last word and silences Satan with the Word!
Take comfort, brothers and sisters, that the enemy has spoken to Jesus, and Jesus has prevailed.
We need not listen to the voice of the Devil, or give him voice in our lives, our families, or our church to speak, for Jesus proves his voice may be silenced.
Jesus gives us a better voice, a better word — God’s word, the word of truth.
III. The Teaching
III. The Teaching
The enemy is the same, and his purpose is the same.
In Genesis, he is disguised as “the serpent” and he casts-doubt on God’s character (Gen 3:1).
In Job, he is unmasked in the presence of the Lord and revealed by name as the adversary and accuser that he is: his is called “Satan” (Job 1:6 ff, CHALOT).
Here in Luke, he’s just called “the Devil.”
“Devil” reveals another method of his opposition to God.
The word “devil” means “slanderer.”
The Devil will speak falsely in such a way, as to diminish the character of God. He will slander God.
The Devil slanders God by adding conditions to what God has said.
In the text before us, we hear the conditions with a repeated word —
The word — “IF.”
“If” is a conditional word.
“If you are the Son of God...” (v.3)
“If you, then, will worship me...” (v.7)
“If you are the Son of God...” (v.9)
The Devil uses the word “If” to take something that should be believed as truth, with conviction, and changes it into something conditional.
He slanders God by calling into question the sufficiency of what God Has said and done.
The Devil presents himself before Jesus as one who needs convincing. He requires proof. There are conditions that must be met before he will worship God.
It is the opposite of faith.
Many are on the side of the Devil in this way. Some in this church body are on the side of the Devil in this way.
Having heard what God has said, having heard what God requires, you demand God meet your conditions before you surrender your all to Him in worship and service and obedience.
Your relationship with God is conditioned by the word “IF.”
It’s subtle, but it’s there. And it’s sin.
Faith requires that we remove the word “IF” and take God at His Word and obey Him, and worship Him, and serve Him unconditionally.
There is no “If...” for what God has said. It just IS!
Immediately before being led into the wilderness by the Spirit, Jesus was baptized.
Listen to what happened at Jesus’ baptism:
21 Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heavens were opened,
22 and the Holy Spirit descended on him in bodily form, like a dove; and a voice came from heaven, “You are my beloved Son; with you I am well pleased.”
That’s the voice of God.
Did you hear God use the word “If” about Jesus?
What did the voice from heaven say?
“You ARE my beloved Son; with you I AM well pleased.”
There is no “IF” in that statement.
The Father did not say :
“You are my beloved Son IF....”
The Father did not say:
“I am well pleased IF...”
The Father said, without condition, “You ARE” and “I AM.” Period. That’s it. No “IF” attached.
And this, Church, is how we recognize the voice of the Devil.
Listen for the conditions... For the “IFs.”
The Scripture says:
8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
But the Devil will say “God loves you…IF.”
The Scripture says:
19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
But the Devil will say “make disciples…IF.”
The Scriptures say:
22 Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her,
1 Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.
But the Devil will say:
“Wives submit to your own husbands…IF”
“Husbands, love your wives…IF”
“Children, obey your parents…IF”
I don’t think I need to explain or illustrate these for us. We all know what the “IFs” are.
But —
Do you see how the Devil takes what God says unconditionally, and makes it conditional? That’s his strategy for slander.
The Devil does this in his tempting of Jesus in the wilderness.
The first and the last temptation in Luke’s ordering have to do with Jesus’s identity. The Devil adds conditions to who God said Jesus is — the Son of God.
“If you are the Son of God…do this, or do that...”
But the second temptation in Luke’s ordering, the one sandwiched between the two, is slightly different.
Note: In the Greek, the word “if” for this one is not Εἰ (2x) but ἐὰν.
In this second temptation, the Devil does not call into question what God has said, but he calls into question what Jesus will do.
And this hits home for us —
For most of us who claim to be Christians, believe we ARE Christians. We don’t think we have an identity crisis.
We are Bible believing, baptized, church-going Christians, and we will not call into question the truthfulness of what God has spoken. We believe in the inerrancy of God’s Word and the inspiration of Scripture and we’re prepared to die on that hill.
But when it comes to actually obeying that word, well that’s another matter...
That was the story of Israel. They thought they were safe because of their identity, as sons of God.
The LORD called Israel his “firstborn son” (Ex 4:22).
The Jews who had believed in Jesus took shelter in being Abraham’s offspring (Jn 8:33).
But Israel has a rich history of what? — Disobeying God.
They were a stubborn, stiff-necked, rebellious people. They had God’s Word, but disregarded it.
Jesus said to the Jews in his day “You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires” (Jn 8:44).
God did not say of Israel “with you, I am will pleased,” for while they claimed to worship God, and serve God, they really served the Devil.
And so this temptation of the Devil, this testing of Jesus, is really a testing of the will. What does Jesus, God’s Son, desire? What is his will? What will he do?
And this second temptation also reveals the most about the desire of the enemy.
4.5
4.5
5 And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time,
4.6
4.6
6 and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.
4.7
4.7
7 If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
This temptation reveals a lot about our enemy.
The Devil thinks he has more authority than he does, what he offers sounds better than it is, and the Devil just wants to be worshiped and served.
The Devil thinks he has more authority than he does, what he offers sounds better than it is, and the Devil just wants to be worshiped and served.
The authority the Devil offers was not given to him by God, but by man (GCM). It’s temporary, not eternal. These are the kingdoms of the world, the economy of the Roman empire. It won’t last.
The Devil’s offer sounds better than it is.
But while the text reveals the will of the Devil, the Devil can’t see the will of Jesus. And Jesus doesn’t want what the Devil is offering.
Jesus is being tempted by the Devil, but that doesn’t mean Jesus is tempted in Himself by what the Devil is offering.
From Jesus’ point of view, this is a test, to show that unlike Israel, Jesus is God’s obedient true Son.
Jesus is not allured by the kingdoms of the world, their authority and glory. How do we know?
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus did nothing from selfish ambition or conceit (Phil 2:3).
Jesus emptied himself of his glorious presence with His Heavenly Father by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men (Phil 2:7).
Jesus gave up glory. And we hear in John 17 in His prayer that he wants that glory back with His Father in His Father’s presence after His work is completed on earth.
There is no way, that Jesus wants what the Devil is now offering.
For —
8 And Jesus answered him, “It is written, “ ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and him only shall you serve.’ ”
That was the heart of Jesus. That was Jesus’ desire and will.
To become a servant to His Father and become obedient, even unto death, the death of a cross.
The Devil offers to give many things… IF.
IF we will worship him - the Devil.
The Devil really wants to be worshiped and served.
Every time we give to something else what belongs only to God, we worship the Devil. It’s the sin of idolatry. A greed for glory and authority.
What we worship we serve.
Jesus said:
24 “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.
You cannot serve God AND anything…but God ALONE.
As we encounter this confrontation of Jesus with the Devil, we are compelled to examine the state of our own souls. The desire of our own hearts. Our wills. Our worship. Our service.
And this brings us to the Gospel message.
This brings us to —
The [Christ] Conclusion
The [Christ] Conclusion
For while the Devil, the slanderer, the tempter says “I Will Give You All This…IF,” the Gospel of the grace of God says “I Give You All This…IN” — In Christ. In God’s true Son.
3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places,
In Christ God gives us every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, with which we may overcome all the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.
In Christ God gives us His Spirit and His Word, the weapons of our warfare and the assurances of victory in spiritual conflict.
The only “IF” of the Gospel is whether or not we are IN Christ.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Faith requires that we remove the word “IF” and take God at His Word and obey Him, and worship Him, and serve Him unconditionally, in response to the unconditional love and calling of God toward us IN CHRIST.
Christ is the means of our conquering - by His Spirit and His Word in us who believe, and who pray —
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
Deliver us from the evil one.
And He will!
For to God, the only true God, belongs the kingdom, and the power and the glory, forever. Amen.
[ 3302 Words; 28 min ]