Three Temptations in the Wilderness

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Short Summary
The discourse explores the three temptations of Jesus in the wilderness as recorded in the Gospels, emphasizing their symbolic significance as tests of faith, humility, and obedience under spiritual and physical trial. It highlights how Jesus, led by the Spirit and sustained through fasting and prayer, resisted Satan’s challenges by responding with scripture and unwavering trust in God’s plan, serving as a model for resisting temptation in daily life. The message concludes by urging believers to recognize their weaknesses, understand the enemy’s tactics, and remain steadfast in faith through continual spiritual vigilance.

Long Summary
Detailed Summary of the Discourse: “Three Temptations in the Wilderness”

Introduction and Biblical Accounts:
– The discourse focuses on the three temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness, recorded in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke (John does not address this event).
– Each Gospel offers slightly different perspectives and details, which the speaker uses to frame the topic in a new way.

Spirit-led Wilderness Experience:
– Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1).
– The Spirit’s leading was purposeful: “to be tempted of the devil” (Matthew 4:1).
– The Greek word translated “tempted” (3985) means to test, scrutinize, or enticed—implying a proving or testing process, not just enticing to sin.
– The wilderness setting provided isolation and focus, free from distractions, enabling prayer, meditation, and fasting.
– Fasting brought clarity of mind, spiritual enlightenment, and intense focus on God’s word.

Jesus’ Preparation and Spiritual State:
– Jesus, with a perfect and enlightened mind, was deeply familiar with the Scriptures, often quoting from the Old Testament.
– This wilderness experience was a spiritual proving ground, marking a transition from Jesus’ youth to the start of His public ministry at about age 30 (Luke 3:23).
– It followed His baptism, where the Holy Spirit descended like a dove (Matthew 3:16), empowering and enlightening Him.

Significance of the 40 Days:
– Jesus fasted 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness, a biblically symbolic period of testing and preparation (e.g., Noah’s flood, Israel in the wilderness, Moses on Mount Sinai).
– After this period, Jesus was physically famished, marking the time when Satan approached with the temptations (Matthew 4:2-3; Luke 4:2).
– The 40-day fast parallels Moses’ 40-day fast when receiving the Law, symbolizing the transition from the Law to grace.

Nature of the Temptations:
– Satan’s approach was to challenge Jesus’ identity and mission, often saying “If thou be the Son of God,” questioning His divinity and purpose.
First Temptation: Turn stones into bread to relieve hunger (Matthew 4:3-4). This tested Jesus’ self-control and reliance on God—Jesus responded by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.”
Second Temptation: Throw Himself down from the temple pinnacle, tempting God’s angels to save Him (Matthew 4:5-7). This was a temptation of pride and presumption; Jesus replied with Deuteronomy 6:16: “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
Third Temptation: Offered all the kingdoms of the world if He would worship Satan (Matthew 4:8-10). Jesus rejected this with Deuteronomy 6:13: “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” This exposed Satan’s false promises and Jesus’ absolute loyalty.

Jesus’ Victory and Aftermath:
– Jesus demonstrated obedience, integrity, humility, and faithfulness by resisting all temptations.
– Satan departed, and angels ministered to Jesus (Matthew 4:11).
– The three temptations symbolize completeness and surety in Scripture (e.g., “holy, holy, holy”; Peter’s three denials).
– The threefold cord analogy emphasizes strength and completeness in Jesus’ tested character.

Broader Biblical Context and Patterns:
– The pattern of temptation (knowledge vs. ignorance, flesh vs. spirit) recurs throughout Scripture: Adam and Eve’s temptation (Genesis 3), Jesus’ wilderness temptation, and Jesus’ final temptations during His passion (Matthew 26-27).
– Jesus’ last day included similar challenges questioning His identity and power (e.g., Pilate’s questioning, “If thou be the Son of God, save thyself” from the cross).
– Temptation is an ongoing spiritual reality for believers, with the flesh, world, and devil as common adversaries.

Practical Lessons for Believers:
– Recognize that temptation will come, especially at our weakest moments.
– Be vigilant in knowing your own personal weaknesses and the enemy’s tactics.
– Resist temptation immediately—James 4:7: “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
– Replace improper or tempting thoughts quickly with spiritual truths (the “bird on your head” analogy).
– Develop the fruits of the Spirit and rely on God’s Word and prayer consistently.
– Understand that sanctification is a process involving many small daily decisions.
– Follow God’s leading rather than fleshly desires or quick fixes.

Final Exhortation and Scriptural Encouragement:
– Choose whom you will serve, as Joshua said: “But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” (Joshua 24:15).
– Acknowledge God’s sovereignty and give Him glory: “For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever” (Romans 11:36).
– Keep your Christian armor on, pray in every need, and be approved by God as you grow spiritually.

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Key Bible Verses Mentioned:

– Matthew 4:1-11 – The temptations of Jesus in the wilderness
– Mark 1:12
– Luke 4:1-13
– Deuteronomy 8:3 – “Man shall not live by bread alone…”
– Deuteronomy 6:16 – “Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.”
– Deuteronomy 6:13 – “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.”
– James 4:7 – “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
– Joshua 24:15 – “Choose this day whom you will serve…”
– Romans 11:36 – “For from him and through him and to him are all things…”
– Genesis 3: “If thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt surely die.”
– Exodus 7-8 – Pharaoh’s hardened heart
– Various references to the significance of 40 in Scripture, including Noah (Genesis 7:12), Israel’s wilderness wandering (Numbers 14:33-34), Moses’ 40 days on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18), Elijah’s 40 days (1 Kings 19:8)

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This discourse offers a deep, holistic view of Jesus’ wilderness temptations, highlighting their spiritual significance, biblical symbolism, and practical application for believers facing temptation today.

Transcript

Our thoughts this morning are entitled Three Temptations in the Wilderness, and this is a subject we’re well familiar with, and we’re going to try to frame it up perhaps a little differently than you have heard in the past.

Now, there are three gospel accounts of this incident. We find them in Matthew, Mark and Luke. John does not address this, and it’s interesting when we look at scriptural accounts by different authors, they use different perspectives, slightly different words, and sometimes they provide additional information. So throughout this talk, we’re going to be looking at parallel accounts and different, different books and talk about them.

And, you know, we start out, then, Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. That in Mark, or Matthew, rather in Mark, and immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness, and which was the wild beast and the angels ministered unto him. That’s in Mark. Very short account there.

And then in Luke, he was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, and so the first thing to realize is that he didn’t just go into the wilderness, he was directed. So the question we might ask was, why was he led into the wilderness? What was the reason? And we’re told that actually in the Matthew account, then Jesus was led up of the Spirit or by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.

So they give us the direct reason there, and it’s also, it’s important that as we read even these simple scriptures, that we understand the circumstances and the meaning, and if we look at this word tempted, it’s in the Greek 3985, and it means to test, to scrutinize, to entice. It’s kind of an interesting one to examine and to prove.

So you see, there are multiple ways in, in the Greek that they render this in our English Bible, but it has this meaning. So it’s not just tempting, it’s also a testing, improving, and we think this is really the reason that the angels led him into the wilderness.

Further on, it says to try or test one’s faith, virtue or character by enticement, and isn’t that exactly what happened in this instance where Jesus was sent into the wilderness? So the bottom line is temptations can lead to actions, and that’s the important thing for us to realize. You know, there’s a saying you can.

You can’t keep a bird from landing on your head, but you can keep him from building a nest there, and the point of that is we all will have thoughts pop into our head, and if they’re improper, we should put them out and substitute them with a spiritual reference instead. So temptations, if they’re allowed to fester, can lead to actions which could be good or bad.

You know, the wilderness experience was. First of all, he was in the wilderness and he was isolated. That was the first thing. Isolation is, is a scary thing. It’s a wonderful thing.

When you’re isolated, you’re not distracted, you’re focused, you think and so forth, and so this was the condition that the angels led him into. It was very specific. Why didn’t they lead him into a city, into a room? Because he would have been distracted.

And so he was very isolated and focused during this time. He fasted, he also meditated, he also prayed. So this is a period of. Of prayer and meditation. Now, one of the things that happens when we fast, especially in the short term, is we get a clarity of mind.

I don’t know if you ever periodically fast, but when you do this, it’s. It’s an interesting practice. You actually get a clarity of mind, a refocus, and some of the distractions, your focus is very clear, and that was the case here as well, and so we’re seeing that the Lord is directing him out into the wilderness for a very specific purpose.

He was spiritually enlightened. So we know, even at the age of 12, that Jesus was very, very fluent in the scriptures. You know, he was a. He had a perfect mind, and so I have to imagine if some people have photographic memories, Jesus certainly did.

He remembered every job until that he read, and we know that based on his. The scriptures about him. When he would talk, he would refer back to all of the chapters in the Old Testament, right, To specific passages and illustrate those points, and so he was spiritually enlightened.

So we have to think about this as the. The convergence of a perfect mind who, understand it, had read, I’m guessing, all of the Old Testament scriptures, all of the scrolls, then being enlightened by the Holy Spirit, and we know then there’s an aha moment now, for the first time in his life, it was very clear as to what his. His purpose was.

The angels in the process protected him because there are wild animals out in the wilderness. But of course, they also protected him from the tempter as well, and then he was tempted or tested. So it was a period of solitude, focus, enlightenment, learning, and then as soon as you learned it, you’re going to get tempted.

We’re going to look at that. This really provided a spiritual proving ground for Jesus, and this was necessary at this point. So this was the Point where it was time for him to step up and, and make a transition. You know, we don’t know a lot about Jesus in his childhood.

We really don’t. It’s not a lot of details. We have details on his birth and we have a few others. The. The example when he was young and went to the temple.

But other than that, it’s pretty sparse. Why, why didn’t God give us more detail? Because it wasn’t important in the perspective. His ministry was important, not his childhood. Otherwise we might be enamored with, he was a really great carpenter or his memory was excellent.

He was so nice with all the other kids. None of that information is provided because that wasn’t important. It’s similar to, why don’t we have more information about the angels? Because it’s not important to us now. What’s important is that we focus on the things that he did provide.

So this proved to. This was a spiritual proving ground, and now we need to look at what were the tests and what were the lessons. So he’s led into the wilderness by the Spirit, and the Mark account says immediately.

So when he was baptized, he immediately went into the wilderness. There was no hesitation at all. This reminds me of the scriptures of why, Terry, is thou. You know, once your ear has been pricked, once you’ve said, I want to do the Lord’s will, why are you tearing? And this was the case here.

It’s like immediately it’s an action word, right? There’s no question. Well, he wandered out there a couple of days later. It was right then. So when did this happen in the big perspective?

Well, we know reading on the prior events, Jesus’s baptism occurred right before this. What happened then? The Holy Spirit descended like a dove, and that Holy Spirit of God empowered, enlightened him and gave him knowledge that he didn’t have before. Then he had his wilderness experience after that.

We’re told that in Luke, that he was 30 years old, he began his public ministry. So his public ministry was not prior to this, but after his baptism. But we have to imagine as soon as the wilderness was done, what did he do? He went to Nazareth. He went to other places and began his ministry.

We had preaching in Galilee and finally him being rejected in Nazareth, and this, by the way, is a picture of that precipice that they were going to throw him off of, and he just walked through the crowds. This is the actual precipice, and you see, it’s very steep.

And this was marble. It’s like a marble. It was very sharp as well. So if you were cast over this edge, it would have been a very bad situation. But instead, through the power of the Holy Spirit and by God’s overruling, he walked right through them and, and left.

Now he was in the wilderness 40 days. What’s the significance of 40 in scripture? Let’s see, in both the Luke and the Matthew account, it, it shows this 40, 40 days, and in Matthew it says 40 days and 40 nights, and during this period he was tempted by Satan.

Now there may be some debate amongst Bible students, but it says during rather than at the end of this period. So we have to think that there were other temptations that were going on the entire time. They may not be documented because they’re not important, but the focus of this lesson was on these three temptations at the end.

So what is the significance of 40? Well, in scripture, it’s a symbol of testing periods of 40. Can we think of some periods of 40 in the scriptures? Well, Noah, 40 days and 40 nights before the rain broke, right. Nineveh, they were given 40 days to reform before they were judged.

David reigned 40 years, Solomon reigned 40 years. The scouting of the promised Lamb was what, 40 days. Israel was 40 years in the wilderness. Elijah was 40 days in the wilderness. Moses life was broken into three periods of 40 years.

There was a recent discourse on the three lives of Moses. Very interesting. It’s, it’s available online if you’re interested. But three periods of 40 years, so why not 39 and 41? Because the Lord was using this as a symbol.

It’s very Precise. Moses was 40 days getting the law. Jesus was 40 days in the wilderness. Now these two 40 day periods with Moses and Jesus, we’re going to see a linkage there as well. So Jesus and Moses Both fasted for 40 days.

And I think that’s the only account in the scriptures of 40 days of fasting. If you know of some others, let me know. But that’s not just a coincidence when we look at the situation. The law was given through Moses, but God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ, and so what we see is we had the letter of the law that was a 40 day period of fasting where that was given.

And then the grace covenant really had its inception here with the 40 days in the wilderness. So we see two periods of fastings for two different arrangements. Very interesting.

And then after he had fasted 40 days and 40 nights, he hungered. Now this is an interesting statement because you, you have to Say, well, he was hungry the whole time, and undoubtedly he was. I don’t know if you fasted, but you’re actually not consumed by hunger all the time. Actually, you get a very calming effect when you first start to fast for the first 24 hours. It may vary by individual, I’ll give you that caveat.

But anyway, afterwards he hungered, and I think this is no mistake. Why did they put in that detail that it was after the 40 days? I think Jesus was so focused that he didn’t focus at all on his hunger until this period was done. Now, in general, if you or I fasted for 40 days, we would probably die.

But, you know, this is an exception. He did it with Moses and he did it with Jesus, and so they were able to sustain this. Now, in the question books and some of the, some of the references from Pastor Russell, he also suggested that he didn’t drink in 40 days. Now, I’m not saying that the Lord can’t provide miracles, but I think he drank because technically fasting is not eating, doesn’t involve not drinking, and you can only last.

You or I would last at most eight days without drinking. We would die. But regardless, anyway, we’re focusing on why this happened at an E. So we know that during the 40 day period he was tempted of Satan. We don’t know what those temptations were.

Maybe it was distractions, I don’t know, and in the Luke account says Jesus ate nothing all that time, but he came, became very hungry. Well, that would be an understatement. Right? Now I see some young men here in the audience, and I know when you’re certain you’re a mid, late teens, you get famished, don’t you?

I mean, you can eat and eat and eat and, and hunger is a major focus in your life. You come home, you want something to eat, you go to a restaurant after exercising or something, you eat two meals, that kind of stuff. So we had to think that he was extremely hungry, right? And this Greek word for hungered or hungry was famished, and it me.

And we all know the meaning of that word. You know, I did some, some, some desert hiking, and if you’ve ever been in the desert and hiked and backpacked out there and you’ve run low on water for a period of time, you know the meaning of being famished or thirsty because it’s a thirst that can’t be satisfied, and you think it would be the same here with hungry.

In the question book, it says, you remember how much the Master was interested in this matter. 40 days and 40 nights he was in the wilderness and so intent upon considering those wonderful things brought to his attention by the illumination of the Holy Spirit, that he neither ate nor drank that kind of answer. Now they said drink. I, I think he did drink. But regardless, he was so focused that his mind was not on his physical needs.

It was all up here, and he absolutely never thought of food was the suggestion, and then we read when he was 40 days ended, he hungered and then continue when he saw the whole course of his experience marked out. Then Satan was permitted to come and tempt him when weak from fasting and mentally weak, and so you have to think if you were meditating for 40 days and 40 nights, you would be mentally fatigued, you would be physically fatigued from not eating.

So at its very weakest point, what’s the lesson for us? You know, when we are at our weakest point, Satan knows our every weakness and that’s when he will assail us, and so we need to stay focused on that. But our Lord’s example was a wonderful one on how to redirect from physical needs and come back with a spiritual response, and his reply for checking his heart loyalty was, get thee behind me, Satan.

None of your plans are worthy of comparing with God’s plan, and so he’s, he threw it back at Satan, said, you’re a liar. You’re, you’re false and your plans are completely nothing. God’s plans are true and they will come true.

So Satan knows all of our weaknesses, and we’ve got to be careful with that. We don’t want to succumb, and we should know our weaknesses by the way as well. In order to do that, we need to become introspective, and we also need to ask those around us and they can help us with our weaknesses.

And once you’ve identified them, you know where you’re vulnerable.

You know, the, the what we’re calling the first temptation. I’ll give you the reason as we go along as to why I think it was first. When you look at the accounts, they’re in slightly different order, and so we can’t be dogmatic about the order here, and when the tempter came to him, he said, if thou be the son of God, command these stones be made to bread.

And again in Matthew, the same thing. If thou be the son of God. What he was saying was, he was challenging me. He was saying, well, you say you’re a Christian, I say you’re not. Are you a Christian, I’m asking you doubtingly, and your first reaction may be, I am, yes.

There’s an element of pride in there, isn’t it? How dare you ask me. You’re challenging my self image, and that’s exactly what Satan did in this case, in both of these instances. So in both of these temptations, and we’re just looking, if thou be the Son of God, he was challenging him.

He said, it’s as though, do you have the truth? I don’t think you do. It’s challenging, and then you say, well, I do, and I’ll tell you why.

You get defensive. Right. So chat. Satan challenged him and tested his humility. What did Jesus do when he was rebuked?

Well, you know, there was times when he said, nothing, if thou be the Son of God. He knew he was the Son of God. He didn’t have to prove it to anybody. He was humble.

So when did Satan know who the Son of God was? Kind of an interesting question. Well, we know that Satan knew scripture because he quoted it in several instances, right? So he was not ignorant to the scriptures, and I have to imagine he knew them thoroughly, although he didn’t.

His brother Rick said he didn’t really know it in his heart because that’s not where he was. But he did know about Daniel 9. 25. He did know about the 69 weeks. He did know when the walls were rebuilt.

So he knew the time had come for the Messiah to return.

That’s one thing. He knew that the Messiah’s ministry would start in the 69th week. So believe me, Satan’s good at math. He knew the time frame, but did he know the individual details? Well, he also knew the law.

And the law was that eight days after a male child was born, he was supposed to be circumstantized, and if it was the firstborn, he knew that was to be dedicated to the Lord. These two things are important. So which child would he attack? It would be the firstborn, and he knew it would be his son.

When. When Jesus came up out of the water and was baptized, he went straight way out of the water, low, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove upon him. Now, the suggestion is that the baptism that had occurred before them, most of those people had left. So not the suggestion was that not a lot of people witness this.

But regardless, the. The Holy Spirit came down like a dove. This was the first real manifestation of it’s him. It’s him identified, and then the angel said, this is God, said, this is my Beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.

So that was the first time he was identified, that I would say that Satan could have known. Satan heard. But how did Satan know when he would come? We have to do a little math here. It’s not hard math.

Well, we realize he knew when the Messiah would be there. He knew he was a man at the age of 30, subtract 30. He knew based on the signs about the wise men, that it was in that area. Right. But he didn’t know the individual.

He didn’t know the individual, and so after Jesus was circumcised, it says, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. Dream and said, get up. Flee to the Egypt with the child and his mother. Why?

Because Satan worked on Herod and to. To kill the child. Which child? All the firstborn males of Israel. Right.

And that was the order. So he didn’t know the particular baby, and of course the angel protected them, move them out of harm’s way. So he didn’t know which firstborn. Now, how does enticement work?

How did Satan entice Herod? Well, we can look at the example of the Pharaoh and the Exodus. In Exodus 7:3, the Lord said, I will harden Pharaoh’s heart. Did he force Pharaoh to be hard? No, listen what it says in Exodus chapter 8.

Pharaoh’s hardened his heart. So he already had that propensity. Satan put it in his mind and hardened his heart, so he did it himself. So Satan tempted Herod, we believe, and that’s why the firstborns were all trying to be killed.

And we know this. I mean, he’s described as the tempter in, in Matthew 4, 3, says the tempter came to him, the devil came to him, the devil taketh him up, and so we know who is involved, and so the picture kind of becomes clear as to how, how he was dealing with, with Christ and how he knew to deal with him in Christ, and undoubtedly, you know, the angels of the Lord protected him during these 40 days so that he could accomplish his mission.

And there may have been testings during that time, but the main ones came at the end. So Satan Temps Matthew 4:2 and 3, when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, and afterward he hungered, and when he. When the tempter came to him and said, if thou be the Son of God, challenging his ego command, these stones should be made bread, and of course, Jesus resisted.

How did he resist? He quoted a scripture. It is written, man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word. That proceedeth out of the mount of mouth of God. So physical need, spiritual response.

Jesus said, no, Satan strategy was, you’re really hungry, here’s a quick and easy way out. You know, as we go through life, there are quick and easy ways out, but we need to look at them and see what is overall best for our spiritual welfare. He tested his ego. If I’m challenging, are you the son? I don’t think you’re the Son of God was what he was saying.

But that’s not the case, and he wanted to change God’s timeline, though. What was the purpose of this temptation? Well, Satan wanted to circumvent God’s plan. Jesus was tested in his self control and God was proving just Jesus beyond the shadow of a doubt as being faithful and obedient.

Then we come to what we think is the second temptation. Now, the reason we think it’s the second is once again, he says, he challenges him. If that be the son of God, he says, for he shall give thee his angels charge over thee, which. That’s it. That’s all I have.

This afternoon, beginning at one o’ clock will be charged. John Gaborowski, thank you. To keep thee in all thy ways, they shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against the stone, and so he’s saying, well, you know, angels are going to protect you, and they would have.

So he wanted him to go up on this precipice and this is a corner of the, the temple in, in Jerusalem, and he wanted them to cast himself up once again. If you think about this, he was tempting him and it was a temptation of pride. Again, if you are the Son of God, everyone’s going to see you being lifted down gently by angels and they’re all going to exalt you. Jesus’s response was, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God for short.

The angels are there and they will protect you. But do you go off and do things, reckless things, to prove that they are there? No, you don’t. So once again, a physical desire countered by a spiritual lesson.

Quick and easy way up. That’s what’s. Once again, if it’s quick and easy, be a little suspect, challenged. If thou be the son of God, once again, that’s ego and that’s pride. It’s like, oh yeah, I can be exalted.

And then all these people will look upon me and say, you know, look at Jesus. They’re not really looking at God, and it would have been a spectacle for everyone. The purpose of these Temptations. Well, once again Satan wanted to circumvent God’s plan.

Jesus humility was tested, and once again God was proving beyond a doubt. Under the most adverse situation, you couldn’t have been tempted much more, that Jesus was faithful, and then again you take him up onto a high mountain in a vision we think and said all these things I will give to you if thou will fall down and worship. That was Satan’s temptation.

So now it’s full blown. You’re going to have power and glory here on earth. Everything you see will be given to you, and Jesus’s response. Response, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

He knew that the temper was a liar. He was promising something he could not deliver. But Jesus resisted. So physical offer, ease, comfort, get it quick. No work with spiritual response.

I realize you are a liar. I believe in God. So Jesus rejected Satan, and that’s the point when it says, you know, he went away.

Satan’s strategy this time he didn’t quote scripture. That didn’t work for him. He tried it twice, didn’t work. He was still looking for an easy way out, and it suggested really a false partnership, which Jesus knew not only to be untrue, but improper because his directives, his goals were different.

So once again, Satan lied. Jesus proved his allegiance and God at this point discouraged Satan. Leave him alone. He’s got work to do. He’s proven himself.

He was tempted and proven, and then in Matthew 4:11 and the devil went away and the angels came and took care of Jesus. So his hunger and thirst and all these other needs were taken care of by the angels, just as God had promised. Why three temptations? Well, three in Scripture is a symbol of surety, completeness and strength.

A threefold cord can’t be broken. We know that from Scripture in the things that are repeated three times are complete. Holy, holy, holy. We’re going to talk about Babylon this afternoon. But there’s a place in Revelation it says Babylon is fallen, is falling.

Wasn’t three times, it wasn’t complete yet, and that’s a little key as to what that scripture is about. It’s not yet complete. There’s three sacrifices in Leviticus 16, there was three questionings of Peter’s and three denials by Peter. By the way, Jesus was three days in the tomb.

Peter had three visions of unclean animals, not one. There were three witnesses in the. In the face of three witnesses you have surety, and in Revelation, pay attention. Things that are repeated three times are complete.

So are we susceptible to these temptations? I mean, that’s really where the rubber meets the road here. Interesting story. Lots of insights, lots of spiritual enlightenment and, and so forth. Let’s look at the test of weaknesses.

Well, in every case, they were a test of ignorance versus knowledge, and Jesus had been out in the wilderness to get not just wisdom, not just knowledge, but wisdom as well. They were also a sign of impatience. Give it to me quick, and we live in a give it to me quick society.

I want it right now. I want that Amazon package this afternoon, not tomorrow. It’s too late. That’s the day in which we live, right? You get something online and it’s going to take a week, you go, oh, that’s forever.

It was a test of laziness and pride as well. A lack of self control and a lack of judgment. Well, Jesus performed perfectly in all these areas. He didn’t fall to any of these devices. What it was doing was appealing to the flesh.

So, you know, when we’re put in situations where we have to make decisions, there are easy ways out from a fleshly standpoint, but we also often need to look at what is the spiritual best thing. For me, you know, we had an instance where I was in Tallahassee and I, I had kind of maxed out my job market there. There wasn’t things available. I said, I can go to Atlanta, I can go to Albany, Georgia where there’s a lot of industry, or I can go to Orlando. We went to Orlando.

Why? Because there was a class there. So, you know, if we, if we keep these things in mind and we’ve been richly blessed as a result, but as a young person, you know, we, we have decisions to make, and believe me, if the Lord is leading us, we should follow his leadings. So we want to, don’t want to base it just on what flesh has appealed to.

So there was different perspectives from, from Satan’s perspective. It was his most apparanda. Lie, cheat and steal from Jesus. He proved self control, humility and faithfulness. From God’s standpoint, he had.

He proved his obedience, his integrity, and his love for God, and the perfect man, of course, demonstrates all of these things. Now Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, but there are other temptations as well in the Bible that follow the same pattern. We’re going to look at three others and the first one we’re familiar with is in Genesis. If thou shalt shall eat of it, thou shalt surely die.

And they saw the tree and it was good and pleasant for the Eyes, the flesh, and they desired to get wisdom. Guess what? It’s almost exactly the parallel of these three temptations, and in the wilderness, we continue.

The devil went away, and the angels took care of Jesus. Did Jesus. Did Satan directly tempt Jesus again? Well, I was listening to some talks by brother Carl Hagense. Interesting insights.

And his point was Jesus’s last day. He had three very similar temptations in Matthew 21:1 and 2, and Jesus and the disciples, as they approached Jerusalem, they came to the town of Bethpage on the Mount of Olives. So this is across from the city, and he had an opportunity.

There’s two ways he could have gone. He could have gone back out because things were heating up, or he could go into Jerusalem. That was a temptation. But he chose wisely. He chose the way of sacrifice.

He was before Pilate, and before Pilate, it was said, you know, Pilate challenged him and said, speakest thou unto me? Knows not that I have power over thee? And Jesus’s response, kind of like, are you the Son of God? He’s challenging him.

Jesus answered, thou couldst have no power at all over over me, except it was given thee from above. Spiritual response.

So this revealed the source of Pilate’s power. Kind of rebuked Pilate, didn’t it? And then finally, on the cross, they said, thou that destroys the temple and buildest the up in three days, save thyself if thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross. Kind of like one of these temptations, isn’t it? And once again, if thou be the Son of God.

It was the same temptation. Well, you say you’re a Christian. Are you challenging it? But Jesus obeyed God’s will, and so we, as we look at this, Jesus’s last day had many parallels as well.

He was directly tempted. Once again, how does that affect our sanctified walk? This is where it really relates to us. We know that we are tested by the flesh, the world, and the devil. These common enemies were demonstrated with Adam and Eve, Jesus in the wilderness, and Jesus on his last day on the cross.

Satan will tempt us until our dying breath. That’s the bottom line. Now none of us are getting out of here alive.

But realize, be thou faithful unto death. So we have to keep our guard up.

So we have the perspectives here, and it’s kind of interesting. As we put them in a chart, we see that they’re very much parallel. Now we know the tempter’s mode of operation, and that’s the important thing. Remember, I said, understand your weaknesses, but also understand the enemy.

How is he going to tempt you? What’s your weakness as an individual? That’s where he’s going to try to poke you. In order to circumvent that, we have to develop fruits of the spirit. So we have choices in life.

And you know, really in life we get thousands or millions of decisions that we make and that and sanctification, that sanctifying process is a million little decisions. It’s not necessarily great decisions, but little ones, and we have to pay particular attention, and we have the same temptations, the world, the flesh and the devil. But in James it says, resist the devil and he will flee from you.

So put it out of your mind as you’re tempted immediately put it out immediately. Don’t. Don’t let that bird build a nest in your head. That’s the key. So in conclusion, do you know your enemies?

Very important. You know, if you were, go to the war school at the United States Naval Academy or Air Force, they teach you to learn your enemy. Do you understand their tactics? We’ve just examined Satan’s tactics. A little bit different in each case, but the same principles.

Do you know your own personal weaknesses? Are you always on guard? Do you study to show yourself? Approved. So you’re growing and developing.

Do you understand God’s promises? And do you pray in every time of need? Keep your Christian armor on. That’s the bottom line. So as we say in Joshua 24:15, choose this thing whom you will serve.

But as for me and my house, and we will serve the Lord. That’s what Jesus did in his three temptations on the cross. Make good choices. We thank our heavenly Father for from him and through him, and to him are all things. To God be the glory forever.

Amen.

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