Episode 188: It Is Written | +Quigg Lawrence

Introduction

Good morning, friends. How many rednecks we got in the crowd? Here's the test. How many of you all like to fish? Seriously. I'm just curious. How many of guys have never ever caught a fish? Really? We can solve that. One of my great joys growing up was going fishing with my granddaddy. He was such a bad driver that at fifteen years, six months, my mother and grandmother insisted that I drive. His driving career was wiped out when he was about 83, when he took out nine cars going around a curve. Needless to say, he was great at instructing fishing, but not so good on driving. Had many fond memories of catching fish with my granddad.

A Quote on Temptation

So, I want to share a quote from an old book, and it could put you to sleep, but I don't think it will. It's from 1652. You think how long ago was that? They didn't have penicillin, no iPhones, no internet. Heck, they put leeches on you to bleed you when you went to the barbershop, so it's primitive times. Yet this Puritan, Thomas Brooks, wrote this book, Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices. Now, you think that would ever be published today? I don't think so.

Here’s what he said in that book about temptation: temptation is nothing more than bait on a hook. That's what temptation is, bait on a hook. You see the analogy, Satan will come to you as he came to Jesus, and he will bait your hook with whatever it is that will be enticing to you. Food, sex, fame, money, power, glory, boyfriend, girlfriend, husband, wife, security, comfort, whatever it is. Achievement, accolade, grade point average, high. Whatever it is, he will bait the hook.

His entire goal is to give you whatever will compel you to bite and take the hook so that he can in every way reel you in to your death. The reason that people keep on sinning is oftentimes they're enticed by the bait, and they neglect to pay attention to the hook. Ouch.

Satan's Craftiness and Jesus' Example

You see, Satan, if he came to you and said, hey, you, I would like you to experience divorce, gluttony, obesity, drunkenness, drug addiction, devastation of generations of your family lineage, from gossiping, busybodying, violence, or mean spiritedness or bitterness. If he was that plain and that obvious, you go, thanks. No, thanks. No one would bite.

And so being very crafty and clever, Satan, the tempter, the deceiver, the liar, finds creative ways to bait the hook because he hates you, and he hates your God. He wants to destroy you.

So today, just as Jesus was tempted, we're going to draw some application. But I want to say upfront, this is about the temptation of Jesus. There are some learnings you can take from it, but you ain't Jesus. You're not Jesus. The Bible has much more to say about temptation.

For example, there's nothing in the passage that says what other parts of the Bible say. Don't go near the adulteress' door. Flee from Satan. There are a lot of things the Bible says that are not in this passage, but this is about Jesus and how he dealt with temptation. So let's look at it. Page 859 in the Pew Bible or on your app. Let's hit it.

The Temptation of Jesus

Starts out. Jesus has just been. Excuse me. So it starts out here. Jesus full of the Holy Spirit returned from the Jordan River, and he was led by the spirit in the wilderness.

So many of us, we wanna say, oh, Lord, fill me with the Holy Spirit. And what we really are asking God is, God, help me to feel something good and warm and peaceful. Make me feel better, God. But here we see the purpose of the Spirit is not to make you feel good. And we see that Jesus, when he was full of the Spirit, he was actually driven by that same Spirit to a time of testing.

Woah, no. I don't want all that. I don't really sign up for that. I just want life enhancement. I want a smiley toothed preacher to tell me how I can have a better life now. Yet we see when Jesus was full of the Spirit, he didn't hit a tambourine. He didn't raise his hands. He didn't do anything. He was driven by the Spirit to a time and place of testing.

The Spirit-filled life.

Number two, verse two. How long was he in this time of testing in the wilderness? Forty days. That's a long time. I know what it is to be tempted for five minutes and thought I would never escape that temptation. And yet, Jesus was tempted for forty days and forty nights. A really, really long time. He was being tempted, but being tempted by the devil. And Jesus—oh, this is amazing, y'all—it says, and he ate nothing during those days. Forty days without food. Can you imagine that? And when they were ended, he was hungry.

And the devil said to him, if you are the son of God, command the stone to become bread. And so what Satan is after here is Jesus' affection, his worship. Right? Normally, if Jesus was not starving, if he was not hungry, and Satan said, if you're the son of God, prove it, he would just flick him like a tick. Say, be gone, or he'd burn him up and incinerate him. But he was hungry. He was weak, and he was vulnerable.

And Satan says, well, Jesus, just turn this stone into bread. Come on. You're the son of God. He's trying to get Jesus to obey him. He's appealing to his physical needs, and he's tempting him at that point. And so what does Jesus do? He doesn't get in a fist fight with Satan. He doesn't debate him. He simply says, It is written. It is written.

In other words, Jesus, in his point of weakness, is looking to the word of God, the truth of God, and he's standing on it even though his flesh is weak. He wants to make that stone become bread. But Jesus says, here's the truth. It is written. Man will not live by bread alone.

Man shall not live by bread alone. — Luke 4:4

The question I have for myself and for you this morning is, do you live by bread alone? So many of us, we go through our life day after day, week after week, month after month, decade after decade. And we want to live for those things that quickly satisfy us. And Satan's laughing the whole time as he's cheating you. He's ripping you off.

Man shall not live by bread alone.

Verse five says, and the devil took Jesus up and he showed him all the kingdoms of this world. Y'all ever seen Ernest Angel? The beginning of a show, the little guy with a TV set and it looked like a trailer park and he says, there are billions and billions of stars all around. That's basically what Satan was doing to Jesus. He said, I'll give it all to you. Billions and billions of stars, all the glories. And Satan—Satan was lying. See, the thing is that you can't give what you don't own. Like, I can't give your house to somebody else because I don't own it.

And so we know from scripture, in Genesis, in the beginning, what? Who created? In the beginning, who? God created the heavens and the earth. And because he's the creator, he is therefore the owner. God owns everything. Oh, quick. That's a nice one little scripture. How about Psalm 24 verse one? Etch that one in your head. The earth is the Lord's and everything that is therein.

And so Satan is trying to make a deal with Jesus in his time of vulnerability and weakness and hunger. Trying to give him all the glories of this world. But they're not actually his. Satan's lying. That's what he does. He's the father of lies. He's a deceiver. So what does Jesus do? What what Satan's really doing here is saying, hey, Jesus. This whole thing about going to the cross in Jerusalem, you you don't need to do that. I'll give all this to you right now. I'll give it to all to you right now. All you've gotta do is worship me.

Now, I don't know that Satan's ever promised you all the world and all the glories, but I tell you what, he makes you promises, right? So that you can come and worship him. He's trying to turn your affection from the father to him. And Jesus responds to this serious temptation. Like, you know, he doesn't want—he doesn't wanna go to Jerusalem. He doesn't want the cross. I think you remember when he's in the garden, he says, father, let this cup pass from me. Nevertheless, not what I want, but what you want, Father. And so when Satan's tempting him with this lie, trying to give him something he doesn't own, he says what? Jesus says in verse eight, it is.

Friends, I hope I hope you hide God's word in your heart. Not to win a prize. We're not gonna have a flannel graph with stars on it. We're not gonna give you an award or a trophy. I want you to hide God's word in your heart, because if not, you're gonna be a punching bag for the evil one. He's gonna toss you to and fro with every wind of doctrine, with every trick, every deceit, and you're just gonna be overcome.

Jesus answered, It is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. And so Jesus answers. He doesn't fight them. He doesn't debate them. He just quotes the truth. He quotes scripture. I wanna know how much scripture do you have hidden in your in your heart, in your mind. Right? If Satan were to come at you right now, would you have truth hidden in your mind and your heart of God's word or would you be defenseless? Jesus sets a pattern. It is written, worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

The Twist and the Final Temptation

Okay. So those two temptations didn't work. So now Satan's gonna go and twist scripture. Right? I just believe the Bible. Okay, he's gonna quote the Bible. Here we go. Verse nine. And Satan took Jesus to Jerusalem. That's where the temple was. That's where Jesus was headed to go be the sacrifice for the whole world, for the sins of the whole world. Satan took him to Jerusalem and he sat Jesus on the pinnacle of the temple. And Satan says, hey, hey, Jesus, if you're the son of God, if you're the son of God, throw yourself down from here for it is written.

Now you see what just happened? See, Jesus has been saying, it's written, it's written, it's written to fight the lies. He's quoting scripture. So now Satan, who's very crafty, turns it around and he starts quoting, or actually misquoting scripture. God never said he's going to protect you if you throw yourself in front of a train. God never said he's going to protect yourself if you stick a heroin needle in your arm and it's laced with fentanyl. So you could take that out of context, that's what Satan's doing. He's twisting scripture.

God, this passage in Psalm 91, is talking about his protection for his kids. But he's never suggesting that you can throw yourself down to be sensational so God will come in and rescue you. He says, if you are the son of God, throw yourself down, for it's written, he will command his angels concerning you to guard you. And on their hands, they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against the stone.

So how does Jesus answer the scripture that Satan brings? Thankfully, Jesus knew more than one scripture. I hope you do too. Hope you know more than Jesus wept. I hope you know more than John 3:16. Jesus answered, it is said, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

And when the devil had ended every temptation, you see, wasn't just these three. For forty days, he was coming and coming and coming and coming. Jesus was hungry and weak, and he kept coming after him.

Says in verse 13, and when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Jesus until an opportune time. Here's the thing about Satan. He's like a Major League Baseball pitcher. In little league, you've got a fastball and a curveball, that works. That'll get most kids out. But as you go to upper high school, college, the pros, you can't just have one or two pitches. Satan's got an arsenal.

And just like a pitcher, every pitcher in the major leagues has to have a what kind of ball? Fastball. Thank you. He also needs to have one of these. Curveball. And there are nuances. You can have a cutting fastball. How about this? A drop. How about this one? Chipper Jones said nobody can hit this pitch. You just swing your bat and hope your bat hits it. What pitch is that? That's a good guess. That's a really good guess. He was talking about a slider. The slider just does weird things and you don't know what it's doing. Or a knuckleball, it's impossible. Just hold your bat there and pray to Jesus.

The thing is, just like pitchers have different pitches to take people out. A great pitcher. See, they study this stuff and they know if you're a batter, even if you're a great batter, they know you like this pitch, not that pitch. And so he will serve up the pitch you like out of the zone. But the pitch you're terrible at and that you can't hit—that's the one he's going to serve to you because he knows it works every time.

And it's the same with Satan. For you, it might just be the fastball and boom, you're out. Or maybe you know how to hit a fastball. Right? So Satan has to use a little more sophisticated tricks. Maybe he throws you a slider. Whatever it is, my question for you this morning is this: What bait has Satan put on the hook? What bait has he put on the hook?

So that he might destroy your life. What bait is it? What is it that you're running to and you're swallowing hook, line, and sinker? And yet it's a lie.

Conclusion

Friends, Jesus said, It is written, It is written, It is written. And I will tell you that because I read scripture every day, and I I hope you have that gift in your life. Not because I'm disciplined. It's just a gift that I like to walk in and receive. But I hope that you're committing scripture to memory. And sometimes that's very powerful and it helps because it's the truth. It reorients the lies that Satan tells me or the lies I tell myself.

But can I tell you, just as I told you at the beginning, I ain't Jesus? I'm not Jesus. And sometimes on especially those things that are super tempting, things that are really tempting, I can quote scripture all day long. I can have it in my head. And Satan is still strong enough to suck me into it like a shop vac.

It's going to cost me $10 and Annette, I hope you'll Venmo Mary Winn. Venmo. Now they get the Venmo. I have a picture, which I'm going to post on Facebook later today. There's a picture of Mary Winn. How old was she, honey? Three. Miss Annette had hid the Halloween candy in our living room on the side table under some kind of cake thing that's clear glass, hiding it from the children. And there's a picture of little Mary Winn screaming, crying, bloody murder, trying to get to those Reese's cups. For her, that was a temptation. Hey, man. I love Reese's cups, but I have other temptations.

What's really funny is fast forward twenty-one, twenty-two years, we still see little Roe, her son, little curly-headed Roe. He's in the same room at the same sideboard with the same glass thing. Only Roe was smart enough. He got a stool, he stepped up, and he grabbed the cookie. Didn't know yourself in that. Annette really likes sweets, That's that's her temptation point. And you know what I want to say is, like it doesn't matter what somebody else's temptation is. It might not be yours at all. If it's not your temptation, it's not.

But don't worry, the evil one has other things for you. There have been times in my life where I'm like, God, what's wrong with me? I do love you, Lord, and I don't want to do these things. I feel like Saint Paul, the good I want to do, I don't do it and the bad that I don't want to do—that's what I do. Seems like the harder I try, the faster I get sucked in.

At the end of it, yeah, I can quote scripture, but sometimes I just need to fall before Jesus and say, Jesus, help me. I can't outbox Satan. I want to encourage you to know God's word and hide it in your heart. But I also want to encourage you, at the end of the day, you ain't Jesus. Sometimes you just need to fall on your face and you need to beg God, and he will show up. He loves you. He cares for you. He will show up.

What bait has Satan put on your hook that he might destroy you? In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen.