Great Texts of The Bible: The Mission of John the Baptist | Mark 1 | Pastor William Hixson

I think I said this somewhere, but if I

said it you last week, I'm sorry. When I

was in Ireland in in May, the churches

were singing the old 50s songs that we

sang in America, and it was just kind of

like a good flashback for me of my

youth. And uh the the architecture and

the the carpets and pews was all just

kind of like the 50s almost. Had a good

time over there. And again, it's kind of

set me back. And I know all of us have a

history. And thank God for our history,

right? Thank God for the people that

minister to us that maybe they're

already in heaven. Maybe the church has

disbanded, but it was there for us when

we needed it. And I I praise God for the

for the old hymns. It kind of remind me

of that. And you I I prefer worship

worship songs for Sunday morning than

gospel songs. But uh even the gospel

songs are precious to me. We used to

sing them in the car when we were

traveling uh uh uh in my parents uh car.

We did a lot of singing in the car. So

all that brings back memories.

Okay. At our church, we usually do book

studies verse by verse, chapter by

chapter, book by book. But we're in a

we're in a double break from that. We're

doing great texts of the Bible and we

usually pick a great text out uh that is

helpful for us. And then we are also

doing a series on the resurrection of

the Lord Jesus Christ, the physical

resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ,

how that relates to us. And so we're

doing those two serieses. And tonight we

will have the Lord's supper. So be

prepared to do that. But we will be we

will be studying in 1 Corinthians uh and

we'll have a message on the resurrection

for that service. So we hope you can

come to that at 6:00

this morning. I call your attention to

Mark chapter 1

Mark 1 · chapter mention

and verse 12

and 13.

Mark

Mark 1 · chapter mention

chapter 1

and verses 12

and 13.

And again assuming there is a

grasp of the Gospel of Mark and the

greater context, I'm not going to give

time to that at this point.

Uh those of you who were here in July

1994, I was preaching in this section.

>> I'm sure you remembered the whole

sermon,

>> every word. Right. Well, this is a new

sermon. And uh although I've taught on

the temptation of Christ many times, I'm

usually using Matthew and Luke, which

are longer accounts. And other than in a

gospel study of Mark, I doubt if I've

ever tried to preach on the temptation

of Christ from this account because it's

only two verses.

And so it doesn't get into the three

temptations

individually. It's just two verses. You

see, that means a short sermon, pastor,

does it?

No,

probably not.

Sorry about that. Okay. Uh if if we come

to Mark chapter 1, I'll pick it up in

Mark 1 · chapter mention

verse 9- 11 with the baptism of Christ

and then our our text for this morning,

verses 12 and 13.

And it came to pass in those days that

Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and

was baptized by John in the Jordan. And

straightway coming up out of the water,

he saw the heavens opened and the spirit

like a dove descending on him. And there

came a voice from heaven saying, "Thou

art my beloved son in whom I'm well

pleased." Very important verses when

they had the trinitarian controversies.

The early Christian would say, "Go to

the Jordan to the to the JWs of their

day." There weren't JWs in their day,

but there were people who denied the

Trinity. and that go to the Jordan

because you got God the Father in

heaven, God the Son in the water, and

God the Holy Spirit coming down. It's a

and that was their phrase, go to the

Jordan. Uh and but they constantly said

to the Aryans who were had that problem.

So anyway, uh it's there's a very

abbreviated uh account of the baptism of

our Lord and it's very precious, but

we're interesting in what happened after

the baptism.

something happened immediately

after the baptism. Now, there were

wonderful things that happened at the

baptism.

I hope you've been baptized. If you

trusted Christ, you ought to be

waterbaptized and publicly confess your

faith. And uh our Lord was baptized not

because he was uh his baptism a little

different. This is his public entrance

into his ministry after his private

life. His time of baptism was the public

declaration of who he is

and what he's come to do.

Baptized by John the Baptist, who was a

forerunner and himself prophesied by the

Old Testament.

And I'd love to get into all that, but

we're interested in what happened right

after.

What happened right after?

It says immediately the spirit drives

him into the wilderness

and he was there in the wilderness

40 days

tested by Satan and was with the wild

beasts

and the angels ministered to him.

Now, that's something.

And I want us to think about this very

text this morning. I'm assuming that

probably all of us or most of us are

very, very familiar with the baptism of

Jesus and the events of that. And we are

probably fairly familiar with the

temptation of the Lord Jesus. and uh uh

and thank God for these great sections,

but there is more here that and usually

when I teach this, I focus on

either Matthew or Luke because it's the

longer section,

but let's just go to the shorter section

right here and think about what's here.

Well, sometimes we get focused on the

three temptations and how Jesus whipped

the devil there. There's 11 verses in

Matthew's account, 13 verses in Luke's

account, and then he they be both give

the three specific temptations and how

Jesus beat temptation. That's a good

thing to know how to beat temptation,

but uh we're not dealing with that

today.

So, what are we dealing with? Well,

we're dealing with what the text says.

And why didn't Mark tell us more about

this? Matthew did. Luke did. Why didn't

Mark tell us? Obviously, he wants us to

focus on these two things.

And this being driven by the spirit, the

same spirit that came down on him and

anointed him to be the anointed one, the

Messiah. First thing happened after his

baptism, he was driven into the

wilderness.

I was baptized when I was 13 at

Tabernacle Baptist Church, Chilikothy.

There's no voice from heaven. There was

nothing come down that nobody drove me

out of the church. That didn't happen. I

remember it very well, but that didn't

happen.

And so this was something quite

interesting and quite unusual.

So, but here's what was really going on.

At the Lord Jesus's water baptism, he

stepped out of 30 years of private life

into three years of public ministry.

He was 30 years old.

Everything from his birth to the time he

was baptized was private life.

He grew up in a little bird called

Nazareth.

And most people remember that the one

fellow in New Testament, what goods,

what is that? Whatever goods come out of

Nazareth. What kind of Messiah comes

from Nazareth?

And little town in the north.

And what'd he do? He grew up there and

learned how to be a carpenter from his

father. That's what Jesus did. He was

the carpenter.

There's nothing wrong with being the

carpenter, but that was private life.

And in private life, in those times, you

didn't go to school someplace. Your dad

taught you the trade that he knew.

So families were together just like the

family farm in America until around

1900. Most people were together. Fathers

and mothers were home all the time. Then

20th century happened and they separated

all that. So our Lord spent 30 years in

a rather humble job. If you think that

you have to be a big shot with a big job

to be important,

look at Jesus.

If you think, "I'm stuck in this

horrible job at McDonald's or wherever

you're working.

If Jesus could be a carpenter for all

those years, I should be able to do

something humble.

And it's it he it is private life. And

he had that private life.

And part of that private life was

probably raising his younger brothers

and sisters because Joseph disappears

after Jesus is 12. Most people, we don't

know this from the Bible, but he

probably died. So Jesus is the oldest

son was became the head of the family at

a very young age. That's speculation,

but I think it's reasonable.

And so, but that was private life.

And our Lord was successful in his

private life.

And he honored God in his private life.

And God when he was baptized said, "This

is my beloved son in whom I'm well

pleased. I'm well pleased with his

private life."

And so, God help you to please the Lord.

God help me to please the Lord if if

we're put in a humble place doing humble

things.

I thank God since I came here 51 years

ago, 50 years ago, that I I was able to

live, my wife and I have been able to

live on my salary here except for when

we had a baby. Then I had to go to work

to pay for the maternity. We didn't have

maternity insurance.

And so I did some very humble jobs in

the summer uh at at sorities and uh

rental plant properties cleaning them up

from the students and stuff. And so

I'm not sorry from that. I'm not ashamed

of that. I'm thankful that I had that

privilege of doing that. And so I was

doing that as well as pastoring in those

years. Uh so God has a purpose in humble

work and humble places. and must not be

too big to do little things.

Something wrong with people got a idea

of themsel I'm too important to take

that job.

Uh let's not be too big to do little

things.

Now in that private life,

we know something. Jesus was tested in

all parts as we are yet without sin.

That's what Hebrews 4:14 and 15 says.

Hebrews 4:14

That's referring to his private life and

his public life. Now, how about your

private life?

How about my private life?

It's harder to be without sin in your

private life than in your public life.

You got an image, you know. And so may

God help us to realize

that Jesus from a young boy said, "I

must be about my father's business." At

12 years old, that's about all we know

about him.

And yet some and when some people said

when he preached in Nazareth, isn't this

the carpenter's son? So we know he was

that and people knew him as that.

And so, but he did have a private life.

And now he's in public and he's stepping

out in public ministry. And boom, Satan

hits him right now.

If you don't believe there's a devil,

just try to do something public for God.

Try to start a Bible class in your home.

I challenge you. Start a Bible class in

your home.

I love home Bible classes. Love teaching

them. But you start one Bible class. All

you got to do is start one. and the

devil's going to hit you. Then you'll

find out there is a devil.

And so anytime we try to do anything for

the Lord, the animosity of Satan is

excited.

And our Lord Jesus came under that at

this transition. He knew experientially

the powerful forces of satanic

temptation. He faced them to a full

extent head on and he successfully lived

30 years of a private life sinless.

Three years of a public life sinless.

That's

not just the exception to the rule. It

is that. But that is way beyond anything

anybody else has ever achieved

in their life.

Only Jesus.

And so may God help us because we're in

a fallen race. He was unfallen but in

many things we all stumbled. James is

half younger half brothers

book of James. But not our Lord. Not our

Lord.

So his private life was a good life. His

public life was a good life. There was

no contradiction. There was no change.

Remember

Daniel in the book of Daniel chapter 6

Daniel 6 · chapter mention

verse4 how you remember how he got in

the lion's den

his fellow

governmental

uh officers said we don't like Daniel we

want his place he's he's too important

we want to we we need to degrade him so

we can uh advance ourselves and they

finally said they kept finding something

let's find some dirt on Daniel sounds

like modern politicians, right? Let's

find some dirt on Daniel. And they

couldn't find anything. And they said,

"We can't find anything. This guy's a

perfect administrator. This guy never

does anything wrong as far as

administering the kingdom. There's no

corruption here. Not even a hint. The

only way we can find anything if it's

against him and his God

would

that be true for all of us, right? I

mean, that's really heartarching. Daniel

wasn't sinless like Jesus, but he

certainly was mature.

And his enemies could not Daniel 6:4

Daniel 6:4

find anything in his public life.

And so they verify

to anybody except,

you know, the government's got to be

worshiped now.

We'll get him on that because he'll be

consistent and he was and that got him

thrown in the lion's den.

So, a law is passed

uh based on the lie behind it designed

to get Daniel in trouble and make him

lose his life or compromise his life in

public.

You know, when you're

being thought about as being an elder or

a pastor. 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1 gives

some instructions, don't they? Says they

got to be blameless. Blameless doesn't

mean sinless.

If it did, none of us could ever do

anything. But it does mean publicly

blameless. The idea is there's nothing

that the enemies can hold on to uh in

our Christian life. We're not talking

about our BC days in our Christian.

Anyway, the Lord was baptized. He came

from private life to public life

and then immediately the spirit drives

him into the wilderness

and he drives him into the wilderness.

It says, I want you to notice there was

a specific uh goal in mind and

immediately the spirit drives him into

the wilderness and he was there in the

wilderness 40 days tested by Satan and

was with the wild beasts

and the angels ministered to him.

Now here

Mark tells us something that's very

precious. It just we we we jump to those

three temptations. We like to show how

Jesus whipped the devil and blocked all

his things. But here we're seeing

something very interested. He was tested

by Satan and he was with the wild

beasts.

What's the wild beasts?

When you think of Israel, what do you

think about? What kind of wild beast do

you think about?

Well, you remember people like um

Samson,

right? He killed a lion with his bare

hands.

Uh so there were lions there. In fact, I

think there's nine different Hebrew

words for lion.

There were a lot of lions at one time in

Palestine.

In fact, they had lions in Palestine

until 1400 AD.

You don't think about it that way,

right?

We read a story about uh we think, well,

that was a long time ago, but uh we

don't think about that.

And uh they had them in Samaria until

the Middle Ages.

Lions

out and about, not in zoos.

And uh it's interesting there was also

other wild animals. There were leopards.

There were leopards. There was called a

There were Arab Arab Arabian leopards.

There were Arabian leopards. I couldn't

read my own writing. There were Syrian

bears.

In fact, the Bible is talking about

2,200 animals.

And there were Asiatic cheetahs.

There were elephants. There were snakes,

poisonous snakes,

and many other things that would could

be characterized as wild beasts.

Now, I like animals.

My wife and the kids love animals

and it's wonderful to see them. And when

we were in Israel about eight years ago,

we our tour was done and we took a cab

and went to the Jerusalem Zoo. They

actually have a zoo in Jerusalem with

biblical animals in it.

>> It was marvelous. It was one of the most

fun things we did.

And so, um, but I will say this, they

were all enclosed,

which was nice. We saw lions, we saw

bears. I got pictures of them if you

want to see it.

You know, everybody loves their vacation

pictures.

But anyway, we we saw that stuff and

they picked animals out that were like

the animals that were in Bible times.

And so some of this it's very hard for

us to grasp. Now I like being in the I

like being outside. I like to be in in

the wilderness. I like that.

I like Hawking Hills. The best thing we

got in Ohio is right up the road. If you

haven't been to that, you need to go.

Old man's cave and all those six places

up there.

But I I I enjoy that a lot. But if the

lion's out there,

if the bears are getting too close, that

make me a little uncomfortable.

But remember who was out there.

He's the creator of all the animals.

When Jesus got on the donkey,

it didn't bug.

It never been ridden. I mean, he is in

sovereign control. He is God incarnate.

And what the animals will do for

Christians in in the millennium when the

lion will eat straw like an ox and the

little child's going to play in the

add's den uh with that the prophets

predict that all was true of Jesus

there. Nobody bothered him.

Nobody.

And um

I was in Krueger National Park in South

Africa right between South Africa and um

Mosmb beek for three or four days with

Mike Brunt one time or missionary.

And there

you are on your own. It's the size of

New Hampshire. You've heard me say that.

You stay in your car.

You're not supposed to get out of your

car. Why? Because they'll eat you.

Jesus didn't have a car.

He was there without a car. He was there

without anybody else. It says

immediately the spirit drives him into

the wilderness. He was there in the

wilderness 40 days. 40 days.

Tested by Satan. Every single day.

tested by Satan

and was with the wild beast every single

day. And the angels ministered to him

plural every single day.

Very interesting.

See, Mark puts this in here for us and

it's really good. This is a little

section. It does. It gives us some

things the others don't about these

angels ministering to him and about uh

some of the things we don't normally

think about

being with the wild beasts.

And there he was. Why? Because he's

sovereign over everything.

And now angels are mightier than a wild

beast. But Jesus is mightier than the

angels. And so uh may God give us grace

to just think about this.

So as we move through this section uh it

this temptation was not something Jesus

brought on himself. The spirit impelled

him. The spirit drove him into the

wilderness. There was a a driving into

the wilderness by the Holy Spirit. uh he

was tested uh by the uh devil for 40

days

and without sin.

Job's experience in the Old Testament

was a prelude of Jesus's experience in

those 40 days.

Job was not sinless.

God had to confront him. He was better

than his friends, but he was not

sinless.

He spoke what was right concerning God

where his friends didn't. Job lost it a

few times,

but

u he never cursed God.

When Job was under satanic attack, and

he was, Satan got to the man, there was

none like him in the earth. I want to

tell you something. There was none like

him in the earth till Jesus was born.

and there's still none like him.

Um,

the Holy Spirit came on him as a dove

and his baptism, the Holy Spirit drove

him into the wilderness.

He was

Now, some people fear being alone. Some

people keep the television on all the

time, keep the radio all the time, get

the phone going all the time. He can't

be alone.

All of us need to be alone with the

Lord.

We ought to have some time with just the

Lord

when the needs of other people and where

the responsibilities of life are not

intruding

on our time alone with the Lord.

And that's what God gave him.

And it was something the Lord Jesus uh

needed as the God man.

And

we need it.

But I'll tell you something about being

alone. This teaches us you can't avoid

temptation by being alone.

I'll avoid temptation. I just won't go.

I won't go out here. I won't go there. I

just cut my public life out. Work at

home. Stay at home. Be a be a hermit. Be

a pole sitter.

Remember the pole sitters? They climbed

up on a pole and stayed there for years.

Thought they were holy. They were

smelly, but not too holy.

But being alone cannot exempt us from

temptation.

Because there's a devil walking about

seeking whom he may

devour.

We all need to be alone more than we

are. But being alone is not sufficient

to guard us from temptation.

And we dare not hide from the conflict.

There is a conflict.

It's with God and Satan. And Satan

didn't initiate this. By the way, God

did.

God initiated it. I believe Satan would

have avoided if he could, but he

couldn't. I mean, when he when he there

was somebody else listening when Jesus

was baptized, this is my beloved son

whom I'm well pleased. He saw that dove

coming. He saw the Holy Spirit coming.

So, oh, that's the one. That's a seed.

The woman's got to bruise the serpent's

head. I got to get ahead of this and I

got to attack him right away. And boy,

did he do it.

Sometimes,

Pastor Hixon, and you as well, we're

feathers in the wind of temptation.

Just a little temptation just knocks us

down,

takes us off.

Our Lord was tempted like as we are, yet

without sin. Satan hit him three times

as hard as he could, misusing scripture,

doing everything to

get the Lord Jesus off. He I don't

believe I I think Satan gave him as hard

a hits as he could.

God doesn't tempt us, but God does test

us. Tested Abraham with Isaac, and Isaac

Abraham was approved. So God initiated

the business, but Satan certainly didn't

hold back. He He I think he did it

reluctantly, but he did it.

And so sometimes we're getting in a

situation where God and Satan are

involved with us at the same time. God's

got a good purpose. Satan's got a bad

purpose.

Think of Paul's thorn in the flesh.

That was God-given.

Satan was certainly using it.

Uh think of uh the Old Testament stories

with uh uh Ahab and remember the prophet

and so forth and first Kings 22.

Certainly God was in it and Satan was in

it

and Ahab found out he went down. The

Antichrist, God's going to allow him to

come to his in judgment for people's

unbelief. Uh, and so God's even involved

in letting that happen. It's amazing.

In each of those sit situations, God has

his purposes and Satan has his purposes.

And one of But one of the reasons our

Lord was victorious. He didn't bring it

on himself.

I I remember so many times in my life,

it's like I'm tempting the devil to

tempt me.

You ever do that?

It's like I'm tempting the devil. I set

it up. I make it easy. It's like I say,

"Just hit me and I set it up. Let my

guard down."

So the the the per first point is very

very important. It was brought on Jesus

by the Holy Spirit of God and even

though Satan was involved in it and yet

he was victorious. By the way, Job was

victorious as much as a fallen person

can be. And it was because it was

brought on him. Yes, Satan did it, but

God was behind all of it and gave say

Job grace to get through it.

There's a two great books on the

in a broad way that were written years

ago. One by Donald Gay Barnhouse, you've

heard me mention it many time. was a

Presbyterian Bible teacher in

Philadelphia, one of the best Bible

teachers in America. Although he did go

a little new evangelical, but he was a

great great man. He wrote a book called

The Invisible War.

Fine book about war between God and

Satan. Arnold Gable uh wrote a book as

well, The Conflict of the Ages. Both of

them are very similar books and most of

us are rather oblivious.

What's going on?

But so in each of these situations, God

had his purposes and Satan had his

purposes. And one of the reasons Jesus

was victorious is he didn't bring it on

himself.

He didn't bring it on himself.

Second, Christ's temptation

was

in connection with his identity and

vocation or you might put his ministry.

Christ's temptation was in connection

with his identity and vocation. If

you're the son of God, turn this

rock to bread

is in connection with his identity as

the son of God, but in his vocation as

the Messiah. So his temptation was

jobreated. It was ministry related. So

temptation doesn't just come in our

private life. It comes in our public

life.

I'm sure you've heard this expression,

no fight like a church fight.

Why?

Because the devil's in it.

Church fights are dirtier than any other

fight because the devil's in it. You

don't believe in a devil, just just try

to serve God.

You don't believe in a devil, just try

to be in a church and be faithful in a

church for a while. You'll see how Satan

fights.

You you you'll be if you believe in

Christ, you'll find out there's a devil.

If you publicly stand up for Jesus,

you'll find out there's a devil. And

it's a good thing. It's you can't

explain life if you don't see all of

these things.

Someone said, "It would be strange

indeed if this malignant spirit were to

allow the Messiah to engage in a mission

that would result in his own overthrow

without trying to defeat him from his

purposes."

Oswald

Oswald Saunders great book that's a

great book

and it and it would be strange. So as

soon as he's baptized

uh we find this happening and there's

cosmic aspects to this whole situation

and there is for you and me. What's Paul

say in Ephesians 6? We wrestle not with

flesh and blood.

That means people. Flesh and blood

refers to people. You say, "I got a

problem with Pastor Hixon. I got a

problem with this person in the church.

I got a problem with that person in the

church." You're missing it. You're

missing. There's a problem behind the

problem. Whether I'm causing it or

somebody else is causing it. What the

devil uses people.

He does. He uses Christians. I hate to

say it, but he does. Remember, he uses

Christian leaders. Jesus said to Peter,

when Peter said, "This will not be to

you, Lord." "No, no, you're the Messiah.

You're the Christ, the son of God.

You're not going to the cross. This will

not be to you." He said it publicly. The

main apostle said it publicly. And Jesus

said, "What?" What was his response to

Peter? Get behind me, Satan. He called

Peter Satan because Satan was using

Peter. Have you ever been used by Satan?

Every one of us has, I'm sure. I was

shocked. I was in an ordination council.

This is about whenever Doug, Pastor Doug

Demar was being ordained. This probably

40 years ago at least. And Pastor Oswall

asked Doug this question. Normally in a

you're asking things about the family.

You're asking things about theology and

all of that stuff. And Pastor Ob said,

"Doug, have you ever been used of the

devil?"

That was his

question. How'd you like to answer that

in front of an ordination board?

And Doug said, "I don't know, but I'm

probably pretty sure I have." Pretty

good answer.

God can use the best Christian

to hurt the cause of Christ.

I mean, Peter was at the top of the 12,

right?

Peter, James, and John were the top

three.

And Satan used Peter

to get to Jesus.

This will not be you. No. No. That's Get

behind me. Satan.

You savor the things that are man, not

of God.

And savoring the things of God is one of

the ways we can beat the devil. We got

to immerse oursel in scripture. We got

to soak oursel in scripture. What does

God want? What does God desire? Immerse

oursel in that.

And so there's cosmic aspects in our

lives, your life, your daily life, my

daily life. We're in a cosmic

war. And we we wrestle not with flesh

and blood. Isn't that what Paul said in

Ephesians 6?

Get the armor on. We wrestle not with

flesh and blood. I think it's that

person. They're my problem over there in

the family or in the church or in the my

job. We wrestle not with flesh and

blood, but with principalities and

powers and spiritual wickedness in

heavenly places. So, put on the whole

armor of God that you can stand against

the what?

The ws of the devil.

That word ws, we get our word Methodist

from it. And that doesn't mean the

Methodists are the devil, but it does

mean Methodists are called Methodists

because they're methodic. The devil is

methodic. He plans his attacks.

You You may not have a plan about your

life, but he does.

So,

uh, our Lord's decision to step forward

into public ministry

brought about an attack from the

underworld.

And that attack is a necessary

consequence with his open confession at

his baptism.

And all of this is very fascinating.

Tempted by Satan is present tense

participle. And so there was a repeated

conflict. So he's got not just he's not

just with the wild beast, he's with the

serpent.

He's with the the Satan is called the

serpent.

And there's what? There's poisonous

snakes there. But the most poisonous one

was an invisible one,

a fallen angel. And he was tempted at

all points like as we are yet without

sin. So when we enter Christian service,

when we step out of private life, we

join a church,

get ready for an attack.

When you, you know, when you get

baptized, get ready for attack. You

start a Bible class, get ready for

attack. You start a a college group on

campus, get ready for an attack. You

can't do anything without opposition.

It just doesn't happen that way. There's

no there's no ignoring of the

opportunities we give.

I have to say this, this is my personal

testimony.

And I started teaching the Bible back in

1970

71

and I was a Christian before that. But I

will say this, my experience spending

life teaching home Bible classes, trying

to minister on this campus, ministering

college students, ministering to people

in their homes in different communities.

I think it's pretty clear to me

that there's a devil.

And it became clear to me

when I started teaching God's word.

Um,

you come out of private life, you get

into public life, you're going to find

out. Now, the good news is if there's a

devil, you know there's a God.

Some people become Christians because

they find out there's a devil. And by by

finding out there's a personal devil,

then they learn there's a god. This is

too this is too bizarre. This is too

wicked. This is too this is no there's

no coincidence here. They find out

there's a devil and then that encourages

them. There is an invisible world. There

is another dimension

and there's a spiritual dimension. And

maybe that's been you or maybe that'll

be you.

And so praise God for that. And praise

God for angels that minister to us.

I've often thought I my guardian angels

must work shift work or something.

Probably worn out a few.

But I will tell you that there is

ministry, supernatural ministry we know

nothing about, but it's always there

and we should thank God for that. How

about you? when you're fighting the

devil, don't you feel I was thinking

about how can I describe my fight

against the devil? Well, I thought it's

probably like um the older people get

this one. Sometimes I feel like Don Knox

fighting Bruce Lee.

Nobody gets it.

Okay.

You know, I feel like I'm totally

incompetent. I'm very fumbling around.

uh and uh uh and my I'm outmatched.

And here we go again.

So victory over temptation, however, was

essential for Jesus's mission.

And we will never be as victorious as he

was. He was 100% victorious.

But if we want to succeed in our public

ministry at work or in the church or in

our neighborhood or even in our family,

we need

we need to follow our Lord Jesus and

learn to how to handle the devil.

We need to soak oursel in scriptures. A

lot of churches don't do that. It's just

it's uh it they don't they just give

people a little bit. It's not enough.

And I learned that myself when I was a

senior at OU and I started coming to

Bible classes.

This helps me. I need a lot of Bible.

It's the only way I can stay out of

trouble. That's how I was learning it in

the beginning

because I even though I was saved, I was

not filling myself with the word of God.

So,

um,

key to everything else and personal

victory and private victory and public

victory.

And so, may God give us grace

to do that.

Um, I'm thankful Mark put this in here.

You might be, I'm so alone. I got

nobody.

If I only had

only had a a marriage mate or if I only

had a friend or if I only had uh

somebody to be with a family member, I

would do better in life. I'm so lonely.

Everybody has lonely times. I was single

till I was 31. So I know about

loneliness a little bit.

I needed that time.

I'm not saying it was easy,

but I needed that time.

And I learned about myself and I learned

about Satan and I learned about

life

and I'm still learning and I'm thankful

for God's provision in my life and I'm

thankful for my family and I'm thankful

for the privilege of of serving lot God.

But Satan never stops. He's not going to

stop for you. He didn't never stop for

me.

I get a black eye every other day.

So I don't always have my guard up

and neither do you. And we will not we

will not be able to achieve what Jesus

achieved. But we will be able to move

forward in a way that's why these these

things are in the Bible. not just to

teach us about him, but to teach us of

how we ourselves can also

um

minister

to the glory of God in our times of

temptation.

You cannot do God's work without

opposition. You cannot live the

Christian life without opposition.

In Jesus' case, it was formidable

opposition. In our case, it will be as

well.

But the Lord is able to make us what we

are not in ourselves. And Don Knots can

become

um

>> what?

>> Bruce Lee.

>> Bruce Lee was going to call you become a

Samson against Bruce Lee. But uh thank

God that we can do more and be more than

we ever could imagine

ourselves.

And in the whole bit of it, in the very

drama of it, it's kind of exciting

because we kind of know what life's

about experientially

and we it helps us know how others are

getting and helps us know something

about what God's doing. And the presence

of the enemy enables us to encourage

ourselves

with the presence of the Lord.

So may God help us

to do that. Father, we thank you for

what we've looked at today. Challenge us

and change us from your from your

blessed word and help us, Father, to

honor you and glorify you. We come

publicly to sing hymns and praise you

that way. But we also come to minister

to others. Maybe somebody's fallen

pretty hard this week. and um uh they've

been in a battle and they've lost

temptation again and they're

discouraged. Give them grace, Father, uh

to look up. None of us will succeed the

way Jesus did. The devil's always more

successful against us than him. But we

are able because of his mercies to be

used of you and to learn from our falls

and learn from our failures and learn

from the battles how to be more

successful. It's a progressive thing.

May we not be afraid of public ministry.

May we not be afraid of open confession

of Christ.

We are to confess with our mouth and

believe with our heart on the Lord Jesus

that God raised him from the dead. We're

not to be uh private about our faith

even though we're not to be pushy about

it either. Give us that grace.

We pray

in Jesus name. Amen.

>> Okay. 419

>> Lord as we go from this place

loving you more

trusting you more.

May the power of your love and the light

of your word shine to a sin darkened

world as we go from this