Day 4 - The Word as a Weapon

Well good morning and happy Friday.

Hopefully you've had a fantastic week, and we're excited this morning to be jumping in to Matthew Chapter 4, looking at the word as a weapon.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

Matthew Chapter 4, verses 1 through eleven say Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil.

Matthew 4:1

For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

During that time the devil came and said to him, If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.

But Jesus told him, No.

The Scriptures say, People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.

Then the devil took him to the holy city, Jerusalem, to the highest point of the temple, and said, If you are the Son of God, jump off.

For the Scriptures say, He will order his angels to protect you, and they will hold you up with their hands, so that you won't even hurt your foot on a stone.

Jesus responded, The Scriptures also say, You must not test the Lord your God.

Next the devil took him to the peak of the very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in their glory.

I will give it all to you, he said, if you will kneel down and worship me.

Get out of here, Satan, Jesus told him.

For the scriptures say, You must worship the Lord your God and serve only him.

Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus.

I have two little boys, and in their world anything can become a weapon.

It astounds me how many common household objects become make-believe weapons.

Brooms become spears, their sisters' headbands become slingshots, and even kitchen utensils become swords.

Using their imaginations, whatever they have at their disposal becomes a weapon in the games they play.

As we walk through the Gospel of Matthew during the season of Lent, we are looking at the life and the ministry of Christ and seeking to walk in the way of Jesus.

In Matthew chapter 4, we see our Savior modeling for us what it looks like to use the most powerful weapon at our disposal, the Word of God, as a weapon against the lies of the enemy.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

We see in verse 1 that Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, so he was being guided by the one who would equip him to use Scripture correctly to combat the enemy.

We must also rely on the Spirit, the one who inspired the Word of God to be written and illuminates its meaning for us, as we approach Scripture and study and we seek to stand against the enemy's attacks.

Our enemy, the devil, is crafty and manipulative.

He uses the same old approaches to try to trick Jesus that he uses against Eve in the garden, and he uses the same tactics against us today.

The first temptation in this passage was to appeal to the lust of the flesh.

Since you're the Messiah, why are you allowing yourselves to be deprived?

Do a little something for yourself.

He entices Jesus to use the power of God for self-serving purposes.

He was successful in tempting the first man, Adam, with his stomach, so he tried to do the same with Jesus.

After forty days of fasting, Jesus was hungry, and food would have been the most emergent physical need.

Satan asked him, Why starve to death?

He tempted Jesus with the desire for physical pleasure and comfort, but Jesus countered Satan's attack with scripture from Deuteronomy 8.3.

He knew that the Word of God offered him lasting sustenance that physical bread could not.

Very often the enemy preys on our desire for physical pleasure and comfort in order to draw our mind's attention and heart's affection away from God.

During the season of Lent, as many of us are fasting or giving up something of our own comforts we normally enjoy, we can fight the lust of the flesh by spending time relying on God in prayer and committing his word to memory, in order to be reminded that it is much better for us to offer longer lasting nourishment than mere food.

In Satan's second temptation, he asked Jesus to throw himself down from the temple and then exhibited his own knowledge of Scripture.

Go ahead, Jesus, if you do this, then the Bible promises angels will rescue you, and it will be spectacular self-promotion and evidence to show that you are who you say you are.

The enemy appealed to the pride of life here.

He tempted Jesus to force God into miraculous show of protection, essentially asking Jesus to put his father to the test.

Jesus knew he didn't need to do this.

His father had already moved miraculously at Jesus' baptism to reveal Jesus as his son, and he refuses.

Satan misuses Scripture, twisting it to be used for his own purposes, whereas Jesus understands the whole council of Scripture and uses it correctly to refute the test of his Father.

The last temptation in this passage appeals to the lust of the eyes.

It is an invitation to win the kingdoms of this world.

Satan would give them to Jesus if he would worship him.

Satan is doing much more here than offering Jesus earthly authority, though he already had supreme authority over heaven and earth.

He is insidiously undermining God's redemptive plan.

Jesus came to earth to win the kingdoms of earth back from Satan's dominion, and the tempter was offering him a way to do that without having to go to the cross.

The Father's plan for Jesus was for him to suffer first, then enter his glory.

Satan offered Jesus a way out of suffering.

If Jesus accepted this, our salvation would be impossible.

He might have gained some sort of earthly authority to rule, delegated by Satan, but then he would not have redeemed individual sinners through his sacrifice.

I love Jesus' response to Satan here.

He resists the devil by countering with truth from Deuteronomy 6, verse 13.

Deuteronomy 6:13

And commands him to leave.

Nothing the enemy could ever offer us could be better than that which our Father offers us salvation through Jesus, a place in his family, a part of his mission to see the damage that was done in the garden, because of the enemy's first temptation be reversed because of Jesus' complete and final victory over him.

Because of Jesus' victory on our behalf, we have the same power to resist the enemy, and when we do, James 4 7 tells us that he flees.

So our action this morning is this Jesus consistently and successfully resisted temptation because he walked in the Spirit and knew and used the Word as a weapon.

Satan is not stupid.

He will not continually put his limited resources into an ineffective battle.

We must continually resist them.

This week, take some practical steps to know, understand, and use scripture against the enemy.

You can't know or understand what you don't consume.

Commit to spending consistent daily time in Scripture this week.

Read and meditate on it.

Then choose a verse or passage to memorize and or pray back to the Lord each day.

Be intentional about identifying the lies with which Satan attacks you, and search Scripture to find truth that combats each lie.

For example, when you hear the enemy whisper, God doesn't love you, read, memorize, speak out loud the truth of Jeremiah 31 3, which says, He has loved you with an everlasting love.

Keep a list of lies that coincide truths to use against the enemy when he attacks or tempts you.

And so this morning we pray.

Father, thank you for Jesus.

Thank you for showing us through his example how to use your word to stand against the attacks of the enemy.

And thank you for sending him to the cross and bringing him out of the grave to defeat the enemy once and for all.

Would you remind me this week that I am engaging an enemy who has already been defeated, and help me to prioritize time in your word so that I will know and properly use truth to be victorious over him.

In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen.

Thank you so much for joining us this Friday morning.

We hope that you have a fantastic day.

Again, we would encourage you to read all of Matthew chapter 4, and then join us again tomorrow as we continue our devotion series.

Matthew 4 · chapter mention

We love you guys, and we'll see you tomorrow morning.