The Temptation of Jesus, Part 1

Introduction and Prayer for Illumination

0:02 This sermon was preached on Sunday morning, September 18, 1983, at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now may I encourage you to open your own Bibles to the first chapter of Mark's Gospel and follow as I read Mark chapter 1, verses 9 through 13. Mark 1, verses 9 through 13. And it came to pass in those days that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptized of John in the Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, He saw the heavens. And the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon Him. And a voice came out of the heavens, You are my beloved Son, in You I am well pleased.

1:15 And straightway the Spirit drives Him forth into the wilderness. And He was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan. And He was with Him. And He was with Him.

1:30 And He was with the wild beasts, and the angels ministered unto Him. Let us again seek the face of God in prayer that God the Holy Spirit would give us understanding in His truth. Let us pray.

1:55 Our Father, we thank You once again for Your holy and infallible Word. We thank You that many of us can say, by a conviction wrought in our hearts through the Holy Spirit, Thy Word is truth. We do confess our confidence in this Your Word. But we acknowledge, O Lord, that that conviction and confidence do not guarantee that we shall rightly understand that Word.

2:32 And we therefore come and cry to You, having been taught by that very Word, that You delight to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask. We come asking, our Father, that the Spirit will be given to us, not to bring us into some state of heightened feeling based upon irrational religious ecstasy, but, O, give us the Spirit to take away the dullness from our minds, the darkness from our hearts, the slowness, to respond from our wills. O, may the Spirit come as the Spirit of illumination, the Spirit who takes of the things of Christ and reveals them with power. O, Spirit, come and do that work as we study this portion together. We ask these mercies through the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

The Inauguration of Jesus Christ: The Threshold to Public Ministry

3:35 Now, we come this morning in our service to the Holy Spirit. We come this morning in our study of this first chapter of Mark's Gospel to the consideration of the final incident in the opening section of Mark's Gospel record, a section bounded by verses 1 and 13, and a section that I have entitled, following the suggestion of another, the inauguration of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, to the work He came to accomplish. And there are, as you will remember, those of you who have been with us, these three major points of emphasis in this introductory section, the inauguration of the King. We have the ministry of the forerunner, John the Baptist, in verses 2 through 8, and then the baptism of Jesus with its attendant endowment of the Spirit and the approbation of the Father's voice from heaven, verses 9 through 11. And now, this morning, this third major incident, this concentrated temptation of our Lord in the wilderness, as recorded in verses 12 and 13.

5:01 Now, Matthew and Luke, along with Mark, record these three major events as constituting the threshold by which our Lord passed out of the obscurity of His years of maturation in Nazareth of Galilee and into His formal public ministry. The ministry of the forerunner, His baptism and His temptation, comprise the threshold over which He passes from obscurity into public recognition and ministry. And as we come to consider this morning this very brief record of Mark with respect to this final event that comprises the threshold out of obscurity into public ministry, namely the temptation of our Lord in the wilderness, we come to a passage that is nothing less than brilliant with the outshining of the glory of our mighty conqueror, a passage that is pregnant with mystery, a passage which sets before us a divine person,

6:22 for remember verse 1, it is the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God. Remember verse 11, you are my beloved Son, the eternal Son, having taken to Himself a true humanity, a divine person who cannot be seen, who cannot sin, is nonetheless really and truly tempted to sin. And such a passage cannot help but be pregnant with mystery. God who cannot sin, and yet God incarnate tempted to sin.

7:05 It's a passage that is literally laden with fruit of practical consolation, and instruction just waiting to be picked by the people of God. And I confess that again as I have sought to prepare, I find myself embarrassed by the richness of the passage, and pulled in so many directions, desiring on the one hand to just stand before the brilliance of the glory of what it shows, of the majesty and power of our conquering hero, the Lord Jesus. To stand breathless before the many mysteries, and simply to point to those mysteries, or immediately to reach up and start plucking fruit of the practical teaching of the passage. But the Lord helping us, I hope, I've struck out on a course, not struck out in the course, but struck out upon a course, that will prove profitable to all of us. And what we'll attempt to do this morning is first of all, grasp the bare facts established by the text in Mark's Gospel, and then begin to consider the burning message of these facts, God willing, completing our study next Lord's Day morning. What then are the bare facts established by the text?

The Bare Facts of Jesus' Temptation in Mark's Gospel

8:33 Well, as I read the passage in your hearing, I sought to read it in such a way that you would immediately sense that there are four, or simple, unadorned facts set before us in the passage, two of them that we might rightly describe as major facts or incidents, and two minor or subsidiary facts or incidents. Notice then, the bare facts of the passage, first of all, the two major facts, verse 12, and straightway, the Spirit, drives him into the wilderness, and he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan. The first major fact established by the text of Mark is that immediately following his baptism and his anointing and the voice of approbation from heaven, our Lord is impelled by the Spirit, into the wilderness. Mark's favorite word confronts us, or one of his favorite words in verse 12, and straightway, that is immediately after the events recorded in verses 9 through 11,

9:59 his baptism, the anointing, the voice out of heaven, identifying him and approving him, immediately after that, which was such a glorious experience for our Lord, immediately following that experience, the text says that our Lord, by the Spirit, is driven into the wilderness. By the Spirit, that is, the personal Holy Spirit, whoever indwelt the human soul of our Lord, but who came upon him with peculiar power and unction subsequent to his baptism, that personal Holy Spirit, Mark says, and if you have the 1901 edition, it's rendered, drives him into the wilderness. Now why did the translators use such a strong word? Well, they were trying to reflect what is there in the original language in the account of Matthew, and of Luke, the more ordinary word for being led is used, but here a stronger word is used. It's the very word used again and again by Mark and the other Gospel writers for the casting out of demons,

11:26 and so there are times when it will rightly bear the weight of that emphasis of being driven out. It's used that way in verse 34 of this very chapter. Notice, with respect to someone possessed of a demon, verse 34, and he healed many that were sick with diverse diseases and cast out many demons. There's the word.

11:55 He cast out. He drove out. He compelled the demons to leave those whom they possessed. However, the word does not always bear that strength of meaning, for in verse 43 the same word is used and is translated as follows, and he strictly charged him and straightway, here it is again, sent him out.

12:22 Now obviously the manner in which the Lord drives out a demon and sends away a recipient of his grace and delivering power, there is a difference. And so perhaps the best way to render the verb is the word impel. For the word drive conveys to most of us the idea that our Lord was forced against his will. And surely anything which suggests any activity on the part of our Lord that falls short of conscious voluntary obedience is contrary to the whole picture we are given of our Lord in the biblical record. He is the willing servant of Jehovah. He is the well-beloved Son who is loved in his own words because he willingly does the will of the Father. For this cause doth my Father love me because...

13:26 And our Lord goes on to mention his own voluntary obedience. So the fact that is established in the passage is that the Spirit who has come in this intensified measure upon our Lord is the Spirit who creates in our Lord this tremendous sense of compulsion that he must go into the wilderness. Now what is this wilderness? I thought he was already baptized in the wilderness, according to verse 4, that John was in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance.

14:06 What is this other wilderness? Well, I wish I could tell you, but I can't. Neither can any of the commentators with any certainty, but this much seems clear. He was impelled by the motions of the Holy Spirit upon his human spirit to go into a place of solitude beyond and apart from the wilderness in which John was baptizing.

14:34 Now that's the first thing established by the text. Immediately following his baptism, his anointing, and the voice of identification and approbation, our Lord is impelled by the Spirit into the wilderness. Major fact number two. Once in the wilderness, our Lord underwent forty days of concentrated temptation by Satan himself.

15:06 Notice the language of the text. Once in the wilderness, what happened? And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan. And the language that Mark uses, I should say more accurately, the grammar that he uses, presses upon us this very simple fact that for forty days there was a concentrated inducement to sin on the part of Satan himself.

15:46 Forty days in the wilderness were marked by this pressure of temptation from Satan. That is the adversary, for that's what the word means, the one who opposes Satan. In the parallel passages he is called the devil. And so in the wilderness our Lord for forty days experiences not merely the climactic assault of Satan as given to us in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 4 and the Gospel of Luke chapter 4.

16:26 We must never think of the temptation of our Lord as exclusively bounded by those three concentrated assaults that came toward the end of the forty days, but during the entire period he was being pressured and bombarded by the attacks of the adversary seeking to lead him into sin. Now what was the nature of the temptation in those forty days? Concerning that question and its answer the Bible is silent. We are not told what the nature of the entire period of temptation was.

17:11 We are given by Matthew and Luke some details about the specific forms of temptation that came at the end of that period. And we can speak with some certainty about the nature of those temptations. But Mark simply says that having been impelled by the Spirit into the wilderness he was in the wilderness forty days being continually tempted of the devil himself. Now then there are two minor facts.

17:46 Now I did not say unimportant, but with relationship to these first two facts they are minor or incidental facts. The first one, during this forty day period his only companionship with living creatures was that of wild beasts. Look at the text. And he was continually we could translate it he was continually with the wild beasts.

18:22 Now only Mark gives us this detail. Mark probably learned it from Peter and Peter could have learned it from only one source. The only person who was there. Somewhere in his earthly pilgrimage our Lord conveyed to his apostles the fact that during this forty day period his only companionship with any living creatures was that of wild beasts.

18:53 Now any notion that this was paradise restored and the beasts were all tamed like the lions in Daniel's incident and the Lord was here manifesting His dominion is sheer nonsense. As far as I am concerned there's not a shred of evidence in the Bible that that's the purpose of Mark in recounting this. Remember he's writing particularly with the Romans in view. No doubt many of whom had seen people thrown to terrible wild beasts.

19:27 And we know something from Biblical history that wild beasts were indeed present in Palestine. We read about lions that devoured prophets. Remember how we read about the lion that killed the disobedient prophet a couple of Sundays ago? And the text simply states that his only companionship with living creatures in that entire forty day period was that of wild beasts.

19:55 And then the second minor or incidental fact is that the angels of God ministered to him in this situation and the angels ministered unto him. If all we had was Mark's account the grammar would force upon us the notion that during the forty day period at intermittent times the angels of God became our Lord's deacons for the verb minister means to deacon. They served him in his needs. We learn, you remember, from Matthew and Luke that he fasted during this forty day period.

20:36 Did they come as angels came to the prophet Elijah with food? Most likely they did at the end of that time. But the precise way in which they ministered is not described to us in any of the Gospel accounts and if all we had was Mark we would have the impression that throughout the entire forty days they ministered but there seems to be an emphasis particularly in Matthew's Gospel that it was at the end of the forty days subsequent to that final assault in the threefold temptation recorded by Matthew and by Luke that it was then that the angels came and ministered to him. But it may not be either or.

21:21 It may be that they continually ministered during the entire temptation which would do justice to the grammar of Mark but in a peculiar way at the end of that ordeal when the devil left him when Satan left him a defeated foe it was then that the angels ministered in a very peculiar way to our blessed Lord. Well, those are the facts of the passage. You see them? I trust you can look at the passage read through it and be satisfied that every major word in its relationship to the words before and after are understood.

The Burning Message: Christ's Voluntary Humiliation and Suffering

22:02 The bare facts are four. Two major and two minor. Now then, what is the burning message of this passage of the Word of God? And as I have already confessed it's an embarrassment of riches to a preacher to stand before such a passage and to seek to know the mind of God with respect to preaching the Gospel and feeding the sheep of Christ.

22:29 But what I've chosen to do is first of all this morning to set before you the burning message of the text as it tells us something about Him who is the heart of the Gospel of God's grace to sinners. You remember that Mark opened his Gospel account by writing the beginning of the Gospel concerning Jesus Christ, Son of God. And Jesus Christ himself is the center, the focal point of the Gospel. And therefore it is right as we come with the question what is the burning message of this text to seek to ascertain what it says about Him who is the heart and soul of the Gospel even our Lord Jesus Christ. And I will attempt to do that this morning tracing out three lines of application and then God willing next week since it is a record of the temptation of our Lord a concentrated period of temptation it is a watershed of Biblical teaching on the subject of temptation and so we'll take up the question what does it teach us as believers about the subject of temptation. But this morning we concentrate

23:57 all of our attention upon our Lord Himself. What this passage tells us about Him who is the heart and soul of the Gospel. And the first thing it tells us is this it proclaims the depths of His voluntary humiliation and suffering on behalf of His people. This passage proclaims the depths of His voluntary humiliation and suffering on behalf of His people.

24:32 Remember the connection. Mark presses it upon us in his opening words and straightway the Spirit impels Him into the wilderness. Straightway from the heights of the open heavens the descending Spirit the voice out of the heavens You are my beloved Son in You I have been well pleased I am well pleased. I am well pleased.

25:03 All of my pleasure focuses upon You from the heights of the open heavens the descending Spirit the voice of identification and approbation into the murky dark depths of forty days of concentrated encounter with the Prince of Darkness. And no companions but wild beasts. I say the passage sets before us as few passages in the word of God set before us the depths of His voluntary humiliation and suffering on behalf of sinners. Dare we even attempt to imagine what it must have meant to the holy spotless soul and spirit of our Lord Jesus to undergo a month and ten days of such intense relentless bombardment of His soul with suggestions to evil. Matthew and Luke

26:27 give us only a record of the threefold temptation that came at the end of the forty days. Thoughts of blasphemy suggested to our Lord the thought of falling down and worshipping the Prince of Darkness thoughts of tempting His Father who had just spoken to Him You are my beloved Son can we begin to imagine or are our minds so besotten with all kinds of trivia that we can't even think in these dimensions can we begin to imagine what this must have meant to the holy soul of our Lord Jesus how His soul must have recoiled in horror at all of the suggestions that came to Him day after day after day week after week upon week forty days tempted of the adversary in concentrated relentless temptation. Furthermore can we begin to conceive what it was for Him who from eternity had been face to face with the Father

27:54 who when He took to Himself a true humanity had known in the intimacy of that humble home in Nazareth the warmth of the relationship to His Mother and with His earthly Father from the standpoint of that marriage between Mary and Joseph not by human procreation the Lord whom we see in the scriptures as not at all touched by asceticism but a lover of men a lover of children may I say it reverently a leaner upon men could you not watch with me one hour the one who allowed John to rest his head upon his bosom can we begin to imagine what it was for this one whose heart verily breathed and pulsed and throbbed with love for fellow men to have no companionship in this dark concentrated period of temptation but smiling wild beasts in a howling wilderness face to face with the Father seraphim worshipping Him

29:22 angels His heavenly entourage Mark says and He was with the wild beasts furthermore the very one who spoke worlds into being out of the womb of nothing in this voluntary humiliation the Creator of angels is now dependent upon the ministry of those angels to meet His own needs my friends that's the gospel of Jesus Christ Son of God it is the good news that God so loved the world that He gave and that Jesus Christ so loved His people that He was willing to give in the language of Philippians 2 though in the form of God made Himself of no reputation taking the form of a servant and being found in fashion as a man He humbled Himself and surely the incident recorded here in Mark's gospel eloquently declares the depths of His voluntary humiliation and suffering

30:52 on behalf of sinners you say Pastor you usually are careful in the choice of your words and you keep saying suffering why? because Hebrews 2.18 says this in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted and that word suffer is the standard word used to describe the sufferings that ultimately are the sufferings unto death the Son of Man must suffer and be killed and the third day be raised up that's the word so for our Lord temptation was a form of suffering it was spiritual agony and pain for His holy soul to experience this enticement to evil granted there was no inherent evil in His soul as there is in ours He had no identity with Adam's fallen race in terms of a polluted nature and in that sense all of the enticement had to come from without but it can only come from without as suggestions are made to His mind and to His spirit and to His appetites

32:17 and that's where we gain light from Matthew and Luke the temptations come to a hungry man after forty days of fasting he was an hungered looking upon those stones that looked like little Palestinian loaves the tempter comes and says if thou art the Son of God turn the stones into bread and then misquotes the scripture he brings these suggestions into the theatre of our Lord's mind and what is the mind in relationship to the soul how can we separate all of this and for our Lord to have even these suggestions of deviation from the Father's will to be put outside of the place of being the well beloved one who was always the object of His pleasure the very suggestion caused Him a suffering that you and I will never, never know but whatever pain we have known by inducement to sin at our highest points of grace it is still inducement of sin or to sin to a sinful soul but here was enticement to sin from the adversary upon Him who knew no sin was holy harmless

33:45 undefiled separate from sinners and in a real sense this was a preview to Gethsemane and to Golgotha no sooner is our Lord publicly identified with His people in the waters of Jordan saying in that symbol I take upon myself the sinner's ordinance because I from this point on will publicly and visibly and formally stand in the sinner's room instead for Him that can mean one thing depths of voluntary humiliation and suffering and so He suffered being tempted and my dear friends that's good news that's God's heart unveiled to us so set upon saving His people that He will by the Spirit He places upon His Son impel Him to forty days of intense suffering and humiliation in this crucible of temptation that you and I may have a perfected Savior but in the second place it tells us this about our Lord

The Burning Message: Christ's Saving Power as the Last Adam

35:10 it proclaims the glory of His saving power as the last Adam it proclaims the glory of His saving power as the last Adam now it is not without significance that there is no record in the scripture of our Lord ever being tempted by the devil in His infancy in His formative period in His development into mature manhood in Nazareth there is nothing in scripture to suggest that there was ever an approach by the adversary to our Lord I'm not saying there was none but scripture again throws a cloak of silence over that matter but no sooner does He formally publicly identify Himself with sinners but it is as though Satan the arch enemy of God and man senses that the gauntlet has been thrown down in Jordan's waters our Lord is saying symbolically I have come forth to take the place of sinners I have come

36:38 as the mighty conqueror the long promised seed of the woman and I have come forth to do combat with that seed of the serpent and I am committing myself in that combat to nothing less than crushing His head the gauntlet is thrown down and here we see the response of the enemy driven now by the spirit into the wilderness the enemy comes having as it were accepted the challenge and saying have you taken upon yourself all of the liabilities of those whom you came to save have you come forth to crush my head we'll see in the garden I came to the first man the first Adam and in all of that situation so conducive to his obedience with one concentrated onslaught I gained the victory I come to you the last Adam I come to you the second man and I am determined to do to you what I did to the first Adam I came to him and I conquered and I dragged him and all who are in him into the state of sin they are my captives

38:06 you have come forth to deliver them in a sense the devil says I the adversary stand and say over my dead body and for forty days the devil entices the devil tempts the devil seeks to bring stain upon our Lord why not primarily because of what he was as a private person but primarily for what he now is publicly and formally declared to be the last Adam on whose shoulders the salvation of all the multitude whom God had chosen in eternity rest and if he can but bring down the champion he brings down all of his people in him now is this all fanciful theological jargon no it's the simple teaching of the Bible by one man sin entered into the world and death passed upon all men for that all sinned in the one man and now God has sent the second man the last Adam and the scripture says in him and in his obedience and in his conquest is our salvation and what a beautiful demonstration of the glory of his saving power as the last Adam

39:34 is given to us in this very account of this initial concentrated onslaught of the enemy when we turn to the account in Matthew and then again in Luke we read that the devil left him for a season after that final concentrated onslaught in which he tempted him in that threefold way the scripture says then the devil leaveth him for a season it's as though the gauntlet having been thrown down and spent all of his ammunition for forty days in frustration he turns and leaves for a season and it's interesting that the gospel teaches us the gospel records teach us that though there were subsequent encounters and skirmishes sometimes through the very influence of his own disciples get thee behind me Satan when Peter says to our Lord by pass the cross he recognizes the work of Satan the final concentrated attack comes at the very end of his ministry Gethsemane and Golgotha are the final struggle the final conflict and the one who triumphed in the wilderness triumphs according to Colossians 2 at his cross and what is here given to us in pledge and earnest

41:02 is given to us there in its glorious fulfillment now is the prince of this world cast out and here then on the threshold of our Lord's public ministry is this wonderful proclamation of his mighty conquest as the last Adam my friends this is the gospel you sit here this morning some of you bound to the devil by the chains of your own lust and sin helpless and undone what's the gospel the gospel is not that the church is ready to sell you some snippers to go out and cut your own chains the gospel is that God has sent his son and the one of whom he spoke there on the banks of Jordan this is my son my beloved in him I am well pleased and placed his spirit upon him to be the mighty conqueror behold him in his passage he goes forth and for forty days he is in hand to hand combat who leaves the field defeated not our Lord there's a beautiful stroke in Mark in Luke's gospel that after the temptation it says and he being full of the spirit came and preached he comes away having lost nothing

42:29 the father's good pleasure manifested in placing his spirit upon him it is the devil who leaves defeated and dear vulnerable weak faltering saint who feels at times I'll never make it though I am confident that God has begun a good work in me the ghost of my past my past alliances with the devil and his ways and his people are such that I wonder will I ever make it my friend go to the wilderness and see the devil leaving shrinking away defeated by the mighty conqueror who took all that the devil could give him and turned it aside and conquered conquered not for his sake but on behalf of his people for this purpose the son of God was manifested that he might destroy the works of the devil but then in the third place this passage not only sets before us our Lord's voluntary humiliation and suffering on behalf of his people his mighty conquest as the last Adam but it proclaims the reality and the largeness of his sympathetic heart

The Burning Message: Christ's Sympathetic Heart for His Tempted People

43:56 towards his tempted people it proclaims the reality and the largeness of his sympathetic heart towards his tempted people one of the greatest burdens to a true Christian is the reality of temptation if you want to know whether or not you're a true Christian here's one of the most telling tests is one of life's greatest burdens to you the reality of temptation what do I mean by that simply this is it a real experience to you to feel from whatever source whether the stirring up of memories of the past or lust within or enticements that seem to come more from without from whatever source in whatever form pressure to consent to sin that's what temptation is and to the Christian not only is the stain of sin and falling into sin a grief but temptation itself is a grief it's his grief that he's even vulnerable to the enticement it is his shame that he would even entertain the enticement if you know nothing of that my friend I doubt you're a Christian for if God has placed within your

45:24 heart the same spirit who came upon the Lord Jesus there will be in you that same disposition as was in him that disposition of revulsion that disposition of pain and grief and a measure of suffering in the midst of temptation now in the midst of this pain we as the people of God are often confused and assaulted at the point of our greatest need now follow me closely when temptation comes what is our greatest need well according to Hebrews 4 16 it is to come boldly to the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in our time of need in the midst of temptation our greatest need is to go to the one who can help us overcome temptation but it's precisely at that point that the devil assaults us and here's how he assaults us we feel the pain the shame the uncleanness of even being tempted and we say how can I go to God with this pull upon my soul with this lust burning as it were like a fire within my breast how can I come into the

46:51 presence of a holy God and on the other hand if I do come into the presence of a holy God how can I come into the presence of a God who never knew what it was to feel his spirit so pressured and enticed and seduced and what happens we stay away from the throne of grace at the very point that we most desperately need to come to the throne of grace now how are we to overcome that if you turn to Hebrews chapter 4 God gives us the answer there is but one way to overcome that and that's the great message of the recorded temptation of our Lord Hebrews 4 and verse 14 having then a great high priest to his pass through the heavens Jesus the Son of God let us hold fast our confession for we have not a high priest that cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities but one that has been in all points tempted like as we are yet without sin let us

48:19 therefore draw near to obtain help you see the connection let us therefore draw near why for draw near why for the reason that we have a high priest who does empathize and sympathize with us and why and how is he qualified to empathize and sympathize for two reasons tempted yet he never sinned you see it's a lie of the devil that he cannot really sympathize because he never sinned my friend that's the very thing that makes it worth our while to go to him why go to one who fell as we fall why go for help to the helpless go to the one who was tempted and who conquered and yet in his conquering might he doesn't look down upon us and say you weaklings I conquered why don't you conquer for he conquered is one who was tempted and though as God he could not sin his temptation was nonetheless real you say well how do you figure that out I don't it's none of my business to do it and it's none of yours but it is your business to believe that when the text says

49:48 he was tempted in all points come boldly because Hebrews 2 18 says in that he himself had suffered being tempted does that sound like real temptation or a phantom temptation was the temptation real it was real enough to produce suffering that's real he is able to suck them that are tempted you know what that word sucker means it's the very word that man used when he said Lord I believe help my unbelief sucker my unbelief when Paul had the vision a man of Macedonia stands standing and saying come over and that's the word help us that is give appropriate and timely need supply appropriate and timely need extend appropriate and timely help come over and help us and it's very interesting it's the noun form in Hebrews 4 16 come boldly to obtain succor to obtain timely help it's the noun form of the verb he's able to succor you see the connection he's able to succor why he's able to give timely and appropriate help why because his temptation was real and in the language of Professor Murray he is carried

51:14 with him into heaven blessed be God for such a savior he's carried into heaven with him the reservoir of all that he felt in the days of his humiliation he did not leave that felt empathy behind the humiliation is behind it's done forever but thank God the experiences felt and known are carried with him into the glory and we have a high priest who is touched with the feeling of her infirmities don't you go shriveling away saying well God really doesn't understand Christ really doesn't understand have you ever known what it is for forty days to be in direct face to face combat with the devil himself bombarded with all that he could bring before any human soul of his accumulated subtlety and vile and venomous and filthy suggestions you've never known that our savior did and he conquered come boldly to the throne of grace this passage tells us proclaims with power

52:43 the reality and the largeness of the sympathetic heart of Christ toward his people old Bishop Ryle with his beautiful simplicity commenting on this very fact says let us learn what a sympathizing savior the Lord Jesus Christ is the sympathy of Jesus is a truth which ought to be peculiarly dear to all believers they will find in it a mine of strong consolation they should never forget that they have a mighty friend in heaven who feels for them in all their temptations and can enter into all their spiritual anxieties are they ever tempted by Satan to distrust God's care and goodness so was Jesus are they ever tempted to presume on God's mercy and run into danger without warrant so also was Jesus are they ever tempted to commit some one great private sin for the sake of some seeming great advantage fall down worship me I'll give you the kingdoms of the world so also was Jesus are they ever tempted to listen to some misapplication of scripture as an excuse for doing wrong so also was Jesus he is just the savior that attempted people need let them flee

54:11 to him for help and spread before him all their troubles they'll find his ear ever ready to hear and his heart ever ready to feel he can understand their sorrows may we all know the value of a sympathizing savior by experience there is nothing to be compared to it in this cold and deceitful world those who seek their happiness in this life only and despise the religion of the bible have no idea of the true comfort they are missing my dear worldly friend do you know anything of what we're speaking this morning who can describe who has tasted the consolation of coming to the throne of grace when the mind has been bombarded with suggestions so foul that one would not even honor them in the presence of another mortal who can tell the consolation coming and saying oh my God I thank you for your dear son tempted in all points like as I am but without sin oh God you know do not love nor entertain nor want to follow these

55:41 foul suggestions these fiery darts of the evil one Lord I come for help I need help Lord oh Lord as it were pour upon these smoldering embers of impure desire and blasphemous thought Lord smother them in the ocean of your grace and of your mighty power come to him and pour out your soul before him and then to come away knowing that left to yourself you would have followed to the very letter every suggestion of the devil dishonored your God and breathed the spirit and brought shame to Christ but by his grace you come away a conqueror through him that loved you my worlding friend you can take your trinkets and live and die with them hell with you this pearl of great price exceeds anything this world can offer to have such a saint oh child of God hear the message of the suffering of those forty days you have a savior right now who in heaven has a heart full of ability to sympathize

Conclusion and Prayer

57:08 one who is touched go when you need to go and obtain grace to help in time of need well I say these are at least three of the things that comprise the good news concerning Jesus Christ God's son three things about our savior set before us in this record of his temptation it proclaims the depths of his humiliation and suffering on our behalf the glory of his saving power is the last Adam the reality of his sympathy toward his tempted people may we love and trust this savior as we have never loved and trusted him before let us pray our father what thanks can we render to you for the gift of your dear son we thank you that we have a savior who is touched with the feeling of our infirmities having been tempted in all points like as we yet without sin we thank you for his mighty conquest of this prince of darkness we thank you that he conquered on our

58:36 behalf he conquered as our head he conquered as our representative and we this day stand in the fruit of his conquest and oh how we rejoice that when he died he died as the spotless lamb with no stain of sin upon his soul no guilt of his own but was able to bear imputed guilt because he was the sinless one oh how we thank you we pray that we may love and worship and serve our blessed savior in the light of all that he has borne for us give eyes to see to those who are blind who cannot see beyond the toys and trinkets of this present world oh father give them we pray eyes to behold the beauty of your son and hearts to receive and love and serve him seal your word to our hearts and to your name and to the name of your beloved son be praise and honor and glory now and forever amen