Text: Matthew 4:1-11
Date: 10/26/03
Place: Ilagan
Baptist Church (SS)
Preacher: Pastor Jose B. Cabajar
The Bible has been and always will be the best source of spiritual
knowledge. The devil is not happy about it because the Bible teaches us on
how to guard our whole existence from his subtle attacks. He hates the Bible because
it exposes
his unnoticed ways of destroying human beings.
Since
the downfall of man, through the Scriptures,
God has been so faithful to us, telling us the ways
of truth. God wants every man to be saved through faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ and to be protected from the continual attacks of the
devil. He wants us to submit ourselves first unto Him,
and then resist the devil, and we will have the
assurance that the
devil will flee from us. What a blessed truth
to hold on to.
The temptation of our Lord Jesus
in the wilderness during His earthly ministry was an excellent illustration
on how to guard our whole existence from the devils deception.
First, He reminds
us that we are under God's care and we should not be intimidated by devils fiery attacks.
Second, He emphasizes that our existence is not merely physical.
The Lord said, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by
every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He wants us to
be aware of our whole existence as we live here on earth. Our existence is a wonderful
creation of God. As we study Matthew Chapter 4,
it surely deepens our consciousness regarding our unique existence.
We have our physical
existence, emotional
existence and spiritual
existence. Third, God wants us to become
victorious soldiers of Christ. The Matthew 4
account reminds us that we are on the
winning side because we are on the Lords side.
(I) The Devil Attacks Our Physical Being
Matthew 4:1-4 Romans 6:12, 13
Romans 13:14
-yielding our bodies to
God as as a living
sacrifice protects us from Satans
exploitation
-knowing and using the power of the Scripture
keep us away from yielding to
temptation
Being aware of our physical being and
our instinct helps us to defend ourselves from the harassment of our adversary, the devil.
(II)
The Devil Attacks Our Emotional Being
Matthew 4:5-7
-we must watch and
guard our emotion
-we must pull down our strongholds
II Cor. 10:3-6
-we must know how to handle the Word of God
rightly
-dont let pride destroy our lives
-dont forget Jeremiah
17:9
Familiarity of our emotional existence and our own mental
reasoning is a great advantage on our part in times of emotional instability.
(III) The Devil Attacks Our Spiritual Being
Matthew 4:8-11
-we are in need of spiritual
strength and endurance
-we are in need of spiritual food which is the Word of God
-we need an increase of faith
Knowing our spiritual existence
keeps us watchful to the attacks of our adversary.
It helps us to realize that literal bread cannot sustain
and nourish our spiritual being. Our adversarys desire is
to weaken our faith and
change the true object of our worship, but our Lord
Jesus showed us an example to follow so we could
also overcome every temptation that comes on
our way. Its always a blessing to put our
trust in Him and be aware of the power of His Holy Word.
