The Identity Thief

We've been looking at the life of Christ and he, as it's told to us by Luke, Luke is a great writer. He is a Greek writer. He could write classical Greek because the only place you find classical Greek in the Bible is the first four verses of Luke. But then he switches to everyday Greek and he tells us about the life of Christ. He had never seen Christ, but he had been told about the Lord.

And as a God fearer who sat in the back of the synagogue, he came to know Christ through the ministry of Paul. And through that he wanted to share that with those even in higher government. And he writes to a guy named Theophilus, who is some kind of leader in the Roman government. And he writes to him the stories about Christ. And in doing so, he has given us the longest book in the New Testament, the Gospel of Luke.

And when you put Luke and Acts together, he's the only writer that brings the sequel. In fact, he tells us about the history of the church. And the history of church is still being written. But the Book of Acts and the Gospel of Luke give us the largest content about the life of Christ and the life of the early church that is written in Scripture. And Luke has to be my favorite writer.

I wrote my dissertation about Luke and what he did in the parables. And he was a great writer, great historian and great missionary. But he tells us about the life of Christ and he's already shown us how Christ was born. And he interviewed Mary to get what happened there. And she brought forth her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger.

And then about the shepherds. But then it tells about Jesus life. And the only segment we have about his early life is when he was 12 years old he went to the temple and he had this experience with God in the temple. And he was sitting among the teachers and he was listening to what they had to say and he was asking them questions and he was understanding what they were saying. And he, they were amazed at his understanding.

But he was so captivated that he almost stayed there. But his mother said, no, you got to go home with us. And for the rest of the year, his father disappears from the scene. And evidently Jesus becomes a leader of his family. And he raises all of his six brothers and sisters until they left home.

And then he felt this call for the ministry that God had placed upon upon his heart. And he's the Son of God, but he's also the son of man. And it's hard for us to bring Those two natures together. But when you see him, like when he was on the ship in the storm, and he was so tired, he was exhausted. And yet when the storm became so high, and the disciples asked him, please save us.

And he stands up and he tells the winds to. To hush. And you wish you could tell your children that. And they would obey like the wind. And it hushed.

And they said, wow, the two natures together in Jesus.

So it came time for him to be baptized. And John the Baptist was already in the wilderness in the Jordan river doing baptism. And he brought something new because it had never been brought before. And it still exists in our church today, to be baptized, there's a baptism into repentance. But John knew that he was not the man.

And he pointed to Jesus and he said, behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. And so Jesus came to be baptized. It started as public ministry. It was a step in the direction of that God was leading him. And he was baptized.

And after he was baptized, he was praying. And as he was praying, three things happened. And the last time I was with you, we talked about those three things that was happening. Heaven opened, because he is opening to heaven. There is no other opening to heaven.

The Holy Spirit came down like a dove. And the dove was a symbol of peace. And it's about God's peace. And the angels, when they talked, sang to the shepherds. They talked about a peace that only God brings.

And you can't find that peace anywhere. You can't find it in Budweiser. You can't find it anywhere you want to look. You can never find that kind of peace that only the Lord offers in the power of the Holy Spirit. And then the voice of the Father, which there are so many kids that would love to hear their father's voice saying what God said to Jesus Christ, his only son.

This is my beloved son. I'm so proud of you.

I am so proud of you. And when you bring those two together verses, they were like Psalms 2, verse 1. And Isaiah is the idea of his kingship. He's going to be king, and he is a king. He is king, and he is Lord, and he showed it.

But it will be through a different kind of route, and the route will be through suffering and the cross.

And so he's ready for his public ministry. But first he has to go through the tempter. And the tempter shows up in different places. He shows up on prom night. He shows up in business meals and tax returns.

And he shows up. He shows up at bars and he shows up at different kind of places. Sometimes he even shows up at church. And I've seen church people go after each other not in the power of the Holy Spirit, but under the influence of Satan. And Satan's a real person.

And we ignore him. If we ignore him at the front door, he'll come through the back door. He is that way in all of our lives. You and I will face the tempter and the temptations that he brings. And it's so easy to give in to those kind of temptations because we're flesh and we're flesh, our flesh.

He appeals to our flesh. He gets inside of our head and he tells us that salvation is damnation and damnation is salvation. And he has a way of putting his garbage out there and we have a way of picking it up. When I was in Texas and going to seminary and by the way, that's a foreign nation out there in Texas, by the way. But I enjoyed being out there, but I was glad God brought me back to Alabama.

But there was a. They were very proud of the Texas Rangers. They're known for what they do and how they capture their captives and all these criminals and so they're very good. That Waco, Texas, I think is the place where that history is about. But there was this bandit from Mexico and he would come across the border, I'll just say it's Jose, and he would rob the banks and then go back across the border and take him back to his little Mexican town.

And so those Rangers would stop at the border. But there's this one ranger that was really aggressive. And so he chases him down and chases him down to his little border town, finds him in this cantina and he walks up, puts a gun to his head and says, tell me where you put all that gold or your life will end. And so he couldn't speak English and the ranger couldn't speak Hispanics, so they had a language problem. So they got a 10 year old boy who could do both of those and he translated.

And as a 10 year old boy said, the ranger said, you tell him, tell me where all your gold is and or else your life will end. And so he translated that. And so the bandit said, it's buried beneath the, it said in Hispanics, buried beneath the fountain in the city. And there's all this money and all this gold. And so the ranger asked, the little boy said, what did he say?

And this is what he said. He said, he said he is a brave man, and he's ready to die.

Yield not to temptation, for yielding is a sin. Satan kind of shows up. He shows up in the garden and he shows up as an attractive kind of form. And he challenged Eve's assumptions. And Eve's assumptions was that God is a good God and he wants to bless us.

But Satan said this. You know, the reason he's keeping you from that tree is he got keeping you from being what you're made to be. Don't listen to God. You listen to me. I got more to tell you about.

And so she ate her the fruit.

It's like if you had a doctor to tell you this, not to eat this and eat this. And a guy who is a plumber in the back says, listen, don't listen to that. He doesn't know what he's doing. Let me tell you what to do.

And that's what Satan does. That's his approach. There are no physical presence that we're given of Satan. We don't know what he looks like. We know that he was a beautiful angel that somehow led the choirs.

He was a choir director.

And he decided he would become God. And so he led a rebellion. And one third of the angels went with him. He can never be saved. And in the book of Revelation, he goes to the bottomless pit.

But until that time, he is wreaking havoc on God's people. And just like he gave to Eve, he comes to us and says, don't listen now. Let me tell you how it's like.

And he appeals to that flesh on the outside. And he does a very good job. And when you and I are one on one with Satan, he wins.

He wins. He is very persuasive. He's a good talker. And often he makes good sense to those who want to listen to him.

And he knows just where to come. That weak place in our personality.

So all of us face the tempter. And the biggest regrets in our lives come when we listen to him and then obey him and let him decide and make our decisions for us.

Now it's important as Jesus is beginning his ministry, to face the tempter. It's like the one on one super bowl that's going to happen. One on one. Jesus and the tempter. But Jesus is there as the son of God.

But he's also there with two things that you and I must have if we're gonna successfully deal with the tempter when he comes. And it's not if he comes, it's when he comes. And at every stage of our life, we face the tempter in some form or another.

And so he comes at Jesus. But this is what two things that Jesus says. He has the power of the Holy Spirit and he has the word of God. And the word of God in the power of the Holy Spirit means this is greater than he that is in us, than he that is in this world.

And we face the kind of world of predators and places where the tempter is very active and he runs a good show. He's at the front door and he is also at the back door. Now Jesus is important for Jesus to face him. So in honor of God's word, would you stand as we read just the first couple of verses and then we talk about the three temptations that came to Jesus. Chapter four, verse one.

And I'm reading from the King James. So sometimes it difference from the new international, but you will see some of the places that it's different.

And Jesus being full of the Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit came down at him in baptism. He had already been born in the Holy Spirit, could not have been born to Mary without the work of the Holy Spirit. But now he is full of the Holy Spirit. So that's this.

If he's going to make it in the public ministry, he has to be full of the Holy Spirit. But here's to know, being full of the Holy Spirit does not mean the absence of Satan.

I'm going to let that go for a minute. Cause you can be full of the Holy Spirit. That means you'll not be tempted, you will still be tempted. He returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Now the wilderness is a place of predators.

When Adam and Eve were banished from the Garden of Eden, they had to go out into the wilderness. They had a safe place in the Garden of Eden. But when they went out into the wilderness, there are predators there. And so he goes out in the wilderness. That's the place where Satan thrives, is out there in the wilderness.

And it's still there.

This week I just watched on television where the five communications guys were there, our work that they do on Instagram and all this kind of stuff and TikTok and all this. And they entered all those on how they're destroying the youth of our United States. And Mark Mecklenburg turned around, who is the kind of leader of Facebook, and he turned around and apologized to all these parents who talked about how all that was so destroying their kids and platform for their kids. And he apologized, but he didn't offer any change that was happening.

It's a place of predators, and you know that. And you can turn, get on your phone and your mobile device and you're scared about who you say yes to and who you say no to. And there are all kind of people who had their identity stolen because we're in a world of predators. And this is what's important. We've got to raise another generation to go out there and face that same kind of world where it's to be a fraternity party at the University of Alabama, or whether it be whatever you want it to be, there are predators out there.

So Jesus is in the wilderness. And he was there for 40 days. 40 days was like the children of Israel were in the wilderness. But also 40 days is where Moses got himself ready for the receive the law. And he was tested by the devil.

The word there for devil is diabolos. And the word diabolos means to split or to change, turn somebody off, turn away from God. And in those days he did eat nothing. And I associate with that. I've been eating bananas and chicken soup and I know what it's like to eat nothing.

But anyway, and when they ended, he afterwards was hungry. Can you associate with that? Okay, so Jesus is being tested for 40 days and he's handling that testing. But Satan has three knockout punches that he wants to bring.

So may God bless the reading of his word. And you may be seated.

And look at verse three.

And the devil said, because he speaks, the devil's voice came to him.

If you are the son of God. And they I taught Greek and Greek is very open in a lot of ways. This is a first class conditional sentence. That is, since you are the son of God and you can do whatever you want to do, since you are the son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. Cause he's hungry.

He's at his weakest condition.

And in that weak kind of condition, he it's kind of like, I'll take anything, I'll take anything. And so in that weak and conditioned, he comes to him and he said, you know, while you're hungry, just take this stones over here and turn them into bread. Now it's not a miracle to take bread and turn it into stone. Amen.

Maybe you've done that. My mother in law was known for her burning the toast every morning. And Susan would wake up with her mother scraping the burn off the toast. So you can take bread and turn it into stone. And again we had an oven that we call Nazareth and nothing good ever came out of that oven.

But so that's easy to do that. Oh, man. But reach out. You can do it.

And the idea is, but you and I couldn't associate with him if he did that, because we can't take stone and turn it into bread. We can't do miracles, but he can. And so he came to engage a culture that's out of control. And it's still out of control.

But he also came to provide an example to say to us in the Holy Spirit and in God's word, you can deal with those temptations that come our way and you can gain victory in those moments.

So he said unto him, if you are, since you are the Son of God, command this stone that it may brew bread. But if he did that, he wouldn't be like you and me. So Jesus answered him, saying, it is written. And that's a good translation of a tense there. It's in the perfect tense.

It was written back there in Deuteronomy. It's written in Jesus day and it's still written in our day. So is the power of God's word. And many people have accused that and talked about it and brought accusations against God's word. But it's still powerful.

And so he said, it is written, man shall not live by bread alone. And it comes right out of Deuteronomy, chapter 8.

The Israelites, as they were facing testing there in the wilderness, do I trust God with this moment?

Do I trust God? Or do I take my own initiative and come up with my own solution apart from God?

And Jesus said, I trust God.

And Moses started out with his own solution and he came up with his own plan and he carried it out in the flesh and it all fell apart.

So Jesus quotes scripture and what has happened. The Holy Spirit kind of brings this scripture to his mind and brings that scripture to his mind and he puts it out there for Satan to deal with. And I like the way he does that. There's a strongness in this. Let me kind of illustrate this.

When I was at Sanford on the third string, we were scrimmaging the first string defense. And so as a guard, I was. They were going to run an off tackle play. Are you with me? This is heavy stuff.

So I was going to run. We were going to run off tackle play. So I had to pull and hit this tackle and knock him out of the play and let halfback or running back run ramming. So I pulled with all my momentum and I went out there and hit this guy and he was three years older than me. I was 18 years old.

He was three years older than me. He was shaving twice a day. And he had been a bouncer in the off season in New Orleans.

So I hit him to take his head off, and he took my head off and I hit him. And I bounced back about three spaces. And there was this ringing in my ear. Somebody answered that telephone somewhere. Somewhere.

Get that telephone out. So I went back to the huddle and I told the quarterback, I said, listen, man, we gotta run a different play. This ain't gonna work now. All that to say, boom. Satan didn't know how to handle that.

It was the power of God's word hitting him. And he said, okay, let's try a different course. And so he takes him to a high mountain, and in a moment, he shows him all the glory and authority of the world. And it's the glory and authority that appeals. And so many people have fallen to that.

And we look at all the world leaders that had fallen to that. The Greeks and the Romans and the Persians and the Medes and the Assyrians. Susan and I, several years ago, spent a good time traveling to all these ancient ruins. At one time they had their glory. At one time they had their height.

At one time they had their authority. And people would kneel when these rulers would come by. But they all kind of faded.

So Satan says, just fall down and worship me just one time. Just one time the way I'll know. Just be me and you.

And it's our place, and you deserve it. You're the Son of God.

Let me tell you how to handle this.

So the Holy Spirit draws up scripture from Deuteronomy again.

And scripture says, I shall worship God only, and him only shall you serve.

He backed away. He didn't. Argument. No argument. Like, listen, let's talk about this.

Let's settle this. He came back. That's the power of the Holy Spirit and the power of God's word. But he's not through.

So he takes him to a high point among Jerusalem. Jerusalem's going to be one of the great places where Jesus will be. And that's where he will march in, and that's where he will be crucified.

Jerusalem was David's city, and the temple was there. And all the history of Israel was there at that place in Jerusalem. And Jesus had a very special place for Jerusalem in his heart. And he said, oh, Jerusalem, oh, Jerusalem, how often would I have taken you as a mother hen does a little chick. But you would not.

So how do you approach when in Jerusalem? So he takes him to a pinnacle on top of the temple sacred place. And he said, now listen, why don't you just throw yourself down off this pinnacle? And he goes to Psalm 91. Cause Satan can also.

He can also talk Scripture, and he is very good at that. And I've seen scripture used in so many places that God was not in it. And people use scripture to justify the things they should never have tried to justify. And they said, God is in this. And they quoted a scripture.

And yet they came after somebody in the name of the Lord.

So Jesus said this. Thou shall not test the Lord thy God goes back to Deuteronomy.

Again. Satan hit a wall three times. He came at him with the best he could throw. Three times he backed him down.

Not because he was the Son of God, although he was the Son of God, but because he used scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit. And greater is he that is in you, that is in the world.

How many times would we go back over places in our lives and said, I wish I'd done that?

But I listened when I should have used scripture and used God's word to apply there.

I'm still aware and I see how dangerous the social media can be and how it's corrupting people in so many, many ways. And often I look at that and I wonder, the voice of Satan is coming through all of that. And so many are listening and listening and listening.

And often their platforms are corrupting us as he gets inside of our head and leads us in the wrong direction. And what troubles me is a generation growing up listening. And they get used to listening to those things.

Parents have a big job.

Here's an example. Provide them an example of using scripture in the power of the Holy Spirit so that when they go out and wherever they go, they will be in the wilderness somewhere. Because we live in a predator kind of world.

When Jesus was going to the cross In Mark, chapter 15, we're told about the disciples were in the upper room. Judas is gonna deny him. He's gonna deny him three times. He's a treasurer. They all had this confidence in him.

And so when Jesus said, one of you gonna deny me or betray me? They all didn't turn around and say, I bet it's Judas was gradually letting Satan talk to him and control his heart. It was a progressive kind of thing.

The money was not the biggest issue. He was trying to control Jesus. So when he betrayed Jesus, the guilt was too much and he didn't know how to Handle the guilt. Because the guilt is so repressive. What do you do with the guilt?

And so he went out and hung himself to try to handle his guilt. And I'm sure if he had been to the cross, it's not what so much Judas did, it's what he didn't do. If he'd just gone to the cross and said, lord, I'm sorry, then Jesus would have forgiven him. But he never did. He tried his own method, gave in to Satan.

But Peter said, you know, they all may leave you, but I'll follow you. I can guarantee you that. I'll be there when everybody else has run away.

And Peter said, I don't need the help.

When Jesus was asking them to pray in the garden and be with him in prayer, Peter didn't need to pray. He already had this down, that overconfidence.

He overestimated himself.

Because in the end, you and I are frail creatures of dust.

And there are things and places in our life that Satan can worm himself in and begin to take control.

I'll be there.

But when push came to shove, he backed down.

He overestimated himself and he underestimated evil. Do not fall in that trap.

He was ready to take his sword and take him on, but he didn't come by a sword. He came by a little bitty girl who question his origins.

He overestimated himself. He underestimated evil and he failed to use the resources of God.

Fell to the flesh to handle it. And you and I cannot handle it.

He's coming. He's coming after us. He's coming after our family. He's coming after our whatever. He's coming after us.

He wants to steal our identity. And if you and I just let it happen.

And we too can fall prey to the temptation of the tempter.

Now would you bow your heads with me for just a moment and as you pray, we're going to sing our hymn. I think it's from 6:22, the invitational hymn.

How important is your home? How important is your generation?

Have you got them ready to face a world that pushes Budweiser and everything else can. Looking good and all this other things being attractive. Letting life tell you what everything's about. Let Facebook tell you what life is about. Or TikTok, let the social media be your guide to where life is.

Or you rely on the power of the Holy Spirit and the word of God and that you've got to stay ready reading God's word to deal with the tempter when he comes across the screens and through the social media.

And the situations arise so quickly that, like the little boy, we could make the wrong kind of decision when we know what's wrong.

Dear Father, I thank you for a power that is greater than the power against us as we live in Selma, Alabama. It's not immune to all the things that are going on in this world direction that the world has taken.

We're in a culture that's out of control and it's controlled by the evil one.

And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For yours is a kingdom that lasts forever. Yours is a power that's forever and ever and ever.

And help us each day to find a place in your word to speak to our hearts. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.