The Battle Is On! Series

The Battle Is On!

Matthew 4:1-11

Good morning MGCC…

OKAY – we are in week six of our study of Matthew’s Gospel, “The King and His Kingdom” our text in Matthew 4:1-11

LET’S – get to it. Matthew 4:1ff

Then

(after His baptism in the Jordan River by John the Baptist)

Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. 2 After fasting forty days and forty nights, he was hungry.

The tempter came to him and said, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread.”

4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

5 Then the devil took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point of the temple.

6 “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down. For it is written: “‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”

7 Jesus answered him, “It is also written: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”

8 Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. 9 “All this I will give you,” he said, “if you will bow down and worship me.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Away from me, Satan! For it is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.’” 11 Then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him.

- Matthew 4:1-11

Prayer

OKAY – I want us to do, a little introductory work before we dive into our text… BY - looking at some: key terms, key connections and key truths.

Key Terms

NOW - I want to start off by defining some words that at first may seem kind of obvious, YET - it’s important for us to do, so that we are all on the same page as we unpack Matthew 4:1-11, this morning…

So word number one, is…

Sin

AGAIN - you might think that it is not necessary to define the word sin; however, The Oxford Junior Dictionary recently took the word sin out of their dictionary.

AND - the reason they gave for taking it out is because, “The word sin has fallen into (quote) disuse and is no longer recognized by the younger generation.”

AND IT - explained that there are other synonyms that can be used in place of sin. AND SO - some of the synonyms recommended would be words like indiscretion, lapse in judgment, accident, mistake.

AND YET - those words are not the same word.

I MEAN - the Bible doesn’t say that we are “mistakers,” right? The Bible says that we are sinners. The word is a different…the word is a different word.

UNDERSTAND - when we talk about sin, we’re talking about more than just a lapse in judgment or making a mistake, or an accident where we tripped, and we fell.

LIKE - that’s not how the Bible defines sin.

INSTEAD – the Bible defines sin as “a transgression against God.” WHERE WE - do something He said not to do, or we don’t do something that He said to do.

AND UNDERSTAND MGCC – sin is not just a transgression against yourself or a transgression against a cultural norm or against someone else.

SIN - is a transgression against God.

Luke 15 (the prodigal son… I have sinned against heaven and against you)

NOW - The Bible gives us a word picture of sin, in Romans chapter 3 where it says, that sin is missing the mark.

(A bullseye)

AND – it also says in Romans chapter 3 that, “All of us have sinned.” We’ve all missed the mark. We’ve all fallen short of God’s standard. All of us have.

We have all sinned. SO - we’re all sinners.

YEAH – go ahead and look around, you are in a room full of sinners.

AND YES – I know that our world today, does not like the word sin.

IN FACT – a trial is underway in Finland, where one of the defendants a 61 year grandmother of 7 a medical doctor faces up to two years I prison and one of the charges is for posting a picture on twitter of a verse in the Bible.

The prosecutor said, in one of his arguments said, ‘The bible cannot override Finnish law, and that the use of the word sin is harmful.’

NOW – I am not sure if the word is all that harmful, but I know that sin itself is harmful, it makes us God’s enemies, it incurs a debt we could never pay, and our only hope is the Grace of God through His Son Jesus Christ.