Hi, I'm Glenn
Russell, welcome back
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to the 'Books of the Book'
special series here on 3ABN.
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We're exploring the
gospel according to the Matthew.
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Before we go any further,
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I would just want to say a word.
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I'm not associated directly
with 3ABN, but you know,
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it's been such a joy
to be here at this place,
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to meet crew members and staff.
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This is a place and
ministry that God is blessing.
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And I know they
may not say it as much
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so I want to say
God bless you folks
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for what you're doing,
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and you know,
they need your support,
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financial
support, prayer support.
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Ranko
Stefanovic, our guest teacher
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I'm sure you
would agree with me.
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It's been a blessing
being here, isn't it?
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This is my second
time coming to 3ABN here
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and you have to meet
people to know who they are
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and what I discover here
they're so dedicated people here
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who are here from the
morning to the evening
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trying to put that
message in the air,
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so that many people
hear the gospel message.
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You should pray for these people
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and support them
financially etcetera.
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They're doing wonderful job.
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Only the
eternity one day will show
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the fruits for their work
here. That's right, right.
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And you've traveled in
various parts of the world,
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the people are
watching, people are listening,
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it's touching lives, and we know
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God's been blessing,
so that's tremendous.
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Now, Ranko Stefanovic,
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we're studying
the book of Matthew.
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We've gone through
the first few chapters
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and this time tell us
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what we're gonna be
exploring this time.
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Actually we
concluded the section
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on the baptism of Jesus
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with the proclamation
that the Father made.
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This is my beloved Son,
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and then after that
the Holy Spirit comes
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as a dove up on Jesus equipping,
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enabling Jesus now to
start public ministry.
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Actually these two things
this is my beloved Son. Yes.
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And the coming of
the Holy Spirit is
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exactly the beginning
of chapter four. Okay.
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We have the Holy Spirit
takes Jesus to the wilderness
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and Sonship of
Jesus is now tested today.
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Okay, and before we go there
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we want that same
spirit to help us.
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Let's pray together
that God will guide us.
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Lord, as we get into
Your word once again,
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please come into our
hearts and to our minds,
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speak to us through Your word.
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We believe that the
Bible is an inspired book
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and that this, these writings,
these precious gifts to us
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are a way for us
to hear Your voice.
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So we need You to speak,
in Jesus name we pray. Amen.
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So a high point
and the experience
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the baptism of Jesus,
you would expect to be
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a soaring success from then on.
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But chapter four takes us
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a little different
direction, doesn't it?
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You know, so many times
I meet very good Christians
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and they come to me they
said, I'd like to be rebaptized.
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They said, you
know, I was baptized
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and I had many
problems in my spiritual life.
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Would you now, I
would like to be rebaptized.
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I said, why?
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Because they hope
when they are baptized
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all the spiritual problems
will disappear from their lives.
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Actually I've to persuade them
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that baptism will not
prevent the devil to tempt them
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and to create
problems in their lives.
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Actually when you are
baptized -when you're baptized,
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it's a good
avenue of temptations
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for Satan to come to you.
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This is exactly what
happened in Jesus life.
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Let's read a little
bit of chapter four.
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Can you read the
first 11 actually verses?
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All right. Matthew 4:1.
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"Then Jesus was
led up by the Spirit
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into the wilderness to
be tempted by the devil.
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When he had fasted
forty days and forty nights,
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afterwards he was hungry.
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Now when the tempter
came to Him, he said,
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"If you are the Son of God,
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command that these
stones become bread."
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But He answered and said,
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"It is written, 'Man
shall not live by bread alone,
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but by every word that
proceeds from the mouth of God.
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Then the devil took
Him up into the holy city,
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set Him on the
pinnacle of the temple,
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and said to Him,
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"If You are the Son of
God, throw Yourself down.
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For it is written: 'He shall
give His angels charge over you,
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and in their hands
they shall bear you up,
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Lest you dash your
foot against a stone.'"
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Jesus said to him,
"It is written again,
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'You shall not
tempt the Lord your God.
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And again, the devil took Him up
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on an exceedingly high mountain,
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and showed Him all the kingdoms
of the world and their glory.
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And he said to Him,
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"All these
things I will give You
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if You will fall
down and worship me."
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Then Jesus said to him,
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"Away with you,
Satan! For it is written,
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'You shall
worship the Lord your God,
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and Him only shall you serve.
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Then the devil
left Him, and behold,
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angels came and ministered
to Him." What a scene. Yeah.
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Right, this is a scene
hidden from human experience.
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Matthew only knows about this
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through the
inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
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No one else is there, Jesus
is alone He's in the wilderness,
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the Holy Spirit is with Him.
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And if we're
gonna face temptation
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we better be led by the spirit.
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Glenn, do you remember
when we mention in the beginning
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about the purpose of
the gospel of Matthew.
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He came to save His
people from their sins.
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How to save them from their sins
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to go through the
experience of His people
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in order to save them.
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So let's go, just in few
moments to the Old Testament
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about experience
of God's peoples.
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They went there
to Egypt. All right.
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Then from Egypt they
had to go through water,
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to go to the wilderness how
long were they in wilderness?
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Forty years and then
there in the wilderness
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they tempted God constantly.
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There after the wilderness
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they went there
to the mount there,
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there were given
the Ten Commandments.
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Do you notice something?
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This is exactly
how the Holy Spirit
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through Matthew
organized the life of Jesus is.
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So you're showing parallels.
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Jesus came out of
Egypt, you remember that?
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Then the next episode
is, He goes to the water.
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There is announcement,
this is my son by the way
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the same what God
said to Moses. Yes.
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Coming--bring my
son out of Egypt,
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okay, Then Jesus went
to the wilderness there
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and it is we will see
in the next presentation
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He delivers
explains the law of God there
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from the mount
there, sermon on the mount.
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Actually Jesus how He
has presented is really going
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through experience of His
people in order to save them.
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And what understatement
of scripture. Yes.
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You know, He fasted
forty days and He's hungry.
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I'm sure He was much
more than hungry. Okay.
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And the devil comes to Him.
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Now what do we learn
about the devil in this passage?
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What do we learn?
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We see something about Jesus,
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but we also learn
something about the devil.
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You know today we live
in the world when Christians
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out there becoming
skeptic about Satan,
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so we don't use the
word Satan any longer.
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We don't use the
word demons any longer.
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We are talking
about physiological issues
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that people have emotionally
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you know, some
chemicals within our body
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that make us to
be like this or this.
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But when we read the
Bible, Satan is a real person.
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He is the enemy of God and
he is the enemy of God's people.
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By the way he was the one
who wanted to defeat Jesus
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at the
beginning of his ministry.
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So Jesus is
baptized that glorious event,
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the Father speaks from heaven.
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Now He is at the other
extreme, famished and hungry
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and the devil
comes to attack Him
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when He is most vulnerable.
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Actually in the
book 'Desire of Ages'
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the book that you
referred already page 114,
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there is something
very interesting if you read
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the Jesus went to the
wilderness to be alone.
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He wanted
now--you know when we see
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about any great man in the Bible
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before they
went to that ministry
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that God appointed them to do.
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First they
would go to some place
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to prepare themselves with God,
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that's what Jesus did He
went there to the wilderness.
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So Jesus went there to
contemplate His mission
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and work by fasting and prayer,
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He was to brace Himself
for the blood stained path,
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He must travel.
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But now the
sentence is, but Satan knew,
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that the Savior had
gone into the wilderness
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and he thought this to be
best time to approach Him.
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When did He approach Him?
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When Jesus was very
hungry after 40 days
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He had to be very hungry.
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And you know, Ranko,
sometimes in my ministry
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I'm sure you've run
in the same question
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people kind of say, well
Jesus had an advantage over us.
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But really He is the biggest
target there's ever been.
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The devil loves
to defeat you and I,
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but if he can get Jesus to fail
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and this was not
charade or play or a drama,
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this was the real possibility.
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A real enemy, a real temptation
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and a real victory
that Jesus won. Yes.
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We're not playing here games.
00:09:19.82\00:09:22.36
It was something
real that happen,
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Jesus confronted the real
Satan there in the wilderness.
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I mean can you
imagine two of them
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they knew each other
from the heavenly places
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there from the beginning,
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now there was a more decisive.
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By the way, the word
that is used here in Hebrew
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that Satan came to tempt
Jesus is the same word perazzo,
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that is used in
the gospel of Luke
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with the reference to
the Garden of Gethsemane
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and Jesus said,
the time has come
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for Son of Man to be tempted.
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He's telling us
you see so many times
00:09:54.72\00:09:56.12
we are talking of
Garden of Gethsemane,
00:09:56.16\00:09:58.29
how Jesus was tempted.
00:09:58.33\00:09:59.69
And actually the
destiny of all human beings
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were at stake there
in Garden of Gethsemane.
00:10:02.83\00:10:04.90
By the way, what
happen here in the wilderness,
00:10:04.93\00:10:07.94
it's equal to the
Garden of Gethsemane.
00:10:07.97\00:10:10.77
Actually it was the
decisive point you see,
00:10:10.81\00:10:13.84
at the baptism the
Father make the announcement
00:10:13.88\00:10:17.11
this is My Son.
00:10:17.15\00:10:19.18
Now the Sonship of
Jesus had to be tempted.
00:10:19.21\00:10:22.25
Would Jesus use what
He had as the Son of God?
00:10:22.28\00:10:28.89
Would He use that for Himself
00:10:28.92\00:10:31.99
for His own
advantage when He needed--
00:10:32.03\00:10:34.83
Let's make true we're
not missing the question.
00:10:34.83\00:10:37.20
The temptations deal
them with Jesus methods,
00:10:37.23\00:10:40.84
His use of His
identity and who He is
00:10:40.87\00:10:43.67
and His power in His ministry.
00:10:43.71\00:10:46.07
According to Philippians okay,
00:10:46.11\00:10:49.14
Jesus had to empty Himself
00:10:49.18\00:10:50.88
of all divine prerogatives
and privileges He had.
00:10:50.91\00:10:53.31
He had to become as
ordinary human beings
00:10:53.35\00:10:56.35
to show us that the
victory over sin is possible,
00:10:56.38\00:11:00.29
and how the victory
over sin is possible.
00:11:00.32\00:11:03.79
So He came to human experience
to become as one of us.
00:11:03.83\00:11:09.13
As a man living in this life
00:11:09.16\00:11:12.27
He had to depend on
the divine assistance
00:11:12.30\00:11:16.07
and help as
every ordinary being.
00:11:16.10\00:11:18.81
When He was hungry, He had
to go through our experience.
00:11:18.84\00:11:22.41
He couldn't make a
miracle to feed Himself.
00:11:22.44\00:11:25.85
If He used His
divine prerogatives
00:11:25.88\00:11:29.05
in anyway for Himself,
00:11:29.08\00:11:30.55
His mission would
fail and Satan knew it,
00:11:30.59\00:11:32.69
that's why he came
to tempt Him there.
00:11:32.72\00:11:34.09
So first temptation deals with,
00:11:34.12\00:11:36.36
Jesus will You use Your
powers for Your own benefit.
00:11:36.39\00:11:40.36
Well, Glenn, can
I ask you something?
00:11:40.40\00:11:41.96
The first temptation of
Jesus is the reference to food
00:11:42.00\00:11:45.77
is there something
that comes to our mind
00:11:45.80\00:11:48.67
about certain temptation
that comes with your food?
00:11:48.70\00:11:51.14
Aren't these the
essential issues?
00:11:51.17\00:11:53.64
Actually it's
the Garden of Eden.
00:11:53.68\00:11:56.98
The way how sin came
00:11:57.01\00:11:58.38
in this world
came through forth.
00:11:58.41\00:12:01.78
But I'd like us Glenn
to go to something else.
00:12:01.82\00:12:05.55
When we read the Book of Hebrews
00:12:05.59\00:12:06.99
and it's in close relationships
with Matthew Chapter 4
00:12:07.02\00:12:11.66
and it tell us that Jesus
when He came down to this earth,
00:12:11.69\00:12:16.53
He was tempted with
every aspect of sin as we are,
00:12:16.56\00:12:21.17
but He did not commit sin.
00:12:21.20\00:12:22.94
And so many
times I meet Christians
00:12:22.97\00:12:25.81
and when they read these texts,
00:12:25.84\00:12:28.01
they think that
Jesus had to be tempted
00:12:28.04\00:12:32.15
in every detail of sin.
00:12:32.18\00:12:34.65
I don't need to
remind our viewers
00:12:34.68\00:12:37.35
that Jesus was not
tempted with reference to drugs,
00:12:37.39\00:12:41.06
watching porno, internet
or movies etcetera that.
00:12:41.09\00:12:45.23
Then what is
the meaning of this?
00:12:45.26\00:12:47.86
Actually the first
temptations of Jesus
00:12:47.93\00:12:51.73
are very
instructive to this point.
00:12:51.77\00:12:54.64
First we have to ask
our self that question,
00:12:54.67\00:12:57.27
what are those temptations?
00:12:57.31\00:12:58.91
How does the Bible define sin?
00:12:58.94\00:13:01.11
I would like us, Glenn,
first to go to one probably
00:13:01.14\00:13:04.71
crucial Biblical text to
explain us how temptations,
00:13:04.75\00:13:08.92
how--actually we are tempted.
00:13:08.95\00:13:10.62
What is the
nature of that temptation
00:13:10.65\00:13:12.42
and what is
actually the concept of sin?
00:13:12.45\00:13:14.89
It's First John 2:16.
Okay, First John 2:16. Yes.
00:13:14.92\00:13:20.60
And we're looking
now at the issues,
00:13:20.63\00:13:23.03
the categories and the issues--
00:13:23.06\00:13:24.43
Categories of sin. Okay.
00:13:24.47\00:13:25.83
In order to understand
what is in Matthew Chapter 4.
00:13:25.87\00:13:27.37
"For all that is in the world.''
00:13:27.40\00:13:29.37
He's describing wilderness now.
00:13:29.40\00:13:31.71
"Lust of the
flesh, lust of the eyes,
00:13:31.74\00:13:35.01
and the pride of life
00:13:35.04\00:13:36.41
is not of the Father
but is of the world."
00:13:36.44\00:13:37.81
So three things it
says, lust of the flesh,
00:13:37.85\00:13:41.38
lust of the eyes,
and the pride of life
00:13:41.42\00:13:42.88
is not of the
Father but is of the world.
00:13:42.92\00:13:44.85
And the world is passing
away, and the lust of it;
00:13:44.89\00:13:47.02
but he who does the
will of God abides forever."
00:13:47.06\00:13:48.79
So actually, all
the sin condition
00:13:48.82\00:13:50.59
that human beings can
summarize in these three ways.
00:13:50.63\00:13:54.63
It has to do with our
eyes, lust of the eyes,
00:13:54.66\00:13:57.37
it has to do with our flesh
and with the pride of life.
00:13:57.40\00:14:01.57
By the way, it is through
all these that we are tempted.
00:14:01.60\00:14:06.07
You see these are
three major temptations.
00:14:06.11\00:14:08.68
All other
temptations at the subgroups
00:14:08.71\00:14:12.85
of this doesn't make sense. Yes.
00:14:12.88\00:14:15.15
Everything is
result of the obvious.
00:14:15.18\00:14:18.62
You're also suggesting here
that Jesus is in the wilderness,
00:14:18.65\00:14:22.09
but back then there
was an issue in a garden
00:14:22.12\00:14:25.59
and we want to come
to that in just a moment.
00:14:25.63\00:14:27.66
So we're gonna
take a break right here.
00:14:27.73\00:14:29.13
We're gonna go back and look
at some of the other temptations
00:14:29.16\00:14:31.50
right after the
break, we'll be right back.
00:14:31.53\00:14:33.20