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CPL-11   GEN-11

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Lost And Helpless

We as humans are so lost, we are unable to find our way back to God unless God Himself aids us! What a terrible state. How did we end up so lost? In Genesis 3 we find that is what began at the moment of the Fall to Adam and Eve. They found:

  • “The eyes of their consciences were opened, their hearts smote them for what they had done. Now, when it was too late, they saw the folly of eating forbidden fruit.
  • They saw the happiness they had fallen from, and the misery they had fallen into.
  • They saw a loving God provoked, his grace and favor forfeited, his likeness and image lost, dominion over the creatures gone.
  • They saw their natures corrupted and depraved, and felt a disorder in their own spirits of which they had never before been conscious.
  • They saw a law in their members warring against the law of their minds, an(24)d captivating them both to sin and wrath.
  • They saw that they were stripped, deprived of all the honors and joys of their paradise-state, and exposed to all the miseries that might justly be expected from an angry God.
  • They saw they were disarmed; their defense had departed from them.
  1. They saw that they were shamed, forever shamed, before God and angels.
  2. They saw themselves disrobed of all their ornaments and ensigns of honor, degraded from their dignity and disgraced in the highest degree, laid open to the contempt and reproach of heaven, and earth, and their own consciences.

Satan wants to ruin you this morning. As he demonstrated in the Garden, his plan is to destroy your relationship with God. The tragedy of Paradise Lost is that it worked on our first parents. In Genesis 3 we find the WILL of God resisted, the WORD of God rejected and the WAY of God deserted by Adam and Eve.

A Three Way Attack

God describes us as three part beings. He says we have spirits, souls and bodies. In that very way, only from the outside to the inside, Satan attacked Eve. Satan’s 3-fold temptation of Eve follows both the 3-part nature of man as well as the warnings of I John and the direct attack on Christ in the wilderness.

Satan appeals first to her physical appetites, which are part of the body:

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Then Satan attacks her nature’s emotions and esthetic desires which reside in the soul:

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

Finally, Satan appeals to her mind with its pride of knowledge and insight, having its seat in her spirit (as it says in 1 Corinthians 2:11 For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God):

Genesis 3:6 When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.

But we will also see in our study that though the 1 st Adam failed, the Last Adam did not. Why don’t we read the triumphant account and then look at the Fall through eyes of understanding. Please stand with me as we read Matthew 4:1-11.

God works with us His creations from the inside out. Starting with our spirit He gains control of our souls and then our bodies. Satan works oppositely. He attacks the body, gets the soul and then the spirit.

Meet The Last Adam

Now, to the scene of the last Adam. How unlike the 1st Adam is this last Adam.

  • The Devil challenged the first man. The Last Man challenged the Devil.
  • The Devil ruined the first Adam. The Last Adam spoiled the Devil.
  • The First Adam involved the Race in his defeat. The Last Adam included the Race in His victory.
  • The 1 st Adam dealt a temporary defeat to God’s Creation. The Last Adam brings Everlasting Righteousness.
  • The First Adam stood as the head of the race and falling, dragged the race down with him. The Last Adam stood as the Head of the new race, and being victorious, lifted that race with Him.
  • The 1 st Adam’s work of causing death could be undone and was at the Cross. The Last Adam’s work can never be undone for He brought endless life.
  • The 1 st Adam did the work of man. The Last Adam did the Work of God.

Alone With Jesus 

One of the most amazing passages in the Scriptures is in Matthew 4. The very fact that we have this account speaks of it being a gift from Jesus. No Apostle or prophet joined Him out there in the wilderness, He was alone. So Jesus gives us a special present, the conclusion to the Garden. He shows us how the Last Adam triumphs. With this account comes the great lesson of knowing how Satan attacks and how to defeat him in the way of Jesus.

SETTING =

  • Wilderness Matt. 4; Mark 1; Luke 4
  • WITH WILD BEASTS Mark 1:13
  • 40 Days without food Matt. 4; Luke 4

The AGENT = Satan the Adversary, Devil and slanderer. Lucifer fallen, the father of sin, lies, murder, death and hell. The very powerful King of Darkness.

This is Christ’s personal account. It is so special because only He was there. The fact that we have it speaks to His personal desire that we have it to help us as we face the same adversary. May we likewise conquer in His power! From the manger to the Tomb the the Holy Spirit empowered Him to do the will of God.

Hebrews 10:7-10 Then I said, ‘Here I am-it is written about me in the scroll- I have come to do your will, O God.'” 8 First he said, “Sacrifices and offerings, burnt offerings and sin offerings you did not desire, nor were you pleased with them” (although the law required them to be made). 9 Then he said, “Here I am, I have come to do your will.” He sets aside the first to establish the second. 10 And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

All Jesus did was through the Spirit. Christ accomplished a life of devoted obedience in the power of the Spirit . WHAT HAS THE HOLY SPIRIT ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH YOU?

Now, three penetrating truths to apply from the temptation of Christ.

The Target or Goal of TEMPTATION. In the Gospels we have Satan tempting Christ. The 40 days were filled with a spiritual struggle. The climax of Satan’s attack is given in Matthew and Luke 4. In Matthew 4 we have the chronological order.

THE TEMPTATION # 1

Physical Attack: APPETITE =  The Desire to Enjoy

(Mt. 4:2-4; Lk. 4:2-4; I John 2:16 ‘lust flesh’)

In the Bread into stones temptation Satan attacks Christ at the point of submission to the will of God. Would Christ submit and obey the Father at all costs or not.

  • This attack was the temptation to satisfy a legitimate desire by illegitimate means. This is the whole realm of sensual things, drugs, alcohol. Trying to get what only God can give. Filling that God shaped vacuum in our lives with pleasure over worship.
  • THE ANSWER: Deuteronomy 8:3 “So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord.

THE TEMPTATION # 2

Mental Attack: AMBITION = The Desire to Achieve

(Matt. 4:5-6; Luke. 4:9-11; I John 2:16 ‘pride of life’)

THE TEMPTATION #2

  • In the jump temptation the Devil was attacking Christ and His reliance upon God and His timing. Stunts, dazzling displays and presumption are all contrary to God’s plan.
  • This attack was according to J. Oswald Sanders the temptation to produce spiritual results in an unspiritual way.
  • This is the whole realm of rivalry, externalism, pride, haughtiness and self-reliance.
  1. THE ANSWER: Deuteronomy 6:16 “You shall not tempt the Lord your God as you tempted Him in Massah .

THE TEMPTATION # 3

Spiritual Attack: AVARICE = The Desire to Obtain

(Matt. 4:8-11; Luke 4:5-7; I John 2:16 ‘lust of eyes’)

THE TEMPTATION

  • In the bow down temptation the Devil was offering the possibility of Christ circumventing the Cross and Calvary. This was the escape pain and suffering route.
  • Again this was the temptation to obtain a godly heritage in an ungodly way!
  • This is the whole realm of materialism, greed, possessiveness, trust in riches and worldliness

THE ANSWER: Deut. 6:13 As Augustine said: “We all have a god and we look more like who or whatever it is every day.”

The RESULT

  • Simple: Christ used a simple method when facing temptation:
  • His response was not clever, novel or sophisticated.
  • Even a child could understand exactly what He said.
  • Scriptural: Christ used a scriptural method when facing temptation:
  • For each temptation He had discovered an appropriate Scripture.
  • For each temptation He quoted an appropriate Scripture.

Christ’s victorious match with Satan means:

  • In relation to Christ = TOTAL TRIUMPH He is absolutely seen as pure and empowered by the Spirit. He goes on in ministry enables and strengthened.
  • In relation to Satan =TOTAL DEFEAT he is absolutely exposed as being in line for his final defeat and destruction in the lake of fire forever.
  • In relation to Believers = TOTAL ASSURANCE because Jesus met and conquered Satan, through Jesus we are more than conquerors. No temptation but God is able to give us an exit!

The Last Adam Brought Marvelous Grace

Julia H. Johnston

Grace Greater Than Our Sin
(or Marvelous Grace of Our Loving Lord )

1 Marvelous grace of our loving Lord,
amen

Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt,
Yonder on Calvary’s mount outpoured,
There where the blood of the Lamb was spilt.

2 Dark is the stain that we cannot hide,

What can avail to wash it away?
Look! there is flowing a crimson tide;
Whiter than snow you may be today.

3 Marvelous, infinite, matchless grace,

Freely bestowed on all who believe;
You that are longing to see His face,
Will you this moment His grace receive?

Chorus Grace, grace, God’s grace,

Grace that will pardon and cleanse within;
Grace, grace, God’s grace,
Grace that is greater than all our sin.

The Essence Of Satan’s World.

Now look with me at I John 2:15-17

Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For everything in the world-the cravings of sinful man, the lust of his eyes and the boasting of what he has and does-comes not from the Father but from the world. 17 The world and its desires pass away, but the man who does the will of God lives forever.

Here God’s Word warns of Satan’s 3-way attack. He will come through any or all of these ways: The cravings of the body, or the lusting’s of the eyes, or the boastings of the mouth.

We triumph by the sword of the spirit: God’s Word.

1. YIELD TO THE WORD! Christ and His Word are inextricable. You cannot divide Him from the Scriptures. He spoke them, defended them and affirmed them. To accept Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord is to yield to what He taught about Scripture. Scripture’s authority is Christ’s authority. To obey the Lord is to obey His Word. “He who is of God hears the words of God; for this reason you do not hear them, because you are not of God” (John 8:47). To trust in Christ is to say of Him as Peter did, “You have words of eternal life” (John 6:68).
2. TRUST THE WORD! The Old Testament cannot contain any errors. If there were any we would have to decide one of two things about Jesus Christ. Either He was ignorant of those errors, in which case He was not omniscient and was therefore not God. Or else He knew of the errors but denied them, in which case He would have been a liar and a hypocrite, and therefore not holy God.
3. RECEIVE THE WORD! Always remembering that it is “the word implanted, which is able to save [our] souls” (James 1:21). We should receive it because of the infinite majesty of the Author and His authoritative statements about it. We should receive it because of the price that God paid to get it to us, and because it is the standard of truth, joy, blessing, and salvation. And we should receive it because not to receive it brings judgment.
4. EXALT THE WORD! Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward Your holy temple, And praise Your name For Your lovingkindness and Your truth; For You have magnified Your word above all Your name. (NKJV) Charles Spurgeon said, ” Is the infallible revelation of the infallible Jehovah to be moderated, to be shaped, to be toned down to the fancies and fashions of the hour? God forbid us if we ever alter His Word.”
Martin Luther never feared men, but when he stood up to preach he often felt his knees knock together under a sense of great responsibility to be true to the Word of God.
5. OBEY THE WORD! We should be diligent to present ourselves approved to God as workmen who do “not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth” (2 Tim. 2:15). Like Jeremiah, we should find God’s words and eat them (Jeremiah. 15:16), and “let the word of Christ richly dwell within” us (Col. 3:16).
6. DEFEND THE WORD! We are to “contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). Like Jude, we should fight for the integrity, purity, and authority of Scripture. Spurgeon said, “The everlasting gospel is worth preaching even if one stood on a burning fagot and addressed the crowds from a pulpit of flames. The truths revealed in Scripture are worth living for and they are worth dying for. I count myself thrice happy, to bear reproach for the sake of the faith. It is an honor of which I feel myself to be unworthy, and yet most truly I can say the words of our hymn, ‘Shall I to soothe the unholy throng, soften Thy truths and smooth my tongue to gain earth’s gilded toys, or flee the cross endured my God by Thee?'”
7. 
SHARE THE WORD! We are to have as our constant goal to share the Word.2 Timothy 4:1-2 I charge [you] therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: Preach the word! Be ready in season [and] out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all long-suffering and teaching. (NKJV) Says Spurgeon again, “I cannot speak out my whole(25)heart on this theme which is so dear to me, but I would stir you all up to be instant in season and out of season in telling out the gospel message, especially to repeat such a word as this: ‘God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.’ Whisper it in the ear of the sick, shout it in the corner of the streets, write it on your tablet, send it forth from the press, but everywhere let this be your great motive and warrant. You preach the gospel because the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it.” rebirth being reborn is able to sin. Before the Fall he is able to not sin. This ability, the ability to not sin, is lost in the Fall. It is restored when a person is born again and continues in heaven. In creation man did not suffer from moral inability. Moral inability is a result of the Fall. To state it another way, before the Fall man was able to refrain from sinning; after the Fall man is no longer able to refrain from sinning. That is what we call original sin. This moral inability or moral bondage is overcome by spiritual rebirth Rebirth liberates us from original sin. Before rebirth we still have a free will but we do not have this liberation from the power of sin, what Augustine called “liberty.”

The person who is reborn can still sin. The ability to sin is not removed until we are glorified in heaven. We have the ability to sin but we are no longer under the bondage of original sin. We have been set free. This of course does not mean that now we live perfect lives. We still sin.  But we can never say that we sin because that is all our fallen natures have the power to do.

[13] The paragraphs above adapted from MacArthur, Romans 8:22 and Hebrews 2:8.

[14] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[15] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[16] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[17] Enns, Paul, The Moody Handbook of Theology, (Chicago, Ill.: Moody Press) 1996. W.A. Criswell, p.

[18] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[19] J. M. Boice, Minor Prophets, I, 201.

[20] I am indebted for this comparison to a small tract written years ago by Joseph Hoffrnan Cohn for the American Board of Missions to the Jews, entitled “The Man from Petra,” No. 65 in the series “What Every Christian Should Know About the Jews” (revised 19625. 1, no original date of publication).

[21] Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word: Mark-Jesus, Servant and Savior, (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books) 1997

[22] Grudem, p. 130-31. Grudem, Systematic, p. 197.

[23] Hughes, R. Kent, Preaching the Word: Romans-Righteousness From Heaven, (Wheaton, IL: Crosswalk
28. ay Books) 1997.

[24] J. I. Packer, Knowing God-20th Anniversary Edition, (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press) 1993.

[25] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[26] Grudem, p. 130-31.

[27] Grudem, p. 130-31.

[28] Grudem, Systematic, p. 197.

[29] Hughes, R. Kent, P 32. reaching the Word: Romans-Righteousness From Heaven, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books) 1997.

[30] J. I. Packer, Knowing God-20th Anniversary Edition, (Downer’s Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press) 1993.
MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur Commentary, (Chicago: Moody Press) 1983.

[31] Grudem, p. 130-31.

[32] MacArthur, John F., The MacArthur New Testament

Slides


Check Out All The Sermons In The Series

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, Genesis here.

You can find all the sermons and short clips from this series, Paradise Lost – From Creation To The Fall here.

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