Unlimited Grace

Bryan Chapell: It is necessary for me to fulfill all righteousness. What you've not been able to do, what humanity has not been able to accomplish, God will accomplish in His son by making him perfect and therefore perfectly equipped to be the sacrifice that is needed.

Guest (Male): So glad you joined us for today's Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. In today's lesson, Pastor Bryan shares from Matthew 4, in which Satan tempts Jesus in the wilderness.

Just as Jesus was tempted in every way that we ourselves are being tempted, he also resisted by way of the very means that God makes available to us. You can find this lesson and many others when you visit unlimitedgrace.com.

While you're there, look for Pastor Bryan's book Unlimited Grace. Dr. Chapell reminds us of the power and mercy of God's grace that motivates and inspires us to serve our heavenly Father. Let's hear now from Dr. Bryan Chapell as he shares the lesson, "The Temptations of the King."

Bryan Chapell: He was in the fight of his life. Some of you know the story. I saw that was actually on TV last night. James Braddock, washed-up prizefighter, obscure now, dock worker who, by a set of improbable circumstances, gets to fight for the world heavyweight championship. It's amazing that he gets the shot, but it's all a setup, a setup by the managers of the opposing fighter.

Because as great as it looks that the obscure James Braddock would be able to fight to gain riches for an impoverished family, to give hope to a nation that's in the middle of the Great Depression where the underdog everyone hopes will win, there's just one little problem in the scheme: it is the huge opponent, Max Baer, a vicious fighter who has already killed two men in the ring. James Braddock, to reclaim a world championship, has to fight Max Baer. It will not be a fair fight, and everybody knows it.

And so, on the night of the fight, as Braddock is preparing with his managers in the locker room, everyone is nervous, afraid of what is about to happen. Braddock's wife enters the locker room. The managers try to stop her. No distraction now. We don't need tears. We don't need fear now. Go. And she looks at the managers and she withers them with a look. You get out of my way. I'm going to talk to my husband.

And she goes to him, and she locks her eyes on his. And the woman that we have learned through the movie has faced poverty and abuse much of her life speaks to her husband. Maybe I understand some of what it means to fight. You just remember who you are. You're the bulldog of Bergen, the pride of New Jersey. You're everybody's hope and the kids' hero. But most of all, you are the champion of my heart, James Braddock.

She reminds him of his purpose. He's everybody's hope. He's the one who's supposed to lead the nation, if not the children, out of hopelessness. But what really gives him strength is the knowledge that beyond the fight, perhaps even beyond the defeat, is the love of that one that will not bend.

It's so much what is happening in this passage as you see the account that almost becomes fabled in our minds of Jesus facing the great temptation. In the movies, it's sometimes made extravagant; sometimes it's just made perverted. But what we are being told is that as Jesus was being tempted, not only was he being tempted in every way such as we ourselves are being tempted, but just as he was tempted in all those ways, he is resisting by the very means that God makes available to us.

So that we recognize when we believe God's love must fail, he can't hold me through this fight, he can't hold me beyond my losing this fight. When we fear our temptations cannot be overcome or forgiven, God is saying you just remember this: you are the champion of my heart. And everything that is written here is written to give us the strength of understanding His love that will not let us go.

The love is on display as we begin to understand a sacrifice is being prepared for us in this passage. As we have gone through the various Old Testament passages, we recognize that in the Old Testament, the people of God, to be made right with God, they offered animal sacrifices, a lamb without blemish, a washed animal made right before God. Not because the animal was sufficient, but because an object lesson was being taught: a life would be given for a life, the innocent for the guilty.

And ultimately, that would come to fulfillment in the lamb slain from the foundations of the world as the book of Revelation says, when Jesus Christ himself would come. But he must be proven pure, made right. How does that happen? Not from obscurity, not isolation from the world's problems. Rather, he is tested for his purity, for his righteousness.

And ultimately, it is that test that we are made to see as the Father is not only washing the lamb as any worshiper in the Old Testament would have to do when he brought his sacrifice, but the Father is actually scouring the sin of the world off of his son that he might be the perfect sacrifice for all humanity.

So that we would understand the purpose, the Spirit actually begins to express it to us in the very first words of verse one. Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness. When I hear Jesus was led, I'm thinking of those words of Isaiah the prophet in the Old Testament: he was led as a sheep to be slaughtered.

But in this case, it's not the Roman soldiers who come to my mind when I think of Jesus being led to slaughter. It's not Pilate, the Roman governor. It's not the Jewish leaders. It's not even the disciples who betray Jesus. It's the Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness for this temptation.

The gospel of Mark, the very next gospel after Matthew, even makes it more explicit. It tells us just after Jesus was baptized and that voice came from heaven that says, "This is my son in whom I am well pleased," we are told immediately the Holy Spirit drove him into the desert to be tested of Satan. Drove him into the desert. It's not a limousine that he's driving. This is the language of herding. As a sheep to be slaughtered, he is driven by the Holy Spirit into the desert because he has to be tested.

It's what Jesus himself would say to John the Baptist: it is necessary for me to fulfill all righteousness. What you've not been able to do, what humanity has not been able to accomplish, God will accomplish in His son by making him perfect and therefore perfectly equipped to be the sacrifice that is needed. It is not Satan, ultimately, that drives Jesus in the desert. We know from Jesus' own words.

Do you remember when Jesus ultimately stands at the end of his earthly ministry before Pilate and will not answer in a way to defend himself from the crucifixion? Pilate says to Jesus, "Will you not speak to me? Do you not know I have the authority to release you or to crucify you?" And Jesus says to Pilate, "You would have no authority whatsoever were it not given to you by the one above."

It is God who takes Jesus on this journey, and he does it for a very specific purpose to make clear to us the Spirit's provision for us: a perfect sacrifice being made. And he is made that way, first by resisting the temptations that we face in the very same dimensions that we face them.

What is the first temptation? Verse three: the tempter came and said to Jesus, "If you are the son of God, command these stones to become loaves of bread." Now he's been forty days and forty nights in the desert. He's hungry. And Satan says, "If you are the son of God, make the stones bread. Establish your identity. Show what will give your life meaning and satisfaction by some physical means."

It's the Satan tempting Jesus to say you may find your life's meaning, your identity, in something physical like bread. And we dismiss it because we don't struggle in the same way until we recognize it is that physical temptation that so often grabs us. We think what will make me satisfied, what will give my life meaning, is if I can get the right promotion, get the right mansion, get the right person, get the right ecstasy, get the right experience. If I can just get this thing, I'll be satisfied.

But Jesus said to the woman at the well, do you remember, if you try to get satisfaction out of the wells of this world, you will just stay thirsty. The physical things are not going to satisfy you. You get the mansion? What do you want? Bigger mansion.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Unlimited Grace, the audio broadcast ministry of pastor and author Bryan Chapell. Change, real change, is hard. In fact, some people would claim that no change is really possible. But the truth is, it is possible. You can be different. You can overcome your struggle with sin or that addiction. But it won't be happening simply by turning over a new leaf or trying a little harder.

The real power of change is ignited when we take hold of God's amazing grace. And in the book Unlimited Grace by Pastor Bryan Chapell, he shows you how. Unlimited Grace takes you on a journey to discover how grace not only frees you from the guilt and shame of a sinful life, but also provides the daily fuel needed for joy and strength in your Christian life.

Take hold of God's grace and it is the key to finding true life change. Request your copy of Unlimited Grace, that's the title of the book, when you go online to unlimitedgrace.com. And the web address again: unlimitedgrace.com. And now more from Bryan Chapell on today's Unlimited Grace.

Bryan Chapell: You get the sex? What do you want? More sex. You get the big paycheck? What do you want? Bigger paycheck. You go to Canada, you get a big fish? What do you want? Bigger fish. You're never satisfied. What you get physically only draws you to want more of it.

Jesus ultimately said in the book of John, "My bread is to do the will of him who sent me." That when it's all said and done, what ultimately will give your heart satisfaction is not what you've accumulated, not what you've experienced, but the profound understanding: I lived for my Lord. What brought him glory, what brought his name fame, what brought his purposes to bear on the lives of others was my goal. And I was willing to live for him rather than live for some physical experience.

Of course, other people say other things. A number of you who are young enough to know the names will know that the names that are in the news a lot right now in popular entertainment are Kesha and Ariana Grande. And Christians talk about them because their lyrics are sexually charged and vulgar. And so we just tend to talk in complaint about them.

We ought to be in deep prayer, recognizing that what has now come to the surface in the lives of those who are so popular and so popularizing its sexual satisfaction that will ultimately give you satisfaction is young women who themselves have been sexually abused and are going through eating disorder problems and addictive issues and doing anything to forget what life is really like. And promising to everybody else sexual experience will satisfy when their lives in various rehab clinics say that didn't really satisfy at all.

It's before us all the time. And what God is saying is I want you to know that Jesus also thought life would have meaning if he could just have something to eat, physically be satisfied. It's what Esau did. He sold his birthright for a little stew. But not you. You must recognize that ultimately what will satisfy your heart is to do the will of the Father who put you here.

There is another temptation that's not just physical satisfaction that tempts us. It is spiritual substitution. If you remember in verses five and six, the devil took Jesus to the holy temple, holy city, set him on the pinnacle of the temple and said to him, "If you are the son of God, throw yourself down for it is written he will command his angels concerning you, on their hands they will bear you up lest you strike your foot against a stone."

Now isn't that interesting? Satan is quoting scripture to tempt Jesus. And you think what is he doing? He's actually tempting the Lord Jesus to idolatry. He is saying Jesus, put God on a leash. Just you know, tempt him to do something big and flashy and showy. And by putting God at your disposal, getting him to do what you want, you'll prove you are the son of God.

It would be the opposite. He would actually be denying he was the son of God if he's trying to put God on a leash, make God perform for you. And you recognize it's so often the case. It's the nature of all idolatry. The wonderful New York City pastor Tim Keller reminds us always: what is idolatry? It is good things made into ultimate things.

Sexual relationship? Wonderful thing. But if it's the ultimate thing what you're living for, what you're willing to sacrifice your purity, your marriage, your happiness for, it destroys you. Your idolatry, your God will destroy you. Work to make a living, support a family, to advance in God's purpose? Wonderful. But workaholism where you begin to serve the job to get it to give you what you want because it becomes a form of idolatry.

It's always that way. What we think we are controlling ultimately will control us. The anthropologists say what we make our tools and then our tools make us. We're formed by what we use. We're formed by what we're paying attention to. Watch it anytime those of you who are grandparents, the newest grandbaby enters the room. That little bit of nothing and intelligent, mature, able adults begin to do this: "Oh, goochi goochi goochi!" And you think who's in control of that person? The baby is.

We're trying to get a response out of the baby and we get controlled by wanting that response. You try to get your God to operate on your leash, your performance, and ultimately you'll do anything to get that God to perform for you. You become a slave of your own idol and you may not even recognize how it is happening.

In some of the recent commemorations for 9/11, I read a commentary by the Christian commentator Jim Denison. He told the account of Christina Stanton, young woman, New York City, who watched the first plane go into the twin towers from her balcony apartment. And as she was standing on her balcony, the next plane went by within 500 feet of her, the exhaust knocking her down, the sound temporarily making her deaf.

And then the building. And as the buildings began to fall, she and her husband ran to the ground floor to try to escape the destruction that was so close. But as they were running through the streets, as oxygen is being taken out of the air by the debris falling from the sky, they both began to fall to the ground. She said to her husband, "Are we going to die?" And his response was to begin reciting the Lord's Prayer. Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.

She was honest about what he was doing when she wrote about it later. Before 9/11, I would call myself somebody who went to church on Sundays but really hadn't internalized the Bible, internalized who Jesus said he was, who I am in him. When the attacks happened, I learned I don't have control over God.

The Bible was not what I thought it was saying. You just say the right words and God will do what you want. You work hard and God will give you prospering life like you never knew. That's what I believed. That the Bible was something like a rabbit's foot. You just rub it like Satan wants you to and get what you want like you would do an idol or a genie in a bottle. That's not God.

She said, "I finally began to understand that what Christians do is submit every day to the power of the Holy Spirit. Instead of trying to get God to do my will, to seek God's glory over my own and living for heaven on earth, which is actually what her husband was praying." Lord, do your will on earth as it is in heaven. That's what the Lord's Prayer was. That I would be submitting my will to the Lord, not getting God to dance to my tune.

That would be an idol. That is not God. Such a prayer, if that's all we're doing, reciting the Lord's Prayer like an incantation, reading the Bible to get up brownie points with God that he'll do what we want as any good idol should. Ultimately, she wrote, I recognize prayer is placing God on the throne of my heart and seeking His will for my life. Such a different perspective. It's what Jesus was willing to say when he'd say, "My bread is to do the will of him who sent me. My heart wants to honor my Father. I'm not putting him on a leash." I set my face like a flint to Jerusalem to fulfill his will, knowing the cross awaits me there. Because it's His will, ultimately, that he is being called to glorify.

Hello friends, this is Pastor Bryan. Thank you so much for listening today. I know that right now there are many within the sound of my voice who may be suffering under serious trials. Maybe your trial is a physical illness or maybe it's a mental or emotional trial from loss or fear or anger that afflicts you with depression or anxiety.

Whatever it is, God sees, God hears, and God knows. So right now I'm going to pray for you. And we're going to trust God to do a work in your mind, your heart, and your body by the power of His Holy Spirit. Heavenly Father, when your son was on this earth, he pointed to the flowers of the field and said that you make them beautiful even when they do not last for very long.

He reminded us that you care for the birds of the air even though they cannot care for themselves, and that you love us far more than they. And the greatest evidence of your wisdom, power, and love is that you sent Jesus to live and die for each of us. Father, if you care so much for the flowers of the field, the birds of the air, and the eternity of our souls, please let us rest in the assurance of your holy, wise, and powerful will for what is best in our lives.

We know the will of God will never take us where the grace of God will not keep us. So heal, strengthen, and forgive as you know is best. Then we will be truly blessed and find the rest of mind, body, and heart that you promise for all who love you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Guest (Male): That's Pastor Bryan Chapell, and you've been listening to Unlimited Grace. If you've missed anything that you'd like to hear once again, just visit unlimitedgrace.com. When you do so, you can sign up for Pastor Bryan's daily devotional sent right to your inbox.

While you're there, also be sure to request a copy of the book from Dr. Bryan Chapell called Unlimited Grace. We'll send you a copy right away as our way of saying thank you for your most generous financial support. Once again, go to unlimitedgrace.com or you can give by calling 844-41-GRACE. That's 844-414-7223.

Please be sure to join us next time as once again we endeavor to put Christ at the center of our efforts so that lives might be transformed by his unlimited grace. This ministry is brought to you by Unlimited Grace Media and continues to be made possible with your generous financial support.