It is Written

good morning and welcome to midweek

insights with Pastor John I'm Pastor

John Moore from popular assembly guide I

want to welcome you to our first

broadcast um if you're in the

Porterville area and you're looking for

a church to attend come and to worship

with us Sunday schools at 10:00 a.m. and

um Sunday services at 11: so as I was

praying about what to do and teach

today um I realized that the most

effective way weapon we have in our walk

with God is the word of God and Paul

said in second Timothy 2:15 study to

show yourself approved unto God a

Workman needing not to be ashamed

rightly dividing the word of Truth well

that requires an action on your part and

that action is that you begin to study

the word of God for yourself you should

always do that you should never take

anybody's word for it is written in the

Bible make sure you know

you don't have to be a theologian you

don't have to quote it book chapter and

verse but what you do need to do is you

need to know what it

says and so today what we're going to

look at is the Temptation Of Christ and

understanding it in its entirety is

hugely important to you as a Believer

the first thing about that is everything

that happened

happened in the same way it happened in

the garden and so we're going to Matthew

chapter

4 and we're going to take a look at what

happened

there and it's in in your King James

Bible it's listed as the three

Temptations of Jesus so what we're

looking at today is what happened so I'm

going to read to you and then we're

going to take a look at it and we're

going to EXP

explode it and we're going to take a

look at it and see how it applies to us

as

Believers it says when Jesus was led up

of the spirit Into the Wilderness to be

tempted of the devil and when he had

fasted 40 days and 40 nights he was

afterward in hunger and when the tempter

came to him he said if thou be the Son

of God command that these Stones be made

bread but he answered and said it is

written man should not live by bread

alone but by by every word that

proceedeth out of the mouth of God then

the devil taketh him up into the holy

city and Seth him on a pinnacle of the

temple and saith unto him if thou be the

Son of God cast thyself down for it is

written he shall give his angels charge

concerning thee and their hands they

shall bear thee up lest at any time thou

Dash thy foot against a stone Jesus said

unto him it is written again thou shall

not tempt the Lord thy God again the

devil takes him up into an exceeding

high mountain and showeth him all the

kingdoms of the world and the glory of

them and saith unto them all these

things will I give thee if thou will

fall down and worship me then saith

Jesus unto him get the hint Satan for it

is written Thou shalt Worship the Lord

thy God and him only shalt thou serve

then the devil leaveth him and behold

the Angels Came and ministered unto it

this is crucial for you to understand in

a way that you can apply

when the devil came to Eve in the garden

the first thing he did was he tried to

create doubt did God

say and then he got her to thinking

about

herself

self-righteousness and then the last

thing he did was he got her to believe a

lie so when

we're going through our daily life

serving God doing our best to uh

overcome Temptation and the things that

comes against us it's important for us

to realize that we have one

weapon that we can use to attack the

devil if you go to Ephesians chapter 6

and you read through the armor of God

every part of the armor the helmet of

salvation the breastplate of

righteousness the belt of Truth The

Shield of Faith having your feet Shaw

with the preparation of the gospel of

peace all of those things things are

defensive God gave you one offensive

Weapon It's called The Sword of the

spirit or the word of God and you'll

notice as we read through this passage

of scripture every time the devil

came and brought up something else to

Jesus his reply was always it is written

so with it being that important that

Jesus would overcome those Temptations

simply by saying

it is written and knowing what was

written in there he was able to overcome

the devil we overcome him in the same

way it's important we need to look at it

we need to understand that our words

have power uh Jesus said there's life in

death and the power of the tongue the

things that we

say have power so when the enemy comes

in and he's attempting to deceive us

which is always what he does first the

first thing he does he SWS a seed of

doubt if he can get you to doubt what

God's word says what God says about you

and the things that God says you're able

to do then that seed of Doubt can take

hold and what it does is it makes you

less of who God says you are and the

most important thing for you to do in

your life with Christ is to remember who

you are in God he said that you and I

are heirs and Joint HS with Christ that

as he is so are we in this world Jesus

himself said that all power in Heaven

and Earth is given unto me and I give it

unto you John 10:10 he says the thief

come to kill still and Destroy but I

come to give life and to give it more

abundantly so when we take a look at

this the first thing that that the devil

does In this passage of scripture is he

tries to caused Jesus to doubt who he is

he asks him he he write he says it in a

question in this way he says

if thou be the Son of God now the devil

surely knows he's the son of God he

knows that he is all God all man he is

God In the Flesh on the Earth but his

way of getting us distracted to change

our Focus From the things that God wants

us to do on to self the first step in

that journey is for him to to make us

doubt who we are so he says if thou be

the Son of God command these Stones be

made bread Jesus answers it in this way

he says it is written man shall not live

by bread alone but by every word that

proceedes forth from the mouth of God

now he gave us the Bible it is written

out it's God's word it's our weapon of

warfare against the

enemy and then when the devil saw that

that didn't work the next thing he

appeals to appealed to the same thing he

appeals appeals to with us the same

thing he appealed to Eve in the garden

is

pride then the devil takes him up into

the holy city and sets him on a pen

Pinnacle the temple and then he comes

back again with doubt but this time

appealing to his sense of self he says

if thou be the Son of God cast thyself

down and remember the devil knows the

word as well or better than you do he's

going to twist it that's why it's so

important you study this you need to

know when it's God speaking to you you

need to know when it's the devil

speaking to you because it's important

for you to know God's word now you don't

like I said you don't have to be a

theologian you don't have to be able to

quote this book chapter and verse but

you you need to know that you know that

you know and you need to be able to tell

the enemy when he comes against you when

he tempts you the word of God says this

about this subject and I need to stand

on the word of God he says if thou be

the Son of God cast thyself down for it

is written he shall give his angels

charge concerning thee and in their

hands they shall bear thee up lest at

any time thou Dash thy foot against this

a stone Jesus says unto him this is his

reply it is written again thou shallal

not tempt the Lord thy

God Jesus is saying I have to do what

the word says I have to no longer look

at self I have to rely on God we all

have to do the same thing when we're

doing things and we have skills and

gifts that God's given us and we're

using those gifts and we do it

without empowering that gift

with the Holy Spirit we're doing it our

own strength and in some instances

you're going to have great success but

in other instances you're going to fall

flat on your face why because you were

walking in yourself you were using your

own power to try to accomplish what God

wants you to accomplish and the only way

you can accomplish the things of God is

if you're empowered by God to do

so uh there's a there's an old saying

it's a very true saying by the way

is God doesn't call the qualified he

qualifies those he calls and the way he

qualifies them is by them learning God

his word learning his will learning how

to hear the spirit it's all

important and then the devil takes this

final thought the devil takes him to an

exceeding high mountain and shows him

all the kingdoms of the earth now

remember when Adam sinned in the Garden

of Eden the Dominion that God had given

him over the whole earth was passed to

Satan he became the God of this

world and he says unto Jesus all these

things will I give thee if thou will

fall down and worship

me so we went from

doubt to

self-righteousness and now to having to

make that final decision am I going to

follow self or am I going to follow God

the most important thing that we have to

do as

Believers is we have to change our Focus

from being pointed inward to being

pointed outward our our relationship

with God is what's important because

that relationship is going to last for

eternity whether it's with God or

without God we are Eternal beings God

created us in his own image and he

breathed his own Spirit into us he made

man a living Soul we hav an Eternal Soul

that's going to spend eternity somewhere

and it's either going to be with God or

it's going to be out in utter darkness

in fact in the Book of Revelation says

going to be if our name isn't found in

the Lamb's Book of Life we're going to

be cast into a lake of fire for all

eternity complete separation from God

and Jesus reply to him is the one that

you need to have confidence in he says

get the hint Satan for it is written

Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and

him only shalt thou serve so as you're

going through your dayto day you're

going to you're going to have instances

happen where you're going to have to

make decisions you're going to have to

decide am I going to do this for self am

or am I going to do this according to

God's

word the devil is subtle he comes

against you sneakily he doesn't just

boldly walk up and say I'm the devil

he walks up to you and he does things in

a way where he takes you unaware where

you can't focus your mind on what God

says to do he if he can get you

thinking with doubt if he can get you

looking at yourself if he can get you

looking away from what God says he

everything that you can be then what you

wind up with is in utter

defeat but if you

have complete trust in What God Says and

you know what his word says you will

recognize the enemy when he comes

against you and you'll have the power to

say

no I'm not saying it's going to be a

cakewalk or a walk in the park or easy

peasy liem and squeezy all of those good

words but what I am telling you is you

have the power to overcome Satan through

the blood of the lamb and the words of

your testimony use them he told you to

use them he showed you how to use them

right here in this passage of scripture

not only did he overcome the devil for

himself but he overcame him for you and

he told you how to overcome him in every

instance so I want to thank you for

being with me today I want to encourage

you to seek a deeper walk with Christ

and as you're going forward this week if

you want to come and join us for service

we're at popular Assembly of God uh

Sunday school is at 10:00 Sunday morning

service is 11: we'd love to have you

come and join us and remember one thing

it's in his service that we do all these

things so let's go let's go forward in

God and let's win the victory in Jesus

name amen