Is The Lord Among Us Or Not? Part I

Introduction

I guess Jesse had a little inkling of what I was going to preach this morning, but I don’t think he knows just how perfect those songs were. They were absolutely what this lesson this morning and this evening is all about. If you can’t be here tonight, I’m sorry. I just can’t get all of this into one lesson, and you’ll see why shortly. I’m going to be running through some stuff quickly. There are several self-contained lessons in this. So if you’ve got a pen and you can write these down, make notes in your Bible and come back to them later. This will certainly facilitate what I’m planning to do today. And some of this I’m going to decide as I go along as to how far I can go.

1. Jesus Is Our Example

But hopefully I can go as far as I intended. So let’s get started this morning. Let’s begin with a very common notion. You’ve heard before. Jesus is our example. But what does that mean exactly? Of course, 1 Peter 1 in verse 21 talks about this. He left an example that we should follow in his steps. And the rest of that context deals with his example of sinlessness and how he desires us as his disciples to die to sin and live to righteousness as he did. Of course, Ephesians 5 expounds upon this even further. As we’re admonished, the church in Ephesus admonished, we are admonished. Be imitators of God as beloved children. And walk in love, just as Christ did, and he was an offering for us.

Displaying His love for us. Yes, Jesus is our example. This should be our lifelong pursuit. And now let me break this down in three specific areas. Well, the last area is several areas, all into one. But this is a point that I want to emphasize in this lesson, and that is that Jesus displayed a tremendous confidence in the scripture. He had belief in the power of Scripture. And of course, the truthfulness of Scripture. And that’s a big part of what we’ll be talking about. Secondly, of course, and more about this tonight, he modeled righteous attitudes and behavior perfectly. And so we need to be looking at the example of Jesus in Scripture as we study the Word of God and say, this is the way Jesus thought about his circumstances.

This is the way Jesus thought about people. And I want to model that in my life. I’m going to imitate him. These are the things that he thought. These are the things that he did. How can I model that in my circumstances in my life? That’s what it means that Jesus is our example. And then three.

Evidenced in his prayerfulness. He would often slip away into the wilderness and pray. Luke 5 and verse 16. And of course, the love, the aforementioned love that we also sang about this morning. And then his victory over sin. I’m going to focus on that in just a minute. Now, that’s lesson number one. Wow, we got to that pretty quickly. Lesson number one if we get this morning, this will have been a success. This is how Jesus is our example. At least somewhat. There’s more things that we could be talking about, but that’s a pretty good picture of what Jesus’ example involves and how we are to imitate him. Now let’s look at this last part victory over temptation. And let’s talk about his threefold temptation in the wilderness.

2. Cite Scripture in Your Fight Against the Devil

Now, this was immediately after he was baptized by John. The Spirit impels him or compels him to go out into the wilderness very fast. How long? 40 days. And then, in his weakened and vulnerable state, if there ever was that for the Son of God, he was here in this weakened and vulnerable state, he is assaulted by the evil one. And he is ready for this confrontation. It’s almost as if before the ministry could begin, oh, yes, there’s a confrontation at the very end that’s severe, that’s going to lead to his crucifixion. But before his ministry could even begin, there had to be a battle with the devil, whose power he came to vanquish and conquer. And so that’s what these series of temptations represent. And as we’ve studied them many times, these three temptations, we have made the analysis as we look at 1 John 2 and verse 15 that talks about the ways of the avenues in which the devil tempts us, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the boastful pride of life, that all three of these are demonstrated in these three temptations.

The first, when he was challenged because of his hunger, if you’re the Son of God, turn these stones into bread. The appeal is being made through the lust of the flesh. And then in the kingdom’s pitch, as I’ll call it, which is really the third temptation in Matthew chapter 4, when he shows him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory, and he says, You worship me, and I’ll give them all to you. He sees the kingdoms of this world. The appeal is made through the lust of the eye. But that’s of course not the nature of Jesus’ kingdom. And then in the second temptation, we see the third thing in 1 John 2, verse 15 and the following. That is the pride of life.

An appeal to Jesus, if he would cast himself down from the temple after all, he quotes Psalms the devil does, quotes the Bible. And says, He will give his angels charge concerning you. But this would be a misuse of his power and position as the Son of God for personal glorification, for personal gratification. And so he refuses this appeal. And on each occasion, when the devil tempts him with the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, how does he ward off his advances? What does he do? He quotes Scripture. And that’s a very powerful example. Remember I said he’s our example in our victory over sin? You want to defeat the devil, might want to have the powerful word handy when Satan assaults.

And there’s some passages in this vein. Psalm 119 and verse 11, the psalmist said, Thy word have I treasured in my heart that I might not sin against you. So, Scripture is going to be a key to our success in warding off the advances of the evil one. And then this New Testament reference let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, and that should lead to singing, as we’ve done this morning, Colossians 3 and verse 16. So Jesus quotes Scripture in his fight against the devil, and that’s what I want to call your attention to. But here’s the thing. In each three of his quotations, those are the red letters in Matthew 4. It is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.

I cannot read that verse without thinking about one of my great influences in my childhood. Robert Jackson. Preacher from Nashville, Tennessee. He would come hold meetings for us. He was my favorite preacher. And I remember him preaching on this text as if it was yesterday. And many of you never got to hear Robert Jackson. But he was a great man. And I remember him saying, Man shall not live by bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. And he could get into that Tennessee twang, and man, it was, it was, it was great. What a verse, though. I’ve preached on it many times. The second statement. On the other hand, it is written, you shall not put the Lord your God to the test.

That’s really the truthfulness of Scripture versus the one the devil quoted. And then finally, in verse 10, be gone, Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God and serve him only.

Now here’s the neat thing about all the quotations. They’re all from the same book. In the Old Testament.

All three quotations are from the book of Deuteronomy.

Why? Why? Deuteronomy. Oh, wait a minute. I’m getting ahead of myself. Stop. Stop. I was going to give you some verses that you could quote when facing temptation. So mentally go back. Go back. 1 Corinthians 6. Sometimes my mind gets ahead of my notes and my slides. 1 Corinthians 6. The one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with him. So that’s who I am, as the devil tempts me. I’m not. The one who joins himself to a harlot is one spirit with her. It says, No, that’s not me. I’m joined to the Lord. I’m one spirit with him. His thinking is my thinking, goes in with what we talked about earlier. I’ve been bought with a price. Glorify God in my body and my spirit, which belong to God.

He says in that context, you might want to write these down. We’re not going to be able to go through them all the way, but again, good sermon in and of itself. How about Ephesians 4? Do not give the devil an opportunity, this text concludes. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Be angry and sin not. And the previous verses talk about our renewal in Christ. And how we’ve learned truth in Christ, and we are to put on righteousness and holiness. Maybe that’s a verse that would help you in temptation. And then this one. Examine everything carefully and hold fast to that which is good is in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, but the same thought is in 2 Timothy chapter 2 as he talks about being vessels of honor.

2 Timothy 2 and verse 21. Vessels of honor, sanctified, useful to the master, prepared for every good work, flee, youthful us. And pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. So now write these down. And maybe there are other passages in the New Testament that work for you in your fight against the advances of the evil one. And believe me, he’s going to come after us just like he did Jesus. Be armed and ready. Commit these passages and others like them to memory that you can ward up his advances. Okay, now go back. Go back to Deuteronomy. Okay, we’ve got two sermons already. And we’re only, it’s only 11.09. First sermon, Jesus is our example in all those ways.

3. Deuteronomy: What It Means to Be Sons of God

Second sermon, cite scripture in your fight against the devil. Okay, now let’s get back to where I’m ultimately going with all this. In these threefold series of temptations that come as Jesus is battling Satan on his turf, if you will. He’s weakened, he’s vulnerable, he’s been fasting for 40 days, and he stands against his assault. And he does so by quoting Deuteronomy. Is that the only passages that he knew? You know, we’re talking about, I’m giving you three passages saying work with those. Maybe there’s others that would work even better for you. I just thought of those off the top of the top of my head. Do you think Jesus had command of the whole Old Testament? Let’s shake our heads like this. Yeah. You know, and this really, this blows me away, people.

This is no extra charge here. This blows me away. Even as he’s being tempted by the devil, he’s teaching us.

He’s got something going on here that blows my mind. Okay? These passages are all very close together in the book of Deuteronomy. The first in chapter 8. The next two are back in chapter 6. They’re all right together.

What is the book of Deuteronomy about? Now, when I ask that question, you’re going, I have no idea. It’s somewhere in the law. It’s something about the law, yes. Okay, but that’s not the Ten Commandments. That’s an Exodus. That’s right. The ratification of the covenants in the book of Exodus. But let me tell you what Deuteronomy is. And I want to teach this soon. I’m getting really close to this. Going to teach Deuteronomy. We’re going to talk about this book is somewhat of a summary. Okay, now that you’re God’s covenant people, you’ve received the law. This is what the responsibilities of being my children, these are what the responsibilities look like. This is what it means in your everyday life. You’ve been called into covenant with God.

This is what it’s going to mean. You’re my sons. That’s it. He quotes Deuteronomy. Because Deuteronomy is about what it means to be sons of God. And that’s who he is. And remember how each of the temptations start, at least the first two. If you are the Son of God. If you are the Son of God. Here’s the question. Will Jesus succeed where Israel has failed? As God’s son. And the answer to that question is yes, he will.

He’s going to make application and use the book of Deuteronomy the way Israel should have been using it. And he’s going to defeat the devil. First quotation. If only they had recalled this as they were in the wilderness, as they were living their lives in the land of promise, but they’re going to forget God. And that’s what the context says in Deuteronomy chapter 8. When you’re satisfied and full, you’re going to forget me. But you cannot live on bread alone. And how relevant is that. Even in the New Testament, even in our circumstances in our lives, we need God’s sustenance to really live. We can stuff all of this world in day after day. It’s entertainment, it’s lust, and we can think, oh, that feels good.

That’s wonderful. I don’t need God. I don’t want to worship him. I’m going to just pursue these things that I want to pursue, and you’re not living. Because man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God. Then he goes back to Deuteronomy 6. And if you’re not over there by now, I want you to come back here. And if you can’t tell, I’m a little bit excited about this. And I’ve got to tell you, this is Sherry’s fault. She was reading along. And she said, Tony, have you ever noticed this? And wow, this is good. So Sherry gets the credit here. Deuteronomy 6, one of the quotations, verse 13. You shall fear only the Lord your God, and you shall worship him and swear by his name.

And that’s in the third temptation that he quotes this verse as the devil is saying, Here, I can give you all the kingdoms of the world. You know, he’s such a loving philanthropist. I’m going to give you all the kingdoms of this world. But you have to bow down and worship him. And Jesus says, You shall fear the Lord only. And him only shall you serve. But now, in a second temptation, he responds to the devil, if you’re the Son of God, throw yourself down from the pinnacle of the temple. Luke mentions this temptation last because I believe in the book of Luke. Everything points toward Jerusalem, and that’s where he’s taking him to Jerusalem. And so that’s why Luke switches the order. Matthew’s probably how it happened in sequence.

4. Is the Lord Among Us or Not?

That’s why they’re switched, in case you study that further. Okay. But he answers them by 6.16. You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, and that’s what the devil is doing. But there’s something else here. As you tested him at Nassau. Now he doesn’t quote that part in his temptations. But when you go back to Deuteronomy 6 and verse 16, this was God speaking to Israel and says, Do not test the Lord as you did at Massah. And so that ought to lead us to an exploration as to what he’s talking about. And so you go back, go back to Exodus 17. Go back in time to when they tested him at Massah. And look at Exodus 17. This is during the Exodus.

It is before they received the law because remember that chapter 20. Ten Commandments, chapter 20. And they’re thirsty. They have no water to drink. Verse 2. The people quarreled with Moses and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said, Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord? But the people thirsted there for water, and they grumbled against Moses and said, Why now have you brought us up from Egypt to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst? That’s really amazing. Okay. And we’ll talk about all that’s happened prior to Exodus 17 in just a minute.

You brought us out here to kill us all. Moses is, how have you done this? So they cried out to the Lord. Moses cries out to the Lord, saying, What shall I do to this people? They’re going to stone me. Then the Lord said to Moses, Pass before the people and take with you some of the elders of Israel. And take in your hand your staff, with which you struck the Nile and go. And behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock. Okay, now this is the time when he’s actually supposed to strike with the rock and not speak to it. Okay, he gets that messed up later. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it.

And the rock that followed was Christ. Remember in our Bible study, 1 Corinthians 10? Okay. They drank the same spiritual water. Okay. Water will come out of the rock. And that’s that’s powerful too. God takes the most dry, solid thing. He can bring water out of it. He can bring water out of anything. But a rock, that’s even more pressing. Can you imagine seeing that, by the way? Have you seen that lately? Waters come out of fountains. Out of water hoses, out of our sinks, not out of rocks. That the people may drink. And he named the place Massa. Oh, that’s what Deuteronomy’s talking about. They named the place Mass and Maribah because of the quarrel of the sons of Israel, and because they tested the Lord, saying, This is the Lord among us or not.

Now that’s what happened at Massah. He brought us out here to die. Is the Lord among us or not? Now, yeah, I also want you to pay attention to what follows this story. I don’t have time to go into this. The story of Joshua fighting against Amalek in the valley, and Moses, Aaron, and her are up on the hill, and whether they are winning in the valley or losing in the valley depends upon what? Moses keeping his arms up. And how boy, have you ever tried this for a long period of time? It does get heavy. And as his arms started to fall, he started to lose the battle. So what’d they do? Aaron and Hur get on either side of him and lift up his arms.

5. We Must Not Dictate Terms to God

And what becomes what’s obvious about that? Who’s winning the battle for them? The Lord is winning the battle for them. Okay, that follows this story pretty cool, isn’t it? But here’s what happened at Mass. Is the Lord among us or not? What do we learn from the Israelites on this occasion? Some things quickly. And we’ll be done this morning. Number one. They tested the Lord here. Okay. We must not dictate terms to God. And that’s what we are so often prone to do. God, I’ll serve you, but it’s going to be on these terms that I expect you to comply. And if you don’t, you’re out. Who are we to dictate the way it’s going to be? I really don’t like your legislation here, God, and so unless you change that for me and let me go a different route, I ain’t doing it.

We must not dictate terms to God. I’m going to give God his due on the basis of what he has said for me to do, not how he prospers me and fixes everything in my life. God, I’ll follow you, but suffering like Job, that’s got to be off the table. I’ll follow you wherever you go, but. See, that’s Luke 9, isn’t it? I’ll follow you only if it means I don’t have to live like Lazarus who couldn’t even get crumbs off the rich man’s table who actually went to heaven. He was righteous in Jesus’ story in Luke 16. But we’ve got to take Lazarus off the table. I don’t want a lifestyle like that. And more on that tonight. God, I will serve you. But only if my circumstances are pretty close to ideal.

6. Do Not Equate Fellowship With Favorable Circumstances

We studied recently, time and chance happens to all Ecclesiastes chapter 9 and verse 11. It’s a pervasive problem, and the righteous are not excluded. So, can’t dictate that term to God. No time and chance. If there’s any time and chance and it’s negative, I don’t want it. Not going to be there. Not going to do it. If everything in your life is rocking along pretty fine presently, be thankful. There’s no guarantees that it’s going to last. We must not dictate terms to God. Secondly, and this flows out of what I’ve just said, we must not necessarily equate fellowship with favorable circumstances. They’re thirsty, I get it. They’re thirsty. And there’s a lot of thirsty people. And they cry out to God, we are thirsty. You know, we don’t have this problem.

I’m thirsty. I go to the refrigerator. I got options. And if I don’t have options, Kroger or Walmart are very close by, and I can get drinks pretty cheaply. I even have filtered water at my house. So, thirst isn’t a problem. I get just a twinge of thirst while I’m working on sermons. Boom. Go get a drink of water. It’s there when I need it all the time. So let’s, before we belittle them, okay, we have it pretty good. They’re thirsty. Very thirsty. But that didn’t mean the Lord wasn’t with them. See, that was their conclusion. We’re hungry. We don’t have any food to eat. He takes care of that. More than that in a minute. We’re hungry. You must not be with us. We’re thirsty.

You must not be with us. Is the Lord among us or not? Are we really his people or not? Come on. And see, they’re already equating perfect circumstances with being in a covenant relationship with God. He’s teaching them. Trust, dependence, faith. Not perfect circumstances. Sherry made this comment in class recently about as Americans, we don’t handle difficulty very well. Right? We get in a traffic jam during rush hour, and we’re full of our hurried. This is terrible. Or even worse. In the middle of summer, the electricity goes out for hours. No air conditioning. Worse. No internet. No cable or direct TV. We are. It’s awful.

Those are definitely first world problems. I don’t know. That is. But yeah, we get all out of them out of shape. What about when some of the harder things in life come our way? And yet, when they do, we, God, you don’t care about us. Or we wouldn’t be going through all this. Okay, just real quickly. In Luke 12. Jesus, remember that’s where he says, fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body. Do not fear him who is able to kill you, and that’s all that he can do. Now I love that verse. And I love what he goes on to say in this context. But wait a minute. He took my he killed me. That’s pretty severe. But Jesus says, in the whole scheme of things, if you’re right with God, that’s not that big a deal.

It’s a pretty big deal to us. But that’s all that he can do. Paul says, we have this treasure in earthen vessels. The surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not of ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4 and verse 7. And yet in his present circumstances, he goes, I’m perplexed. I’m carrying about in my body the dying of Jesus. Death works in me, but life in you. He says.

Love that context. And he goes on to talk about what we ultimately have with God, a home with him in heaven. But he’s saying in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, yes, our circumstances are a little tough. And he says that in a number of places. Peter says it. Look, Jesus says it. Paul says it. Peter says it. That’s why I quoted these three texts. I could quote others. We got Jesus, Paul, and Peter all on board with the same concept. Your circumstances as a covenant person may not be ideal. Sometimes we suffer. Peter talks about suffering. Don’t suffer as an evildoer. But if you suffer as a righteous person, consider yourself blessed. It is with difficulty that the righteous are saved. 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 18.

And so often we find ourselves moaning like the psalmist did in Psalm 73. The wicked are fat. The righteous are struggling. I can’t make sense of this. Until he comes to the sanctuary of God, and then he perceives therein, the end of the wicked. And he has already affirmed the very first verse before he goes into the long diatribe about how life seems to be unfair, about how the righteous people are suffering with difficulty. He says, surely God is good to Israel. That’s the first verse. Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart. And he has to work through all of this in his mind, the seeming inequities of things, and he comes back to the end and he says, the nearness of God is my good.

I wish I had more time to delve into that this morning, but I don’t, maybe tonight. Surely God is good to Israel. He is my rock. He goes on to say, we sing about that. He’s the rock of my heart. The nearness of God is my good. We must not, and this is an important point, and this is where Israel was. We must not necessarily equate fellowship with favorable circumstances. So, how can we be confident that the Lord is with us? Now I’ve got to do this really quickly. Israel. What happens before Exodus 17? This is really the kicker. Okay, we’ve got the ten plagues. That was pretty big. As he powerfully brought them out. Oh, but that’s not all. We said as in our Bible, there’s the pillar of fire by night and the cloud by day by which he led them.

I mean, you’re getting miraculous leadership every day. You’re being led by a cloud and by a pillar of fire. Is that not telling you the Lord is among you? After the ten plagues? Oh, but that’s not all. We’re not done. Red Sea deliverance. Wish we had time to read all this morning, Exodus 14. Love this. May come back to this tonight. Awesome. Now, didn’t that say the Lord is among us? When he put a cloud between the Egyptians and the Israelites as they’re getting closer, he made a barrier so that they couldn’t get to him so that he could do in time by parting the Red Sea. Moses stretches out his staff and the Red Sea parts. They walk over on dry ground. Then he lets Pharaoh and his armies come, and of course they all perish in the sea.

And if you’re standing there on the edge of the Red Sea, you’re looking at that going, wow.

Look at what God has done. I would hope that’s what they were doing. Well, they sang a song about it in Exodus 15. Oh, but wait a minute. We’re thirsty. Thirsty out here in the wilderness. A lot of people need water. Not enough water. We’re out in the desert. Wonder why God took them through the desert. Teach them to trust him, probably. But he quenched their thirst. Exodus 15, go back a couple chapters. He’s already quenched their thirst once, but then they’re hungry. Oh, don’t worry about that. He provided manna from heaven. Short history lesson, but what’s that saying? The Lord is among you. And they’re still not getting it. Chapter 17. Is the Lord among us or not? Look at all this.

Conclusion

Sure. God is good to Israel. To those who are pure in heart. Doesn’t mean your circumstances are going to be perfect. How did Jesus have confidence that the Father was with him? What did he rely on? Oh, we’ve already talked about it, haven’t we? He relied upon the Scripture. He brought his life into conformity with Scripture. He pursued fellowship with the Father and displayed submissiveness. He did not dictate terms to God. He did not equate less than ideal circumstances with the fact that God wasn’t with him. He went through some less than ideal circumstances. So what is your confidence that the Lord is with you? I finally got there. How are you going to be confident? Let’s end with this morning when we’ll be done.

And got to come back tonight for the rest of it. Or listen to it on the website. It’ll be there in a day or two. I want to end with one verse this morning. Galatians 3 27. This is the one I thought of all the passages, there’s a lot of them, but here’s the one I’m going to choose. For all of you who were baptized into Christ, clothe yourself with Christ. Now, I’m going to tell you why I chose this. You know what that verse is screaming?

Relationship. Notice, if you’re baptized into Christ, and we can talk about that this is talking about immersion, submerging in water in the name of Jesus and likeness of his death, burial, and resurrection, Romans 6. But when we have the faith to do that, when we’re willing to repent of our sins and confess the name of Christ, and we’re immersed in water, what happens as a result is relationship. I know at this point, when I come up out of the water of baptism, I have clothed myself with Christ. I’m in a relationship with him. Is the Lord with me or not? Yes. He is. And it says something else. It’s not over at that point. It’s an ongoing pursuit that resolves. I have a new and exalted purpose.

I’ve been raised up with Christ. I’m again clothed with Christ. My life is hidden with Christ in God, Colossians chapter 3. I set my affections therefore on things above and not on things of the earth. Colossians 3 and verse 1 and 2. And so it’s an ongoing pursuit, and I can continue in this union, in this covenant. And as long as I’m doing that, pursuing that, yes, the Lord is with me. That’s where it starts. And so if there’s someone in this audience this morning to answer the question, is the Lord with you or not? This is where it begins. And if we can assist you to make this glorious step of obedience to the Lord so that you can enjoy all the blessings of being his covenant people.

That’s what Galatians 3:27 invites you to do. And if you’re subject to the Lord’s call, come down as we stand this time.