Teaching by: Pastor Mike
YouTube Lesson: https://youtu.be/qMoTwpjSOEM
Introduction:
We should be receiving the true Word of God. Learning to submit to the Lord. Giving our first fruits to Him. Sometimes God gives you a lesson to teach so people will hear it, and later those people will return that message to you, because that message is really for you! But the “compound interest” in the value of the Word of God is that a single lesson yields profit for many. None of the Word of God returns to Him without accomplishing its purpose.
Isaiah 55:10-11
As the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return to it without watering the earth and making it bud and flourish, so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater, so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.
Many people read the Bible to get what they want out of it. The Bible from beginning to end is the story about God. And out of all these things we need to be learning about Him. You can’t read the Bible and not believe God (that He exists and what He says is true; trusting in Him). If you do, then you never really understood it. Our flesh will never really understand God. And our flesh cannot step into the Holy of Holies. That is why we have a spirit.
The first fruit holds the honor of being the first. The Bible properly reads, “God, in the beginning.” This is because God is first, before all things.
Recognizing Temptation
You don’t have to talk to the devil or even acknowledge him. What we see in movies is wrong, with demonic spirits being strong and powerful. No devil has the right to even stand in front of you.
Genesis 3:1-7 NIV
Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
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. 7 Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves.
The woman should have told the snake that he couldn’t stand in front of her. Instead, she told him the wrong information, and also provided information the devil didn’t know. This allowed the door to be opened for the devil to create temptation, “to be ‘like God, but without God.’” Adam and Eve with their sin were saying “God should accept us the way we are.” In other words, “God should accept us without our fruit.”
Mark 11:12-17 NIV
Jesus Curses a Fig Tree and Clears the Temple Courts
12 The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. 13 Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. 14 Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it.
15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’”
When Jesus talked about the fig tree it represented religious Israel. The fruits of a fig tree should be figs – see Mark 11:12-14 above. The fruit of religious Israel should be God – see Mark 11:15-17 above. The fig tree had no fruit, and was a metaphor for religious Israel. Israel did not show God the way the fig tree did not show figs. Jesus condemned the tree, and it died. Jesus addresses the condition of the temple as being a ‘den of robbers.’
In today’s church, people can’t get past some of the more intense things in the Bible. But we have to. This is why Paul says that he can’t even give them meat, because they can’t take it.
1 Corinthians 3:1-3
Brothers and sisters, I could not address you as people who live by the Spirit but as people who are still worldly—mere infants in Christ. 2 I gave you milk, not solid food, for you were not yet ready for it. Indeed, you are still not ready. 3 You are still worldly. For since there is jealousy and quarreling among you, are you not worldly? Are you not acting like mere humans?
Luke 4:1-13
Jesus Is Tested in the Wilderness
Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, left the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, 2 where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing during those days, and at the end of them he was hungry.
3 The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”
4 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Man shall not live on bread alone.’”
5 The devil led him up to a high place and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. 6 And he said to him, “I will give you all their authority and splendor; it has been given to me, and I can give it to anyone I want to. 7 If you worship me, it will all be yours.”
8 Jesus answered, “It is written: ‘Worship the Lord your God and serve him only.’”
9 The devil led him to Jerusalem and had him stand on the highest point of the temple. “If you are the Son of God,” he said, “throw yourself down from here. 10 For it is written:
“‘He will command his angels concerning you
to guard you carefully;
11 they will lift you up in their hands,
so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.’”
12 Jesus answered, “It is said: ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.’”
13 When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
Jesus rebukes the devil using the Word of God. The devil comes to us too. Maybe not as bold as with Even in the Garden, or with Jesus in the wilderness. But he comes through T.V., radio, media, etc., and brings temptation.
Look at Luke 4:13 above. The devil leaves Jesus “until an opportune time.” When the devil’s attack of temptation is stopped, he leaves until he has another opportunity. He does this with us, just as he did with Jesus.
Three Areas of Temptation
1 John 2:15-16
15 Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. 16 For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world.
Do not love (or lust after) the world (or anything in it) or the love of the Father is not in you. Our goal is not any of what is in the world. But the worldly standards (i.e., money, success in career, material possessions, sexual promiscuity, etc., etc.) are not our measure and lead to ruin.
The church has this problem too, and falls for these temptations. You can build a mega church with watered down Gospel that doesn’t cut deep.
But to get the infection out you have to cut deep. This is what the meat of the Gospel does for us. In order for Iron to become steal it has to go through fire. We have to realize we are valuable already. None of the measures the world ascribes is value for us as followers of Jesus. Jesus says that we should rejoice that our name is written in the book of life!
Luke 10:20 NIV
“However, do not rejoice that the spirits submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven.”
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