The Temptation of Christ (Part 5)

Thank you, Mr. Kester. Once again, good afternoon, everyone. It is so nice to hear those voices blending in song and praise to our God. It is such a beautiful sound and very much appreciated.

I love everybody singing out. I'm here in parts. Just such a beautiful thing to be able to be together, worshiping God, gathered in His presence.

Well, brethren, for the past several messages, we've been progressing through a series that I've been working on, on the Temptation of Jesus Christ, as outlined in Luke 4. In going through the passages, we've examined a number of concepts we've taken a look at, a variety of things. And since it's been just a little bit since we've gone through them, as we conclude the series today, I thought it would be good to go back and just kind of briefly review before we dig into this final message.

One of the things we talked about is we explored how the time that Jesus Christ spent in the wilderness, fasting and being tempted by Satan, was an anti-type of the 40 years that Israel spent in the wilderness. So we see 40 days for Jesus Christ, we see 40 years for Israel, and we see that that time that Israel was in the wilderness and that Jesus was in the wilderness, Christ illustrated success, where Israel largely did not. And in doing so, Jesus Christ set an example for us on overcoming the temptations that we face.

Realistically, we have one example in Scripture of a person who never once capitulated to sin and that was Jesus Christ. And as we consider these things, and as we consider the temptations that we all face, I think it's worthwhile to examine his example and to understand how he goes about doing it. What we can gather from Scripture with regards to his strategies, what we can gather from Scripture as to how he goes about that process.

We discussed how the Scriptures that he chooses to quote in rebutting Satan's advances. So as Satan is coming at Jesus Christ while he's in the wilderness, we see Christ continually turning back Satan to passages in the Old Testament that recount Israel's dealing with very similar challenges, dealing with very similar issues.

And in many ways, in turning the devil back to the Word of God and ultimately in recounting those experiences for the audience that was there at that point in time, but also through the writings of the Gospel writers down to us, he's drawing our attention back to those events as well. And in doing so, what he's doing is asking us to find the common vein in these things to understand and to be able to deal with the temptation that we experience.

Keep in mind when he was tempted at first by Satan, remember he came out of the 40 days, we, as far as we understand, he was tempted during that time. We know that he was humbled and he was tested at that point in time. And he turns the audience back to Deuteronomy 8. Turns them back to the humbling and the testing that Israel experienced. As they entered the Promised Land, God hoped that they wouldn't forget him, that they would ultimately, you know, not be in a position where when they were full and when they began to enjoy the vineyards that they didn't plant, you know, the cisterns that they didn't dig, the houses that they didn't build, ultimately they go down the generations and someday reach a point where one of those Israelites looked back and says, see what all of my fathers built!

Look what they did. And to lose track of the fact that all of those things came from the hand of God. Not from their own efforts, but from God's hand. Christ turned him back to the passage that says, that man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

So we see also, as he was tempted, he turned the audience back to Deuteronomy 6, Deuteronomy 10, reminding the audience that was gathered to hear these things and ultimately us as readers throughout the the rest of history, that when it came time and we had an opportunity to choose our own path, so to speak, setting ourselves up in some ways as God in his place, or perhaps following another God in our lives, the reminder was that only to God our Father should we cleave and should we serve.

It is to him that we cleave. In every circumstance in Israel's life when they forgot this lesson, when they compromised with God's instruction, it was met with disaster. It was met with disaster. The way he turned that back, he said, you shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve. He turned them back to the latter verses of Deuteronomy 6 as well, as he was tempted the third time to the specific events that happened at Masah when Israel rebelled against Moses' leadership, when they rebelled against the very person that God placed in authority at that time, when Israel complained against God's grace, when they expressed doubt of whether or not God was with them or not.

Many ways they distrusted his loving kindness and they put God to the test. And the temptation which Satan gave was he told Jesus Christ at the top of this part of the temple, he says, does he care for you? Does he truly care for you? Does he truly provide for you? Prove it. Throw yourself down and see if he will actually save you. You know, in the very act of proving in the forcing of God's hand, often the tempting of God takes the form of unbelief, masquerading as extraordinary faith. He came back at Satan with you shall not tempt the Lord your God. You know, as we think about the common threads that run through these events and as we kind of think about the various events in Christ's ministry, there's an aspect of this that I'd like to focus on as we draw this series to a close today.

We kind of consider the takeaway for us today as we consider how we can confront these things and how we can push back against these things going forward. The title of the message today is The Temptation of Jesus Christ. This is part five. It is the final. And the title, subtitle is In the Presence of God. In the Presence of God. You know, we talked about Christ's temptation serving as an anti-type to Israel in the wilderness.

So in many ways, it's fitting for us to be able to go back to the beginning of God's relationship with his chosen people after their slavery in Egypt. Remember, let's go ahead and turn over to Exodus 13. Israel left Egypt with a high hand, right? Israel left Egypt with a high hand after the miracles that God had worked. And one after another, after another, they saw instances of their God advocating on their behalf and ensuring that he was doing what he could to release his people from Pharaoh's grip. You know, as they left the land of Egypt, as they left the bondage that they experienced in that land, and as they kind of looked in the rearview mirror, so to speak, as they saw Egypt getting smaller and smaller as they were relying on God and heading out, they stepped out on faith. They trusted that God was going to care for them. Was Israel scared? Absolutely they were. Yes, they were. Were they uncertain? Yes, definitely. Did God know that? Of course he did. Of course he did. He understood. Exodus 13, verse 17. So Exodus 13 and verse 17, we see, says, Then it came to pass, when Pharaoh had let the people go, that God did not lead them by way of the land of the Philistines. Although that was near, for God said, lest perhaps the people change their minds when they see war and return to Egypt. Verse 18, so God led the people around by way of the wilderness of the Red Sea, and the children of Israel went up in orderly ranks out of the land of Egypt. God purposefully took Israel along the kind of long way around, so to speak, to avoid the road that led northward out of Egypt. So that road, formerly known as the Way of the Philistines during the Roman Empire, was known as the Via Maris. It was the Way of the Sea. So out north of Egypt, as you kind of cut up through a little bit of the Arabian Peninsula, and then right along the coastline of the Mediterranean, up into what is now modern-day Israel, was this route.

And it was a much shorter route to where God was intending to take his people in the long run, but he understood fully Israel's mindset at the time. He knew how they were, kind of where they were in their relationship, so to speak. And they knew that, at this point in time, God knew that that area was the land of the Philistines. Now, archaeologists have debated over a really long period of time as to exactly who these people were. They were a people that suddenly showed up on the scene about the 12th century BC, from all accounts that came in by boats from Europe and Greece. A couple of recent archaeological digs, actually, you might find this interesting, have come across Philistine burial grounds in and around Ashdod, which is one of the first times that Philistine burial grounds have been discovered. And interestingly enough, their burial practices very much mimic Greek burial practices. And so the prevailing theory at the moment is that they are of Greek origin and likely Minoan, you know, ultimately as their backdrop. But these were a warrior people.

These were a people that, you know, Israel was gun-shy, and God did not want to walk them through a land where people shot first and ask questions later, you know. And so he took them in a much longer route, took them via the Way of the Wilderness. It was a more southeasterly route that led down towards the Arabian Peninsula, toward the Red Sea.

Verse 19, we see that Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, for he placed the children of Israel under Solomon, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here with you. Verse 20, so they took their journey from Sukkoth and Campton and Ethem at the edge of the wilderness. Verse 21, and the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of cloud to lead the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to give them light so as to go by day and night. Verse 22, and he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. So God led his people through the wilderness in a pillar of cloud by day, likely helping shade them against kind of the brutal heat of that desert. But in addition, they had in the evening a pillar of fire that lit their camp, lit the areas outside of the camp maybe a little bit, gave them a little more security, a little bit more comfort maybe as they're looking off into the dark outside of their camp. And again, verse 22, it mentions very specifically that he did not take away the pillar of cloud by day or the pillar of fire by night from before the people. Why not? Why not? Why was that so critical at this point in Israel's relationship with their God? Because the Israelites needed to see God's continuous presence among them.

They needed to know that their God was there. They hadn't just jail broke them out of Egypt and then disappeared. They needed to know that their God was there. And in this case, we recognize that was the word, the God being that would become Jesus Christ. Throughout Israel's wilderness journey, God showed his presence among them in a number of ways. He showed it through the pillar of cloud and fire. He showed it through miraculous provisions, right? Quail that are, you know, this high off the ground, water that came out of a rock.

You know, I mean, God provided for his people in a lot of different ways. He spoke through Moses. He spoke ultimately to the people through Moses. His glory dwelt in the tabernacle and later in the temple. I mean, God's presence among his people was clear. They also saw it, however, in the chastening that they received, right? They had fires that burned among the camp. They had diseases that came upon them. They had the ground that opened up and swallowed members of the house of Israel when they disobeyed him. Any logical human being would conclude in that situation that, yes, God's presence is among his people. He simply couldn't explain it any other way. But brethren, therein lies the issue. Therein lies the issue. Just because God's presence was there did not mean that Israel trusted him. Not fully. It didn't mean that they interacted with him appropriately. It didn't always mean that they didn't start looking for gods in other places. And it certainly didn't mean that they always followed his instruction. In fact, you look at the rest of Israel's history, and that illustrates that quite well. Israel's humanity got in the way, ultimately.

Israel's humanity got in the way. Their desires for food, for autonomy, you know, we're looking at the different temptations that Christ experienced. Maybe their distrust. Maybe their questioning of whether or not their God was with them in disbelief. But ultimately, their flesh, what we might say is human nature, apart from the oneness of God, got in the way. Despite the fact that they could see him from their camp, despite the fact that they knew that he was there, that did not stop them from craving something else, from following other gods, and ultimately tempting God with their unbelief. They were in his presence, but in some ways they couldn't have been further away mentally, emotionally, or spiritually.

We had a marriage retreat weekend that we attended the third week of November, up in the Portland area, and we had a few members from the congregation that went. It was a nice little bit of time to get together and go and focus on godly focused marriages. But the presenters during that conference talked about a concept that, you know, kind of I think we intuitively know, but the way that they enumerated it, I thought was very, very well done. They talked about how relationships are on a continuum. That there's a continuum that these relationships are on, and whether it's a friendship, whether it's a marriage, whatever it may be, you've got connectedness on one end of that continuum, and you've got isolation on the other end of that continuum.

And they talked about, with us as humans, the way that humans tend to be, we tend to drift toward isolation. You don't drift towards connectedness. You drift towards isolation. And so, if you think about the relationships you have, the friends that you have, if you don't talk to one another for a while, what happens? What happens? You tend to not talk to each other for a while longer, right? You kind of end up living your own lives, you kind of end up living your own thing and doing your own thing, and without very purposeful efforts to reconnect, or to re-engage, or to rebuild that towards oneness and connectedness, people drift apart. That's kind of our natural tendency of human relationships. Because God is relational. God is relational. Many of the relationships that we have on this earth, they are types of the God-playing relationship, for example, in marriage.

Kind of a parallel of the oneness that, you know, we attempt to have here in this life, between one another, similar to the oneness between the Father and Christ, or between Christ and the Church. But this is very similar to our spiritual relationship as well.

On one end of that continuum is the goal of the relationship. I guess for you guys, it would be this one, right? If we're moving towards the right, we're going towards oneness this way, right? On one end of that continuum is the goal. Like-mindedness, oneness, togetherness, connectedness, which is what God's desire is with us as his children. A oneness and a connectedness, and a togetherness, and a like-mindedness. But on the other end of that is isolation.

And if we don't take purposeful effort to move in this direction, we will naturally head in this direction. And what ends up happening, as they described, you end up with, in an isolated sense, from a marriage standpoint, or from a friendship, or a relationship, what you end up with is you end up with two people that are moving through life in proximity to one another, but they are not together. They're in one another's orbit, you know, they're in the same places at the same time, but they are not on the same page. And ultimately, take a look at the story of Israel and God.

There it is. They are in one another's proximity, they are in one another's orbit, but Israel is not on the same page. They're just not. Fast forward from Israel down through history to the New Testament Church, we see God's presence come among his people once again. Okay, we know that at a time in Ezekiel, God's presence left his people as his glory left the temple in that in that sense. But once again, God's presence came among his people this time in the form of a man, as Emmanuel, God with us, Jesus Christ. Through the period of Christ's ministry, he chose 12 disciples to follow him that they might be instructed and taught that they might be developed into the men who would take the gospel to the kingdom or of the kingdom of God, rather, to the world. And during that three and a half years, the disciples followed him through the Judean wilderness. They were taught by him. They walked the same trails. They ate the same food. They slept in the same rocky areas, you know, as they were going place to place to place to preach the gospel. There is no question that God's presence was among them. He could physically reach out.

They could touch him. They walked beside one another for three and a half years. But even after, as you'll notice, three and a half years, they still didn't fully understand. Let's go to John 14.

John 14. John 14, we see the words that come into play after the Passover, and as Christ begins to outline to his disciples what was going to happen, ultimately the things that were going to occur in the near to distant future. John 14. And we see that Christ comforts his disciples over his impending death. And we haven't quite fully enumerated that yet to them. But he is preparing them and working on preparing them for a time where his presence will not be among them in that sense.

John 14 in verse 1. John 14 in verse 1. He says, Let not your heart be troubled, you believe in God, believe also in me. In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you.

He says, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you there to myself. That where I am, there you may be also. Once again within my presence.

Right? And where I go, you know, in the way you know. Thomas says to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. And how can we know the way? You know, at least Thomas was willing to speak up and go, you lost us. I'm not quite sure where we're going here, but let's back up a little bit. Let's hit the rewind some. Let's let's line this out here. So Thomas says, you know, once again, he says, we don't know where you're going, ultimately. He says, we don't know where you're going and how can we know the way? Jesus said to him, verse six, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So we see the disciples begin to ask some questions, kind of trying to clarify Christ's words here. Verse eight, he goes on, verse seven, I'm sorry. He says, if you would have, or if you had known me, you would have known my Father also, and from now on you know Him and have seen Him. Philip said to him, Lord, show us the Father, and it's sufficient for us. Jesus said to him, Jesus said to him, have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known me, Philip. He who has seen me has seen the Father. So how can you say, show us the Father? Do you not believe, verse 10, that I am in the Father and the Father in me? The words that I speak to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does the works. Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father in me, or else believe me for the sake of the works themselves. Verse 12, most assuredly I say to you, He who believes in me, the works that I will do, He will do, or I'm sorry, that I do, He will do also, and greater works than these He will do, because I go to my Father. Verse 13, whatever you ask in my name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

He says, if you ask anything in my name, I will do it. And so we see Philip kind of get hung up a little bit here on the differentiation between Christ as the Son of God and God the Father.

He desires Christ show him the Father, and Christ tells Philip, you've seen him. He says, we are one in the sense that they are together, that they are of the same mind, that they are connected.

Jesus Christ isn't running rogue. He's not out there making his own calls and calling his own shots and doing his own thing. He's exercising the will of the Father. He says, I don't operate on my own authority. He says, He exercises the Father's will. It's the spirit of the Father dwelling in Him, and ultimately He and the Father, and they tell them that they've been in the presence of God for three and a half years. Verse 14, once again, He tells His disciples that greater works than those that they saw Him perform will be done. You know, we've seen that in the conversion of our own lives, the miracle of conversion, you know, of taking a heart of stone and working to make it a heart of flesh. You know, it's an incredible miracle that we see each and every day as we see converted individuals yielding themselves to God. But He goes on and He tells them that even though He's leaving, they won't be alone. He says they'll continue to have the presence of God in the same fashion in which Christ was connected to the Father through His Spirit.

Verse 15 here of John 14. Verse 15, He says, if you love Me, keep My commandments, and I will pray the Father, and He will give you another helper, that He may abide with you forever. And we recognize the pronouns here are added. Holy Spirit is not a personage. We recognize its essence and the mind and the power of God. So He goes on and He says, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees Him or knows Him, but that you know Him, and He dwells with you and will be in you. He says, I will not leave you orphans. He says, I will come to you. Christ tells His disciples, I'm not going to leave you alone. So I'm not going to leave you alone. God will continue to be with you. His presence will continue to be with you. You're not going to be orphans.

We know Christ was betrayed. He was tried. He was crucified. He died. He resurrected. And He was appeared to His disciples for a time before ascending into heaven shortly before Pentecost in 31 A.D. And we recognize on that day of Pentecost in 31 A.D., this promise was realized.

And that man has had the opportunity to be in God's presence again in a much more intimate way as God dwells in Him. Again, as the temple at this time. But brethren, just because God's presence via His Holy Spirit, via His mind and His power and the essence of God dwells in us, it does not mean that the issues that Israel faced can't impact us as well. Remember, God dwelt among Israel at that time. And ultimately, they still had challenges. So even if God's presence is there, just like Israel, if we refuse to trust Him, or if we're unwilling to listen, or we're unwilling to obey, if we're unwilling to yield ourselves to His will for us, just like we talked about with the continuum, each of those situations is one step further away towards isolation. One step further away from God's presence. Kind of closing that off and moving in the opposite direction. In extreme circumstances, we see a couple of examples in Scripture of God removing His Holy Spirit from someone. You know, it's not impossible. It is rare. We see an example, at least one in Scripture that we can think of. So why was Christ successful where Israel was not?

Why was Christ successful when Israel was not? Because Christ and God are perfectly one.

They're perfectly one. Jesus Christ was fully connected with God's presence dwelling in Him.

He yielded to it. He followed God's will for His life, even if it meant His death. Even if it meant His death. He was not isolated. He was not disconnected from God. They were one. And He was cleaved fully unto Him. Now, we should probably place a caveat here. We realize this level of connectedness in this life is not fully possible for us. We recognize we can approximate it. We can get close. We can continue to build that relationship. We can continue to go forward. But if we consider perfection as the definition of not sinning, that is not attainable in this life.

Now, that does not mean that we don't make the effort. It does not mean that we don't recognize the perils of sin. It does not mean that we excuse it or we wink at it in some way. We do everything that we can to continue to yield ourselves to God as we are being perfected, as that process is ongoing, as we're growing and we're learning and working to be more fully connected to God.

But managing temptation, managing sin as we saw Jesus Christ do, it requires us to be aware of its effects. Let's go back over to Isaiah 59. Isaiah 59. Oops. Trying to flip the wrong way.

Isaiah 59, we'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. We'll see the words here of the prophet Isaiah to the people of Israel. And while, again, this is contextually to Israel, the principle itself is universal, regardless of the time in which we live, regardless in history where we are.

Isaiah 59. We'll go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. It says, Notice verse 7. Their feet run to evil, not away from evil. They run to it.

If you've ever seen a fight break out at a middle school, I don't know how else to describe it to you, but the feet run to evil. When I worked at a middle school, a couple kids started pushing each other. All of a sudden, there was a pack of rabid wolves around those guys, cheering them on. They ran to it, not away from it. They ran to it. It's the same principle here. Running toward evil. They make haste to shed innocent blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity. Wasting and destruction are in their paths, the way of peace they've not known, and there is no justice in their ways. They made themselves crooked paths. It says, Whoever takes that way shall not know peace. Now, we won't go through the rest of this. I mean, you can definitely take a look at it if you'd like, but we sin when we act upon the temptation to go against God's will for us. God's will for us is sanctification. It's holiness. It's being set apart from the world around us. Being different. You know, living in accordance with his ways.

And ultimately, when we act upon that temptation to go against God's will, when that desire, quote unquote, is conceived, we sin. Talks about that in the book of James. And whether we act on the lust of the flesh that we outlined in Galatians 5 when we were going through these messages, and I want to be very clear. Remember, we talked about how we talk about lust, quote unquote, today, and we think about it in a very sexual sense. But as you go through the lust of the flesh that are outlined in Galatians 5, there's a lot of those things that are not sexual in origin. These are things like contentions and anger and jealousy and outbursts of wrath, envy.

Now, these are things that are desires that we might have, you know, to win the argument, or to, you know, shut it down, or be this, or whatever. But those things are temptations to us.

Those are lusts of the flesh. Whether or not we yield ourselves to idolatry, whether or not we set up false gods in our lives that we put before God, whether we're, again, tempting God in our own unbelief. These things, as we act on these things, as we, as we, you know, yield to these things, they move us away from our God. They put distance between us and our God and His presence in our lives. But, brethren, it's important to consider, and I think this is, this is critical, God didn't go anywhere, so to speak, in our lives. God promises that He'll never leave us, that He'll never forsake us. If there is distance in our relationship, if there are feelings of isolation, it's because we moved away from Him. It's because we took steps away, and we did not take purposeful steps to return.

That we increased the distance and did not take the necessary steps to move back. And so there's a distance there. There's a, an isolation there. We moved away from His glorious presence in our life, and it's going to take purposeful effort to return. Now, that process of returning, we refer to as repentance. It's a critical process, ultimately one that we should be doing on a regular basis. Because when it comes to the matter of the presence of God remaining in us, it's a matter of the heart. Let's go over to 2 Samuel, 2 Samuel 12. We're going to go through a couple of examples here just really quickly to kind of illustrate the point. But 2 Samuel 12, and I want you to look at these two examples and see the difference in the response. Keep an eye on the response here.

So 2 Samuel 12, we'll pick it up in verse 1. David at this point had committed an egregious sin with Bathsheba. He'd lusted after her. He pursued her. He'd lay with her. He'd gotten her pregnant.

And ultimately, it had her husband killed. Okay? So that's like just down the road, you know, just one thing after another. And Nathan the prophet at that time was given the task of going to the king of Israel, going to David, and confronting him to let him know what he had done.

You know, God sent Nathan with that burden to go to David and to ultimately confront him with his sin. 2 Samuel 12, and we'll pick it up in verse 1, it says, the Lord sent Nathan to David and he came to him and he said to him, there were two men in one city, one rich and the other poor.

The rich man had exceedingly many flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing. He had nothing except one little lamb, one little you lamb, which he had bought and he had nourished, and it had grown up together with him and with his children. It had eaten of his own food and it had drank from his own cup and lay in his bosom. He said it was like a daughter to him. You know, fur babies. You know, we might consider fur babies today, right? People and their dogs. But it says, a traveler came to the rich man who refused to take from his own flock and from his own herd to prepare one for the wayfaring man who had come to him, but he took the poor man's lamb and he prepared it for the man who had come to him. We see David here thinks that Nathan is lining this out, like this is something that had happened in the kingdom at that time, like this is a judgment that he has to make.

We see David get incredibly angry here. He says in verse 5, David's anger was greatly aroused against the man and he said to Nathan, as the Lord lives, the man who has done this shall surely die. He recognized how unacceptable these actions were. And he shall restore fourfold for the lamb, because he did this thing and because he had no pity. Nathan said to David, you are the man. You are the man. Thus says the Lord God of Israel, I anointed you king over Israel and I delivered you from the hand of Saul. I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your keeping, gave you the house of Israel and Judah, and if that had been too little, I would have also given you much more. Verse 9, Why have you despised the commandment of the Lord to do evil in his sight?

You've killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, you've taken his wife to be your wife, and have killed him with the sword of the people of Ammon. Verse 10, we see the consequences. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife. Verse 11, Thus says the Lord, behold, I will raise up adversity against you from your own house. I will take your wives before your eyes and give them to your neighbor. He shall lie with your wives in the sight of the Son. For you did it secretly, but I will do this thing before all Israel before the Son. Verse 13, we see David's acknowledgement and response. He says, I have sinned against the Lord. And David, and Nathan said to David, the Lord also has put away your sin, said you shall not die. Okay, so David here recognizes the sin.

He's, you know, recognized that he sinned against God. Nathan says to David, the Lord has put away your sin. You've been forgiven of that. Your sin has been put away. You shall not die. However, verse 14, because of by this deed you have given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child who is born to you shall surely die. And then it says, Nathan departs.

So after Nathan came to David, David realized the magnitude of what he had done. He realized the depths of his sin. Nathan told David that God put his sin away, that he'd forgiven it. Ultimately, that he'd put it as far as east is from west as we see described in other places, but that there would be consequences. The child would die, that Bathsheba was carrying. The household would experience incredible turmoil and war and death. And in many ways, you look at the rest of Israel's history here during the period of the kings. Ultimately, I think in many ways the remind, you know, kind of remainder of the story of kings, much of it can be traced back to the events of this particular situation. A lot of it springboards from there. While the sin had been forgiven, the consequences of the sin remained. David went on to write the 51st Psalm after this interaction with Nathan. Let's go ahead and turn over there. It's one of the most heartfelt prayers of repentance that we have in the entirety of Scripture. Psalm 51, and we'll go ahead and see his words. We're not going to read through the whole thing. We're just going to kind of skim through it here a little bit and pick up the highlights. Psalm 51, and we'll pick it up in verse 1.

Psalm 51 and verse 1, it says, "...to the chief musician, a psalm of David, when Nathan the prophet went to him after he had gone into Bathsheba." It says, "...have mercy upon me, O God, according to your loving-kindness, according to the multitude of your tender mercies." It says, "...blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity. Cleanse me from my sin." He says, "...I acknowledge my transgressions. My sin is always before me." He recognizes this sin was against God. He says, "...against you, and you only have I sinned and done this evil in your sight." It says, "...I was brought forth in iniquity." Verse 5, "...said, Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts, and in the hidden part you will make me to know wisdom." He says, "...purge me with hyssop." He says, "...wash me, and I will be whiter than snow." He says, "...hide your face from my sins. Blot out my iniquities." Verse 10, he says, "...create me a clean heart, O God, renew a steadfast spirit within me." Notice verse 11, "...do not cast me away from your presence. Do not take your Holy Spirit from me." He says, "...restore to me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me by your generous spirit. Deliver me," verse 14, "...from the guilt of bloodshed." He says, "...I will praise you." He says, "...I do not desire sacrifice, or else I would give it. You do not delight in burnt offerings. Sacrifices of God are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart, and these things," he says, "...you will not despise." You know, David acknowledged his transgressions.

You know, he came before God with just a humble heart asking for God's forgiveness, asking that he would cleanse him, that he would enable him to be able to restore that relationship, to take those steps necessary to come back into God's presence.

We see that David is described in Scripture as a man after God's own heart, and we can see why.

Take a look at the way that he responds in this scenario. Now, there was a lot of different ways he could have responded. In fact, we'll take another example here and take a look at this here real fast. But we see David loved God. He understood the effects of sin. He understood what it did. He had made terrible mistakes, mistakes that had terrible consequences.

But when he was confronted with it, he acknowledged it. He owned up to it, and he repented of it before God. Now, why did he do that? Because he desired to return into God's presence.

He desired to not be away from God. He desired to be closer to Him in relationship, and he recognized that his actions had put distance between them. Now, contrast his example with the example of Saul. Let's go to 1 Samuel 13. 1 Samuel 13.

1 Samuel 13. And we'll see that Saul has a little bit of a different response.

In some ways it's similar, but in other ways it's very different.

1 Samuel 13. We'll see kind of just skimming through here. We'll look at some of the issues that kind of came into play in Saul's reign, you know, kind of as we build context here just to get us to the point of 1 Samuel 15. We see in verse, in 1 Samuel 13, we see Saul takes it upon himself to offer a sacrifice because Samuel was delayed. Okay, so Samuel did not show up on time at the prescribed time when he said he would show up. And so, ultimately, Saul takes upon himself authority that God did not put on him. It was not his place to do what he chose to do. And so, he made the sacrifice offering in Samuel's place. And ultimately, because he was king, because he could do what he wants, because I'm the guy in charge, I'm the king, who's going to tell me I can't? He ultimately sins against God by going through that process. So Samuel comes, he informs Saul that because of the decision that the kingdom would end with him, that ultimately God would seek out a man after his own heart, that God would not establish a dynasty with Saul, like his son and then his son after him, and on and on it goes. So we see Saul in between verses 13 and 15 make some additional questionable decisions in those ensuing chapters, and that leads into the events of 1 Samuel 15. God commands Saul to kill King Agag, to kill the individuals that are present there, to take the choice animals, to destroy them. And ultimately, what we see is that Saul does the opposite of those things. Saul spares King Agag. He keeps the choice animals, unwilling to destroy them, again against God's instructions. And so once again, we see Saul decide what Saul's going to do.

You know, Samuel, God, they had instructions in place, ultimately, and Saul decided that he was going to do his own thing. Not only that, in his pride, he set up a massive monument for himself at Carmel, something that would be a nice reminder of who Saul was. You see this all the time in various places. And so we see Samuel, just like Nathan, confront the king. What's the difference in the responses? For Samuel 15 verse 24. For Samuel 15 and verse 24, Saul says to Samuel, notice the difference in the response, I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words. That would have been a really good place to stop. That spot right there would have been a very good place to put a period and just listen to what Samuel then said.

But notice what he says next. He says, because I feared the people and I obeyed their voice. In other words, it's not my fault. It's not my fault. I was afraid of them and I figured if I didn't do what they thought I should do, that, well, they were going to be mad at me or they were going to be upset. And so I obeyed their voice. He says, now therefore, please pardon my sin and return with me that I may worship the Lord. Are we saying the right words? More or less. I mean, more or less.

A few things maybe he could have said differently. But do you feel like his heart's really in it?

You look at David's response and you look at Saul's response.

David was moved with indignation at what happened in his sin. You know, he was moved to, I mean, I have to assume tears as he writes Psalm 51. I have to, based on the way that he wrote it.

Saul, on the other hand, says, well, I did it because they made me kind of do it.

He asked for repentance, but his heart doesn't appear to be in it. Not like David was.

Saul was rejected as king. Samuel never again returned to Saul. In fact, Samuel grieved that.

See, Samuel very, very upset that he's not able to return to Saul. God's spirit departs Saul.

Saul was cast out of his presence. He becomes troubled by other spirits. And then we see the rest of the story as Saul tries to kill David and tries to, you know, get involved in a lot of these issues, ultimately dying along with his son. Well, when we're confronted with sin, when we're confronted with temptation, when we're confronted with these things in our own lives, there's two paths that we can go. We can either respond with the heart of David or we can respond with the heart of Saul. We can respond with the heart of David or we can respond with the heart of Saul. We can either take responsibility for the sin, we can recognize that we had a part in it that we ultimately are responsible. We can do our part to change. We can do our part to improve. We can take the efforts necessary to be able to trust in the grace of God in our lives and to yield to His will in our lives. We can turn towards Him. We can draw near to Him. We can trust in His promise that in doing so He will draw near to us. Or, I mean, the other option is that we make excuses. We find reasons why it's everybody else's fault but our own.

We can blame other people for the reasons why we act out. We can push that responsibility for our acting on that temptation to anyone and everyone but ourselves.

We can respond in pride. We can respond in anger. We can attempt to justify. We can attempt to obfuscate. But, brethren, only one of these responses, either the heart of David or the heart of Saul, only one of them, returns us closer to the presence of God. Only one of those responses takes the step back to connectedness, back to like-mindedness, back to oneness, while the other is a step in the opposite direction.

It's a purposeful step toward isolation, toward withdrawal, toward, I'll take care of this myself. I don't need help. And that's ultimately a dangerous, dangerous direction to take. Not only that, only one of these choices enables us to be better prepared the next time a temptation comes around. If you're further and further from God with each subsequent step, you're not in a good place to be able to continue confronting these things as you go.

Ultimately, there is rest in God's presence. Let's turn over to Exodus 33. Exodus 33, as we kind of bring things to a close here today. Exodus 33.

Notice Moses in this scenario, coming to God, asking how he was going to go about what God had asked him to do, you know, as he was dealing with all the issues that he was experiencing with Israel at that time and some of the various challenges that he faced. Exodus 33 and verse 12, when we yield ourselves to God's presence within us, when we yield ourselves to God's Spirit, when we give our troubles to him, when we rest in his loving care, we cast our anxieties and our issues and our challenges on him. God gives us rest. Notice Exodus 33. We'll pick it up in verse 12.

Says, Then Moses said to the Lord, See, you say to me, Bring up this people.

He says, But you've not let me know whom you will send with me, yet you have said, I know you by name, and you have also found grace in my sight. Moses says, You're putting in front of me this impossible task. How will I fulfill it? How will I fulfill it? He says, Now therefore, verse 13, I pray, If I have found grace in your sight, if that is true, he says to God, if it is true that I found grace in your sight, show me now your way, that I may know you and that I may find grace in your sight, and consider that this nation, I like how he kind of reminds God, this nation is your people. I didn't birth these guys. This nation is your people, right? Notice what God says to him.

He said, My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest. It is in God's presence that we can find rest, where we can find respite from the challenges and the trials and the issues that we face. Again, as the story of Israel progressed, we looked at the beginning. You know, Israel struggled mightily to yield themselves to God despite his presence, despite the fact that he was there with them. They struggled to yield themselves. They struggled to obey. In fact, they chose to depart. They chose to take steps away from God's presence. Let's go over to Hebrews 3. Hebrews 3. And we'll use this passage here to close. Hebrews 3, as we kind of draw the conclusion. Hebrews 3. It builds on this passage in Exodus 33.

It builds on this concept. It references back to this time frame in history. Hebrews 3. And we'll go ahead and we'll begin in verse 1. Hebrews 3 and verse 1. Ah, it's in that stretch of my Bible that's all weird. There we go. End up flipping right past it every time. Hebrews 3 and verse 1. It says, Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the Apostle and high priest of our confession, Christ Jesus. Verse 2, who was faithful to him who appointed him, as notice he draws Moses here, as Moses also was faithful in all his house. For this one has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as he who built the house has more honor than the house. For every house is built by some one, but he who built all things is God. And Moses indeed was faithful in all his house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterwards. But Christ, as a son over his own house, whose house we are, if we hold fast, the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end. Verse 7, therefore, as the Holy Spirit says, and this is referencing Psalm 95, today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. Again, referencing right back to the same things that Jesus Christ referenced back to. Says, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion in the day of trial in the wilderness, where your fathers tested me, where they tried me, and saw my works forty years, and therefore I was angry with that generation. And said, they always go astray in their heart, and they have not known my ways. So I swore in my wrath, they shall not enter my rest. They shall not enter my rest.

Beware, brethren, lest there be any of you, an evil heart of unbelief in what? In departing from the living God. In stepping away, step by step by step, whether it's purposeful or whether it's not intentional, it's accidental, that drift in human relationships is toward isolation, not connectedness. Connectedness is purposeful. Isolation is the result if nothing else is done.

It will drift and come apart. He says, beware, brethren, lest, verse 12 again, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God. He says, but exhort one another daily, while it is called today, lest any of you be hardened through deceitfulness of sin.

Verse 14, for we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, while it is said today, if you will hear his voice, do not harden your hearts, as in the rebellion. Verse 16, for who, having heard, rebelled? Indeed, was it not all who came out of Egypt led by Moses? Now with whom was he angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, those corpses, or whose corpses fell in the wilderness? And to whom did he swear that they would not enter his rest, but to those who did not obey? So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. You know, Moses was faithful. He trusted God. He was a servant of God, led Israel through the wilderness, even though Israel failed. And ultimately, Moses even struggled in his moment of weakness, in his anger, in his frustration. You know, the one that was counted worthy of more glory than Moses, the one who built the house, as it talks about in Hebrews 3, of which were to hold on to that confidence in and that rejoicing of the hope in to the end.

When you look at Christ's example as he was in the temptation in the wilderness, Christ relied fully on his God in the wilderness. He wasn't distant. He wasn't isolated. He was right there in his presence with God dwelling in him, fully cleaved, fully connected, fully submissive to God's will in his life. How could he do this where Israel failed? Well, we just saw it. Israel departed. They walked away from God, so to speak, in their unbelief. They may have been in the same room, in the same orbit, so to speak, in proximity to one another, but they were not together. They were not like-minded. They were not, you know, with one another in that sense. Christ remained fully in God's presence. He trusted the outcome, regardless of what it would take. Again, whether it led to his death, it didn't matter. That was God's will. That was God's plan.

Christ was in God's presence, and brethren, so are we. So are we. We have God's Holy Spirit dwelling in us. We are the temple of God at this time. We have his Spirit within us. And as you consider the issue that Israel faced, as you consider the things that Christ continued to push back to in his examples, and as he looked back to Israel and their failings, it came back to Israel not being in God's presence fully. Not having the faith to be in God's presence. As we look at, kind of regardless of what we have to come as, you know, the trials and temptations that we will ultimately face, there is rest in God's presence. There is rest in his presence. If we're willing to yield to him and we're willing to maintain that presence. So brethren, let us lean into him.

Let us lean into him at these times. Let's repent of the sin that so easily ensnares us. Let's continually do that. As it mentions in Psalm 105, let us search for the Lord and his strength. Let's seek him, look for him, find him, take those steps towards him, kind of come into his presence fully, and truly resist and push back against that separation that Satan offers through sin and through isolation. And we are going to need this strength that God provides, this rest, and this respite that God provides in his presence in the coming months and the coming years. So brethren, let's lean into God and let's fully come into his presence.