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How To Overcome Temptation
Sunday, March 8th, 2026
Christ Covenant Church – Centralia, WA
Luke 4:1–13

Prayer

O Father Your Word tells us that if we resist the devil, he will flee from us. And  so we ask now that You would teach us from the life and example of Your Son, how we may become more than conquerors through You who love us. Fortify our faith, our hope, and our love, by the power of the Holy Spirit, for we ask this in Jesus’ name, Amen. 

Introduction

How would you tell the complete story of your life? Your birth, your youth, your maturation, your death? If you had the opportunity and ability to write your autobiography, what metaphors would you use to describe your life story? What genre would the movie version of your life fall into? Tragedy? Comedy? Adventure? Romance? Some mix of all the above?

• Well in the Bible, God gives us many different metaphors to describe the history of the world, and the story arc of individual people and families.
• Perhaps the most common metaphor the Bible uses is the metaphor of life as a Journey, as a long walk from one place to another. From the garden to the wilderness, and back again. From Egypt to the wilderness to the promised land.
  • We see this in the book of Proverbs that there is a way/path of wisdom, and the fear of the Lord that leads to life, and then there is the way/path of folly, which leads to death.
  • Jesus uses this Journeying/Walking metaphor in his Sermon on the Mount when he says, Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it (Matthew 7:13-14).So according to God’s Word, you are on a journey in some direction. You have a choice between good and evil, right and wrong, the easy way to death, or the difficult way to life. Life is a journey, a coming of age story, towards either heaven or hell. Do you believe this?
• Now another metaphor the Bible gives us, is the metaphor of life as a Battle. Life as Warfare. Life is a competition, a showdown, a duel to the death between sin and righteousness, between good and evil. And under this metaphor, every Christian is a kind of soldier in the Lord’s army. Yes, there are people who switch sides, there are people who betray the cause, there are deserters, there are cowards who shrink back in fear. But the Christian life is a warfare, against the evil inside of us, and the evil outside of us.
  • Paul in 2 Timothy 2:3, Endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
  • In Ephesians 6 Paul tells us to, Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
  • In Colossians 3:4 he says, Put to death your [own] members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. These must die!
  • What is the life of a Christian? It is a journey, it is a voyage, it is a competition, it is a coming-of-age story, it is the romance of heaven and earth, and it is a war to the death to win your soul.
• Do you think about your own life in these terms? In Biblical terms? Do you see yourself the way God wants you to see yourself? Where there are real enemies who hate you and want you dead, the world, the flesh, and the devil, and so you must put on the armor of God every single day until God gives you permanent victory and peace.
• Well in our text this morning, we see that the life of Jesus, was a life of warfare. It was a battle of wits and wills for the salvation of the world. Jesus and everyone who wants to follow Jesus is like a warrior signing up to enter the Colosseum. This life is a gladiator match. Your opponents are the devil, and your own sinful flesh, and heaven is the great cloud of witnesses cheering in the stands.
• The great puritan John Owen once said, “Be killing sin or sin will be killing you.” And that really summarizes what is at stake every day that you wake up and get out of bed. You are entering the Colosseum again. You must put on your armor again. You must pick up your Bible and read it again. You must get on your knees and pray again. You must forgive your debtors again. You must seek forgiveness again.
• And this is because, the devil is an experienced tempter, your flesh is weak, and Satan loves to exert all his force on the weakest part of your soul. And so how can you withstand such temptations? How can you fortify your heart and mind against the many schemes of the devil?
• This Jesus shows us how to do in his own showdown with Satan.
• And so this morning I want us to walk through this text to answer one big question, and that is: How do you overcome temptation? How do you win in this battle for your soul? Let us see how the Lord Jesus teaches us.

Outline of the Text

Our text divides into two basic sections.

• In verses 1-2 we have The Occasion of Temptation.
• In verses 3-13 we have Jesus Resisting Temptation.
  • The Occasion, and the Resistance.

Verses 1-2 – What was the occasion for Jesus being tempted?

1And Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness,

2Being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered.

• First recall that Jesus has just been baptized by John the Baptist. Heaven opened, a dove descended, and the Father announced, Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased (Luke 3:22).
• And then we see that Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness. Jesus chooses to go to the place of testing. Why does he do this?
  • Jesus is reenacting the history of Israel. Israel was chosen by God to be His priestly nation. God says to Moses in Exodus 4:22-23,Then you shall say to Pharaoh, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Israel is My son, My firstborn. So I say to you, let My son go that he may serve Me. But if you refuse to let him go, indeed I will kill your son, your firstborn.”
  • And then because Pharaoh refused to comply, hardened his heart, and would not let them go, God fulfilled His Word.Pharoah and all of those without the Passover lamb, suffered the loss of their firstborn son.
  • So just as Israel was led out of Egypt and baptized in the Red Sea, so also Jesus was baptized in the Jordan river. And just as Israel was tempted for 40 years in the wilderness, Jesus is tempted for 40 days.
  • Recall that the journey from the wilderness to the promised land was only an 11-day journey. But because they complained, rebelled, and broke God’s covenant, gave in to temptation, that 11-day journey turned into a 40-year punishment.
  • As the saying goes, “You can take Israel out of Egypt in a day, but you need 40 years to get Egypt out of Israel.” This was true for them. And it is often too true for us as well. God redeems us from this sinful world in a moment of Divine grace, but the rest of our lives is then God continuing to get that sinful world out of our hearts.
• So Jesus goes into the wilderness to succeed where Israel failed. Jesus is the natural firstborn Son of God, He is the new Israel, and He has come to re-write all our failures by His own perfect obedience. Jesus goes to be tempted in the wilderness as an act of divine grace for you and me.
• A second reason Jesus goes into the wilderness is to teach us that after our baptism, tests will come. We thought becoming a Christian would make our lives better and easier, and in many ways it does. It says in Proverbs 4:18-19, The path of the just is like the shining sun, That shines ever brighter unto the perfect day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.
  • But there is this important caveat: Now that you are on the side of the angels, a child of God, Satan hates you far more than he hated you before. The more full of the Holy Spirit you are, the more Satan would love to take you down.
  • We see in this in the Old Testament with the story of Job. Who does Satan attack with every weapon he’s got? The most righteous man on earth. And then after Job suffers the loss of his children and his possessions, and still blesses God, God says to Satan in Job 2:3, Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil? And still he holds fast to his integrity, although you incited Me against him, to destroy him without cause.
• So learn this lesson well: Satan hates you when you are sinning, but he hates you even more when you are not. Satan hates those he rules over, but he hates those he does not rule over even more. This was true of Job, it was true of Christ, and it will be true of all those who desire to follow Christ.
  • And this is an important lesson in how to overcome temptation: Be aware that after spiritual highs, after great successes, after your baptism and your filling with the Spirit, after fasting and prayer, Satan often comes to tempt. When we are weak and we know we are weak, we rely upon God and are protected. But sometimes we start to think our strength is from ourselves, and that becomes a new weakness.
  • And so what this means is that you must always be on guard and constantly casting yourself upon Divine mercy. There is a reason Jesus taught us to pray daily, “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” Because every day temptations come. Whether from the devil himself, or other people, or hard circumstances, or from our own sinful desires. Remember you are in a battle on at least three fronts: the world outside will assault you, the devil will shoot his fiery darts, and your own flesh wars against the spirit.
  • Do not underestimate your foe, or forget the foe within. If you do, you will easily fall into the Devil’s snare.
• So that’s the first thing we need to learn from Jesus. Note the occasions when the devil likes to tempt. And don’t think that just because you are full of the Spirit or baptized, that temptations will not come, assuredly they will.
• And this brings us to verses 3-12 where we see the kinds of temptations that devil uses against Christ, and there are three principal temptations here.
  • The first is an appeal to the human appetite. (vs 3-4)
  • The second is an appeal to human ambition. (vs 5-8)
  • And the third an appeal to human presumption. (vs 9-12)
  • So let us see how the devil tempts and how Christ responds.

Verses 3-4 – An Appeal to Human Appetite

3And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread.

4And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God.

• Notice that the devil begins by questioning Jesus’ identity. Most likely at this stage in Christ’s ministry, because he has not yet performed any miracles, the devil is unsure whether Jesus is a mere man or something more. And so he tempts to find out, and he also tempts to make him fall.
  • And this is also how the devil often assaults us. He questions whether we are really the children of God. He sows seeds of doubt in our heart: “If God really loved you, would He let you suffer as you do?” “If you are really a child of God, wouldn’t God want you to be happy? Wouldn’t He want you to satisfy your appetite?”
  • How many Christians have been seduced by this lie. That God is not actually as good as He says He is, and because God must want me to be happy, He must want me to take and do what I think will make me happy. This is America’s sin. God blessed us in many ways, we forgot God in our prosperity, and now we are paying the consequences for elevating our own appetites above the will of God. This we must repent of and resist with all our might.
• This first temptation is very similar to the first temptation in the Garden. Remember the serpent comes to Eve and questions God’s goodness saying, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”… “You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” (Gen. 3:1, 4-5) The devil appeals to Eve’s appetite for knowledge, for god-likeness, for the forbidden fruit.
• And now Jesus is being tempted like our first parents were tempted. The first Adam gave in to his appetite for what God had prohibited, and now the Last Adam, Christ Jesus fights how Adam should have fought, using the word of God. How does Jesus respond?
  • He responds by quoting Deuteronomy 8:3, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the context of that quotation is Moses reminding Israel, before they enter the promised land, how God has provided them with manna for 40 years. Deuteronomy 8 goes on to recall God’s faithfulness in the past and His promise for the future saying: Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. “Therefore you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to fear Him. For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land, a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs, that flow out of valleys and hills; a land of wheat and barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive oil and honey; a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing; a land whose stones are iron and out of whose hills you can dig copper. When you have eaten and are full, then you shall bless the Lord your God for the good land which He has given you.
    • So while Satan tempts us to take right now what God has promised to give us later, Jesus fights back with those promises, and the remembrance of God’s faithfulness.
• And this is how you and I must fight. We must keep heaven before our eyes, a world in which there is no sorrow, no tears, no death, no pain. Because that is what awaits us if we persevere in the faith: joy inexpressible and full of glory. When Satan tempts you with a good, look to the greater good that God has in store for those who love Him.
• Moreover, you should also fear the consequences of giving in to temptation. Because every time you sin, you weaken your will to resist the next time. And if you give in now, and don’t repent immediately and go in the opposite direction, you are running the risk of self-deception unto destruction. And then once you die, there is no more opportunity to repent, and even if there was, you would not choose it. A will that turns away from God in this life, will remain that way forever. And that should make you fear and tremble and beg for God’s mercy to sustain you.
  • As it says in 2 Peter 2:19-21, For by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them.
• This brings us to the second temptation.

Verses 5-8 – An Appeal to Human Ambition/Vainglory

5And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. [this likely some kind of vision]

6And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

7If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.

8And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.

• First observe the lies, the sinking sand, that Satan builds his temptations on.Satan offers to Jesus what he does not actually have the power to give.
  • He says to Jesus, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
  • But who is the one delegates authority? Who is the one who owns the world? It is God, not Satan. Satan is a usurper. He claims what does not belong to him and then tries to trick as many as he can to enthrone him above God.
  • This is why Jesus calls Satan a thief, a liar, and a murderer from the beginning. He says in John 10:10, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
  • When King Nebuchadnezzar committed this sin of Satan, attributing to himself a power and glory that belong to God, God rebuked him saying, King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you! And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.
  • Satan cannot give what he does not possess. And while Jesus could have refuted Satan with many other possible passages and truths, like “I am the God who has all authority,” instead he chooses to quote from Deuteronomy.
    • And this is because Jesus wants to help us overcome our temptations.Jesus alone can say I AM GOD, whereas you and I cannot. And so Jesus uses a weapon that we also can use. And that is appealing to the written Word, It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.
      • This is first commandment stuff, “No other gods before me.” And with this weapon of loyalty to the one true God, Jesus rebukes the devil.
• Third and finally, the devil appeals to the vice of presuming upon God to intervene.

Verses 9-13 – An Appeal to Human Presumption

9And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence:

10For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee:

11And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.

12And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

13And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed from him for a season.

• Now the devil is using Scripture to try to force Jesus’ hand.
  • It says in Psalm 91:11-12, For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone.
  • And so Satan is weaponizing the promises of God to protect His people, to get Jesus to kill himself.
  • Make no mistake. This is the devil inciting self-harm, suicide, death, and he is willing to use Scripture to convince Jesus that, “If God really loves you He will stop you, so give it a try.”
• Do you see how cruel the devil is in his temptations? He cannot help himself. He wants Jesus to eat rocks, not bread. He wants Jesus to bow down to him, not God. He wants Jesus to kill himself, and he baits the hooks with the Word of God. Satan will take what God intends for your salvation (Holy Scripture), and he will twist it for your damnation.
  • Are you aware of the ways that you are tempted to be presumptuous, to be passive when God tells you to be active, to blame God when you are the one responsible for your actions?
  • As my former pastor Doug Wilson likes to say, “God does not steer parked cars.” So are you moving in faith? Walking by faith? Working out what God is working within? If not, then you are tempting God, you are being presumptuous.
• Well how does Jesus overcome this temptation? He could have refuted Satan’s exegesis of Psalm 91. For the Psalm begins by saying, He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High Shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. In other words, God’s promise of rescue is contingent upon remaining in God’s house, dwelling with Him, not casting yourself away from His presence. Moreover, the kind of deliverance that God promises is eternal and spiritual, not merely temporal and physical. For the Psalm concludes saying, With long life will I satisfy him, And shew him my salvation.
• But Jesus does not choose to engage with Satan on Psalm 91. Instead he goes back to Deuteronomy for the third time, and selects a verse that clearly condemns what the devil is suggesting, it says in Deuteronomy 6:16, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.
  • And this itself is instructive for us. There are times when we are outmatched by our opponents, by heretics, by wicked smart false teachers. Their knowledge of Scripture and history surpasses our own. And yet if you Christian, know the Ten Commandments, if you know the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostle’s Creed, the basics of loving God and loving your neighbor, and are whole-heartedly seeking to honor God, then you have more weapons than you might think.
  • And if Jesus, who knows everything, fought the devil with the same Scripture that you and I have, then that Scripture is also sufficient for us to overcome temptation as well.
  • Moreover, we have this promise from God in 1 Corinthians 10:13, No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it.

Conclusion

• Learn to fight like Jesus fights. Review the armory of truths you already know, and then add to that armory when you meditate on God’s Word. When you hear these sermons. When you pray and sing the Psalms.
  • Paul says to Timothy, Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (1 Tim. 6:12).
  • The same can be said to you who confess the Creed every week. Who confess your sins every Lord’s Day. Who confess that Jesus is LORD to the glory of God the Father. Hold fast to that confession of faith steadfast till the end.
  • If you make gaining Christ your highest ambition, one day you will be able to say with Paul in 2 Timothy 4:7,I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing.
• May God grant you to gain the victory and triumph, through the power of Christ’s love working within you, to the glory of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, Amen.