Scripture Memory: Help in Mistreatment

Psalm 119, and we'll be reading from verses 9 through to 16.! Psalm 119, starting at verse 9.

! This is God's Word. How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart.

Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord. Teach me your decrees.

With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways.

I delight in your decrees. I will not neglect your word. Last week, we considered a question and an answer from Psalm 119, verses 9 through 11.

A question especially aimed at younger men and younger women. How can a young man keep his way pure? Answer?

By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart. Do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you.

Young man, young woman, here's the question. If you're serious about keeping your way pure in an impure world, if you're sincerely praying for God to not let you stray away from his commands, then you will be hiding God's word in your heart that you might not sin against him.

And the same thing holds for us who are older men and women. So for today, let's consider, what does it mean to hide God's word in our heart?

And how does that keep us from sinning against God? Well, to hide God's word in your heart is to internalize it.

It is to get this in here. Jeremiah says, Your word was found and I did eat it. He took it inside. David says in Psalm 51, 6, Lord, you desire truth in the inward parts.

So here is God's word. It's outside of me. How do I get it into my heart? Well, I memorize it.

Word by word, phrase by phrase, verse by verse. I listen to it, being read, being preached.

I meditate on it. I become so familiar with it that I can recall it by memory. We're called in Romans 12, 2 to renew our minds.

And according to Isaiah 55, that means I'm getting rid of my thoughts and my ways, and I'm replacing them with God's thoughts and his ways, which are so much higher than mine as the heavens are above the earth.

And I'm doing this so that I then begin to think God's thoughts after him. So now you can take my Bible away from me.

And I still have some of it hidden in my heart where it cannot be taken from me. And where I'll always have it with me, with me to help me in my time of need, in my time of temptation.

Because you see, you don't always have your Bible nearby you, do you, when you're tempted. Not all of your temptations take place while you're reading the Bible and have it right in your lap. Oh, but if it's hidden in your heart, then it's right there where the Holy Spirit can use it to sanctify, to help you not to sin against God.

Now, sometimes we hide things that we treasure. David so valued God's word, didn't he, that he says it's more precious to me than much gold, much fine gold.

For David, God's word was his treasure. And because of that, he hid it in his heart. You remember when Jesus was born in Bethlehem, an angel was sent to the shepherds who were watching their sheep by night.

And the angel said, Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy, which shall be to all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

And this shall be the sign for you. You'll find the baby wrapped in cloths, lying in a feeding trough, a manger. And so the shepherds hurried to Bethlehem.

And they found things just like the angel had said. And they repeated and spoke the word, spread the word that the angel had told them about this child.

And everyone who heard it was amazed. But Mary treasured these things and hid them in her heart.

She treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. Luke 2, verse 19. So they're treasured. They're hidden in order to ponder, to consider them, to contemplate, to mull over them.

Mothers, how often do you think that Mary recounted those words that she heard that night as she held and nursed her baby, as she raised him up.

Those words coming back to her. The Messiah, Christ, the Lord. My son. My virgin-born son.

The Savior. The long-promised Messiah. As she finds him in the temple at age 12 and he's discussing with the teachers of the law.

At age 30, when she sees him turning water into wine and working miracles. And three years later, she stands at the foot of the cross and a sword pierces her heart.

As she sees him being mocked and tortured to death. Unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Good news of great joy. And then three days later, to hear he's risen from the dead. You see, she treasured up those words and she pondered them in her heart.

So memorizing Scripture is not an end in itself. We hide it in our hearts so we can ponder it and meditate upon it. So that we can digest its meaning and understand how does that apply to my life.

And then we bring our life into greater conformity with that word of God. We repent of where we've gone off of the path and we get back onto the path and we reject the temptations to lead us to stray from God's commandments.

Well, notice the stated reason then for memorizing, meditating God's word. It's that I might not sin against God.

So, memorizing, meditating, thinking about God's word becomes the exercise that shows how serious you are about the goal of not sinning against the Lord.

You say you don't want to stray from God's commands. You say you don't want to sin against God. Well, how much of God's word have you hidden in your heart so that you will not sin against God?

That's the proof of sincerity. And that's what it means then to hide God's word in your heart. Now, we'll say more, Lord willing, in the future about meditation. It's a theme that gets its own emphasis in this psalm.

But secondly, this morning, so that's what it means to hide God's word in your heart. How does this work then? How does hiding God's word in your heart actually keep you from sin, sinning against Him?

Well, it keeps the word ready in hand for the very moment of temptation to sin. The sword of the Spirit, it's with you right then in the midst of your temptation to fight that battle with temptation.

On the spot, it's there to remind you of the right path to go when you're being tempted. It says to you, this is the way, walk in it. It's there to warn you, that's the wrong way, don't go that way.

It's there to remind you of the many reasons to obey God's word, motivations for obeying it, examples to follow, others to avoid, promises to claim, encouragements from God, your father, encouragements from God, the son, encouragements from God, the Holy Spirit.

what they have done for you, what they are doing for you, what they will yet do for you, blessings in store for those who do follow his commandments, and losses and discipline in store for those who stray.

So in God's word, we're confronted with things that make it harder to sin against God. That's the long and short of it. But this book will make it harder for you to sin against God if you're hiding it in your heart.

Because here you taste that the Lord is gracious. And when you taste that, you don't want anything coming between you and him, like sin. You want to keep your way pure.

Now God's word is so precious. It purposefully is designed to keep you from every kind of sin. Isn't that an amazing book?

That there is everything in here to keep me from every sin that will ever tempt me in this world. That will enable me to keep my way pure.

But you see, it's not enough to have the Bible, the sword of the Spirit, that great double-edged Jerusalem blade. Not enough. How skilled are you at wielding this sword against your particular temptations to sin?

That's the real test. Not, well, I have the sword of the Spirit. How good are you at using it against your temptations? Now, there is one particular temptation that keeps popping up in Psalm 119.

David had this situation just heavy upon him, and it was a great temptation to him. And there must be over a dozen passages where he points that out in this psalm.

And for those temptations, for that particular temptation, David keeps turning to the word of God that he might not sin against him. And he found God's word to be all he needed to deliver him from that peculiar temptation.

So I want you to see the many verses where he speaks of it, and then I want you to see some principles for overcoming this temptation and showing how it was God's word that kept David from sinning under constant temptation.

Now, the situation was the mistreatment, the persecution, the slander, the abuse that he received from King Saul and his cronies.

And it started earlier in life as a ruddy teenager. David was sent by his father to go check on his brothers who were fighting in the army against the Philistines in the Valley of Elah. David shows up there in the camp just as Goliath, the great Philistine warrior, is challenging Israel to send out someone to fight him.

And if he beats me, then all of us will be your servants for life. And if I beat him, all of you will be our servants for life. And he comes out just as David arrives.

And all the Israelites panic and run for their tents in great fear. And David hears that this has been going on for 40 days, morning and evening. Now, who should have gone out and fought him?

Who in Israel should have gone and fought Goliath? The Bible tells us that if you lined up the army of Israel, there you'd see them. And then, when you got to King Saul, you'd see this guy that was a head taller than all the rest.

Well, he should have fought. He should have faced the giant and gone after. But he was as scared as all the rest of them. And he was trying to conjole somebody else to go out and get killed.

And so, he promised money. He promised exemption from taxes. He promised the hand of his daughter in marriage. And David saw this scene and said, who is this uncircumcised Philistine?

And who does he think he is to show contempt for the armies of the living God? I'll go and fight him and God will be my help. And with a slingshot, he brought Goliath down with one stone.

And then he took Goliath's own sword and chopped off his head. Tall King Saul was shamed by only a boy named David.

Well, he couldn't but give an important place in his military. He gave him a high rank in the army. And David succeeded in all that he did.

And as they're returning home from the battle one day, the women came out to meet him and they sang their song and danced. Saul has killed his thousands, but David his tens of thousands. And oh, how that galled Saul.

How green with envy, how jealous of David, of his courage, of his success, of his popularity. And then Saul invites David to play his harp in the palace.

And three times as David was playing, Saul grabbed his spear and hurled it at David. And he ducked just in time to escape by the skin of his teeth.

Then Saul sends men to his house to kill him while he's in his own bed. And that caused David to flee from his home and to run for his life.

Well, Saul wasn't finished. He was right on his tail. He gathered 3,000 chosen men of Israel and hunted David down like a bird in the forest for 10 to 12 years.

The best years of a young man's life. Not spent at home with his wife and family, but living on the run, hiding, never sure whether he would see the light of another day.

Think of it. This was no small trial. This was no short trial. It seemed as if it would never end. How in the world is David to keep his way pure under such provocation, such temptation?

Can you imagine yourself being sinned against to that degree? Mistreated so badly, lied about, slandered, robbed of the best years of your life? What particular sin would you be tempted to commit because of that situation?

Well, how about self-pity? Poor me. Look at me. I've not done anything wrong. Look what he's doing to me.

Giving up all hope of ever becoming the king as he has already been anointed by Samuel the prophet. Impatience. Wanting to hurry up God's timetable to where he would sit on the throne.

about sinful worry, anxiety, as if he had no God to protect him. But I would think especially the greatest temptation would be to be filled with bitterness, to be filled with malice, with hatred, which is murder of the heart.

even the temptation to murder indeed, which we'll see was indeed one of the temptations that David had to face down. In short, to be overcome by the evil instead of overcoming the evil with good.

How did he keep his way pure? How did he keep from sinning against God? He tells us over and over. I want you to notice it with me. It was his use of the word of God.

Look at verse 23. Please have your Bible open as we see these verses from Psalm 119. Verse 23. Though rulers sit together and slander me, your servant will meditate on your decrees.

Doeg, Saul's sheep herder, together with others in the service of Saul were envious of David. And so they slandered him to King Saul.

They fed lies to Saul about David to poison his mind further against him. David's out to kill you, Saul. He wants to steal the throne from you.

And David's response to their slander was to meditate on God's decrees, not on their slander. Now that's huge. Because is it, is that not the temptation when we're slandered and lied about to fixate on what they're saying about me, how they're abusing me, the mistreatment that I'm receiving.

How could she? How dare he? It's the natural thing to do. It comes so easy.

But it only stirs up the flesh, doesn't it? The better and supernatural thing to do is to meditate on God's word. That's what David did. Because God's word will keep you from sinning in that very situation of injustice.

And blessed is the man who has the word of God hidden in his heart so he's got it there to use when he's just been insulted and lied about. The principle is clear.

When tempted to sin, meditate on God's word. And it only follows, doesn't it? When in danger, draw your sword at once.

That's what it's for. And the sword of the Lord always has something to say about our temptation. The situation we're being tempted to.

So, you're called to match God's word with your temptation. What does God have to say about this sin to which I'm being tempted?

Have you ever asked that question? Have you ever searched for the answers that you might meditate on that word of God so as to not sin against him?

Mary Winslow lived in the 1800s and when her young husband died, she by herself raised 11 children.

Several of them went on to be ministers of the gospel. Most notably, Octavius Winslow, the good friend of Spurgeon. And Mary Winslow said this in her journal, how often has an unkind look or word proved a blessing to me?

Did I read that right, Mary? How often has an unkind word or look proved to be a blessing to me?

Oh, tell me how, Mary, how? Well, it made me flee to Christ and there I found no unkindness. Isn't that good? An unkind look or word, a temptation to replay that over and over in the mind to stir up ill feelings, hateful thoughts about returning evil for evil, an unkind word for her unkind word.

Instead, Mary flees to Christ. Christ. And where do you meet Christ? These are the things that testify of me. We meet him in the scripture in Psalm 63, three, because your loving kindness is better than life.

My lips will praise you. Your loving kindness. She turns away from the unkindness of the person to the loving kindness of the Savior. And it does her good.

So instead of her lips piercing her enemy, she's praising her Savior. She bested the devil by the word hid in her heart.

She overcame evil with good by recalling the loving kindness of her Savior. So this temptation of mistreatment then, it's not something rare in this fallen world.

You'll even find it here in this church. You'll find it in your marriage, in your family. We splash our sins on each other. Now you may not have someone lie about you saying you're out to kill someone, but you'll never make it through this world without an unkind word or look directed your way.

And immediately you'll find yourself in a battle with sin. Will I be overcome by the evil and pay back in kind or will I overcome the evil with good?

A kind word for a harsh word. Will I sin against God and stray from his commands or keep my way pure? A lot depends on how skillful your use is of the sword of the spirit as it applies to your temptation.

David met mistreatment with meditation on God's word and it kept him from sinning against God. Look at verse 51. The arrogant mock me without restraint but I do not turn from your law.

Now the righteous have already been the target of the world's jokes. Their mockery. They laughed at David without restraint. That means they didn't hold back anything.

They gave him both barrels of mockery but they were unable to get the victory over David. Why not? Because he was as stubborn in not turning from God's law as they were in not turning from their mockery.

Look at verse 52. He goes on to say, I remember your ancient laws, O Lord, and I find comfort in them. The arrogant did everything they could to steal comfort from David, mocking him without restraint.

David turns to God's word and he finds all the comfort he needs. In the great God of salvation, he called to mind God's ancient words and finds sweet comfort.

He bested the world's discomfort by finding comfort in God's word. Now how do you remember that in the heat of the spiritual battle unless you've hidden God's word in your heart?

You can't call a time out and run home and get your Bible. Right then you need a response to the evil coming at you. Hence the importance of having hidden God's word in your heart, having meditated on it so it's ready for use.

I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. None were more righteous than our perfect Savior, but that didn't stop their mocking of him even while they beat him and nailed him to the cross and laughed at him as he hung before them.

He was not moved by that, by that mockery. The Bible says he despised the shame. He treated it as a nothing. He committed no sin and no deceit was found in his mouth.

When they hurled their insults at him, he did not retaliate. When he suffered, he made no threats. Instead, he entrusted himself to him who judges justly.

Somewhere in David's life, he had meditated on the, or on Jesus' life, he had meditated on the justice of his God. If he's judged over everything, then when I'm mistreated, I can appeal to him and not have to take the law into my own hands.

And that's what he did. He had hidden God's word in his heart. And so he did not sin against him. Verse 61, though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law.

Now, that I will not, that's a resolution. David is resolved, he's determined to not forget God's law. And the wicked treatment that he was receiving only renewed that determination, renewed that resolution of David, to not forget the law of God.

That's ever the temptation of abuse, is to make us forget God's law, to take the law into our own hands, to get what we think would be justice.

Benaiah was one of David's mighty men, and he performed many exploits, the stuff of legends. It's said that he defeated an Egyptian giant.

And though the Egyptian had a spear in his hand, Benaiah only had a club in his hand. Would you like that? Your club to his spear, giant? He snatched the spear from the Egyptian's hand and killed him with his own spear.

Do you know how to beat the devil with his own weapon? His weapon is temptation. He's trying to kill you with temptation to sin against God. Do you know how to beat him with his own weapon?

When you're mistreated, the devil is tempting you to forget God's law. So what do you do? You let his temptation lead you to remember God's law. That law that has been hidden in your heart.

To not take matters into your own hands and grow bitter and think evil thoughts or be full of self-pity. You see, if you can use his temptation as a call to turn to God's word, you're beating him with his own weapon.

Because as you turn to God's word, hopefully you will have remembered that you're not to repay evil with evil. That you're to love your enemies. You're to bless them that curse you.

You're to do good to them that hate you. You're to pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you. Matthew 5, 44. And as you turn your heart to God's word, you will become better, not bitter.

I've hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. So use Satan's temptations to tighten your grip with all the more resolve.

I will not forget your law. And then 69, verse 69, though the arrogant have smeared me with lies, I keep your precepts with all my heart.

There it is again. The tactics of the enemy failed as they smeared him with lies because David just hangs on to God's word with all of his heart.

You know, a holy life is a better weapon against slander than trying to defend yourself with words. It's God's way of fighting slander.

Rarely with words, always with a holy life. 1 Peter 2, 12. Live such good lives among the pagans that though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

For it is God's will, he has decreed it, that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men. You see, your holy life will take the wind out of their sails, out of their slander, out of their lies.

You'll find no place to land. Let your defense be the testimony of a good conscience before the Lord and leave the judge to deal with your enemy.

Verse 78, may the arrogant be put to shame for wronging me without cause, but I will meditate on your precepts. verse 85, the arrogant dig pitfalls for me, contrary to your law.

Verse 86, for men persecute me without cause. Verse 87, they almost wipe me from the earth, but I have not forsaken your precepts. The persecution wants to dominate my mind, it wants to rob me of that peace that we sang about, that perfect peace, that settled sense that all is well.

That's a great loss if all you've got going through your mind is the mistreatment that you're receiving from men. Verse 95, the wicked are waiting to destroy me, but I will ponder your decrees.

There it is. Meditating. Thinking. Verse 110, the wicked has set a snare for me, but I've not strayed from your precepts.

153, look upon my suffering and deliver me, for I have not forgotten your law. You see, his heart is directed Godward, and he knows that as long as God sees and knows what's going on, that I'm safe.

That's enough for me. God is my refuge. And he says, look upon my suffering and deliver me. And it's faith in that reality that God sees everything being done.

And I can safely commit myself into the hand of this Father of mine in heaven. 157, many are the foes who persecute me, but I've not turned from your statutes.

You see, just how predominant this temptation was in David's life, that it so fills this journal of David, which is Psalm 119.

Indeed, it was never out of sight. He was always running for that period of some 10 to 15 years, whatever it was. It was a daily experience.

And so David had to respond by daily, moment by moment, in each temptation, hanging on to God's word. God's word that he had hidden in his heart.

Amen. How well armed are you with God's word? Oh, we're blessed. David only had the Old Testament.

We've got a bigger sword. And how much of it have you hidden in here? Either memorized it or meditated, heard it over and over so that now you can recall it in the heat of the battle, in the heat of the emotion when you're being insulted, mocked, and mistreated.

we have at least two occasions recorded in scripture when David was tempted to take matters into his own hands and even to kill Saul and end this crazy ten years running for my life.

The verse is found in 1 Samuel 24 where King Saul was informed, and this was part of the problem, that there were informants all throughout the land and they would try to get in on King Saul's good side and they'd say, hey, Saul, David's hiding out over here with us, in our area.

That's what happened. They came and informed where David was hiding. So he takes his 3,000 men and he sets out to look for David. And along the way, Saul turns into a cave to use the restroom there.

And David and his men were further back in the very cave. And the men then told David, this is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.

All the cards are pointing toward ending Saul's life and ending this miserable existence. And David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul's robe.

And afterwards he was conscience stricken for what he had done. said to his men, the Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord's anointed, or lift my hand against him for he is the anointed of the Lord.

He is there by God's appointment. God has anointed him for this position and if he's anointed him, he's going to have to remove him.

I dare not touch the Lord's anointed. Do you see how it was there when he needed it? When everything, there was such an opportunity to end this madness.

There was even the twisting of religion and thoughts of God and his providence to say, well, look, God's obviously means for you to kill him. He's put him right into your hand, David.

Now do it. With these words, David rebuked his men and did not allow them even to attack Saul. And then Saul left the cave and went on his way.

And after he was a ways away, David called out to him, my Lord, the king. David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground and said to Saul, why do you listen when men say David is bent on harming you?

This day you've seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you. I said, I will not lift my hand against my master because he is the Lord's anointed.

You see, that word was etched upon his memory. He could not get it out. See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand.

I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. Now understand and recognize I'm not guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I've not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life. May the Lord judge between you and me.

May the Lord avenge the wrongs you have done me, but my hand will not touch you. And Saul wept and said, you are more righteous than I.

You have treated me well, but I've treated you badly. How did David keep his way pure? How did he keep from sinning against God? It was a word of God that was blazoned on his memory that he might not sin against him.

Two chapters later, 1 Samuel 26, sometime later, the Ziphites want to butter up King Saul. And so they tell Saul where he's hiding.

And Saul and his 3,000 soldiers then went to search for David. David's scouts verified where it was that Saul and his men had camped for the night. And David and Abishai, his number one man, went down into the camp.

And sure enough, there was Saul sleeping in the middle of the army with all the men circled around him. All asleep.

And he and Abishai stepped over and around all of Saul's army and they came right up to Saul and there was his spear stuck right beside his head. And Abishai again, such a reader of the providence of God, said to him, today, God has delivered your enemy into your hands.

Now let me pin him to the ground with one thrust of my spear. I won't strike him twice. Again, a powerful temptation.

Even the providence of God is used to support the act. But David said to Abishai, don't destroy him. Who can lay a hand on the Lord's anointed and be guiltless?

As surely as the Lord lives, the Lord himself will strike him. Either his time will come and he'll die or he will go into battle and perish. But the Lord forbid, whatever happens, the Lord forbid that I should lay a hand on the Lord's anointed.

Now get the spear and water jug that are near his head and let's go. So they took the spear and the water jug and left. No one saw or knew anything about it for the Lord had put them all into a deep sleep.

What was strong enough to keep David both of these times from sinning when the opportunity was so ripe to kill him? He'd hidden God's word in his heart.

It was there for him to use right on the spot when he had men at his elbow pushing him to kill the Lord's anointed.

These were strong temptations to stray from God's commands. And we're tempted in times like this to justify cutting corners, excusing our disobedience, to see ourselves as the exception to the rule, to misjudge providence.

We're experts at explaining why this command doesn't apply to me in this situation. After all, think what he's doing to me, ruining my life.

After all, I am the next king. I've already been anointed by God, next king of Israel. We can easily talk ourselves into breaking God's law. And had he not had it hidden in his heart, I think that these two chapters would have ended differently.

It's hard to wait for God's salvation. It's hard to wait for God's time and his deliverance. But armed with the word of God, we have a sure hope of deliverance.

One day the judge of all the earth will put all wrongs right and I can get on with my business and let him tend to his business. After all, he's the one who says, vengeance is mine, I will repay.

And when we take matters into our own hands, we're saying, scoot over God, I'm going to do this job better than you. And we're in trouble then, big trouble.

Our Lord Jesus is the perfect example of this, isn't it? The Holy Spirit after his baptism drove him into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.

And he's fasting for 40 days and 40 nights and throughout that period he's being tempted by the devil. We only know of the last three that came at the end of the 40 days. And so the devil tempts him, takes advantage of him in his weakness, in his hunger, tell these stones to be turned into bread.

And so, and each time our Lord responds with the word of God that he as a man had hidden in his heart. And each response was from the book of Deuteronomy.

It is written. He says it with a resolute determination, a rejection of the temptation. With what? With what is written. But it wasn't just written in Deuteronomy, it was written on its heart.

He had hidden it in his heart. So he had the sword ready. It is written. And again Satan tempts. It is written. Again he did. It is written. And only then does the devil leave him for a more opportune time.

And he's nipping at his feet all throughout his life. And never is able to get Jesus to sin. I think we're given the account of his temptation to realize how did he beat him each time?

He beat him with the word of God that he had hidden in his heart. You know if he had just sinned once in his 33 years, his death on the cross would have done us no good.

He'd be dying for his own sin. There would be no merit for us to claim. But because he never sinned once once in thought, word, deed, motive, his perfect obedience that he worked out fulfilling all righteousness is able to be put to the account of us sinners who trust in the Savior to save us, have no other hope but God's mercy toward us in Jesus Christ.

There's this glorious exchange of his obedience, his right standing before God becomes ours, and our sin becomes his and he dies on the cross under the wrath of God to pay for it.

You see, when David went into the valley of Elah to fight Goliath, they were representatives, weren't they, of their armies.

And if David wins, the whole army wins. But if David loses, the whole army loses. They become servants to the Philistines for life. And so as we see Jesus heading into these 40 days and nights of tempting by Satan, we're watching our representative head.

He's going into battle against the champion of the forces of darkness, the devil himself. And whoever wins will have ramifications for us.

If Jesus wins, we win. He shares his victory with us. If Jesus loses, we lose. We lose heaven. We lose eternal life. Thanks be to God for the holiness of Jesus, for the way he hid God's word in his heart and was ready to fight against sin with that sword of the spirit.

Those temptations were real temptations. He was tempted in every way just like we are, yet without sin. And because he triumphed, we share in his victory.

He takes our curses. He gives us his blessing. He takes our death, indeed the second death of the eternal wrath of God in the lake of fire, and he gives us eternal life in his presence where there is no more sin or sadness.

Well, praise be to God for his full salvation. salvation. That's how it was won by Jesus, conquering every temptation for us.

And that becomes an example that he's laid down for us that we should follow in his steps, Peter says. Yes, it's more than an example, but it's no less than an example. Now you do as Jesus did, hiding the word in your heart that you might not sin.

So do we have some homework to do this week? To search the scriptures, to find some ammunition, some verses that match up with my temptation.

Maybe it's not mistreatment. Maybe it's some other temptation that you're fighting right now. You need scripture to fight it. So that's your homework.

That's my homework. Let's give ourselves to it, memorize scripture, meditate on it, pray it in, work it out, that we might not sin against God.

Let's pray together. Father, how blessed we are to have the scriptures. They show us your will. They show us the way to walk in.

They show us the gospel. They show us the son of God who came and lived the perfect life that we didn't. And they show us the way that he suffered for all of our forgetting of your law and transgressing of your law.

That we might come as lawbreakers and find in our savior, the one law keeper, a perfect righteousness to make us right with you. Bring others today, even here, to rest their soul upon Jesus' work.

And we thank you for your word that is a sword for us to use against temptation. Would you make us wise and teach us, as David often prayed, teach me, O Lord.

Would you teach us to be skillful in using the word of God against the very temptations we find ourselves in. And that we might not sin against you, but rather honor your word by obeying it, praising and thanking you for your gracious salvation.

We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.