Bible Text: Matthew 4:1-11 | Preacher: Pastor Christian Preus | Series: Lent 2022 | The devil is a heretic. He heard at Jesus’ Baptism the Father say, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” And he still tried to tempt Jesus to sin. Because he saw in Jesus a mere man. And since Adam and Eve, the devil had a perfect record of tempting men. Even patient Job complained by the end. Even righteous David, the man after God’s own heart, fell into sin. The devil despises humanity. Despises our weakness. From the beginning it’s been this way. God loves us. Pays special attention to us, who are flesh and blood, who are made up of stuff, who hunger and thirst, who have the appetites of animals. So the devil thinks he can win against this man Jesus. He is after all a man.
God had called this man His Son. The heretics old and new have explained this away. The Mormons say Jesus is nothing but a man, but a man so perfect that He earned the title Son of God. The Jehovah’s witnesses say Jesus is called the Son of God because he is the first of God’s creation, a great angel who became a man. The ancient Nestorians said that Jesus was the Son of God, but that his human nature was not assumed into the Person of the Son, but was itself a separate person. The devil must have thought something like this. He could not fathom that God actually became a man, that humanity had been assumed into the eternal Son, that now when you looked at that man Jesus, that man who got hungry, that man who grew tired and slept, that man with animal urges to eat and to drink, when you looked at that man you were looking at God. He could not understand the awesome truth the Father spoke at Jesus’ Baptism, “This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.” The Son whom the devil beheld in all his glory in heaven, the eternal One, the Creator, the devil’s own Creator, this is the Son who now was a man, a brother to the human race.
The devil didn’t understand, so the devil attacked. It was a case of entrapment. The devil went to entrap a man, but God was entrapping the devil. He lured the devil out into the wilderness to destroy him by the Man, Jesus. God is in charge. He uses even the devil for our good. The devil means nothing but evil. He enters in to make this man sin, and the man beats him and sends him away. Man does that. This creature the devil hates so much, whom the devil has had nothing but success tempting, man conquers him, resists him. I imagine this is when hell opened and the demons came storming out in a rage. The devil became orthodox. He understood what was going on. This was no ordinary man. Could it really be? Had God actually done this? Had the Son actually joined the human race?
Yes, and so God used the devil to save the very humanity the devil’s sole aim was to destroy. The devil attacked to bring man down, but God used his attack to raise man up. He came to make this man sin, but this man’s triumph meant righteousness for the whole human race. What the devil meant for evil, God turned into the greatest good. The devil is shrewd, but God is shrewder. As the Psalmist says, With the shrewd you will show yourself shrewd. This Man, the God-Man, prevailing against the devil was our Lord and our Brother, our Representative before the throne of God, saving us, doing what we failed to do, doing it in our place. His defeat of the devil is our triumph. His crushing of the serpent’s head our victory. It began here and it ended on the cross. And at every turn the devil tempted, Judas, Peter, the high priests, Pilate, and at every turn God turned his tempting to our salvation, turned it into the great act of God’s love, the Son of God crucified, tormented, willingly pouring out His lifeblood to wash away our sins, until our Lord Jesus finally declared, “It is finished,” the debt has been paid, the whole awful debt of man, paid for in full by the God-Man’s death; the devil has no right to accuse man anymore, because where we failed, this Man prevailed, the God-Man and none other.
Ever since then, the devil hates nothing more than when God declares men, human beings, you and me, His beloved sons, his children. This is what happens in Baptism. Jesus calls Baptism a rebirth. Paul calls it a washing of regeneration. It gives a new birth as children of God. God puts his name on us, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And He calls us his children.
The devil failed against Jesus. He thought he was only a man, or at least that his humanity was somehow separable from his divinity. But he knows our nature well. He knows when God calls us children we are not naturally so. We are sinners by nature, born in sin, as David says, “In sin did my mother conceive me.” And our baptism is his cue to tempt us. It is like God imprinting a target on us, a bullseye for the devil to aim his temptations. It’s like the Far Side comic, where a deer is born with a target on his rear, and his fellow deer says to him, “Bummer of a birthmark, Frank.” Our baptism is that birthmark, it’s the devil’s target, to attack us and tempt us and to tear us away from God; what he failed to do with Jesus, he desperately wants to do with us who are called sons of God through faith in Jesus. There is nothing the devil hates more than God calling us humans, us sinners, His children.
So this should make us consider the importance of our Baptism. And here three things need discussing. First, who should be baptized? On whom can we confidently place this bullseye? Second, how we should use our Baptism to overcome temptation. And finally, the great comfort Baptism gives us throughout our life and in our death.
First, we baptize only believers who will continue to hear the Word of God. The Baptists and the Non-denominationals insist on a believer’s baptism. And we agree. Obviously, the call for Baptism is, “Repent and be baptized every one of you for the forgiveness of sins.” Repentance is sorrow over sin and faith in Jesus. So Baptism demands faith. So when we baptize babies we are not saying baptism doesn’t require faith. Not at all. We are asserting that babies can believe, because Jesus says so.
I’ve been listening to a debate between a Baptist and a Calvinist on infant baptism, because that’s what Lutheran pastors do in their free time. It’s been very frustrating at times, because the Baptist, who is very articulate, obviously a sincere Christian man, simply asserts against the Bible that babies can’t believe and that Baptism doesn’t save. He systematically explains away, sometimes in the most outrageous and unbelievable ways, every passage of the Bible that asserts baby faith and every passage that asserts that Baptism saves, gives the forgiveness of sins, joins us to Christ, gives us new birth. It’s sad. It’s what happens when you put your reason above the clear words of the Bible. Your reason says babies can’t believe, so you explain away God’s Word when it says they can. Your reason says water and the Word can’t save you, so you explain away God’s Word when it says they do. But one thing this Baptist theologian said has stuck with me. He accuses us who practice baby Baptism of creating a subset of Christians, people who are baptized and yet don’t believe. And he says this is simply dangerous. It’s not what the New Testament is about. We should not have a bunch of people running around who have been baptized and yet don’t go to church, aren’t confessing Christians, don’t live the faith.
And on this we can agree. Now, you’re going to have this problem no matter what. Some adults get baptized and then don’t take it seriously and leave the faith. But it especially happens with babies who are baptized. Because parents (and churches for that matter) treat baptism like magic. As if you sprinkle some water and say the words and a baby is Christian for life. We as a church and we parents of children have to realize that baptizing a baby means a total commitment to bring that child up in the faith. You are giving the baby to God, like Hannah did with Samuel. You are saying this is God’s child, who will hear God’s Word, who will grow up praying to the Father in Jesus’ name, who will attend God’s house regularly, who will learn the Bible history as his own history, because it is. We as a church have no business baptizing the babies of parents who refuse to come to church and who won’t bring their children to church or teach them God’s word. Baptism is for believers.
You don’t put a target for the devil on anyone, especially not a baby, unless you mean to arm the baptized with God’s Word. Baptism puts you into a war with the devil. And it’s a war you can win, that you will win, that you are guaranteed to win, so long as you have God’s Word and cling to it.
So we use our Baptism in our daily lives. I have begun the practice every morning of literally telling myself that I’m baptized. You’re baptized, Christian. God put his name on you. He called you his child. He gave you everything your Lord Jesus won for you. Your Lord Jesus has loved you so much that He bore your sins and suffered your death. And God has loved you so much that he sought you out, even when you were a little baby, and made you trust in Him. He has given you a heritage, an inheritance, an eternal life. You’re his child, so listen to him and care more about what he thinks than what the world or anyone else thinks. He’s in control, so you can be at peace and know everything will work out for good.
We need to use our Baptism. Pastor Richard preached a sermon recently that’s been haunting me. In a good way. He said being a Christian is hard work. That is, we actually have to apply ourselves to it. And of course we do. Your Baptism is useless to you if you don’t use it, like a ship is useless if you refuse to board it. We sing this in the Gerhard hymn, we say, “So use it well, you are made new – In Christ a new creation. As faithful Christians, live and do, within your own vocation.” You use your baptism by thinking about it. It was a momentous occasion. God literally invited you into His family. He literally connected you to Christ and washed away your sins and gave you His Holy Spirit. He poured His love out on you. Remember that every day, purposefully, intentionally. And if you have children at home, remind them of this too daily, and do the things that are appropriate for children of God – talking to God, reading his word, avoiding the things you know he frowns on.
And this will prepare you for every temptation of the devil. It won’t matter that God put a target on you, because just as he put a target on Jesus at Jesus’ baptism, and lured the devil out into the wilderness to tempt Jesus, so he will only use the devil to strengthen you, as you fight against sin and prevail with your Lord Jesus.
When the devil tempts you to despair, to think that God won’t provide for you, that you have to take things into your own hands, remind yourself that God won’t abandon His child, that He has given up His own Son for you, and how will He not also with Him give you all good things? Remind yourself of the psalm, “No good thing will God deny to those who fear him.” And when the devil tempts you to arrogance, to testing God, remind yourself of your Baptism, that God has made you his child, and children are dependent, they don’t call the shots, they don’t make the rules, they live by their Father’s rules, and your Father’s rules are the best, they are love, and they bring happiness and contentment. And when the devil tempts you with all the pleasures of the world, to put them above your Lord Jesus, to worship money and fame and obsess over them, remind yourself of your Baptism, that here is worth and wealth the world simply can’t give, here is an eternal inheritance, here is the riches of God Himself who could create ten thousand world richer than this one and more beautiful with far greater joys, here is perfect contentment and purity and innocence, here you share in the divinity of Christ, joined to Him, the brother of God, and so the children of God, with a clean conscience, a purpose for life, and a forever to look forward to.
You of course are not Jesus. Jesus won completely against the devil. He had to win, he couldn’t lose, because He is God and God can’t sin, can’t fall into sin. It’s impossible. But you can sin. God has not yet removed our sinful flesh from us. We have to die before that happens. So we will sin in thought, word, and deed, as we just confessed. The devil will succeed in this at least. But even this God will work for our good and our victory. First, because God will not allow us, so long as we cling to our Baptism, He will not allow us to despair of His mercy, to jump ship. My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall anyone snatch them from my hands. He will keep you from great shame and vice, from sinning against your conscience, from openly and purposefully breaking his commandments. Only use your Baptism and he will give you the victory. And second, he’ll teach you by the devil’s temptations how empty the devil is, that what he promises only disappoints and only brings pain and dirtiness in the end. The devil is a loser, he’s a damned fool, and when you do battle against him, when you rise to arms, as we sang to open this service, and employ prayer to the God of hosts, when you remember your Baptism and who you are, then you emerge victorious. Christ won. He holds the field forever. And you are His and He is yours. The devil could take everything else, literally, everything, life, goods, fame, child, wife, and he still will have won nothing. The victory has been won. The Kingdom ours remaineth. And because the Kingdom is ours, we will expect every good thing from our God, and we will hand his praises down to our baptized children, and we will happily do battle against the devil all our days, until our Lord welcomes us into the peace of paradise the blest, where we will hear the words against confirmed, “Here too is my son, my daughter, in whom I am well pleased.” Amen.