The Love of God in Christ: No Rival for His Bride (Part 2)

(Continued from Part 1)

This man is different from any man you have ever seen. He has already eaten the Tree of Life. He straightened up, looked at Lucifer, turned the whole issue, and said, “Lucifer…Man.” And He had him. He defeated him. Man shall not live by bread, but take one good look at me, for I am living right now by the word of God speaking within me. He made it, brothers. Praise the Lord. He made it. How’d He make it? He made it as a man with divine life in Him, and the Lord speaking, and His obedience to the Word. Round one. Praise the Lord.

Brothers and sisters, He’s after His wife, and He’ll know no barrier. Satan took Him to the pinnacle of the temple, and he stood there, and the Lord stood there, and I’m sure if you had looked up on that day and looked at the temple, you would have seen one man there. Satan took Him there, and some have called this the temptation of the soul. I don’t know. I only tell you that Satan looked at Him and said, “If you be the Son of God, cast yourself down, for it’s been said that the angels will take the Son of God and lift Him up and bear Him up to keep His foot from falling. Cast yourself down.” And the Lord Jesus looked at Satan, and He felt something. What was it? And I’m going to guess, this is a guess, but I guess. This is really a guess. So, this is what it is like when you are the Lord’s, and He is yours, and there is a total commitment between the two of you. And you take that which is God’s commitment to you, and you use it, not for God, but for lesser things.

Follow me. So, this is what Israel did when God said, “You will be My bride.” And Israel took her position, pressed God, and used it for other purposes. She tempted her God. She tempted the covenant between them, an unbreakable covenant. She merchandised her position for personal gain. She fell, brothers. She tempted her Lord. The Lord Jesus turned to Satan and said, “Somebody wrote it down once. Someone experienced it and wrote it down, Lucifer.” You’ll not tempt the Lord your God. That was a two-edged sword. Do you understand what He said? I’ll not tempt My Father. In the perfect relationship that we have, I can do it, but I’ll not tempt Him for something less than His purpose for our relationship. That was one thing he said, but He also said something else. Satan, you will not tempt the Lord your God, for he stood there facing his Lord and God—two down, one to go.

This has been called the temptation of the spirit. Again, I don’t know, brothers. The enemy, Lucifer, took Him to a high mountain…the highest mountain, and then something very eternal took place. It was without dimension. Now, please watch this. Remember, the Lord Jesus came to set up a kingdom and to have a queen in that kingdom, and here was a shortcut. Lucifer stood with the Lord on the mountain, this high mountain, and with one sweep, both of them could see the entire earth and could see every kingdom on it. The Scripture says that they could see the beauty of it, the glory of it, and the power of it. They could see the marble temples. They could see the granite palaces. They could see the thousands of soldiers marching. They could see the gold and the treasury. They could see the armored guards. They could see the soldiers. They could see the diplomats scurrying all over the earth. They could see the authority, the power, the beauty, and the splendor of it all. Every kingdom of the earth at that time was under his full authority. And Lucifer said, “It’s Yours. You can have every kingdom of the earth. For it has been granted to me to have every kingdom of this earth, and I give it to whomever I please.”

I want you to know that the Lord Jesus saw the White House, and He saw the Kremlin, and He saw Buckingham Palace and the House of Parliament. Who chooses the leader who lives in the White House? Who chooses a leader who runs 10 Downey Street in London? Who chooses who will live in the Kremlin? Do you really believe that? Well, it’s true. He just said it was, but it was granted to him as his right. He gives it to whomever he wishes, and it is his kingdom, and you and I don’t have any business in that kingdom. You only get one citizenship. You can only be a citizen of one nation. You’ve got to choose which one it’s going to be, and I choose the nation called Ekklesia.

Okay, listen. He could have made quick work of the whole thing right there. The Lord Jesus Christ could have become King of kings and Lord of lords. He would have become King of all kings and Lord of all lords. All He would have had to do was just kneel once and bow to Lucier. He looked, and He saw the mighty kingdom of the Roman Empire. I’m going to switch gears on you a little bit, so stay with me. He saw the great kingdom of Egypt. He saw the great kingdom of Babylon. He got one total look, just that quick, and He said…the Lord said within Himself, “So this is the splendor and the beauty and the power of the world system. So, this is what drew Israel away from Me and ensnarled her and kept her from being My perfect bride.” The Lord Jesus looked that system over once, really well, and said…brothers, listen carefully:  “I have discovered it. Now I see it. I feel it draw Me. I even feel the temptation to become head of all these kingdoms. I feel the temptation of marrying myself to them. So, this is what drew my people away. So, this is the feeling they yielded to. I’ve come for my bride, and she will not be distracted by this. I’m going to have her, and I’ll not have a competitor. There’ll be no rival.” While in one second He was tempted, in another second something welled up in Him that said, “I’ll bring this thing down and destroy this system so that it has no draw on my beloved bride.”

The Lord looked at Lucifer and said, “Get out of here.” The temptation ended right there. Now, who’s commanding who? The Lord won in that instant. Resist him, and he’ll flee. “Get out of here.” For you are to worship only God, and bow down only to Him. He was addressing Lucifer. He was addressing Himself. And He was addressing whom? His counterpart. Brothers and sisters, listen. You don’t know. The devil didn’t know. Nobody knew what the Lord knew that day. You might say He drew out His notebook and wrote down obstacle number one: Lucifer. He’s got to go. Obstacle number two, the world system. It’s got to go. Nothing will stand between my bride and me. Now, do you believe that? The Lord came down from the mountain, and you all know what He did. The first thing He did was go to a wedding. I don’t have time to get into that wedding. The first thing the Lord did was: He went to a wedding. I guess He was kind of practicing.

Okay, I want you to listen very carefully now. He has seen the enemy. He has seen the kingdoms of this world, and He has seen the kingdom of Satan. Now He comes down. I’m not going to put this in any particular order, but please follow me. Jesus Christ is after His wife. Have you ever wondered whether or not the Lord enjoyed His time on this earth? Have you ever wondered what His feelings were? Do you have any idea how He felt? We’ll get an idea in a minute.

I want to tell two quick stories. This happened, I believe, in the city of Nein. It was a very remarkable day. The Lord was walking down the streets, and a funeral procession was taking place, and the funeral bearers came by, and the Lord was there. As far as I know, this is the first record that Jesus Christ, as a man after His baptism, fully God and fully man, ever looked at a corpse. I don’t know if you’ve ever seen death. Probably no one in this room, only one or two of you, or three of you, has ever seen death. Well, you say, “I’ve been to a funeral, and everything is open.” You haven’t seen anything because the morticians got there. Death has its own mark. If you’ve ever seen it, you know immediately. I cannot tell you if you have never seen death. If you ever see death, you will know.

Sisters and brothers, the Lord walked by, and the child, who was a boy, was the son of his mother, and she was weeping, and they were taking the child out to bury him. The Lord had a very strange sense. Do you know what it was? Right. Something strange is going on here. The voice within. This is one whom I have chosen, but he’s dead. Now that’s strange; that can’t be. And the Lord took His eternal position. He stepped out of time. Here He is in time; here’s the cross, and here’s eternity. Here is where death died. He stepped behind the cross. Do you understand what I mean? He took His eternal place, and He looked at that boy, and He took one good look at death, and He realized death had taken that part of the human race that belongs to Him, and He looked at it, and He thought, “I’m here now, and I am after a bride. And you, death, have interfered.  Death, I put you on notice: The woman I marry will never die.”