In the name of Christ Jesus, dear fellow redeemed people of God,

We have entered "March Madness" - the month of basketball tournaments. In a tournament, if you lose once, you cannot win the championship. That's how it is battling sin and Satan too. If he leads you into sin just once, you cannot earn heaven by works! If Jesus had fallen into sin just once, he would have been eliminated from being our Savior. He would have failed and we would have perished in sin. But that didn't happen!

Jesus had to win our victory, because...

1. SATAN'S TEMPTATIONS LED ADAM AND US INTO SIN;

When God created Adam and Eve, they were perfect. They were not sinners. They were holy. They knew God's will. They did God's will. They could choose freely to obey God. Adam and Eve were able to avoid sin. They could have remained perfect. But Satan tempted them and they fell into sin! You can read all about it in Genesis chapter 3. Satan tempted Eve and Adam to disobey God's one and only command. He lied. He persuaded. He convinced them that God had lied to them. Then, they ate the forbidden fruit. Instantly, we see consequences! They felt guilt and shame. They were afraid of God. They had become sinners. They were going to die.

That would just be ancient history, except for one thing. Sin is passed down from parents to children. Adam and Eve passed their sin down to their children. And their children passed it down to their children, and so on, and so on, right to this very day! We too have inherited sin. We can't even begin to earn heaven by works because we were sinners from our very beginning. We never had a chance! Psalm 51 says, "Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me." So, even if we could avoid committing sin, we would still be sinners because we inherited sin from our parents. But, in all honesty, we have not avoided sin. We have committed sins of all kinds. Satan tempted us, and we sinned, just like Adam and Eve.

Satan tries to convince us that we are good enough, that we don't need to repent. It's those other people. They're the bad ones. They need to repent. But we have sinned. In the area of worship, Satan has tempted us to be absent. In the area of Christian education, Satan has hindered our efforts to learn God's Word and teach it to our children. In the area of Christian stewardship, Satan has tempted us to be lazy and careless with the gifts God has given. Satan's temptations have led us into sin. We can't even begin to count our sins. We have committed more than we realize. Page 156 in the front part of the hymnal asks us some searching questions. Take a look at that page if you would. It asks how well have I "carried out my responsibilities as a husband or wife or single person, as a parent or child, an employer or employee, a teacher or student. Have I loved God with all my heart, gladly heard his Word, and patiently endured affliction? Have I been disobedient, proud, or unforgiving? Have I been selfish, lazy, envious, or quarrelsome? Have I lied or deceived, taken something not mine, or given anyone a bad name? Have I abused my body or permitted indecent thoughts to linger in my mind? Have I failed to do what is right and good?"

We have sinned against God, and against others. Romans 1 & 2 declares that all people are "without excuse." All have sinned. All deserve to perish. No one can earn heaven by works, because none of us is perfect, holy, and sinless. We have all lost the battle with Satan. Adam and Eve lost. Their descendants lost. We lost. We have all fallen into sin. And by the time that Satan is tempting Jesus here, he had led every single person into sin! In a sense, he was undefeated, untied, and unchallenged! He had led everybody into sin. He was an overwhelming opponent. But,

2. SATAN COULD NOT LEAD JESUS TO SIN;

This was a showdown, an epic battle. Satan was going to tempt God's Son. Could he lead Jesus to sin? Could he cause God's own Son to fall? You might say, "Of course not!" But, by this time, Satan seems to have become quite full of himself. He had become pretty arrogant. The mere fact that he would try to lead Jesus to sin says something about how arrogant he had become. He tried his best, but he failed miserably! He threw his best temptations at Jesus, but he was never close to leading Jesus into sin. Hebrews chapter four says that Jesus was, (15) "tempted in every way, just as we are??yet was without sin."

Let's review the three temptations that Scripture records in Matthew and Luke. There were many temptations, but these three are specifically mentioned. Jesus had been in the desert for forty days and forty nights without eating anything. Jesus was hungry. The tempter said, "If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread." But Jesus answered with a Bible passage. He said, "It is written: 'Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" In every case, Jesus answered Satan's temptations with a Bible passage. That is the way to defeat the devil. Strike him with God's Word, the sword of the Spirit. That's what our Savior did. Next, the devil took him to the highest point of the temple. He tempted Jesus to jump, claiming that the angels would catch him. He misused a Bible passage in this temptation. The old evil foe will even misuse Scripture to lead us to sin and false teaching. But Jesus answered him, "It is also written: 'Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'" We must not jump from high buildings expecting angels to catch us. That's testing and tempting God! Then, the devil took Jesus to a high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. He promised to give it all to our Lord, if he would only bow down and worship him. Imagine! The devil actually thinks that Jesus, the almighty Son of God, is going to bow down to him, the devil, to get this sinful world. By the way, do we need to be reminded that the whole world already belongs to our LORD?! Jesus said, "Away from me, Satan! For it is written: 'Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only.'" Jesus would not break the First Commandment! Satan was defeated! He had to leave in shame. But he only left "until an opportune time." He would be back to try and try again to tempt our Savior to fall into sin. But it would not happen. Though Jesus was tempted in every way, just as we are - he remained without sin! Satan could NOT lead Jesus to sin! Jesus won! And, the great news for us is that:

3. OUR SAVIOR GIVES US THE VICTORY!

(1 Cor 15:57) "Thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." Jesus lived a perfect life for us. He never once fell into sin. Then Jesus went to the cross, to crush the Serpent's head. God foretold all of this, way back in the Garden of Eden. The Savior would crush the head of the devil, but the devil would bruise his heal. That happened on Mount Calvary. Jesus suffered pain and died. But Jesus crushed the devil's power there once and for all. Jesus won! God placed all of our sins on Jesus, and he paid our penalty in full. He rose from death on the third day to prove that he'd won our victory. Jesus won the victory over sin, death, and the devil. He gives the victory to us in the gospel. Whoever believes in Jesus receives the victory. Whoever believes will not perish, but have eternal life.

Though we deserved to perish, we will not perish, as long as we believe in Jesus. The devil lost. Jesus won. And so, we believers receive our Savior's victory and say, "We won!" Now, we do have power over the devil. It isn't our own, it is Christ's power. "One little word can fell him." With the Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, we can defeat the devil and send him away. He was an imposing opponent, a fearsome foe, but ever since Christ won the victory, he's like a dog on a chain. Stay away from that dog. Stay with Christ and his Word, and you'll be just fine. And the best part is that the devil can't do a thing to us in the final judgment. He may try to accuse us of all those sins again, but we can say, "You're right! We sinned. But Jesus took our sins away. So now, they no longer stand on our record!" We are forgiven. We are free! We won. By faith in Christ, we will escape the devil and enter heaven!

That's why we can "Rejoice in the Lord always!" What basketball team wins the whole tournament and then mopes around complaining about everything? Jesus gave us the total victory. Rejoice! Be glad! Enjoy our Savior's victory. The outcome is not in doubt. It's over! It's finished! Jesus won! And in this season of Lent, we will review step by step how our Savior won it for us. It's a little like watching instant replay now. Jesus won the championship. By faith in Christ, we won the championship! The trophy is not something that you can put in the back seat of a car. The trophy is eternal life in heaven! What we have won is better than any retirement package, because it lasts forever and ever. And it will be perfect forever. We're going to heaven! Jesus won that for us! For a while, it looked like we had no chance, and now we have received something that's better than any prize on earth. We have received the promise of everlasting life in heaven. Thanks, Jesus! Amen.