Dealing With Temptation Series

How to Handle Temptation

Text: Matt. 4:1-11

Introduction

1. Illustration: "Temptation is not meant to make us sin; it is meant to enable us to conquer sin. It is not meant to make us bad; it is meant to make us good. It is not meant to weaken us; it is meant to make us emerge stronger and finer and purer from the ordeal. Temptation is not the penalty of being a man, temptation is the glory of being a man, Temptation is the test which comes to every man whom God wishes to use. So, then, we must think of this whole incident, not so much the TEMPTING, as the TESTING of Jesus." (William Barclay)

2. As we begin the season of lent, we take a good look at our lives, and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal anything in our lives that doesn’t please God.

3. But I think one of the great things that lent teaches us is that we can overcome sin. Jesus teaches us how to handle sin in his temptation in the wilderness.

4. Read Matt. 4:1-11

Transition: First, Jesus teaches us how to…

I. Trusting in God’s Power (1-4).

A. The Scriptures Say

1. The story of Jesus temptation begins with, “Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted there by the devil. 2 For forty days and forty nights he fasted and became very hungry.

a. It’s not a coincidence that Jesus’ temptation immediately follows his baptism.

b. After every spiritually significant event in our lives, you can be sure that the devil will be right there to try to make our lives difficult and to but doubt in our hearts and minds.

c. Doubt is the devil’s favorite weapon. That’s what happened in the Garden.

d. “The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the LORD God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” (Gen. 3:1).

e. So, it shouldn’t surprise us that after a major mountain top experience for Jesus, that the devil would be right on his heals.

f. However, we might surprise us is that the Holy Spirit led him to be tempted.

g. This statement by Matthew corrects two wrong assumptions. The first one is that God tempts us. Nowhere in the NT does it say that God tempts us.

h. In fact, in James 1:3 it says, “And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.”

i. The second error in thinking that Matthew corrects is that the devil has the power to act independently from God.

j. The devil is never seen as being equal in power to God. He can only do what God allows him to do.

k. The devil is a fallen angel, and is a created being, and therefore, he is not equal to God in any way.

l. Next, Matthew tells us that Jesus fasted for forty days and nights. Fasting was used as a spiritual discipline for prayer and time that prepares you for the difficulties that lay ahead.

m. After forty days and nights he was hungry. Being the Son of God didn’t make this any easier because Jesus was still human. His body went through the same weakness that ours would if we didn’t eat for forty days and nights. So, the three temptations he faced were at a time when he was physically weak.

2. With the first temptation, Matthew tells us, “During that time the devil came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become loaves of bread.” 4 But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”

a. When the devil tells Jesus, “If you are the Son of God,” it was not an attempt to get Jesus to doubt who he was, because they both knew the truth, but rather he was tempting with his own power.

b. As the Son of God, Jesus was certainly able to change stones into bread, but this was an easy way out, and that is not what Jesus wanted to do.

c. Now, notice how Jesus responds to the temptation; he quotes Scripture. In fact, that is Jesus’ way of dealing with each temptation. In all three temptations Jesus quotes from the Book of Deuteronomy.

d. In these Scriptures the Israelites failed to obey God, but Jesus is making it clear to the devil that it’s not going to work on him.

e. Jesus makes it clear that “people do not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”