GRANT AVENUE BAPTIST CHURCH
The Truth About Temptation
Text: Matthew 4:1-11
Message From: Pastor David Wilson
Date: 10/20/2011
WHAT THE DEVIL WANTS TO DO TO US:
There should be no doubt in the mind of the believer about WHAT the devil wants to do to us! The example of the demoniac found in Mark 5 offers clear, irrefutable truth that the devil wants us to be uncontrollable, isolated and alone, belligerent and frightening, in pain and misery, and self-destructive. In order to accomplish this the devil seeks to break our relationship with God by leading us into sin
WHEN THE DEVIL COMES AFTER US:
The devil almost always comes after us when we demonstrate a commitment to doing the will of God. We commit to attending church, tithing, dropping a bad habit, forgiving another person, or something else God is speaking to us about.
In the context of our text, we find Jesus leaving a place of commitment! At the end of Matthew 3 we read of his baptismal experience. Jesus submitted to God’s will and was baptized and God responded with a voice from heaven declaring His great pleasure with Christ. Then as we read the beginning of chapter 4 we see that Jesus is led away into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
So the first point I think we need to make is that God uses the “mountaintop experiences” that are wonderful and glorious to prepare us for the wilderness of temptation.
However, here I have a bit of a doctrinal conflict that I had to resolve. We have the phrase in the Lord’s Prayer where Christ teaches us to ask our Heavenly Father not to “lead us into temptation” where it appears that God, who does not tempt us (James 1:13), actually led Christ to the place where he was tempted through the Holy Spirit. Do you see that in Matthew 4:1—“Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the Devil.”
Alexander Maclaren wrote “…though God does not tempt as wishing us to fall, He does so order our lives that they carry us into places where the metal of our religion is tried.” What this author means is that God leads us into places where we have to live what we believe.
Let’s imagine for a moment a person attends medical school in order to become a surgeon. He learns all sorts of ideas, he studies the human body, he gains insight into problems and solutions, and then one day he is in an operating room. Eventually, he will be called upon to take the scalpel in his hand and to do the work of a surgeon. It is only when he begins to act in the role of a surgeon that he and those around him will know whether or not he really is going to be a surgeon. All of the money spent on his education, all of the hours spent in study, all of the care and knowledge accumulated mean nothing if he never takes the scalpel in his hand.
For the believer, all of the work God is doing means nothing if the believer is never brought to the place where he or she must put into action the things that God is teaching him. This means we have to get out into the world and discover that God is faithful there as well as in the church.
God leads us to the place where we can be tempted. He never does this when we are unprepared. The ammunition that Jesus needed in order to defend against Satan’s assault was provided through his relationship with God as confirmed in God’s own voice from heaven at the baptism. All he would need to do was choose to believe God and continue to act in obedience.
Satan’s approach occurs when Jesus is hungry—when he is physically weak. I believe this is another time that Satan likes to approach us. Not only does he come after us when we are on a spiritual high and full of a great desire to please God—he also comes after us when we are physically or emotionally down. When I read of Moses’ downfall, when he struck the rock and spoke disrespectfully- equating himself with God—I think it is interesting to note (Numbers 20) that that episode begins with the death of Miriam. I cannot say with certainty, but I know that when we are emotionally down, that is one time that the devil seeks to create a wrong attitude towards God in our hearts.
HOW THE DEVIL WORKS:
It is interesting that there are two names that Matthew uses for Satan here. He calls him the devil—literally the accuser or slanderer. He who challenges us before God. Then, he calls him the tempter- the one who entices. Therefore we see two things about Satan’s identity and operational method (modus operandi) before we ever read one word from that scoundrel. We see Satan is he who falsely accuses or slanders us and then entices us.
In the first two temptations, Satan does what he does best—he questions God’s Word. At the conclusion of chapter 3 God had spoken definitively—“THIS IS MY BELOVED SON” and in the first two temptations that Satan uses with Jesus he immediately brings into question that which God has declared. He is questioning the truth of what God says. Notice that he didn’t say outright—“Hey, God is a liar and you aren’t really his son!” Instead, he simply chooses to question what God said – in an attempt to generate doubt.
The temptations both urge Christ to assert himself. First, to assert himself in order to provide food for himself. Would it have been so wrong for Christ to have picked up a rock and turned it into bread and satisfied his hunger? Later on, he feeds multitudes with miracles, why would it be so wrong in this instance. We never find Christ performing miracles in order to satisfy his own needs or desires. It is always for the purpose of ministering to others.
However, there is another reason that it would have been wrong to make rocks into food. It isn’t really because turning the stones to bread would be a crass act of selfishness. It is because doing so would be for the sole purpose of demonstrating to Satan that he really was the Son of God. The need to eat is real—the need to prove that he really was the son of God was not. God had already spoken and declared that it was so—there was no need for Jesus to prove it to himself or to the devil.
In the second temptation, Satan once again appeals to Jesus by challenging God’s statement.
Once again, the temptation is predicated by the if- “If You are the Son of God” and then Satan quotes from Psalms 91, demonstrating his ability to distort God’s Word. If Jesus was so hung up on living according to God’s Word, then the devil would use it to corrupt his thinking.
First, we see that the devil tempts us to doubt God.
Second, we see that the devil tempts us to act selfishly!
Third, we see that the devil tempts us to challenge God. In the second temptation, the devil tempts Jesus to step off the temple rooftop and thereby challenge God to save him in order that the Divine will of God be accomplished.
In the final temptation, the devil suggests that by bowing down to him he can accomplish the will of God by turning the nations toward Christ. Really? That would be so much easier than doing it God’s way, right? God’s Way required a cross and a gruesome horrible death.
The devil is constantly calling us to compromise. He calls us to do things man’s way rather than God’s way.
Man’s way tries to suggest that we can counter sin with righteous living and somehow create a balance that will please God. Sorry, no amount of righteous living will ever make up for sin. That’s like driving for an hour twenty miles over the speed limit and then driving for an hour under the speed limit by twenty miles per hour and then justifying yourself by saying “Hey, I averaged the speed limit.”
The devil’s biggest compromise is to get us to accept a little sin if somehow we can do some good. Don’t you think that’s what some of the people involved in the Spanish Inquisition thought? Do you think that they thought it all out? Don’t you think that was some of the thinking behind the Crusades? Let’s use evil in order to accomplish God’s will.
This is where I think some evangelists and television preachers go too far. I believe that it used Satan’s methods for Jerry Fallwell to corrupt the name of Ellen Degeneres into “Ellen Degenerate.” That was a compromise that did not bring glory to God. While it is important to point out that sin is sin—it is important not to use the devil’s hateful methods.
CHOOSING TO RESPOND LIKE CHRIST:
In all three situations, Jesus answered by saying “It is written.” This is interesting because when he taught the multitudes he spoke with authority. In the Sermon on the Mount he declared multiple times that something was written and then added to it by saying “but I say unto you.” In dealing with the devil, Jesus chose to depend upon strict obedience to God and God’s authority alone. He chose simply to be obedient and not to be baited by the devil’s temptations.
