"Tempted of the Devil"
(No. 2997)
A SERMON PUBLISHED ON THURSDAY, JULY 19 1906.
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, IN THE YEAR 1864.
"Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil." Matthew 4:1.
WHAT a terrible incident! Well may our hearts be moved with fear and
our blood run cold as we read it! Our adversary the devil goes about
like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. We are taught by our
Lord Jesus to pray, "Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from
the Evil One." What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer we should
equally pursue or avoid in action. Very warily, therefore, should we
endeavor to avoid temptation, seeking as to walk in the path of
obedience that we may never be guilty of tempting the devil to tempt
us! We are not to enter the thicket in search of the lion. Dearly might
we pay for such presumption. The lion may cross our path, or come to
our houses and doubtless he will, but we have nothing to do with
hunting this lion. He that meets with him, even though he wins the day,
will find it sharp work and a stern struggle! Let the Christian pray
that he may be spared the encounter. Our Savior, who had experience of
what temptation meant, thus earnestly admonished His disciples, "Pray
that you enter not into temptation."
But let us do what we will, we shall be tempted! God had one Son
without sin, but He never had a son without temptation. The natural man
is born to trouble as the sparks fly upward–and the Christian is born
to temptation just as certainly and necessarily. It is our duty to be
always on our watch against Satan because we do not know when he will
come. He is like a thief–he gives no intimation of his approach. Like
the assassin, he will steal upon his victim. If Satan acted always
above-board–if he were a bold and open adversary, we might deal with
him–it is because he meets us unawares, and besets us in dark and miry
places on the way, that we have need to pray against temptation and
have need to hear the Savior's admonition, "What I say unto you, I say
unto all, Watch."
Still, wise Believers, those who have had experience of the ways of
Satan, will have found that there is a method about his
temptations–that there are certain times and seasons when he will most
probably attack the child of God. It often happens that a Christian is
put on a double guard when he expects that he is in double danger. The
danger may then be averted by his preparation to meet it. Prevention is
better than cure–it is better to be so well armed that the devil will
not attack you–than to endure the perils of the fight, even though you
do come off conqueror.
We have observed–you have all done so who know anything of the
spiritual life–that the most likely times for Satan to attack a
Christian are those he deems unlikely. In carnal security you are most
insecure. In such an hour as you think not, the Prince of this world
comes. Just when you would have said, speaking after the manner of
men–"I am safe," then it is that you are in danger! When Mr. Carnal
Security has said, "There is no need for us to be in perpetual
alarm–evidently the Prince Emmanuel smiles upon us and the Holy Spirit
dwells within us–we are the children of God, let us sit at the table
and feast. Let us eat, drink and be merry"–it is at that very time
that you might hear a sound as of One who says, "Arise, let us go
hence, for this heart has become polluted. I will no longer shed abroad
the conscious delights of My Presence in it." Beware, dear Friends, of
the devil! Beware of him most when you think you have least need to
beware of him!
For a key-note to our meditation tonight, I propose to take the word,
"Then," as it stands in the forefront of our text. I think there will
be found something of instruction here, especially to young Believers,
as to the times when Satan will most probably beset them and they will,
probably, be surprised to find that the very times when Satan will be
likely to attack them, according to the judgment of experience and the
examples of God's Word, are the times when they would
have thought him least likely to do so! I want you to observe the time
of our Savior's temptation–first, with regard to the circumstances
which preceded it and then the circumstances which followed it. When we
have noticed those two things, we will take the whole case and see if
we do not derive some instruction from it.
I. First, OBSERVE THE CIRCUMSTANCES WHICH PRECEDED THE TEMPTATION OF
OUR SAVIOR IN THE WILDERNESS.
Jesus had been in an especially devout frame of mind before He was led
into the wilderness. It is recorded by Luke that our Savior, when He
was baptized, was praying. He was always a Man of prayer. This is,
indeed, a Characteristic of the Savior–and if we should be asked what
there was in Christ which distinguished Him from other men, besides His
outward holiness and His inward consecration, we would say, "The
habitual exercise of a spirit of prayer." It is recorded that Jesus, as
He was baptized, was praying and yet, after this prayer was offered,
after Jesus had thus worshipped at His Father's Throne, the temptation
came! So, you may have been in your closet and had a season of special
refreshing. The Lord may have manifested Himself to you, as He does not
unto the world, in your private devotions–but do not, therefore,
conclude that you are rid of Satan's temptations! You shall no sooner,
it may be, have passed out of the closet than you shall be challenged
to the conflict. The communion shall cease and the combat shall begin!
Satan knows that you have been doing mischief to his cause in your
prayers. Have you not been bringing blessings down from on high? Have
you not been shaking the walls of the spiritual Jericho–and does he
not, therefore, hate you? Satan has the same hatred of you that we find
in evil men–and we know that all bad men are always more angry when
good men are more busy. So Satan becomes the more Satanic when he knows
that you have been unlocking the treasury of God to make those rich
whom he would have poor. Why, your prayers, if I may use so daring a
speech, have been instrumental in opening blind eyes, quickening dead
hearts, unlocking the doors of spiritual prisons and shaking the gates
of Hell–and do you not think that Satan will attack you now? Expect
that Satan is at the closet doors and if, when you are lax in devotion,
you are not tempted, rest assured that whenever you are much in prayer,
you may expect Satan to be exceedingly enraged against you. Do you not
see, dear Friends, that it is not to his advantage to let you continue
in the act of prayer? He knows that when you grow more like your
Master, you get more of the Holy Spirit in you and, therefore, it is to
his interest to spoil this spirit of prayer! So he meets you, as it
were, with his great club in his hand to knock you down. "Pray, will
you?" he says. "No, that you shall not, for I will tempt you. Pray,
will you?–Grow strong and laugh me to scorn? No, that you shall not,"
he says! And he leaves no stone unturned to try, if he can, to lead you
away from the heavenly, soul-enriching employment of private prayer!
Now, if such a thing should happen to you, do not be surprised, as
though some strange thing had occurred. It was so with your Lord. He
prayed and temptation came! And when you have been in prayer, you may
expect to be tempted by the devil.
So, too, our Savior had been engaged in an act ofpublic obedience to
His Father's will. You will not forgot that He had been baptized. He
went to the Jordan's brim and gave Himself into the hands of the
Baptist, that He might be immersed beneath Jordan's waves. "Thus it
becomes us," He said, "to fulfill all righteousness." Some persons
after Baptism are favored with great joy, as the eunuch, to wit, "he
went on his way rejoicing." But this is no rule. It will often happen
that after the public avowal, after our public confession of faith,
there will come a time of unusual struggling and conflict. You are not
to say, dear Friend, "I know I have done right because I feel so
happy." You have done right if you have fulfilled God's command,
whether you feel happy or not! The witness of the Spirit to an
ordinance is not your happiness after the ordinance, for it may so
happen that instead of happiness following immediately after your
obedience, you may have to enter into a terrible conflict with the
Prince of Darkness! Little children must have little rewards for every
service that they do while they are little children, but those sons and
daughters of the family who have had their senses exercised do not
expect to have sweetmeats given to them every time they are obedient.
No, they can be obedient and take medicine from a father's hand–and
consider even the bitter draught to be as real a proof of acceptance as
though it had been some sweet thing such as they had in their younger
days. We are not to always be children–not always little babies. It
was because the eunuch was but a babe in Grace that he went on his way
rejoicing, but stronger Believers will often be tried as Christ was.
They will come up dripping from Baptism to go down dripping into the
floods of another river of deep temptations and sorrow. You must not
always expect even the Lord's Supper to yield you excessive comfort,
or, if it does yield you comfort, you may expect that Satan will meet
you very soon after. The more soul-enriching ordinances become to you,
the more probability there is that you will be tempted after them. If
there is a
pirate out at sea, what ship does he attack? An empty one? No, no! That
which has been to the mines and is coming home with a rich freight!
Then says the pirate, "Up with the black flag! Now is our time for
prize money." And when you have been to Baptism, or the Lord's Supper,
or to prayer and your soul has grown rich through fellowship with the
Lord Jesus, "Now," says Satan, "it is my time! I will attack the
heavenly-laden ship and see what spoil I can get!"
Not only had our Savior been devout and obedient, but He had also been
in an exceedingly humble frame of mind. He was baptized by John. John
said, "I have need to be baptized of You," but the Master puts it,
"Suffer it to be so now, for thus it becomes us to fulfill all
righteousness." Talk of what is becoming! The Son of God speaking, not
only of what is right, but of what is becoming and expedient! This
shows how holy was His mind as to humbleness before God–and yet He was
tempted. When we are proud, we may expect to be tempted or, rather, we
are already tempted, for the devil has at least one of the meshes of
his net over us! But when we are humble, when God has been pleased to
make us lie low at the foot of His Throne, we perhaps think that now no
temptation can come. Let us not be quite so sure. Where did Christian
meet with Apollyon? Do you remember? It was in the Valley of
Humiliation! Not on the mountaintop, but in the valley where the
shepherd boy said he who was down need fear no fall. The boy was right
in one sense, but there are some of us who, in another sense, need to
be watchful and afraid even there! Satan does so hate humility that he
will spit all his venom on it–he does so thoroughly abhor that sweet
flower, the perfume whereof God does delight in, the prayer of a humble
and contrite heart–that he will pour all his malice upon it! If you
have had a broken heart, Satan and you will never be friends, for you
fulfill the promise, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and
between your seed and her Seed." God has put an enmity which never was
in your heart before–between you and Satan! Your brokenness of heart
is an evidence that God put that enmity there–of Grace, alone, comes
such experience! Your antagonist, seeing that enmity against him in the
fact of your humiliation and contrition before God, will do his utmost
to tempt you, if he can, to commit sin!
We find that our blessed Lord was on this occasion favored with a
Divine seal and token of His Sonship. From the opened heavens, the
Spirit, like a dove, descended upon Him and a Voice came from the
excellent glory, saying, "This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well
pleased." Will He nowbe tried by the arch-fiend? Did the devil hear
that? He has much too quick ears not to have heard it. He therefore
must have known that Christ was God's well-beloved Son–but has he the
impudence to attack Him? Yes, so great a fool is the devil that he will
thrust his hand into the fire and burn it! He will attack a child of
God, though he must know that he cannot overcome him. So stultified is
he by sin that he will rush upon the thick bosses of God's buckler and
stand in conflict with the Spirit who is infinitely stronger and
greater than he!
Now, Beloved, you, perhaps, have had some very sweet witness with your
spirit that you are born of God. "Abba, Father," has been upon your
tongue all day. When you knelt down to pray, the sweet beginning of the
Lord's Prayer was the beginning and end of it all, "Our Father, which
are in Heaven," and you took your mercies as coming from a Father's
hands and your sufferings and chastisements as from the same paternal
love. I hope you are not sitting down and saying, "Now, my battle is
over–my victory is won forever!" Beloved, if you do, you reckon
without your adversary! You are thinking you are in port, while as yet
you are only midway on the ocean! You are thinking about sweet fields
before you have fairly crossed the swelling flood! Come and be wise,
lest that arch-deceiver take you unawares! If you had hope of your
adoption, be still on the watchtower, lest Satan come against you! The
surer I am that I am a child of God, and the clearer that is made to
appear to other people, the more the devil will make me a target for
his arrows. I am borrowing many a good figure just now from one dear
Friend who has written upon this subject fully and largely. He says,
quoting an old Divine, "A man never goes forth to shoot his own fowls.
When he goes forth with his gun, it is against wildbirds. And so the
devil never goes out to tempt his own children–that is not necessary,
for they are his, already–but when he knows that a man is a child of
God, and is, as it were, a wild bird to him, then he goes out against
him." The more surely, then, you are known to be a child of God, the
more certainly will Satan be against you!
Again, to return to the narrative, we are told by Luke that Jesus
Christ was full of the Holy Spirit. He was full of the Holy Spirit, yet
He was tempted. Why? Because the Holy Spirit is never given in vain
and, if given to us, it is as a preparation for conflict in order that
we may have strength proportioned to our need. And again, where the
Holy Spirit is given, the evil spirit will soon labor for the very
reason I have referred to before, because, where God's treasure is,
there the thief will try to break in. I think it was one of my
predecessors who said that nobody ever broke into a Baptist minister's
house because it was well known there would be nothing for them to get!
But thieves often broke into other people's houses because they knew
there was treasure there. So the devil does not go after people who are
without Divine Grace. "Why," he says, "there is nothing there for me to
steal!" But if you are full of Grace, then you may expect the
arch-adversary to come and attack you. When old Farmer Jones went home
on Friday evening, nobody went to watch for him on the road. But it was
on a market night, when he had been selling wheat and some fellow had
marked him on the Exchange taking money–it was then that the thief
stopped him and robbed him of his gold. The devil knows when you are
getting rich and full of the Holy Spirit. Now he thinks there is
something worth his time and trouble–and so he speeds with dragon
wings to the place where this rich child of God is and he waylays
him–that he may attack him and cast him down. Well, there is never a
better time to fight the devil than when you are filled with the
Spirit! So the devil is a fool for meddling with you then. There never
was such a fool as the devil is and though he hears us say that now, he
knows it! He is a fool and will be to the end of the chapter, till my
Master puts the bit into his mouth and the bridle to his jaws and hurls
him down to the regions where he shall dwell forever!
Thus much, then, for the circumstances preceding our Lord's temptation.
I think we may ring the alarm and this may be a note of warning to you,
even though you may have been in deep devotion and may have performed
acts of obedience in the most humble and acceptable manner–and
received tokens of adoption and are now full of the Holy Spirit.
II. Now, to change the strain, THE SUCCEEDING CIRCUMSTANCES ARE WORTHY
OF YOUR SERIOUS REFLECTION.
Jesus Christ was just beginning His public ministrations. As one says,
"So long as Jesus Christ had nothing to meddle with but the chips in
His father's carpenter's shop, the devil never tempted Him, but now
that He was beginning to proclaim glad tidings to the poor, the devil
attacked Him." While we have nothing to do in the cause of God and are
secret and retiring, it may be we shall escape–but no common
temptation will happen to the man who is engaged in unusual labor.
Satan will find some extraordinary means of tempting him whom God puts
upon extraordinary service. Satan is very much afraid of all beginnings
except one. He loves the beginning of sin, for it is like the letting
out of water, but he cannot bear the beginning of a new life in the
Christian! "Behold, he prays!" "Ah," says the devil, "I hate that first
prayer." Satan loves not the beginning of repentance. There is the
letting out of water, indeed! The beginning of a holy project, the
beginning of a Christian ministry, the beginning of some ardent
missionary, the opening up of some new field of Christian labor, the
devil hates. If he can nip these things in the bud, he knows they
cannot come to perfection. So Jesus is beginning to preach the Gospel
and Satan, therefore, attacks Him. To what may we trace the attacks of
Satan just at these beginnings?
A primary cause is Satan's malice. No sooner is Christ acknowledged
openly to be Anointed of the Holy Spirit to preach glad tidings, than
the devil says, "I will shoot my arrow at Him. This is the Heir! Come,
let us kill Him and the inheritance shall be ours." So, in the
beginning of the Christian life, and especially at the outset of the
Christian minister, Satan says, "Here is another God-ordained man–here
is another raised up against me," and there is another arrow directed
at the child of God. It is the devil's complimentary arrow on the
earnest soul when first God launches it in life. Another cause is
Satan's craftiness. He can foresee where we cannot. When there is a
good project in hand, many an unbeliever says, "Oh, nothing will come
of it–it is an Utopian desire–fanaticism projected it and enthusiasm
will carry it out for a little, but it will be all a bottle of smoke."
Do you hear the devil? He is saying to himself, "I know the beginnings
are good. I have crushed too many of them not to know the look of the
Lord." "Ah," he says, "if I leave this Man alone, all Jerusalem and
Judaea will go after Him. I must crush Him at once." There is a hellish
industry about Satan. He knows that his Kingdom stands upon a rickety
foundation and, therefore, he is always anxious. Like a man at sea in a
leaky ship, who is afraid of every wind that blows, so is the devil
afraid of every new good thing and every fresh device of Divine Grace!
And when he sees the beginnings, he thinks, "I will destroy the
beginnings! I will break down the foundations and then the walls can
never be built."
We may, then, attribute temptation, at the beginning of the Christian
life or Christian effort, to Satanic craft as well as to Satanic
malice.
A further reason why you are thus tempted and tried is that God, in His
wise Providence, is now testing you to see whether you are a right man
for His work. Before a firearm is sold, it is taken to the proof-shop
and there it is loaded
with a charge much heavier than it will ever have to carry in the
ordinary sportsman's hand. The barrels are fired and if they burst in
the proof-house, no great hurt is done. Whereas it would be exceedingly
dangerous if they should burst in the hand of some unskillful hunter.
So God takes His servants–some of whom He will make special use He,
perhaps, loads with five times more temptation than He means they
should ordinarily have to endure, in order that He may see and prove to
onlookers that they are fit men for His Divine service! We have heard
that the old warriors, before they would use their swords, would bend
them across their knees. They must see whether they were made of the
right stuff or not before they would venture into battle with them. And
God acts thus with His servants. Martin Luther would never have been
the Martin Luther he was if it had not been for the devil. The devil
was, as it were, the proof-house for Martin Luther. He must be tried
and tempted by Satan and so he became fit for the Master's use.
Our Savior Himself became perfect through His sufferings. Through His
temptations He became able to succor those who are tempted, for He was
tempted in all points like as they are. And you, Christian, will never
be of great service in God's Church without temptation–you shall
neither be able to strengthen the weak, nor to comfort the
faint-hearted. You cannot teach the ignorant, or inspire with courage
the wavering unless you have, yourself, been taught in the school of
experience. John Bunyan, who teaches all the ages and will teach us
till we meet in the Celestial City, must himself be taught, in five
long years of dark despair, the ruin of the creature and the glory of
Free Grace. I believe you will find it to be the case in regard to most
of the preachers whom God has signally honored–in fact, I think in
regard to all preachers who have been of great use in the Church, that
there has been a preparatory struggle in the wilderness, a preparatory
forty days' fasting before they have come forth to labor for the Lord!
"Well!" says one of my hearers, "I think I have found something out
tonight. When I came into this Tabernacle, this was my state of mind. I
have been lately undertaking some new project and ever since I have
thought of it, and commenced it, I have had such a gloom of heart as I
have never known before." My dear Friend, I think I have told you the
reason of this. Take is as a favorable omen. Satan knows that your
project will do a serious injury to his Kingdom and this is why he is
endeavoring, with his entire strength, to divert you from it. I am sure
you and I would do the same if we were engaged in the same struggle as
Satan is–and as he has a vast deal more sense than we have, he will
not be likely to leave that stone unturned. Go on, Brother, go on! If
you tread on a dog, he will bark–and you may depend upon it that you
have trodden upon him when he does bark–and so you may know you have
done mischief to Satan when he begins to roar at you! Go on! Make him
roar more! Never mind his roaring–make him roar again! Yes, stir him
up if you are in God's service and count it a triumph when you hear a
growl! It is a good sign that angels are singing when devils are
howling. It is a good omen that you are progressing when Satan is so
endeavoring to cast you down!
III. Taking the case of the Savior being tempted, as a whole, I may
offer a few closing reflections.
First, a holy character does not avert temptation. Perfect, spotless,
without any propensity to sin, yet is Jesus tempted! In Him the Prince
of this world found nothing congenial to his temptations. When Satan
tempts us, he strikes sparks on tinder. But, in Christ's case, when the
devil tempted Him, it was like striking sparks on water, yet he kept on
striking. Now, if the devil goes on striking where there is no better
result than that, how much more will he do it when he knows what
inflammable stuff our hearts are made of? Expect it, then. Though you
become ever so sanctified by the Holy Spirit and destroy sin after sin
and lust after lust, you will have this great dog of Hell still barking
at you!
The greatest distance from the world will not insure you from
temptation. When we mix with the world, we know that we shall be
tempted. In our business in the banking-house, on the farm, on the
vessel, in the street, we expect that in the world we shall have
temptation. But if you could get out of the world, you would still be
tempted! Jesus Christ went right away from human society into the
wilderness and, "then," was He tempted by the devil. Solitude is no
preservative against temptation from Satan! Solitude has its charms and
its benefits and may be useful in curbing the flesh, and certainly in
checking the lusts of the eyes and the pride of life–but the devil
should be worsted by other weapons than that of solitude! Still he will
attack you even there. Do not suppose, then, that it is only the
worldly-minded who have dreadful thoughts and blasphemous temptations,
for even spiritually-minded persons may have to endure the same! And
with the boldest character and the holiest position, there may yet be
the darkest temptation.
The utmost consecration of spirit will not insure you against Satanic
temptation. Christ was consecrated through and through. His Baptism was
real. He was truly dead to the world. He lived only to do His Father's
work. It was His meat and drink to do the will of Him that sent
Him–yet He was tempted. Your hearts may glow with a seraphic or
cherubic flame of love to Jesus and yet the devil will try to throw
cold water upon it and to bring you down to Laodicean lukewarmness.
Nor will the highest form of Grace or the greatest development of a
spiritual mind prevent our being tempted. No, the most eminent public
service and the most favored private communion will not keep us from
being assailed! Asked one, "At what time may the Christian take off his
armor?" If you will tell me when God permits a Christian to lay aside
his armor, I will tell you when Satan has left off temptation. Inasmuch
as we are to do as the old knights did in war time–to sleep with the
helmet and breast plate buckled on–you may rest assured there is good
need for it. At the very time we think not, the arch-deceiver will be
on the watch to make us his prey! The Lord keep us watchful in all
seasons and give us a final escape out of the jaw of the lion and out
of the paw of the bear!
Alas, there are some here who are not thus tempted and who are,
perhaps, congratulating themselves and saying, "We were never tempted
like that!" Ah, you are never emptied from vessel to vessel! You are
settled on the lees and why are you left so quiet? Is it not because
there is no spiritual life in you? You are dead in trespasses and sins!
You are the devil's own–why should he hunt you? A man does not go
forth with a lasso to catch a horse that stands in his stable already
bridled and saddled for him to ride whenever he likes! He goes forth to
hunt the wild horse that is free. So the devil knows that he has you
bridled and saddled–and that he can ride you whenever he pleases–so
he does not need to hunt you. But he will hunt the free Christian, upon
whose back he cannot place a saddle and into whose mouth he cannot fix
a bit. I wish you were tempted. I wish there was something in you worth
the devil's efforts, but there is not. May God renew your hearts and
give you a right spirit! Remember that the way of salvation is to trust
Jesus. Do that and you are saved. He that believes and is baptized
shall be saved. If you are believing in Jesus–trusting only in Jesus,
entirely, with your whole head–then you are saved. Then you may defy
the power of Hell and come off more than conqueror! May the Master
bless these words to the warning of many and the comfort of some, for
Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.
EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: MATTHEW 4:1-11.
Verse 1. Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be
tempted by the devil He had just been baptized, the Spirit of God had
descended upon Him and the Father had borne witness to Him, saying,
"This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased," yet immediately
after all that, He was led into the wilderness to be tempted by the
devil! So, after your times of sweetest fellowship with God. After the
happiest enjoyment of Gospel ordinances. After the sealing of the
Spirit within your hearts, you must expect to be tempted by the devil.
You must not suppose that in your Christian life, all will be
sweetness–that all will be spiritual witness-bearing. You have to
fight the good fight of faith and your great adversary will not be slow
to begin the encounter! You are a pilgrim in a strange land, so you
must expect to find rough places on the road to Heaven. Yet, since you
are so much weaker than your Master was, you will do well to pray the
prayer that He taught His disciples, "Lead us not into temptation, but
deliver us from the Evil One."
2. 3. And when He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He was
afterward hungry. And when the tempter came to Him, see how Satan
seizes opportunities. When he finds us weak, as the Savior was through
long fasting–when he finds us in trying circumstances, as the Savior
was when hungry in the desert–then it is that he comes to tempt us.
This dastardly foe of ours takes every possible advantage of us, that
he may, by any means, overthrow us.
3. He said, If you are the Son of God, command that these stones be
made into bread. He begins with an, "if." He tries to cast a doubt upon
the Savior's Sonship–and this is the way that he often attacks a child
of God now. He says to him, "If you are a son of God, do
such-and-such." He challenged Christ to work a miracle for Himself–to
use His Divine Power on His own behalf, but this the Savior never did.
He challenged Christ to distrust the Providence of God and to be His
own Provider–and this is still a very common temptation to God's
people.
4. But He answered and said, It is written. That is the only sword that
Christ used against Satan–"the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word
of God." There is nothing like it! And the old dragon himself knows
what sharp edges this sword has. Christ said, "It is written."
4. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds
out of the mouth of God. God can sustain human life without the use of
bread, although it is the staff of life, bread does not sustain life
unless God puts power into
it to do so. And He can, if it pleases Him, use that power without the
outward means. Our Lord thus showed that God could provide for Him in a
desert without His interference with the plans of Divine Providence by
selfishly catering for Himself. So the first victory was won,
5. 6. Then the devil took Him up into the Holy City, and set Him on a
pinnacle of the Temple. And said unto Him, If You are the Son of God,
cast Yourself down: for it is written. Here He plays with the Word of
God, for the devil can quote Scripture when it suits his purpose to do
so–"It is written."
6. He shall give His angels charge concerning You: and in their hands
they shall bear You up, lest at any time You cast Your foot against a
stone. The devil did not quote correctly from Psalm 91:11, 12. He left
out the most important words–"He shall give His angels charge over
You, to keep You in all Your ways"–but it was not Christ's way to cast
Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple! Jesus therefore answered
Satan's misquotation with a true quotation.
7. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, You shall not tempt the
Lord your God. I know some people who earn their living in employments
which are very hazardous to their immortal souls. They are in the midst
of evil, yet they tell me that God can keep them in safety there. I
know that He can, but I also know that we have no right to go,
voluntarily, where we are surrounded by temptation! If your calling is
the wrong one and you are continually tempted in it, you may not
presume upon the goodness of God to keep you, for it is your business
to get as far as you can from that which will lead you into sin! God
does not put His servants on the pinnacle of the Temple–it is the
devil who puts them there and if they ever are there, the best thing
they can do is to get down as quickly and as safely as they can–but
they must not cast themselves down! They must look to Him who alone can
bring them down safely. With some professors, presumption is a very
common sin. They will go into worldly amusements and all sorts of
frivolities and say, "Oh, we can be Christians, and yet go there!" Can
you? It may be that you can be hypocrites and go there–that is far
easier than going there as Christians!
8-10. Again, the devil took Him up into an exceedingly high mountain
and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them;
and said unto Him, All these things will I give you, if you will fall
down and worship me. Then said Jesus unto him, Get you hence, Satan:
for it is written, you shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only
shall you serve. Christ will not endure any more of this talk! When it
comes to a bribe–the promise that the devil will give Him earth's
glory if He will but fall down and worship him–Christ ends the whole
matter once and for all. Thrice assaulted, thrice victorious, blessed
Master, enable us, also, to be more than conquerors through Your Grace!
11. Then the devil left Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered
unto Him. Regarding it as their highest honor to be the servants of
their Lord!